The King Is Back, Long Live The King

[whyarewehere]

Grif was back, and he was back with a vengeance.

Or at least, he was lounging on the Obs Deck. It was kind of difficult to pick up the vengeance with which he was doing this, but he was almost making a point out of it.

Grif was on a couch, chilling, and any ceiling voices that had a problem with that could go...

go...

go do something that was insulting to ceiling voice computers with psychological problems, anyway.

Congrats, crew, one (or the only) of your (least?) favorite pieces of orange-armored furniture has returned from the test chambers. Rejoice! (Or not.)

Comments

[shynotmeek.livejournal.com]

Kali kept returning to the deck. She knew, logically, that her father would not appear sooner with her hovering anxiously and waiting for him. Knew that more productive things were to be had at the house Eva had taken her to, or in locating the people she had met during her second hatching. Or even in her father's rooms, trying to map out this life he had made for himself without them. Trying to understand the nuances of how it had changed him.

Or at least in studying the moving picture of herself and her siblings as hatchlings. The rooms smelled of him and that was good, it was soothing in a way that the house Eva wished her to stay in never could be, full of humanity and noises and people coming and going.

But she still returned to the deck to stare down at the planet and demand silently that it return her father to her.

So far, the attempts had been fruitless, wasted time she could not stop wasting.

She eyed the man on the couch curiously, giving him space as she crossed to the view port. He was wearing armor, very strange armor, but armor no less. Was he some sort of warrior? And why was he laying on the couch? In armor? That would be uncomfortable, or at least she suspected it would be. "Are you injured, sir?"

[whyarewehere]

Grif tilted his head to look at whoever had addressed him. He didn't know that v-

Oh god what was that? It was a miniature Kang, that's what it was.

He stiffened, thinking quickly. How do you talk to a mini Kang? Kang was probably his biggest enemy on the ship, the one who was currently at the forefront of making him do things that he did not want to do and was not good at.

But then again, maybe this one didn't know that. Somehow. It was the meatship. Things were crazy here.

Best to just play it cool.

"I kinda was earlier, but I'm good now. Why?"

[shynotmeek.livejournal.com]

"It looked uncomfortable, I wondered if you required assistance getting up." She peered at him curiously, head tilting a bit as she studied him.

"How were you injured? Did you see a healer?" Had he come with the large influx of beings as well? Or had he been here before? Her tail flicked behind her, wings relaxed as she studied him. The deck was quiet for the moment, which was much preferred.

She was more than happy to simply study the strange armored being and wonder where he had come from and what he might be doing here.

[the-team-sucks.livejournal.com]

Grif relaxed again when it was plain that the small draconian wasn't going to immediately start chewing him out for being a lazy moron or something. Was this one a kid? It was definitely small.

"Oh, this? It used to be uncomfortable but I got like three years practice," he said, and to illustrate he sat upright correctly. You didn't basically live in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere with nothing meaningful to do for several years without figuring out how to make the most of your armor.

"And GLaDOS dropped me out of the ceiling on somebody and I landed on one of my legs. It's okay now, the medical people do good stuff." He shrugged casually.

Then, cautiously, he asked, "Who are you?"

So far this had been a civil conversation. He was sort of impressed.

[shynotmeek.livejournal.com]

"What is GLaDOS? And why would they drop you from a ceiling?" She watched him, quietly impressed by his ability to move with such ease in the armor. It seemed far too bulky to move around in at all. "Are you a soldier?"

She smiled, inclining her head politely. "My name is Krisi, and yours, Sir?"

He was at least interesting, she would give him that. Being dropped from a ceiling? It sounded like something Grosk would accomplish by accident.

[the-team-sucks.livejournal.com]

"GLaDOS is one of the AIs around here. She's even crazier than Stacy and she doesn't like me," he said. This was probably because GLaDOS didn't like anybody.

The soldier comment made him sigh. "Well, sorta?" he said. "It's not exactly the job I want." Grif's relationship with the military was complicated, and not in the fun way.

Krisi. He noted that down. Maybe... this one was a girl? It was a girl-ish sounding name. The smallness of course probably had a lot to do with the difference in voice but perhaps...?

Well. It was a draconian. Who knew?

"I'm Grif," he replied.

[shynotmeek.livejournal.com]

"What is an AI? Is that some sort of creature? Should I avoid it?"

It was strange to find someone who did not wish to be a soldier, but even stranger to find someone who obviously already was one, and yet denied that path to himself. "Why?"

