[PRP] Camphoreon Tea

[TawnyAngel]

Dith scooped up the money and slid it into his pocket; he glanced at it for the look of the thing but didn't count properly, it hadn't been a lot and he figured that if 'Brey felt the need to short him then she was in a lot more need of the cash than he was. "That's true," he said with a nod, not missing a beat, "I mean now we have mega evolutions to think about right? How cool are they? I got a Blastoise a little while ago so I am hoping I can find a stone for her to buy.... Err, I think the grammar there was less than perfect but you know what I mean." Dith made a light gesture with his latte. "And nobody really knows how or why it works, right? It's like magic but there has to be science in there right? I mean everything works for a reason, nothing happens just because! I'd love to find out exactly how it works, what energies are given off by the stones that can have such a drastic - but temporary - effect on pokemon and how the psychological elements plays into it. It doesn't work unless you have a bond with the pokemon right? So I would theorize that uh," the huge man waved his coffee again, not quite spilling it, "it has to have something to do with the limbic system right? That's my guess anyway."  

[Gwennythe]

Tarana blinked, looked from the large man, to his trainer, and back again.
The little pokémon looked rather taken aback; this large man -sounded- like the people they tended to be around in the labs...
He jingled, impressed.

Tarana wasn't the only one to be impressed; over her tea, Tambrey was watching Dith talk with a bit of a surprised expression; this was unexpected but certainly not unwelcome.
"That's, uh... That's really not a bad theory, though I'd query how it relates to the morphological changes a mega-evolved pokémon displays. It seems almost like a temporary evolution so, if that was the case, it may be that the limbic system plays a larger part in evolution than we've realised; that would certainly explain the prevalence of emotional evolution alongside the effects of stone radiation..." She was intrigued now, though. "So. Um. Are you a researcher?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith realised he had gone into technobabble just at the moment that 'Brey started to reply to him; the self-deprecating laughter and apology vanished like an un-sneezed sneeze and he started to grin and nod along with the Marvel-shirted woman.

"Ah, no," he chuckled and shook his head to her final question, "I am a doctor so you know, had to learn all the important structures of the brain. I don't know a lot about pokemon at all really but if the same systems exist in their brains - which I believe they do - and emotion is important then it matches up right? Mmh, and yeah!" he gave a firm nod, "You often hear of pokemon evolving under high stress right? Anecdotal I know but still, it could be that it's uhhh... well it's key in some cases, and can be a trigger for others to take them over a tipping point?...." Hu. "Oh, say, are you a researcher then?" She knew her stuff, that was for sure.  

[Gwennythe]

"Anecdotal, but then, it's a little dark to try and replicate that kind of thing experimentally," not that it hadn't been done, she was very sure... "and, um, yes, well, there's a lot of evidence to suggest human and pokémon brain structures can be rather similar, and, surprisingly, complimentary in some places. Um, and, uh, well; kind of. More of a research assistant really, at the moment; kinda like scientific temp-work, though I get to spend a lot of time in the field, which is kinda nice," she tapped her leg gently "most of the time."

She grinned again after that, though.
"So, a doctor? That's... kind of amazing; I got it wrong- you're Thor, not Odin. Secret's safe with me, 'Doctor Blake'."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ha! You make a good point! Doctor Blake it is." Dith grinned and nodded, pausing to take a sip of coffee before continuing; "It's good work, I mean I enjoy it. Long hours but satisfying, da? I feel like I've uh... made a contribution? I guess, something like that.

"But yeah, it's not the sort of thing anyone could set out to study I guess, only gather accounts.... Ugh, but then you can't ever see the brain function can you? Hu, I guess people must have done MRI studies of pokemon that evolve by stones right? I should look that up, see if there's anything interesting around on it." Dith drummed his fingers on the table, lost in his own thoughts for a few moments before he remembered the rest of what Tam had said. "Agh, you didn't get hurt out studying did you?" he asked with a slight wince. "That's rough!"  

[Gwennythe]

"Well... I'd suspect so; you're a doctor- the whole 'life saving' thing and all that. Very neat."
And, there was the conversation about research again.
"I'm fairly certain there are a few of those around; the same with some happiness studies, and well, I'd suspect -someone- has done stress study before now, but I'd suspect, or hope, the former two are more frequent. Also, there's definitely been dream research done, and similar, so pokémon brain science is a completely fringe field; we know a bit, just... kind of awkward to study some things," a smirk as she took a drink "I mean, can you imagine trying to MRI a Munchlax as it evolves without it breaking the machine?"
She shrugged to his question and looked a little sheepish.
"Well... It turns out I'm weak against rocks. Not rock types, mind you, just a plain old rock."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah well this is the trouble of being a squishy organic," Dith replied with a sympathetic grin and a gesture to his face. "Though I guess that would be a steel injury mainly. Eheh. I hope your leg gets better soon though, I'm one of those people who goes stir crazy if they can't run around and all." Dith was well aware that he was a terrible patient and was not at all sorry about this, he figured he was owed it or something.

"And that's true," he snorted, "it would get expensive! Breaking things, maybe shorting them out, all of that. I guess the difficulty of it is part of what makes pokemon fascinating though, I am trying to learn more and to spend more time with my team and training them." Cutting down on his hours had proved and was still proving difficult but at least he was doing better than he had been, working more on training so he'd be ready next time they met Team Rocket. They'd be back, he had no doubt of that.  

