nikkari has given up on his ghosts. he hadn't come here chasing dreams, really, but happenstance had led him back to where he thought she was. and while he doesn't believe in signs from the universe, he's an opportunist. when that rogue agent sank his ship, blew up his goods, and killed his men, he'd thought, well, i may as well look for her if i'm going to be here a while.

a silver tongue and some re-established connections with jayden cross have afford him a foothold in hoenn's sect of rocket. which is good, considering galar is in shambles. 

he's yet to return to shipping and processing. there is no such thing as idle hands here and his curiosity has gotten the better of him. the wilds and their distortion rifts intrigue him. he's no explorer, no pioneer, no conquistador, and yet they are alluring in a manner he cannot explain. 

maybe they remind him of her. 

it's funny, the way we can trick ourselves into thinking we manifest our destinies. he comes through the rift and sees her, as plain as day, and all he can do is stop and stare. wonder if it's the crater playing tricks on him. 

but ianthe and coronabeth yip delightedly and prance towards lulu while their master stares, caught completely off guard in, perhaps, the first time in his life. 

Lulu Flint

☉

though the rks simulator would demand much of her attention, the presence of dream mist and other curious phenomena in the rifts also called just as much to her curiosity. it was time to further explore these strange realms.

she awaited her partner on the other side of the rift, gazing into steamy wilderness beneath a sickly looking sky. it put motostoke to shame. what was in the atmosphere?

when the yips of vulpix hit her ears, she turned. the houndoom next to her bared teeth, menacing and different with its all-black coat—a shadow from the drk triad’s hatchery. when the vulpix got too close, it snapped at them in threat.

meanwhile, lulu was staring back at him, looking perhaps equally as stunned.

”son of a bitch.” it was muttered under her breath, before she called out louder, ”you don’t look like an ansel to me!”

in a second, a pokeball was tossed out, releasing a bug-like machine to even the numbers. she pointed directly at him.

”genesect, lock-on!”

nikkari hect

☉

ianthe and coronabeth stop in their tracks at the houndoom's aggression. the former puffs out her downy white coat petulantly while the latter fans her tails, embers sparking in hot rage as she wiggles her haunches. they await orders from nikkari, but he is still stunned speechless. 

rewiring his brain and thinking of a hundred and one questions he wants to ask her, most of which would only lead to more questions, until finally, at the end of the road, he reaches a small, thimble-sized mote of disappointment. 

or is it resentment? 

that he was so close to the end of this chapter. the wax had been poured, the signet ready in hand, but before he could stamp it and truly, honestly move on, she is suddenly here. and she is a vexing complication. one that makes him smile.

except that smile is somewhat nervous. the oddly colored houndoom had been bad enough - whatever monster she withdraws looks like it could blast them where they stand. 

"fi, wait. ianthe. crown. stand down." his voice is patient.

"and that's because i'm not ansel, but you know that. just like you know me. so please kindly tell me why you have that thing locked-on me, hm?"

Lulu Flint

☉

fi. that old name. it was from a past life full of regrets—one that she didn’t really care to remember anymore.

”because i’ve seen the others since i’ve seen you. they threw me in a trunk and delivered me to your aunt.”

it was no secret the dragons had looked for her from the day of her release, and they'd wasted no time tracking her down in hoenn. she was a rat. that’s what they’d said, at least.

”i heard they all fell apart.” as though she hadn’t seen to it herself. she eyed him carefully. ”why are you here, nikkari?”

was he a figment of her imagination? the question began quietly in the back of her mind, growing louder like whispers in the steamy air.

nikkari hect

☉

surprise flickers over his face. he'd known there was a call for orders to locate her, but he hadn't known they'd found her. the events that have happened after the loss of his cargo ship have been somewhat of a blur. his search for her had been a priority, until it wasn't. 

only by a curious twist of fate is she here before him. murphy's law or the universe throwing him a fast one, he doesn't know. 

"i...wouldn't know," he admits, blinking. he'd sent over word, but encrypted chats go dark all the time. 

"i was here on a smuggling delivery. my ship was sunk in port." he tilts his head. "and then i looked for you. for non-malicious reasons, i might add." he waves a hand around him. "the rifts are interesting. i like to know about interesting things. surely you haven't forgotten that, fi."

