[FIN] Glamorous Assignments

[wasluxy]

Luxury had to hold back a snicker. He actually believed that? Well, she might as well totally roll with it, it'd be interesting to see if that little tidbit floated around base. "Oh, no, there's really not much meat... but the brain is nice and savory, and there's quite a bit of blood to enjoy~" She made a face like she was thinking about the delicious flavor, then smiled at KO. "Your turn, mister 'I have no secrets'."  

[TawnyAngel]

KO smiled and raised an eyebrow at L; now he knew she was messing with him. "Okay the brains part I could have believed but I'm after that my suspension of disbelief failed. If you wanted a blood filled treat you ought to go for the stomach of a Zubat that gouged just before it was killed! Or a black pudding."

"Myself however," KO made an airy gesture with the papers he was holding, "Chemist, auto-mobile enthusiast, tailor, and frequenter of the sort of bar where nobody chugs beers. Most of my time on duty I work in the labs as I suppose you gathered from knowing that I work with Tambery but unfortunately on occasion I still get dragged into things like this." He was so very much looking forward to being an Agent.  

[wasluxy]

This time Luxury did let out a snicker. She hadn't considered the stomach, and it made perfect sense, but with her overlooked detail she gave herself away. Ah well, she'd try again with something else when she got the opening!

"Ah. My knowledge of vehicles is if they go fast, I like them." Yeah ok, just tell him something genuine. Good job, idiot. "But yeah, I pretty much figured you'd be a lab rat too, though I figured your uniform was tailored with money rather than skill. Good job." Her tone was more casual and a little bored sounding rather than any level of being impressed, though, because honestly she was more interested in his 'enthusiasm' of cars than his ability to sew. Of course, she wasn't going to admit her interest any more than she might have already, because that might lead to him thinking he could get her in a car with him and that wasn't happening unless she was directly ordered to do so. Even if that car -or truck or whatever- could take her breath away with speed.  

[TawnyAngel]

KO gave a lazy grin and nodded. "Ahhh, you speak my language. They need to look good too of course but most of the fast ones do, the demands of aerodynamics tend to make for a pretty car. I do miss being out on the road, I must admit. My poor car spends most of its time parked in Camphoreon now and it has to be available for team use, though as it's far from subtle luckily that doesn't come up often," KO made an expression of mild distaste, "I don't like anyone else driving it, especially people I don't know."

"And thank you," KO smiled at the 'compliment' on his tailoring skills but the lopsided curve of it and his lifted eyebrow indicated that he knew she hadn't been at all invested in that 'good job'. "I take commissions should you fancy a better fitted uniform yourself, or any other kind of clothing created or tailored to fit better." Somehow he didn't think he was going to get a customer here but it never hurt to mention!  

[wasluxy]

Luxury visibly cringed as KO talked about his car having to be available to the team, especially considering others could drive it. That really had to suck.

She did take a small moment to consider the tailoring thing, though... If it weren't allowed, KO wouldn't have a tailored uniform himself, and she'd seen others with tailored uniforms too, so it was definitely a thing she could have done... And a tailored uniform, one that actually fit-fit instead of generally fit, would be quite a, well, luxury, so naturally that idea was appealing. Luxury never had any luxuries, her best living situation had been in the past four years of her life, even with the blow up and temporary base and the not-so-pleasentness that went with it. She also only spent her measly pay when she had to, so after said four years if she wanted she could afford a tailored uniform...

As she thought about it and sorted papers, her only response was, "Hmm...". It was tempting... buuut her sister had been talking about getting a dress next time there was a ball she could go to, and if she put the money toward her own outfit not only could she not help CJ, she'd also probably have to let KO measure her and she'd sooner spend the next year sorting files with him than allow that. "I'd rather buy my sister a dress." She looked up at him with a fake-sad smile and an almost equally fake-sad, "Sorry. Though I suppose I could pass the word."  

