He smiled, pleased at her reaction. It was easy to draw out the blood of academia with the blood of the divine with whispers of knowledge. Dreams were tantalizing, indeed.

"You already know." He raised an eyebrow at her from underneath his hat. He brushed a strand of white hair behind his ear. It was a redundant question, but Ameena would prefer an answer to a theory or a hypothesis. "Cresselia."

The word was spoken casually, as was the nature of a barside chat. Murmurs of legends were common from those who blabbered from empty cups from which the liquor flowed like water.

"We go to fulfill the dream of our Head Scientist." He chuckled and adjusted his hat, hiding his eyes from view. "We will rewrite the laws of fate for her."

---

ameena abadi

"I'm clearing my mind for what needs to come." He popped a piece of ice into his mouth without blinking. "New Mauville is more important than you know."

As Josh Devlin was going to find out when Mauville finally burned. The power plant was a ticking time bomb with a deactivated Power Spot that threatened to rouse itself to activity. When it did, Dynamax would sever the Pokémon League's jugular and offer the city to Team Rocket on a silver platter.

Especially with Regieleki now in Rocket's custody thanks to june sleigh's breakdown.

"There's a ruin under the power plant that I aim to discover, but that's neither here nor there. I wish you the best in the RKS Simulation." He waggled a finger. "I asked you here to talk, since it's convenient."

He popped another piece of ice into his mouth.

"Are you aware that Lulu Flint is going to the moon, soon?"

---

ameena abadi

His eye met Elisabeth Fiorelli 's from across the table. They share a mutual, contemptuous look. Howard had little care for any prospective traps that Wo-chien could construct. He'd love the opportunity to catch the snail with its hand in the cookie jar, right before Regirock and Regice turned it into paste.

Even a trap designed to kill could reveal one's plans if it failed to find its mark. Proving disloyalty from the Scorned and her patron would be a worthy trade. It made Lulu Flint 's demand for loyalty from her colleagues even more tragic.

Lulu, if you expect loyalty from these jackals, then your dream has long since turned into a nightmare. They hardly care about Bryan. Why would they care about you?

As Walsh finished his speech, the admin nodded in a murmured agreement. declan walsh had explained his logic and defended his point. That was acceptable. It was the occasional reminder that Team Rocket knew its direction. When Monroe entered the room, Howard raised a cigarette to the man. He had respect for the Rocket Boss. His family had benefitted from the Monroe's policies when he had been commissioner, after all.

"Regirock will tell me what it knows. If it can locate Ting-lu, then it will." Either it or Shred 's dragon would have to lead that charge. Its cry was familiar to that thing yowling in Area Zero several months ago. "If we fail..."

He shrugged. The message was clear to jayden cross and Elisabeth Fiorelli . Pray that we do.

"It will because we didn't look hard enough. Not because of some prophecy."

With the topic of Ruination kicked into a corner, Howard turned his attention to Monroe and Walsh's proclamations. They'd be far easier to perform with the Coveted, Cursed, and Scorned in shallow graves, but Howard was rarely so fortunate. Instead, he focused on the topic in which he stood uncontested: Dynamax and Eternatus.

"We will always outpace the Pokémon League when it comes to waging war with Dynamax. They will not destroy their Power Spots. Let them build the infrastructure that we can use to topple them. Regirock and Regice can moved while Dynamaxed, as well. We can utilize their make far better than the stationary targets that Dynamax typically provides. Regirock leveled the city with its mere presence. Dewford is still rebuilding."

He extended his hands, his Dynamax Band gleaming against flesh carved from ice and stone.

"Five giants. If we have them all, we can outmanuever the League on the battlefield. Think! Marching Dynamaxed Pokémon through rifts! Through other worlds! Throw a dozen trainers on a moving artillery platform and we could level a city. We have leveled a city." He nodded to priam conrad and Monroe. "Petalburg is a valley, now."

Dynamax was a scourge, but it was a scourge that Team Rocket and the Pokémon League would continue to use. He had proclaimed its dubious nature from the moment it had occurred, and he had yet to be proven wrong on its dangers. Yet it was a useful sword, even if it risked cutting them each time they swung it.

Eternatus would have its due. Tempest Quinn and Cillian Quinn knew that, now.

"And if we must travel across every world, we should consider those we have yet to access. They are potential battlegrounds as well." His eye found Naomi Sato , and he remembered their conversation in the Unown Dimension. "What of Land and Sea Hoenn?"

