[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

"

Spoiler

It's a language that's hundreds of years old at least.  Languages change, just as people and pokemon do."

Nathan doesn't really comment on the recognition part.  He knows that, and it's not really that exciting for him.  He's just happy enough with enjoying his own hobby/obsession on his own terms.

"...well, just tell me when ya want to do it then.  Got until this evening, since that's when the Little Cup is going on."

The researcher was a bit curious as to their lack of enthusiasm or reaction to his 'Fame and Recognition' comment, as most acedemics like him would be thrilled to be offered such attention and the opportunities it provides,  but decided to shrug it off in the end. It wasn't his place to dictate how one should feel on a topic.....even though at times he wish it was, as was the case with Orthros. Bah.......

"Hmm.......would now be a good time then? I have other plans I want to accomplish today, but they are not urget and can be put off for a little while longer. After all, its not everyday you learn about a language thought to be impenetrable to modern minds!"

Order: Have Ventus spend an Encounter with Nathan catching up/learning what they have uncovered on Old Unown, and auto helping (IE: Using his own Insigh and Knowledge without my interactions) to help him further translate what's hasn't been. Afterwards, Ventus will be heading along to Route 4 to conduct that exchange we'ved talked about, Iron! Learning is fun, when the topic is of interest!

[Dragonstrike]

The researcher was a bit curious as to their lack of enthusiasm or reaction to his 'Fame and Recognition' comment, as most acedemics like him would be thrilled to be offered such attention and the opportunities it provides,  but decided to shrug it off in the end. It wasn't his place to dictate how one should feel on a topic.....even though at times he wish it was, as was the case with Orthros. Bah.......

"Hmm.......would now be a good time then? I have other plans I want to accomplish today, but they are not urget and can be put off for a little while longer. After all, its not everyday you learn about a language thought to be impenetrable to modern minds!"

Order: Have Ventus spend an Encounter with Nathan catching up/learning what they have uncovered on Old Unown, and auto helping (IE: Using his own Insigh and Knowledge without my interactions) to help him further translate what's hasn't been. Afterwards, Ventus will be heading along to Route 4 to conduct that exchange we'ved talked about, Iron! Learning is fun, when the topic is of interest!

"That's fine.  Rain doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon.  3rd round of Little Cup's going to be rather wet, it seems."

Nathan indicates that Ventus should sit in the seat next to him.  He puts the journal between the two of them.

The left page of the journal has the modern alphabet listed, with the modern unown listed underneath those, followed by what old unown he could match to the more modern scripts listed underneath those.  The only letters without at least one symbol listed underneath them are C, J, P, Q, V, X, Y, and Z. There's a notable lack of punctuation based Unown symbols written in blue ink.

Further down that page is a list of combinations of various symbols.  Notably, the symbol listed under F is here by itself, with a ? underneath it.  There's also ITE (IGHT), IU (H), SE (CE), SG (SH), K (CK), and E _ _ IU (?) [If Ventus could help Nathan figure out what that first word in EA _ _ _ Metal is, that'd be convenient.]

The page on the right is as described previously.

Nathan looks at the message Ventus just wrote down, takes a moment to compare it to his notes...fills in what he can...

_ E FOUR WINDS

"Hmmm...that first symbol...that's new.  I think it's obvious what it means in this instance, though."

Nathan adds the new symbol to his notes on the left page, then in the appropriate spots on both pages fills in a TH underneath it, completing the new message.

THE FOUR WINDS

"Ask Heart where he found this text later. This seems somewhat significant."

Back to looking at these notes...

"Alright, first thing to learn: I can't actually read this yet, and the work's far from done.  Solomon is the only modern being that can actually read all this fluently.  His help has been instrumental in translating this."

"Everything I've got here so far, I've pulled from the untranslated messages I've encountered.  Solomon's Hidden Power can create more on the spot, which is helpful, but the messages it creates are specific to what the target of the attack was, and they don't stay affixed to the target for very long. A lot of this is educated guesswork using the context of what you already know. That 'F' for example, or that 'K'. I think they're sometimes more representative of the sounds than the actual letters. Looking at it that way, I was able to fill in either their blanks or the blanks around them easily. The only thing I can really recommend to 'learn' it is to take careful notes on what you know already, which is what you're going to do now, then try translating messages with that and solving any incomplete parts as you go."

When Ventus is done taking careful notes on the script (PM me if you need some help with pinning down the specifics of how I took these notes, Windos.), Nathan points at BRAILLE.

"...golem in the Ruins, right?  I'm worried that whatever this golem related to Sarimanok is, it's similar in nature to the Legendary Titans.  Are you familiar with their lore?"

If Ventus has questions about the various symbols and messages, he's free to ask them before we get to BRAILLE. Gotta fill those 3 hours somehow, yes?

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

"That's fine.  Rain doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon.  3rd round of Little Cup's going to be rather wet, it seems."

Nathan indicates that Ventus should sit in the seat next to him.  He puts the journal between the two of them.

