For Once (Semi-Open)

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Black.  Nothing but black.  Darkness, silence, lack of being; black.  Empty in every conceivable meaning of the word.  No dreams.  Not even a nightmare, the staple of such a damaged psyche.  Just the void, lacking the presence of time and the concept of awareness.  Despite this blackness, there were a few things that were present.  Perhaps saying it was entirely "empty" was misleading, for there were small, subtle things.  Things like pain, and a great deal of it.  Then there was the feeling of... sadness.  They came and went, sometimes in separate intervals, but they were there.  They were all that was there.  The only sign of life in the otherwise-empty consciousness was the occasional glimpse of misery.  Ironically, these sensations were a good sign, or at least as good a sign as one could hope for.  Wavering on the cusp of consciousness in unconditional agony was unpleasant to say the least, but it was a continuous reminder of life.

Then there was light.  His eyes opened to a spectacle of painfully dazzling brightness, causing them to shut again on reflex.  Still, it was warm and better than the alternative.  With a mix of pain and drowsiness manifesting in a weak groan, he forced his eyes open ever so slightly.  All he could see was blinding light; misleading since the lighting in the room was relatively low.  As his eyes slowly adjusted to taking in any amount of light at all after days of being shut, he found a sense of familiarity in the atmosphere.  It didn't take long at all for him to realize he was in the guild; in his room, in fact.  With the light still piercing his eyes like needles, he lifted his head away from the wall he happened to be staring at in an attempt to survey his surroundings.  He was promptly shooed away from this idea as a jolt of pain struck through his body.  His head fell back to the bed beneath him, which did nothing to alleviate the sudden onslaught of sufferance.  "Oooooooooooow," he moaned in a manner that made him sound more inconvenienced than truly pained.

In reality the feeling was agonizing, but he was used to such things.  Still, it was taking a lot out of him to keep his composure; this was worse than anything he had experienced before.  He couldn't give full credit to his own discipline, as his exhaustion contributed to the understated representation of his torment.  "Whyyyyyy," he continued, uncertain if anyone was even around to answer him.  Now that he had been given a moment to gather his bearings... everything became so much less clear.  His head was starting to spin and questions were cropping up and passing by in his mind.  Why was he laying in his bed in the guild, and more importantly, what had happened to him?  He couldn't bring himself to lift his head again and get a look at his body to see what was causing the pain, and he couldn't feel any particular source for the wholly unpleasant sensations.  The more he was allowed to think, the harder it became and the more confused he was.  He was having trouble recalling anything at all, partly due to his incredibly dazed state.

Then he came upon what was perhaps the most puzzling question of all: what the f*ck was he laying on?  He had been too preoccupied with all the horrible feelings and confusion to immediately realize that he was not laying on his bed.  It was far more comfortable than that, and despite how little he actually slept in his bed, he was still fairly certain of his ability to recognize the feeling of it.  He couldn't exactly tell what it was through his limited field of view; just that it was a pale shade of lavender with... roses?  It seemed to have red flower petals attached to it, but upon further inspection it was clear that these were a part of the fabric.  It had a trim around the edges in a similar fashion, giving the appearance that he was laying on a big pile of roses.  This didn't really answer what it was in specific, but he could feel that it was a large pillow, or perhaps a very fluffy little bed.  He was laying on someone's big girly pillow.  Immediately, he leapt up and recoiled from the admittedly pleasant bedding... or at least, he would have if not for his nigh-total inability to move.  Alas, he was stuck laying on the soft cushion, which wasn't as bad as he would have liked to pretend.  He didn't want to be seen in such a situation, but it wasn't the worst thing to be stuck on top of.  There was only so much internal protest he could give toward having something so pleasant to lay on.

But why?  Really, why?

Sova could see his front legs, though he couldn't move the left and barely the right; his blue paws were wrapped in white bandages.  He assumed the rest of his body was in no better condition based on what little information he had.  It was still unclear what was going on, but he knew he was hurt and apparently being taken care of.  One of these things was no surprise.


Sitting outside the open doorway to the room was a vaporeon, having been idle in her position since returning to the guild.  She hadn't even eaten, too distraught to muster up an appetite; nor had she slept for that matter.  She was waiting for Sova to wake up and for someone capable of helping him to show up.  There were some guild members capable of healing such severe injuries, or at least, hopefully; but none of them had been available upon their return.  And so Skylar did all she could and waited, as if it would somehow help.  She was powerless and felt as such.  Even amid the battle with the unimaginably powerful psychic, she had done virtually nothing in the long run, at least in her mind.  And now because she had been too weak and useless to be anything but a burden, her leader was suffering.  Even Faye had done more for him than she had; bringing a big fluffy pillow may not have seemed like much more than a kind gesture, but with moving meaning pain, it would probably seem like a blessing once the glaceon woke up... if he ever did.

She was practically starving herself in her endeavor to remain in place and be among the first to know if there was any change in her leader's condition.  She couldn't bring herself to sleep their room since she wanted to give the entirety of the space to Sova, and she didn't want to go somewhere else to sleep; really, she just didn't want to sleep.  So there she sat, back to the wall, staring down at the floor below with a sad look as if the sight was the most depressing thing in the world.  Her past few weeks had been unappealing to say the least, being filled with insecurity, dread and pain.  Going to Serene Cave alone wasn't fun, especially since damned Keith should have been there with her!  But instead the jolteon had opted out, just like he was doing again with his lack of presence in support for Sova.  Apparently, he felt guilty, which was excuse enough for him to justify just leaving!  Sky didn't know where he was and really didn't care; if he wanted to run off and sulk when Sova needed him, then so be it.

Still, the majority of her ill will was directed at herself.  After finding Sova, all she had done was prove him right for being so strict and secretive with her.  All she had done was get herself hurt and burden him... and... the zoroark.  She wasn't too blind to recognize a wanted criminal when it was practically spelled out for her.  She didn't know why Sova was with someone of such reputation, but if he trusted her, then...  Well, Skylar may not have been blind, but perhaps her loyalty was.  Either way, the zoroark had done nothing to wrong her and had helped protect Sova, for which she was thankful.  She ignored her own part in making sure he didn't die; her distracting the beast, and her medical efforts.  As far as she was concerned, she hadn't done enough to be proud of... and even if she had, it wasn't as if anyone would believe her.  So there she sat, in the hall by her own room as if she wasn't allowed to enter.  She couldn't bear looking at him.  Such a sight was not something she was accustomed to, even though the glaceon looked a lot better with all his wounds wrapped up.  Aside from his physical appearance being disturbing and bringing back the memory of how bad he'd looked directly after his "victory," it also reminded Skylar of how little she had been able to do to help.

It was getting hard for her to stay awake.  It hadn't been more than a few hours since her return to the guild, but she was exhausted from the trip and had been sitting motionless since.  She had nothing at all to stimulate her aside from her own thoughts which weren't being kind to her.  On top of that, her refusal to eat or even drink was doing her no favors.  She doubted she could have eaten even if she were to try, though, as the constant reminder of Sova's riven image brought her to a nauseous state.  It was all she could do to stay awake... alone... and she wasn't sure how long she could keep up even something so small as that.

(Kat gets next post gtfo)
(P.S. Characters can come and go as they please. You have to stick around for a full page for it to count toward your character, but considering the amount of people who want a chance to roast Sova when he can't do anything about it participate, it'd be appreciated if you bow out if your character no longer has a reason to stay. Y'know, don't just stick around for more pages. Also, feel free to just come in for a post or two if you just wanna hop in and say hi to the cripple.)

Darcy's smile didn't waver at all as she waited for Dave to take her paw.  She took a deep breath, another wave of gratitude sweeping through her body.  She had daydreamed about this moment since the day he had left.  She had never imagined that it would take so long to arrive, but...  Everything had worked out in the end.  Alki had taken his bed, ages ago, but they could get a new one and squeeze it into their quarters for now, at least until they could ask Faye to let their team move into one of the bigger rooms.  And Darcy had never minded crowded spaces much anyway.  They'd finally get a chance to sit and talk, and to share the little basket of apple poffins she had been saving for so long.  ...Though she hoped they weren't stale by now.  She had wanted to buy fresh ones for a while, but money had been so scarce...  Hmm, perhaps they would have to settle for finding something to eat in the kitchen.  Or maybe they could get permission to cook something together?  She took another deep breath.  That sounded fun...

But...  Dave didn't seem to share her excitement.  For a long moment, he just stared at her, as if he was lost in thought.  Darcy tilted her head, wondering if something was wrong, perhaps if he was struggling to hide his emotions too...

...But no.  He backed away and shook his head.  Darcy's smile instantly turned into a shocked frown.  She wanted to take a step forward and ask him if everything was alright, but swallowed the urge down as well as she could.  "O-okay.  Okay, we can stay if you need to," she said with a small, nervous laugh, forcing a smile as she put her paw back on the ground and took a seat.  Her ears flattened against her head and she wrapped her tail around her paws.  ...He didn't want to leave the Pokemon he had rescued just yet, it seemed.  That was fine, but...  It hurt to be turned away like that without so much as a word.  ...Maybe he just felt shaken up and out of sorts, arriving back at the guild and suddenly being around so many people.  Maybe he just wanted some more time with the Pokemon he had spent his journey with.  Yeah, that had to be the case...

Then Alki spoke up, and Darcy couldn't help but frown again.  She seemed to know that this was Dave too.  But she didn't have to put him on the spot like that.  She was going to ruin their cover!  The Skitty tilted her head and restlessly swept her tail back and forth, wondering what to say...  But thankfully Izumi seemed to be feeling something similar, asking everyone to calm down.  Darcy smiled again and gave the Absol a nod.  These two had just gotten home!  And one of them looked very badly hurt.  They deserved a little more care and respect.  ...She hoped she would get to stay here with Dave, of course, but still...  She would leave if he asked.  ...Or she tried to convince herself of that, at any rate...

But then the mystery Pokemon raised his voice once again.  It was cold and gravelly, clearly forcing its way through pain.  And oh, dear, he seemed angry...

Darcy stared at a wall and flattened her ears against her head as he spoke.  So much yelling.  Why was everyone so upset?  Truthfully, Alki's help seemed like it would do wonders for this Pokemon, even if he said he didn't need it.  Maybe he didn't know how good it really felt to be on the receiving end of a Heal Pulse.  Just shooing Alki away seemed...  Well, it seemed like a silly way for all of this to end.  Darcy thought about going to get Faye.  She would be able to sort everything out...

...But the Skitty had a hard time tearing her thoughts away from some of the hurt Pokemon's other words first.  He had really doubled down on calling Dave Gerome.  Her mind told her that it was just because Alki had tried to expose the two of them, and that was why he had become so angry.  It would sure explain such a rapid change in mood.  ...But...  Well...  It was true that Dave hadn't spoken at all, this whole time.  He was shy, but not that shy.  Never to her, at least.

...It was a ridiculous concern.  Completely unthinkable, she told herself.  He hadn't seemed confused when he saw her, and there were all of the apple cores outside, and...  Why else would a Drilbur be here, at the guild, right?  ...Sure, maybe the chef could have mistaken a different Drilbur for Dave.  And...  Sure, guild members brought friends here sometimes.  But...  But...

"H-hey...  Hey, can you be...  Dead honest with me, for a sec..?" Darcy murmured, her voice a thin, frail whisper as she leaned forward, so close that the two of them almost touched.  "Y-you are Dave.  Right?  S-sorry if it's a silly thing to be worried about.  But...  Y'know, I-I'd feel..."  She leaned back and shook her head, still smiling, but she couldn't stop her breathing from growing faster and shallower.  "I-I don't know how I'd feel if you really weren't...  If you really weren't him.  S-so don't keep messing with me, alright?  I-it's not fun anymore..."

