Bittersweet

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Consciousness slowly returned to Osiris.

The first thing he was aware of was the all-encompassing agony that enveloped his body. The dratini came to life with a pitiful, pained moan, weakly fluttering in protest. His head was throbbing like never before—his mouth was dry and sandy, his eyes felt heavy and stung every time he blinked, and he couldn’t even move without every muscle screaming at him in protest. He hurt, but he was awake.

Why this was the case, he wasn’t sure, but the dratini was determined to find out. His eyes blinked open slowly, squinting as he tried to get a sense for where he was. His surroundings were dark. Very, very dark. He could feel himself rising and falling, the ground below him passing by as he… floated? No, he could feel something enveloping him; sharp teeth that cradled him gently despite their power. Osiris’ head rolled back weakly, and he caught a glimpse of powerful, scaled legs and wickedly sharp claws staggering along.

It looked like Victoria. It all came rushing back to him at that realization; she’d held off a trio of golurks while he tried to secure them a way back out of the cave, but then he tried to help her fight. And then… nothing after that. Iris felt a weary sort of confusion but metaphorically shrugged it off. They’d obviously made it out, and Victoria had probably picked up his slack again. He needed to make it up to her at some point.

The dratini sucked in a harrowed, struggling breath. ”My—” he tried to speak, only to cut himself off as a series of weak coughs took over. They lasted for much longer than he’d like, and it took another moment for him to compose himself; even speaking was painful. ”My bag… m-medicine.” Osiris prompted, voice weak but audible in the silence of the cavern.

47 energy (we found da place mufuckas)

A cacturne. She imagined she'd be able to take him if a fight broke out, but preferably she would avoid it. She'd gotten thorns in her foot before, she didn't even want to imagine the pain and woes of picking them out of her entire body. The shady figure spoke up, a question that didn't exactly make any sense to her. A dump? Her mind immediately jumped to fouler places, but ultimately decided that was not what this scarecrow meant.

She snorted, "What kind of question is that?" She didn't elaborate. Instead, she merely glared at the smaller pokemon. The bloodied tyrantrum acted with confidence, which...wasn't exactly that different from her normal demeanor. The tried and true method of "acting like you belong" was what she went for. If she acted like it was silly to even question her presence and purpose, then perhaps the cacturne was just stupid enough to answer his own question for him without a single word out of her mouth.

Osiris watched with bated breath as the cacturne looked them up and down briefly. He wasn't sure what was going to happen next—would the grass-type sound an alarm and call for a score of allies to kick them out of the secret club? Was it going to push a secret button that opened a door containing all of its little baby cacnea spawn, which would then swarm them en masse? It turned out, no, it wasn't going to do any of that. The thorny pokemon simply shrugged after inspecting them and nodded civilly.

"Yeah, okay. You know where to go, then. I'll catch you on your way out if you come back the same way." it said plainly, and it wasn't until it was finished that Osiris realized they were going to get to just walk. "There's a couple of stragglers spread out on the way to the yard, but they're with me; we're just waiting out the sandstorm. They don't mean any harm and shouldn't cause any trouble. I'd appreciate it if there were no incidents." the grass-type finished, and this time there was a clear note of (very mild, almost respectful) dismissal.

The dratini said nothing from his perch. He felt a little giddy at this development; they were going to get into this secret club without any harassment! No fights to the death, no ambushes, nothing! He grinned and faced away from the thorn pokemon, eager to see what they'd found and happy they didn't have to fight for it.

47 - 41 (rolls) + 1 (new page): 7 energy

the sunset hero carried out 7 launched of one Crooked Boneyard :

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Satisfaction swelled as the cacturne bought it. At least, she was pretty sure it bought it. She gave the grass type a stubborn "Humph" before she would respond, "There'll only be an incident if they're the ones to start it." She didn't stick around. She proceeded past the cacturne and down the hallway. It took another moment, but eventually, the tunnel opened up into...something quite unlike what she'd ever seen.

