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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 swayed gently with the movements of Sova's back, doing his best to go with the flow so he wouldn't lose his balance. When the door closed, even the little soft glow of the single candle was gone, making the room pitch black. It was just plain impossible to see anything now. It had been bad before, but at least there had been some slightly better lit contours and edges that gave some kind of shape to the room. But now, nothing. He didn't even know where the walls were... Or where the floor was, considering that he wasn't touching it! He certainly hoped it was still there underneath the Glaceon's paws...

The Swablu tilted his head as he listened to the description of the paintings, not really understanding it. He had no idea how to picture those things, his imagination drawing blank – just like his physical eyes that only saw darkness. Sad and scared didn't sound very good, though...
"But they were just paintings, right?" Varda chirped hopefully, not sounding very afraid despite their less than ideal surroundings,
"It doesn't mean those were real events that happened, just someone's imagination..."

Sova would have shrugged, but since he knew Varda wouldn't see due to the darkness, he didn't bother. He just continued moving along, firing the first shot of Frost Breath down the corridor and listening for the impact. They were still pretty far away from the wall on the other end, plenty of time to talk.... about this, great. He didn't want to lie, but there was something about the paintings that seemed so very, very realistic. Sure, they could have been fake, he had absolutely no proof otherwise, but.... well actually, he did. He'd come across a room full of bones with the group he was with the last time he'd come here, which seemed to support the idea of a lot of killings having taken place here.

"Well, I don't have any proof, so yeah, they could just be paintings.... But there was something.... real about them, I guess it's hard to understand without seeing them. Plus, there's a room full of bones somewhere in this house, so....," he responded, still trying to be careful with his wording while being honest at the same time.
He hoped Varda wouldn't end up upset by the end of this, but he figured it would happen. At least the bird would be spared actually having to see the pictures, though, which he was certain would have been far worse.

(Stahp giving me piece B pls ;~; )

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

, , , ,

Varda nodded a couple of times as the Glaceon agreed that they could indeed just be paintings. Totally imaginary, something that never happened. His nods were quite useless in the dark, but he still did it out of habit. He certainly felt like this was the better way to think of it, maybe the paintings were like horror stories told to Pokémon so they would be scared, but they were purely fiction. Something done for fun, as sometimes it was fun to be scared. Or scare others. It did sound like whoever had painted those paintings was a really good painter if the pictures looked so good Sova felt like they were real... Now he wanted to see the paintings himself, too!

"Bones?" The Swablu cooed, tilting his head. That wasn't the most pleasant topic, but... It was nature, wasn't it?
"I suppose... Some Pokémon eat other Pokémon," he continued, his voice telling that he didn't really enjoy that fact as a small bird, but he did know how the circle of life went. As horrible as it sounded, some would end up getting eaten by bigger Pokémon – but if they stayed together, they could try to avoid that, right?
"Do ghosts even eat? They really should try to keep things clean at least instead of leaving things like that lying around, bury them or something..."


((Well, that ain't no music box B...))

Bird carried out 1 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

"Hm," Sova wondered at the question of whether or not ghosts are.
He assumed Varda was talking about Ghost-typed pokemon and not actual spirits, and he knew they could eat, but he wasn't sure if they really needed to. He hadn't really thought that maybe the bones were due to.... predatory reasons, but in hindsight of that, it was possible that they were unrelated to the paintings and were just someone's messy leftovers. As dark as it was to think about it that way, it was very possible that it was true as well. "I think so, but things can decay to bones from just being left alone too," he finally replied, then paused for a moment.

"Think about this; Do you really think most hostile pokemon attack for food? Some attack due to territorial reasons, some because they're crazy and some.... just for fun. And the whole carnivore thing isn't just nature, it's punishable by law, because no one needs to do it to live," he continued, expressing a bit of hatred towards those who would indulge in such a.... pleasure?
He'd never tried being a carnivore, or more of an omnivore, so he honestly didn't know what the appeal was in EATING SOMETHING THAT'S SCREAMING AT YOU TO STOP.... and he was pretty sure flesh didn't even taste sweet, at least in most cases, so why would he ever try it? Plus, while he did on occasion enjoy killing those who really deserved it, eating them would be.... a whole new level of disturbing, too much even for his sometimes-loose morals.

