Anything Goes

Dark.... dark and deep.  Sova looked down into the crevice; it was deeper than he'd remembered it being.  It was very steep from this end, and he didn't see a safer path within a reasonable distance.  Time was of the essence here, so he didn't have much choice but to just deal with the dangerous terrain.  Besides.... he had no right to complain after what he'd done.  At least he had someone with him who would have no problems in this terrain; Mirage.  She could see in the dark fairly well and she'd already been here before.... they'd both been here before.  He would have loved to bring more than just one ally, but honestly, there was no one he trusted more than Mirage to have his back.  Varda was an airhead, Acro was unstable, Jak.... knew his secret, but was far too short-tempered to be reliable.

Then again, he wasn't one to judge for the mental issues of others.... and Mirage wasn't currently much better than Acro at the moment in terms of instability.  But!  Mirage had never shut down in the middle of a fight before, and that mattered dearly here.  If he'd brought someone with him who couldn't handle themselves properly in a fight.... he didn't want to think about the consequences.  He needed someone he could trust entirely as well.  This was why Varda couldn't come, Jak couldn't come, Acro, William, Skylar, Keith, Dusk, Aku, Leif, Linus, ....  Mirage was the only soul he knew who he could trust in a fight as well as trust on a personal level.  No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't think of anyone to take Mirage's place in this.

What he had to do.... he still wasn't quite sure about it himself.  After making the situation of the world worse and putting the lives of the group he was with in danger in the Ruined Chateau, he'd come to learn a bit more about the situation.  There was a war brewing, and it was one he doubted someone as insignificant as himself could be very useful in.  It was a war among legends.  Literal legends.  "Prophets" had cropped up, each with a different vision for the future, and their words had spread like wildfire.  There was the "holy" side, supposedly fighting for Arceus Almighty, which.... he was still having trouble believing.  There was a side fighting for a creature he'd actually had to research to even find myths about, "Zygarde."

Then.... there were those fighting for what he preferred to call.... evil.  This one, he knew for certain was true; Giratina led this side.  They wanted to drag the world further into darkness and rid it of rules.  That was all he knew about it for the time-being, but it was enough to know he had to stop it.  He'd already unintentionally recruited someone to this side; a being whom, after even more research, he found to go by the name of "Darkrai."  Now there were cryptic riddles being issued to each side.... and from what he could tell, it was a recruitment search.  This particular bit of instruction that he was currently following was - if he had understood it correctly - to go hunt down some creature of immeasurable power that lived in the Obsidian Rift and convince it to join the cause.  His intention wasn't quite to follow this through, though....

He'd come fully intending to kill it.

He didn't trust himself to work for either of the other sides, with their peace missions....  All he was good at was fighting, so he was going to use his skill to try and set Giratina back, rather than pointlessly struggling in an attempt to help either of the other two sides.  He didn't care which among the two won, as long as this side was out of the equation.

"Thanks.... for coming with me," he spoke up as he stared down into the massive hole he was about to enter.
His eyes looked as if they wanted to close and he was forcing them open.  The nightmares.... they'd gotten worse.  He was tired.  His voice was quiet and strained, as if he didn't want to speak, or something was bothering him.  Both were true.  He was just.... staring down into the crevice; at this point, he didn't even realize it.  His mind was so caught up in thinking about what he'd done wrong that he was just standing there, staring at nothing.

(Energy - 74)

Mirage: 28 (-30 for entry cost)
Garnet: 10 (Escorted by sova and ate oran berry)

The vixen looked down into the crevice alongside the fellow fox pokemon, the gaping dark abyss threatening to swallow her hole if she leaned forward just a tad. Mirage spoke up, "No problem."

It had been a while since she had given up a vast majority of her 'evil' ways in exchange for..well, nothing really. She was simply along to come along, having run out of things to do with her life now that she had realized that she did not HAVE to steal and murder in order to live. She stared down at the abyss and the darkness that once used to comfort her, yet leave an eerie feeling as it used to send shivers down her spine and back. Now it was simply...nothing.

