Who: Crematia and Howard Bessem
Where: Entrance at the Hydropodics
Summary: Crematia asks for a cow, and gets both a cow and a job.
Warnings: That poor cow. :( Trigger warning for sadism on Crematia's part, but how much will that apply is undetermined.

So a deal was made. Well, she thought there was one - this place was so barbaric that there's no monetary system. If there was no money, no gold, and infighting inside the ship-beast was strictly forbidden so decorating any lair with the skulls of her enemies here was out of the question.

But first thing first: food. Not that awful slop, but actual meat, with the tender heart and delicious brain, with blood as intoxicating as liquor might be. Of course, there's the issue of a steady supply of cows for her appetite. If there were very little of cows, she might need to come up with another revenue for payment for this lowly protection offer. 

But that can be figured out soon enough.

Walking in her human form - a tall, curvy woman with long red hair and bright eyes - she approached the entrance of the Hydopordics and waited.

Diana was walking through hydroponics. With Jinx. And Provisions. Like some kind of warped, family outing.

( Why? )

Tobias was hungry and a bit cranky. He was tired of eating ship-mush. No flavor, worse texture, and hard to get down with a beak. On top of that, while it might have the right nutrients, it just wasn't satisfying for either Tobias or the hawk-mind that nagged at him constantly. Real food. Real meat. And it was right there, scurrying through the underbrush in hydroponics without a care in the world. of course, he couldn't get it because the ship didn't want him to hurt its precious little bundles of delicious protein. Still. . .maybe this time he'd get lucky and find one without a tag.

He banked, then dove on his target. He could practically taste the warm, delicious meat as he extended his talons and--

--was caught in mid-air by a tentacle that gently deposited him in a nearby tree while Stacy admonished him.

||Please do not attempt to harm the tagged wildlife, Tobias. ||

< Fine, fine. Sheesh. > Denied, he ruffled his feathers and settled for looking grumpy.

< What's a bird got to do to get some real meat around here? >

It hadn’t been long since Sirius had woken from podsleep. He had gone exploring but somehow he kept coming back to hydroponics. It was so different from the rest of the ship. He’d heard that the entire ship was alive but it felt smothering, not like it was here where everything was vibrant and colorful. Here he felt truly free.

Sirius sat against a tree. His legs ached. He had spent too long in Azkaban (although apparently not as long as he should have). His muscles had not withered completely but he was still weak. For now it was enough to rest here and gaze at his surroundings, so unlike the cell he’d left behind.

Hydroponics was Volanz's new favorite place, but it didn't really have a lot of competition for that title. The whole ship was disturbing and weird and unpleasant. Hydroponics, though, had fake sunlight and plants and animals running all over the place. It was still very, very strange and wrong, but it was just a little bit like home. That little bit meant a great deal to him.

It had taken him a while to finally get around to the disused laboratory near the entrance to the area. He didn't know what he'd find inside, and nothing the crew had recorded gave him much information about the place. So it was that Volanz stalked into the abandoned area as if he were walking into a known trap, shield arm ready to pummel anything that might've jumped out at him.

It was dead quiet and after a few minutes of suspicious prowling around and squinting at corners yielded nothing to hit, Volanz relaxed. He clambered onto a chair that had plainly been built for someone a good deal larger and frowned at the bank of buttons and switches and sliding things in front of him. Nothing was labeled in a way that made sense. Lots of abbreviations, if there were labels at all, and he couldn't quite pick out the meanings. What were they for?

He shrugged to himself, tapped out a quick omnicomm post, and tried to decide which he was going to poke first.

Morgan was restless.

When restless, he tended to roam the ship, checking on things he knew of, or seeking out places he didn't out of curiosity. Today was a little of both. After the pitched battle in Hydroponics, he felt a particular obligation towards one plant in particular: the apple tree he'd helped Applejack grow from a seed. For all that he'd done his best to contain Hydroponic in the fight, he hadn't been able to do anything specific to protect that plant.

Done there, he headed back down in the City, off to one particular place that had caught his interest when he had heard about it: an 'air temple'. Not on the map, not listed in the directory, or he'd have wandered over just to take a look a long time ago. Now that he'd heard about it, well...

Time to investigate.

[OOC: Just say where you find him; it can be pretty much anywhere, since his trip covers a lot of ground across the ship.]

Howard forgot what it's like to walk slowly. Usually he runs, or keeps a quick pace to keep up with taller people always on the move, or jogs to work. He doesn't tend to amble, and he certainly doesn't plod.

