Intriguing. This Yamask looked decidedly different from the ones she knew. Not just because of its colour. She had grown up with a colony of these things less than a mile away. Violet knew how they looked, even the off-coloured ones. This one had a number of subtle differences to those.
[break][break]
It still behaved similarly to the ones she’d known, quietly, almost motionlessly hovering there in front of her, at least as long as she remained still herself. It offered her curiosity still, which she reciprocated in this instance. Yes, this was one she was going to attempt.
[break][break]
With small movements, she reached for one of the safari balls, trying not to set the ghost type off or see it fly away. Then, she flung said ball towards it, hoping for a simple catch for the time being.
[break][break]

+ Warden's Ticket, 3/4 balls, catch attempt Yamask

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Another assessment down, another reward for herself. Last time, she had gone onto some kind of work-date kind of thing with Elaine. That had been fun in its own right, but she had expected more of a normal date then. Hence, this time around she had decided to not leave it up to others and take the planning into her own hands.
[break][break]
Which meant going for the tried and true method of getting some easy Pokemon by forking over the cash for a ticket. It was not grandiose or an adventure, but she liked it. She could have wasted that money on a shopping spree or something like that but this….it kind of reminded her of a life she’d left behind. The good parts of it. So, she did not mind putting on the good old hiking boots and going for another trip.
[break][break]
She did it infrequently enough to not wear the concept out, after all. Just every now and then, encountering a completely new selection, getting some fresh air and, most importantly, doing something worthwhile just by herself. It just kind of felt…refreshing. In a way it really should not. Yet, it did.


[break][break]

+ Warden's Ticket, 4/4 balls

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“Huh?” Violet turned towards the stranger, blinking for a few moments. Then, she simply burst into laughter. It was loud, bright and clear, without malice and with just a hint of the refinement she had conditioned herself for. But it was still only half that acquired taste, half that of the real person beneath it all. Then again, what was real? Was the person she had decided herself to no longer be the reality and this the fake? Or had she simply changed, and changed her own reality with that?
[break][break]
And what about this place. As she looked at the furious man, her eyes partially drifted upwards, trailing across a dreamscape of a futuristic city towards a fake sky. Yet, a city like this still felt, in a way, closer to daily life than the prison she had woken up to before. Even her Pokemon were here, supposedly. She had seen them in one of these daycares, but soon realized that they were non-interactive parts of this city. In fact, everything was- aside from people. So, were they real? Or were they just as fake as she had assumed the Pokemon silhouettes from that probably faked ‘execution’ had been?
[break][break]
No. Yes. Both.
[break][break]
Violet returned her focus towards that man. She had not seen him in the crowd before, though masks made that difficult. Still, her hair and statue were more unique than his, so he might have recognized her beforehand, had he been there. By then, she had already calmed down some, the laughter ebbing off. “Pardon me. While this cityscape is certainly surreal, you just kind of gave me whiplash being so, um, hare-brained comes to mind? But it certainly does not truly encompass all that is, well, you right now.” She half-shrugged her arms there in a surrendering pose. “But frankly, if I remembered any random guy I took for a ride three years ago, I would be almost as stupid as those that I pulled a number on.” Translation: him. “But if that truly is the only thing that matters to you after the day we’ve just been put through, then I guess being an idiot does have its perks.”
[break][break]
Honestly, Vio herself did not know whether she wanted to disengage this or agitate the man. It didn’t really matter too much. This was a dream. Well, one of these things was. And frankly, giving her current theory about all of this, she simply utterly disrespected any potential threat he might poise. Instead, she took a step towards him. “Well then. You want to punch me for that? Go ahead, if hitting a girl makes you feel good, that is between you and Arceus. Or do you want me to make it up for you in….other ways?”
[break][break]
Honestly, she was probably just trying to provoke a reaction. In part to see if that could influence their surroundings to fuel her observations.
[break][break]

+ off-screen return to cell and stuff, since not too much agency there anyway. Vio arrives, finds Pokemon but also no way to interact with them. Finds Andrew though and relieves her own stress by messing with him Andrew Fisher

