Last Lifeline

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The Life on the Line Mission Info:

The sun was high up in the sky, occasionally being covered by the clouds and causing the land below grow darker for a moment. The tall, black mountains of the mountain range didn't help in that, causing large shadows between the mighty peaks and on the land nearby. The ground was bare with only rocks, dirt and the occasional little shrub managing to force itself to grow in the harsh environment, at least protected by the wind by the nearby rocks and boulders shielding them. Mountain air never was very hot and humid, but the climate was pleasing enough and the breezy air of the higher altitudes surely would have been a welcome change of pace after a hot day. But when it came to the large canyon ripping the mountain range apart, the air was deathly still with no wind and the sunlight struggled to peek past all the sharp edges...

Varda huffed and puffed, pushing himself as hard as he could with determination sparkling in his eyes as he led the party forward. While he had pretty much flown for the rest of the journey, he had landed just because his partner could not fly himself, and the ground on the mountains could get quite tricky indeed. It was only fair for him to take a path he knew could be walked on, especially when the fall could be very... Bad. Him as a flying Pokémon had an advantage in an area like that. But Sova... He definitely did not want his friend to fall down into the depths!

Earlier that day, the Swablu had found an urgent request for a very important mission, one that would save a life. Of course he would believe a story like that and when he saw Sova in the Guild Hall nearby, he just had to explain it all and ask for help. Because it was urgent, Varda had done his best to get to the Obsidian Crevice as quickly as they could, quite fearlessly starting to descend the black-walled canyon as he hopped from one narrow ledge to another.
"Oh... Sova, are you doing well?" The bird remembered that he had a much-needed friend with him on this mission, understanding that his friend might not be able to climb down as fast as he could. He was lighter and smaller, with wings. Sova meanwhile could not risk falling...


Current Energy: 9 (39 -30 from entering)

Sova carefully picked the disk up, sensing it was for Steel Wing. Well.... HE couldn't use this.... buuut he knew a certain swablu who could have a use for it. "Oooh.... yeah, I found something alright.... and no, it's not the monferno. Remember when you said we don't have any TMs with us, so we can't teach you how to use them? Well, I just found Steel Wing.... you can learn this one. If you want, of course.", he offered as he sat the disk down on the ground between them.
"Even if you don't wanna learn it, you can still learn how to tell the names.", he added on.

There were no signs of the monferno or the vision cues, so he figured they could take a short break for this. Besides, the mission seemed like it was likely going to get VERY dangerous very fast if the vision started coming true, so it seemed like a good idea for Varda to get a heavy hitting move in his arsenal, like pimp-slapping with a metal wing. Though, this all depended on whether or not the swablu wanted to learn Steel Wing. Or perhaps he already had Steel Wing. Sova hadn't really seen him fight much, after all, partly because he seemed fairly pacifistic and partly because they hadn't been in many conflicts so far.

However, in this area, they were likely to get into quite a lot of conflicts. He really hoped Varda knew what he'd gotten into.... There were deinos and zweilous' here. Logically, that meant there were probably hydreigons somewhere. He honestly didn't feel too confident fighting a hydreigon with even his best fighting allies. Varda was.... not the best in the fighting department it seemed, partly because of being a living cotton swab and partly because of his kind nature, so the glaceon really worried about whether or not the bird could stay safe against something that dangerous..

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Obsidian Crevice :

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Varda was slightly disappointed that it wasn't the Pokémon they were looking for that Sova found... But it was to be expected! It would have been a bit silly if he had found the Monferno in the pile of rocks! But the bird cooed in a curious manner and inched closer as he still tried to sneak a peek before he finally decided to use his wings to get back on the upper ledge, so that he could see what it was properly. Sova had a disc – a TM. Something called Steel Wing according to Sova and the bird tilted his head. Apparently, he could learn it.

The disc was placed on the ground in front of the bird, between the two Pokémon. It had a nice metallic sheen to it, the slivers of sunlight hitting it in a nice way... He couldn't help but wonder if someone made furniture out of TMs.
"Oh, I don't know if my wings would be very good if they were steel!" The Swablu chirped as he opened his fluffy wings, motioning towards them so that Sova would take a look. They were like soft clouds or perhaps like balls of cotton – and he quite liked them that way!

