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Trial of Steam: Amanita

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amanita • G.A.Y. Player Character Posts: 116 Trainer Class: Swimmer Player Name: romeo addaway OOC Username: cupid	Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by amanita on Nov 27, 2022 23:21:36 GMT 9 Death made him uncomfortable to say the least. But there wasn't much he could do about it until he got his Pokemon back. And unfortunately the Glaceon that he'd barely had for a moment had been sacrificed because he hadn't been paying attention well enough. "Hello?" ~~"So you wish to bring a spirit back with you. Answer me truthfully: What makes you think your ghost wishes to return after what happened? What will be different this time?"~~ That scared the shit out of him. He knew there was some sort of guardian down here that took care of the Pokemon trapped or sacrificed or whatever. But he hadn't really been sure that it was actually like, real. ~~"Nothing returns from this realm unchanged. You too must change, if you are to win back the lost."~~ "I didn't realize what was happening when I hit sacrifice. I panicked and it was my fault. And now Chaga is trapped down here. I'd like to get him back and apologize. And do better this time." It was true that he had just panic hit the sacrifice button. But he actually felt bad about it. He hated feeling bad about things.

Trial of Steam: Amanita Posted Nov 27, 2022 23:21:36 GMT 9

System Admin • Administrator Posts: 1,293 Player Name: System OOC Username: M00K	Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by System Admin on Nov 30, 2022 23:47:15 GMT 9 Seta nods. "Taking responsibility for our mistakes is the first step to becoming responsible. For ourselves, and for others." They turn, and the grayness moves down the hall. They lead you to a door-shaped hole in the wall. Not a door, because that would require a barrier of some sort. Wood, a hinge. This is more like a taut black curtain strung up in a rectangular piece. "Through here," Seta says, standing next to the door, ushering you through. "You answered well, and now you have your chance. Nothing is freely given, especially life." You pass through the darkness. It's as brief as blinking, and you find yourself in a new world. TRIAL OF STEAM You're in an ornate bath house, full of steam. You spot your Pokemon racing across the mosaic floor, but it slips and shatters into a thousand pieces, as if it were glass or ice. Put it back together. SPOILER: Click to show {THEME} amanita Instructions Complete the Trial. You may post as many or as few times as it takes to write a meaningful narrative. Based on your content, there may be a ~~change~~ in your Pokemon when the Trial concludes. When you are finished, post in General Mod Requests to return to Seta.

Trial of Steam: Amanita Posted Nov 30, 2022 23:47:15 GMT 9 Edited by System Admin Nov 30, 2022 23:47:53 GMT 9

amanita • G.A.Y. Player Character Posts: 116 Trainer Class: Swimmer Player Name: romeo addaway OOC Username: cupid	Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by amanita on Dec 1, 2022 10:30:09 GMT 9 He felt strange following the entity around like this. Especially since one moment there was no sort of door and in the next... there still wasn't a door. But it was close enough to one it seemed. Amanita had no idea how the steam didn't just escape from the hinged door and as his mind started to wander he realized that it wasn't the reason he was here. The fucking door didn't matter. What he saw was Chaga, running around and then the sound. The deafening sound. Of glass shattering. He hated that sound. He'd always hated that sound. Panic used to rise up in him when he heard that sound as a child. Glass hitting a wall or the floor in frustration and shattering. Just like the Pokemon had just shattered in front of him. There was no broom for him to sweep it up with though this time. But did he feel oh so small as he carefully slid his feet over the floor for a second before stopping. If he stepped on it with his shoe it would shatter into even more pieces. Even harder to put back together. So instead he slipped them off. He could handle the feeling of glass on his feet. After all this was just a game and he knew that manish had gotten glass stuck in his arm during the raid as well. And he said he had been fine. But. Anyways. He had glass to find. He couldn't tell how many pieces he had shattered into, the sound feeling more like an ache that he couldn't itch in the back of his mind than his eyes focusing on where they had gone. And with the fog in place maybe it would be easier to just... Give up on it? Someone else could put him back together. Probably better than he ever could. They'd do a better job of raising her as well probably. He slid his foot forward, finding a piece of his now glass Pokemon with his foot. And of course he felt it, the stabbing pain he was all too familiar with from his childhood. Bending down he took the piece into his hands and wiped it clear of his blood and some of the condensation that had gathered. He saw his reflection in the bluish glass. Not quite a mirror but still it was there. But he was a child, his face covered in sweat as he hurried around the house. His feet bare as he tried so hard not to track dirt into the house. Amanita sat on the floor as the scene played out in the mirrorglass. He knew this. It was every day at his grandfather's house after his grandmother had died. His mother had been long dead at this point and his father and grandfather sat on the couch. Drinking daily. It was just an average normal life. Without someone else to take care of them it had fallen on him to do the dishes. To do the cleaning. To try and put the glasses back together that had been shattered out of anger or even amusement. Or out of boredom for them wanting something for him to do. It was a game to them. Present day Amanita swallowed as he watched, remembering the taunts. Forgetting for a moment that he was now an adult and lived... in the home of a man he was constantly lying to. ~~"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"~~ Was what they would call out when they wanted him to do something outrageous. Something that no child should be doing. Like handling broken glass. It hadn't been until he was almost dropped out of high school did he even learn they were using it wrong. But how was a child supposed to know anything like that? The mocking of his name had been something the two older men bonded over. As if the drink hadn't been enough.
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Trial of Steam: Amanita Posted Dec 1, 2022 10:30:09 GMT 9

