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Post by Clover on Aug 17, 2017 20:17:49 GMT
Aiden didn't know the robed person behind the booth. Aiden didn't know what they wanted the ruby gems for. Aiden didn't care. Aiden just wanted the wares the robed person was selling. Fire gems, fire stones, flame plates, red eggs in a shop that otherwise mostly sold fiery things? Oh dear, he wanted all of those. And lots of them. And to fulfill his heart's latest desire, the freshly minted high school graduate needed a lot of gems.
He'd come to the plains prepared for a full day of work collecting gems. He had a wheeled cooler and a backpack stuffed with non-perishables, just in case. It wasn't all for him; Aiden's mother would have disowned him if she heard he was being greedy with food. No, no, no. Food was for sharing. There didn't seem to be anyone else around at the moment so he stopped a few yards away from the pedestal. He sat the cooler down flat and emptied the contents of his bag onto it. Granola bars, bread, peanut butter, beef jerky, ingredients for s'mores (just in case), trail mix, and all sorts of goodies fell out, along with plastic plates and cutlery--the durable, washable kind made for frequent campers, not the disposable garbage that polluted landfills for generations. Aiden wasn't about that lifestyle.
But enough about the eco-friendliness of the boy's sustenance choices. He had gems to hunt down.
With his bag empty, he got to work. Gems weren't common right around the pedestal, at least not at the surface, and Aiden didn't have any pokemon who could help him dig. So he moved around it in a spiral, gradually getting farther away from his supplies and the pedestal. And every gem he found was delicately plucked from the earth and set in his bag. One gem at a time, he would earn the items that would support his future fire types.
WORDS → 318
NOTES → open for anyone & everyone! aiden has brought enough food/drinks to last a lifetime because he's gonna be hunting ruby gems for a while. feel free to take whatever from his stuff. there's no IC items because... aiden doesn't have any of those yet.
+5 ruby gems
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2017 23:19:25 GMT
Aiden wouldn’t be alone in the plains for long. The long grass that lined the trails was swaying gently in the warm breeze one second, and the next it was rustling with clear agitation as someone forced their way through. And that someone, as he finally burst into the clearing with a put-upon look etched on his face, revealed himself to be a Rockruff. He was looking especially… poofy, with every piece of fur standing on end from the route’s ambient static. A bag was looped around his torso, dragging on the ground as he moved, and it looked to be half-full of the mysterious red gems. As Apollo came into view of the human, he straightened up, ears perking. < Hello! You’re doing this silly gem-hunt thing too, I see? > He smiled a patronizing smile. < Materialism really is a powerful force, isn’t it? > In spite of the dog’s clear issues with the situation, it was undeniable that he was out there for the same reason Aidan was. The hypocrisy, though, was lost on him. He paused to sniff at the air, his species’s legendary sense of smell zoning in on another cluster of stones a few feet away. Glancing that direction for a second, he continued. < My name’s Apollo, by the way. >WORDS: 220 TAGS: CloverNOTES: hi!! |
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Post by Clover on Aug 17, 2017 23:56:28 GMT
Aiden ignored the sound of footsteps at first; the robed man was selling some nice stuff so he'd assumed others would join him shortly. Greed was a powerful force and Aiden was one of many at its mercy.
A few moments later, he saw a Rockruff out of the corner of his eye. He was half tempted to hit himself because--fuck--he'd been ignoring a dog. Aiden was many things, and not all of them were good, but he was not heartless. The pup brought out the stupidest little smile in Aiden and if Apollo were listening closely, he'd be able to hear the little aww that slipped between the ginger's lips. Honestly, he damn near melted when he saw the little rock doggo with its perked up ears and its sardonic sense of humor.
"Materialistic as hell, little dude, that's me," Aiden said good-naturedly, beaming at Apollo. "Capitalism makes the world go 'round, y'know?" He threw in a wink. It was meant as a joke, but there was more than a little truth backing it up.
Apollo. Fuck, that was an adorable name. "Nice t'meetcha, Apollo. I'm Aiden." Aiden didn't see any other gems in the immediate vicinity but Apollo had seemed interested in something off to their right, so the boy looked that way as well. "Think there's more over there?" He let out a thoughtful hum then looked at the dog and lifted one eyebrow. (Of all the skills he'd acquired in life, that was probably Aiden's favorite.) "Interested in teaming up out here, Apollo? You sniff and dig, I'll throw 'em in our bags? You've got the nose and the paws, I've got these handy dandy opposable thumbs--we could be unstoppable gem hunters, you 'n me."
