4.0 Dedicated to its Members and Fans of Pokemon A Pokemon Sandbox RP
Pokémon Dubstep (ft. Lindsey Stirling)
W
elcome Adventurer to EPOCH! A Pokemon Sandbox Rp set in the original region of Nue. Everything you need to know will be in the Guidebook and PokeDex 101!
EPOCH uses the Manga and is built on the Original ideas suggested by our members.
We are more than just a Pokemon RP, we're a friendly community with a goal on being a memorable experience for those that look in.
Golden Rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated. If you find yourself content with being an asshole EPOCH and its members will not tolerate you.
RULES
Understand We're All Human. Respect the staffers as well as your fellow members and guests. We all have flaws, tempers and quirks. Be patient with one another, but if issues involving other members come up please don’t just grin and bear it. Contact a staff member, informing them of what's going on so they can address and resolve the situation. The staff won't know what's bothering you unless you tell them.
EPOCH is PG-13. Proboards’ Terms of Service:
Sex; When you get under the clothes, fade to black.
Violence; Do not go into extreme nauseating detail.
Cursing; This is so fucking allowed, but don't go overboard.
Suggestive Content; In avatars, signatures and templates can attract the wrong kind of attention. So be careful.
Ah the Safari Zone, what a peaceful place. The steady flowing streams, the gentle breezes flowing through the trees, the waves of grass in the clearings, and the untouched environment as a whole was just soothing to the soul. No engines revving, horns honking, or the ungodly smell of exhaust hovering forever in the air, being here was a total different experience from that of Flash City. There was no idle chatter always hovering in the background or groups of people cluttering the space – making it almost impossible to properly navigate if you had to go against the majority of the flow. Yes, the Safari Zone was a tranquil—
“JACK YOU LITTLE SHIT!”
—paradise… Keyword being was, clearly.
Breaking through the grass, a young woman looking better suited for the previously mentioned city venue was in a mad chase after a pesky Spearow. Clamped tightly in his beak was a black cloth of sorts, most likely the eye patch most often seen being worn by the woman currently pursuing the bird. Leaping from the ground to grab onto a low hanging branch, despite the clothing, she moved like a gymnast, swinging her legs smoothly up and over the branch to land in a squat on the thick perch before continuing her pursuit now closer to the level the bird was flying at. Racing through the trees, she’d finally go for the pounce and tackle the Spearow from the sky. The two tumbled to the ground, rolling a few times before landing so the woman was laying on her back with the mischievous bird held to her chest.
“You’re such… An ass… hole…” she panted, before holding the bird up over her. He gave a little squirm, but her hands prevented him from reopening his wings to take flight. “Jack” she stated sternly, before the Spearow returned her glare with his own deadpan and dropped the eye patch on her face. The two both seemed to pause as Jessica Burton would take this moment to remind herself that it was morally wrong to beat a Pokémon with her shoe… So with a punch to the bird’s head, she’d set him aside and sit up to finally try and pull back on the eye patch that’d been previously stolen from her. Though, doing so was a pain with her long red hair. The Spearow beside her shook his head a few times, feathers fluffing up in annoyance before he figured ‘Yeah, I deserved that’ and let it go. Taking back to the trees, Jessy ignored her Spearow for the time being to look back and around for where the person she’d come to the zone with had gone.
“Hey! Doll, I didn’t lose ya, did I?!” she called out, starting to get up and dust herself off. The eye patch wasn’t exactly perfectly aligned on her face, but it was on and that’s all she needed. Her attention shifted now back to trying to find her princess that she’d accidentally left behind in her mad dash. “Sorry, Jackass decided to live up to the title!” she tacked on, before doing a small look over her surroundings again. It seemed the wild bird chase had lead her into some old abandoned building within the zone… So old that there was enough plants growing in the rather dilapidated ruins. In one of the remaining glass cases on the wall, she could see a few faded maps and pictures that gave her a good idea of just what kind of building she’d stumbled across. An old abandoned ranger’s station here? Wonder why it was abandoned…?
Jessy scanned the place as she started over for where the doorway to the place was, and stepped back out into the open. “I think I just found some bad juju…” she mumbled to herself before leaning against the wall by the door to wait for the call back from Lucy. She turned her head slightly to peer back inside the building and tilted her head slightly as she just studied the left behind things from the safety of being outside of the building. Like Hell she was walkin’ head first into some sort of horror movie today.
