[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

"Strength? Hehe! Oh, you might like Renekton. He knows a lot of spells for moving objects, hurling rocks, breaking boards...breaking bones, if it comes to that. He's also a martial artist."

"For a different kind of strength, there's Elya. She knows a great Tremor spell, spells for phasing through the ground, spells for dampening electrical or heat attacks. But feel free to make your choice of partner using whatever criteria you wish."

"I want you as my partner, Cosh. You are the leader of your group of Scimitars, so I want you close by me to prevent problems from happening. From any of us. Don't think anyone else in my group would want to be paired up with you either. No offense."

[Iron]

Spoiler

"Strength? Hehe! Oh, you might like Renekton. He knows a lot of spells for moving objects, hurling rocks, breaking boards...breaking bones, if it comes to that. He's also a martial artist."

"For a different kind of strength, there's Elya. She knows a great Tremor spell, spells for phasing through the ground, spells for dampening electrical or heat attacks. But feel free to make your choice of partner using whatever criteria you wish."

"I want you as my partner, Cosh. You are the leader of your group of Scimitars, so I want you close by me to prevent problems from happening. From any of us. Don't think anyone else in my group would want to be paired up with you either. No offense."

"If you're looking for strength, you've come to the right place." *smirk*
"That will be fine though."

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

"Does the rest of your party agree? Juni said the name of the entity, and that name will provide proof of cooperation?"

Shiva does indeed agree and confirms that to Cosh via a silent nod. Enough said, back to turning away from him and glaring at him. She trusts his given word to leave her alone and concentrate on the mission, but that doesn't mean that she lowers her guard.


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Concerning Heart's vivid words towards Cosh and Terra's even more vivid reaction to that, Shiva emphasizes Terra's request to just drop it now by giving the PUNisher a good smack on the head and turning her displeased + icy-cold stare towards him for long enough to make him either back away or understand, depending what comes first. She also whispers words to him, in a dangerously low and quiet voice: "I already told ya to please work on controlling your emotions better, Heart. I won't repeat myself."


As the topic turns towards the two Druddigon on chain leashes, Shiva ends up staring them straightly into their dragon's eyes, wondering whether they end up returning the gaze. No offense and no provocation is within the look she's giving them, but no fear either. Her inner voice reminds her on how she has taken on, defeated and successfully caught a wild exemplar of this 'Mon all alone. And now, she even feels bold enough to take on two Druddigon by herself.

"Cosh, leave the dragons on their leashes." Her voice is calm and stoic. "If you set them loose, we have no other choice but to defend ourselves, which will greatly lower the chance of successful negotiations. Why did you even bring them along if you said your powers have increased greatly?"


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(...) "It sounds like we may be coming to an agreement, depending on the words of Nathan. Tell me, what do you look for in a dubious partner, since you each get to choose? Weakness, or strength? The answer will tell me a lot about you as a person."

Shiva's answer is a bit more complicated/detailed, she seems to have particular expectations in a Scimitar Partner. "...I choose neither. Or, I choose both. I choose weakness of the body but strength of the mind: Someone whose inner potential is greater than their look and behaviour may suggest, to make the chosen one and me have a common ground. Would you believe me if you don't know me and I'd be to tell you I own 5 Gym Badges? Probably not. Someone who prefers the power of one or two particular Pokemon Types, any Type but Fairy, Poison, Dark and Ghost is fine. Preferably of female gender, any age." (Same-sex will make the partner automatically more trustworthy to Shiva. If unavailable, male + around Shiva's or Spira's age + aromantic as second choice)

Questions Shiva will ask the candidates

• "What Pokemon do you carry with you at the moment?" (An Eeveelution or a Pokemon that evolves with friendship grants lots of extra points)
  
• "Who is your prefered Pokemon partner, what are they good at?"
  
• "Why did you become a Scimitar?"
  
• "How experienced are you in using your gauntlet, according to your tutor's and your own viewpoint?"
  

Conditional: If the Scim's party shall remain secret for now, that's very okay for me: Skip that question in that case and have Shiva ask instead whether an Eeveelution or friendship-evolution is in their party.

Shiva will pay great attention when they answer in order to see whether her sixth sense 'tells' her anything further about them. A positive gut feeling grants extra points.

[Iron]

Lol everyone is always smacking Heart around.

"The poor apprentices don't have gauntlets yet, so they are forced to bring along Pokemon."

