trans_9 | Watching and Waiting [open]

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Watching and Waiting [open]

Paranoia was a perfectly reasonable reaction to waking up in a strange place covered in slime, having a fight with tentacles that put some kind of throbbing...thing on him, and then being forced to run through mazes that shot fire, a cruel voice passive-aggressively taunting him the entire time.

Tarzan didn't know where he was, didn't know what was going on, and didn't know what happened to the people--and gorillas---he cared about most. His entire world had been turned upside down. He'd found himself in a strange place completely full of people, more people than he'd even imagined existed. It was full of lots of strange people, and some of them walked on two legs but didn't look human; others were clearly animals but they conversed with humans with apparently no difficulty.

They all were strange to him. Frightening, even to one that had faced Sabor. It was all so confusing. Even terrifying, all the more so because he couldn't find Jane or his mother anywhere, even when he searched during the times other slept.

So he'd hidden in Hydroponics, and taken to the trees, wary of every living being on the ship.

Anyone that entered Hydroponics and stayed there for long might find themselves having the unmistakable feeling that they were being watched.

But he was just as curious as he was frightened and cautious. As much as he was holding back from the people on the ship, he had a burning desire to speak to them, to figure out what they were all about.

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"Hello," she said, her voice just as warm and honeyed as her smile had been. "Please. Don't be shy. Or afraid. I'm a very peaceful woman," she greeted him. "My name is Inara." She gently gestured to the flower, making sure her movements were in no way abrupt. "Please, join me."

Slowly and cautiously, Tarzan crawled out on all fours from where he'd been hiding in the bushes.

Now Inara would be able to see him in full, a strange, tan young man who looked like he was more used to loping around on his feet and hands more than he was used to walking upright. Across his body, there were many scars from cuts and scrapes from childhood falls and misadventures. Some were from worse things: Claw scars across his chest bespoke of some fight with a nasty creature, and the scar across his right arm looked almost like he'd been grazed by a bullet. His hair was in messy uneven dreads, ones that had likely formed naturally from his hair never being properly combed, and twigs and leaves were sticking out of it. As for clothes, he was wearing none other than the plantsuit which had been shredded into something like a loincloth (which he only tolerated for the groin protection).

There was something open about his face, as if he had no way of hiding the emotions that came across it, and right now, the main thing it seemed to be expressing was caution.

Still, he loped forward, and reached out a hand for the flower, eying Inara with slight suspicion the entire time.

It was a pretty flower. He sniffed at it and thought it smelled quite nice. The petals were soft.

Inara watched him through lowered lids. She didn't want him to think that she was staring, nor did she want to make him uncomfortable. There was already some caution in his eyes, and she didn't want to give him reason for any more. She noted that he moved very differently from others she had met. The scars, that was something she was used to. She'd taken many war veterans as her clients over the years, some more beat up than others. She even had friends whose bodies were scarred rather badly. It wasn't at all something that was strange to her.

That didn't mean that her heart didn't go out to the man, though. The rest of him though - the hair and everything - not even people on the outer planets looked like that. She wondered what his story was, exactly.

She smiled again as he sniffed at the flower. "Are you alright?"

Tarzan was not alright, and the way his expression changed to looked troubled showed that fact--and showed that he could understand her. Somewhat.

He didn't answer, though.

Instead, he tucked the flower in his hair and scurried off, back into the trees.

He wasn't there for long, though, before returning--this time holding one of the strange fruits that grew there.

Slowly, cautiously, he held it out on the ground and nudged it towards her, before backing away.

She gave him something nice as a gesture of kindness and so he decided to give her one in return.

Inara watched, worried, as he scrambled away from her. He was back within moments, though. With fruit. Her expression softened with that. She picked the fruit up and studied it. It was strange, colourful. She brought it up to her nose and smelled it. It smelled sweet. A little bit like a mango, but a little bit like a peach as well. "Thank you," she smiled. "I have a dagger," she said then. "I'd like to pull it out and cut this fruit in half to share with you. But I don't want you to worry when I pull it out. You can keep your distance if you don't feel safe. I won't feel bad, but I promise, I don't mean any harm."

Tarzan tilted his head, trying to understand her words, and then nodded slowly, keeping his distance and watching her hands carefully.

Inara reached behind her and pulled out a beautiful, intricately designed dagger. It was inspired by Southeast Asian daggers from Earth-That-Was. She hardly ever used it, but she'd learned to keep it on her in case of emergencies.

Sometimes, wanting to eat fruit could be counted as an emergency.

Delicately, Inara peeled the fruit, enjoying the fruit's fragrant scent, and cut it into eight juicy wedges. She then delicately arranged them over the expertly cut peel and set it between herself and Tarzan. She then wiped the blade clean and put it back in its sheath before showing her empty hands to Tarzan.

"See? No danger."

One wrong move with that knife and he would have never trusted her again--he probably would've not trusted any other people he met either.

So it spoke volumes when all she did was cut the fruit with it.

Edging closer, he snagged a piece and gobbled it down messily, to share with her--the act of sharing itself was important. But he left the rest to her--it had been a gift, after all.

