Cognizance

The Ruined Chamber.

The royal pain in the ass that was the climb to this room was finally over. Getting out of the house would probably be just as difficult, but that was in the future. For now, all that mattered was that they had made it to their destination, and the hour of enlightenment was finally upon them. They would see what manner of god lived among the ghosts, and they would convince it to fight for Giratina, the idol of impurity. With the might of this recruit, perhaps the dark prince would somehow reign victorious over the other two legends he'd challenged. Whether it was a good thing or not, Krikka was going to see to it that Giratina got his new buddy. She didn't really care much if it was a good or bad idea, nor was she particularly worried about the immediate risks associated with summoning a supposed god.

Actually, she didn't care about any of this. Giratina's apparent goals actually mirrored her own, but that didn't mean she had any allegiance to the giant space worm. She was here mostly for fun and to oppose her special snowflake of a sister, and of course, to do something big and prove to the two behind her that she could back up her words. She wasn't here out of any allegiance in this "holy war," nor did she care in particular about the outcome or how she may influence it. Still, she knew an awful lot about the religious concepts surrounding her circumstances. Thanks to her insufferable father, her childhood had been filled with teachings of the legends and their stories. Unlike Ivirar, she was far from interested in these concepts, and she had always adamantly refused to worship any being, but the information she'd picked up was admittedly a bit useful for context here.

She wondered if Solus and Goro knew anything at all about what Giratina supposedly was, or even about this war. They had yet to say anything, so she assumed they had no idea why they were actually here; they probably didn't even think she was serious about summoning a god... Well, a certain froslass had probably made it clear enough that her promise was true, but she still wondered if the others grasped the concepts at play. As she approached the center of the room, she began to speak, her voice soft and entranced in her own words.

"He was a powerful being and one of the original children of Arceus, equal to the governors of time and space... but he was violent... spiteful. He was not a kind god, but a reaper. For that, he was banished to a reality opposite to ours, cursed to watch the world go on in his absence." Amid her monologue, she lifted her head toward the ceiling to take in the beautiful chandelier of glimmering candles. She spun with an elegance that betrayed her battered state and looked upon the floatzel following her, then flicked her head toward the center of the room, directing him to dump the... sacrificial elements. The "items of combat."

The stabby things.

Continuing in the circular motion as she surveyed the rest of the large room, Krikka continued in her seemingly pointless speech. "That's a quote from a scripture I read when I was younger, more or less. You two ever read the good book of Arceus or any of that mythos junk?" she paused but picked up again before allowing a response, "If you haven't, keep it that way. Would not recommend." Perhaps she was a bit biased, but Krikka truly hated the books she had been made to read, the religious schooling she'd been put through by her zealous father... It felt good to be doing something that went against his philosophies.

"Except the parts about Giratina. I always liked that he didn't blindly follow "God's will." That's why he was punished, or so the story goes... You know, I haven't thought about it until now, but I wouldn't say he's evil for wanting freedom... and revenge. I would too." Her movements finally stopped with the door forward in the center of her gaze. Would they go on? For now, that didn't matter. The moment would be spent performing the ritual to summon the enigmatic creature they'd come so far to see. It all felt so weird to her, getting involved in such a theological affair. It wasn't something she would ever have imagined doing in her younger days. Now that she was finally here, moments away from truly stepping into this tangled mess of the "divine," she was growing conscious of her situation, of what she was doing. It was mere moments ago that her mind had been pinned under the weight of the day's stress, but now she felt... fine. Now things were going her way, after all, and she was starting to really think about things.

"I wouldn't worship him, but I do like the story of the one who defied God."

Completely unconcerned as to whether or not Goro was actually following, Solus followed beside Krikka as they entered the room, stopping behind her as she took in the whole room. Solus made note of the chandelier and likelihood of killing someone if it were to fall. He suspected it to be quite lethal but wasn’t interested in testing that theory. Solus listened carefully to Krikka’s words, hoping that they’d explain things a little more about what exactly they were about to be dealing with, but they didn’t really provide anything Solus didn’t already assume about evil gods.

When Krikka gestured for Solus, he immediately moved toward the centre of the room. She had explained in the most basic terms that a sacrifice would be necessary and he happened to be carrying both her bag as well as his own. Upon reaching the centre of the room, and with little consideration, Solus upturned his bag, dumping the contents on the floor. He proceeded to then pick up only a few of the stray items which he intended to keep and had forgotten—or wasn’t aware—that he had; a couple of random berries, a couple of random seeds, and a pair of glasses he absolutely didn’t remember finding, as well as the used TM, although he didn’t know what use it was at this point.

Upon Krikka finishing her religious monologue, Solus responded to her possibly rhetoric question. “I have never heard the name in my life—Or at least if I have I don’t remember it. Also, I can’t read, remember?" Solus was never particularly interested in theology, almost certainly due in part by the fact that he’d somehow managed to avoid coming into contact with it much within his lifetime—although given his upbringing that might actually make a fair bit of sense. He wasn’t uninterested in learning to read, however. He’d made an agreement with someone who was supposed to teach him, but that agreement was on indefinite hiatus on account subjection by an outlaw.

