[PRP] What did I get myself into?

[Kanraz]

It had been a long day....In fact, it had been a long week. His father had been arrested, he'd gained his first pokemon, and now he'd finally made his way into Team Rocket. He thought this was the moment where he'd finally be happy. He should be right? He was one step closer to his father.... But... He still wasn't close enough. He glanced around the room, it was silent, empty as far as he could tell. Most of his room mates must have been training he figured.
He took out a pokeball of his, letting his Umbreon out from it's pokeball. Kuro had known him for a while, but it was a new dynamic that Devin was now his trainer. It's loyalty for his father passed onto his son however, and they were both missing him dearly.
Devin laid back, patting his chest, and then Kuro crawled up onto him. Devin laid and arm over the pokemon, hugging him close, and they comforted each other the only way they could. He shivered a bit as tears began to form. He hated crying, but he was alone so... Maybe it was okay? Better to get them out now than to be weighed down by them later.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“Uh oh. Seems like we picked the wrong time to practice illusions, didn’t we?” a voice asked as one area of the room began to shimmer. In a moment, the false image dropped and a man with two Zoroarks standing on either side of him. “At least you two seemed to have put up pretty convincing ones, though. Good job.” Izaya reached out to pat each of the pokemon on their arms before going up to the bed where the young man was curled up with his own dark-type. Seating himself on the edge of the bed, he wore his casual smile and asked, “Rough day training as a Trainee?”

Riviere, the black and blue Zoroark, looked somewhat concerned and adopted a human illusion to better portray that expression as he came over to stand hesitantly by. Kano, appearing more curious than worried, followed suit and came over to rest an elbow on Riviere’s shoulder, the edges of their bodies flickering briefly where they touched as they readjusted their illusions to make them seem more convincing.

The man in the other trainee uniform gestured with an arm. “We can leave you be, if you prefer. But we’re also here if you wanted someone to talk to.”  

[Kanraz]

Devin jumped up, hitting the ceiling of his little bunk bed. He sat up so quickly it flung his pokemon almost off the bed. Kuro looked back at Devin, pulling its ears back with a very unhappy look, then looked towards the three “intruders”. It growled a little, but seemed more annoyed than as if it were going to attack.

Devin rubbed his head, glancing between this mysterious man and his two pokemon, trying to asses the situation. He turned his face away for a moment to make sure and wipe away any tears that may have been lingering, then turned back towards them. “ I’m fine! Just… Tired…” he also looked a bit annoyed, almost a copy of the expression on Kuro’s face. “ Why were you having your pokemon practice that type of move in here?” he looked towards the Zoroarks, feeling a bit uneasy about it. He wasn’t used to Pokemon trying to act so human.
 

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Kano appeared to laugh silently before grinning and waggling his illusionary fingers in greeting at the irked-looking Umbreon. Riviere looked mildly stressed, but turned his attention back to the humans; their trainers.

At the young man’s claim to be ‘just fine’, Izaya laughed aloud and held out both arms in an elaborate shrug. “Why not in here? It’s not as if they’re harmful techniques. Well, not physically, anyway.” He followed his gaze back to his illusioned Zoroark and beamed proudly. “What would be the point of practicing illusions if we can’t test to see if they fool anyone? Riviere and Kano, here, have been working very hard.”

Returning his attention to Devin, the information broker held out his hand. “I’m Nakura~ Pleasure to meet you.”  

[Kanraz]

Devin sighed, realizing this ‘Nakura’ guy had a point… He just hated that neither him or his Umbreon had noticed it. He was too busy in his sadness and let his guard down. He finally took the other’s hand, “ I’m Devin… I’m still deciding how much of a pleasure it is for me.” he replied, making it clear he was still unsure about the other.

Kuro slowly moved towards Izaya and the two Zoroark, sniffing at them. Devin took back his hand after the shake and pet his Umbreon. “ You do this often to your room mates, or just new ones?” he paused for a moment, then grinned slightly, “ That is, if they stay after that first impression.”

Kuro pulled away from Devin, still a bit mad at him, hopping up onto Izaya’s shoulders in attempts to get closer to the Zoroaks. He would have taken the ground but he wanted to be at same height as them.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya, who had quite a bit of experience reading people’s expressions as it was one of his favorite pastimes, guessed at the reason behind the trainee’s annoyed demeanor but said nothing of it. Instead, he continue to smile as if meeting his future new best friend, giggling as he answered, “Oh, take your time~ Usually people decide right away they don’t like me, but if you’re uncertain, than that can only be an improvement from my usual track record.”

Riviere leaned over, both to allow Kuro to sniff him and to sniff at Kuro himself. Kano tilted his head, keeping up the illusion of sticking his hands in his pockets to depict a casual stance, and admired the dark Eeveeloution’s unique markings.

