turn out the lights; wake up in your dreams

[ ... have a sigh, people. ]

... I should've known better than to jinx us yesterday.

Still, though, that's rather creative of them, bringing home to us rather than the other way around.

[ have a weak grin and wave combo, guys. ]

No hard feelings, right?




[ action! ]

[ and in various parts of johto, have a young boy sitting on a bench playing two-hand rendition of rock-paper-scissors (and book-nutcracker-washing machine) with a whimsicott, who, upon close examination, seems to lack fingers entirely. have a smile if you approach him. heck, he'll even teach you the rendition if he likes you enough.

life as usual, he supposes. ]

[when the feed flickers on, the hand moves away from the screen to reveal something like a haphazard mess. the first thing you notice is a colouring book, child-like in quality. it's flipped to a page of the picture of an Ekans swallowing a Rattata whole -- the snake coloured purple painstakingly with a pencil crayon just a little off-screen.

it's not the only pencil crayon there. rather, if you count and compare all the colours, there are veritably enough pencil crayons scattered in the frame alone for two full boxes worth of them. there's the sound of paper crinkling off-screen, before a hand sets down a paper crane on-screen.]

Mm, eighty-one, I guess.

[a chuckle. Fuji picks up the feed. a flash of brown hair here, dizzying camera motions, and suddenly, the feed settles amongst a whole pile of paper cranes, crowding on-screen, haphazard in their placements. even as he does so, his fingers are already picking at the colouring book again.

he tears out the page with the Ekans and the Rattata, nimble fingers working away already at the first folds.]

I think it's fun, what you're liable to make out of paper. [hum] Wasn't origami originally designed for the sake of carrying love letters? Designed so that the receiver would know if someone had intercepted the message from the way the folds were refolded. -- would you like a love letter in a paper crane?

[a thoughtful pause, here.] Isn't it funny that people believe it's bad luck, to unfold a crane? If it's a love letter for you, you'd have to unfold it anyway.

Their luck for you, I suppose.

[and now, he looks down, rueful. a twist of his fingers, and he pulls out the crane's wings, balancing delicately. a smile, a smile, so secretive that if the state of being cryptic was a rope, Fuji would've hung himself on it long ago.]

I think I'll play the piano with my toes.

[it's then the end-tail of an electric-mouse plops on-screen, the chuuuu that follows as unamused as it ever was. Berlin the Raichu plops himself unceremoniously into Fuji's lap, shaking his head a little. the boy blinks once, twice, chuckles, and reaches over to the feed--

cut.]

[welp, when the video flickers on, you get a Fuji. and this time, even those that wouldn't know him particularly well can see that he is in a terrific mood. tired, but still very much happy. (protip: his younger brother's arrival may or may not have happened this week, though surely that has nothing to do with it--)

there is a Raichu in his lap, and he is fiddling with the pokemon's ears. every once in a while, the Raichu makes a grumping sort of sound, but remains obediently seated, tail swishing to the side.

when he speaks, it's thoughtful.]

He's got sort of a button nose, doesn't he? [he pokes at the Raichu's nose, as if to demonstrate, and the pokemon twitches, making a huffy sort of sound.] I've heard that the way the nose is shaped affects how nicely a pair of glasses can sit over it, really, but I don't think I've ever had much first-hand experience with it. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

[but if facial-shape is hereditary, does it mean that his own facial shape might be suited for glasses? he doesn't like to think about it. a look of consideration--] But with the way his Thunder falls, I think I could justify Berlin here getting a pair. Maybe he'll look less grouchy with a pair of Raichu-sized glasses.

[the Raichu evidently disagrees, making a noise of disapproval. Fuji only laughs.]

Ah, by the way--

[and here, he pulls a glass of water on-screen.

the water touches the half-way mark, innocuous. Fuji peers into the screen, thoughtful.]

Well? Half-full, or half-empty?

[It starts with Fuji eying a pokeball contemplatively. He gets up from his seat, apparently entirely unaware that the feed is running, and turns to the side as though addressing someone else in the room just beyond the scope of the video feed --]

-- say, could I borrow a screwdriver?

[The feed abruptly ends.

The next time the feed turns on, it's deliberate. Fuji is smiling into the screen with all the innocence found only on naked baby birds and seasoned salesmen.

He holds up a pokeball ruefully.]

All right, I give. Does anyone know what's going on inside the pokeball when the pokemon goes in?

I tried prying it open, but it seems like it didn't like that very much. I think having a pokeball short-circuit on me once is enough for the day.

[A beat, and he throws a meaningful look at the black smear on the hotel wall behind him. Plastered against the wall next to the black smear is a ditto the shape of a black smear -- one can easily tell that it's a ditto because this particular ditto was too lazy to even mimic the texture of the burn. He pays it no mind, turning back to the screen.]

And out of curiosity, has anyone tried to catch anything that's not a pokemon with the pokeball? [Wryly--] If you go with the theory that the pokeball is actually a gateway to an alternate dimension, maybe whoever that gets shoved inside will end up going home -- or end up in someone else's 'home'. You'd never know. Space-time works in mysterious, mysterious ways. [He's joking. ... maybe. A theatrical sigh--]

Sadly, I don't think there's a way to know for sure unless we give it a test run, though. [A grin.] Any volunteers?

