Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair

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SPOILER: Click to show

Name: Caius
Species: Eevee
Gender: Male
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 5
Friendship: 5
Moveset: Helping Hand, Growl, Tackle, Tail Whip, Sand Attack
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Name: Yue
Species: Shiny Frillish
Gender: Female
Ability: Cursed Body
Level: 5
Friendship: 5
Moves: Bubble, Water Sport, Absorb

Jamie walked, hands in the pocket of his hoodie, his head looking on the ground to make sure he didn't trip over anything. He had come here on account of rumours, mutterings of a witch who lived in the forest. Usually Jamie wasn't drawn to such things, but when he overheard someone mentioning potions... And what they could do... He couldn't pass up the opportunity. He had intended to come into the forest anyway, to train.

He was mostly doubtful over the witch's existence. Rumours were shoddy by their very nature, after all, and the idea of a witch sounded preposterous to him. That said, they now lived in a world in which people could become part Pokemon- Something thought not possible before, so his doubting could very well be misplaced. Unlikely, but it was something to think about. Keeping an open mind and all that.

Jamie noticed the roots thin out and looked up, his eyes coming to an old and seemingly abandoned mansion. Must be the place. He thought to himself, pulling out a Pokeball and releasing the Pokemon inside. An Eevee appeared who immediately inspected the surroundings, and immediately shivered.

"Caius, eyes open. We don't want to be taken off guard, alright?" The still-new trainer commanded. The Eevee nodded, and followed Jamie over to the gate. The teenager pushed it lightly, opening it, before moving over to the door of the mansion. Even if there was no witch the place seemed like the kind of place Pokemon could be found, all abandoned. It didn't seem like it'd be exactly safe, though.

With that in mind Jamie pushed open the door and entered the building with the lightest footsteps he could manage, Caius right on his heel.

[ZOM]

Inside, the mansion was... surprisingly well-kept. Sure, it was creepy; every piece of furniture and decoration was old-fashioned and somber by design, and the paintings on the walls seemed to follow Jamie's movements with their eyes. Asides from that, though, it was pretty clean for such a huge, supposedly abandoned building. Well, clean except for the Spinarak webs visible in the corners of the main room and between the banister rungs along the stairs.

The foyer was eerily silent, so footsteps echoed loud and far from the cold tile floors, the noise further amplified by the high ceilings. Though no living creatures were visible throughout the room, there was still a sense that many eyes were watching... and from the shadows, beneath furniture and clinging to the ceiling, tiny Spinarak leered down at Jamie, waiting to see what he would do. One skittered silently out of hiding to zip along the ceiling and make its way deeper into the mansion. The mistress needed to be alerted to her guest.

The room itself was huge and lavishly decorated with paintings, menacing statues, vases on pillars, and plush claw-foot sofas and loveseats across from old oak coffee tables. A coat rack stood beside the front entrance, free to use if Jamie so chose -- although the mansion was very cold inside, so perhaps hanging on to all of his layers would be a wise decision for one so sickly. In the center of the foyer, double doors led to a location unknown, and on either side of the doors were staircases winding up to the second floor, which was lined by many more doors. From the ceiling hung an unlit chandelier. Plenty of places to explore, it looked like, but for some the unnerving chill in the air and sensation of prying eyes might have prevented any fun to be had with such an exploration.

[Deleted]

Jamie paused when he entered the building, raising an eyebrow at what he saw. So it wasn't as abandoned as it first seemed... Interesting. Whoever lived here had a not-quite-ordinary taste in decoration. Caius walked out in front, looking around with a similar expression to Jamie's. Neither of them expected it to look quite like this. The two looked at each other for a moment before walking ahead cautiously.

If someone did live here, like it seemed, Jamie had to wonder why they kept the door open for anyone to walk in. A trap of some sorts? If the rumours were true the 'witch' seemed the type to do such a thing. With that in mind the teenager grew even more cautious, body tensed and ready in case he had to run. He hoped he didn't have to run, the chances were that if he tried whoever it was would be able to catch him.

