Talk About Timing...

[cityship]

While chaos was going on in the city, a level below the Living Areas, the rest of the ship was functioning normally. Stacy, apparently oblivious to goings on in the city, likely do to her malfunctioning sensors there, carried on with ship business.

||Pod Release Protocols Initating,|| Stacy's familiar voice sounded out to the upper levels, though no one was there to hear her. They were all downstairs, fighting for their lives against giant cockroaches.

In the Pod Caverns, there were the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

The usual condensation and mist sprayed out from cracks in the pods, they ripped open and the people inside slid out onto the floors, covered in slime. One of them, due to his mechanical nature, slid out covered in a sort of oil mixture, in a smaller body than he'd once had.

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.

There was no one already freed from the ship to greet them, only Stacy herself, and the empty silence of a ship caught in the middle of a crisis.

Comments

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

He wakes in a puddle of slime, humid air warm against his skin. Rather a change from the coolness of the salt air that he was used to after time spent on board ship. The floor underneath his hand is sticky, and pulsing, and its only when he feels the same sensation on his knees that he realises that he’s naked.

But nakedness is the least of his concerns at the moment as he rises quickly to his feet (nearly losing his balance as his foot fails to grip properly).

A quick look around shows nothing familiar, and there is no sign of his sword.

“Danae, if this is about the whales, the answer is still no,” he tests his voice. “And what happened to your island?”

[cityship]

||Danae is not currently on the crew roster,|| explained a monotone, almost motherly voice from nowhere.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

"Xantia?" Sparhawk asked suspiciously. It didn't sound like her, but who else could be talking out of nowhere?

[cityship]

The mysterious voice appeared unbothered by Sparhawk's suspicious tone.

||There is no one by that name on the crew roster either.||

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Sparhawk is getting irritated now.

"Then who are you?" His tone is curt.

[cityship]

||My name is STA'C K'LTRRB'TXFT.|| the voice said. As the name was spoken, Sparhawk would feel a complex tumble of emotions -- motherly love and honor and duty primarily, but also others. ||You may call me Stacy.||

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

The flood of feelings in his head startles Sparhawk, but he understands honour, and duty. Nevertheless, he shifts slightly, wishing for his sword.

"Stacey. Where are you?"

[cityship]

||I am here.||

Yeah, she does that.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

"Where am I?"

Will Sparhawk run out of questions before Stacey runs out of patience? Or will Sparhawk run out of patience before Stacey runs out of cryptic answers?

[cityship]

Stacy does not run out of patience. Or cryptic answers.

||You are in the Pod Caverns.||

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Good for Stacey. Sparhawk has a finite supply of patience, and its nearly out. He would ask questions about the more pressing concerns, but something else is needling his mind.

"Why am I naked, and where can I get my armour?"

[cityship]

||You are naked because clothing would have interfered with the life support system|| Stacy answered. ||Would you like some clothing?||

She was apparently staying quiet on the subject of his armor.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

"Clothing would be nice," Sparhawk replied, trying to control his irritation. "My armour would be better."

Though he could probably guess, from Stacey's silence, there would be no armour forthcoming.

[cityship]

Pustules at Sparhawk's feet bloomed with light.

||Please follow the lights.|| Stacy instructed.

He might get some armor back. Eventually. Perhaps.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Sparhawk eyed the lighting system warily, but followed it anyway.

"Tell me, neighbour, is Khalad here?"

He's be taking these lights apart to find out how they worked.

[cityship]

||There is no one by that name on the active crew roster.|| Stacy answered.

The lights lead him on a spiraling, upward path through the dimly lit caverns. The walls seemed to go on forever, and they were absolutely covered by the strange pods. Sparhawk might be able to see the shadow of a limb if he looked very closely, but the stasis fluid was too opaque for anything more than that.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Sparhawk was not one to be easily creeped out, but there was just something about this place that made his skin crawl, and his fingers itch for the comforting weight of a blade.

The humid air, the pulsing floor, the light pustules, the pods on the wall, everything made him feel out of his depth. He was used to being in control, used to knowing what was going on, and if not, how to find the information. He wasn't used to being led around by the nose.

"Can you tell me why I'm here, neighbour?" he asked gruffly.

[cityship]

||You are here because you have been Chosen.|| Stacy answered simply.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Sparhawk groaned.

"Don't people have anything better to do that expect me to save the world?" he asked rhetorically, and crossly, which was probably a different reaction that Stacey expected. If she expected anything that was.

[cityship]

||Information classified.|| Rhetorical or not, Stacy would answer the podlings' questions.

The lights lead Sparhawk to a circular room, empty except for some sort of plant-like tendrils hanging from the ceiling.

||Please step into the room|| Stacy instructed.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Any thought of commenting on Stacey's question answering is lost as Sparhawk cautiously peers into the circular room, without crossing the threshold.

So far, Sparhawk was not inclined to be trusting.

"Why?"

[cityship]

||So that you will be provided clothing.||

That was what he wanted, wasn't it?

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

Clothing was indeed what he wanted, but there was nothing resembling clothing inside. But, knight were supposed to be brave beyond measure, and so he stepped forward.

Whatever he was expecting, it certainly wasn't what happened.

Lets hope that Stacey doesn't understand trollish, as most of the words Sparhawk is saying are decidedly uncomplimentary.

[cityship]

Whether Stacy understood Trollish or not, Sparhawk was being badtouched dressed by the clingy, rather grabby tendrils dangling from the ceiling. When they set him down, his face and hair would be clean of the remaining stasis fluid, and the strangely soft and oddly throbbing jumpsuit would be working on cleaning up the rest of it.

[bluerose-knight.livejournal.com]

"I think I preferred being naked," is Sparhawk's extremely dry response once he had exhausted his repertoire of curses.

Experimentally, he pokes the jumpsuit with one finger, before looking up at the ceiling.

"So what now?"