Tonight, Captain and Mada Seal Their Doom

Cinmere was a little bit unnerved by the torrents of fog. It wasn't outright scary, but something about the landscape felt off in a way he struggled to explain. There was no discernible source for the constant clouds of mist, but it hadn't lifted once during the weeks he'd stayed in Rainfront. Apparently the fog was here to stay, for... some reason. No one he'd asked had adequately explained why. He couldn't say he liked this place. The way the house sat on the peak of the hill, cloaked by mist as if it were something from a half-forgotten dream, was just like something from a bad scary story. One where he was the stupid protagonist hiking blissfully into a deathtrap. Why was he here again?

Right. Training. This was one of the two mystery dungeons around here that was within his ability, supposedly, and he'd had enough of the mud in Cattail Marsh. He wasn't fond of the look of this place, but it seemed wasteful not to train while he was here. He wasn't going to get any better if he didn't push himself, right? He took a deep breath, steadying himself. There wasn't going to be any... unstable Scyther carving up wayward travelers with her blades, or sealed Necrozma that would tear him apart in it's desperate search for light, or Shuppet that captured and tortured wanderers, growing ever stronger by feeding off their hatred for him. There wasn't going to be any monster in the house. ... wait, come to think of it, hadn't he made up all those monsters? Yeah, he remembered them from telling stories around the campfire. He couldn't help but letting a short, derisive chuckle out. Of course they were coming back to haunt him.

Cinmere was being ridiculous, and the worst part was, he knew he was being ridiculous. No matter what the voice at the back of his head said, the monsters he dreamed up trying to scare the other pups would not be in the spooky house. Didn't stop the imaginative part of his mind from running wild. Though, on the bright side, it brought him a little bit of levity, reminiscing about the scary stories he shared when he was younger. He and Lunihar both had thick skin when it came to horror. He'd gotten her with the Shuppet, though. She didn't admit it, but he could tell that one got under her skin. It was good to know your sibling's weaknesses! She wasn't scared of people who had fallen to the inescapable depths of madness, or eldritch horrors that would inevitably devour the sun and moon, but what shook her was the depths of pointless cruelty and hatred perfectly normal people could sink to.

Fun life lesson to be had there. The moral of the story was, fuck that Shuppet. It had been a pleasure to write that personal creation of his a fitting, gory end.

He might not have been thinking of ghost stories if it hadn't been for a certain slurring Armaldo. He hadn't smelled the alcohol on his breath until after Cinmere had already approached him with an open smile, and it turned out his request for information had yielded... entirely too much. He really only wanted to know about the old house on the foggy hill, and he most certainly told all he knew about that one. And then about the deceased family of Dragonair he swore to Arceus under hushed tones were haunting it, their spirits still at unrest from the great tragedy. Now, this caught his attention. Of course, Cinmere hadn't managed to steer the conversation towards this 'tragedy' before he moved on to the topic of wondering why his wife and children left him...

Yeah, information gathering was a shot in the dark at the best of times, but this time he'd shot himself directly in the foot. There wasn't much to be done other than rely on the kindness of strangers when you didn't even have a map to your name. But dear Lunala, he'd gotten unlucky this time. Still, his curiosity was peaked, despite that fiasco. He wanted to do some snooping about that so called "Great Tragedy" soon, once he got back to town. It still seemed to be a sore spot for some, but someone would be willing to talk about it. He just had to find who that person was, and stay miles away from anywhere that served alcohol while he was at it. It was simple. Not necessarily easy, but simple.

Just had to make it through the hau- not haunted house first. He corrected himself aggressively, exhaling and inhaling mist as he walked up at the hill. Not haunted, with no childhood monsters in it, just a perfectly average mystery dungeon. Rationally, he knew that was all it was. Then again, he wasn't the kind of person who could get rid of their fears with measly things like proven facts and common sense. He shoved the ghost stories to the back of his mind and approached the house, head up and teeth ever-so-slightly gritted. Because he was really, honestly, a thousand percent fine.

