bravenewworld | Exploring the Eastern Calderan ruins!

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Exploring the Eastern Calderan ruins!

Who: Merrill, Yuuna, Isabela, Maka, Sinbad
Where: Ruins East of Caldera
When: Early May
What: Exploring some of the ruins.
Warnings: None that I'm aware of!

[A new month, a new adventure. This really was the sort of thing Yuuna lived for. She wasn't a Seeker, true, and she wasn't a treasure hunter, it was just the thrill of the unknown. New places, new Pokemon, new...everything, really. That was what always kept her coming back, and why she'd never fit in with the others at school. She had a disease, she figured. Wanderlust.

And that's why she's pausing outside the entrance to these ruins, looking at the Magnezone with it's magnetic lamp, hand on her hip, just sort of spacing out. After a moment though, she turns to the group.]

Right. New ruins. Stay close, don't wander off, and for the love of the Savior don't pull any levers or switches without discussion. Got it?

[That seemed sensible. Though, the two young Enlightened seemed smart enough to know better anyway...]

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All right, all right. We'll leave your home be.

[A stray thought enter his mind that baby swords might be daggers, but he quickly dismissed it before saying it out loud - because that is a silly thought]

Yeah, they seem to want us to go upstairs for a specific reason.

[Sinbad considers the Honedges' actions - if they just want them gone-gone, it seems easier to herd them outside - he whistles, gesturing for his two other mons to follow him]

I didn't know swords had nests. It sounds terribly uncomfortable. Wouldn't they all be poking into each other all the time?

[Merrill speculates out loud as they're herded along, her Spiritomb hovering just behind her head and giving the evil eye to the assembled Honedge swarm. But he's behaving for now, and Merrill is fine with letting them lead the way.]

It doesn't really matter as long as they're not poking us.

[As much as she doesn't like being herded, it's still better than having to fight the Honedge.]

We're the ones that are trespassing here anyway, so we should follow their lead.

[Maka half says this to the group and to her assembled Pokemon, the Larvitar--Jade--in particular looks annoyed at being bossed around. But what are they HIDING! he protests and Maka shushes him. It's probably nothing, just a nest.]

[It could also be extremely rare and priceless artifacts that will never be discovered now thanks to the party's lack of proper pirate spirit. Isabela, you are failing us all.

When they make it to the stairs, the swords spin around and butt them with the hilt of their blades into the stairwell. Then they form an intricate, interlocking barrier to close up the wall behind the group. Up they go.

Nothing else springs out to assault them on their way up the stairs, but as Vivillon probably noted before, there are rooms to the north and south, a giant hole to the west, and more stairs continuing upwards.]

[That can come later. Yuuna has the adventurous, meticulous spirit of one Henry Jones Jr. after all. But for now she'll head up and look down at the sword wall. Weird.]

It's not like we can't just fly down.

[Dragonite nods, but turns to keep an eye on the troublemaking blades. Don't make her come back down there, dweebs.]

Doors? Or up? I'm partial to doors.

I like doors.

[Merrill likes everything, though. That probably isn't too helpful. She's just happy to be here.]

Where do you think we should go, Eluvian?

Spiiirrrritoooooomb...

[That probably roughly translates to 'wherever will kill you the fastest' or something of the sort.]

[Isabela is all for fighting for swag, but when her opposition consists entirely of weapons and nothing else, it gets to be a question of risk/reward.]

[She does give the sword that pummels her a serious glare, though.]

Okay. I'll scope out the south door for any of these alleged traps if the kid wants to check the north one.

[He gives the Spiritomb a suspicious eye as he's nudged forward]

Sounds good to me.

[he moves away from the sword wall, sensing the waves around him as he approaches the north door]

[A shudder is Maka's only reply at first, she's trying her best to not cast suspicion on ghosts since last talking to Rei, but that was incredibly sketchy.]

Be careful, everyone.

[Stella, however, will always feel free to cast suspicion on ghosts, she cringes at Eluvian, clinging closely to Maka as always.]

...Yuuna, what happens if we need to split up?

[Yuuna gives Eluvian a withering stare, almost as if to remind the ghost that she'll make sure he gets a nice, big fairy-typed stake drilled right through him and his keystone if he tries anything. But to Maka? she shrugs.]

We're not going to split up more than ten feet if we can help it. If something happens that does split us up, the priority is to get back together, not explore further. We don't know what's here, and there's safety in numbers.

[As Isabela approaches the south door to cautiously keep an eye out for traps, she will not spot anything particularly out of the ordinary. It appears to be a normal door - no hidden buttons, no floor panels, no arrows springing out of walls. No unusual sounds or smells, either.

