[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

Ohhh, Shiva could only agree to Lapis when he rose up in a graceful manner to show them all how PRECIOUS he is and how much PRIDE he takes in having evolved thanks to that chiseled man, he's having all right to feel lke that. Figuratively bathing in his joy, a wave of confidence and satisfaction washed over her as she took a deep breath in awe over seeing a Milotic displaying all its grace, being highly fattered that he himself even gifted her a small boost with his smile and wink. How lucky that Terra came to the group, haha...

(…)

More flattering upon Terra so openly and casualy suggesting that she has potential to become a star in Contests! D: "*looking down to the ground in embarrasement* You....you think so? How... h-how kind of you, thank you...~ If you, ehm, if you ever talk to Lissi... Uhm, Lisia again as you said you know her and got her number, give her greetings from a big fan!" ^^

"Umbreon.... Uh, it's basically a Pokemon species that evolved through the exposure to moonlight, a pitchblack feline with yellow rings and markings in its fur. Very dear and loyal for a Dark Type, but relatively rare as well." She smiles a little and reminiscently when speaking out these words.

(…)


Humm. Shiva didn't verbally answer to this, but she felt that an encouraging pat on the back for that mountain of a man was appropriate. That wanderlust, and that weird gloomy feeling... Still looking for his purpose in life probably? 'Maybe you'll find it or at least get pointed into the right direction as you travel with us through Chreshire', Shiva felt like telling him, but it remained a thought.

*Finishing Flashback from my End!*

The living marvel, absorbed as he was in his own glorious and hard sought being, still noticed the mystical lass had grown ever bolder yet tranquilly fulfilled since they first meet with him, and carefully hid an accomplished grin. Looks like his self-appointed task of cheering her up had gone smashingly well. Time will tell if that new attitude of her will persist or not, but at the very least he managed to make her feel special and important as she truly is...

(…)

The rugged wanderer couldn't help but chuckle at how bashful Shiva had become, placing a delicate hand on her shoulder and nodding.
"Ha ha....yes, I do. *Shakes head* No need. Just....telling you what I think, and believe. *Nods* I will. *Smiles* She'll be happy to hear from her fans from other regions."

…
"Ah. A noble, Loyal Dark type. Like Absol, and Mightyena. Strange and rare.....but very good. *Smiles* Thank you for telling me about them, my friend."

(…)

Terra doesn't entirely get why the fae lady suddenly pat him on the back, but he did feel a bit better because of it, so he gave them a thankful smile regardless.

*Flashback End!*

Spoiler

You journey an hour north/northwest, avoiding the Skull Ruins. As you approach the promised location of the Ancestor Cave, set into the Great Divide, you start seeing crumbled Sarimanok statues. Each is painted with one large eye instead of the two normal human eyes he had in life.

Nathan knows Sarimanok marked locations that were important to him in this way. The eye is supposed to warn intruders that there are consequences for their intrusion..."the King always knows!"

The entrance to the small, nondescript cave looks like nothing special. Just a craggy hole in the rock, about head high. However, a smooth apron in front of the entrance has been scooped out by a meteorite long ago. There are little flashes of nickel and meteoric superconductor in the ground, but mostly it has all eroded long, long ago. Predictably, the holographic Deyo flowers grow around it, but sparsely.


Ten yards above the cave entrance is a multi-forked little waterfall. Each individual stream is small and muddy, but there are half a dozen separate streams streamin' down the mountainside. Their source is a broad ledge, which seems to be filled with water and perhaps a small spring. You can see a Starmie up there, perched on a salt boulder, holding court with a small clan of Staryu. Though they are in the water, they stand on two legs at a time and are all facing Starmie, blinking their lights in the dawn. Starmie glows with the same color.

Decorating this entire area, you see little crafts made from Staryu limbs cracked and fused together into geometric shapes, usually set quite firmly into the ground.

Where the streams meet the ground is a crusting of salt. Must be mineral salt in the rock here.

As to be expected, Terra is completely oblivious to the historical/subtle aspects of the Ancestor Cave (and therefore doesn't think/worry about it too much) though he is somewhat perturbed by all the cycloptic statues of old tyrant Sam. Those Eyes.....they just creeped him out, and rubbed him in ways both wrong and accusingly. Blegh….

