[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

Anything else to discuss with Keni? He'll agree to spend some time at the Warren Ranch.

Where to next?

[Dragonstrike]

Martha: "Things sure have changed, haven't they, Nathan? I can't believe I'm saying this today. But I think you can handle whatever you're setting out to do, even in the Skull Ruins. So like your father - you have amazing Pokemon you can rely on; outstanding connections with powerful people who have decided to put all their trust in you; good friends; and your own capable self."

And teleporting cards.

"Will you keep me up to date?"

Yeah.  And teleporting cards.  And a Red Chain that he can use to call to a Legendary Pokemon for aid.

Nathan gives his mom another hug.  "Thanks mom.  Yes, I'll keep you up to date.  Once all this crazy stuff is over, I've got soooo many stories I'll be able to tell you...you wouldn't believe some of the stuff that's happened since I first told you about meeting Mesprit."

Anything else to discuss with Keni? He'll agree to spend some time at the Warren Ranch.

Where to next?

Nothing more to discuss with Keni there!  Nathan, Gallade, and Ditto will take Keni to Warren Ranch after the meeting's over and introduce him to Nathan's mom.

And since we're not likely to be going to the Skull Ruins immediately, there's two things Nathan will do with the rest of the day:

1. Use his last encounter of the day to spend some time to finally, finally put what he's learned about making Glass Flutes into practice.  He has that bag of ash, a happy and loyal Fire type in Swiftfire to help with heating the ash to just the right temperature.  He'll do this on Route 01, where he first learned the method and also where he and Swiftfire started their long journey together (and also because of the rather large ash field being a good source for material).  They may not have time to spend all day riding around right now, but he intends to enjoy what little they do have at the moment.

2. Keep an eye on the sky and the news with Gallade to try and see if the Millennium Comet is any noticeably closer than before.  They need to keep a careful eye on that...

[Spiritmon]

"I agree with Shiva. I not going anywhere without Rose"

[Mikaruge108]

Spira is waiting (impatiently) for the rescue from the Sideways to finish.

[Iron]

*Secret rolls*

Might be easiest if I just fastforward to Gothitelle's return. Yes, she does return! Her arrival is heralded by a rippling symbol of space above a pillow in the Pokemon Center, several hours later. Pokemon begin spilling out of it like a chain of Mankey, each holding the hands of the ones before and after it. Rose is the first to spill out, careful not to let her hand lose its grip on Azumarill. The last to slip from the void is Gothitelle holding Cottonee under one arm!

The Pokemon seem unharmed but they're all STARVING. Gothitelle has given her berry to Azumarill, who has berry juice all over her mouth. Everyone is very worn out, especially Gothitelle who had to wander far to find her friends.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

"I agree with Shiva. I not going anywhere without Rose"

Aww, Shiva's delighted over the encouragement and agreement, gifts Heart a slight thankful smile and Nathan+Gallade a somewhat satisfied 'Told you!'-look. Then however, she looks away again and play around with some shed fluff by Cottonee mostly to distract herself and to overplay her nervosity and painful lack of the source of this fluff.


She herself won't really do much anymore on this day, she's tired and wishes to catch up on sleep after she got up very early to be on time for the trip down the Almanac's Lab. This is probably what how she'll spend the time inbetween having returned from there and meeting up with Keni, but even despite she's exhausted and has properly darkened the dorm of the Center she's having trouble to fall asleep. The biggest reason for this is likely Cottonee not being there to act as a vivid plushie, as Shiva's laying there a dreadful feeling of loneliness overcomes her. It seems to be too true what's said, that one realizes how much one hangs on something only after it is gone. She's fighting the tears, eventually fatigue causes her to find sleep, just before she intended to call Ventus just to hear the voice of a loved one.

(Oh! I'll get to the return of the Pokemon in a seperate post, as well to the 3rd Encounter of Shiva for today.)

[Dragonstrike]

"I agree with Shiva. I not going anywhere without Rose"

Aww, Shiva's delighted over the encouragement and agreement, gifts Heart a slight thankful smile and Nathan+Gallade a somewhat satisfied 'Told you!'-look. Then however, she looks away again and play around with some shed fluff by Cottonee mostly to distract herself and to overplay her nervosity and painful lack of the source of this fluff.

