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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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."

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.

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.

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?"

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.

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?

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."

"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?"

"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."

Zouichi stifled a laugh. Lash probably wouldn't appreciate him relating her first encounter with Alan, though, so no matter how hilarious tiny Lash with a parrot stuck in her hair was...

"It's a little strange, since his species isn't supposed to be particularly good at talking. But I guess he did come from an alien planet." Actually, Zouichi suspected Alan was some kind of parrot genius. He did seem to learn remarkably quickly.

"I don't know all the details, either. I think I talked to him once, on the comms." And Superman had seemed like a decent enough sort. Too bad... but these things happened.

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

"What are you?"

~~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.

"Synthetic Human." She said that with a little thought. Part of her wondered why anyone would make a fake human but then again, humans did a lot of odd things. A lot of them.

"Your body is not crafted from flesh and bone then?"

Well, the Eldar had shuriken cannons so uh.

"I'm mostly organic. I don't have much in common with an actual human being, genetically speaking, but I was designed with a significant amount of outward similarity. To better blend in."

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.

Ildraniath had intended to drop by and check on Zouichi after all of that unpleasantness. It wouldn't do to have one of her only ~~cat's paws~~ friends out of action or seriously injured. Then again, he was a rather resilient person, especially when it came to damage.

So, she was slightly surprised to find that Alendian had beaten her to him. She hadn't even realized Alendian knew the synthetic. She folded her hands into the sleeves of her robes as she entered the courtyard.

"I see you two have already met."

"Farseer." Zouichi turned to face Ildraniath as she arrived. "You look well. I'm glad you weren't harmed in our latest battle."

Well, surviving was one of his specialties. Apparently, running into the ship's Eldar was another.

He'd let Alendian explain their meeting, if she chose to. She seemed a little touchy about these sorts of things.

"Farseer..." She repeated that at almost exactly the same time Zouichi did. Alendian would have had a few select comments on how an Eldar wouldn't be harmed but she held her own tongue.

"We have met, yes. Though I was left with a less than pleasant impression."

"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.

Ildraniath dipped her head in a nod to the both of them as she replied, "I've been in many battles, Zouichi. I know how to survive one."

There was a touch of wry humor in her tone. She turned and arched a brow at Alendian, "Really? I've found him one of the most reliable on the ship. I'd planned on introducing the two of you, but since you've already met, I suppose I'll just have to ask why your first meeting went awry."

Splicer raised a brow and smile, "I would have killed you if you died." Yes, the irony if killing someone after dead, it was a classical joke he'd never get tired of. At the mention of the new Ohm he frowned, "Yeah, I saw those. They reminded of a weird cross between protoss stone sentinels and zerg behemoths... It seems they are upping their strengths."

Lil giggled in return at the sound of Alan, "Haii great wunderkind~! I'm Lil!"

"Of course. How human of me." Humor aside, though, he really was glad to see her looking well. Not everyone had been so fortunate.

Since Ildraniath wasn't addressing him, he glanced at Alendian instead. She'd struck him as someone quick to anger and a little short on manners, but he hadn't held any of that against her. He was a little curious about what issue she'd taken with him, though.

...aside from the tiniest bit of baiting he'd engaged in.

"You'd bring me back to life just for that? How vindictive."

Zouichi nodded. "And adapting their strategies to our own. They tried to gang up on a few of us while we were down on that moon. They were pretty tough, too -- took quite a few hits to down one of them."

"Alan," announced the parrot, still eyeing Lil curiosly.

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.

"He sought to anger me by challenging me in the most childish way possible."

For an Aspect Warrior, anger came easily and Alendian was no exception. Though she did speak up again, reproving herself. "I happened to fall for it completely."

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The more things change...

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