His attention had been focused on the skitty. He needed to keep them away from him, in case they decide to make some sort of sudden movement. Honestly, he was getting a bit irritated. The skitty and the jigglypuff only caused more frustrations and irritants to the one who needed to rest. He allowed a sterner expression to cross the expression of the drilbur, to express that he tired of these games. He lowered the claw back to the ground as he gazed upon the heartbroken expression of the feline. Why didn't this pussycat get the hint that was practically screamed at her already?

Gerome's attention was brought away from the skitty briefly as the jigglypuff decided it was time to become the pokemon world's best detective for a moment. He glanced in the direction of the pink balloon as they addressed him. The words that came out of the jigglypuff's mouth...stupefied him. How did he get in? He was sorry, was it a requirement to talk to be physically capable of entering this room and even making friends? This jigglypuff did realize that there was not just one drilbur in the entire town, right? Maybe he was just friends with the chef. Did the jigglypuff know the chef personally? Was the chef not allowed a life outside of the guild? That was pretty messed up.

Gerome's thoughts flashed back to the village he was born in briefly; the idea that a pokemon was not allowed to live their life as they pleased caused his heart to grow heavy. He doubted it was the case, but the jigglypuff's mindset certainly made it seem so. The heavy heart rose despite its metaphorical weight and began to pound with fury and frustration. Who did his jigglypuff think she was?

He wanted them out. He wanted everyone out. The jigglypuff he only wanted to stay to heal Sova, but after that, she was to leave.

Izumi spoke with words he was "unable" to say. The drilbur's stern expression turned to slight relief. He pointed at Izumi urgently with nods of agreement. Yes, do as she said! This absol had the right idea-

The glaceon spoke, but it was not Sova. The tone was different. The words were out of place. The way the ice type moved was as if he experienced no pain at all. These fools had driven Sova off the wheel. He could tell that the hostility behind the words of the glaceon was not at all the one that had been here a few seconds ago, but they were words that needed to be spoken. He found himself in agreement with the amount of hostility in the words. Although, he wanted the jigglypuff to do it's god damn job first before the body reached its limit now that the fool that just ignored the pain was present.

He pointed to the jigglypuff with a glare that rivaled the Jigglypuff's in ferocity, if not surpassed. His claw slowly moved to point at the body of the glaceon she had come to check on, the intent that he wanted the jigglypuff to Heal Pulse the ice type was clear. He gave a pleading glance in the direction of the ice type with hopes that he would at the very least accept the healing. It pained Gerome to see him like this and stressed out on top of it.

Then, the other problem child decided it would be a great time to speak.

The skitty had requested that he be honest with her. When did he ever lie to her? The drilbur moved its arms before the skitty had even finished speaking. The arms formed an "X" as he stepped away from the skitty that leaned in. Since when did he "mess" with her?  Gerome's frustration only began to build throughout these events. A thought then crossed Gerome's mind...

Was Sova the only competent member of this Arceus-forsaken guild?


Darkness consumed his mind. He was completed and thoroughly wrecked by the vaporeon's tail. He could not even feel the ache of his body as time passed without his knowing. The rubble of the wall blanketed him. He lay limp on the ground. The jolteon was completely unconscious and incapable of doing much of anything, though that was likely for the better considering his actions brought his own ruin about to him. Sure he had the intention of truly helping the vaporeon, but he was careless and completely motivated by selfish reasoning. It was likely for the best that the vaporeon had rejected him so harshly, but unfortunately, that was likely to cause more problems than it solved once he woke...


The satchels hung off each side of his body. He was nowhere near as bubbly as he once was. The scars of the cult cut deep into his mind and exposed his childish nature to the harsh reality of the world around him. Fortunately, he did not devolve into some cynical ass that regarded everyone around him with distaste. Instead, he exchanged apathy with a fearful soul that still wanted to live on and continue with his life. He hardly ever left his shop nowadays, but today was a day where he managed to brave the outside world. Not on his own, mind you, he had to be talked into leaving by one of his customers after he requested for them to perform this task.

He entered the guild with the intention to give. It had not taken long for him to hear of the great feat Team Sentima achieved and he felt the compulsion to give them a reward for his gratitude. After all, their leader, Sova had been a part of the mission that saved him from that wretched cult. The team did so much for him, the world even, it was only fitting!

First... he needed to find out where they were exactly. He intended on giving each one of them a gift, even Kieth, but he could not find Kieth anywhere within the guild. He found Sova's room, but it was filled to the brim with pokemon. The flood of pokemon only deterred him from entering as he instead decided to go find the third and final member, Skylar.

He could not gather the courage to ask just anyone where the vaporeon was located, but fortunately, it did not take him long. He spotted the vaporeon across the hall. A bright and hopefull smile shined upon his dull sunshine-starved leaves as he bounded towards the vaporeon in a manner more akin to his old nature, though it quickly died along with his energy as if he used it all just to approach Skylar.

"Skylar!" he breathed hopefully, "Skylar, right?" he questioned, unsure if he had gotten it right. He'd seen the vaporeon before, but it was so long ago since that trip to Monochrome. She was such a kind vaporeon, it only made him giddy to see her again. Oh, did she recognize him? His leaves didn't look as healthy as they used to on account for the dark sky and his neglect to go outside, but surely there weren't that many skiddo in town, right? Still, that was assuming that this was Skylar in the first place and he had not gotten it entirely wrong.

"I was looking for you!" he piped with an old eagerness that had been untouched for months. He seemed oblivious to the down nature she was in, but he at the very least took in the hint that she was a bit down. Maybe he could cheer her up? "I-I heard about what happened with the uh...mewtwo, I think it was called? It was really brave of you to go fight it-and uh, here!" Dull green vines reached out from his bushy neck and opened the satchels. Two small packages were brought out from each of the satchels.

"I didn't know if you liked sweets, so one's partially from my desserts menu and the other is a normal salad. I wanted to make an entire meal, but supplies are a bit short lately and this is easier to bring to you guys." He held up one bag, filled with lovely sweets carefully held apart from one another with a tray. The other one, on the other hand, seemed much lighter, almost as if it was empty. The skiddo placed the package of food down as he began to open the other bag, not even waiting for Skylar's reply.

The skiddo's vines opened up the smaller package with a small hopeful smile upon his expression. The bag opened up to reveal a strange bracelet-like jewelry that looked to be made of a fine silver material that was etched to look akin to dark wooden twines with lovely blue gemstones etched into the material so they would not fall out. Skylar's name seemed to be etched onto the wood-like design as well.

"I-I got the blacksmith to help me with this one...a lot-so this is as much from them as it is from me. You don't have to wear it or anything, but I'd like for you to have it!" he spoke as he looked up at the vaporeon with a hopeful and grateful smile. Finally, he waited for her reaction.

Alki regretted her decisions as soon as the tension and stress and worry that had been thick in the air clumped together, turning into hostility. The anger was directed solely at her, and the child found it rather difficult to hold the glaceon’s gaze given the situation. The absol was kind enough, or perhaps simply patient enough to explain why the jigglypuff was wrong, even after her little quip in the hallway. Alki nodded, almost imperceptibly at the absol, biting her lip and choosing to focus on the pillow the glaceon lay on instead of the pokemon that all seemed to be glaring at her. It made sense.

Sova, for his part, seemed rather prepared to counter her poorly formulated arguments. The more he spoke, the less and less confident she felt, the more and more stupid she felt, and, perhaps most importantly, the more and more guilty she felt. She’d been angry, sure. That didn’t give her any excuse to say what she had. For one, it was stupid. A couple seconds of critical thinking would’ve told her to keep her big mouth shut. But of course, that was too much to ask of her, wasn’t it?

Even more worrying than the intelligence display (or lack of it), was the fact she had been completely fine with threatening to not help someone who so clearly needed it. It didn’t matter that she would’ve healed him. A threat was something else entirely. The insults she’d tossed both their ways had nothing to do with healing. So while the sarcastic remarks cut the balloon pokemon, it was her own thoughts that truly wounded her. The child looked down at her own feet, blinking rapidly as she struggled to keep tears from rolling down her face. They’d already reached her eyes, it was too late for that. Any semblance of confidence, rebellion, or other such qualities had left her. She was glad he didn’t want her anymore. She didn’t deserve to help anyone. Let alone someone she’d been such a humongous prick to.

Alki did not hesitate to leave when she was told to. Without looking back at any of the Pokemon that had witnessed her idiocy and her shitty behavior, the jigglypuff was just short of running out of the room. They’d been right. She’d come to the room to help. Some help she offered… the Jigglypuff sat down next to the door, a few meters from the frame, but still within earshot of the group. For as long as she could remember, she’d been a victim. Sometimes of her parents. Sometimes of the other children at the pond. A lot of the time, it had been her own insecurities. In the past weeks, she’d started to think that they were wrong. It had never occurred to her, in all her life, that they’d all overestimated her good nature. She’d always thought of herself as stupid, weak, cowardly, and clumsy, but evil was not a word she’d use to describe herself. What else had that been? It sure as hell was not an innocent mistake. Malevolence, even if it was fueled by anger, revenge, or some twisted form of justice, wasn’t right. She’d always believed that. So why did she go and do that?

She’d hardly noticed she was crying, freely now. That didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was her actions, decisions, and the consequences that would follow. Not even Darcy was coming out. Not like Alki deserved it. No, she was perfectly content to sit here and torture herself, thank you very much. Darcy had her own issues to worry about anyways.

It was her time to think by herself. She could leave. Go back to her own room, suffer in total isolation without hearing whatever it was these Pokemon had to say about her. Whatever it was, she was sure she’d deserve it. Her original goal had been to help. Even if she’d screwed it up royally so far, that goal wasn’t completely lost yet. She could still help. Hell, she could help without them knowing it was her. It’d be slow going, though. It’d be difficult and tiring and perhaps even painful, after a while. But if it allowed her to regain some form of honor, dignity, or at the very least make up for her earlier, shameful behavior, then she was all for it. The child took a deep, shuddering breath, struggling to regain composure, lest someone pass by her and question what a crying, sniveling little kid was doing outside the room, and began to use heal pulse. For the second time now. Not that she had any right to complain. It should still reach him, and help him, at least a bit. Sure, there was a wall between the two. But it wasn’t too much, if the wall wasn’t there they’d be within a meter of each other. The pulses should still reach him. And if they didn’t, well, she didn’t have any dignity left to lose. But she could, just maybe, gain a bit of respect back. If he wasn’t pissed at her for helping anyways, after he’d kicked her out. It’d be best to not think on that. The jigglypuff closed her eyes, and got to work.

Izumi let out a tense breath, one she had been holding for a solid two minutes now. This group.... this group was nutso. All the different kinds of peanut butter in one jar, a bunch of cracked pistachios just waiting to be broken. Herself included. And navigating this situation without cracking any of those nuts was... well, she had already failed once so the pressure was really on. She considered exiting stage left... she couldn't tell exactly, but Gerome aka the man of a thousand names had been heavily ze were agreeing with what she had to say, so one could logically deduce that ze wanted some privacy, or at least some calm to the pandemonium. It wouldn't be an incorrect assumption on her part then that she should probably get back to her own scraps of buisness, but at the same time... she had somehow, some way become the secondary voice of Gerome, second to Sova, and it seemed like the situation needed at least some kind of mediator if it was going to simmer the fuck down all the way. Not that the mons here weren't capable of sorting themselves out, it was just that..... well, most of them tended to be on the young side. Young and impressionable. Young and inexperienced with complicated social situations that required more skill and fineness to navigate. It seemed like having another adult here was helping somewhat, to put it shortly. She wondered if she was just rationalizing her staying to justify her own desire to stay now, but then again there were some aspects to her desires that were for the most part out of her control. Her disaster senses made her a glutton for punishment, she supposed, and in situations like these she could never quite decide if staying with these siking ships was a responsibility of hers or not. She had for the most part decided it varied depending on her involvement, and she certainly had involved herself in this, to a certain extent. She decided to ride it out just until the mess was sorted, and then she'd check up on the state of her own welcome.

