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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.

Sova considered just not responding to his friend's question, but he figured there was no harm in informing the swablu.  "The mirror's framed like the pictures.  So.... if you look in it, it'll look like one of the paintings.... but with you in it.  I think it's to say "Keep out or you'll end up like them."  Which is to say, dead," he explained as he approached the door, staring into the mirror as his figure blocked the light from reflecting off of it and into his eyes.
It was difficult to see his reflection, but he could.  He looked.... dull, more than usual, which was probably due to his injuries numbing his emotional reflexes.  It was too tasking having to deal with the pain to have to worry about looking happy on top of that.

Theme Music

With the presumed threat in mind, he found himself placing a paw on the door and pushing it open.  Sure, he knew it was probably a bad idea, but his curiosity was getting the best of him.... and he felt the mirror was a form of challenge, an intimidation tactic....  He couldn't turn down a challenge, not because he didn't want to, but because he vowed never to be a coward.  He slowly and hesitantly opened the door with his paw as he tuned out any protests Varda would likely make, finding it to to be rather easy to open, even in comparison to most of the other doors in the house.  The first thing he noticed behind the door was pink carpet covering the floor.... followed by pink paint on the walls and ceiling.  A big, fluffy-looking white bed with a pink blanket on the right side of the room, a small light blue table to its side, a brown dresser on the left side of the room.... and a white closet on the far end of the room, with the door opened just a crack.

(Oh god, the Chateau's turning.... PINK!  YOU'RE RIGHT, VARDA CORRUPTED IT.)

Varda tilted his head and let out a low hmm as he considered Sova's explanation of the mirror and why it was here. Framed, like a picture... But the picture was them. All the other pictures were rather sad, so maybe... Their picture would be sad too. But maybe it wouldn't be! The bird put on his biggest smile as he looked at himself in the mirror, lit by the candle in his claws.
"Or maybe! They're telling us we're the best painting there is! Maybe it's a new thing, maybe there is a real artist living here and they want to do something different!" He chirped happily, full of his optimism as always.

He hadn't planned on them actually opening the door – actually, he forgot all about it while he was too busy oohing and aahing about the mirror and their future as models. But Sova had already pushed the door open before he managed to do anything, the light from inside quickly swallowing the small flame of the candle. But once he saw what was inside... The Swablu's smile just grew wider, his eyes becoming bigger and brighter. It was all... Pink and fluffy and bright and nice! Definitely different from the rest of the dreary, unkempt mansion – and he liked it!
"Ooh, look at this! It's nice, I could live here!"


((LOVE and PEACE.))

Bird carried out 1 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

Sova was too captivated by the sheer pinkness of the room to reply to his friend at the moment. He took a few steps in, feeling the soft carpet on his paws.... It felt nice. Maybe Varda was right to an extent, that the mirror on the door was the opposite of a warning. Of course, in this house, no good thing could last forever. A lampent flew up from the ground in front of the glaceon mere moments after he entered the room, spinning in circles and creating a column of embers around it, a Fire Spin. Sova reacted reflexively, taking a deep breath in preparation for Frost Breath.... or trying to, but his injuries once again cut his breath short, resulting in a wince of pain and just enough hesitation for the little fire-ghost to ram into him and knock him off his legs.

The glaceon fell to the ground and immediately stuck his good paw in his bag, feeling around for a specific orb. Moments later, he retrieved the orb he was looking for and tossed it in the direction of the lampent, hitting the thing in the face and causing it to warp away, replaced with an item. He wanted to pull himself back to his paws, but he found that the carpet was.... rather comfy. He could only imagine how comfy the bed was. Maybe it would be okay to take a rest here....?

(Pokemon: Yamask x3, Shuppet x2, Drifloon, Gastly, Litwick, Lampent loljk, Gourgeist.)

(Energy - 10 because Itemizer Orb. First item I roll will be the Itemizer Orb roll.)

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

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While Varda really wanted to land and feel the nice plush carpet in the room, he was carrying the candle and was afraid that bringing it close would cause the whole thing to catch on fire! He could have just put it out, they didn't need it in this room... But if they went back to the dark hallway and had no way to light it back up again, they would be in trouble! He would just have to find a place where he could place the candle, his eyes looking for something that might work. It wouldn't be that strange for a room to have a candle holder somewhere considering how many candles this house had, right...?

