what would a lulu lab be without a high possibility of self-destruction? it was part of the reason she preferred working from home. no one around to annoyingly remind her of submarine hazards and protocols. here, she could meticulously design a righteous doom in peace.

until meddlesome pirates washed ashore, of all people, to fuck it up.

lulu gripped the captain’s throat, squeezing, growling.

”so… stupid…”

but skyler was quick to react to the bloody shard threatening her, impaling it elsewhere. lulu, having perhaps lacked the follow-through to begin with, went wide-eyed, taking a few steps back and dropping the shard—whether to fall to the floor or remain there in skyler’s flesh.

it wasn’t the terrible amount of blood that struck her, but rather the strange markings that appeared. was this some weird sailor thing? was this the league?

”what’s happening?”

her face was suspicious as she back-pedaled. there were simply too many possibilities, lately.

skyler dross

☉

a human glowstick?

”oh. that explains it.”

she shook her head. she should sleep her right now, she figured. put her under the strong spell of darkrai, and take her to the sub for testing...

at stabbing, lulu stared and then nodded. ”yeah,” she had stabbed her… and she’d do it again, damnit!

”well. you might have just initiated war with aliens, so… get fucked, honestly.”

then, there was something threatening in the way her jaw turned.

”and really don’t call me that.”

so, what now?

shadows began to creep up her figure, ready to take her to safety should skyler attack, and serving the purpose of looking intimidating.

”why are you glowing, skyler?” she demanded.

skyler dross

☉

Defiance rises to crash against gritted teeth, forcefully bitten back. It simmers as shadows gather at Lulu's call, pooling around the scientist like an unspoken threat.

Memories of nightmares resurface, prompting a cold shiver that feeds into her adrenaline-imbued hearbeat. And Skyler, being Skyler, cannot help the slight tilt of her chin, the provocation that blooms like a knife in the curve of her lips.

Too willing to step over the edge just to feel the fall. The name Saoirse is poised at the tip of her tongue, a second away from spilling into the tense air between them like a call to arms. It's nearly enough to make her forget about the shard of glass stuck in her arm.

Her fingers twitch, and it sends a shock of agony throughout her arm. 

"Motherfuc-" 

Her hand immediately reaches for her injured arm, a harsh breath wheezing past her lips when it comes away stained a deep crimson. 

Fuck. Fine, fine. She likes Lu better anyway.

"Why d'you think?" The woman's a scientist (apparently), shouldn't take her too long to figure this out. "Same way you're all," her red-stained hand waves at the nightmarish vision that has become Lulu, "Shadow-y." 

It isn't a truce, not really. Skyler's still high on the dregs of... whatever it is that arises whenever Skyler and Lulu share the same space. But she seizes the chance to breathe in while no one's going for her throat.

And then, looking around the lab casually, "And I wouldn't bother with aliens unless you figured out a way to make a wormhole."

Lulu Flint

☉

she glared, scrutinizing the markings on her skin. even the chin thing didn’t get her, this time. was skyler an alien?

a shadow stretched across the floor, and from it emerged darkrai. it did nothing yet but exist in the room, cold stare poised on the captain. it was almost as though it had been summoned by their discussion.

lulu regarded it briefly and then looked back to skyler, something in her eyes softening a little—not friendly, but awestruck in her realization.

”you’re an avatar?” she couldn’t help the smirk that crept faintly into her cheek. ”shit.” it was almost enough to distract her from wormholes.

almost.

immediately, at the mention, she shifted. her face turned suspiciously. skyler may not have been an alien herself, but she could definitely have been in cahoots with them.

see: a pirate.

would skyler actually sail her ship into a wormhole in search of megalopolan treasure, and consequently become their superpowered spy? was that why she was here, to make sure that she didn’t stop the second invasion? to fuck up her lab? to sabotage her?

her smirk had flattened. ”with everything that’s gone on in hoenn lately, you really think a wormhole is the only way to break into our world? we are dealing with more than just megalopolans, now.” the white-haired avatar hunters, for instance.

amber eyes narrowed. ”do tell me what you know about them, though.” because megalopolans were still at the top of her list. they would be friends.

skyler dross

☉

Need she really confirm? The truth was tattoed into her skin, its primordial scrawl a proof of her contract with the leviathan in the depths. 

"Apparently that's what you get when you're swallowed by a legendary." Had Lu been in the Sootopolis Raid? The captain herself had been too busy to notice much else at the time. "I don't recommend it."

Lu's faint grin dies a swift death soon after, but Skyler doesn't notice. Beads of blood still bloom from her wound to splash onto the sterile lab floor. A sharp throbbing pain catches her breath halfway down her throat. 

Drip. Drip. Drip.