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“Well, we suspect what’s coming, at least,” she replied. “Sorry, I don’t want to play contrarian here, of course. But if there are lives on the line, we have to be careful, right?” Honestly, she just assumed she should be. Frankly, Violet may have briefly interacted with this woman, but she cared nothing about her, as a person. The only one here she cared about was Elaine. Everyone else she didn’t truly care about, at least as far as their well-being was concerned, personally. And she meant that fully in the sense that she would gain nothing from their suffering either.
[break][break]
They were just kind of there. Like most people. It was only when she made a connection to someone that she actually started caring beyond any self-serving goals. But having just a few people that she cared about like this was still better than none. And it certainly helped her feel more like a complete person again, after what had happened beneath the waves. That much was true anyway.
[break][break]
But it also made her more cautious, here. Despite the façade that Elaine put up there, it was evident that she needed…validation. That she needed to succeed, as if showing herself that she still got it. At least that was the impression that Violet got from all this. That was why she did not want the other to fail at all.
[break][break]
After all, she was a Rocket, not a monster. While sometimes there were benefits in picking someone up after they failed, she did not see them here. Plus…she just did not want to see this girl hurt, period. “But yes, a trap sounds good. Though we should have a contingency, in case they got one too. Like, one to spring the trap, the other to at least push the client out of the way if something else happens.” Briefly, she thought about things herself, but she quickly came to a conclusion. “I can do the trap. That’s what I am good at, even if I might not look it. But I know nothing of protecting people up close.” That was just natural, after all. “Plus, if the woman still needs saving then, it should be you who is seen doing that. You are the one with a reputation for that.”
[break][break]
Plus, Violet did not like too much public attention. Being recognizable was not always a good thing when one did her best job either in the shadows or hidden in plain sight.
[break][break]

+ Elaine Highland

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

No hesitation in accepting the hand, eh? Maybe Elaine was more comfortable with those sorts of things than Violet had expected. Or maybe the other just did not make the connection. Either way though, this was fine. It made things less difficult and felt quite comfortable as they climbed the stairs and the other opened up a little more. It kind of felt like the topic broached there was not one that this girl would talk about with a lot of people, so Vio appreciated how candid she was in that regard.
[break][break]
Plus, it did feel good for someone to tell her they needed her. Somehow she had…missed that. Had anyone ever told her that before? She did not know and it did make her blush, faintly. “You know, you would make a girl feel even more special if you just said ‘you’ instead of ‘someone’ there. But I still quite appreciate the notion regardless,” she mused while mostly listening to the other.
[break][break]
Then, she squeezed the hand she held a little more tightly. Obviously not painfully so. But she wanted to make the other more aware of it, divert her attention. “I know what you mean about things not feeling real. But this, this feels real, at least to me. And I am always willing to show you reality.” In fact, she had to discard one other option to make things feel more real once more. It would be too distracting and the moment was wrong. But she was committing that to memory still, in case she would actually go there, later. “After this, there is something I want to tell you. Something I have not told anyone else yet. But I feel you should know. It might even help you,” she ultimately continued, making a very weighty choice. It probably was not as grand as she made it out to be. Maybe the other had already figured it out, being a detective and all. But maybe Elaine had simply decided to not even investigate due to their relationship with one another.
[break][break]
Either way, this time she wanted to share something. Well, later. Because for now, they had something else to observe. The detective quickly found something. She was apparently confused by that. As was Vio, in a way. In another, it made sense with what had been disclosed so far. “Well, you did say that he was willing to go all the way to ensure this works, right? With nothing to lose? He might just be willing to move the target into position himself and keep her there. If they both perish in the incident – or he survives, injured – at least his legacy would likely be more untarnished. Not that I could truly understand the concept of legacy in that way, of course.”
[break][break]

