[FIN] Bugging About

[Gwennythe]

Somewhere North of a very well concealed base, North of any main trail, with the Northernmost peaks of the Mountains to the East North-East, a young woman, using a walking stick-cane, paused, just a tad out of breath from a bit of a hike.
She'd been training hard to get her mobility back, to get as healed up as she could but, whether it was just -slightly- too early or not, she'd pulled on her hiking boots, her shorts and a nice green top this morning, determined to have a day out.
Motives were, in fact, fourfold, for Tambrey; she wanted out in the fresh air, she wanted to spend time with a friend off base for once, she wanted to see if the leaves were changing, and she wanted Pili, the Caterpie currently sharing her shoulder with Jubilee, to see the forests that her species would usually be found in. Stick or not, she was making this hike.

However, she had found herself (she hoped not to the annoyance of Aulus) needing to break a little more often than she'd like; actually being out in the forest was rather different to training in the base's facilities.
At least she hadn't tried to come out here with crutches or anything.
"Sorry..." She huffed, with an apologetic smile; she hadn't counted all the times she'd paused for breath, she was just sure it was probably 'too many'.
That just meant -even more- training when she got back, she decided... as well as maybe try to get out more...  

[TawnyAngel]

While Aulus still wasn't quite as fit as he had been before the whole explosion incident he was pretty close, which was as much as to say he was really quite fit. The slow pace didn't bother him though; he hadn't come here for a workout and had been pretending not to notice Tam's pauses by taking photographs of whatever happened to be nearby whenever she stopped.

This time when she stopped however she apologized; Aulus turned to her and said, "Hu? Oh, it's fine," he shrugged, "we're not trying to set a landspeed record here right? I'm just glad to be out of that sodding people-box." It was oppressive in there, all the more so now he was spending so much time in there. He wanted field missions again, anything would do so long as it was out!... Today was good though, today was a day off and he was getting to spend it with his partner in the fresh air.

Aulus smiled briefly and pointed his camera at Tam and her shoulder companions. "Say Rocket!"

Phaethon, who was clopping along with them, paused to eat an interesting bush.  

[Gwennythe]

"Well... I guess. 'S just... " Tambrey shrugged; she didn't like that she couldn't do physically, what she felt mentally. She wasn't even missing a limb, and there was Aulus strolling along, already more capable than she was.
Well, at least he didn't seem to mind that she had to slow down, and even stop sometimes.
"It /is/ nice to get outside... Y'know; it's nice even just to /smell/ trees again..."

She tensed a little, and gripped the handle of her stick as Aulus pointed his camera; she'd gotten better around people, at voicing her opinion, confidence... but cameras still produced the tiniest amount of panic in the first instance.
Her eyes widened for a moment, but she quickly fixed her expression to a, still slightly surprised, smile, and threw up a quick peace symbol with her free hand, mostly out of some kind of mildly panicked reaction to pose.

Jubilee chirruped and stood as 'tall' as she could, the tiny bug delighted to have her picture taken.

This caused Pili, still not used to the camera, but keen to receive attention from Aulus, and people in general, to rear up and wave her little front feet in the air.

"This is not going to be a great picture..." Tambrey cautioned through her smile; she felt sweaty, they'd be going through a forest, there was probably a leaf in her hair, and she'd automatically chosen the cheesiest pose she could have thought of, apparently...  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus lowered the camera, smiled, and shrugged. "It's a good memory for the future, so it's a great picture," he replied. That was one of the things he loved about photography but tended not to talk about because it was a bit... well... mushy. A frozen moment of beauty or just of joy that you could look back on and say 'yes, I was there, and I was happy'. It helped.

At that point something else Tam had said filtered through and Aulus' face shifted into one of his thoughtful frowns. "It's just what?" he asked, letting his camera hang by its strap around his neck and fumbling for Paul's pokeball; it would be cute for him to meet Pili, he figured.  

[Gwennythe]

"... It's very hard to object to when you put it like that..." Tambrey mock-complained with a slightly amused 'frown'.
That was good reasoning, and she relaxed a little, not just because the camera was down again; it was a better way to think of pictures being taken than 'aah! scary camera!'... though, of course, she'd probably retain that initial reflex for now.

"Er. Frustrating." Tambrey answered finally, with a frown. "All the training and I'm holding you up... Last time I got injured... I was up and about by now; I was ready for another mission..." Of course, then the strange... concoction had worked a treat- she could have sworn she even felt it moving through her veins... This time, the healing seemed to have been all natural and irritatingly slow. Every stubbed toe and trip, too, seemed a tiny bit of a setback, even if it wasn't... but, of course, that was a rather silly sentiment. She knew, very well, what was going on, and how a body was a body; she -knew- she was healing well... but she'd been rather spoiled with the quickness last time around, and now she missed it.

