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Traversing the astral sea of this world felt devoid of natural energies, devoid of the goddess that she had devoted every aspect of her life to serving vicariously. It lived up to its name with the sensations and quirks, she could acknowledge that much, but whoever named it that spit in the face of Oracelies's divination and beliefs; they spit in the face of the true deep sea, a place she considered a heart to the spirit. A heart to her world, hidden deep, deep below.[break][break]

The heartbeat that she could hear emanating, groaning from the eerie pulsations, was vastly different than the one she was used to. It strangely was synonymous with that of a living being, not tectonic shifts and cries, wretched. About a five-minute walk from the rift to the other side, the sea witch stood on the edge of a cliffside peering out to the endless abyss, holding out a hand to strum against the Dodonzo's levitating side. Why would a place like this be able to exist, so cold yet humid, so estranged from what she believed to be the most prevalent, vast, powerful force of the natural order?[break][break]

It was heartbreaking, only being able to feel such divine vibrance of the ocean crashing within the souls of herself and her oceanic companions. "Bacopa," she spoke softly to the golden fish, ".. conjure waves, evoke the spirit." Reaching into her knapsack to remove a cluster of small shells and stuff them inside of a giant conch, followed by seagrass and fragments of Wailord bone, she created a makeshift spell jar of devotion. As the fish's waves of water crashed through the air off the edge of the cliff, she tossed it inside, a wish to allow the spirit to bleed into the cracks of the strange world. A wish to feel protected, kissed by the goddess she channeled with each step she took, with each bubble that pushed outward.[break][break]

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She hadn’t been to this particular branch of Ultra Rift hell yet, but she thought, maybe, they were the exception to the seen ‘em once, seen ‘em all rule.

“Wow,” she said, looking out into the phthalate expanse, ears buzzing with the warbly-muffled sound of her own echoed voice, “this is literally James Cameron’s The Abyss.”

She said the words and didn’t have a single reaction. She would have felt immensely satisfied if she’d known.

Little tendrils of glowing Psyduckweed shifted and moved melodically to an unseen force, because there were no waves, there was no current; she tread carefully through the miniscule forest, careful not to step on anything, but unable to fight the urge to touch them gently with her booted toes.

ORACELIES SOLAR ’, who she’d joined up with by virtue of posing as some sort of protection (not that the woman needed it, but we all have niches to fill) detail, whipped out her big fucking fish and began to do some water magic.

The newly-added rushing waves contributed some normalcy to the ambiance, but she didn’t want to let herself get too comfortable. Just as her own heartbeat was syncing up with the weird, dissonant one around them, the little glowy weeds… stopped glowing, and receded into the ground with a series of tiny slurps.

“Ruh-roh, Scoob. That can’t be good.” She touched a Pokeball at her belt and summoned her Dusknoir, backing up so they were in proximity to Oracelies.



notes
+ 06 experience bioluminescent plants or pokemon suddenly douse their lights in response to a threat.
+ dusknoir out
+ sorry for the wait won't happen again ;3c

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At least the woman known to be ana fell was of high spirits in a place so bleak, referencing what she presumed to be filmographies that never made their way to her eyes before she had given up technology. Turning to face her with stillness upon her face, the big ass fish yawned as it floated through the skies, soaking in the strange crystalline scenery. The words that drifted out of her mouth were concerning, especially while witnessing the bioluminescence fade from the foreign plant life.[break][break]

"A change in pressure, perhaps," she said softly, pausing to meet the eyes of something lurking in the depths, ".. or we may have a visitor native to this plane coming to greet us." As she spotted the Nihilego that crept out of one of the cracks of the cliffside, she spit in its direction in complete shock; it was the same strange creature that she had faced at the battle of the resurfaced island, against that one man that seemed way too far gone. Was this, perhaps, one of the places the wretched leeches seduced their filthy companions?[break][break]

It was a disgusting tentacle creature, a strong one at that. "How vile," she sneered, tapping the side of the fish and climbing on its back. From up top there looked to be a green light in the distance- one that from far away looked to be just like the bioluminescent, a place where she presumed safety could reside. "A glow, 20 ticks away.. fighting a beast like that is not ideal." Holding a hand out to Ana as an offering to climb aboard, Oracelies could not help but look the tiniest bit paranoid.[break][break]

Hopefully, it was a coincidence and nothing more, for she did not wish to run into Team Rocket while on this peculiar journey.

