[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

"Thank you for yet another fine meal and for interesting dinner conversation you provided, and I greatly appreciate the companionship you provided for me this night, Shiva. I believe, though, that its time for me to rest for the night in order to ready myself for our journey through the swamplands, and I suggest you follow my example in due time. We have a long day of treacking through difficult terrain ahead of us tomorrow, and I certainly don't savor the prospect of enduring such journey while half-exhausted! I bid you to a good night, my friends," the sociologist said, before he departed from the gathering by the fire and entered the tent for the night, Lucifer cuddling in his tweed sweater and lightly dozing himself all the while. May Reshirim guide them all tomorrow, and protect them from the worst the swamp has to offer them!

Shiva gave him a trademark coy yet delightful and honest smile when he expressed thankfulness and a desire to head to bed now. "Do sleep well and peacefully then, dea...Ven! We'll see one another tomorrow, and I'll take care to not stay up way too long for the sake of stargazing." It'll probably feel weird to not share a bed with him in a dorm in GPC anymore for her at first, but once realizing how much space she'll have then, she'll adapt to that rather quickly, plus Shiva still had the Snivy-Plush and Cottonee/Azurill for night cuddles.

[Iron]

Yeah! The soup tastes pretty good!

[Dragonstrike]

"Piloswine! Haunter! Theo! We're going to play some Hide and Seek! Be very careful, and practice alertness just like you would in a real battle!"

Between 5 pokemon and 2 trainers, Masq can't hide for long, right?

Well, no, not really.

Masq ends up staying as still as he possibly can since a stranger has wandered closer...

And when Valder ends up standing right next to him, the jig is up.  Masq ends up startled once more, and quickly flaps over to Nathan, leaving a trail of sparkles as he goes!  (That oughta leave Valder with an interesting reaction)

"Ah, there you are, Masq! I see you've met Valder.  Don't worry, he's a friendly face."  Nathan's stroking Masq's feathers as he soothes the timid bird.

Unfortunately, this happy moment only lasts so long.

Shiva, Ventus, Heart, and Kirlia have finally caught up now.

Yule makes a beeline for Swiftfire since he hasn't seen her aaaaalllll day.  And Kirlia immediately Teleports next to Nathan and tackles him with a hug.  Which startles Masq once again, prompting him to dive into ANOTHER patch of magenta flowers to attempt to hide.

"Wha...good to see ya too, buddy!"

...

"...is something wrong, Kirlia?"

...

When Nathan looks again, he notices Kirlia's holding a potion of all things...he looks only slightly less pained than earlier, though...(finally at 4/7 HP).

...

The pure joy Nathan was experiencing fades quite quickly as Kirlia conveys to him all the boredome, loneliness, nervous worry, and frustration he felt over the past few hours.

"...I see...well, I'm here now, buddy.  I'm here for ya..."  He takes the potion from Kirlia, but it's late enough in the day that he doesn't need to use it right away and just bags it for now.

Nathan helps Ventus with pitching the tent, and then wanders off to a corner of the camp opposite everyone else to give Kirlia the attention he needed earlier.  And also get Masq introduced to the rest of his party of pokemon.  Yule gets to spend some time with Swiftfire too, though she's not very enthusiastic about it.

Nathan also checks in with Valder to make sure Sarah and George are doing okay.

And there we have it.  That's why Nathan's not participating in the current conversation with Heart, Shiva, and Ventus.  He's certainly ready for the next day now after closing it out on a rather sour note.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

There is one more thing that Shiva does before she'll stay at the campfire, stargazing only with Braixen for a while since he deserves to spend at least a little freetime with Master (she's keeping the promise to not bring her fox and Ven together unless it's really necessary) - that is, concentrating her newly awoken senses on Nathan when he wished them all goodnight.

What she picked up, was a feeling of...happiness, probably because of that new Unfezant he caught? 'It lools like a wildflower with its flashing head-plummage and green feathers... Such a pretty coloration!~ Guess I'll ask for a permission to take a photo of it someday, later, no need to rush...' she thought for now. He seemed pretty occupied and busy with his own Pokemon, and Shiva certainly understood how sometimes, a person may desire nothing more than to be left alone. 'It was also very relieving that he had that...deltadog not with him, those are six Pokemon around him already... Given there'll be limited or probably no access to a PC at Arrowroot Village, this is rather calming to know...'

The other, more subtle thing she noticed by keeping up the concentration was a bitter, sour, and serious feeling. Serious, yes, she could easily tell where this originates from, but she could only assume where the other came from.

She also felt like nudging Ven and discreetly have him notice the new bird of Nathan, but that was BEFORE she remembered that 1.she was still unsure what was going on between them and resumes to preferably keep on observing while keeping herself out of anything and 2.Ven looked pretty exhausted, no need to hold him up from rest any longer.

