Eyes have a weakness, an obvious one: too much direct light to the retina, and blindness will occur.[break][break]
A gasp, the rush of wind in a windless place, and suddenly there is a blade at her throat. The Unown pulse to the rhythm of rage, surprised as they are, and Nomi flinches back just slightly - just enough to reveal her humanity: the hammering of her heart, the adrenaline coursing through her veins.[break][break]
But there is no searing pain. There is no decapitation. Freya cannot kill Nomi here. If she does, she will be trapped for all eternity in a dimension owned by those who would enact a swift and immediate retribution for the loss of their Avatar.[break][break]
"I deserved that," Nomi whispers back, throat dry. "It was a clever trick."[break][break]
Nomi gazes up at the Councilwoman, cheeks flushed, and unfurls a small, wry smile. Does she know how beautiful she is? Even in her fury? How strange, to stand amongst the stars, at the mercy of a would-be-enemy, and find that she is flustered. She's always had a weakness for strong women.[break][break]
"Freya, how much do you know about ruination?"

TAGS – freya morningstar[break]
NOTES[break]
- Talking to Freya in the Unown Dimension

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"We're ALL selfish!"[break][break]
Her voice cuts through the void like a knife, sharp and serrated. Now she is glaring. Now she balls her own hands into tight, blood-drawing fists.[break][break]
"The likes of PENELOPE LIVY and Greyson Connors would commit the cold-blooded murder of my loved ones to prove their 'goodness', but I would never, not in a million years, touch a hair on the head of KING WAYLAND, for any reason - not even if you had burned my house down with your own two hands on purpose, because you hate me."[break][break]
She steps forward and the Unown swell behind her, a cloak of inky black riddled with lidless eyes.[break][break]
"I brought you here to find out if you're the same as them."[break][break]
Nomi ought to wonder if her treason can make it back to Walsh from this distant realm. I have my own methods of surveillance. She accepts the risk, not because of pride - though it might seem that way - but because parker jones didn't deserve to have her house destroyed, even if Nomi did.[break][break]
"Would you preach amnesty to me? Or go for the kill, if I let you?"[break][break]

TAGS – freya morningstar[break]
NOTES[break]
- Talking to Freya in the Unown Dimension

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Marbles. The name is so obvious it reddens Nomi's cheeks. She swallows her ( - lack of a normal childhood - ) embarrassment, and watches with rapt fascination as Parker shoots her shot. There is a satisfying ping as glass-meets-glass, but it's Parker's grin that ensnares Nomi; she'll give anything to see it again. And again. And again.[break][break]
It's Nomi's turn, so she lowers the Absolite to the ground and lines up her thumb just like Parker had. She isn't aware that she's biting her lip, but she is. She focuses. Stares intently at her target. Thinks, can't be that hard, right? And flicks![break][break]
The Absolite shoots up, off the mark by several inches, and lands in the mud with a nauseating splurt. The other marbles remain smugly nestled in their original positions. Nomi opens her mouth in horror.[break][break]
"No way!" She exclaims, flustered. Shouldn't she have had just a little beginner's luck? "It slipped!" She swiftly moves to retrieve the Absolite. "Can I try again?"[break][break]
She looks up at Parker with a pleading expression.

TAGS – parker jones[break]
NOTES[break]
- Takes place immediately following the battle of Sootopolis

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"So, it wasn't on purpose?"[break][break]
She does not rise to the bait of Freya's absurd accusation; she doesn't even furrow her brow. Of course Sootopolis isn't her fault. She is only one person, one piece of the puzzle. They are all to blame.[break][break]
The Unown, in their all-knowing, understand the chain reaction Nomi has kicked off, with the decision to bring Freya here against her will - and without protection. The Councilwoman's loyal Salamence will rampage the earth in grief; burn forests and towns in his distress, if he isn't stopped. And that will be nothing compared to Rayquaza's fury, when they realize.[break][break]
For every action, there is a reaction. For every choice, there is a consequence. The Unown have seen this play out across millennia. They've waded through eons of destruction; war is an inevitable outcome of the clash between human and Pokemon, mortal and divine. Freya and Nomi are just another pair of heartbroken victims of the turning of destiny's wheel.[break][break]
"Your destruction of my house - it wasn't an act of vengeance?"

