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Description
::MAY EVENT:: DESCENDING THE PASSAGE OF MADNESS

-----

It only took a moment for the small squirrel pokemon to be lifted off the crystalline platform where she stood. She attempted to scream, but was cut off by a string shot, wrapping around her mouth to prevent her from alerting the others.

"Well this is... both nerve wracking and incredibly boring at the same time... You find anything interesting Scrunchie?..." A moment of silence lingered after Pockets spoke, waiting for a reply that wasn't given. "Scrunchie?" The raticate repeated, turning to see an empty platform where her friend once stood. Panic washed over her, looking around for the skwovet hybrid... Valid panic, she would realize when she looked up to see Scrunchie, tangled in a tight wrap of webbing, and one of the various mutant bugs, looming over her with glowing yellow eyes. "Oh my gods! Scrunchie!" Pockets screamed, finally attracting the attention of other members of Team Solar Flare in the area, who all looked on in confusion, and then horror.

An obnoxious, but clearly concerned voice spoke up. "I guess she's a little tied up at the moment, Pockets!" He said with a nervous chuckle.

"Shut up, Visha." was the next three words out of practically every mouth, save for Scrunchie's, which was tied up, and her insectoid captor, who didn't appear to have one and was a bit busy staring at them with it's beady yellow eyes. The group stared back, horrified, before a red fox stepped out from among them, rolling his eyes.

"If we're just going to gawk, then I'll handle it." Roulette spat, before launching himself off the ground, looking almost like a beam of light as he rammed into the creature, to which the creature stared unfazed before smacking him down back into the slime below with it's crystalline arm. He growled, getting back to his feet before launching himself at it again and again, only to be brought down again and again, much to his growing frustration as the rest of the group looked on, flabbergasted, before a wavering voice broke the silence.

"Okay, so I think his plan is to distract it with sheer stupidity." The minccino spoke, nodding sagely as his brother pelted the creature with Quick Attacks. "Any ideas on what to do?"

"What do you mean stupidity? I thought you were the dumb brother?" Visha said before being smacked upside the head by a nearby archen. "WHAT?! He IS!"

"Mal says I'm smart!" Plague retaliated. "Besides. Everyone knows ghosts are immune to Normal Type attacks." he said, nodding again, as the group then looked back at the minccino, questioningly.

"That thing's a ghost? How would you know that?" The archen questioned as she fluttered up a bit more to land on Visha's head, getting slimey sludge in his hair, much to his dismay.

"It has ghost type vibes and clearly, quick attack is doing nothing to it." Plague said looking back at his brother and then returning his focus to the group. "And he's getting low on HP so we should probably start planning."

"I can look at it, menacingly!" The archen said, raising a wing.

"Okay now Erin's being the stupid one." Visha responded immediately, shoving the bird off his head and back into the slime.

"Erin can't you use Wing Attack?" Pockets said, looking back only to see Roulette finally make an intelligent-adjacent decision to use Ember... Unfortunately for everyone involved... It DID hit the bug, which let out a horrible pained shriek, but also hit the hostage grass type, Scrunchie, who's pained expression was visible for only a moment before it was veiled by a cloud of toxic dust, which fell over the surrounding area, cutting off any response the archen would have given with a coughing fit from everyone, excluding Visha, who stood, staring dumbfounded as the cloud passed over them.

"What the [D]uck was THAT?!" The blue vulpix exclaimed to the group of freshly poisoned pokemon, but they didn't seem to bother looking at him, either because they were busy with their new status condition, or because it was Visha. "Okay look I GET most of you but Plague you are a poison type! Are you like, a hypochondriac or something?" Visha questioned, but the only reply he received was a pained groan from the minccino as he fell to his knees, his vines seemingly withering a bit, which brought some concern to Visha's face. "Okay... maybe he's not faking..." Visha looked around at the rest of the group. Plague, as well as Erin and Roulette, were on the ground, and Pockets wasn't looking great either, but at least she was still on her feet. That was good at least, right?

