l'amour à travers le chocolat et Pokémon
(Love Through Chocolate and Pokémon)
Lumiose City, the heart of the Kalos region, filled with love and pumping romance and affluence every second. Mothers tell their children that every time the sun rises, it does so specifically to wake and bestow joy to the denizens of Lumiose with its golden rays. And as the sun warms the city, its busiest of workers and the earliest of birds stir from their slumber. Everyone else awakes from the full glow of the sun, and like a stone giant Lumiose City comes alive.
Isabella, a young woman living in Lumiose City, is one such person that is early to rise, though she slowly and thoroughly stretches in her bed without a care in the world. She gets out of her bed and saunters over to the window of her apartment, immersing herself directly into the sun's morning rays. She opens the window wide and looks outside, reacquainting herself with the cool morning breeze and the soothing chirping of Fletchling above her. The sun peeks out from behind Prism Tower, Lumiose City's tallest and most striking landmark. The streets below are decorated with flower beds, hearty trees, elegant architecture, and beautiful art and drapery – all garnished by the light gold of the sun.
Isabella retracts back inside her apartment. With bountiful energy, she starts her day by preparing herself for the outside world. After a refreshing shower, diligent grooming of her hair, and subtle application of makeup, she walks over to her closet, and opens it wide to review her wardrobe. She dons a simple outfit comprised of a nice shirt and clean, tight jeans. She puts on her slippers and she walks out of her door and descends down her stairs.
She reaches the first floor of the building. What was once a mere lobby for a tiny apartment building has long been refurbished by Isabella, and repurposed to be a humble little chocolate shop. The shop sits on a corner in-between a quiet street and one of the busiest streets in Lumiose City; business ebbs and flows as a result, depending entirely on the movement of the city. On busy times of the day, tourists and residents alike are out on the town, and they cannot wait to try a taste of Isabella's delicious sweets that they hear so much about. On particularly eventful days, such as a festival, business booms and the shop becomes absolutely filled with customers. No matter the case, each day the shop is a prosperous endeavor, born out of her passion for the craft.
Isabella dons her apron, readying herself for the long day ahead of her. There is a knock on the front door; she looks through the glass of the door and sure enough, it's her good friend and supplier of ingredients, Oswald. Every morning, Oswald comes by with a truck full of fresh nuts, fruits, berries, flour, milk, butter, cocoa beans, and then some, all straight from the farmlands. And every morning, Isabella opens the front door for him and his workers to carry the packages of ingredients to the backroom of the shop. Oswald and Isabella greet each other with kisses on the cheek, as customary of Lumiose etiquette, and they have a little chat about the yesterday and what to expect for today. After all of the ingredients have been stocked and checked, Isabella reaches into the cashier and gives him his usual share of yesterday's earnings. They give each other pecks on the cheek once more, and say goodbye as Isabella kindly escorts him and his delivery men out the front door and back to his truck. Isabella turns the sign hung on her door from "closed" to "open," and walks back inside.
Beside the backroom is another door, leading to a small room, well-lit by the sun's light. All sorts of pictures and cute drawings by children are scattered throughout the room, depicting Isabella with several Pokémon at her side. On one side of the wall a triple bunk bed, fashioned by hand out of wood, sits opposite from the window. The bed belongs to a trio of Pokémon: the grass monkey Pansage, the fire monkey Pansear, and the water monkey Panpour, all sleeping snug until the sun greets them with warmth.
From behind their bedroom door, Isabella shouts, "Jean! Marius! Cosette! Javert! Rise and shine!"
The three monkeys wake up from the sound of Isabella's voice. Javert, the Pansear, on the top bunk, gives a great big yawn and hops out of bed, fired up as expected. He leaps to the door and lands right on the doorknob; given their small size, they found rather creative ways to reach. A quick turn on the knob and the door swings open, allowing Javert to climb down and march onwards to the kitchen. Marius, the Pansage, strolls through nonchalantly. Following close behind is Cosette, the Panpour, who is still half-asleep. The three of them gather and present their presence to Isabella.
