She does not flinch when the Greninja assaults her, though Kallistatus stares at him with a divine scrutiny. Her gaze remains fixed on Navy.[break][break]
And only when she sees it - the creasing of his brow, the flash of panic in his eyes, the straightening of his back - does she relax slightly, balled fists opening to reveal red marks across smooth palms where her nails have bitten flesh.[break][break]
Finally, he translates her reprimand for what it truly is: a warning.[break][break]
"Nobody," she sighs. "Yet."[break][break]
Mist rolls in from the shore, and curiously, she can almost smell wildflowers - the kind one might leave atop a grave.[break][break]
"I need you to understand something," she murmurs, with only a little less urgency. "The recording of you verbally allying yourself with a known Rocket Avatar is a priceless artifact my organization could use to sow discord amongst the League."[break][break]
She shakes her head, blue bob framing flushed cheeks.[break][break]
"Naturally, I will protect this information as long as I can. But - "[break][break]
Surely he already knows. Surely he can guess. There is one person who can force her hand.

TAGS – Navy[break]
NOTES – Set immediately following the events of HYPERBOREA[break][break]
"Now your statues are standing and pouring sweat. They shiver with dread. The black blood drips from the highest rooftops. They have seen the necessity of evil. Get out, get out of my sanctum and drown your spirits in woe." -The Oracle of Delphi

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"That's not my dream," she snaps, an uncharacteristic loss of composure. She balls her hands into tiny fists to keep them from shaking. "My dream is to end the DRK Triad's assault on this world. To save Hoenn from its inevitable collapse. This...this acadia you speak of, it's not necessary, Howard."[break][break]
The white streak in his hair - had it always been there?[break][break]
"It's not worth dying for."[break][break]
They both ought to know that history repeats. Elisabeth Fiorelli had lectured Nomi on the merits of staying alive, and now it is the Head Scientist's turn to take that plethora of wisdom and shove it down Howard's charred throat. He will be of no use to Regice, no use to Rocket, no use to Hoenn, no use to anyone as a corpse.[break][break]
She'd seen the husk of his body laid bare before the Unown, and it had been a mirror. It had been a fortune teller's crystal ball.[break][break]
"We need you."[break][break]
And quieter still - the hurt of his betrayal still souring her tongue -[break][break]
"I need you."

TAGS – howard slayte[break]
NOTES – Set immediately following the events of HYPERBOREA[break][break]
"With silver spears may you conquer the world." -The Oracle of Delphi

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"Parker?"[break][break]
She coughs pitifully, blooding dribbling from the corner of her mouth. From a cut on her forehead. From one eye glued shut.[break][break]
Valerian stands over her, hackles raised, his pastel pink eyes narrowed as he watches for approaching danger. She's somewhere just outside the Space Center, face-down in the grass. Gingerly, Nomi rolls herself over so that she's staring up at the stormy sky.[break][break]
"Is she safe?"[break][break]
Impressions travel through the airwaves, making space for hastily scribbled answers. Neffatari Nzingha and her escort, his tired Shaymin a floral beacon of resilience, are alive and well. A Clefable gazes up at Kallistatus, blueprints clutched in its arms. Parker is - [break][break]
A massive explosion shakes the foundations of the earth, shockwaves rippling outwards from some unseen epicenter. Nomi gasps, finds the strength to sit up, and turns her head to the southwest.[break][break]
Towards Sootopolis.[break][break]
Towards home.

TAGS – Neffatari Nzingha Noel Parker[break]
NOTES – TFW PRELUDE: MOSSDEEP[break]
- War Outfit Vibes[break]
- Shiny Unown-K is Terastallized into the STELLAR TYPE[break]
- RIP Sootopolis...[break][break]

