[PRP] Don't you just love summer?

[Suudonym]

He didn't ask, and so she didn't answer. Ryuko didn't think of herself as someone who had anything to hide, but she was far from laying herself bare for no good reason, and so his curious gesture went without a response.

"You don't think so?" she repeated, frowning again and somewhat indignant. "There has to be more proof that they're here than just feelings. Don't tell me everyone's just hanging around because there's a chance." No activity recently - how long was recently? What qualified as activity? Would the League waste their time if they didn't have well-founded suspicion?  

[TawnyAngel]

"Well...." Dith frowned, wondering how much to say. He didn't know much to be fair but even so it wasn't his business to be sharing and yet.... "There have been incidents," he said slowly after a few moments. "No big strikes, true, but they're still there under the surface and bubbling up here and there. I suppose it is possible that the bulk of them have departed for other regions but there is no reported increase of activity elsewhere. I think it likely that they are just being more careful now that there is a strong league presence here." What would it take to root them out once and for all? Was it even possible? He liked to hope so but for all of his cheerful nature Dith had seen enough of life to be realistic at the core; Rocket had been around for years in one form or another and probably would be for many more to come. You never knew though, you just had to try and hope for the best in the end.  

[Suudonym]

"Cowards," Ryuko concluded. "Not surprised." So she was probably in the right place, but... what was she supposed to do, then? Just wait? It certainly felt like she already had as much information as she was going to get at this point; it didn't sound like there was much left to learn except details about events that were already long passed. That was frustrating, though. She didn't like the feeling of just hanging around, spinning her wheels. She supposed all she could do was continue to pick fights with suspicious persons on the off chance they could tell her anything she didn't already know.

"What a pain in the a**," she remarked in irritation. "They oughta just go back to how they used to be - standing around in plain sight and yelling about taking over the world like idiots."  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith gave a little laugh that lacked the humor of his previous chuckles and shrugged. "It would make life a lot easier for us... whoever is running them now must have more patience than the last, more subtlety." Unfortunately. "At least we can make use of the lull I suppose, use it to train," Dith continued, remembering to look on the bright side. "One of my friends is a full officer now and as I said I'm training up to be a volunteer... what is it you do Ryuko? Are you in school?" Dith tried to avoid guessing people's ages because he wasn't very good at it but he pegged the blue-haired girl somewhere in her mid teens so she might well still be in some kind of education... but she was out here alone walking across the desert, a fact that was still worrying him a great deal.

"You want some more water?"  

[Suudonym]

She exhaled quietly, the thought putting a frown in her features. Their new leader's great patience was quickly sapping her own, and her supply was naturally limited. She didn't want to 'make use of the lull.' She just wanted to quickly exact her revenge and move forward.

"No," she responded, finding it unnecessary to supply the further explanation that she had been expelled, "I'm not. I'm investigating Team Rocket in my own ways. Until they make a move, that mostly includes tracking down suspicious characters and wailing on them until they cough up some info." So far that wasn't going so well, but that also seemed unnecessary to point out.

She considered the offer of water for longer than could be considered casual before nodding curtly with a vaguely affirmative grunt, "Sure, I guess."  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith passed the bottle over, lines of concern creasing his brow. So this girl - young lady he supposed - was trying to work alone against Team Rocket? Not in direct confrontation maybe but still it wasn't safe for her and probably wouldn't come to a lot.

"That's... a noble ambition but working alone is dangerous, and cooperation has a lot of benefits beyond just being safer," he said after a a pause to collect his thoughts. "If you don't want to work with the league I understand, I'm not... overly given to trusting a lot of authority figures myself but this lot seem good. Still, if you don't want to perhaps we can help one another out? Share information and so on?" For all the she might be good in a fight he shuddered to think what would happen if Ryuko actually ran into a Rocket operative, or a group of them come to that because they seldom worked alone.  

[Suudonym]

She really should have brought along more than the one bottle of water she had, especially given how quickly it'd run dry. But water was just so heavy in any substantial quantity, and she was already dragging around all of her worldly possessions. Maybe she just needed to cut back on what items she considered important enough to keep, or perhaps invest in a backpack for her Scizor or something.

She raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, snorting at the implication that her ambition was noble. Of course it would be stupid to complain if she wound up helping people incidentally, but she was far from going out of her way for anyone else's sake. "I don't mind swapping notes if I come across anything useful," she said, "but the whole 'teamwork' thing doesn't really work for me. Can't say I meet a whole lot of people that are cool with extorting information from thugs and street rats."  

[TawnyAngel]

The league certainly would not approve of that. Technically speaking he did not either, he didn't like the idea of hurting people and yet... well sometimes bad things happened in order for good things to happen. It wasn't nice to think about and Arceus knew he tried to avoid it - thinking about it and acting on it - but sometimes the course of history needed a bit of arson and unpleasantness.

"I see what you mean," Dith said after another pause, his brow furrowing deeper. "I can't say I like the idea but...." He trailed off and shrugged. "I suppose we do what we must."

Hang on though, who was this we and what was Ryuko's angle on Team Rocket? What drove her to take them on alone like it seemed she was, well at least she was tracking down information about them alone.

"Do you have a history with them?" Well he had to ask, right? She might refuse to say but everything he was picking up about her was... was.... He didn't even know but it was all off, all worrying. Alone in the desert. Tangling with dangerous people alone. Why was all of this by herself and why, seemingly, without resources? She had been trying to walk through the desert without a hat, and apparently without anything like enough water.  

[Suudonym]

Well, he wasn't being all disapproving and threatening police involvement over the information, so that was a plus, at least. Ryuko didn't need or want anyone's approval, but it was problematic if disapproval came with interference.