Cinmere's Energy: 6

A pounding headache was not at all conducive to guild work. This, Alki had learned, was called a hangover. Hangovers, according to Darcy, came after being drunk, which is what Alki had been the other night. Apparently. The Skitty had taken her aside the next morning and explained everything to her. How it was bad for her, how she was a fairy and how that sort of drink could potentially hurt her very, very much. Alki choked back a laugh just remembering this talk. It had been a very, very boring one, and Alki had struggled to maintain some level of respect as she was forced to listen through her sister's lecture. Alki loved her very, very much, of course, but that didn't mean that sometimes, she was just a bit overbearing. The Skitty acted as if it was the worst thing in the world. That wasn't true! Alki couldn't exactly remember much from her drunken night at the guild, but from the blur of emotions from that night, it was difficult to pick out a bad one. From what little she recalled, she'd only felt particularly bad when Darcy had restrained from drinking! Sure, it burned a bit going down. Being drunk, as Darcy called it, hadn't seemed bad at all, though!

Alki let out a short breath of indignation, pulled her straw hat down tighter over her head as if to drown out the headache, (the hat failed miserably in this regard), and continued to walk towards her destination. That, of course, being the house on top of Pricklemist Hill. She'd heard rumors of the place, of course. A solitary house on top of a misty hill lended itself to all sorts of crazy rumors. Outlaws of the kill first, ask questions later variety, or an uber-powerful ghost type who made it's sole life mission haunting guild members. It wasn't like she'd ever know if any of them were true until she went there. From what she'd heard of these stories, they weren't particularly believable. A friend of a friend of a friend wasn't exactly a reliable source, after all. That wasn't at all to say that the goriness of the stories she'd heard didn't upset her. She liked her arms in their current sockets, very much. Not to mention her eyes…

The girl readjusted the feather in her hat with trembling hands. Her ears flat against her head, she held her hat in her hands, walking towards the house with increasingly smaller steps, before stopping altogether. “It's just a house… She prodded herself, staring up at the house with wider eyes. Sure, it had plenty of shadows, and that meant it would be a good training ground for her Hidden power, but it was still a mystery dungeon. The rumors she just had to go and remind herself of were not helping her confidence in the least.

She cursed silently to herself, stopping again to face the silent, overwhelming figure of the house. It wasn't right. She doubted that any of those over-the-top rumors were true, but at the same time, there was something off about that house. Something Alki couldn't quite figure out. She felt a shiver consume her small frame, and she almost turned back if not for the fact that Grassveil was quite a long way away, and she hadn't walked Arceus-knew-how-many kilometers just to chicken out a couple of steps from her destination. She kicked up clumps of dirt and grass in her sudden frustration. Despite these reasons, Alki just couldn't force herself to go forward through her fear. Thievery be damned, she was alone, with a headache that just wouldn't go away, and she couldn't force herself to enter a damn house.

“I just can't do it! She said, a voice that approached screaming. Why did she have to be such a coward all the time? A guild member was supposed to be at least competent on their own! Sure, teams were a thing, but they couldn't always be with you! Like now! She kicked up another clump of packed dirt, watching it soar through the air. It landed near a set of unfamiliar Rockruff paws.

Oh.

“Did… did you hear that? She managed to squeak out, knowing full well that he had. She'd been loud. She held her hat tightly against her, the brim covering her eyes partially. The girl seemed as if she was trying to hide. “If you did, could… um. Just don't mention that, right?”

Who else would be there? Why? She'd thought she was alone. She felt her face turn red from embarrassment, and raised her hat even higher, to cover her face more efficiently. If this was a feral, or if it was a dangerous outlaw, Alki would have been relieved. They didn't tend to care as much about these sorts of outbursts. The pain of a sudden move blindsiding her was nothing compared to the embarrassment she was feeling.

“Um… what's… what are you doing here?” She changed the subject, managing to force her paralyzed muscles to place the hat back on her head. Where it was supposed to go in the first place. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, struggling to find some social confidence. A futile effort. What little she'd had was gone with the clumps of dirt and blades of grass she'd uprooted.




[Alki's Energy: 13]

Okay. On three, he was going to open up the door, do a bit of training and head back to town. He was more amused with himself for being scared by his own stories than he was afraid of the house. He was a little bit rattled, but he could admit that. He took a minute to gather his courage, preparing to nudge the door open with the stones on his neck. Right. On three. One, two, thr-

And then there was a scream.

