Gloomy Sunday

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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.)

Varda flapped his wings to stay in the air, indeed at a slight disadvantage due to the heavy glob of web that weighed him down and made him, well, less aerodynamic – if a round, fluffy bird could complain about that. The electricity kept causing his legs to tingle as the shocks jolted through the sticky threads, occasionally shuddering and flinching from the uncomfortable and sudden feelings. But while he was recuperating from the attack, the Blissey had joined the fight and gave them some help, causing one of the spiders to fall on the ground which should help the more ground-based Pokémon to handle the issue. Of course after her own attack, their client seemed a little bit dizzy from the impact...

Being up in the air, it was easy for the bird to see what the spider-like Pokémon still in the tree was doing. It seemed to prepare for another attack that caused electrified web to appear, so of course he got ready to dodge out of the way... But this time, it wasn't coming for him. Instead, it was shot downwards, towards... Sova!
"Ah, watch out–!" He started to chirp, a bit too late but he attempted to bring everyone's attention to the attack in any case. Keith however, was already on the move, blocking the attack – with his body! Varda chirped in surprise and sympathy, having felt how the attack felt himself... But as the Jolteon fell to the ground and got up, he didn't seem at all hurt or bothered.

Having been momentarily distracted by the sight, Sova's command snapped the Swablu back in action. With a nod, he started to flap his wings harder to rise higher, heading towards the spider in the trees.
"Got it!" He cooed, soaring up and then coming down with the aid of gravity, slamming against the spider with his beak to give it a mighty peck. The force of that seemed to cause the feral Pokémon to lose its footing, both of them tumbling down to the ground – with the one that had the ability of flight of course floating down with the aid of his wings, of course. Varda landed on the ground with his feet, but immediately as he did so, he flopped over to his side. The web was still stuck to his feet and it was quite impossible to stand like that...



((Assuming you have hands to throw it with. Varda doesn't really...))

Sova watched as the second ariados was knocked to the ground, still pinning the first to keep it from attacking anymore. Now it seemed he was going to have to fight both of them, though, since Varda was having difficulties moving due to the webbing. This wasn't even an enjoyable fight for him, just annoying, but it seemed there was no way around him having to do it. A ball of shadowy energy began to form in front of his face as he prepared to handle both of the ariados as a shadow formed under the second of the two bugs in its own preparation, but just then, a zigzagging streak of yellow shot across his vision radius and into the second ariados, electrocuting it. He looked for the source, though the Thunderbolt disappeared just as quickly as it'd appeared. However, the jolteon close by still giving off sparks was enough for him to gather who had created the electricity.

As the second ariados hit the ground, Keith's first instinct was to back away. However, he instead channeled the electricity in his body into a bolt of lightning, straight towards the ariados that'd just landed on the ground. He wanted to help with the fight, not run! That's why he joined the Guild in the first place, to help! He glared at the ariados for a moment as it collapsed to the ground, his Thunderbolt being the last it could take. His fur crackled loudly with electricity, the static in him being stirred by his attack.

"Huh....," Sova muttered to himself before directing his Shadow Ball downwards and firing it at the ariados he was pinning. A dark explosion covered him, but quickly dissipated as he walked away from the now unconscious ariados.
"I didn't think you were gonna help. This is one time I'm happy to be wrong," he commented to the jolteon.
"Oh, hey, Varda, need any help with that?," he questioned the swablu, referencing the electroweb.

Keith's face lit up with a happy smile as he got about the closest thing one could get to a compliment from Sova. As the topic changed to Varda, he turned towards the bird and noticed the electrified web. If he could absorb the electricity before, surely he could do it now! "I can help," he offered.

(He can kick it.)

Varda was rather useless as he flopped on the ground. He did try to pull his leg apart and hopefully break the web that imprisoned them, but the glob of sticky silk was much too thick for him to be able to overpower it with muscle alone. It was a pity he hadn't brought something sharp to cut the web with and be better prepared, but perhaps he would remember that for the next time they came to this forest. He was certain this wasn't the only time they would see spider-like Pokémon in this forest with the ability to get anything stuck on a web...

The Swablu was momentarily lost in his thoughts as he struggled to get free, but a sudden flash of lightning snapped him out of it. The forest was illuminated by the harsh light for a moment, striking one of the spiders... And the source, of course, was Keith. The Jolteon had just been sparking with electricity their whole time here, so it had to feel good to be able to release it finally!
"Ooh, go Keith!" The little bird chirped in an excited tone as he tried to get up, only to fall back down on his other side.

