trans_9 | Studying [Open]

Vivio was on her way to the Media Library - mostly to see what she could clean up, reshuffle, fix, etc. - and found herself passing by the labs. As she did, she spotted Fletcher examining... something.

The little girl blinked in confusion. What's he doing? she though.

Most of the time, she would easily walk up and ask what was going on. This time, she felt... nervous? Probably the simplest of answers for how Vivio was feeling as she approached Fletcher.

"Um... Fletcher-kun? Wh-what are you doing?"

Fletcher was peering through the microscope so intently that he didn't notice Vivio until she'd spoken. He jumped, inadvertently knocking a nearby petri dish to the floor -- one that was fortunately not being used for anything.

"Oh-- hi, Vivio!" he said when he saw her. He knelt over to pick the dish up.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Vivio said, noticing she caused him to drop a petri dish. "H-Here, I'll get it for you! It's my fault...!" She knelt over to grab it herself...

...but he'd already grabbed it and was about to stand back up as she knelt over. Hopefully he didn't bump her head with his. That would be just his luck.

Luck hates the two of you today! As she knelt down and he stood up...

WHAP!

All the Strike Arts training in Mid-Childa couldn't prevent the meeting of the heads, the little girl stumbling back as she held her head.

"O-OW! I-I'm sorry again, Fletcher-kun! Th-that was my fault!"

"O-ow!" He stumbled back as well, rubbing the top of his head where he'd bumped Vivio's. But the petri dish was safe. He set it down on the table.

"N-no, I'm sorry, I was just clumsy... Sorry, Vivio."

"It's okay..." Vivio said, trying to ignore the pain. After awhile, she finally braved through it and smiled at the boy.

She'd probably hafta explain the bump to Nanoha and Fate later.

"What were you looking at, though?"

Fletcher managed to smile back. She hadn't meant any harm, after all.

"Oh, that--" He looked down at the microscope to make sure nothing had happened to it. He removed the little dish he'd put the piece of his plantsuit in, and showed it to her. "It's this... It's from the plantsuits. I'm studying it."

"Oh, wow...!" Vivio said, surprised at what she found out. "Did... did you find anything interesting about it?"

There was a lot about this ship she didn't know about - heck, most of the people here didn't - but she was more searching through books than hands on.

"Not yet," he admitted sheepishly, and set the dish back on the table. "I just started. But I'm going to try to find out everything I can about it."

"Oh...!" Vivio said, a sheepish grin forming on her face. She'd interrupted him as he was starting. Good going, Takamachi!

"S-Sorry for interrupting you...!" she continued, blushing over what she did. "...I'm curious, though. What are you trying to find out?"

"No, it's okay--!" He shook his head quickly. "Um, I'm trying to learn about how it does the things it does. How it regulates body temperature and cleans up, um-- our sweat and stuff. And it heals itself really quickly too."

"Ohh...!" Vivio said. She gave her head another quick rub. That really did hurt there. "There's a lot of stuff we don't know about this ship... maybe we should start finding out now!"

Fletcher nodded emphatically. "We can do a lot more good the more we know. So I'm going to learn everything I can! And not just about the plantsuits, about other worlds, and physics, and... zero gravity," he said a little more hesitantly, feeling something distinctly funny as he tried to recall the zero-G lesson he'd had. Oh, well, it probably wasn't important.

"Ooh, can I help?" Vivio said, a bit eager. She noticed that bit of hesitation at the end - probably still not used to how things are on the ship.

"Sure! I can probably use a lot of help." He said it sheepishly, but he really was glad to accept assistance. Everyone had to work together.

Sherry did not venture near the science labs very often, too concerned with being in the way (that was, unless she went to go peer quietly over Dr. Sera's shoulder, who sometimes even told her about interesting things like cell development and mutations). But times like now, when she couldn't easily go hide in her usual spots because of the damage to the city, and couldn't recall who she'd been off to see previously, the little girl made her way down to Science.

She peeked her head in a lab, curious, and upon seeing Fletcher bent over a microscope, sidled up behind him. "What are you looking at?"

For the second time that day, Fletcher jumped and let out a small squeak. He was so engrossed in his work that he hadn't noticed Sherry until it was too late.

He glanced over his shoulder. "Sherry...? Hi!"

Sherry hid a laugh in a cough, reminded for a moment of Dr. Sera's reactions to her bad habit of sneaking up on people. Not that she snuck up, really. Just because someone wasn't paying attention to her approach didn't count as sneaking, right? Right.

"Hi," Sherry greeted and stood on tip-toe to look over his shoulder. "So, what is it?"

Fletcher smiled a little, managing to calm down. "I'm studying my plantsuit," he explained. "Plants are my specialty."

"You're a botanist?" Sherry asked, suddenly finding him more interesting. It was harder to like someone when they were timid, after all, and Fletcher didn't talk much. She patted her bag, "I was reading about that earlier."

It wasn't like she had a lot to do, after all. "Eventually, I want to help in here, too with Dr. Sera."

Fletcher nodded in response. "My brother and I are both botanical alchemists. There isn't a lot else for us to do, so..."

He glanced down at her bag. "What kinds of things do you study?"

