[PRP] Hello, We Don't Usually Work On the Floor, Honest...

[Gwennythe]

Two layers down, in what was currently serving as 'home', one might find the small rec' room.
The dorms, Tambrey had discovered, were not the easiest place to work... To be honest, neither was the rec' room, but with the tech' lab full of tech, offices being repurposed for all sorts of other things and Tambrey wanting to try and snack while she worked (which wouldn't have been possible in the old labs anyway, at least), she'd decided to make the best of it.
She sat, cross-legged, in a Grunt uniform, sans a hat that currently occupied her lap.
Papers were spread across the floor in front of her, at least four sheets, in a little arc; she was /trying/ not to take up too much space- and had decided upon the floor to leave the seats free- but, also, she didn't seem to be very focused on the room around her at that moment, bespectacled eyes roaming over the left-most sheet and then tracking up again, while her left hand jotted spidery notes into a small notebook.
Occasionally she'd place the pen to her mouth in thought, or mumble something quietly to herself out loud.
A half-eaten roll sat upon an open packet at her side, and a few crumbs on her, and the floor, showed that it hadn't been forgotten about too long ago.  

[Venti Mico]

There was a large and startling population of ghost type Pokemon around the base, many of which were allowed to roam free. That was one of the first things Lu had learned since joining Team Rocket. It was one of the reasons he wanted to leave Team Rocket, too. After having a run in with a rather large ghost type, Lu had been on edge the rest of the day- and while trying to find solace in the dorm room he'd been assigned, Lu had caught a glimpse of the same Pokemon and made a quick dash out of the room before the Pokemon could even try to scare him(it showing up at all was a fright enough).

He'd been in the rec room a few times and knew how to find it now, so the tall man quickly darted to that room while keeping an eye out for any Pokemon that might want to pop up. You'd think if you towered over a Pokemon it wouldn't be as scary- but no, not at all for Lu.

The dark haired male hurried into the rec room when he got there, his own Absol walking in after him. Lu liked having her out, she was at least some comfort to him when there were other, scarier Pokemon wandering about.

Lu took a seat at the nearest table as soon as he entered, sitting down with a hefty sigh and not taking note of the room's other occupant. His Absol on the other hand, did see the shorter woman working on the floor. Lu took a moment, simply tapping his fingers together nervously before actually looking around the room- he jumped and gasped when he saw the woman.

"I-I- I'm sorry, I didn't- you're, down there, I- the floor, I didn't see you down there.." Lu apologized quickly, suddenly feeling a lot more anxious- it'd be a lie to say he didn't think the woman had been a ghost Pokemon for half a second before he realized she was, indeed, a human and a Rocket. Lu put his sweaty palms on the legs of his red uniform, sitting stiffly. Would it be rude to run out of the room now...?  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey paused, mid-scribble, as she heard a voice address her- as much as Lu hadn't noticed her as he first entered, she'd been too far engrossed in whatever she'd been jotting down to register anyone coming into the room at first.
She blinked and looked over, first catching sight of the Absol- who got a smile of her own- and then looking up, very slightly, cautiously, amused at the jittery address.
The grunt assessed the trainee for a few seconds, eyes taking in details from behind her glasses. She smiled, kindly, and shook her head a little.
"No, I'm sorry. For, uh, startling you, I mean; I am a bit hard to see down here, but it's more comfortable to work like this." She explained.

Tambrey couldn't be sure of the exact reason for the trainee's nervous manner, but quite honestly, she could think of any number of possibilities, none very far-fetched... Team Rocket, she remembered from time to time, was a very alien existence compared to the outside world that trainees would have come from.

"I'm Tambrey," She offered, then asked a question "Trainee? How long so far?"  

[Venti Mico]

"It- no, I- you don't have to apologize, it's my- I was, er..." Lu trailed off, trying to piece together a coherent sentence after the woman apologized. He felt his face flush with embarrassment; he really, really needed to work on... talking.

Tea was curious about the woman. It'd been very odd for her since Lu joined Team Rocket; she saw more people and other Pokemon than she did when Lu lived with his parents. Padding over to the woman, Tea sat in front of her, a few steps back from her papers, and watched her.

