Is Water Really That Bad?

First topic message reminder :

Mission Details:

Approaching the entrance to a dull gray colored waterfall in the middle of the dull, dark Shadowhue Forest definitely wasn't Sova's idea of a fun time.  But there were missions to be done and he could do two at once here, so that was that.  Though, he'd been to Shadowhue a few times before and never actually checked out the Monochrome Falls....  He didn't even know there were supposedly ruins behind them.  Nearly everything he knew, he'd learned from his parents.  Apparently they hadn't gone to Shadowhue much either.

Perhaps the least desired part of his situation was the dead weight he found himself having to carry.  What was he, a gogoat?  The houndour, whose name he still hadn't gotten, at least wasn't burning him like he was worried of.  "Hey, are you still dead?"  He questioned to the passenger on his back.

As the glaceon emerged from the brush and trees of the forest near the waterfall, having had to go off the path he was on to follow the sound of the water, he immediately spotted someone else already there.  A vaporeon was sitting in front of the waterfall and the pool of water under it, simply looking into the water.  Despite the urge to immediately greet another eevee-lution, he decided to stay back and try to see if it was hostile before approaching it.

Skylar stared into the water, looking at the reflection of her self.  Being a vaporeon was....okay, but when she had evolved, she was apparently turning into water.  WATER.  She'd have to learn WATER TYPE moves too if she wanted to be useful.  What if she drowned her self trying to use Hydro Pump or something!?  Could she even drown any more?  She distinctly remembered being able to breathe under water when she'd evolved.  Or maybe she'd just imagined it.  What if she didn't imagine it?  What if she could, but now that ability was gone?  She wanted to find out so badly, but then she'd have to dive under water....

(Sova - 33 energy)
(Skylar - 11 energy)

Skylar was relieved to see that at least Aries was interested in helping.  However, the houndour seemed.... distracted, to say the least.  She watched as the skiddo took the two ribbons and pressed them against the glaceon, which at least stopped the blood flow.  "I-I think so....", the vaporeon replied.  That was one problem down, but she didn't even know if he was still alive.
She carefully brushed some of the flimsy, broken Ice Shards off the glaceon's neck and placed a paw on it, checking for a pulse.  Sure enough, there was a pulse.  "Well, he's alive, at least....", she commented.

Sova did not reply to the houndour, as he was barely alive at the moment.  In nightmarish dream, things were getting very bad, very quickly....

"Me!", the voice in the dark exclaimed as it seemed to light up, revealing Sova.... but not exactly Sova.  He looked exactly the same, but there were differences like his stance, straight and confident like he was waiting for something fun to happen.  He had a terrifying, toothy grin and wide, insane eyes.  "That's right!  Me!  You!  I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure of REALLY being able to talk to you....  Sure, I can plague your dreams to the point you're scared to sleep, but it's never REALLY you.  You're never.... lucid.  You're just on autopilot, it's.... boring, to say the least.", the terrifying figure spoke as if he was thrilled about this occasion, however there was something maniacal and evil about his tone.

"W-what do you wa-", Sova began, but the warped mirror image of himself pressed a paw against his mouth, silencing him in terror as its grin widened.  "Now, now....  It's my turn to talk.... so shut up.", it said before taking its paw off Sova's mouth and beginning to walk casually around him.  "I like being alive.  Maybe you don't, but I do.  I think you sometimes forget that I essentially am you, so if you die doing something stupid like saving some pathetic idiot, we both die.  I'm going to teach you a lesson about this kind of behavior....  Every time you do something silly and bring your self to the brink of death, you won't go to some happy limbo land, you'll come here, WITH ME... and we're going to have so much fun, every time."

Sova finally got the nerve to speak up against this.... thing and exclaimed, "You.... ARE NOT ME!"  In response, the thing's grin faded, which for some odd reason terrified him even more than he already was.  It clearly did not want him to talk back.

"You're right....  I'm not you.  You're Sova........", the creature began, pausing as it faded from view.  "My name is S.S.!!!!", the voice pierce Sova's left ear a few seconds later, causing him to spin around towards it.  Then he wished he hadn't done that.  He screamed and turned in the opposite direction, fleeing from what he had just seen, but it simply appeared a few feet away in front of him, forcing him to stop to avoid hitting it.

