Vertigo

Expedition to Isekai

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A what now?

Duncan blinked at the mere accusation, straightening enough to catch the look on Haruko's face — but not for long, before she pulled him back down for a kiss. Well. It was more a quick brush of the lips, but considering his Japanese classmates' stance on public displays of affection... huh. Maybe this place's influence wasn't all bad. He was about to pull Haruko closer, to push his luck, but she gave him no chance to do so, already a step or two away. Damnit.

At her little quip, Duncan raised his arms in mock-defense. "Whoa, alright! Promising to quit was before we got spirited away into freakshow land. There's gotta be a clause for that."

He wanted to say something more, was sure she did too. But sometimes, when you couldn't say everything, it was easier to say nothing.

"Try not to to miss me too much. I can probably hear if you cry, you know."

Well, almost nothing.

—

He and Asahi were barely out of camp when they encountered their first — and probably craziest — obstacle on their journey. Ayana; because unlike some of the others, Duncan still refused to refer to her by the name she'd adapted. Doing so would've felt like validating her delusions, and he wasn't about to be an enabler.

Or a coward.

"I mean, you said it. It ain't like you're gonna stop us. And if you're so damn worried about everyone, maybe spend less time advertising your cult and more time scouting or killing shit or whatever." Duncan shrugged a shoulder, about to keep walking, when Asahi started shouting next to him, feet firmly planted on the ground. Great. Didn't the guy know there was no arguing with the crazy? Weird as it was, Ayana sounded pretty damn genuine in her worry, meaning she had to believe in her own bullshit. And if so, wasn't anything they could do to convince her otherwise.

"C'mon, you're just giving her attention. Let it fucking go and move that famous ass, dude. We're wasting time." He went to try and wrap an arm around Asahi's shoulders and drag him forward if that's what it took. Wasn't like it'd be the first time he had to manhandle the guy. "Got great weather for a morning jog. Gets us there faster."

Not that... Asahi seemed to be the jogging type, really. Unless—

A grin spread on Duncan's face. "Bet your boyfriend would appreciate you comin' back all toned from a run, huh?"

He wasn't sure if it would actually work as motivation, but hopefully, it'd at least work as a distraction.

SPIRITUM

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She'd done it. She'd made a cat.

Silje managed a brief glimpse of its whiskered face, the feline smile on its lips, before it all melted down into inky goo — and shot towards her. She gasped, stomach lurching so violently she feared it might jump up her throat. The world shook and spun, and then there was no world at all. Just the distinct sound of her aegis, cracking.

The next Silje knew, she was lying on her back, blinking up at a smoke-filled sky. Gerard's voice came from somewhere nearby. Physically nearby. Val was there too. Silje wanted to wave at her friend and laugh at her oopsie, but her head was spinning, she felt sick, and she wasn't done mourning her cat.

Being attacked by murderous robots did make the grieving process faster, though. Silje turned her head in time to see one of the robots swinging towards her, only for Morden to intercept it with a drop kick. The robot staggered backwards. Somewhere off to the side, the rest of the squad was engaging the other robot — or so she assumed, as per Val's orders.

Speaking of, Silje hadn't really paid attention when they'd been taught how to effectively and clearly communicate on the battlefield, so all she gave in response was a quick, chipper: "Okie!"

She stretched, pulling herself to sit. The robot Morden had kicked was difficult to look at: just behind it, a mist pocket thrummed with the intense colours of an inferno, reds and oranges and yellows.

... Hm.

"Mordie! Can you kick it back again? Just a teeny tiny inch, and then—"

Silje watched the red hues dance. Under her gaze, they started to crackle and expand hungrily, phantom fire waiting to be unleashed. And once the robot crossed that threshold...

"Boom."

Pokemon: Dream

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_{Abandoned Stellar Toy Co. Factory
@Rune_Alchemist, @XxFellsingxX, @Savo}

At this point, AI Camphor's explanations were little more than background noise to the chaos. Snuggles let out something between a growl and a yelp as electricity coursed through her, but refused to let go of the offending Pokémon. If anything, she bit down harder, ragging the electric type in an attempt to make it stop.

