Skyler digs her fingers into the porous rock of the tunnel wall, sets her booted feet into the ground and pulls hard. A grunt of effort accompanies the straining of muscles, the gritted teeth and furrowed brows as she wills the rock to loosen up.

Shrrrk. Pop.

Stumbling a few feet back, the captain surveys the resulting multicolored gemstone in her hands. It catches the diffuse light within this muted realm with ease, casting rainbows across a greedy silver gaze.

The very next second, it finds a home within Skyler's satchel. Joining a slowly growing collection.

Rolling her shoulders back in an attempt to soothe aching muscles, she catches sight of Dhelmise's ghostly tendrils drifting nearby. One coalesces into existence as a soft whisper around her ankle, a sigh of a warning before it fades away. 

In an official capacity, Skyler was here to patrol the area surrounding the rift. Technically. But rules and orders hardly ever found purchase in her brain. And besides, she thinks, waiting around for something to happen sounded like her own personal hell.

But now that someone else had entered the fray?

A feral kind of anticipation stirs in her belly as she looks past the mouth of the tunnel. Absently, a calloused finger rasps over the knife strapped to her thigh.

Not-so-secretly, she hopes they aren't friendly.

parker jones mitchel kane

☉

parker is, by all means, not friendly. when she comes knock-knock-knockin' on your door, it means you've done fucked up. but that's the thing, isn't it? this isn't someone's fuckin' door. and this isn't just any person they're shaking down.

and because this isn't just any person, she'd needed a second. so she has the pleasure of walking into another fucking dimension with someone she's already deemed Decidedly Irritating and a Complication. especially because she has no intention of stringing up the gods-damn sea witch like rocket wants her to. 

her loyalty runs deep, but those blonde tresses do something stupid to her. 

but she can't outright tell this mouthy fucker beside her that the hag is off limits and that parker's going to play pretend to keep any other rockets from crawling on site. that she's gonna put her stupid godsdamned neck on the line and say, false reports. captain skyler dross wasn't there. 

she grinds her teeth and finally snaps: "if you don't shut the fuck up, i'm going to make you."

and then they just happen around the corner and parker locks eyes with silver, then drops to her hand...stroking her thigh??

"that happy to see me, sweetheart?"

skyler dross mitchel kane

☉

The two Rockets round the corner and Skyler's features focus into razor-edged intent. Recognition precedes a sharp, short inhale. She nearly chokes on her own spit.

Maybe it's a byproduct of her and parker jones 's previous meetings: the way her pulse thunders to the surface like it wants out, or how her body relaxes into the familiarity of a fighting stance, strung along by adrenaline and an unerring tendency to find trouble.

Or to draw trouble to her.

It's heady feeling, nearly enough to make her forget the world tilting on its axis, reshaping into an image Skyler doesn't understand. In her mind, Pinkie belonged solely to a world that fit neatly within four walls and a fighting ring. Anything outside didn't matter. Didn't belong. Not between them.

Except that now it did, and it was like a fucking slap in the face.

Of course, it only takes Parker a few choice words and suddenly it's like flint to a flame and Skyler's right back to the start. 

"What, can't a girl be out having fun by herself, Pinkie?"

Skyler takes the time to curl her tongue around the nickname, drawling it out. Her eyes flick to the unknown man by Parker's side, and a savage grin pulls at her lips. Nails bite into the soft flesh of her palm. "Didn't take you for the type to bring a little lap dog with ya. Is he always this-" 

Skyler looks mitchel kane up and down. She seems thoroughly unimpressed.

"-stabbable?"

Creeping tendrils of shadow sneak up behind said man, whispering upwards to wrap softly around an ankle.

11 involve a dhelmise or jellicent in some way.
parker jones mitchel kane

☉

it's been months. it's been months and parker's put her head between so many other legs, trying to forget that stupid sharp-edged stare and when skyler looks at her all she can think is fuck, fuck, fuck. she knows full well all the progress she's made is gone. 

this damned woman is a haunt. 

parker reflexively jabs an elbow between mitch's ribs. 

