---

---

Skylar huffed in settling excitement as he saw the last of the Cottonee he was training with start to float away. He waved happily at them as they went back into the woods before he stepped back over to his team. "Welp, that was a good romp, wasn't it Seabre- huh?" Skylar paused when he saw the craned neck of a Tropius arc over the rest of the team, a leaf wing shielding Seabreeze and Celebrity.

Paradise finally woke up.

"Oh hey, Paradise! You're finally awake _{I think...}!" Skylar started as he stepped a little more forward. "I'm Skylar. That's Seabreeze the Wingull and Celebrity the Jigglypuff! We're your new friends!"

For a moment, Paradise remained silent, simply observing Skylar for what he was doing and his glossy eyes behind his shades. Then, Paradise craned her neck to Seabreeze and spoke directly to the Wingull. "Tropi?"

"Wingull. Gull!"

"Tropius?"

"Wingull!" Seabreeze stepped out from underneath Paradise's wing and flew over to Skylar's head, landing on it and smiling at the saurian-like grass-type.

Paradise hesitated for a moment before stepping over to Skylar, lowering her neck, and nuzzling her grassy head against his chest. "Troooo~."

Skylar glanced up at Seabreeze. "Thanks, bud."

Paradise craned her neck back up before Seabreeze flew over to it, landing on top of the mighty Grass-types head and looking around before Paradise lowered her wing, inviting Skylar aboard. Celebrity was already on, still being as moody as ever. "JigglyPUFF," she huffed before turning away from Skylar.

Sassy.

Skylar climbed up onto Paradise's back and held on as the mighty beast watched Vivia. A moment passed before Skylar looked at Vivia too. "I think it wants you to board, too, Vivia. I don't think Paradise can fly, yet, but I'm pretty sure she wants to show us something."

Regardless whether-or-not Vivia got on, Paradise would begin to wander Silent Forest, leading the group to their next destination.

---

After Qwerty's training, Valen once again trekked to the pokemon center for some much needed refreshing. After Qwerty was healed promptly, Valen opted to take a nap in a waiting room. He couldn't help it-- his nerves and the anxiousness of the upcoming event had been wearing away at him all day, despite his best efforts to stay positive. He and Qwerty had been productive enough, but that hadn't helped his mindset.

Even after waking up, he took a few minutes to lay in bed and breathe. It's okay. You're prepared. Qwerty's got this. You'll be okay. They had trained pretty hard, hadn't they?

Afterwards, when the sun was past setting and the day began to settle into evening, Valen and Qwerty made their way to the old, dilapidated house where the teacher was.

"Should we knock?" Valen asked Qwerty. Doubtless, their client would probably hear them dealing with the pokemon that were causing him trouble. Concerned, Valen didn't want to scare their client with the ruckus they would undoubtedly start.

Qwerty bumped Valen impatiently, nudging the sharp planes of her beak against his shoulder. Whatever he needed to do, he needed to hurry up! There were things to do!

"Um," Valen knocked on the door. "We're gonna start, um, tackling our objective now," he called, trying to sound professional instead. If the man did acknowledge Valen, then Valen would smile politely, bow his head, then say he was off to do the job, complete with hurrying to the back of the house to get started.

A few stars dotted the sky now and soon enough, the culprits were found. Looking very much like black sheets of cloth suspended in midair, they were creatures that Valen realized from his reading at the library.

"Shuppet... Ghost types!"

‘Shuppet~!’ One of them was happily tackling the breaker, for some reason, knocking it with Knock Off.

‘Shup-shup!’ Another one was just looking happy floating about the noise.

‘Shuuppet.’ The third was floating around, peeking through windows and hiding in the eaves occasionally.

Valen stepped forward, shoes crunching too loudly on the dead leaves and crisp grass. "Okay, we're gonna move in on 'em and surprise 'em with a sneak attack." His legs were shaking, his heart was racing. Their first wild pokemon battle. It was real, here, happening now.

Qwerty, on the other hand, was beginning to have opposite feelings as saw the Shuppet. Did they know what they were doing was wrong? The other two weren't even doing anything! This wasn't training. How could she attack pokemon who didn't attack her? And she was fortunate enough to have a trainer. What kind of guidance or care did these most likely wild Shuppet have?

"Use-" Valen was cut off by Qwerty ramming into him.

Stumbling back, Valen rubbed his shoulder where she'd knocked him with her bill. "Qwerty..!" His jaw was dropped open. "What'd you do that for?"

"Kre kre!" Qwerty responded, clearly annoyed. She jabbed towards the Shuppet impatiently, then a melancholy look softened her features. "Kre." She looked at Valen, pointing to herself, then the Shuppet.

"I..." Valen shifted himself up, hands on one knee. "You don't want to attack them?"

Qwerty shook her head.

"Why?"

She made a whimpering noise. "What's wrong? Are you hurting?"

