usedlaserbeam | 019 | Cianwood City | Text / Video / Action;

[It's a beautiful day in Cianwood City! The weather is warm! The sun is shining! (And let's be honest, all the happy vibes in the air sure aren't hurting anything, either) And thanks to some convenient teleportation shenanigans, Yagyuu and his Pokemon have found themselves back on the Cianwood beach once more, sunning themselves and enjoying the day.

There's quite a lot of bustle going on in the background of the video, including a Rapidash and a Stantler walking leisurely up and down the beach (taking a long walk, perhaps?) and a Quagsire waddling around poking at rocks with a cheerful air. But perhaps the most romantic sight of all is that of the bright red Octillery and the bright blue Dragonair in the foreground, curled up together and snuggling in a giant mass of primary-colored tentacles and noodly appendages.

Which is all well and good, right up until a beautifully-plumed Milotic comes swimming up onto the beach, fanning out his tail like a preening peacock and beginning to slither amorously toward the noodly pair in the sand. A brief exchange seems to take place: the stereotypical, "Hey, baby, what's a cute girl like you doing with a guy like that?"

And sadly, it seems to work; shy and slightly mortified, the Octillery seems to deflate, noodling himself a little deeper into the sand. The Dragonair, on the other hand...well, she's apparently having none of this.

And proceeds to demonstrate exactly how she feels about some jackass Milotic rolling up like he thinks he's hot shit and making trouble in her neighborhood by dissing her boyfriend.

Via judicious application of percussive explanation.

One exceedingly fierce and noodly battle later, there is an unconscious Milotic (twenty feet long, three hundred fiftysome pounds) in the sand, one incredibly angry Dragonair (thirteen feet long, thirty-five pounds) still beating the ever-living daylights out of its inert body, and one incredibly overwhelmed Octillery looking like he's just fallen in love all over again.]

~
[Later, a text message appears on the Gear network.]

Ah, it seems as though this past Valentine's Day was a successful one on many accounts. Did all the hopeful admirers manage to find a sweetheart to reciprocate their feelings, I wonder?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Though he's not often one to utilize the camera function as a matter of course, Yagyuu is Yagyuu and he long ago invested the time in figuring out all the various tricks a Gear could perform, so it's with little hesitation that he gets it oriented and snaps off a picture of Niou, candid, not particularly artistic and not in the least bit posed.]

Ah, I'm not as good at this as Fuji-kun.

[But he lines up and snaps another, anyway, shifting slightly to get more of the ocean in the background.]

There's a nice view further down the beach.

You're not even holding it steady.

[He's probably not focusing it either, but Niou can't check when he's not the one holding the Gear. It's at this point that he hands the Metapod to his Hoot Hoot, who flaps off somewhere with the bug Pokemon. Hopefully he won't try to eat it.]

Further down? [He walks backwards as much as he can though, until he gets closer to the rocks and kind of has to turn around so he doesn't smash his knee on a rock or something. That would be unfortunate.]

[He's holding it steady enough, thank you very much (a little bit of blur around the edges is artful, and so is a slightly off-center angle, and besides, it's not like he actually cares about the pictures so much as he just wants an excuse to look at Niou a whole lot), and snaps another few before following after Niou, always staying within a few feet when he's not letting the distance build for a picture.]

Where I left Thalassa and the others.

[Oh, he didn't really mean it anyway. It was more the fact that it's something to talk about. He knows what to look out for now though, even if he can't help but keep peeking behind him to see what Yagyuu is actually doing with that camera.]

Not far away, then.

Did you want to walk the whole length of it? We could.

[His odds of getting a decent picture are somewhere around one in four, but this time it's actually an artful one of Niou in motion, crisp and unblurred, taken at precisely the right moment with the waves as a backdrop.]

[Something nice for the scrapbook, then.]

Depends on if you'll let me take a turn with the camera as well, Yagyuu.

[He drawls out his name, if only for the reason that he can. It's relaxing and uplifting being away from the Tennis Haus, in more ways than one really.]

Here.

[He offers it back without complaint, cradled lightly in his fingers. They're not flawless shots by any means, the dozen or so that he snapped during his tenure with the camera, but there's a certain art to a few of them—the sort of clarity and thought that comes with caring about one's subject matter.]

Will that do, Niou-kun?

[He flicks through the pictures taken one by one, understanding each of them as he should as well. Though it's precisely for that reason that he sets the camera up again.

This time, however, he turns the camera around so the lens faces the both of them, and actually slings an arm over Yagyuu's shoulder to take a picture as they walk. It's blurry and ridiculous, in a fashion, but it's also artful in the way that it's just purely them as well.]

Yeah. Gotta take a few more though yet.

[And by that, he means of Yagyuu.]

[Perhaps surprisingly, he doesn't flinch away from the arm on his shoulder, but leans a little into it to help facilitate a better picture. He's not quite smiling, not precisely, but his expression is undeniably amused.]

What will you do with them, once you have?

[And Niou lingers a little longer than he should, just to shut the camera off again, before he steps away again. He takes his time with the process as well though, pressing a little too much as his arm slides along the back of Yagyuu's neck.]

What won't I do with them?

[Yes, there is innuendo there, obviously. Also because the real reason touches on far too many things as well.]

[That does warrant a glare, but it's a halfhearted one at best, tempered by the exceedingly good mood he's in and the fact that he knows there are certain lines that Niou knows better than to cross. It's part of the inherent understanding between them, and he's confident in it.]

One can only imagine.

[Honestly, he's almost tempted to.]

[Hey, it's not like he's literally body slamming the line. He's just toeing around the edges. No change there.

Though he does smirk at the reply and steps back to click the camera on again and take a more natural shot of Yagyuu. One of him just simply walking, the breeze from the sea messing with his hair so it isn't as perfect for once.

But then he talks again.]

I'm sure you can.

019 | Cianwood City | Text / Video / Action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;

action;