victory_road | Let's Go To The Ruins (part 2)

(video)

Well, that seemed like a bust.

[Is that... the Ruins of Alph in the picture? Yes, it is.]

See, when I heard there were ruins around I figured there'd probably be something cool like in-

[All of a sudden, something appears from offscreen. It's... pink? Not like super vibrant pink, but nonetheless definitely pink.

But that doesn't matter, since some of it got on his hair. Josuke turns to look in the direction it came from - and over there is a Smeargle that's drawn his face in profile, with one huge noticeable addition - a gigantic X over the drawing's pompadour.]

YOU... [Smeear, it says, taunting him, but the mic doesn't pick it up very loudly. Josuke's voice, however, has dropped significantly and there's an... unmistakeable fury behind it.]

I WON'T FORGIVE YOU!

[Josuke drops the Pokégear unexpectedly, leaving what happens next up to the viewer's imagination. Or, it would if he wasn't throwing pretty much everything in his bag at it and it wasn't flinging all the ink it can back at him.

Eventually, there's the tell-tale sound of a successful capture, and Josuke, who is now covered in the stuff, picks the Gear back up and turns the recording off without a word.]

(text)

[Later, after he gets back to Violet, he's got something else to ask.]

gotta stop missing with balls, i'm flat broke... how can i get some money, fast?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's more like... just this particular Smeargle. Or so he hopes. One Rohan Kishibe is enough for any world.]

i was headed over that way anyway for that fighting class thing - i'd made some plans to meet someone here but I guess they fell out, i didn't see 'em anywhere.

i'll look through the stuff i picked up after... throwing everything in my back at knockin'

[WELL, Ariel is a very well-behaved Smeargle. Xion hopes so anyway considering she raised her from an egg.]

That happens sometimes, you just get used to it after a while.

[In fact you do not get used to it at all.]

Knocking where? Who?

oh that's its name

it matches someone from home he reminds me of

Oh I see.

Is your hair gonna be okay? Smeargle paint isn't actually paint, but you should still probably wash that out quick.

that was the first thing i did, rush back to town and get that washed out

took a while to do but it's worth it

That's good, so you caught the culprit and saved your hair.

[Well that was a dweeby thing to say but whatever.]

I've never seen a Smeargle with pink before. Ariel, my Smeargle, has red and most of the others I've seen have had green. I guess you got a special one.

pink is kinda like red, though, isn't it? if it were like, blue or something that'd be another thing, but it's not too far off

Ummmm hang on, I've got a picture of mine here

ATTCH: ariel.png

huh, I guess you're right, it is kind of pinkish

there we go, learned somethin' today. probably more than that but hey not like everything needs spellin out

You should probably invest in shampoo, Smeargle use their paint to mark territory and members of their group so it might happen again. I had to learn that the hard way when Ariel wanted to see if she could make my hair look like my sister's.

Needless to say, it's not an effective form of dye.

figured as much with that, really i was going to anyway

[If you're going to go for a hard-to-maintain hairstyle, why would you not spring for it...]

don't suppose you'd know where to find the good stuff?

Goldenrod, of course. There's boutiques for Pokemon and humans over there.

[Xion wouldn't know, exactly, what it's like to have complicated hair to maintain--having a bob and no sense of style whatsoever has served her well.]

I didn't ask around when I was in Violet, my friend wanted to rush me out of there as soon as possible. Chances are, though, the monks would recommend some weird herbal thing.

the place sounds like it's got everything, why does anyone live anywhere else. it's not like anywhere here was home for someone before

I live over in Celadon with my friends, personally. But it's also a big city like Goldenrod, it's just in the next region.

I guess some people like quiet small places like Violet? It reminds me a little of Twilight Town where I came from.

i'm from kind of a small town myself, so i can't say i don't understand all the appeal

morioh's a great place, wouldn't say it's quiet though

[Maybe not "small", either, considering Motorbike Chase Summer '99.]

twilight town, huh? someone expecting it not to stick around?

Mori-oh

[Obviously he can't see it, but she's repeating it to herself a couple of times to see if she can figure out the meaning herself, scribbling down some notes. "Forest king" is what she concludes.]

It's a nice name. As for Twilight Town, I think it's called that because it's always twilight there. [Which is very weird for her as Xion now has experience with the sun consistently rising and setting, it always has to rise again.] But that's not such a big deal, sea-salt ice cream is the best part about Twilight Town!

[She's exactly right.]

wait then how does anyone get any sleep? or know when to sleep?

but hey ice cream sounds like a good highlight, better than some weird landmarks

[Josuke you're personally responsible for one of those.]

[...]

I don't know, I came from a place where it was always night.

[Yeah.]

Well! That's what I think! I used to go up with Axel and Roxas on the clock tower to eat it with them after work was done for the day, I've been trying to get it in this world for a while now.

that seems like it makes even less sense, what did it not have a sun or something

no good ice cream, huh... maybe it has to do with that one ice cream pokemon...

It didn't have much of anything, no.

Ah--there *is* good ice cream here, it's just nothing can beat sea-salt ice cream for me. Vanillite's head is actually snow packed onto its face, if it melted it wouldn't look like ice cream, but it'd be pretty mad. Here--

ATTCH: vanillitesbadday

See?

i wonder if anyone knows how to make the stuff. worst thing that could happen is no one does, right?

[Tonio probably would - he's just that talented a chef - but he's not here to ask and Josuke wouldn't have thought to. Best not bring it up.]

thought it could be something like that - happened to see whoever-it-was throw theirs into hot water to try to cool the water down and it looked like it had a whole lotta steam to let off

Let's Go To The Ruins (part 2)

[text]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject