The more things change...

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi had taken a few wounds during the mission, but nothing that he would deem serious enough to require medical treatment. He'd already begun to heal, and he estimated that by the time tomorrow rolled around, he'd once again be at full strength. This was not, of course, true of everyone who had fought on that moon -- those who had lost their lives, for instance.

But for him, intense combat was the norm. There was no sense dwelling on loss of life or regretting the past, and there were no nightmares about the dead or dying. There was only the future, and the battles to be found there.

So it was back to business as usual: maintenance on the HDC, clearing stray leaves off the front steps and caring for the flowers... and teaching his pet parrot some commands. Today, however, Alan seemed more intent on rolling onto his back and demanding to be picked up. So Zouichi settled back in the shade of a nearby tree instead, playing with the bird and occasionally wondering where he'd picked up all these new phrases that sounded suspiciously like Lash.

Maybe if Howard showed up, they could look for odds and ends in the City.

Comments

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

The Inn is one of the first places Howard goes to, when he's done with his Way Too Long shift at Medical tending the wounded. He should probably go to bed, or check on the cat, or take a shower since he hasn't done that since before they landed, but here he is instead.

And is he ever so glad to see that Zouichi didn't get himself blown up.

"Aww, and here I thought I was going to inherit your talking turkey."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Alan gave Howard a beady-eyed little bird stare. "I'm the great wunderkind," he announced, chewing on a blade of grass while he kept an eye on the intruder.

"Why, who've you been talking to?" Zouichi lowered his arm to let Alan hop on. "Lot of casualties this time around?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

He tries to give a beady-eyed stare back and just looks cross-eyed, but he startles a bit when Alan speaks. "Holy crap, is that Lash?"

He nods, looking tired for a moment. He does actually care, and this was his first time medicking something so immense. "Yeah, hundreds. Only one of ours, though, but we had some serious close calls. Especially when Kang almost blew up the medic tent."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I think he must have run into Lash again while I was still looking for him. He sounds pretty convincing, doesn't he?" Alan waddled his way up to Zouichi's shoulder, where he occupied himself with chewing on Zouichi's hair.

"So we escape mostly unscathed. Again." This crew was awfully lucky. "How'd that happen?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Run into her hair, more like. He could probably build a pretty nice nest in there." He snorts. "Okay, fine, he does a good Lash. I'll give him that."

Howard shrugs. "I don't know, we made Superman our sacrificial lamb or something? I was busy in the tents. I didn't see much of what actually went down except for people telling me we were about to get firebombed by Ohm any second every ten minutes."

[quick_strike]

She wasn't actively looking for Zouichi but Alendian was certainly keeping her eye out. And sharp eyes, she had. The guy was most certainly not human and that was what bothered her. Why take the appearance of a lesser race if you aren't one of them. It's almost as if he was limiting himself.

When the guy was spotted, she stopped in front of him and looked down. If he wanted to sit under a tree and have a jolly good time, he could. Alendian had patience and lots of it.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Uh. Why was Alendian just looming over him like that? Did she want something?

"Hello," he said politely. "Do you require assistance?"

She sort of looked like she wanted to say something, but maybe she was waiting for him to speak up first.

[quick_strike]

"I have a question. Nothing more." Her arms crossed and she shifted her weight, her stance leaning slightly.

"What are you?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

RUDE

Zouichi debated his answer. On one hand, he found he sort of enjoyed teasing Alendian, who had actually chased him down in Hydroponics because she had to know about his search for a missing pet parrot. On the other, he should probably take the high road here, no matter how tempting it was to do otherwise.

"Toha Heavy Industries Synthetic Human, Kanoe Zouichi." Well, it was a what plus a who. Whatever.

[expendable-mind.livejournal.com]

War was war, it was something Splicer had known all his life, and he had been specifically trained to avoid getting injured and do the most tactical damage from afar or during an infiltration. The tactics and soldiers of the Ohm army were similar to that of the Protoss and Zerg, so it became almost second nature to join in the fray and come out unscathed.

