[PRP] Flower Power

[Venti Mico]

After his last encounter going out to train Lu wasn't feeling at all tempted to go out again. Sure, he felt cooped up, wanted to stretch his legs, but he'd happily live inside for the rest of his life if it meant he didn't have to meet someone who would pull a knife on him! Tea wasn't happy with the arrangements and Lu hated to admit it, but life indoors 24/7 was not the life for him. He'd walked up to the door that'd lead him outside three times already. This fourth try he managed to open the door. He stood there, hesitating... and his Absol took off without letting him contemplate it any further.

"T-Tea! No, hey! Stop that!" He called quietly, hoping his voice wouldn't carry as he scurried after her. The fresh air was too nice to put him in a grumpy mood so once he'd caught up with her, he just sighed and smiled a bit when she plopped down and rolled on the ground. "You're going to need a bath later, you know.."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While Inigo was used to being cooped up in the base (and by extension, the outpost) for extended periods, given how long he'd been a part of Team Rocket now, being held in solitary confinement in jail for so long had greatly diminished his desire to be kept confined to one place for too long, especially cramped places. Their current station was nothing but cramped, and while he was infinitely glad for the company of his fellow Rockets, it still didn't compare to being outside in the wide open spaces and fresh air.

And besides, outside was the only place he could let out all of his pokemon team - half of which were too large to let out inside the outpost, given their bulk or height - which was exactly what he was doing. Inigo kept one hand in his pocket while his other rested on the neck of his shiny Rapidash, while his Meganium and Vaporeon rested nearby, all three listening to their trainer as he spoke in soft conversational tones with them all, held entirely in Spanish, though none of them had any idea what he was saying or talking about.  

[Venti Mico]

Lu watched Tea for a bit longer before he stood up straight and looked around. A small wave of dread came over him when he spotted someone else far enough away Lu hadn't heard him immediately. The last time he'd gone out and seen a stranger it had ended badly and frankly, Lu didn't like taking risks! Risks were bad! Yeah, maybe a life of being cooped up was better.

...But of course, that one little part of Lu made him feel bad for assuming this person was as bad as the last he'd met. He could be completely nice and undeserving of Lu's judgement! So Lu, sighing, started walking towards him. After a moment, Tea rolled over, stood, and followed, grass stuck to her back.

"Uh..." Lu started when he'd gotten closer, voice cracking and hardly loud enough to be heard. He coughed, taking an interest in the ground, and tried again. "Um, excuse me, uh... hello."

Yes, he was very good at greetings.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The three pokemon noticed the taller man first, given they were facing that direction, and the grass-type flicked her antennae and offered a bright, happy "niuuum" of greeting. Inigo ceased his flow of Spanish mid-sentence when he heard someone clear their throat behind him, so he turned with a brow raised. There was a brief pang of fear that maybe this man might be with the police or the League, there to take him back to solitary confinement, but no, he seemed rather... timid. Maybe he was a Rocket, which would be much better for him all around, though he didn't remember if he'd seen this guy around the outpost or not... Better err on the side of caution, something Inigo had learned to do over the past couple of years that he hadn't bothered with before joining Team Rocket. "Hey," he greeted amicably, his hand slipping off the fire-type to hide in his pocket as he offered a friendly, albeit rather lop-sided smile. Wait, was he saying hi because he'd seen Inigo around somewhere? Was that it? Or maybe he had a question or something... Swearing mildly internally, he opted to remain awkwardly quiet for now rather than ask a, by this point, very belated question as to what he could help this man with or if he knew him or something even more awkward.

The Vaporeon blinked up at the tall man and his Absol, his fins fanning out as he tilted his head curiously.  

[Venti Mico]

So far it was a good start. The man's pokemon didn't seem violent, and he didn't have an Absol. Remembering Nakura's Absol's almost-attack was not a pleasant thing. Lu glanced around at the other pokemon, they didn't look aggressive... curious, but not aggressive. That put him at ease.

Upon realizing Lu didn't know what to say now took away that ease. Tea wandered a little closer, looking at the other pokemon as if she was judging them good or bad. She slinked forward and sat herself in front of the Vaporeon, ducking her duck down to sniff. Meanwhile, Lu tried to figure out what to say as an awkward silence started growing.

"U-um... nice...pokemon," he said finally, reaching up to scratch the back of his head. He didn't want to ask if the guy was a Rocket- if he wasn't, Lu would be in a worse position. Was there even a subtle way of asking if you were a member of a criminal organization?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Nerius also leaned his head forward, his nose twitching a little while his fins splayed further as he inspected the Absol before him. "Por?"

