ah, right. nautica. the joint venture of parker's sea witch - who still, quite honestly, vexes her and those feelings are kind of hard to untangle so she doesn't - and her rat-faced, granola-stealing husband. the displeasure on her face, at least, covers up the confusing knot in her chest. 

zev is focused on the mission. parker is focused on - well, she's not focused on anything, at the moment, except following diligently and being a Good Little Rocket - so she hears the voice loud 'n clear in her ear. 

and she thinks of avery jones's hair, curling under her hat, that piece of her finally back after missing for so long and, without skipping a beat, says, 

"blue?"

Zev Harcourt

☉

parker gives nomi a side-eye, mostly because she doesn't want to watch the rest of the scene. she doesn't want to see isaac get up. she doesn't want to see his life change for the better. she doesn't want to see him walk away and...leave them all behind. 

so instead she watches nomi and the reverence she gives the dog god. god dog. godge. 

nomi's eyes flicker back. the white recedes (and gods, it is awful to witness and it makes her want to squirm, but she knows she can't) and in its place is her familiar red. snow? falls around her and she wants to take stock of the apartment, make sure she still has a livable home and all that jazz, but nomi throws her arms around her. 

parker nuzzles down into her and holds her close, feeling like this has happened before - 

the world crumbling down, leaving just the two of them, holding fast, hoping, knowing, that as long as she gets to hold her, everything will be okay. 

"nomi," she says, "i dunno what this means, but i gotcha, okay? we'll figure it out. and i'm not goin' anywhere."

Naomi Sato

☉

it clicks. something parker says clicks and she doesn't know what it is, but it brings nomi back. brings her back here. to this still-fucked-up-apartment and part of her is thinking how the fuck am i going to explain this to the landlord? and also good thing marla ain't home 'cause she'd be knockin' down the door at this point and also, mostly, most terribly, i wish this wasn't happening.

wishing nomi wasn't an avatar. wishing the unown left her alone. wishing she left the unown alone. wishing they met in a coffee shop somewhere. and nomi was a professor doing good things, working under GIDEON GRAVES or some shit. 

the crystal surfaces shimmer and parker sees the remains of her friend. 

nomi's wail meets an unflinching face. it takes even less time than nomi for parker to realize he isn't dead. beat to all shit and damn fuckin' close to it, but not dead. 

she's toed that line before, with people.

"i think that gay dog's saving his life," parker says, frowning. 

he's alive. as far as they know. if this is real. if any of it's real. but that fucking sucks too 'cause parker knows, knows, nomi's gonna cross paths with him again. and parker will be right there with her. 

and nomi won't be able to do it. 

nomi won't be able to kill him. 

so she'll have to.

Naomi Sato

☉

parker sees it all. she sees secrets not meant to be shared this way, visions glittering in the crystalline surfaces, mementos of love marred by grief. all of them shimmering in the cocoon nomi is building and it's crawling up her knees now and there, on her left shin, parker sees herself. 

a decade older, split lip and arm a broken thing at her side and she recognizes that, but more so she recognizes the look on her own face. the look that says, i'm not strong enough to protect her. 

her head splits, sears, hurts real awful, but she grits through it, swallows the blood in the back of her throat and plops her ass right back down on the avatar's sculptures, legs splayed around her, hands moving from shoulder to cheeks. 

nomi is looking at her, but parker knows she's not seeing her. she's seeing betrayal and it's not sitting right with parker because isaac's a fucking idiot, but he didn't do this to hurt her. he didn't do this to abandon her. 

"you are, nomes. special and someone worth loving and someone i want. so i need ya to listen to me and i need ya to concentrate on 'im, okay? ask kowabunga to show you where he is or what happened or somethin' so we can make sense of it."

Naomi Sato

☉

unfortunately for nomi, that's the one damn thing parker's never been able to grasp. pressing situation aside, it'll give nomi and avery jones something to talk about. shared trauma bonding and all that, right?

quiet, pensive nomi, whose feelings overwhelm her and force her to collapse, still naked, in parker's armchair, breaking glass with limp fingers, is not the person screaming in parker's face right now. parker startles; rather than draw away, her fingers sink deeper into nomi's shoulders. 

and honestly, what is it with everyone parker knows and their inability to keep their damn feet in their own reality? parker's face goes white as a sheet and she thinks maybe they fell through a fucking dimensional pocket again, but nomi's tear-stained eyes have gone full blown white. 

she scrambles back from where she'd been kneeling on the bed, flight response taking her away from the HARDENING GODSDAMNED CRYSTAL SHEETS, fingertips leaving nomi's shoulders only to come back seconds later as she stoops over on shaking legs. 

