[FIN] Systems

[TawnyAngel]

"...Hu." Aulus frowned and set his cup down. "That is odd.... Do you think he's lying to you?" But why?  

[Gwennythe]

"No." Tambrey confirmed with another rueful smile.

She didn't believe that KO was lying; sure, he probably /would/ lie to anyone, including those he called friends, and be very suave and convincing about it, but she just didn't believe him to be this time. And what /would/ be the purpose? And /how/ would he pull off 'dying' like that?

"Which leaves, um, a bigger problem. Franklin pulled a couple of his hairs; root samples." She took another sip of her tea. Apparently pausing when she did to see how Aulus reacted to each point...
She knew what she thought was /weird/...  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus looked into his tea, up at Tam, and then around the room. "You... you're looking for something weird in his DNA?" he asked softly. The guy had been dead so far as anyone he knew was concerned. He frowned and looked down again. "Either Claire lied to me very well, or she thought he was dead too."  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey gave a quick nod of confirmation.
"Actually that ties into, um, something else I wanted to talk to you about, but, um, I'll get to that... Off the clock and isolated systems and machines."

She tilted her head, eyes questioning as he mentioned Claire.
"Oh?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus shrugged. "Well, she has higher clearance than us, so if there was something we weren't told she might have been.... Though if she had been, and hadn't been able to tell, she probably could have fooled me so I suppose that doesn't actually say a lot." If she had he couldn't hold the deceit against her, spreading secrets was not a healthy pastime around here.  

[Gwennythe]

Another nod.
She understood, but she also supposed that Aulus probably knew Claire well enough to know, even if he suspected he might not.

"Well. It's weird. And. So far I'm not... Uh, I'm just not finding /anything/." She replied, blowing out a sigh, then sipping at her tea.  

[TawnyAngel]

"All normal?" Aulus asked more or less rhetorically, pausing to sip at his own tea and think of a few moments. "So.... He was dead, you and everyone else were sure of that. But he's not, and his DNA looks normal, and so does he? In himself I mean. Was he acting like himself?" He didn't know the guy himself but he knew Tambery did so she'd spot if something was off, like if they'd brain-chipped him or something like they had Lance. Not that that would explain returning from apparent death of course.  

[Gwennythe]

"Very." Tambrey replied. "Um. Well. Uh, normal for him. Behaving as he /would/. I, um, don't really think anyone could program that..." That covered chips and robots, at least, and she was familiar enough with the chip integration into biological subjects, she thought, to recognize the possible indicators...
She /knew/ he wasn't a robot...

"He was definitely, um, acting like himself... I'm, uh, going off base with him tomorrow..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Humm." Aulus frowned and dunked his biscuit again. "Well, I'm going to resist the urge to stalk you, but be careful. If something weird's been done to him even he might not be aware of it. I mean I doubt it would be anything intended to harm another Rocket but... well, this is strange, that's all."  

[Gwennythe]

"I'll be careful. I think he's... in control if anything though. Uh, weird, or not, he seems... No, not... seems. I mean. He -is- him..." She smiled, tiredly; it was troubling, but it was good to talk, and she appreciated the concern.

"I'll take Ella along though anyway, and, uh, Pygi, at least. I always try to take those two off base anyway, just in case. You... agree though? It /is/ strange?" That had been important, too; she'd wanted to make sure she wasn't fooling herself and being too suspicious of something far less miraculous or weird than it was... She had been overworking and constantly... focused... for a while. She understood that it /might/ have led to her pursuing threads that led nowhere without her realising.  

[TawnyAngel]

 

[Gwennythe]

"Scientific advancement occurs with collaboration but... Everyone is very very cagey about who they, uh, collaborate with, even within departments sometimes, let alone across the, uh, company..." Tambrey admitted, giving credence to the idea that it could be a classified venture into more advanced healing accelerating compounds.
"I, um," Tambrey grimaced, thinking back on the mission sites, sounds and smells back on the jet "find resuscitation to have been... unlikely but, um, maybe... Maybe he's a test subject without even knowing... Whatever it is doesn't show up in... cell trace or genetics though..."

As though this reminded her, she rummaged at her belt and instead of a pokéball, held up a little USB stick with a tiny status screen and offered it out.
"I've had this little guy helping me to sequence and sift data... Not a trace of 'odd', which, um, is actually a little odd in itself. You'd think some trace of medication, or anything causing cell division rates to increase to healing levels of that magnitude would... well... show, um, something..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hu." Aulus took the USB stick carefully in his metallic fingerz - a Porygon or evolution then - and nodded. "Well, I'd guess so from a common sense point of view and as you're saying it from an educated point of view.... Weird."  

[Gwennythe]

As though the USB sensed it had been passed to someone new, the status screen flashed and an emoticon appeared;

<< (○’ー’○)ノ >>

"Very..." Tambrey agreed with a sigh, and took a long sip of tea, closing her eyes slightly to enjoy it.
"I'm glad he's back but this is... This is just so weird."  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus gave a pleased little laugh as the emoticon popped up and waved back, despite not knowing if the artificial pokemon could 'see' that or not. "Aww, cute. How do you communicate with it?.... And yeah," he looked back up at Tam with a smile, "I'm glad he's alright too.... Does this mean you might ease up on yourself a bit? You've been working really hard... really hard." He'd been getting more than a bit worried but he hadn't wanted to fuss over her, though if it had gone on he probably would have had to say or do something about it soon enough.