Chuchi hunts, using her powerful nose and memory of the lost boy to aid their search. She pokes around, trying to pick at different trails but not quite landing on one just yet. Andres, for his part, curses mother nature itself and all her godly creatures for forcing him out of the city and into the underbrush. He could move well enough in it, but he hated being out there. Already his hands and face carried the little nicks of branches and brambles that he’d ran through or gotten smacked by. [break][break]

He’s reckless, moving more with an urgency he usually lacked when traversing nature. “Rodric! Rodric can you hear me?!” he shouted, scream echoing slightly as he dropped his cupped hands and continued looking. They’d last been seen around here. OR at least, he’d been told by some of the other kids that he often played here or spoke of being here. The skies above are dark and gloomy despite being late afternoon. [break][break]

Andres’ eyes snap to Onyx taking a moment to pause before asking quickly, “What do you mean? Like a wild Emboar or something?” he asked. He’s too worried- too distracted to pick up on anything instinctual.


[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Chuchi leads them on, her snuffling through the undergrowth reminding Onyx of a wild pig. She’s much less affected by the press of nature than her trainer-- Onyx reaches up to pluck a twig that’s gotten snagged on Andres’ jacket and toss it to the ground.

“Who names their kid Rodric?” he muttered under his breath, pausing to peek under a thick bush at a crumpled cardboard box and smattering of trash.

“No, like…” he trails off, walking around the squat tree to look beyond. There’s an open field of tall grass, waist-high or higher, and it rolls in the wind.

Except.

“The wind is blowing from that direction,” said, pointing; and if to illustrate, a gust comes and blows his hair back away from the nape of his neck. The field of grass, meanwhile, is bending in the opposite direction-- away from them. “So if the wind is coming at our faces, how is the grass moving away from us?”

[attr="class","membot"]andres buenaventura mission: clefable in the feywilde

[attr="class","memboc"]☉

Andres doesn't even notice the state he's in, far more battered around than Onyx who had a natural ease when it came to running through the forest. He's half listening, looking around the trees before Onyx speaks up again. He stares at the grass field and vaguely wonders about the things he'd heard about the kid. [break][break]

He played here every day. In that case, it made sense the kid would venture deeper and deeper into the woods. "You think...it's weird enough to scare a kid off?" he asked taking a step towards it. The faint sound of giggling echoing lie ka bell in the shell of his ears. "Or weird enough for them to want to explore it?" It may be a dead end, but considering the missing person was a kid then maybe this weird physics ignoring hill was a potential answer.

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“Maybe,” Onyx says, a noncommittal tilt of his head and shrug of one shoulder. He pushes forward into the strange field. “Maybe they wouldn’t even notice.”

He whistles, and Vatin changes his course, shooting through the underbrush and rushing out into the grass. Onyx is a few feet behind him when he gets the instinctual urge to look up and realizes he can’t see Ziadem above them. The sky has taken on an odd, rainbow, soap-bubble hue.

It’s enough to make him pause. For a moment, he’s back in the distortion, with Gerald Kaiser, and there’s a fucking Ursaring about to bite into him.

He balls his fists enough to make his knuckles crack, turning to look back at Andres. A beacon. A light. A pillar of realness in a place that is just nonsensical enough to be unsettling and not nearly enough to be fun.

“We should stick together.” Because as terrifying as it is to imagine the distortion that had tore him to pieces and cost him his eye it was a thousand times scarier to imagine Andres was the one getting hurt.

[attr="class","membot"]andres buenaventura mission: clefable in the feywilde

[attr="class","memboc"]☉

Andres goes from frowning to grimacing as Onyx brought up a good point. He taught kids. Sure trainer aged or almost but a kid was still a kid. Some barely used to having a pokemon. Of course if something weird like that happened they might not even notice. [break][break]

As they approach, Andres noted the strange sky and Chuchi seemed to perk up, growling at the group before her nose stayed down in the dirt. Andres stared uncomfortable. Something about the soft colors and the strange events reminded him of the Glimwood Tangle, hisbleast favorite place in Galar. "Yeah, we are." He said as he drew closer to Onyx. [break][break]

The soft giggling chimes in, adding a layer of unease to the place. "I wonder if this is just concentrated misty terrain or something." He added as he moved close to Onyx, heavy swiveling to find sight of the kid or his partner. "Last I saw, the kid's partner was a Cottonee."


[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Andres falls into step behind him and the closeness is a grounding comfort. Onyx won’t admit it but he’s fast become used to the feeling of the other man in his space, the way their orbits seem to mesh perfectly, strategically.

They press on into the strange field and the terrain dips down into a small valley. Back in Galar there would be massive wide open spaces like this, filled with nothing but huge telephone pylons and the occasional farmhouse for miles.

Almost as if on cue, there’s a strange, warping noise, and Onyx turns to see a-- a giant telephone pylon, feet behind them, that hadn’t been there before. And in the same breath that Andres is thinking of Glimwood Tangle, the grass begins to thin and a small path through the valley leads into dark, tangled trees.

“We’re not in Kalos anymore, Carol Ann,” Onyx says.

Vatin comes racing out of the underbrush, skidding to a stop in front of Onyx. He stomps his back foot twice and points back the way he came.

“He found a trail. C’mon.”

And he walks into the woods.

[attr="class","membot"]andres buenaventura mission: clefable in the feywilde

[attr="class","memboc"]☉

Andrews turned, jumpy as the pole showed up and his eyebrows furrowed together. Chuchi is up too, immediately by her trainer's side and snarling a threat as nothing. Her hackles raise, making her look twice as poofy. He turns to the entrance of the Glimwood Tangle and scowled, shoulders tensing just as much as Chuchi was. Chuchi's fangs are bared, the beginning fo a snarl in the back of her throat as she presses to Andres' leg protectively. [break][break]

"No. But at least it's familiar. We might be able to pinpoint where Rodric is." he said, looking down at his feet. He can't make eye contact with Onyx as he steels himself. Galar wasn't a place he ever wanted to go back to. But Glimwood Tangle? [break][break]

Fuck that place.

