3spoopy

First topic message reminder :

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 moved some of the odd sticks on the ground, but it seemed like such an impossible task by hand – or foot, as it was in his case. There just were so many of them and so little of him! It even felt like the pile he was making eventually broke down and fell back into the little hole he had managed to dig, only making the job even more frustrating. Would he have to move the sticks further away? That would take so much time, one stick at a time...

The bird looked at Sova as his friend spoke up – and honestly, he hadn't expected that there was something the Glaceon could do! Considering his injuries, he really shouldn't be doing any digging, but the Swablu was going to take ages at this rate. He didn't know if Sova's help would help, but... He tilted his head a bit as he was requested to fly up. It sounded like some kind of plan.
"Alright, but... You're not planning to do anything that will hurt you, right?" Varda chirped, very worried, but he wanted to trust his friend. Spreading his wings, he flapped them and took off.

Sova smirked as his friend expressed clear worry over him hurting himself. He found the worry a little funny, honestly.... mostly because he rarely worried about himself, so seeing someone else worry so much for him just felt funny. "Dunno.... guess we'll just have to see," he replied as Varda flew up into the air.
His body temperature began to drop, chilling the air around him and quickly coating the.... ground with frost. The water in the air began freezing into visible ice particles and swirling around him, whipping into a Blizzard in not too long. He didn't immediately do anything with the Blizzard, though, merely concentrating on making it bigger.

Then he began to feel the energy exertion and decided it would be best if he went through with his plan immediately rather than stall out until he collapsed. The entirety of the Blizzard turned into a swirling funnel of snow and arced in front of him, nearly hitting the wall in front of him and hitting the edge of the pile of.... whatever it was on the ground, immediately throwing quite a lot of it into the air and all around. The Blizzard then expanded, blowing a huge hole in the pile of stick-like objects, sending them flying all over the room and revealing a large portion of the lower half of the wall.... including a door. The glaceon took a step forward, feeling proud of himself, when the energy he'd burned revealing the door hit him. His body suddenly felt weak, surprising him enough to make him stop instantly. Good thing he hadn't tried to make the Blizzard any bigger.

"I-I'll be like, um, really angry if you do hurt yourself!" Varda threatened, though with his hesitation, high-pitched voice and usual demeanor of never being angry or holding a grudge, it probably wasn't very convincing. Still, he flew up like he had said he would, deciding to check if there was an actual ceiling to the place. And just like how the room had walls, it had a ceiling too. That certainly did close them in, so they would have to find a door outside... They really had no other choice.

The temperature started to lower, though as the Swablu was higher in the room, the worst of it didn't hit him. He could still feel how the air changed, having to be quite keen on those so he could fly properly. He could see the air under him freezing, the pile of sticks getting a nice coat of frost as well... And then, a massive blast of wind threw everything around, even causing Varda to be pushed away by its force. The bird shuddered, feeling the cold in his feathers.

Once the blizzard subsided, Varda was quick to fly back down. The sticks had been pushed away, revealing a metallic floor – and a door. There indeed was a door there! But why...?
"Sovaa! You're fine, right?" The Swablu chirped as he landed, trying to look stern and like he would actually do what he said he would do if the Glaceon hurt himself.

Bird carried out 5 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

, , , ,

Sova looked up at the mix of sticks and snow falling to the ground, which made a surprisingly pretty sight.  However, most of the sticks landed within a few seconds and the snow began to melt away the second he adjusted his body temperature back to normal, killing the pretty sight almost immediately.  He glanced over to his friend who persisted in worrying for his well being, considering just lying, but deciding on being honest.  "Worn out, but not hurt.... at least, not any worse," he responded before moving towards the newly revealed door, careful about the slope that'd been created leading down to it by his Blizzard.
He struggled with his injured paw to get a seed out of his bag and eat it as he walked, barely managing to do it, but too prideful to ask for help.  Hopefully, the Reviver seed would help him.... before he passed out or something.

It was certainly a relief that he was able to reveal a door here, as the only other option would have been to attempt to just break through a wall.... and honestly, he doubted his ability to do such a thing in general, let alone in his current condition.  Luckily, they didn't have to worry about that, since there was indeed a door that was now fairly easily accessible.  He carefully walked down the slope of the stick-like things, not wanting to slip and fall on the rather steep walk.  Of course, Varda would have no problem with this, being able to fly and all, but he sadly had no wings and thus couldn't join his friend in flying.  Honestly, if the purpose of all of the evolutions of eevees was to adapt to environments, why was there not one for flight?  Flight seemed like an amazing defense mechanism!

