Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jordan shook his head, but didn't comment; he didn't particularly feel up to debating the point at the moment. He was tired, physically and emotionally, and discussing it would be more draining than he really felt up to.

The minipet question was something he could answer more easily. "If you have a favorite minipet, one that you make a point of visiting frequently, feeding and training, after a while the techs will respect it as yours," he explained. "I think they figure that when someone has a favorite that they name and train, it'll be more of a hassle to deal with the someone getting upset if they experiment on it. If it's been trained as a battle pet it's valuable for the data that can be gained that way, as well. So -- " he half-shrugged, "the best way to have a minipet that's considered basically yours is probably to catch one yourself and then train it. I had a pair of foxfires that were my favorites, but they got out in the mass escape some time back." He didn't detail what had happened to the foxfires, but it would be a safe assumption that they'd gotten too melted to save.

"Do you have golem clearance? You'll need to make a visit to Halloween for a trapping trip. To the scarefari." Jordan's gaze slid away, just for a second, and then back with no further sign of what he might be thinking. "I haven't found another mini that I really feel attached to yet," he said. "I'll probably go trapping again sometime."

"I can help you plan a visit, if you like. I've been out trapping enough times to have a decent grasp on how it works." Jordan leaned on the table. "Have you looked into it at all yet?"

"Tubadiah?" Jordan's eyebrows went up inquiringly. Someone's minipet, presumably.

"Well, what you catch will depend on where you trap and what kind of enchantment you use on the trap. The traps themselves are pretty simple, but it takes a little practice to figure out where to set them for the best chances of catching something. You can buy elemental enchantments to apply when you set the trap to get a better chance of trapping certain types of minis. There are pygmy dragons pretty much everywhere, so if you're looking for dragons, that might be your best bet." Jordan put down the pizza crust, looking distant and a little sad for a moment before he refocused and smiled at Al. "If you want to borrow my trapping kit, I've collected most of the enchantments over time. Let me know when you're going and I'll give you the combination for the locker I leave it in, just make sure to put everything back the way you found it."

"There are all kinds of weird creatures. Most of the minipets in the labs were caught wild in the scarefari." Jordan picked up the last piece of pizza and bit into it, keeping himself from flinching at the idea of taking Al on a scarefari trip. Last time -- but he couldn't let the association keep him from going, wouldn't let the memory of strained hurt or the older memory of pure contentment color his perception of what was, after all, just another mission.

"All right," he said. "Kind of late in the day to be starting something, though. If we bring back specimens after standard working hours the techs will make life harder for us. What's your schedule look like tomorrow?"

Jordan laughed a little; Al's unabashed delight at the idea softened the sting. "I wouldn't take any sleep aids from Life division," he said dryly. "But you'll need to be rested, so maybe some hot milk or something. Meet me here around ten." He preferred to do his morning run and exercises when he got up, and that would give him plenty of time to work out, shower, and get breakfast.

Jordan leaned his elbow on the table and watched Al go. Sometimes Al seemed a little more mature, but sometimes he really did make Jordan think of an enthusiastic puppy, stumbling over too-big paws in a gleeful flurry of excitable playfulness. He was, in some ways, still very much a kid, and Jordan found that he envied that, just a little. He'd humor the kid and help him out with his project, anyway, and maybe he'd catch something worth training this time around. He could use a distraction.