He was a very interesting being. She still was uncertain if he was human or not, under the protection of the armor. It seemed rude to ask for his species after such a short conversation.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Grif. Were you admiring the view or resting to recover from your injury?"

[ternaui.livejournal.com]

The Chancellor was taking a brief respite from his work to come look at the tars.

Odd armor, that. A bit bulky. But to all their own. "Good afternoon," said the rich English voice as the Chancellor's actual lips failed to move, as usual, thanks to the transmitter secured on his person.

[whyarewehere]

Grif squinted at the lizard man from behind his visor. What a weirdo, he looked kinda like a draconian but the shape of the head wasn't right.

He was busy trying to figure that out when the Chancellor interrupted his thoughts. Except... was it this guy talking? His mouth hadn't moved...

"You talking to me?"

[ternaui.livejournal.com]

"Yes." Pause. "I use a transmitter. My people have no vocal chords."

[whyarewehere]

Grif was quiet for a second, thinking about that.

"That sucks," he replied.

The man was the very image of tact and social grace.

[ternaui.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Were he at home, the Chancellor would recommend this guy to the Emperor for the diplomatic corps immediately. "It has its inconveniences, but we manage. It took us 50 years to manage to communicate with humans, but we did."

[whyarewehere]

"That sounds messy," he said. "We got some aliens back home that can only make two different sounds. I don't think anybody's figured out how to communicate with them yet, though this one person built a bomb that could translate for them once. The guy was a huge dick though."

This was all pretty much par of the course, for Grif's universe. Alien-translating bombs were just another thing that sort of showed up and then faded out of his life.

[poetrysoldier]

Ashley was almost speechless. "Some things apparently never change."

[whyarewehere]

"Hey, it ain't broke," Grif replied with a one-shouldered shrug, scarcely missing a beat.

He did not, however, sit upright. That would've been too much effort.

[poetrysoldier]

"I guess so. You think you could sit upright? Or do I need to get Samus here?" Of course Samus isn't there on the ship, but Grif might not know that.

[whyarewehere]

Grif bristled defensively.

"...She's not here, is she?"

Good guess, Ash.

[poetrysoldier]

Amused, Ashley grinned evilly. "She may be. She might not be. Do you want to take a chance that she is here and make you work?"

[whyarewehere]

Grif remained still, squinting at Ashley's face from behind the visor.

"You're bluffing," he said.

He wasn't sure. But maybe if he said it out loud, it would make it true.

[allnaturalseed.livejournal.com]

Welp. Another pop that didn't go anywhere. Athrun still hasn't returned, no Mir or Mu or Murrue or Shinn or Kisaka...

But she shouldn't be disappointed, really. Other people got to see those they cared about, and expecting her own loved ones to show up was unrealistic. While others finished sorting such things out, she made her way up to the Obs Deck to have a nice place to just sit.

She noticed the orange armored... individual... and acknowledged them with a nod before sitting down not too far away.

[whyarewehere]

Grif peered at Cagalli briefly, then also nodded. He was trying to remember if he recognized her. There were so many people around these days, and what with time dilation issues he wasn't sure how long he'd been gone.

He rested his head back against the fleshy furniture.

"Sup?"

[allnaturalseed.livejournal.com]

If they'd ever met before, Cagalli wouldn't remember. She knew that there was a hole in her memories, that she'd awakened before, been put away, and forgot about it. It rarely came up though.

When the armored figure, she glanced at it - him, now that she heard the voice - again. "Hey. Getting away from the fuss of all those new people?"

[whyarewehere]

Grif decided he didn't recognize her, but he supposed that was an okay thing. That meant she'd never done anything to merit him remembering, which meant that she had never, say, punched him in the face unlike certain other people.

"Getting away from the fuss, period," he replied. "I've been running test chambers for..." he paused, trying to figure out how long that had been, but ultimately gave up. "A bit," he finished. "It's nice to be allowed to not move."

[allnaturalseed.livejournal.com]

Having just met the guy, he hasn't done anything to merit her wanting to hit him yet. Fortunate for him, no matter how badass armored whatever he is.

"Tests? I've heard how bad those are. How long were you in for?" If she's lucky, she'll never be in the same position.

[whyarewehere]

"It's hard to tell," he said. Though Grif's face was not visible, there was almost a wince in his voice.

"I dunno, it feels like... had to have been at least a month."