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before this day, absinthe had filled her notebooks with ideas of avenues she could take for this project. acetylcholine would be a good choice. galantimine would encourage lucid dreaming with the help of serotonin. but what could make it as reliable as needed? what is the missing piece?[break][break]

she hasn't yet come across it. perhaps seeing the lab would set her mind straight.[break][break]

as such, the woman with briefcase in hand is shown to her lab by a nervous grunt who keeps glancing back at her as though waiting for her to suddenly attack. absinthe ignores him until they reach her lab, at which point she turns to him. "dismissed," is all she says, and the grunt hurries away.[break][break]

she turns to the head scientist. "lulu," she murmurs in greeting. "i trust the lab is adequate."[break][break]

something in absinthe tells her that it is beyond adequate, and more in the realm of everything she's ever dreamed of, but she'll hold off on celebration until she can actually see the room.

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and there it is: her reluctance to support her own faction. and yet, she clings to their 'guarantee of safety' as if it were some precious treasure. how pathetic.[break][break]

absinthe, still gloved, gently runs her fingers across the top of her shiinotic's cap. she does not trust the ranger as far as she can throw her, but she'll tolerate her presence. for now. "how wonderful," absinthe says, a mocking edge to her tone. "the league will save the day and rocket will provide chaos. it's like a sad little dance that we all get to participate in, whether we like it or not, isn't it?"[break][break]

absinthe's teeth bare beneath her mask, and her nails inadvertently dig into her shiinotic's cap. it does not respond. "safety is an illusion. the only thing keeping the league going is the belief that it will save the people from the big bad monster around the corner. but when you live your whole life afraid, what point is there in living at all?"[break][break]

that's exactly why she took matters into her own hands. that's why she took a blood oath to destroy the league, no matter what it took. if it destroyed hoenn in the process, so be it. this world is not for absinthe. not anymore.[break][break]

absinthe falls silent then, and her gaze becomes distant. yes. she remembered the meteor. "tell me how you remember it."

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interest sparks in absinthe's eyes at the mention of himiko's traditional training. a throwback to another time, where science was still an art, where potion brewers and alchemists labored over vials and crucibles, guided by feel and intuition rather than equations and data. it makes her feel a pang of longing for simpler days - days before her husband's death, before she was consumed by her quest for revenge against the league, before rocket claimed her as their own.[break][break]

but this is no time for reminiscing. while intuition may have worked back then, where precision was not as big of a deal as it is today, absinthe is eager to teach himiko how to use a microscope so that they can get into the meat of development.[break][break]

"well then, you're in for a treat," she says, gesturing for himiko to take her place at the microscope.[break][break]

"zoom in close using the knob on the lower left - you want to look at the individual crystals, not the sample as a whole. you'll see they form a pattern, like a tiny little mosaic."[break][break]

the chemist leans over himiko's shoulder to watch the microscope herself, her presence a dominating force. it's clear she loves this - the precision, the knowledge, the power of deciphering the secrets of chemicals and poisons. even more, she might just love being a teacher. before everything had gone wrong, six years ago, she had wanted to be a professor. she had wanted to teach what she learned to a new generation of geniuses.[break][break]

she grits her teeth. now she's teaching it to a new generation of war criminals.[break][break]

"we'll need more samples," she says suddenly, her gaze distant.

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abby. the mere mention of the name makes absinthe's blood run cold. it has been three years since anyone has ever dared to address her with such a name, nonetheless said so bitterly. absinthe examines the woman's face, carefully this time, as she judges whether this is a sign of her past returning to bite her in the ass.[break][break]

then, realization. evelyn vespera. fuck.[break][break]

there is a pause, a beat of stunned silence, before absinthe explodes with a laugh that sounds like a bark.[break][break]

