foolishwren | 73. [Video/Action] Afternoon

_{[What tiiiiiiiiiiime is it?]

[.... GYM BATTLE TIME!]

[The feed, as often is the case whenever Heather actually films one of her battles, seems manned by the resident camera-crocodile, and airborne thanks to Honey the ever-patient Butterfree (although not quite as airborne as it was back in Violet City during the victory over Falkner-- Godzilla isn't exactly a little baby anymore...]

[Nonetheless, the fight is filled with the usual combo of snippy one-liners from Heather and NON-STOP ACTION, because man, if it's gonna be broadcast, might as well make it showy! The first half of the battle is largely dominated by Cujo-- but when Jasmine sends out her monstrous Steelix, Heather recalls the pup and turns briefly to the camera to smugly reassure the viewers--]}

Cooj totally has this, but it wouldn't be fair to let him have ALL the fun, y'know?

_{[With a knowing grin, she promptly hucks a different ball onto the field-- releasing a dainty Ponyta.]}

GET 'em, Carousel!

_{[For something that had been a gangly little foal around Christmas, Carousel's done a lot of growing-- which is PARTICULARLY evident in the fight that she proceeds to put up against the metal snake's attacks, prancing and leaping to avoid most of the blows-- Heather had clearly been training her quite a bit during the month or so she'd been in Olivine by now.]

[Although, something a little odd-- which could of course be because of Zilla's filming, the Totodile doesn't exactly have the steadiest hands (claws?) when it comes to holding the camera... but... did Carousel suddenly get quite a bit BIGGER as she came leaping over the Steelix's flaming coils...?]}

_{[... HUH. Well, whaddya know. What lucky timing!]

[As the Steelix comes crashing down to the Gym's sandy floor, rolling feebly to put out the flames, the audience is treated to a very artistic sideways view of the a set of long, snowy legs trotting over to their trainer, who is looking surprisingly NOT triumphant over her victory. In fact, she looks kinda... shell-shocked. Aaaand then the camera swings away again to show the defeated Gym Leader, who fortunately handles these sorts of things a LOT more gracefully than You-Know-Who in Goldenrod...]}

My goodness...

_{[The camera shuffles a short distance away so it can get a good view of both trainers-- Zilla wants to give people the FULL EXPERIENCE, after all!]}

That was a quite exciting battle... Did you know your Ponyta was about to evolve?

Um...

_{[Shooting the now-Thoroughbred-sized animal beside her an unsure look, Heather startles sideways slightly when the Rapidash stretches her neck out to nose at the side of her face. Shuffling a step or two to the side, she pats Carousel's nose distractedly, more with the intention of pushing her gently away than anything else.]}

No...

Well! What a... lucky coincidence! ... I'm sure you would have done fine anyway, though... your Pokemon are quite the little spitfires! Please, um... take the Mineralbadge. You've earned it!

Thanks--!

_{[Too distracted to even snicker at the unintentional pun, Heather sloooowly steps away from the fiery unicorn and starts to head across the sand towards the camera to claim her prize-- which is where the feed cuts out.]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nope... but then, I did have a type advantage.

Your team is primarily fire, then? I think I'd only ever seen Cujo.

...Why did you name your Growlithe Cujo? I don't think you ever told me.

Not primarily, but between Cooj an Carousel, Jasmine was pretty much toast. _{[Hee, 'toast'.]}

And-- ...

Uh, it's a reference to a book. Stephen King.

... S'about a rabid dog.

Isn't that rather like naming a space shuttle "Icarus?"

.... Well originally, I was calling him that as an insult...

But it sorta... stuck.

You dislike dogs. Was that the reason?

Yeah, pretty much.

_{[... It had been pretty unfair to be honest, but Cujo was too dumb to know he'd been being insulted.]}

You've become good friends since, as far as I can tell.

It's been a year. We're used to each other.

_{[... And she did love him. Funny how time changed things.]}

What else have you gotten "used to", in a year?

_{[She pauses a second... trying to figure out if there's some hidden meaning in that question.]}

... Camping.

Are you not a fan of the inns?

Hell, no. I love the inns.

But there aren't exactly any hotels in between cities. If you wanna go anywhere, you'll probably have to camp at some point.

Not if you have something that flies....

Don't you?

Well, I have an owl and a butterfly, but neither of them are exactly big enough to fly on...

Do you remember that Hannibal guy?

He left me his Drifblim.

....

... Oh my god, that guy was actually HERE?

I thought I was just having some kinda weird post-soulless-nightmare-world hallucination or something!

_{[It had been the only reasonable explanation as to why ANTHONY HOPKINS had appeared on her 'Gear inexplicably and then never been seen again.]}

He was.... and he seemed very, very interested in getting to know me.

Perhaps that's why he left me his monsters.

Did you recognize him? Was he from your world?

_{[Oh crap. NOT A GOOD SIGN, yo.]}

Well-- ... not... exactly.

He was a character in a movie.

... And, well, a book, but I only saw the movie.

What was it about?

A serial killer who eats people.

[There's a brief silence. L looks stricken, and then dismayed.]

What? There was a cannibalistic serial killer here, and he's gone?

[He... seems upset about the fact that he's gone, not the fact that he was here in the first place. :/ ]

Well, judging from the fact that I never saw him again after that one time when I was still half-awake, yeah, I'd assume so.

'Specially if you got his Pokemon...

Isn't that a GOOD thing?

Y'know, no... people getting eaten?

It would have been interesting, to see what would happen in a place where people don't die. That's all.

_{[Up until recently, she didn't really buy the 'people don't die' thing... but now she at least knows it's apparently the case.]}

I dunno, I think a guy eating somebody when they don't actually die from it is actually really creepy.

Like do you get a new body that pops up a bit later or something, or would you just be chomped on and be like "Hey, stop trying to eat me" no matter what he did?