shiningboxofjustice | PSL Post - Athrun Zala and Yukari Takeba

[A nod. It shouldn't be possible, but that ship has sailed, so there was little point in dwelling on it.]

I was given one. Apparently we're in for about half a day's walk from here to the next settlement. Beyond that...I suppose we'll just have to see when we arrive.

[He's a bit disgruntled about that. He would rather have more information than what they've been given to go on so far.]

You'd think that they'd give us a little bit more to go on. I mean, we clearly know absolutely nothing about this place?

[ She frowns when she mentions it, which is something that her Bulbasaur picks up on. Since it's nuzzling her leg again. ]

But if they're not going to give us anything to go on, we might as well just keep going and hope that we actually learn something in the next town. [ Either way, there was no use staying around here, so Yukari's going to start to walk towards the exit of the town. No time to waste, after all. ]

Yeah. There's not much use in dwelling on what should or should not be. And time's wasting -- I'd rather not have to sleep outside if I can avoid it.

[Not that he has no experience doing so. At any rate, he's walking alongside Yukari now, falling silent as he does. Soon enough, they reach the tall grass on the edge of town, where Route 1 begins.]

Well...here goes nothing, I suppose.

[Deliberately, he steps into the tall grass, one hand on the Poké Ball now clinging to his belt. Nothing happens -- at least not immediately.]

Right. That's not something that I really want to do either.

[ It didn't take them that long to make it to the outskirts of town. Pallet Town really was tiny as heck, but once he goes into the grass Yukari can't help but freeze just a bit. It's not that she's really afraid of what's going on, but she's still wary since she doesn't know what to expect.

But when nothing happens, Yukari goes to follow him, her Bulbasaur happily trailing by her heels. Though when she goes down to look at it, she can't help but notice he seems more alert now than he had been before.

... Maybe there really was some sort of danger nearby. ]

[Athrun continues to lead the way, and they leave that particular patch of grass.]

...Nothing, huh? I'd wonder if that was a sales pitch, except for the fact that he gave us these creatures for free. I wonder how common these wild Pokémon actually are.

[ Yukari follows after him, frowning a bit as she thinks of it. ]

If they were warning us, there was probably a reason for it, and they probably are pretty common.

[ She looks over at her Bulbasaur, who trots ahead a bit and starts looking around a bit more. ]

... Maybe they just don't want to come near us because I have him out?

That could be. Shall we test that hypothesis? If you're up for it, return him to his ball for a little while -- maybe an hour or two. Then bring him back out and compare the encounter rate between the two time periods.

... I guess.

I mean, it's not like I can't just send him out again if we do get attacked.

[ Even though all of her experience from Tartarus was pretty much screaming at her that basically putting away any chance of defending herself was a stupid move.

But after another moment, the Bulbasaur is back in it's ball, and Yukari really needs to figure out a name for it. And soon. ]

[Athrun nods and leads the way onward.]

So, I assume you're from Japan?

[It seemed like a good possibility, based on her name. And he felt like he needed to make small talk.]

[ Yukari blinked, but nodded after a few moments. ]

Yeah. I am. I guess my name was a pretty big giveaway for that.

[ She paused, looking around to see if anything was coming. ]

... So, where are you from?

Ah, I live in Orb, myself. Though admittedly, I moved there a few years ago -- I lived in the PLANTs prior to that.

... I'm sorry. But what are you talking about? I've never heard of either of those places before.

Wait, you...

[That actually gets Athrun to stop. Clearly they come from extremely different worlds...but wait, they both know of Japan...]

...What in the world? How does that even work? We both know Japan, but there are still differences?

[ Yeah. This really didn't make much sense, and Yukari stopped walking. Because seriously, what the heck? How could they not know of all the same places, yet Japan was still there. ]

I don't know. It's not really making any sense.

But... what exactly are these... PLANTs that you were talking about? That doesn't really sound like the name of a country... [ 'Orb' she could kinda see, even if it was a weird name for one. But... PLANTs? That really didn't seem like one at all. ]

[Athrun takes a deep breath. This could get complicated. Especially if she doesn't know about Coordinators and Naturals.]

They're space colonies. They're the most recent kind of colony developed, as a successor to O'Neill cylinders. The name is an acronym, though what it stands for was changed after they declared independence from their sponsor nations.

... Space colonies.

[ She can barely even believe him. If she hadn't been transported a world like this, hadn't been fighting against shadows for the past year, also hadn't, you know, found out that time travel was possible, she probably wouldn't believe him at all. ]

None of that really makes much sense to me... but I'm starting to get the feeling that if I asked you what year it was, you'd give me an answer that's different than 2010.

Only 2010? On the Anno Domini calendar?

This just keeps getting stranger. We abandoned the AD timeline over seven decades ago. Where I'm from, we're in the 74th year of the Cosmic Era -- multiple centuries ahead of the AD calendar.

... Honestly, time travel's one of the least strange things about this. It explains why I don't understand most of the places you're talking about.

But yeah, it's the same calender. But wow... multiple centuries. I wonder why the two of us would've been brought here. It's not like we'd really have much in common, right?

[Athrun shrugs.]

It's hard to say. Maybe we'll discover something down the road? I mean, we only just met, after all.

Not only that, but our voices sounded familiar to each other.

[ Wait a second... ]

You mean that I sound like someone you knew back home too? That... there really aren't good odds for that happening with both of us, are there?

[ This didn't make sense. Sure, okay, maybe the person she reminded him of was related to her down the line. But that didn't explain why Athrun sounded like him. ]

No. To be fair, it's someone I never talked with much, but we were nevertheless comrades. She was a lot closer with a friend of mine.

Oh. I see.

[ There's a pause though... ]

Still, even if you didn't know her all that well, it's still pretty strange, isn't it?

Yeah. I'm not an especially big believer in coincidences, either. I've encountered far too many in my life.

[Encountering Kira in Heliopolis, meeting Cagalli just before her title of princess of Orb would become relevant, being on an inspection of Armory One at the time Phantom Pain launched an attack on it...]

[ Yukari's not really sure what to say to that. She hadn't really encountered too many coincidences before herself. Then again, when you specifically go somewhere in a desperate attempt to get answers for something that happened in the past, it did make things a lot more difficult there.

But before she can finally think of something to say to her, she notices something in the air around their height getting closer and points to it. ]

Hey, does that bird seem like it's flying a bit lower than it should to you?

[That gets Athrun's full attention. He suddenly seems much more alert now as he follows Yukari's finger.]

...I think you're right. Get ready; this may be what we were warned about.

[He assumes a position with legs spread out and knees bent, ready to react. After a second's delay, he also grabs his Charmander's ball.]

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