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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 8:24 am
The angry young woman had taken her chubby, trouble-maker of a Pikachu straight to the training facilities after she had found him gorging himself on chocolate in the kitchen. For the fifth time this week. "You've been acting as if I never give you chocolate!" She'd shouted at him while storming down the hall, carrying the chocolate-faced Pikachu by the scruff of his neck with her only usable hand. "If you don't stop this, so help me I will make sure you never get even a crumb of chocolate for the rest of your life! You'll just have celery and carrot sticks!" Obviously that was a lie, but she was far too infuriated to care.
Zeus looked like he'd seen a ghost. Never have any chocolate ever again? Ever?! He wailed and squirmed in her grasp, looking like he was being tortured in the worst, most inhumane way possible. No more chocolate for the rest of his life?!
Upon reaching the training room she had no qualms about dropping him onto his rump on the floor so she could open the door with the same hand, all the while cursing her broken arm for rendering her unable to use both hands for the next several weeks, and slid him across the threshold with her boot before slamming the door shut behind them. With a huff she picked him up by the scruff again before stomping over to the nearest treadmill and dumping him on it. She reached into a pocket in her uniform and procured a leash - she'd taken to carrying one shortly after she broke her arm as that was the start of his escapes to find chocolate - and somehow managed to wrap it around his middle. She then attached the loop on the other end to the top of the treadmill, thus preventing his escape (for now, anyway), and mercilessly turned it on to a quick jog while standing to the side and glaring down at him with her piercing gaze, her free hand on her hip.
The machine started with a jolt and the confused Pikachu stumbled on the moving thing beneath him before he started running at a moderate pace, completely bewildered at the contraption he was running on. He was running but he wasn't going anywhere. What was this crazy thing?!
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 4:11 am
It was an... interesting sight. Comical, in fact. A practically spherical pikachu scrabbling on a treadmill with a confused look on its pudgy little face, and a leash around its middle... Ah, it was that girl from the (not so very successful) mission to the scenic route. She had a cast on her arm; presumably she had been injured on the raid (that he had failed to get a place on). She did not look pleased in the least. She hadn’t sounded pleased either; now he thought about it there had been a very cross voice ahead of him in the corridor (he had been slightly preoccupied with getting Skiron to follow directions to the letter; walking by one side, the other, a little behind, a little ahead...)
Anyway. That was what he’d come here to do; some obedience training, and yes some treadmill training. Luckily there was more than one machine... And Skiron had already hopped onto the one next to the pikachu. Fine, shrugging internally Frost moved over to the machine and set it off at an easy jogging pace, they’d start with this then. “You are Claire, are you not?” he said after a moment, turning to the female rocket. “Was it you I heard just now shouting about... Chocolate?”
As his trainer addressed the other human, Skiron turned to her pokemon, flicking his ears in a friendly fashion. “Never been on one of these before?” he quizzed.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:41 am
Claire was too preoccupied glaring at her overweight, disobedient Pikachu to notice that anyone else had entered the room, until a flash of blue hopped onto the treadmill next to Zeus, and a voice addressed her. Her eyebrows raised slightly in surprise as she turned curious violet eyes first to the newcomer, then to his pokemon - a Glaceon? Beautiful pokemon - and then back to its owner. "Ah, yes -" Where had she seen him before...? Oh! Yes, the field mission in which she obtained... six Pidgey. Ugh. "And you are.. Frost, correct?"
She heaved a sigh, followed by a grimace as she looked down at her panting pokemon. "Yes, unfortunately. This is Zeus, his favorite thing in the whole world is chocolate. After I broke my arm, he got it into his head that I'd never be able to provide him with chocolate ever again - I make chocolate cookies for him if he's behaved well, or chocolate cake on rare occasions - but since I broke my arm I can no longer effectively make much in the kitchen. He's taken matters into his own paws, as it were, to provide himself with chocolate, which means raiding the kitchen as often as possible and eating every bit of chocolate he can get his grubby little paws on." The whole time she explained to Frost in an agitated tone, she was shooting daggers at the Pikachu. With her mind, anyway.
Said Pikachu was flailing running as fast as his chubby self possibly could - nevermind that it was just a little faster than the speed of the treadmill next to him - and turned confused green eyes to the Glaceon. "No, the hell is this thing?" He managed to sputter out between heavy panting, before attempting to put on the most pitiful display of a helpless, dying pokemon he could possibly muster, complete with flailing, heavy panting, coughing and any other way he could think to gain sympathy from his trainer to make the crazy machine stop.
Claire just looked at him reproachfully. "Oh stop it, you haven't been on there even two minutes yet." Pathetic. She knew for a fact he wasn't that out of shape, coupled with the fact she was on to every one of his tricks by now, there wasn't much he could do to pull the wool over her eyes, as it were.
