Even while the stronger guild members were getting some action with occasional missions, the same could not be said about the lower members. For the likes of Locke and Tamin, the guild was stilled with attrition, and they had little to do.
Even though there were the occasional things to break the status quo up for them, such as days of building snow forts, and the occasional birthday, the continuous state of the guild was still one of boredom. One could call it 'relentless boredom', but that wouldn't be an apt description as relentlessness implies constantly pushing forward, and not much was moving at all during that time at all. Even news of approaching blizzards was trivial as the guildhouse was already weathered for them.
It was in that state that Locke found himself as well. He picked up the practice of taking naps in the middle of the day to pass the time, but his body couldn't sleep more when it had already gotten fifteen hours of sleep in the last twenty-four hours. As a result, much of the time was him just laying in the bed on his side, awake with eyes open and occasionally flicking his tail to get some movement. Although he didn't want to complain, as to him this was still better than previous winters by virtue of the fact he was warm and well fed.
The blank wall of his room was like a canvas for him to set his imagination upon. No stimulus to be granted by it, only his own thoughts to swirl around in. His mind drifted around while he waited for sleep to finally take him again. One of his random thoughts being him attempting to visualize an entire map of the guildhouse. It was then that recollection hit him:
There was that strange trapdoor hiding a staircase downwards in Sylveon's office in the basement.
When Locke remembered the anomaly, he stopped laying down and sprung up. It wasn't just another thing he thought of to entertain his mind, it was a mystery to be solved. No longer attempting to sleep, he sat in his bed asking himself "What was that?", "Did I really see that, or was I just imagining things?", "What if it was a dream?" and "Where did that go to if it was in the basement?"
He could ponder that all he wanted within the confines of his abode, but Locke couldn't procure answers ex nihilo. Although that was exactly what made it so interesting, since it meant he would have to investigate.
A smile appeared on his face as he rose up from the cushions and departed from his room. To him, it actually felt like a real adventure. Not just going through a room in the guildhouse that he had not seen before to a place that was familiar to him, but descending a mysterious staircase downwards into unknown places, perhaps even a mystery dungeon. "It's gonna be like my best days", he told himself. Even remembering what happened with Espeon's personal room and office, he was still hyped up.
The shinx didn't want to just waltz in alone nor unprepared. Locke wanted to treat this like any expedition with supplies and all. He also wanted someone to accompany him, since he knew that having a team of two people was over twice as good as having just one. Because if one of them got fully restrained then the other could help them out instead of the journey ending right then and there.
Crystal was asleep, so the first thing he did was to go to Tamin's room right beside his own room to get a companion. It wasn't a terribly long walk anyways, and once at the door he raised one of his front paws to knock on it in hopes of a response.
"One second!" Locke heard Tamin say from the room, confirming that she was present in it.
Tamin jumped down from her hammock to land on the floor, then went towards the door to unlock and open it.
"Yeah?" Tamin asked while she was opening the door to reveal Locke.
"Hey Tamin." Locke responded,
"Oh hey. How have you been?" she asked back, now knowing who it was.
"Bored and stuff, the usual. Could I come in and talk for a minute?"
"Oh, of course." Tamin said while she stepped to the side and pulled the door more open to let Locke in.
Locke went towards the center of the room and sat down on the carpet, watching Tamin close and lock the room door once he was seated.
"So," Locke started explaining, "do you remember the first chore day we had back in the fall, a bit after we joined the guild?"
Tamin got into a chair in her room. Once in she sat back to think.
"Yeah. I remember that," Tamin said. "What about it?"
"So, well, let me think how to explain this… so at one point I was cleaning a room that turned out to be Sylveon's office, I was just cleaning random rooms for the competition I was doing with Dewott, right?"
"Right," Tamin said, just wanting Locke to get through the story he was telling.
"Okay, well, I was cleaning that room and noticed there was something under the carpet in the room. So I lifted the carpet up and remembered seeing… a trapdoor. And under that there was a staircase downwards."
"Wait, what?" Tamin asked.
"Okay, look-look-look, I don't understand neither. I heard Sylveon coming into the room so I closed the door and left. But I swear I saw that!" Locke said, trying to not sound like a madman. "But that's just what I wanted to ask you about. I want to go down there and investigate it with you, it'll be a nice thing to explore and not to just wait and stuff. What do ya say?"
"Umm… are you sure this won't just end up like what happened when we went through Espeon's bedroom?" Tamin asked, concerned.
"Oh come on, it won't be like that," Locke said defensively. "That was like two weeks back. We've learned lessons to avoid what happened there. Besides, we're not going down with Hunter, so there's no worry with him."
"I'm still not sure," she admitted. "I mean, from your description it sounds like just a celler of some sort, not anything too special. So I don't think it's really something we should be taking a risk on."
"But if it was 'just a celler of some sort', then wouldn't they use a different room in the basement? There are a lot of unused and locked rooms down there already," Locke pointed out.
"Huh…that's a good point," Tamin admitted, looking downwards as she tried to visualize everything he was describing and piece things together.
"I could just feel there was something more to that, y'know?"
"Not really, to be honest," Tamin said. "Maybe there's a more rational explanation to this, we could check some of the books on the guildhouse for info."
"I doubt they have any book on that. But even if there was, that's just not interesting. Think about it, this could be a perfect time to break up all this borin' stuck inside stuff going on. There could be a whole adventure down there, a big ol' dungeon for us to explore!"
"Well that's kind of the thing, I'm comfy with how things are now. I can just rest and read, with nothing threatening my life in the process. No responsibilities, no freaking out over not getting something important done, no consequences," Tamin admitted. "Sure there are some people that I'd like to get more distance on, but I don't think a short incursion down into whatever's below will give me that for very long. I like just laying down in my hammock and reading."
"Really? You like this?" Locke asked, befuddled.
"Not the ideal form of living, but I'd call it better than getting trapped in darkness or getting held upside down by my tail again as punishment," Tamin explained. "Sorry, I guess I'm just not adventurous like you are. Maybe ask Dewott? I know he's more of the type for this."
