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 Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:19 am
Therac was staring at him again.
Hayes honestly hadn't made a lot of progress with his second-newest Pokemon, one of the few successfully downloaded in the raid on Camphoreon. There had been nothing of interest or value enough to catch the eye of the higher-ups, so they were placed into storage or - in the case of this shiny Espeon - with a trainer. The agent supposed it was a sort of reward for a job well done, or at least not horribly botched as the rest, but so far they hadn't yet.. clicked.
For now, at least, they seemed to be coexisting. Hayes had opted to work through lunch in an alcove on the first floor at a table next to the windows, shades open to the world outside. His Espeon sat on the middle of the table, directly in the path of the pale desert sunlight, peering over the top of his laptop screen. Occasionally Hayes would glance up; occasionally Therac's forked tail would twitch. Occasionally the blond would pause typing to take a sip of his drink.
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Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 12:51 am
When Faleen had first set out to find Hayes and return his books to him, she didn’t get five steps down the hall before realizing… she didn’t know where his room was and that of coarse lead to… where would he be? The only times she had ever bumped into him were in the infirmary… for pokemon then for humans.
It didn’t take her to long to get an idea of where he might be.
Of course he wasn’t there either, but following her inquiry about the presence of Agent Hayes, some of the other Rocket in the mainframe looked up and around there computers with mixed expressions of interest, puzzlement and even some suspicious frowns.
Thankfully she got an answer from one of them, saying that Hayes was on the first floor having lunch.
It was a specific answer, so Faleen, glad to not have to wander around looking into each place he might be having lunch, hitched the books he had lent her higher onto her good hip, and headed out into the hall again with a polite “thank you” to the Rocket who had answered.
Scanning the alcove upon entry, it didn’t take her hazel eyes very long to catch sight of Hayes sitting by one of the windows. Sighing softly in relief, the grunt made her way over to the agent.
still looking a little frazzled, though she had calmed down from her best friends… interesting claims, Faleen had forgotten about them herself, thoroughly convicting herself that she, Faleen was right, and Kofuku was just trying to tease her.
Walking up to Hayes, no problems, stopping behind him, no problems, opening her mouth to speak, and…
“Hayes Sir- ... Hayes” catching herself quickly she blinked oddly at her change from formal to informal.
Odd
trying to prove a pointless point to Rocket who wasn’t even there.
Very odd.
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Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:44 pm
Therac noticed her approach first, sensing the change in the air on the fine tips of his fur, visible as a faint corona with the sun's backlighting. The Espeon drew himself up in a sleek, catlike motion, turning deep purple eyes on Faleen. Like Nemerle the Psychic-type's gaze was steady, but lacked her penetrating evaluation. Instead, it was infused with quiet curiosity - hello, you're new. Who are you? His tail waved slowly in the air.
His Pokemon's movements notified Hayes, who glanced up briefly. Seeing Faleen was deliberately approaching him rather than passing by, he leaned back in his chair and looked at her over his shoulder, his good hand resting loosely on his laptop's touch pad. The contents of its screen were, in a word, stark - a cursor blinked over black text on a white background, set into a system of brackets arranged in almost a geometric fashion.
"Oh hey," the programmer smiled easily at her. "What's up?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:47 pm
Faleen was eyeing the Espeon by the time Hayes looked around at her, blinking at it in surprise as it just…. Stared at her.
Eye browns twitching slightly for a split second with a soft frown back at the pokemon, before she finally reached the table and stopped, her attention was returned to Agent Hayes. Or at least what she could see with the sun shining directly in her eyes. Where she has stopped was at the perfect height to block out most of her vision with light.
Ugh, the light,
Lifting her hand to try and block some of the sun, once she got it at the right angle, her vision came back perfectly and she could suddenly see Hayes again, and that psychic type still staring at her.
“Oh, well I wanted to be sure to return these to you” she said, using her other arm to shift the books in her grip.
“I’m going to be leaving in the morning so I wasn’t sure when I would be back to return them after then”
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Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:12 pm
"Speon?" the creature asked with a little tilt of its head.
Hayes' brows lifted slightly. "New mission so soon?" He sounded mildly surprised. His eyes drifted to the books, or rather Faleen's injured midsection, and back up to her face as he reached up and pushed his glasses onto the bridge of his nose. Then he smiled.
"But you'll be back. Go ahead and keep them 'til you've finished; it's fine."
He hadn't been there long, but now his computer was starting to heat up. Hayes noticed this as his hand returned to the keyboard. The Rocket's mouth twitched as he glanced at his work, and he closed the laptop screen to move it out of the sunlight.
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Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:25 pm
“Yeah, going to the mountains” she replied, in her condition, that did make her nervous, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it, so she didn’t bother dwelling on it.
When he told her to keep them she blinked, “I’m not sure how long I’m going to be gone,”
she replied after a moment, having expected him to just take them back. Why didn’t he?
Watching him move his computer, getting the impulse to step out of the sun herself, shifting to the side where the wall blocked the window, allowing her to lower her hand, standing more comfortably in the shadow.