The trick to trying to keep up with Jessica Burton was knowing that it didn't come with a 100% success rate, no matter how much practice you had. Lucy was probably better at it than most. She had verging on two decades worth of experience and enough insight to hold her own. But there was really only so much a person could do when the subject they were trying to follow swings up into the trees in a daring Tarzan impersonation and takes off without warning after a wayward pirate bird. Of course, hearing what general direction Jessy had gone in was simple enough, what with the yelling, but it wasn't a reliable enough clue to just strike out into the trees with. Which was why she was cheating a little in her tracking method, letting her Servine take to the trees himself to follow the redhead's path while Lucy trailed after on the ground.
Jack had certainly picked a fine place to go rogue at. There were paths for trainers and sightseers all through the zone but the one she was currently walking hadn't been kept up or even likely used in quite a while. Her progress impeded occasionally by branches snagging on her coat or downed trees in the path, she continued to glance up at Bijoux making his way through the canopy for guidance as she maneuvered after Jessy.
It was sort of nicer than getting lost in Flash City, though, she had to admit. Out here it was quiet, cleaner in the way that nature is clean, and it was mainly wild Pokemon one had to worry about, not people with unknowable intentions. It could almost be said that she was still enjoying herself, though she would still feel a little better once they were back in more traveled terrains. Wild was nice, but maybe not too wild - at least not without more preparation.
At last, as she was removing herself from another outstretched branch, Jessy's voice once again broke through the stillness of the wilderness, this time addressing her. She smirked slightly at the add-on about Jack, finally unsnagging her sleeve. "It's alright! I'm almost there!" Bijoux was hanging from a branch some ways ahead, looking down at her, and she forged ahead, finally coming out of the trees and coming to a stop outside the abandoned building. She waved slightly to Jessy, shrugging slightly at the whole situation, before blinking up at the structure. Bijoux continued across the branches to leap across to the roof.
. . . A rangers station? Well, an abandoned building would certainly match an abandoned path. But why leave this place to fall to ruin?
Pondering it silently, her gaze dropped back down to Jessy, with that automatic response to look for any potential injuries, minor or not, that the redhead would be quick to shrug off but Lucy would insist on trying to treat. She seemed fine besides just being a little ruffled from her tree run, fortunately. Lucy zeroed in on the misaligned eyepatch, and without ceremony just wandered carefully through the brush to the older girl and reached up to indicate she would fix it. She could already see strands of red hair all wrapped up with the cord. If it was tied correctly now, it would be less likely to come off later, in any case.
"This place wasn't on any of the zone maps," she remarked. She tilted her head a little to look through the doorway. She might have guessed that they had left the shell of the building as a Pokemon habitat or something, but there were still maps and debris inside, like people may not have exactly taken their time in leaving. Huh . . .
She looked up at Jessy. "Um, you didn't go in, did you?"
Shortly after her last shout, a voice would call out from the distance to alert her that the blond had managed to keep up for the most part. Glancing up to the trees to see Bijoux the Servine make his way out of the trees and onto the roof of the building, it answered the question of who was it that had been watching her run through the trees aside from Lucy. Her gaze would then turn back to the approaching princess of Flash City breaking from the brush to come to a stop in front of her. Immediately, Jessy was greeted with a rudimentary scan for injury and the woman’s smile fell to a childish pout.
How many times would she have to insist she was fine to no avail?
Trick question, of course, because no matter how many times she tried to shrug it off, those damn baby blues would guilt her into anything her princess desired. Pressing off the wall and holding up her arms in a show of no harm being done, Lucy would relent her medical wrath – this time – and shift focus to something else. The eyes locked down on her eye patch and Jessy had to pause before sighing as she knew what those gestures meant. “I fucked it up again, didn’t I?” she questioned, turning to tilt her head in silent offering for Lucy to do as she pleased. You’d think after years of tying the stupid thing, she’d know how to do it properly but her fingers got twitchy when she was irritated. It was easier to do it at home without the feeling of being rushed.
With Lucy’s remark regarding the ruins being unmarked territory, Jessy almost wanted to hiss at it – like that’d make any difference. She side glanced at it cautiously as Lucy was bound to be working on her eye patch by now. “I kinda slid in there when I landed… Nothing looked off, and I didn’t get any danger, danger enemy approaching signals from it… You think they just forgot about it or something?” she asked, glancing back towards Lucy just as Jack would once more take flight into the building to investigate it himself. Looking back over at the building, Jessy gave a flat look at the sight of Jack just blazing ahead without them, again.