"Hmm…" Locke thought to himself. His gut instincts told him that he ought to go with Tamin, but what string of words could he say that would make her come along as well? Begging was neither something he wanted to do nor what he felt would be effective on Tamin, so it was a social challenge for him. "Tell you what, if anything goes wrong, if we somehow get caught, then I'll take the fall for you. It was my plan anyways, and I'm apparently a troublemaker in the guild, so Sylveon will probably believe me anyways.
So what do you say? Will you come 'lone if I promise to do that? Please?"
Tamin looked into the lion's eyes. They weren't the eyes of ferocity that many had come to associate that particular shinx with, but eyes that showed innocence that veiled nothing more behind it. It reminded her of eyes that she would oftentimes make, or what she saw her siblings make when put into precarious circumstances. That train of thought continued, and she remembered what it felt like to have that innocence crushed away and for the eyes to prove fruitless- the terrible, horrible feeling of getting dashed.
"...Fine. I'll join you, and we'll see what this trapdoor is about," Tamin folded.
"Really? Aww sweet," he replied.
"Start getting ready, I have a bag for myself. I'll just be twenty minutes."
"Take your time, not like we're in a rush. We're doing this to kill time, cut it down and get to the interesting parts of life sooner."
"Yeah yeah, that."
Confidence restored, Locke left Tamin's chamber and returned to his own abode. At near synchronicity, they got their bags and began loading them with what they needed.
Anything they could take without being suspicious was fair game, so they mostly took their own possessions instead of guild's stocks. Locke put on the same bags he had before he joined the guild and filled it with what he used to, equipping himself with the likes of oran berries, heal seeds, bandages, water, and some caffeine just in case. Tamin stayed light and grabbed things which had some utility, such as a knife, some pins, and a spool of string among other things. Both knew flares were off the table as red flags would be raised if they attempted to obtain it, and they were too loud anyways to do anything in secrecy with.
When the twenty minutes agreed upon were over, the minccino met up with Locke once more in his room. They then departed for the basement with Locke leading the way, still unsure if they would have only a few rooms or an entire complex to uncover.
Locke found no issue in retracing his steps to return to Sylveon's office. It was a route he could instinctively follow as he had been there once, even if he would be unable to draw a map to it consciously if asked to do so to prove a point. Tamin on the other hand had no idea where they were going, and felt uneasy. She began to have second guesses and slowly rising stress, not helping matters was how stealthy Locke was acting, forcing her to do the same.
After a minute of sneaking, Locke saw what he recognized as the door to Sylveon's office. He stepped up to it silently on his soft paws and put his ear on the door to listen in: silence. Locke slowly opened the door to peek inside: devoid of life.
Locke gestures for Tamin to follow, which she heeded. Equally silent, she entered the room as well. Once they were both inside of the walls of the office, they closed the door behind them.
Things looked normal to Tamin, it was a typical office, if not a little barren like the rest of the basement was. But she stood back while Locke went to the same exact corner of the carpet he remembered interacting with. Like before, he managed to get a grip to lift it up. The minccino stepped out of the way of the uprooting carpet, and like before, the trapdoor that lay beneath was uncovered. It was just like the state he last saw it in, like it was frozen in time.
"Wow… well I'll be," Tamin quietly said as she looked down at the hatch. "You were right, it really was there."
"Did you doubt me?" Locke asked.
"Well, kinda," Tamin said. "I mean, your memory isn't great by your own admission, you don't know where you came from or what your exact birthday is."
"Well what did you think I saw?" Locke asked, confused by Tamin.
"I don't know, some loose floorboards covering a hole. Just not something this clear and distinct? Could've also been a dream, sometimes you can forget what is a dream and what is real. Especially for something as fantastical as a stairway into the unknown."
"Tamin trust me, I know what I'm doing?" Locke said. "Is there anything that I've questioned what you said about?"
"Sorry…" she shyly admitted. "Anyways, let's check this out."
Tamin rotated the wooden board to adjust it to no longer blocked the door. The minccino then grabbed onto the ring trap door handle and pulled it up to reveal what was underneath. Sure enough, it was the same stairway into darkness that he remembered.
"Let me go down first, I want to make sure it can be opened from beneath before we both head down," Locke said.
"Good idea, I'll hold it open."
Doing what he was unable to do months ago, the shinx stepped down into the staircase, and Tamin lightly closed it on top of him. One second later, Locke pushed it open from beneath.
"Alright, we won't get trapped down here. Come," Locke said.
"I am."
Tamin withdrew a lighter from the bag she brought and came into the staircase with him. They shut the trapdoor, hiding enclosing them in darkness again. Locke began lighting his body up and Tamin flipped her lighter open and clicked it three times to produce a flame from it. Both bioluminescence and firelight illuminated the way again, and allowed them to make out their surroundings of a few meters around, allowing them to begin descending down. Locke's harness casted shadows onto the tunnel as it covered the parts of him that glowed.
The stairs were designed for pokemon slightly larger than them. There were no wooden boards, no stone, and no carpet. The entire tunnel was just excavated brown dirt, with walls and steps made out of that same dirt compressed down. Locke was focused on just going downwards, but Tamin looked around her more.
"How do you think this place was constructed? Who do you think made it?" Tamin asked.
"Dunno, might've been Excadrill or someone," Locke replied. "Or maybe this is something older that they made the guild on?"
"Fair enough. But we are officially trespassing right now, so we need to be careful."
"Exactly what I'm doing. But if you start to get scared and lonely, we probably are only one hollar away from getting company. That way you won't be scared, in darkness, and alone. You'll instead be scared, in darkness, and with a pissed off sylveon."
Tamin didn't respond to the humor, she only kept heading downwards beside the shinx.
After a minute of uncertain descending, they could finally see something at the end of it. A wooden wall with a reinforced door in its center.
Locke and Tamin checked each other's expressions to confirm they both saw the same thing. They then both sped up their pace on how quickly they went down, reaching the wooden wall and door at the bottom.
There was a bit of flat terrain before the wood wall. Once they both got down there, Locke slowly approached the door and grabbed the handle of it. As he tried to turn it, he found himself only able to rotate it a slight amount before it stopped itself, far from being able to open it.
After his failed attempts, Locke turned his head upwards to notice a keyhole in the door.