(Energy - 94 cuz reviver seed)

Varda did look rather concerned as he heard how his friend was feeling, but at least he didn't look angry. Yes, whatever bravado he was putting on was replaced by worry, as he had no reason to be angry. Honestly, he couldn't really be angry when someone was hurt... But he had only been worrying about Sova hurting himself, as that was bad. Being tired, well, it wasn't a good thing, but one just had to rest to get over that, so it was easier to handle.
"Just... Try to take it easy now, alright?" He chirped, concerned as the pair started to waddle rather slowly towards the revealed door.

Descending the steep pile's edges was easy for the bird, as he could easily hop and use his wings to glide and fly when needed. Sova wasn't as lucky, his injuries making it even worse. Oh, was there just no end to the pain and misery? How he hoped for the rest of the house to just be a cakewalk, something easy. No hostile Pokémon... And maybe there could be a moving floor that would bring them to their destination without having to move, maybe that would help Sova!

The Swablu landed on the metallic floor, his claws clicking on the cool, dirty surface as he walked to the door. His eyes widened when he saw something horrible – a keyhole! This door couldn't be locked, right? If it was and they didn't have the key... All this would have been for naught! He felt his heartbeat grow faster as he approached the door, standing on top of it and pulling the handle slowly...

Click. It opened – the whole door swinging down, the gravity opening it. Varda just barely managed to catch himself in the air so he wouldn't fall down!

Sova noticed the keyhole as they neared the door, but he didn't really care.  Best case scenario, it was unlocked.  Worst case, he'd just have to break it down, regardless of his injuries.  However, Varda flew over to try the door first and reveal.... well, maybe it wasn't unlocked, but that didn't really seem to matter.  It seemed as if the door had decayed to the point that it just fell down instead of really being properly opened, but he wasn't going to complain about free entry.  What was even more interesting, though, was the other side.  Sova approached the door as it fell, with it coming just inches away from his face as he perfectly timed his stride, not flinching in the slightest in his confidence that the door wouldn't hit him.  He had managed to get just close enough to be surprised by what was in front of him when the door hit the ground.... a.... shuppet?

"Hi!," the shuppet on the other side of the door stated in a cheery and overjoyed manner.
It had a friendly smile and seemed fairly.... normal, so the glaceon lowered his guard to it.  It looked right at him, then up to the swablu, awaiting responses as if it were checking to see if they were friendly or not.

"Uh...., hi," Sova hesitantly responded to the little Ghost as it floated slowly closer to himself and his friend.
Its oddly cheery demeanor was giving him the creeps, even the friendly drifblim hadn't been this friendly!  How could anything possibly be so happy living here, in such a dark, gloomy, eerie, creepy, dangerous place!?  Then again, maybe Ghost-types liked this type of place of something.  He knew pokemon generally preferred areas that complimented their typing, like Ice-types liking the cold and Fire-types liking the heat, but did Ghost-types like creepy places such as this?

~Farfetch'd!~

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

, , , ,

Varda flapped his wings, looking like he had been rather surprised by the door's sudden behavior. The doors on the floor really weren't nice, it seemed! He landed back on the metallic flooring in front of the gaping hole that led somewhere, glancing back at his friend as the Glaceon approached. But a voice from the other direction caused the bird to blink in confusion, as if he tried to figure out the situation before he turned his head. If Sova was there, and a voice came from behind... Then there was someone else here with them!

The bird turned to face the hole, noticing a little ghost-like creature floating up and approaching them, awfully cheery for such a dreary place. It would have been odd... If it wouldn't be so nice to have a new friendly face in this place! The Swablu couldn't help but smile, looking rather overjoyed and content himself.
"Hello!" He chirped just as happily, matching the other Pokémon's happiness. Probably. Hopefully. At least he suddenly did seem like he had no worries in the world.
"I'm Varda and this is Sova," Varda continued, nodding in his friend's direction,
"What's your name...?"


((Farfetch'd is us ever getting that piece A.))

Sova had been hesitant to say anything more to the ghost, having some odd worry at its overly friendly demeanor. He knew it was possible for others to be so.... perky, considering how often he was around Varda, but there was still something about this little shuppet that worried him. He wasn't afraid, at least not forhimself.... no mere shuppet was going to scare him, but he was worried about Varda's safety. However, before he could think of anything to say to try and reassure himself, his friend decided to give both of their names to the newcomer. This was something he didn't really like, as it showed Varda had already decided to trust it, but that was fairly typical of Varda.