She shook her head once more, looking down and then back at the Shuppet.

"They look pretty goofy, huh?" Valen tried to comfort Qwerty. "It's okay." He studied the Shuppet. What about them was freaking Qwerty out, he wondered. They looked so natural and in their element, cute even. They look like they're having fun. Does Qwerty feel bad? He tilted his head. I feel kinda bad just thinking of sneaking up on them now. They're like kids. Maybe they are. You wouldn't just ambush a bunch of kids if you saw them playing with something they weren't supposed to. Kids don't really know. Maybe the Shuppet don't know...

"Well I don't exactly know what's bugging you," Valen knelt down to stroke Qwerty. "But can we talk to the Shuppet? Are you cool with that? I guess I can understand why you wouldn't wanna go up and attack them. It's scary." As Valen had been talking, Qwerty had been nodding her head, eyes bright, but then quickly shook it close to when his words came to their end.

"Hmm... Do you feel bad for them, too? They don't seem like they mean to be mean. Those other two just look like they're there for the ride, even. It just... seems rude?" Valen laughed sheepishly.

Qwerty was nodding. The human had eventually picked it up after all.

Valen exhaled. "Well, new plan. I guess we could start talking first, see where it goes from there. If they start attacking, you'd still have to defend yourself, but at that point I think it's okay to battle and drive 'em off. Right?"

"Kre," Qwerty agreed.

Valen crossed his arms. "Well, let's see what they have to say. Which one do we go up to... I guess the troublemaker, right? The other two are just hanging around."

Qwerty analyzed the situation, concluding that Valen's plan was acceptable.

"Alright. Geez I hope it doesn't attack. Get ready just in case, okay Qwerty? Also, I think it's better if you talk to them. I feel like you'd be able to get your point across better." Qwerty nodded.

Taking one last moment to gather his courage, Valen and Qwerty strode over to the breakerbox, where the Shuppet was.

Qwerty began to earnestly talk to the Shuppet. In her own series of quacks, she introduced herself, then asked the Shuppet to please stop bothering the poor human inside the house with their banging on his breakerbox or other equipment.

Who knew if it would work or backfire? Valen was about to find out.

---

She was obviously friends with more than just the ghosts in Witchpeak City. Dawkin carefully observed the events as they occurred, feeling very out of his element and rather useless overall. It was a relatively new feeling and not a welcome one either. Still there wasn't much he could do about it at the moment. "Yeah I'm coming." Dawkin said quietly to the lone Yamask that turned to look at him. Dawkin simply planned on following Amelia, hoping that using the Yamasks to cause distractions as they delved deeper into the tomb didn't backfire on them. At least he still had an escape rope.

---

"Gentle, gentle. I'll be coming my friends." Amelia said, getting to her feet and following the Yamasks when they began pulling her, keeping pace with them with ease. However, the sight of the little mask carrying ghosts fighting off the other occupants of the tomb for their sake, he couldn't help but frown and look a bit upset. She didn't like the idea of neighbors fighting each other. But, this was simply all the more reason for her to see this through and hopefully bring peace back to the tomb.

When they finally arrived to the room the Yamasks had been guiding them to. It was small, empty, and rather unremarkable save for the golden sarcophagus. However, Amelia knew what that sarcophagus actually was and slowly approached it while examining the room for any signs that there might have been another pokemon here before. Once she was in front of the main object of interest though, she gave it her full attention before lightly tapping on it's lid.
"Cofagrigus… can I talk to you please?" She asked it, her tone calm and friendly.

@PlatinumSkink

---

Well, if it was any time to be getting nervous, now would be it. Bellawesome soundly trounced Lure's abilities to get in close with that blade of hers, sending the bug/flying type careening towards the ground. After the first time, Claire realized that the conventional tactics here weren't going to win. That thing had something her pokemon didn't have. Experience and perhaps a bit of skill. If Zeal was still battle ready, he could probably handle it but now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

As Lure continued to battle and attempt throwing off Gusts, Claire was caught in trying to think of a way to win. That thing was fast. None of Lure's moves were going to be connecting at this rate with its dexterity, so how-

Before she herself could do anything, Combee, fed up with the way things were going, shot a gust towards Claire on her own before fluttering a bit high into the air, seemingly ignoring orders.

A pink, sweet smelling mist enveloped Combee before using her wings to blast it towards Bellawesome.

"...sweet scent?" Claire blinked.

Oh.

right.

Combee could do that.

@Gardevoiran

Vivia had gotten some training done, too, Scraggy and Venonat doing some work. Rotom was hanging back, though, watching other things. At the end of it…

'Oh, sure. I’ve, um, never ridden something like a Tropius, but I’ll do my best,' Vivia responded, sounding a bit amazed, but still got onto Paradise with Skylar. So, seemingly Paradise had something she wanted to show the others. That’s an amusing thought. Paradise took them through the forest, to…



It’s a pond, a beautiful one surrounded by the living forest. Small lights lit the trees in the background, along what appeared to be a somewhat distant structure build on top of the trees. Behind the waters there was a stair. At the bottom of the stairs, there stood a creature, head lowered to drink of the water… and then when Skylar and co came anywhere within any form of distance it looked up for a moment before turning around and bolting up the rocky stairs wherever those were leading.

