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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 seemed to be just as surprised as the odd ghost Pokémon, but unlike the bird, the ghost didn't have someone else taking advantage of that momentary confusion. Sova was ready to attack their attacker, but this time, their opponent seem to be able to snap out of it fast enough to dodge the attempts before they were made. The Swablu did his best to quickly try to understand the situation, flapping his wings to stay in the air first. He tried to dodge, but he didn't really know where an attack might have come, so it was rather useless. Things were just moving way too fast!

The Glaceon hit the ghost with his icy breath, and the bird could hear how it fell on the floor. That was... A bit odd, as it seemed like earlier the Pokémon had managed to just pass through walls and floors before. Varda tried to glance over his shoulder to look what was happening behind him, but he didn't get a very good look before a rather bad feeling forced him to close his eyes shut. Pain, yes. It was a different kind of pain, one that he could feel inside but not on his skin. Whatever it was, the bird ended up falling on the floor.


((Well maybe I will like, roll twice the next page!))

Sova wasn't exactly sure what the gourgeist was doing, until of course his ally suddenly dropped to the floor in pain. Then he realized exactly what was happening; Pain Split. The gourgeist looked right at him and gave him a very confident smile, seeming like it thought it had put him in an impossible situation. Though, honestly, he wasn't sure what it planned to do with the situation. Stall them pointlessly? Was that the goal of this thing, just to stall them out for some reason? Regardless, it'd just made the worst mistake possible.... it hurt Varda.

The glaceon merely stood in place for a moment as he tried to think of a way to get to the gourgeist and knock it out before it could flee or use Pain Split again. Finally, he settled on simply overwhelming it, since he was fairly certain he was faster and stronger. He took a few steps forward and the ghost didn't budge from its place on the floor, still with the confident look on its face. Then, too fast for it to react, he was in its face. This made the confident look fade into one of surprise and fear as it pointed one of its hair-like arms at Varda, as if to threaten him. However, Sova merely ignored this threat as he once more used his Frost Breath. This time, instead of stopping after a quick shot, he just kept going, shrouding the enemy in white mist and keeping it from being able to see Varda.

A pained whine could be heard from inside the icy mist, then nothing. Finally, he stopped to reveal that the gourgeist had been rendered unconscious, before it could even think to flee. "Are you alright?," Sova questioned back to his ally.

(THAT'S NOT ALLOOOOOOOOOWED. Also I swear if one of us doesn't roll piece A on this page I'm callin' hax.)

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

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Varda opened his eyes and found himself staring at something black. With a little shift of his head, he realized that it was the floor and his own body was causing no light to illuminate it, so the only thing he could see was shadows. That was silly. It took him a while to remember how he had even gotten there, flying the last time he felt like he had been able to think properly. His body ached a bit, but the pain wasn't all that bad anymore. Most of all, he was exhausted! His energy, almost as if sapped from him, making his limbs feel so very heavy. It took a moment for the Swablu to regain enough ability to move that he could get on his feet.

At this point, their attacker was lying on the ground, unconscious. It had started to slowly sink through the floor, just like the other Pokémon that had been knocked unconscious in this place. The bird even wondered if he would sink through the ground if he ever fell unconscious or went to sleep here... But he wasn't planning to do either of them, so hopefully he wouldn't find out!

"Oh. Oh, yes," the bird chirped as his friend asked if he was feeling alright, turning around to face Sova with a smile. He wasn't too bad, but he was tired... And when he was tired, the best thing to do was eat something, right? Reaching into his bag, he pulled out an Oran berry.
"That was pretty strange! At first it just went through me, but then it did something really weird," Varda cooed, starting to munch on the berry.


Current Energy: 12 (1 +1 from the new page, +10 from the Oran berry)

Bird carried out 5 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

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Sova sighed in relief as the little bird got back up and started speaking. As he listened to the swablu's view on the events, it became clear that the bird didn't seem all too sure about what had happened, so he figured he'd inform his friend. As he continued walking down the corridor they were currently in, slowly enough to make sure Varda had time to eat, he began to explain what'd happened. Since he was a bit obsessive over fighting, he knew most moves at least vaguely.

"It tried to use a Ghost-type attack, I think it was Phantom Force or something. Since you're part-Normal, that stuff can't hurt you. Then I hit it and it used a move called Pain Split, which is where it.... splits its pain with you; Makes itself feel better and you feel worse. Since I'd hit it pretty hard, I'm guessing that didn't feel too good on you.... sorry," he explained, feeling a bit guilty about Varda's injuries.
If he hadn't hit the gourgeist so hard, it wouldn't have been able to hurt Varda so bad. Or, if he'd managed to just knock it out in one hit, it wouldn't have been able to hurt Varda at all!