What catches his attention and full comprehension immediately, though, were the Deyo Flowers and the Starmie/Staryu enclave.
The sight of the former caused him to tense and warily stare at the meteoric plants, as Ven had warned him about the 'dangers' of them, and how they must be treated/handled with 'utmost caution and discretion.' He was also told that he couldn't just destroy them, however, as the group/others would throw up a fuss, and so the best thing he could do about them was to pretend that they didn't exist unless certain group members started interacting with them. So that was what he promptly did so after mentally plotting a path around/through them, as did Lapis, after seeing his master pay so much heed to such an seemingly innocuous plant. Better safe than sorry....

Meanwhile, the bejeweled sea creatures brought about a much more wholesome/welcome curiosity from the simple monk, as he while he had seen/encountered similar governing bodies of Pokémon before in his travels through Hoen, he'd never seen one quite like this one. Its not everyday you see what looked to be weird sea stars seemingly communicating with each other somehow, after all. Lovely, however, was less concerned about her fellow Water types as he was in the actual water they were all standing in, as he looked at longingly. Of course, seeing how it was already occupied/stacked out, chances were he wasn't going to be taking a dip in it without provoking the current squatters, so out he remained in the (admittedly nice) rain for now.

Terra didn't want to bother the Starmie/Staryu either for similar reasons to L.L.L. (nor did he want to rudely interrupt their meeting), so he paid them little head too, so long as they did the same to him/the group. Mutual ambience is a good thing, sometimes, as hopes to be the case here!

Spoiler

The very moment Shiva, feeling a little better by now due to Lapis L.'s presence and all that talking about Contests, made unexpected eye contact with one of these crumbled statues of Chresire's greatest warlord (and gasped and flinched audibly), she knew that this place was....special. Meaningful. It was a good decision to join in that trip to the cave, unspoken thanks for the offer go to Nathan as she seems to have lost her voice from simply watching these statues.

(…)

Frankly, Shiva's scared of entering the cave now, steps a little closer to Terra in the hope of protection even, looks up to him from the side with a glance of 'Please don't go away...' While doing so, something bitterly familiar catches her eye: DEYO FLOWERS. These... What them growing here in a small number meant Shiva was aware of. What the Starmie and Staryu were doing up there on top of the waterfall she was either, she prefered to leave them alone and would ask the other to do the same to not disturb them in their...'communication'.

Kneeing down, she stares at these unique flowers, being highly undisclosed. She knew what these plants caused to the party... But she hasn't forgotten her initiate fascination for these. Ventus would never know if she.... But was it safe to pluck one to take along?

Spoiler

(…)

After having confirmed herself that nothing could happen if she'd try to.... she shook her head to clear herself of any doubts, and indeed plucked 1 Deyo Flower from this place. It gets carefully and secuely packed away in a glas with a lid, so that it's effects on selected Pokemon doesn't trigger randomly but it is also safe from being damaged. Such a precious and unique flower... Ventus would HATE it and Shiva painfully knew that (it's giving her stings of remorse), so why she took one she wasn't sure herself - but she felt it could turn out useful at some point.

Both muscular man and fabulous fish alike were quick to notice Shiva's distress to the creepy statues/surroundings, and both press close in their own ways to comfort the woman with/without her prompting, with Terra laying a hand on her shoulder and squeezing it, and Lazuli carefully maneuvering his tail fin to lightly pat her on the back with it. Never fear, The Beauty and The Beast is here to protect you from all the scary, horrible things in this nebulous cavern....

However, when the Fairy woman leans down to inspect and subsequently pluck a Deyo Flower for herself, the mountain of a man couldn't help but grimace, staring apprehensively as she handled the 'forbidden' flower with (to him/Ven) unwarranted and worrisome fascination. Oh yeah, Ven told him too that Shiva had an 'uncanny fixation' on the Deyos despite him frequently warning her so about them, and said that he had to 'stop her from being bewitched by them, should worst come to pass....'

Despite those orders, Terra hesitated and ultimately resisted the urge to intervene and tell her to drop and stop playing with the flowers, though he still look on with clear discomfort and unease. 

Why? 

Well......it was for the simple reason he didn't want to risk estrange himself from Shiva even more. He had already caused her unhappiness several times these past few days due to his occasional failure to socialize well with her, so for now he decided to 'play it safe' and just be watchful, instead of disturbing her. It didn't sit all to well with him (as it was his job to protect the group/Shiva, and he was blatantly ignoring a potentially 'risky' situation), but sometimes one must choose to do the right thing in a touchy situation, rather than what is correct....

Spoiler

Yep, you can put an Egg in a Pokeball. It's just not as good as an Incubator.


