Chapter 24
by p-anon*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Bowser’s Theme
A couple of floors later, and it was clear what their goal was.
The large trees that had surrounded the area were gone, on the elevated stretch of ground; a small group of rocky pillars surrounded the area instead. The only trees that remained were the connection to the rest of the dungeon that stitched the two together.
When Sanvu and Pachuku approached this area, both of their badges started to glow, and it was clear exactly why.
Small yellow furry spider-like creatures were sprawling all over the place, with many of them atop two particular Pokemon. When the two noticed them, they were easy to recognise; one of them was a Dedenne, just like in Sanvu’s dream visions from yesterday, and the other was someone easily recognised even without knowledge of the species.
“Isn’t that… Piki?!” Sanvu realised, before all the individual sets of eyes bored down on the two Pokemon, the skittering of them all growing more loudly and growing angrier with each step the intruders took.
“Leave! Electric Pokemon hoard electricity! Your kind not welcome here!” one squeaked. A loud rash of squabbling broke out, causing them to stand back.
“Hey, look, Electric!” one squealed, as many of them turned towards Pachuku, who began to grow increasingly worried as their stares all bored into his being.
“Let those Pokemon go! You do realise you’re all Amnesiac, right?!” Sanvu shouted, trembling at just the sheer number of them. The Joltik all barely reached up to Pachuku’s foot, but their sheer numbers still would make anyone fearful. Many of them began to crawl closer, clearly not unwilling to attack, or so it seemed.
“Why did she… come back here again?” Sanvu pondered aloud, in a softer voice so that only Pachuku could listen. “Is nobody aware of how crazy these places are now?”
“Sanvu, she could’ve just been kidnapped!” Pachuku whispered back, staring right as him as he backed off farther so then the Joltik could keep their distance. “Pichu are normally very weak, and that’s me talking as a weak Pokemon myself, who knows what’s been happening in Mentage recently.”
“Still, her brother made us sure he’d keep her away. I wonder what happened to that.” Sanvu mused, a little louder. It was enough for the existing Pichu, who had several Joltik attached to her feet, to tilt her ear in response.
“What brother?” she piped up, before she squealed louder as more electricity from her stores was drained out of her by the leeches.
Both of them continued to back off as the small spiders began to corner them.
“S-Sanvu, don’t let them touch you!” Pachuku stammered out, “Joltik can get static electricity from anybody, and it hurts, never mind Electric-types like myself…” he warned, before his warning was exacerbated by a dark purple wisp of aura glowing from all of the sets of eyes the small spiders had.
“Doesn’t mean we can’t mess with them,” he remarked back, before the battle began with his first set of leaves slicing many of them down, and despite their resistance in numbers and type, many of them buckled due to their small size.
~~
It wasn’t long before Pachuku grabbed the bag wrapped around him, fiddling with it, before pulling out an Orb with a pink cloud in it. In using it, all the spiders appeared to lapse, collapsing in slumber.
“Quick, before they wake!” Pachuku was busy zipping about with his quick footing to slam as many of them as far away as he could muster.
“Fine, but, zap them, won’t you?” Sanvu hoped, as he began to scoop several of them up himself with his vines, flinging them as far as he could muster before they woke up. Some recovered quickly, and he would have to keep flinging in order to keep them off.
“I can’t! They’ll just take it all in!” Pachuku cried out, “and that’s if they don’t resist!”
“Fine, you can deal with that then, can’t you,” Sanvu muttered, as he was getting much closer to the two Pokemon, the spiders, despite their numbers, not proving much of a threat, even despite their menacing gazes, mostly due to their interest being particularly attentive towards the other Electric-type in the area; Sanvu was not nearly as tantalising in comparison.
Just before he got to the two captives though, he tripped, falling forward on his face. He began to feel the most uncomfortable sensation, one he definitely did not want now.