What good was he if he couldn't protect others? Did he even deserve friends if he couldn't keep them safe? Why was he even thinking about this? It was Varda who'd wanted to come with him so bad.... But.... he still felt responsible. Was it possible that he actually WANTED to help others? Maybe fame wasn't the entire reason he'd stuck around at the guild? It certainly seemed like that, with how bad he felt every time he let a friend get hurt. Which reminded him.... he'd yet to tell Varda the reason he'd wanted to come here so bad, the reason he didn't want anyone else to come. Was it better left unsaid, or would it be better to warn the swablu?

Varda hopped after his friend, feeling a little better after his meal. It wasn't like it instantly reinvigorated him or anything, his metabolism wasn't quite that fast... But he felt a little stronger with something in his belly. The corridors were a lot calmer now that no one was trying to attack them and they didn't have to rush through them. Now they would just have to somehow make their way down the maze and find the exit, right?

"Oooh," the bird cooed as Sova started to explain the parts he hadn't quite understood, not exactly having much experience of ghosts himself. He kept waddling and stayed quiet for a moment, thinking about it.
"It's alright! There's no need to apologize for something like that!" He added with a little chirpy giggle, glancing at the Glaceon before turning to face forward,
"Maybe that means... I should be blocking the attacks? If they don't hurt me. Maybe we shouldn't hurt them either, if they can do that kind of weird attacks where our attacks backfire..."

Sova was glad to hear Varda wasn't mad at him, though he expected nothing less of the ever-so-charismatic swablu. He didn't feel the need to reply and instead just kept moving, noticing a door at the end of the corridor they were in. As he moved, he listened to Varda and finally heard something he wanted to reply to. They couldn't just not fight back, since most Ghost-types here were likely to have ways of hitting Normal-types. Plus, the glaceon was an Ice-type, meaning he could still be hit regardless.

"Nah, that wouldn't work," he finally stated as he reached the door.
He pushed on the door with a paw to slowly open it as he continued speaking, "They can still hit us with other thi-," but he suddenly paused as he opened the door enough to see what was inside.
Lots and lots of Ghost-type pokemon. The room looked fancy, with a chandelier full of candles lighting it very well and a circular red carpet covering most of the floor. It seemed like some kind of gathering area due to the sheer amount of things there.

A few litwick illuminated the room even further, making it very easy to spot all of the other things there. Shuppet, gastly, drifloon, yamask, duskull, just a bunch of non-threatening weak pokemon. Still, the sheer number of them would surely prove to be a pain to have to deal with while also watching out for Varda, so he just slowly and quietly shut the door before turning around and speaking. "Okay, so, lets not go there...."

"Oh," Varda cooed as Sova mentioned how not fighting anything and him tanking all the attacks wouldn't really work, a bit disheartened. He was hoping for some kind of easy solution that would make exploring less dangerous: the Pokémon in the house behaved in strange ways and they certainly were a lot stronger than back in Pecha Forest! They could cause some real damage if they were allowed to – and of course he didn't want his friend hurt!

The little bird waddled after the Glaceon, the two finally coming across a door in the odd maze-like structure. Sova wasted no time pushing the door open with his paw, revealing what was a rather nice-looking room in the dreary mansion certainly fit for whoever might have lived here before it went into such disarray. But that wasn't all: the room was full of all kinds of different Pokémon, all looking like they were ghosts of some kind, just floating there. Was it a meeting of some sort? Were they waiting for dinner? Varda would have liked to join them if he hadn't just eaten...

The Pokémon inside seemed to notice the door opening, their eyes quickly glancing in the direction of the two before the door closed and clicked shut. Right, maybe they shouldn't go there... After all, the Pokémon could have been aggressive, and they had plenty of options, right?
"How about we try looking for another door, just in case!" The Swablu suggested. While the doors seemed to have the power to lead into different places every time they were opened, did they want to take the risk of opening this one and coming face to face with a full party of ghosts...?

Sova nodded in agreement with the swablu as he turned and headed back down the corridor.  "Yeah, I'd rather not deal with that right now if we don't have to," he agreed as he moved.
As they reached the intersection they'd come from, he decided he's go along with the theme they'd been using to pick paths.  After all, Varda would probably suggest it even if he didn't go ahead and do it, so he figured he'd save them both the time of having to talk about it and just turn down the path on the right.

"Guess we'll keep going for the "right" path," he said as he turned to the right and kept going.
Of course, given this was the direction the gourgeist had originally come from, he knew there was no door at the end of it.  However, there was another intersection along the way that they could check out.  They'd presumably go right once again and hopefully, they would get a better door than the last one.  If not, they could always just look for yet another door.

