[Game] Lord Windos' PokeRole Adventure: Celadon City Vandel

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Your second response earned you a mixed reaction from Clair, one of frank skeptical disbelief at THAT declaration and a general attitude of 'I really don't give a shit' , which she bluntly conveyed to you. "Hmpt, its nice to see that you are taking some responsibility for mucking up Blackthorn and countless other people's lives, but you know I don't give one damn about you 'job' or 'good standing' with those curs you lumped yourself into. To the great shame and dishonor of the ENTIRE Dragon Clan and Arendse family, I might add. I will not help you save face for Team Rocket, Reiner, nor will I demean myself and my Pokemon by purposefully losing to you. That is final, little dragon...."

The third response turned your demanding cousin's reaction back around to curiosity and puzzlement, though, along with a sense of certainty you honestly did not expect. "The most sacred treasure is known as Megido's Revelation. It was personally gifted to the Dragon Clan countless millinia ago by a God known as Arkus of the Balance, as both a testament to our mastery and dominion over Dragon Pokémon  and to grant us his eternal blessing and gift for maintain harmony and peace between draconic kin and humanity in our region of the world. It is said that he crafted 17 other artifacts and gifted them to other clans and enclaves for similar reasons, but such legends are either unknown to us, out of reach, or lost to the anals of time. The price of wielding the M.R. is great indeed, but any who are deemed worthy by it to wield it are fully informed of the consequences of using its power, so aside from the annoying physical changes, I will be fine. Its not like you to worry about me, little dragon, so why exactly are you so fearful of these artifacts, besides the obvious reasons?"

Fourth response returned her scowl to full force, as that was a choice she didn't agree with at ALL for obvious reasons, and cuts you off at this point before you could speak further. "Reiner Arendse, one way or another I WILL be taking you back to Blackthorn, willingly or not. Even if I didn't want to drag you ass back home and re-train some Arceas damn sense and ethics back into you, the Gym Council and Elder want nothing more than to see you brought in, tried, and strip you of everything before putting you under lock and key for LIFE for your crimes and the threat you pose to all of Blackthorn City and the Dragon Clan. As Gym Leader and the one that knows you best beside your mother and father, I was appointed by the Elders to be the first to apprehend you before a full Wild Hunt was declared. It is now my duty to bring you back to the city or die trying, and while I share some.....disagreement with the Elders and Grandfather, I will not disobey them on this matter."

"*Frustrated Sighing* Reiner.....no matter how much I want to believe that, ugh..... you 'turned over a new leaf' , I still have to look out for the best interests of Blackthorn City and its people first. The Elder and Grandfather have fornseen that you are a MASSIVE threat on a scale that has scarcely been seen before, a danger almost every aspect of The Dragon Clan's lifestyle if left unopposed, and with the evidence I've been given and my own investigations I've conducted, I have no choice to but to agree with them. More over, I WANT to bring you back home. I WANT to help you, little dragon, 'reform' you (She does 'finger quotes' for this to show this is an operative term, and not want she wants to do per say) into a proud member of the Dragon Clan once more, fulfill your wishes, and help....help you become a better person than you are right now. Someone who can reach their full potential....without losing themselves in the process. But your also a criminal, a huge threat to everything I and the rest of the Clan and Elders hold dear, Reiner, and its my duty to deal with threats like that. *Sighs* So I came up with this compromise, this....deal. Something that would sastify the Elders desire to punish and contain you, but give us the chance to redeem you and give you back your old life. It won't be the same, and like I said it won't be easy, but isn't better than nothing at all? My offer...its the only way I can help you now at this point, and if you refuse it........then I have no choice but to treat you with every ounce of concern and prudence the Elders have warrented against you."

Heavy, sullen silence descended between you. Clair takes the opportunity to wet her throat, grimacing at the lack of 'Blackthorn touch' in it , before idly picking at her sushi platter, waiting for you to respond to what she has said so far.