He tried to make it clear that teaming up was a temporary arrangement. For one thing, he didn't know if Apollo had a trainer or not. And for another, Apollo was a rock type. Friendly and cute as all hell, sure, but still a rock. Aiden loved dogs as much as the next sane person but when it came to the canine world, he was more interested in the Growlithes than the Rockruffs.
WORDS → 365
NOTES → hey @truffle! 10 ruby gems here so far
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2017 2:35:04 GMT
Yes, Apollo was used to people squeeing over him. Humans (and even some other pokemon) seemed to find dogs irresistibly adorable. Of course, he would much rather be admired for his intellect—that was, after all, his true strength—but he would settle for what he could get. It still felt nice. He even puffed his chest out a little at the attention. But then his baby-blue eyes widened as the human joked about capitalism. Wow. He supposed society needed people like him, who were so enthusiastically invested in the system that they would keep it going…but wow. He considered trying to explain the inherently exploitative nature of economics, but decided against it. He seemed so satisfied in his opinion, he doubted new information would change it. Instead, he plopped himself down on his haunches, considering Aiden’s proposal with a look that seemed so much weightier than the casual offer warranted. His tail swished behind him as he pondered. He’d certainly be doing the human a favor, lending his aid. Of course, he was out here to help Rosalind, not some stranger. But if he could manage two acts of philanthropy for the effort of one, he supposed that was all the better. After all, this guy was going to be out here for days if he only had his eyes to help him find gems. After a long moment, his gaze landed back on Aiden, his tongue lolling as he treated him with a gregarious, open-mouthed smile. < Alright! Bring those fancy thumbs of yours over this way, then, ‘cause there’s a bunch over here. > He pointed with his nose to the clump of grass he’d been eyeing earlier, and then he took another nose-full of air. Yeah, this clearing was covered in that weird gem-smell. In fact…jumping back up onto his paws, he paced a few feet to the east, snout to the ground. There were definitely some buried down there. Scratching delicately at the spot, Apollo craned his neck to look back at Aiden. < By the way! > Ech. He was going to have to get dirt between his toes, wasn’t he? < Did you know that your name comes from a very old word for ‘fire'? > he asked conversationally. WORDS: 377 TAGS: CloverNOTES: Apollo is such a jerk i'm sorry XD |
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Post by Clover on Aug 18, 2017 3:10:07 GMT
Aiden had no idea how poorly his little quips had been taken. There were some creatures in the world who could read minds but Aiden was not one of them, so all of Apollo's condescension went unnoticed. All he saw was a cute lil pupper--and all he heard was the cute lil pupper accepting his offer. "Wonderful!" He mimicked Apollo's open-mouthed smile (albeit without the tongue, because that would have been weird) and leaned down to take the bag looped around the dog's torso.
Aiden's eyes widened when he saw how many gems the dog already had. "Well, check you out, Apollo! You're a natural at this." His own bag had flames on it so they were easy to tell apart, even without the difference in weight. "If y'don't mind me asking, what're you saving up for?" The ginger loped after his new friend and stopped when Apollo did. He knelt next to the ground and opened up both bags as wide as they'd go to make gem-dumping as easy as possible.
Aiden met Apollo's gaze when the dog turned back to him. He nodded eagerly at the statement. "I did, actually! Me 'n my siblings were all redheads, so they named us all accordingly. Most of us got Irish names, even though we're not really Irish. Gallagher makes it sound like we are, I guess, but my family's lived over in Rigel City for generations." He jabbed a finger east, toward the skyscrapers on the horizon.
"I lucked out. Aiden is easy for Inset people to pronounce. Saoirse got the short end of that stick." He laughed at his little joke. "Since you're into trivia and all, d'ya know what Saoirse means?" It was a question that Aiden already knew the answer to, yes, but it was not a test. He just liked to talk to people (err, pokemon) and they were generally more receptive to conversations about things they liked. Hopefully Apollo was okay with chatty people because Aiden was not the quiet sort.
