"High end of normal, huh?" If Primal Intoxication didn't do her in, then just regular good ol' intoxication would do the trick.

Skyler clocks the Head Professor's unspoken hint with a quirked eyebrow, but doesn't bother arguing with the facts. Her lifestyle had never even attempted to be anything close to healthy. A byproduct of flirting with danger far too many times.

The last part of the report is what truly draws Skyler in, each word that slips from Eva's mouth deepening the groove between Skyler's brows.

Concern etches lines into her expression as she leans back, jaw clenched tight. "You think someone might've tampered with it?" One possible suspect comes to mind, but the captain refrains from voicing any accusations yet. "I found shards all over, someone might've gotten to one before I did."

Lying isn't an art she frequently dabbles into. The captain knows that one of the shards had belonged to someone else - Walsh. While she'd held her own suspicions at the time, she'd soon moved on to other concerns. Like, you know, the apparent coming of the apocalypse.

More fool her.

"Think you could fix it, Doc?" Most of what happens in these labs would go right over Skyler's head. Her own skills are often far more practical in nature, which explains her blunt question.

She'd rather not go somewhere else with this knowledge. There's a budding trust between the two of them, and Skyler would be loathe to let it go to waste. 

But if she had to, she would.

Eva Morales

☉

Eva glances between Skyler, her paperwork, and the blue orb. Since discovering the anomalies, she has been mulling over what may have caused them pretty much consistently.

“A who is possible but . . . I fear it’s more of a what,” A cosmic being, Hoenn’s disrupted energy state, the possibilities are endless, “Hoenn’s energy has been unpredictable since the Ultra Beast War. It’s not inappropriate to assume that whatever is causing the changes to Hoenb’s energies is also corrupting the Orb’s,” her hand vaguely motions towards the sapphire before tucking a rogue piece of blonde behind her ear.

Eva is unaware of Rocket’s previous involvement with the Blue Orb, but if she did she wouldn’t hesitate to point a finger. Rocket has a nasty habit of corrupting beautiful things.

“I don’t know, Skyler,” she sighs, shaking her head and motioning towards the stacks of paper, “I think I’m just scraping the surface of its potential but . . . I the corrupting energy is acting like some sort of parasite of abscess in the orb then it’s possible,” she’s fixed poisoned things before. Granted, they were all pokemon – not a legendary sphere chalk full of primal energy.

“But I must emphasize that you refrain from attempting to use it before we figure out what kind of energy it is that’s corrupting it. A surge of that energy could be devastating. Not only for you, but for your deity as well.” And not to mention, for Hoenn.

---

skyler dross

Skyler's not in the habit of making promises, especially not when she isn't sure she can hold onto them. No matter how reasonable Eva's request is, both for the region's and Skyler's own well-being, no promise is forthcoming. At least not from the captain.

But a compromise wouldn't be out of the question.

"I'll do my best not to call upon its power," she says, idly fiddling with the Blue Orb, "unless the situation calls for it and there's no better solution." Skyler herself might not be the best judge about what constitutes as 'no better solution', but that's far removed from Eva's purview.

Little did the captain know that such a situation would arrive soon enough, in the wake of a looming darkness growing over Sootopolis. 

"I wouldn't be surprised if there was something in Hoenn messing with it, with what has been happening lately." A frown twists her expression, the downward curve of her lips reflecting a stubborn resolve. 

A beat of silence follows her words. She watches reflected power crashing against blue facets, its powerful thrum familiar under her fingertips.

A silver gaze rises to meet Eva's. "But if it's something internal, Doc, d'you think you can pinpoint the source and - drain it away?" Even ignorant as she is to the scientific knowledge behind Eva's work, Skyler knows this is a stretch. It it were as simple as that, the good Head Professor would've already attempted it. With so many unknown variables, experimenting might just make it worse. Or make it explode.

Skyler, however, seems willing to go forward with it.

Then again, she sleeps with the equivalent to a nuclear generator over her chest every single night. As far as Skyler's aware, caution had long been thrown to the wind.

Eva Morales

☉

Eva knows better than to think she has any right or authority to demand Skyler heeds her warning. The best she can do is frown and nod, forced to trust that the Captain will think twice, even if the situation seems hopeless, before activating the orb. Who knows if the dark energy leeched inside just needed to be released, where it would infect the rest of Hoenn’s energies? That’s a fear Eva would have to smother and save for later.

Skyler puts forward an interesting proposal. Much like she would treat an abscess, she could attempt to lance and drain the corrupting energy. However, she may lack the tool necessary to deal with energy on such a precise level, “I could try I guess . . . I’d have to give it some thought on how to do it,” another, more disturbing consequence crosses her mind, “I don’t know how the orb would react though . . . I could see a risk being it’s destruction,” is that a risk Skyler is willing to take? Obviously the woman trusts her to a degree to bring her this precious item, but beyond that Eva is unsure.

---

skyler dross

The risk gives her pause.

There isn't much in the way of obstacles that would deter Skyler once a decision had been set within her mind. But while she's careless with her own well-being, the same does not apply to the orb in her possession. The ocean had always called to her, and to feel its power thrumming under the slow rasp of her fingertips had proved- endlessly intoxicating.

How far that intoxication goes - metaphorically and figuratively - remains to be seen. That it could spell Skyler's downfall needn't be said. That is a risk the captain's all too eager to hurtle herself into.

"Take all the time you need, Doc," is what she ends up saying, on a casual note at odds with the building tension in her body, made exponentially worse by the thought of the Orb's destruction. "I know these are uncharted waters, for both of us." At least until Groudon's avatar emerges from the past, reeking of brimstone and betrayal. 

"If you think it might risk the Orb's integrity, we'll call it a day." Some measure of trust has been put into Eva's hands, and Skyler sees it bearing fruits in the frank way the Head Professor addresses her. Feels it in the way she, herself, doesn't immediately step back at the notion of entrusting Eva with the Orb's handling.

Time will tell if this hard-won trust will bloom - or sour.

While she ultimately serves herself and those few she's loyal to, Skyler is also tragically human - and prone to human error. For good or ill.

Eva Morales

☉

Eva accepts Skyler’s trust with a series of slow nods that send her mind reeling off in a new direction – how she can help the Captain. A partnership is forged out of necessity for them both. Exploring the depths of the Blue Orb’s power could give her clues into Primal Energy that she had yet to discover, all the while that understanding my lead to enhancing Skyler’s power. It’s a slippery slope, without Kyogre in check and no Groudon or Rayquaza to counter it, that could mean destruction for Hoenn as they know it – Sea Hoenn all over again.

“I’ll try my best, Skyler,” she confirms, also deciding to tread these uncharted waters very carefully for both of their sakes, “I’ll be in touch then after I do some more research.”

---

skyler dross