silph_co | Rocket Introductions

Rocket Introductions

Who: Jack and Carly

Where: Rocket HQ

When: Carly's Arrival

Summary: Rocket 101

Rating: PG-13 for language

Log:

Jack's on one of his semi-regular visits to HQ anyway. He's been a busy guy, stealing all over Johto for the glory of the organization. And scouting out locations for a proper personal base, but that's not proving as easy as he'd thought. Whatever, it's not like he's on some time crunch.

And hey, as it turns out...there's a new recruit that's just joined the ranks, and it sounds like it's someone like him. Not native. Maybe he'll be lucky. Maybe he'll finally have someone around here with a couple of brain cells to rub together. Or that he can easily bribe and charm into following him directly. It's worked out pretty okay so far...

But he's quick to volunteer to show the newbie around, show'em the ropes. Look at what a helpful, eager Rocket he is! Good old Jack, always reliable, just looking out for what's best for all of Team Rocket....

"Yo! You the fresh meat?"

He assumes the young woman hanging around after orientation is who he's looking for. She looks...fine? It's hard to tell just by looking at a person.

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Carly has had a very interesting morning. Day. Evening? She hasn't really bothered to check the windows yet, mostly distracted by the trope-canny realization that she has Absolutely woken up in some sort of cute monster taming world thing.

And also possibly a not so cute organization but that's fine she just won't think about that part.

She took advantage, a bit, of the fact that no one was really checking on her- spent some time 'getting to know' the pokemon (naming them, too), getting changed...

But she couldn't hide in the dorm forever (probably), so eventually the two were recalled and she went out to find someone.

And then wait for someone, as she was told.

When Jack comes over, she's still fiddling a bit with her hat. It's hard to get all of that up in there without pins! Jack's call has her snap to attention however, hat shoved back on her head (hair...not quite all in there but she can work on that), and...glasses...broken??

One of the lenses is straight up missing a large chunk of glass. How the remaining glass of the lens is still there is a mystery.

"Ahh- uh! Yes! That's me!" Carly exclaims, taking a fairly rigid 'attention' stance. "Carly Nagisa, nice to meet you!"

....

"...Sir!" That's probably Important.

"Carly, huh? I'm Jack, and I think this song's about me!" He gives her a jovial wink and chuckle as he circles her, looking her over.

Overall, he likes what he sees. She's standing at attention, she's calling him 'sir', she's not asking any dumb questions... This is good! This is promising!

"So I'm gonna be showing ya the ropes, taking ya out with me, getting ya used to how things go around here. You stick with me, you do good, you're gonna go far. I started out just like you! A misplaced inter-dimensional grunt! Now I'm an Alpha with my own team!"

Something he's genuinely proud of. Advancement isn't easy around here.

"Heh- Song-?" She starts at a half mutter, only to freeze while Jack paces around. It's not quite the reference he intended, that she catches- but when he continues speaking, she finds herself unable to think it anything But a reference to the background music. "Oh! Oh!! I see!"

Thank goodness, is the immediate feeling, and she visibly loses a bit of tension in her relief. "That's good to hear! It was a strange thing to wake up to after all..." Well, anyway. She quickly gives an almost-bow. "In any case, I'm in your care then! I'll do my best, J-"

Somehow, it only now occurs to her that that is his name. She catches herself before her pause gets Too awkward. "Ah- ahm! Jack! Got it! ...with a title like Alpha...that makes you my boss, right?" It sounds...important. Top Rank important...

"It sure does! I mean...I'm middle management, but you don't usually see the real brass walking around HQ like the rest of us."

And middle management is nothing to sneeze at. He's above a lot of people.

"You...well you're at the very bottom of the ladder. But you're lucky! Cuz I'm a guy who understands even the lowest levels of an organization are valuable! We're gonna find out what you're good at, and how we can put it to best use. And teach ya what ya need to know to be the best Rocket ya can be! So let's walk and talk, I'll give ya a tour of the base here...."

Jack just starts walking without waiting for Carly to agree.

Fortunately, Carly will immediately start following! She's doing great.

