[open]

[prettycoolguy]

Everybody has to eat, even super serious Spartan-II's.

The Chief's in the mess hall, sitting by himself and working his way through a ration of tasteless nutrient mush while working on something on his omnicomm. The Chief's never been one to really take refuge in the sensoriums to make food taste better, he's gotten used to it and doesn't even think about it much.

He's not unaware of what's going on around him, but he has most of the comings and goings of the room basically tuned out.

This means someone should bother him, y/n?

Comments

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"That's impressive," said Ben gloomily, sliding into a seat across from the man.

[whitefireshot.livejournal.com]

Aine didn't have anything against tasteless nutrient mush. It was actually a step above what Grey Arthur created with supplies. It was amazing how badly the guy cooked, he managed to put the worst aftertaste in any food he created. She picked a table, not exactly checking to see who was sitting there before she sat down.

She smiled at the man she sat with, eying the work he was doing, "Recreational or Functional?"

[prettycoolguy]

"What is?"

The Chief looks up from his work at the kid. Well, not a young kid, but definitely a kid. He's a new face. Most likely from the latest pod release, the Chief decides.

[prettycoolguy]

"Functional," the Chief replies, sparing an upward glance. "Combat training plans."

It gets more and more complicated the more people are involved, and keeping it safe is a challenge. Even with the sensoriums altered to prevent people from hurting themselves and each other, it's best to arrange things to avoid them having to.

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"The way you're plowing through that goo," he sighed.

[eswat-109.livejournal.com]

"Hey, what's up?" Deunan dropped into the seat across from the Chief. People shouldn't read at the table. It was rude. (Interrupting people was also rude, but Deunan and self-awareness were not well-acquainted.)

After she'd realized she probably wasn't going to be attacked from the shadows, Deunan had swapped around how she carried her weapons so it looked less like she was ready to instantly jump into a fight. Of course, she was ready to instantly jump into a fight, but she was being diplomatic. Or something.

The upshot was that while she was still openly carrying her enormous combat knife--one could be forgiven for mistaking the thing for a short sword--it was slung across her back instead of over her shoulder and down her collarbone in a quick-draw sheath. Deunan had a lot of strengths, but subtle understatement was not among them.

[whitefireshot.livejournal.com]

"Armed, Unarmed, or Vehicle?" Aine asked, she was interested to see what designed training there was. All she had was her training routine in the Sensorium, and that really felt underwhelming to her. Quietly working at her 'food' while she asked. She had been working on armed combat, she had no idea what to do for unarmed training just yet. Vehicle... she didn't know the vehicles she had to work with, so she hadn't put much work into training for that.

[prettycoolguy]

The Chief's not a very expressive guy, but he quirks an eyebrow a little as he swallows.

"Gotta eat something," he replies.

"Helps if you don't think about it," he adds after a second.

[prettycoolguy]

"Mostly armed. A good percentage of the crew needs training on projectile weapons, and we need to reach a better level of organization before we start work on vehicles," he replies.

He can only imagine the craziness that would be unleashed if they tried doing any complex maneuvers now.

[whitefireshot.livejournal.com]

"I could use a better familiarity with the weapon options on the ship," Aine stopped to pull the gun from its holster under her coat. It looked like an ordinary handgun from Earth, save the red gem on the bottom of the grip. "Stacy suggested I take an Intar when I was looking for a sidearm. Non-lethal but effective for me. How many of the people in question have any training at all?"

She really needed to familiarize herself with some more of the technology involved here. She definitely felt like she was a country girl in a big city right now.

[prettycoolguy]

The Chief glances up from his comm. "Working," he replies with a slight shrug of his left shoulder. "Nothing interesting."

He too would be pretty well prepared if something suddenly jumped out of the shadows. His helmet's sitting at his right elbow on the table in easy reach, and his rifle and sidearm are as ever hooked in their rightful places on the armor on his back and thigh. The Chief's determined, however, that the mess hall's unlikely to yield any surprise attacks.

