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[LOG] Oishi & Eiji
Who: Oishi and Eiji
What: Oishi and Eiji take a trip to the planet Vespa and hike until they die
Where: Karura | Vespa
When: October 8
Warnings/Notes: Threats of hyperbaric chambers?
It wasn’t often Oishi found himself needing to waste time– working in the Medical Bay always seemed to keep him busy, and he tried to keep his private life equally regimented– as their Captain might say, refusing to let his guard down. But on one Saturday morning when he actually did have plans, the scatter-brained therapist found himself doing exactly that. By now, he couldn’t keep himself from waking up later than 6, and after that it was nursing a mug of tea, light reading, and a bit of work he allowed himself to peek at– only because it was already open on his desk.
He didn’t want to be rude and presume everyone onboard got up as… painfully early as he was apt to, especially a person like Eiji who he, rightly or wrongly, assumed wasn’t an early riser. Especially when being a bartender so often meant working late nights. But once he’d successfully passed a few hours, he decided 10 AM on a Saturday was late enough for the average person that he wouldn’t be putting him out by paying him a visit. And he was excited to touch down on the planet and have a look around too.
Striding down the familiar hallways of the crew’s quarters, Oishi eventually stumbled upon Eiji’s room– a relatively-new name placard on the door. He pressed his thumb to a touch panel, speaking through the intercom, “Kikumaru? It’s Oishi. Are you up?”
Eiji fell out of bed at the sound of someone’s voice over the intercom. He’d been in the middle of a dream about scary shop assistants with jars of bubbling liquid and it took him a second not to yell. He flung himself across the room to answer jab a finger against the intercom so he could reply. “Oishi?” he managed, “Of course I’m up - I’ll -” He caught sight of his reflection in the mirror across from him and realised he definitely did not look like he was ready.
Eiji pushed the door release button with a sigh. “Hi, Oishi! Good morning! Sorry!” he said, all in the same breath, finishing with an apologetic grin. “You can come in, I’ll be ready in no time!” Without waiting for Oishi to reply he moved around the room like a whirlwind, disappearing into the attached bathroom. He stuck his head out of the door a moment later, to add, “D’you want hot chocolate? I kinda trained my replicator to make an okay one~”
Flinching at the various thuds and thumps on the other side of the sliding door, Oishi knew he’d apparently underestimated how early ten AM was on a Saturday– that or Eiji was doing anti-gravity parkour off the walls. … Both seemed somewhat viable possibilities. He caught the tiredness and almost saw himself out of the doorway so he could wake up in peace– he didn’t mean to knock him out of bed– but just as he’d turned heel, the door hissed open. “Ah,” he stopped himself short of saying anything about Eiji’s appearance (though his eyes did trace upward to the red hair that pointed in every direction), “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you–” ...and Eiji was already gone.
Somewhat stiffly, Oishi came inside as asked, “Oh, I’ve already had breakfast. Thank you though.” He tucked his hands into his pants pockets and attempted to look casual as he waited for Eiji to get ready. “Isn’t it kind of early for hot chocolate...?” Hot chocolate was one of those cold-evening type drinks, Oishi thought. And way too sweet first thing in the morning.
Eiji stuck his head out of the bathroom door again to respond around a mouthful of toothbrush. “It’sh ne’er choo ully!” he said, waving his free hand to the replicator. He finished brushing his teeth and hopped into the shower, the freezing cold water sending the last of the sleepiness shooting out of his head. He really had to hurry, he thought, it wasn’t cool to keep his new friend waiting.
“I totally overslept!” Eiji apologised as he emerged towel clad from the shower, drying his hair and looking for a clean pair of trousers that were not Atobe-chosen. “It’s been such a busy week ‘n the bar’s so boring now I gotta stand still all the time -” Aha! Pants located! He yanked them on, talking all the while. “- Plus I was watching this really cool show about the lives of intergalactic idols…”
It took a few seconds for Oishi to interpret that answer– and he’d had conversations with alien lifeforms with three sets of lips before. He felt a little badly forcing Eiji to scramble around like this– the polite part of him wanted to insist on leaving and agreeing to meet up with him in a half an hour or so, but before he knew it, the redhead was striking about the room like lightning and picking up clothes. “I-it’s all right–” he stammered, his shoulders squaring and his posture uncomfortable. He realized as he stood there it was the first time in his tenure on the Karura that he’d been in someone else’s quarters, and it didn’t feel any less awkward than it sounded.
Turning away politely as Eiji dressed, he continued, “It’s understandable. You work the night shift, right? The Bar’s open pretty late on Friday nights, isn’t it?” Maybe ten had been too early after all. At least they were still on track to meet their shuttle down to the planet though, Oishi noted, tugging his sleeve away from his watch. He took note of the posters on the walls of his cabin, “You’re really into idol groups, huh...?”
Eiji grinned around the T-shirt he was pulling on. “Loadsa people wanna get drunk before the weekend, I guess,” he said. Now that he was done with the dressing, it was time for the most important part of getting ready: fixing his hair. Spinning to his mirror with styling wax and comb aloft, he followed Oishi's gaze to his posters.
“Chanson Charon is my favourite!” he said, pointing to the biggest poster. He flashed the reflection of his somewhat uncomfortable looking companion an embarrassed little smile, even as he carefully styled his hair into its flippy curls. “I kinda wanted to be one of 'em when I was a kid… You okay, Oishi?”
“It does seem that way,” Oishi laughed softly, having only been to the Ice Bar a handful of times himself, not being much of a drinker– but having seen plenty of passengers and crew members alike stumbling down the hall late at night, or early in the morning. Oishi thought the name sounded somewhat familiar, though he couldn’t name any of her songs if he tried. He glanced over when he felt Eiji looking in his direction– thankful he was dressed at least and the air didn’t feel so awkward. He’d only met the redhead a handful of times, after all. … And one of those times he was chasing him down with possible ill intent...
“Hm? I-I’m fine, sorry.” The therapist rubbed at the back of his neck, Fuji’s earlier visit still firmly etched in his mind. “I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything…” Instead, it was Oishi who looked uncomfortable. Almost constantly. He wanted to change the subject, “I don’t listen to much of it now– I remember in high school that pop group…” he squinted as he tried to recall the name, “the… Outer Rim Girls, they were really popular.”
Eiji examined his hair in the mirror and decided he was done, so he spun around to face Oishi, leaning over to poke his cheek playfully. “I don’t get uncomfortable that easy,” he informed him. “Except when there’s crazy shop guys trying to pull me apart, but that’s a story for when I start venting!”
He tried to remember the group Oishi mentioned. It wasn’t hard, he and his sister used to dance around to one of their songs all the time. “We really liked Pod Racer Sweetheart,” he grinned. He slipped into the sneakers he had to stick with because Atobe hadn’t bought him cool bouncy new ones and gave Oishi a victory sign. “Ready!”
Winking reflexively at the poke, Oishi had to assume there was more to that story and he hadn’t been viciously attacked at the Karura’s shops. “I remember that one, they played it on the radio constantly,” he laughed. And after a certain age, Oishi had just stopped pretending he knew any of the performers or their music anymore.