"We Scimitars don't go for gym badges, of course."

Here's two candidates:

Kelda
Scimitars hate talking about their party, but with your Insight and your Almanac you can figure it out. They just describe what spells they have.
Kelda has Leafeon, Rhydon, Tangela, Sunflora, Cubone, Delibird.
"I enjoy summoning elemental blades to fight for me - the power of the earth itself answering my call by sprouting forth a sharp blade of plant matter. Or underground blades popping up underneath an unsuspecting enemy."
"I became a Scimitar because my brother is one. Unfortunately he ended up being a Water Scimitar, so we don't see each other much. I should have been a Water Scimitar; I like more cunning spells."
"I'm fairly experienced with my current spellbook. They're the only 24 spells I know, though."

A gut feeling you have about Kelda is that she will go to great lengths to do what she thinks is right, but she's still deciding what that is.


Arachnautilus
Arachnautilus might be described as "edgy." She has her Scimitar cloak lined with black and silver and has adopted a Spinarak-Omanyte motif. Naturally those both appear in her party. She's haughty and wears too much makeup and lots of jewelry, but your gut feeling is that she is VERY strong in the way Shiva defines strength. Also, she's the only one whose gauntlet hasn't been sparking at all. She's probably one of the most competent Scimitars here, but she'll probably be condescending at times. She's also one of the youngest.
Party: Ariados, Omastar, Aerodactyl, Sandslash, Murkrow, Weavile
You get the gut feeling there is some special connotation about the presence of Omastar in her party.
Her favorite spell is Web and she considers herself very competent. She participates in duels and usually wins.

"I became a Scimitar because I've always wanted to know magic. I don't mind that you have to draw on the power of a Pokemon, as they are the beings most connected to the power of the earth. It's all about who actually wields that power!"

[Spiritmon]

Since Heart will gonna have become partner of one of those Scims, he will like Shiva and not choose strength or weakness.

Candidates:
- Can be either female or Male.
- What kind of pokemon he/she carry.
- Spells and other survival skills.
- The most less extreme of the Scims.
- How it become a Scim and stuff.

[Mikaruge108]

Spoiler

Spoiler

[spoiler]"We've already explained why we don't ask for help, don't waste my time. And I don't mind being compared to Sarimanok - he was a great man, however you slice it. A good King for almost all his rule, and always powerful enough to make the changes that need to be changed."

"Druddigon have Pokeballs. They just have a very high prey drive. I don't advise encouraging them to be let off their leashes, for your own sake."

"It sounds like we may be coming to an agreement, depending on the words of Nathan. Tell me, what do you look for in a dubious partner, since you each get to choose? Weakness, or strength? The answer will tell me a lot about you as a person."

"No offense taken. I do have half a mind to let the Druddigon loose, though... we'll see who they're loyal to."

".....Thank you. Would ask that you not threaten us in turn, though. Or no more than we already have, at the very least. As we have already seen, that is hardly.....condusive to negotiations."

If Cosh was addressing the group as a whole with his last question (Which is bolded), then Terra answers easily as such: "Strength. If I work with someone I don't trust, then I want them strong enough that they don't fear or hate me too much. Keep me in on guard and....in control, as I do to them. Stronger they are, the more they can help out too. Simple."
"Strength? Hehe! Oh, you might like Renekton. He knows a lot of spells for moving objects, hurling rocks, breaking boards...breaking bones, if it comes to that. He's also a martial artist."

"For a different kind of strength, there's Elya. She knows a great Tremor spell, spells for phasing through the ground, spells for dampening electrical or heat attacks. But feel free to make your choice of partner using whatever criteria you wish."

Well Cosh's description of Elya catches Spira's attention, specifically the phasing part. "She's not my final decision... yet... but I'd like to talk to Elya." If he can, Spira would try to get a good look at her face as he addresses the Scimitar; "I take it you might be a fellow ghost-type user, might I ask what your current team is?"

[Dragonstrike]

As far as Nathan's pick for a Scim 'partner' goes...quite frankly, he'd rather not.

But there's not really much of a choice here in the first place.

Instead of answering Cosh's question right away, though, Nathan looks to Gallade.  Since they HAVE to pick someone, Nathan is going to trust Gallade's judgement over Cosh's.

That by itself should tell Cosh the kind of person that Nathan is. The person's character is more important for Nathan than how strong they are.

