It may sound insane, it might be absurd...

[doitrockapella]

Who: "Cobra Commander" (read: Carmen Sandiego (doitrockapella)) and anyone in the Team Rocket Goldenrod Base!
Where: Goldenrod City — the Rocket Base
When: Friday, November 29th
Summary: As detailed here, a chance observation of a careless NPC Rocket utilizing the secret entrance prompts Carmen to invite herself in for a look around. And naturally she's going to take some fine feathered souvenirs while she's at it.
Rating: G because there is nothing here but wacky 90's villain shenanigans.
Log:

[Another three-day blackout, and yet again, Carmen has come off it feeling restless.

She usually does after such things, and not just because they have a nasty habit of randomly booting her all over the map when they conclude — though she'll be the first to confirm that she's really not fond of the experience of having absolutely no idea where in the world she is. This time, at least, she'd lucked out somewhat in that she knew where she was when she'd woken up. She's no stranger to Goldenrod City, after all, even if it's not her favorite city for a variety of reasons, not least of which being a lot of memories that come attached to the towering buildings and the city sprawl.

And of course, there's also the little problem of the tornado.

She'd taken shelter in the Game Corner and was about to join the crowds of people heading for the safety of the basement when she'd noticed it — one employee heading the wrong way for no apparent reason, ignoring the line-file of the patrons in favor of doing...something, she wasn't sure what. It'd been curious enough that she'd paused for a second look; it was a curiosity that had paid off, because she'd ended up seeing something rather strange as a result.

A hidden door? Hmmm.

She's suspected for a long time, for various reasons, that there's a Rocket Base here in Goldenrod. She hasn't known where it is, but all signs have pointed to it. And if this is the key that she's been missing...well, then. No time like the present to have a look around. (Well, once the tornado warnings have concluded, that is.)

Of course, there remains that key little problem that she's definitely not authorized to be in the Rocket Base, but as it turns out, she'd woken up in possession of a rather dramatic (read: stereotypically villainous) cape and mask, and presumably if there's anybody who belongs in a Rocket Base, it's Cobra Commander...

tl;dr "Cobra Commander" is in ur base, stealin' ur stolen birds. What do?]


[OOC: And here we go! Comments will still be coming from Carmen's account, obviously, but for the duration she'll be in disguise (and looking like this, minus scepter) and changing her voice to be less overtly feminine and more...Cobra. I'd prefer if people didn't encounter her while she was actively in the process of swiping the birds (and replacing them with frozen turkeys), but feel free to run into her either before or after!]

Comments

[explosivecombat]

[That would work better if he weren't inclined to reach out and grab Cobra firmly by the arm; he doesn't jerk him closer, but rather he closes some of the distance between them himself, he's rather obviously adamant that Cobra's not going anywhere.

His voice is low, however; bugged though the room may be, he's going to ask questions - he just sees no need to broadcast those questions for the rest of the base to hear.]

Since I'm hoping - for your benefit - that you're aware of something that we're not and that would be why you're behaving so rudely this evening, surely you can at least do me the favor of telling me whether we've been compromised or not.

And do keep it down; I would hate for anyone to overhear.

[...he's genuinely hoping that this sort of tactic will serve its intended purpose, because if Cobra goes off on some sort of fit and he's blown the alliance, Archer is going to kill him.]

[doitrockapella]

[The trouble is, no matter how good her acting skills are or how deeply she's committed to portraying her character, there is one thing that Carmen will never in her life take well to, and that's being grabbed.

Admittedly, a lot of months' worth of time and dedicated effort has managed to blunt some of her instinctive reaction; she's better now about letting people touch her than she was when she first arrived, and doesn't generally have a problem with it when she's soliciting it on her own terms. But this — caught by the arm, and it's not a gentle hold, either, it's the kind she remembers from the last time Lee Jordan managed to get hold of her — this will always set off warning bells, and the underlying semi-threat in her captor's tone isn't helping matters either.

She's tense, probably too tense, when she replies — and he'll almost certainly be able to tell.]

We're not compromisssssed — yet. There's an intruder in the base.

[All of which is technically true, because so long as he doesn't spill any more details, their plans are really no more compromised than they were before he ran into her — and there is indeed an intruder in the base, but whether or not Nietzsche manages to work out precisely who it is will remain to be seen.

