[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

(In case you missed it, I added a music link for this conversation earlier.  Here it is again, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saJuOPHecQM)

'Welp, here goes...'

Probably much to Shiva's surprise, Nathan summons Raphael.

...and after giving him a rather sad and...tired look for a moment, he rolls the pokeball over to Shiva.

"Once we're done here, return Raphael to Ventus, please.  He has some...qualms about what I have to say, and he left Raphael here as a precaution.  And quite frankly...you might appreciate having him around for comfort in a moment.  So...I need to start at the beginning here...you have a right to know what happened in full, regardless of whatever worries I or Ventus might have..."

He pauses, takes a breath, lets it out...and then begins telling Shiva what happened...he's purposely got the brim of his fedora low so he can avoid looking at her directly.  He wasn't sure he'd be able to say what he needed to if he didn't...

Spoiler

"So...it started after you collapsed after our battle in Corsage.  I'd brought you back into the Center with Nurse Joy's help, Ventus was camping out elsewhere, Valder was...somewhere.  Everything seemed fairly normal, minus the sleep issues everyone was having while in the city at the time.  If you remember that Lemonade I'd left there for you to help ya recover from the lack of energy...that was when I noticed something was really wrong.  Or rather...Kirlia did.  Something spooked him, and I didn't know what.  He was rather...concerned though.  And he eventually got across to me that we could do something about it.  When I said I willingly entered a nightmare...that's what happened then.  Kirlia and I fell asleep knowing that whatever was waiting on the other side, it was going to be a product of something in everyone's dreams...

...what we found, we'd seen before in one of Kirlia's visions.  A bleak, desolate landscape filled with obsidian black pillars, lit by eerie, dim red and blue flames.  A nightmarescape.  We 'woke up' in a cage with locks on both sides of the door.  There were sounds of battle coming from the direction of a brighter, purple light.  That was my best guess as to where you might have been, based on Kirlia's earlier reaction.  

I had Starmie, who I'd just evolved that evening, light the way, and out of the shadows came...a pack of Houndour.  Strange Houndour.  They weren't like anything else I had ever seen.  And they were there for a chase.  A chase which I gave them.  With Swiftfire's help, I was able to outrun them eventually, with Starmie soaking the two that managed to keep up somehow with his newly learned Hydro Pump and Bubble Beam moves.  That was when I discovered the dogs were able to use Psychic attacks somehow.  I was...curious.  I'd never heard of a Houndour using Extrasensory before.  But my main concern was finding you at the time, trying to find out what was wrong, what was causing your sleep to be somewhat restless in that nightmare...

...and when I reached the area I'd heard the combat coming from...I found an entire group of dead Houndour.  It was...scary, sad...and I was rather upset in a lot of ways...and so were the Houndour that approached soon after.  They looked very, very mournful.  They didn't antagonize me at all.  So...I told them that if they wished, I'd take one of them with me, let them meet whoever it was that did that to their friends...I didn't think it would work.  Houndour are loyal creatures, but those ones...they seemed far, far more loyal than your average dog pokemon...

...and yet, to my surprise, one did split off from his pack.  I don't know why he did, but he'd made his decision.  The remainder of his packmates used Smokescreen, another move the species can't normally use, and cleared out all of the corpses amidst the smog, disappearing completely by the time it cleared.  I didn't know if or how it would work, but I used a Flash Ball to capture that Houndour that had done the unthinkable: defied its very nature as a pack animal of its own will.

When I continued on towards that bright purple light, I heard footsteps up ahead.  I knew the Houndours' killer was close...but I didn't expect to find what I saw there...Ventus, holding your unconscious form with blood covered hands...I still don't know what exactly he did to cover his hands in so much blood, but whatever it was...I'm concerned that's what was making your sleep that night so restless...

I tried to explain what was going on to him.  He didn't believe me, at first.  That we were all asleep, that it was just a nightmare.  A frighteningly real one, maybe, but a nightmare nonetheless.  Eventually, we kept moving.  That light, whatever it was, was likely the source of the problems there...