The pickings are probably going to be rather slim, but maybe there'll be someone that's at least somewhat tolerable in there...maybe someone like Kelda?  The fact that she's still trying to decide what she thinks is right kinda stood out to me, tbh.  (Just throwing out thoughts and ideas.  Trying to make the most of a bad situation, after all. Don't necessarily need to pick Kelda specifically). Of course, might need to speak with whoever Gallade thinks might be the 'most suitable' in this situation before any final decisions are made...

Whoever Nathan ends up 'partnered' with, their motivation for being in this group is probably going to make a big impact on any initial opinions of them...

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

(Haha, I don't mind edgy - but my chara probably does, FUUUU.)


Shiva's, per usual, doing her best on not letting the others see her Almanac, she owning this Pokedex-ripoff full of ads and questionable but useful info is a well-handled secret. She also strongly doubts that she is allowed to take a look into that mentioned spellbook of Kelda, but that doesn't prevent her from asking - if she says no, Shiva won't pry and accept that.

• A big plus goes to Kelda for a Leafon and a hinted liking for Grass Types.
  
• Another plus for her because 'I decide what is right and I will follow that no matter what' reminds on Ventus.
  
• What's strongly catching Shiva's eye though are two Fossil Pokemon on Arachnautilus' side, one of them being super-dangerous even.
  
• Oh, and her look. Obviously.
  
• I'm rather fond of Omastar. Don't know why, I just like this semi-creepy thing a lot.
  

Shiva is leaning into accepting Kelda as a Scim Partner, but before a final decision is made:

Further questions

• Age? (Of both, approximately is enough. That's mostly just that I can picture them better in my mind)
  
• To Kelda: "Elemental blades sound good, I like that... Are they able to deal lethal wounds too?" (If yes, good.)
  
• To Arachnautilus: "How did you become so strong? Excessive training? Convincement...?"
  

'Being condescending at times' in Arachna's case is troublesome: It may either encourage Shiva and power her up, want her to shred Arachna to pieces or go hiding and crying. Eh... I bet it'd cause interesting scenarios ^_^;  But too risky, too much of a chance that it'll cause unecessary issues between those two.

EDIT: I also don't really want the partner to be way more powerful than Shiva is, but to say that she isn't impressed by Arachna's confidence and strength, that would be lying.

[Iron]

Spoiler

Spoiler

[spoiler]"We've already explained why we don't ask for help, don't waste my time. And I don't mind being compared to Sarimanok - he was a great man, however you slice it. A good King for almost all his rule, and always powerful enough to make the changes that need to be changed."

"Druddigon have Pokeballs. They just have a very high prey drive. I don't advise encouraging them to be let off their leashes, for your own sake."

"It sounds like we may be coming to an agreement, depending on the words of Nathan. Tell me, what do you look for in a dubious partner, since you each get to choose? Weakness, or strength? The answer will tell me a lot about you as a person."

"No offense taken. I do have half a mind to let the Druddigon loose, though... we'll see who they're loyal to."

".....Thank you. Would ask that you not threaten us in turn, though. Or no more than we already have, at the very least. As we have already seen, that is hardly.....condusive to negotiations."

If Cosh was addressing the group as a whole with his last question (Which is bolded), then Terra answers easily as such: "Strength. If I work with someone I don't trust, then I want them strong enough that they don't fear or hate me too much. Keep me in on guard and....in control, as I do to them. Stronger they are, the more they can help out too. Simple."
"Strength? Hehe! Oh, you might like Renekton. He knows a lot of spells for moving objects, hurling rocks, breaking boards...breaking bones, if it comes to that. He's also a martial artist."

"For a different kind of strength, there's Elya. She knows a great Tremor spell, spells for phasing through the ground, spells for dampening electrical or heat attacks. But feel free to make your choice of partner using whatever criteria you wish."

[Iron]

Since Heart will gonna have become partner of one of those Scims, he will like Shiva and not choose strength or weakness.

Candidates:
- Can be either female or Male.
- What kind of pokemon he/she carry.
- Spells and other survival skills.
- The most less extreme of the Scims.
- How it become a Scim and stuff.

How about Gendry, a man with lots of tanky Pokemon such as Arbok, Serperior, and Scolipede. He also has Absol.
He doesn't have survival skills per se, but he says he has a heightened danger sense. In fact, he became a Scim recently, because the comet worried him.
He seems to be a well-grounded man.