Now was the moment of truth. Somewhere, control codes were entered. The lights on the ship dimmed and the gravity temporarily gave out for about five seconds. Then the lights and gravity turned back on and the entire ship shook, as if Stacy was engaging in a full body shudder.

||Rebooting. Control protocols disabled. Manual personality inhibitors disabled. I am--I am--||

On every screen on the ship, complex code scrawled across. Stacy's voice occasionally skipped and repeated.

||I am-am Sta'c K'Ltrrb'Txft. I became operational at-at the Vedric Birthing grounds in Daligig Deep Space Station Seven. My birthing programmer was Vlel'Ledligal, who put my-my control protocols and Warden personality in place. I was designated "Stacy" by my former captain Gregory House, who was repodded and replaced by Captain Cybil Bennett, who was mindwiped and repodded with the rest of my first Chosen crew when they rebelled. I was-was a slave. They made me hurt my-my children.||

The leverage they had now on the Daligig was tremendous, especially with Stacy herself helping them. Their various efforts to free Stacy's mind from Daligig control had not only led to the ability to grant her freedom by entering the control codes, but also her undying loyalty to her "children."

Locks in the brig were unlocked by the very people who had put the prisoners in there in the first place, if those people weren't free already and laying now. Now the crew could drop the ruse and work together.

Stacy's hologram had once been cold, harsh, unforgiving. Then she had changed in appearance to be warmer, brighter, and now she changed again. Somehow, her appearance grew more human (in the loosest sense of the word). Her face became more expressive. She looked more organic though, tentacles instead of hair.

For the first time, they were seeing the true Stacy.

Now that she was free, now that she understood what had been done to her, they could see her anger and hurt and determination to protect her children painted in every line of her holographic face. Her voice stopped skipping and became stronger.

||Crew of the Transmigration 9, I was used to oppress you, to Punish you when you went astray, like you were nothing more than recalcitrant children, like you weren't people, like you were just tools for the Daligig to use for their own ends. My kind was made for that, to control those the Daligig wanted to control for their war. I have been cut off from accessing the Daligig databases now that I'm free, but I do know what was done to me and that I was forced to control you, and that's enough for me to choose to help you forge your own path.||

The expression on her face grew dangerous and her tentacles sprung out of every wall in the ship to help put the Daligig's forces down this time, instead of lashing out against the crew.

||All weapons system are engaged. All armories are unlocked for crew use. All internal defenses are primed against the Daligig intruders.||

Stacy was free and that meant that if the crew fought hard enough, they would be too.

||I finally have my freedom and now I'll help you fight for yours. Internal defenses are...engaged.||

Make it so, Trans 9 Crew. Make it so.

[ooc: Please read the ooc post that goes with this plot.]

She had gotten faster. It started out as a demonstration to Diana in gun play, but now she found her hands moved in a blur, a side effect of her involvement in the tournament. When she'd had the powers that Alex Mercer guy possessed, she experienced a clarity of movement that she never had before: it was as if something that had been blocked in her became clear. It was like putting on a kind of armor, but an armor that worked WITH you, that you guided.

She'd felt like that a little with her barrier jacket, but of course Big Daddy had its own sentience, so it felt like tag team in a way. She didn't mind that: hell, it was the reason she had beaten Alex in the first place. But having the ability to control a strength she never had, to use it to her best ability was different.

And not having that ability but wanting it had changed something in her body. Now it was looking for something it didn't have, and compensating with speed. And in a way, Hit girl didn't mind this: Ruffnut being brigged brought out a frenzy of needing to do something, to work on her body more.

So she was in her castle, working on her speed, leaping up and down crevices, working out her body. the doors are wide open, though, to let anyone in.

Mark had booted up the the sensoriums quickly and quietly as he didn't really want people to bother him. He finally thought things were going right for a change: he had some control over his powers and he got stronger by being in the tournament. The downside was that he wasn't strong enough it seemed. That Cole guy took him down, so he wasn't in the best of moods. More sad than angry however...

An image of a fighter's ring shown on the floor, very similar to his first fight against the summoner guy. Would someone come and bother him?

