Sp00ks [Halloween 2019] [Open]

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"I'll be back later tonight...and I'll bring back some gummis for you!" her voice sang out to the little skiddo in the back of the shop.

"Have fun!" his voice rang back with a certain tone to it she was all too familiar with. It was a cheerful one, but it made her nervous. She didn't normally leave Aries alone much anymore, but he didn't seem keen on coming along with her on her lovely stroll. It was kind of a relief to be honest. It was a little tiring to have to accompany him all day an reassure him about every bump in the night.

She needed some her-time anyways. A stroll through the lovely Grassveil to gaze upon the costumed trick or treaters and look upon the ever so "terrifying" decorations people place on their lawns was more than enough of a treat for her. Of course, she wasn't exactly a fan of the dark. So, she carried with her a trust lantern-on-a-stick. A satchel hung over her shoulder with a lantern held just above her, like a walking light post. The light swung back and forth with a cutesy zubat figurine on the top of it. She didn't have a costume herself, but she didn't quite need one where she was going.

The little deerling was not only going on a walk to have a look around, but going to a social event. It was a little theater of sorts being performed in the town square. It didn't start for a while, but she could hardly resist the idea of watching aspiring actors play out a grand story. With her secured lantern protecting her from the spooks of the darkness, she made her way along the street with a melodious tune to her hums. Anything helped to keep the gnawing fear of the dark night around her lonesome self at bay.

[max of one other person before you must ask to join, mada's reserved a spot]

Darcy tilted her head as the deerling spoke. Unhappy news? That was a rather curious thing to bring in the dead of the night... But her sister seemed alright when she'd walked in the room, shaken, and sad, but... Well, alright, at least. Safe. And... with any luck, she'd be alright in the morning. The Skitty took a seat, fighting back another yawn. However, she found herself coming more and more alive as the Deerling spoke, and in the worst possible way... Had she heard her right? Darcy blinked, staring at Yera stupidly in the night. Wait... Was that blood?

The Deerling asked her if she was aware of this. She wasn't even sure if she was awake or not... She'd never met Yera before, the late night, (or was it early morning?) light added a dreamy aspect to the whole situation, bits of fogginess that often seemed to accompany halloweens, at least in the books... not to mention the blood on the doe. And what she was saying...

Darcy's ears perked as she stood up, pacing about uncomfortably. Finally, she managed to speak up, after a long uncomfortable silence. Of course she was aware that Alki was... well... pretty depressed... And she was aware that she didn't have the highest self esteem, but going that far...?

"...I know she's sad a lot..." Darcy said softly, pawing at the ground as she eyed her tail. She didn't much feel like chasing it, but she didn't have the strength to look up at the deerling... This wasn't very pleasant to hear in the dead of night... "...Are you sure? I..." Darcy paused, taking a moment to recollect herself. She could hear her voice breaking... "What makes you so sure...? I'm... I..." Can't afford therapy? She didn't want to say that... If Alki needed it, she could scrounge up some more money, somehow, write a letter home to her parents, explaining the situation, that her partner was... well... having bad thoughts, and that she needed help, and she wouldn't be able to send as much money for some time, but...

"W-What did she s-say...?" Darcy finally said, her voice cracking as she bowed her head. She wanted to say that Alki wouldn't say that, that she wouldn't think of doing that, but... Well, it seemed so plausible... She could easily see the words escaping the balloon Pokemon's mouth, and that... well, it hurt... She was a kid... Had she gone wrong, somewhere...

The Skitty bit her lip, looking up at the strangely ghastly Deerling in the halloween fog. Her eyes seemed almost pleading, as though she wanted the Deerling to just claim she was kidding, just a practical joke, and then... things would be fine, more or less, but... Nobody would joke about something like this, would they?

The skitty was in what seemed to be...shock. Yera immediately felt a sense of guilt for dropping all of this on the jigglypuff's sister...but this was important. The deerling couldn't help but also feel a little salty about this. Why did she have to be the one to feel guilty for doing the right thing? Yera's hooves shuffled nervously, but she kept her voice low and urgent.

"She talked about going off and dying a fair bit...and how she won't be in this world for long." It was difficult for Yera to recall exactly what the pink puffball said with how stressful just about everything was that night, but it was enough...right?

"That kind of "sad" is...well, I've seen it before. It's...not healthy," the deerling's ears folded back with a sad expression herself. It was forced, but she needed to be somewhat reasonable here...and not a big meanie head. She really didn't want to be that kind of person...

"Dy... ing...?" Darcy asked, not managing so much as a word afterwards. It was shocking, even with everything she knew about Alki. The Skitty's ears folded back as she looked up at the night sky. It was remarkably bright. The way the stars shone down on the duo, standing there in the midnight fog... it had to be a dream, didn't it? It felt like a dream. Just thinking about it, it seemed like a dream... Some unknown deerling walking up to her on a Halloween night, bleeding, talking about things like this, with the fog, and the stars...

