It wouldn't be easier to lie, wouldn't it?

But Chu-e stares at Cillian Quinn and he knows.

"Yeah."

Much like the vision of Zac Ramsay at the Zarude vine incident, if he loses that concentration, he can see it.

A split beef bone, cooked to perfect so the marrow drips in rich divots down. Only to be captured on fluffy crusts of bread, home made with garlic butter mixed with flecks of gold. Caviar sits on a silver platter. A rose champagne fizzes in a flute. Decadent. Bad for you.

He blinks and it's gone.

"It's not like... last time." When he couldn't control it.

O fuk I thought I replied to this already. I remember I looked for gifs but I guess I never actually posted it.

So anyway, when given his instructions, Chu-e very carefully took his fossils over to the table. One of them was kind of waterlogged, one kind of crumbly, and the other was really hard. It was still good to be careful, though, since unlike a lot of other people he only had one piece of each.

Leaving his Carbink and Sylveon to guard the fossils and make sure they didn't fall off the table, Chu-e went to go looking for a few tools he could use for this whole thing.

See, Chu-e didn't know too much about fossils. Maybe if he was smart he would have asked Cillian Quinn beforehand, since he knew the man loved stuff like this. Yet, he did at least know they were easy to break. After coming back, Chu-e found himself with a little drill, a small hammer and chisel, and a brush to dust anything off.

Starting with the soft fossil, Chu-e worried he would damage it if he just bashed it with a hammer. So, instead, he used the small drill to gently scrape away layers of dirt before brushing them off. It was tedious. Next was the hard one. The drill wasn't doing much to the hard outer layer, so he gently knocked it with the chisel and hammer to loosen those layers off. Only when he was done did he repeat the process as for the first fossil, drilling off the rock and dusting it off. This one took longer than the first since the stone was less yielding.

The waterlogged fossil was the last and also the hardest. It wasn't as hard or as soft as the other two, but the problem was where the rock was wet it would turn into kind of sludge when broken down too finely. Chu-e had to have his pokemon guard again as he went to go find some soft cloths he could wipe down his tools and the fossil with as he worked. By the time he was done, he had muddy sludge all over himself, the table, and his pokemon. At least he had three fossils. (Not that he was a good judge.)

Pleased, he tried to push them together to make one solid creature.

glitch maverick

---

real life footage of chu-e doing his fossil

8R6s2|Ua

He runs his head again, mentally backs away from the glass.

"This doesn't feel like that. It doesn't feel like anything."

No emotions burned from it, no words, no feelings. Nothing to influence Chu-e like it might Cillian Quinn. All except for...

"Just hungry."

Except that was close but not....

"Have you ever been so hungry you feel empty? Like nothing could fill you up? Almost like that."

"Nah, that's for you. I'm sure if you're creative he can play with it."

When Zac Ramsay ripped into the paper, it would quickly start to spill dusty dirt all over the place. Even though Chu-e had cleaned it, the Ground Plate just seemed to keep getting dirty! Strange how that happened.

"I forgot I had that, and, like, what have I been doing with it... so you can have it."

Chu-e hoped this would help heal the pain of losing his own plate piece.

After having a good sniff of Buggle, most of the Skitty backed away and resumed their meeting around the table. One stayed, Paint Thinner, the chunky boy sitting next to the Zeraora like a knight might sit next to a king. With duty.

"If you wanted to see me shit my pants, you could have just given me a fat glass of milk."

Even after all this time, Chu-e could still read Victoria Beckett like a book. At least with shit like this.

Still, he took an offered gummy work and bit the little bastards head off.

"Tor, you really think me and Gav got cherries to pop?" He side eyes Cillian Quinn for a moment, brow raised. A bit of a teasing grin on his face. "Didn't you hear about what happened in the training room?"

A pool of shadow stuck under his feet. The only ghost he liked- and his protection for the day if anything unsightly happened.

You just never knew with fucking ghosts.

(For all his bravado, he was really dreading this.)

Eris Halla

For a moment, Eris Halla's words are lost on him. He's too focused on the burning in his stomach and throat, how it feels like his insides are trying to come out of his mouth. Tears prick his eyes, forced, and they're a pale gray as they crystallize on his cheeks.

When the fountain of vomit stops, he gasp for air, half collapses on the table.

It takes Chu-e a few moments to catch his breath, wipe the filth off his chin, come back to himself.

"I'm.... I'm okay." A lie, one he's quick to correct. "I'll be okay."

He doesn't blame Reiner for growling at him, protecting her. Reiner is a good pokemon.

Sprinkles has long since raised her hackles, hissed and fled the scene. Smart enough to know when to get the hell out of dodge.

'Well, stop that."

An idea was already forming in his mind. Placing his fingers in mouth, he let out a loud and shrill whistle. When it quieted, ears probably still ringing, a Mimikyu pushed up from the shadows of the ground. In hand was his phone and a notepad, which he both took.

The phone was set to record, voices, and he sat it on the table.

"Tell me everything you've implanted in her mind. Be concise. I'm taking that over."

Madeleine Miro

As soon as the new cat was presented, all sixteen of the Skitty crowded around Buggle. They needed to do their feline duty and sniff, as was the grand ritual to welcome a new kitty into their ranks.

Chu-e perked up and clapped his hands together.

"Oh! You got a cat! Zac, that's amazing!" Honestly, he was probably more thrilled that Zac Ramsay was.

A little wrapped package was taken out and placed on the table.

"Good thing I got you this gift! Totally to commemorate the cat. Totally."

The anger is understandable.

He sits down outside of her cell and slides the tray towards her.

"No, I just thought your challenge seemed fun. You also didn't seem like an asshole."

Prince gives a small wave, sits down and holds out his half hand. Chu-e plucks a book from his pocket and hands to the Gardevoir, who opens it up and starts to read. Relaxed.

"Has anyone tried to bother you down here? I can make them stop."

"I can feel it in my head."

Is all he replies with, looks away, back to the horizon. Usually, the sight of the Sootopolis bay, such a strange sight, would be beautiful. In the aftermath of all that's happened, of the slow paranoia warping his mind, it seems bland and white and terrible.

"What does Lugia feel like?"

He tries to focus on the hunger, reach out, touch- but it's too far away. It's like heat from a vent. He can feel it, get closer, but he can't get to the source, something blocking him off when he tries.

Present.

It takes too long for Chu-e to reply, pull himself out of whatever swirling pit he was traveling down in his own mind.

Chu-e glances back, confused, crystals crackling over his flesh. When he sees it's Cillian Quinn, it retracts faster, as if ashamed it exists.

'It's me." He thinks so, anyway.

Raising a hand, he rubs his head. It's starting to hurt, though if it's with exhaustion or something else he can't say.

"I'm glad you're alive."

Because 'okay' wouldn't really feel right for either of them.

Chu-e approached slow, curious of the tree.

His phone had pinged, clear, and the text received with a raised brow. Exhaustion and some type of loneliness tugged at him, which he hoped the camaraderie of Rocket in victory could cure for a little while. His approach was slow but he offered a half smile to anyone else present when he arrived.

"No food?" Was replied to giona ferrara, hummed, his voice rough but still pleased.

Usually he brought food to any little get together like this. Today, however, he had been too wound up to even pick up some Kalos Fried Chansey.

flex

The tinkling of crystal surfacing.

flex

The tinkling of crystal digging into skin.

flex

The tinkling of crystal surfacing.

With every flex of his hand, Chu-e allows crystal to eat his arm, form claws, sink back to where it resided.

Hungry.

He could feel the hunger.

Sightlessly, Chu-e started out over the remains of a city, water lapping at his ankles.

Cillian Quinn