Somehow, someway, they had managed to find their way back to this godforsaken place. As he managed to 'dive' (that was putting it strongly given despite the watery atmosphere, he could still breathe like it was air,) Danny headed towards the Quaestor Lucis again. Yet another round on this ship of nightmares. Joy. Once Danny's feet touched the ground, he began to eye a trench that seemed just out of the way. Perhaps, since they seemed to make a habit of coming to this area, it wouldn't hurt to make a base that they could escape to when things got a little rough.

Once everyone started to gather again, he seemed to snap out of his more analytical approach to their expedition and flashed folks a goofy grin as he raised his hand. At least now he could relay his idea to them

"Greetings to our most excellent bard, berserker, and paladin!" he began with ease. "I was thinking since we're making a habit of coming to this place, do you think we should make a base we can escape to if things get a little too tough? Last time was a little too easy, and I don't think I like that for us, besties."

It would be a collaborative effort, and when he gestured to the trench that seemed to be narrow enough to place a barricade of sorts. And Danny, despite that seemingly empty head of his, seemed to have at least a semblance of an idea as he threw out his Ditto. The pink blob warbled at him in an excited manner, happy to be used for some field work. Danny knelt down and gave the creature a gentle pat on the head.

"Hell yeah, let's go Wubble Bubble!" he fistbumped the Ditto. "I'm thinkin' Wubble Bubble here can transform into a bigger, stronger pokemon, and it can start helping us move some ship wreckage that we can turn into a barricade of sorts."

It wasn't long until he threw out his Skeledirge to join the party. "And I'm thinkin' Nacho Cheese here can help with the welding aspect. Anyone have a pokemon that can cut into the steel so we can fashion ourselves a door so we ourselves can get in and out of our own barricade?"

tl;dr
- suggests making a base
- brings out his ditto and skeledirge to help with the building process

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

@micah, Andrea Vaneau, Shalin Nariya

calling back her two bob-the-builder pokemon, micah let loose her improved magnezone. just days ago, it had been nothing more than an offensive tank. now it was a multi-tool, even providing means of transportation as the heavy pokemon lowered itself with a swaying noise and allowed its trainer to hop on for a ride. although the fit was snug, micah was able to ride atop it - hovering over the ground at varying heights which allowed her to even be able to use it as a just-off-the-ground mount. [break]
"oh, sick. the cb is out." this was said in reference to the beedrill, giving it a finger gun and chuckling softly at the dumb inside joke she had made. "queen bee? no, queen zing - right." micah committed this name to memory as she pressed forward, nodding at the plan. "downwards we go then. there's always better lot in lower levels of dungeons anyway," she thought out loud - knee deep in rpg talk and thought already. "but remember, we'll share the loot we can!" she offered out as means of encouragement, trying to stir camaraderie as she could while trying to stick to the front end of the group in case something happened but also trying to stick to the group in general. splitting up was a dumb idea and she regretted giving it as an option last time, given how easily it seemed to be to stir anxiety and doubt in this strange space.[break]
with an appreciative nod to andrea, micah gave a second thumbs up motion to the psychic type she had stirred up and thrown into the pot. what a good idea. the girl of science would have to take that into her notes for later. "you know the drill. keep your hands and feet in the ride at all times and scream out if you see anything we needa be wary of."[break]
[break]

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

@danny Andrea Vaneau Shalin Nariya

Both Shalin and Andrea posed two solid options. While he couldn't decide, it seemed his Ditto was able to pose a proper option of both. It transformed into the Wyrdeer to carry the pieces of metal that Micah's Torterra managed to break off. Then with both Skeledirge and Micah's Bulbasaur's help, the Ditto transformed into the Tyrantrum to put the pieces of metal higher up. Once it seemed their base was secure, Danny's pokemon wandered back to him and he drew them both back into their respective pokeballs.

He flashed a pleasantly surprised smile at the Alakazam that Andrea had brought along, then soon gave the psychic type a firm pat on the shoulder. It was a genius idea to bring a pokemon like that to the party given the last time didn't bode well for them at all.

"Pleasure to meet you, Spoony!" he offered in a chipper fashion before he looked to everyone else. "Well, with our base secure, let's get a move on, yeah?"

Danny seemed eager to explore the ship that had thrown him through mental turmoil once before. Perhaps he was in a better place mentally now, but who knew how long that'd last? As they came closer to the Quaestor Lucis again, Danny took a deep breath in and entered through the wreckage. Perhaps from there, they could reach more inaccessible rooms. Though as he took a few steps forward, he felt the familiar sticky sludge from before. More Poipole and Nihilego adhesive. Great. At least it hadn't been enough to leave him stuck there.

