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]

[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.

[longstreakofnothing]

[Theta Sigma just looks at the feather for a moment, but the kitten gives a truly feline snort.]

"Still looks like he kicked your ass."

Woah, right, that's enough out of you, Mittens. [He gently pushes the kitten further into his pocket.]

What set him off, 'f you don't mind my asking?

[trustycrowbar]

He thought I was... uh... There was a girl involved. As well as a fever and some deep-seated entitlement issues. I-it's nothing to consider too deeply, really.

[longstreakofnothing]

[The kitten chortles. Theta Sigma looks a bit embarrased--kittens aren't supposed to be such asses, are they?]

Aowh, I see. [nod nod.] Won't ask further.

"Is she a bird or a human? Or something else? That's just weird."

ROIGHT, moving right along. Come on, Mittens.

[trustycrowbar]

[...Did he just scowl at the kitten? Yup. He did. Figures that a cat with the capacity to talk would know just the right buttons to push.]

Yeah, see ya, Theta.