[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

The boy's deescalating tension brought a gentler smile to his lips, happy to see his handling of the....sensitive topic has put them at ease. It was.....hard not to be more.....descriptive and emotive about the revelations they brought him, but he somehow managed to regardless. Which considering his delicate mental state was quite the feat!

When they brought up The Eye, though, Ventus face went immediately blank as white canvas.

"The Eye, you say. Pray tell, does it have anything to do with the trouble you're expecting to plague us or the group in the near future? Because if so, that is rather uncanny , for I recall receiving a fortune of the future from that Fortune Teller in Ginger Town that implied much the same as you do. At the time I was concerned about it, but didn't have enough information to act on these visions or the information from them in any way, but as the visions came to pass and recent events I've observed.....well, perhaps it is time for to do so."

Yikes. That isn't ominous at all.

Terra's inclusion into the conversation causes the empathetic researcher's lips to briefly twitch, though, no matter how hard he tried resisting the urge to scowl.

"....From what he told me about that......matter and despite my requests for him to do so, Terra is still.....reluctant about taking the Artifact from that vile archmage , due to.....issues of conflicting trust and ownership of it. Doesn't think anyone but that man deserves to wield it, and loathes the very thought of taking away what is......rightfully theirs , unworthy such a blasphemous and heinous individual that man is. "

"*Sighs* Honestly, that stupid sense of honor and easily given fairness and respect for others is quite a vexing trait of that foolish man. It's one of the reasons why he was my first choice of replacement for myself in the event I had to leave, but it is so inconvenient at the worst of times or situations. *Waves a hand* In any case, if you want him to have that Artifact, you'll have to find some way to convince him. I've certainly tried, to not luck myself, so its your turn now to deal with him about this."

Yeah....things are still touchy between Ven and Terra. Nathan would be pretty certain that the eccentric scientist would actually fire that man or do something about them for the whole Scimitar debacle they caused, but due to their Hero status and now beings close friends to the rest of the group, his hands are tied from taking such actions.

The conversation being redirected back to Porygon Z causes a nice U-turn in his mood, though, bringing a slight smile to his lips despite The Eye most recent mention. "Delightful! And yes, all Porygon-Z are a bit....weird, but I've heard researcher are trying to find ways to remedy that. No success so far, but they might make a breakthrough someday. *Beat* Conversion training to iron out its quirks, hmm? Well, that's certainly one way of doing it, but have you thought of maybe getting a coder to try and create programs that they can Download to gain immediate and complete control over the Move, or at least speed up the learning process? One benefit of the Porygon line is that they can quickly acquire experience and advancement through technological and electronic means, so if you know somebody that can do the task and can compensate them for the trouble...."

"*Frowns* Pulse? Ah, yes, the Rotom you adopted. Hmm....if you want an outlet for their mischievous tendencies and as a method to help further solidify your bond with them, you could try setting up controlled situations were it can use its powers to prank people. Nothing makes Ghosts like them happier than spooking or messing with someone and having a laugh about it, so that's one bonding method I can think of. The other is sending them to Dagny to, ah, teach them some discipline, but I'm not sure that would entirely be a good idea for her or them."

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And C) The Bonding Ritual between him and Ventus pretty much allows for the researcher to perfectly convey the info he wants to them, so explaining the Round Trade should be easy and smooth!

Additionally, Ven would ask if Nathan could possibly share the Legendary HMs with him to teach his own Pokemon, as he'd like to have them for his own purposes of convenience and research. Having his family knowing them would come in handy for the upcoming mission at the very least!

If you wish, I can actually have Ventus talk with Seadra about this whole Round Trade and inform them about his Evo, if you wish. Could even have him bring out his Kingdra for them to 'ask' them any questions about what its like to be one, as by this point in the campaign he's most likely had the free time and resources to make them completely Loyal to him now (and therefore not get into trouble / blast people/Pokemon) !

Nathan frowns as Ventus inquires further.  The only reason he brought that up specifically is because Shiva did first, and he was honestly trying to avoid getting into the specifics for now.  "...yeah.  It has a lot to do with it, actually.  I'll explain more later if you want to hear the story, but...I should warn you that it probably won't be a very...comfortable tale to listen to.  Heck, I'm still unnerved by the whole thing...we're really far away from the center of the Eye's influence right now, though, so I don't expect major trouble, but it pays to be prepared regardless..."  Nathan puts a hand on the hilt of the Sword to emphasize the point.

