Meet'n Greet Part Deux

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

Obs Deck usually had the most people at any given time. It was a large comfortable room, and it had places to sit.

This was where Leela led Kurt.

"Looks like we got some new people other'n you," she said, gesturing with her thumb towards a floating boy with a leather jacket that was mingling with other people nearby. Looked like there were a few others, too.

"You wanna meet the bosslady first or just everybody?"

Comments

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Well, it became quickly apparent that the decor didn't get any better. Basically, it seemed as though the Observation Deck was meant to be the commons, or at least a place for people to gather. It was decently sized, at least, and it didn't quite make Kurt's skin crawl to look at it.

It was probably a bad thing that he wanted someone to hold his hand through this, figuratively speaking, of course. He was simply feeling insecure. At least until he spotted a few others, and honestly, she hadn't been kidding. He was in very mixed company.

"I am in no hurry about any of it." There was that smile again, slightly forced, but he was doing his best to be a good sport. "I suppose the more people who see me, the better. Then there is less surprise." Though he then leaned up on his toes a bit, peering around. "Hum. I think I will be fine." A murmur. Maybe it had taken seeing it to believe it.

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Holy mother of--

Get used to it, Cybil. Get used it.

Kurt hadn't been the first weird-looking person. He wasn't likely going to be the last.

Cybil had her little datapad out (the Census) and came over.

"What's your name, kid?" she asked Kurt.

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Alright, Kurt. Time to remember how to breathe. As long as he wasn't freaking out, then possibly other people would not freak out. Right?

Alright, so someone used to reading body language could tell he was anxious. Hell, he was anxious of her. The woman with the short-cropped blond hair had spoken to him, and he smiled up at her, briefly.

"I am Kurt Wagner." Then he spelled it for her, carefully pronouncing each letter for her afterwards. Hopefully she didn't want to fingerprint him, too. That'd be a real mess.

"Are you, um, this 'bosslady' person?" Kurt grinned, weakly. Hopefully she wasn't the easily offended type.

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

Her mouth quirked into an amused look.

"Something like it," she said. "Stacy decided I was captain and I have no clue why. I've been trying to keep track of everyone we've got here, though." She held up the little pad with the Census. "Rules are: Don't go anywhere alone, and stay away from the room where the doors and whatnot are upside down."

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Nope. Okay. She was responding normally.. Well, as regularly as someone could when covering with what looked like a walking prop from the Island of Dr. Moreau.

"I would assume it is a very interesting list." Kurt spoke, dryly. She was laying down the house rules, and that sounded simple enough. Who would want to wander off alone here, anyway?

"Oh. The last one sounds like an easy one to follow." Though he could probably get himself out of that mess by teleporting. Talk about cheating.

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

"That one's pretty serious. We had a few of the crew go exploring there, and they came back saying there was something dangerous inside. Living statues or something, Cybil explained.

She went on, "And it is. A very interesting list."

Wait, here she was being rude.

"I'm Cybil Bennet, by the way. Brahm's PD." She held out her hand.

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Living statues? Kurt's brow creased, faintly. Still, out of all the things here, that was the one he had to stay away from? "Ah. Well, no problem. I am not looking for trouble." Just in case she was wondering..

She agreed about the list, and then he grinned, brightly. "It has to be. I am on it." Well, it wasn't as though he were boring.

"Well, you know the name. You could also call me Nightcrawler." If she were inclined to use codenames, at any rate. She'd put out the hand, and he'd carefully shaken it in a three-fingered grip.

"Nice to meet you, officer Bennet." He was polite, if nothing else.

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

That won him points. She had a soft spot for kids, but teenagers tended to be snots.

"Speaking of you being on it, is there anything you can...do? People here tend to be able to shoot laser beams out their asses, or have super strength, and those things are...good to know. We may have to fight, at some point, for all we know. If you have any sort of specialized knowledge, that counts, too."

