Dahlia opens with the most pressing question; and also the most likely to foster dispute amongst the strong-willed patrons present. Eva sinks back in her seat and chooses to listen while finishing @sliph’s half of a bagel.

Emerald eyes dart back and forth between the speakers. There’s no order, no rhyme or reason, just reaction. Eva had come prepared with data and facts, but emotions always seem to overpower the obvious. A knot catches in her throat that she is forced to swallow past when her name is invoked in regards to Kanto. Her gaze lingers on freya morningstar for a touch longer than it should before snapping towards ollie morales and his defense of her name.

It is true though. She left them crippled. Kanto was a region that underestimated Rocket at every turn instead of acting on the subtle warnings and red flags that sprouted throughout the region. Her hands rubbed together, dusting off the crumbs like stale guilt onto the napkin in front of her.

If she didn’t leave them, she’d be dead. And that did no one any good, now did it?

Tension rises like a king tide, a heat beneath their feet. Something stirs in her chest: a recognition. Fear. it threatens to tear them all apart. Volatile, like the avatar that erupted beside their Commissioner.

“ENOUGH!” she stands, her voice drops an octave, carried by the pressure weighing heavy on all their shoulders, “No one is arguing these are not all legitimate threats that need to be addressed,” the tension in her posture fades as she glances around the table, “None of these threats can be ignored. I fear they all are imminent,” her hands wave as she speaks, counting off the aforementioned threats, “Rocket, the DRK Triad, Kyurem, Sea!Hoenn, The Ruinous Beasts, the list grows every day,” eventually her gaze traces its way back to FERNANDO SILPH, “Anomalies,” her voice trails off for a breath, “All of these things coalesce into sick, twisted, RUINOUS beast that chips away at us with each breath. The Origin Point.”

“How do we decide where to allocate our resources? That is an important question. That is where we fail time and time again. I don’t have the right answer, none of us do, but we must be smart. Rocket will always work to undo what we try to build. There’s no use building a house of cards if someone is just going to remove the single piece that keeps it all up. We must secure our dimensional borders to protect our people from external threats and also limit those that Rocket can ally with. The Megalopolans are no doubt working with Rocket to establish a more secure connection so they may travel freely between here and Ultra Space. Rocket can not be underestimated - that was Kanto’s biggest mistake.”

Her shoulders pull back, fighting the weight of the guilt brought on by a past that she can’t escape from, “I propose we address all of these,” it’s a bold move spreading resources thin but if all of these threats happen at once, they are doomed, “Work smart, not hard. Put the people best suited for the tasks in their positions: Task forces that can focus on their sole threats to best understand them and map out strategies to overcome them,” despite the knot threatening to bring up the bagel she just enjoyed, she keeps an air of confidence and she continues.

“There are threats bigger than our dispute with Rocket,” she glances at angelo vestri, “Something that has Rayquaza restless - more so than they’ve been in eons. Perhaps it’s time to make sure Rocket recognizes that . . . Hoenn may need all of us to defend her,” she breathes out a long sigh. She can’t even believe she’s about to say this, “I suggest we convene with Rocket to ensure they understand what threatens all of us and win their allegiance over the Megalopolans. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Peace. Unity. A threat temporarily silenced to give us the safe space we need to prepare accordingly. Resource sharing, I'm sure they have their own data on these anomalies. It won't be an alliance forever, but it would help Hoenn," She prepares for the backlash.

---

@aquapt4

Conversation continued to flourish, mainly from those wishing to play the hero. The martyr meant to be followed and worshipped.
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Just thinking of the sentiment was enough to throw Penelope's stomach into a tantrum. It flipped in on itself, vicious in all the wrong ways. The ENVY might no longer be directed on others, but Chi-yu's imprisonment of the mind still very well held an effect over her.
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But it wouldn't be fair to reserve the blame on Chi-yu alone.
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Her tongue lashed against the back of her teeth, glazing them two times over. Gaze locked onto illeana reyes, the councilwoman marked her response.[break][break]


"If we follow that logic, we'd be running down every one of your ambitious rabbit holes. And where would that lead us? "
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She offered no more than a beat's worth of pause before continuing, a shrug rolling off her shoulders.
[break][break]

"Maybe with more than just Sea Hoenn targeting us for meddling with rifts and killing their men."
[break][break]

Then, her gaze fell to FERNANDO SILPH. [break][break]

One might think, like poison, enough doses of his natural parries and hanging baits would allow some form of immunity to kick into effect. But no. He had a knack for being absolutely nauseating, in all the worst ways, at all the worst times.
[break][break]

