[Game Thread] Pokerole: Mount Coronet Mystery

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

Spoiler

(...)

*whoosh!*

With all four plates returned to the Creator, its form is now completely solid, completely real.

At last.  My power is returning to me.  Not much, but enough.  With the power of the Syrentide's chant aiding me, I can perform the impossible for brief moments.

Now then, I have a little explaining to do.  About why you've been drawn here, and about what comes next.  A grim tale is what I have to tell.

Arceus's form shifts back to the dull, discolored form it started in as it begins its story.

A Grim Tale: The Other Side - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

(...)

To Choose Your Fate: Benevolent Spirit - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

With the power temporarily granted to me by this heartfelt song, I can offer you three choices concerning what you do next.

(...)

Leaving

2) I can return you to your original realities, and you will be able to put all of this behind you.  If need be, I can erase your memories of key events entirely so that you may live out the rest of your lives in peace.  Should you want to have nothing more to do with this multidimensional catastrophe, I cannot fault you.  It has been all but forced upon you, and you have endured many stresses that few humans have, all in the span of little more than a week.


You need not worry about the disaster affecting you again should you choose this option.  In your home realities, the Dark One's presence is limited.  It is focusing the majority of its power on its plans in the World of Pokemon.  You will be safe from it for however long you live.

(GM's Note: While your character will not be participating in my Main Game, there's the potential to revisit their story at a later point to resolve unresolved conflicts if there's enough interest to do so.  I like the characters you've all created, and I would definitely enjoy exploring their stories more!  Which leads us to option number three...)

(...)

So...

...what will you all choose?

Look to your companions if it will help you come to a decision.  Look to your pasts, your futures.  The choice is entirely yours.

Kogeki's face reveal earns the man a brief but vividly sympathetic grimace from Ran before he looks away from them. Not because the sight scared or sickened him - he'd seen similar mutilation from the bodies of his worker being unearthed and carried out of the mines after that day, so their own was only a gruesome surprise to him - but out of polite respect for the honorable man he'd worked with. It was the least he could do for the man, really. Well, beyond making him their newest robo-arm and mask, but Ran considered that just the right thing to do for them, and therefor expected nothing from it. 

Though he really hadn't gotten to know him (or anyone in his group, for that matter), their past trauma and plight has always resonated deeply with the wee little man because of his own personal tragedy he endured that was so much like there own.Their blatant disrespect and disdain of the Legends too, while questionable and downright irritating at the best of times and downright suicidal at the worse, was something he could amply understand, given he had his own mine cart of issues after that day that he was only in recent years and recent days he was finally beginning to fully unload, process, and move on.

Hearing that their....beloved friend could possibly still yet exist somewhere makes him smile just a bit for them. Like him and the rest of their partners, the cyborg ninja deserves such good news, after everything they've gone through.

Kee's sudden announcement of their hither-unknown suicidal desires and all the reasons for it thereof.....well, the scuffy smith was ashen faced about it for just a few fleeting moments, before he just.....let out a heavy *Sigh* and shook his head, his expression and himself becoming wearily apathetic to it all. It was not that Ran didn't sympathize in the colorful musician's own grief - for he did, in much the same way he sympathizes with Kogeki - but.....he just couldn't find it within himself to care after dwelling on it for a few seconds. His relationship with the punk star was a baffling one at best and fairly tenuous at all other times, and unlike with Kogeki he didn't know anything really about their past besides them from being from another reality and the general info he gave to everyone. Frankly, neither him or they didn't have the time nor chance to really get to know each other to truly be invested in their respective plights. So after dying from the aftermath of a beyond harrowing yet still fortuitous battle with and against Legendary Pokemon, the bristly blacksmith was far too exhausted and numb/still in shock to start giving very much of a damn about a young adult whose relationship with basically only amounted to 'decent working acquaintance and occasional source of annoyance/amusement' .

Was that heartless of Randolph? Perhaps, but as it was said, he's just too tired to care about that anyway. Too damn tired, bone and soul weary from this emotionally and physically GRUELING ordeal that was all at once his job, his duty, and, most recently, his death sentence. He just wanted his role in this whole stinking rotting, wretched terrible, Tauros shit supernatural mystery force business over and DONE with, once and for all, god damn it.

So once all the Plates the group had were given, Arceas revealed the full scope and true nature of what was behind this multi-reality encompassing cosmic disaster he and his partners have been involved with, and the Grand Alpha laid out all the cards on the table, Randolph Schmidt made his choice. The only choice for him. With a tired, tired expression that only became pained when he once more heard his lady's mystical song, Randolph quietly but boldly further approached Arceas, looked straight up into their all-seeing gaze....

.....and slowly, slowly shook his head.

"No. I can not, will not take on this sacred quest you are offering. What you are asking me to do is too much. Too much for anyone but the most extraordinary and exemplar of individual, and maybe not even them. This recent quest Rowan, the Pixies, and you invariably burdened me with was already far too much for me, yet I went through it out of simple necessity, obligation, and responsibility to do something about it before it, whatever the shitting bastard is responsible for the grief it has put you and everything else through it its egomaniacal scheme for god-hood, brought to ruin my and countless other lives. The quest that ended up killing me, as I expected it to and planned for in that event, and only through sheer fortunate series of highly improbable circumstances that I have any choice besides accepting that fact and move one. And I'm not about to make a choice that will only lead me to further and greater strife, suffering, and hardship that I am unsuited for, and never wanted in a million years. Or however many you've existed, Arceas. Not when I have friends to go back to, and my own Pokemon to look after. Me and my partners may have managed to take down Dialga, but that doesn't change the fact that I am an simple, old little blacksmith. One who's went well beyond his calling and somehow achieved what should've been impossible for him, but I'm still a blacksmith."

Randolph reached into his Inventory, pulled out The Azure Flute, and presented it to Acreas.

"So again I say no. Restore my life Arceas. Take this, take me back home, and let only my memories and hard earned treasures and my treasured new partners follow after me. Find some other gutsy, brave, or foolish man or woman that desires to help ya or what you're offering in exchange for their service. I have done my duty towards you, and once is all I can endure."

*Bows Head*

"Forgive me, Arceas. Forgive me, Kogeki, Karen, Kee, Scizors, and Rui. But I've had enough. Let me go return to life and finally rest. Please."