Orienticetion

Snow was not an easy obstacle for those with teeny, tiny legs that were also very susceptible to the cold. Astir had no trouble cutting through the white with his thick hide and tubular shape, but Mary was stuck duck-stepping her way through the cold with er leafy nibblets only a smidge away from falling off. As long as she kept moving, though, she could retain at least enough sensation in them to know they were still there. Granted- that sensation was pain.

She was careful not to complain, though. This was their very first mission- or, well, missions- and with Acro no less!! Their awkward introduction had been weighing on her since they parted that day. She was determined to make this experience more pleasant this time- she just wanted to prove that she was worth the time!! So she kept trudging through the snow without a word in edgewise, pushing herself to not lag too far behind.

This was yet another new experience for Astir. There was so much white... and it was so cold, he could feel it deep inside of him. It was an odd sensation, and he wasn't sure he liked it. He refused to slow down, though!! Pain and discomfort were just ways to hold a great hero like him back, and he wasn't going to be caught looking like he was out of shape in front of Rosemary, and especially not in front of the big bird guy! Astir felt like he had something to prove here. He may have been smaller than the big colorful bird, but he was stronger than he looked.

".....Hahh, whew. We made it!" Mary panted- but not too much panting. "This place is... amazing..."

Rosemary the Fomantis - 5 energy
Astir the Dratini - 5 energy

Internal screaming why didn't he bring Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuusk.

It was cold. He was weak to cold. All three of them were weak. To. Cold. Not only that, but last time he was out here, he made not-so-friends with the locals. The two new recruits were just so eager to get their butts out on a mission and Astir's presence just made it difficult for him to say "no" to them. The conflict that the little dratini stirred upon mere sight alone was enough to make him say anything just to get the situation over with...yet now here he was, in the worst place possible doing one of the worst possible missions.

The fomantis commented that the place seemed amazing though...he couldn't agree. His heart still felt as if it pounded in his chest. He already felt out of breath and yet they only just arrived. Of course, he was going to pretend everything was fine. Explaining everything to them would take a lot longer than it would just to get it over with.

"No sight seeing, we're just getting in and getting out," he spoke. "Get the flyers delivered, find that item, and then get out. We're not here to look around." It was far too dangerous. If they weren't careful, one of the smaller ones could...well...die.

"How can you even tell where 'out' is? It's all one color," Astir remarked as they trudged through the snow. "It's all looked the same since we got here."

"What about when we weren't even on the mountain?" Mary asked flippantly, intending the question to punctate a point. She still wasn't quite used to the fact that Astir couldn't appreciate the more subtle forms of humor, and sometimes moment like this would happen and Astir would inevitably disappoint her.

"Pfft. I don't remember. Probably looked the same though," Astir scoffed, making Mary shake her head. His memory was... there was something wrong. She still hadn't managed to work out what had happened to him... mostly because he remembered nothing at all from his past!! There was no way he had just- naturally forgot that much. She suspected somebody stole them. There were pokemon that could steal dreams after all, right?

She sighed and looked around. "Well... it's a little disappointing that we can't stay longer. It's my first time in a big dungeon like this. I'm sure there will be others, though..." she sighed. She didn't want to be a thorn in Acro's side, she just wanted to remind him that she was kind of trying to get something out of these ventures aside from "out and back." Maybe a subject change would get him out of whatever weird mood he was in? She still didn't know much about him... "You must have been all around these dungeons, huh Acro? What's your favorite one that you've visited?"

They were upset, understandably so. However, this was not the kind of mission he wanted to start them off on. He wanted to go somewhere smaller and safer, like Shadowhue or Pecha Forest. They might not have been happy with it, but he wasn't at all familiar with their capabilities. The archeops remained silent to their complaints, feeling a little guilty about killing their first mission.

Each step was cautious, his eyes on the look out. He was on edge. He didn't want to be here. The archeops nearly missed the question directed at him. A favorite dungeon? Well, he didn't really have one. He's certainly been to plenty, but none of them really struck out as awe-inspiring or pleasant. Every one of them seemed to be associated with some awful terrible memory that he just wanted to forget about.

"Uh...No, I don't think I have one," he spoke both honestly and for the sake of putting an end to himself being in the conversation. He didn't mind if the two of them rambled off, but he felt an intense desire to keep his eyes out for any and all danger. His satchel was off to his side filled to the brim with flyers...it was probably a little strange to search for recruits down here, but it was on the way to another mission...so it was efficient.

