Pax RP

Well... That was embarrassing.

CP knew it was ridiculous to assume that kind of nefariously complex plot. The variables were immense, something he believed Holloweyes would have never gotten into, unless he was that desperate. Unless, just maybe, the Parasitian had expected to end up safely in CP's care.

That train of thought was a little too much to handle right now.

Besides, Nym hadn't given any sort of indication the electric mouse was on to something. So, it was far more likely that something else was afoot. Did Nym know something about this disease, and was taking Swix to help? That could've worked earlier, but now Swix seemed to be taking the lead. Nym also wouldn't have said all that nonsense about charms... and beating him up.

No, none of this made sense.

All the electric mouse could do at this point was follow as best he could. While Swix explained about secret passages, and Nym swished a bit of meat around, (what was up with that, anyway?!), the littlest guardian stood just outside the door. He could barely be described as "hidden", both women had likely seen him hop across the road after them. He couldnt leave with Swix the way she was though, and it's not like they were doing anything about it.

Speaking of Swix, she seemed to be getting better. Coolpikaaa had to wonder if it might be contact with her "sister", and her condition that might be rendering assistance. Either way, he still needed to monitor her.

"Now, come on guys..." CP said, stepping out from behind the door. "I don't know what you're up to, but please don't go down there. You both know you're sick. Just hold up somewhere, and I'll work at fixing... whatever this is..."

ES slid down the wall of the wooden house, leaving a damp trail where her body and clothing had touched it. She was suddenly so tired, she must've used up what little energy she had left by dragging Nym in here. She was so thirsty too, she swallowed what little moisture she had that wasn't currently pouring off her... and now there was CP in the doorway, asking them not to go down there. Damnit, they'd have to close this one up now.

"What's the matter, afraid of the dark?" she offered the little guardian, with a twisted smile to go along with it. It didn't last long though, as she looked down and frowned at her hands, rubbed them together, and then looked back up at him.

"Coooolpikaaaaaa" she said, in an extended, creepy manner as the delirium began to return "come... away".

She made a beckoning motion with one hand in front of her. Apparently she wanted the electric mouse to come closer.

"Oh, sure Swix, I'll climb down into that dark, creepy tunnel when you are being in a creepy mood
I don't see anything wrong with that..." Coolpikaaa said sarcastically, crossing his arms as the woman's legs seemed to give out.

"Or, we all work together, and find a cure for this. The town's people seem to have some kind of strain too, if you didn't notice as we rushed through. Clearly, something else is at play here, and I can probably do more about it than anyone you would go to." CP spoke, stressing his message while catching a glimpse of the wet streak on the wall. How hot could she be running to produce that much sweat?!

"Please Swix. For me..." The electric mouse asked one more time, stepping close to the woman, and offering out a paw to take.

HollowEyes had no idea why Coolpikaaa seemed so concerned about Swix's well-being, but it was a welcome change of luck nonetheless. Now he could no longer be sure of Swix's plans, but he felt confident that he could still trust her... or at the very least, that there wasn't much to lose in luring CP away from the safety of civilization.

"She may be sick, but I'm not." HollowEyes spoke through Nym's mouth. He wasn't entirely sure of how she normally spoke, so he felt it best to keep things brief so as to avoid arousing CP's suspicions any further. "She's trying to show us something and I'm going to follow her. Will you come with us, or stay here?"

((Well, it's an interesting and equally strange story ))

ES just stared at CP and blinked. Throughout his talk her expression had gone from being a twisted, almost self satisfied one at his sarcasm, to one of disbelief at him telling her that the townsfolk had a strain of whatever it was that she had and apparent belief that she'd care about that... No, no, probably not belief. He probably hoped that she'd care a little about what happened to the people here. Unlucky for him, she really didn't.
The last expression was a frown as the electric mouse came closer to appeal to her for them to work together. The frown deepened when he said "Please" and then changed to an ugly snarl at his added "for me?". He should know by now she hated it when he talked like that and tried to appeal to her good side. He really should.

"How don't you dislike?" she said, then her eye twitched as she realised she couldn't talk properly once again. She swallowed, then heard Nyms Parasitian controlled voice asking CP to come down into the cavern system after them since she wanted to show them something. Which she didn't, but then she had asked CP to come closer. She could play along "Oh, doubt! You won't lose a place to fill down..." she said, and her eye twitched once more as she grew frustrated again.

Instead, she used one arm to try and bat CPs paw away from her and the other to struggle to stand up again.

CP looked surprised when Swix snarled, and stunned when she bat his paw away. Why was she like this? Every other day, Swix at least tolerated his company, and was rarely outright rude. Hadn't she come to him in the first place? If he didn't know better, the electric mouse might think she was showing off for someone.

