Meet-n-Greet

[cityship]

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 tall man in green armor 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.]

Comments

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

A short, fat alien creature entered the observation deck. She looked a bit like a squirrel, though much bigger and with a few more legs. It could have been easy to ignore her as a simple animal, though she had a pair of saddle bags cinched around the middle-most part of her body.

She was aware that she was shorter then the knees of most of the others in the room. In an attempt to remedy this, she picked up her front four paws from the ground and lifted her back, walking only on her back legs. She was still only about three feet tall now, but it was a little better. "Excuse me," she said, to the first person to come near her, "I would like to know who is in charge."

[changelingdude.livejournal.com]

For once Beastboy was the one who was startled by an unusual animal.

With a grin he knelt down, "Oh hey sup! Um...I guess that guy." He pointed and realized the crowd was in his way, "Oh um...well his name's Leon but we have a whole bunch of people who are in charge really. Maybe I can help though?"

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

Zhiai'kahn was confused enough by these... creatures around her. She had dealt with species similar in looks to these, but they were too tall and walked too straight to be Hoefeken, and all lacked the ritual tattoos of the Bak'shir. And now there was a green one talking to her.

She followed the green thing's finger and took note of the one he said was in charge. She'd have to get acquainted with them, as well as find out who else was in charge. Then she looked back at the creature talking to her, and narrowed her eyes. "That would depend on what you know," she said curtly, her tail giving an annoyed swish. "Can you tell me what race and planet this... place... is affiliated with?"

[changelingdude.livejournal.com]

"Oh um..." Actually no not really.

"Well see we're all from different worlds so alot of us are different races. I'm a human..err...mutated but still human. Alot of the people around here are and we're from different planets...does that make sense?"

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

"No. No, that does not." Was her blunt reply. "The voice in the large cavern I awoke in said something similar. But I do not understand it. This cannot be a part of some interplanetary meeting, as I was not brought here willingly. The purpose given by the voice made little sense, as well."

Her tail twitched again. Maybe it was because she was so used to being in charge, maybe it was just because she was too old to have time for answers that weren't straight, but whatever it was, she was feeling helpless and antsy.

[changelingdude.livejournal.com]

"OK um..." Beastboy rubbed his forehead, "Lemme try again...OK evil bugs came and destroyed everything from your world and this big ship picked you up to save you. You don't remember because I guess she's not letting us remember. She can do stuff like that."

Another pause and he added, "Actually that doesn't make sense either...my suggestion is just go with the flow. It's what I do."

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

The green one's words were like a shot to her heart. The Sansani's eyes widened, and she slumped to a sitting position. For a moment, all she could do was stare at the floor. How? How could Viashahg be destroyed? Perhaps this was a lie - she'd never heard of bugs being capable of such destruction. Bugs were food, after all. But then again, why would anyone lie about something like that?

"How?" she said quietly, then her voice began to rise to a snarl. "How can I simply 'go with the flow' of something so serious?"

[changelingdude.livejournal.com]

Beastboy felt guilty and kicked himself for being so blunt...it had just slipped really. His big mouth always got him in trouble.

He looked away and remembered how it felt to learn about his own home being destroyed.

"There's nothing we can do at this point in time...but if we defeat the evil that did this to us we might be able to bring it all back. The only thing I can see for it is to keep moving. If we let it overwhelm us then we're all really done for."

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

The way the creature looked right now was enough to tell Zhiai'kahn that this wasn't a joke. But what he said did impress her.

"'Keep moving'..." she repeated. "You speak like a soldier. Is place... these people... it's an army, isn't it?"

[changelingdude.livejournal.com]

Beastboy laughed weakly, "You could call it that." He looked back to her trying to work back into his happy place, "A refugee camp too. People from all walks of life, skills, abilities and backgrounds stuck in the same ship for the same reason. Because we've got no where else to go."

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

Zhiai'kahn sighed. She was tired of wars. She'd spent so much of her life dedicated to war, only to lose her faith in her mission once it was over. A war spanning multiple planets was disheartening, to say the least.

She didn't particularly want to talk about that with a stranger, though. And is seemed like the green one wasn't so enthused by the topic of conversation, either. "What are you called?" she asked. She was not sure if she had any place in this army, but it would still be wise to know the individuals in it.

[changelingdude.livejournal.com]

"Oh um..." He smiled cheerfully again eager to make conversation that wasn't so depressing, "Beastboy. And you?"

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

"I am Zhiai'kahn Ahl," she replied.

"Of the Sansani race," she added on, after some thought. She did not know what his species was, so it made sense that he would not know her's. "You said you are... human, correct?"

