3spoopy

The Ruined Chateau.... Given Sova had been here once already and explored the interior, it now looked smaller from the outside, all except for the massive double-doors. Then again, given the things he'd witnessed inside, it probably WAS somehow smaller on the outside. Still, this wasn't going to deter or scare him. The only thing he was worried for was anyone else aiming to go there. Today, the one who happened to want to go with him was Varda. This was odd, since the two usually only did missions together, but today.... there was no mission here. Actually, the guild had sort of made it a mission to explore the things happening and this seemed like the place to go, so maybe it was a mission. Just, without the rewards.

He looked up to the sky and stared at the gloomy dark clouds for a moment, as if just making sure the sky wasn't changing before he set his attention back on the Chateau. "Remember, Varda, stay close to me in here. This place will literally change with you in it, so if we get separated, we could have a lot of trouble finding each other. There's also a lot of really dangerous and hostile pokemon in here and since most of the rooms aren't exactly huge, I won't be able to go all out with you here," he explained, relaying his past experience in this horrible house to the swablu.

He wanted his ally to be ready for everything in here, after all. Especially since there was a good chance he was going to need some help.... if not with fighting, then with finding his way around. He would have brought some of his other new allies along, but oddly enough.... the little fluff-ball was still the one he trusted most alongside him. At that, Varda was the only one he trusted to manage to capably and safely navigate this place, and more importantly, to LISTEN to him. Sure, Dusk knew the area given she'd come with him before, but she had mostly just been a hindrance in fights and never listened.

Varda cooed as he looked up at the large manor, never having seen anything like it before in his life. Well, not just the part where it seemed to be very old and rundown, and the way the air seemed to be very dark and the clouds heavy as the loomed above, swirling over the house... No, he had never seen a house like this, so big and so... House-y! And fancy! And strange. He didn't find it spooky like how many had described it, but it was true that he didn't want to live in it himself. It was a bit too much, he was fine with just a little nest himself...

There was something big happening in the world. The Swablu wasn't entirely sure about all the details and he didn't understand much, but he knew it was something big and they had to go in this house to try to fix it! They had to find, that thing. Some box something something. He was sure Sova would know more, he could trust the Glaceon to fill those holes he had. It didn't matter all that much, they were in this together and he would help how he could. The two of them were pretty fast, so they could do the initial scouting at least, if they failed their objective!

The bird nodded as the other Pokémon spoke, listening to the description. The house sounded even more mysterious on the inside than it looked, full of dangerous Pokémon and other oddities.
"Oh, do you think you could... End up inside the walls?" Varda tilted his head with a coo. That didn't sound like a fun thing at all, becoming one with the walls...
"But it's alright! We just have to make it through, we don't have to stop to deal with any attackers if we can get past them. That's faster," he continued, chirping as he started to waddle closer to the double doors ahead of them. Those things would finally lead them inside...


Current Energy: 29 (45 -16 from entering)

Sova stopped for a moment at the swablu's question, contemplating it. He hadn't actually seen anything like that.... but that didn't mean it was impossible. This place seemed almost as if it was alive, with things happening within it that he had no idea how to explain. It seemed completely possible that one could end up somehow stuck inside of a wall if they happened to be so unlucky. He didn't want to scare Varda, but he also didn't want to lie, especially since he needed for his ally to be prepared for anything that could happen here.

He continued moving and decided on giving his honest view on the question, though he wasn't completely sure about it. "I don't actually know if someone can get stuck in the walls. Lets just try not to find out. Like you said, we aren't here to get in trouble, we're here to avoid it," he suggested, figuring that even if it was possible to get stuck in the walls, the solution was as easy as just staying away from the walls.
With his turn to talk having passed, he leaned into one of the two large doors and pushed against it, however, it seemed to not want to open. That was odd.... He could have sworn that the last time he'd been there, the door was push-to-open. Of course, it made sense that the door would change.

The glaceon stepped back and surveyed the doors for a moment, noticing a circular ring-handle on each one. He lifted one of the two metal rings up with a paw and examined it for a moment before biting onto it and beginning to pull. The door certainly seemed heavier and more difficult to open this way. However, he ever-so-slowly managed to make the door move, opening it little-by-little.