But Orc's back now, and that, like many things, is going to have to change.

He should be happy. He really should. This is what he's wanted since showing up on this stupid flying space-wart, right?

And yet instead he feels full of static electricity. Like his body's full of twitches and impulses that go nowhere, glitches and short-circuits and bubbles in the tubes and a complete and utter impatience with the way Orc drags his feet as if walking through Elmer's glue.

And it bothers Howard that he makes sure he's out of arms reach before he gives an impatient huff and says "could you pick it up a little? My bones are fossilizing here, man."

Hydroponics That was a good place to go when you wanted to get away from the rest of the ship, wasn't it? Honestly, it reminded Jake of the landscape underneath Erik's house and the Chee that tended to run around down there. The Chee. There was a group he hadn't bothered to think about in long time. Especially since it brought up painful memories of his last battle. The Pool Ship. The Blade Ship. Tom. What might have been, if the dracon beams hadn't been disabled.

That was in the past though – a very long time in the past. Something more recent was troubling him today. For once, he wasn't dwelling on his own perceived failures or what he planned to do once he and the other Animorphs found a way to start contributing to the war effort. The whole affair with SHODAN and the killer robots had rattled him and not much seemed to rattle him anymore. He'd been totally powerless for most of it, hiding out from robots, unable to strike back. No way to morph, no way to escape. Just him and his fragile human body versus robots. It hadn't led to him getting hurt, of course, but for some reason it stayed with him at the back of his mind. What would he have done if he'd had to fight? How could he have fought?

He'd been morphing for seven years and when he felt as if he'd lost the power, it had made him stop and think. His whole adult life had been defined by his ability to morph. Without it, he didn't even have the military job back home. He didn't have anything. He was just a smart (arguably) kid who had fought a war. Jake frowned and ran a hand through his hair as he stared hard at a particular tree.

Why was he spending so much time dwelling on it? He was alive. He could morph again. So why did losing that power, however briefly, still rattle him?

Maybe he would have to think a bit more. Jake sighed and then, after a brief moment of reflection, swung himself up onto the lower branch of a tree. He wasn't much of a climber, but maybe it'd help him think.

Morgan had been in Hydroponics when the message first came over the comm system. He had exactly enough time to frown at his omnicomm before the power limiters engaged and the hyperspace compartments in his cloak failed. Like some outtake from a horrible collision of the Matrix and Harpo Marx, the entire contents of that space fell back into normal reality, leaving Morgan in a thigh-deep mound of guns, swords, and an electric guitar.

"Damn," he said, mildly, as he rolled his neck. He glanced off into the distance, quickly judged the amount of time he had till the robots he saw way out there reached him, then spent a few of those precious seconds tossing out a heads-up over the comms for his location.

That done, he dug out the multi-sheath he had made back when he used to carry weapons openly, slapped half-a-dozen blades through it, threw it on, then scooped up a pair of submachine guns.

"Why can't there be an army of good robots for once?" he muttered, flicking off the safeties.

(ooc: feel free to thread together to help Morgan defend against the evil robots. Also, evil robot NPCs are needed here!)

Anyone who happened into a particular area of Hydroponics would be treated to a most peculiar site.

Well, not peculiar to most people, but anyone who knew Azula would know that tending to a heard of glowsloths would be one of the LAST things she'd do willingly. Animals were for serving, eating, and working. She had never even taken care of her own pets...unless you counted Ty Lee.

But with an utterly serene smile on her face tending to the brightly colored pack, brushing at their fur, feeding and watering them, treating them with all the kindness and tenderness that she wouldn't even show another human being.

And that was of coarse, because Azula wasn't the one doing it. While she sulked quietly in the back of her head she allowed Nima to tend to her creatures if only to keep her from nagging Azula all day long.

After discovering Aang was no where to be found, and that they weren't the only two with this sort of problem there wasn't much else to do. Azula's normal day of wandering aimlessly and fighting off the voices in her head was not as appealing as letting Nima go about her business.

One less voice to ignore.

But even Azula was reaching her limit of tolerance for kindness to such dumb creatures. She was forced to endure not only the actions, but feeling Nima's feelings for the glowsloths.

How did Applejack stand working so hard around the farm? Her secret was simple: combining work and play. She'd brought the same styl to Hydroponics, where she'd sectioned off a small patch of the ground to be a place for some of the animals to play. The grass was dug up and seeds were planted elsewhere, water was poured, and Applejack herself was pounding her legs into the dirt. Making mud! Her bright orange coat was now coated in brown, and the longer she worked, the further she sank.

