2024-04-10: Do You Ever Wish You Could Stop?
- Log: Do You Ever Wish You Could Stop?
- Cast: Loren Voss, Damian Tamaoka
- Where: Central Kanto Plains
- Date: April 10, 2024
- Summary: Awkwardness ensues as Damian runs into Loren after his attempted theft of the Pokeball factory. A Clefairy is saved from the perils of caffeine, pokemon rearing tips are shared, and Damian asks a few questions to try an understand Loren better.
===========================<* Central Kanto Plains *>=========================== The Central Kanto Plains, as befits its name, is the floodplain that rests at the heart of the Kanto Region. The land here is lush and vibrant, with blossoming ranges of flowers and greenery, adjacent to many rivers. The plains are divided into various routes, which serve both as arterial routes for travellers and cargo between the cities; several underground tunnels also lead from one end of the plain to another, with both capacity for on-foot traffic, bikers, and public transit. A famous daycare centre sits near the heart of the plains, and many Trainers leave their Pokemon to their care and are surprised to find -- an Egg! No one on Nede knows how Pokemon Eggs are created, but Trainers certainly welcome the discovery. BGM: Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee & Pikachu! - Route 11 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ctN2IVy0Pw
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Complication noted. Remain in position; mission to proceed as planned. Reinforcements pending.'
So that was it. That was the whole of the message he'd received after reporting the events of the previous attempt.
Good news: Loren's divested himself of the still-somewhat-rattled Second Class soldiers that had been tasked to assist him in the previous operation. Also good news: he hasn't so much as been questioned by an officer, let alone arrested.
Bad news: he's on his own until the next operation. Worse news: ...the rest of everything?
"Here," he says, handing over a canned lemonade to his Clefairy, which is currently perched on a bench. "Clef!" the Clefairy chirps in response, before setting about chugging the contents with gusto.
"...Just another day to you, huh?" he asks the Clefairy, before just about slinging himself onto the bench alongside him. Loren lifts his canned coffee and eyes it doubtfully. It had seemed like a good idea just 5 minutes ago, but now he doesn't even have the energy to open and drink it. Slumping against the back of the bench, he toys with the can absently before setting it aside and shaking out his hand. Why do they have to make these things so damn cold. Ughhhh.
Clefairy, finishing his lemonade, turns to inspect the can curiously. Can a Clefairy open a canned coffee on their own? The world is about to find out!
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
There aren't any Team Rocket operations for Damian to participate in at the moment, so he's mostly been left to his own devices. Devices which are somewhat strained and awkward now that he has the knowledge taht not only is he a criminal on Filgaia, he's been seen doing crimes on Energy Nede now, too. And at least two of his friends--former friends? Damian's not sure, and is afraid to think about it too carefully--are very upset at him.
Though several others seem to understand and aren't angry, which... paradoxically makes him feel somehow worse. He's used to not having a lot of friends, but having people he has definitely wronged extend a hand out both is an unusual feeling and a guilty one.
He's been trying to stay low. He should go and hide, not show his face anywhere, but staying couped up all day is somehow worse than being out with a risk of being caught. (Nina had made mention of 'going to ground', but Damian hadn't understood the phrase.)
He's run into people in the city multiple times so far, though, so today he's decided to try a stroll through the wilderness. Here comes a young Nedian boy of about 14, with medium-length hair and unusually pale silver eyes. He's much shorter than his peers, about 5'1", and currently he's wearing a purple hoodie, loose brown shorts, and black sneakers. Perched on his shoulder is a purple feline pokemon, Purri.
He's got a pair of earbuds in as he walks up to a nearby vending machine, seemingly unaware of Loren or Clefairy nearby. He pulls one earbud out to let it dangle, and the tinny sound of something lively and obnoxiously upbeat starts blaring out of it as he looks over the vending machine options.
"W-what do you think, P-Purri...? W-water? Berry j-juice?"
"Purr!"
"O-okay."
Damian gets a soda for himself, and a berry juice for Purri. Purri jumps down to the ground and then stands upright on two legs so she can take the berry juice, and both take a sip of their respective drinks before turning to keep walking.