TAGS – freya morningstar[break]
NOTES[break]
- Talking to Freya in the Unown Dimension

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Aoki Hana has done her job. A job she didn't even realize she was doing - which she cannot be blamed for. It is woefully difficult to realize one's role in a larger prophecy, after all.[break][break]
There is an outcome to this altercation - highly probable - that results in the untimely death of the Rocket mercenary. She has made a critical mistake, so glaring it is as if the world burns red in error, and it will cost her - should nobody else intervene. This Avatar of Rayquaza is not a peacemaker, as she herself has stated, fangs barred and scales glistening. Foolish to assume the same title would pass from one to another, so different in character, opposite sides of the same resplendent coin.[break][break]
But someone will intervene. Someone has always intended to intervene.[break][break]
A tear in reality rips open directly behind the Councilwoman, revealing an endless cosmic expanse just beyond its threshold. A thousand eyes peer out, into the storm, and one pale, dainty hand extends to rest upon Freya's shoulder. The grip is much stronger than one might expect, for such a thin wrist. For such delicate fingers. For such bruised knuckles. And before anyone has a chance to counter - for this act of divinity takes a fraction of a second to execute - the Visionary yanks the Ascendant out of Hoenn and into the Unown Dimension.[break][break]
All is quiet, save for the low hum of the Unown. They dance and swirl around Naomi Sato, who stands confidently against the backdrop of infinite stars as if she owns them. She wears a simple black dress, for she has no need of armor. Her ruby eyes blaze, lit from within by the constant war between anger and grief that rages against her ribcage, but when she speaks, it isn't a condemnation or a battlecry. It is merely a question.[break][break]
"Did you mean to?" She asks, with devastating calm. "Did you know?"

TAGS – freya morningstar[break]
NOTES[break]
- Nomi intervenes and yeets Freya into the Unown Dimension!

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She does not doubt for a single second that declan walsh's threats are not as real as the air she breathes; not as inevitable as the rising of the sun. She understands exactly what it means to thread this particular needle, to toe the line between his respect and his wrath. She wants to live in a world where he cannot hurt her, but she has to make that world.[break][break]
And so, her death would be a waste, were it to happen here and now. In one month or two. In a year or more. There is so much work to do. So she nods in deference, and she means it.[break][break]
"I understand," she answers. It chills - but does not surprise - her, to consider the other means a man like him might have to spy on her, if not the Unown. It feels, in that moment, like a sudden clash of wills. There is something hidden, even to her many eyes.[break][break]
"I will work within the bounds of my station," she assures him. "I do not think you will be disappointed in what I am capable of learning."

TAGS – declan walsh[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL | Takes place directly following EVE OF WAR[break]

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His hand is a vice grip around her delicate wrist. She startles, staring at him with wide eyes. It isn't merely passion that drives him now; no, he is hungry. It would be frightening, if she didn't understand it.[break][break]
"Of course it is possible," she tells him, leaning into the strange nature of their existence. With Tera Energy and Dynergy and Dream Mist? Things that were once figments of the imagination could be conjured as readily as any chemical substance, with the right mixing of elements - and a little pressure.[break][break]
"We have colleagues already working on traversing Ultra Space," she reminds him, thinking of Lulu Flint. "When the time comes, we'll go with them. We'll be there."[break][break]
She looks, then, at the dancing Unown above them.[break][break]
"I have seen many things, Howard." Her expression grows distant, as if she is gazing across time as much as space. Her voice lowers, soft and prophetic. The vision of an unholy, bipedal Pokemon - found recently amidst the depths of the Earth - comes to mind, it's piercing gaze almost human as it regarded her with silent judgement. It had been dragged into existence against its will, the product of human innovation (or perhaps folly), she remembers. "We have so much to accomplish, even still. But we will."[break][break]
Her tone hardens.[break][break]
"We will.

