[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

The diner is a classic shake joint from the 50's, except that it's quite a bit more massive! It has the standard checkerboard pattern, the red seats at the bar or booths, and chrome highlights on everything.

When you enter, a waitress in a blue skirt with icy trim says "Sit wherever you like, hon."

People are sitting around enjoying food from the menu. There's a jukebox in the corner shaped like a chrome Loudred. It's currently playing "Buneary Bop." There are lots of interesting characters in the diner: a man with a Hitmonchan taking notes on the stories he hears, a woman with a dreamy expression on her face soaking her hair in a mug of tea, a guy napping in the arms of an overgrown Jynx. One of the battle rooms is occupied by a guy and a gal who have strung up a volleyball net - they're playing a game with a very undersized smiling Wailmer as the ball.

The central bar holds two spinnable disks. One is for the waitstaff to pin up their food orders. The other is for battle matchups! Trainers are allowed to battle in the transparent rooms at the rear. "We're just far enough from Cress City that people enjoy battling again, hon."

It's still close enough to Cress City that writers and artists have congregated here to sketch and plot and daydream.

Mamoswine Diner Menu
Black Bean Burger, with garden fresh veggies
String Fries
Spinda Shake - No, it's not made from Gummis. It is raspberry and cream.
Flareon Shake - Orange creamsicle.
Tropius Lunch - A giant banana split dessert and a big veggie wrap in a spinach tortilla.
Mint Berry Shake - to celebrate Spring.
Gold Berry Shake - the traditional drink for victors in battle.
Cocoa, tea, normal coffees and soft drinks.
Pokemon Soft Drinks - 3/4 the price on page 72.
Lum Berry Malt - $350. Your Pokemon will ignore the next status condition inflicted upon it. Fades when Pokemon is sent to the PC or targeted with a status condition.
Sitrus Berry Malt - $250. Your Pokemon will ignore the first three points of damage inflicted upon it. Fades when Pokemon is sent to the PC or takes 3 dmg.
Apricorn Luau Drink - $400. Adapted from a Mamo recipe. Served in an apricorn shell, rich with honey, spotted with Ranc Berries, this item can be given to a wild Pokemon to get a +1 on empathy checks. It also increases happiness gains in tamed Pokemon.
Chimecho Coffee - $750. Instantly resets Encounter clock to 1 for the drinker. You'll need sleep when you're done though.
Chromium Dish Snax - $75. Ultra Snax are becoming irrelevant thanks to the Lucky Egg. Here's your chance to stock up on cheap ones.
Standard Pokemart items are 25% off here.

Your 2017 money is good here if you disguise the mint date somehow.

Trade Opportunities:
-Wigglytuff. Current bid: Nidorina with rare moves.
-Electrode. Current bid: Forretress.
-Pupitar. Current bid: Oversized Magmortar.
This doesn't take an encounter, but the traders will accept the highest bid on each.

Mamoswine Diner Encounters

1. Name: Cute Pokemon Sketch
Cap: 1
Bid start: 1
Notes: Sketch Artist Milo wants to draw a cute Pokemon. If you and your Pokemon will sit for the entire Slot, he'll pay $500.

2. Name: Enlightened Pokemon Painting
Cap: 1
Bid start: 1
Notes: Watercolor Artist Mirala wants to paint a naturey or meditative Pokemon. If you and your Pokemon will sit for the entire Slot, he'll pay $500.

3. Name: Swimmer Paula and Swimmer Paul-David.
Cap: 2
Bid start: 1
Challenge: Moderate.
Notes: Double battle, 4v4, no fainting, no held items. Wager: $2800, to divide two ways. These are the folks playing with Wailmer.

4. Name: Writer Moses
Cap: 1
Bid start: 1
Challenge: Moderate
Notes: Single battle, 3v3. Wager: $1600. Items allowed without restriction.

5. Name: Hitmonchan
Cap: 1
Bid start: 2
Challenge: Somewhat easy
Notes: Prize money is $1000. You don't have to put up any collateral for this battle - if you lose, you have to answer Hitmonchan's trainer's extensive questions about your travels.

6. Name: Gambling
Cap: None.
Challenge: Easy, moderate, tough.
Rewards: 10% profit, 100% profit, 300% profit.
This will involve an Insight + Knowledge + Gaming roll. You can bet as much money as you want. You need 1, 3, or 6 successes to increase your money. Otherwise, your principal is lost.
Example: Bet $100 on Easy. Roll just 1 success to gain $10 and your money back. Roll 0 successes, and you lose your $100.
Bet $1000 on Tough. Roll 6 successes and you'll get $4000. But if you only rolled 5 successes, you'd lose it all!

