What's Alan? [Open]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Deep in the bowels of the ship, he waited. Below him, the groundbound bipeds milled back and forth, their movements without rhyme or reason. Some were holding slabs of metal, some stared out at the strange, hypnotizing space outside, and still others merely stood, endlessly chattering to each other in their countless inexplicable alien languages, waiting for the ship to translate for them what they could not understand for themselves.

He watched all with his keen, avian intelligence. Alien intelligence.

With no master about to end the boredom of his inquisitive mind, he had been forced to improvise. And now he was free. Free to wreak havoc as he would amongst the silly, slow-witted groundlings. FREEEEEEEEEE

Zouichi wandered from location to location on the ship, but so far, not a single brightly-colored feather to serve as a sign of Alan Turing's presence. The parrot had been acting a little sulky ever since Zouichi had left on that last mission, so he'd decided to leave Alan some space. But this morning, the bird was nowhere to be found.

He was beginning to suspect Howard's cat (Emergency Rations was a terrible name) had something to do with this.

[ooc: Post is open! Please feel free to chase the parrot, try to lure him out, reason with him, call him names, try and cooperate with Zouichi to catch him, whatever! He can be run into anywhere on the ship, just let me know where. The person who will eventually corner him, though, is Shoutarou.]

Comments

[quick_strike]

Alendian was less worried about a bird and more curious about why a human (??) was wandering around almost aimlessly. Having spent a while around them herself, she still wondered what went through their primitive minds. So Alend ended up following after Zouichi, not exactly taking care to hide herself since she had nothing to hide.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi was feeling strangely... what was the word?

Oh yeah, followed.

He stopped, looked over his shoulder, spotted Alendian -- and smiled, distracted for the moment from his current task. "Hello. Did you awaken recently?"

[quick_strike]

"No, I have not."

She wanted to shut down conversation since she wasn't interested in talking. Well, maybe she did have a few questions but she would ask those on her own time. Right now, she just kept Zouichi fixed with a look of dislike.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

You weren't going to get out of this that easy, Alendian. Because those ears were a dead giveaway (also, the attitude).

"Well, in any case, I'm sure the Farseer will be pleased to find another Eldar on the ship. If she hasn't already."

He gave her a polite bow. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Kanoe Zouichi, but Zouichi is fine."

[quick_strike]

At least he showed proper deference. But the fact that he knew Eldar was a problem in her mind.

"Yes, I have met her already. How she felt is not of your concern." Her reedy voice didn't exactly inspire fear but it was haughty enough. "If you must refer to me by a name, I am Alendian."

[thewunderkind]

Lash was definitely not looking for a parrot.

But a parrot had found her.

Well, more like he'd found her hair. Now instead of getting tangled in it, he had settled in while she had been distracted from working on various instruments and counting up all the stuff she had hoarded from the planet. Being older sure did mean there was a lot of hair and it was pretty comfortable.

Thankfully he had not spoken yet or else Lash would have swattered at him.

[cityship]

Lash's hair was warm and had plenty of room now that she was in her adult form. Plus, Alan had figured out how to poke out of it without getting tangled. Now he watched her work, eyeing the instruments curiously.

After a moment, he decided to make use of a new trick he'd learned -- throwing his voice. From one of the instruments Lash had collected came a quiet electronic beep.

[thewunderkind]

Oh nooo, had she messed something up? Maybe one of her tools had accidently set itself on self-destruct...Frantically looking around, she searched for the source of the sound.

[cityship]

Alan was quiet as Lash scoured her shiny tools for the source of the noise. Heh heh heh. Silly human. He could wait for her to give up.

[caringcassie.livejournal.com]

Cassie had seen the message warning of the missing parrot and, being who she was, she couldn't just leave the poor bird lost, where it could possibly get hurt. It wasn't as though it was that easy to fly around here and it would be far too easy for the parrot to be injured while on its own. Now, she also wasn't the biggest fan of parrots as pets either, so she wasn't sure what she'd do after she found Alan, but she'd deal with that later. At least she could talk to the person who posted the message and see what kind of treatment the parrot received. Right now though, finding Alan and making sure that he was okay was her primary concern.

She morphed into a parrot herself, hoping that it would allow her to get close once she spotted Alan.

After flying around for a bit, she finally spotted him. Swooping down towards him cautiously, she dug through the parrot's instincts and squawked at him in what she hoped was a friendly tone. Not all parrots would welcome another parrot though, so she could only hope that this would work.

