Thrice they've visited the border between life and death and thrice death's skeletal touch just barely grazed Penelope's consciousness. There was no escaping the danger that loomed around them; only through embracing it could they withstand the spirits that threatened their existence.
[break][break]
"Is that..."
[break][break]
Upon entering the familiar cavern, the councilwoman noticed the vortex of swirling wisps kyle lopez was referring to. Burning yellow, orange, and red, the vestigial spirits assembled once more, forming what looked to the familiar shape of a fish with two liquid black eyes encrusted by large jade beads. The same jade beads MATIAS SILPH and her had agreed to bring along with them.
[break][break]
Again, they met within the border between life and death, behind the same waterfall as before, as if there was some external force tethering their presences together.
[break][break]
"What do you think of it," her question held no ties with anyone in particular. Just one to be left open, both for their group and herself, who held no real answer to share.
[break][break]
Part of her hated it.
[break][break]
Hated the feelings of ENVY the piece of jade evoked out of her.
[break][break]
Hated the situation these spirits were placed under.
[break][break]
Hated the entire realm which felt hellbent on clawing her back down to the early coffin awaiting her arrival.
[break][break]
But, another part felt warmth within it's familiarity. Warmth within the fact that the emotions to which the fish drew out from her were pure. Unfiltered. Real. They were pieces of the truth she'd kept locked away, hidden from even herself.
[break][break]
Seeing it here, embodied by a spirit to which held no name, was almost relieving. Like the emotions she felt were justified, understood by another.
[break][break]
Hand tightly clutching the shard of JADE impressed into her palm, Penelope could feel the heat leak out from the gem, dripping ever-so-slowly, until it reached her shoulder, then her chest. Until it consumed her entirely.
[break][break]
Only this time, she doesn't allow the allure of its intimacy to tug her along. She stood her ground, two feet planted into the ground, wide apart, ready to stand against the very shadow that haunted her.
[break][break]
"Milotic," she called out to her pokemon, who had been born from one of the poke balls tied around her waist, "HYDRO PUMP."
[break][break]
A pillar of pressurized water spiraled out from the water type's mouth, looking to take aim at the unknown Pokémon's still-forming body. By the time it made contact, the creature had nearly formed the end of its tail.
[break][break]
"Try to distract it. If I can get close enough, maybe I can cleanse it with one of those tags we brought."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez noah faber MATIAS SILPH [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-ditto"]

[attr="class","icon"]

their fourth trip back does not make it any easier. any less frustrating when he feels the familiar tinge of ENVY rising, prickling the back of his neck. he stifles it with a feigned yawn before turning to look at the spirit of CHI-YU that once again greets them.[break][break]

except this time, they're prepared.[break][break]

"we will restrain it while you cleanse it."[break][break]

PENELOPE LIVY has a lot to make up for, after all.[break][break]

VIRIZION rushes past them, charging ahead with her LEAF BLADE that cuts across the forming spirits, dwindling them down while matias conjures up a WALL OF EARTH that encases around the spirits.[break][break]

he briefly glances over at noah faber.[break][break]

"glad you could join us, by the way."

[attr="class","bottom"]kyle lopez PENELOPE LIVY noah faber[break]

[attr="class","icon"]

envy claims noah too. it grasps him by the throat. suffocates air and ego as he finds himself surrounded by hoenn's finest like an infant cufant encircled by copperajah.[break][break]

if he could be like them, he'd remain composed. calm. all cool-like in his first foray into the lifeless frontier. as spirits stream toward them like venous scarves, stratagem and script flows from PENELOPE LIVY, kyle lopez, and MATIAS SILPH as rehearsed.[break][break]

noah struggles to remember his lines in time. all too quickly, MATIAS SILPH grants him his cue.[break][break]

"a-ah, yeah man. glad to be here!" noah's sucks in breath and wonders if he has sucked in his soul too. "c'mon leonard!"[break][break]

his annihilape's shackles clang against the foggy floor. a RAGE FIST collides with a bundle of spectres to disperse them into a bouquet of gasps. it stomps toward the forming chi-yu spirit: a ghostcraft's cacophany.

