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 Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 1:25 pm
Though Grunt Nakura had been 'hard at work' researching the Galactics like the Rocket Boss, Lucere, had commanded, there were still the usual chores to do around base. And, as expected, grunts were the ideal Rockets to carry them out. So, with some reluctance, Nakura pulled himself away from his research gathering necessary facts.
Perhaps that was a task best suited for the agents like his partner. He still didn't have access to as much information as he would have liked due to his lower rank. His specialty largely came from conversing and interacting with others, anyway, and it wasn't as though they had any Galactics to chat with for the time being.
That being said, Nakura was assigned the duty of keeping watch over the prisoner, former Dragon Champion Lance, for the day. While most other grunts would have found this task nearly pointless, Nakura was strangely optimistic. After all, there was nothing he loved more than observing humans, and Lance, implant or not, was still human. That he was a mind-slave only made him that much more interesting a specimen to study.
He wondered if he would be allowed to talk to the prisoner while he worked. As he made his way down the hall to where he told Lance could be located, he realized that no one had explicitly told him not to speak to the prisoner. After all, Faleen must have done it all the time. Faleen... Hmm. Maybe the man could even tell him a thing or two about his partner about his partner.
Indeed, from Nakura's understanding, the two had been pretty close prior to Lance's true identity being discovered, let alone Nakura joining Team Rocket. There were bound to be some things about Fallen that Lance knew while her partner did not.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 3:21 pm
When Lance wasn't put to doing various chores around the base, he was put here, back in his cell. The man never gave a fuss, but then he probably couldn't even if he wanted to. It seemed that he might just rot here in TRHQ for the rest of his life. There really was no telling. He just lived day to day, if you could call it living.
The guards rarely spoke to him, and if they did it was usually to order him to do something or another. Thus most of his days were spent in silence. Since the last tampering with his implant, his mind was a bit clearer than before. Allowing him a bit more leeway than previously. Still, he didn't seem to be the most mentally active. In fact the red headed man was lying on his back upon the cot in his cell, staring at the ceiling. He barely seemed to notice when the new guard arrived.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 4:55 pm
When Izaya arrived, he regarded the quiet red-head a minute before cheerfully rapping his knuckles upon one of the iron bars of the cell. "Hello in there~" he called in a sing-songy tone. "Are you Grunt Will? I've been meaning to speak to you, Mr. Will. About your work in Team Rocket, I mean."
Taking a key he had been given, though really it was only supposed to be used for emergencies, the grunt opened the cell door and entered it before closing it behind him. He sat in front of it cross-legged and took out a nail-file from his parka pocket before examining his nails. "Hear you were once close with the Rocket who is now known as 'Agent Faleen'. That true...?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:26 pm
Golden eyes blinked in a bit of surprise at the rapping against his cell bars, and turned to look. There was some guy there he'd never met before, and Lance pushed himself up into a sitting position as he started to come in. It had been a while since his last interrogation, perhaps that was what this was about. Or maybe he was being taken out to clean toilets again. However, the guard just started asking questions and sat down. Odd.
Lance just stared quietly at Izaya for several moments. While the chip in his head had been altered recently, his mental functions were still a bit slow and muddled.
Will... he hadn't been called that in quite some time. Nobody referred to him by his fake name anymore. The mention of Faleen though, caused his eyes to light up a little.
"We were... friends."
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:02 pm
At the signs of life from the prisoner, Izaya had to admit he was impressed. To allow a person to function relatively normally and yet subdue their free will - that was quite a feat. But there had to be limits; boundaries. Like the glitch that had almost caused this man to strangle Faleen.
The informant concealed both his admiration for the technology and the delight that Lance chose to speak behind a smile of indifference. He was slightly surprised that 'Will' hadn't bothered to correct him on the issue of his true name, but he supposed that wasn't the biggest concern for the man at the moment.
"'Were'?" the grunt asked, sounding shocked. "What happened between you two? Did you have a fight? Are you no longer friends?" The light in those gold eyes hadn't escaped Izaya. Someone was in there talking to him, and it wasn't some brain-implanted chip.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 9:44 pm
Lance's eyes tilted back down again and his brow furrowed ever so slightly at the barrage of questions. "A fight? Yes... I suppose." There was a bit more to it than that really. The details were a bit fuzzy, but he did remember. He remembered when she had confronted him, before the chip had been planted.
"I'm a traitor. She is a Rocket and I am not. It's that simple."
