A Most Excellent Adventure

Mission Thread Could someone get a Joy Ribbon for me? It's my friend's birthday in two days and I need a gift for her... I feel like I need to give her something special. » Client: Lillipup » Objective: Find 1 Joy Ribbon » Place: Black Mist Mountain » Restrictions: None » Difficulty: E » Reward: 150 Poké + Sitrus Berry » Expiration: 5 months after last attempt » Exploration Points: 15

Black Mist Mountain was, well...it was Black Mist Mountain. What else was there to expect? Nothing had changed in the scenery, the mountain was still a craggy, rocky one made up of dark rock, and was still fairly misty, making it hard to see anything. Deciding to take a moment of rest now that he had finally arrived there, a certain Pikachu well accustomed to the area came to a halt by some loose boulders at the foot of the mountain, grabbing the job request out of his explorer's bag and reading it over once more.

"...okay. Just have to find a Joy Ribbon. How hard could it be?" Nate pushed the mission request back into his bag haphazardly, not seeming to care for the condition of the paper much. Taking a somewhat cautious look around, he figured it would be best to make sure no other hostile pokemon were around before heading out. He'd been around Blackmist once or twice before, and that combined with his time in Shadowhue, he'd learned to at least try and be a bit more careful with things. Taking a quick glance and not noticing much around in the mist, the Pikachu shrugged and began to walk once more, starting to head upwards on one of the various paths interspersed with the rocks on the mountain.

Once he had started to move again, Nate peered forward a bit through the mist. It seemed like there was something there...some sort of shape maybe? A small gust of wind blew by, and the shape rocked a bit. In an instant, Nate jumped with a slight gasp, and a bolt of electricity shot off from him, his cheeks crackling as the Thundershock attack made contact with the shape in the mist, leaving behind a loud crackling sound, and a fairly scorched rock. Blinking, the Pikachu let out a sigh of relief, chuckling a bit to himself as he rubbed the back of his head with a paw.
"Right...eh...maybe I'm just a bit jumpy..." He muttered to himself, shaking his head.

Energy: 13/29

Giles was walking around the surrounding areas of Grassveil. Giles has been very excited about his new life in Grassveil after everything he has been through, with the ever-looming guildhall serving as his goal to strive for. However he was not a part of a team at yet so every now and then he would go and see the world, and comeback to Grassveil. That day he chose to go out farther than normal and see what it had to offer. He was going to check of the northeast mountains that day.

After a bit of wandering, he found himself at a very large mountain. After looking at the fairly crude map he made for himself and looked at his surroundings he figured out where he was. He was located at the base of the very aptly name Black Mist mountains. He wandered around the circumference for a little bit just to get an idea of the size of the mountain. Because he grew up in the ocean, mountains that you could see above the water line were few and far between other than those on his island. For that reason, mountains have always interested him. However this one tended to give him the creeps, mainly because of well, the black mist. This feeling was not helped by hearing a stroke of lighting hitting the some nearby ground.

After getting his bearings, he wondered what the source of this lighting was, whether it was the sky or another pokemon. After looking around his surrounding area, which took longer than it should have due to the mist, he found just what he was looking for, an electric type. Giles was immediately filled with fear of whether or not that he would be hostile or not. After pondering the fact of why there would be a Pikachu in the mountains as compared to something like a Rhydon or Zubat, he figured that it was a safe bet that he was from the Guild. He walked up to the other pokemon and said, “Glad to see that I’m not the only one jumpy here. Hi my name is Giles.” He then tried to show himself as fast as he could, which in retrospect was not very fast, to try and not spook the other pokemon and end up with him being shocked. “Might I ask what you are doing here?”

Energy: 9/25

The sudden sound of another voice made the electric mouse pokemon nearly jump out of his skin, turning around and peering towards the source. He blinked, unable to see much through the mist, but continuing to hear the voice of what he presumed to be another pokemon. Even though he couldn't really see the pokemon yet, Nate figured that if they weren't friendly, they probably wouldn't have gone through the trouble of introducing themselves.

