[attr="class","spiral"]Seeing Fernando again, seeing what he's managed to do in her absence, it warms her heart. To see the object of her affections and her lifelong inspiration succeed and grow brings with it a great sense of ease. Like a phone call from a spouse who's taken a bit longer than usual to get home.

At the same time it's frustrating. There was a part of Lillian that thought since they were ten that in some way his success was tied to her. That his comfort and his rapid growth were tied to her. Not in big ways, not in any way he couldn't do without, but just enough that she always had a place at his side. And yet even without her he's managed to tame gods and lay claim to more and more influence in the region.

And what has she done? Gone soft behind a desk. Every time she thinks about it, and then thinks about how bold she'd been the day she got off the boat from Kanto, it sours the back of her throat with bile.

What need does this Fernando have of her extra eyes and hands. What can she do that he can't manage alone?

That question is why she's here on the beach today. Stealing hours away from the office to stand on the shore and run her Lapras through paces. She needs to sharpen back up. More than that, she needs to grow. She's getting sick of always looking at Fernando's back.


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[attr="class","spiral"]Lapras sits unimpressed and uninterested in a corner of the coffee shop and battle hub. She is much less than happy to be here, in no small part due to the very small bit of water she's been given to wade in. The warm air of the store makes her skin itch and she doesn't much care for the idea of caring for trainers other than her own; but unfortunately her desires had no sway in this decision.

Thankfully her job is simple enough and requires little attention on her part. Whenever a tired trainer comes over she just has to hit them with a HYDRO PUMP to cool them down. Well, not actually, she's supposed to be nicer than that but she doesn't care. This is actually the reason the job has proven so simple.

It's amazing how baristas and trainers stop coming to you for help when you nearly floor them with a pressurized blast of water. It's never enough to knock them over, and she always shoots them those innocent eyes of hers after the fact, but it is enough to make the other pokemon on duty preferable.

There's a possibility this tactic will keep her from serving her full shift, but she's okay with that. If Lillian isn't she should have reconsidered who to send.


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[attr="class","spiral"]Bonsly is the baby of the group, he knows. He's been the baby since the start and for some reason he's just never gotten any bigger or stronger; but he still walks out onto this stage like he's the biggest guy in the world. Why? Because Lillian asked him to go do a job and he's gonna prove he can do it! He's gonna prove he's dependable!

He enters from the left side of the stage ready to play his part. He plants himself in the middle of that little raised bit of wood and waits for a kid to walk up and gently water him. The droplets of water are uncomfortable, but thankfully he's supposed to shiver here.

The kid fakes alarm in that awful, hammy way children do as Bonsly squeaks up at him. Then he's picked up and carried away to a different part of the stage where they drop him in a pot. He really has no idea what the story for the book is, but he plays dead at the end -- some moral about leaving nature as it is, where you find it.

Some kids cry, but Bonsly is pretty sure that's the intended effect.


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[attr="class","spiral"]Mawile is reserved and respectful upon entering the factory. Unlike many of her species, the docile expression she wears is genuine. She knows her mistress will not tolerate a bad review when she comes back from this job, and so she holds herself as straight and properly as she can.

It might make her stand out a bit in a setting as whimsical as this candy factory, but no matter.

The serious little fairy-type waits for directions before moving onto the factory floor. And then waits for directions before making her way to a machine for stretching taffy. Then waits for directions . . . maybe she's being a bit too cautious actually, but isn't that what she's always being told? Better safe than sorry. Stick to the plan no matter what. It's not her fault the plan is so loose here!

In the end she's eventually walked painstakingly through how to work the taffy stretcher. Before starting each new batch she's allowed to pick whatever flavor she wants. It's always strawberry.

[attr="class","spiral"]Lillian falls, limp, into the next capsule of time. It is the first to be unfamiliar to her. One of many events piled in a manila folder back in Fernando's room. Navel Rock. The appearance of Ho-Oh. The sun that melted the wings from an overzealous man and decided, to hell with it, to punish the rest for watching it do it. It is a bit of history she doesn't regret missing.

