"it is but a perk of serving as underboss." walsh articulates behind his black baroque desk. the gilded fixtures lack lustre, but by no fault of its material.[break][break]

rather, the shadows in the room cast the office in darkness. like an oil slick, the umbrage smothers walsh's office in stygian drapery.[break][break]

"you have been making quite a name for yourself, haven't you?"[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

"Amassing infamy is to be expected in our profession," she said with an easy shrug of her shoulders, one leg crossing over the other. "You could say the last summit's discourse regarding striking fear back into Hoenn resonated with me."[break][break]

When set beside the likes of Kanto veterans THEO BECKETT and Cillian Quinn, her own achievements seemed paltry in comparison. Even so, she'd always had a flair for the dramatic, even in Kalos. Her unmasking in Hoenn had been no exception.[break][break]

In some ways, she'd been dragged into that light against her original will. The influence of her Divine patron had overridden her own with such incessant demand, all her little civilian pleasures had seemed so utterly pathetic to uphold.[break][break]

Elisabeth didn't regret that choice, exactly. But she wondered how much of that choice had been consciously her own at the time.[break][break]

"When you stop hiding in the shadows, you no longer are bound by fear. You learn how to wield others' fear, instead."[break][break]

It was a somewhat ironic comment given the dark veil of her surroundings, and all the more ironic still given how much she still shrouded in secrecy from the organization that had uplifted her to this high office.[break][break]

"And regarding the reports at the island... there are some shadows I wish to dispel with you, now."

[attr="class","ooc"] declan walsh[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"yes, let's."[break][break]

the boss ascends from his seat. naturally, his umbratile cape flourishes upon movement. it sweeps shadows from his ankles and forces them into fern-like curls.[break][break]

"are we missing the floristry business so much that we are deflowering one of the elite four?"[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

At the unexpected barb, Elisabeth threw back her head and laughed. It was a bright, genuine sound, startled by its own depth of amusement.[break][break]

"You make him sound like some kind of innocent white lily," the underboss said, her lips pulling into a mocking smile. "He's more of the pest that won't leave the garden, in my experience."[break][break]

Those with nothing to hide, have nothing to fear, she reminded herself. It steadied any nerves that otherwise threatened to surface as the Rocket boss rose from his seat.[break][break]

"The situation started when I was his wedding florist, actually." A truth. "He pursued me when his engagement went to shambles." Another truth, hinting at an implicit lie. "I saw a benefit to entertaining his advances." An eventual truth, though it did not begin that way.[break][break]

The shadows danced at Walsh's feet, and Elisabeth watched the dark filaments undulate with a sweep of his cape before her eyes returned to meet his.[break][break]

"You'll notice for all but the final day of recent battle, MATIAS SILPH was absent on the island. The day he did arrive, he fought alongside me and killed his own men."[break][break]

She cocked her head at declan walsh, a hand beginning to languidly gesture mid-air.[break][break]

"Do you want to guess why?"[break][break]

A faint plume of pink smoke began to wind and curl outwards from her sleeve, forming a thin band about her wrist.

[attr="class","ooc"] declan walsh[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

garden pest or unruly garden? declan's eye catalogues the pink fume wreathing around elisabeth's wrist. but he does not stir.[break][break]

to act quick, to hasten response, is to disturb the imminent message.[break][break]

"enlighten me." the boss speaks, voice dry as old ice. "my answer does not have the advantage of intimacy."[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

A deep breath prepared her for this revelation. She recalled, with sudden biting clarity, that she already knew what it was like to sit across from a man with the power to shape her life into a heaven or hell.[break][break]

Ironic, wasn't it, that Kalos and Hoenn had turned out to be one and the same?[break][break]

"A second deity presented itself to me for Avatarship," she stated, as if this was as normal a thing to comment upon as a shift in the weather. "One Rocket and the League each believed to be dead."[break][break]

