"yeah, well, i've never really taken to my desk," she replies in good humor, nose wrinkling. it had been worse her first time around; now, she at least reads her emails and makes a point to visit her office half of the week. 

"at least i have an excuse." combat operations and emergency responses aren't going to strategize themselves and secondhand accounts of what they're up against are only going to hinder them in the long run. 

she looks sideways at the drone. it doesn't look very cute to her. 'cute' is a word she uses for applin and their ilk. and tatsugiri. sometimes even her salamence, if they're acting especially cuddly. ana fell might think the drone is cute though.

"you know how to study any of this?" she asks curiously. the reports are all being funneled to their science department. she can't make sense of it.

John Sullivan
ClQ7xFfk

☉

"rocket science? i'm not sure we want any of that," she says dryly - a lame attempt at humor. the threat is still very real. there's no telling how many rocket agents are crawling down around here with them. her sygna suit is donned, but it's inert for now. 

she tilts her head when he mentions medical science. 

"you mentioned you could heal lyune's wound," she says. trepidation and distrust colors her voice. "would you have to use lele for that?"

John Sullivan
7gggqF4U

☉

"yeah, well, you remember the last meeting. maybe we'll get to take something from them soon." her grin is toothy, the face of a councilwoman completely dropped in the face of one of her longest-standing desires: to take back sootopolis from rocket. 

she blinks at his enthusiasm and her stomach does a bit of a flip, distrust worming its way through her insides. pink powder glistens around his hand and she finds herself taking an involuntary step back. calcifer unfurls one wing to come around her like a cloak, sensing her spike of fear, but she shoulders away from him just as quickly. 

"no, i don't," she says and reaches thoughtfully for the ball nestled in her choker. 

the brutish salamence emerges, towering over the both of them. his tongue forks out from behind his lips. his eyes narrow on the motes swirling around doug's hands, low hiss a warning purr in his throat. 

freya frowns. 

"not. no, not lele. can you take a look first? without that?"

lyune crouches and on freya's prompting, stretches out his wing. sleek metal snicks, exoskeleton maneuvering the torn and gruesomely healed limb. 

John Sullivan
i remembered to roll
gUst1ODA

☉

he doesn't ask and she's grateful for it. she's not sure she could explain why, above all others, she does not trust the tapus. lele could be the nicest, sweetest, most innocent of them all and she'd still trust it less than she does Cillian Quinn's shadow-stained lugia. 

he remarks on the age and she nods. in the grand scheme of his lifetime, it's not that old - he'd been cleaved through by a city-sized guzzlord, years ago during the first invasion. she had asked fernando, once, if he would heal him, and he had told her he was not worth the resources.

lyune looks from doug to freya and she places a hand on his snout, forehead pressing against warm scales. "qe ifpesp," she hisses gently. he hums lowly in response. 

"okay. only if you're absolutely certain - okay."

John Sullivan
i remembered to roll
o2FkfnSG

☉

"you remember the first ultra beast invasion," she says and looks away from him, back towards the grotesque scar down lyune's side. she ducks under the fold of his wing so she can press her palm against the limb. it's been so long since it happened. 

"the guzzlord that was the size of a skyscraper. the one that almost leveled mossdeep." bodies twisted in the streets, buildings felled. if only they'd known then that all of it was just precursor. 

that the real horrors hadn't shown their faces. 

"he was hit by a hyper beam from it, if i remember correctly. shot us out of the sky." and then had come her first real taste of otherworldly power. mega evolution had emerged that very first day, but she...she had felt something different. 

a primal energy flooding her dragons, funneled through her, birthing the devastating drake that took out the beast. 

oh, what a fool i've been. how long she's run away from her past when hints and pieces of it have been there, waiting, discarded and forgotten because she swore it was too painful. 

she shakes her head, releasing the memories. 

"we've come a long way since then. alex's brace here connects to his saddle." she gestures to the mechanical constructs around his wing. "but it still hurts him to fly."

John Sullivan
i remembered to roll
f1lGn8gN

☉

she does hate it and has always hated it - knowing that what used to bring him comfort and freedom now brings him pain. that is why she is quashing all of her misgivings. that is why she is stifling every instinct not to trust the thing that gives doug his powers. 

i trust him, and that should be enough. 

lyune studies him and after he winks, the dragon looks past this silly human and towards freya. part of him understands, as all dragons do, and when she searches for a decision, she finds there is none. 

"now," she breathes. "if you can. if we need to wait, i understand, but if you can heal him...then now."

John Sullivan
i remembered to roll
RACPbvwU

☉

he looks around and considers and her palms start to sweat, needling reminders of what could go wrong if lele decided to finish the job fini hadn't been able to. 

and then he talks about surgery and sanitation and mentions ever grande general and she feels silly, but she also feels an awfully strong wave of relief. 

"oh, i thought - " she says and looks away sheepishly. "i thought it'd be all avatar power. ever grande general." she nods. 

"yeah, let's do that."

John Sullivan
i remembered to roll
kdp2Tv17

☉