Needless to say, she gave him a start.

"What the-" He would've choked on the hamburger after taking a sharp breath, hacking away while he settled down from the sudden emergence of a woman. What the Hell was that...? Though his eyes discerned the nature of Lulu's aura, they couldn't necessarily illustrate how she'd achieved such a feat. Surely it was a privilege associated with her unnatural aura, the stranger having been claimed in a similar fashion to himself. An avatar.

"Can all you fuckers do that?"

He supposed not, though he spat the words with equal parts disdain and disbelief. Clearly he was upset over the wasted bits of burger, and her lack of manners.

That she knew his name shouldn't have came as a surprise. And their welcome, even executed with sincerity, was undermined by the nature of their arrival. He could only roll his eyes, disinterested or perhaps taking offense.

He tore another chunk from the burger, eyes trained on Lulu. "Gonna tell me yours?" The name, that is.

---

Lulu Flint

Well, so much for the calm and quiet.

"I see." Though a blend of sarcasm and rhetoric, Adrian would take note of that. Knowledge was useful. But then it was that she spoke of his preternatural affiliations. Perhaps it was only right, seeing as she shared his disposition...

But he wouldn't perceive it that way.

"Careful now," he mouthed, seething, snatching at her wrist; nails scraping against her skin resentfully as scarlet irises caught the light in a way that could only be ascribed as unnatural.

Though it was not his intention, Lulu would feel the symptoms of his draining touch where he raked his fingers against her out of malice and malcontent.

"That's not something just anyone should be privy to..." He had guarded that knowledge well, only for Gavin to let it slip. That troubled him.

"Why have you approached me," their wrist would slip away or be wrested from his grip inevitably, while Adrian himself took the time to understand this stranger and their motives a little more, assuming they were not as guarded as he.

That said, he wasn't betting on it.

---

Lulu Flint

"My own thoughts exactly," he shares her alarm, having seen her arrive in supernatural fashion. He doesn't fight to keep his grip, allowing his hands to fall back to the table idly, while he tried to understand her motive. Chatting, huh?

How so very badly he would've loved to respond with something snarky, like 'Congratulations, you've got super AIDS now' or something to that effect, but he supposed no one on this vessel would take kindly to such lighthearted humor... What to tell her? Even Adrian wasn't certain.

"Ever heard about not talking to strangers?"

Mayhap he was too defensive, though it only felt natural; surrounded by the legions of Rocket in the metal hull of this contraption, one shouldn't get too comfortable.

And even if they did share a commonality or two...

He matches her look, glowering down at their glare, before he offers what little insight he can on what he'd done:

"I drained your aura. Nominally."

That was all he could say of the matter.

"It's been happening since I boarded."

Since he betrayed Yveltal, was the truth of it.

"Probably because I'm on edge," he would've guessed at the trigger, incorrectly so, yet still a sound conclusion.

"So... anything else you wanted to ask?"

---

Lulu Flint

So was she trying to learn something, then?

"Well, you could try reading," he offered in rebuke.

"Or practice some discretion when approaching others."

She was quick to question the state of her aura, understandably so. It'd never been something he questioned thoroughly. Did the aura recover?

Pokemon were able to recover, but they were made of tougher stuff. And, well, Gavin hadn't dropped dead yet, so that was a promising sign that at the very least, the situation didn't progress without continued stimulation.

But did it ever truly regress back to normal?

"I don't know, probably? It won't kill you anyway." People had so much to spare, or maybe it was that he could only siphon small amounts that bore no consequence in a short period of time. Placing his elbow against the table, cupping his cheek in his upraised palm, he grows steadily more comfortable conversing with this Lulu Flint.

"Your aura is like your living force. It's not something that goes out easy, unless you're hanging on by a thread."

He gave her a quick once over.

"Yours is fine, but it looks altered. Unnatural."

He shrugged; it only confirmed what they already knew.

---

Lulu Flint

Now he just had to roll his eyes aggressively to drive the point across. Even drag his fingers over his eyelids to press them shut, while meditating quietly to himself.

I had to get the worry wart.

Or perhaps he simply understated things too much.

"Yes. I only meant—" He sighs with exasperation, before finding all the words necessary to convey his meaning.

This bites.

"...You've been marked by a pokemon straight out of myth. Your aura mirrors that. I would've noticed it before you even pulled that little stunt, had you waltzed on over here like a normal person," he remarks.

Adrian couldn't, wouldn't guess at what had marked her. She simply demonstrated a blatantly greater aura than a typical human being should, and in this case, it was darker. Melancholy, even. But it wasn't exactly his business.

"Happy now?" His hamburger called out to him, though by now it'd gone lukewarm or even cold. Did they have a microwave on this damned sealab-thing?

---

Lulu Flint

Then there would be no pleasing Lulu. He would only listen and wait for a moment to interject as she shared with him the source of her augmented aura. Darkrai was something he'd grown up hearing about in children's tales.

So he figured it wasn't entirely unlike Yveltal in that it had malevolent tendencies, if only out of necessity.

"I only just boarded today, so I haven't heard much." Gavin had been prepping him for induction for quite some time now, but it had only recently come into light just how useful he may prove—if he wasn't so unwieldy.

"I guess that's demonstrative of some discretion." It must've been quite the achievement. He doubted his involvement would ever amount to anything of the sort. All he hoped for was a rather uneventful tenure, however unlikely. But it would offer him a chance at revenge that had been denied him up until now.

Or so was his hope when he'd become indebted.

As she admitted in earnest, she hadn't known it was meant to be kept secretive, he reconsidered about why he even wanted it kept privy to begin with. It was the fear of the repercussions for the transgressions carried out with Yveltal's blessing. Yet with Gavin's intervention, was he not free of that burden? Could he not ease his worrying?

"It's because of what it made me do..."

Guilt and shame weigh heavy on his shoulders as he averts his eyes once more. Speaking of the subject matter any further would only disturb him further, as he repressed these memories as best he could. Were it not for Yveltal's intervention, he would have never carried out such heinous crimes. In a way, it had really been Yveltal who'd done the deed, for just as sure as Adrian had facilitated the act, Yveltal had sown the seeds of cessation.

"I should be behind bars. Gavin spared me that."

It wasn't like he wanted to do it. But his world had lost its luster, and at a time that he'd been so stricken with grief, he was willing to do nearly anything at a chance for redemption, and perhaps—perhaps something even more.

Something that ended up being impossible, or so seeming.

---

Lulu Flint