with its job done, priam recalls the guzzlord back to its confinement to be replaced with his espeon. it's a pokemon he'd rather be with when venturing to the unknown, especially since he knows it won't just turn its back on him all of a sudden.

the warp brings him to a bamboo forest along with everyone else. the trip was fluid enough that no nausea of any form seemed to have been caused by it.

something reminiscent of temples of kanto greet them. priam's nostalgia is hit as he hurries up to one of them, and upon reading the inscriptions, he turns to his espeon.

"oh yeah, we need to leave a gift for shrines like this when you get your fortune."

the espeon showers the statue with a pay day, given that there were no donation boxes in the area, while priam sticks his hand deep into the growlithe's mouth. like a child, he goes for the deepest one he can reach, swirling his hand around before taking a horn out.



he takes his fortune, looking at the number and making heads of tails of it since that's not how usually fortunes go, as he follows the crowd deeper into the bamboo forest.

tl;dr

• guzzlord in, espeon out
• priam leaves a donation
• priam takes a fortune

"you... you said a word..."

priam can't concentrate on what's in front of him. he ponders on the word too much that he takes the pokeball absently while the word continues to linger in his head.

yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields. yields.

he starts to think too much of the word until the word doesn't sound like one in his head anymore. it echoes until his head is empty with nothing but the word, but it's not the same sensation as the one he got from the ruins of regirock.

priam feels more obsession with the word than a headache he'd expect from it.

"what's the thing you said again, mister del mar?"

was there a trigger word somewhere in the statement that somehow hypnotized him? confirmation was needed, though he asked the question more as a reflex to get the conversation going instead of letting it stall.

so polite.

"my own pokemon? nah. they're too useful for me and training a new batch just takes a long while"

priam had previously all the time in the world. lately, assignments kept on piling up. most of them were taken in by him voluntarily to flex though, so he can't blame anyone but himself for this predicament.

he could catch pokemon solely for it too, but the same excuse holds.

"my job right now is to solicit for big chonky steel-types from the big players of rocket. well, that and the usual stuff with this kinds of things."

he takes a sip of the latte, the sweetness of it visibly bringing a smile on his expression.

"do you want to donate one for the cause too?" he teases.

"no! i-it's fine! really, don't worry about it."

he doesn't want anyone to know the amount of sugar he puts in on his coffee so he exclusively makes his own if he does need to. any risk of a hit on his inflated, self-projected reputation that might as well be counted as ego was to be minimized as per the priam protocol.

"i'm fine for now! thanks for asking though."

he gives lex a wink, like he has any sort of game going on.

"but yeah, my colleagues should be back any minute now. do you want to wait for them? i don't think i can answer all questions you have for this thing, but i can answer some of them. a lot of people come here to ask. are you the same?"

it was clear from the first second that the only thing priam has going for him his enthusiasm. backflips are the best way to assert dominance, and priam can already feel it in his bones.

at least he has the power of friendship.

the taunt does little to incentivize priam to charging in. he only has a go button now. the only way is forward, no matter how much the espeon behind him looks disapprovingly.

arms were spread out for a standard grapple. priam doesn't think twice about opening with it, disregarding his opponent's clear aerial advantage and teamwork with pokemon.

not like his espeon could help. it's only role was to use pay day by the ringside every time a hit happens.

there were certain people on rocket that will easily sponsor anything as long as it's for the interest of the organization. a name pops up on the records frequently, and it was priam's turn this time to deliver the gift of the esteemed individual to the labs.

same procedure as before was followed. Cillian Quinn's empoleon was sedated to unconsciousness before it was thrown to the incinerator to be smelted down to the most basic components of metal it has in its body.

approaching the underboss under the premise of the exodus research gives a convenient bridge for a conversation to ask for his help. not that priam needed it, since rapport with the underboss makes it easy for him to ask for his assistance whenever.

a question finally was asked when priam hands gavin's empoleon over to be smelted. the one thing that differentiates priam with the rest of other involved parties was finally asked.

