it's not the only secret, she thinks.

kyle lopez is still, by all intents and purposes, dead. his revivification is known by some, and though the shell has been made whole, the parts of him they need - the bits and pieces that made him champion are gone. 

her soul's been moved enough times to know it can be stripped, cut through, shorn. 

that is not why they are here, really, but the thoughts drift that way nonetheless. kos floats petulantly behind her. after one too many snapping, freya had threatened to return the creature back into its ball. micolash wasn't even this bad when it was just a poipole. 

"i'm assuming we can count on your confidentiality," she says dryly as she squats down beside a particularly gnarly spotted fern. 

a pressure mounts in the back of her head and she gives it a shake, murmuring, "no. we're fine."

howard slayte

☉

there is an insistent pushback, a sort of strenuous smothering that makes freya pinch her brows with with thumb and forefinger. they don't speak to her in words, or even pictures, but with emotions. even those are confusing, as most of them are so ancient and tremulous, that they are almost entirely foreign from her own. 

but she understands frustration. 

and longing. 

"yes, i'm fine," she says and stops resisting. the pressure lifts. she blinks and shrugs her shoulders. she can't pretend to comprehend their anxieties, nor does she kid herself into thinking they want to be here out of concern. nevertheless, they're leaving sootopolis. she can feel it on the wind. 

"sounds like we'd get along." 

the reports say they're not harmful on contact, but still she doesn't reach out to touch them. "don't know. we're hoping you can help answer that question. the soil's different wherever they're growing apparently."

howard slayte

☉

dr. graves has been an asset to the league in the past, but she doesn't know him well enough to trust his mouth. even howard wouldn't be up there if it weren't for the fact that he and roy got on so well; that roy would speak to his character in such positive light had made the decision open and shut. 

"i've always heard the ash is rich in minerals." partly why fallarbor has always been a boon for farming in their region. but the ash is no longer a gift; since that day, it's been falling by the pound and choking the life out of the town. local and government efforts have done their best to sustain the environment. 

kos nibbles her ear and she swats with a hiss, pinching at the blood gathering at her lobe. 

"i'm going to chuck you in the volcano," she threatens and then winces at her poor choice of words. "we can't find a reason for the connection. none of ho-oh's - or kyle's, for that matter - powers have left marks like this."

kos, buoying himself above the volcano proper, suddenly rolls over backwards. a rough wind whisks over them, scattering soot and soil. freya rolls her shoulders, unperturbed. 

"rayquaza's on their way. i don't think they like this place very much, nor that i'm here. anyway, is there anything else you can get from it?"

howard slayte

☉