“Sometimes, I really hate that bird” she grumbled, though she didn’t really mean it. She remained patiently in place as Lucy would fix the eye patch and crossed her arms in thought. “Nevermind that, though. There could be probably a few Pokémon lingering around in there if you wanted to check it out?” she suggested. “It could be bad mojo, but since I haven’t picked up on anything that could be posing a threat… It may really just be harmless ruins out here in the middle of nowhere. Pfft, I know the League doesn't exactly pay well so maybe there was some sort of budget cut? Not like it looks like many people actually come out this way if the quality of the path and the overgrown foliage means anything. Probably just ditched it since it may have not been used much or something... So, either way, like I was saying, wanna check it out or shall we keep moving?”
Wouldn’t that be nice? Normal, harmless, not dangerous or haunted or fucked up in general ruins to just so happen to stumble across, yes? Lucy probably wouldn’t want to press their luck, so Jessy was ready to just move along once the eye patch was done… Though her friend was one to get curious about these kinds of things if their own little investigation incidents back home in Flash City meant anything.
Lucy gave a little "eh" shrug to indicate that it wasn't a big deal, and got to work gently parting Jessy's hair from the eyepatch cords. She had a fair amount of practice with this little ritual over the years as well. Usually Jessy didn't need any help with it, of course, but there were times now and again when a frantic situation made for a very rushed fastening job. Maybe it would be easier if she put her hair up in a ponytail more . . .
Lucy shrugged again as Jessy ventured that the building could have been simply forgotten, eyes flicking up to watch as the wayward Spearow would fly off yet again. Naughty little one.
She guessed it could be possible. Maybe there were plans for it, but then other things came up, the zone staff got busy, it kept getting pushed back until soon no one even thought about it anymore . . . But at the same time, it seemed on that a facility that had more than a little focus on preservation would leave something like this just sitting out here, with so much left behind. Or maybe she was just placing too high regard on the zone's operations. Or her experiences in Flash City coupled with too many horror movies was making her overly suspicious. "It's possible, I guess," she muttered, taking the eyepatch off briefly to straighten it out before carefully slipping it back over Jessy's eye. She leaned around, looking up at her to check the placement on her face before getting back to tying.
With the question posed of whether or not they should explore the place, Lucy rocked slightly on her heels with a soft hum, finishing the knot, and stepping back. If Jessy was even suggesting it, maybe it was alright? The redhead was usually the first to go "nope" and take her by the arm, whisking her off to safety when something set off alarm bells. Those times were oddly reassuring in that regard - Jessy knew what was going on, where the danger was. So Lucy wasn't just stumbling around in the dark. The place seemed beyond strange to her, but as long as there was no detectable threat, maybe having a look around would reveal why the place was abandoned, and settle her curiosity. Plus, Jack was already in there and there was no telling how easy it would be to get him out.
". . . maybe, if you think it's alright?" She leaned to the side slightly to peer through the doorway again. "We don't have to go in very far, I don't think . . . So just a little look around might not hurt?"
At the first sign of trouble though, they would evacuate - that was a given. The problem with horror movies was that people spent far too much time dismissing their instincts and things that were clearly not normal. Though, going inside at all probably broke the first rule of surviving a horror scenario.
Unless they just plain were not in a horror scenario. That would be nice. The rules were void if you could just assume you were living in a normal world where supernatural evil of various forms weren't always lurking just around the corner or under the bed.
Yes, that would be nice.
Ultimately, she just looked to Jessy with her usual questioning, you make the final call expression, still uncertain and anyway more concerned with the other's preference than her own curiosity.
[582] NOTES
Zone 5 - And in they go to the highly suspicious abandoned ranger station.
Take her by the arm, carry her away bridal style, or just flat out drag her out like a heavy sack of potatoes, of course Jessy would never leave her best girl behind. She briefly recalled the time in which Lucy had been convinced to just give some of the wine a test and a bit later, Jessy had to pretty much carry the poor gal home. Never again. Back on point though, being a walking talking danger detector certainly had its benefits, especially when you had a princess to protect. With no red flags coming from the abandoned ranger station aside from the fact that it was an abandoned ranger station, Jessy found no issue leaving the decision to her highness. Hearing the hum of thought as the knot was finished, the red head would turn on her heels to face Lucy and await the answer.
She really should’ve known it’d be a yes with those curious baby blues staring at the building in silent wonder. As Lucy would lean to peer through the doorway, Jessy tilted her head back to hide a slight roll of her eye before smiling back at her princess and nodding. It was breaking a very fine rule, but nothing else really seemed to give reason for them to be concerned quite yet. “Welp, since nothing’s setting off the NOPE-dar, so yeah we'll be fine to go in for a ways I'm sure. Stay close just in case though” she said, before turning to look back into the station for a final check. Nothing still, she gave a glance back to Lucy before gesturing for her to follow ad started onwards into the building once more.
Shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket, she could see that the building was actually fairly large with a few halls that branched off into other parts of the building likely to be riddled with rooms and more abandoned gear. Humming softly at the sight, she turned back to Lucy to see what she was getting into before it dawned on her that Jack had once again vanished. Heaving an annoyed sigh, she was about to call out for the bird when she’d feel a set of eyes rest on her from behind. Twisting slightly without moving her feet to look behind her towards the halls again, she didn’t see anything… But the eyes were definitely still on her. Okay, that was definitely not okay.
“Hey Lu—” she cut herself off when something bonked into her shin and she slowly looked down to see a little blue-grey… Thing knocking it’s… head? Was that it’s head? Or the whole body? The hell was this thing?
While Jessy was proficient when it came to knowledge about Psychic, Ghost and even some Dark types, her mind was blank in regards to most anything else. All she knew was some little Pokémon was for some reason knocking on her shin with its head for a few moments. Pausing before lifting her leg out of the Gible’s way, the Pokémon would pick up a rock with a face doodled on it that Jessy had been standing on and inspect it carefully. Jessy slowly set her foot back down and stared at the Gible in confusion before it would glare up at her suddenly. The little Pokémon would open her mouth to show rows of sharp canines that did not provide any comfort. That was definitely not a happy face. “My what long teeth you have…?” she nervously spoke with a timid chuckle. The look in the Pokémon’s eyes didn’t change – in fact she seemed even more annoyed – and Jessy could already tell where this was going if experience with a certain Isaac’s Sableye meant anything.
This was gonna hurt.
Suddenly pouncing at her, the Gible attempted to bite at her ankles, but Jessy was already jumping up and out of the way. “NOPE, NOPE, NOPE, FUCKIN’ NOPE!” she chanted, hopping around quickly in desperate attempts to avoid being Gible chowder. She continued to prance around the room, until she hit the service counter and kicked back to launch herself up and over it to land with a THUNK on the other side. “DOLL, WHY DO THE STUPID ANKLE BITERS ALWAYS COME AT ME?!” she complained, as the Gible hopped uselessly to try and get over the counter as well. However, the Gible wasn't exactly made for jumping. The Pokémon didn’t even seem to notice Lucy, all annoyance directed at Jessy, who had stepped on the Pokémon’s precious rock pet.
On the other side of the counter, Jessy was already crawling to make a break for the employee only areas in the back. Once Lucy would enter the room, she’s be welcomed by the sight of Jessy somehow managing to have climbed to the top of the highest of the remaining rusty metal shelves in the back. There was still some gear left around, but it was all outdated and old, some paper files here and there, but it seemed like the place was pretty empty minus abandoned furniture – much to Jessy’s relief. Like a cat that had just been horribly spooked, Jessy was nearly clinging to the softly groaning shelf she had evacuated to. Looking over at Lucy immediately, she was notably flustered by her own reaction, but didn't utter a word as her gaze said it all.
Is it gone?
angry little ankle biter is angry - passing gible 1 / 8
The building was certainly larger than its delipidated face would suggest, and the first thing Lucy did after following Jessy inside was take a few tentative steps into the most central part of the lobby and turn in a slow circle to mentally catalog the various halls and doors. Definitely plenty of space for Pokemon to roam around in . . .
Brushing her hair back over her shoulders and tucking it behind her ears, she glanced back over at Jessy and then knelt down to poke at a discarded zone pamphlet, crinkled from having gotten wet and then drying out again. There was no real way to tell how old it was. No dates visible, and she wasn't familiar enough with the area to tell if the map was still accurate. Leaving it there for now, she stood and stepped over behind an overturned bench seat to the map left in the glass case on the wall. It was less faded than the pamphlet, but the fine print she was searching through for a copyright was near indecipherable, and she in her focus didn't hear it when Jessy started to call her.
". . . you have?"
Lucy glanced up slightly but didn't fully turn away, squinting down at the print. "Did you say something?" When she didn't get an immediate reply, she did turn around though, tilting her head briefly at the sight. Oh. A Gible. Holding a rock?
Did it look a bit irritated? Maybe more than a bit?
"Jessy-"
The Gible pounced. Lucy made a subdued mewl of alarm in the back of her throat. But there wasn't exactly much she could do in this situation. It wasn't Dragon Rushing her or anything, just trying to nibble her shins off, apparently, and failing due to Jessy's agility. If anything she was mostly sure the little creature just needed to be calmed down. She was holding onto the rock pretty fervently instead of throwing it - maybe that had something to do with it?
