Hateful Ressurection

I'm going to change you like a remix and I'll raise you like a phoenix. || Closed blog for RHQRP ||

[auburnmalice]

Rival? || Mathew & Alex

[rockettheory]

      The words are filled with a hate Mathew has received before. It’s familiar and chilling all at the same time. He doesn’t want to be dealing with this kind of confrontation, barely knows how to handle himself as he faces down a man who has lost his fiance and somehow blames him for it all. How was he supposed to know Petrel had someone else, that someone else was expecting him when he returned? It makes his head spin and his resolve quake with wanting to do the right thing. The right thing involved leaving Petrel, but he didn’t want to. Not after all they’ve been through… but it was the right thing to do. 

      “I-I understand you’re angry, but there’s no need for any of that. I’m going to go talk to Petrel right now and figure this out.” He doesn’t want to be broken any more than he already is. Alex can’t possibly realize what a broken thing he already is, how far from his usual self he truly is and how hard it is to hold onto what he once was. It’s even worse that Alex expects him to take the TM and Mathew hardly expects that that will make him feel any better. 

      So he refuses to take it, instead calculates just what it’s going to take to get past this man to get to where he needs to get going. He’s good at running, far better than anyone expects and he aims to reach for the TM but instead takes Alex’s wrist, yanks firmly forward and uses the momentum to get him going. He rushes past him, let’s his wrist go and hurries towards the door, out it, slams it behind him and collides with the wall. He pushes from it, scrambles down the hallway and nearly knocks his neighbor over in the process. There’s no time to explain where he’s off to in such a hurry or why but he gives her a fleeting apologetic look as he rushes towards Petrel’s office. 

       Be there. Be there. Be there. I need you to be there! 

[auburnmalice]

No need? How could he say there was no need? At first Alex had hoped this would be easy, clean—that he would assert his dominance and Mathew would run with his tail between his legs and Petrel would come back to him, and that would be that. Simple. Easy. But it wasn’t going to be that way. Mathew wasn’t obeying, he was going to talk to Petrel. That was unacceptable. He wasn’t allowed near Petrel anymore.

“You don’t understand,” Alex spat, “you couldn’t possibly understand, you ugly bitch, so take it. Take the damn TM, and stay the hell away from what’s mine.” And then for a moment it seems like Mathew gives in. It’s the smart move—of course he would give him. Alex begins to feel the heated anger die down, to calm. This is better. Just a little closer and—

Instead of taking the TM, accepting defeat, Mathew does the unthinkable and grabs him by the wrist, yanks him forward, and runs out the door while Alex is busy trying to regain his footing. A frustrated yell tears from Alex’s throat as he stares at the empty space Mathew had been a minute ago—there was no way he could go chasing him through the halls. Not without someone catching wind of what was going on and getting Alex in trouble. With a snarl, he shattered the TM disk on the ground and spun on his heel, seething as he eyed the office. This was fine. This was okay. He would just leave them a message. They would know not to fuck him—Mathew would know not to fuck with him.

With a final angry huff to calm himself down, Alex started towards the other side of Mathew’s desk, eying his work and technology with disgust. He would break it all. It was that simple. Everything would be broken, nothing would survive. Not even Mathew, in the end. Not if he decided to keep pushing his luck like this. But first things were first. Alex reached out to finger the computer’s keyboard almost lovingly. Everything to dust.

[auburnmalice]

Rival? || Mathew & Alex

[rockettheory]

      It’s as he thought. Talking wouldn’t be an option and whoever is with Lambda is in trouble. He wants to warn them, to tell them to be careful and even feels sorry for them for having to deal with someone unwilling to talk or see a form of resolve for a situation such as this. Wasn’t communication key in terms of relationships? He wonders about it as Alex continues on about not being ok and it makes Mathew’s heart drop into his stomach when he hears the idea he has. He never expects him to hold the disc out to him. He stares at it, the words ringing in his ears as he looks from the disc to Alex’s face. There had to be some sort of mistake, some sort of misunderstanding. He didn’t know a Lambda. 

       “I’m sorry?” He blurts out, rising from his seat and refusing to take the TM from Alex. He’s on high alert now, every nerve in his body alight with fear and he pushes his chair back to take a step or two away from Alex. He doesn’t like where this is going at all but there is sudden understanding in his eyes. Petrel is Lambda. Petrel… had a different name? He feels a pang in his chest but hardly has time to worry about it as he looks down at Alex. 