The left page of the journal has the modern alphabet listed, with the modern unown listed underneath those, followed by what old unown he could match to the more modern scripts listed underneath those.  The only letters without at least one symbol listed underneath them are C, J, P, Q, V, X, Y, and Z.  There's a notable lack of punctuation based Unown symbols written in blue ink.

Further down that page is a list of combinations of various symbols.  Notably, the symbol listed under F is here by itself, with a ? underneath it.  There's also ITE (IGHT), IU (H), SE (CE), SG (SH), K (CK), and E _ _ IU (?) [If Ventus could help Nathan figure out what that first word in EA _ _ _ Metal is, that'd be convenient.]

The page on the right is as described previously.

Nathan looks at the message Ventus just wrote down, takes a moment to compare it to his notes...fills in what he can...

_ E FOUR WINDS

"Hmmm...that first symbol...that's new.  I think it's obvious what it means in this instance, though."

Nathan adds the new symbol to his notes on the left page, then in the appropriate spots on both pages fills in a TH underneath it, completing the new message.

THE FOUR WINDS

"Ask Heart where he found this text later.  This seems somewhat significant."

Back to looking at these notes...

"Alright, first thing to learn: I can't actually read this yet, and the work's far from done.  Solomon is the only modern being that can actually read all this fluently.  His help has been instrumental in translating this."

"Everything I've got here so far, I've pulled from the untranslated messages I've encountered.  Solomon's Hidden Power can create more on the spot, which is helpful, but the messages it creates are specific to what the target of the attack was, and they don't stay affixed to the target for very long.  A lot of this is educated guesswork using the context of what you already know.  That 'F' for example, or that 'K'.  I think they're sometimes more representative of the sounds than the actual letters.  Looking at it that way, I was able to fill in either their blanks or the blanks around them easily.  The only thing I can really recommend to 'learn' it is to take careful notes on what you know already, which is what you're going to do now, then try translating messages with that and solving any incomplete parts as you go."

When Ventus is done taking careful notes on the script (PM me if you need some help with pinning down the specifics of how I took these notes, Windos.), Nathan points at BRAILLE.

"...golem in the Ruins, right?  I'm worried that whatever this golem related to Sarimanok is, it's similar in nature to the Legendary Titans.  Are you familiar with their lore?"

If Ventus has questions about the various symbols and messages, he's free to ask them before we get to BRAILLE.  Gotta fill those 3 hours somehow, yes?

The moment Nathan agrees and motions for him to sit beside him, Ventus complies instantly with one of his own notebooks and pencil in hand as if they always were their (What in....HOW in the.....?). He diligently copies down the current Modern/Common English to Old Unown that the young scholar has already translated, before moving onto creating a section for 'Symbol Grouping and Individual Symbol Alternative Meanings' and filling that in with the combinations the boy has already discovered. Then he flipped forward a couple of pages to leave space for the still in progess translation key, titled a blank page 'Old/Elder Unown Text and Their Translations' and filled that out as well. Ven had a delighted yet intense look of concentration as he painstakingly copied everything down, as if this was a challenge that he most definitely enjoyed undertaking.

When he finished his copying and Nathan translated the latest message and new symbol (Which was soon added to his own notebook) and asked him to interrogate Heart further, he sharply nodded his head in response, before responding to his comment about the translation + Solomon's aid.

"Hmm....yes, but in my opinion the translation you've completed thus far is more than serviceable in most instances. If it wasn't for the tendacy for Old Unown symbols to link up together to form individual letters and vice versa, you would be able to translate most text and figure out the rest by brute forcing it. Its a great thing I caught Solomon and Valder was able to make a King's Rock for me, or otherwise we would know naught of this valuable source of information!"

Ventus  began to look more thoughtful as the boy continued his explaination on the wise king's contributions to the ongoing translation effort, before asking them: "If the Old Unown and the messages they make that Solomon summons with Hidden Power change according to their target, could he perhaps use it on certain objects and individuals to gain some Insight into them, while also providing more material to translate? I'm willing to be a guinea big by being a target, as well as the rest of the Pokémon if that is alright with you."

As for the rest of that statement, the researcher could only nod his head in agreement, and then add in his own observations on the subject. "Indeed, I noticed the trend for the language to lean more toward a phonetic translation convention, rather than directly to Common , but I guess that is just a quirk that has to be accounted for. I'm more curious how certain letters, like T and E, L and A, and B and D , seem to be just rotated or inverted versions of one another. The fact that G and H share a symbol and the relative fluidity they are conveyed in messages is a curiosity as well, and combined with my prior statement imply that Old Unown is more nuanced and flexible than we may be aware of now. I'm also concerned if Old Unown share similarities with Egyptain Heiroglyphs and have individual or string of unique symbols represent unique things or the alike, as that would be a massive roadblock to deal with......."

