It felt like a lifetime ago since Elisabeth had studied the crystablooms in the Petalburg Woods.[break][break]

Wo-chien slinked behind her like a second shadow, causing the nearby flora to wither as it had when the Ruinous Beast had first claimed her here. Trees darkened as their boughs shed their browning leaves, flowers drooped and lost their petals, and the grass became a barren wasteland upon the demonic deity's approach.[break][break]

Even so, Elisabeth knew the state of the crystablooms here was not her patron's doing.[break][break]

She'd knelt on the ground, examining the poisoned blossoms with acute curiosity, before the loud sounds of a woman shouting drew her attention. Half of her expected to see Eva Morales when she whirled around, ready to banish her once more from the woods that Elisabeth had once considered her home.[break][break]

Instead, she found herself face-to-face with a rather perplexing person: a woman in a suit that disguised her as a Pokemon.[break][break]

"...Name your business," the underboss said sharply, the ochre eyes of her patron glimmering in the shadows.

[attr="class","ooc"] Andrea Vaneau

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The image of a beautiful blonde woman with a Sprigatito came up in Andrea's memory. The woman standing before her looked eerily similar to that person from way back when, but her flawless visage concealed bad vibes.

Perhaps the bad vibes actually came from that shady snail of hers, which spread death and blight in its wake. It had appeared in the battle against the White Kyurem, almost bringing Ruination to Andrea's most treasured companion. Naturally, Chomper was still bitter, looking like he wanted to tear both of them to shreds.

"YOU name YOUR business!" The draconic cosplayer retorted, furrowing her brow. At that point, it should be clear to the Rocket underboss that her obscene costume was actually a Sygna Suit, making the wearer just as Worked Up as the Hydreigon she was syncing with.

"What's the deal with that creepy Pokémon? Why did it poison the lake?" The girl making believe she was a dragon asked, baring her surprisingly sharp fangs.

Elisabeth Fiorelli //mission thread

☉

A single eyebrow delicately arched in disbelief. The audacity of the average Hoennite never ceased to astonish her.[break][break]

"You assume this is our doing?" she inquired blandly, gesturing at the noxious liquid. "Is it so impossible to believe something else might be the cause?"[break][break]

This was less about whether or not the state of events was Wo-chien's doing, and more about the self-righteousness of the woman confronting her so boldly and brazenly.[break][break]

"You have ignored my question and accused me of wrongdoing for merely existing here," she pointed out, nonplussed by the raging demeanor of the Hydreigon. "If you want an answer given in goodwill, isn't the reasonable response to extend it first yourself?"[break][break]

She waited for the escalation to aggression this would inevitably result in, staring at Andrea Vaneau with a withering look of her own.

[attr="class","ooc"] Andrea Vaneau

[attr="class","pkmn"]

“I’m not ignoring you, and I’m not accusing you just because you exist! It’s just that it existing causes… this.” The eccentric trainer gestured at the dead flora surrounding Elisabeth’s patron. Even if not malicious in this specific instance, the snail’s mere existence brought Ruination upon everything it touched.

Expecting their verbal altercation to escalate into a physical one was reasonable. Aggression usually begets more aggression, after all. However, the Kalosian widow had not accounted for one very crucial thing…

Gaslighting was super effective on Andrea.

“Wait…” The bespectacled girl blinked in confusion, her body relaxing. “If this isn’t your doing, then what happened here? My business is finding out whoever did this.”

Unlike its easily swayed trainer, it took more than a silver tongue to extinguish the Hydreigon’s animus. Still agitated by the snail’s eerie presence, the three-headed drake let out a low, guttural growl to let the duo know that they had not been deemed trustworthy yet.

Elisabeth Fiorelli //mission thread

☉

Elisabeth silently took in the blighted sight of their surroundings as the woman gestured around frantically, letting the stranger say her piece.[break][break]

"Wo-chien drains the life of its surroundings," she said at length, shrugging as if this was a fairly neutral and indifferent observation to make. "But there are things here that grow sickly for different reasons."[break][break]

A gloved hand plucked a poisoned crystabloom, examining the purple-tinted petals, then bringing it to the light. Amethystine hues shimmered against her skin, peculiarly dazzling in the sunlight.[break][break]

"Such as this. I've never known a crystabloom to behave like this before. Have you?"[break][break]

The Hydreigon's displeasure went ignored, as most displeasure Elisabeth experienced did.

[attr="class","ooc"] Andrea Vaneau

[attr="class","pkmn"]

“Wo-chien?” Funny how giving a Pokémon a name instantly made it feel more relatable. Names were a human trait, and humans liked things that reminded them of themselves. Andrea drew closer to the ruinous beast, tentatively extending a hand towards it.

Chomper’s eyes widened. No way she was actually thinking of fucking petting that thing! In an overprotective gesture, the Hydreigon grabbed his dumbass of a trainer with his jaws, yanking her back.

“OK fine, I won’t pet it!” The eccentric girl said with a pout, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her eyes were then drawn to the poisoned Crystabloom in the older woman’s hand. “I saw these by the lake earlier. Are you saying they’re the source of the pollution?”

Elisabeth Fiorelli //mission thread

☉

"It's possible," she conceded, scrutinizing the poisoned flower thoughtfully. "Crystablooms possess their own infinity energy. It's why they are utilized in Sygna Suits -- its use mimics the infinity energy that flows between a divine patron and an Avatar."[break][break]

A complicated expression flashed across her features as she considered this.[break][break]

"If you corrupted that energy, what then?"[break][break]

She gestured at the other woman's own Sygna Suit, only to catch the tail-end of the almost-encounter between Wo-chien and Andrea Vaneau. Elisabeth opened her mouth then closed it as she realized she had nothing to say on that matter.[break][break]

Wo-chien's ochre eyes glowed with radiant disapproval, both at the woman and her Pokemon. It was difficult to know who had incited its grudges more.[break][break]

"Is your task to route out the scourge," she inquired, "or to heal the damage caused by it?"

