He went unseen as she continued in her aimless wandering, paying no heed to her surroundings. She should have known better; she should have remembered to be vigilant, as he'd always claimed he was, especially when existing in a place that scorned her as its enemy.[break][break]

But who was looking for her here? Who would look at a woman like her and believe her the danger that the League said she was? Surveillance came with MATIAS SILPH, but not with her own solitude.[break][break]

Moments like this, it was easy to believe herself invisible to the world. Maybe the world was better that way.[break][break]

Father Winter had taught her as much, hadn't he?[break][break]

She leaned against a cold lamp post, tilting her head skyward to take in the sight of the moon waxed in full. It bathed her face in its brilliance, and she closed her eyes, inhaling in the crisp winter air deeply before breathing it out. The faintest pink colour tinged the frost that escaped her lips, impossible to witness at a distance.[break][break]

Sometimes she didn't feel like a real person. Sometimes she felt like the ghost he believed her to be.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

It was his footsteps that first caught her attention: that quiet crunching of snow beneath Oxford heels. The seeming lack of hostility in his approach allowed her to remain as she was, expecting that this stranger, like all others, would pass her by unnoticed in his journey home.[break][break]

Then the intruder's movements ceased, and the world went silent with him. The first jolt of fear sang through her as she felt the closeness of his gaze on her, and she tensed.[break][break]

To be observed meant facing unknown intent.[break][break]

Emerald eyes fluttered open to sate her curiosity, but the man she sought stood behind her, not in front.[break][break]

His voice carried to her with the sluggishness of a dream whispering back to the waking, a nostalgic thing unable to be placed for its familiarity. There had been a time that this voice had been a welcome respite, one she'd invited in to pass away her loneliest hours of night. Back then, during that early and innocent spring, she'd been able to name its owner anywhere.[break][break]

Time had robbed her mind of such finesse of detail, atrophying that thread of neglected memory. Regret could be a potent elixir, and she had more than enough of that to spare, all of it drowning the past in a filmy haze of abject denial.[break][break]

"That's just as well. I've never been much for crowds."[break][break]

A crane of her head would bring them face-to-face, too close for her own comfort as breathing stilled with sharp, sudden recognition.[break][break]

Fear pounded frantically in her heart, but her tired body wouldn't obey that screaming instinct to run. This numb terror reflected nonetheless in the horror of her wide-eyed stare, her lips moving though for several moments no sound came out.[break][break]

At long last, she found her voice -- its accusing tenor now possessed of the steeliness of a barbed wire as she glared at him.[break][break]

"What is it that you want?"

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Perhaps this is a dream after all, she wondered, staring at him in disbelief as he spoke of inconsequential things that didn't matter in the slightest. None of this feels real.[break][break]

It struck her, suddenly, that Elisabeth didn't recognize this man. He had nothing in common with the stranger she'd met that first spring in Hoenn, flirting with coy glances and subtle innuendo. There was no smugness to be found in a faintly peeking smile, nor even the cold severity of a gaze sharpened with unfeeling will.[break][break]

This imposter of FERNANDO SILPH lacked all intensity. He was a lifeless caricature of a man whose power once had seemed a towering and impossible thing to measure.[break][break]

He's not an Avatar, she reminded herself. His goddess serves you now, not him. He is nothing but a man, mortal like any other.[break][break]

The sense of unease nonetheless remained.[break][break]

"Is that why you're here, then?" Her chin jutted out proudly, eyes narrowing to thin slits of viperous green. "Am I debris to be swept from your streets?"[break][break]

Despite her better judgment, she didn't retreat from him. This was his city; if he had a trap lying in wait for her, standing closer to him was less likely to spring it upon her than fleeing blindly.[break][break]

...Except no hostility reflected in his movements or manner. No scorn or derision focused itself upon her, either.[break][break]

He simply stared right through her, as if he couldn't see the woman before him for who she was.[break][break]

That was what terrified her most of all.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH

Context: Little Black Dress ft. Fernando

[break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Superstition? I wonder."[break][break]

Her eyes swept over him coolly before coming to some cold, calculated assessment that found him wanting. If he wanted to make implicit threats dressed up in metaphor, fine, she'd play that game.[break][break]

"That makes us both unfortunate for different reasons. You walk here all alone, and I walk with the presence of two others who won't leave me."[break][break]

The milky light of the full moon shone with a madness to it, and the sight of it blinding against the snow emboldened her further. Yes, that was right -- nights like this were her domain now. She clung to that knowledge, tensing like a coiled Seviper warning against a clumsy traveler's approach.[break][break]

"Personally, I like my odds better than yours."[break][break]

Tapu Fini had protected Elisabeth from her former Avatar and would surely do so again.[break][break]

And yet.[break][break]

And yet... what? Wasn't it all that simple, in the end?[break][break]

She had to believe that. She had to make herself believe that.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I'm not interested in taking orders from you."[break][break]

The authoritarian shift in his tone flipped a switch in her, awakening an instinct that had gotten more and more difficult to bite back the more that Wo-chien had indulged in it.[break][break]

Did he still think he held any power over her?[break][break]

Did he believe he could simply will her away with a few stern words, as if she were some wide-eyed trainer who would be easily cowed by a councilman or a Gym Leader?[break][break]

Was she so little and so meek as that? Was she truly no more threatening than a Ratatta who'd been shooed out from his food pantry?[break][break]

He reeked of the same condescension that had infuriated her after the events of Mirage Island. How she'd loathed that she only lived due to the compassion of Naomi Sato, a woman she utterly despised, and Navy, a man who ought to kill her instead of pity her. Her resentment for them only grew in response to that unwanted act of kindness.[break][break]

Perhaps the man in front of her had meant his warning as a mercy, but it stung her pride sharper than anything else.[break][break]

"If you want me to leave," she spat at him, "then make me."

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Anger she understood. To be hated matched her expectations, of him and of others.[break][break]

Restraint, however, confused her.[break][break]

She couldn't explain the difference between the severity of his expression and the genteel gesture he offered her, and instead of the conflict she'd have found comfort in, the fear from before only amplified.[break][break]

He had yet to make a scene, despite her invitation for him to do just that. If he wanted her in harm's way, he might as well choose to do it out of sight, where civilians wouldn't be at risk.[break][break]

Not that it mattered either way. Tapu Fini wouldn't let him kill her, of that she was reasonably and somewhat frightfully certain.[break][break]

Cautiously, warily, she took his hand and peered up at him.[break][break]

"You never answered my question," she accused.[break][break]

What do you want, she'd asked him, but he'd never answered her. Not completely.[break][break]

That had been intentional, she decided now.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]