The Beacons Are Lit?!

Mist swaddled the timberlands. Each leafless, fallen tree rippled with it, as if the world itself was wreathed in cold smoke, or smothered in gauze. The pale fingers clung to Sarah's hair, trailing like a wedding veil as she pushed onwards.

The Steppes had been impossibly open, and the worn paths of the Birchwild Grove was well signposted, but there was no easy way through these woods. They were made to get lost in, and they had ensnared Sarah effortlessly.

Now she wandered.

Surely if I walk in a straight line I'll hit the edge, she thought, ducking under a low bough. She felt something brush her hair and heard something hit the ground, but when she looked down there was nothing but wet leaves. Hmmmm.

Sarah brought up her map again, and was greeted with the same, bleak sight. A single, blinking light in a vast open area. Unmapped, it seemed. "Fantastic," she said out loud. She checked her bearings, and adjusted to make sure she was still heading due West, then closed her UI.

As she moved through the mist, something gleamed in the fog, flashing for an instant like a mirror catching a distant sun.

Sarah froze, eyes wide. She waited for the light to come again, and when it did she adjusted her course, heading for the light between the trees.

She stalked the light, creeping through the mist. Any thoughts of escape from this place had dissipated with that enticing gleam, and she pressed deeper into the murk, following the light.

Pause. Flash! Follow.
Pause. Flash! Follow.

Where is it leading me? Sarah wondered. She took another step, and a heavy twig crunched under her foot. She stopped, breath quickening, as she became intently aware that she was not alone.

There was something else in the mist. Something right beside her.

Tuesday

"How do you know I'm not a Pokemon?" Sarah challenged, grabbing a Pokeball of her own. It was a knee-jerk response to the shock of running into someone in the middle of a spook: to lash out with an aggressive, combative reply and keep the potential threat off balance. "In fact, how do I know you're not a Pokemon!?"

A second later Tuesday's name popped up on Sarah's HUD. Warily, she sent the 'human player' a party request. "I guess that settles it," she said as the request went through, though she was still not at all convinced that Tuesday wasn't just another trick of the mists.

The light passed again, dipping between the trunks and bouncing off stumps, always straying but never leaving, and Sarah got the intense impression that it was trying to lead them somewhere. "I followed it here too," Sarah said, watching it.

A hundred thoughts flashed through her head. Terrible ghost stories of the Night Walkers come for revenge, or of Will O' Wisps drawing people into swamps, never to be seen again. She kept one eye on her minimap. It was next to useless, covered 95% in fog of war, but now there was a second blip flashing beside her own marker. It made her feel a little more secure. "I think it's leading us somewhere," she said, hesitantly letting herself be pulled towards the purple light.

Amidst the warning tales, a single greedy maxium shone through. No guts no glory.

She took another step, and the purple light moved away a touch. It really was leading them somewhere. "Shall we find out?"

The pair stepped into the unknown, and as the light led them deeper into the damp woods, a thin mist began to surround them. Sarah sniffed at the cloud and wrinkled her nose. "Do you smell that?" The scent was both floral and medicinal. "It smells like a chemist's funeral." She sneezed, which got the cloying scent out of her nose for all of two or three seconds.

The trees pressed in. Broken, dead, and tangled wood that tore at her clothes, until suddenly the thin mist rushed in and swallowed the pair in a cloud of thick, soporific smoke.

Sarah coughed, and found herself struggling to keep here eyes open. "Duraludon! Chell!" she called, and two Pokemon materialize in the fog. Chell the Pignite swelled with indignant yellow flames, and she boosted Sarah up into the saddle of the massive metal dragon.

The light bounced around them, taunting them as the mist lulled them to sleep. Sarah yawned and pointed a drooping finger at the bright light. "Follow..." her eyes drooped, and she gripped the saddle hard, willing herself to stay awake.

Duraludon swung a massive steel arm, shattering deadwood left and right, and the trio lurched deeper into the mist.

"I wouldn't go that way if I was you~"

A lilting drawl wends its way through the woods. It's a soft, southern, feathery sound, dragging itself like molasses through the mist.

A woman with eyes the color of embers appears from somewhere in the fog, a feather boa draped serpentine across her shoulders. She leans against a nearby tree, smoking from a long cigarette holder. A pistol can be seen strapped to one well-shaped thigh. Aesthetic?

Maybe.

