bottlecaplogs | Dolly's February and March Catchall~

Looks like it's Cedric's turn to take the lead! Siffrin keeps close after him as they keep buzzing away at their makeshift "song" - they're finally starting to put together that it's the ringing sounds that were making them so disoriented, so they continue with it even though it makes focusing on where they're running harder.

(They don't actually hear what Cedric's saying, but they don't need to, to follow...)

They don't think anything of the rain at first - just an occupational hazard of being a little creature in the woods - but as the trees start to thin out, their eye widens in familiarity. Are they coming up on the Downmoor? How did they get all the way over here? They can still see fluttering streamers caught on the sparser trees, though, so they must still be on the right track.

Siffrin resigns themself to getting really wet. With any luck it'll slow down whoever they're following, too...

But as the rain intensifies, another realization hits them. They cut off their noise for a moment to call up to Cedric frantically: "Get down!"

With eerily good timing, a lightning bolt strikes a dead, scorched tree right next to them with a loud, crackling sound. For a moment it's on fire - then the rain puts it out.

The 'Get down!' from Siffrin managed to reach through Dolly's ear wrappings and remembered that age ol' very terrible advice a certain cartoon turtle once gave about nuclear warfare as she duck and covered. She avoids getting smoked and crushed by the lightening from Heavy Downmoor as the tree comes crashing down.

Yep....The Bay is proving to be a murder island of sorts..double bonus on there...

Thankfully the ribbon ear wrap is proving pretty effect in preventing more tinnitus from kicking in! Sure her fur is now wet and intensifying that baking spice scent, but it's better than well you know...being FRIED BY LIGHTENING!?

Better news, Dolly is remembering she's tracking a Pokemon now rather than some weird forest dwelling pop idol...

"Is everyone alright?!" That was the one thing on Dolly's mind after Heavy Downmoor does what Heavy Downmoor does best! Dolly was thankfully very ready to give out some Bippitie Boppitie Boops of healing.

He tries to not be discouraged as the rain comes down harder, but his feathers aren't appreciating the wet at all. Is the water weighing him down or is he just tired? Whatever it is, his flapping is starting to slow.

Which is probably why he's not ready when he hears Siffrin's warning. He even takes a moment to ask, "Down? What f-?" before spotting the giant flash alarmingly close to him. As he caws out in shock (no pun intended), he forgets to keep flapping and plummets to the ground. He acknowledges gravity and attempts to flap again, but he still makes a satisfying plop sound when his body hits the mud.

He's very wobbly as he pries himself out and takes a few minutes to answer Dolly's question. "Wha, ih- I'm not burnt to a crisp, so I'm just swell!" He does not look swell. He's still shaking the mud off his cape, his feathers puffing up to a comical degree.

"Does this rain seem sudden to anyone else? I feel like I'm in Heavy Downmoor, not the Northern Forest."

There seems to be a pause in the ringing... or maybe the rain is just drowning it out, for now? Siffrin tentatively stops their noise-generating. They let out a silent relieved breath to see Cedric on the ground, and both him and Dolly unzapped. (If muddy.)

"We're on the edge of Heavy Downmoor," they confirm. "Whoever we're following must have... circled around...?"

That's quite a big circle, though! You'd think they would have noticed - or maybe not, with the ringing making them forget every few minutes...?

Siffrin's hat and cloak are weather-resistant, thanks to Shoka's hard work in making them, but raindrops drip off the edges of the brim. Siffrin's been in the Downmoor a lot; there's not much point in shaking off, you're just going to be soaked again half a second later. But they can't resist flicking water off their tail anyway.

...Yeah no, Cedric definitely isn't alright or okay. Would he need to be Bippitie Boppitie Boop? Well only time will tell once their footing is better. That and the much needed bath once this quest was over.

"Must have...do you think Streamers is still in the woods or gone else where?"

Then again with the lightening...being in the woods would be a bad idea...so maybe another place to shelter in? The bigger question though, where? Where would this Pokemon be at to shelter immediately in?

