unkinder | Voicemail

So you think this person is just as sentimental as she was, then. Nothing more.

I didn't say that. I'm saying it's within the realm of possibility.

You can't start predicting a person's motivations until you know something about them.

You're the one who asked me to do just that, Schuldig.

Either way, I don't care what their motivation is. I don't plan on ever contacting them.

So the moral of the story is, learning things about people makes it easier for you to read them. Which means it's harder for them to get one over on you.

You'll pick it up eventually.

Perhaps.

[He'll leave the people reading to you. That's your forte, not his.]

Any luck with your...carnivorous precipitation?

Yeah, they're stowed. Tell me which room is yours and I'll be right up.

I'm at the farthest room end of the hall. I'll leave the door cracked.

[And sure enough, within a few minutes as promised, the door is pushing open and SURPRISE, IT'S THIS GUY.]

[Nagi hears Schuldig come in, but he doesn't look up. He's still got his attention locked on the Gear in his hands, quietly tabbing through different apps. He's half sitting up, half lying against the pillows on his bed- still supremely frustrated by the fact he can't just be in the corner with a computer like back home- and there seems to be an Abra attached to his chest like a baby koala. It doesn't look like it's going to be moving any time soon, no matter how many times Nagi has tried to peel it off. At the foot of the bed lie his Pikachu and Vulpix, both curled up and asleep.]

Oh, hey, the little fucker hatched, huh?

[He comes into the room without preamble, closing the door behind him and taking up a position against the wall like he owns the place. Typical Schuldig, really.]

How's it been behaving?

Well enough. ..he doesn't listen very well, though.

[The Abra lifts his head sleepily, looking over at Schuldig with ears slowly twitching. Well....hello there. He's just....going to lie his head back down and remain put, yep.

Actually, none of Nagi's pokemon seem to listen to him all that well. The Pikachu has his own agenda, the Vulpix is as vain as sin and loyal to a fault to anything and all Rocket related endeavors, his Ralts is terrified of him, his Eevee has enough energy for twelve Pokemon and the attention span of negative twelve, and his Shark wants to kill him.

Not exactly the Pokemon adventure he'd been expecting, honestly.]

Eh, that'll change once you start putting the fear of god into 'em a little.

[He tilts his head, narrowing his eyes as he fixes them on the Abra, and gives it an experimental mental nudge — mostly just to see what'll happen when it feels it.]

Mine all stay in line just fine.

[It perks up almost immediately at that, surprised by the sudden, unexpected intrusion. The way the claws gripping Nagi's shirt tighten cause him to look away from the Gear's screen and back over at Schuldig.]

You can control your Pokemon?

[LIKE- okay that didn't come out right, but...he figured he'd at least sortof know what he was doing, if nothing else.]

They know better than to misbehave.

[What a nice smile, Schuldig...]

[...Schuldig.]

What did you do to them?

[He does hope you know that battling does not constitute physically beating the other Pokemon into submission with your bare hands BECAUSE THAT'S CHEATING.]

Oh, calm down. I just make sure they know who's in charge around here.

When you're doing delicate work, there's not a lot of leeway for fuck-ups. So I make sure they're not gonna fuck up when I need them.

[Nagi sits up a bit straighter with a sigh, looking back down at his Gear.]

What kind of Pokemon do you have?

Mostly Psychics.

[He shoves his hands into his pockets, thus resulting in two things that no one was surprised about.]

Early on I went out on the routes and caught a bunch of Abras all at once. They train as a team. I've got one Dark-type — it resists Psychics, so it's good for keeping the others in line — a couple of Ghosts, and a handful of other vicious little bastards. Why?

[Schuldig he knows that, you don't have to tell him, gosh.

But anyway.]

Psychics, Dark, Ghosts, and...miscellaneous.

[He mumbles to himself, tabbing through what are probably PokeDex entries on his Gear. For a while he doesn't say anything else, keeping his eyes focused on the screen. Tabbing and tabbing and-

Finally putting the Gear aside and standing up, the Abra hanging on to him forced to Teleport to avoid being thrown to the floor, reappearing on Nagi's shoulder.]

What can you still do here, Schuldig?

[There's a clear tone of frustration there as he watches Schuldig, trying his best to ignore the claws gripping his shoulder. Apparently this is really what's been on his mind, and not so much the Pokemon he asked about. It's no wonder that Schuldig has an entire team of Abras of his own, which are no doubt all Kadabras by now.]

[Unsurprisingly, that question gets a sort of frustrated noise out of him as well — not actually directed at Nagi, but in a sort of spirit of commiseration that gives away that yes, he knows exactly what Nagi is upset about, and it's been bothering him for literal months now, and only now does he actually have a safe opportunity to voice it to a confidante who'll understand.]

Damn little. I can read the Pokemon; I can't read the people, they're trainers. That's why I've been working the psychic team so hard — they can do it for me as a middleman, but if they're not fast enough...

[Nagi continues to watch Schuldig as he talks, studying his expression. It makes sense. The world must be so much quieter now...or at least, the thoughts he's now hearing aren't anything like he was used to before.]

I've been trying ever since I got here and...nothing works.

[He looks over at the Abra on his shoulder without turning his head.]

If I could get the right Pokemon...maybe.

[Even then, it's not going to be the same. He can envision a Psychic type being able to read his thoughts- his intentions- and do the work for him, but it's as Schuldig said. If they're not fast enough...]

Why do you think our abilities don't work here?

Whatever brought us here is suppressing it, maybe. It's not unheard of, I guess — just rare, and hard to implement unless you really know what you're doing. But I figure if you can yank people between realities without any damn problem, that kind of thing probably isn't much of a hassle, either.

[Somewhat absently, he reaches to his belt and pulls off one of the balls there, tossing it to the ground; in a moment, Schlingel the Kadabra appears, fixing the little Abra with a curious glance.

She is its mother, after all.]

I mean, look, I can —

[He tips his head, giving her a mental nudge, and as per her training she responds instantly: she reaches out with telekinesis and takes hold of Nagi's Gear, floating it about a foot in the air as directed.]

[The Abra's ears perk when he sees Schlingel appear, and he watches curiously as she lifts the Gear from the bed. It gets Nagi's attention, too.]

It's just a matter of working around it, then....

[Then his expression shifts, hardening as he watches the Gear hover. He doesn't say anything more, though.]

For now. Until we can find some way to break whatever it is they're using, making an approximation is the best we've got.

["Break whatever it is they're using". That makes it sound almost easy. If he could do something like that, he would have already.]

...What have you been doing in the meantime?

[Other than training, what has Team Rocket been making you do?]

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