Much like Zouichi, he knew all too well that casualties were unavoidable. He did an honorary salute before leaving the planet and collected as many of the dog tags as he could before leaving the planet and handed them over to the GIA officials. That's all he could do for them now.

He figured Z wouldn't have died in a battle like that, he'd kill him if he did. So when he didn't find him in med bay, he made his way over to his place to check up on him. Seeing him relaxing under a tree made him smile as he approached him, it seemed that Lil was his traveling partner for today.

"Yo" he said simply with a light wave.

"Haaaiiii Zeezee!" Lil's playful voice followed from the young gothic lolita doll sitting atop Splicer's right shoulder.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi raised a hand in reply. "I see you made it back just fine. I have a feeling Medical is going to be getting its hands on a lot of people, though."

Alan peered over at Lil, cocking his head at the sound of her voice. "Haaaaiiiii!" he mimicked. It was a tiny person, what was up with that?

[expendable-mind.livejournal.com]

He nodded, walking up to where he was settled,

"Jus' came from there myself, was checkin' if ya made it out okay. Not that I doubted you of course." He added, offering his usual, casual smile.

"They'll be alright, medical's doing a fine job. How 'bout you, you alright?"

Lil moved a bit, leaning her head at the sound Alan made. "Haaaiiii" She repeated at Alan a small giggle afterwards as she shifted behind Splicer and settled on his other shoulder.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Well, I can't die yet -- I still have a mission to accomplish. Besides, if I get taken out by someone, I'd rather it wasn't a giant bug. I did have a close encounter with a few of those new Ohm, though."

Zouichi was getting rather used to the perpetual weirdness that surrounded Splicer, but Alan fluttered his wings briefly, repeating Lil's giggle. "I'm the great wunderkind," he said, in Lash's voice.

[carrieswar.livejournal.com]

The adrenaline had died down, and Jr. was still alive. So it was somewhat easy to settle back into the swing of the norm -- the norm on the ship anyway. He was more than aware that their norm otherwise fell more into this great war for the multiverse. It was easy to do because his friends were all still alive, too, even though Zouichi did give him a brief scare at one point.

"A bird?" he asked with a greeting wave at Zouichi.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi looked up, giving Jr. a brief wave in return. "So I got to see that mecha of yours after all. Pretty sturdy ship."

The parrot, for his part, also looked at Jr. "Alan," he announced.

Zouichi smiled. "I got him during the last shore leave. He's cute, isn't he?"

[carrieswar.livejournal.com]

"He is!" Jr. put a hand forward, finger extended to try and give the bird a rub of the head. "Hey there cute little guy! And he knows words already, too, huh?"

He wasted no time after that, turning and dropping down to sit next to Zouichi. "Yeah ... that's the Asher for you! That thing's been around since I was a lot younger, so I guess it's a kind of fate that it came into my hands down the line."

The way he used the word fate was light, but Jr. often wondered how true it actually was. The Blue Testament had told Jr. and his friends that they were being 'compelled' too ride their E.S.s, and their wills resonated with the power source inside the mech. Jr. had no idea what that stuff even meant, but they needed the power, so he simply piloted. Plus, it wasn't as if he couldn't pilot his mech if it lost its power source, being a special case that possessed a backup.

Jr. leaned back against the tree and stretched; for as much as he enjoyed the fighting inside, it did feel good to rest and relax, too.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Alan closed his eyes happily. Ah, pettings. Yes, Jr., shower him with affection!

"And somehow you ended up being its pilot? Yeah, I guess you could call that fate." A slight, cool breeze was now working its way through the leaves, sending a quiet rustling through the air.

"Personally, I think they should make the Nightmare a little sturdier." Not that they were any less sturdy than the multitudes of fighter planes, ships, and other vehicles Zouichi had unceremoniously exploded over time.

[nobel-berserker.livejournal.com]

Allenby had been all around the City, in Medbay, the Hangar... so far, no sign of Zetta. He was all right--she knew that; he was way too obnoxious to die. But goddamn. She'd been hoping he had found his way back in somehow, but there were a lot of places on the ship and her head hurt and she was tired and wanted to know if her other friends were okay.

