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POSTED ON Nov 26, 2023 6:21:24 GMT

"Is that so." Howard said. "I'm sorry. Your fangs must be quite... dull by now. "...sharp."

As Elisabeth uttered the Kalosian phrase, Howard inclined his head. Elisabeth was Kalosian? He didn't know much about Elisabeth Fiorelli, nor did he particularly care about her life. She was his superior, chained to a god.

In that sense, he had more freedom than her. Considering her past, he was as free a bird, even as he was chained to the front of the dreadnought known as Team Rocket.

Poetic.

"Après la pluie, le beau temps. After rain, good weather. A hope for better times ahead. An apology. Howard spoke Kalosian, alongside dozens of other languages. The words fell from his tongue, richly accented. "This is expected. We have flown too close to the sun. Hopefully we don't plummet down to Earth."

Yet... what if there was a way?

"How are our Head Scientists dealing with this issue?" Howard asked innocently, knowing that one of Team Rocket's Head Scientists was focused on attempting to slay Avatars.

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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POSTED ON Nov 27, 2023 0:08:02 GMT

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"After rain, good weather." It was an offensively quaint sentiment, Elisabeth thought, but her tight smile wouldn't betray it.[break][break]

Cynicism wasn't appreciated in women, she'd found. Better to appear pleasant and agreeable as a baseline. Though recent months had discarded Elisabeth's old way of thinking for some time, now.[break][break]

"We've almost plummeted many times," she said instead. "We've narrowly avoided meteoric annihilation, for reasons that I think still defy our full understanding. What a quandary for our poor waxen wings."[break][break]

The files dropped back into their folder with the crisp settling of paper, and her shoulders rolled in a shrug met by a soft sigh.[break][break]

"I work less with the Head Scientists than you might expect. To my knowledge, one is eager to study Avatars and harness their abilities, and the other... seems more interested in how to dismantle them."[break][break]

If she were to be brutally honest, she held little fondness for either Naomi Sato or Amor Rose. Both mildly irritated her, though not enough to have a good reason for it named aloud. She could be a petty, vindictive person, in that way.[break][break]

"Why? Is there a proposed initiative you'd like brought to their attention?"

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POSTED ON Nov 27, 2023 2:08:31 GMT

"No. I am not as smart as either of them." Howard smiled serenely. "I'm just an archaeologist."

The smile hid a silent discontentment. Howard had always preferred the position of Head Scientist over the position of Rocket Admin, yet his was a field of academics that yielded minimal results on the battlefield or in this war against the Pokémon League. He was a purveyor and protector of history, and Team Rocket didn't need protectors. They only needed destroyers.

So now he was a Rocket Admin. That was fine, though. The bigger deception was his work alongside Amor Rose. Amor's pet project was, as Elisabeth put it, the dismantling of Avatars. Howard didn't have much to contribute there, but he was working alongside the Head Scientist.

Yet the position was irrelevant. His feelings, less so. If Tempest Quinn could deal with being Rocket Beast, Howard could deal with paperwork.

"I have nothing but faith in our scientists. They will bridge the gap." Howard said confidently. He actually liked both Sato and Rose. Both were competent, even if Howard barely worked with the former. "I think humanity's ability to rise beyond the meteor is incredible. It will be spoken about in history books, alongside this era in general. It's exciting. Terrifying, but exciting."

Yes, terrifying. It had been terrifying, waiting for that meteor to strike. Howard had cried in his apartment, after visiting his family. In that moment, had he truly cared about what was written in the history books?

"I wonder what will come next. Maybe we'll get two meteors, instead of one."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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Lisa Bortiforte

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POSTED ON Nov 27, 2023 7:39:19 GMT

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The optimism shining through his words conveyed a fascinating insight into his character, one she rarely glimpsed in other Rockets that wandered through these doors.[break][break]

It didn't remind her of Isaac Merlo, exactly, but it was a far cry from the likes of discussing the dark realities of Rocket with Cillian Quinn, or listening to those like Zev Harcourt speak with cold, unrepentant cruelty.[break][break]

Idly, she twirled a pen between pale fingertips, considering this discovery with a purse of her lips.[break][break]

"Is that important to you?" she asked finally. "Being remembered, I mean. In history or otherwise."

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POSTED ON Nov 27, 2023 10:17:43 GMT

Elisabeth Fiorelli and Zev Harcourt like this

"I just want to see what happens, and ensure that it does not slip away."

It was the first truly honest thing he had said, with zero implications. The way his eye gleamed slightly as he discussed it. Howard Slayte was a purveyor of the past, and he reveled in it. The future was full of uncertainty, full of doubt. The past never lied.

