(no subject)

[billiardsplz]

Who: Gold, you, and a bunch of statues. Also a fake Kyogre
What: Nightmares not caused by Pokemon
When: The plot of course
Where: In Dream Land. Not that Dream Land.
Rating: G, for now

The cold stirs some long forgotten memory that was lost to time, but that's not important. The water level is rising, enough to soak shoes and make walking uncomfortable if it gets in them. The thick fog from the water clears, revealing a circle of sculptures depicting nine children of varying ages and statures. The expression of shock and disappointment directed towards you is so lifelike, it's as if they were real children who were suddenly petrified.

That disturbing thought aside, the water level is still rising. It's up to the ankles now, and anyone without boots is surely regretting it. A monstrous sound echos through the chamber.

It's a sea monster, terrifyingly majestic as it breaches the surface of the water. It's also made of water itself. And it's clearly the source of the flooding, which is by the way, half way up to the knees.

Comments

[squartatore]

She really could do without another near-drowning experience. This is a little awkward. Just slightly. Going up against some giant water creature wasn't part of the plan either.

As the water falls from Kyogre's back, she backs away, not daring to keep her eyes off it.

[billiardsplz]

After having gallivanted off to see if there was any way to end the nightmares, Gold splashes back to his own nightmare. The weight of failure pools at the bottom of his stomach, feeling heavier than his feet in the water. He couldn't help the people who were counting on him the most. He couldn't even help people here.

To his horror, he has a visitor in his nightmare.

"Sayaka...?" He blurts. "What are you doing here?!"

[squartatore]

The familiar voice, calling her name, makes her turn to face where it had come from. "I don't know," she wades through the rising water as fast as she can -- hardly a respectable speed, definitely nowhere quicker than the rate the cavern is filling up. "Why are you here? What's going on?"

[billiardsplz]

Gold is taken aback by Sayaka's counter, but doesn't show it. Much.

"What am I do--It's my nightmare, that's what!"

Of course, with that admission, he has no other choice but explain. He sighs, slapping his palm to his forehead. He considers taking off his hat to comb through his hair, but then he'd let her know he was frustrated and nervous as well.

"Back home before I got here, we had to face that thing." He points at the giant whale monster which is currently splashing around.

[squartatore]

"So we're in your head...specifically, the memory of the incident." Stranger things have happened. She should just roll with it, much as she wants to know the reason behind this.

"Is there some exit I haven't seen, or am I allowed to go only when I defeat it?" Sounds like some adventure game, but she reckons Gold would have an answer if he had came and went.

[billiardsplz]

Gold flashed her a brief smile. "Something like that. Even I'm not all rainbows and sunshine and fun." He glares at the Kyogre, for what it meant to him. "But we beat the damn thing, so a memory doesn't stand a chance."

He shrugs on the topic of the exit. "Dunno if there is one for sure. Like you said, it's a memory, a dream even, and there are really no definite exits and entrances. Gotta let yourself phase through it."

[squartatore]

She looks down at the water round her legs, then taps on a near wall. "I don't feel very phase-able right now." How is she even supposed to do that, anyway?

"Where should I --" a pause, and she corrects herself, "we proceed from here?"

[billiardsplz]

Gold scratched at his cheek. He quite honestly had no idea how he even managed to exit his dreams in the first place, and actively thinking about it never proves to work. He shrugs.

"You wouldn't happen to have really strong powers, would you?"

[squartatore]

"No." Actually, yes by typical human standards...whether she intends it against the "really strong" or the "powers" can be pondered at another time. Or never at all.

"Besides, I'm not sure breaking down some part of your mind will turn out fine." The cavern, at least. Maybe the Kyogre is an embodiment of his issues or however psychology reads into this.

[billiardsplz]

Hoping that Sayaka had some magical girl beam proved to be futile, so he quickly abandoned the idea.

"I can take it." Gold said cockily. "Besides, if we hit it, maybe it'll release us."

[squartatore]

Glad that they had moved off the topic of powers so soon, she just nods, despite still being uncertain about the viability of this..."plan." How does one fight an opponent made of water, especially with nothing on hand?

"What did you do to overcome it last time?"

[billiardsplz]

He's quite used to that look Sayaka has, and he's certain it's about his lack of planning. Silver and Crys often gave him that look. In fact, it was their default reaction to him.

"We uh... Had thirteen Pokemon blast a weak spot with their strongest attacks."

[squartatore]

The doubt on her face turns more obvious. "In case you didn't notice," she points at her hip, where a trainer might wear their belt, "I have a grand total of none. Are your Pokémon with you?"

It's all she can to to not think about how, even with a full roster, the power of six probably won't compare to thirteen.