She could solve a couple of those problems by heading home.

For once, Allenby entered through the gate rather than hopping over the wall, failing to resist the urge to poke at the bandage around her forehead again. "Hey, Zouichi--you around?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi raised his hand in greeting, looking up from where he was sitting. "Of course. Hey, are you all right?"

She didn't look too badly injured, but she did look like she could use some extra rest.

[nobel-berserker.livejournal.com]

Allenby wandered over and dropped down next to him, sitting crosslegged. "Yeah. I got whacked in the head and the mech I was in was banged up by the Ohm that got into the Hangar, but I'm okay."

She looked him over. "How 'bout you? Did you get hurt at all down on the planet?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like you had a rough time. Who hit you, an Ohm? I haven't really heard much about what happened on the ship yet."

He smiled. "I got a few scrapes, but you know me; I heal fast. I did run into some of those new Ohm, though. Reminded me of some of the Gundams, actually."

[makeherblue]

The Doctor hasn't ever been to the Inn. But after the battle over Lirath - and no thanks to the Master and his bloody terrible idea of jiggery-pokery -- he has to explore and try to find more parts to fix the TARDIS.

Again.

Well, that and he doesn't need much of an excuse to go exploring. There's loads to be said about having a big ship and being unfortunately grounded. Plenty of time to explore. The Doctor noses his way eventually to the tree Zouichi has made himself comfortable with. He hasn't seen his fellow crew-mate since that clone mess and the truth is that had gotten complicated, between fights and loads and loads of talking and female Doctors and he's pleased to say that Zouichi looks overall quite well. The Doctor gives a friendly sort of wave as he joins Zouichi under the shade.

"Lovely little fella there," the Doctor points at the parrot. "I --" The Doctor has to turn away to sneeze into his handkerchief and give a miserable little sniffle before he continues. "I don't think we've met."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"He is, isn't he?" Zouichi gave the Doctor a rather rare, unguarded smile as he let Alan hop back up onto his wrist. "I picked him up on the last shore leave planet. He's pretty intelligent, too, for a parrot. His name is Alan."

At least the Doctor appreciated parrots! Howard just seemed to be convinced the bird was out to get him. Which was ridiculous, because clearly Alan was the nicest, smartest, best bird ever. In any case, Alan regarded the Doctor with his beady little parrot eyes, as if sizing up this new and interesting (and slightly gangly) arrival.

Zouichi blinked as the Doctor sneezed into his handkerchief. "Are you all right? Did you pick up a cold?"

[makeherblue]

The Doctor fussed with the handkerchief, sniffling into it and then rubbing at his red nose. "Something like that. Don't think Stacy's Engineering slime agrees with me."

As if to make a point, he sniffled again and then leaned forward, satisfied he wasn't going to, say, sneeze in Alan or Zouichi's respective faces. Not unless they happened to like Time Lord bogeys. The Doctor peered right back at Alan with the same intense look he'd given Zouichi when they first met, as if he was only seconds away from attempting to have an utterly amazing conversation with a parrot. He could see that likes attracted here! Both smart and -- he thought -- perfectly nice individuals, at least from his first impression. The Doctor cocked his head and then carefully extended a finger toward Alan, letting the parrot either take a nip or hop on.

"Hello," he said, quite seriously. "I'm the Doctor. Pleasure! And Zouichi," he added, without turning to look at his crew-mate. "Ah, so I see you were able to get that brand removed, good! You look loads better without it."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi blinked. "Wait, Engineering slime? What were you doing swimming in Engineering slime?"

Alan stared right back at the stranger, unblinking, the cogs slowly turning in his parrot brain. Weighing the Doctor. Judging him. When the Doctor extended his finger, Alan seemed to come to a decision. The bird leaned out with his beak... and bit the Doctor, hanging from his finger like a brightly-feathered hall decoration.