Pockets took a step forward, crying out in pain almost immediately after her foot landed heavily back into the slime. She breathed heavily as she stood on one foot with shaky balance to remove a sharp purple spine from her foot, carefully placing it back down soon after. "...Toxic Spikes..." She breathed quietly, looking at Visha.

"Why are you giving me that look?! That still doesn't explain this!?" Visha exclaimed gesturing to Plague. Pockets gave him a frustrated and disappointed look to Visha before turning her attention back to Scrunchie. She wasn't looking great...

----

Scrunchie blinked tiredly, coughing as she hung limply in her ropes, watching the chaos blur on below. She felt uncomfortably warm now, despite the overall coolness of the murky underground room, but she was honestly too tired to do anything about it. Her fur had shifted from a yellowy brown to a much greener tone at this point, shifting at a much faster rate than normal, and only growing darker as the minutes passed. She let out a soft groan as the webs wrapped around her face were carefully cut away, which was honestly a bit of a relief, as she felt like she may lose any semblance of a lunch she may have had in her at any moment. Her body tensed for a moment as a pain shot through her from a foreign toxin that should not have normally managed to get into her system at all, but she'd have to worry about that later, as at the moment, she could barely lift her head.

The leavanny hybrid was hard at work crafting something akin to a hammock from silk, checking occasionally on the other pokemon to make sure they'd no longer bother them and their prey, which seemed to be the case at least for the time being, but the rat and the blue fox were still a threat to keep tabs on. The buggy creature looked at the weak squirrel hanging from her temporary restraints and would have given a soft smile had they the mouth to do so. They clambered gently back to her across the short distance of webs and began gently removing her from the webbing suspending her there. Scrunchie made a quiet noise of pained opposition, but really could do nothing as the creature began to move her, shushing her softly as it did so. They placed her in the hammock before gently brushing her hair out of her face as she coughed and let out another whine, her limp body tensing as much as it could in her severely weakened state. The leavanny let out another "shhhhhh" noise before gently rocking the hammock and making a bit of a humming noise, trying to relax the suffering pokemon a bit. Scrunchie groaned and softly cried out for a few moments longer before no longer having to strength to fight back and relaxing to the creature's delight. It only took a moment before it began to feed...

----

From the ground, Visha watched Pockets slowly and painfully attempt to traverse the minefield of spines, each misstep making her look more and more ill as a result. He looked away from her to glance around, seeing the other pokemon still on the ground, down for the count... They actually really needed medical attention and he was genuinely afraid... He looked back to Pockets, only to find in the 5 seconds he looked away, the poison had finally managed to bring her down to the ground as well. Panic washed over him as it finally was setting in that this was REALLY bad... He ran up to Pockets, stepping on a few spikes in the process, but they seemed to almost melt under his feet instead of causing him much harm. "Pockets?! Pockets are you-"

He was cut off by the rodent pointing gripping the necklace around his neck and pulling him down to face her. "Get... Help..." She said, before falling into an unconscious state. Visha looked around again, before choosing to do what he was told for once in his life...

----

The mutant bug sat, happily absorbing much needed sustenance from Scrunchie's weak body through the flower-shaped crystals on it's antennae and tail. It had been so long since they'd absorbed such delicious sickness from someone... Forcing others to fall ill just didn't taste the same, and honestly, they were a little disappointed that the flavor was tainted by the poison they'd accidentally added to her system as well... But it still beat your average poisoning in flavor, so they were pleased! They weren't sure what this squirrel had, but it was bolder and richer than practically anything else they'd tasted in their life... and they had tasted many flavors of sickness... The only thing they could think came close was that one plague they'd tried to perpetuate before being locked away... tragic really... They just needed food! The almighty Sinnoh was honestly overreacting in their opinion...

They took their sweet time eating until they had finally filled themself up, but then they came to a realization... This squirrel was... not any better than when they began... Which was odd... Maybe whatever she had didn't mix well with the additional poison in her system? But either way it didn't seem right, as they knew they literally consumed the illness... They should have gotten at least slightly better with how much they'd eaten, but honestly, the sleeping squirrel seemed worse somehow...

