[Event] Watch Your Step

While Goro crouched, huddled behind a rock, he realized something. That voice was familiar to him - the one belonging to the umbreon, who spoke after the big bird had a word with some passingby pokemon. He'd heard that same voice cry and beg and plead for mercy before, as short lived as that was. The croagunk leaned further out from behind his rock, eyes wide in disbelief. Once he recognized the cloak she wore, he quickly withdrew and placed his back against his rock, sinking down to sit on the ground as he thought.

It was her. The demon from Pricklemist Hill, the one who fought him and his boss to a standstill. The same freak went blow for blow with him to the extent that Krikka felt the need to jump in, and even then she refused to go down. Not until she sunk her teeth in his boss' throat and Goro broke his left hand on her face, and even then, she got right back up.

This was a chance, he realized. An opportunity to learn about his enemy and everything weird surrounding her. Her bloodlust, freakish durability, the cloak, the history between her and his boss... even just studying her in action would give him something to work with. Every pokemon had a weakness, and he could find out hers today! And the next time she got in their way, Goro would be able to strike her down without any difficulty. He wouldn't be humiliated again.

The croagunk nodded to himself, totally absorbed in his own world. Sitting there, back against the rock, blankly staring at the ground as he thought, he totally failed to notice the purrloin creeping closer to him.

34 - 24 (entry): 10 energy

"...Acro I'm not often impressed. You've impressed me," Izumi remarked as she returned to the group from her cowering place, observing the locals heading off on their own way. She looked ahead of where the pokemon had been standing at a large group of rocks that had shifted and settled over time, gathering around something that looked like a cavern entrance. Izumi nodded to it. "That's it. That's the way up to the staircase. It opened up a while back when two large pokemon had a fight and tore up the terrain. It's disappearing with time... but I think we should still be able to squeeze through." She walked up to the entrance and struggled to squeeze herself in through the rocks. ...It was pretty funny to watch.

"Hurk, you might need to suck it in Acro," Izumi coughed as she tumbled through to the other side. She looked out at them through the cracks while she waited. "Chiyako should be right behind us. I think I just saw her... and I told her how to find this place in case she got separated. So you need any help Dusk, or are you ok?"

Speaking of Chiyako,

The purrloin perched herself on several large rocks in the area and scanned the ground for suspicious invaders, but the mountain was... surprisingly quiet? The lack of basically anything in the area was almost a bit disturbing. Was whatever was happening at the peak that much of an event?? How had she missed something this important? She was careful to not let her thoughts stray much further than that, lest she lose sight of the rock formation that Izumi had told her to meet her at. Seeing that she could find nothing out here, she shrugged and decided to head that way.

As she began bounding over the rocks, she hit a slick spot that she had not been expecting. "YaaAA!!" She cried as she took a backwards tumble from the top of the rock, dropping down onto the head of one concealed froggo. She bounced off of him and landed on the ground, cursing through her teeth as the rock came up to meet her. She hauled herself up quickly as she realized she was not alone back here.

"....AHA, I knew it!!" she exclaimed as her concerns of an intruder were confirmed. "You're- Wait... you look familiar? Have I seen you somewhere before?" She put a paw to her chin. "I feel like... I've seen you at the bar. That's it, isn't it? Not too long ago, in fact." The brilliantly-dyed purrloin's tail flicked proudly in celebration of her memory for faces.

Izumi the Absol - 9 Energy
Chiyako the Purrlion - 4 Energy

Izumi was impressed?? More like he was impressed. His jaw was a little agape from how well that even worked, but he decided to give himself a shake and try not to look a gift horse in the mouth. The archeops followed Izumi's gaze over to the opening. He listened to her as she wormed her way through the rock-....

Suck it in??

His spirit would take another plunge. Was she implying that he was fat? He couldn't help but take a look at himself as he waited for Dusk to go through. He...didn't seem that fat? If anything he was scrawnier than most other Archeops he'd seen. Yeah the crevice they needed to fit through was small, but...well, Acro's mind tended to jump to the worst possible conclusion.

He looked to Dusk for her answer to Izumi's question, ready to guard from behind in case the two locals decided to suddenly come back to attempt to make a snack of anyone who might have got stuck in there.

Dusk's attention was drawn to the cavern when the absol pointed it out. Immediately she wondered if they were expected to slip through there, and apparently they were. She watched as the absol squeezed herself through, and couldn't help but wonder if she would need help. She quickly discarded the thought, however, as her pride began directing her. She was smaller than an absol, so there was no excuse for her not being able to get through there on her own. Anything the absol could do, she could surely do as well. "Nah, I'm fine," she simply responded as she approached the entrance and looked over it.

