trans_9

||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

Stacy's voiced called the entire crew, until all of them were gathered at the Obs Deck. Then, a dossier appeared on the screens, along with the image of a rotating planet.

Planet Designation: Pelau
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Moderate flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: Yes
Water: 75% of the planet's surface.

Climate: Climate varies by region.
Landscape: Landscape at the North Pole varies. Within the biodomes, significant development. Outside the domes remains mostly pristine.
Air: Normoxic concentration: 29% oxygen, 60% nitrogen, 3% xenon, 6% trace gases, such as hydrogen, krypton, and argon.

Air Pressure: 14.352 pounds per square inch.
Sky: Blue/violet with white clouds.
Sun: A class D4K, yellow star.

Warnings: Be careful of frostbite outside the biodomes.

Mission: None. Shore leave is now initiated.

[Here's a handy map of the North Biodome where the crew is being dropped]


( Read more...Collapse )

A good number of those affected by the clock had reached childhood, and required supervision. Several of the adults had offered to help, and no one was quite sure anymore who had first suggested it, but it was decided that one night, there should be a sleepover, something fun for the children. The idea had grown; Eva had offered Cassie's house, after getting permission from the other non-deaged resident, Aximili.

In the end, it turned out to be a packed house. There were about twenty children running around, and thankfully, there were five adults and two teenagers supervising. Luckily for Eva, she had made sure to childproof the house the best she could beforehand.

It was going to be needed.

[Planning post is here. HAVE AT. A description of Cassie's house is here, and if you have any questions about it, you can ask Lisa (Eva), Blue (Marco), Cait (Rachel) and Kaylin (Ax). Start up subthreads for stuff, and try not to wreck the place. :D; ]

As the Melting Clock causes Zuko to de-age, he loses more than just years. Growing younger has given him a certain . . . symmetrical quality that wasn't there before. Now what could be missing?

He stalks the halls, less angrier and restless than in his last state of aging. He seems more pensive than frustrated, but something may STILL have pissed him off.

Zuko's mind was in a whirl. He had wasted, and would unfortunately continue to waste, so much time. The Avatar was free on the ship, and although Zuko could easily find him at a moment's notice, he had no way to restrain the airbender - and even if he could, no way to deliver his prize to his father.

How had he been able to do other things? Meditate? Explore the ship? Train the peasants in arts of war that their backwards breeding would never allow them to fully comprehend? It was all of it a waste of time, made tolerable only because these small actions might help him restore his nation - and with it, his chance to get his honor back.

He needed a plan, and he didn't have one. It was driving the prince of the Fire Nation crazy.

He stalked the halls, an unfamiliar person with a familiar scar, gleaming vivid and new, his armor too heavy to be practical in the ship's warmth. The scar was much more visible now that most of Zuko's head was shaved, the remaining portion of his hair pulled back into a dramatic ponytail.

His stalking brought him to a podroom in the Media Library, where he sat down, heaving a frustrated sigh. He was without a plan, without honor, and his feet hurt. The whole situation was intolerable. As if in response to his mood, music began to issue forth, the angry words and harsh chords combining into a cacophonous noise. It was bitter with rage and disappointment. It spoke to his troubled soul.

The medical care available on Stacy is far beyond anything that the Four Nations had, better even than the powers of skilled waterbenders to heal. Which is why Zuko is lying in discomfort now, not raging agony, as the burn on his back heals.

Because of the location of the injury, he's lying on his stomach on a specialized cot, with his arms supported by low rests below his body. The open welts on his back are not entirely healed, and have been left exposed to the open air to allow the heat to keep fading. Occasionally Zuko breathes out as he uses his own firebending to try to expel some of the burn's excess heat.

He could ask to be put to sleep while the healing process continues, but he hasn't. He has too much to think about.

After the crew finished up with the Rituals of Judgement and Joining, they were permitted to enter the city proper.

Orongo was even more impressive than it appeared from outside the wall. Despite the primitive seeming architecture, the city was alive with lights and sounds and colors. The numerous stone buildings were covered in bright paints in beautiful swirling designs, each one a unique piece of art. People milled about the city in droves, many of them various examples of random alien species, though there were quite a few Moai and knee-high Rapa Nui moving about.

The priests that directed them into the city indicated to them to the Consummation Huts, where they would be spending the night, regardless of whether they chose to use them to their...eh hem...full potential, or not.