'why would you always put it to sleep first?'

"so it doesn't echo when it cries."

'fair enough.'

he likes to think it's the truth. part of him is disturbed, which is pushed all the way to the back of his conscious. the rest of him is convinced that he's just following orders and anything else is irrelevant.

today, priam has learned that for an onix to evolve, it needs to be holding a full metal jacket, or was it coat. he's not sure, but it's something like that.

it was also today that he finds himself in the midst of these giant pokemon, trying to study them form up close. his supposed intent was to find a large chunk of steel-type to be thrown to the furnace, but the real intent was to attempt to catch one just because big pokemon are cool.

he looks around, trying to locate the ground-type he deems nice, and then throws a pokeball.

he points at a congregation of unown happening in front of them.

it blocks the only path that was set for them. both their sides were blocked with walls of seemingly incredible height while the path where they came from featured unown that chased them aggressively.

their only path was forward, which had the unown.

"which one do you want to charge? the ones at the back that already wants to kill us, or the ones at the front?"

they did not seem hostile at all, and seems to be rather passive compared to the ones they have met earlier.

"if we beat up the ones in front, we can get the first hit advantage!" priam exclaims, trying to explain their plan. "or hope that they're friendly. they're not attacking us yet, at least."

prayers needed to be answered for the next decision they'll be making.

"what a coincidence! i was going to call my absol that too."

nicknames make one closer to their pokemon, or so priam was told, and he does his best not to get attached like what was taught to him on kanto. shortening species name and adding a 'y' was a loophole in priam's head so he kept doing it.

he turns to bryan when he calls for him and then asks about him.

"yeah?"

only then does he realize the lightheadedness. he tries to stand up but finds himself suddenly getting dizzy, though he still trudges towards the door.

"nevermind. i'm not."

he'd help katherine back to her feet, but he was deterred with the same motion that stopped her pokemon.

priam swallows as he processes what has transpired before them. it was nothing that he could have imagined, but it wasn't entirely improbable given that he has experienced a similar event before during the soiree.

"d-do you think it leads to the same thing as the one at the party on mossdeep?" he asks.

reality reconstructed based on their old memories and wishful dreams would be the destination should be the case, but the corruption that follows soon after was not something that could be escaped from easily as well.

"we can't reach it now anyways, right?"

their tools at hand were powerful, though it doesn't exactly follow that they're the right ones for the job. priam is clueless as ever with the situation, relying more on katherine's insight for this matter.

priam squeezes his hand back and innocently covers it with his other.

"what are you getting nervous about? it's not like they'll kill you if you make a mistake!"

hoenn rocket has gotten lax compared to the previous administrations. in a lot of ways, it's a positive for its lower ranking members such as priam for he, too, has gotten a lot of leeway for anything else.

fear of impressing blackwell before was not the same thing as he feels as he was with walsh, though that was not to say that the need for the boss's approval was absent. it was always there, and today was not different with any other.

he throws their hands up in the air before he turns to the door and knocks.

"it's delarosa and conrad! can we come in now?"

if there was one reason why walsh probably decided that this was to be redistributed to him, this was why.

he gets his guzzlord out, and without saying anything, the ultra beast starts to consume everything that comes to them without flinching. anything that manages get past its appendages were dragged back to its mouth, leaving nothing to go past it.

"i don't need protection! i got more experience than you in these kinds of things!" he shouts at bryan delarosa in banter.

he runs to the gate, bringing up the unown report just as he gets near.

oscar clayton's flame decal genesect is spotted. he had a feeling it was going to be brought, so he bought car stickers for it. he takes out multiple from his pocket, but his choice comes to what he observed from the landin. priam sticks one by the genesect's side with one of those 'baby on board' stickers.

as he gets there, he stares at the crossword, and then his unown report, confirms whatever was said, and then flips a tile for letter n.

"letting everyone just do it one at a time instead of everything at once's kinda fun," he babbles at Martín del Mar, who was coincidentally the first person he sees in there. "like a team building exercise or something, right?"