protect_and_survey | (no subject)

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Jemma is pretty sure... well. Sort of sure, anyway. She has a good working hypothesis... and maybe some supporting data that someone is looking for an agent from the sciences division to go on a field mission. She is basing this entirely on the fact that she got some unusual questions and some equally unusual looks from her SO today, and she's almost fully qualified for field work.

Maybe... maybe someone is paying attention.

So Jemma is in a rather good mood today.

This is only made better by discovering a type of butterfly she hasn't seen before while on a walk out back. That'd be why there's a SHIELD scientist sprawled in what used to be the outfield for the baseball field, yes.

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And she's nearly covered in grass, too. Tahno makes noise as he approaches, crunching over the grass with intentionally heavy foot falls.

"Ya look like yer in a good mood," he drawls playfully, settling in the grass beside her.

"I am! Here, look at this - it's not from my world, you don't really get colors like that very often." She explains, waving a hand at the vivid purple and green bug. "And it has a tertiary set of wings, but I'm not sure what it's using them for - they're too small for flight."

"Balance, maybe?" Tahno drawls, resting his fingers of one hand on his collarbone. "What kinda bug is it?"

"Well, in my world it'd probably be classified as a butterfly - or maybe its own genus, look - it has a stinger. My world's butterflies don't have those." She sounds outrageously pleased by this find - because toxic alien butterflies are even better than nontoxic ones.

She's adorable, Tahno thinks, confirming what he already knew. "So it might be a hybrid, like on my world," he drawls. "Think it's poisonous enough to drop a human or just make 'em itch a bit?"

"I think the only way to truly find out would be to capture it and take a sample, but I don't have a collection kit. Considering that there's rabbits that breathe fire, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it was lethally toxic." She points out, still unbelieving that she's the only one that finds the bunnies cool.

"Well, a collection kit should be somethin' that can be ordered from Bar, right?" Tahno drawls, peering at the little bug. "Do ya want me to get one for ya?"

"Oooh, could you? I'd get it myself but then this fellow would be long gone before I got back." She beams up at him, pleased by the idea of being able to study the insect properly.

The insect probably isn't going to survive the experience, but she's fairly sure she saw a few others where this one was originally spotted.

"Sure, ain't no thing," Tahno drawls, standing up. He brushes grass off the back of his thighs and heads to the bar.

The trip takes him a bit of time, his swagger slow, but he returns with a jar of questionable taste. "She said this was what she had for the purpose," he drawls, offering her the pipe-cleanered monstrosity.

Edited 2015-03-25 05:54 (UTC)

She looks vaguely horrified.

...

"I'm going to have to have a long talk with her." She finally settles on, taking the jar despite reservations and unscrewing the top. "All right you gorgeous thing, come on into the jar and I'll find you a much better one later."

"So what're ya gonna do with it?" Tahno asks, crouching down to watch her capture the jar. "Obviously look at whatever toxins it has, right?"

"Oh, there's lots of things to learn - what it eats, what kinds of scales are on its wings, the properties of whatever toxin it has, yes, anatomy...." She explains as she carefully stalks the butterfly - can't have it taking off now.

Tahno scratches his neck a little. "How're ya gonna find out what it eats?"

"Well, I saw it by those bushes over there first, the ones with the white flowers? So I'll start with that, and go further afield as... gotcha!" She crows, closing the lid over the vibrant insect.

Tahno smirks at her, enjoying her triumph as much as she is. "I gotcha. Well, this is neat, man. Do ya got the stuff ya need in yer room to work with this little thing?" he asks, and tilts his head. "Huh, it's real pretty, ain't it."

"I imagine it is so vibrant to warn predators that it has the ability to sting, as a self-defense mechanism. It certainly isn't great camouflage." She agrees, tilting the jar so the wings catch the light.

"I do have some tools upstairs. Enough to get started."

"What if it, like, can only sting once?" Tahno drawls, gesturing to the jar. "Like, its stinger falls out after it pokes someone?"

"That does happen in some species - most of the honeybees in my world actual lose their entire hindquarters when they sting, usually resulting in the death of the insect. It's really quite amazing if you think about it." She says, with the assurance of someone who isn't allergic to bees.

"Man, what's the point of a defense if it only works once?" Tahno asks, shaking his head while he smirks. "Seriously, how'd they end up with stingers that way?"

He glances at her, trusting her to have an answer with regards to honeybee evolution.

"There are a few solid theories for honeybee evolution - the first being that the stinger for the worker bees evolved thicker and barbed because it would be a better weapon against other insects, so they could repel an attack by other insects en force. Another is that since mammals with thick, heavy fur tend to be the ones to raid and heavily damage hives, they needed to evolve a heavier, barbed stinger to get through and hook into the coat and be harder to remove. Of course there is the idea that since the worker bees do not further any genetic improvement to future generations, the loss of a few workers due to this purported design flaw is less of a hit to the health of the overall hive than arming the workers with weaker, less effective stingers." Jemma explains as she stands, brushing grass off of her trousers.