Varda cooed, Sova was right! Bones could appear due to other reasons as well, one wouldn't just have to pick them clean of meat. As time passed, everything would decay. No one lived forever, everyone would grow old. In the bird's little world, deaths due to accidents really didn't seem to exist, so it only really made sense for old Pokémon to die and turn into bones. And that odd Pokémon they had seen in the previous room was made of a skull or something, too! Was it someone else's skull, he wondered...

But as his friend started to talk about the reasons for attacking, the Swablu was honestly quite lost. He wasn't an aggressive Pokémon himself and didn't really understand why someone would attack, even if he knew it happened – he had seen it with his own eyes so many times in the past, after all. But trying to think like a Pokémon that did it? It seemed so difficult. Eating others was just as alien – to both him and Sova, it seemed.
"We don't eat meat... So it's hard to say how it would be if you really liked it," Varda chirped, tilting his head deep in thought,
"I like seeds a lot! And berries," he added his usual naïve worldview and opinions in case Sova really wanted to know what kind of food he liked.

"Do you think... A ghost can die? Would they leave behind bones? Do they even have bones? That one we saw earlier had a skull, maybe!"

Sova chuckled at the swablu's typical attitude towards.... pretty much everything. Sometimes it was annoying, but sometimes it was refreshing to have around. Varda was certainly good at boosting morale, as well as being a moral compass of sorts. He certainly didn't know if he would like meat, were he to try it, but despite knowing his body was compatible with that type of diet, he still wasn't interested in finding out. He was fine with just maiming and occasionally ending the lives of his problems, eating seemed excessive. Then again.... maybe he had eaten meat before.... not really as himself, but.... there was more than one personality sharing his body, after all, and the other one was certainly nothing like him.

"I personally like sweet things," he commented, sharing the information of the foods he liked.
Berries, candy, anything that was sweet, he loved it. It was one of the few normal pleasures he'd still retained, even now. "I'm pretty sure Ghost-pokemon can die, but I don't think most of them have any bones. I'm.... not really sure about the second part, though. They might.... but I know they can die for sure," he then continued, giving his opinion on Ghost-anatomy.
He'd been able to personally assure that they weren't intangible, albeit many of them could turn intangible and even invisible, so they had physical bodies and some likely even had fairly normal insides. However, he wasn't sure about many of them having bones.

Varda nodded a couple of times in his excitement as Sova shared what kind of food he enjoyed, already more or less forgetting about the more uncomfortable topic they had earlier. All he could see was the darkness around him, so the paintings were soon forgotten completely. He had never even seen them and now they weren't even talking about them.
"Sweet things are good! But I think I like bitter more," the bird chirped, continuing their food chat. It was pretty rare of them to just be able to talk about random things like these... So how odd was it that the perfect place for such casual chat was a spooky house full of ghosts?

The Swablu cooed as his friend started to talk about the ghosts. There were many mysteries even to the well-informed Sova, but he did seem to know more than the bird – as usual. What mysterious Pokémon these things were...
"Aah, too bad none of them seem to want to talk to us for very long! Do you think they would tell us if we asked?" Varda tilted his head as he asked, just because he was used to doing it. It did seem like the best way to learn more about the ghosts would be to ask them! ...But then again, if someone asked him about what was inside his body, he couldn't really answer...

"Ew," Sova simply replied to the mention of bitter foods.
That was easily his least favorite flavor, so.... bland. He preferred anything else over bitter, even the sometimes-painful sour and spicy things. "I bet meat's bitter," he theorized, teasing the swablu's taste preference.
Honestly, though, he didn't know what meat tasted like, so it was possible it did! Or at least, some of it. He hoped his comment wouldn't be taken seriously and turn his little friend into a carnivore, but he doubted the kind-hearted swablu could ever bear to do something like that, even if he managed to completely misunderstand the joke and take it as a serious comment.

