Gloomy Sunday

Depresso-Expresso Mission Info:

The light levels had dropped tremendously the further one got to the forest, the trees no longer as sparse as they were near the edges. The canopy up above was very thick with barely any holes, not letting much sunlight in. Shadows covered most of the land with even darker splotches behind trees and rocks, perfect hiding spots for whatever might be lurking in the forest. The ground was mostly covered by grass and fallen leaves, there not being enough sunlight for the smaller plant life to prosper next to the large trees' shade. Thanks to the lack of sunlight, the forest also felt quite a bit cooler than one might expect... But the day was otherwise warm, so it wasn't unbearably cold yet.

A strange group of Pokémon walked through the forest. Varda, the little bird, hopped happily along the forest floor and didn't seem to at all mind the dark. By his side was his client, a large and round Blissey with a bag full of all kinds of goods, her eyes determined as she marched on deeper into the forest. It was the Swablu who had originally met the Blissey and heard her request for aid at the Guild, but it seemed like he had caught the attention of an old friend as he was accepting it. Sova from another team ended up tagging along, bringing a new friend with him. Sova had never talked about his teammates, but as it was a team, Varda had always assumed that there had to be other members! It just made sense and he was happy to finally meet someone!

The bird hopped and occasionally turned to look at the newcomer, named Keith. They hadn't had much time to get to known each other back at the Guild before accepting the mission, as the Blissey had urged them along. According to her, the mission was very delicate, very important and very time sensitive, and they didn't have one moment to spare! But while they were walking, the Swablu felt like they were going to be fine...
"Sova actually never told me about you before, Keith! Have you been doing missions together for a long time?"


Current Energy: 30 (40 -10 from entering. Sky Powder in use, every other Pokémon encounter takes 1 less energy.)

Sova wasn't at all bothered by the dark forest. However, his jolteon friend was a different story. Sure, he'd been here many times and it was difficult to scare him in the first place, but Keith.... was a different story. The jolteon continuously looked around nervously at every little noise, clearly fearful of the area, quiet static noises coming from his fur and occasionally getting a bit more audible whenever he was startled. It was so dark.... It wasn't like he'd never been out in the dark or anything, but this place just took it to a whole new level. He was so distracted worrying about what could be creeping around under the cover of the dark forest that he almost jumped when the swablu talked to him.

He looked at the swablu.... Varda, if he remembered correctly. However, he seemed hesitant to respond. He had been hoping his first mission would have been just himself and Sova, maybe that vaporeon, Skylar too. He didn't want to go on a mission that required meeting so many new faces, at least not so soon. "I.... uh....", he began, trying to figure out what to say.
This was actually his first mission, but it seemed so rude to correct the swablu. His fur's sparking noises began to amp up in audibility as pressure and guilt seemed to come out of nowhere to plague him.

Seeing that his friend wasn't getting anywhere with the concept of conversation, Sova decided to chime in. "This is his first mission, I just met him not to long ago and he wanted to join my team. I said if he stuck around for the missions I had to do that night and didn't bail he could join.... and he didn't bail.", he explained so Keith didn't have to.
The whole social anxiety thing was something they were really going to have to work on at some point.

The static noises of the jolteon's fur quieted down as the situation was fixed for him. It was odd how easily relieved he was.... and how easily upset he was. He was never like this as an eevee, at least not this bad. Though, Sova had already explained to him that as a jolteon, he was basically condemned to emotional instability. Apparently that was just something that came with being a jolteon. The poor glaceon blamed himself for having given the once-eevee a thunderstone in the first place, but honestly, he wasn't mad. He could deal with it, it wasn't too bad. Besides, he kind of liked the look of being a jolteon, as well as the speed.

