[FIN] A Big Fishy

[TawnyAngel]

"Yes?" Aulus echoed, a prompt for further information. What had Tambery found out that was making her hesitant to answer? "Should we be worrying about having been in that water is what I'm sort of getting at here," he added.  

[Gwennythe]

"No. At least. I don't think so." Should they worry? 'Nothing' wasn't exactly the kind of thing you worried about, so... no, she supposed, not really... There'd been no signs of anything that might 'infect' or 'affect' or 'afflict' humans, after all... Or other pokémon for that matter...

"No." She decided, with a nod. "But, um... The thing is, we shouldn't worry because, well, um, there's nothing to worry about as in, uh... Quite literally."
She frowned: that didn't make any sense did it?
"I mean. Every test, um. That Sharpedo died of nothing. It's fine. Perfectly fine. It just, uh, happens to be dead."
Well, it was out now; she hoped Aulus grasped the significance, she knew most people would just think 'oh, something died, well things just die', but she doubted Aulus would think along the same lines.  

[TawnyAngel]

Just.... Dead? Aulus frowned deeply and started to drum his fingers on the edge of the bath but stopped abruptly, faintly startled by the loud noise his metallic digits made. "Okay. But...." He continued to frown, red eyes searching Tam's face as though it might contain further information. "Stuff doesn't just stop living, there's a reason for dying. Injury, disease, age, toxins, organ failure.... Stuff doesn't just stop." So what had happened to it? Aulus' frown deepened. "I wonder if we could explore the ocean around there? The Sharpeado hadn't been dead long so it can't have drifted that far.... I could dispatch Asgard to have a look around." Aulus sounded faintly uncertain about this last suggestion, for much as he trusted Asgard's ability to look after himself.... "Something strange is going on that's for sure."  

[Gwennythe]

"That's... That's the thing." Tambrey had blinked, also a little startled by the loud noise... as was Oxy. Though she'd become more fascinated almost imediately.

<< Loud loud! More!>> She called for an encore.

"Nothing on the tox' screen, relatively young, no detectable medical issues, even its genome is... um... Telomere length? Normal for what you'd expect. No abnormality, no disease profile, no hint of viral infection... It shouldn't be dead, it just is..."
She frowned slightly.
" I added a note about the oddness to my lab log but I doubt anyone will... uh... take any notice. It'll, um, be on our own backs if we do try to explore. Um, up to you if you, uh, send Asgard, but... We just don't know what happened, so you'd have to tell him to be very very careful." She nodded, agreeing, something strange was going on.  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Rose passed on.

Aulus glanced down smiled briefly and obliged with a vague rhythm before turning back to Tambery still tap-tapping his fingers on the bath, though more lightly than when he'd slightly startled everyone. "Right," he nodded, "I will then.... I wonder if one of us could hire out a decent underwater camera to rig him up with? Some sensors of.... Some kind? I don't know. It'd be up to him if he wanted to do it or not, I wouldn't send him into something weird against his will." He suspected Asgard would be up for it though, he loved to explore and would probably think any excuse to be off base was a fantastic one. "Couldn't ask for a better pokemon for exploring the ocean depths, though."  

[Gwennythe]

Oxy splashed happily, then turned and spun around happily in the bath, enjoying the noise Aulus was making, causing a bit of a cascade of water to exit the tub.

"Hm. Chemical sensors, radiation, thermal maybe? Deep sea exploration, um, isn't really something I'm, uh, super familiar with..." Tambrey admitted, but gave a smile, showing she agreed with the idea.
"I'm not sure how to go about hiring one, maybe, um, talking to tech' or something? I'd offer someone to join him, but, uh... Oxy's my only water type, really, and I don't imagine the others would bring anything that Asgard couldn't..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Me either, outside of movies, and we know how much you can trust them," Aulus replied with a little 'heh' of amusement and a shrug. He glanced briefly down at the wildly splashing water but decided it wasn't important, they could mop up later. "And yeah, I'll ask Alex who to talk to about that sort of stuff. I expect there'll be a cost to hiring it but," he frowned again and shook his head, "I'd like to get to the bottom of this or at least try to. If Asgard can't find anything then he can't find anything but I want to at least feel like we made a reasonable attempt."  

[Gwennythe]

"Mhm... Well, um, we must have a few people who understand submersibles." Tambrey mused, remembering the fact that several people had gone out on a submarine mission when the egg had appeared.

