Genetics

(Sova's Energy - 83)
(Skylar's Energy - 13, it's funny because Sova's the one with the cursed ribbon)


"..."

Dark.  Not quite too dark to see, but nonetheless, this was the first thing the glaceon noticed.  He was already deep within the cave, so why was he only just now noticing his dim environment?  He couldn't seem to recall why it was so foreign.  In fact, he wasn't even sure where he was, or why he'd come.  Was this another dream... or... nightmare?  It certainly felt like it; he had a familiar fogginess in his head that was reminiscent of the atrocities sleep typically put him through.  So, then, when was the nightmare going to start?  When would the bloodthirsty being in the back of his mind come out to play?

As he waited, his gaze slowly trailed up his legs until he noticed something odd.  At first, he thought he was wounded, but they were not wounds.  His body appeared to be covered in red markings.  He lifted his left paw to touch a large, L-shaped mark on his chest, when a sudden jolt of needle-like pain through his body that caused him to freeze.  Was he hurt?  He didn't want to risk moving and worsening an injury, especially if it was something internal.  The pain wasn't anything too extreme, so he figured it probably wasn't a serious injury and decided to just ignore it.

He had to feel the markings, and so he did.  He pressed his paw against the large brand on his chest just to verify what he could already see: it was a part of him.  His very fur and skin held the color, and it seemed to glow with an eerie aura.  As he moved his paw back toward the ground, he noticed another marking on its pad.  However, this one seemed... different.  He lifted his paw up to his face to get a good look at what appeared to be a healing wound.  He was hurt?  It looked like it'd been there for a while and wouldn't be a problem, but he had no clue how he'd received this injury.  He gave himself another look over and began to notice numerous healing wounds amidst the red markings.

What had happened to him?  How could he not remember whatever had riven his body, or the source of the strange markings?  He could feel his heartbeat speeding up as he began to panic, his breathing becoming shaky.  "This must be a dream," he found himself speaking aloud, hoping - borderline-praying - that someone or something would confirm his suspicion.

"Then wake up."

He recognized this voice, and the fact that it was coming from behind him rather than in his head confirmed what he'd already guessed: this was a dream.  He slowly, hesitantly turned around to face the mirror-image of himself, every step eliciting pain as if his body were full of stone shards.  His body seemed to move on its own, rushing toward the doppelganger with as much force as he could muster.  His body almost immediately began to pulse with agony, causing him to stumble and fall forward, going straight through the other glaceon.  He wanted to scream at the other glaceon, or to get up and attempt to attack once more, but all he could do was moan in agony as he lay on the ground, his eyes shut tight in pain.

"A for effort, now get up.  You aren't dreaming," S.S. spoke from behind him, sitting patiently and waiting for him to pull himself together.

Sova feared the very idea that this was his reality.  This meant he was truly insane, which he did not want to believe.  He tried to push himself up, but the slightest strain on his body sent another fresh wave of metaphorical needles piercing into his body, ensuring he stayed down on the ground.  "I..." he muttered, his voice strained from the pain.  He could hear S.S. sigh, as if disappointed in him.

"What's the matter, can't do it?  The pain's too much for ya?  Wasn't that bad for me," S.S. taunted, knowing that the vulnerable child soul-shackled to him would want nothing less than to fall short to him.  

Sure enough, with the threat of paling in comparison to the demon driving him, Sova found the will to pull himself up despite the pain.  Despite trying to move with caution, he still managed to stumble as he faced the bane of his life.  "What's going on?  Y... you're not..."

"Real?  I'm as real as you are," S.S. decided to cut his little friend off before allowing him to say something stupid.  "But I know what you mean.  The gist is that you're going insane.  You're finally breaking."

The sound of a rock falling to the floor of the cavern caused Sova to jump, nearly falling over in his delirious state.  His head swiveled in the direction of the noise to find nothing, and when he turned back, S.S. was gone.  In fact... that wasn't the only difference.

He was in an entirely different area of the cave.

"...What's happening to me?"


Skylar hadn't known Sova for all too long, but she still knew him well enough to recognize when something wasn't right.  He was always antisocial, irritable and insensitive, but lately, he was just... different.  He seemed to have a certain air of bloodlust to him, at least, at times...  Then sometimes he appeared to simply be absent from his own mind; his body would be functioning, but he would seem hollow, so to speak.  But not matter which side he was on, he'd been acting very ominously, saying and doing concerning things.  The vaporeon hadn't gotten to see much of him since he'd been around the guild - and Grassveil in general - even less than usual, but she'd seen more than enough.

In one particularly concerning case, she'd found him in their room, sitting.  Not laying down, or looking for anything.  Just... sitting.  His back was turned to the doorway, so she spoke up with a greeting to get his attention.  Upon receiving no reaction, she began to worry that something was wrong, so she approached and placed a paw on his back as she what was wrong with the hope of comforting him.

She could still remember his exact words.

"He's dead."

After that, he got up and left the room.  By the time Skylar had gotten over the shock of what she'd heard and went to pursue him, he was nowhere to be found.  He'd already left the guild.  When the message came about the death of Linus, a honchkrow who was on the team of one of Sova's friends, the vaporeon began to piece it all together in her mind.  It was difficult to suppress fearful thoughts of the worst-case scenario.

Skylar and her teammate, Keith, had worked tirelessly to cover for their leader's odd behavior from that point onward.  They made sure one of them was there whenever he was in the guild to ensure he didn't creep anyone out, or... hurt anyone.  They felt bad talking and acting on his behalf while he acted like either a husk or a psychopath, but they didn't really know what else to do other than tell someone and risk getting him in trouble.  After all, he'd saved both their lives, so they both felt like they owed it to him to at least give him some time to sort himself out, and to help in any way they could.

And so here she was.  The two had taken to following Sova around outside of the guild, partially to watch out for him and partly to see if they could figure out what was wrong.  Skylar had followed him into Serene Cave while Keith went back to the guild so no one would question all three of them being gone for an extended period of time without taking any missions.  Besides, she figured one of them would be able to move around undetected easier than both of them, and she'd already been through caves before, so she felt she was the better choice.  But now that she was actually faced with the task of keeping up with Sova while making sure not to be noticed, she was beginning to doubt herself.

She had completely lost him, and it'd been a while since she'd seen any trace of him.  He was too fast for her, moving unlike any living thing she'd ever seen.  He didn't run, yet his movements were swift.  He never hesitated, never stopped, and never took even a moment to contemplate which path to take.  Through the low light and maze-like structure of the cave, Skylar had lost sight of her leader, and her own sense of direction followed soon after.

She had no idea where she was going.

She was here once again. She had made a return after her failure to recruit the monster that was mewtwo within these caverns. Her form moved quietly as the darkness of the cave provided excellent cover. She was alone, again.

Hopefully this time she would stay alone seeing as the previous attempts had been utter failures. First, she had met with a riolu and...well, Kira. The absol from the guild had been in that party as well, but her main concern was the lucario.

Luckily, she had not been recognized. She had gotten away with a false name and simply playing dumb. She honestly felt bad for her actions in the past against the lucario. That pokemon in particular, she had destroyed their livelihood and taken their most prized possession, she would not have been surprised if she had been attacked as soon as her identity was learned. There was no way she would be able to apologize, the lucario did not seem to be the type to listen. While it was an assumption on her part, it was a correct one. The lucario would have been fully willing to beat the zoroark down and throw her in jail.

