Grass Continent ~ Treasure Town Beach

[Fusion]

Oh this poor child.

"You actually don't know what s'mores are? You're really missing out, they're delicious! Gooey marshmallows, melted chocolate, placed inside graham cracker... it's perfect for being made over a campfire! It's like, camping 101," Vix explained. "Now I gotta teach you how to make them. I'll go get the stuff we need, and you can start the fire."

Do you really think it's safe to trust this kid to start a fire?

It was a fire on a beach, what was the worst that could happen? "I'll be back in a few, alright?" Vix said as she floated away.

 

[SparklingEspeon]

There was very little to burn on the beach. Which was both a good and bad thing, but Tricky considered it a bad thing. As Mystery Dungeoneering Life Hacks, written by Wartortle of Pokemon Plaza taught, it was very easy to set a controlled fire in a mystery dungeon if you knew what you were doing. This wasn't a mystery dungeon, but soon Tricky had managed to gather enough stray dry debris and a barrier of stones to keep the fire in. She lit an ember in her mouth, and all of the sudden the fire was burning. She sat next to it contentedly, reveling in the heat. It had been a while since she'd been able to sit near a fire! She considered jumping into it once or twice, but remembered all the times she'd been burned by actual fire and decided to abandon the thought.

 

[Fusion]

It took Vix a little while, but she did indeed return with a satchel practically overflowing with everything one would need to make the perfect s'more. All three things. And look, the beach wasn't even on fire!

Vix floated beside Tricky and started taking everything out of her bag. "Teddiursa Grahams, Slurpuff-mallows, and chocolate. Perfect!" she beamed. "Now all we need is a stick to roast the marshmallows and we can eat."

Or hold it above your head.

But then they wouldn't be authentic, you neanderthal.

...

Was this normal?

Vix shook her head, there were more important things to think about anyways. Like food. That was very important. She grabbed a couple conveniently close sticks and stuck marshmallows on their ends. "Alright, just gotta roast them. You wanna try to do it yourself, Tricky?"

I mean, she doesn't have a way to hold it.

Vix shrugged, surely Tricky would find a way.

 

[SparklingEspeon]

"Yep!"

Tricky ignored the campfire completely, pouncing on one of the sticks with her paws and engulfing the entire 'S'more' with an ember from her mouth. It came out saggy and burnt, and Tricky's face fell with it.

"Oh..."

She ate it anyway. It wasn't that bad, especially with the stick.

"So what world are you from?"

 

[Fusion]

She's like Ace but even more Ace than Ace is.

Vix stuck another marshmallow on a stick, holding both hers and the new one over the fire. "My world isn't all that special, really. Not much different from everyone else's from what I heard. It, uh, doesn't help that I've barely seen any of it."

But what you have seen is probably worth telling, right?

Eh, all that happened was her almost dying a bunch. Everyone does that these days. "I know there's this huge city, somewhere, that was more advanced to anything else. Like comparing Destiny Village to Pokemon Square. The dungeons in my world are, interesting, and really that's about everything I know that's different from everyone else's worlds."

As the marshmallows caught fire, Vix waited a few seconds before blowing them out. She took off the charred bits and ate them, then started assembling the s'mores. "What about you, Tricky? What's your world like?"

 

[SparklingEspeon]

"It's..." Tricky took a moment to swallow the rest of her snack before she replied. "It's a lot like this one. Except here there's so much more fun stuff to do! And everymon actually likes exploring, which is compared to no-mon back where I live, so that's nice too. Maybe I'll just bring Espurr over and stay here."

 

[Fusion]

"Uhhg, your world too? I was lucky our village had a dungeon nearby, otherwise I'd never have anything to explore. I'm not even allowed to go outside the woods and explore the world yet, well, according to my friend's dad. Such a stickler for 'safety' and all that," Vix chuckled.

You wanna remind the kid they're gonna leave when we're done and forget everything?

Tricky could figure that out on her own, probably. Rip that bandage off on her own time. As of right now, though, Vix finished putting the s'more together, bathing them both in embers just long enough for the chocolate to get extra melty before handing one over to Tricky. "Here ya go, one s'more. It's a bit messy to eat, but it's worth it in my opinion."