Continuing to deposit the sacrificial items, Solus did the same with Krikka’s bag as he had done his own, turning it upside down and dumping the contents into a pile in the centre of the room. Looking over the items, Solus realised that he didn’t actually know which of any of the things Krikka might want to keep, and he was pretty sure she’d want to keep some of these items. “Uh, also also, I don’t know which of this stuff we’re supposed to be sacrificing."

While Solus and Krikka were in the next room over preparing to summon an evil god or something, the croagunk accompanying them was brooding where they had left him. Between the psycho's awful countenance, all the battles she had haphazardly led them into, and the disastrous confrontation they had just had with the froslass that'd guided them this far... he was seriously reconsidering the merits of his decision to join this umbreon. Everything about her pissed him off, and it all came to a head a few moments ago when he tried to do a good thing - the right thing - and stand up for someone who Krikka wanted to kill. But then Nevi threw it back in his face, escaped, and he had to deal with Krikka's condescending bullshit and her pet's smug lecture.

Almost everything about the other two pokemon rubbed him entirely the wrong way; The only redeeming traits about Krikka were her power, her ambition, and her apparent desire to become a leader. Those were things he could get behind. But just the sheer bitchiness that oozed off of her, her inherent need to smack him in the face with her superiority every time they interacted... it made him want to challenge her again. Solus was the same way. He was grudgingly alright with the water type's resilience, being able to bounce back from the truly brutal beatdown that his master gave him a while ago, and his apparent thirst for more had to be respected. It took a tough motherfucker to take those kinds of hits and then get up and ask for more. And the way he'd given Goro the trophy off of the Hypno was... thoughtful, even. Goro didn't exactly make a secret about how badly he wanted it, and Solus didn't think twice about tossing the pendulum to him almost immediately. But again - the weasel backed out of that first fight with him. Then he went on to cling to his master's skirts at every opportunity, only being brave enough to take verbal potshots at him from behind her protection. That... that last interaction notwithstanding. The thought of the now floatzel standing over him giving him advice was still infuriating. The fact that he'd followed the crazy umbreon this far was even more so.

The marks of her bad decision making had made themselves apparent on his own body, even. Goro lowered his head and looked himself over. He'd had better days. The croagunk had deep cuts all over his forearms and torso left by the storm of sharpened hail, the puncture wound in his thigh from an ice shard and the one still embedded in his shoulder, the deep bruising in his limbs and torso from getting thrown about by blizzards and Krikka's own dark pulse, and that was all to say nothing of his still throbbing head. Now that the tension was beginning to flood from him, it was starting to hurt a lot more. Curiously, he raised his hand again and touched the side of his skull, bringing his fingers back bloodied. It wasn't as plentiful as last time, so that was something, but still...

He didn't want to be here anymore. Honestly, he just wanted to go back home to his swamp shack and sleep off all this bullshit, but there was no way he was going to get out on his own. He needed Krikka to get him out, and that meant following her even deeper. He had come this far, admittedly, and he'd done more than pull his weight on the way here. The croagunk couldn't deny being curious as to what she was going to do or what she was after in this hellish mystery dungeon. He deserved to see it, but that meant following her further. It would mean having to put up with her and all her bullshit, her pet included, but the prospect of battling more ghosts wasn't unappealing. Nevi had been the exception; He'd been friendly with her, and her with him. And while fighting ghosts wasn't exactly satisfying, seeing as how they could just run away through the floor or the walls when it looked like they were in danger - and thus deny him any extra fun with his defeated victim - he couldn't deny that it wasn't valuable experience.

It was with a rueful sigh and a defeated frown that Goro turned on his heel and - slowly - made his way to the open doorway that Krikka and Solus had went through. He arrived just in time to catch the tail-end of her little speech about this Giratina god again, and he couldn't help scrunching up his face disdainfully. Was she some kind of cultist? She said she didn't worship, but she was going to an awful lot of trouble to apparently do the god a favor, according to Nevi. Then again, Nevi could have just been spewing more bullshit in an attempt to make him do what she wanted - she'd fucked with his head for a minute there. He only half-paid attention to Solus' response to his master. Instead of entering the room proper or offering his help in this ritual or whatever, Goro leaned up against the doorway with his arms folded across his chest, staring up at the ceiling of the room with a stormy expression. He had to keep going with these two, but that didn't meant he had to like it.

Goro stubbornly tried not to think about Krikka's offer in the meantime.

Solus didn't seem to know much about religion, but that wasn't what he was here for anyway. Krikka's disappointment in being unable to talk about the thing she abhorred was reasonably minimal. She thought some of the stories of deities such as Giratina were cool, but that was about as far as her interest in such concepts went. The reminder of her pet's inability to read was a bit more bothersome, however, as it reflected poorly on her. "I'm starting to realize there are a lot of things you don't know," she spoke with a lack of enthusiasm, more underwhelmed than anything else. He didn't know how to read, didn't know anything about religion or philosophy, and barely understood the basics of social interaction. It was as if he had never attended school or had friends or anything, which... was probably true. Krikka tried not to think too hard about the presumably poor circumstances of his upbringing; she reveled in the misery of others, but she didn't like things that reminded her of... well, her own personal experience with home life.