Chloe dashed forward out of sheer reflex, her pokédex, still spewing information about Riolu, slipping from her grasp and clattering to the ground. She'd almost reached the scene when a ball flew past her from Jill's direction, and Yuu slid forwards, towards the Snubbull. In her panic, Chloe didn't register the potion; all she saw was that the psychopath's hand was moving towards her Pokémon.

She leapt for the Snubbull, and as Snuggles realized her trainer was about to come in to contact with her, she opened her mouth and let the electric type be yanked out. One of Chloe's arms closed around the fairy type only a moment later, the other striking out in an attempt to slap Yuu square in the face.

"Get away from her, you psycho!"

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

Definitely feel you on the lack of sleep, hope you can get some proper rest in soon!

SPIRITUM

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As expected, they were winning the race to the crash site, and Silje made sure Morden was aware of it every step of the way. Not that the giant seemed to be listening, too focused on channeling mist and looking around. Silje would've called him out on ignoring her, but once they reached the edge of the crater, she forgot all about the race too. The battlemage would've likely marveled at the pillars of flame, made a joke or two about the floating debris, and definitely tried to pick the instantly wilting flowers, if she could've properly made out any of it. As things were, all she could see was the mist in the air; saturated to a degree that made her eyes water and sting.

Morden announced he wanted to scout ahead and dropped Silje off — for a split minute, anyway. Momentarily blinded and suddenly bereft of a ride, she instinctively reached her hand back towards the tall WARDEN, latching onto him with mist like a magnet to its opposite. And then they were off. Silje tried to blink her eyes open so they could eventually adjust, but even with them half-closed, she was acutely aware of the mist around them. It gathered at her fingertips, it trailed along her hair, it filled the very air she breathed. There was so much of it, and all of it out of control.

It was kind of cool.

A loud clang stole her attention, then lost it just as fast. As she turned to look, now clinging onto Morden's back with all four of her limbs like a cat, it wasn't the weird robot or its weapon she cared about, unlike Morden. It was the rivulets of colour leaking from it, carving visible — to her, anyway — paths through the rest of the surrounding mist. Silje knew of mist engines, and knew they tended to be reserved for things much bigger than this, but it wasn't that peculiarity that had her practically forgetting to breathe.

"Mord. Mordie," she whispered, still holding her breath. In her current state, she didn't think to use their squad-wide communication channel. "There's a mist engine inside, I think. But... the mist is all wrong."

Silje followed its flow with her gaze, watched it taint the rainbow of colours in the air. She tried to find a name to call its hue, tried to think of other colours to compare it to, but she could think of none. It wasn't a colour that had a name, not one she could describe, or had ever seen before.

Not one that should exist.

But it did exist, and it was mist, and if nothing else, Silje knew how to bend mist to her will. She let herself fall off Morden's back and walked towards the robot like a woman possessed, reaching out a hand, palm up. Like she'd done so many times before, she tried to call that strange new mist to her to be molded, this time to manifest it into a tangible form on her palm. A cat. She liked cats.

And so, she tried to create a small — and probably explosive — mist cat upon her palm and hold it up to Morden in all its peculiarly coloured glory. Or, you know. Cause one more mist related pocket of chaos trying.

Pokemon: Dream

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_{Abandoned Stellar Toy Co. Factory
@Rune_Alchemist, @XxFellsingxX, @Savo}

"Yeah, yeah, I know, geez," Chloe rolled her eyes at Yuu's instructions to keep an eye out and let the Snubbull out and blah, blah. Was he seriously going to yap the whole time? It'd be more difficult to cut out both his voice and face. Not that there was anything wrong with this actual face, to be fair. It was literally everything else that was the problem.

Chloe did open the bag to let Snuggle out, but didn't raise her gaze otherwise. She was busy staring at her reflection on the screen, making sure she was doing alright after that whole clambering in through a window thing — which the other two had been suspiciously graceful at, by the way. Jill more so; she could've given some Pokémon a run for their money, Chloe was sure.

... Wait, did Jill say she'd been locked up in a cell before? By— by like, the fashion police, right? By the fashion police, right?