And then they see Loren. Both freeze. "Y-y-you..."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's fine. It's fine. He just has to lay low for a few more days until his reinforcements for the next operation arrive. That's easy. He can do that without any problems! Just watch him!
Into this fog intrudes the sounds of another person using the vending machine, with doesn't so much as evoke a twitch from Loren where he leans against the bench, preoccupied with his own ennui.
The voice, though is familiar--
--to say nothing of the tone of voice or the words, precisely, that are had. Loren jerks upright, lifting a hand to fix his askew eyeglasses, and squints to see that... ...yeah, he's pretty sure that kid attacked him with all the rest. And a local is bound to not be as 'understanding' as Eleanor had been.
What do regulations say should be done at a time like this? ...Well, they're pretty clear about that, which is all the more reason for Loren to stay perfectly still on the bench. --But it's not like rules can't be... interpreted. Creatively. Because he's not going to do that, and he's pretty sure it would only jeopardize what they're trying to do here. What did he say to the others about not using excessive force?
With his luck, the kid'd probably, like, packing a laser gun or something, anyway. Or a Pokemon that can do similarly.
And so he tells Damien, "Get out of here."
This is punctuated by a pop-hiss of the coffee can being opened, which prompts Loren to swivel his head in Clefairy's direction. He's just in time to watch Clefairy chug his coffee!
"Uh," Loren starts, watching this in the same way he'd watched his Zubat consume half a hamburger. In profile his expression grows ever more strained the more Clefairy consumes the heavily caffeinated drink. This is probably not safe, right?
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
Two people trying to lay low who happen to run into each other.
This is either serendipitous or whatever the exact opposite of that is.
Damian is wearing his own glasses, black, square-rimmed ones that he subconsciously pushes up his nose when he realizes there's another person about. (Maybe those pale, silver eyes are just a trick of refraction through the lenses. Maybe not.)
Damian doesn't sound... nearly as angry as he probably should, more... surprised, to happen to run into Loren here.
Being told to get out of there makes him flinch, and take a half step back. He looks like he's very nearly about to... but then the pop hiss of a can being opened draws his attention. And there's Clefairy, drinking... a coffee.
Damian's slightly fearful expression switches to a concerned one, and he looks to his pokemon. "P-Purrri, t-trade--" He holds out his soda, and Purri readily gives him her berry juice. Then he walks over to Clefairy and kneels down.
His voice is soft and gentle as he reaches out to try and gently wrest the coffee away, but he has a nice fresh Berry Juice to offer in exchange. "H-hey, Clefairy, th-that might b-b-be a bit too m-much, wh-why don't you try th-this instead?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Should he take it away? Is it already too late, and he'll just end up triggering, uh, whatever's about to happen here? Loren remains frozen, watching Clefairy as he starts to chug an entire black canned coffee.
But it's Damian who makes the approach to the Clefairy and offers a trade for something else than the coffee it's currently attempting to drink. A miracle occurs! The Clefairy lowers his pilfered coffee and regards Damian curiously. "Fair?" he queries, before wrinkling his tiny face. He shudders -- apparently the aftertaste (...did he not notice the taste?) is not to his liking. Damian is easily able to slip the canned coffee from his grasp and the Clefairy grabs instead for the berry juice as a trade is made.
Loren simply watches on, stunned. Just like that? A crisis was averted, just like that?
"...Huh," he vocalizes, as the Clefairy starts chugging the berry juice like it was going out of style. "Guess that worked."
His attention pivots over to Damian, and he says nothing but his expression says everything.
'Okay... now what?'
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
Damian smiles a little as he can slip the coffee out of Clefairy's hands, and the pokemon then starts drinking the berry juice. "Th-there you go..." He watches Clefairy drink for a moment, and then looks to Loren, awkwardly.
He's wearing a pretty similar expression.
It's Purri who prompts him with a quiet "Purr." She's watching, and--more importantly--she's still holding the can of soda and she hasn't started drinking it yet.
