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.]

Honestly, Ildraniath was rather relieved that she was finally finding others who shared her views on how this war ought to be run. Being trapped on a ship full of idealists was not high on her list of things to do while fighting a war. Idealism had its place - but not when your survival was on the line. Still, nothing to be done. She had lost and she had gaged them correctly - they valued experience over idealism, but only by small margin. And even then, that experience had to be couched in terms they could rationalize as fitting within their own rather narrow moral viewpoint. Rather dull, but that was what she expected of mon-keigh. 

She was waiting in the park, hands folded into her robe's sleeves. She was supposed to be meeting Iniss here. An interesting sort and if his sordid past was to be believed, a not altogether "good" person. At least by human standards. He could be a useful ally, however. She was, after all, rather short on allies.

The area of Hydroponics in which Zouichi chose to wait is isolated enough that people wouldn't just idly wander by, but easily accessible and well-lit. There were a number of alien-looking trees nearby, but alas, none of the people-eating variety, and it was close enough to the rest of Level 5 that it would be easy to find.

If a Synthetic Human dressed from head-to-toe in black body armor standing around in an open, grassy clearing was difficult to find.

He kept his eyes closed the entire time, once he regained control of them. It wasn't that he didn't want to see, it was just that there was some sort of childish belief that if he opened his eyes, the entire thing would pop like a bubble and just be a dream.

He really didn't want it to be a dream.

About the time his eyes closed, hands closed tight around his shoulders, holding him firmly in place. Iniss didn't really need to, but the Yeerk was weird about control at times. Weird about physical dominance even though the fake host was really about the same size as him.

There was a sharp pang in his chest as the Yeerk pulled away for the final time-something he didn't want to call loss, something he couldn't quite label relief. "It's done. Now what will you do?" The words were soft, hushed, pressed against his ear in a mockery of an intimate embrace. "You'll miss me. You'll miss being able to yield control and not fight back. You know you will. You'll miss the utter certainty that someone else is there to clean up your messes."

He kept his eyes closed, arms hanging lose at his sides. "It's going to be scary, isn't it? Being all alone in your head, you've never done that before. No one to talk to when you have doubts, no one to watch your back or protect you from repercussions when you screw up- and you will, you always do - I bet that terrifies you, doesn't it?" He swallowed, lips curling into a smile. "I have friends, family. They'll help me. They'll be strong when I can't be. Who's going to help you?"

It took a lot of effort to pull away, not opening his eyes to look at Iniss, not opening them at all until he was sure he was facing towards Sam.

He managed to not look back. It made him feel oddly proud.

ooc: Tag under the headers of person you want to talk to.

For those looking hard enough, the black market on XaXing shouldn't be too incredibly difficult to find - just look for the section of town where people don't look excited to be trading. Everyone in this little section of the market either looks like they just got away with a murder and need to keep glancing over their shoulders, or like they're about to get lined up for an execution. The more experienced traders here are clearly more at ease and looking as casual as possible, but there's still a distinct tension in the air.

An alien clearly designated as a police officer gazes down the street but, after a shopkeeper passes him and discretely slips some contraband into his hand, keeps walking.

An Iskoort and a human man dressed in black are relaxing outside the door to a store titled "Merchandiser, Brother of Hood Ornament Seller, Offers Exotic and Tantalizing Goods from the Far Corners of the Galaxy!". Under that sign, a few more signs detail how no background checks, down payments, identifications or collaterals are necessary. From inside the building, the sounds of a scuffle are audible, followed by the sound of someone choking.

The man in the doorway taps his cane against the window. "Keep it down in there!"

The Iskoort, Merchandiser, looks around a bit skittishly. {If you would allow me to purchase a sample of your superpowers, I could incinerate the body. I would pay a very reasonable price.}

"And leave nothing for your Mortician's Guild to clean up? Hardly."

Across the street, the shop that supposedly sells cactus extracts, but secretly specializes in drugs and hit contracts, lowers their blinds a few inches.


(( OOC: Here, have a criminal underworld! Feel free to tag in and run into other crew members ("what are you doing looking at faerie slaves?"), or into one of the underworld gurus here. If you want one of my NPCs to tag you, just put it in your post title. NPCs are Merchandiser and Dark Thomas Casey. ))

He didn't have a family. Didn't really have friends. Yeerk pools were not the sort of environment for such a...human condition.

Making friends with fellow fodder would either end up in betrayal or loss. Making friends with those above you would only end up with death or promotion to the politics game. That was simply the way of his species.

Be he had cared for her, for that tiny impossible human child who had reached out to him for some reason he still couldn't comprehend. She had been his friend, as odd as it was to apply that label to anything.

Ally, certainly, minion, tool, pool mate. But...friend? Ah, they'd execute him for that for sure, for showing an exaggerated sympathy with the host species.

Dani was an impossible thing.

He had searched the ship, he had asked the computer. It was inescapable. She was gone.

He wasn't certain how he was supposed to feel, and for once, Tom was silent and unhelpful in the back back his mind. Leaving him to his...grief? That was the label Tom wanted him to apply. But she was alive, simply sleeping, that wasn't so bad, was it? Grief was for things that were gone forever, and he was certain Dani was too stubborn to stay asleep for long.

His throat felt strangely tight, though his eyes were dry as he gazed into the glass, spinning it slowly in his hand.

He was going to miss her. He had never missed anything before.

Thinking with portals, indeed. It hadn't taken long for Aftran to get the point; even Karen figured the concept out before long. So what point had there been in keeping them isolated as test subjects for that long? Aside from sadism, of course. That was a possibility.

Either way... here they were, now, having been released into one of Stacy's many hallways. But something was different -- not something about the ship itself, but... something. It was Karen who figured it out, as she was wont to do. The person Aftran had thought she was her entire time on this ship... that wasn't who she was. She knew better now. But why had it taken so long? Why had that memory been obscured to begin with?

Feeling disoriented, she started to stumble toward her bunk.

For Iniss, the past few weeks had passed in a haze. Like living in the pool, traveling between worlds. He existed, and that was all.

It was better than the alternative, as vulnerable as he was in this state, he was lucky he wasn't dead. But his enclosure has been fully explored, he wasn't in the pool. He was in something small and vaguely round.

His experience on earth suggested a fish tank, or at least something small and glass.

He was fairly certain it was glass, and also that whatever had him had figured out that he needed to be fed.

Oh crap.

Something was in the water. Something that wasn't an ear. Something, he assumed, that was large and strong and more than capable of crushing him in this state.

Oh crap.