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With Noibat's help, some semi-hearty cheering and encouragement without moving, the team was able to start moving the pillar across the stream. The path for the less water-worthy Pokemon among them was becoming clear. That was until they had almost reached their goal. The pillar proved short enough to start dipping down into the stream before it finished bridging the gap. A dip of her toes into the cold water was enough to prompt some movement on Noibat's part, primarily scooting up some on the pillar before her lower half got submerged with it. The other side of the pillar was raising into the air with the Clobbopus who had decided to help too still stuck to it. If she wasn't about to take a freezing bath she might have laughed at the situation. The feeling almost left with Zeta's arrival back on the scene after being so adamant about leaving everyone behind. But go figure no one could be that heartless and here the Zorua was looking to help. They addressed Noibat directly though, telling her to move her butt out of the way which prompted Noibat to finally stand up and maybe start moving. Weighing down the end that was tipping up was certainly an idea, one that made enough sense. Noibat wasn't sure how much weight she had to offer to the situation but in the worst case scenario she could just get off the pillar and cheer the gang on again. That'd do it for sure. But first Zeta started a slew of puns about the Clobbopus' situation. Noibat snorted, trying to stifle a laugh but failing miserably. "No, come on." She started berating herself mentally. "Puns are stupid, don't laugh at that." she thought again while her body clearly disagreed. She raised a wing to her lips as if trying to stop herself from saying something. "He looks a little octopied." Noibat thought again against her own attempt at better judgement. This pun however did not stay in her own mind. Like her mod comment before it she unknowingly broadcast it into the minds of everyone nearby. Still oblivious to this new power the bat couldn't stop herself from actually laughing now that she had joined in mentally with Zeta. "God I needed that." Noibat managed to say as she calmed down and continued walking toward the other end of the pillar to aid in the effort of weighing it down. Of course she soon cleared her throat briefly as if to say that was over now and she had regained her composure. "Not that it's cool to laugh at his misfortune" she started saying to Z. while trying to keep a straight face. She was a bit uncertain which side of this she landed on despite how good laughing like that had felt for her nerves. She was trying to garner favor with the Zorua but not alienate herself from anyone who may have disapproved. A losing battle no doubt but nothing a little extra good faith couldn't aid with. "Hang on, we'll get ya down! Or the pillar at least, sorta on you to let go of it." she called to the dangling Clobbopus before having to stifle another chuckle at the absurdity of the situation she found herself in. It was almost enough to forget the dread of being ripped away from her proper life as a human and turned into a bat. At least for a little bit. OOC

Having used most of his mental faculties to produce the ceremonial site suggestion, Reinaan was relieved that the others in the group had additional ideas to add to the mix. Damien of all people ended up the most insightful for the situation. It was almost strange to hear him speak so much at once but the draken was more focused on the potential places to investigate to ask how the man knew this much about elven territory. A shrine and former tomb, a lake with changing magical energy, and a Dinosaur Graveyard were discussed in succession. For the fiery hunter, the idea of the graveyard was a strong pull. But much like the idea of chasing the wolf pack, Reinaan yielded to a more logical approach. Changing magical energy certainly sounded like something someone who stole a relic could exploit, or even just be the Demon Gate itself. With the lake decided, the boy readied his things to leave. The trip to the lake was more of the same grass, bushes and trees as far as the eye could see that the group had been confronted with since setting foot in this land. What caught Reinaan's attention was the shift in the fauna as they approached the lake. The trees had become thinner and began emitting various colors of light. If he didn't know the forest was potentially dangerous he would have been caught up in the moment simply staring. But the draken remained vigilant in his watch as the group progressed. Now a clearing and the lake itself presented themselves and the strangeness of the area only continued. Small huts covered in color changing grass, random spouts on the water's surface, moving mushrooms; none of this seemed natural. So naturally the changing magical energy had to be the cause which Madelyn soon confirmed. Damien could only laugh while Reinaan for his part was more confused than anything. "Doesn't magic normally have a purpose?" Reinaan tried to ask Ziiyol who had materialized at his side. But the fire spirit for her part was rambling to herself about the potential for the colors of fire she could make by burning things here. A bit of a lost cause there. But the boy was sure to remind her not to set anything on fire given the more explosive nature of some of her spells. For his part the draken wanted to investigate the small huts. There would be a lot to search through but that just made them the ideal hiding spots surely. Leaving Kloqah and Ziiyol to their respective business idling, the Fire Chosen readied his halberd and made his way over to the nearest grass hut. The openings were small as were the huts themselves. Not so small that a person couldn't use them as shelter. But they were small enough that Reinaan, still not fully grasping how much taller he'd gotten on this journey, didn't think it wise to try and step all the way in. His head would do for now to see what was inside. This first hut held something of a surprise. A two foot long fish partially obscured by moss was just lying there. It moved its head up in response to the draken's head and spat a stream of water at the boy's face. "What the-" Reinaan shouted before the water garbled his speech into nonsense. The shock of it all had him back up from the entrance and falling back onto the ground behind him. while not entirely mud, it was still enough to dirty his back side generally and it served as a reminder he needed to polish his scales again if they were ever allowed into the elven city. But the draken wasn't going to take this sitting down. With a huff Reinaan returned to the fish's hiding hole and this time thrust his halberd in, piercing the thing's side. Vengeance and dinner, quite the combo. The fish wriggled on the end of his weapon for a time as it died and Reinaan returned it to Kloqah's back to prepare later. Or just eat raw, it all depended on how mad he was still feeling. Still, this was not enough to discourage his search, but the hunter's halberd led most of the inquiries going forward. The other huts Reinaan checked did not contain rude fish he had to murder but they did contain other things. One had the cores of apples in them, not that the carnivore knew the name of the fruit he simply recognized it as a fruit. Quelling his gag reflex he reached in and touched one of the cores and pulled it out of the hut to examine it. The bite marks on it didn't look normal. But normal to Reinaan was predator-style pointed fangs and the like. These more matched the flatter teeth he'd seen in humans, halflings, and presumably elves as well. They seemed a few days old which was definitely something to go off. Another hut had bones in it, clean of meat but not themselves eaten like a predator would. Someone had been cooking something, maybe a rabbit. Again several days old at least. With these two discoveries, Reinaan shifted his attention to the ground around the huts. Ignoring any footprints he himself had made, he did notice impressions that could have matched a shoe. Of course there were animal footprints as well, and it looked like something had been dragged over the ground from the way certain prints were blurred and obscured. "Dammit, not fresh enough." He muttered upon concluding someone had definitely been here some days ago, but he couldn't speak to where they were now. Still it was worth reporting. "Someone was here a couple days ago!" Reinaan shouted back to the others caught up in their own investigations or discussion. "No clue where they went but they stayed here for a bit."

