Oh now that’s interesting.[break][break]

Honeycrisp puffs a cloud of DRAGON BREATH at a passing aurorus to dissuade it from attempting to engage. It bears the scent of bitter apples. [break][break]

Fern’s attention, however, doesn’t drift from the admin. Though their nose does wrinkle a bit from the sharp smell.[break][break]

Excited? They’ve never seen Theo bat much of an eyelash at something, let alone be excitable.[break][break]

Still, it’s worth encouraging. So they huff with a definitive nod. “As you should!” They snap their fingers in thought. “Bring me back a rock as a souvenir! Meteor pebble.”

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT | skips! [break]





[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon flapple"]

“Like an aquarium?”[break][break]

Fern can’t say he’s very well-versed in aquatic types. And Theo doesn’t really strike him as someone who would enjoy fish, let alone enough to call them fishies. But to each their own, right? Fern hangs out with the spooky ones, after all.[break][break]

And the scaly ones. Can’t forget those.[break][break]

As Fern takes the offered phone, a rotom materializes and buzzes around his head, clearly interested in the technology. Rather than swat it away, Fern taps it with a pokeball while it’s distracted to keep it from obstructing his view of the screen.[break][break]

“Why fish?” he asks curiously as he slides through the ongoing reel of photos.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT | catching rotom! [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-trevenant"]

Though they don’t remember when they let go of jayden cross ’s hand, Fern distinctly regrets doing so. At some point, the sense of impending doom waned, and when he looks back over his shoulder again it is to find that the ghoul lady has simply…vanished. It makes him wonder if she was ever actually there to begin with. Fern doesn’t linger on the thought for long, because it finally starts to sink in that they are well and truly alone.[break][break]

They swear that they can hear the lingering banshee howls of the woman in their ears as they stand in the dimly lit hall. The lights continue to flicker, and every little noise seems amplified because of how empty the space is. Maybe…maybe they can still find Jayden though. Or even paxton concordas would be fine at this rate. They’ve never done well with the concept of ‘total isolation.’ Moving forward, they reach the door at the end, and for once, it doesn’t yield another hall like they’d hoped. One with their companion just out of reach.[break][break]

There is only heavy, consuming pitch dark. The kind of void black that looks tangible if he were to reach out and touch it. He considers stepping through, and then— wailing.[break][break]

Any thought of traversing that dark and being swallowed up by it is squashed the minute the echoing sobs start. Instead, Fern glances around. Different doors remain as they have throughout each hall, most are locked. But one to his left gives when he turns the knob. It’s not even a question— he takes it.
[break][break]
nL2DWIZ5
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] + fern is NOT going in there. takes a door to his left.[break]
+ pls don’t backfire on me…[break][break]
+ resolve tally: 30 - 10 = 20/50

When he came to, he was in a..bush? The world spun around Fern as he tried to sit himself up. It came back in patches before it all clicked into place like fragmented puzzle pieces. Strong grip, darkness. The clank of metal on his wrists and the inability to pull them more than a few inches apart. “Shit.” Lifting both hands to awkwardly push his mask up his head, he hissed at the pain it immediately caused as the hard material dragged against his definitely broken nose. Blearly, he blinked as light filtered back into his vision and his head swam.[break][break]

Rolling onto his side and then pushing himself up onto his knees, he worked at fishing a pin from his pocket. Always keep one on your person, tip of the day, he thought to himself sardonically. He managed to unlatch one, and let the other dangle on his wrist for the time being. Morticia swam back into view and he looked up at the haunter. “Where did you go?” he complained, but she ignored him. Moments later, Marza followed. “Was tryin’ to get up the mountain.” His voice was nasally from the blood and crooked angle of his nose. “I couldn’t stay over where..” Where Ceci had–no. Nope. It was a trail he couldn’t afford to go down. If he did, he wouldn’t be of any good.[break][break]

The forger gave his friend a pitiful look. Still, he let her snap his nose back into place with a sort of practiced ease that called into question how many times she’d done it. This was the first time for him, so he definitely howled. Just a little bit. Very manly-like.[break][break]