"Dang, it's locked," he said while still focusing on it.
"Give me one second then," Tamin said as she set her lighter on the bottom staircase step and began digging through her bag again.
Locke began making plans of searching Sylveon's office for a key, or maybe trying to get into his bedroom to find the key, trying to figure out how to get through the door with his own methods.
While Locke was still working out his plans, Tamin pulled out some pins and a small knife from her bag. Putting the blade in one paw and the pins in the other, she approached the keyhole.
Locke took a step to the side to give Tamin room to get towards the door. She stuck the knife into the bottom of the keyhole and a pin right above it. Clicking sounds could then be heard as she began moving the different pins in the keyhole, with her carefully listening for the right noises while also feeling the mechanisms inside being slid around.
"Wow. You're really dexterous with those," Locke commented while watching Tamin mess with the keyhole.
Tamin took the paw that was holding the knife off and showed it to Locke, spreading her fingers out as much as she could and moving them around.
"The webbing in between my fingers has been cut down," Tamin explained with the demonstration, "I can spread them out a lot more than normal."
The more Locke observed, the more unnatural it looked to him. Her separate fingers were moving around significantly further apart then they should have. The bottom of them and in between them looked like scarred flesh, it was slightly red and had little fur grown there. He could tell what Tamin was referring to, and it looked painful.
"Huh. Didn't know that about you," Locke said while he continues to look at Tamin's paw.
"Well, you do now," Tamin said as she pulled her paw back and put it back on the knife, "Do me a favor and be quiet for a second while I figure this out."
Locke nodded up and down while Tamin turned all of her focus to the keyhole.
She continued to flick different pins in the keyhole up, counting how many there were and carefully listening for what sounds they made when moved at different heights.
After a minute of figuring things out and rearranging the pins, she got each part of the lock at the right position and twisted the knife. The lock turned smoothly with it. She then held the knife still while she reached with her other paw for the door handle. Now with the lock turned, the door handle now turned fully. It was then only a simple push to get the door rearing open.
"Nailed it," Tamin quietly said to herself in pride as she saw the results of successfully picking the door lock.
"Nice. That's pretty impressive Tamin," Locke congratulated her, but having to control his voice.
"What can I say? I'm a rogue," the minccino replied while putting her tools back into their bag.
They pushed the door open and continued forward again, continuing the journey. The tunnel was flat now, and didn't descend into the earth any further. It only continued for a few meters until they were met with a ninety degree turn to the left. They took that, only to find another equally sharp turn to the left not much further. But continuing down that way, they saw the tunnel open up into a room much larger, with objects made of materials other than raw earth to break up the persistent brown color.
To their left was a large wall rack above another desk of some sort. The rack was ordained with hangers holding clothing and equipment. They moved closer to examine it more closely.
Most of the things hung up appeared to be harnesses of different sizes and shapes, similar to the one Locke was being forced to wear. But unlike his, methods of restraint were much more apparent in many of them. Some reselmbed straight jackets more than harnesses.
They both looked at the collection together. Tamin herself went up to it and began climbing up the display by grabbing onto different hooks in order to get a closer look. While climbing, she noticed one of the harnesses displayed was of a familiar shape. Tamin then started hanging on the wall using only one of her arms while she used the other to take the apparel off of the rack and inspect them more closely. She uncovered one that looked to be sized for a zorua, another that seemed to be sized for an emolga and made out of rubber, several of different shapes that were made of a spongy meterial, two identical harnesses that seemed to fit a meowstic and were made out of some dark furs rather than cloth like the rest of them were, and more beyond that. It was almost a game in trying to figure out what each one was designed for; a twisted game that was much better suited for Locke to play than her.
"Just what the hell is this place?" Tamin asked, speaking mostly to herself but being loud enough for Locke to hear.
"Well, at least we know where he got this thing from," Locke said while he looked at the harness he was currently wearing. "At least this seems like a nice place to be."
"What? How is this possibly a good place?" Tamin questioned.
"Because there's a little something for everyone down here, no one can feel left out," Locke said with a smile.
"Oh, heheheh," Tamin tried to awkwardly laugh while she continued looking at the rack, trying to make sure there was nothing that would fit on her.
"I'm sure Sylveon must feel proud of himself for having such a thorough collection. It's like bottle caps," Locke continued.
"Let's just keep looking around," Tamin replied as she hopped down.
"Ah, alright."
They turned to look around more. Behind them and to the right of where they entered from, they saw a few loose crates and boxes. They weren't properly stored on shelves or efficiently stacked up, more so haphazardly put around with little care. They approached the stockpile and shined the light over it to scrutinize it further. There were water containers, bags of dry kibble that was quite a few steps down from the food the guild ate, unopened boxes of absorbent pads, cleaning supplies, cuffs, sleep seeds, non-perishable treats, and more. What made Tamin cringe the most to see was the dry kibble, it made her queasy to imagine trying to survive off of that for any long period of time.
"Hang on, is Sylveon preparing a doomsday shelter down here? Is that what the non-perishable supplies are about?" Tamin asked as they continued looking through the stockpile, "I think both the trapdoor we found and the door we found earlier were airtight, so maybe this is geared to stay dry in a flood?"
"Maybe, but that doesn't explain what all the harness stuff is about," Locke responded.
"Hmm, true,"
After seeing what they could in the stockpile, they moved on again and continued down the room.
The first thing they saw when they traveled down was a thick plastic disposable bin, designed to be able to store biohazards. They didn't check its contents, so they kept walking forward down the intimidatingly long room, guided by their limited light.
Another few meters in, they found something new that lined both walls of the room and caught them off guard: a series of closed kennels. Some were made of metal, some were lined with rubber, all made to be quite durable.
They varied in sizes greatly, some being only a meter long at its farthest sides and others being three times that. How large the pokemon it was intended to be for could be determined by the door size to the kennel. They appeared to be enlarged as well, with twice as much area on the inside of it. Some of them even looked like they were made by taking two identical kennels, cutting holes into them and attaching them together.
At the ceiling there were hooks, each an equal space of about ten feet away from one another. They seemed to be designed for holding lanterns, but they were all unused.
