FADED

Ted turned bright red with a cross between humiliation and directionless anger. He stared at his chest, his brows furrowed and lower lip quivering. As if he did a background check. He didn’t even background check his assistants, let alone his subjects. He just didn’t like the look of Adrian, and was feeling particularly venomous towards Team Magma at the time. But he figured that wouldn’t fly as an excuse and kept his mouth shut. 

As the Executive mentioned Archer, Ted whimpered softly, his hands going towards the tablet unbidden to stop him messaging him, only managing to stop himself at the last minute, hands hovered above the device. But when he realised that it wasn’t to do with his position in the Team, his arms and shoulders relaxed. The word ‘son’ almost washed over him, but he realised as the taller man showed him the footage, that it should shake him. He looked into Kobalt’s eyes with his own pale blues, trying to pull off apologetic. It delivered scared, unsure what this meant for him.

Ted took the telling off passively, as calm as if he was being shown footage of himself knocking over an expensive vase. He looked dejectedly at his feet. This was so unfair! But he took the telling off despondently. 

“It’s nothing personal,” he blurted, once the silence has settled. “I… I just wanted a human subject. Pe- Adrian liked being my test subject, anyway. We were friends. But all good things must come to and end,” he said, letting out a shaky breath. “Nothing personal…” he mumbled.

He inwardly sighed, just wondering what to do with this kid. His reactions didn’t make any sense; it was clear something wasn’t quite right with him, but now he’d gone and done something like this. “Lemme tell you kid, you’re pretty damn lucky you aren’t my jurisdiction because I might have had you flayed on the spot.” Which wasn’t necessarily true, but he was particularly angry about this. 

Kobalt’s air became particularly dangerous when the scientist reached for his device, replacing it in his jacket once the footage had played. So he had the nerve to sit there like a kicked puppy when he’s the one at fault here? His blood felt like it was boiling underneath his skin as he listened to this.. piece of shit whine about how it was ‘nothing personal’.

Then the smile was almost gone for good. The word ‘no’ made it vanish from his lips, parted in an unspoken sigh, his eyes still wide and naive. He had so wanted that promotion, but it was unlikely the news would come from Kobalt. A soft blush reached his hollow cheeks and he looked down to Kobalt’s tablet and listening to his story. Ted’s eyes flashed with momentary recognition. 

“Oh, well, yes, of course I remember that, sir.” His fake grin made a brief appearance, a flicker of pride on his face. “He was clearly some kind of spy or infiltrator, and I didn’t much like the way he spoke to me… and…–” This was a little more difficult to explain. Ted steepled his pointer fingers together, bashfully looking at his chest– “well, I thought that I would save you all some time and take him in myself. He must have been some kind of rebel, and I saw no need to break our peace with Team Magma, so I just… um, kept him? Is that okay? If it’s not, he escaped anyway! S-so… I, um… have his identification, if that’s what I’m in trouble for… P-please don’t tell Archer I let a test subject get away. I can get him back if I need to!”

“Clearly.. you should get your glasses checked. Or perhaps you didn’t do a proper background check? That kid was nothing but a mere messenger boy, no better than a janitor back in Magma. Nowhere near spy status.” He shook his head. “You don’t seem to understand how much a stunt like that could have jeopardized our truce; a truce we have worked hard to keep.”

He continues poking on his tablet. “Now.. I didn’t come here to scold you on Rocket policy. I’ll be talking to Archer about that. I have.. a personal issue with your decision. You see, the reason I know you didn’t do a background check on that kid is because you don’t seem to realize that he’s my son.” He flipped the tablet around, the screen showing some muted footage from a security camera in the labs that managed to get a view of the heart transplant surgery Ted performed on the Magma grunt. Boris looked significantly more angry now. 

Ted’s smile faltered a first time as Kobalt described him a ‘peppy’. ‘Peppy’ was the name of Diggersby or how one described a particularly wakeful child, but Ted rationalised that it was a compliment, as how could it be anything else when he was doing his best to be charming. And the smile was back, and he leaned in to listen to the executive.

His smile faltered a second time. ‘Busy’? What had he been busy with other than his work and craft? Ted thought hard for a moment, his eyes flicking away from their lock to Kobalt’s. He had been busy, working on his projects, pet projects and assignments. This must have been a good thing. Eyes back on Kobalt, smile on lips. “Is this about promotion, sir?”

A promotion. He almost had to laugh bitterly at that, but he settled for keeping his rather stoic expression. “No, no, not that.” He was studying Ted, noticing all the falters in that fake smile. It was easy to pick apart fake enthusiasm when he used it so much himself. Ted was sucking up to him in hopes of a promotion then, it seemed. Well, he wished he could do quite the opposite and ‘remove’ him from Team Rocket permanently. But since this junior scientist wasn’t under his jurisdiction he might actually get in trouble with the big man himself for that and he’s not going to destroy a 20 year built reputation for this snub-nosed brat.

@codenamekobalt liked this for a starter!

“Executive Kobalt! What… what a pleasant surprise~” Ted simpered, his most fake smile beaming off his face like a flicking sun lamp. His arms crossed in front of him politely as he skirted the operating table that, unbeknown to him, had had the Executive’s son strapped to it a few weeks prior. Reminiscing about his victim had him rubbing his bruised head with a clean glove, and he fought off the grimace to look sunny again.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked, treating the man to the constant eye contact reserved for those he wanted to suck up to, and those he truly admired. “I haven’t seen you around the base all that much recently.” 

His steps seemed as though they held a heavier weight as he entered the labs this time, a rather stark contrast to his last visit some time ago. Despite that, he met the scientist’s fake smile with an equally fake one of his own. “My, my, as peppy as ever I see, Mr. Falsey.”

Shove something in my Muse’s mouth.

Perhaps drinking as much as he had after getting back from his mission wasn’t a super idea. He wouldn’t admit that though, he was having a good time. And it was always a pleasure to talk to Boan, his dear ice prince. He was about to go into some explicit detail before he sashayed his way over to him. Kobalt chuckled mischievously, inviting the supposed flirting as he placed a hand to his lips and teased as though he were going to lean in for a kiss.

“It was great,” She beamed proudly, watching as Poppy seemed to look Kobalt over as if confused. She used to be so small that he looked different now that she was bigger. Bo reached out to pat her head lightly, earning a delighted whistle from the fairy. “I was a bit worried none of my pokemon would evolve–I’ve had Peep for so long but she’s not showing any signs of evolving, either. Maybe she’s just too lazy.” She admitted with a small chuckle. She opened her mouth to speak again but decided against it. Father always said my pokemon wouldn’t grow, they wouldn’t become anything special. The last thing she wanted to think about was family.

The most of her energy finally began to fade out as she put her phone away, holding out the glass of vodka she had poured earlier to the executive. “Any stories you can share from the trip, or is it all classified?”

He looked to the pokemon as she looked to him. “My, that is quite the growth spurt,” he added with a chuckle. He seemed pleased that Boan was happy, rubbing his hair slightly. “Hey, if you’ve been with your pokemon for a long while, and you’re curious ‘bout that sort of thing, I’m sure there’s experts willing to take a look at them for a price.” 

Why was this happening. Why her. Why now. “Sir. Sir, I can’t feel my legs. /Sir./”

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