"Cheers."
[break][break]
With one fluid motion, the councilwoman brought the nearly spilled old fashion to her lips and took her lion's share of the drink. The rewarding burn deeply massaged into the knotted parts of her thoughts, until all became hazy and forgotten. A habitual ritual for relaxation.
[break][break]
Back pressed down against the buttery soft leather of the curve couch, Penelope cocked her head to the side, eyes peering curiously down at her adorably out-of-place companion. It had taken more than a few jostling jokes to urge him out from the bleak depths of his cave.
[break][break]
"So," She started, shifting to prop her arm against the backrest of the couch, so that her head could crane forward, closer to Nagi. "Any plans for the new years?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] nagi miwa[break]


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

nagi’s first thought, mouthed soundlessly to himself before he thinks better of vocalising it, is survive.[break][break]

back in kalos, he might have been able to pass it off as a joke. in hoenn, it’s gallows humour, a dead horse, beaten so deep into the ground it’s become part of the terrazzo. his first year here has shown him well enough: what else does hoenn do, but survive? [break][break]

“i’m… not a new years resolution person,” he admits at last.[break][break]

maybe that’s why he found himself here. like attracting like. before coming to hoenn, nagi hadn’t done much besides survive, pencilling out his existence day by day, chapter by chapter. having a purpose outside of the next plot hook for tales is a new thing. he’s still getting used to it.[break][break]

“maybe i’ll come up with something by february.” [break][break]

he takes another drink — a slow, measured gulp, more daring than his first sip. it burns down his throat, trailing heat to the tips of his fingers. [break][break]

“how about you?”

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] @charname [break]


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

She smirked.
[break][break]
Penelope certainly understood the sentiment well enough. Since assuming her role as councilwoman, surviving the night was all she could think of, and when the possibility of survival had finally solidified, the idea of setting a resolution had become all the more daunting. Alas, when you're confined to officework, responding to mundane questions such as these became second nature.
[break][break]
"You know, the usual," she shrugged, fingers trailing the rim of her glass tumbler, "get in shape, spend more time on myself, yada yada."
[break][break]
None were distinctly untrue, but in comparison to everything else, they were nearly nonexistent in her mind.
[break][break]
Though, there was one frail desire she'd kept to herself up until now. If it wasn't Nagi sitting beside her, she might've kept it that way. A small secret for herself and no one else.
[break][break]
Smirk falling, her confident tone grew unsettled beneath the pressure of her next words.
[break][break]
"I also want to grow stronger. Somehow."
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] nagi miwa [break]


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

he doubts that she means get swole.[break][break]

stronger. it’s not an unusual resolution; not for a person living in hoenn, and certainly not for a woman in penelope’s position. glancing across the surface, it’s straightforward — a simple wish.[break][break]

but penelope had never struck nagi to be a simple woman. [break][break]

water soaks into his jeans, where he’d rested the glass atop the curve of his knee. he ignores the growing dampness in favour of watching the changes in penelope’s expression: the waver in the dagger-sharp edge of her smirk, the falter in her tone.[break][break]

whatever strength his boss seeks, it’s not the straightforward kind. there’s more, simmering beneath the restrained veneer of her quiet declaration. [break][break]

“... stronger, how?”

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] PENELOPE LIVY [break]


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

"With battling and the like."
[break][break]

There were other areas to which the woman sought strength, but for the extent of their conversation, she hadn't felt the need to offer more than that.
[break][break]

A loose, idle finger traced the outline of a stray scartch making the smooth bartop in front of her. It started off small, as if it were a little mistake someone had made while too drunk for comfort, only it grew much larger in size the further it extended off to.
[break][break]

"It's not really my cup of tea, but what else is there to do? "
[break][break]

She paused, took a small sip of her drink, then continued.
[break][break]

"Forever trust my life to someone else? No thank you."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] nagi miwa [break]


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

the small of nagi’s back sinks into a divot in the backrest, carved out by generations of inebriated slouchers. the bourbon sloshes in the glass as he slumps. it’s true that by first impressions alone, he wouldn’t have pegged penelope as some kind of gym-bro or battle-nut, but hoenn being what it is — with what has been done to hoenn in past year, what hoenn has done to them, well. [break][break]

“... yeah.” [break][break]

a monosyllabic answer; a single, affirmative nod. his knuckles shift under his skin as he flexes his hand. his thoughts are an echo: what else is there to do?[break][break]

he brings the glass to his lips for another slow drag of the bitter drink, cradling the glass close to himself in cupped palms. (is he going too fast? bourbon’s a hard liquor, isn’t it? gulp, down the hatch, too late.)[break][break]

“i want…”[break][break]

strength? the word feels misplaced on his tip of his tongue. unwieldy, a jigsaw piece for a someone else’s puzzle. he fumbles.[break][break]

“ — to be useful.”[break][break]

do something. mean something. his voice is small, a fading wisp of a thing.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] PENELOPE LIVY [break]


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

You're already useful.
[break][break]
The soft words died on the tip of her tongue. Who was she to deny the man's strive for better than what already was. Sure, he fulfilled his role as her assistant as well as possible, but with the world crumbling around them, was that all one could really desire? To be an useful assistant?
[break][break]
Twirling the darkened liquid in her glass, the councilwoman silently studied him. His slouched shoulders; the flex of his hands; the slow, heavy gulps of a drink she expected far stronger than what he was already used to.
[break][break]
"How do you plan to achieve that?"
[break][break]
Not just a question, but a challenge.
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] nagi miwa[break]


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

as it always has been since the day she swerved into his life, penelope raises a question like the proffered hilt of a sword: what next?[break][break]

he raises his gaze to meet hers. [break][break]

what else is there to do?[break][break]

“find out what i can do,” he answers, plain and without embellishment. a story only he can write.[break][break]

his reflection swirls in the glass, distorted over the rippling surface of amber. if pressed later, he’ll chalk it up to alcohol. to the fuzzy, warm edge the drink has lent to the world, to the distilled courage of 27% abv on a two-crackers-and-a-grape stomach —[break][break]

in the dim-lit corner of the bar, under the spotlight of penelope’s gold-alloyed gaze, he says before he can think to regret it: “thank you.”

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] PENELOPE LIVY [break]


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

For someone under the microscopic lens of introspection, the simple answer Nagi offered was far more profound than she'd originally expected. To find what he was good at -- may he find luck in that. Most go lifetimes without ever finding out the answer to that question.
[break][break]
"Thank you."
[break][break]
Eyebrows raised, Penelope tilted her head at the random plea of gratitude. Was it the alcohol talking? She suspected Nagi of being a lightweight, but to be at the point of mumbling nonsense after one glass? That, she never would have expected.
[break][break]
"What for?"
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] nagi miwa [break]


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