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.

Linus glanced down at the shiny umbreon as she chirped up to him to keep her company. He did not want to keep anyone company at the moment so he merely called back, "I'll be able to see pokemon coming easier up here as well as spot places with more....fire wood." It was obvious with his tone that he was displeased with the task, and was only doing this because he felt he had to. The honchkrow grumbled and brooded by himself up in the sky, figuring that t was more effective for him to be up here rather than down there.

--

Garnet watched the glaceon for a moment, waiting for some kind of response that was not a bundle of sulking. Shit why was he like this? The charmeleon raked his brain in search of information on what to do. The social side of his brain was quite lacking, but whenever Namataki was like this there was most certainly one thing he said that would always cheer her up...

"You wanna talk about somethin?" he asked...that would help right, just...talking about the problem? It would never work for him, he would rather beat something than to sit there and talk about it. Whenever Jade was like this she would just go do some kind of puzzle or just need some time away from whatever was making her upset.

...why couldn't the glaceon just lay down and make things easier for the both of them? He made sure to keep his discomfort hidden, locked away where the glaceon would not be able to see it. He was good at that kind of stuff, plenty of practice in front of the two friends he needed to find at some point.

Sova continued staring at his own paws despite being asked yet another question. He was tempted to give Garnet the same treatment he'd given Dusk and just not answer until the charmeleon left, but he decided against it. Garnet already knew more about him than Dusk did, a lot more, so it didn't matter. "Nothing you can help with. Besides, there are some things you're better off not knowing," he responded with his characteristically depressed tone of voice.
He didn't want to hurt Garnet's feelings or anything, but he doubted that would be easy to do anyway, and this wasn't something he wanted to talk about at all. Perhaps he needed to get help as had been suggested to him before. Still, he was pretty sure Garnet wouldn't be able to provide any help to his.... condition.

Talking about such problems with others would have been selfish. He would have just ended up upsetting others if he'd tried talking to them more, surely. If they couldn't fix what was wrong, there was no point in telling them and making them worry more about him. He just wanted Garnet to trust him and drop the topic so that he could try to forget about it. For some reason, though, he got the feeling that it wasn't going to go this way. He felt like the charmeleon was going to continue persisting until he finally gave in and either talked or laid down. Maybe laying down would end up not even stopping the interrogation he was going through. It wasn't exactly something he could resent Garnet for, though; he was just a worried friend, after all.


As Dusk approached the living dessert, she contemplated speaking to it. For SOME ODD REASON, she wasn't very interested in hearing it speak after what she'd already heard of it. Still, she didn't want to just sit there in awkward silence. Why'd she have to be the one to guard the snowcone and detach herself from the rest of the group? She wanted to talk to Sova and see if Acro was okay! And.... well, she didn't really care much about the other umbreon and Linus because they just seemed like a couple of jerks. At least those two were leaving for a while, so she wouldn't have to hear either of them being negative and dark about everything. When she reached the client, she decided that awkward silence was better than trying to start up a question, and so she just sad down nearby and remained silent. If the thing wanted to try talking to her, perhaps she would talk back, depending on what it had to say.... but she was definitely not going to start a conversation.


"Uhg," Krikka groaned under her breath as she chased after the stubborn bird.
She couldn't just outright shout that she wanted to plot the demise of the nearby charmeleon! She needed Linus to come down closer to her so that they could talk quietly about it, but how was she supposed to bait him down without being obviously suspicious or ill-intended? She thought for a moment before deciding to just get a bet more assertive with her request and hope the bird would understand. "Just come down here and talk to me! Five seconds! If you decide you're not interested in chatting, I'll leave you alone!" she requested once more.
What she figured was that maybe, if she tried to make a deal to leave the guy alone if he came down, he would agree.

A plan was already beginning to form in the devious umbreon's mind. She would need to make sure that the charmeleon couldn't prove any ill intent in whatever she did. He was with Guild members and another umbreon who was less morally gray, so he surely wouldn't be able to get away with attacking someone who'd accidentally upset him. However, somehow hurting him while making it look like an accident seemed challenging. This made her think that perhaps she could act as bait while Linus could.... "accidentally" drop something on the annoying lizard. Like firewood. She'd been talking to him a lot, so maybe it would be believable that if she fell and "hurt" herself, Linus would be worried and drop his firewood! And oh how inconvenient it would be if Mr. Boss Man happened to be nearby. Even if the charmeleon decided to lash out at the one who'd dropped something on him, he still wouldn't be able to reach someone in the air.

Oh...he didn't want to talk? Well shit. The hell was he supposed to do? Um...ok.

