entirely too much had happened.[break][break]
her wrist was wrapped too loosely, messy, and held up to stabilize the best she could as she hurried through the halls. a broken wrist was the least of her worries, despite the pain.[break][break]
she hadn’t heard from him. she lost her phone during the almost-apocalypse. she was maybe 95% sure he was dead, but there was the last 5% which told her it didn’t hurt to check.[break][break]
this would not be the first boyfriend. though tears threatened, she steeled herself. she had been foolish to think it wouldn’t happen again. this would not happen again.[break][break]
without a knock, or hesitation, the door swung open.[break][break]
she stood there, and what surely for a split second looked like a trace of sadness burst into flames.[break][break]
”what the fuck are YOU DOING HERE?!”

[attr="class","ooc"]THEO BECKETT [break][break]

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

”okay?”[break][break] her eyes were practically glowing. her voice cracked under her rage, then, hissing in a squeal like a deflating balloon as she repeated herself.[break][break]
^”OKAY?!”[break][break]
”i am not okay! i am the very definition of the opposite of okay, theo!”[break][break]
as he took a step towards her, she kicked the door shut roughly, glaring.

[attr="class","ooc"]THEO BECKETT [break][break]

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

he was lucky, maybe, that the book had fallen out of reach.[break][break]
she didn’t heed the furrow in his brows. in fact, she hardly noticed it, despite how out of character it was, and the warning it should have perhaps been. she was blinded by adrenaline, and one wholly overwhelming feeling: he had abandoned her. left her for dead, to do whatever else he’d done while they all fought for her lives.[break][break]
only to be found in his office without a fresh scratch on him, at least not that she could see. [break][break]
”the ones that aren’t dead.”[break][break]
she was shaking. her nostrils flared, and tears welled in her angry eyes, gleaming despite her efforts to will them away.

[attr="class","ooc"]THEO BECKETT [break][break]

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

it was robotic, but why should she expect any less? where was his panic? where was his mourning, his anger, his anything human?[break][break]
this was what she’d always gravitated to, but in this light—the one where her own had been nearly snuffed out—it all looked different. it was scary, heartbreaking, stomach-turning.[break][break]
this was truly what he was at his core. empty, like how KING WAYLAND had called her. only, he’d been wrong.[break][break]
there was no comfort here.[break][break]
her stomach twisted and her lip quivered, and the tears finally overflowed from her eyelids, and she wiped them away angrily, sniffing. angry at him, angry at herself for caring about any of it at all.[break][break]
”why are you here? why weren’t you with us? weren’t you worried at all?”[break][break]
”don’t you fucking care about me?”[break][break]
she shook, and her voice raised again, her guard erecting like a fortress and taking aim upon him.[break][break]
”do you care about anyone?!”

[attr="class","ooc"]THEO BECKETT [break][break]

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

while theo did well at concealing his emotions, lulu’s were bursting at the seams, much to her fury. ruled by her emotions. another criticism of KING WAYLAND ’s, and only an echo of natalia’s final sentiments to her.[break][break]
so, he had known about it, as she’d guessed. while giant monsters razed her home city, he had been following walsh’s orders.[break][break]
walsh, one who she now assumed did not wish any good things upon her. one who would, without a doubt, kill her once he’d gotten whatever he needed out of her, for surely, he’d been inside her head this whole time. this was just her luck.[break][break]
if theo could leave her for dead, he could surely kill her too, if given the command. something, everything in her froze over at the realization.[break][break]
she was still on her own in this world.[break][break]
whatever flickered in her eyes died as they fell away from him. after a moment, she turned to open his office door again, and walk down the hall. after a few steps, darkness whisked her away into a nearby shadow.

[attr="class","ooc"]THEO BECKETT [break][break]

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

she grew tired, not consuming dreams to the extent that she normally did. going for stretches without eating—not that it was terribly uncommon for her; but something had truly broken. again, maybe, or for the first time, in a new way.[break][break]

the power she’d felt from her torture of FERNANDO SILPH only days prior had fizzled out into a grim solemness. as the eye sat in its jar on a shelf, she worked tirelessly, escaping deeper into her theories than ever before, delegating others to tend to the labs.[break][break]

when she heard the knock, her shoulders jumped, and she was pulled through the tunnel of her focus, back into reality.[break][break]

”come in.”[break][break]

her voice held less energy than usual, though hung onto a begrudging tone of annoyance.[break][break]

as always since the bite incident, djall, along with gorgo and the new shadow houndour were asleep on the floor.

[attr="class","ooc"]THEO BECKETT [break][break]

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

she wasn’t expecting him.[break][break]
the pen in her hand stopped. her anxiety rose, and she felt a pang in her chest. there was no anger, only a small frown that had been there for some time now.[break][break]
could they talk? what choice did she have?[break][break]
she set the pen down onto her notes.[break][break]
”of course. what about?”

[attr="class","ooc"]THEO BECKETT [break][break]

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