"Uh, hey, I'm Nate. I'm just here on a mission, really." He responded, and started to see a shape emerge from the mist. Once he saw exactly what the other pokemon was, it made sense to him on why they hadn't revealed themselves sooner. After all, he couldn't imagine that a Shuckle could move very fast at all. Deciding to lessen the effort the other pokemon would have to put in, Nate stepped over towards Giles, smiling and nodding his head.
"You scared me a bit back there, though, I can't really imagine you being 'jumpy', necessarily." He snickered, before continuing. "Why are you here, though? Do you live here or something?" The Pikachu figured it could be possible, and it was the only guess he really had at the moment.

Once Giles saw the other pokemon’s reaction to him speaking he realized his intention did not go as planned. He still managed to scare the Pikachu. After seeing him calm down a bit, he began to speak again, “Oh no, I don’t live here. I’m just a wanderer, walking around this world to see the sites.” Some of that is true, he did get lost for a bit, he thought that he farther south than where he actually was, never intended to get to Black Mist.

If Giles had ears they would have perked up when he heard that the other pokemon was a part of the Guild. At least that is all he could assume when he said he was on a mission. Giles was slowly realizing how far the reaches of the guild actually go. From who he has met thus far they are either member of the guild, part of the guild, or know the guild. While he has not gone in any of the shops yet, he can only assume that they get a lot of guild customers. Due to Giles’ increasing curiosity in the guild, he could not help himself and asked, “So what kind of mission is it? As you said I’m not really the jumpy kind, so maybe I could help. If you are looking for something an extra set of eyes is always helpful.” Right after he finished he got really worried. What if he said too much, started to annoy the Pikachu, then he would be in really trouble. Not thinking that he was would attack Giles or anything, but annoying members of the guild will not get him very far.

Hearing that the Shuckle seemed to be a wanderer of sorts, Nate laughed a bit, beginning to reach into his bag and carefully poke around for the mission sheet.
"Been there, done that. I mean, not the whole world by any means, but I've done some wandering. It's fun, but I figure it can get a bit tiring sometimes." The Pikachu mused, finally finding the paper and managing to pull it out from the satchel he carried with him. Trying to flatten it out to make it easy to read for Giles, he put the paper on the ground in front of the other pokemon.

"Well, there's the mission. Just looking for a Joy Ribbon, then bringing it back to the Guild. If you want to tag along, I'm fine with that." Nate left the paper there to give the Shuckle time to read it himself, before starting to glance back and forth around the area, thinking about something. Would some of the steeper areas be an issue for Giles? Well, the more Nate thought about it, he figured that they could take another path if one was too steep or something, or if there wasn't another path, they could always just improvise. In his mind, he figured things couldn't go horribly wrong. Right?

Pikashock carried out 10 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

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After the other pokemon finished giving Giles the description of the job, Giles just nodded and said, “Yup yup, A Joy Ribbon that does not sound all that hard, not at all.” In reality Giles found it to be quite hard because of the difficulty to see. However he did not want to seem worried for the other pokemon was a member of the guild, and first impressions are quite important. “Alrighty then, let’s get asearching.” Giles began to head up what could be construed as a path. It was a tad bit more worn down than the rest of the pass. Giles recognized that he was not the most agile of pokemon so he figured that this would be the best course of action.

After a little bit of searching however, he realized that it probably would not be out in the open or else someone would have already taken it. “I’m going to head off in this direction,” he said. He took a left and noticed that the terrain was getting harsher, but in wanting to make a good impression he persevered. He went and put his foot down on what later to be revealed as a loose rock. He lost his footing and began to fall. He realized that he was going a long way down and he holed up in his shell to brace for impact. Eventually he landed with a big thud and poked his head out to see how far he fell. He could not actually make out how far he fell down his hole because the mist covered the entrance. After that he looked around and saw orbs, orbs everywhere. “Well I can tell you that there are not any Joy Ribbons down here, but there are plenty of orbs.” He said to the Pikachu in hoping that the two of them did not separate far enough so he could still hear Giles.

As Giles seemed to move on ahead enthusiastically, Nate decided to follow beside the Shuckle, though he had to slow his pace a bit in order to keep the two together. Personally, he wasn't so sure if finding a Joy Ribbon would be very easy. He hadn't really seen a lot of them around before, but maybe it would be easier.

