victory_road | Jean Sinnoh Trip Catch-All

Entry tags:

jean kirschtein (attack on titan)

Jean Sinnoh Trip Catch-All

Who: Jean and you!
Where: Eterna City, Mt. Coronet, The Underground, etc
When: Sinnoh Vacation Time!
Summary: A catch-all for Jeans's Sinnoh vacation
Rating: PG unless otherwise stated.

Underground. Jean will be spending one full day in the mines looking for a Dusk Stone to evolve his Doublade, so feel free to run into him there griping about what a task it is just to find one measly evolution stone, and why he can’t just have his Lycanroc smash stuff for him.

Move tutor / TM shopping. Even on vacation, Jean is still taking his Gym Challenge very seriously. The Move Tutor and TM Shop were both places he planned to visit to see if he could improve his roster’s moveset. He’ll be making the following changes:

Steel Beam to Aegislash
Scorching Sands to Rapidash
Psychic fangs to Lycanroc (TM)
Body Press to Corviknight (TM)

Mt Coronet. He’ll be taking a couple of days to hike in and around the mountain to get some training in in novel environment. He figured his squad would appreciate the change of pace. You also might find him doing some daredevil flying around the peaks with his Pidgeot and Corviknight.

Hakusai Inn. Having had enough of hostels for the past couple of months on the road, Jean gathered up the funds to stay at a proper inn for once. While he finds the architecture, décor, and food all pretty weird, it’s still a relaxing stay. Hot baths are still something he finds to be a luxury, so you might find him there for a nightly soak.

Whatever the second field trip ends up being, he’ll probably be going on that too. I’ll update with a link when that happens.

If you’d like to make your own prompt, go ahead! If you’d like to talk plot, please feeling free to use his personal Plotting Post.

Please excuse the lack of detail in the prompts, kind of having a rough time RL and just wanted to get this in before the event was over. I'll be responding to any comments normally.

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If anyone asked her why she hadn't yet spoken to Jean -- this Jean, she'd politely say she hadn't the time. Or that she'd been too distraught with recent happenings to be good company. Or any other excuse that kept their paths from crossing. It's nothing against the older man, she's certain that he's great company, and truly she did want to get to know him.

But she can only imagine how awkward it must be, to come into a world with countless attachments that were not his own. To make matters worse, where others had time to mourn the loss of one Jean and accept the presence of another, Angel had left this world in the company of his counterpart, only to learn of someone else in his stead.

She'd needed time to mourn and, perhaps more importantly, time to prepare herself to meet the man anew.

Not that she's ready for any of that when she stumbles upon him grumbling and griping in the Underground. Her breath catches in her throat, and -- for a second she finds herself considering turning back around the other way. She can only imagine how much worse that might make everything so.

It's time to rip off the band-aid.

"Were you looking for something in particular?" Caught up in her own thoughts as she was, she hadn't quite heard what he'd had to say. "Perhaps I can help? I've been told I have quite the sharp eye."

[Quick question, would you like this to be before or after Jean's conversation with Armin?]

[I was low-key hoping afterward! c;]

ooc: [Cool, me too :)]

The whole New Jean, Old Jean, deal was something that New Jean tried to put out of mind most of the time. For one, there was some stuff that Old Jean did that frankly made him feel sick (see: dating Bertholt) or embarrassed (fresh out of Trost, he was still so green!) or otherwise uncomfortable, and there really wasn't anything he could do about it. He couldn't change the past any more than he could change who he used to be.

Especially in certain cases, like Shiro, where he was trying to mend fences because he genuinely liked and respected the guy... But he honestly felt like he was failing, just causing him more pain by trying to build rapport.

In that sense, he was glad that Armin didn't tell him every detail about his previous stay. He wouldn't be able to handle the expectations of every person he used to know, and how he would inevitably disappoint. But the unfortunate result of that was he led a fairly solitary life here in the Pokemon world. He'd spent the last couple of months on his Gym Challenge going from town to town, catching and training Pokemon, and only using the Gear to keep in touch with Armin and Sasha. This way, he didn't have to worry about crossing paths with someone who used to know him.

But sometimes, it couldn't be helped.

