voicetesting

[fatalstrikes]

I;

[This place is a little weird, but Yuri’s settled in well enough. He’s in a Pokémon Center currently, sitting on the floor instead of using a chair like a normal person. His Riolu’s sitting nearby, staring at the floor and not really reacting to anything going on around them. Yuri digs around in his backpack for a moment before coming up with an Oran berry.]

Here we go. I guess we’re going to need more food before we set out again, huh?

[The Riolu doesn’t react and Yuri shrugs as if the silence doesn’t bother him any.]

It’s all yours, pal.

[He sets the berry down in front of the Riolu, who continues staring at it listlessly. The Riolu still hasn’t moved even once Yuri’s closed the backpack and dropped it carelessly beside him.]

...You’re a bit of an odd one.

[He stretches his arms above his head before standing up, which is about when he’ll notice you.]

Hey, does your partner act like this too?

II;

[It’s a gloomy, dark day out on one of the routes. It’s the sort of day where you want to stay indoors and maybe take a nap, but that’s not exactly a good idea when you’re out camping like this. It looks like it’ll start storming at any minute, so you might want to hurry and find shelter.

There’s a cave up ahead, and if you approach it you’re going to hear footsteps. Hurried footsteps, like someone’s desperate to get out—]

Hey, look out!

[A Riolu comes running full speed out of the cave and might just slam into you if you don’t move. Either way, a dark-haired man rushes out after the Pokémon.]

Watch where you’re going next time, Ry. Hey there, sorry about him.

[Yuri seems calm enough, but there’s a loud sound from inside the cave and he glances over his shoulder.]

Are they still following us? I thought getting out of the cave would be good enough… C’mon, Ry, let’s pick up the pace!

[It looks like they’re going to hurry off, and the strange shrieking sound from the cave is just getting louder. What do you do?]

Don’t just stand there, come on!

[Sounds like that’s directed at you.]

III;

[Deep in Eterna Forest is the Old Chateau. Maybe you stumbled across this place accidentally or maybe you were trying to get here. Either way, you’re here now, and you’re not alone.]

Strange place, huh? I bet there are some interesting Pokémon inside.

[Yuri’s looking in on the place curiously, one hand on his hip. He doesn’t seem bothered at all by the creepy atmosphere.]

The place might be haunted. It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here for years.

[Without any further fanfare, he’ll just start heading inside. Are you coming along? Are you going to try to stop him? Some other third option?]

Comments

[bloodspent]

And once they've caught you...?

[fatalstrikes]

They turn you into another skeleton, obviously.

[bloodspent]

Ah, come on, they've got to have a reason. Maybe you need to be mostly human to get out of here - they escape by stealing your skin so they look like you.

[fatalstrikes]

Hey, not bad. Then you're stuck here waiting for the next unlucky wanderer so you can steal their skin?

[bloodspent]

Yeah, you've got it.

[fatalstrikes]

Perfect. Now I've got a story to tell Karol next time I see him.

[KAROL DOES NOT DESERVE]

[bloodspent]

What, is that your little brother or something?

[fatalstrikes]

Nah, he's the boss, leader of our guild. Strong kid, not too fond of ghost stories, though.

[bloodspent]

How much of a "kid" are we talking?

[fatalstrikes]

How old is he...? Twelve? Thirteen? Somewhere in there.

[bloodspent]

[He seems to turn that over in his head before just kinda...

It's whatever, man. None of his business, anyway.]

Must be a pretty strong kid, yeah.

[fatalstrikes]

He wouldn't be the boss if he wasn't strong.

[He sounds very fond of the kid, but once that's out there he dismisses it with a shrug and heads toward the door, Riolu still under his arm.]

There's still plenty of mansion left to explore, so who knows, we might stumble across those skeletons yet.

[bloodspent]

You're just not gonna be happy until we find something creepy, are you...

[I mean. He's still coming with, but that's totally beside the point.]

[fatalstrikes]

Can't hurt to check, can it? This place is about as creepy as that ghost ship, so there's gotta be something interesting here.

[Here we go, door #4! It looks like there's some old furniture covered in cloths here...]

[bloodspent]

Wait, wait. Ghost ship?

[The "were you fucking high at the moment" is implied but not stated.]

[fatalstrikes]

[Thanks for not stating it, Jake.]

Yep. The Atherum. Ancient ship with no one onboard except monsters. Ghostly monsters. Oh, and there was the captain's skeleton...

[He says it in the exact same spooky tone he used when telling the ghost story, so...]

[bloodspent]

[That gets something of a snort out of him. More eyerolling. You nearly made him jostle his goddamn puppy.]

Let me guess. He stole somebody's skin, and that's the guy I'm talking to now.

[fatalstrikes]

Ooh, you got me. And here I thought I'd get away with it too!

[Anyway, he'll just yank the cloth off of this chair. Now there's dust everywhere, good going Yuri.]

Man, this place really has seen better days...

[bloodspent]

[Jesus Christ, so much batting dust out of his face left-handed; thankfully Lobanja has, like, a deficit of fucks to give about anything still.]

Yeah, maybe a little less with that? The only thing horrifying around here is the lack of housekeeping.

[fatalstrikes]

Not really surprising. I don't think ghosts have any reason to bother with housekeepers.

[There's still a sofa under another cloth, but he'll leave that alone. Hmm. Nothing else in here seems like a good place for ghosts to hide...]

[bloodspent]

...So what are we looking for, exactly? You've got to have a plan that isn't "ghosts."

[please. please tell him you have a plan that isn't "ghosts."]

[fatalstrikes]

[He turns to look at Jake and in a completely serious, deadpan tone:]

Ghosts.

[i am so sorry]

[bloodspent]

[...]

So what was there, on that boat of yours? The Atherum. Anything valuable, or just a bunch of dead things?

[fatalstrikes]

There was some equipment, but not much else. In the captain's quarters we found a red box, but we couldn't get it open. Not even Rita's magic worked.

[They got it open eventually, but ehhh, it's probably best not to mention apatheia.]

[bloodspent]

[...gesundheit?]

Sounds pretty useless if you ask me.