Mystery of the Cursed Artifact (Open)

[Marchbaby]

Cleopatra had been relaxing at Professor Elm's lab when she heard two lab assistants talking in the distance. " Did you hear about the new history museum in Cherrygrove? I hear they have a lot of neat artifacts there. Some people even told me one of the objects is cursed." Neither of the men believed in curses however the idea of a new museum did intrigue the other assistant. " No I will have to check that out. I doubt the rumors of any curse are true but a new museum is always worth checking out." Though the two assistants did not seem to take any interest in a curse Cleopatra was very interested.

" A cursed object this close to here? I must check this out for myself. Maybe I can find some way to harness the object for good and grow stronger in the process." She then waited until the assistants stepped inside the lab before making her escape. Floating over fences was no trouble for a ghost type like her but getting spotted might ruin her plan. Luckily no one saw her escape as she slowly made her way to Cherrygrove. It was an uneventful trip as she quickly reached the city and started to look for the new museum.

Within a few moments she found a sign on the side of a building that read " History Museum Grand Opening Today." There was a large crowd of people trying to get in but as a ghost type she was able to float to the top of the building and enter in an air vent. Once inside she made her way through the vent until she found an open hatch leading to one of the display rooms. The room was well lit outside of a corner behind a pillar and she decided to hide in the shadow and observe for a few moments while she tried to locate the rumored cursed object.

" If I hang out here maybe I can pick up on the cursed object or maybe find someone to help me look. A big place like this will be a lot easier to search with a second pair of eyes."





OOC: I had the idea of coming up with a custom scenario involving the search for a cursed object in a museum. Anyone may feel free to join and feel free to throw in any curveball to the story as well to make it interesting. I had to go with Cleopatra here as she seemed like the perfect fit for a scenario such as this given her evolution.

[Goni]

The museum bathroom door produced a loud banging noise as the custodian pushed their cleaning cart right into the locked door. Avery the Treecko woke up swinging their little lizard hands around in the air. “I’m not sleeping, you are!” The treecko said loudly as they woke up, groggy eyed and confused. Avery didn’t have much time to think as they looked around their surroundings, trying to figure out where they were. “Ah… right.” She said, looking around the room. The museum had been open for a sneak preview the night before, and Avery’s trainer had won a ticket to take a look before the general public. Unfortunately, Avery managed to get locked in the bathroom. Sara, her trainer, had let her out to explore the museum, and Avery definitely was supposed to have met back up with her at “10:00 PM sharp at the sharpedo skeleton”, whatever 10:00PM meant… and for that matter, whatever a sharpedo skeleton was. Avery was a treecko, not a human-time-understanding paleontologist. Unfortunately this meant that Avery had spent almost the whole night sleeping in the bathroom.

Avery could hear someone fumbling with the door, the scratching of a key trying to find its lock, and the click of the key turning the lock into place. Avery quickly dashed into one of the stalls, jumping onto the toilet seat. Her heart was beating out of her chest. “I gotta get out of here!” she thought as the sounds of a whistling custodian entered the room. “Ach! How did this bathroom get to be such a mess? The museum is opening in an hour!” The custodian remarked. Avery quickly scrambled up the side of the stall as the custodian pushed their cart into the bathroom and got to work, the sound of a spray bottle squirting. Avery peeked over the door, and there stood a human. They looked tough, though to a small Treecko, pretty much every thing did. The custodian wiped up the cleaning fluid they had sprayed on the mirror, and then through the reflection of the mirror, their eyes locked. Avery gulped. The custodian let out a screech before nervously and slowly trying to reach something in its cart.

“Alright, time to go.” Avery thought, eyeing the door. It was propped open by a “Caution: Floor Wet” sign. The custodian quickly found what they were looking for, a baton which was stashed in a compartment on their cart. They pressed a small button on it, and the baton extended producing a full sized pokémon catching net. Avery quickly jumped from the top of the stall door towards the exit of the bathroom as the custodian clumsily swung their net towards the Treecko. Avery landed gracefully next to a mop bucket, and eyeing the custodian who was rearing up for another swing, quickly spun, smacking their tail into the side of the bucket and spilling the soapy water all over the floor. The custodian slammed their net down smacking Avery in the tail, but the soapy water spilling across the floor was enough to make the custodian drop the net. Avery dashed for the door, shouldering the “Caution” sign over as they crashed out of the bathroom.

