Futuristic 𝗘𝗩𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘 ◑ Welcome to Rotek

[smolfluffball]

(Private RP between me and Lioness075 . Characters from this RP.)

He forgot his phone at Rotek. It had been so stupid and careless, and even slightly reckless, but he had set it down in the gym and hadn't thought to pick it up. He hardly ever left his phone behind, since it had served as a lifeline for him multiple times before. His mind must have been somewhere else after he left. Maybe on his sister, or on getting back home by himself, or on what he was going to do with his dog while he was staying at the dorms. Before, it hadn't been a problem, because his sister was always home. She graduated, though, and had wanted to travel for a little while, and Frey would never stop her from following her dreams. His parents had taken the opportunity to go visit a different planet as well, and they had entrusted the family dog (which was honestly more like his dog) to the older brother. It wasn't a problem, really, at all. He just needed to figure out how to make the walk back to Eneo every day, so he could take care of his dog.

Once he found his phone, he'd map out a path to get back home. A populated path, that was always busy and full of people. Maybe he'd go along rooflines or change into a bird to get home more quickly, and unnoticed. He'd just need to see what kind of news there was in the districts he'd have to travel through - if there were anymore attacks, or kidnappings, or anything like that. He really didn't want to be caught again.

He sighed when he saw the front doors to get into Rotek, but then he noticed a person in front of the institution. They had really pale hair. Was it natural? An alien, maybe? Or an android? Or maybe it was a human who had managed to bleach their hair to white? Frey didn't really think that was possible, since he had tried it back in his teens and failed spectacularly, but maybe this person had managed to do it. A small part of Frey's brain told him to approach with caution, because this stranger might be dangerous, might be out to harm someone. He ignored it. The white-haired person was in front of Rotek. He was sure it'd be fine.

"Hey there, stranger," Frey said, moving over to them. When he got closer, he could see it was a girl. He smiled at her. "Are you a new recruit? Can I help you with something?"

 

[Lioness075]

The sun had been bright and seemingly unforgiving all morning. Lara was holding a small parasol, a simple while one with kawaii cats lounging and rolling all over it. She had wanted to simply put her hood over her head, but had decided against it since the day really did not call for warmer attire and she knew she may be getting looks even without the hood up. Even now, she subconsciously tugged at her sleeve with her free hand. She knew her makeup would probably keep most from looking at her too long, but her strikingly white hair made her stand out in any crowd. She could only hope the parasol angled down a bit behind her alleviated most stares.

Turning the corner, Lara found herself nearing the entrance to Rotek. She did not feel like she was all too prepared for this. She still was not entirely sure what this was. She had been invited here to join a team, but everything had been so hush-hush that she was still uncertain as to why she had so readily agreed to leave her life behind, including her twin brother. Her heart ached at the reminder of feeling so alone now. Her cat was waiting for her, but it was not quite the same as having her brother at her side as well. Things were complicated between them, sure, but he was still her twin.

Lara was still lost in her thoughts when someone suddenly approached her. She blinked out of her stupor and turned to face the boy, her eyes hidden behind small square metal sunglasses. She looked over the boy and instinctively smiled back, relieved to see a friendly face in her moment of uncertainty.
She could tell by his accent that he definitely lived around here. She had to wonder how he might react to her own accent.
"Hey there, mate. Yeah, I'm one of the new recruits. I admittedly am a bit uncertain of where I should be right now."
Glancing back at the front doors and then at the boy, Lara added, "Oh, sorry, I should probably introduce myself, yeah? I'm Lara. What's ya name?"

smolfluffball

 

[smolfluffball]

She was a new recruit. He was glad he hadn't listened to his fear. A new recruit, standing in front of the doors, who had no idea where to go. Frey glanced at the sliding glass door and nodded. Rotek wasn't the smallest place around, and it was easy to get lost if you weren't familiar with where everything was. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Lara." He smiled again. "I can show you around if you want me to, then I can drop you off with Mr. Hawkins. He's our boss."

He had noticed her accent, of course, but he knew that there were some aliens that took on accents to better blend in to human society. His best friend, and her twin brother, did, and Mars was a British android. Her accent sounded like it came from down under. He recognized it from that one actor his parents were friends with. She could be an android, maybe. Or her hair could be natural, perhaps. Humans with pale hair existed on Earth, he knew they had a certain name, but he had never met one before. He was sure talking with her would elucidate the truth. He was kind of good at figuring out if people were aliens or androids or humans.