amanita • G.A.Y. Player Character Posts: 116 Trainer Class: Swimmer Player Name: romeo addaway OOC Username: cupid	Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by amanita on Dec 1, 2022 10:52:29 GMT 9 As he stood with the shards in his hand and the scene fading he remembered how much he'd hated the name his mother had given him as a kid. And even now it seemed to mock him more than anything. Kids on the playground knew what Romeo and Juliet was, even if it was in passing. And kids couldn't ever be expected to be kind. Especially not when you had an unusual name. Holding the shards close he started to walk again. Thinking about all the things that had gone wrong in his love life because of his name. Because that's what you did in high school. You dated around and got teased when you didn't live up to your name or the expectations. Girls looked at him and saw a bad boy with a romantic name. Because in high school you have the reading literacy of a worm and think that Romeo and Juliet is the most romantic thing a school could ever let you read. But he had trouble ever feeling those things. And it wasn't because he didn't want to. Fuck. He wanted to feel love so badly. But he always joked with girls that his dad had left him unable to feel. And they'd sigh and swoon and think that they could change him... Another piece of glass on the ground found with his foot as he scooped it up. Wondering what would happen if he looked into it and very nearly willed himself not to. But knew if he didn't he wouldn't get any better. And once again he knew this scene. Leaned up against a shitty car in the middle of a dark parking lot with a girl he knew from school curled up under his arm. It was freezing out and he was smoking a cigarette. But it was cold and felt like death even with another body up against him. She was giggling, playing with his hand and mumbling something about how cool it was that he had a car. But he was ten miles away wondering what he had to do to get warm. They couldn't get in the car. If they got in the car she'd want to make out. And he really didn't want to make out. They'd done it before and it had been awkward and he didn't know where to put his hands and didn't really want to either. And that hadn't even been his first time making out. ~~"You're freezing there loverboy, take this."~~ It hadn't been until one of the college kids who had been hanging around came over and wrapped a black leather jacket around him did he start to feel warmth. And not just the warmth of the fabric wrapped around him. His senses were overwhelmed by the smell of cheap aftershave and cigarette smoke. The smell of a well loved jacket as the guy was called by someone else. And never again did Romeo ever see him. And God did he look. At every gathering they had afterwards. He told himself it was to return the leather jacket but in all reality he never took it off. Maybe that was the first real time he fell in love. But that wasn't what he was supposed to be thinking about. At least... He didn't think it was? He was supposed to be thinking about other things. Like how to fix his Pokemon. But the more he fixed him the more broken he felt. Because as he stood up he remembered the rest of that night. And when he came home from the party in another man's jacket. How his father had reacted. How he screamed at him that he'd better be glad that his grandfather was dead and not able to see it. But as he held the pieces together the shook a bit, trying to come together. But unable to bring themselves to do it. Maybe he had found the wrong pieces? Or maybe he just wasn't as good at this as other people were. But maybe he just needed to find more pieces, of his Pokemon. Not of himself.
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Trial of Steam: Amanita Posted Dec 1, 2022 10:52:29 GMT 9

