Troublesome Woman(Clarisse)

[alexander blackrock]

Here he was, heading to the damn research area again, this was the eighth time within two days. It was starting to become something of a routine for him, which was pretty bad. Entering the research center, he stood with cigarette between lips, looking at the woman. "So, what did you break this time?" His tone was slightly irritated, with the constant breaking of equipment.

"I swear, I still don't buy that you're a scientist, woman. You break too many damn things," he looked her over with a suspicious glance. It was really hard to imagine her not being an idiot, and actually doing something productive. Shaking his head slightly, he turned to see Tyr standing behind him with the toolkit. Tyr apparently liked to help him with the job, so he let him carry the tools.

Turning to the woman, he tilted his head, "Did you only break one thing this time, or do I have a full day of work ahead of me?" Might as well figure out how long he's going to be here, right? A sigh escaping his lips he pointed to a table, that was pretty clear, "Set the stuff over there, Tyr. We'll get to work soon." Following Alex's direction, he set it on the table, waiting before he would be working.

Taking the cigarette, he put it out against the bottom of his shoe, to get ready for work. He couldn't have the smoke distracting him, especially if he needed to fix one of the bigger machines in the lab. An annoyed expression as he waited for an answer from Clarisse, who he 'affectionately' nicknamed ditz.

[CLARISSE WEATHERS]

"M-Marisa!" the woman wailed, staring in horror at the broken machinery. "I think I did it again!" The blue, serpentine pokemon calmly made its way to her trainer, regarding the mess on the ground. The dragon shot her trainer a look that Clarisse knew full well -- what did you do? "I just was walking, and my foot caught on the table leg, and I fell!" Clarisse paused. "Okay, and I dragged the microscope down with me." She glanced despairingly at the destroyed piece of equipment. It couldn't even be called equipment anymore -- just so much glass and metal on the floor.

Shaking her head, Marisa floated to the wall, where the dragon pressed a button with her nose. Clarisse noticed what her pokemon was doing, and made a face. It was the button to call for a technician to repair something -- and, to be completely honest, Hurricane Clarisse was the woman who used it the most. "It's not my fault I trip over everything and lose all of the papers we need," she mumbled under her breath. When it came to long strands of DNA, Clarisse could name and identify the individual genes faster and more accurately than any scientist on Area Eleven.

Unfortunately, when it came to gross motor skills, she was notoriously clumsy.

Not to say that Clarisse wasn't athletic! The woman loved sports! It was a well-known fact that the busybody ditz was the one everyone wanted on their basketball team.

Too bad she couldn't walk three feet without breaking something.

As the technician walked in, Clarisse noted that it was Alexander Blackrock, cigarette and all. Smiling, she said, "We seem to be seeing a lot of each other lately, huh?" His irritated tone wiped the smile from her face, to be replaced with a sheepish expression that didn't last very long. His doubt at her skills made Clarisse puff up in indignation. "Hey! I could fix that microscope perfectly fine on my own!" She shot a withering glare at her Dragonair, who made a point of busying herself around the room, as far from her owner as possible. "It's just that Marisa presses the 'call' button and won't let me get anywhere near those glass shards."

She stepped aside to show the broken pieces of microscope on the floor. "This is what needs to be fixed," she said, still rather miffed. "It shouldn't take you that long -- the glass is all smashed, but you should know where the replacement lenses are." After all, this was the third microscope she had broken in a week. Clarisse leaned against the wall, regarding him thoughtfully. "Hey, Alex, do you --" she cut herself off. "Oh, nevermind. I shouldn't distract you from work."

NOTES hurricane clarisse strikes again!
TAGS alexander blackrock!

[alexander blackrock]

Raising an eyebrow slightly at her happy greeting, he shook his head, "Only because you seem to be able to break anything within a ten foot radius of you." Although, he was sure that the range was a bit more than that even. When she let out an indignant huff at his comment, before saying she could fix it, he raised an eyebrow. "Really? You could fix it without breaking it more or breaking anything else in the process?" a bit of a more teasing comment, but still with a normal tone of voice. Making it harder to tell, that it was just a bit of a tease towards her. Tyr was able to pick up on it though, causing him to grin a bit at Alex. Shaking his head slightly, he glanced at his Garchomp, before giving a slight glare, that told him to keep quiet, to which Tyr responded with a sly smirk. Great, this was going to be an interesting day here. "I'm sure I understand Marisa's concern. She's afraid you'd wind up cutting yourself up with your clumsiness, Ditz."

The affectionate nickname that he had donned for her, it was so appropriate as well. It was a wonder how this woman had actually survived with being so clumsy her entire life. "Hm, poor microscope again, eh? It gets so beaten up, alright I'll fix it up in no time," he walked over to where the spare lenses were kept and took one to replace the broken one. Taking the microscope, he took out out a tool from his toolbox, beginning to go to work on the thing. It wouldn't take him long at all, really.

Then she spoke up about something, before cutting herself off, which was always so weird. Shaking his head slightly, "Just say or ask whatever it is you want. I can concentrate on more than one thing at a time." All thanks to that asshole of a father of his, but sometimes his skills came in quite handy. "What do you need?" a softer way of asking, he was starting to get used to her, with how long he'd been coming by. Hell, he probably spent more time with her than anywhere else.