"She won't- um, she's good, she won't make a mess..." Lu started, than hurriedly added, "O-oh! I'm Lu, trainee... for, I... about a month, I think?" he was unsure, he hadn't kept track of time very well. Lu swallowed nervously, looking away from the woman and furrowing his brows until he looked like he was downright glaring at the table in front of him. The man wasn't angry at all but he had a tendency to look angry. A lot. "U-um, you're... not a trainee? The uniform, I mean, it's not like mine," he murmured, hoping to make conversation. Making friends, or at least getting acquainted with people, would probably be a good thing for him. Considering he still knew very little of how to do much anything(among the things he didn't know that he likely should, Pokemon battles found itself at the top of the list), it'd be good for him.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey looked slightly amused, but found a distraction in the Absol sitting close by. She smiled again, and nodded to show she was still listening to Lu, before interjecting with a couple of questions.
"It's nice to meet you both. Does she like to be petted?" She gestured slightly, toward the dark type pokémon.

She had looked back, to catch him glaring at the floor; while it was a little odd that someone might glare at a floor, Tambrey had found that training with Aulus, and being in contact with a couple of other Rocket members, had made her rather less apprehensive of such an expression; she knew people that sometimes just... looked angry. As his tone didn't seem to indicate he felt angry, and his composure so far just seemed nervous, she decided to conclude that perhaps this was the case in Lu as well... Though she found herself hoping that she had managed to, at least, look friendly enough; it was strange to think what habits sometimes became natural in such a group.
"I'm a grunt." She supplied helpfully, then grinned a little. "One step up. You'll get there in one more month, if you've been in a month already. Half-way. Not an /awful/ lot of benefits with that promotion, but if my memory of trainee life is still accurate, you'll probably enjoy being a grunt a lot more..." Well, it was better to be honest, even if she wanted to sound encouraging, she supposed.  

[Venti Mico]

"Sh-she- uh- she doesn't mind. Not too rough though, and her horn- don't touch that, she doesn't like that being touched..." Lu explained, his glare lessening slightly. It was easy to talk about Tea, he really did like Tea and she was a good Pokemon. He was much more comfortable talking about her than he was talking about himself. Tea didn't mind the attention either, she rather enjoyed it.

Stepping forward so she was in reach of Tambrey, Tea waited for her petting. She had heard the word and yes, she knew exactly what that one meant, there was no getting out of petting now.

Listening to the woman explain her rank, Lu fiddled with his thumbs but still didn't look up at her. Eye contact was one of the hardest things for him, it helped he tended to be a full head or two taller than most people. "It's not that bad, as a trainee. It's d...different? I'm not used to it- I mean, I'm not- I don't mean to complain- it's not that, I just- not used to...things here?" Lu babbled quickly, hoping not to somehow incriminate himself. He was a little(read: a lot) terrified of punishment here, it was far different from his parents. "I-I mostly clean- I like cleaning, so, I'm not- not complaining..." He wasn't sure of how friendly this woman really was. She was acting nice and friendly now, and he appreciated it, but there was that ever present part of himself that kept him on guard. He didn't want to say the wrong thing and make her mad...  

[Gwennythe]

"Okay." Tambrey agreed readily, then reached, gently, to pet the Absol, taking care to avoid her horn.
"She's a beautiful pokémon; good too, to have that kind of a species on your side in an... um... existence like this." The grunt praised and warned at the same time.
She wasn't trying to be unkind about it, but she'd discovered that, like herself, people seemed to appreciate the truth of the matter rather than untruthful comfort.

She found herself grinning, genuinely amused again, as Lu described his role as a trainee.
"It takes some time to get used to things," Tambrey agreed, then, with some lightness added "but there's still plenty of cleaning to do, even as a grunt. So it's good you like cleaning. You get a -little- more of a choice in what you clean, basically, as a grunt. Perks go up each rank."  

[Venti Mico]

Tea nuzzled against the hand petting her, closing one eye as she tilted in closer to the hand. She did enjoy a nice petting, especially when they didn't mess with her horn. Lu always pet her when he was nervous but he hand a bit of a heavy hand. This lady was nice, not too rough or jittery.

