trans_9 | And We're Gonna Pull Through [Bendytimed to After System Shock]

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And We're Gonna Pull Through [Bendytimed to After System Shock]

It's probably a solid two weeks before Christmas is due, assuming that their Thanksgiving dinner was on schedule which, given the nature of the ship, it presumably wasn't. But the robot attack was terrifying and disheartening and exhausting, and Howard wants a holiday, so according to him, it's Christmas. A nice, relaxing break from things trying to kill them.

Aside from this strand of Christmas lights doing its damnedest to strangle him, that is. Howard's managed to get it around his neck, and if it weren't for the fact that finding light strands is hard enough on Stacy, would be cutting it off with scissors.

He's still a bit beat-up, bandages around his head and his knees and one looping around his torso, under his shirt, but thanks to the healers and medical technology on Stacy he's not in much pain. His foot being in a brace is the worst of it.

He's managed to salvage an old plastic tree from a run-down building. A few packets of hot cocoa from the Warehouse sit on the table. Flossy Raptor is downstairs and dressed in a Santa hat and bizarrely, a feather boa in a shade of green too lime-ish to be Christmassy. A clunky-looking dog-sized gift for Zouichi is by the couch, wrapped in tin foil and newsprint, and another is on the table for Karis, although it's unwrapped. No one else quite makes Howard's list this year.

He pulls his way out of the tangle of lights. Christmas numero dos sans his family. Christmas numero uno on Stacy. He finds he's less okay with the former than he was last year, but more okay with the latter than he'd presumed.

Anyone who walks into the kitchen of the Susono Inn will be greeted by the rare and unusual sound of Howard humming. Go Tell It On the Mountain, actually. He even sings the section of the first verse that he vaguely remembers under his breath.

"Go tell it on the mountain, up over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain, tell them something, I don't care."

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"Well, they're not supposed to malfunction. They're supposed to be twinkly, dammit." And yet somehow they always do, and the idea of meticulously unscrewing and redoing every single light on here also sounds like a pain. Maybe he should find another strand, but this is the only colored one, and he's always felt trees with just white lights feel too stylized. Like they belong in magazines, but not in a home.

After the appropriate amount of time for acceptable hugging, Howard pulls back. "I'm glad you're okay, man. I got scared watching that terminator pull you down. So I'm just glad you're here. "

Sap and appreciation, part one of Zou's Christmas gift. And now Howard goes back to trying to fix those Christmas lights. It took a long time to accept that he can't stop Zouichi from doing brave things, not by guilt or by trying to logic him out of it or by any other means, but he's made relative peace with it now. Doesn't mean it isn't hard.

You know what, Howard? Zouichi kind of agreed with you on the white lights (or at least he would when the lights finally went up). Multicolored lights was what the people really wanted.

He smiled. "I told you I could beat a Terminator."

"...But I'm sorry I worried you." Not that he was going to stop doing the things that make Howard worry about him in the first place; that would be throwing away who he was. But maybe one day he could stop. And then the only thing people would have to worry about was whether he was going to spoil his pet parrot rotten.

"I don't owe you any money for that bet, right?" Although if Zouichi insists, Howard would say that since he took out a Terminator too they should be even. "But no, it's okay, I...I mean, I get it. I've come to terms with your whole doing-idiotic-things-in-the-name-of-great-justice-and-explosions schtick. Besides, I can't hol it against you if you're just going to heal up that fast anyway."

Maybe he's just a little bitter that he's still wearing a cast and bandages. Just a teeny bit.

He plops down on the couch, still working on the Christmas lights. "So should I open your present first or are you going to open yours?"

Zouichi, typically, hadn't even considered what he'd get if and when he won. He did, however, roll his eyes at Howard's description of his 'schtick'. "Maybe one day I'll head over to Medical and you can all watch me heal a papercut. Anyway, wasn't that amazing medical technology supposed to fix all that pesky healing time?"

He sat down beside Howard, snagging his present from under the tree. "I, personally, am dying to know what this is. But you can go first, if you want."

"Healing a papercut so wouldn't cut it. With your track record I expect you to heal a papercut by throwing a dinosaur at it. Somehow. Magically." He grabs his as well. "And yeah, supposedly, but the most good we can make of those machines is that they're good counters for our coffee cups."

Howard starts unwrapping his gift, carefully so as not to waste the wrapping or the ribbon.

