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Jamie's first act upon being released from his cake-chasing foray was to slam his face into a wall.

Staggering back from the impact of being forcefully ejected from one of Stacey's ~~creepy, obscene~~ orifices into the corridor, he managed to stay upright instead of falling over on his rear, blinking around in bewilderment. He'd been released from quarantine after everyone'd figured out that the deaging thing wasn't some kind of hideous biological weapon, and...then what? GLaDOS had snatched him up, he supposed. Raking a hand bemusedly through his hair, he tried to recollect what had gone on during his time running mazes and couldn't remember much beyond a sort of steady regression in thought, his opinion of the entire affair having devolved from stoic resignation to finding it all vaguely annoying and finally to thinking GLaDOS was a scary, scary lady and wishing desperately for his daddy.

The thought was a little discomfiting. Still, at least he hadn't been an embarrassing whiny little kid around anyone that mattered, just an obnoxious AI, so he supposed he should be thankful for that much.

Almost as an afterthought, the aperture in the wall opened again and spat out a bundle of fabric. Jamie glanced down, surprised and then mortified that his clothing and shoes were no longer on his body, having apparently grown too big for him as he regressed in age; he was left with nothing more than the plantsuit, which after months of having actual clothes to wear made him feel more than a little exposed. He flailed to snatch up his boxers and then the baggy cargo pants, hauling them on as he cast paranoid glances up and down the hallway.

He paused after plucking his shirt off the floor, noting that underneath it was his omnicomm, blinking placidly to alert him that he had a backlog of messages to read. He stooped to pick up the device, shirt dangling from his other hand as he briefly scanned the list of network posts. He wasn't sure how long he'd been gone, but apparently a lot had gone on during his absence.

With a slight chuff of breath he slipped the comm back into the front pocket of his cargoes. He could catch up on what he'd missed...over breakfast, he decided. Or whatever meal it was now. And then he'd run a diagnostic on the Geno Saurer; his Zoid was never far from his thoughts and he already felt a certain anxiety at having been away from her for so long.

Muttering a little, he hurried to pull the shirt on. He had a lot of catching up to do, and some of what he was about to find out he wasn't going to like.

[[SO. Due to personal fail and RL deciding to kick me in the face a lot, I've kind of been on hiatus the last however long, but I've been plowing through the comms and I think I'm up to speed now and ready to tag again if you guys will have me. :|b Jamie's just kind of wandering the hallways/mess hall/hangar if anyone wants to harass him.]]

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To say that Jamie wanted to eat slop was an overstatement, but he was accustomed to it by now and wasn't a fussy eater anyway.

He listened as Alastirra told him about the goings-on of the missing crew members, noting her frown (and noting as well, despite his limited contact with her, that such an expression did not seem to be one she wore often). It looked much more at home on his own features, brow creasing into a well-worn set of lines as he contemplated this development. "Wait, branded? Like, permanently? How'd anyone get away with doing that? And why won't they let us communicate with them?"

He managed to shift gears a little, adding, "'s good to hear about your garden, at least. Bet people'll be glad to hear there's actual food growing on the ship. I can stop by and help you with it sometime, y'know, if you need it." Not...that he knew a great deal about gardening, but ~~distractions~~ activity was activity.

"I do not know, and I am fairly certain both have to do with the people of the planet itself. I hope the brands are not permanent." Because really, Alastirra shuddered to think about what Zouichi might do to himself if they were.

He didn't seem the type to just go through life with a property mark on his head.

"Oh yes. They are. There is this lovely green gentleman here now who makes ice cream. He calls himself the Chancellor. We haven't found any vanilla pods yet, but I give him my strawberries, and his ice cream is very good! And I can always use help in my garden. I should probably consider expanding it again, but I am thinking of expanding it up instead of out, and building planters for some things. I do not want to take up too much room in Hydroponics." Clearly the shaman had been thinking about this sort of thing for a while.

"I will just need to go scour the City and try to find supplies, I suppose."

"Well, we've got a lot of smart people and advanced tech for 'em to work with. We oughta be able to think of some way to remove the brands if we have to," Jamie said, looking apprehensive. Whatever stuff the crew was bargaining for, it'd better be good if some of them had been branded in the process of obtaining it.

"Anytime you want me to come help with stuff, lemme know." He shrugged cautiously. "I mean, I've got other obligations so I need a little forewarning so I can work it into my schedule, but I'd be happy to help with what I can. Getting supplies or...planting stuff, or...whatever."

The stages food went through before it wound up packaged and ready to prepare for consumption were largely a mystery to Jamie.

"What other things were you thinking of putting in your garden?"

Alastirra nodded. "I hope so. Since technology is no area of expertise for me, I simply have to trust that others will take care of it."

"Any time you have time. My garden is hardly hidden. I am usually there. Unless I am feeding Zouichi's parrot for him," she admitted. "But that does not take long. I do not bring him to the garden, just in case something thinks he looks like a snack."