The second round was with a piplup and an igglybuff, literally two useless pokemon that did nothing but get under her skin. The two were strange, especially in their actions, but the zoroark had somehow managed to allow them to escape alive, all alive.

The third time was the charm, right? That was usually how the saying went at least. She was determined to at least try and set things straight, convince mewtwo to join the battle, and perhaps even redeem herself.

She stopped suddenly. There was a pokemon ahead.

Was fate serious right now? ANOTHER pokemon? This was getting absolutely ridiculous. Her eyes focused on the form of the creature that approached. Her eyes flashed in the darkness as she studied the form. It was a vaporeon, judging from the shape. What was a vaporeon doing here?

A loud and overly exaggerated sigh left her lungs as she flopped onto a relatively flat rock. Her legs hurt. It was not a real intense pain, but more of a slight ache. That would not stop her from complaining about it though.

She had received word yet again that a charmander had been sighted in this cave. Despite the trouble she had encountered here last time, she had come back. She was confident that she would be able to avoid trouble and make it out just fine this time around.

After all, she had done it last time!

Unfortunately, her hopes were not high at all. She had lost the initial spirit that Garnet might have come here, but that confidence and vigor had dissipated over time. The more she thought about it, the more it could have just been some random charmander. She could not just chase every charmander story there was, she needed to move on. She had to face the facts that her friends were dead.

It saddened her to think about it, but she simply held no hope. The storm they had been caught up in was just too violent for them to survive on their own. While she was certainly depressed by this thought, her thoughts lingered more around Garnet than Jade.

She had simply laid upon her rock, hopeless as she waited to gather enough energy to try and leave. It was pointless to come here. She had wasted her time-

"...What's happening to me?"

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! SHE WAS NOT ALONE, I REPEAT, SHE WAS NOT ALONE IN THIS CAVE. WHAT!?

Her response was immediate panic as all earlier confidence about getting out of here just fine vanished. She had allowed a pokemon to sneak up on her!? How could this be!?

A gasp escaped her, quite disturbingly loud out of sheer shock. Her eyes widened as she reacted with immediate hostility, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" she cried out blindly before she immediately went for the attack. She took a deep breath before she fired a powerful pump of water in the direction of the glaceon...only to completely miss even if he didn't move.

The truth was, her bravery was fake. She had managed to get into the cave, but after spending about ten minutes here she was one hundred and ten percent done with this place.

She was fucking terrified of this cave.

It seemed S.S. was gone, having left Sova with more questions than answers.  He didn't know where he was or even why, and he had no idea what was happening to him.  Was he truly going completely insane, losing contact with reality?  Why?  What had happened to cause him to fall so out-of-touch with reality that he was now in this situation?  He desperately wanted an answer, to the point where he was even hoping S.S. would come back, but it seemed he was now on his own.  He would have to move, but he feared that the pain would start once more if he did.  He could feel the stinging sensations still covering his body, showing that the mysterious phantom pain was still lurking, waiting for him to provoke it.

Then a blast of water shot right in front of him, missing by a rather large margin considering he wasn't even moving.  His body seemed to turn toward the source with... limited desire on his part, as if he weren't entirely in control.  As his gaze slowly crept closer to the attacker, the darkness of the cave seemed to amplify itself, swallowing everything.  All he could see was the source of the attack... S.S.  He didn't quite understand the usage of water, but he understood that this wasn't "real" in the traditional sense.  Or at least, he hoped it wasn't.

"You..." he muttered as he slowly began to approach the other glaceon, who was sitting patiently on the ground.  He had questions and he needed answers.

Understanding the situation, S.S. decided to give a bit of advice.  "Don't speak." He didn't want Sova to end up making both of them look crazy.  He could speak since only Sova would hear him, but if Sova spoke, anyone could hear that.  "You still think your schizo-ass can be the hero," the demented glaceon chuckled at the thought.  He then fell silent as his connection with Sova's mind told him that the opposition had no idea what he was talking about.  "...Right, I keep forgetting that wasn't you.  Well, we're here to fight," he elaborated ever-so-slightly, again providing more questions than answers.

Suddenly, just as he neared the other glaceon, reality flashed back into his perception.  He was standing over a cowering piplup, glaring at it.

"Let's start with the thing that just attacked you," the malevolent tone of S.S' voice rang through his mind.

He stared down at the piplup for a moment, as if contemplating what to do with her.  If she'd been speaking to him, he had heard none of it.  She'd attacked him, at least according to S.S, and that seemed like a fair assumption since the attack had been water-based.  Still, he didn't want to hurt the scared little bird.  "...Someone like you shouldn't be here.  You'll die," he found himself to be speaking almost absentmindedly, as if there were someone else doing it for him.  The intention was his own, but the words... were not how he'd wanted to say it.  He stepped away from the piplup in fear of how little control he seemed to have over himself.  The way he was acting, from an outside perspective, probably looked hostile and threatening.  And for all he knew... it was.

"Well, I would have preferred more blood, but I guess that's fine for a first try.  You'll get it right eventually," the voice in his head spoke.

"I'm not hurting someone for no reason.  I'm not you," he thought back to the vile thing.

He could feel the entertainment from the other personality in his mind.  S.S. found his retort to be funny.

"We're more alike than you care to admit."


Skylar was no coward, but being in a dark cave all alone still unnerved her a bit.  But she knew she couldn't leave, for Sova's sake... and because she had no idea where the exit was.  She found herself wishing for company, hoping she would find someone to travel with,  and perhaps who would help her look for Sova.  Maybe someone who knew how to navigate the area better?  She generally preferred either to be with friends or to be alone, but not this time.  She wanted to tag along with someone so she could feel at least moderately safe, rather than uneasy and anxious at every distant sound.  She wished she'd kept up with Sova, so that she could at least take some level of comfort in knowing he was in the area.

Then, she got her wish... and she suddenly wanted to return it.  A pair of eyes pierced through the darkness, clearly looking right at her and causing her to freeze up.  She didn't know what to say, or even if she wanted to say anything at all.  Was running the best option?  She didn't even know if it was hostile, but she didn't want to take her chances.  Still, she really needed help relocating Sova.  But she also needed to be alive to do that, and potentially getting into a fight with the source of the ominous stare didn't seem like a good use of her time.  But even if she were to run, would she even be able to outrun the eyes if they decided to pursue her?

She could feel her body's structure beginning to change as a subconscious defense mechanism.  Her fear was quite literally causing her to melt, but so far, it was only slightly.  She tried to keep her breathing steady, but it was becoming increasingly difficult as her heart raced and her stresses snowballed into each other.  Whenever her cells... liquefied, it gave her a feeling like being surrounded by water, inside and out.  It was horrific.  Her mind began to flash back to her attempt to overcome her fear of water that'd gotten her stuck in the ocean.  She tried to remind herself that she could breathe underwater, but all she could think of was the terror of being trapped in the water, terrified and distanced from land.

Then she remembered something else about her trip to the ocean: the beauty.  Amidst the panic and irrational fear for her life, she'd found an astonishing spectacle in the environment.  She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing as she continued to remind herself of that feeling of awe that'd managed to take away her fear before, albeit only temporarily.  She then reminded herself once more that she was in no danger, and that she wasn't even in the water.  "It's fine... I'm fine..." she spoke quietly to herself, her voice shaky.  She then took a deep breath and opened her eyes.  As she exhaled, she could feel her body return to normal.