Darkness was no longer a comfort, and it was instead just another fact of the world. It did not welcome her, it did not greet her, it may as well have just been dirt.

The zoroark spoke up, "Well, damn thing aint gonna kill itself," she spoke before dropping down onto a ledge below. She figured she would likely have to guide him down, considering the glaceon was incapable of seeing well in the darkness. This was going to be a long climb down, she knew it...

Down in the darkness, a salamander was stranded. He was stuck on a ledge, with nowhere to go. He sighed, he had been stuck here for about an hour now. He had tried to get someone's attention, but there was nobody around to hear him. The flame on his tail burned brightly, as he lit the area around him. He looked up once more from his seat, squinting into the darkness and trying to see if there was anything around.

Nothing. Great. Garnet sighed before shouting at the top of his lungs, "FUCK!" before allowing himself to fall backwards and lay on his back, staring up at the darkness. His words echoed throughout the crevice, as the charmander was stuck with nowhere else to go. He had fallen down here, and he was unable to climb back up or even proceed down. Garnet huffed, he was stuck. There was no way around that...

Sova continued to stare blankly at the nothingness before him after his companion started moving.  He didn't show any signs of having any conscious thoughts going through his mind, but in truth, his thoughts were the entire reason he was acting like a zombie.  He just couldn't stop blaming himself, couldn't stop thinking about what he'd done and how easily he could have avoided it.  Honestly, while he viewed Varda as air-headed, there was a bit of irony in that.... because Varda had been the one to suggest they were doing something wrong.  He didn't listen, because he never listened, and now everyone else was going to have to pay for it.

Then his thoughts came full-circle and reminded him why he was here in the first place.  He wanted to make up for what he'd done wrong.  He still wanted to be the hero.  The glaceon looked up at the dark-clouded sky, then back down into the crevice.  He then jumped down onto a ledge nearby to Mirage's.  He didn't want to jump onto the same one as her, simply because of the risk of them getting in each other's way.  He could see, at least for now, but he knew he'd probably need Mirage's help to guide him through later on.

He remained silent still, making it fairly clear he was extremely distracted with his own burdening thoughts.  He kind of wanted to say something to Mirage, but couldn't think of anything.  He wanted someone to talk to.... for once.... but.... he didn't want to burden his closest friend.  He was sure Mirage had plenty of problems of her own, and he was grateful to even have her along for this trip.  That was enough; he needed to be satisfied with what he'd already been-

Then the abyss screamed at him. Or at least, that was what his zoned-out mind initially interpreted it as. He idly tilted his head to the left in a bit of confusion, trying to figure out what'd just happened. "....Apparently, the crevice isn't happy to see us again," he did his best to joke, though his monotonous voice probably took away from the humor a bit.

Mirage's ears perked up a bit at the sudden shouting of the abyss, and Sova's comment made her simply roll her eyes, "Probably just some sucker realizing he got gypped or something" she shrugged. She had noticed how quiet the glaceon was being, usually he would not shut up around her...why was he suddenly like this?

The zoroark paused herself for a moment, hesitating about asking. Would it be awkward if she said anything? Would he get angry? Was that being too nosy? She began to almost miss the times where she did not care about anything in the slightest, it certainly would have made things much easier at this point.

Deciding to simply ignore her conscious telling her to say nothing and instead spoke up, "Hey, you got anything you want to talk about?" she asked, deciding to jump down to the next ledge as she did so.

--

Garnet sighed once more before holding himself up a bit with his arms. Was he just going to die here like this? He pulled himself over to the ledge and looked down into the deep gaping abyss. Nope. Not going down there! At least not alone.

He looked up, he could have sword he heard some mumbling? He blinked, looking up and falling silent as he awaited the voices to grow closer. Was it a rescue team? Certainly not? The charmander brought himself to his legs again, letting his arms fall to his sides as he focused on the darkness above.

