If I Have to Lie, Steal, Cheat or Kill [Semi-Open]

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard hasn't gotten a full night of sleep since a little before they landed on Galilee. The events of that particular mission certainly haven't helped. Recently he's taken up to squinting to combat the way his eyes feel as if they're covered in dustbunnies and sand, and his usual skittishness has turned into an unconscious twitch and tremble.

After spending at least a few hours of the night pacing the Warehouse, now otherwise devoid of life except for him and Emergency Rations the Cat, he finally sinks to his anxious instincts and pulls open the hidden closet to reveal the cans and cans of non-perishable food. Then he closes the door again, places back the wall panel. That's for emergencies. That's for starvation.

He checks Albert's room again to see if his business partner has magically appeared back in his bed, but the immaculate, orderly room remains empty. It's not even as if he liked Albert. If pressed, he might even admit to hating him. But Howard doesn't like that someone in his life has vanished without warning. He's had bad experiences with that.

Emergency Rations follows him to the front door. She brushes up against his legs while he puts his shoes on, and for a moment on the floor he pulls her to his chest and breathes into her fur. Then he fills her bowl up with more kibble, taking a handful for himself, and locks her inside the house while he heads to Hydroponics.

He passes the beer tree, passes the carnivorous plants, and finds a quiet little nook with exactly what he's looking for - fruit trees.

The fresh, strange fruits within arm's reach don't last him all that long - partially due to his relatively small stature and their slick, unclimbable bark. But there are some on the ground, if rotten. He's not picky. He gathers them from around the surface roots of the trees and sets them in one sloppy, oozing pile.

He sits with his back against one of the trees, resting his head on a loose knot and swallowing pieces of overripe fruit while barely chewing. It's a temporary comfort. Just because people disappear on Stacy doesn't mean she's about to put them in some death trap. Stacy's always been like this, taking people when it makes sense to her. It's just never been someone close to Howard.

Thinking about how he's the only person from the FAYZ still awake here sends a shiver down his back, but the sweet juice in his mouth does well to remind him that he's not back home, not in the FAYZ, not buying time from death, not going to go hungry again.

[OOC: Due to the tone of this post I'd like to keep this limited to a few threads; hit me up in PM or AIM if you want to tag here. I'll be having a less wangsty open post for Howard up in a few days for those interested in getting CR with him under different circumstances.]

Comments

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Thanks." And to think, back when he first arrived on the ship he'd probably have spent the entire time cowering under the first cover he could find. He finds he's actually proud of himself. "You did a pretty good job making explosions."

Howard rubs his eyes and takes another bite. "Not that hard, apparently. I'm so tired I feel like all my skin's vibrating and I still can't sleep."

"Dude, Zou, I was joking," he says, giving Zouichi a light pound in the shoulder. Maybe they were both more strung-out than they'd thught, if he's missing his cues for mockery and Zouichi's missing the deadpan. "But no, I don't think I'll start dating anyone. I still have to be able to make fun of you for screwing up your first date, and I can't do that if I crash and burn even harder."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Thanks. It's kind of my specialty. And if you want..." Zouichi mimed a karate chop. "I can always put you out the easy way. Of course, it's super bad for you."

Zouichi blinked. "Oh. Right." Then he made a face. "Wait, so you're admitting you would've done worse?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Man, don't tempt me. I'm about an hour away from trying to slap together some homemade chloroform."

He rolls his eyes at Zouichi. "Maybe. You can never prove I would, but...yeah, I'd probably mess it up worse. Although you set the bar pretty high."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi snorted. "What, Medical doesn't have some ready-made?"

"Ha. Ha. I just don't want her to get hurt. More than necessary."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Ugh, we've got so many new people in Medical. Just walking in there's going to give me a headache." He rolls his eyes again, very much pulling a snotty teenage 'I was here first and they're in my space' bitchface.

"I know. I just can only like, make fun of your love life and your bird, and you shrug it off when I make fun of Alan."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"What, more people is a bad thing? I thought you were overworked and unpaid."

"You know, if you just get to know Alan a little better, I'm sure you'd get along. He's a really easygoing bird." With Zouichi, anyway.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"We wouldn't be overworked if people would stop getting hurt or sick doing stupid things. We need less patients, not more medics."

Is he being unreasonable about this? Yes, yes he is. But when almost all his negative energy is floating around from vague fears of Stacy shutting off the food or things eating him in his sleep, it's nice to be able to direct some hatred at some totally innocent people just for having the gall to exist in his presence.

"Yeah, maybe when he's not giving me the evil eye with that big sharp beak of his."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'll be careful not to bleed all over the place if I get injured." Not that he really could if he wanted to -- his blood tended to coagulate quickly after most injuries."

He gave Howard a disbelieving look. "I've never seen him give the evil eye to anyone. You sure you're not imagining things?"

Alan was the sweetest bird ever you have no idea, Howhow.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"How about you just try not to get injured, alright?" Because no, he still doesn't like that you run towards explosions and not away from them, Zou. He worries about Zouichi probably more than Zouichi ever worries about Zouichi.

"He does it when you're looking away. Trust me. I'll take a picture next time."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Well, I don't try to run into the explosions. Isn't that good enough?" Zouichi pretty much never worries about Zouichi.