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She didn’t have to be a genius to assume ORACELIES SOLAR hadn’t seen James Cameron’s The Abyss. Which was a shame, because it was an amazing movie, and she got the feeling Oracelies might like it. Just through a general, sea-witchy vibe.

“Cool,” she said, staring out at the miasmic space around them, trying to catch any sign of motion. But everything was moving, in that weird, eerie way the sea did, where it made catching anything out of the ordinary difficult and you didn’t see the Sharpedo until it was right on fucking top of you.

For a moment she was Saffron Burrows floating in the water in Deep Blue Sea and the super-powered Mega Sharpedo had paused briefly before consuming her.

Oracelies’ proclamation of vitriol shocked her out of her thoughts, and she turned, seeing the Nihilego and frowning. Something about it tickled the recesses of her mind, but she couldn’t quite place why-- which was a good thing, and it meant she would have to go back through and do some more rototilling, there, when next she got the opportunity.

Oracelies offered a hand and she took it with a mumble of thanks, clambering aboard the big, gold fish and petting a hand gently down its scales. “This thing is massive,” she said, appreciation in her voice driven by a love of sizable things, “where’d you get it?”

Zenaïs hovered closely in their wake as they made their way toward the glowy beacon in the distance.

“Hopefully this isn’t, like, a Gatsby-style premonition,” she said, forgetting, for a moment, that Oracelies had the vibe of someone who was allergic to pop culture. “Like, the big green light is a herald of bad things. Like a metaphorical bug zapper. And we’re the bugs.”

The Dondozo crested a small rise, which looked for all the world like the rest of the vaguely pthalo environment. It was only when they got close that the different in density was made apparent, and the belly of the whalefish disturbed sandy blue silt.

She squinted into the middle distance. There were little pockets of… slightly darker blue, that, had there been a real light source in the domain, would have had a cerulean-pitched iridescent sheen. As it was, when they filtered in front of the bioluminescent beacon in the distance, they reflected a teal-pitched rainbow for half a second.

“Bubbles,” she said, very acutely, pointing.



notes
+ setting up for 08 encounter toxic bubbles that are extremely dangerous to burst.
+ dusknoir out
+ we veluza on her toxic bubbles till she pop (?)

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Once the two were on the back of the big ass fish, Oracelies figured it wouldn't be too much longer until they bridged the gap to the glowing destination; and it helped calm her paranoia being that Ana was quite chatty, seemingly not brought to become dull like the blasphemous scenery around them. "I met them at a lake in Alola, not too far from my family's territories," she said softly, tapping the side of the fish to guide it one cryptic way or another, ".. she is representative of my mother's symbolic occultism, matching the mark that she was given at birth." Though the sea witch was quite stoic and serious-natured, rambling about her beliefs brought out the little bit of whimsy she had left.[break][break]

"I know that reference, believe it or not," she chuckled, ".. it was one of my favorite movies back when I was a singer in Kalos." Though she did not like to bring up her past endeavors of being a corporate r&b star, it was hard not to. She wanted to at least reciprocate on one of the references she knew in the sea of unknowingness, especially as the motifs presented could prove true here; it worried her a bit, thinking about the green light that shone on the docks. "I hope our dreams of safety are not out of reach, as were Gatsby's when he saw the green light time and time again."[break][break]

As the Dodonzo drifted closer to the output of bioluminescent light, the kaleidoscope of colors cast out through the bubbles was strange- quite different than the ones in the mother sea, at that. "Hm.." she responded as she looked upon them, confused, curious. Naive. Removing a seashell from her knapsack as the golden fish delicately passed through them, the sea witch turned to face one of the bubbles that were rising and threw it, clacking against its bulbous side. Once striking, it exploded like a toxic bomb- one that sent a shockwave enough to shake up the water type as it worriedly floated to a walkable surface.[break][break]