Other than that, this was a corner of more Tropius who drank of the water and looked pretty pleased with themselves. This was a peaceful pond, one that was simple to relax at, albeit there perhaps wasn’t too much to do… unless one fancied to visit the strange treehouse or head after the strange shape. That said, Skylar would feel that ahead emanate an aura of power, somehow. These were not the grounds of newbies to tread. Albeit he could, it was likely he might be sent home quicker than he’d realize.

That said, he knows this place exists now and could return any time.

So, what would Skylar do here, if anything?



Connected areas:
Route 1. To the south.
Route 3. If you head north-east for a while.
Silent Shrine. Go north, you should be able to find the road there.



__________________________

@prettydrops

‘Shuppet?’ one of the Shuppets turned to Qwerty as she appeared and talked to them. Didn’t entirely matter if she only talked to one of them, all three of them gathered to stare at the guest. It was explained to them that they were bothering the human inside…

‘Shuppet!’ the first said, frowning, shaking its head.

‘Shup-shup!’ the second explained, smiling out widely.

‘Shuuuuup,’ the third one elaborated, looking towards the window.

They misunderstood a bit. They couldn’t leave this guy, he was the most delicious guy around! He was both tasty and basically never-ending! A feast for Shuppets like themselves, they’d been following him for a long while! Sure, quite a few of them had been captured or convinced to join someone at one point or another, but with no better option they wanted to stay close to their food! … But just eating all the time was no fun, they wanted to entertain themselves occasionally, too! And it was really funny how upset he became whenever his electricity didn’t work, haha! It also gave some flavour to the energy they consumed. Some spice of annoyance, same effect as good pepper, perhaps.

Nope, not going to give up this pastime that easily. What would Valen and Qwerty do here?

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii@Eklispe

The Yamask’s continued their battle with the Honedge in this new room, not seemingly entirely noticing Amelia’s displeasure about that they’d fight like this. Still, with superior numbers they were victorious soon enough. So, Amelia spoke to the coffin, mentioning it by name. At the end of her question, the sarcophagus shook. The lid opened, and shadowy arms extended outwards as the coffin rose, levitating into the air as it angled to look down at the two kids before it, grinning with red eyes.

‘Cofaaagrigus…!’

Well, it was awake, anyway. Did Amelia or Dawkin have something to say to it? Numerous Yamask were around, looking expectantly.

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Bellawesome was able to skillfully dodge aside from the close-ranged Gusts, though this meant that Lure momentarily freed herself from the blade. Then, after being a bit surprised at the Gust aimed for her own trainer, she once again came to be wary as Lure gathered the pink mist, and blew it forth.

Bellawesome hadn’t categorized it as dangerous before it blew over her, the Pokémon blinking a bit in surprise before staggering a bit in how blissfully sweet the scent was, but then gripped her sword with both hands hard, again. Her mind was a bit distracted due to the scent, however.

‘Ooooh, Sweet Scent. It might become dangerous with that. How about you get a little serious, eh, Bellawesome?’ Archie said, smiling on the other side.

‘Bellossom~!’ Bellawesome replied, and suddenly launched towards Lure at exceptional speed. Given she had just gathered to make a Sweet Scent, there wasn’t enough time for Lure to prepare the next move, but just in case Bellawesome once again slammed the flat of her blade in-between Lure’s mouths… and released a cloud of yellow spores. They were carried by her speed, and come wind or dodge Bellawesome was quick enough to keep herself close enough that the effect was virtually impossible to dodge. The spores locked onto Lure’s wings and muscles, hampering her movements…

Bellawesome used Stun Spore! Lure was paralyzed !

‘There you go! Now go ham on it!’ Archie called, smiling so widely.

‘Lloss~!’ With that, Bellawesome prepared her blade, and intended on starting to cause some real damage. That said, her evasion had taken a hit.

Any changes to Claire’s tactics or otherwise?

Dawkin wasn't so sure this was a good idea. After all his Pokedex was telling him that Cofagrigus weren't exactly known for their manners. "Hey Amelia are you sure this is a good idea?" Dawkin said cautiously, a moment before the Cofagrigus in question rose up and loomed over them menacingly. Dawkin carefully reached for an escape rope... You know, just in case. Normally he'd have reached for a pokeball, but he had a feeling that none of his Pokémon could really match up against this thing. Hopefully those red eyes were just for show.

---

---

^{Route 2 || Night}
Eryn watched, stunned, as the Totodile freed itself from its bindings, but before she could lament her wasted efforts, the Totodile was already making for the water, not even bothering to look back.

