The Abandoned Villa

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Tropical fluttered his wings nervously as he looked up at the scattered remains of the ruined mansion that dominated the dark skyline. His eyes narrowed in worry as they darted to the black clouds that prevented the sun from shining down on the land. Tropical's normally sunny disposition and positive attitude had faded with the sun. He had worried wrinkles pulling at the corners of his eyes and across his forehead, and his typical carefree grin was replaced with a concerned frown.

The disease that had followed the black clouds across the land was a serious one, affecting the very minds of the pokemon, turning them into even less than feral pokemon, driving them to insanity and violence. Tropical's own mother had recently been affected by the disease, explaining much of the worry on Tropical's countenance. It had driven him to this sunless place that stank of rotting wood, where the air trembled with a dangerous energy.

When his mother had contracted the disease, Tropical had gone into a frenzy, trying to find a way to reverse the madness and cure her sickness. He had traveled to the lower lands and found Xatu giving strange advice: a riddle, almost. He had stuck around for a while, trying to get more out of the mysterious but wise psychic. He'd managed to catch some mumbled ramblings, but that was all she wrote.

Tropical had never really been one much for riddles, preferring to garden and bake over anything else, but Xatu's words seemed to be rather straight-forward. After asking around and examining some maps of the lower lands, he concluded that the 'house of haunts' that Xatu spoke of had to be the Ruined Chateau, given that it was an old mansion overrun by ghost pokemon. He hoped to piece together more clues once he was inside and had the chance to look around.

Lance was about to give that ghost a piece of his mind, untill some vines pulled him back. Tropical apperantly wanted to try to reason with the thing, and since he was too strong for him, the Riolu just stood there, giving Tropical the 'Why can't I just do it my way instead of your way' look. But then the ghost said something...strange.

"Why would I listen to you, peanut? HOW ELSE WOULD I EARN THE CHOCALATE?"

This sentence quickly changed Lance's attitude. It's not about what the ghost said, but why it said it.

The ghosts must have the illness as well!

The poor Pokemon once again started shaking in fear, no longer wanting to be here. Originally, he thought ghosts couldn't get the illness, since they don't have a body, (And possibly a brain to take over) but he was apparantly wrong. Once the battle was over, and a strange light healed Sosio, Lance asked, "C-can we just go someplace e-else?" Maybe they can just go live somewhere safe, instead of going in this place to find a cure for this spreading disease and possibly get it themselves.

LanceTheDragon carried out 1 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

Tropical let out a cry of dismay as Sosio flew into battle mode -literally. After several blows back and forth, in which Tropical had to back up, his wings flaring out to protect his face from the falling debris.

In the aftermath of the battle, Tropical stared down at the restored Sosio, displeasure and disappointment clear on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a tiny voice calling out in distress.

"M-mama?" the teeny voice asked, sounding close to tears. Tropical's head shot towards the sound, to spot a small drifloon peering out from behind a fallen pillar.

The drifloon flew out to where the drifblim had disappeared to, letting out a cry as it realized that the older pokemon was gone. The drifloon collapsed on the ground and started to sob.

Tropical shot a glare at Sosio pointedly. "And this is why I prefer to get all the answers before suddenly leaping into action," he stated, bitterness seeping into his tone. "The drifblim was probably trying to protect her young -even if she did have the disease."

Sosio: {18 + 1 (page) = 19}

After the bird's successful attempt to free herself from the cage, while she was both surprised and a little proud of herself, her newest friend bore into her eyes with a look of pure disapproval, sucking any positive feeling left in Sosio, confusing her as to why he was so upset with her. That, however, was soon answered, as a youthful Drifloon hovered over the spot its evolution disappeared, looking lonesome. The grass type seemingly snapped, flooding Sosio with guilt as he explained why she shouldn't have battled. Angered by this feeling he washed her over with, the bird switched into denial mode in order to defend herself.

"Well, if I hadn't, it probably would've beaten me to fainting, and as you could tell from the battle, it would've been hard to stay on evasive mode with those whole-room sweep moves. I'm just being careful," she explained, trying to prove her point. "Beside, it's not too late to help," she added, flapping up slowly to the other ghost and looking to the ground. She tried her hardest not to think introspectively about what just happened, and focused greatly on the task at hand. She did the best she could to sound friendly.
"Hey, ghosty balloon thing, someone's looking for you, come back!" she called out down at the floor. Maybe if she couldn't call it out, she could leave a sort of bribe. The Fletchinder placed a Gold Ribbon on the floor, hoping it'll want it and take it. If not, Sosio would want to keep its shinyness.

