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Once again we dive into the simulated universe of the RKS System. Once again we scour through the data to find the path to the ideal future. Such repetition would soon grow irritating to the scientist under normal circumstances. Yet each time she had dove into the sea of data she had found something new and fascinating, a new path to the future that fell just woefully short of completion. It was a tantalizing treat dangled inches away, no matter how far she grasped she couldn't take hold of the future within the confines of the system.
[break][break]
But this time she wouldn't play by the rules. Four ultrapowerful ultramodern machines of pure processing power and physical might, a building block of this world stolen in her last trip into the RKS System, and the stubborn past clinging to her back to ground her in reality. With all of this she would find the hidden path, at the very least she would find the door behind which these secrets lay hidden.
[break][break]
Xenon closes her eyes as she dives into the simulated world, when she opens them she finds her hand on a familiar doorknob. It was a workshop she had laid claim to in another life, a life she discarded. Looking at the door now she finds herself a stranger to the her that once was, entering another's home and rooting through their garbage. But something was broken, something that another her had built, thus it fell to the kindness of a stranger to fix it anew.
[break][break]
"Screwdriver. Pliers. Soldering iron. Tweezers." She sits at the workshop bench and begins work without fanfare, none of her usual bombastic attitude present as she simply demands the correct tools from the assistant scientist she had brought in with her today. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the future now, there was no time for messing around.

Calpurnia Kubrick

NOTES

✦ Find materials to fix it.[break]
✦ Current RKS Points: 300

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When she and Purrseus rematerialize, they find themselves facing a strange sense of deja vu. It appears the simulation returns them to Gepetto’s false shed. “Hm.” Violet eyes narrow as she leans around the corner of the building. But it is not a jeering crowd nor a glass partition that greets her. It is only a nondescript environment that isn’t worthy of comment. “You’d think they would be consistent.” [break][break]

Noises from inside the shack lead her inside. For a moment, she watches Xenon at work with a curious expression. The young woman—muttering or not—seems to be making quick work of the busted walkie-talkie. “I do enjoy a woman who takes charge.” With clicks of her high heels, Calpurnia goes to stand on the opposite side of the worktable. “I believe there’s one more screw around—” She nudges a few parts aside before coming up with a screw. The oily, greasy parts make her frown. “--hah!”[break][break]


With a sigh, Calpurnia settles into the extra stool in front of her. Any moment now, the DRK Triad’s white-haired twit would start lecturing them. Maybe she would actually be able to get something out of it this time. “Is this your first time, love?”[break][break]

NOTES

✦ Chooses to go along with fixing it[break]
✦ Prepares for the upcoming lecture[break]

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She's not wholly lost in her thoughts, the comment from Calpurnia invokes a little grin as she continues her work on the little doodad. But the infamous banter she slung about was muted, the Xenon she was now was a wholly different beast from the Xenon that many knew.
[break][break]
Xenon shakes her head, not her first time. "Was here twice before. Once in the simulation, another time..." She trails off, lost in the memories of a time before. An unimportant time, the time that shaped who she was. "Another time, a while ago. Doesn't really matter." The scientist reaches out and plucks the screw from her hand, fitting it into its proper place and tightening the bolt. "Most dives in I find myself starting in a cave where a thousand thousand Unown whisper to me of secrets of the universe I can never remember. Quite frustrating, even the Avatar of those creatures was unable to hold that forbidden knowledge long enough to record it."
[break][break]
The machine is wholly fixed as she finishes, leaving Xenon to put it down and finally look up at Calpurnia with an appraising eye. "You look like you're expecting something to happen right now. You shouldn't do that, expectations are one of the most pointless things you can hold."

Calpurnia Kubrick

NOTES

✦

[attr="class","itemcolicon"]

[attr="class","itemcolname"]science event

[attr="class","lgdcol"]

[attr="class","itemcoltexttit"]TINKERING 1-A

[attr="class","itemcoltext"]Together, you eventually find the necessary parts and painstakingly repair the device. After a little while, a voice rings out from the machine. It's like a walkie-talkie: "maldacena here. are you having fun? isn't the simulated universe fascinating? however, i'd be careful if i were you. you never know who's watching!"[break][break]

Regardless of your level of familiarity with this member of the DRK Triad, it does not make what they say any less unsettling.