"Anything." Sherry paused for a moment and pondered her answer. "Everything. I thought it'd be best to know as much as I can because really..." she shrugged, "I can't do anything that anyone else can already do better than me." Which bothered her, like an itch in her chest, unable to properly scratch but always there.

"Eventually, I know I'll need to settle on just one thing, but for now, it's fine if I learn everything." Sherry looked at the slide, "So, what's the most interesting thing about it?"

Fletcher knew how that felt. He looked down at the table, quiet for a moment. Well, then, he would help her out as best he could.

"I just love to learn about plants," he explained. "I've been studying them since I was a little kid. Their life cycles and growth patterns, and all the different types they come in... and they're a really important part of the ecosystem. They're really interesting to study."

"Their cells always looked a little weird to me, like," she opened her bag and pulled her reader out, touching the screen a few times before she found the image (http://www.uvm.edu/~inquiryb/webquest/fa06/mvogenbe/plantcell.jpg) she was looking for. "They're so rigid-looking. They're living too, but they don't look as soft as an animal cell does."

Sherry showed him and tilted her head back to the side, looking at the strip of plantsuit. "Does that look like this? Well. Sort of?" Who knew with alien things, right?

Fletcher took the device and tilted his head sideways as he eyed the screen. There were so many examples of advanced technology here... He had so much to learn. "More or less, yeah. There are a few differences that I'm trying to figure out.

"This is the same model we use where I'm from, too!"

It was new to her, too, but the nice thing about being young (and pushing buttons in a random order until things worked the way she wanted) was being adaptable. If anything, Sherry knew she was completely and wholly adaptable.

Thanks, zombies.

"Is it? Really?" Sherry looked genuinely surprised, perhaps even pleased. "I guess that means your world isn't too different from mine, maybe." Even if only on the cellular level.

He nodded. "There are lots of differences I've noticed between a lot of worlds, but there are a lot of similar things too. It makes things a lot easier."

"And the differences more interesting to look into. When I understand it better, I'm going to look forward to figuring it out." Which meant that, some day in the future, she'd probably be a recluse like Dr. Sera.

Well, at least she'd be in good company.

"Can... I look at the slide?" She asked, hopeful.

"Me too. It's still really confusing, but I want to figure it all out someday too."

Fletcher stepped aside and nodded, and handed the reader back too.

"You know, I'm glad that there aren't any adults to overhear us, they'd probably say something about how impossible that'd be." Sherry switched off the reader and put it back in her bag, switching the latch closed. Then, she stepped up to the microscope and closed one eye to peer down at the slide.

"It looks so interesting..." she murmured. When she was little(r), Sherry remembered sitting on her mother's lap and looking down at something while her mother explained. The reason she was visiting, though, she couldn't remember exactly. A snow day, maybe, or a sudden cancellation. She'd been too little to really grasp it, but it was a nice memory. Sherry heightened the magnification just a little more, "...What's that thing next to the mitochondria?"

"They would?" Fletcher wasn't used to adults crushing children's dreams, oddly enough. He'd been forbidden by his father from learning alchemy, but the man had never told him he wouldn't be capable of it. The townspeople in Xenotime had avoided the brothers a lot, but they did respect their abilities. And Russel often praised Fletcher's alchemy, told him that if he kept practicing he'd get even better, and only jokingly said "You'll never be as good as me." (Fletcher thought it was a joke anyway.)

Fletcher frowned a little at Sherry's question. "I'm not sure... The cells look like plant cells, but there are a lot of things about them I don't recognize."

"Maybe Stacy knows what their names are; I mean... she did put them on us," she replied and drew back from the microscope so he could look. "Well, the adults like being realistic about things," at least, they always had in Sherry's experience. Someone could say, "You can be whatever you want!" but that didn't necessarily hold true.

If Sherry wanted to be something like, for instance, a unicorn, it wasn't something she could ever conceivably achieve. Just like knowing everything, it wasn't a feasibly achievable goal, but it was hers anyway. "Generally, they're well-meaning, but usually give unhelpful advice." Sherry shrugged. "It's just how they are, though my parents are good at being supportive."

Fletcher looked through the microscope again, adjusting the focus a little as he replied. He guessed he would ask Stacy about the plantsuits; that seemed the most logical thing to do.

"Yeah, that's true..." He smiled a little. "I'm glad your parents are like that. My big brother is, too. He's always helping me learn new things."

"That's good," well, she supposed so, anyway. Sherry hadn't actually seen Fletcher's brother yet to judge. She rocked back on her heels and played with the strap of her bag.

"I should probably go for now; I still need to bother Dr. Sera and then go play with my dog." Sherry smiled, just a little bit. "If you find anything new out about the plantsuit, will you tell me? I'd like to know what those weird things are." And, she supposed she could share ~~her puppeh!~~ Bandit for an afternoon.

Fletcher nodded. "I'll let everyone know when I figure it out. Wait--" He paused when he realized what she'd said. "You have a dog? Did he get brought here with you?"

Sherry shook her head, "He came from somewhere else, and he was with my parents from before I woke up. But he's mine, ah, basically."

Because even though Bandit was his own being by the nature of the ship, he was still hers. "He talks, it's neat."

Studying [Open]

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