Post by Bianca Moreno on Feb 16, 2014 13:46:18 GMT -6
January, Third Week
"Are you serious? I'd pay you half that at the most."
Mi-aro may have been a new start for humanity, but some things never changed. There was always someone trying to make a quick buck off of another person's ignorance, someone who would offer you a corka, try to pass it off as a corsola, and run before you realized that you'd paid for a battle pokemon and gotten seafood. Scavengers were people without any government backing, often lacking pokemon or having not very powerful ones, who were quick to grab anything they found slightly off the beaten path and then run to town and make someone believe it could be the next big discovery. They played off the mystery of the new world, tried to make people pay top dollar for possibilities.
Sometimes it paid off for the buyer, who not only got the metaphorical corsola, but a shiny, or powerful mutant one. However, most of the time, the sucker of the week had the metaphorical corka, instead. Or a rock carved into the shape of one. Needless to say, in a world with only two human settlements, it was easy to make oneself a pariah very quickly with such tactics, but some people did it anyway.
Unfortunately for this particular scavenger, Bianca could sense a potential corka a mile away, but rather than walking away, she was going have some fun with the man who'd decided that the 'sweetie pie'--she'd tried so hard not to erupt into laughter when he actually addressed her as that--with a spritzee sitting on her shoulder was going to be an easy target. Bianca loved to haggle, and what he was offering her, she figured just might be worth haggling over: A pokemon egg, which he claimed he found sitting near the Crystalline Pool, which many said was likely to have mystical properties of a sort.
"Oh, come now, miss. This could be a pokemon never seen by human eyes!" he said, waving his hand toward the egg. The little man with his scruffy beard still had a big smile on his face, clearly deciding to stick with his strategy of enchanting the woman who prancing around wearing a purple pirate bandana with the promise of discovery.
Bianca's continued deadpan expression likely made clear how well that plan was working. "Or," she said, crossing her arms, "It could be a rattata." Bianca actually considered rattata to be adorable little creatures, with their big ears, long whiskers, curly tails and rich purple coats, but he sure didn't need to know that, and she was sure she could go out and wrangle one for a lot cheaper than he was asking for for this egg.
"Look at the egg. You clearly know your pokemon, miss. Surely you can tell that this no mere rattata." He held out his prize toward her, as if to give her a better view of how undeniably special it was. Bianca resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the transparent attempt at flattery. They both knew that if he really thought it was anything special, he'd be at the Lab by now and handing it over to them. "You could breed this pokemon, corner the market on a rare species!" Bianca again tried very not hard to raise a brow and point out that he could corner said market, too, if it was a rare species. He was digging himself into a hole here, really; with every word he confirmed his lack of confidence in his find.
Now, here came the option of either continuing to argue, which would likely send them in circles, or play the 'look like a crazy person' card. She glanced sideways at Rosa, who was being a nice, patient spritzee and continuing to sit on her shoulder, and decided that the latter would be much more fun. She suddenly scooped Rosa up off her shoulder and held her in her hands instead, and turned so that her back was facing the man. "What do you think, Miss Rosa? Is it worth our time?" she asked, pretending that she was trying to whisper while instead making sure he could hear every word. With a smirk and a wink, she mouthed the words 'say no.'
Bianca turned back around, and Rosa obediently shook her entire body, then stuck her beak in the air with the most disgusted twittering sound she could muster. Holding back the urge to grin and giggle, she placed Rosa back on her shoulder. "Well, you heard the bird, honey. No deal."
"But-"
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have important mercenary work to get to. If you haven't noticed, Port City has a bit of a pest problem." She gave a swift, dramatic turn on her heel and started walking away with purposeful strides, secretly grinning as she counted down the seconds in her mind. She'd run into him just on the outskirts of town, after all. By approaching the first person he found, that being her, he'd clearly been hoping to get rid of this egg quickly; every moment he hung onto it was a ticking clock toward its hatching time, and it was much easier to hype up an egg as something special that to dress up a rattata as an eevee.
"Wait!" Bianca tried very hard not to laugh as she stopped in her tracks, glancing very slightly over her shoulder. Hook. Line. Sinker. "For such a particularly lovely lady, who would clearly take good care of it, I can perhaps part with it for half."
Yup, he really was that desperate. Didn't even try to see if he could get her come back with a smaller price-cut. It wasn't that surprisingly. If he had found the egg near the Crystalline Pool like he said, that meant he'd either found no suckers in New Pallet, or he'd played his game with them enough times in the past that, this time, they'd just run him out of town before he could start his sales pitch. He'd braved the Winding Path, all to get to a big city that was currently infested with anorith. An infestation she'd just ensured was fresh in his mind.
Now, she had to ask herself if it was worth it. Taking care of an egg was hard work, but she knew she'd have two volunteers ready to help in the form of Bela and Rosa. Raising a pokemon from birth had its own host of problems, but it did avoid the whole 'trying to attack your face' part of the taming process with adult feral pokemon, which would be nice. Plus, if he was telling the truth about where he found it, she could think of a couple of species generally found in that area that could be worth it. Like a snubbull. Snubbull were adorable.
Oh, why not? She had the cash, and she wasn't above a gamble. She turned around, allowed a small smile to grace her features, and held out her hand. "You've got yourself a deal, honey."
---
Well, the egg had certainly gone over particularly well with one of her pokemon. For being of a species that, apparently, had been mostly egg-eaters when they'd been in the wild in the old world, Bela had taken immediately to the unborn child the moment she saw it and now absolutely insisted to be the one to carry it everywhere. Bianca relented and allowed her to, though not before she herself had cloaked the egg in a blanket to ensure it would be kept warm and properly cushioned, but she kept shooting her sneasel glances as she carried it in her arms.
Bianca knew Bela wouldn't drop it--and even if she did, she was only about three feet tall and that cushioning was there for a reason--but the moment the exchange of money had happened, the egg had become her responsibility, and not being able to hold it herself made her a bit twitchy.
Right now, however, she tried her best to push the feelings aside and exude a look of professionalism--well, as professional as the woman with the low-cut top and skull-and-crossbones bandana really could--as she strode into the Emissary that afternoon. She'd failed to get her hands on any extra anorith beyond her initial trio in these following weeks for a number of a factors. One was the fact that it seemed, once the more bold and aggressive ones had been taken care of, a percentage of the swarm were using more stealthy tactics to cause trouble. Two was her dedication to ensuring her family didn't loose any food and their house didn't get damaged in the attacks, which resulted in her mostly patrolling around her neighbourhood and only occasionally heading into other areas of the city; she'd actually been pretty lucky to be near that scavenger at all.
Three was the fact that she had perhaps, maybe, been roped into helping a few people with some small repairs of their homes and places of business. Gratis. Because apparently some of the female merchants around town would prefer to ask a lady with significant upper-body strength to help them than a man, and because Bianca apparently, despite being well-versed in batting her eyes, fell for that exact same tactic like a ton of bricks every time.
I make a horrible mercenary, she thought faintly with a smirk as she approached the attendant's desk. Oh well. Bianca leaned on the desk slightly, still smirking, and greeted the person behind it with a casual, "Hey, sweetie." She smoothly pulled out three pokeballs and placed them on top of the desk. "Could you let the Ambassador know that I've got three of those anorith with me?"
Feral Egg: 1/75
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