■■■ was inhuman, a monster with minimal care about Team Rocket beyond how it could push his own goals. Whether or not he was a monster before unifying with his patron was irrelevant. Determining where infinity began was not possible, so why bother with whether ■■■ corrupted Necrozma, or vice versa?

He'd leave this universe behind, anyways. Good riddance.

"How many issues could we have been solved if the past wasn't obscured? If it wasn't locked away in some ruin, or buried in sand, or hidden because a Legendary Pokémon decided to walk away with the answers?" Howard leaned forward. "That's unacceptable. We, as a species, should have consolidated our collective knowledge of our past from the minute we came into being."

History was a wheel that repeated due to constantly repeating mistakes. How many errors could've been rectified by simply understanding the past? If every piece of knowledge was consolidated, Howard wouldn't be forgotten. Could not be forgotten.

That gave him solace.

"I cannot—will not—accept a world whose only virtue is growing stronger by making the same mistakes, over and over."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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POSTED ON Nov 30, 2023 1:25:25 GMT

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"You speak like a prophet," she quipped, the pen ceasing in its restless motion, "rather than an actor on the grand stage of history."[break][break]

She regarded him thoughtfully, like a Persian who'd found a better use for the prey squirming in its paws.[break][break]

"Most people are more interested in the legacy they themselves leave behind, I find. Or self-obsessed with the idea of rewriting history to make their contributions more appealing."[break][break]

She'd never held any great love of the media or journalism for that reason, among many others. Those who documented events were usually influenced to position them in a certain favorable way, while making them appear unflattering elsewhere.[break][break]

"Rarely is the victor of historical events interested in making the losing perspective known."

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POSTED ON Dec 1, 2023 4:18:16 GMT

"You speak like one interested in seeing what happens to those who lost the war for the right to dominate history's tapestry. Does that concern you at all, Underboss Fiorelli?"

Was it due to Wo-chien's influence? Was it due to her past? Howard did not know Elisabeth Fiorelli, but he understood her perspective, at least somewhat. They were in a war against the League, and the defeated would be scribbled into margins or scraps of paper, hardly worth remembering at all. If Team Rocket's foes overwhelmed them, their names would be erased.

It would be as if Howard, Elisabeth, and all the others had never existed at all.

An unacceptable result. Howard's eye flicked upwards.

"Fuck prophecy." Howard regretted the tone of his voice as the words fled his mouth, yet he continued on. If he was a prophet, he would've never joined Team Rocket. "When this battle is gone, and our names forgotten, nobody will care."

Howard spread his hands graciously, before scratching his cheek next to his missing eye. The nerves itched. They always itched now. Why was that, he wondered.

"I cannot accept that. We live in an era of gods and heroes, and everyone should know the truth about these times, not the pedantic retellings of stories crafted by liars meant to amuse, not to instruct. Lies, molded by time. Everyone should know what it means to live in an era where only the strong flourish."

He thought of what he and Navy had discussed in Granite Cave, all those months ago. How many strong people would have their histories lost to the battles between Rocket and League? An obscene amount, no doubt.

"Our past should be truthful. Honest." Howard raised a finger. "Fair."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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POSTED ON Dec 2, 2023 4:07:12 GMT

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"I am familiar enough with losing to know what it entails," she chuckled, entertained by the way he pushed back against her. "But again, I concede your point. When all is said and done, we are but specks of dust on this earth. We are unlikely to be remembered, and unlikely to matter."[break][break]

She spoke this with the dispassionate distance of fact. The matter neither grieved her nor perplexed her. It simply was.[break][break]

"But I can see you wish to ensure that result is not so," she continued, pursing her lips at this unexpected pivot. "I wonder."[break][break]

The blonde leaned back in her chair, tilting her head towards him with eyes that flashed a viperous green.[break][break]

"Who is the arbiter of truth? Who decides what is objective fact? You speak as if such a thing exists, but how do we prove it with the bias of our mortal lens?"[break][break]

For all he spat at prophecy, she quietly believed Fate's hands intervened more often than mankind's.

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POSTED ON Dec 4, 2023 8:16:45 GMT

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"You..." An interesting question, and one that Howard had struggled with for years. There was an absolute history to the world. It did exist, but that was a truth that only existed to the gods that made up the world. Only something that could experience time as a physical plane could experience it.

That was a right exclusive to Dialga alone. It was the blessing and curse that chained its existence.

Yet the human element of history was a nuanced, ever-growing tapestry. It had many nuanced perspectives, and many levels of human interpretation. For a historian, that was what made it glorious. The human element made it awe-inspiring to behold.

