Newbie Meet n' Greet

[cityship]

For the newbies, there are people waiting for them in the Obs Deck. A whole gaggle of people. Behind them is the nasty statue, and the beautiful sight through the windows of the stars streaming past and the swirling vortex of collars that was interdimensional travel.

There are more questions than answers, but the crew is willing to help, especially the Command Staff and greeters.

Comments

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

Arha did not turn to face the man, but her grip on her knives tightened, then relaxed. There was wrongness, something not quite right, but there were many things not right. She watched him from the corner of her eye, this man, and was silent for awhile. There were many odd creatures.

Many abnormal things.

"I wish my desert back," Arha said quietly, her voice almost weary beneath the muzzy haze of spice that permeated her senses. It made them both dull and sharp in moments, but it would pass. Careful. Be careful. All is not as it seems. Wide berth. Be careful. Wish we were back home. We. The voices-within were restless, murmuring. Arha half shook her head and swallowed, still tasting the once-bitterness of the Water of Life.

[cutintomyheart.livejournal.com]

"You're from a desert?" Chris asks. His attention keeps getting drawn back to the blue-with-blue of Arha's eyes, his face showing that he's never seen such a thing before.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"I am," she said quietly. "It is a desert world, no doubt, very far from our present location." And this ship was like nothing she'd ever seen, nor its assortment of people, including the man before her. "I am called Arha. If you have a question, ask. If it is something I can answer, you may yet hear an answer."

She had her own questions, but they could wait.

[cutintomyheart.livejournal.com]

"...your eyes," Chris says after a moment of deliberation. "I haven't seen anyone with eyes like that before."

He's lying, badly.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Have you not?" she asked, studying him for an intense moment. Arha might not have been born on Arrakis, but her eyes came, like the Fremen, from her diet and surroundings. It was almost as good as having come from Arrakis itself. "The place where you come from has no spice?" It seemed odd to think there might not be spice in a universe but, she saw scaled creatures, pink ones, and a variety of humanoid creatures. Surely anything was possible in a place such as this.

[cutintomyheart.livejournal.com]

"Uh... well, there's, like, oregano and cinnamon and stuff...?" he says, taken aback by the nature of Arha's question.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Spice is a different sort of thing," Arha said. "It is not among the cupboard herbs, but is referred to as the spice, a proper name. It is a thing without my universe cannot exist, the pinnacle of commerce, the substance that allows us to travel between stars and through vast reaches of space. It smells a great deal like cinnamon, actually. But I can see, you have no such thing in the place you come from."

Her eyes were fixed on him, sharp and searching.

"And what is this place of yours like?"

[cutintomyheart.livejournal.com]

He looks back out the window, watching the stars for a moment.

"Great dark cities, and under the moon life and breath flow like blood, and in the darkest places of the world wait things that men would never dream could step into their lives in an instant." His voice is soft and silk-smooth, and his body language makes him seem smaller, if anything, than he was a moment ago.