”fuck!” she jumped, nearly knocking the coffee over. it was late, and she hadn’t expected anyone to sneak up on her.[break][break]

when she looked towards the culprit, her eyes went wide–not with fury, but with pleasant surprise, or shock more like.[break][break]

”oscar!” she wanted to hug him, strangely for her, but refrained, opting to simply stand there gawking instead. he looked fantastic. how?[break][break]

remembering his question briefly, she began to explain, ”it’s um… oh shit, never mind that for a minute! i owe you such an apology for leaving, oscar.” she’d simply disappeared without leaving any notice–but it had been for his safety. the same reason she had not told Naomi Sato and other colleagues she’d grown fond of.[break][break]

”does the coffee mean you forgive me, i hope? unless it’s poison, in which case… fair enough.” she sighed, then, low energy only able to sustain so much excitement. ”gods, it’s good to see you.”[break][break]

what glowed in front of her was a curio–a hologram of the unown report, that she’d been scrolling through, provided by the rks system. across the table was a journal and a few folders, open with their contents scattered. they spanned an array of topics regarding the multiverse and theoretical physics, both in her scarcely legible scrawl and in other handwriting.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]oscar clayton [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-marshadow"]

he wasn’t angry at her. she was relieved and thrilled to hear, smiling back and reaching for the coffee to test its heat. ”thanks. it was still a little hot to sip, but a good hand warmer in the cold of the labs.[break][break]

his words meant they were working together again, simple as that. she had no objections.[break][break]

”well, there are still the labs in sootopolis—both my own at home, and the larger facility on land. i’ve just been doing a lot of my work here.” primarily because the rks simulator was on the submarine.[break][break]

”mind? not at all. i’m always happy to have you along for anything scientific.” sincere words she could not say in honesty to many others.[break][break]

her attention returned to the hologram in front of her. ”this is a curio. it’s a digital copy of the unown report we were able to obtain from the rks system. are you familiar?”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]oscar clayton [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-marshadow"]

”you may not be too fond of it, then. the more i learn about the rks system, the more it seems as though the drk triad are interacting with us through it somehow.”[break][break]

she thought of the workshop, the hexenzirkel, the clothing store in mauville–which, come to think of, she had never gone to investigate to see if it was really there or not. she made a mental note to do so later.[break][break]
”the rks machine works using objects we call ‘seal stones’, brought back from the wilds,” she explained. ”users are immersed in a seemingly limited handful of simulations, of moments, perhaps in history, or in the future, or… in alternate realities, assuming any of it ever happened, or will happen at all…”[break][break]
she blinked, realizing she was still scrolling through the curio on auto-pilot. her hand stilled before crossing into the crook of her elbow as she crossed her arms, pensively.[break][break]
”a few peculiar things about it: i haven’t been able to decipher why or how a particular simulation runs instead of the others; nor have i been able to figure out how to run the same simulation over again, on-command. The system fires randomly with no discernably logical coordinates.”[break][break]
”that, and the simulations heavily feature members of the drk triad, like father winter–and strange things happen, that make you wonder if what you’re experiencing might not be just a simulation, but… real, in some way...”[break][break]
she paused at length. it was a lot to share and to ponder over. her gaze left the projection to meet oscar’s ruby eyes, ignoring his irritation amidst the daze of her own wondering.[break][break]
there was one last, particularly thrilling detail that could not go unshared.[break][break]
”Naomi Sato believes it will lead us to arceus.”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]oscar clayton [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-marshadow"]

there were surely plenty of other threats worth worrying about, but she didn’t let the topic of arceus go just yet.[break][break]

“i don’t think the drk triad follows our arceus at all. it must belong to a different universe… which raises the question: where is ours?”[break][break]

had it died, or abandoned them? was it trapped elsewhere? surely, it could not be free and capable of protecting its own universe, or it would have done something by now, as other-wordly gods pierced the fabric of their reality.[break][break]

she remembered the light in the telescope, fading away into time and unfathomably distant stars. perhaps it had been arceus’s back turned, having left very long ago.[break][break]

or, perhaps even the most powerful gods made mistakes or succumbed to their nature, whatever it was, and when they did, they did things like end universes and total existences.[break][break]

“maybe there’s something wrong with our arceus, if it’s even still around.”[break][break]

finally, she let up about gods and universes, and came back down to earth.[break][break]

”i’ve been…” terrified. exhausted. working too hard. losing my mind. take your pick. ”fine. deep in my work.” deep as ever. ”you remember the dream machine?”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]oscar clayton [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-marshadow"]

“safe and sound,” she confirmed about the porygon-z. ”thank you for your help.”[break][break]

she smiled at his curiosity about the project, feeling a swell of pride at what she had built.[break][break]

“the project is going very well. nearly complete, i believe. just waiting to get my hands on a seal stone.”[break][break]

something Naomi Sato had agreed to help her with.[break][break]

”you’ll be one of the first to know when it’s up and running.”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]oscar clayton [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-marshadow"]

the thought of rocket claiming the dream world, perhaps a part of the collective imagination itself, felt wrong and dystopian. nonetheless, she responded after only the briefest pause, ”of course. happy to have you on board.”[break][break]

a funny thing, her mind echoed as her smile faded with concern, despite herself.[break][break]

when oscar seemed to prepare to leave, she felt some relief. she needed to go and have a drink, and process her newest worry. but then came the invitation, and she could not turn down dinner with such a good friend and colleague, when she so rarely went out.[break][break]

”of course,” she repeated, still a little distant. ”i mean, no, i’m done for the day. let’s go.” she forced another smile, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.[break][break]

they’d leave to have dinner. she would have three glasses of tequila, and she would still not mention the machine again unless he brought it up. not until another day.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]oscar clayton [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-marshadow"]