Lulu Flint

☉

”you wouldn’t?”

she trusted him as much as she should have trusted natalia, who had tricked her better than anyone had before. nonetheless, there was a glimmer of curiosity in her eyes at his words. she still did not call off her genesect.

”it’s lulu.” she would have even preferred saoirse over fi. fi was dead.

the rifts were interesting. ”indeed.” but that reasoning was quickly tossed aside.

”why look for me, if not for malicious reasons? aren’t you angry? don’t you want to bash my face in, like they did to rinc?” nikkari had never seemed like the brutal type, but she lumped him in with the rest of them all the same at that moment.

steam clouded the air around them, growing thicker from the nearby geysers that pocked the alien landscape. with each breath, she felt her emotions rising, a toxin silently tearing through memories.

the cruelty of rinc, spiteful even in his death, was forgotten. her love for him burned, resentful to all those who had taken him from her.

prompt 24 involve themes of romance, loss, or forgetfulness in some way. this can manifest in geyser steam, gas or plants that can evoke emotions.

nikkari hect

☉

he flinches away. he'd heard, at the very least, about rinc. and it had brought him immeasurable satisfaction to see his bloodied, beat-in face afterwards. he hadn't been there for the deed, but he'd overseen the clean-up. he was their most efficient, after all, and had never left a mess behind. 

"lulu," he says, tongue trilling the roof of his mouth. despite himself, and the genesect still staring down the barrel, he smiles. he still looks upon her and sees fiona, but that may change in time. 

if she grants him that. 

"of course not," he says, brows furrowing. "i looked for you because i wanted to see you." and he'd leave it at that if it weren't for the mist crawling its way up his sides, the warm breath of steam on his face. the crater beckons them deeper, closer, and despite the situation, he takes a step forward. towards her. 

"i couldn't stop thinking about you, even after all these years. and i..." he starts, but stops. coronabeth mewls at his feet and paws at the earth. 

he blinks through the steam and then sucks in a breath. 

"fi - lulu, i'd appreciate if you called off the genesect. you've never known me to be a liar so i'd ask you to kindly believe me now because i'd rather we save our quarrel for somewhere else.

"somewhere out of the celesteela nest we've found ourselves in."

Lulu Flint

04 encounter baby celesteela in the ground as obstacles. if they are touched, they will summon kartana to attack you.

☉

her name sounded wrong from his mouth. uncomfortable. there was sincerity in his voice that she could somehow trust, still, and her glare began to soften.

as the years rewound, she remembered him. beautiful nikkari, who she had realized had an eye for her. how many times she had toed the line with him over too many tequilas. how many times she had thought of him when she shouldn’t have–with rinc, even.

it all came rushing back like a breath of youth, and she was stunned by the throb in her chest as he dared closer despite her threats.

then, he stopped. her brow furrowed, hanging on his word. she needed to hear the rest. you what?

but the world had other plans.

”nest?” how could she have missed that? ”genesect, stand dow–“

before she could get another word out, sharp leaves whistled through the air, one slicing deep across her shoulder. she cried out, attention ripped from soft memories and thrown into the heat of war she had come to know so well.

the dog at her side immediately tore off at a galloping pace, darkness building in a toothy maw before a shadow ball launched towards the incoming culprit.

nikkari hect

☉

coronabeth's pips hadn't been because of the baby celesteela at all. embers fly from her little teeth as she squares off against pieces of paper on the ground. nikkari recognizes them as kartana, though the one that remiel had managed to capture, was nothing like this. 

he shifts to the side as one of the creatures whisks by him, bladed arms spinning. at his feet, ianthe yelps as her side is cut open. blood sprays over her white coat and her lips curl. dark aura exudes from her tails. her spite stops the kartana in its tracks, giving nikkari a moment to start moving - 

lulu's cry draws him back. he's not close enough to catch her, but he thrusts a hand out to coronabeth. 

"crown - immobilize them." the vulpix joins her sister and fans her tails. ghastly chains crisscross over the area, snaring the origami pokemon. she grunts from the effort and nikkari spares a glance to lulu. 

