The Dragonair lunges and the crowd roars. "Thunder Wave!" you shout, and your partner executes the move with singular grace, electricity crackling across the arena floor. The opposing Machamp staggers, muscles seizing, and for one bright moment the match is yours.A kid next to you turns up the volume on his PokéGear, snapping you out of the memory.You're on a bench in Goldenrod Station with your bag between your feet and a promotional "Moocha" going cold in your hand -- MooMoo Milk and a single shot of espresso, Whitney's smiling face on the cup. The kid next to you, ten or eleven with a Sentret perched on his backpack, is watching Pokémon League reruns on a PokéGear screen no bigger than a playing card. It's not one of your matches, nor your Dragonair, from two years ago. You look away, slightly relieved.Goldenrod at rush hour is an intolerable racket of voices, horns, and traffic. Commuters crowd into the Magnet Train platform while a group of young trainers clusters around a map kiosk, backpacks stuffed with Potions and dried Oran Berry trail mix. A recruitment poster for the Goldenrod Gym hangs on the nearest pillar -- Whitney's Miltank grinning beside bold text: THINK YOU'RE TOUGH ENOUGH? You've walked past it three times in three separate locations today.Your PokéGear buzzes in your pocket. The caller ID reads BLACKTHORN GYM and a name that makes you immediately swipe left to dismiss. You slide the PokéGear back into your pocket. Dragonair's Pokéball brushes your wrist as you do so, faintly warm the way it always is. You couldn't bring yourself to box her or trade her away like you did the others. You've been through too much together.The departures board above the main concourse clicks through its rotations, white letters on black tiles shuffling into place. You hitch your bag onto your shoulder and walk toward the board.>You're here for the Magnet Train to Saffron City, then to Lavender Town, to take over the local PokéMart for your sick uncle.>You're here for the ferry to Olivine City. An old friend is in over their head with the PokéMart they bought recently and has asked (begged) for your help.>You're here for the bus to Azalea Town, where the grandma who raised you has kept the local PokéMart running since before you were born.
>>6391511>You're here for the ferry to Olivine City. An old friend is in over their head with the PokéMart they bought recently and has asked (begged) for your help.
>>6391511>>You're here for the Magnet Train to Saffron City, then to Lavender Town, to take over the local PokéMart for your sick uncle.Oh! Cute!
>>6391511>>You're here for the ferry to Olivine City. An old friend is in over their head with the PokéMart they bought recently and has asked (begged) for your help.I want Jasmine and Amphy
>>6391511>>You're here for the Magnet Train to Saffron City, then to Lavender Town, to take over the local PokéMart for your sick uncle.
>>6391511>You're here for the Magnet Train to Saffron City, then to Lavender Town, to take over the local PokéMart for your sick uncle.Spooky mart
>>6391511>You're here for the Magnet Train to Saffron City, then to Lavender Town, to take over the local PokéMart for your sick uncle.Neat premise!
>>6391511>You're here for the Magnet Train to Saffron City, then to Lavender Town, to take over the local PokéMart for your sick uncle.
>>6391511>>You're here for the ferry to Olivine City. An old friend is in over their head with the PokéMart they bought recently and has asked (begged) for your help.Luv me beach
>>6391511>>You're here for the bus to Azalea Town, where the grandma who raised you has kept the local PokéMart running since before you were born.
