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Treasure Town ~ Marketplace

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Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
"Khhh..." Leg circled around Potluck's head and hid on the other side of his crest.

"Aww, she's shy. It's okay," Potluck said to Cynthian. "Don't worry! I think she's just nervous because of your Poison." Leg continued to use Potluck's great height to keep away from the others.
 

Virgil134

PMD Writer
Partners
  1. sylveon
  2. weavile
  3. kommo-o
  4. noivern
  5. mothim
"Well it's nice to meet you as well, Leg," Cabot said, pausing slightly after saying the Mimikyu's most... peculiar name. "My name is Cabot."
 

Adamhuarts

Mew specialist
Partners
  1. mew-adam
  2. celebi-shiny
  3. roserade-adam
"My poison? Why would that be? Hardly anything to worry about, so long as you're not touching my head spikes. I'm perfectly harmless, in fact," Cynthian said, a little too proudly.
 

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
Leg nervously shifted away, not trying to interact with either of them further.

Owen was busy studying the way the spoons and utensils worked, making sure they were properly adjusted to his energies, before looking up. “What’s that smell?” It was heavenly, in a savory, spicy sort of way, and then he saw why—during everyone’s chatting and idle conversation, enjoying the atmosphere of the restaurant. Owen’s tail flame helped to accentuate the blues and blacks of the building, as did the soft glow that came off of Maple and the rest of the God Squad.

“That would be the first round of the curry bowls,” Truffle said, motioning as the huge bowls were passed along, some of them of different sizes depending on the species that ordered them, depending on the group. Each one had bowls that were wider than their heads and practically a quarter of their height. A mound of rice sat in the middle of a great lake of curry, bits of meat, veggies, and potatoes decorating the surrounding moat.

The Great Curry Bowl Challenge!
They say that if you manage to defeat a bowl all on your own, you will gain great renown with the whole town as word spreads of your amazing and perhaps frightening appetite.

To conquer the Great Curry Bowl Challenge, you must have a total defensive bulk of 500. Bulk is calculated by multiplying max HP and Defense, and then getting the square root of the result.

“It’s… so big!” Owen said, staring at the bowl that slid in front of him, Cabot, and the others. “How do we even start? I, uh…” He took his spoon and slid it inside, pulling out a miniature mound and downing it. His eyes lit up— “But it’s so good!” Savory mixed with spicy, cut by the starch to even out the strong flavors.

Meanwhile, Maple calmly took her first bite of her own bowl.
 

Virgil134

PMD Writer
Partners
  1. sylveon
  2. weavile
  3. kommo-o
  4. noivern
  5. mothim
Cabot stared at his bowl with his mouth agape. It looked absolutely delicious, but there was so much. Maybe he could have eaten this as a Rampardos, but there was no way he could finish all of this right now... or any of his teammates for that matter. Cabot looked around the table and noticed that despite the different sizes of everyone's bowls, they were so large that it would be impossible for anyone outside the God Squad to complete this challenge. Still, there's surely some way to keep the competition alive for his team, right?

"Oh, I have an idea!" he cheered. "How about we try to see who can get the closest to finishing his bowl?"
 

Adamhuarts

Mew specialist
Partners
  1. mew-adam
  2. celebi-shiny
  3. roserade-adam
Cynthian stared at his massive bowl of Curry for what felt like hours. Beads of sweat formed on his forward and he held his breath. With movements that seemed to drag, he picked up his utensil in his flower and scooped up a spoon of the curry and put it into his mouth.

He chewed for a few seconds and swallowed, then he kept the spoon back down with a dark and serious expression.

"I'm full."
 

The Walrein

Vicinal Dragging for the Truth
Partners
  1. gulpin
  2. kricketot
  3. bulbasaur
Jaro thought about what Truffle had told him regarding jobs in this world. He supposed that if a Pokemon did the same thing all day, eventually they'd get really good at it, although it still seemed like it would be boring. When they entered Precise Taste's burrow (odd name for a mon, but really no weirder than any of the others he'd heard), he immediately felt a pang of unease - the glowing orbs and unnaturally smooth walls and tables reminded him of things he'd seen in the inner caves of Mt. Moon. Of course, this time he didn't have to fear getting caught by Clefairy, giving Jaro a chance to appreciate the beauty of the place. What awed him the most, though, was not the glowing tables or the starry decor, but the paintings of food on the 'menu'. Before coming to this world, Jaro hadn't known it was even possible to create such detailed pictures using paint.

All of that was quickly forgotten when Truffle explained how to manipulate the weird eating tools Pokemon here used. Jaro quickly absorbed himself in experimenting with how quickly he could make a spoon rotate along different axes, how far away he could control one from, and how many different tools he could control at once. These things were amazing! If Maple had said that they were a gift from the stars themselves, Jaro would've believed her. In fact, he would've found that explanation more credible than mortal Pokemon being able to make these.