But the more of that stuff they found, the worse off they'd be.

Danny found a hole in the ceiling and worked to boost himself up, then carefully looked down from there to offer his hand out to whomever needed a boost. At least from there, they could explore more of the rooms within the ship. As he spoke, his tone fell serious, a heavy juxtapose to his typical demeanor.

"I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt to check out more of the rooms here to see if we might be able to find anything worthwhile. Any notes, any signs of life, whatever you want to consider it. Keep your eyes peeled though, it's still pretty eerie in here, and I wouldn't be surprised if we found some of those ultra beasts this time around."

tl;dr
- finishes with building the base
- wanders in through some of the wreckage of quaestor lucis and steps in a little bit of ultra beast adhesive, proof that they're lurking about
- finds a hole in the ceiling and crawls through it, offering to help anyone else up
- suggests searching some of the rooms of the ship

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

@micah , Andrea Vaneau , Shalin Nariya

calling back her two bob-the-builder pokemon, micah let loose her improved magnezone. just days ago, it had been nothing more than an offensive tank. now it was a multi-tool, even providing means of transportation as the heavy pokemon lowered itself with a swaying noise and allowed its trainer to hop on for a ride. although the fit was snug, micah was able to ride atop it - hovering over the ground at varying heights which allowed her to even be able to use it as a just-off-the-ground mount. [break]
"oh, sick. the cb is out." this was said in reference to the beedrill, giving it a finger gun and chuckling softly at the dumb inside joke she had made. "queen bee? no, queen zing - right." micah committed this name to memory as she pressed forward, nodding at the plan. "downwards we go then. there's always better lot in lower levels of dungeons anyway," she thought out loud - knee deep in rpg talk and thought already. "but remember, we'll share the loot we can!" she offered out as means of encouragement, trying to stir camaraderie as she could while trying to stick to the front end of the group in case something happened but also trying to stick to the group in general. splitting up was a dumb idea and she regretted giving it as an option last time, given how easily it seemed to be to stir anxiety and doubt in this strange space.[break]
with an appreciative nod to andrea, micah gave a second thumbs up motion to the psychic type she had stirred up and thrown into the pot. what a good idea. the girl of science would have to take that into her notes for later. "you know the drill. keep your hands and feet in the ride at all times and scream out if you see anything we needa be wary of."[break]
[break]

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

@danny Andrea Vaneau Shalin Nariya

The clutch of eggs had been enough to throw the team as a whole off. Thankfully it seemed none of them had been harmed, which was certainly enough to keep any possible roaming beasts at bay. The sight of it all caused Danny's stomach to churn in unease and disgust. Not only were there several eggs, but they were all covered in the familiar viscous slime that dripped from the ship's haul. Perhaps it was best if the four moved on from the area to find the engine room. Though as Danny made the move, he felt something grab onto him. (Little did he realize that his jacket had simply caught on something.)

"Wh--"

For a moment, Danny felt unfamiliar, almost bony fingers grab at his hair. This wasn't a welcome feeling in the way that they had intentions to rip him apart. As he let out a scream as hairs began to be pulled from his scalp, the feeling of hot blood enough to alert him as it trickled down his forehead and face from the clumps that were yanked out by restless Megalopolan spirits who haunted the ship. As he screamed, bony fingers gripped at the corners of his mouth as if they planned to rip the very voice from his throat.

His screams came out more like chokes as he stand there paralyzed by his unseen assailants. While fingers hooked his right cheek, others grasped his tongue by the root and began to pull. Through his gagged sounds of distress, tears began to pour from his eyes as he reached up and tried to free himself. The phantom assailants grabbed his fingers and began to break them with hollow pops as his face stretched almost like bubblegum. Though eventually things had to give. Muscle gave in as bones tore through the hollow of his cheek to leave his face a sinewy mess. This didn't stop the restless spirits. They wanted to rip soul from flesh.

"Guk!" Danny desperately choked out as a clear liquid poured from his lips in real time.

Little did he realize, the pain he suffered was merely an illusion brought on by the high concentration of the adhesive poison that surrounded them. However he couldn't even scream out for help, he was stuck to suffer in his own hallucination as he stared at the three before him with abject horror and desperation.

tl;dr
- suggests they move on
- paralyzed in fear as he's ripped apart
- turns out it's just a hallucination, oopsie

prompts completed
17 begin building a base camp/settlement of some kind.
24 suffer a grievous or fatal injury or injuries that ends up being a hallucination.