"HEY!" A shout came from the ground, grabbing their attention. It was a human, seemingly fine, but smelled of the same illness the squirrel had. "You give back Scrunchie right this minute or I will come up there, kick your scrawny buggy butt, and take her back myself!" she shouted. Scrunchie?? They had recalled the rat saying that as well, so perhaps that was the skwovet's name... The debated keeping the food source, but deep down, they knew there was a high chance that this hybrid would not last long if they did... Unfortunately, she was a perishable...

They looked back to the human and blinked for a moment before making some unnatural noises that eventually morphed into some semblance of speech. "TradE? YoU gEt... tHIs..." They pointed to the sleeping squirrel. "I gEt... cOMe wITh?" They hoped that was understandable enough... speech was exhausting... maybe they'd have another sip of Scrunchie before giving her back... Maybe.. The human gave... Well it was definitely A look, as she handed the one standing pokemon some Antidotes and Revives to go help the others with. Perhaps they were unclear about their intentions. "SeeMs lIKe... bAd sICk... GooD sNACk, bUt lESs gOOd iF dEAd... tAKe bACk... I cOMe wITh fOr lATEr sNACk?" They tried to clarify but the human seemed even more confused... Despite this, the human also finally made a response.

"I- CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS LATER? I am VERY interested in whatever you mean by that! But I would like my friend to NOT die during negotiations!"

The hybrid stared, bobbing their head side to side for a moment before replying with a sound that could only be interpreted as "a" and then carefully plucking the hammock from their web and carrying Scrunchie down to the human. "PoisoN... FiX?" they added to the conversation, holding the ill squirrel out to the human who almost cried as an immediate reaction to the sight, immediately pulling out an Antidote and a lavender salve from her bag and applying both to Scrunchie. There was am air of silence as no immediate reaction occurred. Mal bit her lip, and the bug looked down at the skwovet, then up at the human, and then back down again. They made the executive decision to try and taste test the infinitely less poisoned squirrel and took what could only be described as a sip before the human glared at them with confused concern.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?!"

"EaT sICk... Is yUm." They said, noting the curiosity on Mal's face as they began siphoning some sickness from Scrunchie again, which... they found to be very enjoyable, and also, without the poisoning, it seemed to be doing as expected, at least to an extent, notable by the lightening green tone of Scrunchie's fur.

Scrunchie opened her eyes, letting out a grunt and then a cough. "Whhhhat....happened???" She said weakly to Mal before finally taking in her surroundings and panicking at the sight of the bug, weakly trying to scramble away to little avail. Mal lifted her out of the silk hammock and stuffed her into a bag, which was stuffed full of lavender.

"I'm not totally sure..." Mal said, squinting at the bug as she situated the bag in a way that would be comfortable enough for both her and Scrunchie. Mal turned her attention to the rest of the pokemon making their way towards her. "Everyone okay?" She asked, receiving mostly nods, but more of an 'eh' from Pockets and a huff from Roulette. "Alright, let's regroup with the others then..." She said with a nod as she began walking. The pokemon followed for a moment before realizing the bug was following them as well.

"HEY! BUZZ OFF!" Pockets screamed at the bug. "You've caused ENOUGH damage!"

"Pockets, let it go... I said they could follow us, it was part of the trade."

"Trade!? You NEGOTIATED WITH THEM?!"

"Yep! Now, let it go. They intrigue me, so they can come unless they start causing trouble again."

Pockets growled, glaring back at the bug, but kept quiet as the group headed back to reconnect with the rest of the team.