It was a glaceon, but it was colored gray and a VERY dark blue that almost seemed to fade into black where shadows were cast on it.  He didn't even understand how there were shadows here, but nothing so far in this place had made sense, so he wasn't going to start questioning it now.  The horrific creature had blood-red glowing eyes full of hate that seemed to be.... bleeding darkness from what he could tell, or perhaps it was just very dark tears.... or blood.  The big, toothy grin slowly reappeared on the creature, much wider before as it showed what he could only assume was supposed to be its "true" form.  The teeth were large and sharp, not like his own.  This thing.... was nothing like him.  He was so confused, but there was one thing he had managed to figure out; what this was.

It was Hell.

Aries hesitated after this, unsure of what to do next. His mothers usually just held the bandages there until it stopped bleeding. When would these wounds stop bleeding? What if he didn't stop bleeding? He looked to skylar, now lost in what to do. He looked to Zera for a moment, but quickly looked back to Skylar, not quite expecting an intelligent answer from the canine that over did the punishment for that Durant.
"Wh-What do I do now?" he asked, confused.

Zera watched, unsure of what to do himself, "Back in my pack we were told to just walk it off..." he spoke. Maybe they should force him to get up and walk? Then again, the pack members that were this badly injured usually walked off and never came back. They probably got picked off by the strong as food. He sat down, at complete loss in what to do.

Skylar sighed at the two clueless men.  Well, more like boys, really.  Aries had no clue what to do and the houndour was implying that the half-dead and unconscious glaceon should.... walk it off.  How could he walk anything off if he wasn't even awake?  Aside from the fact that this was horribly mean and inconsiderate, it was also idiotic and illogical."Tie the ribbons to him so you don't have to hold them in place.  Then I guess if he doesn't get up soon we'll have to carry him out....", she responded, ignoring the houndour's comment.

Sova laid there, still fairly lifeless with faint breathing and no signs of waking up any time soon.  However, in his mind he was very much alive and moving.  "I want to play a game.  Lets see how long you can hold out until you start crying.", the menacing and psychotic looking figure going by the name of S.S. spoke before laughing under his breath.

"You....  You can't hit me!  You can't touch me, even if you can make it feel real, I know it's not real!  None of this is real!  I'm.... not afraid of you!", Sova retorted, though he was clearly terrified.  S.S.'s grin widened in response.  Sova was surprised the grin could even get any wider, but of course, this place wasn't real....

"You think I'm gonna use pain?  Oh.... heh....  No.  Let the game begin.", Jigsaw S.S. replied rather vaguely before vanishing once more.  He left behind four red paw prints which faded to white and began to spread, coating the floor of darkness over in ice.  The ice traveled under Sova's own paws and he could feel the cold, not that it bothered him.  It seemed to form walls and a ceiling around him, taking the shape of an icy cave.  However, one wall of the cave seemed to be purposely avoided, left as a void of darkness until the very end.  The ice began spiraling in circles as it filled in this gap and Sova's ears dropped almost as low as his ribbons as he looked up at the final wall.  Entrapped in the icy wall, yet completely visible, were a leafeon and an absol.

"Let.... let me o-out....  Let me out....  Let me out....", he began chanting under his shaky breath as if he expected it to work as he stared wide-eyed in horror at this sight, backing away from is slowly in the hopes that if he moved far enough away, it would somehow disappear.

Aries looked back to the leaves, and tied a knot so that the ribbons held up on their own. He stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do now. The lost skiddo looked towards the Vaporeon, frightened about his new friend going on a journey. He wanted his friend to stay! It would be so hard to find him again if he went on a journey, he would need to apologize for him getting so hurt. He at the very least acknowledged that this situation was not his fault, but that didn't mean he couldn't help or say something at the very least.

Zera looked at the bag, getting up and sniffing into it, looking for something that could help. Instead he found some strange parchments inside. He picked them up and brought them into where it was more visible. He dropped the papers and read it.
"Boss is an explorer?" he spoke aloud, a bit confused. He was an outlaw, why did boss help him then? Why didn't he turn him in?

