trans_9 | Talk About Timing...

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Talk About Timing...

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.

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West finds disembodied voices to be disturbing. Duly noted. But how about needles?

A tentacle detaches itself from the wall, armed with a syringe.

||You seem distressed. Would you care for a mild sedative?||

Yeah, that ranks up there on the disturbing-o-meter.

"No!" Now he scrambles upright, if only for the purpose of being out of range of the freaky syringe-tentacle. The disbelieving face he's pulling is fairly impressive: if his eyes stretched any wider then the balls might fall out.

Why did no one want the sedatives? They had been tailored and organized to make sure that no crew member would be given one that would be lethal to them.

The tentacle disappeared into the wall again.

Well, West doesn't know that. And even if he did, it's doubtful that he would be particularly reassured by it. There are still tentacles coming out of walls to stab him with things in slimy meat rooms, after all, and that's really the heart of the problem.

Now that he's on his feet rather than coughing on all fours, it's a lot easier to take in said freaky slimy room and all the freaky slimy things about it.

Well, to stare around it in shock, certainly. The 'taking it in' part might take longer.

~~Ceiling Voice is watching you freak out.~~

The room that West found himself in was beyond huge. The walls were covered in pods like the one West had been ejected from, and they seemed to go on for as far as the eye could see in every direction. The light was dim and greenish, and was it just him or did the walls look like they were breathing a little?

Yes. Yes, they do look like that.

Eep.

(Also, there is a reshuffling of limbs in order that his nakedness be not quite so obvious. Because he really doesn't need embarrassment on top of fear, c'mon.)

He spins around. More meat room in that direction, too.

Eep.

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit."

When dealing with weirdness, West's immediate reaction is to freak right the hell out. Getting ahold of himself can wait until after the initial meltdown.

||Are you sure you do not require a sedative?||

Usually the podmates had started asking questions at this point. Perhaps she ought to sedate him anyway...

"Really really really sure."

No more tentacles, thanks. They really wouldn't make his day.

"Shit!"

What did he do the last time he felt like his skin was going to leap off his muscles from the sheer electric energy of the fear in him? Oh yeah, he yelled a few wild accusations and then flew the hell away. Nowhere to fly to this time.

||If you require facilities to dispose of your fecal product, I can direct you to them.||

"What?"

Well, that certainly derailed him, even if it didn't calm him down any.

"I'm in a-- a gut cave-- and there are public bathrooms?!"

||The biological waste disposal facilities are located in the Living Area. Would you like me to direct you to them?||

...

!!

...

!?

!!!

...

In a high tone of voice that suggests a boy at his wits' end: "Okay, fine!"

He even throws up his hands. That's how endy his wits are. See what you did, Stacy, you and your needles and your alien abductions?

Pustules on the floor at West's feet glowed to life, leading off through the caverns.

||Please follow the lights.||

West backs away a step or two, and then cautiously walks in the direction indicated, for a lack of anywhere else to go. He's really, really careful not to tread on the... pustules.

Because they might pop.

All over his feet.

And that would be terrible.

The lights lead him up through the caverns, until they ended at what appeared to be an empty tube.

||The Hub will transport you where you wish to go.|| Stacy said.

He hadn't asked for clothing yet. Perhaps he was unconcerned with it.

Transport tubes. There are transport tubes?

"That's very sci-fi of you, Disembodied Voice," he remarks. "Who do I thank for the service?"

Oh, if he's asking questions, then the edge must be coming off his terror, if only because nothing stays sharp forever. If you're really lucky he may ask about an end to the nakedness yet.

||Thanks is not necessary.|| the voice answered. ||Your podmates are also assembled in the Living Area when you are finished using the facilities.||

"Are they freaked out and naked as well?"

Ah, there it is.

||Many of them are recovering from battling an infestation of Judas roaches.|| Stacy said. ||Several have been recently released from stasis. All but one are clothed.||

Should he ask about the roaches or would the answer just freak him out more? He wants to ask about the roaches. But the answer would just freak him out more, wouldn't it. The answer would freak him out more if he asked about the roaches, right?

"Where are my clothes?"

||They were disposed of.||

Pause.

||Would you care for some clothing?||

"You can't just chuck away my clothes!"

...actually, it occurs to him after he speaks that he has bigger problems.

"You got some kind of... freaky... GutWorld hostage uniform for me?"

She could chuck his clothes. She had chucked his clothes. They were not appropriate clothing.

||You are not on 'GutWorld'.|| she answered. ||Nor are you a hostage. Would you care for some clothing?||

They were appropriate for him!

"Then where am I?" he demands (at last), adding lamely: "Yes." In case he doesn't get another chance at asking for clothes.

||You are in the Pod Caverns, near the Hub.||

What? No one had promised helpful answers.

The pustules on the floor lit up again, leading off in a different direction from the one West had come. ||Please follow the lights.||

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