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The machine is fixed and an unfamiliar voice sounds from its speakers, someone identifying as Maldacena. Perhaps if she had more interest in Rocket's history she might have recognized that name, the member of the DRK Triad who tormented them so. But as things were it was simply another name, meaningless taunting of a girl who couldn't possibly care less.
[break][break]
Xenon doesn't even bother to pick the device up off of the table once she's finished fixing it, leaving it behind just like she left everything else behind, standing and turning to walk back out of this shed that was once her home. "He's waiting for us. Declan Walsh. I can feel it now, today I will find victory. Today I will surpass that man."

Calpurnia Kubrick

NOTES

✦

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The woman leaned forward, as Xenon spoke. There was a hunger in her violet eyes, as if Xenon was a mouse and she a snake. “So, this location is based a real place?” She knew that the simulation was based on real life but had not yet tried to triangulate their exact location. ‘Hmm.” Some things—such as the crystalline tree—seemed more farfetched. “I suppose the DRK Triad are too busy to be original.”[break][break]



At the talk of Unown, Calpurnia shivers. While above most fears, thousands of things staring at her is enough to send shivers up her spine. But the temptation of information would be even more bothersome. It reminds her of how angry she got when adults gatekept her future. “That sounds infuriating.” At the talk of Naomi Sato, the purple-haired woman ummed. “Perhaps this problem is more about technology than Pokemon?” People relied on the capricious, disgusting things far too much in her opinion. An ironic belief when much of her work cycled around putting Pokemon beneath their toes.[break][break]


At the talk of expectations, Calpurnia’s brow rose. “You moved the game state, did you not?” She had read multiple journey notes since her first foray into this realm. “It is only natural to expect what comes next.” It wasn't like they could change this world. Which, in this case, happened to be that uppity, nonsense scientist’s voice came through the speakers. As Xenon turned to leave, the mother behind her would scoop up the radio. With a look of pure rage, she slammed it into the door frame on the way out.[break][break]


Xenon’s next words were the epitome of ballsy. The sort of inane chatter which would get her put in figurative stocks. “Are you not a fan of Mister Walsh?” Then, as they crossed the threshold, the world again faded into black. “I would love to get to know him better.” To put him beneath her heel just like she had many men before her. To enjoy him as so many foul, nasty men did women.[break][break]

[break][break]

schuyler tate Cillian Quinn Elisabeth Fiorelli

NOTES

✦ Trying to learn who she is

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[attr="class","itemcolname"]significant figure event

[attr="class","lgdcol"]

[attr="class","itemcoltexttit"]WALSH 1

[attr="class","itemcoltext"]Fuschia City is under siege. You find yourself face to face with a then Admin Walsh within Fuschia Gym. Beneath you, the tatami flooring is scuffed and gouged from the battle that has been waged here. The simulation sets the Rocket Boss as a hostile figure.[break][break]

He says to you: "fuschia has already fallen. nothing you accomplish here will be of any worth."[break][break]

Should you attempt to step toward him, you'll knock into an invisible wall: an intriguing puzzle for gym challengers, but a frustrating conundrum for those attempting to engage with him.[break][break]

"i'll strike you down before you can even perceive the real me."[break][break]

Suddenly, Walsh disappears. Throughout the gym, multiple "Walshes" appear behind invisible walls. Periodically, he will lunge from a secret space with his GLISCOR, NIDOKING, &/OR HYPNO to attempt to slay you and your Pokemon.

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"Real is a matter of perspective. The DRK Triad travels from world to world in the same way that we travel from city to city, in the eyes of interdimensional tourists everything is real somewhere." In one world she knew nothing of the future, she stumbled blindly along her path and was led by the whims of equally blind fools clinging to tradition. In another she was one of them, reading the prescripts and trusting in their words as she executed the orders of the city. But in this world she was the one who left all of that behind. That's that and this is this.
[break][break]
Thinking about the Unown was unpleasant, even after capturing one it was still difficult to understand their true potential. The powers of the Avatar only just scratched the surface, painting over reality with a thin sheen of falsehood. She had her hypotheses of course, but that was just one experiment of many that took up her attention, a back burner project she dedicated time to when other things needed to simmer.
[break][break]
The crack of plastic against wood signals the shattering of her past work, the undoing of her labors as a broken radio clatters to the ground sparking and wheezing in pain. Xenon didn't care though, she had done what she came here to do. If she was summoned here to fix the radio again then she would do that too, but that was a question for the future to answer. "Just because we've seen a pattern in the past, doesn't mean it can't break in the future. So again, hold no expectations for what's to come."
[break][break]
Xenon licks her lips as she steps through the portal to the next world, diving through data with an intense look in her eyes. "Expectations are merely chains of the past that bind us."
[break][break]
And then they land, once more amidst the flaming ruins of Fuschia City as Admin Walsh stands proud in his maze of mirrors. "I've never met him in the real world, so I can't say I hold much of an opinion on him. He's undoubtedly strong, strong enough to hold together a criminal organization filled with as many psychos and maniacs as Rocket has. That alone I can resepct."
[break][break]
But as her eyes turn to this digital clone of the man, they're still filled with hate as she takes a Pokeball from her belt and summons forth her Unown. "But this subroutine has been an annoying thorn in my side. So let's break the chains of the past." And with that the battle begins as the floating X pulses with Hidden Power, a wave of purple energy pushing out of it and shattering the myriad mirrors that distorted the battlefield in one fell swoop, revealing the truth of the world to their eyes as the virtual Declan Walsh narrows his eyes. Today would be the day that she claimed victory over this byte of a man.

