forget kos, she wants to cuff howard topside the head for hitting her with, it's old, as though they don't have a whole team of scientists that have already told her in a hundred and one different ways that it's old. but he continues, so she crouches down beside him instead and stares moodily at the dirt. 

"so...what? you think we're going to start calling the ultra desert our newest discovered region?" she says dryly (no pun intended). 

at his expression, she chuckles and manages amused sympathy as he's brought back to his knees. when he goes to cradle his head, she takes his wrists, opens his fingers, presses the middles together, and the thumbs. then she mimics with her own, raises it to her forehead, and draws her hands apart with a nod. 

"there. do that and you won't be eaten. councilwoman's promise."

kos chirrups and circles them anxiously now. gently falling soot changes directions as the winds shift to greet their god. rayquaza rises from the other side of the volcano like an arrow. only when they graze the clouds do they contort into a spiral and drift towards their avatar and companion. 

freya greets them with that same gesture, reaching at the last moment to brush her fingertips against their snout. over her shoulder, she smiles at howard, and the wind blows her hair back into her face. 

howard is privy to rayquaza's maw parting, forked tongue tasting the air.

violent fury rips through freya all at once and she gasps, dropping to her knees much like howard had just done, head cradled in her hands. pain explodes behind her closed lids as rayquaza's molten eyes bore into the golems' despot.

howard slayte

☉

did you know that i blamed them too? could you see it in my eyes? could you see that pain? or were you like me? are you like me? too blinded by your own rage to see that the blood dripping from your wounds is from your own furious and violent nails. that the world is unkind, yes, but it is good too and you have to look for it. you have to find it, seize it, june. 

you have to do better than me. before you make every mistake i made, and before you lose yourself in ways you'll never get back. i've learned to live with my regrets, june, but they're still there. they still keep me awake at night. they still linger in the waking hours, haunting every hour of every day. 

this is what she would say, if she were better with words. 

instead, she knocks a few times and when she hears a bit of noise on the other side, she sighs. and she tries to tell herself that it's not hopeless; they haven't lost her yet. 

she doesn't say any of that. instead, she says, 

"i told her you were sorry."

june sleigh

☉

her lips part in a wolfish grin. adrenaline squelches through her. the rumbling in the back of her mind rises, though it does not crescendo. her patron hovers in the atmosphere, tasting the blooming energy as it crawls into the ozone. 

SOON, they promise with heat, and freya's teeth sink into her lower lip. 

sand scatters once more as pescis surges back into the air. carving a path for them is her kin. balmung's obsidian scales almost look ruby in the harsh and as he scorches through the enemy.

though dragons are not easily felled, they make for sizeable targets, and it does not take long for a rocket to lash out in return. curses slip from her when she realizes she's still too far behind and as the shadow ball nears, she bristles. 

a barrier shimmers at his back and freya spies a figure to her left. the battle-hungry flame within her hisses as though she'd been sprayed with water, and her jaw drops open. fear for eva's well-being vies for dominance over appreciation (and a little something more, a heat on her neck that has nothing to do with the desert sun). 

as one is want to do when they are strangled by emotion, she turns to violence. the rocket that had attacked her is privy to a heavy slam of pescis' powerful hind feet into the ground. earth power trembles towards them by way of explosive sand.

"they'll be here soon!" she calls to eva. "how long does it have?"

PARADOX PLAINWALK

grr at sage
hey babes

☉

devastation lay outside the windows. she does not shy from them, but rests a shoulder on the panes instead, and watches smoke curl up into the air. the sky fades first, and then every ruined building is deleted. overwritten. 

lush foliage and sweet fruits replace the scent of smoke and she turns. where walsh's corpse was is now an enormous tree. pokemon linger at the fringes of this glade and she plucks a fruit from the vine, inspecting it. 

"odd, knowing these exist in our world."

she certainly wouldn't ingest one out there. 

Josh Devlin

take a bite
+1 curio

☉

"pretty words," she remarks, "but there's no skirting around what we're doing. they instigated, delfino, and if their orders are to attack our people out here, then they'll be made an example of. we are here for resources, first and foremost. and if our resource is intelligence about the enemy, then that takes priority."

she has but one duty to the people now - to be a shepherd of war. peacemaking must wait. 

rayquaza knew that. 

a specially painted ball soars through the storm. melusine rumbles in discontent as the fine grains of sand worm into her feathery wings. freya ushers an order in draconic and the dragon is all too happy to oblige. 

water sprays over the sand in a wide sweep. the ground shifts and freya's lip snick in a grin. "thought so." a sound like windchimes breezes over them. "there are vibrava and trapinch out there. probably what's causing the sandstorm. flush them out and we'll get some visibility back."

Elise Calcifet DESIREE BLOOMS silverio delfino

hydro cannon (150)
any type 600 power total

☉

monstrous silver moons hang above her. pink stings her nose and fear skitters over every shuddering bump of goosepimpled flesh. her lungs ache and beg for air, but if she inhales, it's over. it's all the rest of her willpower gone. it's all her love and her worth (are they not one in the same) broken, begotten, rewritten. 

frigid words, so very real, make her gasp, and the nightmare thins. 

her hair falls lank over her shoulders, head sagging forward. she stares down - though it may not be down at all - and sucks at her teeth until she tastes iron. at lulu's admission, her head snaps up. 

"why you?" she rasps. 

