”smells good.”

she sat nearby at the center island, watching him cook with her chin in her hand. it was a skill she still had not picked up, though to be fair, her efforts had not been great. at most, she would microwave something out of the minifridge on the sub for lunch.

this was so... domestic.

the news.

”i was able to hack league computers. of course, they already know about other dimensions.” and she’d called that one, hadn’t she? “they’ve listed one as ‘sea hoenn’. apparently, they want to warp the meteoroid there because it’s hostile.”

Cillian Quinn

☉

it wasn’t exactly anything to laugh at, but her brother’s amusement was contagious. she grinned a little, but it soon faded. as ridiculous as the name was, it held some alarming clues.

”no, that’s all that one said. just: ‘hostile’.”

she shrugged.

”i’d guess it’s very similar to our hoenn, from the name... perhaps underwater?” she paused. ”bet it’s not the only one they know about it. i was only able to pull things related to the meteoroid.”

Cillian Quinn

☉

her eyes did linger briefly on his face at the mention of water. she might not have known about the incident, but his fear hadn’t always been so hidden. there had, at least, been that day when genesect had breached the hull. 

”m.” perhaps there was some modicum of comfort to be found in knowing any other entity had a plan in the works to save them all, even if it was a bizarre kill-two-birds-with-one-stone-and-sweep-them-all-under-the-rug sort of situation.

”not yet, but they’re trying with primal energy.” she shook her head. ”i haven’t even shared with you all our findings lately. there’s so much energy in hoenn, cillian... it’s acting like a beacon to other worlds...” but more on that later. she hadn’t exactly consulted with her brother before visiting jules cotillard.

she cleared her throat and played with a cuticle, gaze drifting towards the window. the horizon.

”if this ‘sea hoenn’ is hostile, that likely means it’s inhabited. even i’m not sure we should be just... forwarding our apocalypse to someone else. especially with the spacetime distortions opening up, and all of their strange phenomena. what if sea hoenn is tied to our own in some way?” like, an alternate universe? those theories were more and more prominent lately.

Cillian Quinn

☉

back in kanto? she vaguely recalled days on the edges of battlefields, herself—far before rocket. the noise, the adrenaline, the danger. war. only, theirs had stretched on for longer than three days. it was really saying something that the memory of it seemed safer than whatever they had to face now.

”hm.” a light hum, as though she’d tasted a flavor she wasn’t sure about.

was it common for the dimensions to be tied together?

”well... in theory, when it comes to the origin of parallel universes, one event could extend outward like a ripple through spacetime in all directions, splitting off and multiplying at each possible outcome.” she hadn’t thought about things like this so much since she’d sworn off hallucinogens. echoing FERNANDO SILPH in surely some bitter stroke of irony, she asked, ”you’re familiar with schrödinger’s delcatty?”

of course he was.

”what if it comes back to haunt us like a boomerang? if this is how things are, there must be repercussions to creating rifts in such a fabric. in our world, other worlds are a new discovery. this is the first one, presumably, we’ll have tried to end. past this, are all possible outcomes of both that discovery, and that damning decision. a shot fired across the multiverse.”

in other words: the beginning of utter chaos. the beginning of the end.

Cillian Quinn

☉

though tact was something she had shown to be able to use occasionally, it wasn’t something she just carried around with her wherever—especially not in the home of her own blood. her older brother would just have to live with the paranoia she had dragged in.

better to take a chance on the unknown? or the unown? she squinted at him briefly.

”look: i’m not suggesting we base every decision on a theory. i’m just saying, maybe destroying another world might come back to bite us in the ass, somehow, all things considered.”

with a sigh, she leaned onto both elbows, lacing fingers on the cool countertop. things were getting serious. there was a moment of silence. hesitation. when she started, it came out almost too quickly.

”i saw dialga. i thought it was a dream, but it all makes sense. palkia must be here too. the aliens are with them somehow, cillian.”

she paused. one last, brief moment to consider if she really wanted to go this road.

yeah.

”i think walsh is one of them.”

Cillian Quinn

☉

he’d seen dialga. the look that happened in her eyes was like something snapping together. solidifying. puzzle pieces, for wrong or for right. ”the same thing happened to me.” but more on that later.

he offered her the bottle, and she tilted it up without a glass without a second thought. she had sworn off drinking around him, at least for a while, after last time. feelings. crying. familial i love you’s. she did her best to block it out.

but this called for a drink. she set the bottle down, staring at him a moment before elaborating.

”his powers are different than mine, for one. what he was doing with the shadows in the tree? i can’t do that. what else can he do?”

”walsh’s whole mission has been harvesting as much energy as he can. which is profitable, sure, but that’s why the megalopolans were here. energy. and others can see it. we’re a fucking beacon to all the worlds around us and beyond.” she grabbed the bottle, taking another swig. the next part even she knew sounded crazy. ”i think walsh is an alien imposter. if you knew him in kanto, this is not the same guy. he’s been abducted. also, this one wants to kill me—probably because i’m onto him.”

she held the bottle, staring.

”i’ve seen you shoot me in the head in your nightmares, cillian. if i should disappear, now would be the time to tell me, but let me remind you i am building a spacecraft to try and save your life.”

Cillian Quinn

☉

so there was more?

she nodded, not even mentioning that he’d used the wrong name. he looked terrified—more so than she’d ever seen before. it was unsettling.

”okay, yeah. i promise.”

Cillian Quinn

☉