Jean turned his attention away from his digging when he heard someone address him, and he was surprised to see it was Angel. He only recognized her from having seen her with her head on Armin's shoulder on the plane. And Armin told him the other night that they used to know each other-- not only that, but he used to have a crush on her too. They were never in a relationship though, so this run in wasn't as massively awkward as it potentially could have been.

"I was hoping for a Dusk Stone," Jean answered, and stood up while wiping sweat and dust off his face with the back of his working glove. "I don't mean to be that, uh... Forward, I guess, but you're Angel, right?"

"A dusk stone," she repeats. She tries to keep her mind on the conversation at hand, careful to not let her mind wander to the last time she'd reunited with Jean. Instead, she distracts herself by going through a mental catalog of her own inventory. Given the lack of adventuring she's done since returning, and the fact that she'd never bothered retrieving most of her old things, it's a short list. "I'm afraid I haven't come across one."

That said, she does kneel into the dirt to attempt to lend some assistance. Like this, it's almost easy to keep from flinching when he jumps right to her name. It shouldn't surprise her that he knows. She's made herself known on the network, after all. Never mind her friendship with Armin and similar attempts with Sasha.

"That's correct." She glances back toward Jean and flashes her most polite of smiles. "And you are?"

She isn't sure if this is the best course of action. But if she's going to commit to treating this Jean as his own person, it means she's going to have to start from the very beginning.

Well, if she was going to help him... Jean sat back down, and picked his tools back up. Having something distracting to do might conversation flow a little better.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you," he started, because he saw that jump. "I saw you sitting next to Armin on the plane, so I asked him who you were. He told me the other night."

And he left the rest of their conversation out of his explanation. Sure, he thought that Armin should be upfront with his feelings, but he wasn't the sort of asshole who'd out their own friend. An asshole in other ways, sure, but not like that.

"You don't have to do that. I know we used to know each other."

There was something distinctly melancholy about how he said that, but he kept on working as if it didn't bother him.

"It's not your fault." It isn't anyone's fault. She's skittish under the best of circumstances, and this situation is hardly ideal for either of them. As much as she wants to do right by this new-familiar face, there's no denying that hearing his voice say her name brought back plenty of memories.

But she's nothing if not an expert at dealing with unpleasant memories.

Jean, thankfully, provides her ample enough distraction as well. For a moment, she can stop thinking about her moments with the old Jean, and instead grapple with the realization that someone had potentially witnessed her moment with Armin on the plane. Not that there had been anything wrong with it, of course. Plenty of friends fell asleep on one another. Plenty more got over-excited about new places.

Certainly nothing odd happening here.

"Armin is... A very good friend of mine." She picks a pebble out of the dirt and pretends to study it far too closely. Hopefully Jean doesn't notice the faint tinge of pink along her cheeks.

Of course, embarrassing as it is, it still feels better than the subject they shift to next. She clears her throat and sets the pebble back down, nodding as she does.

"You both were my good friends," she amends. "But I... Would be remiss to place any type of pressure or expectations on you. I can't imagine what it's been like, stepping into this world and finding that people want more than you can give."

He does notice the embarrassment, and quietly files it away as evidence for when he and Armin have an inevitable follow-up on his crush. See? Some girls really dig the soft boi aesthetic!

"...Well, you're the first person to put it that way," Jean admitted, and started to carefully chip away at a deposit that looked like it might be hiding something. "It's not like I've got nothing to give, though. I'm just not the same person anymore. I'm not the one they want."

Angel makes a face at the dirt, before fidgeting with her own tool belt. She pulls out a small shovel and starts scooping out a bit of dirt. Keeping her hands busy at least keeps her from mentally kicking herself too hard.

"I did not mean to imply as much. Only that they have different expectations than what you can give." She grimaces. Only a few scoops in and she can already feel where her hands are going to blister later. Still, it's a welcome distraction from the weight of their conversation.

"You are your own person. Maybe you share similarities with the Jean we knew, but you are not him. It would be unfair to insist otherwise."

Which had been the biggest reason Angel had avoided him for so long. She'd needed time to divest her own expectations of him.

"I agree with you," he replied. "And don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you're still talking to me anyways. But I think it's hard for people to put who he was aside when they look me in the face and see him there anyways. I can't do anything about that."

Jean felt that the only person so far that had been able to completely make terms with that was Armin, but that was because Armin knew him in a way very few did, and could see that underneath it all, he was still the same person. He'd lost a few memories and gained some different ones, but their relationship was still familiar. That, and Jean still cared for him in return regardless, since they were from the same world.

