[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Marta goes cold. Her mouth forms a thin line. Oscar is just looking between the two of you, waiting for someone to break out in a smile.

Marta: "Nathan. My little boy. My little boy! Oh, Nathan, you can't be certain? You couldn't be imagining this? Celebi...Marco...the Ruins...I'd...I don't even know if this would be good news or bad, even if I could believe it! Nathan, Nathan...Nathan...Look into my eyes and promise this is the truth?"

She doesn't entirely seem like she believes you, and maybe she doesn't WANT to believe you.

Oscar: "Marta! Now see here! This could be the best news we've heard in three years! If Nathan knows where Marky disappeared, he may be able to find him, or find out exactly what happened to him! There's a lot that was fishy around Mark's disappearance. That business with the League, how quickly the police were stalled, all the strange things going on here in Cress at the time. The other disappearances at the same time. Don't you see this could explain it all? And Nathan fought Tanuki. He's strong, Marta. He's going to be as strong as Mark. He really could be the one to delve into the Ruins and reunite me with my brother! Reunite our great big family! You could move to Cress, I could move to Trillium, we could talk like we used to!!"

Marta: "NO!! The Ruins is the LAST place Nathan needs to be! Send the police, send the League...hell, send a bulldozer. I can't bring myself to believe he's in there, after all the false starts we had that first year...that HORRIBLE year."

He knew his mom would react like this...

...he didn't have the heart to not tell her, though.  So he musters what courage he can to look his mom in the eyes and say, that yes, he's telling the truth...

"...mom, you know I don't like to lie, particularly about stuff like this...I've got Dagny and Detective Thrawn, who was also involved in that incident three years ago, looking into it, though, and I don't plan to head to the Ruins any time soon.  Heck, if they find definite leads that he's not in there, that he just flew out of there on Skarmory after getting attacked, I'd prefer to follow those.  He was there on purpose from the sound of things, though...on some kind of secret mission to find something for the League, and knowing him, he was going to try and see it through.  That's why he was attacked.  And the more I learn about why, the more I...the more I want to do something about it..."

...deep breathes...

"...the people that attacked him...they're an organization called Scimitars.  They wear metal gauntlets and use them to channel the powers of their pokemon and use them as if they were their own.  They claim to want to save the region but...they do so, so many horrible things to make sure they're the ones who'll save it and nobody else has the chance to...they almost killed Calam, mom.  That's how he got his scar.  They're partnered with the people who did who knows what horrible things to Gallade that nearly killed him when I first found him.  And they mistreat their own pokemon, making them absolutely miserable...I can't just stand by and let them continue to have their way..."