trans_9 | Mission 02 - Stacy Says Follow the Yules

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Mission 02 - Stacy Says Follow the Yules

There is a resounding mental alarum that sounds through the ship. Nearly "deafening." Lights flash from places for extra emphasis, making it impossible to ignore.

||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

It's entirely likely that she won't stop repeating the announcement until, well, everyone reports to Obs Deck. Outside the windows, a very Earth-like planet is visible, hanging in space. The mouth in the huge statue opens, revealing a screen. On it, the dossier for the mission flickers into display, understandable to every person there. Smaller copies of the dossier appear in holographic form in front of everyone.

The planet's stats, right next to a rotating holographic picture of it, marbled blue and green, are as follows:

Planet Designation: Earth-78734XM45
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: Homo Sapiens. [Various translations of "human" appear here so everyone understands it]
Water: 69.5% of the planet's surface.

Climate: Earth-like, in the throes of a mild nuclear winter [Click here for cultural equivalents for non-Earth cultures.]
Landscape: Varied.
Air: Normoxic concentration. Slightly elevated levels of carbon dioxide.

Air Pressure: 101.3 kPa (kilopascals) = 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch)
Sky: Blue. Often overcast.
Sun: A class G2V, yellow star.

Warnings: Wildlife and plant-life can be hazardous. Humans can be hazardous. A human cultural and legal database is available. [click here]

Mission: Revive the spiritual entity at the North Pole.

--

Following that, there are various maps and things visible. The version of Earth this world is may be very recognizable to some, but vast cities dot its surface.

||Attention, podmates. Attention.||

Apparently Stacy wants their attention.

||It is critical that you pay attention at this time.||

A few people will be able to avoid the call by being in the right place at the right time, but most will be gathered up on Obs Deck.

[ooc: Organization Post | You can post into the gathering thread. I'll add more subthreads with explanations of aspects of the mission as we go. Note: If you don't have time to post to this mission briefing but still want to have your character in the plot, that's fine. You can just pretend they were there the whole time. If you DON'T want your characters to be in this plot altogether, however, don't have them in the briefing--Stacy could have missed snagging them.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Aeneas’s tail burst from the mound, bringing with it a shotgun-like spread of mushy snow careening towards the unfortunate female. If he was lucky most of it would hit her; even if he wasn’t, the mass of it would cover his escape.

The alien appeared shortly thereafter behind her.

“Indeed!” Aeneas trilled loudly, lobbing a snowball at the back of her head. He didn’t stay to see if it hit; instead he disappeared, coming back up to her left with yet another singular attack.

This was turning into a really unnerving game of ‘Whack-A-Mole’, apparently.

After the third or fourth onslaught, Aeneas stayed up for a moment longer than usual.

“You move quickly in this environment for your species!” he called through slicked-back feathers, “It is really quite impressive!”

Two snowballs came at her this time, though with the delay and bit of monologue there was a good chance that her retaliation would soon follow.

This was a moment Katara was REALLY glad that she had been having exercises with Sheeana and Tess, not to mention listening in on Toph's intructions to Aang. She knew now the importance of waiting and listening, key word being listening. The moment she felt the rustle in the snow, she knew it was game time, and reacted with a sidestep, and now her hands were ready to begin her work. It was offense/defense time.

She knew she wouldn't have long. She turned quickly, bring an ice stream along with her, deflecting the snow. Now she had to be even quicker if he came at her with another volley. She formed an ice wall, and the snowballs hit them and exploded harmlessly upon impact. He was quick, definitely, and if it hadn't been for Sheeana's training, she would certainly have been hit a few times.

At his words, she smiled. "Training is important for every species! And it helps to be good at what you do!"

She did away with the ice wall now and came at him with several volley's now, copying (nowhere near perfectly) movement she had seen her trainer use, and her hand, already fiddling with the pouch, exploded water into a whip thatm when hitting Aeneas became snow, then ice, freezing him in place.

Katara grinned. She hoped there was no hard feelings. This was actually the happiest she''d been in a long time, and she definitely wanted to talk with him after all of this.