Almost doesn't regret missing.

She sees Fernando, not the one who's certainly falling just the same as she is right now but the real Fernando. She knows what happens here. Knows Fernando likely doesn't mind it too horribly much (in the way he doesn't mind most things) but it's still sad to watch the Garchomp go. Perhaps even more sad because of it. To know the trainer has grown too hard to mourn and so the pokemon passes without being grieved. The thought pulls fresh tears from her eyes.

His coldness allows him to function, allows him to be the man she so admires, but in times like this she misses the boy she knew first.

When he calls her name she thinks the sentiment is making her hear things. Fernando doesn't call her name like that. Not so brightly. Not since they were kids. But then she hears it again, and again, and even if it is her hearing things she can't help calling back.

"Fernando!" she shouts, turning in the air to try to find him, "Fernando!" she screams it into the wind, throws her hands out into the air, and miraculously finds him. They hold hands and again she thinks she must be hallucinating. It's such casual intimacy (outside of their current predicament), so tender and wholesome in a way they haven't been in what feels like a lifetime. She has to blink hard to keep from crying again. Has to squeeze his hands tight in hers.

Silph Tower's ruins come to mind unbidden. Her nostalgia bubbles up in her chest. She notices a bit of paper caught between their hands and makes a wish without thinking -- desperate to hold onto this.

I wish we could go back. I wish we could be different.

[attr="class","spiral"]No situation is impossible to understand. If you take some time to stop, breath, and take a good look at the big picture it starts to come together like a puzzle. As Lillian and her pokemon take that time her slowly growing anxiety melts away. This is doable. This is more than doable. Already one of the biggest threats, the mutated mutts, are being handled.

"Yes sir!" Lillian responds to FERNANDO SILPH's call for her aid without hesitation, "Form up!" she shouts to the remaining members of her party as she makes a run to Fernando's side. Her pokemon follow in loose formation. Magneton floats behind her, Cloyster covers her left side that faces away from Fernando, and Machamp takes up position slightly behind Fernando. As they change position familiar seeds fly. She won't be so helpless before them this time.

"Stay sharp! Keep us clear!" she shouts to her pokemon, looking pointedly to Machamp and Magneton. They're the ones with the best lay of the land so they're the ones in charge of keeping threats off of them. They respond to the vines and buds immediately. Records say that these Ultra Beast attacks care little and less for conventional protections, so they opt to meet fire with fire.

Magneton's eyes have taken in the paths of the incoming seeds, LOCK ON allows its eyes to dart about as it takes in the incoming missiles. The ends of its magnet appendages glow with an odd white light that coalesces into brilliant orbs in the spaces between their poles. Energy flows from one orb to the next and as it does they each take on their own unique hue. Red, blue, yellow, and then the whole thing fires. One rotating, elemental projectile that sweeps across the area ahead of them. TRI-ATTACK freezes, scorches, and fries the buds as they approach.

Machamp splits its attention. It's two right arms flex, their fists tight and their biceps bulging with STRENGTH. It looks to approaching enemy troops and meets them with heavy hands. Its other two point off into the same space Magneton's TRI-ATTACK had flown towards. It points out places where LEECH SEED are approaching so that Cloyster might stop them with ICICLE SPEARS -- impaling them and leaving them to fall harmlessly to the cave floor.

Finally, Lillian keeps her eyes shooting between Fernando and the seeds left behind. If all else fails, she's there to pull him out of the way of any errant buds. She promised to watch his back when she first arrived back in Hoenn and dammit if she's going to be made a liar twice in a single battle.

