[Event] Settling Up

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Wading his way through the mists of the deeper swamplands for the very first time, Goro did not at all feel like a brave explorer treading new ground. The Misty Mire might have been his backyard metaphorically, but he hadn't dared step foot here as of yet. One, he was probably much too weak, and two, he had no good reason to.

Today was different. After he'd been ambushed by the rudest little rabbit in the world, the croagunk found himself with a problem that needed fixing. Namely, a big fat hole in his shack. He wasted no time in conscripting the little twit into aiding him, and serendipitously, there happened to be two travelers nearby who also offered their services. And all they asked for in return were some directions - valuable information to someone who didn't live here, Goro assumed. He must've been something of a lifeline for these two. The thought put a touch of arrogant swagger into his step.

"I figure we can use wood from trees out here in the Mire. S'probably tougher, less brittle, you know? Like all the pokemon out here," he explained, his hands on his hips authoritatively as he led the group of ragtag companions into the deep marshlands. "We do good enough o' job, I might even escort y'all wherever you're going." he went on, feeling quite gracious and generous now that he was setting about not just fixing, but improving his beloved home.

34 energy - 20 (entry) - 5 (bringing Silk): 9 energy

The duosion bounced up and down cheerfully once Silk caught on, its stubby little arms waving up and down in celebration. Once more, they gestured to Aries, the water, and back to Aries, then they both folded up underneath one cheek while it pretended to go to sleep. The implication seemed very clear even to Goro: the water made Aries fall asleep. Or, well, something under the water.

He hated this kind of thing. As much as he loved cattail marsh and his home there, fighting water-types anywhere near water just sucked awfully. He almost wanted to just grab the skiddo and go about their business - he'd wake up eventually, right? But no, because if he did that, then whatever was under there was going to think it was okay to mess with him and his flunkies. So. "Alright," he muttered. "I'll wrassle it up out of there and make it turn 'em back to normal." the croagunk announced, dropping his bindle on solid ground before rolling his shoulders in preparation.

Goro didn't give anyone much of a chance to stop him. He immediately turned to look deep in the water, eyes focusing intently on any sort of movement. Of course, the inkay immediately lit up, and for an instant so did Goro's face. He found it! He was going to... going to... he was out like a light. The poison-type managed to walk forward one solid step before he fell flat on his face, not even making it to the edge of the pond before he was dead asleep.

Silk watched intently as the green thing continued to clarify what it was trying to say. She nodded in confirmation to show that she understood; something in the water had put Aries to sleep. When Jerkface spoke up about trying to drag the culprit out of the water, she wondered if that was a good idea. "But don't you think it'll just-" she started as she got up and turned to look at the croagunk, intending to warn him that it would probably put him to sleep too.

Of course, it was already too late and she turned just in time to watch him fall face-first into the mud. The buneary was by no means a genius, but it didn't take one to figure out what not to do here. "Don't look at the water!" she spoke, directing her gaze back to Yera.

However, she wasn't sure what to do from here. Two of them were now passed out, so trying to move didn't seem like much of an option, but they couldn't just dive into the water with their eyes closed and hope to somehow emerge victorious.

"Don't look into what-" Of course, bringing attention to the water only caused Yera to glance at it out of reaction. Once again, the lights shined brightly in the water. The peculiar pattern was so enthralling, that the little deerling couldn't look away. The grass type's eyelids grew heavy as she struggled to keep them up.

"Oh..." she sighed before she fell over into the mud, knocking into Aries and causing him to collapse as well.

The Inkay in the water snickered to itself as it surfaced, seeing as the buneary was the only one left awake. Well, there was the snitch too, but it wasn't too worried about that. It waved a little tentacle at the rabbit before it dipped back into the water briefly to perform a brief back flip just to show off. It darted away with a "sploosh!"

In its spot, something large rose up from the depths, accompanied by several other large shapes. A swampert breached the surface of the water, followed by three wiscash. Without another word, the swampert started towards the land, crawling up the mud and reaching a massive hand out to scoop up and grapple the frog.

"I'm gettin' real tired of you folk showin up in m'territory..." the swampert sneered with a look in the buneary's direction. "It was nice and quiet until the little green one squealed!"

Aries and Yera both eat a Munch Mix, +10 to each.