As he walked, he remembered once more why he was here.  The thing he hadn't told Varda yet, not wanting to worry the swablu.  He still couldn't decide whether to try and tell his friend what his theory was, or to keep it a secret until he figured out whether it was true or not.

(And boom, all of the pokemanz are majikt away.)

Varda followed his friend as they turned around and started to head in a different direction, taking a right turn – which was a good idea in the bird's mind! He even nodded with let out a small, high-pitched chirpy giggle as Sova mentioned it verbally, taking the right path did always feel good... And right!
"Yes!" He nodded a couple of times again, looking quite happy despite getting his ass kicked quite thoroughly just a moment ago,
"Isn't it a good tactic to keep turning the same way in mazes? It might take you through a lot of dead ends, but eventually you should get to the end, right?" The Swablu cooed, looking at Sova.

The hallways were quite uneventful now that they did not have a feral Pokémon chasing after them. The candles flickered softly, but the bird could almost swear that sometimes the eyes in the paintings were following them... But when he looked, he saw no proof of that. After a couple of more right turns, the pair came to a door, looking quite a lot like the last one they had opened, but it just was in a different place. Probably. Varda certainly hoped they hadn't been turned around.

The Swablu waddled closer and started to push his body against the door, not having much weight or strength to move heavy doors, but this one luckily did not object to being opened. A slight breeze came from the other side, the door leading to a rather small courtyard garden walled in by the building itself – or at least something that was a garden at some point. The flowerbeds mostly had dirt or dead flowers on them, the plants that had survived had overgrown. The sky above was dark and cloudy as always, the windows they could see were dark. It was pretty odd, seeing a courtyard here: honestly, considering where they had entered, this was supposed to be right in the middle of the maze, but the walls would have made that impossible. There was more than one door leading into the garden, ones they could take to possibly get to another part of the house.


((Rip pokeymans))

Sova continued along with the idea of just going right, figuring it had about as good of a chance of leading them where they wanted to go as going left did. Besides, they couldn't possibly end up in a worse room than the one they'd just seen, right? As he walked, he listened to Varda and couldn't help but wonder how the swablu had managed to stay alive this long with such naive views. "Not necessarily. We'd either reach the end or end up very, very far from the end and it'd take forever to find our way back. We're in luck, though, because there's more than one end to this maze.... I hope," he replied, explaining his view on mazes.

Sure enough, they then came upon another door, proving that there was indeed more than one end to this maze. Before he could open the door, Varda got to it first, so he figured he'd just let the bird do it. Surprisingly, Varda actually managed to push it open fairly quickly, before he'd even considered trying to help. Stepping into the next room, he instantly felt confused. It.... wasn't like the rest of the rooms he'd seen so far. And he'd been here twice, so that was saying a lot. It appeared to be a garden that the house'd swallowed up, or perhaps this was an actual part of the house that'd been built this way. Either way, it was definitely odd.

"Fancy," he commented as he stepped into the room, looking around.
There were vines all over the ground, though most of the plants were dead, giving a very eerie atmosphere. Honestly, if something threatening was going to attack, this seemed like the perfect place to do it. The mood was just right. But if nothing was going to take this opportunity, then they could just move on, since there were doors here.

Varda cooed as he pushed the door, looking back at his friend.
"I suppose it would take a lot longer to take every turn, as you would have to go through the entire maze if you're very unlucky," he chirped in thought, placing his wings on the door as an attempt to have better chances of opening the door,
"But one of the bad things about mazes is that you can easily get lost when everything looks the same! This way you would never get confused, so you couldn't accidentally take the same path multiple times and end up in the same dead end," the little bird smiled, feeling the wind as it started to ruffle his feathers through the gap in the door. How odd... But refreshing, in a way!

Gone was the musty scent of dust and candles, replaced with... Well, the smell of dirt and plant matter that might have been going bad. The house around them creaked, and if there was a moon or a sun up in the sky, it wasn't visible at all through the thick clouds. It was odd that the pair managed to see anything at all considering how little there was in the way of light sources, but it seemed like it would be fine – even after the door behind them clicked shut, all the light didn't disappear.

The Swablu took a couple of steps into the little garden, feeling the cool grass between his toes. He ended up stumbling a bit, looking down to notice a small piece of stone jutting out of the ground in an awkward way. It seemed like there was a small pathway made of stone, but the stepping stones had been broken and swallowed up by the grass. No one had taken care of this garden in a very long time...?
"Do you think there could be something here?" The bird Pokémon chirped, excited.

Sova just shrugged at the swablu's comment, giving in, but still thinking it wasn't the best way to deal with a maze. The best way would just be to break through the walls, assuming one had the strength to do so. Whoever made up the saying that cheaters never win was wrong. Cheaters have a clear advantage, after all. Not that it mattered, since he doubted either of them could easily break a wall in this house.