“No, no-ow-ow!” he shouted, though none of the spiders had even touched him, even as they were beginning to wake, nor were they able to zap him if they had, their gaze too frantic for it to have been any of them. No, the former human’s tail had instead joined in with the crackling of the environment, the leaf brimming and fizzling with energy he’d otherwise not known before. It did this for a moment, before returning back to normal as if nothing had happened.
Sanvu on the ground had started creating a small Leaf Tornado, mostly comprised of just wind and slightly transparent leaves, if only to ward them off from attempting to get on him. The move had been easier and easier to perform since he first learned it, since it was primarily just churning the energy into the same form each time, which always manifested the same way. It was perfectly useful for this point, especially since many of the Joltik were all attempting to get over to Pachuku, who had begun climbing one of the trees near the entrance, with most of the small pursuers not far behind.
Once he’d warded them off with the leaves, he picked himself back up, finding it relatively easier since the pinpricking had subsided. It didn’t escape his mind that something was happening for that to be a worrisome problem, but he couldn’t be thinking about that now. Badge still on him, he went to try and save the two Pokemon, only to look back as Pachuku let out a large electric jolt, which resulted in several Joltik being caught up in it, and they weren’t quite prepared for nearly as much electricity as Pachuku had put into the attack, many of them keeling over quite succinctly. Some of the Joltik would attempt to absorb it, only to join their comrades since it was just too much for their tiny bodies to handle.
Sanvu was confused. None of them had actually attacked them. Sure, they were attempting to crawl on Pachuku because he had electricity, and presumably, because they’d invaded that’s why some of them were after him too, but curiously, despite their appearance, none of them had actually launched a single attack. They looked as if ready to tear the snot from either of them, but despite resistance in numbers, none of them had launched a single move.
But that wouldn’t matter now. The Electric-types who were being sapped didn’t deserve this, and that’s what their mission was for; to rescue them.
Pachuku zapped them several times; Sanvu could hear his panting from down where he was, as the spiders all collapsed, and eventually, only the four Pokemon who didn’t have a Bug-typing were the only ones remaining.
*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Fahr Outpost
A few moments later, Pachuku was still on the branch, trembling and shaking his head again, which once again worried Sanvu. He knew something was up with the little squirrel, and not just because he was literally up and above, but he couldn’t exactly be sure what. Were dungeons doing something to him, he wouldn’t know. He just hoped Pachuku would be fine by the time they handled going home.
The two kids didn’t look too worse for wear, but Sanvu could tell both were weary by the fact they appeared to sway when they picked themselves up as he approached.
“You two okay?” Sanvu inquired; which got both to nod, smiling. The pressure radiating from both was substantial; the Grass-type almost had to squint through it, almost unsure if their electricity had truly dissipated from them if they still radiated such a presence, if it weren’t for the badge clarifying exactly what that feeling was in its definition.
“Bit tired, but I’m fine,” the Dedenne squeaked, “I’m Didi, but, uhhh… I dunno anything but uh, I’m not meant to…. be here,” she managed to squeak out, as she looked up at Sanvu.
“You don’t know where you live?” Sanvu probed, before she nodded.
“Yeah, wish I did, aha,” she remarked in response.
“What did you mean by ‘brother?’ the Pichu asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “I don’t have a brother… do I?”
Sanvu could only sigh, attempting to remember the room he was meant to send them to. Didra could deal with them later, anyways, since he wasn’t in the mood, “All your questions will be answered when you get back home, I assure you,” he promised, as both of them were zipped out by the badge on his chest, leaving the several bodies of the spiders in the room, as dozens of them melted into the floor, or had crawled away in fear.
He picked his way over to where Pachuku was still clinging onto a branch, trembling. He couldn’t quite understand, given that most of the small critters were really toothless in their manner of antagonism towards them. Maybe Pachuku just didn’t like them for reasons he couldn’t gather?
Still, he had to get to the bottom of this.
