since their day of swimming lessons, a friendship had solidified between nina and bishop. discovery of their mutual loyalties to rocket had made it easy, and after learning of bishop’s appreciation for horror films, she only liked him even more.

as the credits rolled, she basked in what after-effects she still felt after watching—but now that she had seen a significant amount of blood herself, in real life, she found that she felt slightly different than before.

”it’s a good one,” she agreed anyways, sipping the end of gin and tonic. ”totally! i’m always down for movie night.”

when bishop went to leave, she got up with her bag of wishiwashi gummies—after handing one more to the ever-demanding kipkip—and planned to head to sootopolis’s surface to go home. ”yeah you too! i bet they’ll show lots of scary movies soon. i’ll text if i hear about another good one.”

@bishop

nina flinched at the sound. she was a fan of horror, but spooky things happening right after a movie like this? it got in her head as much as it might have anyone else’s.

”shit. i don’t know… uh… a ghost, maybe?” not out of the ordinary on the submarine, really. it seemed like they were always getting away from people, hiding out overnight sometimes just to cause trouble. ghosts were just like that, and it seemed to resonate with a lot of rockets.

but after the film, the tiny possibility that it was a human ghost—and a murderous one at that—lingered in the least reasonable recesses of her mind. the dim lights above flickered, then. pretty convenient electrical problems.

”um…”

”kip!”

true to his nature as ever, the mudkip at her side barked defiantly at whatever unseen culprit was causing the mischief and nina’s discomfort.

@bishop

not a ghost? he was really doing this.

”what the fuck, bishop? what else do you think it could be?”

but the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up too, admittedly. he was right that something felt off, and surely it wasn’t that they had just watched a haunted slasher flick. this was real.

mudkip’s head was on a swivel, and yet another ’kip!’ was given to bishop question. yes, he was ready for war.

”do you think someone’s trying to play a prank on us?”

with a deep breath, she reached down to take a sneaker off. ”come out, asshole!” she threw it at the metal ceiling with a clang, hoping to scare whatever—or whoever—might’ve been in the vents right back. she figured that had to have been where the sound had come from.

@bishop

shit. well, that hadn’t been a good idea. she stepped a little closer to bishop, hand instinctively brushing near his elbow as though to ground herself with the knowledge he hadn’t suddenly disappeared with the light in the room.

despite this, she assured him, ”we can handle ourselves, you know.” her and kipkip, of course. her hand fell away again, albeit a little hesitantly.

”kipkip?” she checked, and the axolotl muttered its name to confirm it was still there as well.

as nina blinked out into the pitch black of the submarine, she considered, ”maybe company might not be so bad, actually...”

while sightless, the groans of their metal vessel and the ocean surrounding were all the more audible. it was spooky.

”it’s really dark.”

@bishop

it was wild to her that bishop hadn't charged his phone. how could anyone risk wandering around the sub with a dead phone? after genesect, and whatever it was that had broken into the labs a couple of months ago...

her anxieties were silent as they pressed, her voice only piping up again when his did. ”i don't know. why are you whispering?” but she was whispering too, and the giggle that came a moment later wasn’t her own.

jumping, she looked around through the dark outside the glow of his phone. It reminded her of the sounds that had come from the haunted house that she’d exterminated with Alexandra Briarwood .

”that wasn’t me.”

@bishop

before she could answer with another exasperated i don’t know, she heard bishop whirl around behind her. doing the same, she glimpsed the tail-end of the cackling culprit just before it disappeared into the dark again.

it had been a ghost-type, after all.

”told you.” she hissed from behind.

kipkip was in pursuit without command, running into the dark with shrill barks cast into the abyss. a warning to all ghostly witches in the vicinity to beware its hopelessly blinded but still threatening presence.

”where’d it go?”

@bishop

nina followed as suggested, though unsure what the point of further investigation was.

”do you think it’ll cause more trouble?”

mudkip seemed to think it needed to be hunted down, and apparently, so did bishop. while in pursuit, nina’s attention easily drifted to the chambers on either side of them.

’kip…’

though uncertainty lingered in the mudkip’s tone, so did determination as it pressed forward in the beam of bishop’s flashlight.

”i think… we’re where they keep the sub’s defenses.”

water-types were nina’s favorite. how many were there here?

@bishop