[PTU, IC] The Invisible League 3: You actually exploded!

[EdroGrimshell]

"I'm making a normal booster from these orange shards then we can go looking for a reanimation machine I can use on your fossil," Opal replies simply.

[Regalus]

Mani just starred as the ghostly pokemon all but puked her tale at him in an unending torrent; leaving him unable to do much beyond stare on in equal parts fascination and horror. She went on, and on, and on, and oh mew she isn't stopping! The monferno struggles to get the gist of Veil's cathartic release, using the time to pat the little ghost pokemon reassuringly; he'd offer a hug, but that wouldn't be too considerate for Claire given she was driving. He was sad that things seemed so rocky for the mon, but he was certain that Uriel would be able to sort things out with Claire!

Now if only he could remember that right signs...

"Okay, so what do you have for me Mani?" Uriel chimed in, calling him to attention. The former chimp took a moment to collect his thoughts before relaying things as succinctly as he could.

Sad. Try to help, accidentally hurt. Confused; want synch and make good story, but backfire. Both not understand, too different. Unloved. Unsure, Stay or go. Mani signed with deliberate motions, once or twice being amended by Uriel when one of his signs weren't quite right.

Once all was said and done Uriel thanked Mani in sign and patted him on the head, the promise of a nice treat for his good job in the near future, before the young trainer breathed an airy sigh and turned to Claire, "Okay, it seems like there's a bit of a miscomunication and mix up of intent problem; which isn't too surprising since Veil's your first new pokemon in a long time, and is a ghost type no less. They tend to think about things pretty differently most folk," Uriel began, adding the bit of useful trivia incase Claire was unaware of it.

"It seems like she doesn't understand you all that well, and that's she's sad it's gotten her in trouble with you. Though it seems like you've said or done a few things that hurt her feelings, while you might've not thought it was a big deal at the time. In short she's tried to help you, but her help seems to just go wrong for reasons she, due to her background and nature, doesn't get; which must've made her seem annoying, or troublesome to you, but the opposite is also true. You've apparently said or done somethings that, while they same perfectly reasonable or not that big a deal to you, confuse her and make you seem callous," he explains, pausing for a moment as he parses what he's been told with what little he's seen of the two and Veil's own cathartic release; the pieces slowly falling in place to paint a familiar picture.

"For example, the thing with the Maid uniform back there?" he starts after a moment's thought, "I don't think she was just playing around back there. I think she realized that you were cleaning up, so she tried to help by turning into something better suited for cleaning. You didn't agree with it because you didn't feel like dressing up, and you thought it was unnecessary, but from her point of you she'd found the perfect way to be helpful and you just got angry at her. Think of it this way, for it was like if you had gotten angry at me back in the fitness center for dressing your wounds while you were knocked out after our session with Mani got out of hand, and told me to go and undo the bandages," Uriel explained before quickly adding.

"Yeah, it seems weird and out of scope to you; but that's how it feels from her side. She thought she could help you, but then you get annoyed at her for trying to help. She doesn't understand that you've got a few hang ups she keeps prodding, and it seems like you haven't explained them in terms she can relate to and understand. Now I'm not saying you haven't tried, or that you're at fault here; but that may be adding to a bigger problem," he continues as a concerned expression settles on his face.

"Apparently you've accidentally given her the impression that you hate her, or just couldn't care less about her; which is making her question herself a lot. She wants to work with you, she wants you two to be able to do great things together; the kind of things that might make a great story to tell someone someday. She wants to be on the same page as you, dance to the beat of the same drum as you do, heck, she wants to make memories with you; but she's starting to wonder if its worth it. She feels unloved, and like anything she does to make you happy or she thinks is fun only serves to annoy you. She's starting to wonder whether this is all futile, and you're going to keep being a proverbial mine field for her until the day she screws up for the last time and you make her regret it; or if there's really any hope for the two of you to be a time, and she should stick it out." he explains, a bit morose from the tragic case of miscomunication if what his evidence pointed to was correct.

