it's a silly little thing oldale does every year. when she stopped going herself, she started working it, and it's such a strange, welcome break from the craziness going on in the rest of the world. for a few hours, for a few nights, she can just be a kid again, and she can scare other kids. 

oleg's not allowed anymore, though. last year, he scared some of them so bad they wet themselves, and then it was a whole thing that the spooky bus they were in smelled like urine and now some kids still call it the pee pee bus, but it's fine. it's fine. 

with natalio hopping at her side and a couple hours before the haunted walk opens, saskia helps herself to a warm pretzel. sammy gives her some shit behind the counter and tells her she really shouldn't be dealing out the dough before doors open, but no one can resist sasky's charm. 

she's sucking on her fingers when she spies a familiar face and, forgetting that she's wearing a ripped and faux-bloodstained dress, she waves frantically and says, "silverio! hi!"

silverio delfino

☉

there is no doubt in her mind, even through the panic and anxiety racing through her veins, that he'll come up with some situation to help them. but he does more than that, and even though she has to dance around so his sandslash can dislodge some of the eggs, she's grinning stupidly from ear to ear. 

the ariados chitters and hisses as her eggs are moved, but saskia holds fast and when she spies silverio's leafeon advancing, she grits her teeth and tries as well as she can to keep soothing. 

eventually, when it's clear she can't gain any ground, her attacks become more halfhearted. saskia eases up carefully and dares to take a step back. an appendage flies out at her and she yelps, wincing, but psychic energy stops it at a struggle in midair. behind her, oleg has both hands flung out and whines with exertion. 

"look, look, they're right there. you can get to them!" she says, pointing, but the spider's battered form still can't stop. 

because they need food, saskia realizes and her heart plummets. 

with her hands free, she can finally reach for kirin's ball. it's a tight squeeze, and the wyrdeer bleats in bewilderment as soon as she pops out, but the point-blank hypnosis from her horns manages to lull the giant spider into sleep. 

saskia returns her quickly, not wanting her to feel anxious, and reaches shakily for silverio's arm. 

"thanks," she says breathily. "you saved my ass again. i know we gotta report this to hq, but gosh, i feel bad. i bet the ghost-types that live in this place were just trying to help her get some food."

silverio delfino

☉

the doorknob jimmies somewhere above her and she strains her neck, but she can't really see it. she tells herself it's just silverio - it has to be - but this place is really starting to get to her and she really is starting to worry that maybe oleg is worse off than she thought. 

so she yelps when the door splinters upstairs; her breath comes in short, shallow gasps, and stays that way even when she grins at the sight of silverio. 

the sandslash makes expert work of the web. one of her arms frees and then her leg and just as she's tottering off balance, the rest of the web giving way underneath her, silverio catches her in his arms. she 'oomphs' and wraps shaking arms around him, willing herself not to cry. 

"thank you," she hiccups. "thank you, thank you, thank you." 

she doesn't stay tangled in his embrace for long because she has to check on oleg. and, of course, as soon as she hauls the alien baby up in her arms, his bright green eyes flicker on. he swivels his head, yawns widely, and sasky squeezes him so tight his arms start windmilling. 

the light cast from the broken door shadows and saskia blinks. the hulking shape of the ariados leers down at them, mandibles chittering angrily. 

oleg squirms in saskia's hold, swivels to see the spider, narrows his eyes, and tosses it like a ragdoll with a wave of psychic energy. it comes crashing down the stairs and saskia darts forward, dodging flailing limbs so she can shove her shoulder against the spider's side. oleg beeps as though sasky has lost her mind.

"no! it's just a mama trying to feed her babies! the eggs. we can't crush the eggs." one of her boots is right next to one. they'd narrowly missed crushing half a dozen of them, but the ariados is still an ariados and it doesn't understand sasky's compassion.

she ducks under a sweeping appendage.

"silv, we gotta - ack!" another dodge. the spider's carapace is kind of hairy and super extra icky, but if she lets go, she'll get clawed apart by those strong limbs. "do something!"

silverio delfino

☉

laughter bounces around the walls of the room. the skittering sound becomes more insistent and saskia manages to turn her webbed head just slightly to see the giant body of the ariados clambering back over to her. 

her toe knocks roughly against oleg's side as panic sets in for real. 

luckily for her, silverio makes it into the right house. unluckily for the both of them, that makes the ghosts that live here rather happy. the ariados pauses, head cocked, and traipses back over the webbing to scuttle up the side of the wall. 

it disappears out of sight. 

