[PRP] Down but not out (fin)

[TawnyAngel]

He knew it wasn't exactly his fault but logic often didn't tie up to how he felt... and anyway it sort of was his fault. He had after all been one of the most experienced agents on the mission; he should have done something differently, should have left one of his pokemon upstairs too, should have... should have....

It was about there that the coherent thoughts always ran out leaving him full of squirming guilt that he couldn't shake. Aulus sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of his bed, suddenly lacking the energy to finish getting out of his uniform and into civvies. It was his fault, and he should have done something differently, and he had been purposefully avoiding the grunt and he felt guilty about that too. It wasn't that they had known one another socially before - there had just been that one awkward car trip - but the point was that he felt like he should have seen him by now and he hadn't, unless you counted the meeting of course and he did not.

Letting out another sigh Aulus flopped backwards onto his bed; he succeeded in cracking his head against the wall, mumbled a curse and glared at the ceiling. "Well then are you just going to lie around being pathetic?" he asked himself scathingly. No, he decided, no he was not; he was going to act like a Godsdamned adult or at least make a fair approximation. Muttering more curses to himself Aulus sat up again, rubbed his bashed head and grabbed his dex from the table beside his bed.

"JARVIS, open SMS," he instructed; the screen lit up in reaction to the voice command and opened up the messaging system. "JARVIS, new message thread; recipient grunt Lex. Begin message -"

A minute or two later Lex would receive a text message that read: 'Hi, Agent Aulus here. Are you back on duty yet? Want to meet up for some training?' It felt kind of awkward to Aulus but he hadn't been able to think of any other way to reach out. Somehow 'sorry about the eyeball' hadn't seemed like a very good idea.  

[Shaddaling]

Grimlock laid on her back, limbs and mouth attempting to capture and chew on the brush that was combing out her belly fur. Lex bent over the fire type, and paused, capturing a paw to comb where the limb met body. Out of all his pokes, only Grimlock and Sideways shed and it was soothing to groom them.

It was soothing to groom all his pokemon, even if most of them just needed a bath and a rub down with a micro cloth. And with some, bath was replaced with mixture in a spray bottle.

A chime interrupted his musing, Grimlock managed to steal the brush and was wiggling her butt under the bed. Lex shook his head, pulling out the fennekin long enough to reclaim his brush and let her go. She could hide under the bed if she wanted to. Instead he picked up his dex and read the message.

It was awkward car ride agent who also had really horrible luck at finding bodies. Lex read the message, thoughtful. He paused before typing. Not yet? The whole eye thing an all really shot my depth perception so it all sorting paper work… trying to get into medical or something.Paperwork was a deadly enemy. And sure, any type or poke you want to work with? I got a new one. Purely by accident but totally adorable.  

[TawnyAngel]

Honestly he'd half expected Lex to ignore him or to refuse, more than half actually and it took him a minute or two to think of a reply. Eventually the text read: 'Bring whoever you think needs work, I'm bringing my newer ones mainly. Meet you on the training floor in 10?' He still needed to change after all and while it wouldn't take him that long he didn't want to rush. The slight delay also gave him a bit of time to think over the encounter he had just thrown himself at, to work out how to approach it. Lex's text was upfront about, well, 'the whole eye thing' but he didn't know what that meant, you couldn't exactly judge tone via text.

"Char, stick the kettle on will you?"

When in doubt, bring tea.  

[Shaddaling]

‘That’ll work. Give me a mo’ to round up mini ‘tik and Grims'. Lex sent back and looked down at his front, idly tapping the brush against his pants as he took in the scattering of golden hairs. ‘And a mo’ to change clothes. Fire types are shedding.’

“Grims, get out from under the bed. You are going for a walk.” Clothes, clothes… ******** it, he was wearing shorts even if he was wonderfully sun rising bruise colors. He changed quickly and throwing on a pair of jean cut offs and a long t-s**t that fell past his shorts. Lex paused, looking in the mirror, debating on make up if just to make the replacement eye, which looked like a plain white ping pong ball at the moment, fade a bit.

“Wouldn’t make it in ten.” He nudged Sideways awake with the side of his foot and glanced around, finding the sootie color joltik attached to the power outlet. “Really? Outlets are not all you can eat buffets.” Lex coaxed the little mite pokemon off his meal.

Pokemon rounded up and stepped out and shut the door of his shared room and headed towards the training ground. A joltik attached to his head, little legs set behind his ears and a Fennekin and Flareon trotting at his heels.  

