The Sap Sipper

[MintyMimix]

After their encounter with Gladion, Hazel wore a pensive look that ill-suited her usual curiosity. Violet might not have understood the full extent of her contemplation, but she knew that she just needed a bit of time to think things through. Clutching onto her claw with a warm touch, she lead them to a place to relax.

Though Violet rolled her eyes when she was denied any alcohol, she wasn't as bothered as the prior experience. More important to her was ensuring that Hazel got a delight for her troubles — a Watmel berry smoothie. It was both of their favorites: a savory sweetness packed with a burst of flavor yet not so overpowering as to be crystalline rich. Violet was glad to see it was enough to at least give Hazel at least a bit of a smile. She'd give her a bit of space on this; Hazel would talk when she felt ready to.

In the interim, Violet supposed she could take a look around this place just to stave boredom...
@Flyg0n
[Foresight]

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade wandered through the festival ground, still unable to get over how weird all this was. Portals and Legendaries and... other worlds. Pokemon who could speak human like nothing was more natural, and places when Team Rocket had been gone for twenty years. Most of it was a big pile of 'let's think about this later' but at least the subject Legendaries was at least something she was used to. She hadn't found any leads on how to find them, but there was no harm in exploring the island. Maybe she'd get a drink first. Where did Nine go? Heck.

Jade walked into some place called the Sap Sipper and then abruptly realized it was a place for drink drinks. As in, a bar. She probably wasn't supposed to be here. Or maybe it was okay? She couldn't possibly be the only underage person on the island. Then again, aside from May, pretty much everyone she'd seen did seem like an adult. She wasn't used to feeling like a kid.

She could just order something else. But it still felt weird. Was it normal to walk into a bar and then just not order drinks? It was too stupid a question to ask. She could practically hear Starr laughing.

...Whatever, she could just go somewhere else. Jade spun around and walked back toward the door, doing her best to convince herself that everyone in the room wasn't staring. Probably.

 

[Sinderella]

It was a good choice to move here from the shop. The overall vibe would make for a much calmer conversation, and it didn't quite feel as exposed. Besides, there were way more drink options here anyway.

Odette returned to the table with three glasses of sparkling water for herself, Enora, and Odile, as well as Steven and Aggron's orders. She set them down with Odile's help.

"Here you go," she said. "Let me know if you don't like it, I'll go yell at the bartender to remake it," she added jokingly as she sat down.

Odile was already done with her drink by the time Odette sat down. "̷D̵a̴m̶n̴,̴ ̷t̵h̷a̵t̶'̴s̵ ̸s̶o̶m̶e̵ ̶g̴o̷o̶d̶ ̸s̵t̷a̸t̶i̵c̶ ̸w̴a̸t̷e̵r̷.̴ ̶N̸o̸w̶ ̷I̷ ̴w̴a̴n̵t̵ ̷a̸ ̴S̴h̴i̶r̷l̷e̴y̴ ̶T̶e̸m̴p̸l̸e̶.̸"̷ ̵


"Holy shit, were you gonna swallow the fucking glass too?"

"̴I̷s̷ ̷t̷h̸a̸t̶ ̵a̸ ̶d̷a̴r̶e̷?̶"̷

Odette held her credit card up in front of Odile's nose. "Go get your fucking Shirley Temple and please don't eat glass when we have company."


Odile snatched the card and stood up. "̸N̵o̶o̶o̶o̶o̷o̶o̸ ̵p̶r̶o̷m̴i̵s̸e̵s̶,̵"̸ she teased as she sauntered back toward the bar.

Odette sent Steven an apologetic look. "I would apologize again but I can't guarantee that she's not going to attempt it." She shook her head. "But I guess gnawing on glassware is better than harassing the locals..." she muttered as she held her drink to her lips and took a sip.

"So," she said after swallowing her sip.

She set the glass down and gestured to herself. "Clean slate, right? Hi," she stuck her hand out to him, "My name's Odette. The demonic thing that just walked off is Odile. And this is Enora."


"A pleasure to meet you both. Officially, of course," Enora chimed in.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven finished placing his takeout order with the bartender and leaned back against the bar to wait.

Initially he was going to head straight back to the dorms to wait for Hayes there, but at the sight of the restaurant, he took a small detour. Hayes would still probably be a while at the cove, and he would undoubtedly appreciate some kind of food, given how their breakfast was non-existent with the events of the morning...

He sighed, eyes drifting lazily across the empty establishment. It made sense, everyone was at the cove (or mercifully sleeping in). Except something bright caught his eye, a glint of light in one of the furthest booths--


"An Ampharos?" he muttered to himself, and peered closer, only to see a more familiar pokemon with bouquets of red and blue.

That Roserade from the marsh. Irene.

Inwardly, he winced. The way they left their last conversation was... not on the most amicable terms. But after this morning, there was something he wanted to ask her.

He'd barely moved from his spot at the bar when her head turned toward him sharply.

Aggron perked up from where he was hovering near the door, anticipating a quiet in-and-out with their food. Steven noticed and held out a hand to signal for him to stay there. He had no intention of approaching Irene the same way he had the day Reena disappeared.

Steven stopped a respectful distance away from Irene's booth when he addressed her.


"Good morning," he said. "I hope you're doing alright since, well..." It still was hard to even say.

He figured he would try to ease into his question, since he was sure it was still a sore subject to breach.

"Neither of the security officers have bothered you about that morning, have they?"

 

[Hanafuda]

Seb stood at the entrance of the bar. It definitely wasn’t the Dragons’ Maw. Yeah, it did have some fancy decor and soothing music in the background, but he could see bottles with alcoholic beverages aligned along the wall.

“I didn’t know there was a place like this,” Seb muttered in confusion. “Man, getting lost can get you places.”

Behind him, Zack and Jack, the latter sitting on the former’s shoulder, looked around, not as confused as their Trainer, but still amazed.

“So this is the place where you can get drunk?” asked the Pidgeot.

“I wouldn’t like what would happen if you did,” replied the Farfetch’d with a quick shake of his head.

“We can do that after we deal with the bad guy.”

 

[Negrek]

It was crazy--Nate didn't think he'd visited the bar on this nightmare island even once the whole time he'd been here. Too busy hanging out in the hospital or some shit. If ever there was an "I need a drink" situation, then this entire bullshit "friendship festival" was definitely it. Now at last it felt like there wasn't much to do besides hang out and wait for whatever was gonna go down at the rich guy's place. No more chasing fucking legends, no more difficult conversations, he was going to get some lunch and a drink and not move from this fucking spot until someone told him to.

Mightyena was asleep under his chair, and Nate wished he could join her. He at least wasn't dropping off randomly like he had been, but he was pretty sure he needed at least a week or so of sleep to get over all this island bullshit. As it was, he was afraid that if he went for a nap he'd sleep right through all the excitement. So here he was, nursing some nachos and a beer, alternately bored and relieved that there was nothing going on. For once.