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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Sam crouched down, simply because it was more polite. Though he was far too tall to comfortably get down on Rhiow's level. "In my world, there are a lot of creatures who prey on humans. Demons and spirits and...well, a lot of really bad creatures, usually drawing people to their deaths. Hunteres find these things and put a stop to them."

Rhiow's whiskers twitched. It sounded like Sam came from a more central reality than her own - the supernatural operated within very strict bounds in her home universe. "Preserving life," Rhiow said, her ears perking forward. "And... do most people know about these things in your home universe?"

Sam shook his head. "No. A few people do, Hunters and people who have been caught up in the middle of things. But for the most part? People just ignore the things that they don't understand. Or they end up dead because of it."

Rhiow laughed. "People have a habit of seeing what they want to, no matter how strange the goings-on," she agreed. "If you lived in my universe you might have been offered wizardry. It's mostly the same principle - protecting life where we can and hoping that the rest of the world goes on about their business without noticing."

Sam smiled at that and shook his head. "I don't know if I would have been the best kind of person to be a wizard." Though, would real magic have helped? "In my world, magic...tends to come from deals made with demons. I mean, there are people who can do different things, but as near as I know, real magic like in the books doesn't really exist."

Rhiow's ears twitched back. "Wizardry in my world always comes from the Powers That Be," she said. Then, quietly, "There are some... a very few, but some, who choose to take the gift and violate the Oath they swear. They serve That One, the dark Power. Humans call it - well, you know what you call it. It's generally not wise to attract its attention, and I suspect his hand in these Ohm." Her ears pressed flat against her skull for a brief moment. "This much loss of life would please it greatly."

Sam didn't have to ask. He knew very well what they called it in his world. "I've met that One, I think. I'd...really rather not repeat the experience." He really didn't want to become Lucifer. At all. "I'm not sure if that One's involved with the Ohm. It tends to have its own agenda where I come from. I mean, destroying the world is one thing. But destroying the universe? Would sort of mean its own death as well. Not everybody believes the same things in other worlds."

Rhiow shivered, remembering her own encounter with the Lone Power in deep downside. "Yes... me too. Wizards are its favorite targets, since we work at cross-purposes." She looked sour at this thought, her tail lashing. "It was the one who created entropy - the great death. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was another of its rotten schemes."

Her ears flicked at Sam's last words and her whiskers pushed forward again. The more this young ehhif spoke to her, the more she was convinced that he would have made one of the better wizards she had known.

"Might play into its hands, but I don't know that it came up with the plan. Might just have happened this way." He nodded, hands hanging down between his knees. "That's probably why demons go after Hunters so much in my world. Because we're the ones that can stop them. That know the secrets of how to find them and drive them out. It's not the perfect solution, but it helps. We save lives. Sometimes not enough lives and often not fast enough. But we do our best."

Sam gave her a self-deprecating smile. "And sometimes we lose our way. If we're lucky, though, we get pulled back before it's too late." And yes, he'd definitely been one of them. But he was still on the side of...well. Not angels, but of people. Or trying to be.

Rhiow reached out a paw and laid it on Sam's leg. "All of us are just one Person. It may seem like nothing we do is ever enough, but each little bit helps." Wryly, she said, "And I've been there, too. Where you feel like nothing you can possibly do could change anything. Snapping out of it feels like you're being boxed around the ears by the Powers for your own stupidity."

A quiet chuckle echoed in her ears and her whiskers twitched at the Whisperer's sense of humor. Well, you did.

Sam smiled at that. "Generally, it's my older brother who does the boxing. He's good at that." He loved his brother. Didn't mean it was any less true. "I suppose, when you get that low, there's no where to go but up, right?"

"Straight up," Rhiow agreed. "I think it's refreshing to have those moments every once in a long while. It reminds you of what you should be focusing on."

"And reminds you that you're not as smart as you may like to think you are. Or necessarily as noble." That's where Ruby had gotten to him. That he could change the world, all it took was a little demon blood. 'Lead me not into temptation' indeed.

Rhiow's ears drooped at that last sentence, her whiskers twitching. There had been moments - very dark moments - in Deep Downside, moments that Rhiow did not want to remember. "I... Yes," she said quietly, and chuckled. "Who knew I would be finding such a kindred spirit so far away from home?"

He started to reach out to give her a scritch, then paused, hand raised. "You know, I've never met a sapient cat before. I'm not entirely sure what to do here, but...yeah, I'm sort of feeling the same way."

Rhiow pushed her whiskers forward and twitched her tail. "I would love to be scratched right now. Just behind the ears, or in between the shoulder blades - those are the two places I can't reach comfortably myself."

Sam laughed softly, reaching out to give Rhiow a scratch behind the ears. First place he could reach and he'd never known a cat that didn't like that, anyway. "Just wasn't sure if it was polite or not. Always better to ask, anyway."

"Some of The People think that there is no reason for our symbiosis with humans," Rhiow said, a purr beginning in the back of her throat. "I challenge them to resist being scratched behind the ears. Our species have done a lot for each other over the centuries. That's lovely, thank you."

"You're welcome. And, you know, considering some of the stuff you've said, I'm a little surprised at that." Sam shook his head, pulling his hand back. "I would have thought that they'd understand more about interconnectedness than that. Especially if that One is so prevalent in your world."

"Well..." Rhiow's whiskers twitched - she had no problem discussing the varying cultures of their people while being scratched - in fact, a good scratch always made her a little philosophical. "All of us know the battle between the Powers at the beginning of time. Your people have the story of a great Fall of that One from heaven. With us it's the battle under the Great Tree. But those of us who aren't wizards think of it just as that - a story. Or if you consider hauissh, as a game."

Rhiow's tail swished slowly. "Wizards realize that the story did happen. When the other Powers fought It that day, It was cast out. Wizards know that It still slinks around creation, seeking to do it harm. But most of the rest of The People-" she shrugged. "They haven't seen It, they haven't touched It or dealt with It as I have. They think differently."

Sam ahhed softly and gave a wry smile. "I think I know what that's like. Like I said earlier, there aren't a lot of people in my world who know about demons and all the things that go bump in the night. They're just stories you tell to scare little children into behaving, and most of the time even the kids don't believe. Like the man said, 'The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist'."

Quoting movies is Dean's thing, normally, but Sam always liked The Usual Suspects.

"Exactly," Rhiow said. "I apologize if you get any of that goop under your claws, I'm not sure it all got washed out." She leaned into Sam's scratching, still purring. "And there are those who believe that. But that's in the meditation, one of the things we must remember before we do our work."

"Eh. Goop washes off." He...hoped it did, at least. He could wipe it off on the pulsing suit, no matter what. "Yeah, I can see where that would be important. Hard to work against something you don't believe in."

"'I will meet the cruel and the cowardly today. Liars and the envious, the uncaring and unknowing: they will be all around. But their numbers and their carelessness do not mean I have to be like them.'" Rhiow quoted. "Thank you for listening, Ssam. And thank you for the scratch."

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Time for the 'meat' and greet

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