[FIN] Who the heck are you?

[insidiousEnigma]

"In 200 feet, take a left."

Zacharie glanced around the hallway before giving an irritated huff. "Virus, I don't know when I'll have walked 200 feet. Just tell me when to turn." He groused to the little Porygon on the screen on his RocketDex. Said pokemon gave a low trill of disappointment, it'd obviously been having fun playing with the navigation settings.

Beep!

The grunt turned left down the next hallway as instructed. "See, that's so much easier." He muttered to himself as he flipped through the various messages on the electronic device. He'd meant to send one to Jerome to see if he wanted to join him for lunch, but it was a bit too late for that. "Guess it's just us today, Virus." He ran his thumb over the digital version of his pokemon, much to its delight.

"Turn right."

Glancing back up, he took the closest right. All this wandering just to find the cafeteria, it was a serious hassle. But perhaps if he had paid more attention when he'd been led there before he found himself in the infirmary he wouldn't be quite so clueless as to where he was going. Oh well, this is what maps and Porygons were for. It looked like he'd be getting there soon enough, anyway.  

[Gwennythe]

Clancy, for all his skills, had found that working with a 'dex was not yet one of them.
Oh, sure, he could do it, but he prided himself on an innate sense of direction that any ocean loving man should have...
Apparently it didn't work under a lake. In a big building full of corridors.
He'd /tried/ thinking of it as a ship, or submarine, but... it hadn't helped.

Still, he'd found the cafeteria with the luck of his nose, maybe.
Then something 'beeped', and someone was talking...

"You what?" He asked allowed, pondering if the direction had been given to him, before, rounding a corner, he found himself looking at a young grunt.
"That old racket you, is it, lad?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie looked up from his Rocketdex to give the older man a bewildered look.
Obviously he hadn't expected to bump into anyone on his way to lunch.

The grunt blinked owlishly up at the red head before slowly lowering it back to Virus. "'That racket' as you called it, is my Porygon giving me directions." Virus made a cheerful 'beep' in greeting to the trainee that it could not see but could certainly hear. "So...yes and no." He shrugged ever so slightly and held up the Rocket dex so the other could see the virtual pokemon bouncing around on the screen. A blank log opened popped up as Virus practically stumbled over itself to communicate.

Greetings, friend!

The text flashed a few times to convey its excitement before Zacharie turned the Rocketdex back around to fiddle with the screen. "Are you looking for a specific room as well?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Huh. You turned your porymawotsit into a Sat-nav, eh? That's bloody resourceful." Clancy looked impressed as Zacharie showed him the 'dex and Virus on the screen; pokémon with a proper use, just like his Mircalla- he did feel like he was going to fit in here.
He wasn't sure what to make of being greeted by the virtual pokémon though. That was kind of... weird...

"Cafeteria," The trainee confirmed and jerked his left thumb toward where it seemed to be "relying on me old noggin and a rather keen snoz to sniff it out. It's taken me a blessed age to navigate this bloomin' rat-run maze though."  

[insidiousEnigma]

It was like when he first met Jerome all over again.
The teen took a moment to try and decipher what the older man had said before nodding slowly. "Yes, Virus is indeed very helpful." The Porygon gave a pleased trill at the compliment and proceeded to bounce around on the home screen of his RocketDex. "Mmn, that's where I'm going as well." He pointed down the hall that the red head was pointing to as well. "According to navigation, it should be just down this hallway."

"Your destination will be on the left."
Said navigation put in helpfully.

"The layout of the new base is a bit daunting, but soon enough everyone will be navigating the hallways with ease." He said lightly as he pocketed his RocketDex and made to move around the taller male before pausing once again. "...I'm Zacharie, by the way. It's normally custom to start a conversation with introductions but I tend to forget that bit of social etiquette."  

[Gwennythe]

"Wish more o' the blighters could do things like that; that an easy set up t', uh, set up?" Porygon, huh; maybe he should see about getting one if they were that useful. "Your digital little pal there and my snoggin' seem to be in agreement, chap." Clancy agreed with Zacharie's statement, and the 'navigator'.

