The sensoriums made for a convenient training ground for all the right reasons, but most of all because they allowed Motoko to cheat. It hardly seemed fair for the world around to be controlled by whatever constituted the strongest mind, or the most established, but on these proving grounds, as ever, fairness was not part of the equation.

The world was a sleepy summer day, warm with cicada song and dry, ragged grass, knee-high in places, scorched to the earth in others. An abandoned, decrepit skeleton of a Soviet military base dominated the landscape, dotted here and there with holes like dark hollow eyes among the crumbling walls and roofless, exposed innards. Once, this place had been alive, and now it was as bleached as bones in the grass, as nature retook what man had conquered.

Here and there the rusted-out remains of tanks slumped where they had been abandoned. Red paint, incongruously fresh, marked a series of them as targets at the far end of a carefully 'makeshift' firing range, though most sat aimlessly, unmarked and unattended. The place nearest the door was dominated by one such tank, perhaps in slightly better repair than the others, and perched upon it was the reason for all the fuss and trials. Major Kusanagi folded her arms and leaned her back against the treads, casting a sidelong look at what was left of Section Nine.

It was going to be a long day.

[ OOC: Wait for Subthreads, please. OKAY, GO GO GO GO! ]

Once things had settled down somewhat from the pod pop, once she had been assigned to a cabin and once she'd had a few days to relax and shove all her sudden anxieties about the world ending to somewhere else in the back of her mind, Sylia took her hardsuit for a test drive around the many vast hallways of the ship. The digital readouts had one hell of a time trying to give her data about the ship's layout and the composition of the walls, but most importantly it seemed to be running well and however long she'd spent in podsleep hadn't affected her performance. It felt good to wear it again.

Even if Nigel and Henderson's warnings about her condition were echoing in the back of her mind the whole time.

Once she was finished she set her suit on a table in engineering and set to work performing basic maintenance on it as best she could with the advanced tools set before her. It was a shame this place was so humid-- she worried about the suit's long-term performance and wished more than ever that Nigel was here. Sylia may have looked a little clueless there, examining each tool carefully before testing it out.

Oh well. At least the skinsuit gave her something else to wear besides the creepy plantsuits. It was so much more visually appealing. And there was no good reason why the plantsuits couldn't provide the luxury of cleavage. Honestly.

Asuka wasn't sure how long she'd been running that maze. It had seemed like forever to her. Just endless circles, following the commands of an AI, trying to get out. She could handle the puzzles and traps. She'd hated the isolation. Finally, she'd been spat back out into the welcome (the fact that she'd been relieved to see them disturbed her) corridors of Stacy again. She ran a hand through her hair with an irritated huff. How long had that taken, anyway? She needed to check up on her training and she needed to get back in the saddle. Quickly.

She headed off on the run - the sensoriums were calling her name. Grounded or not, she intended to take a virtual X-Wing out for a spin. It was the work of a few moments to call it up. She spent a few minutes circling the virtual craft, the virtual hangar deck stretching out white and empty around her. Yeah, she'd get in trouble if she got caught, but she wasn't going to get caught (although part of her was afraid of that and part of her wanted to go and see Arha). She shoved those feelings away. She wanted to have some fun first.

Everybody has to eat, even super serious Spartan-II's.

The Chief's in the mess hall, sitting by himself and working his way through a ration of tasteless nutrient mush while working on something on his omnicomm. The Chief's never been one to really take refuge in the sensoriums to make food taste better, he's gotten used to it and doesn't even think about it much.

He's not unaware of what's going on around him, but he has most of the comings and goings of the room basically tuned out.

This means someone should bother him, y/n?

Giles poked and prodded the glop he was apparently expected to consume as food.  He had a natural distrust of unfamiliar things like this, memories of the incident where they'd learned Riley was getting drugged food from the Initiative filtered into his mind. And anyway, it was terribly unappealing.  He wondered if this place even had a decent tea anywhere.

He was amazed at the array of beings already here, and he was always discovering someone or something new and strange. There were human sized creatures with spikes, possibly hedgehogs, like something out of one of those videogames the kids always played. There were robots or cyborgs.  There were many who appeared human but with certain differences from anyone he'd ever seen. There was a hawk a short distance down the table, making annoyed noises as it tried to scoop up beakfuls of the stuff.  There were also strange, centaur-like creatures that Giles would have sworn were demons back in his world. They didn't even have mouths and apparently ate by dipping their hooves in the substance.

There was a man Giles had been certain was Angel, but he'd explained he was FBI Agent Seeley Booth. Xander and Buffy had both apparently made the same mistake, according to the man. It was remarkable how two men could look so much alike.

"I hope this substance is safe, whatever it is."

"Well, there isn't much choice in the matter" Booth replied. "We complain all the time, but Stacy doesn't really care."

< Try having to eat it this way. >

"Who said that?"

< Me, the bird. It's a long story. Just say that I'm more complicated than I look.  Anyway, consider yourself fortunate. At least you have hands to hold a spoon.>

"I suppose so. I hope there is at least some tea somewhere."

"Possibly. Never really cared for the stuff myself. I'm a coffee man. They do have it, so there might be some around."

Giles glanced around, wondering if any of his friends would come in soon. If not, he planned on looking for them later, to further discuss that meeting idea of Buffy's.

It seemed like months since he had been back out.

Had it been months? He couldn't even tell anymore.

Either way, Briareos Hecatonchires, GLaDoS's favorite test subject, found himself on his ass in the middle of the hallway, a stupefied look on his face (well, not that it's easy to tell for most people, what with his...lack of face and all).

He gets up, looking back at the wall he'd been shot out of, the door of which had completely sealed up, leaving no visible trace. He gives the wall a good, solid kick with one of his metal feet.

"HA!" he says in a sort of half-crazed defiance. "You think I'm gonna fall for this one, Cake-Bitch? Just another hologram, like the last dozen times or so. I'M NOT BUYING IT, DO YOU HEAR ME?"

There came absolutely no response from the wall, and the massively tall full-body cyborg sits himself back down in the middle of the hallway, waiting for...well...something to happen.

...It's all rather odd, to say the least.

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... )