It was entirely without purpose that Lusamine now wandered through Aether Paradise, down cavernous white corridors and into the sudden lushness of the conservation area, tracing paths she hadn’t walked in what felt like decades. She was pacing, more accurately, like a caged (and declawed; and ill; and pathetic) Torracat-- but she supposed that was better than spending her time languishing in the emptiness of her home. All of her knowledge as president remained, after all, in spite of everything; perhaps she could at long last find someplace to be productive, and the place would cease feeling so horribly foreign.
Or perhaps she would simply watch the Pokemon. There were Surskit now, and Masquerain. At least she could say that she was able to see something beautiful in the waking world: the dance of insect legs across the water’s surface, the flutter of the Masquerain’s translucent wings when it decided to come close, the way its antennae shuddered and bored into her like two great eyes.
She had known this to be a threat display, once, but that did not occur to her in this moment. She stared back, transfixed. It almost resembled...
Before she could grasp the thought, something-- someone approached, startling her so badly she gasped aloud. This in turn startled the Masquerain so badly that it zipped promptly away with a thin cry, back to the water and its Surskit friends.
Seconds later, Lusamine felt rather silly about it all. The employee (and that was all it was, an employee: a younger woman she didn’t recognize) hadn’t approached her so quickly or directly that such a dramatic reaction was warranted. And the poor Pokemon...
“You startled me,” was all she managed to say.