Antarctic Termite

Pokemon Mystery Dungeons: Stargate [Mid-High Casual] Accepting!

and now a return to Random Worldbuilding with the Asshole Doctor, who'll probably remain in the smokehouse until he needs to get to the library to meet Devin or put someone's leg in a sling or something.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeons: Stargate [Mid-High Casual] Accepting!

Doc Siward

River Plateau. That was familiar enough. The high limestone mesas blocked the horizon, and with it any attempt to search quickly. I'll organise myself a day trip. We may yet be in for a hike. Siward made no attempt to follow when Mizu left. Nor did he bid farewell, though the final comment rankled. Perhaps there were arrangements to be made for his visit; The Doc expected to feel eyes on his back, and didn't want to interfere with that. Another trust game.

"Don't fret over this old owl, Mizu," he said instead, half to himself. "Secrecy is my business." He did value his life, after all. Siward valued that very much. Well... Enough of that later. I did mean to have a comfortable day today, and I intend to see that through. And he knew where to go to relax in thought, too.

Not just a boss but a Boss. Siward had read the capital in Mizu's gaze. Something large and bristly was stirring beneath Medburn. The Doc looked up and stared over the horizon where the Stargate waited.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A keen pair of eyes flickered back and forth over the doctor through a colourfully stained window mosaic. The watcher was a Phione, and she wore a tidy, ornate hijab over a tidy, ornate brain with a long memory. "Look who's back," whispered Tala, her tone rising along with her small, timeless smile.

The door opened for Siward before he had a chance to ring the chime. "Afternoon, Siward. It's been two years since you last pleasured me with your company."

"And my money," he replied, removing his hat all the way and making a small bow before handing it over. Tala stowed it in an airtight cupboard along with his coat and cane, where the humid air of the smokehouse couldn't damage the material. The comment seemed bitterly arrogant, but Siward's tone was grateful and Tala humoured him. It was a sign of their closeness that they could be so open about one another's greed.

Siward paid his due and folded cross-legged beside an unoccupied hookah. Tala joined him, though her vice of choice was steaming coffee, not simmering tobacco. "You should settle, Siward. Melburn is growing and business is good, even for my little lounge. Dungeons stir up refugees and the Guild draws them here."

"As it happens, I've had the rare chance to play a role there already," he nodded. "With the help of a curious Axew. One Devin to whom I recommended the Explorer's life." He raised an eyebrow meaningfully. Tala sipped her coffee and returned the stare. "Did you learn anything from him? That Axew's a newcomer, but he's no vagrant, Siward. Even those who've seen him don't know much about him. Particularly his origins. He was just here one day, with neither friends nor relatives. Two or three others appeared on the same date. A Togepi. A Noibat. There's a rumour that he's the product of some explorer's reckless loving abroad, but it's faint."

Siward shook his head and wondered. "Ah. A mystery."

@floodtalon

True/False Game

wow that's some hard shit man fuck but i'm going to guess false presuming that abuse in this case doesn't include neglect and also personal experience bias against other demographics

also doing research on that right now would probably make me Sad and Unhappy

True or false- Seeing a watermelon right now would make you happy.

The Drinkify Game

The Emancipator

2 oz. Gin
2 oz. Iced tea
10 oz. Apricot Brandy
Combine in shaker and strain into cocktail glass. Serve.

Classy shit, I guess.

The best haircuts are taken.

Take them back.

Scalp someone and transplant.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeons: Stargate [Mid-High Casual] Accepting!

Doc Siward

S-iward kept walking, neither changing his pace to put distance between himself and the familiar voice of Mizu nor positioning himself to face him. While his chances of being noticed were low, standing still in an abandoned nook attracted more eyes than someone just passing through. The new set of footsteps following behind him rang in his ears.

"Not nobility, dear. Just wealth. Wealth of which, you may be interested in knowing, more than enough remains banked to offer a... Saucy bounty." The usual and necessary tensions that came before even the faintest trust. The reality of the set of claws lurking out of eyeshot didn't do much to alleviate the Doc's feeling that thusfar their exchange had been little more than spoken terms-and-conditions. You stab my back, I'll stab yours. "That kind of banter tires me, though. I prefer to be simple. My name is Doc. Yours is Mizu- For now, anyway. I won't ask what your real name is. It doesn't matter. You feel as if you've been wronged. Well, I won't apologise for stopping the violent kidnapping of a young immigrant. Funny, isn't it. His motives are the same as mine."

Siward turned a corner, taking them further into the outskirts. Houses became poorer, often makeshift. Here Pokemon had their own problems to deal with, and the wilderness loomed surprisingly close. "I reached out to you for the same reason that many penniless wanderers do. For the same reason they go to the Guild, really. I'm looking for opportunity. Places to ply my trade. For that I need to know the shape of the market." He slowed, just enough to take a sip from a small gourd of water, just enough to look sidelong at the Gabite. "What do you want from the Axew, Devin? Or, maybe, who paid you to make a move on a target so useless?"

@floodtalon

Pokemon Mystery Dungeons: Stargate [Mid-High Casual] Accepting!

Doc Siward

Siward nodded slowly, in time with Kel's words, paused long enough to skip a beat at 'I'd ask to join you-', and smoothly picked up the mark again after that. "Take care of yourself, Kel," he remarked, and meant it. Then Siward drained his bowl and stepped away. I wonder if the man really would have come along, given the chance. I'll keep an eye open. At any rate, the Keldeo was attending his other companions now.

He hailed Takeo briefly from across the counter on his way to the door. A faint, rapid patter of a run registered in his mind as he approached. It did little to alert him of the coming shock.

