Quagsire

Tipper rested his head on the back of his claw boredly as he watched the world pass by. The shop had been cleaned up enough to have a grand reopening, if still without the Deposit Box that was supposed to have come in. Not that Dad really seemed to have much time to spend in Post Town between his crawls through Mystery Dungeons.

While Post Town was just off a highway and there was usually a steady stream of Pokémon that passed through every day, their arrivals were fairly uneven. Morning would be busy with locals rousing for the day and heading out for nearby jobs or travelers hitting the road. Noon was usually a bit more crowded than normal thanks to Pokémon stopping by the Swanna House to grab a bite. And of course, there was the evening rush into town before things got too dark out on the highway.

“Blugh…”

That was all fine and good, except it felt like half the time in between, there was precious little to do other than to just stare off at the pond and waterfalls or at the windmills in the distance. The time after the morning rush today had been another one of those moments, especially after the fight which broke out in the square towards its tail end. With how slow business had been today, Tipper was starting to wonder if he’d have been better off just closing the shop up to go and take an early lunch break.

“Oh, hello, Kecleon. You seem a bit, hmm… distracted.”

Tipper’s eyes widened as he looked up and saw there was that Quagsire he’d occasionally seen around town at his counter. The Kecleon hurriedly straightened up and dusted off his scales, quietly thankful that his father wasn’t here to see things since he’d surely never hear the end of things for making this sort of first impression on a customer.

“W-Welcome to the Kecleon Shop!” Tipper stammered. “How can I help you?”

The Quagsire trailed off a moment and put a paw under his chin. It was admittedly a bit hard to tell for sure with the Pokémon’s beady eyes, but something about him just gave off the vibe that he was a bit spacey.

“Oh, hmm… I’ll just have some of those Sleep Seeds you have over there,” he said. “Five or six should be enough.”

Tipper turned his head as Quagsire motioned off at a counter behind him, where a small pile of Sleep Seeds was sitting on the counter… where the Apples were supposed to be. Gah, he really must’ve been zoning out today.

The Kecleon turned and started taking the Sleep Seeds off the shelf as he turned his attention back to the Quagsire on the other side of the counter.

“… Have you had trouble falling asleep lately or something?” he asked. “Since I’m not sure why a Pokémon that mostly hangs around town would need so many Sleep Seeds.”

“Better safe than sorry,” the Water-type insisted. “With the way that things have been going around these parts lately, you never know when you’ll need to punish some evildoers.”

Tipper froze as he pulled a Sleep Seed off the counter, and cocked a brow back at the Water-type.

“I’m sorry, what did you say you did around here again?”

“These days, I mostly just help solve problems that I find around town,” Quagsire answered. “Though I used to be a lawmon back in the day, ‘Quagsire the Outlaw Hunter’. It wasn’t often that an evildoer could give me the slip, mm-hmm.”

Quagsire seemed to have a flash of pride come over him, as Tipper finished gathering up the rest of the Sleep Seeds from the shelf.

“Uh huh,sure. So, what, am I supposed to take it that you’re the Sheriff of this town or something?”

“Well, honorary Sheriff, but something like that, yes.”

Tipper caught himself as he stared back into Quagsire’s eyes. The Pokémon sure didn’t strike him as being the ‘Sheriff’ type, even if Tipper supposed that he and his parents had run into enough customers in life to know that looks could be quite deceiving. Quagsire seemed to find his reaction funny, and shook his head with a knowing smile.

Whatever the case, Tipper had already put up an iffy enough display of the hospitality employees of Kecleon Market were supposed to display on the job, so peppering the ‘mon with skeptical questions probably wasn’t a good idea. Especially if he really was the honorary Sheriff of this town.

“That’ll be 360 Poké,” Tipper said. “Anything else I can help you with?”

“Hmm… well, yes, actually,” Quagsire said, passing a few gold-colored coins across the counter. “It’s actually the main reason why I stopped by here.”

