Brilliant. [break][break]

"Moira, follow Lunatone's lead." She scrambles to her feet as Musharna follows suit, using dream eater to consume their reality in a display that's so trippy and reality-bending (wow, she had acclimated quickly to the reality of the ship) that her head spins with the sight of it. [break][break]

The hand gets consumed from the effort of their pokemon. [break][break]

Terrifying. Her heart pounded in her chest as she tried to gather her thoughts. "I have not seen that thing since... well, since I visited the RKS with Xenon." [break][break]

If the dream zone was interested in RKS elements, they were in hot water. She had died more times than she'd lived in the simulation, and there were plenty of bad deaths to experience. She feared the drowning, the Regirock clobbering, the hands. None of it would be easily tolerated.

TAGS – Lulu Flint [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Insistent knocking. She looks to Lulu who takes the threat just as seriously, syncing with Lunatone and holding the mysterious force back. [break][break]

Until it can't be held back. [break][break]

She hand breaks through the wall of the ship and it splinters on impact. She blinks and misses it, that's how quickly it blurs into their reality. It snatches her with open fingers and slams her into the opposite wall, forcing the breath from her. The future sight had struck it, but the hand was unmarred. The psychic forces had held it for a moment, but it was an unstoppable force. [break][break]

"Fuck-" It crushed her chest, made breathing hard. Musharna's moveset was oriented for something with a mind, and this didn't seem to have one. She launched moon blast, but the hand was still unyielding. Ameena outreached a hand above, manifesting the wall material of the ship to scrunch up and form into a sharp spear as it descended down above her head, angled to pierce the hand to the ground. [break][break]

The hand relinquished her before the spear could stab it into the floor, giving Ameena the space to slump to the ground and fight for breath, gasping. Musharna didn't get the message about her futile attacks and struck again with a moon blast that didn't deter the hand from diving towards Lulu, now.

TAGS – Lulu Flint [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Ah, a search. She wondered how many advancements lied in the unexpected interdisciplinary study of dreams and drugs. Psychotropics impacted the mind in great ways, but it was hard to say what kind of drug would work for their purposes. After all, psychiatric medication wasn't always set on achieving what it did achieve - those with mood disorders could take anti-seizure drugs and receive the desired result. [break][break]

What if it was something as simple as an allergy medication? Truly, anything could be the magic concoction. [break][break]

Oh, she was invested. "You have me, whenever you need," she assured. Lulu was the visionary. Ameena's part in this work was less creative and more about hitting the same nail a thousand times to make sure you'd struck it at every possible effective angle. [break][break]

Then, the thump pulled her mind from the future and back to the present. "Could that be a Paradox pokemon?" She'd yet to fully piece together their relationship with the mist, but Musharna pulled up close to her anyways and cast future sight.

TAGS – Lulu Flint [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Her hair was down, having blamed it for her headaches. Her Porygon was playing the radio frequency for Dewford's police department, endless chatter that filled the background and did nothing to distract her. She had an open book on her desk that she hadn't read a word of in hours. There was a stack of papers by her lounging couch when she thought she could be productive sitting somewhere other than her desk. Her whole office was a testament to how she couldn't keep focused. [break][break]

She hadn't slept, but her work couldn't keep her company. Burying her feelings with work had worked so many times in the past but it was unacceptable this time. [break][break]

Restlessness kept her from staying in one place. She rubbed at her bare face, then rose. Maybe she needed a walk. Or a spar. She couldn't get her act together anywhere in her office, so she needed a better environment. The radio played callouts that didn't involve her Deputy, so she left it behind as she approached the door of her office, too self-involved to register anything until she opened the door and saw him. [break][break]

"Oh."

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

She knows Tempest is going to meet them in the lab, and she knows Cillian is motivated to recover the memory, but she can't help but imagine the worst as she follows him. What if it was all a charade? Cillian could have asked his husband to come just to kill her. [break][break]

Or maybe she'll be submitted as a lab rat here. [break][break]

She doesn't even know what kind of experiments get held here. She hates the absence of camaraderie between them. She wants to talk about the shadows or how he's handled rehousing from Sootopolis or about if he knows any gossip about the visiting Kanto forces. But his research and getting familiar with his life and small talk are all off the table. It's a loss on top of the loss that leaves something petulant and guilty tugging at her heart. [break][break]

She can't help but feel like she's on a death march.

TAGS – Cillian Quinn Tempest Quinn [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Your husband doesn't trust me, she wants to say. But she holds her tongue. Temp's never asked something so delicate of her before, and she gets the impression from his discomfort that it isn't a habit of his. Furthermore, asking her to keep his husband in check as if Cillian Quinn isn't the most intimidating Rocket is simultaneously flattering and dumbfounding. [break][break]

She doesn't foresee any ability to keep him from something reckless, but she hears what Temp doesn't say. That he thinks his quest for Yveltal will have dire consequences. "I will do all in my power to protect him, even if it is from himself." She means it, even if she doubts her capacity to do so. [break][break]

What do you think is going to happen, sits at the tip of her tongue but again, she bites it down. She can infer. And the fragility of the moment discourages her from pushing things. She can tell there's a deep anxiety in Temp, but he's also not a stupid man. He wouldn't take unnecessary risks, so something is incredibly vital about Yveltal. She can't even imagine what it is, but she trusts Temp's judgement even if she has no evidence to support such a quest being worthwhile. [break][break]

She laughs with relief as he suggests they leave. "Yes. This is the kind of place I can only hope to drink away."