(Sova - 73 energy)
(Keith - 15 energy)

Varda kept looking at the Pokémon he had asked a question from, his eyes blinking slowly as he smiled. He seemed to be quite oblivious to the feelings Keith was going through, just waiting patiently as the meek Pokémon tried to force some kind of words out of his mouth. His fur was sparkling in a neat was that caused certain crackling sounds and even lit up the air around the Pokémon a little! The Blissey did sense the distress and she turned around to look at the Jolteon in a concerned way, but before she managed to really do anything, the feeling had passed. Sova had opened his mouth and explained, which seemed to cause Keith to relax.

The Swablu hadn't noticed this, all he noticed was that the light around the Jolteon died down as his spiky fur stopped sparking. He did turn his gaze from Keith to Sova though, figuring that if his old friend was doing the talking then it would be fine!
"I see! It sounds like a big day," he chirped happily as he turned to look at Keith for a moment, still smiling. Everyone had their first job at some point, perhaps he was a bit nervous about it and few words of encouragement would be necessary...
"I'm sure it'll be fine! The mission isn't too difficult... Well, for us, at least. We just need to escort our client," Varda offered, though his eyes ended up looking in the Blissey's direction this time. Her job was probably more difficult if she had to cheer up someone who was very sad...

"Don't worry about that. I have yet to fail my mission to bring joy to this world!" She chimed in with a gentle yet determined voice as she continued to walk forward with the rest of the group, though she did seem to be a bit tense as her eyes scanned their surroundings. The bird Pokémon seemed to be happy with that and he nodded before looking back at his other two friends with a big smile, as if he was certain their mission would be a success already.
"See? Everything is going to be fine and there's no need to worry!"

Keith's ears perked up slightly at the swablu's encouragement. This mission did seem fairly safe, since they just had to escort a friendly blissey to some mopey guy. The place it was in was a bit scary, more so than Pecha Forest, which was where he'd hoped his first mission would be, but still.... Thinking that the mission would be easy was still nice. "Th-thanks.", he replied hesitantly to the swablu, trying not to be rude and make his friend do all the talking for him.

A faint smile crossed Sova's face for just a moment as he saw his shy friend actually contribute to the conversation. Albeit, it wasn't much, but still. "Guess that's settled then. Lets go do this thing. Maybe we can finish fast and you can get out of here faster, I know you must not like this place very much.", he added on, having noticed Keith's attitude since entering Shadowhue had changed to imply he was scared of the place.

Keith's fur sparking amped up once more as he was called out for being afraid. As hard as it likely was to believe, he'd been trying to hide it. "I-is it really that obvious....?", he questioned with a very sad look.

Sova shrugged at the jolteon's question and replied, "Relax, everyone's afraid of something."
Though he didn't seem to care on the outside, he honestly did. It wasn't his intention to make Keith feel bad for being afraid, fear was perfectly natural. He didn't exactly have much of it himself, but he had always been unusual in that aspect. He hadn't actually felt fear at all for quite a bit of his life. Most weren't like that.

Varda's smile grew wider as the timid Pokémon ended up thanking him, nodding happily as he flapped his wings happily.
"No problem!" He added with a chirp as their journey continued. The bird was feeling like he had done a good thing there and the two were getting along well, knowing that the first mission might feel like the toughest one... But it would only get easier. Well actually the missions tended to get harder as the more difficult ones were only given to more experienced teams, but actually accepting quests and taking the responsibility got easier!

Sova expressed wanting to do the mission quick for the Jolteon's sake, something that caused the Swablu to actually turn around and take a better look at the new team member. Indeed, Keith still looked quite nervous... And according to Sova, it was where they were, not what they were doing. The Jolteon seemed to agree as he meekly squeaked if his fear was obvious. The bird meanwhile gasped as if it hadn't been obvious at all, completely shocked by this turn of events.

"O-Oh! Oh. I didn't know," he gasped, wondering if this mission had been such a good fit for Keith after all. He didn't want someone to be afraid! He honestly didn't even know what was so scary about the dark forest, so he was having a hard time helping the Jolteon with something he hadn't experienced.
"But look! You glow when you do that thing with your fur. Maybe you'll scare the Pokémon that are used to the darkness here off like that."

