Giving Day at Black Keep, Chapter 4

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4

The next morning dawned grey and snowy once more. Kass was glad the stone walls of Black Keep were so thick and sturdy. Snow was pleasant to look at, but miserable when one actually had to deal with it.

He was grateful for the Neopets who worked hard to clear the snow around Black Keep after a day like this, but he thought he should also hire a pyromancer or two, for the sake of convenience. Market Town tended to be a bit short on magic users, as they mostly clustered around Brightvale with its illustrious magic department at the university, but after the holidays Kass would put the word out and see if there were any takers.

The Pokémon world is actually a pretty stressful place if every time you make eye contact with somebody, you have to have a Pokémon battle with them. (And definitely wouldn't help with social anxiety.)

 You ask your mom to put some of your prize money in savings, and she pulls this on you.

Giving Day at Black Keep, Chapter 3

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4

Two white paws slammed down on the table. “Mother!” Celice barked, ears perked forward and fur bristling. “That is quite enough!” Kass’s eyes snapped up at her in shock. “Lord Kass has shown our family nothing but kindness and hospitality, and this is how you repay him?” The sorceress leaned over the table toward her mother. “How dare you insult him! You think yourself superior just because of your family ties, but Lord Kass is ten times the noblepet you will ever be with that attitude!”

Minevra’s jaw dropped. “Celice—darling,” she stammered. “How could you say such awful things to your own mother?”

“Because they’re true,” Celice growled. “And it’s time someone calls you out on it before you become even more of a monster.”

“Well, I—“ Minevra took a few halting steps back, obviously not used to someone actually standing up to her. “I just—oh, this is rotten!” she wailed. “You’re all being perfectly beastly!” In a flurry of expensive fabric, she turned and ran from the hall, sobbing loudly.

 

 Not everybody can have a Pokémon like Ash's superpowered Pikachu, I guess.

 I just always found it very odd that a) a major route in the center of the Johto region that connects multiple large cities is only wide enough for a single person to pass through, and b) a 4-foot-tall Pokemon can completely block traffic and derail an entire region's transport logistics. #videogamelogic #gatedprogress

Giving Day at Black Keep, Chapter 2

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4

The lord mayor had picked out some nice rooms for his friends on the same floor as the guest quarters Celice usually stayed in, and he and Celice enjoyed watching them admire the décor.

“Wow, this is so neat,” Terra said as she inspected the plush bedding in her room. “It’s like we’re staying in a castle!”

“And the floating crystal centrepieces in the sitting rooms are a nice touch,” Pharazon said from outside the bedroom, leaning over the table to inspect one of said centrepieces.

“That was my idea,” Celice said as Blynn reached out to poke one of the violet crystals. It bobbed slightly and then went back to its stable position. “Flowers don’t quite seem to fit the theme of this place.”

“Unless you used dark thorn vines and dragonbuds,” Pharazon said.

Kass chuckled. “True,” he said, “but I was going more for ‘darkly elegant’, not ‘unnervingly macabre’. I’m a Draconian, after all, not a Haunted Woods Neopet.”