Fallen Leaf Corpse

Rule Two: Be Social.

That seemed like as good a reason for an adventure as any. Fenris didn't have a rule specifically covering that, so he found himself having to improvise a bit for justification. Not that he needed justification since it wasn't as if he was breaking any of the rules, but he'd fallen into the habit of making a game out of trying to justify everything he did. It was a fun challenge at times, though this particular instance had proven quite easy to make up an excuse for. What better way to be social than to go to new places and find new faces? The logic seemed pretty sound to him, and they were his rules in the first place, so no one knew better than he did!

...Of course, he really just wanted to go explore a place he'd heard looked pretty, but that wasn't going to stop him from playing his games. Besides, it wasn't as if his excuse was a lie; looking for new friends was always one of his primary goals, and now was no different from any other time. Surely, some neat personalities could be found in such a popular place! It seemed to be what the glaceon had learned to be a... tortoise attraction? He didn't know any turtles on a personal level, so the prospect was definitely one of interest to him. He wanted to know if blastoise were as big as he'd heard, and if touching a torkoal would burn, and... well, he knew there were more kinds of turtles, but the specifics evaded him.

Nonetheless, he was here to meet all the turtles he could find! And even if this place was somehow empty, he was determined to find some way to entertain himself. Simply being here had been fun enough so far, with every part of the relatively short journey being full of excitement, at least for him. Crossing the lake barrier had certainly been fun, though perhaps more time-consuming than it could have been. Sure, he could have just frozen a path across and skated his way through, but using the stepping stones just seemed so much more fun that he ended up taking the extra time to do that instead. It wasn't as if sliding around on ice was unfun, but it was something he, as a glaceon, had ready access to whenever he was around water. Getting to make his way down a path constructed by someone other than him, on the other paw, was not an everyday occurrence.

Now that he was in the copse itself, he found further entertainment in its beauteous sights. Fenris made no effort to hide the fun he was having, running and dancing through the woods, occasionally diving into a pile of leaves, and giggling like mad the whole time. It would be more fun as soon as found someone to play with, but until then, he was content enough on his own. Maybe he could find something pretty to take back with him! Treasure hunting wasn't exactly his most pressing reason for being here, but he'd come prepared with a small bag to store things in, just in case.

(Energy - 18)

Meanwhile, a worryingly kindred spirit was only just now entering the mystery dungeon. The figure of a dratini slithered through a rustling bush, a peculiar looking oversized headband hanging off the top of its head. At its centre was the illustration of a red draconic eye and it contrasted (adorably) awfully with the very small figure of the serpentine pokemon - certainly, he was young. Childlike, even, short for a dratini's standards. The pokemon's expression was equal parts determined and excited. He slithered through tall grass with a sense of purpose and grandeur, an undeniable swagger to his movement.

All in all, it seemed to be the very picture of a kid playing hooky, electing to spend his day goofing around in a mystery dungeon rather than being somewhere more productive.

The word on the street said that the fallen leaf copse was no joke - it was a bonafide mystery dungeon, suitable for adventurers and rescue teams alike. The rumour had it that it was a definite step up from those surrounding Grassveil... and as a kid who grew up surrounded by the likes of the small pond and the pecha and shadowhue forests, this change of pace was exactly the kind of accolade that Osiris couldn't ignore.

Why, if he showed up to school tomorrow with loot from the most dangerous mystery dungeon nearby, he'd be instantly popular! Maybe he could stroll into class with the fang of a dragon, or a claw from the strongest pokemon inside... He could only imagine the looks on his friends' faces. This was the sort of proper adventure that he'd been wanting to go on since he knew what the word meant, and ever since he got his feet in the water, he just couldn't stop.

Which lead him here, staring down a series of squared stepping stones leading to an island in the centre of a lake. It was too bad Iris was a snake; jumping from stone to stone like that would just look silly. But any opportunity for a quick swim was a welcome one in his book, and with a flourish, the sea serpent pokemon slithered under the surface of the water - swimming dutifully underneath the stone pathway, eyes trained on his destination.