The only warning that anything is wrong is, in fact, that the room she sees as she approaches is quite well lit and appears to be completely empty. It does not, however, have any windows or any other apparent source of light that would allow for that.

If she steps through the doorway, she will vanish into thin air.

Sinbad will suffer a similar fate, but he has the same warning sign and an additional very strong urge to stop moving forward thanks to his subconscious Psychic premonitions.

If Maka, Yuuna, and Merrill are carefully glancing around, they may turn at some point to see that the stairs they came up are now a nondescript wall. They are welcome to try flying back down to ground level if they like.]

((I'll respond after Isabela/Sinbad if either of them triggers the trap!))

Edited 2015-05-12 04:16 (UTC)

[He stops in his step at the threshold of the door as he felt a ripple in the waves - caution.

Part of him wanted to press on through, see why they were screaming at him to stop, but Badr's light weight on his shoulders reminded him he wasn't alone, and couldn't take the same chances he was used to]

There's something dangerous that way - I can't tell you what, but crossing the threshold is a bad idea.

Edited 2015-05-12 20:25 (UTC)

((Waiting on responses!))

[The narrator would tend to agree.]

[Yuuna walks over to Sinbad, eyeing the doorway herself. The magically appearing wall is pretty damn weird.]

And we can't go back. Splitting up is a bad idea. But there's not really any direction to go but these doors or further up...because I'm not sure I trust flying down with the way that wall just...popped up.

Edited 2015-05-13 04:14 (UTC)

Wait...

[Isabela holds up a hand.]

Kid's got a point. Something's not right here. Where's the light coming from?

[Rather than charging in herself, she takes one of the traditional tools of the sneaky thief, a small mirror on a stick, off her belt, and sticks it into the room, attempting to see around the corner. If that vanishes, she'll try pulling it back.]

[Maka waits to see what happens next. All indication, from the Honedge to now, seems to be pushing them further and further up...

It's suspicious, but the only thing that's telling her that is her common sense. There's no living person (besides her companions) to sense around, to feel, even though there's light it's very much like she's in the dark.]

[The mirror does not vanish when she sticks it through, but the image reflected in the mirror may be somewhat startling. Rather than reflecting a room, Isabela will see something very white and very shiny. The rest of the image is simply darkness.

...It might take her a few moments to realize she's looking at teeth.

That's about the same amount of time it will take for everyone else to realize that their shadows are all being stretched either north or south. Or maybe a little longer, in which case it's soon obvious it's not only their shadows being affected. Isabela, Maka, and Yuuna will find themselves suddenly pulled south while Sinbad and Merrill are dragged towards the north room. The pressure is coming from their ankles.]

So it's either down and hope we don't get shish-kabobed or trigger a...

What is my shadow doing....

[He trails off as a chill went down this spine, followed by the surprised yips from his four-legged pokemon as he tries to bolt away from the south door, but the tugging sensation persisted - and now he's being dragged]

What the hell-?!

[Yuuna shivers as well, her shoulders twisting uncomfortably as she looks down at her shadow. There's a comical moment of dawning comprehension, her eyes going wide and her jaw going slack.]

Sonnova!

[And as she's yanked south, she has the wherewithal at catch herself from falling and reach out to the nearest thing she can get her hands on. Susume's foot.]

Dragon? Dragonite

[What's going on boss...?]

Susume! A little help? Sabaku, get someone else!

[The dragons attempt to do as ordered, Flygon buzzing away to grab at Sinbad while Dragonite reaches down and grips Yuuna's whole arm, not letting go!]

Shadows...?

[Merrill's eyes go wide as she looks down, feeling the pressure tugging at her ankles.]

Eluvian, help me!

[Despite their differences, the Spiritomb is right on this. Merrill is his meal, damn it. The orbs in his body whirling, he sends a Shadow Sneak attack trailing through Merrill's own shadow and toward whatever is pulling from the other end. That ought to surprise whoever or whatever is behind this.]

[The pull intensifies. Yuuna will find that Dragonite is heavy enough to ground her for the moment, though the pain radiating from her ankles will indicate that whatever's playing tug of war isn't liable to give up so easily, either. In fact, if the game goes on long enough, she might find that she can't even see her ankles anymore as her lower extremities sink into her own shadow.

