trans_9 | Mix-and-Mingle

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Mix-and-Mingle

After the most recent pod-pop had been completed, Stacy began encouraging the crew towards the Obs Deck. They would be most effective if they were familiar with each other, and as the Jaime Reyes Incident had proved, leaving them to meet whenever they happened to cross paths was not effective.

Anyone who stepped into the Hub would be transported to the Obs Deck, no matter where they had intended to go. Those who had been exploring the City were verbally herded towards the Hub, although the energy tentacles did not make an appearance.

||Please report to the Obs Deck for Crew Introductions.||

The Obs Deck hadn't changed very much since they'd last been there. The creepy sculpture was still present, as were the fleshy couches. However, the couches were arranged in a more obvious circle this time.

Come and meet the new -- and in some cases, weirder -- members of your crew.

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"I see you have sarcasm on your world." Good, because he might end up trying to strangle someone otherwise. Lips had flattened into a flat-line frown, but at least he didn't seem to be fantasizing about her being dead any longer. Besides, stupid heroes.. the topic amused him. It did remind him of a certain blond swordsman. "I suppose I can relate." Now his head had turned in a certain way, inspecting her from his visible eye. It was tempting to lay into her about jumping to conclusions, especially here, where everything was just.. confusing.

"Yes." Zel answered, grudgingly. He wasn't going to pretend to be polite, after that. He was calmer, but frustrated instead of furious. "I'd be lying if I claimed it never happened before. Unfortunately, I am somewhat.. unique." Fugly? That was a new word, but it was one he could more or less guess the meaning of, and he simply seemed rather uncomfortable.

"If we didn't have sarcasm on my world, I'd have to strangle somebody," she said flatly.

"Let's try this again, without me being an idiot about it."

She held out a callused hand. "I'm Leela. Leela Bricker."

Her words caused Zel to actually snort in either surprise, or amusement. Hopefully, she wasn't actually reading his thoughts, and just divining the sort of thing he might say. From first impressions, well, she reminded him of Lina; quick, brash, and clever enough to realize when to let go of certain things. That could be a good thing. Perhaps he'd attempt to let go of his resentment.

The hand went out towards him, though, and that was something he really, really didn't want to do. For a moment, his expression was actually almost.. comically put-upon, as if she were being terribly unreasonable, before actually reaching out and shaking her hand. If she'd been expecting actual scales, well, she didn't get it. Her hand would meet stone. Warm, alive, but stone, never-the-less.

"Zelgadis Greywords." Now, that was a real mouthful, wasn't it?

Funky.

But if it bothered her or freaked her out, she said nothing, and didn't react.

Maybe it didn't actually bother her. Danger did. People trying to kill her--or eat her, sure. But it sure would be a touch ironic to hate someone for how they looked, wouldn't it.

"Uh. I'ma call you 'Zel.' 'Cause that's a lot of name. So Zel, where you from anyway? I mean, what's your world like?"

At least there was no second exclamation over what he might be made of, and she didn't get curious over what he was. Though, at this point, he'd have probably gladly told her it was none of her damned business.

"That's fine. It is long." From..? "I've nothing to compare it to, unless you count this as a world." It was a tall order, wasn't it? It was a rather vague question. "The portion of it that I know is a mess of conflicting kingdoms and guildmasters butting heads." A clucking of his tongue, then. Politics was not his thing.. usually. There are lots of wild places left, and things left unexplored."

"Monsters, giants, golems, magic, gods, quests and treasure and adventures, stuff like that? Sounds like where I just came from, though not where I came from, came from," she said.

"That sounds unreasonably apt." His posture had finally relaxed, hands falling open at his sides, and Zel shrugged. "I am a sorcerer and a swordsman of some repute." For being a ruthless jackass, at points, but yes.

"So this is not your first voyage into the Sea of Chaos? Or did you slip realities through sorcery?" Now he was genuinely curious, and his demeanor was more open. "I've never heard of humans that could do such a thing. Only extremely powerful demons, or servants of the Gods.. and even then, it is no light matter. You could only pass into a world next to your own." A parallel universe, but not nearly identical.

If they were that powerful on her world, could they know something about his condition?

"I don't know what the Sea of Chaos is, but this is space. I think. Kinda," she said, going over towards the window, which was near them and peeking out at the passing starts.

"And it was the second one. My world's...different. There's machines that'd probably look like sorcery to you. Flying machines, electric lights--light lightning caught in a bottle, carriages that go without horses. None of it's magic though. It's all technology. Gears. Stuff smart people thought up and figured out how to make--and then smarter people figured out how to improve one. Harnessing the power of steam, and the heat from coal and oil, and using that to make things move. Or picking apart things on a microscopic level and harnessing the power that holds everything in the universe together--although that's a lot more dangerous." And deadly.

