it's a question that makes sense, but still it brings a brief flash of pain over her face. it had taken her so long to trust herself after recovering from fernando - her thoughts, her body, her breath, all her own, but still that inkling of but is it you? always remained.

"she was real," she says firmly. "and the morningstars...i think they knew. i think they knew from the beginning who i was, but i don't know why they never told me."

she brings the water to her lips, fingertips pink with taut pressure.

"but winter gave me the life i would have had if she'd been there. not a glimpse, king. a lifetime." her breath rattles; the thick ropes that had bound her together begin to slacken. her arms come around herself for comfort, glass set on the counter.

KING WAYLAND

☉

its pupils dilate when its natural enemy materializes on the field. freya's gaze flickers away from greyson and to the wake, measuring its bodily responses to the paltry headway she's managed to make at the draciary. she has a slight advantage here, but only just.

the twitching of its tails, the stamping of its right hind paw makes her mouth twist, command shifting. that roar lingers in the back of her brain, scratching at memories she'd rather forget, and its own claws scrape against the ground as it lurches forward to meet its adversary in a horrendously vicious clash.

the shield comes up and her wake brings its weight down with a snarl in an attempt to break its guard.

Greyson Connors

hone claws into breaking swipe

☉

CROW'S ENDEAVORS

MARK WHICH ENDEAVORS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED WITH ✔

SPOILER: Click to show

✔ make an ic-post within may.

• 3X pokeballs to @tag

✖ complete a thread within the event period.

• 1X shard in the color of your choice (yellow, red, green, or blue) to @tag

✖ participate in any forum game thread.

• 1X rainbow shard to @tag

✖ involve a ground-type move in an ic-post.

• 1X type 1 evolution to @tag

✖ utilize or involve entry hazards in an ic-post.

• 1X type 2 evolution to @tag

✖ teach your pokemon a ground-type move.

• 1X type 3 evolution to @tag

✖ involve one of the following pokemon abilities in a post: earth eater, arena trap, sand force, sand stream, levitate. can be a npc/wild pokemon.

• 1X sparkling dust to @tag

✖ capture/defeat/redeem a ground-type pokemon in a wild, safari, gacha (no trades/gifts).

• 1X level tutor to @tag

✖ complete a solo/duo wild or safari thread.

• 1X tm/tr to @tag

✖ participate in 1 imminent instability swarm or distortion.

• 1X move tutor to @tag

✖ publish an ic-post in your exhibit or garden.

• 1X move tutor to @tag

✔ reference another character by tagging them in an ic-post.

• 1X egg tutor to @tag

✖ use a gif or image that features a ground-type pokemon in your post.

• 1X egg tutor to @tag

✖ include music in an ic-post (link or the player code).

• 1X tm/tr to @tag

✔ use one of these names in a post in any capacity: giovanni, bertha, clay, hapu, rika.

• 1X incense to @tag

✖ use one of the following words in an ic-post: firmament, demesne, dregs, balance.

• 1X ability capulse to @tag

✖ use the idiomatic noun "run (something/someone) to the ground" in an ic-post.

• 1X starf berry to @tag

✖ complete 1 imminent instability mission.

• 1X gachapon ticket to @tag

✖ complete 2 imminent instability missions.

• 1X gachapon ticket to @tag

✖ complete 3 imminent instability missions.

• 1X premium gacha ticket to @tag

✖ post in a communication thread or comment on an hnn article.

• 1X level tutor to @tag

✖ post in a plotter or wanted ad thread with a genuine plotting idea, affirmation of a relationship, or a compliment (minimum 100 word count).

• 1X ability capsule to @tag

✖ sell a pokemon to the black market.

• 1X form change to @tag

✖ buy a pokemon from the black market.

• 1X ability capulse to @tag

✖ reference any of the organizations listed in the local hoenn guidebook thread, or any on-site player-led business.

• 1X mega shard to @tag

✖ reference information from the hoenn dragonology document created by crow.

• 1X mega shard to @tag

✖ complete a thread that features a conflict of any kind with a character in the opposite faction.

• 1X salac berry to @tag

✖ use mega evolution, terastallization, or dynamax in an ic-post.

• 1X devolution stone to @tag

✖ use a z-move in an ic-post.

• 1X honey to @tag

✖ use a sygna suit in an ic-post.

• 1X tm/tr to @tag

✖ incorporate a sandstorm (weather) in your post or thread.