[CLARISSE WEATHERS]

Clarisse found the slight to her skills offensive. She opened her mouth to object when she realized that, to Marisa, the threat of her cutting herself on the glass was entirely real. "So what if I'm clumsy?" she muttered to herself. Yeah, yeah, so she did earn herself the nickname 'ditz,' but it wasn't like the damage she did was irreversible. Usually.

As he said for her to continue her question, Clarisse found that she had already forgotten it. "... Well ..." she began hesitantly. The woman sighed, exasperated. "One second, I seem to have forgotten my questio -- oh, no, wait. Here it is again." Thinking carefully before she said the question (because she couldn't take back any slips of the tongue, as much as she would try to), Clarisse slowly said, "Why are you here?" The woman paused, then realized that her question was the worst question in the history of existence.

"I don't mean here, in the room, fixing the microscope," she added hastily. "I meant, er, here, at Area Eleven." Well, the answer to that one was obvious -- he was born here, just like everyone else. His parents escaped Earth to survive, just as her parents did. Clarisse shook her head, exasperated. "Oh, this is coming out all wrong!" She dismissively waved her hand at him. "Continue working while I figure out how to spit this out."

She carefully leaned against the wall. There was a long pause as the woman thought. "How did your parents get on the space station?" she finally said. "Did they pay? Or ... were they technicians, like you?" Clarisse, the oblivious woman she was, didn't consider the fact that his story might have been a bit painful for him. Then again, nearly everyone's story was painful, one way or another. Clarisse fell into thought about her own parents and her younger half-sister. They weren't pleasant memories, to be honest. Clarisse still held a grudge against her mother, and didn't even talk to her sister.

Clarisse didn't think her sister was even aware of their relationship.

NOTES awkward clarisse.
TAGS alexander blackrock!

[alexander blackrock]

Shaking his head, he figured she would eventually get the idea of it. Not only the Pokemon was worried about her really, he had started too as well with how many accidents surrounded her. Of course, he wouldn't openly admit to that either. Although, it was becoming a bit harder to be so annoyed at her as well. He was just adjusting to the way she acted, and that was a weird thing for him.

It wasn't hard for him to concentrate on fixing the microscope and listening to her at the same time. With a few twists of the screwdriver, he had managed to take the thing apart and replace the lens. It was somewhat amusing to listen to the way she got flustered over the question she asked as well. He remained silent though, until she finally got the words she wanted out. "I understood what you meant from the beginning, Ditz. Don't worry about it," he tried to get her to relax. Plus, the nickname was always fun for him.

"My parents paid to get aboard the ship, they only had skills for business and buying things with their money," his tone was level. Despite that, there was still a hint of dislike towards them both. "They just paid other people to cram knowledge into me, as well as other things," he shrugged slightly. "I only liked learning about repairing things though, and I had a knack for it," he spoke, finishing working on the microscope and putting it back together now.

"I had a lot of things beaten into me while I was a kid, but I still liked figuring out how things worked and how to repair them," he shrugged slightly, placing the microscope back now. "It's the reason I'm working two jobs now," he turned his head towards Clarisse now, though his expression was still the same as when he arrived. "Anything else that needs fixing?" Tyr looked at Alex though, a hint of sadness in the Garchomp's eyes.

[CLARISSE WEATHERS]

"Stop calling me Ditz," Clarisse remarked light-heartedly. "And if you understood me from the beginning, why didn't you say so?" It would have made things a lot easier on the woman -- she hated being misunderstood, just because it wasted so much time. Unfortunately for her, Clarisse tended to say things without thinking about them, so people didn't understand her most of the time. Clarisse didn't push the point further, though. What was done was done, it was best to get over it and move on.

As Alex spoke about his parents, the hairs at the back of her neck tingled slightly. Was it just her, or did the man seem ... bitter? Nah, Clarisse reasoned. It was probably just her overactive imagination. People always told her that her thoughts tended to be crazy. His words made Clarisse frown slightly. "Cram knowledge into you?" she echoed. Clarisse was about to snap something about how irresponsible is parents were -- leaving his education to someone else -- when he continued on, unknowingly quieting her objections.

The pink-haired woman thought about his words, about how he enjoyed doing what he was doing (although he had enough knowledge and talent to do something else), and couldn't help but think of herself. Her parents were both scientists, but neither of them wanted to see their daughter grow up with her nose in the books. Her mother was especially against it, although Clari didn't really see why her mother cared about her at all. It was her mother who had decided to cheat and run off with her other daughter.

As a result, she grew up in the around-six-hundred population of the space station seeing her mother play with her other daughter and boyfriend, whereas Clarisse had a father who had spent all of his time in the lab instead of with Clarisse.

Was she bitter? Oh, yeah.

Lost in thought, she blinked as Alex spoke again. "What?" she replied absentmindedly. "Oh, no." The woman shook her head, trying to shove the unplesantness out of her heart. "Nothing else for you to fix ... yet." Clarisse glanced at the fixed microscope, then sighed. "You're probably going to see me again soon ..." she muttered. A thought struck her.

Clarisse looked at Alexander. "Know what?" she said, grinning. "I think I've worked enough today." She carefully walked over to the man, then took his hand and began to walk toward the door. Determined, she added, "We need a break from work, and I think we both know that you won't take a break unless someone drags you." Marisa watched her mistress with amusement, then began to float along after the two humans. "So, I'm going to drag you somewhere where we can have some fun, because Arceus knows I need it." Demanding woman she was.

NOTES I'm so so so sorry this took so long.
TAGS alexander blackrock!