She's also doing great when it comes to not interrupting- best to make a good impression when one is trying to gauge the honesty in 'understanding the value of the lower levels'. There were plenty of people back home who climbed to the top and then promptly forgot that stuff.

"Oh- great!" she'll simply say when the tour is 'offered', attempting to adjust her hair and hat again. "Ah- for the time being, is it alright if I don't have my hair tucked up..? ...It's pretty long, and getting it to stay without any pins isn't working out that great..."

This much can be seen with a look, yes.

"Just as long as you got your uniform on around base, you're fine. They're stupid uniforms, they really are, but the big bosses make a huge fuss about it."

It's dumb. A lot of Team Rocket is dumb, but a lot of Hyperion before Jack took over was dumb, too. It's just something to deal with for the time being.

"So you get a room here, it's pretty crummy, but it's a place to crash when ya need to. We got a caf, the food's not too bad, honestly. The microwave burritos? Very decent. I think there's veggie shit if you're a veggie?"

Carly nods, a fair bit of relief in her eyes as she quickly neatens her hair back out and sets the hat on in place. "Phew...Thank you! ...I'll find pins at a 100-yen store later then- Ah...we have those here right?" she abruptly coughs, brain halting at the idea of 1$ stores not being universal.

"It made me think of when I was in uni, honestly," Carly hums regarding the dorms. "Definitely better than nothing! ...I'll stick to meat!" she adds, quietly amused about the burritos.

After adjusting her glasses- and grimacing again, she really needs to stop catching her glove on the glass- she finds another question. "...Do we get optical at all, by the way...?" she quietly asks, pointing to the lenses.

"...I arrived with these...like this." It's not great. It's really bad! Also, it makes the domino mask pointless.

"We don't exactly have an organization eye doctor or anything, but yeah, you can get new glasses. You're gonna want to get contacts, too, for missions. Brass might foot the bill, might not. We'll find out!"

Jack's never tried to put his reading glasses on the company tab, but it's not like he needs them all the time. Just when he's reading or working on the computer.

And he can never predict what's gonna be covered as a mission expense and what isn't. He's pretty sure it depends on who's approving it and what mood they're in.

"Well, it's better than my last job!" Carly cheers, before blinking. "Oh-! ...That's a good point, these aren't doing a thing right now huh..." she mutters, rubbing the mask under her glasses. Ah, well! "I take it what they cover varies then?" she asks, not especially concerned with the idea that the answer is a big 'yes'. Having much of anything covered is already pretty impressive at this point.

"Yeah, ya really don't need the mask on around the base. Just the uniform. Mask is always on for missions, though. Nobody out there's supposed to know who we are."

And Jack is exceptionally particular about that.

"And yeah, I can never predict what they'll sign off and what they won't. There's three top level leader types, so it's a crapshoot. But don't worry about it."

"Oh! ...well in that case," she mutters, taking the mask off to stash in a side pocket in the meantime. "...It's really hard to see properly with that and these glasses..." Phew.

"It makes sense though- in here at least there's no one to avoid..." And hoo! She's definitely woken up into the 'evil team', she's realizing. Ahhh.

"I'll just trust your judgement then!" she determines, beaming. "You're the one who would know better here."

"Yeah, I've been doing this a while. And before that I was president of a sprawling galactic empire. So...ya know. I know what I'm doing!"

And he won't miss a chance to bring that up.

"So we got all your basic facilities. Showers, there's a rec room - if you like video games, there's video games in there. Uh...gym - the normal person kind with exercise equipment...."

Jack tries to think of what else is worth mentioning.

"Wowwwww....that's pretty-" Wait.

"G-G...Galactic..!?" There is some evident awe in the woman's tone, and she takes a moment to gather her thoughts. "Hauuuhhh...where I was from we hadn't even gone farther than the moon yet...that's amazing..!" And at the very least gives her some confidence in the kind of skills he likely has as a 'boss'.

So far, this place is sounding Great though. Rec room? Gym?? These are the sorts of things she could only have dreamed of having access to on the regular.

And hold on there's something about that last bit that catches her ear. "...Is there another sort of Gym here?"

