parker starts to crack. this was a mistake. she's a million miles away from nomi 'cause nomi doesn't understand the shadow that's hung over her life since day fuckin' one. she's respected by her peers. she's needed by this organization. and parker? she's just a cog in the wheel. 

some admin defected. some big league rat from the maher family left too. and now everything is worse for it; tolerance is at an all-time low. tensions are high. the wolves are starving and they're turning on each other and now nomi's going to turn on her too. 

and it's not fucking fair. 

anger ripples up her spine. it tenses every corded muscle in her back, squares her shoulders, draws her neck back, back, back, until her shaggy pink locks fall back, chin tilted. her lips are pressed in a thin line, knuckles white, and she tries her very hardest to hold it together.

there's a certain line of questioning that comes with accusations. stuff like what did you tell them? how long have you been telling them shit? what information do we need to look out for? your sister's name is avery, right?

but nomi doesn't ask those questions at all. she doesn't go near them with a ten foot pole. and that's what gives parker pause. that's what makes her brows furrow and her head hang. she still can't let go, not really, because this still feels like a betrayal too. 

"i didn't know she worked with the league," she says, exasperated. just, y'know, not exactly with rocket, which makes her an enemy, but that's above her paygrade. 

"and no, we don't - i mean, i dunno. look, half the time i see her, we're throwin' punches." licking sweat off their lips and giving in to the heartbeat of their other selves. pretending things were different. pretending the world was their own.

almost reverently, somewhat bitterly, she adds, "she doesn't give a shit about league or rocket. nothing owns her."

Naomi Sato

☉

it's in her discipline to watch her targets like a hawk. she's been in a hell of a light of high-strung, tense situations. surprise, the unexpected - these are adversaries she is all too accustomed to. and she's starting to get the feeling she's entering those very same waters, except this time she's not the one with her fist cocked. 

there is an ache in her heart when nomi talks about skyler. a longing in her drawn face, the flicker of her blues as she looks down at her swinging wine glass. it stills. the plastic bottom bumps against her shin.

"captain dross. i didn't know it was her fuckin' ship, nomi. but i didn't do anything. fuckin' toby's spreading this shit, right? asshole got knocked to hell and didn't see me swingin' on her." she pauses, exhales her taut anger. "but he saw her let me go. i didn't ask her to, but what was i s'posed to say? no? cuff me? toss me in a fuckin' cell? an' then what? i don't know shit, but you think rocket's gonna just be cool with a stupid grunt who's spent some time with one of our head scientists say anything to 'em?"

she stands up suddenly, still fuming, working herself up. this is the ugly in her. this is her rolling shoulders, the crawling under her skin that cracks when she doesn't get enough release. that clawing, hungry thing inside of her that's only satiated with bloody fists and copper on her tongue.

"the hell was i s'posed to do?"

Naomi Sato

☉

parker can be dense, but she's not that dense. especially when the unown reacts to nomi's very sudden and very intense stare. parker slides forward, elbows on her legs, plastic mimosa cup dangling as she holds it by the rim. it looks laughably small in her grasp. she's actually kind of grateful it had been mostly champagne. 

but she drank it so fast the bubbles want to come right back up so when nomi asks her question and she opens her mouth, out comes a wet burp. she is, all at once, mortified, but at least it buys her time to think of how to skirt around the question. 

"a league crew? they had cargo on it. all we were told 'a do was slow 'em down." and then a blink. the stabbing had happened after. skyler certainly hadn't sent her home. 

"and some supervisor. i didn't catch his name, doc." her brows furrow. she swallows, lifts her gaze. "i just follow orders."