"she won't hold them for long. hurry, while your houndoom pulls them away."

as he turns, though, a kartana, its left side ripped, struggles against coronabeth's bonds. it looks like she'd imprisoned it on top of one of the celesteela - the only thing strong enough to puncture its side. he worries his cheek and then grabs a pokeball on a whim. 

Lulu Flint

got da kartana

☉

houndoom continued its work on the kartana, while genesect delivered techno blasts, tattering the sharp paper edges of the strange ultra beasts.

meanwhile, lulu cursed to herself, blood on her hand as she pulled it from her shoulder. her exploration of the ultra crater had come to abrupt end before it had even started, and she had come here for naught but to run into a ghost from a past she wished so much to forget.

the kartana were soon thankfully immobilized by nikkari’s vulpix. she watched him ready to catch one, but her mind was on the quickest route back to the rift. ”i have to go…”

recalling herself houndoom, she gave a whistle. genesect turned, alerted, and cocking its head at its trainer’s apparent struggle. ”ensure i make it to the rift.”

the steel-type rushed over, showing concern that a machine surely should not be so capable of. she noted this as it briefly inspected her wound and joined her in the direction of the exit.

”i’m taking a shortcut,” she called to nikkari–but that shortcut would lead to a field of celesteela, dangerously obscured by the steam.

prompt 28 discover a vast field filled with impossibly large celesteela that dwarf you inside. periodically, some will launch.

nikkari hect

☉

"i don't think that's ~!" but then she's gone, disappeared into a cloud of fog rolling in. the imprisoning bonds on the kartana continue to rust and ianthe joins her sister in support, blue eyes gleaming a cold sapphire as she leads what kartana are left into a state of utter confusion.

they whirl about in a frenzy after one of their companions is nestled in the pokeball in nikkari's palm, but their angry, buzzing voices are soon left behind as nikkari follows lulu into the mist. 

ianthe and coronabeth are at his heels, whining their trepidations. 

"we have to find her," he says, though he does not know if he is saying it to them or himself. the fog thins, allowing him glimpses of hazy shapes. impossibly large shapes, almost like buildings, dwarfing them on all sides. 

"lulu! where are you?"

Lulu Flint

☉

a shortcut? it would be–but not in the way she had intended.

from within disorienting steam, she began to lose track of where she’d come from and where she was going. momentarily, she forgot she was bleeding, and in a hurry. instead, she circled around the fascinating body of a celesteela half-buried in the crater.

”stop!” she moved past genesect’s concerned arms, reaching to pull her in the other direction. ”we’ll go in a minute…”

they were going now, so said the celesteela that suddenly awakened beneath her. its eyes glowed, startling the scientist, and before she could move back, she was being lifted into the air. her genesect compactified again and followed, debating how to approach the situation.

from high above, lulu managed to spot nikkari through a break in the fog.

”nikkari!”

there was not much she could do except reach for her genesect and hope the ultra beast would not retaliate. however, she decided to wait and see where it was going, noting that it seemed to be headed rather conveniently towards the rift.

prompt 08 ride a launching celesteela unwittingly or on purpose to get to a destination.

nikkari hect

☉

it is entirely possible that he imagined her. it is entirely possible that she'd been nothing but a shade of the woman he thought he'd finally gotten over. it is entirely possible that he did find her and she was real and now she's gone for good, out of his grasp and leaving him with a sense of bitter longing. 

and complacency. 

and then he hears his name being called. fog whisks away from him and above, surrounded in a halo of neon blue light, is her silhouette. the celesteela takes her away and he growls out a frustrated order to crown. 

her flamethrower helps alleviate the worst of the immediate fog until he forces her to stop, realizing that the foreboding shapes around them are other, bigger celesteela. 

but try as he might he cannot wake them. he cannot go after her. until the ball at his hip wriggles and out pops the injured kartana. its high-pitched, shrieking voice makes him flinch and it stops at nikkari's movement, twirling around in place. 

it seems to contemplate a moment and then gestures with a fan of its hand to one of the celesteela. nikkari returns his vulpix and climbs. the kartana drifts off and screeches again, dancing about the celesteela like a fairy. 

it awakens. 

and then it launches. the kartana perches on nikkari's shoulder and rides with him, back to the rift. out of its home forever. 

Lulu Flint

🗺️ utilize an ultra beast in a pivotal way.

☉