"Well, it sounds like no loss to try out." She was pleased to hear his attitude towards it was relatively laidback. All things violence and war seemed to be high-pressure affairs throughout the organization, but Temp made it sound like trying out for the school debate team. She liked that he was approachable, and she trusted that his position in Rocket was proof enough that he didn't attitude or demeanor to avoid fights because he could always finish them. [break][break]

Gardevoir teleported around an odd-colored Raichu that continued to try and quick attack her to no avail. Ameena spared some amusement, though she could tell through their bond that Gardevoir felt rather annoyed about this one. [break][break]

"A Sygna Suit after my Genesect project, then. I am unsure who to bond it to. Gardevoir is my most capable, but she fights so well on her own that I do not suspect it will add to her capacity, only mine." Their telepathy kept them in sync anyways. "How did you choose your partner?"

TAGS – Tempest Quinn [break]

NOTES – catch raichu[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Little is known about Necrozma. It is powerful and otherworldly." It scares her like Eternatus, but at least Necrozma is contained in Zev's body to some degree or another. Avatarship was difficult for her to parse, still, and she did her best not to look at it too closely lest the questions it raised made her crazy. [break][break]

Ameena followed Gwen and her bright pokemon closely. "I believe there is -" In there path stood a dark Delphox. It was bathed in shadow. "Careful!" The being struck, but Gardevoir used psychic to push it backwards. "This pokemon is going to be very hard to predict." Shadow pokemon always were. They were beasts of war who spoke only in the language of violence, in a dialect none of their species could understand - to stretch the metaphor. But they were unpredictable to their own nonshadow kind which made them hard to predict in combat. [break][break]

Delphox launched shadow rave at Gwen, sending sharp spikes of shadows towards the Ranger.

TAGS – Gwendolyn Conway [break]

NOTES – 16. encounter pokemon who have been displaced here. some of these pokemon have been corrupted into SHADOW POKEMON who use NON-LEGENDARY SHADOW MOVES. [break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Her willingness to take on the simulation was a great sign. The RKS was naturally horrifying in many routes, so it was hard to properly prepare folks for. Regardless, it was simulation, so it was necessary for their members to bear its horrors to gain its powers. It offered a lot of opportunity for learning about their universe, strangely enough. And it often led to Paradox pokemon. [break][break]

"Beyond RKS, I recommend regular battling and strategy training. Leaguers, particularly those of a higher rank, are known to offer training courses. I actually recommend you attend one so long as your civilian persona is in tact." She looked forward to seeing what Alison had to offer after a little practice. [break][break]

Her phone went off. She silenced it immediately, but her laboratory demanded her attention. "I must take my leave. But I will pencil you in for a RKS run whenever you have the opportunity. I will do my best to navigate us carefully." Indeed, she did not want to re-experience the hands of god ripping them out of a spaceship. It sounded almost comical, until you were there and experiencing the existential dread yourself without warning.

TAGS – Alison Everly [break]

NOTES – bond bridge[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Well, I am glad one of us was prepared. I was confident one Xurkitree could do the job of five people. I would have brought some other electric type if I had considered this possibility." Really, an excess of power was such a terrible inconvenience. But they both had people to answer to. It was important to get these charged for the war effort. Excuses would not be tolerated. "Let us see what your team can do." She stood at an appropriate distance.

TAGS – Kenjiro Yamada [break]

NOTES – HAYWIRE GENERATOR (COC)[break][break]

Claydol tanks the hit. Ameena wants to imagine strangling the life out of it, but her tired brain is wracked with guilt and regret and grief and an overwhelming numbness. Duchess is gone. Ameena could not protect Amor's gift after all. Amor was gone, and he had left overnight with only a letter left in his absence. Ameena lost her opportunity with Montgomery and gained nothing in exchange. She is here for Rocket to protect her research interests and she has done nothing but lose everything in the process. Her entire life is losing things over and over and over and over and [break][break]

Claydol's ancient power forces her to look up and see the scattering of fiery metal debris like freckles against the sky. She hadn't even noticed. Her mortality comes to her full force. "Gardevoir," she says softly, and Gardevoir uses life dew on Ameena while Claydol handles the sky. Thankfully, it seems the downfall of debris is not so serious as to require sustained attention. [break][break]

Montgomery's choice to handle the debris before handling her is either an insult to how threatening he finds her or a consequence of his ideals, choosing to handle it rather than flee while she was unaware and easily struck by the deadly debris. She doesn't think about the latter. "You know how this ends," she says, soft but lacking warmth. Her side is coated in her own blood. She feels cold, but now that the wound has closed thanks to Gardevoir, the only ticking clock she feels is that of the battle. [break][break]

She finds she doesn't even care. Why would it matter? Her righteousness, her anger, it didn't change a thing. It doesn't matter. None of it does. What she loses now is immaterial, as much as it hurts her, for it can be regained once she accesses the dream realm. She just has to make it to that point. Nothing else matters. [break][break]

She is unaware of the pink mist curling around her feet, seeping out of a crack in the ground from the earlier use of earth power.