"Excuse me!  Are you friendly?" she called out to the eyes while keeping her distance.  If it turned out that the creature was, in fact, not friendly, then she still had the option to run... or fight, though she wasn't really the warrior type.  She figured others in the guild probably found Keith and herself to be odd, as they were teammates to one of Grassveil's most capable - and hostile - fighters, yet they were nothing like that.  Then again, it wasn't like Sova made a public spectacle of his fighting capabilities, so perhaps he wasn't well-known for it.

This reminded her that Sova seemed stronger - or at least more menacing - since he'd begun acting odd.  Red markings had appeared all over his body to match the eerie, intimidating aura that'd over come him, but Skylar had just assumed maybe he'd gotten himself dyed or something.  His joy ribbon had also been replaced with a more... sinister-looking piece of attire.  She recalled that it had similar markings on it, and she couldn't help but wonder if there was something more to it.

The vaporeon had seen her, but Mirage did not seem to care much. It was practically unavoidable, there was not much she could have done in the first place anyways. The zoroark watched the Vaporeon, as if to study her. The pokemon seemed to glisten in the dark for a brief moment before she suddenly began to speak to herself.

What was this?

The pokemon spoke out to her, careful not to approach. Mirage's ears perked up a bit more as the vaporeon spoke. She had been asked a question, why did pokemon always need to ask questions? At least this wasn't like that small pink and fluffy pokemon's survey.

The zoroark was a bit hesitant to respond, "Only if you are." Her response came in a rather unsettling and low growl. She was no fool, she had played innocent before. The vaporeon looked to be a bit weak, but who knew? Maybe she had friends.

Mirage figured she needed to be at maximum health and fitness in order to face Mewtwo. She was not going to waste her energy walking into a potential ambush. She needed to assess the situation carefully and figure out if the vaporeon truly was friendly.

----

She had failed to hit something that wasn't even moving. Good going Namataki. The piplup was frozen to the spot as the glaceon moved towards her. She backed away, "H-Hey, D-Don't come any closer!" she attempted to speak boldly. Of course, the glaceon either did not hear or was not willing to listen.

She had immediately regretted her life choices at that point in time as she tripped over the rock she had used as a resting stop earlier. She fell onto her back with a terrified squawk.

The glaceon hovered over her, his stare seemed almost soulless. This was it, she figured, this was the end. She was about to be killed by some ice-dog-thing, good going. She could have sworn she already felt her soul simply checking out of her body at the current moment as the glaceon simply stared at her. She expected some sort of swift movement to end her life. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a way out of this situation, but it only resulted in a paralyzing fear.

He spoke to her.
He stepped away.

She blinked, simply laying on the ground for a few quick beats before she lifted herself into a sitting position. "Wh-What?" she whispered as she watched the glaceon from behind.

Suddenly, her pride had been wounded. Now that the glaceon had been considered a "not going to kill her" type of friend, she had gathered up the courage to speak.

"HEY!" she huffed, "I can be here all I like, I've been here before and gotten out just fine!" The piplup had begun to follow the glaceon, her cheeks puffed out with her flippers crossed. She was determined to get this straight! She was no coward!

...At least in her mind.

The glaceon gave a vacant stare as the piplup tried to boast that she could take care of herself.  He didn't believe it, and he was conflicted about how to respond.  He wanted to prevent her from being hurt by her own ego, but he also wanted to hurt her himself just to prove his point.  As he stared blankly at the puplip, searching for a response, he could hear the voice in his head once more.  "Tell her to f*ck off with herself if she wants to die so bad," the other personality urged him, but he couldn't think of anything to respond with.  He was feeling increasingly hazy, which he took to mean that he was about to switch with S.S, who would probably scar the piplup for life if she was lucky.  One thing was odd about S.S' voice, though: he seemed almost... concerned.

"SAY SOMETHING!!" S.S' thoughts suddenly echoed through their mind once more, giving Sova a headache that caused him to raise a paw to his forehead.  This action simply made the situation worse by provoking the phantom pain in his body, creating a sufficiently unpleasant situation.  "Don't fade again..."

Unable to concentrate well enough to think audibly to himself - and thus to S.S. - he instead spoke out loud, struggling to piece a response together: "Why... what...?"

"Look down."

Confused and barely able to think for himself, Sova did as instructed.  Without any active will on his part, his paw had moved away from his head and was now lifting the necklace around his neck, as if to display it clearly to him.  His vision was blurry, but he could clearly see the stone, able to make out every crack while all else threatened to fade away.  The process seemed to stop as he stared at the stone, as if frozen by its presence.  It reminded him of his parents, and for some reason, that helped.  "You don't want me to take over and hurt the piplup, right?  Don't let it happen, then.  Stop being too weak to handle your own stress.  Stop asking for someone to take it away, or else you'll get your wish," S.S. spoke from inside his head, seeming calm once more.

His vision began to return to normal, but the haze seemed to linger despite lessening.  He lowered his paw back to the ground and directed his gaze back forward, only to be reminded of the piplup who was right there, watching him have a mental breakdown.  "...Be my guest to kill yourself if you want to.  I've got too much going on to babysit right now," he huffed before turning to walk in the opposite direction.  He tried to play it cool, but in truth, he was eager to get away from the bird, for her sake as well as his own.  He didn't trust himself at all, and he trusted S.S. even less than usual.

In an attempt to relieve at least some of the metaphorical blindness he'd been afflicted with, he took a few glances at his environment to see if he could figure out where he was.  Sure enough, with a bit of attention to detail, he realized he recognized the general color and look of the place: Serene Cave.  "Could have just asked me," his thoughts spoke to him.

He did not like that S.S. seemed to be trying to help him.  It was... eerie.


With such an innocent, simple question, Skylar had expected an equal response.  Either that or some sign of open aggression.  So, when she was finally able to put a voice to the eyes, she was surprised to receive something somewhere between a peace offer and a threat.  "That seemed unnecessary..." she muttered.  It was rude if nothing else.  She didn't feel like such an attitude was necessary to respond to such a simple question, but nonetheless, she tried to set this aside.  Maybe the semi-friendly thing in the shadows was just having a bad day... or a bad life.  Either way, it wasn't like she couldn't tolerate someone with a bit of a sassy - or even hostile - demeanor, as long as that was all it was.

She began to slowly creep closer, hoping to see the face of her new ally.  Or at least, she hoped this passerby would ally with her, at least long enough for her to find Sova.  "I'm just looking for a friend.  If you're passing through, mind if I tag along?" she explained herself and hoped to appeal to the skeptic with her good nature.  "I won't hold you up or anything, I just... don't really know my way around here too well," she added on, neglecting to mention her relatively poor combat prowess.  Just in case her new... friend turned out to be more hostile than she'd initially thought, she didn't want them to know right off the bat that she was an easy target.  Then again, her body looked all squishy and weak, so someone could probably come to the conclusion that she was no threat based solely on that.  Plus she didn't exactly carry herself like much of a fighter...  She was beginning to regret her decision a bit, but it was a little late to back out now.

Then she thought of a way to both deter the shadow-lurker from attacking her and ease their mind.

"Oh, I'm a guild member if that helps ease your mind" she gestured a paw toward the strap of her bag where her badge was attached to it, though she was unsure if the thing lurking in the shadows could see it.  Surely, her status as a guild member would at least help someone with trust issues warm up to her, and it would probably deter a would-be attacker as well.  She had to hope.  Otherwise, she figured she'd be in for a relatively unpleasant time with this partnership either way, assuming the other party even agreed to travel with her.