The door closed with a satisfying thud, and Avery had finally done it. She was out of the bathroom. This was no time to relax though, she could hear movement on the other side of the door. It was time to get out of here. Avery quickly ran into one of the display rooms, huffing and puffing as she jumped into one of the displays of “Pokémon throughout the Ages” with a terrifying looking prehistoric Dracovish statue in its presumed natural habitat, a volcanic ocean. Treecko did its best to make itself look small as the custodian charged through the room with their net, the custodian quickly lost confidence as the terrifying shadows of the eerie museum displays seemingly closed in on them for a moment. They gulped, and then turned around, likely deciding it wasn’t worth it.

Avery let out a sigh of relief. Well, she was out of the bathroom, though it seemed like exiting the museum itself might present a different set of challenges. She crept out of the display and took a look around. Between the "Mysteries of Kanto" room, and the beautiful artwork imported in from the Kalos region, there actually was a lot of cool stuff to see in this museum. Avery couldn't help but feel like someone or something was watching her from the shadows though. Well, if she was stuck in the museum, she might as well take a look around!


OOC: Feel free to take control of Avery in your posts! Their personality is listed as "Quiet, reserved, and careful", but they aren't a well established character, so as long as you keep those notes in mind then whatever you make them do should be fine!

[Marchbaby]

After waiting in the shadows for a while Cleopatra noticed a Treeko looking at some of the exhibits and kept a close eye on the strange Pokemon unsure if it was a Pokemon she could trust. She knew such a rare Pokemon had to belong to someone but as a troublemaker could easily use a rare Pokemon as a distraction she did not want to take a chance of revealing herself just yet as she continued to watch from the shadows. After tailing the Treecko for a while it was apparent that whoever the Treecko belonged to was not in the immediate area and Cleopatra decided the risk was worth it to try and get some help on her quest.

Not wanting to scare the Treecko too badly she made sure the grass type was not looking before coming out of the shadows and found a display of evolutionary stones to look at. She then bumped the display to get the Treecko's attention as she continued to look at the stones. She did not realize that the force of her bump was too much however and within seconds the entire display had toppled over leaving glass everywhere. She froze in fear as she had no idea what to do as she did not have any contingency plan if she made any mistakes.

" Oh clumsy me, I should have been more careful. I really hope no one notices this. I am so embarrassed right now. I need to find that artifact quickly before I break anything else. I know that Treecko must have heard all of this ruckus." As she turned towards where she had last seen the grass type Pokemon she was in a state of shock as it was looking right at her. Adter gulping Cleopatra had no choice other than to float towards the poor Pokemon and hope she could still gain it's trust as this plan had not been going well so far at all.

" Hello, my name is Cleopatram what is yours? As you can probably tell I am a bit of a klutz. I heard this museum has a cursed artifact and I had to see for myself. Without a partner however I fear I will never find it. Would you be willing to lend me a hand? I could certainly use it." As she waited for a response she secretly feared she was walking into some kind of a trap but after making such a mess she had to try her luck hoping the strange Pokemon would help her.

[Goni]

Through the barred window, Avery could see the sun shining. “Well, I suppose I made it through the night. I wonder if I should just hide until the museum actually opens, and then sneak out…” Avery thought to herself, looking around. She noticed a nameplate on the door which listed this room as the “Galar Display Room”. She eyed the exhibits slowly, considering each one for a hiding spot. The one she had just been in with the strange looking fossil pokémon was fine, but it was a bit too close to the door. The “Ancient Teapots” section looked a little too fragile, and Avery didn't want to accidentally break something with her tail. The giant model of a sword and shield looked too delicate to even be where it was, suspended in a display about ‘legendary pokémon’ with a giant fearsome looking silhouette painted on the wall behind it. The strange looking runes that were apparently from the Galar Region gave Avery an uneasy feeling just looking at them, but at least it was actually large enough and angled away from the door. No one would see her if she snuck behind there. Just then, Avery heard a loud *~CRASH~* as a smattering of glass and evolutionary stones splashed onto the floor behind her. Avery winced and braced her shoulders, as she thought maybe she had hit something with her tail on accident, but her eyes widened in fear as she saw a strange looking pokémon floating by the broken display.

Avery stood frozen, her eyes quickly darting around the room as the pokémon started talking to her. “Oh crap oh crap oh crap. Someone will have heard that for sure. That custodian knows that I’m here, the museum is set to open any time now, and now an actual museum display has just been broken. If I had to guess this pokémon here is a ghost type, so they can probably just float away or through walls or whatever ghost pokémon can do. Someone is coming for us someone is coming for us… what do I do!!!” Avery thought to herself, her mind reeling. As Cleopatra stopped speaking, Avery focused back in on the conversation, trying to parse out what the pokémon in front of her said while Avery’s mind was racing.