As the two continued down the path, the Pikachu turned and squinted slightly, peering off at the Shuckle as he started to head in another direction, looking elsewhere.
"Alright, just be careful. You might not be able to see too well around here. Oh, and if anything happens-"
Thud!
Nate's ears immediately perked up as he heard the sound, and the Pikachu turned to the direction it seemed to come from. He couldn't see where he was going, but that didn't stop him from running off anyways. While he ran, he could hear the Shuckle say something, though it seemed a bit distant and hard to hear. Though, Nate had to wonder, did he say something about "down here"?

And that was when the Pikachu himself ran straight off the cliff. With just a moment to take action, he let out a cry of surprise and quickly sent jolts of electricity down into his paws, the electricity acting against the earth's own magnetic pull and causing him to at least slow his fall a bit with Magnet Rise. Angling himself, he hit the air above the ground and hovered a bit further, passing by Giles before managing to fix himself upright in the air, holding himself still.
"Heh. Still getting used to that..." He muttered to himself, before turning to the Shuckle.
"Hey, you alright?" The Pikachu questioned, hovering closer towards the other pokemon, wanting to make sure he hadn't hurt anything. As he did, he could hear a few other noises nearby, sounding like steps maybe, but he ignored them for the moment.

Energy: 0/29(Due to encounters)

As Giles was waiting for a response from the other pokemon, a figure appeared through the mist. When it was a decameter away from Giles, he realized that that he got his response, just not in the way he intended. As the Pikachu hurled toward the ground, he managed to slow himself down and then “safely” landed on the ground. Giles was confused on how he managed it, but then just figured that it was some electric stuff.  “Yup I’m A OK, just a few scratches on the shell, nothing too bad. I learned that trick a while ago. Just ball up and the impact won’t be too bad.” After Giles made the assessment that Nate was fine, he began to look for a way out. He could not find any direct way out, so he would have to make his own. “Well, take a look for that Ribbon while I work on getting us out of here. I saw plenty of orbs, I don’t have a use for them so take them if you want.”

Giles was a bit nervous, he had not used done this in a long time, and especially in a situation like this. He tried to work up the saliva to do it, and could just remember how it works.
Spit
Giles started to create a climbable wall of web so the two of them could get out. Needless to say this took a decent amount of time to do. When he managed to get to the top, there was another figure there. Giles made it out to be an Archen. Hoping that it would not be hostile he greeted it as a friend, “Ho there friend!”  Its response was, “What is your name?” “Um Giles, why do you ask? What’s yours?” The Archen did not give time of day to Giles’ question and just asked another. “What is your quest?” “Well I wouldn’t call it much of a quest, I’m just trying to help out my new friend find a Joy Ribbon.” Once again it gave nothing to Giles’ response. “What is your favorite color?” “Well, orange I guess, no one ever asked me before.” The Archen just waved off the last response as he would have taken flight if he could. Instead he just waddled away, waddle, waddle. Before it got out of earshot is said, “To answer your question Sir Giles, some may call me… Tim!”

The Pikachu nodded his head in response to the Shuckle, turning away and beginning to look around the ground a bit.
"Well, that's good to hear. That's pretty smart, too. Seems like you've got a tough shell to crack." He continued to say as he searched. Giles hadn't been kidding, there were a ton of orbs there to take a look at. A berry too, and a Reviver Seed, which Nate quickly popped into his mouth after the search was finished.

"Well, I haven't found any-" He started to tell Giles, turning around and noticing that the Shuckle had been hard at work while he searched. A large wall of web seemed to be heading back up to where they were before, and his current partner seemed to be talking with something up there, though he couldn't quite hear what. Stepping up on the web, Nate gripped onto it and began to climb up, moving slower as he did due to the stickiness of the web, before managing to make it up to the top just in time to see the Archen waddle off.

"So...who was that?" Nate questioned the Shuckle curiously, stepping off of the web and onto the ground as he watched the Archen disappear into the mist. As he stood by the Shuckle, waiting to hear what it had been, he could hear a few other steps nearby, and quickly looked around. He couldn't see the source of them in the mist, but he figured they weren't alone.
"Oh, and maybe we should stick together. I have a feeling something else is around." The Pikachu added.

