trans_9 | Foodplot: Parte Uno [Closed]

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Foodplot: Parte Uno [Closed]

After the 'bitching about Stacy' session finally reached a head, Sakura and Howard decided to actually do something about all the questions they had about their spacefaring fleshy home. Granted, they couldn't really find anything out about the Ohm on their own, and the Daligig were Right Out, so that left exploring the ship itself.

Time for them to find out what it is that they're putting in their bodies.

They drew on a few people they trust, or at least have figured out well enough to not distrust (more than they usually do), and now they're gathered at the mess hall at some awkward hour when no one is there to eat. They've brought Kanoe Zouichi (specialties: stuff going boom and wrangling Howard into being cooperative) and Ian Chesterton (specialties: hot cocoa, also science). And Ian's brought Barbara Wright (specialties: ??? and pissing Howard off).

Howard's tucking away at a tray of slop, figuring that if they're going to find anything that puts them off eating food forever, he might as well enjoy sweet, delicious ignorance now.

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Looking up, the chute looked like it had seen better days, and that climbing it would be difficult. But after how useless she was to Sakura, Barbara had something to prove.

"I'll go first," she said with some kind of determination. "If I can get a leg up, I should be able to push my back against one of the walls and walk up from there. Unless you've anything we could use in your bag?" she pointed to Howard's bag and hoped that there might be something in there which would make it somewhat easier.

It didn't look like it would be an easy or pleasant climb, which Ian supposed discouraged people from doing it in the past. But it didn't look impossible and he remembered getting past worst obstacles, so Ian was happy to try it. Although he should probably go last in case anyone else fell.

"Probes are never going to be quite the same as people," he said to Zouichi. He didn't know if they had anything they could use as a probe or to help them climb, but if anyone did have anything useful, Howard would.

"I'll give you a leg up," he offered Barbara, in the event that no one had anything to help.

Right. Going up it was.

"If the ship is going to put up with us crawling up there, it might as well put up with a little security." Sakura had a short length of rope she was taking out of her thigh pack, along with two of her kunai. She looked over to Barbara, then stepped past briefly to slam one into the ship herself. "Testing before I hand them over," she offered by way of explanation, outwardly nonchalant as she waited for any reaction from the ship to being stabbed.

"The rope can make sure you don't get pulled away, if we keep one end with us. These," she said, holding up her free kunai, "Can be good for extra emergency hand and footholds."

Pending. She was still waiting on either a reaction, or the continued lack of one.

Howard pretends to check his backpack. "Damn, Zou, I forgot my probe!"

And then Sakura up and stabs the wall so, so much for offering his knife and the length of rope he's been packing around. Not that he can totally disagree with her.

He does walk over to tie the rope to Barbara, though. He's more than familiar with knots by now. "If you fall, you should slide instead of just drop, so you'll probably be okay. And if not, well, better you than me. And here."

He starts wrapping something around her palm - a bandage with dirt bike tire tread sewn in. "Better traction on the way up."

"I have one," Zouichi said. Okay, several, but the rest were all with his bike. He'd been about to suggest sending Fuyu up there, actually; she also had a small probe form for squeezing into tight areas that would no doubt have found the tube easier to negotiate. But then, they couldn't be sure that what was up there wasn't dangerous.

"I've started to carry some luminol around, too. Just for you~~, honey~~."

He managed to bite back a flat remark about how Fuyu was more resourceful than most people he'd ever known, if only because of the incident with Asuka. It took effort.

Barbara allows Howard to tie the rope around her waist while she contemplates where to keep the kunai. She didn't really have pouches or anything like that but the loops on her trousers were attached via press studs, so hooking them on was easy enough. The trick would be remembering not to stab herself.

She thanked both Howard and Sakura before taking Ian's shoulders and, with a quiet grunt, launched herself into the shoot with the aid of Ian's leg up. Using her arm, she cleared away some of the slop from the sides of the shoot, sending it downward to splatter on the floor below. "Sorry," her apology echoed outward from within the confined chute. At least now she was able to really push her back up against the wall, Barbara just decided not to take notice of the amount of slop gathering on her shoulders and around her shoes as she slowly shuffled up. Nor did she take note of the awful smell. Instead she looked upward and focused on the end of the chute.

"If you do fall, you'll fall on me."

Ian waited until Barbara was ready, then boosted her up. He watched her go and only narrowly avoided being splattered - he moved just in time. Although it wouldn't make much difference once he went up there.

Sakura nodded in turn to Barbara's thanks, standing near Ian to act as spotter if needed. (She doubted it, but by now it was partial habit. Small as she was, being a ninja had some sundry benefits.)

Unfortunately, the slop that came out splashed down next to her and splashed up on her shins -- a taste (ha-ha) of what was to come. She grimaced, then peered inward and half expected slop to the face. Barbara looked like she was doing okay so far.

The amusing thing to Sakura was she could do this -- with chakra -- and no need for restraints. But it was far better to conserve resources, and she appreciated Barbara's willingness and spirit to give it a goopey go. Honestly, it was admirable. Positive feelings in the mix of all the negative ones she'd had lately was a nice change-over.