Zouichi snorted. "Fat lot of good that mission did anyone." One more thing to hold against the ship during his daily meditations of RAEG.

The gift turned out to be a mini survival kit, complete with such items as a canteen, a bottle of water purification tablets, an all-purpose pocketknife, and so on. That's right, Howard. Zouichi gave you a means of assuaging your paranoia about everything for Christmas.

"It gave us something the entire ship could bitch about, at least."

He sets the wrapping aside and examines the kit. It's nice, very nice. Most of the things Howard already has access to, but for once it makes sense to him that it really is the thought that matters. He swallows a bit. "Thanks, man. Really."

And before he gets too choked up he motions to Zou's. "Okay, your turn. I mean, it's not for you so much as the bird, but you know."

Inside is something Howard built, a jungle-gym of sorts for Alan. He read in the media library that big birds and parrots (or may cockatiels, he wasn't paying much attention) like having structures to play on, so he made a wooden frame with little rings and chains and ropes for him.

Zouichi smiled as he unwrapped the jungle gym -- a genuine smile, the kind that lit up his entire face. "You made this yourself? That's... thank you. I'm sure he'll love it."

In fact, maybe he should go and get Alan right now okay maybe not.

HAVE ANOTHER HUG, HOWARD.

"Good. Don't tell him I made it, because then he'll hate it on principle."

OH NO IS THIS GOING TO TURN INTO A THING It's a good thing Howard's game for bro-hugs from Zou.

Zouichi snorted. "I think you're giving him too much credit. He's really friendly, you know. And tame. He'll roll over right into your hand."

He released Howard after a moment, setting the jungle gym on the table nearby. "So, what's next in celebrating Christmas the right way?"

"That's because he plays nice for you. He secretly hates me. You can see it in his beady little birdy-eyes." Howard is, actually, developing a bit of a fondness for the bird. "And what's next is drinking hot cocoa and watching Home Alone and Christmas Story in the media library, then ice cream for dinner and knocking icicles ff a Sensoriums roof."

He rolled his eyes. "He doesn't play nice, he is nice. He's really very sweet. And doesn't try to eat my hand."

"'Home Alone'?" Yeah. What is Home Alone?

"To you! He's nice to you! Because you've got like, animal pied piper magic and it's a miracle birds aren't flying in the style your hair every morning!"

He nods. "It's a movie about using crazy MacGuyver skills to defend your house from thieves. And it takes place during Christmas."

Give Zouichi a moment to consider how nice it would be to have birds grooming him, Howard.

"So it's relevant to your interests. I didn't know thieves were part of Christmas tradition, though." Maybe it was the defending your home part.

"It's tradition." Then again, so are stupid family photos and mistletoe, and like hell is Howard doing that. On that note...

"Oh, and I got you something else..."

He clumps over to behind the tree, where a smaller package is wrapped in newspaper. He hands it over to Zouichi, grinning a bit as it jangles. "Admittedly, this is for my amusement more than yours."

It is the world's ugliest Christmas sweater that he got from Kitten Land. To make matters worse, a fat kitten is embroidered on the back, and Emergency Rations hisses at it as it comes out of the packaging.

Zouichi opened the package and was speechless. ~~There were no survivors.~~

"...why does it have pom-poms?" Seriously, Howard? At least the shirt of wolves howling at the moon was tasteful. That's right. Zouichi called the Three Wolf Moon shirt tasteful. And it was. In comparison to this.

"Hey, at least it's in your size!"

Emergency Rations jumps up on the couch and starts batting at the ribbons and pompoms. "And that's why it has pompoms. Come on, I'll wear the three wolf muumuu if you wear this."

Because nothing could possibly look worse than that sweater.

"Oh, no," said Zouichi. "I'm afraid if you want me to wear this, you'll have to put on..."

He handed Howard a package. This (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilwheaton/73045884/) was inside.

Zouichi you bastard

"Deal," Howard says, though dear God is that an ugly sweater. "If you let me bring the cat everywhere we go, so she can keep trying to bat at the bells."

"An animal accompaniment? No deal. Besides, she'd try to eat me while she was at it."

"Jerk. I spent so much time sabotaging that sweater." You think it came from the store with all those tassels on?

He knew it. Zouichi nudged him with the wadded-up sweater. "Alright, let's see this 'Home Alone'."

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And We're Gonna Pull Through [Bendytimed to After System Shock]

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