[ti]story[/ti]STORY QUEST 2: Heart of Darknyas

Dr. Bunya spins around in her chair as you approach, knocking a manila folder to the ground in the process. Glossy black and white photos of fish Pokemon with privacy bars over their faces spill across the floor, and Bunya leaps to scoop them back into the folder. "Let's nyast keep that between the two of nyas, capiche?" she says, giving you a conspiratorial wink. She puts the folder away and zeroes in on Taylor's sample.

The glass containment cylinder holds an oozing chunk of black matter. It moves like a creature dipped in pitch, struggling to escape. Or perhaps the Corruption itself is alive. Bunya puts her hand against the side of the glass and the sample pools against the side, drawn to the warmth of her hand. "Thanks for the snyanple! A few more of these and I'll be able to put them in the centnyafuge and pull out some real data!"

One/?? samples successfully collected!

"An orgnyanic sample," Bunya says tilting her head to watch the twitching fur like a cat tracking a goldfish. "This furthers my hypothesis that the Corruptnyan is alive!"

She pulls out a permanent marker and scampers over to Ash's whiteboard. "If it can take on biologically similar forms to Pokemyan," she postulates, drawing on the board in long, sweeping movements. She draws two long, low arcs, one concave and one convex, that meet in a point at one end like a pinched oval.

The other end stops short of joining, and Bunya adds to it with a pair of leaf-shaped protrusions.

"Then maybe we can convince it to take on a more familnya shape!"

She adds a few more details. Circles for eyes, a row of four vertical curves that are clearly gills. A fin on top.

"See this?" she asks, holding up the moving sample to the preschool-level picture of a fish. "Turn into this!"

The sample doesn't move, and Bunya turns to Verai. "Thank you. That will be nyall for now."

Two/?? samples successfully collected!

"Anyather sample!" Bunya said excitedly, not reading the room in the slightest. She was chewing on some sort of dried bonito, and the scent of it filled the room. Little crumbs of it were scattered across the chair and her dark leggings, and had likely contaminated half the lab by now.

Any human with an ounce of situational awareness or empathy could see that Lacrimosa was still reeling from the horrid event they had just experienced.

But Bunya wasn't a human or an empath. She was a scientist.

Bunya nabbed the sample like it was a skipjack trapped in a puddle, and she scuttled over to the microscope station.

"Didnya know that the color red stimewlates hunger?" she asked, peering through the eyepiece. She removed the current petri dish, which held a whole goldfish, and replaced it with the corruption sample.

"Oh!" Bunya said, eyebrows raised, "there's little rocks in it!"

Three/?? samples successfully collected!

He has come here for answers.

The decision had been made when he had seen it: right there, staring back at him when looking at his skill trees. PARASITE. CORRUPTION CLASS. It had happened after Mistra, it's the source of the strange voice he's been hearing as of late — these are things Yuze can logically deduce all by himself. What's its purpose, though? What does this parasite do? Biology dictates that if this really is a parasitic relationship in its truest form, then he will be harmed while the parasite benefits. Is that what the corruption is programed to do? He still can't help but wonder why it exists and why it had entered a symbiotic relationship with him.

"You said corruption is alive." These are the first words he has for Bunya when entering the lab. No greeting, no smile, just calm, to the point, and matter-of-fact. Despite the her silly demeanor and questionable antics, he treats her like Vera would a colleague — scientist to scientist.

"This would make corruption a parasite that is very likely to require a host to exist, much less spread. This parasite supposedly harms its host, as parasites always do, yes? But, I wonder, Dr. Bunya... if we can't destroy corruption, would it be possible to make it so the relationship between it and its host is a mutualistic one instead? One where they both benefit." He stares at her, clearly meaning every word. The logic is simple enough: Corruption is a mechanic of the game and mutualism would be a way to turn this Parasite class into an advantage. Naturally, he words the question in a way an NPC would understand, leaving behind mentions of programs and mechanics and coding and all of that.