As you approach the cave, some Staryu start sliding down the waterfalls! They slip and slide like Oshawott and come spinning up to you! They don't attack, they're just staring curiously. With them, to your great surprise, come some Meowth! These Meowth don't mind getting wet at all, and they seem to be pets of the Staryu.

Terra pokes his head inside the cave and reports on the contents.
There are indeed murals on the walls, but they are missing a lot of pieces and they seem to be of stone puzzles much like the ones you found below Mt. Sentry. There are some etchings that will require more attention, and the daylight does not penetrate even a quarter of the way into the cave. Terra can hear Pokemon snuffling around in there. As he's about to withdraw his head, a little Unown the size of his thumb flies by! He didn't have time to catch the letter it represented, but he thinks it was Modern style.

A mysterious humming begins as soon as any part of him entered the cave. Behind him, Shiva can sense psychic power awakening and growing. Heart can sense ancient Earthpower within the cave using his Earthpower specialty.

The entrance to the cave is dusted with some Stardust! And Terra also spots a Technical Machine embedded within the entrance wall.

Similar to Shiva, Terra was also alarmed when the sea stars came cartwheeling down from their pool, though unlike her he and his Lovely Milotic he doesn't visibly startle from their arrival, only watching them warily to see if they were going to be a troublesome threat. When it soon become clear they weren't going to do anything but gormlessly stare at the group, they both eased up and gave them all a cautionary nod, before their Meowth entourage came and surprised them yet again. This only magnified into pure bewilderment for the mountainous man/fabulous fish when it became apparent the cat Pokémon were not only seemingly tamed by the Staryu, but also enjoyed the water as well. What in the world....?

'...Pokémon owning Pokémon? Starfish taming......cats? Cats.....not mind getting wet? ……Huh? ...This is very, very strange. Unusual....not normal at all. How....is this possible. ………...…Ugh....getting headache thinking about it. Hrrrn….just have to accept this is.....real. They not trouble, so should not worry about them too. ...Still, it is so strange....'

During this moment, where Terra was staring at the odd sight of fish and feline coexisting in harming and coming to grips with it, the aquatic serpentine fish got over his shock much more quickly, and slither over to introduce himself to them with a melodic trill and a smile. Afterwards, he then pointed over to the pool of water they were formerly occupying with his tailfin, then at himself, before motioning back to the water again and trilling at the enclave questioningly. 

In more clear terms, he's asking if he can take a dip in their pool with their permission for awhile, as if they were friendly/civilized enough to tame Pokémon (and ones that normally would be their predators at that!), they might let a marvelous beauty such as he refresh himself in it. If they let him, he'll alert his master about this, to which they'll smile and happily let him hang out in the pool while he and the rest of the group explore the cave. Otherwise, Lapis Lazuli will have to be recalled soon, which would be a shame given how seldom he gets to leisurely spend his time outside his Net Ball now in days...

Regardless, the rugged wanderer eventually snapped out of his daze when Nathan boldly made his way into the cave, and went on ahead to check it out before he and the rest of the group for danger, ignoring the Meowth for now. He promised that he'd help the out first and foremost before he prioritized catching his own Pokémon, and he wasn't going to break it for any reason!

The mini Unown wising by caused him to jerk his head back in surprise, before he shakes it and regains his calm. Yeap, that was one of no doubt many of the strange alphabetical Pokémon Nathan was tasked to look for, and he tells as much to the group/Nathan. In regards to the TM, he goes over to more closely inspect it to see if he could safely remove it from the wall, before he promptly does so if he can, if no one objects/wants to do that instead. Hey, you don't pass up a free TM just laying around (or in this case, embedded), you know! 

Whether or not he keeps it depends on if its useful to him or not, but if others complain about wanting it, he'll likely just give it over to them without much compliant unless its REALLY good. A TM, valuable and useful though they were, was usually not worth animosity from his new friends!

After that is dealt with, Terra readies himself to catch some Unown by summoning Melly and Mikey, giving each of them instructions on what their given task was (Melly KOing/Paralyzing them, while Mikey puts them to sleep/'sleep' with Spores/brute force). He then waited on Nathan to get started/ready too, so that they can begin catching Unown together. It was his task/job, so they only get to doing it when they are ready, not just themselves!

Orders: Have Lovely ask permission to join the Staryu up in their pool, have Terra get the TM from the wall if he can/if no one else gets to it first, and then have him and Melly + Mikey get ready to hunt for some mini Unown with Nathan! Its time to get started catching the abc s for the good professor!