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Description

“You’ve been staring at those report folders for five minutes straight. What’s wrong?”

The inquiry snapped Rhames out from his thoughts as he found himself looking into a pair of baby blues which were staring up at him concernedly before shrugging broad shoulders as nonchalantly as he could.

“Just thinkin’ ‘bout some craic that happened over the weekend while I was explorin’. Ain’t nothin’ I wanna worry ye with, Charles. Came offa it unscathed as is.”

She pursed her lips at him in a thoughtful little frown, no doubt seeing through his Poker face at this point especially given the time they’d spent together to know that everything wasn’t as alright as he was trying to paint it before those nimble hands found the lapels of his scrubs once more so she could pull him into an empty side corridor as those same lips were pressed upon his in a soft, reassuring kiss.

“I’ve got a few minutes before I have to meet with the head neurosurgeon about cranial surgery for patient fifty-five. Tell me anyway.”
Said the surgeon quietly as she brushed back the strands of his hair from his face upon which a fond little grin was slowly tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“I will accushla, I promise. I just gotta take care of somethin’ first. Don’t wanna hold ye up from doin’ god’s work now, I’ll catch up with ye in yer office later aye?”
Rhames tipped her chin up gently so he could press another kiss just below her hairline and all he could think of was how complicated things already were here without bringing in the moral debate of having a possible wolf in sheep’s clothing within the PMC that had suddenly cropped up over the last few days.
She studied his face intently for a few seconds before holding out her pinky finger which he hooked with his own before they parted ways with a shared nod and he sighed softly as he watched her walk off down the corridor, gaze only shifting when she disappeared behind a door which was his cue to wrap up his errand before his break.
The patient folders were the last thing in his mind even as he delivered them to the nurses’ station however and that bothered him greatly; It was rare that anything got between him and his sense of duty here, and there was just something plain wrong about not being able to immerse himself in his work because of a voice.
One he’d unexpectedly recognized during a skirmish with a masked someone who had confronted him just long enough to allow a Shadow Aipom which he had been tracking down to escape before running off.
The pantry came to life with the sound of clattering plates and cutlery and the low hum of the microwave as he exited it ten minutes later with coffee and two plates of shepherd pie and headed for the smaller break room used mostly by the janitorial staff which was mostly empty at the moment save for a table at the farthest side of the room where a familiar face was slumped over in the chair, all but passed out over a folder of notes and page 445 of a medical textbook riddled with highlighter marks which had a diagram detailing the respiratory system of a Scyther.
“Thought I’d find ye here.”
He rumbled as he came closer to them and immediately the dozing intern whom he was certain at this point was juggling night courses alongside their shifts here jolted up like a bolt of lighting had suddenly ridden down their back.
“Had a good weekend?”
“I—-yeah. Good weekend. Definitely.”
Jason’s usual demeanour of weary, overworked and done with the majority of humanity was this time tinged with a kind of anxious wariness that made their eyes wider than usual, gaze darting swiftly from one side of the room to another as they squared their shoulders and gathered up the books and papers.
“I think I should get back to work.”
“We’re on break Jay, I dunno how long ye been pourin’ over that text but we ain’t needed back at the nurses’ station fer th’next twenty minutes which means food ‘cause ye look bloody knackered an’ me havin’ some burnin’ questions about yer cosplay hobby.”
The placidity never left Rhames’ face as he set down coffee and the plate of Shepherd Pie in front of intern who looked ready to bolt for the doors if given half a chance, but run where indeed?
“....I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jason shook their head and feigned confusion as they rubbed at their arm, clearly uncomfortable with where this discussion was heading.

