glitch bit his lip to think for a moment.

"how about a traveling salesman? or a circus clown? or you could learn to be a fire breather or something?"

those were his ideas of a fun alias anyways. though really he was just throwing things at a wall to see if he could get gavin to laugh or something. it was a fun distraction to think of other things.

"oh, wait. i have an idea... if we really want to make things interesting?"

it was risky and extremely stupid but... it could throw league credibility under the bus.

"i could come out as supporting the slateport take over and then 'mysteriously' disappear. rocket could pretend to publicly look for me and cast doubt at the league as if they did something to me. destroy my whole apartment that they paid for like it's some sort of a struggle. it's a massive play but i can stay on the sub while the ruse is going. i'm sure lulu would love to have me back in the lab."

and he'd really love to be back in there. anything was better than this whole thing.

Cillian Quinn

why did everyone insist on using weather moves in his gym? was it because it was a cave? at this point he was going to have to start wearing thermals or something. but never mind that.

the ice would do double damage to his poor jerky but that was just part of him being part dragon. sad really. but it was unavoidable in the worst of ways. the electric dragon shivered down to its core, electricity crackling over it's body in an attempt to warm itself.

"peck it."

of course it wasn't actually a peck, it was bolt beak. but that was the same thing really.

---

MATIAS SILPH
- used bolt beak

of course it was inevitable that she would bring up the fact that someone in rocket had killed her. sort of? technically she wasn't dead anymore so he wasn't really sure what to do about that.

"you don't have to believe me but, i didn't know that was the plan. the only thing i had been told was that we were supposed to be looking for some sort of rock or something." and that was the honest to arceus truth. but he knew she wasn't likely to believe him. he set the magazines down and rolled closer to the bed.

"i've never actually hurt anyone, though i can't say the same about anyone else in this organization." another thing she probably wouldn't believe. "i'm just a publicly cute face at the moment, a cute ditz that likes fossils and pink. though i do work in the labs quite a bit." if she was so sure she was going to forget all of this then what was the harm in saying whatever he wanted about what he did.

Melody Miro

another day another battle. he would just have to put a smile on his face and pretend that he was having a good time. after all that's what being a gym leader was all about he had gathered. and for the most part he was having a good time. but he wasn't expecting a silph to walk into his gym. that was for sure. with the flick of his wrist he released his pokemon. jerky would be pretty good against a blastoise, probably.

"glitch maverick! though i'm sure you already know that. feel free to take the first move if you'd like."

since he was the challenger and all.

---

MATIAS SILPH

of course melody didn't know that glitch had lost his leg in an excursion. she had been busy and he had been put in the hospital and then moved to the sub. there hadn't been time between her kidnapping and between her being locked in a cell like this. they had lots and lots to catch up on. hopefully it wouldn't be too hard for her to listen to him.

"oh, i lost my leg to some meltans. they crushed it and it had to be removed. it's kind of gross but it's healing well enough."

he set the magazines down on her little bed. she would probably enjoy looking at them. after all they were cute fashion magazines he had picked up fresh.

"i'm not here to convince you of anything. i heard they brought you in and i've been going stir crazy in the medical ward. they don't like letting me out much since i get exhausted easily."

his energy hadn't come back yet after losing his leg. in fact it was still as low as ever. but once he could get back on his testosterone he was sure that things would go back to normal. maybe.

Melody Miro

he sighed and stretched his arms a little bit. everything still hurt but he wasn't really worried about that right now.

"well, even it was hard for me to remember the name patrick anyways. maybe this time you'll choose an alias that's fun!"

it was a little bit of a laugh really. there was nothing wrong the name patrick but if he didn't make fun of gavin then who was he?

"i don't know, it's not bad but i didn't think they'd even accept my application so i wasn't really prepared."

and he wasn't really wanting to do all of the hard work and stuff.

"if you guys take mossdeep next you'll get the science labs from the observatory to work with. and i want to start doing... more but not like, paperwork more. it's hard to explain. can a gym leader come out as in favor of rocket while still staying a gym leader?"

talking to gavin was at least a good distraction. it almost made him stop thinking about the missing limb.

Cillian Quinn

it was sort of the elephant in the room really that he wanted to address. especially since he'd been in the group chat with the rest of the leaguers.

"you've been outted as a rocket, well, patrick has. all the gym leaders are talking about it. some of them were planning on placing bets on you for the tournament but... you know. i played it up like i had no idea, as a good baby partner would."

the word mother was not coming out of his mouth right now. not after being misgendered for days by a hospital topside.

"things will work out fine. and then we can move to mossdeep and i can fucking retire this gym leader shit or something."

he hated the league, he partially hated rocket. he didn't care about any of this anymore. being a gym leader was supposed to be a joke but now he was holding the position so he could just wait for the eventual rocket takeover.

"if you kidnap me then i won't have to do paperwork."

Cillian Quinn