Sutoratosu

We can get things started once we have a minimum of four players, soldiers. So once Kenny and Typhlosion finish their sheets, we can get the IC started. The maximum number of player slots at any given time is eight for the sake of manageability. And even after we begin the IC, if there's an empty slot, then someone will still be able to join. some things have come up lately though, so It'll be a bit before I can get around to finishing the OPs, but for the most part everything needed is already provided information wise

I actually just realized... that Evan's situation is likely just the tip of the iceberg compared that everything that will probably go down in the future, cause even if he gets turned away from the darkside by the group, that really offers no guarantee that RoG will just give up in it's larger mission op at the academy. Hell, if anything, they'd probably just adapt plans as needed and keep pressing onward in the operation.

Mareek held the coordinator's stare evenly as he spoke, unphased the objection and Claude's subsequent argument...until the little pissant got to the last part adressed towards him, waving his arms and shooing him off like some vagrant or something, like he'd fullfilled his purpose and was at the same time being told 'Oh and by the way, I'ma just come in and move you off the project, M'kay? It doesn't matter that you've been working on all this time and I'm just now getting here, right?' But that wasn't even the part that made him want to go off on Claude the most... "It's the same damn misconception and cliche, everyone and everyone's mother whose a trainer has to, by fucking definition, just be dying to be the god damn top dog, don't they? God, it's so wide spread, it's like a freaking stereotype nowadays...but I have to keep it together, can't sat anything stupid out of anger, if I do, I lose all my future credibility..." He was about to speak up, retort with some bit of sarcasm or satire- anything softer than the seething tongue lashing he oh so wanted to dish out... but then... a rather interesting possibility sprang. "wait... what if this is all somehow a sign, this dismissal and utterly having things retconned out from under me like this even when I've been on this for weeks now and they seem to have just started realizing something was up?" He glanced over at Claude as the other boy addressed the others, completely silent all the while. "I mean, think about it... in all honesty, how crucial can Reeves really be to the overall plans of whatever group is trying to turn him to their side? What strategic sense would it make to go to the trouble of expending the effort and time to cause an entire stampede in order to just recruit one student and not do anything else from there? Honestly, what the hell could be so special about Evan that would warrant that? Probably nothing, because chances are... he's just a very small part of the puzzle, isn't he? It would only make sense that he would be, maybe a foothold or a scapegoat or an emergency cover or something, but something bigger than just the incident on the trip is probably at work here. No matter who talks to him or handles this particular detail, succeed or fail, it's probably going to be of little overall consequence down the line, shit might hit the fan eventually no matter what... Which means... I'm probably wasting my time micro focusing on Evan, when that effort could be better spent looking for signs around this place... Arceus, I can't believe I didn't even consider this until now..." He gave the slightest shake of his head, resisting the urge to just facepalm himself. "It's freaking perfect though, now that I think about it...I can leave this idiot and the others to deal with Evan, keep them busy and out of the way..." "Well, you did ask for my thoughts on the matter," He said, voice calm and even while he shrugged his shoulders, as if he wasn't bothered at all by being utterly shut down and told to more or less scram from the situation. "I didn't go volunteering anything here. All I did was precisely what you asked of me and told you what I thought about it, and if you think my theory about what's going on and suggestion as to how to best to proceed amounts to nothing but a malicious 'Shit-storm I'm trying to start', then hey, so be it, just forget about the suggestion and the info." He broke off from the little congregation and headed for the door, hand resting on the handle as he glanced over breifly. "Go on, do as thou wilt, Handle Evan however you deem fit, and I'll just excuse myself to going back to the emptiness of fighting for the ambition of making crowds cheer, day in and day out, cause apparently that's what all trainers ever care about, right Claude? being the top dog, the best of the best for repetitive, gladiator-esque combat that in all honesty serves no true constructive purpose in the world around them? oh nevermind if there are douche bags and ass wipes out in the world still who want to star massive shit here and there, nah, why focus anything on those straglers who still pose a threat to the peace, wanna take advantage of other people and make the world their plaything- stadiums and tourneys are far more important in life, right?" He turned his attention back to the door and smirked, maintaining his thick Satirical tone as he opened it... "Anyways, I can tell when I'm being a bother, so I guess I'll just get of your hair and leave you all to handle Evan however you want and go back to my tourney, sound good?" He walked out of the door briefly, before popping his head back in and adding in a rather mocking, sarcastic tone so upbeat it damn near actually sounded cheerful, "Oh, but hey, one last little thing before I go, guys; When you ask me a question, I'm going to answer you, and my filter's not going to adjust itself to what you want to hear; it's just gonna say whatever it's gonna say, so If you don't like what you hear out of my mouth when you ask for information, then you don't have to come asking me for any help or info in the future. Ain't that great? Oh, and hey, that way, everyone's time get's saved too!" With that bout of admitably satisfying satire fired off, he shut the door... and headed down the hall like he intended to before, except this time he wasn't making way for the dorms... oh no, no, no...screw that, he'd stopped feeling the sharp chill of wet cloth on his skin and he'd mostly dried off from getting pissed off like that earlier anyway. Oh noooo, no. See, this was a weight more or less off his shoulders, things had looked like they'd be a Charlie Foxtrot for a moment there with everyone and everyone's mother knowing about the situation, but it'd turned out, he'd managed to kill two birds with one stones in a way- figure out that Reeves was a minor piece of the puzzle overall, and then excusing himself and leaving the others to be distracted by said minor piece to keep them out of his and Baldwin's way. Oh yeah, this had turned out well indeed, and he knew better than to just let his good mood fade instead of taking the opportunity to go give a well-deserved congratulations to a certain someone for battle well fought.