If this went on any longer, the bird would grow uncomfortable. She was not willing to play the waiting game just to appeal to Tropical, and she was beginning to agree with Lance. Maybe we should just move on. She thought about saying something, but breaking the silence would feel awkward. She instead waited for someone else to say or do something. Anything. Maybe the Drifblim would come back, or maybe a team member would decide to do otherwise.

Lance was having a hard time trying to keep calm. He just figured out ghosts can catch the illness, and he doesn't want to catch it himself and hurt his friends. But then a Drifloon came to the spot where the Drifblim was and started crying. "That must have been it's mom..." The Riolu thought to himself, feeling guilty as well. He was about to beat up the poor thing's mother before Tropical stopped him. But did they really have a choice? But now they've made a poor kid cry. Tropical and Sosio weren't making it any better either, now that they are arguing with each other. Lance was having a hard time trying to control his emotions, and eventually, just couldn't take it anymore. Right after Sosio placed down the Gold Ribbon, the Riolu took off into one of the rooms, tears forming in his eyes as he ran from one room to another, not knowing where he was going, but he didn't care. He wanted to be alone. He was still young and new to exploring, and something like this was just too much for him.

Tropical cast a worried glance after the fleeing riolu. He sighed, feeling like a complete jerk. "Hey, why don't you go after him?" He suggested to Sosio. "I'll stay here and try to get the drifblim to come back... or at least help out this little one," he said, looking at the drifloon sadly.

He felt horrible that he had snapped at Sosio, and had frightened Lance enough to make the riolu run away, possibly into further dangers. How could he call himself a pacifist or even a good pokemon when he argued with others? He might not fight, but was arguing any better? Tropical was so busy beating himself up that he didn't notice if Sosio had left or not.

Sosio: {19}

Looking up from her Gold Ribbon and to Tropical, completely forgetting about the argument moments ago, she nodded, determination in her eyes, and dashed in after Lance. It was her mission, assigned to her in hopes to fix this mess and make everything right again. If Sosio's theory was right, the darkness that swept the nation didn't only cause insanity, but imbalance of emotions. The Fletchinder noticed that she had been acting odd ever since, never run by happiness, but rather seriousness and a dash of anger. She had a feeling that if all of this was fixed, all would become right again, every Pokemon would break out of insanity, including Tropical's mother of course, and her emotional balance would be restored.

As Sosio entered the next room, she realized it didn't look much different from the entrance, besides the lack of a door. The wallpaper was torn, the color purple was everywhere, especially on the drapery, and the carpet seemed messy and ripped up. There were paintings on the wall, which felt eerie, and the striped patterns around left the illusion that the roof was caving in. The random placement of a velvet-cushion chair also left Sosio dismayed at mind. She called out for Lance, "I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea to be alone in a haunted house. Come back so I can protect you, buddy. Everything's OK now."

After he ran through about 10 rooms, Lance sat down against the wall and started crying, his face buried in his hands. He felt like this was all a horrible nightmare. He felt like he was in a deathtrap. "Why am I even here?" He thought to himself. He then saw something gleaming in his bag. Pulling it out, he realized it was his Guild badge. "Oh yeah, I'm with the Guild. It's my duty to explore places, along with protecting Pokémon..." He stared at the badge for awhile, seeing his reflection on the shiny surface. He then felt a huge wave of anger sweep through him. "Well, if that's what it is, I don't want to be an explorer anymore!" He yelled out. He then threw his badge against the wall, making a small ding sound as it hit the surface, falling to the floor. He then did the same with his explorer bag, with several objects showing from the opening as it fell on its side. A Gourgeist appeared out of the wall. Upon seeing the Gourgeist, Lance jumped at it, his foot blazing with more intence fire than usual as he used Blaze Kick, as if his anger fueled the fire. The Gourgeist screamed in pain, going back through the wall. The Riolu heard Sosio, but ignored her and continued running through rooms, his mind clouded with anger. Perhaps Lance has been infected?

Energy= 15 - 8 (previous roll + stamina band) = 7 + 1 (new page) = 8 + 30 (sitrus berry x 2) = 38

Thankfully, Tropical wasn't left to his guilt for very much longer. Once Sosio had left the room, the drifblim poked her head through the floor, and then rose into the room, embracing the drifloon.

"Mama!!!" The drifloon cried out, hugging the drifblim back.

"There, there, my sweet cookie. I won't let the plane eat you..." The drifblim said, still clearly under the influence of the disease.

