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 Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 1:17 pm
"Oh. Yea. Well." Aulus shrugged and perhaps flushing very slightly but thanks to his tanned complexion it wasn't too obvious, or so he hoped. Why did he feel embarrassed? Probably because loving meat was a stereotypical man thing, and therefore he stupidly felt like he wasn't a proper man if he didn't eat it. Bacon, that was the thing, bacon and steak and sausages and burgers and.... Enough of that, meat was not for eating.
"I have been since I was about... twelve? Anyway, it's a habit now and so long as you're careful to get enough protein and all the essential amino acids and crap it's a healthy diet. Anyway though, if you like the idea of the beach but can't stand that weird veggie crap you can bring yourself whatever, not like I care if other people eat meat." Much. It had bothered him a lot when he was younger but over the years he'd got used to it. Never quite got used to the smell of cooking meat though. Ugh. Why did it have to smell so damn good?
"He can though, yea," Aulus nodded, "I assume so, watched him use a gas hob like a barbecue so it seems like a safe assumption... Kinda weird all the things he can do, I can't imagine who taught him all of it. Certainly couldn't have been that idiot kid Tortie stole him from." It had probably been done on the brat's behalf though. Ha, too bad for him.
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 2:09 pm
Was he blushing..? It was a little hard to tell, but judging from his very manly image and how very unmanly being a vegetarian was, it was at least quite likely he was. Not that it really mattered or anything... actually okay, it did. She wanted to make him blush. She had no idea why, she just... wanted to. A lot.
"And when you were 12, did you decide to be a vegetarian or did your parents encourage it?" She couldn't help but ask, peering up at him curiously. At 12, he'd still be prone to the impressions of parents, but also old enough to make (some) decisions for himself - she was curious about which it was. When he mentioned the idiot Tortie stole from, she couldn't help but chuckle. "I don't think that kid could've gotten himself out of a paper bag, let alone properly train a pokemon. I'll bet his parents paid someone else to train Char. Artemis too, probably."
It was then that Luc loosed a rather large yawn for such a small pokemon, and Claire found herself yawning as well, covering her mouth with one hand before returning it to continue petting the little Cyndaquil.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 1:34 pm
"Was my decision," Aulus nodded, smiling a little as Claire and Luc let out sleepy yawns. "My parents weren't too keen on it at first actually, inconvenient with me not wanting to eat the same dinner as them and all. In the end the deal was that if I would cook myself something instead of whatever meat they were having that was fine, if not then I could just eat the non meat bits of what they had. I suppose it was supposed to show me what a pain I was being and make me give up but I was a bit too stubborn for that and stuck with it. They softened after a few months anyway - decided I wasn't just being obtuse I guess - and I only had to sort myself out if I wasn't doing anything that evening... well, anything other than riding anyway, that didn't really count as I did it every day."
And that was probably quite enough talking out of him, he was being a lot more open than he ought to be. On the other hand if Claire was his friend he could trust her with personal information, right? Sure she didn't trust him with as much yet but one of them had to make the first move didn't they? He shouldn't be so uptight about it, not like it was anything she could judge him negatively for after all. Still, even with that said he wasn't sure he wanted to follow the line of conversation down to the conclusion that he was now foreseeing. He still missed Phaeth, and he really really didn't want to talk about that. Still, he could probably turn the conversation away from that if Claire asked questions; play up the sport and play down the pokemon himself. It would work... probably.
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:38 am
Claire suddenly realized that laying down was conducive to sleepiness which meant dreams - which also meant nightmares. She quickly sat up again, eliciting a squeak of surprise from the albino Cyndaquil. "You? Stubborn? I can't imagine that," she teased with a small smile, "but that's good they were more supportive eventually." What did she do when she was 12? Nothing out of the ordinary, she didn't think, but it had been... what, 10 or 11 years ago now? It was hard to remember the little day-to-day things from so long ago; she could only remember the more significant things, like.. like learning to play the piano, and when she quit that acting school.
"Riding?" As in riding Ponyta? Obviously not riding a Pidgeot, but it did have her curiosity piqued. "How long did you do that for?"
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 7:44 am
"Oh, let's see..." Aulus frowned, doing a quick bit of maths inside his head. "About eleven years," he went on once he'd finished, "I didn't ride at uni though, didn't really have time there." This statement was broadly true, but it was also rather deceitful of him. If she knew Claire might be proud. He'd stopped riding before he even went to university, and not because he didn't have time but she didn't need to know that... Not yet, anyway. Maybe he'd tell her eventually. People said that talking about things helped but he couldn't imagine how it could possibly make what had happened any better. Everything he'd loved at the time gone in one fell swoop. It was probably karma or something.
