The archaeologist looked up from his book.

"Ameena." He gave her a look, raising an eyebrow at her robe and eyepatch, before looking back down at his book on Almian history. "Welcome."

There were numerous ways to justify Ameena being in his dreamscape. She had been to it before, they were both members of Nebula, both are members of Lulu Flint's expedition, and both had a connection to the deputy she had been shamelessly railing in the room next door. The admin's is less explicit; he simply wants to see Montgomery buried under six feet of dirt and stone.

Frankly, it's more than Montgomery James deserves.

Then again, everyone on this spaceship will likely swing from gallows for the crime of attempting to overturn the foundational principles of Hoenn for their own aims. Of that, Howard is remarkably guilty. Yet he told jayden cross that he would shoulder all of Rocket's sins, when the time came.

If they could walk free, he would likely die. There was no good ending for Howard Slayte.

"Try my section on 1929. Unovan stock market crashed and sent Galar spiraling into a depression. Fun times." He does not bring up Montgomery. That's for her to broach.

---

ameena abadi

There is no such thing as a secret in the dreamscape. Howard Slayte loathed misinformation. It was part of the reason Elisabeth's gambit was causing him such distress. Information was meant to be shared. Academia was meant to be exalted.

Yet Howard would not enter Ameena's dream and see her lover.

"I lost my phone behind the couch. Haven't been able to get it out. I'll ask Chu-e to get it out when I next see him." That wouldn't be for a while, given that Howard was in space and Chu-e Choi was likely hiding his alcohol. Moments like this made him wish Eris Halla didn't hate him. Her small child hands were excellent tools in getting things out of small places.

"Montgomery..." The archaeologist leaned back in his seat and sighed. "...yes. He opened that door to me. Kicked me through. Left me. I thought he had died in Unova, but as we both know, old hurts hardly stay dead."

He took a deep, shuddering breath. There were too many emotions regarding the deputy. Too many similarities to the sheriff her served. Too many memories that the admin could not forget, lest he contradict his reason for living as an observer who remembered eons.

"I'll ignore that you're corresponding with the enemy. I assume you're friends with him. Maybe more. Everyone in this fucking organization is fucking someone from the other side, at this point." The archaeologist looked up and raised an eyebrow. "So what's the problem?"

---

ameena abadi

"Shut the fuck up, Ameena."

Howard said conversationally as he poured another shot of whiskey into his glass. With a magic tap, small ice cubes shaped like Regices filled it. He swirled it thoughtfully, before taking a sip. He balanced the glass on his seat's armrest, before regarding the scientist with a dour expression.

"Do you think that story is new? Do you think you're the first person to have sold the conversion of League operatives? We can't even convert the Alchemist to our cause. 'We're going to convert Freya! Walsh will sway her, surely! This Gym Leader is on the cusp of defection!' If I hear it again, I'm going to fucking lose my mind."

Slam. The book slammed shut with a noise that echoed through the library. Howard snapped his fingers and produced another book on ancient Galarian forging.

After a moment of turning pages, the admin's voice grew soft.

"Human beings are strong because, when our backs are pushed to the wall, we find strength that nobody believed we had. The more you push on Montgomery, the stronger he will become. His resolve will shake, then it will crack, then it will reforge itself into something great and terrible. I have bore witness to the creation of several avatars. This is always the case."

He gave Ameena a look.

"If you care about that man, tread carefully, lest you create a version of Montgomery too strong to keep living. As for June..." The admin crossed his arms. "...I love her, yes. Now go tattle to Walsh or Cillian or Theo, and know that you've killed her by doing so."

His eye flickered.

"Do that, knowing that when I had him bleeding on the floor in front of me, I let him go. Because the sheriff trusts him, and that's enough for me."

---

ameena abadi

I want him for me.

Those are the words that cause the admin to stop reading from his book on metalworking. He looked up, and put his cheek against his hand as he regarded the scientist. He blinked once, a magenta eye that looked like a dozen Wishing Stars squeezed of their color boring into her.

For a terrifying moment, it was as if he saw her. The sensation quickly passed.

"Very well, then." He said casually, before returning to his book. "I don't care what you do on your off time. Fall in love with the other side, exchange information, it functionally doesn't matter to me. As long as you fight alongside me when the time comes, do as you will."

Howard sighed deeply.

"The heart wants what the heart wants." He thought of june sleigh as he turned another page. "So do as you will, Ameena. Yet if I meet him on the field again, I will fight him. I will win. Off of the battlefield, I do not care. On the battlefield..."

The words hang in the air for several moments as Howard mused for several moments. The archaeologist was an enigma, flitting between pathos and logos with hardly a care in the world.

In that way, he was remarkably similar to Montgomery James.

"...love is the biggest curse of all."

---

ameena abadi

Dreams are a funny thing. Logic - things such as the laws of reality - are less a rule, and more simply a suggestion; and certainly, more dreams will likely have your feet planted on the ground than they won't if only because that's what you know to be the norm... But it's also just as likely that you may find yourself drifting.

Makoto finds themself drifting. Drifting amongst stars and nebulae, amongst planets and moons. They did not follow any true star map - the universe that was Makoto's dream was its own making. But all the same, to be in space like this, it is an awe-inspiring thing.

It is quiet. Peaceful. Beautiful. It's so far and distant from all the fighting of Rocket and League, of the threats that befall Hoenn day after day.

Here, they can exist without preconceptions or judgement, and simply bask in the wonders of this vast universe.

