trailweblaze | Trail #3 - [Video] Action for Tulio and Envy

[Envy'd been out walking through the streets when everything had changed. His new Ekans had still been healing in the Center, but Chimera had been walking with him. He hadn't been able to sleep with the new music playing, it set him on edge too much. Something was coming, he just hadn't known what, and now that it was here he almost wished he was back to waiting for it. All the buildings and streets and, well, everything had gone blocky and wrong, and Chimera had just frozen up and gone back into the pokeball. And Envy couldn't get him to come back out, and it was starting to get very worrying. Even all the other people on the streets had just gone quiet, not even seeming to notice the wrongness. Even when he grabbed one by the shoulders and shook him, all he would say was the same few sentences in a monotone voice. Anyone else he tried to talk to reacted the same way, and honestly he was starting to get a little panicked.]

[Wait, shit. What if this had happened to his two companions too? What if he was alone?]

[He couldn't have gotten back to the Center faster if he'd still been a homunculus, and he just might have looked a little crazed as he came through the doors. And there was Miguel at least, talking to his Gear like a normal, not gone suddenly dead-eyed person. Tulio too, who honestly Envy was much more relieved to see.]

Hey! [He went over to the pair of them and grabbed both their shoulders to reassure himself that they were still real.] There's something wrong outside. Something really wrong.

[Not the most descriptive of comments, but he was having a bit of a hard time thinking entirely straight.]

_{[I’mma diss these brackets cause really!]}

Tulio leant back, from where he’s sitting opposite Miguel, staring at the contents of his bag. The candy … what? He made a quick mental note to not let anyone eat it, but there were other things occupying his mind that were more urgent.

Yeah, the music … he was feeling uneasy, because while the music that was constantly played in the background had always been hellishly annoying, it was never this … foreboding. And of course he’d picked up on the strange weather as well, but the weird thing was that everything seemed pretty standstill at the moment. And that creeped him out more than the rest.

”It’s probably nothing”, he muttered at his partner, trying to appear unaffected, and most likely trying to calm himself down as well. After all, nothing was happening … yet. He was resting his head in his hands, massaging his temples. And that’s when Envy ran in and proclaimed that something was wrong.

They knew something was wrong, but the tone in the kid’s voice pretty much meant that there was something else. Tulio didn’t like this – not at all.

With a groan, he practically hid behind his hands for a second, the darkness of his palms not doing a good job of comforting him.

”What is it?” He practically snapped it, but his nerves were a bit so-so at the moment.

It must've been at least a dozen. A dozen of hard candies neatly wrapped in blue plastic that Miguel had no memory of buying or even putting in his bag had suddenly and mysteriously appeared there.

The slight rise in the music's discord went unnoticed as he put all his stuff (except the candy) back inside the bag. He noticed the PokéGear's video was running and turned it off before he stuffed it into the bag. Tulio and Envy had explained to him how Pokéballs, the 'Gears and some other stuff worked, and that's why Cerdito was not hanging over Miguel's arm or sleeping on the table. It was convienient not having to carry the Swinub around all the time.

Even though Tulio had waved the music off as nothing, Miguel felt uneasy. The music hadn't been bothering him much at all ever since he came here, but this.... this ominous distortion along with the past few days standstill weather made him feel anxious.

As he listened again, the rise in the discord had by now escalated greatly, and the tune wasn't just weird anymore - it was downright horrifying.
Miguel was about to comment on it when Envy came rushing in, confirming what he'd been wondering - something was wrong out there as well.

"All the people outside, they're just repeating things, like they don't even have souls or anything. And the whole world's gone blocky and fake, and there are weird monster things everywhere," Envy summed up what he'd seen, frowning back at Tulio.

((ooc: sorry sorry ;-; I didn't get this alert at all and I didn't see you guys online.))

_{(SO LATE I AM SO SORRY you both know why though so there we go ahaha. back to business-!)}

Tulio shrugged Envy's hand off his shoulder in a fashion that could only be described as impatient. He was about to tell Envy off, at first, but the thing was that he knew it was true. He had eyes to see with - the windows were huge in this place - there was no escaping it. He still didn't like it, and didn't even particularly want to face it, so his companions, unfortunately, got to see the frustrated side of him.

"Does anyone know why the hell this is happening?" he practically hissed, standing up, restless. God, this place was weird enough as it was. They didn't need more crap going down.

