[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

"Was there a Pokemon that could detect you"
*nod*

"Some arcane force"
*shakes head*

"Which path seems safer"
Gastly's eyes float toward the skull path, and soon he is leering from the skull's eyeholes.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Alright, Shiva's initiate feeling was right. There seems to be something down the other path, something to better not encounter. At least, not just now.

She was glad that Ghasly has choosen the path with the skulls as the seemingly safer path. She also looked up to Ventus again. After his 'talk' with Ghastly and Ghastly itself has proven a huge help down here the Base, she felt assured that it was a good idea to stay close to both Ventus and Valder. Not that she was unable to take care of herself, but they had to stick together down here as and protect one another as good as possible if they want to make it out alive.

"What are you're thoughts now, Ven? I'd be down that we send out both Ghastly and Raphael out to spy on these guards in the darkness to put them to sleep before we ourselves head down the path."

[Lord Windos]

Giving a slight smile to the ever helpful spector, he nodded his head towards them and turned to the rest of the group. "Its more or less decided for us then, my friends. Down the Skull Path we go, clearing/uncovering what ever dangers lay along it before we then check out the other. Best break the weakest link in their defenses first, rather than attempt to brute force more our way through a more hazardous area."

Shiva's next line of questioning caused him to pause for a bit, before shaking his head. "None of us should be separate for long down here, and that applies to our Pokémon as well. We will all approach the guard(s) together as steathly as possible, then have both Pokémon target them with those Sleep moves of ours. That way, if we flub one or both attempts and alert them, Raphael nor Ghastly will be caught out their alone. I will release my archangel here, though, as I don't want the flash of my Pokeball alerting the guard(s) up ahead," Ventus responded, before flicking his wrist and doing what he described. Raphael took in the dark, dreary atmosphere of the Scimitar base, and immediantly disliked the bad vibes they were getting from it. They look toward the direction their master was in questioningly (They couldn't see in the dark as well as Ghastly!) at being released in such a dire place for all of them, and he cringed a bit from the reaction, before he explained himself.

"I know this place is horrible, but I and everyone else will need your help up ahead. Their are some guards that need to be put to Sleep to pass by them safely, or 'taken care' of worst comes to worse. We will leave this place ASAP when its been thoroughly explore/cleared , so worry not my archangel as we will get through this morbid place together, alright?"

(Ready to go down the Skull Path, now that all my questions have been sastified! Let's get this dungeon crawling started! @Iron and @PhantomUnderYourDesk : Man, you guys make me update my post all the time...great!)

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Shiva's next line of questioning caused him to pause for a bit, before shaking his head. "None of us should be separate for long down here, and that applies to our Pokémon as well. We will all approach the guard(s) together as steathly as possible, then have both Pokémon target them with those Sleep moves of ours. That way, if we flub one or both attempts and alert them, Raphael nor Ghastly will be caught out their alone. I will release my archangel here, though, as I don't want the flash of my Pokeball alerting the guard(s) up ahead," Ventus responded, before flicking his wrist and doing what he described.

Shiva could barely see him shaking his head, but the words already said it all. She agreed greatly with that plan.

"You're not wrong on this... We need every Pokemon we have if we want to make it out here together and in once piece. Let's go and hope that the plan works out, alright?"

Of course, Nathan was still with them, but she simply assumed that he'll follow and agrees with the plan since he expressed prefering the path with the skulls before.


(Down the path we go then!~)

[Nylon]

Vader looked at Ghastly with satisfaction. "Ghastly. Well done. That was some nice shadow work, I'll let you rest for now. Theo will take things from here".

 Theo is now out of the Pokeball. Him and Theo are ready to follow the group.

 "By the way, everyone. I don't know if all of you know. So as a reminder, Scimitars like using their mystirious gauntlets and powers, but they do exploit the power of Pokemon as well. Their pokemon type-preferences are Steel and Psychic type.

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan just remains silent as everyone else discusses how to proceed, standing a respectful distance away, only really half hearing what they're talking about.

Ugh...he'd really done it now, hadn't he?

No, no time to think like that.  Not now.

He always finds a way to screw this stuff up, though...

It's hard, but you have to stay tough.  Stay resolved.

All he did was press a button to try and ensure things didn't get out of hand in the long run...why was that such a big deal now when it was the obvious move to make?

