insertmeathere

Superhuman strength, speed, an assortment of ridiculously cool guns and a motorcycle. OTOH, confusing Terminator vision! ~~GUNS ARE A SUPERPOWER~~

[ Oh boy now she's taller than before!

And blinking in a lot of confusion. ]

Oh no.

This is -- why is this happening?

"...Sakura? Is that you?" Boy, hearing his words in Sakura's voice is super weird.

Sakura grimaced, nodding. "Yes, though it shouldn't be. Zouichi-san?"

"That's me. Well, this is interesting. Any ideas?"

He hesitated. "Don't punch anyone in that body, by the way."

She glanced at him, sharp as she used his... particular vision to look at herself. She wasn't sure she liked this. "How much moderation do you use?"

And she pauses. "There's no way you're feeling anything odd right now, is there?"

"...everything about this feels odd, to be honest. Or is there something in particular I should be feeling?"

"A lot, actually. But it's a little hard to explain using words. I'd... recommend starting out extremely carefully."

"I'm not sure if it'll read the same to you, but a kind of hum, an awareness of... energy. Look, it's probably not going to be a problem, but there's a possibility that you could end up getting hurt if you were using chakra in ways that aren't good for you."

Basically any untutored way, in her opinion. She's moving extremely gingerly, taking care to not touch anything -- nor come down heavily on the ground. "Okay, so move carefully, don't touch anything. Great. I can handle that. Care to explain the vision thing while we figure out how this happened in the first place?"

"Well, I do sense something a little unusual, but... hands off, got it."

"You're probably not going to understand most of it, but... well, try focusing on a distant object." That should automatically provide Sakura with a magnified view of what she was looking at, with relevant details for analysis.

"More handle with care." She smiled.

Following Zouichi's guidelines, she focused on something in the distance. And he was right. "I don't," she agreed, "But this is really something else." She could imagine how much some of her colleagues would love vision that worked like this, back home.

He nods. "I'm sure if this situation continues, you'll pick up more as you go along. You should have less trouble than most, since I suspect you can read Japanese anyway.

...and I heard about the wall incident. So you're obviously used to wielding a great deal more strength than usual."

He flexes Sakura's arm experimentally. "Do you do a lot of combat training?"

"If that's what this is, then yes. Not everything is the same, but I'm able to read it. Like back on XaXing."

She grimaced and looked somewhat embarrassed. "Marco told you that?" Careful, controlled movements. She'd run her hand up in front of her like a barrier back in her body. Apologetic, even if she believes Zouichi doesn't identify as, ah, Chinese. "I've been learning more about stone wall building. Slowly. I picked up a few things on shore leave, but haven't really had the time to do anything yet."

She watched him flex, nodding. "I do, if not so much with sparring partners the last... who knows how long. Since waking up." She doesn't sound happy about this.

"I thought that might be the case. It's too bad we don't have a language file containing your native tongue; it might have turned up some interesting comparisons."

"Stone wall building? So you're going to repair it?" He raised an eyebrow. "That's very responsible of you. I think most people would have simply left the damage as is."

He smiled. "When this is resolved, would you like to spar sometime? My last sparring match went a little awry, but you seem like you'd know how far to take things without getting too, uh... carried away."

...Oh my God, am I really that short?

I'm just going to pretend you're really tall. Or is it me now?

Zouichi looks at him with a slightly pained expression. Really? Out of all the people on the ship, Howard?

"Be careful with that body, or you'll end up killing someone. Also, don't get too comfortable in there."

Because he was going to get his body back, dammit.

"Hey, I didn't ask for this. And you be careful with that one too. It doesn't have a healing factor and gets broken easy." And hey, as much as being seven inches taller, super-strong and capable of rapid regeneration is nice, he's kind of used to his own body. He intends to return to it. And keeping superpowers would just make people expect him to be involved in combat and let's face it, boy ain't warrior material.

He keeps closing his eyes and squinting. "Is there any way to turn the readouts off? It's like watching five news tickers at once."

Zouichi sighs. "I'll try to be gentle with it."

"You want to turn them off?" He pauses. "Just try and will them off? It's hard to explain, but it's easier if you close your eyes first."

Figures that the first thing Howard does in his body is rearrange all the mirrors.

He holds up one arm in an aiming gesture, examining it. "Your hands aren't very steady. I don't think I'll be able to shoot very accurately with them." He frowns. "Do you always feel this... irrational?"

He shuts his - Zou's - eyes, trying to get the hang of it, then opens one. "Alright, I think I've got it. How do you process all that information? It's like trying to watch all the TV screens at Best Buy at once."

"What're you talking about, irrational?" But he holds an arm out too in the same gesture, surprised at how steady the motion is. "Wow. This body doesn't tremble or anything. I just assumed it was your attitude, not the body."

