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

[makeherblue]

The day that happened was when Hell (or any remotely Hellish place) would freeze over. You don't get between a Doctor and his fashionably magnificent bowtie.

"I believe the technical term is 'giving it a nudge' or 'a gentle twiddle'," the Doctor corrected Zouichi. He didn't seem to mind too much about saying what he was -- it was the specifics about Gallifrey that wouldn't get his fellow crew-mate very far. "But I rather prefer just enjoying all of time and space, don't you?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Well, it was fashionably... something.

"I didn't really get around to enjoying most of it, actually. Space travel was pretty completely subordinate to weapons development and bioengineering before my time came around. Maybe if things had turned out a little less apocalyptic."

Zouichi actually didn't know what Gallifrey was!

[makeherblue]

Fashionably something was completely acceptable (it was also incredibly original, so that was something like double bonus points on some planet or another).

"Really?" The Doctor leaned forward to search Zouichi's eyes. He frowned at him. "Remind me post-Ohm to fix that for you, because that is rubbish you've not seen everything space can offer. Trust me. I can show you everything! Endless waterfalls, the longest bridge in the Milky Way, what the color purple smells like on Enga's third moon. Or green," he added as an afterthought, "if you don't fancy purple, but most humanoids tend to go with the pruple."

The Doctor patted Zouichi on the arm, hitting him with a disarmingly friendly smile and somehow remembering to keep just out of reach of Alan's beak. Part of it was because he couldn't resist want to show off the universe to Zouichi -- the other part was probably less showboating and more a genuine interest and showing his crew-mate here that not everything was weapons R&D and space could be a loads more interesting than traveling from point A to point B.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi blinked at the arm-patting; Alan merely looked on disapprovingly from his perch on his owner's far shoulder. Clearly that shoulder was much too small for you to be sitting on, Doctor. Any parrot worth his feathers would know that.

"I'm afraid I can't take you up on that offer. If, as they say, our worlds can be restored, I'll have to return to Earth and finish my mission. I can't exactly be running off to smell things on distant moons."

As curious as he was about where everyone else on the ship came from, and as much as he might like to see what their worlds were like, his duty came first.