"Oh, well, if you ever do want to talk i'm here," he decided to keep the offer up just in case, "But seriously though, get some rest, I didn't come along to see you die," He decided to leave it at that and leave the glaceon be with that final suggestion. The charmeleon also figured it would have been pretty pathetic to have survived a fight with Genesect of all pokemon just to be crushed by some nobody. Both for him and Sova.

--

Linus sighed as the umbreon insisted upon speaking with him. He tilted his wings and began to descend. He flapped his wings to bring himself closer to the ground. He figured he might as well see what the umbreon wanted, if she was just going to go for casual conversation or even flirting then he was just going to launch himself back up in the sky and probably ditch the umbreon. It would be fairly easy to do so since he could fly and she could not...

--

The snowcone looked to the ice-cam bird then looked to the umbreon that had approached. Feeling a bit talkative, the snow cone decided to strike up a conversation with Dusk, "So what's your sister's name?" he asked optimistically, though he was talking about the blue ringed version of Dusk that had left with Linus. "And yours. What's your name? Mine's Iggy!" The snowcone seemed awfully proud of his name, and seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Krikka might not be Dusk's sister.

Rest wasn't going to help, and Sova knew that all too well. He'd tried and failed to just sleep it away, only managing to end up with insomnia instead. Besides, he didn't want to risk trying to "relax" when his allies could end up being attacked. He needed to be on guard at all times, not laying down trying to rest. If anyone got hurt, as far as he was concerned, it was all his fault. "I won't be dying here," he tried to assure Garnet.
His physical condition wasn't the problem; physically, he actually wasn't doing too bad. His shoulder was definitely pretty banged up, but his leg was still working, which was all that mattered. The issue was his mind, which was in a particularly bad state. He continued to stare down at his paws, trying to get them to stop shaking, but it was proving difficult. If only he weren't a glaceon, he could have just told everyone he was cold and avoided any problems.


Dusk froze and stared blankly at the snowcone for a moment. She was utterly speechless at what it'd just said to her. Asking for her name was all fine and dandy, but it had just assumed that messenger of Giratina was related to her! Surely, she wasn't that annoying. She had to believe that she wasn't infuriating enough to be compared to the creature whose sole purpose in life seemed to be annoying her. "I'm Dusk. She won't tell me her name, and she is NOT my sister," she responded, and while it was hostile, it wasn't nearly as hostile as she felt toward the comment.
All things considered, she was restraining herself. She knew the client hadn't meant anything ill with the question, but it was still upsetting to her.


Krikka sighed in relief when the bird began t lower himself down to her level. She waited patiently for him to get close enough to talk to without their conversation being overheard. When she felt Linus was close enough, she decided to start the conversation and just get to the point: "I don't like taking orders.... and clearly, you don't either."
She took a moment to look back in the direction of the charmeleon, as if to illustrate the point of what she was talking about even though she hoped it was already fairly obvious. She then looked up to the bird with a devious smirk on her face. "Wanna have a little fun and get back at him?" she offered very casually.

If she was right about Linus, he would accept her offer, perhaps with a bit of suspicion. If she was wrong, well.... he could fly, but if she managed to poison him, he would hopefully be incapable of giving chase to her. The bird would have to choose between chasing and whittling himself down or turning back to get help. Still, she was pretty sure Linus wasn't exactly very interested in doing guild things like arresting outlaws, so even if he didn't want to help, she figured she was safe enough with her offer. Of course, he didn't seem particularly safe with secrets, so she'd have to watch her back if this bird turned down her offer.

Garnet found that he had nothing to do now. The archeops had to wait for the dumb and dumber to get back with the fire wood so that they could light it with his tail. Who in their right mind would take a mission like this that prevented the only possible way of warmth?! These two apparently.

He sighed, not having noticed Sova's shaking as his high from the battle was beginning to die down and replace everything with fatigue. He decided to let himself fall over and take his own advice of getting some rest. His chest ached as he made impact with the ground, sending sharp pains that should probably have been looked at, but he did not particularly care about it. The snow melted around him as he merely stared up at the sky...those two needed to hurry.

--

The vannilite certainly seemed surprised that the umbreons were not sisters. It read the tone of her voice and drifted off into thought for a moment before coming to a brilliant conclusion that could be matched by no other!

"Look, I don't know what your sister did, but it couldn't possibly be bad enough to disown her!" The bright little snow cone spoke to Dusk, completely misreading the situation and not even taking into consideration that she was not lying and was stating the truth. He had mistaken her anger as anger towards Krikka for upsetting her. To this little snow cone, sibling problems always seemed just like this! "C'mon, what's her name?"

--

Linus raised an eyebrow as Krikka spoke, unsure of what to make of her offer. Get back at him? One side of him screamed yes, but there was still a little voice back there saying that he should not accept this offer and instead hurry and get firewood. He gave in to the screaming voice.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked, not explicitly stating that he would be taking the offer or not though his words and tone certainly suggested that he was accepting of the offer. He tilted his head to the side, his beak facing away from Dusk so that he may get a better look with one eye concentrated on her face so that he may listen to her words carefully.

Sova continued silently trying to get his trembling under control. He was thankful that Garnet had given him space and stopped trying to.... worry about him. He wasn't a fan of just sitting around doing nothing, but he figured at least he didn't have to lay down. That was, until he suddenly remembered something rather important through his depressive haze: he had missions to do! One involved finding a ditto, which he.... very much hoped had not been the ditto that was currently of questionable status in the field of "living." However, the other mission was to find something he could make a necklace out of, which he could do while staying in the general area. There were tons of felled foes, some of which were likely bearing supplies of their own, especially if they were really the experienced band of thieves they seemed to be. He arose to his paws and hoped that Garnet would be understanding about why he was moving around, then got to work looking around for any items.

"Hey, Garnet, you should help me.... forage," he joked as he carefully pulled a disc out of the snow.
"They probably had some stuff with them. Let me know if you find anything I could use for a necklace," he elaborated, just in case he wasn't already being obvious enough.
With that out of the way, the glaceon got back to searching the area for anything remotely worth picking up. "They've probably got something to carry things in hidden somewhere if they're thieves," he added on as he searched about.
He hadn't noticed such a thing on any of the enemies during the fight, but it was entirely possible that he'd just missed it. What seemed more likely to him, though, was that they had hidden their own supplies nearby before engaging.


Dusk stared with growing agitation on her face, silently wishing she could swat the annoying creature she was talking to. Nothing to hurt it too bad; just to shut it up. She took a moment to attempt to calm herself down a bit before answering, as she didn't want to upset Sova too bad by crushing the soul of someone he was escorting. After a moment, her blind aggression faded into a more controlled, precise anger. Then, and only then did she respond: "Did your parents drop you on your head or something? She. Is. Not. My. Sister. I don't know her any better than I know you."
All things considered, this was a restrained response. She was naturally hotheaded, and on top of that, she was in a very bad mood.


Bird was interested; it was going to work; Krikka was sighing on the inside. She was quite relieved that she'd been right in her assumption that Linus would be a trustworthy ally. Of course, maybe he was just trying to verify that she was serious and get her plan before ratting her out, but if he was, then he was an excellent actor. The umbreon thought her general plan over once more before speaking, as she wanted to make sure it was as perfect as she could get it before she presented it to someone so.... risky. "We both want to shut him up, but neither of us can very well do that alone with how attentive and aggressive he is," she began, suddenly seeming rather emotionless in comparison to how she had previously been, as well as more sophisticated.
If Linus could be trusted, there was no way she was going to pointlessly keep up such a tiring facade.

Without further ado, she presented the entirety of her plan: "But if we work together, we could get back at him and make it look like an accident. He doesn't know a thing about me, so I could probably just act like a klutzy idiot and run right into him without getting killed. That'd probably piss him off enough on its own, but it'd also distract him long enough for you to "accidentally" drop that firewood you were supposed to collect.... right on top of him. You can pretend it's an accident, and even if he doesn't buy that, it isn't like he can reach you in the air. Big Bird will wake up and stop him from attacking you in the long run."
The only real issues she found with it were that she would have to get close enough to the charmeleon to accidentally fall on him or bump into him without making it look suspicious.... and she wasn't particularly capable of carrying a large amount of wood. Maybe she could put wood in her bag, even though it'd get dirty....

The vanillite tilted his head as the umbreon repeated that Krikka was, in fact, not her sister. The vanillite studied her facial expression and spoke up with a happy tone, "Awwwww come on! What'd she do? Steal your diary? Read it? Ooh! Don't tell me she ate your gummis?" the ice cream cone seemed to be enjoying this, hoping for some gossip of family drama from the umbreon. The vanillite stopped suddenly and turned as he heard something approaching.

"I thought I heard your voice!" A voice spoke up happily. It was a slurpluff, approaching the vanillite in particular.

"Slurpy!" The vanillite cried before rushing over to the dopey looking pokemon. The ice cream cone and the escort targets were successfully reunited.

--

Garnet laid there, until Sova's voice suddely spoke to him and asked him to help with something. He found himself not wanting to get up. He really did not want to get up. His body felt heavy and ached quite a bit. His arms moved around in the snow without him actually looking where he was moving and felt around for something that could be of use. Rock? No. Branch? No. Oh, a stick.

"Would a stick work?" he called to Sova, holding up the stick without getting up. It seemed difficult to just raise his arms even at the moment. He forced himself up as he held the stick up for Sova to see, figuring that it would not work...there was always hope though.

--

Linus listened to the words of the umbreon carefully. It certainly seemed like a harmless little plan for a bit of revenge. He felt that it was not quite...enough. He narrowed his eyes at her change in tone, before he spoke after he allowed her to finish, "Seems a bit...lacking," he admitted, "We're just going to rain sticks on him? Really?" he huffed, quite disinterested with her plan.

"I'd rather just be a defiant prick and put up with the other prick's punishments," he was not serious with that comment, but it certainly sounded better than raining a few sticks on him...even if it wasn't just a few sticks, they were still just wood. He wanted something more...harmful.

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Mission Dice :

4

Amidst his "foraging," Sova was having little luck with finding something appropriate for his mission.  He was finding things scattered about, but nothing that fit what he needed.  He just needed something that could vaguely resemble an appropriate charm on a necklace, and considering his own necklace was literally string and a rock, he was astounded at how hard it was to meet this standard.  Then, where he was failing, Garnet came along to save the day.  "That's not a stick, genius."  He looked up to the charmeleon and got a good look at the thorn before deciding that it would indeed work.  A bit of relief washed over him at this development, although his overall mental state still wasn't doing too well.

"That'll do," he responded as he started off toward Garnet.
Of course, considering the context, he expected to be given the thorn.  He knew it wasn't uncommon for necklaces to be decorated with things such as teeth or spikes, so he hoped such a thing would be alright with his client.  If not, well, it was technically still in line with the mission request, so he would request to have it marked as a success regardless.  It wasn't a big enough deal for him to actually be upset over such a thing as not pleasing the client, as long as he was technically doing the mission right.


Dusk was beginning to understand one of the forces in the world that could drive someone to murder.  It was like she was some kind of a mute, like nothing she said was heard by the infuriating dessert.  She had a growing urge to request permission to knock the creature out, but she figured such a thing wouldn't go over well with the group.  Although.... technically, she wasn't a part of a Guild, so that meant they wouldn't fail the mission if she decided to just.... swat the client with her tail or something.  Maybe the others wanted to hit the frustrating client and just couldn't due to the fact that they were Guild members doing a mission.  Maybe they wouldn't be mad at her if she did what they all wanted to do and just weren't allowed to go through with!  She knew it was an unlikely scenario, but it still comforted her a bit to think about such a thing.

Then something miraculous happened to spare her from having to fantasize about violence in order to retain her sanity.  Someone who seemed to know the vanillite showed up, and since it was an escort mission, she could only hope the slurpluff was what it'd wanted to be escorted to.  Even if, by some cruel twist of fate, this wasn't the case, she still had momentary relief from the situation.  "This who you came to meet?" she hesitantly questioned with high hopes in her mind that she would be freed from her guard duty.
She just wanted to be able to turn around and leave the ice-cream cone without any problems.


The plan was perfect: Krikka was confident she would meet no resistance from her new ally.

....

Well, she was wrong.  Having her plan criticized infuriated her, especially with such shaky reasoning.  She didn't like criticism in the first place, but it was even worse that the criticism seemed to be entirely unfounded outside of the bird just disliking her idea for no reason.  She restrained herself from saying anything extreme since she wasn't quite ready to just throw away an alliance, but she still hated the initial response her idea had received.  "First off, you can drop anything you want on him.  Maybe you're just an overachiever who decided to grab something a bit too heavy to carry and ended up dropping it right on his head...." she started up, hoping to win Linus over.
Now that she'd revealed her spiteful colors and offered for him to help her in such a thing, she didn't feel particularly comfortable in letting him just be neutral in the matter.

"And second, you'd get what you want with being a "defiant prick" anyway.  He seems to me like the kind of guy who'd assume foul play even if there was none, so I think there's a good chance he'll be mad and assume we both intended to hurt him.  Only difference between my plan and your.... thing is that he doesn't get an excuse to hit us with my plan.  If he can't prove either of us meant to do any harm, I doubt the Guild members will let him do anything about it," she continued.
Even if she had absolutely no hope of getting the buzzkill to go along with what she wanted to do, she still planned to explain until she could no longer explain any further.  It was more a matter of pride than a simple desire to harm some guy she found to be moderately annoying.  She wanted the bird to understand that her idea didn't suck, even if he refused to go along with it.

Garnet was relieved that the first thing he had found would work. He gave the thorn to Sova, having no desire whatsoever to keep the item. It was a weapon item that dealt damage to other pokemon, he would rather do the damage himself. Though he certainly would not mind using the thorn to make a shish-ka-bob out of that mamosine's eyes right about now. His body still ached, and he generally just wanted to lie down for a bit.

"I..." he started before giving a brief pause to recollect his thoughts once more, "Think I should just lie down now."

He eased himself back onto the ground, not desiring to flop over again in fear of the pain being a lot more sharper and bothersome. He just wanted to relax at the moment...he also would have favored the sky to give him a bit of sun, but no Giratina had to be an ass and make it all cloudy...and dark...and depressing.

--

The snow cone nodded happily to Dusk's comment before turning to the slurpluff, "Hey, you went to counseling school right? This umbreon is having some issues with her sister, think you could help?" The vanillite truly seemed to think he was helping the situation.

The slurpluff gave its stomach a tap, "You can count on me!" it declared proudly. It must have been just as stupid as the snow cone it seemed. The slurpluff approached Dusk, "So, what's this I hear about your sister being a big mean jerk?" the slurpluff spoke in a very soft and sympathetic tone...

--

After a moment of silence, Linus finally nodded, "Fine, Fine...if you happen to find a big stick then let me know. I'll be on the look out as well," he declared before taking off into the sky once more. He did not seem to want to stick around for any idle chatter. The honchkrow's wings were silent as he rose into the sky, his keen eye searched the ground below for the largest stick within the area. He would have much rather impaled the charmeleon with something, but he supposed a blunt object to the head would have to work for now...

Sova accepted the spike and dropped it into his bag for safekeeping. He would have to make it into a necklace later, he supposed. That, or just get someone else to do it. Or maybe the client intended to make the necklace? He'd figure that out later, but for the time-being, he was just glad he could cross something off his to-do list. He was now one step closer to being able to focus on the real reason why he was here. He chuckled at Garnet's remark, finding it funny that the charmeleon had pestered him about laying down then gone and taken his own advice instead. Though the glaceon was beginning to contemplate getting a bit of rest after all, since it seemed they weren't going to be getting anywhere any time soon. Even though he disliked "relaxing," he knew it was rather important for Acro to actually be functional before they moved along.

Rather than just laying down, though, Sova decided on relaxing in a different way. "Well, while you do that, I'm gonna go take a walk. I'll stay where I can see you all; just holler if you need me," he spoke up and turned to begin walking toward nothing in particular.
He didn't want to rest so much as just try and clear his head, alone. With everyone he had to look after and the potential danger in what they were doing, he didn't want to be his own worst enemy at such a time. He needed to have a clear head if he were to be responsible for their little expedition, especially since he now had a few unforeseen companions.

He also still wanted to try to find the supplies of the criminals. He still felt that they had to have hidden their stuff somewhere nearby.


Dusk could feel the urge to murder rising and spreading. Now, the slurpluff had earned a place on her very special list of those who needed to be permanently silenced. Were she someone with less sense of self-preservation and a darker code of morals, she just might have lashed out at the annoyances, but alas, she was sensible enough to not go having such.... fun. However, this did not mean she was going to simply tolerate the idiots she was being forced to listen to. Her ears flattened as she stared at the idiots before her and wondered what to do about them. It was clear that she couldn't get the point across that the other umbreon wasn't her sister, which meant she'd have to go about shutting them up in some other way. Perhaps she'd just have to give them what they wanted.

"I really don't have a sister.... because she's a GUY! What, you think just because he sounds feminine, you can insult him like that!? CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE!!" she suddenly erupted into an outburst.
It was entirely made up, and in fact, she wasn't even mad. Not anymore, at least. Now, she was actually starting to have a bit of fun with the situation. It'd taken her a while to realize that there could be a way to make talking to two complete idiots fun, but now that it'd clicked for her, she was going to try and see what she could stir up. When the other umbreon came back, maybe she could even get them off her own back and make the other one have to put up with them!


A slight smile crossed Krikka's face as she gained the approval of her ally. All things considered, it'd gone a lot better than her envisioned worst-case scenario of Linus deciding he didn't like her and reporting her to his group.... or just attacking her. She watched as the bird flew back up into the sky, out of talking range, which was fine with her. She didn't really like idle chatter anyway and had only called the bird down to discuss an important matter in the first place. Yes, attacking someone for very flimsy reasoning was what she considered an "important matter." She didn't spend much time watching the bird before turning her attention to the landscape around her and looking for sticks to collect. Being on firewood duty suddenly looked a lot more appealing, now that she knew she was going to get her own little reward out of it.

Carrying sticks was no problem, although she disliked having to dirty up her bag. Without any proper appendages for carrying wood, she was forced to use her bag. Well.... technically, she had her mouth, but she was not going to carry a bunch of sticks in her mouth. Not only did that sound difficult, but it was also far too undignifying for her to be willing to do. She'd have to have a considerably larger reward at stake than just annoying and possibly hurting someone in order to be willing to behave in such a way. So she just had to put up with getting her bag all dirty, which wasn't too bad since she could just clean it some time later. While picking up any sticks she could find laying around, she spotted what appeared to be a fallen limb near a tree and immediately wondered if the honchkrow could lift it. It wasn't exactly a "stick," but it didn't seem too big. "Hey!" she called out and looked around for the bird, although she'd lost track of where he was.

Garnet opened his mouth to say something to Sova, but thought the better of it and allowed the glaceon to leave without trouble from his end. The charmeleon stared up at the cloudy dark sky, he could only sit and wait for both the wood crew and Sova to come back. Dusk seemed to be having an ever so pleasant conversation with the client of Acro's, but he made no move to interject. So long as she did not attack the clients, then he did not care what the hell happened to them when it came to her. He drifted off into thought as he waited for the group to...well, re-group.

--

The snow cone and the fairy type looked to each other as the umbreon snapped at them. The slurpluff took on a knowing look as he nodded. "I see...you're in denial. You want a sister, but she wants to identify as a male, and you can't accept that....can you?" the slurpluff spoke, pointing at Dusk with confidence in his happy goofy smile. The snow cone's face lit up with excitement, amazed with his friend's ability to pick apart situations and get to the root of the problem!!

--

Linus had wandered a bit far, he had a claw full of smaller branches in hand as he turned around and swooped down towards the branch Krikka had found. He observed the branch, "I think I might be able to carry this..." he mumbled, not too sure of himself. He dropped the smaller sticks in favor of the larger one, latching his claws around the thick wood before flapping his wings harshly and bringing himself into the air. He managed to get a few feet off the ground, though he was struggling quite a bit thanks to the injuries from the earlier fight.

"This'll work perfectly..." he huffed, releasing the stick momentarily with a smirk one claw at a time in order to readjust his grip.

Sova wandered idly in the direction he'd chosen, scanning the area with his eyes for any signs of a bag or something of the sort.  He was also trying to clear his mind, but this was proving easier said than done.  He just kept on thinking about everything he'd done wrong, which kept bringing him back to why he was here.  He needed to find a way to make up for how much of a burden he'd been, no matter the cost.  The Snowcloak Ruins were the only place he currently knew of that could potentially help him, so he didn't care about any risks involved.  He sighed as he walked; his gaze had fallen to the ground directly in front of him as he walked.  He was no longer searching for anything or even paying proper attention to his environment.  He hadn't even noticed that he'd walked a considerable distance from his group and gone out of their vision.  He didn't have Snow Cloak, but the tapering hail was still helping reduce vision.  It had also helped to heal his wounds somewhat, although they still weren't completely gone.

"Hey there!" a voice called out from behind him, and at the same time, he felt a paw touch his back.

The glaceon darted a short distance away from the source of the disturbance, ripping the snow from the ground and creating a flurry of white in the air along his path.  His fur froze back into armor; he lowered himself to the ground and spread his legs as he prepared for the worst.  However, when the haze of snow cleared enough for him to get a good look at the culprit, he saw not what looked like an assailant, but rather.... another glaceon.  Having already had one encounter with a "glaceon" today, he was hesitant to trust this one, but she didn't seem like a threat.  "....Hi," he finally responded to the feminine glaceon.
She just stared back at him for a moment with some weird look: a half-smile and bedroom eyes.  It was a tad bit creepy to Sova, considering it was a look he'd never seen before.

"What're you doing here?" the.... interesting feminine glaceon questioned, taking a few steps closer to him in the process.
Sova responded by backing away equally and giving a suspicious look.  "Looking for someone.... and something," he explained briefly.

"Looking for me?" the other glaceon questioned, giving a more prominent smirk.
"No, I-" he attempted to clarify, but was immediately cut off.
The other glaceon approached him at an increased speed, causing him to stumble back and fall to the ground.  He failed to get back up before the other glaceon was already in his face, staring at him with the same, confusing gaze.  "Well, you found me," she added on.
The two stared at each other for just a moment before the other one began to circle around Sova.  Her tail brushed under his chin as it passed by, and he could have sworn it seemed to be on purpose.

"So, wanna have some fun?"

"Oh," Sova remarked.
Now it all made sense.  He suddenly found himself no longer desiring to be alone, instead hoping that Garnet would come rescue him from this situation.  In fact, he wanted SOMEONE, ANYONE to just stop what was happening.  This was not a conversation he wanted to have to go through himself.


Somehow, the two idiots had managed to misunderstand a blatant lie that had been designed specifically to cater to idiots such as themselves.  They had somehow assumed an even MORE idiotic version of the lie Dusk had made up.  Still, she was determined to succeed now that she'd already started up with this whole rouse, but it was proving very difficult to lie to someone so MENTALLY HANDICAPPED.  She took a moment to collect her thoughts before responding: "You think just because someone sounds feminine, they're a girl?  Do you have any idea how offensive that is?  You're a TERRIBLE therapist.  And even if you were somehow right, WHERE IN THE WORLD did you gather that I'm in denial?  I said he's a guy!  If he were just identifying as a guy, I would still be accepting it, you total MORON!"

Most of the aggression she was now showing was actually just acting.  At this point, she didn't care much if they completely misunderstood her since she wasn't being truthful in the first place.  Even if they insisted on claiming she had a sister who was identifying as a male, she still had an idea for how to make the conversation someone else's problem.  If she couldn't convince them otherwise, she'd just agree, then the other umbreon would probably have to get a far worse lecture from the idiots bestowed unto her.


Krikka watched as the bird came down to check the branch she'd found.  Despite his earlier objection to the whole plan, he seemed awfully happy about it now.  Perhaps he just liked being difficult for no reason, or maybe he'd wanted to see if she was serious.  Regardless, she didn't care about anything other than the fact that it seemed her plan was going to work.  "Guess it's time to head back, then.  I'm sure he'll be thrilled at our hard work," she joked as she turned around to head back the way they'd come from.
She then stopped and backtracked momentarily to pick up the sticks Linus had dropped.  She was also planning to make the charmeleon's life difficult, after all, and having more sticks for her own part in the fun times would probably be helpful.

Ugh he wasn't going to get any rest and relaxation with those idiots barking at each other...or rather Dusk barking at the clients. He forced himself up with a groan, and figured that maybe he could make do with a walk too. His body was certainly not feeling up for it, but he just wanted to get away from the noise for at least a few moments. He looked down at the glaceon's footprints in the snow, and decided to follow them. He was certain that the group was safe on their own, at least as safe as they were going to be even with him around. He stared down at the footsteps as he walked forward, following them and wondering what the glaceon was even up to. Maybe there was something he could do to help?

It would not be long before he heard voices, and stumbled across something quite strange...
--

The slurpluff stared at the umbreon with a dull expression...before declaring, "Look! I know your sister is going through some rough times in identifying as a male, but you need to learn to accept it young lady! Your poor sister is probably going through an extremely stressful time, and she really doesn't need your shit! I'll have you know that I am transexual!" The slurpluff crossed its arms, its tongue slightly hanging out of its mouth despite it being closed.

"Yay!" The snow cone cheered, though his face suggested that he really did not know what was going on any more. The snow cone simply decided that he would side with his friend...after all, they were buddies!

--

The large bird struggled to carry the large stick, but managed to get some decent height in the sky. He kept having to readjust his grip, and he soon figured that dropping it on top of Garnet really was going to be an accident. Hopefully his pathetic body would hold out long enough to carry it over the charmeleon. He would like a direct hit to the head, but crushing the tail or spine wouldn't be too bad either now that he thought about it. He smirked as he headed back to camp, only for the smirk to fade....

The charmeleon was gone, "Damn it..." he hissed under his breath. He had not been spotted by the group below luckily, as they were much too busy chattering about something. He figured it would be best to hide and simply wait for the charmeleon to come back. He dropped the stick away from the cap once more, keeping the camp in view as he rested his poor wings and claws.

"Oh?" the seductress questioned as she encircled the poor glaceon who was already too morally troubled to know what to do with this situation.
"Doooes that mean yes?" she spoke as she came full-circle around Sova, her head moving uncomfortably close to his and prompting him to move his own head away.
She continued until his head hit the snowy ground, forcing him to stop as she continued forward.  Sova could barely think at this point, but he managed to get it through his head that he needed to move while he still had the chance.  He quickly rolled away from the immediate reach of the succubus and immediately forced himself onto his paws.  There was an odd feeling of shakiness, even weakness, that was overcoming him.

"I'll pass," he responded without so much as looking at the other glaceon and immediately began walking at a rushed pace toward his group.
To his dismay, the other one started up following, first behind him, and then moving to his side in an attempt to get him to look at her.  "What?  Am I not pretty enough for you or something!?" she questioned in a moderately upset tone.
Sova allowed himself to glance at the other glaceon to see the expression of someone whose pride had been hurt.  He was highly uncomfortable and confused.

"....I'm taken," he responded after a slight delay of silence and took a step away to further get his point across.
Suddenly, the expression of his.... leech changed to a confident smirk.  It worried him greatly.  "Ooooh," she remarked as if everything suddenly made sense.
This prompted him to back away even further, but the other glaceon quickly moved up against his side before he could get very far away.  He was exhausted and his mind was wracked at that moment, so he wasn't very capable of just avoiding being touched with Double Team.  Actually, this wasn't something he should have even needed Double Team to avoid, but it simply wasn't a situation he was used to, nor one he was currently in a good place to deal with.

"Your lady-friend doesn't have to know....  C'mooon," the siren pushed further with her request.
At this point, Sova didn't know what to say to make this all go away.  There were surely many ways to mend the situation, but none of them were coming to mind.  All he could think to do was simply remain silent and continue walking forward in the hopes of being saved from the dreadful situation he was in by his group.

Seeing his silence as hesitance, the female spoke once more: "Or is it a man-friend?"
She continued to press herself against him as she spoke, making it difficult for him to stay standing.  It was like she was using him to rest on or something.... which she clearly was.

Sova just wanted to be saved from this situation.  He kept wishing in his mind for something to come take him away from this, until his ears picked up the sound of footsteps and prompted him to look up.  His ears perked up when he saw a familiar charmeleon in the distance.  He upped his pace without even noticing as the singular goal of reaching Garnet enveloped him.  The stalker seemed to notice the change in his emotional state.  "Oh, is that your man-friend?  Don't worry, he can join!" she offered loud enough for the charmeleon to hear, were he listening.

Sova's ears flattened.


"Young lady?  Who in the HELL do you think you're talking to?" Dusk instantly remarked without thinking.
She had gotten a bit hung up on the demeaning comment, as she reeeeally hated being looked down on, especially by someone she could just step on and smoosh.  She quickly corrected herself in an attempt not to lose what she had been working for: "You're the one being offensive by calling him a "her!"  That isn't respectful at all!  How is there anything I'm not accepting?  Hm?"
She was determined to make this work.  Now, it was more than just a matter of simultaneously fixing all of her problems: it was a matter of personal pride.  She was beginning to take this whole situation as a challenge of sorts.  Getting the idiots to understand anything she was saying was proving to be so difficult that it just made her want to succeed even more.  The desire was powerful enough even for her to suppress her fragile ego.... somewhat.


Krikka had an energetic spring in her step as she moved back toward the group.  This was a rare occasion, as her behavior was genuine, which rarely happened.  Her exterior was nearly always 100% faked past trivial things such as her species, but right now, her emotional state was as it seemed.  She was excited that she was going to get to hurt and annoy someone who had garnered her dislike.  Most managed to end up with her blessing of hatred, but this charmeleon was very special in that he had tried to tell her what to do.  She gave orders, but she most certainly did not take them!  While she couldn't very well just ignore the demand since she had to win the favor of this group, she could still make the charmeleon regret ever telling her to do anything.  Even if it was at the cost of making herself look like a hapless klutz, it was entirely worth it.

Her springy prancing slowed and faded as she reached the camp to see a significant lack of a few faces, including a very particular and important charmeleon.  "Where...." she muttered, looking around for the fiery hue of the lizard to no avail.
He had apparently left to go somewhere, and it seemed Sova had left as well.  The archeops was still dead and thus likely wouldn't be a good candidate to ask where the others had gone.  That only left.... the other umbreon, who was in a conversation she could overhear enough of to know she wanted no part in it.  Knowing the location of the charmeleon was not worth getting into whatever was going on over there.  She sighed and sat down, waiting for Lizard-Boy to get back so that she could do what she wanted to do.  She already had a plan to explain why she was still holding her firewood instead of just setting it down somewhere.

It involved making herself look like an idiot, but it was better than putting for the the effort of hiding.

The silence was strange to Garnet. It actually kind of bothered him with how quiet it was. As soon as he heard voices in the distance and form words out of what they were saying as well as identify that it was Sova and another glaceon, he began to wish it was quiet again. "Oh, is that your man-friend? Don't worry, he can join!"

What.

No seriously, what the fuck? Garnet's face took on a blank expression as he stared at the two. What had he just walked into? He looked between the female glaceon to Sova, was he...didn't he have a girl friend? That Zoroark or whatever her name was. He took a look at Sova's expression before the situation really began to sink in to Garnet and become clear.

Oh. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH. Okay. He figured he understood now, "Uh...we gotta go," he simply said, pointing a claw back in the direction of the group. Hopefully the "glaceon" would just leave...could he hit her? That would make her go away-No that was a bad idea, bad Garnet!

--

Like the idiots they were, they had somehow taken Dusk's string of words and translated them to something entirely different. The slurpluff huffed with his arms on his hips as he addressed Dusk with a rather reprimanding tone, "I am talking to a young lady who is taking out her anger on two innocent mons trying to help! I can't stand your lying mouth, I know you're in denial, and i know you're upset but you really need to just accept the facts and calm your butt down missy!"

--

Linus was left alone...in the cold...alone. All he had for his company was a rather large branch he would have to lift into the air once the charmeleon came into sight. He grumbled to himself as he leered at the campsite. The longer it took the more this was not worth it, though on the other hand he was looking forward to this. He was filled with plenty of mixed emotions as one side of him wanted to just ditch the plan and the other wanted that sweet sweet revenge. In the end, the latter won of course.