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

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

Marcus is now officially baffled by this ship. "Someone, actually." he tells the girl floating upside-down in front of him, not bothering to keep the confusion off of his face.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

Forgive her, she's one of those people who expects weird stuff to happen. Dani rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she flipped right side up, still floating in front of him. "What do they look like? I might have seen them," she said.

Then she notices the confusion. "Oh, ghost powers. That's why I can float and stuff. I usually hang out in this form because human form has the creepy plantsuit. Hazmat is better." Midriff shirt aside, it didn't feel creepy.

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

Marcus has... gotten better at weird over the past few days. Not good enough to take everything he's seen so far completely in stride, but good enough to not immediately freak out. "One's a kid, about maybe seventeen, curly hair, probably trying and failing to threaten someone to get answers. The other one's a mute girl, probably wearing a hat with a star on it." He's not hopeful at this point, but maybe the ghost girl's seen them.

"... oh. Makes sense." Marcus says with a nod. The lack of plantsuit made more sense than the ghost powers, but this week has shown him that things don't have to make sense to be true.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

Dani closed her eyes in thought, thinking for a few moments before she shook her head. "I haven't seen any mute kids with star hats. And I can't recall a curly haired seventeen year old yelling for answers specifically either. Though they might have come out during this podpop. Everyone gets railroaded to here eventually, so if they're out, they should be here."

Dani blinked. "Really? People always ask why how a half ghost, half human girl is even able to logically exist. Do you know ectology?" She asked, looking surprised.

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"Thanks." Marcus says, sighing in resignation. If the guy at the door hadn't seen them, and neither had this girl... they probably weren't here.

"Not really. At this point, you could tell me the sky was green and I'd probably agree with you." he continues, shaking his head. "It's been a really odd week."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I wouldn't worry to much. They might still be in the pods. Or they'll be there whenever we go home," Dani said, smiling happily trying to reassure him. She hadn't been so concerned about going home, but others seemed to be.

"Well, it supposedly is in the Ghost Zone," Dani commented. "Must have been one wild week for people who don't know about it to say something like that though."

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"Hopefully they're in the pods." Marcus says, trying to smile in response. The idea of them still being in Skynet is not a happy one.

"... I wasn't serious about the sky being green. It's just an expression." he continues warily, giving the floating girl a Look.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Something going on that's not so good at home?" Dani asked. While she didn't have as much of a problem being on Stacy, she didn't think people would want to be on here without there being something decidedly not good at home.

"Oh. I have trouble with expressions like that," Dani said with a shrug.

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"Depends on how you classify an insane, self-aware AI building killer robots and trying to kill off all humanity." Marcus says bitterly, glancing over at the ghost-girl.

Marcus shrugs lightly. "Probably should have said yellow or something instead of green."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"I'd classify that as a bad. And sad. Robots are really cool when they aren't trying to kill you," Dani said with a frown.

"I've never seen a yellow sky," Dani agreed with a nod. "Though some others might. We got aliens."

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

That... wasn't quite the reaction Marcus had expected. To be fair, he wasn't sure what he'd expected, but sadness definitely wasn't it. "The only ones I've seen were trying to kill me." he says with a shrug. This isn't entirely true, but talking about how he's actually a killer robot is going to get kind of complicated.

"Really? Huh." Marcus says, looking around the room in interest. He didn't see-- oh, no, the green guy being tackled by a snake-woman was probably an alien.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Well, I've only met one personally. One of the Brainiac 5's. He's really cool. Though there are other robots too. You'll see them too," Dani said. It was kind of sad to imagine them killing people in her head. "Why would they want to kill people?"

"Yep! Quite a few. They'll show up eventually," she said, looking where he was. "...and that would be the other Brainiac 5," she said, looking worried, starting to hover that way, but then the snake woman loosened her hold before she went over. Okay, he was fine, then no reason to worry.

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"Technically, I think you've met two." Marcus says quietly, shoving his hands into his pockets and watching the crowd. "I don't really know the whole story, to be honest. I just woke up a couple of days ago and was a little bit busy with survival."

"There are two of them?" That's... unusual.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"What was that?" Dani asked, not quite catching what he said. "Really? Were you in a coma or something? Or, oh, are you a clone too?" She asked. Those were the only two possibilities she could think of to miss a bunch of robots wanting to kill people.

Dani shrugged. "Don't know why. I think it's something to do with alternate dimensions. The robot Brainy is a bit more friendly than the organic one, though the organic one is kind of funny to bug," she said with a childish grin.

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"Neither. I was dead." Which is kind of like being in a coma, Marcus thinks, except when you're dead you usually don't wake up again. "... are you a clone?"

"That makes about as much sense as anything has today." Marcus says. "Sounds kind of like a bad sci-fi movie plot, though." Marcus hasn't really had a lot of Internet access, or he'd probably compare it to fanfiction.

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

Dani winced. "Ouch. And for a long time, huh? Well, at least you didn't have to stay that way, right?" She said, looking uncomfortable at the thought. She didn't like the darkness after melting. She really didn't wish it on anyone longer than a few seconds. "And yeah. I am." She's just all sorts of weird.

"I guess it would be. Kind of used to weird myself, so it's kind of business as usual."

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"... nine years. Felt like no time at all, though." Marcus says uncomfortably. "I might still be dead, as it turns out. It's complicated."

"Yeah, it's just been one weird thing after another after I woke up."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Really? Well, I guess that's better than knowing. It's not pleasant," Dani said, looking away. "And what do you mean? How can you be dead and alive? My ghost sense didn't go off."

"Well, you'll have a chance to get used to Stacy, I think."

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't think so." Marcus says, glancing over at the ghost-girl. "And... I'm one of the killer robots, although I think I still have a human brain. I don't know if that counts as alive or dead."

Marcus just laughs quietly. "Not sure whether that's good or bad, but nothing's tried to kill me at this point."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

Dani stared at that. "Just so you know, if you try to kill people, I'll have to stop you if the ship doesn't. And I can go through stuff," Dani said rather flatly and with a serious look. "And I count things as being alive by having emotions."

"There's not a lot of attempted killing here from what I've seen. Well, while you're on board."

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"I found that out literally an hour before I got kidnapped by the freaky ship." Marcus says, his voice heated. "I was someone's damn science project, and I'm not going to go out and start killing people, on the ship or off it."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"Then you're not a killer robot, just a robot," Dani said. "Really, you're gonna confuse people if you call yourself a killer robot." It was just plain common sense in her head. "Nothing wrong with being a science project though."

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

"I think they're-- we're-- called Terminators, and I was trying not to mention it." Marcus says with a shrug. "I used to be human, and I'd rather just go with that if I can."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

"True, that name doesn't sound so good either. Still better than killer robot. You could be terminating anything," Dani said thoughtfully. "But going with human is fine. If you were human, then that's how you think, right?"

[tasted-death.livejournal.com]

Marcus frowns thoughtfully. "I'm pretty sure I've still got a human brain. I know I've still got my heart." Literally, not metaphorically. Marcus isn't much given to melodramatic sayings like that.