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[Negrek]

"Well, I certainly hope you'll be better-behaved in Mura, anyway," Lindsey said to Astarael, swinging the fishing pole experimentally through the air in front of her. "There'll be a lot of people around, and if you go up and attack one of them, the fuzz'll be on you before you can say 'incarceration.' And I won't really be able to cover for you, either--too many witnesses."

Lindsey hummed tunelessly to herself as she walked, planning. First order of business, get some more food and supplies. Second, look to see if she could find someplace to earn back the money she'd need to spend--ultra-temporary employment being the ideal. And then, of course, any sightseeing or whatever she wanted to do in the city. She had no idea what its attractions were, but undoubtedly there was something interesting to do in Mura City. Oh, right, and clothes--how had she forgotten clothes?

Grimacing, Lindsey tallied up money in her head. If she stayed for a couple nights in the city, then she'd have plenty of leeway to dump her junk and move about as she pleased, not to mention have someplace to sleep at night. Not that she minded the whole romantic "camping out under the stars" thing too much--she just didn't think she could take more mornings chasing after the pokémon who decided they wanted to wander off during the night.

Her starting funds were starting to look depressingly low already. Lindsey sighed and mentally moved "employment" up a couple of notches in priority. She'd scout out what she could today, then figure out what she wanted to do tonight and go look for a job tomorrow. Yeah, that worked.

Lindsey looked around with interest as Route 4 slowly merged into Mura, glad for all that she disliked cities to be here at last. She kept her eyes open for any sign of a pokémart, clothing store, or pokémon-supply store, not to mention anyone who looked like they'd tick Astarael off; hopefully, his bloody fur would encourage people to leave him alone.

[Solidify]

As Lindsey traveled towards Mura, she passed by another fork in the road. It became noticably more wet and marshier down that road, but she passed it up soon in favor of the grand, true metropolis of Mura. The desolate feeling of Plains' End Path soon gave way to the bustling air of the city. The city wasted little time in completely enveloping Lindsey. Huge skyscrapers towered above her, while other small buildings filled in the spaces. There were many people out walking along the sidewalk, most of them probably out on a lunch break. The reason so many people were walking soon became apparent when Lindsey noticed the roads were almost completely jammed up with taxis. Experienced city drivers, they swerved in and out of traffic dangerously, honking excessively. Lindsey saw more than a few middle fingers fly out of the window.

Of course, a bloodied Absol walking next to you automatically earned you a great deal of respect. Astarael turned more than a few heads, not that he really noticed, and most people went well out of their way to give Lindsey some space as she walked.

There was certainly no lack of stores for Lindsey's needs. The largest and most noticable, by far, was a huge department store that must have been at least five stories high. Much smaller, there was a small regular looking clothing store called Tracey's further down the road, and a nameless thrift store.

[Negrek]

Lindsey frowned grumpily at the honking cars and milling crowds that lined Mura's streets. Cities. Noise. Pollution. People. Ugh. She'd have to get used to it, though, if she planned to stay in this area for any great length of time.

At least she wasn't going to have to exert herself greatly to find the stuff that she wanted. Since the department store looked to be closest, she figured she'd check that out first, then head off for clothes later. No point in passing the place by if it was just going to sit there and loom at her until she bought something, after all. Heading towards the department store, she briefly shot a skeptical look up its great height, then shrugged and went in.

[Solidify]

There were fancy looking automatic glass doors that parted ways to allow Lindsey entrance. When she first walked in, she seemed to be in a rather large lobby. A beautiful looking red carpet lined the floor and there were quite a few fake (or possibly real) trees and plants lining the side of the room. Several pay phones were also down here, as well as a few scattered couches which were surprisingly full as people sat down with a cup of coffee talking amongst friends and resting before continuing shopping. The source of said coffee soon became apparent when a cafe came into view in the form of a small booth. There was also a long, polished desk at the front of the room with a little sign that read "Information". Three ladies were sitting behind it, busily talking on phones or typing at computers. Behind the desk were two separate staircases leading up, and between them, was an elevator. Almost as if to counter the nice feel of the department store, there were several unappealing cardboard boxes stacked in random corners of the lobby. Every so often, someone would come down from upper floors, grab a box, and head back up. It seemed they were still stocking the place.

Lindsey's appearence was ignored, but the arrival of Astarael caused a great deal of attention. Instantly, the warm friendly atmosphere became silenced as the fellow shoppers quickly began pointing and whispering amongst themselves. A few looked up at Lindsey after seeing Absol, and the whispering increased ten fold.

[Negrek]

Lindsey surveyed the lobby of the department store with resignation. She wasn't much of a mall-goer, but when one had to shop... one had to shop. She raised an eyebrow at the boxes scattered about--the place seemed to be cutting corners in odd places.

As she started towards the information desk, the room abruptly became silent around her, and she looked about, perplexed for a moment, until she remembered Astarael coming along behind. After that, she had to work hard to keep a smile off her face as she continued on her way. Although she was sure all the superstition would grow irritating after a while, for now she was merely amused by people's reactions to the absol's presence. As a downside, if any police official happened to be asking around for people who might have seen a girl with a natu and an absol wandering around the city, they would only get about eight thousand positive responses. Such was life.

