Snapshot [Quest/Closed]

It was lucky he’d managed to borrow a camera for this assignment.

And it was even luckier he knew how to operate said camera, too.

Heh, I find it rather funny he still kept the camera with him, after all this time… Damian thought idly to himself as he absentmindedly fidgeted with the lens cap of the camera that was slung around his neck.

Unlike his best friend Mikey’s clunky yet smaller point-and-shoot digital camera, who knew that a certain someone the next city over from Lacaille actually had one of these on-hand and had readily lent it to him without hesitation?

A bit of a smirk curved his lips as his fingers began to flitter around the camera itself, twisting at the lens cap while he waited for the bus to announce the stop for the Stellara Safari Zone.

Unlike the Safari Zone back in Hoenn which had expectant hunters leaving all manner of Pokéblocks in specially-marked containers and waiting for whatever would come out of the grass, this one… well, he was surprised to find out it was more of a nature preserve than anything.

Well, it sure explains why there are a lot of ‘mons out in the wild… it’s strange, really. Well, hopefully nothing goes too wrong… he thought as he heard the bus driver call out the Stellara Safari Zone as the next stop. That’s my stop, he continued to himself as he stood up from where he sat, making his way close to the door so that he could easily alight from the bus when it rolled to a stop a few minutes later.

Now that he was in front of the area, he then caught sight of the client who’d put up the request for a companion to the Safari Zone—but he could only guess as to why he needed two companions. Otherwise, it was a good way to pass some time.

“Sorry I’m late,” he began in apology, looking over at Danny the photographer who had a singular camera slung around their neck. “Traffic out of Cyngi was terrible,” he added, his eyes immediately travelling to their client’s camera—it looked like one of the newer models, whereas the one he had with him was… well, definitely weathered but still serviceable.

“So, where do we begin?” he continued, looking beyond the two and seeing that the Stellara Safari Zone was… rather large in land area; if not even larger than Hoenn’s own Safari Zone.

At the mention of the Gala, Damian’s eyebrows went up ever so slightly.

His encounter with Ryusuke notwithstanding (and what information he’d gathered from the other—seeing as they were in the middle of things as opposed to him being on the outskirts of the Gala proper)—there was enough reason for their client to temporarily outsource the help they needed in order to document the important information that they’d be gathering today.

He was busy taking mental notes for what they needed done today, before he pondered on the possibility of asking a question—but at the last second decided against it; figuring that he’d be able to get the answers he needed along the way.

And thankfully, his companion asked the question he was thinking of inquiring about—and he nodded slightly when their client said he was more than capable of protecting himself from whatever would come springing out of the tall grass, so to speak.

“Please lead the way, then,” he began once their client asked if they were ready. Thankfully, there weren’t too many people around, so he could try to make more use of his auric sight in this instance. It would help at least; considering that there were only three of them present.

Taking a deep breath, he then willed himself to open his ‘second sight’ and watched as slowly but surely, the multicolored haze that was normally invisible to him shimmered into existence. He had to blink a bit, because good grief, their client’s aura was so bright it nearly made his eyes water.

Shaking his head a little bit, he then let his left hand wander to his jacket pocket, casually poking the shrunken-down marbles in there; and wondered if traveling without Alyosha was such a good idea.

He’d decided to give some of the younger members of his team a chance to get out and about, but maybe having these two together was going to be asking for trouble…

He then turned to the other photographer, before blinking a few times in his direction. Ahh, at least his aura isn’t as wildly glowing as Danny’s… that’s good… he thought to himself before letting the client walk a little ahead of them. He was content with taking the rearguard for now.

“How’d you hear about the request?” he asked his redheaded companion curiously.

As to how ‘cool’ it was, well, it really depended on where one was during the time shit went down. Thankfully, in Damian’s case he hadn’t had a run-in with what he now knew was the region’s equivalent of Magma or Aqua back home—Team Crux.

“Things got interesting, to say the least,” he began quietly, unscrewing the lens cap and dropping it in the pocket of his jeans before powering the camera on and checking that the settings hadn’t been messed around with by its owner. Thankfully, they were still at the same settings as he’d left it the last time (seriously, Amon didn’t know how to use cameras all too much so it was maybe a blessing for him) so he didn’t have to fiddle around so much and was ready to go in a few moments.

“I don’t know how long you’ve been here or what, but during the Gala, Team Crux was sighted. Bunch of troublemaking people, if you ask me,” he began, before looking around and seeing that his companion had gone off. Well, guess the explanation would have to wait for a bit—as he’d also spotted what looked like an Absol poking out of the bushes to look at the odd trio that were making their way through the area.

He quickly raised the camera up to eye level and snapped a few quick pictures of it, before it decided to wander off—and he followed the ‘mon as quietly as possible. Native to the grasslands outside Fortree, he knew a familiar face from home when he saw them—and after following the Dark-type as silently as he could manage, he’d eventually come upon a nest of them; where there were several younger children.

He came to a stop just before completely emerging out of the undergrowth, and snapped a few quick pictures of the family, before returning back in the same direction he came.

Eventually he made it back at roughly the same time his companion had returned, and he nodded. “No biggie, I got distracted as well. Spotted a family of Absol in that direction,” he said, pointing with a thumb over his shoulder in the direction he came from.

“Okay, so about the Gala… apparently the ball proper was attacked by this region’s version of what Magma and Aqua are back in my home region,” he continued in the redhead’s direction, speaking in hushed voices—so that their overenthusiastic client wouldn’t hear them.