amanita • G.A.Y. Player Character Posts: 116 Trainer Class: Swimmer Player Name: romeo addaway OOC Username: cupid	Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by amanita on Feb 2, 2023 1:22:45 GMT 9 He felt like he was melting in the heat of the steam and water surrounding him. It was silly. He knew it was fake but he could feel sweat dripping from his forehead. From his arms. There was something about steam rooms where you weren't supposed to spend too long in them right? Otherwise you could just pass out and die. He wasn't sure what caused the death in that instance but he felt himself nearly slip and fall and thought that it could probably be from something like that. Why was his ice Pokemon shattered in a place like this? It wasn't like it made much sense to him. But things lately had stopped making sense entirely. And maybe that was okay. But it wasn't the best way to do things. His hands trembled as he sat down on the floor. Still trying to push the pieces he had together to make something cohesive. Amanita knew that there were other parts to find but he was... Scared to find them. Scared to see what he would see once they were all in his hands. Scared of leaving the trial because once he did there was something waiting for him on the outside. Something that scared him more than anything else. Telling the truth. But that was the point wasn't it? If he wasn't afraid of it that meant he didn't really care... And he cared so much. Closing his eyes he tried to think if there was a better way to find these shards than kicking his feet around and cutting himself with them. He was smarter than that as much as he hated to admit it sometimes. He was better than that. Manish had shown him that he was. That he was capable of being capable of more than just fucking up. And he wasn't about to let him down now. He'd been so desperate in his search to find things to fix that he'd been doing it in all of the worst ways. Maybe he was frozen on the inside... He hadn't grown since he was in high school. A child afraid of his parents and on the run because of it. The sound of glass crashing to the ground once again encircled his brain as he thought about the last time he had seen his father. He only thought about it for a second though. He didn't need to think about things like that. He didn't need to dwell right now. He had other things to do. Other places to be. Something to find. And so once again he thought about how he could find the other pieces of his Pokemon. Holding one up as if it had the answer. And maybe it did. Like called to like. A saying that he'd hated since he was a child. But as he moved the piece around the room it seemed to grow colder as he pushed towards a particular space deeper in. Which meant it was leading the way to another piece. He was certain of it. Sure, most people might think it was the opposite of getting hotter but this was an ice type Pokemon inside a sauna. It made sense that things would get colder the closer to it he was. He was using the brain he most certainly knew he had. Carefully holding the other two pieces he crawled on his knees closer, not wanting to cut himself again on another piece. It wasn't just one fragment, but a bunch of small ones that were slowly melting together as he reached his hand out to grab them. ~~"Like Attracts Like."~~ He hated this memory. It was a cluster of moments that seemed to all run into one another constantly. But he knew he had to ride it out. Had to remember. Had to forget. Had to let go. It was his Grandfather's funeral and he'd been gone for years. The only reason he'd come back was because of it. He hadn't spoken to either of them in so long he'd almost forgotten exactly how terrible things could be. A glass thrown at his head during the service as he stared down at the ugly bastard who had finally kicked the bucket. Amanita couldn't really say he felt much for him, even in death. He'd thought there would be some great moment of reconciliation. Some moment of forgiveness. But he didn't feel anything. Except the glass that had shattered against his head. But he'd been expecting that. And was numb to it if he was being completely honest. He knew there was blood and he knew there would be a scar. But he didn't feel it in the moment. He felt warm hands taking care of him, checking him over, breaking the cover of them just being friends. And that was really what his father was mad about. Not his own father lying there dead. Not the fact that Amanita had come back after all of these years. He was upset that he'd seen the pair of them holding hands in the car. That he'd seen the quick kiss from the garden window that they shared. Because of course he'd insisted that Amanita and his friend stayed at theirs for the funeral. He was mad that his child was the disappointment he'd always geared him up to be. And the memory started to accumulate. Harassing calls to his job. One after the other and every time he got a new job it followed him. His dad calling and harassing them. One after the other him losing those jobs he'd worked so hard for. Either because the employers were too tired to deal with it or genuinely believed the things his dad told them about him. ** ended up leaving him as well. Tired of waking up in the night every time there was a knock on the door. Tired of changing phone numbers. Tired of making excuses for why Amanita wasn't working anymore. It had been too much for him and they were on the brink of losing everything. And then... Amanita did. His mind started to wander to when left finally but before he could replay the sad and pitying look that he'd had on his face as he closed the door in Amanita's he felt something rip from his chest. "STOP! I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW!" None of it was his fault but at the same time it was. He'd still been acting like a frightened child when his father was around. He'd still been acting like he had no control over the situation. But they could have left. Gone far away. Done something. Done anything. Maybe? He knew that ** had begged him to call the police on his father but he'd refused for stupid reasons over and over again. And then... He was homeless again. Surfing from couch to couch. From boyfriend to boyfriend. Then from ex to ex. And now he was here. But he wasn't a frightened child anymore. Well, not a child anymore. He was still scared as shit as he pulled the piece close to his chest. They seemed to come together better now. As if they were waiting for something and it was so close to being broken through. Something was creeping to the surface and he knew it as well.

