there's no after-image.

fingertips wiggle as he curls his fingers one knuckle after another until his hand flutters.

a wave of a hand through the air shows no split second delay of the movement as his mind dictates it and his thoughts wander to every game he's ever played in his life and thinks of what servers a system of this scale would've haunted and if the environmentalists that knew would've been shitting themselves thinking about the energy cost. he flexes his hands. looks again to the space around him. he touches the walls and feels the worn wooden support beams. he touches the floorboards that don't creak but feel weak.

his body. the mask fitted over his face, then coughs and hears himself. that achingly sweet, irritating voice.

"fuck, this is what a seal stone can do?"

what comes out is decidedly less.

the workshop is as small as he expects it to be on the basis of what'd been told to him before they'd entered. it's as real as he lets himself think it is. boring. unassuming. but, in turn, that meant it lent itself as a good place to start and test out a few possibilities that wouldn't have been options in other realities that've already been tested a thousand and one times by people more competent than him. here, neither of them face the reality of being significantly injured.

but, what lays ahead after they made a decision:

he doesn't know.

neither of them did, really.

them, being himself and one lulu flint, the scientist that brought him here and asked him to run this test. he wasn't exactly thrilled about it. but, you don't exactly get away with saying no thanks; i'm good to people who had the power to turn you into a human piñata ( if not by herself then through others ).

he turns, hands in his pockets, to face her. "w'dy'a remember doing before?" he asks, voice soft and lilting as he confirms that his modulator failed.

another alternative, he notes quietly. one, where he sounds as he does and not as he wishes.

Lulu Flint

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"like a fish tank?"

huh, alright. so, she fixed it once, and that led to some voice coming out of the machine. she'd also apparently attempted to tear it down once. so, tackling the walls also wasn't the solution even if it seemed like the most obvious option. what was the likelihood that the floors would be the same? "well, if someone's watchin' me, i'm not gonna let 'em make me look like a fuckin' idiot."

rainy mumbles to himself as his brain clicks ahead, running through if-else statements ( despite knowing no such logic applies here ) as he makes for the door of the workshop and slides his fingers against old wood only to grasp at a handle that never releases.

a firm push to the door yield no more answers either and his head tips back in the head scientist's direction when she calls his attention to the device. taking it in hand, rainy runs his thumbs across the symbol. "yeah, they really like hexagons." the device is tossed back onto the work desk without care as he crosses his arms over his chest. "don't recognize it, but." he taps his arm.

busies himself by searching the desk, rifling through what looks like spare parts and tools. shuts the drawer. "you ever hear of sacred geometry?" what's the other choice? were there any other choices? rainy draws a hexagon in the air without looking at her.

"read it somewhere once. harmony, transformation—some shit like that. s'a pokegear right? got any of its regular functions? map? radio? anything?"

Lulu Flint