Hi again! I just found out that there's only like five other stories under the Shauntal/Marshal search XD.
Anyway, this drabble actually focuses more on Grimsley than Shauntal and Marshal. I hope you enjoy anyway :).
Drabble 5: Karma
Leave it to Grimsley's dark, lonely mind to notice how Shauntal and Marshal's initials were S and M.
"My my, so would that make you the sadist and Marshal the masochist?" Grimsley rambled on. He and Shauntal were playing card games in the main hall. "Though that makes sense actually. You write horror novels and he constantly puts himself through the pain of training and fighting. Still, you must tell us the details sometime. Does Marshal make a nice little slave?"
Shauntal felt her face grow hot as anger flared in her chest, as Grimsley threw down his final card and won the game. She stayed silent, however, watching Grimsley gather his winnings and go back to his room.
He really should know better than to mess with her and Marshal by now. Her silence was not a sign of acceptance, but of containment.
IIIIII
Grimsley barely raised an eyebrow at the pentagram posted on his door. He worked with Dark-types after all. He assumed it was a loan shark with a sense of humor and went on with his day.
He began to think more of it when the electric staircase refused to work and the candles remained unlit. Sometimes he heard cackling that sounded suspiciously like Ghost-types.
Really Shauntal? thought Grimsley. What a lame prank. In fact, he was getting a lot of amusement from his visitor's reactions to the malfunctions and strange cries.
He gave Shauntal slightly more credit when the candles suddenly blazed several feet high and various things in the room began spinning through the air. The cackling became a rapid murmuring, rising in pitch and speed. The objects and some of the fire whipped around like they were in a tornado. But Grimsley stood there quietly, even smirking, as he watched the chaos spiraling around him. He knew it was all for show, Shauntal's over-dramatic display of disapproval.
And suddenly it all ended. The candles flames returned to their ordinary sizes. The items dropped like shot birds, littering the stairway. There was nothing but silence. At first.
Then there were scornful mutterings. Grimsley assumed it was the Ghost-type Pokemon again, but as the volume increased he realized they were human voices.
"Wastrel..."
"You failed us..."
"Fool..."
But what unnerved Grimsley was that he knew those voices. As grey forms materialized around him, he recognized the faces of family and servants of his house, all frowning. All dead.
No, they shouldn't be dead... thought Grimsley. I only got cast out because of my debts and gambling. They were all alive then...but when was the last time I talked to any of them...?
An especially large spirit formed in front of Grimsley, a thickly-built man wearing a velvet cloak. This wraith seemed not only displeased, but wrathful with the beak-nosed mortal before him.
"Is this all?" the large man asked, looking about the room disdainfully. "This is what you threw away family and fortune for? Pathetic dreams yield such miniscule results."
Despite his guilt and terror, Grimsley felt rage bubble up inside of him. "I am who I am, father. And I was never you, with your miserly, hermit ways."
"Which is why you'll never become anything!" roared the father, growing bigger by the second. His misty grey bulk swallowed the platform, the other spirits, and Grimsley. "You lazy, worthless, weak, shameful-"
IIIIII
Grimsley woke curled up on the floor of his battle room, which was untouched. He barely had enough sense to notice a Drifblim and Cofagrigus flit away laughing. They disappeared through the walls soon after.
"...Dammit," Grimsley muttered, getting up. He looked to his Xtransceiver, and saw only a few minutes had past. Time sure dragged when you were in misery, especially when entranced in both Hypnosis and Nightmare attacks. "Jeez, it was just a joke..."
He wondered if she and Marshal were laughing about it now. Probably. Well, screw them. Screw karma too. Screw the past. Only the present mattered.
IIIIII
Moral of the story: don't piss off Shauntal XP.
Side note: Drilblim can learn Hypnosis as an egg move, while Cofagrigus can learn Nightmare as an egg move. So basically they were working together to put Grimsley to sleep and plunge him into a nightmare.