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Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:39 pm
Hayes winced a little in sympathy, and also from the movement of pulling the computer onto his lap, where it was shaded by the table. "Hope you do better than I did," he wished her. The agent seemed like he was going to say something else, but thought better of it and just shook his head, getting bangs in his eyes.
"You're not done with them yet, though, right?" He grinned mildly. "Relax. I'm not in any rush - and there's some good stuff in the back chapters."
Therac tilted his head to the other side, watching the interaction between the two humans owlishly.
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Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:02 pm
“…” her brow furrowed, clearly she was confused about something, replaying his gestures, and his words over in her head
why would he let her keep them? The way he talked, he was being thoughtful, encouraging. Sure that wasn’t anything new, she was just as perplexed by this as she was those times before, but then Kofuku hadn’t planted that little SEED into her mind.
Faleen’s eyes grew wider with sudden realization … Oh crap, Kofuku was right; he was being way too nice.
Reaching up to scratch at her forehead nervously, then tugging at her already baggie clothes, trying to think of what to do.
Well, one thing’s for sure! She had to set things straight before she left! Right now! Her face turned serious, though a small red tint crept over her cheeks
“Uh, look. Hayes, sir I don’t know if you got the wrong idea from me or something, but… I’m not interested”
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:19 am
As Faleen's expression changed, so did Hayes'. At first his usual mellow smile hovered expectantly on his face as he waited for a response, and when it didn't come and she was staring at him, the smile faded and his brows knit, puzzled.
He grasped for a shred of understanding.
"..in robotics?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:26 am
"What!? no! oh god no, I love robots." she sounded almost alarmed at that very assumption, half clinging to the books. why would he think robotics? the expression on his face told her he wasn't sure what she was talking about, how could that be?
this was embarrassing, and very troubling,
"I mean you."
There was an uncomfortable stiffness in her voice.
"please don't take offense! I'm sure your a great guy" she had to remember he was still an agent, higher rank then she was, holding her free hand up.
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 1:06 am
Therac glanced between the two of them like a spectator at a tennis match.
"I-" Hayes started to say, and blinked at her.
"What?"
For a moment he looked utterly confused, as if he was hearing a different language.
Then: "Oh geez," the blond laughed, sounding embarrassed. A sheepish grin spread across his features; he ran a hand through his bangs and looked away, his voice full of good-natured amusement. "That's- Faleen, that's not why I gave you the books."
Hayes met the grunt's gaze, the grin faded to a smile that was amused but understanding. "I'm trying to help you, not hit on you."
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 1:16 am
The tension that she had built up in her shoulders suddenly slacked, taken by surprise at his denial of Faleen's assumptions... and he was still nice about it.
"Your not?" she asked, eye growing a little wider.
a sight sense of panic might have been building up, how foolish must that have looked to him, yet still! he was smiling, and not looking accusing at all.
"oh goodness... oh dear, Hayes, I'm so sorry, I let Kofuku get in my head and-"
lifting a hand to her face to try and hide her embarrassment.
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 1:42 am
This was all very strange. Therefore, Therac continued to observe, although he adjusted his position to stay directly in the sunbeam.
A passing grunt gave Hayes and Faleen a curious look, then hurried on.
Hayes just smiled. "It's okay; relax. Want to sit for a sec? Or put the books down?" He nudged the chair opposite him out a bit with his foot. Faleen was looking a little shaky.
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:01 am
"No I'm- yes" changing her mind, one reason being she didn't want to seem rude, the second, her side was bothering her; she wanted to rest it a little.
Placing the books on the table first, taking a moment to glance up to the Espeon again, though with how bright a color it already was, being illuminated further by the light, caused her to flinch her gaze away in surprise and discomfort.
Avoiding looking at the pokemon any further she sat sideways in the seat, facing Hayes instead, Knees together, crossing an arm over to put a supporting hand over her still healing wound.
“I guess I just jumped to an assumption without any valid reason, I apologize for that.” she said, feeling ashamed.
“I didn’t mean any disrespect by it, and once again, don’t take this as an offense, but I’m glad I was wrong.” She shook her head “I’ve got a lot more important things to be worry about or devoting my time to.”
she was able to meet his eyes still, though from a bowed head.
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:54 pm
Noting Faleen's discomfort, Hayes reached over and tweaked the blinds a tad. The shiny Espeon went from blindingly radiant to merely mind-numbingly neon green.
"Spe?" His sunbeam! Therac jumped a bit when the books thumped down and swiveled his head around to look at Hayes, who smiled apologetically. "Sorry, bud. You'll get it back in a bit."
Therac's ears drooped.
The agent held his good hand out to the Espeon and looked over at the grunt sitting opposite him, bracing a foot on the leg of the table to keep his computer from sliding off his lap. "It's okay," he repeated, a trace of laughter still in his tone. "You've got priorities; that's good. Team needs that."
Therac nosed inquisitively at the blond's fingers as he asked, "Speaking of, hear anything from Seth yet?"
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