Announcements: Cutting Costs (2024) » January 2024 Copyfraud Attack » Finding Universes to Join (and making yours more visible!) » Guide To Universes On RPG » Member Shoutout Thread » Starter Locations & Prompts for Newcomers » RPG Chat — the official app » Frequently Asked Questions » Suggestions & Requests: THE MASTER THREAD »

Latest Discussions: Adapa Adapa's for adapa » To the Rich Men North of Richmond » Shake Senora » Good Morning RPG! » Ramblings of a Madman: American History Unkempt » Site Revitalization » Map Making Resources » Lost Poetry » Wishes » Ring of Invisibility » Seeking Roleplayer for Rumple/Mr. Gold from Once Upon a Time » Some political parody for these trying times » What dinosaur are you? » So, I have an Etsy » Train Poetry I » Joker » D&D Alignment Chart: How To Get A Theorem Named After You » Dungeon23 : Creative Challenge » Returning User - Is it dead? » Twelve Days of Christmas »

Players Wanted: Serious Anime Crossover Roleplay (semi-literate) » Looking for a long term partner! » JoJo or Mha roleplay » Seeking long-term rp partners for MxM » [MxF] Ruining Beauty / Beauty x Bastard » Minecraft Rp Help Wanted » CALL FOR WITNESSES: The Public v Zosimos » Social Immortal: A Vampire Only Soiree [The Multiverse] » XENOMORPH EDM TOUR Feat. Synthe Gridd: Get Your Tickets! » Aishna: Tower of Desire » Looking for fellow RPGers/Characters » looking for a RP partner (ABO/BL) » Looking for a long term roleplay partner » Explore the World of Boruto with Our Roleplaying Group on FB » More Jedi, Sith, and Imperials needed! » Role-player's Wanted » OSR Armchair Warrior looking for Kin » Friday the 13th Fun, Anyone? » Writers Wanted! » Long term partner to play an older male wanted »

Snippet #2809079

located in Kanto Region, a part of Pokémon: Atonement, one of the many universes on RPG.

Kanto Region

The Kanto region: filled with various pokémon and nefarious deeds.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Aidan Klein Character Portrait: Nevena Solomon
Tag Characters » Add to Arc »

Footnotes

Add Footnote »

0.00 INK



December 17th
Cinnabar Shopping Center - Afternoon - Cool
Aidan Klein


Aidan lifted the cup in his hand, taking a sip of the Oran Julius smoothie he'd acquired about half an hour ago. The shopping center was quite crowded, which wasn't really surprising considering how close it was to the biggest gift-giving holiday of the year.

He'd never really done Yule celebrations of any kind. His family had been too poor, and then he'd pretty much been on his own. He had a couple ex-girlfriends that had liked to do things, but he'd always sort of... found it to be a waste of time. So it was kind of strange that he seemed to be looking forward to it a bit this year.

He knew, of course, why this was, and it had everything to do with the people he'd be spending it with. He supposed there were worse people to be getting attached to than his coworkers, even if there was a bit of discomfort there in the fact that one of the group was technically a mark. He found it increasingly difficult to think in those terms. Hopefully the boss's plan would work fine, and Ana would either turn out not to be a psychic or she'd have no problem volunteering for the project. He could let himself hope for that much.

"All right Doc, where to?" He was mostly along for the ride for this part. He had her present already, and was planning to kind of just let inspiration strike him when it came to stuff for the others, but he had a feeling she was a little more concerned than him. She liked to plan things. It was an amusingly type-a part of her.

“Oh, uh, hold on," she replied, glancing at a piece of paper in her hands. “We're getting things for just about everyone, so..." she began, muttering more to herself, it seemed. “Why don't we start with Ana's gift? I got her something for her shelter and it should be ready for pick-up today. I don't know what to get Kasimir or Eryk, though. They're a little tough to shop for," she stated, glancing back in Aidan's direction with a smile.

