[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Kirlia looks a little puzzled at the signals he's getting from Ventus.  Why was he feeling devious?  And looking at him like...

Oh.  Well then...he's playing THAT card, is he?

Truth be told, though, Kirlia didn't really have to try very hard with 'acting.'  He'd already been notably less cheerful than usual lately.  Ventus hit the mark a little too close to home...

And now that Ventus mentioned it, Nathan finally notices.  He'd been so wrapped up in his own issues, he'd been neglecting to make sure Kirlia was okay...

Nathan looks at Kirlia...he could both see and feel just how sad his best friend was...Kirlia hugs him.  They'd get through this.  Together.  Nathan wasn't alone in this, and Kirlia would do anything he could to help.  Even if it meant sharing the pain.

Nathan doesn't say anything in response to Ventus...he...really had been a terrible friend lately...yet everyone was telling him they didn't hold it against him...well, Shiva hadn't, but Kirlia was saying it'd be fine...

When Shiva comes over to hand the call over to Nathan, it takes him a moment to respond, and can't really look straight at Shiva when he does speak.  "...yeah...sure...I'll, uh, tell him what I found out..."  

(Mallorn's probably going to be the first to speak between the two of them, so...)

[Iron]

"Hi, Nathan. Journey going OK? The others told me you had some notes to pass along."

"Oh, and is that a new member of your little group? Skulking in the shadows back there?"

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

While he went off, Shiva remained there on the table, now alone with Ventus (And Valder if he's there, but he's fine to hear everything). Taking a look at him from the rim of her cup of coffee - this morning: Extra strong brewing - , it wasn't actually hard for her to cotton on what was wrong with the , if you look at the biologicaly age, the youngest Trainer in their group after Larry's departure. Should have known that while he did a well job on hide any problems of his during the mission, it will come back eventually. She was familiar with that trait of the human mind from her own bottled-up feelings of being overshadowed. However...it was not that this time, it was her fault... Or Ventus'... No, this time, Nathan brought despair over himself on his own.

... This didn't mean that the bridge between them is completely burned, though. Fairies are very loyal creatures as soon as they have grown a liking for a person, Cottonee who grew very close to Shiva rather quickly as well as Azurill developing confidence under her care were alive proof. However, they can as well be rather resentful if betrayed or hurted... Shiva herself was not much of an exception in this case, it was true that her trust in Nathan suffered a crack, but this crack can be patched. There are ways. Too precious is the friendship to Nathan to throw it away over a mess at the entrance of the group, luckily nothing really bad happened, luckily they didn't got swarmed by the Scimitars because they were too loud at the entrance... Only that one Scimitar was alerted, by they made it to contain him before he could alert his companions...

She prefered to say nothing concerning this for now, though, and fell into comfortable silence at the table. Neither Ventus nor Kilria would pick any toxic feelings towards Nathan though; in fact, she displayed herself rather calm and open to rebuild bridges. This won't happen right away, a simple 'I'm sorry' won't fix the things right away, but it was clear that she's granting him a second chance and is all willing and open towards anything into that direction. It's just that she won't initate thing this time. All she could do was wait for him to learn from his mistakes and approach her on her own at some point as soon as he feels ready for it.

When she DID spoke up, her voice had the normal soft tone in it. She's doing okay, while she was indeed somewhat worried whether Nathan would get over things, this was not her own problem, and she is not a therapeut plus it's not like she has enough other issues to mull over currently. Like that... TM of practically THE Poison move in her possession...

"So... Ven... What do you want to do know concerning Nathan? I won't throw my friendship with him away just because he messed with both of us; in fact, I'm very open to rebuilding bridges. While my trust in him suffered a crack, it's not like this crack cannot be patched over time. Indeed...give both of us time... This time, however, it has to be Nathan to approach me with the issue. It's not like I did something wrong to him, did I...?" The next words were spoken more to herself, which means in a lower tone. "Fairies...are loyal and trustworthy if they've grown a liking to a person, but they can be so resentful... Way more resentful than I am..."


(Deleted that part of my post, and posted it here at this point to match the timeline of happenings. @Lord Windos, waiting for your reply now!)

