CRASH!!!

“GOOD MORNING!”

The door to their room was kicked straight down with a force so intense it’s a miracle the door hadn’t come off its hinges. Lexxi and Rickety practically wake up screaming as the sudden and incredibly loud shouting immediately wakes them up.

“IT’S MORNING! WAKE UP! TIME TO GET UP, BUCKAROOS!”

Rickety and Lexxi both fall out of their beds and roll onto the floor, fur and hair becoming even more of a mess than they already were. Rickety had scooted himself back up against a wall, clutching at his chest as his eyes were wide in fear and panic. Lexxi remained curled up on the ground, her little stumps clutching at her head as her ears pinned down.

“A-Are you trying to wake us up or give us a heart attack?!” Rickety stammers in a panic, his breaths incredibly shaky and uneven, his whole body trembling as he tries to keep scooting back against the wall.

Lexxi stays on the ground, eyes scrunched shut as her head pounded and throbbed in pain. “My eeeeaaaaaaarrrsssssss… I thought they were gonna burst, jeez.”

Neither of them had quite gotten a good look at their own personal home invader during their panic, so that’s his cue to step further into the room. A Loudred. Of course it’d be one. Why bother with alarm clocks when you can just have one of the loudest Pokemon in the world? “Why haven’t you two sleepyheads GOTTEN UP YET?! WAKEY WAKEY!”

Rickety and Lexxi both cover their ears instinctively as the Loudred continues to shout and yell, eyes scrunch as their heads pound and their ears ring. “Okay okay, we’re up! Please just stop yelling!” The both of them scream in unison. Just trying to make sure their eardrums stay intact.

“The name’s Loudred! I’m an apprentice at this guild! And I’m here to inform you that if you don’t get your butts out of bed, you’re going to be LATE! It’s your first day apprenticing, yes?”

Lexxi finally manages to get back up on all fours, though she keeps her ears pinned down against her head. Rickety keeps to the safety-ness of the wall he’d gotten himself acquanted with, and the both of them nod in response.

“Then you don’t wanna make a poor impression on the guildmaster ON YOUR FIRST DAY! Making him upset would be the WORST possible outcome for both of yous! NOW GET UP!” Loudred stomps his way out, the whole room rumbling and quaking with every step he takes until he’s much further away.

Rickety groans as he clutches at his head, brushing some of his hair out of his face as he rubs his face against his paws. “Mnnngghhh… I think my chances of going deaf just skyrocketed.”

Lexxi shakes her head to clear her mind, shakily standing back up. “I couldn’t even focus on what he was saying because of how loud he was. I think I heard something about getting ready? Or…”

The realization hits both of them at once, and again, they look to each other at the exact same time and say “We slept in!” before quickly darting out the door and down the halls of the living quarters, before finally making it to the second floor mess hall, where it seems like every Pokemon and every team had gathered, all lined up in a row. Lexxi and Rickety are panting by the time they make it, doubled over, exhausted.

“YOU’RE LATE, ROOKIES!”

Loudred much too eagerly exclaims to the entire gathering as he eyes them from the crowd.

Chatot’s beak scrunches up as he shoots a glare at the Loudred. “Would you PLEASE keep it down for at least a few minutes?! Your voice is ridiculously loud!”

“And the sky is blue, any other obvious observations you wanna make, Mr. Chatot?” The Zoroark chips out, to which the Chatot shoots another fierce glare, but doesn’t say anything. The Zoroark simply snickers to herself before going quiet with the rest of the group.

The Loudred huffs and crosses his arms in embarrassment.

“Now then.” Chatot exclaims, his feathers ruffling as his eyes slowly glance along the crowd. “It seems like everyone is finally here. Very good!~ It’s time to conduct our morning address!” Chatot leans over to the Guildmaster’s door, knocking on it with a wing. “Guildmaster! The guild is in full attendance!~ Please, come out and address the crew!”

The doors to the Guildmaster’s chambers suddenly burst open as Wigglytuff pushes down the doors. Though… There seems to be a bit of a wobbliness in his step. He stumbles forward a little before stopping in place, his eyes looking in no particular direction. They seem to be slowly sweeping back and forth and he seems to be struggling to even stand up.

“Zzzz… Mnnhuughh… Zzzzzzz…~”

Rickety and Lexxi stare in bewilderment, exchanging confused glances at each other. The rest of the guild seems to start muttering amongst themselves too. “He’s asleep again?” “But he looks like he’s wide awake! His eyes are open!” “Just another completely normal day at the guild.”