( Filtered to Watanuki )

( Filtered to 'Mister Blackbird' )

( Filtered to Yukimura )

[He's sitting at the counter, chin propped and smiling lightly in a way that implies he's bored out of his skull. Of course, the fact that he's broadcasting at all sort of hints at his boredom -- he only ever turns to the pokegear when he's feeling blasé.]

So, Johtotites. [A pause.] Or is it more of a 'Johtoians'? 'Johtoeses'? It's too bad that 'Johto' doesn't translate well into some sort of a national calling. 'Denizens of Johto' is a little too wordy, though. If anyone has a better suggestion, I wouldn't mind hearing it.

[A chuckle.] But anyway. Some of us have been here for a while now -- so I think it's safe to say that a lot of us have seen many different kinds of pokémon. So just a quick survey -- what pokémon that you've met so far would you, in your opinion, consider to be the strongest? Cutest? Or maybe even the rarest, the fastest, the smallest, the largest -- that sort of thing. [He hums, thoughtful.] I'm sure all of you can think up some nice examples for each category. Now, it's just a matter of sharing it.

[A glint in his eyes, and he leans into the screen, conspiratorial--] I'd like to share the one that I consider to be the 'most elusive'. I know, it's not exactly an -est word, but I think it fits in the spirit of things.

Some of you would agree, actually -- 'Kanra', not exactly a pokémon, but he or she is one of the more intangible things in Johto. I wonder if they're the sort of thing that would come if I call out their name to the wind -- but that's too much of an impossibility, isn't it?

[Rue.] Too bad. I think I have something for them.

At any rate, I'd like to hear some of your opinions. Wouldn't it be interesting, to see if we could reach some sort of consensus?

[A chuckle.] Something like that, at any rate.

[He smiles, delighted, and the feed ends.]

[action.]

[He's now standing by the entrance to the Goldenrod Radio Tower, handing out pamphlets with a cheerful smile. Bug him y/n/dango?]

[When the video flickers on, we have here an expression of utmost innocence -- the sort that you find on experienced salesmen and newborn baby birds. There's a metaphorical 'I'm hungry, feed me!' glint in his eyes, though for anyone who knows Fuji well enough, it's more of a 'I'm bored, entertain me!' than anything else.

The backdrop is of a plainly decorated room with a rather comfortable bed , occupied by a curl of a flaming porcupine. A misdreavus drifts lazily across the screen and settles herself in his hair. He smiles, all teeth.]

Everyone comes from different worlds, don't they? [Pause. He clarifies--] That being a generic 'everyone', of course, and a very broad and open-minded definition of 'different'. Still, though, we're not really here about semantics.

[He hums, idly, and the misdreavus yawns, before taking a few locks of his brown hair into her mouth, making mimicries of a chewing motion.] The point being, with each world comes a whole new set of possibilities. And on a snowy day where going outside generally means freezing something off in the process, possibilities are fun.

How many of us here have had special abilities back in our home world? Things like flight, telekinesis, powers of prediction, but maybe even things like extra appendages that didn't get carried over between world transfers. [He smiles, wryly.] And even if that's not the case, if you have any interesting stories about your home worlds that you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd like to hear them.

[He puts a finger to his lips, playfully.] If nothing else, it's a good way to pass the time.

Snazzy music.

[Absent-minded talk. That's all it is. A hum, and the video flickers on, bringing to focus a pleasant-looking young man of indeterminate age. In the background is a plethora of leaves, some of which whose stems are perched on branches that are currently poking him in the back of the head, but you can't see that. What you can see is that beyond the foliage, there spreads the endless sky.

There is a sudden jolt of the camera. Things shake.

He appears to be nonplussed, and vaguely thoughtful. This is because he usually is. A tilt of his head, and the camera slowly adjusts its settings.]

Personally, I think it could go for a little more jazz, but it's not good to be that picky. [A thoughtful hum.] Now that I think about it, isn't there a law about having to pay royalties for each square foot of space that's utilizing copyrighted music? If they're going through all that trouble, might as well enjoy it.

[There is a sudden growling sound, and the camera tilts down languidly, mimicking the tilt of a human head. It is now quickly becoming apparent that the boy is currently situated in a tree, judging from the angle of the tree trunk shown and the sudden dizzying focus to the ground below.

Which, interestingly enough, shows a... rhyhorn. A rather pissed-off looking rhyhorn. A rhyhorn that looks like it's more or less attempting to chip away at the tree one strip of bark at a time. Well, that explains the jolt. ... and this jolt. And the one after that.

The camera suddenly jerks back up.]

Not a very friendly welcome, is it. [There is a very rueful expression on his face.] Out of curiosity, could I possibly persuade one of you heroic types to tell the nice rhino to go away?

[In a tone of utmost consideration--] I'm not sure if 'gored by rhino after falling out of a tree' would look all too nice on a medical file.