[FIN] Walk With Me

[Suudonym]

A slight laugh. "Yeah, I guess it is just a crap ton of lights, if you look at it objectively." A serious crap ton of lights; he wondered where all the cords were hidden. "It is pretty awesome, though, for a crap ton of lights. I guess I've just never seen so many in one place." And in so many different colors and patterns. He wondered just how far the gardens stretched.

He followed Seraphine's gesture to said booth, watching the people that approached it and then departed with steaming cups in hand. He indeed caught up shortly, quickening his pace a little to do so, and stood beside Seraphine as one of the employees asked if she would like a complimentary cup of hot cocoa or apple cider.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

A small smile tugged at her lips at his laugh, even if it was short. They came here to have fun, and dammit she was going to enjoy herself. "It's true. Really it's just a garden with a holy crap ton of lights - they just arrange them so they look really pretty and are in certain shapes and stuff." Although as of yet they hadn't had a chance to see many shapes - just how the entrance was decorated, and the area immediately inside it. And the booth.

"Ooh, hot cocoa," she said brightly. Of course she wanted a complimentary beverage, that was the only reason she came over here in the first place!

She eagerly took her cup in both hands - uttering neither a please nor thank you, but looking grateful on some level all the same - and waited while they asked the same of Luke. She couldn't wait to drink her hot cocoa though, and she took a tiny experimental sip of it-- nope, too hot. It was still good though, and holy freaking Arceus she wanted to drink it so bad.  

[Suudonym]

Luke requested cider for himself with both a please and a thank you - he'd had to force himself to utilize the vocabulary in the past, but by now they were finally natural interjections. Receiving the beverage, he noted Seraphine's reaction to her own and decided he'd wait a while longer before trying it. What he accomplished instead of this was to acquire one of the folding maps displayed in a basket attached to a side of the booth. He shook it open one-handedly and looked it over briefly, moving forward slowly as he did so if only as a result of the forward momentum the other guests seemed to have.

"This is way bigger than it looked outside," he said, holding the map so Seraphine could see if she wanted. He pointed with the pinky finger of the hand that held his cup, "It looks like there are a lot of themed areas. And look, it says there'll be fireworks from the central plaza at 8." He tried not to sound too excited about it all, but it was a difficult feat. It was a kind of exciting thing, after all.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

At some point in her childhood her mother had probably attempted to instill good manners into her daughter but obviously gave up the endeavor, with the girl's lack of polite niceties. They just weren't a part of her vocabulary. Perhaps they would be someday, but it wasn't a thing she was the least concerned about.

She walked slowly as well to keep pace with Luke as he looked at the map, but when he wanted her to look as well she halted and tilted her head a bit. That was an awkward angle, since he was holding it one handed, so she wordlessly grasped the other side with her free hand to straighten the map and make it easier to see - mostly for her own benefit, but Luke would obviously benefit as well. Not that she considered that at the moment. The mention of fireworks perked her up, and she brightened a bit as her eyes zeroed in on the area that was labeled 'central plaza' which she pointed to with her own pinky finger on her occupied hand. "There it is. We'll have to make sure to go - fireworks are awesome." Even if they had nothing to do with fireworks, things that exploded into giant blossoms of light and noise were inherently cool.

She eventually lifted her gaze from the map and looked around at the different paths they could take, then once more at the map briefly before she glanced sidelong up at Luke. "Where should we go first?"  

[Suudonym]

He nodded; Kodo had been served as his first exposure to fireworks in person, but they were still very rare to encounter and he certainly didn't want to miss an easy opportunity to see them. The question of where to go first, however, was a more complicated one; the path they walked widened and split into three different directions. He hummed in quiet thought as he traced the different paths with his eyes.

"It looks like if we go straight, we'll end up passing through the central plaza," he said. "Since we're going there later anyway, maybe we should just go up the left side and come down the right?" From the map it seemed that there were various little pathways that branched off and away into different areas, but it looked as though they all lead back to the main path shortly. It was a straightforward design - probably because they had to make sure so many visitors could get where they wanted to go without having to stop and bother an employee for assistance.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

After her question she'd focused back on the map again, and as he suggested a route her eyes rapidly traced the whole route. "Alright," she agreed as she straightened up and let go of her side of the map, her free hand returning to her cup of hot cocoa. Mmm, cocoa...

