Pokemon: Mind and Soul (Retry) [IC / PG / Probably Not Accepting / Co-Hosted by Skaia]

[radio414]

Quinn did not realize how much hir legs had gotten used to the constant motion of the boat, and it took a few seconds -- okay, more than a few seconds. Minutes, really -- to reacquaint Quinnself with dry land again, to the point that they had to waddle over to a dockside bench and sit on it for quite a while. If not for the fact that she might have been poked back up to activity -- by Cassiopeia or anyone else -- Quinn might have made like Belladonna and collapsed right there on the dock. What had made this different from xyr arrival to the region, Quinn wondered? Was it simply the type of boat? Or perhaps the act of signing faer name on the interior of the ship had affected his ghostly self. Quinn had joked about immortality, of leaving something behind on the material plane forever. They had not considered the consequences of such an act! Quinn slumped in zir seat, slipping down the bench until Quinn’s back was where his butt was supposed to go, looked up at the sky, and sighed.

Despite eir malaise, things were looking up in the friends department. Pisces had proven himself to be a valuable ally. Quinn was going to remember the first time the Goldeen had discovered his affinity for water, unleashing a Water Pulse at just the right moment to catch both the enemy Pokémon and its trainer off guard, quite fondly for weeks to come, a battle so remarkable that any attempt to describe it on a page would surely fail. Plus, Jacklyn and Annelise had agreed to join Bridget and Quinn on their adventures, having just lost a member of their own party. It was refreshing to know that it was not something that only happened to Quinn.

Cassiopeia had gotten stronger, too. It was not any sort of outwardly observable strength, but Quinn knew her better than anyone and could see it in her eyes. It was an intangible quality, something to be seen only in how Cassiopeia observed the world around her, how she sized up her competition, or how, in this very moment, she yanked on Quinn’s hand, telling Quinn however she could to get over this vertiginous spell and get a move on. “Alright! Alright! You silly balloon,” Quinn said, using whatever counterweight Cassiopeia could provide to help pull zymself back to its feet. The world felt much more stable now, and Quinn went off to continue his adventure into Korova’s mainland proper.

There were so many new things to see! Quinn’s hometown of Eterna City had its label, of course, but it was so old and run-down that sometimes Quinn felt that the name needed to be reevaluated. Skrelp Harbor had clear signs of age as well, of course, but the fact that its history was unknown to Quinn made such wear and tear exciting instead of melancholic. Bridget had suggested meeting at the Pokémon Center, but those buildings were all the same. No, the lighthouse had attracted everybody else’s attention, and as Quinn caught up with the group, she saw that it was not just Quinn’s group that had found the landmark fascinating.

It did not feel quite the same as the Malamar statue Quinn, Bridget, and Nathaniel had encountered, but it might as well have, the way Quinn desired to get closer. Quinn weaved through the crowd, pushing where he could. Bridget had gotten the same idea, going so far as to knock on the door. The response from the crowd only piqued Quinn’s curiosity further, and judging from Bridget’s face, she seemed to recognize the synchronicity as well.

But it also seemed Bridget did not notice her own ghostly companion in the crowd, turning the other way and heading off. Quinn had to run after Bridget and tug on the back of her shirt. “I heard you express curiosity about the ethereal,” Quinn said, staring up at Bridget. It was a statement of fact. They both knew what was coming next.

[LordCowCow]

"Ahem! Our first order of business is to find something interesting to do here! So team, let's search for clues!" 

"Woo!" Anneliese cheered, though it was not much of a cheer as she kept her voice down when doing so. Her two new friends headed off in the direction of the lighthouse. Bridget had mentioned meeting up later which, Anneliese surmised, must mean that they were meant to find different adventures to go on to regale each other with later.

All this said she wasn't sure about going off on her own. So she turned towards Jacklyn again, her hands clasped behind her back as she leaned towards the girl, "so, shall we find some adventure together?" 

Suddenly a voice cut through the general noise of the harbor, "and I told you I am NOT going down there again! You never told me it'd be that....like that!"

The voice was coming from a tall man, accompanied by a shorter man, who were hastily getting out of wet suits and tossing them onto the dock before storming off. 

Leaving a woman with red-hair in a ponytail, pouting and with her hands on her hips, standing beside what looked like pile of scuba gear.

"Oh my, but does that not sound somewhat...adventurous?" Anneliese said. She took Jacklyn by the hand and pulled her along, "come come, before she goes away!"

As they got closer it did seem like the woman was gathering up the gear into a nearby cart where a Persian was laying in front of it with a harness loosely attached. However as the two approached she turned to them with a big smile. "Well hello there, aren't you a cute young couple!" She declared. Then she put a finger to her chin and tilted her head, "seems you're in a hurry, is there something I can do for you? Oh, but if it's goods or services you'll need you'll have to pay upfront!"

[vivi_]

“I heard you express curiosity about the ethereal.”

Much as Bridget had expected, Quinn did in fact show up sooner or later. What she didn't expect was Quinn to already be here! She must have failed to spot them. He was quite short, after all.

"An' would ya look at that, here's my expert on the paranormal now," Bridget smiled. "If you'll excuse us."

Both of them were here for a shared purpose, so all that was left was to pursue it. Bridget pushed the door open, and led the way inside. She wasn't sure what she'd expect a haunted building to look like, but "dark and decrepit" was her first guess.

It was, at the very least, dark. Certainly not in perfect shape, but not in such a state that Bridget would describe it as decrepit either. Run-down or dingy, perhaps. This then brought her to the task at hand. Initially, she had planned to just gather some information about the lighthouse, but that crowd laughing at her had gone and gotten on her nerves. This was personal now. She planned to come here and de-haunt this lighthouse and/or get her answers from the ghosts if the living weren't going to make themselves useful, or more realistically, prove to all those people that the place was never haunted to begin with. A task for which she was thankful to have Quinn's company and expertise.

"Right. As a ghost yourself, Quinn, where abouts would you float 'round when yer not busy... spookin' people?? Seekin' vengeance??"

"Well, I would be here, would I not?" Quinn said. "But if I were them... A ghost can be drawn to areas of potent psychic energy -- not the type, mind you, or not just the Psychic-type. A leyline confluence, for example, or one of several sacred sites around the world. Have you heard the stories of Lavender Tower?  But psychic energy is very versatile. Anything a ghost was associated with in life can be a manifestation point. Even old memories. If this place is as haunted as they say, I would imagine they would be sailors?"

"An' if they're sailors, first place that comes to their mind in a lighthouse is prob'ly the light up top." Bridget looked up, to the space above her, then back down to her level. The fastest, and in fact only way to get up there, would be the stairs that spiraled their way up the lighthouse's length. With a friendly nudge to Quinn, and a nod toward the stairs, she further commented "Hope yer good wif stairs."

[Skaia]

Jacklyn looked over to the two people leaving the water as Anneliese seemed interested in them as well. As the girl prompted to her adventure, Jacklyn smiled brightly, "yeah, let's go!" As the two of them approached the red headed woman, Jacklyn was immediately made curious by her sales pitch. "So like, what do you sell?"

"Whatever I can stock up on, bits and bobs, odds and ends, bric-a-brac, knickknacks and miscellanea."

Her curiosity only grew at the increasingly vague descriptions that the woman gave. "Oh, that sounds cool." Of course what she had come for was not any old thingamajig but instead the prospect of adventure. Pointing towards the scuba gear the girl asked, "is that also yours then?"

"It sure is! Aaaactually, I had hired some people to go treasure diving but for some unknown reason they suddenly had to back out. It really is a shame it's not an experience many people get to have."

"Treasure? Diving?!" Jacklyn's eyes lit up as the girl immediately stepped in closer to the shop lady.

"Oh yes, as I said I sell all sorts of things and sometimes that means searching for treasure. Unfortunately I can't do it myself so I thought to get people to help me out, but it seems that I will have to give up on that." she said with a deep sigh.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that!" Jacklyn placed her hand on the woman's shoulder to reassure her, smiling bright and eager. "If there's adventure to be had we'll gladly go diving. Right Anne?"

"Oh yes, of course! But why would you not just use a submersible?" Anneliese asked. And the woman looked over at Jacklyn with an eyebrow raised.

"Don't worry about it," the girl brushed off the scuba lady's concerns, before she looked back to Anneliese. "Well, I don't know if there's one here but besides that it's not the same as feeling the thrill of the adventure of swimming down into the bottom of the ocean and finding the treasure with your own hands. Or like, something like that, right!"

"Oh, yes, that's right! You really get it!" The girl said and nodded her head. "So then of course you will need to rent out my equipment which the price of which I will take from your payment, which of course will be based on how much treasure you return with. But there's no need to worry about the money I'll handle all the math so you can focus on your adventure."

Being possessed of no business acumen nor concern, Jacklyn nodded to the woman as her excitement overtook her. "Well that sounds like a good deal to me. How about it Anne, let's go diving!"

 

Edited November 29, 2025 by Skaia

[radio414]

“I wonder,” Quinn said. “Not being good with stairs would be the expectation, after all. There is precedent for traumatic experiences producing negative reactions even when temporally separated from the event. Even subconsciously, memories could start boiling up, encoded within the physical body until the worst possible moment. Then again, of course, I imagine my form is less and less physical by the day.” Fae took a first step up the lighthouse staircase. “Well, that is one down, and no ill effects at all.”

