trans_9 | mr. blue sky please tell us why

Lacaille had finally parted ways with Nathan after a little while, and gone off to wander on her own. There was just so much to take in here, and she didn't know how much time she had to do it, so she was determined to make the most of it on her own.

The city was the first new place she'd stumbled onto afterwards, and she was stunned. She'd never seen anything so huge--not in person, anyway, she'd seen plenty of pictures of buildings, but that wasn't quite the same. The sheer scale was overwhelming, and the fact that they were organic besides, like they were growing out of the ground, was simply--

"Oh!" She almost hadn't noticed that someone else was around, thanks to her head being in the clouds as usual, but the tail caught her attention very quickly. "Hey!" she called, with a cheery wave.

Red's serpentine neck snaked around over his shoulder to see who was coming- a decidedly non-human gesture. If one was at all familiar with dinosaurs, the immediate resemblance to a velociraptor would have made them stop in their tracks. At least, until Red responded with a very Human wave in return.

He couldn't believe it! A Human! This planet was inhabited, or at least visited, with Humans! Which meant he could easily communicate with them, which meant he could find out where he was...Red tried to calm himself down as he turned and bobbed his head to the newcomer.

"Uhm, greetings," he began awkwardly. "Do you live in this city?"

"No, I'm new here, too. I just came out of suspended animation in the pods a little while ago. You probably did, too, right?" Lacaille peered closely at him; it made sense that other 'alien' species would be brought here, if they were going to the trouble of pulling people from other universes, but this was the first time she'd seen anything sentient that wasn't human. He definitely looked reptilian, almost raptor-like--an alternate evolutionary path, maybe? Floros would probably have a better idea, but since she wasn't here...

"What are you?" She didn't sound awed, or fearful, or anything of the sort--simply curious.

Red blinked at that. Surely, everyone would know a Tiss'shar when they saw it...Or at least confuse him with a similar reptilian species. He was used to correcting people, but not to explaining outright.

"I'm a Tiss'shar. My name is Aish-Kar-Yan," he explained evenly. Wait, what had she said? "Excuse me, I don't mean to pry, but suspended animation? Isn't that a bit...obsolete?"

Being contained in a pod he could understand, being birthed out by some plant-mucus creature seemed not to phase him, but the idea of suspended animation being standardized technology made him mince from foot to foot anxiously.

He was certainly very well-spoken for a raptor, Lacaille mused.

"Not here, I don't think. I mean, where I'm from, it's not used very much, but we also use cryopreservation instead of the organic technology they have here. I don't know what mechanism they use, but I'm sure they must have some texts on it somewhere... What did they replace it with in your world? And what can you tell me about the Tiss'shar? I haven't heard of them, but we haven't figured out interstellar travel yet, so we may just not have contacted them--um, you yet." As usual, when faced with the unknown, Lacaille's first instinct was to ask it questions.

This was getting a bit convoluted. The Human knew about suspended animation and understood it wasn't a typical technology, but then she said her race hadn't figured out space travel. Yet almost every Human Universe came from a planet with ships. Red flickered his tongue out and gave his muzzle a lick as he took careful note of this.

"Ah, the Tiss'shar are much like you Humans. Though I suppose one could say we have a better business sense," He decided to leave out the bit about their natural affinity towards being assassins. If she really was ignorant of his species, that might not help his position. "But please don't confuse us with the Ssi-Ruuk. We don't have any problems with those of other species."

"And you?" Red tried to walk about Lacaille discreetly as he spoke, checking. Perhaps she was not Human, after all. "Is your planet a colony on the Outer Rim? I thought even the most remote colonies had intersteller travel, at the least."

Unless they were under some kind of Imperial garission, he thought to himself.

"Well, we're on the outer edge of the Sol system, but it's not really a planet so much as a ship, and I don't think that's what you mean anyhow..." Lacaille tried to stay facing him as he moved around her, in order to keep eye contact. "No one else in the system has done it, either, and that's all of humanity--as far as we know, anyway," she added quickly.

