For all the existing folklore about the distortion world, they never divulged just how boring it was.

Oh sure, a person never got tired or hungry, any nick or cut stayed in stasis– neither bleeding nor mending– but the only thing to do here was… exist. There was some water and a few strange trees, but beyond that? Rocks and nothingness. Akari wasn’t entirely sure how she would’ve weathered it on her own.

She probably would have been alright for a little while, the memories slowly trickling back into place serving to entertain her for a time, but after that? The old-style pokeballs didn’t engage here; here, by herself, meandering aimlessly forever? It would have been unbearable.

As things had turned out, though, she hadn’t been alone when existence tore apart and swallowed her up. Mostly, she felt bad that she’d inadvertently dragged Ingo into this [?] with her, but a selfish part of her was glad for his presence. Not only did she not have to be stranded here alone, but another human was an avenue for discussion, someone with different thoughts, beliefs and information.

He was genuinely excited for her whenever she shared a new memory– of cute little Twinleaf, of her awesome mom, of her best friends and original team– and was happy to ask follow up questions, carrying the conversation or sparking new discoveries. When she rounded on him, in turn, he even had his own [news] to share: that the man who looked like him was his brother– his twin– that he’d battled for a living in a place called Unova, that the flame wielding Pokemon had been his very first partner.

She noticed when he started subtly steering the conversation back to her, clearly avoiding something, but she’d let him get around to that in his own time. It wasn’t like they had anything to do but think and talk.

There was little denying, now that they were here, that there wasn’t any getting out. They wandered regularly, chatting about whatever served the best [distraction] for the time being, and never saw anything like the [rift] that had spirited them away, just the usual features. Weird upside-down waterfall? Check. Trees with the roots at the top? Present and accounted for. Floating rocks? Oh yeah, they had floating rocks.

In a way, it was weirdly beautiful, cast in the greys of a perpetual twilight, but that was counteracted at every turn by how uncanny it was– how there was no hot or cold, how the atmosphere was perfectly still without wind to carry it, how, even when you were next to the waterfall, it didn’t make a sound. No wonder Giratina had taken to stealing away into Arceus’s realm.

Akari had just wheedled out that Ingo and his brother had had an argument prior to his disappearance when, for the first time in a lack of time, something changed.

Without thinking, she started running toward it, only to stop in her tracks when a hand caught her by the scarf. And, okay, that had been a little hasty, but wasn’t he curious? She was just going to get a look at whatever it was. Ingo let go and she was off like a shot, glancing back only once to make sure he was following.

She propelled herself from one landmass to the next, using the lack of gravity to travel seamlessly upwards, until she reached the rock nearest whatever that was. Five– maybe six– feet past the jagged edge, there was a bright spot hovering in the nothingness. Leaning forward, trying to get a better look, her breath caught in her throat; was it… a beach? A tiny little strip of sand transitioning smoothly into grass, evergreens dotting the cliff face behind it– she thought she could even see a couple of berry trees. The colors were sapped by virtue of where they were, but… but it was unlike anything in the distortion world. It looked real.

The same hand from before curled around her shoulder, drawing her safely back onto the stone.

[…]

The vision into reality became a subject of fascination for an indeterminable amount of time. Where was it? It didn’t look like any of the beaches in Sinnoh, and apparently Unovan beaches weren’t usually so close to a forest line. When was it? People passed through every now and then, their clothes of modern make, but how modern?