Energy: 29/29(Due to Reviver Seed)

After Giles finished his encounter with the Archen named Tim, who Giles realized that he saw him as quite… enchanting, Nate caught up to Giles. Once Nate finished his question, Giles put on a puzzled face, “Well you see… I didn’t actually get his name. He said that SOME people call him Tim, but what about the rest? Yeah, he asked me some random questions and then just waddled away. Not super random like something about coconuts or Swellows or anything like that.” Giles began to wander in another direction when Nate mentioned that they should stick together. “Yup, that does make since, yes indeed. If that Archen was hostile I would be in a pickle.”

Giles continued to meander in no particular direction when all of the sudden a Cubone appeared out of nowhere. He went and ran up to Nate and said, “Have you seen Bill? Like, my friend, Rufus, he went and was going to use and orb, but he grabbed the wrong one. So now I’m flying through the air having this totally bodacious trip and now I’m hear. The problem is Bill is like probably super lost right now. This is like totally bogus dude. Oh I’m Ted, Ted Theodore Logan. But you can call me Ted!” With the rather erratic entrance of the Cubone and his rather unfamiliar speech, Giles was quickly taken aback. However, he has backup with him if he needed it. Giles assumed that backup would not be needed due to Ted’s rather pleading attitude.

Blinking for a moment, the Pikachu rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking upwards as Giles spoke to him about his encounter.
"Huh. Now that you mention it, you do have a point. Why do only some people refer to him as Tim? Seems weird, having more than one name that people call you." He mused a bit, thinking about the subject. Really, it was quite intriguing, but after a moment he realized that this thinking wasn't getting them anywhere on finding that Joy Ribbon.

Once again moving along with the Shuckle, Nate stopped and watched as the Cubone seemed to wander up to them, telling them all about his plight. As he spoke, the Pikachu turned to Giles and looked at him questioningly, hearing the pokemon give them his name. Well, his three names, which he had established earlier as something strange to him.
"Right...well, uh, do you want us to help you find Bill, Ted? I'm sure we can take some time to do that." As he made his suggestion, Nate began to quiet down once more, hearing something growling coming towards them. Turning around, he squinted his eyes slightly, jumping as he made the shape out as a Poochyena. Instinctively, he reached over and held his paw in his other paw, remembering a nasty bite he had received from a Mightyena back elsewhere.

"Dude! Ted!" The Poochyena walked over to the Cubone, looking a bit...eh, what was the word? Aloof? Lackadaisical? Ditzy? Whatever, it was something like that.
"Wait, are you Bill?" The Pikachu questioned, finding himself to be a bit confused. "If you two are friendly with each other, why were you growling?"
"Huh? No idea what you're talking about, dude." The other pokemon responded. As he did, another growling sound seemed to come out, though it wasn't coming from anyone's mouths. Rather, it was coming from the Poochyena's stomach.
"Ted, man, Rufus is gone. We gotta, like, find him man. And dude, something to eat would be nice. I'm like totally hungry." Still struggling a bit to follow their conversation as well, Nate turned to look at Giles with a bit of a shrug, the confusion evident on his face.

By the time that Ted finished talking to the two of them, Giles was thoroughly confused. He understood the concept that Ted took a Warp Orb, but his rather go with the flow attitude in conjunction with just lost his friends is what put Giles over the edge. When Ted concluded his story, Giles was going to say that he would be glad to help out the Cubone. However, something beat him to the punch. After seeing a shadow of another pokemon, he could only think, “Oh what is it know, with Tim, and now Ted who could this be?” After hearing it approach and checking the facial expressions of Nate, he began to get worried that he was going to attack the three of them.

That did not seem to be the case however. It turns out it was none other than Bill the Poochyena. Bill then went and expressed that he was so “stoked” to actually find Ted. “Like, I thought I lost you forever man!” Ted exclaimed. The two of them proceeded to bro out to make up for their lost time. With that being said, Giles did not believe that the two were gone from each other for very long. To try and break it up Giles said, “Er correct me if I am wrong Nate, but Warp Orbs can’t teleport you across the universe, so your other friend, Rufus (?), should be around here somewhere.”