• 1X sparkling dust to @tag

✖ incorporate a character or a pokemon falling/tripping in your post.

• 1X level tutor to @tag

✖ terastallize a pokemon into the ground tera type.

• 1X type 1 evolution to @tag

✖ reference or involve a heavy ball in your post.

• 3X pokeballs to @tag

✖ involve the emotion of fear in your post or thread.

• 1X incense to @tag

MILESTONE ENDEAVORS

MARK WHICH ENDEAVORS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED WITH ✔

SPOILER: Click to show

✖ complete 3 total endeavors.

• 1X tablets of lutum to @tag (a pokemon who drinks this potion will learn the move, MUD BOMB.)

✖ complete 5 total endeavors.

• x1 ground tera shard to @tag

✖ complete 10 total endeavors.

• 1X legendary candy to @tag

✖ complete 15 total endeavors.

• 1X mega stone to @tag

✖ complete 20 total endeavors.

• 1X dyanamax candy to @tag

he has a diverse team and a wide skillset, even though he favors playing at range. she'd go as far to say he's the most lethal of the elite four. matias is volatility; greyson is surgical precision. but now things are spinning out of control and he's started to corrode. 

"they're not fully broken yet," she says as she reaches for a peculiarly painted ball at her hip. "i imagine yours isn't either."

what she wants out of this is more than a showy display of their battle prowess. she knows what he's capable of. he knows what she's capable of. they've little left to prove themselves, but heralding their monstrosities? tempering rage in its most carnal form and redirecting it, commanding it, taming it - that's what she wants.

for the both of them.

the twin-tailed paradox pokemon emerges in a flash of light, snarling and spitting furiously. it paces in front of her, eyes trained with malice on the trainer opposite them.

"let's see what we're capable of."

Greyson Connors

☉

this falls on her. the negligence of others and the failings in the system now, ultimately, fall on her. it's an uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling and she treacherously finds herself asking how fernando of all people might have dealt with it. 

sufficiently, at the very least. and with a cold detachment. 

"yes, you've made it very apparent what a bumble that was. we monitor for leaks and if it's discovered one has been leaked, we change course. we surprise them."

her lip curls when he brings up Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki. she rolls her whiskey tumbler on its axis, watching the liquid shift around the edges, and when he's finished with his summation, she takes another sip and licks her lips. 

"i won't apologize for her outburst, nor condemn her for it, concordas. we were behind closed doors and half that damn room needed to hear what she was saying. i'll take dealing with half a dozen tsubakis than one two-faced coward or a wishy-washy yes-man."

paxton concordas

☉

embarrassingly enough, it takes a second for the euphemism to register and when it does, her nose wrinkles in distaste. she doesn't like to think herself a prude, but, well, she is. 

"good...for you, doug," she manages, if a bit stiffly, but she is earnestly happy for him. he doesn't strike her as the kind of guy to sleep with someone just do so (an unfathomable thought), so she's pleased he seems to have found someone.

the world's too damn messed up to deal with it on your own.

"anyone i know?" she asks with an arched brow.

John Sullivan

☉

she doesn't search for her in the dream. she doesn't search for anyone in the dream. those who happen upon her are far and few between and only two have managed to get close. the loneliness gnaws at her in ways it hasn't before.

it was this realization that had done her in: she'd come to rely on others, just as she'd always wanted to, and then she was faced with the impossibility that after all her work, she was simply right back where she started. touch. words. companionable silence. any of it seemed unbearable. all of it seemed so wasteful. 

she has failed and the reminder of her failure is with her every time she wakes up and that fog drains away, every time she remembers that she is a prisoner in her own body. how many times must she endure this same cruelty?

awake, she is happy, but she is wan. her cellmate fusses over her because she is unresponsive; she struggles to endure the hardship when she knows her perfect future is just out of arms reach. work hard enough and they will prevail. the part of her that is smothered, the part of her that screams into that voidless dream, is still there. 

it festers. it makes her callous. wordless. hopeless. 

look at what's promised to you. look what will be yours. remember, remember, remember.

they're not real, the slashed marks across her arms, but the dream still makes her bleed. it gives her that satisfaction, at least. she is holding herself, tucked in a bed of overgrown grass, the rest of the arboretum empty. except then, quite suddenly, and like it had happened with elisabeth and penny, it's not.

she raises her head, arms still folded around her tucked knees, and says, "you're my cellmate, aren't you?"

