Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Porygon proceeded through the halls quietly, coming to a halt at the end of one and nodding its flat head down the corridor. Halfway down the hall, Lucas stood with a very blue Eevee in his hands, staring at it with a furrowed brow.

"What the hell?" he repeated, raising the thing slightly to better inspect it. "Do Eevee breed in the vents or something? Jeez."

He continued frowning at the thing as it rolled around. What the hell? He turned slightly when he noticed approaching footsteps and a familiar voice. "What, is this yours?" He motioned towards the Eevee to indicate it. "It was in the air vents. Then it was on my face." His frown remained firmly in place, wavering even less when he noticed the Porygon that had stayed at the far end of the hall. "Droid, where have you been? You can't just run around."

Droid was less than impressed by the lecture.

Lucas gratefully handed over the little Eevee when Claire reached for it. He wasn't particularly fond of the thing thus far, especially after the little display of its sharp teeth. When her question was interrupted by an interjection of vague pain, he reached to flick the 'vee's ear. "No biting, ya jerk," he chided before turning his attention to Droid, the Porygon remaining at a distance. "One of the techs gave it to me as an egg when I went in to work... That guy is what I got from it." 'That guy' continued to stare in mild indignation. "What about you? I thought you didn't want an Eevee?"

"Oh, Hayes, huh? I've heard the name." Some laid-back guy who was apparently unfazed by Seth's usual fits of anger or something. From what Lucas had gathered, they worked in different divisions, explaining why that had never had the opportunity to meet. He and Claire had never met in Galactic, after all, even with the both of them working in surveillance. He continued to frown. "Maybe get it a chew toy or something. Something that doesn't bleed when you bite it, at least." On the topic of nuisances, "Dammit, Droid, get over here! I don't feel like dealing with this today!" Without waiting to see if the Porygon would comply, he moved towards it, raising a pokeball and initiating the return feature. The suddenness of his movements caught Droid off-guard, and he was recalled with little struggle.

Lucas was too tired to make a similar connection, and he returned the now occupied pokeball to the other four with a sigh. He'd need to do something about that stupid Porygon before it got him in trouble...

"What?" Frustrated? That was... perhaps more accurate than he initially thought, though he wasn't frustrated at any of the usual sources of frustration. "Well, my pokemon just sent me running through HQ for no reason, and an Eevee jumped on my face. Not the best day of my life, no." Ah, but he was snapping at her again, just like before. She hadn't done anything wrong, and certainly nothing worthy of being snapped at. "...Sorry. Just tired."

Her question elicited a brief laugh, slightly bitter, as if implying that she had no idea the depth of the truth in her words. His worded reply, however, was far less sarcastic, "Yeah, I guess. Though the Porygon's not really doing me any favors either." Well, that was a lie. The Porygon was doing him favors, expediting his ability to design and produce guns exponentially. But the thing grew bored horribly quickly and seemed to have a penchant for making lives miserable. Great.

He regarded her with a somewhat dubious glance, a realization clicking into place. "You do this a lot, don't you?" he observed. "Find a thing you want to know and pick at it until I give." She was pretty damned good at it, too, much to Lucas's chagrin. All that meant was that it was useless to try and dodge the issue and he might as well indulge her. He breathed a deep sigh, leaning against the opposite wall with already dim eyes darkening further. "Uh, well... I used to have a partner, a guy called Morrison. He was my best friend. One day he just kind of... disappeared." The forced tone of voice and conflicted expression betrayed something deeper to the story, though Claire knew the exact depth better than Lucas himself did. "I've just... been dreaming about Morrison a lot. I haven't dreamed about him in a few years so..."

"Ah, well, I mean..." Classic nervous fumbling, brought to you by Lucas. "I dunno for sure... Rumor kicked up that uh... that I killed him myself. I sort of believed it for a while, but..." He reached up a hand to rub at the back of his neck. "I think... I think he's all right. He was probably better than me at-- at what we did." Claire knew what it was that he did, and there was no need to bring that up again. "He got away. I'm sure of it."

At mention of the nature of the dreams, however, his resolve in this belief visibly wavered. "Well... To put it bluntly, they're nightmares. A lot like the ones I used to have back when he-- I mean, back when Morrison first disappeared." Vicious, graphic dreams laced with malice and sorrow. He was very close to seeing what Merry's Dream Eater could do for him.