"This... is literally a dungeon," Tamin spoke.
"Sylveon's been busy, assuming it was him who made this," Locke said, having to remind himself that this was all inside of the guildhouse. "Do you think Espeon even knows about this place?"
"I mean, I don't see a reason why he wouldn't," Tamin replied.
Tamin walked closer to one of the kennels in the room, shining her light into it to see inside. Looking into it, she saw a water dispenser on the inside of the kennel along with a small tank for it on the outside of the kennel. The interior of the kennel was in two halves, one had cloth bedding and a hard pillow, the other had an absorbent pad lined on its bottom.
After they moved down the seemingly endless hallway for a bit longer, Tamin was able to hear a completely different noise echoing in the room. She listened more carefully, and froze when she recognized what the noise was: footsteps coming from behind. One after another they sounded off, each ever so slightly closer than the last. It made a chill go down her spine in fear.
"Is everything okay?" Locke asked Tamin, not being able to hear the sound himself yet.
Tamin turned her head to look back behind them. The sound of the footsteps getting louder as whoever it was quickly came closer. Locke was able to hear the sounds himself a few seconds after Tamin could.
Knowing she had to do something quick, Tamin closed the cap on her lighter to cut off the flame- and by extension- the light. The room became significantly dimmer as Tamin ran hide behind one of the kennels.
Even though she didn't verbally communicate anything, Locke understood what was happening and ran to hide behind one of the kennels on the other side of the hallway. Both being quiet as they tried to remain hidden.
While they were both kept hiding behind the kennels, the figure moved closer down the hall. It then began to speak to them.
"Hello? That trap door doesn't open itself, so I know someone is down here. Let's do this the easy way instead of the hard way and have you just come out now."
Sylveon kept stepping closer to them, the time frame to be able to make any action was quickly narrowing. Locke turned to Tamin. Knowing that she could hear better than Sylveon could, he quietly whispered three words to her.
"Wait. Right. There," Locke spoke as quietly as he could while pointing to Tamin's feet. The words being heard by Tamin but not by Sylveon.
Sylveon started getting close to them. Locke turned his head in the direction he was in, exhaled out and stepped out from behind the kennel, entering Sylveon's line of view as he walked out.
Tamin's eyes widened in surprise when she watched Locke walk out of hiding, but stayed silent nonetheless. She did nothing to call out to Locke as they would have revealed her existence.
"L-Locke?" Sylveon said in surprise when he saw Locke.
His walk was one of shame, he kept his head low when he walked towards Sylveon and tried not to make eye contact with him. It was a purely natural tactic of his to make a puppy face to seem innocent.
"You went down here?" Sylveon asked.
"Yeah…" Locke said, still holding his head low.
"Alright… I didn't think it would be you of all people, I'll admit," he said. "I mean, I know you're a troublemaker, but that's mostly from being overly aggressive and not poking around in places you're not supposed to. Like, you don't really break rules when you've able to think of things rationally."
"I was just wanting to explore. Sorry."
"I can see that now."
"...So are you going to be punishing me now?" Locke asked, concerned.
"Well about that, it goes into some technicalities," Sylveon said.
"What do you mean?" Locke asked.
"Espeon doesn't want people learning about this room since it could scare newcomers off, and keeps it a secret. As a result, in the guild rulebook, he could not write a rule down that said 'guild members are not allowed into the dungeon below the basement without permission' since anyone reading the rulebook would then think 'wait, there's a dungeon below the basement?'. So he actually couldn't make a rule for that in the same way he forbids trespassing in his bedrooms, or certain other rooms without permission.
So as strange as it is, there is actually no rule in the guild I can enforce against you right now."
"Wait, really?" Locke asked.
"Yeah. I don't make the rules, I just enforce them. So you're actually fine right now," Sylveon explained. "But Espeon and Niot aren't going to be happy with you being down here, so it's best you come with me."
"Huh… alright."
The shinx began walking with Sylveon to exit the way they came, while Tamin remained hiding behind one of the kennels. Locke was feeling somewhat better, but still felt uneasy and kept a meter between himself and Sylveon. It was unusual for him to see Sylveon so passive to him, which made him feel there was some trap at hand.
"So speaking of that, what exactly is this place?"
"You remember that time we kept Hunter in that room for two days as punishment?" Sylveon asked in order to bring up an analogy.
"Yeah. That was good," Locke replied, reminiscing a bit while he spoke.
"This place is for that, just on a significantly larger scale." Sylveon explained, "If someone did something so horrible that containment for several weeks or months is the only appropriate response, then this is where we keep them."
Locke thought for a moment on this, getting unnerved about the idea of anyone having to spend weeks living life in one of the kennels.
"What exactly would someone have to be put in here?" Locke asked, wanting to make sure he'll never end up getting contained in the dungeon.
"Murder, maiming, destroying extremely expensive property and some other specific things. Whether it was successful or just attempted, it's going to get you down here."
"Okay…" Locke said, slightly relieved as he certainly didn't have any plans to do those things.
"But I should say that while there is no rule against being here, there is a rule against sharing classified guild information. So don't be telling anyone else about this dungeon," he told him.
"Oh, okay. Understood," Locke said, feeling that his uneasiness was vindicated.
"Mhm."
Locke and Sylveon continued walking out. They went through the door leading to the staircase, with Sylveon using his feelers to push the door closed as they passed it.
Heading up the stairs was significantly less ominous to Locke when he was going up. This time around he was heading towards the safe guildhouse instead of away from it, and he knew what the second basement was now. Although not having Tamin by his side did make things a little more nervous for him, even if he would never admit it.
After a minute of walking, they reached the light of Sylveon's office again. Climbing into the normal basement, they got into the normal guildhouse once again
Locke took a good look around the office again, as it contrasted heavily from what he was just a little bit ago.
Sylveon went to push the trapdoor to the basement closed. Afterwards, he rotated the wooden board to be covering the door once again, proceeded by getting the carpet back over it. Locke knew Tamin was still down there and wanted to say something- but didn't- as he knew that would be admitting that she went down there as well. He had to bite his tongue to avoid any secrets from slipping out of his mouth.