Jubilee seemed to register what Aulus was doing and chittered excitedly- she liked Paul. She waved a stubby leg in Aulus' direction, seeming to be telling Pili all about what was going on.
Pili seemed to listen, than watch somewhat warily. Apart from Jubilee, the other bug she'd met had been big and nasty and kind of scary.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, yeah." Aulus inhaled and then exhaled again slowly and deliberately. He thought, lined the words up in his head carefully so they'd come out right with a bit of luck. "We're working at different speeds on different things, that's all. My legs were pretty much fine and... well they cut off the bit that was a real problem." He laughed; it was not a humorous sound. "Anyway though I... yeah. I get it. Not being able to do stuff you think should be easy, right?" It sucked. It sucked a lot and he wanted to say something helpful because he wanted his friend to feel better.

Aulus gave a more strained smile than he one he had flashed a moment ago and shrugged again. "You'll get better. Least you're not in a chair anymore, right?" As he spoke he released Paul onto a nearby tree branch.

The small spider appeared in a contented half doze but quickly roused himself at the light breeze and sounds of life around him. After a quick stock take he spotted Jubliee and a bug he didn't know; the chirped and waved a foreleg. Hopefully friend, not friend would be bad.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey grimaced a little.
That was true... The arm. Aulus arm had been removed, but his legs and such had been fine. She'd suffered no more than some bad bruising and a bit of a sprain to her arm this time around.

She nodded.
"Basically that... I mean. I made Pili so... My job, what I can do... I guess that's still fine, and yes, I'm not in a chair anymore, so I'm healing slowly, but it's that 'slowly' that I'm, y'know... Just; last time I was mission-ready by now? Still, I am enjoying being outside. I've missed being able to come out and do this."

Jubilee did a little dance and waved at Paul.
<>

Pili wiggled her little feet in mimic to Jubilee to 'wave' at Paul, a tiny bit shyly. He looked kind of like, and kind of different to, Neph, both at the same time, though he was certainly smaller. Different enough not to be terrifying though, at least.
<> She called, repeating Paul's word.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, yeah," Aulus nodded, catching on a bit more. "That stuff they used before was good s**t." And might possibly cause uncontrolled cell growth if overused. Well, swings and roundabouts right? They'd given him a bit more after putting the internal thingie bit into his bone - the difference in the speed of his recovery had been marked for that short period - and might use more later but then again maybe not. Aulus wasn't entirety sure what he hoped they'd decide. "I have too," Aulus added after a short pause with a gesture at their surroundings, "This I mean. The plants and stuff help but... well, it's still a box." Sterile and white and closed in. Not nice.

Paul replied cheerfully. So long as he had company of people he trusted to keep him safe it was anyway.  

[Gwennythe]

"Mmhm. I've barely had any this time around, and it certainly hasn't worked the same. I don't really know what- I'm sure there's some genetic string it's pulling at and poking about, but medicinal genetics aren't really my area; especially in humans... And I could be wrong about what it's doing."

She smiled and nodded a little.
"A box surround by dirt and rocks; I think a craving to be under the open sky is fairly understandable. Or, uh," She looked up at the tree canopy- not exactly 'open sky' "well, the fresh air. Outside, anyway. Though, being able to have a fly again will be nice. Kind of miss riding Pygi lately."

<<Nice!>> Pili parroted Paul happily, and swayed a little with pleasure at meeting the new 'nice' bug.

<<She's, uh, really new.>> Jubilee re-affirmed as explanation, with a little shrug. <<We're great! It's /so/ good to get outside; especially without having to live out here and find food and stuff! How are you?>>  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus gave a lopsided grin and shrugged. "I'll settle for 'magic juice' for now, I expect much more than that is classified. Mmh, if it's not though I might read up on it next time they use it on me. I'm going to be stuck in bed for - what - two weeks I think they said so I'm going to need a pile of things to do in between working on Python." He was learning the basics now but it was a slow and painfully frustrating process; the only reason he hadn't given up was the fact that he enjoyed the tone of the website Alex had directed him to. Oh, and he didn't want to disappoint Alex, there was that too.

"Hopefully won't be long, before you can go flying again I mean. We should go out together when you can, you know how much Red loves to have somebody to show off too." Especially pretty bird ladies.

Paul chirped.

Phaethon put in around a mouthful of bush, causing Paul to jump in surprise.



The Rapidash gave a little nicker of amusement.  

