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Post by ChronoStrike on Feb 10, 2013 11:07:40 GMT -5
Standing and staring. Just standing and staring; Jaye made no move to do more despite the excited Charmander at his side. He stood because, in shock, he had no intention to continue moving forward from the edge where trail gave way to street. He stared, the source of his shock, at the direct confrontation of all his experience against reality. The truth was too major to ignore as he watched the busy streets and the Pokemon who roamed them. 'A Pokemon civilization...forget the hallucination theory...'
As he watched in awe, he took in a few different things. First, the city here...well, actually didn't seem that different from a human city in many respects. 'Something to relate to, anyway.' On the other hand (paw?), the city would definitely have to accomodate Pokemon of all sizes, shapes, and natures. There would definitely be distinctive differences when compared to a human city. And Jaye even shut his eyes for a moment, wishing that he could as easily block out other senses. Although he reopened his eyes soon after, the sensory overload due to unfamiliarity with his body was taking a toll. Lastly, still trying to think though the difficulty in his fogging mind, he noted at least a couple bookstores. 'I like books...could get used to that...'
Once he stopped straining in his attempts to notice every detail, his mental haze vanished. A more subtle sense of curiosity settled, helping him to still notice things but without getting overwhelmed by the things around him. '...instinct...maybe?' The Chimchar glanced at his newly-adopted brother. "Cameron, you know your way around better than I do. You're just looking...kinda...jittery, I think?"
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Post by Digizel on Feb 12, 2013 11:40:04 GMT -5
A Charmander stood beside Jaye, smiling brightly as Jaye simply stood and stared around the area. "Heheh...surprised?" he asked, finding his new brother's wondrous gaze quite amusing. Cameron tried to follow the Chimchar's gaze to the area all around, wondering what exactly he could be staring at. "Sheesh, Bro, if I didn't know better, I'd think you had never seen a city or town before. Have you been LIVING out there in that field for your entire life or something?"[/center] He chuckled at his own little half-joke. "Well then, maybe I'll have to show you around."
With that, Cameron didn't hesitate to reach out to Jaye once more. he grabbed hold of the Chimchar's hand and led him around the road they were on. The actual city around them bore a surprising resemblance to a human city. Although there was nothing like huge skyscrapers, there were large structures with some rather complicated architecture now and again. The entrances of the various shops and stands were generally very large and open, most often lacking actual doorways. This was most likely to accomodate bigger Pokemon that may occasionally show up, such as Snorlax or Steelix. In addition, the public buildings themselves were often very open to give these Pokemon a lot of maneuvering space, as well as allowing other Pokemon to move around.
Perhaps the next most striking difference between human cities and this one was the road. There were no blacktop streets laid out on the ground. Rather, a nice, clean, cement and brick pathway. Many Pokemon were simply walking or jogging along across and around the path. However, there were also occasional carriages as well, being pulled by various Pokemon, from Ponyta and Rapidash to Winter-form Sawsbuck. One carriage in specific stopped by a particularly tall building nearby with several grand window, drawn by a Stantler. A Mienfoo stepped out of the carriage and pulled out a few coins, dropping them into a pouch the Stantler was carrying along with the carriage, bowed, and walked into the building.
Finally, Cameron came to a stop at a somewhat smaller building with a huge entryway built into it. "Oooh...and THIS..." he said with a large grin. "...Is the Simi Café. It's my favorite place to hang out. The owners are really nice and make the BEST tea and coffee." He looked inside and saw that, at the moment, the building appeared to be empty. Or at least, business was slow. "Come on, I want you to meet them!" With that, he pulled at the Jaye's arm once more, attempting to practically drag the Chimchar into the Café with him.
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Post by ChronoStrike on Feb 17, 2013 19:51:36 GMT -5
"Eh heh...well...never seen a city quite like this...not even in the wildest of those dreams I had..." While saying this, another thought came to Jaye. 'Living a double existence...again. Can't let go of the past without letting go of who I was. Can't let go of the future without letting go of who I will be. One of these days the future's gonna win out of sheer necessity.' Any further pondering abruptly ended when Cameron pretty much started dragging the Chimchar around the city.
All in all, the city wasn't so foreign as Jaye expected. How much he saw, exactly, was doubtful - this was some kind of crash tour - but he was able to grasp flashes of it. 'Simple roads are nice. Wonder if they all lead to Rome or if that doesn't apply here...'
For the first time it also occurred to the Chimchar that maybe this was a far future where humans no longer existed. This could be the same sort of place he left through that portal! The cabs (of sorts) caught his attention but he didn't think a lot of it just yet, because his Charmander guide stopped briefly in front of a building he idenfitied as a café he liked and was familiar with. Then he dragged his new brother inside, and it was all Jaye could do to stay with him.
