[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

Then the eremite follows you down the Tusk. Just like the Metagross, his feet seem to stick to the clay. Unlike them, he is not constrained to the rocky portions, and seems to prefer loose clay. He avoids the frost, though. He doesn't shiver at the cold, despite his attire - wrapping his arms around himself seems to be enough. And he never stops making his strange noises.

When you get to the base of the mountain, he points out Shiva/Ventus' campsite in the farthest wildernesses of the Savannah at the base of the Great Divide, and dispatches Gliscor to watch over you again. "She likes the night," he says, "and she does not easily get tired."

"Goodbye! Safe travels! Don't visit again!" He waves you off.

You turn to go where he points. A farewell cry from Gliscor makes you look over your shoulders. There, you catch a glimpse of the old man in the fog: he folds his arms and a white cloud forms at his feet, subsuming his lower half, and you see him float up off the ground for about 10 meters before he disappears behind the Tusk.

A cold mist passes over the land. You have a long journey before you, from the beginnings of the land and the ends of the earth to the apex of civilization. There, new friends and a Gym Battle await you!

END OF CHAPTER 1

[Nylon]

Valder lets a relieved sigh out, Holding Theo close to him as he gazes over the mist.

(I do a lot of them, so I should probably ask if making microscopical posts like this is bothersome. Great first ending, Iron!)

[Dragonstrike]

Well, now that he's at the bottom of the mountain...best check for that cell service again.  The sooner Nathan contacts Dagny, the better.  It might be late, but she needs to be updated ASAP...

And it's at this point that Orthros is finally recalled, since it's much warmer at the base of the mountains. The dog needs the rest anyways...

[Spiritmon]

Heart strech his arms after the medidation and new form of Gustav. Such incredible adventure they have: Fight against the vines, fly with a Primal Altaria, fight against Pseudo Ground Pokemon, and they capture some cool pokemon, and they save Star City.

"Such adventure! Even in my years I never have this type of adventure! Well, I go in some dangerous adventures yes like the Mirage Tower, the time I was hunt by a hive of Beedrills, when a big angry Gyarados almost eat me alive when I was searching for a good water pokemon, yara yaha yara. But save the region from a bunch of vines? Never do that before. Do you think they going to reward us or something?"

[Dragonstrike]

Heart strech his arms after the medidation and new form of Gustav. Such incredible adventure they have: Fight against the vines, fly with a Primal Altaria, fight against Pseudo Ground Pokemon, and they capture some cool pokemon, and they save Star City.

"Such adventure! Even in my years I never have this type of adventure! Well, I go in some dangerous adventures yes like the Mirage Tower, the time I was hunt by a hive of Beedrills, when a big angry Gyarados almost eat me alive when I was searching for a good water pokemon, yara yaha yara. But save the region from a bunch of vines? Never do that before. Do you think they going to reward us or something?"

Nathan shrugs.

"Not done yet.  Not even close..."

...he can't help but cast a sideways glance at Kirlia as he says that, before turning his attention back to his pokedex.

"...I need to call Dagny.  Come on, find a signal, 'dex..."

[Iron]

You arrive back in Stair City, having Gliscor and your own Pokemon fend off most of the attacking Pokemon without issue. Each of the attackers was quite strong, but they came one at a time and you were able to do 11v1 battles from atop the Metagross and simply demolish them.

A light dusting of snow greeted you each morning. With judicious use of Tailwind on the Metagross, you were able to cut the journey from 9 days to 6. This effort exhausts Lucifer, so he just spends most of his time sleeping after using the move.

The morning you come within sight of the Skull Ruins, the blue egg carried by Nathan hatches!! That's about a day earlier than expected. The weather is calm with blue skies as you have entered the more moderate part of the Divide. Castform is born to perfectly neutral weather. Happiness 2, Loyalty 3, Disobedience 0, Tackle, Forecast.

You can all have 6 heartbeat XP, which includes the few battles you ran into along the journey to get here. Normally you would not get heartbeat XP from days where no RP-ing occurred.

As you round the Skull Ruins, you see that the vines are now confined to ancient walls. They're of normal size, but the walls show signs of bearing recent heavy weights/stress.

When you arrive in Stair City through the northern gate, you can see that several of the big skyscrapers on the north side have fallen, leaving only their steel frames. But the evacuated areas have been re-populated. The large newscreens have been reinstalled, and scrolling text indicates that there were only ten human fatalities and seven Pokemon. The newscast credits Dagny and the League for defeating the strange vines. Nothing is still known about the source of the attack.

You regain cell service at this point, naturally. Despite checking every day.

Life in the city has resumed as if nothing happened, except that there is a lot of cleanup/rebuilding work to be done, and the subject on everyone's lips is the vines. Vendors are already back out, selling weedkiller and building materials in addition to their normal wares.

In one of the newscasts, you see that the Shelter is safe and repopulated, and all the major important buildings survived. The GPC actually had vines at its base, but they are now withered and dead without causing any structural damage. Someone is adding a mural of vines and Skull Ruins on the north side of the GPC.

