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!]

They were very most definitely in space.

Chell hadn't wanted to believe it--as horrible as Aperture was, the Laboratories were at least familiar and...not space--but the overwhelming evidence was right in front of her, nearly everywhere she looked (and she'd made it her personal mission to look everywhere). Knowing all the ins and outs of a place made it that much easier to plot a getaway.

Escaping was what she planned to do, of course, right after she found where they were keeping her portal device, and where GLaDOS was hiding. She didn't want to fight an army of bug aliens. Stranded between dimensions or not, she wanted the same thing she always wanted--her freedom, and no psychotic computer (Stacy or otherwise) was going to keep it from her.

And speaking of psychotic computers...

Toting an overly excitable metal sphere without the portal device predictably impeded her progress when it came to combing the ship, to say nothing of her reasons for doing so. In true Wheatley fashion, the personality construct seemed to have little comprehension of their situation's gravity, and was probably just glad he wasn't off orbiting the Moon. The sooner she got him down to Engineering, the better, even if she was more than a little apprehensive at the idea of granting him any sort of independence (ultimately, however, her robot charge was heavy and her arms were starting to hurt).

One thing she could not deny was the overwhelming vastness and strangeness of the craft. Every inch of it begged to be explored, analyzed, committed to memory. Then, perhaps, she could plan her next move.

[OOC: Chell and Wheatley are anywhere you want/need them to be, poking around and being nosy. Just specify a location in the subject line and we will make the magic happen.]

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.]

Reavers.

Of course there were Reavers on the ship. There were teenagers who turned into monsters and viruses that made people crazy and clocks that made people age backward. Why not Reavers?

Following his announcement on the omnicomm, Wash had spent most of his days shut up tight in Serenity. Oh, he wasn't about to have the General come drag him out by his ear, so he still left the ship once a day, but in that time he went straight to the Sensoriums and straight back to the ship.

He was not taking any chances. Miranda was the last time in his life he wanted to see Reavers. Ever.

It was starting to wear on him. Not the close quarters of Serenity - he knew ever door and every switch on that ship almost as well as Kaylee did. No, the ship was the good part.

The bad part was the lack of company, the constant feeling of being at loose ends. Wash paced, more often than not, walking from the silent cockpit to the empty cargo bay to the deserted kitchen and back again.

Needless to say, he could use some company.

The bridge of the ship shown brilliantly, with every surface polished to a shine and the smiling admiring faces of the crew brightly worshiping the ground their beloved captain walked on.

A beautiful blond with deep piercing blue eyes brought the ships nose around so a wreck of a starship could be seen out the main viewpoint.

"Captian, we've found her." The woman reported with a flash of hope in her voice, a deeply ingrained need for approval from her superior officer.

He ignored her this time (which in turn only made her want him more).

"Surprised it limped this far after the beating we gave it." Commander Jayne Cobb remarked feeling a wave of primal satisfaction at seeing the remains of his prey drifting before him in space. He was clad in a dark military green uniform with a host of badges proclaiming various deeds of exceptionally manly activities and some fancy tasseled shoulder's on his uniform denoting he was both a man of action, and class.

"Your Manliness," another beautiful blond reported, "a wave from the Alliance."

"Those bumblebees." He scoffed disdainfully, "Put it through."

A viewscreen crackled to life in beautiful high resolution and an elder gentlemen with a pained but respectful look on his face appeared, "Commander Solk of the Alliance Gunship Repentance." He announced himself "Captain Cobb we were not aware this was your kill, we are leaving your space immediately."

A simple apology, laced with an undertone of "Please don't kill us."

Jayne lit a cigar as he pretended to consider the apology, only the finest cigars for the captain. None of that cheap crap from the boarder worlds. "Try not to be in it next time. End Transmission." The abrupt hanging up would tell The Repentance all they needed. If they made the same mistake twice, they wouldn't live to do it a third time.

"Bring the Radiant Cobb into board position Kasumi." Jayne ordered a slender but beautiful Asian woman who bowed her head slightly in acknowledgment "Yes Captain."

Jayne smiled to himself as his crew sprang to life around him preparing to loot and pillage their enemy. "Your Captain is gonna get paid."

After returning from Avania III, Fletcher was feeling down. He'd survived... everyone had survived... but that didn't undo the fact that he'd been tied up, trapped in a cave for three days, and almost sacrificed to some false religion. And he'd taken a life. Even if it had been in the defense of someone else, he couldn't get it out of his mind.

Now that he was back on the ship, he went back to his usual routine -- working in Hydroponics, reading up on science in the media library, eating in the mess hall, wandering through the City, and of course babysitting Russel, but it was much more forced than it had been before. Clearly, he needed someone to talk to.

Vivio wasn't in the best of moods.

That was probably an understatement right there - she was downright crappy. After her argument with Sherry, Vivio had retreated into the Sensoriums, mostly to work out her frustrations the best way she could - by training.

Bringing up a training room and setting herself up for practice, Vivio began by striking a punching bag, fists and feet flying as blow after blow connected. She could feel herself slow just a bit - Sherry's punch still stung. But, it was probably worse than that.