"I- I don't know?" she replied to, holding her hands up palms out in a soothing gesture as the Gible continued to try and fail to clear the counter. It was definitely persistent.
With Jessy retreating, the Gible's hopping slowed somewhat, and Lucy edged along the wall from the map until she was in the pokemon's peripheral vision. If it was rabid she was going to have to hope Bijoux was watching in case it came to eat her . . . But when it did spot her, it held up the rock for emphasis and chattered at her angrily.
There was a face on the rock. OK.
"Is that your friend?" she ventured, stepping a little closer. The Gible nodded its head - or more or less its whole body in this case - vigorously. ". . . Well, um, we're both very sorry, about what happened to h-" Did rocks have genders? ". . . your friend. Are they alright?"
The Gible lowered the rock down and stroked it, chattering quietly to it. Lucy continued a slow approach and came to kneel in front of the little dragon, who looked back up at her and nodded its head again. The way its head tilted seemed to suggest the answer was more like, "Well . . . I suppose," and Lucy smiled, carefully reaching over to pet the Pokemon's head. "I'm glad. I'll- um, give my friend a stern talking to and make sure that never happens again, alright?"
The Gible possibly had no idea what she was saying, but appreciated the attention well enough, even offering the rock friend to be petted, which Lucy did, before sending the pair on their way. The Gible shot one more cursory glare over the counter as it waddled away. Lucy waited to see what path the Gible took out of the area before carefully swinging herself up over the counter and venturing into the back room.
Her eyes swept over the back office, the papers and degrading furniture, before finally sweeping up to register where her friend had taken refuge. Lucy blinked, the cat-like stance not lost on her. She smiled reassuringly, nodding at the silent question.
"It left, so it's alright, you can come down." With another glance around she even took hold of an old chair and started to pulled it over for Jessy to use as a step, though she had no doubt the redhead would just as quickly jump down unaided. "I think it was trying to avenge its pet rock."
[730] NOTES
Zone 5 - Passing the disgruntled shark and her rock buddy.
Not wishing to get down from her perch quite yet, as Lucy appeared, Jessy didn’t make a move to leave her hiding place. She simply waited for some kind of all clear, or for that evil like Pacman Monster to come chomping up a storm in here again. Oh lord, what if it was an Aron? Those little things ate metal, right? Or was that something else? She rattled her mind for a moment before Lucy speaking up would call for her attention. Doing a cursory scan of the area for anything else out of place, she relaxed a bit to see her foe had indeed left. Her eyes turned to the chair that Lucy had pulled over for her to use as a means to step down and she honestly would have much rather jump down than use some chair as a make shift ladder.
However, with Lucy being the one to pull it over, Jessy would relent and slowly slide to land on the chair first before hopping to the floor. “Thanks” she commented before quirking a brow at the mention of a pet rock. Glancing back at the lobby where they had encountered the Gible, Jessy recalled the rock she’d stepped on and could only bring her hand to her face in a silent ‘I should have known’ moment. Sighing heavily and turning slightly to inspect the room, she gave a light shrug. “Well, I hope it’s done trying that vengeance scheme, I don’t need to worry about a Gible stalking me out of this place” she grumbled, and idly picked up some of the papers on the shelf that she hadn’t knocked to the floor.
“You find anything interesting, yet?” questioned the red head with a soft sigh.
“Not really . . . a lot of the old maps were hard to read” Lucy answered, causing Jessy to briefly glance her way and see her just gently sifting through some old papers from the shelf as well.
This abandoned hut was looking more and more like just a case of poor handling on the rangers’ part. Not even some of these left behind files were really looking that interesting. Nothing on the papers were noteworthy until she got to a rather peculiar picture. A stone within a display case of some sort, but it wasn’t just some valuable piece of a rock collection. Inside the case was the trademark Odd Keystone of a Spiritomb, but why was it locked up in some sort of case? Furrowing her brows slightly at the sight, she inspected the notes describing the Pokémon as dangerous and having been attacking the visitors to the zone and acting maliciously towards other rare Pokémon here as well, resulting in a dramatic decrease in some populations as it encouraged other Spiritomb to follow her lead. “Hell hath no fury…” she mumbled off handedly as she read over the file notes and paused at the note regarding which ranger station the Spiritomb was being stored in.
Take a lucky guess which one that was!