"I... Suppose that's fair enough." Angel doesn't quite agree with it, but she can at least understand where Jean is coming from. Part of her even appreciates the level of understanding that he seems to carry. But she's always had strong feelings about personhood, thanks to her own upbringing, never mind those she came to call friends.

"All the same, I hope you can understand that I do not want my own prior experiences. to color any sort of relationship we have going forward. I'd like to get to know you for you."

The last thing she wants to do is go around in circles about it.

"But... Maybe we should focus on something a bit... lighter?" She doesn't want their first encounter to be so dour. If Jean's first impression of her was her embarrassing display on the plane, then she at least wants the second impression to be a little better. "How are you enjoying Sinnoh?"

"Well, there's still gotta be something from who I was that makes you want to be friends now... Which is fine, because I am still me. It's not like I've metamorphosed into some kind of brand-new butterfly; I've just got a couple of years and some new experiences on me that I didn't before," he explained as he continued to scrape in the dirt. Jean found it infinitely easier to talk about this while not having to look someone in the eye. "You might even like it better that way, if you give it a chance. I rememeber what I was like way back in the middle of Trost, and it's something I'd like to forget."

But that was enough. While he needed to vent, he didn't want to scare Angel away either. He shook his head, gave a sharp, forced sigh, and steered himself into more pleasant conversation.

"It's cool. Honestly, it's just nice to be off the road and in a real hotel. I'm good at backpacking, but that doesn't mean I enjoy it all that much."

"If I wasn't planning on giving you a chance, I would not be here Jean."

She hunkers down a little further, trying to get better leverage on a pile of dirt. Even after a handful of months between her and her most recent resurrection, she was still struggling with more extensive displays of strength.

It's hard to imagine traveling as much as Jean seems to be implying. She'd enjoyed the few journeys she'd gone on with her friends, but not nearly as much as she enjoyed exploring the towns and cities that they wound up in. Never mind the comfortable beds in the inns they found.

"There are plenty of places to settle down back 'home,' you know." She thinks to offer the cabin on the island, but bites her tongue. She's sure Armin's made the offer before too, just as she's sure that there are plenty of others that might be slightly more wary of his presence there.

"Ecruteak is particularly spectacular. And they have lovely ice cream there."

"Thanks," He replied. And while it was short, it was sincere.

"Yeah, I plan on it one of these days. Even after a lifetime in my world, I don't think I could give up soft beds and hot showers entirely."

There was something about indoor plumbing that permanently changed a man.

"I'm just busy with my Gym Challenge right now. Traveling from town to town, catching new Pokemon, training with the ones I've already got... I don't plan to stop until I've beaten the Elite Four. This trip is just a temporary detour."

"Let me know when you make it to the Johto area, then. I know a number of lovely spots to check out." Are they all ice cream related? Quite possibly. But if Jean is allowed the luxury of beds and showers after the time he spent in his world, Angel is allowed to indulge in whatever sweet treats as a reward for her own upbringing.

"And I fully expect to see you in the Aurora League when it is all said and done. I imagine you'd make quite the spectacular gym leader."

"Sure thing." And he meant it! It'd be nice to just see a city for the sights and not to kick the crap out of another gym leader. Jean was a horrible tourist on his own, he never quite knew what to do with himself unless it was spelled out for him, like this trip was.

"Me? Not likely," he joked, and blew air up into his bang for emphasis. "I think my ego is a little too big to purposefully keep a low-level team in hopes that my challengers will actually beat me. Leave the teaching and learning stuff to Armin, he loves that shit."

"Just be better than everyone else," she says with a wry smile. "Then you don't have to have such a low-level team, right?"

To be honest, she isn't entirely sure how the Aurora League works. She'd thought about completing the gym challenge, if only for the opportunity to play the very role that Jean seemed to balk at. But she'd life had gotten in the way, and currently she's very much content on her island home.

"If it were like that, I wouldn't mind," Jean answered. "But Gym Leaders have to keep two team-- one normal one with weaker Pokemon, and then your elite team with your best Pokemon. Trainers have to get through your weak team before they can challenge the elite one."

"It's all supposed to be a learning experience, and I'm not the best teacher. I get fed up too fast. I'd never describe myself as a mentor."