There didn't really seem to be a best way to do this, so the umbreon didn't waste much time trying to think on it. She squeezed between the rocks the best she could, taking a moment to pull herself through but managing it out of determination. She could handle this terrain, especially if everyone else here could... No way was she going to be the only one struggling with it. "Whew... See?" she spoke a bit under her breath after making her way through. "You should be fine, Acro," she added on, figuring he wouldn't have a much harder time than either of them had.

Drawn out of his thoughts by a purrloin depositing herself roughly onto his skull, Goro's head jerked down roughly. His accoster tumbled off of him and was quick to pull herself up, bombarding him with words before he could grow incensed. The croagunk blinked a few times after getting a good look at her; she was familiar. She worked at that bar! She even remembered him.

"Uh-huh," he mumbled aloud absently. "Ya gave me cream cheese. And... the blue." he went on, shivering a little as he remembered his first ever drink. "Chi... Chiyako, yeah?" the croagunk tried, a little hestitant.

That's what she said her name was, right? He recalled her being likable, but a lot of that night was foggy in his memory. All he remembered was wanting to try alcohol for the first time—no one was around to stop him—and he tried a place in Rainfront. He met a cool bug, this cat served him a drink, and the rest was hazy.

"Understood," Izumi nodded, looking over her shoulder and staring into the abyss before them. It was exactly how she remembered it from all those years ago, but also completely not- as was normal for one of these dungeons. But the dark colors, the lack of light... The constant, winding incline and the nooks and crannies that always seemed to hold an ambush? Those were all very familiar. She hadn't been back to this particular part of the mountain long enough that it was actually posing a challenge to try and locate the short way up... But she was fairly certain they just needed to get higher to find the way again.

She turned back to Acro and Dusk. "We made it this far. It's not much further now!" she told them, grinning. "We've still got time, though... so I'm curious. How did you two end up meeting? You're teammates now, right?"

Chiyako smiled. It was nice that he remembered her- she was surprised that he had any memories left at all after the blue. She took a moment to consider her response- as one might expect, she hadn't gotten his name from their last encounter. "It's nice to see you again. I don't think I got your name the last time we met, but I think that's to be expected." She didn't think it was particularly strange to see him all the way up here. Everyone seemed to be everywhere based on the conversations she heard at the bar. She didn't get a lot of time away, so she hadn't had a lot of this kind of experience before now.

Still, that didn't mean there wasn't room for a joke. Her expression shifted to something more sly as she tried to contain the fact that she knew she was bullshitting him. "What's got you all the way up here? Buisness, or are you following me?" She very briefly cast a look back to the rock formation, realizing she didn't have a lot of time to be chatting idly. It was right there, though. She could catch up quickly.

Chiyako the Purrloin - 4 Energy

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 4 launched of one Black Spiral :

, , ,

It was his turn. He could not help but feel nervous now. He approached the gap in the rocks, took a deep breath, "sucked it in", and attempted to wiggle in. He certainly had a lot more difficulty then the others, but it was fortunate that he was pretty scrawny. If he had any more weight to him he probably would have experienced a lot more difficulty.

Rocky surfaces against his side and tore at his wings a little. No real damage was done, besides a wound to his pride as he got stuck towards the very end. A little wiggle here and there in he would pop out with a rather ungraceful landing.

He would go on to respond to Izumi in hopes of avoiding any chatter about his almost comical entrance. "Uh, yeah-" unfortunately...for Dusk that is.

What he quickly came to regret was that the new subject involved relations to a topic he didn't like even more. Still, he pressed on, "It was around the time that L-Linus uh...yeah." Died.

Was it bad that he accepted another teammate so early after? Was it disrespectful to Linus? Yeah the bird was a bit of a jerk, but ultimately Acro kind of deserved it didn't he? He quieted down as he decided to allow Dusk to elaborate if she wanted.

The good news was that Acro made it through the rocks without much trouble. He had definitely struggled the most out of anyone, but he didn't seem hurt and hadn't gotten stuck. The bad news, meanwhile, was the new conversation topic, the context of which Dusk remembered all too well. She wasn't much more eager to talk about it than Acro was, but seeing how poorly he was handling it, she decided it would be best for her to take over. The only alternative seemed to be letting him leave it on a very dark note which would probably make the rest of the trip awkward if someone didn't do something about it. "I guess you could say we met through Sova," she spoke up, remembering that the absol had mentioned Sova earlier and thus obviously knew him. Because apparently Sova just knew everyone.

In an attempt to lighten the mood a bit, she continued, "Or... more like they went on an expedition together and I wanted to come, so I followed them and inserted myself into Acro's life." She was joking, of course... or she hoped she was. Acro seemed to like her, at least, and he had yet to complain about having her around.

