it's an almost alien feeling, listening to navy talk about tsubaki. before she took the council seat, those few months where she was able to start to get to know delta - they were still awkward. she misses her. she misses her dearly. but there is a pride in his voice that is so unmistakably familial and it makes her question if she'll ever have that. 

will she ever get the chance?

"this is why the amnesty program's so important. to show them all that not only can they do better. we can do better." we can forgive. we can change. we can do right. 

Michael Navidson

☉

"only five minutes ago, you said you would live in your shame and be humbled," she says with another skittering laugh. lyune twists about in the air, but no matter where he goes, the hitmonlee does not miss. and so she snaps; the last of his bullet punches meet a hexagonal barrier. 

a courtesy of his brother's gym badge.

"or have you forgotten that lie already?"

smoke curls around the field. bits of it still burn. and the last of lyune's barrier disintegrates; behind it is another swell of fire. 

MATIAS SILPH

☉

he really has no off switch, does he? she leans back in her chair, hand hovering over the entirety of the glass, fingertips around the top of its curves. the brown liquid rolls around as she turns her wrist. her brow raises at the mention of silph and she wonders idly if this is some thinly veiled remark about penny being left out. 

"ah, yes, the next time we have one of those," she says, already dreading it. what will their leaders have to tell them in a few more months? that they're corroborating with rocket? that arceus has come down to gift them avatarship itself, but it must be kept secret lest someone find out? 

"i'd be more than happy to tell navidson as much if he brings up another summit." she finally takes a sip. and he's right - it is smokey, like the smoldering embers of a strong oak. warmth travels down her sternum and she sighs. 

"the situation between hideo and alexei is, in my opinion, quite different. i don't know much about hideo's past, but we're talking about a child here. alexei, on the other hand, has no excuse." she makes a face. "not that that didn't stop him from coming up with excuses."

another sip. "i've always hated them, you know. meetings like this. we talk in circles until we tire of hearing our own voices. their stratagems were all sent to me, but how successful will they be if they don't accept things as they are? both ivanov and devlin expressed severe discomfort with the idea of dynamax."

paxton concordas

☉

all they can do is be there for her. her shoulders relax. isaac is the voice of reason in her ear, reminding her time and time again that strength is just as she says: forming bonds and allowing others to share your burdens. there is a part of her, smaller with each passing week but there nonetheless, that has its doubts. 

she fears pulling them in so close will only get them burned. 

"do you think you've changed much?" she asks. "since they chose you?" she's so used to seeing the parasitic nature of avatarship. even eva has expressed her exhaustion, how the weight of rayquaza's worries sometimes threaten to smother her. she ignores the pang in her chest. 

calcifer flutters closer to them and lands. he rumbles and points upward. she doesn't spy anything out of the ordinary at first glance, save for the red cluster of crystals around a cavern wall. and then distantly she realizes that the red isn't part of the crystal at all. 

"careful," she warns.

"and that's one less thing for me to worry about. eris, i mean. i heard she's been a...well, difficult to manage for the league." she frowns. "it's just, with uxie's reveal, i worry. i worry about what something like a mesprit could possibly want out of a child."

how much will it take from her? how much does she think the league will demand she give?

Isaac Merlo

☉

where his expression is an apathetic sculpture, her own is twisted with pain and anger. he's an elite four member; he is one of four among hoenn's entire populace where she can trust his expertise in battle, but this? they could have ended up hurt. or maimed. or killed. 

the sore twist of her back reminds her she more than likely pulled a muscle. her sword is meant for defensive measures at worst, and against other human beings at best. not otherworldly bastardizations of johto's legendaries. 

it's with a pained grunt that she gets to her feet, clipping the ball to her belt. fafnir is gone, taking a well-deserved rest after nearly having his throat torn out by the feral pokemon.

"one unhinged member of the elite four is more than enough for me. whatever you're dealing with, get it the fuck together."

she looks over lyune's wing, checking the strappings around the metal and, satisfied, hauls herself up and onto his back.

"this wasn't winning. rocket's still out there. there's still research stations to set up. our people, if they're coming across things like this, aren't going to walk away unscathed."

Greyson Connors

☉

time has a habit of slipping away from her down here. there is simply too much to be done. the other side is already conducting research - their best and brightest are working against the clock with the league's own. but are they? she thinks, embittered when the thought of Eva Morales and Naomi Sato come to mind. 

the faction lines in the sand have blurred. or perhaps it's less a line and more a spiral, looping around them all in a dizzying display, leaving them just lost enough for the drk triad to get the better of them. 

nomi is right. she knows it in her bones, but right doesn't mean possible. 

there hadn't been time, in the aftermath, to confront KING WAYLAND. so soon afterwards, they'd had to deal with the likes of Elisabeth Fiorelli and jayden cross, an encounter that still sours the look on her face. the uneasy truce she has with penelope does little to ease the knot of anxiety in her chest. 

but still she walks confidently onward and her smile has teeth when she replies, "and miss this?" she arches a brow. "i've been overseeing our advancement strategies. better to do that on the field. why aren't you in ever grande?"

