[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Nathan takes the package with a very skeptical look.  And when he gets a glimpse at it...same kind of case as an Upgrade...no obvious markings on it, though...wait...it couldn't be....that...could it?

One look at Ventus tells him it is exactly that, though...

The skepticism quickly turns into shock as Nathan drops the package on the table, backing away from it with a hand covering his mouth.

He has no words for this.  The most common ways to get Dubious Disks are to either have a highly skilled, typically League approved programmer make you one based on information released by Saturn after he turned Team Galactic into a proper energy research company...or to have underworld connections.

Nathan has no reason to believe Ventus had used the first method...

The researcher deftly grabbed the package before it could slam into the table and damage the delicate contents inside, plus draw the attention of the other people in the room towards him and Nate. Ventus then slow turned his head towards him, and Looked him straight in the eyes. Gone was his weary resignation, his gloomy disposition, and his unintrusive presence. In its place was firm seriousness all throughout his expression, and had a warning gleam in his own all seeing orbs, plainly telling his friend to not cause a scene.

"Not here, Nathan. If you want answers, follow me," the sociologist? slowly said, his voice bariable audible to his friend and their Absol. Closing up the package with unnatural smoothness and non-chalance, Ventus picked it up and stood, before walking towards the private rooms of the Center, with the young trainer (Hopefully) trailing behind him. Once they found an empty room and entered it, the researcher? pulled out a scanning device and swept the area of the room, as if he was looking for something in particular, before the response came up negative. He put it away, and took a seat on the table, motioning for Nathan to sit opposite from him.

"Sorry for leading you here, but I don't want to cause a scene in the middle of a public area. It would do neither of us good if people overheard us and started to panic or grow unruly. Now....what is it you want to ask me about, Nathan?"

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan doesn't really react at first.  Just kinda stands there.  Problems with authority...a sometimes questionable ruthlessness...knowledge on how to hide himself and his actions...enough connections to somehow obtain a Dubious Disc...it was all coming together...Kirlia's looking rather visibly concerned.  Calam simply narrows his eyes again.  He knows Ventus has caused no end of headaches for Nathan as much as he's helped him, but this was something else entirely.

He's barely holding himself together when they reach the empty room, and is making sure to stay as far away from Ventus as he reasonably can.

'Oh Arceus...why?  Why why why why why?  By the will of Rayquaza, why am I traveling with a criminal of all people?  By the grace of Aotius and Mutios, why is he so contrary?'

And so on for the next few minutes.  Every Legend he can name, he includes in a question involving 'why?'  The Creation Trio, the Tao Trio, Rayquaza, Arceus, Aotius and Mutios, the Brothers of Metal, and more...

Nathan's belief in Ventus is mixed up beyond compare now...Cynthia herself trusted him with a Togepi egg, he'd befriended a myth with the best of intentions in mind, Shiva sees...something in him...and yet he's everything that's opposite to all that as well...he acts in ways that no good Togekiss trainer would, he's just as uncaring as he is caring, he's driven away those he tried to bring closer...it just took one little push for the balance to finally tip...

He has no idea what to think of Ventus now...how can he trust him after everything that happened today?

Kirlia's worriedly sitting beside Nathan, against the wall.  Calam is standing over them, looking warily at Ventus.

When Nathan finally asks a question, it's hesitant.  He almost doesn't want to know, but with everything staring him right in the face already...and there's still a small part of him that hopes he's wrong, or that this isn't as bad as it seems...

"...what...exactly...did you...do?"

[Lord Windos]

Ventus pays absolutely no mind to the Absol (Despite their belief, he means no harm to their trainer, and can quickly contain the Dark type if need be) as he has his hands cupped under his chin, evenly regarding the young boy in front of him with not an hint of malice, or any emotion at all. It took the empath a minute to think over his response, before they closed their eyes and exhaled quietly.

"That is a loaded question, and an imprecisely aimed one at that. I'll answer it anyway, though, since the concerns you are currently having are...somewhat unfounded. If its about how I obtained the Dubious Disk, do not worry about that. I traded away my newly Kangushkhan to one of my new associates I made in Cheshire some undisclosed time ago. They wish to remain anonymous, and I will respect their wishes, as they have done the same with me. They supplied me with both the Upgrade and Dubious Disk for your Porygon, all via trades of rare Pokémon in hidden locations. Shady, perhaps, but far from illegal. Have Kirlia do an empathetic scan of me right now, and they will say that I speak the truth. I wouldn't lie to you in the first place, but you have every reason to distrust me and more, so having that much as evidence would quell suspcions I hope."