Keith shook his head at the swablu's response.  "N-no....  It'll only attract things.", he commented quietly as he walked.
Light in a dark area like this would surely attract attention, whether for better or worse.  He would have turned it off by now if he knew how.  Actually, he didn't even know if it was POSSIBLE to stop the constant electricity.  He knew his fur was all straight and spiky due to it and he knew his mother, who was also a jolteon, had spiky fur.  If she couldn't get rid of the electricity, how could he possibly expect to do so?

Sova rolled his eyes at the negativity his teammate was showing.  Maybe it was a good thing bringing him here.  The jolteon needed some way to toughen up, what better than being surrounded by something that terrified him?  "Don't worry about it.  If anything comes, I'll handle it.  I've been here plenty and I'm pretty sure there's nothing that can take me in this forest, despite it looking kind of creepy.", he replied, trying his best to ease his friend's worries.

It was his job to protect Keith, after all.  At least until he could protect himself.  That was the job of a leader, right?  To protect, help and teach their team members.... or.... something.  He wasn't really good at the leader thing.  He didn't even like it, he used to, but that was a long time ago.  Now all the glaceon wanted was to be able to follow along and not have to worry about leading the way and being held accountable for what happened.

Keith hesitated to reply.  He didn't want to have to have someone constantly looking out for him.  That would be a huge burden to Sova and he knew it.  "I can help....", he commented.

Sova glanced at the jolteon with a slight smirk.  "I expect you to.  That's why you're here, to learn how to do things.  I'm just here to make sure you don't die.", he explained.

Time to roll:

Sova's Roll-

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

, , , , , , , , ,

Keith's Roll-

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

, , , , , , , , ,

Varda closed his eyes for a moment as he thought about Keith's answer. Maybe that was right. Maybe light would attract the Pokémon living in the dark because it was different – and probably pretty! He at least liked light himself, so he would be really sad living in a place with barely any light. Sova did his best to reassure the fearful Pokémon and probably did a better job at it than the bird. After all, the Glaceon had been in this forest before, while he hadn't. He couldn't say how tough the Pokémon were in here... But according to Sova, not very! Then again, Sova had been battling much stronger Pokémon than the Swablu himself. He was still going to believe the words and think that it would be like a walk in the park.

"Well... If it ends up attracting Pokémon, we will have an easier time finding who we are looking for, I'm sure! And I think you'll help us see a bit better here," the bird chirped, seeing the good side of the Jolteon's uncontrollable electricity and glow. He wasn't worried at all.
"And no one is going to die!" He added as Sova brought up the word and the possibility, but of course the Swablu didn't see it... Or didn't want to see. Whatever it was, he kept hopping along and exploring the sides of the rather faded and twisty road they were walking on, peering into the shadows. Some kind of mushroom bug made eye contact with the bird and ended up retreating behind a tree, causing Varda to call out.
"Phantumps aren't red, right?"

Bird carried out 4 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

, , ,

Keith seemed a bit worried by his leader's comment about him dying, though the swablu quickly put that worry to rest.  Surely this place couldn't be all that dangerous anyways....  If a little swablu could handle it, he could too, right?  He tried to look less scared and for a moment, he was succeeding.  Then Varda's attention seemed to be drawn to something and his momentarily upped morale faded back into fear.  What had the swablu seen?  From the sounds of it, maybe the mission client, already.  Hopefully....  Maybe they wouldn't be mean or dangerous.

Sova decided not to comment on the overly optimistic attitude of Varda.  He'd learned by now to just accept it.  This was the swablu's way of thinking and it clearly made him happy, so to each their own, he figured.  He just hoped that attitude never got Varda into any trouble in the future.  Trusting someone shady or not properly considering the danger of a situation could lead to very negative consequences at some point.

The glaceon rolled his eyes as the color of phantumps was questioned.  Sometimes, it seemed to him like he was the only one who bothered with learning these things.  Then again, he had two very well-informed.... teachers.  "Nope, they look like stump-ghost-things.  They're brown and black.", he explained, keeping it brief and including a bit of a description to ensure the swablu didn't question if every little thing they saw was a phantump.