"abby?" her voice comes out like she's been slapped, sharp and stinging. "abby is dead. i'm absinthe."[break][break]

the chemist's eyes harden. "abby may have known you, evelyn," she says, a chill running down her spine at the mere suggestion of a life before her husband's untimely death. "but i do not."[break][break]

memories threaten to surface, of late nights studying over textbooks, of silly inside jokes and dreams of changing the world. it takes immense effort to shove those thoughts back down into the darkness from whence they came. this is no longer her life, no longer her name. it's true: they were classmates in a different life, but that was a long time ago. that peace can never be captured again. absinthe is almost unrecognizable from who she was back then. there are bags under her eyes, a mask she never takes off, a newfound madness in her eyes.[break][break]

"what brings you into this hellhole, evelyn?" absinthe murmurs as she busies herself with washing a glass behind the bar. "or are you just here to remind me of everything i've lost?"

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the corners of absinthe's eyes crinkle in dark amusement. she takes a step forward, scalpel glinting under the tenuous light streaming through the canopy above. her voice drops to a dangerous purr.[break][break]

"how did you know?" she says. "you're right. i was going to pin it down and watch it struggle as i ran my scalpel across it. did you know that the venom of certain pokemon are purer when collected while the pokemon is alive? then, i would have left it to die. is that what you're referring to?"[break][break]

absinthe regards the venomoth with sharp eyes, from how it is engulfed in brilliant, beautiful light to how it cowers behind the girl who stands between absinthe and her mark. absinthe turns her attention back to elise, her gaze intense. there's a glint of something predatory in her eyes, something feral and wild. she takes another step closer, grass crunching beneath her boots.[break][break]

"there are more venomoth in the forest," absinthe says, standing tall, almost proud in her depravity. "if you will not let me at this one, i will seek another, and another, and another. would you waste your energy saving all of them, knowing i will be back?"

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shalin acts like a good meat shield during the battle, allowing absinthe to clean up the remaining hostile pokemon with ease. that does, however, leave no small amount of suspicious rock formations in the cave that lead towards a strange wall, still standing in the aftermath of the battle. it looks breakable. absinthe would like to break it.[break][break]

not by herself, though. she has shalin for that! she decides to ask shalin if one of her pokemon can break open the wall.

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absinthe watches himiko move around the lab, her eyes following her like a predator stalking prey. she can sense a kindred spirit in the woman, a ruthless ambition that belies her pleasant demeanor. it's refreshing, in a way. too many bleeding hearts infect the ranks of rocket these days. though absinthe never held any pride in the organization, she increasingly finds her lips curling at the individuals who join the group without first abandoning their empathy.[break][break]

"more complex than anything in this dimension," absinthe agrees, her voice flat. "but not unknowable."[break][break]

she picks up a glass slide and drops a small sample of the crystallized blood onto it. "crystals refract light differently depending on their structure—so, if we can map the specific angles and patterns of these crystal formations, we can understand more about the toxin's molecular structure. it will give us the chance to develop a molecular binder."[break][break]

she sets the slide in place beneath the lens of a complex looking microscrope and adjusts the focus, peering through the eyepiece to guide her hands. after a moment, she steps back and gestures to the device. "a polarized light microscrope," she murmurs. "have you ever used one?"

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absinthe turns away from the vials, one raised mid-air, as the newcomer announces themselves. an assistant? she had not been told of such a person, but absinthe would be a fool to look a gift horse in the mouth. her eyes trace up and down himiko, assessing her critically, before the vial is set down and her own hand is extended for a brief, firm shake.[break][break]

"absinthe. a pleasure," she acknowledges, though her tone is dry. "i'm sure you're eager to dive in." the statement is a challenge, her eyes daring himiko to prove herself.[break][break]

she turns back to her work and sets the vials down on a small scale and adjusts the weight until it balances precisely, as if working through an age-old ritual. "i theorize the nihilego toxin behaves like a type of radiation sickness, affecting cellular structures and causing widespread tissue damage. we would need to formulate a compound that can both target and neutralize the toxin on a molecular level."[break][break]

absinthe picks up one of the vials and holds it up to the light, studying it intently. "this is the original blood sample from one of the victims. it's already started to crystallize - a side effect of the accelerated decay caused by the toxin, i believe. if we can identify the crystallization pattern and reverse it, we might be able to neutralize it."[break][break]

absinthe looks back at himiko. "does that line up with your research?"

