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?

[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.]

[not_good_not_wicked]

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

[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.]