+ Lillian calm now uwu
+ Joins FERNANDO SILPH as he plans their next move
+ Magneton uses LOCK ON to attempt a sweeping TRI-ATTACK on incoming LEECH SEEDS
+ Machamp uses FORESIGHT to take in multiple threats at once, uses STRENGTH on incoming troops while directing Cloyster's ICICLE SPEARS at incoming LEECH SEEDS
+ Lillian uses her Very Human Eyes(TM) to try and keep track of the stragglers; aiming to move Fernando bodily if she needs to to keep him safe
+ ooc: using both guaranteed saves on FERNANDO SILPH :^)

DewMduHH

[attr="class","spiral"]There's not a lot Lillian can do in the direct removal of poison, but with her Bronzong -- still on loan from FERNANDO SILPH -- she can help keep the healers safe from any runoff. She stands calmly off to the side of a group of trainers, the Bronze Bell Pokemon floating between them and herself. The ground around it glows gently with SAFEGUARD'S light.

"Stay on guard," she cautions her pokemon in a soft voice. The Meganium have been made merely sick by the poison, but it's on record the recently repelled forces were able to turn wild pokemon hostile with (presumably) this same venom. Bronzong lets out a long gong in response to her caution.

It sounds bored. Lillian can't exactly blame it.


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[attr="class","spiral"]Their landing is safe, but far from clean. Pressed between the bodies of her pokemon Lillian struggles to catch her breath while her brain rattles about in her skull. When Machamp releases her and Cloyster it needs to physically pull her upright, and support her for good measure while she gets her bearings and wits about her.

She's still in a bit of a fog when Fernando begins shouting orders, but she doesn't need to be all there to follow his commands. She gives a murmured echo of his call to form a perimeter and her pokemon leave her to sort herself out. While she slaps her face and shakes her head to shake away the last of her confusion her remaining team members get into position.

Oh right, remaining. She notices her fainted Bronzong while the rest of her pokemon move and returns it, silently cursing herself for leaving it out during the fall. It hurts to lose an important piece to their plan through simple neglect.

"Prepare to engage!" Lillian shouts following Fernando's guidance, finally all together. The situation is a complete mess. There are too many things for her to account for in a moment, so she opts to make some time by playing reactionary. Machamp and Magneton scan the horizon; FORESIGHT and LOCK ON wary of approaching threats. Cloyster seeks to disrupt nearby opponents by scraping it's IRON DEFENSE hardened shell against itself. Harsh, confusing SUPERSONIC soundwaves ring out across the battlefield.

Lillian does some surveying of the land herself. She looks to the mutated (awakened?) Type-Null, then the surrounding troops, and finally the looming Ultra Beast. It's hard not to feel like they might be in over their heads.

+ Lillian shook off the disorientation of her landing
+ Listened to FERNANDO SILPH 's orders and commanded her pokemon to the perimeter
+ Returned her fainted Bronzong
+ Ordered her pokemon to prepare to engage the enemy
+ Machamp used FORESIGHT on the nearest threats
+ Magneton used LOCK ON on the nearest threats
+ Cloyster used SUPERSONIC on the nearest threats
+ Lillian looked at all this fucking bullshit going down

ybUN7te2

[attr="class","spiral"]It's about time Lillian started engaging herself with League affairs once again. Being Silph's president and Fernando's associate only gives her so much pull. She arrives with her Magneton to aide rangers, in the hopes this might give her a foothold to begin seeking further influence; which she can hopefully use to help move plans along in his name.

"Zap Cannon. Shoot to blind, not wound," she commands simply, adjusting her cufflinks and straightening her skirt before looking up to supervise her pokemon's action. Its three magnetic appendages bend in towards the spot where its eyes meet and there electricity crackles into being. The energy is compressed in a tight ball, the static pulls gently at her hair even from a distance.

Used in its typical fashion Lillian has no doubts it could leave a sparking, burning hole in any of the fungus pokemon. But today isn't typical. The ball surges oddly for a moment, the concentrated energy is decompressed shortly before firing.

The ZAP CANNON goes off in a wide cone. The light is blinding, but unfocused. It's enough to push the Shiinotic back, but incapable of doing more than mildly shocking anything it truly hits.