At that point, it clicked that he might be trying to examine her as she had him, and she stood still for a bit to let him. "Our only FTL method is impractical for long distances, since you have to get there the long way first to set up one end of the slipspace tunnel... What do you use?" she inquired eagerly, hoping that perhaps she might find some kind of hint she could bring back home with her. "And what do you mean by the Outer Rim? The galactic rim?" It was a long shot, but if they had practical interstellar travel, it might be a possibility--and remarkable if true.

He continued his circle around her...nothing unusual, aside from what she was saying. This was odd. And the Sol system? He'd never heard of that. There were only two possibilities that he could see. Either she was insane, or she was telling the truth.

And she seemed awfully coherant for a loony.

"Yes, well, the Outer Rim territories is very near the border to wild space. In theory it's the galactic rim, although not all worlds are exactly on the Rim itself. You live on a world-ship then?" He hoped not. That would cement the alliances of her people, wherever they originated from. "Our ships use hyperspace. Are you saying you travel everywhere at sublight speed? That...that would take centuries."

So they really were capable of interstellar travel at that range. She knew the term "hyperspace"--it used to be a general word for the then-theoretical construct that was now termed "slipspace"--but for all she knew, it could be something entirely different than what she was familiar with. If she could just get a bit more information...

"Not a world-ship, just a regular ship. Well, three, technically... But we're a separate settlement. Everyone else lives on pre-existing astronomical objects. Planets, mostly," she added for clarification. "We don't go everywhere at sublight, we just use it for short-range travel. We use slipspace to travel at superluminal speeds, but we can only traverse it through tunnels with a Gate at either end, and since we can't reach any significant fraction of c with normal methods of propulsion, we can't reach anywhere outside the system to build one. Not without a generation ship and a few centuries..."

She seemed lost in thought for a second before shaking it off. "How does your hyperspace work? It sounds like you can enter and exit it at will. And what kind of propulsion do you use in normal space?"

Red paused, now in front of her again. He lowered his head and tail, shifting from foot to foot. A gesture of confusion and ambigiousness for Tiss'shar...much less so for other species. It looked like he was doing some sort of odd dance.

"Unfortunately I'm no scientist or engineer myself. Not even a pilot, really. Much like a landspeeder, I don't ask how it works, I simply use it." He blinked a nictating eyelid and turned his head sideways to gaze at her. He got the feeling she WAS the type who asked how it worked.

"I do know this much... Most ships use an ion drive to travel outside of hyperspace. I imagine perhaps ions are split in order to get a ship up to speed, but, again-" That odd alien form of a shrug repeated itself. "I am hardly knowledgable in that area. I do know that one cannot simply strap a hyperdrive to another ship and expect less than messy results. If it were matters of security tech, perhaps I could help you. But I believe you may have a better understanding of that subject matter than I."

Red resumed his normal posture, clicking his jaw curiously. "A small section of Humans who have yet perfected a long-distance interstellar travel...That may explain why you haven't reached other species yet. So," He gazed up at the sky above. Still daylight. "Is this world near yours, then?"

Ion drives? Practical for interplanetary travel, Lacaille recalled, but they'd fallen out of use once slipspace had been discovered and all they needed normal propulsion for was relatively short jaunts. Certainly made sense, though. Shame she couldn't get more information about these hyperspace drives, but not everyone was a scientist, after all.

"I don't know yet--there was a flash, and I woke up here." She paused, musing on a possibility that had struck her. "The intelligence from the pod caverns mentioned an observation deck... If there's stellar observation equipment up there, and if we're in the Milky Way Galaxy, I may be able to triangulate our position from the stars visible from there. The calculations would take some time... and it would only work if we have a relatively stable point of reference..."

Red swung his tail and thought this over. He was lucky to have fallen in with a Human who knew her way around interstellar sciences, he realized. But he still didn't know her alliances...He would have to find a way to discreetly weedle that information out of her later.