+ Elaine Highland

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Principled men with conviction. No, she could never truly understand them. While she fashioned herself a free spirit, Violet knew that she was someone who seldom ever truly committed to something. Rocket had been one of the few times. Though even now she was bonding with someone that would do anything to bring the organization low, if given a chance. She had gleamed that much from their chance encounters so far. Maybe that was why she was drawn to this girl, as she had been to others. People with clear goals….fascinated her. Vio? She was a moth, being drawn from flame to flame. These people were flames indeed. And not just because they were redheads.
[break][break]
But still, because of that she had trouble imagining someone like this throwing things away just to take care of someone whose alleged failings they detested. She would at least entertain the other’s reasoning, listened, followed her up where they had some more alone time. She nodded, taking things said as they were and giving them some more thought. “I can’t say I made much the same experiences, but I am no, well, detective,” she ultimately surrendered, though she was not quite convinced yet. This all still felt like Elaine was going with a hunch there. But she had the experience, so maybe that just factored into the resolve. “I tend to live by Hanlon’s Razor, if we are to put it into those turns,” she replied with a chuckle as she looked around.[break][break]
Given that blush earlier, it took a lot of effort to not pounce on the opportunity that presented itself here, in more isolation. However, with a sigh, she discarded that thought. If she actually managed to distract the other at this junction and things went badly, the fallout from that would be too bad.
[break][break]
Hence, Elaine was spared. For the moment. “If you think this is the best lead, then we can pursue it, I think. I am just here to be a sounding board in that regard. A very pretty sounding board, but I can nod at appropriate times, too,” she further elaborated, smiling. Then, she just casually reached for and took the other’s hand as she joined her on the stairs. Vio was brazen enough to do that, but she would still allow the other to lead them upwards anyway. “I am enjoying myself, don’t worry. Emotions can burn you, but I personally derive a lot of joy from them. Some boring work isn’t quite enough to bring down a date with you, don’t worry.”
[break][break]

+ Elaine Highland

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

So, democracy prevailed. Expectedly, but also unexpectedly. She had fully expected their wardens to announce that the other ward betrayed them. Yet, the opposite was true. Of course, she had no way of knowing whether or not that was actually true. A double subversion was certainly possible also. But…she figured that it was actually somewhat unlikely. If you cheated in an election, you did so to get the best result for yourself. This seemed like the best result for them.
[break][break]
Well, for weakling ward at least. Apparently, the third wheel had decided to make things worse for their competitor. But that had been a toss-up anyway. Violet barely knew two people in her own ward, none in the others. They were all anonymous faces in the crowd, as far as she was concerned.[break][break]
Honestly, most people were. Even outside of this place. Sure, she took effort to memorize the people she met and such. But at the end of the day? Most of them were, to her, little more than, as the kids would call them, NPCs. It did not make too much difference if one was a mask-wearing warden or prisoner – or some random dude on the street she briefly made eye-contact with.
[break][break]
Vio sighed to herself. This was the lift she had chosen for herself, after all. She couldn’t complain. Plus, this was very much helping in this particular context. When they were moved once more, she could put aside the close quarters, the darkness, the encroaching smell and instead close her eyes, counting. Granted, she had no idea how fast they were moving. But it felt a bit like an elevator. She tried to gauge it by similar-feeling elevators she had ridden, trying to see how far they were moving. After all, the question of ‘where’ in the most literal sense was still unresolved. [break][break]
Memories of a place deep beneath the sea resurfaced for that reason. This place felt…similar. Not the same. But still otherworldly all the same.
[break][break]
However, further thought on the matter had to wait for they arrived for what she had to compare to ‘chasm duty’ from a book she had read once. A frame of reference established, she simply got to work. More memories of a life she had left behind returned. Ones she had not wished to go back to, but now was glad she had. A true, pampered rich person like she often pretended to be would have swooned at all this. But she’d shovelled enough Pokemon excrement as a child to not be too fazed by this. Plus, her recent training was helping with the whole dead people thing.
[break][break]
Unlike others, she did not even think about utilizing these corpses for anything. Not in the dark. Not under surveillance. The enemy had already shown an uncanny ability to find things pocketed before. Violet was unencumbered by such ideas for the time being – which allowed her to notice when something was released into their midst. It came at her. A gasp near her revealed that someone nearby noticed it as well. Yet, while she managed to dive to the side and evade it, the other person seemingly did not even try. Or could not.
[break][break]
Another thing to file for later. Vio still deferred everything for later. Be professional, be observant, survive. Be it someone training to become a ranger, a con woman or a spy, those sorts of tenants remained still. She held onto them tightly. Because she had to.
It was the only way to make it, she presumed. Voices from above cemented this. They spoke of choice where there had not truly been one. The manipulation had to be obvious to everyone. And yet, she could tell that it would work, over time. Even the most obvious manipulation could easily succeed in absolute isolation and with repetition.
[break][break]
Hence, she tried to clean faster, uncaring of what she touched or not. Because they did not have a lot of time. Not today, not at all. At least that was what she could gleam so far.
[break][break]

