Traveling Sales-Mon

Tipper admittedly wasn’t sure why he was doing this. He had wanted to chat up the Box Buster or the Cinccino who ran the Gift Shop, but both had been out of their shops when he passed by. He thought of just turning back for the Swanna House, but the bridge over the stream was right there, and before he knew it…

“Fwohoho! This is the gold exchange known as GLORIOUS GOLD!”

He was back in front of Cofagrigus’ not-yet-opened Gold Exchange. Tipper had hoped that he hadn’t stood out too much from the day before, but unfortunately for him, a look of recognition came across Cofagrigus’s face once their eyes met.

“Oh, it’s you again,” the Ghost-type harrumphed, crossing his upper arms. “The shop’s still not open if that’s why you’re here.”

He supposed he should’ve expected as much. Tipper pawed at the back of his head, and glanced aside with a quiet mutter.

“Yeah, I kinda figured. I… guess I just came back because I wanted to get to know the neighborhood better. The Box Buster and Gift Shop were both busy when I was passing over, so I figured I’d try out a couple other places first. Were there any shops around here that I’ve been missing?”

“Well, there’s Foongus’ shop right next door-“

“Aside from Foongus’ shop,” Tipper hastily added.

Cofagrigus studied him closely, and seemed to be weighing his words until he turned his attention off to the right of his shop and raised a spectral hand to point off at it.

“Well, they won’t be here until after noon, but you’re actually in luck,” Cofagrigus said. “I’m set to get a new neighbor to the right of my shop. If you stop by later in the day, the proprietor should be around. Not that they could ever hope to compete with my GLORIOUS sparklies.”

Tipper glanced over to the right of the Gold Exchange and saw that there was a green counter and mat spread out, much like the one that Foongus used for his alleged shop. The Kecleon wasn’t sure how on earth he’d overlooked that earlier, really. There was a small notice pinned to the front of the counter saying “reserved” with the proprietor’s name torn off which couldn’t help but pique his interest.

“Oh? Who runs the shop here, Cofagrigus? And what do they sell?”

“Couldn’t tell you,” Cofagrigus replied. “I’d admittedly been busy setting up my Gold Exchange so I hadn’t been paying much attention to my neighbors.”

Tipper frowned briefly. It sure seemed strange that Cofagrigus wouldn’t know his own immediate neighbors, especially since the other shop didn’t look particularly new in construction.

“Though I suppose that I wouldn’t be able to give you a consistent answer anyways since that stall’s actually set aside for traveling sales-mons. I’m hoping that it’ll be someone selling sparklies, but it’ll probably just someone running battle tutoring. Though who knows, really?” The Ghost-type glanced back and shrugged. “Sometimes you’ll get some really different shops that set up in that space. Like the year when Victini brought his V-Wheel here.”

Tipper couldn’t help but cock a brow at the Ghost-type’s response.

“‘Victini’?” he asked.

“You know, little apple-looking rabbit guy? Eccentric researcher? Pretty sure he’s some sort of Legendary Pokémon?” Cofagrigus asked. “I don’t know if you have one of your own wherever you’re from, but Victini built a machine that can apparently manipulate these energy waves which affect the nearby Mystery Dungeons that he discovered. ‘V-Waves’, he calls them.”

“‘V-Waves’?” Tipper tilted his head in confusion. Between this and the ‘V-Wheel’, this ‘Victini’ sounded more like some sort of obnoxious marketer than a researcher. Cofagrigus let out a low chuckle as he seemed to be adrift in fond memories.

“Mind you, the last time he was here was well before I got into the gold exchange business, but he and that V-Wheel drew quite a crowd… or at least he did until him shouting ‘V-Wheeeeeel!’ started wearing thin and scaring off the customers until he left,” Cofagrigus explained. “That’s how I managed to get the deed to this place! The prior owner heard Victini was considering coming back this year and figured he’d retire before the circus came into town.”

Tipper was starting to be quietly grateful that his shop was located clear across a square and stream from this place. Though even so, he couldn’t help but grow curious.

