THREE YEARS

the attacks are scattered, but they are devastating. there is always work to be done. three years of this has been hard on her body. when her shoulder pops out on the regular, nomi's concerns turn to frustration. 

and she gets it. if they don't have each other, what will they have? the people of circhester love them still and yet there will always be a divide. but still they drink with them (turns out folks across all ages and dimensions love skyler dross's bootleg moonshine) and they laugh with them and they share stories and griefs and dreams and desires and hope. 

always hope.

she and nomi make friends with a married couple; they attend their funerals a year later, and it hits her harder than she thought it could. 

elbows on her thighs, head hanging, nomi rubbing circles on her back - suddenly she is reminded of when they were last in this room, sharing companionable silence, until the woman confessed her love for her. 

i love you. you know that, right?

she hadn't said it back. not at first. and it only took a few more days, but those days had been awful. awkward. painful. confusing. parker knows it hurt her.

now she can't stop thinking - if their lives could be cut short at any moment, she'd kill to get those few days back. she would do it all over again, if she could, and in a heartbeat smile and laugh and whisk nomi off her feet and tell her with mouth and hands and soul that she loved her too. 

she will always love her too. 

"i thought it wouldn't matter. i thought they were just dust. and now that they're not? that i'm sad they're fuckin' dead and gone? this was s'poseda be a dream. what does that mean, nomes? we keep holdin' out, thinking we can get back, but everything's blurry now. and i don't know what to do."

SWORD RAID - CIRCHESTER
Naomi Sato

☉

SIX MONTHS

she still takes her bodyguard duties seriously. one week turned into two, turned into three, and then four and five, and somewhere around then she lost count. they adapt, because they have no choice. they adapt, because the alternative is despair. acceptance isn't so hard, though, and it gets easier every day/week/month that passes because she is there. 

she watches over her while she studies. the corners of her eyes crinkle when nomi's nose scrunches as she reads in the late hours, and this is when parker dramatically insists she's tired and please let me take you home so i can go to sleep. 

she listens patiently as she talks to GIDEON GRAVES - while they philosophize and hypothesize and try to fulfill her promise: that she won't stop trying to get them home. the confession comes, of what she did, why she did it, and nomi understands. of course she understands. and that passes too. 

and they recover. and they heal. and eventually she can meet gideon's eyes without flinching. 

when they are at the baths, she is carrying science equipment (or what can pass for it in this time). nomi skirts around the edges of the bath and she sets it down, rolling her left shoulder. it popped out again a few weeks ago. nomi helped set it back in. 

old wounds from a lifetime ago. 

her name is called and she's beckoned, she stands by the water's edge. it sparkles brilliantly, nothing like the oily, horrific surface it had been when they first came upon it.

we never did get to skinny dip, did we?

her eyes light up. they've skirted around the edges of whatever this is for months. she has thought about this a hundred and one different ways, but it's here and it's now, with nomi thumbing at the hem of her shirt, that parker makes a decision. and when parker jones makes a decision, it's quite impossible to change her mind. 

"whatever you want, cupcake," she says and she strips off her own shirt. and then she steps closer, and then she is wrapping one arm around nomi's waist, and she is grinning like a damn fool as she presses their hips together and she is searching her eyes, looking for and finding everything she wants, everything she needs, and she is tilting her head, lashes fluttering, lips on nomi's own - finally, finally, and it is not soft. 

it is rough with desperation and pent-up emotion, months of falling and falling and falling only to crash now, so fervently and desperately and wantonly. 

she laughs against her lips and, like the shit she is, drags them both into the bath. 

SWORD RAID - CIRCHESTER
Naomi Sato

☉

oh, if looks could kill, yumi would have shot her dead right then and there. a hollow, sickly feeling crawls around in her throat as yumi turns and walks away. and then parker is standing there, very dumbly, looking from yumi to the pink head she can just barely see over by the bar, and at the familiar face who'd stepped in just moments before. 

"jay, how's it i've only said like ten words and i've already fucked up, like, five times?" she sighs and gives him a friendly bump on the shoulder, but pauses as she passes, one brow raised. 

