A Stroll in the Woods

Don't mind the destruction, ignore it, it’s just a nod to Badger's thread also taking place in Pêcha Forest)

Energy = 22 - 5 = 17

Destruction. The bird heard destruction. The bird stayed far away from the sound of destruction in Pêcha Forest. Oh, was it ever loud.

One week since he first came to town. One week since he first met Yigo the Sandshrew. One week since it started snowing, the white fluff still on the ground. One week since he got angry at a specific Jigglypuff and only a couple of hours since he’d seen her again, and it was awkward on his part. It had been one week since ‘Christmas,’ and Radar needed food. The two had just run out of food and Radar had remembered the two could just scavenge in a dungeon for food. The bird wasn’t being cheap, he was just being smart so as to keep his Poké for when he might really need it. Radar didn’t really know when he’d be able to get a source of Poké aside from stealing. So, Yigo had—in spite of the snow—brought Radar to a place called Pêcha Forest, someplace where they could forage for food...for free! Definitely useful to keep in mind for the future. The Murkrow gazed about the snowy landscape that was Pêcha Forest once the sound of destruction had passed, being sure to steer Yigo away from the chaos at every turn. It seemed to be over now...

He'd snuck back into his friend's burrow while he was still asleep, Yigo was letting Radar stay with him until the bird found somewhere else to live. He’d snuck out mainly because he was bored and couldn’t sleep because of insomnia, and had run into Alki the Jigglypuff to name one Pokémon he encountered. There were others, but Alki was one of them. He'd kept it a secret from Yigo, thinking it was best to keep Yigo happy and Alki would just make him upset again...plus, Radar really didn’t know what him and the Jigglypuff even were. It was better that way, right? For both Yigo and Radar. It was better to leave dead issues dead...wasn't it? It had to be, Yigo was happy, how could Radar risk that? Besides, telling Yigo the Murkrow snuck out defeats the purpose of, you know, sneaking out. The whole point is not to let Pokémon know you snuck out, why would he tell Yigo? He wouldn’t, he was sure he was doing the right thing by not saying anything.

“So...?” Radar didn’t quite know where to look, it was his second time in Pêcha Forest, his first was one week ago. When he first came to Grassveil Town, first met Yigo, first felt safe...and he was back. “Where do we look, Yigo?” The Dark-Flying Type asked, flapping next to his friend, looking into those blue eyes of his. Radar—never having really looked for items in dungeons before, he just stumbled upon them—didn’t really know how to scavenge for items. Hopefully, Yigo did.

(Sorry for the short-ish post, it’ll be longer—hopefully—once we get into the roleplay)

Everything was quiet. Nothing could be heard around them and the place was dark. Snow had come to visit Grassveil and not in a good time. Yigo was not bringing many supplies with him and hadn't even counted on an extra beak to feed. Yigo used to roam alone but he had finally found some direction to follow but the hunger and the cold had left him weakened, wrinkles around his dull eyes struggling to stay open and shaky steps onto the wet grass oftentimes finding himself forced to step into the white cold bringer that was snow. Not only that but his sense had diminished greatly, his nose unable to pick any scents that were not water, his ears low and flat on his head as they refuse to twitch and tune in. At least colours surrounding him were very contrasting with each other. Radar's black and the tree's brown made it easy for Yigo to spot them among the green and white background.

Wearing his bedsheet as some sort of coat (as he lacked one at the moment) and his Trap scarf around his neck, Yigo was hardly aware of what was going on in his surroundings but enough to catch Radar's question. With a lazy 'Uh?' that some pokemon might get if they tried to wake some kid up, Yigo turned to Radar. The Murkrow was still happy, excited as the dark bird flapped his wings and stared into his eyes. Why was all so relaxing? It was warmth where there was none, quickly invigorating the ground type. "Oh... uhm... it's not hard. Just try to find something that looks any different from branches, trees, grass and snow. Be on the lookout for flowers. Berry bushes tend to grow some and I think that the Pecha flowers are... light red and pink?" Yigo quickly deployed his senses once again, ears twitching and standing on his back feet. Sniffing was not doing the trick as it merely teased Yigo into sneezing and his ears caught nothing but the sound of himself and Radar's wings in motion "Be careful of pokemon. I've been attacked out here a lot by foes much much stronger than myself. If you spot someone, Radar... run"

They seemed to be alone for now as they continued to walk along the dungeon woods. It was like the Sandshrew's mother always said: no pokemon can ever know a mystery dungeon by heart. Many times Yigo has been in this same dungeon yet everything always felt so unknown. Maybe the mean pokemon had gone away? Do they come out when it is this cold? Everything seemed silent for now but, just in case, there was something to note "...hey, Radar. If you hear someone that's not me talk it's often a good sign. Explorers come here often to train from what Alki has told me" Yigo suddenly looked down and returned to his fours "I wonder if we'll meet her here..."