“Mmhmm. Protip; uno, might wanna think of investin’ in one of those ZuBatman Begins voice distorter things next time ye point a taser at someone ye suffer 72-hour shifts with an’ tell ‘em to drop it like it’s hot.”
The older man pulled out a chair and sank into it, taking note of the little Dedenne who had popped out from inside Jason’s collar and was chittering away curiously.
“Dos, we rock the skunk stripe like champs but ninety-percent of the population won’t an’ that’s gonna turn yer ‘Wasn’t Me’ routine arseways when the boys in blue start callin’.”
He took a few bites from his own plate of food before gesturing with his fork at the small rodent now nestled on Jason’s shoulder who tilted their head to a side and pat their chest as though innocently asking “Who, me?”.
“Tres, I’m thinkin’ maybe a separate office team an’ ‘doin’ questionable shit’ team next time ‘cause yer lil’ buddy Sydney there is pretty one-of-a-kind---so nice if I saw him twice it’ll be Arceus’ flippin’ the whole game of charades in me face an’ callin’ it quits.”
Chewing through a mouthful of pie, he raised his eyebrows at the intern whose mouth was bobbing open and shut like a Magikarp, who raised a finger to retort before deflating thoroughly and then rubbed the back of their head with sheepish regret, all the while looking as though they wanted to sink into the floor there and then.

Meanwhile, the runty little nurse-aide Audino---Poppy, if he remembered correctly---who was previously been snoozing in the nearby chair had been roused from their slumber and let out a soft squeak of elated surprise at the plate of food that was set upon their end of the table which went untouched with Jason’s internal dilemma.

“I’m sorry. I swear, I wasn’t going to y’know. Use it on you. I just couldn’t...let you catch that Aipom.”
The intern admitted quietly with eyes downcast after minutes had passed with them stewing over the situation and the guilt seemed to be a little too much to gloss over with another lie.
“Fair ‘nuff. Why?”

Rhames went on; If Jason had been expecting any shift to his demeanor, there was none to be had other than curiosity.

“....I’ve seen what happened to Lazarus. Read the files, I mean.”
This time Jason raised his gaze to meet Rhames’ and there was a little move conviction behind their words even if their emotions were near-impossible to read.
“He didn’t deserve that, and I didn’t want it happening to your team again.”
There was a sudden twinge of raw hurt as Rhames drank in silence from his coffee cup for a few seconds, the frustration twitching away at the corner of his mouth which he felt at still being unable to figure out how to heal the now aloof and aggressive Aerodactyl hidden behind its cover.
“Lazarus was attacked by an Ursaring jus’ like that in the wild Jay, that’s why I was trackin’ it down. Ain’t want some other trainer have to deal with that.”
He spoke solemnly as he set the cup down and steepled his fingers.
“If y’wanted t’stop that from happenin’ again I can respect that aight but maybe let’s work on snaggin’ ‘em next time ‘stead a’ lettin’ ‘em run loose.”
“Yeah...I get that.”
Jason nodded in a kind of defeated agreement even as their fingernails left marks in the lacquer of the wooden table with how hard they were gripping it and the bit their bottom lip before the quiet of the break room was broken by the sound of their chair scraping backwards.
“Sorry. I just….I’ll go pack my stuff.”
“Aye, ye do that but if ye’re makin’ one of the closets a secret office or summat, I gotta warn ye about the one two doors away from the unused pantry on the west wing of the Lower Ground. Me an’ Charles got dibs on that one.”
Rhames warned them over the rim of his coffee cup as he took another draught of its streaming contents while watching the younger man’s expression jump through hoops while the gears were whirring away in their head to make sense of the situation.
“...You’re not going telling them, are you?”

Jason verbalized after what seemed like an eternity of ruminating over the reply to the point where it wasn’t a question anymore so much as it was a statement, and to that Rhames tilted his head to a side accommodatingly.

“An’ lose one of the few competent interns we got? Ha. Look, why ye’re hangin’ around Zephyr is lost on me and I ain’t gonna pry but I do know that people have reasons fer doin’ whatever the hell it is they do and ye don’t seem like a ‘shits an’ giggles’ kinda git.”
The former Unovan set the cup down and leaned forward on crossed arms, keeping a steely gaze levelled with Jason’s own.
“I ain’t daft enough t’ take away yer chance at fendin’ fer yeself an’ yer team once ye make the choice tae leave.”
“What makes you think I’m going to leave?”
The young man’s eyes narrowed and the words came out defensive; Rhames could almost see the walls being put up once more and he knew the rest of the sentence which would remain unspoken.
You don’t know me.
Don’t pretend to know me.

