great kick. beautiful, really. except amulius kinda scuffs it actually and parker's excitement at seeing little car go BOOM wanes. at the very least, it wanes into determination. amulius seems likewise upset with his performance and as soon as the dog has another go at it, he comes at it from another angle.

"d'you think it had games on it? like, could it replace an xbox? been a bit strapped for cash lately 'n my one broke."

she side-eyes him, sucks in a breath, exhales. "mmyeahhhh, nope. didn't work together. cool dog."

Hitoshi Inoue
Q9eQOSkF

☉

"WHOO! all parta the plan," parker jeers and slaps avery on the shoulder. she stuffs the other half of the sloppy burger into her mouth and chews like a cow, trying not to choke when avery does mention the adorable little quirks of parker's past exes. 

"you say that like i haven't brought ya to work out with me before," parker says with a devilish grin at nomi. it's not nomi's fault she's absolutely helpless and loses all of her faculties when she sees parker's perfectly ripped frame bust it down white boi style at the gym.

"but no gym today anyway. today's a treat yoself day and 'sides, we gotta load up on candy first. right, right?" parker bounces with excitement in her seat, sucking the last of the grease off her fingers. 

avery jones Naomi Sato

☉

they're so fucking far beyond okay it almost makes parker laugh. instead she manages a weird, snorty whistle through her definitely-broken nose. 

but that pales in comparison when she looks over nomi and sees crimson made black, cheeks swollen, bits of rubble and a white dusting of plaster in her hair. parker grimaces and hauls herself up into less of a slouching position, groaning from the effort. 

"not worried 'bout him hurtin' me anymore," she assures nomi bitterly. 

she saw what that was. what he was. 

remus' snout trembles and with one final wave of his hand, the pulses stop. he plops back on his ass, wipes his palm against his cheek, and then tries to steel himself. parker uses her not-fucked-up arm to push him away. 

nomi says what she already knows and she closes her eyes, tilts her head back. normally, she'd be fantasizing about nomi whisking her away, coddling her back to health and smothering her with affection. she'd have at least ridden the daydream so it made reality that much easier to swallow.

now she sees that little girl bleeding out in the street.

her eyes open. "yeah, well, then slap this baby in a sling and i'm golden." her smile is pained. they both know she's not going near that drowning city.

but parker doesn't ask nomi to stay.

Naomi Sato

☉

parker pinches herself. delirium has set in now that adrenaline is slowly leeching away from her. or is that her blood? is her adrenaline in her blood? that would certainly make sense. and a very big part of her knows that it is important she hold onto the adrenaline, and by extension, she supposes, the blood. 

hence the pinching. 

but it's a little redundant because her arm hurts worse than any weak little pinch she can manage with her fingers. and that hurt is what is making the prey part of her brain tell her to go to sleep. that it will be okay and it will stop hurting if she just closes her eyes. 

that rabbit, stained red with blood and gray with ash, is an emaciated thing, and parker looks down on it one final time. she sees that little girl, feels the hardening of her heart, and she lifts one steel-toed boot and crushes it under her heel.

"oof," she croaks, but it's lost in nomi's wails. she goes to grab her face, but her limbs don't move. she is so tired. but steel blue shines brightly through the bloody pulp that is her face. 

"the biggest man i've ever seen," she answers and coughs wetly. "cupcake, lemme see you. i gotta see you're - urk - okay."

nomi makes it difficult, but remus understands, so he works as well as he can with pink-glowing paws. heal pulses radiate over parker's form, but the jackal's breathing is labored. he's already pushed himself so much.

Naomi Sato

☉

this is maybe not so good. the air is thick with the haze of destruction - fire, smoke, plaster. carcinogens burn up in blood. there is blood all over her front. her face is split apart like a too-ripe cherry, bursting at the seams.

remus runs. he does not know where to. his eyes water, but that doesn't matter. the appendages on his scalp have lifted, searching fruitlessly for the aura signature of his partner's beloved. or one of the spinning eyes of god parker still doesn't trust, not wholly. 

"this is maybe not so good," she says, this time out loud, and remuis' snout twitches, but he does not grimace. he only speeds his already breakneck pace. 

skirting more skirmishes, avoiding more onslaughts. the wails of the misfortunate make him squeeze her tighter, forgetting, and she lets out a startled cry, half a snarl, when he puts pressure on her useless arm.

parker's comms crackle to life. she swears and her heart drops to her stomach. if she weren't already being carried bridal style by a creature two-thirds her size, she would have thrashed like a fucking toddler at how unfair it all is. 'all able bodies converge on sootopolis.' 

nomi.

"find her," she snarls and blood flies with spittle. she roughly yanks herself out of his arms and he stumbles with a yelp. she hits the ground hard and her vision darkens for a moment as pain overwhelms her, but when she comes back, she claws with her good hand at the ground, biting at his searching paws. 

"you're faster without me. fucking find her, remus." he hesitates once more, but a breath tickles her face, and he's gone, extreme speed taking him to the observatory.

parker crawls into a patch of smoldering grass, sprawls on her back. she stares at the ruddy-colored roof above her and is thankful that the pokemon center hadn't blown up. hopefully they have band-aids.

Naomi Sato

☉

avery is, of course, no stranger to parker's previous romps in the hay. her tastes are painfully predictable, all bubblegum and sugar-sweet with a dangerously delectable edge. and nomi's no different, really, in that way. 

but at least she's not like millie, who took a shit on her front stoop and then deigned to text her 'wyd' less than a week later. 

parker munches on her fries, the sacks that are her cheeks mostly full with potato and half-chewed chicken, while nomi reddens and gestures at her. she doesn't mind being talked about, and it's kind of funny nomi talking about her more sexy bits to her sister. 

"yah, i got all the good looks from ma 'n pa." about the only good thing they got from them. her lip quirks and she swallows before waggling her brows at avery. "note that she talked 'bout my abs first. when we hittin' the gym together again, lil sis?"

avery jones Naomi Sato

☉

gideon doesn't listen. well, he doesn't not listen, but he shuts out the wrong thing. shuts her out and goes to peek behind the curtain, which is more than parker's ever done. she watches the pokeball roll on his desk. 

it has the vivillon she caught all those months ago. the vivillon she caught and thought, wouldn't he like this? without knowing who he was, and thinking, that's fuckin' weird, but at the same time holding onto it, knowing that at the right moment, at the right time, it'd make itself clear. 

and then she read up on him, this museum director who has a fascination with creepy crawlies on the side. and she'd known, just like that.

she doesn't need to look back there. she just needs to trust her instincts. trust her gut.

she stands and she shuffles closer, heart in her chest. her teeth sink into her lower lip. pages flit by, scenes come to life that feel nostalgic and heavy with grief. half of her is telling her to walk away, to close her eyes, to turn the other cheek. 

the other half already knows what's waiting with that final turn of the page. 

"yeah," she says softly, "i think we 'ad a strawberry weddin' cake."

her fingers twitch. a hand comes up, as though to rest on his shoulder, but then she thinks better of it. those people in his pictures - they're figments. part of a dream. and dreams are made to be shattered, best left forgotten.

"i dunno that we'll get our happy ending 'n all this go around. but i thought, 'ey, why not make the in between better in the meantime?" she looks away, shrugs off. "i dunno that she'd put ya in danger talkin' to ya directly, but...y'ever need anythin', lemme know, 'kay?" she lingers.

"anythin' you want me to tell 'er?"

GIDEON GRAVES

☉