[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

He holds up one finger and goes "hm, hm, HM!' as if to say she will see in just a moment!

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

This caused her to smile - mostly inwards to herself though - as she continues watching in anticipation.

[Iron]

She gets the feeling he thinks it was a good question.

[Lord Windos]

Nathan's scared of a lot of things right now.  Always been nervous and skittish about others.

Poison's always been one of those many things.

He...he didn't want to be scared of Aspis, though...

...so despite how much his hand is nervously shaking, he touches one of Aspis's fangs, his eyes closed as he does so...

...it sends a VERY cold shiver down both his spine and Kirlia's that not even being engulfed in flame could stave off...brrrrrr...Nathan almost drops Orthros...

Kirlia's tense now too.  If Aspis tried anything that might physically harm Nathan, he was going to give the snake a (hypnotic) stare of his own to try and get the snake to stop/relax...

Apsis watch as Nathan, nervousness and fear wracking his (to her) puny frame, blindly reach out to grope her left fang, with it shaking so hard that it threatened to fumble straight down her maw. Well now. So the boy was willing to put himself at great risk in order to earn her approval, even if he had his annoying little Psychic giving her the stink eye and acting as a fail safe. Interesting, *Hiiiissss*

The giant snake patienently stood still like this with Nathan for a good solid minute, intently staring into his shuttered eyes and watching him squirm all the while......until she darted her tongue across his hand, gave it a niiice good slobbering in the process, and slowly leaned away with a pleased look on her face. There! She had planned to coat the boy in a layer of saliva for their past transgression against her master, and she had finally accomplished that goal! Revenge was there's at last, *Hiiiiissss!*

Now with a much less severe but much more amused yet piercing stare, Apsis craned her head down further to let Nathan pat/stroke her there. With her vengeance at long last achieved and acknowledging the fact that Nathan was willing/determined enough to leave himself in vulnerable to her tender mercies in order to garner her approval, she had deamed he had re-earned the right to touch her magnificent scaled body once more. Of course, should the boy cross her and her master aggergously again, the regal snake would just have to plan an even more humiliating way to 'get even' with them, *Hiiisss Hiiiisss!*

Ventus let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as his sister and the young trainer did not run afoul with one another, though now their was a hint of a smile in his severe experssion. He didn't savor the idea of recalling his sister and/or expending Healing Items on Nathan, since those consequences lead back to some rather.....dire events, to say the least, so he was quite grateful such things didn't need be done! The researcher continues to watch both, now much less tense and waiting to see how Nathan reacts. They still kept glancing at the archmage every now and again, of course, but much less likely to spring upon them now that he had an distraction to occupy some of his attention.....

Though that didn't stop him from shooting yet another disapproving/VERY worried glare as Shiva spoke to the archmage before he was finished with his task! Was that fae woman trying to get herself/them all killed?! Fortunately that didn't occur, but still, why did she take such a STUPID risk?! Graaggh, his blood pressure.....

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Apsis watch as Nathan, nervousness and fear wracking his (to her) puny frame, blindly reach out to grope her left fang, with it shaking so hard that it threatened to fumble straight down her maw. Well now. So the boy was willing to put himself at great risk in order to earn her approval, even if he had his annoying little Psychic giving her the stink eye and acting as a fail safe. Interesting, *Hiiiissss*

The giant snake patienently stood still like this with Nathan for a good solid minute, intently staring into his shuttered eyes and watching him squirm all the while......until she darted her tongue across his hand, gave it a niiice good slobbering in the process, and slowly leaned away with a pleased look on her face. There! She had planned to coat the boy in a layer of saliva for their past transgression against her master, and she had finally accomplished that goal! Revenge was there's at last, *Hiiiiissss!*

Now with a much less severe but much more amused yet piercing stare, Apsis craned her head down further to let Nathan pat/stroke her there. With her vengeance at long last achieved and acknowledging the fact that Nathan was willing/determined enough to leave himself in vulnerable to her tender mercies in order to garner her approval, she had deamed he had re-earned the right to touch her magnificent scaled body once more. Of course, should the boy cross her and her master aggergously again, the regal snake would just have to plan an even more humiliating way to 'get even' with them, *Hiiisss Hiiiisss!*

Ventus let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as his sister and the young trainer did not run afoul with one another, though now their was a hint of a smile in his severe experssion. He didn't savor the idea of recalling his sister and/or expending Healing Items on Nathan, since those consequences lead back to some rather.....dire events, to say the least, so he was quite grateful such things didn't need be done! The researcher continues to watch both, now much less tense and waiting to see how Nathan reacts. They still kept glancing at the archmage every now and again, of course, but much less likely to spring upon them now that he had an distraction to occupy some of his attention.....

Though that didn't stop him from shooting yet another disapproving/VERY worried glare as Shiva spoke to the archmage before he was finished with his task! Was that fae woman trying to get herself/them all killed?! Fortunately that didn't occur, but still, why did she take such a STUPID risk?! Graaggh, his blood pressure.....

...the tongue sends another shiver down the spines of Nathan and Kirlia.  BRRRRR....

...he opens one eye after that...she...she didn't bite him...he carefully withdraws his hand from her mouth...shakes the saliva off of his hand as best as he can (he doubts Aspis wants to be covered in her own saliva)...then carefully strokes her head when she lowers it.  Kirlia relaxes a little now too.

"...thank you, Aspis...for a lot of things..."

A little more of his confidence has been restored...though there's definitely still work to be done in that area...

Heart's subsequent apology and Viktor's hugs kinda help, kinda don't.  Nathan doesn't comment on it, just quietly nods...the hug was REALLY awkward since he's still holding Orthros with one arm while stroking Aspis...that, and he's not in a super social mood right now (Aspis being the exception currently.  Kyuu's probably wandered back over to Shiva by this point).  Even Kirlia is giving Nathan some space still.