The researcher? then re-opened his eyes, and gave Nathan an appraising gaze, before continuing. "I sense that is not the only concern you have about me at this present time, though. ...You are wondering if I am who I claim to be, are you not? That I'm not a Pokémon Researcher, but something...different. Less wholesome, to be polite about it. I'm not a telepath by any means, but your feelings of uncertainty, the fear you hold for myself, and the topic at hand makes it all to obvious to me. I'll alievate those worries of yours now, Nate: I'm not a criminal or felon. Not at this point of time, anyway. If the Unovian authorities ever caught wind of what I disclosed to you on Silverfish, that status would swiftly change, but I'm no criminal," Ventus said, before letting out a sigh, his face suddenly looking decades older as he remembered his the old days. "...Not in this present time, I'm afraid. I've...well, their is no real subtle, eloquent way to undisclosed this to you, so I won't attempt so."

"I may not be a criminal now, but I once was. I am a former member of the original Team Plasma, Nate. Take that as you will."

[Dragonstrike]

(Let's see...that would make Ventus...20 years old during the events of Pokemon White by the timeline Iron and I established)

Kirlia is quick to check, even without orders...

...

...Ventus wasn't lying about any of it...

...


...if the Dubious Disc was obtained in a completely legal trade, well...not much Nathan could complain about, then...other than purposely corrupting Porygon2's data to make it stronger...he still hadn't tested if Conversion was working properly yet, and he wasn't certain evolving it would help matters...

...

...Ventus...Team Plasma...that...explained why he knew so much about Genesect, both before and after its 'completion'...the Unovan League probably didn't know the finer details of why the project was cancelled or how much more they'd had planned for the bug...and yet Ventus rattled them off like they were nothing when Nathan had inquired about them before...

...

...

"...you sided with N when it fell apart...right?"

[Lord Windos]

"...you sided with N when it fell apart...right?"

The former Plasma member let out a long suffering sigh at that remark, shaking his head with a small amount of frustration, the first amount of emotion he's let slip through his stoic mask. "No. I ultimately choose to side with Ghentis after that debacle with Reshirim and Zekrom, then left on my own terms shortly thereafter. N was a sweet boy, and perhaps the only other person that could claim to be my equal in empathizing with Pokémon, but he was far too naive and...small picture for my tastes at the time. His...Ghentis was responsible for that, though, so I only have more reasons to loathe the man, in hindsight. My former leader had always been a difficult person to understand and empathize with, but I admired him and his vision at one time in my life, and faithfully took his own cause as mine, serving him loyally until..."

Ventus went silent for a second, his expression clouding over with bitter disappointment and anger. "...until we fell out with each other. I do not care to go into the details as to why I left, but suffice to say...Ghentis was no longer the man I knew, cared for, and pledged myself to, and his goals, beliefs, and truth had twisted into something unrecognizable from his original mission so long ago. We had an argument, I formally resigned from Team Plasma, and went my own way in the aftermath. The Shadow Traid kept watch over me for quite some time, until I proved that I wouldn't say anything about their master, or my time in Team Plasma. I still have their number on my phone, come to think of it, but its so heavily encrypted and we are so far away from Unovia that getting in touch with them would be a close to nil chance. If one of them has not follow me all the way out here to Cheshire in secret and is watching us as we speak right now, that is."

[Dragonstrike]

...

...so not just Team Plasma...but Neo Team Plasma as well...but he ended up leaving on his own terms...

...

...and has the...Shadow Triad's number...on his phone...

Nathan pulls out his pokedex and scrolls aaaaaaaalllllll the way through his list of contacts at that realization...

...

There it is...the last number on the list...encrypted.  He'd missed it before due to it being after who knows how many researchers and professors...

He deletes the number immediately.  Nathan doesn't want any part of that.  Nobody's seen Ghetsis nor the Shadow Triad in four years (not that that's saying much as far as the Shadow Triad is concerned, since nobody ever sees them, period), ever since Neo Team Plasma was joined by the mysterious scientist Colress and turned their goals on their head for seemingly no reason...but whatever the missing villains were doing, Nathan didn't want to know...