It didn't matter to him, though, whatever she was. Lara was a new recruit, and he wanted her to feel welcome to Rotek.

"I'm Frey Bardot." He held his hand out to shake, grinning. "Welcome to Rotek. Do you know what squad you're going to be on?" he asked. She didn't seem like she'd be on onyx, but Fifi was on onyx, and she was not the toughest looking person out there. If she was on gold, he'd have to make sure to tell her all about his teammates, and give her a tiny warning about how difficult Torin could be to deal with. She might be on platinum, too. She seemed like she could be a small brainiac or something.

 

[Lioness075]

Pleased to know she had found a friendly face among so many strangers, Lara nodded at Frey and waited for him to lead the way. She knew what Rotek allowed the general public to know about them in addition the pamphlet they had sent to her, but she still highly suspected there was more to this place than it was showing. After all, she had worked for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, or ASIS, back home. She was even more curious to know how technologically advanced Rotek was, given the supposed stance of saving the world and having heroes on its teams.

As Frey introduced himself and held out a hand, Lara grasped his hand with her own, her pale skin painfully obvious against his. It never mattered how pale anyone else was, she always stood out in comparison. She grimaced at the sight and quickly withdrew her hand, shoving it into the pocket of her sweatshirt. If they did not go inside soon, she would need to swap out her hands for holding the parasol.

Not wanting to be rude, but feeling a bit antsy now, Lara began walking towards the front doors while she responded to Frey. She hoped he would instinctively follow after her and then take the lead once they were inside.

"Teams? Oh! Yeah, I'm on Platinum. The description basically screamed we're the nerds to me. Which I'm definitely a nerd, so that works out!"
Lara laughed at her own joke and then stepped through the sliding doors, relieved to be able to close her parasol and slip it between a strap on her purple and white backpack.
Pausing to take in the sight of the lobby area, Lara swept her gaze around in awe and then finally returned her gaze to Frey. She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, realizing she was definitely putting off tourist or newbie vibes.

"Right, so where to, tour guide?"

 

[smolfluffball]

Oh, her hand was very pale. Frey didn't pay it much attention, but he did notice how quickly she pulled her hand back, and the expression that quickly flitted across her face. Maybe she was feeling self-conscious about how light her skin was, or maybe she didn't like touching people very much. Though, if she didn't, then she hadn't needed to take his hand. He would have been fine with being left hanging. He watched her hide her hand in her pocket again and decided that it was probably the former idea he had. She also was wearing a long sleeved shirt and long pants, even though the temperature wasn't terribly chilly. What did he know about people who were as light as she was? He tried to recall the name, but it escaped him. Humans liked to give labels to everything. He didn't think it was necessary to divide them all up and put them in boxes.

Though, he also fit into several boxes, even if he didn't agree with that ideology. He couldn't be more hypocritical if he even tried. Well, no, he could. He was an alien who was pretending to be a human, and he was so well known, even though he was supposed to be in hiding. He didn't like to tell lies to his friends, even though he was lying to most of them about the very thing he was. It kind of sucked. He didn't want to be this deceptive. He didn't have much of a choice.

He blinked when Lara headed toward the door, and he quickly caught up with her, nodding along as she spoke. "Platinum is a cool squad. I have a few friends on it, and some of them definitely are nerds, but I think most of them are also pretty into scheming and planning stuff." He smiled when he heard her laugh. "I actually was considering joining it last year, but I don't think I'm nerdy enough to be there. And I'm definitely not smart enough." He probably was, with all the information that he knew. That wasn't important. "If you're joining it, then you're probably pretty intelligent, right?"

She considered the facility for a moment, and Frey quickly glanced around too. He didn't see anyone he was very close with, so he'd be able to show Lara around with minimal distractions. Hopefully Al was in and not out doing whatever it was he did on the day to day basis. The boss could sometimes be very difficult to get in touch with. "Well, Lara," Frey started, spreading his hands to gesture to the room, "this happens to be the lobby area. It's where people do lobby things, like gather together before heading out on missions. Or, if their feeling particularly spicy, then they might lobby together to usher in some change, but that hasn't happened since I've been here." He glanced down the three hallways. Where should he show her first? He needed to get his phone, and maybe she was interested in working out. The gym was also near the dorms, and she'd need to know where those were, if she was staying here. He headed that way. "Our first destination shall be the gymnasium, where I foolishly abandoned my phone. Then I'll introduce you to the dorms, in case you're going to be staying here. After that, who knows, honestly. We'll see wherever my feet take us." He paused, then looked back at her. "Are you staying here? The dorms are nice, if you are. Very fancy."