[attr="class","bottom"]MATIAS SILPH kyle lopez PENELOPE LIVY[break][break]

"Got it!"
[break][break]
With a cleansing tag in one hand, and the jade bead in the other, Penelope cautiously descended down from their position, taking cover behind a small wall of stacked rock. Even with her back pressed up against the cool rock, she could hear the whizzing of wind overhead as attack after attack propelled itself through the air, like arrows dawning on their mark.
[break][break]
Her heartbeat was pounding heavily into her ears. With every beat, it reminded her the same truths she'd already been explained to tenfolds; that she'd never be as strong as them; that she was only here because of them; that there was no comparing herself to them.
[break][break]
Even noah faber , who'd just joined the fray, was well respected for his tenure as gym leader and made heavy contributions towards their combined efforts here, without any explanation necessary. What has Penelope done? Both here and at home?
[break][break]
'I spoke the truth,' she always told herself, 'i did what no one else could, or wanted to do.'
[break][break]
But what was the Truth? What lay hidden behind this insistent memory that stuck onto the back of her tongue whenever her eyes caught sight of that same malicious fish?
[break][break]
She swallowed down these thoughts, forced back to reality by kyle lopez 's cry for his smeargle to attack. This was her cue to go.
[break][break]
Gravel crackled beneath her softened footsteps. The closer the councilwoman drew to the now-ensnared Pokémon, the further she enclosed herself to the ENVY that tore at her skin and sucked on her bones. Hungry, the feelings were, a pack of wolves salivating at the thought of a feast. That hunger -- how different was it from what she felt?
[break][break]
Despite herself growing closer to the spirit, it never made any efforts to move or thrash about in kyle lopez 's grip. Rather, it kept its blank, liquid black eyes trained onto her, spotlights maintaining sight of its target. Frowning, Penelope dropped the sharp jade bead and reached her hand out from her pocket, keeping it tight around the cleansing tag instead.
[break][break]
"Sorry about the bead," she murmured, though her encroachment betrayed any semblance of an apology. Once again, she was here to take from the spirit, only this time it would be done intentionally.
[break][break]
But, when the space between them dwindled down to a mere foot, for the first time since they originally met, Penelope was truly able to stare back into the saucer-wide eyes and catch glimpse of colors beyond the obsidian black she'd originally tied to it.
[break][break]
Flickers of red danced within its eyes, a hue far different than the one the Pokémon donned itself. This specific collection of red reminisced of another; one whose skin kept to a pale white, and whose eyes bore ringlets of orange and yellow. One who wore a face of green and reached far beyond the boundary of possibilities, even when deemed harmful. One who found it justifiable to risk every piece within her arsenal if it meant securing the brief legacy of transforming a single pawn into a queen. One who felt desperate and hopeless and craved the security of power those around her wielded so effortlessly. One who sought validation for the part of herself she sacrificed for the woman that now stared back at her, jaw slacked and eyes widened, a contortion of the hero she'd always paraded herself to be.
[break][break]
In one singular instance, everything clicked.
[break][break]
The familiarity, the sickly magnetic pull she had always felt -- since the beginning she was already lost.
[break][break]
"Ack!"
[break][break]
Penelope shoved the cleansing tag onto the spirit. Instincts drove her into taking aim at its eye; a preventive measure to block the howling truth that stood so obnoxiously in front of her.
[break][break]
At first, nothing happened. The fish still swam in its place, and Penelope's fingers still grazed its eye, light with its touch. Then, a second later, the world around her evaporated completely. All that remained were splatters of crimson against a dome of midnight blue.
[break][break]
The more the councilwoman sought answers within its color, the more this newfound world took shape, morphing into what looked to be a Hoenn scorched and marred by chasm and withering. Dead Pokémon and people bestrew its terrain.  Memories of their ambition were still painted onto their fixed expressions of horror and wrought-out despair.
[break][break]
"What the fuck is this?!"
[break][break]
Fear clung to her words. The more she looked around, the more her legs began to wobble, mere sticks bending against the weight that'd been thrown onto her. Beyond just the Pokémon and trainers she'd found, legends were sunk into the crusted ground as well. They, too, fell useless against whatever had struck the region. Fallen Gods laying among men. 
[break][break]
Just as she was about to approach one, another flash of light enveloped her. And, just like that, Penelope had returned. 
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] noah faber kyle lopez MATIAS SILPH [break]


- penny approaches fish and cleanses its eye [break] - sees future from CYBER CHASE (?), unsure what to make of it

[attr="class","icon"]

from matias' point of view, all PENELOPE LIVY had done is slap the CLEANSING TAG onto the gathering spirit. he's concerned at first given how her reaction is to stand perfectly still and not react to it disappearing, but he figures it must be because she's going through something.[break][break]

regardless of whether it's real or in her head, he will make sure to support her.[break][break]

"good job, team."[break][break]

he approaches, waving his hand over the dropped JADE BEAD that rises with the earth right into his palm.[break][break]

stopping behind PENELOPE LIVY, he questions:[break][break]

"you good?"