Gingerly, Inara took a small, delicate bite of the fruit. It was every bit as good as it smelled. She tasted some hint of honey in the juices as well. She wondered what kind of planet this fruit was from, and if Kaylee had possibly found the fruit yet. They weren't strawberries by any means, but they were quite delicious. "I want to ask you something, but I don't mean any offense by it. I hope you won't take any," she said. "Can you speak?" She only asked because he was so very quiet, though his face was rather expressive.

That got a long, inscrutable stare, but finally he said in quiet, deep voice, "Yes."

He pointed to Inara.

"Inara."

She'd said that was her name, right?

He held the same hand to his chest.

"Tarzan."

He tilted his head.

"Tarzan knows--I know English. Some."

A pause.

"Bad at pronouns."

"Tarzan," Inara said. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She gently held out her hand to him in greeting. "Pronouns are something that can be learned," she added. "When I asked you earlier how you were, you seemed scared. Are you new here?"

Tarzan just sniffed at her hand. He'd learned to handshake, but after Jane and the Professor decided to stay with him, they'd stopped trying to teach him the little social niceties beyong the ones he was interested in learning, and he forgot it.

He'd never quite picked up shaking hands again or anything else like it since.

"New," he said slowly. "Yes."

Inara blinked, but gingerly withdrew her hand after Tarzan had finished sniffing it. He was from a different culture, and Inara accepted that. She'd learned long ago that it wasn't polite to judge.

Granted, that had never stopped her from judging Mal.

"That must have been quite an ordeal for you," Inara said. "Finding yourself in a pile of slime in a strange place." It was bad enough for Inara, but she couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Tarzan. "You came straight here, didn't you? After getting clothed?" She wasn't sure if he did, but it seemed like a reasonable enough guess.

"Mazes first. Strange voice. Fire."

He shivered slightly, despite himself. GLaDoS's mazes hadn't been a pleasant experience.

"Then here. Hiding."

There was a pause a he tried to construct a difficult sentence.

"A monkey told me what was going on."

"Oh no," Inara said. "You were in GLaDOS as well? Tarzan, I was there for awhile too. That is a cruel, deplorable machine." She nudged the fruit towards him, offering him another slice. Where she came from, even if you were given a gift, it was polite to share, especially if the gift was food. Inara could never have eaten all the fruit on her own. It wasn't in her nature when she had company. Her brow creased a little at that last sentence. She tilted her head. "A monkey?" she asked. "Who was this monkey? Where did you find her? Or him?"

Machine. A machine was... it was a thing. With parts. He'd learned that. Things like the Professor's gramophone. How could a machine talk like a person, though?

"Beastboy. Found him here. He could change. Could be many animals. He explained."

Before Tarzan had freaked and run off, that is.

"I don't know who Beastboy is," Inara apologized. "I'm sorry." She frowned. Someone who could shapeshift into different animals? She was mystified by it, but she wasn't surprised. There were many different kinds of people on the ship. "He explained everything to you, though?"

The pained expression that came over his face made it clear that he understood the gravity of the situation, yes.

"Starboat. Worlds gone. Home gone. Can't find Jane. Can't find family."

"Yes. But," Inara said, "the pods that we came out of? There are many of those, and they have our friends in there. Our families. Maybe you'll be lucky and a friend of yours will be released," Inara said. "My - er, friend, Mal, was released with the last wave. Maybe Jane will be released with the next?" She smiled beatifically at him. "Until then, you shouldn't give up hope. And there are new friends to be made. Like me."

He looked a little less moody at that, even if he still worried.

But still, there was a part that was important, that made it hard to just...wait.

"Jane is my mate."

And she wasn't here. He was in a strange place, and his world was gone, and she wasn't awake with him.

"Oh, sweetie." Not that Inara would ever call Mal her mate or anything, given that their relationship was just so many different kinds of weird and bizarre, but she understood the sentiment, somewhat. "I understand. To not have your love with you...yes. But I'm sure she's alright. This ship has a weird way of making sure that our loved ones are returned to us."

That made him feel a little better.

Taking a slice of the shared fruit and popping it in his mouth made him feel even more better. (It was pretty good, and he'd eaten a lot of fruit so he was a good judge.)

"Inara is...kind. Friend?"

He could use new ones. Hopefully, he'd come across Beastboy to apologize for freaking out on him. He doubted anyone else here spoke monkey or gorilla.

"Of course," Inara grinned. "You don't even have to ask, Tarzan. It would be my pleasure." The warmth that was there in her voice showed that she was coming from a genuine, honest place in that regard. Granted, one would have to know Inara very well to know when she was being less than genuine, thanks to her training, but that was besides the point.

Tarzan smiled in response, then reached over and prodded at Inara's earrings, making them jingle.

Friendship meant he was going to get up all in her personal space now, apparently.

For a moment, Inara hadn't been sure what Tarzan was about to do when he leaned in close to her. She trusted him as well as she could, given that she'd already met the man, and it wasn't as though she was getting any weird sort of feeling off of him, but still, she'd only just met the man. For a moment, she wasn't sure what his definition of friendship was. (Not that it showed on her face or anything. Companion training at its finest.) She laughed, though, when he prodded the earrings.

She reached up, unhooked one, and held it out for Tarzan to inspect more, if he wished to.

"Pretty, isn't it? I was given these by an old friend of mine, many years ago."

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