It's just that you're so stupid sometimes I can't stand to be around you!

Sherry hated her for a reason more than just being there. Vivio's reaction to that proved it, but she couldn't understand way.

Stupid...? Vivio mused to herself. H-How am I stupid? What have I done to make her think that?

As Sherry continued on, the words kept ringing through her head, kept calling her "stupid". Her face contorted in rage before, briefly, she took up her adult form and struck the bag hard enough to knock it off its chain before returning to normal.

"I'm not stupid! I'm not! You're the one who's stupid! You always will be!" Vivio shouted to no one in particular before slumping to her knees, sniffling as she did.

Pixie darted around the skyline of the city, quite honestly bored with herself. She supposed that she could have gone to the media library, but really wasn't something she was feeling all that moment, and one could only groove to so many Dazzler tunes in the Sensoriums before getting bored of that as well.

Exhausting all of her resources (and convincing herself that it would be improper to sell people her hallucinogenic pixie dust), Pixie had instead decided to play Tinkerbell. Sure, it was immature, but she had wings, and what better thing to do than circle around this castle or that, pretending to be the famous fairy that Walt Disney had made his mascot so many years ago?

A lot, actually, Megan, Pixie thought to herself as she circled around the Gotham Clocktower before coming down in the statuary.

She hadn't actually seen this place before either, now that she came to think of it. Hopefully, none of the statues here would show her things she would rather not know. She'd had enough of that upstairs.

She landed in front of Luke Skywalker and flipped a switch at its base. Nothing. She flipped it again. Still nothing. Pixie then backed away and sprinkled sparkly pixie dust on the statue. Still nothing, but at least it looked pretty?

Pixie sighed.

She needed something...adventurous.

Karis could tell she was going to hate this place. But exploration and pointed questions had brought her to the Sensoriums. After some experimentation (and some explanation from the weird ship construct), she'd grasped the purpose of it. And she'd started poking at it. She'd summoned up half-remembered battlefields and the cold reaches of Northrend. She'd wandered the halls of the Undercity for a time, rebuilt from inside of her head and out of her memories.

It was extremely disconcerting to think that it was gone forever. She knew nothing lasted, after all, but she'd never imagined it to be gone within her lifetime (so to speak), wiped out by something she'd never had a chance to fight, the world gone with a whimper instead of with a blazing last stand against the forces of the Legion. She'd wandered through the eerily empty roads of Loraderon - no familiar patrols, no Forsaken hurrying to the Undercity on business, no Blood Elf diplomats. Nothing.

And then she'd settled on one memory. A dilapidated farm house, falling apart, windows smashed in. The fields outside overgrown with weeds and other plants. The barn nothing but a scorched ruin, burned out long ago. A fine mist covers everything, making it all damp. Karis stands at the edge of the field, leaning on her poleaxe, immobile, as she looks at the house across the way. 

This too was gone.

They'd been played, utterly, and yet somehow, they'd managed to survive. Not without scars, both physical and mental, but they'd survived.

All because of a cheap bet made between two god-like beings.

They hadn't even gotten the chance to thank the townspeople that had stood up for them. No, the townspeople wouldn't even remember the crew; it'd be as if they'd never been there. The last thing they saw before appearing out of thin air on the Observation Deck aboard Stacy was a dismissive wave of a hand, and a bright flash of light.

[OOC: They're back! Multiple threads here, and thread-jacking is encouraged, since everyone is going to be trying to process wtf just happened.]

They had all changed back. They had their memories again, although they still remember most of their fake lives, but those memories now seemed as hazy and false as they were.

They were themselves again. The problem with that is that it meant much of the group transformed back into draconians, Vikings, mutants, and other people that just generally did not fit into Fairplay at all. Even those that looked normal, their families and the people they interacted with every day now realized their minds have been altered by something and that the meatcrew hadn't always been there.

While some of their fake families still wanted to help, others recoiled in horror, and the townspeople had started to turn against them, terrified of the strangers in their midst. These people were something other, something that had been planted in the town right under their noses, obviously aliens or some other horrifying thing. Shot guns were being grabbed out of cabinets, people were snagging flashlights, and the night air around the town rang with cries of anger and panic.

The authorities had been called and the police were amassing the entire town police force to try to control the situation while they waited for the National Guard to come in--yes, the National Guard.

All the while, the group was almost drawn by instinct to a place in the woods, that could be reached by crossing some fields, a clearing, that somehow they knew would lead the way home. They might straggle in by themselves, or paired up with others, but in any case, somehow they all knew that was where they were supposed to go...

And then they got there, they found a fire burning right in the middle of the clearing, ringed with blue, and with no source of fuel, just floating the in the air, spreading a glow through the clearing. On the one hand, it was a horrible floating, deadly fire. On the other hand, some instinct they all shared, some indistinct notion was telling them this was somehow the way home.

Whatever they decided to do, they had to do it soon, because the angry voices were getting closer.