"Sounds like you've done your research." The way he describes it makes Angel wonder if she'd been too hasty in her own decision. Teaching might not have been Jean's forte, but she certainly wouldn't mind the opportunity.

But that involves juggling more than six Pokemon at once -- optimizing teams to the best of her ability. It all sounds like far more work than she's ready for.

"Still. There's plenty else to be done once you succeed in that. There are always those looking for challenges themselves."

"There's not much to it. Armin's told me all about it, since he's been trying to put his own gym together. Tho', I think he likes the whole ocean laboratory thing better than he likes battling."

Jean thought he was nuts when Armin showed him the outline of his plans, and the remote island he was going to build on. But he was sticking to his guns, and doing well at it to boot. He should've known, someone as stubborn as Armin could do anything he really set his mind to.

"Then they can come to me for a regular ol' battle, if they want one. Then I can cream them with the best of my team."

"That... Certainly sounds like Armin." Her voice is light, and filled with plenty of affection. Her hands wobble in her task as her mind wanders to her friend, to the days they'd spent on the beach discussing his Lapras Pod.

Yeah, that tracked.

"I will send anyone I find your way." She pauses for a moment, before stifling an almost devious smile. "If you're really looking for someone to fight, there's a man in Goldenrod who could stand to be put in his place."

Is she going to pit Jean up against her father? Maybe!

"Mm. It's the same as he was back home. He wanted to see outside the walls more than anything... But this Armin's a lot happier too."

This world's Armin was almost always smiling, or excited about one thing or the other. The Armin Jean remembered was far more somber. Too much shit had happened to him. Jean preferred him like this. It was a shame their world couldn't spark that joy in him anymore.

"From that look on your face, it sounds like he could use a regular asskicking along with a Pokemon asskicking," Jean remarked with a strikingly similar expression. "Which I wouldn't mind either."

"He and I had that in common." When she thinks about it, she and Armin had a lot in common. She didn't need commonalities to make friends but... if she had to guess, it was why they remained close to this day.

And maybe that's why her thoughts seemed to drift to him so often.

"Oh, you have no idea." She muffles a bitter laugh with her sleeve. "If you did happen to give him both, I would be most grateful."

"Yeah? Were you stuck somewhere you couldn't leave either?"

Sorry if you have to explain this all over again, Angel, but he is genuinely curious.

"Will do, then. I've got another good reason to get my team up to level 100."

"I was." She pauses a moment, lips pressed together. It's not that she minds talking about it again. It's gotten easier over the years. But she still hates dumping it on strangers.

Or even friends-turned-strangers.

"I grew up... very much isolated from the rest of the world. This place was my first taste of... anything, really."

She finally forces a smile again, tight though it is.

"It's why I would love to see your team reach level 100 and go after the man in Goldenrod."

"Ah. So it was more like solitary confinement," Jean commented in a way that sounded off-handed, which he meant to show that she wasn't burdening him with this knowledge. He'd heard plenty of sad stories in his day, he could take it. "That makes sense. I was wondering what kind of grudge a sweet girl like you could be holding, but that sound plenty justified."

"Very much so."

Her cheeks flush as Jean continues to speak, but it's not all embarrassment. There's a hint a flash of anger there, not at the man beside her, but at another surely not far from there. It wasn't fair that Jack had been allowed to claim such a toxic place in her heart.

"It is different here, though. I have friends that protect me. Some of them are gone now, but others remain." Though there's still a sharp glint in her eyes as she turns her feelings about Jack over in her head for the millionth time, her expression softens in the slightest. "Armin is one of those."

"I might be wrong," he wondered out loud, "but despite being one of the smallest women I've ever met, I get the feeling you can protect yourself plenty well too."

There was something about her that didn't let Jean peg her as the damsel in distress, sort of like the way Historia held herself. Small but mighty.

"You like him a lot, don't you."

Angel's pleasant demeanor falters for a moment. She glances to the side, away from her pile of dirt, and off toward the direction she knows a certain Lucario is watching from. Dusty palms lift, fingers fretting with one another silently.

"I'm afraid you are wrong about that." She's made great strides in rebuilding her strength, her courage. And perhaps under different circumstances, her abilities might grant her an edge. But the instability of them was just as likely to hurt someone else, too. "But I do have a team that is plenty willing to protect me."