The cavern opened up into pitch black emptiness, but the lights around the little settlement they had here illuminated the area around them. Massive white structures jutted out of the ground around them. She could only just barely make out the tops of them in the light. Her eyes took in the scene as she struggled to register just what was around them for a moment before she came to a grim realization...those massive pillars looked oddly similar in shape to the skeletal remains of a pokemon.

Her gaze dropped back down to the settlement. A pleasant warm fire was being tended to by a strange and dark looking marowak, while she could hear the grunts and hollers of two pokemon off to the side. A massive black and white pokemon, Obstagoon, was in the midst of some sort of arm wrestling match with a normal looking Marowak. The two seemed to struggle in the middle, steadily making way back and forth, until finally, the Marowak whipped out a club from the side with its other hand and bonked the massive raccoon-like pokemon on the head.

The Obstagoon's fist fell, declaring the marowak as the winner. The obstagoon was clearly displeased, growling and snarling at the marowak, which made it clear to her that the two were to be avoided...

Victoria; 29

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Crooked Boneyard :

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Pokemon to deal with: A.Marowak, Liepard, Mandibuzz, Cacturne, Houndoom, Obstagoon, Marowak

Osiris kept his head down as he and Victoria left the cacturne where it was content to stay. The little dratini was silent as they passed through the hallway and spotted the massive half-buried bones, and watched with trepidation as two rough-and-tumble looking pokemon arm-wrestled rather violently to seemingly pass the time. The third, who was tending to the fire that kept his group illuminated, spotted them but paid no special attention to the blood-coated tyrantrum (who for all intents and purposes kind of blended in). In the shadows, just beyond the reach of the fire's light, a second obstagoon laughed rather rudely at the first, drawing its ire from the marowak who'd bested it.

The serpentine dragon's eyes shifted to another group of pokemon, settled a modest distance away from the first group. A houndoom, ever-so-similar to the one that nearly at him in Everspring, was rather energetically digging a hole in the way dogs did best. A marowak stood close by, clutching a thick club in one hand and holding onto a large rucksack in the other—which seemed to be packed full with something big. A couple of friends were gathered around it, polishing off bits of fruit and meat as they watched the dark-type work. One of them he recognized as a mandibuzz, but the other was... strange, alien, and hard to look at. It was almost like a cofagrius, but twisted, with hard red lines painted all over it.

Osiris wasn't sure what they'd stumbled into, but he had an inkling that it wasn't exactly rated E for everyone. "I don't think this is the cool kind of secret club," Osiris whispered almost silently to Victoria below him, right in her ear. He wasn't sure if any of those pokemon had the hearing to pick up his voice, but he didn't want to risk it. "Let's keep going before they ask any questions."

Pokemon to deal with: A. Marowak, Liepard, Mandibuzz, Cacturne, Houndoom, Obstagoon, Marowak, Dragapult, Drapion, Obstagoon 2, Runerigus, Marowak 2

"Agreed." Victoria grumbled. Her eyes searched for a particular pathway that avoided all of these unusual suspects. She narrowed her options down to one that seemed to lead off into the darkness. A liepard slept near the exit, but she assumed that she'd be able to get by just fine. A cat's nap isn't exactly a concern to her.

The tyrantrum turned and started off towards it. She kept her eyes on the prize and did her best not to lock onto any other's. Perhaps...if she just kept walking, then she could just leave. She just had to act like she knew where she was going. Easy enough.

What wasn't easy enough, however, was noticing the near-transparent form of a large pokemon just in the cover of darkness. The lizard-like dragon crawled about the boney structure like a salamander. The thin yellow eyes were locked onto the queen. With its tiny grubby little hands, it reached out for the much smaller dratini-eager to...place the dratini on its head...for some reason.