Quagsire leaned on the counter, as the curve of his mouth smoothed out into a small, serious-looking frown.

“You don’t seem to really enjoy being here in Post Town, Kecleon,” he said. “Maybe it’s a habit of the younger generation, but it was a bit, hmm, noticeable in your attitude on the job.”

Tipper sucked a breath in and bit the inside of his cheek. Stars, now he was really glad that his father wasn’t around right now, since he’d definitely get an earful from him if the local customers were complaining about his service like this. He thought that he’d been putting up a happy enough face whenever customers were coming around and kept his scales a nice and cheerful green…

Clearly he hadn’t been doing that as well as he’d hoped.

“Sorry if it’s not the sort of service you were expecting from a branch of Kecleon Market,” Tipper sighed, hanging his head. “I know it’s not really an excuse, it’s just… I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.”

“Mm-hmm. Is it something that you want to talk about?”

Tipper looked away and pawed at his arm. He wasn’t sure whether or not it was a good idea to bring the topic up. After all, it was his job to make the shop’s customers happy and ensure a smooth sales experience on behalf of Kecleon Market, not to bother them with his own life problems.

… Even so, Quagsire had asked him to talk about it. And something about the ‘mon gave off the vibe that he wasn’t going to leave until he got some sort of answer.

“I wound up coming here to the Mist Continent as part of my job, and this… wasn’t exactly where I thought I was going to wind up,” Tipper explained. “Dad and I came from Baram Town, so I was just expecting that we’d be sent to work in a place that was a bit more… lively.”

Quagsire tilted his head in reply, and while it was a bit hard to tell with the way his eyes were, Tipper swore that he saw the ‘mon quirk a brow at him.

“Well, did you have any companions back in Baram Town?”

“Well, yes. Not that they were able to come along with me,” the Kecleon said. “I have a lot of fond memories of us getting together to shoot the breeze under the windmills or stopping to watch the waves come in while I was on break.”

“And do you have any here?“

Tipper caught himself and stared back at Quagsire across the counter. He didn’t say anything back in reply, but from the way the Water-type’s mouth curled and the shake of his head… Tipper figured that Quagsire had already deduced that the answer was ‘no’.

“Even a big town will feel lonely without anyone to talk to, Kecleon. Why don’t you spend some time getting to know your fellow shopkeeps a bit more?” Quagsire suggested. “After all, if you’re always strictly business and quick to get snappy with them like you were yesterday with Cofagrigus and Foongus, it will probably take you a lot longer than it needs to to get used to life here in Post Town.”

Tipper felt his cheeks burn and saw his scales start to turn a deep, beet red. Stars, he’d really been covering himself in glory as a Kecleon Market employee lately, hadn’t he? Tipper snapped back to attention as Quagsire took his Sleep Seeds off the counter, and stuffed them into a small satchel before turning to take his leave.

“Though it’s just friendly advice on my part. If you have a better way of handling your problems, you’re more than welcome to try it out,” Quagsire said. “I just thought that it might help you since this town already has more than enough Pokémon that just keep to themselves and are standoffish to others.”

Tipper looked down and fidgeted with his claws. Would it make sense to talk more with some of the other shopkeepers? He… admittedly hadn’t really gotten the best impression from Cofagrigus or Foongus, and with how unfriendly a lot of the passersby had seemed, he wasn’t sure how interrupting the Box Buster across the lane or whoever ran that Gift Shop further down would go.

The next thing Tipper knew, he looked up and Quagsire was already halfway across the square..

“Ack!” Tipper realized he’d forgotten to give him the customary farewell to him as part of his job. “Thanks for your business! Come back anytime!”

Tipper sighed and pinched his brow. Maybe he should take that lunch break early after all. It wouldn’t make sense to go into the midday rush frazzled like this.

And he supposed that he had time to spare to try out Quagsire’s advice, if just for a bit.