The lighthouse did not seem so tall compared to the rest of the city, and indeed, on the times that Quinn did look down, the ground did not seem so far away. Quinn had learned from experience how short it would take to reach the ground from seemingly high places when he had fallen out of a tree later in her life. Still, Quinn figured it would do good to keep further thoughts at bay by forcing itself to the front of the two-person expedition (to dampen the flight impulse) and to instead focus on further expositing to Bridget behind them. “This is my first time seeing a lighthouse up close,” Quinn said. “I believe I mentioned my hometown of Eterna City to you before. It is not waterless -- there is a spring where Water-type Pokémon occasionally congregate -- but it is nevertheless landlocked on all sides, and certainly more known for the mountain it neighbors. I have seen depictions of lighthouses, of course. Many of them in documentary form in preparation for this adventure we are now on, though some fictional as well. I remember one rather vivid filmic depiction of a lighthouse that seemed to erode its keepers’ sanity, just as waves might erode a shoreline.”

All at once, Quinn burst into an old mariner's hymn:

Doodle let me go, me girls! Doodle let me go!
Hurrah! Me yaller girls, doodle let me go!

But two things prevented the young ghost from continuing past the refrain. The first was simple memory – they did not remember any more, and Quinn considered hirself polite enough to not drill it into eir companion’s head. The second was a shift in focus, back to the lighthouse they were ascending. The continuous close proximity had only amplified Quinn’s feelings towards the thing, an intense curiosity that could not be sated. Even as their other hand gripped the outer railing of the staircase tight enough to whiten Quinn’s already quite-pale knuckles, ae still reached out with its other hand to touch -- almost caress -- the lighthouse exterior. It felt cool to the touch.

Quinn felt a touch on his shoulder and turned around. “Hm? Did you need something, Bridget?”

Bridget, for her part, also seemed to have been relying on Quinn’s one-sided discussion to keep her attention off of stair-climbing. Quinn watched her eyes refocus back onto Quinn’s person. “What? No, I didn’t-”

Before Quinn could react, Bridget was pointing at her. “Oi, there’s a hand on you!”

Quinn’s eyes snapped to zir shoulder, only just catching the hand before it faded from view. “A fellow!” Quinn said, eyes growing even wider with each passing word. “Hello! Well, it is good to find something empirical, especially in the light. Perhaps I should point any future nonbelievers of my condition in the region this way. And here I was worried that we might have to wait around until nightfall to encounter anything ethereal or astral in nature.” The best part was, the apparition was not immediately hostile or preventative. Nothing stopped Quinn from taking a further step up the lighthouse. Whatever fear Quinn might have had was gone. “Just think, perhaps we might find this hand’s owner at the top! Come!” And despite their size, Quinn started taking the stairs two at a time.

[vivi_]

Bridget generally considered herself a girl who stuck to rationality, facts, and explanation. The sky was blue because of how light waves scattered and blue happening to be the color that was best at it. Water-type attacks weren't very effective against grass-type pokémon because water was in fact good for plants. For most of her life, this approach to life had served her pretty well, though thinking about it did bring back to mind a few sarcastic "you must be fun at parties" comments. However, there was no textbook explanation for an entire hand suddenly appearing on Quinn's shoulder then disappearing just as quickly. Well, maybe a couple. A psychic's illusion, or perhaps a trick of the light that led herself and Quinn to mistake a small, roughly hand-shaped pokémon for an actual hand. Neither of those were the simple answer though. The simple answer, of course, was ghosts.

And that was the problem: Bridget never was one to believe in ghosts. Ghost-type pokémon? Huge misnomer. She even wrote an essay about it once. It failed miserably.

“Just think, perhaps we might find this hand’s owner at the top! Come!”

As one of the nonbelievers Quinn had alluded to herself, at least she was able to agree that the top of the lighthouse was worth checking out. As fae began picking up his pace, Bridget responded in kind. To avoid losing track of her investigative partner, of course. As Bridget soon learned, however, he was faster than her, and her own breath quickly began running out once she tried to match their pace. So she stopped for just a moment, to catch her breath. During her respite, something happened. Hunched over, breathing deep to try and regain the energy she spent in her futile effort to keep pace with Quinn, she felt a weighty something fall onto her back. She wasn't sure what it was, but she did know the hand on Quinn's shoulder had already left her a bit shaken.

So, naturally, an entire unknown, previously-unseen something dropping on her from above caused all that rationality and composure Bridget worked to maintain to go flying out the window.

The lighthouse echoed with the shrill scream of one Galarian girl as she turned and flailed about in place, trying to reach behind her to grab whatever had latched itself onto her, and with the gurgling noises of whatever had gotten her. When it became clear that she couldn't really get a good grip on her hopefully-not-spectral assailant, especially with it wiggling out of her grasp whenever she did manage to touch it, she did the first thing she could think of. Desperately reach into her pocket, yank out the first poké ball her fingers touched, and open it. She didn't even care which of her pokémon was inside; she just needed some help.

The chittering that joined the chorus of Bridget's and her assailant's yelps was definitively that of her dear Trapinch, Arthur. In any other circumstance, the noise would have done wonders to help wind her back down.

"ARTHUR GRAB THIS BLOODY THING OFF ME!!"

For a brief moment, Bridget felt the additional weight of an entire Trapinch thrown on her body. An extra force that did nearly send her down the stairs, but thankfully, railings existed. And the railing once again came in handy when the weight of both things was suddenly removed, though the shift did still cause her to stumble down just a couple steps. Which was fine by her; she was going to take a few steps back anyway, turning to meet the phantom of the lighthouse face-to-face at last...

Only, this was no ghost. It was just a Shellos. One that had only just freed itself from Arthur's jaws, and looked ready to tussle with the orange menace.

"Just this little thing...? Right, good work, Arthur."

Bridget and the Shellos exchanged a long stare as she returned Arthur to his poké ball, in an attempt to avoid having a full-blown battle on the stairs of a lighthouse. That sounded wildly unsafe.

"You really should try not to f--pbbtpbtpbtpbtbthh!!"

As Bridget tried to give the Shellos some helpful advice, she found herself rudely interrupted by the wild pokémon firing a Water Gun directly into her face. Then making more of those noises, wiggling about excitedly. Was it... laughing at her? Rude! First the crowd outside the lighthouse, now the a wild Shellos in the lighthouse! Then, as if that wasn't enough, it spat one final cough of water at Bridget, before slinking its way onto the railing then up the stairs, trying to flee the scene of the crime.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Bridget reached out, grabbing the Shellos and yanking it off the railing. With its face pointing away from her, the Shellos was powerless to spray her again, and Bridget in turn simply tried not to think about the sticky mucus-like substance that was getting all over her hands as a result. Between the relief that it was just a perfectly typical pokémon, and the outrage at how it was acting toward her, Bridget had one silver lining to look at in all this. She wasn't even remotely tired anymore. The adrenaline from the initial scare worked wonders to cure her fatigue. Now all that was left was to continue up the stairs, at a brisk but sustainable pace, to show Quinn the true terror of the lighthouse.

Well, hopefully the true terror, at least.

[LordCowCow]

JA

"Well that sounds like a good deal to me. How about it Anne, let's go diving!"

"Why, yes, sounds delightful! Who knew how easy it was to find an adventure!"

"Excellent, great! I knew you two were the right ones for the job!" As they got together the equipment, taking great care as they helped the two into it to explain a variety of terms and conditions and liability that went over Anneliese's head.

Once they were ready the red-haired young lady also brought up, "of course, any Pokemon that are able to go into the water can go with you but make sure not to send any others out! I do have some equipment for Pokemon as well, if you have one you want to take with you. I'll even let you rent it at a discount!"

"None for me, Meredith can come along with us!" Anneliese said and sent out her Shellder. Who looked at the merchant, and her wide grin, and immediately clamped shut. Anneliese scooped up the Pokemon and turned to Jacklyn. "Shall we be off, then?"

---

BQ

Bridget was having a tough time. She had fallen behind Quinn who had continued up while they dealt with their fierce foe the Shellos. Quinn reached the top of the stairs, and an old creaky trapdoor, before Bridget could catch up.

And to make matters worse as Quinn opened up said trapdoor Bridget felt a hand poke through the stairs and grab one of her ankles before vanishing with the sound of laughter as it caused her to trip on her rushed way up the stairs.

When Quinn entered the room at the top of the lighthouse they would see obvious signs of someone having been living there. 

A sleeping bag was off to one side with a lantern next to it. Along with piles of stuff here and there. One of which being full of snack food. And another filled with comic books.

The biggest sign of someone living there however...

Was the living boy that was laying on top of said sleeping bag. He was laying on his stomach, with a comic book open in front of him, and a bag of chips next to that. He had just taken a handful of chips and stuffed them in his mouth when he heard the trapdoor open and he and Quinn locked eyes for a moment.

"Oo the eck aw oo?" 

[radio414]

Quinn did not notice that Bridget had fallen behind until he had poked her head through the latch at the top of the lighthouse. The world at the top seemed much brighter than it had at the bottom. Quinn had to squint even when not looking directly at the sun, and looked back down as well to let their eyes adjust, which was how fae noticed in the first place. It was not the only thing that Quinn noticed, however -- there were two other new predicaments to face.

Well, that was a bit rude to think. The lighthouse occupant (first impressions of the boy did not strike him as a “keeper”) was not a “predicament” unless you were socially unable to meet new people. Quinn was perfectly able in that aspect, and so really the boy was more like a “thing that needed responding to.” “Hello, yes, just give me one moment,” Quinn said. The boy had an accent similar to Bridget’s, though much denser and even harder to parse than Bridget’s ever was. Part of Quinn wanted to wait until Bridget caught up so she could act as an intermediary and translator.