“‘Cause I did, nine years ago when it came down t’ Team Plasma or me daughter.”
He replied with the ghost of a humorless smirk, setting down the cards in he held close to his chest which were in essence, not so different from Jason’s own. He didn’t know how much the intern might have picked up from the way he was treated a little differently than the rest of the staff here---like he was combination of an unexploded ordnance and defanged dog---and he wasn’t sure if words had somehow gotten to Jason beforehand, but if there was a time to be honest with a student he was growing fond of about who he was before he donned these scrubs, it was now.
“‘Cause it’s only pointin’ tasers at people now. It might be extortions tomorrow, breakin’ knees the next week, murder two months from now. Ye done stopped t’ gander where the rabbit hole ends an’ how far it might take ye from the oath ye pledged here?”
He let it sink in for a moment; Thing was, he didn’t know Jason---not nearly enough to make any assumption on the younger man’s character asides the fact that they gave a shit and worked harder than any intern he’d ever been saddled with which made it hard to imagine that the only reason this young man was here was because they were using it as cover for something else, but he knew what cults sounded like and he knew how they worked and it would have been a lie to say that Zephyr didn’t give him a horrific case of deja vu, both in their promises and the people they had a knack for drawing in.

He’d made the mistake once.

He wasn’t going to sit back and let it happen again to someone else, not if he could help it but he had to toe the fine line of letting them figure out the situation for themselves.

“Maybe I’m wrong, ain’t about t’be an olagonin’ Holy Joe ‘bout this shite, but I’ll give ye the same lock-hard I gave t’someone yer age years back. Find yer own truth; Not mine, not Zephyr’s, not the League’s. I’m claimin’ plausible deniability if they come sniffin’ round the station fer breadcrumbs leadin’ back t’ye as long as ye promise me that much.”
The veteran’s tone was fully serious now as he pointed at Jason and more specifically the space just above the intern’s heart before upturning his palm into a proffered handshake as his expression softened.
“An’ if y’need anythin’ t’help ye get there, ye come tae me.”
The younger man’s brows were knotted tightly as they stared at the outstretched hand with bated breath, gaze occasionally flickering back to Rhames’ own perhaps to see any sign of this being a ruse, a trick to ship them off to the authorities which amused the older man slightly if only for the notion that he had anything resembling good rapport with the authorities.
“Yeah. Yeah alright.”
There was still uncertainty in Jason’s tone as they cautiously accepted the gesture though the earnestness in their voice was hard to dismiss as they set their jaw firmly and looked him in the eye before adding,
“Thanks.”
“Brilliant.”
Rhames allowed himself a small but warm smile as he then tipped his chin at the Audino who had taken the opportunity to silently munch through half of Jason’s shepherd pie while the people around her were engaged in conversation, and she made a little meep of apology when she realized the attention was now upon her.
“Now get some o’ the good stuff in ye before Bunny Nightingale here does ye dirty.”

_______________________________________________________

In which Rhames has a small talk with a protege he hopes won't go as wayward as he did during his youth. I'm wholly amused by Jason and Rhames' accidental similarites which I'm here for 720% :'3

Level Count, EXP Share on!
Poppy and Sydney earn +14Lvls (Shaded Fullbody + Shaded Fullbody Trainer + Detailed BG) & 1 Friendship each from Art!
Poppy and Sydney earn +4Lvls & 1 Friendship each from Literature!
Sydney is already Lvl100!

Rhames earns +12 Gift Levels from art!
Rhames earns +8Lvls from Literature (2000+ words) and +4 Gift Levels for Jason's cameo!