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:34 am
Ah - Frost nodded to himself - well, that explained both her displeasure, and the size of the pikachu. Chocolate. How had a pikachu become so attached to a human food? Claire didn't seem like the type to allow a habit like that to start... not that he was much of a judge of what 'type' any given person was.
"Yes," the small blond nodded again, this time focusing his pale eyes on Claire, "that is correct... I imagine the chocolate theft has made him most unpopular with quite a lot of people. Some of our fellows seem to rate chocolate right beside oxygen on a 'things I need to survive' scale." He'd never been able to comprehend such an attachment to the stuff himself, or to any food (not even a really excellent cheese was as vital as oxygen, obviously). "I wonder if this will teach him a lesson," Frost added after a moment, studying the struggling electric type thoughtfully.
Skiron gave a soft chirp of amusement, and continued to jog along the moving belt. "From the way many humans look at these, I used to think they were a torture device," he confided in the smaller pokemon, "but it seems they go on them by their own will. It's just a convenient way of running without using up lots of space... I suppose you could call it a running-belt, or a turn-belt or something. Oh. Yes. The controls are up there," the ice type nodded to them, "a good way out of reach for me, so I have to hope my trainer is paying attention to when I get tired, or I fall off the back. It's really must unpleasant." Landing flat on one's rump in the middle of a crowded room was most embarrassing.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:44 am
Unfortunately for Claire, Zeus' chocolate obsession had started before she'd even caught him, back when he lived on the streets and survived on what restaurants had thrown into dumpsters. "Oh, I'm sure it has. I don't think the kitchen has had a stable supply of chocolate for anyone except him in practically a week." She paused to shoot a glare at the struggling fat Pikachu before turning violet eyes back to the short man. "Yes, I've noticed that as well though I hardly understand such a fixation on food, especially a specific type of food. You'd think the general rule of 'too much of a good thing' would apply, but I suppose they're exempt." That was the only way it made sense for some people to eat it all the time, yet not become sick of it. Zeus showed no signs of slowing down his chocolate obsession.
She sighed, placing her one free hand on her hip. "It might for a day or two, but not long after that. I need to find some way to effectively contain him when I'm sleeping or can't supervise him."
Zeus continued to run on the evil death machine, panting heavily in earnest. "I can't imagine why anyone would get on one of these willingly," he panted, though green eyes shifted up to look at the control section. It was way out of his reach, for sure, but maybe if he jumped... No, the only way he'd be able to reach it by jumping would be if the thing was already turned off. Damn... "This whole thing is unpleasant!" He could keel over at any moment!
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Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 12:55 pm
"Mmfh. Difficult." Frost frowned thoughtfully down at the fat rat before adding; "It makes me grateful that Skiron listens to me, and that Persephone restricts herself to frightening trainees rather than stealing supplies. A lot of them could use the toughening up in any case so far as I can tell, half of them look to be about twelve... A little faster now." The reason for this perhaps odd seeming tangent became clear when the small man increased the speed of the treadmill Skiron had been jogging easily on.
Skiron hadn't be concentrating too well on the machine, so the sudden change in pace rather startled him. Giving a surprised chirrup, he increased his pace before shooting Frost a reproachful glance. "A little warning would have been nice... I can't imagine how anyone could like these things," he went on, breathing a little heavier now, "but I suppose it could be worse, and they do let you stay fit... It would be a lot nicer to be the one in control though; I nearly pitched off the back then."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:22 pm
"Yes, it is," Claire replied with a frown, her brows furrowed in thought. At the mention of pokemon behaving, she cast another glare down at the panting Pikachu. "Normally his behavior is perfectly fine. He lived on the streets for at least a few months, I think, so a sudden change in his lifestyle obviously caused him some hostility. While that's gone down quite a bit, the behavior flares up every now and again, plus that sense of self-preservation comes into play as well." Her brows furrowed again thoughtfully. "I think he's tried to revert back to that behavior because he doesn't think I can provide food for him anymore, so he tries to get it for himself. Of course that's not true in the slightest, but it's hard to argue with something that can't talk and doesn't fully understand things like this." Hopefully, with any luck, she could teach him that her breaking her arm was not, in fact, the end of his chocolate world. Maybe.
"Persephone? Let me guess... A dark type? Ghost? Those are usually the ones that like to terrorize people," she said with a small smirk. Maybe she should get a ghost-type...? Nah, then it might backfire and try to scare her all the time. Hmm.. "And I agree. There's so many... young people. I mean, so many that are between 16 and 18. They can't even drink legally yet," the young woman scoffed. How could such young people make such life-changing decisions such as joining Team Rocket? It wasn't like they could join for a week to show off to their friends or something and then quit. Well, they could, if they wanted to end up at the bottom of a lake or ravine, that is.
