Field Experience [Complete]

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Jan 2, Year 1, Morning

At last, she was out. After her battle with Morgan, Sera killed considerably more time than intended. She'd had to explain to Igglybuff why she'd thrown her under the bus like that, which took a while in itself. The Pokemon had forgiven her, but made it quite clear that she did not want it to happen again. Sera had conceded and agreed, though all the while telling herself that if Igglybuff wasn't her very first Pokemon she wouldn't have stood for being ordered by her subordinate. As it was, she was still quite willing to repeat the scenario if needed. She'd look for alternatives, but if the only options she saw were her own ass or Igglybuff's, sorry Igglybuff. But it wouldn't be her first choice, at least, and she felt that was more than fair compromise-- not that Igglybuff was especially privy to the full details of said compromise.

At any rate, after that she'd stopped by the local Pokemon Center to have her Pokemon checked out just to be sure they didn't have any notable injuries. After confirming they'd be fine with a good night's sleep, she'd been hungry, and eating reminded her that she really, really wanted to try to find some new edible plant life while she was out. Sera was not a vegetarian in practice, but she would have ideally liked to be. A very few meats were delicious, but most weren't even that good to her, and the few she would have otherwise enjoyed were very much ruined by the fact that eating something she could've had a conversation with when it was alive made her stomach turn. But hey, limited resources were a thing, and hunger was a very powerful motivational tool, so at the moment she simply refused to eat any Pokemon she'd ever actually known-- and made a point to avoid talking to the most common food species, particularly seafood. A lot of those tended to be pretty dim anyway, which made her feel slightly better about it, but she would rather not risk meeting the exception that made her second-guess every fish she ate for the rest of her life.

So she'd gone to buy a berry bag and "potions", which became "potion" because Morgan was a Stingy McTightass who also was remarkably resistant to Pokemon sleep-inducing moves. By that time it was getting dark, so she headed home to introduce her mother to her new friends and tell her about her first battle.

The rest of the day had seen its share of little distractions-- a neighbor who needed a favorite shirt mended (Sera was pretty bad at basically anything else design-related, but she liked to think herself a pretty capable seamstress, even if she often needed to ask for ideas on how to decorate her dresses); being congratulated on her new Pokemon by her great-grandfather and subsequently lectured on the ~responsibility~ she now held as an esteemed Pokemon trainer and ~duty~ and ~honor~ and ~take care of this world~ and she stopped paying attention after the first twenty minutes; one of her mother's Pokemon stealing her brand new Berry Sack forcing Morgan to spend hours chasing and wrestling it to get it back; repairing the strap on said Berry Sack and thanking Arceus that the body of it was more durable; etc. Any spare minutes between then had been spent with her Pokemon, practicing their new moves against some makeshift targets outside Sera's home.

But today was different! She wasn't hanging around waiting for distractions to catch her. No, today she was heading out at the crack of dawn, bidding her still-half-asleep mother adieu as she rushed out the door.

In her mind, she paused at the town line, took some time to reflect on her life thus far and the significance of truly beginning this journey, and heard dramatic music swell as she took that first great step that would change the rest of her life.

In reality, the town line was not all the clearly defined and Sera was not all that terribly patient, and she just sort of ran without pause from town out down the path, bright red cloak billowing behind her.

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

Perhaps Sera should have made a more conscious effort to be watch where she was going and be a little more patient. Especially out here where huge pot holes scattered across the entire area. As she moved through the route, a few Durant popped up from the ground and discreetly pursued her. There was nothing particularly interesting about the bunch, except they were a bit smaller than the PokeEarthen breed. Soon, more began to sprout to the sides and join the horde. The group still moved slow, but the sound of their feet marching in sync was still quite daunting.

