Shadow's Hue

"I should really invest in a source of light." Saturn says as he stumbles his way through the dimly lit underbrush. Saturn had 'overheard' eavesdroped on an adventurer talking about exploring a nearby Mystery Dungeon known as Shadowhue Forest, and decided to 'follow' stalk the adventurer so he wouldn't have to bother with asking for directions to this new place. As the stranger found its way to Shadowhue Forest, Saturn kept enough distance to avoid being caught, but not too much so he risked losing the adventurer. The instant Saturn followed the stranger into Shadowhue's entrance, it became much more difficult to avoid losing his stalkee. The near-omnipresent shrubbery and dead leaves on the ground made staying sneaky near impossible, and before he knew it Saturn had basically bumped right into the pokemon he was stalking. Saturn made a fair bit of noise trying to avoid falling flat on his face and was 99.9% sure he failed the 'stealth mission' creepy stalking session so he attempted to save face by blurting out, "Sorry, didn't see you there. The forest floor is almost devoid of light." Hopefully they didn't realize they were being followed.

[Energy-10=9]

Miss T: {26 - 10 = 16}

Items:

Miss Treavus hovered along, staring into the abysmal darkness seeping from the trees; it wasn't quite like the caves from back at home, but the darkness was still welcoming, the branches of the trees outstretched in the shape of arms and drawing her back into the lack of light she was raised in. With her levitational abilities, she drew her notebook out of habit and began subconsciously writing about the environment. Having done this her whole life, the Misdreavus didn't even have to think about it anymore—it just came naturally to the little ghost. Although she did have an official journal now for this very reason, the Screech Pokemon simply regarded the smaller paper as a first draft to the final analysis.

Flipping it closed suddenly, pencil hidden among the rungs of the spiral notebook, she halted her pace and remained still for a moment.
"You know, if you're going to follow a Pokemon, you could at least say so forthright," she droned monotonously as if bored by a common occurrence. In a simple, graceful motion, she turned to face the Cubone without changing her position and stared without a sign of any emotion. At the signal of the painfully obvious expression through the creature's mask, the ghost blinked slowly and lowered her elevation to level herself with the ground type.
"What do you need?" She asked in a wispy sigh.

"I'm, uhh... I'm looking for information. Saturn stammered out. Certainly not his smoothest reply, but he decided to go with it. I heard stories about how dark it is in this forest and decided to come see for myself. I left town a little bit after you did and after traveling behind you for a little while it occured to me that we were probably going to the same place. So, I followed you to make sure I didn't get lost. I'm sorry." Saturn said, drooping his head down. The last thing he needed was to make enemies. After all, he basically knew nobody around here and, now that he thought about it, 'following' a ghost into a shrouded forest probably isn't doing him any favors.

[Items: none]

Miss T: {16}

Items:

After a bit of time, the ghost began to shift back into her cycle of note-taking and observation, while also simultaneously paying attention to the Cubone’s speech as a secondary focus. She flicked precisely through her notes and added a few scribbles here and there, looking up only once at the Lonely Pokémon’s very general answer before resuming her primary routine. She jostled a quick note on a fresh page for a moment, ”Run-on, quite long winded.”

Once the ground type had finished, she hesitated for a moment. Not so much about what response she would give, but about how why exactly such a frightened Pokémon would put itself in a position of uncertainty and danger for the sole reason of curiosity. While she could empathize with the need to know more for herself, why not research the area first? Find textual answers before throwing oneself into the unknown? Her face, however, reflected neither annoyance nor confusion, and she blinked a moment before responding.

”It is no issue, truly. Though I would think it would be more useful to judge whether you could trust your unknowing escort or not, beforehand,” she criticized the Pokémon’s decisions as if he were a study subject or a reading to be analyzed. ”Keep in mind, however, that I am also quite occupies with my own goals, so do communicate if you need anything. I cannot exactly read minds.”

Her lip twitched slightly at the word “exactly.” In honesty, that wasn’t true at all. In a literal sense, anyway. She might as well be able to read minds with how heavily Pokémon expresses their feelings in their faces and voices. Having been raised among other ghosts, Miss T had adjusted to the subtlety in their mannerisms; when it came to other Pokémon, everything was so dramatic in comparison. Yet despite this, expressions where often entirely unreadable with just how strained they were. It’s something the Misdreavus could never understand, so she remained her reserved self with only hints of tones that she had always been used to using.