"By the way, now that you are here: I would have to ask to see you in Espeon's office right now," Sylveon said as he put the carpet back over to cover the trap door.
"A-alright," Locke responded.
While that was happening, Tamin remained in the basement, listening for them.
She was able to hear the door to the staircase close. After she waited a minute for them to scale the staircase, she decided it was safe again.
Tamin had clenched her lighter while she sat in the pitch black. She easily flipped the lighter open and began clicking it. Seeing the sparks it made before the flame was fully lit, it gave Tamin a sense of relief as it provided a level of illumination to the dungeon, enabling her to notice her surroundings again.
Tamin got up from her position and walked out from behind the kennel she had been hiding behind. In the open hall once again, she continued to explore and head deeper into the dungeon, passing by more kennels and the biohazard disposal cans. Some of the kennels were exceptionally large and resembled a jail cell, with its design having to dig into the wall to make room.
After some time, Tamin saw the light from the flame reach a stop, as it hit a wall at the end of the room. She went forward a bit more to reach it, seeing the room abruptly end with a flat wall of stone bricks. The wall had steel chains and manacles connected into it. Like the kennels and harnesses, they were of various sizes to account different Pokemon.
"Well, that's the end of this place," she thought after inspecting the wallSo while she was still guided by a small light, she turned around to begin heading out of the place.
Once again she passed through the hall of disturbing kennels, still considering the horror it would be to have to live in one. This time was more unnerving as she didn't have Locke by her side and she had less light. The only sounds Tamin could hear was her own breathing and footsteps, and the only light Tamin could see could see from her lighter flame while she made her way back, the small area of vision moving along with her. On her way back, passing by the rack of restraining suits and stockpile of boxes.
She was glad the door didn't get locked again, so she just continued past it to get to the staircase. Although it would have been too much of a problem as she could have just picked it open again.
Once she went back up the stairs alone, she got back to the trapdoor at the top. She tries to push it open, but finds herself unable to get it up.
Tamin tried again and again, exerting as much pressure as she could with both of her arms, all to no avail. Nothing she did could get it up. But by the sounds she could hear, she could tell that it was being pushed upwards slightly, only to be blocked by an object. She tried a few more times, but it did not nudge.
"Oh no..." Tamin said to herself as it dawned on her that she was trapped. "But he specifically checked to make sure it could be opened from the bottom, what the hell happened? How am I trapped? No no, don't panic, Tamin. Locke knows that I am down here. I just need to wait for him to free me.
Wait in this incredibly dark and morbid dungeon for him to free me…"
Meanwhile, while Tamin was on the wrong side of the trapdoor, a different story was happening in the main floor of the guild. Locke was brought back into Espeon's office by Sylveon. He blocked the door to the office and had Locke in front of him in this confrontation.
"Do you know why I brought you here?" Sylveon asked Locke.
"Uhh… No," Locke responded.
Sylveon stepped to the side and raised his feelers up. He then pointed to where the handle on the door used to be using his feelers.
"This was the doorknob you broke when you were last here, correct?" Sylveon asked.
"Oh, that," Locke said as he realized what was going on. "Sorry about that..."
"Yeah, that's what I'm bringing you here for," he said, not speaking down to him but incredibly straightforward.
"But I was already grounded- forced to stay in this room for forever!" Locke argued back.
"Well yeah, but Espeon has just asked that you pay for the doorknob to be replaced, since it was you who broke it." Sylveon calmly explained, "It's not expensive at all."
"Oh, okay. Well actually, uh, I can't do that," Locke said awkwardly.
"Why can't you?" Sylveon asked, "It's really not that much."
"I don't have none money right now," Locke explained.
"How do you not have any money? Have you been splurging it?"
"I've been giving all of my money to Crystal." Locke continued to explain.
"What? So you've just been handing everything you earn to her? What if you need to get something for yourself?"
"I ask her if she can get it for me. She says she's better at handling money then I am."
"Really?" Sylveon questioned with some concern in his tone.
"Yeah. I think you'll just have to ask her for it," Locke confirmed.
"Okay, this isn't in my authority to intervene, but I must say that doesn't sound like a healthy relationship, I really think you should try to keep your own money. Especially for situations like this," Sylveon said.
"Well, she's just the one that handles the money," Locke explained to justify.
"Sorry if this is pushing too far, but I have to ask: is there anything else that I should know about Crystal?" Sylveon asked, not in a condemning or authoritative voice like Locke was used to from him, but in a tone of genuine concern. "This is the first time I've heard of her doing something like this."
"No, there's nothing wrong with us. Just mind your own business," he said, annoyed.
"My apologies then," Sylveon said.
"Sheesh."
"Just, the next time you go on a mission, please give a cut of what you got to Espeon for the repairs before giving it to Crystal, alright?" Sylveon asked.
"Understood," Locke said with a nod.
"Glad everything is arranged then. You may leave," Sylveon said as he stepped out of the way to make the way out be visible.
"Thanks," Locke told him without looking towards him, his head instead being forward to focus on leaving.
Walking out of the office, he entered the questboard room and ready to travel to the closest staircase that went downstairs.
"Okay, that didn't take too long," Locke thought to himself without speaking out loud, "I just need to get downstairs, rotate that board to free Tamin and ask her what she saw-"
"Locky!" Olivia's voice called out from behind, interrupting Locke's thoughts in the process.
"Oh, please not now-"
"We haven't talked in so long, how has it been?" Olivia asked, interrupting Locke's thoughts again.
Locke turned his head to look at Olivia. For the most part the emolga looked as she did the last time Locke was her, except for the fact that she was very suspiciously holding a handbook behind her back.
"Look, can you just wait one minute? There is something I really, really need to get done," Locke said, trying to be rational.
"Wait! There is just one thing I need to show you," Olivia responded, being demeaning like she absolutely needed to get something done, "I promise it will only take a moment."
Locke gave a sigh before he responded. "What is it?" He said, recognizing that she would be persistent if she rejected him, so he figured he would just get it done with right away.
Olivia suddenly struck a pose. It being the cutest thing she could make while still having one of her arms holding a handbook behind her back.