So, on the topic of Alkaline "Alki" Duracell..... well Izumi just felt bad about that. She definitely didn't agree with the kids actions, but it just sucked to watch her get hit that hard with the rebound. There was really nothing to be done about it though. Izumi wasn't about to object to Sova's admittedly personality-warping frustration, rage, oddly calm infuriating, whatever it was. It was warranted, and it was his. He wasn't the child, he was the adult. If he felt like it was a mistake, he'd deal with his own consequences. Alki would have to learn that there were mons out there who would tell you when their tolerance was broken. The extent of the negative effect was yet to be seen, and that again sucked, but Izumi wasn't about to go out there and reinforce behavior by giving her some kind of grey pity reinforcement that would only serve to confuse the situation for the kid further. Alki deserved to know that what she did was wrong. She also deserved to know that her other actions could speak louder than it. Izumi wasn't really sure if she could make that evident to her, at least not yet. One thing at a time, for now.

The first thing that struck her as important was getting Sova to calm the eff down. Like, had somebody given him a shot of whatever the Skiddo secretly added t his power snacks to boost them up? He was..... definitely not acting like the eternally contemplative mon he normally was, and he was acting as if his condition gave him no pain. Which was downright weird. And this was coming from the mon who's obscure cosmic meme knowledge made basically the entire guild wonder if they should wear tinfoil on their heads around her, or something to that effect. She knew she he was the last person she needed to patronize, so she decided to keep that interaction brief and just try to silently gauge how he was doing based on that. "Feeling.... better?" She hazarded, not entirely sure exactly what to say on top of that. She decided to throw in something to ensure the question didn't sound hostile. "Just don't pull any muscles on top of..... everything. If there are any left unpulled." No mentions of funerals? No? Check. On to the logic. "Call me Captain Obvious, but I'm pretty sure she's realized her fault. To be fair, she is the only healer that showed up..... that I'm aware of." She peeked at Gerome out of the corner of her eye, but logic implied that ze would have healed him ages ago if they possessed the ability. That, or Gerome was the biggest fucking troll this guild had ever birthed. "Unless you expect the dark type to heal you, and I'll tell you right now that dream is going to end poorly. The addition of wings does not make me an angel. Trust someone who's tried and failed to use them to fly." She said it all very casually, just to give him something else to focus on that would hopefully bring him to a more... natural state of calm.

And then there was Darcy... oh, Darcy, Darcy, Darcy. So willfully ignorant, making her a willfully tricky case. She was at least seeming innocent in her desires; Dave had ghosted her pretty hard and that was bull. She could be forgiven for holding tight to this wish-fulfillment scenario where Dave came back, albeit quite different, explained to her all that had happened, tied every lose end and filled what was doubtlessly a nagging hole eaten into her brain by unanswered questions. That's what it was though. Wish-fulfillment. It wasn't reality, clearly. Gerome was acting plenty uncomfortable, and it was flat-out stated that ze were not Gerome, even though they used a form that looked similar (alright, actually it was quite fucking eerily dead-on) to his. That wasn't an impossible feat to muster, though, there were a plethora of pokemon who could pull it off. The skitty had to know this. She wasn't letting herself considered the possibility. The denial stage of grief was  a bitch, but it was betting borderline unfair to Gerome and, once again, it really wasn't the time. It wouldn't do any good to write the skitty off, but it also wasn't the time for this any more than it had been when it first started.

"Darcy," Izumi started, a little unsure at first about how to start, "I really am sorry about your teammate. I know he disappeared, and I have no doubt that it's been hard on you to think on that without answers. But you have to understand: This is not Dave." Gaaaaah, where to go next. Izumi tried to keep her disposition straight, but she at the very least audibly faltered as she internally pushed her emotions an insecurities out of the way. Just the facts right now, Izu, just the facts. "I know that's hard to register based on appearance," she continued just as insistently, intentionally avoiding addressing the topic of Gerome's appearance again. "But that's only one thing we have to consider here. Most importantly, Sova has told us for certain that this pokemon goes by Gerome, and that they're shy. They likely look like Dave because they didn't want to have to worry about the guild crowds. They came out of concern for Sova, and considering the situation I don't think they or Sova have any reason to try to string you along or be cruel." It's sounding fair so far, Izu, now how to make this clearer.... "If it had been the goal to play a game with you, I'm certain they would have made first contact with you. It would be kind of far-fetched," don't laugh, motherfucker, "that they base an entire ploy to mess with you off of a chance meeting in the hallway. Even if they had, they probably would have stood in the hallway to catch your attention. Granted I can't say anything for 100% certain, but I really don't think this is a setup by people who want to hurt you. I think it's an unfortunate mistake made by someone who really wanted to see their friend and wasn't aware of the consequences."

Alright windbag, that's good.

"...Sorry, that was a lot of words to say that one thing. But I hope it helps at least shed light on the situation. You've got to look at the full scope of the circumstances before you're sure it's who you think it is, especially in a situation like this one." She shifted around uncomfortably suddenly, not from the situation from the sudden realization that fucking holy shit she had been standing a long time and her paws. were. Burning. She cast a look over at Sva real quick and let the empathetic pain from his sorry state dwarf what she was feeling at the moment. If she left after this she was making it her first priority to find a seat. Alright, alright back on topic. Her gaze shifted back over to the skitty.

"I know how his has been hard for you, in general and this in specific. It's hard to suddenly realize your hope is false, but... it will be better for you if you can accept this rather than continue to cling to what's easy. Call me a grandma for saying this, but nothing worth doing is easy. The only one stringing you along here is you, and you don't deserve that. It's hard to accept, but your questions about Dave likely won't get answered. I think I can answer one for you, though, if you haven't yourself: he left because of him, not because of you. Who you are and how you behave are things he reacts to, and how he handles his reactions is his own problem; or rather, it was. This is your present, Darcy. He is gone." Upon saying this, Izu figured that Darcy had without a doubt had plenty of time to think about this herself, and promptly decided to wrap things up. "Don't take my word at face value, I only know your situation through the periphery. These are things you should think about though. Focus on the questions you can answer yourself. For now though, I think I've said enough. I already said it once, but this is Sova's and Gerome's and Skylar's time to work out their problems. This isn't for you or me."

With that, Izumi turned back to Sova and Gerome, addressing them both, "And on that third instance of parroting myself like a broken record, I think it's time I follow my own 'sage-like wisdom.' Sorry it took so long for me to wrap it up, I kinda get lost thinking about difficult situations like this." She took a moment to shift her paws again and regain herself. "I honestly had no idea the situation was this dire when I waltzed down here; I heard you were back but I had not heard yet that you were held together by stitches. ...May have made a funeral joke that pissed Skylar off before I saw the state you were in; I suspect that's why she's not here and I'm sorry about that. I'll tell her that myself when I see her next. For now though, I figure I should probably honor what I keep harping on. I really appreciate you inviting me in, but I'll only stay if you really want me to stay. This has been pretty hectic."

Pleasemakeadescisionquickly,ohshitohshit,mypawshurtworsethanthebusyhoursonboxhellday.

Sova wouldn't have wanted to smile at his ability to make some kid run away crying, but Senya, on the other hand...  Well, he took pride in what he was, and he enjoyed doing what he was made to do.  So, when the obnoxious little balloon turned tail and fled, he could barely hold back a smirk.  Having successfully chased the problem away with such ease pleased him.  The situation was now marginally less stressful, even if it still wasn't perfect.  Unfortunately, he didn't have much he could offer to further repair things; he was more skilled at breaking than fixing, after all.  The skitty would probably need to be chased off next, but it seemed like NotDave and Izumi were already doing a good job of that on their own.  With how much of a child the little thing seemed to be, it served to reason that she probably wouldn't handle having her hopes crushed very well.  Even if she happened to decide to stay, it seemed doubtful that she would be dumb enough to somehow convince herself still that this was Dave.

Then there was the problem of a certain vaporeon...

Yeah, sorry, you're on your own there, he spoke mentally to his passenger.  There was nothing he could do to help make someone feel better unless that someone was as psychotic and twisted as himself.  Even then, it was really up in the air.

He was glad when he received a response, showing he hadn't been left alone to deal with this situation.  You've done more than enough.  Want me to take over?  Or... is that even how this works?  I'm not used to being...

In my position?

Yes.

Senya would have liked to tag back out, but then something came up that demanded his attention.  At first he wasn't sure; it was just a feeling, a faint sensation, but then his body began emanating a faint glow.  He could hear the pest sitting right outside the room, crying while she tried to heal him in secret.  Everything about it was sickening, to the point where he almost wanted to see if he could get up just to interrupt her.  Thankfully, he had enough sense not to actively try and tear his wounds open, but that didn't mean he was going to let this slide.  He completely ignored the NotDave in need, contributing nothing to the conversation himself due to a total lack of interest.  He was fairly confident the skitty would take a hint after having pretty much everyone in the room tell her she was wrong.  If she somehow found reason to persist, then maybe he would think about intervening, but for now, he was far more interested in the other pink thing.

Don't hurt her.

There's a wall between us.

Don't break the wall.

He didn't intend to break the wall, but he still had problems with the jigglypuff's behavior that he wanted to sort out.  He had a good idea of what to say her, and it definitely wasn't nice by any means, but then Sova's presence interrupted him once more.

Hey, wait, tell Izumi she can stay.

He sighed, then lifted his head and took a look at the absol.  "Look, I'm not gonna beg you to stay like it's some favor to me.  If you wanna stick around, feel free.  You're fine," he responded with a lack of sensitivity, at least, relative to what Sova would have said.  Still, it was nicer than he usually was, and he meant it.  Izumi seemed annoying to him, but that was really about it; she was fine other than that.  He didn't exactly "like" her, but to be fair, he didn't really like anyone.  All he cared about was that she wasn't bothering Sova and was at least tolerable.  "At least you're not doing the exact opposite of what I told you to do, then hiding like a coward all the while.  I mean, really, how pathetic would that be?" he continued, turning his head toward the door.  His voice got gradually louder, though clearly just in an attempt to make himself more audible; he wasn't shouting out of anger or anything of the sort; he just wanted to make sure the crying child could hear him.

If nothing else, his short interaction with Izumi had proven to be a useful segue into the continued destruction of the puff's emotional security.  See?  I didn't break the wall.  Or her.  That last part was probably up in the air, but he doubted his words would have any severe long-term impact on her.  Someone would have to be a real grade-A wuss to be emotionally scarred by getting called out on being a wuss, he figured.


Skylar's goals were fluctuating by the moment along with her emotional state, but it was all put to a halt when she heard a voice call her name.  She whipped around to see who was here to annoy her this time, ready to shoo them away, even to scream at them if she needed to.  She wanted to be left alone to wallow in self-pity and angst, away from everyone who insisted on furthering her mood's downward spiral.  She had had enough of putting up with everyone for one day, and regardless of who it was or what they wanted, she was going... to...  Her newfound will to fight was drained away with one look at her target.  It was Aries, the sweet little skiddo who ran what was known to be one of the best cafes in town.  She had met him before and knew him to be quite cheery and kind, and she knew he had been through an ordeal of his own not long ago.  She couldn't bring herself to turn him away, regardless of how much she wanted to be left alone.  Still, she couldn't help but wonder why he even wanted her attention in the first place.  It wasn't like she knew him intimately or anything.

Word seemingly traveled fast; Aries had heard about the battle with Mewtwo already and apparently rushed to put together a thank-you present.  At first, it was a touching gesture that just so happened to also be exactly what Sky had been looking for: food.  At that, he had decided to give her sweets in specific!  The prospect of a salad was... a bit less exciting, but as a gift, it was appreciated all the same.  As long as he wasn't trying to call her fat.  She knew her species was a bit bulkier than most other eevee-kind, but she felt she was still a far cry from needing to watch her diet... and she really didn't need to have someone calling her fat on this day in particular.  With that in mind, she chose to assume he was just being considerate of the possibility that she actually did have some kind of specific diet.  Maybe she was thinner than most vaporeon, and the kid had just assumed she dieted to stay that way?  She didn't really have anyone to compare herself to, so she had no idea.

