Team Moonshine: A Relatively Calm Night
Late at night, the Sylveon walked across the streets and bridges of Capim Town. When he found out Vileplume and Bellossom were planning to spend the night at the Blue Claw Inn, he naturally wanted to join them. For whatever reason, they told him to meet them there instead of walking with him.
He wondered why. Were they planning some kind of surprise? What could it be for? They’d only just gotten back with Adrian a week. Was he already in on it?
Since he was stuck in his head, he wasn't paying much attention to where he was walking. This made him bump into another Pokémon.
“Oh, sorry!” He said instinctively before realizing who it was. An umbreon with a burnt red cape and white armband, barely keeping his balance. “You okay, Addy?”
“Fuuck off… faggot…” Adrian said in slurred speech. Clearly he'd been drinking. A lot.
Before Enny could even question him on it, he was already stumbling away. It was the second time Enny had seen him drunk like that since he returned.
At least he took Enny's fashion advice with the cape. To think he wanted to throw it in the storage room. It was such a nice gift from that espeon, and the singed edges had a distinct style. He never explained how that happened…
Well, he couldn't be late for the other two. The Blue Claw was just up ahead.
The inn was in sight in no time. It was one of the few businesses with the lights left on at night. When Enny entered, there were many patrons at different tables accommodating of all sizes. The sylveon scanned the room before spotting Bellossom at a table alone. She seemed tired for some reason. It was kind of late at night, but why would she come out now?
So, Enny walked up to the table. “Hiya Bell! Where's Viley at?”
She jumped for a moment before she realized who it was. A light smile appeared on her face. “Oh, hi Enny. He'll be down here soon. Did you order a drink?”
“Not yet, though it seems like Addy had a few too many,” Enny joked.
“Oh, you saw him?”
“Yeah, ran into him on the way down here. He greeted me as he usually does and hobbled toward the guild.”
Bellossom sighed. “I wasn't expecting him to drink that much.”
Enny chuckled. “Can’t stop that stubborn bre from doing what he wants. It was just you two, though? I thought you were coming here with Vileplume.”
“I did. He's right there.”
Enny turned around to see the Pokémon in question coming down from the upper floor of the inn. It wasn't what he thought of when she said he’d “be down here soon”.
Vileplume joined them at the table. “So, no luck with him?”
Bellossom shook her head with a smile. “Actually got him to talk quite a bit, though it was a little hard to understand.”
“Too drunk?”
“Enough to kill two pokemon.”
“Why’d he leave then?”
Her smile dropped. “I uh… asked him about his mother. Didn't say a thing, just got up and left. I think that subject's off limits, even if he's wasted.”
It still gave Vileplume a bit of hope. “So did he say anything useful?”
“Well I know why he hates Christmas now,” she said. “Shared a couple other stories about himself, but they were a little too personal to share details of. I’m just glad he trusts me enough to share those things now.”
Enny couldn't believe what he was hearing. “You guys interrogated Adrian without me??”
Both of them groaned, and Vileplume responded. “Not just you. I was hiding upstairs. We both figured it would be easier if Bellossom just invited him to dinner before we arrived so she could talk to him one on one.”
“But you didn't tell me he was coming at all!” Enny cried.
Vileplume facepalmed. “We didn't tell him you were coming, either.”
Enny was even more frustrated. Bellossom could see it clearly, so she tried to interject. “We didn't want you to upset him or anything.”
“You think I’d do that?” Enny asked
“Um… not intentionally?” She meekly replied. “It's just… he already hates you. We took every precaution we could here. Like Viley said, he was upstairs the whole time.”
“But he was allowed to know?!”
Vileplume jumped back in. “Because I don’t really trust you to keep to the sidelines. Sometimes you get it in your head that you understand him better than any of us, and you do dumb shit with that.”
Enny waved his ribbons around. “I literally do!” he argued out. “My little empathy sensors told us about his nightmares in case you forgot.!”
“But they didn't tell you why he had them,” Vileplume pointed out. “As useful as they can be, we really can't rely on them for getting information that's helpful to us now.”
The sylveon was unbelievably annoyed. Filling the umbreon up with booze was better? That, and they didn't even tell Enny about it? It was so stupid.