"It is, huh?"   Darcy replied simply, sniffling. It wouldn't do to cry in front of a stranger, especially after her politeness. She didn't really know this Yera, but she knew that someone had been watching over Alki during the day, someone had made sure she was... more or less safe. "I... probably should be watching over her more, I just..." The Skitty paused, swishing her tail as she searched for the right words. "Don't know what to do for her. I want her to be happy, but... I don't know how to make her happy. Am I bad sister for that...?"

Suddenly, Darcy didn't feel too tired. This train of thought was making her feel sad, and the Deerling was still bleeding... After everything she'd done for Alki, she couldn't just ignore that!

"But... I don't want to burden you more with that. Thanks for... everything you did for her today. Things've been rough recently, is all... But, Um... I think you're bleeding... Would you like to come inside? I can... patch you up, if you want, or take a look, or... something... "

Yera was punched in the gut. Not literally, but it certainly felt like it. Her breath seemed to leave her as guilt swelled like a balloon. The skitty wanted her to be happy, but didn't know how. She...she could relate to that. A lot. How was she suppose to make Aries happy? Make him feel safe again? The deerline's ears fell.

"N-No!" she was quick to respond, "I mean...you can't know exactly what a person wants...not unless they tell you b-but even then people don't always know what it is they want..." She reasoned with the skitty, but it felt more like she were telling herself that more than the skitty. Fortunately, the skitty had a change of topic.

Yera was bleeding.

...Bleeding?

She looked about herself, confused at the declaration that she was bleeding. The moment she saw red, her ears flared right up in alarm. "Wha?? When did that happen??" she asked as if the skitty were supposed to somehow know through sheer magic. "I-I'd very much appreciate that!! I-I don't know what I'd do if someone nasty were to smell it..."

Sorry Aries, she was going to be a little late...

Darcy bit her lip and tried to take the Deerling's words to heart. She was right enough, she supposed, but her feelings didn't care about the facts and logic that she was offering. She had no clue what Alki wanted. She wasn't sure Alki knew what Alki wanted, but that didn't mean she couldn't feel guilty all the same. Everytime she saw the little girl a pang of guilt struck her, and by this point, she felt bruised and beaten by it. Every night she came home silently crying, averting eye contact with Darcy, the Skitty felt worse and worse about it.

But she wasn't sure she could figure out a solution. Certainly not tonight. Not at two in the morning, or whatever hour it was. Besides, they were past that topic now, and the fact that the deerling in front of her was bleeding was more important than whatever inner conflicts she might be having.

"I dunno," Came Darcy's reply, shorter and more curt than she usually spoke, but no hostility in her voice. It was exhausting being up this late... "But it doesn't look like very much blood, at least, so it shouldn't take long to clean up. I have stuff in our room, so it's really no problem..."

Darcy led the Deerling back into the guild, towards her room, padding as noiselessly as she could through the still halls. Her thoughts were slow, and mainly focused on what kind of bandage to use, and how to clean it up. "Does it hurt at all?" Darcy asked quietly, as she pushed the door to their room open.

The deerling followed without an inch of hesitance. She stared worryingly at the bloodied shoulder with a pinched brow. How and when did this happen? Did she get caught on something at some point? She remained relatively quiet on the walk in. She trusted the guild member to do what was right. That's what guild members were for, after all, right?

"No, I didn't even know I had it..." the deeling responded quietly, certain to keep her steps as quiet as her voice so as to avoid disturbing other residents of the guild. "I certainly didn't have this before at the celebration..." She struggled to think about it, but simply could not think of a single point where she could have gotten hurt. Actually...why hadn't Alki pointed it out? Surely the jigglypuff must have noticed at some point the whole ride on her back!

"Alright..." Darcy said, nervously poking her head into the guild room. Alki didn't seem to be there. That was unfortunate... She could've really used an extra set of hands. The Skitty sighed as she made her way to a nearby shelf, pulling down a primitive first aid kit. "Feel free to make yourself at home, I suppose. I need to find, uh..." Darcy poked through the disorganized supply kit, trying to find the right set of bandages.

"Do you like cookies? I can grab you some, if you'd like." The Skitty offered. Alki was her chief concern, but the Deerling didn't seem to be doing too great either. Maybe it was just cause it was late. And she was bleeding. It had to hurt at least a bit, right? Darcy pulled out a small damp cloth to clean the cut, and began to apply it to the wound. However, as he pressed it into the Deerling's fur, the blood only seemed to smear about, and it revealed no cut beneath it.

"...Huh." Darcy said, tilting her head as she set the cloth down. "And you said it doesn't hurt...? It... Well, there's no cut. That I can see, anyways, Um..." Darcy hesitated, unsure whether this made any actual sense or not. "D-Did you meet anyone else who might have gotten hurt? Or cut, or bleeding, or... Well, I-I mean, t-the blood had to come from somewhere..."