Damian looks to her and nods. "R-right. Um..." He looks to Loren and offers the coffee back. "W-was this yours...?" He either hands it back to Loren if he takes it, or sets it down on the bench next to him (on the opposite side of where Clefairy is, so he doesn't get any bright ideas), then goes back to the vending machine. Anotehr Berry Juice is purchased, and Damian opsn it and then trades it back to Purri for his soda.
"Purr!" says Purri as she starts to sip her new drink.
The trainer looks back to Loren. "Um... y-you should be c-careful... w-with caffeine, a-and a pokemon that small... th-they make p-pokemon safe v-versions, though..."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
For but a moment, a sentiment is shared between the two of them, that this is a very weird situation... and that it's awkward, even if there's some relief to be had that nothing terrible happened like for example Clefairy discovering learned how to Fly.
Purri is the voice of reason in this particular moment, interrupting both Damian and Loren to let the former know that something is owed to her for her sacrifice, which he of course sets about doing after giving Loren his coffee back.
"...Thanks?" Loren says in the manner of someone handed something dubious, holding the coffee can as if it might explode. It's bad enough having to sometimes share a glass someone else has already drunk out of, with Emperor-knows-how-many diseases waiting on the rim. Are there diseases that Pokemon can pass to people? Does he want to be the first to find out??
Loren rises to his feet while Damian's getting Purri a fresh drink and pitches the can of coffee into the recycler after pouring out the contents onto a plant that probably isn't appreciating the watering job he's doing.
He contemplates booking it for half a second, but he'd have to leave Clefairy behind. And then Damian turns back to face him and the opportunity is more or less lost (at least, to do it in a semi-dignified manner and not completely ruin his street cred, such that it is).
But it's not an accusation Damian slings at him -- at least not one about theft. "I didn't give him a coffee!" Loren protests as if put upon, his whole body tense with outrage over the clear injustice of what's being done to him. "That was mine! He took it when I wasn't looking!"
...As if this were a worse accusation than, say, the breaking and entering and general attempted thievery and all the other things that Loren definitely did do in Armlock.
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
Loren has a 'Thanks' of dubious sincerity, while Damian offers a fairly sincere (if still awkward) "W-welcome..."
Damian misses the disposal of the can. Who can say if there are some strange diseases a pokemon can pass to a human? The Nedian boy certainly isn't qualified to answer that, but also... he'll happily share a can or a cup with his pokemon.
And he definitely hasn't ever shared a poke puff or a poffin with Purri, that's for sure.
When he turns back, he blinks a little as he sees that the can is no longer on Loren's person. "D-did you f-finish it already...?"
Purri shakes her head. "Purr, purrloin." She saw Loren dump it, but the nuances of the action may be beyond pokemon speech.
Loren explodes with indignation, though, and Damian whimpers a bit, flinching back and withdrawing a few steps. Purri, meanwhile, cooly steps in between the two. She's still sipping her Berry Juice, but her eyes are narrowed and looking directly at Loren.
Her tail lashes, just a little, as a warning.
"I-I-I... d-didn't..." He takes a deep breath, a hand on his chest as he tries to regain his composure. He's got a stutter even in the best of situations, but this is very much not the best of situations.
Eventually, though, he manages to get out. "... d-didn't mean you d-did it on p-p-p..." Deep breath. "Purpose. Umm..." He looks up to Loren again, and then back down at his can. "I p-p-probably, sh-shouldn't g-give you advice, b-but..."
"... f-freshly caught p-pokemon... you n-need to w-watch th-them, s-sometimes th-they d-don't know what's g-good for them, o-or not..."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
In all fairness, Loren is a medical officer first and foremost, and thinking about such things is second nature to him. It makes more sense to him to dump the drink and recycle the can than risk either Clefairy finishing it off later or discovering that Solarians are weak to Pokemon Flu or something weird and unexpected that will also definitely totally be his fault when the reckoning for mission failure comes due.
He glances sidelong at Purri, who seems to have clocked what he actually did and scowls as if to say, 'and??' to the feline Pokemon. It may just fail to impress.
It might help to add up to the overreaction that does ensue on his part.
"..."
