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Search (59) The Slacker’s Shack
Tonight, as the moon is clearly seen in the sky, you head east, cutting across the large barren landscape between Benni’s farmstead and the Slacker’s Shack. The expanse is so empty, wide, and eerily silent that for a short while, it almost feels like you’ve walked off the face of the planet and into a seemingly dark and infinite realm of emptiness.

And then you come to the dark and sickly-looking northeastern side of town that simply looks sad, decrepit, and forgotten. All except for one location. And that’s where you’re heading tonight, although you find yourself needing to get in close to detect there being any kind of life to this scorned place.

You arrive at what is called the Slacker’s Shack, what used to be a small two-story house and tavern owned by a Roserade before the business failed. Here, the windows have been covered up with heavy towels and wood planks, but you can still find faint traces of light coming from behind them. And you can faintly hear chatter and laughter inside.

You first investigate the outside. Without a doubt, the building is a neglected mess and you find a lot of the teenagers and young adults haven’t at all been responsible when it comes to keeping this place clean. But you can see that not many parents bother coming around this part of town, so it hasn’t been noticed and discovered.

There is something among the refuse that doesn’t stand out as ordinary garbage. Toward the back of the building, tucked into the walls just enough… it appears to be an odd stone plate… reminding you of something you might have seen back at the farmhouse. Something one of the other Savants picked up along the way.

The tablet Maya found at the library…

You see that it seems to have some strange engravings upon it, written in a language you’ve never seen before. You place your hoof upon it to pick it up and take a closer look, but…

Sam has inherited 2 Points of Kurosuōbā…

It takes you back, as if you’ve woken up from a lucid dream that you remembered from years ago… but only for a moment. In the end, it feels like only a faint childhood memory, but it leaves you wondering… what is this…?

…is there more to this…?

@[Pureto jo] – ~2 Kurosuōbā~@ has been added to the Team Inventory.

You take it with you, not sure what it is for, but still feeling it has to be something important. You’ve never felt anything like that before…

…at least not here. Not upon Origine. But if not in these places…

…where did you feel this before?

You decide to carry on, continuing your investigation in the shack itself. As you sneak your way inside, you find the interior is only dimly lit from a few candles and lanterns. The light and shadows seem to dance on the walls, all of which are in shabby condition. Meanwhile, all of the furniture looks cheap and mismatched, as though all of it was acquired for cheap at garage sales or dumped in the street to be collected as trash. The chairs, sofas, tables, and cabinets look like their best years are long behind them while the worn wooden floor looks old, tired, and it’s quite obvious the Pokémon here don’t care too much for being clean with all of the wrappers, containers, empty bottles, and food crumbs scattered about.

And you see some familiar faces here, too. Jupo the Whimsicott, Narshen the Cinccino, and Erine the Swoobat are here with Jupo often giggling and leading the conversation, gossiping about her customers. Danuel the Banette doesn’t talk much, mostly enjoying his alcoholic drinks while listening to Jupo’s recollections. Myta is also here, mixing different drinks and pretending to be a bartender sometimes to mixed levels of success. Kabi is also here, but doesn’t seem to be as engaged as the rest of the group, barely uttering a word the whole time. At times, Caily the Charmeleon jumps in on the conversation as well, gossiping about other students at school, especially Vocco, who the crew badmouths quite a bit. You have quite the hunch Vocco has never been invited here and doesn’t even know about this place.

Meanwhile, Velay the Buizel seems to be a newcomer here, looking like he only just recently found out about the secret society that gathers here at some nights. He's sometimes pushed to join in on the conversation too, and the group lets him describe some of the stories he has while on fishing voyages. The group finds the more he opens up and the more drinks he’s had, the more interesting he becomes. He even later gets pushed to sing a song that Erine the Swoobat wrote as Tresko the Raboot, still somewhat new to playing a guitar-like instrument, tries to come up with a tune to go along with it. At times it sounds like a goofy karaoke, but at other times it seems to sync together well and you almost want to record it if you could.

Despite it sometimes getting a bit rowdy, you can’t help but feel relaxed and at ease here in this hidden place, like a home away from home where the rules don’t matter. Sometimes the conversations almost make you laugh as well. Other times you almost feel like taking a break from your investigations to join them. All the while, something about it touches you. Tonight, it might seem silly and reckless to these Pokémon and quite rebellious to the parents these young adults and teenagers have. But for a moment, you think… twenty… thirty years from now when all these young adults have grown up and left this place and this town to go on with their lives… they’ll remember this place. They won’t forget this shabby tavern and the late-night adventures they had here. They’ll remember the friends they had here and the laughs they had together.

To the good old days… the ones we’re having right now…

You head upstairs to find the living area that Lunko lived in before closing up the tavern. Now, it’s mainly used as a small storage area where the crew keeps drinks, drugs, party games, sleeping rolls and bags in case they need to spend the night here, and plenty of plates, utensils, and containers for parties. There’s plenty of other random old belongings here that some keep here as keepsakes and others for storage.

Meanwhile, the condition of the rooms up here are similar to what’s downstairs. The wooden walls are aged and splintering and the windows have been broken for a while with only dirty towels hung over them to keep the rain out. The ceiling lights no longer work and it seems like the candles that were here to light the room burnt out a while ago.

You don’t find anything unusual at first, but then something among them seems unusual.

You shift through them with your hoof just before…

@Piercing Bite – ROCK (3 Health Damage, 3 Purity Damage)@ Trap 40% Evasion Test: 34 out of 100: Success!

You quickly withdraw your front hoof, realizing indeed… there is something foul and hidden here that you almost came into contact with. You focus your attention and you sense it…

…a Stalker’s taint.

It suddenly strikes you… someone among this group is a Stalker. There’s no way someone unassociated with the group could have hidden this here without them being seen as a normal member of the group. What you see before you seems to be a tooth at first, but you sense something dark and supernatural here. Upon closer inspection, you see it’s a fang, infused with a corrupted and crippling nether energy.

Carefully, you wrap the fang in an old blue towel. It doesn’t remove the crippling nature of the fang, but it at least makes it safe for you to carry back to Benni’s farmstead.

@[Fang of the Crippled] Piercing Bite – ROCK (3 Health Damage, 3 Purity Damage)@ has been added to the Team Inventory.

After taking one last look around, you don’t find anything else up here. Carefully and quietly, you head back downstairs, just managing to avoid detection. You then slip out the back and head into the night…

…wondering who in that group is hiding a dark secret…

Sam the Deerling (S: Normal / Grass)
Health: 16/16 | Sanity: 20/20 | Purity: 24/24 | 2/10 Kurosuōbā | Dodge Rate: 40%
Perk: Repair
Reincarnation Forms: Nidorino, Krabby, Blaziken, Ralts, Delcatty
EQUIPMENT:
  • Defense Armor: <Empty>
  • Jewelry: +|J| Ruby Pendant+ (2S, 1P)