+ Lots of introspection and observation, does chasm duty while dodging the green furball S2ZTQkmV

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“Cute,” she simply replied, decidedly leaving it at that after the tongue incident to see if that got to the other more. It was a bit of a cheap shot, but her partner here certainly deserved it all the same. After all, she had gotten Vio into this situation, so being the object of her entertainment was a just prize to pay, in the former’s opinion. A fair balance between work and leisure was important on balls like this. It would not do otherwise, really.
[break][break]
But still, there was work to do. She listened to the more detailed information given by her partner, who most certainly had done her homework on the subject. Vio could appreciate being spared that part of the process at least, even if it meant having to catch up a bit more here. Quietly, she took in the information and snuck in glances towards the man in question. Though she was not quite convinced. In fact, she had kind of dismissed that girl already for simple enough reasons.
[break][break]
She was too fancy. “That’s a bit incongruent, isn’t it? Someone worried about corruption, but willing to immediately go for murder of all things when there have to be easier ways? A professional killer that is being this suspicious when they could have come up with an easier story?” It was in her nature to pounce on possible holes like this. Mostly because, well, she was being trained to be a spy herself. A proper one, not just someone with talent, winging it. And someone of wealth would hire someone professional, someone that could not this easily be traced to them.
[break][break]
Violet briefly mused to herself, then reached for Elaine’s face. Briefly and faintly, she would nudge the other’s chin upwards as she leaned in. But, of course, she was just teasing, both as a proper cover and to gain the redhead’s attention fully. “There is also the opposite possibility. That this girl, whoever it is, serves a similar purpose to us. After all, we are quite suspicious ourselves, especially with allegations of corruption hanging over us. If I was an industry magnate who hired a killer, I would not let myself get caught dead anywhere near that person on the eve of the killing. No one gets that rich by taking unnecessary risks like that, least they are really lucky.”
[break][break]

+ Elaine Highland

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Ah, good. Her cellmate was playing along, as was Elaine. That would serve them well enough. For the time being, that was. They needed to figure out the peculiars, not necessarily what was happening here to begin with. Because Violet had already collected enough data to at least think she had figured that out, at least to an extent.
[break][break]

Though her suspicions were already being validated by what came next. Not necessarily the punishment of those that had tried to steal. That, in and of itself, was logical. If someone was stealing from you, then you had to expect punishment for that. Her time in Rocket, along with her upbringing, helped her with being able to watch what was happening without being impacted too much, though she once again thanked the mask to hide away her face in these moments. After all, she had to put a serious effort to not wince but watch it all, but doing so would have made her look incredibly uncaring. She could tell as much.
[break][break]

But as was, she simply watched, mostly motionless, and let her training take over. Both parts of it. Having been brought up in a ranger family in the mountains meant that she had witnessed Pokemon being put down that were beyond saving – or too violent. Sometimes, that had just been necessary. Her father, wanting both his children to succeed them, had never spared them that sight.
[break][break]

So, why, exactly, did these People do that? It wasn’t like they were making a secret of the purpose of this all. This was not a work camp built to produce results, this was a prison made to punish those in it. Karmic fates they called it, right? That was why they saw no issue beating up their labour or even kill them. If they wanted this ore processed, a conveyor belt and hammering work would ironically be much more productive. No, that was a nice by-product maybe. The malice was the point here.[break][break]

Hence, it struck her as so odd that these killings happened in such a….sanitized way. A Pokeball was being smashed and a Pokemon being shown. Judging by the reactions of the people hoisted up, the correct ones. But…if they truly wanted them punished, why give them even the possibility of thinking their partners were not actually in that ball? She could not be the only one picking up on that.[break][break]