The vaporeon muttered something, but the zoroark did not care if she came off as slightly hostile or rude. She was not going to risk anything. For all she knew, this pokemon could have been afflicted with the disease that was going around.

The vaporeon spoke up, stating that she was simply in search of a friend and desired some assistance. The zoroark's ears flattened in sheer annoyance. ANOTHER pokemon to babysit. Wonderful!

The vixen attempted to ease her mind with a bit of information, but that only stirred a sense of dread as she was presented with a rather difficult situation.

She was an explorer, explorers ran the risk of her being recognized. That was an easy fix, but it was a risky business. She was in the darkness, the vaporeon likely could not see her very well if at all. Her natural trickery began its work, if the vaporeon were to take a step to be able to see her, she would see a Mightyena with weird eyes rather than a Zoroark. Even if she were to not accept her help, she favored not being recognized. It was difficult to recognize her as of late to other pokemon it seemed as her image was fading into obscurity, but explorers were often more on top of outlaws than average citizens.

Mirage was presented with another problem besides being recognized. More of a morality problem this time around. The vaporeon did not look to be particularly strong and she did not know her way around here according to her. The vaporeon surely couldn't just be left here on her own with that monster roaming about.

The zoroark was tempted to shut down the vaporeon and leave her, but there was something that irked her...it was identical to Sova's. She had never met any of Sova's teammates, so she was a bit suspicious that she might have mistaken the badge for Sova's. There was an obvious hesitant pause from her end.

"I'll assist you," she finally agreed, "Under one condition," she quickly spoke after her initial agreement.

"If I say 'run', do not question it. You turn the other way and you run like giratina himself was on your tail."

Looks like she was babysitting again...


The piplup was met with a rather confusing answer. She could not tell if the glaceon had spoke in response to her or not, considering she had thought her statement was clear enough to even prevent a magikarp from being left in confusion.

"I'm strong enough to handle myself!" she spoke in response, though the glaceon was not even speaking to her at the time. She was not quite sure of herself though the more she looked at the glaceon. What was he even doing? He seemed as if he were quite...troubled or something.

She actually grew a bit concerned for the glaceon, a flipper lifted to her beak as she wondered if perhaps he was having a bad day or something. Was he sick? Was something wrong? She was about to ask out of sheer curiosity but then the glaceon spoke again. All sympathy was washed away and replaced with irritation.

"Hey, I said I could handle myself! I don't need a babysitter!" she called after the glaceon. A flipper curled into a fist with her eyebrows pushed together in a face of anger and irritation.

"Are you even listening to me? Hey!" she called after the glaceon as she made the mistake of continuing to follow him. She needed to set this straight after all!

MIRAGE ENERGY: 64-20 = 44
NAMATAKI ENERGY: 22-20 = 2

Mirage Rolls

Kat carried out 5 launched of one Serene Cave :

, , , ,

Namataki Rolls

Kat carried out 2 launched of one Serene Cave :

,

"Looks like the side-dish has an ego, and a fragile one," the foreign thoughts in Sova's mind mocked the piplup as she followed him, pestering insistently about how capable she was.

"She's not food," Sova responded in his own mind, feeling that the dark humor was in bad taste.  He was fine with a dark joke, but there wasn't really anything funny about that.

"She could be," the cruel, morbid thoughts of his counterpart echoed back to him.

Sova knew this was just S.S' nature and not to take it seriously, but he still didn't like having to hear such things.  "If you don't like it, block me out," the voice seemed to challenge.  This actually sounded like a nice idea, but there was only one problem: he had no idea how to do such a thing.  In fact, he was fairly confident that it wasn't even possible.  As far as he had been able to tell from his own experience, his dissociation was entirely out of his own control.  But nonetheless, he decided to humor the statement with a response.

"You know that's not possible," he stated what he felt was obvious.  He could sense S.S' negativity as if it were his own, though something was odd about it.  It didn't quite feel like general agitation at disagreement...  It felt more like... sadness, or perhaps hopelessness.

"Until recently, I would have agreed."

Now that was concerning.  For the time-being, Sova decided to attempt to just drop the conversation as S.S' behavior was beginning to genuinely scare him.  The psychopath seemed to respect this and fall silent, as if trying not to upset him.  This made him want to ask more questions, but he dared not delve into the topic with his current state of mind.

Suddenly, his focus centered back on reality and he was reminded that the piplup had been talking to him.  He'd stopped listening and was unsure if she'd said anything past the first few comments, and he had just been idly walking without responding to her.  It probably seemed like he was deliberately trying to ignore her, but he wasn't.  He stopped as he tried to remember what the little bird had even said, and when he felt he had a vague idea of the topic, he responded: "I... don't care."

He could hear the change in tone of his own voice as words foreign to him escaped his mouth.  "You seemed like you needed help," the voice in his head spoke.  He still didn't know why S.S. seemed to be trying to help him, but he knew he didn't like what he'd just been forced to say.  He didn't exactly want to deal with some cowardly child with a fragile ego, but that didn't mean he didn't care!

"Just get out of here so I don't have to worry about you dying," he added on in an attempt to make up for his previous statement, his tone changing once more to reflect that he was now the one speaking.

"You idiot, I'm trying to get her to stop following you.  We both know we can't be trusted right now, and this little narcissist's only gonna keep stalking us if you keep trying to give a f*ck," S.S. retorted despite Sova not speaking directly to him.  He was actually trying to protect someone?  Sova's day just kept getting more confusing with no end in sight.

"We?  I'm the only one who can't help it.  If you don't want her to get hurt, then just don't f*cking hurt her, it's simple," Sova communicated through his thoughts on a barely semi-conscious level, unintentionally letting open hostility slip through his mind when he'd been trying very hard to remain calm and collected.

"Never f*cking mind; do whatever you want" the darker of the two personalities responded in an equally hostile manner, mocking Sova's unnecessary profanity.


As the creature in the shadows came into view, Skylar was a bit surprised to find that it was a mightyena.  From just the eyes, it'd seemed... taller, but as she'd closed in, the eyes seemed to disappear for a moment before reappearing lower to the ground along with the reveal of the canine.  Perhaps it was just an illusion cast by the dark environment inhibiting her depth perception, she figured.  She didn't think too much about it as she had more pressing things on her mind, like where Sova was and if she could trust what she hoped would be a guide.  She was a bit relieved to know the opposition wasn't vastly larger than her as she'd originally thought, at least.

To her disappointment, the attitude seemed like it was going to be a permanent part of this deal, but she didn't have much room to complain.  It wasn't like she was in a good place to turn down help just because someone was acting a bit... unappealing, especially since she was the one asking for help.  Besides, she had plenty of experience putting up with distasteful personalities, particularly in Sova, and she knew that didn't necessarily make someone bad at heart.  It just made them kind of a jerk.  Besides, the mightyena seemed to be concerned for her safety despite them being total strangers to each other, so maybe the bitter attitude was just a front.

"Sure, but if you don't mind me asking... why do you care?" she responded.  It wasn't her intention to be rude, but she wanted to know why a stranger with a bad attitude was concerned with her safety.  She was hoping to start up a conversation and perhaps get to know this edgy canine since it seemed they would be together for a while.  Perhaps she could even get through the harsh exterior to what could be a lovely individual on the inside!  She could hope, at least, and she had every intention of hoping away.  "I mean, I appreciate the concern.  I'm just curious," she added on just in case the mightyena may have taken her question as her being ungrateful or something of the sort.

