[FIN] Local talent [Lex & Taavi]

[TawnyAngel]

Charming? He didn't think he'd ever been called charming before. Taavi grinned and ducked his head slightly, a little shy and certainly a bit giddy with all the compliments; whether or not Lex was intending to be charming himself he was managing it, at least from Taavi's point of view.

"Um, well, okay then! So long as you don't mind. I, well, I wouldn't know about how to break glasses properly. I'm encouraged not to break them at all! I tripped and nearly dropped a whole tray of them yesterday but I managed to save them - and myself - and somebody clapped." He'd nearly died of embarrassment at the time but it seemed sort of funny now he was telling Sasha. "If you have too many breakages they start taking it out of your wages so I don't think I'll get practice at breaking them properly." Glasses didn't cost much - it wasn't like Meat Palace was buying fine crystal - but when you were on $peanuts hour plus tips and minus tip out any deduction hurt!  

[Shaddaling]

Lex chuckled, "My best friends brother knew how to break them right, but he was skeevy and got in a lot of fights, idea is to get the bottle to come off without the neck of it shattering in your palm." He tucked some hair back.

"But yeah, don't think the Meat Palace would be the type of place where you get customers breaking bottles... and you don't want to be breaking the glasses. That does sound like a fantastic catch, though. Good reflexes." He glanced up hearing a number and nope, still had a ticket or two inhead of them. Should be soon though.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hehe, yeah, I think if I started breaking all the glasses I'd shatter my chances of staying in a job." Puns were usually safe to fall back on, nearly everyone liked them even if they groaned at them. "And ah, thanks! I guess I have pretty good reflexes, you need them if you're going to be a ranger... Well, a ranger who doesn't keep on going home with minor injures from pokemon that didn't want to be moved on from wherever they were that they shouldn't be. Like the middle of a highway, or a grocery store, or that one time at the art gallery. I'm kind of amazed we didn't damage anything other than a few couches and one ceiling on that one. That was a pretty exciting day, heh, but my reflexes didn't save me from a few stings that time sadly." He supposed he could have left out the bit about getting stung, made himself look better, but much as he found he wanted to impress Sasha he wasn't going to go around lying in order to do so.  

[Shaddaling]

"Beedrill or Combee?" Lex questioned and paused. "One moment! Food up, going to fetch it, if you don't mind scouting us a quiet place to sit?" He moved through the crowd to gather the fries and burger, exchanging a ticket and a bright smile for the food.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah, um, sure!" Was that a table over there in the corner? There was stuff all over it but stuff could be moved; Taavi hurried over to it with the drinks before anyone else could take it. At least work was good for something, in the week and a half he'd been there he'd become much better able to cope with other people's gross mess; the greasy leftovers in their cardboard containers were stacked up and pushed to one side of the table. There were some small sauce splatters on the table but he guessed it was good enough. While Sasha was gone he also took the opportunity to take a gulp of his cider, more alcohol meant less nerves yes? Right.

"Thanks," Taavi smiled once his companion returned, passing Sasha his cider and accepting his food in return. "Heh, fries, cheese, and spice. What more could anyone want? Um. And it was a Beedrill... well a few Beedrill. They'd made a nest up in a loft that was used for storing old furniture and things? And somebody disturbed them so they came pouring down into the gallery, and so they called us in. Mmh." Taavi paused to eat a fry and waved the plastic fork that had come with it. "I got four stings, which put me in third place out of the team of six of us. Two on my leg," he gestured to his upper left thigh, "one on the back of my right shoulder, and one on my right arm. That was my uh... third week on the job I think? Though I'd been a volunteer beforehand."  

[Shaddaling]

"Was wondering, and ouch. Did you need emergency care?" Lex questioned, carefully looking over his burger to make sure it wouldn't fall apart when he took a bite. Sloppy burger creation was a thing. He took a bite and chewed before nodding. This, this was rather nice. He swallowed and took a drink of his cider.


"Worst injury on the job?" He questioned before turning back to his burger.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah, well, not emergency emergency but those of us that got stung all went to the emergency room after," Taavi shrug-nodded. "Luckily none of us were allergic, it hurt a whole lot but they gave us painkillers and antihistamines. I spent the next couple of days feeling really sorry for myself though, nauseous, but I don't know if that was the venom from the stings or the drugs! Or both maybe.

"Um. Worst injury though?" Taavi paused to think about this and took a sip of his drink. "Probably the time I fell down a rockface. A kid had got up there using Rock Climb but then Nidoking he was with ditched him and left him stranded; he'd taken the pokeball from his big sister and uh, it didn't have a lot of respect for him. The gap between the rocks was too narrow for Valour to fly into - oh, Valour's a Braviary - and the weather was getting bad so I climbed up. I managed to get the kid down okay but then he's like 'Oh I left my Charmander's pokeball up there' and so I went back up, got it, started to come back but... well either I was careless, or it had got really slippery in the downpour, or something came loose but next thing I know I'm back at the bottom in a heap and the kid's freaking out and Valour's freaking out and everything hurts. Gave myself a nasty concussion, cracked a couple of ribs, and broke my arm pretty badly." Taavi held out his left arm for inspection; there were a couple of long surgical scars on the forearm, not exactly prominent but easy to spot when you looked. He grinned sheepishly and shrugged. "It's a good job you get good health insurance as a ranger, hu? Um. Heh. Not my finest moment but um, I like to think that maybe I put my hand on a Geodude or something and it pushed me."  

