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 Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:12 am
Grunt Nakura was not in the best of spirits. After the Halloween party and the horrendous encounter with his high school rival, the man just wanted to take a few days off. Of course, as a Rocket and a lower-ranking one at that, that was not up to him. So, instead, he hunched over a small desk in his shared room typing up logs of his activities on his laptop, researching people, and sulking.
Only Celty was out and about, but she just hovered at his shoulder, not saying a word. She knew better than to interrupt her trainer at work. Clearly he was distraught, but the ghost and dark-type had yet to understand why. It wasn't until Nakura opened up an old file on a certain 'Aila Christelle de Valois' that she got a clue. The grunt visibly frowned at it and stared for a while at its contents, though he'd read and re-read them many times before.
"Spirrrr...?" Celty whirred softly. Her trainer didn't seem to hear her.
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 9:12 am
The grunt's wishes for solitude would not be answered, and this would become clear at the sound of a knock against the exterior of his door.
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 9:34 am
In a swift, sudden movement, the grunt closed the window he was looking at and pushed back his chair to go open the door. Celty stared at the monitor a moment longer before following after Izaya. He hadn't gotten far; he was still bruised and somewhat battered from the encounter with his nemesis. All his movements were slow and painful. Eventually, however, he made it to the door and put his hand on the handle, but did not yet open it.
"Who's there?" he asked in a weary tone.
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 9:54 am
The voice that responded could have also been perceived as somewhat weary, though perhaps not in the same manner as the physically tired Izaya. Weary though it was, however, it carried a quality that implied that its speaker would not be easily sent away if the other Rocket attempted to do as much. "Aila."
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 10:02 am
After the name was announced, a momentary pause followed before the door was opened fully to reveal the black-haired young man. He smiled at her lop-sidedly as he gestured her in. "Agent! What can I do for you?" he asked cheerily, his smile not quite reaching his eyes.
"Would you like some tea? I just made some. Please, have a seat." He offered his bed, which, along with everything else on his side of the room, was surprisingly tidy. "I wasn't expecting you."
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 10:25 am
The expression with which the agent greeted the grunt was as placid as ever, though it lacked the strict professionalism usually present in her features. A curt nod of greeting responded to the gestured invitation, and she entered, taking the offered seat with a neat, if not rigid, posture. A brief "no, thank you" declined the offer of tea, and a quiet, thoughtful moment preceded her words, "I hope you'll excuse the sudden intrusion. If you're not busy at the moment, there's a matter I'd like to discuss with you." Given recent events - specifically, the masquerade party - it would not be terribly difficult to narrow it down to the few most likely matters.
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 10:53 am
As she took her seat and declined the offer for tea, Izaya made his way back to his desk, slightly limping but doing his best to hide it. He closed his laptop before dragging his chair over to face Aila where she sat on the bed. "Not at all," he told her as he carried out these tasks. "I was just looking over some old files. Please, go ahead."
Gingerly taking his seat, the grunt leaned forward on his knees, reaching for the cup on his nightstand to drink his own tea. It wasn't like Namie's, but it would have to do, lukewarm though it had become. He was starting to wish he had something stronger, though. "What is it you would like to discuss?" the man asked with a distant smile.
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:12 am
Knees together, feet crossed at the ankles, back straight, hands folded in her lap - a posture that was relaxed , but not without her characteristic attentiveness. Izaya's stiff movements did not go unnoticed, but they did go without comment. "If you'll allow me to be so forward," she began with a subtle dip of her head, "your actions as of late baffle me, and I had hopes of hearing some clarification." The slightest of pauses. "In the past, you've criticized me for my unwillingness to place trust or reliance in others. As of late, however, it seems that you are encouraging me towards exactly that. I'm sure you can imagine why I find this contradiction confusing."
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:26 am
A harsh laugh escaped the informant. "Be as forward as you like," he invited, wondering if it was really just his actions as of late that had baffled her. Not that she wasn't just as baffling to him. It was one of her certain charms that made her interesting.
