[PRP] Hello, I hope you're not scary [FIN]

[Venti Mico]

After nearly two months of being with Rocket, Lu had finally started calming down some. Some. He didn't go into flight or fight mode whenever he ran into somebody(which happened quite frequently, with the base being so... well, cramped), he wasn't afraid to go somewhere other than his assigned room. Most of all, he wasn't as afraid to talk to people as his first weeks. For him, that was a big improvement, however insignificant others might see it.

Lu found one of his bigger problems tended to be the door frames weren't quite suited for his height. He had just recently bumped his forehead into one. He was still trying to rub away the red mark on his forehead when he entered the long room most people ate it. Even if he'd gotten more comfortable lately, he still had the habit of staring at the floor wherever he went.

The brunet liked to sit around the long room whenever he had a bit of free time, he didn't talk much but it was a little nicer than holing himself up in the dorms. As he sat himself in the usual spot towards the back of the room, he saw possibly one of the shortest people he'd met since joining Rocket. She had pinkish hair and a small stature- she didn't seem too scary, Lu thought. So, after biting his lip, he looked over at her and lifted a hand to wave.

"Hello- um, good...morning," he greeted, a bit quieter than he'd intended.  

[LoudmouthedTasi]

Ooh, fresh meat. Too bad it got the drop on me. The pink-haired pygmy smirks to herself, laughing at an unseen joke, munching on an apple. God knows where she got it - probably didn't pay a cent for it.

"Sup!" She breaks into a full-on grin - with a hint of mischievious malice. "How's the weather up there, stilts-skin?" She gives a lazy casual wave with a raise of her arm. "...pft, you look like you've seen one of those creepy little Darumaka statues with a butcher knife or something. I ain't that scary! Especially to a tall guy like you!" She snorts, and laughs heartily for someone so...tiny. She too was new, but she kept many old habits from her former questionable lifestyle. Not to say this gig was top of the tops. Oh well!

"By the way, you got something on your forehead." She reaches up to his forehead and pokes the marking teasingly, just to be a jerk. Wow Tasi, way to show off those social skills! Alienate that poor defenseless introverted athlete-height teammate!  

[Venti Mico]

...Well, still, she wasn't the scariest person he'd met, Lu told himself. Opening his mouth to reply, Lu stared dumbly for a moment before actually saying anything.

"I- the weather? It's, um, the same as down there..?" he said, unsure. Hadn't heard that one before, no. After years of being tall he still hadn't figured out a way to reply to it without sounding serious. "It's normal, the weather is. U-uh, a...Darumaka..?" the brunet asked, brows furrowing nervously. And then she was close up to him, poking his forehead- he flinched and jerked back, swatting at her hand.

"It's! It's just, I- a bruise, it's a bruise, please don't touch it..?" Lu scolded himself for sounding afraid of her- she was so tiny, he could probably- no, he knew he could- lift her up and hold her in the air until she behaved. But...that wasn't very nice...

"I'm... Lu? A..are you new here?" he asked tentatively.  

[LoudmouthedTasi]

"Haha, you're alright. A little lacking in the cajones, but hey!" She snerks. Despite her mischievious malice, she didn't seem to be the 'I kick puppies for fun and profit" type. Just very crass and possibly sociopathic in terms of kleptomania! "Darumaka, those little fire goblin thingamobobs. Well they look like goblins to me."

Munch nom munch apple yum. "Yeah, I'm new. Free food, it's awesome. Here." She offers another apple to Lu. Maybe she did get it legally! ...for once. From an illegally operating organization.

"You're a wee bit bend-over-backwards-y to be here, aren'tcha? Not that it's a completely bad thing." She snerks again, and smirks. She then offers her fist to Lu as an offer of some sort?  

[Venti Mico]

"In cajones? I don't know what that is," Lu mumbled under his breath, though he had a feeling she'd just insulted him. Maybe? He didn't want to ask. Cajones and Darumakas, he felt like he needed to update his vocabulary. "I... don't think I've ever seen one. I only have one Pokemon, she's not a Darumaka," He said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Free food- yes, th-that is a good thing!" He accepted the apple but didn't take a bite out of it, he'd probably choke on it while trying to talk. "At least it doesn't seem... too evil..? I thought there would be a lot more... bad stuff. But the worst that's happened is I found some mold growing in a utility closet."

"A- no- I don't- am I? I don't think I bend over backwards...y. You don't seem bendy at all, to be honest." He wasn't sure what she was doing with her fist. Was this some sort of handshake? Lu reached forward and patted the top of her fist. ...Well, what was he supposed to do?  