"Is that your own personal suggestion or another one of your hypotheticals?"
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MATIAS SILPH then began to speak, and against her better judgement, another breath is wasted, another heartbeat is forwent.
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He deserved neither.
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"I'm surprised you hold such a strong stance against rocket, Matias. I mean, given your close relationship to their underboss," mimicking illeana reyes's flair, the councilwoman donned herself a similarly saccharine smile. "Which, speaking of, don't forget to report the contents of those secret rendezvous you two shared. Wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to get another clue."
[break][break]

Before she could continue, the champion threw in his lot, followed by the second head scientist, whose words very much mirrored the contents of her sister's. Annoying. Neither held enough pull to soften the path she'd already taken. [break][break]


"With all due respect, Eva," Penelope's eyes shifted across the table, darkened in the shadow of the peacekeeper's radiance; a single star can only do much against the sun's orbit. But like hell it would ever stop trying. "it's that sort of naivety that would allow our enemies to uproot us completely. We don't have the resources to tackle every one of these issues thoroughly; if we did, what would be the point of this conversation?"
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Another pause was given, more for herself than for anyone else.
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"Not to mention the fact that if METENO wasn't enough to convince Rocket, why should we believe this time will be different? It's a foolish game to expect empathy from an organization rooted in mutual egocentrism."

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


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

patience is a virtue. after her remarks are made and the conversation glosses to more talking points, freya slips out from between Eva Morales and illeana reyes to get herself a cup of water. crowded around the table as they are, she grazes eva's arm as she goes, fingers lingering in an apology of her own, in case she takes freya's words as the stones ollie morales claims they are. 

discussion continues around the table. voices are calm, but passionate - until MATIAS SILPH speaks. her hand, grasping a glass pitcher of water, pauses. the water warbles. condensation drips down the sides. 

she'd been expecting this. especially the intensity, though it is shocking just how uncouth he is surrounded by his well-adjusted peers. she draws in a breath through her nose and turns, smiling warmly at her accuser. 

"we're not twiddling our thumbs, matias. most of us here are having an important discussion about the safety of our region."

she takes a sip of her water and sets it down in front of her, making room while matias spews his vitriol. she had spent some time wondering after the inevitable and how he might bring it up - honestly, she'd hoped she would be making more headway with KING WAYLAND 's pardon before he had an opportunity to use this against her. 

but his defense, when it's ready, will be presented to level-headed colleagues and she'll have what matias does not: facts on her side. testimonials and witnesses. 

the sudden appearance of the solgaleo in the room startles her, but kyle lopez 's reasoning is sound. the corner of her lip twitches; a smug grin in king's own likeness is quelled before it can properly surface as matias is hushed like a misbehaving dog. 

and then accused of a far worse entanglement by their own PENELOPE LIVY . 

is this what they're going to squabble over? who has more skeletons in their closets? freya would rather they upend all their bones and pick them apart right here on the table, but they don't have years to glimpse each other's lives, to make sense of their (in)decisions. 

pride rushes through freya as Eva Morales commands the table. she echoes sentiments felt after those twenty long years. are they buried for her still? is she simply guided by glimpses? wayward souls stranded in a time and place not their own, bound together by a common enemy. 

"we did it once before," freya says quietly. "for those of you who remember galar.

"councilwoman livy, you say we don't have enough resources on our own to spread ourselves so thin? i believe most of us are in agreement there. so, actionably speaking, what suggestions do we have to bolster ourselves to cover enough ground? other than allying ourselves with team rocket." her gaze shifts over all those present, waiting. 

AQUA

turncoat who?
remember galar :sadge:
acknowledges we don't have enough resources to do everything.
asks for suggestions/solutions

☉

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"Just because we have ex-Rockets within our program doesn't mean they're not a problem, like others here our citizens have lost their homes and lives to them," Razz reminds ollie morales, as much as he'll vouch for the Rockets who clearly don't belong and want a path out he will not defend the majority who would destroy a city without much care. Its the only time he really speaks before most the others seem to go on about seeing what could be done about closing gates which to him seemed logical but for the time being there wasn't much to go about doing so. [break][break]

Though his good eye narrows toward both MATIAS SILPH and freya morningstar when such accusations come to light. Though its what Eva Morales seems to suggest that worries him most. "I am in agreeance with angelo vestri, we saw their colors in trying to subdue our plan with the meteor, a plan you'd think they would be on our side on to try and save their own skin as well but they rather have risked it all for their own gain." What that gain was he wasn't sure but he knows it couldn't have been good. "As much as I would like to close the portals to the other dimensions it seems like something only our scientist could really figure out while we can have our companies help with the resources[break][break]

And while some of us have aligned ourselves with Rocket during Galar those were essentially subs without a mother willing to do what they could for survival, but now that they're back where they can get orders from Walsh again well..." he shrugs thinking its obvious on where he was on how much they could trust Rocket.


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[attr="class","oocnotes"]

+ @ aqua
[break]+ Sees Rocket as the greater evil only because unless the science peeps know what to do about the portals best to try and keep rocket down Sygna Suit

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