[FIN] Sunshine, Sand, and Salty Water

[Gwennythe]

"I know..." Tambrey smiled with a kind of grim awkwardness. "I know exactly how it sounds, but, um, the more I've learned about it the more, I, uh, have to consider that... well... Um. It's the most likely scenario." Which was terrifyingly odd.
That KO had died and been brought back through the power of Xerneas was the 'most likely scenario' after so much thought and talking with him... It was so odd.
"He, uh, thinks he's being monitored so..." Well, Aulus probably understood why they had to go out to talk about it properly, then.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh." Aulus - who was naturally more paranoid than the owner of a glassware shop inside a bull ring - felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle. "So... he wasn't told anything then? Why not?" Aulus frowned deeply and then answered his own question with; "Secret research.... And what do you think? You were going to check out his DNA, right?" This was a weird place to talk about possible resurrection and secret research but given what Tam had said about monitoring maybe it was for the best that they were in the middle of nowhere.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey suddenly dipped underwater for a moment, having paused in treading water without thinking about it to... well... think... Luckily she hadn't breathed any in though, and was soon treading water fine again.

"I did. Uh. We finished sequencing, even. There's, um... There's nothing. It's perfectly normal human DNA. No, um, unexpected hormones, no unusual mutagens..." Which, in her opinion, regarding the circumstances, was actually weirder than if there had been. "It's, uh, not a -genetic- or a... heavily biological," oddly, considering it was 'life' "process as far as I can work out..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

<< A wild Pokémon has appeared! Communicate with your partner(s) to determine whether or not you mind having your RP sidetracked. When you've decided, one person can post [yes] or [no]. (If the Pokémon turns out to be something neither of you want, you're welcome to ignore it.) >>  

[TawnyAngel]

[No, happy to be interrupted!]

When Tambery sank briefly Aulus almost started forward to grab her but she quickly resurfaced of her own accord and he pretended that he totally hadn't jumped forward a bit at all, nope, not a bit.

"Hu." Aulus frowned and shook his head. "That's... weird." He wasn't going to ask her if she was sure he'd died, they'd both seen people die before and it wasn't really the kind of thing you mistook for 'just being really hurt'.  

[Gwennythe]

[Totally fine with interruption]

"Very weird," Tambrey agreed, still treading water, and, apparently, having missed Aulus brief start "but it's, uh... They didn't tell us, or him, /anything/ except, uh, the 'cover story', I guess it is, which just doesn't /quite/ add up when you have access to the right data... And to himself, as, uh, he knows about comas... It's just all very weird. And secret. So, um, well, we sort of guess it's not really all that safe to talk about on base..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Not too far away from Aulus and Tambrey, the dark blue, notched fin of a Sharpedo jutted out of the water as it floated along, and every so often when the waves permitted, the yellow star-like marking on its forehead would flash into view for but a moment.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus frown deepened. "So whatever this secret is-"

The flash of movement caught Aulus' eye and the shape he identified cut him off mid sentence, prompted him to grab Tambery's arm tightly (with his left hand, luckily) and to start to move backwards towards the beach as quickly as he could without splashing conspicuously. By way of slightly belated explanation he pointed at the fin with his free hand. Being in the same water as a wild Sharpeado seemed like a really poor idea to him. Once they were on shore however... well Tambery had been saying she needed a water type; did she like Brutal Pokemon?

Tortie had seen the predatory shape too and started to paddle to the left, trying to put herself between it and the humans.  

[Gwennythe]

"Ah! Ow! What the..?" Tambrey, unfortunately, did splash, at first; when Aulus grabbed her arm and pulled, she didn't know what was going on, and she still wasn't at a depth where she could touch the bottom, so for a moment, Aulus would end up pulling her along under water, just for a couple of seconds.
Still, when he pointed, it meant that she was slightly late following his gesture...

She didn't quite manage to see /what/ was out there, but given Aulus reaction, and the fact he was suddenly pulling her along, she had a pretty good idea that it was something dangerous, and a water type... A Sharpedo was high up on that list.
She was, also, very glad he hadn't used his other hand; having an arm ripped off in Sharpedo-infested waters wasn't a fun prospect at all.

From the shore, Ella frowned at the... sudden movement; for a moment it had looked like Aulus had just tried to send Tambrey underwater... But then they were attempting to come in fast, and the steel type narrowed her eyes, standing up to peer out for whatever the threat was.
She felt worried suddenly. Very worried. The water was not the best place for such a heavy, metal-skinned pokémon, still she began to walk toward the ocean, intent on starting to wade out to meet the humans.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Luckily for the pair of humans, their splashing and hurried swimming to shore didn't garner any kind of reaction at all from the Sharpedo, and neither did Tortie's placement between it and them. It continued to float along the surface of the water, bobbing gently along with the waves.  

