Treasure Town ~ Marketplace

[Negrek]

Rocky bounded excitedly in his seat as the waiter struggled to find a place to set his curry bowl. The pokémon barely managed to get out of the way before the familiar dug into his meal, shoveling rice and curry into his mouth without any need to chew. Nate looked hurriedly away--the sight of the sauce and rich and bits of things swirling around in the familiar's shadowy ectoplasm wasn't doing wonders for his own appetite.

He didn't have that much food left, anyway. Nate picked at his last bits of fish while Rocky made unholy wet noises shoving the curry into his ectoplasm, merrily exclaiming away the whole time. "It's so spicy! It's spicier than anything I've ever tasted! I've never had curry before. This is great!"

He turned glowing eyes on Starr without slowing down for a moment. "I don't need to eat," he said. "But it's fun! Tasting things is fun! I knew what it was like to taste things from Marshtomp's memories already, but it's way better to feel what it's like for myself." The familiar's flames blazed high with delight--or maybe that was just the spiciness working its magic on him. Who knew? "I bet I can finish mine faster," Rocky told Starr.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Man, watching shades eat was weird. And vaguely unsettling. Where did it go?? Did it go anywhere? Weird...

"Yeah, something tells me that even with my head start, that's gonna be a losing bet when you don't have any organs," Starr replied indifferently. Racing to finish was a pretty stupid idea.

And yet...

"Eh, fuck it--you're on." Starr grabbed her spoon and got to work.

 

[Negrek]

"You're gonna lose!" Rocky said, grinning, and resumed shoveling curry into his mouth. Soon enough he abandoned his spoon and started going at it with his bare hands.

"Rocky, for fuck's sake," Nate said. It wasn't like it mattered, really, whether the food went in Rocky's mouth or anywhere else, since his ectoplasm would absorb it all the same. Probably? Nate didn't even know how long it took for him to really "digest" things. Was he just going to be knocking back curry and rice until he turned into a big shadowy ball of the stuff?

Eurgh. Nate tried to block out everything that was going on on that side of the table. Starr was competitive for sure, but he hoped she wasn't really going to try and outrace that.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr stared at Rocky. Okay, she really wasn't sure what she'd been expecting.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna fuckin use my hands," she managed to say after swallowing a huge mouthful. Still, going at it without thinking too hard did have its benefits. Starr was pretty sure she would've quit by now if she'd been taking her time. She downed another spoonful. That time the spoon touched the bottom. Hot damn, she was actually getting close. There was no way she'd actually finish, though... right?

 

[Negrek]

The noises Rocky was making were truly horrendous. Nate tried to pretend he wasn't there--wasn't like he could distract himself with trying to talk to Starr, she was busy eating too, but whatever. This was obviously going to be over in a few minutes anyway.

Then some kind of vegetable or something hit him in the side of the head, sliding slowly down and leaving a slimy curry-smelling trail behind. There was rice flying everywhere. Nate swatted the piece of away in disgust and tried to rub the sauce off, too. "Rocky! For fuck's sake!" he snarled. "You're supposed to put it in your mouth, not all over the goddamned walls!"

"It's only a little bit," the familiar said indignantly. His voice wasn't the faintest bit impeded by the curry he was stuffing into his face. "You can move if it bothers you."

"Cut that shit out or I'm gonna give that bowl a water gun or something. Get you disqualified."

"You better not! I'm gonna win!"

 

[Namohysip]

People were taking videos.

 

[Negrek]

God, like they hadn't been getting too much attention already. Nate slid all the way down in his chair until his eyes were barely above the level of the table. He was probably safer from flying debris down here anyhow.

This was fine. They were only here for another couple of weeks anyway. He could just not go out in public again.

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Hey if you wanna Water Gun him, be my guest--I'm not complaining," Starr offered with as much of a laugh as she could manage through all the curry. Okay so maybe going along with Rocky's bullshit probably wasn't the best idea. Well, at least she wasn't the one sitting next to him and having to deal with the mess he was making.

"Y'know it doesn't really count as finishing if you're just gonna keep getting it all over Nate," Starr pointed out. She took another spoonful. The bottom of her own bowl was actually visible now. She was pretty sure the moment she stopped, it was all gonna hit her like a truck. So she kept going.

 

[Negrek]

"Huh. I'm not gonna make you pick up every piece of rice you drop," Rocky said dismissively. His flames blazed tall and brilliant, and his shadowy body swirled unsettlingly with rice and sauce. There were only a couple soggy islands of curry left on the bottom of his huge bowl, and the familiar was shoveling them up at speed.

Nate, nearly out of sight, tried to communicate You want I should distract him or something? using only meaningful looks and the movement of his nonexistent eyebrows.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr wasn't entirely sure what Nate was going for there, but sure, why not. She made a 'go ahead' motion that could have passed for shaking out a cramped wrist. She still wasn't sure if she was insane for actually trying to to finish this damn thing, because she sure as hell hadn't planned on it when she'd gotten here.