"I can't guarantee my idea of clarification will help shed any light for you, though. When I last tried to explain my actions with Seth, you didn't seem to take me seriously. Heh." He took another sip of his tea and peered into the dark, translucent liquid, silent as she mentioned his past criticisms.
"Oh, come now, Aila. Are you really going to give heed to the ramblings of a lowly grunt such as myself?" he asked her, swirling his cup gently. "Seeing as you remember enough to recall those suggestions, however...do you also remember the context within each one was brought up? Contradictory though my advice may have seemed, I had separate reasons to offer each."
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:42 am
"I would assume that the fact that I've come here and asked what I have is indication enough that I'm not concerned with the matter of your rank. Were you a trainee, I would be just as curious and willing to listen." A slight frown emerged in her expression. "Intentional inconsistency, hm? Then what is your consistent philosophy on the subject? The thoughts you have in your head regardless of what you would tell others." She hadn't expected a forthright and honest answer, of course, and she certainly foresaw quite a bit more beating around the bush. It simply wasn't in his nature to be so straightforward from the beginning. But Aila was nothing if not patient - except, perhaps, stubborn.
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 12:11 pm
"Coming here to talk is one thing. Remembering what I've suggested in the past while others would have carelessly ignored it is another. Just because one may respect a person's actions doesn't necessarily mean they respect their ideologies as well." Though he had mentioned his own rank as inferior, it had mostly been out of jest than anything else. Aila, though, as she seemed prone to do, had taken it pretty seriously if her reply was anything to judge by.
"Ah, no, that's not what I meant. The advice doesn't have to be considered inconsistent just because it contradicts each other. As you well know, some contradictions can exist in harmony with one another, given their own, unqiue times and places where the right one depends on the situation. For example, where a 'Trojan horse' is used as an idiom when suggesting that one beware of gifts, or 'beware Greeks bearing gifts', there's the contradicting phrase, 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'. Both allusions have their meanings and can be correct in certain situations, ne?"
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Sorry, that was kind of a long-winded explanation. Referring specifically to the case you're talking about...I believe I suggested that you should rely on people more. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to trust them. Mm, how do I put this..." he looked about, as if trying to find some way to better explain. Nothing presented itself, though. "Use people. Let them do your work for you. You have resources as an Agent. Just like we use pokemon, use your resources and connections."
He hesitated. "Many people can't come to live this way. They break down from the emotional strain and perhaps guilt upon using others. You, though - you know what the world's like. Take Marco, for example. He used you without a second thought for your personal safety. No emotional attachments involved. If he could treat you that way and manipulate you that effortlessly, who's to say you don't deserve to treat him the same way?"
Izaya leaned back in his chair, lessening the weight on his knees. "You and I both know how cold and cruel the world can be. You can't get anything out of it without being just as ruthless and driven. That's why my overall message to you could probably be summarized in something like, 'smile and laugh to put others at ease, develop their trust in you, and they will be your pawns to dispose of and do with as you will'. If you show them you're comfortable with them, then naturally they will become comfortable with you, even if you never truly trust them. That way you can earn their trust without actually ever giving anything away yourself."
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 12:51 pm
"For what it's worth, I respect your ideologies," she said with a fleeting shrug. "I may not agree with or support all of them, but if I didn't respect your ideologies then we wouldn't be having this conversation." Perhaps she was belaboring an insignificant point, but there it was.
A thoughtful hum, "Those two phrases are unrelated, though, save for their vague connection to horses. They don't contradict each other because their meanings and sources are completely separate. It's a bit different from saying 'rely on others' one day and 'don't concern yourself with others' the next."
She listened as he spoke, features unreadable. When he concluded his point, she inclined her head to a side and offered her response, "It's unwise to send others to act in place of yourself. If something is within my power to do, I will do it myself, no matter how many individuals clamber at my feet to act on my behalf." This wasn't the point she had come to make, however, and she outwardly switched gears.
"Allow me, if you will, to be perfectly blunt. You know fully well how stubborn I am," and she intentionally used 'stubborn' in place of 'determined' despite its negative connotations, "and so you know how unlikely it is that I will let go of something of which I've already taken hold. If you think I volunteered to watch over you in order to save myself, you're wrong, and if you think I continue to associate with you out of obligation, you're wrong. Call me a pawn if you will. Insist that you're using me if you must. To me, you're a friend."
