They materialized back in the lab, and everything seemed perfectly normal. Exactly as it had been. The contrast was jarring, the after-image of the second, far more sinister Necrozma still burned across Nomi's vision.[break][break]
"You're welcome," she replied automatically, throat dry. She stared blankly ahead as the Unown drifted through the air, surrounding Lulu with curious eyes. One by one, they eventually winked out of existence, returning to the Unown Dimension.[break][break]
What had gone wrong? It was unlikely Lulu had made an engineering mistake, but the alternative was far more unnerving to consider: had the dream machine been infiltrated? The DRK Triad had been able to get inside of the RKS Machine; had they also meddled here?[break][break]
"Perhaps it is worth sending the Unown to spy on the real life Eris Halla," Nomi suggested. "In any case, let me know if there is anything else I can do."

TAGS – Lulu Flint | Eris Halla[break]
NOTES – Mission

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- your lucky day - [break][break]
- your lucky day -[break][break]
- your lucky day -[break][break]
She arrives in a shimmer of blue crystal, reality parting for her passing. She gasps, sucking in salt and smoke, the taunting voice of Father Winter ripping holes in her sanity with every labored breath. Her head aches from injury and the overuse of her powers. Frantic, she whips her head to the south and immediately realizes the imprecision of her teleportation.[break][break]
Nomi has landed too far away to see her home.[break][break]
"Kal - "[break][break]
She freezes, the process of transferring her vision to the Unown screeching to a halt. Kallistatus winks out of existence, becoming invisible, but not before Nomi has followed its singular gaze to a familiar woman, her golden eyes like envious beacons burning through the haze of battle. As soon as she processes who she is looking at, her blood runs cold.[break][break]
Fate has brought her to the same exact coordinates as PENELOPE LIVY.[break][break]
Stay calm, she urges, suppressing the rising tide of panic. She won't recognize you. She thinks you still have pink hair, remember? Kal was fast, she likely didn't notice - [break][break]
But PENELOPE LIVY is not alone. To Nomi's horror, she stands beside a man. A man that does know, with utter certainty, that the Visionary has blue hair.[break][break]
Her eyes lock with Greyson Connors, and Nomi wills him not to recognize her.[break][break]
Magma is pooling in the palm of the Councilwoman's hand.[break][break]
She's not ready for this fight, not again. Not now. She tries to summon another teleport, but falters: she needs more time to regain energy.[break][break]
Please, Greyson, she silently pleads. Let me go.[break][break]

TAGS – BATTLE OF SOOTOPOLIS[break]
NOTES[break]
- PRELUDE[break]
- Nomi teleports in around B2[break]
- At first, she is too distracted by the chaos, anxiety for her house, and Father Winter's meddling to realize who she has arrived next to[break]
- When she DOES realize PENELOPE LIVY and Greyson Connors are near her, she tries to convince herself that Penny won't recognize her 'cos she has blue hair now, but then she locks eyes with Greyson Connors and, to her horror, understands that him recognizing her may doom her to Penny's wrath...

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The house is fine.[break][break]
There are too many weeds tangling their way through the front lawn, betraying its recent neglect, but the exterior is otherwise pristine - as cozy and welcoming as it usually is. Smoke billows to the west, obscuring the sky, where the rampaging Kyogre rockets through turbulent seas, but none of the fighting has reached the eastern half of the city. Not yet.[break][break]
A part of her thinks - if I look away for even a second, all will be lost - but another part of her is hungry for a greater understanding of the events unfolding around her. Ignoring the crackling of her comms, she transfers her vision to Petalburg, where the earth is giving birth to a titan of immense destruction.[break][break]
She understands instantly what that means.[break][break]
"Howard - "[break][break]
A paw touches down on her arm, and her white-eyed blank stare flickers back to red.[break][break]
Disoriented, she is face-to-face with a haggard Lucario. Relief wars with anxiety as soon as she recognizes him.[break][break]
"Remus?" She chokes out, reaching for him. "Where is she?"[break][break]
But as soon as she touches him, squeezing blue fur between shaking fingers, she knows. Her connection with the Unown allows for a near-instant transfer to her lover's location. All three of them appear in a shimmer of blue energy by Parker's dead body.[break][break]
Nomi screams, dropping to her knees.[break][break]
"Who did this?!" she wails, as if the Lucario has answers. As if Kallistatus has answers. As if Arceus has answers.[break][break]
She folds over Parker, tears dripping down blood-stained cheeks. She presses her forehead to the other woman's chest, sobbing.[break][break]
She is too blinded by grief to realize, at first, that Parker is breathing.