"In short she feels unloved, and like she's little more than an embarrassment to you. As if the only thing she's good for is to give you reasons to be angry or disappointed at her. She wants to do great things with you, but with the way things are between both of you she's not sure if the best thing she can do for both of you is just to up and leave you; that way you can at least avoid hurting each other. She wants to reach out to you, but feels like you'll just slap her hand away and berate her for trying," Uriel ends somberly, giving Claire a chance to digest what he's said so far before saying anything else.

[Major]

As Claire pulls up to the pokemart she waits and listens to Uriel's response. She turns the ignition of and sits back and listens until he is done. When all is said and done she sighs, "I thought we'd worked that out..." Claire said with a sigh. "It's why I started wearing her and what not. Wisp said the same thing before and so I've been trying to use her and get her help more. I've worn her as clothes despite the fact that its kinda weird for me. I used her at the do---err...that's something to talk about later. And I've been trying." She explained. "I don't hate her and I've tried to thank her for her help frequently to let her know when I appreciate it. Like when she helped earlier with this whole cover me from sun thing. That's very helpful. At the dojo she adapted and helped block some knives that got thrown at me. That was helpful. I'm trying to use her and get her help more often in order to make her not feel that way. So I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong if she still feels that way." Claire sighs. "I'm not angry or disappointed at her. Maybe its because I'm stressed about other things, so it might be coming across that way."

[passinglurker]

Mani
Viel starts questioning you asking you what you told Uriel and if you cut anything out. She also clarifies in reaction to what claire just said that its not just the rocky start but that when things started getting better that the story didn't turn out good.

[Regalus]

Mani says he explained that both of them were stepping on each other's toe for a while since Claire kept getting angry at stuff Veil did to help, or accused her of stuff she wasn't all that responsible for. He adds that he did mention she'd tried to get more in sync with Claire, but that most attempts had backfired a bit. He sorta needed to summarize it a bit for Uriel's benefit; with that he turns to Uriel to try and offer up further clarifications.

Things were getting better, but get worse. No closure at Dojo, just run away. Story bad. Nice words make better, but not sure if fluke. Mani signed, a bit uneasy with the more complex message he had to deliver.

Uriel for his part quirked his lip slightly as he parses the message before nodding to Mani in acknowledgement, "Okay, Veil seems to agree that things did start to get better; but that once you two were on a roll and starting to find your rhythm it got botched. Apparently how things turned out at the Dojo didn't sit well with her; something about a lack of closure? She seems okay with what happened back there, but the fact you just 'ran away' instead of handling whatever happened didn't sit well with her. My guess is she might feel like you left the 'story' unfinished or left too soon, that you weren't involved enough in the resolution, or maybe how you did handle things left a poor taste in her mouth narrative speaking; like maybe she thought you could have done a bit more before leaving, or done a few things better before heading out. In short she might feel like you turned what was turning out to be a good story into a bad or lackluster one," he interpreted, eyeing Veil through out his discourse.

"After that it seems like things got a bit better; your interest in her, and showing her to everybody, was a good pick me up but she's still worried. She's not sure if that's a sign things will keep getting better and that the road there's a bit bumpy, or if what happened was the exception to the rule and things will just get worse again. From the sounds of it your relationship with her has already had quite a few up and downs, and she's worried about how steep the next one will be; that and whether things will steadily get better. If she feels like you two have had your fair share of false starts already it'd explain part of her anxiety about this; she's waiting for the other shoe to drop," he explains before turning to Veil once more.

"Is that about right?

[passinglurker]

Uriel and Claire
The bow with eyes nod's with an equivalent to going "yep". She then looks up at claire to see what she thinks with a look of concern over possible reactions

Opal and Drew
no other canines come crashing through the ceiling as opal puts together her booster

[Jacior]

"Oh, cool. Aren't those things expensive to use though?" Drew asks. No matter the answer he gets, he spends the time waiting for opal to be ready to go playing with the pokemon.

[Major]

Claire rubs her temple and pauses, forcing herself to continue, "The Dojo..." She says before pausing. "Was...complicated." She struggled to find the words. "The whole entire thing was a mess and I didn't like it either, but the core goal of what was needed happened." She said, stepping carefully on her words. "That's what *I* was going to talk to you about actually, but that's...a complicated story." Claire said fidgeting slightly. "Let me run inside and get the healing stuff I need for Veil and we'll talk more when back on road." She said opening the door and moving to go inside to grab a few potions to heal up Veil.

