Vibe Check

Peirce: [Energy: 22 - 16 = 6]
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Scorchfall Desert. Often described as a place “that very few dare to venture through.” That wouldn’t stop Pierce, however. He was determined. Determined to wander aimlessly, because he had mistaken aimlessness for determination. The small bird stood atop a particularly pointed rock, taking in the sights before him. It was a marvelous sight—he had never seen anything like it. It was like a vast sea—except made of sand, which made it strictly better than the see in every way; because it wasn’t full of water. No, it was full of sand, and mystery. But, probably mostly sand.

He felt moved by what he saw before him; overwhelmed by raw emotion at the wonder before him. He was compelled to vocalize this emotion—to express the complete and other wonderment at the scene before him. He took a deep breath, and then...

…

”SAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNND!!”

The little bird jumped from the rock and face planted directly into a dune. He frantically flapped his wings and kicked with his feet trying to unbury his beak—the entire time still trying to express his excitement, but it was now muffled by the very thing that excited him. ”SSSSNNNNND!”

Scorchfall Desert was not a place of mystery or mystique to Dreyar. Rather, the squirtle felt that he knew everything he needed to know about this dungeon; It was a place abundant with fire, rock, and ground-type pokemon, which naturally made it a place perfect for him to train in as a water-type. He was eager to gain experience as a warrior, increase his strength, and stride into the world as a hero ready to rescue everyone in need of a defender. This place, as humid and dreary as it was, would serve nicely as a step towards that goal.

Well, that was the idea, anyway. What the squirtle hadn't counted on was the fact that it was really really hot in the desert. Everything was hot and dry! The air, the sand, even himself! Dreyar liked sunbathing, but this was... another thing entirely. Even after only a short time in the desert, he knew he wasn't a fan. He only barely resisted the urge to summon a ring of water around him to mitigate the awful weather—something told him he should save that for when he really needed it. Some... vague, imaginary mustelid creature.

He bit his lip and moved on. It was a setback he could deal with—difficulties came with every dungeon. Dreyar waded through the sand with squinted eyes, scanning the horizon for anything interesting... only to spot a bird-looking creature fall face-first into a sand dune, its screams beginning and persisting before and after the unfortunate slip. Dreyar sighed.

Even heroes had to start somewhere, he supposed. The squirtle moved towards the creature with the aim of helping it out of its unfortunate situation.

19 - 16 (entry): 3 energy

He had his suspicions, but he wasn't positive about it. There wasn't exactly many with the name "Zircon" wandering about that'd he'd heard of, but he was positive that both a pokemon of the charmander line combined with the name "Zircon" was enough of a lead to investigate. A vine rubbed his aching back as be moved alone, the beautiful glossy leaves on the back of his shoulders were withered and littered with holes. It'd been a rough week for him, what with the assault of a roselia and company and what not, but perhaps it was time for things to look up.

Garnet was one of the two friends he'd been looking for all this time. He'd heard nothing of Namataki, but typically they were usually together. Hell, he'd go so far as to say Namataki was joined to Garnet at the hip. It wouldn't be a surprise for her to be nearby. What is a surprise, however, was the little tidbit of intelligence he'd received before he set out on his search. This was not a charmander he was after, but a charizard. Garnet had certainly gotten to work in the meantime of them being gone, it made him wonder if perhaps Namataki had gotten stronger as well...?

---

"It's. So. Hoooooooooooot!" the piplup cried out. Tears wallowed in her eyes as her pitiful wails stretched across the land. She couldn't even remember how she got here, just that she hated it. The piplup's head collapsed into the sand as she pathetically kicked her way forward. It would have been wiser for a pokemon like her to wait for the night-especially with how much tolerable the cold was, but that just wasn't happening.

She was far too impatient. Her flippers pulled herself forward as his back legs kicked as if she were swimming. Oh if only she were swimming. She could imagine herself doing so, what with all of this non-water that surrounded her. A delirious smile stretched onto her beak as she waved her flippers about in a swimming-like motion. She hardly made any progress, but she certainly seemed happy with herself.