"i'm not leaving, nomi. hell, you're in my apartment, cupcake, and maybe please stop turning everything into crystals. you're scaring maisey." her voice is tight and she's letting her mouth run away from her because fuck, she's scared. she's really scared.

Naomi Sato

☉

those arms spread wide go up, fingers lacing behind her neck, and she slouches into relaxation, chin tilted down to look amusedly in her sister's eyes. the bill of avery's hat casts a shadow over her eyes, purple as seamless as it's ever been against baby blue. 

"naw, i asked arceus to kick up the heat just for you." her summation of parker's current physicality isn't inaccurate, but still, low blow. there are bags under her eyes - they've been there since the newest wake of fuckery the universe has thrown at her. her knuckles are finally healing, at least, but that's nothing new.

"eh, kinda same old, same old, honestly. i'm still beatin' the shit outta the poor for money they don't have.

"turns out all the big boys just wanna pick on other big boys and i'm just a small little guy." she skirts around her and tosses herself into the seat adjacent. "sans the occasional bodyguarding job," she tacks on as she pushes her fingers into the grid-like holes of the metal table. 

"all in all, shit's fucked, but who cares? everywhere's got godsdamned metaphorical swamp ass at this point. anyway, i'm glad you're back. surprised, but glad. maisey missed ya."

avery jones

☉

the pain is compartmentalized. later (sooner than later, actually, ow) her hand is gonna hurt like a motherfucker and she's gonna be mad about that too, but right now she's too panicked and too angry to feel anything. the skin had healed over the bones, at the very least, thanks to remus' heal pulses, but they're still smattered purple, resembling misshapen eggplants more than hands. 

nomi takes it the wrong way, but parker doesn't mind the yelling. she doesn't mind the defensiveness. it means she hadn't known. she hadn't known. 

which might be enough to save her. 

parker's brows furrow at nomi's question though. the why is obvious. it's every baby rocket's childhood fuckin' dream to get out of this pisshole. parker just didn't think isaac would be enough of an idiot to put everyone he fucking loved at risk to do it. 

envy snakes through her, hissing regret before parker grabs it by the neck (body??? is a snake just a body??) and tosses it out the window of her mind. 

parker forces herself to stop pacing and stands in front of nomi, bending so she can meet her at eye level from where she still sits on the bed. 

"nomi, listen to me. you 'n i were some of the last to see him. i've already got a fuckin' spotlight on me. they get unreasonable, you gotta let me take the fall, okay?" she places heavy, calloused hands over nomi's shoulders and gives them a squeeze. "stop asking why and tell me you're listenin'." 

Naomi Sato

☉

it's a free-for-all and the herd of lycanroc move as one, combatting trainers and their volleys of pokeballs. remus slams his paws together, red eyes shifting to a gleaming sapphire as the anticipation of the brawl gets to him. 

it's not the wolfish bipedal that releases a hungry AWOOOOO, but parker herself as she joins him in the fray. 

LYCANROC SWARM
BhdP5qy0

☉

don't come back, she wanted to say when she got the text. hoenn's new slogan is HOENN: HOTSPOT FOR CRAZIES. last she checked, the 'end of the world but we just shrug our shoulders 'cause it's just another day #hoenn' memes have not died down on her socials. and avery's are just filled with cute pics of yoinky sploinky. 

stay there, she wanted to say, and we can pretend it's better. did you see the dragon? were you almost killed? i've almost died like ten times. i'm seeing someone. my girlfriend's an avatar and i hate it, but i have a girlfriend and she really likes me, avery, she really, really likes me.

none of that. just a wtf okay bet. seeya soon, sis. missed ya. which is good. it's okay. 

her hood's up from sun shower sprinkles and she sees her first.

right. the corner of her lip curls up in an uncomfortable snarl, recognizing that look, feeling a heat all the way to her bones 'cause she wants to punch whatever the fuck has swiped the smile from avery's face. feeling frustrated 'cause of course it's not that simple. 

this is, though. 

"welcome back to paradise, sis," she says behind her, snarl morphing into a wolfish grin and arms stretched wide. 

avery jones

☉