Frozen Heights

First topic message reminder :

Garnet: 12
Linus: 9
Acro: Enough....48

missions for Acro/Linus:

It was cold, not a problem for him through. The very snow around him gave way and melted with ease, the heat of the fire type forcing the snow to melt. Garnet stared up at the mountain once more, his long tail swishing behind him a bit. The tall white mountain was quite different from the dark crevice he had been beaten to a bloody pulp in not too long ago. The reptile glared at the peak, he wanted to go. Now. Ever since he had awoken and learned of what had occurred, he had felt an intense rage building within him far worse than what occured when he used Outrage. It was a more natural rage, pent up anger. Who was it directed at? Himself.

The charmeleon was leading, walking quickly as he wanted to get there quickly. It was annoying that the newcomer by the name of Acro and Linus had brought missions with them, it would slow them down. Hell, he couldn't even use Fire Blast now because of those two missions. His strongest move, gone. Just like that. Well, he could use it, but he would get in trouble. He had decided that overall he was friends with Sova. He almost kind of felt that he was allowed to be real around the glaceon, but still he was going to keep that whole taking joy in harming others on the down low. Wouldn't want to make it a habit now would we?

The charmeleon looked back ahead of him rather than looking up with narrowed eyes. He had been a grump ever since the events in the rift. While he had not taken it out on others by snapping at them or growling at them, he certainly showed it in his body language and growling to himself when he was alone. He certainly had a good hold on his anger with himself, but he was not bothering to hide it around this group like he would have around Garnet and Namataki. The two probably would have been terrified to see him angry, which is why he had cancelled his search for a bit, in order to come here and obtain one of the precious items hidden within the mountain.

Sova had invited him along on this journey to the mountain to obtain what was rumored to be the cursed items. Powerful items that could give great boosts in strength. Sure they had massive drawbacks, but he was willing to do anything to make sure he wasn't slammed against a wall again.

--

The archeops followed along behind the charmeleon, alongside a client. The vanillish needed to be escorted to a friend, a slurpluff. It was a bit of an odd combonation fo friends, but who was he to judge? He barely had friends in the first place. Acro was a bit unsure of this newcomer Sova had brought along. He seemed to be angry, the charmeleon had barely said anything to him. Apparently this charmeleon was the friend of the snivy's they had come across. If they just knew where the hell the snivy went afterwards, they could have told this charmeleon where to look for his friend. Was he angry about that?

The glaceon had not told him the specifics of where he had met the charmeleon, so he was not exactly sure what was going on between the two. The archeops was walking, keeping himself paced with the charmeleon and the glaceon. The vanillish beside him seemed to be looking around and amusing itself, "oo"ing and "ah"ing at the pretty sites of the frozen forest.

The archeops glanced up to the skies, where a dark bird flew. Dark not only in typing and color, but in mind. Linus had been acting differently as of late, worse than even before the events in Monochrome Ruins. He was snapping at everything, he seemed to be angry with everything. He had not yet informed Sova of the situation, but he believed that Linus had been touched by the madness that had started up when the events of Giratina's Rising began. He felt awful. It was his fault wasn't it? Maybe that curse was a real thing after all, the superstitious bird should have left. He should have flown far far away.

Acro looked down to the ground he walked on and merely focused on it. He wanted to get this mission over with, he wanted to grab that ability suppressent that was rumored to be in the ruins as well. Maybe things would be better if he wasn't so damn useless? Would he be able to help Linus? What was even going on in Linus's mind right now?

--

The world is trash. Everything is useless, futile. the yelling started up in the bird's mind as he glared at the mountain ahead. Linus flapped his great wings, flying high above the group and out of the way. There was no way of holding a conversation with him, even if he were close to the ground. The honchkrow huffed as the yelling in his mind continued, Kill it all! Kill it all! Destroy it! Build anew! No, he should not. He knew what was happening. He was not some dimwitted simpleton that was just going to give in to the strange thoughts.

He was angry, he had always been angry as of late. Over the simplest things, even if the temperature was just slightly uncomfortable it always set him off. The honchkrow was having difficulty controlling this rage, and had found himself to be glaring at pokemon whenever he looked to them. His combat had become more vicious, and it felt as if all the fear he had once experienced in combat simply vanished.

It...it actually felt kind of...good. To be able to fight without fear for his life, to simply enjoy fighting for fighting. Who knew it could have been this fun? Concede!No, those weren't proper thoughts. Or were they? His mind was still clouded and plagued, the bird was confused, infected, and there was nothing he could do about it that he knew of.

With each breath a puff of intense mist combined with smoke leaked from the charmeleon's nostrils and mouth. "No more. No. No, no, no. Done. I'm done," he repeated to himself. He was losing his temper, quite badly from the looks of it. He had managed to contain it thus far but the reminder that he was pretty much the epitome of useless at the current moment of time was not helping. He was useless against genesect, he was useless at finding his friends, and he was useless against a ditto. A DITTO. He couldn't take care of a single jar of jello with a FACE. Pathetic.

