[Semi-ORP] Let's Get Down to Business [Fin]

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Grunt Nakura might have been somewhat upset that Jerome didn't acknowledge him - at least not like Zacharie. He might have taken Lu's long look a bit more seriously or noticed with some interest that Aulus remembered to call him by name. As it so happened, though, he was too occupied by the other individual who had addressed him by name, coming up behind him while he was too busy laughing to hear or notice.

"ZOR!" the grunt yelped, leaping about a foot into the air at Frost's spoken word. There he glowed and, in a blur of motion, transformed into a large, black and blue Zoroark. Riviere stared at Frost with wide eyes, clutching a clawed hand to his chest as he tried to calm himself. Meanwhile, a much louder source of laughter erupted from the wall where the grunt had supposedly put his things. The empty shoes flickered before revealing someone still standing in them. The real Grunt Nakura was bent double as he leaned back against the wall, shaking with giggles. "Oh Arceus, Riviere..." he gasped. "Your face! I...I mean...my face!"  

[Gwennythe]

"Very good point." Tambrey agreed with Jerome, nodding to him and Aulus; Aulus was probably the best choice after all then.

Well, she didn't have much to add to the points about being shot; bullets hurt even if they just grazed you, and there was a lot to be said about acting decisively and being prepared in a mission... Even when you were, though, injuries were likely; if you were in a prepared mindset, you were more likely to survive.

"You also don't really want to be ever blocking an exit. If a team member -really- needs to get in or out, you don't want to be the reason they can't, ever." She wasn't quite as harsh with her words, sounding more explanatory than officious, but she wanted to add the point; it seemed important to think of.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie sighed softly but didn't argue with Jerome. The older man was the reason he was there at all and they had already bickered about why he should be at the class.

Following Jerome's lead, the teen climbed to his feet as he checked himself for any loose objects. He withdrew his hands from his pockets to reveal that he had in fact been carrying 3 bottles of hand saitizer. A bit over the top but he would be touching sweaty people, just the thought made him shudder in disgust, and he didn't want to be unprepared. The grunt shuffled over to the side of the mats to deposit his things on the floor, rolling his eyes but mostly ignoring Izaya's antics as he passed the Zoroark. As he came to stand beside Jerome again, he leaned a bit closer to mutter, "Do I have to take off my shoes?" It was bad enough that he had sat on the thing, he didn't want to stumble around barefooted.  

[TawnyAngel]

What the actual-!

"Nakura!" Aulus snarled, rounding on the grunt with red eyes blazing. "You will put that pokemon back in its pokeball right now or so help me I'll come over there and turn you into a damned pretzel! Do I make myself absolutely crystal sodding clear? This is not a game, this is not a pokemon day care centre, and if you can't behave sensibly and take this seriously then you can get the hell out of my gym before I throw you out!" Why was he doing this? Why the hell was he bothering himself with people? He should just have stuck to his friends, he'd known it all along and yet he'd kidded himself that he could put up with this- this- Argh!

Zacharie's question might otherwise have been answered curtly but given the current level of bullshit he was experiencing Aulus' snapped; "Yes you do!" carried more than a hint of razors in the tone.

------------------

When the dark type appeared Frost took a swift step back, hand dropping to his hip in search of a gun he wasn't wearing.

When he actually processed what was going on his lips pressed together briefly and he turned a cold gaze onto Izaya. When the muscular Agent burst out into a rant however his brows raised with interest; the first time he had liked anything he heard out of the man's mouth so far as he recalled, other than something to the effect of 'I am now leaving'. Humm.  

[Tori Honoo]

Riley jumped at Aulus' sudden address and was about to step into the room when the voice from behind her joined in the teacher's sentiment. "S-Sorry!" she apologized, turning to look at the man behind her, her eyes growing.

Once out of his way, she paused, then bent to stroke the leafeon's head before returning her to her ball. This didn't look like something Molly would be too interested in... and when the first man barked his order for the other Rocket to return his zorua, she was glad she decided to put Molly away.

That done, she turned her attention to the group again, surprised at Tambrey's commanding tone and soaking in the atmosphere around her. Something important was happening, surely.  

[Venti Mico]

Why did so much have to be happening? You'd think people would behave and be quiet and listen to their instructors, right? Apparently not... Lu scooted his socks and shoes back against the wall, as far out of the way as he could get them, and stood up- then jumped at the racket coming from the general area Nakura was in.

... That guy needed a permanent, 24-hour, high maintenance baby-sitter. Lu glanced over at whatever was going on with Nakura and the instructor(Lu hoped he didn't have to ask the guy a question, he hadn't caught his name), then ducked his head and took up staring at his feet. No point speaking up, the instructor looked ten shades of pissed off and Lu was perfectly fine not trying to calm him down. Lu thought about movies he'd seen with karate dojos in them- a bunch of people in white gis, lined up perfectly, disciplined... He pictured the room of mismatched Rockets attempting to look like that, and snorted in laughter. Lu promptly covered his mouth with a hand, glancing up slowly to check if anyone heard him laugh.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Welp, that seemed to be the last of the limited patience that Aulus already had.
Aulus answered Zacharie's question for him after he dealt with a confusing ordeal with Izaya actually being a Zoroark?

