split happens // [r]

[king]

"you think you can help me out, ionis? gonna need a ride." grayson eyed the gogoat warily, not sure if he was ready to have a rider yet. the pokemon sure thought so, snorting and stomping his hoof. "well then, let's grab a meal."

grayson eyed some of the food stands indoors, many of them bearing fruits and vegetables. there were some with steamed buns, and other sandwiches.

grabbing several rice balls and steamed buns, grayson shoved them into a plastic bag. he quickly mounted ionis, who had grabbed an apple in his mouth, and sped away on the pokemon while two outraged marketmen screamed after him.

lunch is served.

dizzy

[dizzy]

And Felizia watched from the other side of the road as the familiar man and his goat gallantly rode off into the sunset. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to feel surprised.

No. That didn’t happen. Of course not. Maybe in the past, but not today.

Felizia wasn’t by the food stalls, she was further down the street, heading toward the aforementioned stalls to try and find a cheap feed. But alas, the cheap feed was in danger of never being found; some dickhead on a Gogoat nearly trampled her to death, which understandably nearly lost Felizia the ability, and the need, to eat.

She had tried leaping out of the way, but was so startled and unprepared that her leap looked more like a flop, and she hit the ground hard. Alive and untrampled upon, but sore. And like any other respectful person, she swore loudly at this, and pushed herself up on her elbows so she could shout a further string of expletives after the Gogoat and its bloody owner.

Some of the locals looked sorry for her, but unlike Felizia they lived in this city, and also unlike her, they knew to look both ways before crossing a road.

(ooc: i don't even know what i just wrote)
king

[king]

a familiar face glazed past grayson as they whisked away on ionis. "hold on." he stopped, turning around and grinning. "well if it isn't baby felizia."

little baby baby felizia from bacchus town. "what are you up to here in nerio? swearing after a trail of dust i left you." ionis looked a little proud to have left a trail of dust. he was a speedy one, good job.

dizzy

[dizzy]

Oh great, they were coming back. Felizia prepared more colourful words and starting shooting them out as soon as the offender opened his own mouth.

It hit her a few seconds too late that she knew that voice and she knew that bloody grin. And somehow the situation seemed a million times better and worse at the same time. “Go jump off a cliff, Grayson!” she shot back without payin attention to her words.

Then she changed her mind. “Make that a very tall building. There’s a lot to choose from.”

king

[king]

oh, that one was clever. unfortunately for felizia, "i have pokemon to fly me safely to another skyscraper. kraq would love to, honestly. he doesn't get to fly around as much as he would like."

it had been a long, long time. "what do you say we catch up over a cup of coffee? bacchus babies who haven't spoken in a long time? perhaps it was destiny." grayson smirked. destiny was something fools told themselves to find love or justify their lacklustre death. he doubted felizia was stupid enough to buy into it. and if she was, well he would lose a bit of faith in the spunky child his mother forced him to spend time with.

dizzy

[dizzy]

Damn these breeders and their varying arsenal of Pokemon for a variety of needs. Felizia finally stood up properly, ignoring the parts that still stung from her flop, and tried to come up with something witty to say about the name “Kraq.”

But then food was mentioned. Well, it was coffee, which was just as good in some situations and better in the rest. The mention of destiny was nowhere near as interesting as the mention of coffee, and not as appalling as babies. “Babies are allowed to buy coffee now?” She tried to imitate his smirk. “Great, ‘cause you’re buying mine. You owe me after... after that.”

She'd rather not give a name to all the very recent embarrassing things that had happened to her - all Grayson's fault, of course.

king

[king]

"but of course, i am a gentleman. i have standards." wow, was that ever a lie. grayson glanced around, spotting a nearby quiet bench. it was the perfect spot to have a little meal, a picnic table right by the edge of the square. "i've already the meal, we just need a place to sit, really."

the table was surprisingly clean, which was nice. ionis settled down in a patch of grass beside it, and grayson tossed him another apple to munch on. "i hope you like steamed buns or sandwiches, because that's all i snagged. unless you actually want me to buy you food."

let's be real, they were from bacchus. they would do with the food stolen just fine.

dizzy

[dizzy]

“Mmhmm?” Gentleman wasn’t the word Felizia would have used, although soon she’d jokingly wonder if Grayson was a magician – in record time he had found a nice place to sit (although that they were in a tourist area must have counted for something) and pulled food seemingly out of nowhere (which was easily explained, just like a magic trick). Disappointingly though, but not entirely unexpected, there was no sign of coffee.

But beggars couldn’t be choosers, and the alternate options sounded good anyway.