In many ways, she's grateful for the shift in subject. The brief wave of fluster knocks her out of whatever melancholy threatened to grip her. She glances back toward Jean, then back down at the dirt. Mostly, she tries her best not to think about how safe she'd felt when she'd slept beside Armin on the plane, or how he'd been there for her at her loneliest.

At least the thoughts are a little better than her own lack of strength.

"He is... A very good friend, of course. But I am sure you do not need me to tell you that!"

Her reaction to his guess was interesting. He could tell that he hit a nerve on something; maybe she had a power she couldn't control well, like Shifting, or maybe it had a dangerous nature... But either way, it wasn't of much consequence here, where powers and forms were suppressed. It wasn't worth it to pry any further.

He took advantage of the change of subject and left that hanging for the time being.

"No, you don't," in the sense that Jean knew Armin was an excellent friend from experience, and in the sense that he could tell Angel cared for him very much. Damn, he had so much ammunition from the conversation he had with Armin, and then this one... It was incredibly hard to hold back all the embarrassing comments he really wanted to make. "He's a good guy. A lot stronger than he looks or thinks he is too."

Jean's guess wouldn't be far off. The network of tattoos on the left side of her body were hidden well enough, if only to shield her from the chill of the underground. But likely, he'd probably taken note of the intricate detail during the plane ride over. At first glance, maybe they'd seem normal.

Except for the fact that she's not at all the type of person to willingly get tattoos.

"He is." She responds to both points, smile shifting to something affectionate -- if a bit sheepish. "But he doesn't use that strength to harm. It's... To protect. I really appreciate that about him."

She pauses for a moment, blinks rapidly, and then shakes her head. The flush on her cheeks grows ever-brighter.

"I'm sure you don't want to hear any of this."

Jean wasn't familiar with tattoos at all, or why people would get them, so he filed that fact about her away as a curiosity at best. They didn't seem to effect how she functioned, so maybe they were simply decorative? Who knows?

"Nah, it doesn't bother me," he replied with an unconcerned shrug. "But I'm not the one that'd benefit from hearing this. You should try telling Armin what you think about him. I think he'd appreciate it."

You hear that, Armin? Your bro is in your court, steering your girl in the right direction! You owe him big time!

"Oh, I'm -- " She ducks her head down now, hoping that her hair might hide the absolute blaze starting up on her cheeks. She scratches at the back of her neck sheepishly. "I'm sure he knows."

She's said it before, hasn't she? Maybe not with her words, but Armin had been the first person she'd been able to open up to after Krieg's disappearance. She thinks that ought to say enough -- that it ought to say that he's one of her closest friends

Certainly nothing else though.

Certainly not.

"I'll give you one hint about Armin, from someone who's known him for a long time," Jean began, and kept his eyes on his work to avoid putting too much pressure on Angel. "He thinks the world of other people. He'd do anything to help someone he cares about. But when it comes to caring about himself, he's sorely lacking. He doesn't care what happens to him, because he doesn't think he's worth the trouble."

"He might've changed a little here, but from what I've seen, that's something that's still true about him. And he's pretty thick when it comes to emotions, so you have to be really direct with what you mean. Hell, I've told him about stuff he's done in our world that hasn't happened to him yet, and I don't think he believes half of it."

Angel hasn't known Armin nearly as long as Jean has. She doesn't think she needs to in order to have picked up on that trait. And while she wanted to believe that she'd been as forthcoming as possible about his value to her, maybe it wouldn't hurt to reiterate just a little.

"I... Will be sure to make sure he knows, then." It can't hurt, reminding him what an incredible friend he's been.

Jean noticed a change in mood, and realized he might've overstepped. He wasn't sure exactly how long they'd all known each other, between his coming and going and her coming and going, and assumed it hadn't been very long.

"Not to say you don't know him well. It's just an important point to make. He..."

No, he couldn't tell her how Armin sacrificed himself to help defeat the Colossal Titan. That was too personal, and up to Armin to share or not, especially considering he had to then inherit the Titan to survive. Instead, Jean shifted the narrative slightly.

"He risked his life in a totally hopeless situation to try and save me. It was suicide, if it weren't for an absolute miracle happening. He doesn't realize how important he is at all."

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Jean Sinnoh Trip Catch-All

Underground!

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