[alterniantaurus.livejournal.com]

Three feet puts her closer to comfortable eye level with at least one other nonhuman in the room. He blinks, surprised. He hadn't expected her to be able to talk.

"Uhhh," he seems a bit confused himself here, "I-I guess it was that Stacee per-- uh, construct."

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

She almost did not stop to speak to the creature with the faltering speech. She wanted to speak to someone in charge, and they did look like someone that knew what was going on. But something made her pause, turning and taking a good look at the creature.

"What is that contraption?" She said after a good long silence. She meant the wheelchair - she'd never seen anything like it before. And she couldn't understand why the creature was sitting on it, as apposed to standing or sitting on one of the fleshy couches like everyone else in the room.

[alterniantaurus.livejournal.com]

Tavros takes advantage of the silence to get a look at the... creature. It-- she? Sort of looked like any of a few animals from his world.

"Oh... this?"

He rolls forward slightly, approaching her but staying a bit cautious.

"It's my wheelchair. I use it to, uh, get around."

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

Zhiai'kahn hardly even looked at the thing in the chair, more interested in the device itself. She understood chairs, she understood wheels... but she didn't understand the need to put them together. Did it have brakes? Was it manually powered, or did it have any sort of engine in it? The engineer in her wanted to start poking at it and seeing how it worked. Her respect for personal space was about the only thing keeping her from jumping at the thing.

Though, the second part of the answer she got confused her. "Why would you need a chair for transportation?" she asked. "You have legs."

[alterniantaurus.livejournal.com]

It's a manual and a simple matter of observing to figure out. Totally troll-powered, with a small lever for braking. Tavros doesn't have the blood color and therefore social standing required to get anything better. He wouldn't be offended if she poked at it, though he hopes she wouldn't feel the need to take it apart. He's using it.

At her question, he smiles in a way that could be taken as apologetic.

"I know I do, I can, I can see them. But, er, they don't work."

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

The look on Zhiai'kahn's face when he said that was the universal look of 'I just insulted a cripple I am the BIGGEST JERK in all existence'.

"Ah," she mumbled awkwardly, "my condolences." Hers was a species with four legs - on occasion, a leg would get broken, but so rarely were there Sansani that could not use any of their legs. She couldn't even imagine the social stigma that would come with such a condition.

She cleared her throat and tried to say something to make the situation feel less awkward. Might as well try to find out if he knew anything. "Are... are you one of those that awoke from the pods just now, or have are you one of the ones that was already here?"

[alterniantaurus.livejournal.com]

No, Zhiai'kahn, you're really not. Compared to what he got before he came here, that barely registered as insulting. At worst he's a little uncomfortable because of how uncomfortable you clearly are.

"No, uh... fresh hatched today, I guess. ...Sorry if this is kind of, er, personal, but what exactly are you?"

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

Well, that was an interesting question. Never in her life had she been asked that. She'd been asked which family she came from, sure, but being asked what she was, in that manner was new. It took her a moment to understand what he meant.

"If you are referring to my species, I am Sansani. I suppose I should ask you the same question."

[alterniantaurus.livejournal.com]

He's been getting this question all day and giving the same basic response, with mixed results. He hopes this... Sansani isn't one of the ones put off by him; she seems interesting.

"Me? Um, I'm a troll. Though I guess I'm not, uh, not a very good one. ...What's a Sansani?"

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

"Well, I've never met a 'troll' before, so I have no means of reference as to whether you are a good or bad one," she said. She didn't really have a frame of reference for any of the species here. Though, the creatures that were called 'humans' did have a passing resemblance to both the Hoefeken and Bak'shir races.

What was a Sansani? Again, that was a big question. "The Sansani are my people. Historically, we were tree-dwellers, but we have adapted to cities. Our planet, which we share with the Ruul and Hoefeken, is Viashahg." That was the simplest way she could think to describe her people, without getting into too much history.

[alterniantaurus.livejournal.com]

Tavros nods, though he understands exactly one of those proper nouns. And not even that one very well.

"I don't... really know what Ruuls and those other things are, but it, um, sounds not too different from us. My friend Terezi lives in a, uh, tree, but I know trolls who live in... communal hivestems in cities, or, out in canyons, and in castles and shipwrecks underwater... everywhere and anywhere, I guess."

A pause. He looks a bit embarrassed by all this babbling. Why should this creature give two pungent whipping lumpsquirts about all this?

[fluffyapartheid.livejournal.com]

The Sansani blinked a few times, trying to process what she'd just heard. Perhaps it was her own thorny philosophy on race, perhaps it was just logic. But either way, it wasn't computing.

"Did I hear that correctly? You said your kind lives underwater, as well as all those other places? I do not understand. I was taught that living underwater required a different anatomy, such as gills. How can you consider such differences a part of the same species?"