"But... You said they can be checked without learning them. And you checked it just now," Varda spoke, figuring that his friend probably couldn't learn a move called Steel Wing considering that Sova lacked those wings the attack seemed to require. Clearly, a TM could be checked without being able to use it and it could be checked without learning it...
"What do I do with it now?"

Sova shrugged at the little bird's comment on his wings. They were certainly fluffy, which meant they were ineffective for hitting things with as they were. But if Varda didn't want to change that, he wasn't going to push. At least he could teach the little bird how to use a TM for future reference. "Well, I'm not sure if it can effect flight, but I personally think you'd look pretty cool with metal wings. Buuut if you don't wanna, least I can do is show you how to use them.", he replied with a sigh, a bit disappointed the swablu didn't want to become a wing-slapping machine as he felt that would have been a bit funny to see.

"Now, touch it. Doesn't matter what you wanna touch it with, a wing, a foot, your face. Then, clear your mind and just let it come to you. Our bodies do most of the work in absorbing the information from TMs, honestly. Just break contact with it after learning the name or else you might end up learning a bit more than you wanted to.... In other words you'll have Steel Wings.", he explained, emphasizing that keeping it up too long would result in the move being learned.

He didn't even know if Varda was going to be able to do it on his first try. The glaceon had had great teachers, his parents, but he.... wasn't that great of a teacher. He was good at hitting things and.... yep just hitting things. "It gets easier the more you do it, too.", he added on, hoping to keep Varda from becoming disheartened if he didn't immediately succeed.

(ABSOL HALLELUJAH I ROLLED SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T SUCK.)

"Hmm," Varda hummed out loud as he thought about his friend's words. Apparently he would be cool with metallic wings... But in this case, he was quite sure he would be cold as well! Sova probably didn't know how comfy and warm the soft cottony wings were. Perhaps he would feel it one day, being warmed by the little bird...
"O-Oh. Alright, just tell me if it looks like it's too long!" The bird chirped as he was warned to not take his time while observing the TM, as he could then accidentally learn it – and that wasn't good! He didn't want to waste his friend's precious find either.

The Swablu sat down and gently placed one of his feet on top of the disc's smooth surface, looking up at Sova as if to confirm that he was doing it right. Then he just... Had to clear his mind and let everything from the disc come to his mind instead. It sounded difficult. Calming a mind, making it empty. Currently, Varda had so many thoughts in his head that it seemed quite impossible! The little bird Pokémon still tried and took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he tried to get into the zone.

Doing his best to force his erratic thoughts to calm down, his facial features strained a bit as he fought against what was natural to him. All the thoughts were pushed away and locked up as well as he could, new ones forcing themselves to the front quickly taken care of as they came and threatened to overcome his progress. Of course, then his stomach rumbled. He had just eaten a berry, but...
"Oh... I think I'm hungry."


Current Energy: 6 (11 -6 from the enemy encounter, +1 from the new page)

Sova watched as the swablu attempted to read the TM, apparently failing due to.... hunger. He sighed and face-pawed, before digging into his bag with a paw and pulling out an apple by the stem. "Here.", he offered as he tossed the apple towards Varda. He didn't really like apples anyways, so he had no problems giving one up to his friend.
Besides, he knew he didn't need food at the moment and he wanted to make sure Varda stayed safe, which meant making sure he didn't get hurt due to hunger-fatigue. Even if the bird had food of his own, still.... he really didn't like apples much.

"Wanna keep trying with the TM, or move on and try to figure it out later?", he asked, remembering they still had a mission to do.
He didn't want Varda to feel pressured to have to do this right now anyways. The bird didn't need that kind of pressure on him, especially when they both needed to be able to stay calm and focused in such an important mission. This wasn't just some errand like most low ranked missions, after all. It was literally life or death.

Why was this mission so low ranked, anyways? Nearly all low ranked missions were petty chores or odd jobs, so it was odd to see such an important and dangerous mission at such a low ranking. At least it wasn't F ranked, but still, even E ranked missions usually weren't things so urgent. He wasn't complaining, as he felt he was more qualified than most at his team's level to do dangerous missions, but it was still odd.