Bellossom was clearly drained from having to speak with Adrian for however long she was there. The added arguing between Enny and Vileplume only stressed her out more. She interrupted the two, saying, “Can we please just change the subject? We're all here now, so we can at least try to enjoy the night.”
That was enough to settle the two down. So, to try and salvage the night, the table had a few drinks and some appetizers ordered. Two Paradise Cocktails and a Fairy Tale, distributed as expected, along with a plate of mozzarella sticks.
Enny took a mozzarella stick and split it open. Watched the cheese stretch apart like it was his first time witnessing it. “I don't think I've ever ordered these here. How do you guys make cheese in this world?”
Vileplume answered pretty casually, “Some kind of acid and enzymes from plants if I remember right.”
Bellossom gave him a confused look. “Why do you know that?”
“Came up in a conversation with Beast a while ago. Another one of the ‘roleplayers’ asked him about it.”
Enny groaned. “I hate that we still call ourselves that. I swear, everyone here knows by now.”
Vileplume responded, “There's no reason to stop. It's what the guild’s been saying for ages now.”
Bellossom didn't want the conversation to be derailed, though. She wanted it to stay positive. “Viley, did they mention anything else? That sounds pretty interesting.”
“Well Beast didn't talk about too much,” Vileplume answered. “He was really just trying to dismiss it before Cyndaquil could ask what kind of milk they used.”
“Freak…” Enny muttered.
Vileplume continued. “It's weird to me what humans think we eat here. Like I swear, everyone comes in thinking it's all fruits and gummies. Like, humans don't have all the same plants that we have, and we don't have all of theirs apparently, but there's a billion things you can make bread out of besides wheat, and it's pretty easy. Like for god's sake, you can use chestnuts if you got nothing else.”
Enny looked skeptical. “Chestnuts?”
“Yeah!” Vileplume said. “Mom showed me when I was a kid. Just peel them, slice them up, dry the insides, and grind them into flour. You can do that with so many plants. Every time a roleplayer asks that, I just wonder if they're stupid.”
Despite feeling passively targeted by that comment, (considering he’d asked the question himself before), Enny was interested in one part of that rant. “Your mom taught you baking?”
Vileplume stared at him. “Where do you think I learned how to cook?”
“I mean… you mostly make chili and stew. No bread or cakes or anything."
“Well we don't have room to pack any other ingredients. I work with what we got.”
“Oh, and it's good!” Enny reassured him. “It's just uh… simple?”
“Well maybe I’ll make something more complicated one day,” Vileplume said. “Assuming I can get a kitchen to work with. Beast doesn't let me in ‘cause he worries I’ll poison the food.”
There was a bit of silence after that. Vileplume didn't leave a lot to work off of, and they wanted to enjoy their drinks. Enny's was very sweet. A mix of rum and fairy gummies. It tasted like a fruit cocktail.
Bellossom got a little worried, as the sylveon was practically chugging it. “Um, Enny, maybe you should slow down?”
Before she could really stop him though, he was already finished with his cup. “Ah, that's really good. Reminds me of a Painkiller.”
“A what?” Bellossom asked.
“It's a human drink,” Enny explained. “My mom made them for me when I was in high school. Wasn't legal to give me alcohol that young, but who really cares?”
Bellossom was, in a weird way, pleasantly surprised. “You drank with your mother? Our mom would never. She didn't keep liquor in the house at all.”
“We were close,” Enny said. “Sometimes she'd sneak me into bars when I was old enough to pass as an adult. She knew all the places that wouldn't ask for an ID at the door. I’d walk into the bathroom, she’d order two drinks, and I’d come back no questions asked. It was a whole routine.”
Casually explaining how easily he got away with underage drinking did make Vileplume and Bellossom a little uncomfortable. Vileplume raised the question, “How old were you, exactly?”
“Uh… early adolescent,” Enny answered. “I don't think an exact number is useful here. Besides, I don't exactly remember when it started. Just sorta happened in middle school.”
“Isn’t that bad for your brain?” Vileplume asked.
“Oh I was messed up already. If anything, it probably helped with my depression.”
