[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Turning up the fact that the drive could be fiddled with, Ventus nodded his head, before departing to the Pokémon Center. While he would love to slot in the Burn Drive in the statue to see what would happen, he would rather not cause a commotion by messing with the statue while people where still around. 'Once night falls and the town slumbers, I'll see what happens when I switch the Drives. Whatever happens, if anything, I wanted all my Pokémon to be in perfect condition, so off to the Pokémon Center I go! I really can't avoid Nathan any longer without him starting a manhunt for me, so I better quicken my pace!'

Order: Go to the Pokémon Center to fully restore the HP of all my Pokémon, wait until complete nightfall when most of the town is inactive, then go and switch the drives in the Genesect Statue. Ventus will probably be caught in a conversation with Nathan by the time night comes to pass, so you have plenty of time to plan out what happens!

[Dragonstrike]

Unbeknownst to Ventus, Nathan had been watching him from the shadows by the Pokemon Center. He'd been waiting at a bench sat outside for everyone else to arrive.

"Nice statue, eh? Fun fact: it moves." And as Nathan says that, Ventus walks in front of the statue's line of sight, triggering its motion.

[Lord Windos]

Unbeknownst to Ventus, Nathan had been watching him from the shadows by the Pokemon Center.  He'd been waiting at a bench sat outside for everyone else to arrive.

"Nice statue, eh?  Fun fact: it moves."  And as Nathan says that, Ventus walks in front of the statue's line of sight, triggering its motion.

"FUCK!" Ventus shouted, jumping almost straight up into the air at the statues sudden movement and frantically backed away from it in a panic, looking wide eyed at it. When it didn't come over to him and blast him with its Techno Cannon, he let out a shaky breath before turning to face Nathan. 'By the look and feeling I am receiving from him, he's far from happy to see me.... No point in dallying now, I suppose. Its time to discuss what transpired at the pond...and hopefully not have white hot anger flung at me,' Ventus thought, uncomfortably making his way to the young trainer, giving the statue a wide berth as he traveled to his side.

"Greetings...Nathan. I believe you are very curious to my activities as of late, so please share you thoughts on the matter. I'll try to answer to the best of my ability, my friend. Now, what do you want to know first?" Ven choose to keep quiet about his fine from Lumen, as he didn't want his personal business to interfere with the conversation, and possibly compounding Nathan's already considerable ire.

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan chuckles at Ventus's surprise, as does Kirlia. He doesn't know if it was him or the statue that surprised the researcher more, but it was funny regardless. A surprisingly light hearted reaction given his current expression. "Different wedges apparently do different things, though the only other one the Chief Ranger has seen was the Red one, and that's missing. I take it you found one of the missing wedges if you were investigating the cannon? And before you say where you found it, I recommend we go inside."

[Lord Windos]

Nathan chuckles at Ventus's surprise, as does Kirlia.  He doesn't know if it was him or the statue that surprised the researcher more, but it was funny regardless.  A surprisingly light hearted reaction given his current expression.  "Different wedges apparently do different things, though the only other one the Chief Ranger has seen was the Red one, and that's missing.  I take it you found one of the missing wedges if you were investigating the cannon?"

Scratching the back of his head in slight confusion- why hasn't he exploded in his face yet?- Ventus gave an affirmation, before sticking his hand into his satchel and slightly revealed the Burn Drive to him. "Yes, I managed to retrieve the Burn Drive from the pond. It was lodged in the underwater entrance to the Pinsir guys getaway route, so I had Apsis pry it loss and obtain it for me," the researcher said quietly, not wanting to reveal to the whole world what he had done.

Against his better judgement, he decided to tell Nathan about his encounter with Lumen, as he figured that if boy had to find out about his...briefing with the dubious man, he might as well be the first source of info he hears about it from. "Speaking of the Ranger Chief...I meet him on the way back to town. He had some question for my activities at the medicine man's house, and...well, I need to go to court in Corsage to sort the mess out. Luman, that's his name, though...I don't trust him, though. While we were returning to town, he approached and accused us of assaulting the Pinsir trainer, saying that bastard already informed him of what went on, even though the encounter happened relatively recently. He says that they had an anonymous source supplying the details of what went on and that that sodden wreck, but I did not believe his claim. Even if that source turned out to be you or someone that concealed there location by the lake,  I departed immedianlty for town after what transpired, so it should have taken twice as long for them to meet up with us, if not at all."

