she expects a quiet dinner for two, not an empty restaurant with one other guest. is he trying to impress me? she muses as the host offers to take her coat. she declines, drawing the fabric tighter around herself, and her flats sound louder than they are in this empty place. 

he stands and she extends a hand in greeting, fingers curled. "gabriel," she says, dropping formalities. 

she doesn't know much about him. about why he's here, or why she's here. but she's been throwing stones recently and what's one more added to the pile? 

GABRIEL BLACK

☉

she looks at her hand as it's swallowed by his own. and she feels small, dainty almost, being this dwarfed by him. when he's standing, she almost has to crane her neck. it's an odd feeling, and one that has her sitting rather quickly where they're more matched. 

she tucks her legs, ankles hitching, and looks from him to their waiter. "whiskey. neat." something to warm me up. she resists the urge to curl her fingers in her sleeves. 

"i've not heard much about you, gabriel black. most of the public doesn't seem to care for me anymore. what's earned me your curiosity?"

GABRIEL BLACK

☉

"ah," she says, finally understanding. she could have saved him much of his time - and his efforts - but no sense now walking away, not after he's gone to all this trouble. and before she's even had her whiskey. 

still, she's nothing if but honest. the waiter sets out a black bar napkin and its crystal glass before her. she sniffs just over the rim and then takes a sip, nose scrunching at the intensity of the flavor. but it slakes like fire down her throat, skittering warmth through her muscles. she exhales and thinks of embers. 

"you might compare my stint on the council to the attention span of the public - fleeting and inconsequential." she raises a brow. "nonetheless, the morningstars groomed me for the position well before i took a seat, so ask away.

"i do feel it prudent, however, to make my feelings on the matter known." she bares her teeth. "like many, i don't much care for the council these days."

GABRIEL BLACK

☉

"the turnover rate these days really is something." her lips quirk in a smile. she doesn't set her own glass down. she has her elbow crooked, glass hovering just by her chin, almost out of fear that this new warmth might be taken from her. 

"i was never much a fan of bureaucracy," she says more seriously. "i was better suited for groundwork, i think. there's a lot less red tape when you're in the thick of it." and the lines, they blur, even when they shouldn't.

"i respect kim and fernando, but the league has failed too often to the public eye. and rocket continues to fester." she shrugs. 

"what change do you wish to see, gabriel black?"

GABRIEL BLACK

☉

"you strive for a council seat without any ambitions or goals?" she says, brows raising. she thinks back to her earlier days, before she became calloused, before her body was broken against that rock face. she'd wanted change, but that was nothing special. everyone wanted change. 

"you recall the a.q.u.a initiative," she says. "i vied for a similar idea, before the abbiati woman gave it a name. people were dying because of lack of order. because the arrival of the avatars upset the balance, planted seeds of terror and mistrust." 

she takes another sip of whiskey and shivers at the warmth. "i wanted a strike team, a small group of highly trained professionals who worked as well together as they did their pokemon team." 

grimacing, she says, "but none of that matters now. we have legends living among us. who are we to command them? who is the council to command them?"

GABRIEL BLACK

☉

if he makes the seat, he may be the only one on council with humility. the thought brings a smirk to her lips, but she hides it with another sip of whiskey. no use in him thinking she's mocking him and she'd rather not burst his bubble about the compatriots he strives to make his colleagues.

"you've a point about that." despite fernando's army, despite freya's menagerie of dragons, they still claw against the tide. she, his shadow, mimicking his steps as he attempts to control every bit of bullshit hoenn seeks to throw at him.

"i don't know that they could be commanded. i used to chase myself in circles thinking about it." she sets the empty glass down and trails her finger along the rim of the glass. "i leave the philosophical ponderings to the masses now. there's a certain freedom in resigning oneself to being nothing but a sword." 

she tilts her head. "superpowers are emerging. allying yourself with the strongest is what will grant your family safety. not the council. not rocket."

GABRIEL BLACK

☉

her throat is swollen. with leftover embers and heat and a desire for fernando's cooling mist. while she once feared the tide of primitive emotions that come with his dosing, she feels lesser now without it. she is half of her self, sitting here politely with legs crossed, holding an empty tumbler of whiskey. 

as though her thought summons him, the waiter returns with another. she accepts graciously and sips, licking her lips as the warmth spreads through her. it's not the same. 

she'll ask him for more tonight. 

her mouth opens. fernando eliard silph, they whisper, but the ties that bind them are weaker now, for the moment, and she clicks her teeth, snapping the name back like some tasty morsel. 

"only the monsters left standing when this is all over. you want to be on top? beg to be an avatar or learn how to destroy them."

GABRIEL BLACK

☉