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the dim light of the setting sun casts eerie shadows through the canopy of petalburg woods as absinthe ventures deeper into the forest. her crobat, sanguinarine, flits around her head, its dark purple form nearly indistinguishable from the gathering darkness. the gentle chirps it emits are the only sounds emanating through the emeraldine trees, save for the crunch of dead leaves beneath absinthe's boots.[break][break]

she had visited this land once, before the war. it was peaceful, quiet, a bit creepy. now, it is hallowed ground, parts of it etched by still-burning scars carved into it from the conflict nearby. even the pokemon that once made their homes here are quiet, as if mourning the peace team rocket and its allies had destroyed.[break][break]

but absinthe is not here to grieve what has come to pass. she does not have time. she needs more pokemon for her work, and she needs them quickly.[break][break]

she sighs and pulls the brim of her gas mask closer to her face, creating an even tighter seal. what a sordid state of affairs.[break][break]

sanguinarine chirps softly, drawing absinthe's attention. it's hovering over a particularly dense thicket, its wings beating furiously. absinthe follows its gaze and notices a faint glimmer of movement through the foliage. a pokemon? or a lurking enemy?[break][break]

steeling her gaze, absinthe approaches the rustling underbrush.

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absinthe enters the ship lab offered to her by howard slayte, her black gas mask glinting under the harsh fluorescent lights. she carries a tablet in one hand, scrolling through data with one gloved finger while her other hand idly runs over the smooth surface of a specimen case. she glances around, her sharp green eyes narrowing as she surveys the room and its occupants - a dozen or so volunteers wearing hazmat suits, standing around nervously.[break][break]

"move the mass spectrometer over there," she commands, pointing to a corner with her stylus. "no, further to the left, you idiot. you, take the iv drip stand and put it next to the gurney."[break][break]

the volunteers scramble to comply, scuttling across the linoleum floor like frightened crabrawlers. absinthe pays them no mind, focused on her own thoughts. the whole town is filled to the brim with victims of nihilego poisoning, and though pumping them full of fluids might take the edge off, it won't cure it. she needs to develop an antidote, and she needs to do it quickly.[break][break]

absinthe uses one hand to massage her temple. she has so much to do. though she appreciates the volunteers sent to get the supplies from her lab in slateport, they've broken too many beakers for her nerves.[break][break]

even so, as the volunteers continue to move her big equipment, she can still get to work. absinthe affixes goggles to her eyes and pulls a lab coat over her shoulders in preparation as she advances on a stainless steel countertop close to the entrance of the lab. from the specimen container, she unearths two vials of ruby red blood.

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absinthe listens to calpurnia speak, a rising sense of annoyance clouding her vision. the woman has no self-awareness, it seems, not even recognizing that absinthe had clearly signaled an intent to move on from pleasantries. even so, the chemist's eyes briefly flick down to calpurnia's purrugly, her gaze flashing with a glimmer of something akin to fondness or affection. the chemist has a strange liking for cats herself, having had one growing up. it had been the only creature in her young life who seemed to genuinely care for her, who offered comfort in times of pain and unhappiness.[break][break]

now, there is only solitude. even so, a shadow of that once-upon-a-time companionship remains in her regard for all felines.[break][break]

absinthe leans back into the booth, arms folded loosely. "i need to make a drug that induces lucid dreaming every single time," absinthe reveals finally. "i'm sending out roots for anybody that might know anything about it. the base is, of course, a drug that will induce sleep every time, without fail. the dreaming can come after the basic drug is established."[break][break]

absinthe's eyes flick up, and they narrow as they land on three strangers entering the dingy casino from the main entrance. with a start, absinthe realizes that she smells blood in the water. they don't look like they belong in the underground.[break][break]

absinthe leans forward, unperturbed in body even as her mind races. "shh," she says suddenly. "visitors."

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