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

@micah , Andrea Vaneau , Shalin Nariya

"girl, what --"[break]
sadly, andrea was correct.[break]
fleshy mounds of eggs surrounded them, wrinkled like the products of oversized and very stressed chickens. the poisonous mucus surrounding them meant they were likely not poipole in nature. poipoles would produce something as purple as them ... wouldn't they? truthfully, that was a question micah would like to answer - having been intrigued by the expedition as a whole due to it possibly being the biggest learning experience she could go on for the time being. "try not to touch anything - at least not with your bare hands." already trying to find debris to put into streams of mucus that came from the egg piles, she tried testing the possibility of taking one of the eggs. even if it meant tearing mother/s from offspring, it was in the name of science and for science, anything could be done.[break]
however, danny didn't seem to really allow for such an idea to be acted on just then.[break]
closing her eyes, micah almost let out a frustrated sigh. why was it exactly that he seemed to be the most mentally susceptible to these things? did the poison and neurotoxins have something to do with androgens?[break]
"i'll look after him," micah offered as she looked up at andrea and shalin in a means to say she would perform a quick 'lay on hands' as the team paladin and try to fill in the role of a makeshift cleric. "although we shouldn't split up too much, feel free to keep looking forward a bit further to see if the coast is clear." looking upon danny who was now in her arms, laid across her lap with his head elevated to allow the draining of his clear emesis, she summoned her hatterene to omit a continual and steady heal pulse to finish off what life dew maybe could not. micah was hoping heal pulse would work as a detoxifying move while life dew was more of a replenishing tactic when it came to things like hemorrhages or electrolyte loss. together, they could get danny back up and running. even so, it didn't keep her from clutching onto his frame just a little too tightly, her nails digging into him as her brows furrowed in concern at his obvious inability to tough out such an excursion. had it been a mistake to let him come out there? had she pushed him too hard?[break]
"also remember, everything is fine." looking up at the two other women, micah offered a goofy - calm smile that betrayed her concern. "so don't start freaking out on me as well, girly pops. we'll make it out just fine. at least we don't have a big group of something-or-others chasing us this time, right?" having not knocked on wood when saying this, it may have ended up as a jinx.
[break]

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

@danny Andrea Vaneau Shalin Nariya

It had all been a whirlwind, his excursion partners' voices no more than ringing in his ears. Everything fell white the moment that the Milotic in Shalin's party hit him with a life dew. While it had helped to relieve him of the unfathomable pain that he suffered, it lacked any relief in his psyche which had been affected the most in the illusory attack. It's not until Alakazam's move of Calm Mind that Danny really feels any sense of calm. His eyes manage to refocus from how they had previously been glazed over. More importantly, he began to ground himself, the feeling of possessive nails that dug into his skin enough to jolt him back into reality.

Though it didn't seem he had long to recover from his original shock. Danny scrambled back to his feet quickly at the sight of the physically possessed megalopolan that the Nihilego used as a marionette. Without any sense of hesitation, he grabbed his Luxray and allowed his poke ball to shine with a mysterious glow. It was a wonder how he managed to obtain such a thing, but as he threw out his Luxray, it seemed to shine with a blue tint to it, almost as if crystals had formed around it to offer it stronger protection. And rather than strike with an electric based move, Danny went for something much more potent.

"Richie! Use tera blast!"

The dragon-charged electric type took a firm stance back and soon let out a charged howl. As it roared through the wreckage, the soundwaves formed into two serpent-like dragons that coiled into one single beam that then slammed into the megalopolan in a charged attack. It seemed it had been too much punch, as the corpse had been sent flying, limbs ripped from the cadaver and sent every which way. It's almost like the being had no resistance to it, which perhaps was best for the group.

For now, he kept his terastallized pokemon out in case anything else tried to sneak up on them. And after what felt like decades, Danny finally came across the door with a particular label on it. The oddest thing was that he was still able to read it, the first sense of proof throughout their excursion that megalopolans seemed to share a similar language as them. He kept this as a mental note for a later time. The label read engine room, and with their destination found, Danny pushed the door open.

"Let's get through this before anything else tries to come after us."

Sure, he was still shook up from his previous experience, but he knew he couldn't slow the group down anymore than he already had.

tl;dr
- all healed up
- terastallizes luxray and attacks the megalopolan, effectively destroying the marionetted corpse
- finds the engine room

prompts completed
17 begin building a base camp/settlement of some kind.
24 suffer a grievous or fatal injury or injuries that ends up being a hallucination.
use terastallization in a pivotal way

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

@micah , Andrea Vaneau , Shalin Nariya