After waiting a brief moment for him to take care of the map - because she certainly wasn't having anything to do with it, since he'd picked it up in the first place - she began walking towards the path he'd previously indicated. There really were a crap ton of lights here, weren't they? Passingly she wondered just how many, but honestly she didn't really care too much. The point was there were a holy crap ton, and they were arranged to look pretty and in neat shapes, although she couldn't say the ones at the entrance were super impressive, but hopefully the ones further in would be better.  

[Suudonym]

He refolded the map haphazardly and stuffed it into his pocket for later reference if necessary - though the walkways were so clearly marked that he doubted that would be needed. He quickened his pace from the slow amble to a more normal walking speed, watching Seraphine's motion to make sure he wasn't going uncomfortably quickly or something, and veered towards the left when the path split into three separate directions.

The main walkway was decorated in fairly generic patterns, the tall trees that bordered the path draped with lights that fell like tents around them. Archways were wrapped in bright strings, and lanterns hung from high branches and cast glowing, snowflake-shaped shadows upon the pavement. Luke proceeded in steady silence, sipping at his cider as it cooled, content to observe the lights without commenting on them at every turn. He was slightly bothered, though, knowing how much Mieu would have loved to run around in the bright, colorful nighttime gardens. Luke himself surely would have been troubled by the Flareon's enthusiastic exploration, but even that was nice in its own way…  

[BlackFireKitsune]

His walking speed seemed to suit her just fine, as she didn't endeavor to increase or decrease her own - but then again she wouldn't have anyway, she expected him to adjust his own pace to match hers. That was how things were supposed to be, after all. As they walked she chanced small sips of her hot cocoa. It was still quite hot, so she didn't want to drink it too fast - plus she liked how much the heat seeped through and warmed her hands and fingers. True, she was wearing gloves, but it was still nice to hold a hot beverage to keep them warm.

As they continued along the path, her pale green eyes traced the strings of lights as they arced up and down the trees, and the lighted archways they passed under. These people must have a lot of time on their hands and a lot of money to put up so many lights every year - certainly it cost them a lot of money that could be better spent on other things.. Like clothes. Or shoes. Or both! But especially shoes. But, they spent it on lighting up this garden every year.

Oh, it was pretty enough, and they certainly had an eye for color too. While most of the lights shed a white or yellow glow, there were other colors strategically mixed in depending on the design or shape of the object. The ones that glowed a soft pink reminded her of the similar colored glow of Anastasia's heart markings, and Sera frowned softly down at her cup of hot cocoa before she took another sip of it. Anastasia would've loved to be here, to see all the lights and to look around and explore..  

[Suudonym]

The thought of his lost pokemon was pervasive now, lurching beneath all other ideas and considerations. In an effort to distract himself and, in doing so, return his attention to the illuminated landscape, Luke thought to engage his company in some kind of conversation, but the expression he found on Seraphine's face seemed to mirror his own thoughts. He breathed a silent, imperceptible sigh, and forced a smile to his features.

"Guess this place wasn't such a great idea after all, huh?" he said in a somewhat defeated tone. Pretty though it was, it was, after all, just a bunch of lights, so it wasn't a stretch of the imagination to conclude that the display had failed to raise Seraphine's spirits at all.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera had all but forgotten by now that she was actually with Luke and not by herself, so his voice cut right through her thoughts, and she turned a vaguely surprised look to him. "Huh?" She looked at the lights again - the pink ones - and her countenance reverted to its previous expression. "Oh, no," she said with a soft sigh, looking down at her cocoa again, the warmth it provided to her hands slowly lessening, "I was just thinking of Anastasia." A pause. "She'd probably like to come to this, I thought," she finished with a shrug. "It is nice, and it's a lot better than sitting around at home." Another pause before she added, rather tight-lipped, "sitting around an apartment, rather."  

