[Meta thread] Iron's PokeRole Adventure: The Skull Ruins

[Lord Windos]

And unlike Shiva and Ventus, Nathan has something that is probably going to be a really good deterrent for the rowdy dog:

Hydro Pump.  Boosted by a Mystic Water.  Failing that, a couple Bubble Beams would still do the trick.  The starfish will have no problems in a mechanical sense with KOing Houndour in a single round if it must.

Starmie is Nathan's safety factor for the Houndour, and the metaphorical leash. He's going to make it very clear to Houndour that Starmie is there simply for damage control, and that he doesn't want to have to order it to douse the doggie's flames if it can be avoided.  In fact, he's not even going to have Starmie present at all if he feels the situation doesn't require the tight leash, which should help with establishing just a little bit of trust.

And when it's no longer necessary to have that leash, Houndour is likely to be a really r companion.  A pack bond.

And Nathan's going to stress that Shiva and Ventus are part of that 'pack,' too, which should hopefully alleviate most of the issues with it given enough time.

If you explain that to Ven, he would be even more agreeable to you taking care of the dog! The though of Houndour getting drenched would cheer him up to no end, you know! I don't think that Ven would even give the time of day to the dog no matter how hard Nathan tried to integrate it into the group. That would be mostly a good thing, as Ven focusing on the dog for any length of time would be baaaaaaad. Remember, he did bloody torture one of its former pack mates...