[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

"I don't know. The normal Time Capsules can only trade back to a time when Time Capsule PC systems have begun development. So quite possibly not. But in this case, you're bringing one back with you. There's no way to know how that will alter things. And of course it's entirely possible you are not truly traveling in time when you lurch."

Humm. This does in fact worry Shiva to a good degree and it shows in her body language, but it doesn't really change her mind as she still feels like the advantages of wearing this curious portable Time Capsule outweight the disadvantages. "Oh... You're right, it's not confirmed that we're indeed traveling - I'm sorry for having missed that. But, ehm...." *her posture strengthens again* "Even if we cannot know how things will if we end up in a time where no PCs existed yet, I'd still like to wear one of the devices please if you're really fine with parting ways with one - It's a risk I'm fine to take." For her, that's quite a brave thing to do/agree to, her inner voice silently praises her for the courage.

Shiva has given her thoughts and agreement on this topic, what's left now is to see how the others decide. If it's okay I could flashforward to something she wanted to ask Bill for, but not today anymore.

[Iron]

Spoiler

To Terra: "Improving Machoke's technique would introduce new variables into the experiment. Imagine you want to know whether your Hariyama could hit harder after eating bananas for breakfast. You might have him do a punch on a day he ate bananas, and a day he didn't eat bananas, and see which was harder. Now imagine on the day he ate bananas, someone came along and taught him a technique for hitting harder! You'd never know if it was the bananas or the advice. Right?"

The rugged wanderer blankly stares at Bill for a minute after they gave the layman's explanation for basic experimental procedures, as their mind furiously churned and whirled to comprehend what they said, until it clicked for him and the glow of understanding illuminated his features.

"Ah. Teaching Machoke to hit better would make it harder to find out...….why they punch so hard? Or finding.....true source of their Strength? Is that right?  *Shakes head* Sounds......complicated. Never thought training and helping a Pokémon get stronger would ever be a bad thing. Or not....wanted. Very....hard to believe."

After saying that, Terra clutched his head with one hand and started message his temples, letting out a grunt as his expression twisted in slight pain.

"Ugh.....thinking about it give me a headache. *Shakes head again with a grimace, before giving Bill a smile* Thank you for.....explaining, though. Now I know not to...….mess with experiments, or ask for...….permission first. Won't cause trouble for you or Chansey now. Okay?"

If Bill doesn't have anything more to add after responding to what's Terra has said, then I guess we're done with the two speaking with each other, and all that's left is Terra + Shiranui/Anubi/Angie getting some time on the punching bad! 


It should be noted that whenever the researcher speaks technobabble/sciency stuff my chara. will look either blank faced or adorably confused/uncomprehending at first, even when its dumbed down. My chara. is pretty much an enlightened idiot at this point in time even with Nathan's help, so most complex things still go over his head like a Staraptor!

"We're all done now, so the punching bag is yours!"

[Iron]

"I don't know. The normal Time Capsules can only trade back to a time when Time Capsule PC systems have begun development. So quite possibly not. But in this case, you're bringing one back with you. There's no way to know how that will alter things. And of course it's entirely possible you are not truly traveling in time when you lurch."

Humm. This does in fact worry Shiva to a good degree and it shows in her body language, but it doesn't really change her mind as she still feels like the advantages of wearing this curious portable Time Capsule outweight the disadvantages. "Oh... You're right, it's not confirmed that we're indeed traveling - I'm sorry for having missed that. But, ehm...." *her posture strengthens again* "Even if we cannot know how things will if we end up in a time where no PCs existed yet, I'd still like to wear one of the devices please if you're really fine with parting ways with one - It's a risk I'm fine to take." For her, that's quite a brave thing to do/agree to, her inner voice silently praises her for the courage.

Shiva has given her thoughts and agreement on this topic, what's left now is to see how the others decide. If it's okay I could flashforward to something she wanted to ask Bill for, but not today anymore.

Bill and Porygon put Shiva's name next to a green checkmark. The other three names appear with question marks still.

