Personal records - 24/12/41
The issue is, on the surface, a simple one.Â
I am not truly working for the Rogues any longer. I believe some of my research is filtered down to them, but not the bulk of it, and not in the form that I had expected.
The ability to hijack the empathic bond that forms between Pokémon and trainer... I thought it might have use as a way to impart propaganda. By having a Psychic type link into the bond, access is granted to that trainer’s subconscious, and there you might plant dreams or nightmares: you might wear away at their morale, or convince them of your cause.
I expected the Rogues to jump at the chance to use such a method. However, to my knowledge, they have not been informed of its existence. The SHTO - the Sinnoh Homeland Technology Operation, Risa's old masters and my new ones - have taken my idea and weaponized it further than I had imagined might be possible, and that aspect is all the Rogues know.Â
Now that we have the means to test my theories and push them onwards, Risa, the other researchers and myself have discovered that the technique can be employed towards increasing the effect of psychic attacks - it can be used to bypass the natural mental defences that all sentient creatures have, for maximum impact. A limited form of this technique is what the Rogues have been handed, with none of the subtleties of my original vision.Â
I should be grateful. Propaganda is potent, but weapons win wars, and if the SHTO bend this research towards the protection of Sinnoh, then Johto will have much to fear. However, I cannot help but feel that this is precisely what my research was supposed to avoid. Driving people to insanity is as wasteful as death is. Why not take my original premise and move forward with it; turn our enemies into our allies, perhaps even sleeper agents? It seems to me that this would be a far better application of this research in the long term, especially if knowledge of the invulnerability that Dark Types grant spreads further.
When I propose this, however, I receive scornful or pitying looks. Apparently they value my intelligence and not my advice, however paradoxical and indeed asinine such a mindset appears. Perhaps it is because my acumen has been conclusively proven, but as a woman, my judgement may still be called into question.
Or perhaps there is something else at work, something I am not seeing. It feels as if I am not being provided with the whole picture. There are conversations conducted that cease if I draw too close; surreptitious gestures and significant looks exchanged when they think I cannot see.Â
Risa tells me not to worry, that this is the way of military command and that I am simply still unused to it. But it frustrates me. I cannot accept it as he has learned to.
I have to find out what I’m missing. I need answers. But first I’ll need to discern the correct questions.