[TawnyAngel]

The return text came as he was struggling with jeans, which had seemed like a good idea at the time but now did not. He managed eventually though and then read the text before pulling on a black tank top. Footwear was the next debate and he felt ridiculous for agonizing over it, who gave a damn about image? He should kick on sandals rather than struggling with boots and he should have worn sweatpants not jeans, it didn't matter how he dressed he should be confident in his mere presence to carry the image he wanted to carry.


A few minutes later Aulus was waiting down on the training floor wearing enormous black buckled boots. Char stood beside him wearing a bag slung over one shoulder.

Aulus was very busy with trying not to feel worried and self conscious. He was not succeeding. He'd lost weight so his clothes didn't fit right, he hadn't shaved today because it had seemed like too much damn effort, and.... Yeah. But Lex had lost a body part too so there was that at least, maybe there would be less pity and fewer platitudes than he was no accustomed to getting from casual acquaintances. He still hadn't looked at the space where his arm ought to be, which was probably pitiful. Aulus scowled at himself and straightened his shoulders, he was better than this! Confidence!  

[Shaddaling]

Training floor, training floor. He hadn’t been to the training floor before, not on this base and when he joined they were holed up in ambergris so not then either. Lex hummed softly, trying to think of when he had actually trained against members before. Yeah, that was mostly blank. Howl had been trained for capturing pokemon, trained from zubat to magnificent flier.

Glit was still learning, but she was smart. Flatline was too shy for him to push out into a crisis and Spins bad habit that every little bird pokemon was a snack needed to be corrected. But, training, training, his three weakest would be Grimlock, Sideways, and Sunspot.

And speak of the devil. It was Aulus! “Hey yah, glad I’m not the only one still looking like I been chewed up and spitted out.” Lex smiled easily, moving towards Aulus in grippie fuzzy socks.  

[TawnyAngel]

Lex looked.... Well for a start Aulus was not entirely convinced that he had anything on under the t-shirt. Then there were the livid bruises and the white, white orb where an eye should be. He tried not to fixate on the not-eye, he's always hated it when people stared at the scar on his face and he now hated it when people stared at where his right arm should be. Even so it took Aulus a couple of moments to meet Lex's gaze properly. He grimaced and nodded, no denying it after all and it was something they were sharing not something Lex was holding over him.

"I've had better missions, I think that one wins on 'number of people mangled'," he added to his nod. "You look better than at the meeting though. C'mon, this room's free." Aulus waved his hand at the room he meant - Char opened it after a nod of greeting to Lex - and as he stepped inside the scarred Agent tried to work out what to say next. People were difficult.  

[Shaddaling]

“I look hideous, I could have tried to hide some of this,” He motioned to the trailing bruises. “It just looks worse then what it is since my skin is so fair. Really thinking of getting some bruise balm soap or something.” Lex replied, shrugging of easily the look. He was missing an eye and looked like he belong on a poster for domestic abused victims.

“Char, right? Glad to see you are doing okay. How is Potato?” Lex asked brightly to the Charizard’s greeting. So he couldn’t understand him back, but he was sure the sentiment was appreciated. “Ooh, yes. The joltik on my head is Sunspot, and the others are Sideways and Grimlock. Grimsie is the baby.”  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus hadn't even noticed the Joltik; he nodded to it and to the two fire types, Grimlock - ugh, 'Grimsie', too cutesy - was the one Lex had been looking for a harness for on their awkward car trip if he remembered right. "Has she stopped setting fire to things?" he asked as he recalled that detail too. "And..." He shrugged, a frown knitting his brow. "No need to bother about appearances, anyone who makes something of it deserves a free rhinoplasty courtesy of Dr. Fist.

"Anyway, Sunspot, how long have you had her?" Aulus quizzed as he pushed the door closed behind them and flipped the switch to mark the room engaged, he did want to talk about... well, things, but he fully intended to get some training done too. Quite apart from training for the sake of the activity itself he frankly needed the second subject to dive into in moments when he started feeling too awkward.

Char meanwhile bowed his head in acknowledgment of his name and then gave Lex a thumbs up re: Potato. He hadn't been able to spend time with his small friend but he understood that the Chatot was being well treated.  

[Shaddaling]

“Mostly, having her train with Sides helped a lot. She doesn’t set fire to things unless she is startled now.” He smiled at the fennekin, - who squirmed and gave an unhappy noise under the attention, ears low. “It’s okay. I been getting free coffee out of it by a cute guy at the Camphoreon coffee joint.”