Mary quirked an eyebrow. Didn't have one? Not a single one? There hadn't been a dungeon that stuck out to him at all? ...Did he really even like being in dungeons? She chose not to voice these concerns, instead opting to be courteous. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don't really have one either! Granted, I never had a reason to. The only one near me was... poisonous." She decided that sentence really didn't need elaboration.

Astir was listening to all of this with mixed comprehension. The basics (kind of) got through, at least, meaning he was capable of at least contributing something to the conversation. "You're talking about the places, right? Places with trees. Like the one where I lived, and..." Astir looked around to confirm. He confirmed. There were indeed trees here. "...and here. Big shifting tree places. I've only seen two, but I think I liked the other one better so far. It was cool and dark. This place is... a lot of the same." He frowned as he looked around. He couldn't imagine danger showing up anywhere near here. What was so dangerous about a bunch of cold white stuff?

Rosemary simply sighed in response. "Astir, they don't all have trees. Trees are not the deciding factor of what makes a dungeon a dungeon."

"Well how do they move around without roots to crawl on??!" he retorted, feeling this should be rather obvious to a smart person like Rosemary.

Despite his lack of contribution to the conversation, Rosemary seemed insistent on talking to him rather than her friend. Why were so many so interested in him all of a sudden? First Dusk, then Osiris, and now these two. Was it all just some big joke leading up to a punchline? Was one at a time just not enough anymore?

He was quick to give up as Astir, once again, said even more questionable things. Trees move with their roots? What? He decided that he'd save Rosemary the pain of correcting him on that one, "The trees don't crawl around on their roots, only pokemon really do that," his voice was patient, though a bit lifeless, "Nobody's certain on how Mystery Dungeons work, it's just kind of a thing that happens. Everything moves slowly piece by piece at a time, but we don't exactly know how that works..."

"It's part of why they can be so dangerous...and easy to get lost in."

Energy: 74

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

, , , , , , , , ,

Mary was grateful that Acro was helping her explain things to Astir. She was worried that he would end up treating Astir differently because Astir was a little slow... but it seemed like he was just being casual about it, which was really nice of him! "Yeah, that's right! That's probably why you got lost in there for... however long you were there." she agreed. Sometimes, she didn't understand the things that ran through the dratini's head...

"It was as long as I can remember..." Upon their responses, Astir furrowed his brow. Trees did not move the ground, nor did the trees move themselves. Who moved them then? They just did it themselves? "But... why do they do that, moving themselves. Why would they move if there wasn't something moving them?"

Rosemary quickly decided she was not a fan of the idea of dungeons being alive, and having some sort of dubious will to move themselves. "Well- it's not like they're alive and want to, per say. It's more like, just a natural thing they do because they do it. Like... breathing?" Oh god, now she was making references to them being alive! No! She looked down at the ground under her feet, trying to to think about how she could practically feel it taking breaths, shivering... it made her skin crawl. Nope. Time for another new topic. "Point being, it's not all that important. There are better things to worry about... Like how to spot a pokemon hidden in a dungeon? Acro? Do you have any tips?" Please help, my anxiety.

Rosemary the Fomantis - 5 energy

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 5 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

, , , ,

Astir the Dratini - 5 energy

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 5 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

, , , ,

Topic diverted. Thank god. It was difficult to explain something he himself didn't fully understand. Instead, Rosemary wanted to move on to another difficult topic. How to spot a pokemon hidden in a dungeon? Well...he normally didn't? They usually just appeared out of nowhere and he fought with it from there.

"Well...that kind of depends on the dungeon," he responded, "I'm...not that great at spotting pokemon from the ground level unless they very obviously stand out. Most of the time they just appear and you just gotta deal with them as they come..." Wow, great advice. What a wonderful explorer you are. At the very least these two might realize their mistake and turn back. He wasn't a teacher. It didn't matter how much experience he had, he would be worthless at such a job. He knew he did this whole exploring thing wrong half the time, but it's not like he had any teacher of his own to begin with.

"Ah... understood," Mary responded, sounding a bit perturbed. She was used to seeing where her opponents came from- there weren't really a lot of place to hide in a ring. Granted, sometimes the ring had been dressed up for show, but the scenery hadn't exactly been hard to destroy. It proposed an interesting challenge, though- she'd have to piece together tells from these new challenges herself. "Well- that's okay! Maybe we can figure something out while we're out here! That's why there's three of us, after all!"