"A flash. Hmm. That's similar to what I remember." The nictating lid slid over his eyes again, slower this time. He was thinking. "I'm beginning to believe we may have been kidnapped. Have you, tsss, 'met' Stacy?"

He pointed his snout over her shoulder, sniffing at the air. A lack of any wind made it hard to detect any scents, though. "We may need her help if we want to find this Observation deck. But you have a sound plan. Perhaps we will be lucky, and our location relevent to the Core worlds will even be recorded and noted."

"Oh, was that its name?" Terrible memory for these things aside, Lacaille had had other things on her mind at the time, admittedly, though she didn't have that particular excuse for unconsciously shunting it back into her mental recycle bin now.

Oh, well.

"There ought to be some way to contact it here, or at least something else that can help us." She pondered this for a moment. "It has shown some kind of psionic abilities, so it could be observing us now, in which case it would just be a matter of asking..."

Red nodded - a very awkward movement with his head and jaw, it instead looked like he was teetering his muzzle up and down spasticly. But she was a Human, and he would do his best to use their gestures. There were so many little nuances to interspecies communication.

"I believe she may be a telepath, and possibly in a position of power. She previously assured me that no harm would come to-" He paused, about to refer to himself, but then realized Stacy might not have made the same promise to her. "...us. That implies she has some kind of regular observation of us, and is perhaps in a position of power in this city. But..." He exhaled sharply through his snout, puzzled. "She sounded like a female to me. Did she not sound feminine to you?"

"I didn't want to make assumptions," Lacaille admitted with a hint of sheepishness. "Secondary sexual characteristics might not be the same across all species, right?" She rocked back on her heels a bit, looking up at the sky. "You know, come to think of it, the transport tubes ought to be able to take us to the deck, right?"

A long series of pleased-sounding clicks eminated from Red's throat. Another Tiss'shar would have recognized it as a chuckle. "You're right. But where I come from, a name like 'Stacy' is indicative of a female in most Core Worlds species."

He followed her gaze skyward. Nothing but clouds and that sun... "In theory. If the deck is within city limits, and not mounted inside some sort of ship. But in that case, the transport tubes might at least take us close."

Red liked this Human. She analyzed situations and didn't seem to leap to conclusions. He was lucky to have found her.

"It sounded like it was part of the same facility. Either way, we'll find out in a moment, right?" Lacaille added, cheerful at the prospect of further exploration, and a potential problem to solve while she was at it. "We should try to get-- oh! I almost forgot something."

She half-turned to look over her shoulder and called out, "Haro!" After a brief pause, a small purple ball half-bounced, half-rolled up to her feet from behind a nearby building and seemed to blink up at her, its eye-like lights flickering briefly; she scooped it up with a smile and tucked it under one arm. "Now, what was I saying? Oh, yes, we ought to get its attention so we can be sure of where we're going..."

Red drew back a moment as the peculiar ball object bounded/rolled up to Lacaille. He'd never seen this before...It seemed like a companion, but you never could tell. He leaned in close to examine it in her hands, sniffing the air gently. "Your droid?"

Then, bringing himself back to full height, he looked over his shoulders. "Yes...tsss. She did say she would be watching. Maybe if we addressed her, er, directly?" He let out a rasping bark of a cough, trying to clear his throat. "Stacy? Are you there? We would like to go to the Observation Deck."

He looked the same way he felt, addressing the otherwise empty city. Extremely awkward.

||Please return to the Hub.|| Stacy answered. ||You may proceed to the Observation Deck from there.||

A pause.

||Do you require assistance locating the Hub?||

Red clicked his jaws together in satisfaction, doing a slight hop from claw to claw. "At least she is attentive. And helpful, in her own fashion."

He rolled the nictating membrane over his eyes and held it there. At least he felt a LITTLE less foolish when miming some form of communication than in speaking to empty air. "Yes, please, Stacy. I fear we haven't yet got our bearings on this planet."

