it's days like these, you gotta find it in some other way, so one foot in front of the other [OPEN]

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Now she's decided she needs to go running, and with people constantly in and out of the sensorium, reliving old battles (Honestly she thinks do I go in there and recreate the bridge of the Basroil? No.), the halls seem like the best place. Simply put, the gravity's getting to her and she's afraid of being a burden to her team just because she spent almost all her life in half G.

So you can find Lafiel in the hallways, the walls flashing past her eyes in a monotonous display of throbbing meatiness as she jogs.

The floor, however, is uneven. She steps into a pothole and falls abruptly, followed by a string of curses in Baronh. She's sprained her ankle.

After bandaging herself up (too prideful to accept help from Stacy), she'll be at the mess hall, downing bowls of the bland, proteiny glop, because after a workout, you really don't care all that much about taste.

Find her in either place.

Comments

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

The space-sensory-organ in an Abh's forehead allows them to discern when someone or something is moving near them, though they don't have any idea what it is or indeed if it's discreetly checking them out.

"Hello." She says before he's quite finished sitting down.

[smegging-hell.livejournal.com]

Lister is caught rather off guard when she speaks, and instead of the suave sit he was aiming for, he plops rather firmly down beside her.

To his credit though, he recovers, and offers his hand. "Dave Lister, nice to meet you."

He's going for the confident approach this time.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel takes his hand and shakes it firmly. "Abriel Nei Dobrusc Paryunh Lafiel...I suppose you can call me Lafiel for short. Are you new here too?"

She's completely unaware of his thought process...

[smegging-hell.livejournal.com]

"Freshly oozed," Lister responds. "Considering I think I was dead, waking up here is an improvement. How about you? Been kicking about long?"

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

He has a...colorful way of putting things. She thought, determined to respect the customs of others. "I just got here as well. I've been assigned to Team Oscar." She says before trying to choke down a little more of the gray goop.

[smegging-hell.livejournal.com]

"Team Mike here. Not so good at teamwork, me, but I can roll with it."

Lister pauses politely while Lafiel eats, trying to look at her covertly. Time to play it smooth.

"This may be an odd question, but are you human?" Thinking that this is perhaps a little blunt, he adds. "I used to be the last one."

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

"Very astute. I'm an Abh. While we are derived from human genetic stock, we are not Homo Sapiens and are incapable of interbreeding with them." Slurp. "I'm sorry. That sounds rather lonely. Did you ever find more of your kind?"

[smegging-hell.livejournal.com]

Lister tries not to look worried. "You're an..."

But whatever else he was about to say is cut off when Lafiel casually mentions interbreeding. It's lucky he didn't have a mouthful of slop, or it would be all over the table.

"Erm, no-one else. Not till I came here. Now there's lots," he answers her last question with his voice in a slightly higher pitch than usual.

[smegging-hell.livejournal.com]

"Erm," Lister sort of squeaks, trying to frame a coherent reply.

"Interbreeding...is that just having kids, or," and Lister resorts to hand gestures to try and make his point, turning rather red. The sentence is said rather fast, and Lister is probably going to be mortified later, but his mind is stuck on that one word now.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

"That is correct. No genetically Abh and human crosses have yet survived. Physically we are similar to you...It's simply that due to our origins and environment, we are forced to use genetic engineering and artificial birth technology most of the time." She says, not flirting. At least that's how she takes it.

Slurp. That is a strange question to ask, but then he seems like a strange, but nice person. She doesn't detect any of the manner of the Baron Febdac in him, so she is unaware of the direction his thoughts have headed...

[smegging-hell.livejournal.com]

Lister's eyes are wide. Truthfully, any thoughts of flirting or asking Lafiel on a date have flown out of his mind, and he's still trying to catch up.

"Are you always so, erm, open?" he manages to ask.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Oh she doesn't get it. Not at all. "Open? I thought I was being rather dry and technical. I was afraid I was boring you."

[smegging-hell.livejournal.com]

Lister is thrown more by this, if that's what she considers technical, he'd hate to see it when she was open.

"Man, it's not boring, it's just different."

He tries to remember that word that Kryten used once. He remembers thinking at the time it would impress the girls should he ever meet any.

"Culture shock. That's it. I'm in culture shock."

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Culture shock...huh...

All of a sudden it hits her. "Oh! That was a cultural taboo, wasn't it? I'd heard that in many Lander cultures reproduction is not something talked about in public, but I completely forgot. My sincerest apologies...I hope your culture shock fades soon, though with the regular new arrivals, I doubt it ever will."

[smegging-hell.livejournal.com]

Lister looks relieved, and then tries to hide it, not wanting to insult Lafiel.

"Don't sweat it," he tells her. "We can talk about it, but...it's odd, ya know?"

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

"Well then there's at least one upside to coming here for you then." Uh oh. He looks uncomfortable. Have I said something rude in his culture?

"Are you alright?" A slightly worried look at him.