Eryk Nero, from Pokémon: Atonement, a roleplay on RPG

Eryk Nero's Story

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#2019-10-11 11:31:09, as written by Nemeseia

April - 25th
Field Office 9 - Morning - Warm
Eryk Nero

Eryk smoothed out the front of his suit, grimacing slightly at the color. They were required to wear the standard executive uniform which consisted of a white suit jacket, a pair of white formal trousers, and a black shirt underneath it. It was void of the symbolic R that used to cover a breast pocket, but Eryk supposed that had a lot to do with the reimagery of Team Rocket. Now called Neo Team Rocket, but it didn't matter to him. He pushed a heavy sigh through his nose as he made his way towards the foyer. He and the other two executives were being summoned for a meeting. He knew one of the two; Cyrilla was his childhood friend, and current fiancée. A ruse he planned to keep up for as long as he possibly could, however; he did not know who the third member of his group, was. All he had was a name: Kasimir Rheinallt. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't really say.

They were all officially meeting for the first time, today. If he remembered the e-mail correctly, they were going to be given instructions of some sort. Eryk didn't really bother paying too much attention to it, though. He would be given the info he needed, and then he could do whatever job they needed him to do. It was the only reason why he was in Cinnabar. He didn't like the heat much, but he supposed there were not a lot of things he did like.

When he made it to the foyer, he glanced around and noted that he was the first to arrive. He'd always been a punctual person, but perhaps he was a bit early. Shoving his hands into his pocket, he waited for someone to arrive. Cyrilla would be around soon, he thought. She was never far from where he was, but perhaps she'd got caught up in something? Perhaps neating her uniform or some other aspect of her appearance? Unlike Eryk, she always made a point to look her best. He supposed it had a lot to do with what she did. He didn't like it, but that's just how things were.

Pulling in a soft breath, he blinked slowly, listening to the clock behind him tick ever so loudly.

Before long, he could hear a jaunty whistling from down the hall, growing closer at a brisk, but not hurried pace. The whistler was clear and tuneful, but the song wasn't anything he recognized. Not much afterwards, the door opened, and someone else stepped into the room. The man was very tall, with a warm brown complexion and deeper umber hair, which was slightly longer than Eryk's own and pulled into a low tail. He wore the same uniform, but not properly—the jacket was open and his shirt appeared to be only half-tucked, the top three buttons all undone.

The man glanced the other way into the room, then towards Eryk, grinning lopsidedly when he spotted him and stepping in, a slim laptop computer carried loosely in one large hand. "Ryk. Long time, no see." Letting the door shut behind him, he nodded at another beyond it. "We're actually in the conference room up this way."

“Kas," he spoke the man's name without realizing it, realizing belatedly why the name sounded so familiar to him. He'd undergone the same introduction to Neo Team Rocket with Eryk. He wouldn't say that they were exactly friends, but Eryk didn't dislike him. At least not yet. Glancing towards the door Kasimir had nodded towards, he blinked again, but moved forward. He wasn't late, by any means, but he supposed being in the proper area would be a good start to something. What? he didn't know. Didn't really care.

When they arrived to the conference room, Cyrilla was already waiting for them. She grinned in Eryk's direction, raising a hand to wave before she set it back down. It seemed she'd opted to wear the executive uniform skirt with the ridiculously short length. He could almost see it riding up her thighs, however; it seemed she was sensible enough to wear a pair of black shorts underneath. Perhaps to help deal with the heat, but what did he know?

“Took you long enough, Ryk," she spoke, offering him a smile before her eyes landed on Kasimir. She arched a brow in his direction, before she turned back to Eryk and grinned. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her statement, and instead, speared a hand through his hair. It wasn't as if he'd bothered to style it. It was loose, shaggy, and just fell in a way that he didn't really have to bother. He could see Cyrilla roll her eyes, though, before she took a seat at the table. Glancing towards Kasimir, he took the seat to her right, facing the wall where the television was situated.

"Ah. You must be Cyrilla. Kas; nice to meet you." He adjusted the rimless glasses on his nose—Eryk didn't remember him having those before, but for all he knew he'd worn contacts during training.

Kasimir moved to the other side of the table, back to the screen and at the far end, but he did extend a hand for Cyrilla to shake, head slightly tilted in an inquisitive manner.

“Pleasure to meet you as well, Kas," she replied, taking his hand into her own in what seemed to be a firm handgrip before pulling away. Eryk rolled his eyes slightly, and shook his head. “Any idea what this meeting is about?" she asked, head tilting slightly as she waited for one of them to answer.

“I don't fucking know," Eryk stated, brows furrowing slightly. He just wanted it to be over with already. Cyrilla arched a brow at him, her face smoothing out as she sighed. “I don't know," Eryk stated once more, perhaps a little softer this time around. If they had known what the meeting was about, Eryk doubted the three of them would be gathered in the conference rooom for a meeting. They could have simply e-mailed it to them, and he'd be back in his office dealing with whatever it was they wanted him to.

"I've got an idea," Kasimir admitted, crouching on the floor to pull several cables from retractable recesses out towards his computer. "Only because I'm running the visuals for the meeting, though. We've got a mission, apparently." Hooking the cables into a few of the ports in the laptop, he pulled out one of the chairs and flopped into it, pulling his legs up under him and crossing them as he opened the lid and woke the machine up.

The screen behind him flickered to life as well, though as of yet it didn't show much of interest. Only the first panel of one of those presentation things, whatever they were called.

Before he could much elaborate, though, the door opened again, and in stepped a different man, this one recognizable rather easily. Aidan Klein was well enough known within Neo Team Rocket that there were few people who didn't know his face, or at least the hair—bright red and unkempt. A cigarette dangled from between his lips; he crossed the room to crack a window first thing, before he faced the group.

"Good. You're here. I'll assume you all know each others' names at least." He removed the cigarette, flicking the end of it into a nearby glass ashtray and stubbing it out. Exhaling a last cloud of smoke, he dropped into a different chair, scrubbing a hand through his hair. For a man titled after a legendary firebird pokémon, he looked rather... indifferent. Perhaps even tired, though that was harder to say.

"And two of you have already read each others' files." He didn't indicate how he knew that or who the two were, only blinked slowly and sighed. "For the one of you that hasn't, let's get caught up. Who are you, and what are your skills? Go." He waved a lackadaisical hand as if to prompt them to speak.

“Infiltration specialist and intelligence gatherer," Cyrilla spoke first, perhaps in a more professional tone than she'd meant to. “And also a decent chemist," she added, though Eryk knew she was more than just decent. Her eyes went to him, next, though, and Eryk furrowed his brows. He didn't know how to answer that, honestly. His skills were vast, but that didn't make him a specialist of any sort. He could do things, well enough that they managed to get whatever job done, and that had been enough.

"I'm just the nerd," Kasimir said with a little shrug. He nodded at his computer. "I do technology stuff: security systems, the NTR firewalls and information databases, occasionally a records request from the local jennys, that kind of thing."

Aidan nodded, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing what seemed to be a set of ID cards, each with a clip at the top, the kind of thing that would attach to a pocket or lanyard or the like. He slid Cyrilla's and Kasimir's across the table to them, and then Eryk's to him. As befit his promotion, he had a new designation: E01, indicating that he was first-ranked among the executives of Neo Team Rocket. Kasimir's would be E02, and Cyrilla's E03. "What about you, Nero?"

Eryk shrugged his shoulders. “I do a little of everything. Mostly the manual labor aspect of... things," he answered. It was about as best a summary as he could give for his particular set of skills. “A jack-of-all-trades, if you will," he clarified. It wasn't like he needed to be particularly good at one thing. If he could do something well-enough, he didn't think it was necessary to be the best at it. It served its purpose, and that was all he needed. He took his ID card and clipped it to the breast pocket of his jacket. He'd have to get a lanyard for it, or some other sort of thing to keep it attached on.

"All right." Aidan was either satisfied with the answers or didn't care, because he nodded at Kasimir, who returned his attention to his laptop.

"So you three are now effectively in charge of this field office. Technically you answer to me, but I've got my own projects, and for the most part I won't have a lot to say about how things run here. That's up to you. You also, however, have a long-term mission to do. Boss wants intel on a local—anything and everything you can get."

He paused expectantly, and Kasimir struck a key on his computer, filling the screen with a photo. It seemed to be of the identification sort: the young woman in it was not smiling, and seemed vaguely distracted by something slightly past the photographer. She had soft pink hair, long enough to fall out of frame, and a face that seemed to be an assemblage of pale, delicate features, from large blue eyes to the sharp point of her chin. She looked about as nonthreatening as anyone Eryk had ever seen.

"This is the target," Kasimir said. "Her name's Anastasia Asher, and as you might expect from that hair, she's a Joy relative. She runs a pokémon shelter and hospice on the island—it's not more than two miles from here. From what I was able to find in public records, she's up to date on all her licenses—unusually for one of her family, she has one for training as well as one for the shelter, but she's not on record as owning any badges or anything. The shelter was established in town about a year ago; at that point all inspections indicated the place was up to code for thirty pokémon." He lifted his shoulders and let them fall.

Aidan elaborated. "Boss says recon. She's of interest as a possible volunteer for a project of his, but we're not sure she has the right qualifications. You'll know them if you see them, and there's a high chance you will. In the meantime, you're supposed to get close. The idea is that if she qualifies, she'll want to volunteer, so make friends. Or whatever works. That's the mission."

Cyrilla's brows furrowed, but she didn't say anything. Eryk felt something vaguely uncomfortable in his stomach as he narrowed his eyes. They wanted the three of them to get close to this young woman because she was a potential volunteer? Eryk wasn't the brightest person, he knew this of himself, however; why would they need to get close to a target to have her volunteer for a project of their boss? Why not just ask her to volunteer her services, whatever they may be? If he remembered correctly, they could very well compensate her for her services, if that is what it took. It wasn't until the last of Aidan's statement finally caught up with him that Eryk understood something.

Get close so that they don't have to compensate her. So that she'd be willing to do it because they were her friends. The thought left a bit of a sour taste in his mouth. Eryk was not the type of person to make friends easily with people. Cyrilla could; she just had that natural charisma about her, he supposed. Kasimir looked like he could without much effort, but Eryk couldn't be too sure.

“Very well," Eryk spoke, nodding his head in Aidan's direction. Cyrilla glanced at Eryk from the corners of her eyes, but nodded her head as well in agreement.

It was nothing more than a job, and they would all do their parts, he supposed.

"Gregorovich expects written reports monthly, to him directly. I'm assuming that won't be a problem." Aidan stood, withdrawing a box of cigarettes and a lighter from his breast pocket and lighting one before replacing the box. "Anyway, if you need anything, I'm around I guess. You've all been secured an apartment at the nearest complex. I recommend checking out the facility when you get a chance. Hayley's the point person with the local grunts; she won't give you any trouble."

Neo Team Rocket could be a competitive place; it wasn't uncommon for petty grudges held between grunts to last years, and Executives were seen just as often as obstacles to surpass than authorities to be obeyed. Aidan was probably referencing this fact. "Good luck and all that. There's a training exercise at the end of the month, so get to know each other a bit so you don't humiliate yourselves. Maybe Nero can even figure out what all his trades are." The corner of his mouth twitched; Kasimir snorted softly.

Without further input, Aidan exited the conference room.

Kasimir blinked. "I've got maps and more information on the mark if anyone's interested?"

Eryk pursed his lips together. He had a feeling he'd been insulted somehow, but he couldn't be too sure. He turned his attention towards Kasimir, though, and smoothed out his expression.

“I think that's a good idea. The more info we have on her, the easier it'll be to approach and assimilate ourselves into her life," Cyrilla spoke, but there was a slight crease in her brows from where they furrowed.

“Agreed. The more we know, the better our chances at a successful mission," Eryk added, though he doubted that it would be the case. “Let's get to it, then."

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#2019-10-12 07:58:26, as written by Aethyia

April 25th
Field Office 9 - Noon - Warm
Kasimir Rheinallt

Kas idly cracked the knuckles of his left hand as he walked, using his thumb to push down each finger in sequence until he heard the satisfying pop that was the joint releasing air. It wasn't great for them, but of all the bad habits he could have picked up he figured this was one of the least terrible. At least he didn't smoke like a chimney like their new boss. Or so office gossip claimed, anyway.

He felt he'd gotten through that first encounter okay, honestly. Jangling the keys in his hand, he started up the stairs, assuming the others were following, since he'd said he knew the way to their new offices. There was something inherently terrifying about being in the same room as Aidan Klein a.k.a. A01 a.k.a. Moltres a.k.a. the human lie detector. At least if you had something to hide.

As secrets went, Kas's was pretty fucking huge, so naturally he'd been about terrified. Fortunately, he was very good at not making that obvious, and if Klein had picked up on it he'd probably just put it down to, well, new job and new boss nerves. As it happened, Kas didn't really have those as such—he wasn't typically the type to let those kinds of things intimidate him. In nearly a decade embedded in NTR, he'd never found himself unable to keep up with the people around him, and this fact had allowed him to give himself a certain mask of—well it wasn't incompetence exactly. More like laziness, and overspecialization. He was just the nerd, as he'd introduced himself, and no one had questioned that, because no one had any reason to.

All for the better, of course, even if it did get old after a while.

"And here we are," he said, injecting a sort of bumbling, cheerful friendliness into his tone. He fit the key into the door, which bore a plaque that read EXECUTIVE OFFICES. When it swung open, he held it for both Eryk and Cyrilla to enter first, smiling benignly, and stepped in behind them.

The suite consisted of a central lobby area, with a currently unmanned secretary's desk, and three different office doors, which had apparently already been prepared—they read NERO, RHEINALLT, and NIAV in that order. The lobby was tiled in polished black granite, the counter in front of the secretary's desk was the same, while the wood was in a rich teak. The heaviness of the color scheme was saved from being overpowering by cream walls and a few cheery plants; the chairs in the waiting area were upholstered in deep maroon.

"I wonder if we have to pick our own office furniture," he mused, separating the other keys on the ring and tossing Eryk and Cyrilla the ones that matched the numbers on their doors. "All this red and black is..." he tilted a hand back and forth. "Very 'cold corporate intimidation,' no?" He doubted anyone would appreciate his colorful island sensibilities, but there were more than three colors, sheesh.

Cyrilla huffed lightly, like she was trying not to laugh at the statement but rolled her eyes in what seemed to be in good nature. Eryk, however, remained as passive as he'd been when the meeting started. Face pulled into a neutral look, though his was more of a glare than anything. Cyrilla shrugged her shoulders, though, and glanced in Eryk's direction.

“I'm sure they'll let us choose our own if we really wanted to. It's not like office furniture can't be swapped out for something a little more comfortable," she replied as Eryk narrowed his eyes somewhat.

“What's wrong with the way things are, now?" he asked, earning a flat look from Cyrilla. She sighed heavily and shook her head.