Her heartbeat rammed against her throat, but she fought to keep the panic down as she met Walsh's eyes.[break][break]

Better to hear from you. Better to take charge of this narrative before it gains a mind of its own.[break][break]

She'd inherited a chessboard riddled with the emotion-driven results of impulsive, short-term decisions. If she was cornered, then secrecy was a luxury she couldn't assume she had anymore.[break][break]

The underboss exhaled, releasing a finer pink mist as she did so, which harmlessly scattered around her like glittering dust.[break][break]

"I am the Avatar of both Tapu Fini and Wo-chien. And I am pleased to report to you that I have successfully utilized the abilities of the former against the League, and against its own former Avatar."

[attr="class","ooc"] declan walsh[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"two?"[break][break]

to possess two patrons is unheard of. unfathomable. and yet, here she was standing before him in all her impossibility—and stunning, sprawling possibility.[break][break]

though no smile manifests on his visage, declan exudes contentment and curiosity through the softening contours of his stare.[break][break]

"what happened to the predecessor?" the boss asks of FERNANDO SILPH. "does he still breathe?"[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

She read his body language like her life depended on how well she could translate the faintest raise in his eyebrow.[break][break]

His contentment startled her more than anything else could have. The breaching of protocol, the flaunting of authority, the acting on her own -- none of it had inspired the ire and the punishment she had braced herself for.[break][break]

Had she not displeased him, then? Briefly stunned, words failed her until his question registered.[break][break]

"He would have died to Wo-chien, had freya morningstar not intervened," she said. "But Tapu Fini tipped the scales, and prevented the councilwoman from killing me instead."[break][break]

Her fingertips restlessly drummed on her leg as she contemplated that encounter, her previous facade gone as she attempted to grasp some understanding of a day that felt fogged in a pink haze.[break][break]

"Some Avatarships operate like a conduit," she said then, glancing up at him with a surprising openness in her emerald eyes. "That is how Tapu Fini and I interact with one another: it uses me as a vessel to channel its power. Wo-chien is much the same."[break][break]

A certainty entered her voice, ringing with conviction as she launched into her understanding of events. She had pieced this together over so many months of trial and error, from utilizing annalise henderson in the dungeons of the Rocket submarine, to wielding the fog against the League in a full-on assault.[break][break]

"Fini's mist has a quality that alters the mind, opening up the heart of its recipient to express repressed wants and desires. It is a suggestive, dangerous power, and one that proves addictive to those unfortunate enough to be its victims."[break][break]

Her words became animated. Her eyes brightened with insight.[break][break]

"In kyle lopez, he pursued actions unhindered by obligation, provoking friend and foe alike. In MATIAS SILPH, he unleashed the rage that he feels against his own people, slaughtering men who secretly despised him. And in FERNANDO SILPH..."[break][break]

The excitement of revelation faded, replaced by a pensive thoughtfulness that betrayed her wondering.[break][break]

"He defended me," she said simply, recounting the events for what they were. "He turned against freya morningstar with a readiness that frightened me, and defended me with an impassioned fervor mere seconds after trying to kill me." Her gaze turned distant, and she fought to find the right way to convey her insight on this. "It affected him differently," she said finally. "The way he looked at Morningstar... It wasn't some repressed need to lash out, like the others."[break][break]

She looked at Walsh, aware what she said next would sound insane to anyone with ears.[break][break]

But for the first time since she'd entered here, she told him the truth to the best of her ability.[break][break]

"He was protecting me, specifically."

