Thirty minutes. That was the amount of time Olivia said they had before they left. It was only a slim amount of time to be at the guildhouse, so each of them tried their best to spend it wisely.
Locke went to Crystal's chamber to get her up. It was early for the nocturnal pokemon to be getting up from slumber, but when briefed on the situation by Locke, she was glad to join them. The shinx didn't do much with his time other than ensuring the weavile was prepared and exchanged some small talk with her.
Tamin had gone the route of grooming herself within the confines of her room. She lacked the resources to set up a dust bath for herself, so she manually brushed and combed her fur to remove any dirt, drops of blood, or whatever else that had accumulated on her body from her foray into the underground. For what time she had remaining, Tamin resumed her personal ritual of perfectly folding cloth to satisfy herself.
Olivia's preparation plans were similar to that of Tamin, but she was more focused and hasty with her self-allotted time. She quickly went to work with brushing and shampooing her fur, getting her goggles and bags polished, and using a mint to freshen her breath. Her paws blitzed around as she tried to multitask as many preparation tasks as possible.
They all operated at the same time, though it was the emolga who ultimately finished first. Olivia rushed out of her room once she was done. She didn't even bother taking the stairs as she climbed over the second floor hand railing then glided down down to the foyer room. At that point she sat herself down and waited patiently.
"Hopefully they will be here on time. If they are just one minute late then that's normal. If they are two-to-four minutes later then that's them being fashionably late. Five or more minutes is taking too long and is when I should start getting concerned. If it's more than eight minutes I should go check up on them. If it's over ten minutes then they must have misheard what I said. If it's over twenty minutes then they are ditching me," Olivia thought to herself as she waited.
The emolga spent several minutes in the foyer, waiting and making some taps on the floor with her foot. To her delight- the three others stepped into the room on time, each having their bags ready to head off into the town.
"Alrighty, we're all together! C'mon Locky (and everyone else), let's get some noms!" Olivia cheerfully said while making an arm motion to indicate they should move out the door.
"Aight. Though I prefer if you didn't act like the leader," Locke said. "This was me and Tamin's idea."
"Oh? Okay then. As you wish~" Olivia gave a slight bow as she spoke.
"Let's go then," Crystal said.
Locke began walking out of the guildhouse with the other three following him.
They stepped through the yard out into the greater town. The buildings gave a level of protection that shielded them from wind, so the frigid air did not bear down on this group like it had earlier that day. The streets were well swept, but fallen leaves still dotted the ground here and there. Though the season ensured they would be open for very much longer, each roadside store still had their lights on to welcome citizens and travelers alike.
Whilst far from the continent's largest city, the town was still expansive and encompassed several square kilometers of land. Its buildings and roads remained far more evergreen and resisted change by the season than the forests, plains, and mountains that surrounded it in all directions.
"I'm really glad we are together again," Locke said to Crystal as the four walked forward.
"You've mentioned that already," she responded.
"Well, still."
"Yeah. I will say, I'll never forget those runs we did together when we first met."
"I was good, wasn't I?" Locke asked, sounding prideful.
"Yeah. What was that tip you told me again? 'The two rules for fighting an electric type'?"
"Never try to grapple one, never let yourself be grappled by one."
"Right. Because you can't maintain one or break out of one when you're being pulsed with electricity. Yeah, I still go by that to this day."
"Glad I can give you some pointers then," Locke proclaimed.
"Maybe you shouldn't be too boastful of yourself, admitting your flaws is the best way of mitigating them," Tamin tried to advise the shinx, as this was the most prideful she had heard from him.
"Nah, I think I'm alright," Locke said, not bothering to make a gallows humor joke like he typically would.
"Yeah, Locky's great!" Olivia said.
"Mhm. Like, is there anything that you can do that I can't?" the shinx asked Tamin.
"Walk on two legs," the minccino immediately responded.
"Woah, woah, woah. I can totally do that."
Locke stopped in place and shifted his stance so that he stood on his hind legs, making him stand taller than he normally did. The other three were prompted to stop as well and turn to look at him.