Fern barked out an empty laugh, “Who knew it would take multiple gunshots and a stab wound to make you this chatty. I’ll keep that in mind for the future. Let me see that.” He scooted closer to her in order to better examine the awkwardly tied wound in her side. “Whatever. At least you didn’t play underdog against a, like, seven foot tall behemoth.” Fern was pretty sure that hadn’t been a dude. That was a machoke in a people costume (sorry, Gwyar Wledig , lol.)[break][break]

He sighed as he packed the spot with gauze as gently as he could manage. “Honestly, you’re lucky I fit so many packets in my pockets…” it was a half-hearted chide. They still had an objective out here, didn’t they? The resounding sound of shattering glass rolled down the mountain, making his already ringing head thrum heavier. “Ugh. For once, I’m not into these dramatic entrances.” Still, his glance drifted up to the display and the offer that was put forward by Father Winter. Then it moved to Marza.[break][break]

His reaction felt…different than hers. He was absolutely, undoubtedly over this. He wanted to turn tail, but just in his ill-advised smackdown at the hands of that leaguer, Fern was tired of retreating. Or rather, he had to keep going because if he didn’t, he’d have to stop and reconcile with the losses he wasn’t quite ready to deal with yet. “We should…get up there.” Of course, he fully anticipated harsh rebuttal, but it was fine. It wouldn’t bother him.[break][break]

“Guess I’m tails, then,” he replied as Marza flipped her own coin in tandem, flashing a thumbs up as he managed one of his typical, cheeky winks. It still rang a little hollow, though. Eventually, he wasn’t content to sit and watch the looming meteor draw closer. He pushed himself back up onto shaky legs so that Morticia could LEVITATE him onto her back, and they could see about this primal-point-horse-palkia nonsense business. “Shall we?”[break][break]

He looked down at Marza. “If you don’t come, I get bragging rights for a month. No, a year.” As he waited, he fished out Cora’s ball, releasing the fainted corsola and dosing her with a revive that had primarily been brought along in the case that his dragapult fainted, and he needed to teleport. So much for that.
[break][break]

ZGU26Lwo
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] mask[break]
+ fern waking to being handcuffed, courtesy of Gwyar Wledig [break]
+ picks a lock on one, is found by Marza Volchitsa [break]
+ just some mutual quick first aid[break]
+ his haunter lifts him with LEVITATE so he can ride up there, presumably to carry on the goal of getting the primal crystal[break]
+ chooses tails[break]
+ revives his galarian corsola
[attr="class","poke-sprite pokemon dragapult"]

Fern laughed—like held his stomach as his head tipped back for the guffaw that followed. “Mysterious? Is that the word for it?” He thought it just further accentuated Levy’s sullen demeanor more than anything else. But Fern wasn’t there to cast aspersions on the younger man. Not really. Nor did he care about Levy’s obvious judgment of his tacky, tie-dye shirt. It kept him cooled off mostly, and that was that.[break][break]

“You only wish you had such a cool shirt,” he still teased, grinning broadly as they drew closer to the horde of invasive pikachu. “Hmm? You sound so convincing…” he retorted with a soft snort. “If you actually had somewhere to be, you wouldn’t lack conviction.” Fern tapped his temple, giving the other a knowing look. That was the key to a compelling lie, after all. It almost required nearly believing it yourself, sometimes.[break][break]

“Aw that’s no fun. And here I’d thought surely your love life had to have moved forward some.” His smirk was smug as he turned back to the task at hand, immediately frowning at the suggestion. “Oh, a little firebug, are we? Do you have something to put it out afterward?” Out of curiosity, he lifted one of the balls and tossed it without care toward a pikachu near the fringes. With a glowing silver tail, it swatted the ball away, and turned toward them, cheeks charged with a burst of THUNDER.[break][break]

“You’re up, Galahad!” Quick as a whip, the sirfetch’d darted forward—between the two of them, but just ahead. The plant-crafted shield was held up as the thunderbolt came crashing down. It spilled around them in a crackling flood of light. “Feisty little squeakers,” he remarked with a laugh. This was fun.
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Levy Alinsky | m: pika pickup | lil bby bird...[break]


[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon dragapult"]