"Swindle," the shuppet replied, keeping its friendly smile up as it answered.
"My turn to ask a question. Are you going through this door?," it asked, seeming almost as if it was.... hoping the answer would be yes.
This merely worried Sova further, he couldn't help but feel there was something bad about this little shuppet, that it was just pretending to be nice. Maybe that was just him being paranoid, though. Maybe it was just an unusually happy and nice pokemon living in this place, that was completely possible. It just seemed too good to be true, though. What was on the other end of the oddly placed door that this shuppet wanted them to see?

Maybe it was just the little thing's own room, its home, and it was excited at the possibility of having visitors? That could be it, there didn't have to be any malevolent intent, right? He'd seen non-hostile pokemon in this place a few times before, so he knew they existed and sometimes even liked company.

(Farfetch'd is the legendary BlueKat's mark.)

"Nice to meet you, sir!" Varda chirped, happy and oblivious as ever. Of course the Pokémon was nice and trustworthy! What kind of a monster would pretend to be nice, after all? Evil Pokémon couldn't even do that! No, just like the Drifblim before, the Pokémon that were friendly, talked and didn't attack were all good people. And how happy was he to meet someone like this here! It was always great to have new friends and allies, especially in places like these that were full of hostile Pokémon...

The little bird tilted his head as they were asked a question, his eyes eventually looking down at the door – or more like, the hole the door had opened. There was no other way to go, was there?
"We have to, right?" He asked, even looking at Sova for confirmation. They did so much trying to get to this particular door because they couldn't find another one! They couldn't turn back now.
"Are there stairs down, though? I don't know, Sova probably couldn't handle another drop," Varda continued thoughtfully, peeking into the hole. If this one was in the ceiling of another room like the other door... A drop like that would just hurt his friend even more!


((And our chances. So many rolls...))

Sova nodded as his friend seemed to look for confirmation that they had to take this path. He hadn't found any other ways to go, so it seemed this was the only one. The shuppet just seemed to light up with joy as it got confirmation that they were heading in that direction, seeming thrilled at this development. "I'm fine, Varda," the glaceon insisted, hating having someone else worrying over his safety and doubting his ability to not die.
It wasn't exactly looking down on him, it was just Varda being a friend who cared, but that didn't make the scenario any less pleasant to Sova.

"OOH, GOODIE!," the shupped exclaimed, even more up-beat and peppy than before.
"That means you get to play my game!," it continued before flying back down into the hole.
Then it reappeared, floating back up as it remembered it'd been asked a question. "Oh, and yes, there are stairs. Now come, come," it continued, urging the duo to come with it.

Sova was hesitant to follow the shuppet, as he was now almost certain that something bad was about to happen. However, they didn't really have much of a choice, considering the situation they were currently in. Besides, whatever "game" this thing had planned, surely, he could handle it. He didn't bother saying anything to Varda, assuming the swablu had likely assumed they were about to play a legitimate, friendly game and he probably wouldn't be able to convince his little friend otherwise, as usual.

Varda didn't even seem to pay much attention to Sova's reassurances – after all, he saw with his own eyes that the Pokémon was injured and had a hard time moving around! Yes, it would have been very insensitive to just act like nothing was wrong and everything was fine. The bird's attention was turned to the little ghost-like Pokémon, tilting his head as Swindle suddenly seemed overjoyed at having learned how the pair would have to go through the door. As he didn't know what to expect, he didn't understand the reason – until he heard that there would be a game

"A game?" He chirped, starting to look more excited himself as well, his eyes lighting up in curiosity and anticipation. Games were fun! It had been a while since they last had had fun, so this was a very welcome addition! Well, yes, they didn't have time to have fun, but... They had to go through this door no matter what, right?
"What kind of a game is it? I hope it doesn't take too long, because we are on a strict time limit here, I think," Varda continued, already starting to head through the hole.

The shuppet flew back down the hole, speaking as the two followed it. "It's a fun game, but you've gotta beat it or you can't continue, so don't worry too much about time," it explained, though very vaguely.
It was clear that it was purposely neglecting to give any real information about the "game," which meant there was no way to prepare for it. The stairway wasn't very long, leading to the bottom of an empty room. There were candles held on the walls to light the room, but more importantly, there was a door on the other side.

