[attr="class","illeana i"]
goodbye galar: sword
a celestial queen & the descending madness.
the stars have always offered a solace she has never found in another. no person, place, or thing quite captures her attention in the same way the night sky does.
well, that's not exactly true... but he is gone and she is here, left to rot from the inside out beneath twinkling constellations and the fate they hold. their bodies have long since perished, becoming nothing more than shimmering carcasses in an otherwise bleak sky, but their sacrifice was not in vain.
she maps the stars the only way she knows how: with help.
from
FERNANDO SILPH and
francie myrtle to
priam conrad and her tentative husband
aaron faust... each one becomes a soundboard for her own theories and ideas. it keeps the mind sharp, this incessant prattling about constellations. without it, she would simply wither away, a wasted mind inside an aging body.
and as years pass...
passages between towns begin to open up again as the observatory falls. with it, her dreams become ashes.
no matter how many times she tries, she cannot salvage a phoenix from the wreckage.
ollie morales visits on occasion, bringing with him little sunspots he calls his children. they have become familiar, friends of her own kin, and she finds some light coming back into her eyes at the sight of them.
the real spark comes from
ollie morales's willingness to sit with her, to soak up lofty concepts like a sponge as if nothing has truly changed at all... as if they're still a ranger and a head scientist who attempt to run in their spare time.
they aren't, not anymore, but the memory feels so real and tangible she can't let it go.
she looks at him one night, eyes ignited with a rare interest not seen in what feels like a decade.
"i think the constellations are fated events."has she told him all of this before? she can't remember.
the days have all blurred together by now, a long stretch fading into distant memory.
"this one right here..."a finger points up toward the sky, toward the constellation they labeled ★DrcN.
"it's the meteor event. do you remember that? it feels like a millennia ago now."and her hand moves in the way her thoughts do, shaky and too fast to keep up with.
"and this one!"★VStr, ★JnVr. she traces it faintly with her finger.
"that was what caused hoenn to gain the ability to access mega evolution. my old colleague had a hand in that, you know."is he still alive? with the thought, however, it shifts and morphs into something she doesn't want to entertain... for she does not want to wonder what has become of
Felix Gallagher either and if she starts questioning the mortality of it all, she will always end up circling the drain back to him. always him.
she sits in silence, then, and simply continues to point out constellations until it's time for
ollie morales to return home with his kids and once again, she is left alone with her thoughts.
eventually, as the years drag on, she allows
priam conrad to get closer.
aaron faust, too, is allowed back within her personal space. she keeps herself closed off, mumbling with fidgety eyes drifting back up toward the sky, but she's trying.
she's trying and trying and trying.
the final year
the final year, the tenth year that marks twenty finds illeana reyes working with her spear.
she has become the celestial queen by then, a monarch with her head in the galaxy... it makes those around her question if she's fit to do this, to rule and protect an entire kingdom.
and she's not, but the spear in her hand helps in grounding her to this reality.
aaron faust helps, too, for he and
Greyson Connors (bless his heart) help her with training until she's comfortable enough to approach
Gwyar Wledig for a dynamax band. with his assistance, the band sits comfortably on her wrist and she feels a small semblance of normalcy creep back into her bones like ivy.
it is not enough, not for her, but it has to be for the night is dark and full of terrors as it approaches all too quickly.
_QMRGiyi
tl;dr |- studies the stars for a few years...
- until the observatory is damaged.
- meets with
ollie morales occasionally
- trains with her spear in the final year with
aaron faust &
Greyson Connors :peepobigsmile:
- asks
Gwyar Wledig to make her a dynamax band