Before she could actually pose that question — or reply to Clarissa for that matter, at least she seemed to be okay still — she heard an AI Camphor describe Snubbull. By... calling them uncute? Umm, what!? As if she needed any more proof that the professor sucked at her job!

... Though she did get a giggle out of her final comment at Yuu. Okay, maybe at least this version of her wasn't all bad after all.

But also wait, like where did those two get off scanning her Pokémon without permission? And should she have also— ugh, fine. Partly in retaliation, Chloe turned her own Pokédex to scan the Rotom, Riolu, and Aipom while she was at it, only for the device to pick up a sudden fourth Pokémon: a Magnemite. Without warning, it attacked the Aipom, and Jill went on to aim at it with a slingshot!? Oh my god?!

"Stand back, it might come for you next!" she called out in concern, stepping forth with an arm extended to make sure Jill wouldn't run closer to it. Meanwhile, Yuu was trying to mansplain her own Pokémon to her, and ughhh, she just didn't have time for him. "Snuggles, Fire Fang, pin it do-"

"... directly at Chloe."

"What?"

Oh my god, was he like actually, clinically, insane?!

Snuggles, already running towards the Magnemite, understood what was about to happen, and pushed herself off the ground, jaws open and ablaze, ready to catch the Magnemite mid-air like a particularly weird shaped frisbee in at attempt to save her trainer.

Expedition to Isekai

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From the moment Duncan woke, realized how early it was and that he couldn't just go back to sleep, he started having second thoughts about the upcoming expedition. His body might've not required as much as sleep as it used to, but his head sure could've used the rest. He was not a morning person.

Still, it made sense to leave early so they'd be back that much faster, and Duncan had no doubt that if he didn't get his ass up right now, Asahi would take the opportunity and fucking run. So up he got, grumpy about it as he was. He gathered what little belongings he thought he might need, which included, useless as it had been so far, his phone. Duncan felt weird leaving it, and if they really did manage to find a portal or some other way to communicate with the real world, who knew. Maybe it'd come in handy.

Duncan had just stepped outside and, much to his relief, noticed his smokes had dried overnight, when a bento box was practically shoved into his face. He followed the arms that held it to a familiar face. Kumi. She looked like shit.

"You stayed up for this? Shit. Thanks," he took the box, about to slip it into his bag, when he realized he had no bag, and that he should probably find a spare one, when an even more familiar face emerged from the shelter. Duncan froze. Well, shit, he'd hoped he could slip out without having to say a thing. He was so fucking bad at stuff like this. He straightened, about to say something, but Haruko was faster.

Duncan was, for all intents and purposes, a superhuman, with the strength and endurance of one. He could endure blows, falls, probably — no, definitely — being shot at, and worse. And yet, the slight bump of Haruko's forehead against his chest stung like nothing before. So did her words.

Did he have to go? Honestly, no. Not really. He could let Asahi go alone into what would probably be his death, taking the mystery of the mountain with him, perhaps forever. It could even be a good thing; maybe that way they'd delay having to return to the real world a while longer. Maybe it was better to leave the mountain alone in the first place; maybe it was a trap.

But... much as he hated to admit it, Asahi'd gotten his back more than once so far. He'd helped him on that first night, back when they'd both been just some dudes in over their heads with no superpowers to their name. He'd been there for Yuki. It didn't matter what his personal opinion on Asahi — and the shit he'd seen in the guy's head — was, he owed the guy a solid. Besides, if Asahi found a way to return to the real world, Duncan needed to be there. And so—

"You know someone's gotta watch the idiot's back," Duncan half-smiled as he rested a hand on Haruko's head. He ruffled her hair slightly, carefully, as if afraid he'd hurt her. She'd always been so damn small, so damn cute, it'd made him wanna pick her up and just carry her around in a pocket or something. But now, with his Awakened powers that had nearly made him hurt Akito for real yesterday, she seemed so small he felt as if he shouldn't touch her at all. Like she might break if he did.

Was he really about to leave her behind? Again?

