NOTES

Orion's arm, missing or metal, draws the eye of those who've not yet noticed its presence. To look and to wonder is natural, he knows, and yet the ranger's skin crawls whenever a gaze lingers on what he's not yet accepted as anything more than an imperfection. One day it'll feel just as much a part of you as anything else, his therapist had tried to encourage, but that was useless when that day had not yet come.

Thankfully, both for Orion and himself, Caleb Harcourt doesn't look for long.

As Altair bends his head to bump noses with the wispy white Zorua, Orion nods in response to the other ranger's inquiry. "He did. Guess you already know my name; that's Altair." He gestures with his flesh-and-blood hand toward the Absol, who seems to have deemed the Zorua a worthy companion based on the relaxed slope of his shoulders.

It was unprofessional to drink on the job. Once, Orion wouldn't have dreamed of it.

"Ah, thank fuck for that." Not only would it be a balm to their boredom, but it might loosen his anxieties as well. He was going to need that. "S'long as we're not too drunk to tell people to piss off the other way, I'm for it."

mission: sparkling spawning

NOTES

"Oh, good." Orion manages a brief smile. "Cheers, then."

Orion, too, has nothing but appreciation for Tam Fawley. The Ranger captain had saved him from the shame of forced retirement and even bailed him out of jail, for Arceus' sake. That he still had the job after that disaster was a miracle he owed to Tam alone.

Taking an experimental sniff of the beer when it's offered to him, Orion tips it back and chugs a few sips as Caleb Harcourt offers information on the brewery. Lowering the can from his lips, Orion nods. "Oh, yeah, I pass that place all the time. I live just outside of town." He cants his head in thought. "Never met the owner, though." That is is, as Caleb describes, a 'cute girl', means nothing to Orion.

He's not usually one for small-talk, but Caleb has won him over with beer and a laid-back attitude, so Orion indulges him.

"My whole life." He leaves out the suspension. "Was stationed in Fortree-Lilycove before, though. You?"

mission: sparkling spawning

NOTES

Caleb's aloof nature puts Orion more at ease; at least he won't be suffering through the night's duty with some goody-two-shoes suck-up. Not that there were many of those in the Slateport Squad. Tam Fawley attracted good people.

Disasters, some might say.

"Kanto." The word is heavy on his tongue. "M'sorry."

He doesn't know what Caleb went through in Kanto and doesn't feel the need to ask. Rocket had destroyed the region and its citizens. He doesn't need details to understand the horrors his fellow Ranger has left behind.

He laughs, gruff, when Tam's name comes up.

"Had no business hiring me, either. I'd got myself suspended for telling the wrong person where to shove it." The wrong person being one of his superiors, and not for the first time. Bad attitude his file read. "But I guess he saw something in me, cause he gave me a second chance. He's a good guy." Orion, too, bears the red badge and armband of a Cadet, but, "I used to be an Elite, if you could believe it. Before."

He makes a face, cracking open one of the beer cans and taking a long swig.

mission: sparkling spawning

NOTES

While Caleb seems to wear troublemaker like a mark of pride, Orion grimaces away from the title. "Yeah," he admits, begrudging. "Guess I am, now."

Now, because there had been a before, and was it wrong to long for the days when his superiors would've lauded his accomplishments rather than shaking their heads in shame? Honestly, his previous track record is probably the only reason Tam Fawley bothered to give him a second chance. It's like they're all waiting for him to get better, and here he is getting worse.

Alcohol will do nothing to improve him, and yet he drinks.

"It's not," he says. "A long story. I just yelled at the wrong people, and they were sick of my shit." Sick of the apologies that always came after, the vows to do better that never amounted to much. Shame sloshes with the alcohol in his gut. "So I got a tip for you: don't tell the senior rangers where they can shove it. They don't like that." He attempts to deflect with humour, but there's real pain behind the wry smile.

mission: sparkling spawning

NOTES

"Tell that to the prick that fired me." He shakes his head as if to dispel the gathering negative energy. "Tam's a lot more patient. I like that about him."

He often felt bad after losing his temper with Tam Fawley, which was more than he could say for a lot of people on whom he'd lost it. He was good to his rangers, even if they got frustrated with each other at times.

Thankfully for Caleb Harcourt, Orion can't begin to grasp the gravity of what the other ranger reveals.

"Well, I'm glad you got out of there. No use wasting your life where you're not appreciated." He'd felt like that on the council, he realises in hindsight. Overworked and underappreciated. The pay had been nice, but he finds he doesn't miss it. Following suit in cracking open his second beer, he adds, "How do you like being a Ranger, then?"

mission: sparkling spawning

NOTES

Plenty of jobs paid the bills. Plenty of jobs paid the bills better and for less work than being a Ranger; it was hard, in a region like Hoenn, considering it couldn't go a couple months without falling apart.

Caleb Harcourt's next answer is more genuine.

"It does feel good," he agrees, soft. "To help."

He was a disaster, after Rocket. His life had fallen apart around him. But above all else, he appreciated his fellow Rangers (most of them, anyway) for tolerating him through the hard times and reminding him of his worth. He could still help people.

"I'm sorry you had it rough before. But you're stuck with us, now." He smiles, awkward but genuine as he nudges the other. "Slateport gang, or whatever."

As to meeting outside of work? "I'd like that."

mission: sparkling spawning

NOTES