Before Skylar could get a word in to thank the skiddo, he opened one of the two bags.  She had just assumed one held the sweets and the other, the salad, but when the contents of one of the bags were revealed...  Her first thought was how weird that salad looked, then she realized it was no salad and her jaw dropped. Aries, this sweet little kid who barely knew her and surely wasn't rich just from running a cafe... had gone and bought jewelry for her.  And it wasn't just any jewelry; it was an extremely extravagant and expensive-looking piece.  It seemed to be a bracelet, metallic in nature with blue jewels on it; after a moment, she realized it even had her name engraved into it.  It was clearly custom-made, as if Aries' words didn't do a good enough job of making that obvious.  Surely, the trinket had to have cost him a metaphorical arm and leg, and it was so... pretty... and... just so... much.

She was hesitant to accept it.  Part of her wanted to tell him to go return it and get his money back.  She wasn't worth whatever he had spent on it; he was practically a total stranger to her, and she had done nothing for him in particular.  Her entire reason for going to help with Mewtwo was to look after Sova, not to save the world.  She didn't deserve to have some hardworking child spend what was probably his life savings on jewelry for her, and accepting this gift she had done nothing to earn just seemed wrong.  But at the same time, to turn this offering down after he had sunk so much into it just for her seemed wrong as well, perhaps more so.  She was at a loss for words, bewildered by the gesture and unsure of how to respond to it.  "I..." she could barely get out the single-syllable word through her astonishment before falling back to silence.  She couldn't bring herself to look away from the dazzling bracelet; admittedly, she wanted to accept it.

"I-I couldn't possibly accept... I mean... this is just...  I don't deserve this..." She truly didn't know how to respond, but she knew how she wanted to respond: gimmegimmegimme.  She kept trying to remind herself that she had no right to accept such a thing knowing it had probably cost the skiddo's soul to get; he deserved that soul back more than she deserved this trinket.  Still, there was a part of her that wanted it, and not just because it was pretty, but also because, well, she had gotten nothing for all her efforts.  She'd been a good girl and done everything Sova had said, worked hard and listened to him, and yet he never let her do missions and never really talked to her.  She had somewhat of a history of doing things for others and not really getting anything in return, in hindsight.  She had even saved Sova's life from Mewtwo; she was no longer in debt to him, and more importantly, she had proven her own capabilities!

...And yet there was no one to validate that, as Mirage and Sova had both been knocked out while the only other witness took to hiding behind a rock.  No one saw her put her own life on the line... and maybe that was for the best.  After all, who would believe her, even with someone to vouch for her?  And besides, she had still lost in the end, so she didn't really have much to brag about.  Still, getting a little bit of credit for at least standing up and doing something would have been nice, and yet she couldn't have even that.  All the attention was on Sova, which was fine since he was kind of crippled and dying and he'd been the one to win the fight anyway, but still, she couldn't help but be the least bit upset.  It was this state of mind that brought her to want to accept the gift.

Deep down, part of her felt like she really did deserve it.

Darcy didn't even get to finish speaking.  This Drilbur...  Whoever he was...  He didn't want to hear any of it.  He turned up his nose and brandished his claws in an "x" shape, not even looking at her while he stepped away like he didn't want to be anywhere near her.  That was...  That was the clearest rejection she could ever receive without words.  ...Perhaps the clearest rejection this Pokemon could ever give her...

Darcy's voice stuttered to a halt and her feet locked in place.  She felt dizzy.  She needed to sit down.  This had to be some kind of misunderstanding.  She...  She just...  She just needed to go outside, and get some fresh air, and give Dave a little more time to himself--

But she couldn't do it anymore.  She couldn't keep telling herself this was Dave.  It had been obvious for too long, and no matter how badly her heart wanted it to be him, no matter how much the truth hurt, the look on Gerome's face shattered her hope like a hammer through a glass window.  The Skitty let out a quiet whimper as she fell into a sitting position.  Dave...  Why hadn't Dave come home?  Did he not know how much he meant to her..?  Did he not care..?  He was supposed to come back...  He said he would come back...

Her whimpering grew a little louder.  Tears blurred her vision and everything in the room seemed to grow distant.  She didn't want to be here.  She didn't want to be at the guild, she didn't want to be in this room, she didn't want to be with this Pokemon who reminded her so much of...

Her whimpering hit a peak.   She stared at the floor, a tiny pool of tears starting to form there.  She would have lost control of herself, started crying in earnest, oblivious to everyone around her.  But she heard someone say her name.  "H-huh..?" she said, half-sobbing as she forced her gaze upward.  It...  It was Izumi...

...She had figured out everything, hadn't she.  Hearing her say so plainly that this wasn't Dave earned another choked sob from the Skitty.  But...  But the Absol's voice was soft and caring, something Darcy couldn't say no to.  She clung to Izumi's voice like a life raft as she stumbled forward and hugged her forepaws around one of the Absol's legs, burying her face in the soft white fur, tiny, choked sobs escaping her throat and the tears in her eyes not stopping.

...But Izumi kept talking. Slowly, but surely, Darcy's breathing grew deeper, and she managed to bring her crying under control.  ...The bitter, hurt feelings in her heart still remained.  Perhaps they would remain for a long time.  ...But Izumi's words helped.  ...Maybe Dave leaving really hadn't been her fault.  Or at least it was nothing she needed to feel bad about.  It...  It had always seemed like the only obvious reason for him to vanish...  She had never been a very good guild member.  She wasn't the strongest, or the smartest.  ...But...  What she knew for sure was that she had always done her best.  And since Dave had left, she had grown so much!  Even she could help with guild work.  At least with the easy things...

It had always been so hard to believe, but...  If she had been the one to scare Dave away...  Maybe he would be happier on his own, back home with his family.  Maybe he just didn't have the courage for guildwork, and it was up to him at the end of the day, not her, no matter how much she blamed herself for not helping enough.  Izumi's voice made her feel that way.  She wished that he had stayed, that they could have grown together like they had always planned...  But...  Maybe she didn't need to feel so guilty...

"T-thanks...  Thanks, Izumi..." Darcy said with a sniff, still hugging the Absol's leg.  "I just...  I-I still really miss him.  H-he was my best friend, and..."

She shuddered, falling silent and taking a deep breath as she blinked away a fresh wave of tears.  It still hurt too much to talk about openly.  Maybe another time.  But for now, she was content to just give Izumi a hug.  She really was kind...

Darcy closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, her mind slowly clearing up again.  When she finally felt ready, she pulled away from Izumi and sat down beside her.  Everyone was still in the room...  Save Alki.  Darcy cast a worried glance at the doorway.  Perhaps all of the yelling about Gerome's identity had been too much for her.  The thought put an uneasy frown on the Skitty's face.  She could probably use some comfort.  But Gerome was still in the room, too, and...  She owed him an apology, before anything.

She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again as she noticed something...  Familiar.  It was the gentle glow surrounding the hurt Pokemon on the bed.  A telltale sign of Heal Pulse.  Darcy tilted her head, and in spite of everything, a tiny smile emerged on he face.  Those two had lost their tempers earlier, but...  Alki wouldn't be deterred so easily, it seemed.

...All to the dismay of the Pokemon on the bed.  After acknowledging Izumi, he spoke up again, his harsh, callous words clearly meant for Alki.  It made the Skitty grit her teeth.  He hadn't calmed down at all.  When would enough be enough for him?  Distracted as Darcy had been, even she knew that Alki felt sorry.  She probably felt far, far worse than the Pokemon on the bed had ever felt about any of this.

"I don't think it's pathetic at all," Darcy said while frowning and shaking her head.  The fur on her cheeks was still wet with tears, and she still sat a little too close to Izumi, but she surprised herself with how resolute her voice sounded.  ...Worry for her little sister always had a way of overshadowing everything else.  "Alki shouldn't have said those things...  But even though you scared her off, she still wants to help you.  I think she's being very brave.  And I think she wants to make things up to you."

She sighed deeply, and in spite of the lingering tears in her eyes, managed to wear a tiny smile.  "I know you said you don't need it, but you don't have to impress any of us.  We're all guild members, right?  You really don't look too good, and...  I don't think any of us'll take no for an answer, here.  Alki can stay outside if you want her to.  But I think even Faye would want her to keep going.

"And...  And, umm..." she continued, trying to meet eyes with Gerome, but unable to hold his gaze.  She stared at a wall and an uneasy expression came over her face.  "Um...  I'm...  Really sorry for putting you on the spot, Gerome.  You look...  You look a whole lot like someone I've missed for a long time, and...  A-and, you know.  I-I'm sorry. ...I-it probably wasn't fun for you at all. If there's anything I can do to apologize, then maybe, um, you could write it down for me, and..."

The display of the skitty disheartened him, but he only grew increasingly frustrated as time went on. He could understand that the skitty was going through some emotional turmoil at this moment in time, but he had arguably more important business to discuss with Sova at this moment and that meant she needed to get Sova back up front.

The jigglypuff had left despite his movements to encourage the fae to remain and heal his subject of interest. Izumi seemed to be the only guest within this room with some sort of decent cognitive ability. He took a deep breath and released the breath slowly as he waited for a certain someone to get over their pity parade.

Then, the feline had turned to face him. She apologized for her actions. Her tone obviously indicated that was she said was genuine. She was truly sorry for what she did. The cat's offer was one Gerome knew she was going to regret gifting. Anything she could do to apologize? The drilbur remained silent as his claws moved...and pointed to the door.

A call from the glaceon, still not Sova, that requested for him to play nicely. Another straw was added to the camel's back as he moved his arms in a gesture that obviously expressed frustration. He pointed to the glaceon then to himself with the attempt to indicate that he wanted to be alone with the glaceon.

He was met with failure as the ice type gave him signs of confusion and befuddlement. Another straw was added as Gerome rued the moment Sova had decided to declare him mute. How in the world was he supposed to communicate with him like this? The secret he kept was simply dying to get out of his chest. This was something he needed to tell him as soon as possible before he ended up being discovered or some other obstacle stood in their way.

Then, it dawned on him. The skitty had given him an idea; he could write it to Sova! He needed to be cautious though, with these other two around it could certainly be taken in a way the other two would be suspicious of. His expression change to that of excitement as he turned himself around and began to scratch into the dirt of the guild's floor. He made sure to use the tip of one claw carefully so that the width of the scratches did not look strangely odd to what the drilbur was doing.

"KIDS!" he had etched into the floor. He stood proudly on the floor behind his words with stares aimed in the ice type's direction. To his horror, the glaceon had interpreted it as an insult to the people within the room. Another straw was added to the stack. He quickly shook his head to indicate that was not what he meant. In a panic to remedy this situation on top of the general frustration, he added a quick and sloppy equivalent of "U" in front of the word. He desperately needed to get the word to Sova, but it simply was not working. Now, the ice type had come to think that he was calling them childish! Another straw was added. He practically fumed at this point as he scratched out the words altogether and returned the ground to its plain and meaningless state.

He pointed a claw at the Glaceon. His tone could not even begin to hide the frustration he just experienced as he practically yelled in a rather effeminate voice, "YOU HAVE KIDS!" The camel's back was broken.


Karma was a mean one. The soul of this body had not yet left his body, for he was not dead. He may have been put through a wall, but the pest was far from death's doorstep. He gave a groan as he woke for only a few seconds. Nobody came to his rescue nor even his aid. He was forced to face the fate completely and utterly alone. Perhaps he would remain that way, but certainly, that was not the way of the explorer? Alas, it seemed so. The jolteon, while rude, had been left to rot.


He was ecstatic. He simply could not wait for her reaction to his gift. His hooves touched one another as he bit a lip to keep back is own excitement. He did not expect her to wear it, simply keep it. To his misfortune, he also did not expect her actual reaction. Her expression held a longing unseen to him; it was the words that sunk their claws into him.