[TawnyAngel]

Once the water was only around his calves Aulus released Tambery's arm and relaxed. "Well thank ******** for that," he sighed, squinting out at the shape of the fin. "I guess it wasn't all that hungry." Hungry Sharpeado was excitement he could do without. "So," he waved at the fin and looked down at Tambery, "did you uh, want a water type? I've got a couple of pokeballs with my stuff, nothing fancy but worth a go?..." But why was it just floating along like that? Aulus started to frown again.

Tortie paddled in after the humans and gave herself a thorough shake once she was standing just in front of them. <> she observed.

Further out to sea meanwhile Thanatos had just noticed the Sharpeado too and was now swimming towards it at a fairly unhurried pace. Unlike Tortie and Aulus Thanatos had not yet developed a thick layer of paranoia and twanging survival instincts and so he said; <> quite cheerfully.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey gingerly rubbed at her arm when it was let go, standing in the shallow water, but didn't complain about it; Aulus had very understandably good intentions, so whether her arm got a little bit bruised or not, she couldn't really mind. Actually, even if there wasn't a threat, it had been nice that he'd thought to grab her instead of just running.

Tambrey turned to look where he was gesturing, and the words struck home; did she want a water type? Funnily enough, she'd been thinking she needed a water type not so long ago... Though she hadn't expected to get a chance through a situation like this.

"Uh. I, uh... I was going to see about requesting one from the labs at some point but, well, uh... There is one there... It's worth a go." She agreed, with a nod, peering out though her thoughts began to follow Aulus'...
"It's not, uh, doing very much..."

Ella rumbled and snorted, splashing sea water and forming waves as she lumbered through the surf to arrive close to the humans.
Close enough to respond to Tortie.
<< I am, though.>> And she'd prove it if the Sharpedo tried to attack anyone... Well, provided she could get to it.

Franklin looked up from where she was carefully digging out a moat around her castle, but she didn't look out far enough to spot the Sharpedo.
<< Hm. I didn't think Ella would want to paddle... Oh well.>> She'd make sure to invite the Steel type when she went for a splash herself, later on, then.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The Sharpedo did not return Thanatos's greeting. It continued to do nothing at all except bob along with the waves, otherwise not moving. If Thanatos inspected it more closely, he would find the shark Pokemon lifeless. No discernible wounds or other obvious signs of injury or distress were visible anywhere on it, and it appeared quite fine, expect for the lack of life.  

[TawnyAngel]

"No," Aulus agreed, his frown deepening, "not a lot at all.... I don't think it's actually swimming. Is it hurt?"

At around this time Thantatos - who had quickened his pace when he didn't get a response - arrived next to the Sharpeado. <> He swam around it a few times, a feeling of dread starting to rise inside him. <> When there was still no response Thantatos moved right up beside the other water type, and then his dream became certainty. <> It was dead. He'd never seen anything dead before. Not knowing what else to do he carefully placed his hands on the rough skin and started to push it to shore; he didn't know what to do but Aulus would.

"Hey, it's moving towards us.... Sideways?" As it drew closer Aulus realised that it wasn't moving at all, and that Thanatos was pushing it. "Oh.... Actually, I don't think we're going to be catching this one."

When Thanatos pushed the corpse up next to him Aulus knelt down cautiously beside it. It was dead for sure but he couldn't tell what had killed it, it didn't look as though it had been hurt or as though it had been starving or anything it was just.... Dead. "What happened?" Aulus asked with a frown as though the universe might give him an answer. Sometimes things just died, sure, but it was pretty unusual for an apparently healthy pokemon to just wash up dead.

Thanatos stood nearby, twisting his hands and looking down at the dead Sharpeado with obvious distress.  

[Gwennythe]

Moving sideways was not really a thing that Tambrey thought Sharpedo could... well... do. Thus she already sort of suspected something like the situation that presented itself when Thanatos came into view.

"Uh. Apparently not..." She frowned, concerned. A dead Sharpedo... That didn't really look eaten... Disease or old age flashed into her mind first but... Then, it had been in the ocean, floating about... Why hadn't anything else eaten it?

"No, uh, marks or anything on it?" Tambrey queried, then glanced at the beach. They could probably examine it better there, and what else were they going to do with a dead Sharpedo?

"Um. Ella? Do you think you could carry this up away from the water. Um. Not too close to our blanket though, okay?"

Ella pulled a face but rumbled assent, looking to Aulus to see if he'd make room for her to do so.