“That's not... it's bland, Ryk. And it feels like everything else is drowning. You have to make your office look at least somewhat comfortable. You'll be spending a lot of time in it, after all," she stated as Eryk pursed his lips. He didn't seem too convinced about it, but he didn't offer any other statements.

Kas hadn't really expected anything different. Three months he'd spent with the guy in training, and not once had he ever seen him crack a smile. It wasn't the kind of thing that really bothered him, though. While Eryk had a hell of a glare on him, it was the fact that he'd been on the other end of it a few times that had alerted Kas to the fact that his normal grumpy expression was just in fact a chronic case of resting bitchface, which he found more hilarious than anything.

"It's fine, Cy," he said with a grin, opening up his own individual office. At the very least he should put his computer down. "Can I call you Cy, or should I stick to Cyrilla? I don't think Ryk would know comfortable if it hit him in the head. That's my guess for why he always looks like he's trying to pass a kidney stone, anyway." He winked, then ducked inside the office to set his laptop on the desk.

“You can call me whatever you want," she replied, a grin on her face before it disappeared, and she just looked like she was smiling. Eryk, however, was actually glaring at Kas, perhaps for the statement. Cyrilla glanced towards Ryk, though, and huffed at him. “And you're not wrong. We should probably take the initiative and fill his office with all kinds of comfortable things. That way he can't complain about it, later," she spoke, causing the furrow in Ryk's brow to deepen.

“Stay away from my office. I don't need help from either of you to furnish it," he stated, voice low as if to sound intimidating. Cyrilla rolled her eyes again and shook her head. “If I require assistance," he began, his eyes narrowing further, “I will ask the appropriate designers to furnish it. For now, it'll be as it is."

“You haven't even seen it, yet, Ryk. How can it be as it is, if you haven't even gone inside?" Cyrilla deadpanned. Eryk just shrugged his shoulders. He really didn't seem to care about his office being any particular way. “Ugh, you're hopeless."

Kas laughed softly, leaning back against his doorframe and smiling lopsidedly at the two of them. He tilted his head, too, flicking his eyes from one to the other. They were, according to their files, engaged, but unless he was very mistaken, there was an edge of something flirtatious in the way she'd said that—you can call me whatever you want. It hadn't seemed to produce much of any reaction in Ryk, either.

He wasn't sure what that meant, but he took it to at least mean that a little light flirtation wasn't off-limits, which was good. Kas was a fan of light flirtation, even the kind that wouldn't ever really go anywhere. Banter was fun, after all. Could certainly lighten up the atmosphere a bit too. It didn't hurt that both of his new coworkers were extremely attractive. If at least one of them was receptive to that kind of thing, he might not mind this assignment at all.

"I bet between the two of us we could break in and leave things. See how long it takes him to notice a rug, or a vase of flowers on the windowsill." He shifted one hand to square his glasses on his face, and shot Cyrilla a grin he knew looked good on him, one half brightness, one half mischief.

“Oh, I've done it before," she replied in a non-chalant fashion, grinning at Kas before her eyes turned towards Ryk. “Took him nearly a year before he realized there was a pink ring on his keychain," she stated. Ryk glanced down at the keychain in his hands that he was fixing his new office keys too, and it was, in fact, pink. He shrugged.

“It's a keychain and serves its purposes. Why should the color matter?" he asked, arching a brow in her direction.

“Because it's supposed to be embarrassing for you. You just..." she sighed through her nose and shook her head.

Kas snickered. It was such a Ryk way to think. It wasn't even embracing the color, or choosing it on purpose, as Kas might well have done. It was just... giving exactly no shits. It seemed the eight years between training and now really hadn't changed his core personality much at all.

"All right, well, we know where our offices are now." He pulled the door to his shut behind him and locked it—conventional locks alone wouldn't keep out Ryk or someone with Cy's credentials, so he'd have to consider additional security measures later, but for now he was confident it wouldn't be necessary. "Do we want to scope out the rest of the place, or what?"

“It would be best to familiarize ourselves with the facility," Ryk spoke, his expression smoothing back out into something neutral.

“So that you don't get lost, right? We all know your sense of direction is shit, anyway," Cyrilla spoke, a large grin on her face as she tilted her head in Ryk's direction. His eyes narrowed as a result but he didn't say anything. Perhaps because he knew it was true, or perhaps of something else.

“That, and it will be useful to know where everything is, Cyrilla. My sense of direction has nothing to do with this," he finally spoke, shaking his head before turning as if to leave. Cyrilla chuckled lightly and followed after him.

“Oh, well since it's already noonish, we should probably go get lunch," she suggested. “Kitchen sounds like a good place to start," she stated, perhaps as a first destination suggestion.

"About the most important place I can think of," Kas agreed with a smile, following her out the door. "Either of you cook?" Somehow he didn't see it as a Ryk skill at all. Cy he was less sure about.

“Unless you want to be poisoned," Cyrilla started, snickering softly as if to herself, “I suggest you don't let Ryk do any of the cooking. That is up to yours truly." She grinned at Kas for a moment and then towards Ryk. “So if there's anything in particular you want, I can make it. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, lasagna, curry, whatever you think you want," she stated, listing off a few things that she was, apparently, able to make.

“My cooking isn't that bad," Ryk mumbled softly, as though he were only speaking to himself. Cyrilla snorted softly.

“Ryk, you managed to give almost everyone food poisoning the last time you cooked. And I don't even know how you managed that," she shot back, arching a brow in his direction. She turned towards Kas, after that. “So, what'll it be?"

Kas was easily able to cook for himself, but if someone else—particularly a pretty someone—was offering, he sure as hell wasn't going to say no. "Surprise me," he said, padding down the stairs next to the other two. "My mother refers to me as the industrial compactor of eaters, and I like most everything foodwise, so I'm easy to please as long as there's a lot of it." He certainly hoped she didn't think of this as her obligation as the lowest-ranked team member or the only woman, but something told him Cy would happily stab someone for suggesting as much, so for now he wasn't going to make a big deal of it. If it seemed to be a problem, he'd check in with her at a later date.

The kitchen was on the first floor, a pretty big space, which it likely had to be considering that around twenty or so grunts worked here, plus another ten staff like secretaries and janitors and such, and everyone needed to eat. No doubt many brought things from home, but he was willing to bet both microwaves were well-used. It wasn't a bad kitchen, though, mostly stainless steel in that ruthlessly modern style that the entire interior of the facility seemed to be going for.

Kas parked himself on a stool against the island, curious to see what Cy was going to do.

She laughed at his statement, at least. “That's nothing new; you share that in common with that one," she stated, jabbing a finger in Ryk's direction. She moved around the island, heading straight for the pots and pans and pulled a couple of them down. The ones that it seemed she would need for whatever she was going to cook. “Don't mind me; you two have fun conversing, or whatever it is that you do with new coworkers," she stated, grinning at Kas and Ryk before she went to work, grabbing various vegetables, spices, and a meat of some sort. Looked a bit like chicken.

Eryk, however, didn't seem all inclined to talking, something he didn't do even eight years ago. He merely stared at Kas for a moment before narrowing his eyes and glancing back towards Cyrilla, as if to watch her make whatever dish she was going to make.

Kas shook his head slightly. "You've condemned me, Cy. You might as well have just left me by my lonesome, or told me to talk to the wall. All Ryk has for me are insults and glares." He placed a hand over his heart in a mockery of sincere bereavement. "Woe is me, for I have left such a bad impression already that the cruelty compounds itself in such a way."

Cyrilla snorted softly, but she didn't turn away from what she was doing. “Ryk, play nice and talk to your coworker. At least say hi," she stated, glancing over her shoulder once as if to give him a stare before turning back to the food. “It's going to be about thirty minutes before everything is done," she stated. Ryk sighed heavily, and turned towards Kas, as if he were actually going to obey her.

“You've nothing interesting to say, and we've already introduced ourselves eight years ago," Eryk stated in a deadpan voice. Cyrilla huffed a light laugh as she shook her head.

“Ryk, that's not what I meant. Fine, fine, I'll give you an example," she stated, turning around and placing a hand on her hip. “You already know my name, Cyrilla Niav, but what you don't know is that I'm the best cook you'll ever have and probably the best at anything," she stated, her grin turning a bit mischievous as if she were implicating something else. “Ryk over there seems like a grumpy ursaring but he's more like a mareep: cute and cuddly."

Eryk glared at her for a moment before his eyes went to the pot of food she was making.

"A tall claim," Kas replied, arching a brow in playful retort to Cyrilla. He hadn't really expected Eryk would want to talk much; he'd never been the chatty type, and that was honestly just fine by Kas. "Since my mother and sister are professional chefs and everything. As for anything else..."

A grin stretched across his face; he leaned forward on the counter, resting his chin in his hand and flicking his eyes rather pointedly over Cy. He figured she'd invited it with the comment and he was almost certain he was dealing with the type of woman who wouldn't hesitate to tell him to back off if he crossed a line. "Was that an invitation to find out for myself, or do I just have to take your word for it?"

There was a sense in which her confidence might really have crossed the line into arrogance, but he interpreted it more as playfulness and banter. Besides, it was interesting. And there was a distinct lack of interesting anywhere else at the moment.

Ryk made a vague disgusted noise, causing Cyrilla to laugh at him. She arched a brow at Kas, though, in what seemed to be a very suggestive way. “Well," she started, staring at him for a moment before she seemed to come to some conclusion, “as for anything else, we'll just have to see whether or not it was an invitation."

“Food, please, before I no longer have the appetite for it," Ryk spoke suddenly, his face pulled into a light grimace. Cyrilla chuckled lightly, spooning the contents of the meal she'd made, into a bowl.

“Thai coconut chicken curry, a la Cyrilla style," she stated, placing a bowl in front of Ryk before grabbing one for Kas and then herself. “It has a bit more heat to it so if you can't handle it," she glanced at Ryk, “there's milk in the fridge." She turned her full attention towards Kas, though, and arched a brow. Almost as if she were daring him to say something bad about the food she'd made.

Kas recognized a matter of pride when he saw it, and paused in annoying the shit out of Ryk for a moment to properly taste the food. He was a fan of spice himself, being from a region where heavily-spiced food was the norm. Careful to let the flavors settle on his tongue, he chewed slowly, then swallowed. "I'd adjust the coriander to ginger ratio, personally," he said honestly, "but that kind of thing's a matter of taste. It's really good, Cy, thank you." It wasn't in fact the best dish he'd ever had, but he didn't hold that against it.

Well, not actually, anyway. He would certainly tease her about it. "I don't think I'm convinced though. About the 'best I've ever had' thing." He grinned. "Perhaps next time?"

Without so much as a warning, Ryk stood abruptly, taking his bowl with him, and heading in the direction of his office. Cyrilla nearly fell out of her chair laughing before she shook her head. Kas was laughing, too, all but doubled over with the force of it. Getting to him was to much fun, really.

“He'll get used to it," she stated, turning her attention back towards Kas. “Well it's a good of a start as any, I suppose. I mean, you did say your mom and sister were professionals. While I might not be a professional cook," she continued, grinning lightly as she leaned to catch her chin in her hand, “I would say next time. Then you can decide whether or not it's the best you've ever had."

"You know, Cy," he replied lightly, "I think you and I are going to get along just fine."

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#2019-10-13 05:59:31, as written by Nemeseia

April 25th
Field Office 9 - Late Afternoon - Warm
Cyrilla Niav

When they finally managed to find Ryk, he was holed up in his office, sitting in his desk and staring at his computer screen. It seemed he didn't have too much difficulty navigating it, but Cyrilla knew he was not that good with computers. Or anything technology-related. Despite his claim at being a jack-of-all-trades, he really didn't know much about technology. That didn't bother her, though. She was there to help him in any way he needed it. She'd promised herself that much, at least, to always be there for him in any capacity. She owed him a great debt that she'd never be able to repay. Shoving the thought from her mind, for now, Cyrilla leaned on his door frame, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at him.

“Ryk, it's time to go meet in the front foyer. They're going to be giving us our keys to our new place," she spoke, glancing behind her towards Kas before turning her attention back on Ryk. “And I'm sure you'd just love to check out how boring that's going to be, right?" she stated, feeling the corners of her lips tug upward when he glanced in her direction. His eyes narrowed somewhat, and to anyone else it might have been seen as him glaring. Cyrilla knew all he was doing was contemplating what she'd just told him, though. She'd learned to read Eryk's facial expressions years ago.

“Alright," was the only response he gave before standing from his spot. He glanced at the empty bowl near his desk as if to contemplate it. Cyrilla rolled her eyes.

“Just take it back to the kitchen, Ryk. It's on the way, anyway," she spoke, watching as he grabbed the bowl and ushered her out of his office. She huffed lightly and glanced towards Kas. “You're not going to be anything like him, are you?" she spoke mostly in a teasing manner. Kas had proven, so far anyway, that he was nothing like Ryk. If the way he'd responded to her flirtatious banter earlier was anything to go by.

Kas huffed half a laugh, tilting his head a little as though feigning to consider it. He'd lost the jacket in the last couple of minutes—probably left it in his office—and rolled up the sleeves of the black shirt to his elbows. One of his forearms seemed to have part of a long, serpentine tattoo of some kind on it. He was certainly better-built than the average nerd, but the way he stood slightly slouched didn't make it too obvious.

"Arceus, no. There's only one Ryk, and that's probably to everyone's benefit, including his." He grinned, bright and naturally a touch lopsided. "I think I could manage 'stoic badass' for about ten seconds before I gave myself away for the goofy smartass I actually am. So no, nothing like him. Sorry to disappoint." He tipped her a subtle wink, as if to suggest that he didn't really think this was all that disappointing. Oddly he didn't really seem to be putting Eryk down at all—even all his teasing earlier hadn't had that feel. If anything, he seemed to like him, and to banter accordingly.

“Good, glad to be disappointed," Cyrilla replied, grinning back at Kas. She almost could hear Ryk roll his eyes, causing her to laugh. She tilted her head a bit and shook it at Ryk. He just glowered at her and began walking in the direction of the kitchen and foyer. When he'd successfully managed to drop his dishes off, they made their way towards the counter where a young woman, probably around the same age as Cyrilla, if not a year older, sat behind a desk. She had a beautiful shade of blonde hair curled past her shoulders and a pair of deep blue eyes. Cyrilla grinned, leaning over the counter as she continued to regard the young woman.

“Oh, you must be Nero, Rheinallt, and Niav. I'm Hayley, nice to meet you!" she stated in a cheerful manner and extended her hand out. Cyrilla took it, noting how soft they were, before she squeezed softly and released it.

“Nice to meet you, Hayley," Cyrilla spoke, grinning with a light wink. Hayley coughed lightly but turned her attention towards Ryk and Kas.

“Here's your keys to your new place. It's at a complex known as The Cloyster. It's a rather nice area, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find." She handed the three of them a set of keys, each, and Cyrilla purposefully let her fingers slide across Hayley's hand before she glanced at the keys in question.

