Sakura sat in one of the chairs at the table in the Atori Teahouse, holding her own mug of tea between her hands and leeching the warmth out of it. She really didn't need to, not with how generally warm and humid the atmosphere was, but it held some sort of simple comfort that the rest of the environment lacked.

The place was looking tidy, tidier than it ever did with Phillip and Ren both in residence. (Not for a lack of Ren trying.)

A pot of tea stood in the middle, next to a journal and hardcover book. The book was an older volume on medicine from out of some Earth-like culture around the turn of a century, far from relevant or up to date with most all medical issues. She had a certain wicked fondness for it nonetheless, if she never got a chance to tell the one who'd given it to her why it was amusing.

She probably never would, now. Yet those weren't the thoughts she wanted to linger in, so they were brushed aside, sitting with her worries about teammates she hadn't seen for so long, for her sleeping shishou, and all the rest that she couldn't directly help. Sakura blew on the surface of her tea, focusing her mind back to what she wanted to communicate to Setsuna and his comrade. Lockon? Yes, Lockon.

She was expecting them any time now.

Setsuna, for once, was looking relaxed. Or, rather, as about as relaxed as someone as Setsuna could get, which still wasn't very. But at least he was relaxing in the Drunken Dragon, so maybe he was starting to behave like a normal human being!

Or not.

He clearly didn't come to the tavern to drink. Or talk. Or even to relax, or otherwise be social. Or, y'know, do things that normal people do in a bar.

He came there so Lockon Stratos could cut his hair.

The bar stools were the best height for that sort of thing, and while Setsuna may have been 'raised by wolves,' even wolves kept themselves clean and well groomed. Besides, if anyone was going to be holding a sharp object near his head without him flipping out, it had to be Lockon. They promised to clean up once they were done, though, even if only to pacify any potential complaints from ownership.

Still, despite it being only a haircut, Setsuna did seem more at ease than he been at any other time, at least in public. And Lockon was certainly a friendly enough sort. Perhaps now might be a good time approach them.


((ooc: Feel free to talk to Setsuna, or to Lockon ( neraiutsu ), who may be willing to cut your character's hair too.))

Sumeragi was glad that despite it's outward appearance as a simple carrier, the Ptolemaios was, in fact, a war ship, and had both the physical and electronic defenses to match. It had taken an hour to dig up the hardcopies of the cryptographic verification scheme, another hour to actually run them and make sure VEDA hadn't been compromised by whatever had taken over everything else, and then another half an hour to get VEDA to verify the rest of the ship's systems. But they were safe.

The first thing she did after this was switch all the systems she could to manual access only, followed by locking down the bridge controls, the MS hangar, and the VEDA chamber. If she was going to invite strangers on board, she was going to be careful about it. But if the ship was clean, it would be safe - if it really came to it, they could try to cut their way out of the Hangar and drift in space until whatever this was cleared.

After a quick announcement on the comms about the ship's availability, she grabbed a rifle and went to go secure one of the airlocks, to let people in.

[Image refs: Exterior, Bridge, corridor 2, viewing room. No set layout to the ship!]

Welcome to the place that's the talk of the night life amongst all of Happy Happy Fun World! Where the party starts when the sun goes down! This is Indulgence Cove, the one stop to satisfy all your needs. To reach this location you must take a boat so you can reach the small island where it is located, but from as far as the mainland you can see the lights that shine through the night and the sounds of people having fun and partying.

Indulgence Cove has the biggest boardwalk shopping center in all of HHFW, what could be better than a full night of shopping in expensive stores that carry everything you'd ever need?! Pleasure Boardwalk has rows upon rows of stores and bigger establishments! From games, to the hottest fashion, music, toys, shoes, vintage, hundreds of souvenir shops, books, food markets with the best of the best ingredients money could buy, even raw materials! cloth, ores, parts, electronics, you name it! If it could be sold, or bought? It was here. Enter the Pleasure Boardwalk, and you might be leaving with no credits to your name!

Shopping not your thing? How about entertainment?! Nightlife Bay has THE hottest in shows, concerts, dance clubs, movie theaters, and more! Looking for something more racy? Go to the Red Light Central where the more raunchy and adventurous head into for a night they'll never forget and possibly won't speak about in public!

Want to simply kick it for the night and relax? Maybe want somewhere to stay or spend a special night with a loved one, or maybe one of the people you met during your vacation? Go to Sunrise Hill and stay in the many hotels that Indulgence Cove has to offer! They come in a wide variety of themes, from fun and energetic, to soothing and relaxing! The staff will make sure you leave your worry and your money behind!

All throughout Indulgence Cove you'll be seeing street performers, merchants, surprise shows, free gift booths, show girls, party boys, and much more! The night is forever young in the Cove, won't you come and let us make your dreams come true?


