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the receptionist is almost taken aback by skyler's smirk. there is an overwhelming confidence—whether it was faked or performed does not matter. dahlia's staff member leans toward their desk and presses the whismur-shaped button on the intercom.[break][break]

"commissioner goode, you have a visitor. skyler dross."[break][break]

there is no response. instead, the doors to dahlia's office open swiftly. the commissioner stands between the heavy wooden door frames, her hands holding each one firmly.[break][break]

"come in." she says just as firm. "after you." the commissioner adds quickly, a hand gesturing for her to take a seat.[break][break]

when the doors close, the commissioner crosses her arms.[break][break]

"have you changed your mind?"

In many ways, Skyler supposes Dahlia is the anchor the League tethers itself to. The living, flesh and blood heartbeat of its innermost workings. How heavy, she wonders, does Hoenn weight on her shoulders?

Misaligned intentions hardly deter her acknowledgement of Dahlia’s efforts, and the begrudging respect that comes with it.

“I’m considering it.” The Commissioner’s stark bluntness is matched by Skyler’s own as the captain steps past dahlia goode and into the room. She doesn’t take a seat, all too aware of the closing doors at her back. This is not a prison, she reminds herself. This is not a trap. Funny how much it feels like one.

This is your choice.

Maybe if she tells herself this enough times she’ll start to believe it.

Compared to Dahlia’s curated presentation. Skyler is a study in unmanageability. A wayward curl is flicked away from her face as she turns towards the other woman. “That, and I thought a conversation in person was highly overdue, Commissioner.”

dahlia goode

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dahlia sees skyler tuck away that curl of hair—and she is reminded that she often does the same. there, it arises. a small itch on her finger. the sudden cognition of her own blonde curl tickling her cheek.[break][break]

she's tempted to groom, but she tightens the cross of her arms.[break][break]

"i think the same," dahlia says. neatly, she takes a seat in her chair.[break][break]

between them, a small coffee table stands. on it, the hoenn news network issue of the day: "CIVIL UNREST IN KANTO SPREADS ACROSS THE REGION".[break][break]

"i hear nautica's passed every instance of vessel inspection. hopefully such effort means good business?"

Skyler finds herself at a cliff edge, gazing out at the vast gulf between herself and the Commissioner, at the depths of the fall before her - and silently wonders if building bridges was as easy as burning them.

She'd done precious little of the former. 

The chair creaks slightly when the captain casually drapes herself over it, no longer a towering presence in the room. Her gaze is briefly drawn towards the headline before her, and an eyebrow quirks upwards.

"Business is blooming, more than we'd initially expected." Pride smooths out the edges of her restlessness, and a small smile peeks through. "We've expanded Nautica's fleet with a new salvaging ship. Might need employees soon too."

Briefly, she's reminded of the mountains of paperwork awaiting her back in the Nautica office. Maybe she ought to give Raziel Beckett a call - didn't he mention that he enjoyed paperwork?

"'Course, that's partially due to how dangerous ocean routes are becoming."

Particularly around Sootopolis.

dahlia goode

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"our oceans are indeed dangerous. i know that very well." [break][break]

the commissioner pluralizes the word, the brine of sea hoenn settling beneath her tongue. [break][break]

"but i can imagine despite the risks that your patron is able to grant you safe passage?" [break][break]

dahlia asks, but she shifts into multiple choice with a curious yet steely gaze.[break][break]

"or does your bond paint a bigger target on your back?"

Our oceans. Skyler’s lips twitch.

"Sailing the ocean is a danger all on its own, Commissioner. I wouldn't have continued on this path if I recoiled from it." A feeling, she suspects, Dahlia herself might contend with. Oceans notwithstanding.

Everyone has their anchors, bestowed by choice or circumstance. Duty. Passion. Love. Greed. Safety. Despite popular opinion, Skyler didn’t roam entirely untethered.

"I imagine it would paint a bigger target if it were public knowledge." As far as the captain knew, only Rocket's upper echelon was aware of her patron. She doesn't mention that, until very recently, she'd made a deal with Rocket's Cillian Quinn . One that assured safe passage, for both parts.

Except when it didn't.

That was well and truly broken now.

A finger hooks around a thin cord around her neck, revealing the Blue Orb. Energy crashes against its curved surface from within, maelstrom given shape.

"Did you know I got the last Blue Orb shard from declan walsh ? Right about when he invited me to join Rocket."

dahlia goode

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when skyler produces the blue orb, the commissioner marvels at its make. at the weight of its history, its power. inside, its sea of primal energy crashes in on itself, begging to trespass its container.[break][break]

but the beauty of hoenn is broken by the name of that man. [break][break]

she tilts her head sharply, eyebrows knitted tight like canoes paddling against each other.[break][break]

"and you trusted him enough to take it?" dahlia asks. "how has that worked out for you, hm?"