"I'll, um, happily split any cost with you." Tambrey offered with a nod; she agreed that it would be best to make a good effort to get to the bottom of what was going on, even if they couldn't rely on official backup.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Thanks," Aulus replied with a smile. "And if we find something, well, we might be able to retroactively make an expenses claim. If not then at least we had a go." He wasn't good at just shrugging things off with an 'oh well', he was glad that Tam didn't want to let it go either.

"But, maybe we can work on that tomorrow?" Aulus continued. "I was going to either watch a movie or do some training.... Want to bring Oxy down to one of the pools or something? I ought to get my non-water types doing their swimming training again, we've missed it for the last couple of weeks."  

[Gwennythe]

It was something that was popping up in Tambrey's thoughts somewhat often, though most of the time, these days, they drifted in the direction of another, almost decidedly opposite mystery.
There were too many mysteries; a friend back from the dead without a hint as to how it was done, and now a Sharpedo with a distinct /lack/ of life, with no hint as to /why/ or /how/ it was dead.
Two very different, but very similar, mysteries that held more mysteries within them... And refused to give up their secrets despite scientific probing...
Tambrey was glad that Aulus suggested working on the Sharpedo issue 'tomorrow'; part of getting Oxy out into the bath had been for distraction as much as it had been to familiarize the fish with where 'home' was.
Oxy seemed quite familiar and happy already though, and Tambrey suspected she'd be ecstatic to get to play in a bigger body of water...

"That sounds like a very good idea... Uh, she seems to have gotten all she can out of the bath, and I think she's still feeling pretty energetic..."
She was rewarded with a splash to the face in confirmation.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus snickered as Tambery got splashed in the face and reached into the water to give her a second splash himself because he was a kind and caring partner like that. "Think I might go for a swim myself, seen as I'm already kind of damp and we never really got to have our swim in the ocean," he added. Whatever had happened right now he felt kind of confident they'd get to the bottom of it, what problem couldn't the two of them handle?... He wasn't going to think too far down that line, he was going to stick with the warm happy confidence bit.  

[Gwennythe]

Aulus was splashing too!

Well, in that case... Oxy happily splashed and blew water at everyone she saw as she turned around in the bath.
She'd probably had soaked the entire bathroom if Tambrey hadn't found her ball to recall her.

She looked at Aulus, water dripping from her glasses, and entirely soaked.
"Kind of damp." She smirked, then started to get up, feeling rather pleased she'd chosen to wear old clothes as she had.
"I feel like I've already been in the pool now... But I, uh, I think a swim would be good. I'll be ready in a moment," She frowned at the towel she'd been kneeling on, and the state of the bathroom "I better clean up and, uh, get changed before we go."

<< She caused more mess didn't she? I told you!>> Apparently Franklin had come back to eavesdrop after hearing all the splashing.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus spluttered under the jet of water and then nearly fell off the edge of the bath laughing. "Sorry, sorry, my fault!" he managed to gasp amongst the painful hilarity. He wasn't quite sure why it had tickled him so much but ha! "I'll help," he said, sighing as the laughter subsided, wiping his eyes and than dashing water from his face. "Fishy see fishy do hu?"

<> said the very soggy Rose helpfully.  

[Gwennythe]

"Mmhm. Apparently..." Tambrey continued to smirk, taking hold of the bottom of her t-shirt and twisting it the wring out some of the water it had absorbed.
"She is, uh, rather young... I guess. Technically."

Sometimes, she thought, it was easy to forget that some of the lab creations were akin to 'newly hatched' pokémon.
Oxy certainly seemed to serve as a happy reminder so far, though.

She moved to retrieve the towel from the floor, and realized quickly that sopping wet cloth wouldn't be much good for drying anything now.
The laughter had made her smile, despite the mess Oxy had made of the bathroom, distracted from the bigger issues temporarily, she felt rather happy.  

[TawnyAngel]

Still grinning hugely and chuckling at intervals Aulus got to his feet, plucking at his black t-shirt which was now sopping and clinging to him. "Egh." Seen as it currently served no real purpose other than making him uncomfortable he pulled it off and tossed it into the shower. "I'll go find some more towels," he said and promptly vanished back into his room.

Only a few seconds later he returned with three towels (dark blue, black and black) and his towelling bathrobe (also black). He promptly dumped the robe and one of the black towels on the wet floor, dried his face off with the other black one, and held the dark blue one out to Tambery. "Here, freshly laundered by Char. And yes, she is. Physically mature but no experience of anything, a bit peculiar really I suppose. Still dead cute though."