There sure is pal

"Yeah, I hear that a lot. Nah, where I come from, we colonized the far reaches of space. I'm from what's called the borderland belt, this system of planets that's at the edge of known space. The last frontier!"

And it's awful. Lawless and violent and he was making good progress cleaning it up before friggin vault hunters and things going to hell and ending up here...

"Oh yeah, Pokemon Gyms. Where you pit your team against professionals and get arguably useful shinies and cash if you win. I did one of'em, didn't see the appeal. So what if I can't use my own Pokemon for air or sea travel, that's what friggin ride pagers are for. Besides, what am I gonna do, cross the ocean on an alien jellyfish? Oh yeah, that sounds safe and smart...."

"Wow...." She'll just. Continue to be in awe for a bit until the gym stuff sinks in.

"Heh- wait, don't people here have...cars? Boats? ...Planes, for that matter?" The answer is it's complicated, but-

"Why would someone cross the ocean on an animal?" Not that she doesn't love the two in her pokeballs already, they just. Don't seem like travel material. And for that matter- "And what on earth does that have to do with a gym prize..?"

(She is, quietly, noting the fact that she could possibly get some dough out of this admittedly)

"Okay, time for some cold hard facts, kiddo."

Jack stops, turns, and folds his arms across his broad chest.

"This world? Is really stupid. How it all functions? Really stupid. Everything revolves around Pokemon. Everything. And they're everywhere. Catching'em, raising'em, training'em, breeding'em, battling'em...that's what people do. All the people. Literally every person has Pokemon. You wanna do anything or get anywhere? Ya gotta catch, train, and battle Pokemon. Because no, you can't get a car, and there's ferries but they only go so many places. You get a bike, you get whatever Pokemon you can ride. I favor my giant dragon or one of my fire unicorns, personally..."

Oh no. This sounds....Very bad. Very game-like, but also bad.

And worse.

And then....

A complete 180, as proven by how her expression goes from rather shocked and concerned to Absolutely Gobsmacked.

"...You know, I think I can see why people take giant dragon over a car..." Yikes though, she doesn't. Well. "...Which I don't have...hnn. ...Well, I...guess if I'm working here I don't really need to go anywhere far?" Except, she realizes in the same statement, that isn't very likely, is it.

"...I am definitely going to have to find a way around the travel problem to work here properly...aren't I." Bugger.

"You can get a bike till ya get something to ride, most people do. You're gonna be here for your training, but once you're out in the field..."

Who knows? There's shit to do all over the regions. Stupid shit, a lot of it, but hey. Whatever gets him up the ranks, and it's been working so far.

"Bikes aren't that expensive, and you get an allowance on top of whatever ya get battling and picking pockets."

There is nodding, nodding, and more nodding- obviously it's like he said, she'll be here for training. Out in the field though? Well that's important.

"Oh, is that so?" she remarks about the bikes. "That's good then..." She's not going to address pick-pocketing right now. It's easier on her mind. "Right- For now, I should keep my focus on what I have to learn!" Carly declares, re-centering that 'focus'. "What sorts of things do I need to know first?"

...

"...Other than the tour we're on, I guess..." she coughs, remembering where they are. But hey, walking and talking isn't exactly Hard.

"Okay, okay, reel it in. You got two weeks, and I'm not exactly Professor Jack over here, okay? We're not gonna do the thing where I just tell you a bunch of shit and expect you to remember it all. That's stupid, people don't learn that way."

People get bored and annoyed that way.

"Plus, we're starting from scratch here. The only context you've got is what I've dropped on ya so far. There's a lot to know about the world and Pokemon to understand what it is we do. Or...understand as best as you can, gonna be honest, I do not know what the end goal is here."

...

"I get two weeks..?"

Apparently, this is spectacular news. Spectacular news that has her nodding furiously. "Well...a start is a start then! And if I've got two weeks then that's a pretty good one, for picking up the basics!" She rubs the back of her head. "....For now at least, getting my footing seems more important than knowing an end-goal right away... ...Until a few hours ago, I was pretty sure I was already at the 'end'..!" she laughs, only to cut herself short on that. "Erm. That's not really important either though."

Touring, pokemon lessons, and...pickpocketing...is better a conversation topic.

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