Trouble with Muscles [Closed]

[seraaches]

Owen, evidently, had not thought of that. A sharp rap on the head often took care of any thrashing on his table, but he also had the convenient use of metal feet with which to administer the needed blow. Still, when in another Card's lab, you had to respect their rules. Otherwise, everything would be chaos! Too many scientists in the lab and all that.

"I must bend to your expertise on the matter," the sparrow replied gravely, almost as though he were bestowing some great honour upon the ferret in allowing him to work in the manner most comfortable to him. "Is there any way I may be of assistance?"

Not that he was so low as to be a lab assistant-- ever-- but he would never turn away new knowledge, even if it wasn't something he found particularly valid.

The Ace, for its part, didn't seem to be reassured by either the sparrow or the ferret.

(( Feel free to write the Ace if you need something from him. ^^; ))

[Travesty]

Oh, Heaven forbid you frown upon my methods, Ambrose thought to himself and swallowed a bout of laughter. The sparrow was ridiculously overbearing and as a result, wondrously hilarious. If he didn’t watch himself, the ferret wouldn’t be able to keep himself from falling into hysterics; he was enjoying himself so much. Only the promise of the Ace on the operating table pleased him more.

“If you could hold him for a moment while I inject him,” he replied felicitously, turning his attention to the Ace cowering nearby. It couldn’t escape of course, but he didn’t particularly want to get into a tussle on the floor of his laboratory while he attempted to jab it with a needle. That wouldn’t be a very impressive display, would it?

Happy to finally getting to work, the ferret pawed through the surgical case he kept nearby until he came upon a needle filled with a slightly rosy solution. It would put the Ace under a strange sort of trance, keeping him calm and still but very much awake.

[seraaches]

Utterly unaware of Ambrose's thoughts-- thankfully for both of them-- Owen simply jerked a quick nod of assent and moved rather threateningly to the Ace. It was apparently torn between fear of the sparrow and fear of what was about to happen to it; its eyes darted back and forth between the Diamond approaching it and the stairway. In the end, it couldn't make its decision fast enough.

One mechanical foot shot out and caught the canine Ace across its throat. The strange alloy tightened quickly and the Ace whimpered again. Owen had to flare his good wing out to help keep his balance now that he was, essentially, standing on one foot.

The canine looked up at him with large, pleading eyes. The sparrow narrowed his eyes aggressively. "Just try it," he said with an angry ruffling of his feathers. "I would love it for you to try something."

[Travesty]

Ambrose watched the sparrow’s actions with a large, decidedly Cheshire Cat-like grin spreading across his face. He was, at least as far as he could tell, the complete opposite from Owen. While he was angry, irritable, and obviously more than a little proud, the ferret was calm, practically giddy...and come to think of it, more than a little proud. They were both Corvies after all; no doubt both of their inflated egos were built on reason.

He chuckled at the thought and proceeded to inject the flailing Ace, watching as its throbbing heartbeat slowed before his very eyes. After a few seconds passed its eyes shut and it went limp in Owen’s arms.

“Let’s just bring him over to the table and I’ll have a look, and are you sure you don’t want anything for your wing?” He added absentmindedly, already maneuvering the Ace a few feet towards the metal observation table.

[seraaches]

Self-drugged or not, Ambrose still had an easier time than Owen would have of getting the canine Ace to the table. Still, the sparrow held out be nabbing the Ace's ruff in his beak and assisting the ferret in moving the now utterly relaxed body up onto the steel table with only a bit more effort than was probably necessary.

Once the Ace was up on the table, the Diamond stepped back to allow the other Corvistowneian free rein on the little beastie without even the hinderance of Owen's body.

"Of course not," he replied tartly, shuffling his good wing as though to make his point. His other was still limply hanging just slightly off from his body. He still saw no reason to put drugs in his system when it was an amount of pain he could handle easily. Though he didn't remember being this horribly uncomfortable when he was replacing his legs. A frown crossed his features, though he didn't point out that part out loud.

[Travesty]

Ambrose hefted the limp body onto the low table with a small grunt of effort. Maybe because he was too drugged to know better, but more likely because of the muscle-growth stimulants he ritually injected himself with, it was easier for him to carry and ignore heavy weight, though the strain on his limbs was still the same. It did enable him to work passed exhaustion though, which was perfect for a Corvie who worked as much as he did.