The little dratini mirrored the larger dragon's behavior, keeping his eyes to himself as they continued past the horde of civil yet probably criminal pokemon. "Who knows, maybe if we're lucky, we'll - yoop?" Osiris cut himself off as a ghastly hand scooped him up as easy as could be. He felt a flare of panic as he left the comfort of Victoria's crown, but soon found himself nestled in a place that felt somewhat similar.

He blinked after looking down, finding himself perched on another taconic pokemon's head. "Uh, not to be rude or anything, but -" For a second time, he wasn't allowed to finish. The serpentine dragon was summarily locked and loaded, and with a yelp that was fueled by both panic and excitment, he was unceremoniously launched down the hallway like a bullet.

The dragapult, afterward, smiled at Victoria like it's just done her a favor. Osiris, down the hallway, landed in a soft clump of sand before popping up with a grin. "... Yeah, okay." he said with all the acceptance of a kid that's been tossed on a rollercoaster.

The dragapult smiled at her. She glared back. A deep grumble rumbled in her chest as she leered at the ghost type. The newcomer's eyes widened as they cowered back into the shadows, not quite sure why she was so angry with it. The tyrantrum contemplated just snapping onto that odd looking dinner plate it had plastered on its face and giving it a toss...but ultimately decided it was best to not cause a scene.

Instead, she followed the dratini's path along until she reached where the little guy landed. Should Osiris not fight it, she would swoop him out of the spot and gently into her jaws. If he wanted to-if he even had the strength to- he could probably worm his way back up to her crown.

The tyrantrum passed by the slumbering liepard, who was rudely awakened by the quake of her step. The feline gave them an annoyed glare, but ultimately decided that playing with a tyrantrum wasn't the best idea in the world. The pokemon lowered their head back down and ultimately decided to try to go back to sleep.

Just up ahead, however, Victoria could see two more guards-just like the cacturne with torches as they stood attentively in the spot. She should have known any potential entrance and exit out of this place would have been guarded, but at the very least these two might not give her as much trouble going out than she had coming in.

Pokemon to deal with: A. Marowak, Drapion

Osiris shook the remnants of sand off his scales, thrown for a loop by the sudden change of pace but not really upset. Rather than eating him alive or tearing him in half or something, the weird pokemon had just shot him like a bullet with its weird... bullet-shooting face. He made a mental note to look that up when he got home—he'd never heard of a pokemon that could do that.

The dratini offered no resistance when Victoria strutted over and scooped him up, holding him gently in her jaws, just as she did when he woke up after their fight with the golurks. This time he stay put, not really willing to climb back up to her crown in the event some other pokemon in here got handsy with him. It was safer surrounded by Victoria and all of her really sharp teeth—and if he was in here long enough, he might even get to surprise somebody if they started some trouble. He had the mental image of himself blasting somebody with a dragon rage right before Victoria chomped down on them.

"Goin' deeper?" asked another pokemon, one of the two that were hanging around the settlement's exit tunnel. It was another strange-looking marowak. It pointed down the tunnel with its fiery bone. "Try not to be too disappointed—I don't think there's enough people here for a proper show, what with the weather and all."

Its companion, a pokemon he recognized as a drapion, spoke up afterward. "Which is dumb," it spat sourly. "It's a perfect time for a bit of fun; we've got enough restless pokemon that would be down and even more of 'em with money to gamble."

The alolan marowak simply rolled its eyes, looking as if it'd heard this round of complaints before. It gestured for the tyrantrum approaching to head on down.

The two pokemon chattered to her, but she currently had a mouthful of dratini. Her response came as a simple grunt, though it was unclear if she was saying yes or just making some kind of noise for them to interpret as a yes. Either way, she didn't waste he time in chatting these two up.

Deeper into the boneyard, she walked. An occasional torch was drilled into the bones that protruded from the ground like rocks. Dust filled the air, disturbed by her weight against the ground. An eerie silence overcame the area now that they'd left the odd settlement. She followed the path of the torches, decidedly not taking her chances in sticking her neck out into the darknesss.

She didn't know where they were about to take her, but she just hoped it was somewhere helpful.