Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Hey," Hayes raised the soda in greeting as he passed Alba, letting the 'sir' part slide. He was in uniform; it was to be expected. He meandered couchward, offering Spook a faint grin when she spoke up. He liked Pokemon in a casual sort of way, and this one reminded him of Noel.

This was the topic he was trying to get away from, wasn't it? Oh well.. "Sorry, I'm programming. Probably don't have anything more than you guys." He looked at Lucas with a rueful half-smile and had a sip of soda. "Unless you've heard something nuts." There'd been a bit of that in the halls. The chopper was gone, the chopper had crashed, there'd been a panicked last message, they'd run into the police..

"Hayes," he told Frost.

"Well damn," Lucas muttered. He had really been hoping that the man was an agent come to alleviate all their concerns and tell them exactly what had happened and where the missing Rockets were now. Maybe it'd been a bit too much to hope for. "All of what I've heard sounds pretty nuts," he said bitterly. It seemed like the rumors were only getting worse and worse the longer their teammates were unaccounted for.

Lucas noticed Spook's fascination with the cards and reached to take one of the discarded jokers. "Hey Spook, check this out." With a flick of his wrist the card went spinning rapidly into the air, lost momentum, and fluttered to the ground. That seemed like the sort of stunt that would keep the Chingling entertained.

"Yeah," Lucas agreed with a sigh. "That's possible, I guess." Where the heck had they gone, anyway? Usually rumors circulated when they went to more fantastic locales. Maybe they just went to pick up supplies somewhere with the situation at the outpost as it was... That didn't explain why the signals were lost, though.

"Ain't that the truth," he muttered, feeling for all the world like he had been bound to a chair to watch as some wholly preventable tragedy unfolded before him. "Anyway. Sure." He dealt a hand from the top of the deck, turning his thoughts to the game as best he could. He wasn't doing very well.

Or.. maybe joining a game with this guy wasn't the best way to keep his spirits up. The older grunt - pretty darn old for a grunt, really - seemed to suck all the optimism out of the place. "Got a friend out there?" Hayes asked, picking up his hand and glancing over the cards. Let's see..

Lucas didn't see the Chingling that was glaring at him, but he perceived her unyielding gaze through an increasingly awkward internal sensation. He turned to look at the little psychic-type as she gnawed at the card. "...Uh, no, Spook. Not food. Here, like this." He moved to take the card from her and demonstrate the trick again, leaving her to her devices as he returned his attention to the human company.

Were Lucas aware of how Hayes was perceiving him, he would have adamantly objected. He wasn't a pessimistic person. ...Okay, so that was a horrible lie. Maybe the most horrible lie he would ever imagine in his life.

"Mm... Yeah, I guess so," he said as he studied his hand. As reluctant as he was to concede to the word, it was easier than explaining the circumstances of his relationship with Claire. He drew a long breath. "Well anyway, she'll come back. They all will." They had to. Why wouldn't they? People were just making up crazy rumors because they thought it was funny to think their teammates were dead. Their teammates were not dead.

Funny how just as he decided that, a shout from the hall derailed all hope. s**t.

"Hey, either of you want a drink? I could really use a drink." He set his hand on the table suddenly and stood, drifting in the direction of the alcohol stash he had discovered a while back while awaiting a reply from his company. What did they mean, one signal? One signal, that was a code right? Code for six signals. Code for the helicopter definitely didn't crash and there wasn't one survivor left and Arceus what the hell kind of mission was this supposed to be?!

The form of a grunt leaned back into the doorway when he heard someone calling to him. standing up straighter when he saw that it was an Agent who spoke to him.
"uh, I have no idea, one of the Agent's I think."

"Chim!" It was hard for a Chingling to properly talk with a flat thing in her mouth, but Spook was determined. The flat thing wasn't yummy! Why was the flat thing not yummy?

Oh... Not food? Spook was saddened by this momentarily, and that moment ended when the flat thing was sent flying again. OHHHH! Flying flat thing! She completely got it now. Yup yup! To prove this, she tossed the card up herself a few more times, though it didn't go nearly as high as when Lucas tossed it. That was alright, though. She could make the flat thing FLY- What were the humans saying now? The commotion in the hall and from the humans around her caught Spook's attention in mid toss. Somehow, she either ignored or didn't notice the extra cards bouncing off the top of her head as she hopped up onto the couch, and clung to the top of the back cushions again. Was this what had her human acting so gloomy earlier?

Lucas returned to the table with a bottle of something potent and a few glasses, in case one of the other Rockets opted to join him. Poker and alcohol. Under any other circumstances, this could be perceived as intense bro bonding. Instead, this was a desperate attempt at escape from the fact that one agent had survived the mission and they didn't even know who it was. In that regard it was rather sad, especially considering how infrequently Lucas actually sought basic companionship with his teammates.

He poured himself a glass, setting the bottle out for whomever else might have wanted any, and turned his attention to the voice at the door. Ah, the cookie woman, with the Drifblim. "Agent Nyx," he greeted casually, raising the glass slightly. "Don't guess you know anything about this mission situation either, huh?" It certainly seemed like a safe assumption. No one knew anything.