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Post by Digizel on Feb 19, 2013 11:22:18 GMT -5
As Jaye and Cameron made their way into the Café--albeit one somewhat against his will--it became obvious that the store was empty. There were no customers standing around, nor sitting at one of the many tables that dotted the large room they found themselves in. On the opposite side of the building, a large bar sat, with a large variety of cookware, freezers, refridgerators and much more that you'd find in a restaurant's kitchen laying behind it. Also behind the counter, facing away from the open door was a Simipour. The Pokemon stood over a sink, cleaning glasses and plates.
"Hey, Ms. Pour!" the Charmander called out, finally releasing his grip on Jaye's hand and dashing forward. He jumped up and into one of the seats at the bar, which spun around a full 360 degrees, revealing that the chairs up against the bar were swivel chairs. He had a grin on his face as he talked to the Simipour, clearly on a good relation with this new Pokemon.
The Simipour, after hearing the Charmander's voice, lifted her head from the sink and placed the plate she was holding onto a stack of clean ones sitting beside the sink. She turned around and saw the Charmander sitting at the bar and smiled at him. "Oh, hey there, Cam!" she replied, stepping up to the counter. "It's been a while since you've been here." Suddenly, however, the Chimchar that had entered with him. "...And who's your new friend?" However, something seemed to change in her tone as she spoke. If Cameron didn't know any better, he would have thought she had lost a bit of her usual cheeriness.
"This is my best bro, Jaye!" he exclaimed, his voice just as peppy as ever. "He really helped me out of trouble a little bit ago, and he really cared about me.... You should have seen him, he was SO COOL the way he beat those stupid Riolu...!"
"I see, is that so...?" the Simipour replied. "Well then, it is very nice to meet you, Jaye. I must thank you for protecting our most common customer." With that, she even bowed her head slightly to Jaye before turning her attention back to Cameron. "So then...do you want the usual, Cammy?" she asked, turning back away from the counter again. When the Charmander nodded, she began to get to work, grabbing a small mug of some sort and began mixing various ingredients into it.
It was quite clear that Cameron and this Simipour had a good relationship going at this point. Perhaps Jaye could finally get himself a moment of peace and relaxation?
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Post by ChronoStrike on Feb 20, 2013 1:10:15 GMT -5
Jaye took the time to look around when he and Cameron entered, not that there was a lot more to see. Besides the wide aperture for the entrance and the Pokèmon behind the counter, this place wasn't too much unlike a café from his home world. During this time that the Chimchar was observing, his guide energetically took a seat, giving Jaye reason to pause in looking around. As he listened to the following conversation, he mostly attentively nodded along. He lowered his head slightly as Cameron praised him, and tried to hide his embarassment by doing so again as a sign of respect when the Simipour inclined her head to him. "Glad to be here, too."
'Come on, Jaye, think, what do you know about the three 'Simi' Pokémon...tragically little, and never in practical experience since they're native to Unova...'[/color] Jaye paused in his reflections as he approached a seat next to Cameron. His pace remained much more measured, even sedate. Rushing just wasn't even a possibility right now.
If the Simipour meant anything by the change in voice tones, it went straight over Jaye's head. The Chimchar quietly watched and listened. Friendly by nature though he was, it didn't seem like a good idea to start up conversation. This was the friend of a friend; no way he could know how to speak well in the time being. For that matter, his hampered social skills really put a damper on his ability to be friendly. No, right now, he listened and waited, paying some attention and somewhat replaying in his mind the events of the past two hours.
[I've tried to pick out grammar/spelling errors but forgive slip-ups, I'm exhausted.
Edit: I was definitely exhausted. Wrote 'Simisear'. Corrected.]
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Post by Digizel on Feb 22, 2013 12:25:11 GMT -5
Neither the Simipour nor Cameron replied to Jaye or really paid his words any mind. They maintained their focus on each other, beginning to make some rather dull-sounding small talk. However, Cameron had begun to tell Simipour everything that had gone on so far in the last half hour or so. From him getting chased by the two Riolu to meeting Jaye to finally watching Jaye beat them up and--from his perspective--apparently "single-handedly beating those Dimensional Guard and showing that they're not as great as they say they are." It was possible he was exaggerating just a slight amount....
Finally, the Simipour had apparently heard enough. "Listen, Cameron," she said, finally stopping the Charmander after his little mini-rant of praising Jaye. "Why don't you go in the back and talk to Mr. Sear? I'm sure he would love to listen to all of your little stories while cooking you up something nice."
The Charmander stopped and looked up at the Simipour. His smile still hadn't faded, even after this entire time. "Oh, okay!" he said in his usual peppy tone. He then jumped down from the seat and went around to the side of the bar, where the Simipour let him through. Soon enough, he disappeared into a back room.