“Much obliged, Hayley," she stated, earning a narrowed expression from Eryk. She only grinned at him as she leaned away from the counter and twirled her keys on her finger. “Let's go check it out, yeah?"

Kas snickered, clearly well aware of what she was up to. When he accepted his own keys, though, he just gave Hayley a little smile and a nod of acknowledgment—he'd clearly introduced himself to her already, from the way she grinned a little as she handed his over.

He returned his attention to Cyrilla and Eryk though, and gestured for them to precede him. "Pretty sure I know where it's at. Been looking at island maps for the last three days." He rolled his eyes a little, then followed them outside.

It was possible his choice to rid himself of the uniform jacket was not purely aesthetic; they were immediately swamped by a wave of heat, at least compared to the inside. Kas's glasses fogged; he simply took them off his nose and settled them into the vee of his shirt. "Turn right up here; we're downtown, but it's still got that new-building stench, if you know what I mean."

Cyrilla didn't really mind. She and Ryk were used to all sorts of living conditions. From the super well-off lavish mansions to the grittiest down-trodden houses that provided no more shelter than a cardboard box would have. She shrugged her shoulders, though, and glanced towards Ryk. He didn't seem to have any particular feelings about the situation, but she supposed that was just the person he was now. Pushing the thought out of her mind, they walked in comfortable silence towards their new place. It wasn't too far from the facility, perhaps a good tweny minute walk. It was good exercise that way, she supposed, however; she glanced at the apartment complex, and whistled lightly.

It was like looking at a four star hotel. The building was tall, perhaps taller than the Old Mansion was, and could easily fit a few hundred people. It branched off, though, with smaller units off to the side that looked like townhomes, but still as luxurious as the tall building.

“This is too much. They could have easily fit us into a motel," Ryk stated, furrowing his brows. Cyrilla snorted softly and shook her head.

“Ryk... that's not the point of being here. We have to look and play the part of regular town people who aren't doing whatever it is we're doing," she stated, earning a flat stare from Ryk. He was never comfortable with things that were nice, but that might have been due to the fact that Ryk never liked attention on himself, to begin with. Cyrilla knew why, but they were as much a part of him as hers were. There was no healing those: physical or otherwise.

He merely continued forward, pulling out his key, perhaps, to see which apartment was his. “I have apartment 613," he spoke glancing towards Cyrilla and Kas. She blinked mildly and glanced at her own set.

. “Me too," she spoke, but it wasn't that surprising to her. They were, after all, on file, engaged. It made sense that they would group the two of them together. She glanced towards Kas, though, and tilted her head slightly. . “Does that mean you'll be our neighbor?" Chances were that they purchased two separate apartment units for the three of them. One for her and Ryk, and the other for Kas.

"Uh..." Kas looked a little perplexed for a moment, but then he pulled his key as if to double-check. When he did, he snorted. "Unless someone screwed up somewhere, I think I'm your roommate." The snort became a cackle as he looked over at Eryk, and he shook his head. "Man, I think someone in HR was making a statement about me being a third wheel or something. Sorry guys—we can always do ground rules if you need your, uh, alone time."

The way he said it sounded almost dubious, as though he wasn't entirely sure that was actually a concern.

Cyrilla blinked before she started laughing as well. Honestly, she didn't care. It's not like she actually planned to do anything with Ryk. The thought alone made her reflexively gag. He was like a brother to her. Their engagement was mostly for appearances sake, but that was something she didn't need to tell Kas. He wasn't part of their family so he wouldn't understand.

“I think it'll be kind of nice to have a third wheel, don't you think?" she stated, grinning in Ryk's direction. He narrowed his eyes at her, and she knew he was glaring at her, however; she merely laughed. “Ryk, you need to lighten up and just let loose one day. You might actually smile," she joked.

“I think not, but our arrangement isn't at all an inconvenience, Kas," he stated, his eyes sliding towards the other man.

“I think what he means to say is it's not necessary for ground rules. And also, he looks forward to you being his roommate. Well, our roommate, but who's really keeping track of those things?"

Kas arched an eyebrow, but shrugged amiably enough. As they entered the building, he bypassed the elevator and headed for the stairwell—or he seemed to be, until it became pretty clear that there wasn't one around. "What the hell?" he asked, shaking his head and backtracking to the elevator and pressing the call button. At least there were several.

"Not ground rules people, huh? That works for me. I promise I'm pretty clean, at least." He eyed them for a moment, then nodded slightly. "I figure we'll be fine."

The elevator arrived on the sixth floor, and Kas led the way to 613, unlocking the door and pushing it open to admit the both of them first.

Cyrilla shrugged at Kas's statement. “I doubt any of us will be using it very often, anyway. Ryk is a work-a-holic, and I'll be spending a lot of time out doing reconnaissance on the island for a few days," maybe a few weeks depending on how things went. It would be good to know the layout of the island just in case something happened. Cinnabar wasn't a particularly big island, but if Cyrilla could find blind spots on it, that might come in handy one day. It was always good to be prepared, be one step ahead of everyone else.

“Plus, I'm sure these guys," she began, pointing to the pokéballs that were hooked to her belt, “don't want to be cooped up in an apartment all day. Or inside their balls all day. They need to be able to stretch their legs." And she would never dream of keeping her pokémon in their pokéballs for longer than they needed to be. Of course, she knew that they were required to be inside their pokéballs when in certain public places, but at home, or walking in the park would be more than fine. Her pokémon were mostly well-behaved to begin with, except for Diva. She'd probably try and go pick a fight with someone.

When she finally took the time to glance around the apartment, she felt her lips curl backwards. It was so... spartan. The walls were mostly white, a light grey rug in the middle of what she assumed was the living area, and a white couch. She could see the kitchen from where she stood, mostly stainless steel appliances with a black and light grey checkered back splash. These people were really going for psych-ward appearances. She shuddered to think what the rooms look like.

“Alright, new plan," she began, turning towards Ryk and Kas. “This is... just ridiculous. We need more color than this. You," she stated, pointing towards Ryk, “need to go find something to brighten this place up. Kas, you and I are going to go to the nearest furniture store and get different furniture for this place. I don't even want to know what the rooms look like, yet."

She'd refurnish the apartment herself, really. Ryk just furrowed his brows.

“There's nothing wrong with this," he spoke, causing Cyrilla to sigh.

“Of course you wouldn't find anything wrong with plain."

"Oh, furniture shopping. Count me in." Kas sounded a touch wry, but no more than that. He grimaced slightly, though, when Eryk asserted that the apartment as it was was fine. "Honestly I don't know if we can trust him to find something like that. He'd come back with a navy blue tablecloth and think that counted." He grinned a little, shifting past them to check out the side hallways. It seemed, oddly enough, to split into three different rooms, two kind of next to each other and a third, probably the biggest, on the other end.

It was probably intended for Cyrilla and Ryk to occupy the big one, Kas the furthest one, and the middle one to be used for guests or an office or whatever else.

“I call the big one!" she stated, glancing towards Ryk and grinning. He merely shrugged his shoulders, causing her to roll her eyes. One of these days she was going to get him to do something other than just... nothing.

“I'll take one of the other ones, then," he spoke, moving towards one of the rooms.

“Really, now. You're hopeless," she muttered to herself before glancing towards Kas. “And you don't have to go furniture shopping with me. I can take care of all of it if you give me a list of things you're looking for in particular. Comfort, style, et cetera, et cetera." Honestly she wouldn't mind. It would give her the opportunity to get a head start on scouting the area out. And she wouldn't be hindered by a second person by having to wait for them.

He considered her for a moment, eyes slightly narrow. "If you'd actually rather go by yourself, that's fine," he said with a little shrug. "But in that case don't worry about me—I can get my own stuff." He shot a glance at Ryk disappearing into his room and snorted softly. "Guess this means I'm on the end."

She grinned at him. “I wouldn't say no to the company," she began, arching a brow at him, “because I'm sure nothing beats the company of a rather attractive person and sightseeing, no?" She shrugged her shoulders, though, and turned in the direction of her room. She wanted to see what she had to work with, first, before deciding on any furniture, after all.

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#2019-10-16 10:25:31, as written by Aethyia

April 29th
Field Office 9 - Afternoon - Muggy
Kasimir Rheinallt

Too bad the punch wasn't spiked.

Kas had considered doing it himself, actually, but then he'd have to go to the trouble of procuring the booze, erasing the footage, and like it or not there was always a chance of someone having a bad time if they drank alcohol unknowingly. Consent was important and all that.

Still... this had to be one of the worst parties he'd ever been to, and considering the fact that he'd been to more than one cheap-beer-fueled rager in his Academy days, that was saying something. Dear arceus, these people were just so fucking stiff.

This morning there'd been a block of seminars designed to welcome the new staff to the building and provide refreshers for everyone else. It wasn't awful to know how the basement intake room worked and stuff, except Kas had been down there for two minutes yesterday and already figured it out. And the rest of the stuff had been so general it might as well have been the basic training he and Ryk had done eight years ago all over again.

Now everyone was awkwardly standing around in the large foyer, most of them clustered in small groups or around the snack table, while a few more solitary types held up their wall of choice. He could have wandered around socializing—he was more than capable of striking up a smooth conversation with even shy people, but it seemed HR wasn't done with them yet.

The building's local rep, Tanya, was a willowy woman in her mid-thirties. Nothing wrong with that, of course; the trouble was that she was absolutely vapid. Kas couldn't recall the last time he'd been this bored by a pretty face. Or well, it actually happened a lot, but he was typically able to exit those situations, and he really didn't want to make quite that bad of an impression just yet. He preferred to ease people into not expecting much of him rather than slacking too often from the get-go.

“All right everyone," Tanya declared, clearing her throat for attention. She was the kind of woman used to getting it whenever she so desired—that much was easy to tell. Next to half the male eyes in the room had been on her already, for very different reasons than his, and this was a room in which a lot of pretty women were standing. “We're going to do an icebreaker. This one's called Heads Up!"

Kas resisted the urge to groan. That was the one where people picked random cards from a deck to wear on their foreheads so people could help them guess who they were.

“We'll be using our NTR pokégears for this; the app should already be on your new devices. If you'll all break into groups of three, we'll start by putting pairs of groups together and we can rotate when the rounds are done!" Tanya smiled with cherry-red lips, beaming at all of them.

He really wished he'd spiked the punch.

Someone clicked their tongue behind Kas before the person walked to his side and into his field of vision. It was Cyrilla, and she glanced up at him from where she stood, arms crossed over her chest. Her hair was pulled back into a tail, it seemed, a little more professional, but there were still a few strands at the front that hung loose.

“I suppose it makes more sense for the three of us to be grouped together, but..." she trailed off, glancing in a direction where Ryk was. He was staring at a person who seemed to be trying to make small talk with him. Eryk didn't do small talk, from what Kas remembered, and his eyes were suddenly on them. Immediately, he walked towards him and Cy before standing on her other side.

“Well, I guess that means he agrees," she spoke, snickering softly at the expression on his face.

Kas snorted, quirking an eyebrow at Cy. "What? You mean spending your afternoon with me at this scintillating soirée isn't your idea of a good time?" He asked the question in jest, because no sane person would really want to be here, but that didn't mean he couldn't rib her for making it sound like being in his group in particular was something that 'made sense, she guessed.' Hardly a ringing endorsement, which he only found funny.

Opening the requisite app on his gear, he ignored Tanya giving directions. It was obvious—the app had a timer, after which the screen would display his 'identity,' meaning he should have it out of sight by then.

This presented its own conundrum, because Kasimir was tall enough that not everyone would be able to see his forehead, so he set it to his shoulder instead, angled so he couldn't see. Cy's screen identified her as Lt. Surge, funnily enough, and apparently Ryk was 'a drunken chansey.' At least the cards were kind of funny.

He looked up, curious to see who would be in the first group of three to match up with them.

Cyrilla huffed a light laugh at that, and shook her head. “Hm, I couldn't think of better company, really. It beats just being with that one all day," she stated, jabbing her thumb in Ryk's direction who looked to be having a bit of difficulty with his pokegear. She rolled her eyes before she took it from him, and set it up. “I swear you can't operate even the basic things you should know. What would you do without me, really?" she stated, though from the tone of voice she'd used, it sounded more like an older sibling scolding a younger one, even though Ryk was the older one, here.

“Whatever," he finally spoke, narrowing his eyes slightly in her direction. She just shook her head. “I don't understand the meaning behind this. Why can't we just do what we're here to do? There's no need to bond when we likely won't be here for very long," he muttered beneath his breath, causign Cyrilla to hard roll her eyes.

“Because you need to be able to work with your coworkers, and not against them, Ryk. That's why they are called coworkers," she responded, however; before she could say anything further, her attention was taken by a group of people that approached them.

“We were grouped with you," a young woman spoke. She was dressed in formal attire. A black pencil skirt with a white blouse tucked into it. Her dark hair was pulled back into a bun, and thick square glasses sat on her nose. “I'm Lorraine," she introduced herself. Another one stepped forward, this one a man probably in his late twenties. His hair was a bright flame orange, slicked back, and his eyes a dark brown. They were narrowed slightly before he shrugged his shoulders. He was wearing something that mirrored Lorraine's color scheme, though he was wearing a pair of slacks and not a pencil skirt.

“Name's Niko," he stated.

The last was a thin man nearing forty, Kas would guess, with a native islander's complexion. For some reason he was wearing a tweed jacket despite the temperature outside. Kas supposed the air conditioning in here did work a little too well sometimes. He very much had the look of a pencil-pusher about him, the kind of logistics wonk that Kas pretended to be, save for the precise undercut of his floppy black hair. “Nice to meet you," he said in a mild alto, much higher than even his thin frame would suggest. “I'm Luke." This prompted a second look, and Kas realized his throat was smooth, free of the prominent cartilage bump. Ah.

"Well welcome to our corner of the room, guys," Kas said, shooting all three of them a winning grin. Luke smiled back, at least. "I think we're supposed to take a look at what you have here... let's see."

The pokégear Luke was awkwardly holding to his forehead read 'Steven Stone.' Lorraine's said 'confused tauros,' and Niko had 'pro battling cheerleader.' Well that should be interesting.

Sticking his hand out towards Niko, he offered a shake. "So what color pom-poms do you prefer, and does the skirt chafe?"

Niko furrowed his brows a bit before taking Kas's hand and shaking it. Cyrilla snickered lightly, though Eryk merely looked unamused. “Dunno, depends on whether or not you're offering to do a check-up," Niko replied, giving Kas a clue into his identity, perhaps. That or he was flirting with Kas.

"Always happy to help, though I'm sure people in your profession have to stay in tip-top shape." He winked, not yet sure whether that was flirtation but willing to run with it either way.

“Well, there are worse things on a warm day than whipping yourself into a frenzy," Cyrilla stated, arching a brow in Lorraine's direction. The woman merely glanced at her, an expression to match Ryk's, before she narrowed her eyes slightly.