Zeus panted more, focusing his eyes straight ahead. Talking was almost too hard to do. "Yeah... I can't... either.." He took a very deep breath and then flopped down onto the treadmill, landing face-first as the thing kept going underneath him. Luckily for him, Claire was keeping an eye on him and immediately unhooked the leash from the machine and turned it off (as much as she wanted to watch it keep rolling underneath him, or see him fly off the back of it). Panting heavily, the Pikachu attempted to roll onto his back, but the machine came to a halt with him laying right near the edge, so when he tried to roll he ended up falling off and landing on his face once more. Claire sighed and put her hand over her face. Disgraceful... "It's been barely three minutes. Ridiculous... obviously we need to come here a lot more often."
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:15 pm
...Well. That was what so much chocolate did to you. Frost watched the pikachu's collapse impassively, and when the electric type rolled onto the floor he raised one pale eyebrow very, very slowly. "That much is clearly apparent," he agreed, slowing Skiron's treadmill back to a gentle jog. "Enforcement of a better diet too," he added, "although I am sure you know that; from what you say the implementation will be the hard part..."
Frost's eyes flicked from the slumped mouse pokemon over to Claire, and then unfocused slightly as he slipped into his own thoughts. She had guessed at what Persephone's type was, and been right on both guesses actually. Should he tell her that, or had the conversation moved on so far that referring to it would now be awkward? He wasn't sure, and he probably wouldn't know even if he did speak up, not unless her reaction was either extremely enthused, or excessively derisive... It didn't matter anyway. She could think what she liked of him, he did not require her esteem. From a practical standpoint it was certainly worth her knowing, seen as they might well end up working together at some point.
"Persephone," the small man's pale eyes focused sharply on his fellow Rocket once more. "You are correct on both guesses; she is a spiritomb. I found what I now know to be her keystone in the forest a week or so ago, and brought it back here with me for study, or perhaps just to be an elaborate paperweight. She revealed herself very early the next morning, and Skiron subdued her; I captured her in a dusk ball... I have yet to battle with her, I have been gaining her loyalty until now. Perhaps I could battle against you sometime." It would be good to know Claire's strengths and weaknesses, and to find out both about Persephone's, and more about his own. One should never stop learning about one's weaknesses; how else was one to eliminate them?
Phew. He did hate sprinting... Oh dear. The poor pikachu; as he jogged along, Skiron gave a sympathetic croon. "Ouch. That didn't look too fun; are you alright?"
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:28 pm
She nodded in agreement, sighing slightly as she did so, and her violet eyes traveled to the chubby Pikachu once more. "I'm still trying to figure out a good diet for him, but it obviously doesn't include any chocolate at all." That was supposed to be a reward anyway, which meant it wasn't a regular or frequent thing. "It is the hard part," she said with another sigh. "He's small enough to slip around wherever he wants - I think he's even been in the air vents on a few occasions when he couldn't get through the door." A short pause before she continued thoughtfully. "I do like his relatively small size, since my only other pokemon is taller than I am."
Claire nodded again at his confirmation of her guesses - she always did like to guess correctly - but if he was looking for any sort of positive or negative reaction, he didn't get one. Her face remained impassive, still looking down at the Pikachu who was panting on the floor still. "Spiritomb? They look very interesting. Yes, a battle would be wonderful - maybe after we've both done a bit more training. This little monster definitely needs it," and then a negative reaction - a glare aimed at the electric-type.
Zeus groaned and forced himself to sit up, still panting from the exertion. Claire leaned forward with a sigh and grabbed the leash, pulling him back up onto the treadmill and reattached it, then turned it back on - this time to a decent paced walk. "I've been better," he panted, ears flicking backwards in obvious displeasure. How he hated this horrible torture device...! At least it was slower, thankfully.
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Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:14 pm
"Err..." Frost frowned as he tried to dredge up useful information about nutrition. "Rodents are... hardly my speciality. Whole seeds, bran, nothing too high in sugar?... I'm sure we must have people on the base who're supposed to write up diet plans and such." That didn't deal with the issue of the little rat escaping and finding extra food for itself, of course. "Exercise," the small man added, "which you're clearly already working on. Hm. Perhaps you should tie a piece of chocolate of of his reach and make him run for it." That would be an amusing sight. "Any competitive nature you could make use of? We could set him against Persephone... Oh," oh what a stupid person he could be sometimes, "but not on a treadmill. Obviously... In fact they aren't comparable in many ways. Come to that Skiron isn't much of a comparison either, being considerably larger... Do know know anyone else with a pikachu?"
Lovely. He had made a total idiot of himself. She would be laughing at him internally even if she didn't show it, he was sure. This was what happened when he started to relax; he thought both too much and too little, and fell over his words and said the wrong words and... Well, fine, she could think what she wanted. It was no loss to him.
