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[This RP is open to anyone who wants to join.]

It was about 2pm on a typical day at HQ. As usual the halls were streaked with agents hurrying to and from important jobs and missions. Cutting his way through the busy flow was Lore, walking a leisurely pace that blatantly contradicted those around him. His ever-present pair of whimsicotts waddled after him.

Despite his Executive uniform Lore didn't really stand out in a crowd, so most people probably wouldn't notice him. Those that did might realize it was the first time the exec had been seen out and about since.. ....how long had it been? Since the mission he led against the giant Galactic ariados mech, at least. In the months since he'd been completely absent. Some had assumed the strange exec had been transferred away from HQ as quickly as he'd appeared.

Regardless of any rumors or lack of rumors that might have been hovering around him, this nice afternoon found Lore wandering into the main cafeteria. It was his second time in there, which was odd considering he had access to the much nicer cafeteria for higher-ranking Rockets. Smiling passively, he stepped up to the line to collect a tray of the day's meal and a bag of chips. Once he'd paid for the food he took a seat at a table in the corner. The two whimsicotts scrambled up to sit beside him. He handed them the bag of chips and they bickered over it.

It was well known that Lore was abnormally personable for an Executive. The last time he'd come to the cafeteria he invited himself to sit with a group of Grunts and Agents. Though he hadn't placed himself at an occupied table today, he was eyeing the other Rockets in the room expectantly. If anyone asked to join him it was unlikely he'd turn them down.

Callista wasn't normally the most social of grunts. In fact, one could say she was almost the opposite, and today was no exception. With her pink braid slung lazily over one shoulder, she turned a sharp, blue-eyed gaze and peered over all of the cafeteria, surveying it for a good place to eat undisturbed. She paused for a moment, processing the fact that there was apparently an executive in their midst, and deliberately decided to choose another table.

It wasn't as far from her higher-up as she would like, but at least it was one of the few other completely empty tables in the place. She glanced down to her side to make certain that her Glaceon, Eden, was still with her, and was relieved to see that she was indeed behaving.

...Though that might be because she kept eying Callista's bag of chips. Her trainer wasn't likely to share, though - the newly-evolved pokémon had a habit of freezing everything before she ate it, and the grunt didn't fancy the taste of iced potato chips. Making her way to the empty table she had selected, she did her best to both ignore the world around her and stay on the alert for any nuisances that might crop up to annoy her.

Beside her, Eden looked away from the chips to watch the pair of Whimsicotts that had entered with the executive. What were they doing? Did they like ice chips?

"I told ya man, ya don' have ta worry 'bout it. Ya were out of it, so was I. It ain't yer fault!"

A rather distressed blond followed after the taller and ganglier Agent with a mouth squiggled like a wriggling Caterpie. Slumped, one could obviously guess he was the guilty party for the result of his partner's rather black-blue eye. From the Agent's squint eyed expression, it look more as if his right eye had become a marble and rolled out from the socket. The edges were a tad bit swollen, evidence that someone had struck him. It was the keenest clue to those who might think he actually lost an eye.

"But Sorano, man . . . I hit you! Damn it, why are you so cool with this? I could'a done something worse, s**t. You sure that punch did knock some sense outta you?!" Moose smothered a few knuckles across his temple, distracted more by the moment to not notice the awkward stares of others at a Trainee addressing an Agent so lightly. "Arceus . . . "

Sorano laughed a little at his best bud's misery, shrugged, and scratched the underside of his neck. "When I said ya didn' have ta worry 'bout it, man, I was serious. This ain't the first time ya got angry when yer drunk. 'ell, I don' even know what I said, haha. So drop it, 'kay? 'Sides, 'm 'ungry. Let's get some lunch."

Moose just grumbled something undecipherable beneath a sighed breath and simply followed after without any protest. The cafeteria was brimming to the edge with hungry syndicate mates. No surprise. Of course, the stares increased now and it annoyed the utter s**t out of Adrian as he took note of it.

"What do these shits find so strange? Your eye or me walkin' with you?" questioned Adrian in a mumble. "Seriously."

"Shh. Take yer crap and walk, yer holdin' up the line."

Another sigh was followed by a raised set of brows when Sorano flipped a bill to the register and waved off the return of exact change. s**t, how much do Agents get paid?

"Where we gonna sit- Whooa!"

Sorano had grabbed his bud's forearm now and was dragging him like an eager Growlithe towards a rather vacant table. The open seats was not what Moose caught first however, it was actually the fallow haired higher-up that delivered a shake to the knees.

"Hell, Sorano, what are you doing?! That's an Elite, you don't just approach one so lightly!"

"Shush, man, the guy's pretty cool." The teal haired gent nearly pushed the blond down into a seat as he waved a bit himself. He remember the bloke from that mission with the Galatics. Great fella. " 'ey." he greeted casually. "S'up?"

Was it mentioned that Never was there that entire time? Yep, the Flareon was totally walking in a daze. Always there . . .

Lore listened to everything Frost said, eyebrows peaked with genuine interest. Judging by his expression all of this was news to the exec.

He was distracted momentarily when Sorano and Moose appeared. "Hey guys! Have a seat." Catching Moose's apprehensive expression he offered a good-natured wink, then looked back at Frost. "Fangirls, huh?" He laughed, "Really? Y'don't say. That must annoy him so much.." He said the last bit quietly and mostly to himself. He took a few moments to sample his lunch - some sort of deli sandwich, then shrugged, "I'm hoping to be around more. Been getting kind of stir-crazy, cooped up. Unfortunately the powers that be prefer me cooped up.. so I guess we'll see. I do appreciate the update on all the fun I've been missing."