"I'll believe it when I see it. Anyway, does the cat have a real name? Not Emergency Rations."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"No," he says, very serious, then more lightheartedly, "who's going to protect me from ghosts if you get blown up?"

"That is the cat's real name."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I don't know. Isn't there a Ghostbuster on board or something?"

"...The cat needs a better name. Emergency Rations isn't a real name."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"It won't be the same," he says with a melodramatic sigh.

"But that's what she is."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi rolled his eyes in an exaggerated motion. "Well, in that case, I suppose I'll have to make an effort to stick around. It's my secret mission to defend teenagers from haunted mold and little ghost children."

He was also going to pretend that last comment was a joke. At least, he hoped it was. "Well, can't you give her a nickname or something? I thought I was bad at naming things."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I'm serious. Don't disappear on me, explosions or not. Just don't, alright?" He finishes eating the last of the rotting fruit, running his hand over the ground to try and sop up some of the last bits of juice to lick off his fingers.

"I'm great at naming things. You're the one who named your bird after the guy who created an enemy machine." He stands up. "Should we go get her and go to the Inn? I can probably fit her in a backpack."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"I'm not planning on it." Zouichi stood. "And Alan Turing was an Allied scientist. He worked for Britain." Jeez, Howard, he thought he explained this already.

"A backpack? Don't you have a carrier or a crate or something?" Zouichi knew next to nothing about caring for cats, and even he was pretty sure you didn't stuff them into backpacks. "Let's stop at the Inn first; I might have something to put her in, and we can take her on the bike."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

What, like Howard was listening to your long-winded, pseudo-affronted schpiel about how Howard's education had failed him? Yeah right, Zou.

"You'd think we would have a crate with all the random junk we have lying around the Warehouse, but nope. Just a backpack. That kid uses one for his yellow rat, and I declawed Emergency Rations, so it should be fine." It doesn't really occur to him that the cat may have an opinion on the whole thing.

"I could carry her if all fails, but..." He glances down at himself, covered in fruit juice. "I don't think 'sticky' and 'fur' are going to mix really well."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"You declawed her?" Oh god, what was Howard doing to this poor cat. "What's she going to do if another animal attacks her?"

He sighed. "Okay, you come take a shower at my place, we'll find a crate or basket or something, then pick up Emergency Rations. Sound good?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Just with clippers! I heard actually taking the whole claw out was inhumane." And while the rest of what he does to the cat is insensitive and uncomfortable, none of it's abusive. Intentionally, at least. "Besides, she still has some really sharp teeth."

He holds a hand out for Zouichi to see, fresh kitty-mouth bitemarks on his wrist. Though it's hard to tell given that he's still fairly banged up for the last battle, too.

"Alright, fine. You're really opposed to this backpack idea, aren't you? You do realize she's going to jump out of a basket, right? She's got back legs like pistons."

Which is why he clipped the claws off those toes, too.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi looks slightly dismayed. "What are you doing that she's biting and clawing you all the time?"

"Unless she's okay with being put in a backpack, yeah. Plus if you've done it before and she didn't like it, she might react badly just seeing it."

"Anyway, there might actually be one with a lid somewhere; I'll have to check. And if worst comes to worst, I'll carry her. She won't be able to hurt me."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"She's a cat! I think biting and clawing is how they roll." He shakes his head. "What makes you think she'll like a basket more than a backpack? At least with a backpack we can zip it so her head sticks out."

But he follows Zou in the direction of the Inn. They could probably just stuff Emergency Rations in a bag and take her, but Zouichi seems to think that the ride should be comfortable for her, and maybe he has a point.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, up to a point. There's a difference between biting when they're overexcited and biting out of protest, though. I just think it's more likely that it'll be easier to get her into an unfamiliar container than one she's already learned means she's going somewhere."

"Do you have some bags for your spare clothes, or should we bring those, too?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I haven't put her in a backpack yet. It's just an idea." He looks at his shirt. It could probably stand to be washed. And he hasn't showered since before the battle, so even though his injuries are clean suddenly the idea of washing off sounds all the more appealing. "I have another set of pants and stuff back at the Warehouse. You're saying the Inn doesn't have swanky bathrobes or anything?"

Because some people don't wear their freaking body armor 24/7, Zou, you monochromatic weirdo.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi nodded. "It does, but do you really want to wear a bathrobe around everywhere? I figured your own clothes might be more comfortable."

Hey, he took off his armor sometimes! Like when he was at home. Taking a bath. Or something that also required taking off his armor.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I'm just saying. If you're going to be an Inn, I have some tiny shampoo bottles I can give you. Make it feel more professional." Maybe he's even found some more awful post-modern art during his scavenges! This time, it looks like weird smears in color!

"Thanks for letting me stay, by the way."

At least knowing Zouichi's still there for him is one less thing on his mind. The rest still needs to be sorted. He'd probably have just stayed in Hydroponics until he was sick or wandered around his house like a particularly corporeal ghost before showing up completely zombified to his next Med Bay shift if Zouichi hadn't found him.

There's still no guarantee he'll be able to sleep tonight.