WORDS → 336
NOTES → @truffle, 15 ruby gems here so far
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2017 3:45:03 GMT
Actually, this felt much better, walking around without that bag dragging along with him. Maybe pairing up really was a good idea. And his tail only wagged faster when Aiden pointed out how much he’d collected. < Quite literally a ’natural,' > he glowed, pawing at his nose. Apollo hadn’t been the least bit surprised when Rosalind asked him to help with this. He was the obvious choice, over the ball of nerves and the snarky bird that made up the rest of the team. Asking Apollo a question was probably a poor decision on Aiden’s part, because it was easy to get the dog going, and when that happened it was hard to stop him. < Well, I’m doing this to help my trainer. Sweet girl. A total browbeaten employee, though. > He shook his head regretfully. < Her boss wants the eggs for something, so Rosalind’s trying to get one from each of the vendors. > At this point he lowered his voice, almost conspiratorially. < But if you ask me, I think the whole practice of buying and selling eggs just perpetuates the species hierarchy and the chattel understanding of human-pokemon relations. > A sigh. < Not that anyone asks for my opinion. >As much as Apollo loved info-dumping on people, he couldn’t take it nearly as well. When it became clear that Aiden was going to yammer for more than a couple sentences, the dog tuned out, focusing on digging at the spot the smell was coming from. Strangely, he’d only moved a few centimeters of soil before his nails hit on something hard and smooth. Turning his attention back to the human, he did so just in time to hear the question. < Saoirse? > His heart raced for a second, the thought of getting quizzed (regardless of how Aiden meant it) hitting him with reflexive panic. But he hid it well behind his smile, especially when he remembered that he actually knew the answer to this one. < Yeah, of course, man. It means ‘freedom'! Also— > He tapped the ‘hole’ (more of a slight indent) he’d made with his paw. < Right here. > One gem was partially uncovered, glinting in the sun, and Apollo was sure there were more with it. But he’d let Aiden do the grunt work of getting them out. His job was finding them. < Weird that they’re buried so shallowly. > He wondered why that was. There had to be some precedent for this sort of thing, but he’d never encountered anything like this in his reading. |
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Post by Clover on Aug 18, 2017 4:09:10 GMT
Browbeaten employee, eh? Aiden blinked. "If her boss is so terrible... Why doesn't she, y'know, quit?" And there was Aiden's WASP-y upper class privilege, rearing its ugly head. His dad was an engineer, which had paid for the solidly middle class aspects of the Gallagher family's lifestyle, and his mother had an inheritance, which had paid for everything else. The question was awful but it was born of innocence and ignorance rather than condescension. The eighteen year old had never met someone who relied on a job to survive.
Apollo's little conspiracy drew a laugh from the ginger. (Naturally, he was laughing with Apollo, not at him. Aiden would never laugh at a dog, heavens no.) "Y'know, I've never thought about the egg trade that way." He was mostly humoring his new friend. If he were being frank, he would probably never think about the egg trade that way again. Apollo could have given the strongest argument in the world against the egg trade, but if Aiden came across a fire type egg for sale five minutes later, he still would've bought it.
"Yep, freedom. Nice job! Most people don't get that one. Hell, most people don't even know how to say it. I've heard some... inventive pronunciations." Apollo hadn't seemed to give a hoot about that conversation earlier--a fact which had soared right over Aiden's pretty little head. As far as the boy was concerned, Apollo was just dutifully looking for gems. Aiden beamed when Apollo revealed the first gem after maybe half a second of digging. "Damn son, look at you go! You're a friggin' gem wizard." He plucked it out of the ground and placed it in Apollo's bag. (Since the Rockruff was doing the heavy lifting, it only seemed fair that he got the gems first.)
"Weird indeed, but I'm not gonna question it much. I need some of those red eggs, and a few fire stones." He dusted his hands off and looked at the small area Apollo had dug up, searching for more hints of red. "I know you don't like the species hierarchy or anything, but this one's... a little different, I guess, since no one knows what species is in each one?" Aiden was just wishing on every star he saw that the red eggs had fire types in them.
WORDS → 387
NOTES → @truffle, 20 ruby gems here so far
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2017 23:09:30 GMT
Apollo blinked at the human’s question. He was asking why Rosalind didn’t quit, innocently and earnestly, like he didn’t already know the answer. His gaze turned pitying, though whether it was sympathy for Rosalind or for Aiden wasn’t obvious. < As you said, capitalism makes the world go ‘round. > It shouldn’t be possible for a year-old puppy to look so jaded, but he pulled it off beautifully. < They hold the food and the money, so they can make us do whatever they want. >Not that Apollo was doing anything about it. It was hopeless trying to change things. (And never mind the fact that Rosalind would heartily object to him painting her boss so cruelly; that was his embellishment for the sake of making a point.) He was the one telling the story, so he could tell it however he wanted. His nihilistic malaise lasted only for a few moments, though. As soon as Aiden started complimenting him again, he went back to preening like a Piplup. Not even bothering to hide his grin, he shrugged with false modesty. < It’s just the genes. And you’re not too bad yourself, with those hands of yours, > he responded, wagging, when Aiden dropped the gem in the Rockruff’s bag. Bringing the eggs back up just got Apollo going again, his assumed task of finding more gems totally forgotten for the moment. < Dude, that’s how they get you! It’s the mystery! It’s— > He started prancing in place, all worked up from the zeal of explaining underhanded commercial tactics. < It’s an addiction, like gambling! They don’t tell you what’s inside the egg, so you have to hatch it to see. And if it’s not what you’re expecting, you have to buy another one, and another. And even if you get what you want, you still want to buy another one, because there might be something different! >If Aiden let him keep talking, he was probably going to start bringing up scientific studies soon. The poor guy had no idea the can of worms he’d just opened. WORDS: 355 TAGS: CloverNOTES: poor aiden |
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Post by Clover on Aug 19, 2017 5:14:32 GMT
Aiden's first thought was a simple one: why doesn't she find another job, then? One with a less terrible boss? But this time around, he had the sense to keep it to himself. He much preferred hunting gems and making friends to talking economics anyway. "Ahh, yes, thank you, thank you," Aiden said to the return compliment. He mimicked an overly dramatic bow before reaching out for another unearthed red sphere. The latest one got tossed into his own bag.
The ginger nodded eagerly at Apollo's addiction analogy. "Yeah, that's exactly right! Genius move, really. They don't have to pay attention to eggs so they lower overhead costs that way, and they have a customer who's basically guaranteed to come back and spend more money with 'em. Ruddy brilliant business model."
He didn't sound jaded, though; far from it. He was excited. The existence of that business model, shady as it may have been, meant there would be lots of eggs to choose from. Lots of eggs that would maybe, just maybe, hatch into little fire type babies. He'd been in love with fire types for the last decade (more than half his life!) and he was beyond ready to finally have one to call his own. If that meant doing business with shady people, so be it.
Aiden gestured to the hole Apollo had started digging. "Not to be pushy or anything, but if either of us are gonna get our hands--or paws," he added diplomatically, "On one of those odd red eggs, we gotta get digging. Can I help with anything?"
WORDS → 264
NOTES → @truffle, 25 ruby gems
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 2:46:59 GMT
He couldn’t understand this human. He was excited about the very practice that was preying on his consumeristic urges and manipulating money out of him. Absolutely unthinkable. This time, Apollo didn’t hide his scoffing, shaking his head with a look of wonderment. But, fortunately for Aiden’s feelings, Apollo didn’t have much of a chance to skewer him for his opinions, because one of them actually remembered what they were supposed to be doing, and was gently calling him out on getting distracted. He shrugged, looking totally unapologetic about the diversion. < Heh. Sorry. I just get a little passionate about these things. > The “unlike you” went unsaid. With a lazy stretch, he sniffed at the air again. < Alright, back to busin- >”Apollo!” A distant shout twitched his ears, cutting him off mid-sentence. He pointed his snout in the direction of the voice, just in time to hear it again. ”Apollo!” Rosalind wasn’t in sight, but it was clearly her voice. The Rockruff had never been more relieved in his life. Tail wagging, he shot Aiden an entirely fake look of apology. < My lady calls! Sorry, you’re gonna have to sniff these out yourself. > He smiled. < It was fun! Enjoy that consumerism, man. > He turned and was about to trot off when he hesitated, doubling back. < Oh yeah! Can’t forget the bag. > That would be embarrassing. WORDS: 239 TAGS: CloverNOTES: Sorry for the wait, this was really fun!! |
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