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Tricky awkwardly held the s'more in her paws, and tried to hold it out over the campfire the best she could.

"You like exploring too?"

 

[Fusion]

"No, I mean, yes, I mean," Vix shook her head. "You're not supposed to hold it over the fire, it's already done."

"I'm training up to be a hero back home, and what does a hero do besides adventuring and saving people?" Vix chuckled. "I even know the mystery near my village well enough to not get lost even with it changing all the time."

 

[SparklingEspeon]

The s'more burst into flames into Tricky's paws, and only then did she stuff it whole and on fire into her mouth.

"Are there a lot of mystery dungeons where you live?" Tricky asked. "My village's got like, four. I've been in all of them, obviously. I'm training for when I get older, and I can go join the Expedition Society and be an adventurer who helps pokemon stuck in dungeons everywhere!"

 

[Fusion]

Vix blinked. She shouldn't have been surprised that Tricky at the s'more like that, but that was probably the last thing she expected to happen.

"Lucky. My village only has the one dungeon, but there's a mountain in it that has another dungeon inside it," Vix replied, sticking another marshmallow on a stick. She toasted it for a few seconds before sighing and roasting the marshmallow herself.

But it's not authentic that way.

"From the sound of it, you and I kinda have the same dream, huh? I wanna make my own guild way down the line, but I gotta be a hero before I can do that, which is why I'm here now," Vix said, eating her second s'more.

 

[SparklingEspeon]

'here now'? Tricky's tail twitched in thought. But that meant...

"Wait," she said. "You came here on-purpose?"

 

[Fusion]

"Yep, Diyem was actually trying to get in touch with one of my mentors, and when he did I stepped up to take his offer," Vix explained as she finished her s'more. "I heard everyone else was asked up front by Diyem, I might be the only one he didn't ask directly. Didn't he talk to you?"

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Maybe Diyem really had asked; Tricky didn't exactly remember. She had a lot of strange dreams.

"He... might have? I kind of just woke up in the city, honestly."

 

[Fusion]

"Hmm, that's a bit odd. But nothing to worry about, I think. The only way to come here is through Diyem, so you probably just forgot," Vix shrugged. "Speaking of 'here,' how are you holding up? You know, with all this, radiance and shadow stuff?"

It's a miracle this kid hasn't gone off in a radiant explosion yet, honestly. Or maybe she has, and that's given her amnesia.

 

[SparklingEspeon]

"Radiance... Are those the flashy moves everyone else uses?" Tricky asked. She hadn't really paid attention to the briefing past "cool new moves". Perhaps that was why she'd never really gotten one of her own.

 

[Fusion]

"Actually..." Vix paused. It was pretty obvious that Tricky wasn't having any emotional stress, so there wasn't a reason to press into that. "Yeah. We're actually able to use Shadow moves too, which I think is pretty much the same thing but darker. If you want help trying to use any of them, I wouldn't mind helping you with them?"

 

[SparklingEspeon]

Tricky idly gnawed on a stick from the campfire. "You'd do that?"

 

[Fusion]

Vix smiled and nodded. "Well, of course. It's better to practice with a friend than by yourself."

The two went on, eating s'mores until they grew tired of it. It was nice.

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[Adamhuarts]

Ah, the fresh salty air of the beach, the bright luminous sunlight shining down on her skin, the warm sand crunching beneath her feet, and the glistening bubbles feral krabby filled the air with. Cynthian missed it. She missed coming to Treasure Town's Beach, especially in the late afternoons.

Cynthian placed her mat on the ground sat together with her food basket. After a deep exhale, she opened the flat and relished the scent of cupcakes that filled her senses. Icetales had been kind enough to gift them to her, courtesy of Petram. A shame Icetales couldn't tag along... but he had other matters to attend to. Well she'd been practically stuck to him like glue the whole night in her distress, so it was fine.

"For now, I'll just relax and enjoy the moment..." Cynthian said, grabbing a cupcake with colorful sprinkles.