“Err…” The Chatot laughs nervously as he forces out a smile. “Y-Yes! Thank you, sir! We all appreciate your…” He clears his throat, ruffling his feathers again. “Words of wisdom.” He redirects his attention back to the crowd, flapping his wings to catch their attention. “Now that we’ve all taken a moment to reflect and learn from our Guildmaster, let’s not forget our morning cheers! All together now!”

Not more shouting please not more shouting

“A one, a two, a one, two, three!”

“One! Don’t shirk work!”

“Two! Run away and pay!”

“Three! Smiles go for miles!”

“Wonderful! Now, get to work, everyone!”

As Rickety and Lexxi are still reeling and cringing a bit from one final round of yelling for the day and having had enough shouting for one lifetime, they look at each other, unsure of themselves. The rest of the Pokemon go their separate ways and Wigglytuff stumbles back into his chambers.

“So, uh… I understood that last one, but I don’t think I get what the first two are supposed to mean.” Rickety mumbles as her rubs at his eyes. Whole body still aches, woke up too fast. “Run away and pay? What, do we throw money at bad Pokemon to distract them?”

“I think it’d be better if we don’t think about it that much. Head’s still pounding too much right now to think.”

The two of them catch Chatot waving them down in the corner of their vision, gesturing to them with a wing. “You two, follow me.” He makes his way off towards the ladder and climbs up.

Lexxi stares at that ladder, frozen in place.

“…Alright, hop on.”

---

Chatot had led the two of them to a bulletin board, a number of papers pinned to it, all seeming to detail different job requests all from different Pokemon across the region, a wide variety of assignments.

“The two of you are aware that bad Pokemon have been cropping up in greater numbers, yes?” He asks them, pacing back and forth in front of the bulletin board.

Lexxi nods softly in response as she slides down off of Rickety’s back. “Rickety told me something along those lines yesterday, yeah. Something about it being a result of the flow of time going all screwy or something?”

“Correct!” Chatot nods with a smile. “Because time has been becoming unstable, Pokemon have been getting a little, er… Panicked, acting out in aggression and fear. Nobody can evolve, some Pokemon have been disappearing out of the blue, it’s distressing. So because of that, there have been more incidents and we’ve been receiving an increase in jobs because of it. In addition, while we can’t say for certain if these two are connected in any way, there’s also been a mass outbreak of Mystery Dungeons.”

Lexxi’s ears flick curiously. “Mystery Dungeons?”

“So, Lexxi,” Rickety speaks up, glancing down at her. “You know that cave where we tracked down those bullies who stole my necklace?” Lexxi nods in response. “That place was a Mystery Dungeon. Nobody knows where they come from or how they really work, but they change each time you go into them. Their layouts change, the things you find in them change, it’s all very confusing. Buuuuuuuuuuut, they make for popular spots for exploration teams looking to find some loot or treasure!”

Chatot muffles a chuckle to himself as his feathers ruffle up again. “Well! You two are well informed, aren’t you? Saves me the trouble of having to explain everything. Jobs all take place in these Mystery Dungeons! Now, let’s see here, your first job will be…” His eyes scan the bulletin board, scanning its pages. “This one!~” He reaches forward and rips the paper off the board with his beak, handing it over to Rickety.

“Let’s see here…” Rickety clears his throat, his eyes beginning to scan over the paper. ‘”‘Hello! My name is Spoink! An outlaw stole the precious pearl atop my head and made off with it! I desperately need that pearl back, or else I’ll die! Figuratively speaking, of course! That pearl is life itself to me! I’ve heard from a few other Pokemon that it’s been seen at the Drenched Bluff! But the place is so dangerous and it’s so deep into the cave that I can’t possibly go there myself! Please, if anyone reads this, find my pearl and return it to me! -Spoink'”

Rickety’s brows furrow as he finishes reading the note, his muzzle scrunching up a tad. “Uhhh… A recovery mission? Really?” He looks up from the note and turns his attention back to Chatot. “I thought we’d be doing something else. Like exploring new places previously unheard of, that sort of thing? Can’t we get something else to do?”

Chatot’s expression changes as he frowns, his eyes narrowing towards Rickety. “I understand that you’re both excited and to get into the swing of things, but I must remind you that you are both rookies. You will get to pick the jobs you want once you’ve earned the chance to do so, but you’ll pay your dues as long as necessary. One does not shove their whole hand into a glass of milk when dunking a cookie. Is that understood?”