(Energy - like 6 lmao)

Again meanwhile, a terribly timid soul was slowly making its way through the Fallen Leaf Copse. The small cyndaquil sniffed slightly at the air, looking around and ruffling its head slightly to adjust its scarf. She's here for two reasons! One: Relaxation! She's... Honestly kinda tired of consistently running about trying to find a teammate to form an exploration team with. Two: Training! It seems to be a fairly secluded place with plenty of pokemon to train with or against, and also after she's done training, She can do one again!... Yeah, she didn't really think this through all too much. She saw a picture of the place that was drawn, and was instantly drawn to the locale by how beautiful it looked-- atleast, in her opinion... She looked around a bit, sniffing again, before nodding to herself. This is a good location.

She took up a slightly flighty stance infront of a tree, preparing herself to try to train up her attacks by attacking said tree. She lightly kicked off, before preparing to use double-kick--- One kick, Two--- And immediately regretting it, falling back to the forest floor and in a small pile of leaves and regret. She let out a small pained sound, lightly rubbing her back feet with her front, curled up inside of the leaves. "Ow..." She glared at the tree from her position laying on the ground on her side, regretting her actions of kicking a tree. "Why did I think that was a good idea..?" Slowly, it sinks in that maybe she shouldn't have done that, complaining to herself mentally.

(Energy - 8)

Fenris was occupying his mind well enough, though perhaps not the most productive of activities. He was, simply put, hunting for large piles of leaves for no other reason than to ruin them. Jumping into big masses of leaves was something he was only just now learning of his fondness for, as he traveled a lot and didn't often find himself in environments with such a surplus of dead plant matter. He found himself wondering if the plants were actually dying around him; he understood that the parts that fell off were dead, but why? Were the trees sick or something? He didn't know all that much about nature despite the ample time he'd spent in it. Regardless, he hoped the trees weren't too sick, but he was determined not to let it put a damper on his mood. And... while it was sad to think the plants were dying, at least their shed foliage provided a game of sorts.

Speaking of which, the glaceon's search for adequate piles of leaves was growing more difficult, though he was to blame for systematically removing every large collection from existence by throwing himself into them. He doubted anyone was raking them up and figured they were just falling in clusters in some areas, so it wasn't as if he was doing anything wrong by spreading them all over the place. If anything, he felt he was improving the appearance of the landscape as a whole; to him, the crisp layer of gold, red and brown scattered about the ground looked nice. He knew from experience that leaves made good beds too, so like, he was giving everyone nice places to lay down! Unless they wanted to lay inside the large piles of leaves, in which case he was ruining their fun... but he had no proof that was the case!

Fortunately, his expertly honed hunting skills - or big ears, as others called them - finally paid off as he picked up the familiar sounds of violent crunching not too far away. The conclusion was an easy one to come to: someone was playing in the leaves without him! In an almost panicked rush, he took off in the general direction the sound had come from, weaving carelessly through the undergrowth until breaching a layer of shrubs to see something laying in the leaves next to a large tree. "He-kkh!" he started up shouting a greeting only to be cut off by a sudden feeling of restriction around his neck. While the grey glaceon had managed to make his way through the bushes just fine, the bag dangling carelessly at his side was not so fortunate, resulting in his head being yanked back while the rest of his body attempted to continue on without him. He slipped off his paws, the only thing stopping him from flying forward being the strap around his neck; instead, he simply fell to the ground with a light "oof."

Well, perhaps his initial attempt at a greeting had failed, but he wasn't going to let that slow him down. He pulled himself up and tried for a moment to tug his bag free before impatiently deciding it was too much work. With hardly a moment's hesitation, he opened his mouth and loosed a bluish white ray of sorts at the plant, freezing the area around his bag. He then yanked the sack free, shattering the small limbs that clawed to keep it there and throwing a flurry of ice over him. With perked ears and a big smile plastered on his face, he set off toward the new creature now in his sight, trying once more to give them a proper greeting. "Hey, hi! I'm Fenris! What's your name!? What're you-" he rushed through the words almost too fast to be understandable, then suddenly stopped, both in his speaking and his movement. For a moment, he simply stared; something about the creature was odd to him. It seemed almost... familiar... and he loved its colors!

"Oooh, what are you!? I'm a glaceon!" he changed the direction of the conversation he was essentially having with himself, now more interested in learning more about this creature he'd already deemed his newest friend.