Maybe years ago, he would have continued to lay into the kid and feel better for it. But he's had his eyes opened in more than a few ways to the nature of the world he'd rather ignore. That, and Lan's been working on him for ages at this point -- too much for him to not notice that he's lashing out at a kid. It's a fact that's hard to ignore as Damian flinches away from him and struggles to get the words out.
Loren is regrettably (to him) reminded of his own adolesence.
"...Just... forget it," he says, turning his face away sharply.
"Clef~!" says his Clefairy, who despite a general failure to read the room, is still probablty the brains of this particular operation. Yes, this includes Loren. Hopping down from the bench, the Clefairy walks over to Damian to... gift him the empty can of juice? "Clefa!" he says, spinning about in a little dance as if to say 'thanks for the juice!'.
"...But I'll keep that in mind," Loren says, fidgeting with his glasses as he watches this display out of the corner of his eye. "Huh. He likes you."
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
Purri actually didn't care--and no, she is not impressed by Loren's scowling. Can pokemon smirk? Purri might be smirking.
It's a bad thing, to be an acceptable target and of ill temper around Purri. (Jessie and Jame's Meowth can attest to this.) But that might have to be a discovery for later.
Adolesence (and life) are definitely not being very kind to Damian at the moment. In... any number of ways.
Loren says to forget it though, and Damian nods, still looking down. "S-sorry. Um... I'm..." He looks up at Loren again, pondering if he should say more... and then goes ahead and does it anyway. "I'm t-taking care... of s-some young p-pokemon, a-and... I h-have to be careful, with th-them, t-too... S-so I think about it, a-a lot."
Damian blinks as Clefairy comes up to him and offers him the can back. But then he smiles and kneels down to take it. "Th-thank you, C-Clefairy..." He relaxes a little more as he watches Clefairy spin. "I'm g-glad you liked it..."
Loren comments taht Clefairy likes him, "O-oh, w-well... I s-supose... b-but I-I'm s-sure he likes you, t-too..."
He stands up again, and looks to Loren. "U-um... y-you d-didn't look... u-um..." He glances off to the side. "V-very happy, wh-when I s-saw you, in Armlock..." You know, during that whole criming thing. The way Loren failed to answer his question (which, itself, was admittedly incomplete...)
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
To be fair, fucking around and finding out (or not fucking around and still finding out) is one of the things that Loren excels at.
Damian tries to explain again, apologizing as he does so. Damn. Damn! This is reminding him way too much of his own adolesence. Irritation -- at himself, at Damian, at the world in general -- bundles and swells within; only by force of will does Loren manage to tamp down on it and grind it under the metaphorical foot. Silence again reigns on his part; Loren keeps his gaze more or less averted from Damian.
That is, until Clefairy goes and breaks the ice, as it were and does the actual work of common decency and thanks Damian in his own way, with the only thing he has on hand to give. Bowing after his dance is done, Clefairy offers up a final, "Clefairy~!" to finish out his two-step. Loren, for his part, is definitely watching the proceedings at this point.
"...Yeah," he admits, because he figures -- based on what he knows -- that the Clefairy would have just left if he didn't want to be around him. And he does (as do all the Pokemon Loren's caught, even if he has his doubts about what the Graveler wants) continue to hang around, so... that leaves only one conclusion. He had sort of gotten accustomed to the idea with Runeberry that it was possible that things could want to be around him and not leave but it's only been through Energy Nede that the particular lesson has actually hit home.
And then Damian asks about Armlock.
He'd been prickly before, sure.
"Enough," Loren says sharply. "Whatever you thought you saw -- well, you didn't! Got it?!" And the near-manic intensity in his eyes as he stares at Damian only begins to fade the longer he regards the boy. "...I don't have time for this," he says at last, turning away. "And you-- you didn't see anything. I mean it."
"Clef," Loren's Clefairy sighs, shrugging as if to suggest there's a long road ahead of him.
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
It is a great tragedy that all of Damian's usual defensive mechanisms have been borne on someone who is, perhaps, the least likely to be receptive to them. Or at least the most likely to be irritated.
