Gavin watches with arms folded, feeling the heat of Hitmonlee's kick as Raphael Pryde's Riolu narrowly escapes the impact. His own Lucario matches his dissatisfied air, sensing mood through his aura and subconsciously mirroring it.

It's exactly what Faolan used to do, before...

"You know, it might evolve if you didn't mistreat it."

Gavin finally makes his presence known, pushing off from the wall he'd been leaning against to interrupt the training session.

"I've told you before, certain Pokemon require a strong bond with their trainer in order to evolve."

"If it were another species, I might agree with you." Gavin wasn't beyond putting his Pokemon through harsh training, after all. They were trained to kill. "But the Riolu line are sensitive to auras and emotions."

His Lucario closes her eyes, seeming to concentrate as her aura sense pulses.

"It can feel your disappointment."

Just as his own had finally felt the growth of a bond between them, a fondness and affection to bridge the pain left by Faolan's fall.

"It'll want to impress you, sure, but that doesn't make it capable of evolution."

Raphael Pryde

He sounds like Father.

That isn't a good thing.

In shedding the shackles of a poor upbringing, Gavin has come to realise that his parents had treated him more like a prized trophy than a son. An object to be bragged about to others but never to praise directly.

"It's not about affection, it's about trust."

It's why the Lucario he'd used in the interim between Faolan's loss and the arrival of his Riolu pup had never quite meshed with him. Because,

"If it comes to trust someone else, it won't want to work with you. That's why I had to train her from a pup," with a flicked wrist toward his Lucario, who flicks her ears in response, "and stop relying on the one I'd received in a trade."

Raphael Pryde

"They're easily stressed. How do you expect it to perform properly if it knows you see it only as a tool? They can understand us, you know."

The sound that his Lucario makes is suspiciously akin to a chuckle, a growl rasped low in her throat. Gavin gives her a look that conveys a fond exasperation, then turns back to Raphael Pryde.

"They're a remarkable species whose potential would be wasted without the formation of a proper bond. It took the loss of my first for me to learn as much."

Perhaps Pryde would remember the Riolu that had once accompanied Gavin in the labs, the attentive and quiet pup who'd evolved into a Lucario several months after Gavin had joined Rocket. He hadn't realised it at the time, but his Riolu had evolved because he'd needed its support. Because it had felt the distress through his aura, and had wanted only to help.

His heart aches for Faolan even now; his new Lucario, as yet unnamed, senses the shift in his mood and watches him carefully.

"What do you hope to accomplish with auras? Perhaps we could help."

He inclines his head to his own Lucario.

Raphael Pryde

"Some children rebel."

It's pointed, but not malicious. He's furious with Raziel Beckett less so for his betrayal and more so for his refusal to stay out of Rocket's way after the fact. Raphael Pryde might've been ruthless with his sons but it was no different, in Gavin's mind, from how his own mentors had treated him.

Gavin inclines his head with the offered condolences.

"It gave its life in my defense. I didn't intend for a replacement, but..."

The female Lucario seems pleased by some unspoken notion, but her gaze soon narrows on Pryde as she realises the emptiness behind his words.

"Do you seek to understand the auras of avatars, then? As I understand it, they differ from that of ordinary people. I don't imagine mine is pleasant."

A sharp-edged smile precedes a swirl of miasma from his hand.

Raphael Pryde

Still a sore subject, Gavin imagines, and for good reason.

He drops it.

"I can fiddle with my power, sure, but I don't think I can turn off my aura. I don't think it works like that." He tilts his head. "You might want to talk to Adrian Malcolm if auras are your area of interest."

That Adrian was an avatar would certainly be known to one of Rocket's head scientists, though Gavin doesn't go into detail about the other's aura-sight. Let Raphael Pryde ask the relevant questions himself, if he cared to.

His jaw sets with misplaced anger at the mention of Lugia, a sharp intake of breath preceding a slower exhale.

He can feel her fury.

"She's been doing better after being struck by the absorber." Defiled. Disrespected. If she could wipe out every last one— "I've observed no particular negative side-effects on my own front, so if a darker 'aura' is all that comes of it, that's a plus."

He shrugs, indifferent.

It pleases him to learn that Adrian Malcolm had gone to Pryde and Lulu Flint for aid; though the other was volatile and didn't seem to agree with many of Rocket's methods, perhaps receiving assistance from their brightest minds might shift his favour.

Better that than to have the other turn on them, for it would likely mean trouble with Rowan Wrynn as well.

Pryde's next question sees Gavin hesitate.

Ordinarily, he'd have insisted that no, there were no changes in behavior. He was fine. He was always fine. But they were both men of science, and what better person to explore these abnormalities with than the objective head scientist?

"No extreme negatives," he amends, "but she has an effect on my mood. I can... feel her emotions, particularly when they're negative, and it can be a little distracting. Nothing I haven't been able to control."

A lie. He thinks back to the excursion beneath the tree, but doesn't mention it.