Bendy time to a couple of days after Geartopia Shore Leave

[valaunbound]

Sprawled out on her front, right in the middle of the spacewalk, is one Vala Mal Doran. She's booked out a mini-player video thingy from the Media Library and is watching re-runs of 'Dallas' of all things, idly kicking her legs around in the air behind her. Maybe the recent shore leave gave her the taste for cowboy hats as she's still sporting the one that she got on Geartopia, and maybe she thinks it gives her that Pam Ewing look when she's at the ranch.

Vala looks like she was simply lying on any floor. Except because it's the spacewalk, it looks like there's a woman in a cowboy hat and pigtails floating in space. Not your everyday scene, but she's as relaxed as if it were. She's decided she quite likes it here, if she can see the stars then she can imagine being back home and maybe she can fool herself into thinking she's back on the Odyssey on her way to Atlantis. There's also not too many people around - and in particular, no Daniel.

She's been avoiding him ever since the great big shiner popped up on her cheekbone. Somehow she didn't think he'd be particularly impressed if he knew she'd been in a bar fight. So if he saw it then she'd have to make up all these lies about how she got it and maybe it was just best to give him a wide berth instead. That way she didn't have to lie.

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[hi_there_aliens]

A few days passed before Daniel finally noticed the absence. Of course, he'd been so buried in catching up on the Taleen work that it would've taken nothing short of a Goa'uld bombing strike around him to get him to look up. it finally dawned on him that was the thing tickling at his neck. Peace, quiet, productive and weirdly Vala-free. After all, she'd been all but glued to his hip earlier. Now she was nowhere to be found.

Maybe she was like Menkaure. The (mostly) feral otter tended to vanish for hours on a time, sometimes coming back for food or a pet, or tearing up something that looked a lot like it was from the TARDIS. One day the Doctor was going to come in here and find the nest the otter made of his things, if he wasn't chased off again. There was another possibility: Vala remembered everything that happened the night before. Maybe she didn't want to see him right now. Should he ignore it? Look for her? Or would that push too much?

Daniel suddenly got to his feet and gathered his notes. His back cracked. That was his sign right there to get off his butt and stretch his legs. He didn't pay much attention to where he was going, only that it brought him to what looked like an open airlock into space.

Was that a woman drifting like a board in space? Daniel swiveled to stare. She didn't look...dead or anything. Was she trapped? She didn't look paniced, she looked almsot relaxed. He put one foot out and found that there was a ground. There was also air. The view was beautiful, gorgeous, but also dizzying. Daniel swallowed. And it was a long way down, although there wasn't technically a down in space, that was relative, so he couldn't fall and splat anywhere, but it- Daniel jammed his hands into his pockets and forced himself to take a step before he over thought it much further. It did get easier if he made sure not to look down. Focusing on the view helped a lot. there were so many colors and stars, it was almost mind boggling how small they all were to the rest of the universe. It was beautiful.

A few more steps and he could recognize the profile. He wasn't so sure what to make of the cowboy hat. "I see you found the best part of the ship already."

[valaunbound]

Underneath the cover of her hat brim, Vala cringed as soon as she heard his voice. Wasn't he supposed to be all busy with his piles of old things? Why was he out taking a merry jaunt around the ship? "Great." Vala muttered under her breath flatly, attempting to pull her hair over the right side of her face. It would have been much easier if she'd been wearing her hair loose, but pigtail removal was too obvious at such short notice and he was nearly on her.

Vala shifted round a bit, angling herself so that her left side faced him. "Daniel!" she said chirpily but sideways on with a smile that was all teeth. "I was just thinking about you, and how busy you must be."

[hi_there_aliens]

An eyebrow lifted as he looked down at Vala. Then he had to hurriedly look back up, since someone thought it was a good idea to make the floor invisible, and that did hell to the current, ugly feeling of vertigo. Her smile seemed a little forced, all teeth and none of the warmth she'd shown him before.

And if that just now wasn't a barely concealed 'get lost', he'd turn in one of his PhDs.