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:38 pm
"That so? Besides the horse factor, I was considering the messages I had interpreted from each one. Mainly, 'be suspicious of gifts' and 'don't be suspicious or critical of gifts; be grateful'. Perhaps I interpreted them wrongly, though." He shrugged.
"It may be unwise to send others to act if you actually expect them to get a job done in a particular fashion. However, if it's just to get them out of the way or set a series of chain reactions in motion, relying on others to do things as pawns isn't so bad. True, once in a while they may act against your predictions, but that's what makes those particular individuals interesting."
He hung his head at her straightforward declaration. "Yes, I understand your motto is more of a, 'if you want to something to be done right, then you've got to do it yourself', but can you really spread yourself so thin as to cover everything on your own?" Maybe she couldn't, but it seemed that didn't stop her from trying. He already knew this. Why were they talking about this? Why had she even bothered bringing up his past suggestion that she obviously disagreed with?
"You don't need my permission, agent. I don't know why you keep insisting on it," Izaya told her, growing increasingly tired of her formalities. Upon her continued elaboration, however, the man coughed mid-drink and ended up spilling some of his lukewarm coffee down the front of his V-neck shirt. He quickly put down the cup and got up to fetch a towel. "Sorry - I must have not heard right," he chuckled as he tried his best to rinse the stain off his shirt. "I thought you said 'friend'. Is Luciole around here somewhere?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 2:07 pm
"Well, the difference between being critical of a gift and being suspicious of a gift-giver, then. Though the point is rather moot." A verbal shrug to match his physical one.
"I feel we have different tastes pertaining to whether or not something is interesting," she observed. "I don't take much joy from watching an individual spiral into chaos and ruin, for instance. But then I am not particularly fond of the unexpected in the first place." Unexpected elements typically led to difficulties and complications, especially in such instances as missions or even paperwork. Routine could be static and boring, but in the case of Team Rocket, even routine could challenge. Routine could challenge, and the unexpected could ruin.
"I do everything that I'm expected to do," she said. "My assignments are my expectations, and in completing them, I fulfill those expectations. Divvying out my own work to others would simply damage the expectations my superiors put on me."
Aila couldn't help but feel his reaction was exaggerated, and she raised a subtle eyebrow at the display, responding with hints of confusion, "I'm not sure what Luciole has to do with this, but you heard me properly. Is that a problem?" Because if it was, too bad.
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:38 pm
"Well, when you say it like that, anyone's interests would sound bad," Nakura murmured at her version of what she believed interested him. After doing what he could to soak the stain with water from a bottle, the man dabbed at it with a towel and pulled off his shirt, draping it over the back of his chair to dry.
His slender frame sported a few multi-colored bruises, minor cuts, and scrapes, but he figured Aila was used to such things and worse; both second and first hand. Though a lot of what he did was exaggerated, much of reaction had been attributed to actual surprise. Aila was the last person he thought he would have had to worry about this sort of thing with. "Oh, nothing much. Except that Luciole is the only one I know who is naive to consider me a friend to her." Other than maybe Xander, perhaps Jerome, and just maybe Faleen, but Aila didn't need to know that. "I just thought she might have cut into our conversation with her telepathy and maybe finished off your sentence for you."
"Alright, here's a question: are you expected to be my friend?" he asked as he plopped himself back in his chair. "No. Is it necessary for anything? No. In fact it could even be detrimental to our professional relationship as co-workers and team members. Do you even know the first thing about having friends? Because the attitude of not wanting to rely on anyone cancels that. You can rely on people without being their friends, but you can't call a person a friend whom you can't rely on."
Examining one of the scrapes along his arm, he continued on as if his point had decidedly shut that subject down. "So...what is this visit really about? Is it Agent Asch? I can honestly tell you now, I hadn't realized he was your partner until that night. He never said anything to me about it. I wonder if he was jealous..."
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