"we'll lean into that then," she says. she takes the tablet back from him and saves the other two he disliked while pulling the third to the forefront of the screen. with the stroke of her pen, she slims down the figure and makes note of different materials. she replaces the armor at his elbows and his knees with substance for more flexibility. 

it's not much to work off of, but a soul siphoner lends her to sketching a sword beside him. a fitted hilt that only activates when it connects with his palm. her gaze flicks up to the ceruledge to capture its own blade's likeness. 

those unsettling eyes peer blankly at her. 

"i'll leave the harvesting to our underboss fiorelli," she says dismissively. once again, she turns the tablet back to jayden.

admin jayden cross
ceruledge sygna suit

materials

• mega stone
• form change
• distortion shards
• silvally memory
• titanium & kevlar thread
• nylon plastic polymer
• gastly gas
• rotom sparks
• pawniard blade

features
revenant blade. limb strength enhancement. cursed body. fire resistance. sustainability.

"gather these items for me. Felix Gallagher should be able to fulfill most of these requests."

jayden cross

☉

here is where she places the cheese in front of the rattata. here is where she learns the lengths of which they will go to find her. to uncover her. to seek her. to know her. 

"i will tell you something of myself. and i will do so honestly."

Zev Harcourt

☉

she searches him. people like him - like her - always have something just under the surface. his mind is a charming labyrinth she could wander about for days on end. he is her missing puzzle piece, stripped of its emotion and grandeur.

"as are you," she says. "you've made your sacrifices; let me make mine." for progress. for success. for them. 

"and, to assuage any worries, because i have seen others abandon your cause - my loyalty is yours because it will always be theirs," she says with a quirk of her lips. her gaze drops lovingly down to his afflicted arm. "you are part of them - our child, our contingency." she dares now, to trace featherlight touches over the arm.

"so tell me about you. about them. indulge me."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

her open-ended request leaves him to measure his value for her. he offers to deliver information, not the substantial bodies of those he mentions. it's realistic, at least, and she appreciates him for that. 

not that it matters. 

"the mist," she says, more precisely. "raw samples, from the deepest trenches of the deep sea you can manage."

Zev Harcourt

☉

starved eyes look upon the specimen she's been kept from for weeks. there is a flicker as she looks over his pale skin, an itching in her fingers as they draw from chest to touch him, but his pained expression gives her pause. flesh bubbles and warps, writhing as though attempting to pry itself free from his self. 

sheer delight washes over her. goosebumps shiver over her skin. "marvelous," she murmurs, gaze tearing away as he cups her cheek. 

she leans into him with a tilt of her head, lips leaving a kiss in his palm. 

"i'll extract myself if the risk becomes too great. but know this, please, that if i am compromised, nothing can break me."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

her private notes, the untouchable ones, are written in short-code. these, though, she doesn't mind if jayden peeks over her shoulder. in one corner of the screen are several quick sketches of jayden's likeness. different armor structures in an assortment of colors share the page with her elegant scrawl.

"no, i don't think there is," she says, but her tone is not conversational. her gaze flickers to and from the ceruledge to the tablet. "sygna suits amplify the bond between trainer and pokemon. reports on ghost-types are, mm, fickle at best. i wouldn't count myself an expert by any means when it comes to them so i can't speak on the nuances of how they come into being. or if the reported dex entries regarding their blades' manifestation from the regrets of the deceased have much merit."

she smiles. "but you may find their traits exacerbated in your own mind when the suit is active. any regrets you may have might burden you twofold." and then a shrug. "but if you have none, i think there's little to worry about."

she hands the tablet to him with the sketches. three different creatives are displayed on the page. 

jayden cross

☉

she is simpler than him, in this way. her maslow's pyramid is shorter than others', but in a different way than his. she still craves the vices of the flesh. but if he will not indulge her, she will simply fill her needs with someone else. when he squats before her, she drapes a hand over her own exposure, thumb on her collarbone. 

"like i said, there will always be work." but the acquiescing is in his voice. she's not a petulant child and will not mew for his attention. 

