Stroking a man's ego is no difficult task: it is what Selena does best. It is an integral part of relationship building, of breaking down one's walls, to build it together anew.

"I once thought Sootopolis is an unbreachable fortress." The crater had been the city's strongest line of defense. It turns out even Hoenn itself succumbs to the might and power of Team Rocket. "Good job on that."

The mention of their recent victory puts a humble smile on Selena's face. It feels good to have a win in her first few weeks after her allegiance change.

"Team Rocket has always been 'organized'. The same cannot be said to the League, though." Her smirk turns into a smug one. "And that's probably why we will always win."

---

SOCIAL: PUSH AND PULL
Cillian Quinn

LILYCOVE IS THE PERFECT TRAINING GROUND FOR THIS TEST. At least for Selena, who is not only sentimental about being in this city but also the proximity with the sea gives Zapdos the effortless advantage it needs to do a battle. But before everything else, jayden cross needs to clear her for allowing any S.P.E.C.T.R.A.-related matters in her hands.

After all, a defector of her level is not someone they should easily hand over Rocket's silver spoon.

"Is this really needed?"

Selena knows the protocol but she cannot help herself but ask. After all, Selena is not just an ordinary League-defector. She is confident enough that the team will not just miss out on a character such as herself.

Deep inside, she hopes she's right.

---

MISSION: ASSESSMENT: ACT 1
jayden cross

Her face slowly finds itself at the palm of her hands: if this not deja vu, thanks to Hoenn's recurring spacetime distortions, then this is definitely something so typically Kouji Matsubara.

"Akhlys, stay put." She orders her dragon as she follows her mission partner with flutter mane. But when she enters the room, the man is already gone.

The room is too dark to even see anything except for the faint light of the bulb at the foyer. Then it flickers, its sound catching the Kalosian's attention before it zooms towards an opposite room. Selena and the flutter mane follow suit.

Only to realize that the lights has brought her to another part of the house, somewhere far from Kouji Matsubara.

---

MISSION: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
Kouji Matsubara

Playing a character had always been Selena's bread-and-butter as a journalist. A Selena Desmarais always has to wear so many hats: a beloved daughter, a hardworking professional, a righteous hero, a cunning antihero. Today, she has trashed all these to wear a new one: a straw hat laced with blood-tainted ribbon.

"Why, of course it's Selena. Selena Desmarais." The smile she gives is inviting, a reaffirmation of loyalties changing. Selena has embraced Team Rocket for all that there is to it.

The bandages in Cillian's arm does not go unnoticed but she decides not to pry just yet. She has already learned the hard way that traumas, may it be physical or mental, do not make great conversation starters when your goal is to build trust and make connections. After the handshake, Selena finally sits down at the chair in-front of Cillian Quinn. She leans on the backrest and puts her fingertips together.

"So I read a lot about very successful Rocket operations for the past two years." The neophyte has left the region a few days after Rocket goes public. Her only source of information is on the newspapers. "Is it to say you're mastermind of them all?"

---

SOCIAL: PUSH AND PULL
Cillian Quinn

Selena responds to a familiar voice, her lips beaming at the presence of Calliope Alvara. "Very fitting for my Rocket debut."

Seeing her partner being friendly with the other puts the flutter mane at ease, floating around the pair with curiousity. True to the name Selena knows it, the creature flutters in the air with its pairs of "wings", demonic eyes piercing glances as it hides in its shimmering mane. "The design is very misdreavus, isn't it? But I've been told it isn't it."

Something about this is different, but what could it be?

---

MISSION: A PARADOX PROBLEM
Calliope Alvara

"Alas, monsieur, there's nothing here that interests me anymore," she speaks in jest, a sly smile on her face. She continues scanning the room, her fingers crawling across the the top if the cold cabinets before as they reach the top of Cillian's desk. She leans on it and speaks directly in-front of him. "And besides, I'm a journalist no more."

The opportunity to be Rocket's Public Relations Strategist is an opportunity Selena has to thank BARNABY FINCH for. Eventually, she realized she is no longer writing for the truth anymore. What is true is not always correct and what's correct can sometimes be found in between the lines of fabricated lines and made-up stories.

Selena does not want an honest society anymore but a society that is not impervious to change.

"Meet your newest fixer in the house." She then extends her hand, as if meeting him for the first time.

---

SOCIAL: PUSH AND PULL
Cillian Quinn

SELENA HEARD PEOPLE CALLING IT FLUTTER MANE. The creature is reminiscent of the silhouette of a misdreavus but appears more like a far, ancient and more sinister cousin. Based on her initial observations, it seems that the creature is actually a ghost-type Pokemon, similar to misdreavus, but possesses another typing which the Kalosian is yet to confirm.

Because Flutter—the name it now recognizes—is a timid creature, no one has properly seen it with her every time she goes on a visit to Mt. Pyre. Except this fateful day, when Selena has visited the mountain too early in the morning, any attempt of it trying to hide itself is futile as one has already recognize its abonimable, distinguished appearance.

---

MISSION: A PARADOX PROBLEM
#OPEN

Kouji Matsubara is correct when he says their newfound partners are extremely useful. While she admits there is much to observe and investigate with her flutter mane, seeing how it reminds her of her own Akhyls, the ghost-type is such a beautiful delight that proves to be a lot easier to tame.