[Iron]

You sleep soundly to the sound of Politoed peeping a few miles away. A few times in the night, Pokemon can be heard directly outside, but they are Repelled by the tent. Most nights they don't even come close to your tent, so that's a little unusual.

It is now Day 33. You wake up, and wish you hadn't! Your stomachs are all tied in knots. The pain is intense. It takes a lot of effort to move. You can't keep any food down. Whenever you belch, you taste that effervescent taste of the leaves Heart scavenged.

Everyone who ate the soup loses 1 encounter slot. That's definitely Heart, Shiva, and Ventus, probably Valder.

After a few hours, you feel fine again.

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan can't help but chuckle a little when everyone but him can't move the next morning since he was the only one who didn't eat the soup last night.  Valder has his sympathy, but everyone else...questionable to a degree.  He does feel a little bad for Shiva as well, but only a little.

Kirlia also gives Ventus a look that says 'serves ya right!'

Nathan, Kirlia, Masq, and the bees keep watch while everyone recovers.

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

"Now that I remember...the Region is called...Torren or something. Its a big region, filled with some types of Deltamons. They still rare of course, but it still possible to find something neat. I just came close to that region, but I do not explore much. One interesting thing in the region its the Starters in that Region is just one, a Eevee. But you will not believe that: The Eevee in that Region have a Mega Evolution. At least it what I could heard."

(Nice. Now you caught Shiva's attention.)


Shiva actually listened up and faced Heart with the same sparkle in her eyes behind the glasses when something caught her interest. This time though, it was neither a rare Pokemon or an artistic graffity on a city wall, it were Heart's words. Away was the exhaustion she was dwelling in it seemed, scattered over the field of wildflowers! If Ven would decide to take a look at how she feels, he's spot, eager and fascination.

"I... I know about a region called 'Torren', Heart! it's pretty far away and most things one does hear from there - or anything I read about it - feels like crazy and unbelievable stuff at the first glance. Like, there is something about a mysterious Cult trying to summon Darkray for whatever reason... I never found reliable confirmations whether they succeeded on this or not. A rumor that totally creeped me out when I stumbled over it was that there is hidden place where Pokemon are battled until death... There's also something about a person dabbling in witchcraft, specialising in the evolution of Pokemon. But...what caught me most is the tall tale about their Eevees can evolve in a form that has way more fur than normally and being able to transform into one of its evolutions when using particular moves... Wait a moment..." In an eager yet somewhat delighted manner she searched for her star-patterned hardcover journal in bagpack; once she found it, she began to turn the pages at a fast speed until having found what she was looking for. "There it is! Does it match with those you saw/heard of?"

The page she showed to Heart featured a printed out and glued in picture of these elusive Eevees. 


"Neither Dad nor Mum did  allow me to hunt for a Megastone for Spectral... 'All that vacuuming of the hair she'd loose with so much fur!' they said."

Flashback:
"Yes! Thats the one I heard of! Its very dificult to find a Eeveelionite and dont really know much where to find, but its possible. I only see that Mega Eevolution once, and was in a TV close to Torren. I was able to confirm later it was a Mega Eevee. They are quite powerfull and the same the time beautiful." I could see Shiva light in her eyes about the chance to get a mega eevee. "Well, I think its dificult to find the Eevee Mega Stone since the only place I could find was Torren, and even there is rare." Then I heard about Shiva words about a Cult. "Well, this is something I read a much about it." Heart make some drawings in ground, five in total with a stick. "There are five cults in Torren, they "worship" a Legendary Pokemon like some god or something. There are five in total. The Cult of Darkrai, where they worship Darkray. The Abyssal Cult, and their god is Kyogre. The Sky Cult, and the the legendary they worship is unknow but from what I could heard is proprably a dragon one. The Infernal Cult, and they worship two legendaries: Heatran and Groundon. They indeed the first cult ever created. And finally, the Cult of Perfection, and they worship the legendary Pokemon Kyurem. From what I heard, the Perfection group is responsible to create "artificial" Delta Pokemon in Torren. Now the reason for that is beyond me." Finally ends his explanation. 

"Each one of these "groups" try to find ways to summon their "gods" and try to conqueror Torren, and even the world. Well, they "try" in the past, but the Augus of Torren stop them. The "Augus" is some type of Leader in Torren, and the first Augus stop and destroy the Cults a long time ago so you didnt worry much about it. But when I heard about that I avoid to go closer. Like they say: The evil never is destroyed. Its simple reborn." 

(Note: The events Heart is talking is "before" the events of Insurgence so that way it will not have discrepence in the events)

[Lord Windos]

You sleep soundly to the sound of Politoed peeping a few miles away. A few times in the night, Pokemon can be heard directly outside, but they are Repelled by the tent. Most nights they don't even come close to your tent, so that's a little unusual.

It is now Day 33. You wake up, and wish you hadn't! Your stomachs are all tied in knots. The pain is intense. It takes a lot of effort to move. You can't keep any food down. Whenever you belch, you taste that effervescent taste of the leaves Heart scavenged.