"did i catch ya makin' moony eyes at someone? that we gotta talk about over a beer. but first, i gotta dig myself outta this hole."

and with that, she passes. it's not hard for her to push through the bodies in her way. her broad shoulders naturally help part the crowd. when she's about three feet away from nomi, someone saunters over to the bar and has the audacity to buy her a drink. 

her brows furrow when she recognizes him and she thinks aw, fuck no, and walks up with a, "wayland? your princess know you're out here buyin' drinks for pretty gals?" she slides neatly between the two of them, smiling up at him with a grin, still showing teeth. 

"while you're at it -" she holds up a hand to the bartender. "rum 'n coke. on his tab."

she looks over nomi nervously and then frowns. her makeup has run just a smidge and parker bristles, fingers tensing on the bar top. "don't worry 'bout whatever he said, nomes. king's an ass and a half."

Naomi Sato KING WAYLAND Yumi Hasegawa jayden cross

☉

THREE DAYS

it has only been three days and she has missed nomi. she thought it was just the loneliness - fuck, maybe it is just the loneliness - but in this moment, right here, she can kid herself into believing that if she were stuck here with anyone in the damned world, she's glad it's her. 

and she feels awful seeing those circles under her eyes, the stressed pallor of her skin. her own fingers are wringing together with anxiety. she's been fortunate enough to work her body to the bone, to the point where she has no choice but to collapse after a hard day's work.

parker bites her lip. and then she puts a hand on nomi's knee and she gives her a smile. not the wolfish one, made for display, with glinting teeth and a calling for battle. but a more intimate one - that curls at the corners and lights up her eyes and eases away the tension in her jaw. 

"i know ya will, doc. and i'll help ya however i can." she gives a squeeze. 

and it starts something. some new hope. some fragile blossom amidst a landscape of toxins. she's scared. they're both scared. but she won't lose hope. and she won't leave this woman.

because if she does, then they have already lost. 

SWORD RAID - CIRCHESTER
Naomi Sato

☉

THREE DAYS

people are crowned. the peasants wearing faces of their remnant memories rejoice. in this sad, lonely, nearly-forgotten world, they find peace. but the rest of them - those she came with - do not share the same enthusiasm. this is not their home. it will never be their home.

there are jobs to be done. people smarter than parker start to make plans. and she does not talk to nomi those first few days. she spends her time fortifying barriers, carrying supplies, doing anything and everything she can with her hands to forget just how many they've left behind. 

but eventually she breaks and the loneliness is too much. it's not hard to find her. the people speak of them reverently - these world saviors stuck out of time. pink hair. still, it takes half an hour for her to find the scientist.

she sits across from her and stares down at her hands. 

"is this it? are we stuck here now?"

SWORD RAID - CIRCHESTER
Naomi Sato

☉

so the glitter is a little less overwhelming and after cleaning up around her eyes a little bit (she just put smudgy black eyeliner on and called it a day), she looks somewhat respectable. not flawless. anything but flawless. her cheeks are a little red from being abused so much, and because she couldn't get the damned bubblegum fox out of her head. 

she gathers her paper towels and shoves them in the trash, wrings out her hands, and musters all of her courage.

last she saw, nomi was halfway across the room and at a safe distance away for her to figure out what the hell she was gonna say to her, and yumi was also nowhere to be found. but the two must be conspiring against her because she walks out and the door falls behind her and she walks twice, then looks up 'cause there are people real close to the bathroom, but her stuttering sorries come out like this:

"oh, uh, exc-yumi." and then, quickly, "nomi. hey. you two, uh, know each other?"

sorry i was an ass last time we talked, yumi. 

sorry i punched that guy in the face.

sorry i thought we could be more. 

sorry i ate your - "yooo, jayden! hey!" she's just saying things so she doesn't say anything she regrets. in front of nomi. or yumi. 'cause she does want to apologize to yumi and say she was stupid. (but is it just because she's moved on? ...is that so bad?) it's just...well, it doesn't seem like a very fun topic to discuss! in front! of! nomi!

Yumi Hasegawa jayden cross Naomi Sato

☉

it's cool cool cool. now she knows the name of the man whose face she turned into a bloody pulp in the ultra deep sea. now she'll get to think ah, that's gideon when she thinks back to that moment, over and over again. likewise with the bloodcurling angry scream that still bounces around in her brain when she's taking showers, trying to wash the blood off her knuckles. ah, that's gunner!

but the acid snark in his words makes her blood boil and it makes it easier for her to think, okay, well bitch, maybe you fuckin' deserved it. her eyes narrow at the more hotheaded brother. 