There is such a clash of personalities going on here, I can tell... and that's precisely why he's saying what he's saying- because he actually does think of it all as just some type of plan or operation instead of some genuine effort at turning Evan driven by things like actually caring or wanting to be his friend. Like turbo said, there are no true sentiments, Mareek's simply being completely objective about the end goal because that's more or less how he just is. Logic and facts come first, emotions on the other hand, are a far harder topic for him to deal with but yeah, this right here, it's a huge freaking clash XD Though it's a it weird now... he'd be pretty pissed off that he'd been working on this longer than anyone in the group aside from henry, only to have someone else come in and basically do the equivalent of telling a detective "you're off the case, go home." after they've spent hard time and energy working... but at the same time he'd also be fully aware that everyone's more likely to side with claude and that trying to go further with advocating his own suggestion of how to proceed is a battle he can't win now... hmmm... eh, I'll figure it out...

Mareek's thoughts right now after hearing some of these suggestions and back and forth...

"No, you keep this away from the professors for now," Mareek demanded, facing Jacob in a heart beat. "Ya hear me, robertson? All any of us have at this moment is here-say as far as it can be proven, we go to them now and try to present this without hard and cold fact, and they'll likely dismiss it as some type of rumor mongering, and then when we actually do have evidence and really need their help to resolve this, how much harder will it be to get them to listen then, after we've come and tossed around specualtions, then it would if we held everything until we had damning evidence and only then presented our case? Think, we can't afford to waste resources here, ergo, we save getting professors directly involved until we have something tangible." With that said, he turned back to the group, not missing a heart beat. "That goes for all of you, by the way- you go running to the professors at this stage, and you could seriously fuck up things down the line when we'll need them the most." He turned back to Jacob. "As for the confrontation with reeves, you can forget about that here and now, my friend, and you can forget about for the exact same reason you yourself theorized, if we go and confront him, chances are it'll lead to people screwing up, saying the wrong damn things, and shit storms starting and Reeves ultimately saying "Fuck all of you" before turning over to the dark side like little Ani, cause no one here, and I mean no one, knows how to go about a proper interrogation, now do you?" He didn't bother waiting for a response, continuing on a roll. "No, and I'd even bet 25 bp that none of you do, and if you do, it's probably the televised, stereo-typical way of hammering the subject down until they break into pieces. No... you just leave Reeves to me, don't bring any of this up around him, and be kind whenever he's near, and actually mean it, don't pull some paper smile shit that's faked, cause some people see right through it, and it's honestly cheap as hell. We gotta make him feel like he belongs here, like he's got friends, because chances he was likely singled out because he felt like shit about this place or something." He gave a brief cough into the crux of his arm, though he ignored it. "believe it or not, I can be more than friendly enough when I need or want to be, yeah, I know, big surprise coming from the Asocial Loner who treats everyone like he's got a block of dry ice for a heart." Again he coughed, still managing to catch it in his arm. "I've been making a few efforts for a while, since the end of the trip even, about becoming Evan's friend anyway in order to try to get him to back gradually away from temptation, so really... it's best you all not go and do something stupid that would screw up my work on this front..." He stopped. A thought came to him just then... a troubling thought. He turned to everyone gathered, eyes growing hard. "Arceus, please, don't let any of them have already done something like a confrontation... I'm really tired of fools messing with my operation..." "Just out of curiosity though, you didn't... accuse Reeves of or speak to him about any of this already, did you?"