"See? I can do this fine," Locke replied while he continued to stand in place. As he stood for longer, he needed to start shifting his center of gravity due to the bags he had and the others could see his hind legs began to shake. They all had their curiosity captured by seeing him in this unusual position.
"Now walk," Tamin said after they observed him standing for a few seconds.
Following the command, Locke began putting one foot in front of the other. The first step was rough, but he continued to do his best to walk on two legs despite that. He stretched his upper arms out to help with his balance and his star tail moved around to help with balance as well. He got forward several meters while his eyes were focused on the ground, but then his right foot stepped in one part where the ground was slightly lower than normal. His balance was immediately thrown off by this and he quickly shifted his upper paws and tail to account for it along with a series of swift steps. But he overcorrected himself by doing that and only a second later he collapsed onto his left side.
An embarrassed expression appeared on the shinx's face as he remained collapsed on the road. Each of the three others reacted differently to seeing him fail at walking on two legs, but the first one to make their reaction audible was Crystal, who let out a hearty laugh.
"Stick to what you know," Crystal reassured him with a gesture to match.
Locke rolled himself back onto his front then got up again, walking on all fours once more. He approached the weavile Crystal with a blush on his cheeks.
"Well, it's official now. It would very much suck to be put into a situation where I had to walk on two legs or else die," Locke said, trying to bring some humor to the humiliating situation. "Good thing such a situation doesn't exist, right? Oops, well it looks like I've just jinxed it and the universe is gonna bite me with that sometime later. I guess that'll just be something to deal with when it happens. Or not be able to deal with. Either-or."
"It's alright, being a quadruped isn't too bad. I mean, if you get knocked prone in a fight you can get up a lot faster," Crystal tried to cheer him up.
"Well I also share that advantage, so either way it's things I can do that he can't," Tamin said.
The group continued walking after that display. Locke was still slightly embarrassed, but still managed to have a smile. Olivia was visibly annoyed at the group that ignored her.
"Locke doesn't seem to be as friendly towards me when Crystal is around," Tamin wondered to herself.
After a moment, Locke talked to Crystal again.
"So anyway, you've been around here for longer than we have," Locke asked Crystal, "what are our options in town?"
"There are a couple of restaurants around here, but I know one in particular that we'll like. So that's where I'm going to lead us to," Crystal said as she walked ahead of the rest.
"We do have plenty of time, so we could check out a few diff-" Locke said before he got interrupted.
"No! I know where we're going. It's the best option," Crystal responded in a controlling voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Crystal," Locke instantly said apologetically.
"It's okay. But do trust me, I know where to go," Crystal said, her voice quickly losing the controlling aspect it had just held.
"Mhm. Don't worry," Locke reassured to the weavile as he shifted back to normal as well.
"...So Olive, why exactly do-" Tamin tried to ask Olivia before she interrupted her.
"Don't call me Olive!" Olivia erupted.
"Wh- why? That's what you asked Locke to call you."
"Calling each other cute nicknames are only for boyfriends and girlfriends!"
"Wait, what?!" Locke asked, surprised and confused about what Olivia just said.
"It's just a fun thing people that are together do," Olivia explained to Locke.
"No, I get that part. It's the boyfriend thing you mentioned that I don't get."
"You literally just met him yesterday," Crystal spoke, stepping between Olivia and Locke. "You barely know each other."
"But we will get to know each other," Olivia responded, "You can spend your time with anyone, but love at first sight only happens with a few people."
"Look, I'm fine with spending some time with you, but I would really like to catch up with Crystal first of all."
"But we can never get the first encounter back!"
"I know you'd really like to spend time with me, but as I said, I just want to be with Crystal now."
"You don't get it!" Olivia said.
"I get what you're- okay look. I'm trying to be respectful, but you starting to really get on my-"
"We're here!" Crystal interrupted them, partly to escape the conversation he was in.
The group turned their heads to look down the street. Crystal silently pointed to direct them to a restaurant at the end of the road using her claws. They heeded the command of this de facto leader and walked down the street in that direction.