[TawnyAngel]

"I know, right?" KO replied to the silent cringe. "It's a crime, and most of them don't even refill with premium gas. Can you believe it? Athletes don't run on junk food." His poor, poor, abused car.

"And you could always buy your sister a dress from me," KO continued undeterred. "I can guarantee that the same quality from me would be less expensive than you'd find in a shop, and made exactly the way she'd want it! I could probably do a discount for a friend of Tambery's too." Friends and allies after all were worth more than mere money, though of course money was very nice too.  

[wasluxy]

Crap.

Ok, well, since that didn't work she'd be blunt, because no way was she letting him measure her little sister either, even if the dress would be cheaper and perfect fitting and... exactly what she'd want... and...

Crap.

Well, it was better than 'stupid', right?

"Well, I'lllll, uh, pass the word to her too. Though I'm sure she would rather be fitted by a professional in the stores than a..." She looked at him with her eyes, not moving her head from facing the paperwork, "Grunt." Ok, Luxury was well aware how much she sounded like a jerk, but as the big sister she had a duty to protect CJ. Especially since the girl seemed to be completely clueless as to how horrid 'Bidoofs' could be. Her poor, unaware, little Southern belle...  

[TawnyAngel]

KO's eyebrows rose and a little smile lingered on his lips. He didn't know exactly what this was about but he was willing to bet a sizeable sum that it had nothing to do with his rank. Was it the man hating thing? She simply couldn't stand the idea of her sister wearing something a man made and designed? Well if so he had some unfortunate news for her regarding the fashion world.

"Oh? Well as she pleases but you know measuring a fit really isn't rocket science - no pun intended - you could even do it for her. The sort of store that makes custom fitted dresses is going to be rather beyond the price range of a grunt's wage after all, unless you have an alternative income stream."  

[wasluxy]

Luxury was doing her best by now not to audibly growl. The idea of being able to give Calico a perfect fitting dress made just the way she wanted put Luxury over the friggin moon, but... The idea of admitting he had made a string of good points was enough to put her into the fiery pits of hell. What was worse was that if she did talk to Calico and they did get a dress from KO, that meant the money she'd been working for all this time would just be going to a male she had to work with rather than some store owner or whatever that she'd probably never meet and could assume was female. Every time she looked at him she'd know her money, her hard earned money, was in his pockets. But... she'd also know exactly who's hind quarters to shove a boot up if he screwed her over or the dress didn't come out perfect. And if she was able to get her sister's measurements herself... The more she weighed the options, the harder it was not to growl.

She chewed her lip for a moment, tossed aside an empty box, grabbed another, and shot another side glance at KO. "I will forever judge you on your chance to make a rocket pun intentionally that you just completely failed at..." Taking a half deep breath, she then looked him dead in the eyes. "Also, I know where you work, and I'm sure I can find out where you sleep. That being said..." She turned back to the papers, "I will talk to Calico. No guarantees."

Luxury just hoped he didn't get too happy about this, or there was no way she was even going to mention this to CJ.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aww, she was threatening him? It was kind of sweet actually, like a Growlithe puppy growling at you convinced it was the toughest thing that had ever walked the face of the earth. KO's small smile remained in place and he nodded affably, his red eyes locked calmly with Luxury's pale green. "Excellent, I hope to hear from her soon then. It's been a while since I've got to work on anything special, mostly I just find myself doing adjustments.... And I know you know where I work - though I'm not sure what moved you to tell me that - but should you need to know I'll save you the trouble of finding out where I sleep; room B5-10." Why the threat though? Sure she hated men but that deep breath in, emphasising her supposed toughness again and again... was she scared of him or something?

Deciding that the book was probably closed on that topic for now KO turned his attention back to the papers he was sorting. "So you know that I work in the science department, what's your line of work?" he asked as he started a second pile for 2011, it had been a busy year apparently.  