“Hey, wait!” Eryn called, alarmed that the Pokemon was leaving already. But, it didn’t turn back, and she was reminded again of how expectations differed from reality. Pokemon had lives outside of entertaining trainers, and she knew she’d do well to internalize that. Though she was a fair bit disappointed, she couldn’t quite pinpoint why. It was a mix of finding the Pokemon she’d heard rumours of and being, in a way, almost let down by her findings. Sure Totodile were awesome, and sure she could use a water-type on her team, but the Totodile just didn’t feel quite right.

“Well, I guess we got muddy for nothing.” Eryn paused. “Not nothing—we got the boat out of the water. What was an empty boat doing in the middle of the water anyways?”

Walking over to the remains of the broken vessel, Eryn ran a hand against its hull, admiring the worn wood. It seemed like it was a well-used boat at one point in time. What had changed?

“What do you two say we pay the fishermen a visit? I’m sure they’ll have some interesting stories to tell.”

Kylie gave a mild “Maw” of consent while Dei stayed silent, staring in the direction the Totodile had disappeared. It seemed like Eryn wasn’t doing her job of keeping her Pokemon entertained.

“All right, you two. Let’s go and see if we can catch a meal and find a guide,” Eryn said, leading the way over to the fisherman huts that were tucked away where the path ended and the water began. The sun had set, but night usually didn’t deter her. Right now, though, she found herself lacking the extra bit of pluck she usually had, and she figured that if anyone had any advice about how to traverse the route during the night, it was the local fishermen.

And, of course, she kept her fingers crossed because maybe—just maybe—the locals had some tips and tricks on finding the hidden Pokemon of Dragon Lake.

---

@PlatinumSkink

---

---

Skylar slid off of Paradise's back as he looked into the area. Of course, if he could see anything it was incredibly tough to tell what it was, but judging from Seabreeze's energetic reaction as it flew to the pond and began to sit on the top of the water happily, Skylar felt like he could take a minute here to breathe and relax. Especially since Seabreeze did that very thing already without so much as consulting Skylar first. Though, Skylar could definitely hear the Wingull having a good time splishy-splashing in the water.

"Alright, guys, we can take a small break here." Skylar noted before he hugged Paradise by the neck. "Thank you, Paradise."

"Tropius," she said back, happily, before nudging her head under Skylar and lifting him up into the air. Surprisingly, she didn't have much difficulty lifting the scrawny kid. "Whoa!" The Tropius used her long neck to drop him at the door to the treehouse. Holy Ho-oh, that was a bit scary for Skylar. He didn't even know what was going on right then, he just went along for the ride.

Though, he was now at the door of the treehouse, sitting there on his rear looking at the door. He figured he should knock first before just barging in. So he stood back up, dusted himself off, and knocked three times on the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

While all this was going on, Celebrity found herself infatuated by Vivia, looking up at the girl with an expectant frown. "Puff!" Though, what it wanted was a bit hard to describe, since it's body language indicated it was expecting Vivia to just easily understand it. Unfortunately, there were no subtitles here.

---

Qwerty furrowed her brow, puzzled. These Pokemon were feeding on feelings of misery? IT was fascinating, certainly, but puzzling too.

Well there had to be a better way! She honked at Valen, who wasn't sure how to respond. She seemed annoyed.

"Maybe if I read the pokedex entry again.." He sighed and flipped the device open once more.

"They feed on negative emotions... I guess that guy looked kinda down. Qwerty, it's going to be tough to convince them. I mean where else..." Valen trailed off, wracking his brain. "I bet there's a better place than here. There has to be!" An idea struck him.

If negative emotions like fear and misery were what the Shuppet fed on, then maybe they belonged somewhere like a haunted house? One that people went to for attractions? Plenty of negative emotions swirled around in those places. And they'd get to be their terrifying little selves. Isson was a huge region, there had to be such a place! Even if there wasn't, Valen thought, then he would make sure to deposit them at places they were better off at. It would be difficult, require traveling, but he was sure he could find something.

"Qwerty, tell them we can find a way better place than this" Valen whispered. "It'll be loaded with food and fun for them, they won't even know what hit 'em. Tell them it's a place where humans go to to feel really sad and scared."

Qwerty was puzzled, but nonetheless relayed the message. She let out a series of excited sounding quacks, explaining that her human knew a much better source of food an entertainment for the Shuppet.

Valen chewed on his lip nervously. Would it work...?

---

@PlatinumSkink

---

Okay, with Bellawesome's evasion lowered, there was still a chance she could win this! Lure just had to make sure the grass type couldn't dodge everything thrown at it. Even if she couldn't get much damage on her herself, Lure could let Ralia have a much easier time with it. She just had to hope Lure could hold out a bit longer and maybe get another hit or two in herself.

