San knew that when people wanted to go to the Sensorium it was for two reasons. The first was to escape the oppressive strangeness of Stacy's body. She could hardly blame them, wanting some memory made reality, some fantastic setting for training or celebration. After all, even she wanted the forest's embrace more and more with every passing day. She wanted to go home.

But the other reason was more direct— people went there to talk to the ship-spirit in what passed for relative privacy. It was true, Stacy could be spoken to, and with, nearly anywhere onboard, but it was somehow almost tradition to do so in those close little rooms of vision and illusion.

San looked on the walls that had not yet been made into anything but what they were, now, and raised her eyes upwards. It seemed like the right direction to look when speaking to Stacy, as if she lived in the sky, so much taller than anything, despite that she was all around San.

"Stacy!" San called, boldly, "I need you!"

San's shoulder was not healed. But pain was relative, and if she'd been at home, in her forest, then this would be nothing next to the pit in her stomach. It was more important to stay sharp, to hunt this simulation of the Wilds instead of laying on her back and feeling her stomach burn with shame or guilt.

...or follow Ashitaka around.

She should know better than that, really. Ashitaka was the kind of human who made friends with everyone— it was enough to make her doubt he even was human. He didn't need her babysitting any more than she enjoyed trailing him like a lost pup. Laying in the plant temple was at least as rankling.

So, here she was, in a simulated forest, tracking a solitary deer through countless miles of wandering forest. The tree's rots snarled and knotted the ground like angry fingers twisted 'round a fistful of sand, they made tracking both easier and more difficult and walking treacherous. It was a good night, cool without being cold and breezy enough to mask the sounds of soft-padded feet on soil and root. The rotted leaves were soft, slipping under her stance like slimy tongues. She felt comfortable this way, the slow, patient, meditative crawl, tracking deer by spoor and foot-trail, eventually by sound and smell until you stood poised over them on a branch or a hill. The final run, hot blood against her hands and then a feast of copper-smell and salty-sweet meat. The simulation of her lost spear was light in her hand.

It was early yet, and San had yet to gain anything like that stalking closeness with her prey, but the deer was out there, and she would find it, very soon.

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 green-skinned alien 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... )