“You alright?” he called up, as Pachuku once again appeared to be shaking something out, his head swaying side to side as he clung onto the branch like a possum.
“Huh?”
“You keep doing that!” Sanvu pointed out, “There’s something you’re not telling me, and I want to know; what has you so worried these days?”
“Why’re you so worried about me?” Pachuku called down, as he managed to jump down so then Sanvu didn’t have to shout so high. “It’s weirding me out, like, what could be wrong with me, I’m fine.” Pachuku asserted, exasperatedly.
“You’re not, you keep doing this,” he mimicked Pachuku’s head shaking with his own to emphasise the point, “Every time you do, you seem to get more anxious and terrified than I’ve ever seen you. It happened yesterday, too, when we were in that dungeon, so forgive me if I just want to find out what has gotten into you?”
“I don’t know!” Pachuku shouted back, before withdrawing so that he was further down. “I guess it’s just… some kind of weird feeling I get? I just gotta shake it out cause otherwise I get all messed up and I can’t… think straight…” he justified, not looking at Sanvu directly, “Maybe I’m learning a new move or something, that’s probably it. Don’t need to worry about it; it’s just my natural growth in battle to look forward to!”
Sanvu wasn’t buying it. “That’s not it. You know that’s not it. When you were learning, what was it-Nuzzle? You weren’t nearly this anxious and unstable, and both you and I were going through ‘move-learning.’ So what is it?”
“I… I just… “he stammered, before fiddling with his paws again. “I just… don’t want us… to be running into danger all the time…”
“Isn’t that the entire point of these escapades in the first place?” Sanvu retorted, “So that we get better at these things? Furthermore, if you’re so worried about me running into danger so much, why am I not allowed to ask you what’s wrong, huh? What’s up with that?”
“B-Because… you’re…” Pachuku shut his eyes tight, before glowering with a rage that would make the spiders from before look weak in comparison. “You’re just being so unreasonable lately!” his voice echoed enough that Sanvu had to wince, though he refused to back down.
“How? What’s unreasonable about any of this?”
“Why do you want to keep going?! You never told me why you don’t want to quit, and I bet I know why,” the squirrel fumed, before pointing a paw directly at Sanvu, eyes glowing with rage. “It’s cause you think all this is your fault, isn’t it?! Here you’ve wanted to push forward despite every instance suggesting otherwise, never mind what I or Didra thinks; it’s all about you and you only!”
Sanvu couldn’t believe the little squirrel. He sighed, exasperatedly, before making a sweeping motion that suggested he was just done. “Fine, okay, it’s all my fault that I’m a stupid careless ass,” he mocked, which almost got Pachuku to shout back, which Sanvu pushed down almost immediately, “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re in a dungeon, and I’d like to have this conversation where we can’t be ambushed by a million hungry spiders,” he pointed out, in a firm voice. “So quit the act, and help me get us out, first, if you care about safety so much.”
Pachuku snapped his mouth for a moment before conceding to work with the badge so then they could both head back to Mindscape. Sanvu could at least be grateful he had principles, as they returned through the light back home to the cage that waited.
~~
After the success that was the mission and Didra’s usual praise, Sanvu decided to ask her what he thought he’d already knew, but had been unwilling to ask up until now.
“Hey, Didra, have you seen the Cognition around lately? We’re just curious if anything happened to them,” he inquired. Pachuku had been keeping eye contact away from both him and Didra the whole time they’d been back, so this was purely the former human’s call. “They were a team that worked here.”
“Mindscape has been… understaffed, for lack of a better term,” she answered, with a hint of something resembling concern. “We’ve only ever had three teams, and none of them have been named the “Cognition,” so I’m not sure where you keep getting these ideas from, Sanvu. I’m having to change a lot of Mindscape’s rules as it stands so then we can remain operating and solve this crisis,” she informed, as she waved them off. “Does that satisfy you?”