Like Snowspot, for example.

"I am not sure, though I take suggestions, so if there is anything you miss from Earth that I do not have, if I have the seeds, I don't mind planting it."

"People've found solutions to all kinds of problems here," Jamie said with a light shrug. "Odds are in our favor, at least.

"I'm actually not from Earth." Except for that one time he'd been mindscrewed into thinking he was, but that didn't count. "The people who colonized our planet did, though, so I guess we've got a lot of the same kinds of food. I'll let you know if I get any ideas about stuff for your garden."

The Draenei frowned. "I am sorry. I of all people should know that just because you are human does not mean you come from Earth." After all, there had been humans on Azeroth, too, and Azeroth certainly wasn't Earth.

"Well, then, if you figure out something you miss that I have seeds for, the offer still stands." And she smiled.

He shrugged again, unperturbed. "'s all right. Most of the humans I've met come from some version of Earth. Or went there, at some point. Easy conclusion to jump to."

He glanced up to see her smile and...well, sort-of smiled in return before hurriedly returning his gaze to the hallway in front of them. "So what else's been going on around here? I mean I know there's a ton of stuff on the comms I need to catch up on, but anything else really, y'know. Important?"

"I don't--well. I think I heard there was a battle with the Ohm at some point in space. Some of that information might be on the comms. I am not very good with most technology, so I did not really pay attention to it, but I think the Council had a meeting about it."

Alastirra gave a gusty sigh. "I suppose I am not the best person to ask for information about that sort of thing. Oh. I went on a mission myself, but as I was there for diplomatic purposes, my role wasn't a big one."

Besides, others had been bigger heroes there than she had.

Gahh, space battle probably meant the Rogues had been involved, and Jamie'd missed it. He couldn't imagine General Chacon or Commander Antilles were too happy about that, regardless of his reasons. He frowned again, looking worried. "Mn. I'll have to look for whatever information went up about that one, then. Everybody come back okay?

"What'd you do on your mission? What was it for?"

"Making an attempt to be diplomatic to a group of religious zealots who had captured some of the crew, after they had tried to help said zealots. It did work, somewhat." Although there'd had to be a bit of a shoot-'em-up to extract everyone.

"I think everyone came back from the space mission, yes. I know there has been some information on that over the comms, but I do not understand that, so..." Alastirra shrugged, cheeks flushing blue a bit.

"Perhaps I ought to learn, one of these days."

"Don't understand what, the comms? They're not that hard to figure out. I could show you, if you want." That was one odd-colored blush, but then again Alastirra had an unusual skin tone to begin with, so.

"Everyone come back from your mission okay?" he asked, brow furrowing again. Diplomatic attempts 'somewhat' working didn't always indicate the level of success one might hope for.

"They came back all right, yes." Alastirra sighed. "Well, I know most of what is needed to be done with the comms. I suppose I should have clarified and said technology in general is somewhat confusing..."

Alastirra shrugged. "There were not great amounts of technology where I am from. That at least was not run by magical means."

"Well, yeah, that's understandable. I mean, I come from a pretty technologically-advanced world but there's tons of stuff on Stacy that's way more advanced than anything back home. And magic's something I'm only just starting to understand. Probably the same way with a lot of people."

He shrugged, glancing up at her. "But if there's any tech stuff you need help figuring out, I'll do what I can. The more you know about all the different things here, the better, y'know?"

Alastirra brightened at that. "Well, our magic will probably not be exactly the same, but I can perhaps help you a bit with that! Seeing as I have some magic of my own. Shamanic magic, though. If it is confusing to you, by all means, I will stop telling you about it."

A brief thought had her widening her eyes.

"Well, knowing where you usually are might help, even if it is, what did you say, down in the Hangar? I can probably get there. And I do know better than to touch anything that looks really important."

He could tell her all the tool names and she could hand them to him, though. And she could finally give him his necklace!

"I wouldn't mind hearing about your kind of magic. It'd be interesting to compare it to what I know, at least."

He smiled, very slightly, at her next comment. "Yeah, I spend a lot of my free time in the hangar. Not...that I have a lot of free time, but when I get a chance, that's where I like to hang out." With his vicious 100-ton death machine.

He chewed his lip briefly in thought. "I could take you there now, if you want. Just so you know where it is. Was gonna go there after I had my slop, anyway."

"How about this. You go get your slop and I will go get something I had for you, and I can meet you at the mess hall. Then you can take me down to the hangar?"

Not that it seemed like it would take forever for Jamie to eat his slop, but it was pretty unusual for Alastirra to not have her present for him on her as well. Mostly because it was fairly small and thus easy to carry around.

"Does that work for you?"

Jamie paused and blinked over at her, wondering what exactly she had for him, and then shrugged a little guardedly. "Sure, that's fine. Shouldn't take me too long to eat, 'm not that hungry."

He started back down the corridor, turning a little to glance at Alastirra over his shoulder. "So I guess I'll see you in a little while, then."

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