galar. her, i've never been, sounds like a lie now so she opts not to say it. there is a solemnity that befalls her upon hearing it. she'd seen the footage following the darkest day. she knows what it's like to see your home in shambles. 

"yes," she says and her fingers lift from the runes. she picks away some of the grit from her skin. "i was sixteen when i left." even at eighteen, two years had felt like decades. now, in some ways, she does barely remember it. 

it's easier not to think about. the one piece of her that had remained in kalos, Emma Wolfe , had followed her to hoenn too. then she'd lost her like she'd lost most everything else. 

another flight. part of the floor has given way. across it, separated by a support beam, a sableye looms over a large apple. its head cocks from side to side, considering, and then its stomach betrays it. sharp claws plunge down towards the apple, but the strike never pierces its red skin. 

three green whip-like shapes emerge from the apple, wrapping around the sableye's arms and torso. a syrpent's head emerges, yellow eyes gleaming, and then it tosses the finicky devil over the ledge. 

fern delaney
skipping!

☉

she'd thought, at first, to bring one of her applin to the swarm, but these sorts of things are usually incredibly hectic. she arrives on the back of her own noivern instead, with a pair of earmuffs over her ears. 

most of their soundwaves they use for echolocation aren't at a frequency that can bother humans, but their screeches certainly aren't pleasant. 

rather than an applin, she has a few juicy apples kept in a pouch. as the noivern and noibat start circling, she holds them up by the palm of her hands, keeping nevy close by and on watch in case things get too intense.

NOIVERN SWARM
zv6|Iah7

☉

joining his hum from a nearby bush is a charmander. calcifer turns and snorts an ember. freya laughs at his indignant antics and hums back at the fiery lizard.

enthused, reptilian hands part some of the foliage and it pokes its head out, eyes wide with curiosity. freya hums again, longer this time, and when the charmander joins in, she holds out her safari ball to it.

premium safari 1/4
catching charmander!

☉

"it's cool now," she says with a sigh. it had felt incredible to fly amidst a swarm of larger-than-life dragons. dragons as they are in fables. they'd all had a common enemy then, and they'd used this to turn the tides of war. 

how would it serve them now? when they have no prophecy to guide them? no decades to wait until resolution?

lost in her thoughts, she's slow to hear his first attack. she mutters a curse under her breath and tries to glimpse the trailblazing pikachu. but for all her shortcomings is lyune, watching the rodent race towards him at a dizzying speed. 

his reaction? to rupture the very earth beneath them as it nears. 

[attr="class","heroesgymbar"]

ollie morales
lyune uses earthquake!
round 1: 86 vs 57
_wj2Ksz|

☉

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moonlight comes, empowered by the fae crown wrought atop the knight's head, but still lyune burns through the attack. pink motes of dust plume out around them, lifting freya's hair off her shoulders. her nose wrinkles. 

the knight hunkers down, looking for an opportunity, and lyune unfurls his wings. with one bounding leap he takes to the air. smoke curls from his nostrils and freya chuckles to herself - his agitation is understandable. his dragon attacks will do nothing against this foe. 

so he thunders in indignation and releases another bout of flame, intending to blanket the entire battlefield in fire. 

[attr="class","heroesgymbar"]

Michael Navidson
lyune uses flamethrower
round 2 | 63 vs 3
66z39Bpk

☉

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a cold wind blows. she tugs the hem of her sweater cuffs over her fingers and blows gently. calcifer steps a bit closer for warmth. when they near a riverbank, she gives him a moment to drink from the cool water. 

a couple of magikarp drift lazily past his nose and he snorts smoke, sending them scattering. 

"be nice," she scolds and he hums in response. 

premium safari 2/4
skipping

☉

"no," she says sharply. "that sort of thinking will get you hurt. and more importantly, it'll get other people hurt." there's a bitter truth to her words, needles pricking her skin because she has lived those faults of hers. she's hurting still, after trying to take on her own burdens. 

