“Pizza delivery girl. Heard you were starving, and had a thing for the smell of soot and death.”

June stepped out from the remnants of the undergrowth, more obfuscated by the dimness of light than actual foliage. Howard wasn’t kidding: this place was absolutely demolished. Crushed. Even the outskirts of the city weren’t safe from war. But yet again, was anything? No, not really. Least of all June.

But maybe this route had it rougher. At least she wasn’t being sieged by a bunch of small creatures making everything worse.

“You’re…” June snapped her fingers, but the eye-patched gal’s name refused to make contact with her tongue. Lack of two eyes wasn’t helpful, surprisingly. One would think it so, but it felt like half the population lost a peeper in the war. “The chick How– Fox, told me to help.”

“Which… I don’t know why, honestly,” she crossed her arms. “Unless you-slash-he wants me to deliver something. But I don't think there's much to salvage in what is effectively a pile of charcoal and skeletons, so…”

Her and howard slayte had another thing coming if they thought she was going to play hearse-driver.

---

Aurelie Lefevre

10 MP For post
50 MP for tagging another character in a meaningful way

[attr="class","aurelie-lyrics"]Politics (and wars) make strange bedfellows.

[attr="class","border"]

Aurelie's head jerked around, moved to instant alertness and attentiveness when a youthful-looking girl with short hair strolled out from the underbrush and mentioned the magic word. Which, of course, was "pizza." Her stomach gave an audible, plaintive growl at the prospect of some delicious, cheesy, pepperoni-smothered goodness.

The redhead looked eagerly at the newcomer, her expression lighting up in a grateful smile. Her single uncovered eye studied June hungrily for any signs of a pizza box. "Yes! I am starving. What kind of pizza is it?!"

Slowly, her smile faded when she realized the mention of pizza had been but a meme or joke. "There's no pizza, is there," Aurelie sighed, looking disappointed but unsurprised. "But I guess it probably isn't the best idea during a patrol."

Then her brows knit together above her eyepatch in confusion when June seemed to recognize her for a moment. The other girl didn't strike her as familiar, but something about her voice rang a distant bell in Aurelie's mind. It was a memory vaguely associated with guilt, making her squirm uncomfortably.

"Which I guess is the reason why you're here, if you're the one that How- I mean, the admin sent," she concluded, a little awkwardly. "I think we're just supposed to be looking around for any hostiles or League war camps nearby. They don't exactly approve of us laying claim to Petalburg, so they keep trying to disrupt anything we do here."

She sighed and glanced away toward the desiccated forest for a moment, before shrugging and looking back toward June inquisitively. Smiling weakly, she attempted to make friendly conversation. "So, how long have you been part of Rocket? Are you new to the organization?

"If so, this is...definitely an interesting time inside the organization." She sighed again, more deeply. "But when is it ever not interesting in Hoenn, right? So, how do you know Admin...uh, Admin Fox?"

---

june sleigh

Total MP So Far:
- 50 MP: reference (tag) another character that is not in your thread in a meaningful way
- 20 MP: number of posts

This girl wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, was she? Not only had Aurelie likely not ordered pizza, June looked nothing like a pizza delivery girl. She wasn’t decked out in the stupid bright colors of every pizza chain, but instead in all black and a motorcycle helmet. Didn’t even have a bag with her.

Probably best to let the thought go unsaid, lest she call her former work partner denser than a hunk of lead. Even worse if she was on the same executive level as Howard.

“Been around for, what, a few weeks? Month? Don’t remember exactly,” she said. June walked past Aurelie and further into the underbrush, hoping that the girl would decide to follow along. “What can I say? Needed a change of pace, or something. Figured the best place to get that was a… terrorist organization. Interesting is one of the words you could use for it.”

What was she going to do? Disagree? Not like she was wrong.

“Oh, Fox? He and I go way back,” she put her palms on the back of her helmet as she walked nonchalantly through the destroyed forest. “To last year. I delivered him funeral urns. He blew me out of the sky. I kicked his shit in and made him feel bad. he hired me as some vague temp worker, and the rest is last week's news.”

Howard would’ve called it history. She would’ve karate-chopped him in the throat. Good theoretical times.

“What can I say? Crime pays. And I prefer my Hoenn boring, honestly,” she finished. Her head tilted, and a yellow eye peered from the opened visor. “Like I hope this glorified patrol is. Since I can’t do my actual job.”

“What do you do for Rocket, then? Get stuffed with the delivery tabs? Sorry, that’s called a toxic relationship. Might want to cut them off.”

---

Aurelie Lefevre 

10 MP for post

[attr="class","aurelie-lyrics"]Politics (and wars) make strange bedfellows.

[attr="class","border"]

The more that Aurelie listened to the other girl, the more she felt as though they had met at some point, briefly yet somehow memorably in some way. There was something vaguely yet strikingly familiar about the way she carried herself, the tone of her voice, even some of her mannerisms and gestures. But Aurelie couldn't put her finger on when or how they might've met.

Especially not after the other girl shared how recently she'd apparently joined Rocket. Aurelie couldn't help raising her eyebrows and staring at her in consternation. To be fair, she wasn't sure if there was a truly good reason to join Rocket, but...

"Let me get this straight," she said uncertainly. "You decided—of your own free will—to join a group that you know full well is a terrorist group...because you like things to be boring?"

Her brow furrowed. "Now, I realize I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but... I don't think I understand. Rocket's not the place you go to find boredom. Monotony, craziness, trauma, or toxicity, sure, but not boredom.

"But it does pay." The redhead shrugged and smiled ruefully, remembering how she'd joined for the sake of financing. "So, good luck with that, I guess. Can I ask what your old job was? Was it exciting and low-paying? You were delivering...funeral urns for a living?"

The idea of her being a delivery girl tickled at the back of Aurelie's mind as she obligingly followed June through the underbrush. She felt like she'd met a girl like this a while back, a League girl with a certain amount of defiance and sass. But still, she couldn't quite remember when or where.

"As for me, I make stuff for Rocket," she replied, equally nonchalantly. "Tools, sometimes weapons, occasionally food. And then they pay me: with money, with cool materials, sometimes with secrets." She shrugged. "It's not the worst relationship I've ever been in."

Staring at the back of June's head, she swallowed hard. There really was something hauntingly familiar about this girl, even from this weird angle. Finally, Aurelie couldn't restrain herself any further.

"Do we...know each other? Like, have we met before?" she blurted out. "Although you'd think I would remember if I ever ordered a funeral urn..."

---

june sleigh

Total MP So Far:
- 50 MP: reference (tag) another character that is not in your thread in a meaningful way
- 30 MP: number of posts

Well, Aurelie was right about one thing. Not the thing that she should be proud of, but, y’know. It was a start. But did they know each other?

How the fuck would June know?

“Uh, dunno,” June shrugged. “Something rings a bell I guess. Hell if I know what it’s from.”

“And to keep us on the same page, I was fucking with you: I’m not bored, I’m broke as hell. Like half the other Rockets. Probably,” she said. A good number of them had to have something wrong in the head to be there, but it couldn’t be all of them. Impossible, even.

“Speaking of, I’d just ask for the raw cash if I were you,” she looked back forward. Something sounded even more familiar. There had to be something. Broken memories were already a problem with Howard. Another one with this girl was the last thing she wanted. But seriously, how did they know each other?

“Um… you ever from Sleigh Fast Deliveries in the past? That’s my other normal job,” she offered. Arceus, these forests were boring. At least the island was more fun than this. In a sense. Sand, rocks, terrifying…

Girl… with an eyepatch…

---

Aurelie Lefevre