The ferret took his denial with an accepting shrug of his shoulder. Turning back towards the dazed Ace, he methodically traced his fingers down the limb in question, feeling for any irregularities. When he got to the thigh muscle the Ace flinched the smallest amount. Ambrose started to explore the area and was absolutely thrilled with what he discovered.

“Hm…there’s definitely a severe amount of swelling in the smooth muscle, probably caused by a rip in the quadricep or a tearing of ligaments. I’ll give him a something to bring the swelling down so I can get a better look at the cause of the problem,” he explained while searching in his case for the medication needed. He gave a little noise of thrill when he found it before proceeding, after flicking it a few times, to inject it into the hind leg.

“It’ll just take a moment to take effect,” he said happily. “So, what exactly is this contraption for?” He asked curiously, motioning toward the metal appendage.

[seraaches]

Owen hrmed thoughtfully to himself at the ferret's assessment and finally nodded in agreement. It was harder for him to accurately feel things with his lovely mechanical feet than with his original talons. The sparrow sighed under his breath. He needed an assistant. It was a sad and rather maddening thought. At least he could do surgery a bit more precisely now that he had his mechanical feet.

"I'm testing out some upgrades," the Diamond answered the other man quietly. "I think I can improve the output with this revised wiring system, but I certainly can't chance one of my legs giving out in the middle of an operation." His tone said blatantly that this was horribly obvious to anyone who bothered to think about it for a moment. "Wot will you do to it to get the swelling down? Is there any permanent injury? Why did this happen?" The last two questions were the ones he was most concerned about.

[Travesty]

“No, of course not,” Ambrose said with a little laugh at the thought of this haughty bird collapsing because of a faulty leg, right in the middle of an operation no less! The ferret had his own problems in the same vein, although his were caused by the occasional indulgence in painkillers and lack of sleep.

“The injection I gave him will minimize the swelling…” He trailed off and began a closer inspection of the tendons and deep tissue, humming quietly as he went along, occasionally muttering to himself.

After about five minutes he glanced back at Owen, his countenance pleased. “It’s not too serious, definitely not permanent. There’s a tear though, a nasty one running about two, two and a half inches. I can give him a shot that’ll act as a muscle relaxer and promote healing, and then give you some supplements – but it’d be best if he didn’t put much strain on it for the next couple of weeks,” he explained, his lilac-gaze alighting on a shelf nearby, dense with pill canisters and leaking I.V. drips.

[seraaches]

Owen nodded away almost mechanically to the ferret's words; he was assimilating the words despite the air of inattention he presented. It was a relief to know it wasn't too bad of a tear, but any such thing through the muscles was quite worrisome. Perhaps his upgrades were too strong for the Ace? Would he do better with it? Most likely, but he wouldn't take a chance with his own person; he was much too valuable.

"I don't doubt the fall down the stairs made it worse," the sparrow said thoughtfully. He was talking more to himself than the other Corvistowneian, but it might not seem that way to Ambrose. "But how did its muscle get torn to begin with?"

It was a very important question to the Diamond; he didn't want to put something into place on himself that would cause such an injury to his own person.

[Travesty]

Ambrose proceeded to one of the overflowing metal shelves, his paws picking up one vial after another until he found the one he was looking for and placed it in the same spring-loaded contraption as before, letting the other, empty canister roll to the floor. “This’ll help a lot, trust me,” he said, although whether this was directed at the Ace lying on the table or the other Corvie wasn’t clear.

He brought the needle to the Ace’s vein and remained silent for a moment, rolling a few ideas around in his mind. “I don’t know exactly, mechanical limbs aren’t my specialty,” he answered with a little laugh. “But it most likely resulted because of friction where the muscle and metal alloy meet.” He looked at the Ace and nipped thoughtfully at his lower lip. “He moves differently from you, being four-legged, and I doubt you’ll be able to completely avoid at least a small amount of wear-and-tear. Every three months or so it’d be best if you were to bring him, or any other Ace with the same type of experimentation, here so I can evaluate their condition. That way it’ll never escalate this badly again.” He wasn’t too sure Own would be up for that, but it was definitely the best option.