[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Ray accepts the Psychic TM as his fair due. Whenever Nathan works with him, or chooses him in battle, or gives him a good Held Item or new move, Ray accepts it as minor worship/honor. 

Tropius is first and foremost interested in the sunlight suddenly pouring down, but you get the feeling she will be really really excited to actually use that move in battle. She kind of has an instinct to do that, but didn't have the capability up until now.

"Wow, amazing Delta Pokemon! Some don't like 'em, but I love 'em! It took a while to make the PC system recognize them properly. They could be stored safely, but if you had a Delta and a similar Pokemon it would sometimes deliver the wrong one. That's all sorted out now, and we're even working on some tech to improve it. My newest app will be able to identify type, moves, and predict evolutions for mutated Pokemon, and most importantly, identify what exactly the mutation is. For example, we can tell if your Tropius is truly a Delta, or some other mutation. Call me in two days and I think it will be ready for beta testers."

Bill isn't afraid of Orthros (or Tropius, who is more dangerous at this point). Tropius stays quite calm while in the presence of Bill.

"I know a little known fact about Primal Bulbasaur. They were one of the first off-type species cataloged in modern times, as you probably know, but they were also one of the first Primal Pokemon to appear to humans, historically. The First Technical Society treated them as totems! All the big cities had a family of Primal Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur if they were lucky. They'd live in the center of town on a special plinth for ceremonies, or in a sacred cave, or maybe deep in the woods where it was considered lucky to come across one. Neat, eh?"



"The biggest problem with the portable system is it is trade-only. The PC system is not conducting a trade at all when it accepts a Pokemon for storage. It's a big difference from an engineering standpoint. Pokemon trading machines have been around since the days of the Kings, whereas the first PC deserving of the name was built in 1841 - the Analytical Engine. It could only store first stage Pokemon of small size and low power. That was in the days when an MSC capture web was expensive and Pokeballs hadn't been invented yet, so the combination of inferior non-MSC Apricorns holding crude MSC capture webs and a very low-memory PC resulted in a terrible storage system. It filled up most of Stair City, haha!"

"You can think of the portable trader as being akin to a switchboard, while the PC is like a modern cell phone. I'm the switchboard operator: I have to manually approve a trade, and only I can do it because I have admin privileges, and I can only do it to your specific devices because they are hard-coded with your encrypted hash function specifying your OT. Honestly, the security on these things is terrible. Don't let anyone shady know you have them, and keep them powered down when you're not using them. If someone steals this device, it's as good as them having your fingerprint and Trainer Card."

"That said, I'll definitely use any data I get from you and Shiva to engineer the next gen of PC. We'll have to see what the future has in store for us!"

At that very moment, coincidentally right as he says the word "Future" to Nathan, all of you except Terra experience a brief lurch in which you have a glimpse of an unadulterated bayfront farm. Then you're back, and Nathan can tell Bill didn't notice he was gone.

"Interesting fun fact.  However...hmmm...well, I do know for a fact that Orthros is a Delta, but...I'm actually fairly certain that Ray is a Primal Bulbasaur.  He can apparently learn moves of lots of different types.  Electric, Psychic, Fairy, Bug...if it's light based or can be executed in the form of a flash of light, he can probably learn it.  Definitely not your typical Delta by a long shot."  *chuckle*

"...Tropius...I'm not sure what she is.  She could be a Delta...but she might also be a form of Primal.  I've seen some really, really old pictures of flightless Grass/Rock Tropius, and I had Laurelin revive her from a fossil...that app you're working on would be helpful for confirming what she is one way or another for sure.  I'll definitely be glad to help test that, so definitely expect a call from me two days from now."

"...oh, and if you didn't catch on, Orthros is the one of the three from a different dimension.  Specifically, I met him in the Dream World.  It's a long story...but the end result of it is I caught him partially because he seemed friendly enough...partially because we need to study them more.  A whole pack of Delta Houndour lead by a Mega Delta Houndoom was causing a lot of trouble during the night in Corsage Port.  I'd like to eventually maybe get Doctor Fennel or Professor Burnet some Delta Houndour to study so we can learn more about the species and how to better get along with them...but getting ahold of either of those two isn't easy, given the exact circumstances...Professor Mallorn said he'd try and get me in contact with Fennel, but I've not heard back from him on that yet, so...just doing some amateur 'field research' of my own while I wait for an opportunity, I guess."

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

Nathan blinks a few times, Gallade grabs Nathan's shoulder to help him rebalance after that lurch occurred...

"...well, the sooner we get those portable trading machines ready, the better in my opinion.  I have a feeling these lurches are going to last longer sooner rather than later..."

Once Nathan has his Portable Time Capsule on, he has another question for Bill: "So...did one of your pokemon help you get yours on?"