---

The heat didn't bother him. He walked despite the wings on his back. They'd long since healed from the battle in Grassveil. He wasn't exactly sure why he walked, but he had the faintest recollection that someone told him to. A stone was held in his claws, he wasn't sure what it was, but it felt...precious. He needed that stone. His claws gripped it tightly as he trudged forward. His eyes were low and to the ground, unaware of his surroundings.

He had no destination in mind, but still, he walked.

Choose your character

Namataki/Jade: 8
Garnet: 50-16 = don't care he isn't rolling.

[Energy: 6]
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After a moment, the archen managed to free his beak from the sands. He proceeded to spit out sand for many more moments. By the time he finished removing as much sand from his mouth as possible, he looked around his surroundings once more. There was a lot of sand. And some rocks. And one particular rock that was roundish and brown and yellow and bluish—that could move, and was heading right for him!

Was it, perhaps, an enemy rock? Or a friendly one, who he could make into a great ally? He couldn’t tell yet from his meager observations. He would have to observe it further—which meant he would have to go into reconacense mode. He began furiously kicking the sand behind him with his little feat, rapidly and certainly digging himself a deep trench in the sand in which he could hide. In no time, he had himself a marvelous foxhole.

And by marvelous foxhole, it was a small dent in the sand, a few inches deep, in which he sat. To further add to his camouflage, he employed the ultimate stealth tactic of covering his eyes with his wings. Now that he couldn’t see the moving rock, the moving rock (a squirtle, who had a perfect view of this entire escapade on his approach) couldn’t see him. It was a foolproof plan, not at all rendering the entire point of this endeavor—to observe his target—completely moot.

Dreyar paused upon his approach of the multicolored bird. Not just because it hauled itself out of the dune and began to... kick up sand everywhere and then engage in a game of impromptu peek-a-boo, but because he could hear very audible, very shrill whining somewhere in the distance. It wasn't so much a cry for help as it was someone just complaining about the heat, really, but he supposed that heatstroke was a danger in place such as this. The squirtle cocked his head at the sound, glancing around as if to search for the echoing voice's owner.

The squirtle visibly started, spotting a piplup who seemed to be throwing a tantrum in the middle of the desert. Then he looked back at the archen half a dozen feet away from him, hunkered down in the sand, refusing to look at him. And he spent a moment wondering "why me, exactly," before deciding to do the right thing. The priority was definitely the one that collapsed, even if she threw herself onto the ground, but both of these people could probably use a helping hand. Even if it was just directions to the closest non-desert.

So he made his way over to the fallen piplup. "I'll just... um, excuse me," Dreyar mumbled as he walked past the archen, giving it a fairly wide berth. It seemed a little off. The squirtle came to a stop next to the other water-type, an absent frown on his face as he examined her handiwork in the sand. Had the desert heat gotten to her? "I have water if you're dehydrated," he both offered and made his presence known, patting the side of his satchel where his canteen was located on the inside. It made a metallic clink at the contact. "You're not feeling faint, are you? Here, let me help you up."

He reached a hand down to her, glancing up every-so-often at the archen that was still playing peek-a-boo with itself. Maybe he was in the wrong neighborhood.

"DEHYDRATED?" Namataki's voice spiked in shock and disbelief, "Bitch, I am a water type I have all the hydration I need just from existing." With a newfound energy, the will not to look weak, and the realization that she was not, in fact, swimming, she pushed herself into a sitting position without Dreyar's assistance. Now that she wasn't wiggling about in the sand as if she were attempting to do the worm, she peeked at the newcomer with a single opened eye.

It was a squirtle. Odd, not something she'd expect to find around here, but she didn't exactly care for that. "What I need is Ice! It's waaay too hot out here." She huffed before she crossed her flippers in irritation.

---

Footprints. The snivy spied them from a little ways away. He hurried over to the trail and inspected it closely. They were large, round, bigger than him. It could easily crush him. The snivy rubbed his chin with the small leafy hand as his gaze followed the trail of the footprints. He probably should have put more thought into whether or not he should follow, but he decided it was best to go see the creator before the winds pushed sand back over the trail-making it impossible for him to follow.

---

Garnet continued his lovely mindless stroll. Nothing important happened.