These people did not exactly need to keep up a PG-Rating on their prison broadcast, so what gave? There was a chance that this was done so for the Pokemon's sake, of course. They talked about setting them free. But if they cared enough about the Pokemon to do that, they would have no reason to actually kill them, either. If you wanted to spare someone pain but had no reason to actually inflict it, why inflict a lesser pain on them than none at all?[break]
And then, of course, it was followed up by what Elaine correctly identified as a prisoner’s dilemma. Only it wasn’t quite as simple. This was just the first day of work, after all. Hence, this was iterated. The textbook answer to this, as outlined during the studies she had taken to at least pretend to be an university student as a cover, was that the dominant strategy in a normal game was to betray, in the iterated form to cooperate until the other side did not, then punish that with betrayal.
[break][break]

Honestly, she had no idea if the people around her voted trust so often because they knew the latter or did not know the former. She got the general feeling that her vote did not necessarily matter much, given the voices she had already heard. But then again, it probably did not to begin with. There was one thing that differentiated this from an actual prisoner’s dilemma, after all. That all was based on the desire to obtain information on a crime, in its simplest depiction.
[break][break]

But these people did not need them to actually vote to forsake to gain anything. They wanted them to, yes. Yet, there was absolutely nothing stopping them from just telling them that the other ward in question had voted to forsake, immediately shattering the strategy in twain. Their goal was to have them vote forsake, she reasoned. The real test here was not to see what the ward as a whole would do, but each individual. Voting to trust just meant that you needed more punishment, individually, than voting to forsake.
[break][break]

Plus, she just wanted to see if there would be any difference if she disagreed with the majority here. Hence, after some thought and prodding to finally speak up, she simply said only one thing: “Forsake.”
[break][break]

+ Watches proceedings near Elaine Highland and Kyrenai Black , thinks about the PG-ness of the killings and the poised questions. Votes Forsake for strategic reasons

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

She offered a shrug in response. “It is probably best to not attribute to malice that which can be explained equally by chance or stupidity. At least that’s how I think of matters like this.” It had served her pretty well so far.
[break][break]
In this case, a machine failure like that which did not result in a proper killing was probably just a failure of machinery. Best not to think too hard about it. “But yes, there is no one around at all. I still think we probably just went the wrong way altogether. Or do you see the Megaerna anywhere nearby?”
[break][break]

+ Gerald Kaiser

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

A gift, huh? That changed things. What she was doing there would then not be an accusation against some unknown that might have snuck in, but instead fall onto whoever gave this out. Well, if it led to anything, that was. She was not too fussed about it. Still, she kept that in mind as she nodded. “Of course, I will send word as soon as possible,” she replied, kind of enjoying having someone bow so deeply to her. Faking and borrowing authority was something she always enjoyed. Then again, she was trying to earn the real thing here, so it was best to not get carried away.
[break][break]
Instead, she gave a much shorter but still courteous bow, then left.
[break][break]
Once she arrived, she noticed that the man was still in a similar position that he had left in. Which was kind of strange, especially when he immediately commended her in a way that implied he had been watching. Had he just…watched, then pretended to not have moved much at all for now reason? She arched a brow but did not ask. It had always been her assumption that she would have been watched, so it was all the same to her.
[break][break]
Then, she tilted her head at his display, but did not show quite as much surprise as she might have had when the man just dropped the thing. The gift part had tipped her off a bit, but it did not actually matter all that much. What happened to the thing after she handed it off was not her responsibility. It was that simple.[break][break]
“Hmm, it was not exactly to my tastes, but I tend not to judge unless something is too repulsive. Gets in the way of the act,” she replied with a shrug. After all, changing one’s tastes to a role one played was important. Though admittedly, she tended to choose roles that would look down on statuettes like that, but that was neither here nor there.
[break][break]
What was more important was praise and knowing she passed. For that, she certainly allowed a proper smile to cross her lips. “Flattery is always appreciated, though I have to admit that the circumstances of this test helped me a lot. Things are much more uncertain out there. Though I reckon having to go in with this amount of constraints is also not quite realistic, either.” She added a shrug. Honestly, being given that little time and information while also being barred from using her primary tools was probably not going to come up too often. Hence, she was not too bothered about it. [break][break]
“That being said, a coffee does sound lovely indeed, so I will take you up on that kind offer~.”
[break][break]

+ oscar clayton

[attr="class","pokeclass"]