Keith felt a bit disappointed as it was explained that they had not found the mission objective.  Or at least, that was what he'd gathered from it.  For a moment he had hoped that maybe they would be able to complete the mission quickly and get out of here, which got his hopes up.  Sadly, it seemed he was going to be stuck here for a while.  He wanted to move closer to one of his allies for safety, but he knew he would likely just end up shocking them if he tried, so he kind of had to keep a bit of distance.... as terrifying as it was to do so.

"Ah," Varda cooed as he retreated from the little mushroom bug that was already looking like it was awfully bothered by the bird's staring. It wasn't a Phantump after all, so the bird hopped back to the rest of the group happily, not bothered by the minor setback. As he thought for a while, he suddenly realized something.
"Oh! I think I've seen one of those before with a friend!" He chirped as he explained, his wings flapping in excitement. He knew exactly what he was looking for right now! It wasn't an exactly pleasant encounter as it had attacked him and Zorre... But nothing bad had happened, so the ending was a happy one.

"It would be nice if every Pokémon we saw introduced themselves with their name and species," the bird mused as he continued to hop around and explore, doing his best to look into every hidden nook and cranny. There were so many shady spots that he had to listen very carefully for any possible sounds, too! And a sound from above caught Varda's attention as he stopped under a tree, hearing some rustling as something moved up in the higher branches...

And then, bonk. Something fell from the tree right on top of the Swablu, bouncing off his rather thick skull and landing on the grassy ground next to him. The bird Pokémon just blinked in confusion as he did feel the impact, but didn't... Really seem affected by it at all, not very hurt. It took a moment for him to even start rubbing his head.
"Oh. An apple," Varda realized as he turned to pick up the red fruit that had fallen next to him.


((I found the Phantump! ...In the other thread!))

Current Energy: 25 (30 -3 from the item rolls, -2 from the Pokémon roll. Got 1 Apple.)

Sova kept his eyes peeled as they walked, on the lookout for anything remotely similar to a phantump. He wasn't expecting too much difficulty in finding it, considering their client.... apparently had a negativity-sensor of some kind. At the very least, the blissey could probably identify the particular phantump they were looking for if they found more than one.

Then the little swablu stopped as if he'd noticed something, garnering the glaceon's attention. He looked up as well, just in time to see an apple fall on the bird. Though it didn't seem like there was any harm done, so he just shrugged and continued walking. "At least not everyone introduces themselves like that apple.", he joked, though honestly, most of the time they really did.
He just hoped that today wouldn't be abnormally peaceful for the forest. He was hoping to teach Keith a little bit about fighting today, given that didn't seem to be one of the jolteon's most honed abilities.

Keith followed along, only stopping when the others did. He stayed silent since there wasn't much he could think of to add to the conversation anyways. He honestly preferred it when others didn't introduce themselves and just.... stayed away. He liked having friends, but too much social interaction wasn't a very fun thing to him. However, a bit of interaction seemed appropriate when the swablu was viciously assaulted by.... an apple. "A-are you alright!?", he questioned, though he seemed to be the only one who cared.
Varda only seemed interested in the fact that there was an apple and Sova actually seemed amused....

(If it's all the way over there, they'll never find it....)

"Well... Apples don't even really need to introduce themselves! I know what they are," Varda replied back to Sova as he put the apple in his bag, quite happy with his spoils this far,
"And they're good," he added, though currently his stomach was full and he wasn't at all hungry. The bird didn't have a habit of stuffing himself with food when he couldn't really make any room for it in his stomach, always preparing for a mission by eating back at the Guild... But he knew he would eat this apple at some point and he was looking forward to it! The apple looked very juicy and sweet, so it should be good...