[Energy: 6]
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His camouflage had worked. The target was completely unaware of him. The target had also excused himself as he made his way around the archen, indicating that he was in fact polite, and contradicting the idea that he hadn’t noticed Pierce. But Pierce didn’t seem to notice that contradiction. Deciding that the rock couldn’t possibly be a bad guy if he was so polite, Pierce deactivated his cloak—by uncovering his eyes—and followed him to see where he was going.

He had found a weird looking bird! And she said bad words! Pierce approached the pair, standing between the two and staring off at the middle distance between them. He had the perfect introduction all planned out. It would be succinct and concise. It would convey the most vital information relevant to his character and who he was as a person. They would know him not as a stranger, but as a well met acquaintance by the end of the introduction.

”HI!”

Dreyar frowned at the piplup's words, pretty much immediately offput by her attitude and language. He had just been trying to help. Maybe she was tired, he told himself. He couldn't blame anyone for being cranky in this heat. "We're kind of in the wrong neighborhood for -" he started, only to nearly jump out of his skin as the weird archen suddenly... materialized between him and this penguin.

And it had introduced itself, kind of. Dreyar took a healthy step back and sighed. "Hi," he said back, suddenly not sure who to address. He settled for both. "I'm Dreyar." he said, looking at both of the two pokemon he'd been saddled with come across.

3 + 5 (Apple): 8 energy

the sunset hero carried out 8 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

, , , , , , ,

The wrong neighborhood? Well, duh! Unfortunately for Dreyar, she wasn't just cranky from the heat, this was just her natural attitude. It would have been a wonder how any of her prior friends put up with her attitude if not for how drastically she'd change her tune in their presence. None of them happened to be around, so the true nature of the agonizingly annoying piplup shined.

Just as she was about to interrupt the squirtle, someone interrupted her interruption. A little Archen stood off to the side of the duo, greeting them in a friendly manner. Although, the little child's voice was agonizingly loud and his bright colors and very presence induced a headache right on the spot. She frowned immediately, "Namataki," she spoke despite her annoyance, "But you can just call me Taki."

----

The foot prints were certainly new. His suspicions were confirmed by the fact that he spotted a little red blip in the distance. Hope soared as his heart began to race. As quickly as he could, the little snivy bolted in the direction of the red dot, certain to pay attention to the footprints still in the event that the heat played tricks on him. The little green guy tripped and rolled downhill of a dune, but brought himself back up to his feet as quickly as he could. He needed to catch up with that red little red dot. Catch up and question it.

----

The little red dot, however, was not so little. Garnet continued along in his haze, head low as he wandered. He hardly paid any attention to what was around him, instead he operated on some autopilot. His mind was blank, but his body moved-as if there weren't any particular thoughts worth having.

[Energy: 6]
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Names! He had forgotten to give his name! ”Pierce!” he chirped. But he knew that sometimes when people said “pierce” they didn’t mean him, they meant the other kind of pierce, where you poke something with something sharp, so he was sure to clarify. ”Name’s Pierce! Usually!” Sometimes his mom wouldn’t call him that, she’d call him the other name, but dad was sure to remind him that that name wasn’t his. Sometimes grandpa called him names that weren’t his name, too, but he didn’t like those so he didn’t use them.

In an effort to remember these names, the archen started quietly repeating them one after another. ”Dryer, Tiki, Dryer, Tiki, Dryer, Tiki…” he was pretty sure he was nailing it.

Badger carried out 6 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

, , , , ,

"Wweeeeell~," Dreyar drawled, drawing out the utterance as he looked for something to say. "It's nice to meet you guys, anyway. What brings you two all the way out to the desert?" he went with, latching onto any lifeline for non-awkward conversation. The squirtle wasn't extremely interested in the first place, at this point mostly wanting to get a move on, but his mom raised him to be polite. So.

"I came out here to train against the fire and ground types, since we're good at that," he said, nodding at his fellow water type as he mentioned that part. "But I can't imagine there's... well, any other reason to come out to a dungeon as hot and miserable as this. Unless it's one the way to something?"

