Treasure Town ~ Marketplace

[Chibi Pika]

Starr let out a snort at Rocky's comment. "Does it even count if you don't have a stomach?" she asked, sliding into the booth. Then again, if that was the case, then what the hell was Bahamut doing up on that wall?

"Last time the team came here, I didn't actually order anything--just cribbed off Cabot and Curio." Wild to think that back then the bowl had been bigger than her. "So y'know, figured I might as well pay the place another visit before we all leave. I don't think I'll actually be able to finish the damn thing." Then again, now that she was here... it did smell really good. And she was pretty sure she hadn't been this hungry when they first got to Treasure Town.

 

[Namohysip]

There were indeed other kinds of foods for Nate to order. It seemed to have a bit of a theme with spice and curries, but there were more modest options, too. Smaller bowls; curry with cheese; curry with seafood; curry with vegetables. All of it with rice, of course. There were also dumplings, noodles both thick and thin, fried potatoes, spiral potatoes, and some kind of garlic loaded potato mash as a side to go with heartier items like steak. Almost everything had a curry option, naturally. One of the staple, new dishes--perhaps a chef specialty?--was something called the curry onion volcano, which had a vegetarian option alongside it with slightly different ingredients.

Price wise, most of it seemed expensive, if only due to the high quality. Starr and Nate's presences were certainly welcome, though. Simply entering had led to a few new customers taking seats and ordering food just to watch from afar. At least Cibuseans were respectful and kept their distance.

Unless spotted by an extremely perceptive eye, there was also a familiar Flygon nearby, taking notes.

 

[Negrek]

"So? It doesn't say anything about a stomach on the sign." Rocky's eyes gleamed. "I'm gonna eat the whole thing! I bet I could eat two."

"All right," Nate said with a laugh. "Think I'm gonna go for something normal-sized. Don't really want to feel like I could go for a swim in my dinner if I wanted." Seemed like if he was here, he really ought to get something curry, though. Maybe the seafood one. He liked fish a lot better as a marshtomp than he did as a human, which was kind of fucked up, because now he was a fish.

Nate set the menu aside and leaned back in his chair. "Curio, huh? Damn. Guess it really was a while ago." That had been the riolu, right?

He looked out the window at Treasure Town's quiet street. "Weird being back in town again." Not... bad. But weird.

 

[Chibi Pika]

"I know, right? I'm not usually the nostalgic sort, but it's weird thinking back on it all." Even weirder to think that the last time Starr was in here, she and Brisa hated each other's guts. "Then again, I'm not really used to living in one place for so long, so any chance to get out of Destiny Village is a plus. Thinking I might try to check out a bunch of the travel stops on the other continents before going back home."

Starr's eyes wandered around the restaurant, and all the people who'd taken note of their arrival. This sort of attention really would've been bad news back home, but here? Well, she wasn't going to pretend like she didn't enjoy the admiration.

 

[Namohysip]

After placing their orders, Starr, Nate, and Rocky were left to their own devices for a time, the waiter only briefly returning to ask if they wanted any drinks. They were given water at the start.

Occasionally, Starr, Nate, and Rocky might catch some buzzing from the other patrons between more casual conversations.

". . . that dark one, he's staying?"

"Yes, that one's apparently native to here. . . "

". . . cute Marshtomp with them?"

". . . human? The Incineroar? Amazing..."

". . . my number?"

"Don't do it, you dolt . . ."

". . . arm wrestle . . ."

 

[Negrek]

Nate ordered a beer to go with his food, and Rocky took a soda as usual. Nate tried to ignore the pokémon that were still taking a blatant interest in their table but couldn't help hunching over in his seat a bit. He wished they could have gotten takeout.

"Damn, really?" he asked Starr. "I mean, we only been in Destiny Village... less than six months, right?" He had no idea they moved the execs around that much. At least his commanders had never seemed to go anywhere. "I've been in Saffron all my life."

That hadn't been true, technically, for a while now. But that was still how he thought about it.

"That's a good idea, seeing the sights before you leave," Nate said. "Guess we ain't got long now. Use it or lose it. Pity a lot of them are like half fucking destroyed now."

"Can I come?" Rocky asked. "We barely ever leave Destiny Village except to fight things. It's boring!"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr shrugged. "Yeah well, I was traveling around Johto with my friends for a year or so before coming here, so I got pretty used to moving around a bunch. Might not've been totally necessary, but eh. Call me paranoid, but we pissed off the boss so I'm not talking any chances." Occasionally she would remember that Giovanni was still stuck in jail here and she couldn't help smirking internally.