[Dragonstrike]

"Hi, Nathan. Journey going OK? The others told me you had some notes to pass along."

"Oh, and is that a new member of your little group? Skulking in the shadows back there?"

"Yeah, it's going okay...I guess...have two gym badges now...yes, I have some notes concerning a few things you might want to hear.  Oh, him? Yeah, that's Valder.  He tends to stay in the background.  Ventus hired him so we'd have an extra trainer around since Vincent and Larry left to conduct their own business seperate from us for some reason...anyways..."

Nathan pulls out his journal and flips to his notes on those binders.

"So, first of all, did they tell you where we found the Neverstone?"

[Iron]

"Sort of, yes. My understanding is still a little fuzzy."

[Dragonstrike]

"Sort of, yes. My understanding is still a little fuzzy."

"Yeah, it wasn't Almanac that had it.  It was a group that calls themselves Scimitars.  If you're certain Almanac is working on a devolution process of their own, I suspect the Scimitars might be in league with them.  The Neverstone wasn't the only devolution item we found down there.  Shiva showed you that clay-like substance right? Well, they call it Castaclay, and they made some interesting comparisons between it and the notes on the Neverstone they'd also stolen from you.

"They're both devolution items, but while the Neverstone works 99% of the time, Castaclay only works 80% of the time.  Castaclay uses ghost energy and electricity to fuel the process, but it takes awhile and is apparently rather painful for the pokemon being devolved, unlike the painless and instantaneous Neverstone.  They were also looking into battle applications for devolution, and hoped to reverse engineer the Neverstone, so I fear they're looking for practical ways to force their opponents' pokemon to devolve mid-battle."

[Iron]

"That would be useful, if highly highly highly unethical. Not illegal, perhaps, since it was not thought possible for Pokemon to de-evolve. I will have to inform one of my contacts at the League about this. Again, please don't tell anyone until I know what my contact wants to do."

"Almanac will stop at nothing to out-compete me in the marketplace. So perhaps they are in league with these Scimitars."

"This Castaclay sounds absolutely horrendous. It's exactly the kind of thing Almanac would make - beneficial to humans, entirely inconsiderate of Pokemon. You can keep that if you absolutely must, but I'd prefer you to send it to my PC so I can learn more about it. I won't try to force anything on you though, and you do have the Neverstone."

"What else?"

[Iron]

"Ah, Shiva will just deliver it later. That works, boss. It'd be good to see you again. When are you planning on making your way to Trillium?"

[Lord Windos]

When she DID spoke up, her voice had the normal soft tone in it. She's doing okay, while she was indeed somewhat worried whether Nathan would get over things, this was not her own problem, and she is not a therapeut plus it's not like she has enough other issues to mull over currently. Like that... TM of practically THE Poison move in her possession...

"So... Ven... What do you want to do know concerning Nathan? I won't throw my friendship with him away just because he messed with both of us; in fact, I'm very open to rebuilding bridges. While my trust in him suffered a crack, it's not like this crack cannot be patched over time. Indeed...give both of us time... This time, however, it has to be Nathan to approach me with the issue. It's not like I did something wrong to him, did I...?" The next words were spoken more to herself, which means in a lower tone. "Fairies...are loyal and trustworthy if they've grown a liking to a person, but they can be so resentful... Way more resentful than I am..."


(Deleted that part of my post, and posted it here at this point to match the timeline of happenings. @Lord Windos, waiting for your reply now!)

Ventus took a set at the table once Nathan began to discuss the finer details of those binders with Dr. Mallorn, and just quietly thought to how he could better defend his group from both Scimitar threats and other dangers for the time being. 'Hmm....while our infiltration went of with barely a hitch, we almost got caught several out several times during it, and if it wasn't for quick thinking/thorough planning, those situation could have gone...poorly. Perhaps I need to start making some improvised weapons, just in case we get caught out without our Pokémon? Well, Sans did teach me a few more....creative ways to disable enemies, but I need to refine my own expertise in Crafts and Chemistry if I don't want to blow myself up....' the researcher thought, before he was jostled out of his thoughts by Shiva, who voiced concerns as to what should be done about Nathan!

