Day 30: Cafeteria, Dinner

[captain_hunam]

The cafeteria was all but empty when Zelnick got there. He was a little disappointed; he had gotten the impression that patients usually ate dinner in their rooms, so he hadn't arranged to meet anyone, and there really wasn't anyone to sit by and engage in conversation yet

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[wantsyourzex]

ZEX engaged the nurse who accompanied him in small talk to be polite, but when they entered the cafeteria he broke off mid-word in favor of something infinitely more important. Where could his human have gotten off to...? Surely he must be here.

Ah, there he was. Unaware of his presence for now, but that was fine with him. He liked the advantage of surprise. Rather than exercising his usual caution about human foodstuffs, he picked up a little of everything available for dinner, and tried to keep everything in balance on his tray while he walked. Ironic that a body that was so stiff and rigid would feel so untrustworthy.

He glanced around with the intention of making it look like he wasn't making a direct line for the Captain, but he found that he couldn't keep it up for very long.

"Fancy meeting you here, Captain!" ZEX said, with a perhaps inappropriately satisfied smile. "What are the odds? Hee! Hee! Hee!" Mmm, he's so beautiful. After a short pause where ZEX practically leered at him without much shame, he adjusted his tray

STOP STALKING ME YOU STALKER. <3

[captain_hunam]

Somehow, Zelnick was entirely unsurprised when ZEX came up to him-- the admiral was hardly subtle about it. Still, he wasn't going to protest the company. Yet. Probably.

The leer was met with an incredulous expression, and the nearly-toppling with a choked laugh that Zelnick quickly forced to silence. ZEX really wasn't used to his body, was he? Doing his best not to laugh (while Zelnick's reservoirs of tact were nearly empty, he still had a trickle of the stuff for times like this), Zelnick shrugged and motioned to the seat next to him. "Go ahead," he said, voice carefully level.

stalk is such an ugly word O3

[wantsyourzex]

"Thank you, Captain." ZEX tried to sound dignified, but he was grinning far too widely for that. It was interesting how it seemed to be a natural human reaction to pleasing things... he was glad at least that expression didn't require too much thought to pull off correctly.

Again, ZEX sat quite close to him, although he did leave room to work his elbows without hopefully jabbing the Captain in the ribs. Human joints were strangely sharp at points for some reason. Although he was close enough to brush against his leg every now and then, purely accidentally of course.

"Do all your foods require... your skull protrusions?" ZEX poked his pork with one finger, which then cautiously went in his mouth.

The truth is often ugly~ :B

[captain_hunam]

ZEX looked a little too pleased-- what, had he expected Zelnick to tell him to sit somewhere else?-- and sat a little too close, but at least Zelnick wasn't pinned between him and the couch arm anymore. In fact, Zelnick could easily slide his chair a few inches away from ZEX, to make the space between them a bit more comfortable-- comfortable for Zelnick, that is-- and did so

"Our teeth?" Zelnick asked, though he was pretty sure that was what ZEX was talking about. "Yeah, most solids need to be chewed before you can swallow. There's a few exceptions-- your mashed potatoes, for one, are soft enough that chewing doesn't really have a purpose." Zelnick scooped up some of the potatoes with his fork and ate them, then paused, staring at his plate. "This is really good," he said, surprise clear in his voice.

eye of the beholder O3

[wantsyourzex]

Ah, he moved away. ZEX had hoped maybe he'd have a little more time to touch his leg before he noticed. What a shame

*Cackles* ZEX's view IS a bit skewed...

[captain_hunam]

Specialized?

"Humans are about the least specialized species from our planet," Zelnick said, bemused. "We're the jack-of-all-trade, able to do a lot of things passably, and a very few things well." Shaking off his bemusement, he asked, "How did you eat before? And what?"

Obviously more efficiently than right now; the bemusement came back in full force as Zelnick watched ZEX's struggle with the fork. If ZEX normally had this much difficulty, it was a wonder he hadn't starved yet.

"It's far better than what we had on the Vindicator. Not as good as my dad's cooking." He shook his head as he watched ZEX give up on the fork. "Some things are meant to be eaten with your hands, but otherwise, it's bad manners not to use the flatware." Zelnick hesitated for a moment, then took hold of ZEX's hand and fork. "Here, like this--" Carefully, he positioned the fork correctly, then squeezed ZEX's hand to keep everything in place before pulling back from the contact.

Merely openminded!

[wantsyourzex]

"Specialized in terms of being able to eat so many different solids is what I meant. Although I've heard many things about your adaptability... it's part of what makes me so curious about you." Particularly their ability to do a lot of things they weren't, perhaps, naturally intended to do with, perhaps, another species. But ZEX didn't mention that. "As for before, my food was primarily brought by supply lines and a few harvesters on Cerenkov... or did you mean generally?" ZEX tried to think of where to begin. "We can eat many things and do, it's just that none of them involve any kind of... teeth. We have a rather powerful digestive system... it's merely a matter of whatever it is we want to eat being able to be swallowed, and liquids are the natural choice. These are similar, in a way." ZEX indicated the potatoes, and paused. "You know, come to think of it... I've never harvested my own food before. Almost everything I ate was already prepared for consumption, bred for that specific purpose... we do enjoy the entire spectacle of

So I've noticed~!