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

they shared an awkward comradery at the best of times, but that was before the region split him in twain. she knows, maybe better than anyone else, what it means to let madness eat at your fraying ends. all the hurt is easier when you can justify the pain with your own blood, tricking yourself into thinking all that hatred is spilling out of you. 

but she has struggled too far to pity him, to double back now and lend her hand. there are already so many responsibilities shouldered on her back; the weight of the world is a suffocation she has grown all too used to.

when she enters his chambers, she thumbs the pokeball in her hand. 

"connors," she greets, formality rearing its head after their last foray in area zero. "glad to see you got out of the chasm in one piece."

Greyson Connors

☉

it is not the mochi that breaks her. it is not the circle of ridicule, the feeling of her muscles aching under impossible weight. it is not the endless scraping of filth from the floors, a monster marring wounds into her side. none of it could compare to the dream.

clarity.

it does not come back all at once, though she's not sure if it would be better that way either. it's like a fog is lifting - like she's back in the ring with king, knuckles to her head, blood pouring down her front, that hideous pink mist curling like smoke from her nose. 

the second time she dreams, when she recollects herself, she screams. she shatters glass and tears into the earth so that she does not rake furrows into her own skin. and that perfect future to her perfect world dissipates slowly, promising return. 

say ahhhh.

and then she awakens and all of her miseries are okay because they are a means to an end. they are a means to her perfect and happy little future and no one can take that away from her. no one can ever hurt her again - 

how do you feel, being put together?

dragon in a cage, scratching at the walls, head in her hands, holding onto the dwindling remains of her own sanity, no one there to tell, to understand, to know, to feel, to stop this, to let her sleep on and on and on and 

freya!

she wakes to the pulsing h̵͈̗͗o̶͖̤̓͘r̷̤͔͛̽̆r̸͙͙̯̅i̷̦̙̾b̵͍̉l̸̤̍̏̌ȩ̶̣̩̌ beautiful chain around her neck and she strokes it h̴̢̪̩͝a̷̳̜̍t̴̺̰͚̾ė̶̅͜f̶͍̟̄͌̕u̵͇̐l̵͉̼̳̈ľ̷̡̨̥̚ÿ̵̧̛͕̖̕ lovingly. as the fog settles, lashes fluttering, tears slip down her cheeks and she thinks í̴̖̊͘ ̴̮̤̿͘w̴̧̛̥̏͜i̴͍͘l̶͍̈́͊̊l̴͉̇̕ ̶̨̢̉̓ͅe̴̬̒s̷̖̗̺͑c̵̩̠̟̑a̶̞̼̔̽p̷̥̣̈́̕̕e̴͙͍̟̓ i am weak.

freya dreams & collects her tears

XfVVMDCM

☉

"i pity you, you know," she says. elisabeth is a different being of self-destruction. where freya had gone to immolate herself in the fires of a dying battlefield, elisa had resigned herself to every bitter misery that could blacken and rot her heart. 

"i don't think it will happen in some grand, extravagant plan. they'll push you to the brink, past exhaustion, and if they offer you the opportunity - him or yourself, you'll take it. because you will do anything to survive."

teeth bared, eyes white, do i not know you, elisabeth? her macabre grin falls flat and a flicker of irritation crosses her features. 

"and i will do the same; that is why, when this accursed dream ends, we will work together to get out of this place."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

☉

the phantoms still linger in every reflection, but she doesn't look too closely at them. she turns away from that madness, staving off the inevitable for a time longer, but even that has her riddled with duress. the nail of her pointer scratches into her thumb, drawing blood, but she does not seem to notice.

penelope worries about the implications of the greater whole, but freya's misery, as it so often has in the past, is wrapped thickly around herself. 

"they showed us visions in the mask. visions we'll all believe when we wake up. and i cannot stop it." frustration breaks her and she draws in a sharp breath, throat thickening, cloying with a thick mist that isn't there.

PENELOPE LIVY

☉

she ponders just how involved that contract is - how many loopholes in flowing ink, hidden agendas sealed in blood. she'd felt the pull of its kin herself; it had drawn bones from her mire and suckled on a foetid pit of loathing. when its ochre eyes had turned unto her with deliberation, she'd felt nothing but revulsion.

what sickly sweet promises had the ruinous being promised livy to make a contract so tantalizing? or, she thinks as she looks upon her, was the councilwoman like elisabeth? strangled and choking on her own pitiful self-worth.

"what's that they say about making deals with devils?"

PENELOPE LIVY

☉