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POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 3:00:01 GMT

The admin fumbled with his apartment keys for the twentieth time, the Aerodactyl keychain glimmering in the setting sun as Howard forced a dull key into a duller mechanism.

When had he last been home? Truly?

Months. He had lived in Dewford for a few months before destroying everything in exchange for a chance to kill a god, in protest for Tsubaki's promotion, and out of regret for Navy shutting down in the eleventh hour. He had not returned to that home in Dewford in months.

Sootopolis, then Petalburg. Both burned. Weeks of repair efforts and sleeping in the ruined city prevented him from returning to the small apartment.

"Fuuuuck." The admin's head thudded against the door, causing it to creak open. Weariness was his constant companion, now. At least he got to sleep in his own bed tonight, alone, without grunts bringing him new updates from Sootopolis.

Click. The hallway light flickered on.

Chu-e Choi

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 3:55:52 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","twtgm"]

[attr="class","main"]

The hallway light flickered on. The din of the TV played quiet in the background, casting shadows on the walls. Canned laughter echoed in the space that should have been howard slayte's alone. A kitten meets him at the door. Orange and cream, the Skitty toddles over and sits down just inside the door. She mews cutely, as if waiting for the chin scratches she is so rightly deserving of.[break][break]

It smells like warm food. Something cooked rich and deep that envelops the cramped home like a childhood memory. A soft clinking of a spoon in a bowl.[break][break]

Chu-e glances over from Howard's couch.[break][break]

"Welcome home, honey."

[attr="class","tag"]howard slayte

[attr="class","notes"]

notes

[break]
🔗 notes

[attr="class","pkmn"][break] Shadow Delcatty - Sparklefur - Female - Destabilize - tri attack, disarming voice, thunderbolt, solar beam, uproar, blizzard, dig

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POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 4:42:39 GMT

The presence of life in this apartment immediately placed the admin on edge. His place of residence was a tomb, and he preferred to keep it that way. Even if it meant that the shadows occasionally elongated into black crystals that disappeared when Howard blinked.

"What the...?" His eye narrowed as the Skitty trotted into view. Immediately, the culprit is obvious. "You've gotta be shitting me."

He picked up the Skitty, both to scratch her chin and to throw her at the person crashing on his couch. The inhuman urge to turn around and throw himself into oncoming traffic is tapped down.

"You kiss me once." Howard sighed as he placed down his briefcase. "And you think that means you can break into my house? Bold. I should kick you out."

Chu-e Choi

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POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 5:56:07 GMT

howard slayte likes this

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"I could kiss you again." Chu-e says idly, lifting another spoon of what looked like red curry to his lips. He chews the dainty bite thoughtfully before bothering to respond to howard slayte again. Regardless of any felines that may or may not come flying at his face.[break][break]

The TV laughs again, an annoyance, so Chu-e mutes the energetic chef showing off some failed dish.[break][break]

"Your food is in the fridge. I hope you're OK to eat Emboar." Some people didn't like pork for whatever reason.[break][break]

If Howard did choose to get the food from the tiny kitchen, the whole cooking space would be neat as a pin. Clean, save for one spoon with some red sauce that was sitting in the sink. Everything was put away neatly and the fridge filled with... food. A plastic container of the same curry Chu-e was eating plus the whole fridge crammed full of whatever else it could hold. Cabinets with dry goods would be much the same. All also meticulously organized.

[attr="class","tag"]howard slayte

[attr="class","notes"]

notes

[break]
🔗 notes

[attr="class","pkmn"][break] Shadow Delcatty - Sparklefur - Female - Destabilize - tri attack, disarming voice, thunderbolt, solar beam, uproar, blizzard, dig

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Admin Fox

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POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 6:08:16 GMT

"Fuck you."

They're not hateful words. They're spoken with frivolity, akin to two friends talking shit before sitting down to play some games. There isn't enough room in the admin's heart to hate this man, especially after Chu-e's heartfelt cry in a hospital that was submerged under Kyogre's primal wrath.

The clink of dishes followed from the kitchen, alongside the furrowing of his brow as the admin looked around. It was clean. In spite of the cleanliness, none of the various knickknacks that had threatened to drown the apartment were missing.

If anything, they had been sorted.

"Thanks." He took a seat on the couch next to the casually lounging Chu-e. Howard's eye flicked to him. "Is this a trick? Why're you here?"

