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It had been exactly a week since she had woken up naked and covered in alien goop she'd rather not think about. Some parts of the past seven days had flown by, and others had dragged on so long that time might as well have been standing still. Eating the mush they were supplied, exploring the ship, spending time in the hangar, being with Kira and the others: it was becoming a routine already.

Despite that, a week wasn't long at all. Things would definitely take some getting used to. Aside from the fact that her home and almost everything she knew was gone, Cagalli was being housed in a living spaceship. She still found herself hesitating when things moved, and, in all honesty, she probably would be for a while.

Now, the young woman sat in a chair, arms rested on the table in front of her. Things were still pretty fresh in her mind, so a little time to reflect was needed. Perhaps a little conversation, too.

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Javert, on the other hand, had been here for a long time; and though he couldn't remember the last month or more, an unsettling thought, he was still moving with surety through the living, pulsing space ship. He had even almost overcome the idea of a space ship in general.

The obs deck, however, still put a slight pause in his even strides. When he spotted the young woman sitting at a table, he paused even longer before approaching. He still wasn't social, but perhaps speaking to new people would expand his knowledge of the ship's state in general; there were certainly plenty of them pouring in.

"Deep in thought?" His voice was a deep rumble, with a hint of derision and a general sense of nosy police officer.

Upon hearing the unfamiliar voice, the blonde jumped a little in her seat and promptly smashed her elbow against the edge of the table. With a muttered curse, she grabbed her elbow in her free hand, bringing to her and away from the table. She began to rub it and glanced over to the man who had startled her.

"I guess I was," she replied after a moment, voice a little edgy.

He raised an eyebrow. If she was so easily startled, it was not particularly his fault. He saw no reason for her to be frustrated with him, when her own lack of awareness had caused the injury.

"I don't suppose it was of an interesting matter?" He asked, barely half-interested. His massive hands slid out of the cuffs of his greatcoat, plucking a silver snuffcase from his pocket and snapping it open. "It obviously ought be, to steal all your concentration."

He took a pinch of snuff. His nerves were clearly beginning to fray once again, to partake of the habit in polite company.

Another day (or whatever counted as a day) of cleaning and fixing up her home had passed and Sasami just wanted to take some time and explore. Perhaps see some of the other people here.

Arriving in the Observation Deck, she happened to notice Cagalli lost in her thoughts. Any other time, she'd probably leave them alone. However, Sasami was curious and worried.

She approached the young woman, her pink eyes blinking. "Um... are you okay?"

Cagalli looked over, blinking a bit in return. She noticed the young girl's concern, and she couldn't help but smile a bit. It had to appear pretty bad for someone that age to ask about how she was faring.

"I guess so," she replied, a little unsure herself. "I'm still trying to get used to things; that's all."

"It is a lot to take in, isn't it?" Sasami said, looking down a bit. "Especially if you don't know if anyone you knew is still around..."

She looked back up, smiling a bit. "...but, I've made some wonderful friends here and they've helped me a lot!" she chuckled a bit at that. It was true - those she befriended here did make things easier.

"My name's Sasami. It's nice to meet you, um..."

She paused, listening to Sasami speak. It hit her that while she had three of the closet people to her present, this girl had no one she knew from home, and that wondering about them would be an awful feeling. Cagalli knew she should be grateful.

"Representative Cagalli Yula Athha of the Orb Union. Call me Cagalli, though," she responded amicably. "I feel pretty lucky now. My brother and two of my good friends are here as well."

Cagalli DID have someone from her world. Sasami was glad to hear that - at least she wasn't alone! Though, has formal as Cagalli had spoken earlier and with a title like that, she figured she was someone very important.

"Mmmn... I'm glad that you have someone! It really does make things easier...!" Sasami said. She smiled sheepishly as she continued. "Though... if you're like that... I'm Sasami Masaki Jurai, second princess of the Juraian Empire!"

Here's hoping she doesn't start treating her differently because of it!

There was another, longer pause before the young politician let out an amused laugh, grin spreading across her face. So this place really did rescue a nice variety of people.

"An empire, huh? That sounds impressive," Cagalli chuckled a little. She was learning that she didn't need to be diplomatic all the time, so a little light joking was a nice relief. "Personally, I never liked being called princess."

Sasami laughed a bit herself. It did sound impressive to have an empire.

"I like being a princess, but... I also like being normal." Sasami said, laying her head on her arms as she laid them on the table. Her pigtails, her kimono - they were pretty much symbols of her heritage. "I kinda worry about forgetting about being a princess, though." She shook her head slightly, then looked at Cagalli. "How come you don't like being called princess?"

"I guess it's because I want to be able to do something. In a lot of stories, princesses are often cast as damsels in distress, always needing rescuing. I don't want that role. At first... I wanted to get out and do things my own way," she reflected aloud. With a small smile, Cagalli continued, not realizing she was rambling a bit. "When you're in a position of power, you need to think about the bigger picture and not just yourself. It took me a bit to realize that."

Sasami listened to what Cagalli had to say. It did make sense in a way. Then again, she wasn't a normal princess. Not by a long shot.

"I understand that. Maybe that's why I enjoy being second and not have to worry about anything yet." Sasami said. "It lets me have fun while I can, though..." Sasami's eyes shifted away as she continued. "I'm worried I might have to start being who I am now that... well..."

"You shouldn't ever be worried about being who you are, no matter what the circumstances," Cagalli said firmly. She wasn't sure if there was something else to Sasami's statement, but right now, she didn't care.

"Besides, I'm sure people you care about are down there somewhere. You've seen the place, right? It's huge."