Lulu Flint

☉

exposing her now would only lead to more bureaucracy, and it would mean losing june for good. if there is any salvageable part to this relationship, she will have to find it in her own terms. she must come willingly. 

as she had. 

"in mauville first. we'll fix this. we'll make it right." it sounds pathetic. it sounds desperate. but how many assets can they let slip through their cracks?

'does it frustrate you? that fate seems to be on my side?'

walsh's voice haunts her in every shadow, every breath in darkness. sleep has always been hard to come by, but now it's near impossible. annalise's words are honey on burnt toast and she recoils from them with a glare. 

"there'll be time to rest when this war is over. now, if you'll excuse me, i've half an inbox to clear, troops to oversee, and logistics to write off on."

annalise henderson

☉

spastic fingers snaggle in her shirt, but it gives way to muscle and then scale. it's an all-too-familiar sensation as the scales ripple over her skin, but she cries out in alarm when they take on a blue hue and shudder through her entire frame at once. 

great, velvety wings spurt from her back. her neck lengthens and fangs inch out from her maw. serpentine eyes blink at yuina - how does she know it's yuina? 

an amused hum rattles in her throat and she cocks her head. 

Yuina Higashi

live your life
would u still love me if i was a mighty dragon...

☉

a slight lean backwards shows the arched brow on her face at his audacity. she hooks one of her bottled espressos and cracks it. the rest of the fridge is mostly barren, save for an ungodly amount of bacon, a dozen more bottles of her chilled espresso shots, an old takeout box, and a few bottles of water. 

wedged in the back with a wine bottle tucked in front of it is some cool whip and beneath it - "is that a pie back there?"

she sips, closes the fridge door with her hip, and at the very least goes to the other side of the counter. "i'll admit you're better, but i abhor the idea that i'm useless in the kitchen." she sniffs. "you just know i'll try to make a plate of veggies."

KING WAYLAND

☉

it's not permanent by any means. she'd been startled when he'd offered; she hadn't managed more than a wordless kiss. it felt selfish, and it feels selfish now, hearing the walls echo with laughter and life. danger lurks all around them. a monster slumbers in the deep. 

she stares down at the pool of water. it's a natural formation and though the silver has dulled and the trinkets have gathered a fine layer of dust, the water itself is clean. unlit candles, half-melted, rim the decorated edge. 

her reflection frowns back at her. 

one day soon, she promises herself. one day she'll step as a mirror to her other selves and bathe this flesh in the ritual of her people. but now, she lopes down the long hallway, climbs the stairs past the training pitch, and ghosts into the estate proper. 

her nose twitches at the smell. she languishes in the doorway as delta runs by with her pokemon at her heels. his back is to her, but she catches his wry smile and glittering eyes. it's enough to make her come forward. 

"can i help with anything?" she asks in passing to the fridge, fingers trailing over the small of his back. 

KING WAYLAND

☉

"no, i know," she says and sighs. after a heartbeat, she slides out of pescis' saddle. the flygon turns his head quizzically and freya pats his neck before walking past him. over to the edge of the rooftop she lopes, where she rests her elbows and leans forward. 

"i don't," she adds after a moment, "have my bearings. sootopolis...rocked me more than i'd like to admit. and the banquet was a shitshow. thanks, by the way. for showing up. it's more than others did."

Roy Aker

18 attempt to spend the "night", surviving the elements or any threats.

☉

pescis is a glowing cyan arrow beneath her, wings fluttering faster than the eye can see. a sandstorm haloes her with how low they fly to the ground and through red lenses peer narrowed, golden eyes. 

this will only bring them closer to the end, but they've no choice save to heed the djinn's call. if they don't, its power, its knowledge, would fall into rocket's hands. and while they waltz this endless dance, marvels will splash as their backdrop. 

registeel shines brilliantly in the harsh desert light. her comms crackle with the sounds of battle. pescis alights momentarily, chest heaving. freya yanks down the wrap from her lips. 

"getting through the portal's top priority," she calls out to her cousin. "we'll help along the way, but we can't stop until we're through."

PARADOX PLAINWALK

arrives on illumina flygon
talking to roy

☉

it is quiet here, in the expanse. quiet in the dark. her knees fold. she sinks into spongey nothing. glimmers of light are distant and painful to squint at. her voice is smothered when she whispers, "i didn't know they were so far away." all these bits and pieces of her soul, strung along the dragon's - what was too much has been made scattered and small. will she lose fragments? will she become dust?

eva's green eyes, almost hazel with the filmy tint, rest affectionately on her. they sit in a swingset by the silver spire, fingers locked between them. snow falls delicately around them and freya shifts her toes, swinging closer, fingers reaching to grasp eva's sweatshirt. 

it's gray, crisp with newness. printed in a bright splash of colors depicting the spire, surrounded by dragons, on its front reads 100th draconid heritage celebration. 

a psychic power stabilizes near a cluster of memories and rayquaza spirals towards it. 

this one is not intoned sepia, but the edges are still blurred with wisps of pink. her hair clings wetly to her bare back. long silver tendrils stretch around her and steam coils at the surface of the bath.

her hands are soft and pliant on the councilman's chest. he says, eyes upon her, 'how do you feel? being put together.'

'thankful.'

water erupts. draconic fire evaporates the scene and smoke billows out. rayquaza's eyes are a furious, molten gold. merciless fire sprays from their maw and a strangled scream shatters the mindscape. 

YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.

mint frost

☉