“If by ‘this’ you’re referring to being a nuisance, I’m pretty much that way to everyone, usually; roommates or not. I guess I’ve developed something of a reputation over the years, which is why I remain here long after my trainee companions have been promoted to grunts and moved into the grunt dorms. So that makes almost everyone new roommates to me.” He paused to regard Devin with a particularly intense look of interest as he continued to smile. “I guess, in a way, I’m a sort of trial myself for the trainees to overcome, especially since I’ve been told I tend to test people’s patience without even trying.”

The skinny man flinched, his smile instantly neutralizing into a thin line, as Devin’s Umbreon hopped up onto his shoulder. He slowly turned his head to look at it, quickly ascertaining the reason for its relocation, and relaxed into a smile once more. “...Quite trusting, your pokemon, isn’t it? I don’t think even most of my own would have been as bold as to jump up onto my shoulder like that.”

Riviere looked somewhat nervously from Kuro to Izaya and back again, as if worried Izaya might angry at the Umbreon’s actions, but unsure of if Kuro was aware or would have objected to being removed from the man’s shoulder. Kano, still smiling in his carefree way, extended an arm out to Kuro to invite him to come up onto his own shoulder from Izaya’s if he so wished. He also wanted to see if he could practice adapting his illusion to accommodate the other pokemon since he knew the image he would be portraying of his human form’s arm would vary from his real, Zoroark one.  

[Kanraz]

Devin listened to Izaya, sighing as he realized how troublesome this was going to be. But that’s all it was. It was troublesome. If that’s all it was, he could handle it. To be honest, it might even be nice…. He’d always wanted a little brother, or at least someone to keep him from getting lonely. Not that he would ever admit that. “ Wait…”

He looked from Izaya to his pokemon again, looking confused. “... Why are you still a trainee? I mean you may be a little annoying, but I can’t deny you at least seem pretty skilled. You and your pokemon work very well together…” he turned his attention towards Kuro again, looking annoyed, “ Better than some.”

Kuro glanced back at Devin, then stuck up its nose and tail, jumped over onto Kano now. Sniffing him more. The Umbreon had never across pokemon like these, ones that could change their shape like this. He was quite intrigued in them.

Devin sighed, knowing Kuro was still mad about him throwing him earlier. “Yeah he… Uhm.. He’s pretty bold… He was the pokemon my dad used the most.” Devin explained, leaning back to rest with his arms supporting him from behind. Seeming to relax a bit before he realized Izaya may have questions about his dad. He quickly tried to change the conversation back, “ You’re really still a trainee?” He knew the answer but maybe Izaya would just entertain his terrible attempt to avoid a conversation.
 

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Hehehehe..." Chuckling lightly, Izaya put a finger to his lips. "That's a secret. If you think hard enough, though, you might be able to get the picture. The pieces aren't that hard to put together." He gestured to his human-mimicking Zoroark. "If by 'skilled', you're referring to their illusions, that's all them. To be honest, most of my pokemon hated me. I only recently started taking training seriously within the past year or so and I've been a part of the Rockets for...five or six years, now. Didn't care much to deal with pokemon prior to that, but I..." His cheerful tone and expression faltered for a fraction of a second, but then resumed it by forcing another laugh. "...I came to realize over time that it's better to work with them and learn about them some instead of just ignoring them until I need to to order them around. So we've gradually gained...a mutual understanding of sorts. But don't get me wrong - first and foremost, my love is strictly exclusive to the human race."

"Only a little annoying, eh? Well aren't you the flatterer," Izaya teased, reaching out a hand to playfully pinch Devin's cheek. Watching Kuro out the corner of his eye, he snickered softly at the Umbreon's reproachful behavior. "Oh, trust me, I have plenty less obedient pokemon than your dark-type, here. Relatively speaking, yours seems rather well-trained. Some of mine I can't even let loose in this room without having to worry about what mischief they'll get up to." For all the training he'd done with them, his Liepard twins in particular, Mairu and Kururi, still came to mind.

When Kuro moved onto Kano's arm, Riviere appeared visibly relieved and Izaya found himself admiring the pokemon's mastery of human expression. Of course, as that was one of his favorite things to watch, it had been the first thing he'd taught the illusion pokemon, but it was so satisfying to see it become second-nature to the pokemon as if he were already used to portraying himself as a human.

Kano, meanwhile, appeared to be thoroughly enjoying himself. > he asked Kuro using pokemon speech to address his fellow dark-type.
He grinned over at the light blue-haired young man beside him. >

The light blue-haired youth nodded somewhat timidly. He glanced down at his fabricated showed. Actually, the worse they seemed to take it, the more Izaya usually seemed to enjoy their reaction, which made Riviere somewhat anxious, but there wasn't much he could do about it. That was just his trainer's' personality and all of his pokemon, whether they appreciated it or not, had already come to terms with it just as he had come to terms with them and their status as non-humans.