[Gwennythe]

"Magic Juice..." Tambrey considered it, then shook her head. "I know there's the whole 'suitably advanced tech' thing, but 'Magic Juice' is a little awkward. But, yep. You're likely right... It's got to be something rather ground breaking and valuable considering what it does, so I doubt we're in the clearance level to know too much about it anyway..." She sounded a little bit disappointed, but smiled anyway, and then looked rather interested as Aulus mentioned being stuck in bed.
The fact that his arm was gone was, undoubtedly, still a hard thing for him, and she still found it slightly 'surprising' everytime she remembered it was gone, but the process and the prosthetic that her partner was about to get was, she couldn't deny, really, really interesting.
Python. Named for Monty Python. She considered it for a moment; well, she wouldn't make the obvious reference- it was probably overdone by now.
"I tried to do some programming once; it's kind of confusing... Not /that/ unlike genetics though, but I think I'll stick to that... I'd like that; the flying, I mean. Pygi does enjoy having a friend to fly with more than just me."

<> Jubilee chittered happily at the horse pokémon.
<> Pili seemed to be agreeing, though she may have simply been repeating words.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Heh," Aulus shrugged, "it would be nice to know what they were putting into us, now we're in a state to think much about it. I can ask at least, worst they can do it say no.... And yeah," he nodded, "we'll do that then."

The interested look Tam had given him hadn't been overlooked but it took Aulus a couple of moments to line up what else to say on the matter; it was still hard to talk about, even the process of getting it fixed. "Uh, yeah, they're planning to get me back in in December," he began, sounding a little awkward and starting to flick through the shots he'd taken so far today so he wouldn't have to look at Tam. "To put in the abutment? That's the metal bit that's going to stick out of... well, me, for the prosthetic to attach to. It's a small surgery but I have to stay in for a couple of weeks - ten days at the very least - so they can make sure I stay still to give it all a chance to start to settle and, uh, fix I guess to the bit they've already screwed into the bone." It was only a small surgery but he was still as nervous as hell and it was still a couple of months off. What if it went wrong? He was pinning everything on all of this working out okay, on having two hands again and.... It would be fine, he was sure, their medics were good.

Phaethon allowed with the equine equivalent of a grin. She seemed very young and what he'd vaguely overheard Tambery saying seemed to confirm that.

Paul put in cheerfully.  

[Gwennythe]

"I'll look forward to that." Tambrey smiled; she would- she'd always been -kind of- jealous seeing when Star would leap out of the window and flit about, and she'd worked hard to be able to fly even just as well as she could since. But now, being unable to, and not getting to with company either, was more than a little irritating; a flying day out would be something to look forward to.

She perked up with interest again as Aulus talked of his surgery and such, though she did pick up on his reluctance to look up from his camera...
"December? It's hard to believe it's been so long already and that's so soon... But still, that's good, right? December for the 'abutment', which is a word I like- fun word," She smiled "and then in no time after that, given how fast that crept up, you'll be shooting lasers out of fingers and stuff."

<> The bug explained, with tenuous grasp on how -exactly- the words were supposed to go but understanding enough to carry a kind of a conversation.

Jubilee grinned, and bobbed her tiny head; in part because Pili amused her, and in part agreeing with Paul.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yeah." Aulus stopped fiddling with his camera and looked back at Tam, rubbing the back of his neck and giving a slightly tight smile. "Time flies when you're busy." He'd thought about saying 'when you're having fun' sarcastically but thought better of it in the end, there was no call to go around being sulky and bitter. s**t happened. "And yeah.... I mean.... Well, I have to admit to being a bit uh... apprehensive - you know, because I have no control over it - but I'll be happy once it's done." It wasn't just the lack of control, it was the fact that everything was hanging on this next stage; again. Ugh. He was sick of hanging damnit! "If all goes well I might have a functioning arm come the new year... uh, two functioning arms that is. There's going to be claws and everything, not lasers so far as I know though." It would be an undeniably cool piece of kit, the only thing he wasn't sure of was if it would be more than that. He kind of hoped it would be, that it would make him feel complete again even if he did take it off at night.

Phaethon blinked.

Paul also blinked. The five-legged bug also glanced at Jubilee for confirmation.  

[Gwennythe]

"Hm." So he'd been keeping busy; that was probably good... She hadn't felt like she'd been very busy, and yet time had flown... Then again, in the last couple of months, as she'd been able to do more and more again, she had steadily increased her workload... And, of course, she'd found time to play around and make Pili... Maybe she had been busy.

"Well... Of course you're going to be apprehensive," Tambrey agreed with a little nod "it's major surgery. Lack of control is a pretty unattractive prospect in most things." She smiled again "So. New Years resolution then; no more losing body parts, right? Claws..." She tried to picture it in her head and mused, without really thinking, about the pictures it brought up.
"So... kind of like a Wolverine/Bucky hybrid, huh?"

Pili nodded, glad they'd understood, and focused on learning, and repeating, the words that Paul had just used; her vocabulary was increasing at a fairly rapid rate as she seemed to pick things up in a similar manner to how she learned what attacks did- not that she had nearly as many of those, nor would until she evolved, which was another concept she was beginning to understand.
<>

Jubilee chittered happily at her 'sister's' efforts and bobbed herself up and down.
<>

<> The Caterpie happily informed the other two.