She made a mental note to teach him at a later date or perhaps just lock him in a library for a while, but that would have to wait. Actually, it was starting to look like there were a lot of things she would need to teach him if she wanted to avoid having him make her look bad in public, or in general. She needed to teach him how to be useful too, and he was still learning how to and not to please her. There was so much he had to learn, but now, in this moment, there was something more important that beckoned his master's attention, and she intended to give just that. What did they need to sacrifice? She was uncertain since she didn't exactly have an instruction manual on occult summoning rituals, but they needed to offer... weapons? "Items of combat." She stepped closer to the pile to gaze down upon it and collect whatever items she felt they wouldn't need.

...

The first thing the umbreon noticed was a certain plush toy amid the pile composed mostly of sharp objects. She gave a quick glance to Solus out of the corner of her eye, trying to hide her embarrassment at how he had most certainly seen her... possession. At least Goro hadn't seen it, right? She turned to look back at the croagunk leaning against the doorway and, after reassuring herself, plucked the plush eevee gently off the ground with its scruff between her teeth. She hurriedly stuffed it back in her bag, but with an obvious caution that advertised how hard she was trying not to damage it. She made another note, this time to be more careful with her personal belongings in the future, and tried to forget about what had just happened. She could only hope her bui- floatzel would do the same... and if he didn't, she'd probably hit him. Again. She wondered if perhaps easing up on that would be a good idea, mostly due to a concern that he seemed to be growing used to it. Or maybe that meant she should do it even more often to toughen him up. This, too, would have to wait until after she was done here and out of the chateau.

With the mini-vee tucked safely away in her bag, she got back to work sifting through the pile of junk to pick out anything that wasn't junk or that probably wouldn't work for the ritual. There were a lot of sticks. She hoped this god liked sticks. There were also her treasured golden thorns, which she picked up almost as quickly as the plush. She stopped short of dropping the thorns into her bag, however, and instead released them from her mouth and onto the floor. Did they have enough to meet the demands of whatever they were summoning, or did she need to give these little pieces of gold up? She couldn't remember the exact amount needed, but she was pretty sure they had enough since she had prepared ahead of time. She would simply trust her past self on this one, but still, did she really need two of these thorns? She looked down at them, then up to Solus, who had yet to say anything about her little... companion. In fact, he didn't even seem to be struggling to keep his composure; it truly seemed as if he wasn't judging her at all. Without much warning, she scooted the thorns over to him with her paw.

"Want one?"

Of course, if he accepted, he would be the one to pick between the two thorns. She still didn't know which one she had stabbed his friend with, so it didn't seem quite right for her to choose which one to give him; whichever one he got, it was in his own hands. Paws. Whatever. Under normal circumstances, Krikka would never have considered giving away solid gold, but Solus had really come through and was starting to behave himself better. She had thoroughly enjoyed herself punishing him for bad behavior thus far, so it only seemed fair to reward him on the rare occasion that he did something to please her. Besides, she had two, and it wasn't as if she needed both of them; and if all went according to her design, she would find more fortune than such a paltry amount of gold. She still wasn't entirely sure what this "design" of hers even was, but one thing she did know was that she wanted money and power, and she planned to do everything in her power to get it.

But first, summon an evil god. Or something.

Despite the fact that Krikka’s comment was effectively an insult, Solus wasn’t bothered by it in the slightest. The floatzel simply shrugged the comment off. He knew she wasn’t really wrong; he assumed he knew relatively little compared to the average individual. He did in fact lack any schooling—formal or otherwise—nad had very little social experience, the majority of which could be described as negative and may or may not have frequently devolved into a scuffle. The most positive social experience he could think of was his interactions with a certain togepi and a buizel named Xeno, memories of which were now both tainted for various reasons with a common source.

That source was an umbreon by the name of Krikka—the very umbreon who stood beside him, gently placing an eevee doll back inside her bag. Solus hadn’t failed to notice the thing before when he was searching through Krikka’s bag for useful items to use against Nevi, and he didn’t fail to notice how careful the umbreon was handling the plush now. He avoided bringing attention to it. In fact, he actively avoided bringing attention to the fact that he had noticed it at all, turning his attention to the croagunk as she did and kept his attention fixated there for the moment. Solus’s new focus was clearly trying to avoid direct interaction with both himself and Krikka.

Solus could sense how upset Goro was, though he wasn’t sure what was the exact cause. It could have been a number of things: the way Nevi had parted with them, Solus’s own banter, or any of the things Krikka had done or said in the last… week or so. Knowing how quick Goro was willing to jump to violence, Solus didn’t want to push his luck any further. In truth, he was surprised that Goro had let him get more than a sentence in, let alone finish his entire spiel. In an attempt to relieve some tension that may exist between the two, Solus gave an acknowledging nod that hoped wouldn’t somehow be interpreted as aggression.