"Not much to tell. I spotted one of the first wormholes." Her eyes are a cold blade of steel, whetted sharp by violent memories of the war. "They're cannibal assholes who should stick to their world." She'd fought and killed enough of them and would always bear the scars for it. Physical and otherwise.

Suffice to say, Captain Dross was no ally to blue-skinned aliens.

"I'd tell you more about it, Lu," A corner of her mouth curls up, previous sharpness trickling away to make way for a familiar boldness, "but you need to buy me a drink first." 

Her hand curls around the shard of glass. One breath. Two. Three. Silver clashes with gold, unwilling to look away as the glass is abruptly ripped from flesh with a horrible sucking sound.

A pained wheeze is followed by the clink of glass hitting the floor. Skyler slumps against the nearby wall with a heavy thump, breathing ragged as she fights against an onslaught of rising nausea.

"Make that two drinks. No, scratch that. You owe me a whole goddamn bottle. Tequila." 

Lulu Flint

☉

”kyogre.”

that’s right. she’d been eaten by a fucking fish. a really, really big one. how had she forgotten? to be fair, there was a lot going on in the region.

”thanks, i’ll try to avoid it.” she shook her head. this was something to process. groudon was around. how was that going for her? did she know what it was up to?

and why were the ancient pokémon waking up? did it have to do with the primal energy veins that had been uncovered? she thought back to discoveries during her field research with priam conrad .

cannibal aliens. but why had they come here for in the first place? if wasn't by mistake, a motive existed. they wanted something.

she needed to talk to cotillard.

but first…

a drink. her head shook. ”you’re absolutely out of your mind.” and making a mess on her floor.

…

”fine. a bottle.” her eyes lowered to the puddle of blood and then back. ”consider that payback for drowning me, and don’t think i won’t do it again—god of whales or not.”

she turned her back to fetch a few things, and warned over her shoulder, ”press any more buttons and you won’t wake up from the hell that i put you in, dross.”

crossing the lab, she pulled a coat off a hook, and took a pokéball from a steel drawer. a gardevoir was released from it, and a HEAL PULSE collected around skyler, tending to her wound.

”can’t have you bleeding all over the bar.”

skyler dross

☉

While Lulu's musing over conspiracy theories and the imminent possibility of yet another apocalypse, Skyler busies herself with far more mundane concerns - like not bleeding to death. Or, more importantly, not passing out in front of the amber-eyed scientist. She'd rather be dragged to the depths than have Lulu witness that.

Applying pressure to the wound isn't the most pleasant of decisions, but it is marginally better than bleeding out. Teeth bite down on her tongue to keep a pained sound from escaping her throat, stubborness and pride reigning supreme over what modicum of common sense remains in her - as per usual.

Payback for drowning her? Skyler huffs in amusement, kicking off of the wall with a small grunt and hoping that her legs wouldn't betray her now. She teeters for a moment of dizziness, but regains her balance quickly enough. Bless her sea legs. "Fair's fair." 

She'd never meant to drown Lulu. Only to let her have a taste for the nightmares the scientist had left to foster in her mind for months. Maybe give her some of her own.

Fair's fair.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll drag me to hell and make me wish I was dead." Skyler casually waves the threat away, not unlike batting away an annoying fly. She walks past the scientist to head for the door, apparently unconcerned by the possiblity of mental torture. "I'm sure we'd have a lovely time."

The control panels had lost all of their appeal, anyway. It was far more rewarding, and immensely more fun, to push Lu's buttons.  

Her wound closes with Gardevoir's Heal Pulse, and she pauses at the threshold, looking back over her shoulder, something genuine hiding in the edges of a devilish grin. "For what it's worth, Lu, I'm glad you didn't drown. Gives me the opportunity to kick your ass again." 

... 

"You still bad at holding your liquor?"

It wasn't a taunt as much as it was a playful challenge. A truce. And, maybe - just maybe - the dawn of a new beginning. For both of them.

Lulu Flint

☉

fortunately, lulu very rarely experienced nightmares these days—only the ones that assholes dragged her into. maybe skyler would become one of them, but not yet. not then, and not today.

”it’s hardly fair,” she retorted, and surely they would never agree. it would be tit for tat and one-upping until the end days. which were soon, actually.

i’m glad you didn’t drown.

her nosed wrinkle in disgust, as though the lapse in aggression tasted bitter.

”...”

”good luck,” she snorted. ”i’ve never been bad at holding my liquor.” absolutely not true, but her face wouldn’t give it away. she remembered that night. how she’d felt rinc in her embrace of the captain, and how the night had suddenly soured.

”let’s go, idiot,” she prompted, returning her gardevoir. her coat shrugged on before she was starting up the ladder.

skyler dross

☉