"regrettably," she bites out to him, "she's only got gaga eyes for her fuckin' husband."

even if mitch doesn't notice the tendrils crawling up his ankle, amulius does. parker surely doesn't. but her blaziken's about as irritated with the man as her master is, and that yellow gaze flickers from his ankle and back up to skyler with a nonchalance unbecoming of the tension in the air. 

parker splays her palms out.

"why so feisty, skyler? can't a girl take her dog out for a walk?

skyler dross mitchel kane

☉

For her fuckin' husband. Skyler smirks. Why yes, she did very much enjoy fucking her husband. She suspects the sentiment is mutual.

Parker splays her hands out, and the motion's stalked by a finely-whetted silver gaze. It creeps upwards over strong shoulders and an exposed neck to find Parker's own, searching. What for, Skyler isn't so sure. 

What do you want? To this day Skyler can't answer the question, even to herself. Not this, by Arceus not this. There's a desperation to the wayward thought. Violence is often to Skyler a hair-trigger reaction, but with Parker it'd always been- Relief. Fun, even. Freeing.

There's a strange kind of understanding in beating the shit out of each other. In coming at each other with teeth and claw, in allowing another to see the ugly, raw reality underneath. And going out for drinks afterwards.

"You bring that out in me, Pinkie." Her smirk is all teeth. With it being contested territory, civilians didn't just stumble into places like this. And these two definitely weren't League.

Arceus damn it, Pinkie.

The shadowy tendrils around mitchel kane 's ankle suddenly pull taut, and the grip turns into a slimy chokehold.

That's all the warning Mitch gets before he's jerked backwards at a rapid speed. Maybe he'd hit his head against a rock - or maybe he'd enjoy the constraints far too much. 

Regardless, it's all the time Skyler needs to breach the distance between herself and Parker. To shove the woman backwards against the closest rock formation. Between one breath and the next, the cold steel of a blade is pressed to Parker's throat.

Oh boy, Amulius would have a field day.

"What," it's a ragged whisper that meets Parker's ears, an ugly concoction of desperation and rage, "are you doing here, Parker?"

Not Pinkie.

If only she knew.

parker jones mitchel kane

☉

hearing skyler say it? music to her fuckin' ears. watching the rough shape of mitch's mouth form the two syllables that make up her insufferable one-of-a-skyler-kind nickname and parker, suddenly, for the first time ever, feels anger so intense it strays to being murderous. 

she would turn on him. she would do a lot of things to him if skyler hadn't beaten her to it first. as it stands, she has one sleeve already rolled up so she can punch mitch to the fullest extent she's capable of, but one second she's looking at him and the next she's looking at empty space. 

as he's ripped away from parker's side, she swears and turns, but skyler's already on top of her. and not in the hot mess of a way she'd fantasized about a hundred and one times. 

well, okay, maybe a few of those scenarios started like this. 

amulius spurs into action, but parker slams a palm against the rock and barks for him to stand down. and then, with less enthusiasm, to make sure mitch isn't being choked to damn death. 

she narrows her eyes down at skyler, wanting and angry in her own right. "you're a fuckin' siren, y'know that?" bitterly, "'course you do. and i'm just a whipped piece of shit savin' your ass," she hisses. 

skyler dross mitchel kane

☉

"you're a fuckin' siren, y'know that?"

She’d rather have been punched. It would’ve dazed her less.

Lips part to speak, remain silent, smack closed. Her breathing sounds too loud, overshadowed only by the echo of her own racing heartbeat.

Skyler had never thought of herself as cruel. Ruthless, maybe. Selfish, definitely. Proud. Greedy. But never cruel. And yet, not even in this moment does it occur to her to pull away. She’s too caught up in the gravity of Parker’s reaction, hunger lingering still under the shock.

The captain wants and wants and wants. Ravenously. Ruthlessly. But gives nothing back.

Her grip on the blade relaxes, leaving behind a thin streak of crimson.

“What d’you mean, saving my ass?” She’d meant for it to sound accusatory, but leftover aggression is tempered by a tight chokehold. “I didn’t ask you to- to-“ A whipped piece of shit.

Fuck.

“No. No. We’re not doing this. Arceus damn it, Pinkie.” It sounds like both a plea and curse.

Skyler takes a step back. Two. Her silver gaze hardens into steely resolve. Then the blade turns in her grip, and she offers the handle to parker jones .