>>6391511The Magnet Train pulls out of Goldenrod three minutes late. You slump into a window seat and watch the city shrink into hills and farmland. The whole trip is less than thirty minutes--it used to take hours. You'll be in Saffron before you finish the cold Moocha still in your hand.A young woman sits across the aisle in the high-collared tunic that Psychic trainers like to wear, her long dark hair clipped with a Gastly pin. A Natu perches on the seatback beside her, scanning the car with fixed, unblinking eyes -- until they lock with yours.The Natu hops off its perch, walks along the top of the seats in dainty little steps, and stops on the armrest beside you."Oh no," the woman says, already half out of her seat. "Sage, come back here."The Natu does not move."I'm so sorry." She crosses the aisle and reaches for the bird, which hops sideways to avoid her (very pale) hand without breaking eye contact with you. "He does this sometimes. Picks someone and fixates. Sage. Please.""It's fine," you say. The Natu's eyes are enormous for its body. His owner's eyes are bagged, slightly hidden beneath a curtain of bangs."He can sense your Pokémon," she says. "Psychic types pick up on Pokéball energy. He's harmless, just rude.""I know how Psychic types work."She scoops up the Natu with both hands. "I'm Becky -- Rebecca, but everyone calls me Becky," she says, as if the bird has obligated her to introduce herself."Mike.""Are you heading to Saffron too?""Lavender Town. Family business."She nods. "I'm applying at the Gym." She adjusts her grip on Sage. "Sabrina's looking for new Gym Trainers this season.""That's a tough posting.""Yeah..." She strokes the Natu's head with one finger. "Sage here is my strongest, which probably isn't a very good sign."You almost smile at that. She returns to her seat and tucks Sage into the crook of her arm. Neither of you says anything. Outside, the farmland has given way to suburbs thickening toward Saffron.Becky pulls out a battered copy of "Diary of a Young Psychic", Sabrina's best-selling autobiography, with about forty sticky notes poking out of the pages. She doesn't open it. Her eyes flick toward you once, then quickly back to the book when she sees you looking back. The Natu, however, has moved on.>Offer some unprompted advice and encouragement.>Ask her why she wants to be a Gym trainer of all things.>Leave her to her book. You'll be at Saffron soon.>Write-in
>>6391933>Ask her why she wants to be a Gym trainer of all things.
>>6391933>Ask her why she wants to be a Gym trainer of all things.Anons cannot resist the siren song of the Goth Girl. Not even as the damn April Fools capcha renders the site nigh-unusable
>>6391933>Leave her to her book. You'll be at Saffron soon.
>>6391933Good shit so far, anon. Consider me interested.>Ask her why she wants to be a Gym trainer of all things.
>>6391933>>Ask her why she wants to be a Gym trainer of all things.
>>6391933>Ask her why she wants to be a Gym trainer of all things
>>6391933"So why a Gym Trainer?" you ask.Becky looks up from the autobiography."I mean you could train on your own. Enter tournaments. The League."She opens the book to a page near the middle, where three sticky notes overlap in different colors. "Have you read this?""No.""Sabrina started manifesting at age six. Telekinesis, psychic projection, involuntary telepathy. She couldn't eat dinner with her family without hearing every thought at the table." Becky sits up straighter, both hands flat on the open pages. "By twelve she'd driven away every friend she had. Her father built her a training room in the Gym basement because it was the only place she could focus without other people's emotions flooding in. And she turned that into the Saffron Gym. The ability that isolated her -- became her career."Sage hops from Becky's arm to the windowsill. His round eyes track between you and her."She's proof that it works," Becky says. "That you can learn to control it.""Control what?"Becky's fingers press into the page. "I'm an empath. I pick up on what people around me are feeling whether I want to or not." She drops her eyes to the book. "Crowds are hard. Hospitals are worse. I spent most of school eating lunch in the bathroom because the cafeteria made me nauseous.""And you think Sabrina is going to fix that for you.""I think she figured it out for herself, yes."You lean back in your seat. Sage's head swivels toward you. "FYI. Gym Leaders don't mentor their Trainers. You'll run drills, stand in a room, battle challengers who are deliberately under-leveled, and collect a paycheck. She won't teach you psychic control because that's not her job. And your job is to lose in the right order."Becky stares at you. "You sound experienced."The train's braking system engages with a low hum beneath the floor. Outside the window, the Saffron skyline fills the glass -- the Silph Co. tower, the Gym's angular roof beyond the commercial district."I did two years at Blackthorn," you say, like you were admitting to a stint in Team Rocket."You were a Gym Trainer."You nod. "Cooltrainer."Becky closes the book. Sage flutters back to her shoulder, and she steadies him with one hand. "You're angry about your own experience," she says. "Not mine.""I'm telling you how it actually works.""No." She holds your gaze. "You're upset because you wasted your time. You're worried I'll waste mine. You're... trying to protect me?"The train lurches into the platform. The PA crackles: "Saffron City. All passengers, please prepare to disembark."Becky stands and tucks the book under her arm. Sage grips her collar not to fall off from the sudden movement. The other passengers are already reaching for their bags.>Apologize. Invite her to visit you at your Pokémart.>Tell her you hope Sabrina is everything she thinks she is.>Say nothing. Let her walk off the train and out of your afternoon.>Write-in
>>6392372>Tell her you hope Sabrina is everything she thinks she is.