She did not take the finely crafted bracelet-tail-paw thing. She simply stared at the craft in what he could only assume to be horror. His expression sank along with his heart. His hooves separated themselves as his excitement sank. The grass type found himself confused. Did she not like it? Oh no, what if she was alergic to the metal or something? Was that even possible for a vaporeon?

"Y-You don't like it?" he squeaked with a long face. The vaporeon snapped out of her daze briefly enough to attempt to assure him that the jewelry was indeed beautiful, but he could not help but to doubt it. His chest seemed to clench around both his heart and lungs as panic began to overcome him. It was not a fear for his life, a feeling he'd become far too familiar with, but more so that he had put this nice vaporeon in an extremely uncomfortable position.

"N-No," he brought the braclet closer to himself. The vines cradled the craft delicately close to his chest, "I-If you don't like it, I c-can take it back to have it re-crafted into something you'd prefer? I'm sure the blacksmith w-wouldn't mind..." At least he was certain the blacksmith would be glad to do so for a bit more poke...

Fortune smiled upon him, however, as the vaporeon expressed a newfound interest in the braclet. Well, to him it was new at the least. His ears flattened as a small and greatful smile came across his expression. A little voice in the back of his mind sneered at him. She was just pretending, the demon would comment, she just felt bad because he went out of his way to get something she didn't even want. Aries snuffed the gremlin of a thought as he looked to Skylar's eyes and saw authenticity.

His vines held the apparel out to the vaporeon, who accepted the gift. Now with the gates of doubt closed, the rush of excitement had resumed its flow. He could not help but to give a little bounce of excitement before he spoke, "I-I'm glad you like it then! You don't have to wear it or anything though, I'm just happy that I could thank you in some way!"

The desaturated skiddo had a dull excitement to him. Honestly, he was kind of hungry himself. Unfortunately, it was not a hunger he could easily satiate with food. He could survive off of it, but the skiddo was in need of true unfiltered sunlight. He had managed to find a few patches here and there of the beautiful rays he so much missed, but it seemed that with each passing week they would become thinner and scarcer.

"It was really brave of you to go though. I don't think even my Papa would have fought such a powerful pokemon~!" he continued to sing his words of praise.

Things went well at first. Her crying had mostly stopped, although she couldn’t help but let out a couple snivels, trying to calm herself down fully. Her emotions were not easy to control, and this took her time. Enough time for the subject of her healing to notice. Healing someone without them knowing was quite a task, one that a crying child probably wouldn’t be able to accomplish at all, let alone when she was an emotional wreck. The glaceon seemed to like bullying her. Of course, she thought, as she looked up at a candle above her; Of course, she did deserve the bullying. She always had, didn’t she? The Jigglypuff sighed, eyeing the entrance to the room, only a couple meters to her left. Had they been talking about her this whole time? No. She wasn’t that important. Just a little prick.

The jigglypuff stopped her move, looking down the hallway. A retreat seemed awfully promising. After what had happened, re-entering the room did not seem like a good idea. The glaceon had been pissed. He was an ice type, sure, and she had deserved it, but Alki had not expected the verbal lashing she’d received to be that cold. She began to tap the ground, still staring down the hallway with a far away look. Her sister hadn’t come out to talk to her either. The absol had been the only one to show any semblance of patience towards her. As for the mute she’d insulted, Alki hadn’t even looked at him. She began to feel fresh tears on her face, which she wiped away with the cover of her bag. If she left, there’d be consequences. Darcy would surely be disappointed. That was the tip of the iceberg: if she left, then she’d forever be the guild-mon who insulted a mute, tried to blackmail a wounded pokemon, and then ran away crying. Someone like that was the perfect target of hate. And if her childhood had taught her anything, it was that hate spread fast. Her tapping grew faster, she could feel her pulse increasing. She hadn’t thought things would get so out of hand…

If she stayed, then perhaps she could fix it. Fix things a bit. Things couldn’t ever be fixed completely, could they? To all the pokemon in that room, except maybe Darcy, she wouldn’t be viewed in a positive light for a long time to come. If ever. But she could keep her reputation from being completely dragged through the mud. With time, maybe they wouldn’t hate her. The jigglypuff approached the door, silently. She couldn’t commit to a decision. The closer she got, the heavier the weights on her feet grew. Fleeing seemed like a much better all of a sudden. The distance to the door went from five meters, to four, to two, to one, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t close that distance.

Suppose he just wanted to bully her more? Maybe he just wanted to insult Alki to her face. Maybe he wanted to attack her? Some kid had done that to her at the pond, she could remember, although he did not have very good aim. Maybe it was a combination of the two? Alki stared at the space in front of her. The wooden door frame seemed almost menacing to her, the orange-ish light foreboding. She shifted her weight, tapping her arm against her body as she stared at the door frame. Hadn’t she said she deserved it, evil prick she was? If he wanted to bully her, fine. If he attacked her, better. Whatever he wanted, he could go for it. Even if she wanted to stop him, she wouldn’t be able to. But she didn’t want to. Whatever punishment he deemed fit, perfect. All she wanted was to help, and if this helped redeem her in any way, no matter how small, then it was fine in her book.

Before the child could change her mind, she grabbed the door frame, and pulled herself back into the room. The mute drillbur seemed to be having trouble communicating. Not much attention was paid to her. She was rather thankful for this. She sat at the doorway, leaning back on the frame as she stared at the Glaceon. She was going to help. She didn’t want anyone in this room to think she was a shitty person. She’d made a mistake! That was all… She began her heal pulse again, closing her eyes. She hoped for… something. Part of her wished that the glaceon would stop, that he would realize she’d suffered already. Another wished for just the opposite. The child, opened her eyes, casting another glance at the Drillbur. He seemed to be growing more and more frustrated. She attempted to ignore the mute pokemon she’d insulted earlier, to focus on the Glaceon, but her concentration was shattered when the mute began to shout -- in a rather feminine voice too -- that the glaceon had kids. She had no stake in the kids affair, that wasn’t her business. But when the mute, the mute who she’d insulted just screamed at no one in particular proving he was not actually mute. She’d been right. She’d gotten mocked, yelled at, and insulted, and she had been right. She’d been right.

As the child’s eyes flickered across everyone in the room, many responses flickered through her mind. Sassy ones, bitter ones, innocent ones, but there was no way she could answer correctly. Why had he been so mean to her? She’d been right, partially. She’d said he could speak… and she’d been chased out and she’d cried. Sure, she’d been a bit mean. A lot mean. But she hadn’t been wrong, entirely, and they’d treated her like an idiot.

“What the hell, guys?” She looked around, from the Glaceon who was still lying on the bed, to Darcy, to the absol, to the not-mute Gerome. She felt as if she was about to cry again, and it took all her willpower to prevent that from happening. Her gaze fell to her feet. She’d never said a word like that in front of Darcy. Right now, she didn’t care. She’d just wanted to help. “I… e-everyone said you were mute...” She mumbled, staring at Gerome, her heal pulse faint from lack of concentration.

"Any time," Izumi assured Darcy as she patted the skitty hugging her with her paw. Inside her head, a flurry of emotions buzzed on the back burner. It really was unfortunate what happened to Darcy, but she was a good kid. Izumi had a feeling she'd turn out okay though. It was also unfortunate that the Drilbur's makeup looked so strikingly similar to Dave, but that couldn't really be helped. Neither could Darcy's passing through the hall. They'd find some compromise. Also the hug was nice. She decided to keep out of the confrontation with grumpy!Sova; she didn't really have anything to comment on, Darcy hadn't addressed it. Izumi had a funny feeling she shouldn't be getting involved in it anyway; best choose her battles with discretion. Especially with Sova's mood. The passive aggressive (emphasis on aggressive) way he addressed Alki told her he was just about well past done. Once again, she felt bad, mostly uncomfortable.

He did tell her she could stay though.... well, indirectly, but she gathered that that's what he had been implying. "Oh well in that case," Izumi commented before promptly sitting the hell down. Thank the lord. She could feel her paws go numb in gratitude as the pressure was released and the ache passed into numbness. "I could almost be fooled into thinking that was a challenge," she joked as she relaxed more. She reasoned that she really should stay if she was able, anyways. It was the most reliable place to find Skylar again, and she owed said vaporeon an apology. She was more than content to stay for the time being. She took a moment of silence to relax while things worked themselves out. Darcy offered her condolences, and the Drilbur seemed open to complying....

...kids.

kids?

If the Drilbur had not been so obviously facing the Glaceon, Izumi would have been very concerned. Maybe Gerome would be taking Darcy up on that- no, no, stop. It already went far enough ten minutes ago. The joke had overstayed it's welcome. No more. No. Eugh. But then, what about kids concerned Darcy, Gerome, and Sova? Was Gerome concerned for Alki and Darcy, and was reminding him that they were just kids? Was somebody supposed to visit them but was missing? Izumi was visibly pensive as she ran through all the possibilities in her mind, awaiting further elaboration. She quickly got what she was waiting for, conveniently and also probably the opposite of conveniently at the same time Alki decided to re-emerge from the hallway.

"YOU HAVE KIDS!"

Ah. Uh huh. Hmm. Come again? What was that about Sova having kids? As in, he had them? Izumi was completely dumbfounded. For a moment, she couldn't even make the correlation. Kids? Sova? Nah. Nah nah nah, no way. There was no way... but there was a way. He talked about that way frequently enough that Izumi's brain began to finally accept that there was indeed a way upon reconsideration. That certainly explained Gerome's urgency, as well as further adding credibility to some suspicions Izumi had had about their....... self identity. So many things were just exploding into her brain at once that Izumi just couldn't fight her first impulse reaction.

She bust out with the giggles. She didn't even know why. It wasn't a particularly funny statement, she didn't really find it especially funny.... but the absurdity of the situation, coupled with her just kind of being there for it and of course the fact that there was no real proper reaction to that outburst just overrode her. It wasn't even truly laughter as much as it was an expression of disbelief. It quickly faded back into silence as Izumi regained her ability to think rationally and she continued to process the situation.

Unsurprisingly, she wasn't given very much time to do her thinking before somebody redirected her train of thought. It seemed to be a common theme with this group.

Izumi could hardly believe her ears as Alki's terse statement cut through her internal conflict. It was just... had she missed what had been said entirely? What exactly all this meant? "Hold on. You did hear what was said, right? Sova, this Glaceon, the man the myth the legend, has children. Small, tiny packages of Sova mixed with somebody else. I understand the frustration, but honestly; Sova has children." she hooted. Seeing as Alki was upset, though, Izumi did her best to tone it down just a bit. It was a struggle. "I know that this is probably confusing, but there are a lot of reasons that mons disguise themselves. I wasn't aware myself, if it's any consolation." She was still stifling chuckles, but by the time she was done she had calmed down considerably. "Besides..... I think the more pressing issue here is that Sova apparently has kids that he didn't know about somehow, at least if I'm reading things right." Under her breath, she added, "I didn't realize how right I was when I said he had been hauling more ass than the rest of us...."

Finally she was in a state where she could fully comprehend the gravity of the situation. "Uh. Wow.... congratulations, but..." Izumi didn't feel the need to put an end on that sentence. There really wasn't a need to end that sentence. It was really just an empty statement of shock that appropriately faded away to allow the more important things to work themselves out.

The skitty was proving to be a crybaby, which was agitating, but harmless.  Did tiny pink things just have natural desire to whine at every little thing, or was it guild members who had this inherent lack of maturity?  Regardless, the continued presence of the absol seemed to suffice as a catalyst for the end to this incessant pouting, leaving Senya thankful for her decision to stick around.  Granted, his invite was probably taken as a direct answer to her question of whether to stay or go, and he supposed it was.  Regardless, he was glad he didn't have to deal with any sad children; he didn't intend to put any effort toward cheering pathetic kids up, appearance be damned.  Not-Dave seemed to share this sentiment; the second the skitty tried to apologize and claim a desire to make up for it, she was directed out of the room.  He almost hoped she would comply and be allowed to leave, since that meant there would be one less annoying pest to tolerate.

