sweetdevil | 1st ♫ | my wish came true in a dream

Whoa! Really, really? [sparkle] Where were you going, anyway?

Something... black, probably.

[ Inaba is still Inaba, after all. Her preferences have yet to change, regardless of where she's from. ]

[ she dips her head in a polite nod – she’s far away enough from anywhere like Japan that she’s had to train herself out of bowing. It’s a little too formal for a place like Lumiose, so that’ll have to do as a substitute. ]

It’s nice to meet you, Asuka-san. I’m Sonico Yamamoto.

[ the introduction seems to be just as polite in Lumiose as it was in Japan, though, so that stays.

Weird foreigners makes her lips quirk up into a smile, though, and she just shrugs. ]

You’d be surprised. [ the stories she could tell about her family, Asuka ] But yes, I’m… from Japan. It’s been a while since I went back there, though.

[ she tilts her head. ]

Where are you from? Are you Japanese too?

Well, I only came over to bring some food and make sure everyone had eaten today, [ and by ‘eaten’ she means ‘ingested something other than coffee and junk food’ ] but by the time I got here, they’d been called out.

I was going to just head back home, but if you’re with me, we could go and find a café somewhere to get something nice to eat. What do you think?

[ I thought so is what she just barely keeps herself from saying and she has to swallow the words back and force them down. It’s so bizarre to talk to Inaba as if she were a stranger but… well, here they are.

She’s going to tear into the Future Foundation so fiercely once she gets out of this. ]

Just black… that should be easy enough, eheh… u—um what kind of style…? Some of the boutiques around here are pretty specialized, so…

Actually, I was raised in Wilhemshaven, Germany. But my mother is Japanese, and I've spent a lot of time in Tokyo.

[ Or, what's left of it. Let's not get into apocalypse scenarios with strangers. ]

Needed a bit of a break, to say the least. Things are kind of messy back home. I'll spare you the details, but, coming here is definitely a change of pace.

Can you show me where to get a good hot chocolate around here? I'm sure everyone around here drinks coffee, but it's a bit of an acquired taste...

[ And she hasn't acquired the taste. ]

Really? Okay! I just dropped off some stuff at the B&B, so I'm totally free, and Meringue probably wants to play around. He found some weird rock here a couple weeks ago.

[ she laughs and shakes her head. While she can’t deny that pretty much all everyone in her family drinks is obscenely fancy pokestarbucks coffee, there’s plenty of obscenely fancy hot chocolate to go around too. ]

There’s plenty of cafes that’ll serve hot chocolate around here – some bakeries, too. They’re a little expensive, but I think they’re worth it. One of my favourites serves all kinds of different coloured eclairs and macarons, and they’ve got more blends of tea than I’ve ever even heard of before…

[ … she realizes that she’s rambling a touch and gives Asuka a sheepish smile. ]

S—so, um… I—I can definitely show you where, yes!

Then why don’t we stop by my favourite bakery? They’ve got plenty of room for Pokemon and then serve all kinds of sweets and drinks – they’ve got eclairs with all different colours and fillings and I think you’d really love them!

[ Sonico absolutely still loves Lumiose but she’s been here long enough that a little bit of the novelty is starting to wear off. So being able to show off about the city she loves to someone seeing it with eyes a little less used to it is always fun. ]

Money's not much of an object, assuming I can find a way to convert yen to whatever the hell kind of currency we have here. Unit-02's cost of repair was surprisingly less than I had anticipated, so I have a bit more spending money than I know what to do with...I've never had a macaron before. We don't have much in the way of fancy sweets like that back where I come from.

[ As much as she tries to be mature, well, she's still got a kid's taste buds. It's why she doesn't do alcohol, either. ]

Let's go to your favorite, then, if you have one.

Whoa, thanks! Is it okay if I let him out? He gets kinda bored cooped up at home all the time, even though I smuggle him into class whenever I can!

Sure, sure! It shouldn’t be a problem – I take Éclair and Anko in with me sometimes, and nobody’s ever complained. I guess people are just that used to seeing pokemon everywhere…

[ she opens up that bag on her elbow and fishes out a still-warm galette, that she holds out for Haruka. ]

Here! It’s a bit of a walk, so you might as well eat something on the way.

A—alright then, if you’re sure…! Um… just make sure to stick by me and Anko while we’re walking. It’s… really easy to get turned around here.

[ Anko gives a little whine as if agreeing and then starts snuffling at Asuka’s hand again. Don’t worry friend, she’ll make sure you don’t get lost!!!!

With that, she starts leading Asuka along, taking care that the girl doesn’t find herself getting caught up in the crowds. There’s a million and one questions on the tip of her tongue, so she decides to start with the one that seems safest. ]

S—so, um… how did you get here, exactly…? People usually have to go through the Future Foundation for this sort of thing… a—as far as I knew, anyway.

This Future Foundation seems like they have a monopoly on world hopping. I kind of just came through as I pleased. Probably why I got lost...

[ Let's just twirl her portal gun around on her finger, Christ, Asuka, you're gonna make a hole to summon Cthuli like that... ]

I just fired it and stepped inside the portal it made. Easy. I have a lot of choice words for that bastard Rick. But damn if he isn't smart, when it comes to this shit, anyway. Enduring, we called him, in the school we were stuck in.

I was Contrary, if you're curious.

That's really nice of you, you know!