A tooltip appears, reading C.L.A.W - THE CREED

"Don't y'all know a trap when you see one~?" Her fingernails are as virulent red as hibiscus blossoms as she plucks her wide-brimmed hat from her head. She swishes it through the air, scattering wisps of fog. "Look down."

The mists stirring around their ankles part. So focused they have been on the mysterious flashing light and the odor in the air, Tuesday and Sarah Lee  haven't noticed the bodies scattering the ground.

"My former survey team," the woman says, dulcet tones lilting. "They think they're so tough, but one little puff of Dream Smoke and poof!" She nudges one leather-clad edgelord with the tip of her boot and he rolls over, muttering in his sleep.

"Claw...yeah, Claw, I can be your bad boy," he mumbles.

A line of drool traces down from the corner of his mouth, and a flicker of contempt shows on the NPC's face before she looks away, letting the mist close back over the man's face. "Too bad. I only date real bad boys," she drawls, then blows a smoke ring at Tuesday and Sarah Lee. "Or bad girls, if you prefer. So how 'bout it, ladies?"

White teeth show from between plump, ruby lips.

"Can you fight off the compulsion and catch me a Munna? I'll make it... worth your while."

CLAW (NPC) will hang around for 3 more posts.
Tag her again when you have Munna in custody.

"Ay, Dios mío."

Tuesday isn’t usually one to show off and go ‘Hey, look at me, I speak Español’–... Well, she is, but that’s besides the point! The point here is that sometimes reactions come from the soul, and when seeing C.L.A.W suddenly come into view as if a curvaceous apparition clad in full sexy goth attire and the biggest feather boa she has ever seen, it’s suddenly as is if she’s not lethargic anymore.

Dream Mist, meet your nemesis: hormones.

But, wait! Tuesday isn’t some lame hormone-driven teenager who gets nervous talking to attractive women! Tuesday is Mars, and Mars has game (or at least that’s what he would claim).

The catgirl’s pointed feline ears perk up, she stands up straight, and flips her blonde hair back, an equal parts confident and playful smirk tugging at her rosy lips when she addresses C.L.A.W in the most nonchalant of ways – something perhaps only enhanced by the rolling R’s of her subtle yet ever-present Spanish accent.

"That’s a sweet name you got there, CLAW. Is it an acronym for anything?" She had noticed the fact that C.L.A.W’s name is written with full stops between each letter, so it feels right to ask, even if Tuesday does suspect she’ll receive some vague answer. C.L.A.W does seem like the type of woman who likes to keep an air of mystery about her. "I’m Tuesday, but you can call me Day."

Since when is that her nickname? Since today, apparently.

It’s only when Sarah Lee steps in to capture the fallen Munna that Tuesday remembers that she’s here (no offence to her, it’s just that C.L.A.W is… well, you know… even the fact that she’s standing close to a huge metallic dragon can be forgotten with this kind of sudden turn of events. Is this what she looks like IRL too?! It has to be, right?! There’s no way anyone can design an avatar this hot. Anyway, this parenthesis is getting too long, so I digress) Back to Sarah Lee! She had caught the Munna, but apparently she had already promised it to someone else? Technically, Tuesday had too, since Professor Ash had asked her to keep an eye out for them, but Ash is an NPC, and C.L.A.W here seems pretty damn real…

Could this be a moral dilemma?

Hell no.

Bringing out her golden pokéball, she tosses it up in the air only to catch it a few times. "Well, you know what they say… Good girls go to heaven, but bad girls go everywhere." That’s a Mae West quote, look it up! The catgirl winks then, her gaze being only of garnets for a passing moment. ”I’ll get you that Munna.”

It’s more like her Fennekin will, because subtly, beneath the rose-coloured mist, there’s a slight kick that seems to say ”Get to it.” Yes, she also kicks one of the fallen survey team members in the process, but that’s not her problem. They're the ones to be blamed for being in the way!

The vulpine pokémon doesn’t seem nearly as keen on doing as C.L.A.W wishes, and the way he rolls his eyes makes that more than clear. Yet, he does as his trainer commands, flames suddenly coating his small body as he charges forward through the mist in search of the remaining Munna. There’s the sounds of a struggle, and soon enough, the pink fog clears, giving Tuesday a good view of the fallen Dream Eater Pokémon.

As if a pitcher in a baseball game, she throws the golden pokéball.