Osiris surfaced for air about halfway across the stone pathway, striding through the water at a surprising pace. Dratini were known as sea serpent pokemon, but he was never the biggest swimmer. That, of course, had less to do with how much he enjoyed it (very much, thank you) and more to do with the options available to him. The best option was the small pond, and that was basically a kiddy pool; He wouldn't let himself be caught dead over there! Not anymore, at least.

The time for little kid places like that was over for the young dragon. He resolved to simply take what he could get and enjoy the moments such as this when a lengthy swim was an integral part of the adventure. Iris took his time on his second dive, relishing the sensation of submerging himself so completely in the cool lake. He exhaled in a very carefree manner, his gaze following the bubbles that erupted from his snout as he did so - there was nothing quite like a good dip.

Still, he was all too happy to slither onto land when he finally approached the island at the lake's centre. This was the mystery dungeon proper, the true test of prowess that he had come here for. Osiris shook himself out lightly, moisture glistening brightly on his baby blue scales, mentally preparing for a foray into another mystery dungeon. He had to remind himself that this was different from the likes of the pecha and shadowhue forests.

"Here goes nothin'..." His voice was high-pitched but steadfast. One had to be afraid before they could be brave, and that's why he was here. For adventure. The dratini pasted on his game face and determinedly slithered into the woods proper, focusing intently on his surroundings as he travelled. Peril and wild pokemon awaited him, alongside personal glory and treasure. And maybe a few friends, who knew.

Rana was just laying there, when suddenly she heard what sounded like someone getting.. clotheslined? She turned fairly immediately at someone getting cut off, only to be greeted by the scene of a black, glittering glaceon, ice flying slightly in the air... Before it practically started vomiting words at her. She tried her best to listen, but she couldn't entirely listen all the way in-- All she really understood was that this glaceon's name was Fenrir, and it wanted to know... What species she was? Also maybe her name? She isn't entirely sure, but she spoke up anyways.

"E-Ehm.. M-My name's R-Rana, and I-I'm a C-Cyndaquil... N-Nice to M-Meet you." She's.. fairly nervous about being greeted by such an... Energetic pokemon. She's barely able to understand him at times, but he seems like a good person... She mulls over what she knows about this new stranger before going to stand, and wincing mostly unnoticably as she gets up, lightly shaking herself off, a leaf falling off her head as she does so. She looks at the Glaceon now that she's up, taking in the details she missed while on her side on the floor.

"Cyndaquil..." Fenris parroted under his breath as he watched the creature stand, circling around her in inspection. It all seemed a bit familiar, but he was pretty sure he hadn't met a cyndaquil before, so he assumed he was thinking of something else. Regardless, the thought didn't stay in the forefront of his mind for too long, soon replaced by the growing desire to learn more about this new friend. "Nice to meet you too, Ruh-Rana," he responded with a giggle, trying his best to pronounce the odd stutter-like sound of this exotic name. It was a weird name, but so was his, and R-Rana seemed nice enough so far that he could deal with struggling to say her name! Come to think of it, everything the cyndaquil said seemed to be laced with the same accent; it sounded almost like a stutter, but he could tell it was an accent because there was no reason to be stuttering! At that, he fully intended to do his best to properly say her name in respect of this accent!

But beyond that, he wasn't going to try to speak like her because that sounded like a lot of work. Besides, he doubted such a thing was necessary... though it wasn't like he had much experience talking to pokémon who sounded so different from himself. "Are you playing in the leaves too?" he continued on, glancing down at the pile of leaves R-Rana had clearly already jumped into. He was beginning to speak more clearly now that the initial rush of finding someone new to talk to was wearing off, but he still held a distinctly hyperactive and scatterbrained demeanor. "I think most of the big piles are gone, sooo you wanna do something else?" he offered, figuring that between the two of them, the fun value of dead leaves in the area had probably been used up for the most part. Besides, in truth, he'd been doing that for a while and was about ready to move on to something else. While he was good at entertaining himself, he was by no means immune to boredom.

