Cillian Quinn talks and Temp listens but his eyes are watching the Aerodactyl now. It watches him in return- or the treats, more accurately. Even if these pokemon were strange they still had their more base desires. And if they had those, then something in there could be trained. These weren't mindless beasts!

Temp tossed the pokemon a treat before he turned back to Gavin.

"I'll need to be strong in order to keep it under control." Gavin wouldn't always be there. That was the sad truth of it. He had to be able to carry himself, keep his own weight in order to keep it from causing any more mayhem.

"I want to be stronger, Cill." He offered a lopsided grin but there was a fire burning in his eyes. Temp had always been more subdued in his wants. His goals. Other than broad strokes, it was hard to pinpoint anything he was really aiming for. "Will you help me?"

As Temp tosses the treat, the Aerodactyl lets out a horrifying shriek as it launches itself from the ceiling, claws tearing the fluorescent light from its socket and plunging a section of the room into darkness. It snatches the small morsel from the air and beats its wings to catch itself before it hits the ground, talons scraping against the floor. It alights with a surprisingly gentle thump, beady eyes watching the couple as it swallows its prize.

Gavin looks up at the mangled light, wires trailing from the ceiling, and sighs.

But he turns back to his lover when Temp mentions getting stronger, feels a stirring of heat at the fire burning behind the other man's gaze. It takes a deal of effort not to grab him and kiss him, hard.

"Course I will." He licks his lips. "I'd do anything for you."

Tempest Quinn

Where Temp is getting fired up from the flickerings of his own desires being seeded, he doesn't miss the heat in Cillian Quinn's eyes. A small laugh and he can't help himself- he leans over to try and steal a quick, but heated and lingering, kiss. It's over too soon for his liking.

Temp sniffs and looks back out at the Shadow Pokemon, taking them in.

"Remember this is a sterile lab, mister smart guy."

A smirk.

"Show me what your smoke does."

For all his earlier protests about the sterile environment of the laboratory, Gavin is willing and eager when Temp leans in for a kiss. Whatever he might've said or thought about training is lost in a blaze of heat and passion as he lifts his hands to grip his lover's shoulders and hold him still to be devoured. There's a flicker of annoyance when Temp pulls back before he remembers what they'd been talking about and flushes pink beneath the other's teasing words.

"You kissed me," he accuses, as if he hadn't been thinking of doing the same.

With his heart racing, blood hot, it's all too easy to call upon his miasma and spread it through the room with a flourish of his arm. It dances as if before a breeze, swells up around the shadow Pokemon and obscures their finer features. They're nothing but shapes within the fog.

He steps into it himself, and Temp would see that same effect. Gavin's outline was distinct enough, tall and lithe, but it was impossible to discern his identity beyond his profile.

"Makes me quicker. S'why I don't use it when we spar." It was an unfair advantage, and he rather liked the rush that came from letting Temp have a fair shot. "And my Pokemon. They seem to get stronger, but I don't know that I'm any stronger."

A pause, a cheeky grin that Temp sadly won't see.

"We can test that out some time."

But today's not about that. "What kind of help did you want, anyway? Battling?"

Tempest Quinn

Temp doesn't answer, but Cillian Quinn would be able to feel the smug aura radiating off his fiance.

Instead, when the miasma is called upon, Temp leans down as if to scoop it in his hands. It fades through his fingers like smoke, which he expected, but he still watched with fascination as it curls around his fingers. The miasma was something he saw often enough, Gavin was a fog machine, but it was still always interesting to see. In a weird way, Temp was sad it didn't smell like anything. Maybe like Gavin's nice cologne or the cigarettes he smoked. But, well, neither of those would be good enough on their own.

He glances up and watches as the Pokemon vanish, as Gavin becomes more a shadow than a man. Temp whistles low, impressed, before he steps forward as if to step inside the miasma himself. Anyone else who saw this would be terrified. Instead, Temp allows it to wrap around him like a blanket.

"Battling, mostly. I've always relied on my fists. Being a Gym Leader has helped, but I can't stand up to very many people." At the end of the day, it didn't matter how he was with his fists. If his pokemon got taken down he'd be next to defenseless. It was a sobering thought.

It makes him smile to see Temp reach for the miasma instead of shrinking back. Fear was an excellent way to get others to do as you wished, but he'd never want his partner to fear him. Not like that.

He thinks of Emma, then, with less pain than before.

He steps forward in the miasma until he's barely a foot from Temp, bending it to his will so that they could see one another clearly.

"You know I wanted to be a Beast, once?" He might of mentioned it at some point during their friendship; it's hard to recall. So much of his ambition was internalized, then. "So I studied battling and tried to get better. Challenged a lot of the gyms, before my alias was compromised. I can teach you the stuff I learned."

Tempest Quinn

"I would like that." Quiet, whispered between them. He wonders if he tries to kiss Cillian Quinn right now if he would slip through his fingers, too.

"You mentioned it once or twice. I'm glad you're Underboss." He tries to think on what Gavin might have been like as a Beast instead of in charge. Would the organization be the same as now? Would Choi have even come back to fill that empty spot?

Temp tries to think of the currents Beasts. He'd not met all of them. Rowan Wrynn seemed nice. Serena Malcolm has probably seen his dick. Adrian Malcolm he knew more as 'Rowan's Boyfriend'. The other three he didn't know as well. bryan delarosa and Alexandra Briarwood were supposed to be pretty scary in their own ways, if rumors were true. oscar clayton was more a wild-card from what he had heard. Would Gavin had fit in with them? Would they have still been Beasts at all?

In the end, he shakes off the thought. It was as pointless as trying to eat a Lucky Egg; there wasn't any point in wondering about futures that hadn't happened.

His smile is brief, but genuine. "I'm glad, too."

Rocket meant so much to him. It was impossible to put it into words, but to be a leader in the organization he'd once blindly followed, to forge a brighter future for those who'd follow him? It was better, he thinks, than adopting the brute force of the Beasts. He admired him still, but he'd have never realised his potential to be more than Rocket's weapon if not for the power Cadis had placed in his hands. The power that Walsh, for whatever enigmatic reason, had let him keep.

He hopes the Beasts appreciate his reverence of them, all the same.

"That's settled, then. Hope you're ready for me to kick your ass. A lot."

He smirks, and steps forward to give Temp the kiss he's been wondering about.

Tempest Quinn