[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Nathan has a dead serious look on his face as he turns to face Ventus, Shiva, Heart, and Valder, Kirlia standing by his side as usual.  That 'shouldering the weight of the world' feeling is back once again...

"Forgive the formality, but I need to know for certain.  Before I continue, can I trust you all to not breathe a single word about this to anyone without my prior approval?  This is sensitive, need-to-know information.  If word gets out, it could cause a panic.  Or worse, completely ruin any chance we have at stopping those vines."

Kirlia would know if any of them made a half-hearted promise.  Nathan didn't think that would be a problem, but he had to be sure...

The researcher raised an eyebrow at both the implications/information of the boy's kindly refuting his apology, and it rose even higher when they all but made baltent/tantamount with him making the group swear an oath of secrecy before he would enlighten them. Unfortunately, though, their was a limit to how far Ven's professionalism went, which was made quite clear when he lightly frowned at Nathan and looked mildly annoyed. "I do not give my word lightly Nathan, and I rather not bind myself to an agreement I know scant about other than it pertains to those loathsome Vines. There is also the fact that you could have de briefed us of your prior meetings with Dagney earlier, even if only at the last moment before we departed to the gym, but instead you kept this knowledge to yourself until a crisis arises. If you trusted us so much, why not speak plainly on the matter or simply giving us the relevant detail instead of swearing us into secrecy. As you should be well aware, such faith is other is a two way street: to get, you must sometimes give. "

Ventus let Heart's scathing comments go unopposed, as he was in no mood to rescue Nathan from critisim he most definitely deserved. He was hardly in the mood to speak with him, let alone work along side the bastard, but the needs of the many outweigh the few, and he definitely was not letting Shiva go off on her own in this endevour...

[Dragonstrike]

"About hide information I good. My mouth its a tomb. Any information here will not get out from my lips."

"Very well then."

The researcher raised an eyebrow at both the implications/information of the boy's kindly refuting his apology, and it rose even higher when they all but made baltent/tantamount with him making the group swear an oath of secrecy before he would enlighten them. Unfortunately, though, their was a limit to how far Ven's professionalism went, which was made quite clear when he lightly frowned at Nathan and looked mildly annoyed. "I do not give my word lightly Nathan, and I rather not bind myself to an agreement I know scant about other than it pertains to those loathsome Vines. There is also the fact that you could have de briefed us of your prior meetings with Dagney earlier, even if only at the last moment before we departed to the gym, but instead you kept this knowledge to yourself until a crisis arises. If you trusted us so much, why not speak plainly on the matter or simply giving us the relevant detail instead of swearing us into secrecy. As you should be well aware, such faith is other is a two way street: to get, you must sometimes give. "

Ventus let Heart's scathing comments go unopposed, as he was in no mood to rescue Nathan from critisim he most definitely deserved. He was hardly in the mood to speak with him, let alone work along side the bastard, but the needs of the many outweigh the few, and he definitely was not letting Shiva go off on her own in this endevour...

Nathan's serious, heavy, tired expression doesn't change.

"No, Ventus, I couldn't say anything about this earlier.  Too much is at stake, and I couldn't risk anyone overhearing what I'm about to say, PERIOD.  And as I recall, you're the one I've told the most so far.  Out of everyone here besides Dagny, I think you're the most qualified for keeping this kind of a secret.  Make of that what you will."

[Lord Windos]

Nathan's serious, heavy, tired expression doesn't change.

"No, Ventus, I couldn't say anything about this earlier.  Too much is at stake, and I couldn't risk anyone overhearing what I'm about to say, PERIOD.  And as I recall, you're the one I've told the most so far.  Out of everyone here besides Dagny, I think you're the most qualified for keeping this kind of a secret.  Make of that what you will."