They wonder, it this is what Erebus might feel, if it had ever decided to go home.

This aimless drifting does not last forever, however. Because eventually, something strange catches their eye. A wooden door, floating just they are. In the midst of this dream, they don't stop to consider why it may be here - they simply find it a curiosity. And against the logic of space, they adjust their trajectory to drift towards it.

They open the door - but when they see a completely different scene on the other side, that of a library, something pings in their head that this is an awfully strange dream, isn't it? Nonetheless, they step through it, following the sounds of chatter...

... Only to see howard slayte and ameena abadi both, locked in what was clearly a tense conversation.

Oh. Maybe they aren't supposed to be in here. But it was a bit too late for them to unhear some of the things that are exchanged between the duo. Frozen in a moment of indecision between making themself known or simply leaving, they end up simply standing there with a somewhat dumb look on their face - blinking owlishly at Ameena and Howard both.

Huhm.

What was the Moontan Village?

In 1609 BC, the famed astronomer Meltileo Meltilei constructed the first known Zoom Lens and turned his eye to the moon. There, it is said, he saw another Meltan, staring back at him with a Zoom Lens of his own. With this newfound discovery, Meltileo suggested the theory of a convergent evolution of Meltankind that survived, lived, and thrived, all upon the surface of the moon - A species of "Moontan", if you would.

The Melmetholic Church, furious with this blatant heresy, immediately exiled Meltileo, forcing him to leave the Meltan Village. Yet as the years turned to decades into centuries into millennia, as the Melmetholic Church suffered a schism that led to the birth of the opposing Protestan Church, and as scientific understanding only further evolved, history grew kinder to Meltileo and his hypothesis. What if, perhaps, there truly were Moontan upon the moon? Otherworldly neighbours, waiting to be met? Yet "what if" is all that has ever been, for though they have long dreamed of it, no Meltan has ever gone to space...

"yippee!"

...Until now.

Floating through the air as though gravity were but a dream, Meltan soared through the cosmos of this endless library, bouncing off weighty tomes and tumbling down shelves, only to bound high in the sky once more. He hopped and hopped and hopped, exploring reaches unknown even to the unknown. Until, finally, his latest in a long line of ascents and descents brought him floating down, landing right in howard slayte's glass with a plop.

"oh (•⩊•) hello mr howard!"

---

TL;DR - I HAVE TRICKED YOU, THERE IS NO SHRED POST, THIS IS MELTAN LORE NOW.
W4lWsPvG

[attr="class","emapkmn"]
[attr="class","emapkmn"][attr="class","emapkmnteam"]

It turns out that night shift might be a good opportunity for Fenelle to prove demself - looking over the ship's controls is both exciting and nerve-wrecking, but gladly dee has steeled them a fair amount. It's also reassuring to have Alba Evovae as a research person awake as well, even if dee isn't sure how much expertise he might have with technology.

It turns out, however, that the threat of the night might be entirely different.

Fenelle frowns as the hue of the controls in front of der eyes shifts, blinking rapidly a couple of times. For a few moments, that seems to fix the off-colour, but it returns once more. A definite vision compared to the glimpse out of the window before - a sign of progress and danger. Dee stands up, trying to get a last look to make sure the piloting's going to be smooth, however. Der vision warps, turning to ...

Are they gonna haunt me forever now?

Streets of Mossdeep City - before they've been burned. They're probably rebuilt right now - it doesn't matter.

Dee turns as der Rotom wristwatch announces Underboss Cillian Quinn moving, and dee stands straight at his words - whether or not they've been an explicit command, dee would treat them like that to keep der mind off the dreamscape visions. But it wouldn't be all that easy to push through towards the sleeping quarters ... two Paradox pokémon manifest as well, and dee couldn't help but think how fitting that might be.

Underboss Quinn makes the first moves, giving Fenelle a moment to consider der steps. Dee then taps der Rotom wristwatch, signalling for it to come out momentarily to Astonish the Iron Hands while dee calls for der Grimmsnarl as well, signing for it to use Spirit Break on the Great Tusk.

tl;dr
- excited to look over the ship tech
- momentarily captured by visions of pre-war mossdeep
- follows cillian, uses rotom and grimmsnarl to help with the battle against the paradoxes
FcjE0udV

The alternative. Howard's lip twitched in amusement.

"It is." He inclined his head. He was justified in killing Montgomery. The road that led him to this precise moment had been paved by that man. "That didn't stop me from trying that alternative."

Apathy. Detachment. A position that required no care at all.

"It worked for a bit, after letting my fiancée go. Until she crept up on me."

This is, ultimately, Howard's dreamscape. He and Ameena sat in his library, reading his books, and drinking his dream alcohol. It was Howard's domain. Naturally, he could tell when a fox was slinking about. Especially when that fox was a member of Nebula. It took a Fox to know a fox, after all.

"Come out, Makoto." Howard said in a bored voice. "And bring me that book on Johtoan metalworking when you do. Oh, and the Hoennian one, too. Should be to your left."

If he was going to be dreaming for the next several hours, he wanted to catch up on his forging research. See if he could figure out the historical process used to cast a giant out of an alloy belonging to Necrozma. How had Registeel been made? Why? More important, had its construction been taxed by the civilization that built it?

Plop! Whiskey splashed everywhere, and Howard turned to his glass.

"...Meltan?"

---

ameena abadi Makoto Kurumi Shred