trans_9 | Meet and Greet Part Deux: The Socialing

"I agree. This is the first time in a while that I've come away from a mission feeling that I've really accomplished something. For once, we've given people hope." And that thought makes him smile broadly.

Upon hearing Jamie's question, he nervously averts his eyes. "We've spent so much time today giving to complete strangers. I thought it would be sensible to give to the people I live and work with here as well. This is yours, Jamie," he says, thrusting the lumpy blue thing at him.

If he chooses to open it, Jamie will find a high-quality classic bagpipe maintenance kit with clear instructions attached and a green plaid hat. Maybe they can have matching hat hair someday.

"I wouldna have said 'sensible'," Jamie comments, "But there were a few friends I wanted to get some things for." He offers over his gift.

If Billy opens it, he'll find a small clan badge that looks like this.

"They didna have any fierce unicorns," he adds, dryly. Meanwhile, he's enthusiastically attacking the wrappings on his gift. The hat is immediately put on his head, hat-head be damned. He wants to try it on. He's also looking extremely happy about receiving the kit - especially since his old one was cobbled together from what he could find in Weapons and Storage. If his hands weren't currently full, he'd be trying for an friendly arm-thump by way of thanks. Hopefully the pleased look on his face will serve, instead.

"These are great! Thank ye, Billy."

Billy might've been holding his breath a little. Upon realizing that Jamie appreciates the gifts, his face looks just as pleased as Jamie's. He'd chosen someone's gifts correctly, at least. "You're welcome."

When Jamie says he couldn't find any unicorns, he chuckles: "How disappointing." Not that he needs one. Billy has the only fierce unicorn he'll ever need sitting down in the hangar. At the same time, the comment stokes his curiosity about the contents of the small package.

When he opens the gift, the clan badge sits in his open palm for a moment while he studies it. It's finely crafted, elegant, and, he realizes, incredibly meaningful. Highlanders, he remembered, often wore badges like this to denote their allegiances to their families or clans. That Jamie would share this piece of his heritage with Billy was something to be treasured.

"I'll wear it with pride. Thank you, Jamie," he says with quiet sincerity and a smile, lightly patting his friend's shoulder with his free hand.

It's certainly an interesting choice of gift, considering Cranstoun is a Lowland clan. "It's funny, ye know," Jamie says thoughtfully. "Back in my day, there was a great divide between the Highlanders and Lowlanders." To put it mildly.

"Before I left Scotland, I'm not sure I would have given the time of day to most Lowlanders. And after we first talked, in the Sensoriums? It took me a wee bit to place the last name." To be fair, he was not exactly in the most observant state of mind at the time.

"When I realized, I wasna sure what to think, really. Ye seemed like a good guy, even if ye use some confusing words. And I don't even know if ye have any Scottish blood in ye to speak of, so the last name shouldn't make a difference, right?"

He studies the kit for a few moments, then looks back up at Billy, and says frankly, "So I decided that I would rather be friends with ye than let that get in the way. And that's why I got ye the badge."

Excuse Billy while he takes a moment to process the information. According to Jamie, the Cranstons were a Lowlander clan. Highlanders and Lowlanders weren't on speaking terms, to put it mildly. But he was a well-integrated American who had never heard stories of Scotland at home. Jamie had been pre-wired to harbor prejudice against him and subsequently conquered it, and Billy had never known that any of this was happening. Some genius he's turning out to be.

"My family never discussed their Scottish heritage in detail. I'd looked up some basic facts on my own, but I never knew that we were meant to be rivals based on our names." Billy doesn't judge Jamie for this. He knows all too well how difficult it is to overcome long-standing feelings of animosity toward certain groups of people.

He closes his hand around the badge tightly. "Thank you for allowing me to prove myself to you."

If they had met back in the 18th century in Scotland, Billy might have had rather more of an inkling of Jamie's feelings on the issue. Sometimes, though, he can keep himself to himself. This just happened to be one of those times.

"Aye, well. Most people wouldn't." Jamie's learned that something that is quite obvious to him isn't always to other people. He doesn't always realize this right away, but he generally figures it out in the end. "And ye don't have to thank me. Ye never needed to prove anything. I had to work past what I was raised to believe."

He catches a hint of green plaid out of his eye and realizes he's still got the hat on. This seems like a fine time to steer the talking in a slightly lighter direction, and he opts to do just that. "So. Ye didna say. How's the hat look?"

"And I'm grateful for it." Billy slips the precious gift into a pocket on his plantsuit for now---he'll need to find a more suitable place to display it later.

He leans back a bit, appraising Jamie's hat. It had been difficult to select something suitable without Aisha and Kimberly's help, but the hat actually looks rather nice on Jamie. "Dashing," he says with a grin. "Females will be flocking to you."

"I was more wondering if my ears were sticking out," Jamie admits. They tend to do so when he wears hats, and this one appears to be no exception. He reaches up and feels in that general area. "Och," he says resignedly. "They are, aren't they?"

"Although," he continues, "I don't think there's many lasses aboard Stacy that share the same appreciation for plaid as I do, Wyn aside." And...he can't manage to picture Wyn flocking to anyone, no matter how hard he tries.

"Yup", he sighs. Not that Jamie's ears are all that out of place. "I'm sorry about that. I'll keep that in mind if we look for another one for you. Though I believe some women find ears incredibly attractive."

Billy studies the look for a little longer. "Perhaps it's not as culturally significant to others, but those patterns were quite popular where I'm from. I owned several, but all of them were blue."

Jamie waves a hand dismissively. "Don't apologize. I like the hat." He can deal with sticky-out ears. "It's much better than the elf cap from the magic sacks."

Which reminds him... "Oh, how did your mission go?"