He took a deep shaky breath as he heard someone approaching along with a weak yet familiar voice call his name. It was Sova. The charmeleon's head twisted to train his eyes on the glaceon as he approached. The glaceon was holding a paw out to touch him, "Don't-" Garnet hissed harshly as he stepped away from the glaceon's paw, "Touch me," he warned in a more controlled tone.

He wanted to rip something apart, hear something scream in agony as it died. The urge only made him ashamed of himself as he took more controlled breaths. He would not be able to guarantee that he would not attack Sova if the glaceon were to touch him. While he figured the glaceon would be quite capable of defending himself against him, that would not make the guilt and shame of attacking someone who was trying to help any better.

"Sorry..." He spoke after a slight pause, apologizing for the harsh tone and anger towards the glaceon.

--

Acro's attention was drawn away from the angst-r-us crew and to the pokemon that had spoken to him. Dusk asked him if he was okay. Hah, he wished.

"No," Acro spoke up without finding the strength to force himself up onto his hind legs. He was just laid out on the snow on his stomach with painful aches all over his body. This little field trip had gone horribly wrong with their first encounter, sounded like fun times!

"Then again I don't think I ever am or ever will be at this rate," He admitted. The archeops would never be able to be 'fine', the quest for the ability suppress-thingy was just to get rid of the damn ability, but right now he figured he was chasing after a false hope. He predicted that he would get the item, only to find that it's useless to him or something. Damn he hated this ability...

--

Meanwhile Linus finally found the strength and durability to get up and actually fly. He found that the battle was over, and figured it was time to go retrieve the escort. With a few flaps of his wings, he sent himself off in the direction the client had been escorted in order to retrieve it. The danger had passed, and it was time for the client to rejoin the crew.

Sova hesitated momentarily when Garnet recoiled away from his touch. He wasn't afraid of the potential repercussions of touching someone who was in such a problematic state of mind. All he really cared about was helping his friend, but right now, he was debating what option would really be more "help." In the end, he decided on just reaching his paw out once more, this time a bit faster. "It's alright, I'm here for you," he said as he did so.
He trusted Garnet wouldn't attack him. However, he wasn't ruling out the possibility that he was wrong. Even if he was, though, he didn't really care too much. Even if Garnet actually attacked him, he didn't plan to hold a grudge for it.

In fact, in his eyes, it would be a good thing, because he could then give Garnet a bit of proper training! If the charmeleon really wanted to protect others so badly, then he needed to learn how to fight properly! If he didn't attack, then great, but even if he did, there was still a silver lining. The glaceon certainly wasn't worried about getting hurt, and he didn't care if Garnet lashed out in blind rage. If it happened, anyway, it was a sign that the guy was too angry and needed to let some steam off.


Dusk frowned slightly at the archeops' painfully clear distress. She barely knew him; didn't know who he was. She was pretty sure this guy would be fine if Sova trusted him to not die, but that didn't change that he was clearly upset. She wanted to say something to cheer the guy up, but all she really gathered that could be wrong was that he'd gotten hurt in the fight, and she didn't really know how to help with that. The only thing she could think to do was just idly chat with him and attempt to take his mind off the whole situation. "I know how that feels; I'm not doing too hot right now either," she started up and crouched down on the ground so that she was about eye-level with the bird.

"I'm Dusk. You are?"
She gave a friendly smile in an attempt to appear welcoming to talk to, though she didn't know the exact problem and thus wasn't sure if her attempts would help or just make things worse. Either way, she was certainly trying to help. She did not know who this Archeops was or how he knew Sova, but he didn't seem like someone who really deserved to be feeling so down.


The members of the little group were coming into view: An archeops and honchkrow who seemed rather beat up; Dusk, who looked exhausted and hurt; Sova; a charmeleon who looked.... if not hurt, then at least upset. Overall, the group didn't seem to be particularly threatening, all things considered. She figured if she for whatever reason needed to run, she would be capable of doing so, as long as she was careful about it. Now there was only one problem left to solve: what was she to do? She wasn't particularly interested in meeting the archeops and already knew Dusk. She'd likely have to talk to Mr. Edge himself eventually if she wanted to tag along, but for the time-being, she wasn't interested in going out of her way to speak to him. The charmeleon was near Sova and thus she didn't want to speak to him.

This left edgy honchkrow, who.... seemed to be flying off to do something. Great. The one member of this group whom she felt maybe, JUST MAYBE she wouldn't hate.... and he was currently flying away. Krikka huffed as she inched ever-closer to the others. Since she couldn't see any particularly fun-looking prospects in the form of conversation, she would just stand by awkwardly until someone called her out for randomly hitching up with their group. If no one ever did, well, she had absolutely no problem with getting what she wanted while also not having to socialize at all.

"You don't. You really, REALLY don't," was what Acro WANTED to say to Dusk. She did not know what it was like to have your entire body just give up whether you wanted to or not. She did not know how it felt to be battered about by several attacks that were quad strong against him. The Archeops refrained from being rude though, in favor of not being an absolute dick.

"Acro..." he answered with a dull tone, "I'm not doing too good right now, so sorry if i'm not very talkative..." he spoke up in attempt to apologize for his current state. Crud that probably just sounded weird. Time to change the subject, "I'm from Ailreon Guild...used to be a part of Grassveil."