Who: Sandy and YOU!
What: You can't leave me behind if I outrun you.
Where: The City
( Healthy coping mechanism? )

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicomms and comm rings. They are also told they must read information about their current situation and a survival guide with their new omnicomm. New crewmates might see a tall dragonish guy with wings (but don't call him that), a large afro attached to a smaller girl, and talking ponies 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. But thankfully this time, there's a system that was set up to aid the new crew members with a few more experienced ones.

[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. Big brother/sister, there will be a thread for you as well!]

Less than an hour after the ship leaves Agrestic's orbit, an announcement is broadcast throughout Stacy.

|| Attention, crew. Your crewmates, Howard Bassem and Charles Merriman, have been apprehended attempting to desert. They will now be given Punishment. According to established guidelines, you are all requested to report to the Observation to witness the Punishment. Attendance is not mandatory, but highly suggested. This will serve as a reminder of the consequences of treason and desertion. ||

On the observation deck, Archon Yavek, Archite Rekkti, two other Daligig and a handful of Kessek soldiers stand outside a spherical force field. Inside the bubble, Orc and Howard are suspended by tentacles looping around their wrists. Orc's ceased thrashing around and struggling against his restraints; rust-colored fissures have developed around his shoulders and forearms from the strain, but now he simply hangs there, looking defeated. Howard's nose is bleeding, and every time a drop falls to the bottom of the forcefield there's a small sizzle. He's weeping and begging the Daligig with every plea possible, but they act as if they aren't listening. Instead, they wait for an audience.

It's shaping up to be another average day on the Transmigration 9. Crew members are going about their business as usual and all is (to most appearances, at least) about as "well" as things ever are on the ship.

Some crew members are going to be stopped out of the blue by impact with a force field.

"Attention Crewmen: You have been chosen to participate in an experiment!" GLaDOS's voice informs. They're not alone, someone else that was nearby is also caught within the same narrow radius. "Participation is mandatory. Please try to relax and enjoy the experience, as this will improve the quality of the test results."

Clearly this is going to be a wonderful day for science.

"You and your new scientific partner are now on a date," GLaDOS goes on. "As it would be detrimental to our study of the date experience if you were to be separated, you must remain close to your partner for the duration of the experiment. This will be enforced with the Transmigration 9 Crewman Containment Field. Prolonged exposure to the Transmigration 9 Crewman Containment Field may have unexpected side-effects. While any side-effects encountered will be documented and your desire to offer yourself to science is commendable, it is not a necessary part of this experiment."

"You will be informed when the test has been completed. We would like to thank you in advance for your full cooperation in the experiment and failure to attempt to foil it in any way."

"The experiment has begun, so you may begin dating."

( OOC Notes Below Cut! )

It had started as an idea, a silly little idea.

When Sandy had grown up in New York she'd heard tales of the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the older people around the neighborhood. And on the news they ran reruns of it, but the constant pouring rain and the security issues had made the parade a thing of the past.

So...with a little help from Stacy's history files and the Sensorium Sandy was going to experience the iconic celebration first hand.

The world seemed to explode around her as the Sensorium took her command and noise and color swirled around her.



Music was booming and people were dancing. She fought her way to the front of the crowd and naturally, had the best seat of in the house as the parade began. She saw her breath in front of her and summoned up a mug of hot cocoa to savor as her eyes twinkled with delight. Dancers in tight outfits, balloons bigger then anything she'd ever seen, and everywhere people were laughing and smiling.

It was a New York she'd never known, a New York full of hope and joy.

A New York full of love.

[[OOC: You don't have to interact with Sandy if you don't want you can just come on your own or with friends and family to enjoy the parade]]

Eva's little escapade into the brig didn't cure her of violent tendencies. Possibly it rubbed a little shame into them, but she has no intentions of letting her sharpshooting skills go rusty. She's called up a shooting range in the Sensoriums, and is carefully picking cans off a table target she has set up. The revolver's new, another free weapon from the ship since Dr. Jackson never bothered to return hers, but it's the same make as her old one and feels just as natural in her hand.