Tropical blinked at the strangeness of the words, but dismissed it as unimportant. This ghost didn't seem too far gone yet, at least enough that she recognized her own child... which was more than Tropical's mother could.

"Well... I'm, uh... glad that you found each other," He said awkwardly.

The drifblim cast an eye over the tropius and waved one of its ghostly wrappings, causing a small hole to open up in the ground, which held a strange-looking red box, and an orb.

"For saving my cookie." the drifblim said, and then floated away with her child still wrapped up in her arms.

Tropical bit back an incredulous laugh, and hurriedly put the items in his bag with one of his vines. Then he picked up the gold ribbon that Sosio had left, and draped it over his neck for the time being. He stuffed a couple sitrus berries in his mouth and then headed off in the direction that his two companions had disappeared to.

Silver carried out 3 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

, ,

Sosio: {19}

Sosio continued to call out for Lance, suddenly hearing a scream and running in the direction of it. She ran, room after room, getting a strange sense of Déjà Vu as every room seemed like the doorway was just a portal back to the original room. They were different, sure, but they all seemed the same for some horrible reason, and now the Fletchinder was miserable and lost. Sosio's feathers began to fluff out, her eyes wide and alert, searching for the Riolu that ran off. She tilted her head, catching onto some soft sobbing, and pressed her head against the floor, trying to locate the sound. She walked awkwardly with the side of her face pressed against the ground, using her legs to propel herself room after room. When she made a mistake and came to a dead end, she turned back and tried again. Fortunately, her strategy worked.

"Lance!" she exclaimed, her head darting up off the ground as she spotted the blue Pokemon. He looked utterly depressed. Despite that, Sosio approached him peacefully. "Hey, it's okay, let's go somewhere safe now. We can't just leave Tropical back there," she tried suggesting. Hopefully the Tropius was okay, and hopefully Lance could be convinced enough to calm down and come. Hopefully Tropical was fine, as well.

aMEWzing carried out 3 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

, ,

Deep in his mind, Lance knew something was wrong with him. He knew he didn't want to leave the guild, or his friends. But it felt like something was controlling him with anger and doubt. The mental struggle to regain control of himself was exhausting, and at one point, he was about to give up and let the cloud of dark emotions take over completely, but he heard Sosio call out his name, and knew that he had to continue the battle. If he didn't, he could badly hurt his friends, or worse...

Meanwhile, Lance's physical being was running around still, having the energy sucked from him from the mental struggle and the energy that Blaze Kick used. His vision was flickering and his movements were starting to get sluggish. When he noticed Sosio, he was going to keep running, since the small portion of him that was still in control kept him from attacking her, but he was too tired, and instead collapsed, unable to keep going with the amount of energy left in him.

[energy:15-13:2] [stamina hat; -2 energy from all rolls]

Energy: 38 - 0 (stamina band + rolls) = 38

Tropical moaned, hiding his face behind the leaves that his wings were made of, feeling ashamed and humiliated. He was lost. Completely and utterly lost.

Every room inside the ruins looked alike, and Tropical swore that he'd seen the same exact pillar three times, though he was sure that he hadn't gone in a circle! Tropical had never been to a place that made so little sense before!

Thankfully, he hadn't run into any other feral pokemon, but he was wary that this lull in pokemon wouldn't last very long. He sighed and leaned against an old wall, yelping in surprise as the wall suddenly rotated, taking his body with it, so that he was suddenly in another room. There was a tiny red ball of some sort on the floor, along with two more of the strange orbs.

Tropical picked up the small red ball and examined it, finding a tiny hole on one side of the ball, as if something was supposed to fit inside it. He carefully placed it on an outside pocket of his bag, while the two orbs went in the main part.

He looked around and sighed. He had to find his partners, but he had no idea how to even begin searching for them when the ruins seemed to keep changing on him!

Silver carried out 2 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

,

Sosio: {0 + 10 (Grimy Food) = 10 + Confusion (rolled by a randomizer)}

The Ember Pokemon watched the Riolu dart around, staring in confusion with her head moving in correlation with his movement. Was he okay; was it something she said? She looked at his eyes, which appeared milky white, his pupils not visible. She flinched back, startled at this sight, but then tried to get him back to normal again.