"Well, I-" Saturn went silent, briefly pondering what he should say in response to the spirit's question. What DO I want? Do I even want anything from this pokemon? Like usuall, he raked his brain trying to come up with an answer; in hopes that he wouldn't have to explore this gloomy woodland alone, at the very least. "-I figured you came to this place with some objective in mind, and was wondering if you would tolerate the assistance of an explorer wannabe such as myself." saturn stated concisely. "More will likely get accomplished if we work together, and of course, you're more than welcome to keep whatever we find if you deem it useful." In reality, Saturn really needed to fill out his sparse and basically non-existent inventory, but decided the possibility of making a new friend would be much more valuable in the long run. He has little to no experience in adventuring and could really benefit from a generous and more experienced pokemon taking him under their wing and showing him the basics. Perhaps they would be more likely to do so if he made it clear he wasn't trying to leech off of their success? Saturn had never been the social type, not that he had a choice considering his parents raised him in the middle of nowhere. He simply wasn't sure how to go about meeting strangers and making valuable social connections. His first instinct has always been to just blurt out whatever message he is trying to communicate in the most blatant and straightforward manner. In attempt to not sound like some unfeeling machine, he tries with all his cognitive resources to add some semblance of flair and personality to his responses. Whether his attempts are pathetic or successful is, after all, primarily dependent on the nature of the individual he is speaking to.

Miss T: {16}

Items:

She shifted to the side as it spoke again. What an annoyance, to both the Misdreavus and any other pokemon this fellow knew: to live life unaware of one’s own desires and necessities, and to even express such openly is such a risky way to go about the world. But she shouldn’t discredit the pokemon just yet. After all, perhaps its outward appearance was simply just that, and not true to its internal thought. Or perhaps this Cubone was just as much of a bone-head as it looked.

“Restate your first-spoken clause to yourself internally, and you already have your answer,” she hummed, unconcerned about her bitterness. “However, I do not oppose the idea you have in mind, so long as it does not interfere with my own progress, nor will it cost me anything in addition.” She flipped her notebook to a close abruptly and approached the Cubone from above, tilted in a manner as if she were towering over the creature like an authoritative figure holding her ground. She blinked once.

Clearly, the ghost didn’t care too much about any particular individual. She had never made friends; only business partners, acquaintances, and the like had entered and left her afterlife without much significance or attachment. To Genevieve’s mind, even back at her original home, the only thing that really mattered to Miss Treavus was her and her own needs—this mostly consisted of facts and knowledge, but there was another secret desire deep down that she had never verbalized nor written, something secret to her own self.

“Your name?” She inquired.

"I'm Saturn, at your service." he said with a polite bow. "I'll do my best to not be a nuisance, but I can't make any promises. I haven't been in the adventuring business for very long but I hope that isn't too much of an issue. I've learned a lot about adventuring already, like what plants are NOT safe to eat and how to make a makeshift shelter out of leaves, branches and the like. Anyways who, or what, are you looking for, exactly?" At this point Saturn realized how much of a blabbermouth he can really be at times. Maybe he needs to stop putting so much effort into adding unnecessary small talk to everything and just get his point across every once in a while. Of course that would be easier to do if he knew what his point was to begin with. "I talk too much, don't I?"

southpawXlegacy carried out 2 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

,

Miss T: {16}

Items:

The Misdreavus resumed her note-taking as the Cubone spoke on incessantly, leafing once again through her notes as she observed her surroundings. She bobbed slightly as she levitated, showing no signs that she was listening to him other than a subtle yet desperate attempt to prevent herself from rolling her eyes.

"Yes, quite so, she responded curtly without even turning to face the other.
"You may call me Miss T." Once finishing her obligatory response, she hoped yet again that she may carry on with her work. It certainly seemed to be much more important than whatever experiment the ground-type was up to. However, after giving it some thought, that would certainly put a Pokemon's prior knowledge to the test. Not that Miss Treavus ever had to, given her ability to memorize any scholarly information. Maybe a lesser being, however, needed more extreme conditions in order to recall facts.

Once her social interaction was over, at least in her mind, she moved onto her work once again, panning through the trees and bushes until something caught her eye. Before she had a chance to react, a Poison Powder puffed into her face, causing her to drop her notebook. Her expression hadn't changed much besides having closed her eyes involuntary as the dust was released toward her, but her levitation seemed much lower once the effects of poison started to kick in.

"Well, you wanted adventure, right? How well can you deal with an ambush."