Well, now she had worsened her own mood a bit by thinking that she may have invited herself into Acro's world when he possibly maybe wasn't looking for a new teammate. Still, that seemed better than the way the archeops was going to leave the conversation.

"It's Goro," the croagunk answered. He nodded along at her joke, not picking up on the humor, instead just taking it as the fact it was. "I came up here for, uh, business, I guess. Items and stuff," he went on, whatever filter he had being overrode by how stupefied he was. First the demon umbreon, and now Chiyako? Who else was waiting for him around the corner?

He blinked again, remembering the fact that the umbreon was just a short distance away. Goro stood up jerkily, rubbing his head absently before peering back around the rock. She was gone. His heart sunk down to his stomach. "How 'bout you?" he asked absently, stepping out from behind the rock and looking around. Where the hell had she gone? "You gettin'... supplies, or something?" he asked clumsily. He had no idea what the hell she would need from a mountain, but it's what came out of his mouth.

Goro shook his head a little as he turned back to the purrloin. Maybe he'd imagined the likeness—the cloak was unmistakable, but the voice wasn't a perfect match, right? It was less panicky and afraid. The cloak could just be an umbreon fashion thing that his boss didn't pick up on because she was a bitch and had to be better than everyone else.

Izumi:

Ah. Okay. Understood. You won't pretend like you don't have any idea why this conversation just took a turn for the horridly, morbidly uncomfortable- you do remember how the name disappeared off of the guildbooks around that time, and you do remember the upset and pain that wafted around the halls for some time after. Nope, you're going to do the next best thing. You're going to say nothing about it!!!

"Oh!" she exclaimed, not even missing a beat of cheer as she nodded at the both of them. "I see, so you two have been together for a while now," she observed, trying to create a segue into the clearly better things about this topic. Like how well they worked as a team. You did this to Sova too. Exactly how bad a r e you at this? "That's really good. You two seem really close; I understand now why you two are the highest at Aileron."

All this said, she liked Dusk a good deal more now out of principle. She could see what kind of pokemon Dusk was- or, at least the pokemon she wanted to be. She addressed her specifically now, seeming even a bit warmer in her mannerisms now than she had before. "It's nice to hear you two look out for each other. You seem exactly like the kind of person I see him gravitating towards." It was absolutely meant to be a compliment because, well, Acro was nice. Izumi didn't care to stray any closer to sore content by elaborating, though.

Oustide, Chiyako was considering Goro's words as he spoke them to her. He was up here for items, huh? Izumi happened to have mentioned that a good number of explorers favored the area for that kind of thing, for some reason. She said there were specific items up here they needed. So Goro was an adventurer, then? Or maybe he just needed things to sell. Either way, Chiyako could understand. It was almost... weird, in a quaint way. Like bumping into someone you know while shopping for groceries.

"That's right, I guess I have heard that there are items up here. It's nothing I need much, though- I'm not really an explorer and the Inn pays me well enough," she chuckled. "Have you checked higher on the mountain?" Chi asked, gesturing a paw up to the rock formation. "There's a short cut here. I'm trying to catch up with my friend Izumi." She pondered the last part of Goro's statment, but then she smiled and shook her head. "As for why... well, I guess there's something important that Izumi is concerned about, but I'm not that involved. Truth be told, this is my first break in a long time since I started working at the inn. I came up here to find things to write music about." She pulled her lute off her back and strummed it a few times for effect.

Chiyako the Purrloin- 0 Energy

Damn, he couldn't even have a proper pleasant conversation without having to rely on someone else to pull him out of the six foot hole he managed to dig in a matter of seconds. It was points like these that he almost wished that someone would just pour concrete over the casket so he'd just stay down there and not bother anyone ever again.

...What kind of people did he gravitate towards anyways? People who didn't deserve it? Yeah, that seemed about right. Linus may have been a jerk, but he had every right to be after being forced to work with him like that. Astrid definitely didn't deserve everything that happened to him either. He's thought it once and he'll think it again, George was right on the money to leave before something happened to him.

Acro remained silent as Izumi turned to speak to Dusk. Yep. He wouldn't want to talk to him too if he were her. Completely understandable.

Uncomfortable topic successfully diverted! Mostly. Dusk could guess from Acro's silence that he probably felt it still, but at the very least now he wasn't in a position where he had to actively acknowledge it. The absol seemed to understand not to press the topic; that or she was just totally oblivious to what had been implied about Linus. She was saying some odd things though, mostly because they were a very flattering to Dusk. For instance, she was apparently being given credit for the rank of Acro's team? She hadn't been a part of it for long and certainly couldn't take any credit for his hard work. And apparently they gave off the impression of looking out for each other, which was nice and all except Dusk felt like she was the only one really getting looked after.