[attr="class","ooc"] declan walsh[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"intriguing." [break][break]

declan speaks slow and low. an incongruous register wholly disconnected from the mawkish and sweet. however, his dark tremolo, though steady, provides the plane for unpredictable leaps. leaps of sincerity. leaps of anger. leaps of violence.[break][break]

whatever must be done for rocket.[break][break]

"the man must be lonely." he says. "has your mind been altered then? as conduit, you've used the tapu's mist thrice."[break][break]

after all, a fish and company stink after three days.
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

"Yes and no," she replied, an answer she wouldn't have granted him an hour ago. Her brow furrowed together in deep concentration, something nagging at the back of her mind. "If I'm to be honest, I think Wo-chien altered me more. You and others witnessed that firsthand."[break][break]

And BARNABY FINCH had documented it for good measure, enshrining that fact in their records forevermore.[break][break]

I don't think this is about loneliness, either, she wanted to argue, but saw no merit in doing so. FERNANDO SILPH didn't seem the sort of man to throw away everything for a pretty face. His dedication to the region went too deep -- no, his savior complex went too deep for that.[break][break]

That Fernando would jeopardize Hoenn's future for a woman like her didn't make sense. He wasn't MATIAS SILPH.[break][break]

Even in all the time she and the councilman had spent together, she could have been replaced with any woman, couldn't she? They'd flirted, circling around one another and enjoying one another's company, but she'd not given him anything someone else couldn't have.[break][break]

All Elisabeth could figure was that it had something to do with her tie to Tapu Fini. Perhaps his loyalty to that deity had transferred as loyalty to her.[break][break]

"Fini's expectations of me are less knowable, I think, than Wo-chien's," she continued. "The Ruinous Beast relies on emotion to fuel its power, and the darker the emotion it pulls upon, the stronger that force becomes. Naturally, that has an effect that wears on the psyche."[break][break]

It was an understatement, but a truth nonetheless.[break][break]

"When I wield Fini's mist, I don't feel exhausted the way I do after I utilize Wo-chien's power. It feels..." She searched for a word, her gaze unfocusing as she bit her lip. "...natural? It's pleasant. Like something is channeling through me, but not at my own expense, if that makes sense."[break][break]

Wo-chien treated her like a battery, depleting her stores of energy to enable its will; Tapu Fini treated her like a sieve, letting its power breathe through her.

[attr="class","ooc"] declan walsh[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"then it appears that fini and wo-chien are perfect for each other."[break][break]

declan turns his head away, but his gaze faces elisabeth. the angle is sharp. brow hardening the edge of his expression.[break][break]

"and perfect for you." [break][break]

shadows coalesce beneath him as if he were gathering the dark tide. but it is a futile exercise. the shadows flush away and grasp at quiet corners.[break][break]

"what will you do then? with powers combined? you are treading into uncharted territory. you are in essence," the boss says, "alone."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

"Perfect for each other."

[break]

Silence descended upon her with that morbid conclusion.[break][break]

"It would be a monster that chose me," she'd said bitterly to the ghost of Cait Alfric when Tapu Fini first embraced her. She'd always believed that, though, and confessed as much to bryan delarosa.[break][break]

Even Celebi had only shown interest in her, presumably, due to fearing what Wo-chien's designs for her might be.[break][break]

What did it say about her, then, that she'd attracted not one monster, but two? Hadn't it set her singularly strange and apart even within an organization that built its back upon monsters?[break][break]

No matter what she did, she never seemed to belong anywhere. It was a despairing and sobering thought.[break][break]

"Aren't we all alone?" she said instead, and her smile showed the barest hint of teeth. "It is through forming alliances with one another we get through in this world. It is why I asked for this audience with you, now."[break][break]

The composure of earlier returned, that porcelain mask seamlessly sliding back into place.[break][break]

"If I am to tread into the uncharted darkness, where are you and Rocket willing to follow me? Or, perhaps the better question is... where would you have me go?"[break][break]

She offered herself as a chess piece to him willingly, keen to glimpse insight into a mind that so rarely revealed its secret designs.

[attr="class","ooc"] declan walsh[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"why, right back to silph of course."[break][break]

the boss grants pause. he wonders who comes to mind within elisabeth's bramble of thoughts. which spine protrudes the sharpest. which thorn hangs the most awry.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]