"Oh, no doubt, no doubt- ratmaze or no, I'll learn me way to the cheese, so I will; sewer man by trade, y'see, so ain't no bloomin' well lit tunnel maze gonna be my conqueror." He waved a hand dismissively.
"Zac, eh? Nice ta meetcha Zac, and doncha worry about formality; 's an bloody over-rated, pompous construct, and I know your name now anyway, eh? Guess this silly git oughta give you 'is, an all; 'M Clancy, but y' can call me 'Eel' if y' like." A hand was thrust out in motion to shake.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"I am not talented with electronics, Agent Faleen set everything up and Virus does the rest of the work...so I suppose it is easy enough to set up."

After that...he had absolutely no idea what it was the older man was going on about.
Snoggin'....?
Zacharie was lost...so very, very lost.

Gingerly, he took a hold of Clancy's hand and gave it three, swift pumps before releasing it. "It's nice to meet you as well, Clancy....or, er...Eel." He wasn't sure how he felt about calling someone 'Eel', but he supposed he could give it a try if that was the man's nickname. "Would you care to join me for lunch? Since we're both headed in that direction." It was strange how easy it had gotten to simply ask people to join him like that. Before he joined Team Rocket he probably wouldn't have even stopped to talk to Clancy.  

[Gwennythe]

"Agent Faleen; she's the blondie lass who likes the Sharpedos, right?" Clancy was pretty sure that the agent he'd met during pool cleaning was one 'Agent Faleen'... He made sure to try and remember the name properly now, upon learning that, apparently, not only was the agent a good person to talk to about Mircalla, perhaps she might enlighten him about how this whole pokémon inside a 'dex thing worked...

"Whichever's the most bloomin' comfy for yourself, lad; I'll bloody well answer to either." The red-head grinned, as Zacharie called him both names.
"And, well, if it's no bother to you, I'd be plum pickled to do so; absolutely ******** famished, I am- enough to eat a whole bloody herd of ponyta!"  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie nodded his assent, "Yes, I believe we are talking about the same person." Sharpedos...is that what those robot things had been? He wasn't sure, he'd have to try to ask her more about them the next time he had the chance to talk to her. It'd been some time since he'd taken Virus in to see her so perhaps a visit wouldn't be too strange.

The teen's steps faltered at the others statement. Eat a herd of Ponyta?! He turned his head and gave the taller man a bewildered look, "Ah...it's an expression." He nodded slowly in understanding, his expression smoothing over into one a vague amusement. Well, he hoped that is was just an expression and Clancy didn't actually eat Ponyta. "It's no bother to me, I enjoy company when I take the time to have lunch and I've set myself a goal to meet at least 2 new people this week."  

[Gwennythe]

"An expression, that's the word." Clancy confirmed, with a very vaguely puzzled glance at Zacharie... He supposed, then, that expressions like that perhaps weren't as common knowledge as he'd thought.

"You're quite a strange little chap, huh?" The redhead queried after a moment; it wasn't said with any malice or intent to insult; rather, Clancy seemed happily amused.
"Bloody sensible goal around this place... So am I the first, or the second of the week?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

The teen stared thoughtfully up at Clancy for a moment, his pale eyes narrowed in concentration. 'A strange, little chap'....what was he to make of that? The red head had said it in a friendly tone but it wasn't as if that was something you said to someone you just met unless you were saying it aggressively. Perhaps that was just the way Clancy was? What with the way he spoke and held himself...

"...Yes, I suppose I am what most people would consider 'strange'." He said finally, his expression softening once again. "Though strange is a subjective term. What's strange for you may not be so strange for me." He prattled on, Virus giving little chirps of agreement here and there. "But back to the point, you are my first, new acquaintance of the week." He nodded as he pushed open the door to the cafeteria and motioned for Clancy to go ahead. "There's no need to feel obligated in keeping in contact if you do not want to but it's always nice to know faces around here." He shuffled in behind the taller man and glanced around. "I work in the Medical and Biology departments, how about you?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Ah, there's truth," Clancy kept his amused expression, nodding in agreement with Zacharie on the subject of 'strangeness' "but I'll warrant I won't meet someone with quite your... manner about them again for a while, at least, I'd think so... So, the first?"