The other predicament was truly a predicament, however. As Quinn had shifted hir bag in the final ascent, it had noticed that the bag was lighter than it was previously. Part of Quinn hoped that, if there was a hole in zir bag, at least Bridget would find whatever Quinn had lost while catching up, but that hope was lost when Quinn discovered no holes anywhere in eir bag. Worse, there were, in fact, things missing that would have resulted in a lighter bag. Quinn no longer had either his dozen or so Sitrus Berries nor her satchel for Normandie’s berries.

Disaster! Quinn had already excused xyrself, and yet Quinn felt the need to do it again. Quinn could imagine Normandie finding out later, in a moment of weakness, and reacting badly. Maybe Quinn would say something like, “I never knew the right time to tell you.” That could not happen. The temporal gap in the information exchange would be more frustrating than the information itself. Quinn’s relationship with zir Pokémon had to be based on mutual trust. Quinn fished around in their bag again, once to make sure that he had not missed anything, then again to pull out Normandie’s Premiere Ball. “Normandie, listen to me,” Quinn said. “Listen to me. My berry pouch has either been misplaced or pilfered, and yours has gone missing as well. If the fault is my own malfeasance, please allow me to remedy that. We can procure more berries for you. And if the fault turns out to be someone or something else, at least allow me to facilitate your vengeance. Either way, I am at least somewhat at fault for not noticing earlier, and you have my apologies.” The Premiere Ball shook, but not in a manner that suggested aggression, or, at least, not immediate aggression. Not that Quinn had been nervous otherwise. Quinn and Normandie had reached an understanding before, right? This was a trial, but no more of one than ones they had already faced together.

Quinn stood up straight, and finally crossed the threshold to the lighthouse’s platform, and faced the boy, who had been watching Quinn the entire time. “Apologies to you as well, and greetings,” Quinn said, dusting herself off. “My name is Quinn, and I am a ghost! Of course, given the circumstances, I have to wonder if I am meeting with a like soul.” Part of Quinn wanted to poke the boy to check, but Quinn knew from experience that that would not prove anything.

[vivi_]

If only Bridget had known what harbinger of doom that ferry from Islebury was. It had just been one thing after another since arriving in Skrelp Harbor, but it wasn't like she could just swim back the way she came. She was still lightyears away from being that athletic.

For what small consolation it was, when she tripped, she had managed to not faceplant into the back of the Shellos she was carrying. A face full of ornery sea slug was the last thing she needed right now. Once she got up from the definitely real hand that had caused her to trip, she set the Shellos down on the railing and peered below, to try and catch a glimpse of the culprit. For the first time in their brief and antagonistic relationship, the girl and the pokémon were in full agreement, as the Shellos also turned its gaze downward with some sort of inquisitive sound.

All she caught was a brief glimpse of purple. Armed with nothing else to go with but a color, Bridget concluded... that this wasn't nearly enough information to come to a satisfying conclusion. She looked to the Shellos that had assailed her. It looked back. Its cheeks puffed up, and there was a sinister glint in its eyes.

"...don't."

As if waiting specifically to be told to not, Shellos immediately fired another Water Gun stream directly at Bridget. Seemingly content with its handiwork on her face, Shellos instead aimed for her torso this time. Unlike last time, however, it didn't try to slink away from her after its second aquatic assault. In fact, it merrily chirped as it moved toward her. Bridget didn't really want to pick up the slimy creature a second time... but it was the most convenient option right now. So, she scooped up the creature a second time, and started back down the stairs to get some more leads on whatever was messing with her. She carefully observed every nook and cranny on her way down, but everything came up with no further leads.

Before she knew it, she was back at the bottom of the stairs, and all she had to show for it was a new friend(???), a wet face and blazer, and a slight shift in the general vibe of the air around her. She hadn't really noticed it until it was gone, but she now found herself relieved of that underlying feeling that someone was watching her. Whoever was behind all this probably left, then. Which meant all that was left was to go up the stairs... again.

"Keep that Water Gun of yours ready to go at a moment's notice," she said, giving the Shellos a light jiggle to fully grab its attention. She wasn't sure what the gurgling noise it responded with meant, but she chose to believe it was an affirmative answer.

The trek back up the stairs was long and painful, on account of prior events and Bridget's own lack of athleticism making all the continual stair-climbing wear her down more than a little bit. Thankfully, it was quite uneventful as well, with nobody grabbing her ankles or spraying water at her or anything else of the sort. As she neared the top of the stairs, out of breath and eager for an opportunity to just sit down for a bit, she did however overhear a bit of conversation from further up. It was the only thing that had really happened the entire time.

"Are you crazy or something? What do you mean you're a ghost, I know what ghosts look like and they don't look like you! You're just some weirdo who wants to steal my stuff aren't you?"

Sounded like someone wasn't taking Quinn's oddities very well.

[Skaia]

Jacklyn hadn't been paying much attention to what the merchant was saying as she went over all of the specifics of what they were and weren't liable for. She just wanted to hit accept on the terms of services and be done with it. As the woman mentioned gear for the pokemon as well, the girl said, "oh! Then I'll take some too!" She didn't think Rus would appreciate being submerged in water, being a fire type and all, but figured that Cherry would find it fun. And, after all, this was a part of her pokemon journey. She couldn't just go a leg of it without pokemon! With all of that taken care of, the girl looked to her adventuring companion and nodded, "let's! Off to adventure!" As the girl pumped her fist into the air, she got her scuba gear on and dove into the water. 

The novel experience of being underwater was contrasted by the murkiness of it, though her eyes had their interest caught almost immediately. Jacklyn was far from a great swimmer but with some rudimentary skill she began to make her way further down as she could tell the floor of the ocean they were in had several things already lining it. She was, however, dismayed as she came to realize that most of it was just junk - cans and pairs of sunglasses. The girl rummaged away at the trash regardless, curious to see if there was any kind of treasure worth finding. After a bit, the girl picked out a pair of sunglasses that seemed especially cool and, most importantly, intact. Jacklyn showed the pair to both Annelise and Cherry, giving a thumbs up to both of them and her Buneary giving her its best attempt at one back. 

After a bit more of swimming the girls eventually made their way to the edge of Skrelp Harbor, being presented with a large rockface that the town was built into. As the girl approached, she narrowed her eyes as something began to feel...off. As the girl tried to ponder on it her thoughts immediately jolted back to what was very real as a swarm of skrelp suddenly made their way towards them.

Jacklyn began flailing her arms as the seaweed scourges had made their way over to them, trying to bat them away. Cherry, in the confusion of it all, began to follow suit with her trainer and began flailing as well. However, after the young adventurer had managed bat off some of the Skrelp she gestured vigorously at her Buneary. Cherry had seemed to pick up on...something, and had gone from simply splashing about to swimming forward and going pound for pound against the Skrelp. 

Swimming her way over to Anneliese, who had been overwhelmed by the sudden attack, the girl swung her arms towards the Skrelp to keep them away. Meredith had taken the initiative all its own as well, tackling into one Skrelp and blasting another away with a water gun. The whole process lasted a few minutes until the Skrelp finally got the memo and swam away from the group. After, figuratively, catching her breath Jacklyn silently shook her fist at the pokemon wishing for them to no longer impede her journey. And, once that was taken care of, she began to swim forward once more. 

As the girl approached the wall, her curiosity was instantly peaked as she saw several indents in the wall. The girl had no idea what their purpose was but she assumed that some of them had to have been purposefully carved in there and her adventurous spirit compelled her to look closer. However, the off feeling she had had before returned. The girl couldn't make heads of tails of it and the more she tried to think about what was wrong the less focused her thinking became. As such, she tried to ignore it but found it difficult to do so, as if there was some kind of fuzzy static playing in her head. 

Eventually, though, she had come across something that lit her eyes up beyond the confusion. The girl looked to Anneliese and excitedly pointed at one of the indents before swimming closer to it. Therein resided a statue that seemed a little less than half her height, resembling a squid or some kind of pokemon. With curiosity more overwhelming then ever before the girl reached out her hand to grab the statue. 

[LordCowCow]

BQ

"Are you crazy or something? What do you mean you're a ghost, I know what ghosts look like and they don't look like you! You're just some weirdo who wants to steal my stuff aren't you?"

The boy, mouth no longer filled with snacks, was much more understandable now. But even more agitated than he had been before. He seemed nervous. Despite his bold claim he was clearly not bold enough to directly look at Quinn. Instead he seemed to be talking to their feet or just over their head. "Well guess what, I'm not gonna just let you take it like that! I spent a lot of time making this place how I want it!"

He saw Bridget enter behind Quinn and his eyes widened. "Don't think that cause it's two on one that I'll go down easy, I've got a super powerful Pokemon with me!"

He then took out a Pokeball and tossed it into the air. The ball opened up...and then promptly fell to the floor. The boy stared at it for a moment before letting out a groan of frustration, "where did you go THIS time?"

 

---

 

JA

Anneliese didn't need Jacklyn's prompting to notice the statue. Even while they had been fending off the Skrelp she had felt something drawing her towards that spot. It was even stronger now that the Skrelp were clear and, as Jacklyn reached for it, Anneliese found herself leaning in closer to it as well. Her eyes locked onto the strangely shaped stone with a fascination she couldn't explain.

Suddenly she was shoved backwards right before Jacklyn could touch the statue by Meredith slamming into her stomach and pushing her away.

