[attr="class","littleollie"] The office is clean, almost creepily so. Like something straight out of a horror film.

[break][break] But that's not the point of discussion today.

[break][break] Ollie walks up to the front desk, feeling a little awkward as he walked up to the desk. He stood in front of him, his bulky form looking out of place in the mostly empty office.

[break][break] "Heya," he starts, trying to strike up a normal conversation first. Maybe it'd ease his nerves. "How's it goin? You planning a lot for the Vital City Tournament?" He knew that lam logan had his hands full with all the preparations.

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH [break]
sleepless in slateport

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] Sigh. He knew that it wouldn't work — but could you really blame a guy for trying?

[break][break] "Well," he said, clearing his throat as he approached the table with a manila folder. "I've got the latest Ranger budget here for ya." Usually he gave that kind of thing to PENELOPE LIVY but they weren't exactly talking, and 'sides, he had wanted to talk to the councilman about it. He still thought about the time that he'd visited him in the hospital and the words he'd said back then.

[break][break] Grow up, Ollie.

[break][break] His back straightened.

[break][break] "I wanted to talk to ya about it, and the Amnesty Program. The details are all in this folder here."

[break][break] Ollie slid it across his desk.

[break][break] The file would have the latest information about the Ranger budgets, what was being used and what wasn't, and most importantly — the glaring lack of funding that was needed to get the Amnesty Program up and running properly.

[break][break] To protect people like annalise henderson and Caleb Harcourt.

[break][break] Isaac Merlo.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH [break]
sleepless in slateport

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] Aw, damn it. He'd been hoping that the number would speak for him.

[break][break] He'd even had freya morningstar look over it, cause she had a better eye for this sort of thing. But there was no avoiding it. He had to do it.

[break][break] "Ah, well," a hand rubs behind his neck. "As you can probably tell, the numbers are a bit short. Ah! Nothing that's much different from usual."

[break][break] A hand goes up swiftly, defending the fact that the Ranger branch hasn't been given enough money. Ollie's never sure where the ideas come from, but gossip has always been a seed that can sprout even in the most barren of soil.

[break][break] "But I think we could use a bit more to fund the Amnesty Program. I'm sure you know it - but the amount of Rocket defectors have increased since last quarter."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH [break]
sleepless in slateport

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] Erg. This wasn't going to be easy.

[break][break] Ollie could already imagine how much easier this would've been a year ago. Because it wouldn't have been him having to come in her and talk to the CEO of Silph Co. and current seated Councilman FERNANDO SILPH about this. It would've been someone else, someone more important, like Laurence Anderson or Razz Kingsman.

[break][break] But instead the responsibility fell onto his shoulders.

[break][break] "Just more resources in general. Like I said, the amount of defectors have increased a lot since last quarter, which means that in general the funds that are used to keep the program afloat - general expenses, advertising, protection services, salaries, you name it - are running short."

[break][break] Ollie sighed, hand on his hip, as he slumped one of his shoulders in thought.

[break][break] "I know budget's tight, and I'd totally get it if you said no but - "

[break][break] He frowned.

[break][break] "These guys are really trying, and I'd like to help them as much as I can. We're trying to revamp the program too, including working their hours into projects like Pokemon Home, but also pushing them into categories to support the other Rangers so they can see that they're a path forward for them."

[break][break] He thinks about what Isaac Merlo had to say to him.

[break][break] "If not, they'll just run back to the thing we're trying to save them from." Rocket. "And can we really say we're trying our best if we don't pull all the stops out?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH [break]
sleepless in slateport

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] Oh.

[break][break] Ollie had been so focused on trying to explain why they needed to support the Amnesty Program, he hadn't thought much beyond that. He had been prepared to explain to FERNANDO SILPH all the ways that it was important to give even ex-Rockets a place in society, to explain to him that there were people that were worth saving that he hadn't even considered the practicality of it.

[break][break] "Oh. Uh."

[break][break] ollie morales was many things. Charming, outgoing, friendly. He had all the vibrancy of his sister Eva Morales, but there was one - important - thing that set them apart.

[break][break] "I hadn't thought about that."

[break][break] Ollie frowned.

[break][break] "What do you think?"

[break][break] Eva Morales was the smart one in the family for a reason.

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH [break]
sleepless in slateport

☉

[attr="class","littleollie"] Once again, the councilman speaks truth. It unravels in front of the Head Ranger like a map yet to be undiscovered, untraversed by such a novice view of the world.

[break][break] Yet he is forced, because of the position that he holds.

[break][break] He thinks of the passion that bleeds from the lips of Isaac Merlo, or the determination that burns within Caleb Harcourt, and he knows that he has to at least try.

[break][break] "I guess - " He thins his lips, rolling them between his teeth. He didn't want to take away from any group, especially not his own Rangers. Not that they were spread thin by resources by any means, but they weren't actually in abundance either. "Is there a way we could combine efforts? Like - I think the Amnesty program needs more security. It's something that Rangers need too."

[break][break] He frowned.

[break][break] "Rockets kidnapped several Rangers of our own not too long ago. annalise henderson, Elise Calcifet, Elinor Anderson, luka chêne."

[break][break] He hated that. He hated how he'd let them all just get taken, and he'd done nothing to help.

[break][break] "If we have to, then take away from my salary. I'll survive. They might not."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH [break]
sleepless in slateport

☉