 

[Lioness075]

Hearing Frey breeze over being a nerd like it was totally okay brought another smile to Lara's face. She was definitely already imagining how good of a friend Frey would be. It was not uncommon for her to jump to conclusions, but she felt confident that she was already clicking with the boy. He had such a friendly vibe and a comforting aura about him. Being in this city for the first time in her life and being away from her twin was very disheartening and even borderline upsetting. Yet, Frey made her feel as if she were at home again.

Lara saw Frey's smile lighten up his own face and she felt her own heart flutter at the sight. Oh geez, was she crushing on someone she had just met, just like that? Lara inwardly groaned, as she tried to stem the feelings of crushing on Frey so soon. She had literally just met him, now was really not the time for this.

By the time she got her unnecessary thoughts under control, Frey was talking himself down and promptly followed-up by asking about her being intelligent.
Quirking an eyebrow at this, Lara crossed her arms and said, "Oi, tone down the self-depreciation talk there, yeah? Nobody is born ready to excel at every aspect in life. That'd be exhausting. What team are you on? Your skills are clearly somewhere else."
"But yeah, I guess I'd be considered intelligent. I was working for the secret service back home, in the forensics field. I, well, I was a hacker to be frank."
Not keen on mentioning her educational accomplishments at a young age right after Frey had talked himself down, Lara left it at that. In general, she found most people responded to her accomplishments by beating themselves up for not being on her level and so she had learned to keep it to herself.

When Frey mentioned people lobbying together for change, Lara blinked and then furrowed her brows. The phrasing was odd and she scrambled in her mind for an explanation. It quickly clicked in her head when she pieced the word 'change' along with the rest of the phrasing. He meant something akin to protesting. What a strange way to say that.

Nodding at Frey when he decided to take her to the gym first, Lara walked alongside him and laughed again when he mentioned abandoning his phone.
"A foolhardy mistake, yeah. Been there, done that plenty of times."

The discussion switched over to dorms and Lara nodded again.
"Yeah, I'm in Dorm One? I think the description was that it's black and white. I'm not sure if I remember it specifying if that's the actual color scheme for the entire dorm or not, though. Anyways, I just hope whoever I room with is okay with me having a cat."

Pausing for a heartbeat, Lara immediately follow-up with, "Speaking of pets, you got any yourself?"
She moved her hands out of her pockets at this point and clasped them together behind her back. With her sunglasses off inside, her piercing blue eyes moved about the hallways, taking everything in.

 

[smolfluffball]

He let out a laugh, surprised, when Lara called him out on supposedly speaking negatively. He hadn't thought he was, at all. How interesting. "I wasn't being negative, Lara. I was being humble." He smiled at her, then winked. "If I wanted to, I could definitely be on platinum. I know loads about different kinds of aliens." Mostly because he could turn into them, and because he paid close attention to them whenever he met them out on missions or on other planets. "I'm on gold," he answered, smiling wider. "It's for the stealthy members. I'm pretty great at blending in." Oh, he really was playing a dangerous game, all the time. If anyone knew the truth about him, then they'd figure out all the hints and clues he said. "And I was always good at hide and seek, so I just thought it'd be the best squad for me."

She worked for a secret service back in Australia, and she was a hacker? He looked her over quickly, then started walking ahead again. She didn't even seem that old. She was trying to be humble, too. Keeping how smart she was on the downlow. He understood that, but he had loads of friends who were more intelligent than him. He was smart, too, but in a different way. "A hacker?" he repeated, tilting his head. "That's pretty cool. I don't really know how to do much with computers except for the basic stuff. I did build a computer once, though. But I can't hack anything." His mom had told him not to ask a ladies age before, but he was curious. "How old are you, anyway? I'm twenty-one."

The way that she was speaking told Frey the answer to his un-asked question: she was a human. She was too good with English and too on top of everything he said to be an alien. She could maybe be an android, if she was built to emulate humans so perfectly. He dealt with enough aliens to know that she wasn't one, though. Unless she was like him. But that wasn't possible. He would know if she was the same species as him.