His other eyebrow shot up to match the high of its sibling at Nathan's geninue positive acknowledgement of his skill in discresion, not expecting such high praise from them after he made his feelings abundantly clear about his pet abomination and choices with it last night. The second meaning of the boy's words were also not lost on him, and if they were comparing the knowledge their guarded in equal value to Project Silverfish and his status as an ex Plamsa Recruiter/personal friend of Ghetsis.... He mulled it the young trainer's response for a minute, weighing out the pros and cons of conceding to their wishes, before they let out a small sigh and nodded their head. "If this matter is of that level of severity and importance, then I will hold in confidence whatever you wish to divulge to us on the subject. I don't like being kept in the dark without reason or make blind promises, Nathan, so out with it now."

[Dragonstrike]

His other eyebrow shot up to match the high of its sibling at Nathan's geninue positive acknowledgement of his skill in discresion, not expecting such high praise from them after he made his feelings abundantly clear about his pet abomination and choices with it last night. The second meaning of the boy's words were also not lost on him, and if they were comparing the knowledge their guarded in equal value to Project Silverfish and his status as an ex Plamsa Recruiter/personal friend of Ghetsis.... He mulled it the young trainer's response for a minute, weighing out the pros and cons of conceding to their wishes, before they let out a small sigh and nodded their head. "If this matter is of that level of severity and importance, then I will hold in confidence whatever you wish to divulge to us on the subject. I don't like being kept in the dark without reason or make blind promises, Nathan, so out with it now."

*sigh*

"If you have qualms about this, Ventus, then I'm in no position to assume, so I can't start yet.  Yes, I want to get this over with, but unlike getting here, I can't rush this."

He looks specifically at Shiva now, still rather serious, heavy, tired...and now a little bit sad.

"Shiva?  Before you say anything, know this: I...could really use your help specifically.  I have no reason to think you'll say anything about this topic if you don't give me reason to, so let me rephrase the question for you and Valder (who's in the same boat), since it seems to be the form it's taken.

"Do you have any complaints about how I'm handling this?  Any reason at all to think I'm not acting with the best of intents? Can we trust each other?"

If one were to reflect carefully enough, they might notice that Nathan's not just talking about this very moment...but this is not the time nor place to address that.

[Nylon]

"I have no reason and no human to relay what you'll say" Valder said. this was not a lie, but Valder still gets paranoia when a lie detector is in prescence, so his heartbeat raised anyway.

 He looks at Theo and takes out some dry food to give him a snack.

[Dragonstrike]

"I have no reason and no human to relay what you'll say" Valder said. this was not a lie, but Valder still gets paranoid when a liedetector is in presented, so his heartbeat raised anyway.

 He looks at Theo and takes out some dry food to give him a snack.

Nathan nods, then turns his attention back to Shiva.  Nothing more needed to be said as far as Valder was concerned.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Shiva's refined senses were able to pick up two distinguish 'waves' of emotions if she concentrated herself on these. One was coming from Heart as well as Ventus, this one was rather displeased and if she wasn't mistaken even a tad bit annoyed. She certainly understood why this was so. The other was coming solely from Nathan it seemed; that one was drained and loaded with something invisible as well as tad bit displeased as well.

The whole time she just sat there beside Ven, with arms loosely crossed and a hard to read expression, but upon hearing her name spoken and Nathan turning directly to her, she mentally shook her head to end this concentration and bring her attention to Nathan instead while her expression lighted. She still was unsure what kind of...'skill'? this actually was and why it awoke, but this did not mean she wouldn't want to make use of it and hone it.

Somehow, her voice was more serious than it's used to be. "You could use my help especially, you say... Well, well, granted. Still, even if you seem to know things we don't yet, this is NO reason to cause a ruccus by your authoritative phrasing in words. Trust is earned - for example by being respectful towards others, even in dire situations. Even if you're acting with the best of intents."

"I still don't enjoy at all to sit here and talk when instead I could be out there and help with my own Fire Type - these are some powerful moves you describe there, but it doesn't mean that a little more help would be pointless - but, if that is the way it shall be, by all means you have my word that I'll keep quiet about any information."