[wasluxy]

The Grunt wasn't sure exactly how to take his reaction... On the one hand, he could be totally screwing with her and taunting her subtly, as if she was nothing more than a Joltik without it's spark... Though, to be fair, she certainly wasn't the most scary Rocket on base. Still, she didn't appreciate not being taken seriously, even if she couldn't really blame him. On the other hand, he could actually be taking her seriously, and giving her his room number because he's confident in his work rather than highly amused at her threat, and respecting her rather than blowing her off. Since he labeled the dress as 'something special' though, Luxury decided to just ignore his intentions and move on. It wasn't worth getting her feathers ruffled over, though she did make a mental note of his room number just in case...

"Mm. Well..." She hauled up a stack of papers from the box and began sorting those out. "Mostly Field, I suppose, though I much prefer when there's Demolition work to do." Exploding things was fun, and as luck would have it Panther worked in Demolition too so there was a familiar face among the others. It wasn't exactly a department that many females took interest in...  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ahh, I am fond of the Demolition department," KO said with a soft chuckle and a small shake of his head. "They always make work for us in chemistry! Being a grunt I'm only really production line of course but it's still somewhat enjoyable to prepare materials we know will make beautiful explosions. Field work has its charms too, I'm sure, but as I nearly died on the last mission I'm not keen to make it my speciality." You could generally tell who the field agents were, or at least the ones who regularly went on missions. They were the ones who were missing bits, or who bore impressive scars.... Of course he had one of his own now, much though he tried not to think about the ugly purple knot of twisted flesh that marred his chest.  

[wasluxy]

Luxury let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I suppose knocking on deaths door would make anyone second guess going back out there." Though, to be honest, up until CJ came to Team Rocket a near death wouldn't have deterred her one bit. The near death of her Purrloin, though, had admittedly shaken her up. Currently the little kitten wasn't allowed anywhere where there might be a battle, and was training on base as much as she could without neglecting Luxury's other Pokemon. She hoped by the next mission that Chora would be a Liepard, and a lot less likely to jump at someone with a gun.

"I can't say I don't enjoy it, there's always a thrill that comes with lifting Pokemon and other such goods without being noticed. Makes me feel like a ninjaOW!!! What the?" Luxury had reached back into the box that was almost empty, and as her fingers closed around the side of papers something snapped shut on a couple of them. Jerking her hand back, she discovered it was a little spring-toy Pokeball, and she held it up for KO to see with a shrug and a 'what the f*ck?' expression. Because, seriously, what the f*ck? Guess that explained why the papers had looked uneven...  

[TawnyAngel]

"I like to think that I rang his doorbell and then drove away at speed," KO replied with a wry smirk.

A moment later Luxury's exclamation abruptly drew him out of his languidly casual demeanour; the cool calm man looked on edge for a moment, ready for either fight or flight and it was hard to tell which or whether it might in fact be a combination of the two. When she drew her hand out however he relaxed again with an incredulous laugh.

"What's that doing in there?" he wondered aloud with a shake of his head. "It must have been there years.... If it broke the skin I'd get yourself a tetanus jab if I were you."  

[wasluxy]

The girl found herself letting out another laugh at the ridiculousness of her find, though it felt odd since it was the second time she'd laughed in a week, the first time had been moments ago, and she'd snickered before that. Why was it, that the longer she was stuck in this stupid room with stupid papers and a stupid male Grunt, the more... relaxed? No, no way. Casual? Yeah. The more casual she felt? Maybe her sister was rubbing off on her...

Shaking the thought from her head, and also shaking her head at the mention of tetanus, she pulled the ball off with a little 'snap' and looked at her fingers. "Nope, no blood." She examined the springs, which were surprisingly strong for having been laid open for so long if the toy had indeed been there for years, then tossed it casually at KO's head and quickly picked up the last of the papers from the box, as if she had done no such thing. "Could have been the 'trap' of the Haunter, too, I'd guess."