Solus turned his attention back to Krikka and the pile of items that lied in the centre of the room just in time to see Krikka push her two golden thorns in front of him. They were clearly important and valuable to her, so it surprised him that she was offering him one. He had rarely received gifts before—actually, he couldn’t remember ever receiving a gift at all, ever. But he was pretty sure accepting a gift wasn’t supposed to be a moral dilemma. And yet, this was, or at least he felt like it was. After all, one of these thorns had been used to stab who he considered his best friend. He’d seen Krikka kill another Pokemon with one—possibly the same one, but no one could be certain, and he had no idea how many others Krikka had harmed or killed with either of these two weapons. Granted, they’d used one of them to cut open a berry at one point, too, and he hadn’t had any problems using one then. But what would this mean, accepting a gift like this from someone like Krikka?

What did it mean that his first instinct upon hearing her offer was to say yes and take one? Or after briefly considering that he might be jeopardising any good moral standing he had left, that he accepted the gift anyway? Solus picked up the golden thorn that was closest and twirled it a bit—he’d be lying if he said he didn’t have an appreciation for the type of weapon after using a similar thing in the fight with Nevi. ”Thanks… Really, I… Are you sure? You don’t need it for the whole ‘sacrificing things to summon an evil god or something’ thing? Not that I don’t want it—I do, it’s just—are you sure?” Solus made an excellent demonstration of his social ineptitude that Krikka had mentioned earlier.

For his part, Goro merely kept silent where he was. It was tempting to peer over and get a look at what Solus and Krikka were doing, but his gaze remained stubbornly transfixed on the ceiling. He didn't want to pay them any more attention than he needed to. He didn't want to interact with them any more than he absolutely had to. The croagunk just wanted to get this over with and find a quiet place to think for a while, so he could sort out all of his rampant thoughts and get a grip on how he felt about everything. He was having difficulty with that; Did Solus deserve his animosity? Did Krikka? Was he even sure about the course of action he was taking? The fighter was having second thoughts about it all, but in this situation, he had no choice but to stay on course with things. He knew for a fact that he wanted to see where it all went, though. The outcome of this trip carried significant weight with it - if whatever Krikka was after ended up being worth it in the end, then he would continue to follow her. For now.

More than anything, he just wished he was stronger. If he had more power, then he wouldn't be forced to take anyone's shit or follow behind them. If he'd simply won that fight he had with Krikka, then his life would be so much simpler right now. But compared to her and all the enemies he had run into since she found him, he found his strength lacking. She hadn't even broken a sweat against him and the psychic in the chandelier room by all rights should have blown his head in. It was only because of her and her pet that he didn't die there, and even Nevi, afterward, had wiped the floor with him. He had thought, before all this, that he was progressing nicely in terms of power. If the poison type had to guess, he was probably several times as strong as he was when he left home. But he was rapidly running into bigger and bigger obstacles, and those all lead to more and more complications.

Broadening his horizons shouldn't have been such a bad thing. But the fact that he had fared so poorly against all those foes left him feeling incredibly frustrated. It made him want to get stronger and fight them all again and win next time. And if he took Krikka's offer and swore loyalty to her, he'd never get a second chance at her.

Goro's foot began tapping irritatedly as he waited for the two to finish. He noticed the floatzel nod at him in his peripheral, and the sight made his chest tight with anger. At who, though, he wasn't sure. The croagunk didn't nod back, though. Instead, he allowed himself to turn his head and glance at what the two of them were working on for a few moments. They'd dumped Krikka's bag in the middle of the floor, and were looking over a bunch of shit. Some things in the pile were garbage, but others were items and weapons that he could recognize. The fighting type narrowed his eyes when Solus plucked a golden thorn out of the pile and twirled it around absently in his paw - were they divvying up loot? But this had all came from Krikka's bag. Perhaps she was just giving him his pick of a toy in return for his good performance.

The sight of Solus with that thorn made him feel uneasy. Goro had caught a few glimpses of the floatzel in motion during that last fight. He was fast now. Faster than he had been in their fight. The croagunk had at least been able to keep track of Solus when the then-buizel darted around him, but suddenly he wasn't so sure. He remembered the sea weasel pokemon waving the poison thorn in his face in the last room, and idly wondered if he could beat him again. He hadn't even truly won last time, which made it so frustrating in the first place. Solus had just decided to quit before they really got started. But he assumed that was because the water type figured he couldn't win... did he think differently, after evolving? Goro felt like there were ants crawling underneath his skin as he studied the floatzel openly now, staring shamelessly. Forget Krikka - was Solus stronger than him?

At first, nothing happened to the pile of items. They simply sat there where they'd been dumped while the other three went about their business. However, after a few moments, there was a light twitching from the pile. A few of the items stirred and moved, almost as if something beneath it was starting to move. The rustling was soon accompanied by the rims of a golden hoop beginning to expand out from under the pile, forming a perfectly even circle underneath the sacrificed objects. It seemed that the floor caught inside the circumference of the hoop had been replaced with a thick blue aura, almost like a veil of water blocking any vision of what was beyond it.

After another moment, like a gateway had been suddenly opened, the entire pile dropped through the hole. All of the battle-oriented objects left on the floor there fell with a clatter into the golden hoop, hitting...something as they landed.

