Her feet brought her to the observatory before she'd even taken note of it, but she remains silent through it all. When the carton is extended to her, she takes a single cigarette from it, nodding a brief thank you. Brynn had never taken to smoking, not even when she was still in college, but now? She couldn't care less.

She'd wait for a fire to light it and took a deep pull, letting the nicotine assault her battered mind in peace. When she exhaled it almost seemed as if she'd been smoking for ages, allowing the smoke to become a dull screen in front of her.

The second pull didn't go as smoothly, and left the Unovan hacking and coughing as she botched it, making her regret having accepted the cigarette in the first place. Alas, she was too stubborn to put it down, even in this state.

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

“breath the smoke into your lung,”

It's like she's prompted to listen. Even if her lungs still burn when she inhales again, craving more oxygen than she cares to give them, eventually the acheing fades.

“let it sit and breath in some air.”

It almost feels like she's clenching her chest, but she finds the next inhale going a lot easier. When she exhales she stares at the smoke leaving her lips, and the faintest of coughs teeters in the back of her throat, yet she swallows it bravely. When she shifts her gaze to the man beside her, her eyes end up lingering at the smoke he's exhaling, and sighs softly as she wills away the thoughts riding on that smoke. Painful, with very little bad habits to distract her from it.

Their silence seems to continue until she blurts out words in a silent voice, not even sure where they came from. Somewhere deep inside, she figured.

"Sometimes I wish memories could fade as quickly as cigarette smoke..."

The thought wasn't any less true.

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

"Doesn't make it any less easier," she sighs, slumping over the railing and staring at the people below. It's only when she sees him turn towards her from the corner of her eye that she shifts her head and gaze towards the man. Any other moment she would have swallowed her words and panicked at hearing such a powerful name, but today she couldn't care less about the fact that he was a mighty Silph.

Fernando Silph was one of the many victims Necrozma's rampage had made. Seeing the man's eye covered up with a black headband made her stomach sink, as it looked like physically he'd been off worse than her. Mentally she did not know, but for a split second she felt like her complaining was just mere moaning. There were others like her, who'd lost just as much -if not more-, but she could barely comprehend what loss had felt like until now. Protected and naive.

Only now did she learn to know the darkness of the world.

"Brynnhildr Erling," she returns the introduction after a few moments of silent staring. "I'd say it's a pleasure, but seeing the circumstances..." she doesn't bother continuing, quite certain Fernando Silph knows what she means. More silence. Her gaze rests on the man, scans him, the tears away to look at something else as she takes another pull from the cigarette as if she's trying to muster courage. Yet when she speaks again her voice reflects her brittleness, moments away from a whisper. "How bad is it?"

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

Gone. That was a whole less hopeful than she could've been, and for a moment she couldn't do much more than fall back into the deafening silence as she stared. Fernando Silph might be nothing more than a stranger at this point, a vague acquaintance at best now they'd exchanged introductions, but that meant little to the subtle shock she felt. Pity, some would call it. She knew very well she wouldn't have been able to carry herself as calmly as he had, had she been in his shoes.

Then again, if she had lived her life differently, mayhaps she would have.

So instead of his physical wounds, she focused on the other mention that could warrant surprise and shock. "Rocket? Was all of this their doing?" Brynn knew they'd been a thorn in many one's sides, but were they really capable of controlling such a monster? The war in Kanto answered her unspoken question about the atrocities they were capable of, but to have been the ones behind what had happened in Sootopolis...? "That... thing, you think they were the ones somehow controlling it?"

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

It was an obvious answer to her question, of course. But the darkness looming behind her eyes was deep. Of course they couldn't have controled it. Although such destruction might have very well been within the effective range of their plans, it did not seem like the giant black monstrosity would have had bothered keeping friend or foe apart. She wished to ask more stupid questions. Where did it come from? What of it now?

She was certain that if he knew, he wouldn't be here looking so grimm and disappointed with himself. Nor would he share such knowledge with a random citizen. So in the end, she did not.

"They'll do it again. Lead us to the slaughter like clueless little lambs if they get their hands on another." In the end, that's how it had felt for her. She shook her head softly, feeling a booming headache creeping up on her, like a snake coiling around her. "Like most power-hungry things, once they've had a taste of the potential, it'll only be a matter of time."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

"Let's hope it does not come before we're strong enough to do so."

We, she says, but she knows very well she isn't part of that 'we'. She's not sure if she'll ever be strong enough.

While Fernando ceases to let the embers fall, she brings the cigarette to her lips once more, inhaling ever so slowly so she can watch the fire at its tip flare. The nicotine does a great job at numbing the pain, both of the body and the mind. Brynn's sigh mixes with the smoke she exhales, and her wrist drops over the railing, allowing the silence to overtake them for a moment, safe for the bristling of city life below them.

"Would you have done things differently?" she asks.

FERNANDO SILPH

☉