Description

“You’ve been staring at those report folders for five minutes straight. What’s wrong?”

The inquiry snapped Rhames out from his thoughts as he found himself looking into a pair of baby blues which were staring up at him concernedly before shrugging broad shoulders as nonchalantly as he could.

“Just thinkin’ ‘bout some craic that happened over the weekend while I was explorin’. Ain’t nothin’ I wanna worry ye with, Charles. Came offa it unscathed as is.”

She pursed her lips at him in a thoughtful little frown, no doubt seeing through his Poker face at this point especially given the time they’d spent together to know that everything wasn’t as alright as he was trying to paint it before those nimble hands found the lapels of his scrubs once more so she could pull him into an empty side corridor as those same lips were pressed upon his in a soft, reassuring kiss.

“I’ve got a few minutes before I have to meet with the head neurosurgeon about cranial surgery for patient fifty-five. Tell me anyway.”
Said the surgeon quietly as she brushed back the strands of his hair from his face upon which a fond little grin was slowly tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“I will accushla, I promise. I just gotta take care of somethin’ first. Don’t wanna hold ye up from doin’ god’s work now, I’ll catch up with ye in yer office later aye?”
Rhames tipped her chin up gently so he could press another kiss just below her hairline and all he could think of was how complicated things already were here without bringing in the moral debate of having a possible wolf in sheep’s clothing within the PMC that had suddenly cropped up over the last few days.
She studied his face intently for a few seconds before holding out her pinky finger which he hooked with his own before they parted ways with a shared nod and he sighed softly as he watched her walk off down the corridor, gaze only shifting when she disappeared behind a door which was his cue to wrap up his errand before his break.
The patient folders were the last thing in his mind even as he delivered them to the nurses’ station however and that bothered him greatly; It was rare that anything got between him and his sense of duty here, and there was just something plain wrong about not being able to immerse himself in his work because of a voice.
One he’d unexpectedly recognized during a skirmish with a masked someone who had confronted him just long enough to allow a Shadow Aipom which he had been tracking down to escape before running off.
The pantry came to life with the sound of clattering plates and cutlery and the low hum of the microwave as he exited it ten minutes later with coffee and two plates of shepherd pie and headed for the smaller break room used mostly by the janitorial staff which was mostly empty at the moment save for a table at the farthest side of the room where a familiar face was slumped over in the chair, all but passed out over a folder of notes and page 445 of a medical textbook riddled with highlighter marks which had a diagram detailing the respiratory system of a Scyther.
“Thought I’d find ye here.”
He rumbled as he came closer to them and immediately the dozing intern whom he was certain at this point was juggling night courses alongside their shifts here jolted up like a bolt of lighting had suddenly ridden down their back.
“Had a good weekend?”
“I—-yeah. Good weekend. Definitely.”
Jason’s usual demeanour of weary, overworked and done with the majority of humanity was this time tinged with a kind of anxious wariness that made their eyes wider than usual, gaze darting swiftly from one side of the room to another as they squared their shoulders and gathered up the books and papers.
“I think I should get back to work.”
“We’re on break Jay, I dunno how long ye been pourin’ over that text but we ain’t needed back at the nurses’ station fer th’next twenty minutes which means food ‘cause ye look bloody knackered an’ me havin’ some burnin’ questions about yer cosplay hobby.”
The placidity never left Rhames’ face as he set down coffee and the plate of Shepherd Pie in front of intern who looked ready to bolt for the doors if given half a chance, but run where indeed?
“....I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jason shook their head and feigned confusion as they rubbed at their arm, clearly uncomfortable with where this discussion was heading.

