humans dream. not because they want to, but because chemicals in their delightfully squishy brains demand they rest their heads and make themselves vulnerable. they must wander listlessly through the machinations of their imaginations, so massive and incomprehensible that they forget in the morning.

but more than they dream, they fear.

they fear the lonely. fear the buried. fear the forgotten. fear sickness. fear rot. fear war. fear pain.

fear the dark.

would creatures like the flutter mane exist if not for the unholy matrimony between dream and cataclysm? their nightmares, realized. 

the mist thickens. the nest shivers. 

a woman screams and somewhere, very far away, a man hears her and he begins to run. thousands of eyes turn towards her, around her, and tendrils of darkness with twisting, rotten mouth begin to laugh as they cover what remains of the sky. 

intelligible babble between shrieks and giggles, and then a single word, bitten from a laugh, his hollowed out stolen voice:

"RUN."

Mitsuru Kagami

☉

and it all comes crashing down. a shower of crystal sprays out, debris and shrapnel spraying. a dust cloud swirls outward from the blow and he raises a hand to his mouth, coughing and squinting. 

"you okay in there?" he calls, blinking rapidly. ianthe and crown fuss over their dirtied coats while nikkari searches the dissipating cloud. 

and then he blunders through, his obstagoon wholly intact. he would have felt somewhat bad, crushing him like that after attempting to save his life, but more for miscalculating the situation than the actual loss of life from his negligence. 

he shakes his head. 

"no, we got it. sorry about dropping a couple tons of rocks on you."

tavish rose

☉

for the most part, he's gotten along on his own. several rocket outposts set up and underway, communication lines strung between them, and wild pokemon forced away from their immediate areas; all of this has culminated in a nearly safe environment. 

safe enough where he thinks it alright to shrug away from the buddy system and trek off along the outer perimeter of camp on his own. he has his own selfish reasons for being down here and one of them has to do with sightings of some marvelous creatures. 

the dogs of his homeland are rumoured to have been spotted. some dither about the point, saying said rumours are wrong and the dogs they've witnessed can be attributed to the likeness of paradoxes like walking wake. 

he doesn't expect much of the little information he has to go off of until a fog starts rolling in around his ankles. ianthe and crown's ears perk up at once as a warbling howl echoes through the trees, its source an indeterminate distance ahead. 

Mitsuru Kagami

☉

"oh, come off it, crown. you're not out of commission yet," he says to the weakened vulpix in his arms. she sniffs petulantly at being called out for her play-acting and as nikkari runs behind the other man and the pursuing fluttermane, she leaps from his arms. 

she and ianthe flank him. his obstagoon keeps it hot on its tail; nikkari looks for any fissures, calculating distance and velocity and thinking this better work. at the end of the day, though, it's not his hide they'll find out here. he could just as easily turn around and leave the man to his fate. 

but people are typically more useful alive than dead, especially when they owe you said lives. 

"i don't hesitate," he says, though there's no way he's heart with this much distance. ianthe and crown follow his hand as he orders an attack from both of them. ice meets fire in a combustible display and the tera crystals above the fluttermane rain like meteorites. 

tavish rose

☉

"then i'll buy a property near you as well," he says with a wave of his hand. it'll have to be smaller. the place he's procured in lilycove isn't exactly humble and though he's well off, one keeps wealth with investments. he has a few he's working towards now, but until then, he'd rather not go too heavy with his splurging. 

he sips daintily from his mug. 

"tell me what i'm walking into."

jayden cross

☉

ianthe is a spoiled rotten prince. to see her swept up in mei's arms colors surprise on nikkari's face, but her hackles are flat, ears relaxed. even her tail wriggles with joy? as mei scratches her behind the ears. the frosmoth makes him think she has an affinity for ice-types, but this is more than that. 

"property management," he says promptly and flashes an endearing smile as he strides a couple paces ahead to hold back an overgrown monstera leaf in their path. 

"you have a keen eye, don't you, miss liu? what else do you think it is i do?"

Mei Liu

☉

his hair is up in a loose tie, but that doesn't stop the humidity from dewing the back of his neck. his sportwear is breathable on account of it not being standard-issued rocket wear. he can be light on his feet when he needs to be, but he's by no means a hardened explorer or hand-to-hand combatant. 

that's what his pokemon are for. 

"i'd agree, but what lay beyond the rifts are technically far away from hoenn, no? this is here. an entire ecosystem, right under our noses."

was it here the entire time? 

ianthe has taken immediately to the escort, which he wasn't prepared for, as ianthe doesn't take to anyone. crown has fallen right into step behind her sister, as she is want to do, and nikkari gives her a look-over when he can, while they walk.

he's seen her around the casino before, but that's not how he knows her name. or her profession. or her history. Yumi Hasegawa had left him breadcrumbs and he'd picked up the rest of the pieces with his network, so he's more than prepared when she dips her head. 

