16 Dizzy spell
This morning I'm heading to scope out my target I plan to burgle, and checking out the "pokemart" that regular people buy from..
Like 60% of people buy the league sanctioned pokemarts, mainly because they sell in bulk and are generally cheaper..but they don't sell to people who "look poor" for whatever reason, last time I showed up there dressed in my rags when I was still at the orphanage, they had security escort me out… rude fuckers
I reckon maybe another 25-30% of people buy form your typical mom and pop shops that are littered all over the city….I'm not sure if that's only specific to Viridian city, but I doubt it…
And finally you have the underbelly of Viridian, the other 10-15% who have carved out a small chunk of the city for themselves and do all of the business that the league deem as illegal..
Which I found kind of funny, because where the black market is, and what you can do/buy there, isn't exactly a secret as pretty much everyone I've ever asked told me where it was…
So if the league actually wanted to shut down the "illegal" activities, all they would have to do is ask some random guy in a shady pub and they would have the location instantly..
So I'm pretty sure the league is on it…
I've also asked around about the gangs that run the place, turns out it's run by 2 rival gangs, the "toxic arboks", which is a bit on the nose for a gang name in my opinion
And the second gang "darkness", it's a bit chuuni, but who am I to judge?
Both gangs are pretty ruthless and having been fighting over "territory" for a few years, both make money from your typical gang activities…drugs, stealing, racketeering and lots of the usual gang violence but instead of guns and knives it's Pokémon battles…but I'm sure some people still use weapons…
I thought for awhile that the orphanage might have something to do with them, but it just didn't fit their M/O, and it didn't really click until I found out Giovanni was the Viridian city gym leader….I thought I might have been in some random AU world where rocket wasn't a thing because I never heard anyone mention them before…
But I figured Giovanni has team rocket building power in the shadows, probably going to take the city in one swoop….if he's not already controlling it from the shadows somehow..
To be honest all these speculations and theory's didn't mean much to me at the moment, all they did was feed my already bubbling paranoia..
Took me about 2 hours to to reach the pokemart from my front door dragging my cart behind me, this time meowth and slowpoke were balled, I'm not legally allowed to own a Pokémon until I'm 16, so better safe than sorry..
I pulled up my cart around the side and left it there and headed into the mart….don't be fooled by the games interpretation of Pokémarts….they are MASSIVE!
Just a glamorised warehouse with registers, like petbarn and a Walmart had a baby and force fed it steroids, they had everything a Pokémon or human could want…
I was dressed in decent clothes I bought awhile back, while I wasn't dressed like some snobby asshole, i definitely didn't look like some vagrant spawn…
Wearing a grey hoodie with a pokeball logo spread across the chest, sturdy denim jeans and some black hikers boots..I thought I looked pretty fly…
the greeters didn't look at me twice as I made my way through the automatic doors, which was a relief…I'm also not getting odd looks from everyone around me, so this already going way better than before…so I grabbed a trolley and made my move
The first thing I was curious about were berries…no other shops I've been into sell em, and I never got that far last time I was here, so the first place I checked out was the berry section..
There were tonnes of different berries on display, and it seemed they sold them by the kilo instead of individually….most of the little miracle fruits were roughly the size of a golf ball..
The description of what each one does is written on a card next to the display, and it's kind of like a deli style counter with 3 people working behind it, like a glorified fruit stand…
My god they were expensive, it's like 80$ a kilo for Oran berries, as soon as I seen that i made a hasty withdrawal and left that section as soon as I could, before near fainting at such high prices could draw attention…how can people afford that!?
I moved onto the Pokémon food section and my dizzy spell only got worse…there were 2 different kinds of Pokémon food, one for domesticated pet Pokémon who just provide companionship…which was cheap enough..
And then there was the battlers Pokémon food, which according to the label was hyper packed with nutrients meant to keep up with their dietary needs…which was 200$ for a 20kg bag…..how can people afford to have battling pokemon!!
My Pokémon consume about 6x what I do a day….each…that's before they even touch anything I've fished up…and they could both still eat if there was more on the table….oh god….when they evolve its going to be so much worse….
The only upside to this Pokémon food seems to be, it only requires 1-2 cups for small to mid sized Pokémon and 4-5 cups for larger Pokémon, and it's also not recommended for non battler Pokémon…
But that's per meal…3 meals a day….a bag MIGHT last me 2 weeks, 3 if I'm stingy…but I've been feeding slowpoke and meowth basically junk food since we met, I want to step up their diets to something better….well I guess one bag each should be ok…I'll just have to make sure to make some cash in the next week…
I ended up calling over an attendant to help explain some of the branding and different types of food they had and ended up picking 2 bags of the stuff, one specialised for normal type Pokémon, and the other for water…I asked if a slowpoke would like it, they said it should be fine
The attendant looked at me a little funny when he saw me, a child, who shouldn't own a Pokémon, buying battle mon food but he said nothing, I reckon it's pretty common for people to sidestep that rule if they really wanted too…
I also ended up buying some Pokémon grooming gear which was pretty pricey….just a few basic brushes and some shampoos that will shiny up their coat and moisturise their skin…nothing flash, but it still set me back another 70$….
But with all my mons needs taken care of for the moment I went around and spent the rest of what I had on myself, buying mainly food, and few toiletries….I was sick of eating crap, but i would have to stomach it for at least another few days until I got my hands on some more cash…
I rung everything up at the counter which came to 950$ on the dot, I handed the guy the all cash I had on me, and made my way out to the side of the pokemart where my faithful cart was waiting…
This cart has been the real MVP of my life so far, been with me almost since the beginning….
I loaded up my cart and then was about to scope out the….fuck….I didn't think this through….I can't drag a cart full of expensive groceries into the slums, I'll get mugged for sure….I guess I'll have to postpone that for today and come back tomorrow….I was not going run back home, unload my groceries and then come back….waaaaay to much time…
So I decided to just call this trip, head home to do some training with the lads and prepare to set out tomorrow to check out that store…
So, with that decided I started making my way back home, walking through the nicer side of the city as a bit of a detour, there's 3 bedroom homes with white picket fences type theme going on…everything's uniform and neighbours waving at each other with a Pokémon at their side….it was peaceful…but foreign to me now…
No one really paid attention to me….I was just a regular looking kid pulling an overloaded cart home as far as they were concerned…which is exactly what was happening…
But when I started to get a little further away from that side, I came to a more restaurant oriented part of the city that's just before the stretch of wild before the "abandoned zone", when I hear a faint rummaging in an alley..
I'd like to think myself a bit of an expect on the sounds of a rodent Pokémon scavenging food, almost being surrounded by them on the daily and all that…and that was no rodent Pokemon scavenging…
With a mild curiosity I decided to check it out if for nothing but to see if there was something worth taking…but what I found was a small pair of skinny legs clothed in very ripped pants shifting through a trash can…
And the owner of those legs suddenly pulled out of the trash can with an excited "yes!"….wait….isn't that?
"Becky?"
