[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Kirlia gives a little 'hmph' and Teleports over to Shiva, intent on dragging her over to the table if he has to!  She was going to talk to Nathan now, no ifs, ands, or buts!

Gives Nathan a small amount of time to talk with Ventus as well.

(Note: Nathan's only recorded the Old Unown symbols that Solomon created, and hasn't matched them with any of the appropriate letters yet.)

Nathan doesn't look up when he responds to Ventus.  "They have Unown there, eh?  Well, one more reason for me to pay them a visit at the soonest opportunity tomorrow..."

Nothing but polite indifference for Ventus.  No anger or anything in Nathan's tone and emotions (and he's far from apathetic).

He is slightly intrigued at Ventus's mention of potentially adopting a Kingdra, though...hmm...

[Lord Windos]

Ventus raises an eyebrow at Kirlia's sudden interest in dragging Shiva over to the table to converse with Nathan, given their rather laser focus on all things concerning the boy and almost nothing else, but since they don't seem have any particularly negative reasons for their action, the human empath decided to leave it be....for now. He was also somewhat perplexed by the distinct lack of animosity coming from the young trainer, as they were known to be quite expressive when it comes to things they find distasteful. The sociologist also considered the possibility of Nathan concealing their own grudge against him like he was doing himself, but was swift to dismiss such an idea, as he found it highly unlikely that Nathan had learned to marshel away his own emotion from him that didn't involve Apathy in less than a span of day since their 'conversation'.

Given his distinct lack of care for Nathan and his affairs and wishing to maintain his own composure, though, he promptly decided to ignore this discrepecy and continue to speak about the matter at hand. "Very well then, Nathan. We plan on departing to the Shelter early in morning tomorrow, so turn in early if you want to join us and be well rested at the same time. Hopefully we'll get all our respective business completed to our sastifaction, or at least make progress towards our respective goals..."

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

"Uhm... I certainly recognized the stars and constallations that Gothitelle showed in that first vision, Ven..."

"Ah, so I was correct in my assumption after all! Would you care to tell us more about them and what you understand about the Vision yourself, dear?"

He keeps on calling her 'dear'... Hehe... Fine, she's coming over to Nathan now if Kirlia insists to it.

"Eh, if you like to hear more... I'll try." (Enjoy a moment where Shiva shares some of her knowledge. Nothing she does openly like it's nothing, but she gladly does if being asked.)

"That Gothitelle showed some good skills. She made the celing somewhat 'invisible', and despite the daylight showed us some constallations by drawing us into the vision... Especially, she focused on four constallations. The one of Tauros was the first one I recognized. It's the Zodiac for Bouffalant in Unova and represents grasslands and savannahs. What date do we have, the 18th of April, no...? That constallation should be visible at evening until the month ends, northern from Orion. Scorupi was there as well, representing the deserts of our planet. It's a pretty one to look through a telesope." (Shiva left hers at home though) "Same with Ursaring Major, the brightest one in the Mountain Galaxy. Gothitelle didn't showed us the North Star hinting to Ursaring Minor however. The Evening Star, or planet Venus has been shown by Gothitelle as well, representing water, ships and the ocean. This planet is not visible currently at the sky though, it will likely be again in the early morning starting at October."

"All these constallations where placed right next to each other withough conjunction occuring. Next, these...vines came into play, they writhed around them. Eventually, they bursted and faded though and the stars remained as they where... Without conjunction." Definitelly need to take a breath here. "Eh...so, if you'd ask me, I feel like this could be hint? Or not... But I surely got a feeling of 'time goes by, no matter what' at the end. Whatever these vines and everything may mean, they're powerless in the end. As intimidating and weird they may be."

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Speaking about celestial bodies and such... "Eh... Besides, Nathan, did Helios served you well with Teleport? Can I have him back, please?"

[Spiritmon]

"Ouch ouch ouch! Hot! Hot!" Yell Heart after heat up the microwave and finish the last piece of the desserts. The Magikarp tayaki:

Spoiler

"With some tea to acompany the lunch. Whoosh now we are ready. I think I should meet the others in the lobby and invite them to the lunch. But I really dont want to be a invader so it might be a little more wise to wait. Dont want to annoy Nathan too since the situation is getting a little better. I just hopes this might help."

