We are meta gaming.

So anyway when Leon Vercetti would get home to his ugly bachelor pad, stepping into the darkness of his room.

He would be grabbed... by a thick, black, crystal tentacle, which would wrap firmly around his waist.

Then a hand would grab for his shirt to pull him into the darkness.

We've seen enough hentai to know where this is going.

"Leeeeeeoooooon." Sing songed, the tip of the tentacle trying to slip under Leon's shirt to caress his skin.

The area is prepped and the ritual starts.

Chu-e stands in a ring of death, eyes wide but not seeing.

He grips chryssa glasgow's hand and when he stares at Zac Ramsay and the miracle taking place before him, all he can see is a meal.

A fat steak, bleeding red, perfectly seasoned. Not from some fancy restaurant, no, it's artisnal. Homemade. A mother's love pouring out withe steam, a special treat for a special occasion. A heaping pile of brussel sprouts on the side, baked, just how he liked them.

Words filter in and out.

His grip is maybe a smidgen too tight but not enough to hurt.

Chu-e blinks and he's back, and Chryssa is shoving the vine in his face and his best friend is simply his best friend again.

The ring around him is both barren and decay. Nothing sprouted in the immediate area around him to begin with. Anything that wandered into the zone is brown and crackling.

"Well...." It's a vine, so what harm could it do? Plus, he's put much worse in his mouth at this point.

He takes a bite and it crunches.

"Ew. Oh my god. It tastes like cheap perfume." But, diligently, with much forced chewing, Chu-e eventually swallows his offered vine down.

There is that natural urge to keep his problems to himself.

But if anyone deserved to know where he had fucked off to, it was Victoria Beckett.

Plus, knowing her, she would be able to weasel it out of him eventually. May as well fold his hand and give in while he still had a leg to stand on.

"After Kanto? Here. Then Kalos. Then a hospital for a long ass time." He motions around him. "Now I'm here again." It wasn't a complete explanation. Not one he really wanted to get into, either, for the moment. His eyes look promised more information later. In a more private setting and maybe after a meal.

"I was... compromised while in Kalos. Most people thought I was dead from what I hear." Not that that was far from the truth now.

"What about you? How have you been holding up?"

I thought I had replied to this. I guess with HST it got lost in my notifications.

Anyway.

The bright pink Hyper Beam moved over the water in a line before reaching the boats. The water sizzled before smaller, compacted explosions from the electronics melting flared up. The pirate boat began to sink instantly.

As expected, when the attack was over, Chirps fell like a sack of bricks. The Togekiss instantly went to brace the Altaria, flying slowly back with his new charge in tow.

"Ah! Look out!"

They weren't about to go down so nicely, though, as a stray Thunderbolt from one of the pirate's pokemon hit the Togekiss. He seized up, Paralyzed, listing downwards.

Nothing could ever go according to plan. Where would be the fun if it did?

Chu-e looked over at samuel carter as if he could do something.

"Ah."

Chu-e didn't add anything of his own there, just took in Lulu Flint's opinion.

"You know, that's part of why I like you. It's never felt like you've just wanted to tell me what I want to hear."

At least, it seemed so with him she had been. Lulu also didn't really put up with his shit as much as other people might, which was a trait that Chu-e almost always respected.

Lulu was pragmatic. Chu-e was more ruled by his emotions than real logic. Even if Cillian Quinn was his friend, he knew the other could fall into the trap of sentimentality too often as well.

"My family always had a lot of begonias around." The flower once made him think of Darkrai. Now it makes him think of Lulu Flint. "My family used them for worship." Turning, he points to a pink-and-red set of flowers nearby, tastefully arranged. "I grow a bunch here." He usually slept with at least one under his pillow, so Chu-e needed to have a lot.

"We could add more flowers if you wanted. I never had much of a green thumb. My family grew vegetables... but they usually made me milk the Miltank or collect eggs from the Starly." Fond memories he didn't mind sharing.

"What do some of the other flowers mean? I don't know a lot about flower meanings."

Eris Halla

Ah, one thing that would need to quickly be nipped in the bud.

"This isn't what Gavin, me, or anyone else likes. This is what you like." It's amicable but with a small warning, a thin finger gently poking jayden cross in the chest.

