Fascinating. Did he hold her in such contempt now that even this needling provocation meant nothing to him?[break][break]

She noted this shift in his behavior quietly, filing that intelligence away for later.[break][break]

"You're not usually the prying type," she commented instead, a teasing lilt to the words. The ice cubes melted in her glass, empty save for that residual moisture. The underboss shot him a meaningful look, before conceding: "I'll humor you, though."[break][break]

Her eyes unfocused then, lost to some distant sight as they stared right through him.[break][break]

"Mercenary," she stated finally. "Theirs is a mercenary bond."[break][break]

Something he should be more than familiar with, given who they both were.

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Color me surprised that you're indulging," she replied easily, meeting his gaze. "It's rare for anything to capture your interest."[break][break]

At the mention of bryan delarosa and Naomi Sato, a shadow passed over her features and her cat-like smile flatlined.[break][break]

"Sato is naive," she said at length. "We know precious little about the Unown and their intentions. They want something from her -- and potentially from the DRK Triad, too. There's no reason to think their intentions hold familial warmth."[break][break]

She kept herself more tight-lipped on the subject of Xerneas. The immortality that being had granted Delarosa struck her as a curse and blessing both. He'd said he didn't even feel human, anymore. Similar doubts plagued her in her own ties to Wo-chien, though she knew better than to voice them aloud to the man across from her.[break][break]

Wo-chien wasn't 'mercenary' with her. She was its plaything and possession.[break][break]

And she couldn't even begin to understand why Tapu Fini still wanted her, when it had the opportunity to seize back the man it so clearly desired for itself.[break][break]

It was easier to say she had something they both wanted. As if the things they were bartering weren't her sanity and her free will.[break][break]

"You have yet to describe your own relationship with Necrozma," she pointed out, waiting for his reply.

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Ambassador? That word brought to mind Julien Demassieux and Elise Calcifet, not the Avatar of Necrozma, but imagining either in the position was admittedly funny. She couldn't entirely hide the humor this analogy piqued in her, mouth twisting to hold back an unwise smirk from fully forming. The result left her somewhere between appearing puzzled and amused.[break][break]

"So you're to be Necrozma's ambassador to humanity? I'll assume 'goodwill' isn't your deity's intention. If it is, you have quite the thankless and fruitless job ahead of you."[break][break]

Why couldn't she resist the urge to provoke him? So, so unwise. Everything in her screamed to unsay the things she couldn't stop herself from saying.[break][break]

"Unless..." The levity evaporated as her eyes narrowed, a new thought glittering in their emerald depths. "...it is the other way around?"[break][break]

To think Necrozma cared enough to invest in a mortal vessel was surprising enough, to her mind.[break][break]

But maybe Zev had given it a reason to invest in some part of humanity.

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Huh. A curious distinction, that.[break][break]

Elisabeth hummed to herself, mulling over this discovery as she refilled her drink. That makes sense, she figured. All deities had a different sphere of influence.[break][break]

Wo-chien's was the personal, feeding on the emotional state on humanity and leeching off the lifeforce of its surroundings.[break][break]

Tapu Fini, similar to Groudon and Kyogre, was a force of nature.[break][break]

Beings like Necrozma, and perhaps Palkia and Dialga, had greater territory as their domain. Vaster than she could potentially imagine.[break][break]

"I think I'm content in my own insignificance," she said then, and drained her glass again. "It's a heavy responsibility you bear, balancing the weight of such power with such delicate finesse."[break][break]

For once, her answer rang with full sincerity, no trace of mockery or derision to be found.

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The deity Wo-chien had feared nothing, not even Necrozma's Avatar, in its blind, gluttonous pursuit of power. It reveled in the instability it wreaked, thriving in the cracks and fissures of relationships torn asunder.[break][break]

Elisabeth Fiorelli, a mere mortal, had no such delusions of her own grandeur. She had been humbled one too many times by one too many entities, Divine and human alike, to exist with such a misconception.[break][break]

"I'm amenable to that proposal," she said slowly, cautiously, as the knife sheathed itself back into his crystalline armor. "There's no need for us to be enemies. We have the same goals in Rocket, do we not?"[break][break]

He was a clever man. He'd understand the implication in that statement and in the inquiring arch of her brow:[break][break]

"Don't get in my way, and I won't get in yours."

[break]

Rocket was simply a means to both their ends.

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]