She looked at the Shellder in confusion but not even a second later a blob of mud shot across right where she had been and struck the stone wall right next to Jacklyn's hand.

Turning towards their left they would see another Skrelp. This one larger than any they've seen by at least twice the size. 

Spoiler

Alpha Skrelp: Level 10, Adaptability, Tackle, Water Gun, Tail Whip, Mud Shot

 

[vivi_]

"Don't think that cause it's two on one that I'll go down easy, I've got a super powerful Pokemon with me!"

Two on one? Huh? Clearly Bridget had missed something up here. If Quinn wanted to have a battle with this young man, that was all well and good, but Bridget for her part was not interested. However, her protest did not come soon enough! The boy opened his poké ball and...!

Nothing.

"Where did you go THIS time?"

"Sorry, but I'm not here for a battle," Bridget clarified. "Just some investigation."

"Investi...! I don't know what they told you but I'm not a runaway!"

"Right, didn't say you were. Everyone says this lighthouse is haunted is all, and I had a mind to disprove that."

"Well, there's nothing to disprove. There IS a ghost haunting it. And you better get out of here before he gets back!"

"Mate, I am not going down those stairs again so soon." Bridget leaned against the stair railing, setting down the Shellos that had tormented then ostensibly befriended her on the railing next to her. "And for the record, whatever might be haunting this place, I think this little guy might be even more of a menace. This wouldn't happen to be your missing pokemon, would it?"

"How did you....No!"

Well, at least she'd tried. If the Shellos didn't belong to this boy, then Bridget was left with only two possibilities. It was a wild pokemon that had somehow gotten in here, or it belonged to one of those people out there. She didn't really want to go talk to those people down there a second time, especially in her current sorry state. Luckily, she didn't have to. Bridget reached into her bag and procured an empty poké ball, and pressed it against the Shellos. If it belonged to anyone else, this wouldn't work at all. The ball opening and swallowing up the feisty creature told her everything she needed to know, as it wobbled in her hand once. Twice. Thrice.

Click.

...then immediately burst open again, with its new occupant sporting a very irritated face directed at Bridget.

The good news was she'd figured out who the Shellos belonged to. The bad news was it belonged to her.

[radio414]

Quinn followed the child’s gaze as it dodged around the top of the lighthouse. He was very pointedly not making eye contact, which was, of course, impolite. Quinn tried to resolve this issue by bobbing its head and shifting around so that he could at least try to match the boy’s gaze before he shifted away. If the boy looked down at Quinn’s shoes, Quinn bent over sideways. If he looked above, Quinn did their best to stand on tippy-toes. This was not the only way that the boy had been rude, however. He also had besmirched Quinn’s reputation in a way that, if Quinn were the more vengeful sort of ghost, would have been dangerous. He was lucky that Quinn was able to take it all in stride. “I have to ask if you start all your conversations this animated,” Quinn said. “I like to think I am consistent in my approach, and I appreciate that it does get the occasional odd reaction, but you seem to be the sort that would respond the way you have to an even simpler introduction.” There were factors that Quinn was only just now considering, such as the fact that xe and Bridget had intruded on this boy’s space, but being caught unawares by a dead adventurer and hir scientist friend was still no excuse to be uncivil.

All that said, Quinn did figure out why the boy was pointedly ignoring its gaze. If their eyes met, they’d be honor-bound to fight in a Pokémon battle. For the moment, Quinn stopped trying, especially when the first Pokémon the boy tried to summon turned out to have suffered the same fate as Quinn’s and Normandie’s berries. Quinn’s mental narration tried to stop itself from the phrase “given up the ghost,” but failed, apparently. In any case, Quinn was sympathetic. “Oh dear,” Quinn said. “Well, listen. We can help you find your precious companion, and then, if you would like, you are welcome to try and battle us out of your clubhouse.” Perhaps this was not what Bridget wanted out of this whole ordeal, but Quinn was Quinn’s own ghost.

It was only then that Quinn noticed what a state Bridget was in. There was a look on the woman’s face that made it clear both who (or what) was responsible and how much she wanted to talk about it. “Well, perhaps not immediately, but whenever would be most convenient.” A thought struck Quinn and she returned to the boy with renewed interest. No longer was Quinn bobbing and weaving with the boy’s gaze. “I do not believe in coincidences. I imagine we will have to find both your missing Pokémon and this lighthouse’s resident ghost if we are to solve this mystery. But such a task requires your cooperation.”

[Skaia]

Jacklyn pulled back her hand immediately as a large glob of mud struck the wall right in front of her. The girl had barely even realized what had happened at first, both happening so fast and barely being cognizant of what was around her. Blinking a few times as her senses, muddled as they were underwater, seemed to reorient themselves the girl turned only to immediately recoil back at the sight of the pokemon that was before her. 

It was a lot bigger than any other pokemon she had encountered up to this point, though she swore that it looked familiar somehow. As she squinted, as if that did anything to help, she realized that it was just a Skrelp but...way bigger. She shook her head and looked at it again to make sure she wasn't seeing things, only to realize that it was in fact both a Skrelp and as big as she thought it to be. Her skepticism and confusion soon broke way for a much more characteristic eagerness, as the girl's eyes lit up at the discovery. 

The girl looked over to Cherry, Anneliese and Merideth, waving her arms around excitedly, throwing them both to the side as if to emphasize the size of the creature and then flailing them about again to show how excited she was about it. Jacklyn's vague pantomime was broken up as a jet of water struck in the side, knocking her away from the wall where she had been. 

The girl was still for a moment before she righted herself once more, fury now replacing the joy she was previously experiencing as she glared at the creature. She wasn't sure if it didn't like her trying to touch the statue, if it didn't like how much she was moving, or if it just didn't like her in general. She could tell there was only room enough for one purple individual in these waters and she wasn't about to lose her spot to the oversized draconic seaweed that was this Skrelp. The girl looked to Cherry, making frustrated noises that only resulted in bubbles coming out, as she then pointed to the Skrelp. She balled up her fists going for a slow, due to the surrounding water, one-two jab in its direction. 

The Buneary nodded, understanding the barest concept of what Jacklyn was trying to convey, as she swam towards the Skrelp. The annoyed Skrelp sucked in the surrounding water before launching a blast yet again, this time directed at the Buneary. Not being a nimble seafaring pokemon Cherry's attempt to dodge had failed as the water struck true. The Buneary recoiled a bit back from the attack but swam forward again, with the Skrelp preparing yet another blast of water. 

The blast was launched and struck a wall in place of the Buneary. The Skrelp's attack had been knocked off course as Meredith had crashed into it, tackling the Alpha pokemon and shoving it away. The Skrelp turned its gaze towards the Shellder, launching a shot of mud at the pokemon. Meredith, possessing none of the issues that Cherry did, was able to move out of the way before launching a water gun in retaliation. The Skrelp began to suck in water to counter with its own only to be interrupted by a sudden foot striking its back, followed by the water gun from the Shellder hitting its torso. It turned back, swatting away Cherry before noticing that Meredith was preparing yet another attack. 

Being unrestrained in the water, the Alpha swum away from the oncoming attack before launching yet another mudshot towards Cherry, knocking the Buneary back once more. Meredith swam forward, launching yet another water again only for the Alpha to counter with one of its own. As the two struck it was clear which of the two was stronger in this clash, the Alpha Skrelp easily overpowering the Shellder's attack and striking Meredith. As if on instinct the Shellder clamped itself shut, slowly sinking deeper down. 

Cherry attempted to close the distance once more, though, with the Skrelp not wanting to get into a direct confrontation with the Buneary it swam away from the pokemon. As it got ready to fire off yet another water gun at her, Meredith eventually launched themselves forward in a tackle, slamming into the pokemon. Though the Skrelp was pushed back Meredith was now right next to the pokemon, unable to avoid it as it fired off a point blank mud shot and knocked the Shellder away, the latter clamping shut as it retreated once more.

Meredith was looking worse for wear from the repeated losing clashes and Cherry herself was worn out both from the damage she had suffered and the excessive amount of, fruitless, swimming that she had to do. However, Jacklyn knew the Skrelp was nearing the end of its own stamina and with one final push she knew that they could deal with it. The girl looked around, trying to find an answer, before finally coming up with something. 

Jacklyn looked over to Cherry, gesturing towards the wall before swinging her arm towards the Skrelp. The Buneary stared blankly at Jacklyn for a few moments, before suddenly nodding as if she understood. 

As the Skrelp was readying to attack Meredith once more, Jacklyn swam as fast as she could towards the Alpha pokemon, raising her arms high as if trying to appear bigger than she was. Instinctively, expecting the Buneary, the Skrelp opposite direction, closer towards the wall before realizing it was just a human. The Skrelp got ready to fire yet another attack, this time aimed at Jacklyn, unaware of what was behind it. The Buneary that had gotten close to the rocky wall placed their feet against it, before kicking off and launching forward at speeds previously impossible for it, striking it with yet another pound. 

As the Skrelp was taken off guard by the attack, it had hardly any time to react as Meredith had come from behind Jacklyn, tackling into the Skrelp. With both of them now right next to it, the Shellder opened back up, launching a water gun into the head of the Skrelp as the Buneary kicked the Alpha's torso. With improvised synchronicity the two of them struck at the same time, knocking the Alpha Skrelp back, the pokemon losing consciousness as it was knocked out by the tag team. 

Jacklyn pumped her fist into the air, or higher water, at this victory and gave a thumbs up to Cherry, and then Annelise. Though it was impossible to see her mouth via the scuba gear it was not hard to tell that Jacklyn was grinning ear to ear over this. Cherry, for their part, waved back to Jacklyn and then gave a friendly wave to Meredith, congratulating the Shellder as well. 