OOC//:

Somewhere, deep within Shadowhue Forest, a lone Shroomish sat atop her makeshift throne built into an old, rotting tree stump. She silently awaited the arrival of her five Stantler underlings, hoping they fulfilled her request for valuable shinies. After all, there are two things that make a monarch's power genuine; loyal subjects and valuable treasure. So, she figured, why not order one to find the other? Sure, they weren't exactly the brightest individuals nor had they been under her leadership for very long, but what they lacked in smarts they more than made up for in sheer loyalty. If she had a hundred more subjects like them this forest would already be hers, along with all the spoils hidden within it. Shadowhue Forest would obviously only be the beginning. From there she would stage an organized assault on the surrounding areas until the entire region was (figuratively) in the palm of her hand. There would be no extent to her reign. Nobody would dare defy- scritch scritch. Her thoughts were interrupted by the telltale shuffling of feet along the cluttered forest floor. Her first assumption was that her Stantler underlings had arrived with some loot, but whoever was on the other side of those bushes had only two feet, if the sound they were making was any indicator. Despite only hearing one set of footsteps, she distinctly heard two voices, one of them being female. Perhaps one was piggybacking on the other? No, that would just be silly. She peeked through the bushes to sate her curiosity and was rewarded with a startling face-to-face encounter with a floating ghost. The Shroomish was so startled by the incident that she instinctively expelled a cloud of poisonous spores, the wind at her back blowing them towards the ghost and whoever else was on the other side. Needless to say, she was furious. "HOW DARE YOU STEP FOOT IN HERE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION! THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY!" She was absolutely steaming now. There would be no mercy for those who refuse to follow the rules. "You two just wait until my loyal subjects get here! They'll flatten you like a pancake. YOU HEAR ME? A PANCAKE!!!" She was seeing red now. Once she's gotten herself worked up, there is very little that can be done to douse her rage. Her underlings knew this all too well. All she had to do was stall these two buffoons until they got here. The one with working feet and some kind of silly bone helmet piped up, "Look, we didn't mean to trespass on your home, we swear! Please, is there anything we can do to make amends?" This caught her attention. It seemed the pokemon wearing a skull was unwittingly playing into the palm of her hand. Now, all she had to do was stall them until her reinforcements arrived. "Very well, I shall give you the opportunity to earn my forgiveness." She sat there and eyed the ghost again, then looked back at the creep playing dressup with someone's remains. She thought for a minute about what exactly she wanted them to do, and figured she could use some amusement. "........ drop and give me fifty." Obviously, this command was aimed at the one with corporeal limbs. Saturn was astonished at first, but decided to comply with her demands. He got down and started doing push ups, as per her command, but the poison's effects were making this much more difficult than normal. His head started feeling heavy, and his arms were getting weak. He soldiered on, however, out of fear of what the reprecussions would be. "Hmph. This is going to be too easy." she thought. It was only a matter of time before those Stantler would arrive. In fact, she could have sworn she heard the telltale sound of hooves on the forest floor.....

Miss T: {16}

Items:

Once Miss T had identified the pokemon, any underlying dread of what she had to face instantly vanished. A Shroomish was of no concern to the ghost-type, and even though she had been inflicted with poison, it shouldn’t be too much trouble to expel. After all, she had studied the forests and understood how to find what she needed to thrive there.
”My sincerest apologies, I’ll just be on my way.” The ground pokemon took on a more frantic response, which was a fantastic way to be manipulated. There was no way a random pokemon in the middle of the woods could have as much power as the Misdeavus’s liege, and it would be a terrible mistake to swear any loyalty to someone they didn’t even know. Already this whole ordeal was growing to be ridiculous. Genevieve didn’t even know how to ask what this sadistic self-proclaimed queen could gain from watching an absolute stranger do push-ups, yet Saturn dove right into her command without so much as a question. The sheer naevity and idiocy of this scene was making her feel more sick than the poison itself was.

”I’m sure as a leader you have a very busy schedule, so we would hate to take up your time,” she said apathetically, yet still adding enough emphasis with a mere glance at Saturn to give the queen’s new fool a good idea of why he should stop his ignorant compliance. How could this pokemon fall victim so easily within the two seconds he’d known someone? Clearly he had a lot to learn, but whether he’d retain his lesson better from direct experience or through a scolding from the Misdreavus herself, she couldn’t decide. Either way, she hoped the Cubone would at least regret something in his choices and actually learn from it.