      “Petrel hasn’t mentioned anything about you to me… if you’ll excuse me I think I have something I need to go take care of.” He makes to move around Alex, away from him and towards the door. He has every intention of settling this by communication, by talking to Petrel about this, to get to the bottom of this. He has a fiance… he loves another. Of course. Of course. He feels tears prickle at his eyes but fear keeps them at bay as he focuses on getting away from Alex first. 

[auburnmalice]

Mathew won’t take the TM. All of that, and he won’t take the damn thing. Alex wants to make him take it, shove it down his throat until he chokes, break it to shards and jam it up his beanpole ass till it bleeds, claw his eyes out with his fingernails—violence is the only solution Alex can ever seem to process, even now in the face of such a delicate situation. And Mathew won’t take the TM.

Alex watches as he gets up, tries to move away from him, watches like an ursaring ready to maul as he starts to talk, starts to say Lambda had never mentioned him. Him! His fiance! It was blasphemous, is what is was, and this beanpole devil was the root of the sin. He takes a step forward as Mathew moves towards the door.

“Of course not,” he muses bitterly, “why would he? I come back for him and he treats me like dirt, all because he found something new to play with. What do you think would happen if I broke his toy, Mathew? Even if he’s mad at me, I bet it won’t last long. I bet once you’re out of the way, he’ll forget all about you, and focus on me.” His free hand curled tightly into a fist, and he could feel his nails digging into his palm, but even so he thrust the TM back out towards Mathew with a snarl. “Take it. Or I’ll break off each and every one of your fingers so you keep your hands off my man.”

[auburnmalice]

Rival? || Mathew & Alex

[rockettheory]

      It seems to work yet Mathew lacks comfort in the change of subject. It feels as if it’s bound to come up again, bound to lead to something he can’t escape. And he’s right. Alex asks him if he should give it to the slut Lambda’s fucking. The words are crude, make him flinch and for a moment he wonders why he’s even asking him for thoughts on the matter. It’s not right and slowly Mathew shakes his head. 

      “W-well it’s an idea, but I’m more for just talking to them about it. You’ve been away for awhile, maybe they don’t know about your relationship with this Lambda and maybe it can be resolved between the three of you?” He knows that’s very much not the Rocket way, but it’s how he would handle it as he unhooks the TM and starts to hand it back to Alex. He can’t say whether this is a good idea or not, but it’s his TM and he can’t bring himself to keep it. “I know you’re frustrated, but maybe it can all work out, right?” He tries to smile again but its nervous at best. 

      He settles back into his seat, watches Alex carefully and hopes his words will reach him. He has hope even now that they will, even if a part of him dreads the answer. He fears for what will happen to the one ‘fucking’ Lambda, but he hopes his words can help in some way, shape, or form. 

      “Are you going to be ok?”

[auburnmalice]

He watches as Mathew flinches and it makes him feel powerful. He’s a pansy. Of course there’s no way Lambda could be serious about someone like this, right? There’s not even a way he would get passed Mr. Herod. But then Mathew does the unthinkable. He shakes his head. He disagrees. With Alex. And spouts some bullshit about “talking” to them about it. Really, bitch? Really?

“Hmm,” he replies, “I don’t know. The situation is a little more drastic than that, you know? Lambda is mine. He belongs to me. So no, I don’t think talking is an option.” Mathew tries to hand the TM  back to him, talks more, and as he settles back into his chair, Alex turns the TM over in his hands, eyes narrowed.

“No,” he continues, “no, I’m not going to be ok. I’m not going to be ok until this is resolved.  So you know what? I’m going to give this to the slut my Lamba is wearing like a cock sleeve.” The smile returned to his face, sharp, pointed, devious, and he held the disk firmly out to Mathew.

“I believe this is yours?”

[auburnmalice]

Rival? || Mathew & Alex

[rockettheory]

      There’s something off about the laugh, something wrong with it as it comes out of Alex’s mouth. He finds it’s hard to smile now, curiosity breaking through his expression as Alex explains that he’s frustrated. Something feels off about the encounter almost immediately and Mathew feels his shoulders seize up with tension upon taking in the new expression twisting its way along Alex’s features. He can’t believe what he’s seeing– a smile that bore threats and disdain and all he can do is let his own drop into a small rounded o. He can’t explain why he feels so endangered, but Alex seems unstable at best, his frustration coming out loud and clear and Mathew wants every bit to diffuse the situation. He wants to avoid conflict at best, even if he has no idea what Alex is talking about or who he doesn’t want to become involved in this little misfortune. 