Aeneas was fairly impressed. He had hardly expected for this female to be able to control ice—no, water—and at this point he was still trying to figure out how. Her abilities reminded him somewhat of Prince Zuko’s (”http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/197162.html?thread=16823850#t16823850”) power over fire, only…well, literally the opposite.

“I could not agree more!” Aeneas popped up to another vantage point, too cocky to notice the oncoming pile of quickly freezing slush, “This is why I am so—“

He froze solid within moments of impact.

There was a few moments of quiet. Then, dribbling out of the corners of the alien’s mouth, spit began oozing into the prison’s crevices. The extremely caustic (and highly reactive) fluid, upon contact with the extreme cold, underwent an interesting nuclear process that resulted in extreme heat. The ice bubbled and cracked violently, dissipating within roughly a minute into a nasty, smoking puddle at Aeneas’s feet.

“—well adapted to deal with these surroundings!” the alien continued, as if never interrupted, making a sluggish dive for yet another snowdrift. He was tiring out a lot quicker than he would’ve liked—clearly Aeneas was unconditioned, and for obvious reasons.

Deciding that coming from the sides was not good enough, he appeared from below instead. When the powder settled a curious set of lavender eyes would be staring curiously into the icy blues of the female.

“Can I ask what your name is?”

Katara watched the ooze in earnest, surprised despite herself. She couldn't get over how different everything was on the ship, with teammates that were mutants and superheroes and aliens riding motocycles...it was all so much to take in half the time.

She reacted immediately when he had finally released himself, ready to go at it, but even she was taken aback by the coming from below. She was ready to get another volley ready in case of the snow in shirt incident again, but now he was just curious. He was an interesting looking creature, and she felt like she liked him immediately.

"Of course," she said, smiling. "Katara, Southern Water Tribe."

The snowball fight drifted into the background.

“…Katara? Really?” Aeneas blinked, awkwardly backing away from the female so that she could recover properly (as he was now), “I believe a certain Matt Olsen told me about you (“http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/202055.html?thread=16975431#t16975431”) once—I have actually been meaning to find you for a while now.”

His muzzle turned rosy pink. “—Anyway, you may call me Aeneas.”

A snowball flew past his ear.

"Oh he did?" Katara clapped her hands dellightedly. "Oh, he would do something like that, such a nice guy! I'm really glad that he pod popped, his girlfriend Will is a friend of mine. She missed him a lot."

She had, of course, no idea what Matt said about her, whether good or bad. But Aeneas seemed to think well of her, and was even...blushing?

No way.

Katara gave him a short bow. "I'm sorry, I was rude to talk about that so quickly. It's nice to meet you Aeneas! I'm sorry I haven't been able to talk to you before. Why did you want to find me? Did you need something?"

Not that she knew what she had to givve, other than healing and pep talks.

“Yes, so I understand,” Aeneas scratched his ear and returned the bow (just in time to avoid yet another projectile flying over his head), “But it is not so much what you can do for me as what I can do for you.”

That may or may not have come out really weird.

“Matt…ah, Matt told me about Aang,” the creature flinched—he was well aware at this point what Katara was capable of should he accidentally prod a sensitive subject, “And I offered my assistance in finding him. It was—it was the least I could do, for all of you.”

And yes, Aeneas really meant that. Katara probably didn’t realize that she had indirectly rekindled an almost lost hope that the alien had—one that, if anyone noticed, was enough to significantly lift his mood from several weeks ago.

"What you can do for-" Well. That had to be the first time that anyine was offering to help her without getting to know them yet. What was he willing to do for her?

But at the mention of Aang, Katara's confusion was gone. Her face, lit with playfulness changed noticeably. Despite everything: training, snowfights, friends on the ship, nothing rang in her mind more deeply than seeing Aang again. Even the threat of the Nightmare King couldn't defeat her need to see him. So when she heard there was yet another person wanting to help look for him, Katara was struck speechless. When she opened her mouth to talk again, her voice wavered with emotion.

"You would do that...for someone you don't really know? That's...why?"

She had to know.

Aeneas was also struck speechless, but for different reasons. He…wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that question, at least not without a considerable amount of thinking beforehand.