It wasn't like she'd blame someone she was tagging along with if she got herself hurt, after all.  She could understand where perhaps someone would blame themself, but she was just a tad bit surprised - pleasantly so - to see that kind of thing from someone she'd originally worried would end up being hostile.  Maybe she could end up with a new friend, and that thought was the source of her curious question.  The mightyena seemed to be rather confident in her own capabilities, carrying herself as such, so... maybe the vaporeon could learn a few things about fighting from her?  Of course, this was all assuming their little trip together went well.

One of Skylar's goals was to get Sova to trust her to take care of herself, after all, and he always refused to teach her himself for whatever reason.

The glaceon's response was less than satisfactory for the little blue penguin. Her folded flippers unfurled themselves to flail about in some sort of tantrum as she spoke up, "You don't need to worry about me dying because I can take care of myself!"

What was this guy's problem!? She huffed in frustration as she continued to complain in her own thoughts rather than aloud. Sheesh, this guy was worse than Garnet! Garnet always seemed to try to suggest that maybe she could not handle certain things, but this guy was just plain rude and weird about it.

Well, Garnet was very insistent about it, but Namataki was certain that at least Garnet would cave in if she were to insist enough.

"Why are you so rude and mean?" she questioned the glaceon, "I mean, I'm sorry I attacked you, but you can't blame me for thinking you might have been some hostile thing with how pokemon are these days. Seriously, though, with that big purple f**cking deformed fetus or whatever it is roaming around down here, it's good to play it safe."


She had stepped a bit closer into the light, for the Vaporeon to see the form of a mightyena. Luckily, it seemed as if the change in eye level had not been noticed. The zoroark that had cast an illusion of her appearance listened cautiously as the vaporeon asked more questions.

...Should she even answer this question? At least, should she answer honestly? Well, it's not like it would harm anybody, right? She highly doubted she would be discovered in front of the vaporeon anyways.

"You have the badge of someone who saved me," she responded. The mightyena illusion was presented as relaxed and non-hostile. She would not go further than that. If she happened to ask Sova about saving some 'mightyena' and was met with confusion, then too bad it's not like she was ever going to see this Mightyena illusion again.

Before they were to continue, she decided to see if the vaporeon knew what she was in for. The last group she had encountered seemed to struggle with the threat that lay within these caverns, so it was best to get this out of the way.

"Before we continue, you do realize that within this dungeon lies the recruit for Arceus known as mewtwo, right? If we find your 'friend' around here unharmed, you two need to leave as soon as possible." Mirage had not quite pieced together that the possible 'friend' Skylar might have been searching for was Sova. If she was here with Sova, then surely she would have been WITH him, right?

If Sova WAS lurking somewhere nearby, then she would just have to find some way to let him know she was...well, her without alerting the vaporeon.

The piplup continued to rant on about her disapproval with how she was being treated, but Sova didn't care too much about that.  He didn't care if he was being harsh; all he cared about was making sure the flightless bird lived to see another day.  If she was insistent on staying here, he figured it was probably best if she came along with him, so at least he could try to protect her.  He waited for the the little thing to stop talking before he started up with his response, feeling that this time, S.S. was not interested in "helping" him.  "Yeah, you tried to attack me, and you missed a stationary target.  If I'd been someone less forgiving, you-" he suddenly fell silent.  For a moment, he just stood there, only just beginning to process the last bit of what the piplup had said.

He slowly turned around to face the blue penguin.  "...What?" he tilted his head to the left as he voiced his confusion, specifically in regards to the mention of a... deformed... fetus.

"I think she's talking about Mewtwo.  That's the thing we're here to fight," S.S. decided to chime in once more, actually giving some helpful information for once.

The glaceon's eyes widened.  "Mewtwo... I...  You're not leaving my side until we get you out of here, understood?" he practically demanded of the piplup.  This was no longer a debate, and he could no longer afford not to care.  One of the legendary recruits was here, which meant a weak, cowardly piplup would be in extreme danger if left to fend for herself.  Sova refused to allow such a thing.  At least with him, even if they found Mewtwo, he could try to keep it from harming the fragile bird.  He was not taking no for an answer.  He could not allow some egotistical idiot to get herself killed out of sheer stubbornness, no matter how much she wanted to.

"Just let her go.  You're starting to sound like William," he could hear S.S' voice seemingly externally once more, this time sounding like it was to his left, right next to his ear.  Suddenly, his grip on reality loosened for a moment at the comparison between himself and that vile gengar.  "SHUT UP!" he shouted as he turned and swiped at the air where the voice had come from.  He gasped for breath as his heartbeat raced under the stress of being reminded of his current delusional state.  Not knowing what else to do, he took a step away from the nothingness that he had just been so sure was S.S.

Was keeping this piplup with him really a better idea than leaving her to potentially fend for herself against Mewtwo?  He didn't trust himself not to hurt her, be it on accident or on purpose.  In an attempt to find some form of comfort, he raised his right paw up and pressed the charm on his necklace against his chest, just to remind himself it was there.  He closed his eyes and tried to remind himself of his vow to do what he believed would have made his parents proud of him.  That involved protecting some random piplup, and not hurting her.  His heartbeat began to slow as he managed to calm himself down.

He then realized S.S. was trying to make him look crazy to get the piplup to leave.  He hoped it hadn't worked.


Badge of someone who saved her?  Skylar glanced down at her badge.  As far as she knew, her badge was specific to herself and her teammates, so... either Keith or Sova had saved this mightyena?  Keith was somewhat of a coward and even worse of a fighter than Sky, so she assumed this meant it was Sova... or perhaps a past member of the team before the two of them had joined?  She wondered whether or not to confront the mightyena about this, but then she thought about how secretive Sova was.  Any friend of his would probably refuse to tell anyone anything about him, and they would likely actively assist him in keeping his activities secret.  If the canine turned out to be a friend of Sova's and learned that Skylar was trying to find him, she got the feeling she would have substantially more trouble learning what was happening with him.

...

Just as she'd decided to keep the identity of her friend to herself for the time-being, her new guide brought up a more significant issue.  One of the potential recruits for the deity war was here?  She hadn't been keeping up with the details of that, as Sova had forbidden her from trying to help with the whole thing and she'd just tried to distance herself as much as possible from it to avoid any urges to go against his desires.  Regardless, the situation was now much clearer to her.  She sighed and hanged her head.  "In light of that, I'd really love to leave... but... he's here to fight it," she responded without a trace of doubt.  Assuming the mightyena probably didn't know which direction Sova was in, she decided to just pick one and start walking, figuring her new partner would follow.

"And I'm not leaving him to get himself killed.  If you can fight, I would appreciate your help, but I understand if you'd rather not," she added on.  Of course, she was terrified at the thought of fighting the equivalent of a war god, but this was one time where she wasn't going to just break down.  Someone she cared about was putting himself in danger, all alone, and while he was clearly in a troubled state of mind.  She couldn't let him do this alone, especially after the times he'd vanished then showed back up nearly dead in the past.  His most recent mystery outing had resulted in him coming home seeming utterly scarred and changed in so many ways, both physically and mentally.  She wanted it to stop the cycle.  She knew she was weak, but she was by no means useless.  She'd found a way to contribute - hopefully a lot - without needing strength, and she intended to prove it to Sova so he would stop trying to do everything alone.