When Nym started talking, Coolpikaaa tuned out her nonsense, it wasn't explaining her actions anyway. Whether it was just the shortness of the speech, or Holloweyes simply hit the nail on the head with her speech patterns, nothing odd was noticed.

"Are you sure you aren't sick? I know disease shouldn't effect you, but you've been acting awfully weird. Why did you run from me? Why are you still following an obviously insane person when you know I can take care of this? And what's with the meat?!"

The little guardian watches Swix while he waits for an answer, resisting every urge to help her up.

"I had you figured for a man... or being of action." HollowEyes replied through Nym. "I don't really think there's time to answer so many trivial questions. Needless to say there's a perfectly good reason for everything, but for now our focus should be on helping Swix."

HollowEyes did not like speaking so much, as every word increased his chances of raising Coolpikaaa's suspicions. He hoped that this would be enough to dissuade further curiosity and pressure Coolpikaaa into dropping all of these issues and get to doing exactly what Swix wanted him to do. If things didn't play out like that... Well, that's what the meat was for.

Swix did,stand up eventually, but she brought out those four tendrils of hers just to push herself up off the floor, rising like a disturbing spider, and then using the wall to hold herself straight with a damp hand whilst she tried to control her breathing. She was so very thirsty... The woman glared at CP balefully from where she was stood at the wall, surprised on her part at his surprise. It shouldn't have come as 'that' much of a shock to him... Although it was true that after their initial scuffles and the few times they'd encountered each other at random when she wasn't involved in anything dubious their relationship had evolved to the point that it had become indescribable. Something of a cross between a friend and an enemy, she was both of them at once.

But that didn't mean that she wasn't going to help HollowEyes... or that her actions would have been any different if the Parasitian hadn't come back.

"You... " she said, pointing at CP again... before walking forwards and jumping into the hole anyway, whether he liked it or not. "You want many fires!" she called back sharply, frustrated.

Crouched in her chair, the fur-clad customer sighed at the ridiculous lot's constant fit of laughter behind her. Really, what was the point in such randomness, were they asking to be thrown out? Either way, so long their orchestra left her out of the insanity, she would not mind the volley of tossed hats, chairs, and beers. Except, one of the ditsy dolts thought spinning upside-down in one of the chairs was creditable for his foolishness. After crashing straight to the floor, the man stumbled to his fee, attempting to straighten himself on the nearest object to his reach. Unfortunately, that happened to be Wendy.

“OOF!”

Instead of propping against a semi-sturdy back, his arm slipped down past the would-be center and crashed his hand against the stool instead. Followed by a swift fall to Earth, assisted by the heel of Wendy's foot. By now, she had enough of this. Even the risk of being banned from the establishment was worth knocking some sense into the one below her.

"No. One. Touches. My. Back."

Hoisting the man in one swoop, the small woman tossed the rubbish into the nearest group of giggling buffoons. Turning about face to the bartender, she offered her sincere apologies for the retaliation, and proceeded to walk out of the inn.

"A... man of action." Coolpikaaa mused. An interesting title. Nice ring to it. "Yeah... you're right. We need to help Swix. That's the priority."

By now the woman had slipped down into the tunnel, accusing the mouse of wanting far too many fires for him to handle. It was good advice... something he would definitely take to heart. Probably. If it made sense. Either way, the mostly insane woman probably needed a light in all that darkness.

So the last guardian trotted over diligently, took hold of the trapdoor, and slammed it shut, sealing the evil woman inside.

"Man of action?" He turned, facing Nym with sparks flashing. "WHO ARE YOU?"

Raven had been walking to the Horn and the Halo, confused by the raucous giggles that seemed to be everywhere. People in the streets were laughing maniacally, gibbering and stumbling over each other. She found it amusing at first; until the assaults started.

She was walking along avoiding everyone when suddenly someone attached themselves to her back. Outraged, she grabbed the possibly drunken man and flung him from her with a hiss. "You DARE touch me?!" She snarled at him. He ran away shouting obscenities at her. 'Really now, what did he expect?' She thought to herself.

It turned out that was the first of many. Five more people assaulted her with hugs and cuddles as she made her way to the pub, each one being flung from her as fast as she could. Though it wasn't particularly warm today, they had all been horribly sweaty. She wrinkled her nose in disgust - she was covered in other people's sweat. She would burn these clothes later.

Suddenly, burning clothes seemed like a ridiculously funny thing to do. She giggled to herself, raising her hand to cover her smile. Wait, why was she raising her hand? That was silly. In fact, everything seemed rather absurd and quite hilarious. It wasn't long until she was giggling as moronically as the rest.

Soon enough, she arrived at the Horn and the Halo - having completely forgotten why she was going there in the first place. Wasn't that just hilarious? She giggled some more, before spotting a tiny yellow mouse running out of the door. CoolPikaaa! She loved CoolPikaaa! Making haste, Raven chased after him intent on catching up.