[dupable]

The good news for John is that he can fly, which means if nothing else he avoids a little discomfort by floating up above the water level so his feet don't get wet. Unfortunately the long hood of his outfit drags in the water behind him as he floats around the statues wondering how made them, but these things can't be helped. At least he doesn't have to deal with wet socks, which is clearly the worst problem of all.

He's pretty absorbed in what he's doing, and doesn't even notice the sea monster until it's partway out of the water. John shoots up another few feet away from the water in alarm. He sure didn't expect that!

[billiardsplz]

It hasn't dawned on Gold yet that he should deal with his own personal problems before he tries to tackle other people's. Of course, he has no idea that there's no way for them to end the nightmares from their end. He didn't expect anyone to come into his.

Or for them to be flying.

"Hey! You!"

[dupable]

Generally not when they're not sitting on top of a pokemon at least, and there's definitely no pokemon in sight. Admittedly, the one John does own is a non-flying fire type, and he'd be the worst of help against this enemy right here.

He turns to look at the kid calling out to him before turning back to the giant monster poking it's head out of the water. He'd love to stop and listen to this guy, but that thing sort of... well, it's not something you want to turn your back on.

"Hi?"

[billiardsplz]

Well that seemed awfully rude. A quick acknowledgement and then promptly ignoring Gold? Of course Crys has given him the cold shoulder plenty of times, but it hurts in when he thinks about her and sees her statue right next to him staring at him in disappointment.

At least he's not alone right now, though he's not sure if he should be relieved just yet.

"You might not want to attract its attention, floaty guy." He calls.

[dupable]

No offense meant by any of that, Gold. It's just that the other boy seems a lot less likely to try to eat John than the giant water thing. He's not sure if it's friendly or aggressive. It's not attack him right now, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything, and he's not really looking to be taken unaware right now. Things lately keep throwing him off guard, and he's not even sure what world he's in half the time he opens his eyes again.

The other guy seems to know what it is though, so trying to take that advice and slowly float towards the boy without making too much of a fuss he calls back.

"Do you know what it is?!"

[billiardsplz]

"Yeah, it's a Pokemon!" He calls back. He pauses for a second. Technically that wasn't true. It was a machination of a crazed man who almost narrowly took away his chance at saving his seniors and Silver.

"Kinda! Look, get down here so I can explain where it won't shoot you in the face with water!"

[dupable]

Well being shot in the face with water didn't sound that bad, kind of annoying, but a lot better than being eaten like John thought it would try to do. And he knows what a pokémon is, so that definitely manages to snag his attention.

He floats on over to where Gold is, trying to be slow and careful not to attract the attention of the giant pokémon. Just water or not, John still doesn't really want to be harassed by it.

When he gets closer he asks, "So what's going on here?"

[billiardsplz]

It was the kind of levitation John had that he was jealous of. He could achieve that kind of feat on Mantaro and the Remoraids, but even they had their limited stamina. To be able to float like that was a dream, but Gold shook his head. It was no time to let it wander.

"We're in a memory. My memory." He started. "A bit before I came here, my seniors and my ol' buddy Silver got turned into statues, like you see over there. My pal Crys and I and a bunch of young'ins had to find Jirachi, a Pokemon that could grant three wishes. Problem was, this psycho who called himself Guile Hideout for all the wrong reasons decided he wanted to take Jirachi's wishes and rule the world by drowning it. That you see over there is what he wished for."

[dupable]

They were in a memory? Was that the case for all the other things that John had seen so far, it would certainly explain some things, but he did wonder how he'd managed to wind up in people's memories in the first place. Better yet, he was wondering how he was going to get out.

Though at the moment the biggest concern was trying to figure out how they were supposed to deal with whatever weird flood creating monster this Guile guy had wished up. He kind of wondered why he had done it in the first place, but this probably wasn't the time to ask about that.

"So... what are we supposed to do about it then?"

[billiardsplz]

Gold took a moment to study John, taking in how serious he was and how he reacted to the back story.

"Last time, we were able to beat it with some help. Someone blew a hole in its fin, and we attacked that spot together, but it looks like that hasn't happened yet."

[dupable]

It was a sad backstory for sure! But John was also pretty sure if this was some weird variation of someone's memory then saving the people in it wouldn't actually do anything to help the real live people. He didn't know for sure though, he wasn't an experts on dreams or memories or anything of the sort.

He turned his head to look at the creature.

"So we're basically waiting for the help to show up before we actually do anything?"

[billiardsplz]

Waiting. That always left a bad taste in Gold's mouth. It meant he was powerless to do anything. And his nightmare had the audacity to prey on his greatest fear.

"We can still try to wear it down." Gold shrugged. "Who knows, it's a memory, and memories get weaker over time. We gotta do something"