>>6392372>Tell her you hope Sabrina is everything she thinks she is.Hope for the best for her, we've said our piece.
>>6392372>Tell her you hope Sabrina is everything she thinks she is.It's possible other gyms are different. Maybe she's right.
>Tell her you hope Sabrina is everything she thinks she is.
>>6392372>Say nothing. Let her walk off the train and out of your afternoon.
>>6392372>Apologize. Invite her to visit you at your Pokémart.
>>6392372"I hope Sabrina is everything you think she is," you say.Becky stops with one hand on her bag. Her eyebrows lift slightly, as do the corners of her mouth."Thank you," she says.She heads west toward the Gym district while you go east.The sun is still high when you step off at the last bus stop. The town seems smaller than you remember it. The Radio Tower is new of course, standing where the Pokémon Tower used to be, red antenna blinking against the sky. The air along the main road still smells of incense from the tourist shops, sandalwood and old wet stone.The "Spokémart" (as your uncle calls it) is at the far end, a narrow storefront between a souvenir shop and a shuttered candy store. Your uncle hand-painted the sign in green and purple, a crude Gastly face where the O should be. The paint is peeling at the edges.Inside, the shelves are half-full and a fluorescent light flickers near the door. Herb is behind the counter wrapped in two blankets, thinner than the last time you saw him, pale and drawn. When he sees you he grins wide and grabs the register to pull himself up."Mikey!" He opens his arms. "Get over here."You start to lift your hand for a handshake, but he grabs hold of you and pulls you to his chest. His frame feels thin and brittle under the blankets."What took you so long?" he says into your shoulder. "I've been dying to see you." He pulls back and grins at your expression. "...Not even a smile? Tough crowd.""Uncle Herb--""OK, OK." He lets go and eases back into his chair. The shelf behind him has a hand-lettered label taped above the Antidotes that reads "Just What the Doctor Ordered."He pulls the blankets up, still grinning. After the usual pleasantries (delicate avoidance of the topic of your mom, sterile updates on your dad, bald-faced lies about how you're "holding up") you get down to business. "So here's where we're at." He slides a handwritten ledger across the counter.He's been running eight item slots and losing money every month. Too many discounts, too much credit extended, slow items kept on the shelf "just in case"."I already cut Max Repel," he says. "People come to Lavender Town to meet Pokémon, not to avoid them."That leaves seven, but the budget only covers six. "Route 10 gets Voltorb and Electabuzz all day, so Parlyz Heal moves steady. Rock Tunnel hikers buy Awakening because Haunter hits them with Hypnosis at night." He taps a line near the bottom. "Route 8 has Vulpix and Growlithe, so Burn Heal actually sells -- not fast, but it sells. Antidote is cheap to stock and every trainer carries one."He looks up. "Great Ball is the big expense, 7,200 wholesale, but trainers need 'em. Super Potion runs 8,400 and it's our best margin item." He pushes the ledger toward you. "So what do ya think? Which one do we cut?">Great Ball (7,200)>Potion (3,600)>Super Potion (8,400)>Antidote (1,200)>Parlyz Heal (2,400)>Awakening (3,000)>Burn Heal (3,000)
>>6392740>Burn Heal (3,000)If they're slow going, axe them. Great Balls should at least pay for themselves.
>>6392740>Antidote (1,200)or>Burn Heal (3,000)Whichever moves more and makes more gets to stay.
>>6392740>Burn Heal (3,000)
>>6392740>Burn Heal (3,000)Sells slow, can't have that.
>>6392740>Antidote (1,200)Cheap to stock; not saying it actually sells
>>6392740>>Burn Heal (3,000)
>>6392740>>Antidote (1,200)Every trainer carries ONE, so aren't buying more than that if they don't already have it on em - plus he didn't mention any poison types around here.