"Tiki" was quick to assume that the bird was an idiot. A lowly miserable idiot she wanted nothing to do with. Perhaps she could get this squirtle to ditch the bird? The penguin looked over to the turtle, ignoring the bird entirely, "Well, I'm just plain lost, eventful, I know," She huffed, sarcasm ever-present in her tone.

"I don't even have a place to go in mind though, so I guess i'm not actually lost. Can't be lost if you don't have a place to be-but at the very least I'd rather not be here." She eyed the archen without really meaning to. It was a subconscious look, even if she were aware of it, she wouldn't have been worried. The archen was likely too dim-witted to understand.

---

Jade's breath struggled to keep up with him. By the time he reached what was absolutely a Charizard, he huffed and puffed. He spoke up in attempt to get the fire type's attention, but he could hardly get a word out. The charizard failed to notice the serpent's presence. Jade struggled along until he finally caught himself on the charizard's tail.

"Waaaait-" his raspy voice cried as he was dragged through the sand, "Please-I'd just like a word!" His voice was too quiet. Garnet was far too wrapped up in his own little world to pay any mind to the odd cling to his tail and the soft whispers.

Taki+Jade

Garnet - Ineligible for rolling.

[Energy: 6 - 10 = 0]
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Why was Pierce here? It was actually quite a long story. Ultimately, he was running away from home. But “home” wasn’t even really home. His real home was much farther away, and he wasn’t exactly sure how to get back there even if he wanted to. Why he was in this desert in particular, now that was relatively simple to answer. He was just wandering around, looking for nothing in particular. He wasn’t lost, he was looking to be found. He just wasn’t sure by who yet.

He opened his mouth to answer the squirtle question, but seemed to get distracted suddenly. Stepping between the two without a word, he walked to a seemingly random dune and started flapping his wings wildly and digging at it with his claws.

It was weird, and maybe a little bit bad of him, but Drey found himself preferring the piplup to the archen. Not because he disliked the strange bird, but because Taki was simply more... predictable. The squirtle scratched his head, lost with Pierce's behavior as he suddenly began digging a hole into the sand. "It's not much, but I've heard there's a pretty expansive cave in this desert somewhere," he mentioned to the other water-type, leaning around Pierce as he'd stepped in between them. "It's supposed to be the best place to take refuge from all the heat. I'm not sure where to find any of the entrances, though." he admitted with a note of apology in his tone.

If she was interested, he'd help her look for a way in. It's not like he was going to get much training done when there were no wild pokemon to be found. At that point, though, it was very difficult to ignore the rock-type bird any longer. Backing up as the archen had flung one too many clawfuls of dirt too close to his face, he looked down at his... project. "Did you, uh... find something, Pierce?" he asked after a moment, feeling for all the world like he was talking to a growlithe who'd caught a scent.

Namataki, meanwhile opted to ignore the rainbow-bird's activities. She flopped herself over onto her back and stared up at the cloudy sky Why couldn't all the water up there fall down here? How was it even so hot when the sun was blotted out like that? So many questions, so little answers she cared little for pursuing.

"Sounds like I have a destination then," she huffed. Despite her declaration she didn't move to get up. Instead she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sounds of...well, the archen digging away at the sand. She didn't care much for it, but at the very least it was easy to tune it out.

The sand fell away as the archen dug into the dune. Eventually, it began to uncover a small round orb...no-two orbs. Wait-that was a nose! The sand fell away to reveal the face of a sandile. The crocodile pokemon stared back at the archen with an empty stare. Slowly, the sandile opened its mouth. If the archen didn't move, the ground type would snap their jaws right onto the Archen's beak.

---

The charizard wasn't stopping. Jade did his best to crawl up to the fire type's shoulders, but considering how large and broad the not-dragon's back was, it was a difficult feat. While the lizard could certainly feel something crawl and tickle along his spine, he still paid no attention to it. His eyes focused on the ground below with no sign of life behind the empty eyes.

Jade managed his way onto the shoulders, using the wings as a bit of support. Vines flowed out from behind him, charred and damaged from a fight prior, and wrapped around the base of the wings. He held it tight, but not painfully constrictive. "Helloooo?" the snivy patted the Charizard's neck, desperate to get his attention but at the same time, careful in attempt to no startle him.