trans_9 | Bad Handwriting and Everything [Open]

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Bad Handwriting and Everything [Open]

The upside to using paper and pen instead of data pads for taking notes on patients is that it's intuitive and you can fiddle with things. The downside is that, at the end of a shift, a lot of the notes have to be shredded for privacy reasons, and the details have to be entered into the data pads anyway. Despite his usual devotion to efficiency, Howard doesn't mind this. It's a nice way to review the day and cement anything he might have learned.

The Quarantine's mostly empty now, which is a definite plus. All those kids were getting Howard crankier and antsier than usual. He brought in a box of toys from the Warehouse, though he didn't bother to check the age ranges for them, so he hopes someone who cares a bit more will take out all the choking hazards before any of the children regress to toddlerhood. He doesn't want anything to do with children; he had enough of that back in that dystopian nightmare he called home. All they do is cry and scream and demand things and kill each other and eat all the food and lie and burn down buildings and generally make life unpleasant. Not that adults are always better, but at least someone's around to enforce order here.

He hums a snippet of Cliffs of Dover to himself, chewing on the end of a Tinker Toy, and starts typing in his notes.

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"Well, I mean, what do they name things after where you're from? Why 'Zouichi'?"

"Animals, if you keep them fed, watered and warm, are generally pretty happy. Kids will still find a reason to kill each other." It's not the only difference, and obviously not all animals are peaceful, but to Howard it's the major one. "So what was that all about at the Council meeting?"

"I believe the scientists at Toha Heavy Industries named my generation according to the order in which we were created. I was the first, so my name contains 'ichi', the word for 'one'."

He frowns a little. "Overall, I agree. Children are difficult to understand. In any case, I hope Alan will be around for quite some time."

"That -- oh. Well, Medical has patients unwilling to disclose information about the causes of their illnesses. And Security has Councilors unwilling to disclose information about threats to the ship, I suppose. I don't think either situation will change."

"Ichi ni san shi go, right? Something like that? I can't count past that."

He nods. "Does he talk? Because actually, it'd be pretty cool if he talked. You could teach him to have conversations with you or be a decoy."

"Ah. Yeah. Because councils lying have never ended in disaster, let me tell you. They're keeping secrets from each other, right?"

"Yes, something like that. I'm surprised you can count that far, actually." After all, Howard apparently didn't pay much attention in class -- who didn't know what the Enigma machine was?

He frowns. "I'm not planning on using him as a decoy. I haven't really tried to teach him to talk, but I'm sure he could learn. I think I should work on simple commands first, though, for safety. Even if he did learn how to speak, though, I doubt I'd be able to have a meaningful conversation with him -- even if he was a parrot genius."

Zouichi raises an eyebrow at Howard's tone. "Speaking from experience? But yes, that's what it looks like. And I doubt it was an isolated incident. I just hope it's not going to come back and bite us from behind when we can afford it the least."

"You have such faith in me. It's in the intro to a Missy Elliott song that was popular at school dances," he explains. Hey, give him a break, Z, he was an eighth grader who found out early that he could skate by on minimal effort! It's amazing he knows as much as he does!

"Doesn't have to be a meaningful conversation. How hard can 'did you have a nice day protecting the citizens, honey?' be to teach a bird?"

He raises a finger. "Before you assume anything, I wasn't the one advocating lying to everyone. Or actually doing most of the lying. But yeah, from experience. And knowing Murphy's law, it will come back to bite us, just watch."

Really? Zouichi's expression says. Really?

He brings up a gloved hand, as if to shield Alan from Howard's corrupting influence. "You're not planning to corrupt my parrot, are you?" Alan, for his part, takes the opportunity to nibble at one of Zouichi's fingers with his beak.

Zouichi shakes his head. "It's incredibly shortsighted. But predictable, maybe. Why give up power when you're convinced you're right? Why make contingency plans when you're convinced you'll always be around to provide a guiding hand to the unwashed masses?"

The Council has never been a particularly transparent body of power from Zouichi's point of view; after the elections were held, during which many a promise and lofty speech were made, he's heard extremely little from any of them. Occasionally, someone will announce the sentencing of a crew member, but little else; even their normal operations fly largely under the radar.

For Zouichi, their presence or absence no longer really matters; he considers them a potential liability, rather than a group of allies to be relied on. And though he's certainly not going to broadcast it, he's decided to act in accordance with what he feels is right -- while he's perfectly capable and willing to follow orders, it's not in his nature to bow to an authority he doesn't respect or recognize. And because of the nature of his upbringing and outlook, the thought of any consequences do not particularly bother him. If he incurs any, he'll accept them as a natural extension of his actions, but nothing more.