--

He was touched. His body tensed up in pure instinct to smack the glaceon aside with an Iron Tail. Luckily he managed to resist enough to only allow his feet to twist slightly. The movement would have ended up with him spinning and slapping the glaceon right in the shoulder with a tail of iron if it had continued any farther.

"It's alright, I'm here for you," the glaceon had said. No, he was supposed to be the one to say those kinds of things. He said those exact words plenty of times to Namataki and Jaden, why was he suddenly the one to receive those words? Was he THAT pathetic looking? His teeth grit together as his claws reached up to his snout and dug into his red skin.

He took another deep breath as his claws dug into his snout and drew a bit of blood, "Okay," he spoke after a moment of silence. He released his snout and held his arms to his side, "I'm good."

"I'm good," he repeated. He was no longer shaking and the intense urge to just kill the closest thing in proximity had passed..well, almost. It was just simply at a more manageable level now. At least he hoped he was good for now...he had just ended up causing more problems than he had solved with that little outburst. Fantastic.

--

Ah there's the client! The honchkrow picked up the client in his talons despite their protests and returned to the area where they had fought. The honchkrow dropped the client off before landing with a few controlled movements. He observed the situation, and decided he wanted none of that bull. His eyes surveyed the area, before focusing on Krikka.

"Hey..." he called out to her, "You are?" he asked, watching the third-wheel...well, technically this would be sixth wheel? Was it even six? He did not know, he did not particularly care either.

Sova waited for a moment in silence, half-expecting for Garnet to lash out at him.  The charmeleon assured he was fine, to which the glaceon sighed lightly and placed his paw back on the ground.  He didn't care much about being attacked, but he was still relieved that Garnet was alright enough to not do that.  Still, he wondered if there was anything he could do to actually help.  He wasn't particularly good at the whole "helping" thing; his specialty was apparently in hindrance.  All his life, all he'd really been good at was hurting others, be it friend or foe.  Sometimes that ended well, and sometimes it.... didn't.  Then he had an idea: maybe his special.... gift could be of use here!

The glaceon stepped back a bit and gave a slight, friendly smirk before speaking up: "You sure?  I could go a few rounds with you if ya wanna blow some steam off."
Of course, even if the charmeleon accepted, he didn't actually plan to fight seriously.  He didn't mind the idea of a bit of playful sparring, though of course, he wasn't going to force it if Garnet didn't want to.  The whole point of the offer was to help the situation.


"Oh, you're...." Dusk trailed off as she realized she'd heard of this archeops.
Of course Sova would choose a skilled member of the elitist Aileron Guild to go with him.  She tried not to make a big deal out of the the whole thing, both because she didn't really want to praise someone else and because it seemed like this guy wasn't very interested in that at the moment.  Instead, she just tried to make up for the awkward realization she'd just had.  "I'm.... not in a guild," she responded awkwardly.
She directed her gaze away from the archeops for a moment as she tried to gather her bearings and salvage the conversation she'd likely just flopped.

"Wanna.... talk about it?" she offered, looking back to the depressed bird.
She couldn't think of anything particularly good to say, so instead, she'd just let him do all the talking!  Sure, it was the easy way out, but also seemed like the best solution.


Hallelujah.  As if it were an answered prayer, the only member of this group Krikka had any interest of talking to seemed to feel the same way about her.  Though if it was an answered prayed, she had to wonder what deity was responsible since she was pretty sure Arceus wouldn't be one to give her nice things.  "Vayne.  Shauna Vayne," she responded without even a moment's hesitation, appearing entirely calm despite it being a complete and utter lie.
Her name was Krikka Wolf, but there was no way she would be telling that to someone she'd only met moments prior, even if he seemed to be the most tolerable member of the little group.  Even though she wasn't particularly well-known, she still wasn't fond of the idea of giving out her name to every stranger she met.

(Sova - 52 energy)

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

, , , , , , , , ,

(Dusk - 1 energy)

Lord E V carried out 1 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

(Krikka - 1 energy)

Lord E V carried out 1 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

The glaceon was offering to spar. Which was...quite tempting. He could probably wail away on the glaceon without fear of actually harming him. He may have had a type advantage, but the glaceon was vastly superior to him in strength and likely even experience.

He opened his mouth to accept when something cut him off, "Are you crazy!?" it was the archeops's client. "You could burn the forest down if you start going crazy in a fight, you could even melt me! Or get yourselves hurt, or some bystander hurt! Could we PLEASE just go to Slurpluff? I was just left in a tree, alone, for like twenty minutes or something! What if another pokemon comes along or something?" the pokemon complained.

Linus spoke up, "It's got a point...if another pokemon shows up and they're anything like that ditto we're screwed if any of us waste anymore energy."

The charmeleon's mouth closed. They were right. As much as he liked the idea, now was not the time. FUUUUUUCK. This was only ticking him off even more. His jaw clenched as he resisted the urge to cry out or yell in frustration.

"They're right. We should save our energy, thanks though," he spoke to the glaceon with a controlled expression and tone.