When it was time to order, Jaro was slightly annoyed that Owen had to interpret the menu for him, but thanked the Charmander for his help. It was amazing that there were so many different options for what to eat; in his tribe, you usually just had to eat whatever the herb chorus or hunting chorus or garden chorus brought in that day. Of course, Jaro ordered the Great Curry Bowl Challenge like he'd said he would.

Upon seeing Leg, Jaro wondered if their disguise was based off some actually-existing tribe in this world, or was just supposed to be of some made-up monster. Apparently they were afraid of poison - did that mean they were fairy-blooded like Jaro? He was surprised that she was so timid if she was a member of the so-called "God Squad", who all seemed quite formidable - Soda with his illusions, Maple with her portals, Truffle with his- uh... well, Truffle could fly, and that was pretty cool, right?

After the Great Curry Bowls arrived, it became clear that the Pokemon working here were familiar with how much a Jigglypuff could eat at once, and had striven to greatly exceed that quantity. Jaro could feel his gizzard start to cramp just from looking at the mound of food. Still, he wasn't one to back down from a challenge...

"Oh, I have an idea!" he cheered. "How about we try to see who can get the closest to finishing his bowl?"

"You're on!" Jaro said. This would be difficult, but doable if Jaro was smart about it. He first tried small samples of all the different kinds of food items making up the curry, both to savor their individual flavor and to get a feel for how easy it was to compress them in his gizzard. The taste was incredible, like nothing Jaro ever had before, but he didn't let himself get distracted by that. Now, the liquid part of it would of course be easiest to absorb, but was also denser than anything except the meat. He eventually decided on a strategy of picking through the bowl for the least dense vegetables, and washing them down with small gulps of curry. Every solid object he swallowed, he tried to compress to the minimum possible size in his gizzard before moving it along, although the muscles of the organ eventually began to grow tired from the exertion. So Jaro switched to trying to grind up the vegetables pre-swallowing with his utensils. Despite all this, Jaro soon found himself growing uncomfortably full, and stopped for a moment to see how well Cabot was doing.
 

NebulaDreams

Ace Trainer
Partners
  1. luxray
  2. hypno
The Great Curry Bowl Challenge!
They say that if you manage to defeat a bowl all on your own, you will gain great renown with the whole town as word spreads of your amazing and perhaps frightening appetite.

Somehow, Curio managed to ignore everything else that was going on at the time elsewhere. Because of the 6 day gap since defeating those Magikarp (and making an ill-timed joke about eating other sapient mon), Curio was hungry. More than hungry, in fact. Famished. She didn't care what she ate as long as she got something in her gut. So she followed her nose to the marketplace, sampling the symphony of sweet, savoury, and especially spicy smells with her snout.

Luckily, and rather conveniently, she found quite a few of the team members hanging out at Precise Tastes. That scrumptious smell was coming from the huge-ass curry bowls, with mountains of rice nearly as tall as some of her Pokemon companions, with lava-like curry on top. The whole thing looked like a volcano, like eating it would melt her insides. She knew from that moment that she wanted to try some for herself.

"Great curry bowl, si'l vous plait! And gimme seconds if I work through the first lot!"

Ask, and she will receive, as the saying doesn't quite go. But anyway, even though the goal of nomming down the curry bowl seemed doable at first glance, once she finally had it at paw's grasp, it looked like the Mt. Coronet of curries. The myriad of spices hit her all at once; her eyes were watering already! Still, her gut was up for a hike, and the only thing that would sate its wanderlust was to climb up to the peak of the Coronet Curry. Someone should make that a thing back home.

Curio took the first bite and was a little disappointed by the level of spice (not tongue-burningly hot), but it still had a kick to it. The spice didn't overpower the taste though, as the rich, fatty meat, the crunchy vegetables and the sticky, pillowy rice complimented the heat radiating from the sauce. She wasn't a food critic or anything, but this was easily a ten out of ten so far.

She chomped down the second and third bites with ease. Then the fourth, fifth and sixth, right up to the tenth bite! But even with that, she still wasn't anywhere close to conquering the Coronet Curry. The toppings only filled her up a little, but it was the rice that really did her in. So starchy. So sumptuous. So... other adjective for sticky or tasty.

Each subsequent bite she took felt more and more taxing, until the twentieth or thirtieth bite where she finally had to tap out. She leaned against the chair and patted her full belly.

"Damn, so full, ugh... How far did you guys get?"
 

