Hesitation briefly took hold of her, eyes darting away towards the door before meeting his again.[break][break]

"You don't seem like a man who often has inclination for tea," she said at length, tilting her head as she considered him. Curiosity drove her to turn from the exit, moving to follow him regardless. "It would be callous of me to refuse the generous offer of a king's time. Lead the way."[break][break]

Did he view the Ruinous Beast slithering beside her like a plague, or a novelty? The question was a brief, fleeting one, not lingering long enough to be given true thought.[break][break]

"How attached are you to your gardens?" she asked suddenly, pausing mid-step as a different distraction came to mind. "My companion and I have a tendency to plague what little greenery we touch."[break][break]

Her staff clacked against the floor, BITTER MALICE swirling in the frosted orb at its apex, as she cast her snail a sideways glance.[break][break]

"...In case that makes you prefer a change in location."

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I have not been a florist for some time," she said, the faintest curl to her lips betraying a smirk. "Nor have I managed to grow anything in my gardens, I am afraid, save for thorns and noxious weeds. Things change, I suppose."[break][break]

Solgaleo's influence was a subtle, but present, thing in Hammerlocke; the embittered scorn that manifested in Elisabeth had dulled somewhat, the Ruinous Beast at her side seeming a tad more sullen at its lack of a constant flow of resentment to feast upon.[break][break]

Had she chosen her Galarian residence differently, perhaps the Solgaleo's dampening effect would have proven more significant. Regardless, it seemed so minor that Elisabeth herself hardly noticed it as she took a seat across from the king.[break][break]

"Your city's layout is quite different from Motostoke," she opened, curious as her emerald eyes flitted to meet his. "Is that your doing? Or is that the sway of the King of the Night?"[break][break]

Though she had yet to meet Zev Harcourt here, she was silently grateful he was not the king she had met with. Ever since she used Tapu Fini's mist on Necrozma's Avatar, he had treated her as an enemy.[break][break]

Oddly, Kyle was more hospitable than her once-Rocket counterpart.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Humbleness suits you, yes," she said, and this time a light laugh left her own lips. "But I think mine has always been a flair for the dramatic."[break][break]

An ivy-wreathed tower emitting smog in the midst of barren courtyards made a statement. That statement was, essentially, 'fuck off my property.'[break][break]

"Despite our mechanical prowess, Motostoke is lacking in firepower. We are not so blessed in that regard as your nation. My absence would be felt keener than most, and I am bound to at least one or two individuals who have chosen to reside there."[break][break]

As proof of her own worth, Wo-chien rested beside her, the snail's ochre eyes staring unblinkingly at the former Champion. Between that and BARNABY FINCH's Spectrier, there were precious few citizens that possessed power on the scale needed to rebuff the sieges that might have laid waste to the city. [break][break]

"Besides," Elisabeth continued nonchalantly, a hand reaching for the promised tea cups that had been placed before them, "I'd say there are a few faces that are grateful I haven't chosen Hammerlocke as my home."[break][break]

Perhaps he was savvy enough to piece together who.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I don't care," was her defensive retort, the way she scoffed failing to convey her perceived indifference. A finger irritably tapped the side of her tea cup. "I just know how obnoxious other people's opinions can be."[break][break]

She resented them, despite everything: the way that people looked at her, as if she was some sort of three-headed hydra wandering the streets. Worse, how they pitied her, the way she sometimes feared BARNABY FINCH did, or when they claimed to understand her, the way that Caleb Harcourt had dared to.[break][break]

In a way, she preferred to be feared and hated. Those emotions at least made a sort of sense. There was a respect to be had in being seen as powerful.[break][break]

"Don't you think people in Hoenn overestimate themselves?" she challenged, taking a sip of the Galarian brew. "People in Hoenn are not so invincible as they like to think they are. They will run headlong into their own destruction without a second thought. You've seen it as much as I have, long before we arrived in Galar."[break][break]

It had annoyed her in the Transfer of Power, the way her fellow Rockets had acted as if they were capable of defying declan walsh just because they wanted to believe it to be so. It had annoyed her in Cyberchase, when so many had quickly thrown themselves to their deaths out of a false martyrdom.[break][break]

People didn't know their place.[break][break]

"Though speaking of people who overestimate themselves. Why do you think I care about MATIAS SILPH?" she asked blandly.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Tch." Her arms crossed over her chest as she let out a huff of air, her mimicry of the Elite Four oblivious and unintentional. "I think it's human nature to prefer to go where we are wanted. In my case, I'll settle for being needed."[break][break]

For the king of a nation that had been attacked relentlessly for the past decade, kyle lopez certainly was one to smile often. Was he just delusional? Or that relaxed in the state of chaos? Given his last role in Hoenn, she silently suspected the latter.[break][break]

Although his question to her now made her second-guess that conclusion, her own scowl pointed as she blinked slowly at him, incredulous.[break][break]

"I must say, your majesty, I did not expect you to be one of the men who suggests to women they are more desirable if they simply consider 'smiling.' Pray tell, what is there to smile about in this dystopia?"[break][break]

It felt like a ludicrously over-the-top statement even as she said it aloud, given the peaceful simplicity of the gardens surrounding them, and how pleasant the aroma of the tea was as they breathed it in.[break][break]

All the same, a gilded cage was still a cage. And Galar was not a place any of them had intended to stay for long.[break][break]

"Is there nothing and no one you miss in Hoenn, then? Have you given up, as so many others have?"

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I've never been especially good at that," she admitted, her hold on herself releasing with a faint sigh. "The pretending, that is."[break][break]

It was exhausting to keep up a pleasant façade at all times. It required deluding oneself on a daily basis, severing one's cynicism from one's day-to-day life. She had managed it, once, with frightening efficiency. Wo-chien's Avatarship had prevented her from silencing and stifling the indignation such pretending invoked, however.[break][break]

Hers had been a fragile mask, either way. It would have cracked eventually, she was fairly certain.[break][break]

"Is your Adventurers' Guild just an exercise in futility, then? A way of play-acting to give your citizens an illusion of control in a situation where they lack control entirely?" That was certainly how it appeared to her, from the outside looking in: an opiate for the masses. "It's a clever ruse, if so."[break][break]

The woman's compliment was genuine. Manipulation was not an easy art to master, and she herself did not feel particularly gifted in that skillset.[break][break]

"Increasingly, I find the people here are happy living their little Galarian lives." Her gaze clouded for a moment, darkening. "People are so quick to believe what they want to believe. If the world tells them they cannot leave, they tell themselves they always wanted to stay here and rot."[break][break]

Evidently, she had yet to take Kyle's advice to live in the moment and start smiling.

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]