“Hm, yes, well I suppose it is better than being a paranoid trap maker," she replied in a deadpan voice.

“Oh, I didn't know you knew that about me. It's quite fun, really," Cyrilla stated, clearly either ignoring the clue, or not really caring much about it. Eryk had yet to say anything, and just merely glanced between the other people.

“You look a bit like you could stand a bit of medical attention yourself," Luke told Kas with a small smile. “Are those bags under your eyes?"

"Damn," he said with a feigned-heavy sigh. "If only I were a pokémon I could ask Ryk over there to help. Though he might break a few eggs in his state."

Luke laughed, clearly catching the thread of the joke. “Are you sure? Wasn't there a movie about you? Pokémon House?"

"Wait, I'm a frat dude? A... tired frat dude?" At Luke's nod, he checked his screen and found that it did indeed say 'sleep-deprived frat boy.' Huh. Maybe Niko was flirting after all, because that had nothing to do with doctors.

Eryk merely narrowed his eyes slightly at Kas's statement. “He's not wrong, Ryk. If you have any more, you'll just end up passing out, and you'd be no use to anyone, really," Cyrilla added.

“Considering that he's required to assist at any given time, I'd do the same if I were in his position. Thankfully, I'm not a pokemon, so I don't need the help," Niko stated. Eryk looked like he'd rather be doing something else, but sighed heavily.

“You collect rare rocks," he spoke in Luke's direction. Cyrilla shook her head.

“Ryk... that's not how... you know what, never mind," Cyrilla stated before turning her attention towards Lorraine. “As for you, Lorraine, perhaps you should avoid battles until your condition gets better. Otherwise you won't know where you're going, and with those three little whips at your back, it'll only increase your anger," she spoke. Lorraine rolled her eyes in what seemed to be good nature.

“Perhaps, but then again being out and about beats being couped up all day receiving challenge after challenge, and only specializing in one thing," she stated.

"Speaking of," Kas added to Cy, "shouldn't you have been promoted by now? Colonel or something? Or do your superiors think you're too much of a live wire?"

“Surely that's not it," Luke put in with a little grin. “I'd be shocked!"

Kas offered a hand for a high-five. "Stunned, even?"

Luke clapped his smaller hand into it with respectable force. “Nay, paralyzed."

She must have found it funny because she started laughing. Even Lorraine cracked a small smile, then. “Well, considering that I am stunning," she spoke, running a hand through her ponytail and pulling it over her shoulder, “I guess I must be a poor excuse of a Lieutenant Surge since I don't have the trademark golden hair."

“There are worse things to be missing," Niko stated, shrugging his shoulders a bit. “You could be missing an important egg used for treating patients because you were too busy blacking out to remember shit," he continued, glancing at Eryk with an arched brow.

“Oh for the love of..." he stated, checking his screen to see what it said. “I'm a drunk chansey," he stated, causing Cyrilla to sigh heavily.

“Just ignore him; he's a kill-joy," she stated, turning back towards Niko with an arched brow. “You at least seem to be having a lot of fun at major competitions. Know if they could use another able body? I promise to bring a pom-pom style oricorio with me as back up" she stated, blinking in an innocent manner, causing Niko to snort.

“I dunno, I mean, you have great legs for a cheerleader, but not as great as mine," Niko replied, holding out his leg as if to prove his point. Cyrilla laughed again.

Kas and Luke laughed, too, but then the bell at the front of the room rang, signaling that it was time for the groups to rotate. Niko, Lorraine, and Luke shuffled off elsewhere, and a new trio approached, including one surprisingly-familiar face.

"Sis!" he enthused, grinning broadly and sweeping down to pull the blonde scientist in for an ursaring-hug. "I haven't seen you since I transferred out of Mahogany Town! How have you been?" He'd only been there for a short while a couple years ago. The last few months of his time there had been Nev's first with NTR; as the guy in charge of the outpost, he'd sort of made it his responsibility to help her out, at least until he'd been transferred to Celadon for a while.

Aidan was with her, too, his pokégear nowhere in sight. "We can just not with the icebreaker," he said, rolling his eyes slightly. "I'm calling Admin privilege on that one."

“Thank Arceus," Ryk muttered as he folded his arms across his chest. Nev, however, looked slightly surprised to see Kas, and she'd managed a small squeak of surprise when he'd hugged her.

“It's nice to see you, too, Kasimir," she replied, pulling out of his hug with a light pink dusting her face. She cleared her throat softly as she glanced towards Cyrilla and Eryk. “And it's a pleasure to meet you..." she trailed off, as if expecting them to introduce themselves. Cyrilla stuck her hand out, smiling in turn.

“Cyrilla Niav, and this grump here is Eryk Nero. Don't let his face fool you, he's really just a big cuddly mareep," she stated, earning a light glare from Ryk. Nevena didn't seem too bothered by it, though, and nodded her head with a smile.

“Well it's a pleasure to meet you both. I'm Nevena Solomon, but please do feel free to call me Nev," she spoke, earning a nod from Cyrilla. Eryk kept his arms crossed over his chest, though, and seemed to be staring off at the other groups. Probably really just staring at nothing in particular, since it was Ryk.

The third in their group introduced herself as Penny, giving Kas what he suspected was an attempt at being subtle in her once-over. He fought not to grin, and mostly succeeded. Some trace of it must have made it to his face though; she flushed and darted her glance away.

Aidan sighed. "I don't know why HR insists on this," he muttered quietly. "It's not like we have a friendly, collegial atmosphere atmosphere around here."

He wasn't wrong; Kas had been genuinely surprised by the last group being at least personable. Very often, Neo Team Rocket offices were cold, inhospitable places, where everyone was clawing their way towards the top of the organization and the bigger paychecks and chunks of prestige and influence that went with. The mission statement did attract some do-gooder sorts, but the shadow of the previous iteration of Team Rocket loomed. So did the organization's extralegal nature, outside the typical justice system of any government but enforcing its rules regardless. Those tended to draw ambitious people of a certain competitive stripe.

“Probably because they're trying to change that," Cyrilla spoke with a shrug of her shoulders. “Even though it really won't change a thing," she added, earning a confused look from Nev.

“Why do you say that?" she asked. Cyrilla arched a brow.

“Isn't it obvious? A lot of us don't really require working together, and if that's the case, then we'll likely only be getting in each others way. Why bother getting to know people if you won't be around very long to actually care?"

“I guess I didn't see it that way since I'll be constantly working with a team," Nev stated as she furrowed her brows. “But in the mean time, it wouldn't hurt to at least get to know some of you," she continued, smiling at them. Cyrilla huffed lightly and shook her head.

“Well, you shouldn't get to know us too well," she began, something of a pained expression crossing Cyrilla's face. It was gone as quickly as it had appeared, as if it had never been there at all. “We don't want you to miss us too much when it's finally time to leave."

Nev chuckled lightly at that. “I'll do my best. Besides, I have Kas to keep me company, too, right? How's Meep by the way?"

"Adorable as always," he replied with a grin. Meep was in fact his youngest pokémon, and had barely hatched when he met Sis. "Speaking of, didn't your last email mention a Floof? We should get coffee to catch up and let them play."

“Oh, gosh, you're right!" she stated, eyes wide with a large smile. “I was just telling Aidan about her, yesterday. I plan on taking her to the park later on today so she can get some exercise in. If you want to join us, I'm sure Floof would be more than happy to have a playmate. In all honesty, she could use it. You all should come, actually. It would be nice to let all of our pokémon get together to play, if you'd like."

Cyrilla snorted softly. “It sounds like it could be fun." Ryk, however, didn't seem to feel any particular way about the invitation. He lightly shrugged his shoulders, which could have indicated anything.

Fortunately Kas had enough enthusiasm for the both of them. "Sounds great," he replied with a grin. "I admit I'm curious about what pokémon a former undefeated champion keeps on him." He quirked an eyebrow at Aidan.

"A brat, an idiot, a big baby, and assorted doofuses," he said dryly.

“At least yours doesn't try to hypnotize you," Eryk muttered lightly beneath his breath. Cyrilla snorted softly at Aidan's statement, though, and glanced at Ryk.

“Yeah, but you also have Runt, Ryk. He pretty much symbolizes the definition of idiot," Cyrilla stated lightly, earning a flat look from Ryk.

“I reiterate. Doesn't try to hypnotize you at inconvenient times."

“Oh, this is going to be fun. I look forward to meeting all of your pokémon, and getting to know you better," Nev stated excitedly.

“The feeling is mutual."

Maybe this wouldn't be a typical NTR workplace, after all.

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Kanto Region

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#2019-10-19 05:25:18, as written by Nemeseia

April 30th
Field Office 9 - Mid Morning - Clear
Eryk Nero

Eryk sighed heavily.

Why did they need to prove that they could work together? He already knew he could work well with Cyrilla. They'd managed things, together, before. With Kasimir, Eryk thought that he could work rather decently with the other man, but it was hard to know for sure. Eryk wasn't really a people, person, but he figured, in the end, it didn't really matter. The purpose of this exercise was moot, at best. Smoothing out his uniform, he raked a hand through his hair and sighed through his nose. He really didn't want to do this, but if Gregorovich wanted to see them work together, Eryk supposed he didn't have much of a choice.

He exited his office, turning slightly to walk towards Cyrilla's. He knocked on it lightly before opening her door, narrowing his eyes slightly when he spotted her. She was at her desk, typing something, it seemed before she glanced up and noticed him. She smiled softly in his direction, and Eryk felt a ghost-like smile appear on his face, but that was absurd. He didn't smile. He'd lost that a long time ago, and when she frowned at him, he knew he hadn't smiled at all.

“We're supposed to be meeting in the field. Let's go," he stated, watching as she rolled her eyes.

“Give me a second to finish this," she stated, pointing to her computer. She typed a few more things before she stood, smoothing out the skirt to her uniform and pulling her hair back into a tail. “Is Kas already waiting for us?" she asked, glancing up at him. Eryk rolled his eyes, but shook his head.

“Probably," he shrugged. “I'm not his keeper." He may have been the leader of the three, but that didn't mean he had to keep tabs on his teammates. They didn't need to watch each other, or keep track of who went where. If that were the case, Eryk was almost certain that he'd never hear the end of toilet breaks, or some other kind of break he didn't care for. Cyrilla snickered softly, though, and shook her head.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, boss-man," she spoke, causing him to roll his eyes. He forgot how immature she could be, sometimes. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he walked towards the back yard of the research facility. They had set it up the day before with a few maze-like structures. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he supposed he'd find out when they were given their announcement. Or assignment. Whatever it was going to be. He should probably pay more attention to his emails.

When they reached the meeting area, Eryk glanced around for the third member of their group, pursing his lips softly when he didn't see him. Maybe he just missed him? A difficult thing to do considering Kasimir's height, but Eryk didn't really care too much.

A moment later, he spotted him, holding court with a group of grunts, as the expression usually went. He seemed to be rather unconcerned with whatever the exercise was that they were doing, and was laughing in a rather carefree fashion at something one of the other had said. Probably Luke, from the way he clapped him on the shoulder a moment later.

The smaller man noticed Eryk, though, and nodded in his direction, prompting Kasimir to glance his way. With a word to the group and a wave, he took his leave, sliding his hands into his pockets as he headed over. They hadn't been required to wear the uniform for this, and Kasimir definitely had not, dressing instead in tan cargo shorts and a bright blue shirt with a pattern of white palm fronds. He looked more like a vacationer from mainland Kanto than a Rocket Executive.

"Morning, Ryk," he greeted, not excessively enthusiastic but clearly in a good mood. "How're you?"

Eryk shrugged his shoulders, causing Cyrilla to roll her eyes. “That's universal for, I'm fine, Kas, how are you?" she stated, shaking her head in the process. Eryk supposed she could interpret it however she wanted to. It's not like he actually cared if Kas was good or not. As if sensing this, Cyrilla elbowed him lightly in his arm, causing him to furrow his brows.

“What?" he stated, rubbing his arm. It didn't hurt, but it was slightly uncomfortable.

“So, did you read the email about the details?" she was looking at him when she spoke, as if she knew Eryk didn't really read his emails. He pursed his lips together.

“We're doing an exercise of sorts," was his reply. Cyrilla sighed heavily.

“Mind filling in the blanks for him, Kas? I can't with him, right now."

Kasimir grinned. "And good morning to you, Cy," he said, as though they didn't all live together. Though they did conduct themselves separately, so it was possible Cyrilla and Kasimir had not, in fact, seen each other yet today. "As for what we're up to here, it's a little exercise in coordination and skill. As you can see, we've got a system of mazes here. There's a flag at the center of each, and we're racing the grunts to get them. The catch is, when one of us enters the maze, we have to blindfold ourselves. They don't."

The mazes, as far as Eryk could see, were tall enough to reach about Cyrilla's shoulder, so it was possible to see over them, but not all the details of the maze at once. Still, sight would be a significant advantage.

"Beyond that," Kas continued, "our strategy is entirely up to us. Whichever team gets their five flags first is the winner. We're allowed to physically confront each other to prevent that, but no pokémon, no weapons, and no actually trying to hurt anyone."

“Well that just takes the fun out of it," Cyrilla murmured, though she was grinning so Eryk wasn't entirely sure what she meant by that. He studied the maze for a moment, and pursed his lips together. He and Cyrilla had good memories, but even he doubted that they'd be able to remember every detail to which turn, and what to do, next. And if they were turned around by a grunt, then that woudn't be good. He narrowed his eyes in Kasimir's direction.

“There was nothing in the email that said one of us couldn't stay behind and direct one another," he spoke. He had, in fact, read that much, at least. The only problem was, who would be the one to stay behind? Cyrilla was, perhaps, the faster of the three. She'd probably be able to maneuver with a little more ease, though she did lack a bit in the physical department of strength. He knew she could probably work this maze with relative ease, even while she was blindfolded, however; the objective was to work together as a team.

“Since you're the tallest of us, you stay behind and direct us," he stated, side glancing towards Kas.

“And here I thought I'd never see the day that Ryk would put his trust in a complete stranger. Wow," Cyrilla stated, grinning in Eryk's direction.

“Oh, shut up, Cy." She only snickered softly.

"Height," Kasimir said with a shake of his head. "A certified genius and technological wizard, and you want to use me for my height." He sighed dramatically. "Well fine. Run separate mazes. I can handle both of you at once, I promise." He arched an eyebrow and winked, though it seemed to be a joke aimed more at Cyrilla than Eryk. Perhaps because he expected her to appreciate it more.

And appreciate it, she did, apparently. The grin on her face was more a cheshire grin than anything. “You sure about that, Kas?" she stated, clearly amused, however; she shook her head, chuckling as she moved towards the entrance of one of the mazes. “Well, come on, Ryk, we don't have all day. Let's get a move on!" she stated, motioning for Eryk to follow her. Eryk rolled his eyes, though. They were both... too similar for his tastes. The way they acted around each other was something Ryk could have done without. He was here for business and nothing else. Cy and Kas... well, he didn't really want to care.