Perfection was a high bar to meet, but Miss T considered herself well within the range to own such a quality. After all, she had never failed, never made a mistake, and has made consistent progress in fully understanding the natural world. She didn’t necessarily intend to look down on everyone else, it just so happened that they did not meet her expectations. In fact, no one outside of her home has ever seemed intelligent enough to Ms. Treavus; all except for the leader of the organization she had joined. She simply let the simple creatures live their simple lives while she would expand the knowledge for the entire universe along with other qualified individuals—it was a way of life few would ever be able to achieve. Especially for the... “special” ones.

For the Cubone to fall for this facade was somewhat understandable, after having judged his personality from the start, this would just be expected from him. However, for this low-life to think of herself as more important was so utterly delusional, the ghost thought she was actually starting to feel something—aside from all the underlying disgust and annoyance, of course. It was beyond annoying, in fact, rather insane; not that the oblivious creature would even care or listen in the first place, so there was no point in explaining which. It was high time for the witch to just wisp out of there before things got out of hand, or before she felt anymore of what seemed to be the beginnings of rage.

The time was now. Saturn had never really been one to instigate conflicts, but he certainly saw the necessity of standing up for yourself, and immediately bowing down like he was doing now could not be further from that goal. What he really needed to do right now was grow a damn back bone and show this spoiled princess what's what! After all, there is only one outcome for those who wish to force their will upon others, and that's a full-blown uprising!

Saturn shot up from his rather submissive stance and was instantly overtaken by a sudden surge of confidence along with a powerful desire to stand his ground. Every inch of his skin bristled as he felt a newly-established connection to the earth that was not previously there. Saturn instinctively tried to shape this newfound power into something that could harm his opponent. He strained and funneled all his willpower into accomplishing this task, which manifested itself as a cluster of nearby rocks floating into the air and shooting forward at high velocity. Three stones no bigger than Saturn's fist dug into the Shroomish's torso with a loud smack! The results were.... rather underwhelming, considering Saturn isn't exactly a capable fighter. All this little display of rebellion did was push the Shroomish Queen over the deep end. If she wasn't frothing with unbridled rage before, she certainly was now. "HOW DARE YOU THROW UP ARMS IN THE PRESENCE OF ROYALTY! THAT'S IT! NO MORE GAMES! YOUR PATHETIC ATTEMPT AT USURPING MY LEADERSHIP ENDS HERE!"

Just then a group of five stantler enter the fray, two from the left side, two from the right, and one behind the two adventurers, with the Shroomish queen at their front. "We have returned, my queen. Our quest for treasure didn't turn up anything of value, but we heard your enraged monologuing in the distance and were worried for your safety. It seems our concerns were valid. What would you have us do with these heathens?" The Queen uttered three malevolent words, brimming with the purest hatred, "SHOW. NO. MERCY."

Miss T: {16}

Items:

If it had not been for the suddenness of movement, Miss Treavus would’ve hovered there smugly watching the so-called queen get what she deserved. However, with no spoken plan, communication, or even giveaway glance, the ghost-type was rather shocked by what happened. More than anything, she was just relieved. Thank goodness she wouldn’t have to deal with that hindrance anymore. More importantly, this Cubone that was alongside her was proving to be less of a joke than she expected. His choice in action allowed Miss T to gain even the slightest amount of respect for him—which was more than she could say about any other Pokemon she’d met outside of the mountain.

The timing, however, brought a grim bitterness upon the looming ghost as the watched the ordeal take place. Truly, she did not care to be in this situation at all, and despite trying to show the queen respect, she was only chocked up to be an equal to her impulsive companion. At this point, she would much rather hover away than deal with anything at the scene. So she did.

Turning 90° from the Cubone and Shroomish, Genevieve simply hovered away without a trace of care. She was casual enough where the guards might get the hint that she wasn’t in the wrong, yet at the same time those goons looked foolish enough to attempt to stomp her. In fact, she doubted they would have any effective moves at all, except for maybe a Psybeam, but even that wasn’t worthy of caring about. Right now she just wanted to find a cure for the poison and move on from this fiasco.

aMEWzing carried out 1 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

{Energy Remaining: 9 - 15 = 0}
Items: none

Saturn felt rather empowered by his sudden act of aggression, however, that brief moment of elation was rather unceremoniously torn to shreds when he suddenly found himself surrounded by the Shroomish Queen's five Stantler goons. Any vestige of confidence soon followed when the Queen shouted her bloodcurdling order to show no mercy. On top of all that, the most discouraging omen here was that Miss T, an adventurer that was (as far as he could tell) leagues above him in experience and talent, literally just floated away. Out of everything that had happened in the last fifteen seconds, this was probably the most discouraging.