      “I’m sorry that’s happening to you, Mister Alex but that doesn’t answer my question. Do you want me to fix this TM for you so you can use it for one of your Pokemon?” He tries to keep his voice steady but now he’s definitely not looking away from Alex. There’s suspicion behind his gaze, his mouth runs dry and he finds he wants to be as far away from Alex as possible. 

       “It won’t take me long to fix it, really. Maybe it’ll make your day, uhm, less frustrating?” He didn’t want to say too much about this situation, it was a dangerous one, and one he knew nothing about. He didn’t know how long Alex had been gone, who this Lambda was, why he was telling him this instead of Lambda or the one involved…. unless… was Lambda someone he should know? Or should he know the one that was sleeping with Lambda. 

[auburnmalice]

Mathew’s smile drops away, and Alex feels a fleeting moment of satisfaction. It’s not enough. Nothing will ever be enough. He wants to take it out of his mind and body and soul, he was revenge, he wants to win, and Mathew is just his newest obstacle, newest challenge, one he’s certain he’ll grind thoroughly into the dirt and have his Lambda to dote on him again afterwards.

Mathew tries to avoid the subject though, tries to bring the concentration back onto the TM, and Alex idly wonders if he’s so stupid he can’t realize it was a fucking segway, that it was just there for Alex to have an easy way to bring up the subject, and he grips onto the edges of the desk, knuckles white. “Yeah,” he said, “yeah, maybe it will. Aha. Sorry. I can be a little overzealous sometimes. I’m not sure. I don’t think it would be a good fit for my pokemon, you know? I don’t know what I could do with it....”

He pauses for a moment, hums softly as he pretends to think it over, clicking his tongue and drumming his fingers on the edge of Mathew’s desk before he smiles again. “You know what I could do? I could give it to the slut Lambda’s fucking. As a way to ease the tension, yeah? Make a joke out of it before I make a joke out of them. What do you think? Good idea? Tacky? Seriously, thoughts?”

[auburnmalice]

Rival? || Mathew & Alex

[rockettheory]

      He really wishes the other wouldn’t walk into his office without further introduction and Mathew can’t help but turn his chair to face him. He watches him warily and perhaps doesn’t even realize he’s doing it as Alex leans on his desk and adjusts his cap to get a better look at him. In turn he gets a better look at this Alex as he introduces himself and then throws in another name he’s never heard of. A Lambda. Should he congratulate the fact he has a fiance? He ponders this with a small smile, one that grows as Alex mentions he found a broken TM on the field. 

      He reaches for it, takes it gently in hand and looks it over. Tampered with. Comes to mind, though he hardly suspects it’s the man before him. “It’s nice to meet you, Alex. I’m sure I can find a way to help you.” He says with kind intention, turning away from him to hook the TM up to his computer. He began diagnostics on it, making sure no virus’ were on it before he delved further into it. 

      “It looks like this TM has been tampered with,” he begins after scrolling through some of the code, his eyes narrowing as he began to delete lines of code and replace it with his own. He works swiftly, his fingers tapping in tandem with the keys of his keyboard. He can’t believe someone would go to this much effort to ruin a TM, or why a grunt would hold onto it upon discovering it was useless, especially if they just picked it up and couldn’t use it. He wonders where Alex even heard of him if he just got back and he feels his neck burning with heat. Had he been doing good work to achieve such a feat or was it something else? He worries he’s being too critical over the situation, and takes a long moment fussing over the code and his thoughts. 

      “Well, I can tell you right now you’ve come across TM21– frustration. It’s a normal type move. Do you still want me to work on this for you?” He looks up from his work, studying Alex as if trying to discern whether he would want to or not upon learning what the move was. “Congratulations on your engagement, by the way. I wish you two the best.”

[auburnmalice]

It’s delicious to see the weariness in Mathew’s eyes, delicious in the sense that even though they’ve never met, Mathew must know, must realize how much of a badass bitch Alex is, and Alex is more than willing to get the point across if he doesn’t. Still, he finds the stupid smile that comes to Mathew’s face as he makes pleasantries is disgusting, and he doesn’t want to look at it. It takes all of his willpower to keep the smile on his own face.