"Uh... yeah," she spoke for lack of anything more substantial to say. "We haven't really been together that long though, and I can't take credit for his rank... Honestly I'm just trying to keep up," she continued after deciding honesty would be the best policy here.

Acro deserved acknowledgment for his autonomy, and aside from that, Dusk felt it unwise to give the impression that she was as experienced as him when she decisively wasn't. It was all she could do to try not to get in his way... and more importantly, to control herself. The cloak was the only thing allowing her to even survive the type of things he could fight, she was pretty sure. That meant she needed to keep it and would have to figure out how to manage its... side effects. With all of that considered, she didn't see how she was very equipped to watch the archeops' back, and she certainly didn't feel like she deserved any credit in this relationship.

Higher up on the mountain... that was a start. Goro glanced back one more time, not seeing the umbreon he'd spotted anywhere near by. If she'd disappeared, maybe she went through the shortcut Chi gestured to. If Chiyako was going that way, then he had no reason not to as well. "That's... cool," he mused out loud, both impressed and a little cowed by Chiyako's reason for being here. He didn't know how music was even made; he just figured a bunch of people wrote all the songs years ago and passed them down 'til today.

"I'll go with you 'til you find your friend." he heard himself offer. The croagunk didn't want to make any assumptions about Chiyako and whether or not she could handle herself up here, but if she was going to be focusing on doing music things then maybe she could use some help. She was all by herself while she was playing catch up, so he could do his usual thing while she looked for her friend and did that music stuff.

Plus, he just wanted to help. Goro didn't meet many pokemon that he genuinely liked, but Chi was one of them. She was polite and nice to him.

...Man Izumi loved the guild members and all, but real talk: these fuckers were morbidly depressed sometimes. She nodded in understanding, though she wondered how long these pokemon had gone without a compliment on their work that they felt the need to worry over these technicalities. Dusk was still a hardworking pokemon, or at least Izumi was pretty sure she was. She was here after all- hauling around a massive load of items up a big dumb mountain wasn't exactly "relaxing." Either way, she decided to shrug it off for now.

"That's a fair point. Acro's been at this for... as long as I can remember." She was hoping to segue into a topic of conversation that Acro could join in on, since she knew he had a tendency to get pulled into his own brain when he wasn't given a chance to participate. At this point, a new topic of conversation was looking like a good plan. Something that didn't involve directly addressing any unsettling topics. "...We're coming up to the Peak. Just a warning in case you've never been: you're going to trip balls. Just. It's very smoggy up here." She looked up the path as it was shortening. She could tell the exit was close by the bird's nest containing a vullaby perched in the walls of the cave. The bird pokemon round here tended to prefer to live inside rather than outside.

"I wonder if this whole... situation changed the peak somehow? Should I be concerned?"

Goro was kind of a hard guy to read, but Chiyako was well acquainted with the type. The bar tended to attract them, the people who weren't very expressive and were just trying to get through life. She sensed through his minimal body language that she had possibly impressed him a little, though, and that made her happy despite the minimal response he had received. "Thanks! I actually applied to the Inn to play music and be entertainment, but uh... I guess Iva thought I could to more." She still wasn't sure what exactly she had done to prove herself so worthy outside of arriving at the same time as that violent, blinding grovyle- mmm, but maybe that was actually enough.

She smiled as he offered to walk with her to find Izumi. "I'd like that. I'm not sure where exactly I'm going, so company would be nice." She kept her lute out in front of her, absentmindedly strumming a little tune as she led him through to the shortcut.

"I've got an invitation to play in a place somewhere up in these mountains, too. A kingdom I'm told. I dunno," she shrugged as her playing slowed to a thoughtful pace. "I'm not sure. I'd never heard of it before the inn." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed her playing seemed to be catching the attention of some pokemon... A carbink she had previously thought a rock was now peeking out at them, not seeming agitated but looking at them nonetheless.

"...On second thought, maaaaybe I'll put this away until we reach the top," she mumbled. She would then swing the instrument back to her back for the rest of the walk.

Izumi was correct in her knowledge of Acro being sucked into his thoughts. He kept to himself as the two almost seemed to speak about him like he wasn't even there. Yep. This was perfectly appropriate.

Upon the mention of how long he'd been at this for...well, he wasn't too sure either. He could still remember his first days at the guild. He was so nervous and unsure of himself...and still is. He's just better at hiding it now. Whether he was good at it was a different question, but he was a lot better than the jittery mess he used to be. Izumi was always around in the background for as long as he could remember as well, though he knew she was there before him.

And still despite all this time the rescue team was a mere bronze. It was honestly sad that this was the highest Aileron had to offer.

"Best to be careful just in case," he finally spoke up as if the prior conversation hadn't happened, "We don't know if there could be others up there to try to stop us anyways."