farawayplace | (no subject)

(no subject)

Everybody enjoying another peaceful, carefree day in Ultern? Good, because there's a sparkle in the sky other than Ulternian sunshine and look, it's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's...

"TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAAAAA—huh? Hey, wait a minute...! Jessie? Meowth?! Where is everybody?!"

Before James can get an answer, he'll be crash-landing in Ohritori! Face full of sand on Stardust Beach? Embarrassingly suspended from a palm tree or even an Exeggutor? Or taking a miserably full-clothed dip in the sea? (Brrr!)

((Is this going to be a repeat of Mairin landing on various ships and needing to be rescued multiple times—perhaps, fortunately, both Mairin and James have terrible luck and certainly can wind up in fixes more times than they can count... maybe he's under the impression he can just launch himself back into the sky and find his friends, who knows?! But he just keeps landing here... oof.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's true," Chloe smiles.

She can sense the awkwardness and perhaps concern when the total is announced. She's not sure what to do in this situation. James clearly intends to gentlemanly pay, which is very kind, but Chloe wonders if she should let him or if she should offer to cover some of the cost. If he wants to pay, it might look rude to spoil that.... But if he really can't afford so much, he shouldn't start out with so little.... Oh, she's never been good at these dilemmas.

"Eevee-vee!" Eevee obliviously chirps, batting at a pendant on display.

"No, don't do that!" Chloe exclaims, gently covering Eevee's paw.

"O-oh, does Eevee like that?" James asked, watching her play with a pendant.

He reached over and, smiling a bit apologetically at the cashier, picked it up. "Let's have this one too, okay?"

He paid for everything, in the end.

Edited 2024-03-17 21:09 (UTC)

Chloe was mortified for Eevee to play with the pendant, even moreso for James to decide to get that too. But Eevee was thrilled and rubbed the pendant and warbled.

Finally Chloe smiled. That was adorable, and maybe now she had a halfway decent solution.

"You've been very sweet," she said. "Since you treated us to shopping, how about we treat you to lunch?"

James watched Eevee play happily with her pendant and felt reassured he made the right choice.

Before James could say anything at all, his belly rumbled.

He laughed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "If you will! Please, lead the way... I'm sorry to be a bother..."

Honestly, even if it hadn't rumbled, he very likely would have accepted... he didn't have much left after that. He really did put beauty before most things! And he was often starving. He was in no position to refuse!

"You really are quite kind..."

"It's no bother," Chloe smiled as she put the pendant on Eevee. "I'm sure we're all hungry."

Eevee chirped.

"The food over here is really good." Chloe led him to one of the food booths. They mostly served fast food type things, but they had a few other casual dining options too.

James will be ogling absolutely everything, eyes wide... everything looks and sounds good!

"I... I really can't decide!" James confessed, practically salivating! "Please pick for me, you know better."

He's so happy to be here! Just sniffing appreciatively at the smell of food and looking forward to eating.

"Okay, if you're sure," Chloe said as she looked over the menu. "The cheesy scrambled eggs with soybean bacon are really good."

Eevee cheered.

More audible rumbling!

James happily shut his eyes, imagining the meal.

"That sounds lovely! Yes, it'll be perfect, I think."

"Okay!" Chloe smiled. She placed the order of three of the dish, one of them in a kids' size for Eevee, and sat down at the counter. The waitress smiled and headed off to see about it.

Eevee rubbed the menu.

"She's very curious, isn't she?" James asked, smiling a little.

Mime Jr. sent itself out, appearing besides them, clinging to the edge of the counter.
"Ah, hello, Mime Jr.!"
Mime Jr. returned the greeting cheerfully, watched Eevee, then tried to mimic her.

"She sure is," Chloe said. "She loves to explore everything."

Eevee also loved meeting new friends! She happily greeted Mime Jr. and chatted about the fun day and the food coming up.

"Oh, that's a cute Pokemon," Chloe said. She wasn't too familiar with this one!

"It is, isn't it? My Mime Jr. isn't really a battler... would you believe it caught itself? I accidentally dropped a pokeball and Mime Jr. ran for it!"

Mime Jr. happily repeated Eevee's words, especially about the food! It seemed to like repeating what was said more than making new sentences, but its feelings of excitement were clear in how it said them.

Eevee doesn't seem to mind the phrase-repeating, especially since she sees the excitement! She keeps talking.

"That's so cute," Chloe said. "It must have really wanted to be yours."

"It did! It lived in one of my family's vacation homes, much like Carnivine..." James said, petting Mime Jr.'s head fondly. "I played with Carnivine as a boy, but Mime Jr. was new. I guess... it really wanted to come. Maybe it didn't want me to be lonely after leaving poor, sweet Chimecho with Nanny and Pop-Pop..."

Mime Jr. turned and happily and mimicked James petting it by rubbing on his hand. It seemed like they could keep this up for a while!

"Chimecho?" Chloe repeated. "Why did you have to leave Chimecho behind?"

She smiled at Mime Jr.'s cuteness.