Of course, Mathew is smart, to some degree; he can tell which TM Alex has brought to him fairly quickly and soon enough looks up to ask if Alex wants him to work on it, as well as—oh, that whore, that smug-ass bitch, wishing them ‘the best’ on their engagement, how dare he––

Alex could feel his smile becoming strained and unnatural, the urge to grab Mathew by the neck and choke him blue blossoming in his chest, but instead he let out another laugh and leaned forward. “Oh my gosh,” he said, “that is such a coincidence!! Isn’t it funny? I’ve been so frustrated lately, and here I am walking around with Frustration in my pocket!” Again he laughed, hysterics tinging the edges and his smile grew to be humorless and all teeth to the point where it as almost as though he were bearing a snarl if one were to look too long directly at it.

“See, it’s funny,” he continued, “because I was away for a while, and I come back to find my fiance’s got himself a new fucktoy that thinks it’s worth more than I am. And this slut has the gall to smile and pretend to be friendly with me while he’s trying to steal my man. So does it make sense that I’m a little bit frustrated?”

[auburnmalice]

Rival? || Mathew & Alex

[rockettheory]

      Mathew never suspects a thing. He knows nothing of Alex prior to their meeting, has no idea someone’s stalking him and going through his things. If anything he thinks Zetta’s been at it again when he notices something amiss or rearranged but never does he suspect that he has an enemy among the ranks of Rocket. To him he’s done nothing wrong, has nothing to worry about and continues about his days blissfully unaware. It’s not until he’s approached that he pays Alex any mind. 

      He’s in the middle of work when he approaches him, his back to him as he works at his computer and when he hears a voice he gives a start. He usually doesn’t have visitors unless its Shugo or Petrel and they aren’t so quiet in their approach. He looks as startled as he feels, but it soon fades. A smile slips up along his lips, features softening as he takes in the stranger before him. How did they know who he was? What did they need? He wonders this as he nods. 

       “I’m Mathew and this is my lab. Can I help you with something?” he asks, his head coming to tilt to the side as he watches the other carefully. There’s anxiety behind kindness, worry for any stranger he meets ever since incidents with Jason. He can’t be too trusting, too eager to meet those around him. “And who are you? I don’t believe we’ve ever met?”

[auburnmalice]

Mathew starts when Alex addresses him, and that’s the beginning of it. That’s when Alex knows he won’t have to fight to get on top, to hold the power in this rivalry. He’s the alpha. He will always be the alpha. He wonders if Mathew will realize this, too, or if he will have to beat him down into the dust and make him realize it.

There’s a healthy dose of suspicion behind his eyes, Alex notes, and idly he makes a mental note to go poking around to see if there were any causes for that, but for now, the war had yet to start, and so instead when Mathew asked for his name, Alex laughed and sauntered up to his desk, leaning onto it as he lifted the brim of his standard-issue cap to get a better look at him.

“You’re right, we haven’t yet,” he replied sweetly, “I’m Alexander! Oh, but you can call me Alex. Or Al. Either of those, really. I’m Lambda’s fiance. I just got back from this big mission and I picked this up while I was abroad and....” He paused for a moment to fish in his bag, withdrawing a TM disk—a broken one, one that he’d opened and screwed with the code of while having absolutely no idea what he was doing—and held it up. “It hasn’t worked since I got it! But someone said you were the expert when it came to this stuff, so I was wondering if you could help?”  Help give him a reason to hang around and get some first-hand experience with this man-stealing bitch, at any rate.

[auburnmalice]

Rival? || Mathew & Alex

It was an outrage, is what it was. Alex couldn’t believe it. Just couldn’t. He thought Lambda would come back to him. Thought they would always be together, no matter what. Thought that last Valentine’s had been a fluke, that Lamba had never meant anything he said because Alex knew he had been high as balls, knew what Petrel was like when he was high, and he had figured just some time away to let things cool down wold fix everything, and he would have Lambda wrapped around his little finger again.

But no. No, instead, when Alex had sneaked back into the base from his last return trip to Interpol’s headquarters, he had heard the most peculiar of rumors. Did you see that guy with Executive Petrel? someone had said, and someone else had replied, the new guy? The scientist? I heard someone say they were together. Weird, right? And Alex had to agree. It was weird, because Lambda shouldn’t be loving anyone else. He was the only one. The only one. And something needed to be done about that.