The Swablu couldn't help but laugh softly as the Jolteon seemed to be so worried after the apple fell on him, feeling like it was a bit silly to worry about his safety! It was just an apple, after all.
"I'm fine! It didn't even hurt," he chirped as he returned back to the group full of vigor and with a great big smile plastered on his face. Indeed, it seemed like he was no worse for wear. The Blissey looked at Varda with some concern in her eyes, but she unfortunately had to admit that the bird didn't seem to be hiding his pain, as she couldn't really feel anything negative coming from him.

Sudden rustling caused both the Blissey and the Swablu to look up and peer into the darkness where the sound was coming from. There were some mighty snaps and screeches, hits of something hitting the bark of the tree and tearing some of it with them... The Blissey's expression turned serious. Suddenly, a large bug with some kind of spiky horns on top of its head – or maybe they were pincers, Varda wasn't entirely sure – was thrown from the darkness and fell on the ground in front of the group with a hissing screech. Another similar Pokémon rushed soon after it and they ended up locking their horns as they continued to wrestle.

Bird carried out 4 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

, , ,

Sova chuckled at the swablu.  He was the one who was trying to make a joke, yet he ended up the one laughing.  Funny how things could work out sometimes.  It wasn't even a joke, just naivety.  There was just something about Varda that made him a bit happier, perhaps the swablu really was just that much of a morale booster.  He certainly had enough positivity to go around, though; more than most teams combined for sure.

"Alright....", Keith commented, much quieter than before.
Now he just felt stupid for worrying.  Of course an apple wouldn't hurt anyone....  Apples were tasty snacks, not vicious monsters.  He didn't get much time to feel silly for worrying though, as something that worrying was an appropriate reaction to came about.  The two eeveelutions' reactions to the appearance of two wrestling bugs differed drastically, with Keith jumping back with a yip in fear.  It wasn't something he was proud of, but he couldn't help it.  His fur's sparking amped up once more as his mood shifted, indicating the change in mood for anyone who was paying attention.  Honestly, that would likely be a burden to him at some point, unwillingly showing every time his emotional state changed through his body.

Sova, unlike his skittish friend, didn't move a muscle as the two warring bugs entered the scene.  "....Okay then.", he commented as he watched the two fight, not caring in the slightest.
Actually, he was kind of hoping one of them would attack him.... or try to, at least.  That would give him an excuse to get into a fight and hopefully teach Keith how to fight.  To teach Keith to fight.... yeah....  He definitely didn't just want to get into a fight.  Maybe just a little.

The two eeveelutions watched the bugs wrestle, the jolteon looking fearful and backing away a bit more, just in case, while the glaceon stayed at a fairly dangerously close distance and watched with a front row seat.  "Sooo, how do you guys wanna react to this?", Sova questioned, as he didn't want to make any decision without the others and have any of them get upset with him.
Since when did he care about not upsetting others?  Since some point, apparently.

(Nice Leaf Stone)

Varda was quite surprised to suddenly have two Pokémon fight in front of him, opening his wings in shock – or perhaps he was prepared to fly if he was needed to. But the two large bugs didn't seem to even notice the group standing quite close to them as they continued to fight, hissing and shrieking at each other as they used the strong pincers to attack each other. They grabbed their horns and tried to push the other one away, even throwing each other around when they had the chance. The two seemed to be quite evenly matched, but they were starting to grow tired. Neither showed any signs of stopping despite the exhaustion...

"W-We can't just let this happen! This won't make them happy and they are clearly in pain!" The Blissey was the first one to speak up as the Glaceon asked how the group should proceed. It would have been quite easy to just walk past them as they didn't seem to care about anything else in the world except their fight, but... The Swablu didn't want to make their client unhappy and she was right. Even if these two Pokémon were feral, it looked like they had taken their little fight way too far already.

"I... Guess we should try to stop them, then!" Varda chirped as he flapped his wings slowly, trying to come up with a plan. It didn't seem very safe to get in the middle of the battle, as those pincers of theirs looked like they would really hurt if they managed to grab you... But he had a little ace up his sleeve that might just do the trick. The bird Pokémon seemed to realize that, neatly folding his wings against his body as he took a couple of steps forward to start singing to the fighting Pokémon, his lullaby usually making things sleep...