“Yep, totally,” he lied, which might have got her to notice if only for a moment the emotions that poured out of him, but she didn’t comment, since he had turned to Pachuku and shuffled them out. She wasn’t in the particular frame of mind to investigate anyway; she had two Amnesiacs to tend to. She couldn’t be concerned with what one of her members thought about, let alone if they were potentially delusional in her mind, when cleansing was of the utmost priority.
When the Minders had left the grounds with their reward, Sanvu finally clicked the pieces together. Mindscape was being eaten inside out; and every time they did, Didra would seemingly forget an individual even existed. It got him to think, how many members did Mindscape did indeed have before he got there that neither she nor he knew about, and how long had this targeting been going on?
It at least made sure of one thing; the ‘house appearance’ was who he thought it was. As he explained this to Pachuku, he couldn’t help but feel a bit smug about it.
“Well? What do you think? It can’t not be that, right?” Sanvu motioned, as they walked back down to their house. Pachuku wasn’t looking at him; instead his eyes were glued to the ground.
“You don’t… have to say it like that…” he whined.
“Say what? It’s the only conclusion you can make, right?”
“You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t think you’re stupid, you’re just being really overly paranoid. There’s a difference.”
“What’s gotten into you? What’ve you turned into?” Pachuku stressed, only causing Sanvu to snicker, in a way that was almost mocking.
“Yeah, indeed, what did I turn into, good damn question,” his eyes were rolling away from Pachuku as he pointed towards himself, “How does a human become a lizard, anyway?”
“Not like that!”
“Then what do you mean?”
“You know what I meant.”
“What, why I’ve been wanting to press forward lately?”
“Yes!”
“Because that’s what the mission was about? You said you wanted to continue the team, so I did as you asked. Hardly my fault you didn’t tell me how you really felt.”
“Yet, still, after the Yanmega… and after today’s Joltik horde, I just… I didn’t want you to be… hurt, and yet you continued to ignore me!”
“I already apologised for yesterday!” Sanvu blurted, as he leaned against the house. “None of them even attacked, we were the ones provoking them, clearly! I don’t know if any of them got you, and if they had, I probably would’ve considered escaping. I already told you; I’m perfectly willing to do what you want if you’ll just tell me what it is you want!”
Pachuku could only look at the ground, a few tears escaping his eyes.
“Do you want to quit?” Sanvu inquired again, Pachuku shaking his head in response.
“N-No… I don’t want to quit. I don’t, I told you before; I’m still sticking by that. B-But… just… I just want us to be careful and not… go jumping right in… every time, okay?”
“Even when it was a pushover?” Sanvu inclined, “Look,” he sighed, “I experienced a bit of pain back there, and they didn’t even touch me. But I’m fine, and I’m paying careful attention to that. They won’t hurt if we just, work together, okay?”
Pachuku could only continue sniffling for a bit. “O-Okay…” he snivelled, before picking himself up. “I’ll… I’ll try… to stop being so… afraid… okay?”
“It’s not about not being afraid…” Sanvu clarified, shaking his head to calm down. “It’s about… huh?”
*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Ghostly Encounter
Behind them, Oshee was walking with her head low. She didn’t even seem to notice the two or their argument as she just walked on past. Her paws were clutched around her scalchop; mouth curled into a frown and had forlorn, shining eyes as she walked past. It looked as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. Neither of her teammates were present.
Both of them looked at each other, somewhat tense, as both their gazes followed her down the road. Sanvu out of the corner of his eye before they’d turned had seen Pachuku’s gaze look like he’d seen a ghost, the fright evident on his face as he stared down the behind of the Oshawott, as if he were seeing something that wasn’t there.
Sanvu looked at him cautiously. “You wanna just… let this be, for now, while we check on her?”
Pachuku shook himself out of it for a moment, silently nodding in Sanvu’s direction, as they followed her home, to check on exactly what had happened.
