trans_9 | Awkward Turtle [closed]

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Awkward Turtle [closed]

Just as he suspected. There really wasn't much to do, even on a giant crazy spaceship like this one. There was a media library, but you could only watch movies for so long before you remembered that you were on a giant crazy spaceship and it was stupid to be watching movies.

That's what made Steve go check out the sensoriums, if only so he could work off a little steam on some kind of training course. That seemed like a popular option. Thinking on it too much had made him ask if it could create the images of people, too, and since then he'd been trying to decide how creepy it would be to go see virtual versions of his parents. Whether it would be more therapeutic than necessitating therapy afterwards was still up in the air.

He wandered the halls glumly, trying to get his mind off of it and forlornly thinking how nice it would be if somebody he knew was somehow aboard too.

He did not expect to get his wish thirty seconds later, when somebody walked by and he immediately recognized her.

"Wait... Claire?"

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Steve didn't answer, following her immediately and sticking close. He hadn't made it down to the city yet. There were enough hallways and places to explore on the upper areas of the ship to where he just hadn't gotten that far yet.

"Why can't we ever end up in normal places, huh?" he said, gesturing at the walls and trying awkwardly to lighten the mood. Since apparently it wasn't going to stay light for long.

"Just the kind of exciting lives we lead," Claire replied, smiling a little. It was an unlucky draw, but she could honestly say Steve was the first person she was glad to see on this ship. Because despite the stuff that happened back home, it still beat where he might've been.

He shook his head, shrugging his shoulders irritably. "If this is what they mean by 'exciting', I'd rather just go back to high school." After prison and zombies and now spaceships, Steve never thought he'd miss pre-calculus class so much.

"So is this like a real city? Inside the ship and everything?"

"Yup," she replied after holding back a smile at his crack about high school. "It's a little weird and alien, but there's a fake sky and everything. You can almost forget you're on a weird space ship there." Almost being the operative word. Considering there weren't any actual homes and people were shacking up in makeshift beds to avoid sleeping in the creepy wall nooks, it was hard to completely forget such things.

"As long as the walls don't breathe, it's gotta be better than where they want us to sleep," he said.

It was sort of nice to be somewhere with Claire where they didn't have to watch their backs at all times. Stacy's interior was weird and freaky, but at least it didn't attack. "I haven't looked around too much. I went to see the library place and the sensoriums today... There isn't anything to do but look around. Besides eating that horrible food, ugh."

"I'm sure Leon wouldn't mind you taking one of the rooms in the Precinct," Claire replied without really thinking about it. Leon might mind, but it wasn't like she'd ask his opinion on it. Steve had had a hard enough time as it was without waking up in creepy surroundings.

"There's a lot more to the ship than just what's up here. Have you used the uh, tube things at all?" Not really her favorite form of travel, but they apparently couldn't be picky around here.

"Oh, good," Steve sighed with relief. He wasn't about to ask Claire if he could stay with her, but he was more than grateful for the invitation. "Maybe then I can actually sleep."

That was a minor load off his mind. "I've only used the tubes a few times. The first was an accident, haha... it sort of put me off of them for a while."

Then something sharply occurred to him. "Hey, wait. Who's Leon? Is he that friend of yours you emailed the other d... on the island?"

"The same one." It didn't even register to Claire that this might not be something Steve would be all that pleased about, but she wasn't giving anyone any reason to think they were anything other than friends. In all cases.

"He woke up here a few months before I did."

"Ohhh." Well, it would be useful having someone around who'd been here for a long time. He could answer questions and probably knew his way around.

"I guess if he's a friend of yours then he's okay," Steve concluded. It wasn't as though he really got to decide what kind of people would be living at a place where he was only just invited to stay, but having Claire's approval behind him spoke volumes for what kind of guy this Leon person was.

"Is your brother here? I kinda wanted to meet him sometime."

Claire sighed a little at the mention of Chris, shaking her head.

"I don't know. If he is, he hasn't woken up yet." And she had no way of knowing, which bothered her a great deal, and was evident at the slight slump in her shoulders as they continued to walk.

Ooh, bad topic. "Uh. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked," Steve said quickly. "But... you know, he's probably fine. If he made it all the way to come get us before, then he's definitely okay on a ship like this!"

Hopefully his uninformed opinion and assumptions would be comforting in some way.

"So there could be tons of people in those freaky pods who we don't even know are here yet, huh...?"

