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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There was nothing to tug, nothing to straighten, nothing but the oddly pulsing plantsuit that covered her like a second skin. Walking into the observation deck, she had to stop for a moment to take it all in. Her eyes were riveted to the view of the Bleed for a long while despite the noise of people greeting other people, the blend of voices a hum. She could pick voices out selectively, and listened with all the intensity she put to her own job, hoping for another familiar voice besides that of McCoy.

Family and loved ones were supposed to be here, weren't they? Or maybe not here but back in that endless cavern of pods that had yet to wake from stasis. The rising panic of it all tried to surface again and Uhura pushed it down. All the what ifs and oh Gods and the frightening wave upon wave of uncertainty. She stopped where she was and stood there, breathing in the slightly humid air, isolating sounds (there was a high whistling sound of air blowing, a rumble that might have been the engines--she assumed they were engines, a tick, tick, tick sound, someone crying somewhere, laughter, someone in angry debate), her eyes closed as she calmed herself.

She could do this.

She would do this.

But still, her legs felt rubbery and her mind kept trying to race in every direction at once. Uhura kept herself still, outwardly composed, and when she was sure she wasn't going to fall apart, she opened her eyes.

Negi was barely listening to the rumble of people in the crowded room. He didn't care for anything at the moment, despite clutching onto the comm ring and Omnicom like a life-line. He had found his cloak and his staff in possessions and Chamo sat to the side, taking a drag of some kind of holographic cigarette to calm his nerves.

There was a long tense silence between the pair. And then Chamo handed Negi a cigarette.

The boy-turned-teenager took it, lit it up and took a drag. He coughed, but the faux nicotine did nothing at any rate, only the gesture of it was enough for him.

"Aniki, it's not your fault." said Chamo to begin their conversation but it was cut off quickly.

"It IS my fault, Chamo-kun. I... I failed. Everyone... my students, my friends, Rakan-san, Yue-san, Nodoka-san, Haruna-san, Asuna-san... everyone... its just me and you." He took another steadying drag of the drug that was not even there and coughed again. "Damnit..."

"I wanted to get them home..." added Negi after a minute more of silence. "Everyone. Even if I had to sacrifice my own heart to do so, I would have. And yet..."

"The Princess-chan in front of you, really isn't the princess at all..."

"Asuna-san..." murmured Negi, sinking further into depression. "She's..."

"I know... aniki. I know." said Chamo as he took a puff. He flicked the hologram into nothingness and pulled another cigarette from the holopack, lighting it up with a burst of ermine fire. "I know."

Negi sat there in the corner, huddled into the cloak that was far too small for him, the gaping hole in the right of his chest. A vulnerable expression as the young man took another drag.

Why the hell did I come here? I don't need to meet all these new people at once. Tsukasa thought, as he looked around the Ops Deck, when he saw a huddled mass in the corner...and was that a smoking ferret? He walked over, and it turns out it was a young man in a cloak too big for him. So, Tsukasa walked over and sat down beside the kid.

"You okay, kid?" He asked, with no ceremony or introduction whatsoever.

A brief visit to weapons and possessions had thankfully returned Mordin to a state of near normalcy. Weapons on hand, omnitool back in its proper place and even his armor, which he wore in lieu of the rather intriguing (if disturbing) plantsuit. He ahd been directed here, to the Obs deck. And so he had come, hopefully to gain some answers to the many questions that were bouncing around his head.

Negi didn't reply even when Tsukasa came over. "Ne, Aniki, talk to him," encouraged Chamo, poking his best friend's leg with a forepaw.

"..." emoted Negi.

Chamo sighed.

And then burned his hand with the holo-cig.

"OW! BLOODY HELL!"

Okay, so, except for the pulsating, it was like wearing one of the X-uniforms. And at least she'd gotten the goo out of her hair.

But no hair ties, meaning no pigtails, meaning... her hair was being floppy. She shoved it out of her face, and looked around. The ring on her finger felt weird - years of hand to hand meant she didn't wear many rings - and she really did not like the whole institutionalisation thing going on with the suit. Where were the colours? The fun?