[LordCowCow]

BQ

“I do not believe in coincidences. I imagine we will have to find both your missing Pokémon and this lighthouse’s resident ghost if we are to solve this mystery. But such a task requires your cooperation.”

The boy glanced between Bridget, catching the Shellos that she had moments ago asked if it was his, and Quinn, who was insisting on looking for his missing Pokemon together, and he was clearly growing more anxious. He tugged at his faded shirt and kept casting glances at the trapdoor. As if debating if he wanted to just take off and escape. But then his eyes turned towards his stash. His comic books. His snacks. His pouches of berries...his berries? Those weren't there before. He shook his head and looked back at Quinn. "You just want to distract me so you can steal my things! You can't trick me that easily!"

Just then they all could hear the sound of laughter echoing around the space. In spite of the eerie nature of the noise the boy's face broke out into a smile. "And now you've done it. You better get out of here before it comes to drag you to the abyss!"

---

JA

Anneliese tilted her head as she watched Jacklyn's expression of joy. As the girl turned to her she attempted a fist pump as well, though it was much slower and less energetic than Jacklyn's had been. Was this some sort of victory ritual she was unaware of? She would have to ask Jacklyn when she got back to the surface. She had actually tried to say something but only bubbles came out and Meredith gave her a look of concern which convinced her not to try again.

When Jacklyn waved to Meredith the Shellder shut its shell in embarrassment but, a few moments later, the shell opened slightly and she gave a nod, or rather moved her whole body in a nod-like motion, to Cherry.

Now that the excitement was over Annelise was drawn towards the statue again. She felt...strange as she got closer to it. It wasn't entirely pleasant of a situation. But it also wasn't exactly unpleasant. She reached out and grabbed the statue. 

 