"Lance? Lance! Snap out of it!" she called into the lost Pokemon, hoping his real self could hear her and snap back to awareness. But something more worrisome was coming, the sound of a disturbed spirit, groaning in a fearsome bellow, threatening to harm the fledgling-behaving bird. She squawked a scream of fear as she heard it, eyes darting to spot whatever it was, her eyes landing on a shadow rising up the wall, extremely tall and creepy. She trembled, cowarding away from the dark shape, squinting as it came closer. But to her surprise, as she dared to open her eyes, it was a small candle-like object casting that shadow.

Sosio giggled, approaching the fellow fire type, and looking down on it with a smile.
Hehe... You're not so scary now... Say, I promis--" a sudden feeling smacked Sosio on the side of the head. An attack she could not identify, because it was so dizzying. She turned, discombobulated, to the Drifloon that landed the attack, so swirling in the mind she couldn't tell if it were the same one from before, or a completely new one. The Litwick finished her off with some sort of ghost type attack, making her collapse in a faint onto the ground...


~~~~~


Slowly awakening, clearly after some time had passed, Sosio grabbed the first thing in her bag and popped it into her mouth. She was thankfully replenished with energy, but she immediately flinched with a face of disgust. It tasted horrible... and then shock as she remembered. She had Grimy Food... and she just ate it... What horrible fate would await her? What would the terrible item inflict on her to never be healed until moving on?

"Ha...ha...HAHA! HAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she howled as if she were mad, her eyes and legs suddenly crossing as the whole world turned upside down, her eyes crossed, and her body overcome with a rock-like feeling, everything spinning and twisting and swirling, zooming all about around her, a similar feeling to when one has medicine to cure an illness and causes a sudden madness. She wasn't even fully aware to realize--it was confusion.

aMEWzing carried out 1 launched of one Ruined Chateau :

Lance, even though his physical being was unmoving, he was still fighting a mental battle. It's been going on for awhile, and, once again, Lance was about to give in, but he heard Sosio crazed scream. He needed to help his friend! He used all the willpower he could and broke out of the strange spell, regaining control of himself. Forcing himself to get back on his feet, he wobbled around before leaning aginst a wall. He remembered that the ghosts still are infected and that he could get infected again, but he didn't care. Helping his friends was top priority, no matter what happened to him. Using the wall to support himself, he went to look for Sosio, or to get help from Tropical. The Riolu almost forgot about him.

Energy: 38 - 8 (Stamina Band + rolls) = 30

Tropical wandered through the halls of the ruined castle, still searching for his friends. He was still having little luck, though thankfully the rooms had stopped looking all alike. Or someone was pulling an illusion over Tropical's mind, but he didn't think anyone was. But then, would he know if someone was using an illusion on him? The thought twist froze him for a second, then he shook his head. He was being ridiculous. This place had to be getting to him.

He wandered into a long room of some sort, almost a hall. The walls were crumbled, but still stood against the test of time and the mystery dungeon curse, which said a lot for the builders of this castle, he supposed.

Tropical walked over to the table that stretched across the room, and cast a curious look down it. One seemingly innocent candle was somehow alight, though how in the world a candle had been flared in this place, or how it stayed alight in the soft breeze running through the ruins, was beyond the grass type. But he shrugged it off as just another strange phenomenon of the mystery dungeon, and continued his exploration of the strange hall.

As he passed the candle though, it suddenly turned on him and fired a stream of embers at his wings. Tropical let out a shriek of surprise and pain as the leaves on his wings crisped at the edges and the burn shot through his body. He fell back, wondering what kind of place this was, that even the cutlery attacked him?!

Sosio: {0 + 3 (Red Gummi) = 3}

Sosio stumbled in a dizzy manner over to the corner of the walls, patting it with a wing. She continued to do so at least 10 times before shoving her head into the corner, as if trying to fit through it, cramming her forehead against it as she used her feet to try to push herself into it. She pecked the wall angrily, trying a new approach to get through, and chipped part of the wall, trying the process again, but this time beak-first. There was no reasoning behind this, only confusion making her think there was something special about it. She jutted her beak into the corner several times and tried to push herself through before she gave up. Unfortunately, this angered a ghost that was behind the wall, so a Sableye flew through and Shadow Claw'd her away from the corner.

"Spaghetti..." she muttered under her breath as she got up and reached into her bag. She rolled onto her back, legs in the air, holding her Red Gummi, and opened her beak wide. Several failed attempts to get it in her mouth resulted in her poking her eye, impaling it with the tip of her beak, and then finally shoving it down her throat. She gargled and then gulped, pushing herself off the ground with her wings and then bend over forward, hugging her legs.
"You'll get the food soon, babies..."

OOC//: