trans_9 | That melt into spring [Open]

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That melt into spring [Open]

Zouchi stood by the blue-green waters of Faron Spring, eyes tracing the old, intricate patterns that covered the surfaces of the rocks nearby. The weather in this part of the City was a little cooler than usual, but he felt no discomfort; it was still well within his operational tolerances.

As he waited there, almost entirely still, a light rain began to fall from the sky. Artificial rain, of course, for an artificial city, but it was cool against his face and good for the plants. Zouichi closed his eyes for a moment; when he reopened them, the rain was still there... but it was accompanied by something else. Silvery numeric annotations swam through his vision, attached to each drop of water, too fast and too numerous for an untrained observer to make sense of. Speed calculations, trajectory and force projections. Each droplet of rain was a variable, a world of controlled chaos.

Some disappeared into the soft grass; others dropped onto the surface of the spring, sending up a cascade of secondary equations as it cast ripples across the surface of the water.

When it was time for battle, these same quicksilver calculations would help guide him in action: they'd show him the best way to destroy, the swiftest way to kill. But for now, there was no need to bend them to that purpose. Instead, he watched as they fell like phantoms through the sky.

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He nods. "I guess I can see your world being the moody fog and rain type. You know. Moody." Kinda hopeless.

On that note, it is cold, what with the sopping wet clothing and all. Howard wraps his arms around himself. "I'll have to start storing up on mittens, but I call dibs on making the first snowman."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. It didn't really look like this place, anyway." And he sort of wished it had. It was a shame the humans of his world had grown up without being able to visit places like this. Maybe if they had...

But that was idle speculation. He glanced at the way Howard was hugging himself, then motioned in the direction where his bike was parked a brief distance away. "Why don't we head back? Wouldn't do for a medic to catch a cold."

Edited 2011-10-04 04:44 (UTC)

"Hate to break it to you, but most places don't, even on normal Earths. And I mean, the ones that do are usually national parks and charge admission and all." He kicks his feet through a puddle, then kicks his shoes and socks off and sinks his toes into the mud.

He licks his lower lip and nods. "You're probably right. Do you feel temperature? I mean, just curious." He stuffs his socks into his wet sneakers and slings them over his shoulder by the shoelaces. The idea of riding the motorcycle in the rain is kind of exciting, actually.

"Maybe. I'm sure places like this could only be found in certain locations and climates. But that doesn't mean there weren't any places on Earth that weren't equally beautiful, in their own way."

Zouichi gave Howard a look. "Of course I can feel temperature. I just don't find the extremes as uncomfortable as other people." Jeez, Howard, being able to feel if it was hot or cold was kind of an important survival skill.

As they reached the bike, he swung a leg over the side, tossing Howard the spare helmet. "I hope your cat has the good sense to stay inside."

You're getting a little too environmentalist for Howard, Zouichi. He takes the helmet and fits it on his head. "You ever seen the Grand Canyon? I heard that's pretty amazing. Maybe we should upload a file of it in the Sensoriums, just out of curiosity."

Howard throws up his hands in an exaggerated shrug. "What? For all I know you just get a little weather readout in your peripheral vision instead of actually feeling temperature. God, man, it's not like I've read your medical file or anything."

He rolls his eyes. "She's probably safe and warm, shedding all over my only clean, dry shirt."

Zouichi smiled. "That sounds interesting. I've also been wanting to explore a coral reef." With sharks and octopi and everything. "And some underground caverns. Although I'm not sure which system to pick."

He started the bike up; the process was near-silent. "Even if you had, it wouldn't give you that information. Medical isn't really equipped to dissect my abilities." And as far as Zouichi was concerned, it could just stay that way. "I can feel pain, too. Just not as intensely as you can."

"Maybe you could wear that one shirt. You know." You're going to wear that shirt, Howard. That shirt of wolves howling at the moon.

"Why not do all of them? We could do like, Zouichi and Howard's tour through Earth, only it's in the Sensoriums so we don't have to worry about getting attacked by dingos or poisonous spiders when we do the outback or something."

He nods, holding onto Zouichi's waist. "I knew that. And it's not like I want to see your file just so I can steal Toha's company secrets or anything. I just want to avoid stabbing you in the leg in the future when you go comatonic."

That is totally the word he was looking for. Not.

"I still say that shirt's even tackier than your surfer-dude necklace. If it's the only dry shirt in the Inn, I'll think about it."

Zouichi glanced back at him. "What's with the sudden appreciation for nature? You are Howard, right? ...but I think I'd like that."

You can't see Zouichi's expression, Howard, but he still remembers the stabbing incident. "I'm not going to go catatonic. And anyway, we both know you'd just use it to laugh about my weight or something."

He smiled a little wryly. "Well, you'll be happy to know I'm not planning to wear the necklace any longer. I think it would be a little inappropriate, considering."

"Yeah. I'm still me. Not a Skrull, I promise." It's because the idea of it got a smile out of you, Zou. Do you realize how rare those are? If scarcity determines value your smiles are worth millions! "And I don't know. I guess it'd just be fun to see nature and not have to be afraid of it trying to eat me."

Howard's still a bit stung over that incident too. Jeez, Zou, he'd been freaking out and trying to help. And you'd just choked him. Thanks for that. "Would not. Probably."

He looks surprised, though it's probably lost on Zouichi's shoulder. "What? Why? You didn't blow the second date, did you?"

Zouichi doesn't bother asking what a Skrull is. It's probably something related to comic books. At any rate, his smiles could probably be used to make purchases of large consumer electronics.

"'Probably'?"

Zouichi shook his head, though he kept his eyes on the road. "Maybe we were too different."

"What, you think I would give you a hard time if there was something really embarrassing on your medical file?"

Howard nods. "Do you want me to put a rattlesnake in her mailbox for you or something? Because I don't know if Stacy has rattlesnakes, but I could totally find a way to do it."

Zouichi waved a hand at the first question; he was mostly just keeping his file secret to give Howard something to complain about, anyway.

"No. Do not put any rattlesnakes in her anything." Zouichi gave him another look. "It was probably my fault anyway."

"It probably wasn't," he says, then more gently, "do you want to talk about it or do you just want me to not mention it?"

"I don't mind." It gives him something to do while they head back to the Inn, anyway.

"It was just... difficult to talk about anything of substance."

"'Anything of substance' being 'the reasons we can't spend forever together', or 'anything of substance' actually being anything of substance? She seemed like a pretty smart lady when I talked to her."

"I mean I tried to talk about what happened on Galilee, and it just never happened." Zouichi probably sounded a little more snappish than was required, though not on purpose. He just didn't particularly appreciate Howard bringing that old joke up again. Not right now, anyway.

"Ah." Howard flinches a little at the tone of voice. Ever since Galilee he's felt like he's occasionally cracking eggshells underfoot with Zou. "Did she just not get that it was important to you, or was it always just a bad time, or did you feel like you didn't want to get her that involved, or what?"

Getting held down and branded will do that to a guy.

"I don't really know. It felt like she was afraid of bringing it up. Or that she didn't want to talk about it, maybe. And I didn't want to make her deal with something she wasn't ready for."

Zouichi, you and Alastirra should pioneer the Miscommunication Tango as the new dance craze sweeping the nation.

"So basically you were both being way too gentle with each other."

Miscommunication is key.

Zouichi is surprised enough to hear that from Howard that he spares a glance backward. "Maybe."

"Maybe, if you're going to date again," and Howard wouldn't blame Zouichi from wanting to take a break from that, "you're gonna need someone you're not worried about worrying. If that makes sense."

After a pause, "but not like you should ever take life advice from me, seriously."

"...you're probably right." Howard isn't saying anything Zouichi doesn't know already. He didn't think it would be so difficult to impose on someone he cared about... but that was just how he was. Commiserating was one thing, but troubling someone with his personal problems? Asking someone to concern themselves with something he should be able to deal with by himself? He couldn't ask Alastirra to bear that burden.

So maybe Eva was right. Maybe he just wasn't ready for a relationship yet.

Zouichi stopped the bike as they reached the Inn, dismounting smoothly. "Well, we're here. Hopefully your cat's fur is still firmly attached to her body."

"No rush, man. The singles club is still cool." And to tell the truth, knowing the relationship's dissolved makes Howard feel a little guilty for pushing Zou to start it up in the first place.

Howard dismounts a little less smoothly, slipping a bit in the mud. By now he's cold enough that his fingers feel like nothing but knuckles. "Yeah, right. She sheds her body weight every few hours."

And indeed, when they get in the Inn, it's revealed that Emergency Rations has not only shed all over the only clean shirt Howard has, but has escaped and killed one of the small critters from Hydroponics and left it for them on said shirt.

Howard rolls his eyes. "Fine, I'll wear the wolves t-shirt. The universe is willing it."

"Luckily, I have long years of experience being single." Once they got back, Zouichi located two towels, handing one to Howard and using the other to dry his hair. He'd probably take a bath in a bit and let his armor dry.

He plucked the dead little animal up from its resting place, placing it carefully in a small box (which had seen a lot more use recently) for later. Zouichi didn't know why Emergency Rations kept killing the poor things, but apparently she wasn't bound by the same rules everyone else was in Hydroponics. In any case, he was sure to carefully bury each of the cat's kills as he found them.

Yesss. The shirt. ~~Just as planned~~

Howard grabs a set of pants and boxer and the (tacky, cheap-looking, oversized, flat-out-silly) shirt out of the dresser (like hell would he ever take it to the Warehouse) and disappears into one of the other rooms to change.

He comes back out with a Christian Bale-style expression that tells Zouichi 'if you take pictures of this we're fucking done, professionally'. The shirt does indeed go down to his knees, and even inside out the glow-in-the-dark paint of the moon and the wolves' teeth shows through the fabric.

At least it'll make good pajamas.

He's a little weirded out to see that Zouichi's already disposed of the body. He would have zipped it into a plastic bag and frozen it. He gets it, Emergency Rations. You're just trying to make sure he and Zou have food. He appreciates it.

He takes a seat on the couch and angles his head to the side, in case there's water lodged in either of his ears from the big mud puddle, still. "Hey, at least it was just a little Hydroponics thing and not Alan."

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