She could protect him from dying.  She had to protect him, because it seemed like no one else could.  Either that, or no one was willing.  Her leader's body would probably scar from his most recent round of wounds, all because he didn't want to bring either of his teammates - both capable of being his own personal medic - with him.  She was pretty sure he wouldn't like her being here and trying to help him fight a dangerous beast, but she really didn't care.  Besides, with how he'd been lately, she wasn't even sure if he would acknowledge her existence enough to be mad at her.

The piplup followed the glaceon as they walked in order to listen to what he had to say in response. She had expected some sort of apology or forfeit to her word, but he proved to be just as stubborn as she. Namataki's rage only built itself up as he taunted her with her earlier failure. She began to speak without even waiting for what else he had to say.

"I missed you on purpose!" she quickly attempted to justify herself with a lie, "I-It was a warning shot..."

Then the glaceon seemed to have changed his mind. First, he wanted her to go away, not she was to stay with him? "Would you decide already Mr. Bipolar-"

"SHUT UP!" the glaceon suddenly cried out. The penguin's beak snapped shut suddenly as the glaceon swiped at the air beside him. The piplup took a step back, one flipper in front of her while the other was behind her as if she were about to turn and flee the other way if need be. There was no way she would be able to out-run the glaceon, but she would definitely try if need be.

The glaceon fell silent, suddenly the necklace that hung from his neck seemed awfully important to him as he pressed it up against himself. The piplup relaxed significantly, but a rather bewildered and unamused look remained upon her expression.

There was definitely not something right with this guy.

The piplup huffed, "I'll leave your side when I want! I don't think I wanna hang around some psycho that flails at air. You obviously have issues, why the hell should I stay with you? I've gotten away from the fetus before, I think I can handle myself just fine!" The piplup crossed her flippers once more, but despite her words she continued to follow...she wasn't really that confident she would be able to get away, at least not without the help of someone being a meatshield again!

Mirage's ears perked up upon hearing that the vaporeon's friend was here to fight the god of war. The first thing thought that crossed her mind was that her friend was either particularly strong...or incredibly stupid. Mirage liked to think of herself as average strength at the least, capable of defending herself and what not. The mewtwo was obviously far beyond her level, but that was not going to stop her from trying.

It seemed that the vaporeon was not all too confident that her friend could stand up against the beast. The "Mightyena" began to follow the vaporeon, but it seemed that she was actually willing to upkeep a conversation instead of simply falling into silence.

"Is he powerful or is he stupid?" she questioned, "I came for the same goal, tried two times before and failed both." Which one was she? Honestly, she would be ready to say 'both' for herself. Each battle was a learning experience, and each attempt would only lead her closer and closer to defeating the creature, or at the least weakening it for someone else more on par with Sova's strength to finish off.

"Guess you could say I'm on the 'stupid' side," she snorted.

Sova couldn't get the thought of William out of his head, thinking about how the two compared to each other.  William had always tried to boss him around and tell him what to do, sometimes trying to outright force him to do what the gengar viewed as "right."  But there was one thing William never managed to understand: he knew the risks.  He'd always known what he was risking whenever he'd tried to do anything dangerous.  He understood his limits, painfully so.  He was simply willing to risk his own life for his principles.  This piplup was clearly not the same; her ego was just too fragile to allow her to back down from this conversation.  Or at least, this was all he'd gathered so far, and until the penguin did something to prove otherwise, he intended to make sure she got out okay even if she didn't want to accept his help.

He stared at the piplup as she spoke, trying to think of the best way to respond, but his mind was still cloudy and confused.  It seemed she was hesitant to trust him, or at least, this was the excuse she was using.  S.S' meddling had made an impact, though hope seemed far from lost.  He took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself further before responding: "You very much want to be around me if Mewtwo shows up.  I don't have the most sound mind in the world right now, but you're still not gonna find someone stronger than me around here," he decided to simply respond honestly, figuring the piplup could already tell he was a bit lacking in sanity.  He knew how crazy he looked, and in truth, he probably was that crazy, but that didn't make him weak or evil.  Dangerous, perhaps, but...

He looked down at his necklace once more.  Its very presence seemed to instill him with confidence that he would be able to prevent himself from hurting the piplup.  He would convince her to come with him without forcing her, and he would protect her.  He turned around and began walking once again, hoping the bird would follow him.  "I'm not William," he responded to the conflicting force in his mind.  He had other things he wanted to say, such as questions about why he'd wanted to fight Mewtwo alone and why he couldn't remember anything about that decision, but he was already stressed enough without having to talk even more with S.S.

"Great, now we have some dumb piplup to worry about when we find Mewtwo.  I hope you're satisfied," the annoyed voice of S.S. responded bitterly about the situation.

"We're not looking for Mewtwo; my priority is getting her out of here," Sova explained.  For a moment, there was silence within his mind, and he almost allowed himself to relax just a bit.  He was sick of having to justify his decisions to everyone.

S.S. didn't exactly respond argumentatively, but nonetheless, what he said next upset Sova just a bit.  "It's the one looking.  Even if we don't find it, it'll probably find us, along with anyone else in this cave."

Sova was upset because he was worried it would turn out to be true.  He wasn't afraid to fight something like Mewtwo, but he did not want this piplup to be attacked by such a thing, even if she claimed to be able to survive it.


The mightyena was following, but more importantly, she wasn't speaking out against Skylar's request.  It looked like they would be fighting Mewtwo, then.  She dreaded the thought, fully aware that fighting was not one of her strengths, but she at least knew she could help Sova with some hail.  It would be rather unappealing to anyone else in the area, but if Sova could just be kept alive, maybe he could win.  Besides, there was always the option to switch to rain if necessary.  She would hopefully be able to keep herself out of harm's way and allow the others to do the fighting.  There wasn't much she could do to help her new ally, though.

She did not hesitate to answer the mightyena's question, not even having to think about it.  "Heh... I'm pretty sure he's both.  You two would probably get along," she laughed sarcastically with her response.  She knew both from experience and from Sova's own reputation that he was strong if nothing else, but as far as she could tell, he also wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed at times.  He was a prideful, reckless, unstable idiot, and he had a tendency to do things that were... questionable, to say the least.  But despite this, she still felt that he was a good guy deep down inside; after all, it seemed like saving lives was a rather common thing for him.

Sky would have gone into detail about the whole thing if not for her lingering concern that the mightyena would do something to hinder her if she let it be known that she was trying to find Sova and interfere with whatever his plan was.  Hopefully, the information she'd already given wouldn't be enough to make it obvious, but there wasn't really much she could do about that.  After all, she wasn't a fan of blatantly lying, and she wanted the mightyena to be prepared for the situation they were both likely to walk into, so she needed to be honest to an extent.

Figuring she hadn't really given much to respond to, she decided to try and keep the conversation going by changing the topic.  "I'm Skylar, by the way," she spoke, then glanced over to the mightyena as she waited for a response.  She was expecting to learn her companion's name, but she didn't want to be pushy about it.  The canine seemed reserved enough already without being harassed to give a name.

(Skylar's rolls; none for Sova yet because bite me)

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Serene Cave :

, , , ,

The piplup’s flippers only tightened in their fold as the glaceon continued on his little ego trip, or at least she thought it was an ego trip. In her mind, all she heard was, ‘blah blah i’m powerful so you should listen to me!’ The piplup was not one to be appreciative of that kind of talk. Her combination of rather selective hearing and hardly listening only served against her as she turned away with a small huff.