Actually, all this reminded her on the time when she had that secret mission from the local Daycare.

[Dragonstrike]

"Fire can only do so much here, Shiva.  It will delay the Tangrowth and the vines, yes, but it will not stop them.  How to stop them is what Dagny and I have been looking into.  If word got out that our only chance of stopping this wasn't in the League's control...well, I wouldn't want that kind of attention, whatever form it would take.  It could cause unneeded worry, create massive obstructions...the fewer who know, the better.  I'm not taking ANY chances with this."

Nathan looks at everyone else in the group, that 'carrying the weight of the world' feeling being especially apparent now. 

"Shiva, we might not be able to help much with fire, but there's something else we can do."

"Ventus, I need your help too.  Your assistance has proved invaluable so far, and I hope it can continue to be so."

"Heart, Valder...I don't know if or how you fit into this.  But you're jut as involved as Shiva and Ventus are now, and it wouldn't be right to exclude you."

And then he does something that's likely surprising (though the significance of this is probably lost on Heart): he recalls Kirlia to the dull Premier Ball.

"Before I can get to the meat of this, there's a short story that needs to be told.  Yes, I know it's history, Shiva, but hear me out on this one."

The Lake Trio

Sarimanok, as most everyone in Creshire knows, had earned the favor of many legendary pokemon.  Among them were three that he would call upon frequently to aid him in matters other than actual battle, be it battle strategy or creating objects of great power (though nobody ever saw any of these).

Uxie, the being of Knowledge.

Azelf, the being of Willpower.

Mesprit, the being of Emotion.

The three of them respected Sarimanok, particularly in his younger years, and were more than happy to assist him in what he required.

But then he fell from grace, and the League overthrew the monarchy and executed him.

Nobody knows what the Lake Trio thought of Sarimanok after he started becoming more ruthless, but we do know that they had mixed reactions to his dethronement.

Uxie almost immediately left the region, heading North, over the mountain ranges and the ocean.

Azelf all but vanished for a time, only to reappear later, looking to be in quite the hurry as it flew to the East, over Chicory Lake.  It vanished again as quickly as it had reappeared, though, which is rather unsettling.  Some say it was running.  Others that it was trying to solve some sort of problem.

Mesprit was found residing in the Safari Zone in Teazal Valley by the League.  Unlike the others, it seemed interested in helping out the new government find its feet (primarily with its justice system)...for a time.  It eventually grew weary of being asked to fulfill selfish questions and requests without receiving anything in return, though.  When it was last seen, its physical body looked tired, though those who could feel its spiritual presence still described it as playful and bright.  Mesprit all but vanished from the history books as well after that.

I have since discovered that Mesprit looked physically tired for a reason...it was preparing for something.  Something that it, and potentially Uxie and Azelf as well, knew was coming.

A Disaster of Stone.  An ancient power with only one goal in mind: to cover the region of Creshire in its entirety in a writhing mass of unnatural vines that originate from the Skull Ruins, the monarchy's former seat of power.  If my suspicions are believable, this primal force might be a cause for why Sarimanok seemed to become the complete opposite of the man he once was with almost no warning.

That power, whatever it is, wants to control this region, by any means.  It will not stop until it does.

Nathan pauses there for a moment...then continues

"That is how grave the situation is right now.  I know you're all wondering how I know this, though...well..."

Nathan pulls out his journal, flips to his notes on Creshire, and continues...

Nathan and Mesprit

...I recently met the Legendary Mesprit in person.  It was slumbering behind a barrier of pure, unbreakable psychic energy, a single crystal of strange make and origin floating just above a pedestal in the middle of its chamber...

...when Kirlia touched that crystal, images of Unown spilled out of it, spelling out a message, a warning.

"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."

And when he touched it again, a second message replaced it.  *Nathan flips to the last page of his journal*

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.

