Skyler meets their next challenge with raised brows and a cocky smirk. Back in the fancy tearoom hall she'd felt out of her element - a fish out of water, in a sense. But this? This was familiar territory.

While a year ago she might've had a few misgivings about injuring a specimen known to be near-extinction, this time she opts to study the fish with a critical eye and follow after her teammates, replacing Atalanta with a small blue blob.

The Phione trills melodically, hovering close to Skyler before gently plopping down onto her head in lieu of greeting. "Hey, bud." A smile flashes across her mouth, quick as lightning. "Can you do something for me?"

It isn't long before it joins angelo vestri 's red Gyarados, swimming excited loops around its serpentine body as it unleashes a second WHIRLPOOL, adding to the existing vortex's strength and size. 

This time it's Skyler who takes her cracked chunk of a phone out of her pocket, snapping a picture of the cryptic verses (honestly, it's a miracle it still works). "I might know a thing or two about those legends." Or, well, about one of them specifically, given that she is its avatar.

"D'you think one of the future obstacles will be a riddle? Or a word puzzle?" Why else were they being given these verses? 

skyler uses phione and has it use WHIRLPOOL
Hideo Kino angelo vestri Locke Jamison Xander Belmont

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"Sure do." Spoken casually, the reply to Xander Belmont 's request is edged in no small amount of deliberate insolence. Lips curling with barely held amusement, silver catches the light as it slides over to the redhead in question. "Ever heard of Kyogre's Ass? It's a constellation up in the sky, though angelo vestri would tell you otherwise." Scoff. "Hoennian sailors have been using it for centuries."

Is Skyler telling the truth or pulling his leg? There's no real way to tell, and she walks ahead - far too smugly - before answers can be demanded of her.

The humidity in the next room has an undesired effect on her unruly mane of curls, making it puff outwards in direct defiance of gravity and any laws that rule over it. Skyler curses, attempts to pat it down - which only results in making it worse. Tying it up offers little relief, the elastic struggling as strands pull themselves free.

Electric Terrain spreads throughout the room, and the elastic band in her hair snaps.

Okay. Alright. Fucking fine.

In typical Hoennian fashion, the kid in their small party (Hideo Kino ), from what little she heard of the conversation that's been flowing around her, seems properly traumatized. Locke Jamison too. Ah, good ol' Hoenn.

A small Wishiwashi is released into Skyler's hold, big watery eyes looking helplessly up at its trainer. "Kay, Balthico, we need-" Skyler stutters to a stop, watching in growing horror as the small fish's eyes water. A little fishy hiccup soon follows.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

"No. No, no. Sweetie, shh. It's okay, it's fine." Whatever smugness had reigned in her expression previously is quickly replaced by a rising panic. Her voice, when she speaks, is at least one octave higher. "Don't cry now, it's- it's okay. Uhm-" The captain looks around, clearly at a loss. And slightly panicked.

And then the Wishiwashi starts wailing in full, the UPROAR surprisingly shrill and powerful.

"- help?"

skyler's wishiwashi uses UPROAR
Hideo Kino angelo vestri Locke Jamison Xander Belmont

☉

Too slowly for Skyler's comfort, Balthico's cries eventually die down to a few pitiful hiccups - partly due to angelo vestri 's approaching Chingling and its calming lullaby. Gratefulness for the timely intervention, however, doesn't quite survive the tease that escapes the pilot's lips, quirked in amusement.

Skyler scowls, eyes narrowing imperceptibly at the revived, longstanding argument. The puffed out hair around her head adds to the confrontational twist of her lips when she turns to face him, an all too familiar stubborness digging its claws into her. Ready to spar.

(Only her eyes betray a sharp sort of enjoyment.)

"S'not my fault you can't tell your constellations apart, Vestri."

But then they're climbing up the stairs and emerging into another room, and Skyler's horizon-hungry eyes detach from her current victim? target to explore this new environment. Sliding uninterested over the newcomer, silver comes to rest on the inscription.

Unbidden, her whole body tenses.

For my own beloved is now gone from me,
departed to a place I cannot reach.

She doesn't realize when her fingers start drawing a path over the fabric of her bracelet, far newer than Angelo's despite the similarities. Back and forth in a tireless, comforting pattern. 

This is nothing, she tells herself. A nightmare, long past and soon to be forgotten. He is not gone, after all. He is not the one she kill-

She takes the ring target for herself, perhaps a bit too brusquely.

"An immortal?" The captain tilts her head to Hideo Kino , though he cannot see it. "Sounds lonely. And kinda boring after the first few decades." Still in her hold, Balthico snores softly as if in agreement.

skyler's wishiwashi is just vibin'
skyler picks the ring target
Hideo Kino angelo vestri Locke Jamison Xander Belmont

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