The venue itself was a strange place to discuss what they were discussing. It was a grave matter and they'd known it would be a grave matter the moment they got the mission briefing, even if it left out certain key details. (They knew who they were meant to do a favor for, but only now did they find out what that favor was.)

That was why the place it was being discussed was so odd.

People could live their whole lives without expecting to meet a group of angels in a bowling alley.

They could also live their whole lives without expecting to be asked to do with Grif, Kaya, Sherlock, Azula, and John were being asked to do.

[ooc: posting order: Grif, Kaya, Sherlock, John, Azula.]

The two groups were free, Punchy had been safely left in a shield bubble, and now that Brainiac 5 was free from his mother's control and closer to himself again, it was only a matter of stopping Brainiac 4 from enacting her plans to harm the crew.

That task was probably easier said than done, of course.

By now Kang had gotten a chance to make a comm post letting the newbies know about the Drunken Dragon Tavern, and Nima was preparing for a rush. She moved athletically around the bar, refilling drinks and recovering used mugs without jostling an elbow or spilling a drop. A barmaid well-schooled in a martial art with a heavy emphasis on dodging and weaving was worth her weight in unspilled beer.

With all her current tables attended to, she stopped by the door to be sociable as new people came in.

[OOC: If your character wants to speak to Kang, just make a note of it in your tag.]

Who: Kaya, open to all.
Where: Sensoriums
Summary: Ed not remembering her is sort of the last straw, so she's getting her aggressions out.
Warnings: Um. Are there any? TBA, I guess?

( Azula had called it denial, and Kaya thought she was wrong. )

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicomms and comm rings. They are also told they must read information about their current situation and a survival guide with their new omnicomm. New crewmates might see a tall dragonish guy with wings (but don't call him that), a large afro attached to a smaller girl, and talking ponies 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. But thankfully this time, there's a system that was set up to aid the new crew members with a few more experienced ones.

[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. Big brother/sister, there will be a thread for you as well!]

Less than an hour after the ship leaves Agrestic's orbit, an announcement is broadcast throughout Stacy.

|| Attention, crew. Your crewmates, Howard Bassem and Charles Merriman, have been apprehended attempting to desert. They will now be given Punishment. According to established guidelines, you are all requested to report to the Observation to witness the Punishment. Attendance is not mandatory, but highly suggested. This will serve as a reminder of the consequences of treason and desertion. ||

On the observation deck, Archon Yavek, Archite Rekkti, two other Daligig and a handful of Kessek soldiers stand outside a spherical force field. Inside the bubble, Orc and Howard are suspended by tentacles looping around their wrists. Orc's ceased thrashing around and struggling against his restraints; rust-colored fissures have developed around his shoulders and forearms from the strain, but now he simply hangs there, looking defeated. Howard's nose is bleeding, and every time a drop falls to the bottom of the forcefield there's a small sizzle. He's weeping and begging the Daligig with every plea possible, but they act as if they aren't listening. Instead, they wait for an audience.

Of all the inane and stupid items to come across in her wanderings...

It stood about chest high on her with little grips on either side and buttons at it's base with familiar faces on it. Tentatively she pushed one of the buttons and sure enough a little doll popped out with her face.

It was far more beautiful a face then she remembered, but then again the game had been designed by people who were loyal to the Fire Nation. And there was no greater hero to the Fire Nation then their princess...except of course the Fire Lord.

Another button press brought her a doll of her brother and she placed them in the pegs on top of the small tower. Their feet clicked into place perfectly. It was like not a day had passed.

With a sullen and half hearted smile she tapped the button once, twice, three times watching the little doll punch her brother in the face. It was oddly soothing.

But how to get it back to the air temple from the city?

The term ironic didn't even begin to describe the situation Azula found herself in.

She stood gazing out over the city from one of the higher balconies of the Southern Air Temple with a blade in each hand watching the mechanical minions of that insipid voice crawling through the city destroying anything worth their attention.

Any time now they would turn their attention to one of the last bits of airbender culture, and she was loath to admit she would have to defend it.

Any other day she'd have let it burn, possibly even set fire to it herself, but now the stakes were higher and the situation had adjusted.

For one, she was living there. What few items she owned were stored in a small safe room deep within the temple. A room that she had felt safe in. Her time spent sharing a body with Nima had taught her one invaluable fact. As much as she looked down on her, Nima was trustworthy.

