HEARING

SOCIAL

THIS IS OLD NEWS. some of them are aware. not by a lot, but well enough ahead of this meeting that their questions are structured to enunciate the point. the authenticity of this gathering is all a false pretense. a chance to dig deep into the faults of one department and use it as a shield for others should danger ever come their way.

“while his tenure may predate your appointment as HEAD PROFESSOR, how is it possible you were never aware of this?”

all it takes is for one question to arise to rouse others in the pecking order.

“were you not the one who worked with him the most?”

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Eva Morales

BEDROCK

a solid foundation built on the crumbs of others

“I SEE HUMILITY IS NOT WHAT LED YOU TO GETTING A SECOND CHANCE.”

they know each other. they know what the other truly thinks. but to know something is not to be completely certain. doubt resides, no matter how small, where it should not. it is irrational. it is constant.

it is what fernando relies on when he lies without remorse.

“oh? we shall see your accountability.”

he waves a hand over his desk.

“freya morningstar was reported to attack one of our esteemed elite four: MATIAS SILPH. while he was trying to save us from a meteroid, in case you haven’t caught up with the times.”

an odd thing to read but it doesn’t take much for fernando to take a side. both need to be taken down. it’s just a matter of who first.

“and yet she still stands a free woman. what will you do but look on? admonish her? scold her?”

he doesn’t need to bite down on his words. no matter how he says them, their weight will forever pull their own.

“play the keeper who babies her, no?”

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ALEXANDER STONE

PLENILUNE

MISSION

TAPU FINI DOES NOT MOVE. it does not smile. or blink. it only stares. a deep seated gaze that looks into your eyes and beyond. a gaze so thorough that it seeps into the soul. that way it knows who you and what you look like. it will never forget.

and when the time comes, it will join you on that journey to the great beyond.

“elisa!”

cait’s shouts breaks the mystical thrall the tapu fini has over her.

“you will respect our mistress!”

MISTY TERRAIN engulfs the coast. they are surrounded by it. embraced by its touch. a hug so endearing that it reeks of their mutual animosity. the pokemon knows her pain and she too will understand its anguish.

“i told you already, gods do not ask. they choose.”

and elisabeth will realize she has been more than chosen. she has been tasked. at her fingertips pools a glitter she did not have before.

now she is the conductor. all she has to do is keep up her end of the bargain.

to weave the start of this vicious cycle.

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Elisabeth Fiorelli

CERES

MISSION ZERO TO A HUNDRED

HER PROVOCATION DOES NOT RILE HIM UP. instead, he simply ignores her. for she is not the first to try and test him. nor will she be the last. it is up to him, as the better, as the real silph to overcome and break through.

“and it was cancelled,” he speaks with indifference. “so go home. and take fuijin with you.”

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Delilah Silph

BROTHER

MISSION POST POSTDORMITUM

“A SINGLE WEED IS NOT A CHORE TO PICK.”

fernando’s eye settles on the lawn. perfectly clean and freshly leveled. perfection. and to think, all it takes is a single weed to throw it off.

just one.

“but when you have a dozen, your work is never done.”

so he looks to the tree matias claims his leppa from. tall, with a canopy thick enough to shade them from the sun.

“so, instead of looking at grass, we must overshadow them with something that rises above what they can ever dream of. a grand enough oak pulls everyone’s attention.”

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MATIAS SILPH

CONNIVING CONUNDRUM

social

“RAIKOU DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU,” he says plainly. “whether it be revived, come from another world, or come about some other way, it will never pick you as an avatar, much less acknowledge you.”

he doesn’t bat an eye.

“nor will any other legendary pokemon. even i, a human, can recognize that your obsession makes you unfit.”

it reminds him of a conversation he had with an old professor.

"at least, the current you."

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Josh Devlin

PRESSURE

POST POSTDORMITUM

“…”

her answer is correct. it is exactly what he wants to hear. but her answer brings him no peace and her no reprieve. for that are some wrongs that cannot be corrected. no matter how much lip service she gives, actions speak louder than any politician’s words.

“i am glad we are still aligned on that front.”

they face each other as the only two members of the council. but he does not see her as such. she is just as green as the day she started. perhaps greener.

“do you remember when i asked you if you thought you could take down groudon?”

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PENELOPE LIVY

PLENILUNE

MISSION

IT IS DARKEST RIGHT BEFORE THE DAWN. a world pitch black is the last it remembers. caused by a pokemon that has no business here. but that one did not infringe on her avatar.

on her choice.

her enemy is an amalgamation. a grail of everything wrong with the world condensed into a single being. a pokemon that would do more than just oppose her; it will steal from everyone. is is avarice personified. a being that has no idea why it greeds but does so because that is its singular purpose.

but this beast has no ground against nature’s true might. this is the will of the world and therefore an extension of the gods.

there must be balance.

she had lost once. disparaged by men, defeated by surprise. and in return, she has taken her time. recovered from her wounds in hoenn’s sea. washed over by a feeling only she knows.

there will be retribution.

the light encircles them. it razes all that it touches. scorches grass and earth alike with a burning passion built entirely on spite. every wrong has a right. those who go about it in a way that exacts a toll will know her name.

the wistful has grown restless.

this is NATURE’S MADNESS.

a lost treasure surfaces from sootopolis’ coast. it float to them, light as air, free from burden. there will be a time to act, when duty forces the pokemon’s hand. but that will come after it has reclaimed what it has lost.