"your fault or not, powerful people want to get to you, yuina. and they might use your friends to do it. there's too much we don't know about the situation. and if you don't know them - if you honestly, truly don't know why they're after you, then you have nothing to worry about. the league protects their own."

bodies underfoot. a city reduced to rubble. a frozen wasteland. ash falling and falling and falling. 

her jaw clenches.

"ollie morales would be the first to say the same. we just want to help."

Yuina Higashi

☉

he's been there every week. he's even learned a couple of words in draconic. his speech is rough around the edges and unrefined, but she doesn't mind - it's meant to be that way. it's a language crafted from the shaking of scales, the draw of claw against stone. it's not meant to be beautiful. 

lyune rises to his feet when caleb approaches, showing an attentiveness to the introductions that he hasn't shown yet. she pats his side and offers a wave to the ranger. 

"you all warmed up, harcourt? we're not going to go easy on you."

[attr="class","heroesgymbar"]

Caleb Harcourt
no gimmick chosen yet

☉

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freya hasn't yet worked in close quarter with luka, but they've circled similar documents, worked on the same email threads, and have shared a few words of correspondence in the sake of keeping the cog spinning. so she's happy she can finally put a proper face to the name as she walks onto the pitch. 

lyune follows behind her, blinking sleep from his eyes. they'd taken a respite following their last match. 

"luka! it's good to finally see you."

[attr="class","heroesgymbar"]

luka chêne
no gimmick chosen yet

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"the councilwoman in charge of this region's combat preparedness is here to take a firsthand look at our newest dynamax spot," freya says, lips twinging in a smile that's not nearly as bright as ollie's, but is pretty damn bright for her. 

"and is the giant pikachu i've seen on some of the battlefields this rascal here?" she crouches down when tofu comes near and gives the mouse an affectionate pat on the head. 

"not sure. i haven't seen her around." she doesn't really know penny outside of the backdrop of the professional landscape so she can't offer to text her on his behalf either. "why? would you rather fight her than - " 
and she unclasps the ball nestled in the middle of her choker. lyune stands at attention by her side, eyes narrowing at the rodent by his mistress' feet. 

[attr="class","heroesgymbar"]

ollie morales
no gimmick chosen yet

☉

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the dragon's own wounds, the worst of them, are reminiscent of lyune's. though this ranger has done a hell of a job patching her up, freya can see the twinging muscles on her shoulders, the intermittent flexing of claws when she shifts. she won't let any of her team close. she's still wild.

"you saved her life," she says, still watching the beast. "salamence value loyalty, even the wild ones."

they're in a secluded part of the draciary. other dragons that might have set her off are kept away. even lyune keeps his distance some yards off, large head on his paws and eyes trained on his mistress and the newcomers. 

freya's lips twitch. "don't you worry about her feeling domesticated. she's not going to turn into a mewling kitten. porter, was it? are you ready to tame her?"

porter holmes

☉

they've rarely even seen each other in passing, though freya intentionally keeps her schedule as busy as possible. giving up on the caffeine addiction hadn't taken long; she has a cup in hand, steam trapped under the black plastic lid. she sips from it as she approaches and wordlessly perches on the swing beside illie. 

alex had been holding her waist at the holiday party and though she'd been happy for him then - and is happy for them both still - she's surprised illie has reached out. 

has he not told her that he's forsaken me?

"of course," she says, guardedly, and words unsaid rest on parted lips and troubled golds. 

illeana reyes

☉

she turns her head when FERNANDO SILPH muses aloud and follows his gaze out the window. a dynamax pikachu devastates its opponent with a sharp snap of thunder. light bleeds fractures and within those cracks is another sky. another battle. 

she turns her phone over and sees the thumbs up to her messages, tucks her own thumb in her mouth to lick a stray piece of tuna, and turns her attention to the door. 

irritation struggles to stay off her face. the vital city tournament is the testing field for dynamax, the next stretch of the arms race against rocket, and their gym leaders are sniveling over the refreshments. 

when Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki walks through the door, she still looks cross, but the curl of her lip flattens at the very least and she welcomes her over with a wave. 

GYM JAM
muses to the self
setting her mood

☉