He leaned down to hug her, more awkward than he'd hoped. "I'll be back before you know it, babe. Here," he pulled out his cigarette package, took out one cig, and handed the rest to her. "You hold onto these for me until then, yeah? You know I haven't exactly aced this whole quittin' thing, so I gotta be back fast."

He grinned. Then remembered there was one more thing he had to do before he finished up his see-you-laters. "Now, uh, I need you to look away for a bit. I gotta... I gotta bleed before I go."

Hopefully they had spare containers, and hopefully his blood didn't have an expiration date.

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

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Fellwing felt genuinely happy — and the slightest bit guilty — when Heliotrope, tired as she seemed to be, lit up visibly at the chance to talk about her work. The black drake listened attentively, surprised at the healer's take on Moon Magic. Most of the drakes she knew considered it the only true magic out there (well, besides elemental magic, she supposed), so to hear someone call it out on its unpredictability felt almost relieving.

Exactly, she wanted to say, sometimes Moon Magic can be just as fickle as Shadow Magic, yet we only treat the latter as a transgression.

The Seer did not, of course, say any of that. Instead, she smiled at the mental image of Garrock covered in polka dots and said: "That is fascinating! I don't know much about nature or what it can provide us, but I'd love to hear more about the kinds of herbs you use sometime, if you've the time." She glanced back towards the door and mused: "That is, unless you've been put off teaching for the rest of your life."

Before the healer could reply, Stargaze's panic stole her and Kyte away. Fellwing was comfortable settling back into the background, pretending to be very interested in a random flask so as to hide how interested she was in the ensuing conversation regarding Moon Magic. She'd always known it wasn't entirely safe either, but the side effect on Kyte's wing wasn't something she'd ever thought to consider. Poor Stargaze; she probably hadn't, either. Thankfully, Shieldwing seemed to have that covered, always the first to rush to the white drake's aid.

The topic shifted back to the Darkness, and Fellwing struggled not to look over. While doing so, she caught Rudrick's hesitation, and quickly looked the other way instead. As bad as she felt, she knew it'd be best if she stayed away from whatever was going on between the brothers. There were others more capable than her to help them. Skobe included, surprisingly enough. He seemed to get along with the old grump as well as one could.

Besides, she still had questions — though she was unsure how to word them, and hesitated to interrupt Heliotrope's work besides. As a — hopefully somewhat natural, considering what she was doing now — lead up, she ventured: "Do you often handle patients touched by the Darkness?"

Pokemon: Dream

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_{Camphor's Lab
@Rune_Alchemist, @XxFellsingxX, @Crusader Lord, @Savo}

The two girls had barely made it out of the laboratory when Chloe was made privy to another emergency. One that was, as far as she was concerned, far more tragic and urgent than any haunted old factory could ever be. Apparently, Jill had never used a mobile device in her life, and didn't know how to text. Like, oh my god? In this day and age? She said she had a friend! Who just sent a text! What kind of a friend was he, if he hadn't even bothered to teach this poor girl a skill that essential?! She swore...

Chloe barely noticed them arriving to their destination, all her focus still taken by her own devices, whose functions she was still busily explaining to the poor neglected soul with her.

"And now, look. When you take a picture — like I showed you, remember? — you go to the filters, and— hm? Sorry, come again?" she looked up, only registering what Jill had said when she heard the door rattle. "Oh. Well that's lame. How'd our rescuee get in?"

As if to answer her question, Jill's Pokémon companion up and scurried to the window, her weird hand-tail swinging as she started to squeeze inside. Chloe leaned a hand on her hip and gestured at her expensive clothes with the other, as if they were an explanation on their own. When it was clear they weren't, she spelled out: "I am SO not squeezing in through a window."

Just then, a voice spoke out behind them. Chloe startled, turning around to find them approached by... some rando? Tall, lanky, questionable fashion choices. Though next to Jill, Chloe's ongoing project, everyone else's getup looked pretty normal in comparison.

She was just about to ask if they could help him, when the guy went and opened his mouth and oh my god, who crawled up his ass and died? Was this Yuu? Jill's probably-technologically-and-definitely-socially-challenged friend? Wow, looks like the girl didn't only have poor taste in Pokémon and clothes.

