trans_9 | Rust in Peace [Open]

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Rust in Peace [Open]

Zouichi, for once, wasn't in the City on patrol. Instead, he was making a systematic search of the city's streets, looking for telltale stray robot parts that might lead him to what he was looking for. Unfortunately, during SHODAN's attack, not all of the crew (except him! okay not really) had been terribly judicious about the property damage they were inflicting on the nearby buildings.

So there was rubble everywhere. Oops.

But it had been in the middle of a robot attack, right? Sometimes you needed to break a few eggs to make an omelet, right? RIGHT.

[This is the log for searching for robot parts and a SUPER SECRET ENGINEERING PROJECT okay it's not that secret but IT SORT OF IS. Feel free to have someone try and peek in on the Engineering thread ~~and have Lash furtively cover her test paper~~.]

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"And? People like Red Robin and Security's going to protect their own. That's how it works." Howard goes back to digging through the robot box, very careful for potential things that could blow up in his face.

"I thought you'd have gotten a file on it by now. Douchebag MD accused me of stealing from the Med Bay so I got to spend a shift getting frisked." Granted, he was stealing, but that's not the point here.

"That's not how it should work." And it bothered Zouichi that he couldn't tell Howard flat-out that he was wrong. That Security had his best interests in mind, and that Red Robin would be duly censured. "I'll talk to him."

He raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't the officer that handled the case. Guess they didn't think it was important enough to put out an all-points." Then he paused. "Were you stealing?"

"Yeah, you do that." Zouichi is probably the only person in Security that Howard trusts to defend him. Then again, he mostly goes out of his way to avoid Security.

Howard's expression can best be described as 'sulky'. "Does it matter? The only reason Carson got on my case at all is because he doesn't like me and wanted to take it out on someone."

"I will. But yes, it does matter. Why are you taking things from Medical? Couldn't you just... I don't know, ask for extra supplies?" Zouichi isn't even going to ask if Howard can stop hoarding supplies. He already figures the answer is 'no'.

"Because Faiza wouldn't let me and I don't want to go through my other bosses. It's not fair. I've been there longer and know more about how Medical runs than they do, but everyone still acts like I can't call the shots because I'm fifteen. Sakura, too, when she was here. We can't be trusted with responsibility but a clueless new guy can step in if he's got an MD after his name."

Yes, he's super bitter. And also dragging the conversation away from why he steals things. Yes, part of it's because he fears getting told no, and part of it's just that constant paranoia that makes him hoard, but part of it's just lashing out at his workplace.

And yes, it's an emphatic no on stopping hoarding.

"You want to call the shots? I agree that Sakura could be just as qualified to run things as any doctor, but you weren't even a medic before you arrived here. Medical doctors have to go through years of training before they get to be full-fledged doctors.

"And someone who takes medical supplies shouldn't be in charge of Medical. They need to be available for patients, not lying around in some house in the City." Zouichi didn't really care if Howard hoarded food or robot parts or whatever if no one else was using them, but stealing medicines, bandages, and the like from people who might need them wasn't okay.

"No, I don't. I don't want that kind of responsibility. But I'm tired of having to do all the work myself with no one teaching me what to do and then having to follow dumb new rules whenever someone new comes in and witches things around on me."

Howard looks a bit surprised, like he expected Zou to be on his side. "Wait, you think I'm making a personal stash, don't you."

"Understandable," said Zouichi. "But maybe not something that anyone can really help if people are getting repodded. Maybe someone should make the EMH head of Medical." At least the guy was around whenever you needed him.

"What are you taking them for?"

"I'm making stashes across the city that me and Sakura know about, in case medical is ever overrun again because barely anyone can be bothered to protect it over the stupid tavern." And he has a personal stash, but that is almost entirely supplies he stole from Xaxing/Galilee/Pelau/HappyHappyFunWorld wherever.

As for not keeping the other residents of Medical in the loop, that's because he's spiteful and finds the Medical heads useless. Granted, it certainly didn't help his case against Carson. 'I'm stealing rather than asking because I don't like you'.

"So... why not tell someone about your plan? That sounds like something that anyone in Medical could agree with. And if they're for everyone to use, then it would help if they actually knew about it. If you get repodded at this point, all those supplies would be lost."

Not that Zouichi even really knew Carson, but surely anyone would agree that having emergency supplies distributed would be a good thing, right?

Edited 2012-04-03 17:42 (UTC)

"Because I don't want to, okay? Because I don't like them and I don't trust them and I don't want them taking over something I'm doing just because they've got the stupid notion they can do it better." And because he doesn't always think things through. Sometimes he just does stupid, impulsive, rulebreaky stuff because he can get away with it and cone up with a justification later.

Zouichi sighed. "Okay, but you do realize that having only one person know where the supplies are basically makes it a personal stash, right? Maybe you can just let people know where they are over the comms."

Always assuming, of course, that Howard actually wants other people to know where to find them.

Edited 2012-04-03 18:03 (UTC)

"Yeah, I realize that. I just need to find someone else in medical I trust to use them right. And I'm not going to tell just anybody where they are, because they might move them or waste them or misuse them and then I'll expect they're there and they won't be." And that would be horrifying and the very idea freaks Howard out.

"I miss what Medical was like when it wasn't a stupid hostile work environment." Howard pulls a Terminator's torso out of the box with some effort. "You think the microchip's in here?"

And there it was. Someone might use the supplies. Someone who wasn't Howard. Someone who wouldn't use them for whatever it was Howard deemed acceptable use. And then they wouldn't be around for Howard any more, waiting around in their little stashes just in case. Except that the supplies had been for everyone's use, not just Howard's, and in hiding them away and refusing to tell anyone where they were, he'd essentially stolen them from the rest of the crew, no matter what justifications Howard might want to use.

Zouichi frowned, clearly disapproving, but at this point it was probably better to just suggest to Medical directly that they leave various stockpiles of supplies around, rather than trying to sweat Howard into giving up what he'd already stashed away.

"Other than whatever it was Rory did," he said (and he doubted that everything Howard had told him about that situation was true), "I haven't heard of anything else that might qualify Medical as a 'hostile work environment'."

Most of the robot parts Zouichi was interested in were damaged, burnt-out, or warped, but he did manage to salvage a few memory circuits, wrench loose a CPU or two, and collect some fuel cells. "I think that's about all these robots really have to offer for the moment."

Howard's hurt, partially because he just doesn't feel like he should feel bad about it and partially because he'd been hoping, irrationally, that Zouichi would back him up anyway, because to Howard that's what friends are supposed to do. He would back Zou if Zou did something distasteful or wrong. He knows he shouldn't have expected it of Zou, because Zouichi has these weird things like 'standards' and 'morals', but it still stings.

"Between Rory and Carson I'd had it up to here with being harassed." He starts to load the Terminators back into the box. "I guess I'll have to dig through this place for more of those things later. You need anything else I might have?"

Sorry, Howard. Standards is standards. Zouichi wouldn't expect Howard to support him if he did do something wrong, of course -- although he did, despite himself, sometimes expect Howard to be more moral than he actually is. He forgot sometimes that Howard operated on a different set of rules.

"No, I don't think so, unless you have a giant mother brain lying around here." Which would amount to some additional questioning right there.

He's trying, Zou! He's 20% less douchey than he was when he arrived on the ship!

"Right on. I'll keep an eye out for things for you when I'm looking." He mock-salutes Zou. "Good luck with rooting through the trash!"

How douchey were you, Howard?

"Same to you. Try not to blow anything up."

Very.

Howard waves to Zouichi as he goes and locks the door behind him.

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Rust in Peace [Open]

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