--

Oh sure, conserve energy they said. Acro barely had any strength to get up. He decided to stop eavesdropping on the other conversation and instead focus on the current one he was having with this delightful other pokemon who was at least trying to be a bit nicer.

"Not a part of the guild huh? Not sure what there is to talk about? The guildmasters...the whole darkness and doom events...the lack of action on the guilds' parts? The food?" Acro asked, "Sorry..." he apologized as he realized it might have come out as rude. He hated himself, ugh why did he have to be so socially awkward? Why couldn't he just be a NORMAL bird?

--

The honchkrow stared at the pokemon named "Vayne" and decided that he might as well go with it.

"So, why're you here? Watch the show?" he asked her. He was not entirely sure on why she would be here, but it was fairly obvious she was not with anyone here from the looks of it. He waited for the response, not really caring all that much whether she gave an answer or not. He was just occupying his time at this point.

Garnet seemed interested in the spar, but some of the others.... were less enthralled by this prospect.  Sova sighed when the client voiced complaints about the thought of a spar.  He wasn't worried about Garnet burning the forest down because he could put a fire out if he needed to!  He certainly wasn't expecting to be hurt, and he was confident he could have avoided hurting Garnet.  Still, since two members of the group disagreed with the idea and Garnet had already given up, Sova decided to concede as well.  He gave a slight smile with a hint of disappointment in it as he responded: "Ah, well.  Later, then."
If they couldn't spar at that very moment, then perhaps the charmeleon would feel better with the promise of having their fun once they were finished with business.

The glaceon then turned his attention to the next pressing issues: Acro and the other umbreon.  He was calm now, so his attentiveness was back, and he had already noticed that Dusk's.... friend had crept into the area.  Of course, he was also keeping an eye on Acro just to make sure he was alright.  Sova knew about the Acro's ability, so he wasn't particularly worried about the bird's behavior.  He figured the next thing he needed to do was talk to the uninvited guests in the form of Dusk and NotDusk, which he really wasn't looking forward to.


Dusk couldn't help but chuckle at the response she'd gotten.  It wasn't that she thought Acro was wrong; she'd just been very misunderstood and found it funny.  "No no, not the guild.  I meant.... wanna talk about what's bothering you?" she clarified.
The bird's grumpy attitude wasn't bothering her at all, especially since he was constantly apologizing for it.  He seemed nice; nicer than Sova, at least.  The poor guy seemed like he'd had a really rough time, and from how he was acting, she guessed that it wasn't due to the fight.  She was not aware of the ability that was contributing to the problem, as she knew relatively little about archeops as a whole.

She paid little attention to what was happening outside of her own conversation. What Angst, Angst, and Angsty were doing didn't matter as much as the sad guy who seemed like maybe he had hope for being kind of nice, and she certainly wasn't interested in talking to the annoying-sounding ice-cream cone. Then there was the other umbreon.... She was just thankful she wasn't stuck alone with that insufferable spawn of Giratina anymore.


"Shauna" admittedly hesitated bit before answering the next question she was asked, but it wasn't because she was having trouble making something up.  At this point, she was just a bit lost as to what the leading reason she was here was.  She'd originally tagged along to annoy Dusk and see if she could suck any more money out of her, but then the whole possibility of treasure came up.... and she was incredibly bored....  "I'm with the other one of me," she responded simply.
It wasn't a lie, and it was easier than explaining all of her reasons.  It wasn't like she was interested in hiding the fact that she was sticking around mostly because she figured they were going for treasure, but if she was right about that.... she didn't want them to know she thought this.

If she looked too smart, at least one of the seasoned guild members would be bound to start asking questions.  She didn't want to be put on the spot with having to answer too many questions.  Sure, she was confident in herself, but that didn't mean she was perfect; she'd likely mess up eventually.  For now, she'd just try to act normal.... whatever that was.  "Now, my turn; what's your name, and why are you here," she questioned.
Since she'd answered the same questions already, asking them back surely wouldn't cause any problems.

Later, sure. Garnet kept quiet and to himself as the others spoke. The anger had subsided, but now Garnet kind of wished it was back...simply because it had been replaced with a depressive fit. He kept his mouth shut as his tail swayed behind him, a blank expression fixed upon his face despite his current feelings. He needed to stop this whole negative emotion business as well as being weak before he met up again with Namataki and Jaden.

How were they supposed to rely on him when he was like this? Well, knowing them they would not want to rely on him for anything. Jade would probably scold him and Namataki would probably throw a hissy fit out of concern. They would try to help him and be good friends...or they would look at him as if he were a monster. They might be terrified of his swings and sadistic nature and leave him. Great, now the depression was replaced with anxiety.

He really just needed to stop thinking or something right now...He remembered how he had suggested to Sova that he should see a psychiatrist or something...maybe he needed one? ...Nope that would probably just end in him killing the psychiatrist.

--

Acro's eyebrows, if an archeops even has any, scrunched together in confusion for a moment as she denied talk about the guild. When she clarified a bit more his expression showed he understood a bit more. She wanted to talk about what was bothering him. That would certainly take a while to explain!