“Cleopatra, huh? My name is Avery. You’re looking for a cursed item?” Avery looked around the room, her eyes fixing on the fallen evolutionary stones. “Are you sure it’s not in this room? You literally just knocked over a museum display… I doubt you did that on purpose… right?” Avery said, eyeing Cleopatra suspiciously. Footsteps echoed through a nearby hallway. Avery gulped. “Quick! Get behind this!” She said, grabbing Cleopatra’s hand and pulling her back behind the Galarian rune display. Avery peeked out from the back as a guard walked past the room, quickly glancing in. They must not have seen the knocked over display however, since they passed by the room and continued on their route. Maybe they hadn’t even heard the display falling over. Or maybe it would only be a few minutes before they made their way back.

“Phew…” Avery said, breathing out a relieved sigh. “So… a cursed artifact? Why would you want to find something like that? Aren’t curses… bad?" Avery thought for a second. Avery knew how to read the human language, so this might actually prove not too difficult a task. Surely if something was cursed, the humans would have made a note of it on the blurbs they write out. Maybe there was even some way Cleopatra could help her out too. "I can help you take a look around, but once I do, would you help me to sneak out of this museum? I don't think we're supposed to be inside right now!"


OOC in spoiler tag

SPOILER: Click to show

There are a few things I thought of that could be cursed in this room. The "Ancient Teapots" I thought could have Polteageist in them. The Galar Runes we hid behind could be a Runerigus. The fossil pokémon display of a Dracovish I mentioned in my first post could be a big Mimikyu. There could be another room with some carved wood artifacts which a Trevenant spirit is trapped in.

There could be a klefki stuck to the security guard's keyring, maybe the cursed artifact at the museum is actually just a klefki who got stuck on some oblivious old man security guard and has been trying to escape, but the guy keeps his keys really well attached to his pants or something, the guard thinks the keys are cursed because they're always losing their keys but the Klefki just really needs help escaping the museum keyring. (I think this could be really fun, part heist, part rescue mission.)


If we wanted to go more cursed item and less pokémon-inhabited cursed items, some of the evolutionary stones that were knocked over could be like... Sableye jewels... maybe bad stuff would happen to us if we decided to pick one up and try to take it from the museum, but we feel compelled to for some reason or another? There could be a alakazam spoon in the cafeteria which floats around, scaring the employees. (Might be funny if the lab partners misheard that an artifact was cursed when it was really just a lunch spoon)

I'm also open to any other ideas or just playing until something feels natural!

[Marchbaby]

As Avery pulled Cleopatra behind the display the young ghost still had not had enough time to come up with a good answer to the Treecko's question involving the cursed artifact nor had she scanned around long enough to try and pinpoint it. As she finally found the courage to speak she tried to reassure Avery that knocking over the display was an accident. " I knocked over that display completely by accident, I am not very good at judging objects stability and I was hoping to make just enough noise to get your attention. Technically my plan worked though not in the way I intended at all. After pausing for another moment Cleopatra tried her best to answer the rest of Avery's questions.

" I am indeed looking for a cursed item. I overhead some lab assistants at Professor Elm's lab talking about some kind of cursed item being here. Indeed curses can be bad if they are used by those who are evil or do not know what they are doing but if they are handled by someone who knows how to use them properly they can be used in good ways. I have a feeling my powers will grow if I can find the object so I can remove it before a human or another Pokemon can use it for evil purposes. I will indeed help you escape in return for your help." She then tried her best to hone in on the cursed items location however so many objects in close vicinity made it hard to pinpoint which if any artifact was the one in question.

After taking a moment to make sure the janitor was not nearby Cleopatra floated over to the display she had knocked over to examine the evolutionary stones to make sure they were not the cursed object. She did not feel anything strange coming from any of the stones and figured that they were not what she was looking for. " The good news is the stones I knocked over are not what we are looking for but maybe if the janitor sees them we can use them as a distraction should the need arise. I cannot rule out a tricky Pokemon playing tricks on humans being behind the rumors either. A lot of other ghost types would get a kick out of pulling off a prank just to start curse rumors."

She did not know where to start looking next however she knew the faster they could either find the cursed item or Pokemon responsible for starting the rumor the better.




OOC: All of those ideas sound great. I kept this post a bit on the vague side for now so nothing gets ruled out yet but the lunch spoon being used to scare employees is such a funny idea and I am really leaning towards that if you are ok with it.

