The hotel she was staying at didn’t have complimentary breakfast. How could that be? So now she had to find lobster-clauncher for breakfast.

PCz6L216

Like any duo that solemnly swears to be up to no good, one of them heckles the machine while the other keeps a lookout.[break][break]

Yujin placed her hands behind her back, whistling a tune as sparks fly and tokens line up obediently in the dispenser.[break][break]

“Victory.” “Success!”[break][break]

Their one armed hug is the stuff of legend—Yujin also throwing a fist pump in excitement.[break][break]

“Yes! I mean—no! Only I can call it ugly.” She was suddenly defensive of her impending plushie.[break][break]

A quick visit to the bemused fox and over to the scraggly teen, then the fat bruxish was plucked from the wall.[break][break]

As soon as Yujin got her hands upon it, she hesitated.[break][break]

“...How am I going to fit this in my luggage?”[break][break]

The life of a traveling handywoman was hard indeed.

Yujin brushed a hand over the furnishings inside the tent. These things weren’t hers. She hadn’t picked the fabric of the bed or considered the heft of these cooking appliances. She hadn’t chosen the colors of the canvas and the rotom sitting quietly in the corner hadn’t come with her across three continents to be here.[break][break]

Sitting there, listening to Callan flicker through his notebook outside, she brought one of the pillows to her face and curiously sniffed.
His smell, his preferences, his playful tongue-in-cheek habit, his moody moroseness—she would have to learn all these things in time.[break][break]

When she finished clearing away dinner she unzipped the opening. After their tussle in the snow, the night had grown darker but so had its lights. These shadows were deep enough to drink out of.[break][break]

So she sat by his side, half-hidden in his.[break][break]

“It matters,” she said, ever his voice of reason.[break][break]

“The motives are important, but they also don’t make the result meaningless.”[break][break]

She blew into her hands.[break][break]

“If I were truly using you, would you want to use me too?”

“I’m fine,” she said to Callan, moments before the sudden acceleration nearly slammed her head into the salamence’s neck. As they lunged forward, a whip of anger rose in her throat and then promptly coiled back again before any regrettable words could slip out.[break][break]

This was a mistake, but not a costly enough one to break character.[break][break]

The girl in the vision would be discussed another day. Nihilego sprang on them from all sides. From behind them she could hear Derek cuss in pain and Navy cuss in frustration.[break][break]

Yujin slid her hand through her klefki’s loop, ensuring it wouldn’t be left behind in the evasive maneuvers. She held the creature like a chakram and aimed it towards the rest of the group.[break][break]

“Coverage.”[break][break]

Layers of pink, hexagonal tiles shimmered around the bodies of the expedition group as CRAFTY SHIELD entered play.

[attr="class","bottom"]Callan Young Navy DEREK HOFFMAN [break]

She frowned at him. “Are you making fun of the way I talk? That’s not nice, darling.”[break][break]

But the rest of the conversation required more attention than mere banter. Yujin dutifully took notes as they walked, the blue of her handheld screen glowing like its own little gem in the dark.[break][break]

“...What’s it like meeting yourself?” That was a fantasy normally constrained to dreams and books of fiction. “If I met another Yujin, I think… one of us would end up dead.”
Call it a woman’s intuition. [break][break]

Eventually they reached another tera crystal deposit. It was intact and unmined, another heart to all the scintillating veins that stretched throughout the Granite Cave.[break][break]

Yujin tossed out a pokemon. Her excadrill landed on its feet, took one look at the crystal, and grunted in understanding.[break][break]

"That patch things up, or d'you want more?"[break][break]

“You did good. You have a nice voice, too.”[break][break]

She directed her sentient tunneling protocol.[break][break]

“You know, I didn’t expect you to be heroic.” This was going to insult him, but so be it. “You talk like you’re tired of other people and their opinions. So why would you sacrifice yourself?”

[attr="class","bottom"]DEREK HOFFMAN [break]

If you want to sit on a throne no one else can sit, you have to bear the feelings no one else can bear.[break][break]

That is, sitting like a dunce on the dunk tank while being pelted with pokeballs.[break][break]

A child threw first. Yujin threw second.[break][break]

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Sunny day, check.[break]
Wetsuit, check.[break]
Flippers, check.[break]
Fitbit, because she was trying to meet her calories burned quota for the day… check.[break][break]
What fun was it if you used your pokemon to dive for you?[break][break]
So she jumped into the sea with a fwoosh herself.[break][break]

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It was an austere sky, like a cosmic prophet had rolled the bones and let them scatter fatefully across the endless black.[break][break]

A single star had set sail to the west. It would say its goodbye at the other end of the galaxy.[break][break]

Yujin popped open a beer can and listened to the satisfying hiss. “The view is good, but not the best.”[break][break]

They rested loosely on a large, stony outcropping that loomed over the sea. The dark waves swirled with invitation and Dewford Town was a glow of yellow from beyond the tree line.[break][break]

It had been a long evening after work again. Instead of the arcade they had toured the surfing spots around the island, and ended the day with a short hike up to the overlook.[break][break]

Behind them were already set-up tents. Two, because they were both being polite.

Good point.[break][break]

Agent Striker had it handled. She presumed so, between the four pokemon he now had out and the rainbow barrage of attacks that painted the cavern like a new renaissance masterpiece.[break][break]

The barboach were fleeing now, scampering away into their underground rivers though others lay in pain on the ground, tails slapping sadly against the dry earth. The whiscash in particular seemed to have more glint of purpose; taking a mighty blow from the HAMMER ARM, its figure began to disintegrate into fading light.[break][break]

“Lock,” Yujin commanded the klefki.[break][break]

FAIRY LOCK snapped around the cavern in a flash of pink chains.[break][break]

The pokemon’s return stuttered, failed, and the whiscash reformed. Whatever pokeball it was seeking was now out of reach.[break][break]

“Keep it alive!” the engineer said, hopping off of Kalameet and running towards the fat fish in the calming battlefield. “I can get more information off of it.”

[attr="class","bottom"]Thomas Benoit [break]

“Well, it is my first time in Mauville. My name is Yujin, per your pleasure.”[break][break]

There had been a few key priorities to take care of, such as getting situated with the commissioner and the guide in the elite four. But efficiency leads to spare time, and spare time is most rewarding when spent on personal leads.[break][break]

“Alright, shall I cut to the chase?”[break][break]

(Rhetorical question.)[break][break]

“What do you know of your birth family, Ms. Jasmine Blair?”