Spoopy Souls

Tropical
Energy: 22 - 19 = 3
Items in Use: Stamina Band (-2 energy from all rolls)
Pieces Found:
Music Box Piece A,
Music Box Piece B

Tropical suddenly found himself in a very large space. After finally escaping from the terrifying reality of trapping another pokemon inside an item, the grass dinosaur had wandered aimlessly through the haunted house, calling out for his companions without success.

He had not found his companions, nor had he found a way out of the terrifying mansion. Instead, he had gotten himself hopelessly lost, and after wandering down a flight of stone steps, the plantosaur had found himself in this large area.

Upon looking around further, Tropical deduced that he had emerged in a long hallway of some sort. There seemed to be no end to the hallway that he could see.

Sosio: {38 - 19 (entry) = 19}

Stumbling over her own feet, Sosio staggered into a strange hallway with a brand new aura. Upon entering what seemed to be a separate dungeon, Sosio snapped out of confusion and looked around. She was already some great way into the hall, engulfed with darkness on either end of it. If she had turned around, it would be impossible to tell which way she came from and where she was meaning to go. Although she had recovered from Confusion, she was hopelessly confused.

The lonesome bird shot an Ember into the darkness, but not even that helped. It created a small glow that only allowed Sosio to see the dark walls, but nothing else beyond in any other direction. Sosio feared, even, to look up in the cramped horror of what might be up there. Beginning to quiver, the Fletchinder began to stifle, only being able to produce a small "Caw" in fear. She felt just as she did when she was young and alone on her first journey before finding Grassveil.

Tropical
Energy: 3
Items in Use: Stamina Band (-2 energy from all rolls)
Pieces Found:
Music Box Piece A,
Music Box Piece B
Inventory
-Oran Berry (5)
-Reviver Seeds (4)

Tropical wandered through the dark, cavernous hallway for quite sometime before anything interesting happened. He had one of his vines extended from under his leaf collar, trailing along one of the walls to feel his way along the passage. He could barely see a foot in front of him, so the strange way of navigation was necessary.

Then out of the blue, a faint light appeared for a second before blinking out. It had happened so quickly that Tropical thought he had imagined it at first. Then a tiny sound echoed around him, barely distinguishable from the pounding silence around him. It sounded like the remnants of a pokemon's call, but what pokemon, Tropical had no idea.

"Hello?!" he called back, hoping against hope that it was one of his companions.

Sosio: {19}

The sudden sound of wingflaps even startled Sosio, the one who caused them. Someone was coming down the hallway, and his voice sent her into a panic mode.
Sss-stay back! I've got... fire!" the Ember Pokemon's lungs heaved the invisible substance so heavily, she thought she might faint. The air around her felt thin, and unleashing an Ember made it no better since the small flame consumed more Oxygen. Yet, somehow, Oxygen was flowing into the hallway, as if there was an autotroph somewhere. Did the ghosts decorate their house with plants? Ghostly plants?

It did take quite a while to process, but then everything started to come together in the bird's unnerved mind. A plant... the voice did seem familiar...
"W-wait! Who is it?"
The bird expected any possible answer, even those that would result in... she didn't wanna think about it.

Tropical
Energy: 3
Items in Use: Stamina Band (-2 energy from all rolls)
Pieces Found:
Music Box Piece A,
Music Box Piece B
Inventory
-Oran Berry (5)
-Reviver Seeds (4)

Tropical reared backwards upon the threat being voiced. He had just escaped a fire pokemon; he was in no mood to encounter another so soon! His panic overrode his rational for the moment, as he scrambled back and tried to get away from the voice, before it hit him that he recognized the tone of the voice.

The owner of the voice had seemed to come to the same conclusion, for she chirped out, "W-wait! Who is it?"

"I-it's... I'm Tropical!" the plantosaur called back, hoping against hope that the owner of the voice was indeed who he thought it was!

Sosio: {19}

The frail bird's heart skipped a beat as her confirmation startled her, filling hear heart that was so near to her flame sac with an inner warmth of hope. Dread and doubt soon corrupted that warmth.
"...You sure you're the Tropical I know and not some kind of ghost trying to trick me so you can steal my soul away?"
She really hated to ask, especially if this was the real Tropical, but better to be safe than sorry. Ghosts had a tendency to be the trickery type. The bird would sincerely hate if this were an illusion cast by some mischievous Gengar or something.

Sosio assumed it'd be mighty simple for a ghost to trap Pokemon who enter their domain and either control them as puppets or to disguise as the Pokemon to trick others. It would be awful to become one of their pawns. For all she knew, some ghosts could read her mind and find her deepest desires that she wouldn't even be able to deny with the consciousness of what was occurring. This place was scary.