"Hope you all are well-rested," Isabella says to the monkeys, holding back no part of her perkiness. "We've got a big day ahead of us!"
And it is indeed a big day. According to Oswald, a big parade is about to conduct later in the afternoon, celebrating the heroic efforts of a group of young trainers who supposedly stopped a criminal organization all by themselves. How did they do it and what kind of motives this organization had, neither Oswald nor his "insiders" knew – it could very well be just some other kind of achievement that's not nearly as dramatic. While the details of this rumor remain fuzzy, what remains as truth is the parade. For someone who lives a not-so-grand life as Isabella does, that alone is cause for excitement; Lumiose City will be brimming with people who will want to join in on the festivities. This means an abundance of customers for sure!
However, something is not right with Isabella. She notices the three monkeys standing in a row in front of her. "Hm? Where's Jean?" She walks over to the monkeys' bedroom and sees that it's empty. The trio is out of their bed, but there is one more bed in the corner – one that is larger than the triple bunk, intricately crafted with care. But it, too, is empty like the others.
Isabella groans. "Well, he'd better come back soon." She turns her head and looks at her gang of little helpers. "Today shouldn't be too bad though, right?"
The three monkeys nod and squeak in agreement, and they swiftly run off to their posts. Javert, with his ability to spit fire, roasts the coals inside a large, old-fashioned stove to warm it up. Cosette, with her ability to shoot water from her tail, thoroughly rinses all of the kitchen's pots and pans. And Marius, with his ability to sprout vines from his tail, acts as a close aide for Isabella in this tightknit operation.
He runs into the backroom and uses Scratch to open all of the boxes of cocoa beans. Isabella grabs a large tray and with Marius's help, they collect as many cocoa beans as possible to spread even onto the tray. Isabella places the tray into the stove's oven compartment and in several short minutes, the cocoa beans become thoroughly roasted. After taking out the tray from the oven, Isabella leaves out the tray by a mortar and pestle to cool. This process repeats for a while, replacing cocoa beans with almonds, replacing almonds with berries, and so on. With the exception of the nuts, Marius undertakes the task of grinding all of them to a fine paste.
Before noon, a few customers start to trickle in, curious and entranced by the thought of delicious homemade chocolates. Of course, fresh chocolates are not the only thing that is appealing about this place – as they walk in they're also treated by an amusing sideshow of a girl and her Pokémon scuttling everywhere behind the counter. Isabella, still one employee short, frantically juggles between cashier and making chocolate more than usual. The three monkeys also share the weight that needs to be pulled, while performing their individual duties of heating the stove, boiling the water, and gathering the ingredients.
After about an hour of grinding and tempering, the first batch of chocolates is cooled and finished. The counter is filled with light and soft macarons with a rich and creamy center, evenly coated pralines with a nutty inside, firm but soft bonbons all differently shaped, smoothly covered with ganache and with an assortment of fillings and toppings, fresh fruit dipped elegantly in robust dark chocolate, soft but crunchy truffles surrounded in ganache and nuts, and spongy and velvety mousse with different tinges of other kinds of flavors in addition to just the classic chocolate. And just like that, the meek boutique turns into an oasis for sweet tooths.
The shop's customers line up in anticipation to receive their desserts. Some of them are there to share pralines with friends. Some of them are there to give truffles to their children as a nice treat. Some are there to give to their loved ones as gifts. And some of them are there just so they could simply enjoy some delicious chocolate. Whatever the case may be, they all leave the shop satisfied and eager with a nice little brown bag of sweets.
As the day progresses, the shop's traffic increases and the line grows to around the corner and well into the busy street; word of mouth goes around in Lumiose City, and it goes around fast and favorably. In that amount of time, the shop's repertoire expands to éclairs, cakes, soufflés, crepes, croissants, and lastly, Isabella's specialty: le trésor de la Aipom, a sweet caramel bonbon firmly molded to the shape of an Aipom's signature hand-shaped tail, garnished with drops of a raspberry-chocolate ganache on the tips of the tail's "fingers" and one large drop on the "palm."
