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Beau's impromptu leap into the power spot and his subsequent descent made him consider, mid-plummet, that perhaps the cavern beneath was more than a few feet of a drop. He glanced down and, with a mild frisson of fear running through him, confirmed this to be the case, as the floor - dozens of feet away - grew close at a rapid pace.
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Yelping, he fumbled at his belt for a pokeball and released his Toucannon, grabbing on to her claws tightly. Squawking indignantly, she flapped her wings madly; though she was far from large enough to carry a man of Beau's size, it was enough to arrest his descent from a bone-shattering speed to an uncomfortable one. He landed and took a few stumbling steps before tripping and falling on his face.
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"Oof," he pronounced, muffled, from his place on the floor.
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Standing up slowly, he dusted himself off and looked around the enclosure. The maze-like passages of the cave offered two means of egress, and the thrumming presence of dynergy did little to settle his nerves. He glanced up as Jack and his Mismagius floated down in a significantly more graceful manner than he'd managed, and offered a wry, self-deprecating grin as the other man landed.
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"Alright, time to find what we can find, I guess. Left, think? I have a pretty good feeling!" Beau set off leftward, rounding the bend and immediately stepping in a clump of poison-dripping moss on the cave floor. "Okay, well, something that might be a good feeling if you squint, I guess," he frowned, lifting his foot to look at the damage before shaking his shoe in an attempt to get the sludge off of it.
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Beau was wearing down.
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The work was fine enough, if he kept his head down and focused on the job. Eduardo Hisakawa being in constant proximity was at least a balm for his misery, or as much a balm as he could hope for in a place like this. His new routine, day in and day out, managed to tamp down even the smallest attempt at humor or levity, because even when Okidogi and the guards weren't administering punishment or drawing others - or himself - to the center of the ward as horrid robotic laughingstocks, he couldn't dream of a way out of the circumstances no matter how hard he tried.
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The dreams, speaking of, were another thing entirely, and he found himself in the same place every night, every time he shut his eyes. His pokemon, floating in cases, unmoving and unresponsive but unerringly still *there*. His explorations, when he dared to move further into the city, revealed glimpses of familiar faces, and he once thought he'd noticed jack wainwright's distinctive hair darting around a corner, but dismissed it as an optimistic hallucination. The tower at the center, though, with its little blue pokemon suspended prominently within - that was interesting, and Beau found himself curious if the little guy was somehow at the center of all of this.
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What stuck with him the most, though, was the first time the Weakling Ward was taken to the Chamber of Desires. When Eddie stepped away from the mask and offered Beau his turn, the younger man looked into it with some trepidation.
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Gosh, he'd forgotten what the sun on his back felt like after so long in the prison. The beach along the shoreline of Dewford was golden and sparkling, and although it had taken months of hard work with Michael Navidson and Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki, the threat in Granite Cave was closed - for good, as best as they could tell, the ghosts dispelled, and the island town had never been more pristinely, comfortably home.
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Orson, his Kubfu, tottered about in the shallows eagerly, chased by a grinning ollie morales. Torben, his Pangoro, regarded the scene lazily from his reclined position in the sand, a small smile quirking the corner of his mouth. jack wainwright chatted with Gunner Graves, the latter looking grim for the impressive tan he sported, and even klaus anchoret was grudgingly enjoying himself, batting a beach ball back and forth with his meowth.
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Beau sighed in contentment as he sipped his drink and stared out at the waves, the afternoon sun shimmering on their surface. For the first time in forever, he had nothing to worry about - no extraterrestrial threats, no Rocket, no environments on the verge of extinction, no fear that one day he wouldn't have a home to come back to. Still, something was missing, and he couldn't put his finger on it...
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A brawny pair of arms encircled his waist and lifted him bodily from the ground as a booming laugh sounded from just behind him, hurling him forward where he landed in the water with a splash. Sputtering and guffawing, Beau flailed to upright himself, turning backward to stick his tongue out at Eduardo Hisakawa, who regarded Beau with boisterous amusement. "Too much thinking, not enough enjoyin' life!" the older man proclaimed, and Beau lunged for him playfully. Surrounded by his friends, his heart had never been so full.
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He pulled away from the mask, blinking tears away as the vision ended, wiping them away on his sleeve, and cold fear clutched at his spine as he was ripped from the happiest day of his life to the penitentiary once more. It was somehow more painful to see what he'd never have and be coldly reminded that this was his life now.
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He'd rather be dreaming.
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"I know exactly what you mean, brah," Beau sighed in response. He wondered if anybody was actually getting any sleep in this place - well, maybe the ones who had been whaled on by their captors, at least, but that just made him even more uncomfortable to think of.
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Was he holding up okay? He had to be, because he was the strong guy, but the concern in Eddie's hushed voice went straight to his stomach and caused it to knot painfully. He was worthless without his pokemon, he was worthless with this thing around his neck, and he found himself in a predicament where he couldn't even protect his fellow prisoners from whatever beatings their jailers chose to give. If he couldn't punch his way out of it, then what? Was he forced to wait for someone smarter than him to find an opening and think of something?
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"Yeah. Course." He lied smoothly, and only felt a little worse for it.
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He could feel the anxiety in his spine, and almost laughed at the appropriateness, like it was the only thing supporting him, the cornerstone holding him together. At home, at night, alone with his thoughts, he'd stretch and roll over to dispel it, force it to have to gather again if it wanted to do him any more mental harm. Here, he didn't have that option, but it didn't stop him from automatically shifting against Eddie, and he was grateful enough for the ice in his spine lessening slightly that he didn't apologize.
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Eddie's next proclamation brought it back in full, though. Eddie had been on enough expeditions with Beau to know what placing his faith in the younger man was worth. Did he really expect Beau to come up with something? Hell, did Beau expect himself to come up with anything? Had he just subconsciously been planning on being a good little worker bee until the dog out there decided he'd outworked his usefulness?
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"...Same," he managed quietly. If he wasn't capable of anything else, he was at least capable of making sure he could keep Eddie as safe as he could. One thing he absolutely couldn't allow himself to do was show weakness. Eddie being here was keeping Beau going, at least, so Beau had to do the same for Eddie.
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Whatever came next, they'd have to deal with then.
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Beau shifted again, but the ice wasn't going anywhere. "Hey, uh," he hedged, pausing.
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"Why do you think they did this?"

