trans_9 | But Sooner Or Later God'll Cut You Down [Open]

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But Sooner Or Later God'll Cut You Down [Open]

'Running away' is, in Howard's opinion, the most useful thing the human body can do. And unfortunately, he has plenty of reasons to think it will come in handy at some point, or at various points, in the future.

That's why he's set up a 400 yard circular track-slash-obstacle course in Hydroponics, as well as set up markers for hundred meter, two hundred meter, and mile routes. Every other morning, before Med Bay shifts, he's here, improving on speed and stamina. He knows full well that even if he gets into the best shape of his life, he can still be outrun (or outflown) by his super-powered, magical or metahuman peers, but it's better to have that added little bit of competence if and when he ends up sprinting away from danger.

He's feeling the results, too. There's no way to time if he's getting faster, but where he was once just skinny, he's becoming lean, and the mile run that used to exhaust him leaves him considerably less winded than it did a few months ago. And he's getting much more confident going through the tunnels and up the ladders of the obstacle course.

The only thing looking worse for the wear is his shoes. At some point he's going to have to relegate his velociraptor shoes to a beloved keepsake, because the seams are literally coming apart around his toes.

Howard double-knots his shoelaces and stretches a bit before running the obstacle course again.

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Howard wasn't hard to find. No one was here. All you had to do was ask Stacy and she pretty much blurted the answer out at you.

Diana stood, leaning against one of the ladders. She played about with something in the palm of her hand until Howard's course brought him close.

Her gaze flickered upwards and she slipped the object into her pocket, putting her usual pretty, sly smile on her face.

"Hey, Howie~"

"Don't call me that, Little Miss Soren." Your feminine wiles don't work on Howard, Diana. He's far too socially maladjusted for such shenanigans.

"What's in your pocket?" Being a petty thief, he notices those sorts of things. Thankfully, he's not nearly dumb enough to think trying to take whatever it is from Diana is a good idea.

Maybe not, but it's hard to break a habit.

"Don't be so uptight, Howie. Don't you know too much stress will kill you?" Her eyes glinted knowingly. Of course, they'd both had enough stress to kill them 10 times over.

She'd come to check up on Howard. If only because she knew he'd come to see her sooner or later, if only to check she'd not died. She didn't particularly want him knowing where she was staying so she'd beat him to the post.

"A gift~" She replied, tone mockingly sweet. "Some people are just so nice."

"Diana, if we live long enough to worry about high blood pressure and heart disease, we'll be too busy celebrating our victory over fate to care about death."

It's not as if he won't still find out where she lives. It's just not a pressing concern. Yet.

"Oh, God, don't tell me you got someone to propose to you already."

Her smile turned into a victorious smirk.

"I'm glad you acknowledge that's a reasonable possibly." She winked. "I'm flattered, really."

She wafted the question away with her hand. "But no. It's more of a trinket."

Diana tucked her hair behind her ear and slipped her hands into her pockets neatly, still leaning on the ladder. She looked him over in that assessing way she had.

"Been busy?" Not that she was expecting much of an honest answer, let alone a detailed one. She wrinkled her nose up at his footwear. "What have you done to your shoes?"

"I wouldn't know. I just figure that since you're making goo-goo eyes at everyone you run into, someone might get the wrong idea that you're good girlfriend material."

He tilts his body a bit to pretend to peer at her pocket. "And you still haven't told me what that is."

He glances down at his shoes and then back up at her, an uncharacteristic bit of indignation in his face. "Hey, these shoes got bitten by dinosaurs!"

"How rude." Diana flipped her hair at him, brushing his comment off easily, she'd heard worse about her ways afterall. "I don't have to make eyes for them to think that. It's a natural talent."

"Why do you have to be so nosy?" She put on a false pout. "Can't a girl have her secrets?"

"I can tell that Howie, by the fact they appeared to have been mauled at the seams."

"Then why do you make eyes at them?"

Howard shakes his head. "Nosy's how I roll. And of course you're not allowed to have secrets. Just wait until you go on your first mission where everyone apparently knows your life story and gets to beat you down with it in front of the rest of the crew."

He sounds pretty bitter about that. The talking-to Harriet gave to him on Galilee still stings.

"Oh, come on. Raptor shoes are cool. You have to admit that, Diana."

"Because it cuts down the time it takes to wrap them around my finger by half." She waggled her finger at him, as if scolding him. "And time is of the essence, Howie."

She frowns. "Oh, really? And how did they get to know that?"

"Yeh, but cool as they may be, they're also gonna be useless if you keep this up. Soon they're going to look like they've been digested by a dinosaur, not just bitten by one."

"You tell yourself that, Diana. It doesn't work on me. I guess even your 'natural talent' has limits."

He hops up on the ladder to sit next to where she's standing. "Think about it, Diana. Superman's on our ship. So's Han Solo. Everything we read in our world exists somewhere in this multiverse. Doesn't it make sense that somewhere out there, there are comic books or videogames or movies about us?"

He pauses. "Well, I mean. Not about us. Probably about Sam and Astrid or some crap."

He pouts. "I do have to retire them soon, I think. They just remind me to stay fast, you know. It was a close call."

"What a shame."

Her mouth felt dry. Stories about them? What would they say? What would people know?

"Or about Fearless Leader and his Napoleon Complex."

She stops to consider this problem properly. That was probably all she was in any of those stories. Caine's girl. That irritated her. But it was a choice she'd made to survive. And at least that wasn't too condemning.

"Why don't you take the laces out and keep them in your pocket?" She shrugged. "Then you've got a reminder and you can keep the shoes somewhere safe or something."

The dark look in Howard's face should answer that second unspoken question. Everything. They know absolutely everything.

Nothing is sacred. But they knew that, right? They're both survivors; they had to learn that lesson early.

"Don't forget our favorite genderbending hentai-loving Freddy Krueger knockoff." He shudders. "He's probably number one on the list of people I don't want to see here. Not that your boyfriend isn't number two, but still."

He twists his mouth as he considers that. "Maybe. I'm going to choke on a shoelace one of these days anyway. Might as well be raptor shoes."

Something that feels like led drops into the pit of her stomach.

Oh God, no. No. No. No. NO.

But she keeps a straight face. Her jaw just clenches a little.

"Of course." Diana's already used to Howard jibes about her relationship with Caine so it barely registers.

"That won't be a hilarious way to go, at all. Or weird, after surviving FAYZ to die by a shoelace."

"But fitting, right? I mean, I can't think of a more ironic way to go." He bites his fingernail. "In some way I guess we can't die here. The FAYZ wouldn't let us, because it wants to kill us itself. At least, that's what I like to hope."

Howard has weird hopes.

"Well, once you've tested that theory, let me know, okay? There's a place in the City where some people talk to ghosts, drop off a message for me there."

"Hey, I shouldn't have to be the one to do all the thinking and all the experimenting. Let's go wake Albert up and use him as a guinea pig." Howard claps his hands together in fake enthusiasm. "And his soul can't even fall out if we pull him out of the pod because he barely has one."

"Sounds like fun. Though I'm not sure a naked Ablert is really a prospect I want to consider."

She stretched, arms above her head, back arched, long and cat like. Her sleep patterns were still erratic, and the lack of a timing system didn't help.

"You know, I can think of a more ironic way to go than by shoelace." After that, she leant against the ladder again, looking at her fingernails. "Choking on food, for example."

Howard rewards that comment with the most humorless, joyless laugh ever. "Yeah. That's a possibility too. Did you know that it's physically possible to eat until your guts explode? Let's try to avoid that too."

He wonders if Diana will develop the same binge-eating problem he has. Maybe not. Diana seems more self-controlled than he is.

"Hey, you wanna see my house?" Because now that he doesn't live there, who cares if she knows where it is?

Diana turns to look at him, eyebrow raised. Well, that came out of left field.

"If I wasn't so sure that you're actually Howie, I'd swear you were some dull guy that just used a terrible line on me."

She shrugs. "But sure, why not? It's not like I've any pressing matters I need to attend to."

"I told you not to call me that. And come on, give me some credit. If I were going around handing out pickup lines to anyone they'd be way more clever than that."

He hops up off the ladder. "Let's go, then. Do you have any pressing matters to attend to anytime, anyway? I mean, it's not like you have a job."

"And I told you not to be so uptight." She rolled her eyes. "I have serious doubts about you being able to use pickup lines or flirt in any form at all, Howie."

In fact, as the image of Howard trying to flirt came to her mind, she had to stifle a laugh.

She put on a look of false shock. "My god, you're right! Tell you what, I'll start looking for one right away, just for you, okay?" A smirk appeared back on her face.

He opens his mouth to shoot back a retort, but she has a point there. "Well, good thing I'm not interested in flirting anyway, then."

Whether or not Karis promised to protect him, he doesn't think whatever benefit he'd get from a relationship would be worth giving people yet another reason to push him around.

"Hey, I'm not saying anything. Just, when you get kidnapped or held hostage and no one really cares because you're useless anyway, don't cry to me about it."

Diana shrugged again, regardless of Howards comments, she had her own plans for surviving on the ship, which already included finding some sort of setting to make herself regarded and known enough to be protected.

"I promise I won't. Now can we get going?"

Howard starts walking. "So what have you been doing, anyway? Aside from at the movies I haven't seen you around none."

She falls into step beside him. "Just taking a look around. Seeing if there's anyone interesting I should get to know." By interesting she of course meant those who could be useful.

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