One TV is showing a Pokemon Surfing event, now in color!

One is showing local news - the giant cable connecting the Pokemon Storage Engines at Botanville and Stair City is down for maintenance...again. A dozen Machoke are hard at work clearing the area. This early PC system is little more than storage for Pokeballs and provides no environment of its own. The Pokemon contained within it in 1960 were programmatically ported to the Integrated Circuit Engine in 1978, which allowed any number of interfaces to connect and provide processing power, thus allowing environs and private machine connections for the first time in a PC system. Finally, those Pokemon were automatically ported to Bill's PC system when it was first adapted. So Pokemon with lifespans of 60+ years could have actually lived in each of the systems! The chubby guy sitting next to Shiva turns to her and says "Isn't technology, uh...incredible? I mean, I know it breaks down a lot, but the ability to store a living creature as a stream of electricity is amazing."

The final TV, a black and white one, shows a bit of soft news. It shows a toddler and a Baltoy playing together on a lawn. Nathan and any Medicine specialists would recognize that the Baltoy is wounded, having a severe smashed area on one side, but no one else seems to notice. The enigmatic Pokemon seems distracted from its play.
"This young man seems to have made a startling discovery! An ancient Pokemon found only in the dangerous Skull Ruins has surfaced at long last...for a playdate! What do you think of it, Mom?"
The camera pans, showing a young lady with a kind expression that reminds you of cookies and tea and homecooked meals. She's herding the toddler with her foot whenever he wanders too far with the Baltoy. "Oh, little Marco has always had a way with Pokemon, especially little lost Pokemon. They're always showing up, even when he was too young to walk! He likes to play doctor and pretend he's putting bandages on them, or making a Potion out of leaves! He says he is going to be the Champion when he grows up."
"That's very cute. Does he like Psychic types?"
"Yes - well, they seem to like him at least."
"Let's hope he doesn't get a visit from that so-called "alien Pokemon" who showed up in Charring Cross! Hahaha!"
"Hahaha! Yeah...we don't believe in LGMs either! Right Marco?" *gurgle*
"I'm not surprised...now over to Janet with a report on a waterskiing Pidgey!"

(Haven't decided on an encounter yet, but there's definitely some stuff in here Nathan is going to react to!  Also, does anyone have any good ideas for music that would fit the title 'Buneary Bop'?  If the Jukebox is the UST, then we should definitely put the Buneary Bop in there!  I'm kinda strapped for ideas for once, though, tbh...)

Nathan looks kinda bored at first (unrelated note: he's still wearing his traveling cloak for the time being.  He's put the hood down now, though, and also isn't wearing his fedora at the moment. All of Nathan's pokemon besides Gallade have all been recalled by this point as well).  As much as it's great to finally, finally take a break from all the action, nothing in this diner seems to have struck him as interesting so far...and he's kinda uncertain if he's actually going to order/buy anything because he's not sure if he can convincingly disguise his future cash...(on that note, @Iron, is Spira's 20s cash any good at all in the future?)

He glances at the TVs every so often, though.  That Surfing Competition is mildly interesting, but not much more than that.  He does wonder if any of the competitors are using Mantine, though...Mantine Surfing is popular in Alola, after all...the general news about the PC maintenance happening again isn't really interesting to him at all, given he already knew how massive the first PC systems were.

And then he sees the Baltoy.

He thinks to himself, '...huh.  That Baltoy looks...injured.  Its side looks like it's seen better days...'

Then he hears it's from the Skull Ruins.  '...that's...odd...I mean, the Baltoy's not, but what in the Ruins would have done that to a Baltoy?  Whatever it was, it was enough to cause it to flee from its home...'

...and then he hears what the kid's name is, and that Psychic types apparently like him.

'...wait, what?'

...which is immediately followed by an apparent alien sighting in Charring Cross.

'...what?!'

Nathan almost exclaims that out loud instead of just thinking it, but doesn't through the sheer willpower of not wanting to cause an unnecessary ruckus.

Forget the waterskiing pidgey.

That might be Nathan's dad who's on TV right now (Given that Nathan looks a lot like his dad, does Nathan have any notable resemblances to toddler Marco and/or his mom that Nathan or the other party members would recognize, Iron?).  And Deoxys is apparently still around in 1960.  Not many Psychic type aliens that Nathan can name, after all.

Oh my.  This was not what I was expecting to find when we walked into this diner, to be honest...