The room was definitely a nice change of scenery from the rest of this building, though it still fit the theme of a spooky haunted house. As Varda questioned whether or not there could be anything here, he himself wondered. "Yes. Plants, there could definitely be plants here," he replied jokingly.
Honestly, he wondered if there was really anything in this "room" other than plants, though. Items? Hidden doors? Traps? He certainly hoped it wasn't the latter, but it was definitely a possibility.

"Watch yourself, there could be something here you don't want to find," he commented as he looked around.
A few of the plants had managed to live, presumably due to not needing much or any care. Most of them were completely dead or in the process of dying, though. Considering all the residents of this chateau, he would have thought at least one of them would have been interesting in tending to the garden. Apparently not. Then again, how were any of them supposed to consistently find the garden?

Varda turned around and looked at Sova with large eyes sparkling with excitement as he was told that they could find plants here. An ooh of amazement parted his beak. Most likely there was only one Pokémon in the entire world that would be amazed at finding plants in a garden, and that was Varda. He wasted no time turning around and hopping around, exploring the plant-life that was either dead, dying or somehow overgrown. It seemed like other plants were hardier than others, able to survive without care.

"Oh, like those gourd ghosts?" The Swablu chirped when he was warned of potentially finding something they didn't want to. Or shouldn't. Did those ghost Pokémon grow from the ground like normal plants? He had never actually asked any of them about where they came from! The bird was still curious and didn't seem too worried as he hopped around, carefully lifting some branches aside to peek into the shadowy areas underneath the bushes.

The little light they had made something reflect it in the darkness, causing Varda to get closer to take a better look. Some kind of sharp iron stick stuck out from the ground, perhaps something that was broken and now it was impossible to say what it was supposed to be. The Swablu reached out with his foot, grabbing one and pulling it out. It actually came out rather nicely.
"I found sticks!" He called out happily.

Sova slowly ventured through the garden, weary and careful of the possible dangers within. It seemed his ally wasn't too worried, though. That was surprising, since Varda was usually the one to be worried about something. It felt kind of weird for him to be the sensible one for a change.... and it certainly wasn't as fun. But he figured someone had to do it and if it wasn't going to be Varda, it would have to be him. Upon Varda's input on the gourgeists possibly being hidden in the garden, he pondered the real possibility brought up to him.

"....Huh. Maybe?," he replied after a moment, not really sure whether or not they would hide in that manner.
It seemed like it would be fairly easy to find one of them if they tried to hide, but would they be attracted to a garden? If there was any garden a gourgeist would be interested in, this seemed like it. However, he doubted they would just sit under the ground waiting for someone to come by. That seemed.... a bit too desperate.

The glaceon's ears perked up as Varda spoke up once more, speaking of sticks. He ran over to check it out and found that the swablu had found some sharp-looking thorns. They didn't look quite as sturdy as the silver thorn he'd found, which was honestly more like a dagger than a thorn, but they seemed like they'd do the trick.... under the assumption Varda wanted to use weapons to fight. It seemed like the bird wasn't interested in fighting at all, let alone with violent stabby-things. Still, he felt it only right to give a heads up on some of the uses of something like that, "Y'know, those look helpful for fighting. Like the spike I keep with me. Remember, you were there when I found it?," he replied, thinking back to when he was just getting to know Varda and they'd gone to the Icy Lands together.

Varda hopped aside as he heard the footsteps of his friend approach, giving Sova some room to look at what he had found on the ground. He stood there proudly, puffing his chest slightly and holding onto the one that he had pulled out. Three still remained on the ground, a nice number that didn't look very pitiful. But the Swablu wasn't sure if he wanted to separate these like that, why should only one be given the option to leave and see the world...?

The bird was snapped out of his thoughts by the Glaceon's speech, turning back to face the Ice-type Pokémon after his gaze had slowly been moving towards the group of spike sticking from the ground. Helpful in a fight... Like the spike Sova had.
"Oh yes, that one! The one in the cold place," Varda chirped happily and smiled. Even though the mission hadn't been very happy and many very unfortunate things happened, he was able to look back at it all and think it ended well, a happy memory. It wasn't their first mission together, but it was the first mission they started together!

"These ones aren't as pretty as that one," the Swablu mused, closing his eyes for a moment. Sova's spike had been silvery, smooth and bright, these ones... Well, they were a bit worn down and broken, but he wouldn't hold it against them! With a determined look, the little Pokémon put the spike in his foot in his bag and hopped over to the rest, pulling them out of the ground. He gave them a little tap against the low broken brick fencing around the flowerbeds, trying to shake some of the dirt off before putting them in his bag.
"But that's fine!"


((Got 4 Iron Thorns!))