"Ow! OwowowowowOOOOOWWWW!" A voice whined out from the other side of the hoop currently resting on the ground. Just as soon as the voice had yelled out, the golden hoop quickly shrank back down before closing completely and vanishing into thin air, only to reappear floating a few feet above the ground in the center of the room. This time, though, it reformed perpendicular to the ground, the gate inside the hoop facing the Floatzel and Umbreon. One by one, each item that had fallen through the hoop unceremoniously flew back out, scattering across the ground. This continued until finally, every item that had been sacrificed was left on the ground.

Once more, the ring shrank back down and disappeared from the air, only to reform back in the ground where it had originally appeared. Once more, something popped out, though this time it wasn’t an item, and it wasn’t thrown through with reckless abandon. A small, djinn-like creature popped its head up, one hand resting on the rim of the golden ring it was coming through, and the other rubbing its own head gently. Peering out at the room, it slowly looked both ways in a general scan of the area, squinting as it took a good, close look. Despite the two Pokemon clearly in the room, and the one standing by the doorway, it seemed to decide the coast was clear. Releasing its hold on the hoop, it hovered up and out of the ring, moving very slowly out towards the items. However, after a second, its eyes widened.

“Oh. My. Gosh. Have you all been here this entire time?” Hoopa brought a hand up to its mouth and leaned back in a show of mock-surprise to the group, its tone carrying the same feeling with it.

“Wow. That’s just…incredible. Well, thanks for the…sticks? And the other things, of course. Nothing wrong with a good stick. I’ll make use of it. You can never have enough sticks in your collection, you know. Now, the door’s back there with your antisocial stick-in-the-mud buddy, so if you want to just skedaddle on out of here, let me collect this stuff again…I do like it, y’know, really, I like stuff in general, just not dropping in on me for a surprise visit like it did, y’know? You get it?" The djinn-like Pokemon seemed to speak quickly and with a hint of disinterest as if to try and usher the group on, shrugging its arms at the duo closest to it before taking a moment to think and continue.

“Um. Unless you have something you want, ‘cause, otherwise it’s kinda rude for you to just be here. Staring. Watching me collect all this stuff. The stuff that fell on me. You want a way back to the front? Was this a trade or something for some of my stuff? Maybe a three wishes kind of thing? I don’t actually do that one, you know, just putting that out there. Well? What are you doing here? If you wanna be quick about it, that’d  be great, as you can see I have a great game of Pick-Up Sticks to play here, and I’ve got a bottle of unimaginable power to find after this, so y’know.” As it finished its line of questioning, Hoopa began to move back and forth around the room, beginning to collect the items it had thrown about and carry them back to the ring in the ground one-by-one.

To the simple offer, Solus' reaction was what appeared to be shock... again.  This was a new sight from him, and one Krikka quite enjoyed; twice now she'd surprised him when he had previously been behaving as if he'd figured her all out.  That alone made the gesture of kindness worth it, but she wasn't doing it just to mess with him.  She genuinely believed in the idea of rewarding good behavior, almost as much as she believed in punishing bad behavior, and Solus had certainly impressed enough to deserve some incentive to continue doing so.  "I don't make mistakes when it comes to keeping track of things.  We've got enough," she responded, trying to ignore the sentimental side of this situation and just address the question of whether they would have enough sacrificial sticks without the little bits of gold being included.  It would have been more truthful of her to say she didn't make mistakes in keeping track of things anymore, though.  It was something she was naturally alright at, but she couldn't deny that there was a definite change in her... efficiency since the trip to the allegedly cursed ruins.

Perhaps she was the fool for being so unwilling to believe in such dark arts as curses when she seemed to have been afflicted with one herself... and was now partaking in an occult ritual to summon an evil deity.  Really, why was the idea of one of those beasts enchanting some random treasure so hard to swallow?  She didn't intend to ask the evil god about it, but it was something to think about.  "Don't make it weird," she muttered, brushing the two thorns closer to the floatzel next to her, "just take-"

Just then, the floor quite literally seemed to open up and eat the offering of assorted trash.  Having expected pretty much anything but that, Krikka yipped under her breath and leapt back, instinctively expecting the fresh hole to spread outward and try to consume her.  It didn't; in fact, it simply disappeared, but not before speaking to her.  Or... well... more like complaining, presumably about eating a pile of sticks and spikes.  Was the house itself the evil god, or-

Another hole of similar appearance opening in the middle of the air suggested otherwise.  The items were vomited out of the ring and all over the room, which gave the umbreon the concerning impression that her offering was being rejected.  Fortunately, she wasn't left in suspense for long before the ring vanished and yet another appeared, this time back on the floor and releasing something else... but definitely not anything they'd been carrying around with them.  Krikka's reaction to seeing a living thing crawling out of a magic portal in the middle of a haunted house would normally have been to instantly blast it without question, but this, unlike the floor eating her stuff, had been expected from the start.  Where blind aggression would have otherwise led, she instead felt excitement, and it was made clear in a giddy smile she was struggling to suppress.  The thing didn't look too impressive, but here it was: the evil god!  Or something!  She was right, and now Solus and Goro would both see it, the latter's faith in her would be restored, and...

