[OPEN] Stargazer

[misschocolover.livejournal.com]

Megan didn't often spend a great deal of time in the sensoriums. Escapism was rarely appealing to her - at least not as much as problem solving was - but every once in a while homesickness would drive her to some illusory indulgence.

Today she lay on her back on the ground, splayed out on top of a large soft blanket like a ginger starfish, red hair a loose cloud around her head. The ground she had made her bed on was barren for the most part, an empty plain of rich red earth that stretched for miles around her into the darkness. Above her hung the bright tapestry of stars that provided her only light, the stars she remembered seeing laying in the front yard of her childhood home, peering up into Mars' midnight sky.

Stargazing had always been calming to her. It stood to reason that even here on Stacy the ritual would still work, just as it had still worked on Earth back at home.

Comments

[misschocolover.livejournal.com]

"Oh ew, really?"

Megan made a rather horrified face, covering her mouth with one hand. "Gross! I wasn't here when zombies happened! Please tell me that's not commonplace..."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi shook his head. "I don't think it's common, but it has happened. I wasn't here for the actual zombies, but there was a band of similar creatures that made their appearance... around the time of the Galilee mission, I believe. The ship tends to store unpleasant surprises."

[misschocolover.livejournal.com]

Megan made a face. "Hopefully it's stores of the undead are tapped out. Zombies give me the heebie jeebies."

"Did you have zombies where you were at home or did you only first find out they were real when you got here?"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

What an odd question. "We did have large numbers of drones back on Earth," Zouichi admitted, though he didn't go into full detail; most people would find that a little depressing. "Created by a viral vector. Not the same thing that caused the zombies on this ship, though. Far less contagious." Of that he was sure, although it sounded like what had created the Reavers wasn't really contagion at all.

[misschocolover.livejournal.com]

"There've been zombies around in my world before - my Earth had super science and necromancy and dark magic artifacts and basically anything else you could think of that could potentially raise the dead - but I never had to deal with them personally before I ended up here."

Megan shivered and shook her head. "But everything I've read and seen in films says that you need to destroy their brains to stop them and I'm totally useless with weapons so if I had to fight them I would just be punching them and then I'd get all covered in zombie drool and brain bits which is so so SOGROSS I might have to shower forever to get it off of me."

She paused for a moment, then stuck out a hand to him politely. "Uh, I'm Megan by the way."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Ah. Well, The same held for the N5S drones -- disabling their central nervous system was generally the best way to kill them. I don't think it would be a good idea to get drone biomatter on yourself, though, in any context. You'd put yourself at risk for infection."

He blinked once; it had been a little while since anyone had invoked this particular custom on him. Then he took her hand, and shook it. "Zouichi. Kanoe Zouichi. Nice to meet you."

[misschocolover.livejournal.com]

"I'm pretty immune to infections, usually, but good to know. Hopefully Stacy's as tapped out of drones as it is zombies."

"It's nice to meet you too." She smiled, moving over a little on her blanket.

"Would you like to sit with me? The ground is pretty comfy."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi hesitated for a moment, then seated himself a little beyond the edge of Megan's blanket; it wouldn't be appropriate to share it with her under the circumstances.

He couldn't actually remember the last time he'd sat on the ground. Well, perhaps as a child. "Nice view," he remarked, and meant it. Similar to the constellations on Earth, but with some fairly obvious changes. From here, the Earth would be an evening star, like Venus; he recalled that from the records of the Mars colony. A slightly surreal sight, no doubt.

[misschocolover.livejournal.com]

She was a bit puzzled when he chose the ground over the blanket but didn't question it, just leaning back on her hands and nodding to the sky.

"It is. Earth's stars are really pretty too but these ones are still my favorites." She tilted her head toward him. "Did you live on Earth before you woke up on Stacy or somewhere else?"

I DID NOT MISS THIS NOTIF what

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

That was just how he was, Megan.

"Yes. I'm afraid I'd never really had the opportunity to visit other planets. But even if we'd had a flourishing space program, I probably wouldn't have been able to take advantage of it. Work and all." He paused briefly, looking back at the sky. "It's still a little hard to imagine city-spaceships being commonplace, like some of the people here have described. The amount of research and development required to attain a self-sustaining biosphere like that is... somewhat daunting."