Don't flashforward to upcoming days, but if your question is something I'll have to think about you can give me an OOC overview if you wish.

[Dragonstrike]

Flash...back?  Forward?  I'm not sure which it is anymore, tbh...regardless, this is in the kitchen.

Nathan clears his throat again.  "...well...thanks again for helping with the Purify Chamber thing.  Could you keep me posted on any developments on it in the future?  That'd be great if you could."

Another awkward pause, followed by...

"...and I guess if you're interested...I've got 3 pokemon you'd probably find very, very interesting.  All very different from their well known forms.  One of them...is even from a different dimension!"

Nathan chuckles, then frowns.

"...gonna have to show off one of them outside, though.  She's...a little tempermental.  And kinda big.  And another one...well...Shiva doesn't really like him at all...would have to show him to you away from her..."

Present time!

Nathan finally chips in when Gallade picks up on Shiva's nervousness.

"You might find this piece of trivia interesting, Shiva.  The usual legends regarding time travel go something like this: 

'Dialga decreed that there shall be no paradoxes, so no paradoxes there shall be.  Something that should not exist shall simply erase itself from existence, and thus never happen in the first place.  Time will always march ever forward, its steady pace unable to be halted until the day Dialga no longer breathes.'

'However, while Dialga governs the overall flow of time, Celebi governs the events that occur at each point in time, and can travel between them freely.  If one event happens because of another, it is because Celebi allowed it to happen in the first place.'

"In short, I don't think there's any real way we can screw anything up with regards to the flow of time.  It's a little complex to understand, but we are talking about an abstract concept governed by pokemon far more powerful and ancient than what mere mortals like us can comprehend."  *shrug*

Maybe that'll help Shiva feel a little better about that.  Maybe.

As for Terra...well, Nathan might have a little to say to him later.

The watches, however...Nathan has a few questions about those.

"...hmmm...that does sound like a handy tool...let me make sure I have this straight, though: these will only work if we're in a different time period than you are, and all the relevant functions require you're approval before they can be carried out?  And provided both requirements are fulfilled, we'd basically have access to our PCs' contents at all times?"

[Iron]

"I'd love to see those Pokemon, Nathan. I have plenty of yardspace."

"The devices send a manual request to me personally, which I have to fulfill using my admin privileges. But yes I could be a conduit for you to your PC Storage system. Swap any Pokemon, including held items."

Something like Orthros and Delta Onix or the butterwolfly cannot be transferred.

[Dragonstrike]

"I'd love to see those Pokemon, Nathan. I have plenty of yardspace."

"The devices send a manual request to me personally, which I have to fulfill using my admin privileges. But yes I could be a conduit for you to your PC Storage system. Swap any Pokemon, including held items."

Whatever kind of time skip this is, to the yard!

"Let me grab those pokemon from the PC real quick, I'll be right back."

Once Nathan's grabbed the pokemon in question (plus two more), it's time to show them off to Bill! (while Shiva's not around, ideally)

"I've got some TMs to teach two of them, and the third...well, he's...special.  I'll explain that when I get to him.  So, here goes..."

In summary, the pokemon are:
- Ray, who Nathan will teach the Psychic TM to after thanking the 'saur for his help back at Ancestor Cave
- Delta? Tropius, who Nathan will teach the Stealth Rock TM to (Nathan makes sure to warn Bill to give her plenty of space and try not to annoy her).  If it's still raining, Forthright also comes out to use Sunny Day again.  Nathan still wants to get off on the right foot with the sauropod, so hopefully she appreciates the gift...
- Orthros (who's just generally happy to meet a new friend!  *bark bark!*  *wag wag*)

How do Ray and D?-Tropius react to their new TM moves, and what kinds of questions does Bill have for Nathan about the three pokemon?



Back inside at the present time:

Nathan thinks for a moment...

