and unfortunately for the poltchageist, it does not miss the eye or the ire of freya's charmander. enthused from its previous praise, as soon as it spies the tea-filled ghost, it pounces, lashing out with a flurry of claw and flame.

freya gives it a moment, waiting, and unsurprisingly charmander gets its ass handed to it. pride is always the downfall of her dragons.

still, the teapot is wounded enough to get sucked into the ball.

WARDEN SAFARI
catching!

☉

and above them, watching the entire battle, is a green dinner plate. well, to say it's watching them is a bit of an overstatement. it is twenty yards up, facedown, staring unblinking at the wooded area.

what's it thinking? we don't know. (insert mii music here).

freya and charmander walk on none the wiser.

WARDEN - SAFARI SPAWN
skipping!

☉

there are other pokeballs at her hip. if she must, she will tear this ship apart to ensure their safety, but tsubaki's hand leaves hers and freya is left lurching for the girl swept into the embrace of her beast. 

"TSUBAKI!" a useless scream for the damned. she's absorbed into that swollen, devilish bell, and freya's sword is drawn in an instant. ichor spills. the holograms startle away in fear, avoiding the pooling black blood. 

she will cut the girl out of its monster if she has to. she will not leave her body to rot in the sea. 

a reverent hymn stops her in her tracks and every hair of hers stands on end. gruesome terror bleeds way to cold understanding and a new guilt crawls into her heart to settle alongside the others. she was supposed to take care of her. 

the holograms bare their teeth and they dance away in fright, but they know. they know what this amalgamation is. they know what it's taken and all it's yet to take. the children abandon their hunger, bathing in the light of this new mother, even as they are corroded by her poison. 

pearly tentacles spasm. two of the orphans fall, lifeless, sprawling in the blood of mothers and sisters. 

"tsubaki, they're not real!"

come back to me, she urges. she has seen this once before and she knows the girl is alive, but just as well - she knows she's doomed. cursed by an otherworldly demon, haunted by its song. 

you are not a monster.

"please, help me break through the door!"

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

☉

freya's gaze darts to Alexei Ivanov ; their years together in the league spare him the worst of her glare, but a look of disapproval is clear on her face. her lips crease and she holds her tongue, finding his acquiescence to training sufficient. 

the only way we held our own in galar was by dynamaxing. one person could make all the difference, at the end of the day. 

the topic shifts. 

Michael Navidson addresses the gym leaders themselves and she brushes stray crumbs off of her tablet. her brows crease when he suggests the ludicrous thought of leading civilians in battle, and she scribbles on her notepad, waiting for other gym leaders to speak up before taking the spotlight again.

but then Hideo Kino speaks and she raises her chin. "yes, and we were fortunate enough to have palkia bless illeana reyes with avatarship. aqua will look into handling this new information about mesprit."

GYM JAM

☉

you did what you could.

and was it enough?

he does not understand the actions he's promising. he does not understand the inevitably that is this creature. this beast stalked her for months. it lived in her head, in her every breath, every tremble, promising her death. 

"it's freya," she says. she tries to search her mind for more on noel, but comes up short. given his attire, he's a ranger, and she guesses not one that works directly under ollie. 

"and honestly, noel, i think that hoopa is a bigger issue. without it, kyurem's marooned on its hellscape of a plane." she tilts her head back and looks down at him through her lashes. "if it's a bother, i can be going, but sometimes it's good to talk through this stuff. help process it, you know?"

Noel Parker

☉

"must have taken you forever to get all the proper permits," she jests while admiring the fort. this is nothing like what they'd done as kids (you never did that, love. that wasn't you. that wasn't you). she thinks that and her synapses fire the wrong way; a headache threatens at her temples and she lifts her free hand. 

she's used to a dogpile of salamence. she has slept amidst slumbering, curled bodies. the sheer amount of fluff and fur around her is a different tactile sensation, but she surprises herself by relaxing quickly while the growlithe bats at the ninetales' twitching tails. 

"i've never seen either of them," she admits and glances at the screen. family friendly movies are what she's used to. and nature documentaries. delta loves those. 

"nice to see lalonde is looking good as new." you wouldn't think the knight had nearly blasted her favorite dragon's insides apart and consequently faced merciless retribution for the attack. 