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Her vision tunnels: she is surrounded on all sides by enemies. Panic threatens to overwhelm her, but then a voice cuts through the haze.[break][break]
MOVE![break][break]
Neffatari Nzingha's tone brokers no room for argument. This is the woman who has conquered the unconquerable, domesticated the devourer. It is with absolute authority that her glare finally snaps Nomi out of her prophetic paralysis. This might have been inevitable - the DRK Triad's assault - but that does not mean she lacks the will to alter whatever fate Arceus has in store for her.[break][break]
Our futures belong to us, she'd told Nisa Holo, with a defiant certainty. Here, now, she would channel that same resilience: the unwillingness to become a cog in someone else's predetermined wheel.[break][break]
"Kallistatus!"[break][break]
The Terastallized Unown appears, teleporting to her side in an instant. As the assassins close in, a dome of winking stars and infinite galaxies springs up around them, a miniature recreation of the Unown Dimension in all its extraterrestrial glory.[break][break]
[break]
It is enough to freeze her assailants in place.[break][break]
It is not enough to stop the ceiling from caving in on top of her.[break][break]
Blocks of cement come crashing down, and Nomi screams, covering her head with her (too-small) hands and ducking for the nearest lab table. She isn't fast enough, already fatigued from using her powers: a chunk of stone collides with the right side of her body, knocking her forward. Her forehead slams into the table leg and there is a ringing in her ears. The metallic taste of blood burns her tongue, and all she can see are neon lights where her vision should be.[break][break]
Dizzy and disoriented, Nomi tries to make sense of what is happening. Vaguely, she registers crushed blueprints and shattered computer screens. The bodies of the DRK Triad assassins are nowhere to be seen, which is both a relief and a problem. Shakily, she fumbles for Pyro's Pokeball, willing the Gouging Fire to return to it, though she cannot find their body amidst the dust and debris.[break][break]
Kallistatus is there: she senses the shiny Unown-K, reaches out to them with the scraps of her consciousness. She has no idea if Nenet survived the blast - or whatever that had been - but she cannot do a single thing about it. She can hardly move at all.[break][break]
"Go! Make sure Nenet's okay! She needs to get out of here," Nomi croaks, urging Kallistatus to go after the astrobiologist. "What she's carrying - it's more important than me."[break][break]
Somewhere, perhaps ironically, parker jones fights for Nomi like she is the only thing that matters on earth.[break][break]
"Please," she begs, pitiful. Had she ever truly fooled Noel Parker? She feels small and helpless, now; so unlike the dark sorceress she'd attempted to be.[break][break]
A single eye stares at her, reluctant. She pushes herself to her feet, holding onto the lab table for support.[break][break]
"I'll meet you outside the building."[break][break]
Another Pokeball. Valerian appears, shaking out his Illumina fur with impatience. He glares at Nomi with the sort of fury born of love.[break][break]
"Val will protect me."[break][break]
Finally convinced, the Unown blips away. Only then does she collapse back to her knees, tears of pain streaming down her cheeks. She wraps her arms around the Sylveon, pulling him close. A bubble of LIGHT SCREEN ripples over them.[break][break]
And then she is gone.

TAGS – Neffatari Nzingha Noel Parker[break]
NOTES – TFW PRELUDE: MOSSDEEP[break]
- War Outfit Vibes[break]
- Shiny Unown-K is Terastallized into the STELLAR TYPE[break]
- Gouging Fire has fainted[break]
- Sylveon uses LIGHT SCREEN[break]
- Nomi fights the DRK Triad, but is injured by the ceiling collapse caused by the Shaymin's EARTHLY POWER; she is forced to leave behind the rest of the blueprints & separate from Nenet[break]

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Perhaps it is a mercy, that he cannot see her face.[break][break]
Her footfalls are hesitant, as if reluctant to enter the infirmary lest it trigger some final consequence she will be powerless to prevent. She tries to mold her face into a mask of neutral elegance befitting of an oracle, but it is a flimsy thing, paper-thin and already tearing at the seams.[break][break]
Strange, that she could be brought so low by the sight of this broken man who had curated his own tragic fate. But looking at him feels uncomfortably similar to gazing into a mirror, forced to grapple with her own pathetic attempts to hold some sway over the conflicts that threaten their world.[break][break]
She has been a fool to think herself capable of diverting a rushing river, when all she has are a few sticks to build her dam.[break][break]
But those sticks are immune to humanity's folly, having witnessed it countless times throughout the centuries. The Unown-H she has assigned to him floats dutifully above his head, its singular eye beckoning for Nomi even as she lingers at the threshold, wringing her hands.[break][break]
"No," she confirms, wretched. "I did not send them away."[break][break]
Sluggish, she makes her way to his side and collapses into the chair beside the bed. All of the anguished fire she'd brought to Navy diminishes further as she assesses the Admin's injured state.[break][break]
"To what end, Howard?"[break][break]
She hates that she has to know this, that she cannot offer comfort until the why of it has been addressed.

TAGS – howard slayte[break]
NOTES – Set immediately following the events of HYPERBOREA[break][break]
"With silver spears may you conquer the world." -The Oracle of Delphi

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"Stupid, narrow-minded man," she snaps, with a sudden uncharacteristic impatience. "You're not listening to me."[break][break]
It's not him, not really. It's all of them. League, Rocket. They hear her, but they do not comprehend.[break][break]
"I said I have use for such a device, not Rocket."[break][break]
Dainty hands on hips, a flower glaring up at a mountain - though not without thorns.[break][break]
"Does the League know you're here? Talking to me?" She demands, but it's a rhetorical question. "Of course they don't. Because this is your project, something you're willing to cross faction lines to accomplish - for your benefit, not theirs." She shakes her head in a bone-weary fashion. "We are the same, Greyson. We want to protect the people we love."

TAGS – Greyson Connors[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL[break]

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It...it hadn't occurred to her.[break][break]
She blinked, doe-eyed, caught in the headlights of Elisabeth's blunt assessment.[break][break]
Self-preservation had never been at the forefront of Nomi's mission; in fact, she had slipped on the mantle of martyrdom and found it to be a perfect fit. How noble it had seemed, to declare that she would save their world or die trying.[break][break]
How utterly foolish.[break][break]
Shell-shocked, she realized, then, that this was what parker jones had always believed to be true - she'd simply lacked the thorns to say it sharply enough to draw blood.[break][break]
Nomi knew that it would break her lover's heart if she died: that was easy to imagine, if terrible to endure. But to admit that her own death might very well carry with it a failure so final it would invalidate all of her efforts...perhaps even contradict them...[break][break]
"What would you have me do?" She hissed, the plea of a cornered animal. "Abandon my cause? Let the DRK Triad do as it pleases with our world?"

