dash rapidash dash

[the_very_best]

Morning - early morning, as it's always possible some phenomenon will only appear before sunrise in a way that she can't find simply by staying up past dark - finds Bella having let herself out of the Tower (conscientiously not letting any Porygon out into the wilderness). She never walks if she can help it. Fireflower is much more surefooted, and enjoys the exercise more. She hauls herself up onto the Rapidash's back.

Comments

[the_very_best]

Bella turns out to have many and nuanced opinions on tournaments. She personally knows her guild's entrant to this year's Golden Apricorn Games, and doesn't like him very much, although she admits that he's the sort of person to have a shot at winning and give half the prize money to the guild after, so it's all right.

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock does not have such insight into the personalities of the entrants, but he listens raptly to Bella's analysis.

[the_very_best]

This occupies them for the circuit of the lake, which takes until well after sunrise.

(Sunrise is beautiful. Bella interrupts her tirade about Apricorn Games rulesets and their dismissal of the skill element in team selection to comment on it.)

[bitofafiction]

"Yes, I like them," says Sherlock, scratching behind Watson's ears.

[the_very_best]

"I'm usually not up this early. Not such a morning person."

[bitofafiction]

"I am not always up this early, but when I am, I appreciate it."

[the_very_best]

"I wish I didn't need to sleep. I probably still would sometimes, but not daily."

[bitofafiction]

"Why?"

[the_very_best]

"Why would I rather not have to sleep or why would I sometimes do it anyway?"

[bitofafiction]

"Both."

[the_very_best]

"I don't like needing to do things - especially things that have no useful products, which sleep wouldn't if it weren't required for me to be properly awake the rest of the time. I'd do it anyway because I like dreams, and because sometimes there's nothing interesting going on and the next interesting thing will happen some time in the future and I could sleep through those occasions."

[bitofafiction]

"Your logic is sound."

[the_very_best]

"It usually is!"

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock grins.

[the_very_best]

And there's the tower again. "Nothing," sighs Bella. She slides off Fireflower's back, pats her neck, and returns her. "I'm going to check out the lake itself, d'you want to join me for that too or have you got other stuff planned?"

[bitofafiction]

"I can think of no better way to occupy my morning," he says cheerfully.

[the_very_best]

"What've you got that swims? It'd be a bit cramped for us to both sit on Zag." She sits down and pulls off her boots, because Zag's not even big enough for her to keep her feet dry.

[bitofafiction]

"Irene will do."

He similarly dismounts from Watson, gives him a hug around the neck, and switches him out for the Dragonair.

[the_very_best]

Boots and socks go in Bella's backpack, her jeans get rolled up to above her knees, and she releases Zag. "Gonna go for a swim," she tells him brightly.

"Oone!" He trots obediently into the water; she wades after him and manages to perch on his back.

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock leaves his shoes on the shoreline and hops aboard Irene, who undulates after the other pair.

[the_very_best]

Bella leads in a wide spiraling pattern, from the outer edge of the lake to the center. "Which of your Pokémon was your first? I can't see importing a Kanto traditional starter for one twin and not the other, but maybe you traded yours or were already attached to something by the time you started?"

[bitofafiction]

"I started with Ditto."

[the_very_best]

"Childhood friend? Zag used to be my mom's, she caught him when I was eight, but he liked me better and she gave him to me." Bella scratches behind the pokey fur on Zag's cheeks and gets a contented "linlinlin" in reply.

[bitofafiction]

"You could say that, yes."

[the_very_best]

"Strategizing must be really tricky with a Ditto. Your opponent knows everything you can do and vice versa, the only question is which one's tougher underneath. And luck."