The first response was the simplest one: ”Matt listened to my problems, so I figured I had to pay him back somehow.” This, however, was the reply Aeneas had trained himself to believe—if he wanted to do something for Matt, then he wouldn’t be bothering with the relationship issues of some acquaintance of his girlfriend’s or whatever.

The second response was at any rate satisfactory, if not a lot harder to phrase properly.

“…Because I know what it is like to pursue something that is important enough to die over,” Aeneas finally purred after the long, thoughtful pause, “And I know that having the support of others, even complete strangers, is enough to make the chase seem a little less fruitless.”

The deep rumbling in the alien’s throat took on its calming pitch, nonexistent yet omnipresent at the same time in the vast wasteland that was, regardless of its lack of landmarks, oh so familiar.

"It will never be fruitless to me," Katara said after a moment's hesitation. "Nothing could convince me not to go after him, to follow where he could be. I'll scour the ship eventually, if that;s what it takes to find him. I want to see him now, and I've made the mistake of thinking, back home, that we had all the time in the world."

But that was a lie; she understood that now. Aang was the Avatar, and his power would make him wanted, make him needed, and he would be there. It made her happy to think that too: he would always try to protect all of them, because that was simply how he was. There was no denying that.

But she wouldn't let him get used either.

"Thank you Aeneas," she said softly, her eyes brimming with tears. "It means a lot to have someone I never even knew willing to do this for us. I'll have to give Matt a hug, taht he would even mention it."

And she have Aeneas a hug too. Despite the shock of having to think about Aang suddenly, she felt really, really good now. She hoped he wouldn't mind her show of affection.

Katara…Katara’s eyes were oozing. Why were they oozing? That couldn’t be a good—

“Oompff!” Aeneas sputtered as the female powerfully gripped him around the chest. Startled, the alien wasn’t sure what this was for. He suspected affection, but squeezing the air out of the other’s chest seemed like an odd way to show appreciation. Though, the contact was pleasant, warmth was shared…Aeneas could see how it could be taken as a loving gesture.

Of course there were also the less innocent implications that Aeneas could only fathom due to his lack of knowledge regarding human reproductive rituals. He didn’t really want to think about it.

“Whatever helps,” he purred tranquilly, wrapping his arms around Katara’s back and resting his long neck over her shoulder. His long fur was surprisingly warm and dry, especially just under his chin, which almost seemed to radiate heat. The reasons for this are unimportant as of now (and have already been partially revealed).

Katara let go, giggling. "I'm sorry, you must not be used to that where you're from. It's how we show signs if affection on my world, and it can be shared between loves, friends, even to first time strangers as a gesture of greeting. What I mean to say is, well, thank you so much Aeneas. It mean a lot to me."

Normally her voice would have cracked then: the girl had been through a lot in the past few days, and this snowball fight had definitely been unsuspected but fun. For that reason, she couldn't find herself getting sad. She actually felt like they had a chance now, that they might be able to find Aang!

"It helps," Katara said, grinning, especially if I had fur like yours! It's great at keeping heat in!" She smiled, and then bowed. "Thank you for having fun with me today. Are you ready for our crazy mission now?"

A warm chuckle escaped through Aeneas’s ruffled feathers. “I figured it was as such. And yes, the fur is substantially helpful in this kind of environment.”

The alien remembered Katara’s oozing eyes with some concern. Had her own clothing not been enough for the extreme cold? Had she become ill? In any case they had dried up by now, so it mustn’t have been that serious an ailment.

“My pleasure,” trilled Aeneas, returning her bow (and once again reminded strongly of Prince Zuko’s mannerisms), “I suppose I am as ready as I will ever be. Personally I hope the others take their time.”

The creature closed his eyes and basked in a frigid gust of wind that rippled his ears, membranes long since shrunken by the cold so that they resembled nothing but fleshy antlers.

“I would not mind staying in this place for longer.”

Katara shrugged. "I don't have fur, but the clothing keeps me warm, and at least I'm used to being in temperatures like this: it was where I was raised. That's why I'm a good waterbender."

She wiped her eyes. "Sorry, I don't usually cry like this, I was just a little overcome with emotion. It's not really a smart thing to do in this kind of weather anyway: they'd probably freeze on my face."