[attr="class","bottom"]kyle lopez PENELOPE LIVY noah faber[break]

[attr="class","icon"]

the spirit takes form, coalescing into a shape so wholly unfamiliar.[break][break]

although kyle brims with bravery nearby, fear overtakes envy. fear looks him straight in the eye. the quivering fish and its protuberant scope seems less pokemon. more primordial force. despite its size.[break][break]

noah's ANNIHILAPE dives out of a PHANTOM FORCE. another clang of a manacle! an encroaching spirit scatters like an extinguished candle. and finally, the CLEANSING TAG is administered.[break][break]

"we did it?" [break][break]

noah's mouth is dry. he wipes his brow and gulps down air.[break][break]

"the tag worked! that's wild, man... she okay?" noah taps kyle should he be unaware of penelope's brief stasis; he runs toward matias and the councilwoman, wisps of ethereal fog torn by his ankles.

08 experience immense grudgefulness, fear, envy, or hatred.

[attr="class","bottom"]MATIAS SILPH kyle lopez PENELOPE LIVY[break][break]
TL;DR - noah grows fearful from envy / annihilape continues to defend against spirits / moves to check on penelope[break]

The world was a kaleidoscope of glistening colors forced clear. All at once, the burden of reality seeped into her body, starting with a heavy gasp of air and ending with a fierce shudder that forced her into a slight jump.
[break][break]

"Fuck!"
[break][break]


Matias' sudden appearance could only be answered with a near swing of her arm, which was only stopped by forcing it downward.
[break][break]


"Don't scare me like that," Penelope hissed. Her nerves were still on edge - static sent awry. It was hard to keep calm after witnessing the hollowed remnants of those she'd once called friends. "I'm fine."
[break][break]


"we have each other's backs, you included, so you can always rely on us whenever you need to."
[break][break]


The crack of Matias' words came barreling into her mind; a brief memory of a simpler time spent together. It was enough to keep her grounded, breathing. With one final huff, she forced out another shudder from her spine, then looked up with what could only be described as a wounded expression.
[break][break]


"Sorry. I just..." Her words trailed off without a destination in sight. It was hard, facing what she'd just experienced, but with kyle lopez and noah faber 's far-off silhouette in front of them, she found herself yearning for the same strength they shared with one another.
[break][break]


If only CIAN MAHER was here.
[break][break]


Stepping forward, she followed the couple, maintaining a healthy level of distance between herself and them. Just enough to provide a bit of privacy for what she was going to say next. "I saw a vision. Back there, I mean."
[break][break]


Frantic eyes glanced back at MATIAS SILPH .
[break][break]


"I saw Hoenn all burnt up. Piles and piles of dead bodies on the floor." She gulped. "Even some legendries were dead. Kyogre, Zekrom..."
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] kyle lopez noah faber MATIAS SILPH[break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-ditto"]

[attr="class","icon"]

with kyle lopez and noah faber leading the way, the two jade bead fanatics quickly follow after, not wanting to lose their silhouettes in the mist. the last thing any of them need is to get lost here.[break][break]

"you saw a vision."[break][break]

he mutters more so for himself to confirm he'd heard her right.[break][break]

the mention of kyogre and zekrom has him chuckling.[break][break]

"well, nothing lost there."[break][break]

but her demeanor and the way she had practically zoned out in the middle of combat is concerning, so he decides to take it seriously.[break][break]

"did you see any other legends? anything else that stuck out to you?"[break][break]

overhead, bridge-like structures tower over them though they seem to be falling apart. he has to step aside to avoid a falling chunk of it before calling out to the front of the group:[break][break]

"watch your heads!"[break][break]

31 encounter spiritual bridges that are slowly breaking apart, as if they are being stretched...

[attr="class","bottom"]kyle lopez PENELOPE LIVY noah faber[break]

[attr="class","icon"]

when penelope recounts the vision, noah pales. he had heard of the simulations, the perceived prophecy of the future terminal. though, he is unsure if that is what penelope refers to.[break][break]

"shit— i mean, crud, councilwoman livy. that's rough." noah says, unaware of kyle's own seership.[break][break]

MATIAS SILPH's warning comes quick. as the shadow of the ethereal bridge hovers above the party, the gym leader snaps to action.[break][break]

he lunges for kyle lopez. tackles him out of harms away as another bridge chunk collapses onto the foggy floor. the debris scatters about, scattering into spiritual lights.[break][break]

"thanks, matias." noah catches his breath. checks on his partner and lifting him upright. he notices that kyle is shaken, and he is quick to ask as his eyes scan the others for wellbeing. "did you see the same thing penelope did?"

🗺️ NOAH FABER's expertise as being a bodyguard &/or his fears of losing stability in life must be explored in some way.

[attr="class","bottom"]MATIAS SILPH kyle lopez PENELOPE LIVY[break][break]
TL;DR - noah responds to penelope and matias's warning, helps kyle dodge bridge piece, asks question[break]