[[OOC: Feel free to add things if you'd like! Take note that the prices in the stores are higher than normal and everything in this place will try to squeeze every dime you own! But most importantly, have fun! Let loose! Get the things you need if you need someplace to restock in!]]

An area built over a bay, there is no actual solid ground anywhere to be found in Pirateland. It's a land made entirely of wooden walkways, nets to climb, and of course, wooden pirate ships to explore. And then there are the rides: A pirate ship that swings nearly upside down; bumper boats; a ride that starts out as a Tunnel of Love but quickly transitions into a drunken pirate-themed It's a Small World.

And then, of course, there are the souvenirs to buy in the many assorted gift shops. Flimsy plastic swords, pirate hats, stuffed parrots. Or why not go get drunk down at the tavern?

((OOC: Like with Kittenland, feel free to come up with your own rides and attractions at Pirateland in addition to these ones!))

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.]

Setsuna wasn't the type to wear his heart on his sleeve. Most people would probably even wonder if he had a heart, half the time. But he did, even if he rarely did show it. And he might be slow with people, but given enough time, he could figure them out.

Now that most of his memories were back in order, he was able to figure out what Fledt had been trying to tell him all this time. The thought brought a frown to his lips, however. Not because of what she had been trying to say, but that he wouldn't be able to her that he finally understood.

Feldt was gone now, sent back to the pod caverns. Apparently, even here, fate decreed that they would be apart. Which is why Setsuna standing on the bridge of the Ptolemy, next to the chair that Feldt had occupied for years, his usual stoic mask cracked into a slightly sad/forlorn expression.

Well, that wasn't the only reason he was there. There was something he needed to discuss with the Ptolemy's commander. He just... got stuck looking at that empty chair while he waited for Miss Sumeragi to show up.

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!]

Tieria stared absentmindedly at the memory stick held loosely between his fingers as he stood with his back against the catwalk railing. Behind him towered a battle scarred Seravee.

This data… Setsuna will be pleased. He surmised wordlessly with the ghost of a smile threatening to warm his stern expression. After all, why wouldn't his fanatical colleague be delighted (in his own, stoic manner, of course) at the possibility of a new mobile suit? Beneath three, preemptive layers of firewall, the documents containing the blueprints for not one, but four possible Gundams were contained in the very memory stick he now had clutched against his palm.

This would certainly give them the advantage against their alien adversary… even though Celestial Being continued to be decidedly undecided about their relationship with the Ohm. Was 'enemy' really the only category they belonged in?

However, this information wasn't the only thing Tieria had found while he'd been diving into the digital sea of Veda's databanks, and he's certain their tactical forecaster had been the catalyst for its arrival.

Unfortunately for Age, not long after after he had woken up from the pods, Glados had decided he was in need of some testing. Which meant several days of mazes and false promises of baked goods.

Not that Age didn't have fun doing it. The mazes were like fun little games to him, and besides, Age can have fun doing just about anything.

But now he was back out again, which meant he was now off looking for something else he could get in trouble with do for fun. And of course, Age being Age, he was inevitably drawn to Hydroponics.

After having spent so many years living alone in the desolate, barren landscape of the planet Olone, Age had grown a fondness for living, growing things when he finally encountered some aboard the Argonaut. Just being near all the different varieties of plants and animals in Hydroponics brought a smile to his face (then again, there was little that didn't). With a gleeful, childlike enthusiasm, he ran through the more untamed sections of growth, occasionally jumping from tree to tree. Spotting an unsuspecting alien animal, he pounces at it, giving chase as it runs away, only to happily release it when he manages to catch it after an amusing chase.

But, of course, Age being Age, it wasn't long before he managed to make himself hungry. Spotting a nearby tree bearing some kind of strange, alien fruit, he climbed up onto one of the branches and helped himself to some of it.

Leaning back on the branch and looking up at the artificial sky, he happily munched away at the strange fruit.

Still, it didn't seem like he would mind being disturbed.

Down on the city level, right by the Kohaku River and near the imposing castle, a modern-looking white building welcomed one and all to its promise of running water and warmth. Maybe even a little socializing was in order.

The ramp led up to the heated roof level, where one and all could sit down and relax in an almost sauna-like environment. Below, corridors contained plenty of towels, places to leave clothes, quick showers, and the baths, a number of them sized for any and all comers.

The private areas were accessed through separate corridors on the outside, but the busier communal baths were just as warm and welcoming. Anyone of any size or species was welcome here, so long as they behaved themselves.

[ooc: it's mingling party post time! Just start a thread or hop in one, and note if your character's in a single sex bath, co-ed, or the sauna level upstairs. My characters will be here to meet some people too.]

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.]

Feldt had been in the hangar for quite a while. She had managed to get the parts that she needed to repair the Celestial Being Gundams, but it had taken her a long time to do it. Sure, she had the Meister's help, but they didn't have the swarm of Haros that they had back on the Ptolemy. The Haros were good with repairs, especially with the platforms that they had built for them.