 

[Negrek]

Nate caught what he thought was a gesture of assent from Starr--what he hoped was one, anyhow--and turned towards Rocky. He was thinking he might just blow the familiar's head off with a water gun, which always annoyed him, but faced with the spectacle of the familiar's "eating," Nate could only imagine Rocky's head popping like a grotesque balloon and showering him with curry. Eurgh.

Instead, he took more careful aim...

Rocky froze in place when a shower of water doused his energy flames, leaving his head to emit curls of ectoplasmic smoke. He patted at the back of his head with a hand and pulled it away damp. He turned furious glowing eyes on Nate. "Hey!" With a sizzle and a whoomph of hot air, the flames returned.

Nate had emerged from under the table and now leaned back in his chair. He smiled insolently and spat another streamer of water. Rocky's flames fizzed and died again. "Stop that!" Rocky said, shaking water droplets from his head so curry sauce roiled viscously through his shadowy skull. In a second, his flames were back on. He watched Nate warily, fully expecting another attack, and then comprehension gleamed in his eyes. "You're trying to distract me!"

Nate smirked. "Is it working?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr stifled a laugh before going back to her own curry. She really didn't have any reason to give a shit about winning a pointless contest with an opponent who couldn't even lose normally.

...But it also meant she didn't give a shit about cheating either.

Another bite. God, it just kept going. And yet, she was actually getting close. How in the hell... eh, she was better off not questioning it.

A few more bites, each one feeling more impossible than the last, and then--

Starr slammed her spoon on the table. "Done."

 

[Negrek]

"What?!" Rocky whirled back towards his bowl, staring at Starr in dismay. "But that's--that's not fair! Marshtomp was distracting me!"

"I dunno if it was fair for you to challenge Starr in the first place, given that you don't even need to take time to, you know, chew or swallow or any of that," Nate said. "Just trying to even the odds a bit."

Rocky stared morosely at the lonely islands of curry remaining in his bowl. Nate patted his back--carefully, he didn't want to get curry sauce on himself--and said, "Go on, finish the rest of that off. They'll still put a picture of you on the wall and all."

To Starr he said, "Well, congratulations, I guess. That sure was something. How're you feeling?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr slumped back against the booth, her body swimming in an ocean of endorphins from all the spice. On the one hand, the warm, light sensation was undeniably satisfying. On the other hand, she wasn't entirely sure she could move.

"Feeling... like I'm not sure why I did that." She slumped lower in her seat. "Best fucking curry I ever had, though." She was now almost horizontal. "Guess I can live here until the next mission."

 

[Negrek]

Nate laughed, and Rocky sullenly shoved the last little bit of his curry into his mouth. "Yeah, I figure you gotta be feeling that," Nate said with a smile. "Impressive as shit. Lucky you're an incineroar, huh? Bet you wouldn't have had much luck as a human. Tack that one onto your list of accomplishments, huh? Defeated Giovanni, defeated a god... defeated an absolutely fucking massive bowl of curry..."

There wasn't much beer left in Nate's bottle. He took a small sip and said, "Don't get too comfortable down there, though. Think they gotta take your picture still and shit. No peace for us heroes, huh?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr chuckled, and then immediately regretted it as it made her very aware of just how stuffed she was. "...Fuck yeah," she managed, giving a thumbs up. Right about now, defeating the curry felt like the hardest of the three.

Picture. Riiiight... the picture for the hall of fame. Starr had forgotten all about that. Part of her brain wanted to just pass out right then and there, but she managed to grab the edge of the booth and hoist herself into something vaguely close to a sitting position. Then she remembered that the three of them had been far from alone in the restaurant.

 

[Namohysip]

The Pokemon were all watching in awe, and the waiter peered into the bowl just to make sure it had been cleaned. "It... really is empty. Amazing! I--I'll get the picture taker right now, just hold on!" And he rushed away, returning at lightning speeds with a huge looking, outdated, traditional camera of some kind that was larger than his head. He wobbled as he took aim. "Hold still... Say, curry!"

 

[Negrek]

Nate smirked again and leaned as far as he could away from the table, doing everything he could to make sure he wasn't in the frame. "Big smile now," he said. "You've gotta make up the slack for Bahamut, right?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

"Yeah, yeah," Starr grumbled, pulling herself into a more upright position and rolling her eyes at Nate's shit-eating grin. She did her best to force something that might have looked like a smile if she didn't feel close to passing out.

"I guess the upside is now I can say that I've done it. Cause yeah, not doing anything like this again."

 

[Negrek]

"I bet," Nate said, still grinning. "Must have been an experience, though, huh? Not something you could pull off as a human." At least he hoped not. Jesus.

Rocky was accosting the photographer to get his own picture taken, still with all the rice and veggies and reddish sauce floating around in his ectoplasm. Nate shuddered. So the restaurant was going to get to hang a photo of that monstrosity on the wall, huh? Great way to put people off their dinners.

"Anyhow," he said to Starr, "got to get that shit in while you still can, huh? What do you say?" He raised his beer for a toast. "To being a pokémon and trying new things, huh? And to Cibus and all its bullshit?" He paused. "If you can get anything else down, I guess."