"It's so uncommon for me to leave my phone anywhere, actually," he said, sighing and shaking his head. "This is actually the first time it's ever happened. Thankfully it has a lock on it, so no one can break into it. I'm just hoping my friends didn't spam me with messages because I didn't reply to them quickly enough."

He turned a corner and saw neon yellow sign pointing out the gymnasium. "Oh, yeah, dorm one is pretty devoid of color. I think it's supposed to look sleek or something, but I'm not really that into the black and white look. I'm in dorm three. They're both good places to live, and you can add your personal touch if you want to. Like, posters or pictures or whatever." His eyes lit up at the mention of a cat, and he nodded when she asked if he had any pets. "I have a dog named Banana. He's the best boy, honestly. I love him with my entire being. He's at home now, though. What's your cats name? How old is he or she? Do you have any pictures?"

 

[Lioness075]

Lara was pleasantly surprised to hear Frey's response about his intelligence. She had heard so many people respond how he had and the vast majority of the time it was due to low self-esteem. It definitely was not the case with Frey.
At the mention of being knowledgeable about aliens, Lara mindfully tucked away that information to pry about it later. She knew very little about aliens in general and had never really worked alongside any, at least not that she was aware of. She did know that many blended into society with ease.
Immediately after having that thought, Frey mentioned his skill at being able to blend in and being on the Gold team for sneaky types. This made Lara blink and she felt her forensics sixth sense tingling at the odd coincidence. Frey went on to talk about hide and seek, but Lara could not just let such a coincidence slide like that.
"Sorry, mate, but I gotta ask. What exactly do ya mean by blending in? That's a rather specific skill to have, yeah?"

As the conversation flowed in a different direction, Lara let it. If Frey was not going to elaborate further on what he had just said, she would not push him. People were touchy about so many things these days and she had only just met the boy. There was no rush to know everything about him right off the bat. She had to often mentally remind herself to listen more and speak less, especially in situations where she could pester someone with too many questions about their personal life. She could not help herself sometimes, her inner secret agent coming out.

Sadly, Lara's many thoughts had kept her from responding to the implied question about her hacker life and Lara cued back into the conversation when Frey asked about her age. Blinking, she rubbed the back of her neck and sheepishly responded, "Ah, I'm twenty..." Trailing off, she knew that her young age would give away hints at her educational accomplishments. The usual reaction was of initial shock and then it would follow-up with awe and praise at all she had done. It always made her so uncomfortable, though. Maybe she should ask Frey for blending in to society advice because she definitely struggled to make friends at times.

Still, Lara felt mildly surprised that Frey was older than her by a year. Perhaps it was just his facial features, but she had assumed he was closer to eighteen-years-old. It was not entirely uncommon for someone to not look their age, though. She knew her brother looked younger than his age as well. Which was ironic since he was her twin.

Listening to Frey talk about his phone, Lara quirked her eyebrow at the mention of it having a lock. Despite knowing what he meant, she instantly envisioned a padlock on top of the phone. The humorous imagery made her grin and she could not help herself.
"Your phone has a lock, ey? I mean, most people just use passcodes or face IDs these days, but to each their own."
Lara knew that for anyone not too keen on using technology, they tended to say things oddly. Still, she welcomed the easy banter that it allowed.

Following him around the corner of the hallway, Lara easily noticed the gym sign and wondered how often she would be forced to workout here. She had been forced to do plenty when training for the program back home, but then once she had been allowed to do the workouts on her own, she had definitely become too lax about it. She would welcome being forced to workout in a group or something of that nature just to stay in shape. Her high metabolism tended to make people think she was already in shape, but it certainly was not the case.

Lara sighed at Frey's description of her dorm, hearing the confirmation of the lack of color was rather disappointing. Not that Lara would drown her room in color, but still, but loved her Polaroids from back home and was keen to get a string of them going around her room. She even wanted to make a photo wall beside her bed.
Laughing when Frey said his dog's name, Lara responded, "That is the best dog name ever, hands-down. And every dog is the best boy, naturally."
When asked about her cat, Lara grinned and said, "He's a boy, around four-years-old now. His name is Taki. I got him when I was visiting Japan a couple years ago. Yeah, I've got a great shot of him, hold on."
Pulling out her phone, Lara quickly found her favorite picture and showed it to Frey in turn.

