[attr="class","jayjaytop"]

[attr="class","body"] "jayden!"

[break][break] the rocket admin blinks at the cheerful greeting, though his face shutters into neutrality quickly. if she looked carefully, there would've been a flutter of a smile. brief, but apparent.

[break][break] he was relieved to hear Naomi Sato call him without such formality. though he had already spent months in his admin seat, it admittingly felt awkward to be titled as such sometimes.

[break][break] lada, his shiny umbreon, joins her sylveon by the door. she touches his nose in greeting.

[break][break] "i do," he nods, unclasping the pokeball from it's belt and providing it to her. this one was an unknown-w.

[break][break] his head tilts.

[break][break] "how is your research coming along?"

[attr="class","oocnotes"]

Naomi Sato

[break] + social
[break]

[attr="class","credit"]☉

[attr="class","jayjaytop"]

[attr="class","body"] jayden nods.

[break][break] "it's actually why i wanted to meet with you today too. i'm also willing, if you're in need of volunteers."

[break][break] perhaps there was something unorthodox about upper brass offering up their bodies for science, but it could never be said that jayden was not willing to do whatever it took as long it was for the greater good for rocket. since the beginning, he'd always been willing to die on their sword.

[break][break] "agreed," he said, with another nod. it was where Felix Gallagher and Belial Stone were taking the SPECTRA initiative. an elite tactical force that could be used to take down legendaries or avatars, among other things. "have you gotten the chance to test bryan delarosa?" after all — the beast had been one of the initial test subjects for MAGMA.

[break][break] jayden's gaze follows the unknown-w as it floats around the room. while he's always been ambivalent to them, one way or another, he did appreciate that were others who felt more fondly towards them.

[break][break] and of course, one could not deny their connection with the drk triad and their resulting power.

[break][break] "can i see?"

[break][break] his shiny umbreon meanwhile pads over to the corner of the room, sniffing at one of the machines, before leaping back when it beeps at her. jayden clicks at her in disappointment, and she skirts over to the room, instead going to observe some crystabloom hearts in a glass case.

[break][break] "i've been wondering if there are any developments in our search for dialga or palkia." he recalled his conversation with Cillian Quinn, where he had been concerned over their location and whether the drk triad were in danger of obtaining them. even worse, the league. "with the rifts still opening up everywhere, it continues to be an increasing concern."

[break][break] his brow furrowed deeply.

[attr="class","oocnotes"]

Naomi Sato

[break] + social
[break]

[attr="class","credit"]☉

[attr="class","jayjaytop"]

[attr="class","body"] legendary pokemon were fickle. jayden didn't know as much about them as others, but from his minimal interactions with them, it was easy to see.

[break][break] "that's good."

[break][break] experimentation didn't seem as threatening for him as it would for others, considering his upbringing. jayden had always been a cog in rocket's machine, and giving his body up for science didn't seem to complicate matters. it was more of a reasoning of whether or not he would be useful to Naomi Sato — after all, unlike avatars, he was merely human.

[break][break] when the notebook is handed to him, jayden peruses it with interest. he may not have been an official rocket scientist, but growing up under dmitri's tutelage made it easier to go over the notes. even if he didn't quite understand all of Naomi Sato's shorthand.

[break][break] his head tilts towards the unknown as she mentions them, reminding him of his conversation with oscar clayton once. "perhaps," he said. "at the very least, i think there is something to look into there. have i told you of the time i went to the barrier with mint frost? we used a z-move on it while it was up."

[break][break] briefly, he recounts to her the tales of the event. it wasn't anything that she wouldn't have already known, likely having perused all of the available reports on unknown, but it was evidence that the powers of dialga and palkia, somehow, were intricately tied to the innate power of the unknown. like a string of fate, they were wound together tightly — a patchwork of alternate universes waiting to unfold.

[break][break] "either way," he said, with a ghost of a smile. "let me know if there's anything i can do to help. i'll continue on looking for more unknown for your research."

[break][break] he handed the book back to her.

[break][break] this was the moment where he knew he should turn away, their work complete. however, her reminder of the dream mist had set a furrow to his brow — the reminder of all that he could not remember.