“That was quick,” he said, smiling back once his day’s traveling buddy finished up, and stepping out through the sliding door. “We still have about fifteen minutes until the next shuttle leaves,” plenty of time to make the round trip walk to the dock, with enough of a time buffer that Oishi wasn’t internally panicking… yet. Oh, and he’d forgotten to ask something pretty important of their trip. “What sorts of things are you wanting to do once we get there?” They could always split up if their different interests were too far apart… though that sort of defeated the purpose of traveling together, didn’t it? “I hear they have really nice walking trails.” Apart from the man-eating plants.
Eiji fell into step beside Oishi, thinking about the things he wanted to do, with whatever he’d heard about Vespa. “Hmm,” he began thoughtfully, counting off the possibilities on his fingers. “Walking around sounds pretty fun, ‘cuz then we can check out all the plants ‘n weird insects ‘n stuff! Plus I wanna check out the tentacley food they have at the restaurants! … Oh! And definitely pick up souvenirs!” He held up his hands and realised most of his fingers were up. “Um… what d’you wanna do, Oishi?” he asked, lowering them quickly.
Oishi had to laugh at the enthusiasm to avoid being overwhelmed by it, “That sounds pretty in-line with what I was planning on doing.” He dug into his pocket, retrieving his tablet communicator and bringing up the pamphlets and brochures he’d been picking through as soon as they’d first entered orbit– having researched every last location with the utmost preparation. “The shuttle touches down in the capital, we can take a trail out and around, then come back into town to eat and pick up things. They have a pretty big marketplace in the west.”
Eiji peered in wonder at the screen full of information that Oishi had apparently gathered about the planet. “Whoa, you’re so prepared!” he laughed, folding his arms behind his head. “I usually just go ‘n do what I wanna till I run outta time!” He thought the plan sounded pretty good, though, so maybe being prepared once in a while wasn’t all that bad.
They were approaching the shuttle bays soon when it struck him that he hadn’t had the time to do any of the anti-cramping things Oishi had recommended. “Hey, Oishi, if I get crampy, you’ll help fix it, right?” he asked carefully.
Wasn’t this the type of research everyone did before visiting someplace new…? The thought of landing blindly on an unknown planet and just wandering from place-to-place filled Oishi with a certain anxious dread. “I-I didn’t want to miss anything important,” he stammered, chuckling at his own expense and hurriedly tucking the phone away again with a few blotches of red over his cheeks. The next question successfully diverted his attention.
“Ah… you did all the preparatory steps, ri–” Oishi stopped himself halfway, able to tell just from his companion’s expression that the answer was a firm ‘no.’ Sighing, he nodded. “Vespa’s pretty similar to our onboard conditions, so it shouldn’t be that bad if it does happen. But yes, you can come see me…” he exhaled slowly, looking as if his soul went with it. Honestly, why did he even make those warning posts? Had anyone listened…?
Eiji pouted. “I wanted to!” he said. “I set the pressure ‘n stuff, but then I kinda fell asleep before I could turn it on…” He shrugged. “I’ll definitely count on you to fix any muscles that are acting up!” Just as long as it didn’t involve any kind of torture devices that would pull his arms off. He noticed Oishi was looking even more down than he had been before. “Betcha everyone else did ‘em, though,” he told him. “Even the Captain said it’s important to be prepared ‘n stuff, right?” He tried to perform his best impression of Tezuka for the last part, invoking all the seriousness with which he would talk about being careful.
Oishi tried valiantly to unwind something positive from Eiji’s pouty defense– at least he’d meant to set the pressure? He’d read Oishi’s information and adjusted his room, intending on taking his advice? It was a well-meaning effort. And anyone could be scatterbrained enough to forget sometimes. “A-ah, well you tried… I can’t fault you for forgetting…” Most people typically did. Which is what kept him in business. Oishi was in a forgiving mood this morning– not just because of his (minor) threatening from Fuji, but because he didn’t want to sour their trip this early. And he had to laugh at the impression, though he’d claim he didn’t. “I don’t think he’d ever forget. About anything.” … Maybe a different type of motivation was the key here, “Have you ever seen the machine we treat severe decompression sickness with?” He remembered Eiji bringing up the medieval torture devices in their earlier conversation, “That giant metal coffin we keep in the back for emergencies? Sometimes people will have to spend hours… even up to a day inside…”
Eiji nodded, initially glad he’d managed to get away with not following the instructions and already feeling a weight off his shoulders, even as they got in line to board the shuttle down to Vespa. He frowned when Oishi started talking about machines, though. He’d thought that getting un-cramped just meant a massage or something.
“Giant… metal… coffin?!” He took a step back in alarm, giving Oishi a horrified, wide-eyed stare. The idea of being cooped up anywhere, especially anywhere dark… Images flashed through his head, worse than usual because these were just pictures of nothing and that was scary as hell. “You’re kidding, right?!”
Bingo, that seemed to work. Oishi wondered if he should make all of his preparatory posts that dire. As cynical as it sounded, it seemed to have done the trick in this case. Following Eiji into the launch shuttle alongside the other few travelers, he buckled himself into his seat with a solemn nod. He put on his best professional voice, clearing his throat, “For the most part, people only display minor symptoms of decompression sickness which can be treated with therapy. But there are some cases…”
Taking out his trusty tablet again, Oishi typed in a few things and brought up a rather dreary looking image of a cylindrical tube– just large enough to lie down in, and surrounded by monitors, computers, and wires. “This is the hyperbaric chamber, it’s pressurized and oxygenated to allow the patient’s body to recover from the symptoms of decompression… You might have to lie in there for hours at a time.” Oishi had only ever used it in practice exercises at medical school, but Eiji didn’t need to know that. “I don’t mean to scare you with that,” he did, “just inform you.”
It took Eiji three tries to get the belt on right in the shuttle, distracted with the idea that there were possibly actual giant metal things to trap people inside on the ship. When Oishi pulled up pictures of what Eiji was sure came directly from his nightmares, he felt a chill pass through him. He would never last a second in one of those.
“Uh… how bad would it hafta be to be put in one of those…?” he asked carefully, leaning as far away from the picture on Oishi’s tablet as possible. If traveling to the planet was going to lead to having to go in that thing, he was staying there!
Oishi closed the apparently nightmarish image on his device before his traveling partner buried himself any deeper in his seat, and having felt he might have gone too far with his scare tactic attempt. Eiji was looking a little green, and it probably wasn’t the vibration from the shuttle’s engines. “... It’s actually not as bad as it looks,” he said, trying to walk back at least some of the trauma he’d apparently inflicted. “Th-there are windows, and it’s large enough to sit up in, and of course you’re in constant contact with the medical staff. And in any case, it’s better than severe muscle pain.”
He tapped a hand on Eiji’s knee, trying to reassure him despite having spent the last few minutes doing the exact opposite. “You shouldn’t need it. But in the future, it’s best to be prepared.” The shuttle rocked a little as it taxied across the docking bay and lined up for launch– something which, perhaps by immediate karmic retribution, made Oishi pale and sick himself. As much as he enjoyed visiting other worlds and far-off places, he could do without the space flight. The walls of the spacecraft rattled and whined, and the whirring of the engines built, and soon they were launched from the safety and familiarity of the Karura toward the atmosphere of Vespa.