The surprise was met. The doe shook her head worriedly as she tried to think about all of the people she'd "touched" since she started her little trip. Which is...not many. It was especially easy to think about considering she knew points where the blood wasn't there. Yera's head tilted off to the side with worried and tired eyes.

"The only person i've touched is..." her voice faltered. It doesn't take a genius to guess who she was going to say. Only one little puffball balloon had been near her shoulder that night...and it was the skitty's sister. She...she didn't ever remember a point where Alki was bleeding though...?

"I-...You check on your sister." Her voice was quiet as she pulled away from the skitty's touch, yet firm-almost commanding even. Her own breath shook, but she couldn't even tell whether it was from stress or cold.

"Al...ki?" Darcy said, staring at the small patch of blood on the Deerling's shoulder. It couldn't be that Yera had hurt Alki. The jigglypuff wasn't the best judge of safety at times, but she seemed legitimately fond of Yera. She wouldn't speak of her so highly if Yera had been responsible for whatever had cut her, and besides that, it was quite obvious that the Deerling was just as shocked as she was. "I'll... c-check on her. Y-You clean up, while I go find her."

The Skitty turned around and went out the door. Alki didn't seem to be in their room, but considering she'd just come back to the guild, Darcy couldn't believe she'd left again. Which didn't really leave a lot of options. Darcy pretended not to know, but Alki had a tendency to escape to a few different places when she was upset. The pantry was one. But the place was locked this late at night, and lately, she hadn't gone for midnight snacks nearly as often as she had before. Besides, when it was night-time, Alki preferred to be outside. It'd always been that way, as far as she could remember.

Darcy left the building, the early morning chill biting at her fur once again. There was a garden nearby. She wasn't entirely sure who it belonged to, but it might as well belong to the guild, with how close it was. Alki went there at night, from time to time. As the Skitty approached, tonight didn't seem to be any different.

"Alki?" The Skitty called out into the night. She waited for a few seconds, before pushing open the gate to the garden. The metal creaked, and her teammate's voice rung out.

"Hi, Darcy..."

Neither of them saw each other. As much as Darcy attempted to find her, she couldn't see any pink through the red roses and yellow tulips. It was dark. Alki was hard to find, if she wanted to be. Both of them knew that.

"P-Please come back, Alki. To the room, I mean. I'm..."

"Is Y-Yera still there?" The voice asked from the dark.

"...Yes. She's worried too. We're worried. About you. I don't feel... Um. Good. Leaving you out here so late at night. Not tonight, anyways..." Darcy said. The way the deerling had told her to check on Alki, she was sure that she was worried too. As touching as she found it, for the time being, she couldn't really dwell on it much. Not until Alki was at their house. Safe.

No response came, as seconds seemed to turn into minutes. Darcy opened her mouth to speak again, but a pair of pink ears popped up from behind a shrub to the right.

"O-Ok." Came Alki's shaky reply, as she walked out from behind the bush. "I-I'm t-tired anyways..."

"Y-You're ok, right?" Darcy asked, looking down at the smaller pokemon. She nodded. The skitty noticed the small red ribbon tied around the jigglypuff's wrist, but didn't think much of it. "Y-You're not hurt?"

"Nah." The jigglypuff lied, her voice as firm as she could muster under the circumstances. She didn't expand any further, and Darcy could tell that she really didn't want to talk. They walked back into the guild, and into their room. Alki pushed the door open, with Darcy waiting behind her. She was sure to only show off her un-bandaged arm, doing her best to hide the other at her side. Did they know?

Probably. She wasn't bright enough to keep it a secret. How they'd found out was behind her, but she was sure she was in trouble. If not with Darcy, then almost certainly with Yera.

"H-Hi." Alki offered, eyes glued to the ground, as Darcy walked back in behind her.

"H-Hi." Alki offered to a deerling that was no longer there.

Each hoof-step was as quiet as can be, careful and deliberate with the intent on remaining not only unseen, but unheard. She both focused and restrained her breath, each one in and out just as careful and deliberate as her steps. She passed the gate of the guild and reached the outside, away from the skitty and wounded jigglypuff-each breath shook with tension and wracked with guilt. Her heart seemed so loud and quick, yet it was audible only to her. A short though brief wish crossed her mind that it would simply stop, but the ramifications of that were far to great for her to stand by such a desire.

It was dark, but that didn't seem to scare her. There was something far more terrifying back in the depths of that guild. It wasn't a fire, a monster, nor some unknown beast to haunt her nightmares. It was a conversation she didn't want to hear-let alone be a part of. This wasn't her problem anyways, right? It was the skitty's. Her problem was Aries...though...she couldn't help but wonder whether it was troublesome of her to consider both Alki and Aries a "problem"...it was true...wasn't it..?

She shook the thoughts from her head, ever indecisive and very much not in the mood even further to ruin her night with such troublesome thoughts. After all, she had something more important to worry about...like being in the dark...alone...at night...

Why did this day have to go so wrong so fast...?