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 Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:40 am
Afternoon had turned to evening, and at long last he'd locked his mop and bucket back into a supply closet. Without a bike he couldn't travel all that far into the desert, but he'd fancied a decent walk this evening and as such had packed up dinner for himself and Tortie and set out. He didn't worry too much about direction; while it was easy to get lost in a featureless desert, it was not easy to lose sight of HQ when you were only moving at walking pace. In any case, there wasn't much wind this evening; if needs be he could find his way back by following the tracks he and Tortie were making, and failing that she could probably find the way back by scent. In short he wasn't worried about getting lost, and indeed as he sat down to eat as the sun began to sink over the horizon HQ was still well in sight. He might eventually lose sight of it in the failing light, but Tortie was a dark type; her eyes did just fine in dim conditions.
"Well then," Aulus sighed slightly in a more or less contented manner as he fetched Tortie's bowl out of his bag and poured food into one side, water into the other, "nice to be away from base, isn't it? Not sure how much longer I can stand to be cooped up in there, not permitted to go much further away than this, stuck mopping floors... Guess I should chase Aila up on finding me some more interesting work." He wasn't really sure where to find her though, and his free time was so sparse that he couldn't just hang around somewhere communal hoping that she'd show up. "Anyway," the red-eyed man shrugged as he located his own dinner; a pasta salad, "least we can have a peaceful evening out here every so often."
Tortie agreed, They wouldn't be trainees for much longer, she was sure, but there was no point in verbalizing that certainty; her human couldn't understand her words after all.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:02 am
Far away on the dunes, a tall shape sniffed the wind.
It smelled like new people.. and macaroni.
---
Aulus might feel a slight breeze, might see long shadows dancing under dusty paws, might sense the large bulk drawing nearer. If all these signs failed, he'd certainly feel an inquisitive huff of breath on the back of his neck - and when he turned around, be acknowledged with a friendly "Bwurf" from a large Arcanine that hadn't been there a moment ago.
Keeping a large dog in an apartment-slash-business complex was no easy feat, especially when 'large' meant 'taller than most men' and 'legs as tall as your shoulder.' One adaptive measure was to train it for recall and let it run, provided it came back, and let it have some unstructured free time in the process.
Moloch waved his feathery pennant of a tail, nostrils flaring to take in the new scents.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:15 am
Aulus had been a little too preoccupied by his dinner to notice the signs of the approaching creature, but he did notice Tortie raise her head and p***k up her ears. "Humm? What's up Tort-" Something was breathing on him. Flicking himself to his feet and grabbing his staff in the process Aulus spun around to see... Wow! Grinning broadly he dropped his staff to the sand and reached out to scratch the huge canine's fluffy cheek. "Well hello there," he chuckled, "where did you come from? Humm, I don't see your trainer anywhere, but if you're wild you're certainly very friendly." What pretty eyes it had, and how huge it was! He always had liked Arcanine, but then he liked all pokemon. Still, he had to admit that they were one of the more impressive varieties around.
Tortie took rather longer to relax than her trainer, but when Aulus started scratching the fire-type's face she sat back on her haunches with a quiet huff. She was glad it wasn't a threat, of course, but she never did like her trainer paying more attention to another pokemon than he did to her. She was used to this by now though, and knew very well that while he might make a fuss of other pokemon in the sort term, in the end he came back to her... If he actually captured another pokemon, however, the situation might change. she asked casually, hoping that the answer would be 'yes'. If it wasn't she might have to make off with her human's pokeballs; not a chance she was letting another force her to compete for his attention.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:04 pm
The big dog danced back a pace when the swarthy man spun around, but it was a polite sort of retreat - just stepping out of the way so he didn't run into his big stick - and his tail was waving in a way that said he was feeling friendly, and if he had to set Aulus on fire that would be sad. But it was okay. The cheek scratch got another happy "Bwurh!" and a second later Moloch plopped his hindquarters in a sit, content to let this state of affairs continue.
A big black nose snuffled closer and a bigger tongue swiped across Aulus' exposed arm. There was no sign of a collar or any other accessory. If the Arcanine was wild it was certainly friendly - and certainly well groomed - and had unusually blue eyes that were going a bit cross-eyed from the effort of looking at something so close up.
The giant dog raised his head to look at Tortie (and also hopefully expose part of his neck that itched.) he added helpfully, sighting down his muzzle at the Absol.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:11 pm
Still grinning happily, Aulus moved his scratching to the massive dog's neck when he raised his head. "You are soft," he observed, working his fingers deep into the fluff, "either somebody takes very good care of you, or you've found a way of rolling in the sand that keeps you're coat lovely and glossy." While the former seemed more likely, he knew that plenty of pokemon were just about as smart as humans; it was entirely possible that a fastidious wild Arcanine could have figured out some kind of fur-care routine.
As the fire type spoke, Tortie huffed again. she said in a manner that didn't especially invite further conversation; she'd heard what she'd needed to hear, and saw no reason to keep chatting. Stealing her human's attention. Her human. At least now she knew that this would be temporary; the sooner the trainer of this brute appeared the happier she would be. Oh, Aulus wouldn't be, but at the moment she was prioritizing her happiness above his by a long shot: she still hadn't quite forgiven him for displacing them all of a sudden, even though she was beginning to accept life here and to look forward to the future.
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