As he watched his newfound acquaintance flit out of sight beyond the treetops, Saturn couldn't help but wonder where his parents currently were and, more importantly, what they would have to say if they were aware of the situation he was currently in. Would they tell him to run, or stand his ground? Nah, they would probably scold him for- "OOF!" Saturn's train of thought was derailed by the rib-shattering headbutt he received from the Stantler to this far right. The blow sent him careening off into a pile of bushes, hidden from view. Had he hit solid ground (or worse, a tree), his injuries would certainly have been more... debilitating. Sure, his torso was burning with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns, and it hurt even to breathe, but perhaps he could limp his way to safety- "There he is! Get him!"

Well, there goes that plan. One of the Stantlers run up to the bush and poke their head in, getting ready to finish Saturn off when the Queen speaks up, "Keep him alive! I think I just found my first court jester...." The last thing Saturn hears before succumbing to the stantler's Hypnosis is the Queen's maniacal laughter.

Miss T: {16 - 1 = 15}

Items:

Willfully ignoring the loud scene she had left behind, Miss Treavous began to scour the forest floor without hesitation. It wasn't that she didn't care about the Cubone she had left behind, it was more so that she didn't want to be involved in any of the trouble he would cause. Though already proven to be an annoyance, Miss T, unfortunately, couldn't just leave the kid behind—just imagine what that would do to her credible self. In the benefit for both she and the little ground type, Genevieve set her focus to finding healing items.

If she were back at the brewery, she could easily whip up a potion in a matter of seconds. Though the wilderness was not exactly a place she could call home, she was still relatively adept at finding useful items, what with all her experience of gathering ingredients. To have a keen eye for items was inarguably one of the most important skills needed to traverse a dungeon, as well as avoiding any potential foes. Though disgusted to admit it, she had already somewhat failed at the latter, after encountering that fraud of a ruler yet still refusing to fight. Energy conservation was important, sure, but she regretted losing her cool like that.

Hardly a tree-length away from the scene rested a small yellow seed nestled into the ground, which Miss T promptly hovered before her for inspection.
Reviver Seed, she identified quickly, ready to return to the others for support. What she saw when she got there was somewhere between what she expected and something utterly disappointing—Saturn lay surrounded on the ground by Stantler, the queen guffawing in mockery. The most the ghost could let out was a single sigh.

"How unfortunate," the Misdreavus droned with hardly yet both a smirk and a sneer on her unmoving face. "Here, ingest this before you find yourself at worse stakes."
As she spoke, Genevieve simply floated through the Stantler, uncaring of their reactions, and simply popped the Reviver Seed into the Cubone's mouth. Unaware of how awkward and intrusive this might seem to literally everyone else, Miss T hovered and watched the Lonely Pokemon intently, waiting for his response. She only hoped this would awake him from his repose.

Saturn was withdrawn from the nightmarish laughter-filled dreamscape he was in by the telltale sensation of a seed in his mouth. He reflexively swallowed the little morsel and was quickly brought back from the void of unconsciousness. The first thing he saw, aside from the numerous horns of the surrounding stantler, was that Miss T had come back! Who knew a floating ghost could be such an invigorating ray of hope! Seeing as the hostiles around him had their attention directed towards Miss T, Saturn used this precious grace period to take one of them by surprise. He used the only attack he knew, Ancient Power, to propel a small rock straight into the side of a Stantler's jaw. The impact was sudden and surprising enough that the Big Horned pokemon tried to back away, only to get his antlers tangled up with the antlers of the Stantler to the left of him. The ensuing chaos bought Saturn just enough time to skitter off towards a low-hanging tree. He used his forward momentum to jump up towards the nearest branch, barely managing to pull himself up. Saturn climbed up as high as he was comfortable with, and prayed that neither the Shroomish or the Stantlers knew any long-range projectile moves.

Three of the Stantler quickly surrounded the tree, right on Saturn's heels the entire time. The other two were still trying to untangle themselves, with little success. The Shroomish Queen, seeing how quickly and easily her control of the situation was diminishing, decided to call off her attack. However, she internally vowed to take revenge on the only two pokemon that were ever able to get the best of her. They would get their just deserts in due time, she just had to come up with a plan.

And she had all the time in the world to do so.

Meanwhile, Saturn was still hiding on one of the branches, not sure if it was safe to come down or not. This could be a trap after all. He tried peering between the surrounding tree branches, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Misdreavus, to no avail. So, he just hoped she was within earshot. "Are you there, Miss T? Are they gone?"