shiningboxofjustice | PSL Post - Athrun Zala and Yukari Takeba

[ 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.]

[ She was afraid of that, but at least now they know that the warning was true.

Of course, Yukari's first instinct is to reach for her bow... which she kinda doesn't have on her. That really sucks, but oh well.

... Right, there's a ball on her belt, so she goes to grab it, but she doesn't react just yet. At least, until she's forced to duck when said bird tries to peck at her head or something.

It's small, tiny, and brown, landing on the ground and glaring at them despite being so small. ]

... Somehow I expected something that people were warning us about to be a bit bigger.

...Yeah, no kidding. If I had my gun or my knife, I could probably make work of -- WHOA!

[Suddenly the Pidgey takes off again and shoots straight at Athrun's head. Athrun immediately drops backward to the ground to dodge it, then throws himself back to his feet.]

...Okay, it may be small, but if it lands something like that, it's going to hurt plenty. Guess I'll do this the way we were told!

[Athrun immediately tosses the ball, and out pops his Charmander. Immediately, the Pidgey's attention focuses on it.]

[ Yukari doesn't even have time to start to react to what he was saying before the Pidgey was going after them again. She also ducks out of the way, though she really didn't need to since it was going for Athrun. ]

Yeah. Okay. Definitely not trying to fight these things on my own. [ She follows his lead, letting out her Bulbasaur again. With two of them fighting this thing, it wasn't going to be anything to worry about.

... Right? ]

[No such luck. It was joined very quickly by what looked like a large, purple rat.]

No numerical superiority? So be it. Charmander, Scratch!

[Charmander leaps at the Pidgey, with arms extended to swipe at it. The attack connects and it does a surprising amount of damage to the Pidgey.]

[ Oh come on, where the heck did that rat even come from. Oh well, if Athrun was going to be dealing with the bird... ]

Bulbasaur! Tackle!

[ Her Bulbasaur let out what seemed like a growl of some sort, before it charged forward, ramming into the rat with it's body and sending it sprawling back. ]

[Now it was the enemies' turn to attack. Pidgey launches its own Tackle aimed at Charmander. It tries to dodge, but can't get entirely out of the way in time. In spite of the force that a blow like that should have had, though, Charmander doesn't appear to be seriously hurt.]

I think we've got the advantage here. Charmander, Scratch it again!

[Rinse and repeat of last time. Due to the clear difference in strength, Athrun sees little need to use Growl.]

[ Nope. Debuffing didn't really seem to be needed here. Unlike in Tartarus when a full strength shadow could nearly kill you in five seconds if you weren't careful. Still, Yukari can't help but frown when she sees her Bulbasaur get tackled back by the Rattata. ]

Tackle it again Bulbasaur!

[ Her plant dino... thing is more than happy to do that, especially now that he's actually been attacked, and slammed into the other creature again. But this time the rat didn't seem to get back up. Hopefully Athrun wasn't going to have much more trouble with that Pidgey. ]

[Not long. One more Scratch is all it takes. Now that they're both out...]

Well, that wasn't much of a challenge, was it?

No. It wasn't. But... having to fight like this just feels wrong.

[ She's going to go ahead and kneel down a bit to start petting the Bulbasaur. Who's... eagerly nuzzling up against her hand. ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject