the incident in the giant chasm wasn't mentioned when BARNABY FINCH entered the simulation room. her greeting was short, with no further  extension of warmth or gratitude. there was only a robotic focus about the research to be done that day.[break][break]

the room became the ruins of alph. perfect, if only for conversation. the unown sang eerily from deeper within.[break][break]

”they’re supposedly on our side now, but i’ve yet to hear the answers i’d hoped that alliance would offer.”[break][break]

recently, she’d found a greater confidence that if the unown were planning something, they would be inevitably crushed under the foot of rocket’s growing power, and that would be that.[break][break]

standing firm, she took a deep breath in of the ancient air, feeling every tug on her psyche to venture further into the dark. she resisted.[break][break]

”i can’t decide if it’s the drk triad who show us what we see here, or if the unown are responsible. there are so many warnings and horrific endings. i'm sure you know by now there’s one down there, if we follow them.”[break][break]

she paused, looking over. ”they want us to ’walk with them but leave them’. what do you suppose that means, admin bee?”[break][break]

her eyes kept drifting to a nearby paradox pokemon that joined them, observing its behavior in the simulation. they'd been rare company for her, as she'd been warning against them.[break][break]

her stance had been reconsidered.[break][break]

fight the pull

[attr="class","ooc"]BARNABY FINCH [break]
[attr="class","storage"]

”what an interesting theory.”[break][break]

as for what powered the rks system, she agreed. ”i think you’re right about all of that.” the drk triad, the unown, dialga.[break][break]

as for the unown’s desire to be away from the anomalies, she nodded. ”and yet they’re here. i hope it’s to offer mercy.” but of course, she still had her doubts.[break][break]

returning to the thought on the simulation's back-end, she added, "i believe this system is pulling us into other timelines, perhaps creating more universes. but why? to sift through the alternate outcomes of these moments, or something else entirely?"[break][break]

the dark pulled. the ground crunched. fear was built into the experience as much as the walls of the ruins of alph. soon, her confidence crumbled like the floor beneath her as she turned to escape, forgetting the coming shift.[break][break]

beneath was another riddle, but nothing new.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]BARNABY FINCH [break]
[attr="class","storage"]

admin bee had been wondering the same as she had, and though he did not voice the concern fully, her eyes flicked over to him when they’d landed in the next simulation. the same suspicion lingered in her eyes, as it had before at that round table meeting in the past.[break][break]

”i’d say almost certainly, it is. a few of them are scientists – if not all of them. they’re studying us and the anomalies in a variety of ways.” but that did not mean the system wasn’t still being used to accelerate the growth of the multiverse.[break][break]

she turned toward the familiar tree, eyes casting over its kneeling subjects. she’d seen it all before. had he?[break][break]

”as for the unown, if the ones that side with the drk triad are from a different universe, then they are amongst us too. kallistatus, sato calls it. the blue one that seems ever-present." there was a tinge of bitterness to the word. "it belonged to nisa holo.”[break][break]

it was bold, she thought. naïve, to put so much trust in the eyes of a pokemon whose servants meant to kill their greatest weapons. perhaps even an oversight by declan walsh himself – unless it was all part of the obfuscator's mysterious plan.[break][break]

"if they are the eyes of arceus, more than one may be watching."[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]BARNABY FINCH [break]
[attr="class","storage"]

”i don’t know enough to guess. however, i do believe they’re watching us now.”[break][break]

the tree was watered, and from death came life. petrified stone crumbled from motionless bodies, reanimated. as they approached to give thanks, lulu held out a hand, palm up for a stantler to sniff. somewhere, in that moment, they were heroes.[break][break]

the pokemon’s illumina-reminsicent markings went unmentioned, for she imagined they would be nothing new to barnaby. typical run-throughs of the simulations had been extensively experienced, researched and reported on.[break][break]

instead, she asked, “are you familiar with the simulation of the room with the broken pokegear?”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]BARNABY FINCH [break]
[attr="class","storage"]

“very curious.”[break][break]

she wondered if he’d also gone the alternate route of destruction, as she had once. grateful pokemon became stars gathered around them, and she imagined them as an audience peering through glass.[break][break]

how far could it be? if the staircase swung the other way, might they be able to grab hold of that spatial fabric and pull it like a curtain?[break][break]

“maybe there is an audience for every simulation.”[break][break]

and beyond the system, their eyes still watched, blinking out of portals around every corner, perhaps even in rocket’s submarine.[break][break]

she looked at the stairs beneath her feet and all the abyss below. they’d climbed up before.[break][break]

”shall we jump this time?”[break][break]

jump?

[attr="class","ooc"]BARNABY FINCH [break]
[attr="class","storage"]