(Note: Nathan's deliberately leaving the third paragraph out)

Between the two messages, we were able to determine that there's two ways to free Mesprit so it can do whatever it has planned.

The first involves Kirlia.  That part mentioning 'Pokemon of Sentiments' uses the plural form of pokemon, and Mesprit and the Ralts line have one thing in common: being embodiments of emotion.  Kirlia and Mesprit even share their species name in the National Pokedex.

The second involves a 'journey to the Ends of the Earth and the Beginning of the Land,' which sounds incredibly daunting and impossible at first glance.

And to tie it all together...is me.  I have to choose one or the other if Mesprit is to be freed.  Either Kirlia convinces Mesprit with 'unselfish love,' or I journey to the specified locations...

And that's where I got stuck for awhile.

But then we reached Stair City, and a few things happened.  We first got attacked by that Claydol and those vines.  I was...alarmed.  Upon questioning the Rangers who responded to the situation, I discovered those vines had only just been first noticed less than a day before that attack, and the Tangrowth had been advancing ever since.  Kirlia's vision of that vine sprouting...it occurred just before the vines were first noticed by Stair City's population.  Those vines had sprouted and completely covered the Skull Ruins and everything around them in a day.

I warned the Rangers of the mannikin kings, that I suspected that Claydol was one of the driving forces behind this attack and that capturing it might delay the vines more than continually KOing a seemingly endless amount of Tangrowth.  But I still wasn't completely comfortable with saying just that.  Someone needed to know what was really going on.

So I came to talk with Dagny.  And with her help, the progress towards unlocking Mesprit's prison has been progressing more rapidly.  Ventus, Solomon has helped massively as well, and you have my deepest thanks for providing that aid, however unintentionally.  He is able to read, but there's an interesting quirk to that trait of his.  He can read Old Unown, a form of the language that predates even Sarimanok's time.  And his Hidden Power has an interesting effect.  When used, it attacks with the images of Unown in the Old form, spelling a message that conveys information about the original target of the attack.  I've been working on translating the language now that someone in this modern era is able to read it and assist me in understanding it.

"So...what have we discovered?  Well, a few things."  

The Solutions?

First of all, the 'Ends of the Earth' is actually a specific location, not the literal interpretation.  An old, wise man with an immense amount of power is apparently said to live there.  Where exactly it is, we do not know.  However, Shiva, you seem to have found some sort of folklore that mentions it, as well as the earth and sky.  It might be the clue we needed to start a more thorough search, so I would like to hear whatever it is you learned in a moment.

Second, there's the matter of Kirlia...I've been trying to figure out what the message means by 'unselfish love' for the better part of a week, now.  It wasn't until last night that I think I got at least a partial answer.

There's one more part to the story of the Lake Trio, something that Dagny turned up in her research.  There were three pokemon species that were deemed worthy of conversing with the Lake Trio back when the League was first established.  For Uxie, it was an Oranguru, one of the wisest pokemon to exist, able to match wits with a Slowking.  For Azelf, it was an Aegislash, the pokemon that represents royalty both here and in Kalos and manipulates any weak willed, unworthy trainers to do its bidding.  That one worries me a little since we don't know what happened to Azelf after it was last seen.  And as for Mesprit...it was a Ralts.  I've already explained that connection.

By itself, that might not mean much.  But let's combine that with what I learned last night and something else I've already stated.  Last night was when I first got a grasp on what Solomon's Hidden Power actually does.  The message it left on Sheldon's Daikatuna translated roughly to 'Sheer Force' and 'Night Slash,' two aspects of that pokemon that were a danger to Solomon in that battle.  For the purposes of gathering more letters to translate, I had Solomon practice his Hidden Power last night...and he decided to try and use it on Kirlia.  Kirlia evaded it of course, but that didn't change the original target of the attack.  The move continued and made contact with the wall, leaving a message concerning Kirlia, which I was able to easily translate to:

To go forward, Kirlia must first go back.