(Energy - ded)

Varda opened his eyes as he heard some rustling and Sova's voice, a bit startled as the large red fruit was thrown in his direction, softly bumping against his belly. The little Pokémon looked up at Sova with his beady little eyes before letting his gaze fall onto the apple that was now resting on the ground. As he peered down, he could see his reflection on the slightly waxy skin of the fruit, so red and shiny as if someone had purposefully shined it to give it such a look. It did look delicious and the fruity, fresh smell did find it way into his beak even though he had a rather poor sense of smelling. He was hungry...

"Oh... Are you sure? I think I have more food in my bag, I don't want you to waste your lunch on me," the Swablu chirped as he looked back up at his friend, slowly getting back on his little birdie feet. Using his wings, he carefully scooped up the apple as if he was cradling it and used one of his wings to wipe off some dirt and... Well, shine it even more now that he was there, making it cleaner than it had been.

"Apples are good for you," he added with a smile and nodded as he decided that the apple he had was looking good enough for eating now, free of any dirt it might have gotten by landing on the dark, rocky ground. It was a bit dusty.


((Rip Sova ;_;))

Sova shrugged at the swablu's hesitant questioning.  He really didn't care for apples much and he had plenty more supplies; he honestly just brought them in case someone else ever needed food.  In this case, he had more supplies than usual due to the severity and danger of the mission.  He had a an Oran Berry, a Sitrus Berry and a Lum Berry with him, so he really wasn't worried about getting hungry himself.

"It's fine, really.  I keep apples around for others; I don't even like them.", he assured as he sat down.  Honestly, he WAS feeling a bit fatigued from the walk here, so maybe he'd have himself something too.  He dug through his bag and pulled out one of the other food-items he had with him, one he'd enjoy much more than an apple.  An Oran Berry.  "Besides, I've got plenty of supplies with me.", he assured before tossing the berry up and catching it in his mouth.

It wasn't quite the sweetest thing in the world, but Oran Berries always had a hint of sweetness to them as well as a mix of other flavors.  It was good enough, at least, considering it was also a highly energizing berry.

(RIP + Oran Berry = 10 LOOK I CAN DO MATH.)

Varda nodded and seemed to be happy with Sova's words, not looking very worried about eating the apple himself now. It had to be fine if his friend didn't like apples, right? It would be mean to force someone to eat something they didn't like – but if they didn't, the apple could go to waste! Currently, the red fruit was so fresh and juicy, something that was apparent just looking at it... It would be plain wrong to let it just sit in a bag getting bad!
"Well... If that's fine, then thank you for the apple!" The Swablu chirped before he brought the apple closer to his mouth.

He grabbed it with his beak and started to cut bite-sized pieces out of the apple with its sharp edges, easily eating the soft, juicy pulp. He also ate the core and the stem, not at all bothered by their taste or the texture. At last the bird swallowed and licked his beak that had been stained with the juices and cooed happily.
"Mhhm... That was good! Thanks again, Sova," he added cheerfully, feeling his energy return to him. Well, at least his belly was full. Luckily he had more supplies if he started to feel more tired.

Sova had also eaten something and Varda was glad knowing that the two of them should be a bit more prepared now. The bird stretched his wings and seemed to be ready to continue.


Current Energy: 11 (6 +5 from the apple)

Bird carried out 1 launched of one Obsidian Crevice :

Sova nodded his head at the swablu's thanks. It really wasn't a big deal to him, but clearly the little bird was much more grateful than he'd expected. As with everything, little gestures seemed to mean quite a lot to Varda. It was nice, though he felt like this could end up being trouble for the swablu at some point. Being too trustworthy and grateful can be a bad thing at times, after all.

"No problem. Now, lets get going.", he said as he moved along. More like leaped onto the lower path and bolted forward, trying to make up for lost time. "We should hurry up, I know you can fly so just go as fast as you can, I can keep up!", he assured as he carefully ran along the dangerous terrain. It was stupid, sure, but he really wanted to get the monferno out of here before the vision even started to come true.

He knew he'd chosen to take a break, mostly for Varda, but still.... He wanted to make up for lost time. He also just wanted to hurry up in the first place and now he was feeling the effects of an Oran Berry, so he was confident he could avoid falling.