If the traveling sales-mon was indeed this ‘Victini’, then it’d probably make sense to get an idea of how this ‘V-Wheel’ worked, since being able to change the effects of nearby Mystery Dungeons sounded like it could be helpful for Dad’s travels through them. Who knew? Maybe one of those effects would even help him find more wares for the shop.

And even if it was just a more normal shopkeep, Tipper supposed it wouldn’t hurt to find out how things had been going lately further afield from Post Town.

“I… mean, I shouldn’t be away from my shop that long. But I suppose that I can come by sometime on my evening break to see what this traveling sales-mon is like.”

“Rocks? Really?”

Yes, apparently. When Tipper came back to the space set aside for the traveling sales-mons during his evening break, the first thing he saw was a Roggenrola proprietor standing atop the counter… along with row after row of rocks spread out on the green mat behind.

“That’s right! I’ve got all the rocks a Pokémon could ever want!” the Roggenrola cheered. “Swirl Rocks, Happy Rocks, Gravelerocks…”

Tipper let his mouth hang open and pinched his brow. He was getting the distinct feeling that he should’ve gone to try and talk with the Box Buster instead. Or the owner of the Gift Shop. Or with Swanna for that matter.

“What on earth is a Pokémon supposed to do with all these? Use them as paperweights?”

“Well, some of them are meant to be thrown and others used as accessories. But if it’s paperweights you’re looking for, check the left end of the mat.”

Tipper turned his attention towards the left side of the mat, where sure enough, the stones seemed a bit more interesting. Some of them were colored, some had spirals on them. And curiously enough, one looked almost golden with a circular band on it.

“Huh? Why’s this rock look so different?”

“Ah, good eye there, Kecleon! For a moment, I thought that was a sparkly, but looks can be deceiving. That’s part of a ruin.”

Tipper blinked, as much to his surprise, Cofagrigus was out from behind his counter and floating over alongside him. The Ghost-type brought a hand down and raised the golden stone up, before giving a curious look at the Roggenrola on the counter.

“Where’d you get this from, Roggenrola?” he asked. “If the stones from wherever it came from looked like this, I might need to go treasure hunting for GOLD wherever you found it.”

“I actually got it in a trade,” the Rock-type explained. “The Pokémon who gave it to me said she found it near someplace called ‘Eternal Ruins’, wherever that is.”

A brief pang of disappointment came over Cofagrigus’ face as he set the stone back down and Tipper traded glances between it and the Ghost-type.

“Wait, just what are these ‘Eternal Ruins’?” he asked.

“It’s a legendary ruin where Ho-Oh is said to sometimes appear in the Mist Continent, which was built as a part of a broader set that Legendary Pokémon are said to similarly favor,” Cofagrigus explained. “Nobody really knows what the history of those places is, other than that the builders spoke the Old Language. Well, that, and that there’s plenty of treasures left around in some of the other ruins we know for sure exist.”

Tipper gave a dubious frown at the stone. Why did this sound so much like the tales of the “Phantom Island” he’d heard back home? Though then again, he supposed that there were also places on the Air Continent that had echoes of a long forgotten past. Ruins like the Ancient Relic left behind by Pokémon that were so old that nobody knew anything about the civilization that built it or what happened to it, and places that were stranger still like that Decrepit Lab that rumors said hadn’t been built by Pokémon at all.

Why, even the Poké they used for money was said to be a relic. Tipper hadn’t heard the full story behind it, but from what his father had told them, it was apparently based on some sort of ancient standard from a bygone time when the Five Continents were more interconnected. A time when there were cities so big that they made places like Baram or Noe look like little villages like Post Town, thus why stray Poké coins would sometimes turn up in Mystery Dungeons.

He wasn’t sure whether or not he believed all of those stories. But the Cofagrigus and Roggenrola seemed convinced it was something unusual, and who knew? Maybe Dad would come across these ‘Eternal Ruins’ sometime while they were here on Mist.

“I think I’ll take it, actually,” Tipper said. “My dad goes around Mystery Dungeons for his job, so he’d probably get a kick out of this. Thanks for pointing it out, Cofagrigus.”

Tipper passed a few coins over to the Roggenrola proprietor and claimed the rock from the mat. He then turned and made his way off for the bridge back to the Square.

And for the first time since arriving in Post Town, he didn’t have to force a smile on his face.