The two of them seemed quite happy when Giles mentioned that for two reasons. The first was about Rufus, the other must have been something that Giles said. “Most excellent idea Giles,” said Ted. “Yeah also, Across the Universe, I like your style bro. Next you will be saying we will run into some War Tepigs or something.” Giles assumed he must have accidentally made a reference to something. He just shook it off and said, “Alright so I guess we can help you find Rufus, if that is ok with you Nate. Also don’t think I forgot why we’re here in the first place Nate.” Ted went and leaned on Bills back and shouted, “Who are we? WYLD PONTYAS!”

Nate watched the various exchanged occur almost like one would watch two people talk who were speaking a completely different language. Really, everything that was being said was way too foreign to him. Right, so...what are they even talking about? War tepigs? Wild ponytas? Warp orbs? This is all so...alright, well, if I think too much about it that's just going to confuse me more. Let's just go one step at a time...

"Alright, so we're finding Rufus, right?" The Pikachu said, rubbing the back of his head with a paw as he shrugged, confirming their plans. As long as he could get everyone to focus on one specific goal, he figured they wouldn't need to worry about all the other confusing aspects.
"I don't think we're going to find him just standing around here, so why don't we get moving?" He suggested.

"Excellent idea, man." Bill responded, nodding his head as he turned back to Ted, confirming their plans as he waited for the rest of the group to move on. With a nod of his own, Nate looked to Giles and took a few steps closer, wanting to get close so he could talk quietly.
"Right, I think it won't be too big of an issue, helping them find their friend while we do the mission." He said regularly, before switching his tone to that of a whisper.
"Also, I've heard that further up the mountain, the mist there can mess with your head. Cause hallucinations and stuff. That might explain things a bit..." He suggested in a hushed voice.

Giles went and looked at Nate again, very confused. The two other pokemon were very strange to him. He has traveled the world for quite a long time, but has never seen anyone quite like them. The words that they say, are actual words, but they just make no sense in the context they are using them in. Like Giles had no idea when the last time a ponyta went to war, the ones that he has seen are generally peaceful creatures. The warp orb is all that really made sense. He has never actually seen a warp orb himself, but the effect does sound like what they were describing.

Nate seemed to try and just get them a move on. He said that we should keep looking for Rufus, but standing around there is not going to get them anywhere. “Yup, yup I agree with Nate on this one,” said Giles. “Do you guys remember about how high up you guys were when you got teleported?”

Giles got quite nervous when Nate mentioned the mist causes hallucinations up higher. He has never actually experience hallucinations himself, but could only image what they did. “Uh, you know, we were uh, quite high if you catch my drift Shuckle man,” said Bill. “Yeah like high as the mountain top man,” confirmed Ted. “Well Nate, looks like we are in this for the long haul. But I’m also sure that we will find that joy ribbon yet!”

"Yeah, yeah...I mean, it's just finding a Joy Ribbon and Rufus on Black Mist, right? One, singular, small Joy Ribbon and a single pokemon on the entirety of a mountain. How hard can it be, right?" The Pikachu mused, chuckling slightly and giving a bit of a shrug to the current party in question. Honestly, he was a bit worried. Giles seemed to be able to handle himself well, but the other two didn't completely instill the Pikachu with a whole lot of confidence. They'd probably have to keep an eye out for them.

"Well...the only way forward is up, right?" He remarked, turning back and looking to the group.
"No, no dude. We came from up left." Bill responded, as the Cubone standing by them nodded.
"Right, man." Ted added. Nate blinked, looking to the path up ahead. It seemed to fork into two, but the left path was covered in boulders that had fallen in the way.
"That's the only way left." The Pikachu confirmed, nodding his head.
"Dude, there's clearly two ways, left and right." The Poochyena interrupted, causing Nate to rub his head as he only seemed to get more confused, before the Cubone spoke.
"So...left, right?"
"That's what I'm asking you! I don't know where you-" The Pikachu shook his head, sighing a bit before continuing.
"Well, whichever way you took, seems like we've gotta take the right path. Let's get going." He started to walk forward, keeping a bit of a wry smirk on his features as he did so, admittedly amused by the conversation now that they knew where they were going.