It didn’t take long for the Oshawott to notice that she was being followed.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, with hardly a hint of her usual bossiness. Her voice was soft.
“We, um, noticed you looked kinda… bad. So, is it something worth talking about?” Sanvu asked carefully.
She gave them both very confused looks before smiling almost immediately. “How about I bring you two to my humble abode, and then we can have some fun together, and then I can tell you. How’s that sound?”
Both of them agreed as they walked with her; she made naught but a word of conversation, and Sanvu sometimes caught glances of Pachuku still looking worried, his paws slightly wringing, but the anxiousness from his earlier episode had subsided at least a smidge.
Eventually, they came across the house, which was in a familiar locale to before. The domed wooden house loomed menacingly, despite nothing different having been present to the last time they were here, which had felt like a while ago, despite not being a particularly long stretch of time.
“Make yourselves at home,” she encouraged.
Inside the house wasn’t a lot, and bits and pieces of empty space stood out to the two guests. There was what looked like a small pool to one side outside a window, alongside a second room that looked far too empty for its own good, with one bed present. A small cabinet lined one wall, with what looked like two pictures framed. Both depicted Oshee by herself in both images, one shot of her smiling on a patch of grass, and the other was her holding her badge in what looked like this house. Some basic pillows lined the floor for seating, alongside a small table that barely reached up to Sanvu and Oshee’s chests. Some windows filtered in light, and they could see the rolling mist if they so much as squinted outside to see into the distance.
“So, well, you wanted to know why I looked so bad, right?” she verified, as they only responded in silent gazes. “Well, today’s mission was, well, my first failure in a long time, so, I’m just a little bit… well… tuckered out. But, I can’t be too upset about it,” she expressed, with surprisingly little disappointment, which only served to create more tension in her two guests.
“What happened… to your teammates?” Pachuku slowly asked, which prompted Oshee to raise a brow. “You’re normally always with them, aren’t you?”
“What teammates?” she replied, “Didra just granted me an exception to work alone, earlier; I’d apparently been skirting the line before now. But I can still work for Mindscape! Isn’t that thrilling?”
Pachuku could only barely hide the shock on his face as Sanvu looked around her house. None of its appearance had suggested that it had shrunk; it seemed far too large for merely a simple Oshawott to live here, even taking into account how houses seemed to be built to tower over most inhabitants that lived here. He took careful note of the photos; the shots used also appeared to be too wide; Oshee wasn’t taking the entirety of the shot in either of them, there was one with her on the grass that left a lot of empty grass on both of her sides, while another shot of her holding the badge placed her too low on the shot with empty space above her. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that something was increasingly wrong about this the more time that passed.
Oshee seemed to notice. “Oh, don’t worry about me; I’ve been by myself for a while now. I bought all this space for, uh, berry storage, for dungeoneering. When this whole thing is over, I gotta have something to do that’s part of my own leisure time.”
“Berry storage?” Sanvu couldn’t help replying in confusion.
“Yeah, I’m sure Pachuku would know all about it, given that tiny space you guys live in,” she remarked, which got Pachuku to force a laugh, which eventually turned into genuine laughter.
“So anyway, how’d you guys go, today? Did the mission go pretty well?”
Sanvu decided to summarise the mission, depicting the rescue, among the appearance of the dungeon, as well as the strange types of apparitions, as well as all the Joltik they had to take out. He left out the bits and pieces where he interrogated Pachuku for the sake of being polite, as well as the fact he couldn’t see visions anymore. Oshee nodded along with all of it, eventually settling to comment once the two had finished recounting their latest adventure.
“That sounds pretty good! We all need to be helping even the weakest of Amnesiacs, given the current situation. Who knows how it’ll escalate,” she commented, as she got up. “Bet you two are hungry after all that, can’t let that be, now, can it?” she moved to the cabinets, grabbing a variety of berries as she did into a bowl she grabbed.
