Inside 65: A Very Busy Intersection

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

Sam smiles, patting Alfred on the shoulder.
"Don't sweat it. I gotta thicken my skin about these things. I ain't getting any smaller or any prettier. Yeah, it's a bad name. Ancestor wasn't a pig though so it wasn't unfortunate at the time. It's my family's name; I can't get rid of it."

[Morty]

[Parade Day!]

"Oh. Well, I really don't know a lot about Pokemon," Sophie admits. "Some children where I live have Pokemon friends, but I never got to meet them properly."

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

"So... You weren't always a spigre? I didn't know." Which certainly explains why it upset Sam so much, if it's something that he didn't have to deal with originally.

Ben keeps rubbing his head against Sam's leg.

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bard

"Relax, buddy, there's no way you could have." Sam isn't sure why he was bothered by it. He didn't get annoyed by explaining things to Jack. He can't really put a finger on it.

Parade Day!

"Well now you can!" Nak says proudly, giving Sophie a dramatic bow.

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

Possibly because Jack didn't call him a pretty human girl.

"Um, am I going to stay human? I mean, um, oh, man." Alfred really wants to figure out how to politely ask if becoming a spigre is a likely prospect for him, too.

Ben goes back to sit next to his trainer, and eat pokéblocks. They're nice, just the flavours he likes. And he thinks he looks cooler now, too.

[Lord Raziere]

Pokestreet: Karzika and Multimask
The two stand outside Pokestreet. The Vampire Succubus is trying to coax Multimask, dark trenchcoat swaying in the wind.
"C'mon Multi! your a shapeshifter! Be my pokemon."
"No! catch one yourself!" the shapeshifting girl replied.
"Ah c'mon, it'll be fun, haven't you ever wanted to be apart of a pokemon battle? You can be a Ditto! Be the Ditto Multimask. Beeeeee the Dittooooooooo."
"No." Multimask says flatly.
"Ok then how about we go in and try and get our starters? I'm feeling like a Litten, are you feeling like a starter?"
"Uuuugh.....fine lets go in, just get me a freaking Ditto."
They walk in but continue talking.
"Yeah you'll be a great trainer for a Ditto! Hey maybe I should summon Nesalar Valvani afterwards, he is a summoner specialist, he would love Pokemon!"
"Ugh, he would, and try to negotiate with all of them. Where is the place we get such pokemon anyways?"
"I dunno, I'll check:
Karzika goes to the Miltank Ice Cream bar and peaks her head in.
"Hey! Do anyone of you in here know where we can get some starters? I'm wanting to get a Litten, and find a Ditto for my shapeshifter friend."

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

"Probably. Just don't accept any strange potions or wishes, stay away from wildlife during a full moon, and don't believe aliens when they say they'll make you a great new body without any missing limbs." Completely unconsciously, Sam starts rubbing his right shoulder. Though imagining Alfred as one of him squeezing into a Pokémon trainer outfit makes him want to chuckle. Maybe he would feel better if he wasn't the only spigre ever.

[Morty]

[Parade Day!]

"Then I'm glad to have met my first Pokemon," Sophie says, bowing solemnly. "You must be a water Pokemon, since you like it so much."

[Lord Raziere]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

"Probably. Just don't accept any strange potions or wishes, stay away from wildlife during a full moon, and don't believe aliens when they say they'll make you a great new body without any missing limbs." Completely unconsciously, Sam starts rubbing his right shoulder. Though imagining Alfred as one of him squeezing into a Pokémon trainer outfit makes him want to chuckle. Maybe he would feel better if he wasn't the only spigre ever.

"and don't accept any offers of immortality from people with my pale complexion and amount of fangs!"
Karzika called out, gesturing at her vampiric nature.
"Still would like to know where we can get starters though."

[Deathkeeper]

[Parade Day!]

Nak nods. "Crocs are. Except krokorokorok. He's dirt type. Sandy." Ground type, Nak. Ground type.

[Murkus]

[Needle and Thread]

"You see? And she's right, too," Azren says, indicating the succubus. "I'm essentially powerless before you already, imagine how much better it will get." Azren is powerless before most women, really.

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

"Right, no to immortality, potions, and wishes, stay indoors under a full moon and don't trust aliens. Got it." Alfred smiles, but he's seriously trying to remember the advice so he can put it in practice.

Elsewhere in the diner, somebody else speaks up. They're a Dragon Tamer, in an ornate outfit with a flowing red robe and six ultra balls slung in various pockets and pouches about his person. Sat on the table next to him is a little blue Bagon with its reinforced skull-cap. "Try Professor Chrome at the UltraLab on the opposite side of the road, about eight doors that way. Can't miss it, it's the building shaped like a rocket ship. He might still have some starters, but I doubt he'll give them up easy. Might need to do him an errand to get them." Not necessarily a pokemon-related errand, either. It depends on my inspiration when he appears.