Before long the army picked up its pace, not by much, but it was now quite obvious that they were following Sera. Why? What would possess these creatures to do such a thing? None seemed to hold any emotion, were they being controlled? Either way, Sera was being chased. No, seriously, they're chasing her now. Maybe it would be a good idea to use your Pokemon now? Igglybuff and Chikorita had a semi-even chance of fighting off the 25 Durant that were now pursuing her. 

...Maybe you better just run.

The Pokemon moved in closer, right up until they passed a seemingly random tree stump on the side of the path. With no indication of reason, the Pokemon stopped their pursuit and dug back into the earth. How strange. But it was done. Well, as long as you avoid that -

Too late. Sera stepped right into a pothole twice as large as her person. Though, as she slid down, it began to seem more like a tunnel than a pothole. Finally, the woman landed in a large open chamber. Underground. The room was lit by an unidentifyable light source, so it was obvious that there was nothing in this chamber other than three tunnels - one to the west, to the north, and east - and a wall covered in a beautiful green mushroom with blue dots.

Although, on one side of the wall, the shrooms had large blue polka dots, while the other side's fungi were decorated with tiny blue speckles. What an interesting development.

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Sera had continued down the path, spreading her arms out and pretending she was flying, when she'd first noticed a thing behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw some tiny if shiny bugs. Huh. Well bugs probably weren't the best thing to fight with half her team being grass so she decided to ignore them.

What was that sound.. Uh-.. Oh shit there were more? Oh. Oh they were-- OH. Oh shit. As it occurred to her that they were bee-lining right toward her, she found herself suddenly overcome with a rush of adrenaline-- and also fatigue. She was in pretty good shape but she was not a marathon runner and she'd been running for a few minutes straight and her legs were starting to get tired- not like need to sit down going to collapse tired but man she'd really like to slow down tired- and whoops slowing down was exactly the opposite of what she should be doing.

It took her a moment to notice they'd retreated, and looking back over her shoulder to check out the sudden lack of noise caused her to miss the pitfall before her.

Sera screamed as she slid down the tunnel, making a high-pitched, indignant noise when she finally stopped. "The wilderness sucks," she whined to herself. Though she gave a pouty face, it was also a bit of a private joke, the irony of the situation not being lost on her.

Once she got to her feet and got a decent look at her surroundings, she decided to release both of her Pokemon. "So yeah, we're in a cave," she explained in breath-taking detail. Neither Pokemon particularly reacted.

Well, first thing was first.. She examined each of the tunnel entrances for anything distinguishing. Did they have different colors or rock/soil types? Notable marks? Mushrooms of their own?

-----

Igglybuff Happiness: IC, +1 (16)
Observation?

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

Mushrooms with the larger blue spots grew on the west side whilest the speckled ones grew to the east. Nothing more separated the two. The northern tunnel was decorated with two long sticks that were propped into the top corners of the tunnel. There was also sort of red - was that blood? No, the sticks just seemed to have been covered with a moss-like substance, that happened to be the color of fresh blood. Oh how exciting.

Upon closer examination, Sera could tell that the soil was a bit more loose for the northern tunnel. It was probably the most trafficked passage of the three.

((Detection: .1 for falling down hole | Observation: .3 | Both +1 for Primary))

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

All right. All right.. Hm?? Oh okay, all right. "Well then," she mumbled to herself.

She turned then to compare the tunnel she'd fallen down--

And suddenly SHRIEKED with joy, causing her Pokemon to startle a moment. Her eyes lit like Starmie cores, and she suddenly made a beeline for the nearest mushrooms- which at the moment happened to be the large-spotted ones. "I bet these will make me grow." Her voice dripped with delirious, ravenous longing.



Without a second thought, she pulled her Berry Sack from her satchel and began cramming several mushrooms inside. Once she was satisfied, she moved to the speckled ones. "And these will make us shriiiink," she waveringly-.. uh.. her voice at this point was something between a moan and a growl.



'...Do.. do you have any idea what she's talking about..?' Chikorita whispered.



'..I don't think I want to..' Igglybuff muttered back.



Seraphina ignored them.