Howard both loved and hated it.

"That does not matter. History means nothing to Legendary Pokémon. It means nothing to the gods. They are simply reservoirs of it. The past? The history of this world? Of humanity? It may be dictated by gods, but it only truly matters to you, me, and everyone else who makes up the world we live in. That bias is our history."

He studied Elisabeth's face, and chuckled. He knew that answer wouldn't satisfy her completely. She, who was bound by a god. It answered her silent question, but not her asked one.

"I'll find it." Howard's eye gleamed. "I'll find that objective truth. Or I'll ask someone who can."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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Lisa Bortiforte

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POSTED ON Dec 5, 2023 0:26:18 GMT

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This time, the crease to her lips held the genuine curl of a smile.[break][break]

"And that is precisely the paradox we find ourselves in, isn't it, Slayte? Subjective minds will always receive a truth subjectively. No matter how objectively it is presented."[break][break]

He was knowingly chasing an impossibility. How deep did that Bunneary hole go? She wondered, but not enough to join him in his blind descent for knowledge.[break][break]

"The truth only matters if someone will believe it. And people will believe what they want to believe."[break][break]

The world had decided who she was long before it ever cared to observe her truth. Kalos, Hoenn, it was always the same -- the truth was disregarded as unimportant, and replaced with something more palatable to the masses.[break][break]

"But I suppose I speak as a cynic, and you as an idealist who seeks knowledge purely for its own sake."[break][break]

A hand began to rifle through her purse, pulling out a thin piece of paper. She turned the unearthed card over slowly, letting it dangle between her fingertips.[break][break]

"Presentation still matters however, does it not? If you wish to be believed, that is, when speaking truth into existence."[break][break]

That had been how her husband had turned her entire country against her with his lies.

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POSTED ON Dec 10, 2023 21:40:23 GMT

"The truth matters because it is truth!" Howard insisted. He was not aware of Elisabeth's past. Of her husband, of her life of confinement, of the chains placed around her. He knew nothing about lies. Humanity had an obligation. An obligation to not forget the struggles that came before.

He had sold a future where he could sleep peacefully, knowing that he was a functional member of society, exchanging it for an opportunity to practice what he knew within Team Rocket. He had sold his position due to an ideal. He had sold his soul for a chance to follow his passion.

She had sold her soul for the chance to be free.

"Presentation is important, yes, but mankind will accept the truth. It must. Otherwise, Hoenn is doomed. The warnings of generations prior, of other worlds, of the Megalopolans... It doesn't matter what the presentation is. When there is a threat, we will unify to fight it."

Cynicism and idealism were two sides of the same coin. Howard disagreed with the Underboss. He did not know her story, but Howard Slayte was not a idealist. An idealist looked forward, and expected the best of the world.

Howard expected nothing, because he was too afraid to look forward. The future was uncertain, the past was not. Why rely on the unknown, when one could rely on prior examples?

Yet this was an uncertain time. An irregular time. The world was collapsing around them, and the past had been minimal help. Howard was aware of the dream of Galar, but that had simply been a dream that had vanished into mist, forgotten by the wakeful. Yet Hoenn had not—would not—fail.

They would triumph, because they had in the past. The ruins north of Dewford had proved it. Mankind had won before, with the help of ancient gods that mankind had constructed. Therefore, they would win again. The cycle of history decreed it.

"Do you loathe the past, Underboss Fiorelli?"

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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Lisa Bortiforte

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POSTED ON Dec 11, 2023 22:33:41 GMT

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"For a man so acquainted with history," she observed, "you have a remarkably high estimation of people."[break][break]

Did mankind truly unify before threats? Weren't they more likely to parade together out of fear, selling their own freedoms for a false sense of security under a powerful voice's banner?[break][break]

Wasn't that what they both had done, in joining Rocket?[break][break]

His question settled into the lapse of silence that followed, sinking into the recesses of her thoughts as she contemplated its weight.[break][break]

When she spoke again it was as if she had broken a spell that had hushed the room; the orchid in its vase no longer wilted, but tilted longingly towards the window, seeking the rays of an eternally absent sun.[break][break]

"I don't loathe the past, Slayte. I merely find it has been, more often than not, disappointing."[break][break]

He'd find a piece of paper tucked into his hands, reflecting a cheque with a clear expectation included in its signature. With it, she seemed to consider the previous matter settled between them, and her tone reflected the same distant professionalism it had held at the start of their meeting.[break][break]

"You are a convincing orator, but I'm afraid your presentation leaves much to be desired. The next time I see you, I expect to see a suit without stains, hm?"

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