Even though Sabrina seldom used the Sensoriums, she knew for her sake and her Pokemon that Sabrina should see if the site atrracted anyone besides her. She didn't get angry often, but what 'Tyrant' had said to got under her skin. She was Sabrina, one of Kanto's Gym Leaders and a simple nobody caused her to feel this way! She was no warrior or fighter but she knew her own skills helped the crew in her own small way. The image of Saffron Gym stood in the background as she stood nearby the entrance, undamaged unlike the one that stood in the city.

Who: Gamzee, Tavros, Karkat, Volanz, Lash
Where: The City
Summary: Wunderkind show the Trolls around the City and discovers that discarded concert venues are apparently the PROMISED LAND. Perfect place to build a hive?
Warnings: Gamzee and Karkat have potty mouths. Lash will probably not be able to resist replying back in force.

( Onward to exploration! )

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the battle with SHODAN the place looks a little worst for wear, but the crew and even Stacy are trying to be in good spirits. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, and the little stunt in trying to kill off the people in the pods, many 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), 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!]

[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... )

Things had pretty much gone back to normal with Kang, though he still refused to talk at length about what had happened during the recent mission, and clammed up completely about what had happened with him specifically. He hadn't seen or heard from Ronon since he'd gotten back, which was worrisome, so he'd canceled the Warfare Training for a bit; that left him with more free time than he was used to having, and no idea what to do to fill that time with.

Times like this, he almost, almost, missed the paperwork and headaches of running Teyr, because that had at least kept him occupied.

So, the bozak wandered around the City and Hydroponics, and hung out in the tavern to give Kaylee some extra help, even when it wasn't his time to be in there. He spent a little bit of time in the Sensoriums, calling up locations and old foes from home to keep his battle skills sharp. He finally visited the Art Hall, with its creepy statues, and watched a few movies in the Media Library.

[OOC: Let me know where you run into him, plz. :) ]

It doesn’t make sense. Or, rather, to be entirely truthful, it makes just enough to bother him and that basically amounts to the same thing.

The Doctor paces in front of the blast shield in the Observation Deck. Right now, he thinks he needs a good pace, something to help him think. No sign of Amy or Rory yet, which is surprising, in its own way. Amy has a habit of managing things all on her own, whether it’s saving him from that stint with the Time Vortex and the Entity or the whole of reality. Rory couldn’t be in better hands. If she is on the ship, he would have expected her to come dragging Rory after her by now. So no, it’s not really like Amy there. As for Rory…actually, the Doctor can see him getting lost here; between forgetting to check for gills, the plant-suits and meeting a load of aliens in a huge living ship, a human like Rory might feel slightly overwhelmed. Probably a bit distracting, yeah…

The howling nothing is still out there, the Doctor turning to look past the shield at it. It’s pretty, in the making-you-feel-slightly-nauseous kind of way.

Or maybe that’s just him.

Vaguely disturbing to look at or not, the Doctor glances out at the void outside of Stacy. It’s hardly the first time worlds, plural, have been destroyed or just generally threatened or in a peril-like sort of state. It's actually quite common. But there are signs or it’s meant to happen (history) except he knows as a fact that this isn’t one of those times. Amy and Rory's Earth has a very specific date of death and "death by Ohm" isn't right. This isn’t just a rogue black hole swallowing a dynasty’s system of planets or a quasar misbehaving. It’s…different. The Doctor turns away from the window, holding up the omnicomm in one hand. By now he’s stopped calling it a Thingie, even if it’s a much better name in his opinion. Useful thing, this omnicomm. Helps to keep in touch. He’s been trying to hack into it and get a direct line to Stacy but so far, no luck. Deadlocked, he supposes. Or maybe the new new sonic is still adjusting. Working out the bugs.

The sonic buzzes green in the Observation Deck as the Doctor continues to pace without looking before the blast shield. Occasionally he stops to twiddle around with the omnicomm, long fingers blurring, before he reads another setting on the sonic and then the cycle starts over. Every now and then he might make a full circle of the room, by some miracle not tripping over the fleshy seats, and might try listening to the walls or poking at where they meet the floor. Or what stands for a floor in a techno-organic ship.