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]
NOTES – Ameena tries to find her resolve. Interdream mist begins to rise.[break]
Gardevoir uses life dew on Ameena.[break][break]
10 MP per IC post in your prelude thread.[break]
50 MP have your character "hit rock bottom" (their lowest point).[break]

Ameena ducked out of the way of blades as a Scyther flew close to her head. She was just about tired of the animosity in the wild these days. She knew the coming war was stressing out the wildlife, but this behavior was abhorrent. She was hardly trespassing on the Scyther's home. "Kill it," she instructed. Magearna launched an aura sphere that it dodged, but followed up with flash cannon. Her skillset wasn't totally ideal against a Scyther, but the raw power of her moves would overcome the wild Scyther enough to force it back into hiding with its injured wings.

TAGS – [break]

NOTES – prem safari | skip![break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The gible came out of nowhere, ok?

It launched out of the blue and clung to Magearna with its sharp, ferocious teeth. Magearna panicked and flew up high. "Knock it off, Duchess!" Ameena cried from below. The steel pokemon struggled to shake him, however. She was very high in the air now, but the Gible refused to dislodge. She launched gravity to force it down. Before it could fall to the earth, Ameena tossed a pokeball at it. This pokemon was insatiable... exactly what she wanted in a teammate.

TAGS – [break]

NOTES – prem safari | catch![break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

To watch Magearna be punctured with earth power was one thing. To watch her be swallowed and crushed by the earth was another. The shattering of her gears was the last thing Ameena heard, rendered numb to her own voice as she screamed, "DUCHESS!" But of course, this was no dream. Her last tie to Amor was gone in an instant, the pokemon he had carefully entrusted her with and ordered her to take care of, a simultaneous test of her abilities in Rocket and a token of their growing relationship. [break][break]

Gone. [break][break]

Montgomery's words were worlds away. 'I've been a Rocket before...' could not register in her brain, though Gardevoir took the entire scene in in full, with disgust. Ameena's mind does not come back to her body at all until the sound of screeching from the Skarmory that burned and burned and burned. It's metal-hot-glow created an afterimage that followed her gaze. A sadistic token of this day. [break][break]

"If you cannot accept a dream, then you can dwell in a nightmare." Gardevoir takes her cue and throws a hand out to generate a psychic blast, but it is not for Claydol. She shoots it straight at Montgomery. [break][break]

Above them, sharp debris not unlike Skarmory's scalding corpse fell from the sky like tears.

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]
NOTES – Ameena spirals. She is shattered like Magearna. What is left? [break]
Magearna dies. Gardevoir uses psychic on Montgomery..[break][break]
10 MP per IC post in your prelude thread.[break]
50 MP have your character's Pokemon symbolize or represent in some way, the condition of your character.[break]

Something in her rattles at the sight of Musharna getting knocked out. Ameena's rarely put the Moira out in the field, but seeing her limp and unmoving on the ground because of Ameena's weakness... Ameena has to do something. That damned Deputy just made it so hard to be decisive and to stick to her guns. He made her weaker.

Well, as she saw his Claydol appear, an idea quickly emerged. At least she had her mind when her heart was a fucked mess. "Keep 'em down," she told Magearna. Magearna used gravity to make the field heavy. While her locked-on target was gone, gravity would still impact evasiveness enough to give her a good shot at the fast Skarmory.[break][break]

She knew Gardevoir would judge her for the events of today via their telepathy, but so long as she kept Gardevoir from mega-evolving, the pokemon could protect her from acting stupid any further. She released Gardevoir onto the field. [break][break]

Gardevoir immediately took stock of Ameena's injured state, looked to Montgomery, and visibly had an epiphany. But the pokemon was efficient as ever, launching mystical fire at the Skarmory. Ameena hoped the added weight to the battlefield would feel like a suffocating pressure on Montgomery's chest. [break][break]

"You considered it. You can play all these games," she said fighting a shiver, feeling colder than usual from the blood loss, "but I know you see the opportunity here. You already considered bending away from them." She would have to enlist the aid of Gardevoir's healing pulse when things were tied up more. "Why not drop the pretense? If you were that moral hero, you would have never felt temptation." She snarled, eyes set not on Montgomery but on her knocked out Musharna. "But you were right to feel that way. Your precious League wants to keep people down and have you enforce its tyrannical rule. Is that what you are? Some puppet for the state? I thought better of you."[break][break]

She couldn't let it go, now. "You do whatever they tell you because you want precious redemption. They know you will eat out of their hand and bark when they tell you to, but me? I have never thought you needed redemption. I take you as you are." But it wasn't enough.

