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Not one to pass up on a free burger, Audric Black had been at the meeting since the start. Despite having been part of the rangers for some time now, however, this was the first big gathering he'd attended. He hardly recognized the faces and names here. But those that he did recognize put him at ease.

After sliding out the lettuce in his burger with a pinch of his fingers, the young lad hands it over to his CUFANT, who greedily snatches it with her trunk. The two nibble on their respective food for some time afterward, listening in on every ranger that speaks. It isn't until a particular announcement is made that Audric scarfs down the last of his meal.

Before making his way towards Raziel Beckett through the small crowd of people, the young man gulps water from his portable squeeze bottle and ensures his hands and mouth are clean with a napkin before tossing it away. Then, when he reaches the newly appointed Head Ranger, the Holonite grins and extends a handshake. "Congratulations, sir!"

Little more than a bow and a wave goodbye are delivered after that as Audric hurries to go find annalise henderson within the congregation. Unfortunately for him, she's stolen away by LANCE VOLLANS before he gets the chance to greet her properly. From across the room, however, she might see him wave at her and smile. Even LUCY gives a toot.

RANGERS RISING 2

[attr="class","wownewtag"] Laurence Anderson Raziel Beckett paxton concordas Orion Lykos Callan Young annalise henderson

[attr="class","wownewmain"]His presence at this shindig is more out of curiosity than any real feelings of camaraderie or responsibility. More than anything, he wants to see how Laurence Anderson handles himself.

Fox shifts into a spot at the back of the room, a stranger amongst strangers. Images flash across his mind: eyes sightless with rage and fear, an otherworldly strumming heartbeat, the tangy smell of poison in the atmosphere.

It seems the blonde with the bun braids is stepping back from the position of the head ranger and some other individual is stepping into it. Fox finds it all very boring and tedious and isn’t entirely certain of their capacity to bring change as a result of either of their leadership. Then again, he also isn’t entirely sold on the Hoenn Rangers as a unit, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that he has no faith.

It has been some time since he’s had faith in authority, and trust, even longer.

He offers a few golf claps as the menagerie joins in to circle-jerk for their charade.

Someone throws out a potential conflict of interest and Fox inclines his head, the tall, dark, pale stranger’s jab at the foundations is the first interesting thing to be brought up at this meeting. He’s only the first. More people join in, and the inquiry grows.

The newly appointed Head Ranger offers some shtick about how he’s resigned from his previous position. Someone else throws around some Bureau of a Long Name, as though that adds weight to his claim that Things Are Okay, actually.

Fox crosses his arms and leans back against the wall, thoroughly entertained.

tl;dr
+ fox arrives fashionably late mostly to make sure lars is, like, okay
+ thinks this is all very funny, actually
+ react to razz being your new head ranger

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After doing a quick headcount, he wondered—asides from Orion Lykos who was from Slateport, easily the first one he would immediately recognize—where were the rest of the Slateport Rangers? Were they all busy?

…which was strange in and on itself because he knew ollie morales had timed (or at least tried to time) the meeting to land on a day when everyone invited to the meeting had enough free time to travel to Evergrande and join today.

No matter.

He wished that Sénon Game was still around because che palle, the redhead’s presence counterbalanced his own frigid countenance (at least he wasn’t going to be shouting too much when he was around) as well as Kaida Adachi—but then again he knew her to eschew almost all forms of technology unless absolutely necessary. Did she lose her phone in the ocean, or something?

Once the actual, proper announcement had gone out, his thoughts were going a thousand miles a minute, before he finally found a window to actually talk. His throat felt like sandpaper, though.

“One thing,” he began quietly as he turned to face Raziel Beckett, “What’s the guarantee that everything discussed in this room is not going to go back to your previous employer and will stay with everyone present here?”

He’d rather keep everything that happened inside the walls of this room between those who chose to attend. And nobody else on the most part, outside of a few other people who were almost Rangers but not quite so (that friend of his for one).

“And another.”

It was at this point he stood up to make himself be more seen; although he looked paler than normal, because the next words that he was about to say made him sick to the very core.

“I haven’t been in contact with the patron deity as of late. The Iceborne Mirage.”

Make of that statement what you will, though he was certain that at least one person would be able to deduce what he meant by those last few words he mentioned as he sat down again and pulled out another piece of that gum and crammed it into his mouth.

(Fuck, he would kill for a heavy vanilla-flavored cloud right about now.)