She needed to relax and get away from the mobile suits and other pilots in the hangar. The Spacewalk was one of her favorite places to go. It was the closest thing to the viewing deck on the Ptolemy that she would get. Here she could just relax and watch the stars. She enjoyed doing it for so many ears. This was different, but still relaxing.

She didn't know how long she would be in here, but if any of the other Celestial Being members wanted to find her, they would know to start with the spacewalk. For now, she was just glad to be alone.

As the Clock was destroyed, all of the stolen time rushed back to it's original owners, causing them to rapidly age back to normal. But as the crew would soon notice, it seemed that the stolen time didn't always go back to exactly the right place...

[[ooc: Time to get back to normal guys! This is basically a case of very rapid ageing - they'll basically speed through the years through about a couple of minutes or so. Of course, everyone won't get back to exactly the right time - most will only be out by a pretty insignificant amount of time (such as a few minutes, or hours, or days, etc - depends how close significant events are to the point they're from.) For those who are using this to change canon point, they're going to end up at a different point, obviously]]

He should still be in the medbay.

He wasn't of course, but he still should be in the medbay. But after he managed to free himself from his restraints, he decided to discharge himself, and the doctors didn't have sufficient cause to hold him any longer. His injuries weren't fully healed, but had improved to the point where he could move around under his own power. More importantly, while his hallucinations hadn't stopped, they were more like intense daydreams now. He would still lose focus and look dazed at times, but kept one foot planted in reality. He seemed to watch, rather than participate in them, meaning his previously infrequent outbursts hadn't happened over the last few days.

He was in the Hangar right now, standing on one of the catwalks and looking down at the what was left of the 00 Raiser. He had a thoughtful look on his face as he examined the damage, getting an unease feeling. Something about this bothered him, and it wasn't the fact that his Gundam was so badly damaged.

"Something's wrong," he muttered to himself, but hell if he knew what was wrong. Of course, he had been feeling that way about a lot of things lately, particularly when it came to his comrades. Something was just... off, either in him or with them, but nothing he could pin down.

He continued staring at the remains, as if it would answer all of his questions if he just stared at it long enough.

Closing the last document she'd pulled up to read on stone masonry, Sakura sighed. She was pretty sure she had everything in place to start on repairs to the damage she'd caused, even if she wasn't sure there was anyone on ship who had a vested interest in caring. If it felt right to her to help remake what she'd unintentionally made a crater in the middle of, then she would remake the damn wall.

If it wasn't a project she'd ever tackled before. Would she have to end up scavenging much stone? Last time she was out there, she thought most of it would be salvageable...

She sat back in her chair, biting her lower lip. In China, the Chinese spoke Chinese. She'd looked all that up, learning in process of learning the history behind the wall. All of this reminded her of something else, and the reason she'd taken part of the wall out in the first place.

Were Hispanics then part of Hispania? They spoke Spanish, apparently, but weren't part of Spain. A search for what countries on Earth spoke Spanish landed her a laundry list, while searching for Hispanic once again landed her back where she started: the Iberian Peninsula.

She was doing something wrong, and chasing her tail in circles over an answer that didn't really matter was starting to drive her up a wall. Figuring out one person's country of origin shouldn't be this hard -- if she did ignore that she hadn't outright asked. Or she had, but then his answer hadn't made any sense. What kind of recourse did she even --

Sakura's eyes lit on her omnicomm. There's always that possibility, she thought to herself. Ask and see what general knowledge can do for you. She pulled it closer, hesitating, and then shrugging past her own reservations. Asking shouldn't hurt. She'd rather try and learn from anyone more willing to be forthright with her than pull teeth on someone who wouldn't. Typing into her omnicomm, she was only partly aware of anyone else moving around this portion of the media library around her. To those from any of the Earth's represented on ship...

[ ooc: Asking on the Comm here. Sakura hasn't twigged to nationality and race being separate (or that race is something to be self aware of), and is still trying to figure out what countries count as Hispanic Territories to explain how one can identify as "Hispanic/Half-Hispanic" and yet not tell her where their dual citizenship might potentially lie, when Spain isn't one of them. ]

With the end of Quarantine, all of the patients who'd been kept in the bubbles had been released (with the exception of those that Medical felt weren't safe to release), and brought back to the Med Bay proper. Some of them might leave, with family or friends to look after them, but others might remain in the Med Bay. Others still were only just arriving, their loss of time not discovered until after Quarantine had ended.

But regardless of whether the affected were staying in the Med Bay or leaving, until this crisis was solved, Medical would continue to check up on the them.

[[ooc: Just make whatever threads you'd like to have set in med bay guys, and feel free to use this post for all Med Bay stuff for the rest of the plot. Just make sure to mark whether your thread is open, closed, or just for a particular group of people, e.g. Medical staff]]