The next day was a start similar to the prior day. They got up, mumbled about weird dreams, and the lack of anything they could remember from them, and were in front of Mindscape as per usual after a meal to start the day.
As they entered, Roin and Ritza walked out, both looking particularly flustered.
“Oh hey!”
“We’re just going to our next mission, bye-bye!”
They proceeded onward out the door, and Sanvu heard something as they wandered off.
“…can’t believe it expanded to 12 floors! We should’ve been paying more attention…”
“..only a small expansion, don’t worry about it!”
“Hey!”
That snapped Sanvu out of his stupor quickly when he saw Pachuku staring at him intently, urging him to continue inside alongside.
Notey watched with equally as intent eyes, before speaking up.
“Didra specifically wants to see you two today. She’s in the room behind me.”
Sanvu wondered what exactly she’d want to see them directly for if not for another mission. He also wondered if all of their missions were going to come from her directly. Pachuku had already run ahead, leaving him little room to contemplate unless he fancied losing him.
It wasn’t long before they came into the room, which was the same one they’d received their first mission in. Inside were two familiar Pokemon, besides Didra herself.
“Well, well, look what the ‘risu dragged in, huh?”
The Electabuzz was grinning down at them with his hands on his hips, his smaller partner, that familiar green blob of some kind, was floating next to him, donning a much more sympathetic grin.
Pachuku was immediately more anxious, shying away, and Sanvu himself couldn’t help but be a little intimidated, if only because the other Electric-type towered over them.
“Now, now, let’s not scare them off, I have good news to divulge here,” Didra assured, waving the hulking Electric-type off as he straightened out at her command, “Your mission together should be the last before promotion of the Minders’s rank, if you succeed.”
Pachuku’s face was practically aglimmer the way he lightened up, while Sanvu could only stare with with a brow raised. Before he asked though, his silent questions were already in the process of being answered.
“There aren’t many ranks to Mindscape, really just one or two to ensure you’re verified members that have worked with us a while, but I wanted to test you given that Pachuku didn’t really find an Amnesiac on his own. But I have been impressed with your progress over the last few days, so you may go on another mission with the Cognition. Then, you can not only receive missions from me, but also go on any that you think are imperative to solving this crisis in particular.”
“So we don’t specifically have to come to you for missions?”
“No, but I will also continue to hand out missions based on what I think is the most appropriate.”
“You guys were essentially operating somewhat on a confirmed but not entirely official level,” Derjie the Duosion spoke up, “But our next mission should change that, if we succeed!”
“Your mission, today, both the Minders and Cognition will be working together to escort a client to a town blocked off by the Mystery Dungeons that have encroached around our own. The client is a Hawlucha, and the dungeon in particular you’ll be going to is-“
“Yeah, the one with the easy ‘mons,” the Electabuzz interrupted.
“…at Discipline Cave. You may go off, and try to cooperate.”
The large one walked out, leaving the others to follow. Sanvu wasn’t entirely sure what to say, since Pachuku had become increasingly more nervous. They’d stopped just a little outside Didra’s room, in the hallway.
“So, uh, I didn’t catch your names much. I know who Pachuku is, but who’re you?” the larger Electric-type grunted, jabbing a finger in Sanvu’s general direction, “I keep forgetting.”
“It’s… Sanvu,” the Grass-type responded, trying his best to sound neutral despite how he was slightly intimidated.
“Ah, Sanvu. So you know I’m Tenab and he’s Derjie, right? Just so we’re on the same page?”
“Y-Yeah…” Pachuku nodded, but it was clear he was really anxious, since he nodded quite a few times.
“Right, well, I’ll let you guys get to items. You guys have a map, right?”
Pachuku fetched it, opening it and making sure it turned on. “I forget where Discipline Cave is, honestly.”
“It’s near all the caves at the bottom that lead to the mountainous area near us,” Derjie explained “It’s close to Stony Enclose, if you know where that is.”
