silph_co | First Explorations + Video

First Explorations + Video

Who: Scorpia and any other Rocket

Where: Rocket base in Goldenrod

When: Shortly after Scorpia's arrival

Summary: Scorpia exploring the Rocket base and trying to make friends!

Rating: PG

Log:

There is a very, very tall and very muscular young woman in a Rocket uniform wandering around the Goldenrod base. She's got a white undercut, and she's cuddling an Oddish and a Skorupi to her chest. She pokes her head into any room that isn't marked private or is obviously a dorm room. When she sees anybody, she smiles!

"Hi there! My name's Scorpia and I'm new here. I'm really excited to get to... um, get to evil deeds? I'm not really clear on that part. It's great to meet new people though!"

VIDEO
[Shortly after her exploration, Scorpia settles in her room and tries out her 'gear. And promptly fumbles it. The first bit of video is a fall to the bed, and then a clatter to the floor. Scorpia is blushing when she picks it back up.]

Oops! I'm still working on fingers. Anyway. Hi! Steven told me about this, so I wanted to introduce myself. I'm Scorpia!

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Scorpia tilts her head to the side and then nods enthusiastically. "That does make sense, I guess. All I could think about when I was working with the others to find Peekablue, and got caught on stage was 'I'm a spy' so I sang about that and nobody figured it out! I'm pretty sure."

Steven opens his mouth--and then abruptly closes it. Shakes his head. "That... wasn't exactly how I was thinking about it. But I guess it's good to have a baseline for your deception abilities."

Read: zero altogether. He's going to have to handle this delicately. Especially when it comes to the whole Mole Within The PGC thing he's got going on.

(Possibly it's a good idea for him to text Riku and tell him he's made friends with a new Rocket recruit that he's hoping to get information from. Just in case she accidentally outs herself really quickly.)

"I really love singing, but sometimes not as good at confidence," Scorpia says and then blushes a little, "my friend Perfuma helped me believe in myself a lot. It's good to have friends that will encourage you and help you see yourself."

She shrugs a little and flexes. Her bicep is very defined. "But I guess what I'm best at is being the muscle. I don't like it as much, but I'm good at it."

"Well, it'll be handy to have some muscle around," Steven admits. "We're supposed to just have our pokemon battle other people's pokemon, but I tend to find it catches our targets off-guard if we attack them personally. But you're going to need a cover job anyway--if you're good at singing, maybe Lydia could use you at her night club."

Scorpia frowns faintly. "So our cute friends are weapons?"

That is not a great thought. It's not an unusual thought, but it reminds her of Emily back home. Scorpia's smile is a little forced. "I'm really good at taking people out, even when they're stronger and have more powers than me."

Then she goes vividly red. "Um... I could try. I was, uh, mostly singing for Perfuma. I might have trouble singing for strangers."

"Yeah, unfortunately," Steven says, noticing her forced smile. "It's just a thing of this world that all violence is done with pokemon as proxies. It's-- not the greatest thing, but to their credit, most Pokemon love fighting each other. So it's not as bad as if they hated it, but--" He shrugs. "I should introduce you to some of Entrapta's friends."

Then he shakes his head, as if to clear it. "So what's Perfuma like, anyway? She sounds like she's a really good friend to you?"

(Actually it sounds like Scorpia has a crush and it's adorable. He's not even surprised that Scorpia's crush object is another young woman--if she wasn't a baby butch, he'd eat his tie.)

"Oh sure! Entrapta's friends probably might become friends of mine!"

Scorpia's blush continues. "Perfuma is one of the Princesses! She can control plants, and flowers bloom all around her. She tied me up with vines and put a flower on my stinger when I went to get the Princesses' help to rescue Entrapta. She's very pretty, with long blond hair, and she's amazing in battle. She's very kind, and enthusiastic and she's super supportive of all of our friends. She meditates and things too and--"

She'll probably continue on for a while unless Steven stops her.

He won't.

Part of being raised how he was, with a family like his, is that, for better or worse, Steven sees it as part of the social contract to let people ramble on like Scorpia is, nodding at the right places and letting her words pleasantly wash over him. He'll do it for her in hopes that she'll do it for him in turn.

Not that he isn't at least trying to pay a little attention or at least seem like he is. This is something that's important to Scorpia and Steven likes her. Likes her and greedily wants to secure her loyalty as a subordinate as soon as possible.

"Perfuma sounds like a wonderful person," he says honestly, once it sounds like Scorpia's done. "I hope I can get a chance to meet her someday."

"Well, if I came here and Entrapta is here too, it's possible."

Scorpia goes serious. "I really really hope she doesn't get taken by these guys. I've lived in the Horde all my life, but Perfuma was one of the leaders of the Princesses' rebellion. I'll live, but it would hurt her, I think."

Steven nods. "If-- she did come here and she does get taken in by the Rockets, we'll find a way to help her get out. Promise."