“Of fucking course…” she sighed and held up the file for Lucy to see. “Sorry to cut it short, but—” she cut herself off and jerked around slightly as she felt eyes digging into her back. Sharp pinches through her mind followed and a familiar knot in her stomach as result of rattled nerves alerted her to just what was lingering nearby. Grabbing Lucy’s hand without another word, she started for the door out of the employee only area with Lucy in tow. As they reemerged into the lounge though, Jessy called out “Jack! C’mon, we’re heading out!” There was no response for a moment, Jessy taking the time to go back over the counter and turn to make sure Lucy was dutifully following. It was relieving to see she was keeping pace, although her eyes were wide. Then there was the cry of her Spearow in the distance, before there was another wave of pinches that made the hair on the back of her neck raise up. “Jack!” she called out again with a sense of urgency. Silence once more, before the bird would emerge from the halls. However, he was not alone. Suddenly the purple cloud of chaos would erupt from the shadows and a wave of nausea would have Jessy reeling back from the incoming mist.
Turning to throw herself back over the counter, she’d quickly grab Lucy and yank her down. Pointing to the door, remembering the windows in the back office, if they were quick, they could esca—
A sudden pain filled cry from Jack made Jessy freeze, before suddenly gesturing for Lucy to start off ahead.
“Jessy–” she briefly heard Lucy start, but Jessy couldn’t afford to argue this right now. Not bothering to wait for Lucy to move, Jessy was already turning back around to see what was going on. Rising back up to peek over the counter, her eye widened to see the bird Pokémon getting knocked back by a Dark Pulse. It didn’t look like the first one to hit him either. He was struggling, almost getting hit by another one sent his way, and the sight tore at her heart. That was her baby and he was hurt.
Shaking her head quickly, Jessy suddenly jumped up to her feet to shout “Jack, get a hold of yourself!” It felt like a wall of pressure instantaneously dropped on her when 108 souls turned their eyes to her. The wave of heaviness that almost overwhelmed her senses nearly cost her her stomach, but she’d be fortunate to keep her lunch. She hunched forward slightly but locked her jaw and focused instead more on Jack’s gaze than the pressing stares of dozens upon dozens eyes coming from the Spiritomb. Bringing her head up to look over at Jack, he had landed in the distance, white feathers engulfing him in a gentle light to start healing himself and getting a hold of himself as instructed. However, his Roost move began to catch the attention of the Spiritomb again and Jessy felt a chill down to her very core that caused her whole body to tremble when the Spiritomb began to turn away. The sudden release of pressure almost felt chilling, oddly enough. No matter the effects, she had to buy Jack time and she didn’t know if Bijoux would be able to come back from wherever he was fast enough to handle this.
“Hey!” she shouted suddenly, pressing up to get onto the counter like she was climbing out of a pool. The Forbidden Pokémon seemed to ignore her at first before she screamed “HEY!” That got the Pokémon’s attention, although the hundred plus souls seemed to be more annoyed than anything as the ghostly figure turned back to Jessy. She rattled her mind for what to say to buy her Spearow some time as the eyes once more fell on her. She felt every soul suddenly crawl over her as if judging her, like a sudden wave of exposure she hadn’t prepared for and it was similar a sudden case of stage fright. Her brain went blank and she didn’t utter a word. The resulting silence in turn caused the Spiritomb to lose her interest and turn away again. Another harsh chill making her shutter would be just what she needed to ignite Jessy to suddenly find her voice. “One hundred and eight!” That made the Pokémon pause for sure. “One hundred and eight individuals all bound to one stone! Ho-How do you even think straight like that?!” The Spiritomb slowly started to turn back towards her, curiosity perked. The gradual attention of the souls was easier to deal with then her unceremoniously colliding with the wall like a high speed car crash.
“It has to hurt right? All you want to rest and yet you have so many people trapped in there. They all must be screaming and shouting, crying and calling out for help! Your souls, they must be under so much strain, and all you want is for it to stop hurting, right?! But do you really think the only way to make it stop is to hurt others like this?!”
The face in the mist of souls suddenly turned to a glare, like a button had been pressed. The look ignited a moment of action from behind, the sound of Lucy reaching to pull Jessy back. But before the Spiritomb unleash a Dark Pulse at Jessy, Jack – with an Agility boost – had recovered and suddenly a Razor Wind would fire off to intercept before the pulse was released. The Spiritomb cried out in pain as Jack took back to the sky. Glancing back to check on her friend, Jessy gave a brief assuring smile as Lucy ducked back behind the door. Her gaze turned back to the Spiritomb once she knew her princess was safe.