“Get her lost if you can," Eryk grumbled as he glanced in Kas's direction. With deep sigh, he made his way towards the entrance of one of the mazes. He glanced towards Cyrilla, who was apparently already blindfolding herself before she'd even entered the maze, and grinned in his direction.

“Good luck, Kas! Make sure Ryk doesn't get lost!" she stated. Eryk had half a mind to tell her to fuck off, but she'd likely take it the wrong way, and he really didn't need to hear any retort from her. And knowing Kas, he'd probably fuel the flame. When he stepped through the entrance of the maze, he took the offered blindfold, and covered his eyes with it.

“Whenever you're ready, Kas," he spoke loud enough so that Kas could hear him. He could hear just about everyone else moving around already, but he was putting his trust in Kas to get them to where they needed to go.

Kasimir was still chuckling, but Eryk could hear him moving around, possibly dragging one of the picnic benches set up along the maze to a place he could stand on it. The grunts were moving about as well, but for the moment they were probably just trying to get their own flags. "Ryk, get in there and take your first right, and then the second left after that. Cy, you're gonna want to hang two lefts and then go until you hit the end and take a right."

Shrugging his shoulders, Eryk decided to follow Kas's directions. He took the first right, sliding his fingers along the edge of the maze to ensure he was going the proper distance before taking the second left. He could hear the grunts moving, and talking about something, but he was focusing on Kas's directions. He couldn't hear what Cy was doing, but that was likely because she'd always been the silent one.

“Alright, Kas," he stated, waiting for the next set of directions. It didn't take them long at all before Eryk found the first flag, and he could hear Cyrilla for a brief moment, finding the second one. They hadn't run into a grunt yet, which was good. He could hear them, though, getting closer. They were likely going to try and take his flag from him before he could reach the next one.

“Kas," he stated, waiting for a response in which way to go.

"Yup. You've got a couple coming in from your right. Head out at 2 o'clock from your current position, then hang an immediate left." To his credit, Kasimir's words were clear, loud enough without shouting, and precise. "Cy, you're gonna want to speed up. Grunts incoming at four and six o'clock. Exit to your left, then book it until you hit your third right."

“Got it!" Cyrilla shouted, perhaps doing what Kas had told her to do. Eryk, pursed his lips together, and nodded. He moved as quickly as he could, trusting Kas to guide him in the proper direction. To his credit, Kas hadn't led either of them into a direct conflict with the other grunts. Eryk would have been thoroughly impressed if he wasn't currently blindfolded. He'd preferred to not have been, but he couldn't do much about it.

“Which way, Kas," he spoke with a little more urgency. There wasn't too much time to linger. The grunts would catch up to him if they weren't quick.

It was here that the clip of Kasimir's words accelerated, each new direction fronted with a sharp Cy or Ryk to make sure it caught the right person's attention. He always kept them aware of at least their most likely next two moves, but sometimes adjusted in light of the way the Grunts reacted to their strategies, something that Eryk could be certain they were doing but definitely did not see.

Still, somehow, he and Cyrilla made it out of their mazes at about the same time, unscathed and carrying their flags. Eryk lifted his blindfold only to see that Kas was donning one. "I've memorized the center maze," he explained. "Should be able to get in and out really quick. If you two want to get started on yours, I can help untangle anything that goes wrong when I'm done."

It did seem to be the most efficient way to handle the fact that there were three mazes left. The grunts had brought back two flags already, too, so it seemed like the faster they could make this happen, the better their chances.

As promised, it wasn't more than three minutes or so after Eryk started his second maze that Kas's voice reappeared, guiding himself and Cyrilla to the centers of their own. There was less chance of avoiding the grunts this time, as the narrowing number of relevant mazes meant there were more of them in each.

Eryk supposed that they were going to run into a bit of a problem now that there were more grunts in the mazes. He could already hear Cyrilla getting into a scuffle with one of them, now. “Hey, now that's no way to treat a lady!" she shouted. There was a quick succession of muffled sounds before it sounded like she continued onward. Eryk would have rolled his eyes but he didn't.

Kas directed them a few more times, and Eryk found himself in a similar situation that Cyrilla had, however; he wasn't as gentle as he thought she was. It wasn't a lot of force, he didn't think, because he wasn't supposed to harm the grunts. But exceptions had to have been made for this, right? He pushed forward, and managed to grab another flag. Between them, they had four flags. The two he had, the one Cyrilla had, and the one Kas had managed to get.

That left them with only one more.

“Kas, get me out of here," he shouted. He would have to rely on Cyrilla to get hers, but he also had to keep a hold of his own at the same time. He could hear her getting into another scuffle with a couple of grunts, but he couldn't focus on that right now. He needed to get out with his own flag before he ran into other grunts.

"Hang a left, Ryk," Kas said. "Grunt incoming, three o'clock!"

There were a few more collisions on the way out, but he did manage to get free of the maze, in just enough time to see Kasimir bodily hauling a grunt away from Cyrilla, who was just emerging from her maze as well. "Get those to the finish, quick!"

Ryk didn't need to be told twice. He nodded in Cyrilla's direction as they both took off towards the area they needed to get to. To finish this ridiculous exercise so he could go back to doing what he needed to do. When they'd reached the finish line, he handed the flags over to the necessary person and glanced back towards Cyrilla. For some strange reason, she was laughing. He didn't even want to know the reason behind that, but she seemed to be having fun if anything.

“Oh well, here comes the man of the hour now," she stated, glancing in the direction of Kas, who was, indeed, making his way towards them. He supposed a lot of this was due to his help, but... he merely shrugged his shoulders.

“That's Ryk for, thanks, Kas," she spoke, as if supplementing the word for his actions.

"I'm learning a whole new language," Kasimir quipped with a grin. "And hey, no thanks necessary. Just doing the job boss-man told me to do." He saluted in a way that could only be intended humorously, more a lazy flick of his hand than anything approaching a serious attempt.

“Well," Cyrilla started, grinning up at Kas as she placed a hand on her hip. “If you stick around Ryk and I for awhile, I'm sure there are other languages you'll be learning," she stated. Eryk furrowed his brows deeply.

“Oh, for the love of... can you not start?" he stated, narrowing his eyes in displeasure in her direction. She blinked at him, almost innocently at first, but Ryk knew better.

“And where would the fun in that be, Ryk?"

He really wished he didn't share an apartment with them.

"You sure?" Kas asked. "I'm fluent in body language already, y'see. Though I don't mind expanding my dialects." He seemed to be entirely ignoring Eryk's protestations as well, but then he grinned a little more broadly and shook his head.

"Let's get Ryk inside outta this heat before he combusts on us, huh? Boss's gotta be happy with that result, so maybe we can all celebrate later or something."

“Oh, definitely, we should celebrate."

Ryk shook his head, but he welcomed the reprieve, anyway. He needed to be away from these two as quickly as possible, and like Kas said, the boss had to be happy with their results.

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#2019-10-19 07:27:45, as written by Nemeseia

May 2nd
Field Office 9 - Mid Morning - Warm
Eryk Nero

Eryk glanced between Kas and Cy. They were both in his office, Kas taking up a majority of his chair while Cy seemed perfectly content on the bean bag she'd ordered for his office. It was pink with light purple dots on it, and was the only real thing of color here. He didn't understand why she'd felt the need to order it in the first place, but she currently sat in it with Siri, her noibat, and Icarus, his espurr, in her lap. Icarus was content to lay in her lap, though the espurr never really made any facial movements. He wasn't quite sure why that was, but Icarus was a strange creature to begin with. Siri, on the other hand, was munching happily on a berry of sorts, before she left Cyrilla and landed near Kas. It looked like she was offering Kas the rest of her berry, and Eryk just shook his head.

He didn't understand any of their pokémon, but he supposed it really didn't matter in the end. They all had their own unique personalities. “Alright, so," Cyrilla stated, calling the attention towards her. “What's the plan now that we've managed to scout the area?" she spoke, causing Eryk to rub his temples.

“It is my impression that the boss wants us to interact with her," he spoke, furrowing his brows lightly. He didn't understand why, but he couldn't exactly say no. “He wants us to befriend her."

"Seems that way," Kas agreed, accepting Siri's berry remnants with a large, bright grin. "Why thank you, m'lady," he said with a wink, rubbing carefully at the pokémon's large ears. "Perhaps you might be willing to accept a token of my gratitude?" With a flourish and a bit of sleight-of-hand, he presented the noibat with what seemed to be dark blue berry jelly, delicately formed into the shape of a flower. Siri seemed all too delighted, and took the jelly flower from Kas, making her way back to share it with Icarus.

Turning back to the others, he shrugged. "Sounds like pretty typical fieldwork to me, no? Difference is she's not a politician or something. Probably best not to overwhelm her at first."

“We do this small, then," Eryk stated first, running a hand down his face. “We'll each do a round, and then gradually assimilate ourselves. It'll be easier for me and Cy because I can introduce Cy as my..." he paused, furrowing his brows a bit. Cyrilla narrowed hers, too in his direction.

“How about we leave that part out, for now, alright? The both of us already know that we need to play every angle to our advantage. If you introduce me as your fiancée, well..." she trailed off. Eryk pursed his lips together. What did that matter? The boss wasn't asking him to sleep with her, or even seduce the young woman. All he'd asked was that they make friends with her. That was it.

“Since you're more impressionable, Kas, why don't you start, first?"

"Impressionable?" Kasimir looked highly amused. "I don't think that's quite the word you're after, Ryk. Do you mean to suggest I'm more personable, perhaps?" He tilted his head, then tipped one of his hands side to side. "I dunno if that's a good idea though. I'm the computers guy, remember? I don't mind helping out, but this isn't exactly my specialty. I could always let something slip on accident."

His tone was strange—it was unclear if he was joking or being serious about that. "Besides, aren't you guys the ones who've done missions like this before?"

“He has a point, Ryk," Cyrilla spoke, rubbing the back of Icarus's ear. “We can't afford to have anything leaked out so soon, and besides," she continued, leaning a bit to her side as Siri tried to climb back into her lap. “She's a cute girl. You could always work your charm on her if it makes it easier," she arched a brow in his direction, a slight grin pulling at her lips. Eryk resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“If you're so interested, why don't you do it?" Eryk retorted, narrowing his eyes slightly in her direction.

“Because I still have scouting missions to do, Ryk. I can't just put those on hold to befriend someone, and other than that, you need the practice. Arceus knows how lucky you've been so far in seducing other targets knowing how bad your people skills are. It can't be that hard, can it? Just talking to her?" She glanced at Kas as if he'd reinforce her statement somehow.

"Honestly, man, you should run a class in that. I don't even understand how you do it. It's like a cactus succeeding at seducing someone. Not a cacturne, a cactus." Kasimir was smiling, his words lacking any bite but having more than a little playful disbelief in them. He turned to Cyrilla and continued. "I mean, we'd know a thing or two about being so pretty people just approach, but I don't think even we could pull that well being half as prickly. I kind of want to see it happen."

Cyrilla snorted softly, while Eryk just narrowed his eyes at Kas. “Another good point, Ryk," she stated, grinning in Kas's direction. “But in all seriousness," she began, turning back to him, “you really should be the first one to approach her. Not only will you be doing yourself a favor, but if you're at all something she's looking for, well... I don't see why that couldn't be allowed to flourish."

Eryk knew what she was talking about, however; he shook his head. “No, it cannot. I will, however, take the first introduction." He glanced at Kas, next. “Before I do... you will at least help me with introducing myself." Cyrilla huffed a soft laugh.

“Ryk, we all live together. You should have been able to pick up on some things, you know."

Kasimir chuckled, though not as obnoxiously as he might have. "Oh my, Ryk, are you telling me you want me to help you learn to talk to pretty girls?" He looked rather like the meowth that had got the canary, with that jagged grin on his face. "I mean... they're people too, you know. How would you normally introduce yourself?"

Cyrilla snorted in an attempt not to laugh, it seemed, and in that moment, he regretted even asking Kasimir for his help.

“Never mind, forget I asked," he spoke, causing Cyrilla to laugh. “And you, hush," he stated, only to cause her to burst into a fit of laughter.

“Oh, come on, Ryk, it's not that bad, honestly. How about you get some practice in while we all go get lunch? You can place the order nicely, and then go from there, alright? What do you say, Kas?" she spoke, glancing down at Icarus who trilled lightly, as if agreeing with her. Ryk rolled his eyes.

"I'm in favor. We have yet to celebrate our victory from the other day, after all." Kasimir leveraged himself out of his chair and huffed at Cyrilla, still with two pokémon on her lap. Hand-to-heart, he bowed in an exaggerated fashion and offered a hand to assist her to her feet. "May I?" No doubt he was well aware she could easily manage for herself. He wasn't actually an idiot, after all. But he was strange.

"What do we feel like eating?"

“Why thank you, Sir Kasimir," she responded, taking his hand and standing up. Siri had flown to the empty chair, then, and curled into it, falling asleep almost immediately. Icarus, however, crawled over to her shoulder, and slid down her side before making his way towards Eryk. He blinked up at him, and Eryk rolled his eyes, but pointed to the bean bag Cyrilla had occupied. A small smile appeared on Icarus's face as he made his way to curl up into it, seemingly satisfied before falling asleep as well.

“Why do they have to be so cute?" Cyrilla stated, causing Ryk to shake his head.

“There's a place just down the street we can go to. They have your favorite: kalosian toast" he stated, watching as Cyrilla's face lit up for a moment.

“Brunch sounds really good to me, and it's simple enough, I suppose," she replied, shrugging as if she weren't as excited about it as Eryk knew her to be.

“Then brunch it is."

"Oh, brunch. Sounds like there are mimosas in my future; excellent." Kasimir mimed bringing Cyrilla's hands towards his lips but did not actually make that kind of contact. He released her then, though, stretching his arms up towards the ceiling, which he wasn't too far off being able to reach, between his height and armspan.

“You would like mimosas," Eryk murmured softly, and shook his head.

He studied Cyrilla from the corner of his eye. "Kalosian toast, huh? Sweet or savory?"

“Oh, definitely savory. I eat for taste," she replied, grinning up at Kas. “If it were sweet, well... as much as I love sweet things, I also enjoy eating food that's not just sugar," she continued. Her favorite foods, Eryk knew, were spicy things, after all, so it made some sense, he supposed.

“Ryk, here, actually enjoys things that are a bit bitter and not so tastey," she continued, though she leaned in closer to Kas as if to tell him a secret. “He likes oatmeal cookies," she whispered, but it was loud enough that Eryk could hear it.

“I can hear you."

