freya is not in a good mood. in fact, freya is in a miserable, terrible mood. and freya in a good mood puts people on edge. freya in a bad mood is another thing entirely.

her mouth is puckered, almost like she's been sucking on a lemon. eva is uncharacteristically quiet and she willfully ignores it. hateful pain and anger wage war against each other. resentment at their situation has burrowed its way back to the surface to lap at the guilt spilling like magma from her heart. 

eva speaks up and she ducks under a dangerous display of crystals. 

"no," she says flatly. "he's not a rocket."

her brows knit. 

fuck.

Eva Morales Elisabeth Fiorelli jayden cross

☉

This was a reprisal of an old song, one the two women down below had danced with her many times before. The dragoness who'd rain fire at the intruders that dared to infringe of her domain. The peacekeeper who sought to banish the chaos of ruinous forces from a still-healing region.[break][break]

Throughout it all, Elisabeth's role remained the same. The setting changed, the opponents' allies changed, but this stayed the same: she didn't have the loyalty of her companion to their mutual cause, but only loyalty to herself.[break][break]

That seed of selfishness was enough to flourish into a venom all on its own.[break][break]

freya morningstar would recognize the dragon that followed her as Jayden's Roaring Moon carried her into battle: a golden Naganadel, one whose piercing cry released a DRAGON PULSE that rippled throughout the vicinity with its shattering decibel.[break][break]

Elisabeth's sight wasn't focused on it, however, or the Pokemon that faced them, or even the man at her side.[break][break]

Her eyes burned a bright ochre, bright as the Tablets of Ruin that seared in a vengeful testament against the two women down below -- women whose names it had etched upon itself in eternal bitterness and fury.[break][break]

Ting Lu could wait.[break][break]

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[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross Eva Morales freya morningstar

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Freya’s response caught her off guard and as a result, she faltered, missing a step over a jutting tera crystal shard that made her tumble forward with a small cry. She looked rather clumsy having to flail her arms around and catch herself on another, sharper, piece of rock that left a shallow cut in her palm that flared red, “Not a Roc- ?!”

The Professor was about to chastise Freya for the statement, frustrated that she didn’t see the reality of it. He was actively working with Rocket, that was clear by following around the Head Scientist as an assignment. Unfortunately, her words were cut short by the bellow of anger above them.

Called to action, the thought immediately dissolved in her mind and the Iron Leaves acted without command, raising a QUICK GUARD that saved the women from the burning flames and dragon’s fury, “Who the hell-?!” Eva didn’t recognize the man but the woman . . . “Ugh, Elisabeth,” she growled, between clenched teeth, GRUDGES rising like a king tide.

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli & jayden cross & freya morningstar

wnRreI9e
Total: 217

she's not in the mood to argue. she's not in the mood to deal with many of her emotions, quite frankly, but that doesn't stop her from reflexively lurching forward when eva slips. defending king's honor isn't going to be an easy task, especially when he's made it so fucking difficult for her right now. 

it's almost a relief when the skies break open and an achingly familiar, thundering voice booms down at them. 

gold eyes spark with something primal. the draconid fire inside of her alights in earnest and calcifer is underneath her in an instant, wings flared. the fire splits around them and she stares toothily up through the embers, growl rising in her own throat. 

"cal, give us cover." smoke pours out from the charizard's maw, making her eyes smart. she tugs up her red cowl and unsheathes the sword at her hip. a twirl of her wrist, passed to her opposite hand, and the weapon shifts into a bow.

she lingers, tongue-tied, but decades of love lost have taught her that they don't need words. eva will have her back, no matter what. 

an arrow sails out of the cloud of smoke and detonates. behind it, calcifer comes out swinging at the roaring moon - vodnik, memories whisper.

Eva Morales Elisabeth Fiorelli jayden cross

☉

That accursed bow.[break][break]

Elisabeth would recognize it anywhere, and the sight of it being strung with arrows sent irrational rage and HATRED flowing through her -- intensifying the GRUDGE that the sight of the dragoness had already kindled within her.[break][break]

It would take several seconds too long to realize, however, that she was not the target of this particular missile.[break][break]

"Watch yourself, Cross!" Elisabeth shouted, and her Naganadel took swift action, diving forward with a SLUDGE WAVE that sought to push back the detonated arrow with its own thick mass of noxious fluid.[break][break]

It had the secondary effect of raining down acid on the two women and their Pokemon below, seeking to eat through whatever exposed flesh it might land upon.[break][break]

They'd have to see how well Eva Morales's QUICK GUARD held.[break][break]

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[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross Eva Morales freya morningstar

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Freya was on the move before Eva could even comprehend what was happening. The world blurred in a hazy black SMOKESCREEN and instinct flared like a bright light. Eva moved, lunging for cover outside of the QUICK GUARD that held strong as the poison and ice rained down from above. It was the relentless and hate fueled strike of jayden cross’s sword that made the barrier shatter. A strike meant for Freya.