"So what is this town anyway?" Tamin inquired as they passed by the buildings painted with muted colors.
"I've heard a bit about it while I was at the guild. It's been around here for a while, apparently," Crystal explained. "Not sure whether the town of the guild came first, but they've expanded a lot because of each other.
A lot of the pokemon here have some relation to the guild. Like the children of former members, or one that were rescued from missions. It's gotten pretty big in recent years."
"Huh. Neat," Tamin replied while looking around."Definitely a big 'six-degrees of separation' sort of thing going around here then."
As Tamin finished speaking, the group of four arrived at the doors to the restaurant. The doors were massive compared to them, but contained smaller knobs near the bottom that they could use. They passed through the entrance and came into the interior, making sure to close the door behind them to avoid letting unnecessary cold air inside. The inside of it was akin to that of a 1980s diner with a checkered tile floor and red chairs. It offered three sizes of chairs, tables, and booths for differently sized pokemon to sit at, but most were designed for pokemon that were the size of a pikachu. The sound of waiters stepping around on the tile floor and sizzling foods reached their ears.
Crystal took up a calm demeanor to talk with the pokemon at the register and asked for a table for four. The store attendants recognized the weavile and the scarves of the pokemon, so they treated them particularly respectfully and led them to one of the tables for pikachu-sized pokemon.
Crystal, Locke, Tamin, and Olivia took up seats and were asked for what drinks they wanted by a heliolisk. Crystal knew they didn't have any alcoholic beverages, so she just requested "the hardest lemonade you can provide". Locke asked for a strawberry soda, Olivia asked for the same thing Locke requested, and Tamin requested iced tea.
Their heliolisk waiter took their drink requests and placed four menus onto the diner table. As the waiter walked off, each of the four grabbed one of the menus to begin looking through it. The food offered was explicitly vegetarian, but such was expected and the location still managed to offer a variety of food nonetheless.
"Is there anything spicy here? I'd really like that right now," Locke thought out loud as he looked through the menus.
"I'm with you on that," Crystal said. "Think you can give me a taste of your meal a bit?"
"Sure," Locke said.
"Eh, I really don't like spicy stuff." Tamin said, "I just want something sweet."
"You can have a taste of my food as well!" Olivia said to Locke. "I'm kinda indifferent to all of this, so I'll just get something you like as well."
"There a few blast seed dishes, but they all seem pretty dry. I want something more moist," Locke continued to think out loud.
"Just make sure it's not bitter," Crystal said to Locke while her eyes were on her own menu.
"...Okay I think I know what I want now," the minccino said as she put her menu down.
"Same here," Crystal said, "and Locke, I found the best dish for you."
"Hang on, I'm still looking through this," Locke replied.
"No, trust me, I know what you'd like the most," Crystal argued back.
"I'm just-"
"Trust me."
"Okay, fine," Locke relented. He didn't have any anger in his voice, but more of just played it off for laughs.
"I know what to get as well," Olivia said. "You're welcome to have some bites of mine, Locky."
The heliolisk waiter returned with their drinks. They took the beverages, had a few sips, Tamin ordered for herself, Olivia ordered for herself, and Crystal ordered for herself and Locke. After writing them down on a notepad, he left them once more. With him walking off, the four leaned back in their seats to relax.
"This is the first chance I've had to just sit down since we went off on that mission," Tamin said while leaning back with her eyes closed to fully relax. "Feels nice, does it not?"
"It does," Locke replied.
"So, Locky, how'd the mission go?" Olivia said as she leaned forward towards the shinx and put her arms on the table to support herself.
"Oh, fine- y'know. Really went off without a hitch," Locke said. In his mind he remembered Tamin getting knocked out, but he decided to leave that detail out for her sake. Besides Tamin getting knocked out, he didn't consider anything as having gone wrong during it.
"Great to hear!" Olivia replied, "I'm sure your performance was absolutely stunning."
"Inside voices, please," Crystal said, "Anyways, where has my shinx been?"
"YOUR shinx?" Olivia said.