Miguel was about to say something, but that was before he happned to throw a sideways glance at the window. That glance turned pretty soon into a long stare in which he just wordlessly... stared. A few seconds passed before it struck him that maybe he should alert the others..
Unable to tear his eyes from the monstrosity outside, he fumbled after Tulio's arm. He found the sleeve of his shirt, and promptly jerked it while pointing out at the window.

"Is that one of those monster things?"

_{Imma throw a Missingno in here cause I can. Had a hard time chosing which one, so, uh... you guys choose!}

The huge, monstrous skeleton outside let out an ungodly shriek, peering inside at the three, with pixellated drool dripping in little white squares from its jaws.

Envy just nodded, paling the tiniest bit. He couldn't regenerate here, so he was feeling a bit more threatened than he might normally. And besides, what if that thing was what took the other people and his pokemon's souls?

"Yeah, it is. Let's...get away from the windows."

_{(OOC: yeah I was pondering throwing in a missingno myself so good thing you did xD)}

"Let's get away from here", he hissed, not so much out of anger now as of frantic fear. He found himself holding onto Miguel again, the familiarity of the action somewhat aching to a safety net. He kept the grip even when standing up and making to pace away, making to drag Miguel along, while practically yelling at Envy to follow with his eyes alone.

Tulio wasn't an idiot. The top priority he had, at the moment, was to make sure they all stuck together and to get the hell away from this place. Whether this place 'place' was the center, the town, this world, that didn't matter. Key was to make a damn quick exit and live to see yet another unglorious day.

"Move, move, move", he growled at his companions, urging them to come with him. That... monster... thing wasn't outside the doors, so unless it decided to attack them upon nearing it, they could get out and run really really fast in the opposite direction.

It did feel safer inside the center where it was warm and bright, but they couldn't just stay there and hope the monster walked away. To get away from it they had to walk out to it first.
As they made their way out into the late evening darkness, they ended up almost face to face with the monster and Miguel felt how he went cold and pale. Whatever the thing was it was huge and more importantly, it was terrifying.

"Let's go this way now, quickly", Miguel said, his voice hushed out of fear and in case any louder noises would make the monster attack. He impatiently tugged at Tulio's shirt sleeve again, motioning them to hurry and get the hell away from the thing.

Envy was all too eager to follow after the two of them. The monster's empty eye sockets followed them as they walked by, and for a minute Envy thought they might get away without interesting it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

It shrieked again and lunged at the three of them, and Envy was suddenly very glad that he'd been training to fight without his powers. He met the massive jaw with a kick, knocking it to the side somewhat and creating a cracked dent in the pixellated bone. He might have even knocked out a couple teeth. The thing reared back to shake its head and shriek again, flapping its bony wings.

"Hey, keep moving," he shot his two companions a somewhat vicious grin, "I think I can keep it busy for a little while."

Without waiting for a reply, he ran closer to the monster and then to the side, away from Miguel and Tulio. It followed him with another lunging snap of it jaws, faster than he'd expected. He managed to backflip out of the way, barely, and landed on the ground in a crouch before darting forward underneath its ribs to try getting out of range of those teeth.

Tulio hesitated at first, but just for the fracture of a second before he kept going, throwing a "Suit yourself!" over his shoulder at the kid. If Envy wanted to play heoric sacrifice, he wasn't going to stop him. Besides, he seemed to know what he was doing, so Tulio didn't feel very guilty about leaving him behind, tugging Miguel with him before pushing him ahead just slightly, so he could keep his eyes on him while they ran.

Yes, Miguel would always be amongst his top priorities, along with himself. The rest was never as important. They'd find Envy later, if that's how things would play out. If they didn't, that was too bad.

He kept running, listening to his own breaths, mingled in the air with those of his partner's. He didn't really think about nor care how far they'd ran - again, it wasn't important.

What ended up being important was the ghost he suddenly found floating in front of him. He stopped abruptly, backing away slowly, grasping for Miguel's arm at the same time, attempting to tug him along. Shit. Shit shit shit this wasn't supposed to happen. It was blocking the way.

Shit. Oh shit hell no.
By pure instinct, Miguel forcefully grabbed Tulio's arm and pulled him along with him. Rushing headfirst off of the street and in between the houses, zig-zagging their way past bushes, trees and garden decorations. Running had always been one of Miguel's strengths. He was fast, could quickly spot shortcuts and if there seemed to be nowhere to go, he'd find some kind of alternative route.

They crashed out on a street again, and there Miguel stopped, panting for air. Now it should be alright. They should be far away from that ghost-thing now.