"She keeps me out of trouble..." Lu said with a small nod, glancing over a Tea with a small but warm smile. "And gets me out of it when I'm in it. S-sometimes." Lu looked away again, not wanting to be caught smiling. He felt embarrassed when people saw him smile, he didn't like it at all.

"Th-that's fine with me, as long as I don't get in trouble...I'm pretty good at dusting," Lu added, biting his lip. "Because...you know...I'm tall enough to reach places." What was supposed to have been a joke sounded more like a scared explanation of the perks of his height. "H...haha..?" He tried to save the joke by tacking on a laugh, but...  

[Gwennythe]

"Very good qualities to have." Tambrey commented, matter-of-factly, almost as though reassuring herself, as she looked from Lu to Tea now.
She'd caught the small action- hiding the smile- but didn't comment; some people took time to be comfortable in the team, around team mates, and some people just weren't naturally smiley...
The thought brought a couple of faces to her mind and she caught herself smiling at associating them with the thought; well, at least one of them might be, probably, amused, with such an association, she suspected.

He hands continued to move, carefully, still avoiding the horn, and seemingly inviting Tea, herself, to direct where she wanted the petting to go.

The 'height' joke got a bewildered expression to linger for a moment, but the strange laugh on the end provided enough explanation.
The scientist smirked.
"Well that does sound useful; there's plenty of dusting around here..." She'd done a bit of it herself, too; grunts still weren't really ranked high enough to avoid such a task; even more true, she'd come to realise, in the current situation the team found themselves in. How strange it was to lack so many people and so much equipment...
"Humour is good." She decided to state, trying to sound kind, after a moment. "Keep ahold of that; it's useful sometimes."  

[Venti Mico]

Tea took the opportunity to rub against Tambrey's hand, nuzzling her nose into the woman's palm for a moment. After that she gave Tambrey an approving sort of look("I like you, you can pet me again sometime"), then turned and headed back to Lu. The Absol didn't give Lu much warning, but helped herself up onto his lap and sat there. The taller man leaned back instinctively to give her room- he was her favourite seat in the house, apparently.

"I'm not very good at it. At humour, I mean..." Lu sighed, furrowing his brow and searching for something else to say.

"It is really...dusty here... I, um, I heard the base moved recently. Because of a raid? I-I think, I joined after it all moved. S-so this is an old place?" he asked, stroking a hand down Tea's back and not looking up from the table. "It seems older than the doctor's office I worked at before. And that place was old, like... an old person. It smelled like old people- n-not that this place does."  

[Gwennythe]

"She's got good personality." Tambrey half-laughed, pleased with the expression that Tea had given her before she'd gone to seek out her 'Lu-chair'.
She tilted her head and regarded the pair- Lu and Tea- after his statement and then shrugged.
"Most people aren't. It's more about keeping yourself amused, and making the effort, than the context or humour itself. A bad knock-knock joke can be a surprising bonding tool." She wasn't sure just how true or untrue that might be for everyone, but she found she liked bad jokes, and enjoyed telling them sometimes; bad humour could keep people sane, she thought, privately.

"This place," She found herself smirking "smells worse than old people in some places. It is old though, yes. I didn't know it was here until we came here; something we stopped using a while ago for whatever reason; left to the ghosts and dustbunnies and now we have to claim it back. A doctors office, hmm?" She fixated on the detail. "What did you do there?"  

[Venti Mico]

"She's the best I could have hoped for," Lu said, more warmly than he had been before. Tea stayed perched in his lap, staring around the room curiously while she accepted Lu's petting. She was glad she had a human bigger than a lot of humans, he was easy to sit on and he could carry her. That was a good thing about her human.

"O-oh, I see...then, um, in that case...knock knock?" Lu offered, hunching over Tea just slightly in his nervousness to attempt another joke. He was, admittedly, pretty nervous to joke around but he really wanted to be friendly... Tea seemed to like Tambrey and Tea was a good judge of character.