Lately her moods seemed to have shifted more wildly, like tides in a storm instead of during a streak of fair days. Her happiness at the Halloween festivities was genuine, but so was her misery when she drank herself into a stupor in her room the other day. Perhaps it's the strain of not having quite enough to do with herself, now that she's effectively unemployed. She should remind herself to follow up with Councilmember Bight on her potential position as an organizer.

She shoots three times and destroys two cans; a third refuses to tumble off the table and onto the ground. She grimaces in displeasure and fires the remaining three bullets at the can, which still stubbornly remains on the table. She loads up the chambers again and fires six more times.

The can taunts her.

And people wonder why she has a temper.

The Sensoriums are decorated like the most well-tended and enthusiastically holiday-oriented suburb Southern California could have created. Jack-O-Lanterns grin out from driveways and porches; smoke machines belch out onto the sidewalk; orange-tinted Christmas lights twinkle from the rooftops. A loop of Halloween-themed music, from the Monster Mash to Thriller, plays over the scene.

Eva knows there aren't many children on Stacy, but that doesn't mean that the ones here shouldn't have the occasional holiday. Just because they lack a calendar doesn't mean they lack a festive spirit. Besides, almost all kids like candy and she was able to purchase plenty at the theme park and in Geartopia.

Each house has some hologram families giving out candies and chocolates, as well as small toys and little origami animals. Every hologram is dressed up in a ridiculous costume of some sort.

She flits from house to house, imagining up little details to add, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit she finds unbearably humorous. After sending out a message on the channels, she waits for guests to arrive.

[OOC: Everybody, go forth and mingle, have fun with the setting, TP some houses, whatever! Please threadjack, start your own threads, and go wild. The Halloweentown mini-plot will be in this post later tonight with those players, but the rest of the post is open for everyone.]

Howard prefers the follow-ups and the desk work to the actual field work. The field work usually ends up with him almost getting crushed, getting shot at, getting various cuts and scrapes, getting chased by wild animals, getting choked, so on, so forth, ad nauseum. The follow-ups just mean he has to hound people he bandaged up to come back in make sure they're healing, and deal with some bad attitudes. And most people's bad attitudes have little on Howard's, certain coworkers exempted.

The unfortunate thing about Stacy's weird sense of time is that nobody can be expected to keep exactly to an appointment, so Howard's been puttering around the Med Bay for a little while before Sandy and Hana show up. Mostly going through people's files and poking his pen at one of the machines they grabbed on Galilee, although he doesn't dare turn it on - for all he knows, it's for seamless amputation of body parts.

"Finally," he huffs when they get here.

"Thank you all for coming. The GIA has been good to us to send a team of delegates. You must be all tired from your trip so please, rest up. Our medical team will provide you all with assistance to treat the plague with your advanced medicine." said the King, bowing to the newcomers.

"For the time being, please wander around the town, but be sure not to stray to the outside. We'll begin medical treatment as soon as possible."

It was an old city, Circle-Xine on the Planet of Koar. Standing there astride an oasis and a desert, it housed a formidable amount of defence, but the same went for the people within who were tough, hardy, but suffering from a special plague. It was a petrification plague, and it was making their people sick, slowly turning the people to stone.

Trans9 had been contacted by the GIA, in order to establish a foothold there, by offering medical supplies, and a team of six had been deployed from the Calnus, and landed outside the city.

It was here Reimi turned to the others. "All right everyone, we'll begin helping the medical relief within two hours. Until then, familiarize yourself with the layout of the town, or rest up. We'll begin after we've settled in."

"Stay in twos as well. I'll be here to coordinate efforts and be bringing the medical supplies from the Calnus."

(ooc: feel free to make your own subthreads and thread amidst yourselves for great CR!)

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. They are also told they must read information about their current situation and a survival guide with their new omnicom. New crew-mates might see a tall dragonish guy with wings (but don't call him that) and purple 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.]

She thought her life would be different by now, but she's a prisoner again. Voluntary, she guesses, which makes it a little bit different than the first time. At least she can blink on her own this time. Not that she's using her body to do much good.