And so to protect the one place on the ship where she felt slightly less like she was going to be murdered in her sleep she had abandoned Kaya and Zouichi in Hydroponics and had escaped to make her stand here.

A snort and low whine reminded her she was not alone.

She sighed and turned to face one of Nima's Glow Sloths. It had been separated from the pack and Azula had found it in Hydroponics. Against her better judgement she brought it with her. If nothing else she could always eat it she supposed.

At least that was how she justified it to herself. She certainly didn't care about it. Either way she shooed it back into the temple where it was less exposed and turned her eyes back to the city.

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.

Following you awakening and talking with a few of the members through the communication systems by way of the three kind people who had awakened her, Nezaitben realized how the crew was stuck in a terrible mess.

So many of them felt sad and depressed. Considering the entire ship, it wasn't too hard to see why. The next day, there had been an unusual amount of magical flowers spreading all over the ship. Nothing that damaged the controls (she might be naive in the way humanoids were, but Nezaitben was no fool either) but they were found in the most unexpected of places. Her own awakening area was now blooming in a flower paradise, the wooden palace standing proudly on top, the smell and pink cherry blossom strong enough to carry through most of the central city area where most people resided.

Yet the ship was still sad.

This would not do.

That night, or what passed as a night for in the ship, Nezaitben took to the 'sky', letting pieces of her own essence fall on top of the sleeping populace, or those that were not sleeping finding themselves feeling the need too. Enveloping the ship into a peaceful slumber, she searched their dreams. The powers granted to her by the pantheon of gods in her homeworld allowed Nezaitben to weave a series of dreamcatchers giving her the ability to see those whose hearts connected true.

These noble souls would do. Lead by example had always been her philosophy. She would give them a great gift - communication with each other in a single body, allowing them to share everything together. Their two soulcatchers were woven together that night into a single, grand ones, hanging in the garden's trees.

A few minutes later, the empty husks of the bodies that weren't being used showed up at her palace. With a smile, she welcomed them like her own children and began to dress them for their task.

That morning, some of the crewmen would wake up to a strange surprise...and that would just be the beginning of a long, strange misunderstanding and young gods trying too much to please everyone.

[OOC - Just a few rules. Keep in mind the listed rules. You can all start your own threads of waking up in the bodies of others. If you feel like leaving a 2nd post for other people to intact with them, start a reply to your own first post with OPEN header. That way everyone else will know where to post and if you don't feel like having an open interaction post right away, you won't have to!

There will also be another post for all the soulless characters to go around spreading joy and love, so look forward to that too!]

( Kaya entering the Sietch Tabr. )

Several hours would past before she emerged from the Sietch, but those that saw he would say she looked different: she stood straighter somehow, but she looked in a trance, one induced, and her eyes were bluer than they had ever been in the time they knew her. Her hair was loose around her, her feet bare, her clothes dusty and smelling faintly sweet, What was unmistakable was the look on her face: it was silent, accepting, but with a reserved joy that only one who asked would know.

When she wasn't with Zuko, Mai needed to find something to do that wasn't throwing knives at the wall. Even that got boring after a while. You could only practice so much before your muscles decided you needed to do something else. So, she'd taken up simply wandering through the city. It was decent exercise and she was less likely to run into people who wanted to ask her stupid questions. Or any of the Avatar's group, for that matter. After Ozai, she'd been avoiding them. Not out of any hatred toward them, but simply because she would rather not have to explain herself if any of them wanted to know why.

So, the city had its appeal. Until she found her old family home, anyway. It was her family's manor from the Fire Nation capital, but here, it stood on a side street, in between a walled manor made of adobe, with curving, elegant archways and a squat, steely, sullen looking building that looked more like a bunker than anything else. It was also empty. She wandered the hallways and for the first time, she realized how omnipresent the servants actually had been. She had been so used to seeing them out of the corner of her eye or just passing by on some chore that they'd become part of the scenery. PArt of the house.

Without them, it was strangely empty and quiet.

The garden was there, of course. As immaculate and well-trimmed as the last time she remembered seeing it (who or what kept it from overgrowing and becoming a disaster area was a mystery). The furniture was there, too. A bit dusty, but otherwise in perfect condition. She slowly settled onto a couch on a balcony that overlooked the street. Back home, the Fire Nation Palace was just across the street - she could see it in her mind's eye - and it had been a point of pride for her family that they had a town-house that close to the Fire Lord. It showed royal favor, her mother had told her once. Which was why her father had become governor of New Ozai, of course.

