its malformed face ruptures, revealing rows upon rows of jagged teeth, enamel stripped and replaced with coral. the corners of its smile split the skin by the canthus of its eyes - hateful, empty sockets housing an eerie blue glow.

shadows stretch across tsubaki's face and freya does not see the look of horror, but majushage readies an attack and freya reacts instinctually. beams of light race overhead and she tucks into a roll. the silver of her armor refracts the light from the nihilego's attack. 

coral bits plink down onto the floor. wet skin tears from its crown; threads of flesh sizzle away from the attack and leave limpid, hanging strands around its face. silver-blue bones poke through sallow gray fat. 

it does not seem to notice that half its face is exposed to the sea. 

an inhumane shriek rattles through a broken throat. freya gets back to her feet beside tsubaki. dozens of tentacles writhe above them now, spreading from the corpse's back. in the adjacent room, mewling cries greet the ghoulish call to arms. 

"get back to the deck," she says. "we're at a disadvantage in here." lathliss can take care of them. any of the roaring moons slung across her belt could dispatch the creature and its young, but she cannot risk damaging the interior of the ship. she reaches for the blade at her hip. 

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

26 experience a clutch of ultra beast eggs hatching and the horrific newborn forms of nihilego or poipole emerging. protective parent ultra beasts will mercilessly protect them.

☉

so why the sudden animosity? she lets sleeping dragons lie. she doesn't know the environment surrounding academia, but she does know Remiel Calcifet is an expert in his field. that status can't come without jealousies, surely. still, she's pleased to hear a civilian say those words aloud - i'm glad that he's on our side.

hope for the program burns warmly at the bottom of her heart, making the impossibility of a pardon for the man she loves seem just a bit more probable. 

her tongue runs along her teeth. "yes, it's close to sootopolis, but i believe our head professor is keeping an eye on it. anyone who dare trespass would see the wrath of her patron before they could utter the word glory." 

her expression shifts from nonchalant to terse. vengeful flames fan in her golds. Elisabeth Fiorelli had defiled the seas surrounding the pillar, bathing the ocean with the blood of freya's dragons. and that's the closest she'll allow rocket to desecrate the grounds.

howard slayte

☉

"somewhat," she says. his grandfather had been the one to send her out to her excursion in search of the eon duo. yet another failed endeavor, of which has had her stray from the nostalgic place. 

"but it really is lovely and it's been too long since i've been back." the last time, it's where ALEXANDER STONE had found her. it's where she saw him since his death, somehow living and breathing. 

"let's do it. i'll have my assistant put something on your calendar?"

kyle lopez

☉

"yes, i was there," she says, albeit gravely. there was a moment when she had a choice - continue the onslaught against kyurem or go into the caverns. and save people like him. save people who were on comms calling for help. would he be here, in this state, if she'd made a different choice? 

"we won." it's an easier way of saying we didn't, but such a beast couldn't be felled. they separated reshiram; they lost reshiram. they banished the world-devourer; they could not stop it from cleaving a chasm in the earth. 

"for now. and from what i've heard, our operatives are all accounted for - " she bites her lip, "in different conditions, but alive nonetheless."

while he's at no risk of leaping out of the bed, she finds her way back to her seat and falls back into it. exhaustion lingers in her. emotions she hasn't had time to parse gnaw at her amygdala, threatening action, but she quashes the feeling.

Noel Parker

☉

that ever-present heartbeat rhythmically pulses under tsubaki's words. even the sound of her boots on the floor are swallowed by the living echoes all around them; ultra beasts undulate in their clutches and the walls shudder and outside the rest of the plane teems with activity. distant sonorous cries grace the outside of the hull.

she mistakes the squelching sound as just another instrument to the rest of the chorus. 

"seeker of light," she repeats. she doesn't know enough about ships to speak on what establishes a predecessor. gods, if only angelo vestri and skyler dross were still here. if this was the first, what brought them here? was it a failed expedition? or was this exactly where they intended to land?

she tugs on her sygna suit gauntlets and parts a curtain of algae. bunk beds are fastened to the ground, mattresses mottled black and green with mildew. some sprout colorful, glowing flora. another cluster of eggs glows softly in the top right corner of the room, swathed in a long white tendril eerily similar to tsubaki's manjushage. 

it twitches and freya eyes it warily, blinking twice, waiting for it to still. it does. this place plays tricks on the mind. she crouches, searching for imprints amidst the invasive overgrowth, any lingering remains of knowledge. any answers.

from this other room adjacent to tsubaki's quarters, she says, "the other one disappeared. so why does this one stay? the tera crystals - you think the ship was made with them? or did they come much later?"

warning bells ring softly at the base of her skull. conversations drift - we don't know what this energy does to our pokemon. we don't know the lasting effects of tera crystal use. 

for all they know, they could be erasing their pokemon by using this borrowed power. her jaw tightens, heel turning, another squelch and she thinks it her own footstep. she does not notice the tentacle drift away from its clutch, the gnarled, jagged teeth of a predator in the shadows leering down. 

waiting patiently. 

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

19 be hunted by the corpse of a large megalopolan with a nihilego controlling it by way of its toxin in the open realm or The Quaestor Lucis.

☉

taking with Roy Aker

the metal claw comes out of nowhere and her red-scaled charmander is thrown forward, onto her front. freya turns and sidesteps to get out of the crossfire, demanding her charmander get to its feet and attack the assailant. 

this one's scaled hide glimmers gold. 

ember fly from both their mouths and they exchange a round of blows, mirroring each other's moves, until they're both left gasping for breath. the golden one falls to one knee and freya withdraws another safari ball. 

"good job," she praises the other. 

WARDEN - SAFARI SPAWN
catching!

☉

they hadn't shared many words on the way down. even if tsubaki wanted to, freya's in her own head. her coffee had cooled on the bistro table, hands too busy gripping the railing of the balcony. jaw set, eyes unstaring through the wetness on her face, thinking about how far she's come and all she's had to lose because of it. 

how arduous the journey, to regain it. 

yet here she stands, as promised, with tsubaki at the very least looking like less of a wet and muddy rattata. there is a cloud over them, made worse by the haunted currents that drift around them.

lathliss' bulk didn't fit under here so she waits on the deck, keeping an eye out for danger. 

freya murmurs, "tell me more about what you remember. while it's still fresh in your mind. all the differences. all the similarities." 

growing beings shiver in their egg sacs at their nearness.

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

☉

magikarp flit about under the water. she rests by the lakeside to take a breather, holding her hands and breathing some warmth into them. every once in a while she withdraws her phone and types out a few sentences, but she never sends them. 

she never, ever sends them. 

the golden fish is at the bottom of the lake and so she never sees it. when her charmander gets bored, they continue their walk. 

WARDEN - SAFARI SPAWN
skipping

☉

"i don't think that's how it works? anonymous just means your account is anonymous." are there any lights on in there? he seems smart enough, given the whole being a successful archaeologist and all, and knowing people like GIDEON GRAVES. 

she'll give him the benefit of the doubt. 

at the mention of calcifet, she cocks a brow. he is smart, if he's able to piece together who she's talking about so quickly. his hesitation is understandable. there are many who still don't trust him following his defection. 

"i can assure you that Remiel Calcifet is a stand-up gentleman, but i wouldn't want to put you out." and in case he wishes not to linger on the subject - "have you been to sky pillar yourself?"

howard slayte

☉