IC Inbox

[vrdantwind]

"Hey, this is Claude! Pretty sure I'm doing this correctly. You can leave me a message here, and I'll get to it as soon as I can. Talk to you soon~."

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[insidegalra]

Thace appreciates a fellow information-gatherer who does solid homework, so he just nods at first.

Finally he speaks. "Steven does so like to talk about me."

A kiss on Steven's cheek after he says it, but then he's more serious. "The changes I would like to see regarding Rocket's existence or operation may not be possible, but I would be interested in at least hearing about what you would do with that information if you acquired it."

[fingersandteeth]

Steven's face heats up. "Yeah, I've been told I talk too much about my boyfriends when I have them. And-- my exes, even when they're long gone. I'm trying to work on being less obnoxious about it."

He sighs and shoves a hand back through his hair, a nervous, impatient gesture. "He's told me about what he'd like to see from the Team and I really don't think the Admins would buy it, unfortunately--much less the Boss, who is basically incommunicado with most of us and probably actually missing. And even if I manage to squeeze one final promotion out, they don't let people like us be Admins. Alpha's the highest we can shoot for and we don't even have one of those anymore now that--" He catches himself, then shakes his head.

"It doesn't matter now. The point is, I'm one of the three highest ranked Rockets in our little community and there's not a lot I can do to alter how the Team works on a macro level. There's only so much I can do when it comes to my fellow press-ganged."

[vrdantwind]

Claude can't help smiling when Thace kisses Steven. It's just...genuinely nice to see the two of them so affectionate with each other. And now that he's had it confirmed exactly who Thace was being so protective of when he and Thace first met, well...it all certainly adds up perfectly.

It's also good to see Steven with someone who clearly loves him so much, after how much Steven's relationship with Jack hurt him. Claude only has Steven's word to go on in regards to his and Thace's relationship - Claude, personally, hasn't witnessed much of it - but this seems vastly healthier for Steven, and he's glad the man has that. A partner who's deeply invested in him, as opposed to being deeply invested in Steven's investment in him as some weird egotistical thing...

"It's not obnoxious, really," Claude says aloud. "It's more that it tends to spring up in times and conversations where it doesn't have any place, like mushrooms popping up in your basement. There's nothing wrong with mushrooms in their proper place, but you shouldn't let them bud out of control wherever they like or you'll have them growing out of your ears soon enough." He grins. "But we'll both avoid digressing into more of that talk for now."

He props his chin on one hand. "To answer your question, Thace, what I'd do with more information would probably vary based on just what that information was. If you're asking me if I have some ultimate goal for Team Rocket or how I'd deal with it? I think I'd start by finding a way to identify the Rocket otherworlders in the ranks so I could extend a hand to them. Even people who might be genuine troublemakers in their own right probably don't appreciate being forced to be pawns for some two-bit gang of thieves. But, obviously, Team Rocket's got a broad reach, and a lot of coordination, and they could cause no end of trouble for anyone they've forced into service if they go rogue. Not killing trouble, since that's apparently off the table here, but there's a whole range of options for the creative and vengeful bastard that they could employ, and I don't blame anyone for not wanting to test them."

He drums the fingers of the other hand on the table. "So the first order of business would be to find a way to protect any Rocket otherworlders who want to leave. A way to protect them and hide them from Team Rocket, ensure their safety. If we could line up enough Duckletts in a row, and rather than stealing their pieces one by one could clear the board of all their pressganged agents at once in one mass exodus...it could be potentially devastating for them, and swing the balance of power significantly in our favor. Suddenly they have a lot fewer agents and pokémon, and all those people have a grudge and lots of inside information to put towards a decisive strike on Team Rocket - ideally made while they're still in chaos. And with the otherworlders who didn't have a choice in joining out of the line of fire, you'd have nothing left but people who looked at a peaceful world where money all but rains from the sky and went 'actually, I want to cause problems on purpose'. The Jennies can have all of them, for all I care."

He shrugs and smiles. "It all sounds nice on paper, of course. In practice, providing that protection to ex-Rockets in the first place would be tough. And frankly, I don't know how many pressganged Rockets are that interested in leaving, or cooperating with anyone. I can think of one I know who is the definition of difficult, if only because I'm not convinced he knows it's possible to be anything but. There's another one that hates me because I may have sprayed a Potion in his eyes when my cover was about to be blown at Christmas..." His grin turns a bit wry. "So there's definite complications. It'd take a hell of a lot of work and coordination, way more than I could do on my own. But that would be my first step - extracting the pressganged Rockets from the ones there by choice. Separating the wheat from the chaff."