Chloe huffed audibly, shifting to face him. She threw back her hair, lips curling into a sweet — if decidedly fake — smile.

"Maybe you should consider buying some new clothes too, sweetie. I can tell it's been a while since you dug those out of a garbage can." She gave the boy's getup an exaggeratedly judgemental look-over. "Oh, and I'm like so sorry to tell you, but looks like you're a little late too." She nodded towards the window. "Your fellow ape's already inside."

A sudden bark from Snuggles stole Chloe's attention just as the door stole Yuu's. And so, while he went on to try and break through it like an actual Primeape or something, Chloe found her Snubbull barking at a—

"Oh! Well, hi there, cutie! Oh, aren't you a sweet little thing," she cooed at the sigh of a Riolu, squatting down to give the Pokémon pets. "Snuggles, play nice, okay? You two are going to become the best of friends, I can SO tell!"

She was reaching for her bag to let her - furiously, aggressively barking — Snubbull out, when Riolu suddenly bounced after— ugh, no way. How did someone like him have such a cute and well-behaved Pokémon?

... Also, wait, were they seriously heading for the window!?

—

Yep, they had seriously headed for the window. Chloe dusted herself off for the umpteenth time, her fairy type's barking echoing off the walls and traveling far into the darkness ahead. She shivered; it was cold, and creepy, and damp, and there were definitely things creeping about somewhere in here!

But not actual ghosts, because actual ghosts did not exist.

... Was that buzzing machine about to explode or something?

"Ugh, let's get a move on, we need to find that girl. Actually, oh, gimme a sec." She whipped out her Pokedex and started walking while she texted, trying to decide whether it'd be worth to actually stream this rescue operation now that they had Mister Sourpuss to ruin everything. Maybe she'd just film, and cut him out in post.

we're here! 💖💖 got in thru the window 😱 where r u @?

SPIRITUM

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In the end, no shots were fired, no fight initiated and no friends made. Silje would have considered that a failure, were it not for Kali's offer for a high five —which she did immediately take, hopping up a little to give her friend's palm a proper smack — and Justice patting her head. The diminutive mage grinned at them both. "You bet!" she told Justice, "I'll munch on 'em all."

They poured out of the store one by one, Silje with her hands full of stuff. Free stuff. They had told them to take shit and fuck off, so she'd gone ahead and taken shit before she fucked off. See? She could follow instructions.

As she emerged, Gerard warned them about a big gun — and surely enough, knowing what to look for and where, Silje found the man in question soon enough, trying to hide up in his hidey hole. She waved happily at the sniper, then wandered closer to where an old man was accosting his friends and asking for papers. Papers? Hmm...

Silje was about to unroll and present the dirty mag she'd rolled up and plucked from the store, but Justice was faster at producing what the old man wanted, and so she let her do the whole squad leader thing and take care of it. In the interim, she resumed staring at the sniper and waving, wondering whether he could see her expression through the scope.

That was the last thing she thought about, before she completely zoned out.

—

By the time Silje came to, a beautiful night sky hung above them. She was sitting by a grill with the rest of the crew, happily cooking her spoils from the general store. Bits of an impaled — and by now, mostly melted — chocolate bar dripped into the fire from the end of her skewer, producing quiet hisses.

She was laughing. Laughing at what Gerard said, because he told the story in a way people told funny stories, laughing because she was enjoying herself, and laughing because she was hungry. She was still laughing when the airship fell.

The explosion that followed silenced her. But only for a moment.

"... Whoa! They really got our grill beat! That was a lot of fire! ... And a lot of grilled bodies, I bet," she exclaimed, looking around as if to confirm she hadn't just been seeing things. Surely enough, the crash was all anyone talked about now, Gerard's funny tale of destroyed walls long forgotten.

Silje jumped to her feet as the others were gearing to head out and investigate, but instead of making for the truck, she dashed towards the tallest of the WARDENs. "You take the truck," she called out to the others, patting at the giant's arm like it was a car door she was about to swing open. "I'll take the Morden and race you there!"