“But-!”

Lexxi gently taps the side of Rickety’s leg with a stub. “We said we’ll make this work, right? We’ve got this.”

Rickety sighs and nods, stashing the paper away in his backpack. “Alright. We’ll get the job done.”

Chatot’s smile returns. “Excellent! Now, follow your Wonder Map! It should lead you to your destination! Get to it!~”

---

Lexxi had to keep her nose covered for the latter half of the walk. The closer they got to the Drenched Bluff, the more moss began to cover the ground surrounding the path. “It STINKS out here! Why couldn’t the thief have gone to the Beach Cave or somewhere nicer?”

“Euughh, this is why I wanted to go somewhere different.” Rickety groans, his voice nasally as he keeps pinching it shut, holding the map with one paw. “I think this is the place, though. Hope it doesn’t smell as bad on the inside.”

The entrance was… Initimidating, almost like a swirling vortex that loomed over them as the opening to the bluff led to pure darkness. Rickety and Lexxi would normally be taking deep breaths to calm themselves down to prep, but breathing in the smell of an atmosphere as musty and humid as this is the last thing they want to do right now.

With nowhere else to go, the two step forward and venture off into the bluff.

…

And then immediately find the entrance to the next floor awaiting right in front of them.

“…A staircase?” Lexxi dumbly state. “There’s just, a staircase in the middle of a cave?”

“I told you Mystery Dungeons are weird places, Lexxi. Anything that makes sense goes right out the window here.” Rickety sighs, stuffing the map back into the backpack. “Well, at the very least, it makes our job easier. The sooner we find that pearl and get out of this place, the better.”

Lexxi’s confusion only grew as the two began to make their way down the staircase. It wasn’t like any other staircase she had experienced in her lifetime (at least, that she could remember anyway), the path down was dark and dreary. There were no walls to speak of, no guard rails, just a bleak, empty abyss surrounding them from all angles.

“So, uhh… Rickety, do you know anything else about the whole ‘flow of time going out of whack’ thing going on? What exactly is happening?” Lexxi asks, being careful with each and every step she takes on the stairs.

Rickety glances back at her and shrugs. “Nobody can really pinpoint it down. Every time we think we have it figured out, something else starts happening on top of everything we already knew. Pokemon disappearing has been a much more recent issue, only started cropping up in the last few weeks.”

Lexxi tilts her head, almost tripping over herself, reorienting herself. She’d rather not fall off into the inexplicable abyss between cave floors, thanks. “Couple weeks? So it’s been going on for a while, huh?” Her eyebrows furrow as she continues to walk down the steps alongside Rickety, her mind wandering a bit. “I wonder if that has anything to do with how I wound up here… Maybe-“

Before Lexxi can finish her thought process, the staircase suddenly vanishes, their surroundings returning to normal. Back in the bluff like they’re supposed to be.

“Wha-?! How’d we-” Lexxi sighs, shaking her head. “Weird places, Lexxi. Weird places… So we just need to do that six more times, huh?”

“Seems that way.” Rickety’s brows furrow, taking a moment to get adjusted. “Aww… No stairway. Figures it wasn’t going to be that easy.

---

Lexxi’s tail slams right into the face of an assailing Chingling, sending it knocking back against the wall as little jingles escape its body. In the meantime, Rickety was wrapping up with one of the nearby Shellos, countering one of its attacks as it struck him and knocking it to the ground, fainting.

“We’re almost there, right Rickety?”

“Yeah, should only be, uh… Two more floors to go, I think!”

Lexxi sighs, making her way towards the staircase as she stretches her body out a bit. “Feels like we’ve been wandering around down here for hours. I know it probably hasn’t been that long but I feel exhausted.”

The two make their way down the staircase, descending down its winding, abyssal depths before being promptly spat back out into the cave proper.

But something seems… Off.

As Lexxi’s eyes scan the immediate area, she notices that she and Rickety are surrounded by more Pokemon than they were the previous floors. An uncomfortable amount, actually- Like WAY too much!

Rickety’s body tenses up as his eyes sweep the area with Lexxi, standing at the offensive, and then he notices a few shadows on the ground, shadows where no Pokemon seem to be standing… Until suddenly, an even larger number of Pokemon begin dropping down from the ceiling, as if half the inhabitants of the Drenched Bluff had all followed them down.

Chinglings, Anoriths, Shellos, all the Pokemon native to the area were all here, and they were all surrounding them right at the entrance to the floor. “R-Rickety, what the heck’s going on here?! Why are there so many of them?!” Lexxi begins to panic a little bit, backing up closer towards Rickety.

