The Cold Shadow of Statues of the Great

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"Right this way!" the drowzee spoke with calm enthusiasm, gesturing for the eeveelution to follow him. He made his way through the rough shack to the rooms where they performed the different services The DreamCatchers had offered. The glaceon was the first customer in months! Why was this service so unpopular? Was it too expensive? He wished he could have made it free, but he needed a way to pay Kyrie and support himself. The worries of the drowzee were masked by a cheerful grin.

"Just have a seat and we can begin. I'm going to have to hypnotize you, so don't be alarmed if you suddenly fall asleep. Some rather odd things may happen once you're asleep and dreaming, but just don't move and keep calm. I've done this plenty of times. Any questions or concerns?" he asked, after gesturing to a light purple cushion. Morpheus made sure to keep the cushions comfortable, so that the nervous clients would not get uncomfortable.

The absol and the leafeon faced the sylveon, each one of them suddenly dancing around each other, the leaf upon the leafeon's head glowing while the Absol's blade glowed as well. The two used Swords Dance, weaving around each other before making a dash for the Sylveon. The leafeon exercised a Leaf Blade, while the Absol used Night Slash. The sylveon was struck by the leafblade, giving a scream before leaping over them, making a move for Sova.

Morpheus ran near the Gengar while the glaceon busied the Gengar, usng Psycho Cut and slashing into the poisonous gasses with the psychic type attack. The gengar screeched and placed its hand on its hip and the other on its cheek as it got slapped with the tail. It growled before lifting itself higher into the air, it gave them a glare, before heading to the center of the battle field. It began to glow a bright white color.

The drowzee looked to the gengar, unable to reach it, and wondering just what it was doing.

(Numbers: 13, 14, 15. COME ON RNGSUS.)

Sova watched as the gengar took a few rather uncomfortable looking hits, before floating away and beginning to glow. He simply stared at the glow for a moment as he tried to figure out what was happening, his attention being completely taken by the event, before he felt a kiss on his cheek.... He froze for a moment in surprise, but quickly snapped out of the shock and confusion, proceeding to back away from the source of it.... too late, sadly, as the damage had been done. He felt as if his energy had been sucked away in the few seconds the sylveon had made contact with him.

He turned to the sylveon and growled, feeling a bit defiled by being kissed, even though it was only on the cheek and he understood that it was a Draining Kiss, not an affectionate kiss. The prior really only made it worse though. "Alright, since you want a turn so bad, wish granted....", he muttered.

The sylveon snickered, a ribbon reaching up and muffling the laugh. Its eyes widened, as it noticed that things seemed to be lighting up more than the sunny day had made it to be. It turned around and noticed that the gengar was glowing, "NO YOU IDIOT!" the sylveon shouted at the top of its lungs.

However, the absol reacted quickly. An ice below the absol suddenly shot forward, launching it into the air. His horn glowed as he smacked the blade into the Gengar, causing it to shoot downwards. The ghost type flew through the floor, not phasing it due to the ghost typing. The absol landed on the floor, waiting and glaring at the spot the gengar had disappeared. The ground shook wildly, and the floor beneath them began to crack...

Kat carried out 1 launched of one tower :

8

Sova began to get the picture as he saw the gengar's ally apparently begin to worry about the glowing, followed by his fa.... the absol knocking the living bomb through the floor. His suspicions were confirmed as the ground shook and the floor seemed to begin considering giving away underneath them. He gave the sylveon an unamused look and spoke in a fittingly unamused and sarcastic tone, "You have a great choice in friends. Really, what a team player you teamed up with."

It wasn't like the sylveon was much threat now. Four against one and the ground seemed to be likely to cave in under them, so if he was going down, he was going down pissing the enemy off.

The ground beneath everyone began to crumble, the ice giving way as the dream decided to let gravity take over. However, the falling ceased for them, as Icy Pillars reached up from the sides to catch the Leafeon, Glaceon, and Absol. The sylveon was left to fall, and fall, and fall. It was no longer in sight within a manner of seconds.

The absol huffed, "Idiot..."

