The Park, Monday Morning

[shiroi_tiger]

For some, the weekend spent on the island had been quieter than for others. It wasn't that Algren wasn't interested in getting out there and fighting zombie gremlins (though there was some Fandom-related trauma there that had involved both zombies and gremlins, once upon a time, that he didn't care to revisit), and it wasn't even that he hadn't

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[on_her_korhal]

Kerrigan did not look as she once did-- but then she was not who she was, neither the young redheaded woman that had once lived here, nor the Queen of Blades that had conquered after her. She was... lost. Herself, but not herself. Human, but zerg, and zerg, but human.

She hadn't wanted to come here at first. But she needed time and space to reflect. She had avoided the others. Avoided another familiar presence, especially.

She sought quiet, and it appeared to have found her. She sought something to distract herself with, and she had found that too: a newspaper, stories of some world that wasn't hers, either.

There was a stranger on the grass. He seemed quiet, as well, so she sat down near him, just a few feet away. She put the paper in her lap and looked down at it, touching along the edges with her almost-human fingers.

[shiroi_tiger]

Algren, at the very least, had been around the island enough in his lifetime to know that a woman, whatever she looked like, who was simply sitting down to read the newspaper was probably not something he needed to be terribly concerned about.

He didn't speak, then. Not really, not if she was intent on quietly reading her newspaper in the park. He would hardly want to interrupt any bit of peace that somebody else had found, this morning. But he did offer her a smile and the slightest of nods in greeting.

It seemed like a good day for it.

[on_her_korhal]

It had been a long time since she'd last gotten a simple greeting from another living being without seeing it smothered in history. It came as something of a strange, subtle surprise. She found herself smiling back, a tiny thing born of muscles she hadn't used in some time.

Her finger curled around the front page of the paper, and she flicked it over.

[shiroi_tiger]

And see, if more of Nathan's interactions with people around here were just as subtle as that, he would be perfectly happy.

He smiled a little more, and then settled back on the grass again, looking back out toward the water.

Sipping his tea.

[tyler_back]

"You made it," Tyler said, sounding about as happy as he ever did as he plopped down on the grass near Nathan. "Hey there. How are the ducks?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"Buoyant," Nathan replied, quirking a little smile as he lifted his thermos in a small salute. "So, nothing terribly new coming from them."

Shocking, right?

"How have you been, Tyler? Keeping out of trouble?"

As much as Tyler was able, at least?

[tyler_back]

"Trying to," Tyler told him. "But I live with a superhero, so sometimes the trouble comes to me. You?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"I want to pretend I'm not, but I live in a remote village in the mountains of Japan with a widow and her children. The most trouble I have these days is explaining that 'run home' isn't supposed to be taken literally when I teach the village children about baseball."

... Which never stopped being hilarious. So.

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima had heard through the grapevine that Nathan was here, and so she had begun a systematic search of the places she was most likely to find him.

She found victory in her second attempt, and settled in the grass next to him, giving the sword a wry glance. "'Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting,'" she quipped at him. "Are you breaking gremlin resistance without raising the sword?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"It seems to be working so far," Nathan replied, giving Ghanima a warm smile. "I have a simple goal, to leave the island once this whole thing is through without getting bitten and acting like a crazy man. I don't think that's an unreasonable goal thus far."

[atreideslioness]

"I'm rather sure it's a fairly reasonable goal," she agreed, smiling. "Then again, I may have a bias, seeing as how I've yet to be bitten."

[shiroi_tiger]

"Still?" Algren couldn't help but bark out a short, incredulous laugh. "There was a while, here on the island, that I was beginning to wonder if the gremlins thought my last name was Skywalker. How do you manage?"

[never_dull]

While Jono got their aircraft ready for class, Hannibal elected to take a walk through the park and enjoy the morning.

He wasn't expecting a man in hakama to be sitting there. Or for that man to be caucasian.

"Good morning," he tried in Japanese.

[shiroi_tiger]

"Ohayō gozaimasu," Nathan replied, with a polite nod of his head and a little smile. "Or good morning, if you'd rather. Ah siks ka no to ni, if we're running through my entire repertoire."

Though it had been a while since he'd spoken in Blackfoot, admittedly.

"Or we could go back to Japanese."

[never_dull]

Hannibal chuckled. "No need; English or Japanese will do. I learned them both at about the same time. I wasn't sure which I should expect in return." He gave him a proper polite bow and then held out his hand to shake. "Doctor Hannibal Lecter."

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan smiled faintly, and pulled himself to his feet. It was slow going, granted, but he was too proud not to stand up for a handshake and an introduction.

"Captain Nathan Algren," he replied, bowing as he clasped Hannibal's hand. "I used to teach here, years ago."

[blondecanary]

Dinah was on her way back from her morning run; she'd let Priestly sleep in today, since, well. Gremlins yesterday.

Hello, Professor Hot Guy. It is great to see you again.

"Hey, Professor."

[shiroi_tiger]

It took Algren a moment to place the face. It had been a while, after all, and she'd grown somewhat. But once he had, he broke into a little grin.

"Ms. Lance," he greeted, nodding his head slightly. "You're looking well."

[blondecanary]

Oh, look. Dinah could still blush, if nowhere near as deeply as she used to.

"So are you," she said, folding down to sit near him on the grass. "How have you been? And where? It's been about five years for me, at least."

[shiroi_tiger]

"It's been about as long for me," Nathan replied with a thoughtful tilt of his head. "In Japan, somewhere around a century and a half ago. I haven't had any complaints thus far, not really."

It was quiet, these days. He could live with some quiet, for once in his life.

"And yourself?"