“Oh yeah, that place…” Sanvu noted, and put only enough sarcasm in his voice that he didn’t tick anyone off, but all he got was laughter in response.
“Eh, you don’t need to worry about it. This mission’s gonna fly by quick if ya know what you’re doing. Pachuku’s good with items, right? I think I recalled that was a thing.”
“Yeah, let’s get right on it!” Pachuku agreed, before dashing past the other way, leaving Sanvu to quickly send an apologetic glance their way before running after him himself.
Pachuku had run home, and out front, there was a box he was messing with. Sanvu had only just caught up with him.
“So… why’re you afraid of him?” Sanvu finally asked, as Pachuku almost stumbled carrying the berries he had stocked in his paws.
“Ah, so she must be expecting us to complete this mission. Good on her, I guess.”
“Pachuku?”
“Wha-Oh.”
Pachuku turned his head away. “I… don’t know what I did to earn their ire. That’s everybody, of course, he’s just another one. So… I get nervous if they… aren’t really supportive.”
“He… was imposing at least, but I couldn’t really see anything off about him… besides that he did look mighty angry the first day we were here…”
“I don’t know what changed. It’s just… unsettling, that’s all.”
“Anyway, what’s that? I haven’t seen it before. Some kind of box?”
“Storage Box. Standard fare for Mystery Dungeon exploration. There were a few Orans inside; I guess someone just put one out.”
“We didn’t see anyone come by though…”
“Who knows how Didra works, I’m just glad to have one… uh… at all.”
After packing various items, the duo followed the map where they reunited with the others, Tenab was grinning, much more warmly this time, and Derjie looked somewhat more neutral, bobbing about. Besides them was a large bird-like creature, only a little shorter than Tenab. It donned a plumage of several colours, red, green and orange primarily on its top half. Its head was curved to resemble a bird’s beak, had long red arms with wing-like flaps coloured primarily green that connected at the back to form a tail-feather. Its lower half was primarily white, with two gold feet.
“Was waitin’ for you lot,” Tenab laughed, “This here’s the dungeon.”
“Hello, I’m Hew,” the Hawlucha introduced, in a deep, but feminine sounding voice. “I need to get to Simmcination but… well…”
“We just need to get to a point at the dungeon’s end,” Derjie explained. “We can handle most of the enemies here, so I think we should lead.”
“Yeah, sounds good; that right with you kids?”
“Sounds fine.”
“S-Sure…”
*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX – Silent Chasm
And so they proceeded, the two Cognition members up front, the Minders directly behind them, and Hew tailing the group, the dungeon appearing similar to Stony Enclose, but while that stage was primarily dark and rugged more befitting of a cave, this place, while primarily cliffs, were very oddly flat, the stone ground not exhibiting many bumps, being straight, flat and level, in an unnerving fashion.
“They call this place Discipline Cave due to the high presence of Fighting types,” Derjie went on. “They primarily train here for some reason, not sure.”
“Mostly cause of Fighting-type rules or some such,” Tenab huffed. He looked behind only to notice that they were silent, with very neutral faces.
“Have I done something to yas? I’m not sure quite what’sit that has you so bummed.”
Pachuku huddled closer to Sanvu, who while bothered, decided to explain what he knew thus far.
“When we met you the other day, you were talking about how Pachuku had found a friend, that being me. But… you seem amiable with us now and not laughing about it anymore. So… what changed? Is it just because we succeeded at a few missions?” Sanvu speculated, only to be met with another smirk.
“When I heard about Pachuku tryin’ to join by himself… I didn’t want us Electric-types getting a bad name by attemptin’ to cheat the system,” He began, “But, you’re not as bad as I thought, so I’m not particularly mad anymore.”
“Despite not really knowing me?”
“We quickly learn to respect fellow Mindscape workers when they help out with the problems at hand,” Derjie assured, “And you’ve been doing really well, all things considered.”
“I guess it surprises even me sometimes-“
“Hey, look!”