There were no rows of pustules in the City, so Stacy began by instructing them to turn to Red's left and proceed towards the corner of the building that they were standing beside. This movement was to be followed by a turn to the right, and then they were to proceed thirty-two point seven eight feet before taking another left, and so on, culminating in their arrival at the Hub.

||I will repeat instructions should you become lost.|| she added.

"A 'droid'? It is a robot, but it's not really humanoid enough to call an android..."

Lacaille fell silent for the moment while Red spoke to Stacy, still a little disconcerted by the method of communication it used; it wasn't the fact of its existence that bothered her quite so much as that it still felt strange having thoughts broadcast into her mind.

Only when it had finished giving the directions did she speak up again. "I don't think we will, but thank you." With a quick look over at Red, she started off, setting Haro down so it could bounce-flutter along behind her. She followed the directions quite precisely, even cutting her long stride short a few times to conform strictly to the distances given by Stacy.

"Isn't this place amazing?" she said, smiling broadly as she walked. "I've never even imagined anything like most of this technology--even these clothes are just... leaps and bounds from anything we have, let alone its dimension-crossing capabilities--well, that's just a theory of mine right now," she clarified quickly, "but it's what the evidence so far seems to point to."

The Tiss'shar watched the little droid bounce along behind Lacaille as they walked. He was interested in it more than however amazing the world was. A droid, but not a droid? What was its function? He attempted to hide his distraction and focused on resuming the conversation. He hoped she had not noticed his momentary lapse of attention.

"Dimension crossing capabilities? What leads you to that conclusion? While I agree that the technology here is, tsss, unusual compared to the norm, I can't bring myself to call it amazing." Weird, yes. Interesting, yes. But amazing was the kind of word Red tended to reserve for something that didn't involve gooey foul tasting plants clinging to his scales.

"I met someone else here who claimed to be from Earth--that's our homeworld--well, not mine, but my species's..." Realizing she was starting to ramble, she moved on. "The strange thing about it was that he's apparently from about five hundred years in my past. Almost all of the historical details matched up, but... he and people he knows are able to do things that are..." She stopped just short of saying 'impossible'. "... extremely unlikely in my world. Unassisted flight, time travel--things that break all our known laws of physics."

She grinned, seeming to be thoroughly enjoying the role of exposition-giver. "So, by Occam's Razor and the fact that the many-worlds theories have not been disproven, I think it's safe to assume in the absence of further evidence that we're dealing with multiple realities." Suddenly, she halted almost in mid-step, looking thoughtful. "Do you think it might know?" she mused, nodding upwards in a gesture intended to indicate Stacy.

This place was beginning to make his head hurt. None of it made any sense, and Zelgadis had finally figured that nothing was going to come out of trying to talk to that Stacy creature. There might be reason here, but her logic wasn't lining up with his own. It was time to try and approach the locals.

This wasn't a prospect that he was looking forward to, considering.

The city itself had been stunning, so incredibly varied. Plenty of it, he simply didn't recognize, but parts of his mind were still trying to assign tasks for them. Plenty remained incomprehensible. Maybe later. There had to be people here, yet.. it was quiet, mostly empty. It was eerie.

He'd been walking, cautious, straining for a hint of movement or sound, and finally he'd spotted something alive. Footsteps were heavy, a different gait than that of a human, but it didn't deter him. Instead, he followed, a cautious distance behind, trying to think of how to put this..

Zel wasn't trying to be sneaky; the lizard-man could probably sense him. "Excuse me." That was lamely spoken, but he was forcing himself through this. "What's, uh, going on here?"

Smooth.

Red's tail flicked upwards as the strange being approached. He might have noticed he was being followed, if it weren't for the fact that the city itself seemed to be overwhelming his attention. He jumped slightly as he spun around, immediately trying to calm down and hide his surprise. Calm down, most races can't read shock without a facial expression. Calm-

Red's thoughts came to a quick halt as he looked the humanoid up and down, sniffing. He smelled of...rocks? That was odd. But that fitted with the peculiarity of the city here. And the humanoid's confusion might be because he was a local, and Red an intruder in his home city.