Her hand was making a peace symbol above her one open eye and she gave the cutest smile she could make, in tandem with one eye twinkling,With this pose a pink aura suddenly formed around Olivia with small hearts hovering all over her. Three large, floating red hearts were also summoned in front of her body. All three of those hearts then flew over towards the shinx.
"Wait, what are you trying-" Locke said as he looked at the hearts approaching them, getting interrupted once more as they hit him.
Once the hearts touched Locke, they all dissipated and seemed to get absorbed into him. Locke could feel some kind of an attack on his mind. He placed her paw on his head like he would do with a headache, but it did nothing to stop the invasion of his psyche. A foreign personality began dominating.
"Olive!" Locke cheerfully called out to Olivia, his eyes being replaced with pink hearts and the way he was acting totally shifting.
"Sweet. This actually worked," Olivia said as she pulled the handbook out from behind her back to look at the title. Revealing it to say: "TM: How To Use Attract."
Locke approached and went up to Olivia while under the effect's of the attract.
"You look so adorable, Olive! You're my cutey-patooty!" He fawned over Olivia, completely infatuated with her while still being completely under the enchantment.
Olivia put the handbook down onto the ground. Right after, she spread out her arms and went to hug Locke around the neck. Locke responded by purring in pleasure and rubbing his head against Olivia back.
Olivia was as happy as she could have been in that moment, with Locke experiencing an artificial happiness of equal amounts in his attracted state, like a drug. She gleefully petted Locke's back with her hand while still hugging him
After a few seconds of hugging, Olivia released her grip and backed away a bit. "Now, would you like to make this more than just 'one moment'?" Olivia asked Locke, seeing him still very much under the influence of her move. "There's something I'd like from you right now."
"Anything for you…" Locke spoke in bliss.
"Perfect," Olivia said, "I just need you to follow me for a minute. I need you to be in my room to do it."
"Alrighty!"
Olivia walked out of the quest boardroom and into the guild foyer, having Locke follow her. She walked carefully to mitigate how many would see him, and used her body to block line of sight of Locke's heart eyes.
Trying to collect herself emotionally as much as she could, Olivia sprinted to the nearby staircase room. Locke was printed to do the same and run after Olivia.
Once in the staircase room, Olivia ran upstairs with Locke in her stride. While going up, she thought about how it was the same staircase she had poured lubricants on about a week ago to prevent Locke from going up the stairs, while now she was actually leading him up the stairs.
Once up, it was only a short distance to run across the balcony and get into Olivia's room. A distance they wasted no time in going. Locke once again, unwittingly following.
The room was like a workshop. Various boards of both hard and soft woods were present, as well as saws, various carving tools, boxes upon boxes of sandpaper, wood carvings, other crafts, and more. The biggest thing on display in the room was a series of four crossbows, each on their own custom made racks with varying size, length, and tension. The only indication that this was a room someone lived in was a single bed shoved into the room's corner, a few cushioned chairs, and a rug in the middle of the room. Even the floor was coated in sawdust and strands of wood.
The very first thing she did after entering was press her lips against the lips of the attracted shinx to kiss him. She didn't stick her tongue into his mouth and it was only a smooch but they both enjoyed it immensely. Their tails wagging despite that not being something their species only do
Olivia then pulled herself away from Locke, leaving him in complete bliss from the kiss. She then started speaking to him.
"Ah, I'm so glad for this. But I'm sorry I haven't cleaned in so long, that really is quite rude of me to invite you here such as it is," Olivia said to the shinx.
"It's fine!"
"Ah, alright. Now, let's get to business," the emolga said while reaching for his harness. "Let's deal with this terrible harness on you. We can't take it off, but I believe there's much we can improve on~"
The possessed shinx didn't speak anything back, instead, he tried to affectionately lick Olivia's face with her tongue.
She pulled him over to one drawer unit she had in her room, and pulled open one of its compartments to see a fractured thunderstone inside. She grabbed a pair of needle nose pliers from on top of the drawer set, then picked up a single one of the miniscule shards with the tool.
"Hold still now, my little Locky. I need to be careful about this."
Holding Locke still with one paw and using the pliers with the other, she brought one of the shards near it and began studying the apparel closely, doing mathematics in her head to find certain ideal points.
"One difficulty with electricity is that it can easily spread out across the air, weakening as it dissipates. It is far more potent when it is focused into a small area," Olivia quietly spoke as she one by one embedded the shards into the harness. "But with these shards, they'll make it so the electricity you use is funneled through these exact points before launching out. It'll throw off your accuracy at first, but once you get used to it, your attacks will be oh-so much better as it comes out concentrated into smaller areas. And precision is power.
Do keep in mind we're talking about upgrades more akin to 'plus twenty percent better' and not 'multiplied by two-point-five times better', but any explorer worth their weight will come to know that small improvements can make a world of a difference."
She continued on for a few minutes longer, strategically placing the shards around the harness to upgrade it. Twice during this process the effect of the Attract wore off and Locke began regaining his sensibility, but during his period of confusion on what just happened, Olivia quickly re-applied the move before his befuddlement turned to fight-or-flight.
While Locke was in Olivia's bedroom, vulnerable to whatever she wanted to do to him while under the effects of her Attract move, Tamin was still in the second basement.
Tamin still waited on the top of the staircase, just under the blocked off trapdoor. She waited sitting and holding her open lighter for illumination.
What was one minute became two, two became three, and three became more. Tamin continued to wait for the way to be opened up and for her to be freed as the minutes blended together. She had no idea what was going on with Locke, and her worry was culminating because of it.
Although mainly out of boredom, she wanted to become familiar with the place she increasingly worried she would spend days in: Tamin descended the staircase and went back into the dungeon, getting to the bottom and passing by the door again. It stopped feeling like a swift incursion, and more akin to a survival situation.
Shining her light once again, she looked back at the stockpile area, looking at the bags of dry kibble and tanks of certainly stale water.
"Well, I suppose I won't starve or die of thirst down here," Tamin thought to herself, "but it's going to be a long time before I resort to that…"
Going away from the stockpile, she went to the hallway of kennels again. She went up to one of the kennels that was within her size category.