While he was busy searching, he had completely managed to miss the ghost rising up from the floor. The whoom of flames and the following heat and light caught his attention, turning to face the scene just in time to see a ring of fire surround both the lamp-like Pokémon and Sova.
"Sova!" He called out, trying to fly closer but was unable to find an opening in the fire that wouldn't turn him into a bird roast, leaving him outside the battle. But just like that, the flames disappeared in a flash of light along with the ghost Pokémon. Just a little orb remained on the floor.

Sova was on the floor, as well. It was no time to be picky, the Swablu landing on the carpet on just one foot and holding the candle up in the other, hopping closer to his friend who he thought was even more injured now.
"Oh no! Sova, are you alright? Does it hurt?"


((Poor Lampent... I wonder if the itemizer orb counts towards your rolls on a page, though? Technically it's a reroll rather than a new roll, but...))

Sova groaned on the floor as a response, mostly in disappointment as his friend's voice reminded him that he had to get up off the cozy carpet. "I'm fine.... but this is nice," he finally responded, still enjoying the floor.
Then he forced himself to get up.... well, not exactly, but he did roll off his side so that he was at least upright to show he was okay. It was then that he noticed something promising about this room.... lots of places that could be used as cover! "Ooh, Varda, I can make a Hailstorm in here without hurting you! You could hide in a drawer, or the closet, or under the bed - even under the blanket!," he stated excitedly, hopeful to be able to stop limping, or at least reduce the seriousness of his injuries some.

This place certainly had a lot of potential places to go to avoid getting hit by hail. By the looks of how thick and fluffy the blanket on the bed was, he figured Varda could probably just get under the blanket and not feel the hail at all. He didn't feel that his friend would exactly object to a luxurious rest in a fancy bed, either, so it seemed like a win-win. The only possible issue here would be more hostiles showing up, since a hostile lampent had quite literally popped out of the floor the instant they'd entered. Plus.... the mirror on the door leading in was still in his mind.

(It counts towards your roll, I've asked Kat before.)

Varda blinked, remembering the carpet now that Sova talked about ti. He let his toes wiggle on its soft surface, digging into it and looking down. It was... Soft. And warm. And very nice. He couldn't help but nod, agreeing completely with his friend's words.
"It is nice! I should get one of these, too!" The bird chirped happily, smiling his big goofy smile all the way. It was fun to just stand on it, and he could have rolled and slept on it if he wasn't holding the candle! Oh, and they had that other important job to do. They didn't have any time to waste...

The Swablu tilted his head as Sova suddenly started to talk about the hail. His eyes swept over the room, seeing all those items that were pointed out to him. Hiding under a blanket probably wouldn't protect him from a hailstorm, as those things could get big and painful as they fell. A blanket was like, nothing! It wouldn't help. But maybe the closet...
"Alright! I'll just put this candle somewhere," Varda nodded, eventually stuffing it in the little glass that was on the table before scurrying over to the closet and opening the door. There seemed to be some strange clothes hanging inside, like... Cloaks or something? The bird didn't really know or bother to check, he didn't wear clothes himself!

He closed the door, the darkness enveloping him as the light was blocked from reaching inside. But once the door clicked shut, the floor under his feet disappeared! The bird let out a high-pitched chirp as he cried out of surprise, tumbling down a little tunnel that led who-knows-where...


((I see, guess that means even more pages of Fun.))

Sova nodded as Varda placed the candle down and moved into the closet. He took a deep breath, or tried, but was reminded of his rib injuries with another wince of pain. Too bad, he had been looking forward to a calming breath.... oh well. His body temperature almost instantly began to drop, the carpeting around him tinting white as frost coated it. He knew he could just create a weather-altering cold-orb and send it into the sky to make a hailstorm, but he wondered if perhaps he could adjust the environment around him enough without that to achieve the same effect. He could make blizzards out of thin air.... so why not hailstorms?

Before the glaceon got a chance to do much more than cool the room down, however, he heard a high-pitched cry from a very familiar voice. The direction of said cry? The closet. Despite his injuries, he immediately rushed to open the closet, but found that it.... it had locked itself! Panicking, he called out, "VARD- ahk....," then was reminded once more of his current injuries by pain rushing through his chest and stopping him from shouting.
"V-Varda, are you alright?," he questioned in a quieter tone, receiving no response. Panic flooded his being and outmatched the pain, winning him over and forcing him to ignore his injuries for a moment. His fur froze into icy armor, he took a few steps back.... then he rammed the closet door, smashing it open and sending a wave of pain through his body.

It seemed he had more pain in store, though, as he noticed there was no floor under him.... just a bit too late. Before he could make any sounds, he fell into the same tunnel his bird friend had fallen into, tumbling and sending waves of pain through his body due to his already-present injuries. Luckily, he managed to stabilize himself into merely sliding down the tunnel instead of having to put up with such a rough ride down.