I like this guy. he can stay Anyways, welcome to reborn, soldier. Jericho and a few others will be along shortly with a packet of info for you, since I honestly don't do greetings too often. if you have any questions in the meanwhile, ask a moderator. Enjoy your stay on the forums, and check out showdown if you ever want to duke it out or just chat

and I've got lock-on and conversion2 tactics. and a few other goodies and tricks. nuff said.

That moment when you realize that Ancient power has two entirely different manifestations between the anime and the manga's and games... alright, that just gives me more to work with, soldiers...

marco said that BEFORE, water fields were nothing more than glorified swimming pools, but now they've done something new with them

you're not too far off, soldier...here's a hint...

Then again, almost every pc here would be at least somewhat screwed in the case of a water field... especially those with flyers... Though... Java can hover, and Nemo has a few more tricks...

I'm half expecting Kage/Ryan to try to lynch mareek for this... and setting up for a possible future coup against galen by two of his own partners, alriiiiiight... or at the very least, giving them reason to turn tail and just leave him when the time eventually comes...

Mareek "The evidence to suggest that is shaky at best," Mareek shook his head. "the stampede was obviously targeted at the camp grounds and nowhere else, and sometime during it, Reeves just so happened to 'Disappear'. Aside from that, from what we can all piece together, those were the only two major events regarding the provocation... it was a means to a single end." He recollected his journal from James, stowing it back in it's place while continuing. "And that brings us to Reeves and his Robot Chicken... I had a feeling from the first moment I asked him about where the hell it came from that he was hiding something- he told me that he had been attacked and the Skarmory had shown up and been there when he woke up, apparently protected him and then decided to follow him around. So I decided to give the lying bastard the benefit of the doubt and just gave him a capsule to put her in after convincing him to go ahead and keep her..." Galen "And we're off to see the wizard..." The team leader said with mock enthusiasm, looking to his fox. "Keep us invisible, M'kay?" The dark type simply rolled it's eyes... god was Galen annoying sometimes- at least to her... for some reason it seemed that most others could more or less tolerate the man. But then again, maybe the fact that he had bought her like a piece of property years ago when she was just a cub also had something to do with her dislike of him. She might have a better live under him than those glorified slave traders before him, sure... but the fact was, she was STILL a slave... for a semi-kind master does not erase the pain of bondage in irons, nothing can erase that pain, that knowledge of knowing others regard you as below a living being, just something to be used... the pain she and her brothers and sisters had all known, but yet the pain only she among had to suffer under this man. He may have "Saved" her, but what of her siblings he left behind in the hands of the wretched? what of their plight? "Hey, you listening?" Her massa said. Only then did she realize she'd stopped dead in her tracks and fallen behind. "Get to it already- it's not gonna be pretty if we get spotted by certain things around here." With a grumple, the illusion fox kept pressing forward, pushing away the memories of the past as she set up a veil... glaring at Galen the whole time as they moved closer to the lake, the blue water no in sight in the distance... But she'd get her freedom someday. Of that, she knew... one way, or another.

oh god... at this rate, we're gonna be littered left and right with references and allusions to popular culture... just like snakewood was (I mean it, that was actually something really important in the climax of the game... go play it again, you'll see...)

Well, not so random. you know how someone (I think Bfroger) turned the actual anime into more or less a soap opera for this? well that's basically what I went ahead and did with Snakewood- I think it would be a nice equivalent for the show "Walking Dead" here... minus some of the stupid yet hillarious shit that went on in the game's plot, but more or less the basic premise would be the same- Walker virus and zombies in the pokemon world...

to be honest, soldier, I intended that comment to be the equivalent to a "Walking Dead" refference. I was originally gonna say "like a walker" then I remembered that snakewood was a thing and decided to use it instead.