TAGS – parker jones[break]
NOTES – Takes place immediately following the events of this thread

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Nomi remembered Elaine Highland.[break][break]
She remembered the darkness, the sickly sweet smell of peach-flavored mochi, the hopelessness and despair. She remembered the Megalopolians, the horrible canine Pokemon with its massive muscles, and the toxic chain like a noose around her neck. She remembered the dream, their only salvation, and then eventually, their escape into Ultra Space.[break][break]
When the Unown had pulsed to the rhythm of Elaine's searching, Nomi was struck with a sudden, intense desire to meet with the other woman, viscerally reminded of their adjacent powers bestowed upon them by mysterious forces.[break][break]
There would be risk, of course. Because of PENELOPE LIVY, all those associated with the League were potential enemies now. But Nomi's intuition whispered to her that this wasn't a League attempt to harm her. This was merely a request to speak.[break][break]
And so it was that a thin tear began to form in the fabric of reality, above the cliffside where Elaine stood: a miniature spatial distortion connecting one dimension to another.[break][break]
Out of the portal stepped a petite woman with short-cropped blue hair, framed in sparkling crystalline energy. A matching shiny blue Unown-K floated dutifully at her side. She regarded Elain with curious crimson eyes, and an odd sense of deja-vu.[break][break]
"Hello Elaine," she greeted. "I heard you were looking for me?"

TAGS – Elaine Highland[break]
NOTES – Canon Connections - July

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Nomi could feel Yuina's trepidation through the wavering in her voice. She wanted to reach for her, try and comfort her in some way...the fear was evident as the woman stared down into her tea mug, quiet and contemplative, expression distant in an attempt to rally some semblance of hope. Nomi wished she could give her that hope, she really did.[break][break]
But then Yuina said something that shocked Nomi, her eyes widening as she processed the new information.[break][break]
"They're after you?" She repeated, bemused. "But you're - " Just a normal girl, she almost said, but stopped herself. She'd been a "just a normal girl" before the Unown had bonded with her.[break][break]
"Yuina!" Nomi exclaimed, curiosity overtaking her apprehension. "You don't happen to have any connection to a legendary Pokemon, do you? It might manifest subtly...or in dreams, or something." She had no idea, truthfully, how these things could be reliably tracked. Every Avatar had different origin stories, for the most part.[break][break]
"I originally made myself an enemy of the DRK Triad because I helped Lu - a colleague - capture and interrogate Nisa Holo during the Meteno incident," she explained. "But it wasn't until I had...garnered the favor of the Unown, that Holo tried to kill me. She wanted to stop me from becoming an Avatar."[break][break]
Did they want to prevent the same for Yuina?[break][break]
Something occurred to Nomi then, a detail she had glossed over at first.[break][break]
"Wait...black hat?" That sounded vaguely familiar. "Which member of the Triad is that?"

TAGS – Yuina Higashi[break]
NOTES – SOCIAL

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Nomi always felt a thrill of delight when oscar clayton messaged her - usually because it meant he had some new device to show her, something he'd cooked up with that incredible innovative mind of his. This time, however, it seemed the energy expert needed her assistance.[break][break]
[break][break]
She followed up the text with the exact coordinates, then turned to Kallistatus. The two of them teleported to the Power Spot instantly, arriving in a sparkling burst of blue crystals.[break][break]
As she waited for Oscar to join her, Nomi gazed into the crimson light pouring out of the strange hole in the ground. Though this one had been created by humans, using the infinite possibilities provided by Tera energy, she couldn't help but feel a shiver pass down her spine at the sight of it. The origin of such power came from Eternatus, she knew.[break][break]
The great beast slumbered, but for how much longer?

