Zuko's mind was in a whirl. He had wasted, and would unfortunately continue to waste, so much time. The Avatar was free on the ship, and although Zuko could easily find him at a moment's notice, he had no way to restrain the airbender - and even if he could, no way to deliver his prize to his father.

How had he been able to do other things? Meditate? Explore the ship? Train the peasants in arts of war that their backwards breeding would never allow them to fully comprehend? It was all of it a waste of time, made tolerable only because these small actions might help him restore his nation - and with it, his chance to get his honor back.

He needed a plan, and he didn't have one. It was driving the prince of the Fire Nation crazy.

He stalked the halls, an unfamiliar person with a familiar scar, gleaming vivid and new, his armor too heavy to be practical in the ship's warmth. The scar was much more visible now that most of Zuko's head was shaved, the remaining portion of his hair pulled back into a dramatic ponytail.

His stalking brought him to a podroom in the Media Library, where he sat down, heaving a frustrated sigh. He was without a plan, without honor, and his feet hurt. The whole situation was intolerable. As if in response to his mood, music began to issue forth, the angry words and harsh chords combining into a cacophonous noise. It was bitter with rage and disappointment. It spoke to his troubled soul.

Kaya's visit to the bazaar, along with the credits in hand, had put her in the redecorating mood. Everyone was still starting to get used to the difference between her and when she had Katara's memories: she figured it was time to show how alike they weren't. A few days ago, she had promised to start redecorating the room she shared with Alex, and this was the perfect opportunity.

She started by purchasing goza mats, getting some sliding doors (which were a lot heavier then they looked, thank goodness for Chase's training), and very pretty fish tapestry. Once those were collected, she smiled to herself and started to look for things she could get for Alex, specifically, this black light he spoke about.

She had also picked up a few outfits and some foodstuffs for the Outsiders and Matt, smiling to herself. This way her money would be used up soon, but at least she was starting to show some of her individuality. For the moment, she was sitting at a cafe, sipping a refreshing alien drink, goggles atop her head.

||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

All over the ship, Stacy's voice continues to repeat the announcement until all crew members have reported to the Orbs Deck. Once there a dossier appears on the screen. Next to the dossier is the picture of a rotating planet, one that is almost entirely covered in cities with a few small patches of green ocean, and the planet's stats:

Planet Designation: XaXing
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Minimal flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: A significant number of species of intelligent life. Most are not native.
Water: 30% of the planet's surface.

Climate: Similar to Earth's Mediterranean regions. [Click here for cultural equivalents for non-Earth cultures.]
Landscape: 96% of land is developed for primarily commercial purposes.
Air: Normoxic concentration: 29% oxygen, 60% nitrogen, 3% xenon, 6% trace gases, such as hydrogen, krypton, and argon.

Air Pressure: 14.499 pounds per square inch.
Sky: Green with gold clouds.
Sun: A class D3L, yellow star.

Warnings: Some inhabitants may not follow fair trading practices.

Mission: None. Shore leave is now initiated. Requisition of resources is recommended. Each crew member will be provided with 3000 XaXingian credits.

It's time for another Shore Leave, guys.

[[ooc: Shore Leave is go! Post reactions to the announcement here]]

 Well, that was something he hadn't really expected. He had gone so long without ever having a run-in with the crazy AI, GLADoS. It really wasn't nearly as bad as he had expected. There were just a bunch of interesting mazes. There were no security bots trying to kill him, or even a lava pit, or anything really extreme like that.

He was happy that at least he knew to not expect the promised cake, though it was a bitter comfort, not knowing what happened to his friends during his time gone. He pulled out his omnicomm as he oriented himself and began walking towards Engineering as he reviewed the recent posts to the network and typed out a message.

He hoped to find Billy, working away in the department that he'd come to love so much. Maybe even Sam or Anwei would come to visit him there as well. If not, at least he would be able to get some work done and try to get back to normal.