[break][break] the reminder of the brother that he'd thought was dead.

[break][break] that was dead.

[break]

[attr="class","oocnotes"]

Naomi Sato

[break] + social
[break]

[attr="class","credit"]☉

[attr="class","jayjaytop"]

[attr="class","body"] with Naomi Sato's words, jayden nodded. there was probably a lot more insight that a scientist could glean from such discoveries than him, but he was always glad to assist wherever he could.

[break][break] still the idea of universes were... troubling. not troubling — just difficult to grasp. even having seen them for himself in the cyber space had not quite prepared him for grasping them.

[break][break] his eyes drifted over to the unown-W. what a peculiar creature.

[break][break] "so you think they're spies?"

[break][break] lips turned into a frown. though perhaps spies was the wrong term - that would imply that arceus was not on rocket's side. to which... jayden was not sure if he enjoyed that interpretation.

[break][break] either way, those were things better left to scientists. as long as it meant that the league did not get their hand on them, jayden would assist however he could. the admin made a mark to leave, only pausing when nomi called him back.

[break][break] he blinked, before softening. "i -" he started, unsure how to word this. "how was the ultra deep sea, for you?" reflexively, his hand went to his shoulder — where the bandages from angelo vestri's injury still tightened. the pain surged through him. "the interdream mist?"

[break]

[attr="class","oocnotes"]

Naomi Sato

[break] + social
[break]

[attr="class","credit"]☉

[attr="class","jayjaytop"]

[attr="class","body"] And therin lay the the question.

[break][break] Was it a matter of loyalty or power? What would be the thing that allowed the Unown to ally themselves with Rocket instead of the organization that they were currently with? What had the Drk Triad done to them to form that bond? Was it a bond that could be broken?

[break][break] But those were questions of a higher authority. Questions that Jayden lay Rocket's Science division to unravel. He had the utmost faith in Naomi Sato that she would be able to do so — and so he let the question lay to rest.

[break][break] As the question turns to Kanto, the air shifts. It is in a subtle way, one that not even Jayden is aware of. Where other people's memories are always fraught with trauma when referring to Rocket's origin point, Jayden usually finds only comfort. It is his family after all, his home.

[break][break] But he looks at Nomi now, thinking of the things he saw in his version of the Ultra Deep Sea, and the things that he unknowingly subjected fern delaney to.

[break][break] 'They were murdered. By their own test subjects.'

[break][break] It seemed that Naomi Sato had her own terrors as well.

[break][break] His lips turned into an upside down crescent moon and he stepped forward to close the distance between them both. He was reminded of the time spent with Ashley Shepard before the raid began, and the moment that had been shared between them both.

[break][break] "I'm sorry."

[break][break] Was he sorry because he hadn't known? Was he sorry because now he had?

[break][break] Silently, wordlessly, Jayden pulled his sister into a one-armed hug.

[break]

[attr="class","oocnotes"]

Naomi Sato

[break] + social
[break]

[attr="class","credit"]☉

[attr="class","jayjaytop"]

[attr="class","body"] Hugging her felt awkward.

[break][break] It was not at all like the hugs that he shared with fern delaney or even mint frost, because it was him who had initiated it. Yet, at the same time, something had tugged at him. Something had told him that it was the right thing to do, the thing that he ought to do.

[break][break] Was this how Cillian Quinn had felt on that fateful day, alongside the summertide beach, as his heart crumbled to dust in front of his brother?

[break][break] 'I don't hate them.'

[break][break] Relief, unexpected, ballooned in his chest. Though his own feelings towards them was complicated at best, Jayden had the feeling that he would have felt discomfort at knowing that this was something his sister detested as well. After all, in some ways, it was his alma-mater. It was the place that he had grown in, had been raised in, forged in the fires like a piece of glittering coal.

[break][break] He pulls back from the hug, looking down at her as she confessed her feelings. There was something soft about the way he looked at her then, a mingling concern and hope and determination. A hand brushed gently against pink bangs, placed atop her head.

[break][break] "We're your family now, Nomi."

[break]

[attr="class","oocnotes"]

Naomi Sato

[break] + social
[break]

[attr="class","credit"]☉