“Do any of you even remember who you are?! Where you’re from!? What year is it?! You were all people before you became this, weren’t you?” Jessy rattled on, causing obvious internal conflict with the way the Spiritomb’s body briefly warped and the vortex like shape it possessed seemed to spin faster. In frustration, the Pokémon would try to attack again, only to spark a mini battle with Jack once more, causing Jessy to have to duck down and cover her face from the harsh winds that nearly knocked her off the counter she was sitting on. Shit, when did Jack’s winds get so strong? Avoiding a Hypnosis, the Spearow would drill right through the Spiritomb’s form and ignite a cry of pain from the aggravated souls. At that sound of those cries, Jessy pulled her arms down from her face.
“Jack!” A rough gust of passing wind from the fired up bird made Jessy pause before she shouted, again. “Jack! Back off for a moment!” she suddenly ordered and the Spearow crowed in irritation, but obeyed and turned to land on the counter beside Jessy. Oh he was rearing to go for it again, but both Jessy and Jack would suddenly be greeted by the Spiritomb whipping around with a loud angry scream that made Jessy briefly cringe before she suddenly leaned forward to grip the edge of the counter and scream right back.
Well, that was… Weird. The Spiritomb stared at Jessy like she was an idiot. Panting to catch her breath for a moment, an uneasy calm came after that moment, like everyone had decided to take a second to calm down. “I… I could help you, maybe” Jessy breathed. “I mean, I could try, I can’t guarantee if I could really do anything but…” she thought for a moment, as the Spiritomb let out a low rumbling growl. “No… No, no, I will help you if you let me. You need order, you need someone to help you remember yourselves, that’s a start. To release you from the Keystone, I’ll think of a way, but I can’t do it unless you stop hurting others! Maybe it helps you for a moment, but it hurts even more afterwards right? Like a massive withdrawal?” Arceus, she hoped what she was saying was making sense. Even if it was, the Spiritomb seemed at least interested in what Jessy was saying. Taking a deep breath and slowly sliding across the counter to set her feet down on the ground on the other side, she almost dropped under her own weight but managed to get stand up right. Mental exhaustion, who knew?
Pulling off her hoodie and tossing the safari ball to the side, Jessy held out her arms, showing she had no pokéballs, no weapons, nothing on her person. The Spiritomb seemed to scoff at the gesture, though a few eyes drifted the Safari Ball curiously. Wasn’t that what this person needed to capture her? Either way, the majority responded with a deadpan gaze, almost like asking if Jessy was seriously trying that whole ‘I come in peace’ bullshit. Jessy lowered her arms though as the Spiritomb at least acknowledged it. She didn’t venture closer but continued “What do you have to lose? I won’t even use the Safari Ball, I won’t put you in any of those kinds of things. I just need you to promise you won’t hurt anyone anymore and we can work to free all of you together… Don’t you at least want to know if it’s possible? Don’t you at least want to try?”
The Spiritomb looked back at her with a hard stare, and once more the room fell silent and was thick with tension. The smallest of voices could be heard coming from the Spiritomb, though what they said was hard to understand. What sounded like some shouting and muffled screaming from within started to stir and the Forbidden Pokémon leveled Jessy with another flat look. After what felt like an eternity, suddenly the ghost began to evaporate down into the Odd Keystone sitting on the floor. The stone gave off an ominous glow, before slowly fading and just seeming to be an ordinary rock once more. Seeing the retreat, Jessy wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. Was it allowing her to take the Pokémon with her? Or did it simply just not want to bother anymore? Debating her choices, Jessy glanced back once more to make sure Jack and Lucy were fine, before slowly starting to approach the Odd Keystone on the floor.
2,247 words later and I Attempted to Friendship Capture Spiritomb! 2/6
She had to keep reminding herself that ghost and dark types were within Jessy's area of expertise and that there was nothing she could really do to help matters at this point. Tucked against the doorway, though, watching the whole exchange play out, it was hard for her to keep from flinching at every sudden movement and bolting out to grab Jessy and drag her back. The Spiritomb was just so volatile, and the sight of Jack being hurt pierced her too. Wherever Bijoux was, he either wasn't close enough to know what was going on or, like her and taking a cue from Jessy's instruction to Jack, hanging back to let Jessy do her thing.
Though things were dicey at first, Lucy was transfixed as Jessy began to get a handle on the situation. Her fingers curled around the molding of the doorframe, breathe caught as the other girl threw her things aside as a show of goodwill. Jessy didn't shy away from settling things with a fight when it came to humans, but it was much different when it came to Pokemon. More often than not the redhead took the route of understanding and friendship, offering a Pokemon liberty first. She was still reluctant to admit that her own Pokemon partners were hers, even. All just more testaments to how truly caring and protective her best friend was.
