envy's limber form slinks low to the ground. the nihilego are invariably drawn away; an escape would be clean, at this point. for the most part. anya trusts that the cat would be able to escape on her own. and if she couldn't? 

then she would be replaced. 

her personality traits, quirks, etc. those would be different. learned. but a body is a body - fur is fur and meat is meat and everything is chemical interaction, atoms buzzing against their restraints, aching to fracture. 

what better example of self-immolation than the snail that crowns its body with putrid water. a wave of ruination sprays about it. envy hisses, clawing away from the tide, and in three powerful strides, makes her way back to anya's side. 

anya scrutinizes elisabeth. she watches the nervous tick in her jaw, the tightness of her eyes, an impulsive decision written all over her face. just waiting for the treasure. and there it gleams before her, a rounded egg, translucent. there is a marking on the creature's bell, a scar rippling along its damaged membrane 

and what they'll discover later? that its own toxins nearly killed it. too potent, cast aside from the egg sac to ensure the survival of the others.

"oskva, light the way."

Elisabeth Fiorelli
G3csaEwK

☉

elisabeth is fraying at her seams, which comes as no surprise. anya's own experience with the bond between avatar and patron is lacking, though she'd glimpsed transgressions between fernando and tapu fini. the mermaid had, at one point, even threatened her when anya threatened to intervene.

which led her to an exemplary conclusion: patrons hold a  leash to their avatars. which is a shame. she thought, if anyone could overcome such a dynamic, it would be her flower. 

anya's distaste is palpable and one could easily mistake it for the snail crawling away from her, but it rests with elisabeth. how remarkably human she is now, wrought with anxieties and drowning under the weight of her cumbersome emotions. 

envy's spitting does not cease, despite the legendary's aggression passing. it's a few seconds later that the noise of cracking eggshells reaches anya's ears. around them, ferns are suddenly swathed by drifting tentacles. light white bells float up through the air. 

envy tilts her head and yowls. anya looks up. three massive nihilego bear down upon them, tentacles outstretched towards the intruders. 

"taunt them please, darling," anya says. the liepard swats her tail. a taunting shadow ripples upward and the tentacles turn away from anya and elisa, leaving anya a window to release another pokeball. 

her fennekin totters, assesses the situation, and immediately begins constructing a light screen around her trainer. 

"i suggest we move out of the nest," anya says flatly.

Elisabeth Fiorelli

☉

FERNANDO SILPH would probably do much to get as much information on the ruinous beast as possible. all she can do, as she digs around in the earth, is furtively observe the snail as it ponders its surroundings. many of the legendaries have shown an aptitude for human understanding. 

but this one she is unsure of. the nature of its relationship with elisa is a curious one. the two of them move in languid, similar motions, gaze darting in a similar manner. so much of it has assimilated with her.

varying degrees of connection among avatars aren't entirely out of the question, surely, but why her? 

is it a byproduct of tapu fini? two deities splitting a mortal body apart at the seams. 

"people simply fear," she says curtly. "even what they do understand." and yet elisa's sentiment still stands - people understand very little. 

"hm - ? no, i believe they're - ah, elisabeth?" she stands slowly, brushing off stray debris from her digging around. cold eyes flicker down to the hissing and spitting cat at her feet and then back up to the monstrous snail that's placed itself between anya and elisabeth. 

"elisa," she says, a lick of impatience in her voice. "it's a hallucination. get a hold of your mind and tell your beast to stand down."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

☉

"no," she says. they'd been a means to an end, after all, and she's not even sure they're considered the same as what had emerged from those rifts all those moons ago.

"my product may be unique, but my area of study? hardly not." her thesis papers are lost to time, hidden in a labyrinth of scored names and blighted photographs. "evolution is a broad topic. i just happened to take it one step further."

a pause. "some would say one step back." 

as they move deeper, envy pads closer. the purple fur along her spine is raised. her tail swings and anya notes the way her claws have unsheathed. the cat stops suddenly, hissing at a pustule in the ground. 

anya, gloves donned, squats down and rests fingertips along the earth. only it's not earth. 

"i don't doubt the merit or capabilities of our people, but i was hard-pressed to believe our surroundings are actually alive."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

28 find signs that the ultra deep sea that you have explored so far seems to be the inside of a large, living organism.

☉

it is anya fowl's first time venturing into a realm not her own. she wouldn't do it, even for the sake of her research, as FERNANDO SILPH has told her time and time again she is an asset useful only if she's in one piece. and while she may not feel much of anything, her desire to survive is very much alive. 

but her demotion has come with a cost. she must put her best foot forward, stride with confidence and prove to walsh that she is willing to put something on the line for rocket. 

when the opportunity arose to accompany the underboss to the deep sea, it was as though the fates were gifting her a boon. protection from an avatar and an ally? while simultaneously fulfilling her promise of loyalty to walsh?

she admits, though, as she walks this other realm, that its secrets are tantalizing enough to trump her own trepidations. 

envy follows in her footsteps, ears on the swivel. her lions are safely nestled in their balls. they're not as delicate as the panther and from all of the reports, attention is the last thing they want down here. 

