[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Ventus just shook his head dismissively at Nathan, not agreeing with his course of action at all. "Nate, it's our duty as friends to look out for each other's wellbeing, even if the task at time may unnerve or discormfort us. Shiva more than ever needs to know that we are willing to support and look after her, not just shy away and leave her to her own lonesome devices. If she remembers anything about her time in that hideous nightmare, then its all the more reason to make sure she has not incurred any lasting trauma from her coma. "

"Besides, both Shiva and myself have spent time enough time to gain deeper insight on ourselves, so I'm not liable to provoke her wrath like you. Come to think of it, I have never observed her to react wrathfully to any of my interactions, so I see no reason to believe that my checking up on her will cause a fuss. *Sigh* She may be prone to fits of emotional outburst, Nathan, but I never seen her lash out over concern centering around her, so I imagine I will be perfectly fine. Do what you wish, but I shall as well," he said, giving a disappointed look at the young trainer. He can understand the boy's nervousness around a Shiva, but was it necessary to just abandon her in her time of need because of it?

As Nathan handed him his Lemonade, the researcher gripped their wrist instead, and looked into their eyes. Ventus' expression was of concerned annoyance, as weird as that look playing across his face. "My friend, I have more than a distinct feeling that you are trying to hide something from me, and its only strengthing as you keep evading any opportunity to openly discuss our 'trip'. First, you hang up on me in the middle of our earlier phone call, right as we were discussing what we were going to do in the wake of our departure. Now you are trying to divert my attention away from further speaking about that literal nightmare world we briefly resided in by bring up our mutual friend bedside behavior. It's not like you outright ignore an opportunity to gain further insight in any given situation, so I ask you this: what are you hiding from me, Nathan? You and I both know that I hate secrets being keep between us, so out with it I say."

(You can't dodge a determined empathy, my friend! He KNOWS that your are intentionally trying to keep something from him now!)

(Well, that worked both better and worse than I expected it to...on several subjects...)

"I never said I was abandoning her.  Just giving her time to recover.  Ventus, she was exhausted.  Completely.  I fully intend to make sure she's fine when I know she's awake, but I don't want to...intrude.  Let's just leave it at that."

Uh oh.

He mentioned keeping secrets between them.

Nathan stares right back at him.

"You mean like the one where Shiva told you more about why Ralts evolved than she told me?  Yeah, I figured that out." (Nathan just doesn't know the true extent of it yet...)