The mist billowed towards him, coiling about him with insidious purpose, as she watched the pink wisps dance around him like smoke. Harmless, seemingly, but they both knew better.[break][break]

"She thinks you belong to her," she said distantly. It was strange, how compelled she was to share what little she knew with him. It frightened her, perhaps, how little she understood about this deity that had laid claim to her. "I suppose she thinks I belong to her now, too."[break][break]

A thorny bitterness, despite itself, found its way into her words.[break][break]

There was an irony to be found in this observation. Hadn't she promised herself to belong to nothing and no one, the day she first freed herself from the shackles of confinement? Only to bind herself, over and over, to things far greater than her comprehension. Rocket. Wo-chien. Tapu Fini.[break][break]

"I can't tell if she hates you or loves you. I can't even tell how she feels about me, to tell you truly."[break][break]

Awkwardly she rose from her seat, uncomfortable at the prospect of sitting in silence. She turned towards the origin of the mist, brow furrowed, and turned back to him. Without a word, she beckoned him with her eyes to follow her, then pursued the source of their mutual strife.[break][break]

As she did so, she left her back exposed to him, having already forgotten the guard she'd raised against him at the start of this encounter. If he wished to attack her, this was a prime opportunity.

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Run.[break][break]

That ancient instinct screamed at her as the thorns were swallowed up in flame. Another step back built distance between her and the Arcanine that now helped him to his feet, his gaze fixed on her in a manner that made her feel exposed in every possible way.[break][break]

Even stumbling to the ground, the sight of him sent a shockwave of terror shivering through her. Specks of blood splattered against the earth as he coughed, and what should have made him appear weak and feeble strangely left her all the more afraid.[break][break]

She believed him when he said he loved kyle lopez. That terrified her more than anything else.[break][break]

"So move on, then," she said, retreating further as the fog of the Border encroached in on her. "I'm the past. Let me be dead to you, like everything else."[break][break]

A brief, fleeting glimpse of another version of him -- hands on her throat, demanding an explanation for Kyle's death -- flashed in her mind, refusing to be forgotten.[break][break]

He'll kill you. You should've killed him when you had the chance.[break][break]

Run.[break][break]

He'd see she was seconds away from complying with that quiet plea, all-but-poised to flee him into the mist.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"You certainly seem to have it all figured out," she replies, shrugging as she crosses her arms. Her tone is dry, disinterested, and distinctly mocking. "Why bother asking me?"[break][break]

He has his own idea of the woman she is. He proved as much when he begged her to blame Wo-chien for it; wouldn't that have been nice, to assume it was something out of her own control? Then he wouldn't harbor the guilt he holds for her.[break][break]

That could make her a tragic figure. Pitiable. A victim of circumstances.[break][break]

There's some nobility in saving a person like that.[break][break]

Though when that narrative eludes him, he chooses one as flat and one-dimensional. If she's not a damsel, then she's a vicious harpy, picking at the bones of her victims to relish in each morsel of suffering. Yes, if she isn't a victim, then she is nothing more than a senseless tormenter, isn't she?[break][break]

She longs for a cigarette. Of all the things this dream has denied her, she now curses it most for that.[break][break]

"I told Matias what I was. He didn't listen. I refuse to take responsibility for his own stubborn pride."[break][break]

They speak of her as if she just 'happened' to men like that -- as if she's quicksand to stumble into, and not a woman they'd pursued of their own free will. Would they believe her if she said she resisted?[break][break]

Already she knows; she's told that story with another man, in another region, and not much has changed between then and now. This chapter has been retread so many times, there's nothing left to surprise her.

[attr="class","ooc"] Michael Navidson [break][break]

Prismatic Penitentiary: Ugly Ward

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Run, run, and run until the world disappears behind you, Elisa. Run and never look back. How long had she been running? A lifetime, it felt like.[break][break]

With BARNABY FINCH's hand in her own, true escape seemed possible for the first time.[break][break]

In her delusion, the gardens of that Wellspring Mask continued to dance in her mind, whispering seductive promises of a sanctuary far away from here, from Rocket, and from everyone who had ever wronged her.[break][break]

Hadn't she seen such a place, in that world Father Winter allowed her to glimpse? Perhaps this time, it would not be such a lonely ending.[break][break]

Perhaps this was the future she could finally change, for the better.[break][break]

Then the man she loved froze, and her hand jerked in his grasp, arrested in place as he turned to face the masked creature causing havoc. Her heart stuttered with fear as she lowered her own mask, begging him:[break][break]

"What are you doing? Bee, please."[break][break]

"Let the others all die here," she wanted to scream. "Let's go, while we still can! Let's run, and run, until all of this is just another horrible memory forgotten among so many other horrible memories."[break][break]

She tugged his wrist, but he did not follow, and her heart sank further into despair. Hope wavered, its tremulous and uncertain whisper failing to banish loud, screaming doubt.[break][break]

"Let's go. Please."[break][break]

She anxiously watched Neffatari Nzingha and Zev Harcourt and others descend into the exits below, longing to join them but unwilling to release her hold on the man beside her. Why am I like this, she berated herself as she gazed upon the Rocket admin, despondent. Why do I continue to love men who do nothing but chain me and make me suffer?[break][break]

The poison of the TOXIC CHAIN had begun to seep into her; she could feel it attempting to enter her bloodstream with the intent to kill. Then another thought came to her as she witnessed Barnaby recoil from his own affliction:[break][break]

Why was she in no pain? Wasn't her tie to her patron dampened, left useless and forgotten?

[break]

"Something's happening," she said to him, the FLOWER PETALS of her TOXIC CHAIN fluttering around them to aid him in his task to dissuade the rampaging creature. "My Avatarship... I don't know, I think it might..."[break][break]

She swallowed, barely daring to think this thought aloud. It seemed ludicrous. It seemed too good to be true. Nonetheless, it was all she could think of to explain her current state.[break][break]

"I'm not sure, but... Wo-chien might be returning back to me."[break][break]

Would the Galarian Moltres soon return to him, too?[break][break]

Did she even want it to?[break][break]

PUoaALmb

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

Prismatic Penitentiary: Ugly Ward (TLDR)

SPOILER: Click to show

- Shoujo hours holding BARNABY FINCH's hand uwu. Delulu, chasing a dream of a future alone with him when they escape.[break][break]
- Barnaby decides to fight Ogerpon, Elisabeth wants to run to the exits and is very frustrated by this, but can't bear to leave him alone. Begs him to leave with her, but he doesn't. Sadge.[break][break]
- Senses she isn't being poisoned, whispers to BARNABY FINCH she thinks Wo-chien might be coming back. Doesn't really know how to feel about this.[break][break]
- TOXIC CHAIN ABILITY: Inverse of Wo-chien Powers with FLOWER PETAL MANIPULATION inspired by her LOVE of BARNABY FINCH instead of grudges. Summons a storm of flower petals that can cut like knives, using this to ATTACK OGERPON.

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"So many. We're all little Ratattas, aren't we? Scurrying around in cages." Her hands dance with the metaphor, imitating the shuffling of paws as she laughs again, miserable.[break][break]

He is far more lucid than her, here: clear-eyed and aware of numbers as an advantage. To her, that discovery is more despairing proof of their own futility. If even Zev Harcourt can be caged, then what hope is there?[break][break]

She leans against the glass building, letting her eyes close as she stretches. There's an indolence to her movements; a captured creature cares little for the dignity of her reputation, only for her own comfort.[break][break]

"What is your grand plan, then?" she asks casually, no faith to be found in her question -- only a tired amusement. "Men like you always have grand plans."

[attr="class","ooc"] Cillian Quinn [break][break]

Prismatic Penitentiary: Ugly Ward

[attr="class","pkmn"]

How futile his efforts were. Red-stained fingers clawed desperately at the noose around his neck, the thicket of thorns trembling with her silent rage.[break][break]

An urge to tighten the vines around his windpipe overtook her, sharp and sudden, as he confessed his foolish truth aloud.[break][break]

Love. What did MATIAS SILPH know of love?[break][break]

How many times had he thrown that empty word at her, professing a lie with all the confidence of a deluded fool? "You don't love kyle lopez," she wanted to say. "You don't love anyone."[break][break]

Because he was right about her, though she denied it. They were too much the same for her to believe he was capable of that emotion: too selfish, too broken, too destructive.[break][break]

"Why did you let him do it?" she heard herself say instead. "Why did you let him die for you?"[break][break]

And why had kyle lopez chosen to play the martyr in the first place? Some death wish, she had to believe. If it was anything else...[break][break]

If Kyle's reasons had been love...[break][break]

If someone could love Matias, despite all he was...[break][break]

Was there anyone in this world who'd sacrifice themselves for her?

[break]

The mental image of BARNABY FINCH came and went, dismissed like another unwanted shadow in this unforgiving realm of the living and the dead.[break][break]

"If you loved him, you loved yourself more."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"No," she says matter-of-factly, sharp as a knife in the swiftness of her answer. "Mankind did that to me all on its own."[break][break]

If she closes her eyes, she can see it all so clearly: those fragile, shimmering timelines Celebi graced her with, bearing witness to lives where Wo-chien has no interest in a woman whose wounds have learned to heal, or whose wounds never existed in the first place.[break][break]

She isn't those radiant, shining women. This world denied her those paths, yet it begged for her unearned mercy regardless.[break][break]

Only Wo-chien accepted her as she was.[break][break]

"Look around you. Do you believe the world bends to the whims of your idealism?" Anger burns her from the inside out at the recollection of his actions in her ward -- how quickly he'd bartered her life and that of BARNABY FINCH in his desire to do what was right, but not what was necessary. How audacious it is for him to accuse her of hate now, when he stoops to it just as easily. "Perhaps your Avatars changed, but you are wrong in your assumptions. Our deities chose us for what we were, not for the potential of what we could be."[break][break]

PENELOPE LIVY had always been ambitious. Eva Morales had always been self-righteous. MATIAS SILPH had always been reckless. illeana reyes had always been a scientist, in pursuit of forbidden knowledge.[break][break]

kyle lopez? Perhaps some part of him had always wanted to give up. Part of her quietly understood that desire, though she'd never admit so.[break][break]

"If you wish to assign blame, Navidson, look in the mirror. Your idealism spurred you to save me from the brink of death, did it not? Back on that resurfaced island, months ago."[break][break]

Her eyes weigh him with judgment, heavy and hard. She allows the silence to linger awhile, letting his mind come to the grim conclusion she soon voices aloud.[break][break]

"You spared my life, and it cost Kyle his."

[attr="class","ooc"] Michael Navidson [break][break]

Prismatic Penitentiary: Ugly Ward

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"And what makes you so different?" she demanded, watching him squirm and writhe in the grips of her thorny vise. "You're pathetic, Matias. What did you expect, when you crawled back here chasing him?"[break][break]

To find kyle lopez, unharmed and smiling, petting his Arcanine. Just as he'd been, mere moments ago, unless she'd hallucinated him.[break][break]

...No. That hadn't been real. You couldn't trust your senses in the Border, after all.[break][break]

"What was it? Forgiveness, maybe?" she taunted him, pushing that thought aside. "Redemption? Atonement?"[break][break]

All were empty idols that she'd prayed at, before she knew better. Some mistakes simply ate at you for the rest of your life, unable to be undone.[break][break]

She scoffed at him derisively, the winding vines choking him tighter.[break][break]

"As if you deserve any of it. Look at you. Even Groudon can't defend you from me now."[break][break]

Even so, he'd realize they didn't strangle him enough to kill. A soldier like him would know the difference.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Maybe!" she snapped back defensively, the aforementioned vines seeking to strangle him for his insult. Her face turned bright red, heated with indignation, as her hands curled into fists. "...Besides. If he's here, at least he's not out there."[break][break]

She then gestured back to the portal from whence she'd come, indicating Hoenn at large. Her outstretched fingers caused plumes in the mist, disturbing them like rings of smoke.[break][break]

"I don't like leaving things unfinished," she said, seemingly unaware that she was speaking to one such unfinished thread now. "I prefer when life and death are clearly defined."[break][break]

But neither state was truly permanent in Hoenn. ALEXANDER STONE had shown her that, as had Cait Alfric when summoned by Tapu Fini's beck and call.[break][break]

The proof unsettled her. If you couldn't kill something, then it could still always kill you.[break][break]

Or you could just perpetually suffer, over and over, transitioning from alive to dead and everything in between.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Rarely did new Rocket recruits attain Elisabeth's dwindling attention. Of those that had, well, MARILYN HASEGAWA posed the most obvious example of why someone would.[break][break]

A woman wrongfully imprisoned against her will, with the art of poison her one saving grace, was a story she'd known intimately enough for it to feel like her own.[break][break]

For this reason, the usually taciturn underboss offered a warm smile to the elder woman as she entered, pecking a kiss to her cheek in an affectionate Kalosian greeting. "Hasegawa. A singular pleasure. I hope the tea business is going well?"[break][break]

All that warmth evaporated the moment she glanced over her shoulder at the other underboss, tone lowering to disdainful lows. "Beckett," she said curtly, barely inclining her head towards him. Hostility glimmered in her eyes, frosty and cold. "I see you're early."[break][break]

His interest in the Light Stone unsettled her, given his current pursuits in the organization. That had been the other reason she'd agreed to this meeting, despite having little interest in the artifact herself -- to keep an eye on THEO BECKETT, the same way she supposed he was keeping an eye on her.[break][break]

"I trust I haven't missed any important discussion?" she asked the other woman brightly, the enmity with her fellow underboss swiftly forgotten.

[attr="class","ooc"] MARILYN HASEGAWA THEO BECKETT

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Is that all?"[break][break]

Color briefly returns to her as she shakes her head and laughs. It's a lilting sound, almost bell-like in its muted tenor. A pale hand runs through long blonde hair, winding through tangled curls, before turning up empty. She stares at it, imagining a blood-red shard pulsing in her palm.[break][break]

To think of MATIAS SILPH, of all people, seems quaint in this place. The Volatile feels distant, theirs the thread of some complicated tapestry she is beginning to forget.[break][break]

Now she clings to those fraying memories, eager to think of anything but the imprisoned world they find themselves in. She embraces it, because there's power to be found in being hated.[break][break]

freya morningstar had reminded her of that.[break][break]

"Did I pull the trigger, Navidson? Or did the League simply ignore the bullets placed, one by one, into a weapon allowed to exist unchecked?" He will not find regret in her, for she has none. There is no action taken that she would have left undone; she has survived, and therefore, she has won. "You tempted Rocket with opportunity. If I had not acted on that, someone else would have done so."[break][break]

The elation fades as quickly as it comes, and she turns cold once more. She has won, hasn't she, and yet isn't she trapped here with this man and everyone else? A hollow victory, then.[break][break]

Empty.[break][break]

"Death claims everyone in the end. Blame me if you will, but know that kyle lopez chose his death, not me."

[attr="class","ooc"] Michael Navidson [break][break]

Prismatic Penitentiary: Ugly Ward

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"It's not that hard to imagine, surely?"[break][break]

The utopian future he'd imagined with her had always been a fantasy. Life had taught her cold and unfeeling pragmatism, stripping away the rosy-tinged daydreams of her childhood.[break][break]

Delusions of grandeur didn't chase her the way they chased him. Her only ambition had been survival, and as much as he'd understood that part of her, it was the part of her he'd despised most for its cowardice.[break][break]

What brought her here was no different.[break][break]

"I want to make sure the dead stay dead."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH

[attr="class","pkmn"]