For all of Zac Ramsay's worrying and racing mind, when he pulled open the door there would be no hunky firefighter. There would just be Ki, blinking at him a bit surprised, a pitcher of coffee in the process of being sat on his table. A Skitty snoring sleepily on a plush pillow, a plate of cookies, a muted TV on some romantic drama.

Chu-e, for his part, upon realizing it was Zac, did seem a bit tense. But he still offered a warm smile to his friend.

"Hey, Zac. You, uh... alright?" Then quiet, for a moment. When Zac moved away from the door, it was close with a slam, a force not of psychic energy but a Delphox snarling and breathing down the redhead's neck. Which earned the fire type a sharp look. The door was locked by the vulpine's paws before he stalked off, into the kitchen.

"Sorry about that. Cipher is very... overprotective." Folding his hands together, Chu-e sat down on one of the single chairs in his living room suite, sinking into the plush leather. "Coffee?" His smile was warm but didn't reach his eyes this time. "You may need it."

Nodding, Chu-e got up and went into his kitchen. Plain view of where Zac was, he took a moment to heat up the milk as requested. The Skitty yawned. Was he drawing this out to be cruel? Or to settle his own nerves? He kept quiet as he did so, only returning with a mug full of the warmed milk that he slid over to the other. A mug of coffee was poured for himself, more cat memorabilia, and he took a long draught before answering.

"Do you know who 'Chu-e Choi' is?" It would depend on how much that Zac Ramsay knew personally about Kanto, about the Beasts at the time, about a lot of things. A quick Poogle search would pull up multiple stories and wanted lists. Suspected crimes. If one dove deep enough, even a grainy and zoomed in picture of a man snarling in delight as he led a small army to march against a city. But would Zac know? Many people didn't know unless they had been touched by what he had spread personally.

Only after giving a few moments for Zac to process or question or stare in confusion (or any other number of things), a sardonic grin spread over his face paired with something bitter on his tongue.

"I know Chu-e Choi."

He doesn't miss a beat.

"I am."

A card is removed from his sleeve and tossed on the table so it slides to land in front of Zac Ramsay. An ID, from Sinnoh with Kanto stamps, faded and worn. The picture is a man younger, healthier, and angrier; but if Zac squints he would be able to see where 'Ji-Hoon KI' stops and 'Chu-e Choi' begins.

There is a hesitance there, how Chu-e's shoulders are tensed, how still he is. Watching the man across from him, unsure of how he'll react. Chu-e likes Zac. He is trusting him with this piece of himself. Yet, like anyone whose been bitten, it is clear he will flee like a startled rabbit (or maybe worse) depending on how his friend reacts.

".... I promised you an interview with a Rocket. I'm trusting you with this. But... you know you can't tell people who I really am, right?" He looks pensive, then sighs and closes his eyes. A deep breath, two, then he nods almost to himself. "You can ask me anything you want. Some questions I just might not be able to answer."

"No." Was answered, quiet. "I'm still me." Did it really matter what you called him? Ji-hoon? Choi? He was still who he would be and always would be regardless of whatever name you gave him. Hell, once upon a time, his last name was even Wright. He was the mask and the wearer, at the core of it all.

But, well, that was a whole other can of worms. Right now, Chu-e wanted to answer Zac Ramsay's questions.

"That's a very loaded way to start." One hell of a question, actually. It could have meant a lot of things. Some of which Zac had already spelled out in his own mind. Other's that Chu-e could supply in his own. Taking a sip of his coffee, he winced from the taste before placing it down; he had forgotten the sugar and cream.

"The best way to answer that is... when you hear 'Rocket', what do you think of? What type of people do think join? Why would they join to start? If I know where your thoughts are on that, I think I know what your 'why' is really asking." He glanced down, staring into his mug, present but eyes also very far away.

TW: CSA MENTION



Zac wasn't pulling punches. Not that Chu-e expected him to.

"That's a loaded question, too." He says it with a puff of laughter, no humor added. Chu-e's quiet after that, rolling around the answer in his head, trying to think on where to start. How to explain. With some finality, more like a man facing the gallows than just having a conversation, he raised his eyes to meet Zac Ramsay's again. There was sadness there but buried under was steel.

"When I was twelve, an older boy at school molested me." His voice doesn't hang on the words, as hard as they are to hear, an wound long scarred over. "I did what you're supposed to do in that situation... I told. I have proof. Anyone who saw would know he did it." A heavy pause, a scowl.

"But the judge took his side in court. They determined I was making it up. For attention, I guess? Well, I got bullied a lot for it after that. After that, I went kind of crazy. Not long after I turned thirteen I ran away from home. Got mixed up in the wrong crowd. Started doing drugs. When I was fifteen, a guy from Rocket offered me to join and I did. I was angry. Real angry. At the world, at what happened, but mostly I was angry at the system that hurt me worse than than boy ever could."