Her partner's question comes as a humor to her; perhaps it is his intention, after all. "You wouldn't want to know what I'm thinking.

Like him, Selena observes the haunted chateau. While Kouji Matsubara is thrilled with hopeful eyes, Selena can't very much say the same. At least, upon considering all the factors, she has a different opinion about the place. "Let's explore a bit more."

The place, she thinks, is very much exposed to public considering the volume of people going to Mt. Pyre cemetery. Especially with the mysteries surrounding the gateway to the Border, in which Selena experienced for herself, they need to do something with the foot traffic before fully commiting to this place.

---

MISSION: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
Kouji Matsubara

THE KALOSIAN IS TENDING TO THE MISDREAVUS-LOOKING CREATURE she met at the Interdream Zone when she first hears the news about their success. There is a subtle smile on her face—it is a a good feeling finally winning when she has just switched sides to the darkness.

As more and more grunts crowd the makeshift clinic, Selena finally stands and retrieves her new partner she calls a 'flutter mane'. She finally begins to see her point of no return. "Looks like things will be busy from this point onwards," she softly whispers before finally taking off.

---

EVENT: EPILOGUE
#POSTDORMITUM

'GAVIN MERLINO': This is the name that Selena is fond of calling her new boss, a certain Cillian Quinn who she has encounted in the past. "Tell me you're at least surprised to see me here, Monsieur Quinn."

But the thing with Selena, perhaps among those who have known her, is not too surprising. One would argue she is a ticking time bomb waiting to happen. Her animosity with the League is even almost at par with the tenured Rocket associates. Her penchant for what is true and just is something that has endangered her social standing, and now she is fraternizing among some of the most outcasted, feared, and shunned members of society.

The Kalosian invites herself inside his office, leaning against the wall of the entrance as she scans the office of one Cillian Quinn.

"It turns out a man with so many names would actually turn out to be a Rocket." The last time they have been in-touch is when the man gets his MYSTERY BADGE from the ex-gym leader; he was known as Patrick Cavalli by then. Even before that, she met him in a game as the manofsteal who she has killed. But when his public identity was exposed, there is no need for pretend any more.

"Now is that your real name or non?" She refers to the GAVIN MERLINO in faded acrylic by the office entrance, but regardless of whether he answers or not, she already knows.

---

SOCIAL: Cillian Quinn

IT IS SELENA'S TRUSTY NAGANADEL that carries her across Mt. Pyre in their first Lockbox mission. How Kouji Matsubara insists on having a conversation midair amuses her, but she is not above shouting for a little chitchat.

"Sunset is the best time to be in Mt. Pyre." Second best to sunrise, that is. Being a Lilycove resident for more than a year, Mt. Pyre has been a favorite local attraction of the ex-gym leader. There is something soothing and comforting in the silent sanctuary.

While his dragon scans the area from above, Selena's newly-partnered, midreavus-looking flutter mane scouts at the ground. Its ghost-typing makes it easily adapt in its surroundings: any sight of suspecting crowd easily taints its bluish mane transparent. When the ghost-type finally sees the haunted house in question, in easily teleports between Selena and Kouji, happily announcing its success.

"Looks like we've located it already."

---

MISSION: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
Kouji Matsubara

Selena had hoped River Marx will give her a better answer but she's glad at least Calliope Alvara did. After all, they both have the same excuse. Disillusioned by justice, distraught by order, distrusting of freedom. And if it is too much to admit, at least she can give the same answer as the former.

Her teammates point out that it is not just cloud that covers the spires in their present altitude but mist. And mist, in Selena's memory, is a bad thing.

"Hear what?" Her answer is too late as the mist has already consumed Calliope Alvara. Shit. Selena feels partly responsible for missing a teammate, even when their circumstances become results of their own recklessness.

She calculates, thinks, considers, and comes up with an idea: she looks at River Marx. "To point, you say?"

The grey-haired lass pulls out the SPELL TAG from their bag, with its presence pulls a heavy feeling of darkness from beneath the veil of mist. "This. Do this. I think it this will help us locate Calliope Alvara."

And it might also help them find what they are looking for, but Selena decides to keep the thought to herself.

---

THE WILDS: BORDER 1
River Marx Calliope Alvara

PROMPT CHECKLIST:

• SELENA DESMARAIS must explore the reasons behind her defection from the league in some way[break]
• 15 become lost in the mist.[break]
• The spell tag must be used/worn/placed on a pokemon to lure or attract an antagonist (e.g. a spirit).

The reason Selena was informed they are not in Lilycove anymore, aside from the fact that the signages read Cerulean and the buildings and houses become of different design, is the fact that the new rocket is not aware of what is actually happening. But the differences between the two are not so different: the experiences of war are so similae that it paints almost the same picture wherever chaos goes.

Civilians and officers are frantically running everywhere, chaos ensues as Pokemons aggressively destroy the city. When one of the burning houses had its debris falling to a running child, Selena orders her sceptile to megaevolve and help the youngster.

“What is this place?” Only Dorian has the answer to her questions. “Everything seems so… real?”

---

POSTDORMITUM MISSION: INTERDREAM - 1/2
dorian westcliff

MP CHECKLIST:

Total:

80 MP

10 MP per IC post in a Postdormitum Mission.
10 MP per mega evolution.

Total:

100 MP