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Claustrophobia.

He knows that feeling, as well as the terror of locked rooms and bound hands. His expression pinches as the memories of a child still scared of monsters under the bed overwhelms him momentarily. He'd been taught, with time, that the real monsters of Quinn Court were his parents. The back of the basement door still bore the marks of a child's nails.

He understands, too, the terror of immobility. Those memories belong to Rocket. Anger ripples through him, and whatever had been on his line escapes with his inaction.

"I know the feeling."

When Calem Pollet grew bored of the cat-and-mouse of a struggle, that was where true danger had set in. To be rendered powerless by your own mind...

Abandoning the fishing rod for a moment, he drains the rest of the seltzer in one go. It's harder to endure this sober, but this won't get him drunk ⁠— he drinks now for something to do with his hands, an outlet for the sudden restless energy of pent-up rage.

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Gavin's gaze is razor-sharp as it flicks to Mars, though it softens around the question. He draws deep breath, forcing his shoulders to relax. Neither Theo or Calem are in pummeling distance, and he's certainly not going to take his rage out on a friend.

"No," he replies, "but I've always wanted to."

Ambrette was on a small bucket list of places a young Cillian Quinn had decided he would visit in his lifetime, alongside Kanto's Cinnabar and Hoenn's Fallarbor. He'd never got to visit Cinnabar before Rocket had taken it.

"That's the center of fossil restoration in Kalos," he explains; not many in Rocket knew of his passion for paleontology, and even less with his focus shifting to the utilization of his shadow Pokémon above all else. Though interest in fossils in Hoenn was often overshadowed by new phenomenon such as the Crystablooms, his own passion has not faded. "When I bought my first place in Hoenn, I chose Fallarbor for a reason."

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Mars couldn't have known, but the mention of aquariums breathes life into the embers of his anger. His fingers curl at his sides, though he's more conscious of it this time as he focuses on breathing.

Bastard.

He takes a moment to process Martín's words. They sink in slow as he finishes the last of the seltzer, discarding the bottle and leaning against the rail with his eyes on the vast sapphire of the ocean.

Alone.

He has been given pieces of the puzzle over their conversations. He attempts now to fit some of them together.

"He ran from them?"

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Gavin had spent many nights in Quinn Court wishing death on his parents for all that they'd put him through. Enter Mars, who'd lost both of his own before the age of eight. Gavin will never be able to relate to such a profound sorrow, but he does know loss. Grief.

"Did they kill her?"

He assumes the worst, knowing only the dark parts of Martín's childhood.

It makes him sick. A child, forced to watch the execution of someone whose only crime was loving them enough to want a better life for their child. Yet there's irony in the anger that bubbles in his blood on Mars' behalf, because Rocket caused much of the same.

"Would you ever want to go back? To Ambrette?"

Or were the memories too painful, now?

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The ice in Mars' tone seems to bother Gavin little. He understands that his friend's anger is not directed at him but rather directionless without a target in sight. That target was a world away, beyond a barrier they'd found no way to penetrate.

"That's not on you, y'know." He remembers how Tempest Quinn had always blamed himself for his own mother's passing.

He's not always the best at finding words.

Of Ambrette, he asks, "Alone, or...?"

There is an offer, veiled, but Gavin wonders if it's not an experience Mars wishes to share. Or, perhaps, to share with only a special someone. BARNABY FINCH, perhaps? Gavin's not certain if it's love between the two of them, but he's certainly noticed their closeness.

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He nods, the sentiment understood.

He is uncertain if Mars understands him in return, that his offer was one of understanding and emotional support rather than selfishness, but he thinks the other gets the message when he notes the return of his signature smirk.

"You mean you don't want to hear my lecture about the lifespan of Amaura revived in warm climates?" He shakes his head, smiling. "You're missing out."

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