freya did not own a halloween costume. by the time she had a doting mother and father that would have done that sort of thing with her, she felt she'd outgrown it, so this is the first year she's ever dressed up and with her actual costume still in the works (ie, she hasn't had any time and has no idea if delta even wants to go trick-or-treating and hasn't found a way to ask because things are still complicated and - )

she's a fairy princess.

she has bright sparkles on her rosy-painted cheeks, a tiara in her hair, and some small wings on her back. they were in a bin. it was one of the only costumes left. the sparkles were leftover materials from the carnival. 

it at least helps her look approachable. she squats down now and holds out the bowl for a group of kids dressed as...ninja tirtougas? the youngest of them giggles cheerfully as moxie flicks her tongue out to taste his wrist, no doubt swiping at some of the sugar in the palm of his hand. 

they wander off and freya looks down in her bowl, realizing she's a little bit low. "excuse me," she says as she sidles past another volunteer to reach for some more of the mini twix bars. 

Julien Demassieux

☉

"no worries at all," she says with a flippant wave of her hand. she pays little mind to the man she'd had to get by in order to refill her bowl and loses his voice to the sound of a scream-cackling kid off to their left. but when she realizes he is talking to her, she gives her full bowl a shake and doesn't return back to her spot. 

she smiles down at the houndour and raises a hand idly to let the dratini rub her snout against her fingers. 

"and is that...kalos?" she guesses. there's one other, intimately familiar to her, who shares a similar lilt to this man's voice.

"ah, wait, then you must be mr. demassieux." she hefts the bowl to her hip and holds out a hand. "freya morningstar - a pleasure to meet you."

Julien Demassieux

☉

ambassador demassieux, she corrects herself immediately as he refers to her by her station. she thumbs a wisp of hair from her cheek, somewhat embarrassed, but doesn't linger on the thought as he warmly holds out his hand for a shake. 

she recognizes the touch of homesickness that graces his demeanor and some of her own walls come down. sootopolis had never been hit with much snow and when it did happen to get cold enough, it mostly resembled slush from all the humid rainfall. living in a crater will do that. 

her own wistful smile becomes strained when he brings up the silent icelands. ever since inviting alex to join her in that barren field, she'd avoided it like the plague. 

"it was a parting gift from an otherworldly kyurem," she says, voice even. "i've seen children ice skate on some of the frozen over ponds." 

Julien Demassieux

☉

"it's a marvel, how they can always find joy in the most desolate of places," she says. and what makes it so? is it hope? is that what they all lose, when they cross the threshold of child to adult?

the papier-mâché mega bracelet, colored with bright paint hits the lip of freya's bucket as the kid moves from julien over to her. she looks down, pondering stare just odd enough to make the kid's friend - a squirtle - grab his arm and run off, laughing while they do. 

"life goes on," she says with a shrug. "but what about you, ambassador? are you acclimating?"

Julien Demassieux

☉

"exciting's certainly an interesting word," she says, noting the flat of his lips. her own curl. kalos was so, so very far away from her. she's still only been in hoenn ten years; in the grand scheme of things, only half of her life has been spent away from the soil she was born on. but her accent is gone, cut around the edges to the sea-ridden colloquialisms of the sootopolis peoples. 

and what remained of her past, any tethers she may have had, are gone. 

curiosity glimmers. the dull edge of her politicking blade is, perhaps, not as dull as she'd thought. a trio of kids, each dressed as the hoenn region's original starters, toddle up to them. the grass-type, treecko, lifts gloved hands with green foam-painted balls on the fingers up and gives her basket a shake. 

when they move off, she straightens and smiles; the bare hint of teeth exposed over her lips is undercut by the swathe of sparkles on her cheeks. 

"my efforts are the league's," she says. "if you feel you're able to help us on any front, i'd be more than happy to divulge to you the proper channels."

Julien Demassieux

☉