It didn't mean that he still didn't care about Faleen, but she had cut her ties with him and now hated him. That's what he had wanted. It was better that way. Or was it? Nothing seemed clear cut anymore.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:15 am
Happy to have more than one sentence out of Lance the informant decided to take it a little easier. He didn't know how sensitive that chip was. Who knew? If it malfunctioned due to him asking too many questions of the man at once, they would both be in trouble.
"Ohhh...I see," Izaya said, taking out a nail file from his pocket. He casually began to file his nails as he continued to speak. "How did she take the news that you were not a Rocket?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:24 am
"Not well," he said just a little bit distantly. It was not exactly a topic that Lance was comfortable with, and he probably wouldn't talk of it so openly to Izaya if it weren't for the implant.
"She offered me the chance to become a Rocket, twice, but I refused."
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:03 am
"And how did she react to that?" the grunt asked, pretending not to care so much at first. But then he looked up to meet Lance's gaze, even if it wasn't focused on him. "Did you see the look in her eyes? Her posture, her mouth? Was she pouting? Distressed, dismayed, betrayed? How do you think she felt?
Okay, so it was more than a few questions, but it was all generally the same topic. His point was to get Lance to try to think back to the image memory of exactly when Faleen realized 'Will' wasn't changing his mind.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:43 am
Lance closes his eyes as he tried to recall the memories of his encounters with Faleen. They were a jumbled mess in his brain, and he was possibly confusing details, and the order of circumstances, and how many times things happened even. But as he started to concentrate, his thoughts went back to the first time they had spoken after the raid.
"She was angry, humiliated, anguished. To her, Will died in that cave. She hates me. I think she almost cried."
He remembered the resolve in which he had spoken to her despite his own emotions. A resolve that had since crumbled since the implant had been put in his head. She had offered him a way out, a chance to bring Will back, but he had refused.
"After that, she has been cold and distant."
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:53 am
"Almost, mm?" Nakura replied with a small chuckle, holding out a hand to examine his nails before filing them some more. "Almost, but not quite. Haha, sounds like Faleen-chan..."
Shifting his position on the floor, he adjusted his legs so that the blood in them could circulate better. Already one seemed to have fallen asleep. "...But what about before? Was she not 'cold and distant' before she knew? Was it just with you, or was she generally less so?"
"And now...would you consider her cold and distant with you only, or in general?" He smiled. "Ah, but I suppose you don't really see her in passing any more like you used to, considering when you see her it's mostly for a direct encounter. I don't suppose you know how she's been interacting with others as of late."
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:00 am
"I don't know. I was stationed at the outpost so I didn't see her interact with other people often."
That was definitely the truth. The outpost was somewhat isolated and he had no way of knowing what her relationship was like with other people.. except.
"She told me she had expressed things to me she hadn't to other people."
She had obviously felt close to Will, and confided in him.
He then shook his head, indicating that he did indeed didn't really see much of her around other people still. He had no way of knowing. He only know how Faleen treated him in the few encounters they had.
"Now I only see her when she does maintenance on the chip."
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:12 am
Crimson eyes widened. Well, that certainly was interesting. So she had been very intimate with this man. Hmm. If he had been any other person, Izaya might have thought he felt a twinge of jealousy. She was his partner now, after all. Still, that didn't mean they shared trust.
Certainly not the kind Lance and her seemed to have, but then again, Izaya couldn't blame her. He liked that she was wary, and honestly he believed that no one with common sense and a clear head should trust him.
"Oh! Yes, about that," the informant said, hearing maintenance mentioned. "I heard something about you almost strangling her to death one time~!" As opposed to a horrified expression one might have expected to see, Izaya wore a very excited face. "What was that like? Do you remember?" He put his nail file away, eager to hear. "Was that you acting, or the chip? Maybe a little of both~?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:22 am
Lance visibly flinched at the mention of that time he'd nearly strangled Faleen. It was something he wanted to forget, but couldn't.
"I never wanted to hurt her!" He said in a sudden burst of emotion. Again he flinched and closed his eyes. "The chip malfunctioned. I couldn't control myself. I knew what was happening, and I was only barely able to stop in the end."
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 12:06 pm
"..."
The grunt blinked before getting up and slowly walking over to Lance. "So..." he murmured thoughtfully, almost to himself. "You do feel emotions..." he realized. "And can express them. To a certain extent, at least."
"Lance," Izaya said, using his original name for the first time. "Do you know what the chip was actually supposed to do?"
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