Okay, so the ship had said 'loved ones' - she sincerely hoped that didn't mean Logan and Scott. She could go for some other people, but not those two. Not just yet. Give her a few days, then she'd probably be missing them.

Jubilee continued looking around. She stumbled a bit, shuffling through the crowd. "I cannot be the only X-wearer here." She muttered to herself.

"...A talking ferret?"

Tsukasa cleared his throat and tried again with Negi. "Hello, there? You even alive?"

Yue waited in the corner, quiet and uninterested at the influx of new people. She was there out of a single hope, a single hope she didn't dwell on. However a word in the chaos, a voice got her attention. In the voice, a single word caught her attention. A name she heard and didn't believe it.

"Yue-san."

She looked up, her eyes darting around the room, the source of that voice, that voice that as she listened to it she knew. That face she saw and she knew, she knew beyond her missing memories. That person she wanted to be like, was here. There he was, with that ermine, "N-negi-sensei!"

She ran over toward the source of the voice, running as fast as her tiny legs could carry her. Stopping in front of him, stopping short of hugging him. Although she wanted to, but it could be a trap? "You're... here..."

The small mage looked up, a blush across her face. He was important, and he was in pain. She wanted to help, she had to help. How could she help, how could she make it better? She just stooed there, shocked and blushing. Cursing herself that she was even the slightest bit happy, even while he was suffering.

Kyle rubbed his forehead as he walked. This was turning into a very strange day, and that was saying something by the standards of his life. Looking around the room he tried to find anyone he could recognize. No luck so far. Maybe if he just stayed put somebody would explain exactly what was going on.

"Fairy ermine," corrected Chamo with a tap of his cigarette on the floor before it winked out. "Aniki's kind of traumaed right now. I'm Chamo, and this is Negi."

"..." emoted Negi.

Chamo sighed. "He's kind of depressed."

Chamo's jaw dropped to the floor as he saw who was running up to meet them. "A-Aniki! Look! LOOK!"

"..." emoted Negi.

Chamo raised a paper fan and WHACKED his friend across the head. "LOOK UP DANGIT!"

Unfocused dark eyes looked up and locked eyes with Yue's own. There was a long pause, a tense one, and in a small voice, Negi said "... just a mirage..."

And his head lowered to his knees.

Chamo fell over.

"You think?" Tsukasa deadpanned to the ferret-like...thing, and turned to the spell caster.

"So...what am I going to have to do, hit you to get you to talk or something?" Please say you aren't actually thinking of hitting a teenage boy, Tsukasa. Please.

It was all here - all like he remembered it from the last time. Kira paused for a moment, swallowing and trying collect himself before he entered the Observation Deck. He hadn't seen Lacus down in the bay; would she be here? Or was she still asleep down in the pods?

Who would he see that he knew here, anyway - if anybody?

It would probably, Ben acknowledged, have helped if he'd taken a few minutes to meditate after he'd found his lightsaber. His heart was racing, and there was perspiration beading on his neck from the damp heat of the cavern. But he could find a quiet spot to meditate later. Right now, every instinct he had was telling him to get answers, to get information, to solve the mystery. At least he knew who to ask -- sort of.

"Any 'others' here?" he asked, keeping his tone casual but using the Force amplify his voice a little. "I hear you've got some explanations."

"..."

Looking up, Negi fixed dark red-brown eyes on him and said, "Would it kill you to go away?"

"ANIKI!" snapped Chamo angrily. "This is not like you, stop pushing people away!"

"What's the difference... I failed and everyone's dead..."

"Negi-sensei..." What was wrong with him, what happened to him? Was this something to do with the end- Oh God, how could she be so stupid. The world ended, the world ended and Negi-sensei would only blame himself for something like that. "I'm real..."

She looked at Chamo for a moment, seeking some form of advice from the Ermine. He knew Negi-sensei best, he would know how to help Negi, if anyone knew how. It would be Chamo... and that was not an encouraging thing, Chamo falling over like that.

