trans_9 | And back. [Open]

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And back. [Open]

He'd originally set out to find the Hydroponics area and check it out, but after being stuck in an isolated part of the ship, Roger wasn't particularly interested in Hydroponics any more. At least, not for the moment. He'd go looking for it again eventually... when he had at least one other companion and a little more confidence in not losing communication with the rest of the ship. For now, he was happy enough with what he had.

And what he had was access to the City again, and all the people in it.

Better see if he couldn't find the handful of people he knew on this end of things, and make sure everyone was okay.

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A lone figure stands watch near one of the breached walls of the Vatican, resplendent in his purity seals and war-plate. He will nod solemnly to Maxson, and says with a surprising degree of warmth in his vox-scrubbed voice.

"I had hoped to find you, but you found me. This is good."

That's a familiar sight; Roger raises a hand in greeting as he approaches. "My apologies," he says. "About a dozen of us were lost- seems there's parts of the ship that were inaccessible before this. We've been looking for a way back for weeks. Engineering must've fixed something, because I know we didn't change much on our end. How've you been?"

"Roger Maxson!"

Kais spots the man and runs up to him with an awkward gait. He had told himself that he was going to keep an eye out for Maxson, just to make sure he didn't disappear out of nowhere. Couldn't have allies vanishing!

"I believe you were reported as missing."

"I was." Roger raises a hand in greeting. "Kais. Good to see you. Me and a dozen others've been stuck in a part of the ship none of us had ever seen before, and our omnicomms didn't work. This is the first I've been back."

"Odd." People have vanished off the net before but that was never a good thing. But nothing seemed to be wrong with him. "You all survived without any issues?"

Roger pops the catches around his armor's neck seal and pulls his helmet off; there wasn't much reason for it at the moment. "Ran into a few hazards along the way," he says. "Couple of rooms with dangerous inhabitants. One giant armor-plated snake big enough to put its fangs through a human, but it was confined to a specific place they called the Chamber of Secrets. Some regions I heard about but never actually saw, myself. But the ship provided food and lodging, and I don't recall anyone getting seriously hurt."

Armor-plated snake. Yeah, that brought back horrific memories. "That is good news, I suppose. Everyone on this ship needs to survive without injuries."

"I know I'd prefer it," Roger says. "What've we missed in the meantime? Scribe Santangelo said it's been pretty quiet, other than the impending wedding."

He shook his head. As far as he understood, nothing happened. "There is nothing I am aware of that you missed."

"I can live with that," said Maxson. "I need to find somebody to report to with the information we got from surveying that area. There's places in that part of the ship people shouldn't venture into alone, or without warning."

"So how've you been while I was gone? Stacy treating you well? Run into anyone new in the crew complement?"

He'd only met the alien a little before getting sent off into the who-knows-where regions of the ship, but that still gave Kais a certain amount of extra weight in his mind.

"As for superior officers, I do not know who to report to."

Kais tilted head inquisitively. "No, no one new is around that I know of."

Roger nodded. "I'll try to find somebody, then," he said, "and if I can run down a senior officer or something I'll let you know. Doesn't feel right to not know the command structure around here. People need to be able to fall back on something when there's a war going on."

Not for the first time since waking up in the slime pod, he found himself badly missing his Scribes and senior Paladins. And not for the first time, he pushed the thought away.

"Any chance you know what the most popular gathering places are around here? In the city, I mean. I figure that'd be a good way to start looking- that and the mess hall."

With a rustle of wings and a brief flare, TObias stoops into a glide, swishing easily past Roger's head.

< Hey again, future soldier guy. >

"Hey there, hawk," says Roger, looking up. "Good to see you again. How're you holding up?"

Tobias circled and alighted neatly on a lamp post, staring down at Roger.

< Holding up. Glad to be back on the normal part of the ship. As normal as it gets. >

Roger nodded, undid the catches, and removed his helmet. "Anywhere on this thing's a long, long way from normal," he said. "At least the lived-in parts feel more familiar. And haven't got fifty-foot armored snakes in them. That was no picnic."

"Hey, you're that guy!"

Raz was pretty good at recognizing faces after meeting them once. It helped that he had that whole psychic shtick. So he abandoned the orange psychic levitation ball he had currently been running around one and tumbled to the ground, running up to him. "What's up, old man?"

Okay, that? That was interesting. Roger couldn't remember ever seeing anybody do that kind of trick with an energy ball before. "That'd be me," he said easily. "Just got back from being stuck in an unknown part of the ship with about twelve other people. It's good to be back somewhere a little more familiar. How about yourself?"

"Whoah." Interesting anecdote. Then again that's what happened when you trusted tentacle tubes. Never trust anything where you can take a step and it makes squishy noises under your feet.

"Sounds fun! I've just been hanging around in the normal part, doing some, psychic patrolling--" and here had to be obligatorily dramatic and bring his right thumb, middle and forefinger to hover by his temple-- "normal Psychonaut duties and all."

"Huh," Roger said thoughtfully. "I'll be honest with you, son. We don't have Psychonauts where I come from. I wouldn't have the first clue what their duties were to begin with. Is that what that ... glowing floating thing you were riding just now was about?"

"You don't have Psychonauts where you're from?! Then who's there to protect the world from psychic warfare and mental terrorism?!" Raz knew that the Psychonauts didn't exist everywhere from what he'd seen on the ship, but it never ceased to take him aback.

"--Oh, that? It was a thought bubble. Made of psychic energy and stuff like that." To demonstrate, Raz looked up and another ball of orange energy materialized with a 'pop.' He reached up and grabbed the end of a small trail of slightly smaller bubbles, pulled it to the ground and hopped up onto the ball, carefully balancing on top. "See?"

"Well, there were rumors of there being psykers out there and that the government was trying to recruit them," Roger said, "but I've never met anybody who ever ran across any, and that's with the second highest security clearance possible."

If it'd been a little higher, he'd have found out about the vats a lot earlier, and... well, things would've been different.

"Huh. Now that is impressive. Looks like something out of a comic book, or one of those Ras Bastion or Captain Cosmos movies."

"Psykers, huh?" Raz sounded mysteriously interested, but mostly he just thought that was kind of a cooler name than Psychonauts. What heresy!

"Well the Psychonauts are a top secret organization," and of course he was obligated to sound smug. "Must have been keeping them under the wraps and all."

He tottered around in a circle a bit on the psychic bubble, before letting it pop out of existence again and dropping sharply to the ground. "It's way cooler than in the comic books! The drawings in my True Psychic Tales magazines aren't anywhere near as cool as the way real psychic powers work!"

"It wouldn't surprise me," Roger admitted. "There turned out to be a lot of things being kept under wraps."

"The fact that I'm seeing it live and in action automatically puts it a step above the comics," he then agreed. "Although now you've got me wondering what other things you can do with powers like that."

"Well they gotta keep it under wraps, or else it wouldn't be a secret organization, right?" Ignoring the fact that Raz tells everyone about it. 'Secret Agents' are just cooler.

"Oh I can do all sorts of stuff! I can turn invisible, throw confusion grenades, set things on fire, make a super cool psychic shield, and throw and punch things with my mind!" He counted off each ability on a finger as he listed it. And yeah he's getting super excited.

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And back. [Open]

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