[Goni]

“Alright, sounds like a deal.” Avery said. “I never heard of a -good- curse before though, don’t they usually just call those blessings?” Avery responded, somewhat scoffing at Cleopatra’s words. The treecko peeked her head out from behind the Galarian runes and took a look at the room. Seeing as the coast was clear, Avery crept out from the display and into the main viewing area in the room. “Well, take a sweep of this room, check those objects, and I’ll keep lookout in the hallway.” Avery said. “Feels like a curse I got stuck inside this museum at all to be honest. One moment I was with my trainer in the cafeteria, and then all of the sudden I really had to go to the bathroom, and then somehow I found myself locked inside! That soup was really good too…” Avery said, her stomach letting out a soft grumble. She put her hand on her stomach, wincing a little. “I guess I didn’t realize how hungry I was…”

Avery headed over to the hallway and looked around as Cleopatra went to work checking the objects in the room, one by one. For a few minutes everything was quiet, but Cleopatra was making slow work of the room, and Avery was getting nervous. A quiet murmur emerged from around the corner, followed by echoing footsteps, a whole lot of them. Avery turned around, peeking at Cleopatra. She was still in the same place, carefully examining the statue of the Dracovish. Avery ran back to Cleopatra. “Look, I don’t know if that cursed object is in this room or not, but we gotta go… Now! There’s definitely people coming!”

“—that’s how we got ahold of some of those Kanto artifacts; and just around this corner we have some amazing exhibits, imported straight from the Galar Region” A formal voice echoed. “In just a few hours, I expect all our new guests to be amazed!”
“Perfect. We can’t have anything go wrong at the museum. It’s opening day after all!” A voice responded.

In Avery’s head, lights were flashing, and a quick panic was taking over her mind. Avery never went anywhere without a perfect plan laid out, and today it was crisis after crisis. She liked to take her time to ensure everything went the way she laid it out. “L-… Lets go!” Avery shouted, grabbing Cleopatra by the hand once more and practically wrenching the ghost pokémon back towards the entrance to the exhibit. Down the hall to the right was where the footsteps were coming from, and where the bathroom had been. It also looked like there was another exhibit room that way, which, if the two ran now, they might be able to reach before the voices rounded the corner. To the left the hallway continued on before bending. At the end of the hall before the bend, it looked like there was a staircase leading up, and a door leading into custodian’s closet, around the bend, there could be any number of other rooms, but they were out of sight at the moment.

“Where do we go? Quick!” Avery said to Cleopatra, nervously.

OOC: Hope it's ok I took a little control of Cleopatra. If you want me to change my post just PM me and I'll figure out another reply that's less grabby and less making Cleopatra do things by Avery.

[Marchbaby]

Cleopatra was completely dumbstruck by how quickly things were happening. As hard as it was to keep up however she tried her best to explain the difference between a truly evil curse and one that was not quite as bad. " Technically no curse is truly good however unlike some truly evil curses that cannot be undone some can be used in ways to teach a lesson without long term harm and can be reversed. Unlike a Blessing however they have no short term benefits for the afflicted but like a blessing they can be a long term positive thing." As she finished her explanation and listened to the young Treecko she was quite intrigued as she was able to survive purply by absorbing energy of living things or objects.

" Ah that sounds like quite a bad stroke of luck. I can only imagine getting trapped somewhere like this on accident. I thought it was a but scary coming here voluntarily." As the two looked around Cleopatra was not paying any attention at all as Avery grabbed her and ran. When they finally came to a stop and Avery asked which way they should go Cleopatra tried to recover from the shock of being grabbed as she pointed to the stairs leading to another floor. " I feel something up those stairs. It is too far away to say what it is but it may very well be what we are looking for." She then quickly floated towards the steps with Avery right behind her.

" Since there are people down here it is perfect if what we are looking for is upstairs. I hope there is no one else up here or else it will make this search far harder. I am curious as to what so many people are doing here right now?" She pondered as she reached the top of the steps and started to scan around hoping to hone in on a good location. One direction seemed to be a display of different food from around the Pokemon world while in the other direction there was a display of armor worn by Pokemon in different wars throughout the ages. " I am getting a few strange readings from both displays, which one would you like to check out first?" She asked as she kept an ear out for any humans just in case any of them came upstairs.


OOC: No worries, sorry for the delay in this response and I do hope this is ok.

[Goni]

Avery quickly charged down the hallway after Cleopatra, bounding up the stairs as fast as possible. Nervously clamoring up the steps, she glanced back down the hallway to see a group of well dressed people chatting jovially as they rounded the corner. Avery jumped up the stairs, then quickly peeked back. No one from the group seemed to notice as they meandered their way down the hallway, all whispering to each other and gasping excitedly as they turned into the entrance of the Galar exhibit. Avery wiped the sweat from her brow, but Cleopatra didn’t seem very worried at all. “This is fine…” Avery thought, eyes darting around the new scene they found themselves stuck in. “I’ll be worried for the both of us!” Avery scrambled around, taking stock of what was going on.