"Trust had nothing to do with it, Commissioner." She hears the judgement in Dahlia's voice and allows it to sail past like a ship in the night. It quickly disappears into the depths of Skyler's indifference. She continues, "It's worked out fairly well so far. Couple of burst pipes aside."

There was a bit more to it than that, as was usually the case when a perceived deity of Kyogre's caliber decided to bestow their favour upon someone.

But that knowledge remains locked behind Skyler's stubbornly closed lips. For now.

"I was, am suspicious of his intentions, 'course. Seems bizarre that he'd risk shooting himself in the foot that way. Even though I'd pledged neutrality back then."

Skyler leans back, and the Blue Orb falls back against her chest. The light catches on a storm-tossed facet. "Some time ago I found out, with the help of Dr. Eva Morales , that the orb was corrupted. How, or why, is up in the air."

Suspicion hangs heavily in the following silence, a closed Pandora's Box of unpleasant possibilities. Skyler smiles wryly.

"Or maybe it's nothing."

dahlia goode

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dahlia frowns. she recalls her dialogue with councilwoman PENELOPE LIVY. there is ever present fear despite seeming peace. volatile storms run alongside the invisible ties between kyogre, groudon, and rayquaza.[break][break]

though the bonds between pokemon and human, legendary and avatar, may appear to be strong, the commissioner knows there must be blindspots. how many microscopic cracks does it take until the whole illusion breaks?[break][break]

"it can't be nothing." dahlia says. "that man is a master of disguise and subterfuge. he must be hiding something from you."[break][break]

she pauses.[break][break]

"is this... related to why you've come here?"

Skyler chews on the inside of her cheek, thoughtful. “Partly.” Honesty, the captain knows, is often a woefully difficult currency to come by – and one that she has no qualms in providing.

She prefers to leave subterfuge to people more suited for it. Like declan walsh . Or her husband, angelo vestri .

(Shit, maybe they are the same person.)

“Do you know why I never took him up on the offer?” Walsh, she means. “Other than the fact that they’re, y’know,” Skyler gestures to the newspaper with a smile whetted for war, “a known terrorist organization laying claim to my home?”

Crystal clear in her voice, is a possessive sort of protectiveness. If Kanto had taught them anything is that hunger for power had people folding for far less than what she'd been offered – but the good captain hungered for something else.

“Because no matter where you go, or how far you reach, you’ll always be under someone’s boot.”

And I refuse to be under anyone’s, is the unspoken message.

Strange then, or willfully hypocritical, that she’d never considered the ocean titan’s patronage its own prison.

dahlia goode

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"you're not incorrect in thinking that way." the commissioner says. [break][break]

dahlia grins though it may be difficult to gauge its sincerity. within her smile, she attempts to cradles the zest of skyler's resolute heart.[break][break]

"regardless of whether you're a commissioner or a captain, our position is an illusory one. when called upon, we have to answer to our people, our crew in the end in some way or form." the commissioner says. "the necessity of responding makes our seats fallible..."[break][break]

she pauses.[break][break]

"do you think you're under my boot?"

Admission of fallibility is not something Skyler had expected from this conversation, not when there's tightrope under their feet and every step foretells the cutting edge of a precipice.

"Bit of a difference, huh? Between a ship and a whole region." But an unspoken understanding relaxes Skyler back against the seat.

All too often she's had to rely on her crew to run the Sotally Tober, on her own orders. And when something goes arse over teakettle, always, she's the one who inevitably steps up. "Helps to have a reliable crew to fall back on." 

dahlia goode 's question is met with a slow curling of lips, then a sharp bark of laughter when amusement spills over. 

"No. Not really." No more than any other Hoenn resident. Though they're tied to each other through their shared stakes in Hoenn's fate, Skyler had never considered it a subservient connection. Distantly parallel if anything.

And yet-

"Would you like me to be, Commissioner?"

dahlia goode

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helps to have a reliable crew, she says. dahlia understands the sentiment wholly. she remembers the fading ink of names, like wrinkling stickers aged under the sun, tossed in and out of hoenn's revolving door: OLIVIA ABBIATI, SENON GAME, KIM COLE...[break][break]

she wonders how long her current council will last.[break][break]

"i think we both understand that we will need each other's strength in the upcoming days." the commissioner says. "no boot will come of this, then."[break][break]

she extends a hand.[break][break]

"instead, a partnership."