“I-I… I think we landed ourselves in a Monster House!” He exclaims, his eyes darting around the room faster, his breaths quickening. “Big floor, lots of Pokemon, lot more than we can reasonably handle right now!”

The Pokemon surrounding them didn’t move much, only inching slightly closer with each passing second, as if they were all predators and the Riolu and Skitty they saw before them were the prey. Lexxi’s ears droop against her head, her body trembling against Rickety. “What do we even do?!”

“Uhh… U-Umm… Don’t worry! I’ve got a plan!” Rickety perks up, voice seeming confident, self-assuring.

“Really?! You do?!”

“Uh-huh! I know exactly what to do!”” Rickety’s voice is still a little bit shaky but he seems to be holding himself together. “Look around us, Lexxi. You see how all the Pokemon are spread out from each other? You see the big gaps between all of them?”

She takes a moment to collect herself, panting heavily as her eyes sweep around the room once again. Rickety was right, there was a considerable amount of space between each Pokemon. “Y-Yeah? What about it?”

“That’s our ticket!” Rickety’s tail idly sways back and forth, meticulously.

“And your plan?” She keeps scooting back against Rickety, watching as the Pokemon continue to encroach upon them.

“I’ll use my legs!”

“Use your legs to do what?!”

There’s a very brief pause as the two stand there, the Pokemon continuing to close in on them. Without hesitating, Rickety immediately scoops Lexxi up into his arms and begins to make a break for it. “To hotfoot it out of here, Lexxi!”

Lexxi, reasonably confused and now incredibly panicked by the fact that her face was now being pressed right up against her friend’s chest and her body was constantly being bounced up and down, making her incredibly dizzy.

Rickety manages to break his way through a pair of Pokemon and they immediately begin to give chase. The sounds of dozens of attack moves could be heard coming from behind them along with the cacophony of wild Pokemon cries.

“Do you even know where you’re going?!” Lexxi muffles out as her head continues to be smushed against Rickety’s chest.

“Not at all! Just trying to find the staircase! We just gotta keep running and-” Interrupted mid-sentence, Rickety accidentally triggers a trap that had been place in the floor. A wind trap. A violent gust of wind pushes him forward, blowing him off his feet. “Ghhrrhk!” He tumbles down to the ground, rolling right into the staircase, still holding Lexxi as tightly as he can as the two roll down the steps.

After what felt like an eternity of rolling down and getting knocked all over the place, the two finally come to a halt. Lexxi had slipped from Rickety’s grasp at some point during the spill, her fur all ruffled up in spots.

The two of them groan in pain, the both of them incredibly worn out and very exhausted. Lexxi stumbles and she gets back onto all fours, having to lean against a wall for support. “Bluuuugggghhh, I feel like I’m gonna be sick…”

“I think I’m just gonna… Yeah I think I’m gonna call the floor my home for a little while, it seems preferable over the idea of getting up.” Rickety muffles out, letting out another groan. “Could really go for an oran berry right about now, I feel like I hurt all over.”

Lexxi takes a moment to relax, sighing as she sits down on her haunches. Her ears flick as she hears the sound of trickling water all around her. Looking over, she sees that the two of them are surrounded by a big, mossy cavern, a small stairway in the center of the room leading to a small fountain, water running down its steps in little trails.

And what’s even better was what was sitting right at the foot of the fountain. A purple, glistening pearl. It was Spoink’s pearl! Lexxi gasps and immediately runs over to pick it up, dashing back towards Rickety. “Rickety! Hey! Hey Rickety! We found it!”

“Mmnwwuuhhh?” Rickety tiredly lifts his face up off the ground, eyelids drooped low. “Whassawhuh?”

“The pearl!” Lexxi pushes it right against his snoot. “We found the pearl! We made it!”

“Huh? Uh- OH YEAH YOU’RE RIGHT!” He immediately perks back up as he smiles, pushing himself back up onto his feet. “Let’s get back to the guild and give it to Spoink right away!

---

Lexxi and Rickety, though a bit roughed up by their journey and dirty, had finally made their way back to the guild, where Chatot and Spoink were righting for them right in front of the bulletin board.

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you!” Spoink happily bounces as his pearl is rightfully placed back atop his head as it should be. “Thank you both so so much! I was starting to get restless without my pearl! I can’t thank either of you enough, really!”

