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It was ineffective to practice gymnastics and nothing else, Aila understood. Swimming was good in terms of cardio, but with summer approaching, the pool was more and more crowded during common off-hours. It had been a while since she had used the treadmill - not since the Ho-Oh's talon had ripped into her hip - and so with a mental shrug she approached the series of machines, noting the nearby stranger with an acknowledging nod. She turned to one of the treadmills, aiming a pokeball's flash to a spot at her side and crouching in front of the resulting Pikachu. "Eclair, would you like to run with me?"

"Chaa!" The electric-type nuzzled briefly against her trainer's leg, eliciting a sigh from the human.

"Over here, look." She seized the small pokemon around its middle and set it on the treadmill, turning it on at a low speed. Eclair stumbled momentarily, clearly confounded by the magical moving ground, before settling into a leisurely pace and earning an approving pat from her human.

"Good, keep that up." Aila stepped onto the next of the machines in the line, placing herself between the Pikachu and the other Rocket and turning the speed up to a decent level. She had been too soft on Eclair while she was a Pichu, and her evolved form was more used to coddling than effort. This would be problematic if not curbed as soon as possible.

"Are you all right?" She stepped away from her own treadmill to offer a hand to the fallen Rocket, calling a short "you stay put" over her shoulder to dissuade the Pikachu's curiosity. He spoke, somewhat roughly, and Aila's attention was called to the electric-type, her expression faintly confused. "You mean Eclair?" The Pikachu blinked curiously at the human pair at mention of her name. "She's a bit of a brat, but she isn't dangerous. You don't need to worry about her." Strange that he was worried about a Pikachu to begin with; they were generally stereotyped as one of the more docile species. Maybe he'd simply had a negative experience with them in the past.

Eclair looked up again when her name was mentioned once more, trotting casually on the treadmill and flicking an ear at the human's fearful tones and behaviors. "I can't speak for the majority, but I certainly don't keep them because they're dangerous," Aila said, raising an eyebrow slightly. "I keep them because they're useful. A Pikachu with Thunder Wave so I can paralyze pursuers, a Metagross with Magnet Rise so I can easily ascend to and descend from high places, a Mismagius so I can perform cursory recon without any chance of detection... I could go on, but I'm already rambling." At his paranoid hypothesis, she could help a slight laugh. "My goodness, it's a Pikachu, not a Zapdos. You don't have to worry about anything like that." And only a recently-evolved Pikachu at that. A recently-evolved Pikachu that enjoyed sweets and cuddles. The notion that Eclair was at all dangerous was just silly, amusing even.

"Well, I'll give you that," she said with a slight shrug. "The fact that they have the potential to be dangerous doesn't necessarily mean that's how they'll be used, though. And even when they are used for their dangerous abilities, it's against our enemies. The people here are your allies; you don't have to worry about being attacked by our pokemon." Unless those pokemon were poorly trained, in which case the Rocket in question would be reprimanded for lacking control over their own team. Aila had been lucky that Revenant had never tormented someone more important than other grunts and trainees...

"It might be frightening, but it can be a necessary evil. I would rather scare an officer by paralyzing him than be arrested." She was beginning to suspect that this apparent distrust of pokemon ran a bit more deeply and bit more complex than the initial impression suggested. In response to his doubt of pokemon's loyalty, she shrugged once more, "Well, how do you trust me to not cut you down where you stand? Humans have just as much potential as pokemon to hurt others, and I dare say we're a fair bit more volatile at that. Add to that, every human here is a criminal. The vast majority of us have firsthand experience with hurting people, yet you trust us more than our docile pokemon?"

"Feelings, communication, morals... All of it's awfully fleeting, isn't it? Just because we feel a certain way doesn't mean we'll say so, and just because we act like we're civil doesn't mean we are." She folded her hands behind her back, expression earnest but tone hesitant. "Five months ago, I appeared in front of my brother and killed his daughter. To me, I had lifetime of hatred leading up to and justifying that moment. But to him, a stranger showed up out of nowhere, spouted some nonsense about justice, and slit his only daughter's throat." Her grip tightened on itself, and a momentarily darkening of her expression accompanied the quiet sigh she breathed in an attempt to reign in the emotions connected to the thoughts. Even after learning so many truths about her circumstances, after being forgiven by her brother, the memories continued to shake her composure.

In a swift effort to redirect the conversation, she gave a light shrug, "I'm not so conceited as to think I can alter the foundations of your life. I just think you're judging pokemon a little too harshly." Or perhaps simply not judging humans harshly enough.

Her grip tightened once more at the overt expression of surprise, small fingers pulling into the top of her wrist as she bore the reaction. "I'm not proud of it," she assured quietly. It was somewhat ironic, actually. The days following the act had been the proudest of her life, but what could she feel now but shame at having been so manipulated toward such a senseless deed?

"It's... a rather long story. I don't mind explaining if you wish, but..." A partial shrug. A strange realization teased at the back of her thoughts: This was the first she had spoken of those events since that December. She had mentioned it passingly to Asch, but she hadn't been the one to bring the subject to the conversation. At his apology, she shook her head to dismiss it, "No, I'm sorry I brought up something so unnecessary. Mm, to summarize my point," because she got the distinct feeling she had only wandered further from it, "People are a lot more calculative and violent than pokemon... So if you trust humans, I feel you could trust pokemon even more than that... I hope this makes sense." She narrowed her eyes slightly at her own explanation. It had been unwise to approach the subject after all, if only because it was suddenly so hard to concentrate on any one thought.

Concern for her well-being had been the last thing she would have expected in response to all that. "Ah, Aila. Well, Agent Aila." It was always good to be familiar with ranks, just in case. "I'm sorry I didn't properly introduce myself earlier."

"...Maybe another time, then," she said, leaning backwards against the front of the treadmill. She had been warned against keeping things to herself, but it always seemed so much easier to not talk about it than the alternative. She visibly relaxed a bit on the permission to let it go for the time being, not even realizing herself how tense she'd been until the tension began to dissipate. It really shouldn't have been such a difficult subject to approach, but it was.

At his next words, she smiled, approvingly and encouragingly. "Trying is all anyone can ask of you. You don't need to approach it by yourself, though. If it's hard, or scary," because the latter seemed like a very good possibility, "you're surrounded by people who will help. We're a team, after all." That was a point that many seemed to miss, despite the very name of the organization being Team Rocket. Yet so many were reluctant to rely on their allies... Aila failed to realize that she fell into that category herself.

"Oh, you know Inigo?" That was somewhat surprising, considering Inigo was still a new trainee. Well, apparently he was already meeting people. "Yes, that was me."