The scene in the sensoriums was that of a run down shack in Miami. Michael is lying on a benchpress machine doing reps.

"47... 48... 49... 50!" He sits up and sighs, "Well, it's not home, but it sure seems real enough."

He gets up and moves over to the old fridge in the corner. He takes out a small carton of yogurt and opens it. It was blueberry, his favorite. As he takes a spoonful he smiles and raises it into the air, " Happy Birthday Michael, here's to hoping that someone you knew survived..."

As he eats the yogurt, he hears something behind him, " Who is it?"

"Oh come on."

Doc was on the day rotation today.

He was happy to have showed up to his turn watching over the medbay and being on-call for injuries in a real shirt and pair of pants (thank you kid brother for your christmas gifts), but trying to work out how to use some of the more oddly orchestrated diagnostic equipment - this time with Stacy's help - has spoiled his good mood just a little.

"It's seriously JUST for earwax. You're kidding me right? Stacy, there is such a thing as too specific when it comes to tools, don't you think?"

He paused, listening to the reply in his head.

"... it works on HOW many species?"

"This is it," Samus said, plopping down two trays of slop for her new companions. She seemed to be giving two crew members a basic rundown of the ship, which in itself was not that odd. Senior crew members often explained the status quo to the newer ones. Perhaps not usually this in depth, but the act itself was not strange. There were, however, a few odd things about this scene.

For one, Samus, willingly out of armor, was the one conducting the impromptu tour. She usually didn't concern herself with acquainting the newbies to the now old habits of the meatship. She was a busy woman and didn't really have the time to be friendly, which brings up another odd point. She seemed quite comfortable around the new crew mates. She still conducted herself in a mostly professional manner, but this encounter seemed to lack a certain... distance she normally put between herself and others. There was something special about the two she was with.

Well, something special besides odd point number three, which was that her new companions, who she seemed to fit in with rather well, were a pair of bird people: Komali and Gray Voice.

((This thread is open! Feel free to have your character stumble in and spot this "family." All three characters will be part of the resulting thread))

Lately, Toph had been feeling pretty... avoidant. She wasn't certain as to exactly why, but since returning from her 're-education', she had simply sought solitude.

Plenty had happened when she spent time with the Crazy Cake Lady, and she hadn't really talked about exactly what had gone on. Mostly because she wasn't certain if it had actually happened or not.

She was clinking her way around one of the sensoriums, which portrayed a rocky landscape not terribly unlike the one where she'd taught Aang how to Earthbend. She'd been pacing for a couple of hours.

Kaylee had asked if the ship was full of good crazy or bad crazy, and Toph had taken this as food for thought.

"How crazy is this place?" she wondered out loud.

She sure could have used a friend; but they'd all been so busy with this or that, running off to save lives and whatever else Stacy told them to do. It'd been awhile since she'd had a good, uninterrupted chat with one of them, after all...

Daja couldn't really say she'd "settled in" yet - this place was so strange and alien, she wasn't sure if she'd ever settle in. But she'd learned to live with non-Traders - she would learn to live with these strangers too, somehow. Even if there was so much that she didn't understand, and she felt so lonely without her family and friends.

One thing she did know was that sitting around doing nothing and moping wouldn't be any use at all. She'd spent her life working, and surely even this unfathomable place needed smiths.

So she asked for directions, and found her way to the quarters of Captain Kirk. She'd met him at the orbs deck, and he was the only person in authority she knew. He'd answered her questions then, and she hoped he could help her now.

On arrival, she knocked briskly on his door. "Captain Kirk?"

Pikachu had been in here before to train. He'd fought Ridley multiple times and Primids as well. The grunts didn't faze him anymore, and even the ROBs, though dangerous, could be defeated. That wasn't why he was here. The lady on the thingy had said that everyone had to face their fears. So that's why he was down here. He was facing his fears.

At first, all Pikachu could do was sit and stare with an emotion that rapidly approached horror, as the surreal black and violet mesh landscape of Subspace formed around him. When a large blue humanoid appeared, glowing and floating in midair, it took everything the Pokemon had to keep his shaking from showing. There was no time wasted upon the simulation's start.

Tabuu pulled himself in tighter and then swung both of his arms out to the side. Giant wings unfurled, and with them came a massive shockwave of power. Pikachu knew what this attack did, and he didn't want to experience it again. He turned to run but it was too late. The wave struck him hard and sent him careening into a simulated Trophy of one of his other companions. Though the attack wasn't strong enough to Trophy the electric mouse, it was strong enough to hurt. A lot.

Pikachu had a lot more trouble getting up the second time, and Tabuu was already charging his second attack.

Verbena had always been described as a lush, thick environment with trees covering the mountain sides and rivers twisting through the peaceful valleys that made up the man-made planet. Even if she was just part of the fourth generation to be born on the planet, every square inch of it was rooted deep in Gwendolyn's system. She had lived and breathed running the deer trails chasing after her brothers or swimming in the creeks on the family farm. Maybe it was the reason that she picked it when she got to the Sensoriums- something familiar after the first few days of being on the living ship.

It was a warm summer day on the grounds. Nothing was there that should have been, the horses, the cattle, people milling about working or even her family enjoying tea on the back porch of the plantation style home. All the windows were up and the front door was open allowing the music to spill outward for anyone that wished to investigate. The house was of a simple design and almost out of a picture book of the Old South back on Earth-that-was. It was in the library that the red headed Browncoat was located standing in the middle of the empty room surrounded by history that no one else aside from her probably would care about again. Her bow danced across the strings drawing the notes out from what could easily be a happy tune to something more quieter or sadder depending on the temperament of the listener. The clothing of choice? Not her plantsuit or what bits of uniform that she had, but her dress uniform with rank bars in red on the long coat sleeves.