"... And wait, did you say vacation homes?" she said in surprise. "Your family's rich?"

She couldn't help wondering what he was doing in Team Rocket.

"Chimecho was sick," James said with a frown. "It had a really bad fever... I couldn't really take care of it well enough on my own."

At her question, James realized she probably didn't know. "I guess... you never encountered one, huh? Misty, May, and Dawn knew, so I thought you might've, too... sorry."

His smile suddenly became nervous and he looked a bit more withdrawn. He stopped petting Mime Jr., who looked at him with confused concern.
He gripped the edge of the counter instead, looking down.

"... they are. I won't inherit any of it, so it's got nothing to do with me, really..."

Chloe hadn't ever seen a Chimecho. Now she felt a bit embarrassed by how little she still really knew about Pokemon despite her dad being a researcher.

"No, I haven't," she said, blushing a bit. "Do they get sick a lot?"

And she blushed more to see she hit a sensitive spot. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said.

Well, that explained some things....

Oh, it seems she might've misunderstood. He meant his vacation homes, not Chimecho, he hadn't intended to make Chloe feel insecure about her lack of knowledge or experience! He turned to her with a reassuring, gentle smile.

"It's alright... it's actually a very uncommon Pokemon. I'm not surprised you never met one. They're very rare! I only ever saw a Chimecho once before, as a small child, that was being sold at a festival. I could never forget the soothing sound of that Heal Bell... I always wanted one... I even got scammed, sold a Hoppip painted to look like one, but I met my Chimecho, a real, wild Chimecho, shortly after that."

He's happy to discuss Pokemon instead of his family situation.

"Yeah... they wouldn't let me inherit, unless I married someone they picked for me... so I gave it all up and ran away. That's what led me to living like, well, this," he said with a little shrug, and hugged his waist while he waited for the food to arrive, to try and keep the pangs of hunger at bay. "Thank you, though, for listening. You're a very kind, gentle girl."

He hoped it'd make up for making her feel so ignorant earlier! He didn't mean to...

Chloe relaxed, but was intrigued by the tale of the Chimecho.

"I had no idea they're that rare," she said, fascinated.

"Eevee-vee!" said Eevee. She wanted to meet one!

She frowned at James' explanation of his family life. "That's terrible," she said. "I always hated when it seemed like people decided for me what I was going to be. That made me not even want much to do with Pokemon for a long time. But my family, at least, didn't push me. I've only recently started to find my path." She petted Eevee, who warbled happily.

The food arrived, brought by the smiling waitress.

"Thank you," Chloe said, and she and Eevee dug in.

"That is awful," James said, frowning. "People should really let us decide for ourselves what we want to do.. they're our lives to live, after all."

He smiled, watching her pet Eevee. "I'm glad you're finding what you truly want to be!"

James eagerly sat up, Mime Jr. mimicking him. "Thank you very much!"

He'll happily tear into his food eagerly, but also break off little bits of egg for Mime Jr. to share. Mime Jr. quickly grew full, as it was a very small Pokemon.

When James was finished and sat back, rubbing his belly in satisfaction, Mime Jr. mimicked him too.

"That was the best!"

"Yeah," Chloe said. "That's exactly how I feel."

She nodded. "I decided on my own to research Pokemon part-time. I'm especially interested in evolution."

"Eeveeee!" said Eevee, who loved all her evolutions and couldn't decide on just one to be! She rather wished she could switch between them at will, but at least her Copycat ability allowed her to experience a little part of that.

She smiled as they all enjoyed the meal. "They always have great food here," she said. "It's one of my favorite places in Ultern."

"That sounds like a fascinating field to study! There's still a lot we don't know about how it works, right?"

Mime Jr. looked curious and asked to see her ability! Does it work on all Pokemon or just her evolutions? It explained that it can use others' moves too, using Mimic!

"Then, I'll have to come by again sometime..." James said happily, even if he didn't know when that might be.

"Yeah! I've already been learning so many things," Chloe said. "I wonder if someday we'll figure out why Eevee can't evolve."

Eevee would be happy to show it! She can copy a move from any Pokemon if they use it first.

"They'll be happy to serve you," Chloe said.

"Oh, your Eevee can't evolve?" James asked, frowning a bit.

Mime Jr. happily offered to show her Teeter Dance, although it warned that it'll make everyone dance too, so maybe they should do it after everyone finishes eating! It'll be a fun surprise!

James couldn't confirm whether he'd afford it or not, so he simply smiled in response.

"Yeah, she doesn't even evolve when stones are used," Chloe said. "We think it might be that she just can't decide what to be, but normally it seems like evolution can just happen anyway. It's really amazing to think a Pokemon might really be able to will it not to happen if they don't want it, even subconsciously."

Eevee thinks Teeter Dance sounds so very fun indeed! She can hardly wait!

no subject

[welp!]

[Awww, James.]

[awww, nicest way this could go ;3; ]

[Yes!]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[I fell off the tagging truck, whoops--had two days in a row with emergencies, catching up on sleep]

Totally understandable! It sounds very hectic.