A slight wince at the sudden friendliness was all Moose gave in response, having quite the troubled past with anyone higher than a Grunt. Well, besides Sorano . . . who was once a Grunt. Before he came here. Man, where did the time go? The blond nosed his way into the bag of pretzals he had picked up and hardly batted an eye until he noticed the lovely sauntering her way over to the table. Well, well. Of course, there had to be some bold blossoms within the fray of ice cold hotties right? Adrian smoothed out his locks to the back. She was an Agent, huh? He had troubles with that one Agent chick in the past but--

"Oh, Lili!, 'ey!" Lili? Wait, Lilith? "Huh?"

Sorano jumped higher from his seat than any ringling Mankey Moose has ever seen and immediately scooped his arms under the femme fatale's figure and gave her a quick hug. " 'ey, its good ta see ya! Been a while, huh? Sorry for tha absense, man, life an' all." Sorano squinted a bit tighter. "This? Ahh, I ain't anythin'. Jus' got into a drunken scuffle with this s**t ova 'ere." He edged a thumb to Adrian. "Nothin' ta worry 'bout, hun. It was my fault, aha." He sighed than perked up again. "Oh, have ya met Moose? Adrian, this is Lili. Y'saw her pic, right? In me room? This is 'er in tha mighty flesh, haha."

Adrian just gave her a disgustingly smarmy grin. "Hey." Arceus, what a womanizer.

The expression on Lilith's face was nothing short of pure elation as Sorano wrapped his arms around her in a large, quick hug. Man... How long had it been since she last hugged him? Far too long, she thought to herself. She missed being there, in his arms. Even if it was for one fleeting moment, it made up for all of those weeks of loneliness twice over. "It has been a long time... But I understand. Work and all, huh?" What a shame it was that they couldn't spend more time together, but Sorano was right. 'Life an' all.' It couldn't be helped, but... Still.

"You got in a fight?" Lilith blinked in surprise and looked behind Sorano to where the blond stranger was standing, a smarmy smile on his face. His name was... Moose? As in the animal? Or was it Adrian? Was Moose a nickname? Was Adrian the nickname? Adrian sounded much more like a normal name than Moose, so Lilith just assumed that was the correct one to use. She gave Sorano's friend a small smile. "Um... Hello, Adrian." With that greeting over with, Lilith turned her attention back to Sorano. "Well, I suppose I can't keep you from getting into fights or whatever, but please, just... try to be careful, please? I don't need you back in the infirmary." The words were said with a hint of jest in them, but her intention was somber enough. She doubted that she could handle Sorano being out of commission again. She would worry too much.

Suddenly aware of the Executive Agent sitting right nearby where she stood, Lilith quickly turned around and faced him, a somewhat nervous expression on her face. She always hated interacting with higher-ups... It seemed like every time that she did, she ended up stumbling over her words and making an a** out of herself. This particular one seemed pleasant enough, but one could never be too sure. "Uh, um... Hello, s-sir..."

"Yer right there, pal." Sorano laughed airily with a scratch to the back of the neck. "Chump got me good, eh." He punched Moose's arm lightly. "One ta zero, that's tha standin'. I'll git ya next time."

Moose was concentrating on other attributes. Other attributes know as miss brunette and beautiful standing, oh say, three or so feet away? Yep. How many glasses of the booze did Sorano shoot at her to get her to be his girl? Of course, he never wondered that when staring at a picture. The total sum of words is quite different when one compares a snapshot to reality. Teal eyes were like a concentrated mass of, "Hello nurse~". Maybe he should deck Sorano so that is does send him to the emergency room.

"Hey, I ain't headin' to the ER anytime soon." he laughed than beckoned to the open seat next to him. "Have a seat, Lili. Le's catch up, yea? I want ya ta become good friends with Moose ova 'ere. He's a good fella an' me best bud, aren't ya . . . ya s**t? Haha."

"Oh yea, total friends. Yep. Brothers 'til the end, right?"

"Okay... Lore, then. It's a pleasure to meet you." Lilith gave a small, polite smile to the Executive. She wasn't sure if she was entirely comfortable with sitting next to someone of such higher rank, but... as long as Sorano was alongside her, she didn't mind. Hell, the world could come crashing down and she wouldn't care if Sorano was at her side. Ah, the foolish mind of a girl in love. "I haven't been on many missions lately, no," she said to Lore. "The last one I was on was a... bit of a flop, and my blundering didn't exactly help, heh." Personally, she would rather call it a brilliantly utter failure rather than a simple blunder, but... no need to further degrade herself than she really should, right?

Lilith, being the oblivious, transparent girl that she was, didn't really notice Moose's eyes screaming volumes at her. Rather, she was focused on Sorano next to her. Ah, yes, and the catching up. Equally important. "Really, not much has been going on with me as of late... Pretty boring, I know, but not much I can do about it." Wasn't that the truth. ...Now that she had a moment to think about it, didn't Sorano mention a Moose once before, back when he and Lilith first met? "Sorano, I think you might have said something about a guy named Moose a while ago, didn't you? Is Adrian the same guy?"