Naomi Sato

☉

so parker probably should have roughed toby up a little bit. or, at the very least, tried to look less guilty when they finally made it to shore (which had taken forever because parker's greninja had fainted in the scuffle and most of their wave runners ended up compromised). but she had been one thousand percent fed up with that day and when he fired questions, she opted to give him the finger instead. 

but there was nothing for him to squeal about and he's a nobody so she doesn't think about nomi asking. 

except she kinda thinks about it a lot and her brows furrow and she looks away like a fucking dumbass. suddenly skyler dross's there, her golden curls over her face, toothy grin leering over her in a pin, promising to make a sailor of her yet. 

she takes a big swig and polishes the rest of her mimosa off. 

"thrown onto a crew to steal cargo. then got bumped around. didn't last much longer 'an that. got stabbed and was sent home."

Naomi Sato

☉

she gets her high five from thalia and just like that, everything is over. well, it's not over, of course. there's still the whole getting out part. but the rest of these women seem real fucking capable in that department, so she's not super worried. 

she sticks a finger in her ear though in an attempt to grate out that irritating song. one of them suggests they follow the tracks of the corviknight and parker figures that's as good a suggestion as any. 

so she lopes together with her new impromptu band of adventurers, amulius at her side. 

FAgXo5Zh

☉

somehow nomi manages to pour the rest of the champagne without any bubbles rising up to the top. parker attributes it to her hands and the way they're way more slender and gentle than her own meaty paws (and not, of course, the fact that nomi just tilts the glass so the champagne runs down the side instead of splashing it in like a heathen).

if parker had her way, she would have preferred light on the champagne and heavy on the oj, but as it stands she takes the glass without complaint and smiles sheepishly. her shirt is now wet and kind of sticky and it's very uncomfortable.

"er, sure. okay." she sits like she's told and with great effort, maintains her gaze on nomi's rather than looking at the way her dress folds neatly over her curves. 

"'m glad the mist didn't get ya. i'd'a rather gone to brunch than ended up where i did," she says with a sigh. thrown from one nightmare into the next. still, she can't believe - of all the fuckin' ships they ended up raiding, it just had to be dross's. 

Naomi Sato

☉

she could be resting. should is a strong word. not a whole lot is going to fix her cracked ribs. laying in bed or staying strewn on the couch would help some, sure, but at the cost of her sanity. and it's not like she has the scientist's number to send her a text and try to shoot the shit. or...wait, couldn't she just get it from their previous mission logs?

it takes her a solid few seconds before she realizes she's zoned out. what brings her back is that creepy as all hell letter levitating behind nomi, watching her with that body of an eyeball that it has. 

"y'haven't asked me to go on a crazy, fucked up adventure in, like, a whole day, so i thought somethin' was wrong. or maybe you were dead."

at the other question, she goes to twist the cork off of the bottle. it comes loose faster than she expected and her stomach drops because she thinks it's going to burst everywhere. but it doesn't. just sizzles and fizzes. 

she's no expert at pouring so she does end up doing it a little too fast into one of the cups. it bubbles up and over onto nomi's desk. 

"shit, shit, shit. uh..." and, not seeing any paper towels in the near vicinity, she yanks on her shirt, shuffles up to the desk, and awkwardly wipes up the small puddle. red in the face, she holds the bottle out for nomi to take over. 

"but since you're not, i thought i could bring brunch to you."

Naomi Sato

☉

parker had at least the foresight to get an already chilled bottle of champagne. the downside is now her arm is kind of slick with the condensation from it. it drips around her elbow and she looks down at it, chagrined. with a bit of fumbling around full hands, she manages to open the door and nudge it open with the toe of her boot. 

before her is a modest office she can instantly recognize as nomi's, placard on the door or not. valerian jumps up and parker grins down at the ribbon creature. if her hands weren't full, she'd give him some proper scratches. she hadn't really thanked him properly for saving their asses a couple times over. 

she stands there for a moment, blinking, and then crosses the room to put the champagne and the orange juice and the bag of plastic mimosa cups on nomi's desk. 

"i would've only gotten two, but they only come in packs of six. or twelve."