"Ooh. I wonder if that means you become the house, then," Varda chirped, not seeming to be too bothered by the idea of getting stuck in a wall. He was the one suggesting it, but he didn't seem to consider what it would truly mean – such as being crushed and running out of oxygen if somehow surviving the fusion. No, his view of things was a lot more innocent like how he once became one with the bush when he got stuck inside it and couldn't get out on his own. But walls were a part of what made a house, and if one became a wall... Maybe one would become the house as well!

They were right in front of the doors now, and Sova wasted no time starting to push on them. However, nothing happened, causing the Swablu to tilt his head. Was the door locked or maybe just too heavy? Should he try to push too, even though he didn't have much strength and his weight was quite nonexistent as well? The bird didn't have to think for long, as the fox-like Pokémon ended up grabbing one of the metallic rings with his mouth, pulling it to reveal that the door had to be pulled, not pushed. This Varda could help with, and the bird rose to his wings, grabbed the same ring and pulled as hard as he could.

The door was slowly opening, its hinges creaking in a menacing way, a wail that seemed to tell anyone sane enough to leave the premises at once, before they were unable to do so. The insides seemed to be like some smoky, shadowy abyss ready to swallow unfortunate Pokémon that wandered too close.

Sova pulled patiently and focused on the task at hand, only glancing in Varda's direction as the bird came to help him with the task. He kept up the pulling until it was just barely open enough to allow for himself and his little friend to get through, then quickly darted inside and pressed himself against the door, keeping it open for the swablu. At least the door wasn't any heavier than he'd remembered it being, though he was sure that the last time he'd come here, it was definitely not a pull-door. As he held the door open, he looked around to see what the interior had in store for them today.

A rather large room, but not in the way he'd expected. It was.... tall. Very tall. It was wide too, sure, but not as wide as some of the rooms he'd seen in this place before. As usual, it was lit by candles, attached to the walls by candle-holders. However, there were a few things that were a bit.... new to him. First, there were no doors, at least not that he could see. Second, he couldn't see the ceiling of the room due to it being so high and the candles only lighting the lower area of it. Third.... there appeared to be an eerie black colored spiral staircase in the middle of the room, which seemed to lead up into the dark abyss. "Fun right off the bat....," he muttered, mostly to himself.

The staircase in particular drew him to it. It was black, making it difficult to see in the dimly lit room and it had railing on it, presumably to stop anyone from falling off it. There were also no gaps between the stairs, which was likely to stop anyone from having a leg slip through the staircase and get stuck. However, that wasn't what was most noteworthy about it. It seemed to have escaped the effects of age in some places, while others had parts of the railing broken off and even holes in the stairs themselves. He found himself so distracted staring at the staircase that he had completely forgotten about Varda for the moment and just stood leaning against the door, paying no attention to the outside world.

The door ended up being pulled open just far enough for a Pokémon their size to get in, but Varda didn't let go until Sova did. With the way the door itself was pulling, it would surely just slam shut when they let go! And indeed, when they did let go, it started to close – but it wasn't so heavy that a Glaceon couldn't hold it open with the own body, so Sova quickly made his way in and stopped the door from closing all the way. The Swablu was now allowed to land and he waddled inside, past Sova.

As expected, they came to a room. Even though the outside area wasn't very bright, the indoors seemed much dimmer despite the candlelight – or perhaps because of that, those small dots of light seemingly swallowed so easily by the shadows. There was a staircase in the middle of the room, but no doors leading anywhere. And that was odd! Looking at it from the outside, there definitely had to be more rooms to this first floor or otherwise the size didn't match up at all! But then again... The room they were in looked like it was much too tall to belong in the house, either...

"Are we going to climb up the stairs?" Varda chirped, turning around to look at Sova who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. Even though the house changed its shape, Sova had been here before, so maybe he knew what to do better than him. But as things were, he didn't really see any other way to go except up.

Sova continued simply staring at the staircase until Varda spoke to him, snapping him back to awareness. He then looked over to the swablu, then back to the staircase. There weren't any other ways through this that he could see, other than just exiting through the large entrance door and hoping that when they walked back in, they would be in a different room. He knew for sure that things like that were possible here, but of course, they could also end up in the same room or an even worse room, so he didn't see the extra effort to be worth it. He stepped away from the door and allowed it close behind them, shutting out the outside light and making it even dimmer in the room.

