[Fin] Welcome Back Koulson!

[Gwennythe]

Blink.
A long moment stretched as Tambrey processed the words offered and her brain sparked and focused on what was familiar enough to work with without causing too much trauma; the science.

".... Yes. Well. Something nearly identical, and a very potent trace and oh frak, this really isn't helping convince me I don't need a brain scan so, uh, I'm just going to poke you now..."
She was peering at the offered hand and tentatively raised the index finger of her left hand, her right hand finding a grip on the door frame, and slowly extended it toward KO's knuckles.  

[TawnyAngel]

KO held out his hand to let her poke him. "I suppose they thought I was going to die, so maybe they didn't want to get anyone's hopes up? Still, I'm surprised they didn't... well, maybe information just didn't filter down." Why not tell them he was in a coma and might not wake up? "And, leading on from my last question, if plants use compounds like geraniol to communicate with each other and to attract pollinators- and we're looking at something similar then we probably have another factor in the 'attraction' factor of the attraction and mild sedation effect of sweet scent?"  

[Gwennythe]

Well that did feel like skin and bone and... well... It felt how knuckles were supposed to feel.
"Hopes up? But... No.. On the jet... You..." Was she even supposed to talk about it? If he died and wasn't... dead enough to stay dead, had he not been told he really died or? Were they misinformed? What was going on... He was making perfect sense, talking about the last project they'd been working on together, making some extremely sensible suggestions and what were certain to be correct if they reviewed the data gathered...
"... I'll... We'll have to go over the analysis again but I'm, uh, I'm pretty certain that's exactly right... I'm... I'm having trouble focusing here... You... Are here? You're not... a ghost. Not... a hallucination. Um. A robot? A LMD?" She shook her head, tentatively withdrawing her hand and regarding the red head with a concerned and still incredibly confused, somewhat upset, expression.  

[TawnyAngel]

He remembered the jet. He remembered tasting blood. Bloody flowing and spurting around his fingers. He remembered trying to speak, to reach out to Claire, and then.... White walls, and Jim smiling.

KO swallowed and gave Tam a slightly plastic looking smile. "I am here, and only human so far as I know." As Tambery withdrew tentatively KO stepped forward with equal uncertainty and reached out to give her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "Just me. I'm sorry they... well, that you thought.... Well, here I am."  

[Gwennythe]

'Only human so far as I know...'
That was probably not quite as comforting as KO thought it was...
There were... tests... she could -check- for 'human-ness'...

And then he stepped forward...
Moved like KO, sounded like KO... Felt like a human touch...
It just -seemed- like Kirk /was/ back so... maybe he was?

She certainly knew, within, that she -wanted- him to be.
Haltingly, she moved forward to offer a hug.

"I don't know... How you... or they... managed this, and... You -were- dead... I... We were all so sure... I'm... I'm glad you're not though..."

Ah. Pokémon. One of the balls at her belt was Pakhet; the growlithe could sniff out a non-human or a human, surely...  

[TawnyAngel]

KO wasn't usually the hugging sort. Languid draping, sure, but not hugging. After all that had happened and with everything he didn't understand weighing on his mind however he was more than happy to accept one now; he stepped forward and hugged Tam tightly. "Me too, believe me. I've been told that I've got more lives than a Meowth in the past, seems like it's true."

Whatever else had happened at least he was alive to worry about it. Maybe it didn't matter too much why he was alive and well, perhaps it would be better to just forget all the weirdness he'd just experienced.... Okay it mattered and it bothered him that he had no answers but he was still very glad to be alive. He felt a bit better for the hug too.  

[Gwennythe]

"... You /feel/ human..." Tambrey responded from the hug, less suspicious and more warm now, but still... Rather concerned and finding the situation to be extremely... strange and still somewhat traumatic.

Once the hug felt long enough, reluctantly, Tambrey relinquished her grip.
"... I just don't understand this... Why would they let us think you were dead?" She rubbed at her face, dislodging, and then fixing, her glasses on her face.
"Do you, um, mind if... if Pakhet sniffs you? Um... I /know/ you're human but... Sorry... This is such a weird thing to ask..."  

[TawnyAngel]

KO shrugged expressively, his brows knitting in a small frown of concern for Tambery's distress. "Wish I knew, it doesn't make any kind of sense that I can see. And sure, I don't mind. If I were in your position...." He trailed off and shrugged again because he didn't know what he would do if somebody he thought dead suddenly reappeared. He'd be suspicious though, that much was for sure.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey nodded, smiling apologetically and unable to take her eyes off of KO, just in case he... disappeared or something.

In a subtle flash of red light, Pakhet appeared... And immediately panted happily and wuffed at the red-head, wagging her tail... before double taking and whining for a moment.
Her distress was over far faster than Tambrey's however, and she wagged her tail again after just a few moments.

