Cobra Commander (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
route_10652014-01-26 10:06 pm
cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa) wrote in route_10652014-01-26 10:06 pm
(no subject)
Who: Cobra Commander and Carmen Sandiego
Where: Vermilion City
When: January 25th!
Summary: Two absolutely normal people having an absolutely normal conversation and absolutely neither of them have had their own Saturday morning cartoon shows.
Rating: G? PG at the most.
Log:
Not that he'd ever admit it to anyone, but disguise was never one of Cobra Commander's best skills. He couldn't mimic voices, he has no real idea how to blend in, and he may be the only person on earth whose disguises were easier to spot than his actual face. Which made running around Vermilion City trying to pass as a police officer that much more annoying. The slightest mistake could spell certain doom.
It didn't exactly help matters that people kept expecting things of him every time he put on this stupid uniform. He'd probably performed more miscellaneous good deeds since attacking the Vermilion City Gym than he'd done in his entire life. At least now that he was back at the docks he could stop pretending to actually care about getting a Houndour out of a tree or any of the other seemingly infinite problems people had on a daily basis.
And at least now maybe he could make someone else miserable for a change. Yell at people to work faster or threaten to have someone reported to the Executives. Yes, that would certainly turn this day around.
Where: Vermilion City
When: January 25th!
Summary: Two absolutely normal people having an absolutely normal conversation and absolutely neither of them have had their own Saturday morning cartoon shows.
Rating: G? PG at the most.
Log:
Not that he'd ever admit it to anyone, but disguise was never one of Cobra Commander's best skills. He couldn't mimic voices, he has no real idea how to blend in, and he may be the only person on earth whose disguises were easier to spot than his actual face. Which made running around Vermilion City trying to pass as a police officer that much more annoying. The slightest mistake could spell certain doom.
It didn't exactly help matters that people kept expecting things of him every time he put on this stupid uniform. He'd probably performed more miscellaneous good deeds since attacking the Vermilion City Gym than he'd done in his entire life. At least now that he was back at the docks he could stop pretending to actually care about getting a Houndour out of a tree or any of the other seemingly infinite problems people had on a daily basis.
And at least now maybe he could make someone else miserable for a change. Yell at people to work faster or threaten to have someone reported to the Executives. Yes, that would certainly turn this day around.
no subject
So really, about the only thing left on the agenda is to go hang out by the docks for awhile and watch the ships come in — partly out of nostalgia for San Francisco, and partly just because it's at least something interesting, both in terms of the ships themselves and in the ability to people-watch while she's at it.
She's not wearing her usual red today, and in a way it almost makes her look more out of place than she otherwise might; she's got her hair pulled into a chic side ponytail and a pair of large movie-star sunglasses covering her eyes, and with her crisp tan trench coat and charcoal turtleneck and slacks, she looks like she'd be more at home in the shopping district than down on the docks.
Still, no one's accosted her (yet), and so for the time being, she's content to just perch near the railing on the pier, hands in her pockets as she watches the ships come in.
no subject
Wait.
On second thought, maybe he should care because at least one of those ships is almost guaranteed to be carrying something for Team Rocket. And with the recent breaches of security, both his staged one, and that apparent real one, all he needed was for this woman to see something out of the ordinary and for the higher ups to blame him. The odds of such an event weren't very likely, but why leave it to chance.
So Cobra turns around and in his best attempt to sound like a real police officer and not a Rocket pretending to not be a Rocket while also pretending to be a police officer on the side, addresses the random stranger, “Excuse me miss? Do you have any business in the area?”
He's doing his best not to hiss, and the scarf he's wearing despite the temperature outside, muffles his voice somewhat, but it's still fairly recognizable as Cobra Commander's voice.
no subject
Of course, then she gets a look at the officer in question, and a couple things begin to stand out:
1) This officer is clearly male, when the majority (but not all) of the police in the region seem to be female
2) This officer has a scarf obscuring a fair amount of his face, which probably isn't up to regulation
3) This officer sounds oddly familiar, and she can't quite put her finger on why
...Well. If that's not suspicious, then she doesn't know what is.
Might as well have a bit of fun figuring out what's going on, then, oughtn't she?
"I was just watching the boats," she answers, pitching her voice a bit higher than usual for the extra hint of naivete it'll give off. "Is there something wrong, officer?"
no subject
But of course, he doesn't say any of that because all of it would arouse suspicion. Instead he says in a calm, reasonable, hiss free tone, “It's probably nothing, but we've had reports of suspicious activity in the area.”
It took a lot of restraint to not turn that suspicious into suspiciousssssss. But so far so good as far as Cobra's concerned.