Zouichi shrugs. "You learn to deal with it. It's not that hard, really." In fact, in battle, the physics calculations can turn outright beautiful, spidering out into space in small, silvery script.

"It's both. Mental training and physical capability. I could probably shoot steadier than you could in this body, for instance, once I learned to compensate for the irregularities in its movement."

Which was essentially what snipers did, planning their shots around their own heartbeats.

"I mean..." Zouichi frowned. "I don't know. I feel annoyed with you, even though logically, there's no reason you should be held responsible for any of this. Like I want to kick something, or make some other irrational outburst that won't actually help anything. It's not anger."

"Probably. You're better than me at a lot of things, why not at using my own body?" Funny, it's difficult to quirk an eyebrow in Zouichi's body. He can, but the muscles in this face are all unfamiliar. "Irregularities. Whatever."

He pauses. "I feel...kind of weirdly calm? Like, creepy calm? Normally I'd be right with you on the wanting to kick something, but I'm not right now."

He thinks for a minute, closes his eyes and turns on a chemical readout, trying to compare it with what he's learned from working in the Med Bay. Then he starts snickering, which sounds strange coming out of Zouichi's vocal chords. "Oh man. You got teenage hormones. That's why."

"Now you just sound bitter. By the way, you should work out more." Zouichi watches as Howard's expression twitches, like he's trying to remember how to do something.

He scowls. "Ah, yes. The joys of being a prepubescent. It's really creepy when you laugh like that, by the way."

"And of course you feel calm. You're in an adult body and there's no danger around." Although to be fair, if there WERE danger around, Howard probably wouldn't feel anywhere near the amount of fear he was used to.

"I go jogging every morning and I drag heavy metal things around for six hours a day. You wanna try and fit a weight routine into my schedule, go for it. I already don't get enough sleep."

He shakes his head - longer, straight hair is weird - and takes a step forward. It feels like walking on stilts. "How much would it hurt if I punched a wall or something? Just curious, not actually going to try it." He flexes a hand, making a fist the way Zouichi taught him. I feels more natural with this body - there's probably muscle memory at play.

"Not my fault your voice isn't good for snickering." Of course there's no danger around. There's just the weirdness that suddenly, they're in each others' bodies. Honestly, if this were a magic attack designed to disorient the enemy, it'd be perfect. "Although jesus, does mine always crack like that? I didn't even notice."

"You do? Maybe you should do less dragging and more sleep, then. This body feels tired." He has a feeling like his expressions are probably showing through on Howard's face more than they do on his; Howard is always very expressive.

"Punching a wall?" Zouichi blinks. "It shouldn't hurt at all. I have a dulled sense of pain." Punching through people's heads doesn't hurt, either, but he's going to keep that on the down-low at the moment.

"I'm just not snickering material. And yes, it does tend to crack a little. Doesn't it bother you?" Zouichi misses his own voice, actually -- it's low and steady and it doesn't make him wince to listen to coming from his own throat. ~~GIVE BACK HIS BODY, HOWARD~~ He also misses... well, being able to see over things, for one. He looks a little glum at the thought of no longer being able to reach top shelves.

"Yeah, okay, Doctor. Maybe it's just because you're used to an enhanced body with support systems and a healing factor. Thought of that?" Way to make Howard feel helpless and inadequate, Zou. Because bodyswapping with a synthetic human totally wouldn't do that on its own.

It's also incredibly creepy to seeing Zou using his expressions. They seem just a little bit subdued compared to when Howard's seen himself in the mirror or on tape, and Zou hasn't been using the hand gestures Howard always uses unconsciously. "See, yet another reason to not be afraid. No wonder you can keep your cool while punting T-Rexes around."

He touches his new throat thoughtfully. "It's been doing that a few months. I think I'm used to it by now. Wouldn't mind having your voice, though, even if laughing with it's weird."

"Could be," Zouichi says. "I'm just saying... you should take care of yourself. Make sure you don't get sick and end up treating yourself in Medical."

Zouichi has always had muted body language, so hand gestures aren't really his thing. Howard, by contrast, seems to use them with abandon; Zouichi hopes no one runs into him in the middle of an especially exuberant display -- at least not while he's tooling around in a Synthetic Human body. He frowns a little at Howard's comment. "You think that's why I can remain calm when I'm fighting? Because I know I can't get hurt?"

Wow, watching Howard touch his throat like that is... a little surreal, there. "Well, when is it supposed to stop? I thought it was only supposed to last a few months." He looks up at Howard for once, considering. "...You like my voice?"

:D

Kanoe Zouichi

bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: bodyswap just because

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Re: Kanoe Zouichi

Tie up around here?

Sure!