Still, she did not walk away.

“Whatever, I’ll leave when I feel like it,” she mumbled to herself before speaking up louder in order to change the subject, “So, what’s your name? I’d rather not have to call you F*cking Insane all the time. I’m Namataki.” She did not introduce herself by her full name, this stuck up glaceon was not in deserving of her full name!

The piplup followed along spitefully, hardly even paying attention to what the glaceon had to say while her aggression steamed in her mind.

God, this glaceon was rude!


“Sidonia” was Mirage’s simple response. She did not miss a beat in answering the question, fully prepared to answer it. She had answered this question many times before with many names. Hell, she had even said her name was just plain “Zorua” at one point. It was the time she had first met Zorua, back when she was a bit...misguided.

The zoroark followed the vaporeon along as she contemplated what to say next. The two of them would probably get along huh? Hopefully, they would meet this friend soon. That way she could get the two to leave. As pleasant as the vaporeon was being, she needed to not spend too much time around her. A guild member was a guild member and while she had dropped that life, she was still an outlaw.

“Your friend do this often then?” she asked for the sake of at least being pleasant to the vaporeon.

Despite the little flightless bird's persistent protests, she seemed to be following.  Sova didn't like having to listen to her mouth, but he figured this was better than having to live with the thought of her getting herself killed.  Besides, she claimed she would leave whenever she wanted, but... she didn't appear to be leaving.  To him, this meant the piplup wanted the protection.  "She's just a coward with a fragile ego hoping she can use you to help with that," S.S. stated, still persistent in trying to make this situation seem less appealing.  Sova simply ignored the mental dialogue, instead trying to focus on the physical conversation he was having with the piplup, regardless of how unappealing she was on a personal level.

For a moment, the glaceon didn't even understand the question.  He was listening, and he had processed every word, but... he didn't understand.  He stopped moving once more as confusion filled his mind.  He knew this was something he was supposed to know the answer to, but he couldn't seem to figure out the answer.  He felt as if there were multiple answers, yet he didn't know what they were...  There were two, right?  Two different names?  No, that wasn't quite-

"You idiot, your name's Sova.  You're not me.  I can't believe how badly you handle having me here with you," S.S. suddenly interrupted Sova's deep inner thought over the question of his own name.  Oddly enough, despite being rather blunt, the personality seemed lacking in the kind of annoyance he'd usually hold toward such a display.

"...Are you pretending to be mad?" Sova couldn't help but question as he noticed the inconsistency between his alter's words and feelings.  Perhaps he could not recognize S.S' emotions separately from his own too keenly, but one thing he knew was how S.S. sounded when annoyed, and this was not it.

For a moment, it seemed the other personality was going to neglect to respond.  Then, after a bit of a delay, he finally responded.  "Tell her your name or I'll do it for you," S.S. tried to push the current controlling personality to interact with the guest, even going so far as to threaten to do it himself.  Sova's state of mind was flimsy like cardboard at the moment, so S.S. was fully capable of taking over if he really wanted to, but... he didn't really want to.  Taking to some annoying piplup was the kind of thing he preferred to leave to Mr. GoodGuy.

Sova took a moment to remind himself of his own name, at least according to his inner... friend.  "S-Sova," his voice stuttered and wavered in his lacking confidence as he gave what was supposedly his name.  It didn't feel right, and this uncomfortable feeling of wrongness had caused him to present his own name with a a complete lack of confidence.  He tried to simply suppress the feeling as he continued walking, hoping the piplup... Namataki would just ignore his odd behavior and continue onward.

"Good job, now she probably thinks you lied," S.S. pointed out.

Sova neglected to respond, still having trouble forgetting the odd feeling of detachment from himself that he was experiencing.  He felt out of control of his own life and even his own body, and now, not even his name seemed to be in his own grasp.  It didn't help that every step felt like a jolt of electricity going through his body, though the pain seemed less... prominent than it had been earlier.  "By the way, the pain's your fault, not mine," S.S. decided to bless him with the knowledge that the pain he was feeling had been brought unto him by himself.

"What happened?  I don't remember anything," Sova questioned, hopeful at the idea of learning anything about what'd recently happened for him to wind up in this situation.  Sadly, the answer he got was the opposite of what he'd wanted.

"Shut up and keep walking."


Skylar felt a bit warm inside as her gesture of trust was returned, at least as far as she knew.  She now had a name to call the mightyena by: Sidonia.  It was a neat name with a nice ring to it.  She wasn't obliviously trusting, but the thought of the name being fake hadn't even crossed her mind.  She preferred to give others the benefit of the doubt, even if she could sometimes be a bit... cold to strangers.  It wasn't that she was distrustful; she simply had a tendency not to open up much to someone right after meeting them.  This mightyena seemed alright so far, though.

"Um..." she wondered what the answer to her companion's question was.  She wished she could simply give a straight answer, but in truth, it was not so simple.  Sova was extremely secretive and antisocial, barely even coming to the guild if not to pick up a mission and leave.  She had no clue what he did in his spare time outside of what she could gather from rumors and his behavior... and appearance.  She knew he got into fights quite a lot, as he often showed up with injuries, but they varied in severity.

But then there was Sova's last outing, which had started all of his recent behavior, along with giving him some particularly major wounds.  Sky knew that he'd taken a mission, though she did not know the details of this mission.  She'd guessed that Linus, the recently deceased honchkrow from Aileron guild, had come with him... and did not come back.  This was enough to tell her that her leader had done something dangerous and - because he'd refused to bring his team with him - had ended up in a horrible situation.  She couldn't help but think that perhaps Keith and herself could have helped.  They weren't strong fighters, but they had other things to offer!

Skylar sighed before giving a legitimate response: "Yeah, I think so.  I can't say for sure, though.  He doesn't tell me anything."  She couldn't help but have a slightly bitter tone, having to admit that her "friend" didn't trust her with the details of his life.  It just bothered her.  She wasn't exactly mad; she just felt... disappointed.  She was in what she felt to be a hopeless situation where she just couldn't win.  Sova refused to tell her anything or let her help him because he didn't trust her, but at the same time, he also refused to give her any chances to earn his trust.  Her best bet to show him that she was worth his trust was what she was currently doing, or at least she felt like it.  She knew she was pretty much betraying his trust by following him and going against what she knew he wanted her to do, but it was the only option she could think of.

Still, she doubted it would end well.  She was beginning to doubt she would ever be able to gain Sova's trust as an ally without being some hardened warrior edgelord.

She had gotten a name from Mr.Insane, that was good at the least. She gave a prolonged and especially loud sigh, it was unclear if she was just completely oblivious as to how rude she was being towards the guy or if she just did not care. Either way, the piplup followed along. He had only spoken a single word to her, fine. If he didn't want to talk, then she would just carry on the conversation for the both of them!

"Ya know, the fetus isn't even actually that tough, I was able to run away from it just fine!" The piplup began to weave her tale in order to present her as the stronger one. She was not lying, per say, but merely obscuring certain facts. Technically wasn't lying, she justified to herself. "It even tried to come after me, but I guess I was just too fast for it. I probably could have beaten it if I was in the mood to fight."