The Hawlucha was pointing in front to a large square room where 2 apparitions appeared. One appeared to resemble a small brown and white bird around Pachuku’s height, a Starly, while the other resembled a frog, but was bipedal, primarily blue, with orange cheeks, a Croagunk.
Before the Minders had even started, two rays of energy, one electric, the other a multicoloured ray of light that spiralled, knocked their foes out cold; both the Minders and Hew could only stare, gawking.
“What? We’ve got experience. Now let’s get a move on!”
“I should… pick anything good up.”
“Good idea, Pachuku, I wonder if we’re just not expected to do anything in this mission?” Sanvu was shrugging as Pachuku began running around to pick the items up.
“Haw haw! Nah, I’ll give you some action later!”
“Just some advice, don’t try to attack the Croagunk, Sanvu, which was the one I aimed at. It’s part Poison, and you don’t want to risk poison attacks making the mission more difficult than it needs to be if they were to hit you, it’s nothing to joke about when it’s super-effective on you.”
Sanvu nodded, although while not understanding the full implications, he didn’t exactly like the word ‘poison’ anyway, it didn’t sound pleasant no matter what type he would be. Pachuku went around picking up a few berries off the floor, making multiple trips when his tail couldn’t hold any more.
“I’m normally the one picking things up,” Derjie mused as Tenab was busy checking their own stocks, “It’s a welcome change, since my Psychic isn’t quite all there yet.”
“It’s Discharge instead of Psychic for me,” Pachuku agreed with berries in paws.
“I’m sure we’ll all get there eventually.”
“Do you think you could help Pachuku with his electricity then?” Sanvu asked, turning to Tenab. He looked incredulous.
“I don’t know Discharge that well. Tryin’ to though.”
“Then… what was that electric move earlier?”
“Shock Wave. Discharge requires like… way more concentration. I’m not ready for it yet myself, hah!”
“It’s okay, I’m sure I’ll get it eventually…” Pachuku assured softly to Sanvu, who was otherwise quietly smiling his way.
“If you can use it at all, that’s one step above me, I’ll give ya that!”
Not even anxiety could cover up the smirk Pachuku exuded from that compliment.
~~
The floors were pretty much a breeze, mostly because Tenab and Derjie were extremely overpowered. They would typically use a singular move, and no matter what, the apparitions would dissipate in one hit, whether a Starly or even a Mienfoo. Sanvu and Pachuku both were pretty much relegated to watching the rear and of course, chatting with their escort. On the 6th floor…
“So what’s… the town you’re going to, again?” Sanvu asked.
“Simmcination,” The Hawlucha responded. “I was here in Mentage on an errand, but I tried to go back and found myself constantly lost… I couldn’t risk becoming an Amnesiac myself.”
Sanvu repeated the name in his head. Something about it had a familiar ring to him, despite that he should not know anything about this world prior to meeting Pachuku.
“Why does it sound familiar…?” He softly whispered. He thought it was to himself, but two others heard.
“What sound familiar?” Pachuku whispered back. Sanvu jumped.
“You heard?! The name. It’s like… I know it. Somehow.”
“From before all this?”
“Yeah… from… you know…”
“I actually don’t.” Derjie spoke back. This got Tenab to turn over to Derjie, “Oh, not a big deal, buddy!”
“Oh, well, I’m gonna take Hew in with me, I want you all to wait out here.”
“Why?”
“Don’t wanna make it a tight squeeze and I’m leadin’ anyways,” Tenab asserted. He then took off, Hew following behind him, leaving the three others alone for a second.
“It… doesn’t concern you,” Sanvu answered.
“It’s from when he was-“
“Do you need to blurt it everywhere we go?!”
“Ah! Right! You were human, right? I think I recalled hearing that somewhere,” Derjie mused, thinking for a moment, jolting quite suddenly for a second, “Ah, yes, it’s when Didra mentioned she made an exception due to the fantastical circumstances!”