Damian has two cans in hand now, and he sets both of them down on the ground for just a moment to clap for Clefairy as he finishes his dance. But just for a moment, because he very quickly picks up both cans again. (The soda has caffeine in it, after all... which Damian really shouldn't drink too much of--and Purri will limit him to just one.)
"Y-you're welcome!" he says cheerfully.
Damian noticed the difficulties Loren had with Graveller... but he's not quite sure offering advice on getting it to be more effective in battle is the best thing to do to someone trying to steal Nedian technology. (Keeping Clefairy from drinking too much caffeine was a basic welfare thing; he's not going to ask a pokemon to suffer just because of their trainer.)
Speaking of potentially bad ideas: Asking about Armlock.
Damian shrinks back from that intensity--but Purri does not. She is already standing between them, sipping at her Berry Juice... And her eyes narrow and one hand drops down, claws unsheathing just a little in case Loren's manic intensity boils over.
"Purrrr," she says in a low voice, her eyes narrowing.
But Loren insists that Damian didn't see what he saw, and the boy ducks his head. "S-s-sorry... Um... s-sorry." He glances over to Clefairy, and then back down again.
And in a very quiet voice, he adds, "I w-w-wasn't g-going to tell the c-cops... I w-was just... c-curious..." He trails off, too afraid to look up and risk more of Loren's ire. He's not even sure that Loren is still there to listen.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Defense mechanisms are a curious thing. On one hand, they can keep you safe and protected from those who mean you harm. On the other hand, they will also keep out everyone else as well.
Loren eyes Damian as the boy responds cheerfully enough. His own reaction to that is to frown, dour in spite of his own misgivings about the stance he's assumed.
The real problem with Graveler is actually a very simple one: Loren has caught a Pokemon that, while perfectly content to travel along with him also enjoys such things as 'exploding' and 'listening only if she feels like it'. (The fact that Loren doesn't have a single trainer badge to his name also might have some bearing on the situation... just as a general thing.) But is it a good idea to have a Pokemon like Graveler that can explode on command be more effective? That is the question of the hour as it were!
Especially when the conversation turns towards the incident in Armlock, which provokes a particular response from Loren... and Purri. Loren's gaze slides over at the Pokemon's unsheathed claws and is reminded of what happened when he'd last gone up against a Pokemon without one of his own. Sure, technically, he has Clefairy here, but is it really in his best interest to start a fight? Even if he's the only one who would in for it, there's no point in jeopardizing the mission.
'The mission'. Yes. Sure. Keep calling it that. See if it sticks.
He glowers at Damian, who apologizes for any assumption that Loren might have made about him attempting to summon the police on him for that stunt. As if that was the thing that had set him off and not Damian's observations about his demeanor. "Well-- good," Loren finishes, closing his eyes. "Cleffa?" queries the Clefairy of Loren, who turns back long enough to look down at it. "What? No, look, I know that he was asking about--that's none of his business!" Loren finishes, before slowly lifting his gaze from his Clefairy to Damian and equally as slowly making a face like someone who has just been caught talking behind someone else's back.
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
Damian might or might not have that insight, if he were to talk to Graveller... but even for him he might think twice about giving Loren that kind of ability, to cause explosions on command.
Pokemon aren't supposed to attack people, normally... But Purri is very definitely looking at Loren, not at Clefairy. (Though there is an ear twitching to the side just a bit to keep tabs on him.) But she seems content to let that stand as a warning, for the moment... and she is still sipping her Berry Juice, so it might not be... so dire, yet.
The trainer might have misidentified what Loren was so upset about. But then again, this kind of conversation is... wildly out of the bounds of the interactions he's used to dealing with. (And his own position as a member of Team Rocket interrogating the motivations for doing illicit acts is also equally novel to him, for the moment.)
He's not going to call the cops for one very simple reason, but he's not quite up to sharing that reason with Loren yet.
But Loren does not walk away just then. He turns back to talk to Clefairy, about him even, and then catches himself. Damian is still looking down, looking at his soda but not drinking it. Loren looks to Damian, and eventually he lifts his gaze to look back up at the Visitor. And then back down. Quietly, he completes his question this time.