This felt weird. Wrong, even. Like a trap waiting to be sprung. After a moment, Howard's brain remembered to work.

"Ah." He stared at the plate. "Sootopolis."

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 6:20:23 GMT

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"Yeah." Is agreed. "It's gone."[break][break]

That's all most of the other channels showed. Emergency news reports. Footage of the flooded city now that the water was going down. The destruction. The League would report this as some great victory over Rocket no doubt. All it seemed to be was ruin for the sake of ruin.[break][break]

Chu-e had gotten tired of watching that. So, the cooking channel.[break][break]

"I heard about Petalburg. How did your first conquest feel?" Unlike usual with them, with the barbed words and snapping teeth, the question seems genuine. A hesitance is there, a curiosity. A pity, as well. Overall, though, there is just an bone deep exhaustion that is too weary in Chu-e's body to be a good verbal sparring partner for howard slayte in this moment.

[attr="class","tag"]howard slayte

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notes

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🔗 notes

[attr="class","pkmn"][break] Shadow Delcatty - Sparklefur - Female - Destabilize - tri attack, disarming voice, thunderbolt, solar beam, uproar, blizzard, dig

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Admin Fox

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POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 6:33:28 GMT

For a moment, Howard considered correcting Chu-e. It was Monroe's victory, not his. Yet somewhere in his soul, he knew that Rocket's victory was due to him. In the eleventh hour, he had seized success from the jaws of uncertainty.

Even if he had stepped over the corpses of Elisabeth and Kouji to do so.

"..!" Several moments passed before he realized that he was staring at the plate. He took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. It did not take long for the admin's face to redden from the overabundance of spice. He coughed into a fist to abate the irritation. "Tiring. Reconstruction is harder than seizure. A tale as old as time."

Kanto would certainly agree.

"I killed so many people. Chu-e. So many people for a dream that isn't even mine." Two exhausted men share a couch. Chu-e lost his home, and Howard had lost something.

He flexed a hand. Right. His body. That was no longer his.

"How do you deal with it? The weight of what you've done?"

Chu-e Choi

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 6:46:42 GMT

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Silently, Chu-e places his food down and stands. A few slow steps over to the fridge, then a can of some juice is place in front of howard slayte. It's got some Sinnoh themed labeling.[break][break]

"I don't feel like I'm the best role model for that." He finally answers, sinking back down onto the couch. It doesn't swallow him like his old one had. It's kind of uncomfortable. It somehow also feels more real than anything he's bothered to rest on for a long time, even if Chu-e knows his joints will be sore in a few hours.[break][break]

"I try not to think about it, mostly. I used to go to clubs and find someone to fuck those thoughts out of my skull. Then after I got sick, I guess..."[break][break]

Chu-e swirls his spoon around in his bowl, mixing fluffy rice into a gooey mess.[break][break]

"I tried to convince myself I was doing it for some greater good, mostly."

[attr="class","tag"]howard slayte

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notes

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[attr="class","pkmn"][break] Shadow Delcatty - Sparklefur - Female - Destabilize - tri attack, disarming voice, thunderbolt, solar beam, uproar, blizzard, dig

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Admin Fox

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The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

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POSTED ON Aug 29, 2024 7:21:50 GMT

The clink of silverware on dishware is a calming sound. It's the only thing stopping Howard from having a panic attack, even in a state where overwork weighs him down like a ball and chain.

The greater good.

The greater good.

THE GREATER GOOD.

That was the only way to justify this. It was the only way to justify anything that had happened in the past week, in the past month, in the past year. The greater good was a prayer and a mantra, and that desperate hope was what held Howard together.

"And when did you wake up?" Howard mused as he scraped a few leavings of Emboar into his mouth. "Was the greater good not all it was cracked up to be?"

He needed to know how this road ended.

Chu-e Choi

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Aug 30, 2024 2:26:34 GMT

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"I dunno. Maybe a about two and a half months before I asked you to choke me to death?"[break][break]

Tepid. Normal. Plastic. Chu-e picks at his food like a bird, or perhaps like a child trying to pretend they ate their vegetables. Play with the food, raise it to lips, but never actually take a bite.[break][break]

"Remember when we talked about how our lives would have been different?" howard slayte had seemed out of it during that particular hospital visit. Yet, if any of that stuck, now was the time to mention it. "Sometimes I think about what it would have been like if I had tried to refuse, after Rocket. What would have happened to me, or my family..."[break][break]

Chu-e reaches out to accept Howard's empty plate, stands and turns to the small sink.[break][break]

"It helps to pretend you're a victim, too."