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan still doesn't look up from his notes when he responds to Ventus again.  Still with not much but indifference.  "And I still need to talk to you about that, if you're actually going to listen to me this time."  No time for Ventus to respond to that, though, as Kirlia and Shiva are here!

When Shiva comes over, Nathan's demeanor changes completely (which should explain why Kirlia was more than happy to see Shiva).  For starters, there's a genuine smile on his face, and he immediately closes his journal to talk to her directly.

"Ah, there you are, Shiva."

He listens to her comments on the constellations carefully, and then pulls out Helios's pokeball.  "I take it Yule's been behaving, Shiva?  I think Helios spent most of the day napping since I only needed him for the one Teleport this morning.  Again, thanks for the loan.  If I could just get Yule back, please, that'd be great."

And once the swap is done...

"Thank you.  So, I met some very interesting people once I got back from my little adventure, and I think you'll find some of the things I learned today interesting, Shiva.  First person I met with was Dagny.  Had to inform her about what's going on with those vines.  I'm expecting a call back from her soonish, as she was doing a little research of her own regarding them.  I wonder if Kirlia might be able to help with Gothitelle...hmmm...Regardless, the second person was...

"...Sheldon.  From the Tandor region.  Seems he was visiting for a couple reasons, but the big one was a showcase of the various Steel types native to his home region.  I got a chance to battle him...and got promptly squished since the pokemon he had on hand were some of his strongest.  He did give me a chance to look through his pokedex, though (as he wanted to see me use pokemon that are rare in Tandor), and I discovered he owns several Psychic types on top of Steel ones.  Notably, he's got the entire Comite line registered.  And he was more than happy to tell me a little bit about them.

"They're apparently incredibly common in caves over in Tandor.  But only in Tandor.  And it's a common theory that they originally came from space.  When Comite evolve into Cometeor (which happens naturally as Comite grow stronger), they gain a secondary Psychic typing.  And Comite evolve into Astronite when traded.  Astronite are apparently incredibly powerful and versatile fighters (they can apparently survive in space), but...Sheldon also said they're rather difficult to train.  They apparently have near constant urges to try and return to space.  And the ones that get a chance to don't always come back when they do..."

It's pretty clear he's talking to Shiva now, but he's not necessarily excluding Ventus either.  In fact, if Ventus tries to slip away for some reason, Kirlia will end up just Teleporting in front of him to keep him there.  And failing that, he'll just Teleport Ventus back to the table directly.  Ventus isn't going anywhere until Nathan's done with him for the night!

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

(Wrong, I had to place Yule on the PC to have room for the Pokemon I wanted to use in the 4vs4 battle at the Fountain.)


...Dear Reashiram, it felt so weird to see Nathan smile. Of course it cannot reach the level of Ventus' dazzling smiles, but something in Shiva told her that this smile from the young Trainer was an honest one, good to know... After the instant unexpectedness about this faded and Shiva got the chance to gather her thoughts, she made it to reply. However, this didn't happen before she throw a discret glance over to Ven beside her, one that was filled both with a lack of understanding and a bit of worry. It seems like she was right in her assumption that something happened again between them... The signs were rather clear. Shiva didn't exactly know WHAT was the matter here, but as long ath they don't get at each others throats... Currently, she had other, more important worries, as much as she may desire to simply ask what hell was wrong.

She gladly accepts Helios back from Nathan and hands over Yule in his Pokeball in return. "Thanks... Good to know that he's back with me in one piece. As for your Skiddo... Yeah, he's been good... I hadn't have the time to really interact with him though, sorry for that. The city is so pretty, you know... Hehe." *slightly embarrassed expression while looking away*

She went back to facing him though as he went on with sharing how he spent the day and let him finish first before speaking up. "Dagny, you say... That's the Gym Leader of this city, right? Do you know what kind of person she is? Did you got a glimpse of the Pokemon she uses? Steel Type, as far as I know... I dislike it, but I actually have a few Pokemon to counter her, I guess. As for that Gothitelle, I, ehm, am certainly eager to adopt her, just as Ven says. Me too have no issues if you want to join us to the Shelter tomorrow morning. I have no idea who Kirlia is supposed to 'help' her about that visions though... Actually, I don't think he can do much more than witness them with us." There was no sadness in this last sentence though. More like 'let's take it one stept at a time here, please'.

