An irritated laugh rang out. The admin's red eye flickered, though it was impossible to tell if it was from Dynergy or his own conflicting ideals.

"Yeah. I'd like to close the book on everything after chronicling the absolute truth of our species. If people start debating my pedantic words to suit their own beliefs, it'd frustrate me to no end." Another exhale. The admin blew a strand of hair out of his way. "I want to see a world with no conflict, even over something like my historical accounts."

The paradox was that he'd never bear witness to it. Chu-e wouldn't either. By the time his statement was contested by historical scholars, time would have left them both to the dust.

Sometimes, he wished that time would simply stop and that the present would never change. That world would be hell ideal.

"And it's not cute." He pouted. A strange gesture on a strange face. "It's horribly depressing."

---

Chu-e Choi

"Then the world is broken and it must be repaired."

The sunlight shined through the blinds as it set beneath the horizon. The words are spoken with conviction and absolute faith in the human condition. Their species is a violent one, but it is because of their kinship that Howard cannot help but love them.

If love was another form of greed, than Howard Slayte was a vessel from which sin overflowed.

"We are entitled to boredom. This generation has known too much suffering. People like you have known too much suffering. I want to get rid of all of that. Even if you find it boring..." He waits for the interjection. "...we are entitled to the happiness that accompanies it."

He looked away.

"Even you, as loathsome and prone to debaucheries as you are."

---

Chu-e Choi

The television switched on. Meaningless channels flip by, until Chu-e switches on one of the Brycen-Man movies. It's the western one, part of what inspired Howard's aesthetic. His cowboy hat is a remnant of this western era, a meme sent from Howard Slayte to Michael Navidson to whoever would next wear the hat that sparked a legacy.

"That's not the world I desire. People should be allowed to explore, they should be allowed to live. Yet war? Ceaseless conflict over resources and delusion?" He shook his head once and huffed. "There must be a fine line, a compromise that leaves everyone content."

The nature of a compromise was misunderstood. A real compromise was meant to leave everyone unhappy.

It explained the admin's current state. A halfhearted commitment to both the League and to Rocket. His life was miserable as a result. Yet that desperate hope was what kept him sane, even when wallowing in the misery of compromise.

"It's just a meaningless wish, though. I can't enforce my will over the world." With a weary sigh, the admin leaned across the couch to rest his head on Chu-e's lap. "But I can't help but pity you, occasionally."

His eye searched the younger man's. Brown and white hair meshed together as Howard looked up at Chu-e. There's a hint of a smile.

"Didn't you break into my hospital room, disguised as a nurse?" His tone was conversational. "Debauchery."

---

Chu-e Choi

Gemstone. A stone of rare worth. A funny nickname that Chu-e insisted on using, even when the admin felt that he was worth nothing at all.

"You'd rather not spend your life in peace, going to work, lounging on my couch? You're so strange." Everyone in Rocket was. The organization was just the region's pile of rejects, each one abandoned by one thing or another. A nagging feeling pulled at his heart. "Although..."

He pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"It would be boring. There's hardly a dull day anymore." He blew a stand of hair towards Chu-e's face, where it stuck to his lips. "Though I wouldn't mind a break."

As Chu-e leaned in, the admin blearily blinked, almost too weary to grasp at the faint tones that struggled to reach his ears.

"You enjoyed it." Howard accused the younger man. "But you also needed it."

---

Chu-e Choi

"I wanted to look cool." He admitted. In spite of Chu-e's heckling, the confession was what caused his face to flush slightly with embarrassment. "I loved the aesthetic as I grew up, and I thought it was a novel image. The rogue archaeologist finding his way into tombs to fight curses and steal treasure."

In the background, the television continued playing. A man in a cowboy hat and lasso swung from the horn of the stampeding Pokémon in order to end up on its back. His hat was eerily similar to the admin's own.

"Attractiveness was never on the table. It never crossed my mind. When me and my fiancée got engaged, I always wondered why she had chosen me. There were smarter people, stronger people, richer people..." Those doubts had consumed him until the latter had done him in, and left him in this situation.

Resting on Chu-e's lap.

What a strange turn of events.

"Now I look in the mirror and I see myself, and I can't help but feel revulsion and disgust. How can I feel wanted when I don't even want myself." His eye peered at the crystalline nails that occasionally appeared in his peripheral vision. "That's narcissistic. It's selfish."

It felt like a crime to speak of his own issues when Necrozma's mother was stroking his hair.

"Do you feel that way about your nails? They're hardly yours, are they?"

---

Chu-e Choi

"I see. You're so self-assured." His eye fluttered shut. "So in control."

It's a perspective that the admin cannot incorporate into his own understanding of the world, but he can admire the confidence that Chu-e held in himself. He had always wondered how this small thing had reached the pinnacle of Team Rocket, how he had attracted Necrozma to him and became an underboss.

It made sense. The ambition in his heart had curdled but not died.

"But we're all entitled to a smidge of selfishness. It's not fair to others or to my profession, but we should be allowed to dictate how we're perceived to some degree."

A hand reached up to cup Chu-e's cheek. Howard's eye opened by a fraction of an inch.

"You poor thing." A few days of being in a skin that wasn't his own, and the admin was already slipping. How Chu-e handled it, the admin didn't know. Perhaps he didn't want to know. "And such a smooth talker."

A heavy sigh. His eye opened further.

"You need a hug."

A request, not an order.

---

Chu-e Choi

There was the hint of emotion in the former underboss's eyes. A reminder that the broken machinery worn down over years of abuse could, in fact, malfunction. It was a disconnect from the golems the admin often commanded and the antiques he coveted.

They had existed for centuries with minimal wear and minimal tear, yet flesh was far more fragile and far more prone to collapsing in on itself. Oaths written in steel or stone or ice could last forever, but flesh oftentimes betrayed any faith placed in it eventually. Yet that eventual betrayal meant that when it held its oath...

...it was special.

Chu-e Choi was special.

Once, he had dictated the world. He had ordered the beginning and end of everything with the wave of a sickly finger, his authority superseding his own limitations. That had disappeared. His rank had disappeared. His power had disappeared.

That was fine.

"Okay." He sat up, his vestigial warmth not yet leaving Chu-e. Howard regarded him thoughtfully, before leaning over to wrap artificial arms over a sickly and skeletal frame. There's a hint of flushing in his cheeks. "Come here."

His voice was a soft caress, distinct from the man who had ordered annihilation of a city. It was several moments before he spoke again to the doll held in his hands in an attempt to share what little warmth he had.

Softer still, his breath tickled Chu-e's ear.

"How's that?"

---

Chu-e Choi