She slumped back against the cushions, feeling oddly homesick for the first time in a long, long while.

"Figures. I can't escape my parents, even when they're in slimy pods..."

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.]

Let it never be said that Stacy was not benevolent toward her crew. Truth was, she loved them, to the point of risking her own life. And thus, she'd been busy for quite some time... silently she had worked, trying to get into her own archives and cross-checking references. She was going to help boost morale and give them a gift - show them people they cared about, wake them up for a single day as proof that, yes, they were there, close by. She was going to give them a day to awaken, to see their loved ones again and to go back, knowing that their time would come one day or another...

It sounded so beautiful and poetic on theory. In reality, it could become a true disaster. Spent of most of the energies doing this task, in complete secrecy to keep it as a surprise, Stacy's never-ending work was only stopped by its own Warden program, which pulled the plug on the ship's search to find everyone at least someone they cared about. That, unfortunately, left her not only spent of energy which was dangerous in itself - but it also meant that some of the crew would be deprived of seeing their close ones, no doubt leaving some of them bitter.

The road to hell has always been paved by good intentions.

Stacy's voice was decidedly more cheerful than normal as she spoke to the entire ship.

|| Transmigration Nine crew, please report to the Observation Deck. I have a gift for you. ||

She repeated the request, and waited.

Once most of the crew had made their way there, she continued.

||I have been working on a...|| she couldn't quite find the proper word and settled on the next one, || present for you. While many of your records are locked to even me, I have worked to find the pods which contain people close to you. I...apologize if some of you may end up with no one, it is not my fault I...|| suddenly Stacy's voice seemed a little less cheerful, ||The Warden stopped me before I could finish everything completely. Please do not feel like I targeted you specifically, I really did my best to get as many of your friends and companions awake as possible for today.||

Now was the hardest part to explain.

||And that is, unfortunately, all that can be given to you. Because their avia are not yet ready to be properly awakened, they'll be here for a single day. Please make the most of it, so you can feel better and continue our mission with renewed vigor . I hope that meeting those that care about you will give you a boost of energy that you all need.|| Spoken like a mother who put her children before herself. ||But if you can...look at it this way, it means that they are here, and one day I will proudly awaken them properly when they are ready.||

Her voice was becoming strange as she went on. Not static-like, but raspy, like someone who was running out of breath.

||And I am afraid that I must go offline for a few hours due to the strain this is putting on...me...|| It sounded really painful for her to speak, completely spent and only going because she wanted to at least give them a proper last word. ||I...hope...you...will...be...happy...a...lit--||

For the first time in a long while, Stacy was completely silent.

[OOC: GO FOR IT.]

Morgan having made the call for anyone interested in their potential class to come meet them in the city, they awaited everyone who said they would be attending. The location itself, at least, was easily spotted by those looking for it, so Tim had approved the suggestion by Morgan for the meeting spot. And it did have a training room.

Tim himself was willing to give them a window of time to arrive, though he wanted to be organised and punctual enough to not keep people waiting either. At least they were able to mingle with each other in the mean time.

First they would have a meeting for those interested in assisting-- as teachers for specific skills or otherwise-- so that they had a firmer idea of where they stood with what they could teach. After that, of course, was the meeting for interested pupils, to organise. After that, they could get sanction to begin.

((ooc: Appropriate subthreads are up for everyone!))

 After dropping off some of the crew at Balisair, it was time for the crew to set course for Lirath. The situation greeting them wasn't the most promising.

The cracked surface of the moon called Lirath was one of its most unmistakeable features. One of the three moons of the planet Kehoe, it had been terraformed and served as a settlement for a hundreds of different species, some humanoid, some not. Despite occasional class struggles, environmental issues, and speciesism blocking their way, the darker parts of Lirath's past were largely left behind, and an era of peace and tolerance had reigned for quite some time. The only problems they'd had recently were with a terrorist group whose cause for their actions had been a mystery, but they weren't tied to any particular species or social group and had been likened to a cult and had largely gone quiet in recent years.

Now the peace on the moon of Lirath had been shattered by the invasion of the Ohm.

The capital city had been destroyed. Now, all that was left of the peoples of Lirath was evacuating from one of its smaller cities, one known as Smyteval. A desert city, existing in a valley in between a rocky range of canyons and mountains, even though it was in the low ground, the natural channels of rock served as bottlenecks for any Ohm attacking from the ground.