Rickety chuckles sheepshly, smiling softly as he brushes at the back of his neck. “Eeeheheh, it’s nothing.”

“Nonsense!” The Spoink exclaims, sproinging up close to them. “The two of you look like you’ve went through so much trouble just to get it back! So please, have this as a token of my thanks! It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it! My pearl is priceless to me compared to this!”

Both of their jaws drop as Spoink hands them over a hefty sum of 2000 P.

“Y-You’re kidding! 2000P?! All for us?!” Rickety’s eyes widen, pupils growing as he looks over the cash in his paws.

“Mmhm! Again! Thank you both so, so much! You two take care of yourselves, okay? See ya!” And so the Spoink sproings off, hopping up the ladder each step of the way. Lexxi can’t help feel a pang of jealousy as she watches him effortlessly hop up the steps.

“2000 P, Lexxi!” Rickety exclaims, practically bouncing in place from excitement. “Look at how much we’ve got! We-!”

Chatot steps in, extending a wing out. “I hate to burst your bubbles, but, you’re going to hand that cash over.”

Rickety’s eyes twitch as he slowly turns his head to face Chatot, his expression blank and dumbfounded. “What?”

“Most of the money from jobs goes towards funding the Guild! So, please, hand over the money?” Rickety and Lexxi stare at each other incredulously, before Rickety complies and slowly hands over the money to Chatot. “Now don’t worry! You’ll still get your part of the reward! Your trade comes out to, mmm… This much!”

Lexxi stares down at the measely amount of money in the Chatot’s feathers, taking it and staring down at it. “We only get to keep 200 P? Are you serious?”

“Come on! Really?!” Rickety pouts, muzzle scrunching up. “Can’t we get a bigger share of the reward? 200 P is like pocket change!”

“We have to keep the guild running somehow, you know? Believe it or not, keeping a guild running is quite expensive for all the supplies we need to keep things going!~” The Chatot explains, in maybe a chipper voice than he should probably be speaking in for this sort of thing. “Don’t let your pay be indicative of the work you’ve done, you did an excellent job today! And we’ll expect an equal performance tomorrow!~” Chatot goes and hops back off down the ladder, leaving Lexxi and Rickety standing there, staring down at the 200 P they’d been given.

Rickety sighs, slumping down and crossing his arms. “All that work and all that trouble just to be rewarded with only 200 P. Hummph.”

“Maybe we’ll be rewarded better on our next job?” Lexxi says, stashing the money away in the backpack.”

As Rickety goes to answer, he’s interupted by a little chime that could be heard throughout the guild.

Jing-a-ling! Jing-a-ling!

“Dinner’s ready! Come over to the dining hall, everyone!~”

“…Oh yeah, dinner.” He chuckles softly. “We’ve been running around all day I haven’t realized we haven’t eaten at all. And now that I think about it, I’m freaking starving! Let’s head down and eat!”

---

Dinner was an absolute feast. Berries and fruits of all sorts served up on plates lining all across the dinner table. Everyone was chowing down to their heart’s content, Lexxi and Rickety included. Honestly, it was almost enough to make up for the fact that their pay was smaller than they’d been expecting. Almost.

“Got a moment?”

A voice spoke out next to them. Directed to them. Both of them take a moment to finish what they were eating before they both glance to their side. It was a Kirlia. But this Kirlia was… Different. Very different, nothing at all like a typical Kirlia. Her hair and underbody were colored black, her horns were a deep purple, and her eyes along with the gem in her chest were a vibrant yellow. She had a captivating look to her as she smiled calmly at the duo. “Newest recruits, right? Heard you ran into a Monster House on your first job. Would that happen to be true?”

Rickety and Lexxi exchange glances at each other, before Lexxi turns to answer. She nods her head, ears swaying a bit. “We did, yeah. Had to run away and we barely got out with our lives.”

“You RAN AWAY?! From a Monster House?!” Another voice could be heard coming from behind the Kirlia, and laughing could be heard. Peering behind the Kirlia, Lexxi recognized who it was. It was the Zoroark from the lineup earlier that day! “You guys can’t be serious! You don’t just run away from a Monster House like that!”

The Kirlia muffles a quiet laugh to herself, glancing back at the Zoroark. “Give them some credit where it’s due, at least. They’re inexperienced and probably didn’t know what to do. The fact that they escaped a Monster House at all is impressive.”

Rickety arches an eyebrow as he reaches for another oran berry. “Okay, first of all, who are you guys? And second, what’s wrong with running away from a Monster House? Is that not the right thing to do?”