(Alright, I normally don't do this sorta thing, but the fourth point was quite contentious to her, and quite frankly this mega post would be hard to manage otherwise if I didn't chop it up at that point. The rest of your post can be restated/reword along with any reactions to the first 4 Points you made, though, so its not like I'm throwing out the baby with the bathwater in this case. Sorry mate....)

(Fair enough.  I'll manage.  Reiner is by no means done yet.)

"...I'm worried about you because I've encountered THREE of those#$@% weapons already in this city and week alone, not even counting Megido's Revelation, and there's STILL two more somewhere here.  And only one of those three was being used 'safely'.  As for the other two...one of them was being used to actively turn a deranged couples targets insane, and the other one turned its wielder into a BUG-like humanoid.  PERMANENTLY."

That last statement should say it all, really.

"...these weapons are powerful enough to kill Legendaries.  They probably shouldn't exist in the first place, and the way things have been going, I'm going to be seeing what all 18 of them do first hand..."

------------------------------------------

"Let me rephrase that, then.  I don't want to go back to Blackthorn if it's going to stay exactly as it is currently.  And before you stop me again, let me continue with what I was going to say, because I'm going to address this again, and it will affect how we proceed from here.  And please don't stop me until I'm done.  It won't be hard to tell, trust me."

It's rather impressive that Reiner's not turned his anger on Clair, really.  He's calmed down slightly since Clair stopped him just so he can respond to what she's said.  Though his temper slowly picks up again as he continues...hope Clair's ready to bust out that popcorn, because here's the main event!

This week in a very brief, semi-rushed summary, minus some of the details and one or two specific events, with a minor edit or two based on new info

"...this isn't about keeping in my superiors' good books for the sake of just staying in their good books, cuz.  Five: I'm not planning to stay with Team Rocket, and I was originally planning to leave sometime this weekend, or sometime after the festival is over.  Not sure if I'm going out with a bang or just running, but I do know that whatever happens, the boss is going to be doing everything in his power to find me and 'convince' me to come back, maybe kill me if he knows I won't.  Like I said, had a bit of an eye opener earlier this week.  You don't battle a Mythical in a fair fight and win, see the creation of the universe, find out you're now psychic and always will be from this point on because of said visions of that Mythical's memories, nearly get overwhelmed by everyone's raw emotions when those psychic senses grant you perfect empathy and an unparalleled ability to multitask, finally realize your boss is just treating you like some tool instead of a person, make a really rich guy angry enough to kill an 11 year old girl just because you couldn't get him to rightfully return the far too large amount of money he shouldn't have taken from her, revive said 11 year old girl, get offered a chance to turn your life around by an incredibly skilled member of the national guard who's an ex-mafia, obtain a ridiculously powerful weapon that you probably shouldn't have from him when you beat him in battle and hint that you MIGHT accept his offer without tipping off your superiors because you barely managed to create a situation where creating a suitable facade was possible, kill that dastard rich guy for killing that 11 year old girl because the law can't touch him, revive his wife because she was caught in the crossfire and didn't deserve to be killed for his mistake, find out she's got almost complete amnesia and is now infatuated with yourself for Arceus knows what reasons exactly, fight and kill an insane couple intent on brainwashing both some children and yourself into joining their 'happy little family' that has no qualms with killing any random person at any moment if they get angry; no matter who's watching at the time, fight something that's not quite a pokemon and almost certainly not of this world at nearly its full strength, almost get squashed by it yet somehow make it out alive, learn that there's FAR more to that weapon you got from that ex-mafia guy than you ever imagined there could be, revive the young woman that was killed by that monstrosity from another world because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time because you tried to do something nice for someone else for once in your sorry life, narrowly avoid getting stung to death by an tire hive of beedrill because you managed to befriend one of its sentries, hunt down the person who befriended that #$@% otherworldly nightmare which is somewhat loyal to you for some unholy reason; and yet spare that person you were hunting because of a madman's pleas even though she probably deserves to die for all the pain and suffering she's caused, learn a little about how the universe actually works and that there's ANOTHER; EXTREMELY powerful lady infatuated with yourself, find out there's some nutjob in a fallout zone in downtown Celadon that's trying to create an ultimate pokemon and some other nutjob who's going to raze New Bark Town to the ground to obtain Professor Elm's Research at some point, end up determining you're probably one of only one or two select individuals that can stop whatever those two wackos have planned; whether it's directly or by enlisting someone else's aid, discover the ex-wife with amnesia is actually still pregnant despite having died previously and being stuck in limbo for at least 8 hours before being revived, go to face your cousin alone because you don't want any of the people you've come to care about and keep alive getting caught in the crossfire if things go badly, get offered ANOTHER chance to turn your life around in a rather unsubtle fashion that could ruin any chance of safely turning your back on this life because you have to answer in a semi-positive way to avoid making a huge; unnecessary mess of things, find out your cousin might be potentially killing herself because of some grudge held between you and the people she mostly respects, and stay the same man you were before any of this madness started."