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Misty Mire :

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Kat carried out 10 launched of one Misty Mire :

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Slumbering as deeply as he was, Goro offered absolutely no resistance when a swampert emerged from the depths of the pond and scooped him up. The water/ground-type was large enough and strong enough to grip him in just one hand, like a child with a very large doll. It jostled him, and absently he let loose a tremulous croak, but he did not wake.

The duosion, on the other hand, absolutely freaked out. Its nubby little arms flailed around in panic after the arrival of not one but four large, intimidating figures. It turned and looked as if it was going to bounce away to relative safety, happy to let the four tourists distract them, but seemed to think better of it. Quickly, it cast its arms out at the misfortunate travelers before a shimmering, translucent barrier of light surrounded them and the duosion both.

Then it turned and ran, its Reflect a final farewell (or maybe good luck charm?) to the doomed pokemon.

(munchy mix 2 goro)

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Misty Mire :

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To Silk's immense displeasure, her directing the deerling not to look at the water seemed to have the exact opposite effect. "No no don't- aw come on!" she spoke in annoyance as she watched Yera topple over, bringing Aries down with her. Fortunately, it seemed the culprit was getting bored of just putting random travelers to sleep; after taking a moment to obviously taunt her, it swam away through the water, leaving the buneary with an unconscious party to deal with. Well, at least things couldn't get much worse.

But of course, they did. Just as the inkay left, four much larger pokémon emerged from the water, one of which was not a fish oh no. The swampert stomped out of the murky depths with an immediately hostile attitude, speaking like the buneary and her companions were trespassers as it picked up the unconscious croagunk. Despite his attitude, Silk was still concerned for his safety, and then there were the other two... She was pretty sure she couldn't win this fight though, even with whatever help her silent new ally could offer- oh nevermind it was fleeing. Well, at least it was considerate enough to leave her with... something? She was just going to assume it was something useful.

Now, from Silk's perspective, there were three options. The first and perhaps most obvious option was to simply flee... but she wasn't interested in abandoning the others, no matter how dangerous the situation was. Second, she could try fighting even though she doubted she could beat this big hulking swampert. Third, she could... just... surrender? Hope it wouldn't try to eat everyone? Maybe she could talk it down.

"Um... we come in peace?" she spoke with a sheepish wave, "We could just... like... leave. All we wanted was some wood..." Trying to communicate seemed like the absolute best option right now.

(You guys realize we have to deal with all this stuff ur rolling right)

(On it.)

"That's my wood" The swampert growled in response to the buneary. The three whiscash behind it seemed to giggle among themselves at the insolence of the little buneary. More shapes seemed to appear among them. Each whiscash seemed to have their own barboach, while more shapes moved among the water to surface. The swampert was not alone in his company with the buneary. Two baltoy hovered over the water to approach with curiosity of the happenings, making it very distinct that flight or fight didn't seem to be an option.

Yera and Aries remained still in their slumber, peacefully sleeping in the mud and grime. Aries's wounded leg did not touch the ground, fortunately. In the tall grass near him, an azurill leaped from its hiding spot and managed to catch the goat's leg on its head. The little normal type that wanted to help immediately regretted its decision, however, as the wooper behind it looked very stern that it just gave away their hidden position of safety...

(that's quitter talk)

"Well, our wood, right boss?" cut in a new voice. Another water/ground-type pokemon wode out of the muddy waters and onto the soil - a marshtomp. It sauntered up to its larger-lookalike with a sycophantic tone. "Our waters, our land... and now, this is our stuff." it went on greedily, squeezing past the larger pokemon in front of it to inspect the unfortunate travelers they'd come upon.

The marshstomp sniffed the air greedily, stepping around the unconscious deerling and the basket she had in her mouth. "Our food~," it chanted, stepping over her to inspect the fallen sack-on-a-stick on the ground. "And~ our~ items~." it finished, picking it up and shaking it about, raising its ear as if to hear the secrets it had to say. It reached a hand into the small open space in the top, pulling out a blue shiny-looking orb before scrunching up its face in distaste. It tossed the spurn orb over its shoulder, where it landed at the feet of Silk a few paces away.

"Nothin' really good in this one, huh?" it muttered, disappointed. The marshtomp turned to inspect the sleeping skiddo next. And Goro snoozed away in the hand of the giant swampert, dreaming happily of something probably really stupid.