---

FUCK YOU ELISABETH IM GONNA KILL YOU AND YOUR SNAIL
Is like 'bet' to chasing Ting-lu and doming it. Hopefully he never finds it :clueless:
Walsh explained his logic, Howard is like bet
Yaps about Dynamax and other worlds, and how Dynamax is their most efficient engine of war and leveraging it across multiple worlds is the key to victory.
God I hate Eternatus ft. Temp/Cill
Yaps about Land/Sea Hoenn

"Ameena." He raised a glass of whiskey to the scientist from the bar counter. The amber liquid glistened in the light, which reflected the scientist's visage back at her. "Sit."

He gestured at the bar stool next to him, before draining his glass and slamming it into the table.

"I'll make this quick, since I'm heading to New Mauville shortly to chase ghosts." Regieleki wasn't a ghost, but its ruin was. Though admittedly, Howard wasn't sure if the ghost was Regieleki, its ruin, or june sleigh. They all blurred together at this point, and trips to Mauville were expensive. "And commit property damage. Make sure you have a good alibi in..."

He checked his watch.

"An hour." He raised his empty glass. "Want a drink? I'll pay."

It was noon.

---

ameena abadi

His breath stopped suddenly, then restarted. A break in the mechanical rhythm, proof that the machine was defective and needed to be repaired. Machinery was perfect in its motions, meant to emulate what the human body could not. Human beings were inconsistent, trifling, and unreliable. When a motorbike broke, it made sense. When a human broke, there were an infinite number of reasons why.

June had broken when she had been trapped in a tomb. She had broken herself further in a desperate attempt to claw for freedom. Howard had broken himself years ago, when he had traded sight for life and freedom for slavery.

They were defective.

"Because I didn't want to watch you kill yourself." He collapsed against the wall, breathing heavily. The rim of his hat broke their eye contact. He refused to meet her gaze. "Or maim yourself, at least."

If he looked at her, it'd be over. She'd know.

"Sometimes, you leave a Fletchling in a cage so it doesn't hurt itself outside. You weren't ready to fly, and I..." He swallowed, hearing the faint dripping of blood echo through the cave. "...didn't want to see you fall."

He pulled a working leg close, as if cramping himself into a tighter space would make everything right. It did not. He pulled it closer.

"Do you really want to know?"

---

june sleigh

"I'd like that. I know someone who could really hear those words right now."

Yet he suspected that june sleigh would not hear them.

A small smile flickered across his lips as he gazed upon his helmet for several moments, viewing the distorted reflection. This was the first time that he had ever revealed his face to a member of the Pokémon League. No matter. Anyone who knew Howard Slayte would not look for him under this visage.

This body that was not his own was a blessing and a curse. The helmet slid back into place.

"Uniting Team Rocket and the Pokémon League by destroying one side? I praise your efforts, at least." He watched as Tapu Bulu grew to the size of a skyscraper. "But Genevieve, have you not learned?"

A Wishing Star appeared in his palm, thrumming with Dynergy. A piece he had extracted for himself. Keeping them on his person was a risk, but they worked remarkably well as beacons. With all the Dynergy flowing around, it was a formality more than anything. Yet still he chose to use it.

"I'm going to leave you with a lesson to take back to the League. A humbling reminder that a pure heart cannot change the world alone, and that dreams are nothing without the will to make them true. That is why I am the only one who could stand in your way."

He clenched the Wishing Star until it threatened to shatter. The earth began to rumble beneath their feet as Regice took the Max Starfall and more barriers shattered. There was a bright red explosion of light.

"Now, show yourself! A stage worthy of 'Royalty' has been set! Appear...!"

Howard's smile widened as from a Tera Tunnel underground, something burrowed up using its size and affinity for the earth, acutely aware of the influx of Dynamax in the area. A massive explosion of ice and dirt was sent up into the sky.

Seven dots ignited, scorching the arena with the color red. Wild Pokémon scampered and fled, and the admin felt his communicator buzzing. He ignored it. If Genivieve wanted to stand tall, then he'd let her.

"REGIROCK!"

---

Genevieve Cromwell
MUSIC
+70 (Post)
+10 (Weather/Terrain)
+50 past thread
+50 tag a character
+50 respect another character
+50 (cast shade on Genny's loyalties)
+50 (dynamax)
+50 (use a legendary to reflect your character)
+50 (rock bottom)
+50 (regrettable decision)
+50 (pokeball 'throw')
+25 (music)

She's hopeful. She genuinely believed that he could change. It was an admirable thought. He wanted to reach out his hand, take hers, and swear loyalty to the Pokémon League. Yet he would always be a freak. An outcast who had betrayed the world in order to chase his own dream.