"I said 'inside voices'. And let's not start this again."
"I've been here and there across the continent, really been doing all the same stuff you last saw me," Locke explained. "When you've been going through hell for years- and winning fights- the monsters at your side can feel routine, like a neighbor even."
"Eh, what I expected. Any feats from your solo adventures worth sharing?" Crystal asked as her voice perked up.
"I'll need a minute to think about that, but by your tone I can guess you got tales worth sharing," Locke said as she leaned closer to the weavile and smiled.
"A while before I joined this guild, I had a time where I was walking through a forest with a breloom I found, when suddenly some houndooms came running at us. Straight at us- with hungry eyes. Things must have been starving when they saw us as food. We were both caught off guard a bit, but luckily enough my claws were recently sharpened and I was still at my A-game. In fact, I got out of there with only a single slash.
I turned to the side and placed one claw slash in the breloom's leg and ran off as he fell to the ground. Those houndoom didn't run for me once I did that," Crystal said as he told the story with a smile on his face and exaggerated gestures.
"Ha, that totally reminds me of a story I had with a pokemon I found as well. So I was going through a dungeon with a skitty that needed help out- she was as scared as you would imagine a scardy skitty would be. Anyways we were going through a dungeon, a thin ravine where I had been dealing with a lot of dungeon pokemon along the way.
We were reaching the end, but found out that a sand cave-in had happened there. I figured we would be down there for a few days until some burrowing pokemon came around to dig it out, since yknow that stuff usually happens in those places. The skitty immediately started freaking out, saying we were gonna run out of oran berries to eat and starve to death. I politely told her she was a dumb, we weren't going to starve as we still had so many corpses down there to eat on," Locke said, getting a similar smile as he spoke.
"Ah yeah, that's really nice. I haven't had quite similar stories since I joined the guild, but I've still had a few good ones," Crystal said. "Like there was this one time I was sent on a mission to get this lost opaque gem, I think it was a family treasure. Anyways, after looking around in the dungeon for a while I found it. In a wild's nest of all places! Dumb thing must have thought it was an egg and through it in with its other eggs. So yeah, I knocked out the mother and only took what I needed.
Man, let me tell you, it felt so good to finally satiate my omelette craving. I was needing that for a long while."
"Oh man, that's great. Glad I still have stories from the rogue adventurer side o' things though. Like this one time I found this poor pokemon in the middle of a Dungeon. Seemed to be only alive by a thread, leg hurt by a rock and all. I did what was right and got ready to put it out of its misery, so I got my Lightning prepared. But just before I launched it, it suddenly sprang back up to life again and seemed hearty. So that put us in an awkward position. I mean, after all that work I put into getting ready to kill him, I wouldn't just want to waste it, and having someone walk around knowing I was about to kill him would be super awkward as well. So I made the situation a lot less awkward and went through with it anyways."
"Heheh, man, those lost pokemon can really be annoying sometimes. They're all freaking out and panicking that they're going to die, so you're the one that has to console them. Which is just frustrating as you're the one that's going to inevitably die in a mystery dungeon someday."
"Yeah. I wouldn't say they're all bad (I've met a particularly nice one, personally), but I can see your frustrations," the shinx said, looking over at Tamin for a bit before shifting his eyes back at Crystal. "Man, it's been so long since we've last seen each other. Long enough that if one of us had died our corpse would dirt by now! But it looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for that."
As the two exchanged their dark jokes, Tamin and Olivia both sat back with wide, horrified eyes, both equally uneasy. For the first time they actually leaned towards each other for comfort. Ignoring this, Locke and Crystal continued snickering at each other's jokes.
"Uh... Locke?" Tamin asked.
"Heheh, yeah?" the shinx asked as he turned to the minccino.
"These stories aren't true, right?" Tamin asked, still uneasy.
"What? Oh no, of course not," Crystal answered for Locke, "They're just stories to make jokes on, it's how we pass the time. I didn't actually leave a breloom to die like that."
"O-okay. I see," Tamin said as her head shifted forward again, giving a thousand yard stare instead of looking at anyone in particular.
