come on and take a test drive (test drive)!

[these_guys]

TEST DRIVE MEME


➞ Post with a character you wish to test drive in this game's setting.
➞ Tag other people's starters and thread out shenanigans!
➞ Invite your friends! Try out new characters! Come play with us!
➞ Have fun!


NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR TEST-DRIVE JOURNEY?
CHECK OUT ALL THE LOCATIONS WE HAVE AVAILABLE IN:

JOHTO | and | KANTO

✭ ✭ ✭

OTHER USEFUL LINKS:
NAVIGATION | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS

Comments

[brocrux]

[ dave's hard to read sometimes. he can't tell if the guy wants to back away or come closer. he supposes it just echos how people must feel around him. he's pretty sure his friends wouldn't know what the hell was going on in his head half the time if he didn't have an artificial intelligence blowing up his spot occasionally. and even with that, he must be hard to approach. yeah. definitely hard to express things to. ]

The urge to wrap you up in a blanket like a toasty burrito must have been strong. People are suckers for frozen orphans. But I don't think I could pull it off as well. I'd get maybe two jackets instead of the entire box.

[ he looks down the road. this place is weird. ]

Sounds good.

[callbacks]

[Shit, that whole first sentence blindsides him; it's like a hit-and-run perpetrated on the Daytona 500. Wrap him in a blanket like a toasty burrito? Is that an actual almost-expression of fondness and care? From Bro? Or, no, does that mean he thinks Dave's that pathetic, that he's that weak, did he fuck up admitting to that? Why--why should he care if he did, who's this Dirk kid that he needs to impress him? But he does, he does. He wants Dirk to be not Bro.

God. No, he wants Karkat. He wants Jade to come rocketing in like a meteor out of hell. With no rescue imminent, Dave just nods jerkily and leads the way towards the P.C., trying not to release the angelic chorus of 'AAAAAA' resounding in his head.

But wait. Something doesn't quite add up. He turns his head towards Dirk again, watching him sidelong.]

You said we met?

[How? Dream bubble? Alternate timeline? Shenanigans? Probably shenanigans, let's be fucking real.]

Hooooow did that go?

[Please, future-and-or-alternate Dave. Please clue him into how he should handle this, because handling's the furthest thing from his capabilities right now.]

[brocrux]

[ he's saying something wrong again, right? yeah. yeah, he is. he fucked up admitting dave seems like a better person and people would like him enough to put blankets on him. not cool, dirk. not cool.

he follows him, behind him for a second where he drags a hand down his face before keeping in step with him. ]

Yeah.

[ shenanigans ]

It went. [ super helpful there. he wishes this pokemon would interject with some commentary on this awkward fucking conversation to get more of a ball rolling. but alas, it's not a robot programmed to do such things. all it says is its name. the fuck is that about? probably for the best. dave deserves better than having him shove emotions down and he sure as hell doesn't deserve assholes interrupting as an excuse to keep talking. just do it. ]

It was nice, actually. We talked for a while. I think it helped. [ s h r u g ]

[callbacks]

Uh.

[After a moment of delay, Dave looks at Dirk more properly. He's skittish, still, but:]

Helped...?

[Helped with what?]

[brocrux]

Put things in to perspective. We were both had a lot to deal with concerning our respective pasts and I don't think anyone else could have really understood it at the time.

[ there's a pixel in both corners of his mouth going frownways. maybe walking to a pokemon center while one of them is holding a box isn't a good time for this. they could probably sit when they get inside. ]

I'm fine repeating anything.

[callbacks]

[Well, it's not like this is a very big town. The Pokémon Center's right there.]

Huh. [What does that even MEAN, Dirk? "A lot to deal with?" Dude.] I mean, no, it's cool. You don't have to get into it.

[...

...................

........

Dave pauses as the Center's door slides open in front of them.]

Okay, actually maybe you should get into it.

[brocrux]

[ dude.

dirk stops before stepping inside, looking at dave ] Okay.

[ he looks ahead at the open doors and heads in. this sure is a pokemon center. are these what hospitals are vaguely supposed to look like? ]

You told me about your [ dirk. dad. ] bro. And I told you about [ dave. dad. idol. ] mine. And some other things came up. [ splinters. heroics. the meaning of life. also your sister was a spritecat or something?? let's never speak of that last one. ]

I want to apologize again first.

[callbacks]

[Well then.

Dave stands still for a second, then puts his box down just inside the door, walks over to the lobby couch, sits, and puts his head in his hands, palms on his forehead, fingers pushed through his own pale hair.

