Rust in Peace [Open]

[zouichi]

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.]

Comments

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"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.

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[zouichi]

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.

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"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?"

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[zouichi]

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."

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

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?"

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[zouichi]

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.

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

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!"

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[zouichi]

How douchey were you, Howard?

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

Re: SEARCHING FOR FRAGMENTS

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Very.

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