Trial of Steam: Amanita Posted Feb 2, 2023 1:22:45 GMT 9

amanita • G.A.Y. Player Character Posts: 116 Trainer Class: Swimmer Player Name: romeo addaway OOC Username: cupid	Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by amanita on Feb 10, 2023 23:19:04 GMT 9 Whatever was bubbling under the surface of Amanita's skin had finally started to break through. Crackling over his skin. It made him itch. It made him want to yell. And who was there to stop him from yelling? There was no one here but him and Chaga. And he was sure the shattered Glaceon wouldn't even mind if he just started to scream. Something had overloaded inside his system. The class. It wasn't Swimmer anymore. He looked down at his hands and saw the shimmer. He saw the light. He saw the explosion starting before he could stop it because it was inside of him. Coming out. Finally. He was the ~~Catalyst~~ for his own change. "FUCK MY DAD." "FUCK MY GRANDPA." "FUCK MY MOM FOR GIVING ME THIS SHITTY NAME." "FUCK MY GIRLFRIENDS WHO JUST WANTED TO MAKE OUT IN THE BACK SEAT OF MY CAR." "FUCK THE GUYS WHO WOULDN'T LOOK AT ME THE NEXT DAY." "FUCK THAT GUY WHO GAVE ME HIS JACKET AND THEN JUST DISAPPEARED." "FUCK MY BOSSES FOR NOT BELIEVING ME." "FUCK ** FOR LEAVING ME." "FUCK EVERYONE WHOSE USED ME." "AND YOU KNOW WHAT? FUCK MYSELF. FOR ALL THIS SHIT I LET BUILD UP!" The more he shouted the more the explosion crackled inside of him until finally, it couldn't be contained any longer. And it exploded out of him. The Catalyst trigger on 3 had been unleashed and he had exploded himself. Not his Pokemon. But him. Light showered the room and cut through the steam, reflecting off of the glass piece that he was missing. The last one. It continued to shimmer even as the light moved away from it. He couldn't stop it from coming out. He didn't want to stop it. The rainbow of lights that had pulsed out of his body, relieving some of the pressure that had built up. His skin still felt like it was crackling with the explosive energy that he wasn't sure if he could ever get rid of. For once he felt raw. He felt exposed after that. His head hurt a little bit as he stumbled towards the last piece. He didn't have to really look hard at the piece that had been missing. As he grabbed it he saw manish 's face in the reflection. Instead of heat he finally felt cooled in this massive amounts of heat. The relief of ice and the feeling of crackling on skin finally subdued a little bit. He knew that manish wasn't going to fix all of his problems magically. No one could do that. He couldn't do that for Manish and Manish couldn't do that for him. But that didn't mean they couldn't soothe each other when things got to be too much. That is if Manish still wanted to be around him after the truth was out. The pieces of Chaga slipped from his grasp, melting to the floor to create a shimmering puddle that formed into the Pokemon once more. < you're still broken. > "I know." < you'll make mistakes. > "I know." < and you're okay with that? > "I have to be. I have to be okay with making mistakes." < do you think you can be? > "Just because I'm broken doesn't mean I'm not good enough... I'm sorry Chaga."** < i know. > The glaceon solidified, pressing his head against Amanita's hand. They were ready to get out of here. So long as Seta deemed them worthy enough to leave together. Carefully he scooped his Pokemon up, using the light shimmering from his body to help to find the exit.

Trial of Steam: Amanita Posted Feb 10, 2023 23:19:04 GMT 9

System Admin • Administrator Posts: 1,293 Player Name: System OOC Username: M00K	Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by System Admin on Mar 6, 2023 20:24:05 GMT 9 As the last piece is put in place, the glowing, light-emitting Amanita may notice grayness once again encroaching on his vision. It creeps in from the corners of the bathhouse, retexturing the world. Notably, Amanita's own bright colors are unchanged. "You have evolved," says Seta simply from somewhere nearby. "You have passed the Trial of Steam." The gray pushes close, engulfing you and your saved soul, and then a flash of vermillion as you find yourself back in the hall you started in. Back at the crossroads. Red gates fill the sky, and Seta is nowhere to be found, though his words echo in your mind long after you leave the halls. "Nothing leaves the Everworld unchanged." Glaceon has been restored to amanita's box. Glaceon has learned Light Screen!

Trial of Steam: Amanita Posted Mar 6, 2023 20:24:05 GMT 9