“tch. ungrateful.”[break][break]

her face twisted before a fist shot out into his nose.[break][break]

“i would’ve preferred prison. fucking lunatic.”[break][break]

his phone went off. it was Katherine Fairburne .[break][break]

“where is it?” she walked over and held out her hand to those present off to the side. ”who has his phone? give it me.” [break][break]

after retrieving it, she read. a smirk passed her face, corrupt with disdain.[break][break]

”katherine fairburne. apparently, the world is ending.” she looked back up across the blood-dripped floor. ”it’s just like your nightmare, isn’t it fernando? here you are, too weak and lost to do anything about it...” [break][break]

cackling lowly under her breath, she fished her own phone out of her pocket—a secure anonymous line—and held it up to take a photo of him, beaten and bound. she sent it to katherine, with a small accompanying text.[break][break]

once finished, she handed the phone back over, approaching fernando again.[break][break]

“you know, you may both be snakes, but you are more of a fool than i thought if you really believe she is loyal to you. not to worry, though; she’ll be next—if, of course, she lives through whatever she’s losing her mind about right now.”[break][break]

maybe making such threats on behalf of rocket would be out of line—but after her attacks of both Rowan Wrynn and THEO BECKETT , things had become very personal.

[attr="class","ooc"]FERNANDO SILPH Cillian Quinn [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-darkrai"]

”they can’t be loyal to the entire region and to themselves. that doesn’t make any sense. you’re either selfish, or you’re not. and katherine? she’s selfish.”[break][break]

how else would she have made it so far in team rocket before her turn? [break][break]

“who else? Melody Miro , a former prisoner of ours? MATIAS SILPH , your brother? well, let’s hope the difference in blood can counteract any influence you’ve had on him.” [break][break]

there was a brief pause as she considered the last of his heroes. [break][break]

”i guess you’ve got Kazimir Wynter ... and we can’t forget your champion, of course, kyle lopez —but if i recall correctly, he ‘couldn’t be assed to go out in the rain’, right?”[break][break]

she grinned like the meowth that ate the chatot. the apocalyptic scenarios she’d glimpsed in fernando’s nightmare over a year ago had faded considerably in her memory, and perhaps he wouldn’t even remember them himself; but as dreams go, some details had simply stuck with her.[break][break]

”you can act like you have faith in them, but i know the truth just as well as you do. you fear they will not be enough; that all your pieces on the board, big and small, will fall to their own chaos.” she leered closer to eye level, smirk pulling even higher. “and they will.”[break][break]

”now,” she then declared sharply, ”since you clearly have no idea, let me tell you why you’re really here.”[break][break]

relishing the moment, her ruthless gaze searched hungrily for that singular crack in his psyche as she continued, ”i am gleefully assigned by team rocket to remove tapu fini’s power from your body. unfortunately, i have to leave you alive; but there is still one other thing i want from you for myself...”[break][break]

her hand reached into her pocket, soon revealing a blade which gleamed under the room's dim light.

[attr="class","ooc"]FERNANDO SILPH Cillian Quinn [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-darkrai"]

gavin’s clarification cut straight through her focus. she broke away to look at her brother for a moment, a silent thank you lingering subtly in her expression. [break][break]
”well. maybe i’ll clear my schedule.”[break][break]
of course, impending death would cause any man to try and save himself. fernando, fork-tongued, continued to try and trick her. lulu’s face twisted again into disgust and hatred, and at his last line, her scream filled the room, ”enough fucking games!” [break][break]
flaring like an inferno, she descended upon him, spitting his condemnation, quick, emphatic, and wild-eyed.[break][break]
”as good as killing you would feel, it would be too great of a mercy. i know your life is miserable as it is; the way you grind and grind because no one can do it like you can, can they, fernando?”[break][break]
”i will make what is left of your life a living hell like no one else in this world can, until you shrivel up and die in the darkest dark you can imagine. hungry, broke, and forgotten, with no one left to fight for you, or the second region your family will have failed. that is my power. my promise. your nightmare was prophecy.”[break][break]
she stopped to take a deep, grounding breath, practically quivering in her anger and bitterness. then, after a moment of silence, she continued at a deceptively less aggressive level.[break][break]
”you will witness the fall of everything you have lived for; however, what’s left of your existence will not be spent whole.”[break][break]
the knife in her hand went to drag beneath his chin, still too light to pierce his skin—yet.[break][break]
”because of you, i can no longer see the world as it really is. i fear anything good that happens to me is still just you messing with my head. it’s a sad life to live. maddening, even. you’ve completely crippled my perception.”[break][break]
”i am an eye for an eye kind of person. so, fernando….”[break][break]
she pulled the knife back some to gleam in front of his face, its pointy tip alternating side to side at his options.[break][break]
”right or left?”

[attr="class","ooc"]FERNANDO SILPH Cillian Quinn [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-darkrai"]

happy. [break][break]
she stared back at his question, perplexed and quiet. perhaps he wasn’t as privy to her thoughts as she had guessed, for now that her memories were back in order, lulu could quite vividly recall that she’d always been miserable. she had hardly felt the sun shining on her face for the first time in years when she’d stepped out of maximum-security prison.[break][break]
no, the happiness fernando was referring to must have been what he’d ultimately failed to create in her. smiles, like flowers freshly planted in an everlasting drought. his garden had dried and fissured, and from its chasms now licked the flames of hell.[break][break]
she laughed, soft, and then louder, until it was practically maniacal. [break][break]
”but i’m too far gone already, don’t you think?” [break][break]
”and oh, fernando…” her hand tangled into his hair roughly to hold him in place. she got so close that her forehead pressed to his—not like a lover, but like a wild bull, glaring at him right under his own eyelashes. ”i’ve never been happier than i am right now.”[break][break]

(tw: gore)[break][break]

still grinning, she leaned back to plunge the knife into his right eye, twisting the blade, undeterred by the filth that spewed. once the muscles had been properly severed, she scooped it out of his skull like an oyster. [break][break]
her prize.

[attr="class","ooc"]FERNANDO SILPH Cillian Quinn [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-darkrai"]