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]
NOTES – Ameena's stuck. [break]
Musharna is KO'd! Gardevoir is sent out! Magearna used gravity towards Skarmory. Gardevoir used mystical fire[break][break]
10 MP per IC post in your prelude thread.[break]
50 MP for getting your Pokemon knocked out in your prelude thread.[break]
50 MP have your character self-doubt or cast doubt on another's confidence/allegiances/beliefs, etc.[break]

He moved sharply. She jerked away from immediately, which could have ended poorly for her, but he holstered his firearm instead of maneuvering to shoot her at close range. She released Magearna from her pokeball, then returned her arm to her shoulder as she regained some distance from him. She had sacrificed enough time and enough blood for him for one day. If there was anything worth saving, it would have to come to light at the end of the fight, and it would likely be preserved through force. [break][break]

She flinched at the metal sound, her ears ringing painfully. Magearna used lock-on on his Clefable to align her combat systems with the recognition software that registered Clefable. She would have to survive long enough to strike, but attacking the target of her lock would make dodging impossible - sniping, just as Ameena spent her military career doing. [break][break]

Musharna moved uneasily, unused to the impact of sleep-causing moves being used on herself, but she still launched hypnosis at the angry Skarmony despite herself becoming sluggish. [break][break]

Ameena couldn't have risked pulling out Gardevoir, despite the pokemon's healing pulse being the most useful of her whole team's moveset right now. The Gardevoir had a weird hold over her when it mega evolved, and she wasn't strong enough right now to keep it from doing so. Instead, she made herself useful by taking off her jacket - gracelessly, given the pain - and holding it against her shoulder. "What can they give you that I cannot? You want a medal? You want glory?"[break][break]

She didn't think those things of him, but she couldn't keep herself from prodding for an answer. Was there an angle she hadn't considered? An offering she hadn't provided? She had to face this reality but even as the logical conclusion stood before her, she wasn't sure she could stop trying until it was herself holding her gun to him.

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – Ameena fights back. [break]
Magearna uses lock-on on Clefable. Musharna uses hypnosis on Skarmony. Musharna is growing tired...[break][break]
10 MP per IC post in your prelude thread.[break]
50 MP have your character be injured by another's pokemon directly or indirectly.[break]
50 MP have your character make a sacrifice of some kind.[break]

She isn't an unreasonable woman. She understands it is unreasonable to feel resentful over his protectiveness of civilians. But he fears spilling their blood yet readily took hers. While she isn't unreasonable, she is unfair. Her life is more than any of theirs to him. It has to be. His is worth more than any of theirs to her. The only other person she would feel this reserved about hurting, the only other unplanned weakness, is Gwendolyn Conway . [break][break]

She feels relief that he even bothers to justify himself. That he is considering it. And she has seen what he wants because of Musharna. She knows she is in his dreams. This dream of hers is possible. [break][break]

"So spill no blood," she urges in his ear, her hand moving from her bleeding shoulder towards his gun. She reaches for his hand slowly, telegraphing so clearly and nonthreateningly despite the fact the lack of pressure on her wound is exacerbating her blood loss, limiting her capacity to fight in the war, costing her her place in Rocket if she fails to be valuable, and all for him, all for the opportunity of having him here in this reality. And he doesn't get it... but she can help him understand. [break][break]

"I would never ask you to kill," she says as her bloodied hand crawls towards his to take the gun. "I can have Rocket protect you. You will be valuable to me and that will be enough for them. I can help you help people. Is that not enough?" Is the law more valuable than goodness? Can he not, ultimately, achieve more good by being a vigilante, by helping people recklessly instead of only when the law permits?

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – Ameena negotiates. [break]
The battlefield is surrounded by a DREAMY TERRAIN.[break][break]
10 MP per IC post in your prelude thread.[break]
50 MP have your character experience great pride, joy, relief, or have confidence grow.[break]

He doesn't know what he's getting into with her. She hasn't shown her cards in any of their previous exchanges, but. She hasn't seen him stand on his threats to enforce law and order until now, until the bullet. So, she believes him when he cocks the gun. But Musharna is fast acting, and even with all the anger she feels at the loss of a potential ally, she finds herself soothed by his chuckling as the dreamy terrain takes ahold of him. [break][break]

What she sees should be a relief. [break][break]

She burns with envy instead. That should be her reality right now, but it isn't. And she doesn't have the resources, the skill, the fucking knowledge to make any of it happen. A decade of dream research and nothing to show for it. Nothing really. She made more leaps and bounds in her research in the last three months under Rocket tutelage than in that decade and goddamn it, why can't Montgomery understand that she needs this? She needs access to the dream realm like she needs oxygen. [break][break]

Heavy, hesitant footsteps have her moving away from the unconscious bodies at her feet and to his side. She doesn't reach for the gun - the effort would pull her hand from her wound, and she wants to play with this for a moment longer before she worsens her blood loss to finish him. She stands behind him, watching his gun pointed at nothing, watching his face perceive what isn't truly there. She's never activated the terrain before, doesn't know how long she has or how much he can perceive this reality. [break][break]

Still, she leans in, tucked beside his shoulder. There's no need to be so formal with a dying man. She swallows the anger and envy and asks the Montgomery before her, the one she won't see again until she has learned to roam the dream realm for an alternate reality with him: "Why can't you have what you want? Why can't you have this?" [break][break]

Why can't I?

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – Ameena feels anything but calm and peace. [break]
The battlefield is surrounded by a DREAMY TERRAIN.[break][break]
10 MP per IC post in your prelude thread.[break]
50 MP have your character experience great fear, hatred, envy, or have a grudge worsen.[break]