Alex made his way down to med-bay, wondering what new information Sam might have uncovered after all this time. He tried running over in his head the tests that Sam had recently given him and what might be different, but in truth, he had stopped paying attention to the tests themselves and just listened to what Sam needed him to do as he talked with him.

He yawned and stretched as he walked into med-bay, far more comfortable than he had been with the place his first time. He was still loosing sleep because of his missing friend, but even that was beginning to heal, however slowly. He briefly wondered if Sam could give him something that would make sleep easier for him before calling out, "S-Sam? You c-called me?"

It happened in the middle of the night, as it always seemed to. Billy drifted off to sleep at Ronnie's side that night, full with enough contentment and happy dreams as he ever managed those days, and awakened to a cold and empty feeling in his heart. It was a familiar pain, but more intense: his bond to Katara silenced. For the first time in months, he was completely alone in his head.

Since he'd spent the vast majority of his life that way, he hadn't expected it to be so difficult, but what Renne had warned him about once was proving to be all too true. Losing a Bond was as painful as losing a part of yourself, because that was what they had become, hadn't it? And he didn't have a connection left to help him through the grief this time: just Billy alone, as it always should've been. It left him experiencing an even stronger wave of sorrow than before, the grief Katara's presence had held back the first time now running free.
( Running from it all... )
((ooc: I know this is a lot of tl;dr bawwing, so it can stand alone. Replies are open if you really want to and your character would see for any reason, though---I know it's hard one to reply to. It's fairly quiet so that the cast can find out and react on their own time. He won't be in any mood to make announcements, I just had to write this while the energy was there.))

 Alex sat on the floor of engineering, off by the corner where he usually worked, with the sheet and pillow off of his bed. He propped himself against what appeared to be the empty chassis for some old terminal, and got himself consumed in a game of Galactica. Something about those older actiony games was oddly soothing in a way.

Steady trance beats still poured from his speakers, just loud enough to be heard softly from the door to the department. He at least seemed to be doing a lot better with it this time.

It was once again time for Billy to assess the progress being made in this seemingly endless war with tasks and deadlines. So far, reorganization of the Engineering department was about 25% complete. Not terrible for a day's work, but he could certainly do better. Several projects were stalled pending discussion from the involved parties. His social time and interactions with the Rangers had taken a hit due to all of this.
( Time for the grind again! )
As Billy wandered back and forth throughout the day, a stuffed backpack always accompanied him. Throughout the day, the loaded-down teenager made trips between a number of places on the upper levels and a particular house in the City. Distracted as he was with the constant juggling of omnicom, comm ring, tools, and items, he eventually wore himself out.

Where he ended up shouldn't be a surprise: in the city park, fast asleep, sprawled across an assortment of odd items. Somehow, he'd note when he woke up, he doubted this was what had been meant by the recommendation for 'personal time'.

((ooc: The two location tags basically mean you can catch him anywhere: asleep with shiny stuff to steal or rushing back and forth between the different areas of the ship. Just make a note of where you found him.))

 Alex sat beneath the shade of a large tree in a decent sized park. Those familiar with New York might recognize the sky scrapers in the distance, even if they didn't recognize the park itself.  Parked on a small service road was an ice cream truck with a merry vendor, who claimed that it was customer appreciation day, and was thus giving ice cream away for free.

Alex was already enjoying a chocolate and strawberry cone covered in sprinkles and caramel syrup, wondering if anyone would bother showing up to spend time with him, or even be interested in sensorium ice cream in the first place.

Either way, Alice seemed thrilled, as she pulled what appeared to be pink chocolate chips from a jar labelled "Yogis".  Reaching out to pet Alice, Alex laughed a bit, "Don't get used to eating s-so many." sensorium food might not mess with her health, but once they got home, it would be the real thing once again. He figured that she deserved the treat as much as he deserved the ice cream anyway.

[OOC: Post to Alex or to other people if you'd like.]