He wants to text Karkat. im going to need the feelings pile of a lifetime when i get back please warm up your shooshing cords. But he doesn't, because he can't. Also, that would be rude.

Why does everything happen so much.]

I. ...Okay? What...for, dude.

[brocrux]

[ dirk hesitates just a moment before sitting next to him on the couch. hands on his knees after he removes the pokemon from his jacket and sets it aside to do.... whatever it is babies do. walk around all wobbly like or something. he should definitely not be responsible for that thing.

waits for an answer from dave then carefully states what he feels he needs to. he's suddenly extremely aware of the fact that there are other people walking around, probably with far less things on their minds than them. (is that a fucking nurse in lolita?) ]

For fucking up your life. Maybe it's weird and it wasn't exactly me. You told me as much - or another you did. But I feel responsible and should own up to mistakes made by every version of myself because the toxic element I have been in my friends' life could be tantamount to an number of actions taken against you elsewhere in paradox space. I can't say I wouldn't have done what he did in those circumstances without the current self-awareness that I can be, essentially, an intense douche-bag.

[ dave should just flip him the finger. yeah. that'd be good. he knows he won't but how cathartic would that be? ]

[callbacks]

[Let's everyone let that sink in for a moment.]

Wow. Wow, uh. ...Okay.

[Hhhhhh. As Dave gathers his jittery thoughts, a small lump pokes its head out from under his scarf. The little mousiekins looks around, twitching his whiskers first at Dirk and then Dave. When it seems Dave is not going to fill him in, though, he settles in and decides to make himself useful by watching Dirk's partner.]

The Dave you were talking to--I guess, maybe the real Dave, now?--he must've had a lot more time to think about this than I have. Because I'm still...mostly in the process of figuring that stuff out. How fucked up it all was, et cetera. So hearing you say that, just out of nowhere from my perspective, is a little...baffling, I guess.

[He threads his fingers together over his forehead and pushes both hands back over his hair, pulling it back from his forehead so that it falls again all willy-nilly. He stays huddled like that a moment, safe within the barrier of his arms, but then he slides them back to the nape of his neck and sighs, lifts his chin.]

And I'm not gonna lie, like, eighty percent of me is still waiting for the shitty, "ironic" twist to what you're saying, but. [He tilts his head to watch Dirk sidelong.] I got to agree with past Dave, or future Dave, or whoever he is. Like. That wasn't you, so. I mean you can apologize for the character trait, maybe, but. Still wasn't you.

[brocrux]

[ looking right at dave is a little hard so his eyes follow the hamster that literally came out of dave's scarf. a perfectly logical place to store living things if he ever did see one. he thinks roxy put a cat in her scarf once. it runs in the ectogenes? ]

The real Dave? [ they're going to have to get existential following that line of conversation ]

[ dirk's partner, located by his feet currently, seems perfectly pleased with filling the mouse in on what seems to be going on here. the fact that dirk is hearing "mime mime" over and over in that high-pitched voice is really fucking with the emotional seriousness of this. maybe that's the ironic twist? the levels of irony are so off the charts that it's even more emotional. ]

Right. I get that. It doesn't work as an apology in that context because I can't speak for that guy. He might have been unapologetic. The idea in my head head that I can be less of a horrible person than that extreme going forward as future adult seems significantly more plausible saying that. So I did.

[ just end this feelingsjam. dave wasn't ready for it. ]

[callbacks]

You...

[This has to be a fucked up way to be doing this. To hear it from Dave's alternate bro, who only heard about what the Bro he lived with was like through an alternate Dave, who must have figured it out some way Dave can't even imagine right now.

But somehow, that strikes him as oddly fitting. The PokéConversation going on around them doesn't even register, Dave's been here so long.

He lets one arm--the one between him and Dirk--fall; keeps the other on the back of his neck to ground himself.]

You really think he was bad?

[brocrux]

[ this is fucked up. the experiences could have been different for all he knows with time shenanigans haven taken place at some point without dirk being completely present for them. his curls his fingers into his palms, arms at his sides. he looks back to dave. ]

Everything I think was formed from the opinions that version of you had given me at the time and I don't have real experience of growing up with a present adult to compare it to, just what Jane and Jake have told me about her dad and his grandmother.

[ "under that weird stylistic and totally sociopathic approach to parenting i cant even IMAGINE there was any emotion toward me other than some sort of loathing"

the entire time dirk has been thinking how he shouldn't be responsible for a baby, regardless of its status as a tiny plush-looking clown pokemon. yeah. ]

I don't think he was a good guardian. I can't say if he was a good person or not. [ that's probably up to dave. he doesn't feel like has the right to make a call on that one. he's not sure what to think. ]