“I figured if we did it that way, we might find something for those two. They don't strike me as the type to refuse a gift, but they also seem like the type to enjoy practical things. Things they can use. Like you," she stated in a somewhat chipper tone.

“Oh, but... not to imply that you wouldn't... er, like something. I'm just gonna stop right there," she took a drink of sitrus juice to stop her ramble, it seemed.

Aidan smiled; it was something he found remarkably easy to do, when she was around. "I know what you meant, Doc," he assured her, shaking his head to make it clear he'd taken no offense. "And if Ana's gift is ready for pickup we might as well head that way first. Pokémon supply store, or...?"

He could probably figure it out without asking if he wanted to, but she got so excited about this stuff. He wanted her to tell him.

She shook her head, disturbing the ponytail that was resting over her left shoulder. “Nope, we're going to that Recollection store, the one that makes personalized gifts. I had a plaque made with her name on it and of the shelter. I figured she could use something like that on the front of her shelter to give it a subtle advertising. You know, so that she could adopt out more of her pokemon that were ready for things like that," she stated, grinning as she started to walk in the direction they needed to go.

“The one she has now is nice, but... well, I thought it could use a little update and, again, I wanted to get her something practical that she could use."

"That's really thoughtful, Doc," Aidan said, genuinely impressed. It was something usable, sure, but not anything Ana would ever spend money on herself. Expensive enough to be a luxury, but not so much so that she'd feel bad accepting it. Well, theoretically. Ana felt bad about the strangest things sometimes. Aidan was still puzzling that out, himself.

He started in the direction of the store, only to draw up short when he paused in front of a print shop. "Her business cards are pretty plain, right?" He asked, assuming Doc would have seen and noticed something like that. He hadn't seen them, but he could guess.

“Sort of. They just have her name, a phone number and an e-mail on it," she replied, pulling out her purse and rummaging through it. She seemed to find what she was looking for, and pulled out a card, presumably Ana's, and handed it towards Aidan. “It kind of looks like the only detail she has on the card is her name. It almost looks hand-written, but it could be that she just chose a font like that."

“What do you think?" she asked, her head tilting to the side a bit.

"I think I'm getting her a bunch of new ones for the holiday, is what I think," he said. "You mind a small detour to order them?"

Doc smiled brightly at him, and shook her head. “Of course not! I think Ana would love that!" she stated, placing the piece of paper she was holding earlier, into her purse. “Oh... uh, do you want help choosing some of the things out, or do you have something in mind?" she asked.

He led them into the print shop, humming as he glanced around at the designs on display. "I was thinking black cardstock," he said, referring to Ana's penchant for the color, something he shared. "But I dunno about fonts or anything. What do you think? Maybe it can match whatever you did for the placard?"

“Oh, you know, that's not a bad idea. The font I used for hers was a little gothic. I believe it was called, magnemite," she stated, pulling out her phone from her coat pocket. She scrolled through it, and huffed lightly to herself. “Magnificent, is what it was called. I think on a black cardstock, though, it should be a color that kind of stands out, but one that isn't white. And gold would be a little strange, and wouldn't suit her at all," she said before sliding her phone back into her pocket. She pursed her lips together as she seemed to contemplate the color.

“Oh, what about a pale blue? Like a pastel blue?"

Aidan considered this. He liked the idea of a color that wasn't just white, at least partly. It did probably still need to be mostly professional, though. "I like the font for the biggest print," he said, "but the smaller stuff probably needs to be something more easily readable."

"Pardon me," the voice belonged to a middle-aged woman, neatly-cropped black hair falling to her shoulders. Owner, from the quality of her suit. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Looking to get business cards for a friend," Aidan replied. "Black cardstock, some mix of light blue and white in the design?"

The woman nodded. "We can absolutely do that," she said, holding out a hand. "I'm Sara. Welcome to Cinnabar Printers, Mr. And Mrs...?"

Aidan huffed softly. "She's Doctor," he corrected, aware that this alone would not correct the more obvious error the woman was making.