"Alright, Lure!" Feeling pumped from a perceived chance at victory, the fiery redhead grinned excitedly. "We can still do it! Hit it with another Sweet Scent, then another gust!" Lure might have been paralyzed, but she just had to hope the bug/flying type could handle it for another round or two.

Lure herself, was feeling incredibly agitated. Beedrill were angry pokemon? Hah! This combee laughed in the face of that brutish pokemon! Filled with the rage of an angry bee, Lure shouted loudly at the Bellawesome. How dare that midday snack do such a thing to her of all pokemon! Six beady eyes glared at the bellawesome, summoning the pink, sweet smelling mist once more and attempting to blast it int Bellawesome's direction.

"Hello there Cofagrigus. It's a pleasure to meet you." Amelia said calmly, evidently not scared in the slightest. "My name is Amelia and that is my friend Dawkin over there. We're were visiting your tomb to see if I might be able to take some of it's residents on a journey with me. However, since we've arrived, it would seem that there's been trouble here. An Aegislash appears to be preparing to attack the area's surrounding the tomb and beyond. I was wondering if you could help us stop this so that this tomb doesn't become a battleground and your rest interrupted by all the fighting. I don't think you want humans like us coming here strictly to hurt your friends like the Yamasks here, right?"

@Dusksong

So, apparently it’s night. This means that the fishermen huts weren’t as active as they might during the day, as normal people went to bed or elsewise, though there were some boats out over Dragon Lake that were seemingly doing something. The huts themselves were unremarkable creations, simple wooden structures built by the lakeside. The lake, of course, is a route of its own.



However, there was a light of a small lantern, and a single fisherman sitting with a rod out on a wooden pier, muttering to himself. On his left side was a smaller, feline-like blue Pokémon resting, and on his right was a significantly larger, bulkier blue Pokémon watching the water with tired eyes.

The fisherman himself sat between them, muttering as he looked over the waters.

‘Resting, lazy bones. Don’t they all know the best fish only comes out at night? That’s when the predators have gone quiet and the temperature has decreased, making things more comfortable for the fish. But nooo, they’re too tired. Leaving all to me, those bunch a-’



The two Pokémon were…









Swampert closed its eyes for a bit, looking rather tired… when the fisherman bumped into it with an arm, making the Pokémon jerk to somewhat.

‘Hey, don’t go to sleep on me, big guy. I need your eyes if some great catches swim close,’ the fisherman said, and Swampert replied by simply yawning widely before returning to watching the waters with tired eyes. Vaporeon, though, rose to look towards Eryn, sensing her approach. It tilted its head a bit, looking at her curiously. The fisherman noticed his Pokémon’s movement, and turned to look at her too.

‘Oh. New trainer. At night. Right. Here, standard procedure,’ the fisherman said, reaching into a bag he had on the side and took out a fishing rod, one that’s not quite as good as the one he’s using but certainly looked serviceable.



‘Sit down and fish with me. Now, can I help you?’ the fisherman asked, while Vaporeon was now giving Dei and Kylie curious looks. Swampert was drifting asleep again before the fisherman gave the big blue thing a slight waking bump with the left hand again.

What would Eryn do now?

__________________________

@Gardevoiran

No more birds here, unfortunately.

Vivia was looking around in amazement, inspecting the pond and the Pokémon attending it.

'It’s beautiful…' she mentioned, looking over it, when she then realized something and looked to Skylar. 'Er, should I describe it to you?' she asked, a bit unsure how to act in that situation. In any case, then Skylar was left off at the treehouse and such. Meanwhile, Vivia was confronted by a Jigglypuff that seemed to want her attention. Vivia turned and looked down on the little round creature, somewhat wide-eyed and stricken, looking at the little thing. It took a couple of seconds.

'You’re so… cute…' she muttered with genuine emotion to Celebrity, getting down on one knee and reaching a careful hand to try to pat her, careful in case Celebrity expressed that it was undesirable in some way. Of course, if Celebrity wanted something else, then Vivia was not getting the point right now.

The GM completely forgetting if Vivia did anything with her other Pokémon aside, I’m placing Venonat watching over this interaction between her trainer and another trainer’s Pokémon, while Scraggy’s off visiting the pond and splashing a bit in it. Rotom’s drifting about, looking for opportunities to do things with a sneaky little smile.

Meanwhile, though, Skylar went and knocked on this door over here by the treehouse. It took a number of seconds, during which one could wonder why someone would live out here and perhaps surmise that it’d probably be abandoned, when the door opened.

On the other side of said door stood a boy. A bow with short darker hair, overdressed in coats and boots, a huge scarf wrapped around his neck and a couple small glasses before his eyes. Judging by the book he was holding, he was just reading. He most assuredly looks ready for adventure. To anyone who can properly see him, anyway. The inside of the house smells of something he’s been cooking in a pot, over there.



Also, there’s like, twenty or so Budews, running about working inside the house.