Sova stared down in the darkness, as if waiting for it to speak to him once more. He knew the abyss wasn't actually talking to him, and that wasn't the reason for his absentminded staring anyway. He was just mentally troubled. His mind once more began to tune out what Mirage was saying, then she questioned if he had something he wanted to say.... He suddenly snapped back to reality, realizing his friend was aware of his state and he was making it obvious. He considered trying to deny it to spare Mirage, but in the end.... he really did want to talk. He sighed before hopping down to the next ledge below him.

"....I tried to make things better, I really did.... But I...." he tried to explain, though his mind wasn't quite giving him the words to describe how he was feeling.
He hadn't talked to anyone about what he'd done, but perhaps he should have chosen Jak or Varda.... They'd been there, they would understand more easily. He trusted Mirage more than either of them, though.
He lifted his head and turned his gaze toward the zoroark, hesitating to speak for a moment. He could still see Mirage.... They weren't nearly deep enough yet. For some reason, this was the first thing that came to his mind.

Every moment he spent not being able to redeem himself was a moment of agony, and it was enough to make him just want to jump all the way down to the bottom of the crevice. If not for the fact that he knew it would kill him, he would have tried. "Am I.... bad?" he questioned with a sad yet vacant look.
If anyone knew what it meant to be "bad," he was pretty sure it was Mirage.... and Mirage knew him well enough to judge this. He just couldn't help but feel like he was destined to be the "bad guy" right now. He'd tried to do something good for the world, something selfless.... and it ended in him making everything worse.

Mirage paused, a bit surprised by the question. Wasn't Sova the one who went on that whole fiasco about her being bad was not necessary? She looked to Sova and spoke what came to her mind, "If you were bad, you would have let me continue the way I was, we would not be here with intent to kill. Either we would be here to recruit or we would be heading over to wherever that rescue thing is and kill whoever needed rescuing."

"I..." she spoke, "I think being bad can only be based on intentions. So unless you've completely pulled wool over my eyes and we're going to recruit that thing then, then no you are not bad." At least that was how Mirage hoped it worked. If that was not how the world worked...then was she bad? She used to be bad...she used to be really bad...but what about now?

Garnet listened to the voices above as they grew closer, keeping quiet and waiting until they were closer. He did not want them to hear him and then avoid him out of fear, maybe if he played nice they would help him? If they were feral residents then maybe he could trick them into bringing him higher and kick their butts before they could eat him. The charmander waited patiently, trying to hide his tail light a bit as they came closer.
Mirage

Kat carried out 5 launched of one Obsidian Crevice :

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Garnet

Kat carried out 5 launched of one Obsidian Crevice :

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"Heh," Sova laughed weakly as his response to the zoroark. He gave a forced smile before looking back down into the darkness. What was it like to be like that? ....Dark.... he kind of wanted to know what that felt like. Mirage.... did she know? Would it be inappropriate to ask? He couldn't help but wonder if those who were "evil" felt pain, at least in the same way.... Did they feel guilt for the things they did? Did the guilt just disappear over time if one went far enough down the wrong path? He wondered.... if his mind hadn't split, would he have gone down that road? Would.... "S.S" have just been.... him?

"Then.... I kind of wanna know what that feels like," he finally spoke.
Now he was beginning to envy his split personality. S.S. was free from morality.... it was a gift that had been meant for him, yet his mind couldn't handle it at the time. Maybe now he could, but he figured it was a bit too late to accept it. He looked downward and noticed there were no ledges near him, which meant he was going to have to make a long jump if he wanted to get any further. It was risky to jump so far, but he didn't really care. He didn't even need to consider it before jumping from the safety of his perch and deeper into the darkness.

The fall was, as he'd expected, longer than the previous ones had been. He managed to land on his paws, and for a moment, it all seemed fine.... Then his legs began to tingle.... which turned into burning. However, he remained in his vacant, robotic state, not reacting to the pain in the slightest. He lifted his right paw and moved it a bit, staring at it and testing the extent of the pain. It was reminding him of one of the injuries he'd sustained in the chateau. An injury that Varda had wanted to leave over. If only he'd listened.

