#workaholic-anonymous

Something was off, something was wrong.

She should have figured it out sooner, been suspicious from the start-- nothing was adding up, everything off kilter and she had to find answers. Preferably before her body decided to give out on her, she thought sarcastically, trying to gain her bearings after another round of vomiting. The nausea was constant, the pain ebbing in waves. There were fresh pock marks on her arm, gaps in her memory. She should have known better, what would papa thin--

She heaves.

It’s a dry, aching retch, there is nothing left in her stomach to draw up. Her vision keeps blurring, her chest aches, and Sapphire wonders not for the first time if this will finally kill her. But something, some twitching in the back of her mind -a damp dark cave, gouges in your back, fever that wouldn't break you shouldn't be alive girl, how curious- feels like she has suffered worse. She can’t remember. She can’t remember and it terrifies her. Little bits and pieces have surfaced since Uncle Sycamore brought her to the infirmary, but like any good patient of Petrel’s, she had snuck out once she was feeling slightly better. Which granted, hadn’t lasted very long, and she was possibly regretting this entire idea.

But she has to know--

Archer. He had seen her with Damian and been so angry, had wanted to protect her-- he might know something. Hell, he might know everything. She had to get to him, had to ignore the humming in her brain, the strange blue mark that had appeared on her arm- something she had the feeling was entirely unrelated to the drugs she had been slipped for the past few months. She had to find him, had to ignore the pain, just a little longer, just a bit more.

His office had to be around here, she had vague recollections of time spent here, he had said she had stayed with him... maybe her memory was starting to push through. If only it didn’t hurt so damn much it would be more helpful. She limped her way down the hall, unable to remember which room was his. Ha, she had a feeling she’d been in this situation before, could remember the feel of blood on her face, a knife, a note, being left in a heap near a door-- that door! 

Sapphire let out a happy wheeze and slowly trudged her way over, feeling white static in the corners of her vision. She had to hold out, she had to find Archer, apologize, figure out what had happened. She made it to the door, basically fell against it and smacked her (holy shit was her hand glowing now?) dominant hand against the door. It was all she had the strength to do before she slumped down, knowing that as soon as the door opened she would topple into the room.

okay so BONUS POST following up on this

since Emma made this amazing as fuck post about a RocketHQ Aladdin AU and then getting the question about a Pokemon world Version of Aladdin 

I pretty much had to draw it there are no two ways about it

Emma sticks pretty true to the original Aladdin design, with the exception of the chest bindings and a simple tie for her hair in place of the fez.  Mimi totally keeps Abu's vest and hat because look at how cute she is in them she's precious

Silver's outfit is based off Prince Ali's, but with a color palette based off his in-game colors (black with red trim).  The derp is...the derp (and she's totally doing that thing where their tongues stick out and they don't seem to notice)

Ari gets to keep her shawl, but her headband and bracelets are based on Jasmine's bridal gown from Aladdin and the King of Thieves don't even ask okay, plus the loose pants that are more along the lines of Jasmine's usual attire.

Archer totally gets Jafar's robes in the white Exec color palette (the lining of the cape is dark, but the outside is white)

Since she's kind of an exhibitionist Mercede gets see-through pants.  It just.  Seems fitting, okay?

“You’re Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’ Ya Little Pipsqueak”

Quite How Meowth Got Into Some Of The Situations He Did Was A Mystery, Even The Cat Struggled To Explain Some Of His Day-To-Day Shenanigans And How They Came About, So When He Found Himself In The Hallway With A Smack-Talking Raichu It Wasn’t All That Big Of A Surprise.

He Didn’t Know Who The Electric Type Belonged To, But Whoever It Was They Must Have Stolen It From Somebody Else Because It A Foul Opinion Of Team Rocket And Everyone In It And No Qualms About Sharing It. Meowth Was Not One To Tolerate Other People Or Pokemon Badmouthing His Home, So Something Of A Verbal Stand-Off Had Erupted From His Meeting With The Mouse.

“Pipsqueak?” The Other Echoed, Smirking As It Towered Proudly Over The Normal Type “I Think You Need To Take Another Look At Who You’re Talking To, Short Stack”. The Feline Gritted His Teeth, Becoming Increasingly Fed Up With This Pokemon As Their War Of Words Went On “What Was Dat?”. “I Said You’re Short” The Rodent Repeated, Smirk Growing Wider As He Emphasised The Last Word, Tail Swishing Confidently Behind Him All The While “What, Are You Deaf Now Too?”.

“Dat’s It” The Cat Released His Claws And Took A Threatening Step Towards The Raichu, Giving It His Best Glare “You Wanna Say Dat To My Face Ya Little Rat?!”. It Only Turned It’s Head Nonchalantly In Response, Waving A Paw In Meowth’s Direction And Scoffing “What Are You Gonna Do, Scratch My Back?”.

