Catspaw Blackmarket [Open]

[zouichi]

Zouichi slipped past the human port workers, nodding politely in response to their apologies. A planet that forbade the Daligig from approaching it... how interesting. Clearly, their hosts' reach wasn't as all-encompassing as they liked to let on. There were things to do aboard the ship as well, but for now perhaps it was time to do some long-awaited searching for supplies.

Food, seeds, gadgets... and weapons. Afterward, perhaps he'd find a crew member or two to have a discreet chat with. It was now or never, now that they were finally (temporarily) out from under the ship's constant monitoring. He sent out a quick message on his Omnicomm, then made his way along a row of storefronts.

Weapons first, he decided. Then food.

Comments

[zouichi]

"Yeah. I'm sure he'll miss you, too." Sort of. Alan had sort of come to view Howard as perhaps a sort of feckless minion. Someone to bother when Zouichi wasn't around to shower him with attention. "I still don't know where he picked that up, by the way."

He started walking in the direction of the Emporium. "So let's go. Maybe there'll be another bizarre fortune teller or something."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Who's going to glare his beady little eyes at?"

Howard picks up the pace and follows. "Do you really want me to jinx the first day of my new life with a fortune teller? What if she tells me I'm going to die?"

The Excitement Emporium isn't a theme park. Instead it's a sort of gimmick science museum, one which lets you spray things at fire and watch the flames change color or play with gigantic magnets. And while Howard would prefer to win a dinosaur...this is actually pretty cool too.

"Looks like it could be fun."

[zouichi]

"He's not glaring, he's a bird. That's his natural facial expression." Zouichi still didn't believe Howard about that glaring, nope.

"Well, you don't have to ask her about your death. Maybe you could ask her about... I don't know, your financial prospects or something." Or his love life!

Zouichi looked up at the entrance of the EXCITEMENT EMPORIUM, as the museum's sign said in giant block letters with a dinosaur blowing fire painted onto the main arch. "Yeah, and I haven't contributed to any fire hazards today, either. I'll pay for this one." He stepped up to the both and, after a moment, came back with two tickets and a map. "Where do you want to go first?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"That's because you don't see him right. Whenever you look at him your eyes turn into hearts like some Pepe Le Pew cartoon." He gives Zouichi a Look. "Okay, fine, so she doesn't say I'm dead. She says I'm goind to go broke instead. Can we not start everything off on the wrong foot?"

Howard looks over the map. "Whoa, it looks like there's a zero-grav chamber here. Isn't it weird we spend so much time in space and pretty much none in zero gravity?"

[zouichi]

"My eyes do not turn into hearts. You just don't understand him. All he wants is a little attention." Or a lot of attention. "Anyway, don't be so pessimistic. She might tell you you're going to become an enormously successful businessman or something."

Zouichi tilted his head slightly toward the location of the grav chamber. "Well, I went out into zero gravity once. It was back when Allenby threw Zetta out of an airlock."

Heh heh heh.

"After that, let's get some of that flash-frozen ice cream. That should be interesting."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"They totally do. And a dramatic violin score swells. And then you rush across a flowering meadow to your parrot's winged embrace." This is totally how Howard sees Zou and Alan's relationship. "And fortune tellers only say nice things when they're lying, so that's still no good."

Howard raises his eyesbrows. "Tell me it wasn't to save the stupid book. Tell me it was to kick him further out."

"Flash-frozen? That sounds awesome</i." Howard reads the map as he walks. "Ooh, looks like there's a laser tag maze near the ice cream stand too."

[zouichi]

Zouichi rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. Now you're really exaggerating."

He smiled a little at the memory. "It was during the Ohm attack. I think Allenby was trying to hit one with him. But you'd have to ask her the details.

"Hmm. Ice cream, then laser tag? Or laser tag first?" Zouichi could go either way, really. "After this, we can go find some place to have lunch."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Am not."

Howard laughs. "I knew there was a reason I liked Allenby." Even if she's way to quick to suggest 'punching things' as a solution. It's not even that Howard dislikes Zetta in particular, he's just not a fan of the Council.

"Ice cream first. I have to see about this flash-frozen thing. Do you know that some places fry ice cream? How cool is that?"

The guy at the ice cream stand has too many arms. Look at Howard having enough restraint not to mock him for it like certain churro vendors they've met!

[zouichi]

"Just one reason?" Zouichi followed Howard toward the ice cream joint, avoiding a small child weaving back and forth through the crowd as he did so. "Fried ice cream actually sounds... kind of gross. How do you even fry ice cream? Wouldn't that just be fried cream?"

He scrutinized the list of flavors, considering. "I'll take strawberry, please."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I don't know her well enough to have a lot of reasons." He shrugs.

"Apparently it's so cold when you fry it that it barely melts. I heard it was a Japanese thing. I thought you'd know about it." Maybe the powers that be on Zou's world weren't intent on preserving gimmick desserts. "Cookie dough, please."

The ice cream they get is so cold it's painful on the teeth, not like that would ever stop Howard.

[zouichi]

Zouichi frowned. "Well, I've never had it." Which... honestly, was true of an awful lot of foods.

He took half a bite, then drew back, surprised by the temperature. A moment later, he bit into the ice cream and started chewing. "Interesting."