Tahno nods while he listens, absorbed in what she says. He steps close to her when she finishes, lazily reaching out to cradle her chin. "I could listen to ya talk all day long," he purrs warmly, and then taps her nose gently, releasing her. He steps back, and the air that rushes between them, between the electricity passed between them, is just cool enough.

It's too bad her SO can't use that technique - she silences with a faint squeak, blinking at him.

"Really, I mean.... really?"

Fitz listens to her babble... for a given value of 'listens'. Usually it just means he's babbling as well.

Tahno stretches a bit, and then turns to her again, his gaze on her molten. "Yeah," he drawls softly, drawing a breath. "Ya make bees interestin'. And I learn stuff from ya that I never thought I would before."

"Oh. Well. I mean, it isn't hard, bees are fascinating, really, people just don't realize it." She demurs, "I'm not doing anything to them."

Tahno steps closer again. He leans in and places a chaste, burning kiss on her cheek. "It ain't just the bees that interest me."

She gapes for a long moment, then visible regains her composure... mostly by stuffing her emotions into a box and focusing on her insect. Good insect. Safe insect.

"Um, right, so, we should get this guy into a bigger container so he can spread his wings. Yes." She announces, turning and heading for the bar.

Tahno chuckles, stepping back to allow her to escape. He follows, resting one hand on his hip. "So how long are ya gonna keep that thing?"

"I'm not entirely certain - until I have learned everything I can, I suppose." She allows, slowing to let him catch up.

His stride is slow and graceful; he's clearly not in any sort of a hurry, and his footfalls are light in the grass. "Will it survive the process?" he asks, amused.

"Oh, he, or she, I haven't figured that out yet, will survive for a while, at least - there's only so much you can learn on necropsy." She assures him, though she hopes he's not that emotionally invested in an insect.

Tahno has to spend a moment to figure out what 'necropsy' is from context. "Neat. I used ta know someone who pinned bugs to little frames. She'd name 'em."

"I suppose I could name it - it doesn't have a proper scientific name, not in my world at least. Though I'd have to figure out what genus it belongs to first." She decides, eyeing her prize.

"Oh, yeah? How would that kind of name work?" Tahno asks, arching a brow. "I dunno anything about scientific namin'."

"It's a two part system - the first part of the name describes the group of creatures it is most like, and is related to - the second part is its independent identifier, so everyone knows what you're talking about - sometimes it describes a physical characteristic, but some are named after the discoverer, or something the creature reminds the discoverer of, or someone famous." She explains with a shrug. The naming system has problems, yes.

"So it could be a Beebutterfly Jemma?" he asks, bending a flower sculpture into a patch of snow as they pass. "Or a Beebutterfly Purple-and-Green?"

"Essentially, but in latin, or greek - we use a binomial, or two-name system, and traditionally one of those two languages would be used. So something like... Supermundanae purpuraetviridi, though that's a bit long for a name. Supermundanae pulchellus is more to the point."

...

So she forgets not everyone knows Latin. Meh.

Edited 2015-03-27 06:28 (UTC)

Tahno blinks slowly, and then chuckles as he shakes his head. He can see the bar by now, and he glances to her. "So what's a pulchellus? And why is it 'super mundane'? Looks pretty impressive to me."

"No, supermundanae, which means other-worldly, or as close as I can make it on the fly, and pulchellus is pretty. I figure butterflies at the end of the universe deserve their own grouping." She explains helpfully.

"Pretty and other worldly? Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Ya can call it a Milliwaysae pretty thing, if ya really wanted," he teases gently, walking backwards to get a better look at her.

Jemma's expression conveys exactly what she thinks of his mangled Latin.

"I think we can stick to standard nomenclature." She retorts primly, giving him a tart look.

He laughs, resting a hand on his chest. "Oh, man. Yer the scientist, not me, so I'll bow to yer ability to name the thing. Ya might even find that it's got a toxin unlike anythin' you've ever seen. That'd be neat."

"That'd be brilliant, an entirely new class of toxins, I'd have to figure out some way to introduce that to my world, it could be so terribly useful - did you know a lot of toxins are actually medicines at correct dosage?"

...

That's not the reason she'd love a new toxin, but it works, okay?

"Maybe, if there is a new one, and ya figure out how it works, ya can reproduce it here," Tahno offers, gliding across the grass with his easy saunter. "Then it'd be a simple matter of taking that stuff home."

... Jemma is actually rather deeply pleased by this.

And touched.

Her smile is a fierce little thing as she hugs the jar to her chest.

"Here's hoping."

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