Sanvu noticed that there wasn’t even a shred of hostility from her. Up to this point, she’d been really bossy and somewhat uptight, but it was as if she’d been replaced with a totally different person.
When she was finished, the bowl was filled with berries of various kinds. Sanvu didn’t quite know what any of them were called, but he knew of at least one very quickly.
“Wacans! You have them?!” Pachuku squealed, in a kind of bubbly excitement Sanvu hadn’t seen in a while. “I mean, what am I talking about, of course you’d have them, but, I mean, I haven’t seen them in foreverrrr!” he was practically bouncing, despite being seated, his tail swaying with energy.
“I didn’t know they were your favourite, if I had I’d probably have given you more,” she replied, before Pachuku shook his head really hard.
“Nah, you’d get more use out of them anyway, I feel bad for taking ‘em,” he could only reply, as Sanvu furrowed his brow in confusion.
“Why?”
“Wacans resist Electric-type moves, so they’re super useful for her, cause she’s weak to ‘em. In my case, there’s a Ground-type berry, I think called the Shuca that would provide the same benefit. But Wacans… they’re just so delicious…” Pachuku enunciated, “But, I wouldn’t wanna take them, or anything.”
“That’s quite alright, yeah, Electric-type moves hurt, but there’re other ways to resist them, and you’re my guests today, anyway,” she explained, softly. “If you like them; then have at them, I can find them again no problem,” she assured him, putting a paw to her scalchop. Pachuku looked as if in bliss chewing the small yellow berry once he’d taken one. Sanvu took an equally interesting berry that looked a bit like a banana that was primarily pink. The three shared a moment with the berries, before Oshee spoke up again.
“You know, I kinda wanted to say, that I just… I feel bad I’ve stuck away from everyone for so long. I mean, I’ve always been pushing everyone away and I just… wanna move past all of that,” she shared, looking at Sanvu, “Especially when you’ve been, you know, trying to help, and I just… wasn’t thinking straight. So, I don’t know if it can really make up for earlier, but I can tell you two have been… put off by the things I said, and if you’re both still bothered than that, then I…” she trailed off, before continuing, “I’ll have let everyone down, you know?” she smiled, before Sanvu responded.
“Nah, it’s not that big a deal. I don’t hold onto grudges that easily,” he admitted, as Pachuku continued to devour the berries he enjoyed, the Grass-type watching out of the corner of his eye. “Sometimes things worry me, but, I’m not bothered by what you said, at least, not that much. You’ve done what you can, right?” he acknowledged, before she nodded, eyes closed, mouth curved into a half-smile.
“Thank you,” she accepted, before turning to Sanvu, “You know, this is probably going to sound strange, but, you’re, like, the most unlike a Snivy I’ve ever heard of, basically?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked in genuine confusion.
“I mean, I know you were human, but I mean, you just don’t seem the type to be a Snivy, you know?” she half-joked. “Snivy have a bit of a reputation for being, like, super high-class or stuffy or even just strict, and yet, you’re so kind and gentle. I… kinda like that, but it’s just so strange, you know?”
Sanvu pondered these comments, only somewhat understanding their intention as she continued. “Makes me wonder what you’re like as a human, or even what your memories are really like, you know?” she commented, “Only a shame you’re apparently not Amnesiac so we could figure that out sooner.”
“Well, that’s why we’re in Mindscape, r-right?” Pachuku piped in, having finished eating. “So we can solve all the little problems and the big problems, all related to memories, together!” he winked in Sanvu’s direction, who appeared to catch the subtlety. Oshee wasn’t on that wavelength, though.
“Oh, you’re so right, especially now that there’s so few of us working there, we’ve just got to do our best so then we can help everybody!” she cheered, clapping her paws. Sanvu smiled in response, but he knew what Pachuku meant.
He wasn’t talking about Mindscape at all. He was talking about her teammates, and the bigger crisis that this appeared related to. Especially given they were right in the thick of it in this house, even if she seemed oblivious to it all.
