The list of people that she'd have willingly gone out into this cold for was limited, but her brother was definitely one of them and she really did want to see him. So Alanna bundled herself tightly in as much clothing as she could find, layering her Gift within the fabric to hold onto as much of the ship's warmth as she could, and then headed out into the cold, grumbling under her breath.

At least it wasn't as cold as at the Roof of the World. That was a positive anyway, but not much of a comfort as she paced back and forth near the ship, waiting for Thom.

All she knew is that if he didn't show up soon, they would be having this conversation on the ship whether or not he wanted to even if she had to drag him there. She hated the cold!

Alanna had decided that it would be best to at least scout out her new surroundings. After all, she'd rather not find out the hard way that there were dangers out there just waiting for them all to drop their guard and if she was really fortunate then she might even discover a way out of here. She wouldn't hold her breath, but she also held on to a certain amount of hope that the solution to their captivity would be found soon. It wouldn't be found through inaction though.

That wasn't what she found though as she entered a new area and found herself face to face with something very familiar. Her breath caught in her throat and her hands clenched at her sides as she stared hard at the stone chamber within the room. To someone unfamiliar with it, it didn't look terribly intimidating. It was a plain stone chamber, rectangular in shape. Alanna was far from unfamiliar with it though and she knew that it was far more than it appeared.

The Chamber of the Ordeal... why had it been brought here? Did it function the same as it had in Tortall? Given that the Chamber could not be manipulated by outside forces, at least as far as she knew, she assumed that it had to function as it had. She was in no hurry to test it, in truth. She'd managed to pass the Chamber's test, but she didn't think that there was anything in the world that would convince her to walk willingly back into that room again.

Not totally trusting her eyes, she took a step closer to further investigate, biting down hard on her lip. It was forbidden to make a sound in the Chamber of the Ordeal.

They might have been trying to get to the City, or another level, or anywhere else in the explored parts of Stacy. But when some crewmembers stepped into the transport tubes, they were going to find that where they ended up was not where they were trying to go.

The first sign that something was wrong was the strange electric jolt they get just after stepping into the tubes. The second sign was the unusually long time it took for them to get to their destination. And the third and final sign was the fact that when they arrived, it was in a place they would have never seen before.

To all appearances, it looked like a smaller replica of the crew quarters. If they ventured out a little further, they would find smaller versions of the mess hall, sleeping halls, and bathrooms as well. But there was one important difference.

They were completely and utterly empty.

And with any attempt to go back into the transport tubes failing, they appeared to be stuck here. What were they going to do?

[ooc: ICly this post happens over the course of a day, so not everyone arrives at the same time. If you tag into the post later, you can just assume that your character arrived later in the day. Also, your characters will not find that their omnicomms and communication rings don't work!

If you have a question about anything, you can ask on this ooc post.

Oh, and for this post threadjacking is welcome :P]

Even if Kang hadn't already decided to stay by the tavern, he wouldn't have been able to get very far from it before running into hordes of robots. They'd moved into the City quick (or had they been there all along?), and several were making a beeline that way, from all directions in an attempt to completely surround it, their intentions clear.

Cursing, he rushed over to the other building, where he happened to live, to grab his armor and weapons. He'd gotten out of the habit of carrying more than his dagger when he was in the tavern itself; that was something that was no longer going to happen. By the time he got back downstairs, he could already hear their approach, and he hoped that others would show soon. It was one of the slow hours, with little to no patrons.

[Planning thread is here.]

Alanna arrived at the Sensoriums promptly at the time that she'd agreed to meet Elisa, rather excited by the prospect of what was to come. Her friend had agreed to give her a lesson in how to operate the odd weapon that she wielded and while the knight very much doubted that she'd be turning in her sword any time soon, it would be good to have another possible option available just in case. After all, it was impossible to plan for every eventuality and having more options would always be better than having less. And, of course, if Elisa was interested then Alanna would be happy to return the favor. She might not have known much about the strange weapon from Elisa's world, but she had been trained in a number of others ranging from close combat weapons like the sword that she currently carried to long distance ones like bows.

She surveyed the area, searching for the other woman, but she failed to spot any sign of her. Although a bit disappointed, the Lioness quickly shrugged it off and focused her mind on finding something to do while she waited for her friend to arrive. More than likely she was just early anyway. She'd had far too much time on her hands recently and after having so many years of being consistently busy, it was disconcerting to have so much free time.