"You know, Get Your Freak On, da nana nana na? Who cares where I learn things as long as I learn them?" he says in defensive response to Zouichi's skeptical look. He raises his eyebrows at Alan. "Doesn't look like he needs me to corrupt him. Are you just going to let him chew on you?"

"It makes sense if they don't much care what happens to other people if something happens to them, or just if they don't really care about anyone else at all." Howard's first inclination is to think that they think like him. "They get to play favorites, have their cake and eat it too. But I'm thinking it's more like you say, bad foresight, or else they have contingencies you don't know about. These aren't children, they're adults."

Mostly, Howard stays out of the Council's way and they stay out of his.

Zouichi looks at him like he's crazy; apparently the sultry sounds of Missy Elliot haven't survived into fame in 3005 A.D. Or it's just something Zouichi wouldn't have recognized anyway. "'Get your freak on'?"

What does that even mean?

Apparently, the answer to Howard's question is 'yes'; he merely smiles indulgently at Alan, who uses his beakhold to climb up onto Zouichi's hand.

"I don't know. But I don't really need to." In fact, now that he's decided which category to file the Council's actions under, Zouichi doesn't really care. "I'm sure they can take care of themselves."

"I think 'Your' is spelled with a 'U R' in the title, too," Howard says, probably doing nothing to improve Ms. Elliott's standing in Zouichi's mind.

"Probably, but don't you care if they'e getting in the way of you protecting people?"

'Get ur freak on'? That doesn't... what? Maybe it's best not to know.

"Yes. And I plan to do whatever I can, with or without their help. It's not like this is the first time I've had to operate in the dark -- I'm just not used to people on my side being the ones to withhold information." He shrugs.

"What would you suggest I do?"

"I don't know. Just because I think you might want to care about something doesn't mean I have your answers, young grasshopper. But just saying, if you wanted to run for Council I'd vote for you." He taps the Tinker Toy to his chin. "But in my experience Councils are usually pretty useless because of all that infighting and secret-keeping, so they'll probably be obsolete soon anyway."

He smiles. "I really doubt they'd ever welcome aboard someone like me. Thanks for the vote of confidence, though -- it's nice to know someone will support me if I ever run for something 'pretty useless'."

"I've supported you for things that weren't pretty useless," Howard says. "What do you mean, someone like you?"

"That's true," Zouichi says, completely deadpan. "You've never been anything but a supportive, understanding comrade in my times of need. Forget moo-cow milk; from you flows abundantly the milk of human kindness."

"...any number of things, really. I'm less than two years old, so clearly I don't have the experience required. I'm synthetic, so clearly I don't understand concerns particular to fully organic sentients. I don't feel adequate remorse for the combatants I kill, I'm clearly out to get everyone to 'register' their powers, I'm new to the ship so I clearly don't understand anything about our situation."

Zouichi shrugs. "I'm sure someone determined to do so could think of even more."

"Which is a good thing, because you are the neediest of people. All you ever do is ask for things and find yourself wanting, but it's not your fault, because you're so fragile and helpless," he says with a disdainful look and a sniff. Then he whines, "hey, I ran from dinosaurs for you."

"You know most of those arguments are stupid, right? Because they are stupid. I'd trust you to be aware of organic concerns more than some random moron with a pulse and white blood cells. I mean, even if this is all hypothetical."

That's dangerously close to a compliment, Zouichi. If this carried on any further he's going to have to make fun of your bird again.

Zouichi sighs, but manages to keep a straight face. "You're right, Howard. But oh, sometimes I just despair of ever finding a use for myself in this war. What use could the Daligig have seen in someone whose only real talent is sitting around and looking pretty?"

He shakes his head. "Maybe. But people believe what they want to believe. And manipulating that desire is what politics is all about."

Zouichi has a kind of dim view of politicians. Back away from the bird, Howard!

"Aw, look on the bright side, Zou. At least your fair looks will bring joy and hope to the valiant soldiers who go out and do all the Ohm-killing." He shrugs. "You're just resigned to people not liking you? Way to stand up for yourself, man."

That gets an actual laugh out of Zouichi. "I used to spend most of my time fighting off flesh-eating zombies that thought I looked tasty. I think I can overlook people disliking me because I'm not human."

Whether he realizes it or not (probably not), it's not really in Zouichi's nature to defend himself, anyway -- just other people.

Howard hasn't heard Zouichi laugh often. He takes it as a small victory each time. "Whatever you say, Zou. I guess zombie apocalypse is the best self-esteem builder there is. You don't need other people."

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Bad Handwriting and Everything [Open]

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