“She… told you?”
“Yeah? We’re expected to work together, so it’s no good to be keeping secrets.”
“I guess that makes sense… but still…” Sanvu was clutching his head with an arm. “Some privacy would be nice.”
Tenab returned with a number of Orbs, all which held a blue rim, but some had an orange inside with a big swirling pattern, while some others held a red pattern with glowing white and yellow patterns.
“Alright, let’s get movin’”
A short while later, Sanvu started whispering to Pachuku. The two were truly tailing the group now, Hew had shifted positions to be between Derjie and Tenab, and Derjie was now the closest to their two companions. A short while after proceeding through the next hallway, and finding a room with no items, Sanvu instead started wondering about the dungeon they were in yesterday.
“The rocks were glowing white yesterday… anything odd here?” he whispered to Pachuku inquisitively.
“Huh?” Pachuku looked around, “I… uh, haven’t been here before. Not like Mystical Woods.”
“What happened at Mystical Woods? Apparently the Treaders reported a floor increase but… we didn’t catch much else.”
Sanvu recounted the events of yesterday’s dungeon, with Pachuku piping in about the rocks.
“WHOA, you serious?! It just… bleached right in front of yas?!”
“Yeah. It might’ve been forming the orb-bubble things, or something.”
“They didn’t believe me at first when I said they didn’t use to look like that.”
“Weird, we haven’t been there very much just due to the fact of how easy it is, so we last saw them with colour too.” Derjie claimed, looking much more contemplative.
“Guess it ain’t so mystical anymore, we’re probably gonna have to call it the “Dull Woods” or somethin’”
“Dungeon names don’t change because of that kind of appearance change, Tenab. It would have to be something more substantial.”
“I kinda liked how they looked. Made moves look more busted.”
Pachuku’s trembling only slightly subsided after these remarks. He continued fiddling with his paws as they continued talking about it, though Sanvu could only send sympathetic glances as they continued.
As they walked through the hallway to the next floor, an odd presence overwhelmed the explorers, intimidating in scope. All of them had stopped walking.
“Is… uh… this normal?” Sanvu couldn’t be sure that they hadn’t stopped for no reason.
“Better not be what I think it is.”
“U-uh?!” Pachuku sputtered.
“Hey, uh, Hew?”
“Yes?”
“Uh… stay in the back. Don’t move anywhere, ya hear?!”
“What’s wrong?” Sanvu wondered.
“Derj, need ya to play guard. Can you handle that?!”
“Oh, it’s not what you think it is, right?”
They walked into the room, after Derjie stood in front of Hew, and for a while, nothing happened.
But then, blots of dungeon sludge began to form apparitions…
A Starly here. A Croagunk over there. Two Meditite over in the corner, alongside a Mienfoo, Pidgey, and Makuhita, surrounding the group. Add in another Croagunk and a Chatot, for good measure.
*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX – Monster House
“Stupid Monster Houses,” Tenab growled.
“Wh-what?” Sanvu was just stunned.
“Sometimes a dungeon will just decide, let’s bombard you with apparitions all at once, it’s known as a Monster House,” Pachuku quickly answered, cheeks sparking. “Just go, we need to for Hew!”
The sound of electricity crackling had already boomed. It was a flurry of attacks, from every which direction. Many of the assailants looked straight to pouncing on the smaller Pokemon.
Tenab however reached up and held one of the orbs he’d procured from his bag, the one with the orange spiral pattern from earlier, and where the Pokemon had been eager to eat them alive, they now all looked as if they were drunk, stumbling over themselves in a heap as their attacks connected sometimes with each other instead of the foreign invaders.
Sanvu ran with vines lashed and knocked down one of the Meditite, Pachuku quickly knocking it out completely with a Quick Attack. Waves from behind them boomed, as Sanvu only caught from the corner of his eye Tenab sending a fist imbued with electricity into the Starly, knocking the apparition clean apart before it had even finished attacking.
