Eating Gold

Word Count:  836

{CORVUS}
Pacing before the sun fell became second nature for him; of course, he knew night was on the horizon, but he could never sleep. Waking up enough times from anxiety over something he couldn't even remember would do that. Corvus closed his eyes for a moment, his breath clouding in the brisk air as he sighed. He was getting the itch to pickpocket some unsuspecting bystander again; oh, how typical. Old habits die hard, right? Corvus glanced around, vaguely aware that night would probably fall within hours. It would be fine; he would make it back in time.

{ LANCA + MR. BUSINESS }
Rivertide, how long had it been since he had last visited here? The smell of the ocean on the wind- the bustling of people as they wandered between the different colorful stalls of the market- all of it was really quite an admirable sight but Lanca found that he wasn't able to focus on any of it as he stared down at his feet. A small, purple ditto was there and floating inside of their body he could see gold. A ring perhaps just. Floating.

"... Mr. Business, it's bad for our business if you keep eating everything I buy."

He chided the delta ditto gently, watching how the gelatinous pokemon began to bubble and moments later spit out the very thing it had previously consumed. Their expression was vaguely guilty but Lanca merely sighed as he leaned down to stare at it. Even though Mr. Business had only eaten it for maybe ten seconds it had already almost completely corroded away. "Look at all those credits- lost down the drain." And he couldn't even pick it up to attempt to salvage it- a purple poison had completely covered it and continued to wear it down by the second. Within the hour it would be completely gone and If he touched it then it would burn his hand too. He would end up facing the same fate as the golden ring and honestly he would rather not.

{ CORVUS }
Honestly, while he spent most of his time in Rivertide, the ocean air tended to give him a headache. Or maybe that was because he was having caffeine withdrawals. Either way, he noticed the figure with the strange goop creature, and-

Was all that real gold? Well, stealing that ring was out of the picture. It looked obliterated, and something told him he didn't want to get that goop on his hands. Especially if it could do that to gold. Avoid the Ditto. At all costs.

Corvus tried to approach as silently as he could, though he couldn't really move the same ever since the Houndoom had, quite frankly, used him as a chew toy. The pain had mostly been treated with the cybernetic augments, but the limp didn't seem to go away. I don't have the money to fix that, anyway.

But he had learned to move quietly enough, and he was sure the man wouldn't notice him reaching for his pocket.

Until the Pipsail/Natu fusion hiding in Corvus' hood huffed, letting out a sneeze that shook the small creature. Corvus froze where he was, quickly shoving his hand back into his own pocket and smiling in sheer panic.

If this guy's Ditto could dissolve gold, he probably wasn't someone to mess with.

Shit.

[ LANCA + MR. BUSINESS ]
"I really can't believe that you would do this to me again. How many is that now. You're not good at Business Mr. Business." Lance couldn't help but to mourn the loss of the ring and he sighed heavily as he buried his head into his sleeve. He really should just keep this blasted pokemon in it's pokeball but he knew how much they loved the colorful sights of Rivertide. He just couldn't bring himself to take that away from them, even if they now crawled forward to eat the ring that they had just regurgitated.

One moment the ring was dissolving infront of him- and the next it was back in Mr. Business and fading away in there. "Oh come on..." he whined now in the direction of the little ditto, a very sad and pathetic sound as he felt despair. It didn't make a difference where that ring was lost- but somehow it simply felt worse when it was actively being eaten by his pokemon.

His mind was consumed in the sadness until he heard a sneeze from his side and instantly his gaze snapped in their direction. People were always around in this area- but usually they wouldn't come so close to him and he caught sight of how they pulled away, then smiled so desperately.

Suspicious.

Standing up straight Lanca looked over at them, his eyes scanning over every inch of them before in judgement he smiled widely. "Bless you~ Was that you who sneezed?" He asked politely, leaving the no longer guilty, instead very content ditto behind as he now focused his attention entirely on the new man. "That was quite a cute little kitten sneeze if that was from you~"