"Cedric, I think it's a good idea to be on foot for now, can you walk alright after the landing?"

The confirmation makes him pause. This is Heavy Downmoor? But isn't that quite far from the Northern Forest? That would be a big circle, arguably much bigger a circle than how long they've been moving... right? Or has the ringing affected his perception after all?

Nono, he can't distract himself with such a detail now - not when he senses, knows that their target is still close.

"Yes, it's up ahead! I can feel it! We must keep going!"

Having said that, he abides by Dolly's suggestion and doesn't fly up again. Instead, he steps forward... rather lopsidedly with one foot. Either he's limping or the mud's making the ground too uneven; at this moment, it's hard to tell which.

Whichever it is, Cedric says insistently, "Thank you, I'm sure I'll be fine." Whether that's true or not is left to be seen.

Siffrin eyes Cedric's odd gait... and decides, after a moment, not to mention it. If he says he'll be fine, he doesn't want to be pressed on it, right...?

They do drift a little closer, in case they need to scoop him up. (Probably not like how they scruffed Dolly, though. Do birds even have a scruff?)

Up ahead, meanwhile, is the answer to Dolly's thoughts about shelter: a rocky outcrop that rises up to a mountain, with several cave entrances yawning wide in it. Between the pouring rain and Cedric's insistence that he can feel it up ahead, it's the only place their quarry (of the non-rock kind) could have ended up.

Underneath Siffrin's cloak, the fur along their spine bristles up. Ugh. They recognize the maw of that cave, and... really? It had to go in there?

"...it must have gone in the cave with those weird crystals."

The movement had Dolly concerned as she goes into monitoring mode for Cedric. Sure, it could be the mud, that's a sensory thing Dolly wasn't going to delve into.

So, keeping close to Cedric is a good idea even though Cedric could potentially air lift the tiny Sylveon with ease...

Then of course....the answer smacked Dolly in the face upon seeing the cave. Rain be damned, Dolly was puffing up a bit at it. Something didn't feel right about it..she hadn't been there before...what was with this area..?

Dolly was already mentally calling it 'Goblin Town', it just gave that vibe off strongly.

"Great, cave wait to go inside. We're definitely going to be rocking it.."

Thanks...good going Dolly, puns at a time like this...

Last time he was in Heavy Downmoor, he faintly recalls at least one mountain like this. But other than that, he has no idea what Siffrin's talking about. Why does he sound so wary? In Enchancia, crystal caves were usually inhabited by trolls, and those are perfectly friendly.

That thought briefly reminds him of Impmon and he silently chuckles to himself. If crystals were such a concern here, he imagines Impmon would have come in handy if only to eat them...

And despite himself, his amusement only grows with Dolly's sense of humour. "Now Siffrin, we can't just cave in to our fears. If we go in, our thoughts will finally be crystalized."

With that, he wobbles a little faster toward the cave, urged on by the promise of shelter and shiny gems- wait a minute, he wasn't near as fascinated by the crystals back home, why are these any different? Oh well, he keeps moving anyway.

Siffrin lashes their tail once, but then their shoulders relax. Well, now they can't not pun back, right? They can't let this stand!

"So I shouldn't boulder to warn you about what's inside?" They stick their tongue out a little bit. "Just sit back and watch the maygem?"

It's not like it'll hurt them - just be startling. Though... maybe that's not a good idea, if they end up having to fight and everyone's getting distracted out of the corners of their eyes...

Siffrin will tell them in a minute, probably. For now they pad along, ducking into the cave; the sound of the rain instantly becomes muffled, replaced by a pulsing electrical noise. Deeper within the cave, flashes of electricity spark. Siffrin listens carefully for ringing - no more yet...

As they shake mud off their paws, their eye catches on something - there's a loose streamer caught on a rock. They wave their tail to catch everyone's attention and point at it. Looks like confirmation that they're on the right track!

It happened, IT FINALLY HAPPENED! The first puns Dolly got to hear from Siffrin since that fateful October! Oh, it has to be encouraged right away, it is perfection, a punning trio!