“Mmhmm. Protip; uno, might wanna think of investin’ in one of those ZuBatman Begins voice distorter things next time ye point a taser at someone ye suffer 72-hour shifts with an’ tell ‘em to drop it like it’s hot.”
The older man pulled out a chair and sank into it, taking note of the little Dedenne who had popped out from inside Jason’s collar and was chittering away curiously.
“Dos, we rock the skunk stripe like champs but ninety-percent of the population won’t an’ that’s gonna turn yer ‘Wasn’t Me’ routine arseways when the boys in blue start callin’.”
He took a few bites from his own plate of food before gesturing with his fork at the small rodent now nestled on Jason’s shoulder who tilted their head to a side and pat their chest as though innocently asking “Who, me?”.
“Tres, I’m thinkin’ maybe a separate office team an’ ‘doin’ questionable shit’ team next time ‘cause yer lil’ buddy Sydney there is pretty one-of-a-kind---so nice if I saw him twice it’ll be Arceus’ flippin’ the whole game of charades in me face an’ callin’ it quits.”
Chewing through a mouthful of pie, he raised his eyebrows at the intern whose mouth was bobbing open and shut like a Magikarp, who raised a finger to retort before deflating thoroughly and then rubbed the back of their head with sheepish regret, all the while looking as though they wanted to sink into the floor there and then.

Meanwhile, the runty little nurse-aide Audino---Poppy, if he remembered correctly---who was previously been snoozing in the nearby chair had been roused from their slumber and let out a soft squeak of elated surprise at the plate of food that was set upon their end of the table which went untouched with Jason’s internal dilemma.

“I’m sorry. I swear, I wasn’t going to y’know. Use it on you. I just couldn’t...let you catch that Aipom.”
The intern admitted quietly with eyes downcast after minutes had passed with them stewing over the situation and the guilt seemed to be a little too much to gloss over with another lie.
“Fair ‘nuff. Why?”

Rhames went on; If Jason had been expecting any shift to his demeanor, there was none to be had other than curiosity.

“....I’ve seen what happened to Lazarus. Read the files, I mean.”
This time Jason raised his gaze to meet Rhames’ and there was a little move conviction behind their words even if their emotions were near-impossible to read.
“He didn’t deserve that, and I didn’t want it happening to your team again.”
There was a sudden twinge of raw hurt as Rhames drank in silence from his coffee cup for a few seconds, the frustration twitching away at the corner of his mouth which he felt at still being unable to figure out how to heal the now aloof and aggressive Aerodactyl hidden behind its cover.
“Lazarus was attacked by an Ursaring jus’ like that in the wild Jay, that’s why I was trackin’ it down. Ain’t want some other trainer have to deal with that.”
He spoke solemnly as he set the cup down and steepled his fingers.
“If y’wanted t’stop that from happenin’ again I can respect that aight but maybe let’s work on snaggin’ ‘em next time ‘stead a’ lettin’ ‘em run loose.”
“Yeah...I get that.”
Jason nodded in a kind of defeated agreement even as their fingernails left marks in the lacquer of the wooden table with how hard they were gripping it and the bit their bottom lip before the quiet of the break room was broken by the sound of their chair scraping backwards.
“Sorry. I just….I’ll go pack my stuff.”
“Aye, ye do that but if ye’re makin’ one of the closets a secret office or summat, I gotta warn ye about the one two doors away from the unused pantry on the west wing of the Lower Ground. Me an’ Charles got dibs on that one.”
Rhames warned them over the rim of his coffee cup as he took another draught of its streaming contents while watching the younger man’s expression jump through hoops while the gears were whirring away in their head to make sense of the situation.
“...You’re not going telling them, are you?”

Jason verbalized after what seemed like an eternity of ruminating over the reply to the point where it wasn’t a question anymore so much as it was a statement, and to that Rhames tilted his head to a side accommodatingly.

“An’ lose one of the few competent interns we got? Ha. Look, why ye’re hangin’ around Zephyr is lost on me and I ain’t gonna pry but I do know that people have reasons fer doin’ whatever the hell it is they do and ye don’t seem like a ‘shits an’ giggles’ kinda git.”
The former Unovan set the cup down and leaned forward on crossed arms, keeping a steely gaze levelled with Jason’s own.
“I ain’t daft enough t’ take away yer chance at fendin’ fer yeself an’ yer team once ye make the choice tae leave.”
“What makes you think I’m going to leave?”
The young man’s eyes narrowed and the words came out defensive; Rhames could almost see the walls being put up once more and he knew the rest of the sentence which would remain unspoken.
You don’t know me.
Don’t pretend to know me.