“People are here because any minute now this museum is going to open!” Avery said panicked. “We have to… find the object?” Avery said, completely unsure of what she was even doing anymore, her heart once again beating out of her chest. “Over there!” She said as she started running, stumbling towards the antique armors. “Lets go quickly!” Avery said as she started stumbling around looking at the various armors. She ran up to one of the display panels and started reading. “Okay, this one says here… Okay, yeah, yeah, a suit of Drowzee armor. The horn on the head was thought to amplify the hypnotic waves that a drowzee can emit from its head. This one was used in one of the bloodiest wars-...” Avery glanced back at the stairs nervously, her mind playing tricks on her, though it didn’t really sound like anyone was coming up them.

“Could the curse be inside the suit?” Avery thought to herself, her panic clouding her usual rational thoughts. She ambled over the red velvet rope which clearly said “Do Not Touch Armor” on a plaque attached to it, and stumbled up towards the suit of armor which was only slightly larger than her. She carefully lifted the strange looking helmet, which had a weird gramophone looking speaker on the outside of it, and looked inside. A nasty looking funnel with rust all over it looked like it poked inwards into the suit of armor on the other side of the horn. “Euch! Did this actually stab into their head?” Avery thought to herself. “Well, I don’t know if this is cursed but something sure seems horrifying about it.”

“Check this out Cleopatra!” Avery said, holding up the helmet. The suit itself was a polished looking silver on the outside, with only a few knicks on it. Whatever drowzee had used this suit sure hadn’t been attacked much. Maybe due to the mechanism which it would distribute its hypnosis. The thought made Avery shudder in fear, imagining a whole army brought to slumber by a single pokémon, and then slain as they rested. “There’s no way this thing isn’t cursed!” Avery said, pointing to the rusted end of the funnel which had probably decayed from repeated use. “What do you think?"

SPOILER: Click to show

OOC: The armor sounded too cool not to investigate! Maybe we can do a fakeout with a ghost pokémon here before finding the actual cursed object? Or this could just be the cursed object. I think a gastly or maybe a chandelure somehow made its home in the helmet. Chandelure's pokedex entry is "The spirits burned up in its ominous flame lose their way and wander this world forever.". Sounded like it could have lived in this helmet when the drowzee was using it and maybe helped the drowzee in its wars, it could be an old ghost pokemon who is on the verge of fading away, maybe like a kindly old ghost pokemon who wants to tell us about his old war stories! xD Or it could just be nothing, maybe another suit of armor is cursed! Or there could be a different curse, but it's not active any more, kind of going with what Cleopatra had said in the last post. A moral curse whose lesson had been learned. And then we could continue on to the main cursed attraction at the food exhibit

[Marchbaby]

As Avery and Cleopatra rushed into the room full of armor Cleopatra was stunned by the residual energy the various pieces were giving off. She could only imagine the horrors the suits had seen throughout the years and there was no doubt that such objects could be cursed. As Avery explored one of the suits Cleopatra started to daydream only snapping out of it when Avery held up a helmet in front of her. Thinking that the young Treecko was onto something Cleopatra placed her hands on the helmet and started to scan it for any sign of a curse. As she did a voice called out to her from within the object. Cleopatra dropped the helmet in shock as the helmet started to glow red hot.

" Who dares disturb my slumber? I have possessed this helmet for over 300 years peacefully after seeing countless wars. I used to help those who wore this suit become unstoppable on the battlefield until the suit fell out of use and now I have to deal with two pests who cannot read a simple sign." A Chandelure then appeared in front of Cleopatra and Avery lookingat the two quite angered by their snooping. Before the fiery spirit could speak again CLeopatra tried to defuse the situation. " I am so sorry we disturbed you, we are looking for a cursed object said to be in this museum before a clueless Pokemon or human makes the mistake of messing with it. We had no idea a ghost Pokemon was resting in the armor."

Chandelure then paused for a moment never expecting a young Yamask and Treecko to have such a noble goal. Though still annoyed by the two for not reading such simple directions the ghost figured it might be able to help. " Ah that is all you were after? I could have led you to the right place if you would have asked. An old warrior like me has no trouble dealing with objects like that. I have encountered many cursed objects on my travels. Not only that but I am friends with other spirits who call this museum home and we have heard something about a cursed object involving the food exhibit down the hall. I have not seen anything yet though I rarely leave this armor after it being my resting place for so many years."