But the explosion seemed to draw out more of the Nihilego, curious about what caused the disturbance. "Fuck." She sighed, sliding off the back of the rather terrified oceanic spirit onto one of the floating islands. There were three of the strange tentacle creatures floating around, closer and closer in their odd, emotionless manners. "Curiosity got the best of me, I sincerely apologize," the witch shrugged, picking up a sharp shard of rock, ".. fuck the green light, I guess. Bacopa, strike them down."[break][break]

And with that command, the big fucking fish hesitantly cast another round of CRASHING WAVES in an attempt to drown them.

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Somewhere between the weird expanse of blue hues around them and Oracelies saying the words my family's territories she did a neck-snapping look that should have reverberated around them like a thunderclap. “Your family’s who-a-whatta?” she asked, tilting her head like a Houndour hearing a weird noise, struck by the sudden visage of nepotism and some rift on the Atlantis movie except instead of Kida haloed in holy moonlight, it was Oracelies, and her hair spilling like divine ink, a sacred oilslick.

Something in her head pinged uncomfortably-- the tickle of a memory trapped in some wretched, twisted up cobwebs, dangling at the back of the poor excuse of a consciousness she drove-- and she placed a hand on her forehead to stave off the wave of dizziness, a common occurrence, like quiet earthquakes shaking her bones, ever since she’d gone in and rustled up her mental foundations with unsanctioned neurosurgery.

“Don’t worry. I don’t know about you but I definitely don’t have enough main character energy to go out Gatsby style.” She shifted her palm to her cheek and smiled, weak but genuine.

They descended into a sort of peace for a moment, Zenais floating silently alongside the Dondozo as it swam through the nonexistent medium around them, occasionally going intangible to ghost through a bubble.

She watched Oracelies retrieved a small seashell from her pack, and was about to ask what she was going to do with those fancy castanets when she threw it with a delicate flick of her wrist. The swift, sharp motion of the projectile was in shrewd contrast to the way it struck a nearby bubble, which promptly exploded with a pop that was somehow deafening and muffled at the same time. A rancid cloud of ichor splurged from it, a ruptured artery foisting out its last dregs of blood pressure.

Her feet touched down moments after Oracelies, shakiness in her mind chased away by a surge of adrenaline.

“We can still make it there,” she said, backing away from a nearby Nihilego, struck abruptly by this sudden desire to not disappoint her new friend. “We just gotta book it. I’ll buy us some room. Zen, earthquake.”

The Dusknoir lifted her hands and then lowered them with a flattening of her palms, earthbender style. The landbridge-- which, for all the world, just looked like a slightly darker, more dense terrain than the indiscriminate blue around them-- began to wobble and shake. Sharp shards shot upward-- though what was up was difficult to tell in here-- puncturing pearlescent, pale bells, forcing out plumes of violet purulence that warbled like ink stains in the air.



notes
+ dusknoir uses earthquake on the nihilego!!!
+ im really poetic when im exhausted ig sorry

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Had the bubbles and the tentacle creatures that called this ungodly, wretched place not descended upon their peaceful drift into the unknown, Oracelies would have told the beautiful soul of a woman all about what encompassed being a member of the Solar bloodline. It brought her to be a witch more than all the other influences of the world, being familial tradition and ancient practice; nepotism in territories of coven lands and waterscapes, and fortune brought through living within small huts without air conditioning and sparce electricity. The peace taken from them would have been a good time to ask about Ana's placing her hand on her forehead, too.[break][break]

"The waves shall crash upon their cheeks, imbuing them with salt," she responded with a tongue in cheek, pulling clumps of mud to sculpt upon the rock that found its way into her hands, ".. we deuteragonists shall never meet such a fate, my words will never be proven false." It was an eccentric way of manifesting that the two would be safe, despite the mayhem that unfolded in front of her deep ceruleans. And a way of confirming she did not have the main character's energy either, even with her self-absorbed and self-righteousness that spawned in her psyche like coral.[break][break]