In a moment, the slow, poised stride of the Aromatisse found itself blocked at the entry by an explosive apparition of red fur and hot air. Neither the shape of the newcomer nor his voice quite registered in Siward's mind until his shouting was almost done. "-I, Ember, will finally get my revenge!"

The heat wave that had accompanied the Vulpix through the door gusted further, flickering into a whirl of thin streaks of cinders and tongues of flame from the wooden floor, which singed and smouldered. Some kind of... Spontaneous theatre? buzzed Siward's mind as his feathers whipped in the hot wind. It didn't occur to him that the Vulpix intended to hurt someone; He'd neither capitalised on the shock of appearance nor stopped talking. Ember seemed to be making some kind of elaborate visual pun on the phrase 'hot air'.

A glance around confirmed that neither laughs nor applause had followed Ember's début. The Doc pointed to the fiery vulpine next to him with his cane, using his other hand to point open-palmed at Kel, then the Ditto-Umbreon, then Takeo, then back at Ember, beseeching somebody in the silence to do something about this... Sassy, lost child.

Then he murmured "Good luck, tyke," sidelong at the Vulpix, adjusted his hat, and left the absurd situation while he had the chance.

There had been plenty of drama today already.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was unseasonably torrid outside. Ember had clearly tried to carry the weather inside with him. Siward recognised the telltale fading of the heat as he left the site of the restaurant; This was no naturally sunny day.

The Caterpie had turned this way, and, given that it held the only somewhat view-sheltered side route on the street, it was clear why. This would be where Mizu had found her and left his message. It was only a short step towards the library and its associated message-place, too. An experienced fire-wielder would have ignited a fireball early, to bring the simulated sunlight inside with them, he mused as he strode off. Siward's head still spun from the inexplicable actions of the rogue Vulpix. Perhaps he wanted to avoid a fire risk.

The site was empty. Siward eyed the wall.

Well, he scraped off the markings with some sand- It was in his colour, meant for none other- At least Ember's little debacle ensured no chance of that. He looked over his shoulder anyway, and into the sky. No tails allowed. All clear. The scent he'd left was safely gone.

The message implied that Mizu wanted the Doc to follow, and though he had yet to see the Gabite, he did so, slowly ambling further from the town centre, further away from safety, following the same kind of routes that Devin had first been accosted for straying too near to. Mizu would be watching, or waiting, somewhere nearby, quiet and secluded, and the Doc kept his eyes open for a sign.

@Lugia@Shiny Keldeo@floodtalon

Pokemon Mystery Dungeons: Stargate [Mid-High Casual] Accepting!

Doc Siward

Returning to his hat-marked wooden chair, Siward wasn't long in waiting before he received what he had come for, which was not, of course, a meal. For a moment it was hard to notice the prod and tug of the little insect; He rather acknowledge the ruffling of trailing feathers by the Caterpie's shocked tremors. "Why, rest easy," he cooed to her as the simple and critical message was left, but though he picked out another small tip, the green middlewoman skittered off before she could accept.

Allergies. Maybe this Mizu mentioned a warning about my Fairy nature. I don't blame him. Siward regretted having lost the chance to calm down the tiny Caterpie; She seemed remarkably stressed, and he wondered whether the Gabite's methods were crude. Soon, soon. He was quick enough off the mark; He should be able to wait at least until I've politely finished here. The cowed Eevee under the Ditto-Umbreon's shadow waved at him, and he tapped his hat absentmindedly. Elsewhere in his gaze, Kel reappeared for the second time in a day to place his own order, and Siward averted his gaze to an approaching red ribbon.

The small bowl arrived to him borne by the similarly small Pancham at a confident waiter's walk. Definitely an employee of Takeo, came the thought, then, when she'd left her comment and departed, And definitely family, too. Her comment had the same air of brusque bustle, though the words were sour and the Doc did not thank her for them, only shut his beak and eyed her for a moment. Teenagers!

Had that been all he'd received from the brief visit, Siward would be pleased with his stay and leave, but an unwelcome variable presented itself as he drank gently from the bowl, an unstylistically plebeian action that made all the more sense considering how few spoons fit comfortably in his beak. Siward set down his meal and listened amiably, though he was well aware that he didn't want to leave Mizu waiting longer than necessary.

"All is well, Kel," he responded simply, but not dismissively. "Your grasp of tactics is clearer than mine. I'm just unduly frustrated by boldness of the injustice, I suppose. I still have every respect for the Exploration Society's persistence even when times seem grim." That was true. The Guild and its like had been around for a long time, and no matter what catastrophe it and its members suffered, it pleased Siward to see that it always bounced back into life. Even after the Stargate. Especially after the Stargate. Siward took another deep sip.

I can't shake him off by suggesting that he goes somewhere else, nor that I have a meeting, without raising curiousity. In other words, he couldn't excuse himself immediately, even if it had been polite to do so. "And you can call me Doc, if it suits you. I'm well used to it. I've been in the profession for most of my life now, and much of that as a traveller, so people grow used to thinking of me by my trade. Speaking of which, it's been long seasons since I've seen my patients here. I hope they aren't anxious."

If Kel's nature was as altruistic as Siward suspected and hoped, there was a sizable chance that he would express some good wishes or polite comment that he shouldn't be keeping the doctor longer than necessary, and Siward, his small meal nearly drained, could leave on that. Good-natured and polite Explorers tended to be predictable. Although, I've never seen this particular Explorer before...

@Shiny Keldeo

Name a song that describes your sex life

Pokemon Mystery Dungeons: Stargate [Mid-High Casual] Accepting!

Story of my life: Caught up with too much worldbuilding and too few interactions.