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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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 Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:27 pm
Halfway down the bench built into the wall of the pool room sat a large, lavender towel, discarded before its owner entered the pool. Sitting on top of the rumpled fabric were four pokeballs, one of which wiggled in a rather displeased manner, and beside the towel sat a small, black drawstring bag. Clothes or any other personal affects were curiously absent, signaling that either their owner hadn't brought anything else, or had more likely left them in a locker.
Said owner was currently swimming laps in the pool, enjoying the fact that besides herself - and her pokemon, of course - there was absolutely no one else around. Actually, sometimes if people were around, she wouldn't even go swimming. Thankfully, though, it was empty and had been empty for quite some time, so the young woman was thoroughly enjoying herself.
Not too far from the bench, her gold and white Pidgeot stood preening guarding her owner's belongings, though it was easy to see the bird was much too focused on the state of her feathers to really pay attention to or even care about anything else. A couple feet from the edge of the pool - near the shallow end, of course - was a certain chubby Pikachu, flat on his stomach with one arm on the ground, and his chin on his paw while he glowered at the opposite wall. A furry little blue menace was currently sitting on his back and part of his head, chewing on the poor electric-type's ear. The display and his lack of a response indicated he'd just about given up on making the thing stop.
Claire swam to the shallow end of the pool, barely crossing the line at the bottom that differentiated the two before she stood, reaching both hands up to push her soaking wet hair away from her face. Standing up revealed her choice of swimwear - a bikini, vertically striped with purple and lavender. The usually light streaks in her hair looked dark purple and almost blended in with her black hair. From her similarly colored towel on the bench, coupled with her hair, swim suit, and what color her eyes normally were, it was exceedingly clear that this particular woman loved the color purple. "Blue," she said with a slight sigh as she fixed her hair, facing one of the two lengthier walls, "leave him alone." It was a vague half-attempt at making the fluffball stop, because she knew very well that she wouldn't stop. And she didn't. She merely paused in her chewing to regard her owner curiously, but realized she was too far away to chew, so she resumed biting Zeus' ear instead. The Pikachu simply sighed, looking thoroughly irritated with everything forever.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:39 pm
He supposed he was adjusting to life here by now. He'd learned the value of free time for one (something he'd taken for granted before) and so today he'd risen early to have a breakfast of porridge before heading to the pool. Just him and a swift few lengths before the monotony of the day begun; until now he'd taken his swims in the evening, but in order to fit more into his day he had resolved to change his schedule. Wake early, eat fast, then swim, then the day's work, then time in the gym and training areas. Lying in bed was never going to get him anywhere, no matter how hard it felt to move first thing in the morning. Lazing around only made him feel worse in the end; exercise was the best thing he could do for himself to stave off utter madness. Cleaning. So sick of cleaning. Changing swiftly from his uniform into a fairly brief pair of dark red trunks (he had not picked the style, but had to admit that it could have been far worse) Aulus locked his possessions away safely and tossed the key down to Tortie before entering the pool room itself.
There was somebody else there.
His initial reaction to this was deep annoyance, but as he took in the shapely profile he changed his assessment; maybe he could cope with a little company... Oh. Wait. He recognized her. "Well," Aulus smirked like a persian that had got into the cream as he sauntered towards the edge of the pool, "you're up early."
Damn. Her bikini was fastened by bows. They looked pretty easy to undo which was a pretty attractive prospect given her alluring, currently soaking wet figure. Damn.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:47 pm
She was too busy focusing on Blue and fixing her hair to hear a locker close, or to hear the other figure approach until he spoke. s**t. Her hands lowered slightly and she turned her head to see who... s**t. Curiously, Aulus might notice her eyes were distinctly not purple today. "So're you," she retorted, quickly moving forward and submerging herself up to her shoulders as she moved over towards the edge where Blue was still chewing on Zeus. "I'm always up early." The young woman was making it a point to avoid eye contact, inwardly cursing with a variety of colorful expletives about the fact she now was stuck in the pool. She couldn't very well just leave, that not only would be rude, but it was exceedingly obvious he'd want to look at her when she got out. He was a guy, after all, and guys did that. That alone seemed to make her feel more uncomfortable than anything else.