But this wasn't very fun. Back home, she'd done---yeah, that was what was missing! She hopped out of her little mud pit, tracked dirt across the grass, and set off at a fast trot. "Yee-haw!"

If anypony happened to be hanging about, they'd be splattered when the large pony came crashing down, rolling in her little pit of dirt. Her hat sat some distance to the side, miraculously untouched by the splattering of mud. Surely most would know to stay away from such a display.

Nehaalista had enjoyed herself on the latest leave, but once back on the ship, she returned to reading documents and trying to figure out just what it was They-the-Council needed to focus on. But, eventually, even she was tired of statecraft (such as it could be called, anyway) and retreated to Hydroponics. She sat herself down heavily under a tree with brilliantly orange leaves and let the line of tension in her shoulders ease out.

With a little, noiseless sigh, Nehaalista reached out to the Light until it coiled around her like an old friend. At first tiny, then thickening lines of gold spread out along the ground around her, slowly pulsing and forming a ring of complex symbols. Her expression settled into a drowsy, peaceful one, and she did not mouth or sign her prayers.

She let the Light speak through her, until the very air around her was palpable with a feeling of rightness. Holding it for several minutes, she finally released her hold on the Light until it ebbed back into a gentle hum in the back of her mind. She took off her translating necklace and tugged idly at a long, blue curl in thought, one hoof bouncing in the air. Hiding out like this felt a little bit like playing truant from her training decades and centuries ago.

When not working a particular shift at a department, and when taking a 'break' from work in general, Tim was prone to doing some working out and training. If he was going to be out of any one of his departments, for any given time, he might as well spend it keeping himself in shape and his body honed. It was productive and sometimes it could help him think. And it was certainly better than spending any pauses he had by idling. He couldn't afford to do that.

As Red Robin, it was easiest to just work out in Hydroponics, if he were doing straight up working out, practising with his staff and enjoying the more open feeling. He'd set up training runs and he could work with weapons in relative seclusion. In those instances, he would focus more on balance and take a calmer, slower route, using the lesser muscles and doing more work with the finer aspects of martial arts.

But, from time to time, the simpler ways to work out (as opposed to running simulations of gang wars, target practise, weapons training, etc) had a lot of merit themselves. Plus, sometimes it was nice to work out without being weighted down by leather and kevlar, which was a luxury he couldn't always afford on the ship. In those cases, Tim would be brought to the Sensoriums, where he could use the simulations to call up a virtual gym. Plus, the locale had the added bonus of him being able to use the illusory capabilities to hide that he was maybe a little too well muscled for a teenaged social worker, and it could cover up any questionable scars that showed. He could play the role of a normal, active teenager, there, easier than elsewhere.

For the time being, Tim had called up the scene of a gym, sports equipment scattered for him to use as he might. And it was good that, in a moment's notice, he could change it all over again-- to an ice rink for a more literal cool down, or to a field, for instance. A little lonely, playing alone? Tim certainly didn't mind. It was an effective enough workout, if nothing else. Tim stretched whilst he ran over the options in his mind.

((ooc: Feel free to join him as either RR or as Tim. c: And if you want anything in specific, just let me know!))

Hydroponics was simply amazing.

It was relaxing. That was the best way Aerith could describe it. She was sure there had been plenty before her to make this observation, though. Still, it was comforted her in a way she'd needed. Even if it wasn't the planet, her planet, it still gave her a sense of peace. Despite it being an artificial environment, it was realistic and that in itself was astonishing to her.

Nanaki had mentioned the area before, but seeing it for herself was a different story. It made her forget, just for a moment, about being on a strange ship in the middle of space.

That was a nice feeling. She could see why people would spend a lot of time here.

So she wandered around, absorbing what she could, taking in all that was around her. Aerith didn't have a specific purpose - other than exploring. It certainly was a big place.

'Running away' is, in Howard's opinion, the most useful thing the human body can do. And unfortunately, he has plenty of reasons to think it will come in handy at some point, or at various points, in the future.

That's why he's set up a 400 yard circular track-slash-obstacle course in Hydroponics, as well as set up markers for hundred meter, two hundred meter, and mile routes. Every other morning, before Med Bay shifts, he's here, improving on speed and stamina. He knows full well that even if he gets into the best shape of his life, he can still be outrun (or outflown) by his super-powered, magical or metahuman peers, but it's better to have that added little bit of competence if and when he ends up sprinting away from danger.

