trans_9 | Far below the rolling tide [Open]

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Far below the rolling tide [Open]

Strangely enough, even after the events of the past few days, Zouichi had not developed an aversion to the ocean. Or axes! Or giant squid! It helped that he, unlike some of the other crew, hadn't been in imminent danger of drowning. He was, however, busying himself with preparing some of the food they'd bought on shore leave, as well as supplies salvaged from the Deepstar 7. No sense letting it go to waste, right?

He'd started work in the early morning, and gotten so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't quite notice that he was making more than was absolutely necessary. What? Cooking was relaxing. And anyway, he thought as he waited to pull a piece of battered shrimp out of its cooking oil, someone would probably eat it all. For the people living in the inn, he was careful to set aside boxes of prepared food. But there was an increasing amount left over...

Stop by, enjoy your ridiculously overprepared lunch. Or just a simple one, if you're an acquaintance. The front door's open!

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"Hah, maybe. And maybe you could teach Alan to be a drill sergeant to train that armed guard. I bet he's got a great atten-SHUN voice."

Howard angles his head. "How long what is going to go on? The cats fighting?"

"Being on the ship. Going on missions. Following the ship's orders. That sort of thing."

You know. The depressing thing that hangs over everyone's head all the time.

"Oh. That." Way to kill the mood, Zou. Even the cats look less spunky than they were a minute ago. "You know, it might go on until we die."

He pauses. "Not that that might be long if there's more killer robots hidden up in Stacy."

Yeah, that. Zouichi is often surprised by how seldom most of the people here think about how it could indeed be decades or more before everything is over.

"Well, how many killer robot armies can it have? Most people I know only have one."

It could be, but Howard's unlikely to care. He expects to be leaving Stacy long before that, hopefully in the next year or two, depending on if they stop at a suitable planet. And after that, well. What he doesn't know won't hurt him.

"Well, it is the size of a moon. How many killer robot armies can you fit on the moon?" Depends on the size of the robots, he guesses. "Besides, she has Reavers and Nightmare Kings and other crap too. Doesn't have to be robots."

"Quite a few," said Zouichi. "But it does seem like the ship goes for variety over quantity. Robots twice in a row? I think not. It'll probably be aliens or mind control."

Does he sound cynical? He's feeling a little cynical.

"Jeez, and people say I'm a downer." Howard looks a little concerned. It always bothers him to see Zouichi - not shaken, but worn down by the situation. And he'd think that what with Zouichi's new sparkling love life and abundance of materials to make sushi out of, Zouichi would be in a better mood.

Maybe it's just one crazy, stupid mission for a ship that manipulates them too many.

"Do you want to hug a cat?" Howard offers.

Well, he was pretty cynical to begin with. And while Zouichi wasn't going to give up or anything anytime soon, well... sometimes it got a little discouraging after a half-dozen rinse cycles of "I'm going to toss you all in a blender now and see who comes out alive."

...he was looking forward to seeing Ildraniath again, though.

Zouichi blinked, then looked at the cat in Howard's arms. "Don't they dislike that?"

"Only if you squeeze them. Here." Howard gets up and brings the cat to Zouichi, scratching Emergency Rations under her chin the whole while. She's purring; Howard's gotten much better at handling her since hanging out with Cassie. He passes her as gently as one would a baby over to Zouichi (and, arguably, probably more gently than he would treat an actual baby). "Just inhale some allergens for a minute. It's actually pretty relaxing."

And then Zouichi had an armful of cat. Emergency Rations was soft and fuzzy. And full of allergens. Zouichi rubbed behind her ears.

Yeah, this was kind of relaxing. ~~BUT IF IT WAS AN ATTEMPT AT CONVERSION, IT WOULDN'T WORK~~

"She's surprisingly docile." Almost suspiciously so. Was this the same cat that tried to eat his hand?

Emergency Rations has a very loud purr.

"That's because she just got food and now she's getting all the attention. They're so jealous of everything." Yet another way pets resemble their owners! Howard pets her while Zouichi holds her. The cat really as calmed down since she's learned she no longer has to be afraid of being stuffed in a backpack.

"So when are you seeing your girlfriend again?" Howard asks in a sing-song sort of voice.

Zouichi smiled a little, patting Emergency Rations almost absently as he did so. "Maybe I'll go look for her after this. I think she might appreciate a change of pace from the ship's food."

And he'd appreciate a change of pace from being a mile under the ocean trying to figure out how best to prevent other people from suffering death by giant squid.

"You're totally going to be her stay-at-home husband." Howard gathers his other cat up off where it's trying to get attention back on the floor. "I can't wait until you're getting your space elf kids their first motortrike."