[captain_hunam]

Zelnick listened to ZEX intently-- he didn't know much about the VUX, and it was actually pretty interesting, in a mundane way. "When I was a kid, we had to grow our own food," he commented. "No supply line runs to Unzervalt, after all, so we had gardens of Earth crops, and kept edible native plants." He smiled a bit, remembering how he used to hate gardening.

The last bit caught Zelnick's attention. "Aquatic cities?" he asked, inviting elaboration.

ZEX did better with the fork this time, and Zelnick smiled cheerily. "It's probably pretty complicated to be a VUX, too," he said, "you've just had a lifetime to practice it."

At ZEX's question, Zelnick took a moment to think. "Hmm. I'm not sure if I could find a room I haven't been to. So I guess you should come to mine? Then we could go meet Yuber and his friend... I'm in room 39," he added.

[wantsyourzex]

"That's right, your world was isolated. Hee! We certainly had very different upbringings." For a moment ZEX thought of his parents, and he immediately changed the subject

[captain_hunam]

Zelnick was, despite his dislike of the VUX, fascinated by ZEX's explanation. "That's... kind of cool," he said, a bit wondrously. "I know life on Earth first evolved in the oceans and only moved to land later, but our unintelligent ancestors have been land-dwellers for a very long time. Underwater cities... that's the stuff of fantasy and legend, for us." He practically glowed with interest. "How are the underwater cities constructed? How deep can they be built? I imagine the pressure keeps them in relatively shallow water

[wantsyourzex]

"Hee! Hee! Hee! Well, I suppose it would be to someone who didn't grow up with such things. It's commonplace to me... has been for our species for... millenia, I suppose. I wish I could answer your questions with definite accuracy, but I'm not an aquatic VUX, and my family hasn't been for generations. I've only visited on occasion. They seem to be constructed the same as our land cities, although with a great deal more doors to keep out certain predators and the like. There are simple places just carved out of rock and reef, and elaborate palaces built by those with far too much money to spare, and all sorts in-between. As for depth..." ZEX paused in thought. "I'm not sure how humans would measure it. We have a word for it, where it's most comfortable, but I'm not sure it would mean anything to you

A-ack. D: Can I jump in and give ZEX a hug?

[captain_hunam]

Zelnick happily absorbed the information, obviously delighted with it all, until ZEX stopped and dropped his fork and looked terribly confused.

"Uh..." Zelnick blinked. The translation problem hadn't occurred to him, either; he was so used to speaking with alien crewmates with the aid of a translator, he had just come to assume that everyone could understand him as well as he could understand them. But this place didn't seem to have translator-level technology, and upon thinking, he didn't seem to be wearing a translator...

Utterly baffled, Zelnick replied with the completely pointless correction of "Humanity's primary language is English, not 'human'." Speaking slowly, he continued, "And that's the language I hear you and everyone else speaking. It's what I read, too, on the bulletin board-- everyone wrote in English, excepting a few words." Shaking his head, Zelnick set down his fork and leaned back in his chair. "But that doesn't make sense at all, does it?"

even in the midst of a minor panic attack, he'd never say no

[wantsyourzex]

So the Captain heard him speaking human, or English, or whatever he preferred to call it

I'd never hesitate to give him one, epsecially not in the midst of a minor panic attack.

[captain_hunam]

Zelnick couldn't possibly understand how horrible this was for ZEX; his displacement hadn't been anywhere near as complete as ZEX's, and "indentity crisis" had never been one of the problems Zelnick had.

He could understand that, whatever was going through ZEX's head, it was upsetting him badly-- and not just bitter-about-how-much-his-species-sucks upset. Seeing someone who had, in Zelnick's brief experiences with him, been so self-assured, so very grounded in confidence, wrought with doubt

[wantsyourzex]

Think clearly and focus. Make a plan, see it through, and work. Do not doubt, succeed.

Old thoughts that kept him steady and calm during the War, able to plot and plan the deaths of hundreds, thousands. Enabled him to kill as many as was necessary to win one skirmish after another. Natural and mechanical.

ZEX's voice was quiet and completely serious. "There must be an explanation for this... this place changes completely from day to night through means unknown. Something like this would likely be within their power, or perhaps they modified my human brain like you suggest and implanted a translating device to alter my perceptions." It didn't answer any questions definitively, but it was enough for now. ZEX had both eyes open, but wasn't staring at anything definite. His voice lowered, as though he was speaking to himself. "I know I am not human, I am not Max Vyer. I am Admiral ZEX, this is a fact. I am a VUX, regardless of my appearance. Fact. The language I speak or hear does not change this. Most likely another method of wearing

[captain_hunam]

Zelnick was silent and still through... whatever internal battle ZEX was fighting, trying to be there, even when ZEX looked at him more coldly than he had ever imagine looks could be.

At ZEX's apology, Zelnick forced a weak smile. "I'd worry about the mental stability of someone who was prepared. Who expects to be thrown into a new, unfamiliar body, and into a place where little to nothing makes sense?" Despite ZEX seeming to feel better, Zelnick kept a comforting hand on his back-- the way ZEX had been mumbling, Zelnick was pretty sure the Admiral had been trying to talk himself back into internal equilibrium, but wasn't sure if it had entirely worked. "Still, you're still yourself, right? Even in a crazy situation like this." Almost unconsciously, he rubbed his hand in soothing circles on ZEX's back, like his parents would to him when he was a kid... and this place was certainly a nightmare. Fleetingly, Zelnick wished his parents were there with him, to give him some of that advice he had never listened to as a teenager.