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

"Really, it isn't so bad. I don't get sick, I can eat almost anything, I'll live to be two hundred, and having four arms rocks. Plus despite being ugly as sin I do have a girlfriend." Sam tells Alfred. He doesn't want Alfred to become a shut-in just because he's afraid of a little magic.

The Needle and Thread

Artie smiles, giving Azren another hug. "Alright, well...maybe you can coach me a little, train me for when I have to...do this fashion thing. Maybe we'll...ring these up and I'll come by later?" she asks the woman.

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

"So, just because I want to stay human doesn't mean not being human is bad. I see. No offence, I like the way I look. Even if girls, apparently, don't. No girlfriend here, alas." It's something Alfred would like, quite a lot as it happens. He just hasn't been able to find one that likes him as much as he likes them.

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

Sam cheerily pulls out a large tablet that he calls a phone and pulls up a picture of himself and Sherrel, a smiling, curvaceous blond in a red robes and a metal eye and right arm. She's leaning into Sam in the picture, the human completely dwarfed by his size.
"Ain't she great? And I'm me, Alfred. You'll find someone. If I can, anyone can." he assures the trainer sincerely.

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

"Oh, yeah. She's really pretty. Yeah, I'm sure I will. Especially now I've got Ben. Girls like adorable, and he's that, right?" Alfred looks down at Ben, who looks up and tilts his big yellow head to one side.

Personally, he's not my favourite grass-type, but I've had an Oddish already.

[Lord Raziere]

Miltanks Ice cream Bar
"Thanks! I'll go check with him, and as for the newbie...Its all your pref, y'know? Some people are into transforming and magical things, but some people are not, its all just lifestyle y'know? Cya!"
but then again she was a demon vampire who rebelled against Hell, she might be biased. Karzika goes out and they both walk to the rocket-looking lab and knock.
"Hey! Professor Chrome! I'm Karzika, and my friend here is Multimask, we're willign tod an errand for some pokemon starters, whats your string?"

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

"Well, I mean, he's not a kitty or anything, but he's cute enough." Sam says, peering at the plant. The eevee at the temple was pretty cute, be he didn't know how to catch Pokémon. Or if they are allowed in his apartment.

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

A grass-type should be, if he's allowed house plants. A rock type, if it's small enough, could be called an ornament. Same goes for steel types, too. Others are a bit trickier, but there's bound to be loopholes and workarounds.

"Well, yeah, but then, it took until generation three for pokemon to get a cute cat-type really. Meowth's cute, don't get me wrong, but Skitty is adorable." I still think there's too many cat-type pokemon and not enough beetle-type ones. However, everyone thinks cats are cute (unless they're allergic), but everyone else is weird and don't feel the same way about beetles. Which is frankly bizarre.

Professor Chrome's Lab

The building does indeed look like a rocket ship, standing on four pointed fins. As the two knock on the door, a ramp slides out the side and a basically-indistinguishable part of the rocket's hull slides to one side, revealing an entrance. Rolling out of the exit and down the ramp is Professor Chrome, and he's really rolling too. His body is squat and round, with a polished titanium hull mounted on a pair of heavy-duty caterpillar tracks, and an array of manipulator arms, probes and mysterious tools encircles the mid-point of the hull. On top is a glass dome in which a human brain and two organic eyes are visible; the brain's floating loose, but the eyes are hooked up to a device that lets them move around and 'see' in different directions. "VISITORS! I am Professor Chrome, and I have some starters! Not many, and they have yet to hatch! For that, I need some spare parts for the Pokebator I am using to hatch the Eggs! I need a fluorescent tube light bulb, a new cooling fan, a butterfly net made from copper wire with a rubber handle, two litres of vinegar and a personal matter destabiliser! The light bulb should be found in an electronics shop in Mallside, which should also supply the cooling fan! The net is a custom job which needs picking up from a dwarfen artisan in Westside, Riverside, his shop is called Exotic Captures! The vinegar can come from anywhere, and is used for personal preservative uses! But, alas, there is one place I know of that provides personal matter destabilisers, and that is a crashed space craft in Outside! Will you fetch these things for me?" Professor Chrome's a very loud individual; his booming electronic voice is clearly heard across the street- possibly even in Miltank's Ice Cream Bar. It may partially deafen the two requesting his starters.

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

Sam has a special soft spot for cats due to having a fluffy stuffed one when he was a child. His techpriest girlfriend might appreciate a steel type but he already has a grumpy talking sword and one metal sidekick is enough. He has a soft spot in general for snuggly animals, though he might be offended if someone suggested a pig pokemon.
"What's a generation?" he asks, puzzled.