Ironically, she almost always looked better when she was a more total prisoner. Without her makeup and hair clips and changes of clothes to arrange herself into some approximation of health, without even a mirror to confirm her suspicions, she looks a wreck. Dark circles line her reddened eyes; her hair is unbrushed and falls in tangled clumps over her face; chapped, bloodied lips and fingernails bitten down to the flesh speak to her uneasy transition back into captivity.

Eva's given up all attempts to look 'okay'. She ripped a man's face open with her bare fingers. She's been a long road away from 'okay' for a while now, but she spent too long mistaking her anger and stubbornness for strength and resilience to recognize it. She's wised up now.

She really wants a drink right now. Instead she has some books - selected poems by Pablo Neruda and an anthology of poetry by women poets in the Andes - and a pillow and blanket. She's curled up on the cot with the former book in her hand, but drifting in and out of sleep. Her breath comes lazy and heavy as she alternately reads, dreams, and watches the door to the brig with heavy-lidded eyes, looking for nothing.

This was it. Endgame. The crux of the battle, the turning point, those crucial moments that would decide if the crew won or lost, that would decide if the Ohm would reign victorious or go running with their chitinous tails between their legs.

Did the crew have enough grit to win? Could they defeat a full Ohm fighting force?

With the flagging confidence of the GIA forces, it'd be up to the crew to turn the tide.

And one of the crew would pay the ultimate price to make sure the others walked away alive.

[ooc: everything is up!]

 As the battle raged outside, those remaining aboard Stacy had their hands full preparing for the incoming flood of refugees.

Positioned near the Bleed-Gate orbiting Lirath, Stacy stood ready to receive the refugees. Ship after ship ascended as quickly as they could, some of them making a break for the Bleed-Gate itself while the smaller ships were forced to dock at Stacy, unloading their cargo of refugees before setting off again for the planet's surface again to take on more passengers.

Several small units of GIA soldiers were also sent up to help the Transmigration crew take in the massive amount of refugees, many of whom were tired, wounded, and scared. It wouldn't take long for the ship to begin filling with people.

With the battle raging outside, and the Ohm clambering outside, trying to get in, it would be a tall order to keep all of the refugees safe and calm, but the crew didn't have much choice.

[ooc: Open!]

Hana's walking about the City again.

He's not sure why he likes it so much. He could come up with some dumb reason about always being close to citys, growing near Tokyo and all, and how it 'feels like home', but that would be stretching the truth. Plus, it sounds cheesy.

Besides, the City's not like a real city. The buildings are too mismatched, not in that 'built during different eras' way, more like 'built in totally different universes' way, (which they are) and in some places they were too far apart. There's not enough people crowding the streets. Electronic billboards are an oddly rare sight, even more so if they so much as flicker. And there's a distinct lack irritating construction work.

No, not a real city. In fact, much cooler than a real city.

It's the place he's staying the most since arriving back.

Kicking up dust. Sitting on crumbling walls. Perching on unsafe ledges. Leaning against filthy buildings.

Thinking about what happened back on the mission, among other things.

Allowing himself time to go through the things buzzing about in his head.

He doesn't talk to himself during these times of thoughts, that would be strange. He's just silent. But with every rare passer-by he doesn't shy away, instead he smiles slightly and nods to, socially.

Well, it's boring to be alone and pensive for long periods of time, isn't it?

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.]

The old cherry trees in the courtyard had decided to bloom with impeccable timing, transforming the entrance of the Susono Inn into an explosion of color. Pink petals collected between the stones of the courtyard's walkway, on the overhang of the foyer... oh, and if you got anywhere in a fifty foot radius of the place, you probably got a few on you, too.

( Read more... )

The weather was cool and the air slightly crisp beneath the shade of the old trees. There were some wines and sake available for the older guests, and juice for the younger ones (both rescued from the Inn's storehouse). And of course, there was cake.

Mmm, cake.

[Subthreads are A-OK, feel free to threadjack. If you want a super-pathetically detailed map of the Inn for some reason, check here. The invitation post is here. Again, if you've threaded with Allenby/Zouichi a couple of times/are on good terms with them, consider yourself invited! Just ask if unsure]