[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Ventus, who had been patiently waiting in silence while everyone else deliberated on what they needed to do at this juncture before he made his own decision, took the young scholar's as the opportunity that it was and stepped towards him and speaking, motioning for Valder to follow him too. "Since neither myself or Valder have decided upon a course of action yet, how about we excavate this tunnel with your Ditto's assistance? With our combined Strength and aid from our Pokémon (Michael for Ventus, Theo using Metal Claw for Valder) , we should be able to clear this path in short order, and having them help search for gems  while assisting with the dig in their Sableyes form would be a great boon indeed! In exchange, any gems we find we'll splint equally among ourselves, and I'll loan you back Grid so that I can look after Ditto while you are away. Is that acceptable, Nathan?"

The researcher clasped his hands together and gave them a friendly enough smile, while Valder does whatever Iron wants him to do/eventually swaps Starmie with one of Shiva's Pokémon. He's eager to see what this Ditto is capable of while Transformed, and finding more wealth to horde away appeals greatly to his inner Dragon, so hopefully they boy finds this arrangement acceptable!

Nathan startles at Ventus's approach.  He was only thinking to himself!  Out loud, but to himself!

He listens to Ventus's proposal...

...stares long and hard at Ventus for a minute or two.  He's still rather...grudging about loaning Grid to Ventus specifically, and he outright refused any requests to loan Ditto to Ventus...he's not really in the mood to talk with Ventus right now.  At all (he'll speak when spoken to, though).  Last night's conversation had left him very upset, and he's still trying to calm down (internally, anyways).

"Alright, but we swap back right afterwards."

Probably less prickly sounding than Ventus was expecting, but the meaning should be clear.  Nathan's particularly...defensive when it comes to matters concerning Ditto.