((Varda will have a tower of rocks one day.))


Current Energy: 20 (25 -3 from the items, -2 from the enemy after Sky Powder.)

Keith hesitantly nodded in agreement with the plan, though he didn't make any moves to do anything about it. He didn't want to get in the fight, not with things that looked so.... menacing. Maybe it was cowardly, but he called it sensible. Clearly the other two here had been doing this kind of thing for a while, since neither of them really seemed all that scared, so they could surely handle it. Even the blissey didn't really seem scared. In hindsight, that probably made him look kind of pathetic, being terrified while no one else in the group, not even the blissey, seemed scared.

Sova shrugged at the plan to break the fight up. He was just about to break it up his way, which involved brute force, when Varda began.... singing. Well, that was certainly one way to handle it. It seemed to be working, too, as the two duelists' grips on each other began to loosen. It looked like they were both about to collapse, but then one tripped and fell to the ground first, out cold. The second pinsir stumbled back as it tried to stay awake, before turning its gaze to the thing that was putting it to sleep. It hissed and took a step towards the fluffy little bird, but that was quickly put to a stop as Sova bolted to the side of it and swept his tail onto one of its legs, wrapping it around the leg and pulling the thing off its feet and to the ground.

The pinsir was out before it could even try to get back up, having been put to sleep just like the other combatant. "Well, that takes care of that then.", Sova stated as he looked at the two unconscious bugs.
He was a bit disappointed at not being able to actually fight them, but he figured it was for the best. Clearly, he was the only one of the group who actually enjoyed fighting. The blissey especially seemed to be very against violence in any form.

Keith, unlike the other eeveelution, was relieved to see that a non-violent and non-dangerous solution had been executed. The two bugs had been put to sleep rather than knocked out, which was nice. Though, he wondered if the efforts to stop the fight would just be wasted. If they just left the bugs there, would they start fighting again when they woke up? Probably, then again if they were separated, they would probably just attack the next living thing they saw if they were normally this aggressive. He figured nothing more could be done and just decided to keep quiet and follow the lead of the others. Besides, the sooner he got to leave this place, the better.

(Varda's dream tower should be made of rocks.)

Varda continued to sing, his eyes closed as he concentrated. His voice, chirpy like a bird's and quite fluid. A bird like him certainly was made to sing, and luckily his lullaby often was effective. The melody was quite somber, but slow and drowsy. He didn't know what was happening while he focused so much on the sound, unable to notice one of the bugs approaching him, though he did hear the hiss over his little song... And the second thump that followed as something large hit the soft ground, followed by silence. Well, silence when it came to the rest of the world, as Varda continued to the end of his song before opening his eyes to see that both of the bug Pokémon had in fact been knocked out by his song, sleeping peacefully on the floor.

The Swablu looked at the rest of the group, beaming with happiness as he had managed to do something to help and no one had to get hurt! The Blissey certainly seemed happy with this turn of events, even if it had gotten a bit tense for a moment before. Varda nodded at Sova cheerfully, they had taken care of this problem! ...For now, at least!
"I hope they won't continue when they wake up," the bird cooed as he started to waddle around the two snoring bugs. Why had they even fought in the first place? Was it something they did often, or... Was it just something that had happened because they got angry about something? Who knew... Some rest would surely do the two good, in any case.

"I guess we'll see if we return the same way we came!" The little Pokémon chirped innocently, not even realizing that he might be spooking Keith, as the Jolteon hadn't looked very certain about the encounter with the bugs. But Varda, he didn't seem to be worried at all as he walked, his tail bopping from one side to the other.
"We're not close yet," the Blissey gave an update on the Phantump hunt.


((And sticks. It's a little wobbly tower barely higher than Varda and he looks at it, going all 'yes'.))