That comment concerned Bellossom. “Why were you depressed? Are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m fine now, relax,” Enny replied. “School was just miserable. I would've done anything to get out of there faster.”
Vileplume got interested. “I heard people complain about your school system. What was so bad about it?”
“Where to begin?” Enny wondered. “They're all underfunded, the teachers are stupid, good kids get punished for no reason, bad kids start shit everywhere and nothing happens to them. Top it all off with subjects we never use in our lives outside of it and you got millions of kids wishing they were literally anywhere else in the world.”
Bellossom got a dark look on her face. “Adrian mentioned how he drew up plans to burn down his school, earlier.”
Vileplume was startled and Enny pulled back from the table. “That's a little insane! School wasn't that bad.”
“Well he also said he never went through with them,” Bellossom added. “But apparently schools were pretty violent and he mentioned that he wasn't the only kid who thought of stuff like that.”
“No, he definitely was!” Enny told her. “I mean, I heard some crazy stuff happened in school, but nothing close to that level. Mine really wasn't that bad. A few fights broke out here and there and the teachers were rude, but we were usually nice to each other. I even met my first boyfriend there, though that relationship didn't last long.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Bellossom said. “You had your family though, so it wasn't too bad, right?”
“I mean I had my mom,” Enny responded. “And don't get me wrong, she was perfect for me. Not so much for my brothers or her husbands. They'd typically walk in one door and straight out the other.”
“So not really stable,” Vileplume said. “At least you had someone who loved you, though.”
“I did, but I had a dozen more who hated me for everything I was. My real father, all my stepdads, both my brothers. All awful.”
Vileplume let a chuckle slip through. “You almost sound like Adrian with a backstory like that.”
“Well my parents alive and happy!” Enny declared, not realizing how bad that sounded until he saw the horrified reactions of his teammates. “I… may have had too much to drink.”
Vileplume nodded silently. Bellossom tried to salvage the conversation, though. “I remember you kind of liked your older brother when you were young, though. School environment just pulled you apart?”
“Kind of,” Enny said. “That and our dad. Neither of us liked our stepdads, but he did end up reconnecting with our dad later on. He became a radio show host apparently. I guess that's where my brother got his personality from.”
“What was his name?” Bellossom asked.
But before Enny could answer, the sound of glass shattering cut him off. The team turned over to see an argument between two patrons of the inn of a bunch of broken bottles.
“This stupid body!” A rampardos yelled. “Can't hold anything with these stubby arms. You should've picked up the drinks, not me!”
The electabuzz crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “When I learn how to hold stuff with these fat hands, gladly.”
“Then get some practice in!”
Team Moonshine looked at each other. Vileplume was the first to whisper, “Are those two humans?”
“Probably,” Bellossom replied. “I think we should help them before-”
“Oi!” The crabrawler bartender called. “Keep your crazy roleplay outta this inn!”
Rampardos shouted back, “We’re not roleplayers! We're-”
“Shut it!” Crabrawler yelled back. “Don't care how dedicated ye be. You lot clamp your mouths shut or drag yerselves outta here!”
Not wanting to argue any further, the two pokemon stood up and went for the exit. Vileplume, Bellossom and Enny were about to speak to them until they heard them talking to each other.
“Stupid smeargle said this would help us,” the electabuzz said. “He’s changing us back, and I'm not paying him a single poké.”
Hearing that, Enny stopped his team from following the pair as they walked out the door. “I'm pretty sure I know what they're talking about. They're probably normal pokemon.”
Vileplume looked at Enny. “How do you know?”
“I’ve been to a smeargle’s shop here before,” Enny answered. “He swaps people's bodies for a couple days.”
“Why?” Vileplume asked. “Is it a therapy thing?”
“Well, it wasn't in my case.”
Vileplume recoiled in disgust. “Man, I think I’ve spent long enough at the inn tonight. I’m going back to the guild.”
“Yeah, me too,” Bellossom said. “I feel like we're staying up later, recently. Hope Adrian isn't getting nocturnal again.”
Enny was feeling tired, too. “Yeah, I hope not as well. I’ll head back to the guild with you guys.”
And that was the end of Team Moonshine’s night out. Another attempt at a bonding session not working out as expected, but leading to some kind of positive result.