“Steamed buns and sandwiches? I’ve never had coffee that flavour before.” Felizia stuck out her hand expectantly like a child. “Gimme a steamed bun. You would’ve squished the sandwiches.

“What’re you doing out here snagging food anyway?”

king

[king]

oh. hm. coffee. "i'll get you coffee later. i'm hungry." he handed her a bag of steamed buns, taking out a sandwich for himself. he opened the bread, eyeing the filling. it was a decent egg salad, by the looks of it. no idea about the taste. he took a bite.

... it was okay. he could do better.

"i was around town and was too lazy to pay. people rip you off and take too long to bag them up. plus ionis needed a bit of exercise." the gogoat seemed happy to have finally had a nice run. grayson made a mental note to take him to a field to run.

the real question though, "why are you out here? still trying to be a breeder?" he laughed. "i hope you're doing well, no sarcasm. the more the better, this damn scourge needs to be gone so we can go back to bacchus. it's too busy out here."

omnomnom.

dizzy

[dizzy]

“You’d better,” she said as she took the bag from him. Felizia didn’t intend to hold him to his word. The steam buns were still warm and made up for the trouble he caused her. She dug straight into the first one she grabbed, not caring about the flavour. In winter, warm food was warm food and that was that.

“Such hard work,” Felizia said, pushing the food to one half of her mouth so she could speak with the other. “Poor you. You might break your arm if you try and…” Bite. “…pull some money outta your pockets.” She stopped the multitasking there and focused on eating.

Felizia shrugged at the question and pretended to look thoughtful as she finished off the steam bun. “I am succeeding at being a breeder, thank you,” she answered, defensively, when she’d finished. “There’s no trying about it.”

Time for seconds. Felizia took a second steamed bun and tossed the bag back over to Grayson. “Eat. It’s still a bit warm. Maybe it’ll give you your sarcasm back.” As far as Felizia was concerned, she wasn’t really avoiding the topic of the scourge and their hometown – she just wasn’t sure what to say.

king

[king]

grayson caught the bag and took a steamed bun. "money is a lot of effort." he said, biting into a bun. he took a vegetable filling out(he guessed by the colour) and handed it to ionis. he would need warm food too. "honestly, felizia." grayson's posture changed, he seemed to sag a little. "i miss bacchus town. these cities are great but home is the best." he leaned back, looking up at the sky. "just to be home on the ranch. it's doubtful our families are still alive, but, well."

it was a bit too mushy now. "you'll just have to do better as a breeder, eh? are your pokemon top notch, felizia?" he smirked. "doing well as a breeder, you say, it's surprising."

dizzy

[dizzy]

Felizia had half a mind to bonk Mr. Mushy on the head. If that trick worked on an old TV, maybe it would work on Grayson too. His words mirrored Felizia’s feelings too closely, to the point where it was downright uncomfortable. And then there was a lovely reminder that their families were dead. Just lovely.

She stared at the steam bun, and it looked like she was speaking to it rather than who sat across from her. “Yeah. Totally surprising. It’s not like my parents taught—” Nope! Wait. Let’s not go there.

“—Wait, what do you even mean by top notch? Are your Pokemon top notch?” Felizia didn’t mean to snap as harshly as she did, but… She just did. And she didn’t know why.

king

[king]

what was top notch anyway.

"vaccinated. evolved. good movesets. strong. fast. most importantly, vaccinated." he glanced back at ionis. "vaccines are expensive. i can't even afford to vaccinate all of mine. i bum some from researchers in exchange for eggs." he took another bite out of his sandwich.

he could drop the jerkiness for a little while... sometimes.

dizzy

[dizzy]

(It wasn't the jerkiness that had gotten to her. In fact, the jerkiness was welcome.)

Oh. That should’ve been an obvious answer, shouldn’t it? “Of-of course. My Pokemon are those things.” They weren’t. Actually, off the top of her head, Felizia could tell which couple of areas she was lacking in.

“So is that the real reason you steal food?” Felizia actually considered for a moment whether skipping out on paying for a meal every now and then would actually save up enough for a vaccine. The researcher thing surprised her though – she hadn’t heard of that before (no doubt because she hadn’t been paying enough attention). “Wait, researchers make you vaccines? For free?” What sorcery was this? Did he have to do something horribly boring in return?

king

[king]

grayson thought back to ignatius. "no. i just show them all my pokemon. one researcher i even showed a scourge rhyhorn to, so they were grateful. whenever i get a new pokemon, i go to him."

he shrugged. "but yeah, if you've got some researcher friends and a horde of pokemon... they come in handy. i pop out for a scourge battle occasionally and snag a corpse, bring that to them too, and then to the bulwark." he loved the bulwark. bulwark was awesome.

dizzy