“Lia! Freya!”

Eva called out in a burst of panic. The Iron Leaves’ figure shuttered in space, flashing like a glitch before being replaced by Freya and her dragon: ALLY SWITCH. It left the Iron Leaves vulnerable to a strike from jayden cross which it attempted to parry with a SACRED SWORD of its own, but it was likely too late.

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli & jayden cross & freya morningstar

K|QrkuLu
Total: 436

there are so many who don't remember those harrowing years spent in a timesick universe. jayden cross' memory is another epitaph scored into her journal, marked with blood and spilled ink. if she hadn't lost so much already, she may have found more room to mourn him.

in that instant where eva pulls her back, where her atoms are broken down and reconstructed, she is brought outside of herself. she is made to see his smile, the weight off his shoulders, a crown set neatly upon his brow.

don't you remember, eva? don't you remember how he loved us?

a ball at her hip wrenches itself open. even if the professor doesn't, her roaring moon does. calcifer is drawn back in a beam of red light. the smokescreen is thinning. blue scales shimmer to elisabeth's right. she can't give elisa an opportunity to strike while eva is engaged. 

crackling electricity sizzles from melusine's maw as she attempts to bite down on the naganadel's wing. 

jayden cross Elisabeth Fiorelli Eva Morales

☉

Memories of a distant dream didn't chain Elisabeth in the same way. The present consumed her altogether too much, and she'd reveled in denying the pain of her own past as it was.[break][break]

When the second ROARING MOON approached, it did not engage Jayden's dragon. It targeted Elisabeth's own.[break][break]

Sharp teeth sank into golden sinew and ivory bone, and her Naganadel howled in indignation. This was the tactical skill that Elisabeth had learned to equate with the dragoness -- deflecting her attention when Eva Morales was open and vulnerable to attack.[break][break]

Irritation shifted to a flash of sudden calculation, a hypothesis beginning to form.[break][break]

This wasn't typical warfare where one soldier defended their side, was it? Between the way Eva Morales had leapt in front of the councilwoman, and how quickly the the latter had moved to distract Elisabeth Fiorelli from the Head Scientist...[break][break]

"Cross," she murmured to her companion, patient as the mentor he believed her to be, while a sly smile spread across her lips. "Look how they throw themselves before us to defend one another. Perhaps they reveal their own weakness."[break][break]

She prayed he could hear her, knowing the voices of Chien-pao remained loud with HATRED in his ears.[break][break]

Regardless of his acknowledgement, she tested that theory with a vengeful DRAGON PULSE that blasted into the Roaring Moon's hide, spitefully blowing back against both the Naganadel and its foe.[break][break]

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[attr="class","ooc"] jayden cross Eva Morales freya morningstar

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The paradox pokemon may have parried the Rocket’s hateful sword, but the aura is something intangible, impossible to fend off without warning. It strikes the beast like a shock wave from a Manectric. The hate is almost paralyzing. The beast’s digital, crimson eyes glitch out for a moment. A deeper red takes their place.

Fury is all they can feel and a rampage is what comes next. Their slender hooves pound into the ground, rearing and bellowing a robotic cry. Theri cranial horn swoops down, slashing out PSYBLADE after PSYBLADE in a flurry of pink energy everywhere but nowhere in particular all at once.

One strikes the tree behind Eva, sending her sprawling across the ground to avoid decapitation, “Thalia! Get a hold of yourself!” she reached for the paradox’s pokeball, just in case she becomes a true danger to everyone.

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli & jayden cross & freya morningstar

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Total: 615

dragons are not sympathetic when they are hatchlings. salamence in particular grow with their siblings until their egg horns fall off; and then the males fight until the other has been torn limb from limb, devoured to bolster the victor. it's an uncommon practice nowadays, among dragon breeders. 

freya's family was no exception to this, but her father's most prized salamence were raised with the old traditions in mind. 

but vodnik and melusine are a different story altogether. they came from the mist fully formed, but their bond is that of kol, unshakeable and unbreakable. she hadn't remembered before. not until she poured over her journals and took blood to pen and thought remember, remember, remember again. 

they lay with each other in a meadow and watch the clouds roll by. and they ask each other, at the end of all of this and all of everything, will they find their way back? will things change? will it matter?

vodnik snarls in pain and freya is snapped back to the flurry of teeth and claw and wing and the hateful, resentful sneering of their adversaries. through the amalgamation of limbs, charged with different types of energy, she spies eva and though she knows she can hold her own, she urges melusine to disengage. 

and instead her dragon bellows in frustration and anger, teeth wriggling against the hide of the naganadel that dare strike her brother, wings flared as she calls the storm to her aid.

jayden cross Elisabeth Fiorelli Eva Morales

☉