>>6392740>Potion (3,600)surely nothing could go wrong with forcing everyone to buy super potions instead of regular ones
>>6392740>Burn HealChecking Google seems to indicate that burn capable pokemon are rare so that's less of a guarantee for sales. This is gen1 area and presuming that other regional pokemon are actually around that still makes it rare. Paralyze is everywhere in contrast.Keep the balls, potions, awakening especially since Sabrina absolutely has hypnosis capable pokemon and antidotes are something very necessary because poison in gen1 is disgusting
>>6392740"Burn Heal," you say.Herb runs his finger down the ledger. "What about route 8?""They have burn heal in Celadon. It's not that far. Besides burns don't hurt in stasis."He nods, reaches under the counter, and slides a ring of keys across to you. "Your shop now, Mikey."Of course, it isn't. Even so, you can't help but feel a creeping excitement as you take the keys.The first week is register codes, wholesale catalogs, and trying to fix that flickering fluorescent near the door (which frustrates all your attempts). Herb hovers for two days reorganizing shelves, but by Wednesday the dizziness and the fact that you haven't burned the store down, drives him upstairs to rest. By Thursday he comes down from the apartment just once in the morning -- also once in the afternoon to eat lunch with you.You start your day before dawn with a hard run on Route 8. It is an old routine. Your Dragonair is out beside you, long body slithering fast over the grass. Your dad won her as a Dratini at the Celadon Game Corner when you were nine and handed her to you without ceremony as a belated birthday present. She is the one gift from your father you've kept over the years. You are slower and heavier than you used to be, and she matches your pace with ease.On the way back she stops twice near the Radio Tower. She is not alarmed. The small blue orbs beneath her neck pulse faintly in the pre-dawn dark, and her whole body angles toward the tower. She won't go back in her ball until you're both inside the shop. You don't know what she's picking up.On Thursday the Goldenrod wholesaler calls to say Battle items are delayed regionwide. It doesn't affect you because you don't stock Battle items, but you write it down anyway.On Friday a woman in white robes walks in with a Gastly drifting at her shoulder. The Gastly floats toward the Awakening shelf and phases partway through a bottle before the woman clicks her tongue. It pulls back and trails a wisp of purple gas across the shelf."Six Awakening," she says. "The Tower rate.""I don't know what that is."She folds her hands. "Herb gives us thirty percent off. Ever since the Radio Tower." She glances toward the shelf where her Gastly is now circling a display of Antidotes. "About a dozen of us left in town. We tended the Tower for generations."You do the math: six Awakening at full price is 1,500, and at thirty percent off the total drops to 1,050. The 450 difference multiplied across a dozen Mediums buying each month represents a significant chunk on a budget that barely covers rent.The Gastly has drifted back to the Status shelf and is pressing its face against a bottle of Parlyz Heal with evident curiosity. The Medium waits across the counter with her hands folded.Herb made this promise. Not you.>Honor the discount. It's Herb's store, not yours.>Offer 15% instead. Respect the history, but 30 is too steep.>Full price. The shop can't afford charity right now.>Write-in
>>6393083>Write-inAsk Herb. His store not ours but who's to say she's really part of the mediums? Herbs store can't afford scammers
>>6393083>Offer 15% instead. Respect the history, but 30 is too steep.Tell her that we can consider the full discount in future, but right now things are tight, our uncle's not doing well, and we have to get our footing first. She has our sincerest apology, of course.
>>6393083>Offer 15% instead. Respect the history, but 30 is too steep.He asked us for help, so we do need to make positive changes here for the business in order to make good on OUR promise to give that help. >"I see, thank you for explaining, and thank you for the service you did for this community. I'm afraid our shop is under financial strain while Herb's health has deteriorated, and we're making adjustments to regain stability. I don't believe we can afford to continue to honor a discount of that size, but out of respect for you as my elder and your history in Lavender Town, I'd like to extend a 15% discount to you and all the other former Tower attendants going forward. My sincerest apologies for the inconvenience, of course." We should be very transparent and very polite. It's unfortunate that Herb put us and her in this position, but if we proceed with respect and dignity I believe it will be alright. We should politely introduce ourselves to the woman as well, it's a small town. Perhaps soon we could invite the former Tower attendants to a dinner or something as a show of our appreciation since we won't be doing so with the discount to the same degree.
