[action]

[nomen_est_numen]

What's this traipsing through the streets of Sirocco? Why, it's Shen, looking like he only just came out the other end of a fight with a garden. What's that he's dragging behind him, all tied up with one of his rope darts? Might be the garden. On closer inspection, it turns out to be a man in a plant-themed costume. They're headed in the direction of the police station.

"Will this... never... end?" the bird wheezes. He stops and leans exhaustedly against the side of a building.

Speak to him? Help him out? Mock him for being old and out if breath?

Comments

[trustycrowbar]

Gordon would say something, but he's got his own problems at the moment, and it probably has something to do with the muffled blasts coming from that bakery. Technicolor glop occasionally hits the inside of the windows in a visceral splatter of pretty blues and yellows, and the commotion is punctuated with the occasional thud or incomprehensible yelp.

Eventually the noise stops, and out comes Gordon... hair, suit, and glasses covered with a rainbow of colored goop. He holds a skinny teenage girl in a cake-themed costume by the wrists behind her back, urging her along. Fairy cakes bounce out of a sack at her hip occasionally, popping like sugary grenades when they hit the ground, leaving a thee-foot diameter fallout of frosting.

"You can't stop Sugar Shock! I'm going to be back! You may be flying high now but you'll crash and crash HARD! Uugh... you know, I don't feel so good..."

"Hey Shen." He says once he passes the bird. His tone is flat, tired, and he's furiously ignoring the fact that he looks like he got into a fight with a rainbow and lost. "Who'd you get this time?"

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen is, for once, not in a position to say anything about appearance. After all, he's light green from all the grass and plant bits stuck in his feathers and is sporting a nice trellis of flowers in his tail.

He looks up from his breathless contemplation of the sidewalk as Gordon approaches. "'Lo. Fellow called himself... Doctor Chlorophyll. Broke into the... Botanical Gardens. Tried to 'set the plants free.'"

[trustycrowbar]

"Seriously? Set them FREE? Ngh, I and I thought the cat-guy was off his rocker... This is getting ridiculous. I dunno how the professionals do it."

"Try as you might, Captain Crowbar, we will, like, overwhelm you all!"

"Ugh, god, how many times do I have to say this? I'm not Captain Crowbar! The name's Freeman!"

"...That's a really stupid hero name."

"Anyway, you alright featherduster? You look like you got run over with a landscaping truck."

[nomen_est_numen]

Shen makes an amused sound and shakes his head. That 'Captain Crowbar' moniker isn't going to leave Gordon alone.

"He put up quite a fight with gardening implements... And half a garden. And a flower trellis. I... think I'll be all right. I must have... learnt all this kung fu... a really long time ago." He leans against the building again. "I'm too old for this, now...."

[trustycrowbar]

Come to think of it, it WAS really hard to place Shen's age. That could have been because he wasn't human, but now that he thinks of it the Kung-fu mastery probably had a minimum of fourty or fifty years to say for itself...

"Oh... I don't know about that." He replies, which is the reaction anyone in their late twenties with only a glancing knowledge of the rigors of age would reply with.

[nomen_est_numen]

He gives a breathless chuckle. "Look at me...wheezing like a bellows.... I've little stamina for this... it seems."

[faithful_kitsune]

O-oh dear, you poor man. Do you need anything? I could assist you with your burden, if need be.

[nomen_est_numen]

"Hm?" He looks up from where his wilting posture left him staring at the sidewalk and instantly some of his feathers fluff. "Ran!" Blinkblink. "I..." Wobble. "... I just... need a moment, is all." LIAR.

[faithful_kitsune]

You look as though you need MORE than a few moments. Here, allow me.

*She hefts the plant man up as best she can.*

[nomen_est_numen]

'Doctor Chlorophyll' is a skinny lil fellow, even when he is clad in plants and flowers and is pretty light. He can probably be dragged along with little effort. Shen puts up a rather flagging resistance but eventually wheezes a breathless "thank you," before leaning against the building again.

"I've been doing this... all day." He looks ruefully down at the unconscious supervillain-wannabe. "This fellow... was going to be the last... for today. I... really don't know how... these professionals... do it. Day in and... day out."

[faithful_kitsune]

I suppose it is their job, so they have to train themselves rigorously for it. Certainly, this sort of work is not for either you nor I normally.

I think you should rest after this. You certainly look as though you could use it.

[nomen_est_numen]

He looks up from surreptitiously attempting to smooth his feathers. No, he's not preening. Never. Nope. Absolutely not.

"Ah. I... usually don't look so... bedraggled. Really, it's just the... plant bits...." Aaaaand he's not fooling anyone. "Terribly sorry. This really isn't how one should look in the presence of a lady...."