Without even waiting for a response, he went on to begin listing off games he thought would be fun: "Like uh... hide and seek, tag, follow the leader, truth or dare, um..." Surely there were more games they could play, but those were the ones he could think of off the top of his head. If none of them sounded good to his new friend, maybe she had some ideas of her own? Fenris wasn't one to shy away from new experiences, and he certainly didn't want to be the only one having fun! They had to pick a game that both of them would enjoy! Fortunately, he was fine with most any game as long as he didn't have to play alone; and even then, a lot of solo games were fun to an extent. Even something as tame as a casual conversation with a stranger sounded like more than enough for him. He wasn't the hardest kid to entertain.

(Alright RNGsus let's see what you've got)

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , , , , , , ,

This was probably the most beautiful scenery Osiris had ever seen. Grassveil had an old, rustic, bustling home-y sort of vibe to it, but he'd spent so many days there that he was numb to the effect of it all. The small pond was for kids and honestly it was just a big dumpy pond in a clearing, so compared to the eternally autumn woods he was in now, it was no contest. Shadowhue was dark and scary and that had its place, but it wasn't all that fun to look at, and pecha forest didn't even warrant comparison.

The dratini took his time as he slithered along the forest floor, his eyes wide and appreciative. He drunk in every minute detail of the mystery dungeon from the impossibly tall trees to the bright atmosphere. The warm air felt wonderful on his cool scales, still moist from his swim here. He took a moment to rub his head against a nearby tree, purposefully nudging his now soggy headband off of his head. The young dragon snatched it up in his snout and returned to his patrol.

Honestly, he wasn't sure what he was looking for specifically. Glory and treasure and trophies all sound nice, sure, but he was here less so for a certain item and more so for an excuse to leave town for a bit. Life at home was... stifling, and stretching his metaphorical wings every so often felt fantastic.

"I'd say that the peace and quiet is a welcome change of pace," His voice was muffled as he was speaking around the headband in his mouth, but nevertheless he was skeptical of his surroundings. His eyes were alert as he cast his gaze from side to side, waiting for the first surpise the mystery dungeon had for him. In his (very limited) experience, those didn't take long to start popping up. "But it's boring."

Wild pokemon were supposed to be a thing in here, right?

(Phantumps and deerlings what the fuck is that shit. Give me bears)

the sunset hero carried out 6 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , , ,

Rana was honestly a bit confused to think of this glaceon she's encountered. She's by no means a social butterfly, and this glaceon seems... the opposite of her? But they seem to be nice, and she WAS here to relax along with train, but it's not like she wasn't attempting that... She nodded her head slightly, being able to understand the somewhat outgoing glaceon more now that he seemed to have calmed down slightly, helping her to feel less flustered about how fast said umbreon was speaking, still speaking somewhat quietly. "Umm... We could..." She stops talking for a moment, thinking, before speaking in her small, quiet tone again. "Truth or Dare could be fun so long we don't do anything all too dangerous..." She thinks for a second, rolling her head back and forth slightly. "Ehm... If you want to." The main reason she's suggesting this is that she doesn't think she could outrun something currently, considering her back feet still hurt a bit from kicking a tree. Ouch.


(Ask for bears and you shall receive, apparently. I would roll, but I have like no energy and don't wanna run out immediately considering I have no energy regen items. ><)

Fenris failed to realize he was holding his breath in anticipation for the response of his newest friend.  Even when she finally picked out a game and the glaceon allowed himself to breathe again, it still didn't quite register to him.  All he cared about was that R-Rana wanted to play a game with him, and she had even picked one of his suggestions!  Truth or Dare... come to think of it, wasn't actually something he had played much before; he leaned toward more physically active games, but that was mostly because they were the most commonly played.  He was pretty sure he knew the rules to Truth or Dare as they were fairly simple, and the additional rule of "nothing too dangerous" didn't seem particularly hard to follow, so he doubted his lack of experience would be getting in the way here.  It may not have been what he was most experienced with, but that wouldn't stop him from winning!