“When should we… uh, go, given this, then?” Sanvu supposed, “Can’t imagine you would want to be alone for too long then, huh?”
“You can stay as long as you like, but I won’t make you stay,” she acknowledged, “Good knows I don’t need to keep the two of you trapped here or anything, it’s enough of a racket when I’m here alone,” she joked.
“S-So… what happened on your mission? Yeah, you messed up, but, like, how?” Pachuku asked. Both of them already partially knew the answer, so Pachuku set on clarifying pretty fast. “Like, how bad was it, if it’s not too, like, u-um… terrible to talk about?” he shifted a little as he said it, but she didn’t catch on.
“Oh, yeah, well, I should probably explain my side, shouldn’t I?”
~~
*Music: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – Boggly Woods
“So I was to go to that crazy dungeon you guys were at yesterday. Didra had already told me that it was going to be pretty dangerous due to my typing, but, it wasn’t a big deal.
“Turns out, I probably should’ve cared to give it more attention. Forests normally make me uneasy; sorry, Sanvu, just natural instinct for us Water-types; we hate those places like you wouldn’t believe.
“So, I mean, it was quiet at first, but then after a while, there was just this… trembling, like someone was trying to summon an Earthquake or something. Pretty weird, it’s a forest, and there shouldn’t be Ground-types anywhere near there, but I mean, I shouldn’t be too bothered right? I should have an advantage.
“And I was taking into account what you guys had said, that apparently all the Grass-type apparitions were knocked out, and there was only a Yanmega? Turns out, you must’ve gotten lucky, cause I got practically mauled by those things. Every fight was like, a chore. Not even Fury Cutter can get through that many of the buggers, ironically.
“Huh? Oh, right, it’s a Bug-type move, for dealing with Grass-type Pokemon. It’s one of those special moves you learn with this beauty,” she’d point to her scalchop as she said this, “If I didn’t have it, I’d be toast. I mean I was, but like, even earlier toast. They go down with plenty of water, too, but, you really have to drown them in order to get them down that way.
“So, I mean, it’s just the age-old story, really. Water-type doesn’t prepare adequately enough for a dungeon she has absolutely no advantage against, and totally flubbed it like anyone would expect. Messed up on the early floors before I even caught sight of any Yanmega. Nothing else of worth happened, really, besides Didra giving me my promotion when I got back, despite my utter failure.
“And then you know the rest, it got me to thinking about my life choices, and what got me here. Then you two showed up, and here we are.”
A couple of minutes after she told this story, they hung out with her a little longer, if only to sympathise with her plight. It wasn’t long after though, when the two of them realised they wanted out of the ghost-house, with Oshee waving them off none-the-wiser, though the two couldn’t help but continue to feel sorry for her, well after they’d left the building.
“I just, wanna get home and rest, it’s been a big day,” Sanvu confessed, in the light of the orange sky. Oshee nodded.
“Yeah, it was a big day, I don’t blame you. I’m rooting for us all, though!” she exclaimed, waving them off. “Have a good night, you two!” she waved them off, as they both left her home. Sanvu looked in particular at the sign outside her home as they left, as only a single name was present. He scowled.
“There’s something up with this place,” he muttered, Pachuku following his gaze, and scoffing.
“You think?” he muttered back, gazing between him and the sign. “I had to go searching for you for goodness knows how long because I couldn’t join on my own, and Didra just snaps her fingers and keeps Oshee in despite her being alone? What kind of logic is that?”
“Not just that,” Sanvu lightly waved towards the sign that only read “Oshee” in big carved letters. “Whatever’s affecting the town is already here, and it’s changing things that nobody’s aware of. The ‘house appearances’ too, I think they’re related. I think… something’s infiltrating this place, or that something is very very wrong here with this town, beyond even what dungeons should be capable of,” he speculated, looking around. “It’s like… nothing makes sense, nobody makes sense… not even anything she said in there feels like it made any sense; she had to have known, right?”