"oh, grow the f -" uck up doesn't make it out because their work on the bath amounts to something (yay!) and moments later a giant kingler blasts into existence, cleaving through the group with one massive claw (wtf?). 

parker is thrown to the side, right into queenie. the nidoqueen wraps her arms around trainer and kicks up cobblestone as they land half a dozen feet away. she staggers to her feet and reaches blindly for the shape that had been tossed with them. 

and is dismayed upon realizing it's not Naomi Sato or even that bitchass Gunner Graves . 

she holds a hand out anyway to help GIDEON GRAVES to his feet. a momentary truce. 'cause things are moving too fast and it hurts to think but at least gideon doesn't make her angry. 

"queenie, fuck that thing up." the lizard slams her fists together and goes to throw her weight against it with a superpower. she thinks of telling her to use toxic spikes, but with all the poison around them, there's a chance this damn crab is made of it too.

over her shoulder, she says to gideon: "you gonna just roll over and take a beating again? or can ya fight?"

SWORD RAID

wants to help GIDEON GRAVES up :poochywag:
nidoqueen uses superpower on g!kingler
2XdUUiiU

☉

"it's on me," parker says when isaac nears, which makes crusty shift awkwardly with a couple of grunts. the blonde in his lap nearly slips right off, but he catches her with a knobbly hand over her stomach. he looks down at parker and gives her a wolfish smile. 

'it's on me. fer yeh winneh's luck.' his eyes glimmer and he takes his fill of her body. parker's only response is to cock a brow and think of at least thirteen different ways she could break his nose. 

the other patrons just want to get on with the game. parker scoops her winnings up and leans back while the dealer changes tables. man, she kinda misses casino starlight. that place had some class. 

isaac asks what they want and crusty orders a a dewar's with one rock (wannabe pretentious fuck) and then says, 'same fer 'er. ye look like a whiskey gal.' which, if he had a single braincell and could absorb the one thing she'd told him about her, he would know this is incorrect. but parker just flashes a brilliant smile and nods up to isaac. 

"call?" she flips the corner of her card up. another ten. taps for another. 

"and somethin' for his girl here, too," parker says sweetly. 

Isaac Merlo

☉

one could say parker and yumi aren't on the best of terms right now. an unbiased party might say parker has absolutely 0 business showing up unannounced like this and should have at least sent a courtesy text or, like, literally anything since fucking up the last time they were together. 

but shit's been rough, okay?

her ribs are still speckled and her arm twinges when she moves it the wrong way, but bedrest has (begrudgingly) done her some good. and of course she can't say no when nomi asks her to go to the shindig, and of course she can't really explain 'well, shit's kinda awkward because i fucked yumi once and i thought she was into me and turns out she wasn't and i Did Not Handle It Well.' 

no no. nomi instead got a smiley text back and a 'fuck yeah. sounds sick.' and then parker had consequently ripped her entire wardrobe apart because no doubt nomi's going to look drop dead gorgeous and parker has, mm, let's see. 

• an array of nice muscle tees
• an array of stained muscle tees
• well-worn sweat pants and basketball shorts
• like two pairs of jeans
• one (1) suit

that did not leave her with many options. her sister once told her the suit made her look like a period stain too. but avery's a shit so -

she suits up. she gets info from nomi about what the party is about. still on bedrest, she spends two whole days reading a midsummer night's dream and doesn't understand a lick of it so she looks up a modern telling of it and hey! it's actually kind of funny. but she scratches her head because fashion is very not her thing and she has this stupid red suit and what the hell is she going to do?

she can't look like a bum.

so she goes to a few eclectic boutique stores and she asks for help and in some weird-ass pop-up occult store, someone says, 'ohhhh, i loooove that play. you could, like, totally be oberon.' the red's off but she won't budge on it and she explains why and it's a dumb reason but the clerk sympathizes and does her best to help with the look. 

thinking all the while you lovestruck idiot, but of course she doesn't say that out loud, because she kind of has the hots for parker after seeing her adorned in the curling horns, ornate filigree crown. she sets her up nice with some dark glitter and says, 'don't go too heavy on it' and parker gets nervous and goes wayyyyy too heavy on it and she's at the party now thinking about this and wondering if she should have just worn the suit and not put the horns on and is her white dress shirt wrinkling? does the vest fit nicely?

none of that matters though 'cause she walks in the room and she looks around and she sees that stupid creepy fucker always following nomi and then she sees nomi and she goes as red as the suit jacket. 

