[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan sits there quietly, also doing his best to keep his emotions in check until Shiva finishes.  There's another moment of silence as he processes it all...

Almanac.

Of course that was the reason...

...why hadn't he thought of that?

All of a sudden, what Kirlia had been trying to tell him was all to clear.  Why he'd snapped a single string (with his elbow, now that Nathan thought about it a little more carefully...hmmm...that wasn't a simple karate chop...) to bring down that whole structure...why Ralts had been so smug the day Shiva had returned from the daycare and when they'd picked up the egg from the same place...why Shiva had been so reluctant to share even a scrap of info...

She was working with the daycare to bring Almanac down from the inside.  Nathan didn't need to know how.  He was content enough with knowing just that little bit.  He knew first hand that they might not be what they claimed to be, after all...

It wasn't the only thing she'd said, though.  She was hurting emotionally...for many reasons.  She'd hidden it very well, too...if it hadn't been for Kirlia confirming the little bit that Shiva had just said about what she'd been feeling (but he still doesn't tell Nathan just how bad it is...Kirlia doesn't want to worry Nathan that much...), and that she needed a friend right now, Nathan might not have believed it.  

They were more similar than he'd first thought, apparently...

Nathan has no words for what he's feeling right now.  It's an indistinguishable mixture of way too many individual ones to be able to identify it.

Before Shiva knows it, Nathan's right next to her.

It's his turn to give her a hug.  No awkwardness in it from his end, either.  There are tears as well, but they aren't for himself.

"Shiva...I wasn't trying to abandon you...nor Ven...you know I'm not always as strong as I appear to be, and a lot of that 'confidence' I show is just me trying to keep myself from falling apart, something I've built up over the last 3 years...you're stronger than you might think, and I'll say it as many times as I need to.  I'll never consider you being with us a burden.  Ever.  Stop putting yourself down over all that.  If you need a shoulder to lean on, though, I'm here for you.  You have my support, for whatever you might need.  I'm...sorry if it came across as otherwise previously.  I don't know if you remember it or not, but...I didn't willingly enter a nightmare last night just for kicks and giggles..."

"But please, don't lie to me outright on something like that again.  If you can't tell me, just say why.  I promise I'll try to be more understanding of that in the future.  Okay?  I don't hate you for any of this, and I promise you it WILL remain a secret as far as Kirlia and I are concerned.  I'm sorry I pushed you so hard about it, though.  Really.  I should have just gotten the message and left it alone.  You're not the only one at fault here.  Can you forgive me too?"

Nathan might not be entirely happy with her earlier decisions, but he can damn well be a good friend when he needs to be.  The important part was that she opened up about it now, before the damage became permanent.  Wounds can heal, given enough time, after all.  And a good band-aid can greatly accelerate that process.  And mistakes can be learned from, as well.

Now, it was Nathan's turn to try and help Shiva.