"Might have taken that for granite then, it's a sapphire way of dealing with this particular situation, am I pyrite?"

Dolly relaxes a bit as she follows Siffrin and Cedric into the cave, the dreadful crystal cave that felt incredibly ominous and foreboding...definitely will end well here.

The puns are helping though in keeping her composure though as Dolly stays pretty close to both Cedric and Siffrin.

A streamer? Oh then they definitely are on the right path of finding this Pokemon. No ringing though like before...is that a bad thing or a good thing? Dolly wasn't entirely sure what to make of this situation.

The sharing of puns is a comfort - he doesn't usually get to pun off of others! How pleasant it is to share a camaraderie for silly wordplay! And to make things better, his footwork is much more even once they're out of the mud.

Despite that, Cedric goes quiet as the glow of the crystals come into view. Oh, that is so much shiny; if he's not careful, he could become overstimulated from the glow. He looks almost spellbound as they wander in, but at least he's still moving.

As they creep in farther, however, the appeal begins to wear off. They're still pretty to him, mind, but something doesn't feel right. Unlike the caves back home, there's no buzzing of a small troll community, only silence - all he hears is the echo of their steps, and it's quite unnerving. Seeing the streamer continues to be an assurance, but the place also seems darker. Like something menacing beyond. Or is it just him?

He doesn't speak, but he is silently grateful that Siffrin and Dolly are close by.

(It finally happened!! Though the puns fade away as the cave continues, everyone listening carefully for the target...)

The ambience of the cave isn't helped by the fact that, as they go along, many of the crystals have reflective faces... and sometimes, the team's reflections have an odd flicker to them. Something moving just out of sight? And then it gets weirder: sometimes their reflection is missing a party member. In one reflection, Dolly is injured, limping with an ear held drooping. In another reflection, Cedric is evolved, a towering but unusually slender Honchkrow. In one more, instead of Siffrin being reflected, there's a Meowth.

Siffrin isn't... entirely unbothered by these, but moves along as if they were expecting something like this, fur along their spine bristling slightly. (Is this what they were implying was worth warning about?) It's only the last reflection that finally gives them pause - they fold an ear back and yank their eye away, something they haven't done for any of the others.

It's then that the ringing begins again. Though Siffrin immediately starts building up sparks, this time it reverberates back and forth along the cave walls and cancels its own effect out - when they realize that they still remember what they're doing, they let the sparks die out.

In front of everyone, the cave walls widen, falling away into a massive open chamber...

(Truly an Arceus given moment! Though, it does patter away into silence...silence...)

A part of Dolly felt a certain cave dwelling weirdo obsessed with a magical ring would come climbing out at any given moment. Though, what Dolly was about to see...it would've been much preferable to meet a cave dwelling weirdo and do some riddles instead.

Why was Siffrin a Meowth and Cedric a Honchkrow? More importantly...why was Cedric hogging all the height!? Dolly blinks a bit before she finally notices her reflection...her dropping ear was back? Was this a soothsaying cave? ...She will have to ask questions later once this was done and over with.

Oh no, not that ringing again! Back to wrapping up her ears once more to block out that sound, though glad that Siffrin is sparking up to drown out the soon to be battle of the bands rematch in a cave! ....Never mind..this cave eats electrical currents...what in the Stellar Sea is wrong with this cave!?

Carry on towards the open chamber! Surely nothing wretched or awful is waiting...

Already staring at the crystals more than he ought to, he spots the reflections immediately. The cat face causes him to look around, not realising right away that it's supposed to be Siffrin. He darts his eyes to Dolly when he thinks she might be hurt- but no, she's all right. And him-

What?! A Honchkrow?!

No, not the dream again...

He snaps out of his private panic attack when the ringing returns. He lets out a caw, but all it does is echo at an alarming volume as it follows Siffrin's electricity into the rocks. No effect this time; he should be relieved, but his sigh sounds weary as he puffs up his feathers and struts onward into the chamber...