She supposed it was only a matter of time before the question was raised, though she had no reason to conceal her past and didn't really mind answering. "Team Rocket was involved in my father's murder," she responded coolly, as plainly as though she were commenting on the weather. "I'm gonna find the b*****d who did it and get some answers." Easier said than done, though.  

[TawnyAngel]

Oh.

Well.

There really was no easy way to reply to something like that.

Dith walked on in silence as he thought and found that one of the main things he was thinking was 'Would they even remember?' Well, would they? How much note did Team Rocket take of the lives they took? She might not find her answers not because she hadn't tried, not even because Team Rocket was huge and she was one lone girl, but because nobody cared enough to remember.

"I'm sorry," he said eventually. "I know it doesn't help at all but I am, that's tough." He'd spent a few years pretty sure that his own father was dead but he'd always hoped he wasn't, and had been lucky enough to have the hope fulfilled. It sounded as though there was no such hope for Ryuko and he couldn't help but remember Roise, and think of Luke too because... well he knew Luke's father was alive but from the little he knew of that he knew it wasn't necessarily a great thing for Luke.

Anyway.

"You don't have to go it alone though, I'll help you," Dith continued, offering Ryuko a small smile. "I mean, I don't expect you to trust me with much yet - we just met after all - but I want to help you if I can at all. The world ought to have a bit more justice in it than it does." He didn't expect the League to take interest in one man's murder anyway. He didn't exactly resent them for it, he knew they had to think of the big picture, but he wasn't one of their officers and so he could have a bias. Somebody ought to look out for people who walked across the desert alone and shouted at well meaning passers by.  

[Suudonym]

She turned up her nose at the expression of sympathy, "It's not like we were close or anything. It just left a bad taste in my mouth." Maybe that wasn't entirely honest. She had been somewhat distressed, after all. It was just too strange. Why would anyone want to murder her father, who, to the best of her knowledge, had never bothered anyone? Or did it have something to do with the period of time during which he'd sent her away to stay at a school that offered dormitory living?

They weren't questions she could answer on her own, though. That was why she'd come out to Kodo in the first place.

She gave a sidelong, dubious glance. She certainly wouldn't argue about justice, but, "And how do you plan to do that?" Help her corner thugs and intimidate them until they talked? His impressive size would get the job done all right, but she doubted that was what he had in mind in offering help.  

[TawnyAngel]

He'd always been close to his small family, all in their different ways. He'd held his father in childlike ideals during his absence; when he'd met him again as... as nearly an adult that had been strange at first but they had developed a relationship revolving around mutual protectiveness and friendship. His baby sister was of course his baby sister, she was nearly forty but neither of them had paid much attention to that fact. Then of course there was his mother who occasionally scared the crap out of him, and who he would happily duck behind if somebody started shooting at him because he was pretty confident she'd get them before they got her. To not be close to family was... sad, he guessed. Not being as hurt as you might have been by their death was no substitute for having a close relationship in life.

"How do I plan to do that?" Dith asked the question of himself again aloud. He sighed and shrugged. "Well I don't know. I can give you information if I find it, and if you get in trouble I can offer you back up. I live in Camphoreon so if you're in the city I am probably not far away; so long as I'm not actually up to my wrists in somebody I will come if you call." He still felt like more needed to be done though he just didn't know what it was or if he could offer it. "Uh, so how many pokemon do you have by the way?" That was important to know, if she had a strong team then things were not as bad as they could be.  

[Suudonym]

She hummed critically and shrugged her shoulders, "As long as you're not hovering or getting in the way, I guess you can do what you want." It was a very crude way of accepting an offer of assistance, but she supposed she didn't really want to accept it so much as she would tolerate it if he insisted. "Just this guy," she answered, patting the side of the nearby Scizor. "He hasn't let me down yet."  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith grinned in reply and nodded. "I promise not to hover, I do not have time! I will give you my number and my email, you contact me if you want something, da?" Her reply had been a bit rude, or rough at least but he was pretty accustomed to people who were rude or rough; it was usually because they were hurting in one way or another, and wasn't it his job to help them hurt less if he could? At least he could watch her back.

"You know it sounds to me like in your... uh...." Dith waved his hands vaguely as he looked for words. "Ah, your current line of investigation? Well, maybe you could use a ghost type to help you out? Different talents to your good steely friend there, da? Uh... I don't want to get too hovery with you, but I can lend you the services of my friend Zla if you would be interested. He is good, has been doing uh... uh... under the board things since before I was born." Under the board wasn't actually a phrase, was it? Also he hoped Zla wouldn't mind being lent out if Ryuko was interested but the Haunter did get terribly bored and it would be good for Ryuko to have more than one pokemon beside her if she was messing with dangerous people. Did that make it okay? Maybe it did, if fact yes he was going to go with that.  

[Suudonym]

She returned his smile with a frown - not quite a scowl or anything similarly distasteful, but enough to get across the message that she wasn't about to get all buddy-buddy. "Fine," she agreed curtly. She supposed it wouldn't hurt to have a contact, on the off chance that she picked a fight with the wrong person. Insurance wasn't a substitute for caution, though, and avoiding problems in the first place was still her best bet.

She furrowed her brow slightly in consideration, uncertain. "I don't know," she said. "Skulking around isn't really my style, and I'm not such a great trainer that I should be looking after other people's pokemon anyway." In fact she wasn't much of a trainer at all; she imagined her Scizor would probably be better at dealing with other pokemon than she was. She and the bug-type only got along in the first place because they seemed to be on the same wavelength.