[The Doctor is either poking around or looking serious business at the view, whatever works for you]

Grif had better uses for the media center than seeking knowledge or bettering himself.

Forget books, or whatever Stacy had. (He didn't know, did anyone expect him to read anything voluntarily?) There were movies here, and music, but most importantly there were games.

Grif had been working slowly through Stacy's vast transdimensional video game library. He didn't know why they were considered cultural works worthy of preservation. Really? He didn't care. All he knew was they gave him something to do.

Right at that moment, the something was blasting alien ships down from behind the hard-light controls of a simulated fighter.

"Yeah, eat that!" he yelled, reducing three of them to nothing more than scattered pixels against the starry backdrop with one well-placed shot.

For once, he wasn't thinking about any of the multitude of things he hated about this ship. He was actually enjoying himself.

What a day. Just... holy crap, what a day. Tavros had been unexpectedly sent away on a strange mission, one that had forced him to question his very identity. Though he'd arrived back on Stacy, safe and sound except for a small cut on his arm, he hadn't really had a chance to process everything that happened before more people were released from the pods. The obs deck quickly filled with exotic creatures and familiar faces, and Tavros of course got himself lost in all the confusion.

Meeting all those new people and running into some of his troll friends had been great, but eventually the deck became a bit too difficult to navigate in a wheelchair. After one last look around for Alice -- he never expected Alex to show up -- Tavros absconds to the blocks. It's good to be back in the little room he's come to call home. It's empty, but he figures Alex will drop back in eventually.

In the meantime, he heads for the gaming table and sorts through his Fiduspawn cards.

Man, he missed these too.

All things considered, it's good to be back.

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.]

It was inevitable for all of them. Something would push them, there would be cracks, and then the truth would find its way in.

How it changed for each of them would be different, but the end result would be the same.

The world would change.

Because they would change.

[ooc: I figured out a really good way to organize this with help from chat rather than a big messy communal post or spamming the comm with individual posts. Post each character with a blank tag with just the character's name in the subject. Underneath it, run as many subthreads for events as you need to set up for your specific character's change back. Hiccup's will be up as an example.]

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 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.]

In a truly feline move, Arhu wandered into the cafeteria as nonchalantly as if he hadn't been missing for who-knows-how-long. His tail waved through the air above him, and he approached Stacy's sensor and seated himself neatly, tail wrapped around his feet.

"I'd like something to eat, please," he requested, as polite as he could manage when his stomach was rumbling loudly enough that he was surprised no one else could hear it. When he received the standard bowl of whatever-it-was, he stared down at it, and tried to summon some sort of enthusiasm. He hadn't been enamored of this the first time he'd had it, and he wasn't thrilled now.

“Look, these ehhif might let you push them around, but I’m not going to. I’d like something better to eat than this.” After a moment, courtesy-lessons chimed in again. “Please.”

When nothing further manifested itself, he put his ears back, and stomped one paw hard on the urge to create a wizardry that would reduce the scanner – and that who part of Stacy – to slop of a similar consistency. Though…that made him think.

Hey, what all is in this? He stared down at his slop, and listened to the Whisperer as She gave him the components. Everything he technically needed, but in a form that was worse than the dry food the parking garage’s ehhif left out for him. Still, Arhu was not limited to just accepting this situation.

“Fine. You’re not going to give me real food, then I’ll make this real food.” Laying out a transport circle, he popped himself and the bowl over to a table out of the way.

“’Scuse me,” he muttered to the occupants that were at the other end of the table, mostly ignoring them as he started pacing a circle around the bowl. A few quick consultations with the Whisperer, and he started reading the spell to take the basic components in the glop and re-form it into a much more meat-like substance. At least the texture would be right then, and he’d certainly eaten worse-tasting things.