"It's a really really long story, but right now the main issue is just my body," he explained, STILL not bothering to even get up. He figured it was a good time to take a moment and relax while it seemed like the danger had passed, that and his body was forcing him to rest.

"Every pokemon has an ability, it just so happens that Archen and Archeops have a special little ability that causes their body and mind to start giving up on a battle one they're weak enough...even if they don't want to give up. I don't know if it's just me or if every Archeops is like this, but this ability is quite bad and brings up a lot of bad memories, thoughts, and makes it very difficult to do anything," The archeops explained as briefly as he could.

--

Ah, she was with the other pokemon. Ok then, why was the 'other her' here? Eh, he did not care enough to ask. They were not doing any harm, so there was no reason to act hostile towards them...other than the little voice in the back of his begging him to attack and peck her brain out of her eye sockets...

"Linus, I am with the archeops. We come from Ailreon in order to complete the mission of transporting out client to a friend." The linus lifted a large wing to point to the client. The snow cone looked to Krikka as it was referred to, it smiled and gave a friendly wave as it did so.

Garnet seemed alright for the moment, or at least better than he had been moments prior, so Sova decided to leave him alone in favor of tackling some of the bigger issues.  Namely, he needed to have a serious talk with Dusk about ignoring him completely and continuing to follow him.  He could hear the conversation the two of them were having, and he knew just the right thing to say.  Well, actually, it was terrible and would probably result in upsetting someone, but he was still going to say it anyway if not for any other reason than to prove a point.  He approached the archeops and umbreon just as the latter was beginning to respond and cut her off: "That's why we're here...."

His voice was hushed in tone so as not to alert the client to what he was saying.  "He wants to get rid of his ability.  Those I brought with me are here because they want something, and there are risks involved with getting it.  It's important enough to be worth the risk."
At this point, Dusk was looking right at him.  He had her full attention.  He took a step toward her before continuing: "As far as I know, you don't have anything you'd be willing to give up your soul for....  I didn't want you coming because you have no idea how dangerous this is, and it's not worth the danger for you."

He then fell silent as he glared at the disobedient fool.  She'd come too far to safely send back.  He would have to take her along for the ride and watch out for her.


Dusk's ears flattened and a worried expression crossed her face as she learned of the archeops' debilitating ability.  "I'm so-" she began, only to be cut off by Sova's intervention.
She instinctively stepped back when the glaceon approached her, worried he was going to try more.... physical convincing.  She wasn't exactly scared, but that didn't mean she wanted to just let him suffocate her again.  However, to her surprise, she got a bit of honesty out of him instead.  Throughout the explanation, she found herself speechless.  It seemed selfish to have pestered so much to come along when it was for something so important, and so personal to everyone there....  She was being such a nuisance, all to come on a highly personal and highly dangerous venture.  She hanged her head toward the ground in shame.

Then something important hit her.  She looked back up toward Sova with an even more worried expression.

"Wait....  Then.... what are you doing it for?" she asked.
Instead of answering, Sova just turned around and started walking away.


Krikka gave an idle wave of a paw back to the snowcone, solely so that she wouldn't seem suspicious. She hated pretending to be even remotely friendly. Were they really there just for a mission?  And just an escort mission?  What a boring prospect.  "That sounds.... fun," she remarked sarcastically.
Even if this was the entire reason this group was here, it still seemed worth staying with them for the sake of safety.  Plus, even if they weren't going to go for any treasure, she could still get escorted a portion of the way there if she really wanted to go it alone.  However, she wasn't entirely sure that was something she wanted to do, what with the fight she'd just seen.  Still, she definitely didn't want to just turn around and leave alone.

Aw crud she was about to apologize-op, nope. Sova cut her off. The two seemed to have a meaningful little moment while Acro merely layed there and waited for the ability to wear off. Luckily he was finally able to bring himself to stand on his two legs.

The archeops's wings folded at his sides as he finally stood. He could feel the effects of Deafeatist wearing off, and was quite relieved that it did so. He took a deep breath before he looked back to dusk. She seemed a bit worried...was there something he could say? She had been so nice to him, it was only fair that he returned it.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," the archeops attempted to reassure her. He was not so sure of it himself, but he believed it for the most part. The archeops shook some snow off of his feathers and attempted to give her a reassuring smile, "Thanks...by the way.."

--

"It's not," Linus stated bluntly, "These bozos are on some suicide mission to get some damn treasure and i'm being dragged along for the ride. Sure these guys are powerful and all, but this is just utter suicide. Everything these two do is suicide," Linus huffed, his eyes narrowing slightly. He would leave if he could, but the Archeops was the team leader...

Then again...he could just 'disappear' and head back to the guild. What happened they would ask? He got separated from Acro, and so he decided the safest course of action was to return to the guild...where it was warm...and there was food...and there was a significantly lesser chance of dying.

--

Garnet remained on the sidelines, not bothering to interact with anyone and merely observing. He was having his own issues, and he would not press it upon others. He had decided to merely wait until they decided to get a move on. He honestly did not even care for the missions anymore, he just wanted to get moving. The ditto had wasted plenty of time and energy, it would make the entire trip futile to just turn back, and their only option was to keep moving forward.

Sova had turned away from the conversation as if there was something else he intended to do, but now that he was walking away, he wasn't really sure where to go with it. He'd just wanted to cut off the little.... chat he was having with Dusk so he didn't have to talk about his reasons for being here. He didn't want her to know why, to know what he was doing and what it could cost him. He didn't really fancy anyone knowing what he was doing and why he was doing it, but there were some he felt deserved to know. Then.... there were some who deserved not to be burdened with information, such as Dusk.

The glaceon looked around and listened in to see if there was anything happening that interested him, since he didn't want to try and force everyone to get going just yet. He could hear that the newcomer seemed to be hitting it off well with Linus and the two didn't really seem to care for talking to him or anyone else in the group, so he wasn't going to bother trying to talk to them. He wasn't going back to Acro and Dusk. Then there was the client...........

Then there wasn't the client. "Garnet, how ya holding up?" he spoke up, walking over to the charmeleon.
Sure, they'd already talked, but there weren't looking to be any better options at the moment. He didn't want to talk to anyone other than Garnet.


Sova was walking away without an answer, which suggested the answer was bad. Dusk sighed. She knew pursuing an answer would just cause trouble, and since it seemed like she was being allowed along now, she would be finding out soon enough anyway. She glanced over to the archeops as he spoke; he was no longer laying on the ground, drowning in a sea of pity. "Yeah. Guess I don't know how you feel, after all, but I can understand why you'd wanna do this," she responded quietly.
Now knowing about the burdening ability, she felt bad for implying she could relate. She had no idea what it felt like to have an ability that just.... automatically made the bearer feel awful.

"Well, whatever you all are doing, looks like I'm along for the ride," she added on almost immediately after, hoping to change the topic.
She figured it probably wasn't fun for Acro to talk about. With how Sova had reacted, she doubted whatever they were doing here was something Acro would want to talk about either, but she couldn't think of any better changes of topic.


Krikka's ears perked up slightly without her conscious permission at the mention of treasure. That was what she'd wanted to hear the whole time. She didn't want to look so excited about it, but she supposed it was fairly natural for someone to hold interest in the prospect of treasure, so it didn't seem like too big of a deal. "Well, if everything they do is suicide and they're still alive, that means they can defy death, so it should be fine," she remarked jokingly.
She hated being friendly, but she didn't want to upset such a potentially dangerous group by being rude to them. Sure, they were Guild members, but she wasn't entirely sure if that meant they were "good."

"Us, though.... We aren't immortal. Since it looks like I'll be tagging along with you, I'll watch your back if you watch mine," she added on.
It never hurt to try and get allies, and this guy seemed like the most likely one for her to get along with. He had a certain.... air to him that suggested if there was anyone among them that she would be able to get along with, it was him.

Linus thought about it for a moment as the umbreon offered to watch each others backs. "Sure, why not?" he spoke in a tone that lacked enthusiasm. He shuffled his feet in the cold, kicking aside snow that sucked warmth from his feet. It was so damn cold in this place, why did this all have to be someplace cold? Why not Shadowhue-wait no that place was just intimidating...pecha forest? Yeah Pecha Forest would be easier...it would also contain a lot of things he could tear open-wait what?

--

Acro felt a bit awkward when it seemed like his 'thank you' went a bit ignored. The sole response being just a 'yeah' and a change of topic. He was also a bit uncertain...was he supposed to thank her? Had he just done something weird?

Either way, she had changed the topic once more. "Welcome to the party then!" he spoke with a bit more enthusiasm. His wings spread a bit as if to cheer but he stopped halfway. "I guess?" he spoke as his wings slowly returned to his sides.

"We should probably get a move on soon, the ruckus with the ditto probably attracted some attention. Once we're rested up that is," he explained.

--

Garnet perked up upon being approached by Sova once more. He still had a bit of blood flowing from his snout from when he dug his claws into it, the snow beneath him was mixed with small red drops.

"Oh? Uh..." he stopped to evaluate his current well being and debate whether or not to lie his way through like he would with Namataki and Jade. No, Sova could handle it, he got the vibe that Sova would not really judge him, especially since he already knew that he had driven someone to suicide in the past.

"...not good," he admitted, "Not anything that can be helped though..." Well, it could...its just that no amount of reassurance would help. He needed to stop being a pathetic little sh*t and he needed to do it fast if he was to find his friends...would they even want to see him at this point anyways? They've been apart for so long...

Sova sighed at the response he received. It was very negative, though it wasn't like he expected anything different. He knew Garnet was upset and not doing very well; he just wanted to be there with his support. Supporting others wasn't exactly something he was very good at, what with the direction he'd taken his life in. He was good at hurting others, not helping them. Hurting someone was sometimes required to help someone else, in which case he was great at helping others! But outside of that, he was very poor in situations that required catering to someone. In fact, he was bad at even letting someone help him. "If you really thought it couldn't be helped, you wouldn't be here," he reminded the charmeleon.