"I think we can work with that stuff, though!" Another search was already being pulled up, fingers flying on the screen.

"You're really good at piano, by the way! You mentioning it reminded me." Chu-e pauses for a moment to look over his screen, wrinkle his nose before moving to the next listing.

"When you played at the Spirit Festival...." Well, honestly, Chu-e had been entranced. Those particularly messy feelings are pushed aside for the moment. "It was really good."

"I...."

It's one word out of all of what Razz Kingsman says that sticks out.

Everything else is tuned away, forgotten just as quick. Over the years he's hardened his heart. His time in Hoenn, this time, had softened it enough for cracks to form in the foundation. One small weakness and Razz has taken a battering ram to him. It forces a hole, exposing the raw bits underneath.

monster

Razz doesn't get an answer. Because, at first, the only thing he'll get is to watch Chu-e's face crumple in real time. It's not befitting of someone with the title Underboss, but often times he doesn't feel like it's something he deserves anyway. A lot of doubt has been swirling in his mind ever since the crystal corrosion had started messing with his head.

It's too much. Tears start to leak down his cheeks as his hands start to shake. It's too much. Not the same feeling as when he's about to seizure, but something worse. More vulnerable.

A panic attack.

A small laugh. Both at what Laurence Anderson was saying and also the whole ordeal with the pokemon in the background. His Arctozolt was delighted, clapping her tiny paws together the best she could to congratulate the Dracozolt. Lumbering over, she tried to poke curiously at the new stone.

"I'm sure plenty of people would be okay with you working shirtless, Lars." A small laugh and Chu-e gave a small wink before going back to why he had originally come.

"Well... I know after we did our crazy cave adventure, we all agreed you could keep that weird tablet thing, right? Well, I was wondering if I could have my piece back!"

He did, for his part, look a little bashful.

"Do you know Zac Ramsay? He's my friend! I know he got his piece stolen, and I was thinking... I felt bad, and I don't use my piece, so I want him to have it!"

As if to answer Cillian Quinn's question, Chu-e's stomach gives an ominous rumble.

"I give myself four minutes before I shit my pants."

That, sadly, was normal with his milk experience.

"I need to stop coming to these labs. Something stupid, tragic, or traumatic happens, like, every time. Why haven't I learned anything?"

Another gurgle, louder. He places his hand over his stomach and gives a sigh.

"Man, you keep.. doing science things with these dudes. If I don't text you thirty, don't come looking for me."

His stomach was, as some might say, throwing gang signs. Like, maybe it was the shadow milk. Usually when he had dairy, it didn't get this angry.

With that, Chu-e swept out of the room. He wouldn't have a repeat of FERNANDO SILPH's gym.

Chu-e watched the proceedings with interest. Yet, he wasn't really sure exactly where to join in.

"The magic hemorrhoid monkey's vine is going to help?"

He did eye the Meadow Plate with some interest, then frowned.

"Chryssa, don't let anyone else know you have that." For the lighthearted musings and KFC and other such shenanigans that Chu-e normally got up to with chryssa glasgow and Zac Ramsay, his voice was serious enough to slice the air. He sat up, concern written in his brows.

"That bitch that stole Zac's piece is after these things for some stupid reason." Which, the two were probably well enough aware of, but... "I gave her information before I realized she was a cunt." He thinks back to his office, of handing over the packet of details from the church before she had tried to kill him, Zac, and Flint.

Ah, regret.

"What? No I don't."

This would maybe be the most confusing conversation for either of them.

"I hate those fuckers. I hate what they turned me into." He motions vaguely to himself. His stylish strawberry outfit was hiding his scrawny and underfed frame. As of late he had been able to pick up a bit more weight but...

There was an emotional depth there, too. The wounded boy who needed help was broken and made into a killer by people willing to take advantage.

Razz Kingsman

Snitches get stitches and all that. It was fair for Razz Kingsman to keep it a secret.

Still, Chu-e's face seemed to hint more betrayal than anger or terror or any such thing.

"I want to help them." The truth, said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The only problem was that Chu-e wasn't being very clean on the 'them' given his addled state.

The 'them' that Chu-e was talking about were the people like Eris Halla- people trapped in circumstance with little choice in the matter.