ǝ̴̡̢̨̟͉̻̬̜̘͚̼̙̩̻͙͎͇̺̈́̔͌̏ͅq̵̧̗̦̮̤͖̠̀̈́̐̒̉̀̔͊͠ȍ̸̜͇̱͓̙̖̠̟̳̓̋̈́̇̇͌ʇ̵̢̫͖̼͓̭̰͈̮̪͔̈́͊̔̈́͒̉̓̐̏̈́̏̍͂̊̈̓̚͜͜͝͝ʇ̸̰̤̩́̈́́͊ú̶̢̮͚͇̼̰͍̞̤̝̤̮̬̹͙̰͎̥̦̩͇̩̋͒͌̈́͠ɐ̴̧̡̛̭͖̪͈̖̘͉͔͎̱͚̫̲̭͚̲̬̼́̀̅̍̈̄͒̄̒̀́͒͋̂̽̿̒̿͆͘͝͝͝ǝ̵̧̧̢̗̘̝͕̙̘̤͔͓̭̬͍̣̠̙̘͑́̈́́͜ͅɯ̷͈̤̲̟̟̯͚͈̯̳͙̘̩̻̼͑̀̑̌̔̓̋̕ͅş̷̧̼̝͍̲̖̫͖̺̰̰͕̭̻̹̮͍̟̀͂̽́͌̽̅̽̚͝͝ɐ̶̩̳̪̟͓̩̰̜̥̩̼̈̈͂͂̃̓̊́̅̈́͐͛̽̌̋͋͝͝ʍ̶͔̹̐̆ʇ̵̢̧̢͙̙͇̝̪̫͚̼̘̟̥̀̄̉̆̀̈̉̆͑̈́̈́̉̈́̕͘͜͜͝͝ᴉ̶̢̡̲̬̖͙̗̯̳̥̘͚͋̏͗͆͐̚ͅś̶̺͆̌̅́̏̊̚ͅɐ̸̛̝̮͓͓̝̩̻̫̤̦̝̗̳͍͚̦̠͈͎̠̲̠̱̊̂̈́̾̐̀̊̓͑̏̒̈́͂̄̋͆͌̈́̚͜͝ǝ̶̜̩͕̫̞̈̂̓̆̑̂̄̈̍̉̎̂͑̊̎͗͗̉́̀̃̚͠ͅu̶̢̨̧̪͕̖̱̣̠͇̻̭̣͇͉̻̱̭̭̩̺͚̬̾̇̍͑͑͜͠ᴉ̸̡̛͎̭͈̟̳̞͙̙͍̘͉͌͛̂͐ɯ̵̘͙͒̋̎́̾̄͑̕̕̚͝ǝ̴̠͔̤̬͊̍̎̉͒̑̏̂̓͂q̸̨̛̰̱̼̦͇̱̳͖͈͓̳͕͕͙͇͋͊̌̃̿̂͂̊̓͑̋̈̋̌̔͘͜l̸̨̛̤̣̬͈͈͍̪̱̙̱̦͉͈̫̳̞̞̼̠̥͎̽̓̒́̿̾̔͂̿͊̐̏͑̆̌̅̀̈̚͜͝l̸̡̘̦̰̠͇͖̜̗͍̫̼̇̂̋͆̏͂̓́͐̉̒̀͆̈̈̒́͝͝ͅͅᴉ̵̛̯̑̐͗̇̓͠ʍ̴̨̛̖̻̯͛͐̾̋̽͆̌͊͗̔̆͑̾͑̈́̔͛̚͜͠p̷̧̼͇̘̞̘̤̟͉̜̙̦͕̬̖̖͉̠̔͂̒̒͑̑̏͆̏̊̔̚͘͜ļ̸̢͙̤̩͕̱̯̂̅͛̈̓͐̈́͊̎͑̆́̂̊̀̍͛̄̂͐͐͠͠͠ɹ̶̢̤̞̦̭̜̪͉̹͚̬̜̦̫̬̹̦̪̓͆͂͂͛̌̽̔́͋͐͗͒̀͗̍̔̿̈́͗̿͊͘͜͜͝ǫ̶̛̛̟͕̹̪͇͎͔̭͈̭͙̝͇͓̜̉̑͐͗̓̈́̔̓̆́̂͜ͅʍ̸̨̹̹̞̦̹̪̘̠̹̰̣̤̪̲̠̥̓̈́̃̎̏̔̅̕͜ǝ̴̧̧̡̡̯͇̻̖̠͕̗̜̤̱͈͈͌̋̃̽̿ͅɥ̸̨̣̥͇̬̳͔̭̲̔͒̏͑̾̆̃̽͑̓̑͐͋̀̋̚ͅʇ̷̘̫͔͈̼̯̪̺̩̿̏̽̀̊̕̚͠u̵͍̺͚͈̥͌̓̀͊̏̋̄̆̌̊͌́́̀̆̾̎̋̊̕̕͝͝ǝ̷̤̠̘̝̹̜̝̘͓͓̜̈́̈́͑͌́̅̓̃͛͐̿͛̐́͘̚ş̶̡̨̢͈̗̼͇͕̬̦̩̣̦͙̖́̈́͛̎͊́͜ͅͅᴉ̴̡̨̛̫̰͙͕̹͉͙̪̩͓͚̬̱͖̫͎̆̒́͊̀̍͋̀̉̓ͅɹ̶̨͇̞͙̺̩̯͆͂̓̃̉̄́͐͜ɯ̴̡̠͓̣̖̩̠̗͔̣͕̬͓̣̼̮͑͊̊́̅́̈́̓̂͊̐͂̑͒̚͝͝͝ɐ̸͈̘͙͓̘͒͐̅̅͐͌̉́̓̍̆͑̀͛̒͒͠͝ᴉ̵̛̛͚̝̎̈́̅͑̌̓̾̓̎̓̄̄̒͆͑̑̒͊̕ǝ̵̧̖̬͇͍̮̠̓̅͑ͅɔ̸͔͈̦͕̹͎͈̝̘̗̙͎́u̷̧̢̢̧̺̬̰̠̜̲̘͉̱̤͇͖̖̻͈͇͊̄͐͋̽̒͌̓̓͋́̑̾̄̎̎̃̏́͘͜͝͝͝͝ͅǫ̴̰͙͚̭̬̣̘͇̺͉̀̒̾͂̒̏̇̈̓̈́̂̀̕͠͠ʇ̷͈͖̲͙͍͚̭̮̣̠̋̊͌̈̅͆̎̂̄̈́͋͐̌̚̕͝͝͝ᴉ̶̛̼̣͉̅̃̇̈́̃̈̃̀̽̆̄̅̈́͠d̸̡̨͉̭͈̙͍̖̰͉͓͉̈́̍̇̈́͐͆̓̌̈̔̆͆̓́͛̈́̏̅̔̅͝͠ͅo̶̳͖̗͍̻͍͇̼̫̼̲̯̘͎̒̄̚ͅʇ̵̛̺̥̺̎́͛̉́̇̋̀̏͗͑̌̽̚͝s̷̨̛̟̠͆͆̿͗̔͑͑ḽ̴͈̪̭̥̙̲͕̥̻̳̠̖̦̺̘͈͐̑̍̊̂̓͌̽̊́͜͝͝͠͝ͅl̶̨̧̩̫̻̺̫͚̖͚̲̦̙̥̣̻̺̣͍̳̼̝̆̓̈͜͠ᴉ̴̥͍̠͖̼̜͍̖̤̭̟̼̭͓̱̒̒̈́̊́̄̽͛̇̿̔̾̕̚͝ʍ̷̡̡̢̡̢͇̬̘̩̹̣̥̣̥̗̪̱͔̄́̎̃͑̚͘͜ͅƃ̷̨͖̞͚̜̦̳̮̰̰̺͔͚̘̥̤̗̳͎͈̓́u̴̳̫̱̼͈̮̦̫͊͌͘ᴉ̶̢̨͉͙̺͔̹̣̬̱͚̳̖͕͍͓̞̰̰͖͍̞̎̃͆̑͌̎̔̇̅͛̇̋̐̊͠ɥ̶̬̲̠̏̀͂̈͝ʇ̵̢̜͎̳͙͇̰̲̯̯̭̬͉̜̣̥͙̪̜̰͍̜́̈́̎ͅö̷̡̨̢̺̖̩̟̳̘́̿̑̈͗̆̒̃̌̇̀͛̍̈́̅́̓̐̉̿̉̚͝͝ǘ̶̧̳̱͓̭̤͇͓̖̼͙̳͍͓̯̳͑̑̐͗̌̓͐͑̔̅͒̒̒́̈́́̾̐ʇ̵̧̢̢̧̯̺̳̝͓̙̻͍̤̫̼̗͖̬͕̣̜̠̠͠ͅᴉ̷̧̮̝̤̯̰͊̆̇̏͒͛͘͜͠d̸̡̨̼̠̦͔̙͎̲̥͓̼͓̊͊͠o̸̯͔͇̬̤̭̗̹͖̥̺͇̍̋͑̒̇̔͐͊̑̒̒̀̇͛͂̕͜͝͝ͅʇ̵̙̬̝̐́̔̎͂̏̽́̀̀̅́̓̂̾̃̋̍̀͋̚͠͝͝s̵̢̢̧͓͖͖͇̜̳̜͈̘̎͂̀̏̀̈́̍̔̈̿̕͜ͅǜ̴̢̲̬͈͚͋̂̂͑̎́̐̄́̔̍͆̚̕͘ɐ̶̡̛̛̱͈̰͓̳̬̙̮͖̂͋̐̓̋̿̅̎͋̎̓̀̅̌͆͋̊̚͝͝ɔ̴̛̞̹̼͍̖̖͕͎̦̥̺̮̭̭̝̹̰͇͕͐̊͋̂͛̋̏̒͗̈́̏͑͌̈́̅̓͛͑̕̕͝ƃ̷̡̖̘͍͈͚̠̹͉͎̮̳̳͔̝͎̘͍̫̤̊̋̽̑̿͊̾͒͌̐͆̇́͑͜͝ͅȗ̷̠͓͇̘̰̟̫̮̅͗͂̈̔̚͠ᴉ̶̡̨͓͍̳̘͉͉̯͕̰̲͈̜̾͆̎̆̇̉̈́̉̈̅̈̈́̃̚͜͝͝ͅɥ̶̝̱̗̳̤̻͔͈̖͍͝ʇ̸͕͚̙͂̽̒̔̀̃͌̋͑͐̐̑͛̈̆̋̎̒̓̈́̄͜͝͝ơ̴̛̠̥̠̮͍̬͚̼͔̪͓̙͉̱̋̂̓̈̃̈̈́̅̅͝ư̴̰͍̖̠̄͐͒̌̾̀̈̓́͊̄̓̏͝ǝ̴̢̨̗͚̭̜͎̥̩̣̜͇͆͛̄͂̂̽͐̎̉̈̚ɯ̸̡̛͇̝̤̝̻͉̲̏̀̅͗̐̔̊̉̍͂̾͒̓̅̀̆͋̊̾̋̚̚ͅǫ̸̠̼̓̉̐̽̄͒̐͐̇̽̍͒̕͠͝ʇ̶̢̡̝̞͔̺͙͔̤̣̞͔̯̭̹̫̳̙̱͖͉̘̋̾ƃ̴̛̯͇̌̓͒̏̿́̔̽͛́͐͋͂͘̕͘͝͝͠u̴̢̯͂͗́͗̔͐̐̈́̆̑̕͘͠ơ̷̧̡̼͚̭̭̺̥̻̼͓̳̯̌̑̋̊͌͗͊̈́̅͋͗̋͆͐̒̌͝͝l̴̼͎̰̬̙̬̮͉̩̱̅͂̒͌̀̚ͅǝ̶͚̙̼͊͆̂͗̆̀̀͆́̇̿̌̂̋̅͐̓͌̎̀̚̚͝͝q̶͓͈͈̙̱͉̱͙̲̻̯̮̺̠͇̹̟̙͔͓̱̈́͑̐͜l̸̢̡̛̩̞̻̦̣͇̺͉̘̪̘͍̳̫̻̦̳̱̤̜̹̻̂̀̉͆́̀͑̎̀͐̚͝͝l̵̨̺͓̣̩̯̱̯͂̓̾̒̌̊̈͊̈́͛̕͘̕͠͠͝ᴉ̴̧̧̨̢̳̯͔̻̤̘̲̺̰̙̲͔̭̺̑̄͗͑̔̇̆̂̓̈́͛̊̓̑̈́͝ͅʍ̴̫͋̊̃̂̾̃͂͑̾̇̊́͗͒͂̅̓̚̚͝͝ǝ̴̢̛̻͙̥̯̙̜̱͍̩̠͈͓̦̒̓͌̽͋̀̇̾̈́̕͜͠ɟ̷̡̢̛̦͍̼͍̯͉͎̲̖̻͎͇̯̒̀̇͛̋̑͌̆̚͝ᴉ̴̛͓̹̟̮̲͙͓̿̐͊̌͌͛̈̈́̈́̎̽̚͜l̵̫̬̭̙̎͐l̷̝̳͚̘̖͗̏̎̑̊̋́̓̍̎̌̿͋̔͜͝͝ļ̶̼̰͔͕̻̣̲̳̜̭̥̗͉̯̻̘͍͈̰̫̋̔̈́̃͗͐̉́̅͊̾͐͌͌̂͐͝ͅɐ̶̻̲̖̮̦̩́̆̋̄͛́̏̀̓́̈̚͝p̶̦̗̰̗̙͈͍͈͂͌̔͘͜ù̷̡̢̧͈̟̣͚̣̙͕͉͓̯͂̚̚ɐ̷̩̝̣͚̣̪̻̺̈́͒̈́̓̆̿̇̓͊̍̐́̚͘͘͘ǝ̵̡̛̖͔̦͖͚̜̙͓͒̏̑̔̂̋̈́́͂̃̆͆̆̔́̅̚̕͜ͅɯ̴̧̬̰͇̼̳̗̜̟̝̮̮̫̠̻͍̞̮̻̤͔̩̔̎͊̋̓̿̊̏̋͑͘̕͝͠ŏ̷̡̡̳̹͍̼͙̭̳̗̬̺͖̬͍̟̮̬̦̼͎̱͕ɔ̶̡̨͔͚̞̯̭̽̈́̀̿̿̀̓̒́l̸̨͍̰͈͚̰̗̯͐͆̃̎͒̅̿̈́̋̐̋̊̇̔̍̃͗̕͘l̵̡̨̨͇̟̟̞̦̘͚͍̭̹̳͓͔͚̠̰͈͆̑́͛́̄͊̽͊̎ᴉ̴̢̳͇̙̜̹̭̞̦̥̯̝͎͖̬͕̞͋͋̓̃̈́̽̊͗̀̾̉͛͗́̚ʍ̵̝͇͎̤̭̫͉̝̟̜̤̬̩͎̪̍̾̀͑͑̓̾͊̓̈́̚p̵͓̬͍͖̲̬̝̳̩̻͕͉͙̹̤͝ͅu̴̩̯̹̩̮̖͇̺̩̽̔̐̅̆́͐̇̇͛͆̏̀̀͒̒͋͂̒̈́͝͝ǝ̵̞͓̳̫͚̰͈͖̺͔̳̪̠͎̪̮̝̠͔̪͇̑̇̿̂̆̍̄͌̄͊̄͜ǝ̷̧͔͙͉̙͇̼͈͑̎̑͋̏͊̃͒̊̾̎̒̕͝ɥ̸͒̅̐͊͊͌͗̂̂̏̎͌̄̽͘͘͝ͅʇ̵̞͎̤͚̯̪̺̮̖̼͎̈́̌͌̅̅͆́͆̇̔͗͘̚

 

Annelise dropped the statue and it slowly began to float to the bottom. She couldn't understand what it was that she just heard all she knew was that there was a ringing in the back of her head and her hand was shaking. And there was an uncomfortable, sick, feeling in the pit of her stomach.

As the statue sank lower the ringing subsided enough that she could think again and she looked over at Jacklyn in confusion as if asking for an answer for something the girl couldn't possibly know had even happened.

Spoiler

spooky

Cherry and Meredith have gained a level!

 

[vivi_]

“I do not believe in coincidences. I imagine we will have to find both your missing Pokémon and this lighthouse’s resident ghost if we are to solve this mystery. But such a task requires your cooperation.”

The lighthouse-dwelling boy glanced around at his little hideout. Then back to Quinn the friendly ghost.

"You just want to distract me so you can steal my things! You can't trick me that easily!"

"We really d--"

Just then, a laugh echoed through the space around them. The supposed ghost, no doubt. Bridget, for one, was still busy catching her breath. There was no world where she was about to start running, despite the boy's oddly confident warning. Running down stairs when you were already short on breath sounded like a great way to graduate from running down the stairs to falling down them, and Bridget was not about to deal with that after everything else this lighthouse had put her through.

