[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Oh well. Another long night? More discussion, more issues, more overreactions...

...

... ... ...


Nope. Not this time.
She's pretty much too exhausted for any of these.

Instead, she got up once again, which caused the Azurill cuddled up inside to top hat open their eyes and look who was disturning their and new Master's rest. The mouse received a few soothing strokes over their forehead at that. "Calm down, dear one. Nothing to be worried about."

Good that Nathan was close while asking. Otherwise she would see him blurred without glasses.

"Practically speaking, no. No idea. Surely I've been enjoying Daycare's work especially, after all, the showed trust and respect towards me. Plus, I received quite a rarity from Vincent" - meaning the black-spotted egg - "my own Psychic Type to hit hard on Poison, you people managed your first Gym Badge, Festival was great, Ven shows good work in keeping his Arbok under control - oh come on, just look at it there. Apsis practically hugs him. - my Pokemon are doing good and on top of that you people safed that cutie here out of the river." More strokes for the Azurill.

She sighed imperceptibly. Yeah right, you never notice when she's showing distress of some sort. "Point is, surely I've been in a good mood lately. Fairy Types are sensitive for other's emotions and mood, more than any other species, you should know by now too." ... "Ralts might just randomly have picked this up. Or it grew some sort of liking for me, whatever. Or it just enjoyed your Gym victory and all the battles it recently had."

Oh, she mentiones the phone call in no words on purpose, and does a good job on hiding this away. Not only because Kirlia is near, but also because the assurance that the mission's doing well only calsm Shiva down somewhat. Not causing any worry, nor overy happy feelings.

He sits down, head in his hand, looking a bit tired himself as he contemplates the answer.  Kirlia hadn't picked up on anything particularly helpful for figuring this out, either.  He felt a feeling of...assurance, though, when Shiva mentioned Kirlia liking her more recently.  Nothing else Shiva had said gave Nathan pause to think about.  It was the one nail that had been hit on the head.

"No, that's not it...he's not happy just because you're happy...Ralts evolve when they reach an incredible level of genuine happiness, and I'm sure you know that.  It's not just any old event that can make them that happy, and emulating that level of happiness doesn't work.  I've never seen Kirlia this happy before.  Ever.  It's got something to do with what you've been doing, I'm sure of it.  I've got no idea what that could be, though, and I'd like to know.  Ventus knows...something related to this, I gathered that much.  He wouldn't tell me a dang thing, though.  Insisted that I ask you myself.

"I can tell he likes you a lot more now, true.  But why?  Are you certain you have no idea why that might be?  He's practically only ever trusted me since I found him.  Probably picked up that distrust from whatever Almanac did to him...anyways...it's not connected to recent events that you haven't been involved in.  There's no mistaking that.  He's been happy, sure.  But not to the degree that would be a sign of an impending evolution."

There's just a slight amount of frustration in his voice and mannerisms.  Very slight.  He's not really mad at Shiva, but he's getting tired of these roundabout answers.  There's also a tiny part of him that's frustrated that it wasn't something he'd done that triggered the evolution.  He could let it slide, but...his pride was a little bruised.  It would heal quickly, given time. He doesn't want to fight over this, but he wants answers. It's exhausting him more than it should.

Kirlia just frowns at the brief mention of Almanac.  Bad memories, again.  He didn't want to revisit them.  And while he wants to tell Nathan why he's been so happy, he's also respecting Shiva's privacy.  If Shiva wasn't going to directly say anything about it, Kirlia would only give him vague hints as to why.  He'd always been good at hiding the memories related to Almanac, anyways...now wasn't the time nor place to unearth them.  Hiding Shiva's plans was easy compared to that.