Ventus then proceeded to launch into a detail explanation of his 'interrogation' by Chief Lumen, sparing no detail about what said during the whole exchange (Now Nathan is filled in what happened their!). The only thing he left out was the fine and mark against him on his Trainer's License, as he didn't want Nathan worried or concerned about the consequences of his actions. 'There is time enough yet for that,' he though somewhat ruefully, taking a few deep breaths before continuing. "Given what I told you, and his suspicious behavior, I recommend not filling him in on our operations in town. If he truly is collaborating with that monster, I don't want to tip our hand early to him..."

(Explosion immanent in 3...2...1...)

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

This happens as soon as we arrive back in Wineberry.


Oh... Finally they were free... And lucky, because the situation with the Cops could have ended up much worse.

Did I nention she was holding Ventus' arm on the whole way rest of way? Well, she did. To comfort herself and to feel a little more secure. Bit now that they reached town again - and that Genesect Statue came into sight - she let go of him.

Alnost immediately, she was high at spirits though. And eager to go into the woods yet another time..."Ven... There's something East of town that I need to see. Don't ask why I know that (not now). Don't wait for me, go and meet up with Nathan. I'm still interested to hear about you and Genesect, though. I'll meet you people later again."

With those words, she left in said direction, but dtopped half-way for a wave and a few last words. "Worry not too much. I'll be fine!"

[Iron]

Shiva follows the divine geometric instructions until she comes to an awesome den. Centrally, it has a cave, which narrows at the back. There, a hollow log is stuck in at a 45 degree angle, coming out of a huge pile of gold and red leaves. More leaves form several distinct nests inside the cave. A smaller sub-burrow has been dug underground, and also filled with brilliant leaves. One side of the den is made entirely out of tree roots, intertwined in a network. The book says these twinings mean things to the Pokemon who use them as shelter, sometimes hexes of protection.

Shiny trinkets, mostly smooth translucent agates from the Great River bottom, hang from the roots on twines of grass. They are arranged in patterns carefully calculated by the inhabitants.

Your book says that such dens do not belong to any one mystic Pokemon, but are instead visited by many Pokemon throughout the course of a year. A sort of communal den, where meetings can take place, or where a wayward psychic might be drawn in times of trouble. On rare occasions, a momma Pokemon will raise a family in such a place.

An Illumise and a Volbeat dance above the den, but they are not the mystic Pokemon you seek, merely whirling points of light attracted to this focal point of power.

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan chuckles at Ventus's surprise, as does Kirlia.  He doesn't know if it was him or the statue that surprised the researcher more, but it was funny regardless.  A surprisingly light hearted reaction given his current expression.  "Different wedges apparently do different things, though the only other one the Chief Ranger has seen was the Red one, and that's missing.  I take it you found one of the missing wedges if you were investigating the cannon?"

Scratching the back of his head in slight confusion- why hasn't he exploded in his face yet?- Ventus gave an affirmation, before sticking his hand into his satchel and slightly revealed the Burn Drive to him. "Yes, I managed to retrieve the Burn Drive from the pond. It was lodged in the underwater entrance to the Pinsir guys getaway route, so I had Apsis pry it loss and obtain it for me," the researcher said quietly, not wanting to reveal to the whole world what he had done.

Against his better judgement, he decided to tell Nathan about his encounter with Lumen, as he figured that if boy had to find out about his...briefing with the dubious man, he might as well be the first source of info he hears about it from. "Speaking of the Ranger Chief...I meet him on the way back to town. He had some question for my activities at the medicine man's house, and...well, I need to go to court in Corsage to sort the mess out. Luman, that's his name, though...I don't trust him, though. While we were returning to town, he approached and accused us of assaulting the Pinsir trainer, saying that bastard already informed him of what went on, even though the encounter happened relatively recently. He says that they had an anonymous source supplying the details of what went on and that that sodden wreck, but I did not believe his claim. Even if that source turned out to be you or someone that concealed there location by the lake,  I departed immedianlty for town after what transpired, so it should have taken twice as long for them to meet up with us, if not at all."

