eventually dominic finds his way to some sort of grove, but by that point he has started getting thoroughly irritated.

the sun feels scorching and all the creatures that supposedly occupy the safari had apparently sought shelter. that's the only explanation for the complete absence of any wild pokemon.

alternatively, the safari is a scam and he is going to have to beat the warden until he gets his money back.

lost in such thoughts, dominic almost doesn't see the the set of yellow eyes peering at him from the gloom. at this point, he doesn't know or care what the pokemon is - he just wants to catch something. he throws one of the capsules at it with pin-point accuracy.

capturing!

he continues walking along a path until he reaches some sort of pond. this place seems a little more active at least. dominic sees a familiar yellow head poking out the water's surface.

"i know what you are," dominic says in a low voice as he readies a pokeball and tosses it at the psyduck. the capsule smacks the pokemon on the bill and it seems a little offended as the red light consumes it.

capturing

further along the desire path, snaking through a copse of trees, dominic sees a handful of tyrogue training. he watches them for a few moments through narrowed eyes, contemplative, but decides against catching any.

he turns away and continues down following the line of trees. his departure garners from interest from the tyrogue so he speeds up. at least they had the sense to populate the area with relatively small, docile pokemon that don't chase down the visitors.

skipping

circling back to the lake, dominic pauses when he sees a yellow fin perking up from the BLUE surface as he approaches.

halting in his tracks, dominic CANCELS his advance and inclines his head to examine the pokemon. it blinks up at him with wide, tear-filled eyes and dominic feels his lip curl back in repulsion. he already has a handful of tiny pathetic creatures in his possession and he can't imagine JUGGLING any more.

he turns away and retreats down the pathway.

skipping!

dominic circles back to a copse of trees and pauses to watch a small pack of chimchar swinging from the branches. they chitter as they pelt each other with berries and occasionally lashing out in a flurry of FURY SWIPES.

uninterested, he keeps his distance and returns to the main path.

skipping!

he had begun to grow weary of this - the venture into the safari zone felt so very toothless compared his usual forays into the wilderness to catch pokemon. in a bid to artificially create some excitement for himself, dominic released a honchkrow. the pokemon circled overhead lazily until it identified something of interest at which point it began swooping its target.

dominic meanders over and watches the scyther hovering uncertainly and trying to swipe at the much flying-type; while both were airborne, one was certainly more comfortable in the air than the other.

"go on then," dominic says, and watches as his pokemon initiates its trained assault. the same combination of moves as always; a mirror of the FOCUS ATTACK DASH CANCEL combination, wherein the beginnings of one move belie another to deceive.

the honchkrow's NASTY PLOT signifies that it's about to perform a heavy-hitting move, and then prepares its claw in a NIGHT SLASH. expecting the assault, the scyther crosses its front blades in a bid to protect itself. it never really got the chance because rather than closing the distance with mere flight, the honchkrow hurtled at the enemy from a wayward angle and smacked the scyther with a SUCKER PUNCH.

dominic didn't wait to see the scyther hit the ground.

skipping! i'm sorry vibe i tried :sob: