Vanity Fair

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(OOC: Discussed in this thread.)

[Energy: 19-10=9]

T'was a windy, chilly day in Shadowhue, the kind of day in which most pokémon would sooner spend time near the comfort of a pleasant fire in Grassveil than running about in the woods. But for whatever reason, a particular pokémon didn’t seem to be spending time getting cozy and warm, and was instead moving forwards, away from the comfort of civilization and towards the dark woodland of Shadowhue.

This pokémon was a piplup named Clovis, a local of the general area, albeit not one too familiar with the in and outs of such a dark and dungeonlike place such as Shadowhue. He had found himself on the outside of the forest as the result of an aimless afternoon meander, and as he had far too much free time, he decided that he would stay.

Clovis blinked before looking into the dark, thick forest. Many 'mons he had met in the past warned him to avoid such a place, but he paid these warnings little mind. So long as these woods existed, and ferals roamed them unrestrained, there would need to be civilized pokémon like himself to explore the unknown and shine metaphorical light into the literal darkness. So he walked into the forest, prepared to spend all afternoon learning whatever secrets lay in the gloom in front of him...

[energy: 3+Ø=3]

As the Treecko eased up and went friendly, Yooka couldnt help but nod her head "ahh, it's fine. I shouldve been more aware of what Im doing. Hey, if you ever do join... er... well, I dont know what I'll be doing in about a week. I'm looking for a village in the sky. ever heard of the Aileron Village? I think I went the wrong way, heh." Yooka was looking up when she started talking about the village, trying to see any openings in the forest roof looking to see what time it was.

she hasnt slept for a whole day. Yooka wasnt going to let it show, she's done this a bunch of times. especially on a journey from rainfront to grassveil that took nearly six days. she slept only once through that whole journey. "Would any of you know what time it is? looking back down, she didnt even notice the igglybuff was talking to the piplup. Probably being ignored, however, she's now starting to feel the poison starting to weaken her. ok, I definitely caught something from those cacnea spikes...

(Energy: 6)

Kimori listened to the Pokemon before her. She had surprised her by appearing like that. She thought Yooka was going to attack them for a minute. It didn't seem like she would. Wait, did she hear that right? This Kecleon was looking for Aileron? Was that not impossible to reach for Pokemon who couldn't fly? Kimori didn't feel like questioning Yooka's reasoning. She was curious about Aileron, but she didn't think she would ever reach it, so she didn't try. Maybe she would come across someone who could take her there one day.

Kimori looked up when the Kecleon asked what time it was. "I think it is a bit after noon? It is hard to say. There is not a lot of light here." She said. She could only guess the time. When she looked at the others, she saw they were standing a bit further away. She wondered why that was.

[Energy: 10-13=0]
[Status: Poisoned]

Clovis kneeled down just a bit to get even with the igglybuff, putting out his flipper onto her... shoulder? Or would it be the top of her head? It was hard to tell what to call the areas of her body, what with it being completely round. But he recoiled when he felt the filth touch his skin. "Erm." He muttered, twitching his face. "Alki, I'm sure that a little bit of water won't kill you. The pokémon of Grassveil don't take very kindly to petulant children running around smearing mud all over their clean streets, so unless you'd like to be the laughing stock of the town, I'd suggest that you-" He was interrupted suddenly by a cloud of dust covering his vision and invading his beak both through its opening and his little nostrils. The piplup began coughing reflexively and turning all around him in reaction, and saw through squinty eyes a venomoth shaking dust onto him from above.

He clumsily backed away from both Alki and the venomoth, mumbled some inaudible obscenity, and pulled a pointy stick out of his bag before falling onto his rump. The piplup turned towards the treecko and kecleon, and shouted at them to get their attention. "You two!" He gulped and looked back at the feral venomoth. Hopefully it wouldn't charge straight into him while he lay on the ground.

[Status: Poisoned]

Alki shifted her weight from foot to foot as the Piplup touched her. Looking at him, she could tell that he didn't enjoy having to touch her, she was dirty and he didn't like that, did he? But what was he saying? She didn't know what these words were... Petulant? Laughing-Stock? Although the way he said them, she had a pretty good idea that it wasn't anything positive. Was he insulting her? A few tears began to come to her eyes. He was, wasn't he? "S-Sorry..." She mumbled, choking up a bit. She wasn't petulant... whatever that was.

She jumped as he suddenly began to cough, turning around violently. What was going on? She let out a scared whimper. She shouldn't be there, with Yooka and the Piplup and the Treecko... what was going on? Did she really smell that bad? "I-I'm r-really s-s-sorry..." She stuttered, but soon enough, she began to cough too. So it wasn't her, otherwise she wouldn't be coughing. She noticed a Venomoth behind her, sprinkling dust onto Clovis, some of it falling onto Alki. She didn't like it. She noticed Clovis began to fall down. He did breathe in most of the... stuff. Alki should help him! Even if he had called her Petulant...

She stepped in front of him, trembling. She wasn't good at fighting. She really didn't enjoy it, but if a Pokemon needed help... Yooka and the Treecko were still too far away. Hopefully they could help more. But for now, Alki would have to do. She used Heal Pulse on Clovis, as she stumbled forward to get in between the Venomoth and him. She didn't feel too well... "P-Please help, I-I don't want to fight..." She said, before beginning to cough loudly. She stood in front of Clovis and put up a Defense Curl. She could act like a shield of sorts, to protect him! Hopefully it would work. Unknowingly, Alki began to lean on the much bigger Piplup to steady herself. She looked up at the Venomoth, hoping it wasn't too strong for her. She didn't feel well... she let out another, small cough, and called out again to Yooka and the Treecko... Kimori? "Y-Yooka, K-K-Kim... Kimori, p-please help us!" She yelled out. Alki had run into two feral Pokemon so far... it really hadn't been a fun day for her.

Watching the Treecko become slightly puzzled as she spoke of the village, made her figure it knew the place, or at least heard of it. If the Treecko is completely confused or perhaps questions me, then maybe it doesn't know. Let's see if I'm right. Yooka smirked, "I only want to 'see' it. Getting there would be a different story." She would of liked to continue on the subject but the other two pokemon suddenly called out to them. Well, the piplup was more direct and the Igglybuff was more or less crying. Deciding keeping the group together was more important than personal agendas she ignored the Treecko's reaction. All Yooka needed to hear was the Igglybuff's cry to know something was happening.

Turning to face the two others, she near instantly recognized movement in the air. She looked up and watched the object while she instinctively pulled out one of the cacnea spikes from earlier, from her bag. Instead of throwing it she called out to the object, "Hey! I suggest you come down from there or be grounded for good..." Preping the butt end of the spike like that of a bo shuriken she took aim at one of it's wings. Venomoth... ah, it wont be 'grounded for good' as easily as I thought... well, maybe just a couple holes in it's wings should scare it off at least. If it decided to attack, she wouldn't hesitate to throw the spike.

((

ooc:

Kimori didn't really understand with that Yooka wanted to see the island. Was she just trying to see it in the sky? Kimori actually wasn't sure as to where the islands were. Not above them at least. Reaching the islands was indeed going to be difficult for their species. Kimori wanted to ask more, but they were interrupted with the appearance of a Venemoth.

Both Alki and Clovis seemed to be in trouble. Kimori was at a disadvantage and didn't want to get poisoned, but she had to help them. Yooka reacted before her, and took out what seemed to be a cacnea spike. This gave her a bit of an idea. The Treecko moved a bit closer to the moth and leered at it, lowering its defences. If Yooka would throw the spike, it would cause more damage than it would have otherwise.

[Energy: 0+1 (Heal pulse) =1]

All the while Clovis and the rest shouted and leered and threatened, the Venomoth paid their actions little mind and swooped down towards the intruding piplup. It wasn't aiming to directly kill any invaders- such an action was far beyond its strength, even the most primitive ferals knew better than to try that. Rather, it aimed to weaken, poison and scare off the unfamiliar mons. The venomoth briefly smacked at the igglybuff with its wings, but this was not its initial target, and it flew above her and towards the piplup with ease.

...

Clovis took a few heavy breaths of fresh air while he still could, and briefly shuddered as the awkward, but pleasant feeling of a heal pulse reached over him. He wrapped his flipper around the stick like a dart as the venomoth approached him. Imitating the throwing style of several bourgeois dartrix he had seen loitering around Grassveil, he hurled the stick at the attacking venomoth, putting a tiny hole through its chitin and scale wings. He still didn't feel it would be quite prudent to get back on his feet, and remained on the ground.

[Energy: 2 + 1 (Forgot to do so at the start of this page) = 3]

Alki fell down awkwardly as she felt a flurry of wings around her. The Venomoth was huge! What was she doing? She did her best to push it back, but she didn't want to fight anyone. Her last fight hadn't ended well; and she still remembered that horrible headache she'd gotten because of it. But it's not like she had an option there. Thankfully, she didn't seem to be the main target of the attack. The Venomoth left as fast as it came. Alki had no clue why, if it really wanted to hurt her, it could've done a lot more damage right there.

She sat down, suddenly feeling dizzy. She coughed violently, and struggled back to her feet. What was that cloud of dust? One thing was for sure, it wasn't normal dust. She felt sick, and her stomach didn't feel well... but she had to fight back, didn't she? All the others were doing so... Clovis threw a sharp stick at the Venomoth. What could Alki do? She didn't want to get hurt by it's huge wings again.

She went through the list of moves she knew. Defense Curl wouldn't help anyone but herself, and she didn't want to be selfish... even if she would feel a lot safer using Defense Curl. She was coughing too much to use Sing, and she didn't think she had another Heal Pulse in her. So that left Charm, huh? She'd have to get close to use it, wouldn't she? She stumbled forward, towards the Venomoth, and smiled as Charmingly and Cutely as she could. If she'd done it right, it should've lowered it's attacking power. After a few seconds of her staring at the Venomoth and the Venomoth staring at her, she bounced back as quickly as possible and hid behind Clovis. She didn't want to do anything more, she didn't want to get hurt anymore than she already was... she grabbed one of his flippers tightly, anything to hold onto. She noticed her hand were still muddy, so she let go quickly, remembering how much he disliked being dirty. "S-Sorry..." She mumbled, before using Defense Curl, closing her eyes tightly. She didn't want to watch the fight anymore. Fights were scary...

((

ooc:

The Venomoth seemed to ignore Yooka's warning. It went ahead and fluttered quickly over the igglybuff and went straight for the piplup. It was at this time yooka threw her spike. and at the same time the piplup tossed a hidden stick from under one of his flippers.
Despite being closer, the piplup's stick seemingly only did miniature damage as it went through a wing. Yooka didnt think the Venomoth would back off like it did, however that movement worked out for Yooka's spike. Instead of clipping both wings from the side like the piplup's, the venomoth moved just high enough that the spike lodged itself just to the left of its right ear. Yooka didnt watch the result as she pulled out a second spike to continue.

((

some ooc stuff, moth ear location, and also correct me if I saw the events wrong...:

Everything was happening at a rather fast pace. The Venemoth seemed to have chosen Clovis as its main target. Because of this, the feral didn't seem to pay much attention to them. This seemed like a good opportunity to attack. Kimori was about to run to the bug type to attack it, but both Clovis and Yooka ended up throwing a spike at it.

While the one of Clovis pierced one of the wings, Yooka's seemed to have hit a pretty effective spot. The Venemoth let out a cry of pain and seemed to be left wide open. Kimori took this opportunity to try to run op to the bug and slam her tail against it as a pound attack. If she ended up missing, she could get in a bit of trouble.

Clovis moaned and stretched as he stood up, leaving his companions to deal with the hostile venemoth. He wasn't particularly concerned with what they were doing, and was focused more on restoring his own sense of balance, and getting the rest of that dust out of his eyes. The piplup rubbed his flippers up and down his body, cleaning off both dirt and whatever bits of the venemoth's poisonous dust that he could.

Clovis blinked and looked around, sizing up the situation. Insofar, the feral had been hit twice, once by his throwing-stick and once by the kecleon's similar dart-like implement. The two of them must have surely done some sort of substantial damage, he figured. But despite being hit twice, the venemoth had yet to fall or flee. Someone would have to do something else, and sure enough, someone did. The treecko rushed the venemoth, and smacked it with her thick, green tail, frightening and disorienting it enough to cause it to flee the area, flapping its wings frantically as it escaped. Clovis kept his eyes trained on the feral as it fled, staying cautious in the event that it returned, until it vanished completely into the darkness.

With the feral taken care of, Clovis took the moment of peace as an opportunity to relax and breathe by leaning up against a tree. For reasons he wasn't entirely sure of, he felt an odd soreness in his joints. Not an unbearable one, but still, certainly a bothersome one. Ech, my legs. I know that cold weather is bad on the joints, but this is ridiculous. I swear, it's like I caught some sort of strange, exotic disease from that nasty savage... He paused to consider the possibilities, and empiricism lead him to believe that, indeed, he had been afflicted with some sort of disease or toxin from the feral. He scowled. It would be a long, ache-filled walk to the nearest doctor, but he supposed that he would be fine for now.

Alki opened one eye. She was still hiding behind the Piplup, she'd done her fair share of fighting, and honestly, she didn't want to do anymore. But she hadn't really been paying attention. Fights were scary, and the feral in question was pretty scary-looking as is. Did that make her lazy? Or a coward? Maybe... but still. Fighting was scary! And she didn't want a repeat of what had happened to her at the guild.

Thankfully, it seemed she didn't have to worry about anything like that. Things seemed to be going great for the Kecleon and Treecko. She dropped her defense curl, focusing on the feral flying away more than anything else. Once it was far away, she quit using the move. It did make her feel safer, but there wasn't much need for it now, was there?

She hadn't really helped very much, had she? She settled back against a tree, hoping nobody called attention to her. Clovis also went to sit under a tree. He was scowling. Alki simply coughed. That wasn't fun. "Um... t-thank you guys..." She said quietly, looking past the Treecko and Kecleon. She was thankful, she didn't want to appear mean, but she was more preoccupied with the bad cough she suddenly had. She wasn't sick when she'd come into the forest. Maybe she needed to lie down for a bit? Rest? Perhaps that was it. She began to lie down on the ground and looked up at the trees that seemed to suffocate her with the darkness. There was little light, and she felt tiny and unimportant compared to everything around her. Huh. She felt herself coughing even more. What fun.

"I-Is it normal to f-feel sick like t-this after a fight?" She squeaked. She'd only been in one other fight before, with her sister. She had felt a bit bad then too. Maybe it was normal? Better to make sure. "I-I haven't really been in many... a-and I feel a bit sick..." Her statement was punctuated by even more coughing. She hated fighting! Why was she still there? She could leave... if she only knew the way out. "I-I'm stupid..." She mumbled under her breath, hoping no one heard. That wouldn't do, she didn't want anyone else to hear what she thought of herself. She tried to stop her coughing, but failed to do so. How had it come to this? It was probably her fault somehow... if she hadn't been distracting Clovis with her stupidity and dirtiness, none of it would've happened. "I'm sorry..." She said, looking at him.   "I-It was my fault, w-wasn't it? I'm sorry..."

((

ooc:

The treecko landed a hit with it's tail while the moth was still low, Yooka smirked as the Venomoth flew away. Bet it didn't expect so many hits so quick. She put the spike back in her bag but didn't get closer to the three. Instead she looked around incase anything else was nearby. She could hear other pokemon but they weren't that close. It should've stayed in the air. It would've had a better chance. mrrr... I'm not feeling it today. I should probably go before it gets serious.

The igglybuff spoke up asking if it was common to feel the way she does after a battle. The igglybuff was coughing quite a bit. Did the moth use Toxic? It seemed more of Poison-Powder. "N--, uh... The moth is part Poison type. So, for a Fairy..." I'm surprised your still awake. Yooka got quiet near the end of her talk. she was just a few meters away from the group but she didn't feel like telling the full poison status to the Igglybuff.

Without sounding complicated. "er..." no, i matter aswell just state what I can tell. Yooka sighed and decided to get serious about the status. "I think everyone here besides the Treecko is poisoned, lucky grass-types, heheheh, immune to powder attacks. Uh... by any chance do any of you happen to have a Pecha Berry? I can sustain myself for a long while so I'll be fine, but I don't know about you guys." Yooka shrugged.

"I'm just saying this now before it gets serious. Heh" Yooka closed her eyes for second before pointing to each of the three pokemon. "Alki, Kimori...? was it? and, uh... hmm." Yooka shrugged and shook her head. "Well, I think it's best if we head back to Grassveil or whatever... I would of asked for your assistance if anything got hairy but I think that's been established and this isn't exactly a mission... so, if you want to continue doing what you were originally doing, I won't stop you." Yooka stood where she was and waited for some form of answer. That was pretty bad. I'm definitely not feeling up to this...

((

ooc:

Kimori was relieved that the Venemoth decided to flee after she managed to make her attack land. When the bug type was out of sight, she turned around to look at the others. Everyone seemed pretty bad, but the Igglybuff seemed to have it the worst of all. She wondered if they would be alright. The Kecleon explained Alki that everyone except Kimori was poisoned. She had to know the truth at least.

Kimori shook her head when Yooka asked if she had a Pecha berry. "I don't have any items on me..." Her bag was completely empty as she didn't manage to find any items yet and she had no money to buy anything. She did hope anyone else had some kind of item to cure them.

Clovis continued to lean on the tree, stretching his legs and listening to the others to distract himself from his own body-wide aches. Alki seemed to be apologizing yet again. She had done this so many times by now that, frankly, Clovis didn't know, or particularly care about whatever she was sorry for. He just shook his head at her utterances.

What Yooka said, however, seemed to be a bit more deserving of his attention. Especially when she mentioned her belief that every single one of them, barring the treecko, was poisoned. She said that she could sustain herself, but that she wasn't sure about the rest of them. Clovis was upsetted by the implication that his physical constitution was insufficient to get him through a poisoning, and looked down at his comparatively small body with shame. He hadn't realized it before, but the kecleon was at least twice his height... and then, she mentioned everyone's name but his, which she seemed to have forgotten. The idea that she had found him, out of the three, to be the least memorable 'mon was not an idea he was glad to have festering in his mind.

The piplup closed his eyes and sighed, honestly feeling rather insulted. He didn't bother answering any questions, and just stayed where he was, silent apart from a couple coughs.