As they entered the city, each of them got the same message from Stacy.

||You will be spending the night in the city as per the Moai's instructions. Arrangements have been made to meet with the Moai Elders in the morning. For now, you are given leave to explore the city as you wish. I have transferred each of you an allowance of credits to purchase supplies or entertainment tonight.||

||Do try to have fun.||

[ooc: And they're off! Feel free to have them explore. You can also start doing open posts on-planet now, if you want. Have fun!]

Retreating back to the hotel, Katara could feel those overwhelming feeling of despair and whys me's echoing in the back of her head, but they didn't play to the surface. So Will was back. So she knew Matt would be conflicted, would have to decide what he wanted to do. Well she had a decision too. She could let him go, or she could tell Matt something different. In any case, part of her tried to insist their world was theirs, and she had no say. But Katara had too much training to allow herself to give up like this: she was a fighter, and she cared for everything that made an impact to her: and that was why she decided what she would do before she started her exercises.

Here it was simply the pool water in the hotel, but real water was a bit more of a comfort than artificial water from the Sensoriums. She wanted to bend it, move it as it should: for her, water had always been her calming space and her anchor. No matter where she went, it would be the link to her people, distinguish her on the ship.

Katara of the Southern water Tribe.

She was so caught up in her quiet streaming she wouldn't even notice someone approaching.

 Alex stood in the sensoriums, once again without his sweatshirt. He checked his omnicomm for the fifth time this  minute and rubbed at his arms, unaccustomed to the feeling of air against them. He was wondering if he had gotten the wrong time, or gone to the wrong place, or something else equally as distressing, even though it hadn't even yet hit the agreed upon time.

He inadvertently summoned his house- specifically his room. It was ridiculously bare, with a low coffee table to house his sensorium-laptop, a bed with a broken frame, and a floor lamp that was a little off-kilter, though at least it had a shade. From the other room a base-ball game could be heard, his father occasionally cursing at it in German.

He laid back on his bed with a heavy sigh. Was he really missing this place of all places? Well, he didn't miss his father, but the familiar sounds of the street outside, the hum of his laptop fan, the sound of the TV, the feel of his bed under him as he stared at the familiar ceiling, it was just all so familiar and in it's own way comforting.

It was official, come down from the ship herself; there was an outbreak aboard the Transmigration 9.

Naturally, the Contagion Containment Laboratory was unusually crowded-- patients in quarantine bubbles, panicked crew members asking questions, medics and scientists hard at work in desperation to find a cure.

[ooc: If you've got business in the CC lab, this is the thread for you. Pick an appropriate subthread and mingle, or start your own!]

According to the standards of the 24-hour time period that the omnicoms operate on, it's very early in the morning. Too early for most people to be up, though Zuko always is at this time. Even without a sun to rise with, old habits die hard.

Today he rose feeling a little slower than usual. From this, one could assume it would be a bad idea for Zuko to push himself - but Zuko is not good at listening to his body when it says no.

( So he's fighting his sister. And as usual, she's winning.Collapse )

There was something different about the tavern. Typically, the mood in it was cheerful, almost homey; for the past few days, however, it had been... solemn.

It could have been blamed on a number of things. Because of the recent strike against GLaDOS, people were remembering those that had been repodded, and Hisk, the previous helper, was among that group. Kawalsky, Cassie, and two of the people in the pods had been killed. And lastly, though it was public knowledge by that point that Hiccup and Rose had been hurt, it wasn't yet known exactly what had happened or how bad it was.

Kang knew, though.

All of that combined equaled a somewhat mopey draconian behind the bar.

A cranky fire prince is waiting for his test student. He's still patchily burned in places from his latest round of maze-running, but the best cure for Zuko's crankiness is to get to work on whatever task has been put to him at the time. Currently, Hiccup is it.

Of course, this means he's sensorium-camping, which might not go over so well with the rest of the crew.

Zuko's in a hurry on his way to the forge. The sooner he has real swords, the sooner he can get back to training.

(He could always use pretend ones in the Sensorium, but that feels like cheating.)

On the way, he's thinking of what, exactly, he's going to pay Dustin with. They danced around the subject of reimbursement, but Zuko knows, nothing's ever free.

While her room, the W.I.T.C.H. bus and the Sensoriums were all places that Katara tried out for her new puppy, Zhin still felt more at home in the Hydroponics bay. The flora had agreed with her, and the alien dog missed all of the friends she'd made. Some were still here but most were gone, either a pet of the crew or simply brought to a safer place. Zhin understood this, but likened the start of her new life with her owner as starting the moment she'd been brought to this place. Zhin was wise for one that had lived such a short life so far, but she also made Katara understand that she would not talk about the things she'd been through all at once. Katara respected this, and in turn Zhin accompanied Katara on the tasks she went through without complaint. One of those was meeting the guys right now: Sokka, Zuko, Toph and Mai. She'd asked to meet them in the Hydroponic bay, but if anyone else came, they'd have a sight.

She'd chosen particularly brighter spot in the bay, where the flora seemed to give off a bio luminescence all its own. Katara, for the occasion, was dressed in the glowing club clothing she'd bought on their offshore leave: a little expensive and certainly bright, but enough so that she could be seen, and the plantsuit was still underneath anyway. She had prepared several different foods for the guys too: some meat and fish for Sokka, fairly spicy food for Zuko and Mai, and a dish of vegetables and poultry for Toph. She laid all of this out on a tablecloth on the ground which Zhin helped her set up.

Now she would wait, and play host.

Somewhere near the hub, GLaDoS is returning crew members to the main portion of the ship.

“For your participation, cake and therapy may be obtained in the lobby.”

Mulan springs to her feet. “What lobby?”

Zuko, who looks the most singed of the group, picks himself up and brushes off the front of his plantsuit. “I never want to hear a word about cake again as long as I live.”

“Really?” Biff is adjusting his kilt, which, unfortunately for the rest of the group, has had more than a few wardrobe slips during their runs through the mazes. “Because I’m going to the Sensoriums right now to find out what it is.”

No one shows any signs of accompanying him. Allen, frantically checking his Omnicom, has gone paler than usual. “Motherfuck. I need to talk to Chief, like right now.”

“Why, what day is it?” Will starts to ask, but he has already taken off. She calls after him, brow knitted with confusion. “How long were we in there?”

“Too long.” Goliath leans against the wall, looking more irritated than usual. This may have something to do with the fact that he appears to have been functioning as the group’s meat-shield, judging by the amount of injuries he’s sustained, all hastily bandaged with the remnants of Mulan’s oversized men’s shirt. “I think –”

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence before he turns to stone.

Will looks relieved. The remaining two just look confused. “Good. He said sleep would make him feel better.” She yawns . “Speaking of sleep, it would probably make us all feel better.”

“Uh –“ Mulan is still staring at the stone gargoyle. “Maybe we should move him first?”
“He should be all right.” Will tucks her hair behind her ear. “I don’t want to accidently break him or anything.”

“Then I’m going to find out what’s been going on. And how long we were gone.” Zuko stalks away from the girls, swords still drawn.

Will looks at Mulan again. “So . . . that’s probably a good idea. Do you want to go to the cafeteria first? I’m hungry, even for slop.”

“That does sound good.” She looks down at her exposed plantsuit – “maybe I can find someone who’ll let me have another shirt on the way.”

Another training sim, but this time, Zuko's only meditating. He could do this anywhere else, like the Observatory, but no one could ever accuse him of not clinging to home.

He's picked a moment where the air is just turning to fall cool, and a constant breeze blows softly through the columns of the open dojo. A small waterfall trickles through a rock garden. The flames on the candles set before him expand and then fall back with his every breath out and in. There's a view of the capitol city of the Fire Nation here - this is his uncle's estate, and Iroh always did like the view. Zuko didn't realize how much he did as well, not even when he was banished from it - he only does now that it's really gone.

His swords lay next to him, but he hasn't touched them yet. He only breathes in and out, the air cool and clear when it enters his lungs, rippling with heat when he breathes it out.

Maybe this was Stacy's work in order to boost crew mortal. Maybe a distracted crewmate had left the program running, but whatever it was, Lash walked in prepared to recreate a full scaled battle, and instead found herself gazing at stars in the open sky. The air felt slightly cold, but not enough for shivering. Instead it only drew her eyes towards the middle...

It was quiet, the only light coming from the fireflies that flew around, and the huge central fire that crackled and fizzed with orange energy. It looked very inviting, especially since pieces of cut wood and metallic chairs had been placed around it, in a circle-like fashion. Come rest on us, Lashie-poo they called out. Old guitars were placed on the grass floor as well, as were a few drums of various nationally and universes. Huh. The strangest thing, however, where these plastic wrapped piece of candy that were resting on some of the chairs. Upper pieces of branches were placed near them, as if they were meant to be used together.

Unused to such things as Black Hole was not known for parties (or pretty much anything that was celebratory or fun), but not completely ignorant, Lash sat down on one of the makeshift logs, before opening one of the candy wrappers and putting one of the white candies in her mouth. It was very sweet. The afro girl then took a guitar and give it an experimental clang, unsure of how to use it.

"Huh." Music wasn't her forte.

Nightmare becomes reality....

[roster: leader - Zuko, Matt Olsen, Kate Beckett, Billy Kaplan, Jono Starsmore, Link]

At the Garibah tree, something unusual was happening. For one thing, Marco had decided to visit, and he never bothered with the tree unless he needed to talk to Ax or Tobias. For another thing, Marco had a rather odd object with him.

Somehow, Marco had managed to find a birdie perch. And not just any birdie perch. It was quite possibly the most ridiculous birdie perch in the history of the multiverse. And Marco was currently dragging it over to a spot near the tree that had relatively less grass, and setting it up.

Standing the birdie perch up straight, Marco then took out a hammer and four very, very long nails which he had also managed to find, and sat down next to the perch and began hammering each nail around the base of the perch. Which should at least keep it from moving around or getting knocked over. Sure, it wasn't so study that it couldn't be dislodged with some actual effort, like say, Tobias morphing polar bear and running over it in an angry rampage. But really, Tobias should realise that not removing the birdie perch was in his best interests. Because if that happened, Marco would then be forced to go and find one that was even uglier.

When he was finished, Marco stood up and surveyed his handiwork with a smirk on his face.

Tonight, once again, the dreamscape of the meatship has been altered.

However, this time, the dream was the same, no matter the dreamer, and was neither good nor bad, but simply odd.

Only a portion of the crew would have this dream, some of them intentionally, others whose mind simply happened to drift upon it in the dreamscape.

Regardless, it starts out the same for each dreamer:

The dreamer finds themselves standing on some rocky, barren world.

( Read more...Collapse )

[ooc: This is just Seer's way of checking up on the crew. Once again, posting isn't mandatory, but if you want your pup to meet/interact with Seer, feel free!]

He'd had it. While this computer called Stacy had been nothing if not heplful, he still wasn't getting the answers he wanted. Julio had had enough. The young Mexican man ran almost blindly through the halls until he came across a group of people.

"What the fuck is this place?" He blurted out angrily. "Take me home, now!"

As promised, Zuko has set up one of the Sensoriums as a perfect replication of the city of Ba Sing Se. Inside the open door is a wide, well-swept street, the sun low in the sky, the shadows long in the twilight just before sunset. The scent of plum blossoms is on the air. A cool spring breeze wafts the scent through the quiet, unpeopled streets.

Because there are no people in the simulation, it is easy to see where the tea social is taking place. Up a twin set of steps and across from a fountain is an attractive building of medium size. The light of candles glitters within.

Inside the tea shop, tables and chairs are already set up, the windows open to take advantage of the soft breeze, and warm light illuminates the room from green paper lamps. Elegant tapestries adorn the walls and floor. Green and gold seem to be the colors of choice.

Zuko is inside, putting the finishing touches on a sign, which he is painstakingly copying from his omnicom. His translation program has given him the means to write "Tea Night: Welcome, All Guests" in as many languages as the device tells him the crew reads. He writes the welcome with ink and a brush, brought from the Possessions locker, for the purpose of putting on the open Sensorium door. When it is completed, he hangs it, inspecting it for a moment before returning to the tea house that was his uncle's joy.

He breathes out, picking up the broom to sweep the shop, an automatic gesture born of force of habit. He waits quietly for guests to arrive, wondering if this will work after all. It would have worked for his uncle. Iroh might have even been proud of him for taking the initiative to do this on his own, and Zuko sweeps very hard, to drown out all thoughts that he might never get the chance to see if this is so.

In the cool Ba Sing Se evening, he waits for guests to arrive. When they do -

"Hello, welcome to the Jasmine Dragon. It is my honor to serve you this evening."

Li the Tea Boy is an easier persona to fall into than he'd like, it would seem.

((ooc: Okay guys, it's a party, so do what you do at parties - mingle, talk, start some shenanigans, get the ball rolling! Zuko will be trying his best to get to everyone, but he is a busy boy, so you should talk to each other as well. A good way to start is to demand tea!)

Zuko was on a mission.

Project Descent was someone he knew. And while squeezing through vents to look for lost Avatars was something Zuko was well suited for, computers were not, and so he was looking for help.

You could always find one of the nerds in the Engineering department, so he was headed there, stopping along the way to duck into rooms to look for people he knew were better with machines than he was.

Katara had her time to laugh and her time to cry after finding out about her world. She'd had fun with her Outsider friends, she'd broke down in front of a person she would rather have not done that with and she was still adjusting to recent events. Throughout all that had happened, there was still the silver lining: Toph was here, and now there was only one more person she was waiting for and all of her team, would be back together again. She knew that joining the Outsiders had been a step in the right direction: she felt like she was missing something, like a part of her was just going through motions. Her friends fulfilled that, and she was glad, but there was a little part of her that wasn't filled.