"His dad was a ranger, a real big time one, who was friends with the judge, who was friends with some other people, who were friends with more... so they covered for him. And if you look back in his record, they kept covering for him over and over. I wasn't the only one hurt by that one boy, Zac."

He takes a breath, something like fire in his eyes now, anger and fury that's white hot. Not aimed at Zac himself, but something else.

"I joined Rocket when I was fifteen because I hated the League. I'm still in Rocket now because I still hate the League. But." He says it clear, a matter of fact. "I don't hate it for the good people in it. I don't hate the people like you, or like cait alfric, or like Raziel Beckett; you're all the people who should be in the League, who should be what the League is from the inside and out.

"I hate the League for people like that ranger, for letting people like him and that judge and everyone else complacent enough to let people like me slip through the cracks. For the people who see the system as something to gain for their own profit. For people who don't care about who they step on as long as they reach the top. People like that should be nowhere around people, should not be left in charge of protecting them.

"The League left people like me to fend for ourselves, Rocket just happened to pick up our pieces."

The hug is unexpected.

Usually when you tell someone not already in Rocket that you're, well, in Rocket, they get angry. In the end Chu-e leans into it. His insides felt sharp, like broken glass, and the comfort of a friend helps smooth that over and soothe his nerves. Tentatively, he even hugged back, a small and weak thing compared to all that Zac Ramsay gave.

"You... don't have to worry about that." It's a big awkward, stilted, as if a worse confession of what he said before. "That's, ah... well, after I found out there were more I..." He cleared his throat. "Well, it's taken care of." He averted his eyes, ashamed, and reluctantly tried to pull out of the hold. More for Zac's sake than his own. Honestly, Chu-e would have liked to hug Zac for a long time. It was so rare to get positive touches for him, even platonic, that he wanted to cling to the feeling.

"I'm not a good person, Zac." The words were soft but raw, shrapnel in his throat as he spoke them. "I want... I want good things. I want people to not have to deal with people who take advantage of the League or people like what Rocket..." He shuttered breath as he trailed off, then that iron again. "Or" Was continued. "People like me."

Another staccato breath, the pricks of tears. But he blinked them away before they could fall.

"Please. You... you must have a lot of questions. I'll answer what I can. Anything that won't put you in danger."

Of all the questions that Zac Ramsay could ask, that one probably startles Chu-e worse than the 'why' asked before.

What would it take for him to join the League? "I..." He glances to the side, pensive, mulling over what the other had asked of him. Chu-e didn't want to half ass any of these answers. Zac deserved to get the full truth from him, where he could. The very root of his issues with the League were because of how often they fucked up, letting things (people) be cast to the wayside when they were the very people who depended on it.

"... there would need to be a lot of changes to how things are ran." Is what is finally said, the words chewed on slowly but gaining a bit of traction. "I don't want... what Blackwell did to Kanto. For me to put any faith in the League, I would need to see actual accountability for a start- the kind that no high connections, no amount of money, no amount of anything could get it covered up. And real consequences for breaking the rules. No slaps on the wrist. If you fuck it up bad enough, you're out. The League is supposed to be a force for good, it's supposed to keep people safe, it's supposed to be filled with people who can bear the burden of responsibility for others. While there are people like that in the League, there are too many people in it now who just use those as a pretty veneer to abuse the power they have over others."

A small sigh.

"But there would need to be societal changes, too. I joined Rocket... Flames... eleven years ago? Before Blackwell, the bulk of Rocket was just... people like me. Don't be mistaken, we did shady and illegal stuff, but it was a single mother turning a blind eye during a drug deal so she could feed her kids that week, or a runaway like me stealing so they wouldn't have to go back to being beaten by their dad. It was people the systems we have in place now couldn't or wouldn't help. Yeah, there was always people willing to do more extreme stuff but that wasn't as common as you would think. Not until... well, not until Blackwell. Not until Kanto. Then the murderers and psychopaths reigned. And if you didn't become one, you died."

He says that last part sharp, a snarl, not at Zac but at the memories. Of the people stepped on and crushed under that heel, their lives mattering less than the conquest. Leading with fear only got you so far for so long. They were feeling the repercussions from that even now, the previous Rocket of this region scattering like rats from a sinking ship when given the chance.

"I guess, in the end... Rocket is a problem caused by the League not being good enough in my eyes. The Rocket now is more like it was before. Just people who were left behind and doing the best with what they have. If the League can prove to me they can actually take care of them properly, I would even go as far as turning myself in for my crimes. Until then, I can't leave them behind. I won't be someone else to turn my back on them when all most of them need is a kind hand and to feel safe."