How many times had he willingly plunged himself into these icy, cavern corridors in recent days? Numerous times, was the answer – but not enough for Angelo to feel completely at ease traversing through the tighter spots. [break][break]

A part of him might always bear the crack across his psyche of a venture turned dark in the Regirock Ruins, no matter how much he attempted to glue the edges back together. The line of a fracture would always remain. [break][break]

Still, despite the way that his chest occasionally tightens as he picks his way through the narrow paths, throat scratchy like grains of sand are still clogging up his insides, the courier continues on. Pushing through as the cold temperature prickles sharply in his lungs and tingles against his skin, keeping him focused instead on its bite and the task at hand.[break][break]

He wouldn’t let the ‘incident’ stop him in the waking world. There were two carrot patches to check up on, after all. [break][break]

Orion pads just in front of him today, picking herself over ice on soft paws, her bright blue eyes occasionally blinking back at him. Seemingly unperturbed by the cold, while Angelo is forced to pull his hood over his head, shielding his ears from a particularly frigid gust that wails through the crevices. [break][break]

Is his nose red? It feels red… [break][break]

A soft bark of alarm huffs from Orion’s throat as they take the familiar path and Angelo’s matching blue eyes trail towards where her muzzle points, catching sight of a figure in the distance. A familiar one, thankfully. Up ahead, it seems that Lars is looking at frozen leaves with scrutiny or just plain incomprehension. Angelo loosens the grip on his backpack straps that he’d unconsciously squeezed tight, making his way over.[break][break]

“So, did I catch you wondering if the life of a vegetable farmer could be your true calling or does your carrot just have something interesting to say?” He says with playful sarcasm as he slides up to Lar’s side, poking gentle fun at the former expression on the head ranger's face, hands stuffed casually in his pockets for warmth. “Hey, mio amico. How've you been?”


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+ Laurence Anderson - carrot thread ( 3/3 ) [break][break]

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“Insulting them won’t loosen their sensitive carrot-lips, ya know,” Angelo quips right back, flashing his fellow courier a look out of the corner of his gaze, eyes crinkling in shared mirth. “But yeah, they are damn weird. Don't think too hard about it, man. I know if I bothered to try 'n make sense of half the shit that happens in this region, I’d have made myself a tinfoil hat by now.” [break][break]

Even if carrots growing out of a frozen tundra did make him want to scratch his head, he knew better than to put too much brainpower into trying to rationalise it. He’d learned some time ago that, around here, you sometimes just had to roll with the punches and enjoy the ride. [break][break]

“Checking up on. Sabotaging. Take your pick, the gardens are next to each other, so I could realistically be doing either.” He hums with feigned innocence, daring to remove a chilly hand from his pocket to brush his fingertips against Orion’s velvet ear, the Lycanroc having pressed herself against his side. Angelo subtly leans away as she pushes a spiked, rock collar into his thigh.[break][break]

“Anyway, ‘figures’?” A curiously amused brow is raised as he repeats Lar’s choice of words – neither offended or defensive. “What’s that supposed to mean?” [break][break]

A Lapras slide? Angelo’s lips curl, picturing a scene of windswept gold and a wild grin. “Figures,” he mimics on a chuckled scoff, dangerously close to being soft.



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+ Laurence Anderson - carrot thread ( 3/3 ) [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Angelo’s eyes narrow in amused suspicion as Lars vaguely waves off his question, leaving him hanging with the assumption that he knew something about himself and a certain captain. He was Skyler’s friend, Angelo noted, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to surmise that he might have heard a thing or two. [break][break]

“Just things? Don’t be a tease, Lars.” There’s something in the other man’s tone that tells the younger courier that if he wanted his curiosity to be stated, he might have to invite Head Ranger Anderson out for a drink or two sometime. “Fine. But you’ll tell me later.” His lips curl, playfully cocky – not very angelic like. [break][break]

Laughing, he rocks on the balls of his feet, shifting amongst the ice in a restless attempt to get the blood flowing to frozen toes. “Oh, no, I believe it. You think something like that spawned from Razz's mind? Not a chance; reckless idiocy is Skyler's brand.” If there's a fond twinge to his words as he insults dear ol' Captain Dross, Angelo doesn't show signs he noticed. [break][break]

He also believes that Raziel Beckett was less of a willing participant in the Lapras-slide-ride and, more likely than not, strongarmed into it. [break][break]

What he couldn’t believe was that he hadn’t gotten a Lapras ride yet… What the hell? [break][break]

“Hypothetically,” he muses with a chin pointed to the ceiling, watching as a contemplative cloud drifts towards a (thankfully) high roof. If a shiver crawls down his spine, Angelo tells himself it’s from the cold. “How d’you know that wild pokemon haven’t tried to eat it? It could be too frozen to pull out of the ice or it could be poisonous?” [break][break]

A pause. “I was thinking of making stew out of it... Maybe you should lick it and find out if it's edible.”