...Could one even "win" at Truth or Dare?  It wasn't a very competitive game, was it?  Well, that surely wouldn't take away from the fun of it, and if it did, he could just find some way to challenge himself.  "Okay, you first!  Truth or dare?" he practically jumped in anticipation as he spoke, eager to start the game.  He wasn't sure what he was going to ask or tell the cyndaquil to do, but he was good at improvising.  Probably.  That was how he usually did things, so...  Well, actually, dares were easy, but what was he going to ask if she picked truth?  He didn't really know anything about her to get a good idea of what a fun question would be.  What if he somehow upset her?  He knew others tended to be... sensitive, but he couldn't relate, so how was he supposed to know what kinds of questions were okay?  In his experience, everyone always had weird random things that would upset them, and he never understood why.

At least a dare would be easier since it was a pretty straightforward concept.  R-Rana didn't want to do anything "dangerous," but most things that were dangerous to a cyndaquil would probably be dangerous to a glaceon too, he figured. All he had to do was pick something that wasn't dangerous for him and it'd be fine for her too, right?

(Just so you know, there's no benefit to saving energy.  It doesn't really do anything IC.)

So far he'd been in the leaf copse for five, maybe ten mintues (Osiris wasn't really counting) and nothing had immediately jumped out to attack him. By his reckoning, this place was a lot less dangerous than Shadowhue, at least! He had help getting through there, sure, but the tension was up from practically the start. In contrast, he was finding his little forest stroll to be equal parts relaxing and stressful.

You can't just walk through mystery dungeons like this, right? There was supposed to be some sort of ambush attack eventually... and it hadn't come yet. Any second now, something was gonna pop out from around a tree and try to beat him up. But it just.... wasn't happening. It was maddening.

Wait a second. Was that tree stump... floating?

Osiris scrunched up his snout, the headband clutched in his fangs rustling slightly with the movement. It wasn't until the ghastly black body and eerie purple eyes filled in the form that Iris realized he was dealing with a pokemon - probably a wild one. Thinking quickly, his tail lashed out and he sent a weak current of electricity at it, designed to paralyze on contact. The ghost stump floated behind a tree and his thunder wave crackled harmlessly before dying out. A second later, the pokemon's ghastly head popped out from behind the tree and the look in its eyes was angry.

"Oh no," The dragon's voice was deadpan, but his expression was fearful. He had absolutely no way of hurting a ghost. It was time for plan B.

The dratini turned tail and booked it. He just barely resisted the urge to squeal for help. Iris tore through bushes recklessly and did not dare to look behind him to see if the pokemon was following. With any luck, it'd decide that there was no harm and no foul and simply let him flee, but in case it didn't, he was determined to slither to safety.

(You regen 1 energy per page naturally, so there's that I guess. Also I got 0 energy)

Rana was still a bit confused by the whole meeting with Fenris, But she could honestly say she's not minding the company of the ice-type at this point in time. She then thinks back on the game they're about to play, tilting her head back and forth a small bit, letting out a small sound of thought, before nodding to herself. "Ehm... I guess I'll start us off with a truth..?" She isn't entirely sure what to expect from the Melanistic---not like she knew what that word was, or what it even meant--- glaceon. While waiting for Fenris to make his question, she thought about what her day plan was, and how it deviated.

Okay, so her plan was to train... and then... Rest? What would resting even have entailed? Like, Laying down? There ARE wild pokemon here, supposedly... She slightly rolled her head, regarding the glaceon. What was Fenris doing here, anyways? Could've lost something, she supposes, but... Maybe he just came here to explore a bit? It does make sense, considering what of his personality she's seen so far. And considering all the leaves falling from the trees due to the almost eternal-feeling autumn, that seems the most likely to her. She tilted her head slightly at a faint sound she heard, but shook her head. It probably wasn't anything... Hopefully.


(Mkay! Thank you for telling me that!)

BlueMimikyu carried out 8 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , , , , ,

Fenris sat in anticipation as he awaited the cyndaquil's decision, eager to get started with this game.
It was one he didn't actually play too often, but not for any lack of desire on his part; it just seemed that others weren't too fond of the game, or at least, playing it with him.  Maybe it was the weird "personal space" thing everyone always had going on, which he didn't understand but wasn't going to judge for.  Now, however, he had found someone who was actually willing to play Truth or Dare with him, and he was all too giddy to get started with the first... truth.