"Hmmmm...alright, I'll field test it for ya.  It does sound really, really, useful, and it would probably minimize a lot of risk if it works.  Though it does make me wonder...if you can develop something like this to work as a time travel thing, what's stopping you from developing something similar that works in the present day?  Being able to conduct long distance trades any time, anywhere, or access the Pokemon Storage System from anywhere would be incredibly handy in general."

He shrugs.  "Just a thought, I suppose."

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

That bit of trivia Nathan shares about Dialga and Celebi does indeed add to Shiva calming down and feeling better with what she unknowingly has caused, when she looks up she even gifts him and Gallade an honestly thankful smile. 'One thing happens because of one another that Celebi allowed to happen in the first place', 'It would have been inevitable anyway that she'd find the Egg if it's meant to happen', 'One can consider it a gift by Celebi'... All of that were words that hit her at quite a sensitive spot, sinking deeply into her from there to dwell there for a while. There is no need to feel bad, guilty or to blame herself, she can now be sure of that. Now, she mourned the wasted thoughts and energy a little.

She's still feeling soft-responsible for this lurch glitch though, clenching her glass of soda and staring into the fizzy liquid's surface for the n-th time she promises herself again to do whatever she can to 1.find the meaning/purpose of this lurch glitch and 2.fix it again, her name appearing behind the green checkmark on the big computer screen is a fine progress that raises her spirit and determination.

Don't flashforward to upcoming days, but if your question is something I'll have to think about you can give me an OOC overview if you wish.

(I won't, it's something that I wanted to do/ask while we're visting Bill today, probably sometime after all concerning the Portable Time Capsule has been discussed and everyone but Shiva has shown him some of her most enjoyed Pokemon. So, flashing forward!)


Once given out by the famous and dear Pokemaniac, Shiva does rather carefully strap the Portable Time Capsule right onto her right wrist, paying close attention to how it feels to wear it and trying to determine whether it'd pass as an extraordinary wristwatch in public. It's giving her a positive and meaningful feeling, as well as an increased appreciation for Bill as he entrusted them with this experimental device in the first place. "Thank you... Really, thanks for the trust and help on the issue. I, ehm... hope that everything goes well..." If allowed, she'll even run a test call to Bill to see whether it works and to get a little familiar with the usage.

Soon enough things wind down again after all the serious and problematic topics have been discussed, and the natural fae enthusiast comes back to a coy and relaxed attitude, her glass of soda was has also been emtied by now. 'It was a good decision to pay Bill a visit' she contentedly thinks to herself as she lounges a little at couch with Cottonee.

Now, she feels fine enough to approach Bill with a more personal request, after she made sure that he's not appearing busy before coming to him and catching his attention. "Eh, Bill....", she'd softly speak up, "I actually wanted to, well, ask you something for if I may, you naturally are the best adress for that." If he agrees and has a bit of time for her, she'll open up. "You...remember how I said that I am a Breeder, or intend to become a professional one? Your Storage System is of indispensable value for that type of work... Amanitia has developed the Storage System where I live, but it's using yours as a base. So would you, maybe, be fine with showing me some things that aren't broadly known, something like useful shortcuts, tricks and useful things to use it in a more efficient way please? How to programm or hack a Box to make it follow a specific command or serve a selected customized purpose would be most appreciated as well, practically the basics of both." (This shall serve to give Shiva 2 points in customized PC Science Speciality at once for 12xp, I'll spend it after Bill's crash course.)

She perks up. "Ah, I'll of course show you some of my most curious, enjoyable and special Pokemon in return if you'd like! They're all safe to meet and I've made a lot of photos of them. I... even own an Alakazam myself, would your's be up to say hello to him? I'd almost bet that mine would greatly appreciate meeting someone who's matching his IQ." ^_^ Maybe they can interact a bit and get to know each other during the visit, would Helios enjoy meeting another one of his kind?

[Lord Windos]

(Mates, right now I am currently quite busy studying for an exam, taking/reviewing notes from several classes AND dealing with a cold, so let me just get a summation of what Terra and his partners did with the Punching bad, okay?)

