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Somehow the idea of seafood had become lodged in Richard's brain since his conversation with Cody but his fishing spot was off limits now thanks to that cursed Tiger. On an intellectual level he was glad that the Tiger was actually using his freedom to cause problems for the labs but the results of said problem solving skills were unsettling. Especially when there was a slight possiblity that Jamal could consider Richard himself a problem. It was easy enough to not tempt fate.


So Richard was perched on a rock on the shore of the lake instead of his usual secluded fishing spot in the jungle. It was well away from Billy's rock but Richard felt a bit uneasy, with it being so wide open and treeless. He felt exposed. Despite this slight uncomfort the day had been far more productive than usual, he had two foot long fish swimming around in his bucket.

He stared intently at his bobber, silently willing it to move. The very tip of his naked tail curling and uncurling.

The bobber dipped under the water and Richard did what any fisherman would do. He yanked on the line with a quick motion to drive the hook into the unfortunate fish's mouth and then started to reel it in. He grunted with effort, it was big one. Caught up in the thrill of the struggle he momentarly forgot that the biggest fish around here where people.

The tension in the line suddenly disappeared and Richard nearly toppled over backwards when something long and purple exploded from the water's surface. Momentum carried the thing arcing over Richard's head trailing water droplets, like some glorified fishing rod commercial. The tentacle landed with a soft thump behind him where it immediately began to thrash around like a snake in agony.

Confused, Richard slowly turned around to see what he had caught. An eel? Never heard of a freshwater eel before. Then he saw the suckers and the purple skin now collecting dirt as it thrashed. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open when he realized what it was.

He turned back to the water, horror etched into every line of his feline face. "Mother of God." He whispered out to water.

On cue, Billy's deformed head broke the surface and spewed forth angry words. And to Richard, fully justified, he was still in shock. The line shouldn't have been that strong. His brain practically locked up at the absuridity of it. How the hell had that happened?
His mouth worked up and down a couple times before any sound came out. "Uh.. um.. err S-S-Sorry?" Distantly a the thought occured to him that he sounded like Newt.

He looked at Billy and then back at the still failing limb then back at Billy. "Uhh. Do you want it back?" Richard face was frozen in a look of bewilderment, he simply had no schemia for this. If the Octopus was injured he might have been able to look past the limb and get help but Billy seemed far more angry than hurt, lending the scene an utterly surreal element.

Richard mentally clawed at the mental webbing that seemed to encase his body. He own tentacles had fallen limp behind him. "Jesus... I didn't think... It was only a hundred pount line... should'da snapped." He looked at the limb on the beach. Its thrashing motions begining to slow. "Before that."

Turning back to the limb's orginal owner of the limb. "Um... s**t... I suppose we better bandage that." Richard had a bandage on him but it was in use.

The stump looked like it had been hacked off with a very sharp blade to Richard. It made no sense at all to him. There was no way a fish hook had inflicted a wound like that. Could have Billy hacked his own arm off after being snared? But that sencerio made just about sense as a fish hook severing a limb. Still Richard was in position to argue. Sighing he turned his back on Billy and reached up under his shirt. After fumbling for a few seconds he undid the clasps that held the bandage tight around his chest and pulled the bandage out. His mounds, he refuse to think of them as breasts, ached from the sudden relief of the compression.

When he turned back the subtle mounds were obivious. He held the bandage between his hands. "Here let me tie that off for you." His tone was defeated and old sounding.

Richard sucked in his breath, at a bit of a loss. "Fine, I'll just let you bleed to death while you rant at me. Or, you can let me tie that off."

Richard inspected the stump. It actually wasn't bleeding heavily, the octopus' arm musculature seemed to be acting as a natural toriquite. Had to be one the strangest things Richard had ever seen. Grimacing he secured the bandage to the limb, first tightly wrapping it around the injured limb and then looping it over the wound to keep it clean. Took about five minutes of fussing with it to get it to the point that he was reasonably sure it wouldn't just slip off when Billy swam away.

"There," he huffed. "That will hold it." The lack of trama made Richard curious. The clean wound almost looked like some type of mechanism. "Do... they... grow back?