After his attack had connected with the Meditite, the small Grass-type tripped forward attempting to listen to Tenab, since he was the leader for this particular mission, instead faceplanting into a part of the floor which clicked and lowered. Purple sludge shot out, lightly covering Sanvu in grime. It was sticky to the touch, rendering him much slower for the next Pokemon to attack; in this case, a Chatot eager for some tazing with the help of the nearby squirrel, who instead of aiming for Sanvu properly had aimed at the wall next to where he was laying.
Derjie meanwhile was sending pulses of light out randomly to the Makuhita who was trying to reach him despite the distance between them. Two more of these and the Makuhita was out cold and dissipating.
The Totter Orb began to run out on its remaining survivors, especially as the Croagunk slammed several poison coated spikes into Sanvu who was recovering from the trap, jabbing into his leafy skin. That was quickly taken out with Pachuku’s Discharge, while Sanvu lay recovering, using his vines to lash out at any who came close defensively instead of opting to move.
While Sanvu was too busy dealing with the sick, queasy feeling that the poison had welled into him, Tenab came in quick with electrical rings that sent the Mienfoo and the other Meditite harassing him away, clearing out the Monster House quite efficiently. Sanvu, despite not having done much, felt much stronger as a result, oddly enough. It wasn’t long after when Tenab stepped on another trap; which lead to spiked balls of stone raining down from the ceiling right onto him. The large tiger-ogre brushed it off fairly quickly and stood up, mostly undeterred.
Pachuku continued using his weak Discharge to try to knock out two enemies at a time, eventually whittling them down with Tenab’s help. What should’ve been a headache was pretty well easy… well, except for the injuries Sanvu sustained.
~~
“Lucky we pack Pechas for when we’re down, huh?” He offered Sanvu, who looked at him strangely, but couldn’t hold back the pained look creeping on his face. “It’ll cure the poison.”
Sanvu took it and ate it, quickly recovering; the queasiness melting away. While this happened, Tenab was approaching Pachuku, and rubbed Pachuku’s head in a friendly gesture.
“You’re gonna need to teach me that move sometime! Weak or not, we’d have been done for without that helping.”
“I’m pretty sure it was that… Orb that helped us the most.”
“True, but an Orb is not that useful on its own without ranged moves like Discharge,” Derjie informed. Sanvu couldn’t help but wince.
“Whatever, you’s’re pretty strong to mostly make it through while only really getting poisoned once. Lucky he was one of the few in the group, huh?!”
He laughed, and Sanvu lightly chuckled along. Pachuku was busy picking up useful Orbs in the room. They then continued onward. Sanvu before they left could’ve sworn he heard Pachuku mumbling about an Orb they had that would’ve helped.
They were close to the 14th floor, no other Monster Houses had occurred, luckily the one from before hadn’t reduced the group too much. According to the evolved members; it was around floor 15-16 that the dungeon would peter out, assuming no floor increases.
“So, dungeons increase in floor count often?”
“Not usually, but it’s a pain when they do, what with the rankin’ system an’ all, preferably, easy dungeons should stay easy.”
Derjie had remained tailing the group, watching the escort. “It doesn’t happen often, but when it’s an easy dungeon, it is a bit of a worry as to what’s happening to it. Especially if they continue to encroach the border around town, it just means more of a chore for civilians to get out and get supplies, or even just to move.”
“A chore, and not, like, dangerous?”
“We haven’t heard of them attempting to swallow civilisation, but there’s nothing stopping them from trying…” Pachuku worried.
“It wouldn’t be as difficult if we had more members who could deal with it. But… Didra’s strict on who joins for a reason,” Derjie specified, “We’ve an appearance to keep up, so she says.”
“This sure ain’t gonna be like those guilds or societies she thinks they’ll be though.” Tenab huffed, his tail lashing particularly hard with that statement.
“I think the appearance has more to do with the town’s current… fear of losing their own memories. They’ve all become more self-serving as a result.”