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Obsidian Crevice :

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Mirage: 13
Garnet: dead

Mirage stopped as she watched Sova drop down the longer drop. She seemed to have a darker look to her eyes as she leaped from her own ledge to Sova's, having an easier time as the ledge was not as far down for the larger fox. As she landed her paw moved to the back of Sova's neck and gripped the scruff of his fur before lifting up, "Don't you ever repeat that sentence again!" she snarled with anger.

What was he thinking!? Feeling like you're...bad was just...no! She would not wish that upon anyone else. Wasn't he the one that had freed her from feeling the need to do that? She glared at him, making it very obvious that she was not pleased with this development. She did not know what she would do if Sova ignored her, seeing as she could not exactly do anything against him.

Garnet could hear the voices clearer, someone saying they wanted to feel a certain way, and then another angry voice. He was unsure of what to do other than wait for them to get closer. He hid his tail covering it and trying to block the light it provided, it was futile to completely cover it, but the attempt would at least prevent them from noticing it right away.

Sova's ears picked up the movements that indicated Mirage moving toward him, but his mind didn't quite register them. His mind didn't care, nor did it care when he was picked up off the ground. He just dangled, allowing himself to be held without a fight. He looked up at the zoroark as she yelled at him, and while it made him feel bad, it honestly wasn't much of a change from how he already felt. He had hopelessness written in his eyes, he didn't have the will to argue or fight right now. He didn't even want to give a response.... but.... well, it was a terrible segway, but he decided to elaborate a bit on what he was upset about.

"I made it worse," he looked up to the dark sky above as he spoke, showing what he was referencing.
"I did what Xatu said.... I woke something up. It almost killed me.... and the group I was with...." he began to trail off as he spoke.
Saying it out loud really just made him feel worse. While there was still more left to tell, he was having trouble bringing himself to do so. Would Mirage judge him for accidentally waking up a supporter of Giratina who also happened to have power so great he doubted he could ever hope to match it? The feeling of insignificance didn't even really matter to him, which was a funny feeling.... All that mattered now was what he'd done wrong.

The zoroark listened, thinking for a moment before speaking, "Surely you did not INTEND to do bad, correct? How were you supposed to know?" she gave him excuses to relieve himself with. As she said it aloud however, she figured that would not be enough.
Well then...she would just have to try a different approach then wouldn't she?
She stepped forward and extended her arm, holding the glaceon over the abyss a face of complete seriousness upon her expression, "You want to feel bad? I can show you right now how it feels to be "bad" by releasing my grip."
The drop below was long, dark, and the glaceon would most definitely die if he were to fall from this height. She knew this, but of all people she did not want the glaceon to simply flip his morals and become a complete hypocrite. She did not like the feeling of "bad", she would not wish it upon anyone, definitely not Sova.

Garnet listened, spying the figure of a pokemon being held over the ledge. He gasped, gripping his tail as he a familiar scene flashed before his eyes. He kept his mouth shut however, whoever that pokemon was, it was not friendly. He did not want to be a part of whatever murder was about to go on apparently. He pressed his back against the wall, hoping he would not be noticed.

Sova's expression remained vacant and relatively lacking in proper emotion as he was held over the ledge. If anything, he liked the view from here; the fact that Mirage was threatening to kill him wasn't a particularly big deal. Honestly, dying didn't matter much to him right now.... If Mirage wanted him dead, then by all means, he wasn't going to fight it. However, he highly doubted his friend was going to just kill him, especially after already having been given the chance to do so once and turning it down.

The glaceon just dangled silently for a moment, staring down into the dark abyss that seemed to beckon him. "Go for it," he stated in the monotonous voice he'd held thus far.
If Mirage were to drop him, he knew he could easily use Blizzard to slow his fall, or at the very least, blow himself onto a ledge somewhere.... even if it'd hurt. However, if she truly wanted him dead, maybe he'd just let himself die. Right now, living wasn't particularly high on his list of priorities. In fact, virtually everything came before living at the time.