She lost him briefly in the crowd, but soon heard his unmistakable voice.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

Hurrying towards to source, she saw CoolPikaaa. Not even noticing Nym (or HollowEyes as it may be),
"COOLPIKAAAAAAA~~~" Raven cried, happily jogging towards him. She stopped in front of him, with huge grin lighting up her face. "CP, have I told you I looooveee yooou?" Raven giggled out, stroking his head as she bent down.

Swaying on her knees, with her eyes fluttering she grasped CoolPikaaa's face in her hands. Without further warning, she leaned down and plants a big, wet kiss on his mouth. "You're soooo sexxyyy" She tried to purr in her usual, seductive voice. Instead it just sounded rather ridiculous. Which, of course, only caused her to giggle more.

Coolpikaaa gave Nym a whole minute to reply. To be honest he wasn't sure what he was expecting her to say. So caught up in what the suspicious woman was going to do now that he had her cornered, the fact someone was calling his name didn't even click in all the way.

He turned toward the sound reluctantly, and saw nothing.

 "CP, have I told you I looooveee yooou?"

Huh? That sounded almost close...

... and then he was forced back, nearly tripping over his feet as Raven the seductress forced herself drunkenly against his lips. Caught off guard, Coolpikaaa's eyes go wide and he tries to pull away... at first. It's over soon enough, and the little electric mouse is left staring up into the brilliant purple eyes of the Demon. "... Raven...?"

"Raven?"

Cp steps back, realizing what's just happened.

"Raven! Gah!" The mouse starts moving away so quickly that he really does trip over his own feet this time. Crawling backwards until he hits the wall, the little Guardian gives everyone in the room a wide eyed stare.

"Agh, Raven!"

Raven's loving expression fell as CoolPikaaa stumbled backwards. First, confusion was written on her face - only for a brief moment. Then her face crumpled, her eyes filling with tears. She fell to her knees, sobbing and hiccoughing. More and more tears fell, and soon she started wailing in despair.

"Y-y-you don't liiikkkee meee!" She cried through her tears, sobbing rather dramatically. Raven had cried before in her lifetime, of course - but not since she was a young girl. Through the fog that had settled on her brain, she wondered why she cared. Raven was somewhat fond of CoolPikaaa, in a 'I like to torture him' kind of way, but his opinion never mattered to her.

She didn't notice in her distress that her tears were not the only liquid escaping her. Torrents of sweat had started to bead down her body. Her skin felt clammy - not that she noticed - and was disturbingly hot to the touch. Unfortunately she seemed delirious, as was obvious from her actions.

"What do them hate you?" She sobbed, not even realizing she hadn't said what she'd meant.

Oh no... right in the heart.

"Oh Raven..." Cp said, his face falling slowly when he realizes what kind of effect he had on the demon. Though still completely thrown off by the whole thing, the electric mouse wiped off his mouth and slowly rose to his feet.

Raven knelt in front of him, sobbing like a heartbroken little girl, and honestly, It tore the electric mouse apart inside.

Damn these good guy instincts...

The last Guardian moved forward slightly, before lingering. He wanted to save his damsel in distress, but something banged around in the back of his mind about all this he couldn't quite place. Upon giving in, and moving closer, Coolpikaaa has his heartstrings pulled again by the fat rolling tears.

"Oh Raven! No... No, I do like you! I really do!" He said, feeling warm standing beside the evil councilwoman. "You just startled me! And you're so pretty, but caught me heroing, but you're sooo pretty, and I really do like yoouuu..."

Cp leans against her leg with a wild grin, trying to cheer her up. Of course, there was something wrong about all this, (a certain Parasitian, and sick lady in the tunnels! ), but he felt too warm and clouded at the moment to give it any attention.

Raven didn't really know why she was crying anymore. Her head felt like it was full of fog and cotton, thinking seemed impossible. She rubbed the tears and remaining wet patches from her eyes just in time to notice something touching her.

CoolPikaaa.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK! RAT!" The shriek came as Raven shoved herself backwards, scrambling away from the affectionate rodent. Terrified, Raven stood up and tried to find a weapon to defend herself with.

After a few moments she remembered that she was able to use magic, and could therefore just shoot a fireball at the Pikachu. Thank god she remembered!

Still terrified, her arms shaking as she stretched them in front of her, she closed her eyes and recalled the words.
"Oynmvat Sveronyy!" Her voice sounded harsh and course, unlike her usual melodic tones. As Raven spoke, a ball of purple fire grew infront of her outstretched hands.

By the time she began speaking the last syllable it had grown to the size of a foot-ball. With the spells completion it shot from her hands towards the sweet little creature that scared her so.