The glaceon fired off yet another Frost Breath as he walked, timing it against the last one to determine they were fairly close to the wall. He then began to slow his pace and put a paw out in front of him every few steps to check for the wall, being sure not to bump into it. "Well, that depends on whether or not we find one who's interested in talking. If we do, then su-," he paused as one of his outstretched paws touched the wall.... only, it didn't feel like a wall.
He paused for a moment, feeling the thing. It was.... a.... pokemon? It felt big, definitely not furry, roundish....

"Varda.... there's something in front of us, something that's alive," he informed his friend in an eerily calm tone, doing his best to sound calm in order to avoid scaring his little friend.
The thing hadn't attacked, so maybe it wasn't a threat? If it was, he would need to deal with it quickly before it could cause them any trouble. For now, he at least knew where it was and could hopefully deal with it in one shot.

"Whaat!" Varda chirped as his friend suggested that meat would taste bitter, like the flavor he preferred. He didn't believe that!
"Nuhhuh! I bet meat is all... Meaty! Meat flavor!" He continued, flapping his wings slightly in some kind of agitated excitement. Of course meat would have its own flavor completely unique to itself that couldn't be found anywhere else. It only made sense. Surely it was a strange sight to see – or a conversation to hear considering how dark it was, two Pokémon that had never eaten meat debating about the taste.

He felt that the Glaceon he was riding was slowing down slightly, but he didn't know the reason. It was possible that Sova was just playing it safe, considering that it was very dark and they couldn't even see where they were going. It was hard to say if the floor had something on it, so going too fast would be very dangerous – and who knew, maybe there were even holes in it! Yet suddenly, they stopped, Sova's sentence cut out in the middle.

There was something in front of them. The Swablu tried to squint his eyes, but he was unable to see even the simplest of silhouettes in the darkness. Supposedly it was alive, but... He couldn't hear or feel it move, at least...
"Oh. Oh," the bird chirped very quietly, uncertain about what they should be doing. Was this thing they had bumped into a Pokémon, and was it a friend or foe? Had it even noticed them? Would it be better if it didn't...?
"Should we just... Go around it and continue...?"

Sova hesitated to respond to his friend, unsure of what to do about the situaiton at hand. He wasn't being attacked, which was always a good sign, but there was still a pokemon in front of him. "I.... don't know," he finally admitted, staring into the darkness in front of him where he knew there was something, probably staring back.
He just stood there for a moment, contemplating going back and seeing if there were any turns they could make, or maybe just seeing if this thing wasn't blocking the whole corridor and he could get around it. However, before he could, a somewhat-deep and rather jolly voice sounded out.

"Or I could just move," the voice suggested, coming from in front of them.
It had a non-hostile tone to it, prompting the glaceon to lower his guard somewhat.

"Uh.... yeah, that'd be nice.... And.... might I ask what you are?," Sova responded.
For a moment, the thing didn't respond, as if it'd just vanished. Then it proved it was still there by speaking up once more.

"Dirzi."

"Dirzi? What kind of pokemon is a dirzi?," Sova questioned.

The creature chuckled lightly before responding, "That's my name, I'm a drifblim."

Varda was just as confused as his friend, it was difficult to really do anything when everything was so dark! He couldn't see what was in front of them, he didn't know if they should be running or fighting or what! But nothing happened. Perhaps what they had bumped into wasn't a Pokémon at all? Maybe it wasn't even alive. Maybe they would just be better off ignoring it and continuing–

The sudden voice from the darkness caused the bird to flinch, his eyes again attempting to see what had said the words, but he still wasn't having any luck. Right now he really hoped that they would have taken the candle with them so they could see something, but they probably couldn't go back to get it. The door might have been gone, or maybe the other room was gone by now already...
"Oh, hello!" Varda chirped back after he got over his initial surprise, back to his usual friendly self. It seemed like they had indeed bumped into another Pokémon – and a friendly one at that!
"What is a Drifblim?" The Swablu couldn't help but ask, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"Me," the drifblim replied to the swablu's question, not really helping much, but at least it tried.