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

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When they'd first entered the dream, Kallistatus had not joined them. None of her Unown had. But she had not necessarily spent time on reaching them through the Avatar bond. Perhaps it was merely a matter of attuning her connection to a different signal, like one might with a radio.[break][break]
Trying not to get killed by a too-real dream Necrozma didn't exactly make it easy to focus, however.[break][break]
Nomi dashed out of the way of another massive claw swipe. Hiding behind a different tree - not as big and imposing at the Tree of Life, but enough to provide some measure of cover, at least for a few seconds - she closed her eyes. Shutting out all other sounds and sensations, Nomi called out for the Unown through their psychic link.[break][break]
Kallistatus! Anyone! Please get us out of here.[break][break]
Faintly, she heard a soft humming in the back of her mind. A frequency straining to lock on, to stabilize. Her heart hammered in her chest. And then -- [break][break]
[break][break]
Nomi's eyes snapped open. Unown - her Unown - poured into the dream from a tear in reality just above Nomi's head. As they did, the entire landscape began to fuzz, reminiscent of the indication that an RKS simulation was about to end.[break][break]
"They can get us out!" Relief flooded her. On shaky legs, Nomi rushed back to Lulu, taking her hand.[break][break]
She spared the dream Eris and her dream Unown one last glance before the teleportation whisked them back to the lab.

TAGS – Lulu Flint | Eris Halla[break]
NOTES – Mission

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Father Winter, that enigmatic demon, is fond of flipping coins. Nomi finds it insufferable for many reasons, but one in particular is the insistence that there are only ever two sides to choose from at any given time.[break][break]
Life isn't a coin, it is a many-sided jewel, each facet reflecting a different aspect of humanity's eternal struggle to survive. League and Rocket aren't opposites, they are mirrors of one another - different paths one might choose to travel to reach a destination. And they aren't the only ones.[break][break]
Better Rocket than the Triad. Nomi's seen what happens in that timeline.[break][break]
"I care," she starts, suddenly finding it hard to speak. "Because caring is what sets me apart from them."[break][break]
The Unown chose her because of it, because she loves them. Maybe Holo had cared - had loved - once. But in this iteration, they are enemies, and Nomi has tried and failed at diplomacy far too many times to have any hope left that she might convince the DRK Triad to end their scheming using that tactic.[break][break]
War is inevitable.[break][break]
A potent silence, ripe with unspoken laments and more impossible promises, hangs over them.[break][break]
"Where's Regice, Howard?"

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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The only traitor Nomi cares about, in that moment, is Arceus.[break][break]
Why had God created their world only to destroy it? And if the Arceus allied with the DRK Triad is actually from a different universe, where is theirs to defend them? It's all so...cosmically futile.[break][break]
Isn't Howard's sentiment the exact reason she has been giving to Rocket leadership, over and over, in regards to Kanto's legacy? Hasn't she been pleading with her peers to forgo the faction conflict, if temporarily, to ensure that, when it is all said and done, there will even be a Hoenn to rule over?[break][break]
"You're right," she admits, reluctantly. Bitterly. "But that's also why we need to live, Howard. If not us, then who? Who's going to make things better? Make sure there's a tomorrow?"[break][break]
She shifts, resting her hand atop his.[break][break]
"I do trust you." And then, because she's just so tired of everyone pretending to know better - "You don't have to like it."

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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Sato.[break][break]
Though she managed not to flinch, the formal greeting stabbed Nomi in the gut. Barely a month ago they'd been calling one another sister. Now? She was just Lulu's scientific peer again.[break][break]
She steeled herself, forcing a hardening of her own heart. She, too, could be a professional - when she had to be.[break][break]
"I am aware," she confirmed, keeping her tone neutral. The green tea was a nice gesture, but she cautioned herself against reading too much into it.[break][break]
She followed Lulu's gaze to the core.[break][break]
"Not yet," she admitted. "I am hoping Makoto Kurumi's newly acquired Deoxys will be able to wake it."[break][break]
She had a feeling she already knew which other matters Lulu wanted to discuss, but rather than shy away from what was sure to be a difficult conversation, her crimson eyes found Lulu's with a measured confidence.[break][break]
"Where shall we begin?"

TAGS – Lulu Flint[break]
NOTES – Mission

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