it had been a couple of hours since the incident at the factory in rustboro—plenty of time for the effects of head trauma to set in. lulu had emptied her stomach on the pavement outside with some help off the ground, and had devolved into the abstract from there. partial gibberish had been spoken here and there, and it was fairly clear there was not really anyone steering the ship anymore.



she sat at a table, looking confused. and then, glazed over amber eyes were caught by something that didn’t exist in the natural world.

forgetting the question that had just left her lips for the fifth time, a hand reached out and smoothed down the wall next to her. her eyes got wide as saucers and she turned away from it, muttering something under her breath. she’d clearly experienced something mysteriously profound and uncomfortable through the plaster.




her eyes found, or rather stumbled upon him again, and she looked startled to see him there. a wrist flopped loosely on an elbow that was propped up.

“do i… KNOW YOU?” her face looked severe before it passed through an uncharacteristic spectrum of expressions, ending in laughter for no apparent reason.

the perrserker stared at senon, but, ravenous as a viking, quickly went for the bits on the floor, making terrible sounds and scarfing it down too quickly as though it hadn’t eaten in days. it had eaten four hours ago.

lulu watched him walk over, her attention held as he sat at the table across from her. she watched his hands interestedly.

at the question, she squinted her eyes at him, raising a hand to cradle her chin. “hmmmmmm.” fingers gradually squished her lips together like a fish under her nose and held her face there, deep in thought. several moments passed, and she then slouched back in her chair, patted a hand on the table and grinned, as though she’d found the winning answer. “the casino.” there was fleeting clarity in her voice. it didn’t last long.

at the next bit, her eyebrows raised and her head did some weird side-to-side nod. “huhuhuh.” the breath that followed was sharp and too long, as though she was forgetting to exhale at first. “we first met five minutes ago, pozadohead, i di’not.”

she leaned back into the table, laying her head down and scraping the surface of it with a fingernail idly, looking drifty.

lulu hadn’t seen a steak in almost two years. the dragons hadn’t even bailed her out for a good meal before trial, leaving her to rot on coco khans. she still hadn’t had a meal that wasn’t frozen five minutes prior to consumption. unfortunately, her stomach was doing rotations with her eyeballs in some extradimensional laundromat.

she watched him from a horizontal angle before closing her eyes briefly, two fingers soothing across the heavy lids. “am i in motozstoke?” she mumbled.

the perrserker was under the table at her feet, still eyeballing senon, seeming to be much more keenly aware of its trainer’s bizarre vulnerability now that its bottomless pit was satiated.

when he sat back down, she was startled again by him, raising her head and staring for a moment before his close proximity settled in her head. she leaned in, placing both elbows on the table and furrowing her brows at him.

“wouldn’t you like t’know, offizzer.” she slurred, giving a loud ’HAH’, and then stared at him.

his previous words had become less his, and more of a jumbled suggestion somewhere in the collage of her mind. “y’got pretty hair fer a cop.” she smiled, all pulp. “iz kinda like mine.”

a single brow quirked at him. “sounds like a cop t’me.” she responded, her voice cheeky. “cops mess shit up all the time.” they also broke up deals. many of them made their own decisions on what to do with people—i.e. take them home for questioning instead, as though they were some junkyard dog to feed before dropping off at the pound, or worse.

no. no more pounds. just euthanize her. get it over with. it didn’t matter where the needle came from at this point, anyways.

then, some minor clarity clawed its way to the surface, a protective demon. it made her heart pump faster when crimes were on the table, her will to survive suddenly rolling in the fresh dirt of its grave. she felt a sobering shift, willing her squinted eyes to solidify the wavering outlines of sénon, and gritting her teeth as though the pressure of her jaw would hold reality together. she breathed somewhat heavily, focusing, centering.

lulu said nothing. instead, she sat, listened, knowing better even in her jumbled state than to give in to his monologue method. she still did not possess the presence of mind to control her features, however. she looked spooked, cornered, and a bit sad. there was nothing poker-face about it. the gangster, the killer; they had left the building, just like everyone else, leaving behind a twenty four year old kid who didn’t want to be caged, and didn’t want to die, and still didn’t entirely understand that neither of those things were about to happen.

as his words continued, they assaulted her, and to defend herself, she put her arms around her head and lowered it to the table again. she only understood bits of what he was talking about. flashes of memory floated around like wisps. the rockets. a man with a gun. the koffing, the wall, the scream.

and then that last part twisted something in her like a knife. everyone. and maybe he didn’t mean it like she heard it, but that didn’t matter.

her head spun, and she felt sick, and her eyes looked for something in his, and a single tear rolled down her cheek for the first time since her first night in prison—and there’d only been one then, too. death loomed. she swallowed hard. the words that breathed from her lips were not so much to him, as they were the space in between them; to no one in particular,


and there were no greater truths.

a metallic growl left the perrserker at senon’s hand, who only finally turned to snap at it when it had been pulled away, piranha teeth missing intentionally, as though to say ‘i didn’t actually want that, just so you know’. its eyes narrowed and it returned to the bone it’d been given, ungrateful, but not moving away from the man. food had been given twice. he was now finished. a third food was imminent.

lulu was thrown off again by his words. go their separate ways? “what?” the tear still hung on her jaw, forgotten. “where am i?” she had never been in that apartment before. the last time she’d been in one like this had been in motostoke. it had been her first time in rustboro, a place with reminiscent smog and industry, and seeing who she’d seen had jumbled everything together.

swaying a bit, lulu did what she could to stomach a few bites, but it wasn’t much—and they’d both be blessed if it wasn’t heaved back up at some point.

you weren’t supposed to let a concussed person fall asleep, but lucky for senon—or maybe not so lucky--she wouldn’t die in his bed. she didn’t protest, having already been ready to fall asleep at the table before his reid technique had broken the barrier.

she fell asleep on the very far edge, turned away—almost instantly. the perrserker watched, its body wedged in between them, eerie yellow eyes staring at senon in the dark for some time. it was remarkable how little it had to blink.

the sun rose. the pidoves chirped. lulu’s eyes popped open. reality: activate.

she rose in an instant, not recognizing her surroundings, and turning to see the red-haired man whose name she still did not know, she gave a sharp “AH!” and swiftly booted him off the bed with both feet before jumping to hers, going for blood before the perrserker came out of nowhere to intercept, screeching ferociously.


they stood at a stalemate for a moment, lulu’s eyes reading shock and bewilderment before she combusted, smoke coming out of her ears.


and then she breathed, and her face took on a new look of alarm. was something on fire?