LOOK!!! I updated finally! You're probably all mad at me for not paying any attention to this, but I was under attack. Plot-ghosts and plot-ottsels are no laughing matter.

On with the fic!

Ripley was down the hall in Lex's apartment (and temporarily Scar's, though that temporary was rather indefinite considering all that had happened to his apartment after its destruction was to have the door taped over with caution tape) and talking about Grid.

"So, why is Grid, Grid? I know it's because of his head, but what happened to it?"

Scar gave that odd, alien laugh of his and informed Lex. "One of my partners shot him with a net gun and it started cutting into his head, but the acidic blood melted a patch, allowing the xenomorph to escape."

"That was before we all came here, of course," Lex added, remembering how the three had all moved in at nearly the same time.

"Oh. Well..."

"What experience have you had with xenomorphs, then? It seems like you have seen them before."

"I've definitely seen them before." Ripley's tone darkened noticeably, and Scar recognized it (for once, because he can't distinguish or recognize the meanings of the different tones of human voices very well) as the tone one would use when speaking of an enemy. "Nearly died at least a dozen different ways because of them. I did die twice, kinda. A face-hugger got me and the obvious happened. And then I jumped into a smelting pot that was full at the time."

"If you died, then why are you here?" Lex had good reason to be puzzled.

Scar, having had his own experience with death, stayed silent.

"Scientists—those white-coat bastards—resurrected me somehow to get at the xenomorph queen embryo from the face-hugger."

"A queen!?" Scar was stunned.

"Yeah. I fought one and killed her, but she had a queen egg that somehow ended up on my escape pod."

"You killed a queen!?" It was Lex's turn to be stunned. They had all participated in killing a queen, but Lex had thought her situation somewhat unique.

"We all have that in common, then," Scar spoke. "When I came to this planet, Lex and I worked together to kill a queen."

"I just had an idea!" Lex jumped up suddenly, startling both Scar and Ripley though neither gave evidence of it.

"What?" they both asked suspiciously.

"Let's redraw Grid's grid!"

There was silence, an then another simultaneous, "What?" from Scar and Ripley, though this time is was out of lack of understanding and not curiosity.

Lex handed each of the two ex-xenomorph hunters (she was more incidental since she hadn't intentionally hunted them before and wasn't sure she could call herself a hunter even if she had the Warrior Blood Mark) a bright green paint marker as the trio crouched conspiratorially in Grid's spotless kitchen.

Grid was currently passed out on his beloved couch; a prime target.

"Ready?" Lex asked. All three of them made sure they were holding the sheet of paper that had their intended image on it. "Let's go."

For about an hour, the trio worked together to redraw the picture on the paper (helpfully gridded out already) onto Grid's head with the neon green markers specially selected to match to color of the scars. Then, finished, they crept out, having disturbed Grid not at all. Everyone waited in Lex's apartment for when Grid would wake up, which happened a few hours later.

Ripley, Lex, and Scar were all playing a video game and racing each other when the knock came. Ripley and Scar were really into it while Lex, who'd been infinitely pwned this time, watched the race-fighting from a safe distance.

If it had been less than an hour after leaving Grid's apartment, the trio would've expected him. Since it had been much longer than that, they weren't so sure. Also, the knock hadn't been loud, hard, or insistent, which is what they would have expected from an irritated xenomorph. As it was, they expected their upstairs neighbor was probably on the other side of the door.

Scar and Ripley glanced at Lex as she got up to answer the door. She opened it, half-surprised to find Grid on the other side. The drawing on his head was intact.

"What is on my head?" he demanded with a hiss. (Having no eyes to see for himself, he had no idea, but he could smell the marker ink, so he knew something was there.)

Scar and Ripley came to attention from their seats on the couch and looked.

"A monkey?" Lex said, as if she didn't recognize what she'd drawn.

"Holding a banana," Ripley elaborated, describing the rest of the image.

In all truth, it was a (relatively) small monkey hugging a (relatively) large banana. The banana was painted across Grid's entire head, since the fruit naturally resembled the shape. The monkey, drawn with a rather cartoonish style, was actually on the section of Grid's head that bore his namesake.

"A monkey and banana are drawn on my head."

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Silence.

"Drawn with what?"

"Markers."

"What kind of markers?"

"The regular kind."

"Then why can't I remove the marks?"

Silence. Lex retrieved the bag of partially spent markers and withdrew one to inspect its label carefully. On the side, in bolded letters, it said, CAUTION: PERMANENT AVOID USE ON SKIN, FACE, OR DELICATE . . . She hadn't noticed that before. "Uh..." The infamous awkward silence manifested.

"That had better not be a permanent marker you're holding, Lex," Grid hissed, louder than before.

Scar left his seat on the couch and came up behind Lex to see the marker label.

"It is."

"Really." The xenomorph was not amused.

Two floors above, Sky suddenly looked up from her computer screen. Or, more accurately, down, because that's where the loud noises were coming from. There was an assortment of crashes, bangs, and muted roars.

"Another prank," she sighed as she turned her attention back to her computer. She managed to mostly ignore the sounds of battle from below, but she would twitch every time an especially loud noise exploded up the halls.

A while later, Grid was back in his apartment, on his couch, with his head missing the sheen that the rest of his body had. The grid lines on his head were also oozing slightly, though the xenomorph was careful to not allow any harm to come to his couch from the acid.

That's what happens when you use somewhat corrosive industrial cleaner and steel wool to remove permanent marker. The banana and monkey were gone, anyway, and Grid was recovering from the effects of the fumes of the cleaner.

"Lex," Ripley said gently while Scar cleaned his awu'asa in the background, "as fun as drawing on the alien is, perhaps you should check to see whether the markers are permanent or not nest time."

"Yeah, that would probably be a good idea..."

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