He did his best to assume a nonthreatening pose, tail dropped and head moderately low. "I'm sorry, I was simply exploring your city. But I seem to be a bit lost."

Zel hadn't quite meant to startle the creature. Some sort of beastman; he'd seen plenty of variations on the reptilian theme before. The type didn't entirely click, but that was fine. At least he was able to make himself understood, and get a clear answer in return.

He still wished, uselessly, that he had his hood. Not that it would exactly hide him from curious nostrils, too. In a way, he was almost glad he hadn't run into any humans yet.

"No, no. I just came out of one of the pod caverns. I literally have no idea what's going on here." Frustration was evident in his voice. "You're the first person I've seen." And just as clueless. Fantastic.

Red's posture visibly slumped. "Ah...So, you haven't met Stacy yet?" Don't give too much away...he didn't know Stacy's place of power in this world, if she was considered a bad or good entity to be aligned with. Even if he wasn't native, he might know something.

"I am known as Aish-Kar-Yan. And you'll forgive me, but I don't recognize your species. May I inquire...?" He left the question hanging. Awkward. But he didn't know that.

"I've talked to her. As for a face-to-face.." Zelgadis merely trailed off, before shaking his head dismissively. Did it even have a body? What sort of creature was it? "She's not been terribly forthcoming with me. Merely that we're here for some great purpose that she doesn't care to divulge." By now, he was practically grinding his teeth. How many other people had she just picked up, and told nothing?

"Aish-Kar-Yan." Zel repeated the name, carefully pronouncing the syllables, perhaps making sure he'd done it correctly. "I am Zelgadis." It wasn't like the reptile was the only one with an odd name.

Species.. and suddenly a heated flush managed to cross Zel's face, though out of anger or shame, it was hard to tell. "I'm human." He spoke, tightly, trying not to overreact. "My body is also part brau demon and part stone golem." The less said about that, the better. He was averting his eyes, then, fingers slipping up the back of his neck.

At least nobody had pointed in his face and screamed, or.. anything.

If Red had been able to arch an eyebrow, he would have. Instead, he simply stared at Zelgadis from one eye, his head turned sideways. Human? Humanoid, maybe, but not human. Demon and Golem? Was this some kind of fairy tale? Maybe Zelgadis was deluded, or in denial...Or, maybe he was from some sub-species of Humanoid that hadn't been put into the databanks yet and simply identified itself as Human.

Zelgadis seemed nervous about it, though. That was a gesture Red had grown quite accustomed to- Humanoid nervousness. He'd let it go, for now.

"Zelgadisss, pleased to make your aquaintance." He held out a clawed hand, unaware of the slight harsh mangling he'd given the chimera's name.

"So you have heard Stacy. I think she may be some kind of telepath...though where she is, or what she intends to do, I'm not sure." Looking Zelgadis in the eye, he hoped the understood danger of a telepath would sink in. That speaking ill of her aloud might bode ill for both of them. But he could never tell if Humanoids picked up on those hints or not...

Even without a human face, Zel got the feeling that Aish-Kar-Yan here didn't believe him. The tilt of the head to one side was universal, and for a moment he actually glowered, stormily, at his new acquaintance. "I was not born this way." Perhaps that might simplify the matter. Actually, it would probably raise more questions, and he didn't feel like answering them.

Well, there was a bit of hissing on the end, there. As long as a bunch of spit didn't come with it, he'd accept it."You can shorten it to Zel, if you like." Just so he didn't have to hear that leaky-tire noise every time. The hand was held out.. erm, talons.. and for a moment Zelgadis hesitated, before he gingerly returned the gesture. It wasn't like he was going to be cut. It was just that most people didn't expect stone skin upon contact.