"Yep.... Looks like it," he replied as he moved towards the staircase, cautious of the possible presence of traps and enemies.
"You think you could take one of those candles and fly around the stairs so we can see?," he questioned as he realized that while Varda could fly, he would have to simply walk up the staircase and neither of them would be able to find their way around up in the dark. Considering they had no light sources with them, the candles seemed like the only option.

As he waited for a reply, he carefully put a paw on the first step and pressed down, testing the durability. When he heard no creaking, he took another step.... then another.... and another.... When he was completely on the staircase and about a foot off the ground, he leaped up and stomped down on the stairs, once more testing the durability. The spiral of stairs still seemed sturdy, so he shrugged and continued moving.

The door clicked shut behind them when nothing was stopping it – and Varda did wonder if the door actually locked behind them, but for some reason testing it out now didn't seem like a very great idea. They'd get to that when they got to it, they would get outside somehow in the end. The only way they could go was forward! ...Or up, as it was in this case, the bird's eyes looking up at the tall spiral staircase disappearing into the abyss above.

The bird Pokémon looked back at Sova with a smile, their path decided. They'd be taking the stairs, so Varda already started to waddle towards them. Of course, he had wings and the ability to fly, so it wasn't like he had to take the stairs or anything! But as Sova has said, they should stick close to each other and even if he flied, he would want to stay near the stairs. But that was when the Glaceon brought up a very good point with an excellent idea, causing the bird to stop and just go ah! as he turned back to look at Sova.

"Oh, that is a great idea!" The Swablu chirped happily in his usual excited manner. They couldn't see in the darkness, so they needed light! He wasted no time flapping his wings and taking off, gently peeling off one of the lit candles from the candle-holders lined up on the wall. Remembering the Glaceon's words, he got back quickly with their new light source gripped tightly in his talons.

Meanwhile Sova was already climbing the stairs, jumping on them in a way that looked fun. Varda glided closer, tilting his head.
"Is that fun?"

Bird carried out 5 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

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Sova couldn't help but smile slightly at Varda's question. Was it fun? Not really, though he had to admit if it were something a bit more bouncy it would have been pretty fun. "Well, I didn't fall through, so I guess it's more fun than it could have been. I just wanted to make sure the stairs are safe," he replied as he got moving up the spiral of stairs, seeing that they now had a candle to light their path.
Honestly, the candle was a bit more for him than Varda, since he had to watch where he walked carefully, but he was sure they would both need the light when they transcended into the darkness.

Whenever he came to a part of the stairs where the railing was broken off or damaged, he stuck to the other side, being careful to avoid falling. When there were holes in the bottom of the stairs, he took his time walking over them to make sure he didn't fall through. Despite having confidence in himself, the risk of falling and sustaining severe injuries or worse, death, seemed very real. As he climbed and the light got dimmer and dimmer, he couldn't help but mistakenly perceive the nothingness in his continually darkening surroundings as movements. He occasionally thought he saw a littke movement here or there, but his worries were quickly put to rest as he looked to the areas of the supposed movements, only to see nothing, time and time again. He figured it was just his imagination, or maybe even the chateau playing tricks on him.

What were they even here for? Xatu's message had been more clear than what was expected from most, obviously pointing everyone to this specific place and pretty much telling them exactly what they needed to do, but he couldn't help but feel something was off about this. There was a reason he'd wanted to come do this himself. Other than, of course, the obvious reason that he wanted to be the "hero." He was worried that there was more danger to this than Xatu had let on and he knew there were few to none more qualified and willing than him to take a risk on their own life.

(Energy - More than enough 70)

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

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Varda nodded a couple of times, falling wouldn't be fun at all! Of course he didn't consider that for a wingless Pokémon that could not fly, a fall from the heights they would eventually get to could be... Well, quite deadly. Splat. Still, safety was good, as the stairs looked rather dangerous in places. Slow and steady was the proper way to take it, so the bird didn't rush ahead himself either: after all, he was the one holding the candle! While he wasn't needed when they were still close enough to the floor and the dim light of the wall candles helped, it quickly got darker the further up they went and the candle he was carrying truly became their only source of light. Varda stayed close to the stairs so they would be properly illuminated for Sova, flapping his wings to stay in the air.