Eiji would take muscle pain over sitting in a box any day. Probably. He nodded weakly as Oishi tried to make it less terrifying. The best option was to remember to do all the pressure stuff next time, he supposed. He could do that.
Fortunately, the shuttle started from the ship and all thoughts of dying slowly in metal boxes while doctors and nurses watched disappeared because now they were going out into space. The moment they left the Karura, he spun around in his seat as far as the safety belts would allow - he was slim enough for there to be at least a little way - to peer out of the windows. “Didja ever think of what’d happen if the engines stopped working before we got to the planet?” he asked Oishi thoughtfully. “We’d probably crash into it before the Karura could get us back…”
Already white-knuckled and digging his fingers into the arms of his shuttle seat as they launched, Oishi hardly needed suggestions on how everything might go wrong– he was intensely aware of every morbid possibility already. His posture tensed just watching the redhead pull at the restraints and turn nearly out of the belt, the image of a hatch accidentally opening and sending him flying out into empty space all too easily realized. The color drained from his face at the suggestion, and Oishi frowned, wondering if this was Eiji’s payback for the chamber talk. “N-no… you shouldn’t… you shouldn’t bring that kind of thing up while we’re up here…” Who thinks of that kind of thing?!
Once the thrusters had died down a bit and they coasted closer to the planet, he was able to ease up a little, though his heart would always race until he was firmly on solid ground again. And the shuttle wouldn’t crash. Oishi was willing it not to. “M-more positive things…” he muttered, trying to take the trip in stride, “Kikumaru, what’s the last movie you saw?” Certainly fate wouldn’t kill them in the middle of such a mundane conversation.
“You’re not scared of being out here, are you?” he asked, sitting back down and looking at Oishi with a mischievous grin. His companion was looking kind of pale, and kind of terrified. What was it they told you to do if you were with a panicky person on a spaceship…? Aha, distract them!
“It’s gonna be fiine, Oishi! Even if we crash it’ll be like in Rise of Gargantor! We’ll all hafta make our way outta the wilderness ‘n take down the evil dark lord while we’re at it.” He flashed Oishi a victory sign. “It’s a pretty cool movie, you should watch it… but probably skip the crashing onto an unknown planet part in the beginning… Oh, aand,” he added pointedly, turning the ‘v’ into a single finger. “Call me Eiji!”
‘Scared’ was overdoing it, Oishi thought– he wasn’t scared of flying, just agitated and incredibly anxious to be on a planet’s surface, or back on the safety of a larger spacecraft. His eyes narrowed when he noticed the grin, resentfulness crossing his expression as it darkened. He tried in vein to distract himself with the details of Eiji’s latest movie, though naturally it only made things much worse. Now they might not just crash-land, but crash land, survive, and have to fight off some… ‘dark lord’ while they were at it. He bit his lip.
“E-Eiji… then…” Normally Oishi might argue for professionalism, given he was part of the medical staff, but Eiji had caught him at a good time. He didn’t want to talk about the movie anymore, and he forced his shoulders down and his arms to slink to his sides. It wouldn’t be long. For a while he looked out the window, then turned to the redhead again, “Oh… weren’t you going to going to tell me about your week?”
Eiji beamed as Oishi finally relented to stop addressing him like he was some random person. Or his dad. Or his brothers. He had noticed, though, that Oishi didn’t seam as interested in Rise of Gargantor as he’d thought he’d be, which was a shame because it was an awesome movie and there were sure to be sequels.
The mention of his week brought all -those- memories back though, and he let out a loud sigh, slumping dramatically in his seat. “It was awful,” he said, giving Oishi his most pitiful expression to express just how awful his week had been. He counted off on his fingers. “Atobe tried to kill me with shopping, then the shop guys totally attacked me, then I nearly broke my ass, no one bought me sneakers… and then,” he finished, holding up the fifth finger. “I’m pretty sure I was poisoned.”
Yup, that had been his week. “Oh! I also met Ecchan, but not his cat.”
Oishi managed to relax in his chair a little as he listened, and once they were just cruising toward the surface and the shuttle wasn’t rattling like a can of coins. Once Eiji was done, Oishi was left more confused than he had been before he started. He decided it was best to start from the top, “How do you nearly get ‘killed’ by shopping…? You were attacked?” His eyebrows knitted, partly from concern and partly with disbelief. Oishi had to assume he was exaggerating… a little.
He distinctly skipped over the ‘broken ass’ only because as a member of the Med staff, any response might be taken as his volunteering to fix it. And he was sure he was exaggerating about that. Probably. “O-on top of all that, you were poisoned?! And who’s “Ecchan”...?” Entirely more confused than before.
Out of the corner of his eye, Eiji could see they were about to enter the planet’s atmosphere, and that was kind of his favourite part of landing - when they started heating up into glowing balls of fire. But judging from what he knew about Oishi, it would probably freak him out if he pointed it out, so he decided to try the distraction tactic again.
Besides, he was told he should vent, so he figured he could probably explain a little bit more. It had been that sucky a week after all. “Okaaay,” he said, shifting a little to face Oishi and holding up the first of the five fingers from before. “First, Boss said we were going shopping for uniforms, ‘n he took me to this totally weird place where they had the worst clothes ever, then they totally stuffed me into this stuff that felt like metal!” He made a face at the memory. “Those were the shop guys who attacked!”
In fact the distraction tactic had worked so well, Oishi hadn’t even noticed Eiji was doing it, naturally turning in his seat as Eiji did so he could listen. “Oh, he took you to get a uniform tailored?” Shopping with Atobe did sound as if it would be… overwhelming. And tailors weren’t always known for being gentle about invading one’s personal space. He made a sympathetic face, “Ah, I see…” Oishi skipped the sneakers aspect of his complaint because, well, no one really owed him new sneakers, as far as he knew. “And how did you hurt yourself and get “poisoned”? I-if someone on the ship is poisoning people, we should really let security know…”
Beside him, the shuttle’s windows lit up, glowing brightly as they forced themselves through Vespa’s oxygen-rich atmosphere. Oishi was trying not to notice, or think too hard about it.
“He took me to get shop guys to shove me into a uniform,” Eiji pouted. Though Oishi did look a little more like he felt sorry for him, which was the reaction he wanted anyway. “I got hurt cuz they kinda landed on me ‘n no one could get up.”
They would be on land soon, maybe the sympathy would get him a free ice-cream… He shook his head as Inui’s smoky drink returned to his mind, and turned a little green at the memory. “Remember Atobe’s party? Didja come?”
“That does seem a little needlessly violent for a tailoring…” Oishi found himself relieved he didn’t have any clothes that needed tailoring on this ship, if they were violently tossing people around. His fingertips fiddled against the end of the arm rest when the familiar clicking mechanisms of the shuttle’s landing gear moved into place. Being on the med staff, he recognized the sick look on Eiji’s face immediately. “Oh, I was there.” Curiously, he didn’t remember seeing Eiji. Wouldn’t he have been working the bar? “I came a little later, towards the end. You must have already been off your shift?”
“I’m the only bartender,” Eiji told Oishi, a tiny bit distracted. He could feel the g-forces of an impending landing and it was hard to keep focus when he half wanted to relish the thrill of feeling like you were falling out of the sky. If only there were giant mechas in the EAA, he could’ve totally flown ‘em. “I was there the whole time. Just… under the bar for like an hour or something...”
Oishi found himself far more concerned about the apparent poisoning than Eiji was, “... Under the bar? L-like passed out?” Right now he was keeping calm because Eiji was calm– but both the intensity of their interplanetary travel and fainting from poisoning were tempting him with off-the-charts anxiety. Most importantly he had to know, and leaned in closer to ask, “Who poisoned you?! Do you know their identity?” His voice came out a harsh whisper– trying not to upset their fellow passengers if they had a conspirator aboard.
Eiji nodded to confirm this fact, leaning in and pitching his voice to match Oishi’s, though his answers lacked the urgency of the questions. “It was Inui - didja know he’s the guy who does that video series where he blends stuff? It’s awesome, ‘n I don’t think he wanted to kill me? He had this funny smoky thing he put in his drink...”
He opened his mouth to continue, just as the shuttle landed with that cool skidding and rushing forward sensation. “Yess! We’re here!” he cheered, the conversation flying almost completely out of his head.
“Inui?!” … Annnd Eiji had already dropped the subject, apparently so nonplussed by his apparent accidental poisoning that it was just a blip on his Poor Week radar. In fact, recalling the agony with which he’d described being aggressively-dressed by a group of over-eager tailors, the verbal shrug over being poisoned seemed… puzzling. And weird. Mostly weird. Eiji was… well, a bit weird. When they were finally on solid ground once more, Oishi practically melted back into his shuttle seat with relief.
While the passengers waited for the last few landing checks and the routine securing of the shuttle’s launch side, Oishi retrieved his palm tablet to do another re-check on their day’s itinerary. “The weather looks clear, we should have a good while to walk around before it gets dark.” … While his communicator was open, he typed up a virtual reminder to himself not to take any offered drinks from Inui.
Eiji couldn’t wait; he was practically buzzing with excitement as they filed out of the shuttle. The moment they were on the solid ground of the new planet, he took a deep breath and stretched his arms out. “Awesome!” he chirped at Oishi’s information, eyes darting around to take in everything at the same time.
“Whaddaya wanna do? Go exploring? I heard there’s a sea or something, and loads of forests and plants and things! Do you wanna buy souvenirs for people?” There were so many possibilities!
Oishi tried to wind back each of Eiji’s questions at once– “Ah, yes. Let’s do that first. We can take a hiking trail in, then once we get back toward the capital we can eat and buy anything you want.” He immediately retracted and fixed that last suggestion, “Th-that’s allowable to import.” The first few rows of seats in front of them started to file out of the shuttle door, and Oishi made sure to retrieve his things. He could already see the bright, foreign blue haze from the planet’s surface streaming in, and the assortment of alien chirps and whistles from the wildlife.
“We can’t wander too far from the ship,” Said Oishi, tapping at his tablet again to set a timer and assure they wouldn’t be left behind when the shuttle took off. “It’ll take off with or without us,” he laughed, hopeful his regimented schedule would hold. “Ready?”
Eiji chose to completely ignore Oishi’s advice about not wandering too far, too distracted by the signboards advertising all the awesome things they could do on Vespa. “Let’s go let’s go!” he insisted, reaching out to grab Oishi’s hand and dragging him into the crowds ahead. “I don’t wanna miss anything!”
By the time they arrived back at the ship late in the day, Oishi looked as if he’d been pulled through the ringer– his normally-coiffed hairstyle sporting a few loose hairs, and his shoulders slumped heavily. In the hand that hadn’t been tugged around by Eiji all day he held several bags and boxes of small souvenirs and allowable food items. It was true that they’d checked off every single item on their itinerary, but Eiji had very easily added at least five more in the brief pauses between them, leaving very little breathing room. They hurried back to the landing area just in time. “I-I can’t believe we made it,” Said Oishi breathlessly, stuffing their boxes beneath their seats and in the compartments above– his arms going limp as noodles as soon as he’d finished. “Wh-when we got caught behind that herd of Augryx, I didn’t think we’d ever be able to get back in time…”
Eiji’s legs ached from all the running around they’d been doing all day, his arms were a little sore from carrying the stuff he’d bought for everyone (and making sure Oishi kept up by half-pulling him everywhere) and his face hurt from non-stop smiling and/or excited noises, but even as they practically ran back to the shuttle before it left, he couldn’t help but think of what a great day it’d been. He helped stuff their purchases in the space they had, possibly squishing a box containing a funny bunny-eared hat he’d bought for his sister with his foot as he shoved it under his seat.
“We shoulda just started a stampede like I suggested,” Eiji grinned, holding up a finger to remind Oishi of the excellent but ultimately vetoed plan. “Next time we totally hafta go explore more of the forests!” He gave the final bag an almighty shove and clambered into his seat, still clutching the stuffed Augryx he’d bought at a stall just before they returned to the shuttle. “Hmm… I wonder if I shoulda bought that bird that looked like a spider instead,” he said thoughtfully, looking at the plushy.
“I feel like we’ve already been halfway across the entire planet already…” Sighed Oishi, collapsing into his chair like a ton of bricks. Despite all the preparatory exercises he’d done anticipating a long hike today, every muscle in his body ached. He buckled himself in as a force of habit, glancing over toward the stuffed animal in Eiji’s lap, “... I have a feeling if we’d started a stampede, it would have turned in our direction,” he said, reaching to tap the Augryx’s snout with his finger. Maybe it was the exhaustion, but the goofy sewn-on face momentarily brought a smile to his own.
Shuddering at the reminder, Oishi shook his head. “No, that’s definitely better than those… things,” reflexively he touched the top of his head, remembering the flying thing with too many legs that had landed on his head during their visit to the market. “And at least that Augryx doesn’t smell like the real thing,” he laughed, leaning his head back. The shuttle’s engines beginning to whirr to life, and the gentle vibration of their seats was enough to lull him to sleep within seconds– sleeping through the anxiety he’d had on the flight over. His head tipped to the side and his mouth fell open slightly, completely and entirely conked out.
“That leaves the whole other half to explore,” Eiji reminded him happily, already excited about all the stories he had to tell everyone about. “Then we’d have had to run away from the stampede, which would be even more exciting…” He watched Oishi tap his plushy and let it do a little happy bouncy dance.
“I’ll have to think of a name for him,” Eiji said thoughtfully, holding the Augryx up to his face for examination. “Got any suggestions, Oishi…?” He trailed off when he realised his audience wasn’t actually conscious anymore. Years of living with older siblings meant his first instinct was to make a loud noise in Oishi’s ear to wake him up, but Eiji had the feeling Oishi wouldn’t appreciate that much. He did look pretty exhausted. After a moment he placed the stuffed animal in Oishi’s empty hands with an inward smile, hoping he didn’t dream of getting trampled, before turning to plaster his face to the window to watch the planet fall away from them as the shuttle took off.