Well, Silk had tried diplomacy and it was now clear that these guys had no interest in talking. They just wanted to mug everyone here, which was bad, but... well, maybe that was the best option? If she cooperated, they would probably let her and the others go, right? She wasn't so stupid as to pick a fight she obviously couldn't win, especially when it wasn't just herself she had to worry about... and she couldn't flee for similar reasons. If they wouldn't listen to reason, then the only option left was to just hope they would leave after getting what they wanted... and that all they wanted was to loot people and hopefully nothing more sinister.

Then, suddenly, circumstance presented a new option to the buneary as one of the careless brutes conveniently tossed something it deemed to be "trash" right to her. She contemplated for a total of about two seconds before deciding she liked her odds more with this orb than just surrendering herself. She reached a leg out to roll the orb forward; it rolled onto her foot, then she kicked it up and caught it in her hands. She idly tossed it up a few times, wondering what it would do since she had no idea how to tell specific orbs apart. She knew it would do something though, because these things were magic or whatever.

And then she threw it. Right at the big, bad swampert who seemed to be the leader. Whatever it was going to do, she wanted to make sure that guy was the primary target. She had the urge to say something on impulse like "Catch," but decided against this because the thought of him actually catching it really sucked.

The territorial thieves paid little attention to the pathetic looking buneary. The swampert's attention was focused on the marshstomp with a look of annoyance. The large pokemon began to growl deeply as he responded, "Say 'Our' one more time, pipsqueak, an I'll-" He was cut off at the sound of something crashing just in front of him. Surprised, the water type looked down at the remains of the small orb as a flash of light emitted from it.

"WHAT THE-" he exclaimed. The croagunk was released carelessly as the Swampert stepped away from the light, but it was too late. The form of the threat disappeared before he could finish his sentence. Along with him, the whiscash in the water were seemingly reduced to minor splashes and ripples in the water. The young barboach that accompanied them vanished as well.

The azuril and wooper over by the skiddo shied away from the marshstomp as it approached them, but the normal type quickly found that it had difficulty getting very far and keeping the skiddo's leg up and out of the mud. Its eyes began to water up as tears formed on its expression. A look of terror came upon it as the ground type grew closer. The Fake Tears wasn't much, but it was the only thing the little guy could think of in order to help the wandering travelers in this tough situation...

((Leaving the marshstomp open to whether he got ported away or not in case y'all wanna keep him around to harass))

(screw that dude we got enough pokemon to worry about)

"Y-you'll... what?" The marshtomp started, equally thrown between the harsh rebuke of the elder pokemon and the azuril started crying in front of him. It was a strangely disarming sight, leaving the smarmy water/ground-type uncharacteristically flatfooted when the swampert turned its gaze on him. Which was fortunate, as he was caught equally off-guard by the flash of light and subsequent teleportation to places unknown.

Goro, meanwhile, landed face-down in the shallow waters with a resounding splash. Naturally, it took a moment or two before bubbles surfaced around his head and he began to drown, at which point he was forcefully woken. The croagunk pushed himself up to his hands and knees, coughing and sputtering strongly at the horribly rude awakening.

Silk didn't know what to expect when she tossed the orb. For all she knew, it could have done nothing useful and simply dug her companions and herself even deeper into this hole, at which point she would probably have to do something stupid like beg... but it didn't. She watched in a frozen state as the entire aggressive party was suddenly whisked away in a flash of light. As her mind processed what had just happened, a small smile slowly formed on her face... then shifted into a big, goofy grin. "WOOOOOOO!" she exclaimed, jumping in place repeatedly and throwing her hands in the air. That could not possibly have gone better, and she was so thrilled at the development that she couldn't help but literally jump for joy.

Then she remembered that not everyone was as well-off as her. The grumpy croagunk seemed fine enough, and he was a meanie so she would have probably checked on him last anyway. She instead rushed to the aid of Aries and Yera, who were still unconscious, to make sure that they were okay. It wasn't hard to notice the little azurill holding the skiddo's wounded leg out of the mud, bringing a less extreme but still very warm smile to her face. "Thanks," she spoke with a tone of sincerity as she moved to drag the skiddo out of the mud. She figured the little bystander probably had better things to do than hold some stranger's leg up until he woke up.