He still wasn't sure if this man would call the police on him or not for being a Rocket, but he hadn't said anything about that or even hinted that he had seen Inigo on the news or anything... But then he complimented his pokemon, and he perked right up. "Ah, thank you," he grinned and said sincerely, visibly happy to have someone say such a thing. The Meganium did, too, as she crooned happily again, her antennae wriggling. "This is Leilani, Sonata, and Nerius," he introduced, gesturing to the Meganium, Rapidash, and Vaporeon respectively before returning his hands to his pockets to keep them warm. "I wanted to... To..." He trailed off, his expression falling a little as it seemed to freeze for a few moments, before he quickly raised his hands to his face to cover the powerful sneeze that overtook him with little warning.  

[Venti Mico]

Tea looked at the Vaporeon seriously for a moment, then sat back, more relaxed and let her eyes wander around to the Meganium and Rapidash, staying quiet.

"They seem, uh... nice? Not...mean? I've met some, uh... really mean pokemon before." Lu watched Tea and smiled slightly, happy she seemed to enjoy the company. "This is Tea." He nodded at his Absol, who glanced up at Lu and the other trainer.

Lu jumped at his sneeze, blinking a few times before offering a small "Gesundheit". Laughing nervously, Lu scuffed the ground with the tip of his shoe. "I get allergies in the spring sometimes, I usually have tissues on me... I forgot them in the headq- u-um, the, I forgot- the- I-I don't have tissues with me, I'm sorry." Lu looked down, scolding himself for nearly mentioning the 'headquarters' to someone he didn't even know was a Rocket or not! Geez... Quickly trying to come up with a subject change, Lu looked around. "The um- the weather, it's too cold. For flowers, I mean. So, no allergies, but uh... no flowers. Kind of a bummer..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The water-type blinked again, tilting his head slightly at Tea, though his trainer's sudden sneeze startled him and he whipped his head around to regard the young man.

Inigo responded to the foreign word with a light, sheepish chuckle and one of his own as he straightened up, "Gracias." He raised a hand to rub the back of his neck, a little embarrassed by his sudden outburst, even if he couldn't help exactly it. "Thanks; they're really nice," he affirmed, then smiled down at the Absol. "Nice to meet you, Tea." He was debating what to say next, if he should introduce himself to the Absol or the owner - probably the owner - but the other man's words briefly startled him into silence. Did... did he almost say headquarters? Who else called their main base 'headquarters' except Team Rocket? Throwing caution to the wind, even though he'd just decided not two minutes ago to err on the side of caution, he couldn't help but ask with obvious hopefulness in his features, "Are you a Rocket?" He really hoped so. After asking, he really hoped so - if not, this was about to get incredibly awkward.

The tissues - or absence thereof - as well as mention of flowers went entirely without comment for the time being.  

[Venti Mico]

Tea was pleased with the man, giving him a rather stony look but less stony than she gave most strangers. He had her approval for now. She'd see if he still had it later.

Lu felt a small chill; alright, this guy was probably a Rocket. He hadn't sounded suspicious or angry. He was hanging around the training grounds Lu had met another Rocket. It made sense if he was a Rocket! But what if Lu was wrong? Maybe this guy was good at being a spy! Maybe Lu was about to get arrested! Guilt crossing his face, Lu looked down at his feet and nodded. "I... yeah. I'm a Rocket. I'm sorry...Are you a Rocket too?" Lu asked meekly, slipping his hands into his pockets and trying to imagine living the rest of his life in a prison cell.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The taller man's positive response only affirmed that Inigo had made a good choice in chancing the question. "Okay cool," he said, sighing with obvious relief now that he didn't have to worry about it anymore. "Me too. I haven't seen you around before though.. Are you new?" He hadn't seen a lot of people around before, and could only conclude that a lot of people had joined since his incarceration.

He suddenly remembered that the man had said things before and after his slip-up, and Inigo backpedaled to try and recall them. Something about tissues, and about allergies... And flowers? A look of curious hopefulness and suppressed excitement bloomed in his demeanor. "I know! Winter's always so dreary because all the plants and flowers are gone, I can't wait for spring. It helps if you have some potted plants in your room though, if you can keep them alive with the, uh, really minimum lighting conditions.." He trailed off, realizing near the end that maybe the other guy didn't actually care that much about flowers... It wasn't like he'd immediately launched into a discussion of potted plants and how to care for them in low to no light conditions. Sheepishly, he reached his hand up to rub the back of his neck again. "So, um," he continued a little awkwardly, clearing his throat and trying to not seem like some flower-loving push-over, "my name's Inigo. What's yours..?" Oh yes, good, wait until partway through the conversation to introduce yourself. People usually did that in the beginning. Ugh, he'd gotten so bad at this sort of thing...  

[Venti Mico]

Lu breathed a heavy sigh of relief, glad he'd be putting off prison for now. Lu nodded, "Yes, I'm- well... er... I've been here actually, for a few months. Or... um, five." he shrugged sheepishly; he'd kept to himself for mostly the entire time. This guy didn't seem very new, but Lu had never seen him before. Or had and wasn't paying attention. That was likely.