Tropical
Energy: 3
Items in Use: Stamina Band (-2 energy from all rolls)
Pieces Found:
Music Box Piece A,
Music Box Piece B
Inventory
-Oran Berry (5)
-Reviver Seeds (4)

Tropical was taken aback by the reply he received. Then suspicion grew in his own mind. "Well, I suppose I could ask you the same thing," he replied warily. "I mean, I think I'm the real Tropical. But a ghost trying to trick you would say that, wouldn't they? And how do I know that you're not the one trying to trick me?" he returned, now feeling thoroughly confused.

He sure didn't want to run straight into another trap, especially after that last, horrifying trap he had walked into without a care in the world. He knew that he would forever be scarred by that experience.

Sosio: {19}

Sosio flinched and was taken aback. The figure sounded just like Tropical, but sounded as deceptive as a ghost would want to be. At this point, she couldn't tell up from down.
"You'r--What if I am the ghost? OH NO! I DIDN'T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! The bird screamed, running down the hallway in utter confusion, trying to escape from herself in a fruitless attempt, soon crashing into a spiral staircase at the end of a very small, dark room. Fumbling about, the Fletchinder tried to make her way up the stairs, but felt hopelessly lost as the feeling of being upside down overcame her each time she tried, forcing her back.
"HWAT-IS GOINGHON" She wailed in terror, falling back on her rear and whipping her head back to cry out.

Tropical
Energy: 3
Items in Use: Stamina Band (-2 energy from all rolls)
Pieces Found:
Music Box Piece A,
Music Box Piece B
Inventory
-Oran Berry (5)
-Reviver Seeds (4)

Tropical winced and crouched to the floor at the explosion of screaming that followed his words. He hadn't meant to upset the poor creature so much! It sounded like he had driven the pokemon mad with the possibility that it was a ghost without its own knowledge, which was enough to make his own head spin in confusion.

He then heard some low thuds, almost like it was banging its head against a wall or something. He crept slowly closer and closer until he could just make out a glowing staircase and a figure of a bird, whacking itself on the staircase over and over again, looking all the while quite insane.

"uhhh I didn't mean that!" He cried out. "I think you would know if you were a ghost, right?!"

Sosio: {19 - (roll)}

In all the panic, the frightened bird used up a lot of her energy trying to go up the confusing stairs, now lying on her back and panting, exhausted from the fruitless attempt. Her lungs shuttered as she coughed, realizing this was a horrible idea considering the great lack of oxygen. Thankfully, the approach of the giant plantosaur relieved her, the oxygen rejuvenating her once-dysfunctional mind. Due to which, she was able to realize this had to be the real Tropical. Ghosts couldn't make oxygen. Now she felt ridiculous, but would feel even more so if she didn't respond.

"Oh, right. Of course. These hallways are filled with madness, and I can just... never think.... Just try going up those stairs! Something weird happens..." She tried to explain, outstretching a cautious wing into the area of the staircase and pulling it back fearfully. This was undoubtedly the scariest part of this mansion so far, and surely it would only get worse. After all, they lost Lance back at the lower levels, so what if one of them would get lost up here? With no escape? The Fletchinder shivered, suppressing a sobbing scream.

[roll="The Ruined Passageway"==]1[/roll]

Tropical
Energy: 3
Items in Use: Stamina Band (-2 energy from all rolls)
Pieces Found:
Music Box Piece A,
Music Box Piece B
Inventory
-Oran Berry (5)
-Reviver Seeds (4)

Tropical was relieved to find the bird making coherent sentences again. He turned his head sideways curiously as she stuttered out something about the staircase being weird. He crawled closer to the staircase, reaching out his vines tentatively to touch the glowing staircase hesitantly.

The moment his vines touched the pearly-white substance the stairs were made off, he instantly felt dizzy and confused. He retracted his vines immediately, or at least, he tried to, only for them to crawl further up the stairs, increasing the amount of confusion he was experiencing.

Tropical let out a wordless cry of distress and pushed his vines as hard as he could through the staircase, only to have them snap back to his side in an instant. The confusion cleared, and Tropical was left panting heavily from the remnants of confusion and chaos the staircase had spelt upon him.

"Y-yeah, something's wrong with the staircase, alright," he said finally, after catching his breath.

Silver carried out 1 launched of one Ruined Passageway :

54

Sosio: {19 - (roll)}

Sosio bit back her tears, trying not to cry. Such a confusion was too horrifying and painful, and she was sure that even if they were able to work it out, it would be just as painful to keep up the changed turn of reactions to making their way up there. The pearly surfaces alone cast a sort of illusive aura that made the bird want to blink back away from it and keep her eyes closed to keep her mind safe from the pain of trying to process what she was seeing.