Rocky was staring at her, overeager as usual. "Y'know, I'm pretty sure you'll have all the time in the world to see as much of Cibus as you want," she pointed out with a bit of a laugh.

 

[Negrek]

"I will," Rocky said. He sighed loudly. "But I won't have anybody to see it with."

God, not this shit again. The insane curry bowl couldn't show up fast enough; at least that would distract him. "So it's gonna be back to traveling around Johto for you soon, huh?" Nate said. "But I guess from what you said... ain't exactly gonna be a sightseeing kinda trip."

 

[Namohysip]

Soon, their food arrived, starting first with Nate's smaller meal. It seemed that the curry for Starr was made fresh to order, but she was assured that it would be coming next. The soda visibly bubbled in Rocky's head any time he took a drink, giving a sensation not unlike gas-infused crystal candies.

The beer was light, perhaps so it didn't get in the way of the curry that was coming. That lightness would make for a convenient way to stagger out the heavy flavors of the seafood and curry combo, at least. The main seafood seemed to be a slab of a river-dwelling fish, while chunks of a crustacean helped give the curry some body, along with the bed of rice that occupied a third of the plate.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr had kind of expected the giant curry bowls to take longer getting out, but that didn't make it any easier when Nate's curry came out first. She hadn't been that hungry when they first got to Treasure Town, had she?

"Eh, yes and no," Starr replied, running a claw along the silverware on her side of the table. "Legit had a lot of good times traveling around the past year or so, buuut my friends got mixed up in some Legendary shit that's, hm... kind of a lot like the deal we made with Diyem that got us here in the first place?" Starr really didn't like that she could actually relate to that patron-chosen nonsense now, ugh. And she'd actually thought Diyem was a legend for a little while, too...

"What about you?" Starr asked. "I always got the impression you couldn't wait to get home, but also that home kinda sucked too."

 

[Negrek]

Nate's dinner showed up before everybody else's. Smelled damn delicious, too. He hesitated, uncertain. Was he supposed to wait for everybody else to get their stuff, or...?

Eh, fuck it. Starr was probably going to scarf her curry down in like two seconds when it came, so he needed to eat fast. Besides, he was hungry.

Rocky watched wistfully while Nate dug into his curry. "Legendaries, huh? Legendaries in Johto. Lugia, Ho-Oh, the three beasts, and... Celebi." He cringed a little at that last name, but Nate didn't notice.

"Really? That's gotta suck for them, if it's anything like the shit we've been dealing with, except they can die because it's, like, real life." He gulped down some of his beer and went for the fish. "Or I dunno. Maybe Ho-Oh can help out with that or something."

Starr's question gave him pause, though. Nate poked his spoon in the curry for a moment, then took the opportunity to get some more rice. "Well, I ain't going home after this. Only closer," he said. "But you're right. It's pretty shit. But... it's home." He stuffed some more curry in his face.

"This is pretty good shit," Nate said after a few moments, crunching through some kind of fake shrimp thing. "I'd offer you some, but, you know. Guess you probably want to stay hungry for your giant curry thing."

(( Unrelated, but I'm so excited to see what legendary patron Starr ends up stuck with! It'd be hilarious if she made it to the end of the story as the Only Sane Woman while all her friends became legendary-chosen heroes, but I don't think it can last. Whoever it ends up being, I bet their relationship will end up being loads of fun. ))

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Even if it's shit, it's home," Starr mused. "I hear you there." She had the fleeting thought of dragging her friends and team here and leaving all the Rocket bullshit behind. Still... it wasn't as though the people she missed were the only thing worth missing about home.

"Yeah, I don't think there's any kind of Legendary bullshit back home that'll raise the dead," she added with a dry laugh. "But hell, what do I know. I guess if you're gonna get mixed up in Rocket shit, better to have a legend watching your back." That is, if the Legendaries weren't such fucking cowards.

One detail had jumped out at her from what Nate had said. He wasn't going home after this. Just what the hell was up with that?

"'Closer', huh... Don't tell me you were on some kind of worldjumping adventure before Diyem dragged our asses here," Starr said with a smirk.

She was half tempted to just steal some of Nate's curry, but nah. That'd just make it even harder to put a dent in the giant bowl that was on its way.

 

[Negrek]

"I guess," Nate said. "The only legends I've ever met in my world have been complete dicks, so I think I'd take my chance with Rocket, personally." He smirked bitterly before spearing another piece of fish. "Because of one of them that, yeah, some other worldjumping adventure. Or timejumping, I dunno. But assuming Diyem sends me back to the moment he pulled me from, I'm still gonna be a long damn way from home. Sounds like we both got our problems, huh?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Timejumping. The hell? Starr had gotten used to the usual flavors of Cibus bullshit, but the idea of one of them running into something like that before getting here was another thing entirely.

"Back up... 'timejumping'?" Starr repeated blankly. "Uh... that sort of thing common where you come from?" She paused for a bit and then added, "Is that why you've always talked like you were a Mudkip before you got here?" Starr hadn't paid it much mind before, but only now had it registered that that didn't make any sense given what she knew about him.

 

[Namohysip]

And finally, a new, heaping bowl of curry arrived, just as rich and filled with extra bits and treats as Nate's was, only greater, more, truly a staple of excess and a flourishing civilization. It was set down on the table with a light thunk, and Starr was left to her new challenge. The steam rose into the air and the smell was just as powerful. The rice was a mountain and the curry, a lake, and Starr was the titan who had to break it down.

 

[Negrek]

"No, not that I know of. But I guess if a bunch of people were getting chucked into the past or the future or whatever, they wouldn't exactly be able to say much about it." Nate shook his head. "Who the fuck knows if it's time travel, anyhow. Don't know that I buy that humans just fucking vanished at some point. Seems more likely it's the same kind of deal as happened here, some asshole ganked me into another dimension."

"Celebi does time travel, though," Rocky said. "And that's who sent you there..."

"Supposedly. I've only got the words of some dickhead to go on there. And they don't exactly make a lot of fucking sense." He gripped his beer tight and took a sip to give himself a moment to calm down. "So anyway, yeah, that's the plan, get shoved back to other mudkip world, find Celebi, tell him the dickhead's sorry for breaking his rock and can I go home now, please?" He scowled at his curry. "Gotta enjoy having fucking hands while I still can, I guess."

Nate was saved from saying more by the arrival of Starr's curry, which was certainly some kind of fucking event. Nate was pretty sure he could go for a swim in that bowl if he wanted. "Holy shit," he said. "They don't fuck around in this place. What all do you even think is in there?"

Rocky's eyes lit up at the sight of Starr's huge curry bowl, then dimmed again when no other was forthcoming. "Hey," he said. "Where's mine?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr stared at Nate, eyebrow raised. "Well that's a lot to unpack there. Uh... good luck getting home, I guess? Never really thought about what happens when you get two levels deep into worldjumping. Then again, we've got a lot of people here with experience in hopping between worlds, so... I dunno, maybe one of them could figure out a way to get you home? Seems like it's worth a shot, anyway."

Starr's train of thought was cut off by the thud of a fucking enormous curry lake being set on the table right in front of her.

"Shittt," Starr muttered, gaping at it. Somehow it was bigger than she remembered. Good thing she was starving? Starr grabbed her spoon and started to dig in, and--yes. There were the flavors she'd been missing. God, this stuff was good.

 

[Negrek]

"Maybe," Nate said absently. It wasn't a bad idea, but he didn't know that his situation was like most of the other world-hoppers'. Seemed like most of them had got sent off to save the world or the universe or like two universes or whatever the fuck, not babysit some asshole. But it was hard to focus on all that dreary shit with Starr going to town on this monster curry bowl right in front of him. Nate took a lazy spoonful of his own dinner and watched Starr tear through hers like she hadn't eaten in a week. "Whoah, slow down, slow down," he said teasingly. "Pace yourself and shit, yeah? Don't want to find out what all that curry tastes like going the other way."

Rocky was watching Starr eat, too. Morosely. Nate waved at a passing waiter. "Hey! Can we get another one of the big curry things over here?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I-it's right on the way! It's... hard to carry two at once," The waiter said hastily, and just as he said this, indeed, the second curry bowl was incoming, though there was a worried look on the carrier as he seemed to be looking for a place to set it without bumping into other bowls. The other waiter quickly helped move some things out of the way before setting it down and, indeed, it was the same size as Starr's. Twin peaks, and it was somehow, despite the quantity, almost uniformly the same, aside from the placements of all the food being just a bit different.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr let out a snort. "I'll be fine. Besides, I doubt I'll even be able to get through half of this disaster." She took another bite. And then another. It didn't seem like she was getting full yet, but maybe it would just hit her all at once. Then again, she and Brisa had been burning a ton of energy in the colosseum lately...

And then the second one arrived. Starr chuckled as Rocky stared at it with stars in his eyes. "Do you even need to eat? I sorta lost track of how you guys... work now."