Calpurnia Kubrick

NOTES

✦

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Calpurnia listened to Xenon speak with her best neutral expression. At a few points, her eyebrow rose—astonished by this unusual outlook. “Your life must be a mess, dear.” The past and the future were so hopelessly intertwined that trying to ignore one was impossible. "What does your calendar even look like?" And, while quite proud of her own mental capacities, Kelpie could not make heads or tails of this view.
[break][break]

“Well, who best to lead such a motley group?” As someone in the science department, Kelpie rarely had the privilege of encountering the more heavy-handed among their kin. She did her little experiments and they handled the bloody, nasty, grunt work. “I certainly can understand the irritation.” The scientist sang in response to the talk of this scenario. The sudden endings were beginning to ruffle even her feathers. The answers were dangled so close to their faces. As if a few more seconds wold unravel the secrets of this mad, mad world.[break][break]


As Xenon rushed forward, Calpurnia joined her. While strong men were attractive, it was just as gratifying to call one to your heels. With a nod, she peeled a Pokeball from her side. From its depths, a teal Glimmora emerged, its crystalline eyes unblinking. “Let's get some cover.” With an idle twirl of her hand, she sprayed poison needles around them. The Mortal Spin began to wear at their attackers, drawing blood at each charge.

[break][break]

Calpurnia’s lips perked upward as signs of her work began to take effect. How many women haven't dreamed of taking out an uppity, mysterious man in their life?

[break][break]

NOTES

✦ Attacking Daddy Walsh

[attr="class","itemcolicon"]

[attr="class","itemcolname"]significant figure event

[attr="class","lgdcol"]

[attr="class","itemcoltexttit"]WALSH 1-A

[attr="class","itemcoltext"]After a harrowing battle, you defeat Declan Walsh within the confines of Fuschia Gym. Whether he is chased away, or his corpse is left behind on the equally cold tatami, you are able to pilfer through his belongings: a makeup/disguise kit, his pokeballs, an old Celadon University student ID. He's an ordinary man, it seems...[break][break]

The simulation spares you time to explore outside of the gym in order for you to witness the destruction Fuschia City has received.

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Xenon smiles wryly at Calpurnia's comment. "Nothing wrong with getting a little messy. And I don't keep calendars, I take life one day at a time. If something is really so unimportant that I need to write it down to remember to do it, then it isn't worth doing at all." She crouches over Declan's body after the fight is over, it was bloody and brutal to extremes she couldn't have imagined, but with the X factor of the Unown and the support of her Ultramodern Paradoxes it was finally done as she rummages around the false prophet's body.
[break][break]
"Hm. Rather anticlimactic, makes me wonder if this was the real Walsh at all. Well, real in the context of this simulation." Wouldn't surprise her, pinning down Declan Walsh was an impossibility even when reality could be pinned down to cold ones and zeroes.
[break][break]
ALERT: A Hidden Route Has Been Unlocked. Redirecting to Root System, Arceus.
[break][break]
The ultramodernist's head perks up as a mechanical female voice rings out from the sky, her lips quirk as she tosses the man's ID away and sticks her hands in her pockets. "Well well well. I thought that taking him out would give us a nice little bonus, I hardly expected this though." A glowing portal of ivory opens at the edge of the dojo, already one could tell that this transport was different compared to the usual stage move that happened in the RKS System, this was something that only they could see.

Calpurnia Kubrick

NOTES

✦