Only hell knew when she would shut her beak. She smirked to herself, figuring that she was being completely believable. Namataki's flippers rested behind her neck as she bragged, chest puffed out in pride as she waited for the glaceon to do something that would benefit her, like feed her ego. She knew full well that the glaceon was not in his right mind, but hey, maybe that meant he was even easier to convince without having to tell the full story?

Oops, touchy subject it seemed. She figured it would be best to stray from that topic. Unfortunately for the zoroark, the vaporeon did not really give any hints of wanting to talk more. There was nothing really for her to respond to other than a subject that seemed to be a bit unpleasant. The zoroark kept her mouth shut as they walked along.

This was another reason why she wanted to go alone. It was awkward to talk to anyone that wasn't Sova. Hell, she had issues just talking with her boss and co-workers and tended to just not talk at all to them. The zoroark instead focused on maintenance of her disguise. Her senses were kept on alert for any signs of a threat. Fortunately, it seemed as if the big boss of the cave preferred to not have some sort of ambush from her experience. In fact, both times she had been allowed first strike. It had failed horribly each time, but she figured it was unlikely for the purple and grey creature to appear out of nowhere and begin attacking them.

The vixen allowed the scene to fall into silence, simply because she had no idea what to say other than a simple, "Ah..."

(RNGsus dammit we've been over this.  I thought we had an understanding, you and I.)


Between the confusion, the demented alter-ego and the annoying piplup, Sova was having a very bad time.  He wanted to know what was happening to him, and more importantly, why it was happening.  However, S.S. seemed to want for him to know as little about the situation as possible for whatever reason.  He tried to think back to what had happened, but his memories were so hazy that he didn't even know which ones were more recent.  His past felt foreign to him, as if he were seeing someone else's history every time he attempted to think back on what had happened to him.  He felt so very out of touch with reality, but he still had a deep desire to know what was happening.

"Stop," came the intrusion of his internal companion once more.  This time, S.S. sounded more serious and demanding, which was odd for him.  He rarely demanded anything through words.

Sova knew there was something wrong, and that there was probably a very good reason S.S. was trying to keep recent events from him, but... he couldn't help it.  He wanted to know.  "Tell me why," he demanded right back, trying to show that he didn't intend to stop questioning it all until he got some kind of answer.

"I'm trying to do what's best for both of us.  Just trust me and forget about it.  Besides, the piplup's trying to stroke her ego again.  Focus on that," S.S. explained without really explaining anything.  This was his intention, of course, as he was fairly certain that Sova's lack of memory of what had happened meant he wasn't ready to handle it.

Sova hadn't been paying attention to his tagalong... Namataco or whatever her name was.  He didn't really remember.  He opened his mouth to respond to the little bird, but he had no clue what she'd been saying and thus didn't know what to say back.  He didn't want to look even more insane, but every option seemed to be just that.  Either he could respond with something nonsensical, try to change the topic, admit he didn't know what the bird had just said, or simply not respond.  None of these options would serve to make him look particularly sound of mind.  "I can't do this.  I can't think like this.  Just tell me what-" he tried to plead with the entity sharing his mind, when a sudden feeling of being pushed out of his own body came over him and caused his thoughts to fall silent.  He was still walking, but it wasn't by his own will.  He could see, but it was as if it were through someone else's eyes.

"I'm fairly certain it's at least as strong as me.  You think you can take care of yourself?  Fight me and prove it.  But I guarantee I'll kill you if you try, and so will Mewtwo if you push your luck," he wanted to recoil at S.S' voice sounding out externally once more, but he had no control over his own body.  His thoughts were even hazier, but he slowly began to realize that S.S. was now in control.

"If you're wondering... yes, I could have done this the whole time," Sova could hear S.S. mentally speak to him.  It was odd being on the other end of things, seeing through what he presumed to be S.S' normal perception of the world.  He wanted to hate it, but... it felt so oddly peaceful.

"So, you've got two choices: stick with me, stop coddling your own ego and do what I say... or walk away.  Stay - and stop annoying me - and I'll protect you.  Leave and you'll probably die.  Some part of me cares which one you pick, but that part isn't here right now," S.S. continued to display his intolerance for the child's act, giving a passing reference to Sova as the "caring" part of himself.  Perhaps Sova was missing things, or maybe he was just too nice to challenge the coward, but S.S. was certainly a different story.  He didn't even pause his stride or turn around to look at Namataki as he spoke, because he truly didn't care whether she stayed or left.  Some stray wasn't his problem, and she didn't need to be Sova's either.  Their concern needed to be surviving this cave, which was considerably more of an obstacle than normal due to the fact that there was a rogue god running around smiting everyone.

Sova wanted to feel bad about what he was hearing his body say.  He wanted to stop it, but at the same time... he didn't.  He disliked this piplup and wanted her to just shut up and let him guard her, but he simply did not have the capacity to intimidate or challenge her into shutting up at the moment.  S.S. did.  Sova was too stressed to care about the morality of letting the unholy force of S.S. loose on someone.


The vaporeon knew she'd gone and made the situation awkward, and she was dwelling on that fact.  Had she made her companion uncomfortable, or had she just killed the mood?  Either way, it didn't matter; the damage had been done and she would just have to deal with the burden of putting a new conversation topic together.  She didn't really know what to talk about, though.  She had no idea what this mightyena would be interested in talking about, but she certainly didn't want to leave the situation in silence.  She generally welcomed peace and quiet, but right now, she wanted nothing more than to be taken away from her own mind.  She didn't want to be left to think to herself, as that had proven rather depressing thus far on this little trip.  She could think of a few things she personally liked, such as reading, but she doubted Sidonia shared such interests.

But there were a few things Skylar knew about Sidonia.  First, she seemed to have a goal or something to prove, as this was her third time challenging a beast she presumably was not strong enough to defeat.  Perhaps she wanted to help protect the world.  Second, she had been saved by someone in possession of Team Sentima's badge, or at least one that looked like it.  Both of these seemed like good potential conversation topics, but Skylar wasn't quite sure which one she wanted to know more about.  She could potentially learn more about the personality and motives of the mightyena she was entrusting as her guide, or she could potentially learn more about Sova.  It was a tough choice, but in the end, there was one she distinctly wanted more.

"You said someone with this badge saved you...  If you don't mind me asking, what happened with that?  Who was it?" she questioned, trying not to be intrusive in the process.  She did want to know who had saved this individual, and of course, she wanted to know if the answer was Sova.  Despite this, she did not want to annoy her company by pressing a possibly sensitive topic.  Still, she deeply hoped for the topic to be accepted, as she wanted so very badly to know even the slightest bit more about who her leader was.  There was the possibility that the mightyena had simply mistaken her badge for that of another team, in which case she'd likely have to sit through a story completely unrelated to Sova, but at least she'd still learn something about her new ally.

If Sova wanted to be sneaky about everything, then perhaps Sky could do the same.  She didn't like the idea of deceiving someone into telling her things about her friend, but it was for a genuinely good cause.  She wanted to help Sova, but that had proven difficult without proper understanding of him.  She knew nothing about his motives, troubles or day-to-day life.  He'd saved her, so she had to assume he was a good guy, but the way he generally acted just... made it impossible to see any good in him.  If nothing else, Skylar at least wanted reassurance that Sova really was as good as she thought he was.  Maybe this mightyena wouldn't be the key to revealing all of Sova's secrets, but at the very least, Sky wanted to know if this was someone else he'd saved... and if so, she wanted to know why.

(Raid Boss Sova's rolls)

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Serene Cave :

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