[Haruka fishes out Meringue's ball and lets him out. He looks up from playing with a rock and waves, quacking a lot. She picks him up with one arm, puts away the ball, and takes the galette with the other.]

Everyone who comes by must be happy to see you.

[ They’re not Super High School Level titles exactly, but they’re close enough that it makes Sonico’s stomach do a nasty little flip. She purses her lips for a moment, because she’s afraid a commiseration might fall out – and if that happens, if might end up leading to explaining why she relates and that makes her chest knot tight with panic.

But... even if this girl’s a stranger, Sonico suspects she understands. Nothing about her face or voice is familiar, but something about the way she carries herself reminds Sonico so much of her own family that she finds herself giving Asuka a bitter little smile before she can stop herself. ]

That’s a lot snappier than what we ended up being called. It was... “Super High School Level” something-or-other – so you probably would’ve been “Super High School Level Contrary” or something like that.

[ which is kind of insulting tbh to this day she’s pretty glad that she only got saddled with ‘gravure idol’. ]

[ man psyducks aren’t exactly her favourite kind of pokemon but gosh Haruka’s Psyduck is a cutie pie. She can’t stop herself from giving a little wave back because how could she disappoint this sweet baby and not wave to him ]

Usually when people come by, the one who’s happiest is me. [ said with a little laugh. ] I see plenty of Tohru, Richard, Hanna-san and Naomi-san but a lot of the time everyone else is too busy to visit Kalos as often as we’d all like.

It’s probably pretty frustrating for you too, right, Haruka-chan? So many of your friends are here now...

That's not even words. What kind of title is that..? Chō-kōkō-kyū...even in Japanese, it doesn't work at all.

[ But this is weird...such similar stories, even though they're obviously different.

Let's cut to the chase, then. She's sticking by the dog, but she still looks Sonico in the eye and just...gets on with it. ]

...So, how'd you get out?

Yeah... [She sulks a little as she walks.] I wish I could just, like, leave school and go full-time at the Foundation. I'm actually good at that! Unfortunately, my sister is bound and determined for me to get half-decent grades for the rest of the year, even if I'm gonna have to redo it all anyway because of all that school I missed.

[ Too bad the Future Foundation has nothing to do with this predicament. Of course, Inaba places her hand under her chin, deep in thought as she hums, before: ]

Not sure. I'd probably have to see it for myself, actually.

[ Oh, she knows. She knows exactly what they’re both talking about. Her gaze and her words are so direct that Sonico’s a little unnerved – but she swallows hard. She hasn’t done anything she feels ashamed of, to feel guilty about, or at least not in the way Asuka’s asking her. ]

... We escaped, in the end. It... took so long, but we did it. We came out right here in Kalos, and we stayed here for a while, then... well, some of us went home. A few of felt like... after everything, going home wouldn’t really work for us. So we stayed here.

[ none of it’s exactly a lie -- but it’s certainly not the whole truth, either. She’s twisting things a bit, flubbing some of the details, but that’s mostly because she simply can’t be sure that their experiences line up so perfectly. Being trapped in one of those fake schools is one thing, but a murder game is quite another. ]

[ Sorry for her lack of tact. But the answer seems to satisfy her. ]

So you were brought here from Japan, and decided to stick around, then. ...Fucked you up that bad, then?

[ Her tone isn't malicious. But it's not quite sympathetic, either. She's stating it as though it were just a fact. Sky is blue. Water is wet. People kill people. ]

We escaped, too. ...Those of us who were still kicking by the end of it, that was. They almost flubbed it at the last second, too, those jackasses...

[ Geez. She's getting a bit more tense just thinking about it. But even so... ]

The place we walked outside to wasn't anywhere near as nice as here is. Still, if enough of them had stayed behind, I probably would've stuck with them for a bit longer. ...They're the first group of people that I came to feel close with. I don't want to say we're like a family now, or even friends, because God knows that might be pushing it when it comes to some of them, but, well, you don't just go through something like that and not come out with a sort of mutual respect for one another. An...acknowledgement of what happened that's stuck in all of our hearts, for better or for worse.

[ She's not exactly bright and cheery about it. But, seeing as though she damn near got away with nearly killing most of them, she's hesitant to consider them all her friends. Even if she has their forgiveness. Even if she's closer with some than others. Even if she's learned that she doesn't need to shoulder everything alone.

Still, though, there's no one she really trusts more than that group. ]

...And here I thought we were the only unlucky ones. I didn't think anyone else would have to go through the shit we did.

Let me get you an eclair or something...

Edited 2016-03-10 22:00 (UTC)

R--right... um, it's just this way, then...!

[ and off she goes. she's been in Lumiose long enough that she's pretty confident in the direction she's picked, but she also still gets lost occasionally on her way back home so really, it's 50/50 on how easily they're going to find their way to the boutique in question.

... there's a bit of an awkward silence as they go so uh. she should probably think about making some small talk, huh. ]

So... are you here on a trip, maybe...?

I'm not.

[ She shakes her head, a little suspicious. ]

I thought that this was another ViViD level, but... [ Maybe not? It's strange. ]

A... what?

[ That gets a tilt of the head and a puzzled little frown in Inaba’s direction. She’s heard plenty of terms for alternate worlds get slung around at the Future Foundation, but that’s definitely a new one. ]

What’s a... vivid level? [ said with entirely the wrong emphasis – she pretty clearly missed the fact that ViViD was being used a name there and not a description. ]

1st ♫ | my wish came true in a dream

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