Deal with the consequences later.  Get through this current situation first.

The tension's thick enough that it can be cut by a Scyther...

You WILL get through this.  You always have before.

He didn't want to feel like a lone wolf any more...

You're not alone.  You have Kirlia.  Swiftfire.  The rest of your pokemon.

It's not the same, though...sure, his pokemon believe in and trust him, but that means little if society doesn't do the same...

You're not an outcast.  Just different.  Your companions don't mind that.

They didn't fully believe him though...and if they didn't believe he was trying to help them, what else could he do?

It's their loss for now.  They'll get over it.  They won't abandon you if you stick by them.

Would they?  Nobody else had when he'd tried that before...what would make a couple of Unovans any different from the residents of Trillium?  Everything they'd said before was starting to sound like empty promises...he'd...kept his word, right?

...no...you didn't...

It's a good thing for Nathan that it's pitch black right now, as he's got his head in his hands, feeling rather...pained and alone again, despite Ventus's apology.  Ventus's reluctance to believe him, Shiva's clear refusal to believe him...

He still stood by his reasoning for what he did, but something about this situation just felt...wrong.

Had he...let his emotions get the better of his logic?

No.  No no no no no.  Nononononononononononononononononononononono.  

NO.

ENOUGH.

THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR THIS.

THINK LOGICALLY.

WHY?!  Why should I when nobody agrees with my logic?!

In the time everyone is discussing which way to go, Nathan's been having an incredibly difficult time holding it together like he usually does.  He knows this is his own damn fault, and now there's nothing he can do about it.

He sits on the ground, slumped against the wall with his head still in his hands, lost in the emotional turmoil caused by losing the trust of the only human friends he ever had...Kirlia is worriedly hugging him...he's slipping back into a depressed state, something he hasn't had to seriously deal with for an entire year...

(And Nathan joins the 'arguing with himself' club.  Hooray...)

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Only now, when they were about to head towards the path and everything was settled, Shiva picked up that...horrible wave of emotions coming from somewhere. It was just too strong for her not to notice.

Likely from Nathan.

Hell.


It was still too dark to locate him, and she prefered to stay close to Ventus instead to search for Nathan. Nevertheless, she couldn't ignore how things were going wrong currently, and she was sorry for this and how this developed, but it was Nathan's own fault, he brought this to himself by acting on his own and practically leaving them behind. This is getting annoying.

Wherever Nathan was, he'll hear the words Shiva had for him. Her tone was clearly apologizing and compassionate, but she was also clearly showing that this IS NOT A PLACE TO BREAK and they have a mission to accompany.

"NATE... I'm sorry for the way you are feeling, but please try to pull youself together enough that we can move on. You planned how we tackle this Base, have you? Now is not the time to break, not the time to fall apart, we currently have other problems. Now wherever you are, what do you say? You are a strong battler, we need you down here, we will not abandon you. But we expect you to come with us now instead of dwelling here in self loath. Please... just don't act on your own again down here, alright? We're in this together, so please join us now on the path."

It was a little ironic how SHE managed rather well to keep herself together after the initiate worry and conflict between Nathan and Ventus and concentrate on the curent mission. Maybe this is what some outsider would call 'tough', although Shiva would not call herself like this.

[Lord Windos]

In the time everyone is discussing which way to go, Nathan's been having an incredibly difficult time holding it together like he usually does.  He knows this is his own damn fault, and now there's nothing he can do about it.

He sits on the ground, slumped against the wall with his head still in his hands, lost in the emotional turmoil caused by losing the trust of the only human friends he ever had...Kirlia is worriedly hugging him...he's slipping back into a depressed state, something he hasn't had to seriously deal with for an entire year...

(And Nathan joins the 'arguing with himself' club.  Hooray...)

A wave of numbness, pain, and deep seat self loathing hit Ventus like a lead brick, causing him to stumble back a few steps from the suddenness of its arrival. The empath recognizes the feelings all to well, given his semi-recent encounter of it within Shiva back in Corsage, and from old and weathered portions of his own soul. 'What is Reshirim's name....who is depressed now of all times?! Its not me, Shiva has calmed down to acceptable levels, and Valder is perfectly cool emotionally speaking, so it can only be...oh dear. Kyurem damn it, we pushed him over the edge, and now he's suffering an emotional breakdown....something has to be done about this," Ven thought, before he shook off Shiva once more and tracked the boy's frayed feeling right by the section the wall he is sitting on.