Efforts presented by the woman and the ghost that accompanied her brought joy to her heart, as there was no need to face nor dish out commanding ideals. A mutual understanding when presented with dangerous forces- just the way the sea witch liked it, which brought fondness in the graceful tide of adrenaline that followed. Sharpening the edge of the rock with a carving knife as the earthquake tremored the ground, a brilliant display, the time bought gave her enough time to slip back on the back of the previously disoriented Dodonzo- and an outstretched arm to pull Ana back aboard if she were to accept.[break][break]

"An astute concept, thank you." She said softly, watching the protrusions of rock meet the thrashing waves- two seemed to have succumbed to the attacks, brought to unconsciousness. It was a satisfying sight, one that made the kiss upon the jagged, sharpened rock all the more satisfying to complete. A subconscious spell of dissuading beasts, though only one now needed to fall to its curse. Trembling as the big ass fish began its float outward, its commandress released yet another whale with the flick of her palm, one that would float beside them as a means of reinforcing their prowess; a consideration that none would wish to further their pursuit upon the Hoennian rangers upon sighting such a big shadow lurking from above.[break][break]

Yet, there was still that one pesky Nihilego that seemed to not know when to quit it, rapidly following. "Do you believe those creatures to be this realm's angels? As the dwellers of the sea are to the spirit," she calmly asked, turning to face the creature in its sulk, ".. perhaps they seek veneration? Or simply carrying out the wishes of their superiors, whatever those may be?"[break][break]

Channeling as a defense mechanism, the Wailord bellowed as it unleashed a WATER VEIL around the expedition party, manifesting in the form of a transparent, crashing tide, almost like a bubble. Though, the sea witch believed a protection charm such as that would not be enough; raising the sharpened rock above her head and throwing it with all her might, it passed through the veil and imbedded into the cap of the virulent, toxic beast, bringing it to spiral downward into the dark abyss. A Nihilego lobotomy![break][break]

The rustling around brought a cassette player in her bag to turn on by itself, or perhaps interference, playing a muffled version of one of the spirit songs of her ancestors. As the momentary peace that followed the execution of the beasts was already enough to soothe the nervousness she would never wish to exhibit outwardly, Oracelies was unable to hear it, as a similar song already played within her mind's seascape.[break][break]

[player]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1089043449778548807/1195115943093882900/Moana_Te_Vaka_-_Loimata_e_Maligi_Lyrics_Vaka_-_LoimataMaligi.mp3?ex=65b2d175&is=65a05c75&hm=a29e99881de66ff119063e1b25d61161187a6567b45566dc6887c69598d543fd&[/player]

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She reached out and snagged Oracelies’ hand, jumping back onto the Dondozo, augmented gravity giving her a little bit more leap than she would have normally. “Yip-yip.”

For such a big creature, this fish could move. She ducked her head and held on tight, turning to watch the single Nihilego still giving chase.

“I think they’re just alive, like the rest of us,” she said, “and we’re coming into their home and fucking shit up.”

It might have been a disappointing answer, but it was the truth. She sucked in air through her teeth at the psuedo-decapitation of the Nihilego, watching its glowing remains slowly sift downward and disappear into the yawning abyss. “Nice.”

They had just about made it to their location-- to that Gatsby light in the near distance-- when a storm of bubbles looped up around them. Sharp, slashing, silver reflections in the deep shot upward; a veritable horde of Veluza, all gnashing teeth and glinting scales, drawn by the scent of blood in the water. So many they looked like one creature, a writhing, spinning, horrible mass, set to strip the flesh from their bones.

“I’m gonna do something kinda stupid and really dangerous and I just need you to trust me, okay,” she said, fishing in her bag for a Heavy Ball, and holding it close to her heart. “Just keep going. No matter what happens, keep going.”