"I-if you w-were so unhap-- unhappy, th-then... wh-why do it...?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The big question is whether if Loren asked Graveler to explode, would she explode? On one hand, she definitely loves to explode. On the other hand, she also enjoys disobeying orders (and has sensed somehow that Loren lacks the skill or authority to direct her perfectly).
Loren has gathered that this is the case -- that Pokemon don't normally go after people without the orders to do just that, and yet... he has enough self-preservation left not to test that hypothesis. Something about the way this one is looking at him is putting him on a different sort of defensive.
He also doesn't want to find out of the kid does have a spine in him, either -- which is not really the most fair of assessments to make given Loren's own current predicament, but he is Loren.
Then why do it? Why do it, if you know it's wrong?
It's not quite the same question, but it's similar enough to the question Lan had asked of him, and not all that long ago either.
Why do you do it, if it makes you unhappy?
He could have done a number of things. Perhaps he could have just left. Maybe he could have yelled at the kid one more time (and tested Purri's resolve as such). But instead, he seems to hesitate for that long lingering moment, and what comes out instead is:
He's still frowning. But his demeanor has shifted, some of the edge of his initial response blunted. His attention lingers on Damian for a moment more before Loren sighs out, "...I'm a soldier. We don't get to choose."
They don't have things like that in this world, do they? Not as such, not in the same way. Not anymore.
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
Some people use Self-Destruct as a very effective part of their battling strategy! ... Not one that Damian finds appealing, but... he might be a bit of a softy. (Anne is working on that, though.) But the question of whether Graveller would explode if asked to might have to wait for another time.
Purri is perfectly willing to maintain her composure... as long as she doesn't deem Loren a direct threat to her trainer. As for the matter of Damian having a spine, well... it's in there, somewhere. (Anne is working on that, too.)
(Damian likes Lan. But he doesn't know how she'd react to him being in Team Rocket.)
Damian probably would've not pursued Loren if he'd left. His curiosity doesn't extend that far. But Loren eventually does reply, after some hesitation.
A soldier. He doesn't get to choose.
Damian blinks at that, and looks up to Loren to study him for a moment, and then looks down again. "O-oh... A soldier... Like..." He's already frowning, clearly uncertain of what he's about to say, but he's trying to find anything he can draw a reference to. "... l-like the reenactors..." Some people play at it but generally, no, they don't have a standing army. Not in the way that Solaris or Aveh or Kislev do.
He looks up to Loren again. "H-how did... did you become a soldier...?"
Is he really asking these questions for nothing but sheer curiosity?
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's still absolutely bizarre to Loren that they can first of all explode and survive it... but also seem to enjoy it. At least, that's the only rationale he can pin to the actions of his Graveler who seems to (as far as he can tell!) really, really like blowing herself up.
"Airy," speaks his Clefairy, who has seated himself down on the bench after glancing back at Loren who has appeared willing to play nice a little bit after the fact. For such a laid-back little guy, it almost seems like he might have a devious streak. And additionally-- at a glance he's seems no worse for the wear for sampling lemonade and part of a coffee and a berry juice. Fairy Pokemon metabolisms are mysterious like that.
He's not just a soldier. He's an officer. He went to the officer's school. But he doesn't feel the need to clarify.
Loren thus gives the answer he's willing to give -- the comfortable answer, if such a thing can be said to be comfortable.
The cowardly answer, Lan might have put it. Or maybe, that's just the way he wants to put it.
He shouldn't be talking about this. Shouldn't, but he's doing it anyway: there's some bright hot burn of satisfaction that runs counter to his bone-deep trepidation. And what does it matter? People already know. Van Houten's probably told enough about this already! What should it matter if he tells some kid the fact of the world(s) outside of Energy Nede? "I was trained to be one," he tells Damian bluntly, closing his eyes in a faint grimace. "Many people do that. What, do they not do that around here?"
He already knows they don't. But he also can tell that they did, once. There are little scars that remain -- little things that remind him too much of home to not see for what they once were.
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
Damian wasn't there to see the part with the lemonade, sadly, or he might have reconsidered giving Clefairy the berry juice.
