they're down people. she's down people. like Gwendolyn Conway. though she's no Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki - callous, direct, and unapologetic - she's overzealous and works herself just as hard. but she's still healing and hiring for positions like secretary to one of hoenn's councilwomen has been put on a freeze. 

they have too much at stake to risk infiltration. 

though she wants to shut her door, it's now, more than ever, that the people of this region know they can reach their governing body. so her office remains open every tuesday for exactly two hours and it's partway through, when her eyes are red from staring at her computer screen (and her half a dozen coffees she's poured throughout the day) that someone walks in. 

her familiarity strikes her first, and then panic sets in as she struggles to recall her name, and how they met. her eyes had mostly been on eva that night. 

genevieve. elite ranger. one of ollie's folks.

she doesn't stand to greet her, but she does tilt her laptop so the screen faces the keyboard and it's out of her face. then she gestures for the seat across from her desk. 

the rest of the room is mostly scarce, save a few personal belongings - a metal sculpture of two dratini twined around each other beside a couple of books, one of which is embossed with her own name; a painting on the adjacent wall displaying the salt-bleached bluffs of sootopolis; and a picture frame holding a photo of a man with blue hair, laughing with a young girl in his arms.

"genny, right?" she says. "flip that sign and close the door. i'm free for the next thirty."

Genevieve Cromwell

☉

freya is patient as genny orients herself. a small cushion in the corner of the room would make a perfect resting place for her yamper if it can brave the stale scent of dragons. moxie normally slumbers in it, but the pink-sheened dratini is at the draciary for lunchtime. which, now that she thinks about it, she missed. 

her stare is hawkish and critical at resting. only a spare few can draw a warm mirth from her and even then, it's never soft. but amusement does make her lips twitch. 

first robin coello, now another wayward ranger. she must really have changed, she thinks, if she's become someone admirable enough to seek out for help. her hand goes to tuck one of her braids over her shoulder, gracing a ribbon woven through her hair. with this touch, she sends wordless gratitude to king.

"i know a thing or two about being unable to relax," she says dryly. ask her current and previous assistants and they'll swear she subsists on nothing but burnt-bean coffee and three hours of sleep a night. 

the pokeball rolls once in place and freya considers it. 

finally, she says, "and more than a few things about feeling unworthy. sometimes there are no right or wrong choices. there are just...choices. we make due with what we can.

"why do you think she chose wrong?"

Genevieve Cromwell

☉

i am enough as i am, she has told herself countless times - whispers before the mirror, hands wandering the grooves of her collarbone to remind herself that she is a marvelous construction housing a fire that is so distinctly her. 

the rest of it is a sea of static - loathsome cackles that have burdened her before, and which hang like a cloud above this ranger. self-reflection comes with time, and it comes with letting loved ones in to help. but these are symptoms to a greater problem. 

"avatars aren't invincible," she says and her gaze flickers to tapu bulu's pokeball. "and gods can bleed just like the rest of us."

she leans forward, forearms on the desk, fingers laced together. 

"you are enough as you are. this war is going to take a lot from you, and it's going to take a lot from the people you love. but the most important thing you can remember is that you don't have to do it alone. we suffered many losses that day. but mossdeep was secured. it's still under league rule, and we have people like you to thank for that.

"ollie's right. you're not fit for your normal duties, but that doesn't mean you can't make progress." she juts out her chin towards the ball. "find common ground. hell knows it took me long enough to stop ignoring rayquaza after they pacted me."

and even so, there is little she finds to celebrate.

Genevieve Cromwell

☉

she does not know ranger cromwell well enough to distinguish her emotions, and by extension know if her words are reaching her. it's still a strange feeling, being who she is. sitting in an office like this and having people come to her for advice. or even companionship. 

her gaze darts to the photograph on her desk. she had everything, and then no one, for a very long time, and somehow, despite it all, she's managed to find some semblance of peace. something worth fighting for again.

quietly, genny speaks, and the look she gives the pokeball eases some of freya's worries. 

"well, i started by having a draconid asshole tell me to get my shit together and get over myself," she says, smiling fondly at Roy Aker's brazen personality. "so i'll give the same to you."

she leans forward, bares slightly too-sharp teeth. "start by accepting the responsibility and instead of wallowing that you haven't done enough, make moves to do enough. you got knocked down? get up and get stronger. and understand that that pokemon," she says, gesturing towards the ball, "is going to help you do that."

Genevieve Cromwell

☉

the thank you makes her expression tighten. freya's a hardened woman, has a reputation of one, and so it could easily be written off as discomfort, but there is an insidious reason that lives between the lines of her advice. genny, broken as she is, is still an asset. she might find peace if she walks away; she would no doubt be better off, but they simply cannot afford to lose the strongest among them.

this is another warrior in the making. genny reaches out towards the ball and freya pleads silently - do not become a martyr, cromwell.

as much as they could use one now. 

"good," she says and with another breath, adds, "when you're ready, we'll ask a lot of you. trust us, as tapu bulu trusts us."

a nod towards the clutched ball.

"but until then, learn how to trust each other."

Genevieve Cromwell

☉