"Good, do that again."

[attr="class","spiral"]The little anxieties that plagued her in the ruins move to the front of her mind and menace her on their second jump. What is going on? How is this happening? She can't answer those questions. What do we do? Can we do? To change things, to escape? Still nothing. Not even a fraction of an idea crosses her mind.

In the face of this great unknown her eyes dart about to find security, and they find him. Composed as always. Walking purposefully even in this enigmatic situation. Just moving in step with him -- following his lead -- quiets the fear that had begun to grip her. His slow steps set time for her heart and help her count out her breaths. In. Out.

So long as he's alright, she's alright.

But what if he's not alright?

What about when explosions go off and his whole body seems to swivel to stare at some unseen target in the distance? What about when he's sprinting like his life depends on it, panting and cursing under his breath? What about when he screams for help and even the god at his command isn't enough to settle him?

Lillian has told herself countless times that thalia black took Slateport as an opportunity to cut and run. That the little sobbing girl on Mt. Silver had never left and had instead waited for a moment like this to flee from her obligations. It is a stupid, worthless little lie to save herself from this. This sight that she's never wanted to behold in person.

A petty, disgusting part of her twists itself up watching Fernando sob and scream and split his fingers in that rubble. Envy, for this so raw of displays. It brings tears of shame to her eyes. Recompense for the tears of sorrow she can't muster even with her illusion broken. Even knowing she's looking at the grave of a woman she spent half her life with.

How disgusting that she feels nothing but defeat in this moment.

She is no longer looking at him by the time they are pulled from the scene by whatever power of fate put them there. She is beside him, within arm's reach, but looking far into the distance with dry, red-rimmed eyes. She will not look at him.

There's no way she can risk him seeing what she is right now.

[attr="class","spiral"]Sometimes, Lillian can't help but believe in fate. She can't help but believe that there is some kind of system that rules the decisions a person makes, a gravity that pulls the cogs in the machine of life together. And those sometimes are spurred on by moments like this.

A selfish decision. That's what pulling her team in was. Regardless of the plan, regardless of priorities, regardless of what the one thing she cares about in this world might think later, she pulled in her team to protect her lifeline. It was pointless and redundant and ultimately it might be the thing that saves her life.

The cave breaks and begins to fall in and the only reason she might have even a chance here is because all her pokemon are available at once. They begin to freefall and the adrenaline spurred on by the bile pushed into her throat by the drop widens the space between seconds for just a moment.

She watches her Bronzong pick up a passenger suddenly and marks it off as her potential savior. She watches her Magneton lock its eyes onto a few targets and she knows relying on its protection might keep it from doing its job. That leaves Cloyster and Machamp. Only one plan forms.

"Machamp! Cloyster, then me!" she screams over her blood in her ears and the wind rushing past her, "Magneton! Fire at will!"

Her pokemon all respond quickly. In the air there is nothing to push off of, no way to easily change direction, but with Machamp's reach there's no need. In its place in the center of the action Cloyster and Lillian are both well within reach. Two arms grab her from the air and pull her close to its chesst while the other two pluck the hard-shelled pokemon from the air.

Magneton looks at the threats, runs through the likelihood of profit and the ratio of that profit to harm, and shoots a ZAP CANNON at the most vulnerable threat with the least chance of friendly fire. The second Sylvalley, the one not currently engaged with Fernando and Stormy.

Simultaneously Lillian feels the fleshy face and body of her Cloyster press against her back. Its horn tickles the space above her ear as Machamp pulls it into place. This really might not work but Lillian is low on options.

"Defend!" she shouts and the pokemon surrounding her both throw up barriers that will hopefully cushion the fall. Cloyster's PROTECT at its IRON DEFENSE empowered back is joined by a WIDE GUARD that wraps around from one side of Machamp, down to CLoyster, and back up to the other side.