[Regalus]

"Sure go right ahead," he replied politely, overtly gesturing to the shop as he hid his own concern. The times in which Claire hesitated to do or speak something were few and far in between from what he'd known of her; the fact that this recollection give her so much pause was cause for concern in and of itself. The fact it had injured her relationship with her pokemon when it was improving before hand all added even greater gravity to it; whatever had happened was certainly grave, though he could at least be sure it wasn't Kuro related. If it had been he sincerely doubted that 'subdued' would be a good word to describe her at the moment.

With nothing else to do, Uriel waits patiently in the car; bonding a bit while waiting safely in the car.

[EdroGrimshell]

Opal holds up the normal booster, a dull orange gem that looked like it had been bleached of most of its color attached to a metal mounting, then took a simple cord and threaded it through an opening to hang around her neck on display, it didn't go with her current attire, but it would bleach to white within a few days as the energy attuned more thoroughly. She hoped she'd be able to make a proper focus brace to mount it to in a few days, that, at least, would be a good way to improve her own offensive capabilities. Hm, maybe Drew would like one, she remembered some musicians had some offensive talents that could be augmented by a booster... but that'd be for another time.

Opal turned to Drew, "to own, yes, to use, no," she replies to his inquiry, "though it does depend whose it is as well. The Kanto museum had one that they used to let people use free, but they changed that now that they're research on prehistoric pokemon is pretty much finished, so we might get lucky at a museum or research facility, though they may want to keep the pokemon if that's the case, we can figure out the details when we go to them. Just don't sign anything."

[passinglurker]

Claire
There's a load of hipsters having tug of wars and scalping each other over products, but strangely they are only fighting over stuff that has been marked up Everything else has been marked down and they don't seem to be willing to go near it with a ten foot poll.

Store HP restoratives Inventory(note picking certain products may prompt a reaction from the hipsters)

• Lil'Johto natural herb remedy (Energy powder) ^600
• Ole Berts patch'em up roots (Energy root) ^100
• SitrusX atomically reorganized healing spray (potion) ^500
• I can't believe its not ground fairies! (potion) ^5
• Devon Superheal 100% natural ingredients [allergy warning: contains mawile products] (super potion) ^900
• Silph the Original Super Potion (super potion) ^200

Mani
(Lets just assume he gets 25 words per post until further notice ok?)

[Major]

Claire grabs a couple of Silph Super Potions, trying to avoid the chaos, and heads to the register.

[passinglurker]

Claire
You manage to slip through unnoticed the most attentive hipsters seem to be distracted with harassing a kid who picked up one of the ^5 potions. At the register the clerk is very quick as if you being noticed buying this stuff would cause trouble.

[Major]

Claire sets two on the counter as well as ^400 poke. Once the transaction is done she heads back to the car. "Wow, your prices were much cheaper than they are in Kalos." She said as she sprayed the super potion on Veil while getting in the car. "Back home, a normal potion would have cost ^200. I got this super for ^200. I really should shop here more often. Clothes, bags, and potions are all super cheap here. Given, the people are way less friendly here..."

[Regalus]

After a brief time sharing a companionable silence Mani stirred, trying to catch his trainer's attention,Hey bro? Mani signed, drawing Uriel's attention away from his ruminations.

"What's up Mani?"

Think Red did something bad, the small ape signed with a thoughtful expression, earning a raised brow from his trainer.

"What makes you think that?"

Drape mentioned an accident in the dojo; did something mean to Dog-Fairy Lady to help Red girl, continued Mani, struggling slightly having been forced to use more familiar sins for words he didn't know.

Uriel nodded once with a somber expression settled on his face, "What happened?"

Red sta- Mani started to sign before jumping in Uriel's lap at Claire's sudden intrusion, as did Uriel slightly as his surprise grew at the mention of the prices being dealt out in the shop.

"Wow! The companies must've been hit harder than I thought if prices are this low, I'm gonna have to stock up if I have any spare cash after I nab a good child. Just hope I can find someone willing to be the carbos from me for at least half price before prices change again; it'll do us all a world of good if I keep myself well stocked," he said conversationally as Claire got into the car.