A distorted, bone-chilling scream quickly proved that no, it was not alright. The ghost was there. Right there on the street, right in front of them.
They couldn't outrun it. There was nowhere to go. And now it floated closer to them with a horrifying, gleeful smile on its face.

Out of sheer panic and fear, Miguel grabbed his backpack and threw the first thing he got ahold of at the ghost with full force. Too late he realized that it was Cerdito's pokeball.

The ball burst open with a flash of light, leaving a small Swinub on the ground. Cerdito looked oddly square-ish and blocky - similar to the ghost and the skeleton monster. But there was no time to think about that. Miguel didn't really like the thought he got, but he'd seen what his pig-like friend could do..

"Attack it! Attack the ghost!" he yelled, gesturing widly.

Envy was glad that neither Tulio or Miguel had been dumb enough to stick around after he'd told them to run. He knew neither of them were much for fighting, just for getting away, and he didn't want to have to keep distracting this stupid monster any longer than he had to. He was cutting it close enough fighting the thing as it was without having to be distracted with anyone else.

He didn't try hitting it again, just kept running it in circles trying to catch him as he flipped and rolled out of the way of its claws and teeth. He wasn't entirely unscathed; he was getting a fair number of scrapes and bruises, but the adrenaline was keeping him from feeling them. And the moment he was pretty sure the other two were well away, he made a run for it underneath the swinging tail and into a narrow alley where it couldn't follow. And it did try, snapping and shrieking at the entrance, but he just kept running. Now he just had to find Tulio and Miguel.

He ran through the streets and alleys and through the unnervingly-soulless bodies of the city's usual inhabitants, looking and listening for anything that sounded like them, or anything that sounded real enough to be them. And sure enough, he didn't have to run for too long before he caught sight of Miguel's bright red shirt and heard him yelling something. He practically burst out of an alley towards them, almost gasping for breath as he stopped next to Tulio. There was a large scrape above his left eye that was starting to drip blood down his face, but he grinned at him anyway, "So what'd I miss?"

Then he caught sight of the ghost. "The fuck is that?!"

Tulio barely glanced at Envy, giving him that look of recognition and a quick reply of "I don't know, something terrible", before grasping Bicho's pokéball from where he kept it in his vest pocket, ungracefully releasing the big bug from its confines. The dragonfly emerged in the same blocked-up state everything was, but since Miguel's pig was following orders, Tulio didn't find the time just then to be concerned at the pokémon's appearance.

"Attack that thing! Do that fast thing you do!" He wasn't very clear in directions, no, but Bicho seemed to know what was expected of him, Quick attacking the strange being before him, picking up more and more speed for each time he did so.

Tulio was bothered by the static and unengaged manner of his mutant insect, but decided he could dwell on that later. They just really needed to get away from that huge thing and get to safety somewhere. Somehow.

Miguel just glanced briefly at Envy when he arrived, quickly turning back to watch Cerdito blast out a barrage of snow.
The ghost expression didn't change - _{but then again, that smile looked like it was etched onto its face... and that just upped the unsettling-factor} - but it was falling back.

Then, after enduring a few more hits from the unusually stoic pokémon, the ghost just.. disappeared. Just like that, with a few distorted squares rendered in its place that soon faded as well, leaving the trio in dumbstruck, but relieving silence.

As Miguel kneeled down to pat his Swinub and generally being a nice Pokémon trainer, he found that Cerdito had already retreated back into his pokéball. Miguel frowned. Cerdito had been acting like this since the music changed, and so had the others' Pokémon too... Despite being confused and worried about his pokémon's weird behavior, Miguel decided it'd be better if he didn't think about it. Not right now. Top priority was still getting the hell out of here and try to find somewhere safe... if there was any place that was safe.

"Let's get outta here..." his voice was somewhat shaky, but really, they'd just encountered two friggin monsters. There was nothing strange about being a little jumpy right now.

Envy let the two of them handle it this time, staring when the ghost thing just...vanished after a couple hits. He did notice that both Bicho and Cerdito were suffering from the same sort of weird affliction that his pokemon were, and that they went right back into their pokeballs without being recalled on purpose after the battle was over. It was bothering him, definitely mostly for his own rather than theirs. But he, too, would rather get somewhere without any more monsters than remain out in the open and try to figure anything out.

He nodded, "There might be less outside the city. If they're what did this to everyone else, then they might all be here for the people."