This room is filled with the most massive crystals, charged more than anything else in the cave, and that means it's oddly-well lit for being so deep underground. The chiming echoes from wall to wall, disorientingly, not helped by how it keeps swapping between gentle and chaotic tones, both of them folding over each other.

The team continues through the chamber, alert for their target... but there doesn't seem to be anyone here? That is, until - from behind, a shadow looms over their heads, stretching out in front of them.

Siffrin freezes. But only for a heartbeat. Then they tap one of their paws on the ground, hard - the closest they can get to snapping their fingers - and summon a Tailwind, speeding everyone up.

"It's here!"

If anyone on the team had thoughts of trying to talk first, their opponent doesn't give them a chance. Mega Chimecho swoops down immediately, ringing angrily and trying to impact the whole group with a massive Take Down. Siffrin leaps and rolls out of the way, sparking up to ready an attack.

The song 'Ballroom Blitz' came into mind as Dolly got up the Light Screen for her team the moment dread beast Mega Chimecho came into the picture. It went a lot faster given the Tailwind Siffrin used so that was a nice added bonus!

So this was the Pokemon they were after this whole time?

Well...this certainly wasn't the musical pop idol she had envisioned before hand, but at least Dolly now has a face to the menace mauling Edgar Allan Poe's work. Dolly goes into support mode in making sure her teammates stay safe during this encounter.

Whether she should be concerned or thankful for the unnatural lighting system of the cave was definitely up for debate, but it did make it easy to see everyone...

There's that awful nagging instinct in the back of Dolly's mind acting up again..what's gonna happen now?

A number of realisations cross Cedric's mind at once.

First is that giant ring of a Pokémon... okay, it's really only two feet taller than them, but its presence, paired with the ringing, feels so much more bewildering than any other he's encountered before.

Second is how his body seems to move on its own as Siffrin's Tailwind essentially guides him out of the line of fire. He lets out a yelp as this happens but manages to miss contact with the surprise metal band nevertheless.

And third, why yelp involuntarily when that's one of his attacks? So he flies above and lets out another caw for Astonish. It's some sort of Steel type, but he thinks that made it flinch. Luckily for them, that's the one move he knows that happens to be super effective.

Siffrin skids back to their feet, spinning around to see - fortunately - that neither Cedric nor Dolly have been sent flying. Which means they can focus on counter-attacking. Particularly since the ringing Pokemon seems to have flinched and is wavering between who to target.

Siffrin releases their charged electricity in a Thunder Shock - not a very strong move, but distracting! Lets them get up close with a pounce and follow up with a midair Iron Tail, trying to slice across the Pokemon's... face...?

Mega Chimecho simply swings its central body out of the way, though, and Siffrin's tail impacts its metal ring with a discordant clang that doesn't seem to do very much. The angry Pokemon retaliates with a Boomburst, a nasty burst of explosive sound - apparently deciding to resolve its targeting dilemma by going after everyone.

Siffrin is closest and this is awful. Rather than landing neatly, Siffrin involuntarily claps their front paws over their ears and drops to the ground on their stomach, letting out an involuntary yowl. Kind of sounds like a cat who just got its tail stepped on... if anyone can even hear anything after that Boomburst!

The Light Screen did its job pretty well for Dolly as she winces and cringes at the Boomburst...Sweet Mac Lir...this Pokemon was definitely a sadistic creature of sorts with the sounds! Look Dolly, your good friend tinnitus is back!

Okay...Siffrin right now is the closest to the mutated and horrific Chimecho from Hell. Can she get the Light Screen on them from her position or is it better to get Cedric covered first?

Dolly goes to take a chance, starts moving and fast thanks to tailwind! Off to Cedric who will likely get the Light Screen! That should help...right? There's still ~~Wish~~ Bippitie Boppitie Boop that Dolly can use on a moments notice to heal.

"I can't bell-ieve this is going down!"