What: Oishi and Eiji take a trip to the planet Vespa and hike until they die
Where: Karura | Vespa
When: October 8
Warnings/Notes: Threats of hyperbaric chambers?
It wasn’t often Oishi found himself needing to waste time– working in the Medical Bay always seemed to keep him busy, and he tried to keep his private life equally regimented– as their Captain might say, refusing to let his guard down. But on one Saturday morning when he actually did have plans, the scatter-brained therapist found himself doing exactly that. By now, he couldn’t keep himself from waking up later than 6, and after that it was nursing a mug of tea, light reading, and a bit of work he allowed himself to peek at– only because it was already open on his desk.
He didn’t want to be rude and presume everyone onboard got up as… painfully early as he was apt to, especially a person like Eiji who he, rightly or wrongly, assumed wasn’t an early riser. Especially when being a bartender so often meant working late nights. But once he’d successfully passed a few hours, he decided 10 AM on a Saturday was late enough for the average person that he wouldn’t be putting him out by paying him a visit. And he was excited to touch down on the planet and have a look around too.
Striding down the familiar hallways of the crew’s quarters, Oishi eventually stumbled upon Eiji’s room– a relatively-new name placard on the door. He pressed his thumb to a touch panel, speaking through the intercom, “Kikumaru? It’s Oishi. Are you up?”
Eiji fell out of bed at the sound of someone’s voice over the intercom. He’d been in the middle of a dream about scary shop assistants with jars of bubbling liquid and it took him a second not to yell. He flung himself across the room to answer jab a finger against the intercom so he could reply. “Oishi?” he managed, “Of course I’m up - I’ll -” He caught sight of his reflection in the mirror across from him and realised he definitely did not look like he was ready.
Eiji pushed the door release button with a sigh. “Hi, Oishi! Good morning! Sorry!” he said, all in the same breath, finishing with an apologetic grin. “You can come in, I’ll be ready in no time!” Without waiting for Oishi to reply he moved around the room like a whirlwind, disappearing into the attached bathroom. He stuck his head out of the door a moment later, to add, “D’you want hot chocolate? I kinda trained my replicator to make an okay one~”
Flinching at the various thuds and thumps on the other side of the sliding door, Oishi knew he’d apparently underestimated how early ten AM was on a Saturday– that or Eiji was doing anti-gravity parkour off the walls. … Both seemed somewhat viable possibilities. He caught the tiredness and almost saw himself out of the doorway so he could wake up in peace– he didn’t mean to knock him out of bed– but just as he’d turned heel, the door hissed open. “Ah,” he stopped himself short of saying anything about Eiji’s appearance (though his eyes did trace upward to the red hair that pointed in every direction), “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you–” ...and Eiji was already gone.
Somewhat stiffly, Oishi came inside as asked, “Oh, I’ve already had breakfast. Thank you though.” He tucked his hands into his pants pockets and attempted to look casual as he waited for Eiji to get ready. “Isn’t it kind of early for hot chocolate...?” Hot chocolate was one of those cold-evening type drinks, Oishi thought. And way too sweet first thing in the morning.
Eiji stuck his head out of the bathroom door again to respond around a mouthful of toothbrush. “It’sh ne’er choo ully!” he said, waving his free hand to the replicator. He finished brushing his teeth and hopped into the shower, the freezing cold water sending the last of the sleepiness shooting out of his head. He really had to hurry, he thought, it wasn’t cool to keep his new friend waiting.
“I totally overslept!” Eiji apologised as he emerged towel clad from the shower, drying his hair and looking for a clean pair of trousers that were not Atobe-chosen. “It’s been such a busy week ‘n the bar’s so boring now I gotta stand still all the time -” Aha! Pants located! He yanked them on, talking all the while. “- Plus I was watching this really cool show about the lives of intergalactic idols…”
It took a few seconds for Oishi to interpret that answer– and he’d had conversations with alien lifeforms with three sets of lips before. He felt a little badly forcing Eiji to scramble around like this– the polite part of him wanted to insist on leaving and agreeing to meet up with him in a half an hour or so, but before he knew it, the redhead was striking about the room like lightning and picking up clothes. “I-it’s all right–” he stammered, his shoulders squaring and his posture uncomfortable. He realized as he stood there it was the first time in his tenure on the Karura that he’d been in someone else’s quarters, and it didn’t feel any less awkward than it sounded.
Turning away politely as Eiji dressed, he continued, “It’s understandable. You work the night shift, right? The Bar’s open pretty late on Friday nights, isn’t it?” Maybe ten had been too early after all. At least they were still on track to meet their shuttle down to the planet though, Oishi noted, tugging his sleeve away from his watch. He took note of the posters on the walls of his cabin, “You’re really into idol groups, huh...?”
Eiji grinned around the T-shirt he was pulling on. “Loadsa people wanna get drunk before the weekend, I guess,” he said. Now that he was done with the dressing, it was time for the most important part of getting ready: fixing his hair. Spinning to his mirror with styling wax and comb aloft, he followed Oishi's gaze to his posters.
“Chanson Charon is my favourite!” he said, pointing to the biggest poster. He flashed the reflection of his somewhat uncomfortable looking companion an embarrassed little smile, even as he carefully styled his hair into its flippy curls. “I kinda wanted to be one of 'em when I was a kid… You okay, Oishi?”
“It does seem that way,” Oishi laughed softly, having only been to the Ice Bar a handful of times himself, not being much of a drinker– but having seen plenty of passengers and crew members alike stumbling down the hall late at night, or early in the morning. Oishi thought the name sounded somewhat familiar, though he couldn’t name any of her songs if he tried. He glanced over when he felt Eiji looking in his direction– thankful he was dressed at least and the air didn’t feel so awkward. He’d only met the redhead a handful of times, after all. … And one of those times he was chasing him down with possible ill intent...
“Hm? I-I’m fine, sorry.” The therapist rubbed at the back of his neck, Fuji’s earlier visit still firmly etched in his mind. “I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything…” Instead, it was Oishi who looked uncomfortable. Almost constantly. He wanted to change the subject, “I don’t listen to much of it now– I remember in high school that pop group…” he squinted as he tried to recall the name, “the… Outer Rim Girls, they were really popular.”
Eiji examined his hair in the mirror and decided he was done, so he spun around to face Oishi, leaning over to poke his cheek playfully. “I don’t get uncomfortable that easy,” he informed him. “Except when there’s crazy shop guys trying to pull me apart, but that’s a story for when I start venting!”
He tried to remember the group Oishi mentioned. It wasn’t hard, he and his sister used to dance around to one of their songs all the time. “We really liked Pod Racer Sweetheart,” he grinned. He slipped into the sneakers he had to stick with because Atobe hadn’t bought him cool bouncy new ones and gave Oishi a victory sign. “Ready!”
Winking reflexively at the poke, Oishi had to assume there was more to that story and he hadn’t been viciously attacked at the Karura’s shops. “I remember that one, they played it on the radio constantly,” he laughed. And after a certain age, Oishi had just stopped pretending he knew any of the performers or their music anymore.