Katara gave him a smile. "Great, I don't feel so weird now for wanting the weather to continue this way! I love the cold!"

Ah—waterbender. That made a lot more sense; it also cemented Aeneas’s suspicions that Katara and Prince Zuko were related in some way. They were hardly siblings, but at any rate they were at least from the same universe.

Curious about this relationship (and the fact that Aang might also be a ‘bender’ of some sort), Aeneas was about to inquire further when Katara continued. She mentioned the excess moisture dripping from her eyes as ‘crying’—not that Aeneas didn’t know what ‘crying’ was, he just didn’t realize that humans took it in a non-verbal sense. How interesting…

Although, yes, having that stuff freeze to your face probably would not be extremely pleasant. The alien mussed up his feathers with quaint laughter and scratched his ear.

“This is surprising. I would never have suspected that humans were arctic creatures.” Although, judging from the way some of the crewmembers were bundling up and were looking absolutely miserable regardless of their many improvised layers, he had a feeling that they weren’t.

“…Then again, ‘adaptation’ and ‘tolerance’ are two completely different things.”

"Not all of us are," Katara said, "Just the ones that have been born and raised in the cold. For us, the watertribe is where waterbenders come from: being surrounded by our element, if we have the ability to bend, it inspires us. So naturally, the cold doesn't really bother us as much."

Katara nodded. "Yes, some of us take a little time to adapt. I'm going to have to do the same thing when I'm training with my teacher, since she's lived in surrounding that have had almost no water. So it'll be a challenge, but I'm sure that I'll be able to do it."

Katara looked at her new friend. "Did you have any questions for me, maybe about the ship, or our habits?"

Aeneas shook his head, eyes creasing with a smile. Usually those that he talked to didn’t immediately offer to elaborate about their daily lives—though it didn’t take much to get them to do so.

“None that are extremely pressing, no,” the alien purred, casting Katara a curious glance with lavender eyes, “Although you mentioned your mentor…am I right to say she came from a planet of deserts?”

Perhaps it was a small meatship after all.

"Ok, just wondering," Katara replied. "When I was first on the ship, I found myself feeling out of place. There were a lot of people who were so far technologically advanced, I felt like a savage in comparison. So if you were a little unsure about what we do, I'm more than willing to fill you in, okay?"

Katara's ears perked up. "Yes, actually she is! She's a Bene Gesserit! Do you know Sheeana?"

“So that is what she is called…” Aeneas mumbled deep within his windpipe. He had never asked her directly—at least, not that he remembered—and so far he’d found her history quite intriguing.

Though he had no clue who this ‘Sheeana’ character was.

“Hmm…no, I am afraid not. However, I am a close acquaintance of Arha Masaari; I thought they might be related somehow.”

The alien shrugged passively.

“But that is neither here nor there—I was only curious. And while I do have…quite a few questions that you may or may not be able to answer…”

Aeneas looked nervously at the ground. Oh, that subject was always rather troubling, wasn’t it?

“…I figured that they could wait until after the mission. Perhaps we could meet again once we return to the ship?”

"Oh, Arha!" Katara said anxiously, clapping her hands. "I know her! She is from the same universe as Sheeana, and is also a Bene Gesserit! I haven't gotten to talk to her as much as I could, but I've been training a lot these days too. I think she's studying to be in Luke and Obi Wan's order actually..."

Katara could see that Aeneas had something to say her, but didn't want to right now, which made sense. It was rather impersonal here.

"Sure, when we go back," Katara agreed. "Just hunt me down in the Sensoriums if you can't find me on the ship. I'm usually just running simulations. Being a Master Bender and even just a novice of another order is pretty fast paced."

Which was why she pleased that the most physical activity she might do here are snowball fights.

Aeneas grinned, eyes squinting shut and feathers ruffling good-naturedly.

"I will make a note of it," the alien bowed politely, "Until then, it has been a pleasure meeting you Katara."

Katara smiled. "The same to you, Aeneas. It was really nice meeting you!"

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Mission 02 - Stacy Says Follow the Yules

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