Less of a scream and more of a yell, but it still blindsided him. "Ah!" He yelped in surprise, stumbling back, his voice high pitched and strangled. A clump of dirt landed at his paws, and his eyes darted up to reveal... a completely un-intimidating pink balloon with arms. Wonderful. Glad we're getting this not-spooky exploration of the not-haunted house off on the right foot, Cinmere. You really showed the world how brave you are with that one. Then, suddenly, he stood up a little straighter, blinking a few times.

If he hadn't been so caught up in his own thoughts, he would have been able to notice her presence just from the waves of emotion that poured from her. He was speaking metaphorically, of course, he couldn't sense emotions or auras like some Pokemon. Not literally, at least. He just had gut feelings and hunches when something was off. But now, that familiar intuition that told him something was wrong was going haywire. She was upset about something, strongly enough that Cinmere could practically feel it too, and it killed whatever lighthearted teasing comment he was about to form before it left his mouth. He had a gut feeling that would be in bad taste, and so he refrained, for now. At least until she was in better spirits.

He decided against mentioning he knew something was wrong - the emotional intuition was a little invasive of people's privacy, and he knew it, but he couldn't exactly turn it off. Still, she was clearly embarrassed, and talking down to her wasn't going to solve anything. She'd bring up whatever the issue was if she wanted to. In the meantime, what was it she supposedly couldn't do? Enter the house, maybe? He could help her with that, couldn't he?

He perked his ears, smiling slightly. "Sorry about that, I didn't notice you there. Startled me a little bit. I didn't hear anything if you didn't hear me yell, right?" He offered, extending a paw as something akin to a handshake, blue eyes bright. He felt a clear pang of sympathy for the girl, even if he wasn't exactly sure what had her feeling so bad. It couldn't have just been him overhearing her, could it? He had a hunch there was something else underlying there, even if he didn't know what. He didn't need or want to know, really. But it would be nice if he could help her, if only a little bit.

"My name's Cinmere. I came here to explore, and to train." He said with a slight nod. That was accurate. A little simplified, but accurate. She didn't need to know his life story right now. "You were also going to explore here, I believe? We could go together if you'd like. Safety in numbers?" Maybe all he could do was keep her company, but that was something, right? He'd give her space if she wanted it, but Cinmere knew that he didn't like being alone when he was sad. Perhaps she was the same way.

The Pokemon Alki had spotted let out a sudden cry of fear as the clump of dirt the jigglypuff had just kicked up landed beside him. He seemed just as frightened as she was. Although he had nothing to be guilty about. She’d gone and terrified the poor guy, and that hadn’t been her intention at all. Why would someone else want to go to the house? After the Chateau, it was a small miracle Alki had managed to get all the way out here at all! She observed the Rockruff from behind her hat. He didn’t seem like a bad guy though. He smiled at her, even if it was a small one. He extended a paw. Alki stared at his outstretched limb for a couple long, painful seconds, before his intentions hit her.


“Oh. Sorry!” She squeaked out, stumbling forward to shake his paw. She knew what a handshake was! She wasn’t that clueless about these things! Her handshake was limp, and she was more than happy to stop almost as suddenly as she’d started. The girl’s hands were shaking as she put her hat back onto her head, red feather and all. The round pokemon was visibly red, and she took a second to compose herself before looking back at the Rockruff. It was hard to hide her emotions though. Everyone always said that emotion was most obvious in the eyes, and hers were rather large to boot.

The girl tilted her head and listened to the Rockruff. She fidgeted in place, struggling to control her urge to just say nothing. That wouldn’t be good for anyone, she’d seem like a prick, he’d feel like dirt, and they’d both be spending time in a mystery dungeon alone. Alki was more than familiar with the former two sensations. She didn’t want either of them to be in either situation. Alki nodded at his words after a while, managing to force out as few words as possible to seem at least somewhat amicable. “Alki… I’m… well, sure. I’ll come with you.” She paused, feeling the wind blow through her thin coat of fur as she thought that maybe, a facial expression that didn’t resemble a baby who just had a rattle stolen from them would be a nice addition to her comment. The jigglypuff managed a smile that looked a lot more like a grimace. Hey. Maybe he’d believe it! Stranger things had happened to her.