Edited (Realized I goofed on this one and had to fix the direction Dolly was going :x) 2026-03-04 03:24 (UTC)

Cedric is too distracted by the forsaken clang this giant ring is producing to acknowledge Dolly's pun (the greatest tragedy of all).

He is grateful for the Sylveon's shield, but what about Siffrin? They're getting the worst of the impact, and are clearly hurt! What can he do to spare the Shinx more suffering?

The Tailwind inspires him to use more wind in their favour, and so he attempts his most recently-learned move, Gust. "I've got your back, Siffrin!"

The sound is very loud and agitating, but concentrating on his own actions makes it seem less overwhelming in his head.

The Gust and Tailwind combined generate enough of a wind to sweep Mega Chimecho to the side and against a cave wall. It impacts with a loud clang! and sends rocks clattering down - but it's enough to get the bell Pokemon to cut off that awful sound, so it's probably worth it.

Siffrin staggers back to their feet, shaking their head - or maybe their ears? It's only thanks to the string their hat is on that it stays on their head. They're bristling.

"Th-thanks."

For the moment the cave is mercifully (mostly) silent, but Mega Chimecho is already drifting back into the air, looking furious. They need to figure out a way to counteract those sounds... maybe Dolly has a suggestion?

Oh, oh sweet Stellar Sea...Dolly had to think of something to suggest on short notice and the tinnitus is being well...awful.

Think...think..thinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthink....AN IDEA HAS COME INTO MIND! Dolly looks over to Siffrin and Cedric as she has something of an idea to go on that is risky, but might work..

"Let's turn the sound against them! It's risky, but it should work!"

However, it didn't stop there, oh no, Dolly was going to make sure that Siffrin comes out alright. Lifting up a paw, the pink star-shaped sparkles erupt to form...a magical girl wand with a star on top, passing it over to Siffrin. Dolly used Baton Pass on Siffrin!

Is the extra speed going to help? Who knows! Dolly is trusting Siffrin not to do something foolhardy...Yep, this should end well...

It worked - it worked! Oh, he likes having a wind spell!

"My pleasure!" he replies to Siffrin, a little too enthusiastically thanks to the adrenaline rush. But it's short-lived as the giant ring's already back up, much to his dismay.

"Turn sound against them?" His words echo off the cave walls, which clues him into the strategy. "Righto!"

Cedric flies back up to Chimecho's eye level and delivers a louder Astonish. It seemed super effective last time, maybe the cave will help double those results!

Sound? They can do that. Siffrin follows Cedric's lead in generating noise, sparking up their noise-generating electricity again. Sound booms across the cave, clashing with Mega Chimecho's ringing.

Though it's no less energetic, the giant bell Pokemon seems disoriented. Its sound attacks are still somewhat effective, but partially drowned out by the mess of echoes the team is making and Dolly's Light Screen. Its physical attacks are entirely off-center, and it slams into and bounces off walls rather than making contact with any of the smaller Pokemon. Siffrin in particular uses the extra speed from Dolly's Baton Pass and their own Double Team move to harass the Mega Chimecho into chasing after them, creating openings for more attacks from Cedric (and more self-inflicted recoil).

At some point, though - whether it's the impacts from Chimecho, the reverberating sounds piling on each other, or perhaps both - the ceiling starts to shake much more violently. In a matter of moments, the battle stops - not because any of them are done fighting, but because the priority becomes not getting caved in. Even Mega Chimecho is trying to duck and cover, rocks gong-ing off its body.

Siffrin darts back toward their teammates, eyes going wide and ears folding back in alarm. They dodge several falling stones - bad memories! Very bad!! But it's the crumbling ceiling above Cedric that sends their heartrate spiking even higher. "Hey - !"

There's not enough time for a proper warning; Siffrin only has a split second to decide to Volt Switch with Cedric instead. They're promptly buried.

Dolly's February and March Catchall~

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

aaand that's Siffrin out of this thread! get rocked loser

RIP Siffrinx, I can hear the 'GANDALF' coming out of Dolly now...

Siffrinx ;w;

Siffrin is no longer allowed to be near any rocks, it's a rule now.