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[attr="class","body"] It is like a ghost from a daydream.

[break][break] Of all the people that jayden cross had expected to visit him, oscar clayton certainly was not one of them.

[break][break] 'Sick boy?'

[break][break] Standing across from his desk, the Admin stared blankly at the ghastly sight of an old friend. The frigid room grew a shade warmer.

[break][break] "Oscar?"

[break][break] His breath billows out into icy mist.

[break][break] "You're alive?"

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oscar clayton [break]
CANON CONNECTIONS

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[attr="class","body"] The minute that Oscar steps forward, he stands.

[break][break] Jayden had not seen the other in quite some time, not since he had abruptly left Hoenn. Of course, the admin had concern for him like he would any other Rocket, but this was also Oscar. His friend. He had worried for him.

[break][break] It turned out that the feeling was mutual.

[break][break] He stepped forward around his desk so that he could look at the apparition that was oscar clayton more closely, as if he was watching something out of a dream. When those hands opened for him, he found himself leaning into them. But his hands remained in his pockets, clutched into a fist.

[break][break] His chin tucked into the alcove of oscar clayton's neck.

[break][break] "Alive," he confirmed, eyes shutting closed briefly for a moment.

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oscar clayton [break]
CANON CONNECTIONS

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[attr="class","body"] For several moments, Jayden did not move.

[break][break] It was not that he couldn't, but that he wouldn't. The admin was not known for physical touch — in fact, quite the opposite — but perhaps the sight of his old friend coming back to life was too overwhelming for him.

[break][break] The reminder that not everyone had left him, that not everyone had abandoned him, was a weight lifted like no-other.

[break][break] Eventually though, he did withdraw. Jayden stepped back and watched as the other placed a bag of... what were they again?

[break][break] "Donut... holes?" he repeated in confusion, brow knitted together. He made it over to the desk slowly, peering into the mysterious bag before slowly plucking out one of the sugary items. Powder dusted his nose as he bit softly into the round dessert, not quite noticing how ridiculous that he looked in that moment, powdered face and all.

[break][break] Jayden was not typically a fan of sweets like this, like candy, or even milk and cookies, despite the holiday season. However, this was a gift from a good friend.

[break][break] He swallowed.

[break][break] "I have been doing... what I have always been doing. Serving Rocket in the way I've known best."

[break][break] But there was something decidingly off about his character, if that was not any different from the freezing temperature of the room.

[break][break] "But... I... " He didn't know how to explain it to oscar clayton, anymore than he had been able to explain to bryan delarosa why he no longer felt like himself. "I am an Avatar now."

[break][break] He blinked.

[break][break] "A Cursed one."

[break][break] Almost as if summoning him, suddenly, Chien Pao appeared out of the darkness. It stepped forward on gentle pawsteps, winding it's long body around the chair that the former Beast sat on.

[break][break] "My patron."

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oscar clayton [break]
CANON CONNECTIONS

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[attr="class","body"] CHIEN PAO's threatening aura was unmistakable. It prowled forward on silent paws, glimmering jewels of sapphire focused on the the former Beast, watching him like a predator did a prey.

[break][break] oscar clayton was right.

[break][break] It looked at him as if deciding just exactly how it wanted to tear the man. Limb from limb.

[break][break] Jayden acted as none-the-wiser however, hand reaching out and tangling between the soft fur between it's ears. As if he was petting a housecat, not a deadly jaguar.

[break][break] However, when Oscar asked him why he felt cursed, he found himself lost for words.

[break][break] As he often did these days.

[break][break] "It is less that. It is more... a feeling." He struggled to explain himself. "A feeling that I have always felt," he said after a moment, almost a confession. "You knew my father."

[break][break] 'You've known me in Rocket.'

[break][break] "... Things have been difficult since you've been gone, Oscar."

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oscar clayton [break]
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[attr="class","body"] He shakes his head, pulling a hand away from the Ruinous Beast.

[break][break] "Just you being here is helping," he said. The room had already grown slightly warmer — and more bearable — ever since oscar clayton had entered it.

[break][break] All the days prior had felt like walking through a fog to which he knew no end. It was only sunlight brought in by those who knew him deeply, like the likes of fern delaney, mint frost or now Oscar himself that he had felt a reprieve. So when Oscar had asked him what his symptoms were, he found them too difficult to mention.

[break][break] His symptoms seemed endless. The pain, the neverending hurt, spiraled around him and tightened his chest like a storm that knew no end. It felt like each day was a test of his sanity, of his patience, of his endurance.

[break][break] So when oscar clayton mentioned the word power, he was startled.

[break][break] "I... you think so?"

[break][break] Beside him, Chien Pao let out a growl. But it was not a growl of warning, but one of agreement. Slanted eyes shifted towards the former Beast in approval, a subtle not that had the pokemon prowling away from the iron chair next to Jayden and instead closer towards oscar clayton himself.

[break][break] Cillian Quinn had once asked him if this Avatarship was something that he had even wanted. Knowing Jayden, who had never known to even want, it was not a surprising thing to ask. And Jayden had responded in turn, saying that avatarship was something that he wanted - something that they wanted — even with everything that it came with. But there had been something else, aching in his chest, that needed to be answered.

[break][break] Something else that he wanted but couldn't name.

[break][break] Power.

[break][break] Just then, Jayden realized that he desired that too.

[break][break] "But now you're here, now you're back."

[break][break] His eyes glimmered blue in the frosty darkness of the room, as he reached out for the other man's shoulder.

[break][break] "We once talked about saving our world from all the things that destroy it."

[break][break] Hadn't this all started with the both of them anyway, in the restricted section of Rocket's library? Where they had discussed all the anomalies and unfairness that struck Hoenn. That it felt ridiculous to base their livelihoods on the whims of a God.

[break][break] "Now, we can get that power together."

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oscar clayton [break]
CANON CONNECTIONS

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