[attr="class","tag"]howard slayte

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[attr="class","pkmn"][break] Shadow Delcatty - Sparklefur - Female - Destabilize - tri attack, disarming voice, thunderbolt, solar beam, uproar, blizzard, dig

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Admin Fox

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The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

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POSTED ON Aug 30, 2024 3:23:21 GMT

He was not a victim. He was simply a cog in the machine, free of guilt and free of blame. Yet even that felt like a lie. Like a deception that he was no longer entitled to.

This was the cost of having a 'conscious' that had not been wronged by the world in a way that mattered. He was like jayden cross, in a sense. It had only taken one bad decision to reach this point, and now he was simply walking down the path that made the most sense to him.

If that was the case, though, why wasn't he with the Pokémon League?

"My family doesn't care, so why should I? They wanted me to conform to their ideal vision, and when I resisted they looked at me like I was garbage." Eventually, apathy followed. There were times where he had missed the contempt in their gazes. A reminder that he was human. "But it doesn't matter."

Chu-e stands. Howard does not. He thinks of his hands around the former underboss's throat.

"The direction I must walk, I fear it's one with too many enemies and not enough friends. It's not what I expected, but to save the world, who cares if an archaeologist is killed along the way?"

Chu-e Choi

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Aug 30, 2024 5:20:01 GMT

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"I don't care about my parents, either." Is admitted. His early life had not been kind. "But I care about my brother and my niece." Even if he had never met the girl, did not even know her name. To condemn her to death by bonds of blood was a cruel crime he would never commit. He also cared about his daughter, poor as he was to show it. But that can of worms was not one Chu-e wanted to open.[break][break]

Water runs in the sink. Lemon scented soap scrubs the dishes clean. Quick and soothing.[break][break]

"You're not an archeologist any longer." The water cuts, a plug pulled. Chu-e watches as the dirty water circles the drain. How many people had passions ripped from their hands? howard slayte wasn't any more the person he was than Chu-e was. "Do it shouldn't matter if we kill one. It won't be you."

[attr="class","tag"]howard slayte

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[attr="class","pkmn"][break] Shadow Delcatty - Sparklefur - Female - Destabilize - tri attack, disarming voice, thunderbolt, solar beam, uproar, blizzard, dig

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Admin Fox

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POSTED ON Aug 30, 2024 5:51:08 GMT

His brow furrowed.

"I am. No matter what happens, that love for the craft is what brought me to this point. I'm an archaeologist. I uncover the past and use it to help tomorrow." He closed his eye, contemplative. "That doesn't change, no matter what."

For once, his words are ironclad. Their conviction was undoubtable. If he denied them, then Howard was nothing. Everything he had done was for nothing.

"But..." He clenched a fist. "I don't even know if this person is me anymore. This body. It's not mine. I look in the mirror and I see a clockwork monstrosity."

A body carved from stone, a face chiseled from ice. Flickers of red energy ran beneath his fingernails, much like the golems he commanded in the name of Team Rocket. He thought of Chu-e's fingernails, black as pitch and glimmering with crystal beauty.

"But we'll reach the end. If not you and me, then someone bearing our names."

Chu-e Choi

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Aug 30, 2024 6:39:56 GMT

[nospaces]

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Chu-e pauses to listen. The sink runs dry. A few loose grains of rice sit in the bottom to be cleaned up.[break][break]

howard slayte spills his soul.[break][break]

Chu-e laughs.[break][break]

A startled one, from deep in his belly. It's ugly and inarticulate, filled with little snorts and giggles. It might seem cruel for a moment, before he turns and smiles broadly at the other. It is a broken motion, as if Chu-e does not know how to smile. One that isn't a false and perfected lie, that is.[break][break]

"They will, won't they?" Is agreed, of the people they would become. They were people who were overtaken by the weight of their own shadows. Chu-e Choi and Howard Slayte would always go down in history as boogeymen, even if Chu-e and Howard were just two people who had only ever wanted better for themselves.

[attr="class","tag"]howard slayte

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🔗 notes

[attr="class","pkmn"][break] Shadow Delcatty - Sparklefur - Female - Destabilize - tri attack, disarming voice, thunderbolt, solar beam, uproar, blizzard, dig

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Admin Fox

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May 9th

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Archaeologist

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The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

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