Mareek stood with his arms crossed for a few moments, Mind working like some great machine as peiced it all together, blocking out the bickering and filling in the holes, doing comparisons and contrasts... finally he closed his eyes, sighing in what sounded half between a bit of frustration and disappointment. "you want to know what I think? fine. Rocket's been dead for years," he began. "and sure, from what slade experienced and the patches of fabric that both I and some of you found, they might have been ex-members of it... but everything else that's been gathered doesn't fit together with the typical Modus Operandi at all... ergo, we're all wrong here... Rocket, whether it's still dead and cold like all those bastards should be or it's up again like something out of Snakewood, had no direct hand in this. And I'll prove it-" He reached into his soaked jacket, hand diving into the double layered inner pocket he kept the journal in just encase of rain or other water incidents. Before long he produced the leather bound book and opened it to a section as if he'd done it a thousand times before, dog earing the page before moving on and doing the same for another. He clasped it shut again, and with a subtle flick of his hand, tossed it over to James, not really caring if the boy caught it or let it drop- the damn thing had been through worse over the years. "There's one fatal flaw with the rocket theory we all maintained... and that flaw lies in the fact that the method of distraction was via the provocation of a nearby herd of donphan to charge into the cabin area." He pointed a finger subtly to the leather book, nodding. "Read through my notes of all of rocket's known actions and operations, and you'll see what I mean. Rocket, though it was focused on the exploitation and enslavement of pokemon for profit, never actually had a habit of explicitly relying on the use of pokemon in order to achieve their goals- Their go-to tool was either technology or pure man power itself, evident in the lake of rage incident or the takeover of Si-" He paused... shaking his head. "Or the takeover of Lavender Tower, respectively. And even in those instances when they did so happen to directly incorporate the use of pokemon into their operation plans, they always backed it up with sufficient forces and made sure to at the most have it be a minor part... from what I understand, the stampede seems to have been the major point, the climax of whatever the hell was being planned, and if rocket were in this, they wouldn't have arranged for that. They held no respect for the power wielded by mons, thought men to be superior and that they would do a better job with their own hands... pokemon were nothing more than tools and property in their eyes, as everyone and everyone's mother already knows... enough of this though, I go on any further and I'll end up giving a lecture on the history of terrorism in the world." He stepped away from jacob and closer to the others, looking at each of them inturn... before delivering his conclusion... "Each and everyone of us here who is somehow privy to these events... has probably been hoodwinked, including myself. Rocket had no part in this, whoever was running the show just wanted people to come to that conclusion- hence... those uniforms were likely genuine relics of rocket, I know the feel and texture of the cloth, but the individuals wearing them... were not."

It's fun playing the icy-cold aloof guy...

"What the hell... has baldwin been...oh god, if he has... And how does he of all people know anything about what I'm aiming for, only people I've told are Mom, Lana, and that guy..." He paused, his hand hovering just above the door knob. Then quick as lightning, he was about face with Jacob and the others, glaring at the other favorite in particular. "I've got a few concerns as to how the hell you know anything about what I want to do with my life, Robertson, but that's obviously far beside the point here..." He turned his attention to everyone else, backing away from the exit, eyes hard as stone. "First things first though, how did all of you find out anything about this? Did Baldwin break his own advisement and go blabbing his damn mouth in here? apparently he and I were the only ones looking into it..."

My guess is about the same as Commander's above. Though for the hint, are you talking bout the Reborn "me" or the "me" when I'm at my gym, corporal?

"What, Robertson?" He asked coldly as soon as the other student was done, just wanting to get this over with and go on about his plans- being damp in the winter wasn't as fun as it was cracked up to be... not by a long shot. "You afraid of the competition or something? Well, don't be, if all the training I've heard you've been doing was genuine, then you shouldn't have too much trouble... but then again, the deciding factor in any battle is how much your team trusts and respects you..." He turned back and started making his way for the door again... "Anyways, nice chat, but freezing rain isn't something very pleasant to be caught in, so...yeah, bye."