Eventually, both he and Nathan got to discussing the BRAILLE message, and this is what Ventus had to say on that: "....That's what I suspected too, based on that......old man's description of his 'ally' in the ruins, and brainstorming what could possibly command those Vines. Yes, I'm familiar with the legends surround the Titans, but a refresher would be nice, and you likely have information on them that might have eluded me during my own research and self study. You are the group's resident historian and source of obscure information, after all!"

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

"Hmm....yes, but in my opinion the translation you've completed thus far is more than serviceable in most instances. If it wasn't for the tendacy for Old Unown symbols to link up together to form individual letters and vice versa, you would be able to translate most text and figure out the rest by brute forcing it. Its a great thing I caught Solomon and Valder was able to make a King's Rock for me, or otherwise we would know naught of this valuable source of information!"

Ventus  began to look more thoughtful as the boy continued his explaination on the wise king's contributions to the ongoing translation effort, before asking them: "If the Old Unown and the messages they make that Solomon summons with Hidden Power change according to their target, could he perhaps use it on certain objects and individuals to gain some Insight into them, while also providing more material to translate? I'm willing to be a guinea big by being a target, as well as the rest of the Pokémon if that is alright with you."

As for the rest of that statement, the researcher could only nod his head in agreement, and then add in his own observations on the subject. "Indeed, I noticed the trend for the language to lean more toward a phonetic translation convention, rather than directly to Common , but I guess that is just a quirk that has to be accounted for. I'm more curious how certain letters, like T and E, L and A, and B and D , seem to be just rotated or inverted versions of one another. The fact that G and H share a symbol and the relative fluidity they are conveyed in messages is a curiosity as well, and combined with my prior statement imply that Old Unown is more nuanced and flexible than we may be aware of now. I'm also concerned if Old Unown share similarities with Egyptain Heiroglyphs and have individual or string of unique symbols represent unique things or the alike, as that would be a massive roadblock to deal with......."

Eventually, both he and Nathan got to discussing the BRAILLE message, and this is what Ventus had to say on that: "....That's what I suspected too, based on that......old man's description of his 'ally' in the ruins, and brainstorming what could possibly command those Vines. Yes, I'm familiar with the legends surround the Titans, but a refresher would be nice, and you likely have information on them that might have eluded me during my own research and self study. You are the group's resident historian and source of obscure information, after all!"

"Maybe.  SHEER FORSE NITE SLASH was talking about Sheldon's Daikatuna.  Sheer Force is the species's hidden ability, and Night Slash seems to be a move it can learn, since it's a fish with a sword on its head.  The one about Kirlia, I was just having Solomon practice Hidden Power after the battle with Sheldon.  He decided to target Kirlia with the attack instead of using it on a training dummy.  Kirlia evaded it, but the attack continued and hit the wall behind him, so it seems only the original target matters for what the Hidden Power describes.  That one I haven't finished yet, Solomon had used Hidden Power on a rock from nearby Mt. Molten (this statement might strike Ventus as odd, as Mt. Molten is not close by any stretch of the imgaination).  And BRAILLE, that's from the piece of old wall we found.  The problem is that the text fades too quickly for me to translate it mid-battle right now, as Solomon's still the only one who can fluently read it.  He knows what it says immediately, I have to write it down first, then translate it later.  I'm trying to get get better at that, but having to write it down slows things considerably...not sure it'd be a good idea to try using Hidden Power for science in a crisis, really..."

Nathan stops Ventus when he says D's symbol is a rotated version of B.  "Stop.   No, that's not quite right.  Look closer.  Every single one of these blue unown symbols, no matter what their orientation is, has one thing in common besides the eye and color: they all have a straight line pointing up.  If you rotate B or D into the orientation of the other, you're stuck with a sideways line, and none pointing up.  If you were to flip D, it'd still work, assuming there's a letter for that orientation.  You can't rotate it, though.  B, you can't rotate or flip at all without breaking the pattern."

Nathan thinks for a moment about that comparison to heiroglyphics..."The Four Winds...that's a label for something important.  It has to be.  If anything were to have unique symbols, it'd be that.  Unless we encounter some weird, unique symbols for specific things, I wouldn't worry about it too much."

...

On to BRAILLE and the Legendary Titans...

The Legend of the Titans

"...The Legendary Titans...it's said that Regigigas, the Colossal pokemon, used ropes to pull the continents into their positions with ropes when the world was first formed.  A feat of immense strength and endurance.  It is by no means a weak pokemon.  And afterwards, it's also said that it created the Rock Peak, Iceberg, and Iron Titans in its image using rocks and clay, mountain ice, and magma.  Three individual golems, not quite as powerful as their creator, but still fearsome in their own right.  Regigas's grip is said to be one of the strongest things that's ever existed, and its control over the golems it's created infallible no matter the circumstances."