A little less amused than before, she directed her attention to the women behind the information desk as she reached it. "Hey, uh, what floor are the general pokémon supplies on? Like food and stuff."

[Solidify]

The woman looked up from her computer at Lindsey. "You can find them up on the--" Her eyes fell uncertainly on Astarael. "--second... floor..." she finished slowly, staring wide eyed at the Absol.

[Negrek]

"Great. Thanks," Lindsey said, flashing the woman an obnoxious smile and trying not to giggle as she started towards the nearest staircase. On her way up, she considered what kind of food she'd need to get her pokémon. Belgaer would, presumably, take some kind of seed, but what would she get Astarael? Carnivore Chow? Organs 'n' Bits?

She supposed she would find out. Reaching the top of the stairs, she looked around with interest. "Oh, and Belgaer, if you see anything you'd like, just let me know, right?" she said, gazing thoughtfully at the merchandise.

[Solidify]

The floor was rather large. The first floor Lindsey passed had noticably more people browsing around than the second, but there were still a good few people looking around on the second floor.

There was a small counter at the end of the room where the clerk was sitting lazily behind. A small vending machine was next to the counter. There were a great deal of aisles on the floor, with various items stocking each one. There were also large overhead signs that categorized each aisle into a section. The aisle closest to Lindsey had a sign hanging above it reading "Birds". There was also a sign reading "Carnivores" that hung over the course of several aisles.

[Negrek]

"Whoah," Lindsey said, staring at the vast number of aisles before her. Her hopes for a fast, untaxing shopping trip vanished with a small, meek popping noise. "Right, well... guess we'll do birds, first, since that's closest." She started off down the aforementioned aisle, looking to see if there was anything specifically for natu.

[Solidify]

There was, in fact. After passing by a good deal of other packaged or canned products, and many various seeds which Belgaer glanced at hopefully, Lindsey came to a small package that read:

Baby Shoots
Freshly prepared and coated with vitemins to make sure your Natu's wings grow healthy and strong!

The package was a little larger than Lindsey's ramen packs. Underneath the packages was a small price tag, detailing the price of each bag to be 10 Kuts. Belgaer stared at the package eerily, as she usually did, and let out a persistent chirp, pecking at Lindsey's shoulder for added effect.

[Negrek]

Lindsey winced as Belgaer began pecking at her shoulder, and muttered, "Yeah, I get it. Careful, eh? Still remembering a certain someone's claws digging into my shoulders, here."

Turning the package around contemplatively in her hands, she considered her options. 10K for one wasn't bad, but she would probably not be able to carry too many plus the other items she was going to buy without her back giving out entirely. The packs were small, but Belgaer didn't eat too much, anyway. "How's about we say three?" she murmured, and grabbed another two of the packages of shoots. Hoping that would satisfy, she tucked the three bags under one arm and raised the other, pointing towards the ceiling. "On to carnivore-land!" she announced and marched back down the aisle and towards the extensive section set aside for meat-eaters.

[Solidify]

Astarael just followed along silently.

There a great deal more products in the Carnivore aisles, though few were pokemon specific. The few other people browsing the shelves quickly filed out at the sight of Astarael. There were large meats contained within a freezer that looked like they would need some preperation to make. There were a few different meaty looking bones as well, ranging in a variety of sizes. There was packaged dry food as well, with several different flavors like Pidgey, Tauros, and even Magikarp. Astarael didn't seem to look too thrilled about any of the choices, but eyed a frozen shank of Tauros with interest.

[Negrek]

"Nothing that suits?" Lindsey asked, watching Astarael's reaction to the merchandise closely. Well, almost nothing... her eyes flicked to the large hunk of tauros and she fought back a grimace. Not only was the meat probably abhorrently expensive, but "Yeah, little problem, there. I don't really have a magic fridge in my backpack, so that thing'd be getting pretty inedible pretty fast. Unless you don't mind rather squishy, rancid meat or something. In which case, you'd be carrying it, because there's no way I'm lugging an oozing, decaying chunk of meat all over the place by myself. That, and there's no place to heat it up yet, and there won't be one until we check into a hotel, which they usually don't let you do until until late afternoon, and even then the best we'd get would be a microwave."

At the same time, however, Lindsey looked around with a frown. Surely, they couldn't expect trainers to try to store frozen stuff for their pokémon. There must be some device or other to keep the stuff cold while on the road.

[Solidify]

There didn't seem to be any device or item that could conveniently keep the meat cold, though there were several packages of ice packed along in with the frozen meats.

((The beauty of ice pokemon... ;-; ))

[Negrek]

(( Yeah, that or nevermeltice. Although I don't think Lindsey's got enough dough to buy any considerable amount of that. ))

Lindsey sighed despondently when she failed to find any refrigeration for the big tauros cut. Anticipating conflict, she turned reluctantly to Astarael. "Sorry, but I don't think I can carry that. Is there anything else you'd like? Anything at all? That isn't frozen, I mean."

Lindsey very much hoped that there was. She needed something to feed the absol, and she wasn't in the mood for him to go making a big scene over not being able to get what he wanted--and by "making a big scene" she meant something along the lines of smashing his way into the freezer and grabbing the meat, and possibly some extra, whatever she said.