with her station, she supposes, comes this sort of respect. if a trainer is more than willing to walk through her doors and offer volunteer hours to the sanctuary, she'd be a fool to say no. so she kindly smiles at his words and watches him go. 

one of her administrators will touch base with him and get him all set up. she'll tell them, after their shift, to put him to work with the salamence and she'll watch from above, on dragonback, as her draciary grows. 

and she will be reminded, with nostalgia, of what she's lost and what she's worked so hard to regain.

Morgan Drake

☉

her teeth feel gummy. that nervous fight or flight response kicks in at the question and she curses herself for opening the can of worms in the first place. walls drop from illeana's face and her thoughts race, but they crash into inevitably just as quickly. 

she can answer honestly, but not wholly. 

"no." her voice sounds small. "i'm not okay...and i think that's the first time i've ever said that."

she looks away. 

"i protected someone he knew hurt me," she says carefully. even that's too much. they're a small circle. could she put the pieces together? and if she does, would she scorn her too, for her choices?

"just look after him, okay? and i'll give you whatever support you need."

illeana reyes

☉

that's a no then. she worries her lower lip. the pikachu in the freeze frame leers down at its opponent, towering stories high. and she feels so indescribably small. 

"i think my father might still be alive, but i don't know the first thing about getting in touch with him." would he be the same man? or is that father winter's cruelest joke - sending her on a wild goose chase for a man of no relation. 

silence lapses. she drums her fingertips against her leg, scoots the tablet onto the table and darkens the screen. gives him her full attention. 

"i'm not going to be very good at this. the getting to know you. the letting you get to know me. but i want to."

Roy Aker

☉

it's still unfamiliar ground, not that she'd ever admit it. how does one admit they're not used to having friends and making plans without sounding like a stick in the mud? she's thankful, at the very least, that he seems just as awkward as she is. 

her nose scrunches. while she appreciates hearing her title, restored after all these years, now that she's finally earned it, it feels wrong following the context of this discussion. 

so she waves a hand and with a quirking smile says, "freya's fine," and as she takes her leave, she adds, "top champion lopez."

kyle lopez

☉

it slides cleanly from the stone and as memories of the past drift over remiel's skin, so too do they drift over freya's. the weight of her shortsword on her hip is a decades-old comfort, though its sheen is silver and not the obsidian black from necrozma's body. 

"no, i don't think so," she says as she lifts her gaze. the sight is achingly familiar. her heart races. she is reminded, again, of her failings - all the ways she'd ruined KING WAYLAND's life by dragging him along with her. all the ways she'd hurt him again, when it was over. 

and above, in the heavens, is the world-ender. 

zacian charges forward in a blur of blue and gold. the edges of the dreamscape are turning gray. their time in the book is nearly up, but her heart is pounding. they have to see the fight through. they have to know what happens when it's beaten. 

"because it always comes back to war. one day, when we're done fighting, maybe we'll better remember the rest."

Remiel Calcifet

☉

the months have not been kind to ex-head ranger annalise henderson. through the grapevine, she's heard a bit about her recovery, the way it's changed her, and the woman in front of her is not the woman she once knew. her gaze slides from baby blues, over her chopped bob, and down to the pokeball rotating in her hand. 

only some of freya's own roaring moons are allowed out in the draciary - those that accompanied her to galar; the others, even after all this time, are too feral to be left unattended to. and they simply don't have enough volunteers to handle them.

"yes," she says. "we can subdue it long enough to heal it." lyune watches from behind her, claws flexing in anticipation of a fight. "as for the aftermath? it won't be easy, but with my help, it can be done."

she arcs a brow. 

"if you trust me."

annalise henderson

☉

contingency built upon contingency. FERNANDO SILPH would approve. if they could manage to rebuild rocket's machine, if they could find a way to sever a bond humanely, then they might be able to close the gap. their bleeding defenses would become mere scrapes instead of cut tendons. 

but what would he say? he had protected her. freya had tried to end Elisabeth Fiorelli once and he had protected her. he assured her it was tapu fini, a defense mechanism, but finding him in the showers - the look on his red face - still haunts her. 

