Not to mention, he rarely saw anyone in Pelican Town who didn't hold some sort of prejudice against him.
With this in mind, he glanced at Ron in the distance.
"If only I had drawn him this year," Linus thought with a tinge of regret.
Over at the beach, Willy was also making preparations for the Feast of the Winter Star. He was the main supplier of fish for the evening banquet.
Going by the principle of "fish if you can, don't take the boat out to trawl," Willy was currently fishing by the shore along with Sailor and Elliott.
"Thanks for the help," Willy said, glancing over at Elliott, who was fully focused on fishing.
"This is about all I can do to help," Elliott replied with a gentle smile.
As a struggling writer, buying ingredients was completely out of the question for him. In fact, he occasionally had to fish or catch crabs by the sea just to get a decent meal.
Willy took one look at the somewhat melancholy Elliott and looked away.
Aside from fishing, he really didn't have much in common with this gloomy, artistic young man. They only really crossed paths while fishing, or occasionally when Elliott made a little money and came to the Saloon to drink heavy liquor—only then would they exchange a few words.
Because of this, he didn't really know what to say.
"Ratta." Sailor looked left and right, seemingly trying to do something to break the ice. Willy rested his hand on the Pokémon's head and gave it a vigorous rub.
"Ratta?"
"How about this spring, we head up into the deep mountains to fish for the Legend?"
"Ratta?"
"In the lake right in front of the mines," Willy said, taking a drag from his pipe. "If I could catch that thing—honestly, I could die with no regrets."
He even felt that if his late grandfather, old Willy, heard the news, he'd happily jump out of his grave.
The thought made Willy chuckle.
"Rattata." Sailor pondered it for a moment and then nodded vigorously.
Elliott, standing off to the side, glanced at Willy, who was now chatting away about fishing tips with Sailor. He remained silent as he held his fishing rod, mentally outlining the plot for his new book.
Time soon shifted to the afternoon.
Since they still needed to leave time for Gus to cook, Willy checked the quantity of the catch and headed over to the Saloon.
Before leaving, he handed Elliott a small sum of money. Elliott was just about to decline when Willy waved him off. "This is for your hard work, kid."
"But I didn't really do—"
"Consider it my Feast of the Winter Star gift to you, too," Willy said, waving his hand before striding away.
Speaking of which, Elliott actually was the person Willy had drawn for the gift exchange.
Of course, just giving him a little money felt a bit underwhelming as a gift. So, Willy had specially prepared some squid ink, planning to give it to Elliott tonight.
Aside from using it to make Seafoam Pudding or Squid Ink Ravioli, Willy genuinely couldn't understand what there was to like about the stuff.
However, Elliott had mentioned that writing with it felt different from regular ink, and it seemingly brought him a unique kind of inspiration. Coincidentally, Willy had caught quite a few Midnight Squid during the Night Market, so this worked out perfectly.
"Ratta, ratta." Sailor tilted its head up, staring at Willy.
"What's wrong, do you want a Feast of the Winter Star gift too?" Willy asked, looking down.
"Ratta, ratta." Sailor thought for a moment, then shook its head.
Willy smiled, pondered for a second, and fished a gold coin out of his pocket, placing it into Sailor's paw.
This felt a bit different from the pocket money Ron usually gave it, so it looked up at Willy in confusion.
"This is a treasure my grandfather—the old Willy—found in a sunken ship when he was young," Willy said as they walked. "I've kept it on me as a lucky charm all these years. I'm giving it to you now."
"Ratta?!"
Willy stepped into the Saloon. "Gus, look! Freshly caught, right out of the water!"
A strong, fishy odor immediately filled the room. Lewis, who was inside helping out, let out a dry heave on the spot.
"Coming, coming." Gus washed his hands, picked up the fish, and turned to head inside. "Who wants to help me prep these fish?"
The few people present looked at each other.
Hearing this, Meowth shot its paw into the air. "I'll do it, meow!"
Meowth didn't mind the fishy smell at all; in fact, it thought the scent smelled rather good.
"Thank goodness for you," Gus said, quickly passing the fish over.
While prepping fish wasn't too difficult, getting that pungent smell off your hands was a real hassle.
Since this was the annual reunion festival, nobody wanted to show up smelling like that.
Naturally, Willy was the exception.
"I'll help out too," Willy said, pulling out his fish-gutting dagger. "Come on, little kitty, let's get to work over there."
"It's Meowth!"
"Alright then, let's go, Meowth."
Ron was also helping Gus with the cooking.
It was worth mentioning that, although he couldn't read minds like Audino, because Ron had learned from Gus's recipes, he and Gus had an unexpected, flawless synergy when cooking together.
Which made Gus lament how much of a shame it was.
Meanwhile, Emily and Sandy were at the counter, mixing the drinks for the night—both alcohol for the adults and beverages for the kids.
"So this is milk tea," Sandy said. After pan-frying the tea leaves with sugar, she poured in some fresh cow milk from nearby. Taking a sniff, she added, "It smells really good."
Ron glanced over, completely unsurprised by the comment.
That was because, alongside the floral smoking, Ron had tried mimicking the recipe for Stardrop Tea by adding a small amount of Stardrop to the mix.
With the Stardrop added, you probably wouldn't get a bad taste even if you just chewed on the raw tea leaves.
The aroma quickly spread throughout the Saloon.
"Wow, it smells great! I smell fish."
"Fish? Doesn't it smell like flowers?" Sandy asked, frowning as she took another sniff. "I feel like it has a... Pelican Town scent to it."
Because she loved the wildflowers of Pelican Town the most, to Sandy, it smelled like a bouquet of all those flowers gathered together.
"How can you smell fish? You've just been standing too close to those fish, right?" Jodi chimed in after taking a whiff. "It obviously smells like chocolate cake."
"—Wait, doesn't it smell like pumpkin pie?" Marnie couldn't help but ask aloud.
"The scents from the cooking must be getting mixed together," Gus suggested. He then glanced over at Snorlax, who was in the corner eating the trimmed food scraps while constantly twitching its nose.
"Emily, give Snorlax some of those Poke Beans Ron gave us last time," Gus said. "If we don't feed it soon, it might try to steal our food."
"Oh, right."
Hearing this, Emily went to the fridge and retrieved the Poke Beans, dropping the debate over what the tea actually smelled like.
Only Sandy stubbornly kept sniffing it, refusing to believe it.
Seeing that the unique effect of the Stardrop had worked as intended, Ron looked away and went back to busily working alongside Gus.
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