“she feels it within you! embrace who you are!”

in all her time with him, the pokemon has learned one thing.

“the land will care for you but you must return to her what was lost.”

now is a time for business.

“he belongs to us.”

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Elisabeth Fiorelli

PLENILUNE

MISSION

“ELISA,” she murmurs pleadingly, “gods do not ask. they choose.”

when dewy mist becomes thick enough to congeal, they start to broach sootopolis’ shore. a small one bounces uphill, recognizable even in this state. her sunkern comes to join the pair, free from the weight of thunder and ice.

“humans are such fickle beings. when they no longer fight for the world, the gods must move on.”

at its zenith, the moon bleeds bright red. the wind howls with the cries of those that have gathered. chirps from pokemon, whispering from humans. they all pool together in a perfect orchestra of tonight’s procession.

“but her warrior was taken from us.”

cait voice lowers.

which leaves the two of them. double. toil and trouble.

“by a pokemon that does not belong here! it has taken him from her,” cait cries out in grief.

vengeance burns on her tongue. sootopolis bubbles behind them. an eternal caldron.

“you have been in her presence.”

she hoists her hands up high. she squeezes her fingers tight. squeezes for dear life. at least, what remains.

“and he weighs on you even now.”

she swings her in a ring-around-the-rosie, cradling the moon between open arms. hers are bound by a conviction that has died once before. the other has yet to realize just how far this celestial body will go.

[player]https://a.tumblr.com/tumblr_rubdvkln7Y1yjyalbo1.mp3[/player]

the songs of the fallen come to their crescendo. their forms are no longer bound to the mist. they become figments of light. raw and pink. like the flesh they have long abandoned.

“show your respect. revere her righteous wrath!”

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Elisabeth Fiorelli

PLENILUNE

MISSION

“MY MISERY,” she reveals with a smile turn sardonic.

in this moment, they are polar opposites:

CAIT ALFRIC.

someone who died for her cause. a fae spirit embellished in a ritualistic fever. servant of celebii. an instrument played by the person she admired most. now, she is but a specter. left to be forgotten but content nonetheless. she knows a new god now…

ELISABETH FIORELLI.

a survivor who would abandon any and all if it meant her success. a jaded killer who knows better than to inherently trust god. not after she snipped the strings that would spool her a marionette. for she can never forget the implication. one that turns her sour. one beckoned by…

yin and yang. opposites that contrast and compliment. mothers of the earth, green with their touch.

balance.

“but we must remember, human matters are just that: human.”

her fingers wriggle in anticipation of joining hands. under the full moon, her freckled skin bleeds true. this time, she is not ethereal.

“to steal from the world is a transgression that must be punished.”

she is real.

“they are here,” she whispers, eying the bare trees around them. their leaves have turns white now, glowing with the same color of the moon. “thieves that would doom our world.”

a faint mist starts to settle in. with it, comes the figure of indistinguishable beasts.

“we have prepared long and hard. my brothers and sisters. the world at large.”

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Elisabeth Fiorelli

CERES

MISSION ZERO TO A HUNDRED

“AND YOU BELONG IN KALOS,” fernando responds without missing a beat. the constant prattle of his keyboard punctuates sentences best left unsaid.

he doesn’t need to look up to recognize his sister. her arrival in hoenn has circulated enough times that he's memorized her voice from the soundbites. the only surprise is how irritating it is in person when hearing it through his computer is grating enough.

another silph in hoenn, they say.

another imposter, he stomachs.

“go back, ceres,” he says offhandedly. “or i will have you deported and exiled in place of that galarian reject.”

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Delilah Silph

SORDID

A SEEDY UNTANGLEMENT

CLEAN OF ANY OUTSIDE INFLUENCE, her conditional allegiance fails to strike a nerve. he believes her, that her fascination in all of this trumps even his own, but so too do the fanatic when faced with their obsession.

gods they do not understand but worship all the same. a sick fetish that erodes the mind when synapses of wonder and amazement intertwine.

“i am the blueprint of what it understands to be human. my pain is its pain. my death will be its hibernation.”

his arm no longer budges. plain, ordinary flesh.

“but it will wake up, with or without me, and it will be the blueprint of all life as it knows it.”

what is a contingency if not a way to ensure his life’s work one day sees completion.

“extinction will no longer be a threat.”

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anya fowl