[attr="class","ooc"] Andrea Vaneau

[attr="class","pkmn"]

“My ‘task’?” Andrea cracked a smile at that. An honest misunderstanding, really. “You got it all wrong! It’s not like this is my job. I’m not a ranger or anything. I just happened to be in the area, and thought I’d help!”

The story of her life; always at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Be that as it may, the more important question was what to do next. “I’m not much of a healer. If a Pokémon is causing this, we could just beat it up! If a human is causing this, we could beat them up! How does Infinity Energy get corrupted anyway?” The Sygna Suited girl inquired in turn.

Elisabeth Fiorelli //mission thread

☉

"That is an excellent question, and one I am attempting to learn the answer to," she said, tidily procuring the poisoned crystabloom specimen and storing it for later study. "Supposing a poisoned crystabloom heart was utilized in the making of a Sygna Suit, for example... what might the ramifications be? And how lasting?"[break][break]

It reminded her of how Sygna Suits cancelled out the ties between Avatars and patrons, but in a darker, more insidious way.[break][break]

What if instead of negating or cancelling out alternative infinity energy, this poison corrupted it completely? Would the effects of such a thing be permanent?[break][break]

She wondered. It was as concerning a notion as it was a possibility for breakthrough biochemical warfare.[break][break]

"With regards to your problem solving methods," Elisabeth continued, turning to the woman pointedly. "A word of advice? I would not suggest barging into places unannounced and attacking suspicious persons and Pokemon on a whim. That seems extraordinarily likely to result in angering random bystanders."[break][break]

Though in this case, attacking a Rocket underboss on sight would not have been the wrong move in the least. Not in the eyes of most of the League, anyway.

[attr="class","ooc"] Andrea Vaneau

[attr="class","pkmn"]

She had not even considered the connection between Crystablooms and Sygna Suits. Those luminous flowers acted as Infinity Energy conduits. If the conduits were poisoned... "Then the person wearing the Sygna Suit could get poisoned too?! Or worse?!" Andrea fretted.

The older woman gave her a lecture about wrongfully accusing individuals and attacking them unprovoked. That second attempt at gaslighting would probably have worked, if not for the Hydreigon's constant hissing and growling. Pokémon were much better at seeing red flags than humans.

"I don't know who you are, but Chomper doesn't trust you, and that's enough for me!" The dragon maiden bared her fangs. "Wo-chien's not just a random Pokémon, so you're not just a random bystander. Why did you take that poisoned Crystabloom? What do you plan to do with it?" She demanded to know.

Elisabeth Fiorelli //mission thread

☉

Elisabeth's emerald eyes narrowed, viperous in their gleam, as she rose to her feet. This 'Chomper' was proving to be something of a nuisance, gnashing teeth as Wo-chien's glittered darkly with silent laughter.[break][break]

"I don't believe I owe you an answer," Elisabeth began, flicking the dust off her clothing, "but I happen to be one of the region's foremost experts in crystablooms. I plan to take this specimen so that minds greater than mine can make sense of this perversion of the unique flora."[break][break]

This explanation was, strictly, true. What she did with this knowledge would depend on they learned, of course.[break][break]

"Call it a botanist's interest. As for Wo-chien, it chose me. So long as you do not anger me, you have nothing to fear from it."[break][break]

This explanation she doubted more, given the sinister aura emanating from her Ruinous patron like a sickly perfume of bitter herbs.[break][break]

"Is that what you want?" Elisabeth calmly asked the teeth-baring woman. "Do you wish to anger me?"[break][break]

What happened next rested entirely in Andrea Vaneau's hands -- or, perhaps more aptly, claws.

[attr="class","ooc"] Andrea Vaneau

[attr="class","pkmn"]

An answer was given, but the animosity from both sides remained. Words were being exchanged, but there was no dialogue, no attempt to compromise. That woman was on a mission, and was willing to twist the truth to make it seem as if she was in the right.

Regular Pokémon did not choose their trainers. That choice of words shed some light on the nature of her relationship with Wo-chien. She was someone deemed worthy; an avatar using her god-given gift to grandstand, to threaten, and to assert herself.

“If you’re looking for great minds, give it to Eva Morales. Give it to illeana reyes. Not to people who will try to turn it into some kind of weapon!” The draconic cosplayer pointed out, however she had a feeling her proposed solution would not be acceptable to the other woman.

Sometimes, aggression was the only way for some people to listen.

“Chomper, use Fire Fang!” Delighted that his trainer had finally ordered him to attack, the green-scaled Hydreigon lunged towards Wo-chien, flame-coated jaws all too eager to dig into that pelt of decaying leaves.

Elisabeth Fiorelli //mission thread

☉

"The League's Head Scientists?" A smirk curved her lips, the ensuing smile wicked in its gleam. "No, I think not."[break][break]

Chomper's flaming teeth would sink into Wo-chien's pelt of leaves, only for bubbling ooze to seep through its TABLETS OF RUIN like tar. The noxious liquid foamed out from the POISON TERASTALLIZATION of the Ruinous Beast, whose ochre eyes glowed a macabre shade of violet.[break][break]

"Just remember you're the one who struck first," she murmured, and when her own eyes glowed, the ground trembled in response to vines shooting up from the earth. They reached out with covetous ivy towards their enemy--[break][break]

Not the Hydreigon, but his trainer. Andrea Vaneau.

[attr="class","ooc"] Andrea Vaneau

[attr="class","pkmn"]