“Have you seen anything out of the ordinary today?”
no subject
Unfortunately, it's the kind of thing that would be utterly interesting to Carmen Sandiego, and given that she's trying to maintain at least a reasonably low profile around this (apparent) officer here, behaving in the way that Carmen Sandiego would might not be the best course of action here.
Which begs the question, then: all right, what would Lisa Zampano do?
"That sounds serious," she answers, aiming for an inflection that constitutes a reasonable blend of investment and concern. Maybe a bit of fidgeting will help to look the part; seemingly absently, she catches a lock of her hair between her fingers and gives it a twirl. "No, um...I don't think I've seen anything unusual. There were some men down by those crates earlier, unloading or something, but it didn't seem suspicious at all, if that's what you're asking."
no subject
“Did you happen to see what they were unloading?” he asks, trying to not sound like he's making a demand or giving an order. Maintaining a civil tone is apparently really difficult while trying to get the answers he wants.
“Some of the reports we've received have,” he pauses, trying to think. He can't give too much away and actually create suspicion that isn't there. But he also probably should provide good reason for why he's interested in what was being unloaded.
Okay, he's got this. “We've received several complaints of thefts around the docks. Suspicious people breaking into crates and taking off with whatever they can find.” There. That in no way suggests Rocket presence, but does imply that there's some sort of criminal activity going on here. “So if you saw them unloading anything strange, or any other suspicious behavior, it could help our invesstigation.”
And he'd been doing so well too, only to trip up on the s in investigation. He thinks he caught it fast enough though.
no subject
"So you're here for security?" she asks, tilting her head a little bit in accompaniment to the inquiry. Then, as if something has just occurred to her, she blinks rapidly and regards him with wide eyes. "Wait, you don't think I had something to do with that, do you?"
That ought to provoke something, she thinks. Either he'll assure her that she's not or he'll show his hand and get more aggressive about it, but either way, it'll temporarily get the topic off the crates and onto what he's doing here — which in turn ought to give her time to figure out the right answer to the crate question in the first place.
no subject
That came out way closer to Cobra Commander reacting to an absolutely absurd possibility that is a waste of time to even consider than a police officer trying to ease someone's concerns. He's also more than slightly annoyed that she has the audacity to question what he's doing here. After all, he's the one with the badge, and even accounting for the disguise, he has way more reason to be here than she does.
“Also, the local police department has been stepping up patrols ever since these reports came in,” he explains, trying to not yell or scream or any of the other things he does when he's irritated. “I assure you that as far as I know, I have absolutely no reason to consider you a suspect or to be involved in the matter in any way, shape, or form.”
That was a bit calmer, and it's the truth. She hardly looked like a Rocket to Cobra, and even if this wasn't some complete fabrication he invented, he'd still be hard pressed to consider her a suspect for anything. A potential hostage maybe if his hypothetical dock piracy scare was a real thing, but a criminal? Hardly.
no subject
She shakes her head, as if to clear it, and then seems to settle down. "I didn't get a very good look at those crates, at least not while they were moving them. But I think they were stamped with the logo of the Pokemon Center?" She pauses. "Some of them had the Pokemon Center symbol, and I think some of the others were for the Mart. I guess maybe they're restocking?"
There, that's innocuous enough. But, just for good measure...
"Why would anyone want to steal something like that?"
no subject
“I'm not sure why anyone would ma'am. Just asking. But given what's been happening on the news lately, seems like there's no shortage of dessspicable people lurking about. It might be best if you found somewhere else to visit,” he says as nonthreatingly as Cobra Commander possibly can.
“In fact, and I really shouldn't be telling you this, but with everything going on, we're spread kind of thin at the moment, so if something were to happen, there's no guarantee an officer would be available to assist you if something did in fact, happen.”
He hopes that should be satisfactory reasoning for this woman to go somewhere else. Cobra figures he did an okay job not snapping at her agitated response, but his patience is starting to wear thin.
no subject
Which means, naturally, that there's probably a really good reason to be interested in the docks.
"I understand completely, officer," she says with a solemn nod. "I'm glad I ran into you when I did; I'll be on my way right now."
...Well, at least one of those things is true; she is glad she'd run into him. How else would she have known that something interesting was afoot?
no subject
He's pretty sure he handled that perfectly. Successfully discouraged someone from hanging around here without coming across as suspicious or blowing his cover at all. It's almost a shame he's not really a police officer because his expert handling of this situation would certainly be cause for a commendation or some other sort of award.
“And if you sssee or hear anything suspicious, please remember to report it to the authorities.”
With that, he's going to just start walking towards the offices now. Just continuing his normal patrol, nothing out of the ordinary to see or notice here. In fact, unless there's anything else, the conversation's going to be promptly forgotten since given how well that resolved, there's no real reason for him to remember this. Unless of course it somehow leads to some sort of problem down the line, but what are the odds of that happening?