He had dropped in on Petrel (in the shower, too—he still had such a nice body, Alex thought) and had done his digging; it had been easy. A quick tease and a quick insult, and Petrel had given him the name. Mathew. It was a sickening, disgusting name, and Alex hated the way it felt just to think it. But it was enough to find out who he was, because there weren’t many new scientists named Mathew. Alex had found him—he was tall, and, well... cute. And little red flags had gone off immediately in Alex’s mind, because that meant this Mathew actually had a shot, that Alex was actually going to have to compete with him, but he hadn’t made it to the top of his training group when he was a kid by playing nice, and sugar, he wasn’t about to play nice.

He spent maybe a week following Mathew around, learning his schedule, his lab, stole glances of him holding hands with and kissing his Lambda, and it was unforgivable. Totally, entirely unforgivable. And by the time today had rolled around, he was ready to make it known. Putting his knowledge of his new-found rival to work, he had taken a stroll down to his lab when he knew Lambda would be off busy working, when he knew that Mathew would be all alone, and when he got there, he slapped on the friendliest smile he was capable of and knocked politely on the open door.

“Hello?” he called, peering in at his rival, “hello, is this Mathew’s lab? Are you Mathew?”

[auburnmalice]

"Ah, truth..?"

14. What’s your secret guilty pleasure?

“I, uh.....”

“...D-daddy kink....”

[auburnmalice]

"Truth!"

23. Who would you have in a threesome?

“Mmmmmm…”

“Well… Lambda, of course. If Lambda is not involved, it’s a little pointless. Maybe… Riley? Or Archer? No, no, I know. That Elite from Kalos I’ve seen around. You know, the blond man! The chef! Lambda and the chef, that’s who I would have!”

[auburnmalice]

[auburnmalice]

Lover

"....I don't understand why Lambda won't love me, any more. We were inseparable as kids. We made plans. Hell, he proposed to me, and I said yes. But I get locked up for a few years, and now that I'm back, it's like he's a completely different person. I just... I don't get it. Did I do something wrong?

"He was the only one I ever allowed to get really close to me. I allowed him to see me when I vulnerable, allowed him to have me when I was vulnerable. I thought that meant something. I really, really did. I don't know what's gotten into him, but I'm going to get to the bottom of it, and then he'll see how right I am. I look forward to the day he comes crawling back to me, begging me to forgive him."

[auburnmalice]

Friend!

"I used to have a ton of friends, when I was a kid. I don't think I ever knew a stranger; I got on well with people, and they got on well, with me. I think that's what made it so easy to backstab my way to the top of my class, because really, it's not about what you know. It's about who you know, and what you know about them that you can use to your advantage. To top it off, I made friends with the best possible kid in the base, and wouldn't you know it, turned out we were gay for each other. I had Lambda wrapped around my little finger until the day I was arrested.

"The funny thing was... well... people never seemed to learn their lesson, with me. They just kept on trusting me. I can't think of a single friend I ever had that benefited from that, but on the other hand, I don't care. I benefited from it, and that's all that matters."

[auburnmalice]

Sunshine

It was bright out, that day. Far too bright for Siberia, in fact, far too bright for the Rocket outpost, alone. Alexander could only frown underneath his woolen hood, bright green eyes scouring the woods surrounding him from behind dark, designer sunglasses. Idly, he waited, fingering the ring hanging from the chain around his neck. This was right, he had to remind himself. This was what he needed to do, not just for himself, but for Lambda, too. For the world. This was the only way.

He’d seen things, growing up. Things he dismissed easily as normal, as something every other child in the world grew up seeing. He’d seen cruel, unethical experiments that had left pokemon and people alike maimed, disabled, or worse. He’d seen his peers grow into savage, unfeeling monsters that would kill each other just for the sake of getting ahead in training, in moving that much closer to a promotion. He’d seen grunts torture prisoners in the dungeon as punishment, for information, for fun.

He’d seen the end justify the means, and Alex had always been a quick learner.

It had been laughably easy to get in touch with Interpol, and even easier to maintain contact without arousing suspicion; for all of Team Rocket’s big talk about dealing with traitors, they didn’t make defecting particularly difficult. That was fine, though, the young man mused, as sometimes it was nice to just do something easy. 

Alexander was broken from his thoughts not more than a few moments later. Far out in the trees he saw the sunlight reflecting and flashing in the pattern that gave one singular command: let them in. He didn’t hesitate; he spun on his heel and back towards the roof access stairs, moving quickly down the stairs and taking a left down the hall. None of his so-called "peers" stopped him as he went; to his fellow Rockets, he was the respectable young Silver Squad candidate, on his way to some dreary task or another.