The slight rise of the dark-haired man's brows suggested some interest in the mention of Devin's father, but Izaya also recognized the trainee's reluctance to speak of him in his hasty change of topic and mentally filed away that bit of information for later.

"Actually, I'm not," he indulged the younger male, "but the details surrounding that particular situation are on such a strict, need-to-know basis that I think we'd both get in trouble if I spoke any more on the matter. So let's just proceed as if I am, shall we?" He sneered softly under his breath, his reddish-brown eyes straying to a far corner of the room. "What I can say is that my current situation is a consequence of repeated acts of insubordination, well-intentioned or not. So if you know what's good for you and you don't want to end up like me, you'll follow orders and do as you're told by your higher-ups."  

[Kanraz]

Devin looked annoyed again as Izaya grabbed his cheek. So much for that invisible ‘space bubble’ where people were supposed to keep their hands to themselves. “ So we already on best friend terms, hm?”. He examined Izaya again, appearing more curious about the other now. Damn those human instincts that want to find out things about stuff they KNOW they’re going to get in trouble for. He glanced to look at whatever Izaya was looking at, which apparently was nothing, then looked back to his face. “ Why’d you join Team Rocket if you aren’t all that interested in pokemon?” well, technically you weren’t supposed to care much about your pokemon if you were in Team rocket, right? Just steal them to sell them. Why did his father ever even join a team like this? Honestly he wasn’t sure if this was for him, but he’d try for his father.
“ Well, your training has paid off I’d say. I know they do it by themselves, but it takes practice with their trainer to do it so well. Guess that training has paid off.” He smiled again. This guy wasn’t so bad. Sure there was that obvious dark side lingering, he could tell the other had been put through some s**t, but he was just… Really ‘friendly’. Not friendly as if he’d be the guy to get you out of jail if you needed him, more like the guy that got you into jail to begin with and still has time to joke around about it.

Kuro wagged it’s little tail, Kuro looked towards Riviere, smiling a bit more, looking more friendly overall,< It’s okay. Trainers do the weirdest things sometimes.>. Kuro looked away from them both, looking towards his trainer and its ears pulled down and his tail stopped wagging, < I miss mine… He was the weirdest trainer. But a good trainer. My new Trainer has a long way to go.>.

Devin tilted a head to the side, still interested in Izaya’s reasons, “ If you say so, but you can’t change certain instincts. If it’s this hard for you, why do you stick around?” Devin didn’t know much about Izaya but he seemed like he’d be a pretty hard guy to control, and Team Rocket was not about that. His father tried to hide all he could from his son, but he remembered how strict they could be on him. Even with a kid, they would barely ever make exceptions for him to come home. Honestly, he had hated Team Rocket for that. He wasn’t sure if he could ever forgive them for that but… They had the power to free his father, so he was going to suck it up.
 

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“‘Best friend terms’?” Izaya repeated, chuckling. “Devin-kun, his is how I treat everyone. Though I suppose since I love all humans, you might as well call it ‘lover terms’.” He bat his lashes at Devin teasingly. “I joined Team Rocket for the people, obviously, not the pokemon. Even if you’re interested in pokemon, there’s multiple reasons to be interested in them. Like for their worth as tools, their value for what some people consider friendship or companionship, or simply to collect them as possessions or trophies.”

He put his chin in his palm and rested his elbow on his knee. “I actually was curious about what insight ghost-type pokemon could give us into the afterlife because a friend of mine had come up with some intriguing research regarding them and what it could mean for us humans. But other than that, it’s the Rockets of Team Rocket that ultimately lured me into joining the organization. It gave me the opportunity to get to know a side of these people that no non-Rocket would have been exposed to.”

“Why, thank you! Did you hear that, Riviere, Kano? Devin-kun paid us all a compliment. He said we work well together.” Snickering softly, he murmured, “Now there’s something I didn’t think I’d ever hear...that I work well with pokemon.”

Kano answered with pride,

Riviere seemed to significantly relax once Kuro smiled at him and even laughed a little at the comment about trainers. The sensitive Zoroark’s own tail and ears lowered to match Kuro’s under his illusion, though, and his human illusion’s shoulders drooped.

The blonde dark-type seemed sympathetic to the other pair, but try to maintain the positivity between them so as to cheer the others up. If they could think of happier times, perhaps it would help. he asked Kuro. Kano snickered.

“Instincts? Like what?” Izaya wanted to know, deeply amused by what he thought Devin might be getting at. Did they have another trouble-maker in their midst? “Isn’t the instinct of self-preservation the most deeply-rooted in us?”

At the white-haired young man’s question, the skinny informant waved a hand. “It would depend on what you mean by ‘hard for me’, but hypothetically speaking, what other choice do I have? It’s not as though Team Rocket is the sort of organization that lets you leave and risks you spilling all their secrets, right?” His smile turned bitter. “Once you’re a Rocket, you’re a Rocket for life. Or death.” He paused, considering. “Or worse than death.”