His omnicomm beeped with some vital message or another. He ignored it.

"Minion!" That was reflex. Minion wasn't here. "Brainbot! Your assistance, please?"

BAOW BAOW BAOW, the brainbot intoned.

"I just need a tentacle holding this right here--thank you. Whos'a good lil' brainbot? Whos'a good boy for helping daddy? You are! Yes, you are! Oh, look at you, yesterday, you were just learning how to fly and today, you're a big boy helping daddy around the lab!"

The brainbot's neural net sparked happily in response.

You never went wrong with positive reinforcement, as far as Megamind was concerned, and he really did appreciate the assistance. After the initial bad impression he'd made after pod release (really, what had he been thinking?), he was amazed they had even hired him to work in the Science and Engineering departments, and didn't exactly expect anyone to be willing to assist him with his project (not that he'd really asked, because if he had, he might have been surprised).

He was used to working alone, though, and he didn't have to work entirely alone, as one of his first projects had been making some brainbots out of the scrap material he'd found there.

What was he working on? Well, only something that'd get him in the good graces of the crew...he hoped. It had been hard enough proving himself to the people of Metro City. This paranoid bunch of motley do-gooders had apparently had some run-ins with villains before, and given his history, that mean he needed to start off on a good foot doing this good guy stuff.

And maybe, just maybe, if he kept it all up, Roxanne would fall for him again as deeply as she had before he'd been taken. Maybe. Of course, that was something he tried not to think about, the fact that she didn't remember a great deal of their history together. Six months was a considerable amount of time, time that could never be recreated, not exactly as it'd happened. He simply had to hope things would work out as well as they had the first time, that he wouldn't mess anything up, that...

BAOW? The noise was almost questioning, and Megamind realized he'd frozen in place, not doing anything, his eyes looking past his little project.

"Hmm? I seem to have gotten lost in my thoughts," he said to the brainbot. "Keep holding that right there, and I'll activate the energy core..."

The weapon sparked to life, a charge cascading throughout its circuits. It cast a crackling light over his blue face, and Megamind started to cackle loudly.

"With this weapon, I, Megamind, Master of All Villainy, will drive my enemies to their many-segmented knees!" his voice boomed through the lab. A thought occurred to him, thought, and he amended, "That is, if they even have knees! If not, it'll drive them to whatever body part serves the capacity of knees for their species! Or to some other assorted body part that's unpleasant to be driven to!"

He let off another masterful cackle, just because he felt like it. Old habits really did die hard.

That's when he heard the footsteps and noticed he had a visitor at the door. Looking back, goggles askew, he looked awkward for a moment, and quickly amended, "I meant: 'I, Megamind, master of all heroism.' This is a weapon to use against the Ohm. Not to use against innocent people, since that would, of course, be evil. Which I'm not. It's a horrible death weapon of--of...goodness."

BAOW, intoned the brainbot, and it was very clear what it was trying to say: Awkwaaaard.

[ooc: First person who tags in gets the monologue. Any others get similar evilish talking, so you can just assume he was cackling over his genius in any subthread.]

After the crew finished up with the Rituals of Judgement and Joining, they were permitted to enter the city proper.

Orongo was even more impressive than it appeared from outside the wall. Despite the primitive seeming architecture, the city was alive with lights and sounds and colors. The numerous stone buildings were covered in bright paints in beautiful swirling designs, each one a unique piece of art. People milled about the city in droves, many of them various examples of random alien species, though there were quite a few Moai and knee-high Rapa Nui moving about.

The priests that directed them into the city indicated to them to the Consummation Huts, where they would be spending the night, regardless of whether they chose to use them to their...eh hem...full potential, or not.

As they entered the city, each of them got the same message from Stacy.

||You will be spending the night in the city as per the Moai's instructions. Arrangements have been made to meet with the Moai Elders in the morning. For now, you are given leave to explore the city as you wish. I have transferred each of you an allowance of credits to purchase supplies or entertainment tonight.||

||Do try to have fun.||

[ooc: And they're off! Feel free to have them explore. You can also start doing open posts on-planet now, if you want. Have fun!]

Once Domalai made sure the crew was fully informed of what was expected of them in the upcoming rituals, he showed them over to where the Rituals of Judgement and Joining would be performed.

As they neared the gate that led into the city of Orongo, they could see many other people milling about, waiting for their turn to undergo the rituals themselves. The crew, of course, being a special case, are moved to the front of the line. Thankfully, everyone seems to be in a good enough mood that no one puts up a fuss about it.

The first area they were brought to had a simple stone circle, around which were three smaller circles. Two Moai priests were waiting there as they approached, and Domalai moved over to join them before speaking up.

[ooc: wait for subthreads to go up]

[ooc2: Ready! Tag away!]

[[OOC: This right here is required reading if you're going to tag. OOC organization is here

For too long the firstborn son of Satan's demonic soul had been trapped, denied his rightful control over Daimon's body. Now, thanks to Mei-Xing, he was finally free. The next course of action was obvious- he would have to take control of one of the beings on this ship. He could start with the vulnerable and move on to the more powerful. He had to act fast before that fool recovered. Fortunately he needn't go very far. The city was full of potential victims.

Now, now. Who to possess first?

First, he had to hit Engineering to talk to this Billy fellow--and cross his fingers and hope for the best. This wasn't Metrocity, he hadn't saved the day here and worked for the peoples' trust, and while he'd read that Constitution about people not being punished for past crimes that didn't necessarily mean there wouldn't be attitudes of distrust and the like.

There was, of course, the option of lying about his former villainhood, but good guys weren't supposed to do that, right? And with Roxanne not remembering that he'd reformed, all he'd need was for her to mention he was a villain, and then he'd have to explain the whole thing, and then it would get all messy.

It was better people knew ahead of time. It was better that got their judging...thing out of the way ahead of time, especially if he was trying to work under them.

So off to Engineering he went. Now that he was fairly certain he didn't have anyone to intimidate, he wasn't wearing his cape or the collar, hoping to look as normal as possible.

Of course, on the way there, and afterward, he nosed around into many a place on the ship to look around, often blurting out "Incredible!" "Magnificent!" "Do you see that? That is the coolest thing I've ever seen!" and other such exclamations at the wonders he saw. The ship was a beaut, a techno-organic masterpiece!

[ooc: You can catch him poking around just about anywhere on the ship, although his jaunt to Engineering comes first chronologically. Just specify where he ran into your guy.]</font

There are few things in the 'verse Kaylee can't stand. One of them, obviously, is that wonderful little group made up of people like Early and Niska. Another is insults to her ship. Possibly the biggest thing on the list, though, is seeing sad and lonely people, mostly because she knows there isn't much she can do to help outside of offering a friendly smile and shoulder to lean on.

Or, in this case, offering free hugs.

Once again, Kaylee has settled herself down at one of the tables in the Mess Hall with her 'Free Hugs!' sign. Even if hugs aren't wanted, the mechanic is also perfectly willing to lend an ear for a nice chat or just some company for a little while. Anything to boost morale.

[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... )

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.]