Whatever he was going to chew his ice cream, okay? Okay.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard rocks back and forth a little with a hand on his head, trying to ward off the cold headache that came from the genius idea of "if I can't lick it down I'll just swallow this giant snowball whole".

Verdict on flash-frozen ice cream: ow.

"Have you ever even done laser tag before? I mean, I know you did paintball but I didn't even see if you shot anyone."

[zouichi]

Zouichi bit off a little more of the ice cream, apparently oblivious to Howard's headachey distress. "I did play a little laser tag on that amusement park planet. It was... entertaining, if a little unrealistic. There were power suits involved."

This wasn't bad, fried-ness aside. "...Were you in there, too? I don't remember running into you."

Otherwise he totally would have taken a potshot at Howard.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"The point isn't to be realistic. I mean, realistic is blood and gore and being so scared you can't breathe right. Laser tag's supposed to be fun, so you can pretend you're Neo or Tom Cruise or something and then go get lunch twenty minutes later. Totally up the power suit alley."

He nods. "Yeah, I teamed up with Barbara to take Ian down. I figured you're take potshots at me."

HE KNOWS HOW YOU ROLL, ZOU.

[zouichi]

"I guess that's true..." said Zouichi, a little doubtfully. It was pretty clear that he thought actual firefights were fun. Well, as long as you weren't the one getting shot. "Maybe this place will have one and you can fire laser missiles at people."

Yes. That was totally a thing that could happen.

He snorted. "Hey, all's fair in laser tag, right? Even teaming up against unsuspecting victims." He finished up his ice cream. "Ready?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Maybe there'll be a way to set off laser grenades!" As an arcade brat, Howard's actually pretty good at laser tag. Especially the ones that let you use your environment and let you knock over the structures.

"Wait, you even considered not teaming up with me? What kind of awful friend are you?" He claps his hands together. "Ready!"

[zouichi]

"Have you been hanging around Lash lately?" Because Howard sure was sounding like Lash. Zouichi made his way back down towards the maze, which turned out to actually be a sort of holodeck with randomly generated maze setups so that players couldn't get too used to any one layout. The current layout was decorated Tron-style, with glowing fluorescent colors lighting up darkened corridors.

He picked out a gun. "Anyway, if I teamed up with you, there'd be no challenge right?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"A little bit." Howard picks a gun, too, the smallest little pistol-shaped one. This arena is so much cooler than the laser tag maze back home. Back there they only had guns that looks like the scanning machines clerks used at the 7-Eleven.

"Depends on who we're teamed up against. Besides, there's no way you wouldn't win at a laser tag game against me." He gives Zouichi a bropound in the shoulder. "But I guess I'm up to the challenge."

[zouichi]

Zouichi's was a heavier handgun, but somehow he doubted it would really make much difference as far as lasertag was concerned.

Their group was a mixed one: parents, children, a few touristy types or bored-looking teenagers. The man in charge of running the game spoke over their chatter, explaining the rules. "We're dividing you up into two teams," he announced. "Shooting members of the opposing team nets you points. Shooting members of your own team loses you points. The best team standing at the end wins. Any questions?"

Actually, didn't that worker look familiar? It was a little hard to tell in the darkened arena, but -- yes, Zouichi thought he had seen the man before somewhere. The man and his... four... arms.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard nudges Zouichi with his elbow. "I vote we team up and shoot Forearm." And no, Howard can't get through that sentence without snickering. Really, he doesn't care if they win (although he will take extra precautions to shoot all those annoying kids first) so long as some adventure is ascertained.

The teams file toward their 'bases' and wait for the smoke machine to kick in and the strobes to start going off. An alarm goes off to tell them that the game has begun.

True to form, Howard mostly hides behind Zouichi.

[zouichi]

"We can't shoot him," said Zouichi, once Forearm was safely looking the other way. "He's not even in the game!"

Although he did wonder how that guy managed to find his way over here. Maybe it was a relative, or just a coincidence. It couldn't be the exact same guy, right? What were the odds?

Zouichi crouched behind a rampart, emerging every now and then to pick off a clueless player. Children, the elderly... it didn't matter. There was no such thing as mercy in lasertag.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Then why's he wearing a vest?"

Probably to be more visible as a ref, but still, Howard can't help but take shots at Forearm, who looks at them with an expression like he wants to pistolwhip them with their laser guns.

Unfortunately, the fact that Zouichi is That Damn Good at hitting people in laser tag soon means that most of the other team has given up on the actual teamwork part of the game, and is instead just trying to shoot Zouichi for revenge.

[zouichi]

Why did Forearm keep grouping Zouichi with Howard? He wasn't shooting the ref! Honest!

Er, the sudden turning of mass public sentiment against Zouichi was a bit of a problem, though. Especially since some of their own teammates were now shooting at the two of them.

"That's not even in the rules," Zouichi muttered as he lobbed a laser-grenade at a gaggle of children attempting a rush charge.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Probably because Howard's hiding behind you, Zouichi.

"Screw the rules, let's go underground." And by that Howard means knocking stuff over as a distraction. Maybe trapping people in the aisle of the maze. It's a groovy idea.

[zouichi]

Well, if they were going to disregard the rules, it was okay for Zouichi to do the same, right? Right?

Zouichi moved swiftly down a fluorescent corridor, motioned for Howard to come along with him, and tossed a few laser mines in their wake as they came to a mirror bridge. That should keep them busy for a little while.