As little as he'd like to admit it, Alki was something he'd consider a lucky find. He had much to apologise her for and, by the roars caused by his empty belly, anyone could tell that Yigo was not above begging.

[22 energy]

Opal trotted into Pecha Forest, fairly familiar with the area by now and confident she could handle the dangers it posed. A smile crossed her face as she thought of the adventures she'd had here with her teammate, Cimche. The spinda was too busy with other things to come along this time, but the growlithe was determined to enjoy herself nevertheless.

Still, this wasn't Grassveil, so she couldn't let herself grow complacent. Her last visit here had put her and her partner in a rather hairy situation. She was stronger now, with new and improved attacks to use, so while a repeat was less likely to happen, one could never be too careful. She was alert, eyes and ears open and seeking anything out of the ordinary.

Energy = 22

Yigo wasn’t quite feeling up to being outside, Radar could tell.

The Sandshrew was wearing his bedsheet as a blanket, shakily stepping along the snow. His eyes could barely stay open, his ears flat against his head...the poor thing...Radar felt awful. He could have went to go and get food himself in the forest, or—better yet—buy something like a normal Pokémon would, but no. Radar just had to need his friend, didn’t he? Yigo said something about getting sick in the cold, was that what was happening to the Ground Type? He seemed weak, and tired, and frail, and...sick...he was sick, he most likely was. Radar made his first friend ever sick. Just hearing Yigo's sleepy, lazy voice as he struggled to stay awake was enough to make Radar want to turn back so his friend would feel better. So Yigo wouldn’t get sicker, wouldn’t get weaker, sleepier...Radar didn’t want his friend to suffer just to help him. But then Yigo just so happened to perk right back up, waking from his weird Cold-Stupor.

“Oh... uhm... it's not hard. Just try to find something that looks any different from branches, trees, grass and snow.” Radar simply nodded his head, starting to look around, scanning the ground beneath him. “Be on the lookout for flowers. Berry bushes tend to grow some and I think that the Pecha flowers are... light red and pink?” Light red and pink...got it. Radar hadn’t seen anything yet, other than that bush with...red and pink flowers growing out of it...well, those were all the way back where they came. Radar’d snag 'em on the way back. Yigo took a whiff of the cold air, sneezing in the process, making Radar giggle to himself. That sneeze was adorable...Yigo still had to get out of this cold, though. “Be careful of pokemon. I've been attacked out here a lot by foes much much stronger than myself.” Well, it was a given there would be stronger, more feral Pokémon out here, it was a Mystery Dungeon after all. “If you spot someone, Radar... run”

Okay...hella smart to just run...hella stupid I hadn’t thought of that rule yet, though. Radar would fight as much as he could, or he’d run and weave through the landscape, it depended on how he was feeling, where he was, and who he was fighting...just running, though, sounded like a better plan in the long run. “...hey, Radar. If you hear someone that's not me talk it's often a good sign.” Yigo explained, the bird turned his head to look at his friend, smiling in the snow, yet still worried about Yigo. “Explorers come here often to train from what Alki has told me.” Yigo moved his head down, falling to the ground on all fours like how he usually stood. “I wonder if we'll meet her here...” A-Alki...? Yigo wanted to see Alki? But...Alki hurt him, and...that wasn’t okay...right? Yigo's belly roared and grumbled after that thought, desperately craving food. “Uh, f-first we look for food, th-than...” Radar's voiced trailed off, searching around for berries, desperately trying to avoid the topic of Alki.

(Here we go, roll test number 1)

TempGuardian carried out 4 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, , ,

Energy: 23 - 5 (Entrance) - 5 (Rolling cost) = 13


Alki... that name always triggered some memories. Some of which he tried to avoid and some of which he cherished, warming him up in the aftermath of the snow. Radar, fortunately, brought Yigo out of his trance and back into reality "U-Uh?" he wondered when Radar asked. This time, the dark feathered pokemon took him out of guard and without an answer. [color:de4f=C6B66A]"We find food and... we go back home? Maybe we can find something to sell too so we don't have to-" and then Yigo arched forward and started to cough violently a few times.