[Gwennythe]

"It's on the mend, but, um, yeah... I was, uh, basically the same. Happened out there and all I wanted to do was get back out there for a little while..."
She wasn't sure what was meant by 'steel injury', doubting it was to do with types, unless she was missing something.
"Oh, yes; I mean, look at Tarana. One day, if he gets really happy, he'll evolve, hopefully, but he, uh, well, he -seems- to have flesh composed of -some- kind of metallic substance, so I wouldn't risk running an MRI on his evolution either..."

Tarana jingled happily as his name was mentioned.

"That's good. I've been trying to do the same, as best I can. Not being able to go out into the field so much has, uh, I suppose, helped with that? Um, being home more means I get to spend more time studying my own pokémon."  

[TawnyAngel]

Gwennythe

Dith chocked a bit on his drink, following up with a laugh once he'd recovered. "You make a good point! That is not something that would mix well. I hear a lot of stories about what has happened when people forget to obey the cardinal rules of the MRI, mostly funny rather than unpleasant I am pleased to say.

"Anyhoo," Dith waved his hand, still grinning, "I'm glad you've found a bright side to getting rocked on, it's good to be able to find a silver lining.... Hey I wonder if you could grow steel types' skin - hide, armour? - in a lab and use it for," he waved his hand again, "stuff. I mean I guess it would be expensive, but for some things it might have uses right? Like a pokemon with the ability Light Metal, now if that is genetic if you took a sample and grew it would you get a super light metal you could use for stuff or would it denature or something if not attached to the pokemon?"  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey smiled, then blinked in surprise as Dith talked on...
Sure, engineering, and growing, synthetic 'mon had been something she'd been dabbling with for quite a long time, but... to grow the metal itself for use in other fields...

"Huh. Well... You know, a lot of labs are already able to engineer an approximation of living metal- they act kinda closer to plant cells, just lacking the Calvin cycle and all that, but... Hm. I bet, theoretically, that could probably be done, you'd just have to 'fool' the 'host's' cells, or engineer them for a specific hybrid make-up to prevent rejection... That's a really neat idea."
Tambrey mused; it was a very interesting idea. In fact, she was fairly certain, on some level, it would work, though it would be an expensive and risky experiment to attempt... So many tests would have to be done to pinpoint a very specific process of doing such a thing successfully... Still... It was -very- interesting.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yeah," Dith chuckled, gesturing vaguely with his fork, "you would have to get some kind of research grant to look into that I guess, having a specific practical application - a commercial one - would probably help, amazing what people will do for you when they think you might be able to make them more money! I can see it happening though, maybe not soon but sooner or later. Of course I have no real idea of how all the specifics work," he laughed again and shrugged, "I am a slasher, we're not required to understand complicated things like that. We're like the jocks of the world of medicine."  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey smiled and took a stab-in-the-dark at a reference, pretending she was adding a 'cite' to his words, as though they were a quote from a well known individual.
"Aha; Christopher Duncan Turk M.D. But, y'know, um, I can't entirely agree that surgery isn't complicated... You have to remember so much to do it properly and safely... It's just practical as well, is all."  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith's eyes crinkled with amusement and he nodded as he finished his mouthful of cake. "That's me! Only with better hair. It's true though, it is complicated, I just enjoy a little self deprecating humor." It tended to put people at ease, possibly along with his hair and choice in attire. It was a bit difficult to be scared of somebody in a Mighty Thor t-shirt, it just completely failed to scream 'thug' or 'probable мафия'.  

[Gwennythe]

She quirked the corners of her mouth up a little further.
"Ah. That's a healthy thing. You're definitely right about the hair; yours in -much- better. You know, you probably look -more- like Thor, I mean, uh, like a viking kind of... hair? I hope that's clear and not insulting." She blinked after a short pause. "But, um, more like Thor than 'Thor' does..." She shook her head.
"So, uh, what kind of things does a surgeon treat in Kodo?"

Surgeons. Very useful but the vibe she got from Dith, and the... niceness he had. If he wasn't involved in Team Rocket, she wasn't going to try to drag him in. Besides. Surgeons; a good job, and needed, outside of the team. As much as she tried not to think about it, she still cared quite a lot about 'not hurting' (at least, as much as was possible) the general public, and she'd have felt bad about possibly trying to take a doctor from them. They surely had people who specialised in that kind of recruiting anyway.
Besides, it was -nice- to just be normal and have a good chat with someone friendly and outside for once.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith's chuckle and headshake was probably response enough but he added; "I take it as a compliment!" Thor did have very good hair after all.

"And pretty much the same as I did in the UK," Dith continued with a bit of a shrug. "There's lots of traffic accidents, cardiac things, pokemon battles gone wrong, and things involving alcohol and stupidity. Many more things too of course but those are some of the most common." Besides humans being deliberately violent to one another but he didn't feel the need to a** that particular dimension of unpleasantness. "Oh, and people who have got something stuck in an orifice and have no idea how barbie got lodged up there," Dith added as an afterthought. "Not so common as the others but that sort of thing tends to stick in the mind!"