"Are you okay so far?" she called up after a while, hands on the rope that was slowly disappearing upward.

Once Barbara gets up to the top, she'll find herself in a dark room with a low ceiling that gradually slopes upwards. The ground is covered with more slop, some of which is crusted and dried. There's a drain from the ceiling that Barbara won't be able to get past, put the room leads to a tunnel.

"I wonder if Stacy's going to inhale her." Howard watches Barbara ascend, half expecting to hear a shriek of terror any moment. Who knows what she'll find up there?

Granted, that probably isn't very comforting to Ian. Howard starts wrapping his own hands with bandage and tread.

Zouichi frowned at the slop, dried and fresh. Was it even sanitary to have the tubes full of... residue? Because it seemed like ideal conditions for microbial or insect infestations. Yes. EXCELLENT MENTAL IMAGERY.

Why was he here? He didn't even eat slop. Well... aside from the 'being around in case Howard found himself in danger' bit. But even taking that into account, Zouichi was starting to reconsider his decision. Just a little bit.

Dammit, he could have been playing with his parrot right now.

"Then I'll land on something soft," Barbara called back to Ian in between shuffles up the wall of the chute, until a great chunk of slop slid down from her shoulder and landed in her lap with a sickening squelch. Had her hands not also been pressed against the metallic surface for extra grip, Barbara might have pushed it away, but as it were, she just groaned quietly under her breath.

"Yes, fine," she called back to Sakura, "at least a great deal of this will be cleaned off by the time everyone else makes it up." Though she questioned whether she would ever eat from this ship again.

The top was within reach! Carefully, Barbara shuffled up a little more, ignoring the smell and the rest of the goop in her hair, sliding down her shirt and resting in her lap. If she were more flexible, she might have been able to grab the ledge in front of her and pull herself out that way, but as it were, she awkwardly and painfully pulled off a kind of flop-and-roll type movement out of the chute, the result of which was already leaving her with a few painful bruises.

As she turned to call down to the others, she noticed even more slop on the ground below. She must have knocked down more as she went.

"I've reached the top - there isn't a lot of room up here but Stacey hasn't punished me yet, so I'll let the rope back down for the next person," Barbara said, working at the impressive knot Howard had tied, then dropped the rope. She hoped that someone would catch it before it landed in the semi-solid puddles on the ground.

Ian gave Howard a look for that comment. He was beginning to wonder if he should have let Barbara go first, but then she made it safely to the top without Stacy kicking up a fuss and he relaxed.

He caught the rope when Barbara threw it down. Assuming that Howard wrapping his hands meant he wanted to go next, Ian started knotting the rope around him. "You'll be fine," Ian assured him. He didn't know how much practise the others had in things like this.

Sakura took a step back, clearing away from the ongoing slop drippage situation. How much room did the ship leave, and why? She glanced over toward Zouichi. "I call last."

Howard gives Ian a little look. "I don't need a pep talk, Teach." The apprehension that comes with doing anything against Stacy's quasi-rules has put him in a predictably snappish mood, and either way, he's been reacting with more hostility than usual to adults trying to be nice to him. It's not Ian or Barbara's fault; they don't know the bizarre behind-the-scenes politics of the medical bay, after all.

'Not a lot of room' means he's the logical choice to go up next anyway, being the smallest of the bunch, although not by a significant margin from Sakura. He takes one of her kunai.

He gives them all a little mock salute and starts climbing. It's slippery going, though less slick than what Barbara put up with, and Howard's got a little method of reaching up and stabbing the kunai in as high as he can and then tossing a loop of rope over, a little bit of rigged insurance against falling too far. He makes it up in fairly good time but requires some help from Barbara in getting over that ledge at the end; upper body strength is not his forte, especially not carrying a backpack full of whatever odd equipment they might need.

"It's nice and cozy up here!" he yells, tossing the rope back down and handing a flashlight to Barbara from his now-disgusting sweater pocket. "We should take all our vacations here!"

Zouichi glanced at Sakura, briefly puzzled ~~about why she was naked again~~, then nodded. Stowing his collapsed coil rifle behind him and donning his customary motorcycle helmet, he stood below the tube, raised his arm, and fired the small grappling device attached to his wrist.

The needle of the device embedded itself into the material at the top of the tube, trailing meters of weight-bearing wire down to the ground below. He pressed another button to retract the wire, letting the device lift him swiftly upward to the area at the top.

"I'm up," he called down to the others remaining at the bottom. ~~You jelly?~~

Barbara had to clear a spot of goop so that she could grab a hold of Howard and have enough of a grip to pull back on, so that she didn't slip and fall back down the chute.

And then Zouichi was suddenly there, not nearly as covered in Stacey's food as she and, to a lesser degree, Howard. Barbara had apparently cleaned the chute fairly well as she shuffled up. She reminded herself that the showers were always open and didn't have a time limit, meaning that when this was all over, she could shower for an entire week if she wanted.