Again, Nathan and Gallade just sigh.  He's not disagreeing, he's just pointing out that this is potentially very risky...and if it fails, Shiva could potentially lose another pokemon, which is why he felt like he needed to emphasize it so much...

(Nathan will probably stay at home back in Trillium tonight, so he'll probably have to find out about the pokemon successfully being returned the following day unless somebody wants to text him to say 'told ya so!' or something like that)

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

('Several hours later'? That means in the middle of the night, lolz. Was about to ask about poor Toya before it already got answered.)


It could have been an unconscious feeling of something happening or pure coincidence, but Shiva RUDELY AWOKE the moment that rippling symbol of space appeared. Within a second she's sitting upright in bed and every tiredness is blown away like dead leaves during an autumn wind, and so is the dreadful loneliness as she pulls Azu and Cottonee into her arms. It is overwritten with nothing but joy.

To not disturb nighttime peace within the Pokemon Center, Shiva holds back a screech and lowers her voice, but this doesn't diminish the warm emotions within the words. "Oh heavens, you WON'T believe how much I missed you two, even it was only for short...! Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back....!!" The rest of words gets lost in sobs of the natural fae enthusiast,  she's just damn HAPPY to nuzzle her fluffball's fluff and fae rabbit's cheek. She doesn't even care how this transfers stains of the berry juice over to her nightdress.

Shiva waves Lilith over to her before she - carefully - enwraps her into a fond hug as well. "It's great to see you again, thank you for returning, THANK YOU for what you did, how can I EVER make up for that, Lilith...!!" By now Shiva's crying, these are tears of joy that aren't bitter at all and that she tries to rub away with a sleeve.

Soon she realized how tired, exhausted and hungry they all are though, and slowly lets go of them. "Wait a moment, I'll prepare something for you all right away!" With that she leaps out of bed and arranges an almost ridiculous amount of Pokemon Food, dried berries, cookies and whatever she can bring up, she even brings up Purrloin to magic up Berries with Pay Day*. Fresh water is served as much as one can ask for. "Enjoy this midnight 'snack', eat as much as you like dear ones, it's ALL for you, you deserve it, please try to regain at least some of your strength for now... I can ask questions later or better tomorrow, for now let us rejoice that we're.... We're united." *another heavy sniffle*

For the whole time Shiva will just sit there among her Pokemon in the semi-dark dorm, enjoy their presence and provide as much food, pets and hugs as she can give out to them, having a hard time to finally stop sobbing. She has laid the blanket around herself and is having her fun feeding her exhausted companions. She soon completely forgot about the time and that one shouldn't eat so much at this hours, but she doesn't care. She is figuratively - literally? - bathing in Azu's, Cottonee's and Lilith's delight to be back by Shiva's side, amazed and a bit embarassed herself over how much these three Pokmon hang on her; her, a more or less simple daughter of a Prof.Breeder from Unova's metropolis. She can sense the connection and the bond to her Pokemon almost to a tangible degree, this reminds her on these shimmering white lines occupying the Sideways Zone. It's sweet and warm to be connected to her Pokemon so tightly, like leftovers from molten chocolate glazing. It's actually nothing but energy - energy that Shiva is already an expert to control, but after tonight, after having made it and after things have come to a good end, she'll be able to do so better than the ordinary human can. She gains an by Gamemaster approved 6*th point in Channel Speciality for 30xp at last, she deserves it.



----------------------------------------------------------

For the remaining Encounter Slot of the Day, Shiva will actually take some time and tie a Greenleaf Destiny Knot with the string she once bought in Violet Tent, she got the knowledge how to do so from Atheneum. (That's why I assume no roll is needed?) It's a nice way to keep herself occupied and it need her concentration.

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

*Secret rolls*

Might be easiest if I just fastforward to Gothitelle's return. Yes, she does return! Her arrival is heralded by a rippling symbol of space above a pillow in the Pokemon Center, several hours later. Pokemon begin spilling out of it like a chain of Mankey, each holding the hands of the ones before and after it. Rose is the first to spill out, careful not to let her hand lose its grip on Azumarill. The last to slip from the void is Gothitelle holding Cottonee under one arm!

The Pokemon seem unharmed but they're all STARVING. Gothitelle has given her berry to Azumarill, who has berry juice all over her mouth. Everyone is very worn out, especially Gothitelle who had to wander far to find her friends.