Kasimir, who had obligingly leaned down as if to receive the secret, gasped theatrically. "Quelle horreur," he murmured, widening his eyes and clutching slightly at his chest. "I bet he likes carrot cake then too, right?" Even as he asked, he started them on the way out.

"I dunno, Cy, he might be beyond even our considerable talents to properly socialize."

“So what if I like oatmeal cookies and carrot cake. It's not like either of you asses have to eat it," Eryk stated, narrowing his eyes as they made their way down the road. Cyrilla looked offended, and to her credit, Eryk actually thought she was. He was half way to apologizing when she started laughing. He really hated her, sometimes, when she did that.

“Eryk, there's nothing wrong with liking things that other people don't. We're just having fun at your expense. You need to learn how to take them as they are and roll with them, because people will do these things with you. It's what friends do, right, Kas," she stated, smiling up at him before turning her attention back to Eryk. He just rolled his eyes.

"Right you are, Cy," Kas replied, flashing her a grin just as bright.

When they arrived at the place, they were greeted by the waiter who smiled in their direction. Cyrilla glanced at Ryk expectantly, as if waiting for him to initiate the socializing bits. He sighed.

“Hi, welcome to Emile's," the young man stated, causing Eryk to grimace slightly.

“Table for three," he spoke, swiftly. This was going to be a pain in his ass, wasn't it?

"Okay so lesson one: please and thank you. We really are starting at the beginning, aren't we?"

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#2019-11-07 08:45:02, as written by Aethyia

July 2nd
Field Office 9 - Morning - Warm
Kasimir Rheinallt

After the raid, they'd needed to leave a total of four pokémon with Ana. Two of those, the ekans and the riolu, had since been cleared to be held in ordinary NTR intake while the group assessed what the best course of action was for them, along with the others that had been seized from the breeding facility.

As expected, the local police had been called, and an official inquiry had been sent up to the Field Office, but by then there were pictures and documentation indicating the abuse and maltreatment of the pokémon at the facility, and Aidan had been only too happy to cite to the officers the exact pieces of legal code that allowed NTR in Kanto to seize pokémon in such conditions. As they usually did, they officially maintained that they'd seen evidence of the maltreatment through a window, which had then given them probable cause to conduct the raid. Technically, they hadn't really had it, only the vague suspicion, but it wasn't like anyone could prove otherwise, so the law was on their side and there was nothing to be done.

One of the cops had looked pissed, but some of them were like that. Didn't like NTR edging into law enforcement territory. Kasimir's own feelings on the matter were kind of complicated, but he really didn't think they were in the wrong here. If there'd been no evidence of mistreatment, they'd just have left. It had happened on raids before, misinformation or reports given falsely sending them to places that were actually aboveboard, but what had been in there... well, he for one was glad that place was getting shut down, and with all the evidence they'd collected, the legal system would likely jail the owners for a while, even if some beat cop didn't like it.

Stunky and mankey were still at the shelter; according to Ana, mankey was so young as to need constant supervision while he recovered, and stunky's breathing issue was likely to be permanent, and so she'd offered to take her in, since that was where she was likely to end up even if NTR did its own assessment. No one had seen any reason to suggest otherwise, so official custody of those two pokémon had been signed over to Cinnabar Pokémon Rehabilitation and Hospice.

Today, for some reason, they had all been summoned to the conference room. It had to be for the beginning of the month executive meeting, but oddly Kasimir hadn't been asked to prepare anything for it. Usually he had maps or dossiers or some other kind of information to organize detailing whatever the month's projects were, but apparently those were coming from somewhere else this time. Maybe Aidan was making them? The other man was already seated at the conference table, but it didn't look like he'd brought much of anything with him. At this point they were just waiting for Ryk and Cy, he supposed.

It wasn't much longer when they arrived. Eryk entered the room first, slight bags under his eyes indicating he hadn't slept much in the last couple of days. Cyrilla trailed behind him, though, and they both took a seat near Kas. He regarded Kas for a moment before turning his attention towards Aidan.

“Good morning, Aidan. Good morning, Kas," Cyrilla murmured softly as Eryk nodded his head as if to say the same thing without actually saying it. Cyrilla sighed softly but didn't say anything else, and they both turned their attention towards Aidan. It was as if they were waiting for him to start the meeting, or something of the sort.

Nodding briskly, Aidan lifted a small remote control from the table in front of him and turned on the screen at the back wall of the room. Without any further ado, the entire group of them was presented with the image of their boss, Stefan Gregorovich. Kas's eyebrows shot up in mild surprise; it wasn't completely unusual for people of their rank to hear from Gregorovich directly, of course, but then he hadn't been at this particular rank for very long. It wasn't like he'd had dinner with the guy.

"Good morning, everyone," the boss said, his tone neutral with a faint hint of warmth to it. "I suppose you might be a touch surprised to see me, but I asked Aidan not to disclose that I would be present at this meeting. I didn't want to cause any dread of it, or anything like that."

In a way, Kas supposed that was a legitimate concern. He'd definitely have worried about it if he knew it was coming—the problem was he was now internally scrambling, trying to remember if everything was in order that needed to be. It was, of course—he hadn't lasted this long by being an idiot. But damn if seeing the boss didn't ignite anxiety in him anyway. There was just something vaguely terrifying about the possibility that he'd been found out and this was how they delivered the news.

But Gregorovich only smiled slightly. "I would like to begin by commending your work at the end of last month—I've read your reports of the incident and can only wish we'd known about the facility sooner. That doesn't discount the good you did, though, and I'm relieved to see the pokémon in question are now in much better hands."

If Eryk and Cyrilla were as surprised as Kas was to see Gregorovich, they didn't show it. Instead, Cyrilla smiled a bit at Gregorovich's statement as Eryk nodded his head. He'd been back to Ana's to check on the stunky and mankey the most after the raid, and had seemed rather attached to the both of them for some reason. He never said anything about it, and didn't seem inclined to, either. He kept his attention on the screen though, a frown marring his features.

“Sir," he stated, though it wasn't in a way that conveyed he wanted to ask a question. It was in a way that was simply acknowledging what Gregorovich had stated. A way of thanks, perhaps. Eryk's brows furrowed, though, before he shook his head lightly.

“But there is more, is there not?" Eryk stated. It didn't seem to be in a condescending way. It was as if he were merely stating an observation or a fact, maybe.

"Naturally," Gregorovich replied, waving a hand vaguely as if to say he'd get to it in its own time. No hurrying the boss, naturally. Fortunately, he was a pretty businesslike individual.

It wasn't hard to tell: even if the immaculate monochrome of his expensive, bespoke black suit didn't convince a person, there was the remarkably keen look to the pale grey of his eyes. He might not be reputed to be a human lie detector, or be as impressive in height as Kas or as naturally intimidating-looking as Ryk, but there was a certain obvious, quiet authority and dignity to him. Gravitas, really. This was the man who'd resurrected Team Rocket from the ashes of organized crime and made it the single most influential organization in the world.

Even if Kas's real boss was sure he'd stuck his fingers in just about every dirty-money pie to do it, it was still impressive.

"I'm calling today to get your updates on Project Nebula," Gregorovich said simply. "As there were raid reports to write, I understand the monthly updates not being finished for that, of course, and thought I'd save you the trouble of rushing those by simply hearing the reports verbally."

Kasimir felt another flicker of surprise at this, but like the last he didn't much let it show. Gregorovich could say what he wanted about convenience—he'd just convinced Kas that this project was even more important than he'd previously thought. Why else seek an update this close to in-person when their reports would be in by the end of the week?

"You've all made contact with... Miss Asher by now, as you've said. How are you finding the task of befriending her?"

Eryk pushed a heavy sigh through his nose, almost as if he wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. It was obvious to those around that Eryk wasn't the type to befriend people easily. That seemed more like something Cyrilla, or even Kas could do. But it had fallen on Eryk to make the first initial contact, and he had. Kas and Cyrilla visited the shelter when they could, but Eryk was the one who spent the most time there.

“It is... not difficult, but it isn't quite as easy as expected. She's not exactly trusting of new people, but," he paused, his brows furrowing deeper, “progress is being made, I believe. It will still be some time, yet, before anything comes of us befriending her."

Gregorovich seemed to consider this a moment, tilting his head slightly to the side. From offscreen, he retrieved a cigarette and a metal lighter with something engraved on it, flicking it open and holding the end of the cylinder to the flame. Flipping it closed, he returned it to its position beyond their line of sight and sat back in his chair, the padded leader creaking softly. "And what exactly do you believe will come of it, as you say?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious.

Eryk seemed to contemplate something before he sighed softly. It was Cyrilla who answered, though.

“We're not entirely sure, sir," she spoke softly and calm. “From our initial report, it's that you want us to see if she's a viable candidate to be a volunteer for a project of yours. The only things we've managed to learn about her, so far, are the obvious: she's a relative of the Nurses Joy, and she owns and operates the Shelter and Hospice."

Gregorovich nodded slightly, though Kas thought he saw some form of... disappointment, maybe? Something like it flashed briefly across his features before it was gone. "I see," he said simply, taking a drag from the cigarette. Kas was pretty sure it was one of the imported sort from Kalos, papered in brown rather than mostly white, and a fair bit longer than standard.

"What of you, Mr. Rheinallt?" He asked quietly, fixing his eyes on Kas through a thin haze of smoke.

"Me, sir?" he asked, blinking as if confused. It wasn't far from the truth, really.

"Yes. Aidan has informed me that you're a particularly clever sort. What do you make of Miss Asher?"

Kas expelled a breath, then shrugged a little. "I think she's smart, and bighearted. I'm also pretty sure she has a secret of some kind, which is why when I fixed her computer, I also installed some spyware in it, so I can monitor her internet use."

Gregorovich exhaled a quiet ha, something that sounded quite amused. "Excellent. Anything of interest so far?"

"She likes classical music and probably knows how to dance, and she's closest with an aunt she refers to as Miranda, who runs the Pokémon Center in Lavender Town. She also likes looking up new baking recipes and cat pokémon videos. So... not much of use, no."

It was sort of a risk, being deadpan and pretty flippant with the boss, but it only seemed to entertain Gregorovich, who nodded slightly. "Very well then. I suppose I'll count that as satisfactory progress, though if you could also monitor her phone, I'm sure it would help. Continue to get close to her—that's your only real task for this month. Questions?"

Kas shook his head.

Eryk and Cyrilla both shook their heads. They didn't seem to have anything they wanted to ask or say, and Cyrilla spared Eryk a glance. His brows were furrowed lightly, but he didn't look upset or anything. Something must have come to him, though, and he turned his attention back towards Gregorovich.

“Is there anything in particular we should monitor her for? A particular skill of some sort?" he asked.

Gregorovich considered this for a long, drawn-out moment, then nodded slightly. "Yes. In particular, I am interested to know if the girl is a psychic. A telepath, in particular. Of course, I understand that this is not the kind of question one can simply ask someone, and it would be preferable if she divulged this to you of her own volition, if it be true. But do be on the lookout for evidence of it, if possible."

He exhaled, and the smoke momentarily thickened. "I understand you have some talent of this nature yourself, Mr. Nero, but according to people who know about such things, if she were one as well she would likely be able to detect it if you attempted to discern this with your own abilities, yes? It is paramount not only that we find such a person, but that we do so in a way that endears us to them. So handle with care, as the saying goes. You're not the only team attempting to locate a likely candidate, but you are the one I have highest hopes for, probability-wise."

Kas didn't bother to hide his surprise at this news, figuring there was no reason to. He noted, though, that Aidan didn't seem to have any. He must have already known, but did he know why they were looking for someone like that?

“Understood," Eryk stated simply. His brows were furrowed deeply, and Cyrilla placed a hand near his forearm before dropping it. “I will do what I can to see," he added, turning his attention briefly to Aidan and then back towards Gregorovich.

The boss nodded. "Much appreciated," he said simply, smiling faintly. "Best of luck, as it were. She seems like a nice young lady, but some nuts are tougher to crack than others."

The screen went dark. Kasimir blew out a breath. "Damn," he murmured. "That was intense."

Aidan snorted softly. "Might want to get used to it, Rheinallt. You're an executive now, not just the IT guy."

“It does come with the territory, Kas. Being an executive means you have to see the boss every once in a while," Cyrilla spoke. She didn't seem amused or anything. She looked mostly concerned, though it seemed to be directed mostly at Eryk for some reason. He shook his head lightly before turning his attention towards Aidan and Kasimir.

“Is there anything else we should be made aware of besides surprise visits from Gregorovich?" he stated, though there was something fairly light in his tone. Almost as if he were joking about something. But Eryk didn't joke; he didn't seem capable of it.

Aidan shook his head slightly. "I had to work to get him to tell you that much. Sorry for springing it on you, but that was the condition."

Kas, who had rolled his eyes slightly at Cy—it wasn't like he was an idiot, though maybe he should be grateful he was playing one better than he thought—looked at Eryk with some concern. Still, he wasn't about to ask in a room full of people, so he only sighed slightly and stood.

"Well in that case I guess I better go write some more spyware," he grumbled. He'd seen Ana's phone only once, but knew the model. Should be doable in a few days' work, though getting it onto the thing would be a different trick.

“Hm, you'll do a good job, though, Kas. You're the IT guy, after all," Cyrilla stated with a light huff. Eryk rolled his eyes, though, and turned towards Aidan.

“If there's nothing else, I will be taking the rest of the day off," Eryk spoke, his expression smoothing back out. “I'll be making a stop by Anastasia's today to see how the two pokémon are doing; it has made her a little more inclined to talk that way. If Gregorovich wants us to be her friends, this is one way to do it." Cyrilla's lip twitched slightly upwards, but she didn't say anything to Eryk.

"You won't hear me complaining," Aidan replied simply. He paused, then, tilting his head a little. "If you don't mind letting me know if anything changes with them? I know how the others are doing, but I've stayed away from the shelter for the obvious reasons."

“Sure. I'll have Cyrilla send you a message once I've found out," Eryk stated, causing Cyrilla to huff lightly.

“He can't work his phone very well," she offered as way of explanation. Eryk merely shrugged his shoulders. He didn't seem to deny it.

"Works for me," Aidan replied, apparently less bothered than Kas by the fact that a grown man didn't know how to work a cellphone.

Technological incompetents. Just... everywhere.

And he was stuck being the IT guy.

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#2019-11-10 04:29:05, as written by Nemeseia

July 13th
Ana's Shelter - Late Afternoon - Hot
Eryk Nero

Arceus, how had he managed to let those two convince him to do this?

Eryk shoved his hands into his pocket, as he kept his attention on the ground. They had made a point; if Gregorovich wanted the three of them to get closer to Anastasia, faster, he supposed this was as good of a way as any. He just wasn't so sure she'd actually buy it. Why would she give him a room to stay when he had a perfectly good one at the Cloyster? It was uncomfortable to be there, he wouldn't deny, but he wasn't so sure being at Anastasia's would help, either. He'd be in closer contact with the target—and she was the target, he had to remind himself—and it would provide him some insight to her, he supposed. Gregorovich also thought that Eryk's own telepathic talent might be helpful, but Eryk wasn't so sure.