Naomi Sato

☉

she wants to claim that the whole thing killed her appetite. she wants to say she got home and nothing could satisfy her 'cause of all the shit she saw, say she was in shock or something. but life moved on as normal. she got out of there and she hopped a few rides home.

then she stripped in front of her mirror and looked at the damage under the light. stitched herself up proper in her kitchen, leaving a mess of blood remus wiped up for her. a shower later, fresh dressings on her knuckles and her leg (fuck you, angelo vestri), and she'd thrown her hoodie back on and trudged down the street. 

she probably could have slept. that was a sign something was off, but she didn't feel off. she was just fucking hungry. and, okay, maybe the idea of being alone in her shit excuse for a one-bedroom apartment was a hard pass. 

two burgers later, a couple baskets of fries, and millie started her swaggering. and they've danced this dance a dozen times before and parker thinks, like, this is what i fuckin' wanted. to not be lonely. but while she was licking grease off her fingers and millie said, so can i come over later? she just forked over the bills and said keep the change and left.

she slept like a baby. passed out in a food coma right on her couch with the news running. and then she woke up at the ass crack of dawn, tried to go for a run (ouch, ouch, ouch), gave up, and went to the store for a bottle of champagne.

and orange juice.

so she's here now, feeling stupid, but mostly glad she managed to uncover exactly what was gnawing at her. she doesn't know if nomi's even alive. or if the pink mist gobbled her up. or worse. and she needed an excuse to come, so she has one. an impromptu brunch. 

it's eleven in the morning, but after the time they had, who's to fault them for drinking?

ratty boots make weird echoes from the walls of the sub. parker decides she does not like the submarine. she does not like it one bit. and she gets lost, once, and gets a hard stare when she blurts out to someone, "where's the doc's office?"

"head scientist clayton?"

she balks. "uh...?

"sato?"

"her, yeah." 

so up the narrow hallway and to the left she goes. she passes another door that says fowl and wonders if rocket keeps torchics on the sub for food, but that doesn't seem quite right, and then stops suddenly because she finds head scientist naomi sato.

she hugs the oj and champagne in one arm and knocks.

Naomi Sato
post-postdormitum

☉

uh-oh. they're most certainly going to lose this one. not that parker really knows that yet. if she weren't too busy squabbling with the piss-obsessed manchild in front of her, she maybe would have noticed that remus is in some deep, deep shit. because his punch connects and energy ripples through him, but the altaria brushes it off like he'd just kissed her instead.

still in the air, the pink-petaled storm hits remus square in the chest. he plummets down, shoulder blades hitting the earth with a loud crack. the rest of him follows quickly after. he grunts, weakened aura flickering as he goes to gather it in his palms.

parker wrestles and she thinks, for a moment, that she might actually get the upper hand. but then in the darkness something glints and she realizes too late that he's pulled a knife on her. 

she's had knives drawn on her before. hell, she's had guns squared off on her chest. she's not a pizza man. no one's happy to see her when she opens the door. but this is different and she's too tired and hurt to deflect it properly. 

so steel sinks into flesh and this is a whole new ballgame of pain. he doesn't have to twist; she gives up the fight then and there because this is a losing battle. if he wants to go, he can go. but she reaches for his wrist to stop him from pulling it out, only she's not fast enough for that either. 

so he rips through flesh and backs away, and she can't follow because she has a new problem to deal with. 

she swears under her breath, calling raggedly for remus to get up. the magical darkness dissipates and the local flora makes her gushing blood look almost green. her lucario is efficient, laying on hands to at least stay the worst of the bleeding with a heal pulse. 

"see if you can find a medkit," she says through gritted teeth. he gets up to rummage around in the boxes. to her left, something shiny catches her eye. she reaches for it. it's a torn wrapper, leftover from their scuffle. he'd been digging around in the box this had come from.

remus returns suddenly, not because he found a medkit, but because parker has started laughing wildly. "that fucker. that motherfucker! that goddamned stupid fucking rat stole granola bars!"

angelo vestri

☉