The little fluffy 'vee gleefully "vui!"'d before jumping off her current target and bounding to the edge, sniffing curiously and excitedly at her owner as the young woman stroked the Eevee's head gently with.. wet fingers. Whoops. Oh well, Blue didn't seem to notice the fact that her fur was wet now. Or if she did, she certainly didn't mind.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:09 pm
She was avoiding looking at him. This either meant that she was bowled over by how stunningly attractive he was, or how stunningly disgusting he was... Or something else altogether. In any event, he was kind of peeved that the woman had submerged herself like that: he'd been very much enjoying the view.
"Maybe I should start getting up early for a swim more often," Aulus suggested with a smirk, "seems like a good time to come to me..." Hu. Was there something different about her? A frown spread across Aulus' face as he approached the edge of the pool, Tortie still padding along beside him.
After a few moments he worked out what it was and his scowl deepened for a moment, but quickly vanished as the scarred man gave a snort of amusement, or possibly derision. "Wow. So purple isn't your real eye colour, Claire?" he asked rhetorically. "What name do you use when your eyes are this colour, humm?"
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:33 pm
s**t. If he decided to come early more often... Well, he'd be sorely disappointed to find he'd have the pool to himself. "It is," she agreed, still not looking at him - for that reason of 'something else altogether.' "Usually no one's here." And that's why she liked coming here so early, to have it to herself. She did not like sharing the pool with someone of the opposite gender. Did. Not. Whether he was in it already or not.
He was awfully close to the edge of the pool now, and much too close for comfort, but she sucked it up and stayed put. Hazel eyes flicked up to regard his face curiously, outright refusing to even so much as glance at anything below his head face, one slender eyebrow raised as she inwardly debated how to respond. "No," she admitted at length, turning to focus on Blue again as the little fluffball started gnawing on Claire's finger, "it's not. It's not good to wear contacts in the pool or while sleeping." She chose to ignore the name question.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:42 pm
"Alright then," Aulus snorted, "I'll call hazel-eyed you Enigma, if that's alright? You certainly seem to get off on playing hard to get, and not in the usual sense of the word..." Shaking his head slightly, he motioned Tortie to halt and slid into the pool, leaning back against the side once his feet touched the bottom. What was up with the woman anyway? She was insanely secretive, and now he'd caught her without her purple-gaze-guise she wouldn't even look at him... Or she was shy about the bikini? Maybe it was both; caught on a lie and in a state of delicious undress. He'd love to give one of those bows she'd hidden a tug, what a pretty present to unwrap...
Anyway.
"So how's life treating you then?" Aulus asked after a few moments. "I've not seen you as much as I expected, been busy cleaning floors mostly. I've seen Lucas more than you actually, and he seems to have recovered from his concussion..." He'd also more or less said that he felt nothing for Claire, and that any relationship he had with her was going to end. He wondered if that had happened yet.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:53 pm
's**t' seemed to be her mind's expletive of choice to describe just about everything about this meeting. "You can if you want," she replied, leaning up a bit to carefully grab the little blue Eevee and pull her into the water before moving back and submerging again, offering a light smirk and wishing to every potential deity from every religion that he would leave so she could go run and hide, "but that doesn't mean I'll answer to it."