"However, when angered, it's also said that Regigigas was nigh unstoppable.  Its incredible power combined with the ability to control the golems that are as powerful as itself when they're working together...the ancient peoples feared that.  And so, they locked Regigigas and its creations away, each in a separate chamber, and left messages written in braille, a language similar to the patterns that make up the Titans' faces, with instructions on how to break the seals, in the hopes that someone would eventually tame the beasts once and for all...only one who could manage all three of Regirock, Regice, and Registeel at the same time would even have a hope of taming their creator..."

"There is one man who's done that, and another who's searching for the trio.  Pyramid King Brandon of the Hoenn Battle Frontier...he's the one who discovered the original messages left in the Hoenn region in the first place, translated them...and then scoured the region for the answers to the riddles, eventually finding and capturing Regirock, Regice, and Registeel for himself.  He's easily the most difficult member of the Battle Frontier to defeat.  He's still looking for Regigas's location in the Hoenn region, I believe..."

"...but there's also Lukas, the current, non-acting Champion of Sinnoh.  I've heard he's been hanging around several key locations in recent years, potentially even discussing some things with Cynthia.  I believe he's looking for the Legendaries and Mythicals of Sinnoh.  And among the locations he's visiting is the Snowpoint Temple, where we know a statue of Regigigas lies on the bottom most floor.  Without the master's creations, though, I don't think he's made any progress on finding Regigigas in Sinnoh."

"...and recently, I've heard of another statue of Regigigas being found recently.  In Unova.  A hidden chamber, beneath Twist Mountain...I imagine Rosa is going to head down there to check it out at one point or another, seeing as Iris is usually minding the League in her stead..."

"...I find it odd that they seem to show up in so many regions.  But from what I've read, I've come up with a theory.  What if there's not just one Regigigas, one set of Titans of Rock; Ice; and Steel, but multiples?  We have shrines honoring the Titans here in Creshire, or at least somewhat nearby.  I've heard braille writing has been found in the Sevii Islands as well, along with a ruby and a sapphire that hum with a strange power in the depths of the ruins that were labeled with the writing...and the gemstones proved instrumental in boosting the Kanto region's PC signals to allow communication with other regions, allowing Bill to expand his PC network to the rest of the world...their influence seems to be everywhere in one way or another."

"...I would not be surprised if Sarimanok had found a way to control one of the Titans, much like Regigigas can.  Or worse, created one of his own.  And if it was sealed away, either to stop it once before or as a contingency plan should Sarimanok have lost the war...regardless of the reason, there's only one way to stop it now that its seal has been broken and it's been awakened..."

Nathan looks at Kirlia as he trails off.  He's keeping Forthright entertained in the rain.  Seems she's enjoying the weather.

"...*sigh*...asking someone to change isn't something you should ever have to do, in my opinion..."

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

"Maybe.  SHEER FORSE NITE SLASH was talking about Sheldon's Daikatuna.  Sheer Force is the species's hidden ability, and Night Slash seems to be a move it can learn, since it's a fish with a sword on its head.  The one about Kirlia, I was just having Solomon practice Hidden Power after the battle with Sheldon.  He decided to target Kirlia with the attack instead of using it on a training dummy.  Kirlia evaded it, but the attack continued and hit the wall behind him, so it seems only the original target matters for what the Hidden Power describes.  That one I haven't finished yet, Solomon had used Hidden Power on a rock from nearby Mt. Molten (this statement might strike Ventus as odd, as Mt. Molten is not close by any stretch of the imgaination).  And BRAILLE, that's from the piece of old wall we found.  The problem is that the text fades too quickly for me to translate it mid-battle right now, as Solomon's still the only one who can fluently read it.  He knows what it says immediately, I have to write it down first, then translate it later.  I'm trying to get get better at that, but having to write it down slows things considerably...not sure it'd be a good idea to try using Hidden Power for science in a crisis, really..."

Nathan stops Ventus when he says D's symbol is a rotated version of B.  "Stop.   No, that's not quite right.  Look closer.  Every single one of these blue unown symbols, no matter what their orientation is, has one thing in common besides the eye and color: they all have a straight line pointing up.  If you rotate B or D into the orientation of the other, you're stuck with a sideways line, and none pointing up.  If you were to flip D, it'd still work, assuming there's a letter for that orientation.  You can't rotate it, though.  B, you can't rotate or flip at all without breaking the pattern."

Nathan thinks for a moment about that comparison to heiroglyphics..."The Four Winds...that's a label for something important.  It has to be.  If anything were to have unique symbols, it'd be that.  Unless we encounter some weird, unique symbols for specific things, I wouldn't worry about it too much."

...

On to BRAILLE and the Legendary Titans...

The Legend of the Titans

(Insert Regis Legends Here)


"There is one man who's done that, and another who's searching for the trio.  Pyramid King Brandon of the Hoenn Battle Frontier...he's the one who discovered the original messages left in the Hoenn region in the first place, translated them...and then scoured the region for the answers to the riddles, eventually finding and capturing Regirock, Regice, and Registeel for himself.  He's easily the most difficult member of the Battle Frontier to defeat.  He's still looking for Regigas's location in the Hoenn region, I believe..."