Ventus then proceeded to launch into a detail explanation of his 'interrogation' by Chief Lumen, sparing no detail about what said during the whole exchange (Now Nathan is filled in what happened their!). The only thing he left out was the fine and mark against him on his Trainer's License, as he didn't want Nathan worried or concerned about the consequences of his actions. 'There is time enough yet for that,' he though somewhat ruefully, taking a few deep breaths before continuing. "Given what I told you, and his suspicious behavior, I recommend not filling him in on our operations in town. If he truly is collaborating with that monster, I don't want to tip our hand early to him..."

(Explosion immanent in 3...2...1...)

Nathan takes a moment to process it all.


"So...let me get this straight...you met this 'Sage' on the way to the hut, everything was going fine, and then the stranger decided it was a good idea to knock that trainer into the pond, and everyone then followed suit except Valder, who was napping?"  Nathan puts a hand to his temples.

A pause.

It's a reeeeeaaaalllly long pause.

"Good...grief...Ventus, do you even know how BAD that looks?!  For all you had known, that was just a random guy!  That anonymous call?  That was probably the doctor who lives in that hut, seeing as he was the only other person around, and you weren't exactly discreet about what you were doing!  The trainer calling the Rangers?  He probably did that while you were investigating that underwater door, and the Rangers were already on the way there because of that anonymous call!   There is NOTHING wrong about what Lumin and the rangers thought of the situation based on what they had heard!  Of course the Pinsir would try and stop Aspis!  Its trainer had just been attacked at random and sent flying into the pond!  Even if it was the same trainer that I encountered, he'd given you ZERO reasons to attack him like that as far as anyone knows, so he's not the one at fault.  If you'd stopped attacking the trainer and had instead tried to stop that stranger, maybe you could have avoided this whole mess!

"Ventus, you've landed yourself in an INCREDIBLY sticky situation.  Everything you did then looks malicious to an outside observer.  Unless you can give a VERY good reason for why the battle started.  Which you can't.  You have no footholds.  Nobody will care if the trainer had done wrong before, because he was the one who was wronged in this situation!

"His Pinsir?  There's scorch marks, bite marks, wrap marks, bruises, wet patches...and what reason did you have to do that to the bug?  It certainly wasn't because of the message I'd left you if you didn't hear it until after the battle was over!  And it certainly wasn't because you knew he had a Mega-Pinsir if it wasn't even out of its pokeball until the trainer had been knocked into the pond!"

Nathan stops, catching his breath.  He's not used to going on such long rants.  He hopes he's gotten the point across though.  Ventus and the others have set themselves up for getting in trouble with the League, and they don't have any reasonable way to escape the coming punishment.

As much as Nathan wants to help Ventus, he can't help but agree with the Rangers.  He puts his head in his hands.  "Ventus...you've screwed up.  You've really, REALLY screwed up."  Kirlia comes over and puts a hand on Nathan's shoulder (Nathan's sitting down and leaning forward slightly, so Kirlia is BARELY tall enough to be able to reach up to his shoulder).

(Side Note: Nathan still has more to say.  He's just...shocked at what actually happened.)

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Out of breath, she arrived at the spot of interest. And almost immediately she knew that she was right here. That place... emerges power... She was able to feel that. There's sonething about it here.

It also got dark meanwhile... But luckily, not too dark to see anything. The warm and bright colors from the leaves surely helped. She could have called out her rodents to illuminate the place a little with their electricity... But she decided against that. Maybe it would scare anything away, sonething she definitely NOT wanted.

Instead, she broke a twig from a nearby tree, drew the other half of the Ranc Berry Poffin as second gift to any Pokemon of interest that may show up and just placed herself down right where she was. It's calm here... Pure... 

(I'll be off now for work. But we gladly can wrap up this as soon as I am home again!)

[Iron]

That twig...with the red and gold leaves on the end...


That sweet, astringent scent from Shiva's pockets...


The little bit of fairy wind that followed Shiva even hours after Cottonee was dismissed...


The moon, just so...the den, so warm and welcoming...


Berries...and something else, something that hadn't had a name yet, something never experienced in the wild, but something that was the soul mate of the berry scent...


A little Fennekin comes around the corner, sniffing the den and then entering. Then the tiny Pokemon peeks its nose around the edge of the cave and sniffs at Shiva! It seems intrigued.