"It's beautiful, yes," she agreed, though there was a hesitance in her observation that lingered as she glanced around herself. "Though in an otherworldly way."[break][break]

Despite her predisposition to the outdoors, stumbling on such a sprawling world as this -- one which appeared as if from thin air -- unnerved her deeply. Even the thin mist wafting around them left her feeling on edge, as if strange silhouettes might yet lurk in the shadows.[break][break]

"It makes me wary of what might live here. Each environment cultivates different organisms."[break][break]

Her emerald eyes met his, openly reflecting her concern, before she pried further.[break][break]

"Have you received any intelligence on this place to investigate? Or is a lack of knowledge the primary reason for our exploration here?"[break][break]

She may have been the underboss between them, but she'd abdicated the role of intelligence admin to him some time ago. In a sense, she was supporting him in this mission, not the other way around.[break][break]

a6V8TIqk

[attr="class","ooc"] BARNABY FINCH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"In your experience, hm?" she repeated a touch accusingly, an eyebrow arched towards him. The slightest grin betrayed her dry humor. "Whatever could you mean."[break][break]

Unlike him, she wore no mask to protect her face from view; she'd given up on such things, allowing her identity to damn her to the infamy she thought she deserved.[break][break]

The further they ventured onwards, the stranger their surroundings became. Sword-like gashes struck at the nearby rocks, and she frowned, wondering at what unseen blades might have struck this stone.[break][break]

"Paradox Pokemon have slowly been trickling into the region for awhile now," she mused aloud, silently memorizing the image before allowing Bee to lead them onward. "As for the DRK Triad, I have only seen glimpses of them before now."[break][break]

She recalled Littleroot, the vision of Dialga chained in Unown. She recalled Father Winter and his coin toss.[break][break]

"You have a better view of the world's affairs than most. Which threat concerns you more?"[break][break]

PXOZtQ72

[attr="class","ooc"] BARNABY FINCH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I don't care what everyone else thinks," she replied bluntly, far more bluntly than she would have replied to anyone else. He'd see the sincerity flashing in her emerald eyes as she stated this mutinous truth aloud. "I only care what you think."[break][break]

He knew, of course he knew, what little loyalty she possessed to the yoke of Rocket that bound them both together. Her role as an underboss was a method of slithering out of its grasp, gaining a little more freedom in the length of her chains.[break][break]

He'd known she'd caged herself there with him long before she'd ever realized her fate.[break][break]

The strange sound ringing throughout the canyon frozen her in place, and two pinpricks of ochre eyes in the gloom revealed the distant presence of Wo-chien, ready should the need to defend its Avatar arise.[break][break]

"What was that?" she heard herself say, visibly on-edge. It didn't sound like any creature she recognized.[break][break]

And then she felt it: the unmistakable sensation of stepping into something soft and positively vile.[break][break]

Barnaby would be more than familiar with the hiss of Kalosian swearing that followed.[break][break]

CV8lKRt8

[attr="class","ooc"] BARNABY FINCH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

With begrudging gratitude, she took his hand and let him pull her out of the mess she'd walked right into. How many times had he found her like this? She couldn't think of another soul in Hoenn who'd seen her struggle so much with the state of her footwear.[break][break]

"I think I'd have preferred to step in honey again," she muttered under her breath, but the warmth in his voice as he teased her managed to melt away all irritation. "And I never flatter you," she added, softer this time. "I only tell you the truth."[break][break]

It was comforting to hear his smile beneath the mask. She loved that mask for protecting him as much as she loathed it for hiding his face from view.[break][break]

But doesn't everyone have masks, Elisa? Not all are this obvious, now are they? Some never peel off.[break][break]

She pushed that thought aside, preferring to listen to Barnaby's observations on the DRK Triad. "You sound like the Visionary," she said, and a hint of disdain crawled out with that statement. This wasn't aimed at him so much as at Naomi Sato, and at a strange jealousy this connection between the two of them had unexpectedly awakened in her. "What do you make of them? My experience has been limited to the affairs during METENO, and..."[break][break]

She tilted her head at him, considering whether or not her next admittance was wise, before she remembered what she'd told him: I only tell you the truth.[break][break]

"...Dionysus, the one who flipped the coin and said he could change time. I met him, too."[break][break]

Though she'd wished she hadn't.[break][break]

UOQX2sIz

[attr="class","ooc"] BARNABY FINCH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"You talk as if you have a plan," she said, probing at what had been left unsaid. His seeming mutual dislike of the Head Scientist pleased her, but the topic at hand soundly did not. The DRK Triad, regardless of their intentions, proved difficult to locate and to face in person.[break][break]

Although, their bait of choice had remained clear.[break][break]

"Do you seek to lure them out with Avatars?" It was the most sensible assumption. Apparently they had special interest in those that deities had 'blessed' in this universe, and purportedly those even in other universes. "From what little I understand, they seem intent on killing us all."[break][break]

An uneasy feeling sat in the pit of her stomach, one far worse than the invocation of Naomi Sato had inspired. Elisabeth turned to him with a look so openly imploring she half-wished she'd worn a mask of her own, too.[break][break]

"Birdwatching," howard slayte had first warned her. But she wasn't brave enough to broach that topic with Admin Bee now.[break][break]

That vision of the Galarian Moltres and its sinister gaze in the Cave of Origin had never left her. She could still see the image of BARNABY FINCH on his knees before the strange avian creature, her hand gently taking his to return him to his feet. Had he felt the way her hand had trembled with fear for him that day?[break][break]

"They're relentless. I do not believe they will ever stop, unless they are all eradicated."[break][break]

But I would lure out the DRK Triad for you, if you asked, she caught herself thinking, though she didn't voice it aloud. I would, if it would protect you. If it meant you didn't have to face them instead.[break][break]

goLhwq9E

[attr="class","ooc"] BARNABY FINCH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Maldacena," she agreed, the name now etched in her mind as strongly as any name that had ever found itself on the Tablets of Ruin. "We'll find him together. You and I."[break][break]

Her body moved as if tugged by unseen puppet strings, drawing her over to his side. For all the loveliness of the landscape before them, she couldn't stop herself from staring at him instead.[break][break]

She gazed at him for awhile, standing proudly atop the precipice of the yawning chasm, and a bittersweet longing stirred deep inside of her -- the ache of wanting too much, while knowing she shouldn't indulge in the wanting.[break][break]

"Know this," she said to him, tenderly searching his mask for the man behind it. "Whatever I can offer you in your mission -- the resources that Rocket affords me as underboss, the gods I serve -- it is all yours, if you but ask it of me."[break][break]

Quiet conviction echoed in each soft-spoken word.[break][break]

Her hand interlaced with his, daring to transgress his skin with her own once more as she rested her head against his shoulder. The racing of her pulse sang louder in her ears than any cry that had shuddered through the heart of the earth.[break][break]

"It really is beautiful here," she murmured then, pre-empting any answer he might have given to that unbidden confession. Her eyes pleaded with him to keep his silence.[break][break]

It was enough that he knew what he was to her.[break][break]

It was enough.[break][break]

...It had to be enough.[break][break]

EVqnV4ke

[attr="class","ooc"] BARNABY FINCH

[attr="class","pkmn"]