"they're kind of why i'm here actually. well, that and the arrows, but we can get to that. i think you'd be more interested in the pokemon i - " she starts, but trails off when she notices that some of the pokemon in the room - namely kanaya - have leaned in intently to stare at the screen.

ana fell

☉

she'd like to agree to disagree, but there are things you can learn from the past. all she's ever done is run away from hers and look where that's got her. only now does she threaten to break the cycle by facing it and more than that - by digging her claws into the soil and scavenging for the roots. 

the book's about to be handed back to him, but at his request, she pulls it back and looks down. hesitation flashes briefly, alongside a soft smattering of pink on her cheeks, and then she turns her head. 

"eva? yeah, of course, if you don't mind me holding onto this for you a little bit longer. i'd be happy to bring it, signed and ready for your collection, the next we meet. unless you'd prefer i take your info and send it to you...?"

howard slayte

☉

i'm here is registered a bit late, in a nostalgic, comfortable sort of way. in a way that should absolutely not be familiar, but she's aware of his presence nonetheless, like orbiting planets. something that always is, always will be. 

"hey," she says, after the waitress returns with a glass of water and a top off for freya's coffee. 

"how are you? after everything?"

Roy Aker

☉

the draciary's tamer is above her, shifting her weight in the saddle of her partner salamence. his shadow stretches across the grassy knolls and rocky crags, over the shapes of the other residents. this time is usually reserved for aerial practice, but she does not have her sygna suit donned and lyune's wings are outstretched lazily, drifting on thermal currents. 

she has made too many promises to too many people. she has to look after herself and she has wounds that are still healing.

two impressive displays of flamethrower come from the entrance, signaling to freya that she has a visitor. lyune angles them down and when his bulk hits the earth, she slips off carefully, heels hitting the ground with a grunt. 

the last time they'd talked, freya had all but admitted to treason. she wonders what this woman thinks of matias now, after all this time.

"annalise," she says carefully. "to what do i owe the pleasure?"

annalise henderson

☉

now here comes the hard part: the truth, and not made plainly, not said simply, because there is no simple way to say it. she has lived several lifetimes over now and only in this life must she continue to deny herself this happiness.

her heart belongs to another, but that does not mean it does not ache. she spent years spent in a body that loved the woman in front of her without question and echoes of that familiarity remain.

"that part's complicated." she stares down in the coffee, through the steam. it leaves a dew on her lips. "do you remember galar, eva? do you remember any of it?"

Eva Morales

☉

the most important thing fernando ever taught her sings sweetly to her now - even gods can bleed. that same ichor drips from this macabre puppet's ragged face, thick and viscous. bits of it fall away and its coral teeth, bleached by betrayal, loosen from rotted gums. the tentacles holding it fast to the ceiling fall as its lifeblood drips from the holes in its gelatinous body. 

the young cry hungrily for their mother. they tumble, mewling, rolling over each other to dig into the bloated body parts still left of the stolen corpse. bones drift into newly formed bells. acrid black sludge spills towards the retreating trespassers. 

freya's hand abandons the blade and hisses sourly, twisting her wrist to twine tsubaki's fingers with hers. she's careful not to cut her with the gauntlets made for war and shoulders her way past the center console, where screens lay dormant. metal stairs, mostly eaten away, are their closest means to escape, and lathliss waits on the other side.

the newly hatched leeches squeal in unison as freya reaches for the door. light blooms in front of her vision. mechanical whirs, hushed voices, the incessant flatline hum of electricity - she knows behind her are phantom images, holograms stuck in an endless loop of their final voyage. 

she twists the handle, but with the surge of energy comes recorded safety parameters. the lock clicks shut before she can open the door. 

lathliss bellows from above deck.

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

☉

it warms her heart and it makes what she's about to do all the more terrifying. but nonetheless, she enters with that same smile. she puts eva's coffee on the corner of her desk and takes a seat for herself, settling in with her elbows tucked on her legs, both palms wrapped on her cup. 

"i was really happy to see you at the party," she says. she's thought about this a lot of ways. all the things she's wanted to say. all the things she couldn't and wouldn't and can't and might not still. 

"i've been avoiding you a bit, since galar and - " she says, hesitates, nibbles her lip - "it's because i missed you."

Eva Morales

☉