TAGS – howard slayte[break]
NOTES – Set immediately following the events of The Battle of Petalburg[break][break]
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity..." - The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats

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Nomi couldn't help but smile a little, relief flooding through her; she hadn't expected apologies or hugs or anything so dramatic, but Lulu's immediate agreement to help warmed Nomi all the same, fanning the flames of hope: perhaps they really could repair their relationship, in time.[break][break]
"Places that exist in other worlds, or realms, or dimensions," she answered. "But also potentially...other times.."[break][break]
It was entirely possible that they might be able to find a way to traverse space-time, as Celebi and other legendary Pokemon could. Or find ways of infiltrating the other versions of Hoenn that existed, as Father Winter could. He had showed them all different paths they could have taken, that existed elsewhere in the vast web of universes.[break][break]
"It's all so..." she began, a measure of vulnerability entering her tone. "...Overwhelming, isn't it? Makes you feel small, like you're just a single grain of sand on a beach." But then a flash of excitement lit her crimson eyes from within. "But wouldn't it be fascinating, to see some of those places? To actually influence them?"[break][break]
Even the smallest fluctuation, the tiniest of ripples, could create a tsunami of possibility.

TAGS – Lulu Flint[break]
NOTES – Mission

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"Of course."[break][break]
Nomi wasn't one to turn down the opportunity to demonstrate something scientific. Especially for a colleague. Unaware of Oscar's scheming, she took out a Pokeball, and released her Ampharos.[break][break]
"Ash is already used to Mega-Evolution," she explained, smiling at the electric type. "So he won't mind helping us out with this."[break][break]
With that, she pressed a button on the Dynamax Band and it began to glow with a bright, crimson light - the same exact light emanating from the Power Spot beside them. Ash bellowed, feeling the Dynergy enter his body, wincing slightly from the sudden influx of power. Then, like a flower popping out of the ground in Spring, he began to grow. And grow. And grow.[break][break]
After a few moments, the Ampharos towered over the two humans, the size of a small skyscraper. Nomi shielded her eyes, glancing up at him.[break][break]
"Well, that's a start," she decided, nodding. "I'll have to run some additional tests, at other Power Spots, to see if he can get even taller."[break][break]
She beamed.

TAGS – oscar clayton[break]
NOTES – Mission[break]

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"What is this?"[break][break]
A new deviation in the RKS Machine, she knows, but she cannot help asking. A gym? She'd never once fathomed becoming a Gym Leader. She cocks her head, trying to picture what her own gym might look like, if it did exist. She supposes that, given what Father Winter had showed her a year ago, there's likely a branching pathway - a different reality - out there, where she did, indeed, become a Gym Leader.[break][break]
Anything is possible.[break][break]
"Fairy," she decides, picturing Valerian: her oldest friend, and first Pokemon. "And Psychic."[break][break]
For the Unown, of course.[break][break]
The simulation pixelates, and she assumes that some sort of stadium will appear based on her selections...but for a brief moment, she is lost amidst the myriad of colors struggling to decide what to become. Before her, the shape of a girl begins to manifest out of the possible iterations...a familiar girl, she realizes.[break][break]
A cold shiver passes through her. Is this another dream?[break][break]
"Eris," she whispers her name, like an incantation - or perhaps, a prayer.

TAGS – Eris Halla[break]
NOTES[break]
- Stage One: Gym Leader

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What would that be like? To open her eyes, untangle herself from the warm embrace of parker jones, and look out the window of their bedroom to see a Sootopolis no longer threatened by faction war? By a raging Leviathan, cursed to destroy?[break][break]
What would it be like to stand over the inert body of PENELOPE LIVY and know that ruination had been stopped in time? To really understand that she would be safe now, they'd all be safe now? To realize she could return to some semblance of a normal life studying under GIDEON GRAVES and finally finishing her PhD?[break][break]
What would it be like, to cross paths with Nisa Holo and best her in battle? Rip all of the Unown still tethered to the DRK Triad away from their toxic influence? To set all of them free to join her family - who's purpose it would always be to protect Hoenn instead of doom it - or travel elsewhere, beyond realms, wherever they wished to go?[break][break]
What would it be like to know, for certain, that they'd saved their world?[break][break]
"I would."

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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