Spoiler: Taki

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[smolfluffball]

Oh. Oh, she was pointing out what he said. Frey smiled, pleased to have actually found someone who noticed his subtlety. He wasn't in danger of being caught by her, though. He knew he'd be able to convince her he was human. He convinced everyone else well enough. A new recruit would be easy, even if before she was a part of the secret service. He'd be very pleased with himself if he managed to prove to Lara that he was nothing special, just a regular human doing his best on gold squad.

He laughed, then waved a hand dismissively. "Gold squad has armor that can camouflage and go invisible whenever we go out on missions, is what I mean." He smiled slyly, then, and shrugged innocently. "And I was an actor when I was younger, so I'm great at adapting to any role that I need to. It runs in the family, I think. My mom's a pretty famous actress, so I just took after her or something."

Except his mom wasn't his biological mom. He was talking about her, yes, but he also was referring to his biological parents - the ones who he had no idea where they were, or if they were still alive, or if they'd ever come back for him. He didn't want them to. He'd be completely torn if he had to chose between his family and his biological parents. Having to choose between Earth and the humans, and space and his alien parents... He didn't know what he'd choose. He knew he'd feel horrible about whatever he did choose, though. He'd never want to be put in that situation.

And he'd never be put in it, anyway. His biological parents hadn't come to find him in over a decade. He was stuck on Earth, and he'd end up dying on the planet too. He didn't mind the thought. He liked having some place to belong to, even if he was just pretending to be what the planets inhabitants were. Sometimes, though, he didn't even need to pretend. He was already so close to being completely human. Another year or two if he wasn't careful, he guessed, and he'd lose his alien roots completely.

That was a scary thought, so he shoved it as far down as he possibly could. This was something he was constantly dealing with, every single day. He had so many silent worries and concerns, that he couldn't voice to anyone, because no one would truly understand him. He didn't want to worry about it now, however, with the new girl and her incredibly pale skin and light hair.

"I do think being an alien would be pretty cool, though," he added, because he wanted to see how far he could push his luck. "I think I'd like to be one that could turn invisible or something, without needing any extra tools or equipment to make it happen. Or one of those ones that's super strong or can do stuff with matter. Those ones are pretty badass."

Or one that could change form into anything he wanted, and who could adapt to any environment, but who didn't do anything with those skills.

Honestly, what he was saying about aliens sounded like the fictional heroes he had been part of a team with when he was younger. But there were aliens out there that could do everything he just said - he wasn't pulling from thin air. He nodded when she said she was twenty. Yep. Confirmed it. She was super smart. He didn't want to put her on the spot or anything, so he didn't point it out. He graduated at eighteen and hadn't gone to college yet, but he never thought anyone that was far ahead of him in their education was better than him or anything. Everyone was just doing whatever they were good at. He loved how tenacious humans could be.

He snorted when she poked fun at his use of 'lock on phone', pausing in the hallway. "Well, okay, Lara. I do have both of those, as well, of course. My lock is just for extra protection, from all of the people who might want to spy on my life. I'm a pretty popular person and I have some nosy friends." And a lot of fans online, but his friends were the ones who took his phone and always managed to break into it to see what he was saying about the people at Rotek. It was all harmless. He knew his friends were just looking out for him. His sister, in particular, was always asking him about everyone he ever mentioned. "I bet you get that, since your a hacker and everything. Three layers of protection is better than one."

He liked her laugh, when she laughed at his dogs name. Revealing it usually pulled a smile or a chuckle out of people, and he was glad. Seeing people be happy was always what he enjoyed. It was why he loved the old job he had. "Ban would thank you for liking his name, if he was here," he said, then looked at Lara's phone as she showed him her cat. Wow. What a gorgeous cat. "Are you sure your cat's really a cat?" he asked lightly, smiling. "He's awfully pretty for a kitty. Could be an alien in disguise or something." He grinned, then reached for his pocket, but remembered he didn't have his phone. Oops. He pulled his hand back and looked at his palm expectantly, but then sighed and dropped it. "When I get my phone, I'll show you Banana. He's eight, but he acts like he's still only a year old sometimes. Though he does like to lay around too."