Warriors? Easy. Spellcasters? Not his style, but not a problem. Scientist and tech-types? He can work with that.

Weird emotion-eating power-generating kids? Uh, that one's a bit out of his league.

So they'd wing it.

As was his wont for training, the Overlord commandeered a sensorium and set up a pretty generic fighting field, rolling green hills with Prinnies wandering around getting into trouble and saberkitties playing with overly large balls of string.

There, the book waited.

Those who had decided not to undergo the rituals were given the option of staying near the observation deck, or in the small settlement near the edge of the trees.

The buildings of the settlement were made of the same stone as the wall, complete with the tribal markings, and people filled the streets, mostly consisting of those waiting for friends. Several more Moai could be seen, oftentimes around groups of Rapa Nui, dwarfing them in size. There were many more Rapa Nui scampering through the crowds, fixing things up here and there, or cleaning messes.

[Go forth and socialize!]

Once those who decided to go along on the mission were gathered on the Obs Deck and had time to go over the mission briefing, the detachment procedures began.

As with the missions before, the doors to the Obs Deck closed before it detached itself from Stacy, tethered by a massive umbilical cord. Those who had been on missions before would find the experience familiar if still somewhat unpleasant, but for those of whom this was their first mission, the sudden lack of gravity and lurching feeling as they entered the atmosphere would come as a surprise.

Thankfully though, the ride was quickly over as they landed safely on the planet below, the gravitational dampeners of the Obs Deck gently dropping the crew members back on their feet. One of the walls opened up, forming a ramp to the ground below. There was a sudden, slight gust of air as the door opened as the thick air rushed in. Even so, the air felt quite warm and refreshing.

Looking outside, the crew would see the bright yellow sun looming overhead, quite close in comparison to the sun on most planets. A handful of small, silver clouds dotted the blueish purple sky.

Ahead of them stood a rather impressive looking plateau, surrounded by a tall, ornate stone wall which was covered in tribal markings. Directly ahead was a large gate through the wall, with several small stone buildings in front of it. Beyond the gates, a larger settlement could be seen. Surrounding the plateau and covering the surrounding region were numerous strange, blue and purplish trees and plants.

[ooc: hold up until subthreads are set up]

[ooc2: ready! feel free to tag!]

 The hanger was a rather impressive space, filled with all sorts of ships of all sorts of sizes. Alex looked around slack-jawed. Of course he knew where it was, it wasn't so hard to find when you could call out the name of the place you wanted to go when using the anti-gravity transports.

Overwhelmed by the size of the place he looked to the Doctor with a nervous smile. "S-so, I g-guess we should just s-start looking?" 

It seemed like a daunting challenge, to search through the whole place, but in the end at least it would be worth it. He would finally get to look at the real thing. "I c-can't wait to s-see what it really looks like. The s-sensoriums just aren't the s-same."

( One heck of a cyber-mess to untangle )
Predictably, as that memory surfaced, his circuits glowed with the memory-sharing procedure and the room took on a Grid-like appearance. Dark, solidly shaped hills, with pulsing green veins to remind him that he was still Stacy's program. It was rather startling to Tron, who jumped back and sought out a connection with the perpetrator.

"Could you ask permission before copying my data?"

Anwei was jumping around the Hub - literally. With firm strokes of her arms and legs, she leaped from tentacle-base to tentacle-base, circling the vast room. Her hair fluttered wildly around her head in the anti-grav field, and she was sweating a little with the exertion.

She'd kept up a running commentary to Stacy about what she was doing in the back of her throat – the same way she used to talk to Horanckk. When Stacy suggested she try the Sensoriums for exercise, though, she demurred. The idea of rooms that could take things out of her mind and make them real made her shiver.