"If I take your hand, I will become a craven without a home. The League will ostracize me, and Team Rocket will hunt me." He reached for his helmet with trembling hands, allowing the mechanism to unclasp. "I've seen what they do to defectors. For every Isaac Merlo, there's a thousand dead men."

Hiss. The helmet came off. Brown hair hung limp and ragged, and an expression of overwork and exhaustion covered his face. A white streak of hair that shined like a thousand Tera Crystals glimmered through the snow, a mutual reminder that he and Michael Navidson were brothers. Red lines of Dynergy flickered under the skin like circuitry.

A single magenta eye met two orange ones.

"declan walsh exists in every shadow. He's watching me now. He's watching you. There is not a single move I make that is my own. Not a single word I utter goes unheard. The only thing he can't know..." Howard tapped his forehead. "...is in here."

It was a trick both he and Naomi Sato used to hide their intentions from their superior.

"If you want to free me, Genevieve, you have to beat Rocket. If you want to beat Rocket, you have to get through me." He closed his eye, sorrowful. "So step forward and try to make your dream a reality, as broken as bleeding as you are."

He extended a hand.

"Rouse your Tapu, and beat me. Or turn around, and let your dream live to fight another day." The wind caused his hair to flutter slightly. "Choose."

---

Genevieve Cromwell
+60 (Post)
+10 (Weather/Terrain)
+50 past thread
+50 tag a character
+50 respect another character
+50 (cast shade on Genny's loyalties)
+50 (dynamax)
+50 (use a legendary to reflect your character)
+50 (rock bottom)

Chu-e Choi was going to hell. Howard's biggest crime was getting up at two in the morning to go to the bathroom. It wasn't his fault that Chu-e froze without contact.

"Because we're not in one, and if he knows what's good for him, he'll keep his mouth shut unless he wants to end up on the streets." He wasn't nearly drunk enough for this. He swirled his glass, before taking a sip. Damn. It was harder to get buzzed now than it had been before. "Again."

He would've started smoking if it didn't risk lighting the bag on fire.

"Besides, I'm not engaged anymore." Howard huffed and shook his head, annoyed at this tag team of Makoto Kurumi and NIKOLA SAMSA. "I can go where I want with whoever I want. If you want to send me a gift, send me more whiskey. He keeps hiding mine."

Damn. Now he was grumpy. He nibbled on a slice of bread, which slowly disappeared into the bag. The fact that this person is Yotsukura Yotsugami's superior is the biggest mockery of them all. Ineptitude made for a comfortable mask, after all.

"Boss." Howard raised a glass to Cillian Quinn. "That reminds me. I heard there's an Odd Keystone exhibit somewhere. I wanted your opinion on the piece. Walk with me?"

He paused for a moment.

"Alone?"

---

I HATE CHU-E I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM
Yaps to Makoto and Nikola about his fucked up room and board situation
Gets grumpy
Attempts to steal Cillian Quinn for some personal yappage

Howard. That was one name. Howard Slayte. Admin Fox. Liar. Failure. Mistake. Royal. Squire. Hero. ⠓⠕⠺⠁⠗⠙ ⠎⠇⠁⠽⠞⠑. █████████.

She knew his name. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Passing out from the pain seemed preferable, but it wasn't time for consciousness to slip away. To pass out was to lose sensation, and that would mean June would be stuck in the dark. Logic dictated she would be fine. His heart disagreed. His leg voiced its agreement with a wave of pain.

"Because..." He crawled through the rubble, despite his leg. He met her gaze, even as their faces were covered in dirt and grime. "Because..."

The body could mend. Perhaps the mind could too, given enough time. Yet the past? That was set in stone, but stone could shift, given enough time. It could be tunneled and burrowed through. Perhaps even yesterday could change. It sounded delusional.

"...you couldn't breathe."

---

june sleigh

"They don't need to be. If everyone has a beautiful, pure dream, than none of them are pure. The mediocre and unappealing make the truly special ones worth chasing." Howard swirled his wine glass absentmindedly, watching his reflection distort in the liquid. "Still, every single dream is worth something. Even an ugly dream is worth defending."

As he uttered the words, he thought of Shred and his final stand against both Palkia and Kyurem. It had been an ugly, selfish dream, but it had been his. That had been a dream worth protecting, because it had been Shred's dream.

Now? Hell if he knew.

"Tell me, Alba." He fully drained the glass and set it aside, regarding the scientist. "Who owned that dream, before you took it for yourself?"