He's feeling the results, too. There's no way to time if he's getting faster, but where he was once just skinny, he's becoming lean, and the mile run that used to exhaust him leaves him considerably less winded than it did a few months ago. And he's getting much more confident going through the tunnels and up the ladders of the obstacle course.

The only thing looking worse for the wear is his shoes. At some point he's going to have to relegate his velociraptor shoes to a beloved keepsake, because the seams are literally coming apart around his toes.

Howard double-knots his shoelaces and stretches a bit before running the obstacle course again.

Clef had known that he would eventually feel better, but he hadn't been expecting it to be this sudden. He had woken up feeling as though he could breathe after more than a week of being mentally suffocated by his grief over the apparent destruction of his homeworld. It had colored his mood and interactions with others even when he hadn't particularly been thinking about it, making him come off a little crabbier than normal, and he didn't really like being that person. He didn't like being the kind of person, either, who could think only of his little planet when there was an entire universe in danger. At least now he could think of other things.

There was hope, too - suddenly the thought that the lost worlds could be restored didn't sound so hollow or far away, nor the idea that people from home might still be sleeping in the pods. Anything was possible, and it was worth helping to make sure it happened or that those people woke up. So that's why he was taking a walk in Hydroponics, thinking and making plans. It was quiet here, and the parts that were forest reminded him of the forests of Cephiro no more or less than any other group of trees should - enough to serve as a pleasant background to his thoughts, but not so much as to evoke nostalgia.

Did I mention it was quiet?

It was very quiet.

Sirius Black was no longer in Azkaban. He had spent but a few months there, a small fraction of the time he would have spent had Stacy not ripped him free, but it had left its mark on him. He knew his mind had fractured, he could feel the pieces as surely as if he were holding them in his hands, but he couldn't fit them back together. He didn't know how. He couldn't do it on his own. He needed James. But James was dead.

He should talk to Remus. He'd always been the most sensible and resilient of them. Remus knew what it was like to break apart and then put yourself back together. He'd done that every month since before Sirius met him. But Sirius couldn't go to him, not yet. Not when he could barely string together a few sentences.

Sirius had gone to the city first but it was strange to look out across all those buildings, places that should be full of life hauntingly empty. He turned away and wandered more until he found somewhere full of life. He could forget that he was on board a- what had they called it? Spaceship? It seemed like the four walls around him had fallen away and finally, finally he was free.

He stood still, eyes closed, arms spread, feeling the air.

He remembered his life. There had been bad times, yes. Horrible, terrible times but he had endured. He'd survived. And James had always been there for him. James...

So many happy memories now bittersweet. They flowed over him like waves, each one threatening to take him under but each one he cherished. Life was hard. Life hurt. Knowing that the person who'd brought so much happiness into his life was gone, knowing that Sirius was responsible for his death, it was a pain he could not describe. A pain he never expected or wanted to diminish. But through the pain there was laughter. Through the pain there was love. And that was worth living for, no matter how deep he hurt.

It's what James would have wanted.

"I'll look after him, Prongs. I promise."

Ellistree had followed Nokosi and Kaya into hydroponics, and for the first time since arriving on board the Transmigration 9 did she feel at complete ease.

Not that she felt bad being around the odd vessel, but the lack of nature was uncomfortable for sure. The vast variety of flora and fauna in the place was an amazing breath of fresh air, and it was clear that the child of nature was at home in such environments. It almost looked as if her skin took on a beatiful glow as she sauntered off through the place, smiling and dancing amongst the trees, and creatures kept in Hydroponics.

The rather tall elf was trully in a state of bliss, and anyone who approached her might get a sudden hug, or a playful gesture depending on how they approached her. But granted a more hostile approach won't be shyed away from, after all, Ellistree was fiercer than most feral druids, and that was saying a lot. It could be balmed on the blood that coursed trough her veins, making her even more dominant and aggressive than normal.



[[OOC: Open post! Really! Anyone can join in, don't be shy, she won't bite (Much!). You're free to interact with anyone who's in the initial post (Ellistree, Nokosi, Kaya, Billy or Ronnae. Or you can join in the FFA tag spree between them, it's all game! Threadjacking encouraged! Feeling brave enough to poke at the tall elven looking woman?! Go for it! It's all for fun!]]