Clancy grinned and looked as though he was suitably impressed, or maybe pleased, to be 'the first of the week'.
"Oh, well how about we keep that on a 'see how it goes' kinda basis, eh? That's generally what I do with people. If I see 'em, and I don't dislike 'em, I shoot 'em a happy greeting and maybe have a bit 'f a chinwag. As f'r my, uh, department... Well, I'm still a trainee so, uh, I don't have one as yet, so t' speak; betcha pound to a penny that it'll be bloody maintenance though... Medical and biology sounds pretty cracking; smart type, eh?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie wasn't sure if he should take that as a compliment or not.
"Mn, I don't much leave the botany labs so I tend to see the same people each day." He explained with a slight shrug, though a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Which is why I have given myself the goal to meet two new people each week." He wasn't sure how well or how long it would work...if it worked at all, but no one could say that he wasn't trying to be more sociable.

"Ah, yes. That's reasonable, I hope that I am making a good impression." Clancy was nice to talk to and the way he talked reminded him a bit of Jerome. Meaning, he really wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about. "A...chinwag...?" His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to imagine what the red-head could mean. "Why on Earth would you want to wag your chin at someone? I'm not entirely sure that that would be good for your jaw after extended periods of time..." That actually sounded like a fairly interesting experiment. He wondered if he could convince someone to help him. Lu probably would....

"Huh?" He blinked owlishly, "Oh, I like to think that I'm advanced for my age but outside of Team Rocket I don't think that would matter much. I never finished high school so if I hadn't come here I doubt I would be able to do what I do now." Actually, he'd be dead. But that was neither here nor there. "There's nothing wrong with working maintenance...it takes a certain skill set to make sure that the base is running as efficiently as possible and I find that very respectable." He would loathe working in maintenance, but that didn't mean that it was a bad job. ...It just wasn't a job for him.  

[Gwennythe]

"Aah; fairly standard fair f'r a bloomin' science geek, though, right? Fair play to 'e, though; 's a bloody good idea to work at forming bonds with y' team mates..."
Clancy nodded, then widened his eyes, and his grin stretched a little.

"Nah, a chinwag's not jus'... It's not some weird new age exercise or nothin'; 'chinwag'- 's slang. You know, for, eh, 'chat', talking, discussion. Talkin' makes your bloody chin wag, see?" He shook his head. "I think I'm gonna like you."

That gave him a slight pause.
"Aye... 'S opportunity. Now. Y' say that, and I'm inclined to think I've got some bloody gumption and real skill at it all, y'see? But a lot of people, they don't get it... Menial tasks, t' them, means no effort, or knowledge; and that just ain't true, see? Now, sure, I couldn't ken anything 'bout ruddy biology or wotsits, but I can tell y' now that it ain't no good fixing a faucet to a system without a decent AAV in place; that's a skill, right?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

Oh...slang...of course.
He hated slang, it was so confusing.

"I see. Well that makes a great deal more sense and I wouldn't mind having a 'chinwag'," He raised his hands to do air quotes. "with you again sometime." At the others admission, he couldn't help but grin and feel a bit giddy. "I'm glad to hear that, I'm thoroughly enjoying our conversation."

He listened attentively to the other talk, nodding at the appropriate moments. "I understand completely. Most people don't understand that every job, no matter how 'menial' takes a certain amount of effort and skill. Just because it is not relevant to them does not mean that it's any less of a task." He remembered how people would tease him for working so hard to grow plants. At the time, it had made him feel stupid but now...well, look at the things he could do now with the skills he had cultivated. "As long as you enjoy what you're doing I don't see much point in worrying about other people's opinions. Life is too short to not do what you love and enjoy."