"I don't... like this," Sosio muttered, still squinting and trying to quell her shaky voice. This was the essence of terror that the ghosts ever so enjoyed. Undoubtedly, it was ghost types that were most bizarre. The bird would know first-hand from an exploration to a ghost-type village at the summit of a mountain. The memory of what happened there was very faint, having taken place far too long ago, but there she had met a Misdreavus who had brewed a concoction that saved the bird's mentality. The ghosts living on the mountain had strange rituals, too, like evolution gatherings and summoned shadows to converse with. The ghosts here, however, seemed to like the taste of fear, setting up this entire mansion just to receive it, sort of like a single gigantic prank... What was this separation from cruel and mysterious?

aMEWzing carried out 1 launched of one Ruined Passageway :

Tropical
Energy: 3
Items in Use: Stamina Band (-2 energy from all rolls)
Pieces Found:
Music Box Piece A,
Music Box Piece B
Inventory
-Oran Berry (5)
-Reviver Seeds (4)

Tropical peered at the staircase, the pearly-white of the stairs gleaming strangely in the darkness of the rest of the hallway. "There's got to be something to this. Either the staircase is a fake, a trap made by the ghosts, or there is some trick to going up the staircase the right way," Tropical said decidedly.

"Since there hasn't been any sign of any other staircases, I suspect that it's the real one but that there is a trick to making it work. It makes me feel dizzy and causes us to go the opposite way than what we think we're doing. So maybe if we go backwards up the staircase?" Tropical looked at Sosio. "What do you think, Sosio?"

Sosio: {19 - 1 (Grimy Food) 18}

The shaking bird wiped her wings across her eyes and beak, cleaning off her burning eyes that were singing from her restrained tears.
"I understand. With this weird corruption, there's a whole new side to me. I can actually... be inquisitive enough to come up with solutions. I don't like being knowledgeable. I miss my oblivious days... but with that comes a comprehension. This staircase, much like the hallway, is able to cast a sort of illusive control over the mind, making the hallway seem endless, but as for this... I'm fairly sure it has an opposite outcome of every action. Meaning we'll have to have a mindset of walking backwards to go up the stairs, which will be as painful as it would be to adjust to double vision." She tried to explain, which she somehow knew.
We'll have to go against every instinct and break every habit... Not to mention going UP stairs, so we'd have to know how far to step backwards each time or we'll fall off the staircase...

"So yes, walking down the staircase is our only way up," she concluded with hesitance, hating her understanding of the situation, feeling like she stole the Tropius's thought. She tried acting bubbly in the rest of the dungeon but it felt so fake. Sosio wanted this endless depression and development of thought to leave her forever, but what if it stayed even after ending the corruption? She hated her spontaneous maturity so harshly she wanted to unleash every last Ember from her flame sac until she would fall into a deep sleep and not have to face the sudden harsh reality of the world... Then she began to wonder if any'mon else went through the alternation of personality through this corruption.

Tropical
Energy: 3 - 0 (roll) = 3
Items in Use: Stamina Band (-2 energy from all rolls)
Pieces Found:
Music Box Piece A,
Music Box Piece B
Inventory
-Oran Berry (5)
-Reviver Seeds (4)
-Strange Ticket

If Tropical was surprised by this sudden change in personality of the fire bird, he gave no sign of it, instead nodding at her words. It wasn't unusual for Tropical to miss some of the finer points when talking, so perhaps this was the reason for missing what Sosio had said, but it was more likely because he had only recently met the fletchinder, and thus was not able to perceive the change, as one who knew her from long ago would.

"So, walking down upstairs, basically. It seems impossible but that's what we get for being in such a crazed place, is it not?" Tropical said, cracking a small smile at his weakly attempted version of humour. He eyed the staircase once more before sighing. "Well I guess standing here isn't getting it done."

Then he approached the staircase and turned around. He looked at Sosio once more before beginning to go backwards up the staircase. The moment his feet touched the stairs, he felt confused, but he pushed on, going down the stairs that led upwards. Thankfully, this seemed to work, as he moved on, and the hallway suddenly disappeared, to be replaced with a small room.

It seemed to be a bedroom of some sort, with a bed and dresser in one corner and a bookshelf dominating the far wall, with a desk to the side of the bookshelf. Tropical frowned in disconcertment, wondering where he had found himself now. He hoped Sosio would be able to get up the stairs, so that he wasn't alone longer than he had to be; as the stairs had mysteriously disappeared after he had traversed them.