Skylar glanced over at the houndour and shrugged. "Guess so. He's got a badge pinned on his bag.... Must have come here to do missions.", she assumed, seeing the mission notices the hound had dragged out of his apparent boss's bag.
She glanced over to the papers to see one was an outlaw mission for.... a misdreavus. Was this the misdreavus they'd just fought? She couldn't worry about this right now though, they needed to help this glaceon first. "He doesn't have anything in his bag, so there's not much more we can do for him. We could try taking him to get help, but if he's gonna die, I think he'll be gone before we can get him anywhere.... So, lets see if we can find anything around here to help.", she proposed.

Sova continued to back away from the horrific sight in front of him until a voice rang out behind him. "Isn't this fun? I can do this every time you nearly kill your self.... or you can just start appreciating your life more.", the voice spoke.

Sova slowly turned around to face the demonic "glaceon" before him. "I'm not.... gonna be you....", he forced himself to say, to which S.S. replied, "Suit your self. If you want to die, lets see how fun that is."

As if on cue, a froslass appeared out of nowhere and fired a Shadow Ball at Sova. He was too consumed by fear and shock to avoid the attack, allowing it to hit him and blast him into one of the icy walls, leaving crack in it as he fell to the cold floor. It hurt.... it actually hurt. "Where's your fighting spirit? This isn't gonna stop till you make it stop....", S.S. commented as he watched.

Zera: 3
Aries: 7

The skiddo tilted his head, "Hm...maybe you two could go and look for stuff and I'll stay here and make sure he doesn't go?" he spoke, meaning the journey when he said "Go". The skiddo was rather ignorant to the concept of dying, having lived a highly sheltered life style with his many mothers and single father. Aries gave an excited bounce, "Yeah yeah! That's a good idea!...Right?" he looked to the two, a bit eager to hear what they thing of his brilliant new idea.

Zera was too busy rustling through the bag, stepping inside of the bag. If one looked at him all they would see was his behind sticking out of the bag as he searched the inside. His nose sniffed about as he examined each item, but didn't find anything of use. He snorted in annoyance, and backed out, only for the bag to come with him. He paused. He thrashed his head a bit, the bag refused to come off. The hound began snarling, running in circles trying to get the bag off, but only ended up tangling his paws in the strap and falling over.

Zera Roll:

Kat carried out 3 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

, ,

Aries Roll:

Kat carried out 7 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

, , , , , ,

Skylar paused for a moment as she watched the houndour end up getting beaten by a bag. It was at this point that she decided she was surrounded by idiots. At least Aries had an excuse though, he was still young, still had time to change that. The houndour, however, was likely stuck being a nimrod for the rest of his life. And the glaceon wasn't much better, but she couldn't really think too badly of him at the moment considering he was currently bleeding out in return for her life. "Uh.... yeah, that sounds like a good idea, Aries. Make sure he doesn't go anywhere in his condition.", she agreed, thinking the skiddo was talking about stopping Sova from moving in his injured state.

She then marched over to the houndour and bit onto a strap of the bag, trying to pull it off. "And you, come with me.", she requested.
The houndour seemed to have a bit less than a brain in his skull, but still, he seemed to not want to let Sova die for whatever reason.

Meanwhile in Wonderland;

Sova struggled to get up from the blow the froslass had struck, feeling as if he was actually in pain from it. Of course, he knew it wasn't real.... it couldn't be, this was a dream, it had to be a dream. The froslass charged at him, however this time he was the one to use Shadow Ball. The attack collided with the froslass and it disappeared completely, as if it were an illusion created by Double Team. "There it is, the will to fight.... But, since you only want to fight to protect others, I guess you wouldn't mind dying as long as there's no one to save.", the warped glaceon stated and with a wave of his paw, seemed to increase the gravity in the area.

Sova was immediately slammed to the floor by the pressure, feeling as if he was going to be crushed. "Let.... me.... go....", he demanded.
The evil creature simply stared at him with its twisted smile, silent for a moment, before finally replying, "As you wish." A hole then opened up in the floor and Sova fell through it, pulled downward violently fast by the intense gravity.

