GROUDON DEBRIEF

UNEARTHED TEMPTATIONS GROUNDED WITH HEAT

FERNANDO DOESN’T PICK UP. He seldom does. The off chance someone actually makes it through enough rings for him to pick up is a roll of the dice. Stormy’s attempt ends with a curt voicemail with Fernando’s voice.

Her name flickers across his phone screen but he ignores it from across the room. A strained grunt leaves his throat as he listen to the voicemail play out over his speakerphone.

“Tch.”

His exhale betrays his exasperation. He’s not expecting guests. The sudden visit leaves him in a rush to hurry up his current task, dashing subtle clues in the normalcy of his apartment decor. His walls hang empty, devoid of personal affects. It’s straight out of a furniture catalogue.

The door opens at her bequest. Hints of perspiration sit where his hair meets his forehead. Messily put together shirt buttons line his torso with ill-formed wrinkles. HIs eyes narrow, pointedly.

“Bronwen.”

Stormy Silph

GROUDON DEBRIEF

UNEARTHED TEMPTATIONS GROUNDED WITH HEAT

HOW SHE FINDS HERSELF ENRAPTURED BY HIM, he’ll never understand. What they share goes beyond his comprehension. The awkward tie-in with Fernando’s own ideal perception of himself keeps her at arm’s length. Public images are guarded behind neglect. His own admiration for her growth wavers in his uncertainty.

“Not quite.”

He runs a hand through his hair, fingers feeling the moisture of his own exhaustion, as he clears the way inside. He has no doubt she’s here to stay well beyond her welcome. He’s grown used to it.

“What did you want, Bronwen?”

Stormy Silph

GROUDON DEBRIEF

UNEARTHED TEMPTATIONS GROUNDED WITH HEAT

OF COURSE. Trouble always finds its way back to him well after the fact. It all falls into the bucket that he carries across his shoulders, hands hoisted up, bundled by a single stick that leaves him crucified in his own sense of responsibility.

“How so?”

Many things went wrong with Sootopolis. Of them, Stormy is at the bottom of the list. Even if her piece in it predates the ‘invasion’, he can’t make out the connection without further detail.

Stormy Silph

GROUDON DEBRIEF

UNEARTHED TEMPTATIONS GROUNDED WITH HEAT

“INVOLVED HOW?”

Words left vague are open to interpretation. To shoulder the guilt of a Rocket invasion requires precise accountability. He puts one and one together but they don’t necessarily correlate. Everyone else will surely point fingers but Fernando is not everyone else.

He saves his accusations for when they’re needed—when they sting best.

He understands this because he is in the same boat. His affiliation with Katherine Fairburne and Lulu Flint prove risky on paper. But he runs the numbers, calculates according to the gameboard, and stands behind his return on investment.

Katherine is near full proof. At worst, she’s disposable.

Lulu proves the riskier of the two but his alibi is as tightly knit as her newfound hate.

The difference is that Fernando refrains. Not because secrets are best kept sealed, but because he keeps his weapons wound close to his heart. The same heart he keeps away from the rest of the world.

“A chance doesn’t mean you knew. Did you or did you not know Team Rocket was going to invade Sootopolis?”

Stormy Silph

GROUDON DEBRIEF

UNEARTHED TEMPTATIONS GROUNDED WITH HEAT

LOVE.

Typical. A single word that weighs so heavily for some proves no more fickle than a discarded toy to others. He could rebuff her for her shortcomings if the conversation didn’t hold a more important purpose. Reveling in his own haughtiness can wait.

“What makes you say that?”

Stormy Silph

GROUDON DEBRIEF

UNEARTHED TEMPTATIONS GROUNDED WITH HEAT

“BUT YOU DIDN’T.”

There is no compassion in his words. Nor malice. Just a cutthroat grimness that paints their reality for what it is—done. No amount of regret or reproach will change what could have been. It’s too late now.

“Why?”

A single question that dictates the branch this conversation flows.

Stormy Silph

GROUDON DEBRIEF

UNEARTHED TEMPTATIONS GROUNDED WITH HEAT

Miles Sharp.

A name Fernando will commit to memory until he wrings it dry. No detail proves too small when dealing with someone brazen enough to decry his surname while sampling from the Silph’s selection. The hypocrisy of it all makes him ill.

“Do you consider them family?”

Sudden cuts make the conversation quick. Little time to think. Only raw, honest responses.

“MATIAS SILPH, Yui Fujin Silph, evelyn silph, Cecilia?”

Stormy Silph