"Yeah man, yer ganna have t'get used t'this." He told Zacharie, reaching out to pat the younger Rocket on the shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the girl stepped further into the room, Kyle followed suit, arms crossed over his chest as she cast a quick glance around the room of people he pretty much knew nothing about.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie startled. Not at the sharp tone that Aulus addressed him with (he was used to people snapping at him) but the volume. Loud noises tended to stress him out almost as much as dealing with people's emotions.

And so Zacharie bent and promptly took his shoes and socks off.

He gave Jerome a bitter look that clearly read 'Look at what you have gotten me into. This is dumb and I blame you entirely' but opted out of saying anything else while the room was more or less in a state of chaos. Leave it to Izaya to piss off the instructor and mess up the semi-order that they had had going on. If it wasn't for the fact that he was more or less sure that Jerome would follow after him and carry him back, he would leave.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Riviere tried to give Zacharie a smile as he recognized the passing boy. When the purple-haired grunt didn't seem to notice him, however, the Zoroark's ears drooped and his face fell. There were angry, yelling people, but his trainer seemed happy enough. Had he done good or bad by doing what he'd been told? He wasn't exactly sure.

Maybe if he hadn't dropped the illusion so soon it would have been better, but he hadn't at all expected a human to come up behind him and startle him out of his wits. Oh well; at least he'd earned what time he'd gotten to spend outside of his ball. Next time, if he did better, maybe he'd get to play at being a human for longer! He'd just have to try harder in the future.

"That...never gets old," Nakura mumbled to himself as he finally caught his breath. It'd been hard work trying to teach Riviere the difference between female and male human bodies - well, at least regarding their chests - but it had been worth it.

Faleen might not have approved of his use of the illusion, though. It was a good thing she wasn't here, actually; especially with how Aulus was blowing up. He was like a human volcano. It was fascinating to watch. Was that a vein pulsing in his temple...?

"Sorry, sorry, it won't happen again," the grunt apologized, though his demeanor lacked any sign of remorse as he put his palms up in defense. "Agent Frost just surprised him - er, me - is all." Though he was sorry that his plan to avoid actually doing anything other than observing had been thwarted so soon, Nakura thought his pokemon's reaction to the blonde man had been a fair price to pay. Moreover, the looks on Frost's and Aulus' faces were icing on the cake, so he couldn't really find himself annoyed. This class session was shaping up to be more entertaining than he'd originally thought.

So why had Frost intended to come up behind him with a quiet word, anyway? Such questions filled his head as he remembered just how much he adored watching human beings interact and go about their lives. It'd been something he'd desperately missed while in jail. And what was Lu giggling at now? Surely not him. Whatever it was, though, he seemed embarrassed to express his amusement.

With the martial arts master already on his last nerves, though, Nakura could understand his wariness. He himself would have to be more careful lest word of his less-than-stellar behavior get back to Faleen. It was harmless antics, really, but he knew he was walking on thin ice. Taking out Riviere's ball, the grunt grinned at his dark-type before returning him in a ray of light.

"Hehehe...he might dislike me almost as much as you, agent. So...where were we?" he asked Frost quietly, passing the agent as he pushed off the wall. "I believe you were addressing me." He took his pokemon's place on the mats, beginning his own stretches with a broad smile on his face. "Is it because you missed me so? You can bet I missed you." If Zacharie was going to hog the ex-gangster all to himself, well then...Nakura always had his other favorite male Rocket.

His crimson eyes strayed toward a partial reason for his smile - the two new Rockets by the door that he didn't remember meeting before. Always fun getting to know new teammates, especially if they were already acquainted with the ones he did know, like Tambrey and Jerome.  

[Gwennythe]

Oh dear, that wasn't good...
Izaya's laughing probably wouldn't earn him any favour at all, Tambrey thought, especially considering just how angry Aulus seemed to be now.

It /was/ a neat trick but she had to agree, a training session really wasn't a good place for it at all.

"At least it's just a short time more. Better they get any of the bad behaviour out of the way right now, rather than later on, right?" The agent hoped she was reassuring Aulus with such a comment; surely this would be the worst of it, and now it was out of their system... Hopefully...

At least Riley and... that guy behind her, she didn't think she'd met him yet... were out of the doorway now.
And Lu seemed to be amused by something; well, that was better than frightened, probably.  

[TawnyAngel]

Ah, Zacharie was here.

