things were only impossibly busier and busier these days. with the meteoroid approaching, and less bodies manning the labs in the wake of necrozma’s wrath, everyone was in a hurry.[break][break]

mint’s cheery entrance was greeted with fleeting glances by staff. passing porygon and metagross never stopped to look over, attention unbreakably adhered to their tasks. lulu did not immediately look up. she listened, though, and was eventually drawn out of her work by the mention of something new.[break][break]

amber eyes snapped up from her clipboard to find his, attention effectively shifted from the assembly of some mechanism she’d been supervising.[break][break]

”i’ll take another copy, sure. what do you mean weird sensors?”

[attr="class","ooc"]mint frost [break]

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

”wonderful. i’ll do my best to recover it.” which she knew would likely fail, the same way recovering the footage from her porygon had.[break][break]

she hadn’t noticed the engineer’s eyes on them until mint looked over.[break][break]

a primal node? from rose industries? she thought back to her time living in the same building as Amor Rose , and the brief air of competition between them that had once existed.[break][break]

”oh. this belongs to my old neighbor, actually.” when her eyes eventually looked up again at mint, she smiled. ”ours now.”
[break][break]
”consider the glasses done. i’ll have them ready for you in a few days. great work, mint.” he earned his keep over and over. he deserved all the designer gadgets and she was happy to give them to the good beans.[break][break]

it was then that her eyes went back to the engineer.[break][break]

”can we help you with something, miss faust?”

[attr="class","ooc"]mint frost Rory Faust [break]

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

unfortunately, despite her efforts, the data on the second flash drive would remain pure static. what occurred in the cloud could only be pieced together by the accounts of those who had been present, and by memory alone. it might raise the question: what details had slipped through the cracks, or been distorted by the fallible nature of the mind?[break][break]
her neighbor? ”Amor Rose .” she’d been following the league’s efforts, of course, as closely as she could. at his question, she nodded. ”i do.”[break][break]
eyes turned up towards rory as mint’s attention directed her again. her voice sliced through the moment to answer, perhaps rudely, to offer another opportunity.[break][break]
”actually, faust, i have a job for you, if you’d like to help. you seem interested enough.” and she was bright, promising. a problem-solver. such praise wasn’t voiced, at least not now; it only showed in the barely detectible curl at the corner of the head scientist’s lips. she raised the device in her hands. ”how familiar are you with rose industry’s primal nodes?” hopefully familiar enough. she would expect nothing less, for they were no secret in their scientific realm.

[attr="class","ooc"]mint frost Rory Faust [break]

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

nearly all of the labs, except for those doing magma experiments, had turned towards the impending rock of doom hurtling towards them—and for obviously good reason. the primal node was still very relevant, though. perhaps, when the day came, mint would even be able to take it to the meteor itself.[break][break]

”good.” a simple acknowledgement for faust’s keeping up with things. it placed her well ahead of some of her colleagues, but to be fair, new events had been moving very quickly lately in the realm of technology and physics.[break][break]

”we will be fixing this one for our own use; however, there is far too much going on around here, and my focus will be on the meteor. i will offer my guidance where needed, but otherwise, i am placing you in charge of the repair—unless you have any objections?”

[attr="class","ooc"]mint frost Rory Faust [break]

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