"Wouldn't want to be perceived as a difficult woman, would we?" she quipped drily, her smile devoid of all warmth.[break][break]

This was one of countless concessions she'd forced herself to make after Wo-chien's distance from her psyche.[break][break]

It was humiliating to be here, to be forced to exist as an object of study for a strange woman like Naomi Sato to examine and to assess like a piece of meat at a market. What other choice did she have, though?[break][break]

How many enemies had her resentment and GRUDGES already made her? How sustainable could that way of existing in Rocket be, without the power of her Ruinous beast to justify her unchecked agency?[break][break]

Once Rocket realized how weakened she really was, the tables would turn on her swiftly and immediately. Until then, she had to smooth the waters. She had to remind them of her value outside her Avatarships.[break][break]

And that required cooperation, malicious compliance though it was.[break][break]

"My body is my own," she opened, unsure how to understand the description that the other woman gave of how the Unown affected her. Neither Wo-chien nor Tapu Fini seemed entirely preoccupied with her as a creature of flesh and blood. "However, Wo-chien's presence sits on my mind like a heavy thought or darkening emotion, persistent and unrelenting. Nothing I think and nothing I feel escapes the filter of its perception. Its power demands I surrender all personal privacy."[break][break]

Which was why she was so determined to hold Wo-chien's overwhelming influence back for as long as possible. Wo-chien had drained her to the point of constant irritability and exhaustion. It left her incapable of enjoying her own existence unless it was through inflicting her pain on others, or distracting herself from all the misery in her own head. Only BARNABY FINCH had been truly capable of helping her achieve the latter.[break][break]

"But Tapu Fini comes and goes. She is fickle as the tides, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes her presence swells and I can feel her like an unseen guardian, overseeing me while not being part of me, though other times I keenly feel her absence. She channels her powers through me, like water flowing through a sieve."[break][break]

She shrugged then, wrapping her arms about herself like a Seviper defensively tightening her coils.[break][break]

"Is that explanation adequate for your needs?"

[attr="class","ooc"]Naomi Sato[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"All gods are jealous and possessive beings," Elisabeth said tiredly, as if this was an obvious truth that could be glimpsed by anyone with eyes. Arceus's or otherwise. "Mine are no different. They are pleased when they are able to act as they desire, and they anger when one attempts to deny the other."[break][break]

She tensed despite herself as the syringe was revealed, a sensation like a thousand worms squirming inside of her screaming for her to run from this room. She silently willed herself to stay.[break][break]

There was no escape at this point. She'd descended too far, and it meant surrendering parts of her dignity in return for guarantee of her own survival.[break][break]

At the very least, she could look away.[break][break]

"Neither Wo-chien nor Tapu Fini care what the other wants, so long as it does not conflict with their objective," she added quietly. Her eyes glazed over for a moment as she recalled that strange moment with FERNANDO SILPH where the two patrons had collided, how one gleefully howled with the desire to kill and the other churned with the desire to... to what, exactly?[break][break]

To torment, some part of her thought, but didn't quite understand.[break][break]

Elisabeth shivered as metal made contact with her skin, hating her body for betraying her fear.[break][break]

"Just make it quick, Sato," she hissed through her teeth, closing her eyes.

[attr="class","ooc"]Naomi Sato[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

For such a bright woman, Head Scientist Naomi Sato could be so breathtakingly foolish and naive.[break][break]

"What else, Sato? Control. Over something or someone. The details are all that differ."[break][break]

The laughter that escaped Elisabeth came out biting in its mockery, interrupted by the sharp prick of metal into her exposed skin.[break][break]

She watched the red liquid with beady, mistrusting eyes, wondering what secrets it might betray of her own mortality -- or immortality, perhaps -- as the Head Scientist prepared it for study.[break][break]

"Maybe you'll be able to glean some insights with this fine lab equipment of yours," she added bitterly, curious despite herself.[break][break]

If she were to be honest, she found herself a little afraid of what they might find.

[attr="class","ooc"]Naomi Sato[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Represent to me?" Elisabeth repeated, as if this little thought exercise offended her.[break][break]

She leaned back in her chair, a sour look on her face as she considered this strange question.[break][break]

Tapu Fini, once, had represented to her a loss of agency. She'd equated that oceanic figure with a strangling noose of pink mist, dangling its hapless victims on puppeteer strings. How many nightmares had she had of that deity's soulless blue eyes, after learning what she'd learned of FERNANDO SILPH and his 'pink ladies'?[break][break]

All too much about her Avatarship had opposed this concept, however.[break][break]

"She is the embodiment of nature's shifting moods," she said finally, crossing her arms as she gave Naomi Sato her full attention. "She is life-giving and destructive all at once. Possessed of cyclic changes and phases, like the very moon she favors. Nature is equal parts kind and cruel, but she cares little for which mood she knows. She simply is."[break][break]

A nagging thought caught her then, and she corrected herself.[break][break]

"No, that is not true. The earth remembers those who wrong her. It is a price we all pay for, one way or another."[break][break]

Her eyes narrowed in on the freshly printed sheet of data, hackles raising.[break][break]

"Why?"

[attr="class","ooc"]Naomi Sato[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

It was startling, how much something so flimsy and seemingly useless as a sheet of paper could instill so much fear in her.[break][break]

Half of her had expected Naomi Sato to give a warning of what to expect before handing over her secrets. To have not only full knowledge, but the freedom to interpret it herself, was something she was both grateful for and resentful of at the same time.[break][break]

"They're not killing me?" she said first, glancing up from the report. "Not more than any other Avatarship, at least?"[break][break]

Relief flooded her, shamefully and gratefully.[break][break]

She couldn't explain why, but she'd been so certain that she'd discover something of that nature -- that slowly, little by little, she was losing her humanity as much as her sanity. Wouldn't that have made a sort of sense, for the mind to fray and the body to fray with it?[break][break]

Leaning back in her chair, she exhaled, thoughts now racing at the speed of light.[break][break]

"They're not fighting one another, either," she realized, eyes widening. "The two traces of infinity energy are not compatible, but they are not in opposition, either. They can coexist with one another."[break][break]

Her body was not at war with itself, as she'd so feared it was.[break][break]

That battle only took place in her mind after all.

[attr="class","ooc"]Naomi Sato[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Her face crumpled, sorrow complicated by resignation and indignation at that final observation.[break][break]

Willingly or unwillingly.[break][break]

"Oh, I never doubted that," she said, but there was no relief in the observation. "Gods make their impermanence known. They aren't different than people, in that way."[break][break]

Hadn't she felt Wo-chien's gluttony for freya morningstar that October day? Hadn't she feared, every time Tapu Fini had fixated her gaze upon FERNANDO SILPH, that it would be the day that moonlit deity abandoned her for her first chosen?[break][break]

She had no illusions about their selfish interest in her affairs. She didn't view herself as 'worthy.'[break][break]

"The two of them tolerate one another until they get in one another's way. But I don't doubt that they would be relieved should one vacate their host, allowing them full reign in their ultimate designs."[break][break]

Of course they'd gladly remain. They'd be the sole influence over her, able to enjoy the full limits of their power at last.

[attr="class","ooc"]Naomi Sato[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]