Everyone who ate the soup loses 1 encounter slot. That's definitely Heart, Shiva, and Ventus, probably Valder.

After a few hours, you feel fine again.

The morning could not have gone worse Ventus, for as soon as he awoke he instantly felt the intense need to void the content of his stomach, which he did so with extreme expedience, rushing out of the tent and puking last's nights supper. This sudden and abrupt rush also startled Lucifer awake (Who elected to sleep in his master's tweed sweater for the night), causing the little bat dragon to crawl out of their sweater and to roost on the tent, watching with great concern as his master vomited into a bush. 'Oh dear.....what in Kyurem's name did Heart add to his soup to cause this much gastro intestinal distress within me?! Bleh....whatever it was, I hope this is the worst of its effects, as food poisoning is bad enough without actually being Poisoned, ugggggh..... Hopefully Shiva is fairing better than I.....' the sick to his stomach researcher thought, feeling like Tarous shit and regretting not asking what the collector cooked up last name....

Once's he done spending the next few hours languishing in his own sickness and pain until he felt moderately better, he and his little drake (Swooping down to perch on his shoulder) went back into the tent and got a change of clothing and skipping out on the rest of his usual morning ritual, before making a beeline to were ever Heart was currently at and giving him a disgruntled glare worthy of Apsis' praise and respect. "By Reshirim and Zekrom above, what did you put in our meal last night to make me sicker than a Fairy type that has been inflicted with Toxic!? Ugggh....even now, the effects still linger when I've voided the contents of my stomach and spent hours recovering from the ordeal, bleh.... *Sigh* Regardless, for now on I'll resume my duty of preparing the meals while out in the field, as I know well enough how to cook out in the wild without making everyone sick and invalid!"

Order: Have Ventus spend those recovery hours vomiting the soup from his stomach and feeling bad in general until he gets better, then chew Heart for his questionable culernary addition. After that, I'll wait until the Encounters are rolled out and talk to Shiva/Nathan if they wish to interact with him. My my, this is a not so nice surprise, Iron....but I can't say its unjustified really.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

(Was there anything particular/worth mentioning that Shiva noticed during stargazing for around 15 minutes after everyone else have left for sleep, Iron? Also, it's been 7 days since Cottonee shed her fluff the first time, so...)


Shiva was used to fine restful sleep in a busy city, that was true, and meanwhile she got 'somewhat used' to sleep over in a tent outside in the wild - which meant, no insomnia or huge struggles to sleep in anymore. What she was NOT used to where the sounds and noises of Pokemon directly nearby, it felt like it was only the fabric of the tent that seperated her from them... She does wake up in the middle of the night due to being startled and scared by that, but everytime she hugged her familiar fluffball calling itself a Pokemon a little tighter to soothe her nerves. The fabric was sprayed with something that repels wild Pokemon and it works reliable, does it? DOES IT?

Way too early for her taste, the day has dawned, and Shiva woke up to early rays of sunshine with a feeling of missing out some hours of sleep. That was not the only nasty sensation of the morning it seemed... She'll didn't even wanted to take her daily dose of Vitamin D and St. John's Wort after being dressed from bedtime clothes to daytime clothes. Cottonee was ESPECIALLY worried as soon as she noticed that Master was even more quiet that usual, and that certainly means something! Actually, she never saw Master physically hurt. Humans are weird creatures... Nevertheless, she sticked even closer to Master, which she was appreciating. "Hehe... Don't mind me too much, dearest one, as it'll be...better later...Or so I hope... Damn, was moving always that painful? Curse that alluring smell the soup gave..."

Cottone didn't trust that 'it'll be better later'. Remembering a moment with Master when she was mentally hurt and poured her worries onto her, she decided to repeat what she did back then to ease her Master's nerves: Shed her cotton, and tug it directly into Master's arms with eager! "For me? Why... Oh... *remembering that moment*... I see... Well, thanks a bunch... I still love you, of course..." Cuddling both the shed fluff and Cottonee surely distracted Shiva from the pain for a few minutes.


The first thing Shiva does when she gathered enough will and strength to pack up her stuff and leave the tent would be confronting Heart. There was no 'anger' or similar in her, but her voice was defnitely lacking a soft tone. "Heart... Don't hate me if then next time you prepare the food, I'll ASK WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT before tasting it. Maybe I should get a pendulum to test it before considering to eat it as well..."

[Lord Windos]

Kirlia also gives Ventus a look that says 'serves ya right!'

Nathan, Kirlia, Masq, and the bees keep watch while everyone recovers.

Ventus gives them a thoroughly unamused stare that plainly says 'Take you attitude and shove it where the sunlight don't shine', and promptly flips them off when Nathan isn't looking before totally ignoring them/the boy. If the boy wants him to become friends with his psychic type, then its certainly not helping its case by being unnecessarily rude to him. His grudge is with their master, not them, but if they want to make it personal, so be it!