Sinbad, being so close, would have found himself flying through the threshold were it not for Flygon's timely interference. As it is, he's caught a few centimeters away; Flygon isn't quite as strong as Dragonite, though, and Sinbad will inexorably creep closer to whatever lies beyond the doorway. Isabela is in similar straits with no one having leapt to her aid yet, with the distinct addition that the teeth in her mirror have now parted to reveal an enormous, slimy tongue that reaches out of her mirror to attempt to lick her a few times in the face. This is both disgusting and somewhat paralytic if she lets it happen. Maka, too, is tumbling towards that south door.

Eluvian, however, will find great success with his tactic as Merrill's shadow shrieks in response to the unexpected attack. For a moment, it spasms and contorts angrily (it seems to make some rude gestures, too) before it ejects a something dark and extremely sinister. As the aggressor is revealed, the walkway suddenly seems to plummet to ice-cold temperatures...

Not ready to let things be yet, Gengar somersaults in midair and a sigil of a grim eye flashes briefly in the air, freezing Merrill and her team in place with a Mean Look.]

[Maka, for her credit, has been hanging on even if her much-smaller Pokemon can't hold onto her as well. In the time that the Gengar has taken to be revealed, she's observed that the shadows are all part of one being, and they're just being toyed with by this Ghost.

That, to put it in less polite terms, pisses her off. Psychic abilities can't do much against a Ghost type, but if it wants to Play Rough, she'll give the Pokemon what it wants.]

Ariel! Spark the shadow!

[The Luxio stares at her in confusion at first. Are you nuts?]

I'll be fine, just do it! Jade, Bite it after she hits!

[Oh, boy, we're getting into a fight! Jade looks excited by the prospect, so much so that he almost forgets to hang on before Stella scolds him.]

Ooof!

[He faceplants against the ground as he grips onto the Flygon as Furfur and Valefor grabbed at his shirtsleeves.

A ghost-type?! Is that why he was taken off guard? He thought]

Badr! Thunderwave my shadow! Furfur, throw a few embers at whatever comes out!

[With a sound, the Dratini slithers off the young man, and arches up, lightning crackling from the gem before it fires off]

[HELL this hurts! Yuuna snarls and trusts her Dragonite to hold while reaching for her sword. But it's a Gengar...so that's something. She knows Gengar, thanks to her friendship with Maya and never forgetting things she reads.]

Good idea! Maka! Have your Espurr attack! They're part poison too!

[She likes where Sinbad's going with this.]

Susume! Thunderwave! Stop this Gengar and don't argue! Sabaku, Dragon Breath the one on Merrill!

[The dragons act, a blue-white spark of electricity rippling down Susume's arm, along with Yuuna's whole body and into her shadow to paralyze the target. She herself is protected thanks to that Ground typed armor-vest that Jayce had made for her (and she makes a mental note to thank him!). The Flygon's mouth opens and a beam of light rips from it's throat, aimed squarely at the back of Merrill's attacker.]

[The game's up!

With a cacophony of moans and cackles, the single Gengar that Merrill has uncovered is joined by a veritable horde of friends that had silently cloaked themselves with their spectral powers. The wall that had seemingly appeared behind them dissolves into a swarm of Shuppet, eyes shining red with the illusory power of Confuse Ray, the two rooms flicker alarmingly to reveal dilapidated, crumbling caverns lit by the soul-devouring flame of Chandelure, and on each of their shadows, a nightmarish grin splits wide open before a Gengar bounces out of its concealment, laughing fitfully.

From the ground floor, the family of Honedge solemnly rise up through the gap. They don't seem very sorry about the whole thing.

They're getting into a fight, indeed!

Assorted electric attacks arc towards various Gengars, who take the hits with a shudder, but from behind, the Shuppet flood in to defend their companions. Two can play at the status effect game, and ghosts have never been shy in that department - reciprocal Thunder Waves arc towards Badr, Susume, and Ariel. ...The last will have no effect, of course, but it's the thought that counts.

The Chandelure whirl by, candle-sconces flaring, and scatter tongues of flame idly through the air. The flames drift for a few moments before suddenly stiffening and lashing out at Furfur and Sabaku with Will o' Wisp.

And while everyone dodges and falls victim to statuses, the unparalyzed Gengar will take advantage of any distraction they can get to sneak-attack their respective trainers with Dark Pulse.

...The Honedge just watch.]

((Summary:
Maka's team: Dark Pulse -> Maka, Thunder Wave -> Ariel
Sinbad's team: Thunder Wave -> Badr, Will o' Wisp -> Furfur
Yuuna's team: Thunder Wave -> Susume, Will o' Wisp -> Sabaku
Merrill's team: Dark Pulse -> Merrill
Isabela's team: Dark Pulse -> Isabela))

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