"Uh. Pakhet? Please, um... Give KO a sniff? and tell, oh!" She reached for another ball, and Franklin appeared. "Tell Franklin what you smell. Franklin- no, don't say any thing, I /know/... Just translate when, um Pakhet tells you something, okay?"

Franklin was staring at KO with obvious confusion and was about to say something to Tambrey before she was told not to. The little Psychic type, with eyes that were rather suspicious, began slowly circling the grunt, as though looking for anything odd.  

[TawnyAngel]

KO waited quietly for Pakhet and Franklin to finish assessing him. It felt more than a little strange and somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if the Growlithe might react badly and what it would mean if she did. Of course he was him, he couldn't be anything else but... but it had been a very weird few days. He really ought to let his own pokemon out soon but secured in their pokeballs they'd hardly know the difference of a little longer, they could wait until Tambery had finished assuring herself that he wasn't some kind of ridiculously handsome robot man or something.  

[Gwennythe]

<< Pakhet says she finds nothing strange with Mr. KO. She says he smells like he should. I do not share her opinion.>> Franklin declared, hovering closer to try and poke KO's hair (without asking permission) <>

"Oh, um, don't do that Franklin... But that's... That's good. You. You are you. Then." Tambrey blinked, confused, but smiling.
"Um. I am... I am so glad to see you back! Amazed but so glad! So long... I can't believe we thought you were dead for so long..."  

[TawnyAngel]

KO lent away from the poke with a slight frown and smoothed his hand back over his hair.... His hair that he hadn't brushed since waking up, he was pretty sure. And he was standing here wearing somebody else's clothes. And everyone he knew - least everyone relevant to his life now - thought he was dead. And something had happened that he didn't understand. It was frustrating, and it was disturbing, and he wanted a drink. He sighed and gave Tambery a tired, strained smile.

"Me too. I don't really know what... well, I suppose it doesn't matter right?" It mattered but he couldn't talk about it... he couldn't talk about it here. "One day soon we'll have to get off base, celebrate still being alive and adding another legendary to the team's repertoire?" he suggested, trying to keep his tone casual but giving Tam a slightly meaningful look. "We can have a proper catch up on all the gossip in a bar somewhere."  

[Gwennythe]

Franklin frowned and tried to move around behind the grunt. Her narrowed gaze and stubby arms were focused on the idea of pulling out a hair. A hair with a root if possible.
The pokémon didn't consider the possibilities of surveillance or 'not supposed to know' type scenarios.
She just knew that Tambrey -had- asked her and Pakhet to see if they could find anything unusual about KO beyond him... being there when he'd supposedly been dead... and she knew that 'unusual' things could sometimes show up in the DNA.
In face, unusual DNA was rather Tambrey's whole job wasn't it? The legendary was just being helpful!
She tried to reach out to pluck a couple of good samples if she could.

"Oh, um, definitely!" She caught the look and frowned with puzzlement but gave an almost imperceptible nod; she understood -some- of the nuance behind that look, at least. "You'll uh, have to choose the venue though because I really don't know about many bars. The last few places I went to were rather quiet, um, tea houses or cafes... Or museums..." Mostly not very good places for discreet conversations...  

[TawnyAngel]

"I know plenty of good places," KO replied, feeling much happier with this topic of conversation and very glad that Tambery seemed to have got his drift. Well, that or she just fancied a night out and either was fine. "We could go to Prism, I haven't been there in forever. It's classy, comfortable, and I know the ladies who own it so I can get us cheap drinks! They're the cutest couple, getting married in the fall I think." Another plus of Prism was its many discreet alcoves where one could have a quiet talk, or quiet other things if one and one's companion were so inclined. "Ahh, I remember when I took Star there," KO reminisced with a smirk and a shake of his head. "He was getting compliments on his heels all nig- Ow!" KO wheeled around to face Franklin, raising a hand to the back of his head. "What was that for?" The little beast had pulled out a few strands of hair!  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh! Oh, that sounds nice!" Tambrey agreed; she wasn't much for going out to places that could be called 'clubs' or 'bars' or even 'pubs' really, unless it was stopping for lunch on a day off in one, but KO's description of the venue did put her somewhat at ease. "I think I remember you taking Star out... Maybe to there? When I, um, had to share a room with him..."

Franklin's behaviour didn't put her at ease at all.

<< Science!>> declared the little psychic type, hovering back to be out of reach, and then darting through the air toward Tambrey; she needed a sample container!

Well... There was an idea that Tambrey'd wanted to be a -lot- more subtle about...
"Franklin you can't just... pull people's hair out..."

<< I just did!>>

"... Well. Yes." Poor wording, typical- Franklin remained quite literally minded. "But you -shouldn't-. It's a social rule."

She turned her attention back to KO.
"Sorry..." She wasn't sure what else to say, or how to explain; she understood what the legendary was getting at, and she suspected he would too, but she wasn't going to 'bag' the 'samples' without his consent.