[Shaddaling]

"Hopefully you are not one of those problem patients that whine and hate every little thing." Lex chuckled softly. "I hate being ill, specially when you are ill enough that you are forced to be stationary."

"Oooh, ouch." Lex murmured, leaning in close and trail a finger over some of the surgical scars, since Taavi was pointing them out. "Could have, Geodude's are rather tricky. One moment you think you found the perfect spot for a picnic the next you are on your a** and an angry Geodude is throwing your lunch at your head."  

[TawnyAngel]

Okay. Um. Okay. He hadn't expected the soft trail of fingers over his skin, he definitely hadn't expected that. Were Russians usually this er.... But that was stereotyping and that was bad. Acutely nervous again, flustered, and definitely flushing - but he doubted Sasha would be able to tell that at least - Taavi pulled his arm back when the fingers were removed.

"Um. Um. Yeah," he agreed with a flash of a shy smile, subconsciously rubbing his own fingers over the same lines Sasha had touched. "I mean, if they find you rather than the other way around as often as not they're um, relaxed and just interested? But I think they must get really annoyed by people stepping on them and stuff all the time. Like, you can't tell I'm not a rock? Seriously? I have opinions about that, let me tell you them."

Gah, was he making an idiot of himself again? More cider! Taavi took a swig and offered Sasha another smile. "Um, but, ah, I tried not to make too much of a fuss. It was my own fault really, I guess I should have just left it up there but I was worried the Charmander would come out in the middle of the storm and... yeah. I was stuck in the office for a month which was really boring and I had a cast for another month or so after that."  

[Shaddaling]

Lex nodded turning back to his food and chewed as he listened and nodded. "Mmhm, that is a good worry, depending on the fire type you really have to be careful about the weather." Lex hummed as he set his food down for the cider, taking a draft.

"I wouldn't be surprise, I would be rather peeved if I kept getting stepped on when I was trying to relax or take a nap." Lex paused, examining his fingers and licked a bit of ketchup from his thumb. "So, you have a Braviary?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Taavi nodded agreement, tucking a braid of hair back behind his ear and going in for another fry. "Mmh, I mean I wouldn't have worried so much if it were a Charmeleon? It'd still be bad but, uh, not deadly like it could be for a young Charmander. I'd probably still have gone up though. A certain level of risk taking is part of the job!" Had been part of the job anyway. He missed his job. He missed home. He missed his friends but... but this was nice; having drinks and food with somebody different, and Sasha really seemed to like him! He didn't feel lonely with Sasha talking to him.

"And yeah I do, or rather we have each other," Taavi continued with a smile and a shrug. "We've been friends since I was ten, my Dad got my a trainer's license for my birthday and the rangers at his station had been looking for a home for Valour at the same time so it worked out well. He's officially recorded as 'mine' but uh, yeah, you know what I mean? I'm his human, he's my Braviary." He hoped that made sense.  

[Shaddaling]

"I think that true, it is a relationship not an ownership," Lex summed it up. "Like with my crobat, she is mine but we also have a relationship built on a lot of trust and respect, so I trust her to flying me about at nighttime if I absolutely need to."

"And she feels free to poke me in the side and chatter at me if she thinks I'm doing something stupid." He chuckled. "Is he your only Pokemon?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Well that... was close to what he'd meant? But it still contained 'she's mine but also' but, well, that was normal; trainers caught pokemon, trainers owned pokemon, so they were 'theirs'. It sounded like Sasha and his Crobat had a good relationship though so the terms used weren't actually important and he certainly wasn't going to say anything about it.

"Heh, Valour will do the same," Taavi said instead with a warm smile and a nod. "We look our for each other, what else are friends for right? But yeah, just the two of us at the moment though I've been thinking I should see if I could find a couple more to join us. Kodo is, um, well it's a pretty amazing place but it's not what you'd call safe what with Team Rocket and all."  

[Shaddaling]

"Always a point but crime is everywhere, just not as organized as with some groups." Lex finished the last few bites of his burger. "But safety is an issue, and well, better not take the chance."

"But larger teams are always a plus, diversity goes a long way into battles. It is also fascinating to watch teammates learn off each other." When they played moves off each other, such as using Protect to break up a Rollout... there was just something pleasing to see teamwork.  

[TawnyAngel]

Taavi winced slightly and nodded, it was true after all but... well there was just something more frightening about organized crime. If it weren't for Team Rocket's presence in the region he'd not be as worried as he was though honestly given the neighbourhood he lived in it probably was a good idea to have more than one pokemon at his side. "It's true but um, yeah, on a happier note also true! Ahaha. Um. I guess we've just not found anyone the right fit to join up with us before, though we haven't really been looking until now. I'd like to get a full team of six eventually but I don't want to rush it you know? Um, so do you have any partners other than your Crobat? And does she have a nickname?"

Much as Sasha had said he liked the auto-babble Taavi was still intensely aware that he been doing a lot of talking, it was Sasha's turn by now and anyway he was actually interested to hear the answers to his questions.