------

2,384 words = 86 Levels

Scrunchie +40 Levels
Pockets +16 Levels
The Bug(TM) +38 Levels
Plague +30 Levels
Roulette +10 Levels
Erin +10 Levels
Visha +8 Levels

This art (c) Vulpix150

Description
::MAY EVENT:: DESCENDING THE PASSAGE OF MADNESS

-----

It only took a moment for the small squirrel pokemon to be lifted off the crystalline platform where she stood. She attempted to scream, but was cut off by a string shot, wrapping around her mouth to prevent her from alerting the others.

"Well this is... both nerve wracking and incredibly boring at the same time... You find anything interesting Scrunchie?..." A moment of silence lingered after Pockets spoke, waiting for a reply that wasn't given. "Scrunchie?" The raticate repeated, turning to see an empty platform where her friend once stood. Panic washed over her, looking around for the skwovet hybrid... Valid panic, she would realize when she looked up to see Scrunchie, tangled in a tight wrap of webbing, and one of the various mutant bugs, looming over her with glowing yellow eyes. "Oh my gods! Scrunchie!" Pockets screamed, finally attracting the attention of other members of Team Solar Flare in the area, who all looked on in confusion, and then horror.

An obnoxious, but clearly concerned voice spoke up. "I guess she's a little tied up at the moment, Pockets!" He said with a nervous chuckle.

"Shut up, Visha." was the next three words out of practically every mouth, save for Scrunchie's, which was tied up, and her insectoid captor, who didn't appear to have one and was a bit busy staring at them with it's beady yellow eyes. The group stared back, horrified, before a red fox stepped out from among them, rolling his eyes.

"If we're just going to gawk, then I'll handle it." Roulette spat, before launching himself off the ground, looking almost like a beam of light as he rammed into the creature, to which the creature stared unfazed before smacking him down back into the slime below with it's crystalline arm. He growled, getting back to his feet before launching himself at it again and again, only to be brought down again and again, much to his growing frustration as the rest of the group looked on, flabbergasted, before a wavering voice broke the silence.

"Okay, so I think his plan is to distract it with sheer stupidity." The minccino spoke, nodding sagely as his brother pelted the creature with Quick Attacks. "Any ideas on what to do?"

"What do you mean stupidity? I thought you were the dumb brother?" Visha said before being smacked upside the head by a nearby archen. "WHAT?! He IS!"

"Mal says I'm smart!" Plague retaliated. "Besides. Everyone knows ghosts are immune to Normal Type attacks." he said, nodding again, as the group then looked back at the minccino, questioningly.

"That thing's a ghost? How would you know that?" The archen questioned as she fluttered up a bit more to land on Visha's head, getting slimey sludge in his hair, much to his dismay.

"It has ghost type vibes and clearly, quick attack is doing nothing to it." Plague said looking back at his brother and then returning his focus to the group. "And he's getting low on HP so we should probably start planning."

"I can look at it, menacingly!" The archen said, raising a wing.

"Okay now Erin's being the stupid one." Visha responded immediately, shoving the bird off his head and back into the slime.

"Erin can't you use Wing Attack?" Pockets said, looking back only to see Roulette finally make an intelligent-adjacent decision to use Ember... Unfortunately for everyone involved... It DID hit the bug, which let out a horrible pained shriek, but also hit the hostage grass type, Scrunchie, who's pained expression was visible for only a moment before it was veiled by a cloud of toxic dust, which fell over the surrounding area, cutting off any response the archen would have given with a coughing fit from everyone, excluding Visha, who stood, staring dumbfounded as the cloud passed over them.

"What the [D]uck was THAT?!" The blue vulpix exclaimed to the group of freshly poisoned pokemon, but they didn't seem to bother looking at him, either because they were busy with their new status condition, or because it was Visha. "Okay look I GET most of you but Plague you are a poison type! Are you like, a hypochondriac or something?" Visha questioned, but the only reply he received was a pained groan from the minccino as he fell to his knees, his vines seemingly withering a bit, which brought some concern to Visha's face. "Okay... maybe he's not faking..." Visha looked around at the rest of the group. Plague, as well as Erin and Roulette, were on the ground, and Pockets wasn't looking great either, but at least she was still on her feet. That was good at least, right?