"No, I'll go last," he said to Sakura, "in case you fall." Since he didn't get to go first, and he'd known that Barbara wasn't going to let him talk her out of it, he was now determined to go last, just in case. As much as he wanted to see what was up there.

He grabbed the rope and held it out, silently asking if she wanted it tied around her. "You don't have to worry. If the others can do it, you can too."

She was about to argue -- it really wasn't a problem, and he was failing to recognize why the trained fighter wanted to bring up the rear.

"For this," she said eventually, smiling a beat too slow. "When we're moving through tunnels, I will be bringing up the end."

She left no room for argument (in her mind; it was a separate thing from reality) in her tone, politely waving off the rope for now. She'd recollect it once he was up as well. "Unless you want me to bring this up with so we can pull you up and spot you from above?"

Actually, that in mind, she did accept the rope. Holding it in one hand, she used her invisible chakra to scale up to the rest with relative ease. She joined them goo-crew, then called down to Ian.

"We've got you supported if you want to use the rope!"

Said the singular teenager holding onto it and securing herself to the ground with chakra. It was a ridiculously ninja thing to do. (All of this really was.)

Of course Zouichi has a grappling gun attached to his wrist. Why not. Howard pokes his head over the edge of the chute and looks down at Ian. Poor Ian. It's not his fault that he's met all the bitchy teenagers first.

"Or we could leave him down there," Howard jokes to Sakura, because he gives absolutely zero damns about team morale and cooperation when he's covered in Stacy gunk. He licks his fingers of the slop and gets up, although like all the others, he has to stoop under this low ceiling.

The passage goes back maybe thirty feet before it splits into two. As there's no way to get up through the drain, they'll have to just assume that at least one of these routes will bring them back around to what they're looking for. Howard shines his flashlight down the passages - they look identical and symmetrical, each branching out, and it occurs to him that this room feels more like a sinus than even the crew quarters.

"I bet this is Stacy snot." He passes out a third flashlight to Sakura - he remembers that Zouichi has better than average night vision. "So do we split up or stick together? And why do I feel like this should be accompanied by detuned violin music?""

Ask him about the time he and Tim went grappling together and it was great.

The helmet Zouichi was wearing had the pleasant secondary effect of keeping the goop off of him completely, since the rest of him was, as customary, completely covered by his body armor. Come prepared, that was his motto. But he brushed aside some of the glop on his shoulderpad anyway, making a brief grimace of distaste.

"I don't really like the idea of splitting up," said Zouichi, "But if we have to..." He glanced at Sakura. "The two of us should be in different groups."

He didn't have any concerns about his own safety, as usual, but baseline humans were a different story.

By the light coming from both the chute and the torches, Barbara gave Howard a Look at suggesting to leave Ian behind. Though it's somewhat faltered by him licking some of 'Stacey's snot' from his finger.

"Yes, that's enough of that, thank you Howard. But I think splitting up might be an idea. We'll cover more ground in two groups and for all we know, these tunnels meet up again at the other end. What do you think?" she directed at Sakura as she leaned down to help Ian out of the top of the chute.

"Fine," Ian said to Sakura, not intending at all to let her bring up the rear if he was in a better position to do it. "I can climb up," he assured her, then watched her climb up herself.

When it was his turn to climb up he did use the rope - he'd be stupid if he didn't, just to make the point. It was just echoey enough that he could hear a discussion about splitting up. This time he would make sure he got to go first.

"I agree," he said, once he was up. He gave Sakura a suspicious look, as it looked like she'd been the only one holding the rope. "Barbara and I should be in separate groups." He didn't want to leave all the kids in one group.

Sakura merely smiled, coiling the rope back up once Ian was safely among them. "We could split along gender lines. Barbara and me in one group, Ian, Zouichi, and Howard in the other."

If she could spare Barbara some of Howard's winning wit, as well as spend more time with someone she currently respected, all the more bonus to her. Though in the end she wasn't aiming to object to another break-up of the dichotomy.

She did figure Howard might be more comfortable with Zouichi, and she felt that Ian had proved he could hold his own. He was resourceful, and could likely take whatever witticisms were tossed his way with...

Something close to grace. Right?

Howard lowers his voice and whispers to Barbara, in a tone that's not at all threatening but is at least a little peeved, "don't tell me what to do. You might've been a teacher on your world but here we're equals, okay?"

He looks over at Sakura's suggestion and nods. He knows from experience that he and Zouichi work well together, or at least improvise ridiculous ways to get out of stupid situations together, just in case Stacy does decide to cough them up somewhere weird (like with Reavers). That leaves Ian as an unknown quantity, and while Howard's a bit surprised to realize that he'd pick Barbara over Ian for a fight, that also leaves the sciency people split. Sakura can do her weird ninja science thing and Ian can do his more normal human person thing.

"Sooner we figure this out, sooner we get a shower. Let's do it."

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Foodplot: Parte Uno [Closed]

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/wrap this thread