Blue squeaked in surprise and curled up as small as she possibly could manage, peering wide-eyed at the water. She knew what it was, of course - she drank it often enough - and she'd seen her owner and some other people and pokemon playing in it, but she'd never gone in herself. This didn't seem to deter Claire, however, and she held the little 'vee in such a way that just her lower half was in the water for now. She'd get used to it eventually. The little fluffball was already experimentally kicking her back paws in the water, making little "vrrrvvfff" noises. "Alright. Busy as usual, but that can't be helped." Unless she had an injury of some sort, but she would much prefer work to being physically disabled for any length of time. Breaking her arm had been bad enough, but she accepted the fact she'd probably get shot or worse at any given time. Seriously, she'd already accepted the fact that Galactic could kill her at any given time, so breaking a limb or getting a bullet in an arm or something wasn't that bad. "Yeah, I think he has." Though she wasn't exactly sure, he'd seemed busy the last time she'd seen him. "What about you? Enjoying things so far?" Her tone indicated that 'enjoying' might not be the proper word. Perhaps 'ready to beat your head in with a brick' might have been a better choice of words. Even though trainee work wasn't horrible, it was... horribly monotonous and annoying.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 10:47 am
Enjoying? Aulus gave a snort of derision, but a small smile insisted on tugging at his lips as he watched Blue kick at the water. Shame she hadn't been a bit further back from the edge of the pool really, that would have forced Claire to lean up a bit further... But nevermind.
"Yea," he said after a moment, "it's a real blast: scrubbing floors, emptying bins, cleaning windows. Everything I ever wanted out of life wrapped up in one monotonous day after another: I'm about this close to exploding with excitement." Holding up the thumb and forefinger of his right hand about half an inch apart for illustrative purposes, Aulus sneered slightly.
"It'll get better though," he said firmly after a moment, "I'm planning to get myself assigned some more interesting work. I'm not expecting miracles, but right now anything that isn't cleaning sounds fine to me."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:15 am
Blue squealed in delight and leaned forward, splashing her front paws in the water while still kicking her back feet, and Claire obliged by lowering her further into the water so she could play better. If she couldn't chew the water, the little 'vee decided, she could at least kick and flail at it. And chew her human, of course. Tiny teeth gnawed on her owner gleefully while still kicking, attempting to show her affection through the gesture.
The young woman merely rolled her eyes a bit at the chewing, but it didn't hurt at all (yet), so she tolerated it for the time being. "Sounds riveting," she commented, absently noting the gesture but still focusing on the Eevee. At least she could use her as an excuse to avoid looking at Aulus. She had to make sure the little fluffball didn't drown, after all. "Oh? Going to ask for different work?" She'd done that herself, actually, but her motivation was more on the side of self-preservation and proving personal worth rather than being sick of cleaning. She had to prove herself to the organization, to show them that she had no intentions of returning to Galactic. Her intentions were to take on as much as was physically possible - it was horribly exhausting, without a doubt - but at the time she was incredibly frightened and felt her very existence hinged on whether or not they'd accept this new ex-Galactic or not. The 'not' was what frightened her, but thankfully they did. The thought of Galactic hardly bothered her now, but of course she was safe in the base - if she was out on a mission and they showed up again, that could possibly be an entirely different matter.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 10:12 am
"Yea," Aulus nodded, forcing his attention from the curve of Claire's neck to the happily splashing eevee; he didn't want her to know that he found the prospect of nibbling said neck rather attractive... Oh wait, right, he'd been talking. "An Agent I know might be able to set me up with some work looking after pokemon waiting to be sold or taken to the labs," he went on, "or maybe I'll see if I can get some work helping with databases. Not the most fun thing ever, data entry, but it's better than cleaning the same bit of floor you cleaned at the same time the day before. People around here can be real slobs."
Just drop food on the cafeteria floor and leave it, because you're far too good to clean up your own mess you big shot stupid whatever rank person you were that had dropped it. What he wouldn't give for the chance to grab the person responsible and rub there face in mess they'd left.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 10:49 am
Had Claire known the exact subject of Aulus' thoughts, he'd be perturbed by how quickly she'd be out of the pool area and hiding in a closet on another floor - probably a whopping five seconds, maybe 10 if she slipped - but fortunately she didn't, so he could continue his internal appraising to his heart's content. Well, at least until it became external, that is. There might be problems after that.
