#it just doesn't seem like skull's deal?? hurting pokemon for profit so

[hatedboss]

remember that one slowpoke that had its tail cut off by grunts (you find it in the aether building on rt 8 right before you meet col.ress) --- was that supposed to be the same pokemon you rescued by the cemetary?? bc that one definitely still had its tail and the grunts even said that they were gonna try to sell the pokemon, like the entire thing, rather than its tail. and also skull isn’t really a team focused on any particular goal? like team rocket was chopping up slowpokes like no one’s business bc they wanted the money but it doesn’t really seem to be about the money with team skull. plus i think if ya boy/plumes found out that grunts were keeping a pokemon around just to chop it up and profit they would....not react well. like you’re gonna tell guz that you’re holding onto a pokemon just to repeatedly abuse it and profit that would!!! go over very poorly

headcanon under the cut bc it got rambly lmao

personally i hc that there were, in fact, 2 slowpokes --- one that was gonna be sold wholesale by the grunts and one that had its tail chopped. maybe the grunts were working together but the 2 chickened out of mutilating the pokemon and decided to sell the whole thing, while another grunt actually did chop off the tail. when guz found out the grunt was kicked out of the team, probably chased from the mansion in a big way, a couple grunts were tasked with dropping the pokemon off outside of an aether building since pokemon centers are all well and good but aether is more dedicated to rehabilitation so would be better suited to caring for the pokemon. the grunts were seen with the slowpoke so skull got the blame for being the group who chops up pokemon for profit and while it’s not true, damage control on their reputation isn’t really a main concern for guz so there was no effort to set the record straight. but it was made clear to the grunts that causing trouble and being public nuisances is all well and good, go ahead and steal pokemon like it’s nobodies business, but there is a hard line drawn at outright abuse.

THAT BEING SAID i could also see it totally being an accident bc apparently slowpoke tails just......fall off, no muss no fuss no pain, to the point where the tails are a pretty common household meal (the moon pokedex literally describes how to cook a slowpoke tail in traditional alolan home cooking fashion), so it also could have been a complete misunderstanding could you imagine being the grunts who go sobbing to the bosses bc they had a slowpoke and its tail fell off and omg did they hurt it is it okay what should they do??????