Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was warm, perhaps even hot. Not as hot as the desert, of course, nor as hot as the volcano, but after the work she had completed, Aila felt she had at least a little room to complain. Acquiring information on Sagestone's upcoming archaeological dig had been slightly more challenging than she had expected, likely due in part to the fact that she was built more for posing as a child than as a scientist. She had completed her given mission, however, and stashed her acquired information for report upon returning to the base.

Despite everything, though, Aila was actually running a bit ahead of her foreseen schedule, affording her a bit of time to enjoy the scenery. She had foregone a visit to Sagestone when she was traveling during her medical leave, and on exploring the city she had begun to understand exactly why: There simply wasn't much there in terms of sight-seeing. The local museum had a few interesting exhibits, but she found it a poor idea to endanger her mission with unrelated thievery. Fortunately, there was at least one other point of interest: the beach. Though not one for frivolity, it was hot, she was tired, and the waters looked cool and inviting...

Such was the thought process that found the girl placing her possessions in the lockers in the awning's shade - among them her backpack containing the spoils of her mission, a change of clothes, and a series of pokeballs. There were seven of the spheres in total, one of which was destined to leave her possession in the nearer future. Well, that wasn't a concern at the moment, though. She shut the door, ensured that the lock was secure, and turned pink eyes towards the vast ocean. Traces of the scars from the Ho-Oh's Sky Attack peered from beneath the cover of the white bathing suit and the violet sarong, concealed to the best of their wearer's ability but visible despite her efforts. Well, it wasn't as though she was worried about being judged for them anyway...

A brief sigh passed her lips. What was one meant to do at the beach anyhow? A momentary survey revealed that perhaps she was wrong to have come alone; it seemed everyone had at least one companion, be it human or pokemon. She hesitated at the edge of the awning as she considered her options.

Vigilant of her surroundings, it took Aila only a brief moment before she noticed the Snivy at her side, turning her attention to it as it turned its to her. She scrutinized it briefly, brow furrowed slightly in thought. That one was the grass-type Snivy, if she recalled properly. Didn't that executive agent bring a few of them along when he came in from Unova? Thus far the only Unova pokemon she had seen had been a result of his arrival, and she had lived in Kodo for quite a time - her entire life, in fact. Curious, she crouched in front of it and folded her arms in her lap.

"Hello," she greeted in a soft tone. "Are you one of Loreven's?" She hadn't noticed any other Rockets at the beach in her cursory glance, but it was possible the Snivy belonged to someone she didn't know... Of course there was also the possibility that it was a visiting trainer's Snivy and had no connection to Team Rocket whatsoever, but Aila was not yet ready to entertain the thought.

The Snivy's reaction suggested that he recognized the name, causing even more confusion. Maybe it was here with another Rocket, though his seemingly offended response was strange in itself... "What are you doing here?"

Her curiosity was cut short by the interruption of a Meganium. It took a moment's observation to put a name to the uniquely marked grass-type, an identification that was confirmed when she started her dancing movements. "Ah... Leilani?" She rested a hand on the Meganium's head. The question was less of whether or not it was truly Leilani and more of what she was doing at the beach. "Is Inigo here as well?" Wait, but then the Snivy belonged to Inigo? What?

Aila watched as Leilani turned and moved away, following her gaze as the grass-type called into the distance. Oh, there he was. So the Snivy was Inigo's? He didn't have it before, did he? Maybe he had recently acquired it... But then how, if all of Loreven's pokemon were assigned to Rockets? Perhaps he'd visited Unova and caught it or... something. Hm. Her thoughts were redirected by the Meganium's touch against her shoulder, and she moved to rest a hand on the grass-type's head before rising to her full height and returning to the lockers. If Inigo was here, this would save her the detour through Sandalwood she had been planning. The Snivy's disinterest was answered in kind as Aila unlocked her designated box and sifted through the assortment of pokeballs for the one she had marked.

Ah, there it was. She withdrew the seventh pokeball, marked with a little red square: formerly the end of an R's leg, cut away from the incriminating mark. The branding sticker had been the only one she could find without purposefully going out to buy one.

The familiar voice, uttering a familiarly foreign language, affirmed the identity of the young man that had approached. A small pride took root in Aila as she realized that she recognized the Spanish words and could even translate them back to English. "Hello, Inigo," she greeted with a dip of her head, her demeanor mild. "I've been well, thank you. Arm and all." As a demonstration, she raised the mentioned limb slightly at the elbow and flexed her fingers. "What of yourself? How's your research going?"

She turned her head slightly with a thoughtful hum that remained internal. She knew of a controlled environment, but it seemed a bit extreme to offer a position in a criminal organization just because he was a little dissatisfied with his current conditions. He was a university student; he and his research had a laudable future if they remained in Sandalwood.

"Well," she said, cutting off her own thoughts before they wandered too far, "I hope it works out in the end. I'd be interested to see the results of your research." She would be interested to see the research itself, in all honesty, but she didn't exactly have the time to visit the university for any extended duration, let alone the gall to ask.

The Snivy caught her attention once more, and she watched it with a mild curiosity. It really was bugging her, wondering where he'd gotten the thing. "Pardon me if this is an odd question, but do you happen to know a man named Loreven?" The Snivy seemed to know Loreven, and the fact that it was in Inigo's possession implied that perhaps he knew the executive as well... But how?

A thoughtful hum and a slight inclination of her head. "He's a recent transfer at my workplace who came from Unova and brought some of the native pokemon with him," she explained. "I had never seen a Snivy before he came, so I thought that maybe you had somehow received it from him. I guess that's not the case, though..." Oh well. That did leave the question of how he had acquired the grass-type, but now that she knew it wasn't through contact with Team Rocket, she was a bit less concerned over the matter.

Speaking of Loreven and Unova pokemon and grass-types, she still had the pokeball to hand over... Maybe it would be better to do that later, though. Or perhaps it would be best of all to simple mail it to him so that he couldn't outright reject it and publicly embarrass her. It was an irrational concern, she knew, but it was an irrational concern that she couldn't shake.

Well, that was... interesting. Curious. Weird, it was weird. Maybe the Snivy had gotten away from the base somehow... It obviously wasn't wild if it already had a pokeball with it. Well, whatever. It seemed the grass-type had made a choice for itself, somehow or another, and there likely wasn't any way it would be convinced to do anything else.

The question might have caused a momentarily flustering of her demeanor had it been posed a few months prior, but her continued work in infiltration and study of theatre allowed Aila to respond levelly and - she hoped - convincingly, "It's sort of a pokemon research group, I suppose. I work part-time going back and forth between various research sites and compiling information." For an alibi, it wasn't even that far from the truth.