What else was she really getting out of this?  Just general satisfaction from doing something controversial for the sake of it?  Good enough.

Krikka's eyes lit up as the creature made its way out of the portal and... completely failed to realize anyone else was in the room.  It seemed totally focused on the offering, as made evident when it finally realized it was in company.  When it finally spoke, it did so with the same voice that had previously been used to express pain from within one of the rings, and it immediately revealed itself to be quite the character, to say the least.  It was... how to put it...  Obnoxious.  It was obnoxious.  The creature spoke in a very quick and dismissive manner, acting reminiscent of a little schoolgirl with exaggerated dramatic reactions and an apparent disinterest in sticking around to chat with those who'd just given it its new toys.  Well, most of the offering was made up of sticks, but the thing claimed to like sticks.  It was hard to tell if it was being sarcastic.  Regardless, now that her goal was right here in front of her, Krikka realized she had no idea what to say.

She mostly just struggled to follow along with its words until she caught the words "three wishes," at which point her entire form visibly perked up.  Screw Giratina; given the choice between serving the dark lord and getting three wishes, she was picking the wishes.  She raised a paw and opened her mouth to speak, only to be silenced as the creature before her continued on to clarify that it could not, in fact, grant wishes.  She was visibly disappointed at this revelation.  She could have done a lot with three wishes, or even one wish.  Alas, there were no wishes to be had, and she was now speechless once more.  How pathetic she must have looked, so unprepared for this confrontation after having so much time to ready herself.  The supposed evil god wasn't making things any easier with its clear lack of desire to lead the conversation or even have one in the first place.  Some combination of such an unappealing personality and the implied power behind that personality made it hard to confront, at least for someone like Krikka.

Honestly, though, most of the issue was just with her having no idea what to say.  She stared in silence at the being for what felt like an eternity but was, in reality, mere seconds... and then, as it began collecting the various trinkets it'd strewn across the room, she realized what the problem was... and it disgusted her.  She was the problem!  She had gone into this with the preconceived notion that this thing was somehow above her, better than her, and that thought was still in the back of her mind even now.  Even after she had seen firsthand that it had the apparent mental worth of a toddler, she was still treating this thing like it was a step above her.  It took the creature setting its eyes on the thorns in front of the umbreon for her to finally snap herself out of this self-impairing mindset.  Any perceptible hesitance or tensity in her body suddenly vanished as she stepped calmly forward and put a paw down over the two thorns to make it clear they were not a part of the tribute.

This thing is just like everyone else... just a stepping stone... her thoughts insisted, driving her to do what she did best.

A smile crept onto her face, but this was different from the previous look of joy; this was a look of confidence.  "Slow down for a sec.  We are here for something, but it's not to ask you for anything.  Actually, we have an offer," she started up, aiming to catch the not-so-evil god's attention by implying it had something to gain from this conversation.  It seemed like it cared a fair bit more about itself than anyone else in the room, so it didn't seem likely that it would want to do what she was about to ask of it if she presented it as a request.  "Y'know Giratina?  Big guy, edgy space worm, hates Arceus?  Well, he's interested in you; I don't know why you in specific, but you must be able to do something pretty impressive to get on his radar."  Even in the face of a literal god, manipulation was still somehow where she felt most at home.

And now that she'd hopefully gotten the creature's full attention and given it a good first impression, it was time to explain the details of this little arrangement.  "See, he's putting together a little group to liberate the world from the constraints of the law and of Arceus himself, and you're on that list.  Considering your interest in something as simple as sticks, you'd love the kinda stuff you could find out there in the world, and he wants to give you all the freedom to do it; bet he could even help you find that... bottle.  Anyway, at least chat with the guy before turning down that kind of offer; I'd kill to be in your position, personally," she elaborated, doing her absolute best to make this pitch sound as good as possible.  Pretending this wasn't some all-powerful deity probably capable of ending her existence in the blink of an eye was definitely helping her do her thing.  Now the only thing left to do was to make it clear that this venture would be more fun than whatever the creature's current life consisted of.

"Or stay here with your sticks.  Your choice," she shrugged nonchalantly.

After being assured that the evil ritual wouldn’t be disrupted by taking the weapon used to main and/or kill other Pokemon, Solus was happy to do so while actively ignoring whatever doing so said about his apparent morality. He picked up the second identical thorn as Krikka was telling him not to make things weird. Solus wasn’t trying to make things weird, that’s just how things were—especially between himself and the umbreon and even more so in their current setting. As if to demonstrate this point, the floor swallowed the items that had remained on the floor in front of the two.

This sudden event had caught Krikka by surprise, but Solus was slower to react, as if he hadn’t noticed the sudden hole until it was already vanishing. After all the items that had been taken were redistributed around on the floor, what Solus could only assume was supposed to be the evil god or whatever they had been trying to summon. He had to admit—though not vocally—that this apparent god wasn’t that evil looking. Nor was it quite intimidating or impressive, for that matter. It started talking, and while Solus understood that he should have been able to understand it, he found himself unable to keep up with its fast paced speech. Solus did manage to catch the word “stick” several times and none of them seemed to be in any kind of upset tone, so he Solus assumed that this entity was satisfied with Solus’s primary contribution.

