(ACE) The LAVERRE Team

"You're welcome to join."

The Eevee’s glum expression morphed into a soft smile, unlike the playfully maniacal grin she sported before. Artie hopped to her feet and shook the dust out of her pelt somewhat rudely as she made no effort to scoot away from the other two. Lazarus had spent so much time teaching her to survive that while Artie wasn’t absolutely feral, she did miss some social cues sometimes.

“We should get some boxes, I saw some by where Alirah and Kaneki were before they told me to go play with you.” Conan said. What? Why? This better be good!

Artemis began assisting in the box hunt but found herself instead aweing at Plant’s extra vine hands again. If she had vines like that, she would use them to walk instead of her feet. Wouldn’t that be funny?

She stared, again lacking that key social awareness that watching someone was not only rude but creepy, until a falling tin can jarred her into switching her interest. Plant must’ve been embarrassed because he totally stopped moving when it happened, and Arte was confused. She chuckled, with a paw on her belly and chimed in, “Mama always yells ‘fuck’ when she does that. Literally every single time. Is funny!”

Lazarus, with a huff responded from across the room: “Not EVERY time. Also don’t say fuck.”

A crash interrupted the kiddos' busywork. Artemis whipped her head towards Lazarus with record speed, mouthing Mama with discomfort— but Mama was already on the case.

Lazarus stood, ignoring the painful reminders of her scuffle, and paced the space between the children and where the sound originated. Her paws rattled and to be honest she felt like she would vomit— what if another severed head flew out?? What if something worse emerged?

She yowled anxiously, a sort of self soothing gesture as she remained fixed on where any potential threats lay.

Her laughter finally quieted with a content sigh.

The Umbreon was at peace again, which was something of a chilling thought considering a literal severed head lay just beyond her sight. What a puzzling place the world had become. It felt like a never ending horror, with the only things making the bad aspects less bad were the absolutely awful things that overshadowed them like an unwelcome eclipse.

Alirah glanced at Lazarus out of her periphery. She could feel the hateful stare like a bonus sense she never asked for, and that too puzzled her. You must be a deeply troubled soul… With the scuffle more or less sorted, you would think she would admit fault and make amends but no… she just— sat there. Sat there and acted as if nothing was wrong, as if she hadn’t just committed a ginormous mistake by most people’s’ moral standards but perhaps expecting decency from what little life remained in the world was Alirah being a hopeless dreamer again. She really needed to work on getting her head out of the stars.

Alirah bitterly turned away, resting her eyes on an old puddle of goo. It had a colorful iridescence and for a moment she smiled softly, bopping her head left and right as if to music, to see the colors reach across the otherwise unappealing mess on the floor.

"We should look around. Come with us, Alirah? Three pairs of eyes will be better than just us, and the kids should be safe where they are."

Ali turned to Hide and gave an enthusiastic “Sure!” while continuing the silly head bopping motion.

"... we need to look at the rafters. Whatever dropped that... thing, it came from above." Kaneki stated quietly. His attention turned to the aforementioned rafters and Ali gulped to herself. What a day to be alive.
"How are you feeling, Alriah? We may need to do some jumps to get up there in good time. You think you can make it?" Kaneki asked.

She moved to bump her head against Kaneki’s shoulder reassuringly and spoke. “I’ll be okay. I have had many opportunities to learn to manage things like this.” She laughed, a bit grimly but amused nonetheless. “Silver lining, right?”

Conan began thinking on what to do with the other boxes once they lay them flat. If he thought it right and there's small boxes, they can put the pebbles inside and use as a storage box for their pebbles.“Mama always yells ‘fuck’when she does that. Literally every single time. Is funny!” The eevee blinks realizing that the word that was said wasn't a nice word to say. It wasn't funny at all to be honest. “Not EVERY time. Also don’t say fuck.” Then when the sound happened, The other Spectreon stood in front of them and where the sound came from. Something certainly was getting spooky. Conan was worried about Shadow.

While Shadow was unconscious, the cofagrigus continued to coat him in a sticky substance until he was fully covered with it. It soon then pulled the next thing it needed, bandages. With each second that passed, it's grin continued to get wider as it began to wrap up the right leg first. A cackle leaves its throat as each full wrap was done. Shadow meanwhile inside his mind was lost in darkness. Everything he once thought of non lethal fighting had no meaning anymore. That encounter with Death played all over again with the failure of his own actions. Then it shifted to something else. Shadow didn't believe it, he was home in the desert of Orre. Yet, the whole area was barren, no life, no villages, nothing. Somehow, he looked smaller, more like his younger self. Walking though, he couldn't move like he did. He had a long journey. Unknown to him that he was still in Laverre City about to become a sacrifice to a crazed pokemon.

Conan looked at Plant and Artemis nodding to them to follow to get the boxes. "Come on, lets get the boxes. We can then start playing." The eevee said as he had worry in his voice. Maybe he should tell Alirah and Kaneki when they come back. Certainly they could have heard the noise as well from where Shadow was. In all honesty, he was scared that Shadow ran into trouble and might have been attacked. "I'm worried about Shadow, what if something found him and hurt him from behind? I'm a little scared that he got hurt." The eevee said to the other two.

Artemis bound over, their posse returning to full force as the kids attempted to entertain themselves. Plant could still feel his heart racing uncomfortably but pushed the feeling away with a rough swallow and furrowed brow, his focus forcibly set on constructing their game. “Mama always yells ‘fuck’when she does that. Literally every single time. Its funny!” The Eevee chuckles after his unintentional noise, while though his scales still burned with embarrassment as it was called out making light of the action somehow made it a little easier to handle. A fake smile creases his snout as if he agreed with her, but the uncomfortable kid couldn't muster another response for his mistake.

Bringing the flattened cardboard forward he grips it between his vines and his hands, and with a small twist is able to pop it into the shape of a box. It was a skill he had learned back home that seemed so nebulous, and the purpose of a flat box was still a mystery to him. Rotating it so the open part was sideways and facing them he sets the large box down and places the smaller one and the can beside it in the same orientation. "That could work, I guess?" He muses with a tip of his head, unsure exactly what they would do with them. Maybe the others had better ideas, or they needed more boxes. Turning around he can see another small box, and grabbing it with his vines he carefully pours out the washers and screws that it held. Keeping them low to the ground the rattling noises they make is nothing compared to the can had, and a relieved sigh wheezes out from his lungs as he places the new cube beside the others.

"I'm worried about Shadow, what if something found him and hurt him from behind?" The other Eevee frets, the uncomfortable air only growing thicker as their focus deviates from the 'game' once again. A deep chill passes over Plant's body, freezing him as he tries to work. With bugging eyes his breath catches in his throat, and it takes every bit of his effort not to wail. "Don't say things like that!" The Snivy quavered, his snout flipping toward the fox as he spoke. "Do you want that to happen?!" The young Pokemon had no concept of manifesting, but it felt so very wrong to speak foul play aloud. What if he was?? If something was in here.. if something was terrifying enough to attack the massive dragon, then they were all---  "Shadow is strong, and smarter than keeping hit from behind! Dont you trust him? That he's keep us safe too?!" Voice cracking under the strain of keeping himself together Plant snivels and takes in a deep, quivering breath. His own worries continued to race in his mind, that they had no hope if something like that happened, but his voice died away before he could speak such fears aloud.

((skip, i wasnt paying attention to the dates and missed this sobbing. i'll edit soon orz))