Is it rash to make a promise like this to someone he's just met? Certainly. But he likes Scorpia enough already and he does want her to trust him as a superior. And anyway, it's no good having people in their crew who aren't at least getting something out of their life of crime.

Scorpia breathes out in relief. "Okay. That makes me feel a little better."

She gives her Skorupi a fond pat. "Are there other things I should know about? If I need a job, what other jobs are there?"

"Well, you don't technically need a cover job, but I find that they're useful for extra income," Steven says. "If you want, you can just join up with Winter and Entrapta when training's over, like I said. But otherwise... come with me."

He leads Scorpia down the corridor a ways, until they reach a junction of hallway, where there's a plastic organizer hanging off the wall. He scans the organizer, than plucks a sheet of paper out of one slot and hands it over to her.

"Here you go. The list of missions and cover jobs you can take if you want extra cash. It's not limited to these--you can still ask for a customized mission--but it'll give you a good idea of what you can do. Easy and Medium-level missions-slash-cover jobs are for everyone. You've got to be Beta rank like me before you can take the Hard ones."

Edited 2020-11-02 04:20 (UTC)

"I've done a lot of those things before. Lots of cadets get stuck with cleaning and maintenance and all of that before they go out in the field. I mostly did heavy lifting and things. It was hard to do fiddly stuff with my pincers."

Scorpia holds up her hand in front of her face and flexes her fingers. "I probably could now! Maybe not the really technical stuff. I couldn't keep up with Entrapta, but I can follow directions okay most of the time!"

She turns from the paper to Steven. "What would you recommend? You're full of good advice so far!"

"Well," Steven says, "the first thing to figure out is if you want to stick around Goldenrod City or if you want to travel around with Entrapta. I'm thinking if you do want to travel, one of these ones in the 'streets and routes' category might be good. Like selling candybars or handing out game corner flyers or police monitoring. That last one means that you'd have to keep an eye on what the Jennies are doing wherever you're traveling and call in to the base if it sounds like they're going to get in the way of any Rocket activities. I think they outfit you with a police scanner to help you."

Edited 2020-11-02 04:43 (UTC)

"I could probably do that! Like scouting and reporting defenses and troop movements. What are the Jennies? Is that what the army calls itself?"

Scorpia likes the sound of that, because unless she's really wrong, it's very familiar and comfortable.

"The Jennies are a police force, not an army, and it's a nickname for them, because they're all named 'Officer Jenny.' And that's exactly what it's like." Steven smiles. "It's a great mission for you and we should sign you up for it."

"I'll do my best! And I have to give the bosses Pokemon too. If I'm on the road, how do I send them?"

She can do this! She can be with her friends, and not make the bosses here upset, and no one will get hurt.

"Well," Steven says, "there's some other Rocket bases in other cities, so you can usually turn them in at one of those, if you're near one. And there's also an address you can send the pokeballs through the post in a pinch--although of course you can't put the team's name on it. They'll cover all the ways you can turn in your quota more in training."

"If there's a lot of bases, it won't be too hard to double back or go on ahead to one. Do they let us requisition vehicles?"

It usually doesn't take that long to get somewhere in a skiff or a boat at home. A trip and back in less than a day once in a while will be easy to explain!

She is actually taking notes this time. Although there are also doodles that might resemble Steven appearing too.

"There's not a lot of vehicles in use in this world," Steven says, "at least over land. But there's boats and things for going over water. I've never tried to requisition any myself, but I know that Alphas and Admins have access to the company helicopters. You should definitely check with your trainers about if you can requisition things as a grunt--at worst, I know you can bill the Team for your traveling expenses if you're working on a mission that's on the road. So in that case you could just rent a boat and put it on your company card."

"Huh. Okay. The post idea will still work, probably."

So it's like the rest of Etheria. Not a problem; Scorpia is great at walking places!

"I'll ask them! But, uh, company card?"

"... they don't have credit cards where you come from, huh?" He tries to think of how to explain it. "Okay. Usually when you're expensing things to the Team, if you've got the funds to pay for it yourself, you just pay them and then do some paperwork to have the team pay you back. If it's more than you have on you, there's a way to draw on the Team's bank account that they use for these expenses, but the financial department can hassle you if they think you're taking advantage."

Scorpia listens and nods. "So I should probably make sure I have the paperwork, okay. And I'll ask the trainers about the other way."

There's a lot to learn; she should probably get to the training soon.

"You've been a great help! I'm really glad we're friends. Anything else I should know before I go to the training?"

Steven thinks. "Do your best and try to pay attention, even if they're telling you something you already know. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Auntie Apricorn and Uncle Haban are the two admins in charge of this base. Apricorn talks sweetly, but you really don't want to cross her. Haban comes off as mean, but he's more forgiving when you screw up. When you're out of training, let me know. We've got a sort of ad hoc crew for the people from other worlds and we'll look out for you. I'll look out for you."

"Will do!" Scorpia gives Steven a salute, waits a beat, and then gives him a hug that picks him right up off the ground.

"Thanks! You're great."

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First Explorations + Video

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