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel

I'm gonna have to stock up if I have any spare cash after I nab a good child.

When Uriel says these words the car springs to life. "Pedofile detected!" squawks a recording of Z before the door's lock and previously concealed shutters close over the windows plunging the vehicle into darkness (well aside from the flaming monkey) "Don't try to escape! the cops are totally on their way!... assuming I remembered to put a phone in this thing... note to self remember to change this recording after I do that..."

[Major]

"Well I can buy some supplies for you if you wa---" Claire starts to say before the car starts acting crazy. "It was an accent! An accent!" Claire called out to the car, "Override! Uhhh cancel!" Claire called out trying to think. "Uhhh...This is the police! Pedophile apprehended!"

[Regalus]

Uriel snaps, "Maldita sea! Carajo! No te lo podias aguantar por un solo minuto mas verdad?! " he swears in his native tongue, his accusations turned heavenwards as if flung not merely at the car but some greater force that wielded it as a surgeon would its knife, or as a clown would a balloon. Grumbling in frustration, the young man reaches for his pokegear and tries to dial up Z hoping to put an end to this insanity before things get worse. The last time he'd left the car to it's own devices it had stripped him naked, and forced him to reevaluate his opinions on automotive safety; as it was, he had little intention of allowing CLaire to share in his wealth of experience if he could help it.

[Major]

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Claire stammers. "Its the stupid car! Bad things keep happening to you when you get in it. Sorry!" Claire says rubbing her temple hoping this car wasn't going to keep being a nightmare and chase Uriel off. What if he started avoiding spending time with her because her car was crazy?

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel
The vehicle doesn't heed claires vocal commands, but Uriel does get a hold of Z "Helloooo Darling!" she says loudly over the phone in some sort of teasing fake girlfriend like voice.

[Major]

As Claire struggles to find a way to stop the car, she stops for a moment when she hears Z's words and very slightly flinches. She quickly goes back to messing with the car while trying to act like she hadn't heard. My cousin? Really...she's like 16...I didn't know he was that close to her She tries to push those thought out of her mind. It was time to get the car dealt with, not worry about Z and Uriel. She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath before trying to think on the car from a technical side.

Spoiler

Show

Ooc!Claire: I WILL FIX IT BEFORE Z DOES! I WILL HELP!
Tech Education: (3d6+3)[15]

[Regalus]

"Hi Z, need your help to call off the car again. My accent screwed up my diction, and the car's locked me and Claire in thinking we're pedos. Please tell me there's something that can be done to make it calm down," he pleads, pressing the fun closer to his ear to here the engineer better and focusing on it over Claire's profuse apologies. He already knew it wasn't her fault, just his luck really; what mattered was solving the problem before it let loose any hounds on their heads.

[passinglurker]

Uriel and Claire
"What were you doing? Locking lips with my cuz? Playing tongue twister? I know her rack is kinda small, but it shouldn't have thought she was a child." says Z still sounding loud enough for prisoners to hear.

Claire
It looks like the rear window is the weak point in this prison since this is a soft top the couldn't be much rooms to install very sturdy shutters. You also notice a sticker on the dash "Powered by SilphDOS 95" geez thats old AI software like pre-porygon old. They also never worked right they make a lot of fuzzy assumptions based on its programing meaning they can be tricked your police act might have worked if you could convince it you were a cop.

[Major]

Claire glares over at the phone while also turning red, though be it from embarrassment or anger is hard to tell. She looks about to say something but decides instead to take this chance to try and work on getting car back to normal without Z's help.

She lightly knocks on the side of the metal to sound like someone banging on car. "This is Officer Eclair, we have reports of a pedophile. Open up and come out peacefully!" She pauses thinking of what to make it sound more convincing. "Ummm...Or else!"

Spoiler

Show

Going to be failed guile check:
(1d6+3)[4] (AP spend)

[Regalus]

"No, no; nothing like that. My accent screwed up my diction, so when I said I wanted to buy a shield, it must've though I said child; any ideas on how to fix this?" he clarified as he noticed Claire continue her acting attempts.

"Claire? What are you doing?" he asked as curious as he was confused.