She fumbled around in her pocket for a moment and drew out her card, held it to her forehead, thought into the card a moment. "Sensei, I'm real!" She looked at him, her eyes pleading for him to notice her.

Tsukasa sighed, and introduced the palm of his hand to the face. After a couple of seconds, he lifted his head up and sighed.

"Where the hell is Kazami when you need him? I'm. Not. Good. With. Kids."

Spock had calculated the odds of someone he knew being awakened. The odds were not in his favor.

Still, he found himself on the observation deck with many others, standing well back away from the crowd, avoiding contact, his hands clasped behind his back. Whether someone he knew appeared or not, he might be able to lend aid, or answer questions.

He saw her before she saw him, and, though no one around him would've noticed, his breath caught in his throat momentarily on sight of her. Rarely was Spock rendered speechless, but it took a moment for his mind to resume its usual processes.

Spock assessed the situation from his vantage point. She was distressed, he could tell, though she retained the outward calm he so admired.

It was only when he could tell that she had collected herself that he approached.

"Lieutenant," he said, his demeanor as professional as ever.

The words rang in Negi's head clear as day. That voice of hers.

Slowly, a little shakily, the young man looked up. "Y-Yue-san..." his voice cracked.

Getting to his knees, he swallowed. "I... I..."

And then without warning, he flung his arms around her and started to cry, choking out "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over.

Something--a ripple in the Force, a familiar tug at his mind--had brought Luke from the hangar, where he'd been working on the X-Wing assigned to him, back to the observation deck. Sometimes, Luke wished he wasn't a bit shorter than average; it was difficult to see over everyone's heads.

But between shoulders and shifting people he spotted a face he knew well. "Kyle Katarn!" he called, smiling and waving to get the other Jedi's attention.

"Hey, cut him a little slack. He just lost his world, so did I for that matter, but he's been trying REALLY hard to get everyone home safely for the last couple of weeks." retorted Chamo.

"But if you need to punch him, do it. It's what Kotaro would do." added the Ermine after a thought.

After following the lit pathway to a room where he was thankfully relieved of the copious amounts of space goo (albeit in a rather uncomfortable and frankly creepy fashion), Simon was just about ready to lose it. He wanted three things: Answers, his sister, and clothes, not necessarily in that order.

So far, he'd only managed the clothes. Though the ship...Stacy...had provided vague information about the situation, it wasn't good enough. He wanted someone to tell him what was going on, where Mal or Zoe or Book or Kaylee were, what had happened to Serenity, what they'd done with his sister. If River was even here. Trying to absorb this business about being chosen was pushed aside in favor of searching for something, anything familiar.

The possibility that they'd been separated, and the possibility that she might be gone only fueled his desperation as he tried to scan the room, calling for River as he did so.

There were situations, and then there were situations. The one the Iniss currently found himself in was the very definition of the latter description.

The host had been pushed back into the far corner of his brain, and the yeerk was more than prepared to face this situation with as much guile and skill as possible.

Which currently mean acting like a scared human, backpack drawn to his chest and new skin suit riding on hunched shoulders.

< Do you know what it is? >

< Shut up, I can't have you distracting me right now, or we're both dead. >

The host fell silent and the yeerk returned his attention to the press of bodies around him, shoulders tense and very deliberately not playing with the pocket holding his Dracon Beam.

"All right, that's it!" Tsukasa stood up, grabbed the kid by his shoulders, and stood him up.

"Look. You can't hide. We all have our failures in life. The only thing you can do is move on and make up for them to the best of your ability. And if you don't actually start talking like a normal person, I will consider hitting you."

No, Tsukasa, you are no Shiro Kazami.

"Sensei..." It took Yue a few moments to gather herself, the initial blush threatening to knock her out again. She had to be strong, he needed her to be strong, "This is too big for you to take on yourself, this is more than you could hope to overcome."

She held him close, smiling and cursing herself. How could she- right! "Your cards, do you have your cards?" Yue looked him in the eye, trying to simply wish him to be strong, strong for her. "Were they among your possessions?"

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'Meat' 'n Greet

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