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

"Where I'm from, the Pokémon are creatures in games- computer games, for a hand-held device. Exactly which device varies game to game, but the first games- Pokémon Red and Blue, I think, with Yellow shortly thereafter- came out twenty years ago or so. Those first games introduced the first pokémon. Then the second lot of games came out, and added more pokémon, and the new pokémon were termed 'generation two'. I think there's six generations, in all. My first game was Pokémon Ruby for the Gee Bee A, which was the third lot of games. Ben here's from the earliest games, and didn't appear in gen three. Not all pokémon appear in every game, they each explore a different part of the world and the creatures differ." It's quite a bit of explanation, but it's similar to my game history of the pokémon series.

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

Sam...sort of understands what Alfred just said.
"Is a GBA like a SNES?" he asks. The SNES is the only game console Sam has ever played .

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

"Uh... Same company, but no. A GBA is a GameBoy Advance, it's a hand held one, with buttons and a screen in between. It's battery powered, so you don't need to plug it in anywhere. Just change the batteries every now and again. Screen's tiny, and the sound's not so good, but it's great." Alfred then moves his hands around to demonstrate the size of a GameBoy Advance, though it's been several years since he held it and he's mostly guessing.

[Deathkeeper]

Milktanks' Ice Cream Bar

Sam's eyes light up.
"Oh! The original thing that the Super Gameboy is made for to play Metroid 2. I played that seven times."
If Alfred told him about AM2R Sam might have a heart attack.
"so what are you going to do now? Catch more critters?" he asks.

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

"First, find somewhere to live that accepts newcomers that don't know the city or the world and whose wallet is mostly empty. Then, a job. After that, yeah. Might as well, since I've got a pokémon and a pokédex. The pokédex displays information of the ones I've caught, and where to find them. Oh, hey. That means it's got a map. That's useful." Now he can't get lost! Hopefully. Although as he isn't twelve, he isn't the usual just-starting-out trainer. I figure that PokéCenters have rooms for unsupervised children on their way to collect all the badges.

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

"Well I might be able to get you a place in the Lotus Gardens. Otherwise Trog's can usually get someone a room cheap. There's probably brochures there somewhere too. I can't really help you with a job unless you can cook." Sam admits, pondering Alfred's options.

[Earl of Purple]

Miltank's Ice Cream Bar

"Lotus Gardens sound nice. But, um. I can't cook. I mean, I can make sandwiches and use a microwave, but a chef I am not. I had a job picking litter up, so pretty much the epitome of unskilled labour. I enjoyed it, though. Especially when the weather's nice, I'm basically paid to walk in the sunshine. And now I have a grass-type for whom the sun is just as useful, so if I get something similar I won't get lonely." Alfred's options are pretty poor on the job front, unless he decides to make a living as a Trainer. And I just remembered that the winner of a pokémon battle gets money, so that's actually viable. Unless they fight me at the moment on Omega Ruby, anyway. I'm training up a secondary team, so all the trainers nearby are rematches with pokémon about twice the level of the guys I have with me.

[Artemis97]

[Parade Day!]

Patti grins as the troll agrees. She reaches to take him by the hand and pull him out of the crowd over to where Fel is primping. "Got one judge. Going to find more." She says to Fel and goes back through the crowd looking for more volunteers. She briefly talks with a man with a big beard, messy hair and a Hawaiian shirt on, and a green skinned girl in a flower patterned dress. The man grins and heads off to take care of something. She pulls Ven the green haired girl through the crowd looking for at least one more judge.

------------

[Delmah Phor - Xar'Cha Palace - Gardens]

Cait likes her personas to have a bit of mystery to them, keeps her marks interested. She gives a shy smile and shrug. "Well I tend to have outside the box ideas. So in my firm I can be seen as something of a maverick. So I get the interesting or hard jobs. I don't specialize in forensic, tax or real-estate accounting but I have worked in all of them. Plus I am a good researcher, so sometimes I know things people consider interesting." Most of her improvisational style comes from having no formal training in accounting before getting a job as an accountant.

[Delmah Phor - Xar'Cha Palace - Gardens]

"Research is an important skill for advancing in magical studies." Sornnolu advises. "Tell me, what interesting things have you learned?"

[Delmah Phor - Family Reunion]

The familiar blue beam streaks down one final time, materializing once more into two figures, Electra and Sszinyon. For the latter, the sensation of teleportation was much the same as it was for Raril's body when she teleported him back to the MERC base. As the last light from the teleport fades, she releases his arm, then gestures towards the palace.

"Raril is here, and has instructed me to inform you that he would like to meet with you in the terrarium room in the palace. Shall we?" She smiles gently at him.