"Well, at least you're walking now," Skiron said with a soft chuckle, "hopefully she'll find a more enjoyable way of making you exercise soon... Or at least not a less enjoyable one."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:47 am
"Hm," was the noise Claire made as she turned to look down at Zeus again. "I think the only seeds he's ever had his whole life were thoroughly processed and soaked in fattening preservatives. But I'm sure we do have someone like that on base, and if so I'll find them." If not, she had a pretty good idea of where to start now, at least.
She waved off the mistake, hardly giving it a second thought. "Oh, he's incredibly competitive so that's no problem, we can battle the pair of them at a later date." A snort of amusement accompanied her next words. "I think it'd be horrible to dangle chocolate in front of him on the treadmill, but he deserves that." It'd be funny to watch the chubby Pikachu try in vain to reach his precious chocolate, but.. "Actually I think he's too smart for that though, he'd probably just jump off and run around to the front to get at it."
Zeus merely glared at his trainer's boots, ears flicked back. "She'd better not find a less pleasant one." But the other pokemon was right, at least he was merely walking now, and he was thankful for that at least.
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:04 am
"Mmfh," Frost looked down at the pikachu again, absentmindedly slowing Skiron's treadmill to a walk, "I suppose he probably is too clever for that. Perhaps you could offer him diet chocolate... It probably tastes abominable though." Looking back up Frost's eye caught on the cast on Claire's arm, and he frowned slightly. "Mm. That would make everything more difficult of course. What kind of a break was it; will it take long to heal?"
There was nothing in the world, or practically nothing, that was more annoying than not being able to do something because your body let you down. Fragile things. Thin skin. Weak bones. Slow. It was a wonder that the human race had ever got anywhere given how pathetic it was compared to most pokemon. It was cleverness that put humans on top, not that pokemon were stupid of course... It was innovation. Tools, really. Spears, knives, ploughs, computers... And of course pokeballs. Strange that the weak, hairless little monkey (ape! He couldn't even accept the little inaccuracy during internal monologue)... Err... Oh, yes, that the hairless little ape had managed to dominate firebreathing behemoths, and beasts with claws that could slice diamond...
How had he got onto that train of thought again?
Oh, right: broken arm, fragile humans, etc etc. Blinking a few times, Frost focused on Claire again, hoping she hadn't answered while he'd been zoned out.
Skiron gave an appreciative sigh as the moving belt slowed and allowed him to move along at a fairly easy walk. "Maybe she'll let you exercise in the pool," he suggested after a moment, "I like swimming for exercise." Not at the same time as an electric type though; the last thing he wanted was to get zapped by a bit of stray power.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:04 pm
"No, diet chocolate is probably ridiculously disgusting." Like all that low-fat or no sugar added crap people insisted on eating. Gross.
She was still looking down at Zeus when Frost spoke again, and it took her a moment for the words, and their meaning, to register. "Hm?" What? Break, heal.. Oh. "Oh, my arm? A complete break I think they said, or something of the sort. I just know it was very painful. Five or six weeks, they told me, until the cast can come off, but then it'll be terribly weak from the muscle loss," she explained with a frown. She was definitely not looking forward to having to build back all that muscle. "It's frustratingly inconvenient," she sighed.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 9:32 am
"Yes, I imagine so... Pokemon, many of them, seem to have everything worked out," Frost observed, deciding that he might as well share his rambling train of thought (although without some of the rambling). "Wouldn't it be useful to have the toughness of a rhydon? The speed of a scyther? The abilities of a psychic pokemon like alakazam? And then there's the legendaries of course; mewtwo has intelligence, power, and still possesses opposable thumbs... Still, given our warlike tendencies, I suppose if we had the power of mewtwos humanity would have destroyed itself before it invented the wheel, which would have been unfortunate."
To say the least. Even knowing that it would never happen, and that it would probably be very bad if it ever did, he couldn't help desiring such strength. The things he could do with it. Of course it would be a lot better if it was only he who somehow magically gained such power...
Foolish to even think about.
Fantasy.
Stupid day dreams like that had no place in his life. If he was ever going to become powerful, it would be by using his intellect to rise through the ranks and outsmart his enemies. Or shooting the right person at the right time, that was always an option of course.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 12:49 pm
What was he going on about now? Something that never crossed her mind before, that was certain. "I've never thought about that before," she admitted, her brows knitted in thought before she added after a short pause, "but I agree it would be exceedingly useful, albeit impossible. And I agree, if humanity at large had such powers the planet would have been annihilated probably - when did humans first appear? - probably immediately after that." Which was, she thought, some 10,000 years ago or more. She never did well in history classes.
Her gaze traveled from her chubby 'chu to the Glaceon on the next treadmill, studying his coat and features for a few moments. "This one is Skiron, is it?" He'd mentioned two names a few minutes ago, and one was a ghost-type so process of elimination mandated this was the other. "He's lovely. Where did you get him?"
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