Sova, on the other hand, had a different opinion on the situation.  He didn't even need to say anything for Senya to know to speak up.  He felt his mouth move, heard the words escape, and for a moment, was relieved.  "Gerome, play nice," came the request, simple but clear enough to get the point across.  Sova was thankful for the cooperation, from his partner as well as his... partner.  Mirage didn't seem too thrilled, and he could feel Senya's confusion at what she was trying to say and why she was so oddly upset.  He shared this confusion, and her attempts to clarify didn't do much to help.  She finally got the bright idea to write what she wanted to say, but apparently, writing out more than a single word was too much work.  He didn't bother trying to help decide how to respond because, simply put, he had no idea what she was trying to say.  Besides, it was hard to think beyond simple thoughts as the passenger, which he was beginning to realize.

"Kids" was the word written.  "Well, not all of them," he heard his voice speak once more, making it clear that it was being taken as an insult to the bystanders, and it seemed a bit harsh even if it wasn't exactly inaccurate.  All of them had exhibited some level of childish behavior over the course of this short meeting, after all.  He was mostly indifferent to it... until a very simple "U" was added to the insult, directing it not just at everyone else, but at Senya himself.  Sure enough, Sova's concern proved to be at least somewhat warranted as he heard the next words out of his mouth: "Look, I don't need your sass."  They were both really pushing it and definitely not helping maintain the already-shaky trust in the room.  Mirage seemed only to grow more agitated at this response, which was predictable if nothing else.  Then came something marginally less predictable.

He felt the mix of emotion in his being fade; within a split second, the presence controlling his body was gone, and the vessel was left frozen in a total lack of emotion.  He could hear laughter, talking, perhaps arguing?  It all felt so distant... muffled, and he could bring about no response in himself.  Despite now being alone, he felt, still, as if he were in the background of his own mind.  He was.  He couldn't process that he had just heard; he was unable to recall the words, and yet he still felt the corresponding emotions.  He could feel his eyes widening; mouth slowly falling open; ears pulling themselves down.  The sound of his pulse took precedence over all the voices, with his own breaths following closely behind.  He could hear the quivering in his throat and lungs, showing hesitance, perhaps even fear.  He knew what he was feeling, but his emotions felt separate from himself, and he was blind to why he felt them.  He stared at the drilbur, but all he could perceive was Mirage, and he had all but forgotten not to address her as such.

"Senya..." came a hushed, emotionally strained whisper, so far under his breath that one would have had to have sensitive ears or be a lip reader to reliably understand it.  The single word had escaped him through his absent thoughts; his feelings were dictating his actions, and at the moment, he felt a desire for his parallel to return.  He didn't want to be here for this, whatever "this" was.  His tunneled vision slowly fell into a normal state, but the haze remained present in his mind; total clarity was evading him despite his efforts to pull himself into lucidity.  "I..." he managed to speak another syllable, this time with slightly more audibility.  The words of those around him were beginning to come into focus, though understanding them was still a challenge.  He knew someone was laughing... or perhaps they weren't anymore?  He couldn't tell whether it was the past or present that he was taking in, but it confused him all the same.

Everything felt so foreign to him, almost like a dream.  There seemed to be a break in the audible-yet-inaudible chatter, but he wondered if it was simply his hearing fading out again.  "He's... shy..." the words kept coming without his consent; however, they served a purpose in giving him a bit more context on his own situation in the process.  Mirage... was the he.  That much he knew, but he was confused as to why he was saying this.  "Because... his voice..." he continued, growing increasingly audible and bringing further clarity to himself.  Mirage had spoken, and now he was trying to think of an excuse for the earlier claim of her being a mute.  It felt prompted, but he wasn't sure by what.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, reality was coming into focus.  The jigglypuff was back in the room, and she wasn't willing to just ignore the "mute's" amply clear speech.  Izumi was the one laughing, or at least, she had been.  She had already gotten it all out of her system and moved on to... congratulating him?  But for what?  Why did he feel such dread toward anything that was worth congratulating him over?  Mirage's words were the last to come into focus: kids.  The first clue was this one thought echoing through the glaceon's hollowed mind.  The memory was fuzzy at first despite how fresh it should have been.  Then it hit him.

"WE HAVE KIDS!"

That wasn't exactly what she'd said, but it was what Sova recalled when it finally came to him.  "I..." he continued to stare into the eyes of what he could not see as anything less than a zoroark.  Still presented with minimal control over himself, he began another sentence, unrelated to the fragmented speech that had come before it.  "C-could... can... can everyone please..." he fell silent, realizing a bit late what it was he was saying; he could hear his voice wavering in total betrayal of the indifferent demeanor he strove to present.  He wanted to tell everyone to leave, save for Mirage.  Actually, no; he wanted her to leave too.  He wanted to be completely alone so as to process this in peace... or perhaps to just go back to sleep.  Alas, he had managed to catch himself before finishing this request, and of course, he'd chosen to retract it.  His mouth still refused to close even when he had no intention of speaking, lower jaw shaking as if unsure of how to move.

He felt numb in a way, as if his emotions weren't his.  They were.  "Please..." he pleaded, unsure as to what he was asking and for whom it was intended.


Skylar's lust for the extravagant, sparkly item wasn't quite enough to make her willing to accept such a presumed detriment to Aries' wallet.  Above her own selfishness, she wanted to make sure this child didn't hurt his livelihood for her sake, especially when she had done nothing for him.  But, her hesitance was taken differently from how it was intended, and suddenly, she wasn't so sure she was making the right choice.  "N-no, that's not...  It's great; beautiful, even!  But..." she assured.  Unfortunately, she was unable to talk her way out of having to see the skiddo's heart break before her eyes.  Apparently, she didn't seem genuine enough, even though she was being entirely honest!  She truly thought it was an amazing gift; the entire problem was that it was too amazing.  A mix if disappointment and regret flooded her as the trinket was pulled away from her whilst its keeper seemingly stood on the verge of tears.  He wasn't going to go get his money back or just sell it or even keep it for himself, but rather, he was going to get it remade into something else.  He was going to destroy this wonderful piece of jewelry just because he thought she didn't like it, and more importantly, he was going to spend even more money trying to turn it into something she would like more.

Desire alone was enough to send an impulse through the vaporeon's body to snatch the bracelet away before it could be revoked and destroyed.  She resisted, but still made herself clear: "No no, no, don't!  It's perfect!  Don't get rid of it, please!"  She raised her right paw as if to grab the piece of jewelry, but restrained herself still, trying very hard not to just take it from the poor kid... even if he had made it for her in the first place.  Fortunately, her words were heard this time around, and while her motivation for speaking up wasn't entirely selfless, seeing the skiddo's face brighten warmed her heart all the same.  She reflected his smile with one of her own, this time accepting the gift when it was presented to her.  She picked the bracelet up carefully in her mouth, and while her attention was now being pulled away from Aries, she still caught him saying she didn't have to wear it.

Oh, she was gonna wear it.

Since her right paw was still hanging in the air as if lost with nowhere to go, Sky chose this one with which to try her new piece of attire on.  She slipped her leg through the little hoop and released it from her mouth, then reached her paw out in front of her to admire it.  It had a very... natural appearance to it, and she liked how it looked on her.  It didn't exactly feel natural, but she wasn't used to wearing anything like this, so it was no surprise that it was a bit odd.  It wasn't as if she'd had no experience whatsoever with the concept, though; she liked to wear her guild ribbon around her legs and sometimes even her tail.  She didn't have the ribbon on at the moment, as she tried not to keep it on at all times, especially since her... episodes... always left it soaked.  It seemed best to keep it off when she wasn't out and about, at the very least.  But, this, on the other hand, was not something she felt the same about.  This... she had only just received it, and already, she wanted to leave it on forever.

She was so enamored with the intricate design of the brace and the sparkling gemstones embedded into it that she almost missed Aries giving her a compliment.  As if the gifts weren't enough, he was even complimenting her, putting her on a pedestal over his own family.  She would have felt a bit bad about that last bit, but... well, this was the first gratitude she had really gotten from anyone for anything since joining the guild, and she was in a bad enough state to just take the win without complaint.  "Well, I'm sure he's..." she started up, considering saying something to the credit of the skiddo's father.  Then, upon getting another look at Aries, she decided she wanted to say something about him instead.  "Hey... are you okay?  You seem... sick?  You just don't look quite as lively as I remember you," she questioned, her tone shifting to show concern.  Her leg fell slowly back to its rightful place on the ground, the trinket suddenly seeming less important to her.  Was the kid not taking proper care of himself, or maybe just ill?

She wasn't sure if she could do anything to help, but it only seemed to right to at least ask if he was alright.  After all, he had just come all the way down to the guild to shower her with gifts and praise, and for what?  She still had conflicting feelings about how much she had really done to deserve any of it; her mind was changing constantly, keeping her flickering between "I was useless" and "I should be the one in the spotlight."  In the occasional moment of clarity, she knew the truth was probably somewhere between the two, but she was having a bit of trouble keeping her head clear.  One emotion or another kept finding its way into her soul and dragging her down...  But this whole thing with Aries...  It helped.

Darcy chanced another glance up at Gerome, doing her best to meet his eyes, no matter how hard it was.  He didn't deserve to feel bad for his actions.  She didn't want to seem dejected.  Even if she was.

It took a great deal of effort. But she laid her eyes on him.  ...Just as soon as he raised a claw and pointed coldly towards the door.  "O-oh..." Darcy breathed.  Another sharp pang of grief struck her heart and her gaze dropped back to the floor.  ...Somehow, the Drilbur's request came as a shock.  The Skitty's mouth twisted into an uncomfortable frown and she fought to keep her breath steady.  She still felt raw with emotion.  ...And no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, Gerome reminded her so much of Dave.  Even though she knew it wasn't him, being turned away so bluntly still hurt.  Another wave of sadness swept through her body and she found herself with tears in her eyes again.

...But it was a fair request.  She didn't know either of these Pokemon.  She had barged in because she thought she had seen Dave, but...  Now that she knew the truth, it dawned on her how out of place she was.  "...Alright," she sighed, doing her best to keep her voice steady.  She swallowed and glanced up again, looking at Dave...  No, looking at Gerome with as much resolve as she could muster.  "I'm sorry again.  You can be alone now.  I'll leave you be."

She turned and stepped towards the door, waiting until she was facing away from the others to take a shaky, deep breath and blink back the last of her tears.  It was okay, she told herself.  It was hard to accept, but it would be okay...  Alki still needed her.  They would finish healing Gerome's friend, and then they could go have dinner together, and everything would be alright...

The Skitty spotted Alki in the doorway and she forced a small, sad smile as she approached.  Spending time together always cheered her up.  Maybe tonight wouldn't be so bad after all.  But before the Skitty could join her...  She jumped with surprise as a voice rang out.  The voice of a stranger.  She whirled around, blinking her eyes and wondering if she had overlooked someone in the room.  ...But the only Pokemon frustrated enough to match the feminine voice was...  Gerome...

Darcy sat down and gazed at the Drilbur with a blank expression, her mouth hanging open, not sure what to think.  Alki seemed confused too.  Gerome was...  A girl..?  The voice didn't match his appearance at all.  And the Pokemon on the bed had children...  Was this the first he was hearing of it?  No wonder Gerome wanted some privacy...

Izumi burst into laughter.  And somehow, in spite of how downtrodden she felt, a tiny smile emerged on Darcy's face as well.  The whole situation was so surreal.  But it was good news, wasn't it?  This Pokemon was badly injured.  But once he was feeling better, he had something downright magical to look forward to.  He was going to be a father.

And Darcy's eyes glimmered as Izumi's laughter settled down and she began to speak.  Sova..?  The wounded Pokemon was him?  The one she'd only heard of in hushed whispers and rumors as varied as the Pokemon who told them.  The Skitty's smile grew wider.  He was the leader of Team Sentima.  They were the highest ranked Pokemon the guild had ever seen.  She had spent so much time pestering Faye about them, daydreaming about what they must be like, wondering if her own team might ever get that far...  And now here was their leader, right in front of her.  The Pokemon she had wanted to befriend and learn from for so long.