So lost in the music was she that she probably wouldn't have heard anyone approach if they wanted. Musicians or curious folk alike were welcome, she was in a seemingly good mood enough to talk about what the place was if anyone wanted to.

[ooc: It looks like LJ isn't let me link to the youtube vid of the song she's playing, but it's the Ashoken Farewell.]

Sokka had been thrilled that Kelly was willing to teach him more about how to use the strange things they called guns, especially if it meant being more useful to the crew on missions. Besides the fact that he got to spend some time with a fun new friend, guns were just a lot of fun to shoot. Noisy, dangerous and absolutely thrilling. He paused outside of Kelly's room, than pressed the small button that acted as a doorbell. He rocked back on his heels for a moment as he waited for her to open the door. Kelly had better be in there, or he just hoofed it over here for nothing!

Cassie didn't bother greeting her friends when they returned from the mission. She'd read the briefing, she knew they'd be fine. And she didn't want to have to see that witch.

Instead, once she was on her own, she slipped into the Sensorium. Not to see her dad, although she was really tempted, but for some good old fashioned stress relief.

She had Stacy bring up from her memory the scene from her fight with the Growing Man, not too long before she was brought here. There were no civilians to worry about this time. No step-father to nearly paralyze. It was just her and the Growing Man.

"Come on, show me what you've got."

Cassie ducked the Growing Man's fist and struck his chin with the flat of his palm, knocking his head up. The moment she hit him, the holo-android grew but she was expecting that. She wanted that. She wanted to fight someone who could keep pace with her, who would grow as she grew, and she was growing. She was going to grow until she worried about hitting the upper limits of the room. Just this once, she was going to take all the anger pounding through her and use it.

It was a long, drawn out fight and it wasn't easy. She hadn't been able to block all the blows. The sensation from her face had long since gone from stinging to numb. Her head spun and she stumbled. She shook her head, wrenched the telephone pole from the ground, and stabbed the Growing Man's external circuitry, ending the scenario.

She should have felt better. She didn't.

Wiping the sweat and tears from her face, Cassie shrank down to normal size. "Punching bag. I need a punching bag." She was pretty sure her hands were bruised all ready from constantly hitting the Growing Man but she didn't care right now.

The punching bag appeared and almost immediately Cassie hit it.

It was going to be a long, long time before she left the Sensorium.

Adjustment to the ship had taken a bit longer than Kaylee would have liked it to, but things seemed pretty well settled now. Everyone was calming down after the excitement of finding themselves not where they should be, and those who had been around before were doing a right shiny job of making anyone new as comfortable as possible during the change (no small task, in a ship that seemed to breathe and suits that pulsed uncomfortably against your skin).

Being settled meant that other doors were opening up, too, particularly exploration. Some places were off limits, as they were in any other ship, but that didn't mean she couldn't take a look around and see if she couldn't find exactly what powered Stacy, right? Right.

With the messenger bag filled with her tools slung over her shoulder, Kaylee started her search.

It was green, very green, this place she had constructed.  Green with bright red flowers and a cool, crisp wind that washed over the field in waves.  She faced the snow capped mountain and its still, cool lake that stretched along its low, rolling foothills in silence, each parcel bound in coarse string resting in the grass.  Four perfectly folded brown squares and one thinner, but no less neatly wrapped, green one sat spaced with an equal distance between them, as Arha turned her face into the cool wind.

( a time of thankful gift-giving )

The setting, Heatherfield. The scene, Matt's back yard.

A well maintained lawn with a high fence surrounded the Olsen family homestead as Matt finished setting up the first opponent for training. Certainly he could have gotten Stacy to set it all up for him, but there was some kind of satisfiaction in the way he carefully balanced the wood, set it up, nailed it all together.

There was a lawn chair close to the full pool and the summer heat bore down on the occupants of the Sensorium as Matt finished, grinning at his handiwork. Sitting there was a curious device. It was a training dummy, cobbled out of various items in the neighborhood. With a silly looking practice sword and shield made out of a trash can lid, it looked harmless.



"Arise my Trash Knight, arise and fight once more!" laughed Matt maniacally, throwing his hands into the air.

It would be noted that the young man was dressed not in his plant suit but simply a pair of shorts with bandages wrapped around his hands and legs, as he laughed like a madman, hands curled into the air.

Thunder boomed dramatically.

Steve had just decided not to look at the slop anymore while he hurried on his way to the sensoriums to eat it. Miku was right, it really did wiggle. Anything he could do to make it better, up to and including virtually brainwashing himself into thinking it was chicken wings was worth it.

Thinking of Miku gave him a stomachache. He supposed it was about time for him to quit hiding out anyway. He had still been sort of avoiding people (read: Claire) but under Luke's influence he was starting to feel more like his usual self. Not that his usual self was a bucket full of sunshine anyway, but he at least didn't feel like he'd rather crawl into a hole in the wall and starve than face any other people. Except Miku, who no matter how stupid he made himself look, would never hold it against him. Well, her and Claire, but having sacrificed his dignity on the altar of stupid in front of Claire, he hadn't wanted to look her in the eye for a while even if she didn't think he was a total failure at life. Which he felt like he was. Even if she didn't. Sigh.

Miku had, however, just gone up a few rungs on the meter of "people to not look like a jackass in front of" and who Steve had only recently realized he'd spent the last few weeks looking like a jackass in front of. Sigh.

Someday soon he'd look into that counseling, he told himself cynically.

He was so lost in typical Stevethoughts he didn't notice the sensoriums were occupied until he had already opened the door. "Ah- sorry!"