smart girl. though what would it take to bring her back to rocket? last she heard, they don't take to defects very kindly. it's a percentage of the reason she'd sought out her current benefactor in the first place - her security first, her cause second. sometimes the lines blur between the two, but she's sane enough to fear death. 

regardless, there's no place for her there. rewritten synapses remind her of her loyalties. there's a pit in her stomach, a burning ache across her skin, growing hotter with every moment she spends beside this woman. 

don't tell her, something whispers. and yet as she blinks, she catches a glimpse of rounded lips, bouncing red curls, saying something different. 

"FERNANDO SILPH , but surely you could have put that together." she takes another drag and grimaces at the headache gathering behind her temples. 

Lulu Flint

☉

her eyes flash. she'd known that fernando had his hand in many pies, but rocket? she can see the merit of having someone on the inside, but just how many someones are there? she takes another drag, not nearly as long as lulu's own, and exhales contemplatively. 

"we're all in danger," she says. a car zips across the road, spraying water on the sidewalk. she looks at the direction it had come from, sees no traffic, and then shoulders forward. 

the tea shop is a quaint place. once the door opens, warm air and soft, reddish-hued lights greet them. there are mats and pillows scattered about the floor; daises contain a few nooks with larger tables and the place just screams cozy. 

anya orders her usual with a wave of her hand and then sits, gesturing for lulu to follow suit.

"we may not have time for both. so tell me, does your interest lie in the shadow project or your concern for a stranger's well-being?"

Lulu Flint

☉

there's a crudeness, a callousness to this woman, that anya herself lacks. while her companion seeks to judge her, anya only studies her back. while her tea steps, a pot brought over, anya lays a hand upon their server's own and murmurs a few choice words. 

moments later, lulu is brought a black coffee rather than a pot of tea. anya doesn't comment, only leans forward and draws the lid off the teapot, inhaling deeply. the flowers within have bloomed. it will steep for a minute more before it's ready.

she spoons honey into her cup while she waits. "well, you said you were in my old studio. that work is of little consequence to me, though i'm interested to see what you'd do with it."

she snakes a smile as she pours her tea and brings her cup to her lips. "people like us, we're always in danger. i've hedged my bets, made my bed." and after her first sip, almost as an afterthought, she adds softly, "and i'm fond of him."

Lulu Flint

☉

"i wouldn't call it abandon," she says. she sips her tea. lulu's reaction is a curious one, but she doesn't give away much about her thoughts with her facial expression or her words. 

when she'd fled the region, it had felt like abandoning a child. her life's work. everything she stood for. everything she'd clawed and killed and sacrificed for. but now, with her purpose rewritten, with her path now straightened, with life created under her fingertips, why, there's nothing more satisfying than that. 

she smiles salaciously from behind the teacup. "ah, but that's a secret i cannot share, my dear. but this work will be the most important i ever do.

"are you familiar with my history? my studies prior to my involvement with your party?" evolution. "i thought the shadow project was the next step, a means of elevation, but it wasn't." 

her eyes glimmer. "oh, how sweet it was to be proven wrong."

Lulu Flint

☉

she thinks fondly of her creature's babbling. though she hadn't forged it from nothing, she very well may have. prime is by all means something different. something else. studies of its cells have only confirmed her suspicions. the ditto it was born from has been rewritten, warped, and all of her analytics inform her that the very ditto it was is nothing but a distant ancestor. eons of evolution brought upon in a single moment. 

and now it can speak to her. now it can want. now it can desire. now it can crave. and its soliloquies don't go unheard. she sings lullabies to it, and reads it stories, and confides in it all the secrets she keeps from FERNANDO SILPH. 

"because it's boring to be right." because the human imagination is a limiting thing. because this world, and the next, are so full of surprises. 

"but let me tell you this, darling. the work i did then? the project you're asking me of? the stone age, compared to what we're doing now."

Lulu Flint

☉

"the results ought to speak for themselves," she says with a raise of her brow. there aren't very many shadow pokemon that came about from their experiments, but there were enough to draw the conclusion that this was just a mere stepping stone for the evolution of pokemon. and man. 

"my goals were..." she starts and then hums as she thinks, "aimless. when i worked for your people, i studied several areas, some pertaining to special pokemon that i believe are still in your custody. the project you're speaking of was a personal one, an idea i'd fostered since my thesis. i just hadn't the means to explore it in its entirety before aligning myself with the proper people."

a lack of red tape and questionable ethics paves the way for progress.

"but as for a conclusion? the subjects that successfully underwent transformation - they became too...volatile. too unreliable."

she flashes a haunting smile. "so i thought, 'why not start from scratch?'"

Lulu Flint

☉