As Jessy finally seemed to be getting through to the Spiritomb, a small, proud smile formed on Lucy's lips and she closed her eyes, forehead resting against the doorframe. She listened as the Spiritomb's souls seemed to be arguing amongst themselves, deciding maybe, but Lucy could already tell just by a shift in the atmosphere of the room that all was well.
Finally, she looked back up to see the pokemon receding back into the stone at its base, and after waiting another moment Lucy slowly moved to stand centered in the doorway, watching. When Jessy looked back at her, she nodded, giving the other girl a reassuring smile. As Jessy went to move closer, Lucy peered around the room, but there was still no sign of Bijoux lurking. She had little doubt that the Servine had been watching the whole event, though. He had a way of getting around places in whatever way suited him. He would show up again when he felt it was a good time.
Moving forward from the doorway, Lucy would go to stand at the counter, her hands on rested on it ready to boost herself up and over. She waited to watch what Jessy would do with the Spiritomb's stone first, though, cautious should there be any more surprises.
If anything, this was more fuel for Lucy to insist that Jessy was just as good working with Pokemon as anyone else was. It also pretty well solved how this ranger's station had come to be in the state that it was. How sad it must have been though, to be isolated out here by itself, just frustrated and in pain.
". . . You did a good thing, Jessy," she said quietly.
The Odd Keystone didn’t rumble or stir, it didn’t glow or give off anymore signs of danger, in fact as Jessy picked it up, she was surprised to find it was actually relatively light. She could hear some movement behind her and slowly turned to see Lucy being the first to approach her after the previous collision. Nothing was said at first, Jessy just taking a moment to scan her friend to make sure she was okay, before Lucy would speak up to praise her for her actions. Cracking a little grin in response, she gave a small shrug and looked back down to the Odd Keystone she held. “Yeah, a kinda stupid good thing, I almost threw up a couple of times because of that, doll...” Jessy let out a soft chuckle at her own joke, before seeming to move into a bit more of a solemn edge. “But in all honesty, I just gave her a chance” she softly replied. “Nothing special.”
Her gaze would drift up to Jack coming back to land on her shoulder and eye the Odd Keystone in silent annoyance. There was a silent stare down as Jack glared at the rock, Jessy glared at Jack and the Odd Keystone didn’t really have eyes to stare with. After a few seconds passed, Jessy simply reached up to scratch underneath Jack’s chin and turn her gaze back to Lucy. The previous incident had taken a bit of a toll on her honestly, but she was fine to keep going as long as she didn’t have to handle another conflict like that, again. “Anyways, you wanna continue exploring this place? It’ll probably be way safer now that the Gate Keeper is on our side” she lightly joked, turning the Odd Keystone to Lucy to show whom she was referring to as the Ruins Keeper. The stone gave a soft purple glow in recognition, Jack’s feathers ruffling a bit in response. “Or shall we go back out into the wilderness and find us a trail to blaze?”
I foresee jessy crashing almost immediately when the two get home because #tired
Lucy just continued to smile warmly as Jessy went on to downplay what she had managed to accomplish. It was a little reckless, yes, but sometimes it was alright to be a little reckless for the sake of somebody else. Lucy shrugged slightly. "No one else gave her one," she pointed out. "I think that makes it pretty special."
Happy to see that Jack was alright, if a little disgruntled, she glanced around again for any sign of Bijoux, but with all apparent danger averted, he had probably gone back to exploring. She turned back to Jessy, noting that the ordeal seemed to have taken a lot out of her. Part of her wanted to suggest going home right then, but if Jessy knew it was because of her, she would probably insist on sticking around longer. Maybe just a little bit longer couldn't hurt - besides, Jessy could probably use from rest before even making the trek back to the entrance to the Zone. Someone had to look out for her health when Jessy herself wouldn't.
Smiling slightly at the Spiritomb as the stone glowed a little, Lucy peered up at Jerry. ". . . We could look around in here just a little more? See if Bijoux has found anything?" He likely hadn't, but by the time they had tracked down the Servine, hopefully Jessy would have recovered a bit. Walking around in here would have to be a lot less strenuous than on the trails. "After that we could head back outside . . . Oh, would you like some water?" She turned to reach into her little pack for a bottle. She could probably use some, even just after having had to chase Jack all the way out here, and then evading that Gible.
In the name of friendship, I bless this post!