...maybe she better tip him off.]

Now let go of me before someone sssssssays we're in love.

[explosivecombat]

[Kimblee's kneejerk response is to assume that Cobra's found out about Locke - that he's found out about whatever stupidity she's gotten up to in his direction in the past, that he knows who she is and that Kimblee's been associating with her, and the only reason he disregards that idea as paranoia almost immediately is honestly because that sort of thing is entirely too smart for Cobra. It's too smart, and it's too subtle, but that doesn't leave him with many other assumptions to make, does it?

And then things start clicking into place, and the tension in that last response is suddenly no longer attributed to the fact that Kimblee's never actually touched Cobra before, much less so roughly; it's not a response to insubordination, it's a response to being caught and oh for the love of -

NOPE.

NOPE, NOPE, NOPE. WE ARE PROMPTLY TAKING YOU DOWN THIS DAMN HALLWAY A BIT SUCH AS NOT TO BE OVERHEARD, SORRY.]

Locke, what are you doing here?

[His voice is quiet, far moreso than usual, but that's doing nothing to cover exactly how agitated he is.]

[doitrockapella]

[WELL SING HALLELUJAH, HE GOT IT. Never let it be said that having thirteen thousand running jokes never came in handy as identity-giveaways.

She's not going to dispute the dragging, though, because with this little segue comes the side benefit of having cover provided by someone who's actually supposed to be here, and that means she can consequently relax a little more as a result. Which is helpful, because she was on her way out, confound it, and then all of a sudden this happened.

...at least he caught her on the way out, and not on the way in.

Explaining the half-dozen turkeys might've been a bit of a...thing.]

For both our sakes, I'm going to treat that as a rhetorical question.

[After all, if he knows, then he might be put in a position where he's either got to act on it, or he'll have to answer later for why he didn't, and she knows better than to force his hand like that.]

I'm leaving. Or trying to, when I'm not being waylaid with impromptu flirting.

[explosivecombat]

[...waylaid with impromptu -

Well, that drove any questions he may have had right out the window for the moment, hold on.]

I'm...sorry, what?

[doitrockapella]

You don't talk to me like that.

[Thank goodness her dry sarcasm is thick enough to get through the helmet she's wearing, or she might come off sounding grumpy instead of the more accurate "rolling my eyes so hard they'd pop out of my head were it not for this visor" sentiment.]

Can we focus on the part about how I'm trying to leave?

[explosivecombat]

Can we focus on how I can't simply allow that, unless you have a very valid reason for why I should?

And "fondness" isn't a reason, nor is "because I'm cute," before you go there.

[doitrockapella]

You don't want me in here, I don't want me in here, and neither of us wants me discovered in here. What's more valid than that?

[...Though an explanation would probably help, vague though it might be.]

One of your henchmen was careless about keeping the entrance hidden while trying to take cover from yesterday's tornado.

[explosivecombat]

[...all right. Let's try to figure out how to ask questions without actually asking anything that's going to require him to act.]

Have you done anything while inside this base?

[doitrockapella]

[... :|a

Okay, hang on while she just thinks about this one a minute, because normally when they pull this stupid little set of shenanigans, they're doing it over text where she's got all the time in the world to ponder the ramifications, rather than in person and in realtime like this.]

I have done things while inside this base.

[Technically true. She is, after all, breathing. And was walking there, for awhile. That's enough to justify a plural.]

[explosivecombat]

Do you intend to make whatever it is you did public knowledge?

[doitrockapella]

No, but there's a good chance the public will become aware of it. Not that I did it, but that it was done.

[explosivecombat]

...That's acceptable.

Contact me as soon as possible, once you're away from here; there are a few things we need to discuss.

[doitrockapella]

[And normally she'd stay and banter, but it hasn't escaped her notice, the fact that the longer she stays here saying things, the more one or both of them might end up inadvertently in a position that they really don't want to be in.

So rather than persist in the banter as she normally might've, she just nods.]

Make sure they secure that entrance I borrowed.

[explosivecombat]

Of course.

Now go.

[doitrockapella]

Don't give your commander ordersssssss.

[And with a dramatic swish of her cape, she's gone.]