While the minccino continued to be disrtubed by the joke-off that had just transpired, Locke and Crystal continued making quips at each other; but did so more quietly. But being quiet didn't stop Tamin's large ears and keen senses from hearing the off color jokes being made in their reunion. After a few minutes, Olivia simply shook her head and brushed off the words from earlier to return to normal. She made several attempts to interrupt on the conversation and speak to Locke directly, but the two managed to talk over her. It took a few tries, but eventually she managed to find a gap in their conversational subjects where she could successfully interject her own question into the mix.
"So, do you think we could go on your next mission together?" the emolga asked with ever-so-hopeful eyes.
"Going in with double electric types is bad for team coverage, so I don't think that's a good idea," Locke replied in honesty, so caught up in talking that he had temporarily forgotten about how creepy Olivia had been before, "Even though our different sleep schedules makes it complicated, I think I want to do another dungeon with Crystal sometime."
"I would very much like that to happen, you'll just have to stay up pretty late to make that work," Crystal said.
"I know-" Locke tried to say before he was interrupted.
"Aww, come on! Electric types are the best! You and I could handle anything together!" Olivia interjected, preventing the conversation from being between just Locke and Crystal again.
"And spicy sushi is the best. But if I spent my entire life eating only spicy sushi, I would be dead from malnourishment," Locke said, offering an analogy, "Types are the same. If you only got one you won't get far."
"They're the best! Plus I'm also a flying type, so I can beat the ground types of ya," Olivia said, keeping her voice at the maximum volume that could still be considered to be 'inside voices'. "Look at her though. She's just an ice and dark type."
"E-excuse me?" Crystal said.
"I mean, there was a time she had a heatstroke in temperatures we would only be sorta uncomfortable in. That should tell you enough about the different types," Olivia explained, trying to justify her comment.
"And I would be comfortable in temperatures you'd be frostbitten in," Crystal argued.
"Can you paralyze several enemies at once though? I think not~"
The weavile opened her mouth in preparation to break out into a full argument. But with split second timing, the heliolisk came back with several plates.
"Your food is ready," was spoken before Crystal could respond.
The four turned to the waiter, and watched their meals be passed in front of them. Each was well prepared and exactly what they asked for.
"Is everything going alright between you?" the waiter asked.
"Nah. It's all bad. I'll give you an extra tip to make up for it," Locke stated, to the helioisk's dismay.
The four at the table all turned to their food, although Tamin's stomach had already been stolen by the dark humor being exchanged earlier. The loudest sound there ended up coming from Locke as he chewed with his mouth open. Although everyone's mood had been brought down, the food still cheered them up as it was far better than what had been provided by the guild. After a few minutes of them gnawing down on their dishes, Tamin excused herself to go to the bathroom and talking began again shortly after that.
"So…" Crystal spoke to Olivia before fully knowing what to say next, "Are you going to say anything about your comment on types or-"
"I was speaking to Locke and not you, ya' know," Olivia replied.
"You said what you said."
"Look, I'm sorry. I just wanted this to be between me and Locke."
"Olivia? Can I see you outside for a minute?" Locke said to Olivia.
"Oh, really!?" Olivia said excitedly, her voice once again raising by the prospect of finally being able to talk to the shinx for a long conversation directly.
"Yes," Locke confirmed, "come."
Locke jumped down from his seat and Olivia quickly came after him. They left through the front door and swung around the side of the building to delve into the thin alley that existed behind it. They went to the back in an area typically only visited by store employees leaving to throw out trash. Several trash cans, dumpsters, and a small puddle of grease existed there. While obviously not an appealing place to be, Emolga was still blushing in pure joy while her heart raced because it was Locke bringing her back there.
"Olive?" the shinx asked as he stopped and turned around to face the emolga.
"Yes!?" she said as she jumped up a slight amount, her paws being together and held in front of her neck.
"Look, I am going to be blunt about this, I don't like you. I don't love you, and I ain't your boyfriend.
