[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Later on (after his moment with Shiva), when Ventus stumbled upon the sight of the young scholar casually drawing all sorts of Pokémon he didn't recognize in their journal, he could not resist his curiosity drawing silently near him and quietly hovering over their shoulder to watch, despite his....reservations and selective apathy concerning their affairs (Can he be oblivious to my chara's presence? That be a nice ice breaker, Ven sneaking up on Nathan again!). That, and seeing them so.....calm yet glowing with happiness and pure contentment after their recent state of melancholic shock over the accidental discovery of a lost text of Marco's......well, how could he NOT investigate this marked change more closely, and perhaps to also just bathe in those good vibes for a bit. Reshirim knows he needs all the positively he can muster, after this long, hectic, and dangerous quest. 

Besides.....a little attentiveness to the boy isn't going TOO far outside his comfort zone, now was it?

"...….Seeing as your spirits are fully elevated now, I trust all went smashingly with the Bonding Rituals, Nathan?"

The researcher said this suddenly and out of the blue in a faint question, tentative tone, and practically right in Nathan's ear as his own head was just hovering a little bit behind his shoulder. On the surface, it was a seemingly innocuous question, and in part it was just that. It had a subtle, underlying purpose, though: to see how the boy was fairing from that....discovery, and gently coax him to talk about it without being overly intrusive or noisy about it. Hopefully he was discrete enough that they wouldn't pick that immediately, or ideally at all....

After saying that, Ven drew himself back and out of Nathan's personal space, clasping both his hands together as he stared at them with a calm demeanor and frown on his face. He was looking off to the side for a moment with a pensive gleam in his eyes, before briefly closing them and *Sighing* and turned to fully face the young scholar and broach the topic that brought him searching/stumbling upon them in the first place.

"Nathan, I know you....refused to teach ALL my Rock Smash, despite my assurances that I can handle my more Disobedient's usage of the move, and I would like to ask you to reconsider you decision, now that we are in private and you've had time to mull things over more. At the very least, I desire for my Delta Forrestress to learn the HM Move. I...plan to give them to Dagney as a gift, out of gratitude for all she's done for us, as a gesture of friendship, and a way to further good relationships between us all. Perhaps even garner a favor from her, and get her to pull a few strings for the group or wade in herself to get things done for us that we otherwise could not, though that isn't my main intention with the gift. I plan on being....discrete on how it knows the Move, so that she doesn't start asking those obvious questions, so if that is a worry of you, don't fret."

Pausing for a moment for all that to sink in and catch his breath, Ven tilted his head at the boy and simply said: "Well?" before going silent, and awaiting his response. Time to see if letting them in on ONE of his plans for those Pokémon will reverse his previous decision. Otherwise....well, he would not be too happy about that, to put it mildly.

Now that Ventus is closer, there's one drawing in the journal that Ventus couldn't quite see from a distance because Nathan is currently working on it and it's almost half hidden among all the other strange looking pokemon: a little black and white bird pokemon.  (Why was Masking imported to Creshire, @Iron?  Almost forgot to ask that.  And was Swabone purposeful or were they stowaways?)  The pictures are also all labeled with the pokemon names and Rare Imported Pokemon is also written in the journal as well.

Nathan calmly turns around when Ventus asks the first question, one arm slung across the back of the chair.  It's really hard to tell if he's surprised or not.  "Yeah.  Went well, and ended about how I expected them to.  Wasn't able to do them yesterday like I originally wanted, but..."  He shrugs.

From what Ventus can pick up from the two Kirlia, it wasn't with either of them.  Kirlia is the same as ever (and probably doesn't need it anyways), while 'Kirlia'...is doing her best to avoid having to go over to that table for now, feeling incredivbly shy around everyne that's not Kirlia.  She's quite content with spending time with her friend while she has the chance, thank you very much!

Nathan frowns a little at Ventus's next question.

"...you're...trading it...to Dagny..."

He has to think about that for a moment.

He sighs.

"...alright, fine...two conditions, though: once it knows the move, don't give it any chances to potentially use it, and I want to be there when you trade it. And I'm keeping a few Fire types out while we teach it the move. Outside."