At the mentioning of 'Tandor' and 'Psychic Types' Shiva certainly was all ears. She had no idea who that Sheldon was though, and the thought of a showcase of Steel Types gave her an cold shiver. "'Cometeor' has a nice ring for a Pokemon name. Funny thing how it gains Psychic Type when evolving, and even comes from space... I'll keep that astral rock of mine, no matter what. Such rarity." The thought of their seemingly Final Form, Astronite, having an urge to return to space with no return somewhat spooked her; if her Comite ever evolves, she'll likely keep it this first evolution. Doesn't matter whether they're so versatile in battle. (Shiva still has the moves this Pokemon learns noted in journal, as she once copied them from a PC in the Center. Moonblast excites her.)

"Now, ehm..." she said after a bit of silence, "anything else needed to be said and done? I desire to call home to Castelia before heading to bed and I would like to have Ventus with me when doing so... Do you know where Heart and Valder are? "

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan's expression resets to neutral when Dagny is brought up.

"Eh.  City's okay.  Dagny's nice.  She's not JUST a gym leader, though, Shiva.  She's the innovative, forward thinking, former warrior, leader of Creshire.  Well, one of the two.  Tanuki in Cress City is the other one.  Yes, she uses Steel (she's known as the Steel Wonder).  No, I didn't see any of her pokemon.  She's not accepting any challenges until those vines are dealt with.  They're a very, very real danger that we need to take seriously.  I've had to spend the entire day trying to figure out how to stop them, and I'm still nowhere near the answer I need.  Only conclusion I've reached so far is how to delay them..."

"Oh, uh, right.  While I'm thinking about it, there's something REALLY important you need to know about Dagny when you eventually meet her.  And this goes double for you, Ventus.  Don't.  Talk.  About.  The wheelchair.  At all.  Period.  It's a sensitive topic, and her temper is rather legendary.  You'll be plastered against a wall in seconds just for bringing it up."

"Oh?  Heart and Valder?  Uh...haven't seen Valder all day.  Heart...well, I saw him during Sheldon's demonstration, but then he wandered off...no idea where he is either."

Kirlia's a little less forward in his intent once he's satisfied that Ventus isn't going anywhere.  In fact, now he's doing something completely different!  Now he's indicating to both Ventus and Nathan that they should head to the back room again.  And he's not taking no for an answer!

"Kirlia, what are you...oh, you think now is a good time?"

Kirlia nods.

"...*sigh*...alright, alright...Ventus, back room."

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Aha... So that Dagny was some sort of 'celebrity' of this region? Similar like Chuckles from Corsage Port...? Eh, nope, that was different... Shiva clearly remembers that picture of that particular Gmy Leader in her Guidebook. That coldness, that intimidation she felt as she saw that page for the first time... It all gave her cold shivers at that time. Plus, he uses Ghost Types, ugh.... Dagny was a different issue, it seems? Her Gym surely looks intimidating, but something about it drags Shiva to it. Was it the fact that she did so well in the battle against Zamboni and defeated him with the help of her magical fox on first try and without huge trouble, something she really didn't expected to happen? Still, it'd be lying if she'd say that she didn't very faintly had a hope to do well in that icy battle... Maybe she could repeat that in a steely battle? Maybe... Her new sweet panda surely displayed power in his punches.

Shiva didn't reply about Nathan's warning about not to mention that wheelchair, neither towards anything concerning the vines, as she was lost in these thoughts... However, she surely looked up at 'you think now is a good time' with a raised eyebrow, and that suspicious feeling only grew stronger as Nathan asked Ven to head to a backroom.

Of course something happened again, my dear.
Dear Reshiram...
Let them handle it on their own this time, okay?
Sounds good for me, as I'm busy enough, actually...

Sighing impercible, she looked away from Nathan and faced Ventus beside her. Her gaze seemed to say something like 'Really? What happened again?', but she didn't spoke out any of these thoughts. Instead, she gave the sociologist a dear and comforting squeeze of the hand (much like he did already), trying to show confidence to him. She also spoke in a lower voice to him. "I'll wait for you to return here in the Lobby... Please come back soon, okay? And please don't power yourself out too much, you know, as I STILL want you beside me when I call home tonight."

[Iron]

There are many resources on how to read the new style of Unown from Johto, so Ventus can definitely read them if desired.