She didn't feel as happy as she should have been, still shaky and melancholy from her run-in with Gerome.  But while Sova visited the guild so rarely, he didn't seem like he would be going anywhere anytime soon.  Even if he was a dad now.  His wounds looked like they would need time to heal, and their bedrooms weren't far away...  Maybe she could visit again sometime over the next few days.  Maybe she could bring him tea, and he could share stories with her...

...The news seemed to have taken its toll on him, though.  Darcy gave him a tiny, sheepish smile as his voice trailed off.  Could everone...  Leave him alone..?  That seemed to be the sentiment in his voice.  And it was hard to deny him that.  ...Gerome was certainly an odd character, but if they needed time to themselves, it was understandable.  

...She wondered if Alki would agree, though.  Darcy paced over to the Jigglypuff's side, the sheepish look still on her face.  He had been mean to her about her accusations towards Gerome, but she had been right in the end.  "...I think Izu is right about this, Alki," she murmured softly, leaning in close.  "...I think this is a really important day for him.  ...You can talk with him or Faye about it later if you want to, but I don't know that now is the time..."

She gave Alki an apologetic smile and brushed her tail against the Jigglypuff's back.  Hopefully she would understand.  The Skitty turned her gaze back to Sova and tilted her head, fidgeting with her paws and her mind racing.  She had always daydreamed about meeting him, but never imagined that it would turn out like this.  She couldn't leave without saying anything to him at all...  "And, uh, uh..." she began, her tail swishing back and forth.  "Sova, if you ever need a babysitter, I'd be glad to help on my days off!  I'm good with kids!  My room is the one closest to the stairs if you ever need to ask me!"

It was only to be expected that the news would hit Sova like a train. The one at the wheel was clearly knocked out of place by her words as Sova's demeanor shifted. Whether or not it was a good thing was a different story.

Mirage almost regretted speaking up, almost. It was news that this pokemon needed to know, though now was likely not the best time. Too bad so sad, it was said and done. It was too late to take it back. She remained silent once more as her mouth snapped shut. Her arms crossed both literally and illusionary as she waited for some sort of reaction from Sova. Honestly, she was not sure what she expected, but she still suffered leftover frustration from simply trying to convey the message.

The jigglypuff walked in, but for the most part, they went ignored by Mirage. Sova had spoken up with an explanation of why she was 'quiet' rather than 'mute'. This would have been a lot easier if she did not pick what was apparently the most popular nobody in the guild. Why was her luck always so sour anyway?

The zoroark disguised as a drilbur waited patiently as everyone gave in their two cents. Eventually, Sova expressed the desire for everyone to leave. She assumed that excluded her. If not, then it sure sucked to be Sova right now. The zoroark was not about to go anywhere unless she absolutely had to. She would even sit in a corner and continue her silence if need be.

Everybody wanted to continue yapping their traps it seemed. The drilbur's expression was obviously upset as 'Gerome' pointed towards the door as she made the eyes dart between each and every pokemon in the room.

If they wouldn't get out then she would have to find some way to make them.

----

Aries's ears jolted upward as the vaporeon turned the attention to his wellbeing. The ears dropped immediately as he worried about drawing too much attention. He was well aware that he was not as healthy as he used to. He looked down at his reflection every day and watched his lush mane of leaves slowly die.

"U-Uh, yeah, kinda?" he could not bring himself to lie to the vaporeon. He was most definitely not 'okay' but he was not exactly 'sick' either. The skiddo decided to elaborate for her, "Without the sun being around as often, it's kinda hard to footon-synthia-whatever. I usually rely on it for nutrients and save the food for the customers who can't do that."

"There's this...really nice looking pyroar that uses Sunny Day for the grass types, but uh...I can't." He left it at that. He did not know if Skylar would be able to figure it out from there, but he did not want to go into detail about why he was so terrified of a fire type in general. Those were memories he would love to simply bury away and forget in the abyss of his mind.

"B-But I have plenty of supplies!" he piped up a bit more enthusiastically, "I've just been taking stuff I have the most plentiful of from my shop and eating those." It seemed like a smart idea to the skiddo, but honestly, he missed out nutrients he needed in doing so. He would always end up eating Oran Berries, but a pokemon could not just live off Oran Berries for their life. He was not aware of such nutritional values for his own kind. He was far too reliant on the sun.

--

Erebus's eyes opened to find...he was alone. He was put through a wall and left completely alone. What? What kind of guild was this? Who even put him through a wall in the first place? He growled as he placed his bets on that blasted Glaceon. Wasn't he supposed to be incapacitated? Surely there was no way Skylar did it...did she? He stood himself up. He gave his fur a shake to rid himself of the debris that collected on his fur.

"Real f*cking help you all are, such GREAT rescue teams we have here!" he sneered sarcastically and loud as he stepped out of the unfortunate team's room. The jolteon was peeved, both because he had been put through a wall and because nobody had come to his aid. He found it painful to step on his left paw. The jolteon favored one paw but tried his best to not appear as if he needed to limp. He had an ego to protect after all!

The memory returned to him as he gazed about the guild. A blue fish-like tail had smacked him. Skylar had a blue fish-like tail.

That b*tch!

He forced himself forward in the direction Skylar had originally gone when he decided to follow her. "Skylar!" he called out to her when he spotted her, "What the hell!?"

The jigglypuff looked up as her question was met with laughter from the absol. Izumi was laughing at her. Nothing about the situation seemed funny for anyone but her. Not for the supposed-to-be-mute Drillbur, whose lack of speech seemed magically cured, and who now seemed very, very frustrated. It wasn’t funny for the wounded Glaceon on the silly pillow, who had devolved into a stammering mess, unable to finish his excuses and his pleas. The only one who seemed to be taking in this information with any tranquility was Darcy. Alki half-listened to the absol’s words, but she found it difficult to focus. What difference did Izumi’s words make? The laughter said it all.

The Glaceon was easy to understand, at least. The sudden outburst of speech did not bother him nearly as much as the contents of the words. Could everyone please leave? Get out? Some variant of that. Alki sniffed, trying to keep her emotions reined in. The glaceon’s was an easy request to fulfill, at least, and after hearing herself go ignored, and then proceed to be the butt of an absolutely hilarious joke to the absol, Alki didn’t exactly want to be in the room any longer.

The jigglypuff felt a soft tail brush against her back. It was a familiar sensation that usually made her feel at least a bit of comfort. But today was different, it seemed, as the jigglypuff let out a half laugh, half sob. Thieves don’t cry. Thieves don’t cry. She repeated this mantra in the seconds it took to compose herself. She was a prick, and now she was a pathetic joke, but she could at least leave the room without adding ‘crybaby’ to the list. Although, she supposed, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together and realize that that’s exactly what she was. She’d barely avoided all out crying twice now. They knew. Everyone in the room knew.

“Yeah. Hilarious.” She stared at the absol, her sassy remark turning to be anything but sassy. All it was was pathetic. The jigglypuff looked around the room, at the cluster of pokemon, their emotions ranging from laugh-out-loud jovial, to unbridled frustration; from nervous excitement, to trembling shock. She could feel tears returning to her eyes. She shut them tightly, repeating her same mantra in her head. Alki wondered whether she should add something, but the only thing that came to mind was a simple, three word phrse. “I get it.” She opened and closed her mouth, searching for more words, but that was all she could find. Who was it addressed to? The absol, or the glaceon? Both? Then why did she feel as if she were a third recipient of that comment?

She opened her eyes, taking in the faces in the room. She’d never met any of those pokemon before, except Darcy, yet it already felt as if she’d ruined all of the potentially new and pleasant relationships she could’ve had. First impressions mattered the most, right? The only thing she knew was that was a hellish first impression. Alki recoiled from the Skitty’s tail. Darcy had good intentions. She always looked out for Alki, but today just wasn’t a day that she wanted to be coddled on. One last look at the occupants of the room, and a lingering gaze at the bloodstained bandages that wrapped the Glaceon’s body later, and Alki was out of the room, away from the door, and resting against a wall. She let herself slide down into a sitting position, closing her eyes.

She’d wanted to help. Plain and simple, that had been her only goal. A couple of bad choices later, and she was outside, struggling not to cry in a hallway for the second time that day. The jigglypuff’s eyes remained shut, and she leaned her head against the wall. She could hear what was going on in the room, but she didn’t care. She didn’t have the energy to move further away. She’d been called pathetic by one of the strongest and most famous guild-mons out there, and she’d done nothing but give substance to his claim. In the dimly lit hallway, Alki silently reflected on how right her critics, -- all of her critics -- had been all along.

Yet as she lay against the wall, letting herself wallow in her misery, she couldn’t seem to shut up some small, annoying voice in her mind. The glaceon was still hurt, it said, and no matter how much he hated, and no matter how many reasons to hate her he had changed that fact. She could heal. No other pokemon capable of healing had come to help. She could still help. She could still be useful.

Alki opened her blurry eyes, allowing her gaze to fall on a nearby candle, its flame flickering this way and that. The tiny, persistent little thing brought some comfort, but not nearly enough. No, if she didn’t have the energy to move further down the hallway, away from the room, then she sure as hell didn’t have the energy to heal. She stared at the small, dancing flame. Why drag his opinion of her any deeper through the mod? Now wasn’t the time. Darcy was right. Still. She felt guilty. She was supposed to help people, that was her job. Wasn’t it? Yet all she could hear in her mind was the absol’s laughing. Perhaps she imagined it crueler than it really was. But she thought that she was past being laughed at. Apparently not. And if the absol was going to respect the glaceon’s wishes as well, then she’d see the jigglypuff, and the jigglypuff did not want to give her any more reasons to laugh. No, she could wait. She could heal him later. She stared at the fire, alone with her thoughts for a few, precious seconds, before the rest of the pokemon in the room joined her. Until then, she was alone with the candles, and with her self-hating thoughts.

Izumi could only whimper a semi-apology at Alki. She felt bad about her giggles, but honestly she didn't have the capacity to further analyze that feeling. She could only stare into the wall, getting back onto her paws in a surreal motion, detached from the rest of the situation. She just could not work through all of this fast enough, and if the recent awkwardness wasn't enough of an indicator, this was the big flashing neon exit sign. She felt a little bad as well

"Uhh... yea, yea I hear you. I'll give you guys some time too. I'll come back and catch up at a less... sensitive point. And I should really find Skylar and at least try to clear things up. Yea. Uh. Take care, try to rest..." Izumi wasn't sure what else to add to that. She tried to think of something too; she really did. But more of her just standing there staring at a wall in their general direction really wasn't accomplishing much beyond just proving the point more. She just nodded with a final, "Excuse me, have a good afternoon," and went out after Darcy. She started to just autopilot down the hallway, walking slowly with the same shocked expression on her face. Holy. Good. Arceus. She just.... she just needed to get back to her shop and decompress for a bit. Maybe eat something. Wallow in social anxiety for a while. She flew too close to the sun, and the ground below it hit real hard.

She eventually made it out to the main area, weirding more than a few guild goers out with her shocked expression. She just wanted to make it to the shop. Just had to make it to the shop. None of this awkwardness existed at the shop; she could shake it off and hopefully get back to a state of mind where she could accurately respond to things like this again. Surely she could get enough of a break to achieve that much.

Hah. How wrong she was.

"Skylar!" was all she needed to hear before she knew she was nowhere close to being safe. And two feet from her shop... She turned her head one way, towards the screaming to see Erebus. She turned her head the other way, and she saw Skylar and Aries talking. Oh, good. This could only go well. Izumi froze for a moment, conflicted. She needed to talk to Skylar, but she didn't want to interrupt their conversation. She looked back at Erebus, and then at a wall, trying to determine the best place to observe from until she had a better opportunity to speak to the aquatic pokemon. About many things. Alternatively, she could intervene with the loudmouth mess of a Jolteon. Was that mortar in his fur...? She had unwittingly placed herself directly in his path, and she wasn't exactly moving a whole lot.