That was the best he could do in the form of trying to help his friend, and it seemed he had gotten it out at just the right time, as a little snorunt came along mere moments later to interrupt all ongoing conversations. He picked up its steps in the snow with his ears before it spoke up, but once it finally openly revealed itself with its voice, he decided to glance toward it.

"Hello? Yes, you are a group? With supplies?" it questioned.
It had a slightly odd manner of speaking, as if it were nervous about something.


It seemed like the bird was at least trying to be upbeat and welcoming, even if he was slightly awkward. It was a nice gesture, and not one that went unnoticed by Dusk. She chuckled at the welcome, but said no more on it so as to not accidentally.... or purposely make Acro feel embarrassed. She agreed with the suggestion of moving along, though for her it was mostly due to the fact that she wanted to know what it was that this group was after. Specifically, she wanted to know what Sova was after. "Yeah, sooner we get going, sooner I get to see the.... whatever you all are doing....?" she agreed with a hesitant nod, clearly still a bit confused about the whole thing.
Sova had made it sound like they were all going to sell their souls to Giratina or something. She definitely didn't want anything to do with something like that, but she doubted that was actually what it was.

When the snorunt spoke up, the umbreon turned her head to meet it. She could tell it was a bit nervous, but thought nothing of it; they were a large group with some relatively intimidating characters in it. She didn't really feel right answering the question since she'd only just been allowed into the group, so she just decided she would let the rest of the group handle it.


Why in the world was this honchkrow with the rest of this group? While they all seemed a bit grumpy, they also appeared to WANT to be there. Meanwhile, Linus was clearly the opposite of thrilled to be with them. He claimed he was being dragged along, but couldn't he just fly away if he really wanted to leave so badly? Was he literally being held captive by a group of guild members? She found the thought to be funny, but very unlikely. For now, though, she was just happy to have someone she could tolerate speaking to for an extended period of time. She wasn't going to push too far with asking questions, partly because she didn't want to annoy her only current ally and partly because she didn't want to look suspicious. "Great. Now if only the snow would all miraculously melt, this little trip would be looking pretty good," she joked, still trying to win the bird's favor.

At the same time, Krikka was being entirely honest; she absolutely despised this cold weather. She despised most weather that wasn't perfect, though, so that wasn't really saying much. She could tolerate it, but that didn't mean she wanted to. Still, the thought of some kind of treasure was more than enough to make it seem worth it, even if the treasure was supposedly "cursed." She didn't care about supposed curses, anyway.

(Encounters: Piloswine x2, Cubchoo x4, Froslass x2, Beartic, Mamoswine x2, Snorunt x8, Glalie x4, Cryogonal x2)

Could it really be helped though? Garnet was beginning to doubt it. He did not know how many times he had repeated the word useless in his own thoughts at this point, but he was feeling quite so. Even if it could not be helped, he was still going to try. This fire type was not going to roll over and admit defeat that easily...or at all for that matter.

He was about to respond to Sova when the snorunt caught his attention. He closed his mouth and allowed for the others to do the talking before he did something stupid like offend the snorunt who was actually not trying to kill them.

--

Acro had been about to explain to Dusk what it was they were traveling for, but he was cut off by the snorunt that had approached. His head tilted in curiosity, "Uh...I-" he started to speak only to be interrupted once more

"Why?" came a rather hostile response from Linus. The archeops quickly turned his head to express his disapproval of his actions to Linus. The black bird did not seem to be at all affected by Acro's disapproval...either that or he did not notice. The archeops cleared his throat and attempted to speak up once more only to be interrupted by Linus once more, "Why do you want to know?"

"Stop interrupting me." Acro ordered the honchkrow with a stern tone.

--

Linus nodded to the shiny pokemon's words, wishing the very same. He spotted the snorunt approaching as it asked if they had supplies. Acro was starting to speak up and he immediately assumed Acro was going to say 'yes'. That bird was a biiiiit too trusting of this pokemon in Linus's opinion, so he interrupted the archeops, "Why?"

He received a scowl, but he found that he really did not care. For all he knew the snorunt was about to attack if they had items and steal them. The honchkrow leered at the snorunt, obviously unfriendly. Acro started to speak up again, and Linus silenced him with another question that elaborated a bit more to the snorunt, "Why do you want to know?"

"Stop interrupting me!" Acro ordered.

Before Linus could have time to think about his reaction, he responded, "Make me."

When he saw that Acro was willing to speak up and answer, Sova decided to opt out of the conversation.  He didn't want to talk to anyone he didn't know if he didn't have to.  Before Acro could finish, though, the moody bird he'd taken along cut him off.  Then cut him off again.  Sova tried to restrain himself since, while Linus was being kind of rude, he wasn't really wrong in wanting to be cautious.  Besides, Linus was Acro's teammate, not his own, and he intended to respect that.  Until Acro gave an order for Linus to stop interrupting him.... and the response....

"Make me."