Once Cameron had disappeared, the Simipour turned her attention back to Jaye. "Listen, you," she muttered in a darker tone than she had during her conversation with Cameron. She turned her gaze sharply onto Jaye and lifted a finger to point at him. "I don't know what you're playing at, but somebody like Cameron does NOT need to be getting into too much trouble with the Dimensional Guard. And you beating up two officers is most likely not going to go over well with them. If they do ANYTHING to Cameron because YOU just had to go and beat them up, then you will NOT get away unscathed. Understand, HERO?"
{Heh...don't worry about it. xD We're not very picky here on this site~ xP}
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Post by ChronoStrike on Feb 27, 2013 0:08:16 GMT -5
Jaye relaxed, idly listening to the conversation and letting his thoughts wander. When Cameron started telling the story, however, the Chimchar became somewhat uneasy, knowing that his friend was embellishing the tale at certain points. The Simipour suggested that he go to the back, and Jaye recognized well enough - this was an excuse to talk with him alone. Which meant that things were about to abruptly take either an upturn or a serious downturn, based on what he knew so far.
Cameron went for it, leaving Jaye with a Water-type who could either mean him well or mean him ill. The very act of losing contact - however briefly - with the one familiar person in this world set the Chimchar further on edge. Of course, that he was alone with a Water-type, of all types, did nothing to help sooth his queasiness. Jaye found out soon enough. Abrupt downturn it was. He gulped. '...I have no reason to think she's making idle threats...so I have to tread carefully...very carefully...' After being ranted at (or at least it felt like that to him), he nodded. "I understand. May I tell my side of the story?"
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Post by Digizel on Feb 28, 2013 17:13:03 GMT -5
The Simipour responded with another mini-rant, "No. I don't need to hear anything from you. All I need to know is that if Cameron plans on staying with you...if he is, and I find out that ANYTHING happens to that boy, then it's YOUR head. I will NOT stop until I find you and drag you to the Dimensional Guard myself. Got it?" She then glared down at Jaye for a short while longer, as though waiting for some kind of response from him. However, she didn't really care whether or not he understood. He didn't need to. Either way, she planned on following through.
"You should consider yourself lucky," the Simipour growled down at him as she turned away. "If Cameron weren't in the back room, you'd be stuffed into my freezer right about now. And I don't want him to have to worry about any of this...so you had best keep this between you and me. Or we will have even MORE problems. Got it?"
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Post by ChronoStrike on Mar 10, 2013 23:10:59 GMT -5
Jaye sighed. He wasn't going to get any relenting. Retreating inwards rather than intentionally furl conflict - non-physical conflict, the kind he most abhorred - he nodded when it seemed wise to do so in response to the Simipour. 'So much for good first impressions...if Cameron likes this place as much as it sounds like, there's going to be trouble somewhere...might be blood, probably mine...'[/color] When a sentence finally ended with a questioning inflection that wasn't rhetorical, he jumped on the chance. "I understand." Hoping and praying to Arceus (even though he wasn't usually the religious type) that the storm had passed, he rested on the counter, trying to sift through his sensory input again without repressing instinct.
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Post by Digizel on Mar 12, 2013 10:34:58 GMT -5
The Simipour didn't respond to Jaye's answer and simply maintained her usual demeanor. A few silent minutes later, the back door opened from the kitchen and the same Charmander from before strolled back out. Cameron smiled back through the door and called out, "Thank you for drink, Mr. Sear!" before allowing the door the close and turning his attention to the Simipour and Jaye.
"Having fun, Jaye...?~" Cameron asked, jumping up into the seat next to Jaye. "I love it here. Misters Sear and Sage and Ms. Pour are the greatest...and they make the best team there is!"
"Heh...thank you, Cammy, but I don't think we're the best there is." the Simipour replied.
"Awww...Ms. Pour...!" he exclaimed, putting his claws on the table with a frown and a slight hint of red on his cheeks. "Don't call me that...not in front of Jaye...!"
"Heh...I'm sorry, Cammy, but I just can't help myself~"
"Ms. Pooouuurrr...!" he whined, blushing a little bit harder and glancing at Jaye.
The environment had suddenly shifted into a much more friendly atmosphere once Cameron had walked into the room; much more casual. It appeared that this Simipour truly cared for Cameron's well-being. However, that certainly didn't stop the Simipour from shooting Jaye a colder glare at one point when Cameron wasn't paying attention.
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Post by ChronoStrike on Mar 16, 2013 22:09:36 GMT -5
Still, Jaye was somewhat uneasy. He made no further attempt to talk to the Simipour; the Chimchar didn't have a death wish. He knew that it seemed so intrinsically wrong, too, letting himself be intimidated...but he didn't really know what to do so he sat there, awkward.
Then Cameron walked in, the electric tension in the room dissipated, and Jaye breathed steadily again. The whole atmosphere changed. Again, the Chimchar receded into ease. He even let a small smile to cross his expression as he was allowed a window - or a cross-section, a view, what have you - into a more personal side of the relationship which he still feared would be the end of him.