“He, and not long. About a week or so? Got the little guy when coming back from a coffee trip with Howl. She been needing to stretch her wings.” He smiled at Char. “That good Potato is doing well. Spins wanted to eat him, nothing personal for the bird, but Spins wants to eat any bird smaller then him.”  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, he, sorry Sunspot," Aulus nodded at the little bug, "my partner has a female Joltik, I guess that's my only excuse." Apologizing to pokemon came a lot more easily than apologizing to people; everything came a lot more easily with pokemon, or just about anyway. "And I guess it's good that you've got some profit out of it... missions aren't usually that bad." Not that that fact helped anything, they were both still down body parts. "Not a great first experience with us for you, to say the least." It was an obvious observation but that was the only way he felt capable of approaching the subject. Lex didn't seem too torn up about it but the grunt could be hiding how he really felt, and as for himself.... Yea. The whole thing was a ******** mess.

Aulus gave himself a mental shake and reached for his pokeballs, lips pressed together in a tight line. The pokemon that appeared were a Frogadier, a Gastly and a Sawk. The Sawk was wearing a pink gi. Aulus gestured to the trio. "These are Thanatos - I didn't pick the name - Puck, and Rose... didn't pick that name either."  

[Shaddaling]

The dark joltik waved a leg in acceptance of the apology and settled back down, looking like a rather interesting looking barrette. “Your group is Tambrey and Hayes right? I forget which one is your partner.” He was sure it was one of them. “Is Hayes going to get his hearing back in that ear?” Lex hoped so.

“Blah, I knew it was going to be a cluster ******** the moment I knew it was going to involve Tethys. It wasn’t like any of us planned on combating a mutated vent dwelling Crazy Dave when we took the mission.” Lex smiled at the new pokemon. “It is a pleasure to meet you. And Rose, your gi is adorable.” He paused, thinking. “A bit pale, I would love to see you in a deeper rose pink.”  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus stiffened slightly at the mention of the woman's name, his jaw clenched up and he gave a sharp little nod. "Right." But it hadn't involved her, she hadn't been there, but she was probably somewhere in Kodo. The less he thought about that the better but at least he knew she couldn't just waltz into the base, it might be an oppressive underground box but at least it was a safe one.

Moving swiftly on though, very swiftly.

"Tam's my partner, Ale- Hayes was before he was promoted. Yeah though his hearing's going to be fine, it's close to normal already." It was the concussion that was lingering and his battered side. Those were improving too though and in the end Alex should be left with no ill effects other than perhaps a few more nightmares and he was grateful for that at least, for the fact that Tam would be okay too. He didn't know what he would have done if either of them had taken permanent harm.

Rose beamed at Lex, clapped his hands and gave a little bow. "Saaaaaw!" he exclaimed. he waved to the pokemon he didn't know,

Thanatos, who was hiding behind Rose, peeked out to give a little wave and a shy; of his own.

Puck had disappeared from view, naturally.  

[Shaddaling]

“That is great to hear.” Lex replied. He liked Hayes, Alex, and there was a lot of Alex and variants in Team Rocket. OMG, that Sawk was just the cutest. “I think I’m going to have to introduce you to Naos... K.O sometime. He is a wiz with cloth and thread.”

Actually he should drop in and see how K.O was doing sometime. “Go on, introduce yourselves.” Lex made a hand motion giving the fire types permission to go greet the other two and carefully worked on dislodging the Joltik from his hair. Sunspot was going to stay with him.

Sideways trotted over, the Flareon ears perked and fearless. He walked around the Sawk, trying to get a better look at Thanatos. Was he being shy?

Grimlock flickered an ear, looking over the room before approach them both. She lived with ghost types so Puck’s disappearance had her a bit on edge.

[TawnyAngel]

Rose beamed again and nodded enthusiastically. He got the impression that his trainer found his interest in clothes - especially pink ones - a little silly but he was tolerating it and the Sawk appreciated that. he continued, now addressing the Flareon and reaching down to pat the Frogadier on the shoulder.

The water type shifted awkwardly as Sideways approached but he didn't try to get away. he added, So long as there weren't too many people and he had somebody to stick close to.

"Yeah," Aulus nodded agreement; there wasn't much more to say on that particular subject. "Hey, Char, get the stuff out will you?" Seen as he'd brought it might as well use it.

Char rumbled and gave a slight bow of his head, reaching into the bag to extract and then erect a couple of little camping chairs which were closely followed by a thermos flask and a couple of plastic cups. Aulus gestured at the set up and shrugged. "Thought standing up the whole time might still be a bit of a stretch, and there's tea... because I wanted tea," he explained, feeling a little foolish and scowling because of it.