For a moment, Yigo felt like he was going to fall, his heart hurting. He was wrong. It was his throat. After recovering, he tried to play it off as if it was nothing, holding tight to the piece of cloth protecting him from the elements and searching around as well, trying to stay at a distance from Radar should that, whatever it was, happen again.

PrimordialPrim carried out 5 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, , , ,

Unlike Yigo and Radar, Opal was investigating tales of an outlaw who had taken refuge within the mystery dungeons of this area. If what she'd heard was true, the target should be around here somewhere. She just needed to find them...

Opal's ears pricked up as she heard noises in the distance. Were they voices? Civilised, non-feral voices? It was worth checking out. The growlithe liked meeting others, and numbers were always a useful thing in a place like this. She set off in the direction of the voices, eager to see who would be awaiting her.

Frebedor carried out 10 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, , , , , , , , ,

Energy = 22 - 5 = 17 - 12 = 5

(Energy miscalculation in my above post! Fun!)

Radar didn’t know what to do with the coughing. He’d seen it so many times before back home, Pokemon coughing because of the murky, gross air...this air was good, though. Nice. Radar took in a huge breath of fresh air, the cold making him shudder slightly, the same sensation putting a small smile on his face. The air wasn’t as bad as Grima Outpost's was, so why was Yigo coughing? He stood up, clenching the bedsheet he was using as a scarf, and was searching around...did the coughing fit just not happen? Did Radar imagine it? He probably did, somehow. But what if it was real? No, no, Yigo was fine, Radar could see that. Coughing wasn’t anything new, he’d seen Pokémon cough before...why did this feel different? Are you okay, Yigo...? The bird just watched, not really knowing what to do, to think, to say...should he still ask for the two of them to turn back? “Just worried...”

Wait, did he actually say that? Of course he did. It came out in more of a quiet mumble, but Yigo had these amazing ears that could hear almost everything! Obviously he heard the Dark-Flying Type's slip up! Radar suddenly felt very nervous, looking everywhere for food! For a berry, any berry! Luckily, there was a bush, Radar hoping to find any berry in it since he noticed it had some flowers. Sure, they weren’t light red and pink like Yigo said, but Radar still flew over to the bush as fast as he could, picking a berry and holding it up for Yigo to see. It was an orangish colour and had some dull spikes on it, but it looked edible enough... “Look what I found!” Radar called to Yigo, hoping it would distract him from bringing up what the bird had previously said. One thing that Radar hadn't accounted for, however, was the sudden feeling of being rammed against a nearby tree...he was tackled into it...

The pain that shot up from his side upon hitting the trunk of the tree sent flashes of home and of his brother to his mind, his head racing, trying to stop from thinking back to those memories. Tears started to form as the child slumped down onto the ground, trying desperately to contain those same tears, only a few, almost unnoticeable ones making their way down his face in strokes from his eyes. The force...Hiro would always... “Dude! What did you just do!?”

“This kid was stealing from the group!” Radar looked up to see another Murkrow standing above him, turning to look at someone...a Pineco. This Pineco was a distance away, coming closer by the second. “Still...!” The Pineco had arrived and started looking over Radar, ignoring Yigo and turning his attention to the over Murkrow. “Arceus, you...you don’t Aerial Ace a kid, man! Y-You just...you don't!”

“What was I supposed to do?” The Murkrow said, glaring at the Pineco and gesturing towards Radar with his wing. “What if he's the one who's been f*cking with our food? Taking it all?”

“How do you know he’s the one for sure, Micheal? Huh?” The Pineco said, getting closer to ‘Micheal,’ visibly shocked and appalled.

“How do you know he’s not the one?” Micheal retorted back.

“Micheal, this child is crying...” The Pineco explained. “Remember Natalie? A child started crying, she was the bad guy there...this child is crying, Micheal, you know what a crying child can do.”

“How was Natalie supposed to know that d*mn Litten was stealing from us? Natalie made the right decision confronting that b*tch and her little accomplice!”

“That Pichu was, like, seven years old! How bad does that assault look to you?!”

“Nat had some anger issues, sure, but I still say she did the right thing attacking them, Jordan.”

“In public!?” Jordan exclaimed, turning back to Radar. “My name is Jordan, we have a camp here in Pêcha Forest, food, you can rest from that attack.”

“It wasn’t even very effective!”

“I'm sure hitting that tree must have hurt, right?” All Radar did, or could handle doing right now, was stare, not being sure whether to trust them and was trying to crawl out from a very dark space in his head. “We have a heal ribbon to sweeten the deal, might make you feel a little stronger...” Radar just simply wiped the spare tears from his eyes, looking over to Yigo to ask for help...the Pineco, Jordan, hadn’t done anything wrong to him so far. Maybe Radar could make a new friend once he was done trying to bury tears down inside him like always. One could certainly hope, right? The Pineco looked over at the Sandshrew Radar was looking at. “You with him?”

