[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

The screeching banshee had to resist rolling her eyes and sighing in aggrevation at how Ralts so readily took to the defense of his master after they very nearly made him as depressed as they were. She understood both instinctually and intellectually (thanks to her master!) that Ralts were HIGHLY in tune with their master's emotions and by extent more highly concerned with their wellbeing/fulfilling their wishes than most other Pokémon, but there has to be some sort of hard limit to THAT! Otherwise, what's stopping  either of them from accidently ruining one another at some point, hmm?

Regardless though, Malphena was actually happy in a way to see the abnormal empath and fiery horse get incessed at her vengeful antics, as in her opinion being irritated/mad was much better than borderline depression or apathy. It showed that a person was still cared enough to get lively over a given subject, and unlike being miserable you were much more inclined to DO something about what troubled you so much in the first place. Sure, in this instance both the boy's Pokémon were angry at her for trying to rile up their master to punish/scold him for being such a miserable fool, but she could handle such contempt with aplomb if it helped (in her opinion) and they didn't try to attack her. Heck, even causing him and/or his Pokemon explode in anger might be a positive in this scenario! Its not like she cared much about her standing with Nathan's or Swiftfire's , and Ralts already mostly loathed and thinly tolerated her presence as is, so she hardly had anything to lose for being a gadfly, hmm~!

However that was the case, though, she soon decided to leave the young boy alone and drifted back over to Ralts side once it was apparent that no matter what he was just going to remain so SAD unless she dedicated her energies in pissing him/his Pokémon off, but not before shooting him a thoroughly deadpan, irritated, and judging look that perfectly conveyed her opinion to him right now: that it was really low. Not as low as her opinion on Dark types (those fiends!) and bullies without a cause (also fiends!), never the less she saw him in less than a flattering light than before this interaction. Hard not to in her perspective, since she feels that he's failed to be a good and proper master/support of his Pokémon in this instance, and that his inability to cope with things well enough that it his woes don't spill over to the rest of his partners is most deplorable.

Besides, she was less interested in Nathan's wellbeing in the first place than his abnormal Ralts, so leaving him to stew was no burden to her conscious, hmpt!

Since Ralts was now a bit more enlivened from her aggressive antics towards, yet was still too wound up in her opinion, she felt some light teasing was in order to help 'cheer' him up. To that end, once she was back next to him, she proceeded to press her side right against while simultaneously she manipulated her 'hair' to snake around and grasp his other side to give him her version of a hug, giving him a faintly innocent look at her actions as if what she did was perfectly natural. Surprise cuddles time, te he he~!

Considering Ralts is sitting right in front of Nathan, that catches both Nathan AND Ralts off guard.

...and it's VERY uncomfortable for Ralts, getting 'hugged' by a ghost.

And to his credit, Nathan reacts almost immediately, as he attempts to separate Ralts from Malphena.

"...let me make this clear, Malphena.  You deal with one of us, you deal with both of us.  No exceptions.  Don't act like I'm not here, like I can't feel how uncomfortable you're making my best friend."

That's really all he needs to say.  He's not really angry, per se, but...Malphena definitely hit a nerve, however unintentionally.

"...give us some space, please.  We have some thinking to do."

He directs Swiftfire to trot away from the ghost.  And then he gets to work at soothing Ralts and giving Swiftfire some proper brushing (she doesn't complain as much as usual since it seems to be helping Nathan calm down) while everyone waits for Ventus to find that Durant of his.

Problem partially solved, I guess?  It's certainly a step up from before as far as Nathan's mood goes...