Maybe we haven't talked too much and you haven't been given a proper chance to introduce yourself, maybe. However from what I have seen of you so far, you are just a prejudicial creep," Locke spoke straight from his heart about his feelings without considering what her reaction would be. "I don't exactly remember what I said to you earlier today. I intended this to just be me and Tamin celebrating our first true mission, but it ended up being nothing.
Not saying we should never talk again, just stop… whatever THIS is."
Olivia was taken back and devastated. She spent a moment thinking about it and taking in everything that Locke said.
"Fine then," she eventually said.
"Alright. You're taking this better than I thought you would," Locke quietly said to himself.
"I suppose time spent together is a bigger factor in relationships than I first judged. I'll make you love me one day, just not today."
"Hmm?" Locke muttered, confused.
"One way or another." Olivia whispered to herself as she walked off.
"Wait, what are you implying?" Locke asked as he chased after Olivia.
Olivia had abruptly turned around and began going back to the restaurant front and inside, with Locke coming after her. For once Olivia ignored what the others said and instead just went straight towards the table.
While they were gone, Tamin had returned from the bathroom and still had moist paws from having washed them for an unusually long amount of time. But Olivia ignored them. The emolga only pulled out her coin purse to count up some money, set it down in the middle of the diner table, and left. She didn't even bother to retrieve her leftovers. Locke decided to not chase after Olivia and say things to get her attention, instead just leaving her to do her business.
"What was that all about?" Crystal asked.
"I… don't think I fully know myself." Locke responded in a confused tone while he jumped back onto his seat. Tamin also began counting the money Olivia had left at that time.
"Well, she's gone now, I suppose," Locke said as he hopped back onto his seat. "Just the three of us now."
"What did you tell her?" the weavile inquired.
"Just that I don't love her and I ain't her boyfriend," Locke explained.
"Huh… I guess she finally took the hint then," Crystal said as she pondered.
"Don't count on that being the case," Tamin stated as she finished counting the coins the emolga left. "This is enough money to pay for both hers and Locke's meals, even accounting for his share of the tip money. If she didn't want to stick with Locke, I doubt she'd want to pay for his meal as well."
"Huh... That's kind of awkward," Locke said as he was taken aback, "I feel weird about having her pay for me, but I don't want to chase after her to give the money back either."
"Let's just use it, money is money," Tamin said. "If you don't have to pay for your meal, could you cover half of mine then?"
"Sure. Seems fair," the shinx said.
"Hang on, if it's only the three of us, then we can spend the rest of the day without that crazy emolga," Crystal suggested. "We even have some extra money to burn because of what she left."
"Oh, you're right," Locke said as his mood began to turn up again. "Let's head to some place else once we eaten up."
"I'll be thinking of places to go to," Crystal said as she returned to her food.
"That's a relief. I'll be sticking around as well," Tamin said.
The three finished their meals and happily gave the remaining money needed to pay for their meals. Afterwards they finally left the diner and went back out onto the streets.
"So, where would you like to go?" Locke asked Crystal.
"Well, I considered going to some show, but I realized that it would probably be too late for you two and you definitely wouldn't have the money for it," Crystal explained to them. "However, there is a nice antique shop I like, so I think taking you there would be sweet."
"Sounds like a plan," Locke affirmed.
"I would like that. Sounds like a simpler activity to do that won't involve getting hurt or hearing yelling," Tamin commented.
"Great. Follow, I know the way around this town," the weavile said as she gestured forward with her claw.
The three went down the sweeped cobblestone streets once again, passing by more muted color buildings and barren trees as they were led by their weavile guide. They traversed the streets for another few minutes, with the town receiving a yellow and orange shading as the sun was setting on the horizon. The new colors gave the town a new beauty to make it seem more like a true home.
As they navigated more with the occasional small talk between Locke and Crystal, Tamin got the feeling that she was being watched. She first tried to ignore it, but the eerie feeling only grew on her as the trio stepped forth. Eventually, she started to hear movement in the trees that they had recently passed by, and the minccino began to turn her head around to actively search more for an unknown watcher. Twice she turned around only to find nothing in the twilight, but on the third time she caught the sight of a figure which resembled a flying squirrel that was going between the rooftops above them, which quickly ducked down before they could keep a line of sight for long.