Deciding to put this opportunity with a large empty room to good use, she summoned up an image of the training grounds that she'd first learned to fight on, not so much because she needed it for what she planned but rather because the familiar sight gave her some measure of comfort and allowed her to relax better. Pulling her sword out, she ran through the exercises that she knew so well. Her movements appeared smooth and natural as though she'd been born with a sword in her hand, although that couldn't have been farther from the truth. Long hours of practice with a sword far heavier than the one she currently carried followed by the intensive instruction offered by Duke Gareth had helped her learn the weapon in a way that she'd doubted possible when she first began her training.

She continued on, swapping the sword from one hand to the other whenever necessary to assure proper conditioning, although she also tried to keep a careful eye on the surrounding area for Elisa's arrival.

This ship or whatever it was called was too big. That much Alanna had decided, having already gotten lost more times then her pride would let her admit. Big and strange were the best words that she could come up with to describe it, but it was not actually unpleasant so far. It could be a bit lonely at times without her friends, but she had her brother here and that was something to cherish in itself. She comforted herself with the thought that her friends were sleeping safely in that cavern where she'd woken up though. If they woke up, then she'd be glad to see them. If they did not, then she'd see them when this war was done and their world restored. And that was what she believed. She didn't see any point in dwelling on the negative. This was hardly the first time that she'd gone traveling without her friends, although... it was admittedly the first time she'd done so when not on their world anymore.

She sighed as she entered the next room, her thoughts drifting to the palace before she could stop them. In her mind's eye, she could picture the beautifully decorated walls of the castle and how comfortable she felt when there, assuming that she didn't need to attend any silly formal functions. Looking back on it now, it was funny to think that she hadn't always felt that way, but she supposed that was what happened when you spent so long living and working in one spot surrounding by people that you cared for deeply. It had been her home for years and she still thought of that way for the most part.

Looking around the room, it seemed to Alanna that could physically see the castle walls around her. It was kind of a surprise as her imagination was not usually so vivid, but it wasn't as though...

Then she froze and really stared at one of the walls. That didn't look like a figment of her imagination. It looked real, but that wasn't possible. The palace had been destroyed along with Tortall. She stepped closer and reached out her hand to touch the wall, jerking it back quickly when her hand hit what felt like a solid wall, her other hand flying to the Goddess' token around her neck. What type of sorcery was this? She clutched the ember stone tightly as she looked for signs of magic, but her amulet revealed nothing. Was this not caused by magic then or was it just something that her amulet couldn't detect? It didn't usually fail to react.

With her mind now cleared of all thoughts of anything except the strange things going on in this room, the image of the palace faded away, leaving Alanna with little more then confusion. She reached for her Gift and tried to use it to investigate the room, but she found nothing with it. That was not encouraging.

What had just happened? Why had the palace appeared out of nowhere like that? It obviously hadn't been real given that it was gone now. Not only had it appeared, but it had appeared right when she'd been thinking of it.

That thought caused her to pause. From what she'd learned so far, the ship that they were living on was alive in some sense of the word at least and that it had some very unusual capabilities. Had it... done that? Could it do that? It was hard to believe that it was a coincidence that the castle had appeared just when she'd been thinking of it.

She tried again, this time picturing Pirate's Swoop in her mind as she'd last seen it. Sure enough it appeared just as she'd remembered it. The tall walls, although still in the process of being redone since she and George had moved in, were beautiful and the image of her home managed to put a smile on Alanna's face.

As she walked the halls of the Swoop though, the smile faded some. Being able to see her home was nice, but it was the people who really made it home. She prevented her thoughts of drifting to George though, not sure what would happen if she wished to see him. There was no doubt that she would love to see George, but she wanted to see the real him and not some imitation, no matter how real whatever controlled this room could make him seem.

Still, she'd enjoy what she could get from the experience and if this was the only way to see her home then so be it. Her mind turned again, this time picturing the Bloody Hawk village in her mind, the Great Southern Desert all around them.

Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new subthread. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounds out to all the podmates through the ship.

In the Pod Caverns, there are the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There is condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slide out onto the floors, covered in slime.

--

( There was nothing... )

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. They are also told they must read information about their current situation and a survival guide with their new omnicom. New crew-mates might see a tall dragonish guy with wings (but don't call him that) and purple girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]