Something caught his eye. A small sparkle as the light hit it, above them on the spiral staircase... The Swablu looked up, seeing if he could see it again. For a moment he even held the candle closer to the steps above them, finally allowing him to see something glint in the light again. There was something there!
"Ah, Sova, I think I see something! You should... Stay put so I can go up there and take a look, alright?" The bird chirped, just having to check it out. It could be something useful or something dangerous, but seeing that he had the ability to get to it before Sova... Well, why wouldn't he take it?

Flapping his wings, Varda started to soar higher. It wasn't all that many loops higher and the Glaceon should have still gotten some light reaching up to his position, but it just wouldn't be such a smart idea to climb the treacherous stairs in such dim light! Once the bird got high enough, he could see it – but not recognize it. It was some kind of strange piece, metallic perhaps with some small mechanical pieces when he took a closer look at it. But it looked... Kind of broken. Maybe something had fallen from a high place and turned into tiny pieces?

Grabbing it with his claws, the Swablu flew back down to Sova's position.
"I found something, see? I don't know what it is, though!"


Current Energy: 0 with 13 points of overflow, guess I'll use a Reviver Seed in the next post!

Sova's ears perked up as Varda claimed to have found something. He rolled his eyes upon being requested to stay put, feeling it was a bit funny that he was the one whose safety was being worried about.... Well, then again, he was the one who couldn't fly. "Uh-huh," he agreed, though he just kept moving despite verbally agreeing, clearly not keeping to his word.
He did slow down a bit, though, for whatever that was worth. Mostly just because it was getting more difficult to see the stairs, but also partly because the things he'd taken to just be illusions were continuing around him. Of course, he continued shrugging the shadows moving in the dark off as nothing. Until he felt something grab his tail. He turned around to see what it was, but found nothing. At that point, he realized there was actually something here.

As Varda suddenly spoke up near him, he almost jumped back in surprise. "Uuuuh.... Well, it's a thing....," he stated as he got a look at the thing the swablu was carrying.
Technically he wasn't wrong, it was indeed a thing. However, he wasn't quite sure what kind of thing. "Might be useful at some point, keep it," he continued, with some actual useful input.
For a moment, the interest in some random thing had distracted him from the issue at hand.... the fact that something was following them and he knew it.

He contemplated how to tell the swablu before deciding that it would be best to hold off on that for the moment. If the thing following them heard him talking about it, so aware of its stalking, it was quite possible that it would attack. He didn't want to risk that if he didn't need to. Maybe they could just reach the next room peacefully and it would stop following them.... Maybe.

(Good news! I screwed up and forgot that there's only 5 rolls allowed per person per page on events, so I'm taking off the latter 5 of my rolls. Oh, did I say good? My mistake. :D)

(Energy - 45)

Varda landed on the stairs momentarily so he could show the item he found better, placing the candle down as well so he had both of his feet free and they had plenty of light. It was easier to take a look at the, well, thing like this, but he still had no idea what it was. And it looked like Sova didn't know, either! Gently, the bird ran his talon over the strange piece, feeling the grooves and bits.
"It looks a bit like it came apart, don't you think? The way its insides are showing and how these edges are so sharp and... All over the place," the bird spoke, looking at the Glaceon. They could have theorized about it for ages and not come to any conclusion, so just taking it for now seemed like a good idea. They could have someone at the town look at it!

Grabbing the strange piece, he put it in his bag and reached for the candle. Flapping his wings, he was ready to take off again and the two of them could continue their slow climb through the darkness. It was very quiet, with only the gentle wing beats and soft paw pitter patters audible in the room. It was actually kind of relaxing, in a way. They could hear very little and see very little, there were no distractions or–

Suddenly, the Swablu flew into something, his vision getting darker and it seemed like even the light of the candle was sucked up. It got difficult to breathe all of a sudden, a cold chill coursing through the bird Pokémon's body as he felt oddly numb. Flapping his wings harder, he managed to get out of whatever that strange pocket of air was, coughing and gasping for air. He suddenly felt so exhausted, so Varda reached into his pouch to throw a Reviver Seed in his mouth.