If the dream had changed at some point, did it truly belong to its original owner anymore? Seizing someone else's property for his own gain was a very Team Rocket thing of Alba to do. It amused the admin, and he found himself chuckling and shaking his head.

---

Alba Evovae

"I don't know any Howards. Stupid name, that." Howard muttered as a Skarmory with a top hat on his head fluttered down from the heavens. The steel bird pecked at his bag several times, before flying over to chatter with Makoto's Sneasler. "I'm..."

He almost said 'unemployed', before stopping himself. There was a momentary war between his pride and his dignity. Unfortunately, they both left each other mortally wounded, so the admin's startling lack of shame was ultimately what won that battle.

"...Howard, yeah." He slumped his head and sighed. "Don't tell anyone, though. It's a secret."

Unfortunately, a crowd had gathered, including the person he went to hell with, the person who had saved him from Regirock's fist, and his boss, alternatively known as the other person he had recently went to hell with. Given that Tempest Quinn wasn't clinging to Cillian's arm, Howard assumed he was at home feeding his Corsolas or something.

Alternatively, he was sleeping off the effects of... that trip to the Borders.

"I'm hiding from my roommate. I'm afraid he'll ask me to do something absurd, like dance. I'm just here for the food and artifacts." Howard told Cillian Quinn and Adrian Malcolm as he lifted the bag slightly to drain his glass of wine. He shuddered in trepidation, before passing the empty glass to a nearby Dusclops. "Not unless it's a special occasion, which it's not."

When his coupons refreshed for the grocery store, he'd dance. Not for something as absurd as a masquerade. He rose to his full height and raised a glass to Makoto Kurumi and NIKOLA SAMSA .

"You look lovely, Makoto. I didn't think you'd go all out." He screwed up his face at Nikola. "Don't peck my eye out with that mask. I'm all out of spares."

---

GLASS ONE DOWN GLASS TWO IS A GO. Illumina Skarmory is flying around with a top hat and bow tie, yapping.
Explains that he's hiding from Chu-e Choi to Adrian and Cillian, before explaining that he's here for the food, drink, and cool displays
Compliments Makoto, heckles Nikola back

As she asked why he still drew breath, Howard simply steepled his fingers together, wordless in his response.

He still lived because Team Rocket was drunk on victory. They had supped from the chalice of success after the crippling failure of Mossdeep and it had made their gazes giddy and their eyes wide with delusion. The death of an underboss that few had truly loved was a wound that felt superficial.

Nobody knew how valuable Elisabeth Fiorelli truly was until she was gone. He suspected it was the same with this woman. Howard hated her. Shred hated her. He suspected that many of her colleagues hated her.

Yet without her, they were... lesser. Everyone needed somebody to hate, to bring themselves to greater heights. They needed someone to covet, and Penelope Livy was a very easy woman to envy.

"She was contradicting an order from Team Rocket's highest authorities. I made an executive decision on the battlefield and excised her." His eye flicked to the guardsman, before continuing. "Without her there, I became the highest authority in Petalburg, barring Walsh and... others."

Arceus above, he hated the grunts behind him. Filthy Kantonian rats.

"As for who 'ordered' the execution, well..." He pointed a thumb at the Regirock standing behind him. Its face held no emotion, but it still stared daggers at Chi-yu, its pattern flashing. "It recognized her. It recognizes you. You both reek of Ruination."

---

PENELOPE LIVY
+30 (post)
+50 (recall a thread)
+50 (describe le Pokeball)
+50 (antagonistic dialogue)

"..." When the ice dissipated, the Marowak had fallen. How could she not, when faced with a machine meant to kill a being that had been old when the world was born? No matter her love for that Pokemon, no matter her empathy for others, no matter the tale that Marowak held in her heart as she fell on the field.

It could not compete with divine machinery. Nor could it compete with the purity of a machine. That was the will of humanity, and it stood as proof that she was not ready.

Skulley was not Vortigern. Genny was not Navy.

But they're similar enough. The golem does not attack again. It shares its heart with Howard, after all. If there was one weakness that the admin held, it was that he had far too many hearts. When he speaks, the static dirge from his helmet dissipates, leaving a tired voice.

"Have you ever been afraid of your own shadow?"

---

Genevieve Cromwell
+50 (Post)
+10 (Weather/Terrain)
+50 past thread
+50 tag a character
+50 respect another character
+50 (cast shade on Genny's loyalties)
+50 (dynamax)
+50 (use a legendary to reflect your character)