Virgil134

PMD Writer
Partners
  1. sylveon
  2. weavile
  3. kommo-o
  4. noivern
  5. mothim
As his teammates began eating their food, Cabot decided to dig in as well. The first bite proved that the curry was as delicious as it looked like, and, after making a small comment about how great it tasted, the Cranidos soon found himself eating at a faster pace. While he'd had curry before in Tidemill City, the food here turned out to be on a whole other level. A quick glance at the others revealed that some like Cynthian were already full, whereas others like Jaro were still going at it. While he was starting to feel full himself, Cabot pushed on, determined to eat as much of his bowl as possible. After all, who knew when they'd be able to eat here again?

"Damn, so full, ugh... How far did you guys get?"

"I still got room for a little bit more! ... Even though I'm not even a quarter of the way there yet," Cabot said, biting down on another spoon full of curry.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Starr felt restless as she walked into the marketplace, full of pent-up anxiety and head still buzzing after the previous encounter. Normally she'd burn energy and quiet her thoughts by tearing apart a few training dummies, but she'd already decided that she wanted to get some new moves before her next training (like hell was she heading to their next mission with friggin Ember) and she wasn't gonna let that goddamn Shinx ruin her plans for the day.

As she wandered past the various shops, she couldn't help noticing that none of her teammates were around. That was a bit odd. Although, wait... hadn't Soda mentioned something about lunch? And... now that she was paying attention, the air was filled with an agonizingly alluring savory scent.

God. She hadn't noticed before, but she was... really hungry.

It didn't take Starr long to zero in on the source of the smell: a restaurant called Precise Tastes. The moment she walked in, she spotted the team all seated around a large table topped with the most ridiculously oversized bowls of curry she'd even seen.

"Yeah, I'm ordering that," Starr said before she'd even found a seat.
 

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
"This stuff's great!" Owen said, though despite that, and despite the fact that in the bowls that they'd shared, his was the biggest dent, he was still not at all close to being able to finish it. "Though, I do kind of worry that it might be a little wasteful if we can't finish it... There's a way to store food, right?"

"That won't be a problem," Soda said from the entrance to their large-party room. The Zoroark waved casually over at Cynthian, then motioned behind him. "Anybody who can't finish their plate, we'll hand it off to the big guy."

"Grrrrrrrrgh..."

"He says hi," Soda translated.

Standing just outside of the restaurant, by one of the windows, was a Snorlax. Only... he was staggeringly large, to the point that it seemed almost impossible. They were only able to see his belly from this angle, but he was easily over fourteen feet in height, enough that it would have taken at least ten Owens stacked foot-to-head to reach his ears.

"Mm." Maple, who was halfway done with her bowl and looking not at all full. It was a wonder where she put it all. "I'm glad you were able to bring him, Soda. Everyone, I would like you to meet my final subordinate, Flesh."

"Grooooggghhhh..."

"Flesh says thanks for saving the town," Soda said.

"And of course, you have already met Leg," Maple added, motioning to the Mimikyu on Potluck's head.

"Khh..."
 

The Walrein

Vicinal Dragging for the Truth
Partners
  1. gulpin
  2. kricketot
  3. bulbasaur
Jaro was surprised that Owen seemed to be winning. What strategy had he been using? He hadn't really been paying attention to him, instead glancing only to Cabot and Curio when he wasn't focused on his own food. Maybe the fire-type had some way of burning up food inside his body, without producing any smoke? But, more importantly, would it be worth continuing to bust his guts up just to get second place? It was starting to get harder to find low-density-vegetables in his curry.

"Eh... I think I'm done," he said, pushing his bowl away, an action which took quite a degree of exertion. "Does anyone want to try and see what would happen if we both tried to move one of these things in different directions at once?" Jaro asked, holding up a spoon. Maybe that would be a contest he could win.

When Maple pointed out the giant Pokemon sitting right outside the burrow, Jaro nearly rolled off his stool. Wha- how long had he been there? "Um, has Flesh always been that large, or is this related to the giant Pokemon thing that's been going on?" he whispered to Maple.
 

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
"Flesh is... unique," Maple replied to Jaro. "He has always been that large, and he is harmless. In fact, he is vegetarian, though if you give him meat, he would eat it, assuming it wasn't once alive. He is very peculiar about that."

"I took the liberty of checking with the store owners on where they source their food," said Truffle. "Flesh may eat without worry."

Maple took another bite, now losing none of her pacing even as only a quarter of her bowl remained. By now, several onlookers had taken notice, silently wondering how a Smeargle of her stature was able to down something much bigger than her head.
 

Adamhuarts

Mew specialist
Partners
  1. mew-adam
  2. celebi-shiny
  3. roserade-adam
Cynthian frowned the moment he heard Star's voice. His flowers felt like wilting when he glanced her way, and he was quick to avert his gaze.

