A Musical Interlude

[nomen_est_numen]

["Delivery for Mister Shen..." A courier delivers a bizarrely-shaped package for the bird in question, who is still under observation at the Labs. This object turns out to be a Chinese lute.]

[He's festooned with sensors and still looking rather tired, but Shen finds a comfortable place to sit and stretches, cracking the knuckles... of his... feet.... That done, he picks up the lute and strikes a few chords on it, a wing pressing the frets and a foot strumming the strings. It's a somewhat contortionist style of playing, but appears to work. His playing is passable, even pleasant. His singing, on the other hand, is a bit... rusty.]

[For the next twenty minutes, Shen plucks at those strings and warbles in Chinese, his voice occasionally cracking in a truly avian keeeeOWW. Folks can understand the words, though the metaphors are pretty difficult to parse, seeing as he's probably the worst lyricist this side of the legendary Song So Poo, Court Composer for the Kantwin Dynasty.]

[Pity anyone stuck in the observation room with him.]

[EDIT: As though that weren't bad enough, he and Gordon are now singed, torn up, bruised, and twitching messes. While Shen may still be in the observation room, Gordon's in the lab at large. Oh, dear.]

Comments

[trustycrowbar]

[Yup. Pity him. He likes Shen, and these nanite cluster suspension samples just aren't going to watch THEMSELVES grow, now are they? But between his squalking and the tiny readout he needs to monitor he feels a headache gaining on him fast.]

Shen... look, you're pretty good, but can you put a sock in it while I'm trying to concentrate?

[nomen_est_numen]

[Driven bird is driven.]

That's the problem, I'm only 'pretty good' at this.

[So he steps up the lute playing, but his singing cracks even worse. And his metaphors somehow devolve into double entendres.]

[There's a blissful moment of relative silence as he writes down a particularly convoluted image, but it all starts right back up again immediately afterward.]

[trustycrowbar]

[Oh dear god, this is almost as bad as when Booster brings in a date late at night... except he can duck out of the apartment, but he CAN'T leave the lab while there's a slim chance of these nanite film plates growing into a cohesive mass of hungry gray goo that could spell the doom of civilization as we know it. He scowls, face in his hand, glasses askew.]

Do the plums and peach mean what I think they mean...?

[Curiosity wins out there, even though he really doesn't want to hear the answer from the old bird.]

[nomen_est_numen]

I'm singing from the depths of my soul, Gordon.

[The depths of his soul apparently sound like warblewarbleWARK awk warble ohhhhh~ my luscious vixen, I prithee thee, don't be shy~ for I like big tails and I cannot lieeeee~]

[He can take that as a 'yes,' then.]

[trustycrowbar]

[VIXEN? Nngh, oh for the love of--No. Just... no.]

Okay, I'm serious, there are kids that go through here you know!

[And the occasional fox-girl!]

[nomen_est_numen]

Nonsense, the metaphors are cleanly worded. Though maybe something about fireworks... [he chuckles and continues sotto voce] ...like to make some fireworks with her... oh, that's dreadful....

[trustycrowbar]

[So... Gordon's just taken part in a territorial scuffle over a kitsune with a giant fevered albino peacock that involved knives and an all-out brawl in the incubation lab. One that was ended with a few kilowatts of electricity handed to both of them by their new biology expert he just called in himself.]

[So... yeah. Right now, he's taking a damn break. Standing outside the side of the labs, scratched, bruised, clothes torn, a small cup of coffee in one hand, the other hand to his forehead.]

[life_is_megas_wonderful]

Whoa! You look like something the cat dragged in! What happened?

[trustycrowbar]

Hey, Tsuruya. Got in a little fight in the labs.

[He says it outright, in the hopes she'll assumes it's with a monster. You know, like it USUALLY is.]

[life_is_megas_wonderful]

*Hmmmm. Well, she won't pry.*

Ooh, some of the residents getting a little rowdy, huh? I gotta say, this whole "fighting monsters" stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be!

[trustycrowbar]

[He straightens, and glances over and down to her. All right, better leave his problems behind for a moment.]

You could put it that way... you handling it all right?

[longstreakofnothing]

[Theta Sigma walks by with a kitten in his coat pocket. Nothing terribly out-of-the-ordinary about that until one hears the tiny voice:]

"Woah, what happened to him?"

[He backpedals and returns to where Gordon is standing.]

Blimey. Rough day at the office?

[trustycrowbar]

[He takes a thoughtful sip of his coffee.] No more rough than normal. Just... weird. Normally it's the monsters that I have to fight around here, not my buddies.

[longstreakofnothing]

"Aw, man, that sucks."

[Somehow, hearing that from a kitten ramps up the cognitive dissonance about as much as you'd expect. Theta Sigma, however, nods and then pulls a white and red feather out of a tear in Gordon's labcoat.]

Y'don't fight with this chap very often, I'd think. After all, you're still breathing.

[He quirks an eyebrow at Gordon. The kitten just rolls its eyes.]

[trustycrowbar]

[He now notices the talking kitten, and stares for only a half-second longer than would be polite before returning to the feather and the subject at hand.]

He... he wasn't thinking straight. It was a brawl, nothing more. [He snorts, remembering their respective battle prowess.] Arguably it wasn't even that.

[not_good_not_wicked]

Just so you know, if Rex hadn't interrupted us I woulda kicked your monster-butt.

[nomen_est_numen]

What are you babbling about?

[not_good_not_wicked]

Just earlier, when you were all monstery. I was too and we got in a fight.

[nomen_est_numen]

...

[It takes him a moment to remember but remember he does and when that happens, he simply scoffs and looks away.]

Nonsense. You didn't even have any limbs. Just a big beam of light. [...that hurt like all the daemons in hell but he ain't about to admit that.]

[not_good_not_wicked]

A beam of light that could set buildings and ridiculous looking birds on fire.

[nomen_est_numen]

[It's not until the next day, when Gordon is back to work and up to his eyeballs in EVO research that Shen finds him, most likely in the canteen. He nearly turns around and walks back out again but he's hungry, damnit. He's going to acquire some food, damnit. He's gonna EAT IT, damnit.]

[... And he's gonna try to explain just what the hell was wrong with him yesterday. Damnit. He walks up to where Gordon is sitting and nearly concealed by books and printouts and clears his throat softly.]

[trustycrowbar]

[There's a pause in the productive rustling sounds and a pale hand moves a stack of books to reveal Gordon's face and his lunchtime kill of the day, something that's evidently supposed to pass for a tuna melt. There's a brief flash of defensive apprehension in his expression and then it's gone again as he clears his throat.]

Yes... Shen?

[nomen_est_numen]

[Shen sees that look and it actually makes him wince for a moment.]

I... ah. May I join you? Only I feel I've some explaining to do....

[trustycrowbar]

... [He still doesn't completely trust Shen to not explode into a feathery ball of rage again, but he's sure he has the decency to not get feathers in his lunch.]

Sure. [He murmurs and moves yet more reference books off of the seat next to him.]

[nomen_est_numen]

[He had been molting out of sheer instinctive rage earlier and looks a bit bedraggled because of it, now. He puts the thoroughly typical bowl of rice and vegetables on the table and then picks up the chair and turns it round before sitting on it. Straddling a backward chair may appear a bit aggressive to humans (you know, just to compound the nonverbal miscommunications) but where else is he going to put that tail?]

This feels like something I'm not used to doing, and that bothers me a bit. [He looks away and down, arranging his thoughts.] I'm afraid I fell headfirst into instinct, yesterday. With all that staring and circling 'round me, I couldn't even hear what you were saying.

[ahem.]

What I mean to say is, er, well, I'm sorry.