"I needed some air." Mostly the truth. Not that he missed her hovering or anything, but after the shore leave, things had ended on a weird note. She'd said a lot of things he didn't think she would have under any other circumstances, wildly personal, vulnerable things. He leaned over, peering over her shoulder from where he stood at what was in her hands. "What are you up to?"

[valaunbound]

That's the problem with being drunk, you tend to do things like that. Although it couldn't be entirely attributed to her blood/alcohol ratio, it was difficult to not think of Daniel as Daniel. As in future Daniel, the Daniel that already knew her. She found it hard to consider the differences. Daniel knew her inside out, except he didn't. That much was obvious by the absence of a pointed suspicious 'Vala' which she absolutely expected to come her way the moment she greeted him with a smile that was just the wrong side of cheery. This lack of distinction, in her mind, was also partly responsible for the fact that she didn't remember everything about the hotel detail for detail. If anything she'd said had been a new revelation then she probably would have done, but it was all old cap-hat-whatever on her side of things.

"Dallas!" Vala offered with enthusiasm, relieved that he was on the right side of her and she didn't need to shift awkwardly. "Immersing myself in your culture." That would please him, she was sure, Daniel was all for culture immersing. "J.R is a complete, well I can't think of the equivalent word in English, but he's not a very nice person at all!"

[hi_there_aliens]

Dallas. Never heard of it. But from what Daniel could see of the screen, it looked old. He leaned in closer. Not a movie and not something more recent. Probably a comedy or soap opera? If that was the case, he hadn't missed out. Whatever it was, it didn't look like something he'd pictured as Vala's type of show. Or maybe, looking at her hat, it was.

"I'm not quite sure that's what anyone means by culture," Daniel certainly wouldn't have used it as a good example of Earth entertainment. Or anything indicative of Earth storytelling to an offworlder. "Who's JR?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"...Get into a fight?" Vala seemed awfully relaxed for someone who looked like they'd been on the wrong end of someone's fist. Maybe it was a kind of Geartopian souvenir.

"You can probably get that fixed in Medical, you know. Unless it's a statement or something."

[valaunbound]

"What precisely would it be a statement of? That I'm a terrible fighter and someone managed to slip me a right hook?" Vala was definitely not the type to wear battle scars as trophies. She preferred actual trophies, preferably made of gold and encrusted with jewels.

As for the Medical department, she thinks not. She had a bad experience with 'doctors' right before she arrived on Stacy. "I'll pass thank you, it's only a bruise."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"What happened to being a weapons expert?" Zouichi rarely stayed damaged long enough to make a statement.

"Not a fan of Medical? And after all that work we did trying to steal that medical technology. Well, I guess they do tend to poke and prod."

[valaunbound]

"Well I'm not actually a terrible fighter," Vala rolled her eyes, her sarcasm was lost it seemed. "Besides, you should have seen the others," she added smugly. By some stroke of luck she'd managed to come out of the fight victorious.

"What kind of medical technology?" Not that she needed it for a bruise nor was she willing to let anyone prod or poke with her with anything, least of all people she didn't know. But she was curious none-the-less.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Perhaps they'd find a codex somewhere with which to decipher each other's senses of humor. Zouichi raised an eyebrow at her, crossing his arms. "Oh? And how many broken, prone bodies did you leave in your wake?"

"And the kind of medical technology that would allow crew members to regenerate limbs and come back from near death. Supposedly. Although if you ask me, it was more trouble than it was worth."

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

"What are you doing, Mortal? Are you wounded?"

The heavy tread of the Space Marine is heard in the spacewalk, preceded only by his booming vox-scrubbed voice.

[valaunbound]

"It's Vala." She said dryly as he approached. "And no, I just thought I'd paint myself in interesting shades of purple, what do you think?"

She couldn't help but roll her eyes regardless of his intimidating presence, what kind of question was that?

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

"I think you are attempting sarcasm." He looks down at her. "I find that particular affectation of mortals to be tiresome, Vala. So I'll rephrase the question: Why haven't you gone to the medicae yet regarding it?"

[valaunbound]

This wasn't the first time she'd mentally compared this guy to Teal'c, and she suspected it wouldn't be the last.