The distinction to Damian between an officer and a soldier might be lost on him, too, given the almost complete lack of a (recent) cultural context for it. ... Then again, it might be something he has to learn about, given the mounting tensions between Kislev and Aveh just on the other side of the rift.
Damian knows Lan--he likes her, even, and not just because she saved his life once. (But that didn't hurt.)
He was trained to be one. That's a simple answer, and yet not a very complete one, but... Damian doesn't quite have an awareness of what might be lacking in that answer, either. But for a broader cultural context and for a few reasons specific to Damian. "I s-see..."
But Loren has a question for him, and Damian thinks that over for a moment... Loren was already willing to attack that company... learning there isn't an army now would be too late to have prevented that, right? Then again, maybe that kept it from becoming worse... But eventually Damian shakes his head. "P-people train, w-with their pokemon... U-um... I g-guess they train to b-be cops... b-but not s-soldiers... w-we h-haven't needed them..."
But the Ten Wise Men were soldiers, at one time, right? And now Nede doesn't have its own soldiers to meet them... That's part of what Team Rocket is after, isn't it? To stop them?
"D-do... y-you ever wish you c-could stop...?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It probably wouldn't ease things for Damian any to learn that Loren already knows they don't have a standing military. As a matter of fact, Solaris as an entity knows this by now: but not having a standing military is not the same thing as 'unwilling to fight'. Solaris isn't willing to wake a sleeping giant, but by the same token, they're also quite interested in aspects of Energy Nede's technology and other secrets they could attempt to put to use. And so--
And so, that's why Loren's in the thick of it, isn't it? They have things they want to glean but they don't want to risk sufficient resources to claim such, not when it could open them to attacks from other enemies of theirs and jeopardize their attempts to respond to such. Besides, Nedians have Pokemon which now Loren's team members from the last assault can definitely point to as evidence that Energy Nede is not to be taken lightly.
Hence: the series of targetted raids (and the continuation of such).
"Yeah... it's like that," Loren says, his mouth twisting in a displeased scowl. "But it's also not like that. Do you get it? We're trained to fight wars. You people..."
But he trails off when Damian asks him a very particular question.
He could stop. It wouldn't be easy, but he could go through the channels and request something formalized; he could come up with a good reason for it at this point. But knowing what he knows now... no, he could do that, but he'd just be trading this life for a cage.
Loren instead continues to stare into the middle distance for a while longer, neither looking at Damian nor away from him before something in him catalyzes and he turns sharply. "...Clefairy," he says suddenly, "we're going."
He's not answering that. He's not answering that from anyone. The moment he does, it's all going to be over.
Somehow, he knows this to be true, down to the marrow of his bones: the same way he knows why he can't go home.
He doesn't wait for Clefairy, but instead starts to walk away. "Cle," Clefairy hums pensively in response to this, hopping down from the bench. The Pokemon waves at Damian and bows before moving to toddle after the departing Loren.
<Pose Tracker> Damian Tamaoka has posed.
Damian should probably exercise more caution in what he tells someone he has actively seen trying to steal their technology... but he's not the most guileful person to begin with, and he wasn't raised in a culture of mistrust and deception. But still... on his first trip to Filgaia, with Joy and Peace, they had the startling realization that their technology was far, far advanced of what the locals had access to... and Damian's kept that in mind, to be careful with things like his phone and laptop.
Trained to fight wars... "Th-there's a war h-happening on Filgaia, isn't th-there...?" He's still reckoning with what, exactly, that really means.
But that last question he asks unknowingly strikes into some territory he shouldn't be probing, and it's one that Loren refuses to answer out of a sense of... self-preservation, perhaps? Of a sort, at least.
And then he turns and walks away. Damian looks to Clefairy, and gives a little wave. "T-take care, Clefairy. It was n-nice, m-meeting you..."
But then he goes back to watching Loren leave. Enough time passes that Purri finishes her drink, and then collects the two cans from Damian to recycle all three. Then Purri hops up into Damian's arms for some pettings, which Damian provides.
"I-it's okay..." he says quietly to nobody in particular, well out of earshot of both Loren and Clefairy by that point.
"... I t-try not to th-think about that question, either..."