While the growing reputation is welcoming for the business, the massive influx of customers makes it that much harder for Isabella to manage, who is still missing a key employee. The three monkeys try as hard as they can to keep the business in tip-top shape, but by the time the afternoon rolls by they start showing signs of fatigue.
Isabella mutters under her breath, "Jean, where the hell are you? I swear, if you don't show up by the end of the day, you're going to get it."
As the sun rises to greet the citizens of Lumiose City, the sun sets to give a heartfelt goodbye through painting the sky in a myriad of pastel colors. The number of customers dial down significantly since the parade is about to start in a few hours, as mentioned in Oswald's morning gossip. Isabella props up a different sign on the front door saying "out for supper," and the trio of monkeys collapse in relief.
Isabella grabs her purse from behind the counter and notices the monkeys lying down on the kitchen floor. "You all deserve some rest," Isabella laughs. "I'll come back in a bit with some food, alright?" She leaves through the front door, and locks it behind her.
However, she remains standing in front of the door, an inkling feeling coming to mind. "Wait…how could he have left when I had the door locked?"
Suddenly, a new resolve fills her head. Jean is a usually rambunctious Pokémon, but he is always dedicated to helping Isabella and the shop. The fact that he's been gone all day strikes out as very unusual for her. Rather than simply going out to get some food, she instead decides to wander around to look for Jean.
At every street corner she comes across, she shouts out, "Jean! Where are you?" or some variant of such.
After a while of searching, she develops a feeling of hopelessness. Isabella almost gives up on looking for Jean until she notices down an alleyway an Aipom and a female Meowstic. The Aipom is gazing at the Meowstic, almost as if it is in a trance.
Isabella becomes delighted, and shouts out, "Jean! I've found you!"
The sound of Isabella's voice breaks the Aipom's trance. Both the Aipom and the Meowstic look in the direction of the sound and sees Isabella standing there. While the Aipom squeaks and bounces in excitement, the Meowstic perks up in shock and uncertainty. Isabella runs to the two Pokémon to reunite with her missing helper.
"There you are Jean! I missed you! Do you realize how much of a hassle it today without your help?"
Jean hangs his head from shame.
"And, how did you leave the shop when I had it locked the whole time, anyway?"
Jean sheepishly looks over at the Meowstic, implying to Isabella that the Meowstic may have been at least partially responsible for that.
"Oh? Who's this?"
The Meowstic flinches, making it quite evident that she is following this conversation. Jean looks at her with a glimmer in his eyes, which Isabella spots.
"Oh, I see what's going on here," Isabella teases. "You know…if you really wanted to spend some time with her, you could at least let me know." An idea pops in her head and she reaches into her purse. "You know what could help?"
Isabella pulls out a tiny package made out of wax paper. Jean turns to see what Isabella has in her hand, and she unfolds the package to reveal a trésor de la Aipom. Jean jumps with joy.
Isabella pulls in closer to Jean and whispers to him, "How about you give this to her? I'm sure she would love it."
The Aipom eagerly grabs the sweet from her hand with his hand-like tail and turns around to face the Meowstic. He extends his tail to the Meowstic, offering the sweet to her. The Meowstic retains her look of skepticism at the two, but she begrudgingly accepts his gift regardless. She looks at the sweet with doubt, and even sniffs at it, but she goes with it in the end and takes a bite. Jean looks on with hope and delight, his smile even wider than normal for an Aipom.
The Meowstic chews meticulously for a good minute. But her reaction does not pan out quite as expected from neither Jean nor Isabella; the Meowstic coughs and spits out the sweet. Jean's face gradually slumps from happy to devastated. Isabella's face becomes devoid of expression.
"That…was not expected," she says dryly. She knows that not everyone shares the same taste, but someone who finds the trésor de la Aipom disgusting is new to her.
Isabella sees an unusual sight in this picture: the crumbs of bonbon that the Meowstic coughed out are suspending in the air. Upon closer observation, she sees the faint outline of a claw, distorting the image in front of her. The claw slowly moves upward and tries to brush off the crumbs.