[Suudonym]

He was momentarily surprised and then amazed that their thoughts had both taken such a similar course. "I was thinking the same thing," he replied quietly, "about Mieu. I mean, this is cool and all," his cheerful disposition evaporated, "but if I could choose between being home with Mieu or here without, I definitely wouldn't have any complaints about staying home." He bit his lip lightly; he really tried not to complain too much about Mieu. The Flareon's theft had been the result of his own poor judgment, so he didn't really have the right to dwell on it, but it was exceedingly difficult not to dwell on it nonetheless.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The brunette was equally surprised that his train of thought ran on tracks parallel to her own, and the surprise shown quite plainly on her face as she turned it up to him again. "Really?" Oh, she remembered well enough that Mieu had been stolen, but it wasn't exactly something she thought about much. Indeed, she didn't even think about the fact that Luke probably missed his Flareon quite a lot. Possibly even as much as she missed Anastasia... Well, maybe not quite that much.

Regardless, she frowned down at her cup again before taking another sip. "I'd much rather be home if it meant I could have Anastasia back," she said with a sad sigh, her tone matching how she felt. "But this is pretty cool and all. But.. it would be a lot better if she were here.." Well now she just felt thoroughly depressed about the whole thing - so much so that she didn't even notice that her pace was beginning to slow.  

[Suudonym]

"Well yeah," he said with a shrug, attempting to disguise his dimming disposition with nonchalance. "It's… really hard not to think about Mieu, most of the time." Green eyes, though still reflecting the scattering light, fell to the path before his steadily advancing feet. "I try not to dwell on it, since I could stopped him from being stolen if I had been smarter about it, but you know… He was my first pokemon; he's always been with me since before I can even remember. So now that he's not here, it's just weird. And kind of depressing."

With a self-deprecating laugh, he made motions to chase such hard feelings from his expression. "Seems like every time I say how I try not to think about it, I end up rambling about it. Sorry." He raised his shoulders slightly, as if to shrug away a dark, heavy cloak. This was not the point of this little excursion and he was doing a piss poor job of getting it back on track.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Her frown lingered; it was hard not to with the current topic, but it was also depressing - but also oddly comforting - to know how similarly they felt about the matter. Different people, different pokemon, but the same experience. "I guess.. Yeah, I know what you mean," she said with a sigh. "I just.. I can't help but think about her all the time," the girl offered with a shrug and a vague, one-handed gesture. "Though I keep saying it wasn't my fault."

When it had first happened, she'd heatedly maintained that it had not been her fault at all, there was nothing she could have done, and the blame lay entirely with whoever had stolen her. That wasn't so much the case anymore, mostly due to how much she thought about Anastasia and the circumstances surrounding her theft, and the fact Sera couldn't help but dwell on the moments leading up to it. She had been inattentive, hadn't been paying attention to her things or her pokemon - why should she have? She hadn't expected anyone to ever steal from her. Though she felt much differently now, it was still incredibly difficult for her to admit that she may have held some blame in the matter.

What? Oh, rambling. "No, it's okay," she said, dismissing the apology with one hand before she sipped more of her hot cocoa before it turned into cold cocoa.  

[Suudonym]

He gave a slight nod. "I always thought those people that treated their pokemon like children were weirdos, but it kind of feels more like a sibling's gone missing than a pet."

The lights flickered and shifted as they moved in their slow procession, and they entered an area that was strung with lights such that it appeared as the starlit sky, the surrounding trees wrapped tightly as though they had simply begun to glow. Looking ahead, it was apparent that the colors slowly shifted through the seven colors as one moved along the path. As amazing as the display was, however, it was difficult to pay it its due attention.

"In a situation between two people where the one doing the stealing is legitimately a criminal," he said carefully, "I don't think there should be any question about fault, but… I say that knowing that I blame myself." He drank from the cider, now a perfectly fine temperature for consumption. "I try to focus more on the good that came from it, I think. Like, I'm doing better with pokemon training, and I stopped being afraid to fight people when it's necessary." Not that he wanted to admit that he had had that fear in the first place, but it was a little late to take that back now.