Oh it was so, so hard to resist cramming these things in her mouth right here and nooowww. But as much of a fangasm as she was having at the moment, she did realize that her "theory" was more extremely wishful thinking and that it was very, very unlikely this coincidence actually held any connection to the thing she was associating it with. Still, it was entirely too much fun to pretend.



Speaking of, she suddenly turned to Igglybuff, eyes still glittering. "You! Evolve and turn white so I can chase you!!"



'...Definitely don't want to know.'



Sera just giggled maniacally. Breaking from her reverie for a brief moment after that, she announced, "C'mon. If there were that many Durant on the surface-- oh uh, there were a lot, by the way-- there's probably hundreds down here. So I think it'd be best to take one of the roads less traveled."



Seemed reasonable enough, the Pokemon thought. Looking between them, Sera eventually grinned and decided to go east-- so her opponents would be smaller, of course! After a few steps, though, she thought better and headed west instead. Size was not equal to strength, after all, and she'd prefer to see her enemies coming. Yes, perfect plan.



As they headed down the tunnel, she announced, "But just so you guys know, if we see any giant Caterpie, I'm eating these mushrooms, and if they end up being poisoned you're dragging me back to the hospital."



...Uh. ..Right. Sure they would do that..



---



Igglybuff Happiness: IC, +1

Foraging?

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

As Sera passed through the tunnel, a faint, musical round became apparent to her senses. The number was coming from again, multiple Pokemon, but wasn't nearly as alarming as the Durant early. Just as she was close enough to make out what the syllables were, a loud rumbling sounded above her. The top was about to cave in wasn't it? Yep. She was screwed. No, actually, this time, Sera actually chose the safer route. Above her, where the loud rumble was occurring, there were also some very odd, non-shapely rock formation that seemed to move as one. It was very strange.

"Ig~ Ig~ Io Io Io~"

The cadence was becoming more clear and the rumble began to fade. Sera could now hear the higher pitches of the music. The sounds were definitely coming from some kind of Pokemon. As she drew closer, the song was now very clear.

"Diglett Dig~ Diglett Dig~ Trio Trio Trio~"

Finally she passed through the exit of the tunnel and entered another chamber filled with, you guessed it - Diglett and Dugtrio. Actually, as soon as Sera entered the room, the massive troop of Pokemon vanished. Only one Dugtrio and two Diglett remained. The three Pokemon that remained visible remained completely silent, but the cadence of the others did not come to a halt even though they were out of sight.

In front of her, the Diglett to the left expressed a countenance of rage, its brow was pulled in and it leaned its body forward. Sort of. Well, you know what I mean. The Diglett to the right still seemed irritated, but looked more curious than anything. Behind them, the Dugtrio stood absolutely still, almost like a statue. That's Creepy Pinky.


((Gained 30 Dotted Shrooms & 30 Speckled Shrooms | Foraging increased by 2.5))
(((And just because~~)))

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Sera let out a little gasp when she saw all the Pokemon, and stood quite still as they all situated. Only when it seemed to be a staring contest between her and the stragglers did she finally let herself break into a grin and loose a light laugh. Were these.. Feral Pokemon, then? They'd be the first she ever encountered one on one like this.

She'd seen some on the outskirts of town before, but wasn't allowed near them and never had any up closer interaction, so they didn't count. She saw some freshly caught Ferals being tamed a few times- enough to know that their language was rather different, at any rate- but since others had captured them they didn't count. The Durant also didn't count because she said so.

In a very soft tone, more for effect that actual wording, she cooed, "Hello there.." Glancing down to her partners, she waited a moment, then urged quietly, "Say hello."

Igglybuff blinked, then hesitantly waved. Chikorita just cocked an eyeridge. What was her crazy trainer doing? She wanted to fight, not chat..

