All of her collaborations with Amor of late had spoiled her, so these two weeks had been a noticeable irritation. He hadn't said they needed to be no-contact during the two weeks, but she had chosen to exile herself from even her own studies in order to double down on the task at hand. She had communicated only with well-versed trainers about their teams and grilled her own employees about their recreational battle tournaments until she felt well-equipped to make decisions on a team designed for face-to-face battling. [break][break]

The traditional battle set-up still held no special place in her heart, but she was determined to pass the test given. Besides, there was something (everything?) about Amor that gave I don't share my toys, and she took the lent Magearna as a very special show of trust. [break][break]

"Completed," she confirmed pleasantly, fighting the urge to be smug about it. She was rather pleased about her team and the moves chosen. She wondered if there were special disadvantages for her this time. Instead of asking about it, she chose to tease: "I look forward the exam, Professor."

TAGS – Amor Rose [break]
NOTES – [break][break]

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Gwendolyn was upbeat. It was a pleasant change of pace; many of her colleagues at her company were terrified of her and her Rocket colleagues were brilliant but typically lacking in personality to some degree or other. The redhead made Ameena want to seek out other League collaborations, but there were far, far, far more cons than pros for such an endeavor. [break][break]

"I caught sight of a sleeping Xurkitree through this way. It was hard to get my hands on a long-distance flying pokemon that was not susceptible to electricity, but the results are worth it." They turned a corner to see some strange ship. Between them and the vehicle was a series of black wires coming down like stiff vines, hung over the cliff top to their side. Unless they wanted to dig, they had to carefully traverse the wires. [break][break]

"Follow me," she said seriously, then, turning to face the girl, added: "carefully." She edged up to the first vine and exhaled; it would be easier if she didn't hold her breath. "Avoid any movement that will shake the wires; do not breathe as you cross." Then, she turned her head from the girl and towards the electrified vines - many that flickered off, then on - that most certainly carried lethal voltage. [break][break]

She found herself side-stepping and turning blindly among the wires until she made it to the other side. All that was left was the odd ship... and a Xurkitree leaned over it, its wires flickering. It was going to be dangerous to get inside.

TAGS – Gwendolyn Conway [break]
NOTES – 31 involve a segment where some or all of the party must swiftly or dexterously bypass an obstacle (animate or inanimate) that is electrified or unelectrified depending on the timing.[break][break]

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The little one had the audacity to knock the pokeball away from the pokemon. 'It's not wild' - why knock away the capture capsule, then? Ameena couldn't abide liars or thieves, let alone someone set on being both. "Unwise to mettle," she warned. She stepped towards the girl with full intentions of intimidating her, but the soot caught up to her and forced her to double over as she coughed violently. It was hard to navigate, hard to see, hard to argue... The odds were against her. [break][break]

She held onto the bottom of her Magearna, keeping it close to herself. She wanted to fight the girl, but she needed Magearna to keep her from stumbling or even rolling down-mountain uncontrollably; soot could make the appearance of false solid ground, which would spell trouble. [break][break]

She growled in frustration. She wanted the Hisuian pokemon, but her combatant had better pokemon for traversing the terrain; while Ameena felt her team was undoubtedly stronger, they would all be at a disadvantage with the soot storm. It wasn't worth getting her sick, which would only interrupt her research deadlines. "I have no more time for games. Have this one. But know that thieves always get their due." She reinforced the scarf covering her mouth with her hand, and Garevoir took the cue to flee, using teleport to flee the mountaintop.

TAGS – [break]

NOTES – Yuina Higashi [break][break]

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In the waking world, it was hard enough to remind herself that the RKS was a simulation and couldn't hurt her. In her dreams, however, there was no solace to be found. She believed dreaming to open up the multiverse - while these events were not truly happening to her body, what transpired was certainly something another Ameena was living through. In a manner of thinking. The multiverse complicated understandings of the self in ways that would require several more degrees to properly untangle. [break][break]

The horror of that theory was full force as the white hands of god plucked her from the ship. She had been here before, had watched Xenon get pulled out with the most monotone voice and unmoved expression. [break][break]

Maybe that had cemented it in her mind more than the terrifying presence of hands removed from a body, so giant they dwarfed even the ship, so powerful they crushed your lungs with the lightest touch. As one held her loosely and she felt the restriction of her ribs, she realized that no, the lack of panic had not been the more traumatizing part. The hands were the sum total horror of the simulation and the dream. [break][break]

She could breathe in her dream despite the vacuum of space. Her voice was completely lost. She screamed, screamed until she could feel the redness of her throat. Her lungs deflated under the exertion and she felt, painfully, how they failed to expand in the hand's grip. She couldn't scream anymore, nor breathe, nor beg. [break][break]

The unknown can be scary, but she fears what summons such hands far less than the immediate and impending death. She doesn't want to know what it feels like, and she never does - the hand didn't grab her in the RKS run this event originates from - but she gets just a little closer to feeling her light go out each time she revisits the dream. This time, she counts down and gets further than before. Her parting thought in this visit is that her chest is so crushed, she swears the walls of her deflated lungs are touching.

d r e a m – R 6[break][break][break]

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The tera crystal energy in the swamp had drawn Ameena in. She was pleasantly surprised to see the whole swarm of swampert and their kin in the swamp, though whichever ones had tera crystals were quite evasive. She got as close as she dared, standing just before the land turned to mud and worse conditions. Still, she stood with her binoculars and watched the waters carefully. The light from tera would appear just to be gone in a blink. The murky conditions made it difficult to assess where the tera swamperts could even be going. "This is going to be a long day," she sighed to herself.