TAGS – Tempest Quinn [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

She relaxes. Temp has to be the greatest buffer on the planet where it concerns Cillian. He's already charming and warm, and easy to like, and she suspects that his skillset is the ideal asset for subsiding Cillian's anger. [break][break]

His shadows slide back to wherever they belong (the depths of his soul?) and it creates a ripple of relief among the civilians. She sees her Lucario exhale deeply, though he isn't what she'd call relaxed. He hops down from the roof this time and comes close, but he moves with an understanding that he's not entering a battle anytime soon. [break][break]

Well, hopefully. [break][break]

She follows Cillian dutifully, returning her Aegislash to its pokeball. Unown follows from above, and she has to do her best not to glare at it. If the damned thing couldn't manage to keep lookout when it mattered, it belonged in the trash. Or rather, as an addition to Cillian's collection, but she couldn't imagine such a donation being received very well right now.

TAGS – Cillian Quinn [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Compartmentalizing and keeping her perspective neutral is something she practiced in the military and most certainly perfected a dream researcher. But this is no normal circumstance. She finds herself with more questions than usual, and she struggles to keep herself silent. [break][break]

Acceptance is a common desire. But Hoenn needing to wake up... what did he know? [break][break]

"Why have you conjured her up, Matias? What does your sleeping mind need to work out?" Think of Elisabeth she wants to utter, but she knows better. She can't give away the game. She can't try to influence his dream - the conscious mind did not command an unconscious (unhearing, unsensing) mind... and his subconscious was feeding him what it had been chewing on, all this time. He needed to work through whatever this was.

TAGS – MATIAS SILPH [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

The petrification around them doesn't get any easier as they step through it. In fact, she feels the sick feeling in her gut churn more and more. She doesn't want to vomit around him and look weak, but the nausea builds uncomfortably. This could have been them a minute ago. She knows he's capable, and she trusts her team, but would they have survived the encounter with a vengeful god? [break][break]

Her worried internal monologue is interrupted with Temp's question, which catches her off-guard. [break][break]

She scrutinizes him for an extra second, as if he might be a hallucination conjured by the ghosts. "What can I do?"

TAGS – Tempest Quinn [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Admittedly, she wasn't expecting him to say he wanted it right now. [break][break]

She sits in stunned silence for a few moments longer, as he pulls out his phone to reach out to Tempest. She's in luck that she has her Musharna with her, and that the pokemon hasn't been laboring with her other teammates to put Sootoplis together, so she's well-rested and ready to create a dreamy terrain. [break][break]

Her eyes fall on the cliff, wondering if she'll walk out of the lab once they're done. [break][break]

Make that data count. It rings in her ears. The data's incomplete, but she hears him loud and clear. For all she's taken, she'd damn sure better have something to show for it. It's also the clearest indicator she's got that he'll let her live... but for how long is still uncertain. Her death would probably only meaningfully disrupt his sister's work, and maybe some of Tempest's given the strike force and the invitation he extended to visit the Border. [break][break]

She doesn't think he's listening, but she says anyways, "I will." She then gets the impression from Cillian's face that he's gotten a response from Tempest. "Is he available?"

TAGS – Cillian Quinn [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

A drug? [break][break]

"How far are you in that project? A pharmaceutical approach is groundbreaking, but outside of my realm of expertise. Who is working with you?" She knew Elisabeth knew her way around poisons, but she didn't expect that to be the kind of project that interested the Underboss. [break][break]

The exterior of the boat was life-like. "Lucid dreaming taken a step further... I figured this approach would require psychic induced sleep." Making the brain do the work with the use of drugs seemed highly experimental. She wondered who would be the test rattata for it first, after initial human trials of unimportant people. [break][break]

She stepped inside at Lulu's prompting. Ameena swung her lantern this way and that to illuminate different artifacts. The light and shadow work made the dream inseparable from reality. "We might be closer to intentionally choosing doors if the lucid dreaming drug works. Creation in this 'scape is so fluid. The opportunity to craft the door I need..." She'd never been so close. She could see her mum again if everything worked out. If they played their cards right. It made something frantic pound in her chest. [break][break]

She didn't want to sound desperate, but she was. "How can I help expedite the process?"

TAGS – Lulu Flint [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

It was pointless to argue comparisons of her work and Lulu's, so she managed her breathing instead of engaging him on that front. In any case, it was a losing battle to fight given her exceptional work and Ameena's new blip with her own research. [break][break]

She hates to stand down from any fight, but there's no point arguing her case any further. He's inclined to believe she had done too little for protecting Rockets from the study, and while she had finalized a functional filter to avoid them (with some human double-checking), it hadn't been the command executed by Porygon, so ultimately, he was right that she hadn't done enough. [break][break]

"Okay." Something between a white flag and a ceasefire. "Pick a time and a place. My office and my lab are open, but Musharna can perform in any environment." She wouldn't be surprised if he didn't want to be anywhere near her lab again.[break][break]

She'd broken something unfixable. She wasn't one to cry over spilled milk, but this one had too many ramifications for it to not gut her. He was a skilled scientist and colleague, and now she was persona non grata. She wasn't sure if it was a part of the issue, if it was any comfort at all, but she felt compelled to soothe however she could, so she added: "No one knows. About you and Temp in the study, except for him. No one has seen the dream. I have only the set dressing, the absolute beginning of the transcription."[break][break]

She could put it back, the dream and its missing memory, but she couldn't turn things back to the way they were. "I can restore the memory. What else can I do?" Philosophical, but mostly a helpless sound. She couldn't see a path to forgiveness. Temp hadn't held it against her, and had been largely interested in the scientific implications of it all, but no one else she'd approached had given such grace. She hadn't earned it.

TAGS – Cillian Quinn [break]

NOTES – [break][break]