“We're not feeding both of them, we don’t have enough food and we don’t even know who they are!” Micheal the Murkrow piped in, visibly upset. “You can't be serious right now...!”

Jordan turned to the Murkrow and whispered to him, something that Radar couldn’t hear... “You really wanna stick around so that Growlithe can find you? She had a guild badge on her bag, Micheal...a guild badge...”

Energy: 13 - rolls = 0

The Sandshrew that the Pineco was mentioning at the moment looked fine. He looked fine.. until he dropped onto the cold floor, unconscious and defeated. all around him, a single item had rolled off of him. An apple that was missing a single bite.

On normal circumstances, Radar's assumption would have been right. Yigo has excellent senses yet sickness had taken a toll on him. His capacity to hear was greatly underperforming, barely able to hear something directed at him. While Radar was just telling Yigo that he had found something, the hungry sick kid had just had the same amount of luck. Yigo thought to himself that maybe they were getting home sooner than expected after spotting a bright red item on the foot of a tree "I've found something too!"  he said as he rushed to collect it.

And just like his friend, he soon found himself bashed against the same tree he was trying to get close to. Something way stronger than him had not only picked him up without effort but slammed his back against the side of a tree and then set free for added fall damage. Upon falling, the Sandshrew curled into himself, suppressing a scream more by the lack of a proper voice after the impact rather than self-control. He rolled back and stared with his sight darkened and his head unable to stay still, heading low as he showed his fangs and dug his paw on the dirt trying to show that he'd stand his ground. In other situations, he'd just flee but there was food in between. Being knocked out was better than starvation and, even though Radar was near him and had also found food, his mind was not exactly thinking about that option.

His opponent, a bigger, more purple version of the red item he was about to fetch came into view. The Shiinotic rested its hand on the red mushroom on snatched it for itself, not even considering Yigo a contender for the food item and headed out of sight. Yigo would have fought for it but, lo and behold, something had fallen from a tree right in front of him. A red, shining apple! A much better price and apparently uncontested. Yigo immediately hopped onto it, not caring about the backache that was about to make him twitch violently around the apple when he touched the ground because... it was now his.

However, his assumption was... wrong again. The apple was not uncontested. It was meant to be a trap for the young shrew. So, as Yigo sunk his teeth into the tasty fruit, light blue spores began falling onto his skin that sealed his fate. A mere seconds later, as he had picked it up and was confidently walking back to Radar, Yigo just... fell off and was put to sleep.

A Tangela watched as Yigo fell. The execution was perfect. Now it just needed to use its vines to drag the unconscious sandshrew back to its lair and someone won't be hungry during the rest of winter.

Energy: 3

Opal paused in her hunt as she heard raised voices. One pokemon calling to a second, and the second replying back. One of the voices sounded familiar, but the growlithe couldn't put a name or face to it. It didn't sound like anything untoward was happening, so she was content to leave them be. She had more important things to do than disturb a pair who were probably only playing or looking for something.

That changed, however, as she heard a new voice shouting aggressively. There hadn't been a cry for help, but things could very well be about to go wrong. Opal put a hold on her tracking and rushed in the direction of the commotion. It could be a harmless argument, but if it wasn't, the pup wanted to be there to keep everyone safe.

Energy = 5 - 1 = 4

Yigo collapsed onto the floor, leaving Radar speechless. Wh-what just...?! Radar felt fear course through him as he didn't know if Yigo was okay or not. Was he okay? Radar felt his heart pound faster each second he looked at Yigo, not having a clue what happened, seeing the Apple roll out from under the Sandshrew. It couldn't have hurt Yigo...could it? Radar hadn't eaten many Apples that he could remember, maybe they did hurt you?

The other Pokemon near Radar weren't so quiet...

The Murkrow pointed to Yigo with his wing, smiling, adressing the Pineco. "Oh, look! He's dead!" Radar's heart went dead, it froze for a beat, considering the fact Yigo might have been dead. Micheal—the Murkrow—was, in fact, joking, his tone a dry and tired one. Jordan—Pineco—came over to Yigo's side fast to check on the kid, examining him over for what could have happened. "Hey! Hey, kid, get up!" Jordan called out, hoping to get the Ground Type's attention. Micheal, however, simply clapped. "That's how you bring somemon back from the dead, Jordan, good job! Necrophilia!"

