ratherbelocky | .005 Δ [Video]

Evening, good folks and gentlepeople. York here, back in town from a quick trip to Ecruteak with an exciting announcement for anyone passing through Goldenrod in the coming months. D-2, take it back.

[Whoever's holding the PokéGear moves back to show York sitting on his couch with about twenty eggs, each bundled tenderly in a cute yellow-gold blanket against the February chill. York and the Granbull sitting next to him don't look cold at all, though. They look hype as hell.

They're wearing Goldenrod Granbulls baseball uniforms and couldn't be more excited.]

Baseball season's right around the corner! Starting in March, there'll be biweekly games every Sunday at the stadium here, and practices are free to watch on Fridays. If you're in town, come on and support Johto's reigning champs, the Goldenrod Granbulls.

[Yankee Doodle, his Granbull, barks a gruff cheer. Go Granbulls! York grins and holds up the egg on his lap.]

As a promotional deal, I'm gonna be offering free Snubbull eggs to anyone who shows me proof of purchase of a Granbulls ticket. All I ask is that you take a selfie with your new buddy at the game! These four'll hatch in about a week, so you got time before the season starts. And if you miss out on these ones, I'll keep breeding until the season ends, so you'll get another chance. I'll add that their father's a shiny, so some lucky winner's got a shot at getting a shiny of their own.

[He hands the Snubbull egg to Yankee Doodle, who takes it with a mother's loving care and moves to settle it like the others. York waves openly at the rest.]

I also got a bunch of other species on offer--Abra, Elgyem, Meowth, and so on. I'll send out the pricelist and the moves each one should learn as a text in a second.

Oh, and any new kids who just arrived, you can pick one out on the house. I recommend Meowth--these ones aren't much right now, but at level thirty, they'll learn a move that'll make your lives a heck of a lot easier.

[Somewhere off-screen, a Persian purrs his smug agreement.]

All right, that should cover everything. Agent York, over and out.

((Here's the OOC egg post, there's plenty of everything left! And you know what, I changed my mind, new arrivals can go for the Elgyem eggs free of charge, too.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Snrrk. York hides a grin for a moment and comes back still smiling.]

What do you do when you're double-booked, though? There's gotta be overlap sometimes, right?

Well... sometimes Cleo makes the decision for us, since she's the Fearleading Captain, but mostly we just ask the teams who needs us more. Everyone should get a fair turn.

Aw, that's sweet of you. You know, if you got enough cheerleaders--Fearleaders, I mean, 'scuze me--you could probably have more than one squad for cases like that.

There's me, Cleo, Frankie, Lagoona, and Clawdeen. But we were going to have some Fearleading tryouts with all the transfer students! ... Theeen I wound up here.

Oh, right. Guess that throws a wrench into that plan.

How've things been lately, anyway? Still working at the Department Store?

A-huh. I'm going to be paying off that debt for a while, I think.

[An impressed whistle.]

Was it really that bad? I've heard of shopping sprees, but man.

I kind of got carried away... I'm used to having my dad pay for everything.

...Girl, maybe we oughta teach you how to write a budget.

What's a budget?

[Yeah, okay, he. Yeah. Mmnh. It's gonna be a long evening.]

All right, guess we'll be starting with the basic basics. You got pen and paper handy, D.L.?

Oooh, actually, I just bought this absolutely adorable stationary set!

[A long, long, LONG evening, York.]

Okay. You should maybe go ahead and take notes.

A budget's our little way of keeping track of how much money we make, how much we need to set aside for things we need and for our savings, and then what's okay to spend. With me so far?

[Grabbing an overly sparkly pen and writing down as she sets the gear beside her on a desk drawer.]

A-huh, a-huh, a-huh... Oooh, the ink's all glittery too!

[He rubs the inner corners of his eyes, but soldiers on. York is nothing if not a man who enjoys a challenge.]

Let's try a weekly budget first. How much you make a week at your job?

[Pause.]

I didn't ask. I mean, they know what they're doing, right? And once I get the money, half of it goes to my debt, and the other half I can use!

--You don't know how much money you're making?

[WHAT. WHAT??]

Okay, first step, ask your supervisor that pronto. And then check your savings. That way you at least know your starting point.

[Jesus Christ where does he even BEGIN with this. What the hell.]

[SHE'S BEEN SPOILED FOR 1,6000 YEARS]

Okay! Talk to the supervisor...

[At least she's writing it down, oblivious to his horror.]

Right. Okay.

[Breathe, York. She doesn't know any better. It's not her fault.]

Next thing you gotta do is calculate your necessary expenses for the week. Those are things like food, rent, everything your Pokémon need. Not cute fun stuff, just the basics. You can figure that out by keeping track of what you do spend on those things in a week.

This is starting to sound a lot like homework.

Homework is supposed to prepare you for the real world.

Y'know, supposedly. I never really figured out how, exactly, but that's what they told us in school.

Maybe you should've been a teacher instead!

[He laughs.]

I really don't think that woulda been the career for me at any point in my life, kid. Anyway, once you figure out how much you make and how much you need--I'm really stressing that need thing, D.L.--it's easy enough to subtract and see how much you've got left. At least half of that should go into your savings, and the rest? That's your spending money.

Well, I guess I can give this a try.

It's really just a matter of paying attention to what you got. I'm sure you can do it.