unkinder | Voicemail

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?]

Establishing a cover, mostly. I float around doing work for the higher-ups that need a guy who gets things done around here, but a lot of the time it's setting up an alibi with the local idiots.

Herr Jaeger's getting pretty popular. Also, he has a cute cat.

[Hmm. Of course Schuldig would be just about everywhere.]

You must be doing something they like, if you've already gotten a promotion.

[Nagi reaches out and plucks his Gear out of the air.]

I'm going to visit the labs here, eventually. Someone in that department is expecting me.

[...Oh, now that's interesting.]

Yeah? Who? Maybe I know 'em.

They called themselves Dist. They said they're a part of the science department.

Oh, him. Yeah, I did a job for him once.

[He says that in the way that sort of makes you think he's probably "done a job" for just about everyone at least once, by now.]

He's full of himself and over-the-top theatrical; you'll do better if you can stand to stroke the guy's ego.

[That much he can do. ..Or, he can try, at least.]

He seemed rather interested in me. All I told him was that I had an affinity for computers.

He probably wants you to help him build something. Or program it, or...who knows. He's a tech kind of guy, though, I think, so that's probably what he's after.

[Read: be cautious and don't agree to too much.]

[Duly noted.]

It would be either that, or be put out in the field somewhere.

[Which he supposes he wouldn't mind that much because, well, Pokemon, but doing inside jobs would be better until he gets his Pokemon actually listening to him consistently.]

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