(Varda forgot how to fly at the most inconvenient time.)

Varda rolled down the little tunnel like a tumbleweed in the wind, resembling one as he tried to protect himself by crawling up into a little fluffy ball, bouncing up and down on the hard... Floor? He was unable to feel what the tunnel was made of, and honestly, that was the last thing on his mind. Right now his thoughts were as jumbled as his world that kept spinning around and passed his eyes at great speeds until the tunnel abruptly ended, sending the ball of fluff on a short flight through the air before he landed on something that clattered and shifted under his weight.

The bird coughed, his everything hurting and he felt like he had bruises all over. Whatever he landed on didn't feel very good either, not at all soft... He tried to move, feeling bits and pieces of the ground shifting under him and making it a rather difficult job to actually roll onto his stomach so he could hop on his feet. It was rather dark, but not completely so: he could see light in the distance. Floating in the air. Maybe. He couldn't see the walls and it was taking his eyes some time to adjust, but he could see.

The floor was made of all various kinds of odd... Things. They certainly were made of the same material, something hard with an ivory color. It didn't quite feel like wood, but they were rather light as he touched them. But there were so many different sizes of them, some small, some big, some thin and some thick... And some looked like they had been snapped, having some rather uneven edges to them despite being rather smooth otherwise. And the whole room was just a big pile of them!


((That's his middle name. And he doesn't even have a last name.))

Instead of panicking, Sova prepared himself on his way down the tunnel. Since he'd already stabilized his fall into a calm slide, it was fairly easy to focus when it would have been rather difficult otherwise. If there was no floor on the other end, he would grab onto the edge of the tunnel. If there was a floor, he would do his best to stick the landing. Either way, he would be immediately looking for Varda. More suddenly than he was prepared for, the tunnel ended and he spotted.... what appeared to be.... not necessarily a floor, but it would do. He then moved on with the second part of his plan, sticking the landing.... and failed miserably, tumbling to the ground with a light "Oof."

He soon spotted Varda and momentarily forgot about his pain, though he was reminded of it as he got up, trying to move his injured paw out of habit. "Varda, are you alright?," he questioned, momentarily forgetting about the room as he hadn't yet even really discerned what they were standing on.
All that mattered right now was that Varda was alive.... well, that they were both alive, at least for the time-being. Of course, they still had a mission to do, though, so only so much time could be spent celebrating.

While the glaceon was happy his friend was okay.... he couldn't help but feel disappointed. Just when he'd thought he was going to be able to repair his injuries a bit, this house had found a way to stop him. Honestly, it was hard to not view this place as sentient when things like this constantly happened within it.

(Varda Inconvenient Notalastname. Side note, are they standing on bones ooor?)

Varda dug into his bag to retrieve one of those seeds he saved for the times when he felt exhausted and bruised, popping it into his mouth. He barely managed to chew it before having to spin around as he heard something clatter behind him, the odd things covering the ground shifting and flying as something fell and caused them to move. They certainly seemed light enough – well, at least the small bits and pieces! The bird narrowed his eyes as he did his best to focus on the moving shape that seemed to be getting up, taking a few steps so he could make it out properly. The shape was familiar, its color as well... And the voice doubly so as he heard Sova calling out to him, the little Swablu smiling happily.

"Oh, hello! Yes, I think so," he chirped as he waddled closer, stopping in front of the Glaceon,
"I was so surprised! The floor, it just suddenly disappeared just like that! Now we're... Here, whatever here is," Varda cooed, tilting his head as he motioned to the area around them with his wing. He couldn't see a door anywhere, but it didn't mean there wasn't one, right? The tunnel had been awfully steep, so climbing back up that way didn't seem to be very easy... And it didn't seem big enough for his wings to stretch fully so he could fly!

What became apparent very quickly was that his friend was still injured despite saying he would heal himself. That upset the bird, as he didn't like seeing Sova hurt!
"Oh... You're hurt. It didn't work...?"


Current Energy: 45 (0 +45 from a Reviver Seed)

((Mmmmaaaaybeee.))

Bird carried out 4 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

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Sova was relieved to see his friend was alright, albeit he was definitely not. However, upon it being brought up that he was still hurt, he sighed. "I didn't get time to, I heard you when you fell," he replied, a bit of disappointment present in his tone. (And I just remembered Sova doesn't even have Hail anymore.)
"Don't worry about me, though. Not right now. Right now, we need to figure out how to get out of this place," he continued almost immediately, not wanting to give his little friend time to voice worries about him.