"It's possible," she replied, brushing off the brief moment of upset at the idea of her brother being somewhere on board and her not knowing of it. "Stacy isn't exactly forthcoming with information about who's around."

Steve nodded at that, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "I don't know what to think about Stacy quite yet. I mean... it's not like she's out to get us or anything but she's still... you know."

And she was probably listening, too. This whole situation was like a terrible movie.

Claire nodded without saying anything, letting the silence stretch on until they reached their intended destination. After the ride through the anti-grav tubes which Claire just closed her eyes for the duration of because it was just less creepy that way, they were in the City.

"Welcome to level four. The City," she said over her shoulder to Steve, smirking a little. "Ninety percent less squishy than the rest of this boat."

They weren't kidding when they called it The City. Steve was awestruck for a moment, looking around at the buildings and even the fake night sky up above. Of course, the place had its own sort of charming creepy architecture, but nothing was breathing. That was a vast improvement in itself.

"Whoa, this is... awesome!" he said after a moment. It might have been the first time he was excited about anything since waking up. "What kind of stuff's down here?"

Claire smiled while she took in Steve's reaction to the city, glad to see his spirits lifted at least somewhat. She almost forgot the reason she'd brought him down here. As it was she'd put it off until they got to the precinct, if she could. Clearing her throat, she answered his question.

"A lot of abandoned buildings, some parks, the precinct obviously, oh, and the Vatican."

He could already see some of those abandoned buildings that she was talking about. They immediately looked more appealing to explore than anywhere else on the ship. Maybe there were some cool things to find in a few of them too.

"So this place is just as insane as the rest of the ship then, huh?" Steve replied to mention of the Vatican. "Well, I'm just glad to see a wall that's not moving or made out of muscle. This will be the next place I look around in, I think."

He glanced up at Claire and smiled a little awkwardly. "So where do you live?"

"The precinct," Claire replied, starting to steer them in that direction after a cursory glance at her omnicomm to make sure she still knew which way was the right way. "Kind of one of the perks of having an in with the chief of security."

Steve stuck close to Claire. This place was huge and he didn't look forward to getting separated from her again. Because it would take hours to find anything in this place. Yeah.

"Leon again, right?" he asked. "They said we get put onto teams to do missions and stuff, but I haven't heard anything yet." There was a moment of pause. "I don't know what good I'd be on a team like that anyway."

"You'd be surprised," she replied, eyes drifting to the street ahead.

"There haven't been any missions since I arrived, but from what I've heard everyone works with what they're best at." Claire didn't know for sure where Steve's talents lay, but they'd never exactly had much opportunity to ask him about his personal life. She didn't even know how it was he knew how to fly a plane.

That was somewhat disheartening news. Steve had no idea what application there would be for him. He was pretty good with machines... but he didn't look forward to pushing any buttons around here, and he severely doubted whoever was in charge of Stacy needed help flying her. Maybe they'd have some kind of small craft or vehicles for him to operate.

But there were probably tons of people who were far more experienced than him. Maybe he'd end up a glorified go-fer or dishwasher.

"I guess we'll see. But at least they had my guns here somehow," he said. Just in case they needed him for combat. Just in case.

"Yeah, I guess whatever you had on you at the time of abduction showed up here with you." Claire almost wished she'd been armed at the time, but she knew if it was necessary for her to be packing heat Leon would see to it that she was. The ship as it was, despite the oddness and the unknown dangers lurking in parts of the ship they couldn't reach, was relatively safe.

"Except for normal clothes, of course," Steve joked, tugging irritably at the plant suit. "They gave me back my collar too. Just in case I wanted a fun souvenir from Rockfort to remember all the good times." Besides the tattoo, of course. "I left it in the box. Who wants something like that?"

He had been relieved to find the picture of his family in there. That hadn't been easy to procure on Rockfort in the first place-- snuck out of his father's wallet, in fact.

"I don't think they determine what's going to upset you or not," Claire shrugged, crossing her arms loosely in front of her. "It would've been nice if they'd left our clothing along with everything else, though." Just like everyone else, she wasn't a fan of the creepy plant suit. But she wasn't about to go joining team Naked either.

He shook his head. "Obviously not, or else they wouldn't design the whole ship like something out of a crappy TV sci fi movie."

It was sad that Steve's live in general was starting to resemble a crappy TV sci-fi movie, more or less. "Who knows, maybe they'll give us some clothes if we behave or do good or whatever it is they want us here for."

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