"And now you've done it. You better get out of here before it comes to drag you to the abyss!"

"Is that a thing they do?" She still wasn't a believer of course, but trying to argue the matter would have been standoffish to this boy, and quite rude to Quinn. The latter of whom Bridget then directed her words to. "Quinn, is that a thing they do?"

"Well, a ghost would not be a ghost if it could do that," Quinn said, not particularly fazed. "Ghosts by definition are tied to the material plane. That we cannot get to our final resting places is kind of the whole deal. Some other creature could -- perhaps of the stygian variety? This is a lighthouse, after all." It paused, seemed to notice something, and reconsidered. Quinn's voice grew a touch sharp. "Though most of those would be so hostile, they would not stoop to such acts as stealing berries from humble trainers and their Pokémon. They would consider it beneath them."

"Right," Bridget confidently nodded, back to the boy. "So there won't be any abyss-dragging today. Besides, I'd quite like to meet this ghost."

The boy was visibly flustered that his bluff had been called. He began pacing, and nervously bit his thumbnail before finally relenting.

"Alright fine! But don't say I didn't warn you!"

It was then that a pair of disembodied hands grabbed Bridget by the shoulders, and lifted her up. Not very far, only a couple inches off the ground, but definitely enough to notice if the hands gripping her weren't already obvious enough. She turned her head in an attempt to get a glimpse behind her, and found a floating purple body to accompany those hands. Well, more of a giant head than a body. With a giant mouth, which opened up to let out a giant tongue, that then proceeded to give Bridget a giant lick.

She reflexively closed her eyes, and gave the Haunter a look that was halfway between nonchalant and disdainful. "Not the best hello I've ever had... but I'm already in enough of a state, so sure, why not?"

[radio414]

The thing that had changed Quinn’s tone, caused the young ghost the most consternation as he exposited exactly why none of them -- not she, not Bridget, not even the boy making the threat -- were going to be pulled into the Abyss or any other sort of antediluvian netherworld, was how casually their berry pouches were tossed into the rest of the boy’s hoard.

Berry pouches, plural! Their, plural! This revelation turned shined a new, unfavorable light on the rest of the miscellaneous hoard. How much else of it was stolen from other unwitting souls? It also made sense why the boy was so dead-set on Bridget and Quinn’s presence being a portent of some sort of heist. It was easier to justify such illicit behavior when one operated using such tactics themselves. “Is everything in that pile really yours?” Quinn did not want to believe it. It was a question it said more to xymself -- Quinn’s voice was low and the conversation had moved on to the more supernatural aspects of the proceedings. She did not expect a straight answer out of the boy anyway.

Instead, the focus was on Bridget and her demands. The great malevolence occupying the lighthouse finally revealed itself, turning out to be nothing more than a perfectly mundane Haunter. Suddenly, things all fell into place. The spectral hand. The laughter. The thievery. The boy’s discomfort. Quinn was already moving. Normandie’s Premiere Ball practically leapt into hir hand, the Ratffian only held back from executing her vengeance by their growing mutual trust and past promises. There was a world, Quinn considered, where Normandie flung herself off of the lighthouse in the name of revenge. They would have to be quick on the draw the other way too, then. And, of course, there was the need for final confirmation. “Is this yours?” Quinn asked.

[Skaia]

As Anneliese dropped the statue, Jacklyn met eyes with her, not really sure why the girl did that. Of course, Jacklyn was hardly good at reading people and Anneliese having most of her face obscured did not help that either. Even then she could tell that there was something wrong with the girl, or at the very least she felt spooked in some capacity, but couldn't tell much beyond that. She tried to ask but, once more remembered that she too had half her face obscured and gave up as quickly as she began. 

Thinking it'd be a waste to just leave the statue down there, Jacklyn swam back down to the depths of the sea floor. As she grabbed the statue she got that same funky feeling in her head again, though didn't bother dwelling on it. With the prize secured, the girl did another quick survey of the sea floor before determining there was no riches left to plunder. With her job done, the girl swam back up and nodded to Anneliese, before pointing upward and swimming back to the surface. 

As she broke the surface of the water, the girl quickly made her way back to the land before taking off the gear that was on her. With her mouth uncovered the girl took in a deep breath. "Ah, the land!" Shaking her head, whipping her wet hair around like a dog, the girl took another breath before saying, "it's a good hting I took those swimming lessons back home because that was awesome! I always wanted to try going on an undersea adventure before but never had the gear for it." Her parents had also, repeatedly, warned her to not go into the water in Castelia which was its own problem. 

The girl looked back to the woman who loaned them the gear in the first place, saying, "thanks for the great deal, we even got some treasure too!" The girl proudly held up her statue, whilst Cherry leaped out of the water, newly acquired sunglasses awkwardly worn on their face. 

[LordCowCow]

BQ

“Is this yours?”

"Huh? of course it is." The boy said without checking what Quinn was referring to. He then not so subtly looked over to where the pouch was and then back the Haunter. "E-Everything here is mine. Stuff I took with me. Stuff Haunter finds for me. I need it so I can stay here! You...you wouldn't get it!"

The boy was getting more distressed by the moment and Bridget would find herself suddenly dropped as the Haunter disappeared and then reappeared beside the boy.

He looked up at the Haunter, who looked back at him, and then turned towards the duo with resolve in his eyes. "Fine, be that way. If you want to take my stuff then you'll have to battle more for it!"

The Haunter then moved out in front of the boy and gave a chilling laugh as it seemed ready to fight.

Spoiler

Battle time! Probably will need info for this and since it's 2 v 1 then either y'all can work together in large chunks or do short posts till the end of the battle talk it out amongst yourselves.

Haunter: Level 20, Levitate, Moves: Lick, ???, ???, ???

Also yes I know the evo level is higher than this. I also know that level seems still very high compared to you but, well, you'll see.

JA

It took Anneliese some time, about until they emerged from the water, to fully shake the strangeness from before. When she did she almost immediately broke into a smile and a giggle as Jacklyn shook the water out of her hair. "I have swam before but never anywhere quite so...rustic!" Anneliese said. 

They didn't have to go to the woman as the woman came to them, "oh you're in one piece, good, good! Not that I thought you wouldn't be but you know how it is. Liability and all that." She smiled as Jacklyn presented the prize. "Oh wow that's....hm, what IS that?" She took a hold of the statue and shivered. But only for a moment before she carefully examined it. "Maybe I can sell it as some kind of cursed artifact, people are into that sort of thing these days...." then she looked up at the two. "Well, considering the cost of the equipment and such and such I suppose I should give you two a...modest finding fee." She snapped her fingers. "Oh but you two are trainers, no? Perhaps you would rather have a TM for your troubles?"

Once everything was settled with the woman Anneliese took Jacklyn's hand in both of hers. "What's next? Another adventure? Or perhaps we should find the others?" Jacklyn might notice that the girl's grip was just a bit too tight. As though she still had some lingering nerves from the encounter earlier. Though her face, bright and carefree, didn't show any of this.

Spoiler

Time to decide what next! As for the TM if you want something we can figure out something suitable for the location and level.

 

[Skaia]

Jacklyn's eyes beamed at the prospect of a reward for their findings, happily trading over the artifact for such a thing. Picking out a TM the girl said, "thanks for the reward. And if you ever need us to go on another adventure, you can call us anytime." After she waved goodbye to the woman, the girl then pocketed her the TM before looking back to Anneliese who had once more intruded on her personal space. As the girl gripped her hand, Jacklyn once more took a step back before her eyes looked towards the girl's hands. She wasn't sure why but she was fairly certain her grip was tighter now, though tried not to pay it much mind and instead answered the girl's question directly. 

"Of course it'd be a new adventure! Besides, one of the best parts of adventuring is being able to tell other people about all the cool stuff you did. So like the good leader I am I'll let them have that." A look of smug satisfaction rested across her face. "As for where we'll go next, hmmm..." The girl pointed in a random direction into the town proper, "how about that way!" As she began her march the girl looked back and asked, "so Anne, what kind of places have you gone swimming in before?"

"Well my home is located near the water. But I usually swam with mother's Milotic in its tank at home."

"You swam in a fish tank?"

"Oh yes, it was quite the distance but I was even able to swim all the way across."

"Huh?" Jacklyn couldn't help but imagine the girl struggling to paddle her way through an undersized container, though her description certainly left more to the imagination. "Huh, sounds fun," was the only conclusion she could reach. Keeping herself distracted from the glaring issue the girl continued to speak,  "did your parents have a lot of pokemon, and uh...tanks for them?"

"Oh yes quite a few. Many of them lived in our park though."

"Oooh, a whole park! That sounds pretty cool. Not many pokemon were around my home's. It was mostly just Pidoves, Rattatas, and Petlils." She thought for a moment longer. "Oh but you could see the occasional eevee too."

"Oh, there were eevee at my home too! Father told me not too play with them too much because they kept evolving."

“That’s a shame, all eevee are super cute when they evolve you know!” Though she didn't think they'd evolve from just playing around. Jacklyn couldn't help but wonder for a moment if Anneliese had been playing fetch with rocks with the small pokemon, but kept that thought to herself. 

"They are! Oh, but not as cute as Leopold of course!"

“And no one’s cuter than Cherry!” She spoke with reactive competitiveness. After a moment longer Jacklyn cleared her throat and asked, “so uh, Anne, how long are you going to…” she gestured to Anneliese’s hand clasped over hers.

Anneliese glanced down, then back to Jacklyn, "should I not?"