The leafeon rubbed against the absol's legs, having shared the same platform with him, "Thank you~"

Meanwhile Morpheus was clinging to Sova's pillar with the tips of his paws. He struggled up, the slippery surface not helping to get him onto the safe area. He had to use his Psycho Cut once more to latch onto the ice, making sure he didn't fall. His legs kicked at the side, trying to search for some kind of leverage to pull himself up.

For a moment, Sova felt panic rush though him as the ground went bye-bye. He forced himself to calm down, assuring himself that if things got too dangerous, the drowzee would fix it.... Besides, this was a dream. To his surprise, however, it was not the drowzee who fixed the situation. Instead, it was the familiar icy pillars, which seemed to be controlled by "Alma", an ability he was fairly certain his actual father did not have. His assumption was confirmed as the leafeon thanked the absol, clearly for creating the pillars as there was nothing else he could have done to be thanked for.

Then the glaceon heard a commotion on the edge of his own pillar. He looked over to see Morpheus doing his best to climb his way up and outstretched a helping hand paw to the drowzee, his paw pad beginning to glow faintly as he reached out.... What was this? It'd been so long since he'd used Helping Hand, he'd forgotten he'd ever had it.

The tapir took the paw, "Th-thank you," he told the glaceon, glad to know that he was not being completely ignored by the client as well. His gauntlet grew bigger and stronger, along with the glaceon's assistance helped him onto the paltform. The platforms began to shoot upward, at a bit of a slower and more careful pace this time. The absol and the leafeon were on the same level, going up at the same rate as the glaceon and drowzee.

"Now, I think it's about time for some catching up now that we have some time alone together!" the leafeon spoke cheerily, "How have you been honey?" she smiled. The absol seemed to smile ever so slightly, but remained stoic for the most part.

Sova tilted his head at the evident increase in power in the drowzee, only then remembering having had Helping Hand in the past. Then the platforms began heading upwards and it seemed his pa.... the copies of his parents wanted to "catch up".... What did they have to catch up on? They didn't actually exist. They weren't his parents. But he wanted to let them be, so badly.... He wanted someone he felt like he could talk to, as it seemed like no matter he tried, no one fit. Everyone left him or judged him. Why did it matter if these two weren't real? Maybe it took figments of his imagination to have the capacity to accept him.

He sighed, then waited a moment in hesitance before replying. "Horrible. In fact, the worst I've been in my entire life and it's been getting worse.... and worse.... and worse.", he replied honestly, testing the waters and seeing how the two would react. Even if they reacted well.... there was still the drowzee.

Morpheus listened, he was still highly unsure of the two. They seemed to deliberately ignore his existence, and seemed a bit too friendly for his liking. The tapir remained silent however, since this was probably something that was none of his business. He looked to the glaceon, wondering whathe was talking about."

The leafeon seemed a bit saddened by this, "Well, do you want to talk about it? You can always talk about it with me you know, your father too, though he hasn't really spoken much lately." The leafeon's tail gave a wave, and the absol remained silent, studying the glaceon, as if trying to find something to say but failing.

Sova resisted the urge to just roll his eyes and re-state that the leafeon wasn't real, knowing the two imaginary creatures would only pretend to be oblivious and saddened by the accusation, would make him feel guilty despite him knowing he was right.  Instead he simply laid down on the pillar as it raised, clearly not afraid of heights as he looked right down below.  Things as petty as heights couldn't even hope to phase him....  There were far worse things to worry about in life.

"Well, lets see....  You're both dead, so that's a good start.  Since I found that out, I've been having nightmares.  Nightmares that usually involve that day....  Bet you'd expect them to involve a froslass, but nope.  Someone totally different.... Makes it pretty hard to get any sleep."  He let one of his front legs hang over the edge of his platform as he spoke, trying to relax himself.
What was the worst thing that could happen?  He'd fall?  Clearly, this Dream Tower thing was more interested in keeping him alive than killing him.