[Delmah Phor - Family Reunion]

Sszinyon nods and pulls up the hood of his cloak, shaking off the rain and hiding himself in the shadow of the garmet. He'll lead Electra along the same path the others took, down the market street and into the square. The drow give him a wide berth, most knowing him by reputation as someone not to be trifled with. At the palace gate he gives Electra's name, not bothering to identify himself. He didn't need to.

[Delmah Phor - Family Reunion]

"Lady Dena"? It had been a while since she had been called that, mostly as a feeble attempt to sound polite. This was more serious though, and judging by the sheer length of the name of their home, these drow seemed to love tongue twisters as much as her people.

Before the guard leaves, Dena raises her hand to call his attention. "Excuse him, but we've just recently met and he does not know any better yet. My full name is Lady Denürga Ragnhild Xifhara, which should be the name you introduce to your mistress. Dena is simply my nickname, is that clear?" She asks, mimicking the tone her cousin always used while addressing servants. Names were important for them though, so now they were important for her if she was going to be a 'lady'.

Spoiler

Show

[Delmah Phor - Family Reunion]

"Vacation home then." Expensive one at that. Such was the nature of kingdoms and clans Reinholdt supposes. Probably paid for itself with the extended trade, if the number of shops were any indication.

When Rein is introduced to the guard, he performs a flourish and gives a bow, opening his mouth to make sure Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire is written down on that clipboard until Dena gets there first. While not technically an issue, it would probably reflect poorly on the host if he too insisted on a name correction. And he's not here to make Raril look bad. Maybe they'll recognize the name from that pulp fiction series of his and fix it themselves. Initiative is the way to the top after all! The fey will settle with a polite smile and a warm "Thank you," before turning and following Raril to the terrarium.

Would it be absolutely terrible if one of those jewel encrusted tapestries went missing? They seem to have more than they need, so just taking one ought to be all right. Not immediately of course. People would notice. But once the meeting got started, there would probably be an opportunity or two for an unnoticed male, non-drow to slip out for a few minutes before returning, surely. He doubts anyone would even know one's missing until some chamber boy came through cleaning. Something for him to seriously consider going forward.

For now plants and fungi and sunbeams! "Huh. I didn't think cave mushrooms could grow in such a warm environment," Reinholdt remarks as he settles into a chair. There was a time when he could tell the differences between some underground terrariums, but that was too many lifetimes ago. He'd invariably get poisoned if he tried to puzzle it out now.

Raril looks suitably abashed when Dena corrects his mistake at the gate, even managing an "My apologies, Mistress."

In the Terrarium Room, the drow nods. "Oh the underdark is quite warm, being so close to many lava sources." He explains.

Soon, a drow servant in blue and gold livery brings in a cart with tea and juice, as well as things to nibble on. Some thinngs would be familiar to the surfacers, but others lent themselves to decidedly underdark tastes.

[Needle and Thread]

"You see? And she's right, too," Azren says, indicating the succubus. "I'm essentially powerless before you already, imagine how much better it will get." Azren is powerless before most women, really.

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

"Really, it isn't so bad. I don't get sick, I can eat almost anything, I'll live to be two hundred, and having four arms rocks. Plus despite being ugly as sin I do have a girlfriend." Sam tells Alfred. He doesn't want Alfred to become a shut-in just because he's afraid of a little magic.

The Needle and Thread

Artie smiles, giving Azren another hug. "Alright, well...maybe you can coach me a little, train me for when I have to...do this fashion thing. Maybe we'll...ring these up and I'll come by later?" she asks the woman.

[The Needle and Thread]

"That sounds fine." Lillith says. "Now, you wanted me to enchant these for shapeshifting, right? I'll have to hold on to them for a few days, to do the magic. When you return for them, we can talk then, how does that sound?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Delmah Phor - Family Reunion]

Electra stays at Sszinyon's side, noting guards and defenses as they pass. She doesn't expect trouble from them, quite the opposite, actually, but it never hurts to know where your potential allies are, either. Electra allows him to give her name at the palace; she is, after all, a hired gun, and has little standing to get into the palace other than her association with Raril and now Sszinyon. Unless the latter tries to make small talk with her, she'll stay quiet until they reach the Terrarium Room.

[Deathkeeper]

Miltanks' Ice Cream Bar

"Well, that's the only excuse I could have gotten to get you as an assistant. So you're on your own. But don't worry, buddy, you'll do fine.
You look older than me, I'm sure you're good at something." he assures the trainer, leaning back in his seat.

The Needle and Thread

Artie sighs, looking back at the changing room.
"Alright. I'd really rather not squeeze back into that tiny shirt, but I suppose I'll make due." he huffs.