Fearful Flaffy

Mission Details:

(14 energy)

Leif had been on three missions with Sova before this. This was the first one that Sove picked himself, rather than Leif picking, or picking as a team. However, being in a forest, Leif was glad to have his partner pick somewhere... less wet than last time. Cattail forest was a nightmare for Leif, and he was grateful to be anywhere other than that accursed marsh. Even if it was a rather dark forest. Anything was better than that miserable place.

He couldn't help that he had been here before. In fact, he had twice, but retained no recollection. Such was the pleasure of amnesia. Leif decided to not say anything about feeling he had been here as to not make Sova feel guilty again for Leif's amnesia. It wasn't Sova's fault, but Leif knew Sova blamed himself and tried to avoid putting that on his partner,

Shadowhue Forest. Finally somewhere exciting. Sova was hyped for it too, he hadn't been to Shadowhue Forest much. Besides, he was glad to be in a place other than the Cattail Marsh after the Sliggoo incident. "I hope you aren't afraid of the dark!" He said jokingly with a laugh as he ran forward deeper into the forest.

It was yet another dark day in the forest of Shadowhue and William the Gengar was sitting lazily on a tree branch, watching the few rays of sunlight that broke through the thick cover of leaves above create dancing patterns on the forest ground. Even though his time at the guild had made him much more social than he had been before, he still definitely wasn't that much of a Pokémon-Pokémon. And so he often ventured out into the nearby forests and marshes simply to have some time alone for himself to think. But then suddenly something disrupted the calm and peaceful atmosphere. A laughing Pokémon was running through the forest, directly below the tree the Ghost type was sitting on. Didn't it know how dangerous areas like these could be? What was it doing here?
Whether he liked it or not, there was no getting around this. The Pokémon needed to be helped.
And so the shadowy Pokémon begrudgingly descended from the tree, soundlessly floating in front of the young Pokémon.
"Well, hello there, young one. Don't you know how dangerous it can be out here?"

(49E-10E=39E)

(Note to lurking mods/admins, Leif's RPer is not RPing at the moment and has given me permission to NPC his character or say he left areas to keep threads going).

Sova's ears perked up upon hearing the voice and he spun around quickly. Hearing the words for some reason set something off in him. He wasn't afraid or even mad, but he felt like he knew what the creepy looking Pokemon was implying. He paused for a moment before responding. "Yeah, go ahead, call me weak. You aren't the first to think that." He said in a bit of a monotone voice as he turned around and began walking again with his ears flat. Perhaps he was being too quick to judge what the Gengar meant, but he didn't care to find out.

He'd noticed he had ran ahead of Leif to the point that his partner was nowhere in sight, but he knew Leif would be fine and didn't worry about it. He was more worried about the Flaaffy and didn't want to turn around to look at the Gengar again.

Now this was the typical reaction of a young explorer on their first or second mission. Blindly charging ahead, vastly overestimating their own abilities. They needed to be taught a lesson in modesty and humility. And before other Pokémon would be taking that duty into their own hands, William decided to rather solve the issue nonviolently.
Floating next to the Eevee, he attempted to keep the conversation going.
"Oh, so you think you are strong? How far away from here have you been in your life? I'm willing to bet you haven't traveled farther than this forest. You have no idea what strong even means. Strength includes the ability to judge risks correctly and I am pretty sure whatever you are doing here is way out of your league.

Sova simply kept his gaze straight forward, not even glancing at the Gengar. Now this Pokemon was purposely trying to agitate him, at least that's what he assumed. He knew he wouldn't be able to hold his own in a fight with a ghost type given his only offensive move being normal type, and so he replied, considering having a miserable conversation to be a better choice than a miserable fight. "I've been as far as the Fiery Chasm. I'm still alive." He said, still in the monotone voice. He figured if this Gengar was trying to annoy him, he would just not show that he was annoyed.

Now this was a bit surprising. The Eevee might not be as hopeless as the Gengar thought. Still it was far too overconfident for its own good.
"A bit further than expected then. But have you fought? If you were to run into an enemy right now, would you be able to stand your ground? I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even be able to defeat me if I would suddenly decide to attack."
Now this was going to be interesting. How would the Eevee react? Mentally the Ghost type braced himself for the possibly incoming attack. The worst that could happen was if this Pokémon were to know the move Bite, but even then defeating it should be trivial. Or maybe it would understand the error of its ways and go about in a more thoughtful, cautious manner. Most likely not, but it was worth a shot.

Sova listened again, waiting for his turn to talk. Waiting for this Gengar to try to pull something else to prove Sova was weak. But, all the annoying Pokemon could think of was fighting. "I'm a member of an exploration team, of course I've been in fights. I was in multiple fights at the Fiery Chasm alone, and I don't lose." He paused before continuing. He hated to give the Gengar any credit, but trying to challenge a ghost type to a fight would be stupid, he didn't have any way to hurt ghost types. "If you attacked me it wouldn't be a very fair matchup, I don't have any moves that would hurt you. But by all means, if that's what you need to do to prove you're better than me, go ahead."