TAGS – Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
NOTES – Social[break][break]
"And she stood there, grinning forever, and the dust that had gathered and lay in heaps on her shoulders was muddy with tears..." -Hesiod

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She stands at a crossroads, staring down the barrel of a gun loaded with grief. There's a pair of men she must see, and though her eyes are everywhere, not even the Visionary can be in two places at once. She will need to choose, and do so quickly: war is coming, and it will not wait on a scientist's careful scrutiny.[break][break]
She tells herself that it is logical to cut off circulation where the bleeding is heaviest, but deep down, she knows she is simply putting off confronting her own failure.[break][break]
She could have prevented this. howard slayte had lied to her face and she had let him.[break][break]
So, after checking to make sure it is not too late at night to speak, she teleports to Dewford in a flurry of crystalline blue energy, in search of the League's newest Avatar - a well-meaning but woefully ignorant man, who's lack of foresight might very well be his doom.[break][break]
Another burden she will be forced to bear, in her efforts to save their world.[break][break]
"It was me," she hisses, stepping out of the Unown Dimension and into his living space. She doesn't care if it startles him, doesn't care that he's not alone. "I was the one watching."[break][break]
She pauses, sucks in a bone-weary breath.[break][break]
"Do you realize what you've done?"

TAGS – Navy[break]
NOTES – Set immediately following the events of HYPERBOREA[break][break]
"Now your statues are standing and pouring sweat. They shiver with dread. The black blood drips from the highest rooftops. They have seen the necessity of evil. Get out, get out of my sanctum and drown your spirits in woe." -The Oracle of Delphi

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Nomi has lost track of how many times she has visited this particular simulation. At this point, she has memorized its various nuances down to the most minute of details. Still, she cannot help but feel drawn to the depths beyond what her vision can discern: always, they call to her.[break][break]
"Yes," she answers, addressing Nenet's second question first. "This is an accurate recreation. Amazing, isn't it?"[break][break]
Kallistatus, the only living Unown actually with them, drifts ahead - its shining body like a beacon in the dark. Nomi continues to hang back, however, turning to regard Nenet with an appreciative smile. It's nice to be with someone who gets it; someone who finds the wonders of technology and innovation as exciting as she does.[break][break]
"The Machine is powered by the Seal Stone Rocket recovered in the Ultra Deep Sea last year. To be frank, I am not entirely certain how it all works, but I suspect it has something to do with Tera Energy, Dream Mist, and the Paradox Pokemon." Her expression turns thoughtful. "The Machine continues to evolve, producing new simulations every so often - the most recent update took place because we connected it to the Violet Book."

TAGS – Neffatari Nzingha[break]
NOTES – RKS: Unown[break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

She would do her part - for the reasons he stated, and others. She couldn't help but think of her home, in Sootopolis, the one she and Parker had recently purchased. She'd admitted to KING WAYLAND that she didn't care if freya morningstar took back her beloved city, and she'd meant it. She just wasn't entirely sure that was an outcome she could abide, if it involved losing the domestic life she and Parker were now building together.[break][break]
But Zev was not the sort of man to grasp such a concept. Or so she guessed. He was, however, married.[break][break]
Which reminded her of something.[break][break]
"I suppose we will find out soon enough, but if Walsh wants to take Mossdeep, I would very much like to ensure the Space Center survives the assault," Nomi declared. "And if it can't? Then I will steal its secrets before we destroy it."[break][break]
A thoughtful expression came over her, eyes distant as she considered the possibilities.[break][break]
"It's possible there's research in there that could help us traverse Ultra Space." She paused. "Perhaps Nenet will be able to help me make sense of it."[break][break]
He would not want his wife close to a warzone, she suspected - but surely he could admit that her expertise would benefit them.

TAGS – Zev Harcourt[break]
NOTES – Mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The rest were formalities. Paperwork, money orders ("No, we can't actually give them that much cash, Parker - "), and a lot of packing. Endless packing. How the hell had they both acquired so many things?[break][break]
It was a fragile joy, bubble-wrapped in the unspoken "while we can" at the end of the "let's enjoy this" sentiment. Nomi didn't want to think about what came next: she just wanted to exist in the here and now, in the dusting off of shelves and the arrangement of furniture and the passionate kissing in-between the home-making. It was the sort of domestic bliss shadowed by nostalgia, as if she had done this all before, with Parker: the sort of hazy half-remembered dream-state one swears was real.[break][break]
But this was real. As real as anything could be, given that reality was malleable and their timeline easily obfuscated.[break][break]
It dawned on her, sometime later - when the house was truly theirs - that she had a choice to make: worry about the destination or enjoy the journey. And for all the ways she was brilliant - was divinity made manifest - Nomi was also human. So she stubbornly clung to the belief that this would last - that this was forever. There were no outcomes worth agonizing over.[break][break]
Sometimes, delusion was survival.

TAGS – parker jones[break]
NOTES – kitchen inspiration | outfit | Social

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