"Yes, since I wasn't hearing her. With my ears, anyhow." Voices in your head. "That's powerful magic, or something else I don't entirely understand." By most standards, it was impossible. Eye contact was made, and Zel's lips flattened into a frown. Hopefully Stacy didn't read minds, too, or she was going to be hearing some very negative reviews here.

"I just wish I knew what the big idea was." No point in pissing the lady off, wherever or whatever she might be.

Not born that way...? Red slowly cleaned his eyes with the nictating lid, thinking. He had heard of rumors concerning the Empire's experimentation, but they had only been rumors. Unless Zelgadis was the proof, right here in front of his snout.

There was a short clicking grunt sound as Red looked down as their hands shook. No, deffinitly not Human, no matter what he said. He broke off the handshake after what he assumed was the polite length of time. Zel at least acted Human.

"Magic...huh." He turned and gave the city a glance. So much of it was familiar, and so much utterly alien. There was something very odd about it. "I'm not sure most preformer's tricks would extend to quite this range. It could be possible we were implanted with a communication device while we slept..." He grew silent. Apparently the thought hadn't dawned on him until this moment. His head jerked backwards as a wuff escaped from his snout.

The Tiss'shar turned to Zelgadis with a certain urgency to his movements. "Excuse my impertenance, but as we both seem to find ourselves in the same situation...may I examine your head?"

Now there's a question you never expect to hear from a talking dinosaur-man.

Zel wasn't usually the type to bother much with formalities. Then again, he usually had somebody noisier out in front, making all the demands. Shaking hands would not kill him. He might need allies before the day was through.

"Tricks?" Blue eyes narrowed coldly, for a brief moment. "No, I suppose you're right. No charlatan would be able to create something like this." The tone was mocking, but then again, he was a sorcerer. He didn't like the sound of any implanted devices, though. "What do you mean?" How unsettling.

It didn't get any better. "What? Why?" The words had come out almost blurred together, and the chimera had actually moved back a step. Weird requests made him uneasy. They usually ended up with him being humiliated in some fashion.

Red pointed a claw towards Zel's head, slowly waving his tail back and as he explained. He tried to sound as calm and assured as possible to offset Zelgadis' immediately jumping to the defensive. "If we have been implanted with a communication device, there may be evidence of it. I can't very well examine my own skull."

He took a tenative step forward. How was he going to offset the humanoid's nervous reaction? Promises would mean nothing, given that neither of them knew the other well yet... "You are more than welcome to check me in return. I assume that were a device input, it would be close to the ears, or possibly at the base of the skull."

The Tiss'shar didn't have any visable ears, but maybe that was besides the point.

"I don't see how that's possible. At least without leaving some sort of mark." Zelgadis was becoming obstinate about it, and quickly. Then again, he had stone skin, and it would take some doing to actually manage to cram something unwanted into his skull. His nose crinkled, faintly, as he tried to figure out a better reason to refuse. In all honesty, he just didn't want someone picking through his hair.

"Fine." That came out with a sufferer's sigh. No, he didn't feel like picking over Aish-Kar-Yan's scaly scalp. Knees folded, and he just dropped himself into a sit, trying to not even think of what came after. "So what do we do if there's something like.. that? I mean.." Breaking communications with the wise and powerful Stacy might just piss her right off.

Again, Red's nictating eyelids flicked over his eyes. He let out a series of short, low clicking sounds and stepped around to the chimera's side. It would have been nice if there was a medical droid around, but come to think of it...he hadn't seen any droids in this city.

And anyway, Zelgadis might have liked a droid examining him even less than another sentient.

"If there is evidence of an communications implant, we do nothing. It will answer one major question - is Stacy a true telepath, or someone simply trying a fast con. Which it is will determine our later ac..tion..."

He paused, claws closed around Zel's hair. It wasn't at all what he expected, though. It wasn't soft like normal Human head-fur, it felt like the bristles on an industrial cleaning brush. Intruige overcame him a moment and he clacked his jaw in interest. "Is this really your hair?"