Doc didn't quite seem to register the error, at least not immediately. She shook the woman's hand and replied, “you can just call me Nevena." It seemed to dawn on her a moment later, though, and Doc's face turned a light pink color before fully going red. “Oh! No, he's not... we're not... Aidan's my friend," she sputtered slightly, clearing her throat and glancing away from the woman. She didn't look in Aidan's direction, either.

“We're here doing some shopping for our friends, and such," she continued, muttering softly before glancing back towards the woman.

Whatever else he was, Aidan wasn't oblivious. Right now, that was as much curse as blessing, because he knew why she was reacting like that. He just wished he didn't. It would make everything so much simpler.

The easier thing by far was to pretend to obliviousness, though, so he did, taking mercy on her at the same time by steering the conversation. Sara apologized, but he shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he said, displaying no embarrassment of his own. And why would he? It was a drastic overestimation of him to think he was the kind of guy someone like Doc would be married to. "Can we take a look at some of those designs?"

He was a pretty decisive person most of the time, so it only took them fifteen minutes to finalize the design, put in the order, and make the advance payment. Fortunately they'd be ready the day before the holiday, so he'd be able to give them to Ana on time.

"All right," he said as they exited, lifting an eyebrow at Doc. "To Recollection now?"

Doc nodded her head, and smiled a bit. “Sure thing. It's just a couple of stores down," she replied, nodding her head in the direction of the store. “And I think the final design is going to look really nice. I'm sure she'll love it," Doc added as she pulled her purse up a bit. She finally managed to glance back up at him, pursing her lips as if she were trying to assess Aidan.

“You, on the other hand, I'll have to get your gift on another day. Don't want you seeing it before it's time," she stated, grinning at him before taking a step in the direction of the store. “It should be ready for pick-up sometime this week," she didn't say anything else to what it could possibly be.

"You know I could probably guess it, right?" he replied, feeling a smile tug at his mouth. It was just so damn easy, with her.

No. Not going there.

"Because I could. I'm the absolute worst person to try and surprise."

She arched a brow in his direction, almost in a challenging way. “Alright, you're on. What did I get you? Because I, for once, am pretty confident that you don't know what it is."

He almost didn't want to ruin it for her. But still, he'd been challenged now, and a guy didn't make it to the top of the pro-battling world without a serious competitive streak, however type b he usually was.

Sighing forlornly, he narrowed his eyes at her. "It's something that'll be 'ready for pickup' so it's custom made. The most likely thing, statistically, is an item of clothing. Normally that'd be less likely, because you have to know sizing for that and I haven't told you mine, but you could have easily obtained this information, either from my apartment, which you're in all the time, or Rheinallt. I'm betting on the latter, because you're close and you'd feel guilty for filching something of mine even if you were going to return it. Plus none of my stuff is missing."

He arched a brow back at her. "You recently made the discovery that I own a bike. You're also aware of my clothing preferences, enough to know that I don't wear things that aren't black. But while I own a lot of protective gear, I currently don't have a jacket for protection when I'm on the bike, which probably worries you a little bit because you worry professionally. So you got me a jacket. I'm going to say leather, black because you know me and custom because you like to do that kind of thing right."

Aidan grinned a little. "Thanks, by the way. I love it."

By the time he'd finished, she was pouting at him. “Well, in that case you are welcome, jerk," she stated, but she was grinning at him which meant she didn't quite mean the jerk part of the statement. She nudged his elbow, though, with hers, and shook her head. “Nothing gets past you, does it?" it seemed more like a rhetorical question from the way she'd stated it.

“You haven't even seen it, yet, and you say you'll love it, but I suppose I lost that little challenge. Mark my words, Aidan Klein, I will surprise you with something one day," she stated, nodding in a satisfied manner.

"I'll look forward to it," he replied with a nod of his own.

"In the meantime... do you want to know what the others got each other?"