He coughed nervously, quickly covering his mouth in a futile effort to muffle the sound. Caius flinched and looked back at Jamie, body ready to attack, only to realize that it was just him. A feeling of relief washed over the normal-type as it went back to what it had been doing, keeping watch for anything. At least the place wasn't too dirty.

Slowly but surely they made their way deeper into the mansion, both wondering what awaited them with a mixture of curiosity and fear. Neither of them much fancied the idea of being turned into a newt.

[ZOM]

Though the hallways were decorated just as nicely as the foyer, they were not especially interesting; every painting had watchful, scornful eyes, granted, but otherwise there was very little worth noting. However, once Jamie and his Eevee started peering into rooms, some curious sights awaited them. One room was small and empty, with nothing to see except for what appeared to be shackles and chains hanging from the walls. The next room, though significantly larger, had nearly no space to move around in since it was jam-packed with all sorts of strange trinkets and herbs and stones, as well as some more unsavory finds like Woobat wings and Seviper venom.

When the door to the next door was opened, someone stood in the doorway, blocking Jamie's entry. "Hello, little morsel." Her voice was smooth and low, and she loomed over Jamie; one single red pupil leered down at the human boy, and her other eye socket appeared to be empty, at least until the gleaming red circle migrated its way from the one socket to the other. Her hair was ashen-brown and long, and though it appeared unkempt upon first inspection, a closer look might have suggested that it was just teased out into such a wild style. Her thin lips were painted ruby-red with lipstick, and the color stood out in stark contrast to the sickly paleness of her skin. She wore a slinky black dress with a high neck and frilly collar which would not have looked out of place in Dracula's castle, but the dress' strange design left her stomach exposed. When the lips on her face quirked into a smile, the huge mouth on her stomach tugged into a similarly unnerving grin, its yellow lips stretched.

"Now, then... you are a very curious little pet, aren't you? Trespassing... tsk, tsk." She took a step forward, reaching for his chin with large hands tipped by long, manicured, red nails. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't make a meal out of you for your rudeness." Her single pupil continued to jitter back and forth between her eye sockets as she smiled coldly down at Jamie, ignoring his Eevee completely. The mouth on her stomach was beginning to salivate; thick dribbles of saliva dripped from the slightly agape maw.

[Deleted]

Jamie did not like what he saw of the place. A room of just shackles and chains was hardly a welcoming sight, and as he walked away from it he shivered as an uncomfortable feeling washed over him. He doubted that they kept that simply for show. The next room was less creepy, though he wouldn't exactly call it welcoming. He wondered what use the wings would be, though he could think of several for what seemed to be venom. None of the wholesome.

Pushing the next door gave him a fright when he saw the woman, frozen stiff with the fear that felt like it was rushing up all through his body. He stopped breathing for a moment, and when he began again it was at a much slower pace then it had been before. He had never seen someone like this before, even amongst Pokemorphs. A mouth most certainly did not belong there.

When she reached out for him he was too scared to move at first, and he felt her nails touch his skin before taking a step back- eyes still firmly on her. Her words unsettled him more, especially how she referred to him as her 'little pet' and as a 'morsel', and with every passing moment the urge to run grew and grew. And yet he remained firmly planted in place.

Nervous and unthinking, when he spoke Jamie defaulted to the first thing he thought of. "What did you expect?" He said. "Abandoned-looking place, open door... And I assume you know that the people in Buteston speak of you, right? You're practically inviting people in. If you didn't want people like me coming along then you'd live somewhere a bit less obvious." Caius looked up at Jamie in shock, confused as to why his trainer was speaking to what was a clear threat in the way he was.

With his confidence growing, Jamie smirked. "Come on, old abandoned mansion in the middle of a creepy as all hell forest? This is the first place someone looking for a so-called witch would look." He looked around briefly before quickly turning his eyes back to the strange lady. "Gotta say, you've made the place look pretty good considering it's out in the middle of nowhere."

[ZOM]

The tall, frightening woman paused in her advancement as the boy began to babble, his tone decidedly not polite. She listened, eyes narrowing and glowing red pupil jittering wildly, until he finished his scoffing little critique on what could perhaps be considered a high note. The witch did not consider it a high note.