No matter what, Lillian has a feeling this is going to hurt.

+ Oh fuck oh shit oh fuck oh shit
+ Bronzong supported Ophelia Reyes 's Houndoom with LEVITATE and attempted to safely descend
+ Magneton fired ZAP CANNON at Laurence Anderson 's Sylvalley while using MAGNET RISE (still active from previous posts) to attempt to safely descend
+ Machamp pulled Lillian to its chest and placed Cloyster behind her back; used WIDE GUARD to wrap around all of them and cushion the fall
+ Cloyster (with +2 DEFENSE) attempted to use PROTECT at its back to try and cushion the fall

notes: posted on the wrong account, rolled a 40

[attr="class","spiral"]The Desert Ruins are a familiar sight for Lillian. It's hard to forget the room, the titan that fills it, the pokemon lost within. It's the first time she's managed to look at it from the perspective she currently does, though. Where she can easily watch the stray rock that drives itself into her leg -- it looks so much less significant from the outside.

But the way her face twists with pain at the injury feels real and familiar even from the outside. The way she bites back tears at the sight of her pokemon crushed beneath collapsing stone is mirrored even in the present she occupies.

Her hands flex and unflex, she feels a strong desire to move and do something more than she could in the moment as it happened; but she pulls herself back. What is it she could do? Would it even be safe for her to act?

Instead she turns her eyes to her surroundings. The bits she hasn't revisited in countless waking hours.

Bodies move through the ethereal space she inhabits. They run, they send out silhouetted pokemon, and some grow clear -- the fogs that obscure them falling away to reveal people (most unrecognizable to her). Most.

She approaches Fernando without a second thought, and joins him without saying a word. Watches him throw an ultra ball and wonders if it'll go better than the attack his past self launched with a stray stone.

[attr="class","spiral"]Most of the seeds raining from the sky are burned or caught by their layered defenses. It gives Lillian a small surge of relief -- reports of Ultra Beasts easily tearing through moves like her Machamp's WIDE GUARD had been haunting her since this fight began. Thankfully, they didn't move from her nightmares to reality.

But things were not all right, for when she looks in Fernando's direction it's just in time to see LEECH SEED take root and begin to rapidly spread its tendrils. These are reports she read, too. This is a nightmare too.

"Strength!" she shouts at Machamp, who's promptly lowered to the ground by Magneton. The hulking fighting type approaches Fernando with hands outstretched, its muscles already flexing with the great STRENGTH Arceus gifted its species with. That gift won't be enough. It presses one of its hands to Fernando and uses the other three to attempt to pull at the LEECH SEED. It doesn't budge.

When the tendrils start to reach out to the new victim that's presented itself Lillian orders her Machamp to fall back before it becomes another victim.

"Close ranks!" she shouts to her remaining pokemon. In the back of her mind she can almost hear Fernando cursing her for messing with the plan but in this moment she loses reason. Bronzong and Cloyster pull in close to their master and her master, PROTECTS glisten around their bodies. Magneton once again turns its gaze to their surroundings. Frantic eyes attempt to LOCK-ON to the nearest, most pressing threat.

Her actions are excessive and wasteful, she knows this even as she gives the orders. It's not long before Stormy Silph joins them and frees FERNANDO SILPH. But Lillian can't bring herself to care. Whatever the plan, whatever the situation, she can't leave Fernando on his own when he's in trouble.

+ Lillian notices the LEECH SEED hit FERNANDO SILPH and freezes
+ Machamp tries (and fails) to use STRENGTH to undo the attack
+ Lillian decides if she can't free Fernando she'll protect him
+ Cloyster pulls back from the front-line and PROTECTS near Fernando
+ Bronzong also PROTECTS near Fernando -- still holding LIGHT SCREEN (4/5), REFLECT (3/5), and SAFEGUARD (2/5)
+ Magneton attempts to use LOCK-ON to zero in on any large threats

zemWJ_D_