[FIN] Chemicals

[Gwennythe]

A few small rooms, within the laboratory complex, had been reserved for chemical synthesis and production. Sealed from the rest of the labs, scrubbed utterly clean, and containing assorted chemicals and machinery, the rooms currently occupied one lab-coated geneticist.
Tambrey was also wearing a mask over her mouth, and white sterile clothing.

In one room, the growth matrix for cloning was to be tested, and experimented on with a view to improving the formula.
In another room, capable of being sealed separate even to this section, more potentially dangerous work could be done. It was currently set up with a lab table and lockers full of various ingredients and machines.

Tambrey hummed to herself as she waited and, casually, browsed through labels; some she recognised, others she could guess at, and some were a little bit alien to her.  

[TawnyAngel]

He wasn't going to be winning any fashion awards in this get up but in the name of keeping himself safe KO was, for once, quite happy to endure horribly unflattering clothing.

Outside the sealed complex of rooms he finished fastening his clothing and pulled on his oxygen mask before approaching the door and stepping through. This brought him into a tiny area with a keypad next to another door; the chemist tapped in a code and the light on the keypad turned green, granting him access. This brought him into yet another little space, again with a keypad before the next door. The thing didn't activate until he had closed the previous door behind him however and there was an added measure of security; a dex scan and an iris scan.

If there was one thing you could say for the new TR it was that they learned from mistakes, eventually. After a few incidents before his recruitment and one after - that time with the Mewtwo - security all around the labs was tighter than a lifeguard's speedo and in areas like this that went double.

The door beeped an acknowledgement at KO and hissed aside, granting him access to the room full of an exciting array of horrible ingredients. "Oh no, would you look at that?" KO drawled as he approached Tam. "We've come in the same outfit, I'll have to go home and change."  

[Gwennythe]

Noises- beeps mostly- and lights let Tambrey know that someone was coming in.
She couldn't help but grin- though the expression was almost entirely hidden behind the outfit- at KO's words upon entry.
"Well I -was- here first..." She jokingly agreed, then gestured at the storage she'd just been browsing through.
"There's a lot here. I got curious. Not started anything yet though. How're you?"

Three of her pokéballs- passed through a delivery system before she entered- sat in a rack nearby, while three remained on her belt.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh well, I suppose so long as nobody sees us it doesn't matter but we must coordinate better next time," KO responded with a smirk that was invisible behind his mask but audible in the low purr of his voice.

"Anyway though, right," he continued, his voice lifting to a more businesslike tone. "I'm well, pleased to be assigned onto something interesting for a change. I was getting sick of grunt work." The sooner he could get himself promoted the better. "How're you doing? Looking forward to this little project?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Next time, for sure." Tambrey returned, sans purr, but a little bit of light glee detectable in her voice. KO was enjoyable to work with.

"Ah. Grunt work." The agent nodded sagely- she'd been a grunt for a fairly long time. "All the drudgery and filing and tidying up other peoples' messes. Uh. Sorry about some of those, probably." She apologised, suddenly realising that she probably made some chemical messes and lab equipment to be cleaned. She hoped not too much, though, as she did try to clean up after herself.

"Uh. Yes. Pretty well, and oh, for sure. I'm most interested in optimizing the growth matrix, to be honest- I suspect your experience with, uh... synthetic enhancers might be pretty frakking helpful with that... But I've got to admit, this other project... It could be fairly necessary, especially with the whole, um," Tambrey weighed up what she wanted to say "security situation we have going now. I mean, don't get me wrong, I have every faith in, um, my own work, and in Faleen's tech and work too, and everyone's input... But a chemically based failsafe, flexible enough to use outside of... just that... Now that would /really/ useful, and, um, it'll let us look at the mechanisms in pokémon moves similar that I've been very curious about for a while..."  

[TawnyAngel]

KO gave a languid little laugh, genuine but giving the impression that it was fully under its owner's control. "Oh well, I'll earn my way out of it sooner or later." Tambery's mess, somebody else's, it made little difference and showing bad grace didn't get a man anywhere in life.

"But anyway, yes, I follow what you're saying," KO nodded, his lips pursing a little as he remembered what he'd lost in the destruction of the old base. "As much faith as we may place in any one system, any one system can fail. It's only common sense to have as many back up plans as possible. Plus of course it'll be interesting," he added as an afterthought; he'd only got into chemistry because Galactic had needed chemists at the time, it was only once he'd trained some that he'd discovered he had something of a knack for it and rather enjoyed it too.  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh, sooner rather than later, I'm sure. Um, it's pretty important to have knowledge and skills kept in the ranks after all, and chemistry spans several applications... I mean, I'm working with you now, but tomorrow you could be synthesizing a new fuel or something for tech' right? Or developing a better smoke cover deployment..." The Agent smiled, nodding in agreement "All of them have systems and systems, but there's always going to be that one you wished you had that could beat a problem the others weren't able to..."

She turned to view some labelled storage.
"Anyway, um... I was thinking about trying to focus on two solutions to add to our current stockpile in regards to cell growth... I was thinking if we could find a way to synthesize a self sustaining zeatin-infused mix, it might provide a more suitable medium for grass types, while remaining a rich food source for the others. I've also been curious if it might pay to explore a 'chemical garden' approach in regards to some of our more mineral-based pokémon. I mean, technically, I guess, that's kind of what we already do, though with a heavy focus on standard cloning techniques, but I suspect if we could formulate a system based on chemical gardening, it might present itself as more stable for mineral-based forms after transfer, rather than leaving them in our more standard biology-based chemical baths?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Gwennythe

KO made a pleased 'hummm' noise and nodded; "It's varied in its applications alright."