Tavros has been on the meatship long enough to understand the grand-scale war they're all caught up in. Even if there was any way to escape it, there's no ignoring the sheer amount of training and battle preparation the entire crew gets up to.

And Tavros has been avoiding all of it.

Not out of fear, or unwillingness to fight... it's just a bit hard to joust when your steeds were all accidentally left behind to become Ohm fodder. The wheelchair can work, but it's just not as practical, and he's been a bit self-conscious about needing something so specialized.

However, there's no doubt in Tavros' mind that he needs to get ready too, just in case. Once he reaches the sensoriums, it's a simple matter of setting up his little jousting lane, having a few warmup practice runs, then tilting at the dummy for real.

The first tough part of wheelchair jousting is getting up the necessary speed, which is no real challenge for Tavros. He wouldn't still be alive if he weren't fast. The second is timing -- getting his hands off the wheels and his lance in hand before impact.

The third, and worst by far, is not getting thrown from the chair. Though he used to be able to keep his balance, he's fallen out of practice.

And, unfortunately, out of his wheelchair.

"Ugh... Jegus."

Tavros props himself up on his elbows, brushes the dirt and grass off, and lifts gently off the ground to go set his chair back up and try again.

It had been under construction for barely a few weeks, a small train of robots making a bustle in an isolated area of the city. But they were robots and needed little to no downtime, unlike human workers, and they got things done with the maximum level of efficiency. The only limitation was the area they had, and the materials they could use. Neither was really that important.

As Rock spreads the word of Awesome World's activation, the lights and music start up, standard cheerful carnival fare. Odd little robots have been painted in cheery colors and can be seen wandering around the park, cleaning up, making last minute adjustments, and watching the visitors. The rides there in force, each attended by a friendly-looking robot. There's a wooden roller coaster attended by Woodman, Starman keeps the Ferris Wheel running, bumper cars are operated by Turboman, a drop tower watched over by Crashman, and Topman makes sure that the Gravitron runs smoothly.

Rides aren't the only thing that Rock's thought of, though. Other forms of entertainment are there, such as Bubbleman's Dunk Tank, Gutsman's High Striking Strength Tester, Magicman's daily magic show, and Sniper Joe's Shooting Gallery with several kinds of targets. However, Rock's pride goes to Gravityman's Zero-G Ball Pit, a zero-gravity field with a massive number of plastic balls, all watched over by Gravityman.

It's here. It's open. Have a blast. Just don't go over into that corner over there, it looks like there's a ride half-built.

[[Come in and have fun, everyone! Don't worry about NPCing the Robot Masters, they don't have the intelligence they have in the games. Rock's given them their basic personalities and enough programming to act as barkers. Have your characters tag in and just enjoy the rides!]]

Somewhere along the way, Beastboy had lost track of time on board Stacy but he had been shocked to realize what day it would have been back home. After a moment of disappointment a thought struck him and he rushed to the Sensoriums.

The world exploded in noise and sound as New York City appeared in front of him. Confetti and cheers, clowns and music, massive balloons and floats drifting through the buildings as millions of people were recreated by the Sensoriums to re-enact the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Of coarse being Beastboy's memories to fuel this scene the floats, musical number and so on were all from previous years, and some of the balloons and floats had a distinctly Beastboy theme to them.

Like the giant Green Turkey Float holding a sign that suggested trying Tofurkey.

And a Float of Titan's Tower with big headed mascot versions of the Titans waving at the crowd.

Even a massive Captain Carrot Balloon drifted through the air as Beastboy cheered and watched with a twinkle in his eyes. It was so real, the magic of the Sensoriums had brought him somewhere he'd only ever seen on T.V.

And if anyone were to wander in they'd be able to enjoy the show as well.

"You look tired," a voice behind her remarked. Lash dismissed him with a wave of a hand as the projection towered next to her.

She had taken to coming to the sensoriums a lot more lately. They offered her a time off from everything; the engineering (which was fun and interesting) and the ranger training (which she might call Morphnominal ...if that didn't sound so cheesy). But something had been bothering Lash a lot more lately, even more so than she liked to admit to herself.

