PMD-U Team Freedom Errand #9

    First it was trees and now it was carts. Mithora didn’t know why the locals insisted that the guild teams worked on such menial tasks like gathering up old, broken carts for distributing to the merchants. She never had trusted those types of Pokemon, merchants. Sure they had important jobs in terms of acquiring and distributing goods, but at the same time their need for wealth in order to actually receive goods to sell often led to greed. Mithora hated greed. She prefered thriftiness, saving money not for the purpose of saving it but for not taking more than you really needed. It was a difficult concept for some to understand, as Mithora had learned. ‘But if you have money, why don’t you spend it? Or, why don’t you give it to others instead of saving it for yourself? If you’re saving your money doesn’t that make you greedy?’ These questions annoyed Mithora - it was an ideal, not an exact course of life.

    But these thoughts digressed from what she was meant to be doing - looking for broken carts around the city. Her search turned up fruitless for a few hours, and Layron running around her in circles randomly pestering Pokemon wasn’t helpful. What ended up happening was she and Layron helped several groups of Pokemon carry old, broken carts down to local carpenter shops to have repaired. At one point, however, something occurred to her - her fight with the kid Riolu several weeks ago. He had hidden in a back alley behind an old, broken wooden cart. There had been at least two or three back there, as well. As soon as she and Layron were free, they raced down to the alley to find that, indeed, nobody had found these carts. Sweet find!

    What wasn’t so sweet was the group of thugs hanging out around the carts. Apparently they were using them for beds or something. This wouldn’t do at all. She needed a way to convince them to leave. She and Layron entered the circular open area and started to say something in order to get everyone’s attention, but she hadn’t even opened her mouth before everyone suddenly jumped up and surrounded them.

    Well this wasn’t too good, Mithora thought. “Alright, I’m not here to talk business. Are you all homeless, or...?” She paused, unsure of what specifically to say. Criminals, gangsters, marauders. Who could say what the proper term was around here. Their response, however, was a bit interesting - they were both homeless and criminals, forced into such a life due to lack of any work in the town anymore. Interesting... It was true; Layron had just barely been able to land his job at the bakery. What was there for the less fortunate?

    Mithora talked and spoke diplomacy with the homeless group for the longest time, trying to keep talks as non-violent as possible. One one hand, assisting with this odd-job would get them all some money. Their argument was, however, the money would only be temporary and their beds would go to some Pokemon who had more than enough to burn. Why give up their beds for just a piece of money that wouldn’t even be enough to buy real ones?

    Hearing that made Mithora feel a little guilty. How could she come in here and take away these carts from Pokemon who didn’t even have a roof over their heads. She started to ask them about the guilds but they swiftly replied that they lacked the skills needed to be considered ‘useful’ to any of the guilds, either being deemed untrustworthy by the Explorers, too weak by the Hunters, or not adept enough for the Researchers. Basically, they were stuck being petty thieves to get by. Several of them started to attest for what they did as well, claiming that they usually stole only from the bread stalls near the edge of the marketplace because they were the easiest to get to and escape from without being caught. Even then, bread was barely enough to get by. Mithora wouldn’t have believed that story had it not been for the unhealthy looks of all these Pokemon, who had bellies that showed a bit of ribcage to each of them.

    The question, then, was what could these Pokemon do? The merchants needed these carts to move their supplies, but at the same time these Pokemon needed a roof over their heads. What was the solution here...

    Mithora had an idea. She started to explain it to the homeless Pokemon and, while at first they disagreed, she started constructing some terms and conditions that would be followed: they would bring their homes to the carpenders to be converted back into carts for supplies, after which they would move the carts themselves. In exchange, however, the merchants that they ended up working for would have to give them a home.

    This idea of hers, they weren’t sure they liked it. It meant having to lug a cart around for some pompous merchant who might not even care for their well being. At least two group of Pokemon disagreed with her plan and opted to stay. Others, however, thought the idea was better than their unsheltered lives out in the cold. They agreed.

    Mithora and Layron (who had thankfully stayed out of the conversation for once) helped the Pokemon bring their broken carts to the nearest carpenter, who repaired their carts without a hitch. Afterward, they went to the Researchers Guild administrator responsible for this task, Solstice the Swoobat, who was convinced to allow the homeless Pokemon to stay with their carts and demand to be hired as labor for transporting goods. She commented that, given how every dungeon tends to shift and warp about randomly, it was probably for the best that manual labor be offered to the merchants.

    Mithora wanted to stay with the homeless Pokemon until she was sure they would be given work - she wasn’t one to break her word for any reason. However, Solstice explained to Mithora that they would not distribute the carts until four days later, until which they would continue collecting old carts for reuse.

    After receiving a worrying glance from the homeless Pokemon, Mithora asked if her pay could be used to provide them with food until they could be hired by some merchants. To Mithora's vast relief, Solstice told her that she would happily feed them, and at no expense to them. This time, she would have to wait and hope that the Researcher admin would stay true to her word, that she would make sure they had jobs when the carts were distributed.