Tales of Shadows

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(Energy 22-10=12)

The dark embrace of Shadowhue Forest was few looked forward to. Not to useful for those unwilling to transverse through the forest. However those looking for a place to lay low found this otherwise lightless forest perfect as Ket had found out in his earlier years. He reminisced using this forest to hide in when he got into the occasional scuffle. This nostalgia was the reason driving the lone zangoose into the forest that day. Ket was passing by the area bored and since he wasn’t on a schedule of any sort decided to take a detour for old times sake.

He entered the forest and began to wander deeper in glancing around for ferals. After several minutes of walking he paused to take in his surroundings. Never really bothering too much when he had visited before he had finally decided to finally appreciate the nature surrounding him. The tall trees went on for miles on end accompanied by the sea formed by the canopies blocking out the sun giving the forest it’s name. Rays of light poked through the otherwise undisturbed leaf blanket causing a break in the darkness on the forest floor.

It was quite the scene and perhaps maybe in another world somewhere Ket would of found the image displayed before him now wonderful on a painting. Too bad Ket never really cared much for art except for the, in his opinion, arbitrary price tag shoved onto them. No all art to Ket was something for those too lazy to go out and enjoy the outdoors themselves to horde over. Ket rolled his eyes at the idea of him enjoying the, “artistic value” of art. Finally he continued moving on deciding on going slightly further before turning back.

Taking no time and ignoring any reactions Ket would have done after she asked the practical demand, she went up the tree. It was pretty strange, what with how it wasn't moving or even caring about her or Ket's existance. By the time she was below the branch closest to it she heard Ket ask a question.

She froze and watched the Shedinja. It still did nothing but float in complete stillness. Curious. Yooka decided to answer and just watch to see if the Shedinja notices how close she is. "Funny, I was thinking the same thing but for my entire life. They don't even give training unless you ask and even then it's mostly the Town's Dojo. I decided to skip it as I already had training. However, I can guarantee you'd overpower any tactics I can think of because all of what I was taught was for controlling my Shadow. If i'm not mistaken--" The shedinja completely didn't care. Yooka went even closer as she continued to talk.

She was on the branch just mere feet from the Shedinja. --Zangoose are Normal. My shadow is equivalent to a Ghost. It wouldn't harm you no matter how much I tried to drown you with it... -Ah!" Yooka was just in reach of the Shedinja when it finally decided to do something. It simply vanished. It flickered like candlelight in a slight breeze before going out. She reached for it's last location but felt nothing. "That was awesome...! but dang it! Did you see that?" She jumped down but slowed her momentum with a few branches before landing.

"Also, as far as I know, only one team, not including my own, actually tries to help others. However, they can't handle themselves, not without durable help. I tried but they really dig themselves deep I could barely get them out. I will only try if I happen to be close by but don't count on me alone if there's a crowd to stop. I could explain why I joined and why I'm doing this but I'm sure you won't hear my rather long and pathetic story."

Yooka shrugged and nearly laughed when she dissed her own origin. She could only blame her Father's behavior towards her and the way Darcy and Alki treated her as a Guildmate and acceptable friend when she left him to rot. She hasn't told anyone that specific story and she never trusts anyone to tell it. However, Darcy was the only one who had a direct hint to the event because she happened to be there when Yooka left his place, yet she was lucky enough she didn't see it go down directly.

The sound of a river could be heard off in the distance. If anything that would be the best place the target of her mission would be because that's the only place where light is actually big enough to play around in due to the slight split the river makes in the forest. What the target is she can't quite picture. She's never had any as a kid, it was always business or Father or the rare occasion of a wannabe theif in their wares. She missed the free meals she'd get from them sometimes when they struggled for their life against her Father.

Still waiting for Yooka to finish up messing around with the static shedinja, Ket got a response to his question from her. Surprised by the lack of training from the guild Ket looked back at his past run ins with them slightly ticked he didn’t just fight them. He could've used the training. Almost made him want to go back to banditry. Alright there were likely some good teams out there and if he didn’t keep a low profile he’d probably be on a list somewhere but the fact still made him think.

A shout of surprise broke him from his reminiscing as he looked up to see the shedinja who had previously been floating aimlessly had decided at the last moment it was the perfect time to leave and had blinked out of there. Coughing loudly to suppress a laugh he quickly regained his composure as Yooka, having lost her query descended from the tree.