"I'm asking because I was infected by corruption when I was in Mistra." Yuze then adds, seeing no point in keeping that from Bunya.

Well, she got something out of dealing with that fear. So, at least that was something. She was still shaking as she made her way back to Dr. Bunya. She didn't know what this sample was of, but she was also certain that she didn't want to deal with the corruption zone again. Not after that last time. Athysh stopped when she reached Dr. Bunya, and held out the sample. "I got this for you." If the Dr. said that they needed more, than Athysh would probably go back, but as of right now, she had no plans to.

Athysh rolled a 13 here

"Oh boy! More Snyamples!" Bunya says, spinning in her chair and spilling coffee on the tiled floor. She sets down the half-empty mug on Ash's desk and skips over the puddle to where the shaking Athysh is holding out her 'prize'. "I'll take that!" she says, plucking the sample from the woman's fingers and scampering over to her workbench.

She picks up her coffee (a different cup, cold) and takes a sip while looking at the moving darkness inside the sample tube. "I can almost hear it!" she says, cocking her head to one side. "Cnyan't you?"

FOUR/?? SAMPLES SUCCESSFULLY COLLECTED!

Bunya wipes her mouth at the sight of the little Pidove. "Nyat today," she whispers to herself, "I'm still on a dienyet." The Doctor takes the sample and happily sit it next to the growing pile by the whiteboard. She puts your sample upside down, and the goop inside drips to the bottom of the tube like the contents of a cold lava lamp.

The whiteboard is covered in notes and sketches of sea creatures. There are a surprising number of sea urchins, likely because they are easiest to draw. "So as you can see from my extensive notes, we've learned a lot from the samples." She makes another note in permanent marker: HUNGRY. It's unclear whether that's a personal memo or an observation on the corruption.

"Hey! I've got nyan idea!" she says, turning to Silvermoon with dark, glittering eyes filled with an unquenchable hunger (for science this time). "I've been spinning and feeding and tasting and poking the corruption and it's definitely alive. And we've tried putting Pokemon in it, right? So how about we do something a little experimentnyal?"

She pours all of the samples into a large, empty fishbowl. It melds together into a seething glob of ooze that looks like tar crossed with active ferrofluid. "Let's trying putting it in a Pokemon."

FIVE/?? SAMPLES SUCCESSFULLY COLLECTED!
CORRUPTION TESTING UNLOCKED

CORRUPTION TESTING

5/10 SAMPLES COLLECTED

Players bringing a sample to Bunya can now choose to have Bunya test the sample on one of their Pokemon. As with all good science, results are highly unpredictable.

SPOILER: Click to show

{POSSIBLE RESULTS}1. [tangent=Your Pokemon's Rarity increases by +5, to a maximum of Very Rare (+15).]Rarity +5[/tangent]
2. [tangent=Your Pokemon's Rarity decreases by -5, to a minimum of Common (+0).]Rarity -5[/tangent]
3. [tangent=Your Pokemon's Primary Type is corrupted, turning it to ?-Type. You will lose any trainer class bonuses associated with the previous type.]Primary Type Corrupted[/tangent]
4. [tangent=Your Pokemon's Secondary Type is corrupted, turning it to ?-Type. You will lose any trainer class bonuses associated with the previous type.]Secondary Type Corrupted[/tangent]
5. [tangent=One of your Pokemon's moves becomes a ?-Type move called Corrupted (Move Name). This move is Supereffective vs all Pokemon except corrupted (?-Type) Pokemon. You may choose which move is affected.]Corruption Move[/tangent]
6. [tangent=Your Pokemon splits down the middle like a single-cell organism, dividing into two identical copies of the original Pokemon. The copy will be added to your Storage Box.]Spontaneous Division[/tangent]

You do not have to roll! System Admin:Bunyaa will roll for your effect when she replies. Don't worry, she's a scientist!

OTHER INFO

• ?-Type only gains bonuses from the Parasite subclass
• You cannot trade a corrupted Pokemon
• You can remove corruption at any active shrine. However, once purified, that Pokemon can never be corrupted again.