[LoudmouthedTasi]

"The nutsack, the family jewels, your manhood." She starts reciting every slang term she knows, before remembering the basics. "Your balls." She snerks. "Good, evil, pssssh." She seems to nearly spit as she recites these two constructs. "When you take something from a 'good person', does that good person not press charges?" She snorts. "Do they not send the cops after you? I'm sure there's a few, but I've never seen one in the flesh myself."

She then stares at him as he doesn't get the 'bending backwards' idiom. "...what kind of motherf*ing boulder did your parents find you under?" She then looks at the hand on her fist. She withdraws it slowly with a sigh of frustration, her other hand out of view for a moment, as she steps closer.

"Bending backwards means you let people take advantage of you. Like so." She prods him on the forehead - veeery lightly, as to not aggravate the bruise too much - with a pen. That looks EXACTLY like the one he was carrying in his pocket. She then hands it back to him.

"You look like you could hang me upside down and shake out my lunch money if I let you grab me. Yet you didn't. Because you're a nice guy. Sweet thing to be, but I'd rather see you live for another year." She giggles like a little goblin herself, admittedly charmed by the nice guy bit. Act or not, was still something rare in such a place.

"Also, hold out your fist, so I can show you how to 'pound it." She sticks out her tongue like a brat.  

[Venti Mico]

Lu felt his face heat up when she explain 'cajones' to him, then quickly hid his face by staring down at the table. That- hadn't been what he'd thought she'd meant! Maybe holing himself up was a better idea. "I-... um, I... I don't know? I've never stolen something, but I guess a normal person would press charges..?" he said hesitantly, trying to completely avoid the whole 'cajones' talk and move the conversation along. He didn't enjoy talking about... that kind of thing.

"I- n-no, I didn't, I'm... sorry!" he apologized quickly, biting his lip. And suddenly he was being prodded with a pen. ...A pen he carried around in case he needed it- she took his pen? Lu's face scrunched up in a mix of confusion, shock, and worry. His pen... At least she gave it back, he thought as he tucked it way into his pocket. "People don't take advantage of me..." he mumbled.

"No, I just- there's no reason for me to steal your lunch money, is there? So... wait- what do you mean live another year?" he asked, feeling more anxious. He didn't think he'd be doing anything very dangerous. Not that he didn't know Team Rocket did dangerous things- but because he was convinced no one in their right mind would trust Lu doing something dangerous or important. Maybe she knew something he didn't. "How long have you been with Rocket?" he asked, wondering if she'd been there longer.  

[LoudmouthedTasi]

Tasi just...stopped, and stared up at Lu. "...not long, but I thought everyone knew what Team Rocket's about." Holy s**t, awwwkward. "...we steal pokemon and use them in various ways to make a profit so we can keep getting food!" Munch munch munch. Awkward gulp.

"You seriously didn't know? Why'd you join?" She just stares at Mr. Lu Nice Guy. Yeah, that had to be his last name. "...I joined 'cause it was getting harder and harder to pull off 3 half-assed meals a day. Here, I get three square meals, plus two snacks! Woo!" Munch munch. "And all I need to do is do what I do - pilfer self-entitled pricks of money and pokemon!"

She then looks at Lu. "Sorry man, but you're stuck here. No leaving once you join up." Blunt like a Metagross's arm on Lu's non-existent spine.  

[Venti Mico]

Stealing pokemon... Lu knew that much. Or at least he'd heard rumours of that, but he'd chosen to try to ignore that and just do what was expected of him here. He'd spoken with Tambrey before, she told him about all sorts of science things she did here... he'd been hoping Team Rocket would turn out to be more concerned with science experiments than stealing Pokemon.

"They don't... hurt them, right? The pokemon don't get hurt?" he asked, a sliver of hope in his voice. He hadn't been told to hurt or steal a Pokemon, he hadn't done much but learn the ins and outs of his new life lately. "I.. knew Pokemon got stolen, but I guess I tried not to think about it. Why did I join? ...Do I have to answer that?" Lu would prefer not to tell anyone the reason he'd joined. It was probably one of the stupidest reasons, he thought. "Food is nice though. I like the food here."

"I know I can't leave. It'd be nice if I could turn back time," he sighed, shoulders slumping as he tried to distract himself by taking the pen from his pocket and idly playing with it.  

[LoudmouthedTasi]

Tasi frowns at his question. What did it matter? "...I don't know, I guess? I never thought about it. As long as Rabble-Rouser is safe," as she says this, her left hand goes to her right wrist as if to check something.