As he stared downward, he couldn't help but think there was a light a bit further down. Something that was glowing appeared to be settled somewhere in the darkness, as the dark was a bit less.... dark in a specific area. However, he attributed this to himself just being out of it at the moment, as the light was difficult to even trace. He couldn't really pinpoint a source, especially not in his hazy state of mind, so he had no way of telling whether it was real or his imagination.

Mirage narrowed her eyes, not too happy with Sova's response, she was silent for a moment before she suddenly moved, her hand dropping the scruff of the glaceon before her other latched onto this tail. She swung him down with the momentum gained from falling before swinging him upward by the tail back up to the ledge above them.
"If you're going to be Mr. Suicidal then we're going back." she stated bluntly with a growl.

-

Garnet's eyes widened upon their mentioning of going back, this was not a murder, he had figured that, but he wanted them to take him with them too!
"Hey! Hey!!" he called out, waving his arms desperately, "Could you at least take me with you? I've been stuck down here for an hour!" Garnet allowed his tail light to flare as bright as it could, trying to catch their attention even more.

--

Mirage looked down at the charmander, finally noticing the flame, "The hell?" she grumbled.

Sova's body remained limp like a rag doll as he was tossed around carelessly. While he could have landed on his paws, he instead landed on his side with a quiet "oof." He didn't really care all that much about being hurt at the moment, certainly not enough to put forth the effort to avoid it. He then heard another voice, one he recognized as the one from before and pieced together as probably having something to do with the light he'd seen. Of course, this meant he had to assume said light was not just something from his imagination.

He peered over the edge and looked back down toward the light, still trying to discern whether or not it was real. On the bright side, he knew that at the very least, the voice was real. Mirage had made it pretty clear she'd heard the voice as well. "We're not leaving," he said calmly.... or.... well, was it really even calm?
In terms of calmness, he was kind of cheating right now; he was so overwhelmed with guilt that the rest of his emotions were kind of broken at the moment. That seemed a bit unfair to someone trying to gauge his calmness.

He wasn't quite sure if Mirage would agree at this point, but he for one was not intent on leaving. Not until he did what he'd come for.

Mirage's lips curled as Sova mentioned that they weren't leaving, "Either you get your act together and stop this "bad" nonsense, or we're going back."

The zoroark remained on the ledge she was, glancing up to the glaceon's place as she spoke. She looked down to the light that now flared brightly, a familiar looking figure. She had not met this specific pokemon before, but she remembered encountering on of similar appearance. What was his name? Jackaboy?

He must have not been important if she could not remember his name.

"With me right?" Garnet asked hopefully, more focused on getting somewhere that wasn't there rather than how annoying he might have been. The charmander looked up at the Zoroark pitifully as she looked down at him. He was thrilled to see the zoroark begi to jump towards his area, landing on his small ledge. Suddenly, this area was very crowded wit the large fox nearby.

"Yes with the living torch," she huffed.

Sova made no comment on Mirage's insistence on them going back if he didn't pull himself together. He didn't want to pretend he was fine right now, because he was in fact not fine, but he still had to do what he'd come here to do. He didn't immediately get up and follow the zoroark down, but once she started off toward the talking lantern, he figured he needed to get a move on. So he got slowly up to his paws, with his ears drooping, and jumped down. Then, without speaking or waiting, he jumped to a lower ledge once more. The another, still silent as ever, purposely avoiding the ledge Mirage was on.

He wasn't trying to leave Mirage behind; he knew she could keep up with him pretty easily. Besides, he'd need to slow down soon anyway as it was already getting difficult to see. Navigating this place was certainly going to be easier if they were going to have a light source with them, though he was sure if said light source would want to come deeper into this abyss. Either way, he didn't care and simply prepared to jump once more. Mirage would follow him, he was pretty sure about that....