[ooc: More subthreads will be added, but since the reaction of the townspeople kinda depends on what the group is like when they arrive, I'm letting those subthreads happen first.]

Ah, the Fairplay Christmas Pageant. It took place in the Fairplay VFW Hall every year, which, due to the regular needs of the town had received enough money to expand the hall to use it for most community events. People filtered in and out all night so that most families in the town made an appearance at some point. There was punch, egg nog, Christmas snacks, a guy who dressed up as Santa, little kids doing the Nativity play, the mayor's speech, Christmas raffles...

Everyone was expected to attend. Everyone. Parents dragged their kids and teenagers sulked in the corners, presents were exchanged among members of the town, people who did business together used it as a time to talk shop and be a little social, and parents talked about how great their kid's grades were or how little Johnny was doing on the football field.

What a wonderful celebration of townish togetherness, right? People talking about gifts they'd gotten their family members as the status symbols they were, people trying to compete with others in a competition of "Who has the most impressive child?," people sniping each other because of what happened at the last PTA meeting or because they were jealous of another person's success with their business. Funtimes, funtimes.

And as sad before, everyone was expected to attend. Everyone.

[ooc: Follow the rules for each subthread that are in the ooc notes.]

Just another day on Main Street...

Just another day at Fairplay High School...

It had been the usual mission briefing, not that any of them remembered it. The crew knew they were gone and had no idea when they'd be back, and likely wouldn't attempt rescue for quite some time, especially with Stacy considering the mission "ongoing."

They had no idea when they'd be back, either, namely because they never remembered being on the ship in the first place.

It was home. It had always been home.

Welcome to Fairplay, Iowa, folks, happiest little town in the Midwest.

[ooc: Read this before tagging.]

[ooc: PLOT POST IS HERE! Read it!]

He stalked through the hallways like a shadow, moving too quickly for anyone to keep a bead on him for long. There almost seemed to be a purpose in his movement as he made his way through the dark corridors of the ship, though it was impossible to tell where he was headed. Perhaps the young man whose body had been hijacked was exerting some kind of control, or perhaps Veronica was doing the driving.

Whatever the case, the Tyrant made his way to the City.

He emerged from the tunnels and into the wide open space, at last free of the cramped hallway. He took a few steps into the streets and sniffed the air, smelling human blood. He roared, a horrible and twisted noise, then headed into the streets.

She demanded they all bow to her. They were little more than prey for the Queen in the grand scale of things. These thoughts rang hollow in a primal mind, though, but he knew what he had to do.

They would all die.

 Alex was sitting in one of the abandoned buildings, where part of the wall and roof had caved in. It was a familiar place, though it wasn't one he had spent much time in. The significance was that he and Luna had talked here for quite some time after the whole fiasco with the bombs. They had been so happy that the other one was okay.

Luna had told him about some of her magic- he still didn't really understand it, and now he didn't know if he ever would.


He sat against the crumbling wall on the same slab of rock he had used last time, staring at the rock Luna had been sitting at.

Why did Fate let him meet someone as wonderful as her, just to take her away?

Why couldn't he bring himself to tell the ship to make him forget her?

Instead, he was sitting there without either his jacket or Alice, his arms wrapped around himself, and his fingers digging into his arms as he cried silently. The building was off the beaten path, and he hoped that he might get some solace here. In his room he had to face Tavros, and Katara had already tracked him down once. 

Right now his hands were still, but jagged and slightly bloody scratch marks were evident on his upper arms where he had apparently mindlessly been grabbing and squeezing. It was unclear if he had noticed them or not, though anyone who knew him would know it would be unlikely that he had, knowing of how he normally reacted to blood.

It didn't take long for Jayne to acquaint himself with the Drunken Dragon. No in fact from the moment Kaylee told him about it, fate conspired to move him there as swiftly as possible.

Because a drunk Jayne, was a tolerable Jayne...usually.

Drinking deep from his beer he hummed a little song under his breath that would be familiar to the crew of Serenity but likely no one else. In his intoxicated state he even mumbled a few of the words as he scanned the area to see who was about.

"The hero of canton the man they call...meeeeee."

Of all the people in all the verse that Jayne got saddled with and it had to be him!

The only person more annoying would have been that pretty boy doctor, that would have been too rutten much.

After a sufficient amount of growling and grumbling and poking around Jayne had found his way to the hanger, sounded like there was all manner of trouble going on around this ship but it wasn't his problem...yet.

All he wanted was to see if he still had a bunk or if he'd have to find a new one.

Ships of all shapes and sizes greeted Jayne, and he allowed himself a pause to fantasize about stealing one for a joy ride. He was lousy at flying for more then a quick get away but it might be fun. Hell the rest of the gorram world was falling apart why not live it up? You were either making a joke and trying to survive or pissing your pants and crying in Jayne's opinion.

And then suddenly, there she was. Serenity in all its crappy outdated glory. The Ship looked like it had been through hell and back partially because it had. Jayne could even recognize some of the marks on it's hull from various close calls.

Everything was just Shiny.