"hello, hello."[break][break]

as if on cue, the commissioner arrives. her heels click on the pavement warmed by hoenn sun.[break][break]

"freya. eva."[break][break]

she acknowledges them with a quick nod. there is the edge of urgency in her movements. business rather than pleasure.[break][break]

"shall we? i hope the rehabilitation enclosure is to your tastes."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] freya morningstar Eva Morales[break]

[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon dragonite"]

"an old habit of my father's," freya explains sheepishly. five minutes early is fifteen minutes late, freya! the thought is a pleasant, albeit somber one. hearing the voices of ghosts always is. but she shrugs it aside and offers whatever smile she can manage at eva. 

she's still grateful for what she's done, but apprehension prickles her skin. her promise to KING WAYLAND, folded from pursed lips to his skin, has her gaze never straying far from the doctor. 

"commissioner," freya says. she appreciates the lack of pleasantries, the ever-angular, wordy, exhausting drivel that comes with false niceties. leave the power struggle at the door for now.

freya looks between the two women. "dr. morales was telling me that rayquaza has been recovering its strength?" 

Eva Morales dahlia goode

☉

conveniently, eva answers for her. while dahlia wishes for the dragon's recovery with the sincerest depth, there is a carat of her heart that wishes for it to slow. to stop, should the thought become intrusive enough.[break][break]

for should the world be saved by primal quartz, then she would be validated.[break][break]

when they reach the mouth of the cavern, dahlia's steps stop. she raises her hands briefly as if she were holding the curtain of reveal closed.[break][break]

"before we go in, i wanted to thank you both," the commissioner says, "for your service. i'm sure rayquaza is too."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] freya morningstar Eva Morales[break]

[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon dragonite"]

there's just something...bright about eva. she lopes easily beside freya, all too happy to talk about the good fortune surrounding the legendary. despite the somber air that tends to linger about her nowadays, freya finds herself smiling. the measured optimism is still, on the whole, good news. 

when dahlia stop, freya reaches up to the scale tucked under her shirt. pale fingertips brush against the exposed necklace containing her pokeballs above it. lyune rests in one of them, still recovering from their escape. 

"i like to see my debts repaid," freya says. "i owed my life to it. lyune and i both." and so she will see it through that it regains its strength in full, that it may become whole once more. her gaze shifts from dahlia to eva and she offers a nod. "but it's dr. morales who got us there and back."

Eva Morales dahlia goode

☉

the habitat is stunning. though it may be a far cry from the sheer liberation a rayquaza may feel in the soaring wilds it calls home, one may compare this salving sanctuary to the best vacation home.[break][break]

after all, it is meant to be a temporary holding...[break][break]

after dahlia takes a soft breath, she points toward the serpent. its verdant shape settling within the waves of a GRASSY TERRAIN.[break][break]

"there it is." the commissioner whispers to freya morningstar, before glancing at Eva Morales. "would it be possible to approach?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] freya morningstar Eva Morales[break]

[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon dragonite"]

to say freya is taken aback is an understatement. dahlia and eva both pass her with a couple steps as she finds herself rooted to the ground, struck with a terrible, heart-wrenching pain that makes her gasp. she holds a hand to her chest, fisting fabric, and catches up to the two of them, jaw set. 

and though she's not leaking, her eyes are glassy, cheeks flushed. a hand comes up, hesitant, and without a word, and probably with much surprise to the other two women, freya drags eva into an embrace. 

"sorry, i - " she starts and draws back just as quickly, remembering herself. "this reminds me of home." this place, so full of teeming life. this place of warmth and promise. of strength. her grief has always been a hollow sort of yearning, boxed up with her adoptive parents' deaths and her loss of alexander. but here, surrounded by tangible remembrance makes her so happy and so sad at the same time. 

freya smiles at dahlia and looks, respectuflly, towards eva, but takes a couple steps on her own. the grass is long, curling over her boots - a dreamlike pillow for the beast, no doubt. and she gets ever-closer, though doesn't dare rouse the dragon from its dreams. 

Eva Morales dahlia goode

☉

when the two ladies embrace, the commissioner slips into some silence. [break][break]

she allows freya to take the first few steps onto the green and follows soon after. off to the side. careful not to silk the emotional procession, nor disturb the dragon ahead.[break][break]

but she is close enough to see the damage. the tail's regrowth, like slowly uncurling fern, is a haunting reminder that greater threats exist and will continue to exist past the meteoroid.[break][break]

there is no such thing as rest.[break][break]

"we'll have to plan for when it does reach full recovery." the commissioner whispers. "rayquaza may be docile for now, but what will it decide to do when it is healthy?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] freya morningstar Eva Morales[break]

[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon dragonite"]

eva has very little reason to be as kind, or as warm, to freya as she is. the rational part of freya's brain tells her that everything comes with a price. long has she thought about the implications of how eva's niceties may come back to loom over her head. but, as with most things, she decides she will conquer it when the time comes. 

for now, she can only accept her kindness in full. 

the serpent exhales deeply. freya watches the rise and fall of its body. with eva's wave of her hand, she moves only a few more paces with dahlia at her side. her gaze follows the commissioner's, trailing over the regenerative end of the beast's tail. with the meteor soon approaching, freya guesses there's little chance it will recover enough strength in time to protect them. 

her head tilts. "it has seen the rise and fall of thousands of civilizations, commissioner. ours deaths would mean little to it, i think. but many legends call it a god of harmony. it will protect the balance of our world; it will stop that which threatens its domain."

Eva Morales dahlia goode

☉