[attr="class","mitchelpkmn"]

[attr="class","mitchelpkmn"]

[attr="class","mitchelpkmn"]

[attr="class","mitchelpkmn"]

[attr="class","mitchelpkmn"]

[attr="class","mitchelpkmn"]

[attr="class","samjermain"]"You're welcome, sweetheart."

A small laugh.

"What is it about Clamperl Diving that makes us all mushy?"

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

[attr="class","samjermain"]Memo was a bit bummed there wasn't any Mantine Surfing, but he supposed it was hard to drag a bunch of Mantines around with a carnival.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

[attr="class","samjermain"]Memo was forcibly staring down the Wailord as Shivani manipulated the shadows to spit it out to sea, fighting against the darkness clouding his head; Shalin’s voice sounded very far away, as to be at the other end of a tunnel, and he wiped a visibly trembling hand across his mouth to smear the black ichor away from his lips.

Then she turned and looked at him.

They’d practiced, a little, him and Shivani, after that disastrous outing at Littleroot left him unconscious and near gutted on the village ground. Alexei Ivanov was supremely disapproving of their little exercises, but it had, Memo was realizing with a sort of bittersweet notion, built up their stamina, because he locked eyes with Shalin and nodded.

“One more,” he croaked, voice warped with darkness and sounding completely foreign to his own ears. His legs trembled as Shivani called forth the shadows once more, and he bit the side of his cheek to stay conscious and standing, feeling a new rush of black goo flooding his mouth.

With a pop and a loud splash, the final Wailord dropped out to sea, and Shivani immediately reverted her Mega Evolution. The color and heat rushed back to Memo like a tidal wave, and the sudden absence of the crawling, leeching cold knocked the breath from his lungs. He pitched forward onto his knees, managing to get his hands beneath him before he fell completely over, and he took forcibly controlled breaths through his nose to avoid retching.

He made himself swallow the ichor in his mouth, making a face at the ground as it slithered down his throat.

“S-sorry,” he managed, after a bit, still looking down, “I was h-hoping you… wouldn’t see.”

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

[attr="class","samjermain"]Freya was caught off guard by the male Lucario’s unwillingness to act, frowning down at him as the aura crackles and wreathed around her; she was not expecting the counter, which struck her full in the face and sent her skidding backwards, though she hadn’t used a real move so the payback was slightly less.

She shook her head and grinned. This was right. This was right. She called down the storm of aura around her and launched her arms out, firing off a huge aura sphere at Vincent.

“Sure,” Memo said, grinning with his arms out like whatcha gonna do.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

[attr="class","samjermain"]Memo stood back and let Alex take the lead, bartering with the stallminder like his abuela at the market-- or, at least, Alex had the energy of an eccentric, bargain-oriented shawl-clad granny hellbent on getting the best deal on rumproast.

He took the proffered skewer with a nod of thanks and made a face when Alex bit into his own and promptly burnt the shit out of his mouth.

“Of course it’s hot! We just got it!”

He had committed this exact, himself, sin with any number of soups or dishes pulled from the oven.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

[attr="class","samjermain"]It was all chaos and sheep’s wool for long moments, the jingling of bells and errant tree ornaments, the tripping and smashing of packages and falling of faces onto hardwood floors.

Eventually, Memo got ahold of the dastardly rodent and wrapped it in his arms, bearhugging it to his body and trilling with glee.

“Gotcha, you little rat!” He stood, the Abra’s legs kicking and flailing; it made high-pitched squeaky noises as it struggled.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

[attr="class","leytag"]Alexei Ivanov

[attr="class","leymain"]“Too late for that!” Memo called back, kicking at the strange, clinging tendrils of spoke that wound round his ankles. He covered his mouth with the crook of his elbow and scrabbled backwards.

There was a loud, computer-like beep, and then the ground lit up. A glowing bar stretched from wall to wall, buzzing as it transversed the space, sliding under Memo’s feet… just like it had back in the Cloud.

“Oh, no,” Memo said, stomach dropping. “No, no, no, no.” He stumbled to his feet and reached for Sibella, grabbing her fur and tugging, shouting “Fly! Fly fly flyflyflyfly!” in a panicked voice, even though she couldn’t hear him, even though there was no way to escape it, even though there was nowhere to go.

[attr="class","leypoke"]

[attr="class","samjermain"]He let Alex speak, and gently, ever so gently and slowly, placed his palm against Alex’s chest. Slowly, it slid up his sternum and over his right shoulder, where he cupped around the back of Alex’s head and pulled the two of them together, Memo nuzzling into Alex’s neck.

“I won’t. I promise I won’t.”

He hated seeing Alex upset and he hated fighting with him.

“Together forever. Like we promised.” He kissed the small dip between Alex’s collarbones.

[attr="class","samjermain"]Alex was consuming the caramel apple with massive bites. If he were a lesser man, Memo would’ve been afraid he’d choke.

“No. I don’t really like them,” he confessed, sinking another ball in another jug and earning a wrathful, if impressed, glare from the station attendant. One after another after another, until he’d sunk all of them but one-- the sticky on his fingers was wearing out-- and it was with the shit-eatingest grin that he pointed to the giant Salamence and brought down his prize.

He clutched it under his arm. “C’mon, I need to wash my hands.”

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]