*huff* *huff*

...that last one was said all in one breath, by the way.  Of course, Reiner's still not done.

And here is the rest of it, almost straight copy-pastaed

"Six: Oh yeah, and that special guest I mentioned earlier?  I still have to introduce them to my Eevee, and this is a convenient time to show you as well.  By the way, congratulations on changing her opinion of you a moment ago.  I didn't even have to try to convince her to give you a chance."

Whether she wants to come out or not, Reiner's sending out Mew!  Because gosh darn it, he trusts Clair to keep a secret more than anyone else he knows!  Well, besides maybe Petrel, but that's kinda his job along with finding out those secrets.  And Taylor, since she's probably still got a boatload of secrets he doesn't know and managed to hide her existence from Blackthorn entirely...

"Clair, Ridia, Poe (if he's conscious now), meet Mew.  Met her this Monday, and it turned my entire world upside down.  Not that that's necessarily a bad thing in some regards.  We can discuss the exact details of what my future plans are exactly after you get over your initial disbelief."

Reiner flops into his chair, looking rather...tired and sad.  Defeated.  He's been holding this in for awhile now...

"...let me tell you, cuz...these prophecies and 'chosen one' business and all that...it's not all it's cracked up to be...yes, I intended to...harm Blackthorn to accomplish my goals.  I'm...rather ashamed of saying that your face, but it's true...and then I met Mew and...started having doubts...then Lindworm showed up, talked about how he wants Blackthorn to change as well, gave me a Dragonair that...decided it could tolerate being one of my dragons...then Valarie Malcolm...gave me a choice...opened up another way I could..."

...

"...I want to prove our grandfather wrong, cuz.  Just like what Lance did.  Maybe it happening a second time will finally get it through their thick, stubborn skulls that something is fundamentally wrong here.  That's all.  Change Blackthorn for the better because of it, and then I might be able to finally go back with my head held high despite the wrongs I've committed...I don't want to scrap our traditions entirely if I don't have to, but some of them either have to change or just go, because I don't want anyone else to suffer what I have...please...stop killing yourself over this by using that Cursed Arm the Elders gave you...it's not worth it, trust me, and I don't want to...see you...suffer because of that damned, #$@% Legendary killing weapon...and I STILL have to worry about your safety, my parents', Emily's, Kyubi's, my own, and anyone else the boss knows is tied to me in some way or that I care about in some manner...I'm supposed to meet Valarie tomorrow night, and I'm hoping he has some ideas or suggestions, but..."

...

"...I don't want to fight you, cuz...there's no need to..."

...he's always been able to talk to Clair about (almost) anything, though...finally having someone to actually talk to about all this is a HUGE weight off of his shoulders, even if lifting that burden is just as exhausting as continuing to carry it...