[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Before Heart meet the other, he have written the symbols from the stones. Just in case Shiva might want for the cleanse tags.
(...)
When Heart return he talk to Shiva. "Hey Shiva, I have find some strange stuff back where I found the HoneEdge. Its looks like some sort of protection against ghosts or something. I remember you was making the cleanse tags so maybe those symbols might help since you have the materials?"

Turning to Heart with a questioning look when he addresses her, Shiva perks up with mild interest as he opens up about having found 'strange stuff' - that describtion could practically mean anything, good and bad. Dizzy uses this moment to snatch the Weavile Feather off her hand to joyfully chew on it. The mentioning of Honedge though quickly brings her back into her meek and subliminally fearful attitude, she's trying hard to not show something of that openly.

She asks if he has copied the symbols and requests to see them if he does, she stares at them longly. Could it be, the spirit of a Pokemon here...? "I... guess they indeed are needed for the creation of a Cleanse Tag, good find. I'm sorry, but I don't have any enchanted pieces as a raw material anymore - I only bought one in Arrowroot Village for my own Tag. You'd have to buy or get a hold of that on your own somehow, then I'll be able to craft you one. In case I'll stumble over something, I'll let ya know, a....alright?"

"Oi, Shiva, I found this seed earlier," Toya hands the seed back to Spira, "You seem to have a at-one-with-nature vibe to you, figured you might know something about it." Spira then hands the seed to Shiva, his fingers accidentally brushing her hand.

(Haha, 'accidently brushing her hand' is an adorable image!)

Once again Shiva is addressed and once again Dizzy uses the moment to swipe the feather directly out of his caretaker's hand, he contently lets the young Eevee nibble on the 'prey' as well this time. She herself doesn't say anything at first, just stares at the spectral breeder with a suprised, embarrassed and insecure expression but eventually gifted him a small smile - she must be taking 'at-one-with-nature-vibe' as a compliment.

Before she could reply a single word Spira was already placing the seed into her hand, she shudders a bit as it causes a weirdly eerie sensation within her and her hands even begin to tremble a bit as a response to that feeling. Though that was NOTHING when he accidently brushed her hand, as this caused her unintentionally flinch away with a swallowed "Eeeek!" and stare at him even more with a very faint blush. Cottonee just chuckles delightfully over this as she enjoys this mischief to the utmost!~

"I, eh, well....", she eventually stammers as she averts her gaze, "thanks for...letting me investigate it, I never saw...such a thing before, h-have you, Cottonee?" The fluffball shakes her wooly head and tabs on this pitchblack seed out of pure curiosity.

(+1 Nature for Shiva for 18xp as said, depends on Iron what she can tell about this seed.)

Spoiler

(...) When the collector says he found a Honedge after all, followed by recounting how and ending by saying he sent Honedge to the present time...well, he doesn't immediately say anything because Terra started discussing it with Heart.

Nathan listens quietly and carefully the whole time.  When they finally finish, Nathan says his piece.  Very, very quietly.  "...don't be so loud and boisterous about it, please...and don't let anyone in this time catch wind of that, Heart.  The King himself will probably deal with such treason personally if he starts hearing rumors about that.  Creshirean Aegislash are the quintessential representation of the right to bear authority.  Only those deemed worthy of holding that authority, be it King or Champion, can ever hope to evolve a Doublade into the Royal Sword pokemon.  Even in our time, that still holds true.  Only the Champion is permitted to use an Aegislash in official League battles.  Honedge and Doublade are fine for anyone to raise in our time.  But here?  Treason, no matter what stage of the evolution line you have.  Be very, very careful, Heart.  Creshire holds their Aegislash in much higher regard than Kalos does."

What Nathan doesn't say out loud is just how...significant Heart obtaining an Aegislash would be.  Heart's father had raised and trained Heart to go beyond his limits, be more than what his father had been...it'd probably be a little fitting and potentially a little comforting for him to have a symbol of leadership.  Particularly since he has to rebuild his clan from the ground up...

Then Nathan looks at everyone else.  "Everyone understand?  No talking about Heart having a member of the Honedge family in this era.  That could endanger him, plus us for associating with him.  The less we talk about it, the safer we'll be.  I don't think any of us want to end up dead, imprisoned, or worse because of this."

He looks back at Heart.  "...you can raise it without getting in trouble if you're careful about when you use it, just...don't get yourself...or us...in trouble with authority figures by doing so, alright?"

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

Now then, on to the soldiers.

First, Nathan sighs.  "...let me elaborate a little on what I said earlier, Shiva.  There is SOME oppression, I'm just...maybe being overly paranoid.  For the most part, if you could command pokemon well or were of a noble caste, you'd be treated well regardless of gender.  If you were a commoner with no skill with regards to commanding pokemon...no guarantees.  Heck, if someone like that was lucky and good looking enough, one of the 'better' lives they could have was being a personal slave/servant to a noble or even the King himself.  Again, with gender equality being factored in...mostly.  Males are still dominant in most of the areas you'd expect them to be.  Don't ask how I know all that.  It's a looonnnnggg story."

Then he points towards the camp, and is talking to everyone now.  "As far as those soldiers go...they're all minor nobles.  Every.  Single.  One.  And Terra's not wrong about them not being average.  They're what some researchers call Progenitors, and they make up about half of the population in this era if you can believe that.  Sarimanok claims their general capabilities are primarily due to his bloodline's influence...and he's not entirely wrong...but there are other factors too.  Not only did the Progenitors win the genetic lottery, they're also better fed and educated than the peasant caste.  Because of that, they're almost able to be classified as a separate species of human entirely.  They're tougher, stronger, bigger...and they have an almost innate ability to raise pokemon with ease."