Frey went toward the doors to the gym and stepped in front of them, then looked back at Lara when they slid open silently. "And, now, mon amie, allow me to introduce you to the Rotek gymnasium. State of the art, fancy, classy, whatever you want to use to describe it." He glanced at the equipment that he had been using, the treadmills, ignoring the reflection of himself in the mirror-lined wall. There it was. His phone. Thank god. He could go home safely, now. Well, later. He went over to it and glanced at his screen, seeing he had recently gotten ten new notifications. He'd look at them later. Right now, he was on his self-appointed job. He pulled up a picture of Banana and went back over to Lara, showing her his screen. "Banana pic, as promised."

 

[Lioness075]

Lara grinned when Frey laughed at her teasing. He was definitely a great friend to have. Not that he was already her friend. That would be weird to declare so early on in meeting someone for the first time, yet she could not stop the train of thought.

Still, Lara felt incredibly curious about Gold Team's armor camouflaging technology, but decided to save that for another time. Instead, her eyes lit up at the mention of Frey having been an actor. She had watched plenty of TV shows and movies growing up, but she never had been that great at remembering actor or actress names.
"Woah now, you have got to tell me what role you had as an actor. What show or movie were you in? Or both?"
She felt her excitement rising with each question and had to clamp her mouth shut before she drowned him in questions. She clasped her hands together behind her back and grinned like an idiot while walking alongside Frey. This friendship was going to be all the more fun now that she knew Frey had been someone famous. The way he had described his acting, though, it was clear that he no longer did it. Not that that was a bad thing. Not all actors and actresses wanted to act for the rest of their lives. It was actually rather impressive that he left acting behind to come here, of all places. Rotek was supposedly something akin to the superheroes of this world. Or so they had advertised it like that to her. Lara was still waiting to see how she would become some superhero here.

As he talked about aliens, Lara tilted her head and looked up with her eyes, clearly a bit lost in thought.
"I dunno if I'd want to be an alien, to be honest. I've never met one personally, so all I know about them is how they're portrayed online or through TV shows and movies. I'd like to imagine they can just hang out with us humans with ease, but I suppose it's hard for anyone leaving their home to just seamlessly fit in somewhere they probably don't feel like they belong. It sounds awfully lonely and depressing, if you ask me."
Realizing she had gone off on a tangent and missed Frey's point of discussing powers, Lara blinked and smiled at him before adding, "Sorry, I get like that sometimes. Hmm, if I had to choose my favorite superpower, I'd want to be able to interact with electronics like Tony Stark does in those Iron Man movies. Have his JARVIS in my head or something to assist me. That'd be baller."

Knowing now that Frey had been someone famous, Lara was not too surprised when he mentioned how he can get pestered on his phone.
"Did your phone number ever get released publicly? That seems to happen to actors and actresses every year. Have you had to change your personal phone number a number of times already?."
Realizing she was yet again getting off-topic, Lara sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck and said, "Right, but yeah, I do understand the layers of protection. I just enjoy teasing people is all."

"Ban, huh."
Lara smiled while Frey talked about his dog, clearly a proper pet owner with how much he loved Banana. Lara had never really told anyone about it, but she had spent some time of her youth hacking into animal control websites and leaking information about any that were abusing or euthanizing the animals there too early. It had been plenty of chaotic fun up until her early hacking had nearly landed her in prison.
Laughing when Frey gave Taki high praise, Lara put away her phone and replied, "Trust me, he's a cat. And he knows fully well how gorgeous he is, posing for me every time I pull out my phone. I have gigabytes of photos of him at this point. Plenty of videos mixed in as well, of course."

Raising an eyebrow when Frey spoke some French, Lara followed him into the gym and shoved her hands into her pockets.
"French, eh? What, you bilingual as well? I never did pick up on a second language, unless coding counts."
While Frey collected his phone, Lara admired the facility. Not that she would purposefully go workout on her own or anything, but he was not kidding when he said it was state-of-the-art.

Lara laughed in delight at the image of Banana on Frey's phone. The way he had been described matched the image perfectly.
"He looks like a great boy, as most dogs are."
Absentmindedly, Lara wondered if Frey would instinctively offer to let her meet Banana and her heart leapt up into her throat at the thought.
Worried, Lara immediately tried to change the subject, her eyes moving away from Frey and his phone to look over the gym equipment instead.
"Well, you weren't joking about this gym. It does look impressive."
Rubbing the back of her neck, Lara added with a slight voice crack, "So, where to next, Frey?"

smolfluffball