- Terra commits to a full Round of Strikes against it, with each hitting a different area of the punching bag based on a mental representation of the average humanoid/bipedal body image in his head. He wants to see how effective his technique overall, basically.

- Next comes Angie, who's given the go to limber up (use Agility) one Round, before Raging (Held Back) as much as she can against the punching bag for 2 Rounds, which should easily reach 5 Actions per Round. Terra wants his chubby little snake to practice her STAB Move, and get a feel for Fighting in general.

- Then Anubi, who is advised by Terra to use held back Quick Attack against the Punching Bag 5 time one Round, then held back Force Palm 5 times the next, and finishing with held back 5 Reversals the last. My chara wants to run Anubi through all his less destructive Moves as practice, to see if he'll listen to commands more often than not, and to see if he's capable of holding back on his Moves.

- Finally, Shiranui will be the last up to the punching bag, and, after seeing everyone + Machoke performance, he's pumped up enough to want to show his very BEST. To that end, he'll use Belly Drum, and then use a singular Knock Off on it. If possible, I'd also like it if the sumo wrestler is Paralyzed, on the grounds that Terra and his blood brother have more or less come to an agreement in the past to have the later always Paralyzed whenever possible/acceptable (for Shiranui), for the reasons of enhancing their Training, maximizing their Strength, and for them to be overall geared towards full POWER for any Fight/situation, just in case. Poor training equipment....

-When presented with the offer to take the Time Capsule Bracelet, Terra will politely refuse, on the grounds of not wanting to potentially ruin such delicate, cutting edge piece of tech. with his in-expertise, and secretly because he doesn't want to learn how to use/care for ANOTHER high tech device. Figuring out how to fully using his Pokedex without hardly any help was a nightmare for the simple monk , so on general principle he avoid utilizing such things unless the benefits are THAT good (like with the Pokedex), he NEEDS to and other more qualified individual can't do it for him, if his curiosity gets the better of him, and/or if someone else persuades him sufficiently (which will be impossible in the case of the T.C.B. , btw. I'm fairly adamant OOC that I rather not have it for him).

For now, that will be all!

[Iron]

"I'd love to see those Pokemon, Nathan. I have plenty of yardspace."

"The devices send a manual request to me personally, which I have to fulfill using my admin privileges. But yes I could be a conduit for you to your PC Storage system. Swap any Pokemon, including held items."

Whatever kind of time skip this is, to the yard!

"Let me grab those pokemon from the PC real quick, I'll be right back."

Once Nathan's grabbed the pokemon in question (plus two more), it's time to show them off to Bill! (while Shiva's not around, ideally)

"I've got some TMs to teach two of them, and the third...well, he's...special.  I'll explain that when I get to him.  So, here goes..."

In summary, the pokemon are:
- Ray, who Nathan will teach the Psychic TM to after thanking the 'saur for his help back at Ancestor Cave
- Delta? Tropius, who Nathan will teach the Stealth Rock TM to (Nathan makes sure to warn Bill to give her plenty of space and try not to annoy her).  If it's still raining, Forthright also comes out to use Sunny Day again.  Nathan still wants to get off on the right foot with the sauropod, so hopefully she appreciates the gift...
- Orthros (who's just generally happy to meet a new friend!  *bark bark!*  *wag wag*)

How do Ray and D?-Tropius react to their new TM moves, and what kinds of questions does Bill have for Nathan about the three pokemon?



Back inside at the present time:

Nathan thinks for a moment...

"Hmmmm...alright, I'll field test it for ya.  It does sound really, really, useful, and it would probably minimize a lot of risk if it works.  Though it does make me wonder...if you can develop something like this to work as a time travel thing, what's stopping you from developing something similar that works in the present day?  Being able to conduct long distance trades any time, anywhere, or access the Pokemon Storage System from anywhere would be incredibly handy in general."

He shrugs.  "Just a thought, I suppose."