As Chandelure finished providing the tip it grew exhausted from talking the most it had in such a long time. Before going back to slumber in the armor however it wished the two young Pokemon luck. " I hope you youngsters find the object you are after. I wish I had the energy to help but alas wars have taken their toll out on me. Farewell and maybe we shall meet again someday." As Chandelure disappeared into the Drowzee armor Cleopatra knew she had to take the old spirits advice as she floated towards the hall leading to the food exhibit. She only stopped when she realized she was getting too far ahead of Avery.

" Oh goodness I am sorry I almost left you behind there. It sounds like the food exhibit is where we need to check out now, I am glad we did not get into a fight with that Chandelure. That poor spirit must have seen so much over the years." She then took a peek into the food exhibit and was amazed by the displays full of different food from various regions. There was enough food to keep a Snorlax fed for a month sitting out just begging to be eaten.



OOC: I di apologize for the long delay again and I do hope this reply is ok.

[Goni]

Avery stood there, frozen with fear. She had haphazardly picked up this helmet, and now it was actively talking to her. A shiver shot down her spine as the voice reverberated through the helmet, a Chandelure’s ghastly eyes appearing, and just a faint trace of blue flame ignited around the helmet as Avery held it on her shoulder, doing her best not to move as Cleopatra conversed with the pokémon within. Cleopatra seemed completely unfazed by the presence of the ghost pokémon in the museum, but for Avery, this absolutely was a first.

Sweating bullets, Avery stood as still as possible until Cleopatra finished talking, at which point the Treecko clumsily hoisted the helmet back onto its suit of armor, backwards. As slowly crept inch by inch away, the helmet seemed to slowly turn, its eyes focusing on Avery. “Please don’t touch any more of the displays youngster… And if you do, return things to how they once were. I’d like to please just rest in peace, if that’s not too much to ask now.” The voice echoed out of the armor.

Avery didn’t respond, instead opting to get as far away as possible. After a brief moment of panic realizing that she had been left alone here, Avery ran out of the exhibit room. “Ah… There she is.” Avery thought to herself, finally spotting Cleopatra floating down the hallway. “Th… the food exhibit now, huh? Surely there are no ghosts here.” Avery said with a weary smile, trying to convince themselves that everything was okay. “Yeah… Poor spirit.” Avery said, eyeing the various food displays, trying not to recall the gruesome description of the drowzee armor.

Avery nervously waited behind Cleopatra, allowing her to go first this time. There was no way Avery was going to be touching any more displays today. Not a chance… Not at… Well, other than this moo moo ice cream… maybe just a scoop. Avery found herself drawing closer and closer to the ice cream display where a variety of 24 different large tubs were displayed, and they must have been freshly put there merely a few minutes ago in anticipation of the grand opening of the museum. The icy cold mist drifted from the display as Avery walked up to the human sized cart licking her lips. She slowly started to climb up the side of the cart, and onto the serving counter. There they lay, every flavor Avery could ever dream of. Just the thought of having some was making her drool. “Hey Cleopatra, think you could pass me a spoon over here? Just want to see if this ice-cream is cursed or not."

[Marchbaby]

Cleopatra was quite intrigued by such a large selection of food that she did too a moment to notice that Avery had asked her for a spoon. It was only after she saw a container full of spoons and felt a cold mist go by. " Huh that is strange, why is it so cold near these spoons? All well it cannot be anything too serious compared to a Chandelure sleeping in armor." As she grabbed a spoon however an even colder mist surrounded her. She froze in her tracks as the lights in the room suddenly switched off without warning and a shadow appeared near the ice cream cart Avery was standing near.

" Who dares touch my spoons without my approval? They are far too special to be used for such a trivial task such as eating." The shadow then started to take the form of a humanoid Pokemon known as Alakazam. The psychic type groomed it's mustache as it stared at the two young Pokemon trying to feast with very little patience for their ignorance. " That dumb janitor needs to be fired if two small Pokemon such as yourself can get by him. I really hate incompetent people. My bending spoons deserve far better care than that fool can provide." As the Alakazam finished grilling the janitor's poor performance Cleopatra started to speak hoping Alakazam would be in a more friendly mood if it knew what was going on.

" I am so sorry, I was just looking for a spoon for my friend Avery. We are looking for a cursed object said to be in this museum so we can remove it before someone falls victim to it. We do not know what the object is but the friendly Chandelure in the other room told us they heard it might be here." Alakazam started to laugh once it had realized that the two young Pokemon meant no harm. " Ah some dumb humans must have seen me practicing with one of my spoons and thought it was a curse of some kind. I have scanned every object in this museum and I can assure you nothing is cursed. Some objects do indeed have spirits living in them but all of them mean no hard."