“Alright then, Pinkie.” A pause. “Stab me.”

Martyrdom, she decides, isn’t a good look on Parker. And Skyler quickly realizes that she’d rather raise hell than watch Pinkie get in trouble on her behalf.

In the meanwhile, Dhelmise has mitchel kane strung by his ankles and a single swiveling eye is studying the human like he’s spontaneously sprouted an extra head. In the end, it’s the giggle that does it. If he were aware, Mitch should’ve been proud that he’d managed to freak out a ghost.

He’s discarded onto the seabed and left to his devices as Dhelmise Phantom Forces away.

He’ll probably be too busy with the bioluminescent leviathan that emerges from behind the bedrock anyway. Its maw parts to reveal a row of shark-like teeth, each bigger than a barrel.

At least he’d die being a snack, right?

14 involve a betrayal of some kind.
parker jones mitchel kane

☉

everything has led to this moment. everything has brought her here, wandering in this fucked up inside out world (hell, is this the first time she's entered one of these damned things willingly?), and it's all for this dumb bitch with a knife pressed to her damn neck, looking like parker just said the worst thing imaginable, which, okay, it probably is the worst thing she could have said. 

'cause she hadn't asked and she wouldn't ask, especially not from someone like her. especially not her. the look and the words and the fucking slap-in-the-face-realization cuts parker deeper than that knife on her neck ever could. but she's physically incapable of flinching away; instead, the corners of her eyes crinkle, mouth twisting into a macabre grin. 

the pressure disappears. she drops onto the balls of her feet and stares down crudely at the dagger and then rolls her eyes. 

"i'm not gonna stab ya, dross." but that doesn't stop her from closing those two feet between them, fingers catching skyler's wrists, muscles tightening 'cause she damn well knows she's only got surprise on her side. close enough where skyler can hear the static in her ear.

"report in, six. do you need backup? we repeat, do you need backup?"

she tilts her head, presses ear to shoulder and says, "nah. false alarm. she ain't here. six reporting in - avatar skyler dross ain't here."

"confirmed. stay safe out there, grunt."

amulius makes a noise and parker's twisted smile twinges, almost annoyed, as she looks past skyler. she grinds her teeth. 

"where'd ya put chucklefuck?"

skyler dross mitchel kane

PARKER JONES's prowess with fighting/hand-to-hand combat must be advantageous in some way.


14 involve a betrayal of some kind.

☉

Static morphs into words, and Skyler's eyes pin Parker down as the woman answers back. The quick staccato of her heart slams into her throat, uncaring for any attempt to swallow it down, and rises to meets parker jones 's fingers where they press against the captain's wrists.

This fucking woman. This-

"Absolute fucking moron."

Skyler rebels against the deluge of emotions that lurch under the surface, but is caught in the riptide. No gritting of teeth or white-knuckled grip grounds her, and so the tension stretches and stretches and stretches and-

Snap.

Disbelief. Anger. Pride. Disappointment. Concern. The leftover space between Skyler and Parker is breached in a single step, and Parker's grip is rudely shook off before fingers rise to dance up the nape of the woman's neck. 

A blue glow encases both women. Aqua Rings slip into the cut on Parker's neck until nothing remains but healthy, unbroken skin. As it fades, for a flash of a moment, Skyler's nails dig into flesh with something untempered by civility or reason, something greedy, raw, possessive.

Then then reality sinks in, and the moment is gone.

Here's a not well-known fact about Skyler: she is loyal to a fault. And Parker had just unknowingly joined the select group of people fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to be on the receiving end of it.

May Arceus have mercy on her.

"Oh, him?" Skyler's shrug is a parody of casualness when something feral still catches on the edges of her eyes. "I sent Kyogre to eat him."

Cue to the idiot.

In hindsight, mitchel kane 's survivability hinging on his absolute stupidity not only makes sense, but is also highly entertaining. It's the reason why Kyogre doesn't bother giving chase. And also because that beanpole of a human wouldn't have sufficed even for a snack.

Sorry, Mitch, you'll have to become a snack another day.

His eventual reappearance does prompt a slow blink of surprise from the captain. She makes a mental note to invite him over for a night at the seaside pubs.

parker jones mitchel kane

☉