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"Great advice," he said dryly. "Thinking about being stuck on a barvy worldship and the destruction of the universe is definitely easier than thinking about sucking down nutrislime."

[prettycoolguy]

The Chief sits up a bit as he thinks. "The majority of us seem to have some kind of combat skills, though there are a lot of civilians who've never picked up a firearm."

This girl seems awful young, but the Chief's seen enough out of the teenagers here not to question it too much. "Projectile or something else?" he asks, gesturing to the unfamiliar gun with a hand.

power armor buddies y/n? XD

[eswat-109.livejournal.com]

"Then you should talk to me!" Now that she'd adjusted somewhat, Deunan's fundamentally cheerful personality was reasserting itself. Cheerful, and at times, incredibly annoying.

Like the Chief, she ate the nutrient sludge because one had to, and when the decision was between the Sensoriums and eating alone, and the mess hall and likely finding company, she came down on the side of socializing over taste.

[prettycoolguy]

"You get used to it," the Chief replies. "Or you find ways to distract yourself, things to keep you busy."

"...Or you go insane, but nobody's taken the third option yet."

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"Probably someone would make you eat the food even if you went insane," he pointed out.

[whitefireshot.livejournal.com]

"Given the reason we are here, anyone being useless in a war makes little sense," It would make sense if most people had some useful skill. Even if not all of them are cut out for direct combat. Course, anyone from her world would know something about combat. Just the way things were, and it was nice he wasn't talking down to her as much as others on the ship.

"My personal guns are energy weapons, powered off me. But my soul is worthless in a fight, I heal people." She didn't bother to pull out her gun to show him. She gestured to the gun she pulled out, "This is a' Energy weapon, but it appears to be based on a projectile weapon and modified. Can't kill, but for me I'm good with that so long as nobody means to kill me right now." She could get a proper lethal force weapon later on, when she's going into a fight that's sure to be them or her. Wandering around the ship she just feels better with something she can use to put someone down.

[prettycoolguy]

"Most likely the ship," the Chief agrees. "Maybe intravenously."

She's awful protective of them for an alien worldship.

"You are...?" the Chief asks finally.

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"Ben Skywalker." He offered a hand across the table.

[prettycoolguy]

"We can always use medical staff. Healing powers, whatever you've got'll be appreciated. They're usually understaffed. We haven't seen a real battle yet but we've had some... incidents."

Incidents. Yes. That may be the best word for it, he decides.

He nods at the explanation about the weapon, he knows that a good number of crew members have nonlethals.

We can always use more power armor buddies! 8D

[prettycoolguy]

"What about?" he asks. The Chief's a bit surprised about being approached, but he won't run somebody off unless they give him a reason to. He doesn't know this woman, another new arrival he supposes.

Mostly, he's just curious about why someone would want to talk to him. He's used to being skirted around. Being near seven feet tall and heavily scarred will do that.

[prettycoolguy]

The Chief accepts it. His own hand is big and covered by a worn black and green gauntlet.

"Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117. Just call me "Chief"," he replies in kind.

"Either my memory's blanking out or I haven't met you."

And his memory (usually) doesn't blank out.

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"You're the commander," Ben said, surprised. He'd expected that finding more members of the command staff would be difficult, or at least involve sneaking onto the bridge. "And yeah, I got the de-goo treatment a few days ago."

o/\o

[eswat-109.livejournal.com]

Frankly, Deunan hadn't considered that, and it threw her for a second. In her experience, conversations either happened organically, or she got told to shut up. "About where I can get my armor back." If you can't recover gracefully, recover quickly.

Neither his height nor his scarring bothered her. She'd spent her entire life around soldiers of one description or another, and big and battle-scarred came with the territory. Hell, her boyfriend was nine feet tall, so covered in scars the doctors had given up and made him into a cyborg, and he was the biggest pushover in the multiverse, at least where Deunan was concerned.

[prettycoolguy]

"I am," he confirms with a small nod. "You seem surprised. Why?"

The Chief tends to be one of the less visible members of the command crew. He isn't as much a face as Kirk or Leon, he's more comfortable staying aside and watching backs.