Still...at that time, with the combined weight of Ms. Pour's disapproval and feeling so out of place between she and Cameron, he figured excusing himself would probably be a better idea. "Excuse me...there are other proprietors? I would like to meet them too, if it's all right...really don't want to intrude here."
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Post by Digizel on Mar 16, 2013 22:54:52 GMT -5
As Jaye asked to see the other two proprietors of the shop, the Simipour crossed her arms and shook her head. "No, I don't think so." she snapped at the Chimchar. "I think it's about time for us to close up shop for the day anyway. It's getting rather late after all." She nodded in the direction of the building's entrance, gesturing outside where it was easy to see that the sun was beginning to set. There was an orange glow emanating from the doorway as the sun sat behind the opposite building.
This seemed to confuse Cameron, however. The Charmander cocked his head slightly to the right as he asked, "Huh...? Close up? What do you mean? Aren't you guys always open until midnight or something?" he asked, putting a claw to his jaw and looking outside. He could have sworn that the three of them had been open much closer to his bedtime than this before.
However, before the Simipour could say anything more, another door behind the kitchen opened up and another monkey Pokemon made his way into the room. This one was primarily green with a tall bush-like vegetation atop his head. He turned his gaze down to the Charmander and smiled. "Ah, there he is. Sear told me that Cameron was here~" He then turned his gaze to the Chimchar sitting beside him. "Oh, and you must be this new 'brother' that Cameron told Sear about too, huh?" The Pokemon stepped up to the counter on the opposite side from Jaye and held out his hand in a friendly manner. "The name's Sage. How 'bout you, bud?"
This new Pokemon, the Simisage, seemed quite a bit friendlier toward Jaye than the Simipour was. However, whether or not he knew the full story between Jaye and Cameron was known to him was unclear.
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Post by ChronoStrike on Mar 18, 2013 10:08:13 GMT -5
Inwardly the denied Chimchar sighed. He glanced at the entryway when it was pointed out. 'Maybe that's valid...just sounds like a reason to kick me out, though...' Sighing outwardly now, he turned back towards the unfriendly Simipour. He knew well enough that, as it was, he had no influence over the situation. However, then the Charmander sitting by him - his advocate, more or less - spoke up about not understanding. And after that confusion Jaye knew he had a chance.
He would have spoken, but then another Pokemon entered. Jaye turned his attention to the Simisage who had just come in from the same door that Cameron used earlier. Hopefully it meant, if circumstantial evidence was anything to go by, that he was another proprietor. And hopefully more friendly. To start, it at least sounded like it. 'Have to make a better first impression or I'm definitely done for...' He shook the extended hand. "Jaye's my name. Glad to meet you. Cameron and I met earlier when fate crossed our paths and we've been pretty close since." What the human-turned-Chimchar was completely oblivious to was that he just unintentionally gave his excitable Charmander brother another opportunity to tell the story, possibly damagingly.
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Post by Digizel on Mar 19, 2013 10:46:36 GMT -5
The Simisage smiled and nodded at Jaye's words. "A pleasure to meet you, Jaye. You seem like a fine enough young man. A bit smaller and scrawnier than I expected, but not bad." He smiled and released Jaye's hand as the two of them finished shaking and he turned his back to the counter, walking over to a small niche in the kitchen area behind the bar. "So, Jaye, can I interest you in a cup of tea? It's my specialty, really." He reached underneath the counter and pulled out two things. One was a jar that seemed full of various kinds of plants and spices while the other was a jug of water.
Cameron brightened up at Jaye's words, and he was hit by the impulse to tell the story he had told to Simipour and Simisear. However, he didn't have the chance to say anything due to Mr. Sage continuing to speak in his place. However, when Sage offered tea to the two of them, thoughts of retelling his story left his mind. "Oh, no thanks, Mr. Sage," he started. "Mr. Sear made me some hot chocolate before, and I've had plenty to drink. But you can make some tea for Jaye!" He turned his head to look at Jaye before adding to the Chimchar, "Mr. Sage makes the best tea. He's the best at gathering all of the best ingredients, and he uses only the water that Ms. Pour can produce because it's so clean. It's amazing~"
The Simisage chuckled at Cameron's words. "You always say that, every time I ask. But what do you say, Jaye?" He focused his attention back on Jaye. "Care for a cup or something? I could certainly use one myself. And as you can see, business is not exactly booming anyway." With that, he gestured at the otherwise empty room they were sitting in.
Meanwhile, Simipour had taken to leaning up against the wall to Sage's right, on the far side of the bar. She seemed to be trying to ignore the conversations going on and her mind focused on something else. However, that still did not stop her from glancing back at Jaye occasionally, with a gaze as cold as ever.
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