[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Music: None.  Dead silence seems most appropriate to me right now.

Nathan's stunned.  He hadn't heard anything of fairies behaving like that.  Ever.  Nothing he had ever read could have prepared him for what he had just heard.  "I...I don't know what to say...that's..."  He trails off, unable to find words to describe it...instead, all he can say is, "Yes, I...I...understand now.  Surely, most fairies aren't like that, though...right?"  

The question rings in the absolute silence...Nathan can barely stammer the next part.  "I'm...sniffle...I'm so...so sorry for your losses, Ventus.  You...you've experienced what I'm afraid of...and...sob...before I wrap this up, I think it's only fair that I tell you that I can empathize with that situation...partially.  Yes, not sympathize.  Empathize."  Sob

With great care, Nathan pulls the dull Premier Ball out.  "Remember...when I said I registered Ralts to the only pokeball I had?  I wasn't even registered as a trainer until we met at Mallorn's lab.  This pokeball...it's mine, but it wasn't always..."  

Nathan has to pause here.  He's taking deep breaths, trying to not bust the dams open.  "There's...only one...event that brings me more pain than the memories of the day I found Ralts a year ago.  Three years ago...my father...he disappeared...without a trace...nobody was able to find out where he had gone, nor why he had left..."

Another pause.  The dam's close to breaking, but doesn't yet.  He's visibly shaking again.

"He was...once known as a spectacular trainer in this region.  Even...got to face part of the Elite 4...he'd tell me stories about his travels among other tales...and the night before he vanished, he gave me a Premier Ball he'd never been able to bring himself to use.  He'd always tell me...life was the most precious gift you could give and receive as an aspiring pokemon trainer, and even as a person in general.  That every life...was worth something to someone...that a life was as precious as Premier Balls are among trainers and collectors alike.  He never...intentionally inflicted fatal wounds on anyone he faced..."

More sobbing.

"I never had aspirations to be a trainer...I never desired to be a rancher, either...I still don't think I'd particularly excel at either role...and yet here I was, stuck between one of the region's most well known ponyta ranches...and a trainer who had almost made it to legendary fame that would forever be recorded in the history books...with a dreary old town with no other alternatives as the setting...I know all to well what Larry feels, standing in the shadows of those who came before you...my father was the person I was closest to, though, and for him to just vanish like that..."

The dam breaks.  Ralts is looking incredibly gloomy again.  He'd heard this tale once or twice before, but it didn't make it any less sad.  Combee is even looking a little depressed now.

Nathan tries to pull himself together.  "I'm..I'm sorry.  I shouldn't be doing this right now.  It's just...these memories...they're haunting...it's a ghost that will always be with me, no matter how well I hide it..."  Nathan's head drops into his arms, and he just keeps sobbing.  He's passed the breaking point, and it was going to be difficult to snap him out of it.  He still had two more things to ask Ventus, and plans for stuff to do around town, but he wasn't thinking about any of it right now.  (With a little prodding, Ventus might be able to snap Nathan out of it.  Maybe.  He'll have to choose his next words carefully.)