She proceeded to respond to his original question as she began to move towards the river. Telling Ket more about one specific team who he felt a small amount of pity. She came short when talking about her life though prompting Ket to respond.

“Long and pathetic story then? Yeah you and me both. Albeit you probably took the high ground than me.” As the words left his mouth Ket felt a pang of regret from his previous career. The later portion specifically. But in the end he did what to do to survive and to him that was that. If he had to go back to that he would. He stopped himself there deciding now was not the time to have a internal moral dispute he refocused himself to the task at hand as they walked towards the river.

Ket's agreement came with a surprising amount of information he probably didn't mean to give. A whole run-through of scenarios ran through her head. She suddenly paused with a slightly shocked and surprised look as she questioned to herself what he ment by 'high ground'. She's lived as a practical Feral for years before finally deciding to get the Guild into her life. She tried to picture why he'd said it first and then all his previous actions made sense.

She smirked and held out a hand for him to shake as she stared at him. "Now I'm curious. You lived the low life? So your saying your a hermit, a thief, or just a survivalist? Well, outside of being a Guildmember Mercenary, I find myself more of a Hun- Bounty Hunter... I'd rather go after outlaws than stuff like this mission but I don't want to look good and/or also be known as someone who can take on Outlaws."

She pondered if she should tell him about something but she hasn't exactly had enough time to tell if he's trustworthy for it. "I don't trust anyone including the, 'good' guys. However, I accept them. If you keep up the way you are towards me I may tell you something, but I don't know if your trustworthy enough."

Yooka went into her bag and slipped out a little slip of paper. It wasn't something others do as far as she could tell but it had her team information and room number. "Try not to get on the board or I may have to find you. As for this mission... There's a river up ahead, see if you can find any, er... Toys. I don't actually know what those are or what it would be, but I do know the client. The Minun is a kid, so I half expect something stupid. I would have finished this mission hours ago if I had known what it was though. I didn't ask nor wanted to know, and no, I'm not regretting that decision. The Plusle he mentioned takes FOEREVER to do something. Heheheh... I still have plenty of time."

OOC, somewhat:

Yooka offered her hand for him to shake after Ket’s remark. Curious to why she did this he shook hands with her as she called him out for the second time this trip. Caught off guard he almost booked it out of there until he realized, if she was going to do anything she would of already made a move. It annoyed Ket but looking back on it now he had been a bit careless in what he had been saying to her. Perhaps he was getting lazy, lucky break for him it seemed like she couldn’t care less what profession he had persuaded.

She then said something which perked his interest. Something about her that she would only disclose when he gained her trust. Ket wondered what that could be as she grabbed a paper from her bag and handed it to him. While she went on about the job Ket unfolded the paper. It revealed what he assumed was her team’s information. He refolded it and put it away for future reference if he needed it.

“Hey trust me, I’m not saying what I’ve done before was, for lack of a better term, less than legal but if I was saying that let’s say I’ve gotten good at keeping this face of mine off any boards.” Ket looked off towards the river before moving towards it. “Well let's get this mission done then.”

Yooka accepted his word by nodding and continued forward. The river's clearing wasn't what someone would expect coming from shadowhue. The forest's canopy had a wider split because of the distance the river causes between the trees. The sun can actually beam down onto the ground here because of that but the branches still connected across. However, because there were clouds in the sky and they happened to be rather dark aswell as practically blocking out the sun, instead of it being lit like a normal field, but with slight shadows due to the branches, the river clearing was covered in Twilight.

Every now and then in the darkest parts of the area, there would be dimly glowing mushrooms of a rather monotonous color, most were shades of blue but they were closer to white. This was a hint that the Waterfall was close by just up river but that's not where the Minun Client said his toys would be. The Waterfall however, could not be heard from where they were at. Yooka hasn't been here yet to look for the target and immediately breezed a look around the entire clearing when she entered the area. She didn't move much, just sticking to where they entered. She didn't do much of anything else outside of just looked around. She didn't investigate a few downed branches, a broken tree trunk, or...

She had no intentions of taking in the sight as her mind was focused purely on looking for an object that wasn't part of the forest and did not belong. She did indeed find something but completely froze as she stared at it. However, it did belong. It was a Heracross or specifically the back of one. It was a bit unexpected as it blended in with the lighting where it was at. Yooka couldn't ignore it, it was a big pokemon to her and the possibility of it knowing moves that are powerful is extreme.