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel
"Yeah I'm just messing with I'm looking up design notes on my eye as we speak just need some banter to fill the time ya know? Well ok first thing be very careful about trying the doors or beating on the windows it'll think you're trying to break out and..."

"Breakout attempt detected! Initiating Flight_Discouragement.EXE!" Squawks the car's recorded Z voice not buying Claires cop impersonation.

"Um ok nevermind about that warning. Instead you should think fast and hold on tight to anything you don't want thrown into the trunk. So basically your phone or you shorts your choice" Suddenly the dash and seats erupts with small robotic arms of various sizes and configurations all of them immediately lounging for you guys and your stuff in robotically coordinated fashion from all directions and quickly the mass of arms block out mani's light and all you know is a flurry of movement.

When its all over you are both dumped into the back seat devoid of all belonging including clothes besides one item you held on to for dear life(if you thought to do that) Mani some how found himself under the dash and Veil in an attempt to not be plucked off by the arms became a very tight pair of denim booty shorts.

[Major]

With her first escape plan failing, Claire was reaching for her pokegear to try something different. However, all the chaos caused her to get flipped around and tossed in the back. She was not expecting Veil to turn into shorts and thus wasn't expecting her corset under armor to also be yanked off. When she finally became less dazed and confused from being tossed around her face turned beat red as she found herself topless in the back with Uriel. "VEIL TOP QUICK!" She called out, quickly diving for the front seat. "Damn it...hard way it is." She growls as she starts poking around for the computer, attempting to just hack the damn thing instead of trying to trick it.

Spoiler

Show

Hack!
Tech Education: (3d6+2)[10]

[passinglurker]

Claire
Viel acting as rushed as you are sounding loosens up(to your gluteus maximus's relief) and expands from denim shorts to cutoff denim overalls. As for hacking it seems all button interfaces computer controlling or not have locked you out as a result of the lockdown. you found a plug in port under the dash but you no longer have a data cable. if you had direct access to the wiring tucked into the walls and dash you might be able to do something and of course there is the sensors observing you.

[Regalus]

Uriel holds on to his pokegear for dear life as his world becomes metal appendages once again, all too soon experiencing the all too familiar sensation of upholstry against his bare skin only this time the experience is far far worse. Claire is in the car with him. The young man becomes all too keenly aware of his nudity upon spotting the red head's dazed form, and waste little time tucking his manhood between his legs for cover; soon becoming equally relieved and, though he'd never admit it, disappointed by Claire's quick thinking.

Taking a few breaths to calm himself and lessen the heat rising to his face, the red-blooded male does his best to focus on the task at hand rather than the situation before him; quite easily one of the most trying tasks he'd been faced with yet, but not one he was just going to roll over for either.

"M-Mani calm down or else the car might try to counter you and make things worse, Claire don't rush into anything; I can help and I've got Z on the line, if we can work together we can fix this," he called out, his voice oddly shaky despite it's commanding tone as urgency wages war with flusteredness and the male instinct.

WIth one last deep breath to steel himself, the young man raised his pokegear, "Z, the car just disarmed and declothed us. Please tell me we have a way to fix this before it gets worse somehow," Uriel questioned as he tried to ignore how cold the cool air felt on his bare skin, praying he wouldn't end up catching a cold from this if it became routine; a possibility he tried not too think to hard about.

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel
"...And you still have your phone? Are you using keeping me on the line as an excuse to show my cousin your meat junk?" She says loudly before reducing to a more normal volume which means only uriel can hear clearly "Alright lets see what the notes say... the car's sensor feeds are processed by an old silph corp pre-porygon A.I. it makes fuzzy assumptions based on its programing instead of following it to the letter so you might be able to trick or convince it that you are not a pedo and it'll lift the lock down. Alternately the doors are only locked from the inside but they will open from the outside in order to let cops get in so maybe if you shout loud enough you'll get someones attention and they can let you out then you can get to the general kill switch in the engine compartment and reset the car by flipping it back and forth. Finally you guys might be able to bust out the back window it'd be easier to break than the others though stripping you isn't the only trick the car has to discourage break outs. Are you allergic to glow in the dark neon paint?"