Greet the (New) Meat! (no, don't eat them!)

[cityship]

By hook or by crook or by avoiding hook and crook, the crew assembled from the previous podpops eventually made it up to the Living Area to greet their new crew mates. The creepy sculpture was also there, though less to greet them than it was always there.

The strange, fleshy seating had multiplied. You really, really don't want to know how.

Comments

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

"Not so very long; Longer than you, certainly, and I'm still alive." Which is possibly saying something, with his gray streaks and frown lines. The man has to be at least in his early fifties. He certainly hasn't bothered to relax.

[prettycoolguy]

"Thankyou then, that's helpful. Who are you?"

That's a lot more reassuring than the ship's AI has been so far. And the tentacles. And the sedative.

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

"Inspecteur Javert, of the Paris Prefecture de Police."

Javert is blocking out the tentacle-needles from his memory, thank you.

[prettycoolguy]

"Spartan-117, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy. Chief works."

He offers one hand to shake. "You are from Earth?"

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

"Yes." Javert shakes his hand quickly, just on this side of impolite. "You aren't?"

[prettycoolguy]

He shakes his head. "No, I'm colony-born." Anything more specific than that is more than somewhat classified.

"I've been to Earth a few times, though."

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

Javert decides he's happier not knowing.

"This would happen to be my first time off of it." He said dourly. "I cannot say I'm impressed."

[prettycoolguy]

"I wouldn't judge all of space based on one really strange ship, it's not so bad."

Earth has always struck him as a rather insular place whereas most colonies depended on trade with each other to survive. It was, however, a very nice planet and humanity's ancestral home.

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

"I will be glad, I think, to return to Paris." Javert said firmly. He's a very insular person, so Earth suits him absolutely fine.

[prettycoolguy]

Chief, well, the Chief has half of a dead ship and a cryopod to go back to if you want to be technical. Beyond that, he doesn't know himself what he wants.

"I'd just be glad to go back home, there's always a use for me there."

That's true. If he gets out of his current floating-in-space scrape, at least. A Spartan's work is never done.

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

"You are a soldier?" Javert asks, without any real expression to define his opinion on Chief's answer.

"At home, at least, children know their place."

[prettycoolguy]

"Yes, I am."

Wait... children?

"There are... children here?"

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

"Hnn." Javert looks him up and down. And up. Very high up.

"Ridiculously enough, yes. Teenagers.."

[prettycoolguy]

Ah, that's slightly better than what John first thought. This doesn't seem like any sort of place for kids. Teenagers are a little more resilient, but they're also stubborn and insubordinate. John was fourteen himself when he was first issued his armor and fought the Covenant but his upbringing was decidedly abnormal.

"I wish I knew what this ship is doing. This blurs things even more. What possible reason could it have for kids that young?" The question is more the Chief thinking out loud than anything else, but speculation is equally welcome.

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

Javert knows that quite often teenagers are forced into hard situations; He was, as well, but at an older age than many of the young boys and girls here. And far more respectful.

"It's assumed she has a purpose - She has only picked up certain people, apparently. Soldiers, Scientists, people with strange abilities. Most of the youngest here fall in that category."

[prettycoolguy]

"Aside from the fact I've been abducted and stripped of my armor, that's what worries me the most. There are typically only a few things you do with a group like that."

Most of them involve gratuitous amounts of violence and death-cheating. Fortunately, the Chief is perfectly good at that.

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

"Armor?" Javert's not sure what to make of that, unless Chief is another Knight- which seems unlikely.

[prettycoolguy]

"Yes, a MJOLNIR suit. Green with a mirrored orange faceplate. If you see anything like that lying around, let me know."

The Chief somehow doubts he's just going to find his armor, though. Things are never that simple.

[asluciferfell.livejournal.com]

"..." Javert is becoming exasperated with the technology barrier. "Oh, yes." He says sarcastically. "I shall keep a sharp eye out for something armorlike and green." He looks around pointedly at the plantlike..everything.

Forgive him, he's cranky.

[prettycoolguy]

"I never said it was likely. Just if you do," he replies evenly. This isn't just one of those days, it's a new breed of day altogether. He's too concerned about other things to make a point, or even care.

"I should look for it."