Eighth.

[azumods]

ENCOUNTER. It's been days since you were brought here. Or, at least, you think it's been days; even if it's not something you're necessarily unfamiliar with, the stagnation of time and space are likely taking a toll, as is the fact that it's impossible to become spatially oriented in this place. The rotation of the walls to become ground beneath your feet, the floating patches of land with their bizarre floral biology, the pools of water flowing silently and horizontally directly above your heads... It's all a bit much to take in, a bit much to acquaint yourselves with. Perhaps it isn't meant for you to become acquainted with at all. The massive creature here with you has been becoming bolder over the last few hours; it's difficult to tell what's gotten into it, but its path through the shadows has been bringing it closer. Once in a while a sleek, sharply-spiked body can be seen twisting its way through the darkness; sometimes long, black tendrils with wicked-looking red tips are seen cutting through the shadows, each of them far larger than you are, before disappearing again into nothingness. It seems to fade in and out with the contours of the abyss; sometimes it disappears entirely, only to reappear so close to the patches of land you've taken to standing on that it feels liable to collide with them, that it seems almost like you can reach out and touch it if you wanted to. Whatever it is, your Pokémon don't like it. You can tell just by being in its presence that it's one of the old ones, one of those whose memories span far longer than most of you can comprehend - one that's always been, since the creation of the world. An ancient and powerful entity, and there comes a point on one of those passes that's too close for comfort that it doesn't pull away and disappear again. Instead it stays, and its head breaches the darkness, and it finally lets you see it. It's massive, alarmingly so, in the same way that Dialga and Palkia were massive - not just in physical size, but in the way that something about being in its presence makes you feel very, very small. Its body is long and graceful in a way that's almost repulsive; it doesn't set down anywhere near you, or anywhere at all; instead, it simply is, hovering before you in a way that commands the stagnant, empty space before you, floating over the abyss like it was meant to be in it, like it's been here for longer than you likely care to imagine. Those long black tendrils ripple a little as they stream out behind it; its body seems to glimmer in the darkness as it watches you from behind bright, red eyes. For the time being, it doesn't seem about to attack; just the same, it's watching you very, very closely. What happens from here is, evidently, your call.

Comments

[discutio]

Why didn't you tell us about Dawn? I'll understand if that was the source of your hesitation when all this began, but we should have been told at some point what transpired rather than hear it from Team Galactic.

I want answers, Cynthia. Why are you here now, what else don't we know, and if you share Giratina's intent.

And don't call me 'sweetheart'.

[azumods]

And what will you do with those answers, once you have them? You, specifically, haven't done anything but read ulterior motives into everything I tell you. Since you're already phrasing this as though I've been using you, you'll have to forgive me for wanting to leave this at "you can't always get what you want" until you work that much out for yourself.

[discutio]

Because you haven't told us your true motives. You've given us half-answers and concealed critical information, as if we aren't in fact trying to help. What exactly am I expected to do but try to read into your motives when you seem to obscure with every word you say?

I've had enough of this, Cynthia. Do not treat me as though I am some clueless child, do not turn this matter back on us as though it is myself and the others at fault, and speak to us in any manner of substance instead of more vague half-answers.

If you wish me to believe you aren't using us, prove it. We've gone to endless amounts of effort and risk because we wish to help this world, and all I ask is that you respect us enough to stop concealing things.

[azumods]

This is what I'm talking about.

I've told you my motives multiple times. You, specifically, are the one who chooses not to believe them. I've held you accountable for your decisions, nothing more - and you, specifically, act as though this means I'm using you.

I'll treat you with the respect you deserve, at the point that you prove you deserve it. I don't speak to the others like this. Take a brief moment and ask yourself why, and then try again.

[discutio]

...Then I suppose you and I are simply never going to see eye to eye, to pardon the expression.

[azumods]

[...OF ALL THINGS YOU POSSIBLY COULD HAVE SAID, IGNIS.]

...Well, as long as I'm not the one to say it, I suppose...