“Uh, well it’s just…” the girl trailed off, trying to figure out what bothered her about it so much before she fell on a solution. “Never mind, I got it.” The girl tightened her grip, as if to establish dominance in the hand hold and exclaimed, “let’s go to adventure!” As the leader it was her job to lead, and so she hastily dragged Anneliese forward to parts unknown. 
 

[radio414]

Quinn was up to the challenge, as was Normandie, who leapt out of her Pokéball with a ferocity that, had Quinn not been used to and expecting it, might have blown him away. As it was, Quinn still clutched on to whatever they could, steadied also by its own righteous indignation. The Haunter, for its part, seemed to relish in the chaos unfolding, zeroing in on the attacking Pokémon and sticking out its tongue, using its ghostly fingers to pull down its eyelids (Quinn did not know Haunters even had eyelids) in some sort of rude gesture. It did not deter Normandie, who glowed purple and slammed right into the Haunter. It did not have to be fleeing for her to Pursue it, it seemed.

Post-impact, Normandie disengaged and fell back to Quinn’s side. She looked up at Quinn expectantly. “Very good, Normandie,” Quinn said. “Ghosts are notoriously difficult to Tackle.” She said the words so confidently that one could barely tell that the Ratffian had left Tackle bruises on Quinn’s own person. “Now, -”

Before Quinn could finish their next command, directing Normandie further on her quest for vengeance, the Haunter cupped its hands together and produced a swirling, shining ball of light. The ball flickered for a moment, then started dancing around the lighthouse platform. Both Quinn and Normandie tried to follow it, anticipating some sort of attack, but the Ray of light only shifted around the space without any sort of pattern behind it. It drifted towards Normandie, who tensed up, before spinning around her in circles. Quinn’s eyes also could not stop spinning, but fae rubbed them back to normal.

The same could not be said for Normandie, however. She staggered backwards even further, brushing against Quinn’s leg. She did not stop to brace against it, though, as might have been smart, instead continuing backwards until she was up against the edge of the platform. She looked around, confused. “I am right here,” Quinn said. “Careful. Focus on me.” Quinn grabbed Normandie’s Pokéball, ready in case of the worst, though something told Quinn that between the Mean Look she had received and Normandie’s natural stubbornness, especially in the face of revenge, recalling her Ratffian was not going to be so easy. Instead, Quinn prepared something else, perhaps a rule-breaking tactic but it rathered the faux-pas than to lose a Pokémon to such trickery as this.

Normandie staggered, but there was nowhere else to stagger to. Her hind paw drifted back even further, off of the platform, and in that moment, she seemed to regain some semblance of clarity. Gone was the bravado of a truly wild Pokémon only recently tamed, instead there was just a scared creature that knew exactly what was about to happen to it. It was too late for her to do anything else. She fell.

Cassiopeia was already out of her Poké Ball before Normandie even disappeared from view. Diving was not exactly in her nature -- Quinn had seen the Drifloon much prefer a carefree, controlled descent -- but that did not mean Cassiopeia was not capable of such things when matters called for it, and there were few matters that called for it more than this one. Quinn watched as the two plummeted, one after the other, before Cassiopeia wrapped her stringy arms around Normandie and inflated herself -- slowly, as to not shift inertia too suddenly, but surely -- regaining lift until the two were floating, then rising back to the platform, where Cassiopeia gently set Normandie back down next to Quinn.

Quinn wheeled back around to the boy and his Haunter. “That was quite the dirty trick,” Quinn said. “Were you ready to be responsible if it had turned out differently? If I had not been ready for it?”

[vivi_]

"Fine, be that way. If you want to take my stuff then you'll have to battle more for it!"

Bridget could have sworn that she'd clarified at least once that they weren't here to take anything. Just to investigate. Although, she'd met people like that before, who were deadset on an idea and didn't move past it no matter how much evidence you showed em. It took her back to a particular phase she had once. Ah, those were the days. Causing a general ruckus, bonding over a common goal, hampering the efforts of trainers trying to participate in the Champion Cup. It wasn't a phase Bridget would ever repeat, but she sure did have good memories.

And, admittedly, a small part of Bridget, that had since been gently tucked to bed when it was time to move past all that, tended to come peeking out when met with someone stubbornly stuck in their own narrative.

"If that's how it's gonna be, sure, let's battle it out."

It wasn't immediately noticable, but there was definitely a bit more of a bite to Bridget's tone, and each individual word was given a bit more emphasis than how she typically spoke. There was no reaching for a poké ball; instead, she just set the menace that was her newly-befriended Shellos on the floor. Shellos, for her part, was welcome to the battle with a rather mean look from the boy's Haunter. She responded with an even meaner look - or at least, a look that she was pretty sure was meaner, which wasn't saying much from a Shellos - though hers didn't have any special effect on the Haunter. Instead, she wiggled in place, and the layer of goop that coated her body began to harden.

The enemy Haunter then moved to give Shellos a big, spectral lick. And Shellos responded, with an angry bubbling noise, and a water gun aimed right between Haunter's eyes. The Haunter repsonded by putting a foul curse of some kind of Shellos. And while that all was riveting itself, something more important was happening on the other side of this 2v1 battle.

Quinn's pokemon had very nearly taken a long fall down the lighthouse.

Thankfully, fae had the quick wits needed to prevent something terrible from happening, because Bridget certainly wouldn't have in that moment if it were her. Just the fact that it happened caused an old forgotten fury to nearly fly to the surface. She wanted to shout at and deride the boy and his Haunter for nearly causing that to happen, threaten to actually take his stuff as payment if he lost, and drag him out of the lighthouse kicking and screaming. But this wasn't her fight to fight, she'd decided. And Quinn was doing a better job at it anyway; keeping cool was usually the best way to handle these things. However, she made a mental note that this boy needed a stern talking-to once the battle was finished, and Bridget herself had calmed down a bit.

She did, however, take a couple steps back, to intercept any future pokemon that may have also started heading that way.

[LordCowCow]

QB

“Were you ready to be responsible if it had turned out differently? If I had not been ready for it?”

The boy was taken aback by the question. "It's not like I threw them off or anything!" He snapped back. "And anyway Haunter is fast enough to catch someone if they fell." he grumbled the last part, barely audibly, before shaking his head. "Don't try and throw me off, Haunter you know what to do! We've as good as won this anyway it'll just take a little more time!"

The Haunter gave off an ominous laugh as they ducked under the floor and then reappeared next to Shellos and gave it yet another Lick attack before darting away. It seemed the Pokemon was now making sure to keep its distance from the two opponents. 

Despite his words before it would be noticeably that he didn't ask Haunter to use Confuse Ray after that.

Spoiler

So now Haunter's full moveset is revealed. Lick, Mean Look, Confuse Ray, Curse

I will note that, because why not, Curse will effect both Pokemon in this fight so essentially you're on a "timer" while Haunter focuses on dodging and using Lick. Also while the trainer won't doesn't mean Haunter might not use Confuse Ray themself if they think they have to.

---

JA

Jacklyn led Anneliese into an "adventure" which was vague enough that neither of them actually had any idea where to go. They found themselves ending up near where the city itself opened up. And as they got near they saw three people they had seen before seemingly making plans.

The largest of them noticed the two first and he gave them a friendly, enthusiastic, wave. Which Anneliese returned absentmindedly using the hand Jacklyn was holding. "Oh, Kenta, what a coincidence!" Anneliese said.

The other boy with them, Chad, glanced back at where Kenta was waving and actually cringed. He then elbowed Kenta and said something to him. Kenta looked at Chad in confusion for a second before nodding and attempting, badly, to glare at the duo before his face cracked back into a smile.

The girl, Fuyumi, was staring at Jacklyn as they approached with her arms crossed over her chest. It seemed like she was trying to analyze her just by how she walked over. Her eyes flicked towards the entwined eyes and one eyebrow raised for a moment before she turned to Chad and said something.

"Hey, that's right, there was another one of you. Where'd the hag go?" He smirked, "Oh I get it, I bet she ran off. You know I had a feeling she wouldn't hack it here and guess I was right."

[Skaia]

Jacklyn had dragged Anneliese along to parts unknown which, given that neither had ever been to this city, was incredibly easy to accomplish. However, despite this unfamiliar land, it didn't take too long for the the duo to run into something they did recognize. Or in this case someone. 

Jacklyn narrowed her eyes at the trio that was standing around, fairly certain she knew them from somewhere but unable to figure out where or why. It wasn't until that the largest of them turned to face them and gave a wave that the girl actually figured it out. As her hand was forcibly moved up and down, an act that Jacklyn was taken off guard by and thus just went along with, from Anne's wave the girl shouted, "oh, you guys!" 

 As her opponent from times long past walked up to her, Jacklyn unclasped her hand to mirror the crossed arm gesture that Fuyumi had given her. As she locked eyes the girl simply on principle, unsure what Fuyumi was actually looking at, before their leader spoke up. As the boy insulted her former teammate, Jacklyn stare turned to a glare. "What was that?" 

The girl stepped in front of Anneliese as she continued. "Anima's a great adventurer and trainer and does super cool pokemon researching things. So, she didn't run away from anything, she just, uh." The girl looked away from Chad for a moment as the force behind her tone lessened. "She just had her own adventure to get to in this region...without us." She didn't really know the woman that well, but she had been a part of Jacklyn's team and she wouldn't stand for any slander of her teammates. Even if it was true that she had left her and Anneliese. 

The girl cleared her throat hastily trying to shift the topic of the conversation, "anyway, what does it matter to you? And what are you all doing here anyway?"