It was already hard to be a growing teenager stuck inside an intergalactic spaceship, yet it certainly had its merits, especially for someone who knew if she had continued to live in her World, would have ended up somewhere imprisoned for her crimes, but...there was worse.

Feelings. Black Hole was very discouraging of them. After all, conquering nations didn't want sympathetic officers, they wanted brutal commanders, something Lash had taken a liking most of her young life. She had been all that Black Hole could have wanted in a child soldier; brilliant, deadly and ruthless even to her own troops. How many weapons of hers had been used to murder countless others? Too much to count. Did she felt guilty about it? Maybe. A bit. Certainly a bit more than before.

And that's what scared her the most. Caring suddenly made you fragile. Her life was suddenly a lot more complicated; even looking at some of the guys on the ship, and that tiny pang of jealousy as soon as she saw them talking to other girls. It made her in turn notice how she suddenly felt, well...alone. Sure she was in a team now, and sure it reminded her of the happier days with Black Hole, but in the end the Rangers couldn't ever replace them and they weren't here with her now. The people she knew, like that tall guy next to her, with his tell-tale mohawke. Just an illusion, like the others around her. Was the real deal in the pods waiting? Each month made Lash less and less hopeful of his return and as her feelings grew and changed, she began to realize how much she missed his company.

"Nah, I'm just thinking of my next move," the wunderkind explained as she clasped her hand under her chin, looking down at the glowing display before her, and an all too familiar scenario. "Fighting against an A.I. is much harder than I thought it would be." All of her data on the other nations she had once carefully stored and kept so she could analyze what had gone wrong that day of the battle, now based mostly on her memories. And yet now she found herself on a very different situation; this time she was letting the A.I. play the role of Black Hole as she played the Allied Nations. As she walked, the scene around her changed. She pushed a few tanks backwards to bait them. Seven days had passed, and the laser fired at her units. Her Laser. The five hundred foot Death Ray she had built for Sturm those years ago. It felt so incredibly ironic.

"Damn it! At this rate I'm gonna lose. OH! I HATE loosing so much!" She pouted, crossed her arms in anger and nearly threw herself down to sit on the ground as the laser hologram harmlessly pass through her. The units behind her were completely obliterated. Well at least she could rest easy knowing how efficient that laser was?

"I'm not worried." Ha! For a few seconds Lash looked up at the man before returning to the puzzle before her. If she hadn't known any different, that could have really been Hawke sitting next to her. Wordlessly, she grinned and shut him off.

"Thanks birdbrain. Wherever you are." Holographic representation of him or not, Lash felt a tiny little better.

[[Open Log! Come bother Lash and talk with her as much as you like.]]

Welcome meatship crewmembers to the instrument of pure silly.

It had been a long period of waiting, but a prank was about to be issued after these dire dark times. As such, tables were set up around the WITCH Bus and other locations, unmanned stands where Lemonade and Brownies were available with the compliments of your friendly companions.

Do you dare risk chocolately goodness or sour-sweetness to discover it's dark delicious secrets?

(ooc: tag around, bug others and feel free to continue to madness. IC duration is about a day. Unless you deliberately take more with you. As a reminder, Lemonade brings you up ages to a good looking adultish level. Brownies turn you into kids. GO NUTS. Refer to the ooc post for details and ask questions there.)

 Alex was sitting on his bed, for once not at his computer. Instead he had a journal in hand and was writing in it furiously.

It wasn't something he had been keeping daily, or even near daily, but he was keeping it when things that mattered happened on this ship.

This was something that mattered.

He didn't know what was being done to Big Zero, as he found out her name was, but the response that was flooding the comms gave him the impression that it was something that he wouldn't remember even if he had been there to see it. At least there was outrage though, with all of the people who had stayed to watch, like it had been some sort of show.

Including Tavros. He hadn't expected Tavros to be the sort that would want to see someone be tortured.