Sasami nodded a bit at Cagalli's comment. "Yeah... yeah, you're right." She sighed as she sat up, smiling at the older girl. "I guess I got worried with everything going on. And I just might be able to see everyone again soon..."

She let out another sigh and chuckled. "That felt good... being able to say something like that. I'm always trying to make everyone feel better and... I don't want them to know I'm worried, too..."

"It's nice of you to do that for people, but I suspect your friends might want to be able to do the same for you sometimes," she smiled, leaning back in her chair. "Nothing's wrong with showing you're worried. I'm pretty sure a lot of us are."

Sasami thought a bit about that. Cagalli was right - the one time she did let her defenses down, she was reassured by everyone who approached her.

"You're right... though it was foolish of me to think that everyone was accepting everything before." Sasami said. "I'd just thought everyone was taking what was going on just fine and, well... I'd started getting upset and scared. I thought I was the only one worried, and..."

She stopped herself and chuckled a bit. "Sorry... I guess I was starting to ramble..."

The blonde shook her head and stared at the table between them. "I'd be worried if someone here wasn't concerned. After already losing so much, we've all got something to gain, but it's still a very risky deal."

She didn't want to go into detail about what she'd experienced, especially if Sasami was new to warfare.

"We do, don't we...?" Sasami said. She shook her head a bit. "I... don't want to talk about that, though, if that's okay with you. I'm sorry, I just..."

She stopped herself before she could explain.

"...I should stop apologizing, too..."

"Yeah, it's okay; in fact, I'd actually prefer that. Dwelling never helps anything, does it?" she asked, clearly intending it as a rhetorical question. So, to comply with Sasami's request, Cagalli offered up a question that should be answered.

"What do you want to talk about?"

The best way to not get overwhelmed by things, in Axl's experience, was to keep yourself busy.

Still, even if there was enough to explore and to start learning to keep him more than occupied, there was only so long he could keep it up before a break started sounding good, and after spending his every waking moment for the last week on the move and poking into things (and spending notably less time than he really should spend sleeping), a breather on the observation deck was sounding better and better.

So he was really just looking for a good place to sit when he flopped into a nearby chair, not looking for a conversation -- but then he realized that the blonde sitting there did look awfully familiar.

"Hey, uh. I think I saw you at the Rogue Squadron briefing, right?"

Hearing the sound of someone sit down nearby, she looked over just as Axl started to speak. She let him finish before nodding in response.

"Yeah, you did. I remember seeing you, too," Cagalli said.

"You a total newbie too, or have you been around for a while?" he asked.

The way she'd looked like she was taking a minute to think about all this crap led him to suspect the former, but he wasn't about to make an assumption on only that. It wasn't like the people who'd already been on the ship wouldn't need to stop and take a breather every now and then too, after all.

"It's been a week," she responded flatly. "A very, very weird week."

"We podpopped at the same time, then." Just saying it felt weird. Podpopped. A crazy word for a crazy entrance to a crazy situation.

"I guess a week's long enough that I should stop hoping we'll wake up to everything being normal again, huh?"

"It's beginning to look that way. I really would love for this to be all one, crazy nightmare, but that's looking more and more like it isn't the case," the blonde stated, tone somber.

"Yeah. Nothing like waking up and finding out that everything you've already done to try and save the world didn't mean scrap in the long run." It was a joke. Sort of. He couldn't quite keep a touch of bitterness from creeping into his tone, and as soon as it was out of his mouth he frowned. "Man, that was gloomy, sorry. I can usually come up with something better than that."

Cagalli couldn't help but exhale loudly in a slight huff at his statement. That really wasn't the best thing to say at the moment.

"I really hope you can. If not, it's going to a rough ride here."

"Rough rides I can do. Tact, on the other hand? My eternal nemesis." He shrugged.

"...sorry if I offended you. X is always saying we should get someone to program a subroutine to keep me from opening my mouth until I've taken at least five seconds to think about what's coming out of it."

"The thinking thing sounds like a good idea," she said. After a moment of her own to think, she adds an afterthought. "No offense taken. We're all in the same boat after all."

"I dunno, it was kind of nice to know that as long as I kept running my mouth off, I was pretty much immune to getting promoted to anywhere I'd have to actually deal with bureaucracy." It was almost relieving to realize that he was still capable of jokes that actually qualified as such. Even so -- past tense. Past tense. That kind of grated on him. It was kind of nice, and now it wasn't because it wasn't even an issue.

Man, screw that.

"But on the other hand, pissing off people I'm going to end up flying with on day one would be pretty dumb. So I'll work on that." And there he was running his mouth again. "...uh, just let me know if I do piss you off. Or if you're getting sick of listening to me now."

You talk a lot, you know that, right?" Cagalli stared at him as she spoke, a look on her face. It was either annoyed or studious, hard to tell at the moment. "And trust me, I'll let you know, too."

"Of course I know. Nobody ever lets me forget it."

"I won't stop that tradition, then. It seems like a good one," she replied, a half smile on her face now. "You have a name?"

"Good." He grinned. "Somebody's gotta pick up the slack if the usual suspects aren't around to do it for me." Which sucked. Which sucked a lot. But bad jokes and an upbeat attitude had always been Axl's best coping mechanism, and even if he'd been slipping earlier, at least this conversation was helping him get them firmly back in place.

"I'm Axl, nice to meet you."

"I'm used to responsibility, I think I can handle this," Cagalli said. Getting up, she walked over to him and held out her hand for a handshake.

"Representative Cagalli Yula Athha of the Orb Union. I know it doesn't mean much here, but I don't want to fall out of the practice."

He met the handshake. "Politics, huh? You're a braver soul than me."

"It's a little more complicated than that," she said, smiling a little. "Though, that does sum it up."

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