“That was quick,” he said, smiling back once his day’s traveling buddy finished up, and stepping out through the sliding door. “We still have about fifteen minutes until the next shuttle leaves,” plenty of time to make the round trip walk to the dock, with enough of a time buffer that Oishi wasn’t internally panicking… yet. Oh, and he’d forgotten to ask something pretty important of their trip. “What sorts of things are you wanting to do once we get there?” They could always split up if their different interests were too far apart… though that sort of defeated the purpose of traveling together, didn’t it? “I hear they have really nice walking trails.” Apart from the man-eating plants.
Eiji fell into step beside Oishi, thinking about the things he wanted to do, with whatever he’d heard about Vespa. “Hmm,” he began thoughtfully, counting off the possibilities on his fingers. “Walking around sounds pretty fun, ‘cuz then we can check out all the plants ‘n weird insects ‘n stuff! Plus I wanna check out the tentacley food they have at the restaurants! … Oh! And definitely pick up souvenirs!” He held up his hands and realised most of his fingers were up. “Um… what d’you wanna do, Oishi?” he asked, lowering them quickly.
Oishi had to laugh at the enthusiasm to avoid being overwhelmed by it, “That sounds pretty in-line with what I was planning on doing.” He dug into his pocket, retrieving his tablet communicator and bringing up the pamphlets and brochures he’d been picking through as soon as they’d first entered orbit– having researched every last location with the utmost preparation. “The shuttle touches down in the capital, we can take a trail out and around, then come back into town to eat and pick up things. They have a pretty big marketplace in the west.”
Eiji peered in wonder at the screen full of information that Oishi had apparently gathered about the planet. “Whoa, you’re so prepared!” he laughed, folding his arms behind his head. “I usually just go ‘n do what I wanna till I run outta time!” He thought the plan sounded pretty good, though, so maybe being prepared once in a while wasn’t all that bad.
They were approaching the shuttle bays soon when it struck him that he hadn’t had the time to do any of the anti-cramping things Oishi had recommended. “Hey, Oishi, if I get crampy, you’ll help fix it, right?” he asked carefully.
Wasn’t this the type of research everyone did before visiting someplace new…? The thought of landing blindly on an unknown planet and just wandering from place-to-place filled Oishi with a certain anxious dread. “I-I didn’t want to miss anything important,” he stammered, chuckling at his own expense and hurriedly tucking the phone away again with a few blotches of red over his cheeks. The next question successfully diverted his attention.
“Ah… you did all the preparatory steps, ri–” Oishi stopped himself halfway, able to tell just from his companion’s expression that the answer was a firm ‘no.’ Sighing, he nodded. “Vespa’s pretty similar to our onboard conditions, so it shouldn’t be that bad if it does happen. But yes, you can come see me…” he exhaled slowly, looking as if his soul went with it. Honestly, why did he even make those warning posts? Had anyone listened…?
Eiji pouted. “I wanted to!” he said. “I set the pressure ‘n stuff, but then I kinda fell asleep before I could turn it on…” He shrugged. “I’ll definitely count on you to fix any muscles that are acting up!” Just as long as it didn’t involve any kind of torture devices that would pull his arms off. He noticed Oishi was looking even more down than he had been before. “Betcha everyone else did ‘em, though,” he told him. “Even the Captain said it’s important to be prepared ‘n stuff, right?” He tried to perform his best impression of Tezuka for the last part, invoking all the seriousness with which he would talk about being careful.
Oishi tried valiantly to unwind something positive from Eiji’s pouty defense– at least he’d meant to set the pressure? He’d read Oishi’s information and adjusted his room, intending on taking his advice? It was a well-meaning effort. And anyone could be scatterbrained enough to forget sometimes. “A-ah, well you tried… I can’t fault you for forgetting…” Most people typically did. Which is what kept him in business. Oishi was in a forgiving mood this morning– not just because of his (minor) threatening from Fuji, but because he didn’t want to sour their trip this early. And he had to laugh at the impression, though he’d claim he didn’t. “I don’t think he’d ever forget. About anything.” … Maybe a different type of motivation was the key here, “Have you ever seen the machine we treat severe decompression sickness with?” He remembered Eiji bringing up the medieval torture devices in their earlier conversation, “That giant metal coffin we keep in the back for emergencies? Sometimes people will have to spend hours… even up to a day inside…”
Eiji nodded, initially glad he’d managed to get away with not following the instructions and already feeling a weight off his shoulders, even as they got in line to board the shuttle down to Vespa. He frowned when Oishi started talking about machines, though. He’d thought that getting un-cramped just meant a massage or something.
“Giant… metal… coffin?!” He took a step back in alarm, giving Oishi a horrified, wide-eyed stare. The idea of being cooped up anywhere, especially anywhere dark… Images flashed through his head, worse than usual because these were just pictures of nothing and that was scary as hell. “You’re kidding, right?!”
Bingo, that seemed to work. Oishi wondered if he should make all of his preparatory posts that dire. As cynical as it sounded, it seemed to have done the trick in this case. Following Eiji into the launch shuttle alongside the other few travelers, he buckled himself into his seat with a solemn nod. He put on his best professional voice, clearing his throat, “For the most part, people only display minor symptoms of decompression sickness which can be treated with therapy. But there are some cases…”
Taking out his trusty tablet again, Oishi typed in a few things and brought up a rather dreary looking image of a cylindrical tube– just large enough to lie down in, and surrounded by monitors, computers, and wires. “This is the hyperbaric chamber, it’s pressurized and oxygenated to allow the patient’s body to recover from the symptoms of decompression… You might have to lie in there for hours at a time.” Oishi had only ever used it in practice exercises at medical school, but Eiji didn’t need to know that. “I don’t mean to scare you with that,” he did, “just inform you.”
It took Eiji three tries to get the belt on right in the shuttle, distracted with the idea that there were possibly actual giant metal things to trap people inside on the ship. When Oishi pulled up pictures of what Eiji was sure came directly from his nightmares, he felt a chill pass through him. He would never last a second in one of those.
“Uh… how bad would it hafta be to be put in one of those…?” he asked carefully, leaning as far away from the picture on Oishi’s tablet as possible. If traveling to the planet was going to lead to having to go in that thing, he was staying there!
Oishi closed the apparently nightmarish image on his device before his traveling partner buried himself any deeper in his seat, and having felt he might have gone too far with his scare tactic attempt. Eiji was looking a little green, and it probably wasn’t the vibration from the shuttle’s engines. “... It’s actually not as bad as it looks,” he said, trying to walk back at least some of the trauma he’d apparently inflicted. “Th-there are windows, and it’s large enough to sit up in, and of course you’re in constant contact with the medical staff. And in any case, it’s better than severe muscle pain.”
He tapped a hand on Eiji’s knee, trying to reassure him despite having spent the last few minutes doing the exact opposite. “You shouldn’t need it. But in the future, it’s best to be prepared.” The shuttle rocked a little as it taxied across the docking bay and lined up for launch– something which, perhaps by immediate karmic retribution, made Oishi pale and sick himself. As much as he enjoyed visiting other worlds and far-off places, he could do without the space flight. The walls of the spacecraft rattled and whined, and the whirring of the engines built, and soon they were launched from the safety and familiarity of the Karura toward the atmosphere of Vespa.