He would have preferred a dare since he felt it easier to think of interesting actions than words, but surely he was good enough at talking to make up something neat for his new friend to talk about.  He was supposed to pick something personal, right?  And R-Rana hadn't said anything about personal questions being off the table, just dangerous things, so that meant he could ask anything he wanted!  "Uuuum..." he mulled it over to himself, falling into deep thought before suddenly having the world brought back to his attention; his ears twitched as he picked up distant rustling, and impulsively, he just had to say something.  "Did you hear that?" he spoke hardly a second after hearing the mystery sound, cocking his head in the direction of its origin and staring for a moment before realizing what he'd done and immediately regretting his decision.  That was a question!  Did it count as his turn!?  "N-n," he stammered to correct himself before his new friend could answer and effectively waste his question on something so boring.

"No, wait, that doesn't count!  That's not my question!" he returned to the rapid manner of speaking he'd demonstrated earlier as an exaggerated panic came over him.  "I, uh," he tried to quickly think of something to replace his previous question with, still fearing R-Rana would decide to answer that instead of waiting.  "What're your dreams?" he spoke the first decent thing that came to his mind, hardly thinking it over first.  The darkly glaceon didn't have any particularly noteworthy dreams of his own, but everyone else seemed to, so he figured it was a decent first question to ask; maybe not the best, but this was a time-sensitive operation... or at least, he certainly thought he was.  Still, he was satisfied enough with the question he had picked out, and he could only hope the cyndaquil would answer that instead of the first one.  For all he knew, maybe this girl had some really cool dream of being a legendary hero or something!

(And we're almost to a page so that's cool.)

So much for "no harm no foul."

Osiris squealed in a totally manly fashion as his slithering adopted a zigzag pattern; The phantump was chasing him and it was getting a lot more aggressive in its payback. Thick, putrid sprays of purple liquid kept flying at him from behind, and it was a mixture of dumb luck and his own quick thinking that was keeping him from getting hit. He dove behind trees and through bushes at any chance he could, his stress level rising every time he heard the hissing of that violent toxic spray clashing against his cover.

Iris wasn't sure what it was, but his first guess was some kind of poison attack. He wouldn't have pegged a tree stump ghost as a pokemon who would use poison against totally innocent bystanders, but here he was.

Frustratingly, the stupid ghost was every bit as fast as he was and the dratini was having no luck losing it. At this rate, he was going to get tagged by it before he made any significant headway - there were only so many trees around, after all, and as soon as he was herded into a clearing then the fight was back on. He wracked his mind for solutions, suddenly desperate for a way out, but nothing came to mind. His only option was to try and hit it with a thunder wave, but as soon as he stopped to take aim then his foe was going to let loose a shot at him. And Osiris was not about to take a chance with whatever kind of creepy ghost poison this thing had.

Unbeknownst to him, however, his hasty and harrowed path was set to converge with a pair of pokemon nearby. And he'd be bringing with him a provoked and angry wild pokemon hot on his heels.

(Venom Drench is the move the phantum is using btw. Thing has like no ranged attacks at a low level so I had to take what I could get. Also we have three bears now fk yeah)

What WAS that noise? Rana lightly debated what it could possibly be.. Maybe another Pokemon? Maybe... Hmm... She tilted her head, sniffing in the direction of the noise. Huh... She snapped back into reality when Fenris asked if she heard the noise as well, before hastily correcting himself before she took it as his question, making her giggle a tiny bit in light humor before nodding at his new question. "Ehm.. I'll answer both to be fair..?" Her voice was still quiet, with her thinking lightly on the topic. "Well... Yeah, I do. It's a weird noise.. Sorta like rustling of some kind?" She tilted her head to the other direction this time, curious.

However, she continues talking, ignoring it for the time being. "And to the second question..." She blushed slightly at that, turning away. "My dream... Or rather, I guess you could s-say my goal... is to---" She stops mid-sentence, turning towards the noise again abruptly. "Is it just me or... Is it getting louder..?" She adopted a look of extreme curiosity.. before crouching into a stance. "L-Look out! I-I think something's approaching!" She prepared herself for whatever was going to bust through those bushes only to be graced with the most FEARSOME of POKEMON: A... Nevermind, it's not very fearsome. It's 'only' a Dratini--- Not like dratini are to be taken lightly though. Huh, She certainly didn't expect that.