PENELOPE LIVY

☉

"good," she repeats, still smiling. she folds her tablet case over itself and swivels in her chair, tucking it away for later. for the first time in a long time, she's excited about something other than work. the rarity of it strikes her and it makes her happy, to be here, but sad too, that it's taken her so long to notice.

i know, she thinks, but instead she says, "and i yours."

and because she trusts him, because she has to trust him, she says, albeit lowly, "that's why, in the coming months, when i call on you, i'll expect you to answer." her eyes glitter. "because i'll need you when we take back my home."

Roy Aker

☉

she's witnessed this behavior only in the other realms, those distorted, loosely connected places where upside is down. and there, there is where things aren't supposed to make sense. not here. not among the people who don't choose to pass through those gateways. 

sypha is at her side, safeguard ribbons twined around freya's arms. the sickness spreads, but those who haven't been afflicted are drawn to her. sweat slides down the back of her neck as she manipulates the guards, calling for others to help evacuate the clean. 

their path is blocked. a father and his daughter stumble into her back; a protective arm comes out before them. the other reaches for the ball at her choker. but then the infected stumble, shoved away by some invisible force.

she reaches for their hands, dragging them through the danger, and only when they're safe does she spare a look over her shoulder. 

and she sees nothing but the agonized and the people they've yet to save. 

POISON PATROL

☉

he seems just as uncomfortable with small talk as she is, but that doesn't make her relax in the slightest. instead, she nods tersely, offers an awkward smile in return and offers him the same: "freya's fine."

spring challenges sound lovely and for many, maybe they will be, but the gym leaders are their best front for finding recruits. leisure is in low supply these days; the very idea of it is far from her mind, at least. 

"busy. yes, i've been busy, putting together reports following our gym leader summit." her nose wrinkles and she opens the door for him, beckoning him inside. 

the wish-maker, much like the other legendary pokemon under the league's purview, do not live in the stasis of their balls. when she'd learned they're free to roam the grounds, she'd found the idea unsettling. now, it's enticed with what's supposedly, it's favorite serving of fruits - a motley assortment of pinap and mago berries. 

"i'm almost surprised to see it here," she remarks as it looks up from the platter, face and fingers stained with yellow and orange juice. "i set up the food almost two hours ago now and it only just showed a few minutes before you arrived."

lam logan

☉

she stretches her jaw while desiree looks over the folders, willing away the memories of that frozen place. they used to bother her more often, linger in the back of her brain. the weeks after finding rayquaza again were some of the hardest - willingly returning to that wasteland only to return to the waiting, angry arms of a man who still doesn't understand why he can't protect her. 

"pretty and dangerous," she says, nose wrinkling at the fairy. it's a natural enemy to her and her dragons don't like coming across it on the grounds. 

"yes, though this will primarily be a platform for you to show the league, and yourself, what you're made of. i'll be there to play support." she tucks the other folders away and turns to her computer screen.

"unless, when we're on the field, i need to be more...aggressive."

DESIREE BLOOMS

☉

shrapnel plinks off of lyune's armored chest. some of the heavier boulders slam into his forearms; one hits his wing and makes him dip in the air, but his defenses have been bolstered by the kerosene wrath gassed into his fire. 

"yes. i wear my failings like an albatross. you wear them like a badge of honor." fire pours, molten white, tinged blue, eating at the air in the room.

but they are, at the end of the day, chains. the dead and the wronged and the scorned will tear him down if he doesn't tear himself apart first. 

MATIAS SILPH

☉

suddenly, it's like she's not even there. ana's talking, but it's not really to her. the mechanic walks through the process aloud and freya can practically hear the gears turning in her head (which might not be as figurative as she thinks). wango bango, big summer blowout doesn't make it sound like she can perfectly recreate what thousands of dollars from devon co. poured into the tech, but hey, she'll take what she can get. 

and knowing ana, and the love she puts into things, it might just be better.

more things freya is going to consequently, intentionally forget about are illuminated for her. she rolls the ball around in her palms, sizing up the space, and thinks it should fit. she takes a step back and drops it. 

the creature is a masterful display of metalwork. the damage she'd done to it to get it into the ball has been rewritten over at the pokemon center and she fears it may strike back, but the neon glow exuding from led strips under its metal plating is almost...friendly. or at the very least, indifferent.

which, she supposes, is better than wrathful. 

it does not blink. it does not move. it stares straight ahead; that is, until freya cautiously steps to the side. then it simply turns its head, scans her from head to toe, and returns to a static state. 

"huh. it was way more violent in the fissure." maybe all of the energy around there? "what do you think? will it be helpful?"

ana fell

☉

"life is hard and not without pain," she says quietly. "i think they understand that more than most." there's no way she could possibly know that. they're not even of this realm, conjured by the dream mist and the energy insidiously strangling hoenn. 

but as she works, guiding lyra's wet, green hands over the wounds, she feels the fire underneath its hide. anger, pain, sorrow. 

"you can't change the past, only rectify your makes with what you do with the future." a pill she's managed to swallow, but still struggles to keep down. her teeth bare. lyra draws back and the water that drips down her arms loses its healing glow. 

"this back part here is infected. we'll need to shave off the scales to get to the skin underneath it. repeat this to it: enel ve."

annalise henderson

☉