"Hold on. What's this?" Isabella reaches out in front of her and inadvertently makes contact with something soft. She gives a light squeeze and immediately the empty space in front of her materializes to reveal a Kecleon that was cloaked.
This Kecleon, however, seems to have its face overly stuffed by something. Thanks to Isabella's sudden squeezing, the Kecleon cannot take it anymore and it spits out all sorts of strange knick-knacks: a small cuckoo clock, some nice silverware, a fountain pen, and even a Pokedex! Everyone but Jean – who is still utterly destroyed – becomes shocked, but none so more as Isabella, who recognizes that these items belong to other people.
"Wait a second, how on earth did you get-"
Before she could finish, the Meowstic raises her ears, revealing a strange pattern hidden underneath. With this pattern the Meowstic takes total control of Isabella's body and loosens Isabella's grip on the Kecleon. Isabella tries to fight back control of her body, but the Meowstic instead pins her down on the ground. Her psychic powers are too intense, and Isabella winces in pain.
Jean snaps out of his despair upon realizing that his trainer is in danger. When he sees that the Meowstic he previously was infatuated with is doing the harm, anger overcomes him. In one sweep of his tail he smacks the Meowstick hard, breaking her psychic control and freeing Isabella. The Kecleon is not exempt from this, as he is struck as well by the Aipom's tail. The Meowstic and the Kecleon back off a bit and stick to each other's side, knowing that they have a numbers advantage against the lone Aipom.
Suddenly, Jean's body glows entirely white, and soon blinds everyone with a flash of white light. When everyone regains their sight, they see that the tiny Aipom is no longer there, and an Ambipom, a larger monkey with two hand-shaped tails, is in his place. The Meowstick and Kecleon start looking a little nervous now that they're facing down a Pokémon that can literally deal twice the pain. The Ambipom closes the distance between him and the two in an absurdly fast pace, and smacks the two of them with both of his tails at once without warning. Spooked by the Ambipom's newfound power, the Kecleon and Meowstic flee from the scene empty-handed. The Ambipom grunts and howls with bravado.
"Jean, please," Isabella calls out with much sincerity. "Don't chase."
Jean cools down from his belligerence and recognizes Isabella's plea. Out of genuine concern for his trainer, he runs to her and attempts to console her.
"I'm alright, Jean. But look at you! You've fully evolved!"
Jean gives a bashful laugh. This kind of dramatic and unexpected change normally takes a toll on most Pokémon, but for Jean it's more of a much-needed emotional release – Meowstic's rejection of his earnest gift and livelihood felt like he took a Thunderbolt to the heart.
Isabella readjusts herself, and she stands up straight, towering over Jean specifically to assume necessary authority. "However, this doesn't mean you're excused," she says with a stern voice. "Look at what you've done! You helped them steal people's belongings!"
Jean hangs his head in shame, yet again. Isabella then bends down to come to eye level with him.
"Let's say we give these back to their owners," she says with a soft voice this time. "Shall we?"
Jean's heart fills with happiness, and he squeaks in agreement. They spend the rest of the afternoon walking around Lumiose City, returning the stolen items to their respective owners. Jean becomes happier than ever, not just because of his chance for redemption, but for his acceptance by his trainer in spite of what he did. After they return all the stolen items, the two head back to the chocolate shop. The trio of monkeys is amazed at Jean's new appearance, but they more importantly couldn't be happier with their reunion.
As dusk starts to settle, the parade begins to commence in the streets of Lumiose City. Throngs of people and their Pokémon stand by the sidelines, some more than others aware of whom or what they are honoring – some people, in fact, are just there because of the idea of a celebration. Ribbons and confetti rain down upon the crowd and loud, triumphant music echoes everywhere. Isabella stands as close to the front of the crowd as possible to get a good view of the parade, holding Jean in his hands as firmly and lovingly as possible. Javert, Marius, and Cosette are sitting on a streetlight next to Isabella, getting the best view of the parade that anyone can get. They all happily munch on fresh trésors de la Aipom, enjoying a bonding moment that is just as sweet.