Sanvu turned to Pachuku, who shook his head in agreement, solemn.
“Yeah, there’s also that whole angle to consider. Don’t wanna hire somebody who doesn’t wanna help out.”
Sanvu was still quite suspicious though, since Pachuku was looking right at Derjie. Inside his gel-bubble, his arms did their best impression of a shrug.
“I heard somebody got kicked out recently, from Mindscape, cause they weren’t being helpful enough. It’s always been a ‘do what this Pokemon didn’t’ kind of thing since.”
“Who was that?”
“I… don’t particularly recall. They didn’t show up much though,” Pachuku was silent at this and began fiddling with his paws silently; while Sanvu wanted to press further, he was sure Derjie was honest. The words sounded almost automatic though, it seemed he wouldn’t know who this mysterious co-worker was, even if he thought otherwise, “We’d better not end up like them though.”
“That’ll just sully our name though, hardly worth thinkin’ about ‘em if they didn’t help.”
“Y-yeah!” Pachuku agreed, now grinning despite that the two of them weren’t looking at him, any trace of his prior anxiety vanishing. “But… help would still be help.”
“True…”
“At least it ain’t us doin’ the decidin’…”
As they proceeded, sometimes Tenab would give the two of them the capacity to use a move or two, and he would often step in to deal with a particularly hard hit. Sanvu became a lot better running with his vines out, for instance, and Pachuku was now sporting a third ray on Discharge, but often semi-infrequently. Tenab would still floor most foes, often grunting about “being overlevelled” to the point that watching him was as enthralling as actually facing foes. Tenab would deal with Flying-types himself though, he often admitted liking watching the apparitions crackle to pieces, despite that Thunder Punch was inherently weaker than his other attacks. Once or twice, Hew got distracted, but Derjie would quickly herd her back to their group with little in his way, since he could float without worry of anything in the way except walls and of course, the ceiling.
The floors proceeded pretty quickly, the 15th they spawned next to the stairs, and thus they reached the 16th floor, which was just a large raised stone plate nearby to a blue-glowing wall. The ceiling became exposed to the sky, and eventually, Hew walked over to it. The two evolved mons used their badges to point at the glow, and in an instant, the Hawlucha was gone.
“Where’d she go?” Sanvu asked.
“Simmcination is just past this wall, a rift between this dungeon and our world. Dungeons take up less space on the outside than they do inside, who knows why.”
Sanvu glanced at Pachuku who nodded, “He’s not wrong; dungeons are just abominations of nature.”
“I was moreso wondering if Simmcination really is beyond the wall.”
“We can go there some other time. The sky’s likely lying to us,” Derjie conferred, tilting upwards in his float. “Another thing dungeons do that doesn’t match up with normal reality.”
“So time’s relative, in here?” Sanvu tilted his head.
“Yeah, it’s prob’ly late as all heck. We’d better get back.”
“No Amnesiacs…”
“Probably not for us today. Well, let’s return, yeah?”
Nobody could find themselves disagreeing with the green blob with the fatigue that was evident in all of their faces.
The usual compliments and rewards of money, and the promised promotion awaited the Minders as they bid goodbye to the Cognition who after receiving their award quickly departed the premises. Once they’d done the same, Sanvu looked at Pachuku with expectancy.
“I know you know something I don’t about why they’re acting so… amicable.”
“Huh?”
“You’re being shifty. The moment they mentioned that somebody was kicked out, you got all anxious. But you otherwise were fine with them, no anxiety at all.”
“Oh, cause I heard about what they heard about,” Pachuku divulged, he was looking directly at Sanvu for a second, before turning around, “But that dungeon was tiring, so I don’t wanna talk much about it right now. All I know is that I don’t want to be like that mon.”
“Do you know who they were? Seems a bit… weird they don’t remember a co-worker.”
Pachuku was in a wilted position, “To be honest, I don’t know who it was either. Mindscape doesn’t exactly tell the world when they’ve kicked somebody out, to be honest. What kind of reputation do you think that would bring?”