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Well, it wasn't as though Kurt was typical. Not that he didn't ever do something ridiculous, considering he was definitely at that age, but still. She probably wouldn't have to worry about him that much.

There was a half-choked laugh in the back of his throat. So he was immature; the idea of ass beams was still funny. "I can fight." A murmur, then, more seriously. "I am not the strongest, but I am quick." Then he was thinking about it, for a moment. Half these things came naturally to him. "I can stick to walls and ceilings, I am hard to see in the dark, I know two languages and can walk a tightrope." That wasn't even the end of it. He actually paused and took a breath before he dropped the big one. "I can also teleport in any direction for up to two miles. I can take someone with me, too, but they will not enjoy it." Squeamish people wanted to vomit, simple as that.

"I could also attempt to pass myself off as, uh, normal, but that is from my watch, not from me." Kurt supposed it depended on if they went.. anywhere. But wouldn't they be among aliens, then? He'd be just one more foreign creature to them.

[spaceraptor.livejournal.com]

The reptilian alien making his way right for the newcomers didn't seem aggressive. Despite the teeth, his stance was decidedly relaxed and he moved at a nonchalant pace.

He seemed to take an immediate interest in Kurt, a clicking chirp sound somehow accompanying his words. "Ah, I haven't seen your kind before! You must be from a planet in Wild Space. Or, you wouldn't consider it to be Wild Space." Apparently his greeting tactics included a complimentary cup of confusion.

"May I ask your name? And your species name. Mine are the Tiss'shar."

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Leela had told him there was a dinosaur-man. What he didn't expect was pretty much a velociraptor in a plant-suit. One that spoke pretty decent English, at that. Alright, Kurt was gaping in surprise, like some dust-farmer kid from the middle of nowhere.

No, there was no anxiety, now, only a sort of glee in getting to interact with what looked like a very cool museum prop. It might dawn on him in a moment that he was standing near a predator of decent size. Not to mention it was an alien.

"Ah, no, actually. I am from a planet called Earth." Weren't most of them. Then he was forcing a small smile. Nobody had seen his kind before, after all. He was one of a kind.

"My name is Kurt. I, ah, am a human." Though certain humans certainly didn't want to treat him that way all the time. Tiss'shar. These were the sort of aliens he could cope with.

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"He's just a different-lookin' one," Leela cut in. "I'm Leela, by the way. I caught your name, but don't think we've had a chance to talk yet."

[spaceraptor.livejournal.com]

It was difficult to tell puzzlement by Red's face - his face didn't change from the same stoic expression. But when he reared his head back and seemed to measure them with one slit eye, it was evident. "Really...another Earth Human?" He was gradually beginning to form his own theories about this "Earth." Those theories included "Everything from this planet is called a Human, even if it isn't."

He lowered his head back down, bobbing it in what must have been his attempt at a bow. "Pleased to meet you both. And my apologies... I've been trying to piece together what exactly is happening here. Socialization takes a back seat to that, I'm afraid."

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Well, equality and all that.

Kurt wasn't going to be offended by that look, anyway. It was a harmless sort of surprise, and the smile just wasn't leaving his face. Kids liked dinosaurs, and by God, he wasn't very much of a grown up. "There are a lot of unusual variants in the human gene pool, at least from the Earth I am from." That was an understatement, to say the least.

"No, it is fine. I get that often." His smile turned wry, then. "Understandable." A blink, then, of yellow eyes. "Has anyone told you that you look very similar to some extinct species on Earth?" Perhaps that wasn't a polite route of conversation, but damnit, he was curious.

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"Which is pretty bitchin' cool?" Who the hell DIDN'T like dinosaurs?

[spaceraptor.livejournal.com]

Red had never been to Earth, and now he had a strange feeling he didn't want to. It's never really a good feeling to hear your species was whiped out before it had a chance to develop elsewhere. Especially when it was looking like just about every other species on Earth did manage to survive.

