a curt nod is given to the receptionist before a thin-lipped smile takes to katherine’s lips. her eyes don’t linger on the woman, averting straight to mars without so much of a second of pause.
[break][break]
her smile, fake and overly practiced, persists. these were the manners kat had to work on according to her agent. evidently, she wasn’t doing so stellar.
[break][break]
”oh, please. katherine is just fine. it’s a pleasure to meet you too, martin.” that was the name he signed his emails with, right? ”it’s not every day that i’m approached about something quite as… delicate as this. I even had to reschedule a shoot for this, so… i assure you, we can skip the formalities.”
[break][break]
katherine, too, followed a hunch coming here. when a god lives inside you, hunches usually carry a deeper meaning than most. willfully ignoring them would be akin to crossing the road with your eyes closed. ”there’s still a lot i don’t know about this ‘report’ myself, but… i do have a feeling that it’s close to being completed,” she admits, still not entirely aware that this wasn’t what brought her here.
[break][break]
on paper, maybe, but her hunch had nothing to do with some peculiar unowns.
[break][break]
she was here because of the prophet.

[attr="class","ooc"] Martín del Mar [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

“Mars. Mm, yeah. That is easier.”
[break][break]
A slight smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she settled into the chair, claiming her seat. She allowed her eyes to wander inside the room for a couple moments longer, to sate her curiosity and ease whatever part in her wanted to examine the man’s office. Surely, she would find nothing out of the ordinary— but there’s still that queit voice in her head that tells her that she might find something special.
[break][break]
Fortunately, she gets back on track quickly enough, reminding herself that there was a purpose for this visit. After all, it wasn’t for pleasure. They were both here for business.
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“Hrm? No, I don’t have the slightest clue.” Was this her way of being modest? Since when was Katherine even modest to begin with? That’s right, she was anything but that. She was vain and full of herself. A chuckle escapes through her lips, brief and short.
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“I am kidding. Yes, duh. This app has way too many things pointing at me for people to not ask questions... I guess.” She would be lying if she said that she hated the attention, wouldn't she?
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”If I had to guess,” and she does have to guess, because most of them knew nothing more than they were allowed to know, “giratina’s name will show up sooner rather than later. I have the slightest suspicion that they’re waiting on me to report something before they do it, honestly.”
[break][break]
She wouldn’t put it past ‘them’. Whoever they were.

[attr="class","ooc"] Martín del Mar [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

“I don’t know if I’d consider any of this reason for concern, except for maybe… How sketchy this app is. I mean, I don’t think the knowledge itself is fabricated... But whoever put it together did so for a reason. If I had to guess, they’re most likely using people to complete their own research.”
[break][break]
It’s what she would have done if she was a scientist with limited resources. Unowns, among a few other pokemon that weren’t classified as legendaries, proved to be quite the rare species. It was… Rather difficult to find them.
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“Mm. I’d like to say that I know enough, but my own research was both limited and focused on, well… As you can imagine, Giratina and its siblings.”
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Dialga and Palkia. The Creation Trio. Sure, Arceus was given some focus too, but it wasn’t the good kind. The Pokemon many considered to be the first God of their universe mattered a bit less to Katherine. It was responsible for the worst of crimes, a sin so grievous that even the daughter of the devil could not find it in her heart to forgive it.
[break][break]
”There is… One more thing, though.”
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It dances on the tip of her tongue, threatening to spill forth despite the instinctive reluctance. Katherine doesn’t overshare normally. She keeps her cards close to her chest. But there’s something about Mars… About this meeting…
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Something. A hunch she can’t quite ignore.
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“..I was visited by someone— something, not too long ago.”

[attr="class","ooc"] Martín del Mar [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

Katherine’s lips remain pursed despite the urge to yell out ‘yes’ surfacing.
[break][break]
She got here because of her hunch, intuition, and also thanks to Mars’ invite and emails— but that isn’t to say that she could get ahead of herself and trust him with sensitive information. Even if she did trust him - that isn’t to say that Giratina does, and when a god rests within you, hiding secrets is not very plausible.
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And as such, she’s careful. Cautious. She treads lightly and reveals only what can further the two of them.
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Not her and Mars, but Giratina and her.
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“You could say that,” she can confirm his suspicion without giving out too much, she tells herself. “It was brief and mostly harmless,” although it didn’t really feel that way, at first.
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“..How did you know?”
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She almost assumes that he, too, was visited by Azelf but… Pride gets in her way. She was special, thus, so was the visit. There couldn’t possibly be a bunch of other people in Hoenn who were visited by the pixie trio, right?
[break][break]
Well, little does she know...

[attr="class","ooc"] Martín del Mar [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

the illustration catches her by surprise.
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it’s the same pokemon.
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She should’ve known, of course, considering the buried hunch she’d been trying to understand in full, but doubt was still apparent. Up until this very moment, it was all up in the air. She could have imagined the signs, mistranslated certain things— but such wasn’t the case.
[break][break]
Mars encountered Azelf too.
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”So it’s been visiting others…”
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A hum escapes her, moments of silence taken to ponder the most obvious question in the room: why? But then again, maybe she should also ask ‘who else’?
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”..Erm,” kat clears her throat lightly before continuing, ”Well, I suppose it didn’t just show up to say hey. It… I guess it gave me some sort of a prophecy. And if I had to guess, since it also visited you, it gave one to you as well.”
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Why? The question still rings in her mind. How is this all connected?
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”It’s a shame I am terrible with riddles.” She chuckles, making light of the situation. That was one way to handle the appearance of a god, wasn’t it?

[attr="class","ooc"] Martín del Mar [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

She senses that mars’ chuckle comes from the same place as hers: indignation. The actions of azelf were nothing short of a personal slight against her and Giratina. Prophecy be damned, it’s the way it chose to deliver its message that bothered her most.
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Well… That along with the fact she couldn’t solve its riddle. Yeah, that too contributed.
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“It was personal, yes. I’d be surprised if it showed up on anyone’s doorstep just to tell them something inconsequential.” Especially considering the words it left her with. Between the ominous talk about her patron, family and even enemies– Katherine was left with more questions than she had prior to meeting the prophet.
[break][break]
The rage bubbled within her, seething still.
[break][break]
”But… My answer remains no. The prophecy it left with me is for my ears alone.” Hers, and other trusted allies, which consisted solely of the deity that resided within her. ”I’ll understand if you’ll choose to keep the prophecy it gave to you private too, but, as for…”
[break][break]
The other thing that’d been haunting her mind since her meeting with the lake guardian?
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“..the other thing. I’ve been experiencing the same thing. A word that hasn’t stopped haunting me. I’d be willing to share that.” although she doesn’t say it outright, mars is a smart man. He must know that she expects him to repay her by sharing the word Azelf imprinted in his mind.

[attr="class","ooc"] Martín del Mar [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]

“That’s…”
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You? A small part of Katherine grows a tiny bit more anxious now, processing the difference between Mars’ word and her own. Enemies didn’t have quite the same ring to it, did it? She was no stranger to those, but since this came in the form of an ominous prophecy, it felt different. More serious.
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More real.
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“Interesting. Mine was Enemies.”
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She lets the word linger in the air, the vacuum of silence eventually filled by Mars’ words - followed by hers. “No, I think you have a point. It must have a great sense of humour, considering all of this…”
[break][break]
She also related to the comment about his ego– what didn’t boost that aspect of Katherine’s personality, exactly?
[break][break]
“..Do you think Azelf will come back?”

[attr="class","ooc"] Martín del Mar [break]

[attr="class","pkmnparty"]