After Some Brief Unintelligible Growling, Meowth Took A Tear At The Other, Claws At The Ready To Give It What For And Teach It A Lesson About Keeping Your Opinions To Yourself, Unfortunately It Seemed To Have Slipped His Mind Just How Terrible A Battler He Really Was. Before He Was Close Enough To Lay A Paw On The Electric Type, It Whipped It’s Long Tail At Him And Knocked Him Backwards, Tumbling Ungracefully Into The Legs Of Whoever Happened To Be Coming Around The Corner At The Time.

Without Looking At Whatever Grunt He’d Just Rolled Into, The Cat Dove In The Raichu’s Direction Again, Still Reeling Slightly From Being Flung Across The Hall But No Less Eager To Prove Himself. This Time His Opponent Was Done Playing Around, It’d Had A Good Laugh At Him Barrelling Down The Hall Like A Bowling Ball But Now It Was Finished With The Cat, So It Fixed The Normal Type With A Glare of It’s Own And Summoned A Thunder Attack In His Direction.

He Only Had Half A Second To Recognise The Attack But It Wasn’t Long Enough To Get Out Of The Way, In The Blink Of An Eye He Was Lit Up Like A Christmas Tree By Thousands Of Volts, He’d Heard Before It Was Enough To Kill Certain Animals But Given That They Were Usually After One’s Pre-Evolved Form He Hadn’t Really Given It Much Thought. After A Few Seconds Of Being Fried, Meowth Received Another Tail To The Face For His Trouble And Went Flying Back Again As The Electric Type Scampered Off, Apparently Startled By Something At The Other End Of The Hall.

He Blinked A Few Times After Landing, A Little Dazed From The Extra Voltage, Before Realising He Must Have Smacked Right Into Something, Or Someone As The Case Was, And That Someone Just Happened To Be The Same Blue-Haired Executive He’d Rolled Into A Moment Earlier. He Glanced Up At The Man Holding Him, Suddenly Taking Notice Of Him And The Houndoom Growling At His Side Before Wriggling Easily Out Of His Grasp And Shaking The Excess Static From Himself.

“What’re You Lookin’ At?” He Grunted Back At Archer As He Brushed The Dust Off Himself.

"You could have been killed!"

/dude we’re team rocket. Destroying everything in sight is our MO. >D

(( YOU KNOW WHAT SIR

I JUST MIGHT

...

... ...

... ... ...

tomorrow

it's late

"Shiny gene, hm? That sounds like a pain to find, frankly," Archer admitted, frowning slightly. "Especially as so few pokemon are really shiny….." However, that was still an incredibly useful thing to research; should she be able to find anything that would allow them to breed a shiny at will…. Well, that was something they could eventually sell. He’d have to see if any of the other executives knew any good outputs for that sort of thing on the black market.

"How is that coming along, then? I’d imagine as well as possible, with you at the reigns." To be perfectly honest, Diane had him at ‘I can evolve pokemon at will’; Archer was more or less convinced that, given enough time and resources, she could work out anything.

"It's actually quite a bit more complicated than I'd originally thought," Diane admitted.  "And I had expected it to be complicated -- a particular rare combination of recessive pigmentation alleles, along the lines of what gives human skin tone such diverse pigmentation -- but that doesn't seem to be the case, based on what I've been finding from the rare shiny genome I've been able to trace."  Silver's Persian was nothing short of a miracle, in that regard.

"I'm still experimenting," she admitted, "but I think I've at least narrowed down the possible causes.  Right now I'm running a few tests -- I have a few eggs generated by different methods that I'm incubating now, and hopefully the results will be positive.  It's a bit of a conundrum, since it would mean the gene in particular combinations is a lethal one...but I'm hopeful."  Then again, she was always hopeful, really.

Diane jumped at the voice, turning quickly and attempting to hide a small incubator behind her; it took her another second to actually recognize the voice — but when she did, and saw her visitor, she beamed.

"Ah!  Hello, sir!" she laughed, hurrying back across the lab to greet him.  "No, I was just checking on a few things.  It’s nice to see you!"

All through college and her brief, unpleasant stint at the lab, Diane had kept a rather simple phone with her.  Nothing terribly exciting, used almost exclusively for conversations with one particular figure from her past.  After her expulsion from the lab, and with her decision to leave…she had left the phone, as well. 

She had been so tired, then.  So tired of the harassment, the belittlement, the misery.  If she was starting over, that was the thing she least wanted to bring forward into her new life.

Before arriving at Team Rocket, she had purchased a new phone, with a new number.  She had given it out exactly once, so far: it was listed on her official (or unofficial, she was never sure how it worked in criminal organizations) employee file.

So it caught her completely off guard when her pocket began to buzz.  Digging around for a moment, she finally pulled the flip phone out and stared at it for a second, as though half expecting that it would bite her.  It didn’t, of course, so she answered it with a wary, tentative, “H…hello?”

Her nerves eased when she recognized both the voice and the greeting.  “A-ah, hello, sir,” she said.  “Can I help you?”

Admittedly she had not been expecting him to say that.  

The line fell silent for a moment.