"nikkari hect," he replies mildly, "and she mentioned her roommate, yes. apologies for not making a proper introduction before. i get a bit absorbed with my work."

Mei Liu

☉

such is the way of the world, this stranger has become more hindrance than help. he'd rather not put his neck on the line, but one of the fluttermane's eyes has already turned to him, yellow iris a brilliant shade against its burgundy sclera. 

crown huffs and like an elastic band, she crumples at the same moment the paradox pokemon fades into invisibility. ianthe nudges her sister back to standing while nikkari looks out towards the obstagoon and its trainer. 

"ianthe," he says, snapping her back to attention.

the obstagoon stands its ground, despite the leering reappearance of the paradox. nikkari scoops crown into his arms and jogs to the side, ianthe striding beside him and looking for an opening. 

"back it under those crystals! we might be able to bury it. ianthe, ready a shot."

tavish rose

☉

as soon as she points them out, he wonders how he could have missed it before. the doors themselves are a work of art, lovingly crafted with thousands and thousands of gold-plated gears. bits and pieces of them are silver and as he stoops down to inspect, fingers running along the nuances in the metalwork, he feels scratches. 

the empty socket is a depress in the door and, following yumi's gaze, he toes around the mess on the floor. ianthe paws once at a piece near his heel and he picks it up, blinking in surprise as he beholds a small klink.

it's cold to the touch, which doesn't surprise him, but the fact it doesn't open its eyes makes him feel as though nothing is in the creature, so to speak. and when he fits it into the door, he almost expects it to wake. 

instead, there's a satisfying kerchunk and the mechanism whirls, depresses and the door unconfigures itself. past the threshold is what appears to be a study and behind a half-rotted curtain, another portal home. 

Yumi Hasegawa

02 use the klink line in some way.

☉

before climbing down into the chasms, as he is want to do, nikkari studied. the paradox pokemon, by all rights, are incredibly ferocious creatures. strong and aggressive. he imagines most of them don't appreciate intrepid plunderers invading their home and messing about the place. 

at first, he thinks he must have mistaken a tamed fluttermane for a wild one, by the man's reaction, but when it goes down for another swipe, his brows raise. 

the obstagoon's fist sails clear through the incorporeal body. it's too close to the man and his pokemon for nikkari to get a clear shot in so he spreads a hand out to crown. 

"hold it," he says and she fluffs up her tail, cocks her head, and a ripple pulses out from the paradox pokemon. those searching ghostly ribbons halt in their tracks; that malicious smile stops stretching and twitches. the rest of its body spasms as though fighting to move. 

"back away!" he calls. "she won't be able to hold it for long."

tavish rose

☉

they always lived comfortably, the hect family. no scrimping for spare change to feed themselves. no needing to worry about where they may sleep for the night. some of the people who worked under, and even around him, weren't so lucky. 

but he could never fathom what it might be like to live so lavishly. he has a penthouse in lilycove and yet as he dances with her, he thinks about her dynasty. what she wants to build and later leave behind. every graceful flourish, every press and nudge to guide her way across the floor, is a falsity in which he plays a part in that vision. 

grasping at a future he's only just begun to speculate, but want after all the same.

when their dance is interrupted, he lingers there, breaths lightly quickened from the exertion. and then he releases her; that music-box dream shatters in an instant and he turns his attention to the next captivation. 

ianthe and crown work together to take out the rest of them and when the deed is done, he examines the wreckage. 

"they're all...mechanized pokemon," he says, fascinated. 

Yumi Hasegawa

🗺️ NIKKARI HECT's interest in other worlds, his battle prowess, or his relationship with YUMI HASEGAWA must be explored in some way.

☉

nikkari considers himself, rightfully or wrongfully, a self-made man. despite the warnings, despite the dangers, he's come here on his own to unearth for himself the secrets that this place has been hiding. 

or, at the very least, he's by himself at the moment. he'd procured some help getting down through the chasm and had worked to set up a research station nearby, but with his dues paid, he wandered off on his own. 

and now he has the fortune of stumbling across someone doing much the same. 

crown and ianthe trot at his heels, sitting when he stops, and he thinks of tailing the person for a bit before calling in a drop on him, but then he notices the apparition. 

the feathery wings of this misdreavus' head materialize first, reaching forward to clutch at the unsuspecting traveler, and nikkari hollers, "GET DOWN!"

ianthe, with a yowl, expels an ice beam at the ghastly creature. 

tavish rose

☉