"Oh?" Her eyebrows rose slightly though her gaze remained focused on the Eevee wiggling in her grasp and making "vffrrrff" noises, still gnawing her hand while kicking and splashing in the water. "That sounds interesting and far less boring than cleaning. What agent is this?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:01 am
"Oh, her name's Aila," Aulus said with a slight shrug, still carefully watching the paddling eevee. "I met her before I arrived here, didn't know she was a Rocket at the time of course. I actually only ran into her again day before yesterday, here as a matter of fact." Looking up (and making sure to transfer gaze directly from eevee to face) Aulus gave a lopsided grin. "Seems like this is a popular hangout for pretty girls, humm?... Err..." Wait. What was that Aulus? The grin faded abruptly. "Not that you're pretty," he went on quickly, "not that you're not pretty either..."
Bugger, bugger, buggeration: stupid mouth!... Wait since when did he think she was pretty? She had a nice arse, she was hot, not pretty. There was an important difference, within his own mind anyway. Bugger. "Forget I spoke," he muttered after a moment, scowling and folding his arms across his scarred chest, "I'm just rambling and probably a bit sleep deprived. Didn't mean anything by it either way, so don't get any ideas." Stupid, stupid, stupid mouth.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:37 am
"Aila?" How did they know each other? Obviously off-base, but either way it didn't really matter. "I know her. She's nice, very interesting. How is she doing, by the way? Last time I saw her she was pretty much incapacitated in the infirmary from the volcano raid. I'm glad I didn't go.. what?" A completely shocked expression was turned fully on Aulus after he started, eyebrows raising higher as he finished.
She was suddenly struck by the acute desire to swim to the other side of the pool as quickly as possible. That would be too obvious, however, and unwritten social rules demanded polite behavior instead of blatantly being rude towards coworkers, so the best she could do was very slowly inch away. "Uh," she fumbled for words, forcing her gaze onto the little 'vee splashing around in her hands while she tried to figure out how to respond to that. How could she reply? "Umm.." A distinct pink shade crept into her cheeks and neck. "Okay. So uh.. what do you think of Aila?" Talk about something else. Anything else. Anything.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:45 am
Aila! Thank all Gods ever worshipped for Aila, even the weird ones with hundreds of tentacles. "She seems alright, impressive scars that Ho-Oh gave her though," Aulus began quickly. "I ran into her in the middle of the plains when we first met, somehow we ended up chatting over lunch. We talked about this egg she had, I was sure it would be a pichu but her Mismagius was looking after it so I was a bit thrown by that. Makes sense now though, you can breed anything with anything down in the labs, right? Oh, so does that mean new egg moves are possible? It must at least make it easier to breed in moves that you want a pokemon to have."
Aila, eggs, pokemon. Concentrate on those topics, they were safe. Also, keep eye contact. Hazel. It wasn't as striking as purple but the subtle flecks of colour were attractive in their own way. He supposed they didn't go as well with the 'look' though; he presumed Claire was a bit fan of purple what with the hair streaks and the bikini too (oh Gods do not look at the bikini), and if she was so into hiding who she was of course her natural eye colour wouldn't usually be on show.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:20 pm
Oh good, topic change successful. A small, slightly relieved sigh escaped her as he spoke, using the conversation to help distract her from him calling her pretty. Arceus, he said she was pretty. The blush in her cheeks refused to dissipate. "An egg? That's interesting. Yeah, I imagine the labs can breed any two pokemon. Not even in the traditional sense of the term, they can make anything with the right DNA." Meaning if you wanted two pokemon bred, you could bring them to the labs for DNA samples to be taken and offspring artificially created. It was rather convenient.
"I don't know about egg moves in regards to lab breedings," she admitted, eyes tracing the curve of one of Blue's ears. The little fluffball was focused on something else, however, slowing her kicking and splashing as well as chewing as gold eyes widened a bit. The purple thing that curved around her human's neck and disappeared into the water looked so good and intriguing and she had to chew it. An excited "vui!" escaped her before she suddenly lunged from Claire's grasp, clambering up onto her shoulder before she began gnawing on the purple fabric that crossed her human's collarbone. "Blue," she said, her tone exasperated as she tried to carefully remove the little menace from her bikini as quickly as possible. Well, this was an awkward situation.
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