It was like looking in a mirror and seeing a reflection of her own guilt. Her own helplessness. Howard's hatred for PENELOPE LIVY was fueled, ultimately, by the pain of a near-loss. She had tried to take something from him, something precious. Like Nomi, his enmity with the Councilwoman wasn't just a Rocket vs League matter.[break][break]
It was personal.[break][break]
"There's a reason that awful fish chose her," Nomi acquiesced, trying not to think about the wider-reaching implications of making that definitive statement. It meant admitting to the ugliness that lived within Elisabeth Fiorelli. Within jayden cross. And what of Ting-Lu? Its chosen was still out there, somewhere.[break][break]
Four of them. There were four. And all Nomi could think, in her numbed state, was at least two are on our side.[break][break]
She wasn't so sure that was a good thing, in the end.[break][break]
"I was outplayed," she echoed, voice distant. Mind distant. It was replaying over and over, turning her vision red. The bubbling magma, the smell of burning flesh, the screams.[break][break]
"She tried to kill Parker," she continued. "My Parker. To hurt me. And only after I'd have witnessed it, only after I'd have let the ashes of my beloved slip through my fingers - only then would she have killed me, too."[break][break]
And for what? For what?[break][break]
"The rest is. A blur." Nomi shook her head, as if to clear it. "Blue light bright enough to blind. My hair changed. Kallistatus got us out."[break][break]
Just when she thought she understood the limits of her Avatar powers, something new and different was revealed to her. Almost always in desperation. There had to be a connection there, she just wasn't ready to poke at it.

TAGS – howard slayte[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Each and every tender gesture - warm mouth against cold flesh, familiar callouses tracing patterns across too-thin ankles - brings her back to herself. Trembling hands reach for Parker, and pull her head closer, until the other woman is resting against her lap. Delicate fingers form fists in mussed scarlet hair, and she holds on tight to quell the quaking tremors.[break][break]
This renewed intimacy is an apology, because she cannot abide another cage, even a well-meaning one. Not now. Not yet.[break][break]
"It felt like weeks," she fumbles, throat hoarse and brain foggy. "I thought Underboss Fiorelli killed Celebi but it was there, so that's probably why." She pauses. "Why time was all messed up, I mean."[break][break]
Which is so unfair. It already feels like she's lost twenty years.[break][break]
A sob escapes her lips unbidden, but if she shuts her eyes, she's back there again - in the vast expanse of ultra space, trapped in the endless dark - so she stares across the room at the boy in the bed. He's breathing, just barely. The life support ticks softly, a constant reminder of his (their) mortality.[break][break]
"I love you," she whispers with a sudden fervor, wrapping the words around Parker like a protective amulet.

TAGS – parker jones[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Only two?"[break][break]
She's squirming, uncomfortable. The hug is too tight, and she can't breath right, the burn marks from the chain a festering splotch of purpled skin. Her hands claw to make space - it's not right, but, she loves her, but - all she can see are the bars, all she can hear is the crunching of bones.[break][break]
She pushes Parker away, chest rising and falling too rapidly, the walls of the sterile room closing in from all sides. She feels dizzy and is - is there a - there should be a -[break][break]
She falls into the corner chair (hard like the cot), crumples like a bag of autumn leaves (weak just like they said), and tries to find words because words explain things and she needs to explain. She owes Parker an explanation.[break][break]
But all she can do is stare down at her hands, wondering if they will ever stop shaking.

TAGS – parker jones[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The hospital again, which makes sense, because time is looping and looping and looping: everything a carousel of the same tragedies played out over and over, bit by agonizing bit.[break][break]
She tries to do it the right way, she really does, but she's confused when they're confused - no Jones here, sorry - and so she is forced to turn to Kallistatus in desperation. A flash of blue light when their backs are turned - catching only a snippet of their conversation (she looks like she's the one who needs a doctor, should we -) - and then she's in the room with Parker but it's not Parker in the hospital bed, it's a young man she doesn't recognize: mostly because his face is so battered and bruised she can hardly make out his features.[break][break]
And she knows. She knows because of the still-bloody knuckles. She knows because she saw it. She knows because Parker's way of handling grief has always been an ugly thing.[break][break]
"Parker?"[break][break]
A question hangs in the balance, because she isn't sure anymore what's real and what's not, and that's terrifying when you have been charged with always, always knowing the difference.

