trans_9 | The more things change...

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The more things change...

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.

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"An ice chest? What is this ray gun powered by, dead trout?" Howard is pretty good at improvising with his materials, but that just sounded bizarre.

"And I'll be sure to tell Medical that one of their personnel is pioneering new breakthroughs in the field of cat communications."

"I need a way to get the metal cold fast once I get it into a shape. Figure dunking it in ice will work." Given that his last try with a welding torch was an unmitigated disaster, he's also going to need another fire extinguisher.

"I still haven't got her to purr yet, but she meows at me every time I walk into a room. Not quite as impressive as mimicking Lash."

Zouichi was starting to worry about this ray gun. "Are you going to use the forge for this? I would have thought they'd have their own method of cooling the metal."

Alan chirped in a suspiciously smug manner as Zouichi reached up to pet him. "Better than growling, I guess. She seemed pretty on edge at the mine."

"I told you I don't like the chick at the forge. She tries to con people."

He rolls his eyes at Zouichi, starting to walk toward the edge of the city, where all the good salvage is to be had. "I think creepy ghosts would put just about anyone on edge, cat or not."

"Yeah, but her forge works, doesn't it? Or is that a con, too?" Come to think of it, Zouichi had never actually met this phantom blacksmith.

He gave Alan a brief command, sending the parrot flying up into one of the nearby cherry trees, then moved to catch up with Howard. "I meant before the creepy ghosts. I'm still curious about why they were in that mine, though."

"I don't know. It must, because everyone else has good things to say about her."

He watches Alan fly. "Aren't you afraid he'll fly off again? And I have no idea. I still think they're probably like bacteria and love the dark and warm."

"Hmm... so either they don't know they're being conned, or she only tries to con you, is it?" It didn't really matter to Zouichi either way, since he relied on firearms, but it was a little curious.

He shook his head. "I asked him not to. And he's been as good as his word." Aside from that one incident, Alan had been doing quite well about not wandering off on his own.

"Ghosts can't feel, though, can they?"

"Nah, I think it's a third option. They just don't care. People here are really laid back on the bargaining front. It's not like back home at all." Seriously, how many deals has Howard made for a nebulous 'future favor' here?

"I don't know the first thing about ghosts. Maybe they're really sensitive." He shrugs. "Or maybe Perdido Beach needs more reasons to suck and 'ghosts in the mine' seemed like a great idea."

"They are pretty relaxed about it, aren't they? I expected Lash to rake everyone over the coals for any of the stuff she stole from Galilee." Maybe it helped that Zouichi hadn't been desperate to own one any one thing in particular.

"Well, evil space aliens are already pretty bad. Ghosts on top of that are just overkill."

"Yeah. I guess that's what happens when no one really needs anything, though. I mean, barring medical, Stacy takes care of everyone's needs, and we'd be jerks if we didn't give people medical treatment." He shrugs. He doesn't expect it'll always be like this. That lingering paranoia that Stacy will stop feeding them or filtering their air is always somewhere in the background.

"Don't forget zombies. All we have left is vampires. Still serious about that."

Zouichi nodded. "It probably helps that there aren't really that many of us, too. If there were, say, a million of us, it'd be a little more difficult."

"Isn't your superior officer a vampire? I think we've already passed the vampire threshold."

"I don't know. Maybe. How many people you think are in Stacy's pods? She's got to be keeping them alive, too."

He laughs. "You mean Sampire? That doesn't count. Vampires only count when they're bad guys."

"Millions, probably. But they're not awake. And people in stasis don't take up a lot of resources. Comparatively, anyway." All those people. He hoped no one he knew woke up. For the most part, anyway.

"'Sampire'? I'll be sure to tell him he doesn't count towards any portents of doom, then."

"No, but Stacy heals them, too. I was skin and bones when she picked me up and was pretty healthy when she spit me out. That kind of nutrition doesn't come free, man."

Aside from Orc, there's pretty much no one Howard wants to see either.

"Eh, he already knows. He invited me to come back to his world, you know. In case we end up saving everything and have to go home."

"That's a little strange; I thought people in the pods didn't age. It would have taken some time to return you from a state of near-starvation, wouldn't it?" Zouichi frowned a little, thinking. "If I were a little more paranoid, I might wonder if the ship had really rescued us at all."

"Might be a good idea. My world wouldn't exactly be pleasant."

"Well, obviously time passes." But he looks worried. "So what do you think, we're data copies? It might explain the different timelines bit."

He bites his lip. "Yeah, well, if all fails I'm not going to my home if I can help it."

Zouichi's smile looked a little wry. "Maybe we're clones."

He nodded. "I don't blame you. Sounds like almost anywhere would be better than where you were. I've still got a mission, though."

Howard laughs and makes a little 'stamp' motion at his forehead.

"I go home and you go get killed fighting zombies. Saving the universe is looking better every day, I gotta tell you."

That... was kind of a dickish thing to do, Howard. As was probably evident by the look on Zouichi's face.

"You keep killing me off before I'm dead," he said mildly.

"Sorry," he says with a look of genuine apology. Stare of Sincere Apology, Zou! Zouichi put Galilee so behind him that Howard assumed it was fair game, especially after they'd joked about it during the hospital thieving.

"I am not killing you off before you're dead."

In some ways, he'd put it behind him. But in others, it would probably continue to color his interactions with others for quite some time. And the gesture had been a sudden, rather unexpected reminder of that.

"At any rate," he continued. "The threats I've had to deal with here haven't really measured up to what I'm used to back on Earth. I'll be fine."

Howard wouldn't have, had he stopped long enough to think before doing that. Sometimes Zou seems so unfazed it's easy to forget. Easy to think of him as some unstoppable, imperturbable force of nature instead of a person. Which, Howard realizes, is no better than what he just tried to mock. He drops his eyes to the floor, suddenly totally interested in his shoelaces.

"That's what I'm saying. You'll take out all these easy-peasy fire-shooting Ohm and dinosaurs and you'll be totally out of shape when you go home. I worry about these things, man."

In Howard's defense, Zouichi does seem to be unfazed by an awful lot. And he'd probably rather think of himself as an imperturbable force of nature, too.

He nodded. "I try to keep up with the pace I'm used to in the Sensoriums. But I wouldn't call myself out of shape. You don't need to worry."

"Well, you don't. So that's why I do." Duh, Zou. How many times do they have to go over this?

"I think you should worry about yourself more. Like whether or not you're going to grow up and own twelve cats."

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