The river that ran through parts of Shadowhue was one of the few places in the forest Ket had not gotten to familiar with. This part of the river wasn’t too fast moving or too wide. It was also one of the few places in the forest which sun penetrated through the thick layers of canopy which otherwise drowned out the light. Ket looked up towards the sky to see that the weather had worsened to quite miserable conditions. He hoped it wouldn’t rain soon, having the river overflow right now would be the last thing they needed.

Taking his mind off the sky Ket scanned around the river looking for what a minun might consider a toy. He was about to motion to Yooka to look around for the toy before he noticed what she was staring at. A heracross was standing with it’s back to them unaware of their presence. Ket whispered to Yooka, “Wanna to take it on?”

Ket usually liked to avoid fights but he knew he needed to work on his combat and it would be a two on one. Ket stood up on two legs ready for a fight.

Urges to decline the fight popped up but all she did was twitch when he whispered. She couldn't see what the pokemon was doing but if Ket wanted to fight it, then so be it.

Yooka crouched to the ground, no... She laid down and curled up into a small form but she kept her eyes on the Target. She was indeed trying to hide as she then started cloaking herself. Meanwhile, her shadow was heading over to the Heracross. She kept it behind the target as she focused it into taking her shape. Heh, Shadow Yooka... however, the downside to this plan of hers... it wouldn't work against a normal type and she's limited to just her shadow. But aslong as she's not seen and doesn't get exhausted for holding the shadow's existance for too long, it's pretty much a guaranteed win.

She started it off by giving the back a few pokes. As soon as the Heracross reacted and saw her shadow, Yooka made in jump straight at it's head and turned it into a painful force... or more accurately, a constantly changing shape that started wrecking havoc on it's upper body. This caused the Heracross to stumble backwards as it tried to get the stuff off but the Heracross's tough carapace was not letting up for the shadowsneak attack. The shadow was only being a disturbance than anything to it. It's sight was not even hindered because it saw Ket and decided to take action.

Ket watched Yooka crouch as he pushed up to a bush off to the side of the heracross. Once he got there he poked up over the side of the bush to see Yooka’s shadow move up to the still oblivious heracross. That was until the shadow got it’s attention by first poking them, then proceeded to jump on it’s head and assault it. Taking this as his chance Ket dashed up from the bush to engage the heracross. The heracross looked up still failing with its hands in a futile attempt to dislodge the shadow from it’s body.

The heracross locked eyes with him before turning to charge at him with its horn. Ket taking the chance quickly leered at the heracross to give him a slight advantage before he jumped to the side of the charging heracross. The heracross skid in the dirt and started to turn around before Ket slammed into the heracross with a quick attack. He followed up with a scratch to the heracross’s face.

The heracross retaliated by attempting to connect a night slash which Ket only barely dodged the attack, it grazing his fur. Ket backed up and once again made eye contact with the heracross who still had Yooka’s shadow slowly draining its health. The way the shadow was still clinging on to the heracross despites its best efforts to dispel it caused him to quickly chuckle. It was then the heracross decided to launch pin missiles at Ket. Caught off guard two of the five pin missiles launched managed to make contact. He grunted in a mixture of surprise and pain as he was not expecting the sudden attack. He quickly dove for a nearby tree for cover as he looked over his wounds.

The heracross began to move towards the tree. Ket deciding to finish this fight as fast as possible, shrugged off the pain and made a mad sprint to another tree dodging another barrage of pin missiles. Ket stepped out from the tree and faked a charge towards the heracross inciting them to charge at Ket. Ket pretended to run away from the charge until the heracross was lined up with the tree. Then Ket spun and using quick attack he tackled them head first into the tree. The impact caused the heracross to be rendered unconscious. Ket stood by breathing heavily looking over his work satisfied before he began to pull out the pins lodged in him.

Battles don't tend to stay in one place. Yooka had misjudged Ket's speed and power. Compared to the Heracross, he was moving quite a lot. He also showed he had alot of stamina but not very much in power, till the final moments where Yooka was taken way off guard.

At first, Ket reminded Yooka of Goro. Headlong, melee, even nimble. However, he ended up being a bit too bold. He was distracted and got hit by a projectile. It was here Yooka decided to do something different.

The Heracross was completely distracted by Ket, she knew that. She stayed camoflaged but she moved closer. However, the Heracross was charging around. She predicted his next stop just before a tree and began charging her punch, she was going to push off the tree for extra oomph. Except she never got her chance.