Solus stood there beside Krikka, twirling one thorn for a bit before switching to the other. He listened as she spoke to the supposed deity before them. He wasn’t sure where this offer of hers had come from; whether it was always a part of her plan or if she was making something up on the spot as a mean to completing some hidden objective of hers. Regardless, Solus wasn’t really concerned with what Krikka’s goals or motives was, so long as it wasn’t putting him in any immediate danger. While his mood currently seemed a lot better than it was not too long ago he was still tired, his head (and his everything else, really) was still hurting, and everything just seemed a bit… Fuzzy, or distance or not quite right somehow. He didn’t even notice he’d been staring at Hoopa since it had appeared in front of him.

“They are good sticks.” Solus commented, stunningly belated, as if he had spent the entirety of Krikka’s pitch deciding his own opinion on the sticks that Hoopa had commented on several moments ago.

Goro was distracted from his eye-fuckening of Solus by the disappearance of the garbage, and the subsequent appearance of... something. Another pokemon by the looks of it, but it was one that he had never seen before. Nor had he heard of one that looked or acted anything it. It was a smaller pokemon, sort of a greyish purple color with a lot of pink markings and highlights. It wore a ring on its waist and two others on the horns protruding from the side of its head. Where it should have had legs it simply didn't. Instead, there was a wispy sort of end to it, and the creature floated through the air freely.

Compared to what he had to go through just to get here, this thing seemed disappointing, but he wasn't fooled. He had just learned how stupid of an idea it was to judge a book by his cover: one of Nevi the Froslass's ice spikes was still lodged in his damn shoulder. No matter how innocent it looked it was still a resident of the chateau, so it was safe to assume it was powerful and batshit crazy. Was this the evil god that Krikka wanted to summon? Was this what they all came here for, what he risked life and limb for? It didn't seem all that godly, but he wasn't the religious sort in the first place.

The croagunk narrowed his eyes at the floating pokemon when it mentioned him, his crossed arms tightening against each other. It was unnerving to say the least, and Goro decided he already he didn't like it; it was a talker. He stayed quiet, though, merely listening attentively with a stormy scowl on his face while Krikka made her... offer. He was probably right when he pegged her for a cultist because she seemed awfully sure about what she was saying. That or she was a good liar - at this point, Goro would believe either.

Still, as someone who had never heard of legendary pokemon or gods outside of stories and myths, he had a hard time personally believing in anything like that. He believed in strength, though. And like it or not, Krikka had demonstrated that she was stronger than him more than once. So not only was she his best bet in getting out of here, but it also meant that he was more inclined to listen to her about this kind of thing. If she said this pokemon was an evil god, then he wasn't about to question it. Instead, he'd keep quiet by the doorway. He had a lot to think about anyway, and he needed some time and space to work on it.

That said, thinking was awfully hard in his current condition. The poison type was covered in bloody cuts and bruises and frost, and there was still that ice shard embedded in his right shoulder. Now that all the fighting was over and he had his little emotional tantrum, his condition was becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Actually, his everything was really starting to hurt, especially his shoulder. Pulling the ice spike out was probably a bad idea, though. His other puncture wound was alternating between numb, cold, and painful, and he'd ripped that one out.

Maybe he'd get lucky and Krikka would negotiate some kind of healing out of the god. That or a straight shot out of this forsaken house. Either option would be a miracle, but he wouldn't get his hopes up.

The little creature continued to pick up the offerings as Krikka went on with her little pitch. It was difficult to tell if Hoopa was even listening at first. As she went on, the ghost type looked up at her with the same disinterested expression as before. If anything, it just looked impatient while mildly annoyed. The comment from the floatzel didn't seem to help any.

"Well of course I know Giratina," it scoffed, "I'm not stupid, I just don't particularly care." The hoopa paused the collection of the items to twirl one of the rings in its fingers as it continued, "Although I would appreciate the bottle. It's getting kind of stuffy being like this twenty-four seven." The creature tossed the hoop into the air and gave a shrug. The hoop arced over the creature and fell right over it. The hoopa's body seemed to completely disappear as it passed through the center.

Another ring formed just behind Krikka and Solus, the creature floated out of it in an illusion of instant teleportation, "It's suuuuch a tough choice, I'm just not so sure!" the sarcasm was strong with this one.

"But hey, don't diss the sticks. Just like air-bags over here said, they're good sticks." The hoopa reached an arm around the floatzal in a sort of half-hug to pull the two shoulder-to-shoulder. A wide and mocking smile stretched across the little gremlin's face. "I will consider your offer, but only because propeller-tail has the right idea....and I need my lamp."

The mention of the bottle seemed to be the only thing that really got this creature's attention. Krikka was a bit annoyed that all the effort she had put into her proposal was going unacknowledged, but for all she knew, maybe it had helped and this little gremlin just didn't want to admit it. Regardless, the important part was that the "evil god" seemed interested in cooperating, even if it was being a smartass about it. Or maybe it wasn't being a smartass and it really did like sticks that much. Krikka didn't care.