Tamin pulled the gate open on the kennel to examine it, it wasn't locked yet. The part right in front of the gate was the part with the bedding while the part deeper into the kennel was the one with the pad.
As Tamin didn't want to sleep inside any of the kennels, she grabbed the bed in the kennel and began pulling it. To her delight, the bed came out and was set on the ground in front of the kennel.
"Well, I guess I have something to sleep in now," Tamin thought to herself again.
Tamin then turned her head again to look back down the long, dark hallway once more.
"Now is there anything I can do to pass the time until Locke finally decides to show up?" She spoke again, wondering to herself as time seemed to pass by like the contents of an hourglass whose sand was replaced by molasis.
The minccino knew she could last for a while down there; she had lasted for longer periods in the darkness during the times she was grounded by her parents. But what ate away at her was being unsure how long she would be down there for. It was a persistent, unchanging reminder of her twisted past. She didn't feel free, she felt just as bound as she was before she ran away.
Meanwhile, Locke was still on the second floor of the guild, trapped in a different way.
Olivia had finished embedding the thunderstone shards she wanted into Locke's harness, giving it a glitter when it shined against the light some way. Once that project was done, she took a sewing needle to write the message "modified by Olivia" into the nape of the harness, trying to ensure that the shinx wouldn't be blamed for altering it.
"Aaaaaannnnnd~ it's done!" Olivia declared.
"It looks great!" Locke said, still with hearts over his eyes.
"Dang right it- er, yes. It's great!" Olivia said, trying to correct herself to say nicer things. "I am so, oh-so pleased that you enjoy it, Locky!"
The emolga placed her paw on Locke's chin, tilted his head upwards, and leaned her own head in. She put her own lips to his, kissing him directly. The shinx's tail sprang up and straightened out in surprise, then fell down in pleasure.
"Alrighty, now let's move onto the next idea I had in planned- in mind. Either or!" Olivia said while pulling away from Locke. "If you don't mind, stay right there."
Olivia walked away from him again, and towards a stripped log of wood that was reserved. Along the way, she grabbed wood carving utensils.
"Keep put right there. Standing on all-fours and still. Now that you're here, I want to make a wooden carving of you," Olivia commanded while positioning herself and visualizing how to start the project. "I believe it should just be an hour,"
"Of course, Olive!" he said while obediently heeding her commands.
The emolga started the process, standing to the side of Locke and behind the log. She began with carving his chest due to having the most simple shape and allowing her to see where other things would come in relation to it. Her tongue remained slightly peeking out of the right side of her mouth as she focused on the lumber, putting in precision to get things exactly right.
One minute into the process, Locke blinked a few times as once more the effect of the move wore off and he once again regained his senses. But unlike the previous times, Olivia was too focused on her own work to notice what was happening with the shinx.
Locke was able to remember the previous times he snapped out of it, as well as where he was. He wanted to scream and act quickly, but he knew Olivia could cast it on him again.
While staying dead still, Locke moved his eyes but not his head to quickly peek at the emolga: she was still focused on her woodworking, not realizing what had happened to him. He then quickly looked the other way towards the room door: it had its bolt slid in place to lock it, but nothing else was blocking it.
"Okay, what should I do? I have to get back to Tamin" Locke said while still in the position she commanded. "Should I attack her while her guard is down, she is part flying after all. No, that would be a bad idea. The guild would get on my back if I attacked another member. I probably can't talk my way out of this either."
Olivia kept working at the wood. Focused, but inevitably bound to peek at her art reference soon.
"I know, I need to run to the door, get the bolt off, get out, slam it shut in case she uses that stupid move again, and then run back down to Sylveon's office as fast as I can to get Tamin." Locke said in his head. He repeated the plan a few more times, knowing that once he started he couldn't mess anything up. "Run to the door, undo the pin, sprint down to the basement, get Tamin.. Run to the door, undo the pin, sprint down to the basement, get Tamin. Run to the door, undo the pin, sprint down to the basement, get Tamin. Run to the Tamin, undo the basement, sprint to the door, get the pin. Wait, what?"
Inevitably, Olivia looked up from the wood again to check on Locke, and saw him. "Hmmm?" she sounded, able to tell something was off, but not immediately what it was.
"Oh crap, I've got to go now!"
Executing his plan, Locke made a sudden movement and practically leaped towards the sliding pin lock on the door. His paw missed his first attempt to grab the pin, but the second time he successfully hit the pin to get it out of place. Olivia began reacting at the time and tried to call out to him, but Locke was already opening the door by the time her shock wore off.
Locke began running as fast as he could, knowing the emolga was going to begin the chase and that she was faster than him. Initially he planned to aim for the stairs, but on his way he passed by the fence that overlooked the mess hall on the first floor. As he heard the door to emolga's chamber being opened again, he instinctively shifted his plan to a faster route.
With full forward momentum, Locke leaped up into the air and over the fence at an angle. Once over the fence, gravity brought him down again, making him fall down into the first floor. He landed on one of the tables in the mess hall, landing on all of his feet and feeling pain surge in his paws.
"Locky! Wait!" Olivia shouted as she began to take flight, following the same route he did.
Without the time to fully go through the pain, Locke jumped off the table to the ground, and took off towards the closest staircase room downwards. He took as many quick turns as he could to lose track of her.
At the time that chaos was ensuing, Tamin was still waiting downstairs, wasting away.
Her lighter was running out of fuel, and it's flame was getting dim. Running out of light, Tamin decided on sitting at the top of the staircase and closing the lighter in an attempt to ration the little bit of fuel it had left. Making it so she was now in pitch black darkness in addition to everything else.
Tamin had nothing to look at and nothing to listen to. The only thing available to her was to think about her past memories, which when her past wasn't the most desirable thing to re-live, it didn't make her time much better. Her mind tried and failed to think of ways to get up, and dark memories still went through her head. The sensory deprivation had become a blank canvas that allowed her memories to take up her consciousness instead.
On the other side of the trapdoor, Locke was desperate to make his way back to her, while Olivia was still in pursuit. He took an unnecessarily high amount of turns to make anyone attempting to follow him would get lost. Sure enough, before Olivia could even realize what he was doing, she found herself lost in the middle of the basement and unsure of where Locke had gone. Without even knowing which way was north, she just stopped to think. "Welp, it was fun while it lasted…" Olivia spoke to no one except herself.