With their attackers taken care of, the forest was once again peaceful... And dark, with no more bolts of lightning lighting the place up. The Blissey seemed to have recovered and the strange floating husk of a Pokémon... Well, it was still there, floating in place a little distance away, just staring quietly as it always did. It hadn't really helped either side, but it hadn't gotten in the way either. Varda was still having trouble with the web, looking up as he was offered help.
"That would be nice!" He cooed, already having a wing stuck in the same sticky mess after trying to use it to pry some of the stuff off,
"It's pretty sticky..."



((And then the next few weeks he will spend with his little birdy foot in a cast. I hope you are imagining him hopping around with tiny crutches.))

Upon being given permission to help, Keith approached the swablu. He carefully put a paw on the webbing, making sure not to touch Varda in the process, since he didn't want to shock the swablu even more. The electric glow of the web faded away and his fur crackled a little from the intake of electricity. The webbing lost some of its stickiness, which was being brought on partly from the electricity's static, though there was still the issue of it being wrapped around Varda's legs. "There, I hope that helped," he said as he backed away, not wanting to stay near anyone and risk shocking them if he didn't have to.

Sova watched as the jolteon assisted Varda, noticing the web losing its electrical charge. Varda was certainly taking the electricity well, given the typing disadvantage. He figured it would probably still be difficult for the swablu to get the web off, so he then decided it was his turn next to offer assistance. He approached the swablu, the fur on his legs beginning to freeze into spikes in the process. "Need any more help? I can cut it for you," he offered.

The glaceon was impressed that his new ally had learned how to use his jolteon form so quickly, with great aim on the Thunderbolt that'd been given to him and even multiple uses of his Volt Absorb ability, all on his first mission. It was certainly better than Sova had done on his first mission, granted he was an eevee then, so there wasn't much inherent power that he could make use of. Before evolving, he'd always had to outsmart enemies to beat them, since he certainly couldn't overpower most of them. He wondered if perhaps Keith had ever needed to do the same thing before evolving.

(Well I am now and it's adorable.)

Varda watched as the Jolteon came closer and placed a paw on the sticky electrified web, doing... Something to it, causing it to stop glowing and crackling with electricity. The tingling in his feet subsided as well, a rather curious event indeed. Did Electric-type Pokémon like Keith have this kind of an ability? It did make sense in a way, but it was still a rather strange thing in the bird's eyes.
"Oh, thank you!" He chirped happily as he squirmed and tried how well the web was holding up. It was indeed still holding up, it hadn't just disintegrated and fallen apart... But as he moved, his legs managed to pull slightly further away each time as did his trapped wing.

But it was still holding up quite well, and Varda didn't really want to stick his other wing into the mess too. That would only make it all worse! Luckily Sova offered some help as well, walking closer with promises of cutting the web.
"Ah, you can cut it?" The Swablu tilted his head slightly as he lied on the ground, continuing his squirming for a while as he tested the web. It was stretching, but not snapping. Perhaps he would have had to stretch it further for that, but his limbs were short and stubby and unable to do so.

"Yes, I think that would be nice!" The bird added after a moment of pondering, quite helplessly stuck there.


((Cute pain.))

Sova nodded in response to the swablu's question on cutting the web. He'd been able to cut the webs on Keith, so it didn't seem like it would be much trouble to do the same thing again. It was hard for the webs to really stick to ice, so he didn't have to worry about getting stuck himself anyways. "Alright, pull until it gives," he replied as he moved his paw to begin cutting the web.
It was more clumped in this situation, making it difficult to cut. Keith had just been surrounded by strands of the web, while Varda had gotten a section of his body wrapped in it. Still, he was managing to slowly cut away at it by putting his leg against it and pulling back, since the spikes of ice were naturally pointed in that direction, making it easy for them to hook onto the webbing and tear it apart.

Keith watched as Sova got to work finishing off the web, feeling there wasn't much more that he could do for the situation. He certainly couldn't cut it himself.... at least not that he knew of. He couldn't surround his body with icy spikes, so the web would probably just stick to him if anything. Still, he felt like he'd at least helped a little bit by absorbing the electricity. This ability of his was definitely useful, at least against electric attacks.

The jolteon decided to focus his attention on being a lookout, since he couldn't really do any more to help with the current situation. He didn't want to have to fight anymore anyways, nor did he want to have to rely on others to fight for him, so trying to spot a possible fight and avoid it instead seemed like a good plan. It seemed like if there were stronger pokemon here, Sova would probably be inclined to disagree, but the glaceon seemed to dislike battling things here.... apparently out of boredom. How could someone find fighting to be fun? Especially fighting in which they're risking their life!