After three complete circuits of the Hub, she came to a halt and consulted her omnicom, which had been filming the whole time. Carefully, she marked the tunnels that were never entered by passers-by, the tentacles that hung limp rather than undulating. Someday, maybe soon, she would want to see if she could get into those unused tunnels, and see what might be in there. But for now, she rolled up her denim shirt and tied it to a tentacle with some blue string (making extra certain that all the pockets were sealed), marked out a large triangle on the wall with that same string, and began something that looked like dancing.

It was not dancing. It was drill for free-fall unarmed combat. Her arms and legs moved in long coordinated scything motions, her fingers grabbing and clawing at imaginary opponents (she was not grabbing with her toes because of the binding material of her plantsuit). In her ears she remembered her drill instructor bellowing as it criticized every falter and hesitation. She deliberately did not think of her first dance instructor and his tiny, cutting whip.

When she drifted out into the flow of traffic, she used her tie-line to move back against the wall and start again. It would be pretty obvious to anyone watching that she was doing some sort of structured exercise.

With the help of Minion #1 Tavros, Bowser found his way to the Sensoriums and wasted no time recreating huge swaths of the Mushroom Kingdom, cycling through various locales as fast as he could. After wasting copious amounts of time going HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING GWAHAHAHAHA, the Koopa King calmed down enough to remember that he had a duel with a certain book Overlord('s minions) to think about. Bowser decided to go with a flat platform of rock inexplicably floating above a sea of lava, deep beneath the earth- his favored battlefield, back when he'd stolen those 120 stars and sealed everyone in those paintings (just... you know, without the bombs that Mario had thrown him into).

And then it was time to warm up. Bowser cracked his knuckles...

A few minutes later, the Koopa King skidded backwards on all fours, his clawed feet leaving deep gashes in the rock as he braced himself. A split-second later, Bowser catapulted forward with a roar, swinging at his opponent with enough force to smash boulders- and only found air as the unassuming, somewhat chubby mustachioed man in overalls jumped out of the way with impossible speed. Grim-faced, the plumber flicked his wrist, flinging three fireballs before he even touched the ground.

Bowser shielded himself against the first two with his forearms. With a laugh, the hulking dragon turtle straightened up and contemptuously swatted away the last one- "ARGH!!"- before immediately regretting it because OH GOD that stings. Frantically waving his injured hand to cool it down, Bowser snapped his fingers with his GOOD hand. "Goombas! To me!!"

"GOO-RAH!" A horde of squat fungoids dashed toward the plumber just as Bowser fell back, but the human turned on a dime and jumped onto the first Goomba, stomping it flat and catapulting himself onto the next one. In fact, the plumber's feet never touched the ground as he worked his way through the horde, right toward Bowser-

- and the Koopa King immediately sent a stream of fire in Mario's direction. The battle was once again joined.

What a day. Just... holy crap, what a day. Tavros had been unexpectedly sent away on a strange mission, one that had forced him to question his very identity. Though he'd arrived back on Stacy, safe and sound except for a small cut on his arm, he hadn't really had a chance to process everything that happened before more people were released from the pods. The obs deck quickly filled with exotic creatures and familiar faces, and Tavros of course got himself lost in all the confusion.

Meeting all those new people and running into some of his troll friends had been great, but eventually the deck became a bit too difficult to navigate in a wheelchair. After one last look around for Alice -- he never expected Alex to show up -- Tavros absconds to the blocks. It's good to be back in the little room he's come to call home. It's empty, but he figures Alex will drop back in eventually.

In the meantime, he heads for the gaming table and sorts through his Fiduspawn cards.

Man, he missed these too.

All things considered, it's good to be back.

 Alex generally didn't spend much time in the cafeteria, but Alice needed to eat normally even if Alex didn't. This time though, he had the Doctor with him as well. He lead them the whole way there, feeling a little reminiscent of his first day on the ship. Even though the two acted very different, there was something about them that felt the same. 