There were only two officers in the security offices, though Alexander wasn't surprised. The outpost wasn't by any means large, nor was it very near civilization. The Siberian wilderness truly was the best sort of place for a Rocket outpost--or it would have been, if their security had been just a tad tighter. The security officers, who he had made nice with weeks and weeks ago, smiled and offered him their usual greetings, both of which Alex returned easily. It took him only a few seconds to snap their fragile little necks and cut the power. For a long moment, the base was suddenly, completely silent.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

The bright smile remained on Alex's face as he followed Interpol's officers back towards their transport, only a couple of live Rockets in their custody and the outpost angry, blazing oranges and yellows far behind them. The sunshine was far too bright for a day like this, Alex thought, even as he smelled the dark, oily smoke that rose like a pillar into the sky.

Night made it far more satisfying to watch his world burn.

[auburnmalice]

What if Alex never left Rocket?

//That would be entirely dependent on the situation, my good Anon! There are two situations at the very least that would have cause Alex to remain in Team Rocket for one reason or another: he got caught before he could betray the team, or he was never put in a position where he began to question the team in the first place.

If Alex remained loyal to Team Rocket in his heart and soul, he never would have had to worry about any of what happened after that day in Siberia so long ago, as long as no one else blew the whistle on them. He would have gotten home to Lambda by Christmas to find that their request for their own apartment had gone through and they would have had one of those happy giggly honeymoon-phase weeks where everything was sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. He would have continued to excel as a squad leader for spec ops and would have likely made it as close to Executive as he possibly could. Eventually, sometime after Lambda became an Executive (he would have never felt the need to change his alias in this timeline) they would get married and be obnoxiously happy newlyweds and everything would be great and swell and isn't Team Rocket grand and they'd probably end up adopting a kid after said kid's parents died in-action and whatever perfect 1950's Rocket family, complete with apple pie.

Of course, there's the other side of the coin, the one where Alex started to lose his faith in Team Rocket and begin conspiring to hand them over to Interpol on a silver platter, but once Lambda realizes what was happening, he would have informed one of their superiors, and Alex would have been caught and appropriately punished; they wouldn't have killed him, of course, because he doesn't give away any vital information. They just reeducate him, instead. Alex would spend the rest of his days doing menial labor jobs as a grunt with no sense of self. Arguably, he'd just be a ghost. Lambda would move on with his life and become Petrel upon his promotion to Executive; he'd call to have Alex do his menial labor in the infirm, where he could keep an eye on him and make sure he was taking care of himself, but in the end... Alex would just be a shell, and they'd move on from each other, for the most part. Alex's reputation would be tarnished to the point where likely no one of ending standing would want to be seen taking care of him, though, so Petrel would probably still love him on some level.

[auburnmalice]

Waiting || Open

Lugia's soul, he was tired. He was so so so tired. He'd tried to go into the infirmary, but there wasn't anything wrong with him and he wasn't there to visit anyone or make any deliveries, and so they sent him outside and told him not to come back in unless he had business, there. With nothing else to do, Alexander had sat himself on the floor, back to the wall, chin resting on knees drawn up to his chest and arms linked loosely around his shins.

He'd been there for the better part of several hours, now, with lunch long since passed and still, what-- or rather, who-- he was waiting for nowhere to be found. He'd figured Lambda would have had to come out sometime, and when he did come out, Alex was going to make Lambda face him. In the meantime, he would simply sit there like an obstinate child and stare blankly at the wall across from him.

The worst part was always the waiting, and he was starting to doze off every now and then. This wouldn't do. He needed something to keep himself occupied. Occupied, and awake. There-- yes, someone was walking by. They would do. Conversation would work.

"Hey," he called out, trying to mask both the boredom and weariness in his voice yet likely falling short, "hey, whatchya doing? Anything cool? Anything exciting?"

[auburnmalice]

What are your Valentine's plans?

"Why, stay with Lambda, of course!"

"I'll bet he's missed having me~ I've already got it all planned out, too. I'm going to try-- keyword, try-- to make him that Greek shit he loves so much, have a nice dinner with good wine and maybe some candles, and then... well, we have to make up for some lost time, and there's no way he's been able to get off properly without me here."

[auburnmalice]

Ever met a legendary Pokemon?

"Well, there was this ONE TIME...."Alex pauses for a long moment, thinking over his encounter with a thoughtful frown gracing his face, before he laughed and brightened considerably."Oh, wait, never mind! That was just Lambda in a fursuit. We did some crazy shit as kids."