Varda nodded as the Glaceon came closer and gave advice as to what he should do to fix this little issue with the web. As he was told, the little bird started to pull his legs apart, giving Sova a slightly larger area that was safe to cut with his paw covered in icy spikes as he stretched the thread as much as he could. The sharp ice dug into the web quite easily, barely even sticking to the smooth, slightly wet surface as it cut through. The silk started to give out, allowing the Swablu to pull his feet – and wing – further and further from each other until the web finally snapped. All that was really left to do now was to trim and cut off the thick globs that still clung to his feet, and then he was free!

"Phew! That's better," the little bird chirped happily as he got rid of the annoying web, realizing that he should be a lot more careful about that in the future. It was really annoying when he didn't have a way to cut it himself, unable to turn his soft fluff into a sharp cutting implement! Slowly, he rolled over and hopped to his feet, beaming with joy as he looked at both Keith and Sova.
"Thanks to both of you!" He added with a big smile.

Some little sticky threads still clung to his wing's feathers, but he was sure they wouldn't be that big of an issue. They still had their mission to complete, and now that the fight was over, the Blissey waddled over and started to lead the way again.

Sova watched as the swablu managed to break free from the webbing, albeit with some help. At least they didn't have to spend much time on it. Having such weak enemies prove to be such a hindrance was not something that seemed appealing to Sova. It would have been embarrassing if anything, not really worrisome. He was quite confident in his ability to beat down anything and everything in this forest if need be, so having an enemy manage to even burden him would just be an embarrassment.

He nodded in response to Varda's thanks before replying, "No trouble. That's what.... allies are for."
He hesitated, considering using the word "friends" over "allies," but decided not to in the end. It seemed like anyone he ended up calling a friend left, so maybe not recognizing this would somehow stop the same bad ending from happening. Too many "friends" had left him in the past for him to be overly comfortable throwing the word around, anyways.

Keith nodded as well, though he didn't speak up, not wanting to really partake in the social interactions too much. He took note of the hesitance on Sova's part, the glaceon seeming to be for some reason against recognizing Varda as anything more than an ally. This seemed odd to the jolteon, since the two seemed to know eachother rather well to just be allies. Surely, then, if this was the case, Sova considered him to be a mere ally as well.... This wasn't exactly surprising to him if it was the case, since he'd only just met Sova recently, but it was still disappointing. Maybe it'd change eventually, though! They were on the same team after all.

The two followed along with the blissey, neither very interested in leading the way for likely obvious reasons. Sova's laziness and Keith's timidness, certainly not good qualities and they were definitely evident as such. However, unlike Keith, Sova embraced his negative qualities, especially laziness. It was rather pleasant for a "negative" quality, since he got to relax much more easily than others.... though, he never really relaxed anymore. Not with what sleeping would always do to him.

Varda just nodded happily to Sova's words, not really questioning them or spending much time thinking about them. Now that he was free, he was just happy to be bouncing around as usual and continuing their mission. The Blissey was leading as usual, with the bird following closely along with the rest of their group – and the strange floating husk that was still around, following them all but still keeping the same distance it had this far.

The walk was rather uneventful, with the only slightly exciting part being when suddenly a group of rather large moth-like Pokémon ended up making their way past the little path the explorers had been using this far to get through the forest. Being so large, it was quite surprising how silent they had been, the little light that managed to get past the thick canopy reflecting from their intense, bug-like eyes. In the darkness, their appearance might have been a rather frightening one... But the Swablu just seemed to be excited as he watched the flock disappear into the forest again.

The trees ahead grew sparser, letting in a bit more light in the otherwise dark forest. The grass started to grow slightly taller once again, creating a small little clearance up ahead that seemed like a very sunny little paradise in the middle of all the shadows. But thanks to the light, it was quite obvious what was in the little meadow: on a fallen tree sat a little ghostly stump, looking rather down even though the group hadn't gotten very close yet. Around the sad Pokémon were some other kind of tree-like Pokémon, but these ones had some greener leaves growing on top – and they all seemed to have three faces each, too! It might have looked bad if it wasn't quite obvious that the tree-like Pokémon weren't hostile to the little stump.

"...We're here! I need to go, there's no time to waste!" The Blissey suddenly spoke up, her eyes full of determination as she started to make her way to her depressed goal. Varda had almost spaced out and forgotten about their mission already, but technically, they were finished now. But considering what the Blissey had asked them... They would have to kill some more time until she was ready, so they could escort her back to Grassveil Town...