"Let's be getting to that antique shop soon," Tamin said shortly after seeing that oddity.
"It's just around the block, don't be impatient," Crystal retorted.
They continued going to the store, with the minccino increasing her speed to get closer to the other two. With only another minute of traveling, they reached the front of a building with an unusual exterior that made it stand out in the town.
"Ah, here we are. The loveliest place at this piece of civilization," the weavile said as she proudly stood in front of the store's main doors.
"Looks good," Locke commented.
"Yes. Let's head inside," Tamin said, hurrying inside.
"Quit your impatience," Crystal said.
"Sorry, I just would like to get indoors," Tamin said, not wanting to be too specific about what was scaring her.
They went inside, and revealed before them was a storehouse which had wooden shelves upon wooden shelves of unique ornaments. They were stacked up shelves far taller than the pokemon of the trio were, with pathways between the shelves and antique furniture being present as well. While the place appeared to be of an older decade then the other buildings or even the diner was, the structure and all it housed was better dusted, laqued and maintained than anything else they had seen in the town thus far. It was as if they had stepped past a temporal portal while they went through the doorway. Crystal smiled at this familiar location while the other two were given a sense of awe while they rotated around to immerse themselves in the library of shelves.
"I can see why you like this place so much, Crystal!" Locke said while taking in the beauty.
"Yeah. Now come along, let's take a closer look around," the Weavile said, "I can assure you that each individual part of this place is as pretty as the whole."
"I'm going to wander around that place myself. Is that alright?" Tamin asked.
"Of course, go ahead," Crystal said without even turning her head towards the minccino.
"Alright," Tamin replied.
The group split up with Crystal going directly forward to get deeper into the antique store's aisles while Tamin went over to the side. Being able to sit during dinner was a relief to her, but having a chance to be alone was an even larger relief.
The minccino stepped around curiously to look at the different odds and ends, but also kept vigilant in case an emolga showed up as well. The trinkets ranged greatly in meterial, with metal, porcelain, wool, and wooden objects all being on display (though no ivory). Every corner of the store was filled with so many items of so many different colors that it was almost disorienting for Tamin to go through. After less than a minute of traveling, one thing caught Tamin's eye in particular: a holder of various magazines that was beside one of the doors.
She made her way towards the stand, part because the plastic it was constructed out of made it stand out like a flare in night among the olden store, but she had other reasons to be attracted to it as well. Tamin checked if there was any magazine name that seemed familiar to her- and sure enough- she found a magazine named 'Stone Weekly' that triggered memories of hers. Tamin pulled one of the copies out and began flipping through the pages to glance over its contents as a method of checking, stopping only once she found a page she feared.
Depicted on the magazine page was a family consisting of a cinccino father, a cinccino mother, two minccino sons, and two minccino daughters. Each posing for a staged photograph in a background trying too hard to look squeaky clean. Tamin's eyes locked on this page and the younger of the female minccino on it. The minccino she was looking at in the picture was her.
She could precisely see the forced smile on her face that she had to please her parents and not anger them. Tamin could remember the exact day she was forced to take that particular photo, with her and all of her siblings being staged like dolls to give the illusion of a perfect family. It was sickening to her to see what was being displayed, to see her parents in it, and to see the magazine buy into the lies and depict this as a golden nuclear family without flaws as terrible memories flooded into her mind.
Her eyes met with her own on the photograph, but she kept her composure. She closed the magazine and turned back to the holder to grab every other copy of that issue. Tamin gathered five of the issues in total, and then headed over to the store register with them. All five of the issues were placed on the counter, and she asked "How much for all of them?". While the cashier was left befuddled, she politely told her how much it was and Tamin retrieved the money from her bags to pay for it.
