Stacy's voice speaks over the whole of the ship. What she has to say has become very familiar over the the podlings have spent here.

||Pod Release Protocols Initiating,|| she says. ||Please proceed to the Observation Deck to meet your new crew mates.||

Those crew members that don't head to the Obs Deck on their own are hurried there via gentle but insistent tentacles. A few people stop by Engineering to help bring and pass out omnicoms and comm rings to the new crew members as well.

[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.]

San knew that when people wanted to go to the Sensorium it was for two reasons. The first was to escape the oppressive strangeness of Stacy's body. She could hardly blame them, wanting some memory made reality, some fantastic setting for training or celebration. After all, even she wanted the forest's embrace more and more with every passing day. She wanted to go home.

But the other reason was more direct— people went there to talk to the ship-spirit in what passed for relative privacy. It was true, Stacy could be spoken to, and with, nearly anywhere onboard, but it was somehow almost tradition to do so in those close little rooms of vision and illusion.

San looked on the walls that had not yet been made into anything but what they were, now, and raised her eyes upwards. It seemed like the right direction to look when speaking to Stacy, as if she lived in the sky, so much taller than anything, despite that she was all around San.

"Stacy!" San called, boldly, "I need you!"

San's shoulder was not healed. But pain was relative, and if she'd been at home, in her forest, then this would be nothing next to the pit in her stomach. It was more important to stay sharp, to hunt this simulation of the Wilds instead of laying on her back and feeling her stomach burn with shame or guilt.

...or follow Ashitaka around.

She should know better than that, really. Ashitaka was the kind of human who made friends with everyone— it was enough to make her doubt he even was human. He didn't need her babysitting any more than she enjoyed trailing him like a lost pup. Laying in the plant temple was at least as rankling.

So, here she was, in a simulated forest, tracking a solitary deer through countless miles of wandering forest. The tree's rots snarled and knotted the ground like angry fingers twisted 'round a fistful of sand, they made tracking both easier and more difficult and walking treacherous. It was a good night, cool without being cold and breezy enough to mask the sounds of soft-padded feet on soil and root. The rotted leaves were soft, slipping under her stance like slimy tongues. She felt comfortable this way, the slow, patient, meditative crawl, tracking deer by spoor and foot-trail, eventually by sound and smell until you stood poised over them on a branch or a hill. The final run, hot blood against her hands and then a feast of copper-smell and salty-sweet meat. The simulation of her lost spear was light in her hand.

It was early yet, and San had yet to gain anything like that stalking closeness with her prey, but the deer was out there, and she would find it, very soon.

The daily trek down into the City to the Drunken Dragon tavern was something Kang had come to consider normal on Stacy. Even if he only spent a few minutes there, it was still exercise, and a piece of home for him. Sometimes, like that day, Kaylee would walk with him, and they'd talk about various happenings on the ship, or share stories from their homes.

He noticed this time, though, that one of the windows was open. Strange, since he typically closed them, but he'd probably just forgotten that one. Unlocking the door, he noticed the chair nearest the window lying on its side, and realized that they weren't alone. Besides the chair, the bozak could smell another human female nearby. He decided to give her a chance to come out on her own first, and closed the door behind Kaylee after she followed him in.

"...is anyone in here?"

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.]

Several buildings in the City had been completely destroyed during Aang's rampage, but a few had survived relatively unscathed. It had only taken Kang two days to repair the Drunken Dragon; he'd done so by himself, not even waiting for his leg to heal up a bit first.

Usually, he didn't bother lighting any candles or using the fireplace in the tavern unless it was a period when the artificial sun had set. He could see perfectly fine in the dim light. For the celebration, though, he'd thrown the windows open wide, scrounged up every candle he could find, and started up a fire, knowing that human vision wasn't as good as his own. The tables surrounding the stage had been cleaned, as well as the tankards, and the door was propped open. The bozak had even wrestled two of the 60-gallon barrels from the back room into a corner of the main room for easier access, one of cactus juice and one of ale. If more was needed, he was sure he could get someone to help bring out another.

Tess had commandeered the kitchen to make her food, bringing in her own equipment. Kang had been slightly afraid at first that she was going to burn the place down, but nothing had happened yet. She seemed to know what she was doing, even if she'd given him a few scares.

The sunlight glistened on the old sword blade teeth and dinnerplate eyes of the comical-looking wooden dragon grinning above the entrance. Come in, relax, have a drink and a bite to eat!

[OOC note: Both drinks are alcoholic, and the cactus juice has twice the kick of the ale. :D;]

San had, in her agitated boredom, in distress over the nightmare, begun hunting through the too-dead city like a pup after squirrels. 'Exploring' was too harsh a word, but after enough miles of semi-paved streets and decrepit, abandoned human dwellings, she had begun overturning paving stones to let the soil underneath breathe. A few times, she'd turned one to find no soil, only the gently pulsing flesh of Stacy herself.

Those she turned upright again and replaced.

Still, her nose and instinct turned her feet and eventually San found herself among the green, living Temple the Garou had claimed. It wasn't the forest, there were no Kodama here, but there was enough life that she could almost close her eyes and pretend for a moment that nothing was so terribly wrong.

But, only for a moment.

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.]