“‘Cause I did, nine years ago when it came down t’ Team Plasma or me daughter.”
He replied with the ghost of a humorless smirk, setting down the cards in he held close to his chest which were in essence, not so different from Jason’s own. He didn’t know how much the intern might have picked up from the way he was treated a little differently than the rest of the staff here---like he was combination of an unexploded ordnance and defanged dog---and he wasn’t sure if words had somehow gotten to Jason beforehand, but if there was a time to be honest with a student he was growing fond of about who he was before he donned these scrubs, it was now.
“‘Cause it’s only pointin’ tasers at people now. It might be extortions tomorrow, breakin’ knees the next week, murder two months from now. Ye done stopped t’ gander where the rabbit hole ends an’ how far it might take ye from the oath ye pledged here?”
He let it sink in for a moment; Thing was, he didn’t know Jason---not nearly enough to make any assumption on the younger man’s character asides the fact that they gave a shit and worked harder than any intern he’d ever been saddled with which made it hard to imagine that the only reason this young man was here was because they were using it as cover for something else, but he knew what cults sounded like and he knew how they worked and it would have been a lie to say that Zephyr didn’t give him a horrific case of deja vu, both in their promises and the people they had a knack for drawing in.

He’d made the mistake once.

He wasn’t going to sit back and let it happen again to someone else, not if he could help it but he had to toe the fine line of letting them figure out the situation for themselves.

“Maybe I’m wrong, ain’t about t’be an olagonin’ Holy Joe ‘bout this shite, but I’ll give ye the same lock-hard I gave t’someone yer age years back. Find yer own truth; Not mine, not Zephyr’s, not the League’s. I’m claimin’ plausible deniability if they come sniffin’ round the station fer breadcrumbs leadin’ back t’ye as long as ye promise me that much.”
The veteran’s tone was fully serious now as he pointed at Jason and more specifically the space just above the intern’s heart before upturning his palm into a proffered handshake as his expression softened.
“An’ if y’need anythin’ t’help ye get there, ye come tae me.”
The younger man’s brows were knotted tightly as they stared at the outstretched hand with bated breath, gaze occasionally flickering back to Rhames’ own perhaps to see any sign of this being a ruse, a trick to ship them off to the authorities which amused the older man slightly if only for the notion that he had anything resembling good rapport with the authorities.
“Yeah. Yeah alright.”
There was still uncertainty in Jason’s tone as they cautiously accepted the gesture though the earnestness in their voice was hard to dismiss as they set their jaw firmly and looked him in the eye before adding,
“Thanks.”
“Brilliant.”
Rhames allowed himself a small but warm smile as he then tipped his chin at the Audino who had taken the opportunity to silently munch through half of Jason’s shepherd pie while the people around her were engaged in conversation, and she made a little meep of apology when she realized the attention was now upon her.
“Now get some o’ the good stuff in ye before Bunny Nightingale here does ye dirty.”

_______________________________________________________

In which Rhames has a small talk with a protege he hopes won't go as wayward as he did during his youth. I'm wholly amused by Jason and Rhames' accidental similarites which I'm here for 720% :'3

Level Count, EXP Share on!
Poppy and Sydney earn +14Lvls (Shaded Fullbody + Shaded Fullbody Trainer + Detailed BG) & 1 Friendship each from Art!
Poppy and Sydney earn +4Lvls & 1 Friendship each from Literature!
Sydney is already Lvl100!

Rhames earns +12 Gift Levels from art!
Rhames earns +8Lvls from Literature (2000+ words) and +4 Gift Levels for Jason's cameo!