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Riding high from the excitement of the battle - and their victory thanks to Eddie's quick thinking - Beau pocketed his ball and made his way to the edge of the platform, humming brightly to himself. The entrances and exits through this place seemed to come and go as they wanted, but he figured they'd come far enough that they were bound to stumble across one sooner or later.
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Though...did they have to leave so soon, really? It wasn't as if they were on a timetable, really, and it was just so calm here. Beau cast his eyes skyward, taking in the phantasmal flickerings of the gilded spirits passing through far, far overhead, and breathed in the curiously tranquil air.
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He wasn't missing much - Chaos could fend for himself for a little while longer, and it's not as if jack wainwright would notice if he was missing, as much time as the other man spent on doing fieldwork. Hell, even klaus anchoret was probably being spared another fumbling conversation by getting some time to himself at his lighthouse.
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Here, Beau didn't have the familiar tickle of anxiety that accompanied him - buried but present - everywhere he seemed to go. He didn't have to feel fear, he just had to wander around with his new buddy Eddie, and that didn't seem to be a bad way to spend his time at all. He even thought of the Skitty and its elderly owner from their previous trip here, and how peaceful the two had seemed as they ascended. Gosh, wouldn't that be the dream...
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Eddie's comment jolted him from his reverie and he snapped his gaze downward, noting that one of his feet was now halfway off of the platform. Stepping back hurriedly, he shook his head to clear it and nudged Torben with his shoulder to anchor himself, ensuring his oldest friend was still there.
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"Yeah, brah, you said it. I've had about all of this place I think I can take." He started off along the bridge to the next platform then paused slightly, glancing back over his shoulder to Eddie. "But, uh, maybe some grub when we get out? There's a killer Johtonian buffet not far from the base."

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"I mean, you don't have to, unless - well, it's probably a trip back, I guess," Beau stammered, several directions his statement could have taken falling all over one another in an attempt to present the correct one. Had he said or dome something wrong? The movie was over, so that was probably it, but what if the pancakes had been bad? Dammit, he should have gotten better blueberries, and-
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His spiral was aborted by Klaus' next words, and he blinked as the Friend Ball was fished out. They hadn't even been talking when Klaus had gone abroad.
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The little Applin came out, and something tightened in Beau's chest. He looked from the pokemon to Klaus, blinked, and then realized he'd moved to encircle the shorter man in a tight hug without actually registering it. No one had ever done anything like this for him, and suddenly he felt, dizzy with the notion, that maybe this hadn't been too far out of Klaus' way at all.
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Realizing that he probably wasn't doing much for the other's comfort, Beau released Klaus from the hug and offered an awkward, small smile. "I don't - I mean, uh -" he cleared his throat and tried again. "Thanks."
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The red in his cheeks was probably left over from the horror movie. Probably.

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Between Nemo and Gunner's Steelix and Baltoy, what could have been the catastrophic revelation of numerous Poison-types hiding beneath the muck instead turned into a one-sided free-for-all, and the offenders didn't stand a chance.
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When the fighting was complete and the unconscious sludges had been loosely herded into a singular pile, Beau grinned and offered Gunner a fistbump, shaking his head. "Nah, brah, I got it from here. Thanks for the help, that coulda gotten hairy!"
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Nemo grunted in assent, though a wide smile split the Swampert's features as he surveyed the results of his work, thumping one huge arm on the ground in satisfaction. Beau, for his part, cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders experimentally, as though readying for the work ahead.
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"I got the report too, no worries. Man, we oughtta grab a drink sometime," he chuckled ruefully, elbowing the other man good-naturedly. "You seem like a cool guy an' all, but it'd be nice to hang out without somethin' or other tryin' t'kill us, you think?"
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He thought so, anyway, and with that thought began the slow process of collecting the remaining Poison-types for processing and rehoming. This was, he figured, the kind of thing he could get used to.

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