"Er. No, I didn't know that." A whirrrr-ing sound came from his throat as he stepped from foot to foot. Obviously it unnerved him. "They weren't killed off, were they?"

That would be a kick in the snout- if all these Earth Humans carried some kind of deadly Tiss'shar-slaying pathogen...

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Kurt tried to imagine a caveman stalking a talking dinosaur. The idea didn't stick. It was too ludicrous, even for him. "Well, no. They vanished millions of years before humans developed. No one is quite sure what happened, there." Red's presence could easily start up some crazy theories. The dinosaurs didn't die out, they left in spaceships.

"I, uh, did not mean it like that." The guy was getting antsy, and Kurt shot Leela an 'oops' look. "Just that it would be an interesting coincidence." Open mouth, insert foot. Only in his case, Kurt could probably physically do that.

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"So I tried out the bunks," Paco said, catching side of something blue out of the corner of his eye. "They're surprisingly comfortable for giant nostrils, and--" he looked up, saw that the blue guy wasn't his best friend, and blinked. "Not Jaime, my bad. Meta, mutant, alien, or other?"

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

Kurt was on his toes(so to speak, he was always on his toes), expecting anything.. except for someone to wander up and start addressing him as if he were someone else.

Now that was disconcerting. Kurt regarded the other teen with a look of shock, wondering just how many blue people they must have on board for that to happen.

By the time he picked his jaw up off the floor, the guy had realized he had to wrong person, and Kurt was laughing; he couldn't help it. "Mutant, actually. I am sorry, that was a new one for me." Kurt hadn't meant to sound like he might be mocking the boy.

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"Man, how d'you get a fuzzy guy and an armor guy mixed up?" Leela asked. "Only thing him and Bugface got in common is the blue."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"No one told me that we got a new blue guy, what was I supposed to think?" Paco said with a grin as he waved off Kurt's apology. "Don't worry about it. I'm guessing that girl-with-a-cool-weapon told you what we think is going on here?"

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

"Was ist-" Bugface? Whoa, wait, wait. Should he be offended, or .. "I am very confused now." Kurt muttered, peering between the two of them.

"I just got here. All I have heard is that someone is getting quite a collection going." Now he was shifting his weight from foot to foot, nervously.

[daaayum.livejournal.com]

"Girl-with-a-Cool-Weapon. I like. Name's Leela, by the way, but I still like," Leela mused. Then when Kurt got nervous, she explained, "There's a guy's got some kinda blue bug armor. Hence: Bugface. Not that he's got a bugface while wearing it, but it's good nickname for him anyway. Only thing you two have in common is the blue, so apparently, this guy is blind."

A pause. "You're not actually part-blind, are you?" she asked Paco. "'Cause then I'd feel bad."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"Nope, perfect vision," Paco said. "I was just too stunned by your ravishing beauty to pay attention to the other people in the room." He followed up with a playful wink.

"Well, here's what we've got so far -- probably alien-abduction, tons of alternate universes, no one has any idea how or why, and most people have super powers, special training, or a stick that they've already used for smacking aliens. Also, the ship is freaking huge, and there are things on it that want to screw with our heads and/or possibly eat us. Fortunately, they seem to be mostly locked away, except for that bug we haven't seen since Jaime nearly got himself shot at for scaring the crap out of everyone else. Did I miss anything?"

[blue-fuzzy-dude.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Though, by now, it was obvious that Kurt was curious about that, too. At least the guy wasn't an actual bug. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. What was with him? Dinosaurs were fine, but toss in giant bugs and he wasn't sure he wanted to play this game anymore.

Kurt though his attempts at flirting were bad. Not so much, now. He decided pretending he didn't hear that was the best course of action.

"So this is supposed to be some unstoppable, alien-crushing army?" Then why have potentially harmful things on board? "This had better count as a very good training session."

People getting shot at didn't exactly calm him, either.