trans_9 | On The Prowl

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On The Prowl

Paco was a man on a mission. It was a very serious mission of the utmost importance.

Depending on the definitions of "serious", "utmost", and "importance" at least.

There were people on this ship that needed to either be recruited onto Team Have Some Freaking Fun, and there were people who needed to be marked down to be shanghai'd into having fun the next time the Team had a plan. There were also people who he needed to talk to talk to on general principle because they were his friends and what else were friends for?

In other words, Paco was bored and in the mood to socialize.

Denizens of Stacy, beware.

[[OOC: Pick a location! Paco will find your character and socialize!]]

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Steve shrugged his shoulders a little bit, actually looking sort of relieved. He'd been worried Paco's first impulse would be to freak out on him or ask if he was contagious or something like that.

"It's... just something I've had since I got here," he explained. "It's bloodborne, so it's not like I can get everybody sick really easily, but it comes with a bunch of really stupid side effects..."

The thought actually drew a mild smirk out of him. "The only real special ability I have is that my blood lights on fire."

"...Dude." Paco thought for a moment, weighing his words carefully. Yeah, okay, what he was about to say was totally appropriate. "Have you tried hocking flaming loogies yet?"

Steve stared at Paco for a good thirty seconds in utter disbelief.

"N... no...? It's just my blood... And I think that's probably dangerous."

But the real question was, why the hell hadn't he thought of it?

"Yeah. But it would also be totally awesome." Paco said with a grin. "I wouldn't suggest doing it here or anything, but if you bit your lip or something...how long does it take to ignite? 'Cause that would definitely be a problem if you're not immune to the flames, and you didn't say anything about that."

Why hadn't Steve thought of that? Geez Steve.

Man, maybe all this time Steve had been examining his freakish mutant zombie virus from the wrong perspective.

"As soon as my blood hits the oxygen," he said. "And I'm... kind of immune." The flames just raised more flames on his arm and felt unpleasantly like his arm was on fire (metaphorically).

"You're sure taking this well."

Paco flashed Steve another grin and leaned back against the grass. "Even before I woke up here, I hung out with more 'weird' people than I did 'normal' people. Your situation sucks more than their's, but hey, it's not like it's your fault." He shrugged. "My reality's weird and you're a cool guy. And finding out now is better than finding out when you get a papercut, yeah?"

Steve crossed his arms a bit uncomfortably, though there was a crooked kind of smile on the corner of his lips. Paco had no idea whether or not it was Steve's fault (it wasn't) but Steve was strangely pleased to get a good reaction out of somebody.

"There isn't a cure. Science is working on one but they... haven't done so great so far," he explained. "It's been kept a secret because Leon's afraid somebody's gonna take a shot at me like they did with that Yeerk a while back. And it's what got GLaDOS on my case. So that's why it's a secret."

Well, most people of Steve's sanity level don't go out and get themselves infected with a mutant-zombie virus on purpose. Paco stood by his assumption.

"Yeeagh, right," he said, making a face. "But the Yeerks were different. They were all "rawr, we are making you our slaves and kersploding chunks of the ship!". You're just Steve, with a potential kerflooey, and who on board doesn't have kerflooey potential? Besides," and this, Paco felt was an excellent point, "shooting a guy that bleeds fire? Bad plan!"

Steve shrugged his shoulders again, a little bit heartened at how easily Paco seemed to be accepting it. But with the way some of the people around here were trigger happy, he wasn't exactly reassured.

"Well, I'd only have to get shot once to flip out and start eating people," he muttered under his breath.

"Thus making it an even worse plan to shoot you," Paco pointed out. "Although I will admit, sometimes people aren't logical and make dumb decisions. I've been there so many times that I've run out of space to store the T-shirts. So I won't tell anyone, and I'll keep my fingers crossed for a cure."

He scratched the back of his neck and lay down flat again. It seemed weird that Stacy wouldn't have cured that sort of thing while Steve was in the Pods. It didn't seem like something that was beyond her when she could snag people back from the brink of death and repair them. Why leave Steve with the potential to turn into a mutant zombie with flaming blood?

Weird.

Steve gave another little awkward smile, finally glancing up at Paco out of the corner of his eye.

"Thanks," he said. "I really appreciate it."

He often wondered the same thing too, though Steve's theories had a lot more to do that Stacy was totally useless and unhelpful whenever she possibly could be.

"No problem, dude," Paco said. "I just wish there was something I could do to help. Aside from letting you bask in my presence, but I'm generous that way." He grinned and prodded Steve with his foot.

"Oh yeah, that makes me feel way better." Steve rolled his eyes, but there was still a quiet and satisfied little smile barely on his face.

"Hopefully they'll find some way to get rid of it soon. But it's been this long and nothing, so I'd just as soon not get my hopes up too much."

"You're welcome," Paco replied with a cheeky grin. "And yeah, that's probably the best way to go about it. Keep your fingers crossed, but focus on the as-is, not the should-be."

Hell, that's a pretty good way to handle the entire freaking ship.

"Trust me, I'm the last person you need to worry about being overly-optimistic." And wasn't that the truth, Captain Emo.

He sighed and leaned back in the grass himself. "It's a lot nicer in here than in the rest of this crappy ship."

"Definitely," Paco agreed. "The grass doesn't feel like quite the right texture, but I guess that's what you have to put up with from alien grass instead of El Paso grass."

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On The Prowl

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