Arms had folded over his chest, almost sulkily, and he tried not to stir as the beastman came a little too close to him for comfort. Zelgadis simply liked his personal bubble as it was; large and uninterrupted. Still, he wasn't sure if this creature could hurt him, even if it meant to do so.

"This seems like a lot of work just to trick someone. Considering where we came from, I imagine this Stacy to be from a world foreign to my own." Then the lizard had grabbed a handful of his hair, and then speech began to trail off.

The question.. well, he hadn't quite expected it, but his head turned up to one side, managing to peer angrily upwards from one cat-pupiled eye. "It's coming out of my scalp, isn't it?" An obvious question got an obvious answer. "My body is part golem. Which is why it would be difficult to plant anything under my skin." Unless one had a chisel and some careful aim. Stone skin and wire hair. There was even a faintly metallic glint to the latter. "Can you just get this over with?"

Zel was certainly defensive over his appearance.

With a quick snort, Red released the hair he held in his claws. A touchy humanoid, very touchy. There were worse species when it came to medical examination, he was sure, but not being a medic he certainly didn't know them. He tried to move to lighter subjects momentarily.

"I'm willing to agree that Stacy is alien. That this," he waved a claw at the city, "is all alien. It's not your planet, and it's certainly no planet I know of. Maybe it isn't even Stacy's planet."

He couldn't keep the subject shift up long. Looking over Zel's skin he clicked idly, "It really is stone, isn't it? Not stone-like, but living rock." Red seemed to be speaking mostly to himself as he searched. "This feels like it would have needed a laser cutter, and that should have left a mark. Unless these discoloured patches are marks..." He shook his head. There were too many, they were likely natural. Or close to it.

"No, no," he parted and picked through the hair around the chimera's ear carefully, a rediculous parody of primates grooming. "I think you're right. I'm not seeing evidence of surgery. Although admitted, I have no medical training." He didn't like to put this down as solid evidence, though. He obviously was way, way out of his league with Zel's physiology, and there might have been some other way to hide a transmission device...

He gave up and stepped away, hissing quietly to himself. Frustrating.

If he'd had hackles, they'd have long been raised. This whole mess was simply not his idea of a good time. He'd come looking for answers, not for someone to start prodding him as though he were some sort of laboratory specimen!

"Planet? You mean worlds?" The most he knew of were four, and they all were parallel to one another. Space travel had never actually occurred to him, not when it was magic that let one slip from one reality to another. "Or a plane of existence, like a spirit world?" Could she be a demon?

"I told you it is." Grouchily. Maybe not in so many words, but he had claimed to be part stone golem. "No, they're just.. patches." Another flush crossed his face, one of pure embarrassment. Claws tickled a spot near his ear, and it actually twitched, once. Too damn long and slightly mobile. Yes, well, he was quite unique, when it came to being an example of humanity.

The beastman had finally stepped away, and Zel practically clapped a hand over the side of his head, trying to put his hair back into place. Not that it hadn't been a wild mess to begin with. "Well, that was pointless." So he was flustered and frustrated. It wasn't a good combination. He got to his feet, then, absently brushing at his knees, though he winced as he touched the living material.

"Do you think that there's anyone else here? Someone who might know anything?" It wasn't that he was trying to lash out, exactly. He was simply not a people person.

"Planet, worlds. You speak Basic, the meaning is interchangable." He tried to let the theoretical and theological talk slip past his notice. It had no place in situational analysis. Though the possibility of alternate dimensions existed, he strongly doubted stacy had simply...tumbled through one. Or that he had.

He watched Zel's actions quietly, filing it away. Impatient, and on edge. But restrained. That restraint didn't come naturaly to such a personality, it had to be learned. Maybe Zelgadis himself was military, or ex-military. "Not entirely pointless. And we do now know something. We know that either Stacy is a legitimate telepath, or her medical capabilities incorperate great finesse. Given neither you nor I seem particularly thrilled with our garments -nor the way we recieved them, I presume- I believe 'finesse' may not be one of her strong points. The technology of this place appears primarily organic, nearly floral. Laser cutters likely do not play a major role in it." More click-barks...He was chuckling to himself, but the sound was wholely inhuman and peculiar to those not used to it.