The pile of Curry at least helped distract him from the stupid cat. Cynthian took a deep breath and opted for what he did to stand being in the same planet as her, by simply tuning her out of his perception entirely.

"That Flesh guy would probably have to take mine. If I'd known the curry would be this much, I'd have just ordered water," Cynthian said with a sigh after diverting his attention back to the ongoing conversation.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
Starr sat herself at the table with the others, and that was when she properly realized just how low on energy she was. She felt totally drained after fighting that phantom. (That was all it was. Not anything else afterward.) And the curry smell was beyond tempting. Sure, gummis were alright (okay, the red ones were better than alright) but they still didn't satisfy like a real meal.

The point was, Starr didn't think she could wait until the servers brought out a bowl of her own. Her eyes wandered over the bowls across the table. Geez, almost no one had even managed to put a dent in theirs. Curio practically looked like she was about to burst. (Though admittedly, the Riolu had made a pretty decent dent in the mountain of curry in front of her.)

Starr gestured to Curio's seemingly-abandoned serving. "You gonna eat the rest of that?"
 

NebulaDreams

Ace Trainer
Partners
  1. luxray
  2. hypno
Owen managed to make the biggest dent in it so far. How did he have such a big stomach in that tiny Char body?

Starr joined the equation as well, wearing her resting bitch face as usual. Despite settling their differences earlier, Curio still felt uncomfortable with Starr being next to Cynthian, so she kept on guard in case Starr ran her mouth again. That is, if she didn't stuff her cakehole full of rice first.

Starr gestured to Curio's seemingly-abandoned serving. "You gonna eat the rest of that?"

"Is that a challenge?" Curio said, taking another laboured bite. "I'd lithe to thee you try and eath all off yourth." As she talked, grains of rice flew from her mouth, but she didn't care.
 
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unrepentantAuthor

A cat that writes stories.
Location
UK
Pronouns
they/she
Partners
  1. purrloin-salem
  2. sneasel-dusk
  3. luz-companion
  4. brisa-companion
  5. meowth-laura
  6. delphox-jesse
  7. mewtwo
  8. zeraora
Brisa stepped through the damaged part of the marketplace with concern. This must be where the hazy entity had attacked. What exactly were they up against?

Further in, she saw a building with ongoing activity and in a good state of repair. Perhaps she could find meds for Turf there. She stepped inside, and was immediately overwhelmed by too many mon in one place, the sound of their chatter, the smell of curry. She rallied herself and patrolled around the edges of the gathered mon, looking for a familiar face or an obvious medical vendor...

...what she saw instead was Curio and Starr. Next to each other. Sharing food. Did that... did it mean what it meant back home in worlds other than her own? She could feel her heartbeat in her throat, and didn't know why.
 
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Adamhuarts

Mew specialist
Partners
  1. mew-adam
  2. celebi-shiny
  3. roserade-adam
"This stuff's great!" Owen said, though despite that, and despite the fact that in the bowls that they'd shared, his was the biggest dent, he was still not at all close to being able to finish it.

"I wonder if you can heat yourself up to speed up metabolism and get more down. Or Is that not possible? I'm not really an expert on Charmander biology," Cynthian said with a slight shrug.
 

TheGOAT

🗿
Location
Houston, Texas
Pronouns
Him/his
Partners
  1. serperior
  2. alolatales-goat
The Kecleon brothers would pick this hour to take their lunch breaks—both at the same time, no less! As it turned out, Kangaskhan couldn’t help her either, as she couldn’t just give away goods from another person’s storage. Go figure. Astrid finally huffed; there had to be somewhere she could snag a couple orans. Or even just gauze.

As fate would have it, her quest carried her into the fancy-schmancy restaurant the Arceus people had made reservations for. Maybe they would have an entire oran berry smoothie prepared just for her. At this point, after all that walking and dashing and being Taunted, she could eat a whole dungeon.

When she got to walking the length of the restaurant, however, the starry-eyed Vulpix quickly grew distracted. What was this place? Rainbows of luminous orbs dotted the otherwise darkened ceiling—whole galaxies blanketed scores of patrons below. Her neck glued back, her eyes up, Astrid almost didn’t notice the horrified Shinx during her stroll, stricken by a moment of great pause.

“Oh! Hi there!” Astrid said a little too comfortably. She still wasn’t totally sure if Brisa saw her as an ally yet, and the chat with Dave had remained food for thought on the way over.

Correcting her posture, she continued, getting the question with the obvious answer out of the way first: “Are you okay? I came here looking for… well, orans, but anything’ll do.” Standing out in the middle of the aisle probably wasn’t ideal. “Wanna get a table or something?”
 
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