After pausing for a moment Alakazam decided to demonstrate for the two Pokemon to show how easily a human could be fooled." Here let me show you, I will disappear and then bend one of my spoons to show you how easily a human would think something far more sinister was at hand." As the psychic type disappeared in front of the two Pokemon on of the spoons in the jar started to bend until it nearly snapped. Alakazam then reappeared before Cleopatra and Avery hoping the two would be impressed by it's explination.

" Wow that is amazing, I can see how someone would think a curse was afoot seeing something like that happened. I am so relieved it is not more sinister. Still it is a shame there is no cursed object as it may have helped me grow more powerful had I been able to harness it's powers for good." Alakazam then offered her a bit of advice as he did not want the young Yamask to think the entire trip was a waste. " Ah do not worry young one. Power will come to you with time. Keep working with your trainer and I am sure you will gain power without putting yourself at so much risk." Alakazam then looked over at Avery wondering if the young grass type had anything to say before it saw the two youngsters off.




OOC: I do apologize for the wait again and I do hope this is ok.

[Goni]

Avery's mouth watered as she looked at all the flavors of ice cream, but then a voice boomed out from behind her. "Who dares touch my spoons without my approval?" The Alakazam's voice boomed out. Avery slowly turned, and saw the scene. Cleopatra had grabbed a spoon from a container, and suddenly an Alakazam was there. Cleopatra began apologizing, and Avery just sat and watched as the scene played out. Every time Cleopatra mentioned Avery, turned slightly towards her, or directed any amount of attention her way, she winced in fear. This Alakazam was not only terrifying, but it was also way larger than either Avery or Cleopatra. Slowly and nervously, as Cleopatra and the Alakazam conversed, Avery made her way closer to the two of them, carefully moving inch by inch.

Alakazam noticed Avery walking closer, Avery looking incredibly awkward as she made her way closer. The Alakazam raised an eyebrow, but wasn't concerned about the small grass type. The Alakazam had faced much more powerful foes before, and it could tell that Avery was nervous and definitely not a threat. "Here let me show you, I will disappear and then bend one of my spoons to show you how easily a human would think something far more sinister was at hand." The Alakazam's voice boomed out of it, confidently. Avery finally had reached Cleopatra, and felt a lot safer next to the ghost type. "Phew..." Avery thought, focusing on her friend, rather than the large, and quite intimidating pokemon that stood before them. Avery hardly noticed as the Alakazam used its psychic abilities to manipulate the spoon. As Cleopatra and Alakazam finished their conversation, the Alakazam looked down at Avery.

Avery averted her gaze. "Well... Uh.. If there's n-no cursed item?" She said nervously to Cleopatra. Avery fell silent afterwards, but started motioning towards the exit. "M...Maybe we could get outta here-" Avery started, but was interrupted. Alakazam's eyes fixed on the doorway, then he glanced down at the two pokemon. "Perhaps an opportunity to gain power is coming up soon. There's only one exit to this room, and I detect someone moving down the hallway to this room as we speak. If you and your companion can make it out of this museum without getting captured by that incompetent janitor, perhaps I would be willing to give up one of my precious spoons." The Alakazam said, looking down at the container as its eyes glowed. A small baby spoon floated out with a peculiar twist in its handle. "Ah yes... this one could do." The Alakazam said with a grin. "Good luck, young ones." The Alakazam said, and in a blink of the eyes, the Alakazam vanished from the room with the container of spoons.

Down the hallway, footsteps echoed through the hallway. Avery glanced over at Cleopatra. "Well, we cleared up the curse rumors... Now we gotta get outta here!" She said, nervously eyeing the door. Suddenly, the janitor rounded the corner, freezing when he saw the two pokemon. "You!" He said, pointing at the Treecko angrily. Avery jumped nervously at the sudden appearance. "Lets go, Cleopatra!" She shouted to her friend. Avery quickly started dashing further away from the exit of the room, hoping that the janitor would chase her further in. The custodian grinned, and pulled out its net. "You have been running around this museum all morning making trouble. Don't think I didn't see what you did downstairs. And guess who got blamed for that?! Now I've got to catch you, or its my job on the line!" The custodian said with frustration. The custodian charged forward, swinging its net at Avery, which she nimbly dodged, the net crashing into the ice-cream cart. The cart tilted backwards with the force of the blow, and fell down onto its side. "Gah!" The custodian shouted, grabbing their head in horror. "What did I just do!"

Avery didn't stop to help, as soon as the custodian took their eyes off of Avery, she started bolting towards the hallway, hoping Cleopatra had already made her way there. Avery knew Cleopatra had entered the museum through a different entrance than her, so hopefully she knew how to get back out as well. "Which way to the exit, Cleopatra?" Avery said hurriedly, looking back at the custodian. They had pushed the cart back upright, and had looked around the room quickly, spotting the two pokemon in the hallway. "I'll get you! And your friend too!"