Pockets took a step forward, crying out in pain almost immediately after her foot landed heavily back into the slime. She breathed heavily as she stood on one foot with shaky balance to remove a sharp purple spine from her foot, carefully placing it back down soon after. "...Toxic Spikes..." She breathed quietly, looking at Visha.

"Why are you giving me that look?! That still doesn't explain this!?" Visha exclaimed gesturing to Plague. Pockets gave him a frustrated and disappointed look to Visha before turning her attention back to Scrunchie. She wasn't looking great...

----

Scrunchie blinked tiredly, coughing as she hung limply in her ropes, watching the chaos blur on below. She felt uncomfortably warm now, despite the overall coolness of the murky underground room, but she was honestly too tired to do anything about it. Her fur had shifted from a yellowy brown to a much greener tone at this point, shifting at a much faster rate than normal, and only growing darker as the minutes passed. She let out a soft groan as the webs wrapped around her face were carefully cut away, which was honestly a bit of a relief, as she felt like she may lose any semblance of a lunch she may have had in her at any moment. Her body tensed for a moment as a pain shot through her from a foreign toxin that should not have normally managed to get into her system at all, but she'd have to worry about that later, as at the moment, she could barely lift her head.

The leavanny hybrid was hard at work crafting something akin to a hammock from silk, checking occasionally on the other pokemon to make sure they'd no longer bother them and their prey, which seemed to be the case at least for the time being, but the rat and the blue fox were still a threat to keep tabs on. The buggy creature looked at the weak squirrel hanging from her temporary restraints and would have given a soft smile had they the mouth to do so. They clambered gently back to her across the short distance of webs and began gently removing her from the webbing suspending her there. Scrunchie made a quiet noise of pained opposition, but really could do nothing as the creature began to move her, shushing her softly as it did so. They placed her in the hammock before gently brushing her hair out of her face as she coughed and let out another whine, her limp body tensing as much as it could in her severely weakened state. The leavanny let out another "shhhhhh" noise before gently rocking the hammock and making a bit of a humming noise, trying to relax the suffering pokemon a bit. Scrunchie groaned and softly cried out for a few moments longer before no longer having to strength to fight back and relaxing to the creature's delight. It only took a moment before it began to feed...

----

From the ground, Visha watched Pockets slowly and painfully attempt to traverse the minefield of spines, each misstep making her look more and more ill as a result. He looked away from her to glance around, seeing the other pokemon still on the ground, down for the count... They actually really needed medical attention and he was genuinely afraid... He looked back to Pockets, only to find in the 5 seconds he looked away, the poison had finally managed to bring her down to the ground as well. Panic washed over him as it finally was setting in that this was REALLY bad... He ran up to Pockets, stepping on a few spikes in the process, but they seemed to almost melt under his feet instead of causing him much harm. "Pockets?! Pockets are you-"

He was cut off by the rodent pointing gripping the necklace around his neck and pulling him down to face her. "Get... Help..." She said, before falling into an unconscious state. Visha looked around again, before choosing to do what he was told for once in his life...

----

The mutant bug sat, happily absorbing much needed sustenance from Scrunchie's weak body through the flower-shaped crystals on it's antennae and tail. It had been so long since they'd absorbed such delicious sickness from someone... Forcing others to fall ill just didn't taste the same, and honestly, they were a little disappointed that the flavor was tainted by the poison they'd accidentally added to her system as well... But it still beat your average poisoning in flavor, so they were pleased! They weren't sure what this squirrel had, but it was bolder and richer than practically anything else they'd tasted in their life... and they had tasted many flavors of sickness... The only thing they could think came close was that one plague they'd tried to perpetuate before being locked away... tragic really... They just needed food! The almighty Sinnoh was honestly overreacting in their opinion...

They took their sweet time eating until they had finally filled themself up, but then they came to a realization... This squirrel was... not any better than when they began... Which was odd... Maybe whatever she had didn't mix well with the additional poison in her system? But either way it didn't seem right, as they knew they literally consumed the illness... They should have gotten at least slightly better with how much they'd eaten, but honestly, the sleeping squirrel seemed worse somehow...