She barely had time to depress the button-- the sphere was already bucking and kicking-- and the beast that punched out of it roared, deafening and deep, the noise rounded at the edges like mechanical feedback through a too-close microphone. She had to hurry to jump on the Jugulis’ back. “Zen, stay with Ora. Both of you get out of here.”

She pulled her knees in and pushed down hard on the Jugulis’ main head, driving her down into the swarm of Veluza. Woe betide them, the bear was among the wolves. Their teeth bounced uselessly off her metal chassis, while her trio of gaping maws easily crushed them like beer cans at a bonfire party. Flashes of dragon-colored energy cut sharp lines through the swarm, bisecting it into triangle tesselations. And the noises, indiscriminate howls of rage and glee in the face of the massacre.

Still the ball of Veluza shifted and reformed. She felt sharp teeth in her skin. She was able to repel many with her left arm, but all she could really do was stay below the heads and trust in the sheer juggernaut power of the Jugulis to keep her safe.



notes
+ utilize a paradox pokemon in a pivotal way

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The premonitions of the world and the sounds of the spectral current distracted her from the hole that had ripped upon her knapsack, releasing the speaker and her daily finding of seashells and aquatic flora flowing past the veil of liquid that surrounded the beast. Had she seen such a display it would have felt all the more symbolic, as with each flap of the whale's fin, they drifted farther from the ethereal rift- away from her home, the essence, the spirit of the goddess. Oracelies wished not to believe a place as odd and ultimately devoid of the blessings of the earth could exist.[break][break]

Her face remained still at her words, as it had not been the first time that she tampered with the natural order. But was it possible to fuck up a place that established such violent, wretched beings? She believed that places tainted with terror and devoid of the energies she believed to have truly existed could not become fucked up more than they already were. Just as the creatures that wished to deprive her of the life that flourished from the soul she called hers deserved to perish. She considered herself more important than any soul outside of a human body. And in being so strong in her beliefs, despite the contradictions present in additionally wearing the band of a ranger, she stifled a comment.[break][break]

A new tide of bubbles swayed her lips from remaining still to biting her upper lip, watching as the skidding jettison fish formed their mass and shot upward. Apex predators, some would say- but now she wished to one-up them on the food chain. All the more of a spit in the face of the blessings she believed reigned true, false prophets of a false god. An Ultra Deep Sea, a domain that she wished to fragment into tufts of sand in the stars that dotted the sky at night. It brought her hand to form a fist, quivering as she rapidly weighed her options.[break][break]

"Be careful, Ana." She said, eyes remaining still as she watched the beast made of iron emerge- a technological marvel she never had the chance to witness, all the more intense than touching a cell phone after a year of shoving it in a slit of cavern rocks. "I.. hm. I would not bear to leave a soul behind in this world, I rebuke those thoughts." The woman who had accompanied her seemed determined enough that there would be no need to stop her in her tracks. A crashing wave needed to be reinforced rather than cast out. Like she ever could.[break][break]

So she steered the giant whale to dip to safer territories before unleashing another oceanic spirit from an orb tucked upon her belt, a wisping Basculegion. "Fucking shit up, that's a way to say it." Her lips grew to a grin as she returned her words, watching the divine spectacle unfold, the rage of it all. Like a tempest of the sea turned to mechanical force; just like her old ways, those which entertained corporate greed and electronic panels. Ungraceful, bashful attitudes. Those which she vowed to never return to, even though their methods soaked into her freshly kicked-up sands.[break][break]

Drifting to rest in the slit underneath her arm, she sighed as the spectral water type went into its standard position of the offensive- one that she had not taken since a trivial, dumb shooting contest she participated in years prior. "Stabilize, evoke the spirit." She said softly, raising her arms to hold the fish like a.. machine gun? Opening its mouth wide, the fish began to channel all of its ghostly energy into a barrage of SHADOW BALLS, firing at all the strays that dipped in and out of the formation's outskirts.[break][break]

The whales watched with far more human worry than Oracelies could ever feel. Ana being safe in her pursuit had to be true, there must have been no reason why her spell wouldn't have worked. Didn't it have to be that way?

