[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

Spoiler

Spoiler

Theo is more interested in the interior of the Library. He seems excited about something inside.



When Nathan and Heart touch the Gauntlet, they likewise gain 1 Will point and have all their exhaustion removed.

Nathan is sent back to a memory he didn't know he had, being pushed along in a stroller through what appears to be Celebi Park in Cress City. Everything, from the gravel crunching underfoot to the swaying of towering trees, combines to become a forest as quintessential as the oldest of primeval old-growth (Which would be Earthstar Forest, in Creshire).
He smells popcorn and other treats one might find in a city, and realizes that a forest as beloved and well-stewarded as this one is still a forest, still held sacred by the Pokemon of Creshire.

When Nathan embarks upon his out-of-body experience, he sees that the one pushing him in the stroller is a much younger Marco Warren, Nathan's mom at his side. And there's Uncle Oscar, with a thick mustache you don't think he has anymore, and brown hair down to his shoulders.

"Accept these gifts, Nathan. Pay them forward, even as you look backward."


Heart's journey is quite unique. He wanders through a mosaic of all the greatest forests he's explored all over the world, from the buggy rainforests of Tandor to the guarded Pinwheel Forest. To one side, the mossy trunks of Eterna Forest. Looming overhead, the massive trees of Petalburg Woods. There's a fresh clearing just like the one where you encountered your Phantump. And the patch of thick Tall Grass surrounded by dense trees, perhaps taken from your memories of Ilex Forest, that patch glows with the most power of all. Somewhere nearby, a shrine is hidden...

"Accept these gifts..." and here the voice calls you by the name you were born with. "You have been to so many places where I have traveled. As Heart, I hope you will spread your gifts far and wide.


This all takes place over a mere moment. You find yourself able to manipulate your visions, exploring whatever is nearby, and you feel it is real knowledge you gain. But the knowledge, it is of the past, not the present. For Shiva, only a month ago. For Nathan, a short lifetime ago. For Heart, many years at once, the strongest memories he's collected as he traveled the world collecting Pokemon.

Heart could feel the conection of all the places he have travel. The people and pokemon he have meet. The adventure he have. Everything all conect to this very moment. When he heard that voice, somehow he could felt it. He never heard that voice, but that feeling...only one person could have such magesty. Heart kneel, whatever the place that voice came from.

"Its you...my ancestor, Ark?" Ask the youngest ArcHeart alive. "...I failed to you, ancestor. We have failed to you. The ArcHearts long ago stop in follow the right path great ancestor...my family exist no more." Heart could feel the sadness and shame crawling on his back. "...When I lost my family, I have follow a dark path ancestor...so many people suffer because of me. I dont deserve to have your name my ancestor." Heart say to woman/man voice who is calling him. "That wander was more a self penitence for my sins, wandering around the world, trying to redeemed myself for what I done...I not wortly of such gifts." Them Heart talk again. "...Tell me, ancestor. You was the most devote of our family. The pure of the ArcHearts and the one of the greatest knight of the old. And the most devoted champion of Lord Arceus and Creation Trio together with all other Seven knights. How our family came to ruin so much...how can I, the most ruined ArcHeart, have hope in rebuild our family, to follow your path. Please...I need your guidance ancestor. For the friends I call now a family...and for the family I couldnt save. Enlight me."

Heart still with his head bow, expecting such kind of help from the woman who was the ancestor of all ArcHearts (since in the Heart story, Ark was a woman).

In this metaphysical place, Heart can indeed establish a tenuous connection to his ancestor. 

"Have faith," she whispers.
"Excel in doing what's right." You feel her hand on your shoulder.
"Use the spirit of competition to your advantage." You hear the creak of her armor.
"Support nature; do not fight her." Her voice is like the wind.
"Most of all...find the Sword! Become a knight in your own time when arms and armor are no longer in fashion. End the experiment...save this ancient region."

Then she's gone.

Heart try to stop her in gone. "Wait! Lady Ark! What you mean about use the spirit of competition? And what is this Sword and end the experiments? Wai-" Then she have gone. Without any trace of her presence. Heart then try to recover himself. He see the shrine who is hidden between the leafs. Slowy, Heart aproach the shrine and try to see what these "gifts" is all about. Perhaps they are in that shrine somehow.

It's the Celebi Shrine, of the Ilex Forest! Which, you realize, is One in some unknowable fashion with the Shrine of Celebi Park in Cress City. Which, in turn, is one with the Gauntlet, where your physical body stands.

But all that's in the shrine is a half-eaten dumpling and a few twigs and leaves.