"HEY!" A shout came from the ground, grabbing their attention. It was a human, seemingly fine, but smelled of the same illness the squirrel had. "You give back Scrunchie right this minute or I will come up there, kick your scrawny buggy butt, and take her back myself!" she shouted. Scrunchie?? They had recalled the rat saying that as well, so perhaps that was the skwovet's name... The debated keeping the food source, but deep down, they knew there was a high chance that this hybrid would not last long if they did... Unfortunately, she was a perishable...

They looked back to the human and blinked for a moment before making some unnatural noises that eventually morphed into some semblance of speech. "TradE? YoU gEt... tHIs..." They pointed to the sleeping squirrel. "I gEt... cOMe wITh?" They hoped that was understandable enough... speech was exhausting... maybe they'd have another sip of Scrunchie before giving her back... Maybe.. The human gave... Well it was definitely A look, as she handed the one standing pokemon some Antidotes and Revives to go help the others with. Perhaps they were unclear about their intentions. "SeeMs lIKe... bAd sICk... GooD sNACk, bUt lESs gOOd iF dEAd... tAKe bACk... I cOMe wITh fOr lATEr sNACk?" They tried to clarify but the human seemed even more confused... Despite this, the human also finally made a response.

"I- CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS LATER? I am VERY interested in whatever you mean by that! But I would like my friend to NOT die during negotiations!"

The hybrid stared, bobbing their head side to side for a moment before replying with a sound that could only be interpreted as "a" and then carefully plucking the hammock from their web and carrying Scrunchie down to the human. "PoisoN... FiX?" they added to the conversation, holding the ill squirrel out to the human who almost cried as an immediate reaction to the sight, immediately pulling out an Antidote and a lavender salve from her bag and applying both to Scrunchie. There was am air of silence as no immediate reaction occurred. Mal bit her lip, and the bug looked down at the skwovet, then up at the human, and then back down again. They made the executive decision to try and taste test the infinitely less poisoned squirrel and took what could only be described as a sip before the human glared at them with confused concern.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?!"

"EaT sICk... Is yUm." They said, noting the curiosity on Mal's face as they began siphoning some sickness from Scrunchie again, which... they found to be very enjoyable, and also, without the poisoning, it seemed to be doing as expected, at least to an extent, notable by the lightening green tone of Scrunchie's fur.

Scrunchie opened her eyes, letting out a grunt and then a cough. "Whhhhat....happened???" She said weakly to Mal before finally taking in her surroundings and panicking at the sight of the bug, weakly trying to scramble away to little avail. Mal lifted her out of the silk hammock and stuffed her into a bag, which was stuffed full of lavender.

"I'm not totally sure..." Mal said, squinting at the bug as she situated the bag in a way that would be comfortable enough for both her and Scrunchie. Mal turned her attention to the rest of the pokemon making their way towards her. "Everyone okay?" She asked, receiving mostly nods, but more of an 'eh' from Pockets and a huff from Roulette. "Alright, let's regroup with the others then..." She said with a nod as she began walking. The pokemon followed for a moment before realizing the bug was following them as well.

"HEY! BUZZ OFF!" Pockets screamed at the bug. "You've caused ENOUGH damage!"

"Pockets, let it go... I said they could follow us, it was part of the trade."

"Trade!? You NEGOTIATED WITH THEM?!"

"Yep! Now, let it go. They intrigue me, so they can come unless they start causing trouble again."

Pockets growled, glaring back at the bug, but kept quiet as the group headed back to reconnect with the rest of the team.

------

2,384 words = 86 Levels

Scrunchie +40 Levels
Pockets +16 Levels
The Bug(TM) +38 Levels
Plague +30 Levels
Roulette +10 Levels
Erin +10 Levels
Visha +8 Levels

This art (c) Vulpix150