She/Her
Twenty-Five
Jubilife City, Sinnoh
*shrugs*
Freelancer/Ex-Ace Child Detective
Civilian
Let's Keep things a bit clandestine, shall we?
TAG WITH @elaine
Elaine Highland
PRISMATIC PENITENTIARY
POSTED ON Apr 30, 2024 4:41:38 GMT
PRISMATIC PENITENTIARYImprisoned Investigator--Despairing Detainee
Kssshh---
---Sssshh---
----sssshkh.
What was despair? Elaine had never thought about what that word meant too deeply. Or perhaps she had. After all, her former self had fallen into it. That, she was keenly aware of. Her body, mind, and soul had felt it all before.
That was why she had fallen into the path of megalomania. Even if that past was stripped from her and displayed back to her, she was fully aware of it.
But to witness it was far different from steeping oneself in it.
Even regaining her memories in the Cloud hadn't done it.
Even the clash on the meteor hadn't done it.
Even those long twenty years in the slowly dying and encroached Galar hadn't done it.
So why...
Why...
Why...
Kssshh---
---Sssshh---
----sssshkh.
He never took up the offer, huh.
She had gotten herself off the cot as she woke up in what she could only presume to be the morning. It was disappointing that the young man hadn't spared himself the discomfort, but she was still grateful to him.
Despite his pessimism, he was hardly letting the situation prevent him from enacting small acts of kindness.
It was a nice ray of sunlight in this bleak reality.
"I'll catch up with you later, then." As her cellmate moved off to the others, she waved him goodbye, knowing they would be seeing each other again soon.
Kssshh---
---Sssshh---
----sssshkh.
It made no sense. It was just sanctioned, unrefined cruelty.
She had been robbed of her Pokemon and her freedom. But she felt she still had something that she could cling to.
So what the hell was this?
She was forced to watch as Kyrenai was publicly humiliated. Moreover, she was forced to laugh. The toxic chains wrapped and wriggled around her throat. Her diaphragm convulsed back and forth, forcing breaths and laughs from her. She felt jeers coming from her mouth.
But none of it was hers.
None of it was her will.
So, why?
She had been robbed of far more than her freedom. She had been robbed of her dignity and her will. She could not even express it.
No.
Even though she laughed and chanted, tears streamed down her eyes. Pain welled up in her chest as she could not even let the broken rib take its time to rest.
But she still had something she could do.
Even as her body laughed.
Even as she lost control of her chest.
She got down onto her knees and slammed her head into the floor. It was an almost comical sight. The girl sitting in seiza repeatedly slammed her head into the floor.
She cried. She laughed. She hurt. And she hurt herself.
She may have looked she had gone insane, but that was what she had to do. She was weak. The fact that she was here proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. She was too weak to enact her will.
But she needed to do so.
She could not let the last threads of her self snap here.
"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."
Kssshh---
---Sssshh---
----sssshkh.
"Ah..."
There was blood. Elaine had found herself in the warm showers before the Chamber of Desires. Once again, she had stripped to take stock of her injuries. This time, they were self-induced.
She didn't have a mirror. After all, there was no point in having a mirror when she couldn't even see her face behind the mask. But at this point, it was easy to tell. A thin layer of blood had caked her face. The amount of red that was washing off her head as the warm water came down was not from her hair, after all.
She rubbed her forehead a few times as the sting from her head got more and more prominent.
That was her work.
That was her Will.
In the grand scheme of things, she couldn't even say that this would make a dent in the threads of Fate.
She stood, as the water rolled down her body, and gazed off into the distance and then into the droplets of water stained red.
As she did, she turned and threw a kick. It was not aimed at anyone or anything in particular. It merely flicked off a few drops of red water into the air and nothing more.
After taking a moment to look at her leg in that pose before bringing it down, she grit her teeth, and slammed a fist onto her temple before rubbing at it with her knuckles.
"I refuse to break. Not like this. Not when I'm this weak."
Kssshh---
---Sssshh---
----sssshkh.
The skies of the Ultra Megalopolis in the dream seemed to almost blot out all of the horrors from reality as Elaine walked through it.
There, she was free of the pain and the chains.
Even though it was the home of their enemies and those enemies were walking around, it almost felt peaceful. After all, those enemies were walking around without a care in the world.
She was back in an unrestrained body. She had full control over herself. The only thing she lacked were her Pokemon, but she knew they were somewhere in this dream too, or at least their dream selves were here.
It was liberating.
She could walk around here without a care in the world, but instead, she decided to move herself to a bit more of an open space.
"I probably should have taken those martial arts teachers a bit more seriously. Though, that would probably have not been of any use here."
She raised her arms and got into stance as she threw a few thrusts, strikes, and kicks into midair. It was clearly the work of someone who had little knowledge or experience. After all, she was remembering what her Bajiquan teachers from the Jubilife Police Department had taught her before the incident.
"I wonder. Was this how you felt back then, too?"
She had hardly heard from her old self since the incident with the Rusted Shield, but she had spoke up, hoping to hear her voice again.
But at the end of all, she only heard silence.
After taking a few moments to breathe, she started to walk away. She could at least practice a bit more while she was here. No better place for it, really.
But she still had to do what she did best--look for answers.
The remaining taut threads of her sanity demanded it.
Kssshh---
---Sssshh---
----sssshkh.
After asking a few more questions to the local Megalopolans, she found herself at the central tower. She had asked a bit more about the details what the prison was. She had asked about their Pokemon. She had asked a bit more about the chains.
But at the end of it all, she found herself at the largest, most dazzling landmark in this large, dazzling city.
It was at this point that she had come to make a simple connection. The being suspended in the central tower in stasis was something Elaine easily recognized. As a native Sinnohan, how could she not?
She had no idea of the incident in Sootopolis City as she had never been close to the area or deep enough in the League to be aware.
But, she could absolutely recognize the figure of the guardian spirit of Lake Valor.
The being that symbolized man's willpower lay suspended and subdued.
She grit her teeth again and slammed the side of her fist against the building she was leaning against. Afterwards, she crossed her arms and looked to her side.
"Someone clearly has a sick sense of humor, huh?"
She turned her head to Violet who she had come across.
"I thought I could avoid breaking here...but it's harder than I thought it would be."
Kssshh---
---Sssshh---
----sssshkh.
What was despair? Elaine Highland had nary an answer.
However, she could feel that amorphous concept creeping upon her bit by bit.
And she hated every minutia of it.
TL;DR:
- Weakling Ward
- Main Action: Dreaming
- Elaine struggles to maintain control while awake
- Elaine continues to investigate from the dream and utilize her freedom there the best she can
- Elaine runs into Violet Fairbanks in the dream
- Upupupupu
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