The brunet blinked a few times when he started talking about flowers, listening carefully. Was this real? Pulling his hands out of his pockets and messing with his fingers, Lu decided to introduce himself first. "I'm Lu. It's nice to meet you..." He trailed off, wondering how to go about everything else he wanted to say...

"I-I had a garden back home, before I came to Team Rocket, and I had potted plants indoors but there was sunlight there so it wasn't as hard! Plus I had my own room, so no one could knock it over or anything- do you have any plants in your room? I didn't know where to get the supplies for any... so, I mean- I want to. I like trees. ...I mean, they aren't flowers, but I like them too, they're like giant flowers but with bark instead of- u-um- yeah..." That was a good way to talk about your interest in flowers- right? Right. Right...  

[BlackFireKitsune]

A light frown touched his face as he mentally did the math, though he did raise both hands to count on his fingers. "Ah," he said when he'd finished, looking a little sheepish and almost embarrassed. "That explains it. I was kind of, ah, away, for... About that long," the grunt said, shoving his hands back into his pockets and kicking the toe of his boot into the ground a little, suddenly finding the area beneath his feet much more interesting. "I didn't get back until around December sometime." Perhaps he just hadn't run into this particular Rocket in the two-ish months he'd been back. Was it two? ...yeah, a little less than two now.

Introductions were much more interesting and not awkward, so he eagerly latched onto that topic instead. "It's nice to meet you too," he replied earnestly. He always loved meeting new people, especially other Rockets. It made the environment much friendlier - especially when it was a Rocket who also had a passion for plants. "That's awesome! I never had a garden, I just had a lot of potted plants. I had a lot when I first joined Team Rocket too, but now I just have one." The ground was suddenly much more intriguing again. "I always just went to Camphoreon for supplies, but I think now it'd be better to go to Jinko or maybe Sandalwood, though I think that's a little further away. And I like trees too," the grunt said, expression brightening to a lop-sided smile. "I lived in Sandalwood, so I pretty much grew up in and around trees, so I was always climbing them and stuff. Can you climb trees?" Ohh this was both wonderful and awkward at the same time and he wasn't entirely sure what to think of it. He sort of thought that he liked it, but he wasn't sure. No, he probably liked it.  

[Venti Mico]

Lu had heard along the grapevine that plenty of Rockets had gotten arrested after a raid by the league. Zacharie mentioned it- but he didn't think it'd be the best to bring up. He'd been considering jail just moments before and that had been unpleasant enough, he'd much rather move onto a more interesting topic.

"It's hard to have a garden here- I met a lady, she told me about being able to grow plants with just water, no soil or sunlight, but um, I think real gardens are much better," Lu said, thinking back to talking with... what was her name? Tambrey? Yeah, her. "They'll let you go that far away from the base? For plant supplies? I didn't know..." There was an idea. Knowing the general area the new base would be in, Lu hoped once the move was complete he'd get the chance to buy some supplies. The question of could he climb trees brought a suppressed grin to Lu's face.

"I love climbing trees. It's uh- a little hard now, I kind of... got tall, but um... when I was a kid, I climbed them a lot! I still can if the tree is big enough, but I tend to break branches if I get too high," Lu felt more at ease now than he had in the months since he joined Team Rocket. He didn't mind talking, only felt a little nervous! "You said Sandalwood? Th-that's um, it's near where I lived. Sagestone? It was um, near the forest. Kind of... yeah." Lu punctuated his sentence with a nod, trying to keep a stupid, giddy smile off his face.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Inigo was incredibly grateful when Lu didn't ask him why he'd been gone for so long, and he very happily let the subject drop. Instead, he nodded and frowned, "Yeah, around here's kind of... Not the best place for a garden, to be honest... And I know about those too but yeah, real gardens are so much better," the grunt agreed with a nod and a bright grin. "Oh, yeah, grunts can take out cars or whatever and drive them around, I used to do that back in the desert and I'd drive down to Camphoreon for plants or heat lamps or pots and potting soil," he explained with a shrug. Or at least, he used to, before Aila had died and he'd gotten rid of all of his plants. He also didn't go out very far anymore, ever since he got arrested, and certainly not in any cities. That was the very last thing he needed - to be recognized and arrested again. If that happened, they probably would just leave him there to rot for the rest of his life.

"I lived in a tree," Inigo said with a chuckle, "since Sandalwood is pretty much built into the trees all throughout the city. I spent most of my time in the forest though, climbing trees or sleeping in them and stuff. That doesn't sound as much fun, being too big to climb trees..." Poor guy - Inigo couldn't imagine a life without climbing trees. "And yeah, I know where Sagestone is! I've been there a few times, but not for a few years now."