"of course," she says and then shifts. her swing tilts to the side; her knee bumps against illie's. "honestly, i'm a bit surprised you came to me." she chews her cheek, contemplating. 

"has alex not...has he not told you? about our falling out?" she tries to keep the pain out of her voice. she tries.

illeana reyes

☉

she marvels at the homeliness of it all and quite suddenly, she misses KING WAYLAND and delta terribly. she misses their flat. she misses their shared spaces, the sounds of a lived in house. the idea of going back to her hotel room is unbearable. 

she swallows. 

"ah, i brought this. i caught it in the silent icelands when - well, i'm sure you've seen the news." although maybe not. not if she's been watching project runway on a projector screen. "anyway, it's another paradox pokemon. very high tech? i'm not sure. you know this isn't my area of expertise. but it's yours. 

"so i thought you'd want a look at it." she fishes out the dreamy blue ball and holds it out to her. 

"the arrows are a project i was hoping you'd help me with. i have some left from ALEXANDER STONE, but he...won't make them for me anymore."

ana fell

☉

"trust me, i know. i've been there." how many hours she'd spent chasing her jumbled thoughts around in her brain, refusing to let them out from behind her teeth. she forced herself to swallow and then had the audacity to wonder why it hurt. 

"it's easy to feel powerless." she's been there too. "but you did good by being there. there could have been a lot more wounded. there could have been death. but there wasn't. and that's because of people like you, putting their lives on the line for their friends and for the region."

she commits his name to memory. paxton concordas and she talked about finding prospective trainers like this. she'll just need to know if he can handle himself in battle, or if he's just another waiting casualty. 

Noel Parker

☉

she can't blame him, really. her brain similarly breaks when she thinks about the good doctor, and she would absolutely consider her a more rightful candidate to receive such admiration. she had already promised, but this solidifies a resolve - she will absolutely get him that signature. 

"your landlord sounds... well, ever grande will work just fine. i have open office ours every week so feel free to drop by to grab it. or you can get in touch with my assistant, Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki and we'll make sure to coordinate."

Eva Morales would probably delight in knowing her work is being appreciated, but freya is a jealous creature at heart and the idea of giving away more of the doctor's precious time to, as he put it, a stranger, stays her from offering an introduction.  still, she gives him this - 

"we're usually in the office at the same time. you might see her around."

she tickles moxie behind her feathers. the dratini's scales glow faintly, pleased, and allows freya to slide the book underneath her. 

"don't worry. we'll keep it safe."

howard slayte

☉

the telltale sign of the remembering. her fingers tense on the cardboard coffee cup, threatening to pop the lid off, the wait - don't on half-pursed lips. she can't. she can't dictate whether they get to remember. she can't do that again. 

"yes," she says. she crouches out of the chair, ducks a hand underneath it, and scooches closer to eva. when she sits back down, she bumps her knee against the professor's. sets her cup down on the table. 

"i made myself remember. it doesn't want to stay, but i can't forget. but it hurts. the remembering." blood splatters on furiously scribbled pages, head aching for days. "so i don't...i don't want to talk about it directly." 

i don't want to hurt you. 

"that's why. we went through a lot together." a pause. "you got me through it. and i care about you a lot because of that, because of a lot of things, and it's hard not showing you how much i care because then you'd probably think me crazy."

her jaw tightens. her eyes go glassy. and all of it comes out - "but i can't do it anymore. i can't isolate like this anymore. i...fuck, eva. just the other day, i saw my mom? i lived a lifetime in another me. i have a family. i know who i am. 

"and i'm so - i'm so overwhelmed."

Eva Morales

☉

"you don't talk much, do you?" she says, pausing the video on her tablet while simultaneously parsing the memories that are hers. it's easy when she focuses on it - which ones are through a fuzzy lens, but shaking the feelings that accompany them; that, she's found, is the hardest part. 

"okay. tired. confused. work's always here and that sucks, but it's a good thing too." she'd go crazy without it. 

"i'm still...making sense of it all. do i - do we have other living family?" she asks softly. 

Roy Aker

☉