"Little boy," she said, her voice low and even, her expression cold and unimpressed, "You say... that I am too obvious, that I am inviting rude children like yourself to break into my home. Yet here you say I am in the 'middle of nowhere', that an unwelcoming and 'abandoned-looking' facade calls festering sores of human beasts to my dwellings. You, boy, are too bold. And you, boy, will not flatter me with backhanded compliments." She began her approach again, this time quicker, her hand whipping out so that she might grab him by his shoulder.

She did not harm him, not yet, though her gaze conveyed no good intentions. The witch peered into his eyes, looking past the glasses which were meant to hide them. Then, she gave the rest of him a quick once-over. Her eyebrows furrowed and her red-painted lip curled in a sneer. "I see you are not well. Pity; you probably will not taste good. I shall enjoy this no more than one might enjoy throwing out garbage." She looked thoughtful, biting lightly at her lip. "Perhaps if I made some improvements first... Hmm." The witch appeared momentarily lost in thought, considering her options -- namely which ingredients she had stowed away that might produce a useful potion for the situation. If Jamie was going to run, now was probably the only chance he would get.

[Deleted]

Jamie's eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses as the witch spoke. Not an entirely unexpected response, part of him even expected the old witch to simply come at him there and then. It seemed that if things continued as they were going he would not get what he came for... Maybe it was a good time to bail. A shame really, he had really wanted one of her potions. That said, given the way the witch looked, it might be better that he doesn't have it.

This time the witch was quicker, but the teenager was more ready for her this time. He took a few steps back to get out of the reach of her hand, looking back for an exit. He then looked down at Caius, giving him a look that said 'be ready'. Would it be a good idea to piss the witch off further? Probably not, but it would be amusing nonetheless... After all, she practically admitted to being cannibalistic. Well, she would be cannibalistic is she even counted as a human anymore. Jamie wasn't sure of that.

"Sand Attack, now!" He commanded, and the Eevee kicked up dirt aimed for the face of the witch. Hopefully that'd distract her for a bit. With that he turned tale and ran, Caius at his heel. Running past, Jamie made a point of knocking down any decorations he could while still running in an attempt to spite the witch.

When he got closer the door he pointed at it and issued another order. "Tackle that door down!" And so Caius attempted to, running ahead and jumping at the door. However while the door did show signs of damage, Caius was still untrained and it remained intact. Grunting in annoyance he reached for the handle and attempted to open it, hoping to get out before the witch did something he might regret.

[ZOM]

The witch shrieked as dust was kicked into her eyes, and the mouth on her stomach roared and spat. She sounded furious, but it took her a moment to rub her eyes clean, so it gave Jamie the perfect opportunity to make a break for it. "Little pest! Vile rodent!" She stumbled out into the hallway and after the sound of his footsteps, though she had no intention of chasing him down herself. "Get him! Get him, get him, get him!"

As she wailed and screamed, Spinarak began to descend from the ceiling and emerge from underneath tables and inside vases. Each decoration ruined seemed to contain another Spinarak, and not a one of them appreciated the disturbance; String Shots were fired after Jamie and Caius in rapid succession, narrowly missing as the pair fled, though the arachnids were not giving up the pursuit. When Jamie and Caius reached the front entrance the doors were shut and locked, and it would take more strength than a tiny Eevee could muster to successfully break them open. Behind the pair was a massive swarm of Spinarak, too many to count... and worse, a massive Ariados was descending on a string of webbing, its eyes leering down at Jamie.

It landed nimbly and then shot out a Spider Web attack. The thick, sticky webbing, if it connected, would surely prevent escape; and even if it missed, the Spinarak were firing their own String Shots to slow Jamie down. The witch had caught up by now, and she stood atop the stairwell peering down, watching with a cold smile. "You would taste too bitter in my mouth, disgusting creature." She leaned against the banister and chuckled. "Perhaps I will merely toy with you, so that you may convey a message to your rude human friends who would break into my home and insult me, then break my possessions on the way out..."

And as she watched the Spinarak converge on Jamie, she began to chant in an almost sing-song. The words were gibberish, or so they sounded; as she said them her pupil glowed bright and jittered frantically.