After instructing Stacy that he only wanted Alice's food, he turned back to the Doctor with a grimace. "I-it's p-probably not the best you've t-tasted, but it's m-made as a p-perfectly balanced diet, s-so at least I know Alice is e-eating healthy." Not that Alice could possibly eat the amount of food offered by the ship. Most of it ended up in his pockets and kept feeding her for a few more days. 

Alice, who had happily ridden on the Doctor's shoulder, took the first opportunity to jump over to Alex and climb down onto the tray. She didn't like the food here nearly as much as she did in the sensoriums, but it still was food, and she was hungry. She grabbed  onto the edge of the bowl the slop was served in and began gnawing at it enthusiastically.

She thought it would be impossible at first: the idea of keeping the area around the Outsider's hotel that cold, and keeping snow on the ground with just the use of water? It sounded crazy, and Katara had been wondered if she was skilled enough to do it. It was why she and Sokka hadn't had their Southern Water Tribe thing: it would have just been re-imagined in the Sensorium, and in a way that was almost cheating. The real experience, ice cold water and all, needed to be had, and there were certainly enough people on Trans 9 who could have used a little playtime.

That was, of course, before she had time to think. In time, she was beginning to see that where she had failed was really in her own confidence level: she could see her limitations, and didn't go further than what she could do. The longer she did that though, was more time she realized she had to be trained in other ways, if water wasn't available. It was hard to think about, but she had to be ruthless in her ability to be able to take down a person if she needed. This kind of fighting, though, felt much like murder. So after the Yeerk incident, she made a promise to never raise a hand against a person in that way, like her anger towards Jet or Zuko in the past. To do that would edge closer to that place, and she needed to remember the true goal: standing against the Ohm.

That said, she learned a great deal of other things, like how to super extend her breath, how to manipulate her body much more than she had before, and how to strengthen your feel of "wave" so much your arms were hardly ever tired. Now she found that this was possible, all that was needed was the water. With Stacey's approval, this happened.

And so Katara got to work, bobbing and weaving, guiding the water to solid water, using force to create that into powdered snow. It was work that would have severely diminished her in the past, but now it was simply a joy to be bending again, to have her element all around her instead of just contained in a small pouch, and she let loose. The snow was an interesting sensation, it was like shaping ice and then shaking it between her fingers: it littered the ground all around the Outsider's backspace, and she was glad that they had that backspace to begin with. She figured that once this was over, the water would bee used for the sauna, so she figured one last bit of fun would be a good thing.

"Okay!" She said after awhile, looking around her. "Now hopefully people will come!"

"Pues no pueda andar, ya mi esposa amada," Eva sings aloud inside an empty church, a strange conglomeration between the one she visited as a child and the one she dragged her son and husband to as an adult. She lifts up her hand and puts her middle finger and thumb together.

Snap, Macy's, 1990. Blank faces bustling around, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas blaring over speakers installed in the ceiling, tinsel and red plastic ornaments in the corners of the building. Some man dressed as Santa has a kid on his lap.

"From now on, our troubles will be miles away." Eva joins in with the radio. What with the holidays coming around for a lot of the Earth crew mates, caroling has given her compulsions an acceptable outlet. People are far less likely to comment on someone singing a Christmas carol than someone talking to themselves incessantly or humming snatches of classical music to themselves.

The Sensoriums truly are a wonderful thing, and she's been in them for well over an hour now, testing what they can do. She's gone back into memories and conjured ideal vacation spots and parades. She hasn't drawn up anyone she knew, but as she gets more confident she requests more crowds, and started up the habit of clicking her fingers for each transition.

"Here we are, in olden days, in golden days of yore…"

Snap, their empty living room, 1989. A stocking full of candy and action figures lies in front of her on the table. Eva looks around, at the parts she knows are hers and the parts she doesn't remember, the parts Stacy must have made up.

"Oh, God, this is exactly as depressing as I thought it'd be."

Snap, and the room is gone, and she's standing inside a stop-motion world of clay while Hermey and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer seek out fame and fortune.