Sanvu pondered this, given Pachuku’s exasperated-sounding tone near the end of that sentence, but couldn’t help agreeing, despite his internal reservations on the subject.
“Anyway, the dungeon’s probably got your head in a whirl too, so, uh, how’s about we get a good night’s sleep, yeah?”
Sanvu could at least agree to that.
They’d spent the night with various more berries bought from the local Kecleon’s before tucking in. Sanvu that night found it more comfortable if he curled up in a way that resembled a snake. Pachuku still slept high and above in his cosy basket.
*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky – In the Future
Sanvu, before he slept, couldn’t keep out of his mind what the other members had mentioned about how strict the appearance was for keeping up to the public about Mindscape’s antics. Did that mean they didn’t know how to solve the problem, and may only be pretending to?
Sanvu pondered about this and more while his mind devolved into the darkness of the night. He still wasn’t any closer to figuring out what that slip meant for his past, but the name ‘Simmcination’ sounded familiar to him, despite that he had never been here before. He briefly wondered if, in fact, he’d been lying without knowing it, and he’d in fact been a Pokemon this entire time without any humanity to speak of.
There was also the fact that a couple of days prior, Tenab had been laughing about how Pachuku had “brought somebody” and how “that was providing the laughs” for their mission that day. He wasn’t usually one to take these kinds of statements to heart, but given today’s demeanour, he just found it odd. When brought up with Pachuku earlier that night, Pachuku simply didn’t know, but was grateful it wasn’t actual hatred.
Which begged the question; had they even hated him at all, and was it all for “appearances” as Derjie had said? Was it Didra who had told them to hate him? She otherwise seemed perfectly fine with them thus far, but her request for a singular Amnesiac just to let the squirrel join began to make less and less sense the more he thought about it.
Of course, he’d only been in town a few days. Maybe the bigger picture was still unknown to him, given his current situation with his memory being as tarnished as it was.
An unknown time later, he heard a low humming, alongside an odd number of noises.
Opening his eyes, he didn’t see much. A black abyss, complete with rugged cliff, the sky a dark hue with hints of purple, meeting a bunch of mountains on the horizon that looked jagged, despite the distance. There was the… sound… of some vibration, alongside an odd, eerie metallic sound, that reverberated around. It was disorienting, but then so was this dream, or well, that’s all he could come to the conclusion of it being.
Sanvu looked around, and despite what he felt and heard; it was as barren and empty as it appeared. He took a few steps towards the edge of the cliff before stopping.
He could hear something.
“vel… ill…”
Sanvu wildly turned around. The voice was deep and booming, but very muffled. It almost resembled a thunderstorm that was far away in intensity.
“tol… ll… Yv…”
The humming grew in intensity, forcing Sanvu to clutch his head, but he could eventually hear, with clarity, the muffled sound of some words. They sounded intensely far away.
“Yveltal… will…”
Those words repeated endlessly. Sanvu was trying to process the voice, for it kept changing. The first time had sounded deep; the next one less deep, the pitch raising and changing with each voice.
And as the words “Yveltal will” were repeated, different voices were used for all of them. One was deep, another was shrill. It seemed there were no end to the voices and their variations, making it completely impossible to discern who exactly was talking. In his limited lucid state, Sanvu assumed it just part of the dreamscape, as annoying as it sounded for him to still be clutching his head.
After several repetitions of “Yveltal” and “will” in various tones, pitches and attempts, eventually, a booming laughter was heard, once again in the same various tones and pitches, sounding maniacal one second, happy another, mocking in another sense, and another almost sounding to the point of crying.
The humming in the distance persisted, the words being unintelligible save for the continued assault of “Yveltal” and “will” which bothered Sanvu to no end.
Eventually, the words became drowned out by the laughter as Sanvu’s lucidity evaporated from him, plunging him right back into the darkness.
~~
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