Since yesterday night, Shiva has been practically super glued to his side since they left the Scimitar Base, but given the constant level of stress and danger they all were in, he couldn't honestly fault or object to this state of affairs. He even offered to keep her company until she fully recovered from the experience, so he really didn't mind such the behavior. What the empath didn't expect, though, was her to desire his company so much as to ask permission to sleep with him last night, but he took it with relative stride. He agreed, offered to share his bed with her like the gentleman he was (He slept on his side as far away from them as possible), and managed not to make a fool of himself or discomfort her. When he woke up in the morning with Shiva practically cuddling/spooning him, though... Ventus had to try very hard not to have a panic attack, and just stay still/act like he was asleep until she woke up later and conducted her morning rituals, and then maintain that cool long enough for them to part ways for a moment (He asked her to meet them down in the lobby, while he conduct his stretchin and washing up), and vent/meditate away that jumbled mess of feelings. While things were far from romantic between the two right now, he couldn't help but wonder just WHAT these developments will lead to...oh dear....

Now, though, the somewhat deranged Pokémon Sociologist was back to his 'normal' cheerful and affable mood, and was able to clearly contempelate his friend inquiry, tapping his chin as he was doing so, before he slowly responded with what he thinks is the best course of action for all of them. "You didn't do anything wrong down in the base, Shiva. Its just that our criticism and my....explosive reaction towards Nate unbalanced and threw his emotional state into such a tissy that he had no choice BUT to shut down like that. We both could have handled our opinon with a bit more levity, given how surprisingly sensitive he is on emotional matter, but he WAS acting rashly in the beginning down their before we corrected him. I've forgiven him already in reguards to the incident, since we all got out safety and I feel that he has learned the lesson, but I'm not asking you to do the same thing as I have. Just give Nate the time to fully settle down from these last few trying days, and then once he gets around to apologizing, you both can began to re-built that bond of trust between you. It might akward or uncomfortable between the two of you in the beginning, but I am confidant that the 'crack' in your friendship will mend in time. At least, that is my opinion on matters. What you do is ultimately up to you, my dear friend."

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

"You didn't do anything wrong down in the base, Shiva. Its just that our criticism and my....explosive reaction towards Nate unbalanced and threw his emotional state into such a tissy that he had no choice BUT to shut down like that. We both could have handled our opinon with a bit more levity, given how surprisingly sensitive he is on emotional matter, but he WAS acting rashly in the beginning down their before we corrected him. I've forgiven him already in reguards to the incident, since we all got out safety and I feel that he has learned the lesson, but I'm not asking you to do the same thing as I have. Just give Nate the time to fully settle down from these last few trying days, and then once he gets around to apologizing, you both can began to re-built that bond of trust between you. It might akward or uncomfortable between the two of you in the beginning, but I am confidant that the 'crack' in your friendship will mend in time. At least, that is my opinion on matters. What you do is ultimately up to you, my dear friend."

"You're...not wrong on this... Maybe things would gave gone better if we took a little more time in planing and sicussing our thoughts before just heading down the Base. Luckily, we still got out there in one piece and unharmed - and even with loot!~"

As he mentioned that he already has forgiven things, Shiva could not help to given Ven a confused, yet rather...delighted expression. After Nathan messed with him pretty hard in her view although it was just bad phrasing, he...didn't mind that? More the forgiive-and-forget-type he must be... On the others hand, she showed himself not different when THEY had an issue about bad phrasing that lead to quite a bad misunderstanding. Indeed, in the end of clearing teh matters they were dining by the sea... Aww, memories.

"I'll give him the desired time and alone time until he feels fine enough to approach me, and I'll surely appreciate if he does so. Trust is earned, and a very fragile flower... But I'm sure things will be fine with us over the time. It's not like I'll be avoiding or, by all means, exclude him because of what happened... Never. Never would I do that, I just hope that he knows that, too."

"Besides, what shall we do now concerning these Scimitars? Is there any use to revisit their Base?"