"my safety?" her laugh is a sultry rumble. "you come before me one-eyed and lame, fretting over my safety, while there's still work to be done." she reaches to touch his neck. his chest. "if you won't let me ease your tension, at least let me assist you in this. their knowledge and their assets are yours, my heart, but only through me."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

"it's the human condition to favor a life of irony." complicated beings, humans. fascinatingly, irritatingly so. here is where her edge lay - she lacks conviction driven by emotion. there are no threads entangled by feelings. 

except for them.

she finally turns her attention to his ceruledge. her heels click as she stands with a small tablet in hand. she draws up her notes, haphazardly scribbling as she walks around the pokemon.

"they're vampiric in nature, no?" she says as she draws up their pokedex files.

any cuts from ceruledge's swords will cause wounds that leak life energy, which the swords then absorb.

blue flicks up to jayden. "do you have any regrets, admin cross?"

jayden cross

☉

"interesting," she muses. "it could certainly help those with disablements. fascinating that technology like this could be so very useful in making our world a better place and yet here we are using them as exoskeletons for expansion and warfare." her eyes glitter. 

want and demand mean progress, which means tools at her disposal. and at the end of the day, that is all she is after. help the crippled walk or blow their legs apart in the first place - she cares little either way. 

at his question, she shrugs. "we still maintain our frailties within these. i think most forget that. and they forget too, that humans are machines." all made up of chemical processes and hardwired meat. it's just more difficult to decode than software. 

"sygna suits are a carapace. useful, but disposable. ah, but excuse my mutterings. shall we see what we can do?"

jayden cross

☉

there are prickles at the base of her neck. stress does not cling to anya fowl like it does most everyone else; it does not cling to the corners of her eyes or the slope of her shoulders. instead it is swathed over her leather jacket, the smoke from her marlboros coated - not entirely unpleasantly - under a thin veil of silky perfume.

the summons had come unexpectedly and with a visit to fernando on the near horizon, she had spent some time cataloguing the contents of her mind and searching for a crack. a misstep. a slip. 

the four walls around her cozy office had, in an instant, become bars. but after a time, a few strokes of envy's lovely purple fur, and she had gathered herself. with a fresh coat of lipstick and a touch-up to her eyes, she rasps once on the rocket boss's door.

DECLAN WALSH

☉

these are not her secrets. those are tucked away in her mind's eye, never to be pried from man or machine alike. 

"it doesn't," she says. "memory is a fickle thing. we understand it about as well as we understand dreams." and at this, she reaches into her desk and withdraws a folder. it contains snapshots of nisa holo's otome route, as well as dossiers from rocket's own Lulu Flint.

"but if we can compartmentalize the episodic and semantic memories, we should be able to extract them, like raw data, from our subjects. then comes translation." she shrugs. "but it's a study in its most rudimentary stages."

she shifts some of the papers around. "might i make a request of you, zev?" she smiles and holds up a picture of nisa's form, swathed in mist. "i would like some of this."

Zev Harcourt

☉

he is her ball of yarn, though he doesn't seem perturbed by that fact in the least. her gaze is heavy for most, scrutinizing and intense. despite her ability to slip on molly fouller like a well-loved dress, she's never been able to change her eyes. 

like looking through ice, a woman said once, still gasping in anya's sheets - empty and empty and empty.

"mm." she doubts they're still talking about the environmental climate. most of rocket's beasts, she'd gather, would prefer to rule under kanto's regime. her observations remain her own for the time being. 

"plush pillows and pampering - who could complain?" she says and follows his movements to one of her possessions. 

"a rudimentary memory device," she offers, watching him in earnest now. "it would be fascinating, wouldn't it - if we could extract our enemies' memories?"

Zev Harcourt

☉

thinking, she continues her stirring and then takes an aromatic sip, blue eyes, for a brief moment, leaving him to watch the legs settle back into the wine. and then she shifts, drawing one slender leg closer. her dress hitches up, exposing more skin, and her lack of undergarments.

"what is the point of success if we aren't meant to indulge in its aftermath? there will always be more work, my darling."

another sip. she snakes a smile. "my rocket contacts have agreed to an audience to discuss my employment opportunities."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