"Oh, well I suppose I did ride at university actually," Aulus went on after a moment as he thought of another way to steer the conversation away from topics he had no intention of discussing. "That's when I learned to ride a bike. A bike you can just leave parked somewhere when you're busy and it's none the worse for it, I couldn't do that with a pokemon. I really hate people who just leave them in storage: if you haven't got time for them then don't keep them. So many trainers just love to have a massive collection so they can always pull the perfect tool or the perfect accessory out with a quick visit to a poke-centre PC; I just can't believe it's!..." Aware that his voice had been rising in volume, and his tones becoming ever more vicious and agitated Aulus trailed off and took a moment to calm down. Giving a heavy sigh and shaking his head once he'd found more normal tones again he went on; "I just can't believe that it's socially acceptable, that it's seen as normal to catch pokemon for the sake of filling your pokedex or whatever else and then never ever take them out of storage again. It makes me sick the way the average trainer treats their pokemon." Well, he'd definitely turned the conversation away. He hoped he hadn't gone off on too much of a rant for Claire's tastes.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:27 pm
"That long?" She asked, brows raised slightly. Ten or eleven years was a long time. How long did she play the piano for..? It'd been.. What, eight years? The only thing she'd really stuck with for so long. She'd gotten booted from that acting school after a year and a half or so, was in Galactic for four and a half before defecting...
And suddenly Aulus was angry.
She'd almost forgotten about his temper entirely - but that was very likely due to the fact he never directed it at her.
A smile twitched onto her face as he sighed. "Deep breaths," she suggested as she leaned over to gently bump his shoulder - upper arm, rather, since he was taller than her - with her shoulder. "I know what you mean," although it was obvious he felt much more strongly about the subject than she did. "So much lost potential, too.. I know we have storage here, but they usually use them for training or giving to trainees without any pokemon," she said with a shrug. "So at least then they're not in there forever, but it's definitely not perfect."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 3:37 am
“Deep breaths yourself,” Aulus replied gruffly with a scowl, “trainers like that deserve to be shut away in a dark box and see how they like it.... Hu, yea though, at least the pokemon here don’t get shut away forever... less I think about some of the stuff that’s rumoured to go on in the labs the better though.” Every time he thought about that he wondered again if he’d made the right choice. It was a bit late to think about that wearing a white uniform though now wasn’t it? He was in far too deep to get away, in fact he had been from the moment he accepted Claire’s offer so impulsivly.
He knew that what he was doing here was wrong. Even if he tried to only steal from idiots who didn’t deserve their pokemon anyway most of his fellows would steal even from trainers who loved and cared well for their pokemon. Team Rocket killed people sometimes and did horrible things to pokemon to make them stronger, all in the name of greed, the quest for power. What was he doing here? Surely he was better than this. Maybe he wasn’t, or maybe it didn’t matter because the world was so basically awful anyway....
He was happier now than he had been for a long time.
He wished he could feel guiltier about that than he did. Maybe he just wasn’t a good enough person to put morality above personal happiness. Close your eyes and ignore the bits you don’t like? Wasn’t that childish of him, stupid, didn’t it make him just like the kind of apathetic slug that he despised?...
Yea, he was just going to stop thinking about it again. There was really nothing else he could do.
“Anyway,” Aulus twitched a slightly wan smile and shoulder-nudged Claire back, “nothing’s ever perfect, is it? Guess you can either stand on your soapbox and rant about it or just make the best of what’s in front of you, hu? Practicality and that, idealists never last long; they get jaded, or they get killed.... That was cheerful of me.” He should probably change the subject; last thing Claire needed to think about was gloom and doom like that. “I’ve been practicing with Red,” he went on with a nod, “she’s getting the hang of commands now, but she always looks disappointed when I let her out and Odette isn’t around. Seems the only way to make her give her best is to say that the pretty lady might be watching, or that she might be impressed by improvement next time they meet.”
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:52 am
Doom and gloom was the absolute last thing she needed or wanted to think about. Hearing the word 'killed' instantly made her stomach knot and she peered down at Luc for a few moments, her smile faltered just a bit. It wasn't that it didn't bother her - she was still determined that no one know how much it really did bother her. ...well, Lucas probably knew, but he was Lucas. It was sort of expected.
"That's good," she encouraged, reinforcing the smile as she stroked Luc's flameless back. "Maybe we can let them both out sometime so Red has more incentive to do better. Odette probably wouldn't mind showing off a few tricks, either." ...she really didn't know what to talk about. The nightmare she'd had just a little while ago - and all of its implications and meanings - had finally been pushed to the outer parts of her mind, and that single common forcibly dragged it right back to the forefront. It was, at the very least, an extremely uncomfortable thing to think about. It was also, she thought, one thing to just mention it so casually in passing, or as an off-handed comment, that people tended to forget their own mortality. They tended to forget just how quickly and easily all of it could be taken away.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:09 am
"Yea. That'd be nice... if you don't mind." Had her expression changed for a moment there? He thought he'd seen a flicker but... but maybe he was wrong? She was smiling again now, but was it the same kind? It was, right? s**t. What should he talked about now? Pokemon? He'd probably just end up ranting like a pillock again. Maybe that was why her smile had faded, she had just discovered that somebody she thought was a fairly normal (if grumpy) person was actually some kind of loony Pokemon rights activist wannabe hypocrite. She'd probably hint that he ought to go soon if he didn't do something, and the image would be fixed in her mind and she wouldn't want to be around him anymore and.... Forget loony activist, how about loony paranoid idiot? Ugh. Just say something that wasn't utterly stupid, it'd be fine.