As Tam turned to the storage KO turned with her, shifting his headgear carefully into a slightly more comfortable position. "Zeatins," he began thoughtfully, "yes, one would think they would promote strong growth, perhaps leading to tougher specimens? And very bushy pokemon in the case of those that actually have leaves." That could be pretty entertaining to see for a start.

"I must admit I don't know a lot about what mineral based pokemon need to develop well but I follow what you mean," KO continued, his head cocking thoughtfully to the side. "Stands to reason that it would be more suitable for them, and thus more efficient for us."  

[Gwennythe]

She grinned appreciatively as he followed her thought process and ended on a humorous image.
"Chikoritas with full heads of foliage'd be pretty cute," She joked, though couldn't help but follow up with a scientific thought "Though, uh, I guess that leaf really is closer in make up to a cotyledon in some respects."

"Exactly... And, uh, I don't think there's a person on earth who knows -exactly- what a mineral pokémon needs, but our research so far has been, um... rather promising. A lot of it is a bit 'best guess' though."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hum, I hadn't thought of that," KO said with a thoughtful tilt of his head. "I suppose it is really, but there might be an effect in its evolutions? I suppose there's only one way to find out." The interesting way!

"As you say it seems to be working out for our rocky, and metallic, specimens so far, so the educated guesses in your department are doing well." He had missed this environment more than he'd realised, hadn't had it since he'd left Galatic. He really would have to thank Star one of these days, and the best part about that was that Star would spend the rest of the day looking for the trick! The way that man's nasty paranoid little mind visibly worked away when you said something he didn't expect was always entertaining to watch.

"What shall we look at first then?" KO asked after a moment, gesturing a bit to the cabinet. "Given we've suited up I'm guessing that we're going to do something with something, right?"  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey smirked.
"Treestar makes me hungry enough as it is, the scent he puts out sometimes... A whole bush of aromatic leaves... I'd be in the mood for curry every day..." She tilted her head. "Though I guess that might help liven up cafeteria food."

A nod.
"Mmhm. Onix is a weird one, though. That ones pretty fast growing. I get the natural advantage, but the mechanism is... insanely energetic without being too wasteful. It's almost like the entire pokémon is made of 'shell' except, y'know, it's actually rock." She had to admit, she kind of liked Onix for it's crazy method of growth. It was one of those that seemed so 'simple' but dig a bit deeper and the processes that had to happen for the rock-snake to grow like it did were like a symphony...

"Ah! Yes. Um," She nodded "basically we don't want to be breathing in something we're going to be working with."I want to find a way to both draw in and pacify pokémon. One we can manufacture easily and disperse effectively, with a high diffusion rate, but limited, uh," it wasn't the right word, but it worked well enough "half-life. Y'know, one that'll break down quickly, but be really potent before it does?" She grinned "Something like Sweet Scent, but 'improved'."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Right," KO nodded, "we don't want it hanging around the place.... So perhaps something that combines an enhanced Sweet Scent with a sleep effect? If it's for use in the base perhaps the," he gestured, "whatever it ends up being called could be flushed out once it's done its job." Studying a sample of Sweet Scent would be necessary, without a detailed look at the structure of the active ingredient(s) they couldn't work out a way to improve upon it.  

[Gwennythe]

"Uh." Tambrey grinned a little sheepishly through her suit. "This will throw a spanner in the works, just a little, but we're hoping for a very flexible, um, solution, in where it can be applied... Basically, y'know; base, out and about, all weathers, all territories... Just to... make the whole thing ten times harder for fun and all that..."

A click, and Tambrey'd taken a pad from a holder on the wall.
"We can, to a degree, do virtual tweaks on here, but well, we, uh, have to make the stuff before we can tweak it. I, um, isolated some of the biological components I recognised, but the picture's incomplete." She shrugged and grinned. "So we get to play with chemicals."  

[TawnyAngel]

KO gave a little laugh and shook his head. "Well I suppose it would be dull if it were easy, wouldn't it; You know how to keep me entertained!" He moved to rub his chin thoughtfully, which was of course not possible through the suit and so he gave up. "Let's play then! Where are we starting, have you got the components you've already isolated on the pad?" KO lent over to peer at it.  

[Gwennythe]

"Mhm. Multipurpose. Basically demanding some, um, very hard work from us for a very easy, one step, solution for the team..." Tambrey didn't really mind though. Challenges were fun. This might not have been perfectly in her wheelhouse, but she could see so many similarities to her work in it, that she was fairly confident she was being helpful here. Organic chemistry really did play quite a role in genetics, after all.

"Mostly simple aromatic rings, from what I can tell, but, um, these..." She leaned over to jab a finger at three of the structures currently displayed "seem, um, well, unusual to me. One is very similar to Quinazoline, but I just can't understand what possible function it could be having here... The others are pretty clearly Isoquinoline and Pyrrole, but... I've never really seen them interact in this way. I understand where Pyrrole is coming from, I mean, a lot of this -is- plant based after all, as much as, well, 'pokémon' based, if I had to describe it, but some of these properties aren't making, um, sense."