His father, who'd been the psychic, had always been paranoid about that kind of thing. Eryk supposed it bled into parts of himself, but he wasn't going to try something that might end up backfiring. He felt a brush on his mind as he glanced down to his side. Icarus was staring up at him, big purple eyes staring with what seemed to be intrigue. Eryk rolled his eyes but picked the espurr up, and set him on his shoulders. Icarus seemed content there as Eryk continued his walk towards Anastasia's shelter. Once he arrived at the gate, Rufus was there to greet him. He arched a brow at the stoutland; it always surprised him that Rufus always seemed to know when he was arriving.

He let himself through the gate, reached down to scratch behind Rufus' ear, and stood back up. Blinking slowly, he glanced around the shelter before pursing his lips. Cyrilla said she'd texted Anastasia for him to let her know he was on his way. Maybe she was inside?

Most of the pokémon seemed to be out and about; he knew that Anastasia let them out whenever possible. The dome habitats were spacious and calibrated to specific pokémon types, but she didn't feel that it was the same as being out in real sunshine and fresh air, it seemed. Ekans basked on the large rock that seemed designed for the purpose, clearly asleep; several pidgey roosted in the large tree. A few others were around as well, including stunky, who was trotting about the yard, seemingly exploring everything.

A door opened somewhere; it took him only a moment to locate which. Anastasia emerged from the main shelter building, in black coveralls halfway undone, the sleeves tied at her waist, and a t-shirt. She was carrying mankey in both arms, holding him against her front, giggling softly when one of her low twintails drew the pokémon's attention. She carefully brushed it behind her before resettling her grip and glancing up.

She looked a touch surprised to see him, blinking with wide eyes. "Eryk? H-hello. I wasn't expecting you by today; there's probably a message on my phone, huh?" She furrowed her brows, a vague turn to the corner of her mouth. "Sorry. I should be better about checking that when I'm working."

Eryk resisted the urge to roll his eyes slightly. It was also possible that Cyrilla didn't text Anastasia like he'd asked her to. He'll have to figure out how to work that, one day, so things like this didn't happen. He shook his head lightly, though, eyes lingering a bit on mankey before he turned them back towards Anastasia.

“It's fine, Anastasia," he spoke softly, his brows still slightly furrowed. He nodded his head in mankey's direction, though, and felt something on his face smooth out. “It seems he's doing a lot better," he observed. It was still obvious that mankey had a long way to go, but Eryk was... glad? He wasn't entirely sure what the proper word was that he felt, and pursed his lips together.

“It's good."

"He is!" Anastasia replied, clearly pleased by the fact. She moved a little further out into the yard, but then turned around so she was facing him again, a thoughtful look on her face. "Would you... like to hold him?" she offered. "He's still recovering from the sprains and break, but if you're careful it'd be fine." She didn't approach or try to hand mankey off, though—it seemed like she was giving him the option to refuse if he wasn't comfortable with it.

Eryk felt light inside, and he wasn't entirely sure why. He nodded his head, though. He wasn't going to pass up the chance to hold mankey, again. Something about the mankey called to Eryk in a way he wasn't sure of. Perhaps it was mankey's spirit, or something else. He held his arms out, though, and waited for mankey to go to him. Mankey turned from Anastasia, sniffed at Eryk's hand before making a snorting sound. It almost sounded like he was disapproving of Eryk for the moment before mankey tapped Anastasia's shoulder lightly, and crawled down.

Icarus, who had been resting on Eryk's shoulder, slid down his back, and walked over towards mankey. They stared at each other for a moment, Icarus occasionally doing a slow blink before looking back up at Eryk. Eryk didn't bother rolling his eyes this time, though, and stooped to pick mankey up, gently. He knew Icarus was approving of mankey before the espurr walked up towards Anastasia and held his arms up.

“He doesn't like sharing," Eryk stated, cradling mankey a little more comfortably.

Anastasia laughed softly, crouching to pick up Icarus with a soft, affectionate sound in the back of her throat. "Hello, handsome," she said, supporting Icarus with one arm beneath him while the other scratched softly behind his ears. "You can hang out with me for a bit while the other two have a visit, if that okay by you."

She glanced over to Eryk and huffed. "You don't have to be quite that delicate, you know. Here." She approached, in the same mild, slow way she did with unfamiliar pokémon, as though giving him ample opportunity to stop her. Still holding Icarus, she reached over with her free hand and adjusted Eryk's arms a bit, with light, nudging touches, until it seemed mankey was settled a little more securely.

"Sometimes with the really young ones it's more comfortable for them this way," she explained, glancing up at his face with a slight smile. "I... might be guessing wrong, but I don't think you've been around a whole lot of baby pokémon? Though this guy's pretty young, too, isn't he?" She seemed to be referring to Icarus.

Eryk furrowed his brows lightly as he nodded his head. “I have not. Icarus and Runt are the youngest pokémon I have owned," he stated, nodding his head in the espurr's direction. Icarus nodded his head as well, as if to agree with Eryk, and trilled. “Moira was already a year old when I first obtained her," he spoke, referring to his absol. It was something of a custom in his family that their first pokémon was either a poison type, or a dark type.

He'd chosen Moira because she was like he was, in a sense. She was originally supposed to go to Katia, but Moira was too gentle. Her lonely nature would have only complicated things for someone like Katia who preferred pokémon that were more battle-eager. Moira was decidedly not. A thought came to him, though he wasn't entirely sure why.

“Would you like to meet her?"

Anastasia's expression lit up, the smile on her face spreading until it was almost a grin. "Of course I would! Was she your first?"

“She is my first," he spoke, shifting so that he was still holding mankey comfortably in one hand, and pulled the first pokéball from his belt. Pushing the button to expand it, he released Moira who seemed a little unsure of herself. Moira, this is Anastasia. She's not going to hurt you. She only wants to meet you, he connected with Absol to ensure that she wouldn't be too skittish. She was like that when meeting new people, but he wanted to reassure her that she would be fine. Of all his pokémon, she was the only one that didn't battle. It was her choice, after all, and he respected it.

“This is Moira, my first," he spoke to Anastasia. Moira hesitantly made her way towards Anastasia, head lowered lightly before she sat and glanced up. She made a soft trilling noise as she regarded Anastasia with an even gaze, perhaps studying her.

Gently setting Icarus down, Anastasia approached Moira carefully, either picking up on the absol's shy nature or else just cautious by reflex. Either way, she stopped a respectful few feet away and crouched, hugging her knees so she was about the same height as the seated absol. "Hello, Moira," she said softly. "My name's Ana. It's very nice to meet you." She smiled, her body language open and relaxed, but made no move to touch the pokémon, only tilting her head to the side in a way that suggested query, as if awaiting the verdict of Moira's observations.

Moira turned to look at Eryk, trilled, and nudged Anastasia's hand with her nose. “It seems Moira has taken to you," Eryk spoke, huffing lightly. Moira didn't trust people so easily, but that she seemed to be okay in Anastasia's presence... maybe it was because Anastasia was used to dealing with all kinds of pokémon cases and she knew how to approach Moira? Whatever it was, Eryk shook his head a little, before remembering why he'd come here in the first place.

“Anastasia," he spoke cautiously, tilting his head in her direction. “Cyrilla told me that you have rooms that you are looking to rent out, is that true?" he asked. He figured the best approach to this would be to tell Anastasia the truth. He was looking for another place to live for however long they were going to be on this mission. While The Cloyster was a nice place to live, it was much too loud for him. He just wasn't comfortable there.

Anastasia paused briefly in the act of stroking Moira's soft white coat for just a moment before she continued, tipping her head so as to look up at him from the corner of an eye. "Well, I was considering it," she said, rising slowly into a standing position. "I hadn't really decided anything for sure. I'm kind of in the middle of nowhere compared to where most people want to live on the island, and I don't really know if I'm comfortable with a complete stranger wandering around my house. But... in theory the rooms are there, sure."

She brushed down her pant legs before regarding him with a slightly-confused expression. "Why do you ask? Have another friend moving to town or something?"

If he knew how to laugh, he would have. Eryk didn't have friends. He had one, maybe, but he wasn't sure if he'd really consider Cyrilla his friend. They were more family than that, he supposed. He shook his head, though, and kept Anastasia's gaze.

“It's understandable if you don't, but," he paused, his head moving slightly to the left from where mankey was pushing it lightly. “Would you be willing to rent one out to me?" he asked. He should probably offer an explanation as to why he was looking for a place, and pushed a soft sigh through his nose.

“I know I have a room already at the Cloyster but..." he pursed his lips together, sighing softly and shaking his head. “A place like yours is more ideal for me than a place like the Cloyster," he continued. It probably wouldn't convince her, and he wouldn't blame her if she said no or had any other questions.

"More... ideal?" Anastasia seemed a little confused, but she didn't reject the idea outright, which was probably a good sign. "Could you explain what you mean by that? I just don't want you to have the wrong impression of it or anything, you know?"

He could understand if she was hesitant. “As you said, it's in the middle of nowhere. I've never been too comfortable in places that attract a lot of attention," he started, his eyes narrowing slightly. “It's too... much. Something like this, it's smaller, and doesn't require a lot. I'd be more comfortable here than I would be if I stayed at the Cloyster. You don't have to rent one out to me, if there's a problem. I can look at other places, but..." he paused, unsure of how he wanted to say this next part.

“I'd be able to help out as well with whatever you'd need, and not just with them," he stated, motioning towards the pokémon in the yard. “It... makes me feel at ease." He'd spoken only the truth so far.

Anastasia contemplated this for a moment, but then her eyes softened, and she nodded slowly. "I can understand that," she murmured. "All the activity, and the people... I don't think I'd ever be able to relax, even if I was just nearby." Furrowing her brows a bit, though, she sighed and smiled a bit wryly. "That said, I still think you should at least see the room and things before you go promising to help with maintenance. Mankey's fine to stay with the others for now—Nova and Luna will keep an eye on him for us. Would you like to come inside?"

He might as well.

He set mankey down carefully, glancing in Moira and Icarus's direction before inclining his head towards them. Icarus merely went towards mankey and immediately trilled at him. Moira, however, seemed to curl underneath a shaded tree, seemingly content for the time being.

“Sure," he finally stated, waiting for Anastasia to lead the way.

She hummed a note of agreement and took them around the front first, pausing to remove her heavy boots. The foyer, he'd already seen. It was only a small one, with a staircase off to one side and an open archway to the living room on the other. "You know most of this, I suppose," Anastasia said. "The kitchen's through the end of the hall here and the dining room's next to it, and of course the back door's there too. You'd be free to use anything you want in all these rooms, of course, and the downstairs bathroom's that door just before the kitchen to the left, near the basement stairs. It's only a half-bath, though—yours would be upstairs this way."

So saying, she led him up the stairs, into a comfortably sized hallway with a deep blue carpet runner along it. There were four doors here, all of them closed. The one at the end was probably Ana's, but she opened the one on the left closest to it. "This is the larger of the extra bedrooms," she said, stepping in as she opened the door and holding it for him as well.

The room was mostly empty at the moment, only an island-style woven red and white rug thrown over the natural hardwood floors. "The air conditioning is central, but if you want we can get a window unit, too." The room had a several windows, actually, with bamboo blinds and soft, cream colored curtains. "I, um... haven't furnished it, obviously. I could if you prefer but if you already have all the furniture you want I guess this just means there's room for it?" She cleared her throat. "Sorry. I haven't really done this whole thing before. I'm not sure what matters."

Most of the furniture he owned would have to stay at the Cloyster. Not that he minded; a lot of it was unnecessary. He'd just furnish this room to his own standards and liking. “You won't have to worry about furnishing the room. I can take care of that," he stated. “What were looking for as far as payments go? When would you like them, and... if you'd be willing to rent me the room, would you be looking for a deposit?"

He might as well ask all the questions and get them out of the way, first, before she decided on anything.

"Oh, um... I hadn't really put that much thought into it," she admitted, pursing her lips and considering the room. "I mean it's really just a bedroom and a bathroom, and it's not like sharing the living room and so on is any inconvenience." She considered it a bit and shrugged. "Maybe... I don't know. Two hundred a month or something?" She looked vaguely uncomfortable even asking for such a low amount, and grimaced faintly.

Eryk furrowed his brows deeply. Even if it was just a room, two hundered a month wasn't enough to cover much. The Cloyster alone was almost twenty five hundred a month, but the expenses were mostly covered by the organization. They still had to pay an amount themselves, but Eryk was confident enough to be able to still pay his half and what he was going to offer Anastasia.

“Eight," he started, sighing softly. “I'll pay you eight hundred a month. It should be more than enough to cover shared living expenses, regardless. In addition, I will help out around here at the shelter as well." He already volunteered, but if he lived here as well, he'd be able to do a lot more than just two hours or so worth of work. He also knew that the extra income would help her out with whatever else she would need for the shelter and its inhabitants.

"Oh, but that's far too much," Anastasia protested softly. "It's not worth that much, especially on top of all the help you already give me. If you really feel like two hundred's a bad idea, then..." She paused, eyes drifting up towards the ceiling in thought. "So I pay about three hundred a month in utilities, including for the shelter. If you paid half of that, which is still very generous, on top of helping out like you just said, then add that to the two hundred I wanted for the rooms... how's that? Three-fifty and a bit of extra help?"

She smiled, a little awkwardly, but didn't seem to be upset. "Please. I really wouldn't feel comfortable asking any more than that, and I'm sure there is still going to be more to pay at the old place until you can get out of your lease."

Eryk pursed his lips together, furrowing his brows lightly. “Five, then," he stated. “I'll pay five hundred a month, plus helping out. It wouldn't... I like doing it," he admitted softly. He did, in fact, enjoy helping her out. Spending time with the pokémon doing something useful... he enjoyed it. He had to remind himself on multiple occasions so far that this was for the mission's sake. He was doing it for that, however; some small, selfish part of him thought it was for him.

Anastasia made a small noise, tugging slightly on one of her twintails, but when he mentioned liking the work, her expression softened. "I... okay. If that's really what you want to do. It at least means I don't have to consider renting the third room, so... I guess it'll just be us, if that's okay with you."

“That should be fine. If it makes you uncomfortable to have a man around, though, feel free to rent it out to someone else." He didn't want her to be uncomfortable, after all. It would make things harder, for the mission.

With a small scoff, she shook her head. "It doesn't," she said simply. "Oh, and... you have to let me do things like make you food, okay? I'm probably not as good as Cyrilla is, but it wouldn't feel right just making my own with someone else living here."

He pursed his lips softly, but nodded his head. He had a feeling she wouldn't take no for an answer. “Seems like a fair trade," he spoke, his expression smoothing out just a bit. It felt like the corners of his lips were tilting slightly upward, but that was an absurd thought. Eryk didn't smile. He couldn't.

