trans_9 | (no subject)

Yzak had gotten a bit of information about their enemy upon his arrival. That bit of information topped off by the fact that where he came from, he'd never come across non-human sentient lifeforms was a cause for start when he came across the library. This was still something to get used to, he thought.

Laurie enters the library with an expectancy to her mood. She is a little brighter than she usually is (when it comes to concerning herself with literature.) She holds her hands close and swivels her head around to take in the setting. She's been here before, thanks to the boys who had been very helpful, but it had only been really a small search since at that moment she'd only really wanted to locate the library.

In her plethora of thoughts, she doesn't notice someone else is in the room with her, and she bumps into him.

"Oh...I'm sorry...I wasn't looking where I was going..."

"It's all right."

The voice comes from several feet above her head, and Goliath waits for the human girl to orient herself, inspecting her face for familiarity. He's seen her somewhere.

"You are the girl who was looking for the library over the communication devices," he says, after a moment of thought. "I am glad you were able to find your way."

Goliath could sympathise. He's still getting used to humans with magical abilities not being Children of Oberon.

He glances at the human and says nothing for a moment, eyeing the other up and down. He does not recognize the man.

"I am willing to guess you are not accustomed to my kind."

His expression seems permanently set to grim and he is manipulating the datapad with some very serious-looking claws, but the gargoyle's voice is low, calm - an invitation to conversation.

It only took Yzak a couple of moments to regain his posture. Strange as the meeting was, it was near nothing in comparison to the situation he found himself in now. And if Goliath was here, that meant he was an ally. To Yzak who was a leader where he came from, it was important to make a good impression.

"Not at all, I'm afraid."

That was a dangerous assumption to make, that because they were all on the same ship, they were all allies.

Goliath is nearly as likely to make that assumption himself. Nearly.

"Are you human, and from Earth?" he asks, "I've met a number here who appear to be, but are not."

Yzak was thankfully a sharp one, and would question things and people if they showed signs of being untrustworthy. But as it stood so far, he had many people to meet, and couldn't think of a reason why anybody wouldn't be trustworthy or willing to help when it came to something as large as bringing their lost home back.

"I'm a human, but I'm not from Earth. I'm within its orbit, however."

"You may be from a time after mine, or from a different version entirely. If my race has not survived to your future, I hope it is the latter."

The datapad gets stored in a pouch on his belt. Goliath remains one of the few crew members who has never been made to wear a plantsuit.

"I do not recognize you. Are you a new arrival?"

He had stayed long enough at the meeting to determine whether or not any humans he knew where there. When there were none, he left, not in much of a mood for socializing that night.

"I am," he started, thinking back. "I just ... woke up, a few days ago."

He saluted, a habit more than likely not to fade as time went on. "Yzak Jule."

Laurie looks up at the sound of his voice, eyes widening in the slight dark of the room. "Oh, h-hey there. Yea, some nice boys showed me around and then I just took a peek in."

She can't really see the person above her because of the darkness, but still, he sounds nice.

A military greeting. Hmm.

"Goliath."

The gargoyle nods once in greeting.

"It is in my interest to learn about the futures of Earth that I have missed. I would be glad to speak to you about the times from which you have come, if you would care to speak of them."

Goliath's low-light vision is about as good as a human's during day, so unfortunately if she's having any difficulties in seeing in the dimness, they're going over his head.

"You will find it accomodating."

What she can probably tell is that he's very tall, and seems to be wearing some sort of a cloak. His diction is formal, tinged with the archaic.

"What you wrote about yourself, your . . . mutation - I had a few questions I thought to ask, if it is not impolite to question that subject."

"Oh...no, no, you can ask. We're crewmates, right?" She carefully picks out the cloak and height of the person above her. Perhaps he's a mutant and is sticking to the ceiling? Like Spider-Man! Or maybe some other possible way...?

For sure, he reminds Laurie faintly of the statue gargoyles she'd seen around the outside of the mansion.

"You are very much unlike the mutants I know of from my Earth. I wondered, if one such as yourself is considered a mutant in your home, what is considered normal? Are you from a planet where humans are not the most populous species?"

"I guess it is because we're different. We have these abilities that make us special, but also set us apart from the people who do not. The people who do not, they don't like us for it. They fear us for what we can do with our abilities and would rather have us locked-up or gone from earth completely."

There's a sigh from above her, a grating, low sound like the edge of a growl.

"You sing an old song, young friend."

The grim voice is edged with compassion now.

"I wish it were not so familiar."

Laurie nods feebly. "It isn't fun being called a freak for being different." She reaches up to move back a strand of blonde hair to behind her ear.

"I wish people would stop seeing us as monsters."

There's silence above her for a moment.

"You look no different from a normal human to me." There's more of an edge of a growl to his voice now. "I have trouble believing one such as you could be called a monster by your own people."

She's a child. No child should be called a monster.

And it's bad enough that his children have been called monsters. But for humans to go after even their own kind with such antagonism . . .

For a moment, all he can think of is Angela dying on the floor of the clock tower. And the third Hunter, who never regretted it.

"I wanted to think better of the human race."

Ben was sauntering by, thinking about needing a smoothie run while he was shelving data disks when he noticed Goliath there. One of the more reclusive members of the ship, but as it stood, he decided to greet him. "Hey!" he called out. "Need help finding stuff?"

"That depends on where and ... when," that felt so strange to say, "you come from, yourself."

Goliath, huh. That somehow seemed like a fitting name for such a being. Although there was still one more question Yzak had.

"What are you, exactly?"

"People can be cruel when they are afraid," she answers grimly, thinking that it summed up the entire matter quite nicely (though ironically the matter was not nice in any way).

"And so quck to fear what they do not understand."

Another sigh.

"This is stern discourse for a first meeting."

He looks down at the datapad in his talons and shifts one claw over the screen. The backlight flares as he considers the object briefly, the dim light highlighting craggy features and wickedly pointed talons in shadows and eerie green light, as well as that whatever Goliath is, he's not clinging to the ceiling - he's just really tall.

He looks back to Laurie, with an expression seeming permanently set to grim. "In the city, there is a castle that served as my ancestral home. The library there is not as extensive as this, but the books are real. You may visit and make use of it, if you promise to have care with the books. Some of them are very old."

It's easier to be reclusive when, even on a ship in outer space, most of one's fellow crew adhere to a daytime schedule.

"Thank you, I may yet." Goliath regards the boy with curiosity. It is difficult to tell whether or not a human is from his version of Earth, and he wonders about it each time he meets a new one. "I am in search of Earth histories. Ones that survived past the year 1996."

He's got his memories back. He doesn't need to know any more about the future of his.

"My last year on Earth was 1996, and I am a gargoyle."

It might not explain much, but there you are.

"To my knowledge, humans had not started living in significant numbers off the planet Earth by the time my world was destroyed."

"I don't really mind..." she nervously says, rubbing her elbow a little nervously.

She squints a little up at the ceiling, picking out the distinct details of the person's figure. She bites her lower lip to keep back a nervous sound when she realizes...he is like one of the gargoyles from around the outside of the mansion.

"Th-thank you," she says, nervousness spilling out in her slight stutter. "I would like to be able to feel the hard-back covers and the paper as I turn the pages again..."