Time for the 'meat' and greet

[cityship]

[NOTE: This takes place DURING the holiday plot. If your character is involved in that, then they're still on the surface and not on the ship at this time.]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies. The mission is still going on, so if your character is offship, they won't be around for this.]

Comments

[governorkang]

It wasn't Marsel. Kang wasn't quite able to keep the disappointment out of his voice as he took a step back from the obviously frightened woman, "...I apologize, ma'am. You look very much like someone I know."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

He was polite, on top of it all. Intrigue kept her in place more than fear now. "Wouldn't be the first time I've heard that," she replied, trying to smile and get the nervous out. If he was going to hurt her, he wouldn't be so polite, right? He had to be alright. "You new, too?"

[governorkang]

"I am, yes. My name is Kang," he held a hand out in greeting. This whole situation was beyond unsettling, but he was going to try his best to stay calm. He wasn't the only one in it, after all, and Kaylee's resemblance to Marsel made him feel slightly bad about frightening her.

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

There were humans who were scarier than this guy, she was realizing more and more as they spoke. Kaylee was still tentative in shaking his hand, but she did it. "'M Kaylee." One step forward. All she had to do was not be scared and it would be fine.

So she needed to get over this petrified state, because it probably wasn't helping keep him at ease any more than it was helping her. "I uh. Sorry. Just surprise easy, is all."

[governorkang]

Kang was careful to keep his claws from her skin as he pulled his hand away. "Well met, Kaylee. And there's no need to apologize. I know how intimidating I look to humans."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

Grateful that he was careful, Kaylee did her best not to make any sudden movements away from the guy. He was probably just as unsure about the situation as she was, ship and all. "Can't say that ain't part of it," she said truthfully, "but the day's just been all-around gorram weird."

[governorkang]

"I think 'weird' is a vast understatement," Kang snorted. "Before I woke up here, I didn't even know other worlds existed, or that it was possible to travel between them. Apparently, I have a lot to learn."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

Kaylee had always had an inkling that there was more to the 'Verse than they were all let on to--she did, after all, live in a spaceship. Planet to planet seemed a whole lot smaller than all this, though. "It's somethin'," she agreed. "'Verse likes to take extra steps in remindin' us that we're a whole lot smaller than we figure."

[governorkang]

Kang laughed, "That's life in general. Just when you think you've got things pretty well figured out, something gets thrown at you that messes everything up. You just... have to adapt."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"Oh, don't I know it." That was the thought that got the smile growing. How could someone not laugh when they thought of every single plan the crew of Serenity had ever come up with, and how each and every one of them had some kind of wrench thrown into the works. "Fact of life, just gotta keep movin'." Kang was definitely getting easier to talk to now that the initial shock of him was over, for example.

[governorkang]

Kaylee really resembled Marsel when she smiled. It was infectious, too. Kang nodded, "You seem very young, to have dealt with as much as it sounds you have."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

Shrugging, Kaylee shifted the messenger bag on her shoulder. "Everybody's gotta start dealin' somewhere along, right? I ain't hardly dealt with some of the stuff other people have, but where there's been trouble I've been fortunate enough to have good people with me. That can make all the difference in a person."

[governorkang]

"Now that is something I know very well," Kang's smile faded slightly. He would have died long ago if it weren't for the men in his regiment. They'd been a family, in a strange way. "Have you found any of those people here yet?"

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"Nothin' in the 'verse like it, is there?" There was no telling where Kaylee would be if some key events hadn't taken place. Allowance for some certain people to board, for example, or corners turned at wrong times. She never did think about the what-ifs very much, though. Things happened the way they needed to, and she really couldn't imagine her life any other way. She nodded to Kang, and pointed Mal out in the crowd. "Found my Cap'n, so it's a startin' place," followed by a tentative, "Have you?"

[governorkang]

Kang glanced to where she was pointing, easily able to see the man over the crowd. "That's good to hear, that you aren't by yourself. Myself, I haven't; I'd hoped that my mate and children had woken up, so I would know that they were alright. No such luck, though."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"Makes the whole idea of this mess a bit more bearable, if nothin' else." Kaylee was glad Mal had been there to greet her. Where would she have landed if he hadn't been there? Probably with anyone who looked her way and had the courtesy to speak up when she said hello. "Children" caught her attention, and she grinned ear to ear. "You got kids?" The little fellers might be cute...

[governorkang]

Yet again, Kang was proved right, that females, especially human females, adored babies no matter the species. Smiling at the memory of that day in the Temple, and with fatherly pride, he nodded, "Four of them. They're only a month old." Determinedly, he pushed away the thought that they might not be in the pods.

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

Immediately, Kaylee's head was flooded with questions about the youngsters. How big were they at a year old? Did they walk or crawl or were they still carried around by mom and daddy? What did they eat? What did Kang eat?

...

Babies, right. He seemed proud of them, a kind of pride Kaylee hoped to feel one day herself. "'M sure they'll grow up fantastically, if their daddy's any indication."

[governorkang]

He had every reason to be proud of them. It still amazed Kang at times that he'd even gotten the chance to have children. Crossing his arms over his chest, he teased, "You aren't just being polite, are you, Kaylee? You just met me, after all; you know barely anything about me."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

Granted, Kaylee was pretty polite with almost everyone she met. Polite as you could be as mechanic of a ship where Chinese swear words were as common as Jayne running off to his bunk, anyways. But she did have a thing for picking out a person's character, and really? Kang didn't seem like a bad guy at all. "They'll have the manners, if nothin' else," she teased back. "How's that?"

[governorkang]

Laughing, Kang leaned back slightly, balancing his weight on his tail, "Oh, they definitely will. I'm going to make sure of it." Present tense. He wasn't about to start talking about his family in past tense because to do that would be to give up hope. "Hell, Fon would hammer it into them, too."

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"Fon?" Kaylee paused a moment, then nodded with only slight unsureness. "She your mate?" Was mate right? Maybe it was wife. She couldn't seem to remember what he'd said before. Ah, well, he'd correct her if she was wrong. "'M sure they'll be the nicest lil angels y'ever saw, in any case."

[governorkang]

"Fonrar, yes," Kang smiled to himself. "I'll have to introduce you to her i- when she... wakes up." The term podpopped just... sounded strange to him.

"I can't say nice, but they'll be obedient." He didn't want to lie to anyone on the ship about the nature of his kind; it just wasn't right.

[voiceofserenity.livejournal.com]

"I look forward to it," she smiled back, sincerely hoping that Kang's family was, indeed, still in the pods. Especially considering the alternative. She wouldn't wish that on anyone.

The way he said obedient made Kaylee look at him a little more carefully. Kang was nice enough, maybe, but how he said it told her that not every...whatever he was...was as nice as him.

Speaking of. "What do you call yourselves, anyhow?" Somehow, Lizard Men didn't really seem the right term.

[governorkang]

"What about you? Do you have any family?"

Kang was a bit unusual. He was still a draconian, but he was... somewhat more friendly than most when dealing with other races.

"Draconians." It was a good thing she hadn't called him a Lizard Man. He wouldn't have gotten mad at her; she didn't know any better. But, it wasn't something they liked being referred to. At all.