"It's all normal for us, though. There's wars, but no adventures, no quests, no magic. Everyone's a little bit boring when they aren't killing each other for stupid reasons. Anyway, me and my best friend Irene, we worked at this company together--a place that build new machines and inventions and sold them. One of the scientists there built a machine that could open portals to other worlds--and threw us through as human test subjects. She was gonna kill us too, but I think the machine overloaded and we got away--but we couldn't get home."

She looked back at him. "Where I ended up was a world like yours. Took some--let's call it 'adjustment.' Keep in mind, with machines and farms and all that, no one hunts for food anymore. You don't have to fight anyone to survive. We damn near got ourselves killed I don't know how many times around the beginning."

"It is the darkness that worlds are perched upon. It is nothing and everything." It was an odd way to look at it. Actually, being out in it.. the concept made his head want to hurt. She'd moved closer to the window he'd been peering at before. "I suppose some would call it the sea of stars." They were in a ship, correct? Ships went on the sea. Easy enough concept to him.

Machines? She was describing all these things, and for a moment, he was utterly rapt. The chimera was.. the sort who liked to get into blueprints, to take things apart and see how they worked. He'd have gone absolutely loopy in her world, then would have probably destroyed everything in her apartment.

"So science can replace magic. Or magic can replace science. I suppose they are two different sets of answers to the same questions." A little bit boring? "Aren't most idyllic lives?" Not everyone was cut out for peace and quiet. Someplace that worked with machines.. yes, well, an accident had sent her here. "The same as any normal city-folk getting dropped into the wilderness, I assume." So they'd been soft. Not so soft that they died, though.

"I wish I could see your original world.. from a safe distance, of course." If it was that boring, he certainly didn't want to live there.

"We call this outer space," she said, tapping the window. "Although I think this might not even be what we considers space. Maybe the space between spaces. We have ships that can fly out into space, but we've only gone so far as landing on the moon. But we've sent smaller ships with no people even further out, trying to see more of it, trying to see if there's anyone else out there..."

She went on, "And my world--Earth--is...amazing. Didn't realize that until I couldn't get back to it, until I started missing it. And it's horrible. But way I figure it, that's every world. Never really as good enough as it could be, 'cause only a few people really give a damn about other people."

"Outer space." Zel wasn't questioning, merely repeating the words to himself, trying to put the pieces together to make a comfortable fit. She ruined that with her 'space between spaces' comment, though, and he merely let out a long exhalation. This was going to take some studying; he was quite behind on this technology. Perhaps he'd never catch up.

"Most people are content where they are. That's enough." It was obvious that he generally had no use for them. He wasn't a cruel creature, exactly. Simply indifferent. "I suppose that is humanity. Good, evil, but mostly apathetic."

"Most, but that ain't me." She grinned a large and somewhat wicked grin. "If I hadn't gotten separated from Irene, getting sucked into another world would've been the best damn thing that ever happened to me. Before, I'd see nasty crap happening to good people on the news and couldn't do a damn thing about it. Now I can kick the shit out of the people doing it."

Funny, how sometimes the best things came in the most miserable packages.. Zel supposed if the girl was happy with her lot, who was he to judge? "Be careful with ambition." That was all he could really tell her. News? Well. They did have papers for that sort of thing, but usually it went by word of mouth.

Served him right for being selfish, he supposed. "Ah-ha. One word about justice, and this conversation is over." That was with dry amusement, however, not an actual threat.

"It ain't about justice," she said with a completely level, "srs bizness" face. "It's about kickin' ass."

After dealing with the Seyruun loony bin for quite some time, her first phrase was a breath of fresh air. The whole kingdom was a center for the study of white magic, and those people took their justice very, very seriously. "That is acceptable." Now his arms folded over his chest again. "I wonder, exactly, who's asses we're supposed to be kicking? I assume that's our great purpose." They were warriors, after all.

"Probably some other aliens. Or innocent people that they wanna try to force us to conquer. Or they wanna do experiments on us. Or use us for slave labor. Or eat us..."

"I suppose she could have hired or fooled any mercenaries into doing her work for her." Zel's voice had taken a rather prickly tone. "Instead of all this foolishness." Though she kept going, ticking off whatever she could possibly think of, perhaps attempt to be humorous. Unfortunately, he'd picked one word out of the lot, and his face had almost drained of color. "You don't believe..?" No, possibly not. "The last three are not happening." Stacy'd have to kill him, first. Then again, he didn't seem too edible, either.

"Who knows what they want. We could be meant to be part of some mass sacrifice to an Elder God for some crazy alien cult. Could be anything. S'why we just need to figure out the game, work together, and get out of here."

"I was under the assumption that Stacy herself could be some sort of demon." Was it not the case? Sacrifices didn't quite work that way on his world. "Though we are not in pain, only confusion, and we do not hate each other. Yet." It might not take much to turn a ship full of strangers on each other. It could be anything. Zel nodded, then, obviously miserable at not knowing what the next step really was. "Agreed. But I do not enjoy being toyed with.." Someone was going to pay for this mess.

"A demon or genetically engineered or somethin'. Just because she's big and scary doesn't mean she wasn't created by someone like us. Scary thought, I know."

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