TAGS – parker jones[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","text"]

How quickly he turned on her; how swiftly the fangs of his patron sunk back into his heart. She'd thought bringing him to this place would sooth his soul, and it had, but only temporarily: an ill-fitted dam to block the raging river that was Chien-pao's hatred.[break][break]
Cursed, cursed, cursed, the Unown pulsed.[break][break]
"He was my friend," she lied, holding up her hands in a pacifying gesture. "He - he what? Stabbed you?"[break][break]
That part was new; she'd read the reports around Isaac Merlo's defection, but the primary focus had been on his unexpected release of a Rocket prisoner: Zev Harcourt's younger brother, a Ranger named Caleb. She found it difficult to imagine Isaac doing such a thing in cold blood - but in self defense?[break][break]
"I'm sorry, Jayden," she murmured, meaning it. Isaac had meant something to many of them, and his choice had been a painful one - physically and mentally. Cillian had gone after Isaac, had nearly killed him. To Jayden, that would have felt like a victory: vengeance the obvious consequence of such a betrayal. But to Nomi, it was all rather sad.[break][break]
A waste.

[attr="class","ooc"][break]

Alphabet soup made Nomi laugh, which soon turned to muffled half-moans as feather-light kisses trailed down her neck. How easy it would be to kick the door shut and - [break][break]
Speaking of Becky, was that her voice calling out for them from somewhere below? Maisey must have become distracted by some trinket or another, and the realtor had escaped the kitchen relatively slobber-free. Nomi sighed, pulling back from Parker with a pout plastered across her pretty pink lips.[break][break]
"Fine, we can invite them over," she agreed. She had a feeling wine-drunk Becky would be a little less uptight, at least. "But our first night here I want it to be just us."[break][break]
She smiled mischievously then, a sultry teasing, and extracted herself from the embrace, padding over to the landing above the stairs. She leaned across the banister, pink hair spilling over both shoulders like a pastel waterfall.[break][break]
"Good news, Becky! We'll take it."

TAGS – parker jones[break]
NOTES – kitchen inspiration | outfit | Social

[attr="class","pkmn"]

There was an immediate sense of deja-vu as Yuina took a seat at the kitchen table. Mere days ago, Nomi had served tea to howard slayte as they'd discussed the very same topic she was about to address with Yuina, though Nomi suspected this conversation would have a slightly different flavor. In the spirit of that observation, she selected a tea unlike the one she had served Howard: for him, she had made traditional Johtonian Sencha, but for Yuina, an Alolan tropical blend felt more appropriate.[break][break]
"I appreciate your concern," Nomi replied gently over the tick tick tick of the stove igniting. "And your loyalty."[break][break]
Which, of course, meant that Yuina deserved the truth.[break][break]
Turning away from the kettle to face her visitor, Nomi watched Kallistatus and Nigma drifty idly over to the kitchen window. Sunlight streamed in, washing over the herbs planted in the windowsill.[break][break]
"Before I tell you everything, Yuina, I need you to understand something." There was a weight to her words now, as if they were being held together with the threads of fate. "What's been written about me in the HNN article, it's all lies. Except for one thing: I am indeed associated with Team Rocket, and have been for many years."[break][break]

TAGS – Yuina Higashi[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

[attr="class","pkmn"]

He wasn't apologizing because of the danger; wasn't apologizing because she'd experienced loss; wasn't apologizing because she was temporarily trapped in her own home staring down the barrel of a gun called "a ruined public image."[break][break]
He was apologizing because he could not help her.[break][break]
"It's okay," she told him, so very tenderly, even though it wasn't. She did forgive him, though. Easily. He had a different part to play in the tragedy that was destined to be their collective sacrifice, and she did not hold that against him.[break][break]
"Yes, her."[break][break]
The vitriol lacing his words as he verbalized the revelation did not surprise her; the Coveted was responsible for many a Rocket vendetta.[break][break]
"I'd been avoiding her, because of what she is - touched by ruination, I knew she would be one of the more difficult I'd need to convince. But she got wind of what I was doing, and tricked me into appearing."[break][break]
A flash of hatred crossed over her delicate features - for the Councilwoman or herself? She had been careless, in the end.[break][break]
"She threatened me, Howard. Demanded I stay away from the League. I got away...and I was masked, so at that point, my identity was still safe. But I...foolishly thought that would be the end of it, that she would back off - having said her piece."[break][break]
She took another sip of tea, savoring the way it coated her throat in nostalgia.[break][break]
"She found me again, in the chasm below the Silent Icelands." She paused, grief threatening to resurface. "Parker was with me."[break][break]