Zouichi pressed part of his face against Emergency Rations' fur, so that his expression was not clearly visible. "There's nothing wrong with doing things for the person you care for." Seeing Ildraniath happy -- well, pleased -- made him glad as well. That was the way it was supposed to work, right?

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I doubt we're compatible in that fashion. Although if you ever adopt, I'll be sure to get your kid their first cat."

"I didn't say there was. I mean, that's what it means to care about someone, right?" Actually hiding your expression, Zou? Does that mean you actually let your face move out of its lineface for once?

"Dude, you know me. The day I adopt a kid is the day someone vacuums out my brain and replaces it with a, I don't know, starfish or something."

No, of course not. He just had a sudden urge to inhale allergens, that was all. And excuse you, Howard, Zouichi had been linefacing less lately. In fact, sometimes he'd even go out to water the plants and just sort of... smile, while he was doing it. While no one was watching, of course. "It's one part of it, I think."

He raised an eyebrow. "A starfish? Well, maybe you can be someone's eccentric uncle."

If Howard doesn't see it, it doesn't count. He is the recordkeeper of all your facial expressions, Zouichi.

"I don't know, starfish have baby starfish, right?" His face falls a little. "I'm not eccentric."

He's trying so hard to be relatively normal you don't even know, Zou.

"Okay, I'll be the eccentric uncle." Zouichi was trying to figure out what starfish had to do with anything. Humans had baby humans, right? Why starfish?

He pet Emergency Rations a little longer before setting her paws down on the floor. "You can be the enthusiastic aunt. Aren't they supposed to give you socks every New Year's?" Or was that Christmas? Well, it would make more sense for it to be Christmas, right? What did people in California do on New Year's?

Edited 2012-01-30 17:07 (UTC)

"Weird to think we might have whole generations on this ship. Like, for all we know it ends tomorrow. Or it ends in a hundred years after we're all dead and it's our kids' kids' kids. Well, you know. Other people's kids' kids' kids." Who would they play eccentric uncles to, anyway? "I mean, the fact that Stacy jacks us full of birth control all the time makes me think she's planning short term, but this war's been going on years, so maybe she's just an idiot."

He shakes his head. "How about I stay away from other people's kids altogether? No need to waste money on socks on Christmas."

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure what it really wants is to keep people invested in the war. To make sure no one develops priorities that favor, say, their children, rather than the cause. And besides, children take up valuable hours that could be spent working." Zouichi was still drinking that haterade, obviously.

"But if you don't pay attention to anyone else's kids, they won't listen to your cat stories. It's equivalent trade." Was he joking? WHO KNEW.

"Right, because no one's developed priorities in not fighting this dumb war. If Stacy thinks the only reason people would defect is their kids she's got a really bad handle on psychology."

He drums his fingers on the table. "Oh, yeah. We work real hard. What with the no pay and the total lack of motivation beyond occasional threats of death. It's a miracle most of it get up in the morning."

People love his cat stories, Zou.

Well, Zouichi did do some work. Although for him, it was incredibly... well, it didn't take much out of him.

"Priorities or not, we're all still here, aren't we?" His tone was dry; while he could understand why he was still on this ship, the same was not necessarily true of everyone else. Did they stay here out of determination? Fear? Apathy?

Or maybe just a sense of familiarity and an unwillingness to leave the ship to face the nebulous threat of giant psychic space bugs on their own. "Anyway, I thought Medical got up to shower the world with your sparkling good cheer."

Edited 2012-01-30 22:02 (UTC)

"Those of us who aren't dead!" For Howard it's mostly a matter of practicality, finding a world he can pop off to where he can make his way for himself and take care of Orc. Before he was staying for Orc, but now...

"Yeah, that's us. Sparkles and rainbows over in medical. Did I tell you we dissected an Ohm, and it turned out to still be kind of alive?"

And honestly? Zouichi would see him off with a smile. Not because he wouldn't miss Howard, but because Howard, whatever he did back in the FAYZ, didn't deserve to die fighting this war. He should find a nice planet, start up a salvage business or something. Buy some island out in the middle of nowhere and grow fruit trees on it.

He raised an eyebrow. "No. But I wouldn't be terribly surprised. It was a drone, wasn't it? I'd expect it to be connected at some level to the whole. That's what the drones back home were like."

And hire an awesome therapist.

"I don't know. Drone-ish. It was still receiving signals from like, a mother broadcaster or something. You know how weird it is to be cutting into a dead something's brain and then realize it's still sort of alive? Super weird."

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