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+ Laurence Anderson - carrot thread ( 3/3 ) [break][break]

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“I hate to break it to you but if Razz can’t call me – someone with zero authority over him – by my first name, then you’ve got no chance.” A hand, daring to venture from the confines of his pockets, reaches out to give the head ranger a pat on the shoulder. Less of a gesture of comfort and more of a wishing of luck. ‘Tough shit’, it seems to say, ‘you’re stuck with it and you know it.’ [break][break]

Angelo grins, “you’ll be Mr Anderson forever, even after you retire. I can bet on it.”[break][break]

Would Angelo prefer that Raziel Beckett called him by his first name? Absolutely. He definitely wasn’t going to give up on trying to get the young ranger to kick his overly formal habit when addressing him but, as of yet, he hadn’t reached the level of frustration to threaten physical violence. Unlike some.[break][break]

“Well apparently, according to the source himself, she’s already punched him,” a soft laugh clouds from his lips, remembering his first meeting with Razz and the subsequential conversation that floated around the topic of a certain Miss skyler dross . On how the teenager had looked nervous when he asked Angelo not to tell her that a ‘Miss’ had slipped past his tongue, all the while rubbing at his arm where a phantom pain must have lingered. “Eh, she’ll never actually deck him. Can’t say Razz’s arm muscles will survive for much longer if he keeps it up, though.” [break][break]

Listening as Lars begins to explain his theory on why the wild pokemon hadn’t attempted to take a bite out of his vegetable patch, Angelo rocks on the balls of his feet and occasionally shifts his stance, attempting to get feeling back into his frozen toes as they stand idle. Fuck, it was cold…. How Lars wasn’t shivering with his hands hidden in warm pockets like he was, was beyond him. Guy must have a good tolerance. [break][break]

“And that’s why you’re the boss ranger,” he muses, cold lips curling. “Lars, the musk connoisseur.”[break][break]

He reaches out to take hold of Orion’s scruff as the adventurous (and foolhardy) Lycanroc starts to sniff towards Lar’s carrot; pulling her back before her tongue has the chance to become welded to the frozen vegetable. [break][break]




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+ Laurence Anderson - carrot thread ( 3/3 ) [break][break]

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Lars isn’t the only one who rolls his eyes. “Don’t take it to heart. Was just teasing you,” he hums, an eyebrow raised in amusement as the other courier gives his reasonings behind knowing so much about musky scents and environmental readings. It’s an interesting explication, if not an obvious one. Angelo isn’t dumb enough to not piece together that a ranger – and a head ranger at that – would be more than experienced with pokemon behaviour. [break][break]

It is an interesting subject, however. [break][break]

Angelo would have had asked Lars more about it, intrigued about the rangers and their duties as he was, had Orion not invaded the vegetable patch. Instead, he’s presented with a new conversational topic that is just too tempting to let slip through his fingers. [break][break]

Angelo’s lips curl into a grin automatically, light glinting in his gaze as a chuckle tumbles into the air on warm clouds. Sounds like someone’s had experience with getting their tongue stuck on an icy surface. Maybe Lars had licked his carrot, after all. [break][break]

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t tried it,” until this Christmas (even though it was apparently fake) and being down here, Angelo hadn’t encountered a snowy climate; Alto Mare being a location of sunshine, heat and clear skies. Chances to get your lips welded to an icicle, therefore, had been slim. [break][break]

Cold biting at his skin, reminding him of time and location, Angelo nods towards the direction in which his and Skyler’s plot lay hidden. He should get moving, however there was no way he was going to let go of this particular story, if he can help it. “I should get to checking mine and Sky's carrots before my fingers snap off... Come with, you can tell me your 'stupid uncomfortable' experience on the way. You've got to at least share that with me, if you're not going to tell me about the other 'things'.”





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+ Laurence Anderson - carrot thread ( 3/3 ) [break][break]

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