trans_9 | 'Meat' 'n Greet

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'Meat' 'n Greet

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. New crew-mates might see a green-skinned alien and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

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.]

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Zoe looked at the young girl who was holding a weapon with a skill that belied her age. Even in during times of war, no one expected children to take up arms, even on planets along the Rim. She kept her gaze steady even as she stayed alert for signs of her captain or any other members of Serenity's crew.

She peered closely at the weapon and was somewhat confused by the lack of a firing mechanism on it. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or alarmed. Instead, she said, "Better than yours, I reckon. That weapon ain't gonna be much good without a hammer."

Aine gave a confused look to the older woman. She looked through her mind and tried to figure what she meant, a handgun didn't need to be any good for hitting people over the head. "It is exactly as I left it before waking up here, I haven't taken it apart yet to look. It even has all the gems in it."

She didn't think the other woman was from her world, so it was likely a gun from her world was junk in any other hand. Aine took her weapon from the holster and handed it to the other woman, "It might help if you explained how your gun works. It might seem a stupid thing to ask, but it'll help."

Maybe she really was just an unassuming child after all - Zoe had seen many normal citizens during the war who had, in order to protect themselves and their families, would grab anything big and solid to use as a club. Wasn't much good against a trained solider or Reavers, but in tense situations, any weapon was better than no weapon at all. But the mention about gems...Zoe frowned. She hadn't ever heard of a weapon with gems in them before.

She turned the girl's weapon in her hands, testing the weight and balance of it. Not too bad, but definitely not her style - blunt object or not. "Not really my style. I'd rather have something I can use at a distance too."

Aine took her gun back and rolled her eyes, then pulled her left arm back with her gun in hand, holding her right hand low. She fired a marble sized spot of white energy from the gun at her open palm. The energy catching in the gemstones in her palm, the energy spreading out from there, "Works at a distance."

The energy from the shot wrapped around her hand for a moment, fading slowly after the rather sudden movements. Aine was getting really annoyed at asking questions and having the other woman think she was some child with no idea what she was talking about. Now that she had proven exactly what she was capable of, she looked up. "Now lemme ask again, how does your sidearm function? As they look alike, but yours isn't like mine. I know how mine works, and I was wondering how yours functions."

Zoe watched as Aine demonstrated how her weapon worked, careful to not let surprise register on her features. After everything that had happened these past few hours, something like shots of glowing energy shouldn't have alarmed her. She was, however, amused at the girl's apparent annoyance - maybe she was used to people her age running around with weapons, but Zoe had only known River to be truly capable of handling herself in dangerous situation.

She shifted her weight and demonstrated how her pistol worked - without shooting, of course, because in a crowded room like this, shooting anything would be kuangzhe de and warranted bad things.

Aine looked at it with a skepticism about the method that it worked. Projectiles? Seemed like a waste of materials to her, the only actual use of projectiles was things too big to be powered from a single person's soul. Explosives were only used when nobody in the group could provide the right Soul for the occasion. For something as simple as a gun, and she didn't see or sense any magic from the projectiles?

"So... the projectiles are packed with a small explosive charge... the blast launches it using the barrel to control the force?" Aine wanted to make sure this made sense. It seemed simple enough, on the surface, although it seemed like a lot of work to make a projectile you can't reuse. "And the projectile is only of one Nature? It only propels a little piece of metal?"

"Yes," Zoe answered. Didn't seem much more to explain than that. She placed the gun back into the holster and turned to look about the room. "Ain't no glowin' light show like yours, but it gets the job done."

"Better than mine," Aine offers, there was one aspect of that weapon that varied from hers. No matter how crude and inefficient it was with time and materials, the effect was 100% the same for every person who handled it. She might have to look into one of these for herself.

Something was nagging at the edge of Aine's perception. Something she saw in the woman, the reserved nature reminded her of a few of her teachers and commanders. The ones who while their companions partied loudly destroying the bar, sat quietly enjoying the fact that the battle was over. "That look... what of me bothers you?"

"You're a mite young to be handlin' a gun so well," Zoe replied in a cool tone, although she didn't sound particularly bothered. Maybe this girl really was like River too, though that would meant experiments that Zoe definitely didn't agree with it.

That was confusing, how was she to young? "I started basic training the same age everyone did. Might not be done with my first tour yet, but if I couldn't handle a gun after near six years I'd be a poor soldier." She hid her feelings well, a calm and collected sort. Like most of her teachers, only a few were the kind that loved fighting. They also sported rather noticeable injuries, the kind that would remove them from combat.

"Ti anna." Now that statement got a startled look out of her. "Six years of training already? Now that just ain't right." Sure, the Alliance may be cruel, but they weren't bùyàolian to that degree. And planets along the Rim - there wasn't training, only necessity.

"Eight years," Aine corrected, "well, near it. Everyone joins the military at age eight, proudest day in Father's life." Aine didn't seem to be bothered by this fact about her life, or the lives of her people. She did decide to explain a little, "Silver Heart rejects or worse if you graft them later. Without them no 'light show' and we're sitting ducks."