"Do you even know what that word means!?"

"Yes!"

TempGuardian carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

The Tangela was not happy about the new company. It wasn't stupid enough to come and face three pokemon at once, its instincts telling it that a defeat was certain against two flying opponents and a mimetic pinecone. Who knows how many other pokemon were there to help. However, maybe they just wanted to fight over the Sandshrew. The Tangela might have lost the apple but maybe it can still get the ground type if only they would just fight over it. Feeling like something of that nature might happen when the group of pokemon had rushed to the side of the kid, the Tangela went into hiding.

As of Yigo, his ears low and his body was slightly curled into himself even when being examined. His breath was steady and there were no signs of battle. Only for those knowledgeable would be able to tell apart the sleep spores all over his body. That might explain why Yigo was not waking up to, not to the voice and nor to the examining and, instead, curled further into himself if not prevented. It was so cold outside... he needed warmth...

Opal arrived to a scene of chaos. She wasn't sure what was going on, but the little pup doubted it was good. Others were yelling over someone who had collapsed, and the feathers of the two murkrow were quite ruffled. A battle had taken place here, clearly. Was it still going on? Opal decided it was prudent to get their attention and some information.

"Uh... Hey!" she called out, "What's going on here?!

The growlithe did not want to start another battle, but was confident that she would come out on top, or at least do some serious damage. Everyone else looked worn out, and she had an attack that could hit all of them. What had made that poor sandshrew collapse, though?

Energy = 4 - 15 = -11

Both of the older Pokémon turning to look at the Growlithe, the Pineco flinched. “N-Now hold on! Th-this...this isn’t what it looks like!” The Bug Type replied, panicking, fear visible in his voice and eyes. Radar just laid against the tree, tears staining the feathers on his cheeks as he looked at the three new Pokémon that were there, then back at Yigo. He wanted to get up, check on Yigo, but he just...couldn't. No matter how hard he tried to say something, or move, or do anything, he just...couldn’t. “I found this kid like this, I didn’t do anything!” Even though this...‘Jordan’ Pokemon was referring to Yigo, Radar felt like he was the one being talked about, too...did he look hurt? He was lying against a tree, crying, he probably looked incredibly scared...the two had said something about a crying child, did this look bad? Should he have been crying? Radar took a deep breath, trying to will himself into not crying, knowing and having learnt prior to this that he shouldn’t ever cry... “He just collapsed, that’s all that happened!”

“What a great way to start a sentence, Jordan...‘It's not what it looks like,’ huh?” The older Murkrow commented, visibly upset. He turned his attention to the Growlithe. “Is this your business right now?”

“I’m sorry for my friend's behaviour, he's been a little stressed lately.”

“Not stressed...just wondering why you should be bothering asking is all. What's your goal? What do you get out of this?”

“Micheal, not everyone has an ulterior motive!”

“I’m not saying that!” The bird exclaimed, looking at Jordan. “You said it, but I didn’t!”

“Just relax...we didn’t do anything here, so there’s no reason to be all upset and needlessly confrontational, alright?”

The older bird looked very upset...it should probably raise some flags. He just glared at the Growlithe, clearly not wanting her there. Somemon's in a bad mood.

"Uuugh...?" Yigo mumbled under his breath, almost completely in a ball shape. It all felt so cold... If only he could warm himself up somehow...

There were voices, to which Yigo's ears reacted, readying themselves. There were voices he didn't remember... Or were they? Was there anything at all? Someone... Someone wanted to keep someone away from there. The voice was oddly close, almost on top of him. It felt deafening. Eyes still close and cold muscles seeking some action to warm themselves up. His legs began all moving slowly, pushing some dirt along the way all the while his curl was getting undone.

His expression, even if he still wasn't conscious about his actions, revealed his discomfort. A pronounced frown, shivering snout and cold breath coming out and in between his teeth producing a hissing sound.


(OOC: Sleep will wear off in the next post)

"This very much is my business," Opal replied curtly, I am a member of the Grassveil Guild, and it's my duty to help where help is needed. Now, let's see what this child has to say."

The growlithe was young herself, but plenty capable. She marched up to the younger murkrow, ignoring his elder's glare.

"Hey, it's going to be alright," Opal told the other youngster while trying to clean him up with a few licks, "Can you tell me what happened here? Are these two telling the truth?"

Yigo's distress was not lost on the pup, either. She shifted herself into a position where she could easily keep en eye on everyone. She planned to ask the sandshrew about events as well, when he woke up.