Sova carefully followed down the stairs, immediately spotting a door. According to the shuppet, they needed to play its "game" before continuing, but the door seemed to be very available despite them having not played any game yet. If his worries turned out to be true, he was already planning to bolt for the door and direct Varda to do the same. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, the shuppet flew to the middle of the room, then turned around to face the two.

"All you've gotta do is get to the door," the shuppet stated, giving a deceptively easy task.
All they had to do was get to the door, but it was by no means planned to be easy. There were pokémon hidden from view, waiting to attack and a few traps scattered around, all a part of this shuppet's definition of a game.

Sova didn't really want to try to move, knowing deep down inside that this was a trap. What kind of a game would be so easy, merely requiring them to walk from one end of a room to the other? No, there was definitely something else to this, but.... he couldn't see anything that looked off. The room was completely empty, there was nothing that really seemed harmful. Unless of course the shuppet was expecting to stop them on its own, in which case.... maybe this game wouldn't be so dangerous after all.

Varda looked rather concerned as the ghost claimed that they would have to beat the game before they had to continue... He wasn't very good at that – beating things, that was! He didn't really win games all that often... He just played them because they were fun! The bird didn't know if they could do it, not being able to continue would be really, really bad for their mission. They couldn't go on! They couldn't stop it...

He did follow the little ghost however, carefully waddling down the stairs and glancing back at Sova to make sure that he was still following – and able to keep up, his eyes inspecting the Glaceon's expression in case it turned into something that was obviously in pain. It didn't take long for them to get to the bottom, an empty room lit by candles – and the door, it was right there!

The Swablu turned to look at the ghost, blinking and tilting his head. They just had to get to the door... In this empty room? He looked back at the door and then to the ghost, even giving Sova a glance before his eyes just lit up and his mouth turned into a smile. But that was so, so... Easy! He was fine with this kind of a game, as they could win easily.
"Alright!" Varda chirped, starting to waddle towards the door.

Sova stayed hesitantly in place, still unwilling to move for fear whatever more was to this "game" would be something he would find difficulty in handling in his current state. However, his little naive friend just had to start walking forward, prompting him to bolt in front of the swablu as fast as he could with only three usable paws. "Be caref-," he began as he turned to face the bird whom he'd positioned himself in front of, but stopped as he felt his tail brush against something in the air.... it felt like.... a wire?

For a moment, he just felt confused, then the wire suddenly gave out and dropped to the ground as something being shot out of the walls to the left and right could be heard. Without looking in either direction, the glaceon's fur froze into a coat of icy armor just as two gray-blue colored spikes came flying through the air right towards him, one from the left and one from the right. The spikes just barely managed to break through his armor, one piercing his right shoulder and further crippling the leg on that side of his body while the other brushed by his chest, doing no significant harm. He just stood there, trying not to cry out from the sudden pain of having his already-injured leg penetrated at the shoulder. "This is a trap, be careful," he muttered just barely loud enough for Varda to hear.
The quiet tone wasn't to avoid the shuppet hearing, rather it was because that was all the voice he could muster at that moment with a spike in his shoulder.

The shuppet's face lit up with joy as the two began moving through its little room of horrors. It watched with anticipation as they neared the first trap, barely able to stop itself from making a gleeful squeal as the wire was tripped, sending a thorn into the glaceon's side. It'd been hoping for the swablu to be the first one hit, seeming so fluffy and innocent, but this worked too!

Varda kept waddling, oblivious that he might have been in danger. He was forced to stop when Sova suddenly jumped in front of him, blocking his path. The bird blinked slowly, before he frowned slightly, about to make a mention about how Sova shouldn't be dashing like that with his injuries, as swift movements surely would make them worse – and it was clear the Glaceon was in pain! But he never managed to say it. Even Sova didn't manage to say what he had planned to.

Something rushed through the air and before either of them managed to do much, two spikes shot out and hit Sova! Well, okay, one of them actually hit the floor and the tip buried itself in it slightly, but it seemed like it couldn't quite penetrate such hard material as it fell over with a clink. The other, however... Was now firmly buried in his friend's shoulder, causing the little bird to let out a high-pitched chirp of surprise.

"Oh... Oh no!" The Swablu chirped, starting to pace in place walk in circles around himself,
"That's not good, that's not good at all! What should we do?" He continued, very worried and concerned, but he didn't know how to continue. Should the spike be pulled out? ...No, then Sova would bleed out, right? Sometimes it was better to leave the objects in so they blocked the wound. But could Sova move like that? Probably not – and they did have to move! Oh, it all seemed so helpless...
"I um, I think we shouldn't play the game anymore...!"