Sova sighed, seeing he was probably going to have to be a mediator in this conversation, the other two seeming very capable of getting sidetracked with what a drifblim is. "It's a big purple floaty-ghost-thing," he interrupted before the two could potentially go any further.
"Now, we've gotta get going. If you wanna come and chat, we're friendly, buuut.... I do need to get by," he continued, hoping the drifblim would move so he could get by.

"I already moved," came the voice once more.

"....Oh," Sova responded, then continued moving forward. For a moment, relief filled him, then a.... different feeling on his paws coupled with the sound of creaking wood caused him to stop.
"W.... wha-" he began, but was cut off as the floor suddenly shattered beneath him, filling the room with light that was absolutely blinding after being exposed to pure darkness.
He'd just walked over a door. On the floor. Yes, a door on the floor, leading into another room. At that, it'd been old and decayed, to the point that his weight was too much for it to support. Normally, he would have been able to easily stick the landing, but it was not a long enough drop for him to gather his bearings and the light had literally blinded him, causing to fall to the floor of the next room with a thud.


"AAAAHG," the glaceon moaned loudly in pain as he slammed into the floor.
He was still unable to see his surroundings due to the disorientation of the sudden appearance of light, but it didn't matter anyways, since his eyes were now shut tight due to the sudden pain rushing through his body. Something on him had definitely been damaged pretty considerably to induce this type of pain in him. Sadly, he was completely unable to see anything in the room around him, so unbeknownst to him, his moan of agony had already begun to attract the attention of nearby ghosts. Apparently they were just so into the agony of others that they would flock to sounds of pain even from separate rooms.

Varda cooed. Yes, he knew that this stranger was the Drifblim, he got that based on what had been said, but... He didn't know what a Drifblim was! And right now, he was unable to see it for himself. Luckily Sova came to the rescue, describing what kind of a Pokémon this Drifblim thing was – but it was a rather simple explanation and the bird couldn't really picture it. Or he could, but he didn't know if it was right. Actually, hadn't they seen other floating purple ghost thingies before?
"Have we seen a Drifblim before?" The bird asked, as curious as ever as he tilted his head.

Sova didn't seem to be too keen on talking to the other Pokémon though, which was a very unfortunate thing. Right away he was already going, and as the Swablu was riding him, he couldn't really stay behind. He felt how the Pokémon under him started to move once again, the back swaying with the motions of walking.
"Oh, um, thank you!" Varda chirped, trying to turn in the direction where he had heard the Drifblim's voice from, uncertain if the ghost Pokémon could see in the darkness either... But just in case it did, he wanted to try to be polite, at least!

An odd sound underneath confused the Swablu, but also caused chills to rush through his body almost as if it knew what was going to happen before his mind finally realized it. Suddenly, Sova was gone, and the sound of wood shattering rang in the air. The bird felt the gravity grabbing him and trying to pull him down, but his wings had been spread and he was able to keep himself in the air. The light that had suddenly appeared hurt his eyes, blinding him as he squeezed them shut. Before, he couldn't see where he was going because it was so dark. Now? He couldn't see because it was too bright! He couldn't move anywhere like this...

But he couldn't stay there, either. Slowly, Varda forced his eyes to open as he tried to get them used to the light, noticing familiar blue fur lying on the floor in the middle of bits and pieces of wood.
"Sova!" The bird called out, not really paying much attention to anything else as he rushed in to get closer. If there was one thing this room had, it was candles – and actually, wasn't one odd lamp-thingy coming closer to them? Was this another Pokémon? The Swablu's eyes flicked from one side to another, noticing that it wasn't the only moving thing. So many different things coming closer...
"Stay back!" He chirped out, fluffing out his feathers in an attempt to be big and threatening.

Sova remained on the ground, his senses dulled to complete oblivion in response to the pain pulsing through his body. Even if he were aware of what was going on around him, his injuries would have proven quite a setback. On the bright side, he was no longer seeing white due to the light; Now he was seeing red in pain. He tried to force his eyes open, but only saw a slightly red-tinted bright blur in place of his normal eyesight. He tried to force himself back onto his paws, only to have his pain double - easily - as he put pressure on his right paw, causing him to merely fall back down before getting even a few inches off the ground. "Aaah....," he whimpered, his mind too hazy to bring up his pride and stop him from sounding pathetic.