---

• asked Razz a follow-up question
• and then he goes ahead and casually drops the bomb he’d been hiding for quite some time

[attr="class","wownewtag"] Raziel Beckett annalise henderson Laurence Anderson Julia Davis

[attr="class","wownewmain"]Guillermo fixes Laurence Anderson in the most pained look he could possibly give him.

“Laurence.” He swallows hard. “With all due respect. Look at the state of the world and ask me that question again.” He’s smiling, but it’s callow and thin, like it hurts to do so.

He leans back and at least has a pleasant expression when Julia Davis gives him a hello. “Good to see you, Jules,” he says, and for her, his grin is genuine.

Razz gets up and announces that annalise henderson is stepping down, and he will be taking her place. Memo cranes his neck to look at Anna where she’s standing and talking to someone. He wants to ask if she’s okay but knows that her response would be different here in a crowd as opposed to one on one, so he files that away for later.

He gives a couple of soft claps for Razz’s promotion, wondering with a twinge of guilt if he’ll last longer than Anna did. Or make a bigger impact.

He thinks of the Rift roiling in Fortree’s gut like a fucking stomach wound and his hands curl into fists on the tabletop. A number of cries go up around him, debating whether Razz is right for the job, and Memo tunes them all out, forcing himself to exhale and keep himself grounded.

Laurence Anderson isn’t the only one that notices the Slateport rangers have suddenly gone very quiet. It’s… bittersweet. Yes, he had found them annoying, especially when they, essentially, told him to get fucked (they hadn’t used those words but that was what he had taken away from it, okay), but it was nice to see a united front of Rangers so like a family, a squad.

Bittersweet.

It wasn’t his place to say anything, though.

Lars calls on Razz for confirmation that he wasn’t going to leak anything to Silph, which Memo had to agree, was a pretty big concern. He wasn’t entirely supportive of Kingsman’s promotion, given that much of what Razz had done had been pre-Memo-in-Hoenn, first of all, and secondly, because he just admitted Silph had, what, a special place in his heart, or some shit.

“I agree, I also have some concerns about the new co-Head Ranger’s objectivity,” he said, finding his voice for the first time since the meeting had gotten started. At the last Ranger Conclave, his opinions had been completely bulldozed over, and he’d just been force to tuck and roll with the punches.

He expected little more from this one, but at least he’d stated his opinion.

tl ; dr
+ lol @ vacation
+ says hi to julia
+ voices his concerns about objectivity and impartiality of the new co head ranger

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[attr="class","bottom"]@ rangers rising 2[break][break]
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Seated near the front, devouring a mountain of salad greens, is Luka Chêne.[break][break]

While others mingle and chat she's merely a pair of eyes and ears, watching and listening to everything intently. For although she'd love to talk with some of her friends in the crowd (Audric Black, paxton concordas and annalise henderson among them) she's here to work, not so socialize.[break][break]

After hearing about the last disastrous meeting between the rangers from ollie morales (and a bit of hearsay from her neighbor paxton concordas), their new PR representative is keen to keep things from devolving like they had before. It's not like she has any real authority, but at the very least she can do her best to do damage control after the fact, should things come to that.[break][break]

She's used to high stress situations like this by now. It can't be any worse than working for MATIAS SILPH...[break][break]

Things start out pleasantly enough at least, right up until Raziel Beckett announces himself as the new head ranger. Luka adds her applause and happy smile to the congratulations, even throwing a wink in the man's direction. He definitely looks sharp in the new jacket she'd had commissioned for him! Now it's time to think about the rest of his uniform...[break][break]

But that can wait, because the murmurs of dissent start up quickly afterwards. Though a sudden change in hierarchy is sure to ruffle some feathers, she wasn't expecting people to be so bold about it. Hadn't they learned from last time?[break][break]

Morale is low. Tension is high. She can't understand why, when things are as dire as they are, this group can't seem to put their differences aside and show a united front in front of the other rangers. Laurence Anderson might have his reasons to oppose the change in leadership, but this is not the place to be voicing that.[break][break]

Petal pink lips purse as she scribbles something down in her notepad, but she's all smiles again to anyone who happens to glance her way. If their leadership can't appear cheerful to everyone else, then she'll have to do it instead! She's hopeful that this is just a blip in what will be an otherwise productive meeting, for there's far more important things to get to.[break][break]

---

- ur PR girlie is sitting and judging u all with a cutie lil smile

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