• Welcome to The Cave of Dragonflies forums, where the smallest bugs live alongside the strongest dragons.

    Guests are not able to post messages or even read certain areas of the forums. Now, that's boring, don't you think? Registration, on the other hand, is simple, completely free of charge, and does not require you to give out any personal information at all. As soon as you register, you can take part in some of the happy fun things at the forums such as posting messages, voting in polls, sending private messages to people and being told that this is where we drink tea and eat cod.

    Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything if you don't want to, but seriously, what have you got to lose? Five seconds of your life?

Frontier Town Nocwell's General Goods

Reader mode
Yeah, these didn't seem easy to find. Might as well try the place Purple was looking at currently, but the odds probably weren't stellar. They might have to try that Greenbough Orchards place a little further away.

"Wait, you can understand him?" Leaf looked back and forth between Grace and Purple, blinking. He wasn't even really saying anything, though, not even pokémon noises. Just mostly quiet, like he usually was. "Is it, like, telepathy or something?"

As for catching up... woof. Also not an easy one, though someone else (that was the... the loud poochyena guy, right?) having covered the basics... probably wouldn't actually simplify all that much, truth be told. A hell of a lot had happened, even if half of it felt like it'd just passed her by. "I've been... keeping busy," she said after a flicker of hesitation. "Everyone has been. Things just kinda keep piling up, y'know?"

She kept the list floating in front of her so the berry shopkeeper could take a look at it, on the off chance they had anything in stock, but turned back to Grace while she waited for them to check. "Where d'you want to start? There's the rangers, or those weird shadow beasts or..." Or other things she should probably wait until they were out of earshot to mention, so probably oughta just start with those.
 
"The shadow beasts and the people we're trying not to side with are the things I'm certainly most familiar with," Grace replied with a grim smile. "That Charmeleon you all encountered? Going by what Dave told me, that was the same Charmander that savagely attacked me just days before that attack."

Phoenixsong said:
"Wait, you can understand him?" Leaf looked back and forth between Grace and Purple, blinking. He wasn't even really saying anything, though, not even pokémon noises. Just mostly quiet, like he usually was. "Is it, like, telepathy or something?"
Click to expand...
Then she smiled, eyes falling on Purple. "Not sure, actually. I can just kind of... understand him. Like, one look or a tilt of his head and I know the words he's telling me. Maybe it's different because of yyyoouu....?"

Going by Grace's sudden shift in tone, she was trying to refer to Leaf's human roots without bringing attention to it. She didn't know who could be listening in, after all.
 
"Oh, I didn't see the charmeleon—" (she should've, though, she'd meant to be there to help, she'd promised Sonora) "—but a few of the others did, and... wait. He attacked you?" Leaf did a 180 so suddenly she nearly ripped the list away from the shopkeeper, but just about managed to catch herself. "Are you okay? Not still hurt, or... the others mentioned weird nightmares, things like that?"

At least she didn't look hurt or distressed, so that was good. She tried to file the thought about understanding Purple away for later (was he like that mew or something? Mew was psychic, though, so it made more sense there, as much as anything made sense, which wasn't a lot, but... uh.) and tried to focus on filling in the rest. Plenty well-aqcuainted with shadow stuff, sounded like, so...

"So, uh, yeah, the shadow thing is complicated. Some of us are going to be helping the local rangers look into it. Others are, uh..." Doing something necessary but astonishingly distasteful, mostly. There probably wasn't a short, or public-conversation-friendly, way to say that, though. was there. "Getting some other people to help with their research." Good enough for now. "We're all trying to figure out where they're coming from, investigated a few places here and there, and I think some people are trying to see if they can get through to that wild drapion and help it."
 
"Oh-- yes, I'm fine!" she quickly assured Leaf. "It took a while to recover from it, and honestly I'm just glad he didn't kill me, but I've recovered!" Then she cleared her throat to shift gears. Somehow she was doing well at keeping up with them.

"But yes, the Shadows sound like a form of corruption that makes us wildly aggressive! Maybe we could use a counter-acting source to cure them...? Oh, Dave mentioned 'Radiance'..." at this point she was mumbling to herself, and when she realised, Grace made a low trill that vaugely sounded like a growl. "Are Shadows or Radiance anything similar to something from your world? For some reason they sound faintly familiar to me when I heard them, but I think I'm gaslighting myself at this point."
 
"Familiar...? No, not that I can think of, unfortunately," Leaf said, shaking her head. "Nothing I've seen myself, anyway. There was something in the news a few years ago about weirdly aggressive pokémon, but even if it was similar to this, whatever it was happened really far away from where I live." She shrugged. "The 'radiance' thing sounds like our best bet, as far as any of us have been able to tell. It's just a matter of finding someone who can help us with it...

"Do you remember anything about why they might sound familiar to you?" she asked, thinking. "Even if you're not sure it's true, or if it turns out to be different from however it works here, it might still give us something to start with, yeah? More than just wandering around and hoping we bump into a friendly saint, at least."
 
"I don't know..." Grace said with a sigh. "It's a total blank on where I might have heard it, since we didn't have anything like it back home. Must have been some wild dream I had or something..."

But they were getting off track. "The berry place has to be around here, right...?"
 