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The Jugulis was a power unto herself. A mechanical juggernaut, displaced from time, perfectly at home in the shifting silver swell of blood and carnage.

But there were so many fish. So many, and they’d rolled up overtop of her, underneath her, closing off all chances of escape. She could stay here on Sima and live for the rest of her life, but it would all be a knock-down, drag-out fight of about five minutes.

Then, a miracle; a heavenly messenger, delivered through mortal means. Great pockets began to open up in the bait ball, where Veluza were blasted away, chunks of metal shimmering as the rest of the body went shifting down, down, down, into the abyss. Cold swathes of ghost energy made her skin crawl in a wonderfully, comfortable, familiar way.

“There,” she said, over the din, and then louder, “there, there, there-- go!”

Sima brought all her necks together like an arrow and shot forward, bursting through the wall of the Veluza swarm; Oracelies’ shadow ball fire coned around her like a veil, and in a few strokes of her spider-like wings, the two humans were reunited.

The Veluza had tasted blood on the water-- so much carnage had confused them, and they were busy turning on each other, in a twisting, gnashing, cannibalistic amalgam of sharp teeth and punctured steel.

“Whoo!” she yelled, sliding off of her Jugulis and recalling the beast before it could partake in friendly fire. “Who’s up for round two? Just kidding, that was terrifying.” She was bleeding from a number of small wounds; the sleeve of her left arm was shredded, metal of her inhuman hand turned black in the low light. “Can we get outta here?”



notes
+

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Her heartbeat intensified with the swirling whirlpools of carnage, each passing second provoking a faster beat. It was an overwhelming sensation seeing another face such a grotesque display of sin in place of herself; as she was fond of working alone, a lone sea dragon to sea, she couldn't bear to watch it. Was this what she looked like in the thrashing waves of the resurfaced island, tearing ships apart and those who occupied them just as her pairing ripped Veluza in two?[break][break]

A flutter at her side at the faltering of her grasp led the Basculegion astray, shooting upward to provide closer support than the sea witch would have preferred. It left her useless in her thoughts, a weapon unable to be reached for upon her spine as it had no longer existed. Looking up into the false sky and all that encompassed it, all she could do was have faith in the rider of technology and the spells she spoke into existence. As if she had any other choice other than leading a whale into a sea of sharp swords.[break][break]

Releasing deep sea calls into the abyss, some of her fears had subsided at the re-emergence of Ana and the cannibalism of the false prophets, the hostile dwellers of the false sea. "Ana," she said with a deep release, a bit of the jab to her confidence outweighed by such a whimsical attitude, ".. that was so terrifying." A small chuckle manifested from her throat, wiping her eyes of all doubts that her mysticism had failed her here. But they were still upon the altar of another idol, a grim one seemingly without the ability to nurture.[break][break]

"You're bleeding," she said softly, ".. Mazaella." Out of an orb appeared an Alomomola, which fluttered beside the entourage as they oriented to swim in the direction they came. Nearing the hand of the sea witch, she moved her palm across its side to scoop off globs of its membrane. Had she not been greeted with the sight of a false, metallic appendage, she would have slathered it on without the need to ask. It was something that she had not fully expected- and of course, with her forbiddance of technologies, something that made her question how doomed the world would soon become.[break][break]

"I don't believe in modern medicine," She looked down at the black metallic for a moment, shaking her head. "Put this on your skin, it may heal your wounds before we cross the rift." Leaving now was their best bet after such an indecent exposure of blasphemy fishies- but, in a way, she saw the plane as an existence she could purify in the future.[break][break]

Flood it, lay dominion over it- perhaps all the poisonous jellyfish of rock would finally be able to meet the energies she believed them to be ultimately devoid of. It would be the fairest thing to do, casting them out before they can further their wretched urges. Allowing them to meet the true goddess that she believed sculpted their ungodly imitations.. she wanted to more than anything, at least, after making sure the wearer of mechanics was safe in the state she was in.[break][break]

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