[Deleted]

Jamie gazed in horror at the countless bug Pokemon descending, all coming for him and Caius. He hadn't expected to get away easy, but this... Could he get away from all this? He shook his head and focused on trying to get away. No point in doubting himself, that'd only lead to him losing- Possibly his life. He had to think straight and clear, and get the hell out this damned place.

Seeing the formidable Ariados he reached for his other Pokeball and sent out Yue, who took the Spider Web attack. However she remained unaffected, her ghost typing preventing her from being trapped by an attack such as that. Unfortunately she was not immune to all the string shots, which hit her and slowed her down significantly. Yue looked shocked by the scene before her, this being her first time out of a Pokeball since she joined Jamie.

The Shiny Frillish looked back at the teenager, perplexed, who merely told her to "Hold them back!" which only further confused her. "Use Bubble or something!" He cried, before giving another command to Caius. "Helping Hand on her, now!"

Taking the orders, his Pokemon moved into action. Caius moved up to Yue and placed a paw on her, who then sent out an empowered Bubble at the horde of Pokemon in the hopes that it would at least slow them down. While the two were doing this Jamie tried kicking at the door, but he was weak and it had little effect. "Shit! Caius, Tackle the door again!"

The Eevee, who was starting to feel overworked, turned around and slammed it's body against the door. Jamie hoped that they were at the very least weakening every time they hit it, maybe with enough hits they might be able to knock it down eventually... If they could hold their foes back long enough. The teenager felt himself getting more tired, doubting that he would be much help at all for knocking down the door. He body already ached.

[ZOM]

The Ariados hissed with rage as its Spider Web was promptly ignored by the ghost type as she appeared. None of the Spinarak would have paid any mind to Yue, though they had showered her in webbing accidentally; they knew their true target was the human boy. However, just as they were preparing to turn their attention back to Jamie, Bubbles burst forth from the ghost and exploded against the little bugs' backs and faces, making them shriek with pain and surprise.

Though her tiny friends were experiencing some setbacks in capturing Jamie, the witch was unfazed. As if in a trance she leered at the scene below, her gaze locked on the human boy who was desperately trying to break her front door down. Her chanting continued, on and on, as the Spinarak and Ariados screeched and spat webbing wildly. Several of the smarter arachnids started to scurry towards Jamie's legs, intending to climb straight up so that they could clamp down on his clothes and hair and skin with her tiny mandibles or jab with their venomous horns.

It was at this moment that the witch finished her chant, and the doors burst open, allowing Jamie and his Pokemon to run free. The witch snapped out of her trance and bellowed after Jamie, "And don't come back! Tell your filthy human friends: don't come back!"

[Jamie might think he's in the clear, but... he has been cursed by the witch. Now, any "impolite" behavior, from cursing to being sarcastic or derisive, will render him temporarily tongue-tied. Each time the length of time he is rendered mute will be proportional to how rude he was. Jamie may want to learn some manners.]

[Deleted]

The teenager didn't like how things were going, seeing the bugs approaching him. He swiped his legs at the before they got close in the hopes of keeping them away even for a little bit, not at all liking the idea of being covered in the horrible creatures. He wasn't going to let his journey end here, he wasn't going to die as weak as he was. He had to get out here alive.

It was at that thought the door swung open, much to Jamie's surprise. What... What was going on? What was the witch planning? He didn't like it, but he had to go through the door and get out- The Spinarak were getting way too close for his liking. He pulled out Yue's Pokeball and recalled her into it before rushing out, Caius running with him.

After several steps the pair looked back, seeing that none were following them further. "Fuck you, you crazy bi-" The trainer suddenly realized that he couldn't speak, a look of confusion on his face. He tried again, but nothing came out again. Shit.

Deciding he could deal with this later, he ran off again with Caius at his side. As soon as he felt far enough away he stopped, leaning against a tree. He checked around for a moment before opening his mouth. "What was that...?" He asked himself, finding that he could talk again. "... That was some freak shit, huh Cai-" And again, his voice stopped. Caius looked up at him confused, and Jamie looked back down at him with a worried look.

This was gonna suck.