They had to quiet their conversation once they reached the storefront, but Purple hopped in and looked around for the berries he needed. Surprisingly, there were a few he was able to grab and purchase, though his list was still incomplete... But it was better than no haul at all. He seemed pleased by the time he returned to the pair, surprisingly good at getting the job done without saying a single word. The store owner, too, seemed to know what Purple wanted innately, just like Grace...
 
Grace beamed at Purple. "Oh, good! You got the berries! But you weren't able to find them all...? Ah, but a lot of those are rare! I'm sure if you keep coming back, you'll find them eventually!"
 
Too bad about Grace not remembering. "That's okay. Maybe it'll come to you later, but I'm sure we'll be able to work something out either way."

Better luck on the berry front, at least. Not everything, but it looked like the shopkeep had most of what Purple was after, even without checking the list she'd shown in some cases. (Huh.) Leaf gave them a "thank you" for the help before turning back to Grace and Purple. "Well, if you want, we could try the Orchards and see if they've got the stuff that's left," she offered. She tossed her head in the direction she was pretty sure Greenbough's place was in.

"By the way, Grace, if it's okay to ask," she added, "what sorts of things were you doing while you were out? Hopefully better stuff than run-ins with shadow charmander, right?"
 
"Oh, that was kind of why I got attacked," Grace said with a sigh. "I was out of town, doing scouting missions from the bulletin board. I needed to scratch my adventuring itch so I could focus on all the politics and other stuff better. The Charmander had come from nowhere, like he'd set his sights on his favourite chew toy. It was just bad luck... I hope."

She winced at the analogy, but that's pretty much how it felt. Grace was surprised it hadn't really traumatised her, or maybe it hadn’t quite sunk in yet that she'd been mauled and half killed.

She hummed. "Ah... yeah, we'd have better luck at the Orchard, Purple. Though I imagine they'd still cost quite a bit... do you have enough money?"
 
Purple smiled in reply. It seemed that money was not much of an issue for him since his partner was the one who provided the funds and the list for what he had to get. Grace would know this... somehow.
 
"Ah, gotcha. The job board is good for keeping busy, yeah," Leaf said, making her way out of the shop and toward Greenbough's. And for dumping more weirdness on top of the pile, apparently. It sounded like Grace had gotten more interesting jobs than hers'd been, illustrious honor though it was to be Queen of Pothole Patrol, but given those jobs had also gotten the togepi attacked it didn't seem polite to admit to any jealousy. "If you like that sort of work, it might be a good idea to come along with us and help out the rangers! They're investigating the attacks, too, and our groups together really ought to be able to get to the bottom of it. And even without that, they're the experts on all the local dungeons, the different towns out here... plenty to do, if you're interested. And if Chief Ayda thinks you can handle it, that too. But if you held off that charmander all on your own, I can't imagine you're not cut out for it."
 
Grace smiled and nodded. She didn't need to mention that 'fending off' was just praying she wasn't killed. Leaf and Purple didn't need to know that. "Yeah, I'm ready to help out, now! But to start with, Purple, is there anything else you needed?"
 
Purple shook his head. He seemed satisfied for now with what shopping they did, and he could try out the orchard later. He was happy to have them for some of the trip.

He also offered a smile to Leaf, thumping his feet once in appreciation.
 
"Purple said he can try the Orchard later, but he's pretty happy with what he found for now," Grace translated after a glance at the Nidoran. "Purple... where do you live? I don't think I've seen you around before..."
 
Purple shifted nervously in response. He didn't seem to want to give away where he lived specifically... but he helped with the Rangers! And that counted, didn't it? His ear flicked with his nervousness and his eyes trailed away. He seemed to suggest that it was about time he got going.
 
"He moves around a lot," Leaf said quickly, unsure how much he was willing to explain (or, uh, "explain", or whatever it was) and not wanting to make him nervous like they had last time. It'd be nice if he felt comfortable enough to share, but he didn't, and anyway, "He's okay getting where he needs to go by himself. I'm sure we'll see him around again, with the rangers or even just around here. Kinda a fixture at this point, seems like."

Oh! Damn, she'd almost forgot again. "Hey, uh, Purple," she said, suddenly rummaging through her bag again, "before you go, do you think you could help me with something? I was hoping you could deliver something for me. Only if you don't mind." She fished out the letter she'd folded up, and floated it in the nidoran's direction. "I thought it'd be nice to say hello and thank you to the people that you're helping," she explained. "Would it be okay if you brought this to the one who made your name tag? Only if you think they'd like it, though. If you think they'd be upset by someone sending them a letter, you don't have to."

Would it even get to the right person? Purple really did seem to flit between a bunch of different places and groups. And would it mean anything if it did? No telling. But it was always worth a shot, right?
 
Last edited:
Purple smiled and nodded, putting the letter very gently into his bag. At the very least, Leaf could deduce that it would be delivered to someone, and he seemed to understand what she had said for whom it was intended...
 
"I think he knows who to give it to," Grace assured Leaf. "I hope they like whatever you wrote! I always enjoyed getting letters back home, myself."

She smiled to herself. The Rangers, then? Yeah... Grace wanted to know more about the attacks, and she had to start training. If she wanted to survive another attack, she was going to have to get stronger. Hopefully, she could evolve soon.

"Why don't we look around some more? Get a drink, or something to eat?" she proposed with a smile. "I want to know more about you, Leaf!"
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom