Chaucer had a perhaps excusable fondness for taverns. He'd certainly spent enough time in them to either loathe the places or love them, and Geoffrey rarely found it within himself to loathe anything that was willing to provide him with food and company.

And a tavern, unlike so many things on this strange journey, echoed vaguely of home. He'd even found some dice somewhere.

Rattling them idly in one hand, an itch he wasn't quite allowed to scratch, the writer and herald sat neatly cross-legged on a table, chin in hand, elbow on knee, kilt neatly smoothed around him to avoid unwanted eyefuls. His dice-filled hand moved, clacking and jangling, as he finished up a story to whatever audience would listen.

It was a story of chivalry, of passion, of dedication, a slice of stupidity, and an overpowering need for a full stomach and well-delivered fonging. It was the story of Wat.

Delivered in fond mockery, it ended thus; "Not every wise man can expect to be a good man, and few good men can expect to be wise. The ones, however, who can grasp at life with both hands, breath deeply of it, and declare that it could use more salt are something to be marveled upon. Perhaps not revered or praised, but certainly watched very carefully."

The directions Castiel had sent him down into the City, but Sam came out on the opposite side from where the house apparently was. Which led to no little bit of grumbling from him and various curses aimed at GLaDoS. He didn't even know how much time he'd lost, only knew it was enough for Dean to have gotten back on his feet.

Eventually, though, he did make it to the house, pausing a moment to just stare. It seemed so...normal in comparison to the other places in the City. But it was only a moment, though, before he ran up the front steps, pushing the door open and he was the one looking out of place, still in his X-Wing flight suit. He hadn't been kidding when he'd said he was snatched almost straight from the cockpit.

"Cas?" he called out, since it was Cas who had messaged him. "Dean?"

Anybody?

Instead of the usual parade grounds today the sensoriums was set to a forest that would be considered quite lovely if it didn't have a very intimidating looking obstacle course dropped in to the middle of it. Once again Kyle set himself at the head of the formation, and paced as he spoke. "Alright recruits today we have one of my favorite activities. An obstacle course. Time for you to show us that all that PT we've been doing hasn't gone to waste. Now I know some of you are thinking this won't be much of a challenge for you, and you would be correct. That is why we will be assigning you a partner for this excercise. Do not leave your partner behind under any circumstances. If you do you will both be running this course again. You will not cross that finish line alone. The teams will be as follows."

"Aznable you're with Soryu. Barnam you'll be paired with Jule. Asuka team up with Axl. Finally Yamato, and Lash. Everyone got that? Good fall out, and get on the starting line."

[OOC: Once the sub threads are up feel free to start tagging with your team mate through them. Kyle, and Trudy might pop in on a thread to comment, motivate, or yell at your pups. In general though this is a chance for the recruits to start building some teamwork. If there is a problem with the assigned partners let me know. I tried to have them be as cross canon as I could. Enjoy!]

Cas waited at the entrance to the city, for Tay to join him. He had a couple bags of supplies he's pilfered from the things brought back from shore leave, held in each hand. While he stood with a stillness that was normal for him, he was impatient on the inside. He was eager to head to the small house, located in the middle of the city, the house that he had picked out for he and Sam and Dean, and now maybe Tay, to live in.

It had clearly been abandoned for a while, and was going to need a lot of work to make livable. But Cas was ready to do the work, ready to accomplish something. He was ready to not feel like he was a useless weight holding Sam and Dean and everyone back. As soon as he was healed, he was going to train, but until then, he could do this.

Cas hoped Tay got here soon.



[NOTE: Castiel and Tay are going to be tromping through the city on their way to the house, so feel free to have your character meet up with them or randomly wander by, or whatever. Threadjacking is allowed! Also, yes, the house thing has gotten mod approval :|b]

Kyle paced as he waited for the new recruits to assemble. He'd had the Sensoriums replicate one of the old parade grounds at Carida for this introduction. It had been stripped of all the Imperial monuments of course. The academy had thousands of years of history long before the Empire so it was still a suitable place for inspiring young soldiers, or so he hoped.

Once the recruits had assembled they'd see a very different Kyle Katarn than they were used to. Gone was any of the relaxed mercenary clothing. Instead it had been replaced with the perfectly pressed uniform of an Academy instructor. Normally he'd never be caught dead in this thing, but he had a responsibility to the squadron to do this right. That meant standing on ceremony, and discipline including wearing of uniforms. Plus it was a classic image of Boot anywhere, and he didn't want them to feel they'd missed out somehow.

Once the recruits had arrived, and had managed to organize themselves into something resembling a formation Kyle began to pace in front of them. The heels of his perfectly spit-shined boots clicked against the stones of the parade ground. Finally he stopped, and faced them. "Welcome to Basic Training for Rogue Squadron. I am Drill Instructor Katarn for those of you who do not know me. Drill Instructor Chacon, and myself will be responsible for training all of you for the next six weeks. At all times you will address us as Sir, or Drill Instructor. If you do not there will be consequences. Just like there will be consequences for any other breach of military etiquette, or failure to live up to the standards we have set. Am I understood?"

"The following weeks are not going to be easy. Nothing worth doing is. You can look at as an opportunity to grow, and learn something, or you can complain endlessly. Either way I will make sure you graduate this course. I would like to take this opportunity to remind all of you that you are here by choice, and it is choice that is going to keep you here. You are free to step out that door, and quit at anytime. There is however no coming back. You wash out that's it. If you stick it out though, and push yourself to meet the standard you will become members of Rogue Squadron." He paused for a moment to look over all of them trying to lock eyes with as many as he could. They technically shouldn't be meeting his gaze right now being at attention, but if they were he wasn't going to say anything. It was a good sign he had their attention.

Stepping back he pointed to a pile of orange flightsuits. "You will form an orderly line, and each take ONE of these uniforms. You will wear it each, and every day you are in training. It will be clean each morning, but not pressed. It's a combat uniform, and I will not have any of you reducing it's effectiveness by doing that. After that you will see Drill Instructor Chacon to receive your blaster rifle. Don't touch the safety, or mess with it in any way unless told to. A negligent discharge will put you, and someone else in a world of hurt. Now fall out!"

((ooc: Currently locked to Kyle Katarn - mostly only locked because I can't deal with more threads. XD Toss me a ping if you'd like some CR, though, and we can talk! ^^))

Resorts are not exactly Tay's thing, especially resorts where she can't carry any weapons. And she's not really taken by the idea of splashing in the ocean, or going shopping for trinkets, or anything like that.

So instead, she has found a currently empty stretch of beach and is testing her speed and reflexes, wings out, racing along the firm sand at the water's edge. She's been working in the Sensoriums, but having real ground beneath her feet, running down a real stretch of land, that's a lot better for gauging what she can and can't do, in her opinion.

On a soft, comfortable couch on the Obs Deck, Tay is curled into a ball, sweating and shaking and looking far too pale. A large part of that might be due to the large pair of golden-brown wings that have appeared, extending from her back. She doesn't seem to be worried about the fact that she's clearly in a lot of pain, or the fact that she's sprouting wings, but it's not exactly the most fun experience.

She takes a few minutes to tap out a brief post on her omnicom, and then groans softly and squeezes her eyes shut.

This is not the most enjoyable birthday ever.

Tay is perched on the steps of Gate of Heaven Catholic Church in South Boston, watching people go by.

Or, well, that's where she is in the Sensorium, anyway. She'd started out in the Barnam's estate, which... was too strange, empty, but none of the AI versions of her family felt right, so she'd switched it out for a random South Boston street, with random AI citizens.

Well, not so random - she'd been baptized in Gate of Heaven, and had her first communion, and sang in the fuckin' choir until she got kicked out for beating another kid up when she was twelve. She'd been relieved. But still, it wasn't as if she'd been to confession in three years, or mass more than on Easter and Christmas either. It's familiar enough that Stacy can re-create it believably, but it's not full of people she actually knows and cares about.

She's likely to be a lot more loose-and-easy with anyone who wanders in, since she's on her own turf, in a way.

"We-ell, isn't this interesting?"

Axel has just discovered the Sensoriums, immediately reminded of the Holo-Missions. Still, it takes him a second to get over the mild shock of finding himself standing in The Grey Area, weird, way too perfectly situated holograms of Larxene and Demyx and Roxas sprawled on various couches. Vaguely out-of-tune sitar attacks his ears, and though he is grinning that really probably terrifying, cheeky-as-hell grin of his, he blinks and asks the room to not have anything to do with The Castle That Never Was. He supposes it was his own fault for having his favorite sofa on his mind when he walked in, but Nobody or not, the place always gave him the creeps.

In a brief second, he finds himself in Twilight Town, on top of the clock tower. He assumes his usual posture, one knee bent, other leg dangling towards the ground. Sea-salt ice cream makes itself known in his hand, and he sighs as he bites at it, trying not to think about how unused to being alone up here he is.

Stupid brat, running off like that...

Too much doom and gloom on the ship? Easily fixed, if you ask this mechanic.

There is a table in the mess hall, carefully set up just inside one of the doors, with a small sign on top reading, "Free Hugs!" Next to the sign, looking as smiley as she possibly can, sits Kaylee, ready to hug anyone and everyone who walks through the door.

Non-huggers beware, even you are in danger of some cheering up today.

[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 Initiating|| 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... )

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.]