"i've read dossiers on previous expeditions. some of our own have had pokemon inflicted by nihilego poison, but none have been shadowed." it's vexing, to say the least. the first time one of these nihilego had crossed into their worlds, it had changed their pokemon. it had been the foundation for her work. 

Elisabeth Fiorelli

☉

she plays along for the sake of the narrative; the lurching of the hull, the shouts and screams as the crewmates are dragged through the tear, are as real as her own fingers and toes. she watches, enraptured, at a particularly gruesome scene. 

one of them is frozen as they're pulled into space, body drifting from what little momentum what can gain in zero-grav. the rest of the world clambers and their ship groans and that corpse keeps drifting, getting colder. frost overtakes it. 

the words from their prompt drift above them. anya swipes a hand through them. pistons pop. energy warbles. metal groans. fire consumes them all and their surroundings fade away. 

anya looks to barnaby. 

"fascinating. our laws and physics seem to have been recreated - down to the last detail."

BARNABY FINCH

☉

anya has taken an interest in the rocket scientist. she's held her station for a while. from what she knows of the woman, she's passionate about her work. vehement about not letting boundaries like ethics get in the way of progress. 

with rocket's database now closed behind a level higher than her current security access, she can use a relationship with the woman. 

so she requests a walkthrough of the rks system from her. 

"i've done one other with our very own BARNABY FINCH. if you wouldn't mind, i'll let you take the reins."

Naomi Sato

☉

she could care little the whims of legendaries that wish to make themselves known to rocket's underlings. however, a new piece on the board might be just the thing she needs to pull the spotlight off of her. declan's kept up his promise of keeping a watch on her. 

so far, she's passed his judgment with flying colors. if she hasn't, she doubts she'd be standing here right now. 

"perhaps," she says. the scene reinvents itself and she raises a hand as the side of their impromptu ship is blasted apart. white fingers crawl through the opening, snatching at constructs. their options present themselves and she raises a hand, summoning the effects of the first choice. 

shots are called around them. units straighten up and release a fresh wave of pokemon. 

anya paces and watches the scene unfold with newfound interest. 

"if not our present, is it theirs?"

BARNABY FINCH

☉

AUGUST XX 2023

personnel report

declan walsh - reason to believe he has full avatarship of darkrai since lulu flint's leave

Elisabeth Fiorelli - avatar of wo-chien. highly unstable.

research report

attached are hastily scrawled documents containing information pertaining to rocket's knowledge of the rks system.

they are watching. my title has been stripped of me, making research difficult. messages will be sporadic. fouller's gallery will have a new exhibition soon.

in the meantime, show some interest in art. 

- m

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

the accusation comes swiftly, bitten around the edges. the shadows warble. his own is stretching around him, around her, though perhaps that's only a trick of the light. her brain's synapses self-imploding and looking for a reason to kickstart her flight response. 

her name is acrid in his mouth. no matter. if he goes digging, he will find nothing but molly fouller and this identity she's sculpted around her curves and her smile and her wicked wiles.

only one other lives to remember rosalie monet and they will never fall in rocket's hands.

"indubitably," she says, each syllable carefully laid bare.

promptly, she stands, tracing fingertips over the back of her chair. "take care not to blink, darling."

declan walsh

☉

the decision matters little to anya. she'll run through these simulations over and over again, read reports from others (if she can get her hands on them), and decode the information to binary. store it in the recesses of her brain and make deductions so that it makes sense. 

so that it can be compartmentalized and delivered neatly, in shorthand, to the father of her child.

what barnaby says, though, gives her pause. the simulation waits for their decision. farhan sways in a loop of shifting weight. behind the veil, are they watching? 

she's not used to being the lab rat. 

they set up the defenses and she stands off to the side. little defenses can be made save for calling forth their own pokemon so she does just that. shiva and kain emerge from their pokeballs, fangs bared. 

anya turns, looking out into the digital abyss. 

"moltres' cousin," she muses. "unless one of our own isn't sharing something with us, it's not our present, at least."

BARNABY FINCH

☉

the digital world leaves them, pixel by pixel, and builds itself back up around them. anya looks out over the burning region, its warm glow making her eyes look almost green. they flicker down to the device that's manifested in her hand when he speaks and anya weighs their options. 

their choices drift eerily by his side.

"fascinating. are these simply eyes into other dimensions?" their choice does not matter. from what she's read, the pathways can be rerun. they'll divulge all of the data, sooner or later. 

so she examines the device and tosses it to barnaby, nodding toward their option above farhan. 

BARNABY FINCH

aid him

☉