Condolences are not offered. This is the price of Rocket and Chu-e knows he isn't a balm to cure any hurt the other may feel.

"For what it is worth, you were a good teacher. I would have died long before I hit twenty if not for you." It is fact, not praise, for THEO BECKETT.

"You won't be able to use the same techniques as before. However, Rocket still needs a hard edge. I have a few candidates here I think could handle it. Find more, train these." A brief summary of what was held in the folder.

[attr="class","beck"]his eyes scan through the page, taking in whatever information's on there, before he flips and does the same to the next.

"how far can i go?"

[attr="class","noodles"]Chu-e Choi

"Not as far as you might want."

The summary on the next page is brief. An overview of the propaganda campaign that Chu-e has been leading. Thinks that might hurt that cause until they're ready to strike.

"You don't need to focus on this right away. Take time to properly enfold yourself into the culture here. That way you know where and how to change it." He also knew that THEO BECKETT was busy sniffing out moles. Chu-e wasn't ignorant to the pots that Cillian Quinn had been stirring.

[attr="class","beck"]"understood."

he closes the folder to be read for later. he meets choi's eyes again, this time with a hint of softness in his.

"for what it's worth, i'm glad you listened."

[attr="class","noodles"]Chu-e Choi

A pause as he thinks of how to respond.

"When I was a Beast,"

The words are mulled over, as if deciding how to proceed.

"I wish I had been more like you and less like...." He trails off. There's a jingle of bells as the Skitty hops back into his lap.

Hands pet her absently, eyes somewhere far away.

[attr="class","beck"]beast — he tenses, hands ready to coil into fists but he suppresses the thoughts. it's not the first time they've tempted him. he exhales, asks:

"blackwell?"

[attr="class","noodles"]Chu-e Choi

"Yeah."

It's quiet again for a moment, gaze lost elsewhere. Memories burn like cities did.

"Do you ever regret it?"

[attr="class","beck"]silence lulls over them.

"no."

a memory flashes. he feels heat rising, surrounding, suffocating.

"do you?"

[attr="class","noodles"]Chu-e Choi

"I do."

He blinks, comes back, shifts his gaze to meet THEO BECKETT's eyes once again.

"But that doesn't really change anything, does it?"

[attr="class","beck"]"sadly."

he holds his gaze when their eyes meet. it feels somber in a way he can't quite describe. it's what allows the next string of words to be said:

"you shouldn't live with regrets, choi."

he sighs, looking away.

"they'll eat you up otherwise."

[attr="class","noodles"]Chu-e Choi

"I'm dying." It comes out easier, here, with Beckett than it has with others. He doesn't want to place why.

"With people like you here, I don't think I'll have to take my regrets and worries with me." Something more heavy sits on his tongue. After running away from home, after Rocket, after everything he did before he was a Beast- would it be fucked up of him to think of Beckett as some twisted father figure?

He did.

But it stayed on the back of his tongue, hidden behind barbs and hardships.

[attr="class","beck"]his expression softens. his gaze returns, immediately searches for an oddity, a tell, anything that'll indicate otherwise. he doesn't find one. whatever flames within him now dwindle to mere embers.

the question comes out more difficult than it should.

"how long do you have left?"

[attr="class","noodles"]Chu-e Choi

"A year and a half, maybe two if I'm lucky." But, he had already burned through a lot of that, hadn't he? That was his diagnosis before even setting foot in Hoenn again. Time flew.

"But... I'll be gone... mentally... a long time before that, they think."