(Sova - 9 energy)
(Skylar - 15 energy)
(Not for long)

Lord E V carried out 9 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

, , , , , , , ,

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

, , , , , , , , ,

Freedom! Freeeeedoooom! Zera had been freed from the wretched bag's wrath, and was asked to go along with the vaporeon. He had not been listening to the conversation, and instead assumed they were going to go look for things that could help Boss, considering he had nothing in his little bag that had decided to attempt to eat his head. The hound snorted at the bag, but followed the Vaporeon as she left. He was a bit sour to leave Boss alone like that, but at the least he could make sure someone competent in combat could protect the items for Boss.

Aries nodded, happy to have contributed an idea to the group. However, once they had left. He began to regret his decision. It was dark, the only light came from the faint glow of the sole luminescent mushroom near them. He thought he saw things in the darkness, but it turned out to be nothing. He shivered, the air around the Glaceon was cold, but he refused to move from his side, making sure the glaceon wouldn't go anywhere. He laid down at the least however, seeing as standing would just make him tired. His ears were flattened, his heart pounding. What if something jumped out of the darkness? What if...they didn't come back?

Skylar decided to take to leading the way, considering the houndour seemed to be more of a fighter than a thinker. She didn't want to end up getting lost because she let the brute lead them in the wrong direction. She took the glaceon's bag with her, given she didn't have one of her own and she wanted to keep track of the mission notices, as well as carry any supplies they found. However, she left the explorer badge behind, not wanting to get in trouble for impersonating a guild member. "Keep your eyes peeled for anything useful.", she said as she walked.

Down, down, down, Sova fell.... until ground became visible below. It was.... the icy cave he had been in before, however, this time the ceiling was missing. He slammed into the ground and felt as if he'd truly fallen from high up onto the ground, however he logically probably would have died if he'd actually had such a long fall.

The second he hit the ground in his dream, he instantly jolted awake and leaped up with a gasp. This gasp turned into a pained whine as he fell back down, really feeling his wounds for the first time. "What.... what happened....?", he questioned, panting as if he'd just been through some massive physical exertion.

Aries jumped in fear as the glaceon suddenly started moving. He gave a terrified bleat, thinking it to be something else, and almost attacked. He managed to restrain himself however, and realized that it was just Sova waking up. His bleat of fear changed to that of joy, "You didn't go!" he cried in happiness. He jumped up and down, forgetting all about his previous worries to celebrate this joyous occasion of the glaceon not going on his journey and leaving him here all alone...in the dark...with nobody around...

Zera rolled his eyes as the vaporeon ordered him around. He was about to speak something, but noticed a sharp feeling on his paw. He looked down to see a thin wire that the vaporeon somehow avoided stepping on that he failed to. His ears flattened, and a trapdoor opened up beneath them, leading them to tumble down a slope and into a strange room with a strange chest at the end of it. The ends of the room were dark and could not be seen, little did they know, pokemon hid in them.

Sova turned towards the skiddo and gave a very confused look. He.... didn't go? Where was he going? Did the skiddo mean dying? Oh, he wasn't dead! He was alive and not in that miserable place any more! "Where are we?", he questioned, trying to remain calm.
His recent memory was a bit hazy due to being shocked into fainting and he didn't quite remember what had happened. He knew who he had been with, but he didn't quite remember where exactly they were or why. A cave, by the looks of it.

Skylar gasped as the ground beneath them turned into the hole beneath them and they both fell into it. When they reached the bottom of the slope, there was.... a chest? Treasure! Normally, she wasn't much of a treasure hunter, but there could be something in the chest to help Sova! She couldn't pass that up. "Maybe there's something in here that could help.", she wondered out loud, though she stayed back for the time being in fear of more traps.

Lord E V carried out 1 launched of one Mission Dice :

3

Zera seemed to disregard any fear of any kind of trap, either that or he was too stupid to think that there were any traps. He bounded forward, looking to crack open that chest whether or not he had to do it with his own brute strength. However when he grew near, something seemed to drop from the ceiling while another rose from the ground, becoming an obstacle between him and the treasure. The zubat and the duskull did not seem too willing to give them the treasure...

Aries thought for a moment, wondering whether he meant where were they IN the ruins or where were they in general. He spoke, "Well...um...we're in a cave...Monochrome Ruins...Skylar and that black guy went looking for something to help with those wounds, so we should probably just stay here and wait for them. Right?