The things entering the room through the walls, ceiling and even floor weren't exactly things that would have been too much of a challenge for the glaceon, even together, but considering his current condition.... they were most certainly a threat. He couldn't exactly do much about it at the moment, though. He didn't even know they were there, too absorbed in his current predicament to notice! A smaller version of the drifblim - a drifloon, two duskull, three of the evil little pumpkin-monsters known as pumpkaboo, and of course.... a lampent, something with a type advantage on the injured Ice-type. Normally, he may have been able to just use his ice armor and drop the temperature to make such a pokemon's fire do next to nothing to him, but at this current moment, he had no way of setting his defenses up.

The drifloon made the first attempt to attack, creating a purple orb in front of its face, aiming right at the glaceon on the floor. However, before it could launch the attack, a very similar shadowy orb came flying down from above and collided with the little purple creature, knocking it out of the sky. The drifblim from earlier had flown through the floor of the room above into the deathtrap Sova had fallen into and began fighting for him, proving to clearly be on the explorers' sides. However, it didn't seem particularly strong, or at least it didn't have a particularly intimidating offensive presence, shown by its prevolution taking a hit from it then getting back up. The smaller balloon pokemon, the drifloon, floated back into the air, closed its eyes and began to glow a light pink.

Of all of the presumed enemies, the lampent seemed to be situated in the middle, in a rather safe position surrounded by the others. It seemed like they were purposely protecting it, as if it was the most important of the group or something. Two of the pumpkaboo set their sights on Varda, attacking with Razor Leaf and Shadow Ball, while the third merely glared up at the swablu as its eyes began to glow in preparation for an extremely bright flash, a Confuse Ray. Sova remained on the ground, the only sign that he was still alive and awake being a slight shiver from the pain his body was in.

Varda certainly was in a pinch here! The odd Pokémon gathering around them didn't seem to even flinch as he tried to threaten them into leaving! Well, yes, he was rather small and his voice wasn't the booming, intimidating kind... But this was no good!
"Ah, Sova, are you alright?" He chirped, looking behind him to see his friend on the ground, whimpering from pain. It... Didn't look like he was doing very good. Sova couldn't help him here, he was in no shape to even stand! Maybe... These Pokémon actually weren't going to be hostile! The one they had met in the darkness wasn't, so the chances of these Pokémon being the same–

Seemed to be zero. The strange balloon-like Pokémon created an orb of some kind, rather similar to the ones Sova could also create – and he had seen what they did before! It was an attack indeed, one seemingly aimed for the one Pokémon that was currently helpless! The Swablu didn't have enough time to react, his mind only barely managing to make the connections before... The little balloon Pokémon exploded in a shadowy mist and fell down? The bird's eyes glanced up, noticing another kind of balloon-like Pokémon floating down from the hole in the ceiling – no, that hole was a door. Why was there a door in the ceiling? This didn't make any sense!

"Thank you!" The bird yelled at the Pokémon that had come to help them. Was this... That Drifblim? It certainly did fit the description, kind of! It was good to know that they had an ally by their side, but there were still more hostile Pokémon than then in the room and they were greatly outnumbered. That meant they had to get really serious about it! The pumpkin-like creatures waddled closer, while Varda searched for something inside him, concentrating as hard as he could. Ruffling up his feathers, he felt them grow stronger, tougher, like he could take any attack in the world head on and protect his soft insides! Or something. Probably.

The Swablu hopped into the air, starting to fly. Protecting Sova was their main objective, so he flew right into the volley of sharp leaves shot into his direction, letting his fluff block their sting. The shadowy orb also hit him right in the face, but he didn't even feel it! It was similar to the feeling he had before with the other type of plant ghost, he could just feel it harmlessly pass through him and disappear into nothing – but the shadowy dust that exploded out of it as it hit him was still blocking his view. Varda started to sing in the air, hoping that he could buy them some more time... But as the shadowy explosion dispersed, a bright light hit him from underneath, causing him to feel quite dizzy! The little bird flapped his wings rather ineffectually as he floated down, unable to keep himself in the air – but despite that, he kept singing.