[break][break]

The giggling picks up again, louder than before. Soft mists roll and cling to the underbrush. Nothing too terrible, but enough for effect. He lags for a moment, before jogging next to Onyx and staying close. Chuchi takes the rear, displeased and hesitant. [break][break]

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Vatin takes point, running like a scouting rabbit: he dashes ahead to cover, pauses, and then runs back. Onyx, and then Andres, follow in his wake.

Onyx’s haunches are definitely up. His opinion of the Tangle was more ambivalent than most-- he didn’t really give a fuck. Back in Galar, as long as you had a Pokemon with you, you were safe. But the fact that the Tangle has magically transported here, somehow-- or a version of it, at least-- is definitely alarming. He’d have to be an idiot to not be alarmed, and Onyx was dumb, but he wasn’t an idiot.

“Anything familiar yet?” he asked, turning back over his shoulder to look at Andres, trying to ignore the disembodied giggling and the goosebumps rising on the back of his neck.

[attr="class","membot"]andres buenaventura mission: clefable in the feywilde

[attr="class","memboc"]☉

"Sorta…" he said back, remembering not so pleasant days of running throughout to catch a ponyta for his team comp. Chuchi had been well adapted to it, but she didn't like it either. He'd had his suspicions she may have originated from here or the city housed near the Tangle. After all, this wasn't the creepiest pf place in Galar, and she'd risen to the challenge beforehand. [break][break]

The laughing gets louder, more agitated and there's a gust of wind that carried the sounds of someone crying. "Rodric?!" He shouted, panicked as he tried to attempt the source. [break][break]

Chuchi tensed as something rushed through the bushes. When her trainer turns to look at the swirling path formed before them. "At least this way isn't terribly dangerous. The most you had to worry about was the people." He said, eyes forward instead of Onyx. He looked like he wanted to bolt. The question was towards his student or away to safety.


[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

A gust of wind blows tendrils of his hair against his cheeks and he realizes rather belatedly that Andres is no longer following directly behind him. He whistles Vatin to return and backtracks.

“It’s not the people I’m worried about,” he says, noticing for the first time that Andres is frozen, like a rabbit out of room; his next instinct is going to be to bolt. Onyx swallows the alarm that rises in him at that observation, though he’s even more alarmed that his first instinct is to soothe.

“Hey.” He reaches out a hand and pauses, because he isn’t sure what to do. Take his hand? Take his arm? He doesn’t want to hold him here if he’s going to run. But now isn’t really a hugging moment… is it? Fuck, emotions are hard.

There’s the sound of something snapping in the woods and Vatin swivels his ears and takes off in the direction.

“C’mon,” Onyx says, lamely brushing a hand against Andres’ elbow to give him a gentle tug, and he chases after his Pokemon.

[attr="class","membot"]andres buenaventura mission: clefable in the feywilde

[attr="class","memboc"]☉

"You should be." Andres gaze is alert- almost desperately so. More than just the stress of losing a student, or that this area could be dangerous. There was no could be. It was. Something familiar holds both trainer and pokemon on edge, with Andres ready to run at the drop of a hat and Chuchi baring her fangs at anything and everything. She's drooling, hackles raised and pupils stretched so thing. [break][break]

It's not just a fight she's looking for. It's an end. [break][break]

His head snaps back to Onyx, lips pulled in a permanent grimace before Vatin takes off, Chuchi follows, sprinting through the foliage with the Nidoran. There's a small hesitation in Andres before he obliges, as if mentally fighting the urge to run forward and run away yet again. [break][break]

Chuchi is relentless, pushing through underbrush and foliage after the little poison type furious. Many times she simply bite through whatever was in front of her, angrily ripping it apart as well as leaving a tangible trail for Onyx and Andres to follow.

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Andres’ warning of you should be echoes forebodingly in his brain as he does his best to follow Chuchi’s bulldozer-like trail while clearing branches and foliage out of the way for Andres to pass behind him.

It’s a maze in these woods, and before Onyx knew it they’d been charging ahead full steam long enough for them to get lost. Vatin lead, then Chuchi, then Onyx, then Andres; and before he could think to caution the group about being waylaid they stumbled out into a clearing.

In the center of the clearing was a tree so tall Onyx couldn’t see its crest-- it disappeared through a veil of other greenery and mist.

At the base of the tree there was a little boy, and next to him was a small, yellowish shape, like a Pikachu, almost, but not quite.

[attr="class","membot"]andres buenaventura mission: clefable in the feywilde

[attr="class","memboc"]☉

Their pace slows as they enter the clearing, and Chuchi keeps her distance, trying to calm down. Andres' students knew Chuchi, knew how competitive she was from the occasional clip he pulled form his older battles- but none of them had ever seen her angry, aggressive. She didn't want to scare them anymore than they already were so she waits patiently. Andres steps to Onyx, pausing at his side before stepping forward. The urge to grab his student and leave winning out against his usual cowardice.
[break][break]

His hand is on Onyx's shoulders, tight and trembling before he lets go. "Rodric? ...Rodric, it's Mr. Buenaventura- Your mom and I have been looking for you." he called out, as he identified the dark haired child. About the same age and height maybe. But what is that thing... a Ditto trying to take shape?
[break][break]

"C'mere, it's getting late." he added taking a couple more steps forward, hand out for the kid. "You sleep?" he added waiting for the child to look up at him despite a growing sense of dread.

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]