Alki’s gaze drifted from the Rockruff to the house behind him. She wasn’t exactly going to explore, and the training that she had in mind was probably rather different from Cinmere’s. Neither of them could do much training out here, though. Alone. Might as well got on with it, go into the creepy, haunted, psycho house that stood before the both of them. Alki took a few slow steps towards the house, before she turned back to the Rockruff. She was afraid, and she was struggling very, very much to hide this. Guild members weren’t supposed to be afraid of this. Outlaws definitely weren’t supposed to be afraid. She was both, but despite this, she was still frightened by the prospect of entering this house, alone or otherwise. Stealing from people in Grassveil was easy. Pickpocketing someone was easy, just bump into them, extract whatever you wanted from their bag, and leave. That was simple. This wasn’t. The pokemon you were pickpocketing didn’t usually notice. The pokemon who lived in this sort of place were different. “Um… are you ready to go?”

Alki. That was a nice name - it wouldn't be out of place in his old pack, he thought absentmindedly. She was... well, she was trying to smile, he'd take the grimace on her face in the spirit it was (hopefully) intended. She was a little bit awkward, but she seemed nice so far. "Nice meeting you, Alki. Let's go." He nudged the door open with his nose, expression flickering into a glare as it gave off an ominous creak, as if the house decided to play into every scary story cliche he knew to try and freak him out. A bunch of wood and mist shouldn't have been enough to rattle him, and yet...

He took a deep breath, steadying himself and walking through the door. This wasn't so bad. Just a room of dusty furniture, a velvet red couch leaning against the far wall. A table was knocked over, there were obvious scratches on the couch, and something about this place seemed ever so subtly strange. He looked down at his paws, gazing at unfamiliar footprints in the dust - they scrambled across the room, and Cinmere frowned slightly. "Weird. It looks like there was a fight here." An explorer facing off against a feral Pokemon, most likely, or perhaps even two ferals bickering for territory. Whatever it was had been lost to time.

"Hmm." He hopped on the couch, old springs groaning under his weight. Okay, he didn't even have an excuse for why he did that. It wasn't as comfortable as he'd hoped, sadly - the cushions were thin and threadbare, awkwardly hard under his paws. From his perch on the couch, he glanced about the room. "Looks like we've got a door forward and a door right - oh, watch out, there's some glass shards in the corner there. I didn't even notice them." It was hard to see in the low light, but something was broken. A shattered lamp, maybe? It was in far too many pieces to tell at a glance, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't curious.

He glanced back at the door they'd came through, half expecting it to slam behind them and lock. Ha. Of course it hadn't. The door was so old it probably didn't even lock. And if it did, Cinmere had a hunch that even he'd be able to knock it down if he had to - it was little more than a collection of wood planks clinging to it's hinges for dear life. Still, this was a strange house. For him, fear was beginning to melt away, replaced by a faint sense of wonder. He jumped back down from the couch with a faint 'thump' on the wooden floor, blue eyes practically shining. "This is an interesting place, isn't it? I don't think I've been anywhere like this in all my life."

He glanced between the two doors, tilting his head. Hmm, which way to go? Then, abruptly, he froze. There was a soft glow coming from under the door facing north. It was faint, but he knew he saw it, along with the soft crackling of... fire. That's what that noise was, it sounded like fire. He blinked a few times, squinting at the bottom of the door, half expecting it to vanish once he looked away. But it didn't. It was real, and there was an unmistakable orange glow flickering from the other side of the door. "Hey, Alki. Heads up, I don't think we're alone here. I see light under that door. I think someone set up a fire." He gestured toward it, tilting his head. He kept his voice low and spoke softly. If it was smart enough to set up a fire, it probably wasn't a feral, but... just in case.

A fire couldn't have been safe in a dry wooden house like this, he thought in wry amusement, and tried his best not to dwell on thinking what could be there. "Looks like this is already getting interesting." He laughed slightly, because if he didn't laugh about it, it was going to sink in that someone else was in the house with them. He really didn't need to think about that right now. "Well, which way would you like to go? We could investigate that fire up ahead or go right." He smiled, but every few seconds his eyes flickered back towards the door with the glow of fire underneath it. That was... bizarre, and the smart answer would probably be to stay away from it.