"...but there's also Lukas, the current, non-acting Champion of Sinnoh.  I've heard he's been hanging around several key locations in recent years, potentially even discussing some things with Cynthia.  I believe he's looking for the Legendaries and Mythicals of Sinnoh.  And among the locations he's visiting is the Snowpoint Temple, where we know a statue of Regigigas lies on the bottom most floor.  Without the master's creations, though, I don't think he's made any progress on finding Regigas in Sinnoh."

"...and recently, I've heard of another statue of Regigigas being found recently.  In Unova.  A hidden chamber, beneath Twist Mountain...I imagine Rosa is going to head down there to check it out at one point or another, seeing as Iris is usually minding the League in her stead..."

"...I find it odd that they seem to show up in so many regions.  But from what I've read, I've come up with a theory.  What if there's not just one Regigigas, one set of Titans of Rock; Ice; and Steel, but multiples?  We have shrines honoring the Titans here in Creshire, or at least somewhat nearby.  I've heard braille writing has been found in the Sevii Islands as well, along with a ruby and a sapphire that hum with a strange power in the depths of the ruins that were labeled with the writing...and the gemstones proved instrumental in boosting the Kanto region's PC signals to allow communication with other regions, allowing Bill to expand his PC network to the rest of the world...their influence seems to be everywhere in one way or another."

"...I would not be surprised if Sarimanok had found a way to control one of the Titans, much like Regigigas can.  Or worse, created one of his own.  And if it was sealed away, either to stop it once before or as a contingency plan should Sarimanok have lost the war...regardless of the reason, there's only one way to stop it now that its seal has been broken and it's been awakened..."

Nathan looks at Kirlia as he trails off.  He's keeping Forthright entertained in the rain.  Seems she's enjoying the weather.

"...*sigh*...asking someone to change isn't something you should ever have to do, in my opinion..."

"Hmm.....how curious. Sometimes the Old Unown refers to the qualities of a beings or objects, and at others it gives cyptic messages that hint at grander things or designs. I wonder if its possible for Solomon himself to influence the final message he produces, like whether its concise, descriptive, what manner is it descriptive.......things like that. As for the feasibility to translate Old Unown on the spot, I should be able to do it once I have a couple of days to pour of the current translation key. While I'm no ancient linguistics expert of any sort, I have keen memory and natural ability to absorb and remember all sorts of information due to my empathy, upbringing and.....events, and formal education, so on the fly translations shouldn't be a problem for me in time. Understanding the messages is another matter entirely, however, and most likely best left in your hands. At the very least, becoming fluent in Old Unown will be far less ornous than my efforts to become fluent in Binary! Also, I was proposing Solomon use Old Unown in a controlled setting on myself and my Pokémon, not in times of crises or haste. Doing otherwise would be a bit silly and reckless, honestly."

Ventus was indeed initially curious as to how and why Nathan got to Mt. Molten to produce a message and back......until he glanced over at Kirlia and remembered the important detail that his mother Marta lived around its base. 'He most likely Teleported their with Kirlia to briefly visit and update his mother about his recent quest and activities thus far, and ended up demonstrating Solomon's powers to her at one point during his stay.'

Of course, once the researcher got onto that train of thought, it was hardly a difficult thing for him to conjure up some semi-reasonable hypothesis......which quickly put him in a bad mood the further he continued thinking of it. 'No doubt he also include showing off the rest of his newest Pokémon, including that monster , to her to introduce them her and garner her support/approval of them. ........Which he likely earned, since with his given emotional stability he would have showed fairly obvious signs of parential rejection had that been the case. *Mental Sighing* I really wish that Marta didn't encourage his.......perverted sementality of that thing , as it only reinforces the wrong notion that is should be accepted instead of being as hostilly rejected as possible, but I suppose its not unexpected that as his mother and her relatively hardy lifestyle she would be able to find it within herself to accept it. Bah.......just another nugget of knowledge I'll have to endure, regretibly.....'

Nathan was able to distract him from such dire and ruinous thoughts (which did not show up in his expression or emotional feed that Kirlia could observe, btw; its been demonstrated he CAN keep Kirlia from sensing his emotions/certain emotions when he doesn't want to) by point out a flaw in his previous logic, which he readily focused on and commited that detail to memory with a few sharp nods of his head. When the young scholar commented again on 'The Four Winds' , Ventus himself interjected with: "Perhaps its related to the Southern Wind Incarnate in some manner? Its a teneous connection, I know, and we don't know the context or thing this message is pertaining too, but its something to ponder none of the less. Additionally, while the message implies that specific symbols do not indicate entire messages or meanings, it does not exclude the possibility, so I'll keep it in mind just in case."