He had new theories as well...but no way to test them. But even if those theories held true, one factor remained. "If it had been a transmitter, we could have found ways to avoid it. To work around it. What it means is Stacy, one way or another, is far and above parlor tricks."

Exhaling deeply, Red looked at the alien city around them, giving the air another sniff. Very distant smells, very faint. Other than themselves and the city, he could only know that others had come here...but in no great numbers. No more than a few.

"Others...may be here. Though when they return, I don't know. I thought that a city would house a heavy population. But by the smell of it, I thought wrong."

Were they? The terms he was using didn't quite match. It was a niggling little difference, but Zel had frowned, trying to figure it out. The lack of knowledge was incredibly irritating, but in the end he had nothing to raise an issue over. Maybe he would learn sooner, rather than later.

He was actually chagrined that the beastman reminded him that it wasn't completely without point. "So it merely cements the fact that we have no idea. In the long run, it could be something utterly alien to all of us." They'd ruled out one option when there were so many others. "Tentacles should belong to sea animals and nothing else." A grimace at the very recent memory. "There is a very living quality to it. I'm not sure what a laser-cutter is, precisely, but the pod rooms and such reminded me of some demonic structures I had seen before."

In the end, they were going to have to just try figure it out. "We don't have enough pieces of the puzzle to get a clear image yet." Was he reminding himself, or Aish-Kar-Yan of this? "I agree. This was not a cheap undertaking." Unfortunately, he saw no humor in any of it.

"Most buildings belong to people. They are built for a purpose by those people. This place.. it's eerie. It feels lifeless." There were no sounds of life, the bustle of a city. "Not to mention nothing matches." As if he were going to be picky about the interior decorating.

Red clicked quietly in his throat. "I was told I would be taken to meet other sentients. This is where I was lead to, but you are the only one I've found. But I agree on the decor. Just like you and I seem to be from entirely different worlds, some of these buildings feel utterly transplanted. Their architecture doesn't belong side by side, their designs are too foreign from one another. As if someone was creating a..." He paused over the next word. The concept of a zoo where sentients were held did not appeal to him in any sense, and he was certain Zelgadis, with his temperment, would be equally nonplussed. He picked a new word. "A montage."

He flicked his tongue out at the city absently, and the air was still calm. It was empty, but it didn't feel like it had been abandoned. Just like it was...unused. Fresh out of the packaging, without the grit of life caked in the cracks yet. Darting out his tongue again, he cocked his head at Zelgadis.

"Any suggestions? Yours are as well informed as mine."

"Perhaps there are more down in those pod rooms." Not yet released, or too afraid to come out? "Though they'd be just as lost." A glance up at the false sky. Even that had a singular odd quality to it; close to correct, but just off enough to raise the hairs on the back of his neck. "A collection?" He still didn't like the sound of it. "That's not exactly what I'd list under 'great things'. " Though it'd be no real wonder that she'd grabbed the likes of him, then. "Maybe she likes the variety.." Not knowing was the most difficult part.

"All I can figure is that we should continue looking for more people, and see if they have any more puzzle pieces. Perhaps they are.. elsewhere. I wouldn't want to stay here for good, empty as it is." It was creepy. Not that he'd go admitting it.

The Tiss'shar nodded. Awkward looking, like he was franticly shaking his snout up and down. Wherever he'd adapted the Human gesture from, nobody had bothered to tell him that when he did it, it looked wrong. "There were other beings down there, inside the pods. More must have awoken when we did. I heard scratching on the catwalks," He let out a series of clicks which sounded distinctly nasal. "But it retreated, whatever it was."

"Still. Even if they know nothing, there may be a common thread of logic or knowledge which ties us together."

Sniffing the air as he went, Red began to backtrack towards the Hub which had lead him to the surface.

mr. blue sky please tell us why

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