Well, if the gems hadn't convinced Zoe that this girl wasn't from her world (and there were all sorts of folk mingling around that this could be said the same about), then that explanation took care of it. She crossed her arms, listening respectively, but didn't comment on her disbelief. If anything, Zoe was still a soldier, learning to deal with the impossible and reason with it at a later time.

"Guess you come from a place with a lot of fighting unless they just want extra soldiers in a case a war goes and starts up."

"War's all there is, I mean the world isn't too much of a mess. There 're rules and everyone usually follows them, and people my age generally don't see the bigger battles," Aine offered, she herself didn't know how the war began. She didn't know how the war would end either, those sorts of things weren't talked about. The war was how everyone earned themselves a name, who would earn names without it? "I mean I was in a few bigger fights during my deployment, but I've only ever been in the hottest part of the battle once."

There was no mistaking the woman for anyone but Zoe, not with the way she handled the gun now back in her holster.

"Zoe!"

Kaylee pushed her way through the crowd and towards her crewmate, beaming at both the first mate and the girl with her. "Simon's here too, lookin' for River in case, and--oh, Zoe, am I glad to see you!"

The girl couldn't go unnoticed, either, and Kaylee stuck out an excited hand toward her. "Kaylee, part of Zoe's crew."

"Don't sound like much a surprise, people bein' the way they are." And wasn't the the truth - no matter where you went, people were always going to be narrow-minded, afraid of things they didn't know, and quick to anger. And other people were always going to want things to go according to a different plan. Zoe knew, as a soldier, that war was often inevitable because of it.

She was about to respond to the girl's other statement when a familiar, cheery voice called from just a few yards away. "I was wondering when I'd see a familiar face around here. You seen the Captain too?"

Aine looked at the newcomer, and was very confused. They were like night and day to each other, they served on the same ship? Although a few people she met were that... bubbly. Aine put her hand over her heart and bowed, "Aine." Thinking the outstretched hand is a very odd greeting, but she did fail to introduce herself to either woman.

It did fill her with a little hope, there were people that weren't alone here. Might give one of those in her unit a chance to be somewhere. Small favors, all that. "So you two are deployed on the same ship?"

Kaylee chewed the inside of her lip for a moment. "Ain't seen him yet, no, just you and Simon." Why didn't that sound right?

Right, not everybody here shook hands, did they. Kaylee pulled her hand back and kept on smiling at Aine. "It's nice to meet ya, Aine." With a grin back at Zoe, Kaylee nodded. "Yep! Serenity. 'M mechanic, and Zoe's First Mate."

"Really," Zoe murmured - hell, that didn't sound right at all.

She glanced back Aine. "You've got a crew to look for too, I'm assuming."

Serenity was an odd name for a ship, it was so... peaceful. Not a name any ship in her world would carry. Something about all this was missing, something in their history that she wasn't told that would make this all make sense. "It is an honor, as well."

"Yes, my unit," Aine thought a moment, "my people share the same Silver Heart, if you have seen these." She holds out her palm, letting the gems in her palm be examined a moment, "or more specifically this." She tugged at the collar of her plantsuit, pulling it down to best reveal the silver plate on her chest. Complete with a design of gemstones on it. However to those not nearby, it might appear like Aine is showing something else. "All my people have this installed when we are children, have you seen it before?"

Kaylee looked carefully at the plate on Aine's chest and shook her head. "Can't say I've seen anythin' like it..." The mechanic glanced over at Zoe to see if she might have recognized it.

"Wait a minute, you have them installed?" What kind of 'verse was that!?

Zoe rested a hand on her hip as she peered at the plate. The number of glowing stones this girl had around her was strange enough, but this was even more odd. People sometimes had body parts replaced by metal when they lost them in the war, but she gathered this wasn't like those situations.

She shook her head at Kaylee's unasked questions. "Never seen anything like that before. About what age are they installed?"

"Yes. Eight, start of training," Aine answered. Would all people act like this towards her? "Every child has them installed when we join the military. Wait much later the chances the implants will reject go up. Anything after age 10 the question stops being will the implants fail as it is will the implants kill you."

It was a fact of life, the earlier a Silver Heart is installed, the less complications there are. The body gets accustomed to it, and even though the gems resettle as the structuring changes under them it is more stable than a later installation. And everyone's father and mother, and their fathers and mothers, and THEIR fathers and mothers were implanted at a young age. It had been a long time, about five generations, since the age of installation was discovered. It was an honor, to be sure you would not die before you hit the battlefield.

However, her unit, and her people, not being here did cause her heart to sink a little. It would just be her then, has happened before. She can manage, "Your people do not do such things when you join the military? No signs at all?"

It was...something. Certainly something. Kaylee didn't really know what to make of it, but she couldn't exactly say there was no such need for something to be installed on a person. Ai ya, that sounded like something the Alliance would have thought up.

She shook her head in response to Aine's question. "Not unless you're countin' a uniform..."

"Nothing but training," Zoe replied coolly. "Wouldn't put it past the Alliance to try something like that if they thought it'd help them during a war."

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whitefireshot.livejournal.com - 2010-04-15 16:08 (UTC) - Expand

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