Ray accepts the Psychic TM as his fair due. Whenever Nathan works with him, or chooses him in battle, or gives him a good Held Item or new move, Ray accepts it as minor worship/honor. 

Tropius is first and foremost interested in the sunlight suddenly pouring down, but you get the feeling she will be really really excited to actually use that move in battle. She kind of has an instinct to do that, but didn't have the capability up until now.

"Wow, amazing Delta Pokemon! Some don't like 'em, but I love 'em! It took a while to make the PC system recognize them properly. They could be stored safely, but if you had a Delta and a similar Pokemon it would sometimes deliver the wrong one. That's all sorted out now, and we're even working on some tech to improve it. My newest app will be able to identify type, moves, and predict evolutions for mutated Pokemon, and most importantly, identify what exactly the mutation is. For example, we can tell if your Tropius is truly a Delta, or some other mutation. Call me in two days and I think it will be ready for beta testers."

Bill isn't afraid of Orthros (or Tropius, who is more dangerous at this point). Tropius stays quite calm while in the presence of Bill.

"I know a little known fact about Primal Bulbasaur. They were one of the first off-type species cataloged in modern times, as you probably know, but they were also one of the first Primal Pokemon to appear to humans, historically. The First Technical Society treated them as totems! All the big cities had a family of Primal Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur if they were lucky. They'd live in the center of town on a special plinth for ceremonies, or in a sacred cave, or maybe deep in the woods where it was considered lucky to come across one. Neat, eh?"



"The biggest problem with the portable system is it is trade-only. The PC system is not conducting a trade at all when it accepts a Pokemon for storage. It's a big difference from an engineering standpoint. Pokemon trading machines have been around since the days of the Kings, whereas the first PC deserving of the name was built in 1841 - the Analytical Engine. It could only store first stage Pokemon of small size and low power. That was in the days when an MSC capture web was expensive and Pokeballs hadn't been invented yet, so the combination of inferior non-MSC Apricorns holding crude MSC capture webs and a very low-memory PC resulted in a terrible storage system. It filled up most of Stair City, haha!"

"You can think of the portable trader as being akin to a switchboard, while the PC is like a modern cell phone. I'm the switchboard operator: I have to manually approve a trade, and only I can do it because I have admin privileges, and I can only do it to your specific devices because they are hard-coded with your encrypted hash function specifying your OT. Honestly, the security on these things is terrible. Don't let anyone shady know you have them, and keep them powered down when you're not using them. If someone steals this device, it's as good as them having your fingerprint and Trainer Card."

"That said, I'll definitely use any data I get from you and Shiva to engineer the next gen of PC. We'll have to see what the future has in store for us!"

At that very moment, coincidentally right as he says the word "Future" to Nathan, all of you except Terra experience a brief lurch in which you have a glimpse of an unadulterated bayfront farm. Then you're back, and Nathan can tell Bill didn't notice he was gone.

[Iron]

A couple things about the watch:

It's too bulky to strap on by yourself. Bill or someone will have to help you.
Bill says he will have to power up the master Time Capsule to dispense another copy of the wristwatch. He gets that started.
It can pass as something like a Poketch or e-watch, you think.
It can't really be tested because you're currently in the same timestream, but Bill says you'll be able to make sure the MSC signaler antenna is sending and receiving.


"Yeah, I can give you a crash course on the big screen! Let me teach you about pointers, private and public keys, and remoting. That will let you upload people's pre-programmed box environments to your PC, and to securely share information and material with others if you know their public key. The PC normally handles all that by itself automatically, but for advanced users you can "hack" your own system to make any custom alterations that are allowed. Actually building your own box environments, instead of relying on existing ones, is an advanced topic that would take days to teach."

He teaches you that.


Helios and Alakazam do enjoy spending some time together. They communicate entirely with the slightest flickers of their eyes. Eventually, Helios raises a triumphant fist and smiles behind his mustache. He must have won whatever mental game they were playing, some kind of chesslike game. He gains 1XP.