"A huge honor, no doubt." Howard said, his tone as dry as the desert. "It's a shame that I've only got one eye to give, now str-"

Holy shit, he was ripped. Hoooooooooooly. Beast Delarosa was a lucky man. The Rocket Admin's brain fried for about two seconds, before rebooting as Howard realized that Delarosa could kick him from Sootopolis to Rustboro. He didn't want to end up as fertilizer for Xerneas.

"Nice." Howard's eye inspected Priam's body, looking for something beyond an immaculately chiseled physique. At first, he was slightly red, but that quickly disappeared into disappointment and confusion as he inspected the grunt's upper body.

Where was it?

"Not much of a tattoo guy?" Howard's eye flicked up to Priam, before walking around the grunt in a circle. "I heard you were at the Regirock Ruins a few years back."

He stopped in front of Priam again.

"Tell me about it."

---

priam conrad

By the time the story was over, it was as if almost two years had passed.

As Priam wove his tale of sabotages, dangerous traps, and ancient ruins, Howard had gotten more and more enraptured by Priam's tale. What had originally began as a story of Regirock had spiraled into a tale of the Deep Sea, the mysteries of Dynamax, and how in Arceus's name did Cillian Quinn now throttle this person with how much he chattered.

"Wow... it really is like the movies!"

Howard, though? He was invested. His posture as a stiff-backed admin had slowly vanished as his eye began to sparkle. Priam's adventure sounded positively incredible, complete with cool moments, weird fragments, and a game map of Hoenn. Funnily enough, Howard had a replica of a similar map in his office. He had come to the same conclusion that Priam had.

Five figures. Five golems. One in Rocket possession. The other four were either dimensions away or simply lost to history. 

"That's so cool, Priam!"

⠗⠑⠛⠊⠗⠕⠉⠅ ⠁⠇⠺⠁⠽⠎ ⠗⠕⠎⠑ ⠑⠁⠗⠇⠽

At some point during the story, Regice had emerged from its Pokeball to listen aptly despite its lack of ears. It stared at Priam from behind Howard's shoulder, and the duo continued to listen to Priam's tale.

"You have it? In your room?" Howard repeated, eye sparkling brightly. "Can I see it? Please please please...?"

It was like Priam had his very own fan club. A stark contrast from his this had began several minutes earlier.

---

priam conrad

Howard snorted, amused.

"It fits through most of the hallways, at least. It's mostly in the freezer next to the ice cream. Sometimes it needs to stretch its legs."

Unceremoniously throwing Regice into the freezer aboard the sub was, in Howard's eyes, hilarious. It also let him save power by diverting energies to keeping the freezer running. Regice alone was enough for that. As the walls of the sub closed in, it became vastly more cramped.

Priam was right. Getting Regice into his room would be impossible.

"Of course I'm excited. Hell, I'm a little nostalgic." It had been months since he had been forced to bunk up in the bowels of the submarine. Now that he was an admin, he actually had a place to sleep that was larger than the average Mauville apartment. "And I'll get to see this artifact you went on about!"

After a moment of pause, Howard snapped his fingers.

"Oh, and you." He added as an afterthought.

---

priam conrad

As they entered Priam's quarters, Howard remembered what it was like to be poor. He was still poor, and occasionally found himself sleeping in his office after many all-nighters. Priam was unfathomably lucky. Howard might've actually killed someone to keep a room for himself.

Unless he had to fight Bryan. If the sub exploded right now, Howard would've expected Bryan to come rising out of the wreckage on the back of his magic deer.

"Yes," Howard said in an unfathomably dry voice. "I would love to touch your souveniers."

Somewhere far away, Bryan Delarosa would feel a disturbance. Truly, Howard's game was impeccable, second only to his desire for money and old artifacts that nobody cared about. Nonetheless, Howard felt a smidge of appreciation for the grunt. Even if he was just happy that someone expressed interest in his collection of rare items, it was fun to gush about artifacts with someone.

Whenever he did it with Cillian Quinn, he half-expected the underboss to kill him.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He told Priam gently as the grunt continued to dig through the chest. "How did it di-"

The question was forgotten as Priam's arm began to glow with the familiar hue of Eternatus.

"Holy shit, Priam! You're glowing!" Howard pointed at his arm as the grunt produced his relic. It looked tangentially like a Regi, as if it was a base for Regirock, Regice, and the other three golems. Howard grabbed the grunt's muscular arm to inspect it. "Does it tingle?"

---

priam conrad

"The Deep Sea, huh?" The admin was so surprised, he stopped feeling up the grunt's muscular arm. "That..."

...tracked. It made a lot of sense, actually. If the tattoo was correlated to Dynamax, and Eternatus was the source of all Dynergy, then it didn't surprise the admin that the tattoo reacted upon getting close to the source of the power. If he explained that to Priam, though, he'd need to explain the end of reality and all of mankind.

Put simply, it was a lot of work.

"...is certainly something!" Shred would've been impressed at that deflection. "What sort of hot? Itchy? Intense? Searing? Give me details!"

As he grilled the grunt, the admin's eye began to blaze. In the background, Regice slouched down to peer at Rocket's best example of a 'dead-end career'.

---

priam conrad

Howard didn't know what a computer worked, but the analogy was appreciated.

"Alright, alright! Maybe if we like..." The admin scratched his chin and tucked his head against his chest. This was the academic process in motion, but the difference between Howard and most other academics was that he didn't use complicated technology to measure readings. That was more up the alley of Lulu Flint or mint frost and their crazy gizmos.

Instead, Howard used the tried and true 'try something, and write down if it works'. An ancient technique, but quite usable.

"Dynamax is just the flow of Dynergy, right? I've got an idea. C'mere." Howard took Priam by the wrist and dragged him over to the colossal titan just outside of the grunt's room. "This is Regice. Say hi to one another."

⠓⠑⠇⠇⠕ The alien pattern flashed in a bright pattern, as if mirroring a cheery demeanor. The effect was artificial, as if the construct was playing pretend. A machine struggled to understand the human heart.

"Alright." Howard pointed at Regice. "Touch it."

---

priam conrad