"You wore an elf cap? Someone should've taken pictures." Okay, so Billy had selected a fairly outlandish outfit too, but his cap hadn't been elf-ish.

"It was humbling. I traveled with the Bene Gesserit to Baghdad, where we fed, healed, and provided for the poor in celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. Macrohard agents tried to stop us, but my companions used their skills to force their defeat while I calmed the people celebrating. I would've helped them, but my abilities didn't suit the situation." He sounds a little bummed out about that, like the ladies must think he's a wuss.

"The people were happy, sharing with each other for the first time in years. I couldn't have been happier. How was your night?"

"Aye, well, I saw the elf outfit Roxie was wearing, and apparently it got stuck in my head or something, because that's what I got too." Why it was parti-colored, he still has no idea. And he's very glad there were no pictures. At least, not any he's aware of. That would be embarrassing, after all.

The trip to Baghdad sounds interesting, and while he's glad Billy wasn't hurt, he does note the tone in his voice. "Billy - even if ye didn't fight, you did do something to help. I wouldna feel bad about that."

As for his night? "I went to London with Jono, first. I hadna been there in a long time, and it was good to help the people there. Especially the bairns, aye? And afterwards, I did go to Inverness, because..." He trails off, the expression on his face inscrutable for a moment.

"Well," he continues. "I wanted to go to Scotland, but I couldna quite get up the courage to see what had happened to the moors, even if it wasna my Earth. I thought a big city would be...easier."

Edited 2010-01-07 09:03 (UTC)

"I'm grateful that I had the chance, believe me. I just don't like feeling useless. It's an old habit." Billy reminisced about his weaker days for a moment. Needing protection had been embarrassing then, and it was worse now. "Thank you, though."

When Jamie discusses his trip, specifically why he'd picked the locations he did, Billy sympathizes. "I didn't go to that Earth's version of my hometown either. Home constitutes more than just a physical location. Without the familiar people there, it isn't really home. All I would have done there was make myself miserable thinking about what was missing."

"Aye, but I was curious," Jamie says with a sigh. "I really shouldna have listened to myself when I told myself I wanted to go." It's that damn impulsiveness kicking in again.

"Still - I can recreate it here, so it's not so bad. And if we can get our universes back, then maybe I will be able to go back there." And if not - well, he'll worry about that later.

"So now that we're back, what are ye planning on doing?"

"Yeah, at least there's that." Billy chooses not to mention that he's avoided recreating anywhere in Angel Grove in the Sensoriums because he knows it can never be real. Artificial versions of the townspeople and places don't comfort him at all. But if Jamie's okay with doing that, then that's a good thing.

"I'll probably go back to work. With the expanding ship population, we'll need more weapons and tools ready to use at a moment's notice. I have a few classes to work with as well---and sometime in between all that, I need to make time for physical training. What were you planning to do?"

"Aye, well. I've not got a lot to do. I was thinking maybe seeing if I could help with repairing some of the damage in the City." It's said in that sort of tone that indicates he hasn't really convinced himself he wants to do that just yet. But something in what he said causes him to pause, and frown a little.

"There's something else, too, but..." He darts a glance at Billy, then sighs quietly, "It's been a really good day. I didna want to think about it for awhile."

He's got that serious look on his face again.

Sensing the change in tone, Billy glances left, then right. No one seems to be paying attention to them, so he lowers his voice.

"Jamie, what is it? If it's on your mind at a time like this, something must be really wrong."

"It's been on my mind for awhile," Jamie admits. He also looks around, then lowers his voice as well.

"It..." He stops for a moment, then decides that he probably shouldn't dance around the subject too much. "It's about the Seer." Part of him is regretting bringing it up right now, when things are happy. But maybe Billy won't know what he's talking about and he can just change the subject. Hopefully.

Oh, but Billy knows. He's been mulling it over on and off for the past few weeks, and somewhat relieved to know that he's not crazy.

"Did this Seer warn you about an oncoming darkness and tell you to prepare?"

"Aye," Jamie replies, and looks at Billy thoughtfully. "He's spoken to ye as well, then." It's not a question, although it's possible Jamie's wrong and Billy just gathered the information from elsewhere.

"I've been trying to find people who have talked to him," he admits after a moment. "But I'm not verra good at at."

"He did. I meant to look as well, but no one else ever seemed to talk about it. For a while, I feared that I had hallucinated." Not that that was much of an excuse. As a Ranger, one of the first things you learn is to trust your instincts.

"He told me that we would be attacked in our dreams soon, and that we needed to be able to conquer our fears. Did you hear the same message?"

"He warned me verra specifically not to tell others of the crew that didna know - something about not spreading fear. I havena found everyone he's talked to, but I think he may have warned some of the others to not do so." Other than Spiderman's post, and his own searching, people seem to have been keeping it mostly quiet.

Jamie nods in agreement, then. "Aye. I heard much the same. There's a few others that seem to have gotten some different information, though."

"Right, to prevent people from panicking. But that made it somewhat difficult to find other people who knew if we weren't allowed to talk to it." Billy smiled a little tiredly.

"What different information did you hear?"

Jamie nods rather emphatically. "It was verra hard, trying to bring up the subject without bringing up the subject."

He considers the question, trying to separate what he was told from what other people have told him. "One of the things I was told was that Seer would need people of strong spiritual or psychic power to take part in an exorcism, but another person I spoke to mentioned magic was needed, so that was different. And Katara...apparently knows the person who's trying to help protect us."

"Definitely." If this wasn't such a serious subject, Billy might've cracked a smile. Instead, he nodded.

"Then it doesn't sound like I'll be of much use. And---wait, there's a person other than the Seer involved, who knows Katara? I've never heard that."

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