[Marchbaby]

As Cleopatra floated around quite obliviously unaware of the situation around her the sound of the custodians voice finally caused her to panic. As she saw Avery running ahead of her she tried her best to catch back up to the young grass type barely able to do so. She had just caught up when Avery asked her where the exit was the ghost was not quite sure how to answer. Cleopatra had no issue floating up to a vent to make a getaway however she was not strong enough to carry another Pokemon while she did so. On the other hand she did have a trick up her sleeve to buy some time until she could figure something out. " Trick Room should buy me a few moments to figure out an exit. Hang on as things might start to feel weird." A strange aura then filled the museum as space and time grew distorted modifying the speed of everything around them.

" I hate needing to use a trick like this in public as it can be risky but now that the custodian won't be able to follow us as quickly maybe I can find us an exit now." She then noticed a fire escape door with a latch she could reach down the end of a hall. It would make for a noisy exit but after the eventful day they had so far a false alarm going off would be a minor inconvenience. Cleopatra rushed towards the latch and tugged with all of her might until it finally gave way. A small set of stairs led to a clearing just outside the museum and as she darted towards the clearing she looked behind her making sure Avery would not get left behind.

" Whoa that was quite a day, thank you for helping me bring this matter to rest. I am not sure how much longer my Trick Room will hold that janitor up for but now that we are outside I do not think he will want to make a scene following us any further. If you are ever in my neck of the woods again I would love to go on another adventure with you." Cleopatra then caught her breath and waited to see if Avery needed any more help before she would make her way back to Professor Elm's lab before anyone noticed she was missing.

[Goni]

Avery watched as Cleopatra effortlessly set up the Trick Room, the world around her warping strangely. As the custodian charged forward, it suddenly and strangely slowed down rapidly as they looked down in surprise. Avery watched the custodian as it seemed to be running in slow motion towards Avery. Avery took a small step away, and for some reason the small step was incredibly quick. "So in this room, moving slower makes you go faster?" Avery thought to herself, slowly and as casually as she could manage Avery walked away from the custodian, the custodian's face flush with frustration as they watched the Treecko get away. As Avery turned her head, she realized that Cleopatra was already gone and out of the trick room area.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP* Alarms suddenly went off. Avery froze for a second, then decided it was probably best to keep moving. She looked down the hall and realized the source of the sound was Cleopatra pushing open the window. "Cleo!" Avery started, but as the window slid open and the fire escape was revealed, Avery shut her mouth and followed. Here it was, finally, sweet freedom. Through the panic of everything that had happened, Avery had never even considered trying to leave through a fire escape window.

Safely outside and able to catch her breath, Avery smiled at Cleopatra. "And thanks for helping me escape that museum! I didn't expect today to be so lively, but I'm glad I ran into you. Who knows what would have happened if that custodian had gotten their hands on us! Maybe next time we go on an adventure, it can be a proper one, not just a scramble through a museum!" Avery said, with a soft chuckle afterwards. "Hopefully we'll see each other around again!"


OOC: I'm ready to wrap up and get this graded if you are March! Thanks so much for the escapade! I had a ton of fun! Hopefully we get to RP together again sometime soon! ^^

[antonius]

I will warn you two, you may not like my review. I do apologize for not getting to this sooner. After reading this in one sitting instead of several, this scenario gave me a mixed of ideas. It felt like a touch of Scooby Doo and the Mystery Gang but missing the villain. The "living" exhibits via the other ghost Pokemon brought in a touch of the movie series "Night at the Museum" which basically has a magic tablet bring everything in the museum to life at night. Being a former maintenance person, it is hard for me to swallow the janitor having a baton net device on the cart. Something like that could been on a security guard who in turn could have helped capture the two Pokemon. I was hoping for an actual cursed item and let down it was only a parlor trick.

Creativity: one star (decent concept)

Teamwork: two stars (Cleopatra seemed to resolve most of the team encounters which Avery caused)

Bonus Star: A Star is Born (again, I like the concept but wanted it explored a bit more)

This felt like you lost track of where it was going midway through and wanted to wrap it up to free up Pokemon. The bumbling janitor was a little funny.

For the 4 stars, unless I am outranked, this will give +4 levels to Cleopatra and +4 to Avery (Cleaopatra 6 -> 10, Avery 6 -> 10)

Avery can learn Mega Drain, will need to drop a move

Cleo can learn night shade, will need to drop a move