His voice was beginning to show agitation, but he still looked straight ahead. He had decided that between focusing on his mission and focusing on the Gengar, the mission was the better option. But at least the talk was enough to pass the time a bit.

"Oh no, it is not about that, my dear. I am simply here to prevent you from making a terrible mistake. You have just stated that you would have major problems when faced with a Ghost type. So while I am not going to attack you, what are you going to do if a hostile Ghost type appears all of a sudden? I am pretty sure that they aren't all that rare in this place. So maybe you should just go back and train some more in Pecha Forest until you stand a chance against those Pokémon."
This Pokémon was not only overly confident but also incredibly stubborn. Did the new recruits have no sense of self-preservation these days? Apparently not, otherwise they would have made much more mature descisions. It takes years of work until one is ready for a mission in these areas after all, and it was highly unlikely that the Eevee had been a member of the guild for a month even.
So why did it keep claiming to be strong enough when it obviously was not?

Sova paused for a moment. He didn't talk, and after a few seconds, he stopped walking. He was feeling genuinely hurt and started considering ways he could harm the Gengar if they were to get into a fight. Sure, his tackle wouldn't do anything, but he had other moves that could help him and it wouldn't be the first time he won a fight without his tackle. But, he wasn't going to just get into a fight without good reason.

He turned to face the Gengar before speaking, clearly annoyed. "I'm not afraid, that doesn't mean I'm stupid. If I was in any real danger coming here, I wouldn't come. Just because I can't directly attack a Ghost type doesn't mean I'll lose." He paused for a moment before remembering something else worth mentioning. "Besides, I've been here before." It was true. He'd been to quite a few places with his parents, the Shadowhue Forest was one of them. But he'd never actually been there alone.

"Oh? So you got lucky.", the Gengar responded.
"Maybe it won't gurantee you losing, but it will severely increase the chances of you doing so. Add to that the ability Shadow Tag for example and you are in quite a bit of a predicament. Just look at it this way. I have been alive for a long time, several hundred years. And even I still can't defeat everything. But I am alive. And why is that? Because I don't overestimate myself that much."
Was it arrogance, stubbornness, plain old idiocy or something else that made this creature so resistant to basic logic and instincts? How could it possibly think that diving headfirst into a dungeon most likely filled with beings one can't even damage would be a good idea? There were some Pokémon William simply did not understand. This Eevee was proving to be one of them.

(Oh yeah, 12 energy)

Sova began to realize this Gengar was trying to help him, granted in what he viewed as a very hurtful way.  This helped him calm down a bit and consider how to explain his situation better.  "I'm not lucky.  I'm doing this to prove to everyone like you that I'm not weak, that I can hold my own.  I get called weak all the time by others just because I'm an Eevee, and if I just do easy things my whole life no one will ever say any different.  So yes, I'm doing something dangerous.  Because if I don't, I'm proving everyone right, and because I know I can do it."  He said, sounding stressed.

With that, he turned back forward and kept walking.  He was hoping the Gengar wouldn't have anything else to say, but seeing how the conversation had gone so far, that probably wasn't going to happen.

Lord E V carried out 1 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

"Proving yourself.", the Gengar chuckled.
"It's been a while since I last heard that one. You shouldn't let what others say get to you so much. They may be trying to trick you into doing something idiotic, but true strength can be found in not caring about what these others think and rather continuing at your own pace. Right now you're being told that you are afraid of heights and decide to jump off of a mountain to prove them wrong."
Okay, the Eevee had at least revealed his motivation for trying something of this likeliness.
That still didn't make his plans any more sane, but at least it showed to the Poison type that he was getting somewhere. With enough patience and hard work he might even be able to discourage the Normal type from this adventure alltogether. With lots and lots of patience.

For some reason, Sova giggled at the metaphor. He found it funny for some reason, perhaps it was how far from the truth that it really was. "The only difference between that mountain thing and what I'm doing is that I can't fly. This, I can do. Say I just got lucky all you want." He said, then paused to look around for something. "It's not like I came alone, but my partner and I got separated." He continued walking, showing no desire to turn back and no worry for possible battles ahead.

The Gengar was at a loss for words. There was another Pokémon here that was supposed to go with the Eevee, but they got separated and he wasn't doing anything about that?!
"You...you are fully aware that there is another Pokémon alone in a deep, dark and dangerous forest and yet you are not even trying to find them?! What is wrong with you? Do you really care so little for your own life and the lives of others?"
This was truly beyond the spectral Pokémon's comprehension. The other Pokémon could literally be fighting for their life right now and the Eevee didn't seem to be even slightly inclined to go and help out their friend in need. With friends like these who needs enemies indeed.
"What are you waiting for? You need to go back and find them!"