He was being vague on purpose, still doubting why he was even bothering talking about his problems to these fakes.  He was also hesitant in mentioning that he was now host to another personality, that of a psychopathic killer who was plaguing both his dreams and his waking life.  Not just out of fear that the things seemingly created to please him would suddenly decide they no longer wanted to do that, but also because he didn't know how Morpheus would react to hearing something like that.

Besides, how does one even reasonably explain something like that?  He'd tried before.  Multiple times.  Others just never seemed to understand....  Of course, these two probably would, since they were from his "Dream Tower", but the drowzee likely wouldn't.

"Dead?" The leafeon and the absol exchanged a confused glance. The leafeon took a seat, her head tilting as she spoke in confusion and reassurance, "bur, we're right here. I'd say in front of you but there's a bit of a distance between us...why don't you come join us?" She invited him over to their pillar.

Morpheus finally spoke up at last, "They aren't real, Sova."
He casted a bit of a worried glance to the glaceon. Was the tower trying to seperate them? Cast him out? He felt a pit in his stomach as the glaceon mentioned having trouble sleeping. Nightmares it seemed. He made a mental note to offer some assistance to the glaceon later on. He could eat the nightmares easily and give the glaceon an easier time in his slumber, free of charge.

For a moment, the whole "come join us" thing seemed like a pretty nice offer to Sova. Then he remembered they were on pillars that were hurdling upwards. Did these two WANT him to die!? Of course not.... they were his.... No, no, NOT his parents. His parents would never be stupid enough to suggest he do something so dangerous. He heard Morpheus' words, trying to reassure him of the same thing he'd been trying to remind himself of constantly, but he neglected to reply to the drowzee.

He looked up at the leafeon and the absol and tilted his head slightly to the left. "That sounds pretty dangerous. We're separated by a large pit and we're moving upwards. Besides, your pillar would probably get kind of crowded with all four of us on it....", he replied.
He wanted to stay with his guide.... Well, he WANTED to go with his parents, but his parents weren't here, just some hollow echoes of them. Echoes perpetuating a facade of being the real things, alive and well.... and very good at it.

The pillars stopped moving upwards, "Sorry, forgot," the absol spoke. The leafeon grinned happily and spoke, "c'mon! There's enough room for the three of us! You're right about the four of us not fitting, but why would you want to hang with him anyways? Come on over here and we can solve all of this!"

Oh so NOW he was being acknowledged. Morpheus kept a straight face, not revealing his anger to the dopplegangers of the glaceons parents. He had figured that they must have been his parents based on how they spoke to him. The drowzee looked to the glaceon, wondering if he heard him at all.

Sova stood up after the pillars stopped and he was once again offered to come over to the other pillar. He considered it. In fact, he wanted to just jump over.... But they weren't real. Morpheus, however, was real and was the only reason he was here, as well as his only way out. It pained him to turn what felt like his parents down, but he couldn't fall for their act. He kept mentally reminding himself that they weren't real.

"He's the whole reason I'm here and he's my only way out. There's no way I'm leaving him alone, sorry.", he replied with brutal honesty and straightforwardness, though his tone was hesitant.
It felt like he was turning his parents down. "....Besides, we can "solve" this from where we are, can't we?", he added on in an attempt to be less rude to his not parents. Why did he even care whether or not he was rude to them? They were fake and they didn't even actually have emotions, but they seemed so real.

"I thought you wanted to get rid of him? After all he's been causing you so much grief hasn't he? He's the reason those two Pokemon attacked, he brought them here. If we just left him then we could just leave and go be happy?" The leafeon sat down, confusion and sorrow that the glaceon would not listen to her on her face. The absol now seemed to be glaring at the drowzee, "get over here, that's an order!" The absol spoke sternly to the glaceon, "I font know what's gotten into your right mind to stay with him. He'll be the death of you. He just wants total control. He is not you!" The absol continued.

Morpheus blinked, "What?" He spoke. What in the world were they getting at? Were they trying to suggest that he was not himself? The drowzee looked to the glaceon, "As much as their helping us, I think its time to part ways with them."

"Cmon snap out of it! Don't listen to him!" The leafeon cried.