On noting the younger rocket Frost inclined his head slightly and while he didn't smile he tabula rasa expression, if it carried anything at all, carried mild approval rather than disdain.

Then he looked at Izaya again, and it was definitely disdain. "I do not require him to hold me in any esteem," he said coolly, tugging the cuffs of his long sleeved top straight. It was a habit to try to make himself neat, even though it was impossible in exercise clothes.

"I was addressing you," Frost continued after a short but notable pause that was quite characteristic of his speech patterns. "It was not because I missed you, I merely wished to acknowledge that I am mildly impressed that you managed to evade death once again. That is impressed, take note, not pleased." Still, Izaya being alive now meant that he might get to kill him personally one day. That would be nice.

___________________________

Aulus flexed his hands, trying to keep calm. His heart was racing; anger, frustration, apprehension. He'd done this before, no problem, why was there a problem? What if he couldn't control them, he'd be humiliated and in front of his friends and all of these people who were just being deliberately obtuse and- he hated people and he couldn't do this! He wanted to go back to what passed for his room- no he wanted to go and find Alex and just hide from this- this all of this! Why had he thought this was a good idea?

Outwardly Aulus just looked angry but Tambery and Jerome knowing him as they did - having know him through, well, interesting times - might pick up something more from the tension.

It nearly snapped, really it did and that would probably have resulted in somebody getting their face smashed shortly followed by Aulus disappearing at high speed but when his instructions were obeyed he managed to breath out and retreat from the precipice of... whatever that had been. He didn't like it when his mind raced away like that, to say the least, but he couldn't exactly tell anyone now could he? Just breathe. Breath, calm, it would be okay. He was in control here, in control of the class and of himself. It was okay.

"If there is any bad behaviour later on, they will regret it," Aulus growled, not bothering to keep his voice down. Here he was doing them all a ******** favour and they had to act like a crowd of kids!... Not all of them though. Some of them had come in politely and were warming up and they were worth keeping his cool for. He could always throw out the trouble markers if he needed to.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome eyes Zacharie as the younger Rocket gave him a look, reading it very clearly and shaking his head.
This would be hard, but it would be good for him, its things he would need to learn eventually anyway, so might as well start now.

There were a few reasons why Jerome was assisting Aulus with the class, some of it went more of less unspoken between the three as something Jerome just accepted from what he understood of his friend and team mate.
It was good practice, not just for Jerome and Tambrey as well, but they were there to help be demonstrative, help pick out individuals who might need a little more help while Aulus was teaching something more, and to Jerome, of course, to help when Aulus started to become a little overwhelmed, like he was now.
Having a short fuse wasn't easy, and Jerome was starting to notice that Aulus was running a little thin.

"aight." Jerome spoke to everyone in the room his usually low tone mellow voice now boomed with a deep authority.
"No more playin' round, F'yer in here I wan yo asses lined up, next t'each other, arms length apart, t'get ya warmed up, yer pulling stretches without no ********' 'round, chill?"
He pointed to the door. "And if ya ain't stayin' then get out."

"Don't make me repeat m'self now ya punks, In line now" He concluded clapping his hands sharply and stepping forward to take the lead on stretching out the group.

It still wasn't quite time for the class to start, but it looked like standing around and fooling around time had already outlived its welcome.

EVERYONE
The gangster would guide the other Rockets through some stretches, as he did so he spoke to them
"Most a' ya know who we are, but I'm seein' some new faces in th'room, so we're ganna start this all right n's**t. M' Agent Jerome, Ya call me Jerome. This good lookin' lady here is Agent Tambrey, Tam an I- we're gonna be helpin' the sensai kick ya asses around a bit t'day." He told them with a very dead pan look on his face.
"And that bein' th'other good lookin' guy here, Agent Aulus, ya call him SIR, and Aulus SIR and yes SIR. Ya do what he says, when he ********' says it and if ya ******** around... Well, S'jus say that this ain't yer mama's martial arts studio. Yer hear t'learn how to keep yerselves alive when it matters, and you WILL need these skills. YA DIG?"

Jerome stood for a few seconds as he lead the group through another stretch, the man dropping down into a full splits before his black inked eyes lifted back to the group.
"Tha' bein' said, we're here t'help, do what ya can, an Aulus will teach ya some pretty cool a** s**t. So. Lets see who we got so far, Introduce yerselves, rank an while we stretch give us a little bit bout yerself and why yer takin' this class."

(no particular order, just everyone post a reply answering Jerome's request)  

[TawnyAngel]

Good grief; nevermind karate classes, elocution lessons was sorely needed here.