Following his own advice, he looked around the room in an attempt to locate a door.... but to no avail. This room was lit, albeit barely, so it was difficult to tell if there were any doors.... but he didn't see any. Maybe there was a door somewhere under.... whatever they were standing on? That meant they would have to dig.... but there was a very prominent issue with that. First off, whatever this stuff was, it wasn't really soil.... actually, it felt more like rocks, or.... bones. Second, he had an injured paw and Varda was a BIRD, how would they manage to dig!? This was a big issue, one that he hoped the house would resolve for them. It did that sometimes, just gave solutions to problems, so why not now?

"Oh," Varda cooed, the feathers on his head drooping in a sad, disappointed manner as the entire little fluff ball seemed to deflate, his gaze falling to the odd floor. Sova hadn't managed to heal himself after all... That was bad – and it was kind of his fault here! Maybe if he had fallen quietly, the Glaceon could have mended his wounds before worrying about him. It was troublesome, this really was no place for an injured Pokémon...

The bird did nod, agreeing that they would need to get out of this place. It was an odd room and it didn't really look like the way forward... They had just fallen deeper into the house.
"I don't think we can go up the way we came," he chirped deep in thought, crossing his wings and closing his eyes. Sova couldn't climb, considering how he had hurt his paw, too. The tunnel at least felt really steep as he fell down through it.
"Does this place even have walls? Walls tend to have doors, right? So we should find walls first!"

Sova nodded and slowly, cautiously began to walk over the rather unstable substitute for ground they were standing on. If it collapsed, Varda would be fine, being able to fly and all. However, being a glaceon, Sova had no wings and thus could not just fly away if the ground suddenly gave out under him. Oh, how useful it would be to have something in the evolutionary tree of eevee that could fly. Sadly, as far as he knew, there was not a single eeveelution with wings or any flight capabilities.... and on this particular topic, he knew quite a lot. Pretty much everything there was to know, he liked to think.

"I'm sure there's walls, come on," he replied as he moved in a random direction.
Considering the place was dully lit, a wall soon came into clear view. Well, not clear, but clear enough to be visible. To his disappointment, though, there wasn't a door in sight.... "I think the doors might be under....," he paused and looked down, ".... This."
How would they be able to get out of this place at all if the house put the doors in places they simply couldn't get to!?

Varda tilted his head and started to waddle along as his friend seemed to think that there had to be walls, but how could he be so sure? He himself wasn't sure at all, not in a place like this! Nothing really made sense, so maybe... Maybe a room really could stretch to infinity!
"Whaat? How can you even be so sure! What if the house takes away all the walls!" He chirped as he kept walking, letting Sova lead them. Luckily for them, the room actually had walls. Who would have thought! Varda certainly hadn't, looking at the walls as if they were the most amazing thing in the world, a coo escaping his beak.

But Sova was right! There was no door in sight! Of course, the room was a rather dark one, so they might have missed one that was hidden by the shadows, but the room also was big enough that walking around it didn't seem like a very fun idea. But neither did trying to clear the floor to find a possible door there, as there was a lot of that stuff covering it!
"Ohh... That might take a while," he sighed, defeated but not exactly arguing. It was a plan of some sort, they should try it before they abandoned it! The Swablu fluffed up his feather and gently nudged some of the odd stick-like things out of the way, only revealing more of them underneath.
"What kind of a room even is this? There's a strange tunnel and all this junk... If there's a door under all this, I don't think it has been used in a long time!"

Sova knew his friend was talking to him, but he was neglecting to pay any attention at that very moment. It wasn't for no reason, though, as he was making a plan for how to get out of the room he'd decided to deem the Bone Room, since.... the things on the floor looked like bones. There was another Bone Room in this house though, assuming it hadn't changed or disappeared, so he had to wonder why in the world there would be so many bones. This place had definitely been around for a while, but had that many pokémon really died here? Either way, it wasn't his business to worry about the dead or body counts, and he didn't quite fancy trying to.

"Hey, Varda, fly up. I think I can move this stuff, but I need you to be out of the way," he said as he decided on a plan.
He would use Blizzard to blow the small presumed pieces of bones out of the way of the walls and check for doors. It was certainly faster than manually moving it all, at least. As long as he could avoid hitting Varda in the process, it seemed like a good plan, and luckily for them, this room seemed more than big enough for the swablu to stay out of the way. Of course, another issue would be whether or not he could concentrate enough to control a Blizzard in his injured state.... and whether or not he even had enough energy to keep it up, but he would worry about that if it proved to be worth worrying about.