It had only taken Snow a few minutes after waking up to realize that he still had his powers. As strange and unfathomable as it was (for crying out loud, he saw that it was gone), there his l'Cie brand was, easily noticeable on his left forearm and, from what Snow could recall, in the same form it was in right before he had lost it. But then again, he couldn't be quite sure, he wasn't very keen on studying the mark very closely when he did have it - he just knew that it had been pretty well along. A round, eye-shaped pattern inside of a rectangular brand, arrowed edges branching off in all directions. But it was no longer the deep black color that it had been, it was glazed over in a dull grey. And though it made him uneasy to see the brand there again, he was relieved that it was at least frozen. No ever-present countdown to turning into a monster.

He had felt the rush of icy powers when he tried to use them down in the pod chambers, even though they had been promptly cut off by one of Stacy's tentacles. So Snow'd be able to fend for himself (and protect Serah. Which was ten times more important than fending for himself, really), since despite what he'd read and what he'd heard so far, he was skeptical of many things. He had dealt with enough to easily trust some voice in his head that later reprimanded him and ordered him to follow the rules when he had no idea what was happening. He never did like rules, and he especially didn't like the idea of some giant talking creature trying to play puppeteer with people and simply expect them to go along with it. He'd had enough of that. So having his powers back was a point up in feeling even a little more safe.

But as he stood in the city, in an area large enough to both test this out and for any passersby to easily spot him, he had one more thing he wanted to try. "Let's see if you two are still here, too." Snow spoke, seemingly to nobody in particular. He raised his arm, a small, ice-blue orb forming around and rising from his brand. "Shiva!" he called, and a glyph-like pattern materialized in mid-air in front of him. From it rose two figures, completely contrasted from the other. One dark, one light - the summoned sisters looked more like robots of some sort, adorned with chains and huge, bulky pieces of metal. The large wheels clearly visible on their bodies gave the (very obvious) impression that the two could combine into a vehicle of some sort. They landed gracefully in front of Snow, who just smiled widely at the them.

"Hey! Long time no see!" he greeted with a wave. "I can't believe you two wound up sticking around, too! At least getting around'll be a little easier, now."

Stacy's voice came over the comm, blaring across the entire ship.

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

The mouth in the main sculpture on Obs Deck opened, revealing a screen with the image of a mottled blue and purple planet, rotating slowly.
( Read more... )

Time for another mission, then.

Somewhere on Stacy, a fleshy wall opened and ejected four people. Sherry turned and kicked the wall as it closed.

“I hope this isn’t another stupid test,” she grumbled and pushed her hair from her eyes.

“I don’t think it is, that... thing did thank us,” Namira patted the little girl’s shoulder. “So, I imagine that our testing is over, for the moment.”

[Not a moment too soon.] Nehaalista signed as she stalked off towards where she hoped the Hub was.

“I’ll take Sherry-chan back to her parents,” Miku offered. “I imagine they’re worried.” Especially if they only just realized their child had been missing for two weeks or so. Namira nodded and Sherry frowned. “With her permission, of course.” She looked back at the little girl, who seemed a bit annoyed that she was being talked over (so to speak, as she was nearly the same height as the petite Japanese girl).

“I can find my way on my own, but fine.” Sherry crossed her arms. “Can we get going? I don’t want GLaDOS to change her mind.”

“Absolutely. I have a mabari to find, myself. Goodbye, you two. I’m sure we’ll see one another soon.” Namira smiled and hurried off to care for Hakkar.

“Alright, Sherry-chan. I think it’s... this way,” Miku put her hand on Sherry’s shoulder and led her down the hallway.

((ooc note: If you want to interact with anyone, just put their name in the subject line. Miku and Sherry are available together (before Sherry is delivered back to her parents) and apart (after Sherry’s been delivered), just let me know. :3))

In a truly feline move, Arhu wandered into the cafeteria as nonchalantly as if he hadn't been missing for who-knows-how-long. His tail waved through the air above him, and he approached Stacy's sensor and seated himself neatly, tail wrapped around his feet.

"I'd like something to eat, please," he requested, as polite as he could manage when his stomach was rumbling loudly enough that he was surprised no one else could hear it. When he received the standard bowl of whatever-it-was, he stared down at it, and tried to summon some sort of enthusiasm. He hadn't been enamored of this the first time he'd had it, and he wasn't thrilled now.

“Look, these ehhif might let you push them around, but I’m not going to. I’d like something better to eat than this.” After a moment, courtesy-lessons chimed in again. “Please.”

When nothing further manifested itself, he put his ears back, and stomped one paw hard on the urge to create a wizardry that would reduce the scanner – and that who part of Stacy – to slop of a similar consistency. Though…that made him think.

Hey, what all is in this? He stared down at his slop, and listened to the Whisperer as She gave him the components. Everything he technically needed, but in a form that was worse than the dry food the parking garage’s ehhif left out for him. Still, Arhu was not limited to just accepting this situation.

“Fine. You’re not going to give me real food, then I’ll make this real food.” Laying out a transport circle, he popped himself and the bowl over to a table out of the way.

“’Scuse me,” he muttered to the occupants that were at the other end of the table, mostly ignoring them as he started pacing a circle around the bowl. A few quick consultations with the Whisperer, and he started reading the spell to take the basic components in the glop and re-form it into a much more meat-like substance. At least the texture would be right then, and he’d certainly eaten worse-tasting things.

Chris hadn't had a good beer in what felt like a million years. In the aftermath of Kijuju, he'd been too busy worrying and seeing to Jill's condition to focus much on the partying, though the two of them had a raincheck to catch up with one another as soon as she was cleared by the medics.

Since she wasn't here, though, he knew she wouldn't have begrudged him for seeking out a little liquid refreshment in the meantime. Besides, Chris felt like he'd earned it with how quickly he'd been able to roll with all these bizarre circumstances.

So tonight, there was a big guy drinking at the Drunken Dragon.

"I feel like I'm sitting in Lord of the Rings," he muttered, mostly to himself, "But the beer makes it feel more like heaven." He glanced at the person drinking next to him at that, smirking a bit.

The ship Stacy, Alistair had found, was a very large place.

He'd spent a good amount of time simply wandering around and exploring, poking his nose in any number of places it likely hadn't belonged. No one had chased him out of anywhere, which may have just been luck on his part.

Well, he hadn't broken anything!

When he had wandered into Hydroponics, he'd almost felt at home. Oh, it wasn't Redcliffe Village or the Chantry or anything like that, but there were real living and growing things there, and it wasn't quite as...Squishy? Creepy? Either were very accurate adjectives, in Alistair's mind.

This was, perhaps, why he'd been hiding out here for the time being. It gave him a chance to think without panicking anyone with the smell of the smoke wafting from his ears.

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. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake 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.]

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | 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... )