"oh my gods, you scared it away. i'm downstairs! downstairs! it's by the kitchen! the door, i mean! please, before it comes back! i swear, i'm gonna strangle oleg for being such a heavy sleeper."

silverio delfino

☉

one of these days, she promises to herself, she'll be able to save her own butt. while she doesn't have a problem asking for help, she definitely feels some type of way about it, and often she fantasizes about being the person called for help instead of the damsel in distress. 

oh gosh, is that what she is?

webs are around her ankles, but she manages to toe oleg's head. the little alien slumbers on. she would fear the worst if it weren't for his annoying on and off beeps she's come to learn are his snores. 

"oh, right," she says, focusing again. "um, it's this really lovely house. the address was...oh gods, what was the number again. it's on sherman. in the cul-de-sac. um, it's really pretty! nice brick and these adorable arches. and there should be a couple of fancy people right outside, though i don't know why they can't hear me..."

because the house does not belong to posh bigwigs. they'd evaporated as soon as the door had clicked shut behind her. and the mansion itself is dilapidated and mouldering. at the very least, it's easy to spy as The Haunted house on sherman street. 

but unluckily for sasky, she doesn't pay enough attention to pull apart the illusion. 

skittering up the stairs. sasky starts to panic. her voice is shrill when she asks, "um, so, are you almost here?"

silverio delfino

☉

so here's how they got here, all tangled up in an ariados web. 

a call had come in. there are plenty of mauville rangers, but a lot of them are out doing clean-up dealing with the war, and this had been such low priority that they'd reached out to folks looking for pick-up shifts. and sasky had been doing just that. 

she gets restless - well, more restless than usual - these days. she knows her papa and mama are scared for her, that they don't think it's healthy that she's going, going, going all the time, but stopping sounds - 

that's not the point. 

anyway, she got the call, and she met with the two fancy people who insisted a ghost pokemon was causing havoc in their house, and then she walked inside, and then the door shut behind her, and things got a little weeeeeird. 

flying plates. dolls talking in gibberish. blood on the walls (which she later realized was ketchup after oleg experimentally licked it). and, somewhat fearing for her life, in the basement - a huge ariados nest with lots of little egg babies. 

the ghosts must have been looking out for the mama, she realized, after she tripped and fell into the web. oleg, knocked unconscious from her blundering, and the rest of her pokeballs unreachable, spelled disaster, but honestly, she's handling it with a lot more calm than she probably should be. 

and miraculously, somehow, she manages to get in touch with a ranger in the area. 

"yeah, so, i don't think the eggs are going to hatch anytime soon," she says to her watch, "but oleg still isn't awake and i would rather someone be here if they do hatch or if the ariados gets any fancy ideas. are you still there, silverio?"

silverio delfino

☉

oleg is a baby on her shoulders. she holds onto his little footies with their sharpie paw prints so he doesn't fall. it's not really a problem if he falls; he'll just teleport right back up to her shoulder. they make a game of it sometimes - saskia melodramatically proclaiming she's dropping him, making a sea of onlookers turn, and then he tumbles off only to pop heroically back up. 

neither of them have been to lilycove before except that time they were by the beach, but that's not really lilycove city. she's not exactly a frugal girl, but her money has always gone to sweet snacks, adorable pencil eraser caps, and to her pen pal in orre who reached out to her via one very strange email one day asking for her help, please, anything she could spare, it is not a spam message or a scam for sure. 

so she doesn't gravitate towards the looming mall or the district with all its fancy restaurants. her ranger jacket's on, but she's not on duty. she was here helping with clean-up, but she's done now, and she has to figure out what to do with herself. 

with oleg on her shoulder, they expertly bob and weave around the gaggle of people. pop-up vendors line the street when she turns a corner and her eyes light up. 

"we found it! the spooky market we saw in that flyer. and wait - is that?"

she cups her hands around her mouth and yells, "rOOOOOBBBBBIIIIIIIINNNN!" and oleg imitates her, but he sounds more like WWWOOOOOWOOOOOWOOOBEEEEEEE. 

robin coello

☉