Eiji would take muscle pain over sitting in a box any day. Probably. He nodded weakly as Oishi tried to make it less terrifying. The best option was to remember to do all the pressure stuff next time, he supposed. He could do that.
Fortunately, the shuttle started from the ship and all thoughts of dying slowly in metal boxes while doctors and nurses watched disappeared because now they were going out into space. The moment they left the Karura, he spun around in his seat as far as the safety belts would allow - he was slim enough for there to be at least a little way - to peer out of the windows. “Didja ever think of what’d happen if the engines stopped working before we got to the planet?” he asked Oishi thoughtfully. “We’d probably crash into it before the Karura could get us back…”
Already white-knuckled and digging his fingers into the arms of his shuttle seat as they launched, Oishi hardly needed suggestions on how everything might go wrong– he was intensely aware of every morbid possibility already. His posture tensed just watching the redhead pull at the restraints and turn nearly out of the belt, the image of a hatch accidentally opening and sending him flying out into empty space all too easily realized. The color drained from his face at the suggestion, and Oishi frowned, wondering if this was Eiji’s payback for the chamber talk. “N-no… you shouldn’t… you shouldn’t bring that kind of thing up while we’re up here…” Who thinks of that kind of thing?!
Once the thrusters had died down a bit and they coasted closer to the planet, he was able to ease up a little, though his heart would always race until he was firmly on solid ground again. And the shuttle wouldn’t crash. Oishi was willing it not to. “M-more positive things…” he muttered, trying to take the trip in stride, “Kikumaru, what’s the last movie you saw?” Certainly fate wouldn’t kill them in the middle of such a mundane conversation.
“You’re not scared of being out here, are you?” he asked, sitting back down and looking at Oishi with a mischievous grin. His companion was looking kind of pale, and kind of terrified. What was it they told you to do if you were with a panicky person on a spaceship…? Aha, distract them!
“It’s gonna be fiine, Oishi! Even if we crash it’ll be like in Rise of Gargantor! We’ll all hafta make our way outta the wilderness ‘n take down the evil dark lord while we’re at it.” He flashed Oishi a victory sign. “It’s a pretty cool movie, you should watch it… but probably skip the crashing onto an unknown planet part in the beginning… Oh, aand,” he added pointedly, turning the ‘v’ into a single finger. “Call me Eiji!”
‘Scared’ was overdoing it, Oishi thought– he wasn’t scared of flying, just agitated and incredibly anxious to be on a planet’s surface, or back on the safety of a larger spacecraft. His eyes narrowed when he noticed the grin, resentfulness crossing his expression as it darkened. He tried in vein to distract himself with the details of Eiji’s latest movie, though naturally it only made things much worse. Now they might not just crash-land, but crash land, survive, and have to fight off some… ‘dark lord’ while they were at it. He bit his lip.
“E-Eiji… then…” Normally Oishi might argue for professionalism, given he was part of the medical staff, but Eiji had caught him at a good time. He didn’t want to talk about the movie anymore, and he forced his shoulders down and his arms to slink to his sides. It wouldn’t be long. For a while he looked out the window, then turned to the redhead again, “Oh… weren’t you going to going to tell me about your week?”
Eiji beamed as Oishi finally relented to stop addressing him like he was some random person. Or his dad. Or his brothers. He had noticed, though, that Oishi didn’t seam as interested in Rise of Gargantor as he’d thought he’d be, which was a shame because it was an awesome movie and there were sure to be sequels.
The mention of his week brought all -those- memories back though, and he let out a loud sigh, slumping dramatically in his seat. “It was awful,” he said, giving Oishi his most pitiful expression to express just how awful his week had been. He counted off on his fingers. “Atobe tried to kill me with shopping, then the shop guys totally attacked me, then I nearly broke my ass, no one bought me sneakers… and then,” he finished, holding up the fifth finger. “I’m pretty sure I was poisoned.”
Yup, that had been his week. “Oh! I also met Ecchan, but not his cat.”
Oishi managed to relax in his chair a little as he listened, and once they were just cruising toward the surface and the shuttle wasn’t rattling like a can of coins. Once Eiji was done, Oishi was left more confused than he had been before he started. He decided it was best to start from the top, “How do you nearly get ‘killed’ by shopping…? You were attacked?” His eyebrows knitted, partly from concern and partly with disbelief. Oishi had to assume he was exaggerating… a little.
He distinctly skipped over the ‘broken ass’ only because as a member of the Med staff, any response might be taken as his volunteering to fix it. And he was sure he was exaggerating about that. Probably. “O-on top of all that, you were poisoned?! And who’s “Ecchan”...?” Entirely more confused than before.
Out of the corner of his eye, Eiji could see they were about to enter the planet’s atmosphere, and that was kind of his favourite part of landing - when they started heating up into glowing balls of fire. But judging from what he knew about Oishi, it would probably freak him out if he pointed it out, so he decided to try the distraction tactic again.
Besides, he was told he should vent, so he figured he could probably explain a little bit more. It had been that sucky a week after all. “Okaaay,” he said, shifting a little to face Oishi and holding up the first of the five fingers from before. “First, Boss said we were going shopping for uniforms, ‘n he took me to this totally weird place where they had the worst clothes ever, then they totally stuffed me into this stuff that felt like metal!” He made a face at the memory. “Those were the shop guys who attacked!”
In fact the distraction tactic had worked so well, Oishi hadn’t even noticed Eiji was doing it, naturally turning in his seat as Eiji did so he could listen. “Oh, he took you to get a uniform tailored?” Shopping with Atobe did sound as if it would be… overwhelming. And tailors weren’t always known for being gentle about invading one’s personal space. He made a sympathetic face, “Ah, I see…” Oishi skipped the sneakers aspect of his complaint because, well, no one really owed him new sneakers, as far as he knew. “And how did you hurt yourself and get “poisoned”? I-if someone on the ship is poisoning people, we should really let security know…”
Beside him, the shuttle’s windows lit up, glowing brightly as they forced themselves through Vespa’s oxygen-rich atmosphere. Oishi was trying not to notice, or think too hard about it.
“He took me to get shop guys to shove me into a uniform,” Eiji pouted. Though Oishi did look a little more like he felt sorry for him, which was the reaction he wanted anyway. “I got hurt cuz they kinda landed on me ‘n no one could get up.”
They would be on land soon, maybe the sympathy would get him a free ice-cream… He shook his head as Inui’s smoky drink returned to his mind, and turned a little green at the memory. “Remember Atobe’s party? Didja come?”
“That does seem a little needlessly violent for a tailoring…” Oishi found himself relieved he didn’t have any clothes that needed tailoring on this ship, if they were violently tossing people around. His fingertips fiddled against the end of the arm rest when the familiar clicking mechanisms of the shuttle’s landing gear moved into place. Being on the med staff, he recognized the sick look on Eiji’s face immediately. “Oh, I was there.” Curiously, he didn’t remember seeing Eiji. Wouldn’t he have been working the bar? “I came a little later, towards the end. You must have already been off your shift?”