After a long pause of Nathan just processing this information, he sighs.  "Just give me the disc.  There's no need for the cloak and dagger if you obtained it in a legitimate way.  Before I use it though, do you think it might have any...negative effects on Porygon2's ability to use Conversion?"

[Lord Windos]

After a long pause of Nathan just processing this information, he sighs.  "Just give me the disc.  There's no need for the cloak and dagger if you obtained it in a legitimate way.  Before I use it though, do you think it might have any...negative effects on Porygon2's ability to use Conversion?"

The researcher couldn't help the slight smile he had when Nathan brought out his Pokedex and promptly deleted that particular contact number of his. He knew the boy had his list of contacts for quite some time, given his phone's own updated list and some deductive reasoning, but wisely decided not to speak up about it, least he draw undue attention to said number. "I doubt that the Shadow Traid would dean to speak with you, Nate, if you could even break past the encryption and get a connection, but I hardly have reason to object to you deleting that particular number. I would have done so myself in the past, if the blasted thing was not hard coded into my phone's intergral operating system," he said, his smile gone when he remember that particular modification to his old phone. He had Team Plasma upgrade it several times to keep it current with the then cutting tech of the decade, but he didn't expect Ghetsis to be so...invasive in his personal life. Another sign of his former leader's instability that he blindly missed in his adoration of them...

Ventus was immensely happy that the boy choose to not dig any further into his past association with Team Plasma, since he didn't want to reveal that he spent a good chuck of his life in the organization and what his role in it was, and it showed by the researcher actually smiling and being far less tense/serious than before. "Besides the obvious personality changes and the instability/randomness in its programing that is induced by the disc, Porygon Z should be able to function as well as it did in its previous form, if not vastly improved in many of its operations. Conversion should function perfectly well in theory, since the solidgraphic lifeform has tremendous data processing, retrevial, and storage capabilities now, and its chaotic nature might help induce better adaption to new types. If we could ever manage to get a Normalium Z and a Bracelt to go along with it, you could have a move that not only changes your Pokémon's type to whatever you wished, but make it vastly enhanced as well. It has access to Nasty Plot and Trick Room regardless of anything else, so it certain has some tactical move in its programing now."

[Dragonstrike]

"Maybe...but Conversion was random enough when it was still a Porygon...I'll probably just get around to testing Porygon2's Conversion properly first before continuing, though...if the problem's not improved yet, no harm done in doing the evolution, I guess...or at least, as little harm as you can possibly do to it by corrupting its data on purpose...I never understood why practically every League gave the go ahead to producing more of those discs, to be honest...probably something to do with Porygon-Z being an officially recorded species of pokemon or something...oh, and good luck finding a Z-Ring and the corresponding crystals in Creshire.  Only place I've ever heard of them appearing to this day is Alola."

Another sigh.  "One more question, and I know I probably have no right to ask you this, but...could I have that Neverstone, please?  Should Kirlia reach the point where he can evolve into Gardevoir before we find a Dawn Stone, I wouldn't have to cancel the evolution, and he could stay closer to everyone else's relative power levels and learn a couple odd tricks a Gallade might not have easy access to otherwise.  Just something I was thinking about the other night since devolution is now a reality all of a sudden..."

[Lord Windos]

"Do with the Dubious Disk what you wish, Nathan. I got for you as a peace offering, so its not my place to decide how or when you use it. As for the DD proliferation through the Leagues, I can at least vouch for why Unova allows them to be replicated: they are simply great at doing all sorts of calculations and processing, and their semi chaotic nature is rather useful in certain fields of science and researcher, as it lends a certain...out of the box thinking to logically thinking, if that makes any sense. That, and the League want the species line to be as powerful as possible, and doesn't want their Porygons to be inferior to other regions in that regard. Always have to appear strong and progressive in the world, unless you want to be bullied or looked down upon. As for the Z items, if I get enough Rare Pokémon and/or items, I can perhaps get in touch with my contacts, and see if they can't get them for us."