Ket's speed was incredible but it was a technique and not really his. She didn't see him using another quick attack or even that he faked the Heracross. The moment before she was going to throw the punch was the moment the Heracross was shoved into the tree. However, such an impact wasn't much. It only crushed Yooka against the tree and while the Heracross slid into an unconscious sitting position Yooka fell and was being leaned on. Her cloak dropped and she ended up laughing.

"I'm too slow to act, like usual. I should've just reversed the area's speed with my spacial technique and gotten close. But thankfully I didn't or you probably would have been breaking a few laws... of physics! HAH! I'd just be even slower than I was here." She didn't care about the heavy Heracross. Two punches and she'd be able to push it off herself. She let it be as she saw Ket drop pins. "Oh, and I should probably look at those. The pins could've hit a vital nerve despite their small size. or... maybe not, considering you look fine."

The pins managed to lodge themselves in Ket’s arm and leg. Luckily for him they had missed his chest sparing any organs from being impaled. He started by first yanking out the pin located in his leg eliciting a quick hiss of pain from him. He was about to grab the other one out of his arm before laughter grabbed his attention. Looking back towards the heracross he saw Yooka laughing as she just finished cloaking with the heracross leaning against her. At first he was confused as to how she had gotten there but it didn’t take long for him to figure it out.

Pulling out the last pin quickly and discarding it he went over to the kecleon to see if she was fine which she appeared to be. She asked about his health which he responded. “I think I’m fine, hasn’t seem to hit anything important anyways. Although if I collapse from blood loss a save would be appreciated.”

He offered a hand to help up the kecleon, “Honestly I’m surprised I did that well it's been a while, Anyways we should probably get back on task.” Ket looked back up at the clouds. “Looks like it might rain soon, knowing my luck anyways.”  

"Ofcourse, I did say that if you actually ended up in a real bind I'd help you out. Yooka noticed the hand but motioned for a 'one second'. Yooka ended up not taking the help as she took a few more seconds than she thought pushing the Heracross off. It was out, if it wasn't noticable before, it's obvious now. Yooka heard Ket talking about the weather while she was getting the Heracross off and when she got free she shrugged and said. "I wouldn't worry about the weather. I've seen this way more often than I'd thought possible but I will agree on the mission. Well, actually, I wouldn't mind a rainy day."

After rechecking the Heracross, she went straight for the river and started swimming to the other side. It wasn't that hard as it wasn't that wide or deep. "I'll get this side." What to look for? Toys could be anything. Shaped like anything. Colored... well, the list could go on. However, it didn't take long for Yooka to stumble on what appeared to be a small version of a plusle. "Uh, found a tiny Plusle." She held it up for the Zangoose to see. Yooka could only guess that there was a minun somewhere, but more importantly her gut was right about this place. She spent so long in the shadowed areas from the last time with the minun and plusle but found nothing, that it had to be where Darcy and Alki went when they stayed with them when Yooka left to return to the Guild. Still, it was a lucky guess as Yooka only saw what direction they went and their little story when they returned themselves.

Ket watched as Yooka moved the heracross of her as she got up. She commented on the mission and weather situation as she began to swim across the river in search of more toys. “I don’t know about you but I’ve had some bad run-ins with rain before.” He looked back up and held up his paw as if he were expecting rain luckily none fell.

Moving away from the river he began looking for toys. He was trying to think what kinds of toy a child might play with. He wished that the minun had been more specific, it would of sped the process up. He was going to check if Yooka has any luck before she answered the question for him. She held up a tiny plusle doll for him to see. Logically that left a minun doll to be found. Ket went back to looking before something off in the forest caught his eye. Not having any other leads Ket yelled across the river to Yooka while pointing to the forest. “Think I see something, I’m going to check it out!”

Turning around and walking into the forest he quickly found what he had gotten a glance at earlier. Not too far from the river between two trees was strung a web and in the center of it was the minun doll, if only he knew how it got there. Looking around to make sure the bug type responsible for this was not here, Ket walked forwards to grab the doll. Using his claws he slashed through the webs and pulled it out. Looking it over he checked there was no damage on the doll before the sound of shrubbery moving caught his attention.

He slipped into a nearby bush as he saw an ariados emerge looking over the damage web. It had not noticed Ket and he had no intention of sticking around. He quickly made his way back to the river. Holding up the web covered minun doll Ket said to Yooka. “Found it.”  