Pachuku could only begin walking back down the way towards home as he murmured back. “Welcome to my world,” he whispered, almost sarcastically. “It’s been like this for a while.”
As they wandered, it became clear to Sanvu that they couldn’t even count on the town of Mentage itself to be free of contradiction. Trust had been eroded for some time now, but it was beginning to hit a fever point of insanity where Oshee wasn’t even aware she was supposed to have teammates. Pokemon were desperately jumping into dungeons, unaware of the dangers they posed, if they weren’t getting literally wiped from not only the map but even the minds of the individuals around them, warping them as if they’d never been present in the first place, a shrinking population only noticed by one individual and his partner to begin with.
He didn’t know who or what to suspect. What would have the capacity to change photos or signs in the environment to remove the presence of anybody the world seemed to want to forget? He couldn’t entirely rule out a Pokemon, what with the capacities that he’d seen they were capable of, both of the human’s own powers and that of his friends and comrades. But even that began to make progressively less sense as they wandered down. He felt it so absurd so as to feel like he was in a dream, but, then, given his situation, anything felt like a dream at this point, so that was pretty moot comparatively.
The silent terror followed them as they walked the hollow streets back to their cage of feigned security.
~~
Because the two had both been spooked out of their midst today, it was easy for them to want to rest, all things considered. The night went by fast as they pondered exactly what could be wrong with Mentage, neither coming to a sensible conclusion. This also wasn’t helped by the lingering sentiment between the two of them from earlier rearing its ugly head, which left neither in a suitable state of conversation, all things considered, Sanvu at the end of that night was slightly flustered; his head a daze in the midst of this frightening endeavour.
His thoughts whirled much like the tornadoes he expulsed on a daily basis, and he’d found it hard to calm down, especially given that there wasn’t a doubt now that he had some kind of involvement in all this, it was made abundantly clear given the prior dungeon that this related to him somehow. Didra hadn’t even needed to blink to allow him into Mindscape despite rejecting Pachuku for several weeks prior to that point, and they’d been given preferential treatment even including above the various other teams that had preceded them. The fog hadn’t started rolling in either until he woke up, for all he knew, he was doing something to the inhabitants of this place that not even he could be sure of. The thought terrified him.
He gazed up at Pachuku in his little basket, who was facing away from him. He figured it made sense, but for some reason, he found it hard to sleep himself. Sanvu couldn’t help but scrutinise any given thing at this point, anything to give him some semblance of doing something was enough to placate him, even if it was ultimately fruitless.
Not even the little squirrel was safe, given that it was clear that Pachuku was hiding something that Sanvu couldn’t place. He was so obsessed with safety, but yet continued to want to infiltrate Mindscape against all odds for… personal satisfaction? Sanvu just found it so odd, that the rodent would be one second raring to go, the next hyper-ventilating over battle.
If there was something wrong with all of this… what was it that could be done about it; so he wondered.
As Sanvu looked up from the coil he’d made himself into, he began to realise something. He’d figured for a while that this bed was too big. Even accounting for the fact that Pachuku had said that he was desperate enough to team up with anybody, the bed was just so… long… and large. It almost seemed human-like, or at least, significantly larger than both his and Pachuku’s current size, which was really rather tiny in comparison.
Pachuku had his little basket, but even accounting for the length of his super large and fluffy tail, stretching Pachuku out on this bed that Sanvu laid on wouldn’t even cover a significant chunk of it.
The former human knew that Pachuku wasn’t saying something, but this realisation only exemplified that feeling.
He didn’t want to blame Pachuku… but then who could be trusted anymore? Mindscape was already being carved out, now only down to 5 members, not counting their superiors, as the picture became clearer with each thought that Sanvu loaded into the storm that eventually finally took him into the void, the murky black swallowing his soul once again..
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