Gavin glances up as the motion sensor in front of his office door alerts him to a presence. The room itself was soundproof, the knock unheard, but he sees BARNABY FINCH lift his hand and understands the intent well enough. What's he holding? The colour was familiar enough, but Gavin's thoughts don't immediately jump to such insane conclusions.

He's curious, though, and opens the door.

"... Oh."

It's the only thing he can think to say when confronted with this tiny, wriggling demonspawn of his legendary patron.

Except, here's the problem: Lugia doesn't have children, at least not that he knows about, and they've been partners for long enough that Gavin's certain he would've noticed. Or she'd have told him, surely. True, she wasn't much for idle conversation, but a baby?! He didn't even know legendary Pokemon could breed.

"I, ah, have never seen it before," he confesses, wide-eyed, though he does usher Barnaby into his office. "Close the door, please, in case it tries to run out. Fly... out? Can it fly?"

He has so many questions.

"Where did you, ah, find it?"

BARNABY FINCH

"Jump?" He doesn't think he's ever seen Lugia do that.

Baffled as he is fascinated, he gestures for Barnaby to hand the squirming not-Lugia over to him. It wriggles harder in his grasp, though he only tightens his grip as he steps around his desk. The creature's spiked purple tail narrowly misses knocking over a pot of flowers on the desk, and Gavin nudges them back and out of danger with his elbow.

Should Barnaby inspect the card sticking out of the soil, it would proclaim them as being from Fiorelli Floristry. He'd already taken out the vial of poison that Elisabeth Fiorelli had hidden in the soil, so the flowers stand now as a pleasant accent to the usually dour room.

"What the hell was it doing in the bathroom?"

It bit him. Gavin's an intelligent man. Logic suggests that if Barnaby had been in the bathroom, and he claimed to have been bitten without any visible signs of injury... oh, dear.

The underboss clears his throat.

"Have you gotten that taken care of?"

BARNABY FINCH

Gavin's not the biggest fan of how these dots are connecting. If Finch got some kind of infection from the bite, wherever the unpleasant injury was sustained, their medical staff were going to have questions. Questions that would, inevitably, lead back to him.

As if he wasn't under enough stress.

Poor Barnaby looks incredibly uncomfortable, however, and so Gavin doesn't press the issue further. Instead, he focuses on the follow-up question: was that possible?

"I don't know," he admits. "She's asleep, but..."

He's loathe to wake his legendary patron except for emergencies, but this had to qualify, didn't it?

Red eyes blink open in the window behind them, then narrow.

THAT IS NO CHILD OF MINE.

Her telepathic voice, deep and fringed with corruption, can be heard by BARNABY FINCH just as clearly. She knows more, she has to know more, but this cryptic declaration is the only help they'll receive from the legendary. Her eyes close.

"Then what are you?"

It all but melts in his hands.

BARNABY FINCH

There's a long silence after Lugia closes her eyes, but Gavin's anger is apparent in the thin press of his lips and the miasma that wisps and swells around him. Having dropped the Ditto onto his desk the moment it had morphed away from the tiny visage of his legendary patron, he now stares it down with that unchecked fury.

"There is a line," he says, his voice soft but cold as ice. "It has been crossed. You will never assume her likeness again."

He's already had to lecture this stupid Ditto about not turning into him—

His gaze shifts to Barnaby, and for a moment the cold fire is evident before it dims and softens. His rage, clearly, is not directed at Finch.

"I must apologise on behalf of this fool of a Pokemon. Were they not such a rare species, I'd certainly get rid of it." He shoots another pointed glance at the sulking pink blob before returning his attention to Barnaby. "With that out of the way, I don't believe it has any... conditions you'd need to be worried about, though I'll certainly have our labs run some tests."

BARNABY FINCH

Gavin recalls the misbehaving Ditto to its pokeball, setting the capsule into a drawer of his desk before closing it. A click of his tongue stirs a Klefki from his belt; it jingles merrily as it drifts over to the drawer to lock it.

Gavin's Sylveon, who had been sleeping beneath the desk, rouses also with the noise and lets out a sleepy trill as it winds around his thigh, releasing its calming energies in an attempt to quell the underbosses anger.

Recognizing Barnaby's continued discomfort, Gavin offers a tight, apologetic smile.

"Thank you again for bringing this to my attention. You're free to go."

BARNABY FINCH