[ti]quest[/ti][Q][C/Nero][Instance] LEVEL-4: Dancing Dragon Dungeon

Since when had he added Josh as a friend? Did the game do that automatically at the end of that quest that they'd done together? Had a pop up flashed towards him at some point and he'd just swiped it away without really reading it? Or had it been a moment of weakness, a flicker of softness where he'd actually appreciated the other player's help and positive attitude so had added him out of a genuine connection...

Nah, couldn't be that one.

Nero prided himself on his very short friend list, often pruning people away out of a strange feeling of... what even was it? Anxiety? He couldn't quite place it, but he often felt an urge to delete anyone from his contacts that didn't feel absolutely essential for some reason - maybe so the other person couldn't do it first? Or so no-one could catch a glimpse of his list and think he was relying on others for help? Whatever the logic was, it wasn't strong, but it was a habit he had fallen into all the same. It seemed that Josh had survived the most recent pruning though, or else a glitch had added him back on again despite being deleted as the message popped up on Nero's UI, receiving a scowl from the grumpy player himself. Must have been a glitch. Nero refused to believe it was intentional.

Had he not already been in the waters of the Drowned Harbour, he would have probably swiped the message away and not even bothered to reply. It was pure coincidence that he had been exploring a nearby area with his newly revived Kabutops, the creature a surprisingly rapid swimmer able to drag Nero along easily and cover great distances in mere moments. An efficient partner in the water, hence why Nero had at last begun to venture into areas of UNOVR that he hadn't before. The ping on his map showing Josh's location wasn't far away at all, and with Kabutop's speed, they'd likely get there in minutes at most... and with the promise of treasure awaiting them, it seemed silly not to go.

With a sigh of almost defeat, Nero signaled for Kabutops to head towards the ping, grabbing hold of one of the brown spines so that he could be pulled along in the water behind the racing creature. His new partner stopped a little away from the player that they had been racing towards, and Nero came to a halt in the water beside him, frowning at the unfamiliar image looking back at him. He himself had mixed up various accessories and items to change his appearance a little too, but nothing like this. "What's up with your avatar?" he asked, the Swimmer class allowing him to speak beneath the waves as easily as if they were above ground, despite the bubbles appearing in front of Nero's mouth as he did so.

Josh Devlin | more a note to myself, but I'm going to backdate a thread at some point of Nero "learning to swim" in game so that this isn't his first time doing it, otherwise it would take forever for him to actually reach Josh

It didn't sound whimsical to Nero (possibly because he was apparently missing that part of his brain), it sounded creepy. His lip curled in distaste, eyebrows rising at the figure in front of him as his gaze swept him from top to bottom. "You wanted to trick people into thinking you were a kid?" Except that absolutely wasn't what he'd just said, was it? His actual reasoning had been about ride Pokemon or something, which fit with the very limited knowledge Nero had of Josh far better than whatever alternative he was cooking up in his head. Maybe it was to trick people into thinking he was young and inexperienced so he could scam them into battles or trades or gifts or whatever. It had to be a devious or malicious thing though, obviously, because that was the only reason Nero could imagine anyone doing anything.

Thankfully, his opinion of Josh's aesthetic change was irrelevant to the quest that was already getting started while he dwelt. Pop-ups flashed across his UI again, and Nero batted them away in frustration, always irritated by things appearing when he wasn't ready for them despite how frequently it happened in this game. It meant he very rarely read them, so yet again he wasn't entirely clear on what the goals of this quest were, but that had never stopped him before.

Josh had swum off towards a door, and Kabutops looked back at Nero expectantly, though the trainer was still hesitating. Part of him wanted to scoff and call this stupid and swim away in the opposite direction... but treasure...

With a sigh, Nero pushed what he refused to accept was a growing form of social anxiety back down again and nodded for Kabutops to approach.

The door was built directly into the sea floor, but the other side didn't seem to show sand or coral or anything else that he'd expect of the area beneath it. It seemed to just show more water, despite that being somewhat impossible from its position. It was a game though, and doors were often just ways to break up how much of the map needed to be loaded, so perhaps that was it. Perhaps he'd be met with a loading screen as he passed through to the other side instead of a new scene straight away.

He expected the world to fade to darkness as he passed through then but no. Instead, he felt a very strange spinning sensation in his head as though someone had turned the world upside down for a moment, and then suddenly he seemed to be swimming out of the door he'd just gone through. That must be it, right? He was still underwater after all, he just hadn't managed to take in his actual surroundings beyond the door frame yet. "What's wrong with that door?" he complained as he reached up to cradle his still sloshing head.

Josh Devlin

Far too familiar with corruption already, Nero did not need Josh's warning to stay away from the next door. His need to pause and figure out which way was up again had stopped him from following the other player initially, but even just a glance in the direction of the open door frame had Nero eager to retreat even further. It was only Kabutops behind him that stopped him from fleeing entirely, the water type unaware of what had happened to Electrike and so confused by Nero's strange reaction. She gave a gentle headbutt to her trainer with the intention of offering comfort, leaving Nero to clutch onto his companion for support in more ways than one.

Sneaking into Mistra had involved avoiding Zapdos's guard, so he wasn't too surprised to see the thunder bolt blast into the other player, but he was surprised that Josh didn't white out immediately. Maybe the strange doorway had protected him in some way, given that he hadn't entirely been in the forbidden zone when the attack had landed, but it was hard to say without knowing more about how these weird doors worked. Besides, Nero couldn't bring himself to focus on Josh too much - not when he'd just seen his Dewgong get struck down by the same corruption that had warped his Electrike into the monster he was becoming.

