is this normal? they've been wandering the mechanical wonderland for about ten minutes now, enthralled. anyone else might have shown fear, given the current circumstances, but instead of fear their eyes sparkle with wonder behind their pink frames. at their side trails a small cyndaquil, holding nervously onto their pants leg to avoid being separated. sometimes little flammula has to wonder if there's anything going on inside their trainer's head at all.

nikola vaguely remember something about rifts they'd heard on the news. if they've managed to stumble into one, then it's their duty as a citizen of the hoenn region to investigate it, right?

without looking, they've wandered out onto a massive gear that is slowly turning under their feet. they feel their center of gravity shifting, but before they can react, they find themself falling. their cyndaquil squeaks in shock as, due to the fact that he's holding onto their leg, he tumbles after them. thankfully, the ground is only a few feet away. they hit hard, the wind knocking out of them, and roll a few more feet where the ground is on a slight incline.

and when they open their eyes again, they realize they've rolled into the feet of a stranger.

nikola gives a cheerful little wave from the ground. "hello!"

[ Camellia Lemaitre ]

nikola blinks up at the woman. they look around where they landed, then back at her, as if she's the stupid one. "lying here," they explain. well, she asked what they were doing, and that's exactly what they're doing, right? it doesn't occur to them that she's asking a less literal question.

they sit up with a 'hup', checking over themself for any sign of injury. aside from some pain in their back and neck, they seem to be fine. next they turn to flammula, who's staring at camellia. "you okay, little flame?" nikola asks their pokemon. the cyndaquil realizes it's being addressed and gives a careful nod, eyes now on camellia's runerigus. it's never seen that sort of pokemon before, and it's a little in awe and a little frightened.

nikola fixes the position of their glasses on their face. "are you lost as well? or are you here on purpose?" there's no deception to be seen on their face. either they're a very good liar, or they're as much of an open book as they seem to be.

[ Camellia Lemaitre ]

they get to their feet, brushing the seat of their pants off. "i see, i see," nikola says, nodding thoughtfully. "you're having better luck than me, then. i'm not sure how to get back home from here." good thing they didn't have any appointments to keep... "i heard a pokemon cry i've never heard before. i followed it here..." they sigh. "and, well, here i am. it's quite a conundrum... i'm a scientist, not a cartographer." as if cartography would have any application in whatever alternate dimension they'd landed themself in.

for a scientist, they seem a little... air-headed. but many scientists were a little odd in the head, weren't they? something about being locked up with all those fumes and chemicals made people lose sight of reality.

"if you're here for a reason, maybe i can help." nikola suggests, pushing their glasses up again with two fingers. "and then maaaybe... you can help me get out of here? you scratch my dog, i'll scratch yours?" back. it's supposed to be back. they have a bad habit of mixing up sayings so they become malapropisms.

[ Camellia Lemaitre ]

nikola pauses, brows furrowed. "it's back? are you sure? that seems awfully intimate."

then they focus, shaking their head. "...right! well, it was actually right before i ended up here." it had been very distant, but it had intrigued them enough that they'd tried to follow it. their tendency to get distracted has led them into a number of unpleasant situations, but this one certainly takes the cake for the strangest incident. "i thought it was very odd, because i am very familiar with pokemon cries. typically i can tell exactly what pokemon is making them. but this time, i really had no clue." they shrug. "the odds of finding it by now are disastrously low, unfortunately. surely it would hear us coming, even if we managed to track it down."

flammula is currently trying to avoid making eye contact with camellia's runerigus all while staring in shock at it.

[ Camellia Lemaitre ]

nikola rips off a smart salute. are they really as foolish as they seem, or are they just a wiseass? "yes, ma'am!"

they pick flammula up off the ground and start to walk. around them, they can hear the grinding of various gears and what sounds like the ticking of a clock. nikola's eyes remain big as they walk, fascinated by everything around them. who built it? where did it come from? and where did everyone go? is it really possible for there to be a world full of mechanism-based lifeforms with no need for water or food? nikola supposes they should just count their blessings that there's air here.

they continue to move until they reach what seems to be a dead end. it's another massive gear, similar to the one nikola fell off earlier. they look at it thoughtfully. "...if we time it right, we could probably hop on and let it carry us up," they tell camellia. "we just have to be careful. i'll be the test subject and go first!"

when the gear is in the right position, they climb onto it, wobbling a bit at first. it goes up, up... and when it's time, nikola and flammula scramble off. they give camellia a wave from above to signify that it's safe.

[ Camellia Lemaitre ]

as camellia makes her way up, nikola holds out a hand to help steady her when she seems to stumble. they retract it almost immediately, though, at the sound of the metal clang coming from behind them. "oh!" they don't seem concerned. not anywhere near as concerned as their cyndaquil, who's clinging tightly to their pant leg. before the metagross even appears, nikola has identified it based purely on the sound it made. "that'll be a metagross coming up!" looks like they weren't exaggerating their knowledge of pokemon cries.

they turn around, slowly, hands out in front of them. i wonder when the last time is that it saw an organic being... it's eyeing them up, as if trying to decide whether they're a threat or not. flammula hides behind nikola, not wanting the steel type to see him. a fire type could easily be seen as a potential danger, after all.

nikola's brow furrows. "what now...?" they whisper in an aside to camellia.

[ Camellia Lemaitre ]

nikola remains still, watching the battle commence with wide eyes. the massive steel type is intimidating enough to make even nikola hesitate, given that they have little to no experience in battle and their only pokemon is currently cowering behind their leg. camellia at least seems confident in her ability to fight off the mechanical beast, so nikola just... leaves her to it, assuming they'd just get in her way.

flammula seems to be watching aptly too, peeking out from around his trainer. he's both interested in and afraid of the much larger opponent, having never seen anything like it before. "...whoo! go camellia!" nikola cheers quietly.

[ Camellia Lemaitre ]