her lips curl. she's not good at jokes on the best of days and in the heat of the moment like this, mood soured after the rest of her time spent down here, she has to bite back the urge to um, actually when it comes to taming.

"don't worry about it. the draciary will be there if you want to stop by." she steps back a few paces and gestures for june to do the same. that oppressive heat returns dramatically as the pseudo-entei slams into the ground. 

lyune flares his wings from above, casting a shadow while slowing his descent. freya looks towards june's roaring moon and reaches for a pokeball at her belt, cursing when she realizes she doesn't have any left.

june sleigh

☉

ever since finding micolash, freya has been on edge around the naganadel. there are only so many hours in the day and her follow-up to the startling epiphany surrounding Yuina Higashi and her naganadel has been brought back to the forefront, though has consequently made her realize just how thin she's stretched herself.

so a small part of her is here for answers. petra is an added bonus - too many brilliant minds have abandoned hoenn and if one is so willing to come back to their ranks, in any capacity, she welcomes it with open arms.

"very," she says. her sygna suit is dormant, but it still adds a necessary layer of protection. 

the last time she was here, Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki was made a monster. 

she won't allow that to happen to anyone else.

"we think it's abandoned of megalopolans, but we can't be too careful. micolash should be able to steer us clear of any of its kin."

PETRA MONROE

34. allow a nihilego or poipole/naganadel that you own to guide you safely through the realm

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when the call comes, she mourns the loss of one of hoenn's best. only recently has she begun to cast aside any what if thoughts that try to needle her, but this one is not so easily discarded. if angelo and skyler hadn't left, would the seas have been so merciless? would this toxicity have spread?

the trainers around her are exhausted and some are worse off than others, faces who've no doubt answered every distress signal they could while she turned away to other duties, safely confined by four walls. 

her teeth grit. 

lyra's goo is dribbly. her life dew waters have been spent on some of the ailing, but now she squares off against the latias. some measure of trust must have been granted, as the latios pays them no mind save for a scant, frustrated wail. 

they don't fight this battle with fire and teeth and claws. lyra distracts, defending against blow after blow, viscous poison flinging about, while moxie slithers closer. when the dratini finds a moment, she strikes. her glittering scaled body wraps around the latias' arms; healing wish burns away scraps of the toxic chain. 

it breaks free all too quickly and freya catches moxie when she falls. 

POISON PATROL - LATIAS
+3 mochi

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white sclera shows around robin's blue eyes, erratic as the panicked question he asks her. she turns the blade and this time the tera crystals glitter down at her. with a sigh, she shoves it back into its dagger and crouches by the water. sharp nails trail over the water. the silver of her sygna suit gleams.

"katherine could pull the distortion world into our reality," she says.

"kyle can resurrect people from the dead."

"tapu fini could - " 

she snaps her hand back as though it scalds her. revulsion knifes through her and with a blink, she does not see the tera crystal pool before her, but a steamy bath. a hand outstretched. 

"legendaries give people the power to do terrible, terrible things. he wouldn't be the first."

Caleb Harcourt

☉

"no," she says, "not him. not roland."

lyune is on the field now. it's freya's first time in the newly refinished elite four member's quarters. it's a far cry from callan's simple aesthetics and resembles a man cave more than anything else, complete with a full bar and tvs. 

her nose had wrinkled, but she'd said nothing about the renovation choices. the promise of their upcoming battle is still thumping in her veins. 

"last year, i watched you and shuwen fight vortigern. that day, you promised us a battle." lyune rumbles lowly and spits embers. "you promised him a battle."

Michael Navidson

☉

there are so many nightmares that haunt her. shadows on the edges of her bleary vision at 3 am stints in the office. it's not instantly that she pieces it together, not in the wake of her recent past, mixed with the grisly sanguine portrait of a decade unmade and an other-self shell. 

but the body knows. the body reminds her of the horror when she'd found thalia, shard of teeth embedded in her tongue and the roof of her mouth, belly split like a gutted fish. the white foam stained crimson.

and then to Gwendolyn Conway, tear-streaked face and shaking like a leaf in her lap while blood poured down her dragon's front. 

his hands were like blades.

his entire body was just crystal.

not like shining crystals you see in caves, but dark ones.

so it's not a monster after all. Zev Harcourt, another puppet for the gods.

there's the shink of her sword being drawn. she stands over the pool and calcifer turns his head, looking up at her. she stares at the reflection of herself in the blade, eyes raking critically over the bruises under her eyes, the scars on her skin. 

"then we work off the assumption rocket has another avatar." her wrist turns, caleb's face replacing her own. she watches him this way.

"and we deal with him accordingly."

Caleb Harcourt

☉

king said she never left that place. how many pieces of her past selves are she going to keep buried in her body? how long can she go on tending the mausoleum, after she's promised him a home?

blood splits away from her. fissures spiderweb across the meat of her brain while she screams - unintelligible i'm sorrys for the man he could have been and the woman she never wanted to be. 

deltra stream protects them from the knifelike shrapnel that blasts their way, leaving no barrier between them. they have the upper hand here - sound minds (are they sound? or are they just as broken?) in sound bodies hardened by war. 

melusine's mouth drips molten; freya takes the ice in her veins and shifts it around her heart. but then, as she joins eva's side to stand against them, she sees the unown.

her stomach drops, afraid the visionary and her protector have stumbled upon their skirmish, but then more of them appear and beside them, figures she and eva recognize instantly. 

"the drk triad's here," she hisses to eva. "we need to leave."

jayden cross Elisabeth Fiorelli Eva Morales

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she swipes the sweat from above her brows with her thumb and surveys the area. the fight hadn't been without noise and the last time they'd caused such a commotion, it had attracted the attention of other beasts. the blood in the air and the smell of brimstone may ward any adversaries well enough away. 

she can only hope.

"it's not gibberish and speaking draconic won't help your moon listen to you." the artificial sunlight is still harsh. freya takes a step back herself and shields her eyes to squint upward. lyune is still a green blur, the paradox beast at his mercy, and as she watches, their ascent slows and reaches its apex. 

"but i can teach you how to tame it."

june sleigh

☉

lyune's fangs sink deeper into the enemy dragon's hide; draconic fire gathers in the back of his throat, spilling out from his maw, and purple embers spurt out in a gust. freya watches the creature writhe in pain. 

lyune twists his neck, tucking his wings, prepared to roll, and then freya feels an incredible heat on her back. sweat instantly runs down her neck, dewing her skin, and the gouging fire finds renewed strength. 

flames scorch even the top of lyune's mouth and he reels back in pain, snarl cut off and made into a loud bellow when the surprisingly agile dog rams straight into him with its massive crown. 

"no!" she snaps over her shoulder, too focused on the battle to put on a polite face. 

the heat from the paradox radiates off of it in waves. freya hisses an order in draconic and lyune leaps, wings unfurling like SAILS!!!. his body enshrouds itself with green and golden flame, jaw and claws sink into flesh and then, with a thundering boom, they're launched in the air in a wave of heat and crackling lightning.

"hit it where it lands," she instructs once in common and again, at the paradox, in the slippery snarl of its native tongue.

june sleigh

☉

he looks around and considers and her palms start to sweat, needling reminders of what could go wrong if lele decided to finish the job fini hadn't been able to. 

and then he talks about surgery and sanitation and mentions ever grande general and she feels silly, but she also feels an awfully strong wave of relief. 

"oh, i thought - " she says and looks away sheepishly. "i thought it'd be all avatar power. ever grande general." she nods. 

"yeah, let's do that."

John Sullivan
i remembered to roll
kdp2Tv17

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