Such a bitter, disrespectful challenge.  One Sova knew the archeops was too kind and sensitive to go through with, and Linus clearly knew it too.  Wasn't Acro the leader of his team?  Perhaps that didn't mean absolute authority, but a leader like Acro, at the very least, deserved respect.  It was no longer about who was right in the glaceon's mind; Linus had intentionally, repeatedly disrespected his leader.  Sova could barely restrain himself from freezing his fur as he bolted toward the bird as fast as he could go.  When he neared Linus, he lifted himself onto his front paws and spun around with as much force as he could to slap bird in the face with his tail.  It was so forceful, in fact, that it made an audible slapping noise and caused his tail to burn in pain from the impact.

He didn't want to kill Linus, so he didn't use any moves or even freeze his fur, but that didn't mean he was holding back in force.  He had put as much energy into the hit as he could, just to prove a point to the disrespectful bird.  "Wish granted," he growled in response to the earlier challenging comment Linus had made.


Dusk watched as the two birds not-so-subtly argued over who would get to speak to the snorunt.  She wanted to say something to stop it, but she couldn't think of anything that would actually help.  She just figured the two would sort it out themselves since they were teammates, and it didn't seem like a particularly big argument.... until it escalated.  The archeops - whom she knew was the leader - ordered for the honchkrow to stop interrupting him.  She would have thought that to be the end of the discussion, but instead, the black bird responded in an astonishing way.  Rather than giving in or explaining himself, he seemed to be challenging his leader, and in a very hostile manner!  She knew it could get difficult to respect others in arguments, but she could never imagine someone disrespecting their team's leader in such a way over such a little disagreement.

Then the king of hostility himself jumped in to deal with the problem in his own.... special way.  It was a manner of doing things that Dusk had seen plenty of, as she had been around the glaceon plenty.  She hated it, but it was hard to argue with how well it worked despite being morally wrong.  She still thought that hitting someone who was already weak and was likely far weaker than him seemed uncalled for, especially since it seemed like he had REALLY tried to hit the bird hard.  "Sova!" she called out in a scolding tone, but she didn't even get so much as a glance from the glaceon.


Krikka sat down and got comfortable - or as comfortable as she could in the snow - as somewhat of a conflict started up over the newcoming snorunt.  She personally thought edgebird was right to not just tell some random stranger about their supplies, but she wasn't going to get involved.  She was just going to enjoy the show and keep herself out of trouble with the group.  When the situation escalated to the resident glaceon attacking, she could barely hold herself back from busting out laughing.  The manner in which he'd "attacked" was one of the most hilarious things she'd seen in a while, especially since she knew very well that Sova was capable of far more than a simple slap.  She managed to suppress her urge to laugh and instead pretended to be shocked at the happening, putting a paw over her mouth and widening her eyes slightly.


Meanwhile, the snorunt was standing awkwardly in the position it'd been in. It just stared at the group with a rather robotic expression, seeming not to care in the slightest about the hostility or the group members arguing among themselves. It waited patiently for the problem to be solved and its question to be answered, seeming like it was in no hurry.

Linus did not know what prompted him to snap back like that other than the irritation of how foolish Acro was being...but it felt good. He awaited a response from Acro as he watched the archeops's scowl turn up a notch. He expected to be thoroughly scolded, but instead what came was a sudden harsh slap from the glaceon that was Acro's buddy.

The honchkrow was knocked to the side and into the snow from the slap, but managed to catch himself with one wing in the snow as the other raised up. One leg remained where it was as the other moved to catch him. His head and been completely forced to turn from the slap and he simply remained where he was as the glaceon made his own verbal retaliation as well.

He still did not regret it, but the hatred for the glaceon only grew. It was worth it. The archeops was being stupid, he would not listen if the archeops was just going to make stupid decisions like that. He remained silent with only a glare at the glaceon as he shifted his wings to his side and moved to face his head forwards once more.

--

Acro could feel both surprise and fury rising at the bird's disobedience. He did not want to be some dictator-ish leader, but this bird was giving him no choice as of late. He had been about to give the honchkrow a thorough scolding and was taking in breath in preparation for it when the glaceon decided to take matters into his own hands.

His eyes widened in surprise as Sova delivered a well-deserved slap to the honchkrow. He...he did not know how to react to this. Linus obviously was not harmed too much by it and he had obviously shut the hell up. It was certainly not a method he approved of, as team work was all about working together. Wait, had he told Sova about his suspicions? He could not remember...he would have to inform the glaceon soon if not.

"Erm.." he spoke up suddenly, completely unsure of whether he should be angry at Sova, "S-Sova...I need to uh...have a word with you at some point, if that's alright with you?" he asked quietly to the glaceon.

--

Garnet watched the scene unfold before him...and he gaze zero sh*ts about it. Sassy bird was being sassy and Sova was putting Mr. Sassy in his place. The look the honchkrow had on his expression was not all that friendly either. Garnet had decided that he was not a fan of Sass-a-frass over there. His judgement on Acro was still a bit up in the air, but it was leaning towards favorable due to being friends with Sova. He also did not seem to be trying to do anything of harm, so now Acro was just that guy that decided bringing along missions to this place was a good idea.

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Mission Dice :

1

Rolling for that charmeleon for earlier/the escort because apparently there's some bull about rolling for outlaws and escorts even though the rules specifically state items and not outlaws and escorts.