NOTES – [break]Cmu4Jg1Z[break][break]

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The physical stress they were under made it clear the memories they sought to recover were unpleasant, but Ameena wanted to see how effective the sleep treatment was for reviewing subconsciously buried experiences. She didn't have a set-up to let her view those memories live, but Musharna's dream eater would permit the pokemon to consume Nikola's experience and that could be retrieved for data collection. It was not difficult to wait for results when they seemed so promising...[break][break]

"Keep them under," she instructed Musharna as Nikola's flinching grew worse. Whatever the result of the dreams buried in the subconscious, they would be stronger for knowing. And Ameena would be more knowledgeable about how effective guided sleeping could be in its recovery. [break][break]

She brought the back of her hand to Nikola's forehead to see if the physical distress was leading to more adverse symptoms like a fever. "Push through it," she urged quietly.

TAGS – NIKOLA SAMSA [break]
NOTES – [break][break]

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It took her an additional second to parse the double speak, but she felt enlightened with the both of them discussing the politics and limitations of what the future moves were. "Is Dewford a more immediate goal? Prioritizing a monopoly closer to that location might be ideal." She considered Dewford more closely. She had heard of its gym leader and E4 member, but she had never had the pleasure of meeting him. [break][break]

"Mossdeep and Lilycove could be good for geographical limitations. Limiting the opposition's resources and ability to group up should be a priority, I would think. Their numbers are impressive, though I wonder if all of the investment in those numbers has spread the upper echelons of their company thin." Causing internal strife and divide would be the most ideal strategy, but while the League had huge numbers, sometimes it seemed there were differing chains of commands or perhaps more independent agents than what appeared on the surface - there was some factor that made it so difficult to impair them internally. [break][break]

She wasn't sure how the Kyle business fit into it. "When should we be expecting a final decision?" Her team needed a final comb-through, but it would be easier if she knew the setting of the battle. She intended to put every factor in her favor.

TAGS – Amor Rose Cillian Quinn [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

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It was a reasonable thing to be suspicious of. She knew little of Kyle until word filled HQ. She could hardly grab a cup of coffee without hearing whispers of the champion or some conspiracy therein. [break][break]

"Sometimes, people that reach the status of living legend seem more invincible than they are. These figures... why, it seems to contradict reality for them to pass." She understood it well. No one had accepted her grandfather's death in Galar for the longest time - someone as decorated as him was not one to face the reaper in his sleep. There had been lengthy investigations into other causes, but sometimes a man in his eighties just went into that good night. [break][break]

"That said," Ameena had to offer a counterpoint as they traversed the rough terrain. "The timing is wildly suspicious. With everyone getting their moving parts into place right now, it feels like the perfect trap for us. We can let our guard down because they're down a strong man, because their morale is low, and then... they strike." She wasn't one to believe things she didn't personally witness outside of what was reported by her most trusted colleagues. [break][break]

Science, frequently, was re-tracing steps to make sure no one previous had cut corners or smudged data to reach their personal or professional goals. "If you were afraid of war, what would you be willing to do?"

TAGS – jayden cross [break]

NOTES –[break][break]

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The overwhelming desire to have a means to an end of connecting the dream realm, tera shards, and all other mysterious elements into a cohesive web is an ecstasy that evades her at the same time vines wrap around her and keep her still. She was lucky to have held the child in such a way as to avoid its bite, but that very focus had cost her her own freedom. She flicks her gaze backwards to see the culprit, and a twin feeling of worry and sickness bubbles inside her. [break][break]

She does not want to beef with the Greyson Connors. As the vine traps her, she releases the child and lurches against it, collapsing to her knees and gagging. They're under his protection... But she doesn't want to hurt the kid so much as guarantee a survivor -- for her own ends, sure, but it's not like she's a kid killer. [break][break]

Of course, she finds herself throwing up at the first attempt to articulate it. She tries to gather herself. Meanwhile, everyone and their mum has dynamaxed and the deities that had trapped them (all of them, if the Megalopolans down here were not here willfully - it's still blurry) and Ameena feels a shift (in the ship? in her own sense of equilibrium?) from the large-scale chaos. "OK, OK. Fight first, then see who can be saved." She still feels dizzy as she gets to her feet; Greyson's released her, though she doesn't think it comes from any optimism about her intentions. [break][break]

She grabs the bracelet that fell from the child. Then, with Edith the Espathra at her side, she finds steady legs. "That one," she says as she points at Fezandipiti, "is the one you take down at all costs." Edith needs no further instruction and uses lumina crash on the ugly warden.