(Oh god look who joined the party HELLO THERE BIG DADDY)

"Oh, yeah!" Varda chirped as his friend urged them to get going, getting on his paws and jumping further down... And starting to run a bit too fast on the dangerously narrow ledges! The bird, of course, was quite worried, but Sova just yelled at him to fly as fast as he could. It took him a moment to register the command, but once he did, he quickly grabbed the Reviver Seed he had brought with him in his talons just in case he needed the extra energy while he flew and opened his wings. Flapping them, the Swablu rose up into the air and rushed after Sova.

He had been told to fly as fast as he could, but of course he wouldn't. If they wanted to race to the bottom, the bird could get there much, much earlier than Sova thanks to his ability to fly... And he didn't want his friend to get reckless because he thought he was too slow! Instead Varda stayed by Sova's side, flying fast enough to keep up as the pair descended further into the canyon.

Above, the wind was starting to pick up. It was quite impossible to notice in the Obsidian Crevice as the tall walls more or less protected everything from the gale, but it didn't remove the fact that it was getting windier. The clouds on the sky occasionally moved in front of the sun, filtering the light through them and eating up some of the brightness the sun provided the land.


((The big daddy has been here from the start. The joke is that you should call me big daddy. Also rolling more to eat the Reviver Seed dum de doo.))


Current Energy: 1 (11 -10 from the enemy encounter)

Bird carried out 5 launched of one Obsidian Crevice :

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Sova ran forward, being careful not to fall as he knew that wouldn't exactly be a fun time. He decided before long to slow his speed, as he was beginning to consider that perhaps it was just a bit dangerous and there still weren't any imminent signs of the vision coming true. He glanced up for a moment as something caught his attention in his peripheral vision to see.... an absol, staring down from a high perch. The "disaster pokemon", probably already aware something bad was going to happen.

For now, the absol seemed to be just watching, so Sova decided not to say anything. He wasn't interested in trying to start a conversation and risking getting into a fight at the moment. Normally he would have been all for a little fun, but on this specific mission time was very important. However, it seemed fate had a sense of humor and forced him to stop anyways as he came to a large gap in the path he was on, leading down a very long fall. He looked around, but couldn't find any other pathways to make his way across. He knew he'd have to backtrack a while and lose time to find a safe path.... Or a path in general.

At this point, he decided to try and get the absol's help, but when he looked back up, it was gone. Great. "Well.... guess I've gotta jump.", he said with a sigh.
He seemed calm and nonchalant about this, but in all honesty, he was doubtful of his ability to make such a jump. It looked to be about 15 feet.... he'd never had to jump something like this.

(And to think I never even knew you were a mysterious diver suit monster. Also how are you counting that roll? Not sure if that was in line with the rules.)

Varda kept flying, his path quite a lot easier compared to his friend's, considering that he could not slip and fall to his death. Or he could, just in a different way. And really, he was a big bird now, he knew how to fly properly! Eventually Sova's speed seemed to fall, slowing down just enough for the bird to feel a bit better about this whole thing, it all looked less reckless now. Still a bit reckless considering that the safest way to proceed would basically be crawling, but the Swablu wasn't going to complain when it seemed like Sova knew what he was doing and had good balance. His wings were starting to ache from the sudden burst of speed, so he threw the Reviver Seed in his mouth to get that extra boost of energy he needed.

But then, the path they had been following suddenly ended. Well, it did continued, going further down... But there was a huge gap in the middle. Perhaps this section had fallen or perhaps it never did exist and it was mere luck that there was a convenient path nearby, but that wouldn't be helping Sova much. The bird Pokémon looked around, flying near the ledge as he did some scouting to see if there was an easy way over or around, but... Nothing. The rocky wall was way too smooth here, and the gap... Well, the hole it created almost stretched all the way to the bottom!

"A-Ah! Jumping would be dangerous!" Varda chirped as he returned from his scouting trip and hovered by Sova's side, just in time to hear of his friend's intentions to jump,
"Though, um... I couldn't find an easy way around and I don't think I can fly you over. Maybe there's a tree around here we could push over the gap!" He added, trying to be cheerful. But no. Of course there were no trees nearby. The ledge was pretty much nothing but rock, a tall tree wouldn't suddenly sprout there. It was quite puzzling
"Or maybe... Something else. Oh, I wish we had rope..."