She would have asked for Goro's help, but he was a big jerk.

the moment the azurill was relieved of its civil duty, the little bouncy ball took the wooper's not-hand with their own not-hand and fled. The duo launched themselves into the water and sped away as quickly as they could swim, not wanting to stick around in case those huge bad guys decided to come on back somehow.

Yera, who was left to sleep in the mud, slowly began to awaken on her own. The deerling's eyes fluttered open as the haze of sleep slowly dispersed. That was actually a rather pleasant nap all thing considered, if it weren't for the fact that her fur was now entirely coated in mud and grime. Upon the realization, the deerling jolted back up onto her feet with a mortified, "EEP!"

Her attention was cast around the area, eyes wide with fear as she tried to remember what happened before she suddenly fell asleep. She half hoped all of today was simply a bad dream, but no, fate wasn't that kind. Her sights were set on the buneary as they somehow managed to drag the significantly larger skiddo out of the mud. Goro was there too, but he was a big jerk.

She rushed over to help the buneary with a quick breath of "Th-thank you!" to the kind rabbit. Once Aries was safe again, she decided to ask, "Wh-What just happened?

Goro's awakening was a lot more sudden and uncomfortable than the deerling's, as he'd been unceremoniously dropped in swampwater mid-nap. The croagunk had come up coughing, croaking, and wheezing, jolting to his feet with a look of confusion and indignance. He almost looked offended - like he'd been having something of a good rest before someone had the bad grace to splash him awake. Once the poison-type had spat out all the muck that'd he'd swallowed and cleared his throat, he waded out of the shallow waters onto dry land once again.

He took to waving his arms around like a five-year-old winding up for a double windmill punch, sending filthy swamp water and grime flying just about everywhere around him in an effort to get dry. "I second that," he grumbled once he was satisfied with his dryness, swatting clumps of wet dirt off his legs and elbows. "Did I fall in or something? I feel drowsy."

Goro's eyes narrowed as he caught sight of the rest of his companions. Yera was absolutely caked with filth, which was sad, but the rabbit looked entirely too happy with herself for his liking. Did she kick him in or something?

Silk didn't need any thanks for trying to help, but she was happy about it nonetheless. She gave a peppy nod in response to the deerling as the two of them saw to making sure Aries didn't drown in the mud. Then came the predictable question of what had just happened, from Yera as well as Mr. Grumpy. Right. They were all asleep for the cool stuff. Fortunately, Silk was an amazing storyteller and was very confident she could paint the scene for them.

"Okay so you guys got knocked out by a fish and then some guys came to try to rob us because they think they own the swamp I guess but it's okay because then I saved us," she paused barely long enough to take a breath, "AND IT WAS AWESOME and there was a really nice azurill that helped Aries and you guys don't believe me, do you...?"

It wasn't until she was already finished with her story that she realized how fake it sounded. Perhaps taking the time to explain it better would have been a good idea.

While she didn't particularly disbelieve the buneary, she had a bit of trouble following the tale. Her blank expression and odd blinks said all, but she was quick to try to speak up, "Ah-uh-no, I mean...It's just...how-exactly?" she shuffled her feet nervously, "A f-fish? How did you save us??" there were practically no details to it-which left her lost more than anything.

Goro received a nervous glance from the deerling, as she checked to see whether or not he was going to be the one to declare the buneary as some sort of liar. She...almost kind of hoped he did? The buneary was nice and all, but she didn't have the courage to stand up directly like that. If the buneary were lying, then surely he would be able to fish it out of her...right?

---

Aries stirred. His eyes slowly blinked open as the haze of sleep gradually began to fade away. The skiddo felt muddy, tired, and over all very...depressed. He didn't want to get up. While he moved a little, he didn't get up. He could hear that there was a conversation on going, but right in that moment he just wanted to curl into a ball and pretend he was somewhere else.

He hoped everything was just a dream, but the pain in his leg accompanied by how this wasn't 10x more terrifying than it could have been just let him know he was truly awake. The skiddo remained where he was as he instead listened to the conversation at hand. It's not like he had any input in the first place beyond "Oh Arceus, I'm scared!" but even that got old for him every now and then.