Keith followed along with the group, doing his best to stay in a position where he wouldn't accidentally hurt anyone or get hurt himself. When the flock of moths showed up, he froze up and his fur's sparking once more grew to be very audible to show his fear. If he was one to get easily embarrassed, this whole emotional change being broadcast thing would be misery for him. Though, honestly, if someone paid any attention they could probably tell he was afraid anyways. He wasn't exactly hiding it, after all. He was relieved when the venomoth group simply passed by, apparently not interested in fighting. His fur sparked once more at the emotional change, but quickly died down as his emotional state faded back to "normal."

Sova had a reaction very unlike those of the other members of his group. More so that he had no reaction at all. Group of venomoth passing by? Meh. Even if they had been hostile, his reaction would have been pretty much the same. There was nothing particularly threatening to him in this forest and no member of their group was particularly weak, to the point that he would need to have special consideration for them. He just continued moving, not even really waiting for the moths to pass by. He simply slowed his pace so that they would be out of the way in time, as stopping for someone if he didn't have to seemed like too much trouble.

The glaceon took a moment to observe the scene as they finally reached their destination. A phantump that seemed to be their mission objective was there, surrounded by some other.... plantlike pokemon, though very different ones, exeggutor. They had presumably all gathered in this area for the same reason; Sunlight. This place was particularly sunny, which was rare in Shadowhue, so of course it would logically be an appealing spot for Grass-types. "Yeah, you.... go do your thing," he replied to the blissey, happy to have the happiness-obsessed creature attach itself to someone else.

Keith was relieved when the group reached their destination, mostly because it was less eerie than the rest of the forest, but also because it meant their mission was over.... or at least, the hard part was. They'd be able to leave soon! At that, they would probably be able to spend most of their time left here in a rather pleasant area of the forest. It wasn't exactly the most appealing place to be in his opinion, but given the situation, it seemed like the best option. "So now we stay here and guard Blissey till she's done.... then we can go, right?," he asked to his allies once the blissey was off doing her thing.

Varda nodded a couple of times as the Blissey ended up scurrying over to the little miserable ghost stump, already so full of determination to do the right thing. She was a true professional indeed, and it was quite likely that there was nothing the team of Guild members could do anything here. It was quite outside the bird's area of expertize, at least! He was certain that it would take no time for their client to handle this issue, but they should still give her some time and not seem too hasty. After all, they weren't in any hurry...

"That's right!" The Swablu chirped happily as Keith ended up asking about their next move. All they really had to do was wait... And well, if something did attack, they would of course want to make sure that no one was hurt in that case. The little clearing didn't seem a likely place for an ambush, but one never knew with the feral Pokémon... And speaking of potentially feral Pokémon, the floating husk of a Pokémon was still there, seemingly having decided to keep following the bigger party rather than going after the Blissey when they separated. Varda didn't seem to mind, though his gaze lingered for a moment when he noticed the now familiar sight still nearby.

"We could explore what's around us, too! Keep an eye out for things and such!" He offered happily, looking quite excited at that idea himself. They didn't have much time to do the exploration part of their job when they were out doing missions, especially ones where they had to escort someone. It was hard work just making sure that their client wouldn't get attacked by something.

Sova watched as their client did what she'd come here to do, a bit bored by the idea of just sitting around until she was done, until Varda brought up an idea. Exploration! His ears instantly perked up at the suggestion, not because he was excited to explore the forest, but because this was the perfect chance to complete his second goal here! Aside from the mission, he'd come here to train Keith and so far, it'd been difficult due to the jolteon's hesitancy towards fights. However, in mere moments, he'd just thought of a plan to fix that.

"Alright, how about we split up and cover the immediate vicinity of this little sunspot?," he suggested, looking around the sunny area to better show what he was talking about.
If he could get Keith to go off alone, even if it wasn't far away, he could potentially get the jolteon stuck in a fight. Perhaps it seemed cruel, but.... he'd be watching the whole time to make sure nothing went wrong.

Keith hesitated to respond to the idea of exploring, as he rather liked the safe feeling of the sunny, populated area they were in. He hesitated even more at the idea of splitting up. He certainly didn't want to be ALONE here.... "U-uhh.... are you sure splitting up is a good idea?," he questioned in an attempt to change Sova's mind, though he knew it was likely futile.
Despite not knowing Sova for long, he knew once the glaceon had decided on something, there wasn't much one could do to sway him.

"We'll cover more ground that way. Besides, we won't be too far from eachother, there's no danger to it," Sova almost immediately replied, as if expecting Keith to question the suggestion.
In reality, he was expecting it. Of course Keith would question it, of course he wouldn't want to do it, because he was scared. That was the whole purpose OF doing it, to get him to stop being so scared. Besides, there was no real danger.

