tensai | 004; video/action: tennis house; missing one (1) kouhai

OWWWW!

[Anyone paying attention to the network would have been witness to the sudden turning on of Marui's device just before it crashes down, skids across the floor and somehow settles at a nice angle where you can all see the inside of a barn-- the barn in Goldenrod. If anyone is familiar enough with the area, you would know that it is part of the Tennis House, and where Rikkai keeps most of their Pokémon, when they're not in their balls. Heh, balls.

Anyway, getting to the point: a certain Girafarig's darker half is biting at Marui, looking angry or distraught or a mixture of both. The front half doesn't seem to mind what his backside is doing, probably even approving of the biting. The Rapidash nearby don't seem to be paying much attention to the scene, but the Machamp seems concerned at least.]

Owww, quit it, Ace! Let me do my job and-- not the ear! Let me just-- Don't make me put you back in your PokéBall! [Oh, that seemed to work...? It stopped biting Marui, at least, and Ace is letting the redhead pet him now.] You're not the only one upset that Akaya's gone, you know.

[And it is at this point that something big, blue and furry sits(or rolls over) in front of the camera, snores, and makes the feed cut off. But if you're ever in the area, Marui will just be in the barn, making sure all the Rikkai Pokémon are well-fed and warm and totally not sulking, who does that? Sheesh.]

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[There have been, perhaps, three prior times in Yagyuu's existence when he has looked as generally silently despondent as he does right now. None of them are fond memories; none of them are days he's proud of. None of them are days he likes to dwell on remembering.

This is day number four, and Kirihara-kun is gone.

The fact that he's come out to the barn in the first place is telling in itself that he's already mostly dealt with his reaction to that. Yagyuu is always one to put emphasis on maintaining a good public face; the flip side of that, naturally, is that he doesn't subject himself to public scrutiny when he knows he can't keep it together. Which is why the past few hours were spent alone, far away, in the stillness of the woods outside Goldenrod, and also why a few of the trees out there are currently missing areas of bark in vaguely fist-sized chunks.

But now he's here, tailed by a smiling, oblivious Quagsire with a bad habit of walking into the back of his legs when he pauses, ready to face the uncomfortable discussion that yet another teammate has gone missing.]

Is he giving you much trouble, Marui-kun?

[Marui jumps a bit, not noticing when Yagyuu had come in. With only a handful of people at the House now, everything was just too... quiet.]

Not that mu- ow, Ace!

[Frowning at the Girafarig's back half. The one that keeps biting.]

He's just still upset, and I don't know how to get him to calm down. Tried feeding him, but that didn't work. [siiiigh. Someone's wishing Jackal was here.]

[If he were more inclined to smile as a general matter of course, he probably would be at that remark, but it'd be a sad one, and wry, and a little bit dismal. As it is, he's not, and his expression doesn't change, but there's still that lingering aura of melancholy clinging to him that won't go away.]

Not everyone consoles themselves with food, I'm afraid.

[He steps around toward the front half of the Girafarig, working off the theory that if he can get one end to chill out, maybe the other half will mellow along with it.]

This is no way to behave, Ace. Shhh. Come now, you were trained better than that.

I figured.

[He manages to duck this time, before Ace gets to bite his ear again.]

Sometimes, I forget that the Pokémon here aren't like the ones in the game, and that they kind of do have their own personalities and stuff.

[And whatever you're doing, Yagyuu, keep doing it, because Ace isn't biting Marui anymore. It looks like head-walling now, but with Marui's shoulder, not a wall. And this is more tolerable.]

[Really, he has no idea what he's doing, because of the resident team members he's probably the one with the least experience with things of a Pokemon nature, but hey, he knows how to take a cue, and if this is working, well, he might as well keep after it.]

They do. It takes some getting used to, adapting to them that way.

[Like the Quagsire he seems to have inherited, which is incapable of walking in a straight line and likes to introduce itself to walls with its face.]

Settle down, Ace. That's better. You know better than to act like that. That's right.

It must be hard for them too, though. Suddenly being given to a new trainer when... You know.

[A shrug and a pout. Ace at least, is settling down, with the smaller head on Marui's shoulder and not trying to hit him anymore.

And then he sighs because what is he going to do without you :c]

Man, you're better at taking care of these Pokemon than I am.

And when he was Kirihara-kun's starter, no less.

[He almost regrets saying Akaya's name as it leaves its mouth, cringing inwardly at the way it feels so wrong and seems to hang ominously in the air long after the sound and syllables have faded away. Saying it makes it more real. But someone had to do it.

Yagyuu's used to being the one charged with doing the things no one else wants to.]

I doubt that. In this case, I think it's simply that he's had more time to grow familiar with me.

[Marui sighs again, and he moves to Ace's other side so he could rub the Girafarig's back. He's stopped biting or bashing his head on Marui now, but he's still very upset. The redhead, too.]

...He had only two badges left. If I've gotten Ecruteak's badge too, I'd have caught up with him, like I promised him when I got here.

He would've been farther still if he hadn't come back to Goldenrod when he did.

[When he was gone, and they all started disappearing in a swarm—Yanagi, Yukimura, Sanada, Niou. When he'd cracked, sent those frantic texts, ~~begged~~ insisted that their junior come back, come home.

Except that's not really helping with the current situation, is it?]

It's not such a bad thing, letting him learn to outgrow us. We always knew he'd have to, sooner or later.

Yeah... You're right.

[he sighs, a little more depressed than he initially thought he was. but there's nothing helping that; people come and go in johto. at least akaya's where he really belongs now, right...?]

Man, if it wasn't so cold I'd probably stuff myself silly with parfaits. [he's trying to cheer up, really.]

004; video/action: tennis house; missing one (1) kouhai

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