Once he had translated what the tattooed man had uttered Frost stepped out of the line to address the three instructors, fixing each in turn with a rather intent yet somehow detached stare. "Mr Frost, Agent. I am a mechanic and an engineer by trade, most of my work is dedicated to our fleet of vehicles in one fashion or another. I have a keen interest in research and development, not only within my own field but in general. I am always pleased to work with other professionals; to exchange ideas, share knowledge, and so on. I am here because I feel some grounding in self defence is important, especially now that the league appears to be 'stepping up its game'," he made air quotes, "in a foolish attempt to thwart us. Mmh. Foolish or not they might 'get lucky', and should my pokemon and my gun fail me I would like to have a last card up my sleeve."

Not bothering to wait for any acknowledgement to the information he had provided Frost stepped back into line and started to stretch out, copying what he had observed the instructors doing as he had entered.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

At Frost's response to his mention of Aulus, Nakura paused a moment to understand what he meant before giggling more quietly. "I was actually referring to his dislike of me versus your dislike of me, but if his dislike extends to you, too, I'm glad to know I'm not alone on his probable list of people to avoid. That just means I have a buddy with whom to grate on his nerves~"

Not that he was serious about the 'grating on his nerves' thing. The strike system was still fresh in his mind and he knew he'd have to stay on his best behavior even out of Faleen's sight. "Still, your lack of need for anyone else's approval is precisely one of the things that makes you so attractive; no need to tell me that."

"You hold yourself to such high standards already, it seems unlikely to think that anyone else would disapprove. Other than muscle-heads, of course." he added, gaze shifting from Frost's straightened cuffs to the scarred man flexing his hands.

His eyes focused on the mat in front of him as he stretched his calves. "Are you really impressed? Or is that an indirect way of expressing your disappointment that I just won't die?" The grunt's usual smile faded into a more neutral expression as the topic of his prior incarceration was brought up.

"No need for acting here, Agent Frost. Happy as I am to be alive and well, you and I both know it was no skill or talent of my own that got me out of that mess." He gave a slight shrug. "Although I'm still breathing, I can't shake the feeling that I just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire."

Turning his attention back to the three in charge, Nakura sighed softly to himself. "As much as I love you, Jerry-kun, I'm not sure endorsing Agent Aulus' military-based, brawn-for-brains 'behave or be beaten down' approach is the best way to go about settling a crowd..." he muttered under his breath. Ah, well...at least so far no one else apart from himself really seemed to be 'misbehaving'.

Asking for their asses lined up next to each other certainly brought a mental image to mind. The grunt had to bite his lip to keep from grinning again as he obeyed the instructions given. This was new, too; the usually laid-back Jerome acting authoritative like this, calling people punks and actually taking seriously the role that he had been promoted to.

Nakura supposed it wasn't new for the agent, what with him having been promoted a while back with underlings already entrusted to his care, but it was still the first time the informant was hearing his ex-roommate take charge. Kind of bittersweet, knowing so much had changed since he'd been gone.

Interesting to note the differences, but regrettable he hadn't been here to see them when they first began to emerge. Still, what did the grunt care? It wasn't as if they had ever been real friends. No sense in being jealous of the ones who seemed to know the current tattooed man better than his ex-roommate used to. Including, it seemed, Agent Aulus - and the bond between them seemed mutual.

The introductions may have originally be Nakura's favorite part of the entire class, but suddenly the grunt found himself in a particularly foul mood. Not that he was about to let that show; no, not in front of his fellow Rockets, familiar and unfamiliar alike. So instead he played along with the role of a newer grunt as opposed to a Rocket who had been recruited before even the ex-gangster and was familiar with more than half the room.

Without looking up from or ceasing his warm-ups, the black-haired man waited for the platinum blonde beside him to finish, mentally cataloging the self-introduction along with all the other data he had on Agent Frost in his memory banks. He also made a mental note to eventually add relevant info to his virtual database on his laptop once the class was over before opening his mouth to provide his own set of information.

"I'm Grunt Nakura. I'm taking this class because I thought it couldn't hurt to learn a thing or two about martial arts. Though, of course, I could always be wrong." His gaze still evasively focused on his mat and body instead of anyone else, the informant readopted his default, emotion-concealing smile.  

[insidiousEnigma]

It wasn't often that he found Jerome scary. Actually, the last time he could recall being frightened by his friend was when they had their first encounter in a dark alleyway....now he could add this particular instance to the list. Zacharie obediently shuffled into line with the other 'students' that came to take the class, though he did wave at Frost as he took a spot between the blonde and Izaya. It would probably be for the best to keep the two as far away from each other as possible...though maybe they would start fighting so he could make his escape while no one was looking. He listened semi-attentively to the two older men as he stretched before he himself took a small step forward. "Hi yes...hello." He fidgeted nervously, not particularly liking having the attention on him. "I am Grunt Zacharie. I aim to be a medic, botanist, pharmacologist, and other things but those are my main focuses. I am here because Jerome told me to come...and as I have no desire to be captured or killed I found it in my best interest to listen to him and so here I am." He shrugged and stepped back into line to resume his stretching.