The wisps of dark energy had Nero flashing briefly back to his last trip to Mistra, to the darkness that had amplified emotion into physical form in the shape of that piece of obsidian, the way his poor broken Electrike had seemingly come back to life by absorbing his anger and frustration, shifting him into an attack dog rather than the playful puppy he had once been. The electric type now remained in his Pokeball, Nero too scared to see how much more he'd deteriorated since the last time he'd been let out. He was losing him, his first partner outside of his starter, and he had no idea hoe to bring him back...

"I'm so sorry," Nero whispered back at Josh, his whole form still tense as he clung to Kabutops. How did he explain what corruption could do? And would the warning even do Josh any good if he couldn't change the inevitable future? Or... or if the door had protected him from Zapdos, had it perhaps saved Dewgong from the horrible fate as well? Hopefully it had... Nero wouldn't wish what he was going through on anyone.

Josh Devlin

Josh really didn't seem to understand just how horrific corruption actually was... or perhaps it was different for every player. Nero had read all sorts of stories on the forums of people facing various levels of traumatic events when exposed to corruption, with some describing nightmare inducing terrors while others simply mentioned mechanical issues. Maybe it really would be nothing but an inconvenience for Josh, while it was persistently haunting Nero even as he tried not to think about it.

So what decided how corruption would play out in your game them? Some sort of setting in the game options that he hadn't noticed yet? Or was it digging into hidden data, learning about you at a deeper level somehow, and choosing to twist and torment the people who were most likely to react to it? If Josh's main concern here was the annoying nature of having to train a new swimmer, would he even be bothered if something like what was happening to Tyke happened to his Dewgong? Would he even notice? Or would the game not even offer that to him, knowing in advance that Josh wasn't the sort of player for that?

UNOVR had far deeper mechanics than Nero had initially given it credit for, and the more he learned about it, the more it felt like an entirely other world they had just happened to tap into through a game console... Or maybe it was just that good of a game, a diamond in the rough among virtual reality games that was made to feel so much better just by the weakness of its competitors.

Whatever, it didn't really matter right now. Nero was too busy trying to look anywhere instead of at Josh, hoping those wisps would disappear soon so he didn't just have to tap out of today's play session entirely. He needed to face Tyke again at some point, maybe take him back to Mistra, maybe... A problem for another day! Right! Doors! What were the other doors?!

Forcing himself to focus on the quest at hand again, he turned to look at a different door to the one that Josh had just swum to, pulling it open and peering through to the other side. He didn't immediately recognise what it was - it looked like part of some ancient city, but various ripples and bubbles made it clear that it was still entirely underwater. "Dunno what this one is," he commented, more so to his Kabutops that had swum up beside him again than to his quest partner specifically, but Josh would still be able to hear his voice. "It's giving Atlantis but dunno why that would be in the g-"

Before he could finish his sentence a crashing noise came from just beside the door, outside of his range of vision even as he instinctively leaned forwards to peer towards it. A pillar that had stood beside the door frame had suddenly broken, or perhaps had broken a long time ago and the act of opening the door had simply dislodged it. Whatever the case, it came crashing down towards Nero's outstretched neck, even as his Kabutops rushed to headbutt him out of the way in time to avoid the collision, chunks of marble flying through the doorway as the structure set off a chain reaction of destruction as it crashed into other already weakened walls nearby.

Josh Devlin

While Kabutops had saved Nero from any danger, it was Josh's Dewgong that moved the rock type to safety before pushing the falling pillar away from blocking the doorway. Kabutops joined the effort once she'd confirmed that Nero was fine, firing her own Aqua Jet to clear the area before crossing back to Nero who seemed a little disoriented in the water. He still struggled with the movement down here, with the act of swimming while his body stood on dry land, but Kabutops had been underwater with him enough by now to know how best to assist him. As subtly as she could, she helped right her trainer so that his body may as well have been stood in the water, staying beside him for a moment longer while he got his bearings again, before moving aside to give him the space to swim forwards again. Hopefully Josh wouldn't notice the brief trouble he'd seemed to be having there - it would be embarrassing for someone to see him struggling, especially since he'd never explain to him why.

Thankfully, the other trainer seemed mostly distracted by the view beyond the door - though his questions of concern had Nero worrying that Josh was looking at him with pity now. That was unlikely - Josh just seemed like a genuinely nice guy who just wanted to look out for the people around him, but Nero still struggled to accept that. No-one was nice for real, they were all doing it to try and achieve something... or else they weak and boring, because being kind had never made anyone cool.

Despite not wanting to seem weak himself, he did take a moment before following after Josh, peering around in case anything else looked like it was about to fall on top of him. He didn't like diving head first into new areas without knowing what was coming - not after that strange digging quest in Mistra anyway. But what other choice did he have? If only there was some way to see what might lie ahead... His gaze watched the water around him for a moment, trailing bubbles as they floated to the surface and ripples in the flow of the tide around him. It didn't tell him much, but as he and Kabutops followed after Josh at last, something in the sound of the water around him changed, and a flurry of excitement started to build itself in his chest. Was he actually sensing something? Was he actually managing some new form of hydromancy where he could pick up on details in the water to tell him what was coming, was the game about to unveil the whole map to him because he'd tapped into some hidden Easter egg?

... And then his head touched the top of the water and he realised the change in sound had just been the water getting shallower. Oh. That was much less cool.

Now double embarrassed by first his trouble swimming and now his stupid mistake, he grumbled to himself as he climbed out of the water, Kaputops scuttling onto land beside him as well. Josh was already pointing down a passage and so Nero stomped down it grumpily, shoulders hunched and lips pressed together in an expression that totally wasn't a pout thank you very much. "Let's just get this over with."

Josh Devlin