“Technically... it's my favorite grunts's favorite place. And I happen to be around since I'm from the downtown!”

Valerio doesn't try to be dismissive but he doesn't want to give too much credit on virgil roach's place. Although deep inside, he acknowledges the place to be ran so good that it has also become a suitable place for late night leisure for some rocket members. Plus, the place has good liquor.

How he manages to acquire a partnership with Desmarais is something beyond the redhead already.

“What she's getting too, mate.” Valerio gives a playful wink which Lonnie professionally ignores. The bartender proceeds getting the drinks for his customers.

“To be fair, I haven't seen him much around too. Everyone became too busy especially after the invasion and with what the boss wants us to focus our post-war efforts on.” As soon as the drinks hit their side of the counter, he immediately grabs his glass and urge the other to pick hers too.

“Enough of babe talk,” He fondly calls of kris flynn-edwards, just like how he refers to the rest of Rocket's male population that suits his taste. “We haven't formally introduced ourselves right? Cheers for our wonderful battle and acquintanceship?”

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Alexandra Briarwood

Lex watches carefully to make sure Lonnie remembers which whiskey she prefers. His hand slides to top shelf and wraps around the body of a particularly oaky blend. She smiles, he remembers. Her gaze moves back to Valerio as he speaks. Things have been quite busy and were only bound to get busier. Although her assignments have been mostly petty thievery, she was happy to be busy. It kept her mind off of things and focused on something she had control over. Bitter thoughts of a past life are pushed aside for later ponderance.

Lex moves to retrieve her glass as Valerio does. Her lips twitch into a small grin at Valerio’s nickname for Flynn: babe. kris flynn-edwards had certainly caught Lex’s attention she would agree with babe. Her glass raises to cheers his, “And to many more to come,” she adds on in reference to the battles. She flashes him a mischievous grin before taking a sip. He won’t be rid of her quickly. Lex felt she now had something to prove to him on the battlefield.

“No, I don’t believe we have,” she muses after setting her glass back down, “Lex,” she simply states as an introduction, “Valerio Dachev, right?” she asks, stealing his thunder. Lex knew who he was but not much about him, just that he was a higher up in the organization. She wasn’t even quite sure what his role exactly was.

Valerio Dachev

Loonie slides the glasses on their side of the counter and Valerio flashes a cheeky grin as the barkeeper tends to the other customers.

Being one of the regulars, the familiar sight of the rumbling customers, the withdrawn barkeeps, and the rancid smell of cigarete smoke is all normal with the redhead. One would say it is the charm of Ritual and all other pubs at the downtown Slateport.

He takes a sip as the girl introduces herself, then brings down her glass as he takes the turn to do so. “In the flesh.” There is a light chuckle after saying it, unnecessary, but characteristic of what Valerio is with his gangmates.

“And where did you come from, Miss Lex?”

Although the topic of the past is not something easy to talk with, perhaps among all the Rocket members, it is something that he knows is necessary to be confronted before being a full-fledged member of the organization.

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Alexandra Briarwood

The subtle burn of the high shelf whiskey is a welcoming feeling. There was something calming about it for Lex. It was familiar in a life she barely recognized as her own anymore. She just finished voluntarily battling, something far outside her comfort zone that she certainly would never had done before Hoenn.

His laugh makes her smile lightly, it’s infectious. It quickly subsides as he pries into the past. It’s simple small talk, a common question most would ask a stranger they are getting to know. For Lex it carried a long, painful story which was a familiar trait among her colleagues. It was no surprise the majority of the members had long, checkered pasts filled with certain stinging pains unique to the individuals.

Still, her lips purse and she takes another sip of the whiskey while she debates how truthful she wants to be. Considering his position, it would probably be easy for him to find out the details regardless of what she told him tonight. She was honest with Cillian Quinn when he recruited her into the organization and it was all, no doubt, in her dossier if Rocket kept such things.

“Johto. Goldenrod City,” she finally responds, an even mixture of distaste for the memories and longing to return drip from the words. She could never go back. Despite painful memories there were certain things she missed, especially a certain someone, “Where are you from?” she asks before she’s forced to dig deeper into her own past.

Valerio Dachev

The thing with Valerio is that he never attempts to invade other people's past forcefully than he is allowed to. It's the least he can do to show his respect to another person, but as an officer of higher standing in an organization, there is a responsibility of checking the backgrounds of their recruits.

Especially with the position Declan grants him to have.

Downing his glass himself, he begins to narrate his story to her.

“I'm from Galar! Hammerlocke, specifically. I might be related to Rocket's Prince Remiel Calcifet, you know.” He chuckles. The last information is mostly unlikely because he knows where his origins really come from. They are far more sacred than the regals of the faraway region. “We hunt dragons before.”

He requests Loonie to fill up his bottle once more, this time, of his more favorite liquor mix.

“How about you? What are your interests when you were in Johto?”

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Alexandra Briarwood

Lex didn’t know too much about the Galar Region. She had heard stories, but her work had never taken her that far. Though, she had heard through the web, that Galar was a ripe fruit for someone like her. The place crawled with old money which meant impressive collections of jewels and pricey artifacts a thief wouldn’t hesitate to try to get their sticky fingers on.

But dragon hunters? She looks at Valerio Dachev her amber eyes shimmer with disbelief. It wasn’t that she doubted the man, she just had never heard such a thing, “Dragon hunting?” she echoes. Her gaze drifts forward in thought as she took another sip of whiskey, she is uncharacteristically nursing her whiskey. Lonnie notices as he pours Valerio another drink, “What does that mean?” obviously it meant dragon hunting but the big question was why.

It makes sense, in a way, “I see why you’re so good with that Kommo-o now,” she grins, glancing at him again. The look is followed by an apathetic shrug, “Honestly, I didn’t do much outside of work,” her gaze focuses on the whiskey in her hand. A small smile pulls at her lips. She couldn’t help but smile when she thought about running around Goldenrod with Killian Decker. They were inseparable and unstoppable. Best years of her life, “It certainly wasn’t battling,” she laughs, an attempt at a stupid joke.

Valerio Dachev

“What do you mean you 'don't know what it means?' Of course when you go dragon hunting, you hunt dragons!”

Loonie doesn't leave the spot just yet, for when Valerio downs the glass full to quench his throat and prepare for a long story, he knows he has to make the next fill. His gaze, however, shots him as if obliging him already to make a tab. Valerio decides to ignore for the moment.

“My ancestors were heroes of Galar! We used to hunt dragons that razed the human realms until they there were no aggressive dragons to hunt anymore.”

Hearing himself verbalize the tale, it seems like he is telling a girl a bedtime story where there are warriors and dragons. It would be more incredible if he himself experienced a fraction of it. His only experience at dragon hunting is learning how to tame them.

And yet he wears the badge of the Dachev Sem'ya, the Dragon Hunters, because no one will be able now to do so.

“Yeah, I figure.” Drinking his third glass half-empty, he chooses to poke fun of what she indulges him. “So why are you battling now? Any motivation?”

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Alexandra Briarwood