Sova waited for the skiddo to explain the sitaution, nodding in agreement. Though he wasn't nodding to the part about staying put. Oh no, he planned to get up immediately. He tried, but ended up only lifting himself a few inches off the ground before collapsing again, gritting his teeth and grunting in pain. It seemed his body was more than willing to remind him of the situation, that he'd saved Skylar and gotten himself nommed on. "Well, looks like I don't have much choice.... Just stay nearby, I'm kind of crippled so if you wander off and get into trouble I can't help you.", he stated, deciding to go with Aries' plan considering he didn't have any other option.

Skylar lagged behind the houndour, figuring if there were traps, he probably wouldn't listen and stop even if she tried to tell him. Sure enough, there was.... sort of a trap. It was a little zubat and duskull. They weren't really the most intimidating duo in the world; in fact Skylar was fairly certain they could take the two out pretty easily. Still, she didn't WANT to. It seemed like unnecessary violence, the two potential enemies seemed to be guarding the treasure, so it didn't seem right to take it from them anyways. Besides, all fighting would likely be avoided with the vaporeon and her seemingly more bold friend just leaving. Though, she hoped there was another way out somewhere since the slope likely wouldn't be very fun to climb back up.

"Well, looks like this treasure's taken. We should go, we don't need any conflict right now....", she urged to the houndour, hoping he would listen to reason and give up.

Aries squeaked in surprise as Sova attempted to stand. The skiddo's ears shot up along with his legs as he tried to decide what to do. Should he stop him? Help him? What!? Stopping him might make him angry, but helping him would make Skylar angry. No no no! What to do!? The skiddo's fears were tamed however, as the glaceon fell and admitted that his plan was best. His tail began to wag as his ears slackened slightly, happy that he didn't have to make such a rough decision.
"Yeah yeah! I wouldn't wander off, I was told to stay here, so here I stay!"

"Move!" Zera commanded, growling at the two while completely ignoring the vaporeon's attempts to avoid conflict.
"Stop being a wuss and get over here," he snarled back to the vaporeon, "You just gonna wuss out your entire life? Look where Boss ended up because of you!" he huffed before turning back towards the two pokemon, "Move now before I MAKE you move!"

Skylar was hit rather hard by the houndour's comments, which was clearly shown as her ears.... or what ever the things that used to be ears now were, flattened and a sad frown crossed her face. She hung her head for just a moment, feeling extra guilty about having caused the glaceon's injury and even more guilty about not wanting to do everything she could to help, all thanks to the houndour's aggressive comments. Then she snapped her self out of it and bolted up beside her hot-headed friend. Her saddened look turned to one of determination, though not quite of aggression.

"I'm sorry for my rude comrade here, but please, we have a severely injured friend and there may be something here that can help him.", she pleaded to the enemies blocking the way, hoping for them to move.
If the apparent guards didn't care about her explanation.... then.... well.... she didn't want it to come to that. She wasn't violent-natured, she just wanted to help others! However, she couldn't let her new friend who'd just saved her life die because two selfish treasure hunters wouldn't give up just a little bit of their findings.

Sova sighed, partly in relief that the skiddo wasn't planning on going anywhere and partly out of.... sadness? Anger? Perhaps disappointment? He didn't know what he was feeling over the hellish and vivid nightmare he'd been trapped in, but he knew it was very negative. As the memory of the dream began to come back to him, he fell into thought and it was evident on his face. He now knew the thing that plagued his dreams more than he ever wanted to. The thing that, from all that he knew, seemed to be what he turned into whenever he.... lost it.

He really hoped he didn't actually LOOK like that thing did when it came out, though. He didn't see any way that would even be possible. He likely looked how it had originally appeared, he figured. The more disturbing, warped form it had taken in this particular dream was likely just something it'd made up to scare him, or perhaps what it'd decided was its "true" form. Though, honestly, the most terrifying thing about the dream was getting to know this thing. If this was truly how he acted when he.... turned.... it was no wonder he always woke up to chaos. Though oddly, the most terrifying part of getting to know his "other half" was getting to know its name.... S.S. It had a name.... and for some reason, this terrified the glaceon. It made it clear just how real and serious his situation was.