She blinked at him for some reason, slowly, and she did smile, though she gave no particular indication as to why, only shaking herself a bit as if to clear a thought away. There was a faint hint of color to her face, but that seemed to happen to her a lot.

“Once I have everything settled with Cyrilla and Kasimir, I will let you know when I'll be able to move in. Is there a preference for a date?" he asked, arching his brow slightly. “I do not want it to be on an inconvenient date for you."

Anastasia hummed. "I'm usually busy on Tuesday afternoons, but I don't have many plans otherwise," she replied easily. "My schedule's wide open, really, so... just let me know when you want to and I'll make sure everyone spends some time inside so they don't bother the movers or anything."

He nodded his head, then awkwardly stuck out his hand. “I suppose this means we'll be... roommates," he stated.

Her eyes widened, but then she laughed softly and took his hand. Her own was tiny, with slender fingers, which she closed around his hand gently. "In that case... welcome home."

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#2019-11-10 07:11:09, as written by Aethyia

July 17th
Downtown Cinnabar - Afternoon - Sunny
Aidan Klein

It wasn't entirely unlike watching a train wreck in slow motion. Or maybe bacteria bumping against each other under a microscope or something.

Apparently at some point, Nero had decided he needed help with his social skills. Not an entirely unreasonable thing to want help with, sure, though typically Aidan would have recommended... well, not this. Maybe therapy or something—shit knew the kid could probably use it for other reasons, too. But somehow Rheinallt had been appointed to help him out. On its own this wasn't that weird either—the guy was charming in a way Aidan could recognize but not emulate, and his facility with people probably came from understanding them, rather than pure unexplainable instinct or something, like some people had. It meant he'd be able to teach.

But then Doc had wanted to be involved, too, and since it was work hours that meant he was along for the ride, and here they were downtown and he wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen. Kasimir had suggested lunch first, which seemed reasonable, so they were all arrayed around an outdoor café table now, working their way through food and drinks.

"Okay so I know I agreed to help with this and all," Rheinallt said, gesturing vaguely with a cheese-covered french fry, "but if I taught you everything I know about getting along with people we'd be here... longer than any of our patience would tolerate. So maybe you could both explain to me exactly what you're hoping to work on here?" He took a large bite from the fry and glanced back and forth between Doc and Nero.

Nero was regarding Rheinallt with a flat look, one that probably meant he was thinking. Doc, however, seemed to furrow her brows as she chewed thoughtfully on one of the fries. “I guess I'd like to know how to not make a fool of myself," she spoke softly, pursing her lips in Rheinallt's direction. “For instance, I mistook Aidan for a Farfetch'd driver when we first met," she murmured, dropping her gaze somewhat as she shifted in her spot.

“I think that's a good start, right?" she stated, looking somewhat hopeful. Nero, however, shook his head.

“Not to be so blunt," Nero finally responded, taking a bite out of his nachos.

Aidan took a bite of his sandwich, flicking his eyes back to Rheinallt, who sighed. He could understand why—those were one very vague and one very specific—but hard to act upon—direction. Not to mention Doc and Nero were wildly different cases. Not opposite, exactly, but definitely not the same.

"Good grief," he muttered under his breath. "Okay, uh..." He pinched the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. "Both of those problems fundamentally start with observation. You need to be able to figure out what people are like basically, and you need to be able to pick up on nonverbal cues in the moment that will tell you how they're reacting to what you're doing. So you have that much in common at least. Sort of. I guess we can start there."

That made sense. Bluntness was relative—knowing when he was being too blunt with someone would probably help Nero. Should also help Doc remember to stop rambling, if she recognized the signs that the other person wanted to say something. Though really he thought both of them didn't have 'problems' with people so much as their personalities were just a little different. Neither of them bothered him any, for instance.

"Okay so... Sis. What, exactly, made you think Aidan was a Farfetch'd driver? I have to admit I'm... not really seeing it." Rheinallt grinned to take any edge out of the comment, but it seemed to be a genuine inquiry.

“Oh, well," she sputtered a little as she glanced down at her hands. “I've used the service before and most people who've picked me up always sort of looked like Aidan," she spoke all in one breath. Her face tinged a bit with a pink hue, but she took a drink of her water and laughed a little nervously.

“I think it was mostly just the shades and cigarette, really. I didn't expect him to be... well, him," she continued.

Aidan snorted softly, swallowing his bite of sandwich before he inadvertently choked on it or something. That was her whole basis for thinking so? It was kind of funny to him, actually, somehow perfectly characteristic of who Doc was—she was an absolutely brilliant researcher, he had no shred of doubt at that, but she seemed to have trouble turning that native sharpness to other enterprises.

"On a surface level that's not terrible," he admitted. "I don't dress like what people typically think of when they picture an NTR administrator, but I don't look like most grunts, either, and that was what you were expecting." He tilted his head. "But that there's half your problem. You were expecting something in particular, and so you got into a mode of thinking where you were making comparisons between what you were actually seeing and different sets of archetypes in your head. Everyone does it, but the trick to being good at observation is to only ever do that on purpose, and to try and look at important things with fresh eyes all the time."

He glanced at Rheinallt, lifting an eyebrow. "You mind?"

"Not at all," the other man said with a grin. "Even I'm interested to hear what the human lie detector has to say about observing."

Aidan rolled his eyes. "That's a dumb name," he said simply. People did call him that, though. He chose not to dwell on it. "Anyway." Fishing his packet of cigarettes out from his pocket, he took the sunglasses from off his head and laid both on the table. "Looking a little closer at the same things... what do you see?"

Rheinallt smirked, seeming to know the answer, but left it a moment to see if either of the others would say anything.

Doc stared at the sunglasses a little, head tilting to the side as if she were inspecting them. Nero merely looked like he was glaring at them. “Your cigarettes aren't from around here. You can't get those here. I've seen them mostly in Saffron and Celadon City, though," he spoke, finally. He didn't seem to know much about the glasses, though, as his eyes stayed glued to them.

Doc looked vaguely surprised, as if she hadn't known that. Given that she didn't smoke, or drink, she probably didn't. “The glasses, they're Flygons, right?" she stated, arching a brow in Aidan's direction. “A lot of professional battlers and gym leaders wear this type. Especially the ones who are specific to fighting-types and water-types," she stated, listing off the things she knew about the glasses.

Aidan was surprised she knew of the pro-battling connection; he filed the information away into his own set of observations about Doc herself before nodding. "You're both exactly right. So now you have to put it back in context. You've just been approached on the dock by someone who seems to know who you are, on your way to a new job with NTR. He's not dressed any particular way, but he imports his cigarettes from elsewhere and wears the kind of sunglasses professional battlers tend to like. What's he most likely to be?" He shrugged, picking both items up off the table and replacing them where they went.

It was not, of course, impossible that someone like that could drive for Farfetch'd, but there was a subtle implication in both observations taken together: the person in question was financially comfortable in a way the average Farfetch'd driver wasn't. That might not be fair, but it was fact. And observations inherently dealt in statistics like that.

Rheinallt nodded. "And as it happens, noticing stuff like that can sometimes provide good topics of conversation, too. You seemed to know a lot about the sunglasses, Sis. That's the kind of thing you can chat with a stranger about in a casual setting like a bar or party or whatever. One of the tricks to stuff like this—and Ryk, you can use this too—is to ask questions instead of making statements. So even if I had a pretty good guess that Aidan here was the Aidan Klein, undefeated former pokémon champion of Kanto, I wouldn't just go up to him and say as much. I could get at it less bluntly. Something like..."

He turned to Aidan, body language clearly asking him to play along. "Hey man, are those the Flygon F9s?"

Deciding to humor him, Aidan nodded slightly. "Good eye; yeah, they are."

"They work as well as everyone says they do? I've been looking to get a new pair. Island's damn bright, but I don't want to lose them in the water on day one."

"Haven't had any issues," Aidan replied. "Water, though—you surf or something?"

Rheinallt grinned, then turned back to the others. "See, Aidan just did one of the things everyone should know how to do. He turned the conversation back around on me. Supposing he's not too enthusiastic about getting fawned over, it's exactly the right way to redirect before I manage to ask him about battling. Plus, it's flattering. Generally, people like it when you show interest in them, and let them talk about things they care about. Only if you can make it seem genuine, of course, but that's pretty true of anything."

“Oh, but that was brilliant, though. I couldn't do something like that even if I tried," Doc spoke, but she was smiling a bit. Nero, however, rolled his eyes lightly, and took a bite of his nachos. “I don't think I'll ever get to be that savvy, but I suppose I don't have to be," she continued, her smile brightening a bit.

“Hm," it was more of a grunt than anything coming from Nero, but it sounded as if he was agreeing with Doc.

“I think I just need to be more comfortable, and... learn how to not ramble so much."

Nero shrugged. “There are worse things than rambling, Solomon," he spoke, arching a brow in her direction. She huffed lightly, and nodded her head.

“I suppose you're right about that, but it would be helpful. Sometimes I just keep going and say things I shouldn't," she murmured, taking a drink of her water. “Like when I told Aidan he wasn't necessarily a sweetheart like you were but... and I'm doing it again," she stated, turning pink in the cheeks as Nero arched a confused brow in her direction.

Aidan rolled his eyes; Rheinallt burst out laughing.

"I guess recognizing it is the first step," he said, wiping an imaginary tear from the corner of one eye. "Look, Sis, it's like... conversations have a flow, right? That's what makes them conversations, as opposed to lectures: both people participate. Remembering to ask more questions will help if you also remember to wait for the answers."

Shrugging, Aidan added nonchalantly: "One of the things I used to do was pause for a sec every time I was about to start talking. Helped me catch myself from saying stupid shit a few times. Sometimes you just need to give your brain time to catch up with your mouth." He took another bite of his sandwich.

"That's a good one for you, too, Ryk. But even more importantly, you've got to learn the difference between a true thing and a thing you should say. They're not completely the same."

Doc chuckled lightly as she grinned at Rheinallt. “Then I suppose I have a bit of work ahead of me," she stated, causing Nero to roll his eyes.

“Not as much as I do," he muttered, taking the last bite of his nachos and washing it down. Doc chuckled again and nodded her head.

“I think we have a good chance, though, Eryk. Between the both of us, we'll get it right," she stated, sounding a bit optimistic. Nero arched a brow at her but shrugged his shoulders. His way of agreeing, perhaps. He shrugged a lot when he did.

"I've got more work to do here than the both of you put together," Rheinallt grumbled, but he didn't try to conceal his good humor about it. Aidan got the impression a lot of his demeanor was kind of a facade, but at the same time there was something at least basically genuine about it, and here he thought they intersected a bit.

Personally, Aidan wouldn't be surprised if he'd had to learn a lot of this the way they were. Social grace wasn't something everyone could perfect by any means—he'd learned enough to get by and been uninterested in anything further. Not that he didn't see the advantages. He just didn't think they were worth the sacrifices.

"It's not that bad," he replied, washing down his sandwich with a swig from the glass of soda sitting next to it. "You don't have to make them as good at this as you are. Shit, I don't think most people could be."

Rheinallt shrugged. "Was that a roundabout way of saying I'm charming?"

"No, but I don't reject the implication, I suppose."

He barked a laugh. "And that was what we in the business call 'damning with faint praise.' Way to shoot me down, Boss. Breakin' my heart over here."

"You'll live. And I told you not to call me boss."

“But you are charming, Kasimir," Doc replied after she'd manage to recover from the small bout of laughter. “Very much, so," she added, causing Nero to roll his eyes and take another drink of his water.

“You shouldn't tell him things like that. It'll go straight to his head and you'll never hear the end of it," Nero murmured against his glass. Doc seemed confused by his statement before it dawned on her that he wasn't being serious.

“Oh, well, still. I think Kasimir is very charming albeit a little silly sometimes. But again, it's part of his charm and it works very well for him," she continued, smiling as if she were proud of the things she'd just stated.

"Aaaaaaand there it is again. Y'know Sis, most people are satisfied by saying a thing once, instead of twice and with extra," Rheinallt was looking at her with amusement.

It was, in fact, a thing that Doc did. In fairness to her the reassertion wasn't always needless, but for the most part it was fairly extraneous by most standards. Then again, most conversations were full of extraneous things. Filler words, pauses, repetition. It wasn't a terrible thing.

"Why are the both of you doing this, anyway?" he asked them, fairly sure he knew but wanting to hear it in their own terms. Maybe that was why Doc's redundancy didn't bother him much: for him, most conversations were redundant to things he'd already picked up from observation, but that didn't mean that people actually saying what was on their mind was bad.

“Well, mostly so I'll stop doing things like that," she murmured softly, eyes falling to the table for a moment before they shifted to her cup. She picked it up and held it in her hands for a moment before taking a drink from it. “And I thought it might be useful to know how to get along with people. I know Kasimir said that no one pleases everyone, and I'm not trying to. I just thought that if I knew how to approach people better, I wouldn't necessarily make a fool of myself. I'm notorious for doing that," she stated, twirling the cup in her hand.

Nero shrugged, though. “Mostly so that I don't unintentionally screw things up by saying something that'll offend someone. Certain people, at least," was his simple reply.

Nero's reasons, he could understand, with a sensitive mission like his still ongoing. His file had... overstated his people skills considerably. Aidan wasn't sure why, because it certainly wasn't something he'd misrepresent himself. That guy was a lot of things, but generally speaking dishonest and overambitious weren't among them.

Something better thought about later, though. It probably came back to what it always did: the Kogas pulling strings.

He could only scratch his head a bit, though, when he considered Doc's answer. "I dunno where you're getting this idea that you 'make a fool of yourself,' Doc. Everyone one makes the occasional observational error, and there's really nothing wrong with the way you talk or anything." He shrugged. "If you're in it for yourself, go for it, but if you're worried about offending people or some shit, I think that's all or mostly in your head."

"He's not wrong," Rheinallt replied. "Some people even find mannerisms like yours to be cute for their own reasons, and prefer someone earnest and excitable like that."

Doc's face turned a deep shade of red, and she turned her attention towards the cup in her hands. She seemed more interested in staring at it than anyone else. “I'm not so sure about that," she murmured softly, but shook her head. Nero glanced in Doc's direction but shook his head. “But this was interesting and a little fun," she stated, smiling a bit. She still didn't look up from her cup, though.

“Interesting, I'll give you that. Fun... perhaps for Kas," Nero spoke, turning his attention towards Rheinallt and regarding him with a flat stare.

Rheinallt only smiled, in a way he supposed was meant to be vague and mysterious. Aidan saw right through it—he was more than a little amused, to be sure.

"Who knows?" he said, lifting his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. "Finish your lunches, and we'll move onto actually talking to people."

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Eryk Nero

0 · 1,550 views · located in Kanto Region

a character in “Pokémon: Atonement”, as played by Nemeseia

Description

So begins...

Eryk Nero's Story

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