Heart couldnt sleep. The least though of worry couldnt abandon him. He wander though the Pokemon Center, thinking over and over about his lost partneer. Koa and Typhon was outside of their Pokeballs, trying to make his master feel better. The static eel was wrap around Heart neck cuddle him to make his understand he is on his side. Koa was also with him, in his side as always. Heart smile a bit. Trevenant was out too, trying to make him better. "Thank you...thank you all...if any of you disapear too I also would feel terrible in loose of you guys..."

Then something snap of his soul....like some sort of strong bond..."Could it be..." Then Heart run towards where he felt the conection with all his pokemon follow him...Until he meet the space symbol open and see Rose and all Pokemon spill out, and everyone out too. Heart was in shock until he run towards her and hug her, fear in loose her again. "Y-y-you back! R-Rose *Sob* Welcome back, sister...." Heart cry a lot, feeling all the angrst and despair he feel becoming joy and true happiness in see her again! But he also see her and all Pokemon in terrible situation! He meet Shiva, until he discover her Pokemon was back too. He go in direction of Lilith and bow to her. "Lilith. Shiva. You save Rose and everyone else. I will never able to thank you all for everything you did. You are my heroes. Thank you. *Sob* So, so much thank you!" Heart was crying at the same time he thanks his friend.

But he then focus in grab all food he have in his bag: Fruits, bread, jelly, dried fruits, everything! He also begin the biggest banquet he ever make to make sure she is health and save! Hey he is not the cooker of the team without a reason!

Insight+Knowldge+Craft to make a real big banquet for Rose and Shiva Pokemon! They deserve the biggest food! If Shiva want privacy Heart will make food for Rose and all his Pokemons!

[Dragonstrike]

Well, since Nathan crafting the Glass Flute is an auto success that just takes up the final encounter slot, when Nathan eventually finishes the White Flute, he gets Starmie to cool it with some carefully placed Water Guns, then picks it up and carefully examines it.  He turns it around and around in his hands, stares down the tube to see if there's any abnormal shapes in there...

...and once he's determined it came out pretty well, he gives it a little test by blowing into it.

*tweeee*

"Hmmmm...ya know, Swiftfire, this brings back memories...seems like just yesterday we that we decided to start traveling together on this very route, in this very ash field...heh...though not all those memories are sweet, thinking about it again..."

...this was also the very same ash field where they first encountered the Deyo Flowers, and...

Nathan shakes his head to clear away those memories.  "...I shouldn't be focusing on the bad memories, though.  We're here to remember the good ones."

Nathan twiddles the flute a little bit, thinking.  "...hmmmm...now how did that Survivalist's music go again?  I remember that you liked it...*duuuh nah nah nah nah*...hmmmm...I think I remember the tune...let's give it a go, then."

Nathan's got a really good memory since he writes a lot of stuff down frequently, so he does (eventually) remember the tune that the Survivalist played!  Being in the general area where it happened originally probably helps, though.

A Song of Peace and Calm: Grass and Sun - Brave Frontier

Swiftfire's sitting down, happily listening and swaying to the music.  Ah, memories...yes, she remembers that day well...how she oh so wanted to get away from the ranch, to explore the world outside it and see what fun things it had to offer...she had never in her wildest dreams thought that Nathan would be the one to grant that wish, and yet here they are now...

Gallade's sitting nearby, obviously, reminiscing and enjoying the moment of calm as well.  He remembers that day well, too.  The first proper day of their adventure...it's a day he will never forget...that's also the day they first met Starmie, who's also been instrumental in that flute's creation.

Starmie's mostly looking at the stars.  It doesn't really know why this flute music is so significant since it didn't meet Nathan until the day after, but maybe it's half listening to it as well.  Nathan looks over at his bright, shining star and smiles, pausing the flute's music.  "...we've come a long ways since I first found ya in that pond on this route, haven't we?  Now we're fighting bad guys, winning Gym Badges, and learning some of the secrets of the stars themselves...we've made all sorts of other friends along the way, too...it really is something else, isn't it?"

Nathan lays back on the ground as he looks up at the sky, enjoying being in the company of the 3 pokemon he's been traveling with the longest.

Eventually, though, his gaze wanders back over to the Millennium Comet shining brightly in the sky as it continues to grow ever closer...and he's also ever mindful of the Dratini egg that he's carrying...for the sake of the region's future and the future of those who will eventually live in it, they have to succeed...he can't help but think that as he stares at the Comet...