"I don't care what they're here for." He was still holding Bicho's pokéball, not really looking at it, but it was with a sort of reluctant care he didn't. "As long as we get the hell out of here now while we still can."

Ever the optimist, of course. He adjusted his backpack, looking at the other two almost angrily, while putting the pokéball back into his pocket.

"Don't just stand there! Get moving!"

He was walking even as he yelled it at them. His nerves were kinda frazzled, even if he was attempting to stay somewhat calm. His head was still mostly clear, though - probably because he still had that aggressive outlet of shouting and snapping and being pretty unpleasant.

Miguel immediately complied, putting Cerdito's pokeball into his pocket where he quickly could reach it and pulling his bag onto his back. He was just as eager to get away from the town.

"We'll be sleeping outside tonight, then." It wasn't that he minded, no - he had slept outside more often than inside. Just that it had rarely been monsters around. The worst he'd had to worry about was angry guards. But now it was freaky ghosts and skeletons, and it was made even worse by the fact that it was dark, the townspeople looked and acted creepy and that goddamn music that never stopped!

They made their way through town without running into anymore monstrosities. In a matter of minutes, the dim, haunting glow provided by the streetlights came to and abrupt ending, as they reached the edge of Violet and the start of a dark, unknown route.

For once, Envy didn't feel like making some smartass comment about Tulio's mood. Occasionally he did have tact, and now was one of those times. He stayed alert for any other monsters while they walked through the city, and whenever he might have noticed something, walking to get in between the possible threat and the other two men. Heaven help anything that might threaten what Envy considered his. Miguel not so much, but in this situation he might as well have been.

Fortunately, nothing happened, and when they reached the edge of Route 32, he glanced at them, "Don't guess either of you have a light?"

Tulio wasn't raging as badly now, but he was still simmering out of pure frustration. He didn't like going out into the road again, and ... of course, something was wrong with it too. It was flat, square, smooth. He supposed this might give them an advantage and cut down their travelling time, but it was still creepy that their surroundings had changed like this.

At Envy's question, he gave him a glare. "What do you mean a light?"

When it was dark, it was dark. Of course, this place didn't obey those rules by those weird ... magical ... white fires in glasses. Agh, whatever. He didn't want to question that. But no, he didn't happen to have something like that on him. That was, really, a stupid question in his opinion.

Envy snorted, "Never mind. They're called flashlights I think, they're like lanterns but smaller. Anyway, let's keep moving, I don't wanna get into another fight."

He'd been a little ways out into the route a few times since they'd been in Violet, and he knew where a few clearings were that might be sheltered enough to be safe from the monsters for the night. But judging by how the place looked now, they might not even be there at all anymore. "There might be a place not too far from here, if it isn't gone in all this."

He pointed in the direction it would be, and took a few steps forward. If they followed, they followed, if they didn't want to they could say something.

Miguel shrugged, If they for some reason or another actually did have portable fires, where and how the hell should they keep them? Fire couldn't be carried around unless you had a torch, and after all, darkness wasn't that scary. Alright it was a little unsettling with all the creepy shit that had happened, but... anyway, he shouldn't think about that now.

"This looks just as weird as the town", he remarked, but didn't protest otherwise and followed Envy out on the perfectly lineart path and into the dense blackness.

As they progressed further on the route, it naturally became harder to see. More or less on pure habit, Miguel reached out for Tulio, searching for his shirt sleeve or anything to hold on to. He fumbled around a little before he got a hold of something.. He wasn't sure what or who it was - it was really hard to see in this darkness - but it felt like a hand... with some kind of strange glove. The unknown material of it made Miguel pull his hand back on reflex. The touch had lasted for a split-second - if Envy asked, Miguel could say he just happened to accidentally brush Envy's hand and hopefully the awkwardness would be averted.

Miguel fumbled his way to the other shadowy figure and succesfully got a grip on the hem of Tulio's shirt this time.

_{(ooc: I, uuh... I hope no one minded I powerplayed us out on the route..?)}

Envy was considering buying a flashlight, just to show them that no he wasn't crazy. Not to mention it'd be nice to be able to see. He missed being able to see in the dark on his own, but unfortunately his cat's eyes had gone the way of all his other powers.

He was straining his ears in the dark, both to keep from losing the other too and to try to hear any monsters that might show up, and when someone's hand brushed his he nearly made a startled noise, but managed to hold it in. He didn't need that embarrassment thank you very much. As it was the other too would probably hear the brief stumble in his footsteps. It really was a good thing that the path was so smooth right now.