Another sigh from Nathan.  "...to be honest, I don't want to go anywhere near them if I can avoid it.  I don't want to go anywhere near those statues, either.  You said there were Ghosts in those statues and the gems on them seemed to be decorative, right, Spira?  I'm thinking the Ghosts might be there as sentries of sorts.  If someone were to tamper with those incredibly valuable gems...the Ghost would probably follow whoever did so, and then report back to someone and lead some soldiers to the culprit's hiding place.  Sarimanok's rather infamous for 'laying curses' on things and using 'magic', but there's almost always some kind of reasonable explanation for most of that kind of stuff.  He's also well known for using Magic Crystals, which were the basis of early apricorn based pokeballs.  Don't think they actually are magic, but it probably seemed like that to most everyone that didn't know any better.  Heck if I know exactly how a pokeball works."

A pause, then he continues.  "...peasants could be conscripted into the army too.  They were usually just expendable cannon fodder, though.  And punching bags for the Progenitors to train with.  I don't see any in any of those camps, though..."

One last pause.

"...well, welcome to 500 AD, everyone.  Or at least, we're in the general ballpark of that century.  Being 1500 years in the past...well, 1400 in your case, Spira...it's certainly going to be a...different experience, to say the least...we'll need to tread carefully, and second guess anything that seems even remotely out of the ordinary..."

Whew, that was a long lecture... (...)

All that talking about the scary steely Ghost Sword Heart is so proud about makes Shiva more and more nervous, cold shudders run down her spine and she found her hands trembling faintly as she clutches the scarlet feather she has conquered back from Dizzy and young Eevee. The former takes it between his teeth and pulls on it every now and then but never makes it to wrest it from his caretaker. Eevee mostly watches attentively with his brushy tail wagging in joy while his parents have streched out to bathe in and soak in moonlight. The sight of this all brings some calm of the mind to the natural fae enthusiast.

She shrinks a little in startle as she feels Nathan gazing at everyone eventually, including her. Once everyonelse has given their words and promise to keep quiet, Shiva does speak up rather hesitantly. "I.... I won't tell, promise... I'll just be quiet about it, pretend not knowing about it. Ho... Honedge and its evolutions are....... c-creepy..." Her voice breaks here, she doesn't dare to say that she'll take care to not get too near or at best not near this Pokemon AT ALL in the first place. She's fearful that it'd make short shrift of Yena and her fairies or grows interested in her vitality in a much greater degree than her smol Litwick, so she'd feel better to just avoid its presence at best as possible. She's much to shy to state that however.

How Nathan eventually continues concerning what role gender does play in this current society does catch Shiva's interest again, she throws curious glances between him and the campers over there in the distance while listening and does not speak up until he has finished. How gender doesn't really matter and it's more a bout how you're able to command Pokemon and which house you originate from is rather satisfying to hear for her, she wouldn't call this 'sexist' anymore. Actually, this almost makes sense to her! Treat and raise Pokemon well, earn their loyalty and you're good - Shiva gets the feeling that she personally would be accepted in that case, only battling well against strong foes may be a bit of a weakpoint. But even then, she has aces in her sleeve and would give her best regardless!

"Th.. thanks for sharing this, Nathan. Yes, how one's treated well or not depending how well one raise, treats and trains one's Pokemon does make sense... And as said, I haven't spot anything that'd point towards women being treated differently while exploring the camp. All's well, I guess..."

After that, she rather quickly drifts away and tunes out as she observes the happenings at the camp or the Eevee family. A few sentences she does catch up from the boy's lecture concerning the soldiers and co., but she doesn't say or show much of a reaction towards it. History is still not her thing and something she does not really care about. Doesn't mean it's against him, this topic is just... not of her interest. Means he also misses what Pokemon are painted on Terra's armor. Next!

(...) "......*Shakes head* Never mind. *Looks at Nathan first, then everyone else* Nathan.....everyone.....what do we do now? We are......trapped in this time. Have no way to get back to our own. Only have Bill to help us out, and.....he can not do much. Not now....*Shakes head* ....maybe not ever. So....we need to plan our......next actions. Carefully. Hm....Do we stay near soldier's camp for the night? Or leave now, and.....make some distance from them? And.....should we continue going to Tezeal Valley? Or go..... somewhere else? Like a place that could......help get us back to our time, or.... safe location until we are......moved again? *Shakes head* Don't know....not yet. Need to think more. But.....maybe you all have.....idea of what to do?"

Thus spoken, Terra falls into silent contemplation, leaving the rest of the group with several important question that he himself had no answer for. At least, not now..... (...)

Only when the same mountainous man does gaze at her Shiva awakes with a bit of delay from her soft-slumber and returns from her own thoughts back to the current planet. She needs a moment to gather herself and progress why he was looking at her, eventually she gets what's the matter: What to do now...! Sooner or later she has expected this question to come up, she has thought about this a bit while wandering through the camp.

She's even fine to share with a careful tone what she has imagined or feels right to do in this case. "Terra, while it's night indeed and the campers will turn in for the night soon, we have been transported here during breakfast... I'm not tired in the slightest. Are you? We, I mean... We're probably here for a reason, but nothing has shown about that by now, there must be hints or something in that direction. How about we wait until the people have gone to sleep and it's safe for us to depart as well? In direction of Teazel Valley and Elanor I mean, maybe along the way we'll find out more. We COULD wait and follow them to the Altar of Fame, get a glimpse of the place that are only ruins in our time, but... why and what  for...? It does feel too dangerous to me."