Z. was about to say something actually rather nice to Es the Rotom as she made observations about the virtues of practice (or rather, they would have if they didn’t have that mental note still lingering to yell at her for not shutting up when asked), but they were interrupted by more antics from the other side of the stream before they could. The most pressing was the Cubone, whose insults were rather tame except for the part where they thought Z. was male for some reason. Z. flinched at that thought, and the only reason they didn’t leap back into the water to give Cross the lecture/beating they deserved was Hector managing to get there first (It did mean they got to store up some good licks for the next time, though). “Yeah -” Z. said. This time, they were cut short by a powerful voice in their head, Since when does this community listen to mods? It didn’t feel like their thought, but they sure did agree with it, and they very nearly freaked out again, but stopped just short remembering how cold the water was the first time around. Like, they would, obviously, if they had to, but at least they could wait until the Cubone or anyone else dared try again. Speaking of trying again, “Yeah,” Z. said as they turned back around to head onwards into the rest of the dungeon. “Practice is hard, though. You can’t just do the thing, ‘cause if you do it wrong, even if your results are good, you’re just going to keep doing it wrong. Not ‘practice makes perfect,’ but ‘perfect needs perfect practice,’ right? “I mean, I hope they do well. It sucks to see ruined potential.” Z. paused, almost like they were done speaking, but then added, “So let’s get the hell out of here,” and walked into the misty darkness concealing whatever else the dungeon had in store for them. “It sucks to see ruined potential.” That was one of the first headers for their fic review series. It had cycled through a few throughout the years, generally in keeping with whatever their most recent entry had contained (other highlights included “Sturgeon’s Law is bunk -- it’s all garbage” and “Putting the ‘fix’ in ‘fix fic’”). That particular header was in response to “La Rose De L’Academie // The Rose of The Academy,” a crossover between two-decades-old anime that, while technically proficient (aside from a clear overuse of em-dashes), demonstrated pretty clearly that the author had no understanding of the themes of either work they were ficcing from. Z. remembered that it sprung out into a whole argument, about death of the author and the subversion of expectations, none of which was very interesting. Z.’s final message before moving on was, “Listen, you can go buy a style guide, you can memorize all the rules, do all the homework like a good little yuppie fuck, but that’s all skin. And you know what else has really good skin? Fucking red delicious apples. You know what else the red delicious is known for? Not living up to its fucking appearance.” Why did they remember that, aside from the word association? Maybe it was the lack of other memories? That because there were just vacant holes where their real life should have gone, all they had were forum experience? The last time this had happened, there was all that hubbub, but now, away from most everyone else, the reality of what they were and what they were doing started to set in. “If I stop moving, I might die like a Sharpedo,” Es had said. Maybe that was the same for Z. Further introspection was ruined by the corridor they and Es were walking/floating respectively widening out to another room, this one about as big as the one they had just escaped from. It also had water, though it encircled an area walled off on all sides save for one opening, which was simply blocked off by a door with a large keyhole. The rest of it wasn’t featureless, but none of it helped with the both literal and figurative central mystery of the room (or the ruins as a whole, for that matter). “Well, piss,” Z. said, walking up to the door and giving it a good shake. Either it was way too heavy or simply locked like the keyhole implied. Worse, though, was having to go back and tell everyone else, as even though they’d hoped their “if we’re not supposed to go this way first” speech had prepared everyone for this, they still expected an earful for just facing everyone again, and while they could deal with that, obviously, it wasn’t about to be a fun experience. “Well, unless you can ghost through that or something, I guess,” Z. said, but they started heading back all the same. They came back to the most scene of all time. Apparently, someone had had the bright idea that, instead of swimming, they should roll one of the pillars over to make a makeshift bridge, not considering that at some point enough of the pillar would be hanging over the edge that it would just tip right over. The Noibat on top certainly wasn’t doing them any favors either. Even worse, it appeared to have taken the Clobbopus with them, and he was now dangling off the front while Hector the Falinks and the rest could only watch on. “Jesus Christ, I leave you alone for like five minutes and now look what you’ve done.” There were small things they didn’t want to admit, like how the trip back was made much easier by just jumping onto the fallen pillar and avoiding the water entirely, but they still couldn’t help but chuckle at everyone’s misfortune. Z. only just managed to calm down enough to talk to the Noibat again, “Hey, scootch your butt, we’re gonna see if we can’t push this thing back down,” but getting up close to the helpless Clobbopus just opened the floodgates back up again. “How’s it hanging?” Z. cackled. “Bet you feel like a sucker, don’t you? You pull a mussel or something?”