Now in possession of all the copies of that magazine issue the store had, Tamin wandered out of the antique store and went around to the back of the store. She got to a trashcan where she meticulously ripped up each of the issues to throw into the trash can. She began in an enraged frenzy but gradually slowed as she went through it; caring only that the magazines were gone so that no one could read them and see that picture of her. Once she was done, Tamin took a step back to reflect on what she had just done; grinning at her own cleverness to destroy the evidence of her past and embracing the intrigue of the situation.
Meanwhile, Locke and Crystal were still together and looking around the antique shop. They had gone past the shelves of small items and into a section of the store which mainly housed vintage wood furniture. The pieces widely ranged in sizes for all different sizes of pokemon, having some pieces for pokemon as large as an arcanine to as small as a skitty.
"So Crystal, since you've been living at the guildhouse for a while now, has there been any casual stuff you've started doing?" Locke asked as he passed by a shelf of many antiquated clocks that were turned off.
"I've taken up some calligraphy artwork now," Crystal said, "my room is basically an art studio now."
"Oh, that's really cool, you'll have to show me that sometime," Locke said.
"Yeah. I got most of the decorations for my room from here,"
"I see."
They continued browsing the inventory for fun for a little longer. But eventually, Locke saw a table that caught his eye. It was perfect for his size since he saw that the table's surface was below his shoulders, yet the height was perfect enough for him to interact with objects on it easier than the objects on the floor. It was perfectly cleaned, had a surface that was only slightly longer than his each, and it had some drawers that were sized well for him. He stopped to inspect it closer and Locke remembered about how blank his room at the guild was.
"Hmm? Does something have your eye?" Crystal asked.
"Yeah," Locke said as he continued looking at the table.
The weavile came over to the shinx to inspect the same table, with her seeing its designs and properties as well.
"Do you think it's something you want?" Crystal inquired.
"Yeah, but I'm not going to be able to afford it right now," Locke said, "I think I might come back to this at a later day when I have the money. Then again, winter is coming up soon, so that will be awhile off."
"Hmm… Tell you what, I can buy it for you. Free of charge," Crystal said to him.
"Really?!" Locke said excitedly.
"Yeah, I'll even help you get it into your room," she reassured.
"Wow, thanks!"
"No problem, let's get this bought now."
The two worked together to bring the table over to the register, where the weavile produced the coins necessary to pay. They got a temporary flat cart where the workers helped setting the table down, and then Locke and Tamin went out onto the streets again to bring it back to the guildhouse.
"Thanks a lot for this, Crystal," Locke said as he pushed the cart with the side of his head and one of his paws while walking forward on the other three paws.
"You're welcome. I was just wanting to help an old friend," Crystal as she pulled the cart, leading the way, "I only ask that you treat this gift of mine with care. Put a scratch in it and I'll put a scratch in you."
"Ha, fair enough. Man, it's crazy to think how quickly we got back together after finding each other again just yesterday."
"I agree. You're just like how I last saw you. Good times indeed."
"Yeah…" Locke said.
As they continued pushing the cart forward, Locke's mind wandered. He remembered about Olivia again, and while he didn't particularly want anything to do with the emolga at that time, Olivia did serve to put certain ideas in her mind from what she had said.
"So I, uh, thinking," Locke spoke as he began to stutter, his words defying how he planned this out in his head, "and we know a lot about each other. So do you think, (or, uh) want to be something a little more? Like, uh-"
Locke decided to skip the lead up he was having trouble speaking and bite the bullet of what he was trying to get through.
"Want to be, like, boyfriend and girlfriend?" Locke said as he began to blush red.
"Oh?" Crystal said, taken back by the request, "Is that what you want?"
"Yes," Locke said as he turned he continued to blush and avoided complete eye contact.
"I… Guess I am just worried that if this goes wrong it will kinda bring us apart forever," Crystal admitted.
"We will always be great friends," he reassured.
"Alright then; let's do this," she replied, "I think you'd make a good boyfriend for me."
"Great!" Locke enthusiastically said, still pushing the cart.
"So should we arrange for a date tomorrow or something?" the weavile inquired.
"Sounds right," Locke said.
"Nice..."
End of chapter 7.