They’re carrying ingredients, or mixing the powders of their own making into pans or other vegetable mixes, the occasional looking to the door because there’s a person here now.

‘Cleffa?’

And… there’s another little creature, standing on the floor next to the one who opened the door.





The boy looked to Skylar, expression unmoving, before taking out a Pokéball.

‘You here to battle?’ … Was the first and immediate question.

What would Skylar answer/ do?

… And how would Celebrity react to what Vivia was doing? Vivia would probably eventually look over to what was happening over here.

__________________________

@prettydrops

The message was delivered, in some form of other, to the Shuppets floating about the breaker box.

‘Shuppet?’ the first one asked, wondering if they were serious.

‘Shupp, shuppet?’ the second asked, smiling widely and definitely curious.

‘Shup-shup!’ the third tilted its head while wondering, what kind of place were they talking about? Where was it? How would they get there?

‘Shuppeeeet?’ Basically, Valen and Qwerty had their attention.

So what would they tell them next?

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Lure being paralyzed, Bellawesome moved first.

Leaf Blade raised, the sword-wielding Grass-type dashed in and sliced at Lure… who didn’t take as much damage as she maybe could have due to double Not Very Effective, but Bellawesome was dedicated to her blade. Lure blasted out another shot of Sweet Scent, and Bellawesome visibly wavered as the scent dazed her mind… yet the swordswoman cut once again, striking across Lure with the blade, no longer playing. Bellawesome was the remarkably stronger Pokémon, and yet…

And yet Lure refused to go down, despite just a small bit of health remaining, outright overpowering any chance paralyzation could keep her from doing anything more and sent out a last, spiteful Gust storm at the Flower Pokémon. Bellawesome, of course, mentally instantly coupled that she should be dodging…

‘- lloss-!’ … But it didn’t connect in time, her reactions visibly dulled from all the Sweet Scent, and the Gust attack hit her straight on. The Leaf Blade cut down into the boards beneath her, preventing her from flying who knows where, but she suffered the full damage of the Super Effective flying type move. However, come the end of the wind…

‘… Llossom~!’ The Bellossom drew the sword and flashed past the paralyzed Combee, little problem with her motions as she did the last strike. In this battle, Lure was fairly outmatched, but she had left her opponent with some tears in that leafy dress and just a bit more ruffled up from that Gust and still dazed from the Sweet Scents. She’d done what she could. Lure fainted.

Bellawesome swung the Leaf Blade over her head, grasped it with both limbs again, and turned to face her next opponent. Still smiling.

‘Wow, you’ve been showing me a battle! What do you have next~!?’ Archie asked, holding his hands forward in clenched fists, looking at Claire excitedly as they were both down to their final Pokémon.

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii@Eklispe

Cofagrigus gave Amelia a long stare as she gave her reasoning for why the Pokémon would help.

‘Cofagriiii…? … Griiiiguuus…!’ it muttered, one of its arms scratching on itself on its chin(?)/blue part under the mouth.

The complication it was conveying, for any Pokémon or ghost-knower that might be in the area to understand it, was that Cofagrigus wasn’t convinced that this was an issue for it. Even if a battle of some form were to be caused, either side would know better than to mess with it. If they did mess with it, Cofagrigus would simply show what a mistake they had made. Besides, even if he did try to do something about it, Aegislash and his lackeys are together stronger than him, and he didn’t feel assured that whatever plan these kids would be cooking up would be something he’d feel safe taking part in.

So, as in, “Why does that concern me? I’m not entirely convinced!”.

… That’s when one little Yamask flew in beside him and yelled at him.

‘Yamask!’

Cofagrigus looked just the slightest inconvenienced. … Then another Yamask joined in to yell as well. And another.

‘Yamask!’ ‘Yama!’ ‘Yamask!’ ‘Yamask-ask!’

There was a bunch of Yamasks asking the Cofagrigus with little pleading voices, coming to turn their attention to this after the Honedge had been defeated. Cofagrigus grunted, before shaking itself and calling out in a louder voice that silenced the smaller ones.

‘GRIGUS…!!’

After that, the Cofagrigus looked just that slightest more exhausted, then looked towards Amelia and Dawkin… before giving a ghostly little shrug with two out of four arms, giving a bit of a grin, and then looked back at the two again.

‘Cofagrigus?’ it asked, sounding confident. The question, translated, would be “What would you have me do?”

The two are in a room with a bunch of Yamasks and one Cofagrigus.

@PlatinumSkink

---

"Lure!"

Being the ever stubborn self-proclaimed demon lord, Lure wasn't going down without a fight. The bug/flying type stared down Bellawesome, beaten and bruised from the attacks, with the paralyzation hindering her ability to move, she got off one last parting gift towards Bellawesome - and it struck, but it wasn't enough. The Bellawesome recovered quickly, closing the gap between it and her opponent with a flash of movement and a gust of leaf petals.

