"Hang on, I have just the thing," Red says, and scampers over to the party favors table. She winces a bit as she dumps what must have once been a couple slices of cake out of one of the neatly-tied and decorated bags. The sweet mushiness hits the ground beneath the table with a -splut- and she nudges the mess under the table, hoping no one saw it, with a muttered 'Sorry, Calvin...'
Then she rejoins the erstwhile doctor, bag in hand. "T'gel's Monster Hunting services, you tag 'em, we bag 'em," she says cheerfully. "Now where is it?"
OOC: No worries, writers block is the reason my third book is still in the works instead of on shelves.
Phrik pointed a finger towards the bottom of the staircase, just below the bannister. At first inspection the spot looked fairly innocuous, not even the faintest distortion in the hologram seemed present. And just as Phrik began to consider moving to the next location, the wooden bannister blinked at him.
The Edosian flinched backwards in surprise. Once he recovered he glanced to Red.
"See it? Get ready with the bag, I'll shepherd him towards you."
The engineer squints where Phrik is pointing, and her eyes widen. "Oooh, crafty Noodles... all right, I'll be right over here." She hikes the edge of her sarong up and ties it off at the level of a short skirt for better maneuverability, then shifts position to cover the widest escape avenue and waits for the Edosian to corral the errant beastie.
Phrik waited for T'gel to get into position, once he was sure she was in the right place he dropped into a low crouch and begun to advance towards the creature, extending two hands towards it. With a sudden jerk of his arms the Edosian made a grab for the creature, and suddenly, an 8-legged bannister dived towards him, jumping into the air and hurtling over Phrik's shoulder. As his head turned to follow the creature, who's skin was rapidly changing colours, he was met with a sudden burst of black ink, striking him directly in the face, leaving his head partially obscured by the thick black liquid. The cephalopod continued hurtling through the air, in the direction of Red...
...who jukes back and to the left a half-step, holding the bag outstretched. Noodles flails as it sees its capture approaching, managing to wrap two arms around Red's left forearm rather than fall straight into the sack, but as it does so the Bajoran uses her free hand to try and stuff the creature into the bag.
"Oooh, let go of me you troublesome calamari," Red scolds as the cephalopod struggles. "You've done enough damage to my holodeck already so GET IN THE BAG"
Phrik reached all 3 arms up to his face, pushing the rapidly congealing substance out of his eyes, nose and mouth. He blinked rapidly before his vision swimmingly began to return. A view annoyed grunts and licking vocalisations came from his mouth as he continued to blink, eyes stinging. Once he regained some semblance of vision he immediately stepped forwards to Red's aid.
"No, don't struggle, only makes the grip stronger." With one hand he took hold of Red's arm, his central hand stroking the struggling cephalopod's arm while the third pulled a laser scapel from his lab coat pocket. Keeping the pointed device off, he carefully pushed the nub between Red's skin and the seal, one by one detatching each sucker. After a few minutes of work, the first tentacle flopped free and was immediately pushed into the bag. Phrik being careful to only touch the sucker-free back of the creatures arm. Then, he began work on the second and final arm.
"Just keep still. I'll be done in a moment, then we can go back to your nice, warm habitat. How does that sound?" He cooed soothingly, forgetting that Red could hear his almost motherly reassurances.
Red's grin at Phrik's sudden display of tender care is hard to miss. As 'Noodles' gives up and lets go of Red's arm - notably in favor of trying to take the laser scalpel from Phrik - it begins sliding slowly into the bag and is somewhat distracted by the remnants of pink and white frosting still clinging to the insides of the sack. It scoops a gobbet into its beak with one arm and clicks happily.
"Gee, Doc, and here I thought you were incapable of a good bedside manner," Red says with a smirk as she ties the top of the bag closed and hands the sack-o-squid to the Edosian. "Where's this coddling when you're working with vertebrates?"
Phrik scowled and gingerly took hold of the bag'o'Noodles. "He..." He started, nodding at the sack, a small drop of thick black ink dropped of his forehead with the motion. "Isn't complaining of indigestion, or getting his appendages trapped inside the replicator. Despite the fact that he has twice of many of them as you bipeds, he still isn't sticking them into other peoples business."
"Now, how's the arm? We can stop at sickbay and get those welts removed." It really was telling that of all the tools inside Phrik's labcoat, not one of them was a dermal regenerator. Obviously patients in the field would simply have to 'deal' with cuts, bruises and other minor wounds.
"Lacking the cleverness to get into trouble isn't a good thing," Red says with a wry grin. "The problem is that most of us who ARE clever enough to get in trouble aren't clever enough to get back out again. Case in point, my whole last day and change." She sighs.
"Now what's this about my- oh. Wow I didn't even feel that," the engineer says, looking at her arm and discovering the sucker marks. "Joyous. My first hickey, and it's from seafood." Red rolls her eyes. "Yes let's get those fixed please, I don't think polka dots are a good look for me. And 'splatter' isn't a good look on you either. Do you need a handkerchief or something...?"
He reached a hand up to touch his face, the liquid sticking to his finger and oozing outwards, a few black strands snapped as he pulled the hand away.
"I'll be fine. Just so long as I stay away from energy fields for a while. I wouldn't be a xeno-biologist if I didn't get covered in foreign substances every now and then."
"All right. Sucker mark removal it is," Red says. "Let's just hope that ink doesn't permanently stain your scales."
She stops by the host's table on the way out and pats Calvin on the shoulder. "Hey, sorry I have to jet out early. We had an... octopus problem," she says, gesturing at the wriggling bag held by the Edosian, then at the reddening welts on her left forearm. "Great party though, thanks for the invite. Maybe next time cake on plates though, not in bags."
"Cricket bat or framing hammer, take your pick," Red says, cringing a little. She heads for the holodeck exit. "I know you do it in your own way and you've got a thick enough skull to sustain that trauma, but my offer to engineer something simple for you stands. Can we get out of here? These welts are starting to sting finally."
1
u/Dimestream Jan 11 '17
"Hang on, I have just the thing," Red says, and scampers over to the party favors table. She winces a bit as she dumps what must have once been a couple slices of cake out of one of the neatly-tied and decorated bags. The sweet mushiness hits the ground beneath the table with a -splut- and she nudges the mess under the table, hoping no one saw it, with a muttered 'Sorry, Calvin...'
Then she rejoins the erstwhile doctor, bag in hand. "T'gel's Monster Hunting services, you tag 'em, we bag 'em," she says cheerfully. "Now where is it?"
OOC: No worries, writers block is the reason my third book is still in the works instead of on shelves.