...and what we found was terrifying.  A large Mega Houndoom, a mega stone held in her jaws, with purple, crystalline horns and, from what I could tell, feeding on the fear and misery her pack was causing.  We could see the images of children in PJs being chased around by groups of Houndour between her horns.  Never getting attacked, but always on the run...Ventus and I weren't going to let that stand.  She was the source of all that trouble.  Conveniently, Valder showed up at that moment too.  Between the 3 of us, it only took about 6 seconds to KO her and her bodyguards.  And when we did, the nightmare faded, and Corsage's sleep problems were solved.  No more Mega Houndoom, no more nightmare.

...and when I woke up, I checked to see if I had actually gained or lost anything.  I'd used a potion, a Flash Ball, caught a Houndour...the potion was definitely expended, the Flash Ball, definitely used.  And occupied.  I don't know how exactly, but doing things in that nightmare definitely carried over to the waking world...sort of.  Houndour was there, the potion was gone, but the Flash Ball captured only a picture of perfect, inky black darkness.  That's beside the point though.

I'd caught one of those Houndour, convinced him to come with me of his own accord.  And he was there somehow, in the waking world.  When I looked up his information on my pokedex, that was the first time I'd heard about the Holon region and the term Delta Species, which is used to describe any pokemon with a type different from normal.  A rather broad usage, but after reading a bit on Holon, I understand why it's commonly used that way.  Anyways...

...I'm pretty bad at hiding secrets most of the time, as I'm sure you've noticed...I wasn't entirely sure I could trust my new dog completely, so I had hoped to keep his presence quiet until I could...but Ventus was quick to pick up on it.  I explained why I'd caught the dog as best as I could...it's a brand new subpecies of Houndour, something that needs to be researched...and why I couldn't just get rid of him...he came with me willingly, and I don't think he'd even consider listening to anyone else.  I'd discovered that these Delta Houndour have the ability to phase in and out of reality, traveling between the waking world and the Dream World...the dog was staying because he wanted to stay.  If I traded him away or handed him off to some other researcher, I don't think he'd hang around for very long.  He'd jut vanish, and that would be the end of any opportunity to learn about his species...that was the gist of what I said to Ventus.

He wasn't entirely happy, but he ceded that I had some decent points.  Since he'd figured out I have the dog, I suggested I just get everyone to meet him right then and there...he wouldn't have any of it.  Said he was worried about how you'd react.  I didn't see many problems with revealing the dog at the time, since Starmie was more than capable of dousing the dog if anything went awry, but I agreed to hold off on it for a couple days at least...

...and here we are, two weeks later.  It wasn't until just recently that I felt entirely comfortable with letting Orthros out in public.  I figured people would overreact if I didn't show he was following my orders, so I waited, and waited...showed Orthros that he wasn't wrong in his decision to leave his original pack...and now I have his trust, and he has mine.  He's a sweet thing.  Very friendly, very, very loyal.  Won't snap at anyone if they don't give him good reason to.  He just needed someone to give him a chance, that's all.  He's terrified of Ventus though...I'm not sure I want to know why...but I do know I'm going to prove him wrong, one way or another.  Prove that Orthros isn't the monster he thinks the dog is."

"...*sigh*...sorry about the rant, but...it's...something you needed to know eventually.  Short of it is: I have a Delta Houndour, he's not as bad as everyone thinks, and I'm going to prove it to everyone.  He's not going anywhere any time soon, so...*sigh*..."

...it's then that he finally looks up slightly and at Shiva, a pleading, hopeful look in his eyes, yet also afraid of what he might see and hear...

"...do you want to meet him, Shiva?  I promise you, he's not as scary as he looks, that he won't cause any trouble.  He's somewhat scared of Raphael, but I'm sure he'd love the additional company.  He's been cooped up in his pokeball for two weeks straight.  He could use another friend besides me, I'm sure..."