As for the boy's micro lecture/refresher on the Regis, the sociologist intently listened to it in its entirely without any interruption on his part, remaining silent for a couple of minutes as his mind ruminated/tried to recall if he heard parts or all of this or not (Iron, I imagine he's familiar with the basic legends Nathan has outlined, as well as The Pyramind King owning the Titan Trio, but not the rest of the info, so I'll be operating off that assumption. I'll edit things later if you disagree). One thing that caught his attention off the bat was that his friend Cynthia was involved in researching the Regis, which greatly surprised him as he didn't expect such a fine, proper woman to be involved in such skullduggery, but he soon shrugged it off as 'Part of her Life he never bothering asking out of politeness.' He honestly didn't understand the young trainer's fascination for his friend, but it was harmless and a non-issue so far as he was concerned, and so safely ignorable.

 Eventually, Ventus finally nodded his head, and said his piece on the matter. "Thank you for explaination, Nathan, as it was detailed, informative, yet concise and simple enough to digest. Yes, I researched and heard of the old legends surrounding the Regis, and done extensive studying and investigatiosn of Brandon's aquistion and use of them, but I don't believe I heard the rest to my memory. I'm rather intrigued that a Regigigas statue was found in my home region, and I'm wondering where that will affect Unova as a whole. Your hypothesis on their being multiple 'sets' of Regis' is most likely correct, if they are being found all over the world as you described. Its also likely that the old king indeed had some manner of influence over the Regis if that golem is connected to them, but I'm uncertain if he could actually make a Legendary Pokémon or not. Why do you suppose he's capable of doing that, Nathan? As you said, we'll have to stop the Golem at some point , so we'll have the answers to those questions eventually whether we like it or not."


The boy's last comment........that both greatly rackled him AND sparked Ven's curiosity. On one hand, Nathan of all people saying this made them out to be a massive hypocrite, given how ardently they had been trying to meddle with HIS world view, standard opporating procedure, morality etc. AND his quest to change Kirlia's heart. On the other, it showed that the boy was at least somewhat aware that forcing such things on another individual is not too terribly a kind thing to do, so at least he wasn't totally senseless or insensitive towards others. In the end, Ventus could only say "Indeed," and left it at that. No need to poke that hive of Beedrill if he could avoid it....


Once Ventus was finished with his study/catch up session with Nathan, he bid them farewall for what would most likely be the rest of the day, before FINALLY making his way towards Route 4 to see if he couldn't arrange to get that certain something, recalling Ao Guang as he did so.

(Ven's said all he could say on this topic, so unless Nathan wants to keep them a little longer (Which can be done in Flashback!), I'm ready to move onto my second Encounter of the day!)

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

*carefull stroking over his forehead* "Sooo... How are your headaches doing, dear one? Would you feel like facing a foe in a battle, shall I ask you to do so? I've registered you for a special Tournament but...ehm...accidently missed out to ask you about your health before that, I'm sorry for this. Here, you can have the remains of these cookies as apology - plan vanilla, nothing extraordinary. But they're still very good."

Oh yes, Kyuu nods firmly! He'd like to practice for a battle/have a battle.

Such eager from her psychic kitten causes Shiva to smile and pet through his grey fur. Again the imagination of this being dark blue fur instead came to her mind... Ah, she was enjoying the thought of a Meowstic belonging to her, but not the thought of having one before Little Cup has ended. If that's what she is going after, then... "Oh, is that so? How sweet... I'm tired though, so do excuse me that we won't practice for a battle now. However..." *rummaging through her belongings until she has found what she was looking for* "...exhaustion shouldn't stop us from having some fun playing with one another, should it? See that Minccino's tail?" *waving with it before nudging the Espurr's tiny nose with it* "Fetch it if you can!"


--------------
Mechanics:
That's no Training or Practice, but some playing session to vent his eager for taking some actions. Could this count as a bonding experience?

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Original post

"Thank you...And sorry to bother you." Then Heart join with Shiva in the tabble. He massage his head trying to find words about what to say. "I going to direct to the point. Me and Nathan since I join in the group we not...get along very much well, as you already notice until now. But since we return from the caverns when we meet the sage, the situation became more dired I guess. I was irate from Nathan decision from absent of the battle when we was battling that ground pokemon and see giving up and acting something like "Oh my Kirlia is frozen and my Deltadog is beat, I have pokemon to still continue the battle but instead I giving up from still fighting!" I was kinda irate about how much he left his guard down in that with the danger of another ambush."

"Yeah, we discover later it was some kinda of test, but if was not? What if it would be some danger who even might kill us in the first opportunity? I fight with him, trying to make him have a atitude, but because of the stress of life/deadly situation I call him onion and try to make him have some atitude. Then I try to courage him to have some atitude but instead he simple do nothing. I was disapointed and irate by this kinda of atitude. In that time I was beggining to respect him, but my respect for him fade away when he act the way he did, and with other atitudes."