Varda did actually pick up on how the Glaceon suddenly seemed to perk up, looking like he was quite interested in that suggestion he made! Of course he was happy, what was better than making other Pokémon enjoy themselves, after all? If Sova wanted to explore too, then it seemed like that was what they would do. The Glaceon was pretty much the leader of their little team on this mission, and good team members would listen to their leader! Keith too seemed like someone who would rather listen to Sova than argue against, but... The idea of splitting up did cause the Swablu to tilt his head in a questioning manner as well. The Jolteon didn't seem too sure about it, and well...

"But doesn't the monster in all those stories always wait for moments like these? When the heroes split up and are hopeless with less eyes and strength, going after the weakest links first with its big, sharp teeth and glowing eyes?" The bird asked, bringing up a rather good point even if his reasoning was based on fairytales and other such stories based on fiction. That, and he probably shouldn't bring such horror stories up when they were in a spooky dark forest with a rather frightened Pokémon, but Varda soon seemed to perk up as if he had cleared his own suspicions.

"But you're right! We'll be pretty close to each other and there isn't really anything dangerous in here," he chirped happily and already started to waddle around, his tail feathers bobbing from one side to another. Even if he forgot about the strange bug Pokémon that had followed them, its existence was still a mystery. Would it stay behind when the group split, or would it follow one of them...?

Keith shuddered at the description of some unspecified monster. Was something like that lurking in this forest!? Surely, Varda knew more about the area than him. No, the swablu must have been just using such a monster to illustrate a point, not to imply something like that could actually be lurking in the area. The swablu had even said himself that there wasn't anything overly dangerous in Shadowhue. He did his best to keep himself calm and assured that nothing bad was gonna happen, though his fur betrayed him, indicating his mood deteriorating through amplified sparking.

Sova merely rolled his eyes at the comment about some big, scary monster. If anything, something such as that would be a welcome challenge to him. Though, perhaps not at the current moment, since he had quite a lot of innocents he would have to look after if such a situation arose. Having to be morally correct and protect others certainly made it difficult to have fun. He waited until Varda was finished speaking to reply, "Yeah, we'll all be fiiiiine. Besides, why would you be worried about the monster....? That's something for the enemies to be afraid of," implying he was the aforementioned "monster."
He followed along behind Varda, wanting to get away from Keith before informing the swablu of his plan.

Keith, completely understanding and unamused by Sova's comment, reflexively moved to follow his two allies. However, the glaceon quickly spun around and put a paw out in front of him, signaling him to stop.

"Nope. We're splitting up, remember?," Sova commented.

The jolteon hesitated for a moment before replying, "B-but you two-," before being cut off.

"Are going to have a quick chat before splitting up. Now you go that way," Sova ordered, pointing his already-raised paw in the opposite direction of where Varda was going.

Keith remained still for a moment, as if hoping the glaceon's reply would change, before submitting and turning the other way. The situation was looking to be awful, but he tried to look on the bright side. At least it could have been worse; The shedinja could have chosen to follow him. Instead, it seemed to lurk behind the other two. Which one it would follow when they split up, he didn't know, but at least it wasn't him.

Varda nodded a couple of times, agreeing with the Glaceon that everything would be fine. And Sova did bring up a good point: if there really was a monster in these woods, everyone would have to be afraid of it! Monsters didn't really pick any other side except their own, right? Maybe if a monster did show up, all the Pokémon in the forest would work as one to defeat it and bring peace to Shadowhue! It was a beautiful thought, one that filled the little bird's eyes with determination, almost sparkling in the darkness.

He kept waddling and Sova soon followed him, stopping abruptly when the Ice-type did the same and stopped Keith from following them. He had almost forgotten about the splitting up part himself, so this reminder was good! The Swablu almost started to head off on his own, but as the two Pokémon continued their conversation, apparently the Glaceon wanted to have a chat with him first.
"Oh? Oh!" Varda chirped and flapped his wings in realization, almost trying to make it sound like it all had been planned from the beginning. He nodded a couple of times, watching as the timid Jolteon started to head off, leaving the two behind... With the floating bug husk that had decided to stick with them.
"Good luck!" He cooed after their friend.

The silence grew, and the little bird's eyes kept looking at Sova now and then to see if they were ready to do what it was they wanted to do. It took Keith some time to get out of view, and that was enough for Varda to just grow much too curious.
"What was it that you wanted to talk about?"