trans_9 | Time for the 'meat' and greet

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Time for the 'meat' and greet

[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.]

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"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."

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."

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."

"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.

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."

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."

"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?"

"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?"

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."

"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...

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.

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."

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."

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?"

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."

"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."

"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.

"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.

"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.

"Sure I do. Ain't seen 'em all in a long while." She frowned a little, wondering if they were in the pods as well. What a worrisome subject family was starting to become. "But my crew's just 'bout as close as family, too. Might as well be blood."

Draconian? Wasn't a term Kaylee could say she'd heard before, but it worked well enough for her. It certainly fit better than Lizard Man, at least. "Seems a fittin' term."

Family was still a new concept to the first generation of draconians. Their relationship with their parents, and their siblings, was... complicated. Understatement. Kang had come to consider the men of his regiment as kin, though; you didn't spend decades of your life fighting alongside someone without forming some sort of bond with each other. "I know how that goes."

He couldn't help a small smile at that, "Considering our origins, it's extremely fitting."

"Hard not to, when you've shared a ship with 'em for so long." She really didn't know what she'd do without each and every one of them, either. "'Course, they're just as like to get on your nerves as real family." Especially in a closed up space like Serenity.

Kaylee's head tilted to the side as she thought it over. "What origins would those be?"

Kang nodded, understanding exactly what Kaylee meant. He really was getting to like this girl, and not just because of her resemblance to Marsel.

"We were created from dragon eggs," he shrugged. "Shock troops in a war, and they ended up losing anyways." He didn't sound too upset by being on the losing side.

Just that contrast, that idea between the winning and losing side, immediately pinged a connection to Mal. Not that they were both pleased with anything--no, far from it. Mal was adamant to this day that the losing side of the war should have won, that the Alliance really had no place in the 'Verse. But here was Kang, and he didn't seem upset at all that his side lost.

Funny how it worked.

"That'd explain it then," she said, curiously. It was a little strange, thinking that somebody as big as Kang had hatched from an egg, but if it was a dragon egg--

Oh, listen to yourself, Kaylee. If she didn't watch it, she'd be going on about knights in shining armor next.

Kang just didn't really give a damn anymore. The Dragonarmies deserved to lose; they'd been too focused on exploitation, thievery and stabbing each other in the back for power. No discipline or respect.

He shrugged, "Long story. I can tell you some other time, if you'd like, but I should see if I can find anybody else I know."

Time for the 'meat' and greet

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