"So, wait- what are we looking for? Pokemon?" Astir asked, still not getting the point of this new topic that Mary and Acro had started down. Was that the goal of their trip? To find pokemon or something? He thought it had been to deliver the papers to... somewhere. If it was pokemon they needed, that sounded more interesting- he had been good at finding those in the trees!! "If you want to find pokemon, a good way to do it is startle them. They'll come out if they're scared!"

Mary shook her head. "That's true, but that's not very subtle at all. You can do that when you're training, but if you're not looking to have to take a lot of time that's not going to work. Not to mention- there are pokemon that aren't easily startled!"

"I can't not face a challenge! If I do that, then I might miss Danger!!!" Astir protested. Oh god, this again. And in front of Acro... nothing against Astir, but this was more than Mary cared to deal with right now. She needed to focus in a place like this, and that was far too complicated a topic for her in this situation!

"Astir, this time we're just- Aahh-!" Mary started to explain, before she took one step and... she took a tumble down through the bottom layer of the snow!! She found herself stuck body-deep in a little trail under the snow. She found she was face-to-face with... a swinub!!! It seemed frightened by her sudden appearance, squealing and turning around until it ran off the opposit way through the tunnel. ".....Pokemon, under the snow!!!" was all Mary could manage.

Rosemary the Fomantis - 0 energy +27 (Reviver Seed) = 27 energy
Astir the Dratini - 0 energy +27 (Reviver Seed) = 27 energy

Woah-woah-woah, red flag there for Acro. He looked to the tauntingly familiar face of the dratini as it explained that it was best to scare pokemon out while Rosemary seemed to think that was only good for training. Before he could step into the conversation, the fomantis had a little trip in the snow. This...was going to be a very long dungeon trip...if it wasn't short for other reasons. Perhaps he should just turn this party around? Go back and give up? He could always let someone actually qualified for the mission take it.

"Uhh...we...don't really go looking for pokemon, even for training. That...sounds like a good way to start up a bad situation. Just because a pokemon's scared doesn't mean it's hostile...and you don't need to beat up pokemon to get stronger." At least, that's what he believed. Granted what little strength he had rooted from that sort of thing, but he never actively sought out a fight to pick with the locals. "You could just end up endangering some innocent pokemon that thought you were about to kill it." Acro lowered his tail down to Rosemary's level, offering it out for her to climb up out of the snow on if she wanted to.

Rosemary greatfully accepted the assistance of tail in climbing out of the snow, trying to make it happen as quickly as possible. The damage was already done, however... She was even colder now, being both soaked and having been previously encased in snow. She avoided the weakened area as she dusted herself off and shivered violently, trying to reclaim at least some of her body heat in the absence of the warming sun. "That makes sense and all... but how do you get stronger if you never fight anyone?" Mary asked, trying to distract herself from the bitterness that she had just been subjected to. "I mean, I suppose if you go every encounter without fighting it might make you better at talking... but what if you want to be good at fighting?"

Meanwhile, Astir had become utterly distracted and engrossed with the announcement that there were pokemon under the snow. He was now busying himself with the act of literally thrusting his head under the snow as deeply as he could to try and find what Mary had seen- startling two more swinub in the process. "Hey, there are pokemon down here!!" he exclaimed before continuing his endeavors.

"Astir... aren't you getting cold?" Mary asked as she turned to look at her noodley partner, but... he didn't pay much attention, as his head was under the snow most frequently. Eventually he came back up with an item in his mouth.

"There are rounder circles, too!" He announced proudly, setting his catch to the side before ducking back down again. He came up with another orb... that was seemingly attached to a growling pokemon half his size. he shook the pokemon off before adding the new orb to his collection. The smaller pokemon growled before turning and running off into the trees.

"Well-you don't need to beat pokemon up to get good at fighting..." he attempted to reason, "You can just spar with pokemon that are actually willing to fight you." How did these two not know that? Even Rosemary, who was apparently the smart one of the two, seemed to be oblivious to this concept of consent. The archeops' gaze looked over to dratini as he seemed to enjoy stucking his head into the ground as if he decided he were some sort of doduo.