Finally free of the emolga, Locke navigated his way back to Sylveon's office. It took a good minute, but relying on his instincts to guide the way, he found the door again. Not even bothering to check that the room was empty first, Locke delved into it once more. Grabbing the corner of the carpet and lifting it up to unveil the hatch again.
After spending an unhealthy amount of time alone in the darkness, Tamin finally heard the sounds of footsteps above her. She snapped back to reality from whatever fantasy her mind had wandered to and started standing up.
"Hello!" Tamin called out through the trapdoor, anxious to be freed, "Can anyone hear me!"
Tamin knocked on the trapdoor to try and create more noise and indicate that she was down there. Sure enough, she heard the wooden board be shiften and the light finally bleed through the door's crevice again. She was blinded by the light at first due to her eyes being in pitch black darkness for over an hour, but once her eyes acquainted again, she saw the door lifted upwards to reveal Locke.
"I am so sorry this took so long," Locke said as he held the trap door upwards, "let's just say a lot happened to me that prevented me from coming back."
Tamin raised her paws up to help Locke lift the trapdoor upwards further as she stepped out. Once Tamin was out and they closed the door behind them.
Tamin turned her focus to Locke. She felt slightly overwhelmed with emotions from what she had just gone through, her rather weak mental fortitude having largely been expended.
With little warning, Tamin collapsed onto Locke, hugging him around the neck. Locke was caught off guard. And after he had gone through hours of getting hugged by Olivia, Locke wasn't exactly happy about getting snuggled with again, but he knew that Tamin was well meaning.
He let Tamin continue hugging him intently while she breathed heavily, trying to relieve herself of what all had happened.
"I'm so, so sorry for leaving you down there, and for this whole idea" Locke said again into Tamin's ear. "I'll tell you the full story later: But for now, we should just get out of this room."
Tamin took her arms off of Locke and nodded to him, which was followed by Locke pulling the carpet back and them both heading out.
Not too long later, the meal bell rang to indicate it was lunch time. Locke and Tamin sat together and away from Olivia, hoping to be able to simply blow the rest of the day off and do nothing. Because suddenly, doing nothing and being risk free sounded quite appealing to the two. Dewott offered if Locke wanted to try to do another eating competition and Scampi asked Tamin if anything was wrong, but they just briefly brushed them off.
Once Locke was done, he began walking back to his room, only to be stopped by words that would make most grimace on the inside.
"Hey Locke, there's something I need to talk to you about. Can you see me in my office for a minute?" Espeon asked.
His mood did not improve his reaction to it. He whipped his head around to look at the guildmaster. "What is it?" Locke said, annoyance riddling his voice.
"Don't worry, you're not in any trouble. But there is a matter I need to talk to you about," Espeon said as an attempt to hearten him.
"What is it then?" Locke asked.
"Matters that should be kept private. So I'd really prefer to talk in the office," he said.
"Um, okay," the shinx said, more perplexed than annoyed.
Espeon led the way to the office, and Locke followed him. Even though he had bad experiences in that room before, his instincts didn't give him any bad premonitions for what was to come. He actually felt safe, but unsure. Once the two were inside, Espeon used Psychic to push the door closed.
"Are you comfortable?" Espeon inquired.
"Yeah yeah, I'm aight. What did you want to talk to me about?" Locke said, giving a squint.
"I talked with Sylveon earlier, and he told me that Crystal was taking all of your earnings. Is this true?" the guildmaster asked.
"Well yeah. Why are you talking to me about this?"
"This is potentially a serious situation, so as a guildmaster, I found it to be my duty to investigate," he explained. "Is absolutely everything okay between you and Crystal?"
"Of course. She's my girlfriend," Locke said, still not sure the purpose of this meeting.
"So your money you earn is going towards her?"
"Yes?"
"Do you relinquish your money willingly? Do you feel intimidated to doing that in any way?"
"What does that even mean?"
"'Relinquish' means 'give'."
"Oh. And yeah, I do so willingly. Why?"
"I just am wanting to make sure that nothing bad is going on here."
"Nothing is. I already told you, she's my girlfriend," Locke said, his voice getting assertive as though he was defending himself and others from fraudulent claims.
"Well her being your girlfriend is sort of the concern here."
"Hmm?"
"Look, I'll be perfectly blunt. Sylveon told me that it sounded like financial abuse, and based on the story he told me, it sounded like abuse to me as well. So that's what I wanted to ask you about," Espeon said, trying to be straight forward to the shinx. "Please don't be so defensive, I'm trying to help you here, not vilify you. Just, are you sure that everything is alright?"
"Oh… um… yeah. I'm sure. I'm happy with her, and she handles my money well."
"Now are you absolutely, positively sure about that?" Espeon asked further. "If there's anything you feel is even slightly off, please tell me. I can investigate this further and intervene if necessary. I just need your word."
The last few words Espeon said lingered in Locke's mind, and made him stop to contemplate them more. Previously he'd seen the guildmaster as a frustrating symbol of authority and one that was either complicit in him being locked into a harness, or ordered him to be put into it. He saw him as someone he struggled against, especially as he remembered the espeon forcing him asleep by using Hypnosis. Nevertheless, Espeon now seemed to be doing the opposite, he seemed to earnestly be seeking for his word and permission, putting some authority on Locke. For a second he stuck on this idea, feeling a different kind of power then what he usually possesses and exerts, the power over others. But after that second he replied.
"It's okay. She's my friend, and I have lots of great experiences with her in the past," Locke said, his desire to test if he could actually shut him down, but also being genuine."
"...Well if that's how you truly, feel, I will not argue with you," Espeon said. "That's all, you can head off now."
Locke gave a deep exhale in relief, appreciative that now the chaos was finally over.
"Thanks," the shinx said as he walked towards the door out. But before fulling getting out, he got another idea.
"Oh, while I'm here, there is something I'd like to tell you," Locke told Espeon.
"Yes?"
"Just some things that Olivia did today that I think you should know about..."
End of chapter 21.