It doesn't make much sense still, but let's consider Mesprit's story again.  Mesprit was tired of the selfish requests and questions by the time it disappeared.  And the message in its chamber says it needs to be convinced by unselfish love...it was...a hard thing to come to terms with, but...it seems to mean Kirlia needs to act more like a Ralts.  It wasn't a Kirlia, a Gardevoir, nor a Gallade that got to speak to Mesprit.  It was a Ralts.

There might be another way to potentially interpret the message, though...I still have that Neverstone.  I don't know if it would satisfy Mesprit enough to free it, but I could devolve Kirlia, turn him back into a Ralts.  I feel that might be...attempting to cheat the system in a way though.  Mesprit might not be happy with that outcome, and I would like to save the Neverstone for later if possible...but to do that, Kirlia would have to...change.

"The short of it is this: I've met the Legendary Mesprit, discovered it's sealed away of its own accord.  It knows how to stop these vines, but to free it, we either have to determine where 'the ends of the earth' and the 'beginning of the land' are and go there, or...we somehow have to convince Kirlia to change."

"Well?  Any questions?"

(Side Note: It seems using apostrophes in the spoiler tags breaks the spoiler's ability to expand in the final post)

[Nylon]

(...)

"Well?  Any questions?"

Valder got curious and maybe even a bit excited. He also felt trusted (if only slightly) by Nathan.
"Can you tell me where you found Mesprit?" Valder wasn't sure if he should've asked or not, but it felt right, every little helps.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

The will to do something was still rather present in Shiva, like it was streaming through her vains alongside the blood. At fist, Nathan's word did not help to ease her in the slightest, but upon hearing there was something more, something 'greater' that could be done that wouldn't just delay the vines from messing with the whole city and also with the group - this must have been the trigger she's been unknowingly waiting for.

It calmed her and her nerves to some degree, and enabled listening to what he had to say with the patience of a Sage. She didn't show any reactions or anything that could hint on what was going on inside her - in fact, she simply listened.


'Unselfish Love' caused something in her mind to ring, as well as 'the ends of the Earth and the beginning of the Land'. The latter for obvious reason, the former because she rather quickly made a connection to how his Ralts 'changed' after it became a Kirlia. It became selfish towards his and his owner's needs/wellbeing, if one would want to use these words. Right, Shiva clearly remembers how Ralts behaved prior evolution. She wasn't that suprised over how Kirlia would have to go back first to enable going forwards as soon as Nathan spoke about it.


When Shiva finally spoke, it was in a calm tone. No silent conflicts in her mind anymore, just calmness mixed with a will to do something. She didn't comment on that burdened feeling she was still picking up from Nathan though ."Well... Thanks for sharing, at first. It's comprehensible why such info needs to be handles with as much caution as even possible. Though, concerning the solutions you mention, there's something to keep in mind. You already mentioned that you don't want to use the Neverstone and Mesprit might react not too pleased over seeing that we went the most easiest and most fastest 'solution' - I fear it wouldn't help that much either. Kirlia is by now so focused on you, that he slipped into something I'd call 'blind loyalty'. That sounds neat at first - but it has its drawback, some I rather not explain here. If you'd want Kirlia to change, he'd have to learn to let go of that blind loyalty to some degree and care for others again. Like, when he was a Ralts and not so focused yet on solely you. Devolving him might change his form, but I fear it may not change much about how he is and feels. Changing this to become that 'sharer or unselfish love' would entirerly be your call, I fear, I'm not quite sure how we could help on this, sadly."

"The journey is the other way we could go, it seems. That is something that could be done - as the Folklore points directly to Hog Potato Swamp. It probably takes quite a while until we'd even arrive there, not even speaking about finding answers. Depends on how urgent things are..."

There is one questions that dwells in her mind, simply out of curiosity - actually, the same that Valder was asking. She faced Nathan, waiting for his answer.