Then he realizes what Ventus just said.  "...wait, you've seen more of the Eye too?  We definitely need to exchange information later if that's the case.  Maybe not now, since we have more immediate things to worry about, but...definitely later."

As for the matter of Terra: "I'll see if I can talk him into it.  Having the Hauberk would be better than not if we want to do crazy things like assist the Lake Trio.  I'm not entirely happy with his decision either, to be honest, but...well, I'm trying to move on.  It's...hard."

"Oh, and uh...speaking of our resident overprotective person, I know Terra texted you about this, but I wanted to ask in person.  If you want to help us with the Lake Trio after we're done with our spelunking here, you'll be more than welcome.  I...know you probably don't want to get wrapped up in stuff like that, though, so it's fine if you'd rather not for...personal reasons.  If you do decide to help, though...well, Mesprit was fairly certain that Uxie and Azelf would be willing to grant boons in exchange if requested after we do...whatever it is we need to.  Mesprit would probably do the same, I feel.  It's a difficult to pass up opportunity, honestly, provided you're confident you can be of assistance and can handle...whatever happens.  Personally, I don't really want to ask any major favors of them myself, though.  They've been through a lot...anyways, if you could give it some thought, I'd appreciate that.  I'm fine with whatever decision you come to."

And as for Porygon-Z and Pulse: "Programmer, huh?  That's not a bad idea, but...well, the only ones can say I've met are Dagny and Bill, and they're usually rather busy, so I wouldn't want to bother them with that.  I think I'll stick with some simpler methods for now, see how they work out."

"My original idea for Pulse was actually...similar to that.  Ideally, I'd like to...encourage some of their more mischievous behavior so they can assist Porygon-Z should I never need them for...certain activities.  I'm not going to assume I won't have to deal with computer systems in some fashion in the future."  Or in other words, Nathan wants to be prepared in the event he has to infiltrate another Scimitar base.  It definitely won't be as easy as the last time if he has to do it again...

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Whatever might help with making Seadra's evolution as smooth as possible, Nathan welcomes it.    He's completely expecting to deal with an incredibly Disobedient Dragon since he only just caught Seadra.

As for the HMs, Nathan is completely fine with Ventus teaching his pokemon a few of them.  "Meowth's out of the bag on ROCK SMASH, by the way.  League doesn't have any issues with me holding onto it until I decide if I want to strike a deal with them for it, though.  I've also got the HM for CUT, which Deoxys extracted from Mt. Molten.  Nearly got eviscerated by the move myself...*shudder*..."

"Heart's holding on to FLY for now, which my dad retrieved for us, so you'll have to wait for the collector to arrive if ya want to learn that one.  And Shiva should still have FLASH, which we have on loan from Mallorn.  He'll need it back before long, so I'd go ask Shiva about it sooner rather than later."

And that should be all the HMs that the group has on hand currently!  By the end of this trip, we should hopefully have DIVE as well.

You manage to get a message to Keni in his current location at a hostel.

Seadra doesn't lose any Loyalty, thanks to your combined Ancestry. It will gain 1 point of Loyalty as soon as you make for Garlicburg.

Perfect!  Hope he's looking forward to what Nathan will show him when the rare pokemon is ready!

And thanks!  I was really hoping that'd work out like I thought it would, because otherwise we'd have a really hard to control Dragon on our hands because they have a whopping 5 Disobedience after evolving.  4 Loyalty should be manageable.  If anything, Nathan wielding the Sword should give the winged king reason enough to respect Nathan's authority to some degree.

But oh boy, do I bet they look majestic compared to a normal Kingdra.  That single, large fin on its back is two instead (correct me if i'm wrong), and they're much larger than usual and still allow Kingdra to take to the skies!!  His dominion over sea and air shall be unparalleled now!!

Nathan lets Kingdra try out his new 'wings' for a bit before signaling to them to land.  It takes a few attempts to get the newly crowned royalty to listen, I'm sure, but when he does, he decides to be...creative with his landing, using SURF to create a large patch of water for him to DIVE into.  Thankfully, they're in the middle of a desert and there's plenty of space, so nobody gets hurt.  Besides, it's understandable that Kingdra would want to be a bit damp considering how dry it is here.  Despite being able to FLY, he is still a creature of the sea, after all.

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As for Nathan's squad of pokemon, he's planning to bring:
- Gallade, obviously
- Winged Kingdra
- Juliet
- Servine
- Mizu
- Yet to be nicknamed Dratini

That should be most everything that needed to be addressed on Nathan's side, so he's ready to go to Garlicburg when everyone else is!