[cityship]

Alan had been chilling out in Hydroponics for a while when he spotted Cassie. He'd seen other parrots, of course, but not since coming to the ship. And he'd never seen this particular species before.

He edged backward a little on his perch, watching the new arrival.

[caringcassie.livejournal.com]

Well, he hadn't fled yet and he didn't look hurt, so that was all good. Still, the next question that needed answering was what to do now. She couldn't just circle above forever and she didn't really have the best idea about how to communicate with the parrot.

She tried to access the parrot's instincts again, but the parrot didn't really know what to do about the strange parrot either. It wasn't the same species, so it wasn't a potential mate but it also wasn't behaving in a threatening manner, so it wasn't likely to try to attack just yet. So, at a bit of a loss, she landed nearby, although not next to Alan just in case that frightened him, to get a better look at the him. She wanted to be sure that Alan was really okay and, while she enjoyed the parrot morph, it didn't have the eyes of an osprey.

(OOC: I have no idea if the parrot Cassie morphed in the series was male or female and it doesn't seem to be specified, so let's assume female so that the mate thing makes sense. Okay? :) )

[cityship]

This new parrot seemed unusually interested in him for some reason. Most of the birds in Hydroponics might drop in for a look, decide he was more of a curiosity than a potential mate or threat, then fly off. Also, she was still looking at him. It was something humans did a lot.

But she wasn't a human.

After a moment, Alan emitted a single chirp, imitating the sound of one of the wild birds he'd encountered.

[Okay!]

[thisclinchesit]

Bird, meet a bug - a fairly large bug. A large (compared to Alan), mechanical bug that is flying around and attempting to locate something.

--

Nearby, Shoutarou was wandering about, obviously searching for something - there were a number of other small robot animals in the area that might not be immediately visible to a glance that are also on the hunt.

[cityship]

Alan regarded the bug with curiosity more than anything else; it was made of metal, so it reminded him more of those things the humans carried around than anything else. For the moment, he stayed quiet on his perch, half-hidden by leaves.

[thisclinchesit]

Given that there was nothing in the open, the bug-phone turned into the branches of the tree, taking a perch nearby. It moves around, investigating, though it's facing the other way for now, quietly beeping.

[cityship]

Alan flew right up to the bug, chewing on it with his beak to explore it. Of course, he might have been exploring a little too hard; he tended to get enthusiastic about new toys.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard's looking a lot better since getting some sleep. He's not twitching anymore, at least.

He has, however, taken over his room at the Inn like an invasive fungus, and Emergency Rations has done even worse. The cat appears to believe she's in charge of the entire domain.

Howard stands under one of the doorways, looking up at his cat on the roof. His cat with yellow feathers in her mouth.

"Uh...Zou? You wouldn't kill an animal, right?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi was still inside the building, and was thus unable to see Emergency Rations and the activity in which she was engaged. "It depends. If I had to, I suppose I... what are you looking at?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Nothing. Just curious," he says quickly, standing on tip toe to try and get a better view (and hopefully not see any tiny bird bones up there).

"Get down from there!" he hisses at the cat, who, of course, doesn't listen and continues to bat a long feather between her paws.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Now Zouichi came outside. He looked at Emergency Rations.

He stared.

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Hana is totally looking for Alan right now, because that bird is awesome.

In fact, Hana would be bold enough to say he's the greatest bird there ever was, and when Taro the hybrid... thing would ruffle his fur up at the comment, Hana would just shout back 'I don't even know what you are! Are you even a bird?' to which Taro would just fluff up even more and flick his tail in a taunting way.

Curse Taro... Whatever he was.

Focus! He had to find Alan. He stops and stands, scratching his head through his messy hair and looking up as if the creature will just fall from the sky.

Well, Alan is a bird.

[cityship]

Alan was watching Hana from a nearby branch, mostly hidden amongst the leaves. Did he have seeds? Well, did he?

...no, it looked like not. But he was still interesting to follow. Alan hopped from branch to branch, quietly following Hana's progress.

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Progress and Hana did not want to fit together nicely today. Maybe Hana stole its Yu-Gi-Oh cards or something.

"Alan!" He calls, wandering, not that everybody else has already tried this tactic. "Alllllllllan!"

[cityship]

Oh, Alan knew this game! It was Hide and Seek! Although Alan was kind of a cheater.

The bushes near Hana suddenly spoke up. "Tee hee hee!" It was Lash's laugh, freshly borrowed.