Shiva, though, apparently had similar ideas to his own, for she took that opportunity give her own motivational speech to the boy, trying her best to revive that burning spirit within him. 'Despite her instability and erratic, fanciful, fae-like nature, she's just as powerful and dependable as everyone single one of us in this group. Perhaps if anyone should be the Leader of this group, it should be her; if she can suffer constant distress and still pull herself together and become stronger for it, then why not? For now, though, I need to focus on one thing: cheering Nate up,' he thought, reading himself for his own speech.

Keeping himself perfectly composed both physically and emotionally, Ventus crouches down and places a hand on their shoulder, trying to attract his grieving friend's attention. "Nate....please get up. I that the distress you are experiencing is because of us, but we only reacted that way out of fear for not only our safety, but your own. We may have doubted the choice you made, but that is only because we were ignorant of the designs behind it. We are with you, my friend, and you are with us. We are all a team, and together we can overcome any challenge, from within and without. We all shall make it through this, as long as we all remember this truth. So please, Nate....don't let your doubts cripple you like they have recently done with us, with me. You are strong Nathan, stronger than most would even begin to believe. Show us that strength. Show us by getting up, and leading the way forward, into the perilous unknown."

[Dragonstrike]

He brushes Ventus's hand aside...

A moment of silence...

...

And then the depression is...gone.  Mostly.  It's still there, but to Nathan, it's now nothing more than a dull throb for the time being.  Kirlia looks and feels really worried for him again...he's never felt Nathan react like this before...he can barely tell Nathan's feeling anything right now...Nathan's not just put his emotions aside, he's shoved them out of the way almost entirely...

He stands up.

"...fine."  It's said in one of the flattest, most neutral tones he could possibly use.  Oh dear...

[Lord Windos]

He brushes Ventus's hand aside...

A moment of silence...

...

And then the depression is...gone.  Mostly.  It's still there, but to Nathan, it's now nothing more than a dull throb for the time being.  Kirlia looks and feels really worried for him again...he's never felt Nathan react like this before...he can barely tell Nathan's feeling anything right now...Nathan's not just put his emotions aside, he's shoved them out of the way almost entirely...

He stands up.

"...fine."  It's said in one of the flattest, most neutral tones he could possibly use.  Oh dear...

Dead. Still. Vacent. That is what Ventus detects within Nate right now....vacuous nothinginess. Its an emotional state of being that he was intimately familiar with, given his tumultcous past, and has studied up on it himself as part of his Sociology Major. 'In intense times of shock, distress, or trauma, a person's or Pokémon's mind just...shuts out all the offending stimulia. In some cases it leaves people comatose, others by blocking and walling off parts or all of specific memories...or in this case, causes total apathy by completely repressing their emotions. All of these conditions persist until either the stimulia ceases to be a problem, or until the person has the time to properly recover from what's happening. We generated such a great deal of stress on Nathan's capacity to function that, in order for his mind to function, it had to 'turn off' the problem, his emotions, in order for him to go on,' the researcher thought, taking a few steps back from Nathan to give the boy so much needed space...and time for him to think what he can do about this.

'....Reshirim damn it all, why did this have to happen. I didn't mean to do this to him with my rants, I just wanted him to realize what we were worried about. I can try to break through that wall and force him to process his emotional trauma, perhaps with Kirlia's aid to assist me...but that would just leave him back crumpled up against the real wall again. Raphael isn't equipped to treat depression with their aura of positivity, and no of us have time to sit down and slowly coax out his raw feelings and help dealing with them. My experience as a Pokémon Therapist and Consuler won't help me here either, as he's quite obviously a human, and I don't where to even begin in finding the root of the problem. Yelling at him to snap out of it will also not help, as much as I wish it would earlier. ....So in short, there is nothing that can be done right now. Nate has to remain calm and strong to survive down here, and if shutting off his emotion does that for the time being...so be it.'

Coming to the grim, stark truth, Ventus struggled not to sigh in abject sorrow and let his own stress with the situation weigh down on him like a Hippowdon, before he told Nathan : "Good. We are ready to head out then. Everyone, let's stick together, and we will pull through this to the end. Let's go."