Whatever fierce competitiveness permeates the Slateport seaside during the day quickly gives way to blooming festivities as soon as the sun crosses over the line of the horizon. A certain Captain Dross finds herself pulled into the burgeoning revelry, giving into it with reckless abandon and drunken laughter.

When she's spit out onto the dark sands of Slateport beach the sun has long left the sky, giving way to faint stars that nearby lights have as much as chased away. Sweat sticks to her forehead and back, and euphoria (or alcohol, either or) stains her sun-kissed cheeks in shades of pink.

Voices call out to her, eager to pull her back into the fray, but the captain ignores them to chase after the crashing of the waves. Bits and bobs of her earlier ventures come along with her: a flower crown askew on wild golden curls, a purple bruise along her knuckles, a halfway empty bottle grasped in her hand.

She takes the latter to her lips for a swig while bare feet sink into the ocean. The surface teasingly brushes past her ankles, her knees, her thighs. Only then does she becomes aware of another person nearby, scarce moonlight making it difficult to distinguish any features.

"Cheers." A bottle glints with silvery moonlight as Skyler hoists it up into the air with an insolent grin.

Lulu Flint

The raised bottle falters at the familiar timbre that shivers into her brain, its lilting accent carved into her consciousness in the wake of countless restless nights spent under the tender mercies of her nightmares.

It's not in Captain Dross's nature to look back. Her heart is a wild and defiant creature that steers her mercilessly forward with no care for who might be left behind. Those that cannot keep up become wisps of afterthoughts in the everchanging reality that the captain relentlessly carves for herself. 

With one exception.

"Lu." 

Her smile is a thing of feral beasts, glinting under the moonlight like a promise. Like a threat. Like it wants to sink into Lulu's neck just to drag her under. If the captain feels self-conscious about the way amber eyes pierce into her, she shows none of it. Her head tilts, moon-bright eyes feverish with belligerent provocation. This is a game, they challenge, come play, Lu.

A lazy step is taken back into the waves, sinking the captain further. The swig she takes from the bottle is almost an afterthought, lips gleaming with the burn of alcohol. 

"Fancy meeting you here." Another swig, followed by a brief shifting of Skyler's gaze. "How's the wrist?"

Something is wrong here.

Lulu Flint

Perhaps it’s for the best that sunlight doesn’t touch whatever lies, unspoken, between Skyler and Lulu. Perhaps it's for the best that they only find each other in the shadow of what might have been. Memories of passion (and something that could've been tenderness) tempered by time and distance, weathered to faint recollections.

Otherwise they would’ve already pushed each other off of some unavoidable edge from which there would be no return.

And Skyler wouldn't hesitate to fall, if only to take Lulu down with her. Not when the breath catches in the captain’s throat, a hopeless victim to Lulu’s gravity, inevitably tugging her ever so closer. Sharp teeth in the moonlight, a frantic heartbeat that forgets itself to chase after the rhythm of an amber-eyed nightmare. Unflinching and wild.

It's addicting. 

Lulu slowly shortens the distance between the two of them, and the captain follows with silver eyes whetted razor-sharp and eager for battle. The ocean kisses the back of her thighs, then washes around her hips.

"..." It isn't in Skyler's nature to stay quiet, yet her lips part wordless before any sound spills from her mouth. Moonlight pools in the scarred curve of her neck. "Would you like me to tell you about my dreams, Lu?"

Beneath the waves, something lingers. Skyler's smile grows feral.

"Or would you rather I show you?"

Lulu Flint

Sometimes it feels good to hurt. Sometimes it feels good to make others hurt. And sometimes you just couldn't help it, not when gravity inevitably has you clash against another with teeth and claw.

It's something that until very recently had only played a very small part in Skyler's life, and mostly when a certain amber-eyed woman blew through it with all the subtlety of a hurricane.

Watching Lulu wade into the water to the sound of her challenge pulls an all-too satisfied smile from the ship captain's mouth.

Nightmares shiver in the surface of Skyler's mind, dragged from the depths. And while the slap against her cheek that fateful night had faded rapidly, other things lingered in the rapidly darkening of silver eyes. In the way she watches Lulu's prowl with ravenous purpose.

A finger drags itself over a wave, like a lover's caress.

From somewhere beyond the shallow waves, a single note pierces through the night, warbling and strange - but beautiful. It is a pied piper's call to follow, a siren's song beckoning, painted silver by moonlight.

When Lulu next looks, Skyler seems to have vanished in the water. Only the song remains, haunting and all-encompassing.

LAPRAS uses CAPTAIN'S LAMENT

SPOILER: Click to show

lapras sings a melody that causes everyone within the vicinity to try and drown themselves for TWO POSTS. if inapplicable, they will instead be unable to take action. taking significant damage will break the trance early.

Lulu Flint

For perhaps the first time in her life, Captain Skyler Dross simply watches.

Waves part to reveal an elegant neck and doe-like eyes, the shape of a gentle creature turned horror under the scarce moonlight that kisses the landscape around them. The song floats within Skyler's mind, but only from memory. Even the shifting surface of the sea is silent to her tonight - though its beckoning allure is no different.

She's always belonged to the ocean.

Silver falls into shadow as wispy strands of dark hair disappear beneath the shallow waters. Floating silently above, a Lunatone follows soon after, its red glare fading into darkness.

Captain Dross has been here many, many times before. In dreams, in nightmares. Watching the drowned. Guiding them to gently rest at the bottom of the sea, fathoms below.

What is one more, really? 

LAPRAS uses CAPTAIN'S LAMENT

SPOILER: Click to show

lapras sings a melody that causes everyone within the vicinity to try and drown themselves for TWO POSTS. if inapplicable, they will instead be unable to take action. taking significant damage will break the trance early.

Lulu Flint

Captain Dross leans over the surface of the water to catch sight of a figure crumbling in the shallow depths. It isn't so much the moonlight, its pale gaze unable to reach past the dark surface, as it is the Solrock that floats behind her, shining a weak light in that particular spot.

Curiosity blooms, insidious, within Captain Dross's expression. The ship captain had long learned not to look back, and it is no different with Lulu. Whatever temptations might've lingered in foregone memories have long been buried to make way for new horizons. With one very recent exception.

The amber-eyed woman had wrestled control from Skyler once. The captain was simply paying her dues.

And death was perhaps too harsh a response.

Her flower crown is lost to greedy undercurrents as she dives into the water, a muscled arm wrapping around Lulu's waist to bring her to the surface and onto a Lapras shell.

Captain Dross hoists herself up, leaning precariously over Lulu's shape, dripping seawater onto drenched fabric and skin. 

Drowning, the captain decides, does not look good on Lulu. 

Better make sure she doesn't stay that way.

Lulu Flint

The captain teeters on the edge of a decision she'd already taken, silver gaze drawn to condensed shadows and a furious glare. Defiance rises up in her chest in spite of its foolishness, facing off against a god that could easily tear her mind to shreds.

"I was going to." Her voice is quiet, breathed over salt-stained skin. It rings out hollow in the aftermath of near (?) death, regardless of its honesty.

She could've blamed the tequila on her tongue, but since the war Captain Dross had ceased taking much stock in the divine. Even when it promises to destroy. Especially when it promises to destroy.

Moonlight pools in the curve of Lulu's neck, rough pads tracing its edges as the captain leans forward and over Lulu's body - a warped parody of gentleness. 

"My nightmares are my own." Teeth flash out, visible only to shadows made deific, before the ship captain leans in to pull the water out of Lulu's lungs. 

Lulu Flint