< the music short-circuiting her brain >

and then suddenly nomi is not in front of her because parker went into fight or flight mode and for the first time in her fucking life, her body chose flight, and she's standing in front of the bathroom mirror now staring at herself and feeling Very Unlike Herself and not at all enough for the literal fae fucking queen shit princess out there waiting for her. 

"arceus fuckin' help me," she says and paws mindlessly for a towel to dab away some of the extra glitter. 

Naomi Sato Yumi Hasegawa
red suit :3

parker is in the bathroom LMAO
open to interaction
dressed masc / as oberon

☉

so much of what's being said goes over her head. she's lucky she's been on so many missions into the Fucked Up and Crazy with nomi, 'cause if she hadn't, she would certainly be losing her shit right now. honestly, she's kind of befuddled that everyone else seems totally chill having been flung into an alternate universe with, quite possibly, no hope of returning home. 

the next thing she knows is blinking and being somewhere else. circhester? she's never been outside of hoenn. you could have told her this was snowpoint and she couldn't tell you the difference. 

but after getting her bearings, they're ripped away from her 'cause she locks eyes and sees that stupid, irresistisble smile of one skyler dross. and dumbly, stupidly, she keeps looking, and she realizes skyler is grasping the granola thief's hand (angelo vestri) and parker.exe stops working. 

damn, guess we won't get to skinny dip just yet. 

HUH?

her gaze darts back with welcome abandon; the puzzled anguish in her eyes melts immediately. and she is able to, quite easily, place the sharp-toothed blonde out of mind. doubly so, because nomi is getting that look on her face when something really intrigues her. 

parker also knows she just needs to wait. it won't be long before the head scientist has -

with the plan in place, parker swaps out her stressed absol for one of her girls. it makes her feel a little better, knowing that the tanky reptile is out now, should things start to get hairy. and more than that, she's going to be extra helpful with assisting nomi. 

and then, quite fantastically, parker's past actions finally reap their consequences. 

she nods towards Summer Atreides and then looks to her side at queenie. with a gesture and a quick, "you heard the lady," queenie plants her feet apart and gives a good couple of stomps to summon an earth power in the middle of the power spot. while she is conveniently indisposed, she sees Gunner Graves. 

she does not see the look of recognition, but she does recognize the mask. his get-up is the same as it was when he'd broke her motherfuckin' rib. and when he curls his fist, well, parker spurs to action.

ain't no way she's letting this asshole anywhere near nomi.

"ready for round two, fuckface?" she snarls as she crosses the distance with heavy footfalls and cracking knuckles. 

SWORD RAID

sees skyler dross and pieces together angelo vestri is 'the husband' :gross:
hi Summer Atreides
nidoqueen uses earth power to unclog the power spot
:monkas: Gunner Graves

wq1vYJZR

☉

crusty, to her surprise, takes the bait. well, then again, she could absolutely see some stifled, conflicted homophobia deep in his bones, and maybe she's chick enough he can tell himself i'm not gay while plowing her in the ass and marveling at how utterly masculine her broad shoulders are.

his eyes are predatory, not leaving hers.

until arm candy leans a little in his way, tits brushing his cheek for arceus' sake, and out of view, parker simpers up at her. blonde tresses are heavenly, tumbling over her shoulders and her front, and her eyes are a soft green. her eyes tell parker everything. and that's why parker winks. 

'cause ain't no way she should be the one feeling threatened right now. 

"aw, y've pegged me already. got a sweet tooth. ma says that's why 'm such a brat." mommy issues get pathetic points, right? she taps a thumb. ten of spades. the round passes and comes back to her. crusty taps. she does too. 

four of hearts. oh, fuck. 

"oh, fuck." oh well. there will be more time to lose later. 

"aw, don't worry, sweethea't," crusty says, ingorantly misunderstanding her 'fuck' (of course). not for long though. dealer goes to call and she flips her winnings over. the arm candy wriggles and parker raises a hand to the bartender for some drinks to smooth things over.

Isaac Merlo

☉