Alki nodded as the Rockruff expressed how nice it was to meet her. Oftentimes, the jigglypuff found herself wondering just how much truth lay in statements like that, those pleasantries that everyone, including herself, said. It was a fun, idle way to pass the time, those irrelevant thoughts. Now was not a time to be idle, though, not in this place. It was far too similar to the chateau, and even if - in a frightening, exhilarating sort of way -- her’s and Cecil’s little adventure had been fun, it wasn’t an experience she’d care to repeat, especially not with a strange, new Pokemon, even if the Pokemon in question seemed rather amicable so far.

The girl followed him inside, allowing him to let himself in first. Even if it was a tad bit cowardly, she wasn’t exactly bravery incarnate herself. She didn’t have any expectations to live up to here, and surely, Cinmere wouldn’t judge her too harshly… after all, it did appear as though she was younger than him. She certainly hoped so. She didn’t really have any other excuse, if he decided she was being too skittish.

The rockruff did not seem to have anything of the sort on his mind. He hopped up onto a nearby couch. It seemed to be rather worn, almost breaking down, with little patches of stuffing showing here and there. In its prime, it must’ve been rather expensive. She imagined it to be a rather vibrant red, glamorous velvet and filled to the brim with… whatever sofas were filled with to make them comfortable. She watched as Cinmere hopped off, rather disappointed with the state of the sofa. Even if it was practically useless, she couldn’t help but admire it. Even in this state, with a bit of fixing up, it was probably a nicer sofa than any she’d ever seen before. Her family hadn’t had anything like it, anyways. Whatever. Why remember thing like that? There were more important matters at hand.

“Oh. Ok.” Alki mumbled, her usual timidness amplified by the unfamiliar surroundings. Glass shards? She hadn’t noticed them, but she supposed it was only natural that they would be present in a house like this. She approached the shards in question, and began to focus on the move she’d come to practice: her hidden power. Well… power was being a tad generous. There wasn’t much power in her at all, and the lack of power she possessed was very hard to keep hidden.

With a little practice, hopefully, she could get past that. After all, wasn’t that what she had come to work on? Alki placed a hand on the dusty, filthy floor. Alki couldn’t help but let out a small, squeaky whine. Even if she wasn’t that much of a stickler for cleanliness, she made a mental note to wash her hands anyways. Up to a certain point, it was fine, but this was just too much.

Whatever. Touch made things easier. That was a constant theme for her, even if this fact sometimes turned out to be much more of a hindrance for her than anything. She managed to get her shivers of disgust under control, and focused instead on the shadow that lay over the crystal shards. It was easy enough to move shadow, but she knew it was possible to solidify them. Whether she could was a different story altogether, and as she gave it her best attempt to push the shards to the side, as lightly as she could, she found it to be much more complicated than anticipated.

The girl became very distinctly aware of her ridiculous appearance, and with that realization, her cheeks began to glow a bright red. A few more tries, each more frantic than the last, and the shadow above the glass only danced back and forth, moving nothing at all. In one last, frantic push, the girl pushed the shadows she held onto with all her force, falling flat on her face in the process, much to her disgust, and her embarrassment.

A loud crash met her ears, and at the very least, she could take pride in the fact that, finally, with much more effort than literally anyone else would ever need, she had succeeded in using her move. “S-Sorry...” She managed to squeak out, at the same time, managing to look like a complete idiot. She pushed herself up from the ground, much too ashamed to meet the Rockruff’s gaze. “Sorry.”

“Um...” Alki mumbled, hoping to be able to move past her little performance before too much time was spent on it. Everyone always said it was better to not dwell in the past, right? “I-I suppose we could investigate the house, I think that might be better...” Sure, it’d be better for her. She wasn’t exactly brave, but she’d take a burn over whatever words the Rockruff had in mind. And so, the jigglypuff rushed towards the room, hoping she’d be able to outrun any words or consequences of her previous stupidity, and if she threw caution to the wind while doing so, so what? Sometimes, running away from your problems just took priority.

”OOC”:

Mada carried out 1 launched of one Pricklemist Hill :

Mada carried out 1 launched of one Pricklemist Hill :