"Lovely place you have." She knew they wouldn't get it; she was talking as much for her benefit as theirs. But all the while she was making a very conscious effort to project a feeling of peace, in her tone and in her overall demeanor. Whether or not they'd take to it was an entirely different question. However, she felt fairly certain that having an evolved Pokemon in a group that outnumbered her own (unless Sera herself fought, in which case it was even- unless you counted heads rather than bodies, in which case she was outnumbered again) at least negated any advantage she would have from Chikorita. She awaited any sort of reaction.

-----

Igglybuff Happiness: IC, +1 (18)

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

With her comment, the Dugtrio disappeared under the surface of the chamber. It was a little worrisome that the Pokemon didn't leave any signs of where it was going, not even a trail of raised earth. Time ticked, but the Pokemon seemed like it was not going to reappear. The Diglett to the right was inching forward towards Sera, its held tilting every which direction. It moved to about 10 feet away from the trainer and just blinked with pure curiosity.

A huff escaped the other Diglett as its ally idly stared at the intruder. The Pokemon let out a shrill sound that resembled a swish. With that, it bent its body backwards in prep, then flew back forwards. This movement seemed to trigger a trail of dirt to zoom in Chikorita's direction. Out of the raised earth, an object that looked similar to a root shot out, whipped the dinosaurian Pokemon in her face, and disappeared back into the ground.

The other Diglett shook off its distraction and followed the more aggressive Pokemon's example. It pulled off the same move, but the "roots" aimed at Sera's legs rather than her Pokemon. The human-targeting Diglett also used two sets of "roots" that did not hide back underground after the attack, creating a flurry of whip-like stings against Sera.

---

Diglett 1 attacked Chikorita, with some sort of whip thing
Diglett 2 is lashing at Sera's legs.

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Sera gave a little discontented groan when she realized the Dugtrio probably wasn't coming back; welp, it probably was out of her league. She'd work up to that, but she could accept that she had to start slow.. at least for a week or two~

She frowned when the first Pokemon attacked, and Chikorita winced a bit but gladly rose to the challenge, shaking off the hit and rushing in without awaiting orders. This was probably a good thing, for about the time Chikorita had managed to fire a Razor Leaf at her own attacker, Sera screamed.

The trainer danced backwards. "You little shits," she hissed. "Ig-ow!--Igglybuff, sing OW-n that one!" She motioned to the Diglett that was attacking her. Or seemed to be attacking her. Its eyes were set on her. Technically the ground could have been attacking her while Diglett just thought her outfit looked funny or something, but for now she was going to assume it was attacking. Igglybuff was always happy to perform, and began singing a gentle mining song.

-----

Igglybuff Happiness: IC, +1 (19)

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

Igglybuff's song, though sweet, was more or less drowned out by the consistent and yet-to-die,

"Diglett Dig~ Diglett Dig~ Trio Trio Trio~"

The Pokemon did react to Iggly's motions, which resembled singing, by holding off its attack. Diglett 2 then dug its way in front of Igglybuff and bounced its adorable little head in the rhythm of its primal melody. It stared into the Pokemon's eyes with such bewilderment, it was really quite amazing to see how two pokemon of the same species could have two completely different approaches to a new possible threat on their home.

Chikorita's flying leaf made contact with Diglett 1's little body. Unfortunately, the grass Pokemon's control wasn't quite good enough in its rage state to hit the Pokemon head on. Instead, she just scratched his side a bit. Still, the Diglett did not respond well. It cried out with that weird sound again and began to whir up a flurry of dirt in Chikorita face.

Didn't look like the two would be too hard to deal with, until of course, the Dugtrio decided to finally show up. The Pokemon surfaced not two feet in front of Sera. The largest one standing tall at her chest, the shortest at her knee. The trio Pokemon looked dead into the trainer's eyes with no expression. Arceus, this thing was creepy.

---

Diglett 1 was hit by razor leaf
Diglett 1 used Sand Attack
Diglett 2 is dancing by Igglubuff?
Dugtrio has returned and is now staring down Sera