[FIN] Back in our day...?

[TawnyAngel]

Juno looked around them and then down at the new arrival; she shrugged. <>

<> Borealis crooned happily and trotted over to her friend. < huge! There are no walls, or ceilings. Did you know the sky isn't like a ceiling? You probably did.>>

Now feeling like he was probably in a safe place, and helped by the chatter of familiar voices, Helix peeked out of his shell at his surroundings. When he realised how big it all was he retracted himself again a bit but not all the way, clearly nervous but not outright scared at the moment.

"It's true," Aulus nodded. "People are weird. Stuff is weird. Like, people don't thinks about stuff a lot of the time, like how these mountains we're on have been made by plates shoving against one another over millions of years and how it's bloody amazing how hands work, and eyes, and everything...." Aulus trained off and turned to watch Millicent, he didn't know her yet so it seemed sensible to keep an eye on her until he was sure she wasn't going to spook or something.  

[Gwennythe]

<< I did!>> Treestar admitted with a happy smile, and waggled his lead <> He looked to Juno as she addressed Millicent.
<> The grass type explained, happily.

<> Millicent agreed with Treestar, though she sounded almost accusatory in how she did so.
<< I do not know you.>> She then nodded toward Aulus. <>

Tambrey kept an eye on the Cranidos too... She wasn't really moving much from the spot she'd been released on, having taken barely a step, though she was looking about quite a lot.
"I wonder if pokémon end up having conversations like these..? Or, um, if they did before we could, um, talk to them in one way or another..."

The overhang was low enough, and there was a bit of scrubby bushgrowth right beneath the low drop. The round creature rolled forward and dropped with a soft, but crackly, thud into the vegetation. It found itself upside down, and took a few moments to recover before rolling foward to right itself and begin it's trek back down the path, toward where it had seen the humans and their pokémon.  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Juno asked, unruffled. <> she waved at Aulus, <>

"She's introducing us," Aulus translated, "she's asking Millicent what she calls herself?... And yeah. I wonder how long it will be before being able to translate like this will seem normal? I hope we find out if it works, and I wonder if it lingers if you leave Kodo? If not I'm never accepting a transfer anywhere else if I can avoid it."

<> Borealis said abruptly, sounding surprised and somewhat pleased as a breeze wafted around them. <>  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh? Um... Hm. How does it seem like Millicent's getting along with her? She's, um, a little 'distant' and a little 'spiky' so far, I've found... Oh, um. Well, that's being studied. It's difficult /to/ study, but um, I bet we'll know a lot more about it in the future... I, personally, think that, um, it's changed something in the brain permanently, but we, of course, don't know that for sure yet..."

<> The dinosaur repeated, then bent down to sniff at the ground before taking a proper step, and then another, inspecting the bug.
<>

<>  

[TawnyAngel]

"Distant and spiky.... I'd say that's apt," Aulus replied as he watched the interaction, Juno hadn't said anything to him but that was almost telling in itself. She was focusing.

<> Juno replied, <>

Aulus provided a translation again, now petting Helix's shell absently. "I wish we could get close to the Egg, get some readings or something off it. That might give us some answers, or then again it might just give more questions."

<<...Yes, it is,>> Borealis agreed. <> Borealis looked around with renewed wonder. <>

Helix started to peek out again, blinking in the bright light but clearly interested in the conversation that was taking place.  

[Gwennythe]

<> Millicent repeated the word, committing it to associative memory with the shape of the bug before her. <> She sniffed the ground again... and considered the fact. That made sense. She was often being poked and studied and hearing snippets from humans and pokémon alike during her awake periods... She had often heard 'rock', and 'sample' and had come to understand what they were referring to once she worked out that those were not her names.

"Oh, this reaction will be interesting..." Tambrey muttered as Aulus translated, and sat up a little, to regard the bug and the dinosaur more closely.
"Mhm. It might... But it probably wouldn't. It's not technology... We think... But who knows? Maybe it counts as 'pokémon' technology? If it's biological, um... I couldn't even fathom a guess at how, or what, it might really be..."

Treestar had no idea; he was out of his death when it came to concepts of 'rebirth', so he just grinned and twirled happily.
<>  

[TawnyAngel]

"Not right here, but close by," Aulus put in to Millicent. "The site is closed off now but yeah, a place like this." Turning to Tambery he shrugged. "Me either. Associated with Arceus, but how? And what is it? Other than good for tourism that is." And tourism was no bad thing for them, oblivious people wandering around who - if they had come to see the egg - must be heavily into pokemon. Good targets.