"So.... Uh.... Look I swear I'm not a complete crazy sap." Oh brilliant Aulus, just bloody brilliant; ten out of ten for shoving your foot in your mouth, and award for just about the stupidest thing he could have come out with short of 'herp-a-derp-derp'. "That was a stupid thing to say. Forget I even spoke." Any lingering respect she had for him must have vanished by now. Damn. Why did he have to make such a fool of himself in front of her? Anyone else he made a fool of himself in front of could be reminded to treat him with respect by being turned into a human pretzel but not her. Not Claire. Feeling humiliated and hoping his cheeks weren't as flushed as they felt Aulus averted his eyes from Claire, looking instead out of the window. Idiot!
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:26 am
"Sure," she said with a small smile, though her thoughts were still completely covered with a morbid cloud. Why did he have to say that, of all things? Why did she have to have nightmares? Why did--
What?
She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again, completely confused by what he was going on about. Was it something she said..? No, she couldn't recall anything that might've brought up such a reply as that... Was it -- oh crap, was it something she didn't say? Arceus, that was probably it. He seemed to think too much anyway, he probably thought she thought he was crazy or something, which was completely and totally false.
She'd seen much crazier, anyway. Like Lucas, for instance.
"No no," she said quickly with a shake of her head, "I'm sorry, I just -- you.. you made me think of something," she finished lamely. Awkwardly, if anything, if that wasn't evident by the nervous fidgeting with her fingers around the sleeping Cyndaquil. He probably wouldn't be satisfied with just that though, probably would just brush it off... She took a deep breath, studying the albino 'mon in her lap as if he were the most interesting thing in the world at the moment. "Reminded me of the nightmare I had before you came in," she explained, reaching up to rub at one side of her forehead a bit before her hand slid into her hair, and she sighed, brows furrowing. Well, now or never, she supposed.. He probably wanted to know about it anyway since she didn't mention it earlier. "I woke up before it ended, but I'm pretty sure I would've died." No, she would have, that was certain. The same nightmare - along with similar ones - had been plaguing her off and on for the past year. Their frequency and severity usually depended on recent events - or, rather, mention of Galactic. Or worse - seeing someone from Galactic.
Especially Tethys.
Augh, Tethys...
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:34 am
"Oh." The awkwardness could just about be cut with a knife. "I.... Sorry." Did he hug her again? Was that acceptable? Ugh! Grow a pair man; do something, don't just sit around like a lemon! Hoping once again that he wasn't going to get hit by the unfairly lovely woman or savaged by one of her pokemon Aulus put an arm around Claire's shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze.
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:46 am
As soon as Aulus's arm moved, there came a very displeased noise from the bird in the corner, even as Claire momentarily leaned her head on the other agent's shoulder. It was still incredibly embarrassing to be caught in such a vulnerable state as the one she was in when he knocked, but it couldn't be helped. It was still mortifying though, obviously - the pink tinge to her cheeks made this evident.
...or maybe she was just blushing a bit because his arm was around her shoulders.
"Odette, hush," she said sternly as she lifted her head, and the noise abruptly stopped.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 10:00 am
"No no, it's fine," Aulus shook his head, reluctantly removing his arm from around Claire's shoulders and getting to his feet. "It's late," he elaborated, "she's probably tired and you probably are too so... yea, I should probably head off and leave you in peace." Honestly he would much rather have stayed there with his arm around Claire, but he still felt foolish for saying such stupid things and then being stupid enough to think that it was that that had been bothering her and... and.... Well, Odette's hostility put him off frankly; he felt bad enough about getting close to her all by himself, he really didn't need any help on that score. He felt... deceitful, that was it. He knew she didn't like him like he liked her, and he also knew that if she knew he had those kinds of feelings for her she probably wouldn't let him within arms length of her.
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 2:30 pm
"No, she's like that all the time anyway," Claire insisted, eying the Pidgeot. It was true, actually - she was like that with almost every man she'd met since.. well, since a few years ago.
Anyw--
Wait, he was leaving?
"No, you don't have to," she said quickly, watching him as he shifted. Bits from the nightmare she'd had not long ago kept surfacing, bobbing about in her memory to taunt her. She knew it would come back as soon as she fell asleep, so the obvious solution to this was to not sleep again ever. "I'm not tired," she lied, she was totally tired. "Did.. do you want to watch a movie or something?" She finished a bit awkwardly as Luc wiggled in his sleep.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 2:43 pm
Oh? She didn't want him to go? That was far more gratifying than it ought to be. He smiled. "Oh, good, me either, still a bit too excited about getting promoted; kind of physically tired, but mentally awake so watching a movie would be great." And they didn't have to go down to a rec room, they could just stay here. Just the two of them. Alone. In private. With the lights probably off. Gnurg. At least she had some of her pokemon out - he'd left his getting used to the new room - that made him feel less, well, gnurg.
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