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 Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:19 pm
"You don't have to worry about your own pokemon," he said, picking up on Aulus's apprehension and his increased attention towards the Absol. "They don't just nick things from the members for the hell of it. That's where stealing and cloning come in. Unless you wanna volunteer one of your own for an experiment. Never done it myself, but I gotta say I'm none too keen on the idea of it. For the most part they seem to be willing to trust us to know what's best for our pokemon as their trainers. Might not be true across the board, but they at least give us that confidence." For better or for worse.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:49 am
"Mmfh, well, they better not," Aulus growled, "if anyone tries anything I'll..." Aware that there was no real threat he could make, the red-eyed man trailed of with another 'humph' before adding; "I suppose everyone's protective of the things they care about... How'd Claire end up as your sort of sister anyway?"
And why was he so overprotective come to that? Was it just that he was an uncompromising psychopath? It could well be that, but he was seeming a lot more reasonable now than he had back in Ambergris... The reasons for people joining up with Team Rocket to begin with seemed to range from 'I'm just a psycho' through 'I kind of didn't have a choice' though to 'I was eaten up with guilt over what I did/didn't do and now I'm out for revenge/a new life'. Becoming crazily over-protective of another Rocket could fit in with any of those he supposed, or maybe Lucas was just one of those brothers. Maybe he'd get around to asking if the older man didn't threaten his spine for that initial question.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:51 pm
He responded with a confused lowering of his brow. "I'm not sure I know what you're talking about. Claire's a coworker, so of course I'm concerned about her well-being. I'd defend you too, if it came down to it." Not that Aulus seemed like the kind of guy that needed defending nor the kind of guy that would accept someone else defending him. He leaned backwards against the hurdle-thing-whatever-it-was and beckoned Liselle into his lap, the Vaporeon complying with a wary glance in their company's direction. Lucas lowered thoughtful eyes on the pokemon, stroking her absently as he explained, "I won't go into details, but Claire's got some... stuff. In her past, I mean. I just want her to be able to live happily, same as anyone."
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:01 pm
"Oh... Well, fair enough." Aulus frowned slightly, shrugging his broad shoulders in a display of supposed indifference. What kind of stuff? There was another kind of person who joined up he supposed; 'Running away from something'... Or someone. Lucas had said he didn't like him because he was (or looked like, he couldn't remember the man's precise concussed rambling) the kind of man who beat up women. And then Claire had got all defensive and... It was probably best not thought about, wasn't any of his business in any case.
"Anyway," Aulus shrugged again, "as for the sister thing, it was her that told me the two of you were like siblings. Was how she explained you threatening to kill me actually, more or less anyway... Are you just trying to be private about being close to her, because that's kind of stupid given how you threaten people on her behalf, or don't you think of her in the same way?" There had been that initial suspicion of his that they were a couple... Maybe Claire saw him as a brother, and he saw her as a potential lover. Ew. That was not right, not in any way shape or form.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:24 pm
To say they were like siblings was... weird. And a disturbing misunderstanding. "No, that's wrong. I'm careful about that sort of thing. Emotional attachment isn't the wisest thing to have in an organization where you could go on a mission and never come back." But if he had heard it from Claire, then... It didn't seem that Claire would make that sort of thing up, especially not for no good reason. So, that she had told Aulus that implied that that was indeed how she felt. But where would she have gotten the idea? ...Maybe from the time he had stayed with her overnight to make sure her drunken self was kept safe from harm, or the following morning when he skipped out on duty to take her to breakfast, or the time he had sworn to kill the man that had hurt her, or the time he had promised to keep her safe from Galactic, or the time he had taken an Aqua Tail and a rock to the head to ensure she didn't suffer the same, or...
s**t. That was a bit much for coworkers' obligation, wasn't it? But it felt like obligation. Felt like something he was responsible for. Like a sister. s**t.
"No." His expression steeled. "She's a coworker. A teammate at the most. I don't deal in friends, let alone in siblings." And if he had strayed from that, then that was an error that he would need to correct.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:40 pm
"Oh," Aulus frowned, "well, whatever you say then."
He felt... disappointed. It was crazy to threaten people like Lucas had, sure, but it had meant that he'd cared about Claire and... It wasn't what the woman meant to him that mattered, she hardly mattered at all; it was what he'd thought she meant to Lucas that had counted. Every time he started to believe in a bond between people, that bond turned out to be false one way or another. One way or another relationships broke down in the end: romantic, platonic, whatever. People were arseholes, were out to watch their own back and their own back only. Emotional attachment wasn't wise. Wise? What the bloody hell did wisdom have to do with feelings? Everything. It had everything to do with them, because it had to overrule them, because affection was stupid, and affection was stupid because in the end everyone was like Lucas, and like Vivian. They just stabbed you in the back in the end.
"Look," Aulus snapped, abruptly loathing the elder man again, "not that this hasn't been a lovely chat, but I've got a lot of work to do here before I can knock off for the night and actually relax a bit. Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?" He'd realised it was a mistake to believe in any relationship he had years ago. Apparently he now needed to extend that to every relationship. Maybe he should have made the deduction before, maybe he'd just been delusional, too desperate to hope that real love of some kind could exist somewhere in the world. What an idiot he was. He supposed he ought to be grateful to the old man for showing him the error of his ways or something. In the end, the only people you could rely on were the ones you could keep in pokeballs.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:55 pm
Anger and fear: Sometimes it seemed like they were the only consistent relationships in the world. Bonds formed on either of the two were unchanging, and it seemed that all bonds invariably fell to one or the other eventually. That was the reality that Lucas had accepted, and so it was hardly a surprise when Aulus was snapping at him again.
"No. That's all. Ah, well, sorry for being... weird. Concussion and all. But yeah." He pushed himself back up to his feet, nudging Liselle from his lap before doing so. "Anyway, I'll be around if you need anything." They were coworkers before rivals, after all. That said, he turned towards the exit, Liselle trailing along behind him.
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 5:01 pm
For some moments after the door closed behind Lucas, Aulus glowered at it with his fists clenched tightly by his sides. Why should it matter whether any human ever cared about another? He knew he wasn't planning to fall into that trap again (well, he supposed he cared a bit for his family but that was kind of different) so why should he expect Lucas or anyone else to? He had pokemon for friends, a pokemon anyway, and that was enough. It would have to be.
Muttering a foul curse under his breath, Aulus sank back to his knees and grabbed the scrubbing brush, picturing Lucas' face on the bloodied ground as he set to work once more.
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