"...As long as Rabble-Rouser is safe, screw everyone else." She snorts, getting slightly defensive. "If it gets us fed, I'll do what it takes. And yeah, I heard about that science stuff too, went over my head. Ain't science about makin' big bangs when mixing two liquid stuffs together? I dunno if anyone cares why anyone joined. I have no reason to hide mine. I won't pry if you want to hide yours. Probably smarter that way."

She takes a deep breath and offers him half of her sammich. "Makes me happier, you look like you could use it." Not a sub or anything, basic bread, meat, cheese, and lettuce.

"And no use wishing for things that won't happen. Be happy with what you have right now. Tomorrow could take it away easy." She then proceeds to rip into her own half, downing it in three bites.  

[Venti Mico]

"Is that your own Pokemon?" Lu asked, thinking the a bit bizarre. He wasn't one to judge, with how he had named his own pokemon. "I don't want to hurt any pokemon, really..." with a sigh, he thought about Tea. If anyone ever hurt her, he'd probably... well, he didn't like to think about what he'd do. He wasn't even sure how he'd handle that.

"I guess having enough food is good... I don't know though, I don't want to do something bad even if I'm taken care of here. I guess I got myself in a mess," he murmured, sighing absentmindedly. "I don't think that's all science is, but that's probably a lot of it. I don't know a lot about science, I just... grow plants, sometimes. I guess that involves science somehow, but I- I don't know the scientific... stuff. Flowers are easier to understand than science."

Lu accepted the half of her sandwich, looking at it tentatively. Zacharie had shared a sandwich with him too, and Zacharie didn't turn out to be very mean at all... With a tentative bite, Lu watched his lap and listened to her speak.

"I guess you're right. Still, though," he concluded with yet another sigh. He felt a little dramatic.  

[LoudmouthedTasi]

"Psh, no matter how you look at plants, they need the same thing as anything else. Sustenance, room to breath, and the freedom to feel the sun on 'em. You don't need no super ingenious formula to grow some plant. Unless you want one of those Carnivine-looking plants, that would be kinda ******** awesome." She grins devilishly at the thought - nearly giddy.

At the trail end of her thought, she catches the sigh and downcast look. "Well while you're here, you gotta make a choice. You can make someone else feel miserable, or you can be made miserable. And truth be told, I'd hate to make you more miserable than you are."  

[Venti Mico]

"Well, that's not true... someone told me about hydro..ponies? No- hydroponics, I think it was, b-but, um, it's a way to grow plants but only in water. It sounds really interesting, but complicated... I- don't think... a Carnivine looking plant would be a very good idea...it might attack you..?" Lu loved plants and gardening, the minute plants turned on him would be the day he had no hope left in the world.

The two choices put before both didn't sound very good- Lu didn't want to do either. "I don't... I don't think I want to do either of those. Can I settle on something more in the middle? Making anyone miserable seems a bit... extreme."  

[LoudmouthedTasi]

"Ah, well I've never been one to stop and smell the roses anyway. Besides, where I come from, roses cost 40 bucks a dozen. Better to spend that money on something more...Iunno, not expensive? Like food! Food is awesome." She nods as if making an important observation.

"And dude, think about it! If they're focusing on the giant man-eating plant, that means they're not thinking about what's in their pockets! Easy peasy jobs galore!" She then actually takes note of Lu's hesitance and distressed face. "...I suppose we could always make an explosion or something." She scratches the back of her neck awkwardly and coughs.

"But yeah, Lu, my man. People make each other miserable in their day to day lives simply by looking out for themselves. The question is who are you looking out for? I'm personally looking out for numero uno." Chest beat , and then reaches for his shoulder. "If you don't look out for you and your Pokemon, who will?"  

[Venti Mico]

"Really? They weren't that much where I'm from, b-but I mean, I grew them, so I never had to buy them," Lu mumbled, staring down at his lap. He really did miss his garden back home, if there was a way he could have packed it up and brought it with him he would have done it. They probably wouldn't like it too much here, though. He hoped someone was taking care of it.

"Wait- but- why do you need what's in their pockets..? If you're here, you don't really need to steal anymore, right? Because they have food here..?" he asked nervously, not able to see himself stealing something, ever. "Explosions..I... I-I don't know about that, either." his shoulders hunched up- he remembered a time in science class some kid had done something to a solution and it ended up making a small but loud pop! noise; that'd nearly given Lu a heart attack.

"I don't think I'm looking after anyone," Lu continued, then reached around and put a hand on the pokeball in his pocket at his side. "Well- there's Tea, she's my pokemon. I guess I'm looking out for her? She doesn't really need my help though..." Lu tensed a bit at the touch. "If I had a plant, I guess I'd be watching out for it. I like plants."