TAGS – howard slayte[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

[attr="class","pkmn"]

It was only after she'd confessed to the sin of acting autonomously - outside of the Rocket boss's command structure - that she realized just how much trust she had now placed upon the shoulders of howard slayte.[break][break]
He could go to Walsh if he wanted, and become the very thing he'd suggested mere moments ago as the reason for her sequestered status. He was the only person she'd explained this to with such blatant disregard for Rocket's typical stance. The Underbosses knew she was intent on stopping the DRK Triad, and might be taking some liberties; Howard now knew that she was willing to risk Walsh's wrath to continue doing so.[break][break]
But Howard was not a snitch. He wasn't even really a Rocket, not at heart.[break][break]
He's like Parker. Circumstance. Opportunity. And what of love?[break][break]
"Even if it were a betrayal," she whispered softly. "I need to walk this path. If I don't, who will?"[break][break]
It was not a question she expected him to have an answer to.[break][break]
"Haven't made the connection yet?" She smiled, with an ironic quirking of her lips. She pointed a finger at the newspaper. "The League did not keep my secret."[break][break]
She paused.[break][break]
"I was very, very careful. Until I wasn't."

TAGS – howard slayte[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

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Tempest Quinn[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL[break][break]

[attr="class","credit"]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Nomi liked crosswords, but, admittedly, they'd become a lot easier now that the Unown were her constant companions. The challenge just wasn't quite there anymore.[break][break]
"Not a snitch." She shook her head. It wasn't like that. This was her own doing. She would not turn away from the guilt; she needed to wield it. Needed to learn from it.[break][break]
"I've been meeting, in private, with various members of the League for several months now. The faction conflict is a distraction, one the DRK Triad is keen on perpetuating. It keeps us all occupied while they further their own agenda. I'm trying to put a temporary halt to it, in favor of a unified front against our common enemy."[break][break]
In one graceful motion, she lifted her mug to her lips, the earthy scent eliciting memories of the tea ceremonies of her youth. She took a tentative sip. It was the perfect temperature.[break][break]
"And no, before you ask, I do not have declan walsh's blessing. This is our mission, and ours alone."[break][break]
Ours meaning: Nomi and the Unown. Kallistatus bobbed dramatically in agreement.[break][break]

TAGS – howard slayte[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"No time for proposals," she chastised - and in a sense, agreed with him. "We must go to them directly."[break][break]
Which is what she had been doing, of course. Until PENELOPE LIVY had complicated matters by grossly misunderstanding her intentions.[break][break]
"You speak as if this region is guaranteed to be ours." Nothing in life was ever certain, not even death. The League's precious martyr kyle lopez had proven as much, and he would again. "Tell me, then, what would you do against the Triad? How would you prevent them from destroying our home?"[break][break]
Her method was to pursue a unification of Hoenn's forces, but he did not seem to view that path as one worth traveling down. She wanted to understand why: a stubborn digging in of his heels or merely practicality?[break][break]
Outside, a crackling of electricity sounded nearby.

TAGS – THEO BECKETT[break]
NOTES – ULTRA PLANT #1[break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

She takes a swig, and it's just awful. Parker likes this stuff all glitzed up with fruit and sugar, but Nomi isn't sure anything could hide this brand's ethanol-forward flavor profile.[break][break]
His laughter isn't mockery so much as incredulous disbelief. But he misunderstands, and that's both expected and utterly exhausting. She swings her feet in agitation.[break][break]
"It's not because I'm an Avatar," she explains. "Sure, people fear Avatars. But this recent development has surfaced because Councilwoman PENELOPE LIVY is so blinded by her hatred of Rocket, she refuses to accept the wisdom in a temporary alliance against a far greater threat."[break][break]
She sucks in a breath through her teeth.[break][break]
"But Freya isn't like her. At least, I don't think she is. She might hate Rocket as an entity, but she believes in granting second chances, for individuals. She believes in redemption."[break][break]
She looks him up and down, as if seeing him for the very first time.[break][break]
"But Livy herself is an Avatar too, one with powers far more dangerous than mine. She can influence the emotions of those around her, and not for the better. I haven't pissed Freya off, any more or less than I might already have simply by complicating her life, but do you have any sense of how close she is with the other Councilwoman?"
[break]

TAGS – KING WAYLAND[break]
NOTES – Social[break]

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