<> Once again Borealis looked confused.  

[Gwennythe]

Millicent snapped her head toward Aulus as he spoke directly to her and regarded him carefully. He could... hear them? No... Surely he'd have indicated he understood her before now... She looked, carefully, between the metal-armed human and the big bright bug...
<>

<> Treestar tried to explain, frowning as he tried to puzzle out the concept himself; he'd just taken it for granted that 'screens' and 'shows' were there to watch.

"Um, I've taken to referring to it, in notes, as 'anomalous radioactive blob', or, um, Arb, for short... I mean... We just don't /know/ what it actually is..." She was semi-distracted, watching the long-necks some, and trying to keep a good eye on Milli'; the dinosaur wasn't very well adjusted yet.

Not too far away, after many bumps and halts and a rock that had bounced it back, a rolling red and white orb came to a stop next to one of the bushes. It could /see/ the humans from here... Well, it could if turned around... But it could hear them anyway, and it just needed a rest before it could go and say 'hi!'...  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Juno explained with a shrug. <>

Borealis stared. <>

"Arb," Aulus grinned, "I like that, it sounds like it could be the robot buddy in a cheesy comedy movie."  

[Gwennythe]

<> The pale dinosaur seemed to have reached the conclusion that they had a 'right' to be there if they were found there.

<> He wasn't as well versed with the show as the humans, or even Lasi, and now Franklin, were... <> Treestar agreed <>

"It does, doesn't it?" Tambrey grinned, and leaned back a little, relaxed by the conversation, and not privy to what Milli' had -just- said. It seemed like the Cranidos was content to talk with the bug, for now, to her, even if their conversation wasn't exactly 'flowing'.
"I, um, needed to refer to it as something and nothing really, uh, sat right? So... 'Arb'..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Arb," Aulus repeated with a snort, it sounded funny and he wasn't afraid to be a bit juvenile.

<> Juno replied with a shake of her head. <>

"Hu?" Aulus sat up a little, frowning. "Err... I think Millicent is saying she wants to go to the site where they were found." That wasn't a great idea, as Juno had said.

<> Borealis replied, <>  

[Gwennythe]

Well, good... 'Arb' seemed like it had gone down well, and now she didn't feel silly for using it outside of as shorthand in her notes and documentation.

<>

Tambrey frowned as Aulus spoke about what he could gather from the one side of the conversation with Juno.
"Um... Right... No, Milli?" She spoke, and blinked as the dinosaur whipped her head around to regard her now... That way of moving was a little disconcerting... "We can't go to where Aulus found any of you. It's being studied. Your, um, source, probably walked all over these mountains though... Um. When they were younger, anyway, probably before they were mountains, or, well, before they were -these- mountains..."

<< Hmph. What study?>>

<< Very...>> Treestar agreed; he'd liked KO well enough though he hadn't gotten to meet the grunt much; he knew that the redhead had liked to play with chemicals, and Tambrey took chemical samples from Treestar sometimes, after all, so he felt he'd 'worked with' KO even if he hadn't exactly.
<< I think the mission was to go catch Xerneas, which they did, but lots of things went wrong.>>  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Juno looked thoughtful. <>

"Yeah, that's right," Aulus agreed, gesturing around them with his metallic hand. "We could go investigate a bit further up the path if you want?" Maybe that would placate her.

Borealis wasn't sure what to say to that, or what to think really. <>  

[Gwennythe]

Treestar nodded and offered a sad smile.
<< I did not go on the mission but Tambrey came back sad and I talked to Ella and she told me what happened... Missions can be dangerous though so when we go we have to do our best to look after our humans...>>

<< Why can't we investigate and learn about it?>> She swiveled her head back toward Juno, and then regarded Aulus as he added a suggestion to Tambrey's information. << What will we learn?>>

Tambrey watched, staying thoughtful for a moment, before nodding.
"It might help. It would be interesting anyway. You, um, never know if there's another fossil bed or something just waiting around the corner..." And even if there wasn't, having a good look at the strata and just the area around them would be nice.  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Borealis responded, quietly resolving to avoid them if she could. Having died once was probably more than enough for anyone after all.

When Juno translated for Millicent Aulus shrugged and got to his feet, lifting Helix up with him. "I don't know, but like Tam says we could find another fossil bed - like the place you were found - or anything else really. And we can't go to the place we actually found you because the people who own it say we can't, and it would be pretty awkward if we got arrested for trespassing."