"I even try to apologize him, but with no effect. Then the situation go worse and worse. When I invite you and Nathan, he was clealy umcofortable with my presence everytime. And I can see he is not acting the way he was normally acting when I joined with you guys. Yesterday after my pokemon battle in the Little Cup, when you was having your pokemon battle I try to talk with him, trying to fix our situation. But instead he simple ignore me like a statue, almost like he thinks he was superior to me. I was umpleased since I try to be polite, then I let go a comment like that: "Well, I know when my presence is not apreciated. I guess I have to keep this Old Unow notes with me and this information Dagny told to me. Welp I tried." Then I try to turn away and find another seat to watch your battle."

"But Kirlia simple teleport in my front trying to stop me. I imagined Nathan simple order his pokemon to try stop me and make me talk then I simple say: "IF Nathan want to talk with me, Nathan just need to talk with me. Otherwise I remain silent." Then I have trying to follow my path and Kirlia try again to stop me, and nothing about Nathan have any atitude, almost like he thinking I have own something to him and I the one to begin the talk. I was more infuriated like a Empirilla and say to Kirlia: "Look Kirlia, I say that before and I will say again: IF Nathan want speak with me, he just need just to speak with me. I will not talk unless he made his move, and talk about it. Otherwise I will remain silent. And he need learn something: Even friends sometimes give up trying in help when that person dont want to be help. You can have you blind loaylty as much you want Kirlia. I dont mind and I dont care. But dont expect me, Ventus or Shiva have the same blid loaylty. Now if you excuse me I have other things to do."

"This might be the reason why Nathan have some gloomy mood today. Nathan simple...ugh I dont know. I know I am wrong in many ways, but his atitude and actions sometimes me question if I really want to apologize such person like him. Sometimes I even think he dont care about anything, nor want to understand others or accept the opinion of anyone. And his past actions in the cavern make me question if Nathan have any moral left to boss anyone anymore. I simple want to give up in try resolve or fix the situation since he clearly stated in the beggining of our journey to Star City he doesnt even consider me a friend, so why I should try be friendly with someone who doesnt respect anyone and have any moral left with him?"

"Sorry Shiva to bother you with all of this, but I simple dont know what to do or how interact with such person like Nathan. He is like a wall filled with spikes. Everytime you try to understand, you hurt your hand and have your hand filled with spikes. This is the way I feel about Nathan."

When Heart apologied for feeling like he's bothering her and takes a seat at the table she was at, Shiva only took that off with a friendly hand gesture to show that it's no big deal and that he's NOT bothering her. "That's no big deal, really. Do pur out your heart on me if that's what you desire. Or go get tea or coffee first if you'd like, I'll wait... Nope? Well then..." By leaning back into her chair, adjusting glasses and taking another sip of coffee - today's brewing was splendid! - while making careful eyecontact she expressed being all ears. She may not be a therapist, but if someone she knows comes directly to her with a request to talk, how could she ever refuse, especially now when there was still time to talk before she'd have to head to the Shelter and Ven has somewhat unlocatable currently (where has he gone...?) AND Shiva was in a rare good mood this monring?

Heart's ...troubled look and coming directly to the point wondered her a little and caused a semi-curious frown, but otherwise she let him speak out without interruption.



She should have known.
She could have known.
She should and could have known why Heart wanted to talk, that he'd come back again after that somewhat failed dinner to talk or ask her about things concerning Nathan (luckily not over the cause of her leaving the scene, phew), sooner or later...
But Shiva was not Gothitelle, so she could not know.

It took her a little until she spoke up, silence broken by the white noise of the others here in Lobby reigned meanwhile, in a voice that was clearly help as neutral as possible. "Thanks for entrusting me with all your worries, Heart... Hmm... Well, concerning any happenings during or shortly after that battle at the eremit's cave, you have to excuse me for not really paying attention to what happened to the others, as my Cottonee got knocked out by a Poison Jab right at the start while Nightshade bravely took her place and battled on, eventually even dealing the final hit to that Beartic to enable me catching it... Luckily I managed to keep both safe, had a Revive on hand and the catch succeeded, so I managed to recover rather quickly. Unlike...him, it seems..."

At that point, Shiva simply could not hold that frustrated(?) sigh that escaped her, while leaning forwar again and resting her head on one head while stirring the remaining content of mug more for the sake of doing something than the actualy stirring process. "Heart, let me start by saying that you have done nothing wrong. To my opinion, that is. Instead of shutting up, you approached and spoke with Nathan, encouraged him and apologized, that deserves some praise. Really! The thing is... He is some sort of an extra tough issue. Good luck on getting through his stubborness, as this is an action that feels somewhat doomed to fail unless you take an immense ammount of time and care, and even then it's no guarantee that you'll reach him. Me and Ventus have dealt with this for a while, you don't want to know how often Ven and Nathan ended up in fights and conflicts.... Until dear Ven just gave up on him, as I figured out. I can't blame him for that choice, really. Sometimes I wonder why I haven't done yet."