"...ya know, there's still a way for you to get stronger, Aspis.  A right you and Ventus will have probably more than earned if you ever obtain the means to trigger it...something I one day hope to do with Kirlia, and that I'm sure Shiva will one day achieve with Cottonee..."

Nathan's just thinking out loud right now, talking to the pokemon...just like what he was doing with Kyuu...he's still kinda oblivious to what's going on for the most part...he's listening, but he's focusing his attention on the pokemon rather than trainers if the trainers aren't addressing him directly...

[Iron]

The old man whistles a descending note and thrusts his hands into the air. His clay workstation, now a mess of spikes and concavities and whirls and veins, begins to make a crackling noise. He hastily says "Poik! Poik! Poik!", the sound of dripping water, and a few more craters appear. Then his entire creation begins to harden as if kiln-fired. When the last corner of his work has changed from reddish-orange to dusty gray-brown, a chime sounds, and the entire thing drops into nowhere as if the bottom of the trestle has dropped out.

He stands up, stretches, cracks his knuckles, and smiles at you all. One stride carries him to a wall, where he scoops out a big hunk of clay with one crabbed hand. This he plops onto his trestle, and with a "Hssssssss" from the man's mouth, the clay smooths itself out into a flat plain. Pop! Whistle! Poik! a few broad features appear on the featureless plain.

Before he sits down, he nods to the group. Then he speaks for the first time. "Eh, eh, eh, you passed my little test! Very well done! Not every trainer could have done it! What brings you to the Tusk, eh, eh, eh? And would you think me a poor host if I worked while you talk?"

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

...the tongue sends another shiver down the spines of Nathan and Kirlia.  BRRRRR....

...he opens one eye after that...she...she didn't bite him...he carefully withdraws his hand from her mouth...shakes the saliva off of his hand as best as he can (he doubts Aspis wants to be covered in her own saliva)...then carefully strokes her head when she lowers it.  Kirlia relaxes a little now too.

"...thank you, Aspis...for a lot of things..."

A little more of his confidence has been restored...though there's definitely still work to be done in that area...

(...)

"...ya know, there's still a way for you to get stronger, Aspis.  A right you and Ventus will have probably more than earned if you ever obtain the means to trigger it...something I one day hope to do with Kirlia, and that I'm sure Shiva will one day achieve with Cottonee..."

Nathan's just thinking out loud right now, talking to the pokemon...just like what he was doing with Kyuu...he's still kinda oblivious to what's going on for the most part...he's listening, but he's focusing his attention on the pokemon rather than trainers if the trainers aren't addressing him directly...

The beautiful monster of a snake let out a puff of breath through her nostrils as he thank her for many a thing once more, idly staring at the Nathan with half lidded look of content. Not all has been forgiven between Apsis and the boy, as they still had quite the ways to make it up to Ventus for all the emotional hardship they put they put him through, but at the very least she no longer vehemently despised him for it all.

Raphael, meanwhile, was keen to notice that interacting and socializing with their sister had help significantly improve Nathan's mood, and so decided to hop over to them and wrap both wings around their lower waist. Power of serenity, grace, and hugs, they now channel into the boy *Comforting Squeeze!*

The boy's somewhat offhanded comment about a method to make her even MORE POWERFUL, however, got Apsis' full attention, their eyes shooting open as stared andy inched closer to them, letting out a curious *Hissssss* that perfectly convey the notion 'Tell them more about this, pleassssse.....'

[Dragonstrike]

Before he sits down, he nods to the group. Then he speaks for the first time. "Eh, eh, eh, you passed my little test! Very well done! Not every trainer could have done it! What brings you to the Tusk, eh, eh, eh? And would you think me a poor host if I worked while you talk?"

That gets Nathan's attention.  And keeps it.

"I'll tell ya more later, Aspis."  Probably gonna annoy her a little, but hey, what can ya do when you're on a quest to save the world and the protagonist has to focus?

Nathan appreciates Raphael's assistance greatly.  Very useful for soothing his wracked nerves as he gets ready to address the old man.

"...if we're not distracting you from your work, by all means, go right on ahead and work while we talk...to be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing a little more of that...call it a...budding interest in crafts that involve firing stuff..."

A pause while Nathan gathers his thoughts...he fingers his Mutios Necklace while he does so, breathes in...breathes out...

"...I'm not so sure I could say I passed that test, sir.  I got...thouroughly trounced on the way up.  Still...this is hardly a trip for pleasure, obviously.  I've been given a quest of sorts, a task..."

Another pause...

"...I...need to find a way to wake the Legendary Mesprit so it can help us stop those damn vines growing from the Skull Ruins...and of the two clues/options given, I've ended up pursuing a 'journey to the ends of the earth'..."

Nathan has no idea what to expect from the old man, so he just leaves it at that for now.

[Iron]

"Don't let a little thing like bad timing get you down, eh eh eh. The ends of the earth, eh? Is that all? You couldn't have come to a more remote location. Surely that qualifies, eh?"

More and more of his attention is being drawn from his "art."

[Spiritmon]

Heart was almost red in rage. "So you sir was the one who sent that Pokemon to attack us huh? I hope it was funny for you, because some of my Pokemon friends faint because of your Pokemons, and there is other thing sir: No one, and I say, no one threats my friends with some hellish ambush." Heart was really piss of with that guy who sent the pokemon. He was some position he would attack the old men with or without pokemon, but he dont because of one reason: He feel the power this old man have and is a old person. But he is going if needed.