"Ahh...A-Astir, could you please stop that? W-We need to save our energy..." he pleaded from the dratini. Despite his request, he didn't feel as if he would get much out of it. The dratini didn't exactly seem like the type to listen...like Astrid...He needed to stop thinking about that. The painful feeling in his gut returned. He looked off in the direction the swinub ran off in, uneasy about disturbing the wildlife like this. He could see a Cryogonal in the distance, who seemed to stare right back at him with a knowing and wide grin. It disturbed him. He looked back to the two, "W-We need to get moving and get these flyers out. Come on." his voice was a little more commanding, his tail moved to scoop the dratini out of the snow and usher him forward.

"I mean, items are nice and all, but I agree with Acro, Astir..." Mary nodded as she hopped around Astir's... "worm" holes, trying not to fall into the snow again. "We have another job to do after this, too. I'm as interested as you are, but we gotta do what we came here to do- that's the point of us being here!" Neither she nor Astir noticed the Cryogonal staring with an eerie expression, as both of them were preoccupied- Mary with ushering Astir along while Astir with fighting Acro's tail.

"Alright! Ngg- that's no fun!!" Astir protested, batting the colorful tail away from him in a sad sign of protest. "I get it... but I don't understand why we're just passing out paper! And how can we do that without finding pokemon?!" This adventure was seeming duller and more pointless by the second. What were they even getting done?? How was this making him any more equipped to fight danger?!? He couldn't see the reasoning at all.

"Well, the point of the flyers is that we staple them to trees..." Mary answered, "But like Acro said- there's a good chance that pokemon will find us while we're walking, so you probably won't need to look for anything more than what we're already getting." She hoped. What Acro said made sense- but at the same time, she didn't think he'd appreciate it if she and Astir just bust out into a fight without warning. "....On that topic, I agree that sparring is probably the best and most accessible way to fight normally, but... isn't that different from fighting, like, a pokemon in a dungeon? Picking fights isn't always necessary, but.. you also gotta train sometime, right?"

Where was he going wrong in his explanation? Why was "don't pick fights with people" so difficult to get across? Why was he such a terrible teacher? Acro wanted to just shut up at this point, but he couldn't just let these two go off thinking it's okay to just harass someone for the sake of getting stronger. "It...is...in a way, but-just...Don't pick fights with people!" he implored the little fomantis with a sense of urgency.

He didn't know what was worse, this or when Linus criticized his every breath. At least with Linus the bird didn't need to be taught much, with these two he might have a chance of telling them the wrong thing. He might say something that can be taken the wrong direction. He was under pressure.

"If you want to fight with someone ask them first..." He was going to end it there, but an afterthought caused him to pipe up with another line, "Unless they attack you first." It was obvious, but at this point he wasn't sure what he did and didn't have to say.

Rosemary blinked at Acro's sudden outburst of emotion. He seemed... concerned? Did he think she was going to do something dumb?! She hadn't meant to give the impression that she was going to just pick any pokemon to have a fight with... obviously she would stay within her strength tier!!! But maybe that wasn't obvious- or maybe she had just said something completely dumb?!? Her face was starting to feel hot and her stomach was starting to churn from the anxiety.

"I... okay! I... I wasn't thinking of just going and picking every fight I see!!" she exclaimed, sounding a little frantic herself. "And I mean- I wouldn't fight a pokemon that didn't come at me without asking first, no! I'm not a monster!!!" Maybe there was a bit too much emphasis on that last thing. Maybe a nerve had been struck. Mary's heart seized with panic as she remembered she kind of was indeed a monster.

Astir looked like he was about to contribute something to the conversation (presumably something dumb), but when Rosemary sounded actually upset he paused in confusion. What... had happened? What was she doing, why did she look scared? Was there... was danger nearby?? He was suddenly on high alert, scanning the snow for anything that looked suspicious. There was... nothing, that he could see. So why...?

Another feeling Astir didn't recognize. It wasn't like the tension before a confrontation- or "anticipation," as Rosemary called it- but it was close. It was like that, but worse. Astir wanted it to go away so bad, but it was looking at Rosemary that made him feel that way... so he had to get her to stop. He started from the first base he understood- "What happened?? Are you- are you being attacked?!"

"NO! And don't go off doing something silly because you think I am!!!" Rosemary protested, acting a bit nippier than usual. Now she had to worry about Astir overreacting while she was overreacting... Damn!!! Why couldn't she keep control of herself?!?

When that didn't work, Astir decided to try something else instead. He pulled out one of the orbs from under the snow- items could heal, right? This one would probably heal. "Okay, here!! Use this then!! This will help you."

Activating 1 Trawl Orb for Rosemary

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 10 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

, , , , , , , , ,