>>6393083>>Offer 15% instead. Respect the history, but 30 is too steep.
>>6393083>Offer 15% instead. Respect the history, but 30 is too steep.
>>6393083>Offer 15% instead. Respect the history, but 30 is too steep.Backing: >"I see, thank you for explaining, and thank you for the service you did for this community. I'm afraid our shop is under financial strain while Herb's health has deteriorated, and we're making adjustments to regain stability. I don't believe we can afford to continue to honor a discount of that size, but out of respect for you as my elder and your history in Lavender Town, I'd like to extend a 15% discount to you and all the other former Tower attendants going forward. My sincerest apologies for the inconvenience, of course."
>>6393083Changing >>6393088To>>6393093
>>6393083Support >>6393093Like Herb said, too many discounts.
>>6393083>>6393093Support
>>6393083>Honor the discount. It's Herb's store, not yoursJust this one time, and have a talk with Herb about it tonight.
>>6393083"I'm Mike. I took over while my uncle recovers."The Medium inclines her head. "Martha.""We're a bit strapped right now. I can offer fifteen, out of respect for you and the others from the Tower."Her Gastly drifts the length of the counter and back. "I'll let them know," she says, pays in exact change, and leaves. The Gastly exits through the wall.Potions and Super Potions are sold out by week three. Antidotes barely move. Other than Martha, you get a visit from only one other Medium. Looks like she was true to her word. Parlyz Heal makes up for it though -- Route 10 hikers keep coming back for more, and you sell out a full week early.You're dusting the empty shelf when a picnicker walks in with a Teddiursa cradled in her arms."Oh thank god," she says, then sees the shelf. "You're kidding.""Sold out a week ago.""When do you restock?""First of the month.""Put me down for fifteen. Or just all of them." Three thousand Pokédollars without the slightest hesitation."What do you need fifteen Parlyz Heal for?""Voltorb Surge, duh." The Teddiursa hops down and begins wandering around with his hand in his mouth. "Route 10 swarms with them about two months from now. Lt. Surge in Vermilion trades for them." She taps the empty shelf. "But it's annoying if you don't have these.""If he's your only pokémon, I'd say you have bigger problems than paralysis.""Like what?""Like self-destruct. You should take a ghost type with you." You nod at the Teddiursa. "Or teach him Dig."The fluorescent near the door shuts off suddenly, sparking. The picnicker flinches back (even though the light was nowhere near her), her hand going tight on the pack strap. Then she recovers. "It's not just me. I'm going with three other trainers. A two-day expedition." She looks at you. "You should come. You seem like you know what you're talking about.">Agree to go. Herb can handle the register for two days.>Counter-offer: bulk Parlyz Heal at a discount. She catches, you stock, you get a cut.>Tell her you'll think about it. She can come back next month.>Write-in
>>6393612>Agree to go. Herb can handle the register for two days.Could be a good way to network with local trainers and to give our Dragonair some exercise and enrichment.
>>6393612>>Agree to go. Herb can handle the register for two days.Told you guys Antidotes were the one to axe.
>>6393612>Agree to go. Herb can handle the register for two days.
>>6393612We can't just drop the store and go do whatever. We came to take over for Herb and we should stick with it.>Tell her you'll think about it. She can come back next month.What do we do if some rockets break into the store and it's just Herb?
>>6393612>Counter-offer: bulk Parlyz Heal at a discount. She catches, you stock, you get a cut.
>>6393612>Counter-offer: bulk Parlyz Heal at a discount. She catches, you stock, you get a cut.Herb brought us here to make money moves, and we are done being a Cooltrainer.
>>6393612>Counter-offer: bulk Parlyz Heal at a discount. She catches, you stock, you get a cut.We're here to make money. Our training days are over.
>>6393612>Tell her you'll think about it. She can come back next month.Check if Herb is cool with it before agreeing.