With one last cry, Lure fell to the ground, KO'ed.

"Alright..." Claire was thoroughly pumped up now. Close battles and competitions were what she lived for. Something to get the blood flowing. The redhead recalled Lure to her pokeball. She had done well, she'd need to give the bug a lot of honey later, and see to getting back into some competitions soon.

"You know what they say, save the best for last. Ralia! We're not gonna let Our hard work go to waste!"

"Rrralll!~" Leaping off of Claire's shoulder, Ralia landed on the ground, eager to get battling herself. Twirling once tapping her feet energetically on the ground, Ralia was obviously eager and ready to go.

"Hit 'em with the old one-two puncharoo, Ralia! This is the home stretch girl, we're gonna take home the win!"

"Rrrrraaaal!~" With a cry of amusement, Ralia started things off with her double team.

---

As the Shuppet all chorused in turn, Valen wasn't sure how to respond. Were they happy or angry? Excited for sure, but it was hard to discern what kind of energy they were giving off. Qwerty, however, didn't react defensively. That's good, he thought. Qwerty nudged him, letting out a honk of her own towards the Shuppet. Her proclamation sounded eager, Valen thought.

"I can't understand you that well," he confessed, his voice small. "B-but I'm sure we can find a better place for you guys. I... One time, when I was younger, I went to a haunted house. It wasn't here, it was in a different place. But it was pretty scary. There were ghost pokemon there, they got to have a lot of fun. They would pop out and scare people, and sometimes they'd chase people around. There were a lot of toys for them to play with too. I bet you guys could scare people pretty easily."

The memory in question was from a high school event his grade had organized around Halloween time. Different grade levels had been responsible for spooking up their school grounds in accordance with the Hallows Festival that rolled about every year. Two students had actually had parents who had ghost type pokemon, and Valen remembered how the Dusclops and and Mismagius had been instrumental to their success as a class. The Mismagius had used his chanting to distort their hallway, and the Dusclops had phased through walls, frightening people who walked by.

There was plenty of room for maliciousness and mischief, he thought.

Qwerty honked, as if to say to the shuppet, "There's definitely a haunted attraction somewhere for you guys to go! Isson's a big place, you guys don't wanna spend here forever, do you? I mean, you might get tired of the way this guy's misery tastes. My human knows what he speaks of! As for myself, I am a pokemon that can peruse information from all over the world! I will most certainly find a place for you."

Hopefully they would bite, Valen thought. He crossed his fingers.

---

---

---

"Not particularly. I was just wonderin' who lived way out here." Skylar cheerily said as he offered his hand to the new boy. "I'm Skylar. Started my adventure earlier today, actually, and I wanted to see what the deal was out here." Whether the kid took Skylar's hand or not was up to him, but in any case, Skylar held out his other arm and called out to a particular bird. "Seabreeze! C'mere pal!"

As if on cue, Seabreeze dove under the water in the pond and emerged, flying upwards towards Skylar before planting himself right on the trainer's arm. He was a little wet, but that wasn't any problem since Skylar didn't have any sleeves. "Wingull?"

"This is Seabreeze, he was the first buddy I met today!" Skylar patted his companion's head before turning to the pond and smiling. "He's pretty useful, and just adorable!"

There was the question in the air of if the kid wanted a battle that Skylar decided to finally answer completely. "Oh, and it's not that I don't want to battle, my team just isn't in the best shape right now. A few of the critters around here roughed us up, but I'm sure you'd understand, right..." Shoot, Skylar! You didn't even know this kid's name. "... I just realized I never got your name."

Celebrity, meanwhile, was responding to the pats that Vivia was giving with slightly mixed signals. On one hand, the furrowed frown and bashful appearance of Celebrity made it seem like the Jigglypuff wasn't willing to admit she enjoyed them, but on the other... the audible purr coming from the puffball was enough to convince anyone she was enjoying it.

Apart from Celebrity and Seabreeze, Paradise was just enjoying the sunbeams that soaked down from beyond the leafy roof of the forest. Heck, she even decided to take a seat and relax for a moment. After all, carrying a kid wasn't the easiest task when your only tool for lifting him was your neck!

Dawkin watched carefully but the large Pokemon didn't seem to be making any aggressive moves, instead actually seeming to consider the proposal. For a moment it seemed as if that was all it would do, but the smaller ghost Pokemon began chiming in, slowly at first but then as a horde. Whatever they were doing they seemed to have done it successfully as the Cofagrigus seemed to give in. Well this was going better than he expected but he still wasn't entirely sure what Amelia was planning on doing.

---

@Rune_Alchemist

‘Oooh, a Psychic-type. Good thing you left your Poison-type behind, eh, Bell?’ Archie asked his Pokémon with a smirk. And then, Claire started out with a Double Team. Archie and Bellawesome was left looking around at the multiple clones that Ralia was producing before their eyes, Archie’s smile glowing excitedly while Bellawesome stood as calmly as ever.