((Well, the rules do say that energy can't go below 0, so I guess I'll remove one point, use the seed like it seems like it should be used when you hit 0 energy and then remove the rest that was split. The exact order isn't as important I guess, as the same amount of energy will be removed in any case. I'll deal with the trap when I can actually have the character land somewhere to set it off!))

Current Energy: 29 (1 -1 to get to 0, +39 from Reviver Seed, -8 from the enemy encounters, -2 from the item rolls. Got 1 Plain Seed)

Sova took a deep breath and exhaled as his friend tried to convince him not to jump. "Don't worry.... I've got this.", he assured, though he was doubting his own words.
He wasn't overly fast naturally, only having speed due to Ice Shard. He wasn't exactly a professional jumper. He couldn't fly. Honestly, it seemed like the odds were against him here. At that, the appearance of an absol was starting to worry him.

The absol had been looking at him in specific. Had it foreseen a disaster involving him? Was he going to fall? Maybe the absol had been trying to warn him. Still, he felt if it really wanted to warn him that he was in danger, it would have just said so. But no, it abruptly vanished soon after he'd spotted it. Maybe it was looking for the monferno, in which case he would have appreciated the help considering he and Varda were also looking for the monferno.

"I've got this....", he muttered in an attempt to reassure himself as he backed up in preparation for the jump. He could do this, he had to. He wasn't afraid.... just.... worried. Mostly for Varda, but in all honesty, he didn't really find dying to be particularly appealing. Still, he wasn't going to let worries or fears hold him back, he was no coward.

(Sounds good, should be fine.)

Varda looked quite worried even though his friend was trying to assure him that there was nothing to worry about. He got it, he said. But no way the bird looked at it, the distance was awfully big for a Pokémon Sova's size... But he wasn't all that certain how high or long a land Pokémon could jump, though. He wasn't a very good jumper with his tiny stubby legs, but he had wings. Thus, jumping wasn't an issue, not at all. He observed as Sova backed off, getting prepared for the jump... But he wasn't sure if the other Pokémon truly was prepared for the leap...

"Oh, wait, maybe I should inspect the other side first!" The Swablu suddenly chirped as he realized something, flying closer to the other ledge Sova was supposed to jump on. He glanced over his shoulder at his friend.
"What if there's loose rocks or something! That would be really bad," he added as he landed, though his final word seemed to be cut short as the little Pokémon felt something coursing through his body the moment he touched the ground. His feathers fluffed up as he shuddered, and... Well, he actually felt better than before! Using his wings, he proceeded to sweep the area before he heard a crack.

Crack? The bird immediately tensed his little body, lifting his head. The sound came from above... And indeed, there was a ledge over them with a bit of rubble falling down, tiny rocks the size of his feet perhaps... But there was a crack – and that crack was growing bigger, causing the smaller rocks to form. It looked like a bigger piece was about to fall!
"A-Ah, Sova, watch out!" Varda cried out as he jumped in the air.

Current Energy: 36 (29 +7 from the trap)

Bird carried out 4 launched of one Obsidian Crevice :

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Sova sighed and decided to just wait for Varda to get done checking. "Fine....", he muttered before awaiting the bird to finish inspecting. Then, it seemed the environment had decided to rush them. He noticed the swablu looking up and decided to look up himself, only to see what looked like the beginnings of a rockslide, or at the very least the beginnings of a squished glaceon. Varda confirmed that there was indeed reason to worry by advising him to look out, which he certainly planned to do. However, probably not as the swablu would have expected.

His fur flash-froze into icy spikes and he bolted forward at a very fast speed, thanks to Ice shard. He leaped as high as he could and for a moment, he was worried he wasn't going to make it. Luckily, he was wrong and he just barely managed to reach the other side. However, he landed rather ungracefully, falling and tumbling over. He kind of wanted to just lay there for a minute, as it had hurt, but he forced himself to not be a lazy bum and instead get back to his paws to flee the vicinity as a few rather large rocks fell.

He fell off his feet to catch his breath after he was sure he was far enough away, a bit shaken up. The ice around his fur began to break away as he no longer made an effort to keep his in tact. "See....? No problem....", he spoke in a very unconvincing tone. He didn't even bother looking back to see what damage had been done to their path for the moment.... he would worry about that when he needed to.