“”Ah, right. Sorry, we should introduce ourselves.” The Kirlia muffles another laugh to herself, placing a hand on her chest. “My name’s Xero. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She leans back and gestures to the Zoroark behind her. One could notice that her hair was cut much shorter than a usual Zoroark’s, her ponytail nothwere near as long. “And this here is my partner in crime, Zorora.”

“Yo!~” The Zoroark flashes a toothy grin, making some sort of gesture with her claws. “The two of us make up Team Mind’s Eye!”

“Mind’s Eye?” Lexxi inquires, tilting her head.

“Of course.” Xero nods. “Both of us have abilities that allow us to… Alter the perception of those we come across, to put it in simplest terms. Such as my extensive hypnotic prowess and Zorora’s natural ability to cast illusions and deceive our opponents. Hence the name.”

“Pretty cool, huh?~ We both came up with it together!”

Rickety suddenly becomes visibly uncomfortable, shifting in his seat as his body tenses up a little. “Uhh… You’re not gonna try doing any of that weird mind altering stuff to either of us, are you?”

“Not unless you want it.” Xero winks and bleps at the two of them teasingly, giggling to herself. “But in all seriousness, don’t worry, we know our limits. We keep any mind trickery outside of the guild.” She gives an offsided glance back at Zorora, who just gives a knowing smirk to her. “…Most of the time, at least.”

“Uh-huh…” Lexxi slowly nods. Yeah, they sure make quite the team. Might have to be a little wary on them. “A-Anyway though, back on topic. Why’s running from a Monster House so abnormal?”

“It’s because you don’t learn anything new if you don’t fight back, you dorks!” Zorora chimes in, leaning in closer. “You don’t fight, you don’t get stronger! You don’t learn anything, you don’t gain any experience from it, simple as that! It might seem like a bit of an endurance test, especially for smaller ‘mons like you, but fighting Monster Houses makes you stronger!”

“Any strategies you can come up with from fighting Monster Houses could save your backs one day.” Xero continues. “Plus, any treasures you might get from defeating the Pokemon in them are another welcome bonus.~”

Rickety hums to himself, scratching at his head. “But how do we deal with being outnumbered-“

“Look, buddy,” Zorora smirks a points a claw at Rickety. “Learn enough and get strong enough, the biggest Monster House in the world won’t even be able to face against you.”

Xero turns back to her plate, though glances at Rickety and Lexxi one last time. “If you ever need help with anything, you’re free to ask for our help if you want.”

“Thanks, uh… Thanks for the offer.” Rickety stammers.

“Well, something to consider for the future, at least, right?” Lexxi asks, going back to her plate and nomfing another berry.

“I mean I guess.” Rickety laughs nervously. “I just feel kinda silly for panicking now.” He smiles softly to himself, taking another bite out of his food. “We’ll totally take down a whole monster house next time, for sure.”

---

“Bwuuuuuuuuuuuuuggghhhhhh.” Rickety groans out as he flops down onto his cushion, falling face first into it. “I haven’t eaten like that in forever. Heck of a way to cap off the day, huh, Lexxi?”

The Skitty sprawls out across the cushion, letting herself sink into it comfortably. “You don’t even need to tell me twice. I’m pooped. I don’t think I could even get myself to move if I wanted to.”

“Heh, I’m with you there.” Rickety lets out a long, tired sigh as he sinks deeper and deeper into the cushion. “…Man, today was a freaking mess, wasn’t it? We woke up late, got caught in a monster house, we got such a small amount of pay for all the work we put in, but at the same time… I kinda liked it.”

“Mmnnh?” Lexxi lets out a quiet, muffled hum, already feeling herself drifting off a little bit as she lays there.

“Yeah! Like it might’ve been a mess, sure, but it was still a really cool mess! We got to explore a damp, musty cavern and saw this beautiful opening with that fountain and all the moss growing all over the place, and being thanked by Spoink and seeing him so happy that we managed to help him? That was nice, that felt really, really nice.”

“Mmhm, yeah, that’s, mmnhh…” She could barely keep herself awake, just shuffling slightly to make herself a little more comfortable.

“Heh… Yeah, I feel you there, I’m super duper tired too. Let’s get some rest and do our very best again tomorrow, together.” Rickety lets out a long yawn as he stretches himself out, making himself all nice and comfy on his bed. “Goodnight, Lexxi.”

“Mnnhhh… Goodnight to you too, Rickety.”