“I’m the only bartender,” Eiji told Oishi, a tiny bit distracted. He could feel the g-forces of an impending landing and it was hard to keep focus when he half wanted to relish the thrill of feeling like you were falling out of the sky. If only there were giant mechas in the EAA, he could’ve totally flown ‘em. “I was there the whole time. Just… under the bar for like an hour or something...”
Oishi found himself far more concerned about the apparent poisoning than Eiji was, “... Under the bar? L-like passed out?” Right now he was keeping calm because Eiji was calm– but both the intensity of their interplanetary travel and fainting from poisoning were tempting him with off-the-charts anxiety. Most importantly he had to know, and leaned in closer to ask, “Who poisoned you?! Do you know their identity?” His voice came out a harsh whisper– trying not to upset their fellow passengers if they had a conspirator aboard.
Eiji nodded to confirm this fact, leaning in and pitching his voice to match Oishi’s, though his answers lacked the urgency of the questions. “It was Inui - didja know he’s the guy who does that video series where he blends stuff? It’s awesome, ‘n I don’t think he wanted to kill me? He had this funny smoky thing he put in his drink...”
He opened his mouth to continue, just as the shuttle landed with that cool skidding and rushing forward sensation. “Yess! We’re here!” he cheered, the conversation flying almost completely out of his head.
“Inui?!” … Annnd Eiji had already dropped the subject, apparently so nonplussed by his apparent accidental poisoning that it was just a blip on his Poor Week radar. In fact, recalling the agony with which he’d described being aggressively-dressed by a group of over-eager tailors, the verbal shrug over being poisoned seemed… puzzling. And weird. Mostly weird. Eiji was… well, a bit weird. When they were finally on solid ground once more, Oishi practically melted back into his shuttle seat with relief.
While the passengers waited for the last few landing checks and the routine securing of the shuttle’s launch side, Oishi retrieved his palm tablet to do another re-check on their day’s itinerary. “The weather looks clear, we should have a good while to walk around before it gets dark.” … While his communicator was open, he typed up a virtual reminder to himself not to take any offered drinks from Inui.
Eiji couldn’t wait; he was practically buzzing with excitement as they filed out of the shuttle. The moment they were on the solid ground of the new planet, he took a deep breath and stretched his arms out. “Awesome!” he chirped at Oishi’s information, eyes darting around to take in everything at the same time.
“Whaddaya wanna do? Go exploring? I heard there’s a sea or something, and loads of forests and plants and things! Do you wanna buy souvenirs for people?” There were so many possibilities!
Oishi tried to wind back each of Eiji’s questions at once– “Ah, yes. Let’s do that first. We can take a hiking trail in, then once we get back toward the capital we can eat and buy anything you want.” He immediately retracted and fixed that last suggestion, “Th-that’s allowable to import.” The first few rows of seats in front of them started to file out of the shuttle door, and Oishi made sure to retrieve his things. He could already see the bright, foreign blue haze from the planet’s surface streaming in, and the assortment of alien chirps and whistles from the wildlife.
“We can’t wander too far from the ship,” Said Oishi, tapping at his tablet again to set a timer and assure they wouldn’t be left behind when the shuttle took off. “It’ll take off with or without us,” he laughed, hopeful his regimented schedule would hold. “Ready?”
Eiji chose to completely ignore Oishi’s advice about not wandering too far, too distracted by the signboards advertising all the awesome things they could do on Vespa. “Let’s go let’s go!” he insisted, reaching out to grab Oishi’s hand and dragging him into the crowds ahead. “I don’t wanna miss anything!”
By the time they arrived back at the ship late in the day, Oishi looked as if he’d been pulled through the ringer– his normally-coiffed hairstyle sporting a few loose hairs, and his shoulders slumped heavily. In the hand that hadn’t been tugged around by Eiji all day he held several bags and boxes of small souvenirs and allowable food items. It was true that they’d checked off every single item on their itinerary, but Eiji had very easily added at least five more in the brief pauses between them, leaving very little breathing room. They hurried back to the landing area just in time. “I-I can’t believe we made it,” Said Oishi breathlessly, stuffing their boxes beneath their seats and in the compartments above– his arms going limp as noodles as soon as he’d finished. “Wh-when we got caught behind that herd of Augryx, I didn’t think we’d ever be able to get back in time…”
Eiji’s legs ached from all the running around they’d been doing all day, his arms were a little sore from carrying the stuff he’d bought for everyone (and making sure Oishi kept up by half-pulling him everywhere) and his face hurt from non-stop smiling and/or excited noises, but even as they practically ran back to the shuttle before it left, he couldn’t help but think of what a great day it’d been. He helped stuff their purchases in the space they had, possibly squishing a box containing a funny bunny-eared hat he’d bought for his sister with his foot as he shoved it under his seat.
“We shoulda just started a stampede like I suggested,” Eiji grinned, holding up a finger to remind Oishi of the excellent but ultimately vetoed plan. “Next time we totally hafta go explore more of the forests!” He gave the final bag an almighty shove and clambered into his seat, still clutching the stuffed Augryx he’d bought at a stall just before they returned to the shuttle. “Hmm… I wonder if I shoulda bought that bird that looked like a spider instead,” he said thoughtfully, looking at the plushy.
“I feel like we’ve already been halfway across the entire planet already…” Sighed Oishi, collapsing into his chair like a ton of bricks. Despite all the preparatory exercises he’d done anticipating a long hike today, every muscle in his body ached. He buckled himself in as a force of habit, glancing over toward the stuffed animal in Eiji’s lap, “... I have a feeling if we’d started a stampede, it would have turned in our direction,” he said, reaching to tap the Augryx’s snout with his finger. Maybe it was the exhaustion, but the goofy sewn-on face momentarily brought a smile to his own.
Shuddering at the reminder, Oishi shook his head. “No, that’s definitely better than those… things,” reflexively he touched the top of his head, remembering the flying thing with too many legs that had landed on his head during their visit to the market. “And at least that Augryx doesn’t smell like the real thing,” he laughed, leaning his head back. The shuttle’s engines beginning to whirr to life, and the gentle vibration of their seats was enough to lull him to sleep within seconds– sleeping through the anxiety he’d had on the flight over. His head tipped to the side and his mouth fell open slightly, completely and entirely conked out.
“That leaves the whole other half to explore,” Eiji reminded him happily, already excited about all the stories he had to tell everyone about. “Then we’d have had to run away from the stampede, which would be even more exciting…” He watched Oishi tap his plushy and let it do a little happy bouncy dance.
“I’ll have to think of a name for him,” Eiji said thoughtfully, holding the Augryx up to his face for examination. “Got any suggestions, Oishi…?” He trailed off when he realised his audience wasn’t actually conscious anymore. Years of living with older siblings meant his first instinct was to make a loud noise in Oishi’s ear to wake him up, but Eiji had the feeling Oishi wouldn’t appreciate that much. He did look pretty exhausted. After a moment he placed the stuffed animal in Oishi’s empty hands with an inward smile, hoping he didn’t dream of getting trampled, before turning to plaster his face to the window to watch the planet fall away from them as the shuttle took off.
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