"Which one of you was that?" he asked, keeping his voice down. He didn't sound nervous at all, but he was somewhat tense on account of the situation. He didn't even feel like teasing about if they were scared.

"What are you talking about?"

Tulio didn't know, of course, since it hadn't been him, but that would probably answer the question. He was hoping it wasn't a monster-beast-thing that had done whatever Envy was referring to. He hadn't heard anything and he didn't like it. If those things were that sneaky, it just didn't look like they'd be facing a very bright future. If one at all.

He was keeping calm at the moment though, refusing to release that kind of evil thinking that just made you lose your head. He was not losing his head. Nope.

"Yeah, that was me, sorry."
The apology slipped out fairly quickly, even though Miguel doubted that any awkward would follow. Judging by the sound of his companions' voices, they were just as much on edge as he was and in no mood to tease or argue.

"Is it far to that place?"
He asked because he was impatient, and he was impatient because he was a little tense. He wanted to get to that place wherever it was and set up a campfire. Wild animals - at least normal wild animals - shunned fire, so as soon as the fire was up they'd be a little safer. Hopefully. The compact darkness and silence was getting to him.. a bright, sparking campfire would be nice right about now.

"Shouldn't be."

It was odd, nothing seemed like it was in the same place as normal anymore. And without a light, he couldn't tell. But they hadn't been out on the route he didn't think, so they wouldn't know if he just picked a spot...

Before long, he actually did manage to come across what seemed like a clearing. "I think this is right." He reached to one of them, he wasn't sure which, to tug on their sleeve in the right direction. Just in case they missed where he was going in the dark.

Before long, finally, there was a small fire going and they could actually see again. The scrape on Envy's head had bleed some more, looking worse than it really was, but he barely noticed it at the moment.

"This can't last too long, right?"

"If it does, I'm out of here."

Tulio was grumbling again, of course. He never really stopped, not in this kind of terse situations where he didn't have control. He needed to be on top of whatever was going on to be at ease, and even though things had calmed considerately just the past few minutes, he wasn't relaxing at all.

Exactly how he'd be out of there was nothing he specified, but he would not stick around if things didn't look up soon. After a few moments of silence, he muttered, more to himself than the others:

"What's wrong with this place?"

A rhetorical question, of course. He was idly turning Bicho's pokéball over in his hands, leaning slightly against Miguel where he sat, looking into the fire.

Miguel pondered for a brief moment where exactly would they go? Maybe the whole world had turned into this, and then it didn't matter where they went. It would be all the same everywhere.

He shrugged off the unsettling thought and threw some dry (and blocky) leaves at the fire which snarled and sparked, consuming them in a matter of seconds. He was feeling a little bit relaxed now - watching the small flames wave about had a calming effect.

"Well, we can't stay awake all night, and we really don't have anywhere else to go", Miguel concluded. "Maybe we should just... try to sleep and then see if we can find some normal people back in town tomorrow."

He had intended to sound calm and reassuring, and while it worked somewhat, the tense nervosity in his voice still shone through.

"And we should sleep in shifts", he added as an afterthought. "To keep the fire alive and in case some monster would attack."

Envy nodded, "Sounds good to me." He paused for a moment. He was still too on edge to really sleep, and he wanted to be awake to keep an eye on things for a while. Plus he didn't really want to have to get woken up in the middle of the night. "I can go first."

He really didn't want to think about whether or not this was permanent, or how long it might last.

"Alright. Suit yourself."

Tulio was tired, actually, even though he doubted he'd get any kind of sleep he did like the prospect of not having to have some kind of responsibility to save the others if something happened. On the other hand, he didn't necessarily enjoy relying on Envy either.

But he could still lie down on the ground - uncomfortable as it was - and stare into the fire. His mind never really shut up, so he could use the time to try to separate his thoughts and make some sense of them.

"Just wake any of us up when you want to sleep."

Miguel leaned back against a tree, expecting to feel the rough bark against his back, but instead there was just a strange uneven surface. And that's when a wave of uneasy crashed over him. Miguel was usually optimistic about everything always and rarely reflected over the circumstances, and this was why. What if the world stayed like this? Dark, blocky and with monsters all over the place..

He shook of the thought the best he could and looked into the fire with half-closed eyes. Sleep would be a much welcome escape from this strange reality. If it was reality.

Trail #3 - [Video] Action for Tulio and Envy

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