People said they had plenty to do in Stair City so I won't bother fast forwarding this part until it all gets accomplished.

Shiva asked to check the status of the eggs in her care. The Dark Purple egg gives a reading of only 4% gestation remaining! The Pink Threaded Egg has moved to 20% remaining. Ventus' Blue/Black fuzzy egg gives between 40-60% remaining.

[Iron]

Valder lets a relieved sigh out, Holding Theo close to him as he gazes over the mist.

(I do a lot of them, so I should probably ask if making microscopical posts like this is bothersome. Great first ending, Iron!)

Not at all! Keep it up!

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan holds Castform close when she hatches.  "Welcome to the world, little gal...I'll try my best to give ya a good home and keep ya safe..." The little cloud pokemon ends up registered to that Blue Fitted Apricorn he got back in Arrowroot, as planned. 

He's spent a good portion of the trip back trying to contact Dagny to no avail...and also still sulking a little over his own worries.  He's been trying to stay positive, but it's only semi-working.  He breathes a sigh of relief when Stair City finally comes into view, though he's still apprehensive about a few things...

First action of day 42 for Nathan: calling Dagny immediately as soon as he gets cell service.

[Spiritmon]

Heart looks around the destruction the City suffers. Such devastation...He wants to do something.

"No place like home heh?" This time Heart dont chuckle after that joke. "Sorry. I just...to nervous after this. I dont you guys going to do, but I think I will help what I can in rebuild the City. With such destruction they might need trainers. I catch you people later okay? I must find any information about the time we are gone. And I might train Tynamo in the meantime to produce his energy." To make sure Heart release Tynamo. "Welcome Tynamo, to Star City. A place filled with eletric energy. Hope you enjoy. Anyway, Ventus, Shiva, Valder, Nathan, I catch you all later. Today I going to make a victory food after that adventure! After such adventure we did, a good dinner its the best way to commemorate. See ya!"

First action of day 42 for Heart: Find someone to help Star City, even with little things and perhaps find the workers he work together.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Since Flashbacks have been mentioned to be welcome...

All while traveling through the mountains and Metagross, Shiva held watch over some of these fertile valleys where water once streamed... But being speed up by the Tailwind likely made it a little hard to get off and investigate whether hurtloam can be found there - specks of gold hint to it, he said - unless the group decides to rest or camp near such a valley.

Not much she did otherwise, apart from sharing a package of Gourmet Food between herself and Nightshade on one day and allowing Kyuu to dig into one package all by himself on another day. Whenever she had a Pokemon of hers outside, she held it very close to her to prevent it from accidently getting lost.

On one other day, after the others have already went to sleep within tent, she also checked on the Myster Eggs... And squealed in anticipation to see '4% remaining' - only for short though, not to accidently awake the others or put them on edge. After having packed eggs and Almanac away, she also used the quietness of the mountains and closure to nature to actually see what kinds of herbs those that Tandal showed her at some point before reaching the village actually where. He mentioned they're good for incenses... Well, night's still young, so she ended up crafting the herbs into these typical form of small sticks while having Braixen provide some natural and warm light from his enlightened wand.

End of Flashbacks.



Finally back in Stair, finally civilisation, finally some well deserved return! After all that nice nature and mountains and whatelse it'll likely be some sort of culture shock again for Shiva , but by far not as strong as it was in the morning of Arrowroot Village. She feels like she'll get used to city life rather quickly again.

The city was...busy, as expected, and there was no other topic than the vines. Eh, naturally..... If being asked, Shiva would certainly participate in any discussions or conspiracy theories, but for now she prefered to be left alone to gain some sort of distance over things before it'll get overwhelming. She felt like the battle has been won, but by far not the war - this was only temporal peace, but she made damn well sure that she'll enjoy that temporal peace. Given how big the Stair City was, ten people and seven Pokemon having lost their lifes did gave her a sharp pain running through her heart, but it could have been WAY more... Thank you, dear Incarnate of the Southern Wind in the form of a Primal Altaria. Shiva will later pray for the deceased.

Before that however, stopping by at the GPC! Ohhh, hello familiarity and many many Nurse Joys, as well as fast access to the internet and Bill's PC! There is was, that Beartic, as well as that blasted Pineco... Eh, let's deal with them later. Right, she also mentioned that she'll mail her father to keep him updated on things and open up that she obtained an new Eeveelution for herself (Vaporeon) and found out about another (Nucleon)... Eh, that can be done later as well. Unless the attack on Stair City has been broadcasted all over the world (why should it?), he won't die from worrying for his daughter's wellbeing. 'She's smart enough to not run into her own doom', he'd say and think.

Shiva made sure that she caught the attention of one of the Nurse Joy present. "*cough* Ehm... Do excuse me, but these vines laying around here... What about the dorms upstairs, they where not affected, where they? Are there any free ones currently, for two persons? Yeah, it'd be me and the same person I've shared the room with already. Here's my Trainer's Pass and Breeder's Lisence to book the room, we'll likely stay there for a little more than a week now. Also, now with the threat defeated... Do you know anything whether Dagny now accepts Gym Battles? Has she mentioned anything so far?"