"YOU HAVE KIDS!"

The words were still fuzzy, like a distant memory that fled at every attempt to reach it.  They couldn't have possibly been spoken more clearly, and yet they were recalled as a whisper, hushed and difficult to make out.  It was odd, though; Sova knew the words despite the struggle to repeat them in his mind, and he knew his feelings on them.  Actually, he knew mostly that he was feeling turmoil with no particular emotion taking precedence.  He wasn't able to process much else at the moment, but he was slowly finding the evasive clarity he sought.  He knew that what he wanted was for this not to be happening, but he still wasn't entirely sure why.  Was the idea of having kids really so bad that it would make him feel so... terrible?  He knew that he was scared, and he wasn't ready, and he felt mad that he suddenly had to think about this on top of everything else.  In fact, he was starting to realize that he was actually mad about a lot of parts of the situaiton.

Izumi had offended his loyal teammate, and he'd sided with this absol despite how she really had been out of line.  The bratty jigglypuff was being a persistent pest, doing everything possible to make the situation more awkward than it already was; she and the skitty had wasted a lot of oxygen with their crying, and the both of them were doing nearly nothing but bothering Mirage.  Actually, on the topic of Mirage, her mere presence was a risk and another thing for the glaceon to worry about, and she wasn't exactly helping with her behavior, nor her words.  Her very existence was doing nothing but fanning the flames and adding to the pile of problems already present.  From Sova's perspective, it seemed almost as if everyone wanted to make this harder on him than it had to be, and he couldn't just get up and walk away.  He had to ask them to have mercy on him and leave, but... he was too weak to demand such a thing of them.  Despite all the cruelty in his past, he was suddenly unable to find the will to tell all these... horrible... horrible problems to just... go away.

"Wow.... congratulations."

The source of the shock was still evading the forefront of his mind, but he was beginning to recall the words that followed.  Izumi had... congratulated him, as if it were supposed to be some great thing worth celebrating?  He felt bitter, but at the same time, it reminded him that none of them truly meant any ill will.  Izumi just liked to make jokes, and she surely hadn't known the severity of the situation before speaking; the two pink little children were... well, children, and they were both obviously sensitive; Mirage was probably under a lot of stress too, trying to find a way to stick around and be supportive of him in his wounded state while carrying around such a burden.  Skylar... was gone, but she had apparently stood guard outside the room to make sure he was allowed to rest without disturbance.  He looked down at the pillow once more, knowing that someone had given it to him, and with how extravagant it was, it didn't take much to guess it may have been from the guildmaster.  He was being taken care of and worried about, which was something he really should have been grateful for.

"I think this is a really important day for him."

More recent bits of speech were beginning to come into focus, but they weren't helping anything.  This was supposed to be an important day, apparently, and while he couldn't exactly disagree, he was pretty sure he held a different definition of "important" in this situation.  He had been congratulated, and now this was apparently supposed to be an important day, but none of this was for his actual achievement.  No one seemed to care about how he had put his life on the line and given everything he had to protect them; the sudden news was somehow more important than his efforts, and apparently, a bigger accomplishment.  He was beginning to remember how hard he'd fought; the pain, and the dread of seeing Mirage and Skylar hurt, and... the feeling of having something stuck through his chest.  His breath stopped for a moment as this sole memory flooded his mind so vividly that he could quite literally feel it all over again.  For this, he received no praise, all because of some mistake all of them had only just learned of?  For his agony, nearly drowning in his own blood, no one cared; all they were worried about was something completely irrelevant to them, something pretty to distract them from him!

"I get it."

Did any of them get it?  Did even one of them understand that he wasn't happy like they seemed to believe he was supposed to be?  Didn't they understand that the thing he wanted to be told was that he had actually done something good?  He just wanted to know that he had done something to put a dent in the bad reputation he'd built up... and done something to make up for all his wrongs.  Instead, they were all suddenly acting like he was just some dad, like his past behavior and recent endeavors meant nothing.  He didn't want to be this, and yet already, not even minutes after knowing... already, apparently, it was all he was.  He didn't want everyone to just congratulate him on this revelation then leave him to writhe in the aftermath.  He... actually didn't want them to leave, in stark contrast to his previous feelings.  He didn't want to be left alone with the fresh knowledge of how many more mistakes he had ahead of him, especially with Mirage standing right there.  He knew she would never leave willingly, and he knew she would want to talk about this, but even if she didn't, her mere presence would be enough.

"Take care; try to rest."

He couldn't rest, let alone stuck in a room with no one but Mirage.  She was about the last soul in the world that he wanted to see, even with her true face hidden.  Now everyone wanted to leave him with her even though he had restrained himself from telling them to.  No one wanted to tell him he had done a good job...  No one wanted to stay and keep him company...  Everyone just wanted to... wish him luck and leave.  Of course, it wasn't their problem, so why would they care?  No... he knew the point of them deciding to leave was to give him the space they assumed he wanted and needed.  The only problem was that it wasn't true; he had lied or just changed his mind, but either way, he didn't want them to leave.  He wanted someone to stay and tell him his life wasn't over.  He wanted a distraction, and to focus on his recent success instead of all the failure waiting ahead.

Unfortunately, another combination of words arranged itself for the glaceon to hear, making the hopelessness of his situation absolute in his mind.  This statement was a bit out of order, misaligned in relation to everything else he was taking in.

"Sova, if you ever need a babysitter, I'd be glad to help on my days off!  I'm good with kids!  My room is the one closest to the stairs if you ever need to ask me!"

Actually, he felt... better.  He had just finished fighting a god in some futile struggle to atone for his past, and now, suddenly, he was a family man!  Now instead of being able to be the good guy for once or even being able to work toward it, he was cursed with yet other consequence of his own decisions.  Now he had the privilege of personally destroying the life of a child... no, two children if not more.  He was cruel, insensitive, bad with social interaction and caring for others; he wasn't helpful in many ways, and in fact, the only thing he was particularly good at was fighting.  He'd chosen this life for himself, but that didn't change the result.  Everyone was practically applauding him like him having children was a good thing, giving him words of encouragement and acting like they thought he was happy, or at least that he should have been.  Did he look happy?  It still seemed like a nightmare, but under the assumption it was true, there were two children in the world who were doomed, and it was all his fault...

"Heh," he gave a forced, hesitant laugh, his tone indicating that it was more for a lack of anything else to say or do.  It was a very clear laugh of nervousness rather than joy.  "Hah... ahah..." he laughed again, this time with a more genuine, joyous sound to it.  There was more confidence and force behind it this time, almost suggesting that he was actually happy, but there was an underlying tone of desperation in it all.  This laughter slowly built up to ecstatic cackling with an uncanny sound of of pleasure in it; it was, put simply, deranged and desperate.  Despite being laughter, it was a plead for help from someone who had just gone through a gauntlet to make his life right, only to be thrown ten steps back then congratulated for it.  The true fear and dread behind the noise should have been clear for anyone who knew anyone about him or could read a situation or tone of voice at all.

He shut his eyes away from Mirage and the rest of the world as he fell limp on his right side, his unhinged, twittering giggles persisting with no regard for who might hear or what they might think.  He could feel the pain in his chest spreading all over his body, but he couldn't stop and really didn't care to try.  He didn't notice that his violent laughter was opening his wounds; fresh stains of red were soaking through the bandages covering his body.  Then, without warning, he fell silent.

His eyes opened.

There was a brief period of silence in which he was finally able to think clearly.  "Stay..." he spoke, his voice hoarse and strained from a mixture of the injuries, exhaustion and excessive laughter.  He still held the mock-joy in his tone, as if to keep up some act that he was excited and just wanted to invite his new friends to stick around and chat.  He didn't know if any of them were still there, but he knew he wanted anything but to be left alone with Mirage so she could tell him about these kids he would probably end up killing.  "Someone stay..." he reiterated, this time in a more dismal voice that announced his feelings without restraint.

"Please."

This time, he knew what he was pleading for.


Skylar listened as the skiddo explained his situation and how his health was deteriorating without sunlight.  Footon-synthia-whatever, as he called it, was something that plants needed, and it happened to be something many grass-pokémon happened to need as well.  Well, maybe they didn't need it, but it was certainly something a lot of them seemed to rely on at least partially for nutrients.  He didn't look like he was doing too good, and from how he spoke, it sounded like he didn't even know how to properly feed himself without the sun around.  He was apparently unable to accept artificial sun from those giving it, which Sky could only assume was because something about it scared or intimidated him.  Maybe it was the nature of the move, or...  Oh.  It was the pokémon giving out the sunlight: a pyroar.  It made sense if Aries was scared of fire and fire-types, but... perhaps a vaporeon with Sunny Day would be more comforting?  She at least needed to try if it meant the possibility of her doing something to pay back his generosity.  "I-"

"Skylar!"


With her attention focused on the skiddo, Sky hadn't noticed the presence of a certain waste of fur in the area.  She could feel her body melting, but she fought and fought to suppress it, managing to retain control of herself, at least for the moment.  She looked down at the bracelet around her leg and thought about how she could have already been giving Aries the light he needed.  She turned toward the voice, and sure enough, it was Erebus.  Her eyes narrowed, her mind went blank and she suddenly found herself walking toward the jolteon.  Her stride was steady and confident, almost robotic; her tail dragged motionlessly across the ground; her black eyes trained themselves on him.  She wanted him to just take a hint and leave her alone already!  What more did she have to do to make it clear to him that she wanted nothing to do with him?  Did she have to beat him unconscious and drag him out of the guild herself?  Would he truly not leave her be without someone forcing him to?

She was going to hit him again.  He wasn't doing anything to ask for it this time around, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he knew it.  He had to have understood the risk that trying to argue over getting smacked was only going to end badly for him; he must have been able to see that she was in pain and wanted him to leave her alone.  Besides, in what little she had seen of him, he had been consistently and wholly unpleasant.  He had surely been told plenty that he was a rude, insensitive womanizer, and that clearly wasn't doing anything to change him, so maybe she could beat some sense into him.  If nothing else, it would be a good way for her to take out some of her distress on someone who at least somewhat deserved it.  She would make it quick so that she could get back to Aries and give him the sun he so desperately needed, and then maybe they could sit down together and talk and...

The movement of the vaporeon's paws slowed, then stopped.  She had closed a good portion of the distance between her target and herself, but she was beginning to realize what she was doing.  She was about to bet on someone who wasn't doing anything to endanger her or anyone else, and in front of a child who currently seemed to think the world of her.  Given a moment to calm herself and relieve her tunnel vision, she noticed a familiar face had emerged from within the sleeping quarters, furthering the problem.  She now had an audience of two here to witness her lashing out against someone who really wasn't doing all that much to bring it upon himself.  She didn't care too much what Izumi's opinion of her was, but she still didn't want to do something she knew was wrong, especially in front of others.  It took the presence of onlookers to pull her out of her desire to hurt someone, and that filled her with guilt.  She was upset for a lot of reasons, but none of it justified violence for the sake of violence.

"Leave," she commanded loud and clear, staring straight into the jolteon's eyes.  She wouldn't hit him for no reason, not again, but that didn't mean she would be nice to him when he didn't deserve it.  She wanted him to leave, he didn't deserve to stay, and he needed to know both these things.  "Turn tail and leave this instant.  You can go wherever you want and do whatever you want, but LEAVE.  ME.  ALONE!" she continued, making her instructions as understandable as she could.  Her tone was demanding and her voice rose nearly to a shout by the end, but she managed still to keep herself somewhat stable.  She was still ready to smack him again if he tried anything, and a part of her really wanted to, but the rest of her wanted to actually be able to respect herself.  She was showing restraint because she knew it was the right thing to do, but beyond that, she had no qualms with swatting Erebus again.