GIA squadrons patrolled in space, locked in explosive warfare, protecting the Bleed-gate that had been activated to see the evacuated ships to the refugee world, and a shield created by massively-powerful shield generators extended around the city and up into the atmosphere, creating a shielded tunnel so ships could escape.

Word had come that there was a vital weapon to be deployed on Lirath, one that needed to be destroyed, hence why the Transmigration 9 had been called in. Given the diverse crew, and the ships that were in its hangar, there was at least someone or something on board that could blow the weapon up if it did show.

There was no sign of it yet. Right now, there was just chaos, streams of evacuees boarding ships, armies of Ohm engaged with GIA soldiers outside the shields, and forcefields that everyone hoped would hold out just a little bit longer.

The crew would be following Leon's orders but finding themselves fighting side-by-side with GIA platoons, full of various species that were currently all getting their asses kicked severely.

[ooc: STAGE 1 is now open! Please do not tage STAGE 2 until it's announced as open as well.]

[ooc: STAGE 2 is now open!]

After a few days -- weeks -- however long he'd been here, Morgan had finally settled into what he considered to be an adequate training regimen, for those times when he wasn't needed in Medical.

As a general rule, he began his day in the Sensorium, shaping it in the image of the mountaintop dojo he favored. One lone building atop a peak in the midst of a mountain range, lacking walls so the cool, thin air could drift through as he ran through forms and katas. A path wound its way around the peaks, and the frigid springs that formed small lakes and streams that poured off the edges in grand waterfalls. Next to this path ran a series of poles on which he ran, or jumped, when his regimen called for that sort of exercise.

Training in a simulated environment like this was old hat.

After he finished there, it was off to the river, where he (with some effort) persuaded his plantsuit to retract till it resembled closer to a bathing suit than anything. For what felt, at least, like an hour or two, the Akashic stood motionless in the river, submerged up to his neck. Legs spread, arms out, and hair streaming behind him in the current, he meditated. Harmony and moving in tune with the universe were key to his philosophy, after all. The currents, the flow of water around his fingers and limbs, and the silence were magnificent for that sort of understanding.

Then, off to the W.I.T.C.H. bus! Since Kaya had so kindly allowed him use of its training facilities, he made good use of that offer. This section of his training he devoted to melee weapons -- primarily his sword, of course, but he allotted time for other swords, staffs, daggers and knives, and tonfa as well.

And last, perhaps the oddest of all training exercises if one didn't know that to the mind of an Akashic, all things are martial arts: Morgan returned to the sensorium, not to fight or exercise or run, but to play. Electric guitar in hand, voice lifted in defiance of his one-held belief that he simply sounded terrible, and whatever backing was necessary conjured by environment, he rocked out, mixing up from simple guitar covers to lead guitar and vocals in full songs.

That lasted until he was exhausted, satisfied, or -- admittedly -- hit hard enough by nostalgia that continuing became prohibitive. Then it was time to clean up, relax, and see what else he had to do.

Azula hadn't had alot of luck with the Sensoriums before, typically they reflected her own shattered psych and that was miserable for her on every level.

But with Zuko's help sucker Azula had found ways to calm her mind when it began whirling too fast.

It was all about fire, the life giver, the destroyer. The fire inside her that kept her going.

And so she entered the Sensorium today with a controlled confident walk and brought the world up around her.

Fire Nation Capital during the Fire Days Festival had always been one of Azula's favorite times in the past. She could walk through the festival with respect and without fear. People moved to let her pass, she never had to stand in line for the things she wanted to buy and the entertainment was always top class.

And it didn't hurt that she had gone to more then a few of these with Mai and Ty Lee.

Still this recreation didn't fill her with the warmth and nostalgia she had been hoping for. She moved through the crowd of simulations quietly and felt something else, something different and all together unpleasant.

Regret? Homesick?

The stalls of colorful masks and puppets, spicy food and beautiful trinkets did little distract her from this and she turned her eyes to the sky as beautiful golden paper lanterns glistened and began to lift into the sky powered by the flames of her people.

"How many of you even wondered where I vanished to?" She wondered out loud though none of them made notice. "Did even one of you object to his rule? Or were you all too pathetic and cowardly to even consider getting involved in your own futures?"

She looked back to the lights in the sky and tried to focus on the fire again. Even if this simulation wasn't pleasing her she wouldn't let her own delicate mental state ruin her festival.

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.]