Lu tried to cover up a laugh with a quick cough, covering his mouth to hide his grin. "One of the closets I found has something growing in it and I'm not brave enough to find out what it is..." he admitted sheepishly. "My mom works in the office, I helped her out for a while... mostly, I uh, cleaned up and did errands. I helped with the herbs too, my mother has a garden and made herbal remedies... er- sorry, I didn't mean to ramble." It was the most he'd talked about his life before joining Rocket for a while, Lu wasn't sure if he was supposed to talk so much about his past.  

[Gwennythe]

They both had a good attitude. With each other, at least.
Tambrey wondered how the pair would do with more to their team; she'd look out for that, she decided- it was interesting how behaviours changed with events and over time.

"Who's there?" Tambrey dutifully replied.

Her attention was caught by the statement that something was growing. It was probably, she assumed, some kind of mould fungi, but who knew what had been down here before it fell into disuse... And, besides, some fungi had a very, very interesting relationship with pokémon; she thought of Paras...
Immediately she kind of wanted a sample, just in case it was interesting; though she suspected it would be nothing unusual.
"Ooh, could you show me later?" Wait, that was probably weird. "Then I can... probably try and test for what it is." There, that would clear things up, she hoped.
"Don't worry about it; rambling's fine. 'T means that someone's talking, and talking is good company." The grunt offered- sure, silence was nice, but chatter could be just as welcome sometimes.
"Besides, it's interesting. So, you picked up a bit from your mum? Herbs and things?"  

[Venti Mico]

Replying to his joke again, Lu answered, "Who." As long as he didn't mess up the punchline, now...

"I- yes, I could show you. But I promise, i-it's kind of gross, I don't know if it's mold... I couldn't find a flashlight so I thought, touching it might be bad," Lu explained, frowning a bit. "My garden was always out in sunlight and in the open, s-so I don't have a lot of experience with mold and fungus. I hope it's not poisonous..." Lu didn't think it was too odd, he assumed she would want to make sure it wasn't hazardous. His mom had a vendetta against mold and at the first sight of it, she had out the disinfectant. Lu almost laughed at the memory, thinking how she'd scold him if she knew he left something moldy go uncleaned.

"Ah, I guess you're right..." Lu nodded subtly, then continued. "I did, and I learned on my own. I like herbs and plants, and trees. I like trees a lot- they're big, tall." He brightened up as he spoke, obviously interested in the topic. "I'm not very smart or good at science, so I like plants. They can do a lot of stuff to help sick people, and you can eat some, and make things out of others, plus there's aroma therapy. You can do all sorts of things with them, and growing them is like r-" Lu cut himself off, his cheeks flushing brightly; he turned his head away and bit his lip, scolding himself internally for talking so much.

"S-sorry, um... what sort of... thing do you like?" he asked, feeling bad for talking so much about himself and not giving Tambrey much an opening to talk about herself. "Talking is...good company, right? So I don't want to take up all the talking."  

[Gwennythe]

Cautiously, with an arched brow, Tambrey proceeded to respond to the joke.
"Who... who?" She thought of Hoothoots...

"Oh, gross is fine." She tried to reassure, then nodded a little. "I'm sure it's nothing poisonous- probably just some run-of-the-mill 'damp' mold or something, but it /might/ be something more interesting and without all the usual equipment, I'm itching to look at -anything- more substantial than paperwork!" The grunt admitted, absent-mindedly picking up her hat and gesturing with it.
"Sunlit gardening... That does sound nice. You know, I bet you'd get along well with someone I know," she looked sad for a moment, pausing for a second in the sentence "but he's not around lately. Maybe soon. Uh. Still. That's a kind of science- Herbalism... or Pharmacognosy. What ever you want to call it." Tambrey had seemed interested and held up a hand, shaking her head as he apologised.
"Don't worry about that. Honestly, that kind of thing is fascinating, and I'm sure it's something you'll be allowed to pursue more in future, here- it sounds useful... But, yes, I suppose it's unfair if I just make you talk all the time." She smiled. "I am, mostly, interested in pokémon DNA; genetics, cloning, phenotypes and genotypes. I'm here for the science, really."