Tanis didn't miss a beat though. Since Velma offered her hand, she decided to move forward to fill in the gap that happened when Velma heard who her father was. Caught in a daze, she didn't really register the rapid handshake that Tanis was excitedly doing, as her mind tried to process what the woman had just claimed her linage to be.

"It's amazing to meet you! You are really the fore runner in so many sciences! I've read all your journals and papers. I loved your one paper on..."

As Tanis continued to talk, Velma zoned out to pay attention to the feelings in her hand. Fully covered in bandages, there was a small but sturdy hand underneath, giving her a handshake. But there seemed to be unevenness to her skin, almost like it had been burned or something. Gazing up her arm, Velma noticed that in the few gaps that she could see the skin beneath, she could clearly see skin that should not exist on a living being. And with her frequent trips to Egypt and expansive hand on experience with real life mummified flesh... this shouldn't be possible...

Fainting back a bit, Tanis snapped out of what she had been saying to grip onto Velma and hold her up from falling.

"Miss Velma, Miss Velma! Are you ok? Do you need to lie down?"

"...This isn't possible..." Velma muttered, her brain trying to compensate for what she had just seen. As Tanis tried to help her, Velma just pushed her away and moved further away. Which only confused the concerned woman. Why was the esteemed Velma Dinkley, scared of her?

"Did I say something wrong? I didn't mean to offend you. I am sorry, but tell me what I did so I won't do it again."

"... you... you... you should exist. Mummies are not supposed to move... This is illogical..."

Curling up against the wall on the other side of the bed, Velma was trying to rationalize what she had just seen. Because in all of her experience, she understood what it took to make something mummified, yet didn't know how something like that could exist and not only give her a handshake, but could be a fan of her work as well.

"I must be dreaming..."

At first Tanis was a bit shocked and caught off guard at the crazy reaction Velma just had. But thinking back, she had watched Shaggy and Scooby react pretty crazy too when they had first met. And once they had gotten used to the girls, Shaggy had told them stories about his friends from back home. And about Velma, and how hard it would been for her to understand. Remembering that, Tanis sighed and felt bad for scaring Velma. Being a scientist as well, she could rationalize the problem Velma was having with her existence. But just because there was no logical explanation, didn't mean that it couldn't be possible.

"You're not dreaming Miss Velma. You just experiencing something that science has yet to come up with a reason for its existence. Not impossible, just unexplained."

With Tanis' statement, it distracted Velma enough to pay attention to what she was saying.

"Just think back in history, how many things were thought up to be 'magic' or couldn't exist due to the current sciences not being as up to date as it is now? The world was round? Electricity? Men could fly? And yet all of those things are possible now, but not then."

Slowly unwrapping her bandages, Tanis revealed the mummified flesh that made up her arm, and showed it to Velma. Moving her wrist this way and that, she exhibited a flexibility that shouldn't exist in joints that looked like hers.

"Mummies... while most are only husks of what used to be, some are born like me. I can't explain it in any science that I know of... but that doesn't mean that I can't exist, right? I'm right here, talking to you. You can feel my hands, and see me move. So please... Don't be scared. Even though you can't understand how I came to be, doesn't mean we can't be friends? Right?"

Tanis moved to offer her hand, but first thought otherwise and moved to wrap up her hand. Not wanting her skin to scare Velma away even more. As she was paying attention to re-wrapping, she didn't notice Velma coming out from hiding.

What Tanis had made sense to the logical woman. There were far too many things that still didn't make any sense to her why it worked. But the fact that it did, and she couldn't explain it, didn't mean that it wasn't possible. So what Tanis said seemed sound enough. And she seemed like a nice enough lady, even though Velma couldn't explain how she could still move. Pushing her doubts aside, the woman was still only trying to be friendly, and even was a fan of her work. So she couldn't be all that bad.

"Let me help you with that..."

Moving herself to the edge of the bed, she fought against her inner protest and gripped Tanis hand lightly to help with the re-bandaging of her hand. It seemed like multiple bandages were added, to manage to cover each individual finger. Tanis tensed up, having a famous yet mostly strange woman wrap her bandages for her. Which she normally let only a few help her out with. But she figured if this would help Velma cope, she would allow it. Plus she would then be able to tell her class how she met The Famous Velma Dinkley, and she helped her with her bandages!

Both Women were awkwardly quiet as Velma worked to finish the wrapping. Each lost in their own thoughts until the last piece was set into place.

"How's that?" Velma asked in a quiet voice. Tanis looked up and gave her hand a flex to test it out. It was better than she had hoped for, not expecting the woman to be as skilled as she was with re-bandaging her digits.

"Oh, good." Tanis replied, blushing a bit from behind the ones that covered her face. It s a very good job, thank you.

"I'm sorry." Velma admitted, feeling silly now. She really felt bad for acting like this around a fellow scientist. It was totally against her character to react in such a way, and she felt embarrassed. Thankfully it seemed like Tanis understood. Though she still was having a harder time dealing with this, a part of her was now excited! Wanting to figure out the new mystery that was set in front of her How monsters could exist.

"Let's start over."

Tanis said, happy that Velma looked like more like the woman she had pictured from Shaggy's stories. It seemed against all her mental images of her, to see her spooked like this. So Tanis was happy she seemed more like herself now. Well, more like she was from Shaggy's stories from long ago.

"... My name is Tanis. It is an honor to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too Tanis. My name is Velma."