"Concerning that dinner... Yes, I figured out Nathan was not feeling rather comfortable. That's partly his fault as it'd be no problem to friendly decline by saying thanks but no thanks instead of alienating from us... Dinner table should be a peaceful place where everyone likes to gather for good food or sharing how one's day has been. Like...at home. Partly it's your fault though, Heart - there was really no point in stressing the issue, you could have left things to rest for that night instead of pulling him down even more. He's sensitive to such a thing for his own reasons, so please keep that in mind."

"... ... ...that's the point, Heart. He's having issues, to put it simply. Don't ask me about it, do us all a favour and don't ask him about it unless you absolutely must, but please do trust me when I say that he's struggling with his own demons." *Sigh* "It's not like I'm clean and free by myself, I'm simply rather good at keeping my issues hidden to rot within me and poison my interior, but I'm drifting apart, sorry... Ehm, thing is, don't blame Nathan for shutting off and sending his dearest Kirlia in return. That...seems to be the way he's dealing with troublesome things. Weather this is a good or bad thing to deal with things is a different matter... Like, I stopped counting how often Kirlia somewhat told me to please talk or take care for his Master. It could be a lifesaviour, but on the other hand I can TOTALLY understand that this may be taken in the wrong way, like you did. I don't blame ya for deciding that it has to be Nathan HIMSELF to make a move instead of his Pokemon, sooner or later he'd have to learn that lesson anyway. Good decision, actually. The outcome of that decision...well, certainly not pleasant, but let's be honest: What did you expect? "



At that point, Shiva made a break of her speech. She needed to both catch up on breath and gather her thoughts together, choosing carefully what to say. Damn - no more coffee left, mug was empty. Also, naturally Shiva had no idea what an Empirilla was, but she opted that this again was a Pokemon from Tandor? The urge to get that Upgrade for her Almanac increased for a little...

"...Heart, you made your points and sentiments clear towards Nathan and Kirlia. Crystalclear, if I may believe your words. The rest depends on Nathan, really, but...allow me to tell you one thing: You don't have to be friends with him. None is forcing you. As long as leave him at peace  and aren't stressing things AND you two are able to get along without huge trouble during our further traveling, I feel like things will be alright. Maybe not 'best', but very fine. Who guarantees that you succeed if YOU try to mend things, things with a person you don't seem to like and who doesn't seem to like you either? None, correct. Think about that for a moment." ... "Concerning he bossing us around - ah, you don't know how things were at the beginning of our journey. We, especially Ventus, have our own morals and thoughts, it seemed like that was new to Nathan and he struggled with us disagreeing to his beliefs. Lead to inevitable fights and conflicts, but since Ven stopped caring and just goes his way regardless of what Nathan thinks, things went a loooot better. I for my part know what I am doing although I'm not always sharing, and there's a tiny amount of pride in me that tells me that I don't always have to listen nor follow someone who is less mature and younger in years than I am as well as keeps a nightmarish deltadog despite me and Ven clearly distrust and fear it."

"Concerning that blind loyalty... Ah, that is a different matter. Let's...talk about to a different time, shall we? For now, well, take the way my sweetish Cottonee and how I interact with her and compare that with him and Kirlia... Quite a difference although the respective Pokemon is a friend for life to us, isn't it? The background's different, blahblah, I know that."

[Iron]

Ventus heads up Route 04, where vendors have set up again now that the vines are gone. One man is selling broken shards of fossils and other excavated items, as well as the Dig TM for $3500. His sister is also in the booth, selling her artwork of Ruins Pokemon: Baltoy, Natu, Wynaut, Tangrowth, Unown, Sandile.

[Iron]

Espurr plays with the Mincinno tail, until, suddenly, it is evaporated in a blast of purple light!

[Lord Windos]

Ventus heads up Route 04, where vendors have set up again now that the vines are gone. One man is selling broken shards of fossils and other excavated items, as well as the Dig TM for $3500. His sister is also in the booth, selling her artwork of Ruins Pokemon: Baltoy, Natu, Wynaut, Tangrowth, Unown, Sandile.

The researcher is quick to notice the merchant's sister finely drawn art of the native Pokémon in the area, and so with a highly charming and affable smile he gracefully went up to her and initiated so light conversation. "My, what lovely made depictions of Pokémon you have on display! The detail and care that went into these are exquisite, and I adore how each piece is shaded and color to make these creatures seem to pop out at you!  I just love the pictures of Natu you have on display, as it seems like I'm staring right at one, waiting for it to dart away once I break eye contact. Please do pass along my highest praise to whomever made these, as they deserve every ounce I can give to them!"

Ventus then smoothly segways into the main point he wanted to bring up. "How much would one of these Natu art pieces cost, my lady? Speaking of them, do you happen to know if anybody in the area has one up for trade, particularly an impressive or unique one? I'm looking to add one of these prophetic birds to my team, as I find them rather fascinating creatures overall, and I've heard they have quite the useful array of moves on offer. I have a Drilbur that has the Ability Sandstream to offer in exchange for an extraordinary one, so that should make for a decent trade for anyone with one, no doubt at all!"