Energy¦ 7:

Eh, what? Ket found the other? Yooka looked up as she messed around with the tiny red pokemon. She saw Ket walk back into the forest. Yooka bagged the doll and started to return to Ket's side of the area. Ket returned before she could as he held up the tiny... grey-ish... pokemon? Well, there was blue but it seemed to be covered by... stuff, ash? web? Despite being in a moving river, Yooka stopped and said as she slowly was moved down the river, "Where did you find that? Did you check to see if anything was around?"

Yooka had to get to the edge as she noticed she was being taken away. She stared at where he came from after seeing that his was the Minun. "I'll spend a little longer looking around. If you want to start heading back to Grassviel I'll meet you there."

Ravio carried out 2 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

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Watching Yooka cross the river he handed her the doll once she reached the other side. Ket answered the question she had asked while she was walking through the river. “Found it in a web between two trees. Saw an ariados come to it after I pulled the doll off so I’m assuming it’s their web. I didn’t fight it though, if you really want to see it it’s back there.” He motioned behind him toward the general direction of the feral.

When Yooka told him to head back to Grassveil he nodded before beginning the trek to the town. He paused however and looked back at the kecleon. “Hey I don’t say this much but thanks, for the poke and the conversation. It’s been awhile since I’ve had either.” Ket stopped a moment to stare into the river deep in thought. “Hah, to think I’d see myself working with a guild member. If you told me I’d be doing that anytime soon I’d say you’d lost it.” Ket once again stopped to continue staring at the slow moving river before looking back up to make eye contact with Yooka. “Hey any chance you’ll tell me about that thing you said earlier? I’ve been interested in what it could be ever since you mentioned it."

Yooka wasn't even aware of what Ket did with the doll as she was back to being focused on her more important task, she didn't find anything else throughout her searching. She was however, listening to him as she was looking around. She wasn't interested in an arachnid, nor did she really want him to be here if he was going to be bored as she kept her search going. Thankfully it didn't seem to be the case. He turned to leave but decided to stay and say something pleasing to hear but Yooka didn't show it. She didn't look at Ket as she mumbled, "I'm just here to please. It's all I ever do." She closed her eyes when she heard him start to sound distant. She turned to him but still kept to her mumbling, "I'm different than them. I don't consider myself a Guildmember but aslong as I--" She paused and perked up as he was looking back at her. "Ah, right... that."

"I'd rather have a talk with someone before I actually say anything. Anyways... Something tells me those two dolls are all we need. Let us just get going. I'll see if I can find that peep when we get back." It's been a long time since Yooka's seen the certain individual. She has no idea how the encounter will go for Ket but if the individual hasn't changed after all this time then she expects Ket to get really, really annoyed. Mentally tortured even. Yooka smirked as she kept it secret. It was too soon to tell if he's going to break. "However, there is one thing I can tell that is rather concerning. There's a group of individuals who are running around the region doing ridiculous acts of thievery. They're calling themselves the Phantom Thieves. Do you happen to know anything about them?" Yooka frowned as she said this, they've been silent for some time but that doesn't mean they stopped activity. She's only seen their activity once and that was by luck. If Ket knew anything then he'd be a target for information.

Yooka immediately regretted asking the question and held her hand up and nudged him to follow. "Ah, nevermind... Let's just get back. I really need to speak to someone before telling you anything and I can guarantee you'll cringe the entire time. Heh, there's always a price to pay for information, but hey... You'll be getting stuff in the mean time. The information isn't important and may not be worth your time. I just overhyped the content to get you motivated to stick with me." Yooka stopped nudging him in the direction she was moving. However, now she was laughing. "Didn't see that coming did you? But don't get me wrong, You'd find me annoying and you'd just leave me if I didn't. If you still want the free stuff and if you really want to know now even though I've shown you a reason to why I don't trust anyone... It's that easy to betray information. Just stick around a little longer. I don't break promises on purpose. I will get you that information, but it may be from someone else."


(OOC:Do you want to continue? I can consider the mission completed as Yooka's leaving the area. But if you want Ket to know, just make a Grassviel [Town/Guild] thread and invite Mada and me. Invite Eventine if you want added tort-- er, 'Fun'. :D ((If they complain that they dont have enough thread slots. I'll just pay for it... I'm forcibly stacked. >->
I'll also be filling out the Mission Completed things.)