[FIN] Grew a New Friend

[Gwennythe]

Genetics was time consuming and often seemingly unnecessarily complicated, even when you followed a standard procedure and were, in fact, performing something that had become routine.

A new cell line had to be growth tested over and over, checking and re-checking yield rates until you found just a few out of thousands that remained stable. Even then, just one of two of those might remain stable, and then it was time to observe and let grow... Not that one could relax at that stage either, of course; each new cell line cloned and grown from the stable genetic lineage would have to be monitored, tested, and very carefully tweaked should problems arise.
There were often problems, sometimes leading to the 'scrapping' of entire specimens.
Rocket scientists had done these procedures over and over again, though, with multiple species.
Now they had perfected 'Ralts'.

A section of the labs had been dedicated to the project, growing a number of the new beings in rows of clear tanks filled with a viscous, faintly purple, solution.

Science-assigned grunts were able to come and record data or perform standard checks and tasks, while agents, like Tambrey, were able to come and do the same, or, in fact, study the specimens, and the equipment and materials, at a more complex level, working to tweak and perfect the process constantly.

Today was an 'assignment' day; one of the new Ralts would be going to a Rocket operative.
Thankfully, Tambrey didn't have to wait to be notified to go and assign clearance, for KO, of course, already worked in the department.

Thus she filled the time before she expected him to arrive by rechecking each tank, and sending digital copies of each tank report into an assigned file in the database, playing, a little, with Turing while she did so.
She'd could be found standing in front of a specific tank, 'conversing' with her sprited Porygon-Z at that moment.  

[TawnyAngel]

The doors to the room containing tank and Tambery swished open and KO sauntered in wearing his usual small faintly enigmatic smile. "Hello, doctor in the house. Sort of. How are you doing today, sort of Doctor Greene?" As he was technically on duty KO was dressed in his (tailored) grunt uniform. He'd had a hair cut since seeing Tambery last which he hoped she would notice and compliment; he also hoped that she wouldn't notice that he looked faintly peaky. Hangovers lasted more than one day these days, he was still feeling a bit delicate but determined not to let it show in his manner.

As he didn't have occasion to come to this section of the labs often - and loitering for interest was discouraged if it was outside of your remit - KO looked around himself with interest.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey smirked, clicking to 'exit' a couple of programmes, and clicking an icon to start 'Space Invaders', to keep Turing busy for a while, much to the virtual pokémons delight.

<< (≧ω≦) >>

"I'm, uh, well. Good, actually, sort of Doctor Oak... Professor Oak? Wow that... That's weird." She blinked, and shook it off. KO didn't resemble the famous scientist at all, thankfully, so it didn't remain -too- weird.
"Um. Anyway, I'm good; we have really good, uh, stuff... Results... happening today. Things are busy. But it's good busy." She didn't look so tired as she had previously, though still a little; it was likely more due to the lab having a little flurry of successes, keeping her and the science department busy, rather than stress, finally, though.
A dead Sharpedo, as odd as it was, wasn't going to give her sleepless nights.

"Hair looks good." She did notice- it was hard -not- to notice things about your friends after you thought you'd lost them once. "Um. Feeling well?" And, of course, that meant she'd noticed he was a little off colour too; given what he'd been through, or what he was now, she couldn't help but pick up on something like that... Though, aside from the... subtle peakiness... "You are, um, looking well..." Mostly.  

[TawnyAngel]

One win one loss, good enough for him today. KO smiled, shrugged, and made a languid gesture. "Well thank you. I had my hair done last night, a trade for hemming a couple of pairs of pants. I'm feeling... reasonable," his smile became a little wry, "considering how much absinthe I drank the night before last. I blame Pulse, he enabled me." He wasn't sure how he felt about that whole encounter but it wasn't entirely positive. Oh well, best to just not think about it probably.

"Humm, and I think if I were a professor it would be far too confusing for everyone. Anyway everyone knows doctors are more attractive." The smirk was back as KO walked further into the room and peered into some of the tanks. "I can see things have been busy around here just from all these holding tanks. I suppose it's like this every time you pin down another sequence?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Ooh. Fair trade, I think?" Tambrey replied, then furrowed her brow, making the connection between 'Pulse' and 'Lex', once more- names and codenames sometimes unfortunately uncoupled in her head- and hearing 'absinthe' in there...
"Aha.. And, uh, how did that go..?" She questioned, skeptically, recalling some certain information regarding KO's return...

It was a far easier to talk through almost without thinking, upon KO's prompt toward genetics.
"Oh, uh. Pretty much. We, um, have our process pretty streamlined and most of our, um, tasks and straightforward and pretty much automated, even, but, uh, failure rates in cell lines are a factor in every new venture, not matter how prepared we are, so, um... Tests and observation. Near constant. Until, um, failure rates dip under 80 percent consistently for, um, ten batches of cell lines." She grinned. "Sounds a lot, but, um, honestly, if we get it right, and it works, we can complete that in a couple of days these days. After that, well. Um. Standard cloning tanks. Normal production line."
Her eyebrows rose as she realized something.
"Oh. Uh. This is one of yours. Er. Ours. By the way. One of the formulas we worked through." She gestured at the tank they stood in front of, or more precisely, the faint purple 'gel' inside. "IGF-2 and, um, TR Alpha 1 enrichment with regular dopamine infusion."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Fair indeed," KO replied with a smile and a nod. His smile then faltered a little and he shrugged. "Well it went better than last time I met up with him? He was trying to be nice... just a little ah... Well we mostly ended up taking about him." The brief exchange about who had been talking about who and why at the beginning of the movie however had left him feeling cool, and the snuggling but he supposed he hadn't objected so he couldn't complain and he had wanted the company but not....

"But let's talk about sometime more fun like this little guy, and the formula he's floating in!" KO smiled again and gestured to the tank, pushing other thoughts back out of his mind. "I'm glad it's come out well, how much of a difference is it making?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Ah. Well, um, he was trying... " She supposed, catching onto the first part of the sentence. "But that's what people do, um, we talk about ourselves, even if we don't notice it... I'm sure he'll try to be better." Tambrey offered, but it wasn't as though she had a lot of brilliantly emotional relationships to draw advice from.

An easier subject, the science of growing new life...
"Oh, uh, quite a bit. Our initial yield rate on these guys, uh, Ralts, I mean, was 55 percent, which, um, doesn't /sound/ a lot, but in comparison, we've had 'successful' lines start with initial yields of 15 percent. So, um, it's a huge boost. It could be a fluke, I mean, we could have been -really- lucky, but, uh, I suspect it's the particular balance and the process of gradual infusion with the dopamine rather than, uh..." She performed air-quotes with her free hand " 'jacking them up' with concentrated doses."  

[TawnyAngel]

KO nodded. He knew Lex had been trying and... well that did matter, he did appreciate it but.... He was just in a weird place himself, that was probably all.

"Fifty five?" KO's brows raised a little, he was far from an expert in Tambery's field of course but he had picked up little snippets and knew enough to be aware of the vast improvement. "Well I'd call that a great success for team Greene Oak! Have there been any other new lines started in this formula yet?" A forty percent jump? That was something to be proud of!.. So long as it wasn't a fluke, he was wary of bragging about work too early these days having had a few bad experiences in the past with crowing too soon and paying for it either in humiliation or punishment from a temperamental superior.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey grinned; she knew KO'd pick up on the significance.
Of course, there had been variations between the low yield 'successes' and this highest initial yield, but 55 was still a very very high number.

"A few. Some, uh, variations though. Um. There's a high carbon variation, most interestingly, that we're, um, trying a Pawniard line in, and, um, switching a batch of Aron's over to, also. In botanics, I know there's a Budew line in production; uh, that one's a different formula, but hopefully equally as successful. We've also, uh, got Meowth sequences joining the, um, Purrloin lineages. Thankfully they're similar enough that there's not much issue in production there."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Very busy," KO purred with a curve of his mouth and a raise of his brows. "You look good though! A little tired but not worn and one should have something to show for so many new pokemon coming 'on stream' as it were at once don't you think? Oh, but you said Budew? I've always sort of fancied that line but I think I'd have to wait a while before requesting one, I'd want to get my Ralts well started before picking up another project." As he was a man of science rather than a field expert he didn't really feel he had enough time to train up two brand new pokemon at once, the training would suffer for it and he'd just get tired and ratty.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey raised her eyebrows.
"Uh.. Thanks. I do? I can imagine tired though. I um... I think I'm coffee five as of last break."

She beamed, admitting;
"Yes... I can, uh, imagine you with a Roserade, but, um, right! You have a Ralts assigned. Uh." Oh right, that's why she'd chosen to stand /here/... "Aheh. Um. One tank over..." She took a step to the side.
"One, uh, Ralts. Just about ready for transference and ball assignment."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh? This one?" KO asked rhetorically, moving up to look into the tube Tam had moved away from with interest. "All within normal pentameters I presume?" he said with a glance over at his fellow scientist before turning his gaze back onto the Ralts. "And, gender?" He hadn't minded - it was going to be a Gardevoir eventually- so he hadn't taken the trouble to specify, the easier it was for the labs the lower the cost to him after all.  

[Gwennythe]

"Mmhm." Tambrey gave a nod, and tapped at her tablet to wake it up and interrupt Turing's game. It seemed like he'd finished for the moment, leaving the screen on 'high score' to brag, though.
She snorted and smirked at it.

"Uh. Hm. Anyway, yes, all normal, or, uh, what counts for normal, really... Male. Did you choose a name? Uh, it'll prompt you when you transfer anyway, but, I'm documenting already..." She pointed toward her tablet, which now had a documentation form up, along with a little Porygon-Z sprite and a speech bubble.

<< (≧∀≦)ノ >>  

[TawnyAngel]

"Humm?" KO smiled and raised his brows a little at Tam's snort. "Care to share the joke? As for a name...." KO fetched out his own dex and pulled up the list of name ideas he'd compiled a while ago. "I have a theme going as you may have noticed.... For a male Ralts, I think I like Imperator. What do you think? He can be called Imp for short, or Tor depending on how dignified he turns out." That sort of thing, so far as he knew, was still pretty well impossible to control with any reliability.  

[Gwennythe]

"Uh. My Porygon-Z. He was bragging. Also, he says 'hello'..." She explained, turning the device to show KO, then nodded. "Ah. yes. Um. That certainly fits your theme but it's rather adorable if you end up calling him 'Imp'..." She grinned. "So, 'Imperator' then?"