Current Energy: 32 (+45 from the Reviver Seed, -13 from the enemy encounters because why not)

Sova nodded at the swablu's guess, not having a better one himself. It did look like a piece of something, not just some random junk, but it certainly didn't seem whole. Judging by the very high ceiling that still wasn't visible, it was quite possible that it'd fallen from very high up and broken on the stairs. Maybe they'd find more pieces higher up and be able to figure out what it was! Then again, that didn't seem likely considering the shenanigans this house loved to pull oh-so-much. For all they knew, the pieces of whatever this thing was were scattered all over the chateau by now.

Sova's attention was directed once more to simply walking up the stairs, until Varda seemed to have some trouble. He looked in the swablu's direction, only to have his fluffy little friend be seemingly eaten by the darkness! However, moments later, Varda reappeared, relieving the glaceon. "Stay close, there's something else here! I wasn't gonna say anything if it didn't attack, but that looked like it might have been one....," he stated as he picked up his pace along the stairs, keeping his eyes on Varda to make sure the swablu was coming.

As he transcended the stairs, he looked up and to his surprise.... he could see the ceiling! It was very faint, but he could see it! It wasn't too far away! This only encouraged him to pick up his pace and hurry up, hoping there was a door up there somewhere. He had yet to see a room without a door in this place and he was really hoping that right now wasn't gonna be the time when it decided to hold out.

"Ah," Varda gasped as a voice suddenly called out from below, feeling a bit confused by what had happened but the energy that rushed to his exhausted limbs helped a bit. Something else...? A Pokémon? The Swablu tried flashing the candle in the direction of the strange cloud that had seemed to swallow him up, but there was nothing there. Was it invisible, or had it moved? He had no idea. Because of that, he thought that Sova's suggestion was very good – or really, he would have followed it anyway, but this extra uncertainty certainly wanted to make him follow the instructions. Varda flew closer to the stairs, flying alongside the Glaceon running up the stairs.

Was something following them? He couldn't hear anything – or see anything. He didn't feel anything, either. Had he been attacked or was it an accident?
"I'm, um, sorry!" The bird called softly to the darkness in case it all had been a strange misunderstanding and he had accidentally bumped into a Pokémon that meant no harm. It was awfully rude of him to do something like that and leave without saying a thing...

The ceiling approached, giving some hope to the Swablu, his smile getting bigger on his face. So close! He had no idea why they were climbing and where it would all lead, but something new was always good, right? The stairs kept going on, something above illuminated by a purple light – a candle probably, considering the way it flickered.

As Sova ran along, he couldn't help but sigh at Varda's persistent morality. Apologizing without even knowing if there was anything to apologize for. He figured the bird probably wouldn't be above apologizing to a wall for bumping into it. As they ascended the stairs, he noticed a second source of light. While it helped him see and he certainly wasn't going to complain about that.... he had to wonder what it was coming from. It wasn't the orange glow of a normal fire, so it couldn't have been one of the candles, or at least that was what he figured.

Suddenly, something bumped him from behind just as he reached a rather large hole in the stairs, pushing him into it. Luckily, he managed to grab onto the stairs with his front paws before falling completely through the hole. It was proving fairly easy to pull himself back up with all of the railing he had around to grip onto, when all of a sudden, something latched onto one of his back paws that were dangling below the staircase and began pulling. Considering it was a spiral, it was very likely that falling would just result in him being lowered a bit further down onto the stairs, but it would certainly hurt and be a setback that he didn't want to happen!

"Keep going, I'm fine!," he preemptively said to Varda in the hopes the swablu would get away from him so he could get whatever was on him off him. However, he didn't have much choice but to attack regardless of whether or not Varda moved. The air around him quickly dropped in temperature, visibly covering the area of the staircase around him with frost within moments. His for then flash-froze and the ice crystals rapidly forming on it grew into his signature ice-armor. He heard a high-pitched cry as the pressure on his paw suddenly left, prompting him to look down to see what appeared to be a yamask, just as it fell to the section of the stairs below him. It didn't seem to be moving, so he assumed it was knocked ou