Chu-e was more amused than anything.

He had come to Slateport to indulge in some shopping, the kind he couldn't do back on Mossadeep, when he had been accosted. The guy recognized him, funny, but not enough which was the real kicker. It was a unique situation he hadn't been in so far. Usually, the people recognized him as the Beast before the man or his affiliations.

And color him curious. It was the only reason that Chu-e didn't slit the guy from elbow to asshole and leave him to bleed out in an alleyway. Someone knew enough about Rocket, about the old ones who scattered like roaches after Silas had died, to be running a profit off them. There weren't many people he could think of brave or stupid enough to do that, let alone with the resources to make it work.

So he let Lucas hold a too-tight grip on his arm and be led around, keeping on his pleasant facade as he did. Amusing. Maybe more amusing than the guy who tried to steal his Gardevoir not knowing who he was at all.

"Yes and no." It's clear she knows him, not just surface level like the man next to him. After a few moments, his own recognition clicks and he gives her a warm (false) smile. "Ah, Miss 'Vampire'. It's good to see you're still alive." They had never known each other very well. He couldn't say if she looked better or worse than the last time they had spoke simply because of how long ago it had been.

Yet, Chu-e was not about to let this chance pass him by. Her office was nice. Upon release, he stepped away from Lucas and made himself comfortable in the chair across from her desk. He was tired. He wasn't the man she might remember, having lost weight and muscle and pale sickness eating away under his skin unlike their last meeting. It made him no less dangerous.

"I was mostly curious. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised it would be you running all this. You always had a talent for taking opportunity by the horns and getting things done."

@carmilla

"'Legendary'... that's a new one on me." A small puff of laughter. "Please, that high praise is uncomfortable. I'm just a man with low empathy. Nothing more." He wasn't insulted or anything of the like, mostly just finding humor in her words. He thought most people who still had some shred of respect, false or not, for his bloodied name were quite funny.

"Tea." He wondered how much she knew about the current Rocket. Old faces were an absolute minefield of having to play mental gymnastics. Imposing himself on Carmilla's hospitality would be the spice to shake up his rather uneventful day. It would also most likely leave him tired.

"Ah, I wouldn't know. I don't live in Slateport. At least it's recovering as well as it can." To be fair, he was just doing some shopping before getting accosted into coming here. Still he pinched his face up some. "Aliens. Can you believe it?" While he hadn't been here when it happened, that whole debacle had been on the news pretty much everywhere. Cannibal aliens. He never thought he would see the day.