act i: to break the branch is to strip the . leaf [event #1]

[fernando silph]

everyone loves a winner. victory is the sweetest ambrosia. but there is no fanfare to commemorate fernando's clean conquest. that parade will have to wait for another time, a period when society can discard the carnage inflicted today to boast about success. only fernando maintains his composure. only those that bear witness to the atrocities inflicted can keep themselves from feeling the boisterous joy. victory is sweet but those that achieve it suffer from an insufferable aftertaste. regardless, he trudges on. it is his magmortar that radiates a source of light. the FLAME BODY pokemon reeks of a hot glow, serving as a living torch. it guides him close to the sound of muffled defeat, bringing leaf's fallen position before his very feet. he watches sob, stoic, unsympathetic. he demonstrates the most infallible rule of war: no one cares about the loser. "if you don't recall them they'll die." and here, leaf is the loser. LEAF

[LEAF]

♯

She'd been utterly conquered. The thought had silenced her. Her sobbing gasps and mournful cries had only lasted a short while before being stifled by it. It had been so very long, and she'd convinced herself that there were only two people capable of such power. She'd been a fool.  Grief and humiliation kept silent tears flowing as the sound of footsteps lifted her gaze. The figure she saw approaching seemed more demon than man. So little emotion in his posture, his face, his steps. But power came off him in waves, not unlike the heat and light the pokemon beside him offered. At his words Leaf moved automatically. Her right arm moved first, instinctively. A jolt of pain stilled it. She finally noticed the way her bone pushed awkwardly against her arm, her shoulder firmly out of place. Quickly her left arm reached and plucked a pokeball from her belt. To her dismay the ball fizzled just as it had earlier in the battle. She could do little but look up in pitiful question at the man in front of her. fernando silph

©

[fernando silph]

her attempt is futile. there is nothing to overcome the SHADOW TAG left behind by his lingering wobbuffet. what is left are her pokemon - stranded, battered, and barely breathing. their fate lies solely on her enemy. their fate is sealed. "when you send soldiers to their death you shouldn't be surprised when they die." it's a cold slight of rhetoric made to question her resolve. fernando has already broken her body. the only thing left is her spirit. only then, after abolishing her completely and utterly can he proceed onward. this is the first night in a battle of many and leaf will be his first victim. the only difference is that fernando doesn't aim to wage war for a piss poor ideology. he seeks something greater, bigger. 'give me a hungry man and i will show him how to fish.' "why do you fight?' 'give me an ambitious man and i will teach him to farm.' LEAF