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Tidbit sighed, a sullen look rested on his face. There wasn’t anything new biting in the trrr water. Even after casting its rod again and again and again, it would still only attract Balloon, Star, and the ever present Clown Fish. He hadn’t even been able to catch anything past Common.
It took a seat at the edge of the dock and considered diving in just to see if there really was any diversity in the water. Maybe the jellybeans weren’t sweet enough? She stuck a hand into their jar and pulled one out, raising it up and inspecting it in the sunlight.
It was normal. It was a completely normal orange jellybean.
With a frown, he contemplated putting it in his mouth. It was just a jellybean, and doodles ate them apparently. It was just one to check if the fish didn’t like the taste or whatever. It could make one jellybean back easy.
While deep in thought about consuming currency, a toon had visited him and was now staring at the kiwi who seemed to be bringing the jellybean closer to its mouth.
“Hey.”
The kiwi spun around and fell into the pond, knocking its bucket in as well. She bobbed up to the surface and spouted water from her beak.
“Oh! Hi Dynamite.”
“wsg”
He took the bird’s previous spot and set his bucket out. After opening his book, he brought out a pole that looked quite different from Tidbit’s.
“What’s that.”
The gator raised an eyebrow, “It's a fishing rod.”
“Well I know that. I’m saying like, why does it look like that.”
The rod that Dynamite was sporting was not the flimsy bundle of cardboard that got soggy no matter what. It was a branch. Nah, branch was too generous. It was pretty skinny, so Tidbit opted to call it a stick.
“It’s the twig rod, I just bought it. You know you can buy better fishing rods, right.”
“Erm.” Twig rod. He was close enough.
“Just go to Docks. There’s a store by the pond, you can’t miss it.”
Tidbit’s eyes lit up. Maybe this would net them better fish! She ran out of the water, threw a thanks behind her, and disappeared down the road.
Edgar Allan Pole had his back turned to the door, working on his inventory. Would a red bucket benefit from being stacked on the tippy top? Or would a yellow one catch more toon’s eyes instead… The door that Edgar Allan Poe had his back to slammed open which caused him to squawk indignantly and his red and yellow buckets to topple onto the ground.
He creaked as he turned his torso around. “Welcome to Tell-Tale Carp!” he said through teeth stretched into a smile. “How may I be of service..?”
A toon he’d never seen before was trying to catch their breath at the counter.
“Give a min,” they wheezed.
After six minutes and a brief rest on the floor, Tidbit was at the counter, ready to buy a new rod. There were quite a few for sale.
“You will not find anything better on the market! I am the market, by the way. The whole market.”
Tidbit frowned a bit.
“Ok. Uh, I’ll just get that one then,” he pointed at a shiny gold rod. Gold meant good right?
Edgar shook his head, "You need to be at least Fishing Level 50 to buy that item."
There was a pained look in Tidbit’s eyes. ”…What pole I can get, then.”
“May I see what level you are? I need to verify what poles I can offer.”
The grey kiwi fumbled out her Shtickerbook and flipped to where the fishermen had been keeping track of her level.
Edgar took a look as she held it up to the counter. “You can purchase the Twig and Bamboo models,” he set both on the counter. “Five hundred for the Twig and one thousand two hundred and fifty for the Bamboo. You could also purchase both for one thousand, seven hundred and fifty jellybeans as well.”
“That’s not even a deal.”
“I never said it was.”
“Um.”
The cash register rang as Tidbit walked out with almost two thousand beans less.
"Congratulations on your new fishing rods! You can access them from the 'Items' page of your Shtickerbook!"
A “Please come by again!” was blocked by the door. Time to get fishing.
Tidbit decided to stay outside of the shop and fish. After casting the rod, it wasn’t long before something fell for its bait. He reeled it up to the surface and..! A Dog Fish. Wait a second. A Hot Dog Fish? Very rare!? They were so back.
It met back up with its gator friend and continued to fish at Toontown central. Later on they would travel with him to other playgrounds to continue discovering just what fish were underwater. The fun couldn't last forever though. Between fighting the cogs, running through facilities, and helping toons in need, opportunities to just relax and fish were few and far between.
After reaching the ten more levels needed (as stated by Pole), they would pay him a visit to buy better gear than the last. A small hiccup they ran into was realizing that higher level poles required more bait. A problem that became a nonissue when some fish had a crazy high payout.
It was exhilarating as it was relaxing. Casting the line and pulling up one new fish after another. Filling up the bucket to its limit and lugging it to the fishermen on duty. Selling them all for more beans to use as bait to catch even more fish. Fish Bingo made the experience much more fun as well as they tried to block out the allotted squares. Arguably, this was just gambling without the constant threat of reaching a big ol’ zero in the bank. Not to mention the true reward was just being out and about, fishing with friends.
After a couple weeks, Tidbit managed to finally purchase the golden rod she wanted at first. The Brrrgh had been the one-stop-shop for reeling in pricy catches. Within no time, the two toons made what would be considered their last visit as customers to The Tell–Tale Carp.
After they were sold the platinum rods Pole had displayed in a glass case. The shop owner wiped a single tear from his eye. "Reel it in, guys! You already got all the items I have to offer!"
The duo decided to continue fishing in the Brrrgh and decided to fish next rather than across from each other. The stationed fisherman was cheering them on as they approached the maximum fishing level.
The chilly air around them meant nothing and it didn’t even take them that long to knock out a few bingo boards. Everything was going well until Tidbit heard a panicked voice, “Are the fish supposed to be this strong?” His friend was struggling to keep his pole up against the line being pulled away from him. They dropped their rod and ran, starting to tug him back as hard as they could. The small toon wondered if this was even helping.
They struggled together as the line wildly thrashed left and right and finally, a pink blur soared out the water. Droplets of freezing cold water decorated the air, along with a wiggly silhouette, backed against the sun.
“Amore eel!”