"Not that it's any of your concern, but I have my own methods of healing." She just needed to get her hands on the device she'd left in Daniel's lab without Daniel actually being there to see. "And if I'm so tiresome, I'm surprised you're in the slightest bit concerned."

[swordofdorn.livejournal.com]

"Though I find mortals inscrutable and tiresome, I am aware of my duty as an Astartes. We fight for the Emperor and humanity. As such, I must protect you, even from yourself at times. But if you have a method of healing, then i shall trust you to use it responsibly, to keep yourself fit for war."

uh what I am not double-tagging

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

Atom was munching on the last of some cactus fruit candy he'd picked up while on the planet when he spotted Vala on the Spacewalk. He was about to say hello when he noticed her face, and --

"Whoa, what happened? Are you okay?"

[valaunbound]

Vala wasn't really bothered about the bruise, it was a tiny bit sore but the worst of it had faded by now, she was just left with the colourful melee of bruising for the most part.

"It's nothing to worry about Atom." she smiled not really wanting to get into it with him. "It's already healing."

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

"Well, if you say so," he said, looking a little doubtful. "How come you're hanging out over here?"

It looked like she was watching some kind of old-time TV show, but Atom didn't recognize the source.

[valaunbound]

"Well it seemed as good a place as any," Vala patted the space beside her, inviting him to sit and paused the player. "Actually, it seems to be one of the better views onboard in my opinion."

The view was reality, not the inside of a ship that she'd rather not be on. Any one of those stars could be teeming with life --normal life. She might not be content to simply star watch, hence the miniplayer. But they were still there, and that was comforting.

[tetsuwan-atom.livejournal.com]

Atom sat himself down, looking outside at the stars. "They all look different from Earth," he observed. "But I guess that makes sense. It's hard to even tell where we are any more. You don't recognize any of them, do you?""

[windwitch]

Maxine, for her own part, was discovering the spacewalk for the first time. Her excitement was written all over her face, and there was a literal bounce in her step as she hopped into view in the walk. With her eyes shining, she almost doesn't notice Vala at first, simply looking around in awe, mumbling quietly to herself.

Her expression shifted to something apologetic, though, when she nearly stepped on Vala. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She backed up a few steps quickly. "I didn't see you there!"

[valaunbound]

It was amusing to watch Maxine's excitement as she caught her in the corner of her eye, she'd been pretty much the same when she'd first found it. Not that she'd admit that freely. Still, it was quite impressive and the near mishap was understandable.

"Well I can see how I was hard to miss." The reply could have been so easily interpreted as caustic until she the quirk of a wry smile appeared. "Quite the spectacle isn't it?" Vala looked out to the stunning vista of stars.

[windwitch]

It was good that Vala smiled to show that she was joking, because the look on Maxine's face pretty clearly spelt out that she was about to apologise about a million times more, had she been given the chance.

Fortunately, though, she softened for a second, before she smiled quite happily, nodding at the view. "It really is amazing!" she agreed breathlessly. "I mean, I've had the luck to see the occasional crazy thing, but I'm not sure anything quite measures up to this, you know? It's just absolutely spectacular, and so beautiful."

[valaunbound]

"Well it's beautiful if you ignore what we're being told about them all being destroyed." Vala shifted to a more upright position, swinging her legs around from behind her and then tucking her knees up to look out at the view over the top of them, chin resting on folded arms.

"Although I don't see what the Ohm would have to gain from that." Vala remained skeptical but the more she delved into the history, the more it seemed likely. "You're not a seasoned space traveller then?"

[windwitch]

Maxine's face did fall, and she shifted where she stood. She hesitated, then sat down carefully next to Vala, but she threw a questioning look at her, to make sure it was okay. "Well, I hope they're not really gone. Or else that we can save them, retroactively. Because that's what we were told, right? And... well, even if we can't figure out if they were destroyed, or if there was anything to gain from that-- if nothing else, we have to try and believe, at least, right?"

She shook her head, and tried to smile again, not really leaving much pause between the first topic and the second. "But I'm not, no. People went to space all the time, in my world, and aliens were pretty normal. But I've not really gone to space much, myself. Have you?"