In response to Nathan hestitant question, Ventus flicked his wrist, and out popped the Neverstone from his sleeve (How in blazes did he manage to do THAT on short notice...? ) before passing it over to the boy without any hesitation of his own. "Take it, my frie- Nathan. I have no use for it myself, besides trying to force Raphael down a stage to learn Ancient Power/Wish or teaching Apsis her move more expediently, neither of those option are appealing to me, for various reasons. I want to help you in...the most acceptable ways possible, and do right by you after all the cain I've caused, past or present. If anything, I don't have a right to keep such an valuable item from you, since I'm not the most...reliable people when I get moody for whatever reason..."

[Dragonstrike]

Goodnight (yup, definitely using this one again)

Nathan takes the Neverstone, then starts massaging his forehead.

"Thanks..."

...

...

"...just...give us some space for now...got a lot to think about..."

He's back to that 'bearing the weight of the world' feeling from earlier, and he, Calam, and Kirlia are quick to leave the room.  

What could have ended in complete disaster for Ventus somehow turned out much better than anticipated for him almost by pure chance.  The pure shock value of realizing Ventus has lived a less than desirable life was enough to stun most of Nathan's anger into submission.  Lucky, lucky him.

Nathan stops by the PC and swaps out the Combee and the empty party slot for Porygon2, Swiftfire, and Grid.  And then it's time for a little training before the day ends!  Specifically, for Porygon2 (Conversion practice, still completely random, unfortunately.  Maybe with the second evolution, it could finally proceed to stage two, a random type from just its known movepool, soon, though...), Kirlia, and Grid.  Nathan spends the training time making sure Swiftfire is getting all the thanks she deserves for playing her part today.  It was good to know he could definitely rely on her even if he had to push her to her very limits on a rare occasion such as this one.  She'd make a fine, reliable, and powerful Rapidash one day, he could tell.

Thinking about it, he might just take it a little easier tomorrow.  He wasn't super busy nor feeling incredibly motivated right now, to be frank...he could maybe get Shiva's help with evolving Porygon2 tomorrow...and then there's her upcoming gym battle...wait...gym battle?  Huh...it hadn't really sunk in that she was going to be participating in the gym challenge until now...she really was serious about getting stronger, wasn't she?  Heh...shame Chuckles was so intimidating and, to be blunt about it, ruthless.  But Shiva wasn't currently super well equipped for fighting ghosts anyways, so challenging that gym would probably have been discouraging in more than one way for her...he'd have to mention to her that Creshire's League technically only needs 6 badges if you intend to challenge the Elite 4, though.  Otherwise she might start worrying about facing Chuckles if she decides to take the challenge a step further for some reason...

Well, that's all stuff for tomorrow.  For now, he had to wrap up today.  Back in his room, he's got Kirlia, Calam, and Orthros out.  Calam and Orthros are munching on some meat.  And Nathan's sitting on the bed with Kirlia, with his journal open, the section for Creshire's history bookmarked so he can flip back to it quickly...Nathan's rereading the two sets of messages over and over, trying to discern a little more meaning from them...he'd recorded the second set of messages on the very last page of his journal, and made no written comments on it either...

Spoiler

"The ancient power has been disturbed
It shall cover all in vines
Like the ruin from which it springs"

"Only a sharer of unselfish love
Can stop the mannikin false kings
And end the disaster of stone"

"A journey to the ends of the earth
And the beginning of the land
The only other way."

"The Pokemon of Sentiments have paths to follow
The spirit cannot free itself to flee, to breach the wall of its power
Unless it be convinced by unselfish love."

"Two paths appear before the child
Future or present, thither or now
Earth or sky."

"The choice belongs to one
Neither boy nor man
Who will never again be alone."

Nathan sighs and closes the journal, then lays down on the bed.  He's stumped.  He knows Kirlia's the supposed key to freeing Mesprit, but he doesn't know what the message means by 'unselfish love.'  And this choice that he apparently has...it's not very clear what exactly it's talking about...he needs to figure this out before whatever this 'disaster of stone' is gets out of hand, though...

"Well, I guess today wasn't so bad in the long run, Kirlia.  Made a new friend, made a surprising discovery...got that Neverstone, so you can evolve into a Gardevoir without sacrificing the chance to make you a Gallade...we really did well today, didn't we?  Just...gotta readjust to Ventus's antics...again...and figure out what the heck these messages are trying to tell us..."