Actually, come to think of it, it didn't really even matter if she could convince the being in the first place. Her only goal in coming here was to give Goro a reason to be loyal to her by making a tall claim and then going through with it. If she could convince this god to do what she wanted, that would just be a bonus... and it seemed she could. Barely. Most of her effort had been wasted, she felt; it seemed all she had to say was "bottle" and that was that, but a win was a win. "Right..." she muttered, doing her best to ignore the creature's annoying attitude. "It's not really my offer... I'm just the messenger," she added on, wanting to clarify that it made little difference to her whether the creature went along with Giratina or not. Sure, she kind of wanted Giratina to win the dumb god war, but she didn't care too much.

Then she realized... if this request wasn't hers, and the thing expected her to make a request... well, maybe she should try to make use of that. "Hey, what was that about us wanting something in return? Like... a trade for your stuff, I think you said?" she spoke up again, doubting this creature would suddenly become more cooperative.

But hey, it had offered. Sort of. And Krikka wasn't one to turn down any advantage she could get in any given situation. She was also curious what kind of "stuff" a god would have to trade. Maybe just a bunch of sticks for all she knew, but it was worth a try.

“Ow.” The sudden contact was not something the floatzel was prepared for, and in his condition any form of physical contact seemed pretty painful; although admittedly, he wasn’t even sure if the contact was painful. He wasn’t actually sure of much of anything, really. Solus hadn’t been paying much attention to the conversation as it continued past his interjection. He was pretty sure the bizarre Pokemon before—no, beside him—had mentioned him at least once, although Solus had never actually heard his own name. What was that about a tail? Solus attemped to look back at his own tail to see if he had failed to notice something about it, only to find nothing of particular note, except that it hurt to crane his neck in such a way.

With the sudden fear that he was going to miss something important, the floatzel bagan putting noticeable effort into following the discussion, although he felt like based on what Krikka was saying that he had already missed many significant parts of it. Apparently a trade was being negotiated? Wasn’t all the stuff they’d just dumped on the floor a moment ago supposed to be an offering or a sacrifice or something? Can you trade a sacrifice? Is it still a sacrifice at that point? How much is a stick worth? What qualities of a stick makes it a good stick? What stick qualities increase or decrease their worth? Are sticks a vital part of the economy? What is an economy?

“I’d like to trade for a soft bed thanks,” Solus said, seeming to address the Pokemon beside him, despite the fact that he was now staring at nothing in particular, beyond where the strange Pokemon had once been standing, still absentmindedly twirling the two golden thorns, one after the other with no discernible pattern.

Yeah, okay, all this business blew right past suspicious and squarely into eerie territory. While he wasn't exactly the educated sort, it was hard to miss it when someone name-dropped Giratina. Between that and everything Nevi had said a few moments ago about a dark power lingering behind this door... he was beginning to put some stock into the things Krikka had said.

Too bad he was unable to do anything about any of this. The croagunk might have recognized a name or two in this conversation, but everything else flew right over his head. He wasn't going to get anywhere trying to talk to these guys - and why should he try, honestly? The first time in a good long while he tried to do a good thing—maybe five minutes ago—it blew up right in his face, and the person he tried to save went as far as telling him to stop pretending to be a good person.

Goro just wanted to go home. And if the umbreon in charge wasn't going to ask for that, then he wasn't above it. "Or a way out of this stupid house." he cut in for the first time, adding to Solus' comment. Failing that, he'd appreciate it if Krikka just took what she wanted already and stopped wasting all of their time.

"Woah, woah there buddy," the hoopa shook his head in disapproval. He released the floatzal to make an "X" shape with its hands as it floated back in front to swing around closer to the croagunk. "Do not diss The House, alright?" The hoopa put itself through a ring once more, disappearing from the croagunk's side and reappearing before all three of them once more.

"I'm already giving you your part of the trade," the hoopa spoke as he leaned onto one of the floating golden loops. He seemed to observe some nonexistent fingernails on its hands as he continued, "In exchange for all this stuff, I'm going to go help out the big space worm...although if it's not your offer, then all this stuff must be his offer."

A hand scratched his chin for a moment with a thoughtful hum as he mulled something over, "Buuuut...I suppose it is good courtesy to tip the messenger..." The hoopa's eyes suddenly lit up. He floated up from his position a tiny bit higher with a wide grin on his expression. With two claps, a large golden rim expanded from seemingly nowhere just below him. Straight from the void within the circle, something dropped out. A loud clang sounded throughout the house as an iron frame dropped onto the ground. On top of the frame, a cushion big enough for an aggron rested upon it. It was...some sort of bed. The design looked almost foreign, as if it came from a long ways away from the likes of Grassveil. The hoop that summoned it shrunk until it vanished into nothingness.

"Here you have it, the world's most comfortable bed!" The hoopa proudly announced to the trio, "There's your tip!" He smiled...almost knowingly. He gave a pat on the cushion, "This bad boy could fit all three of you on it if you cuddled up a bit!"