‘Aaaaaaah, I don’t think any of our clever tricks will help us out with this one. So, Bellawesome!’ Archie called, a glimt in his eyes as Bellawesome’s stance tenced in preparation.

‘Cut them all!’

‘Belloss-!’ Bellawesome called out before glowing lightly from taking in the sunlight with Chlorophyll, and then launching with phenomenal speed towards the nearest clone. That Ralia was promptly cut through, because there is no way Ralia could avoid a slice that quickly on her own. With that, Bellawesome blasted to the next. In a deadly, beautiful dash, the swords-wielding Pokémon was simply going to cut through every single Ralia it came across with considerable speed, and it would only be a matter of moments before she’d come across the real one at this rate, cut after cut, taking two at once if they stood too close to one another.

What would Claire and Ralia do?

__________________________

@prettydrops

The Shuppets looked around at one another and also glanced at Valen. Then… one of them drifted towards him. Then another. Then the third.

‘Shuuuuuuuup,’ the first one said.

‘Shuppeeeeeeeeet,’ the second told, smiling as it drift about.

‘Shuppet~!’ the third called out happily, as they were now circling about Valen.

Valen now has three Shuppets following him, swirling around him with all their eyes directed in looking at him. Yay?

He’s currently in Pureplain City.





Connected areas:
Route 1. Easier path, just follow the bigger road.
Route 2. Walk through quite an amount of suburbs until you eventually reach the path.
Sea. There’s water, alright. Can take you anywhere you want to go, assuming you have means to traverse it.



__________________________

@Gardevoiran

'Oooh…' Vivia made a noise as Celebrity made that purring noise while being patted. This, of course, simply encouraged the mildly blushing girl to continue providing plenty of pats. Venonat staaaaaaaaaaaaared on as this kept going on…

Meanwhile. Up there at the door.

‘Huh,’ the boy replied, looking over Skylar with behind his glasses and putting the Pokéball away as Skylar introduced himself and his Pokémon. ‘Nothing much here, I’m afraid. Just plantlife and the occasional Pokémon… Hm, your Pokémon was damaged?’ So the boy commented, before turning and dashing over to the pot. He scooped up a couple herbs that were stuffed in there by the various Budews, leaving Cleffa behind to stare up at Skylar. The boy then shortly returned, hands full of leaves.

‘My name is Earl. Try these,’ he told, holding forth the herbs…



‘… And then tell me the effects,’ he told, looking no more excited than before and yet there was just the slightest glimmer in his eyes. Multiple Budews and the Cleffa was also watching with interest.

What would Skylar do?

Amelia immediately got what Cofigrigus meant by it's little chin scratching. The Yamask coming in to yell at their leader made her a bit happier. However, the floating coffin's utter lack of understanding of the situation angered her. This showed on her face for a second before she suddenly smiled as she realized that it was asking what she would have it do.
"I won't have you do anything. You're going to do it yourself. Simply aid us is all. You don't have to. I mean, you got this whole bit of the tomb to yourself. It seems like nothing bothers you down here and you get to sleep peacefully, right? You get to be the mighty king of this tomb, free of any worries or concerns." She said, seemingly giving Cofigrigus reasons to deny them. But then she continued. "Well, former king of this tomb I would guess. It would seem that Aegislash has put their support behind a human and the rest of the residents recognize this decision. The only reason they probably left you alone was because they knew it would be easier to take over if they just let you keep on sleeping. But at this rate, soon you'll just be a former king with no land or people as I'm sure once they get enough forces and run your remaining servants out of the tombs, they'll overwhelm you with shear numbers and run you out of your resting place, so you can wonder around in the hot, cruel desert all alone.

But I guess that's none of your concern right. I mean you got no reason to prove this is rightfully your tomb despite the fact that it seems everyone but the Yamask seem to think otherwise... right?"

---

---

Skylar tilted his head at the herbs in Earl's hand, and shrugged to himself before he stuck his hand out and tried to grab them. After missing the first time, Skylar managed to grab hold of them and place a few in his bag. "Sorry... I'm incredibly blind."



He, of course, left two herbs out. One for Seabreeze and one for Celebrity. Since he couldn't get down there to give one to Celebrity right now, he just settled for passing one to Seabreeze, who gobbled it after giving a hesitant sniff before flying up into Skylar's hair again. Now all there was to do was wait for the effects to kick in. While they waited, however, Skylar looked at Earl and had to ask another question. "So what'cha doin' way out here, Earl?"

Celebrity was still enjoying the pats, if not loving them more, since there was a visible smile on her face that she was trying to hide from Vivia. It was failing spectacularly, however, as the purrs became more audible. After a few moments more of trying to hold back the smile, Celebrity simply caved in. "Jiiiigglyyyy~"