TAGS – Greyson Connors [break]
NOTES – feeling sick from the constant poison-not poisoned-poison !!! [break]
action: picks up fallen bracelet, espathra uses lumina crash on fezandipiti [break]4DWp_S1|

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The ocean is encompassing. Its waves lap at shores, give life, and stress-test navigation systems on the regular. There is something undeniably powerful about it. It has been the item of praise and adoration and even the source of mythology for longer in human history than Ameena is even familiar with. She has always loved the different moods of the sea, the storms it alone can temper, and the variety of life it can host. [break][break]

The ultra deep sea has not earned its namesake. [break][break]

It is not so encompassing as it is abyssal. Ameena's seen darkness, has been in caves so far beneath the surface that even a flame seems to get swallowed, but this is next-level. The ultra deep sea is not filled with sounds of wingull and children playing and boat horns. It swallows sound, like light; the trench she visited with the head scientist is a gaping mouth that consumes them with an insatiable appetite. His armor is unfeeling, unyielding, but when she asks him how he's holding up, he sounds cool as a cucumber. [break][break]

Ameena sees things. She knows people invent things out of boredom and that the mind will reconstruct reality in a way that makes sense and that the psychological state of mind is heavily impacted by a lack of stimuli even more than an abundance of it. The knowledge cannot save her. She sees images in the darkness, hears voices in the silence so silent she can listen to her heartbeat and not her own thoughts. [break][break]

Hands grab at her from the trench. She twists and shakes, but they are bone-breaking in their grip. She screams. The abyss eats it whole. She turns around to see her partner, but there's no one there. It's just blackness. The red flare she had been holding is gone. She gasps in surprise, looking down, almost swearing she can see the faintest red spot in the great distance as the flare is lost, but she knows, somehow, that it is absolutely not there. [break][break]

Her gasp lets the abyss in. Cold saltwater pours into her mouth, seems to fill into her lungs immediately; she can feel the pressure of their expansion against her ribs, the inky black of the abyss painting her with its sickness. She can't break free of the hands, can't spit out the abyss. She can see nothing, know nothing, but somehow she is aware she is sinking. She can't even reach out a hand for a snowball's chance... [break][break]

When she wakes, she is drenched in the result of her fear. Fear has no place in her mind. As much as the animal part of her brain begs her not to, she knows she must go again, must explore the depths of the deep sea to know what is there and no longer fear what might be.

d r e a m – U 1[break][break][break]

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She had expected to see Azelf on a silver platter. As it was, its healing pulse cleansed her of the sickness that had invaded her body so quickly, and it removed the power of her toxic chain, too. It healed the gash on her upper left arm from debris in the pit, though it left a scar not far from the gunshot wound she had earned earlier this year. Chainless, maskless, and in Amor Rose 's arms, she had little to complain about. [break][break]

There were a few by Azelf, and Ameena didn't think she would have an opportunity to do anything of note with the deity; all she wanted to ask would not be for League ears. [break][break]

She looked around to see the breeding tubes and the dark room. There was a large variety of equipment and pokemon, and Ameena thankfully had little trouble reclaiming her own pink pokeballs and the team inside. As for the dark room, well, that was an obligatory search. "I know where I am going," she said in case Amor was concerned for her plan. She moved to it immediately. The room was filled with Megalopolans, many with odd little grabbers. They were cowering. Did they fear the gods, or the ones oppressed by them?[break][break]

Megalopolans held answers to questions Ameena didn't even know how to ask. "In case everything blows up in your faces as it rightfully should, I will just take this fella off your hands." She grabbed at the stunned child - maybe 10? who knew if Megalopolans aged normally - with the full intent of abduction.

TAGS – Amor Rose [break]
NOTES – action: reclaiming pokemon, ***KIDNAPPING A MEGALOPOLAN CHILD*** (if i can't claim and kidnap, just kidnap)[break]at6WfWeU

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Ameena frowned at his assessment. "Sure, but they seem most likely to have an unusual relationship with the chasm given their typing. It is less about their interactions with each other than about their interactions with all the tera crystals here." Her scanner didn't produce anything new or specific. Though, her overly involved stranger seemed a little familiar with energy. [break][break]

"Are you a scientist?" If he were a Leaguer, it would be helpful to parse how much he knew. But the way he read her scanner made her think he was far more aligned with her organization. She tried to remember how Cillian had subtly referred to Rocket in public. "Are you in a corporation?" Too vague. "One that deals with space?" Sure, close enough to Rocket. [break][break]

While she was turned to him rather than her objects of interest, one Iron Boulder meandered to a hunk of rock with a tera sticking out, looking rather interested in eating it.

TAGS – Tempest Quinn [break]

NOTES – mission (the great chasm of hoenn)[break][break]

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