So Katara found herself back in the Sensorium's, specifically the Northern Water Tribe Spirit Oasis, one of her favorite places. It was the second time she'd been here, and she was glad to be there: it was the only place in the Northern Water Tribe not covered in ice, and it was known to be a gateway to the Spirit world. The lush, quiet place never failed put her in a quiet state, and she sat there now, cross-legged and breathing slowly.

She could deal with this: she had to. But it wouldn't happen if she wasn't grounded and quiet, willing to center herself and contemplate her role in this place that would now be her home.

The meeting is over, the teams have been assigned, the plans have been laid out. It's time to get weapons.

It's time to wish each other luck, and say goodbyes--with the hope that they're only "good bye for now"s.

It's about to get very hairy from here on out.

shuffle

shuffleshuffle

CRASH

...

shuffleshuffle

These are the sounds coming from the Equipment Lockers right now, as the ship's resident little green(-ish) alien loots through it, looking for nothing in particular.

Oliver has come across a couple things he seems to like, though. He seemed to enjoy playing with an old lighter he found Yay fire!, as well as a military-style helmet (which he's currently wearing, too big even for his oddly-shaped insect head).

Yet it seems to be a lone, ratty old shoe that seems to interest him the most...particularly when he tears off the rubber from the bottom of it and starts eating it.

...He certainly seems to be enjoying himself, at least.

After coming back from interrogation, Katara was more than subdued, and hardly said a word. The fact that she'd not only made the wrong decision and had almost committed a crime of passion was bad enough, but she'd gotten closer to losing who she was again. Aang hadn't been here to make her see how wrong it was, and knowing the only thing that had stopped her was her need to help people was of little comfort. The worse part was she wasn't even sure she'd been able to kill the Yeerk if they had caught up to it: what would she do if Aang needed her? What if it got bad enough that she hesitated and this time she lost him for good?

Exactly how long could she go without having to make that decision?

"I wish I knew," she said softly to herself, hands tucked behind her head, staring at the ceiling. "I really wish I could talk to him about this."

Today, Zuko's slop is EXTRA sloppy.

"No pepper. At all. Really?"

Even the Earth Kingdom had something in the way of condiments.

"This is no way to live."

Katara had only HEARD of the Statuary and suggested team Sierra go meet there. She hadn't had time to inspect it herself tough, so she decided to go check it out on her own today, happy to finally do some exploring on her own. It was quiet when she arrived, but there was a feeling she had when she looked up at the figures: they all had a story to tell, and they all had their place. When she observed Elfangor's, she wondered if she should ask Ax about his story. Would it not be something he'd want to talk about? Would it be like bringing up her mom dying too? She was unsure.

Still, she continued looking on. She only wanted to make sure the place was fine to meet, but she found herself lost in all she saw. She closed her eyes and was still a moment, then continued exploring.

Ax stood alone on the grass surrounding the Garibah that Stacy had abducted from his homeworld. The ship lacked the sunrise he needed to properly perform the morning ritual, but he had decided that the Garibah would make a more than adequate substitute.

< From the water that gave birth to us, > he began, dipping his right forehoof into the dish of water he'd brought with him. The lack of running water in the vicinity had been the second problem he'd faced. He wasn't particularly fond of the ritual, but he certainly wasn't going to perform them in a room devoted to waste elimination.

< From the grass that feeds us, > he continued, crushing a tuft of grass under that same hoof. < For the freedom that unites us, > he spread his arms wide and looked up at the branches of the Garibah and up further to the ceiling of Stacy's City. < We rise to the stars. >

Ax bowed low. < Freedom is my only cause. Duty to the people, my only guide. Obedience to my prince, my only glory. The destruction of my enemies, my most solemn vow. > Rising from his bow, he stepped into a fighting stance and drew his tail blade against his own throat. < I, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, Andalite warrior-cadet, offer my life. >

The ritual complete, he relaxed his tail and closed his main eyes. This was the part where he was supposed to meditated on the ritual and whether or not he was living up to it. He'd never been particularly good at that part, not being a big believer in the rituals to begin with. But he was an Andalite, and he did intend to be a warrior, to continue being a warrior, and so the ritual must be performed.

Perhaps it would give him some direction.

Weeks of searching, more weeks of life on Stacy, and Zuko still hadn't found who he was looking for.

He was getting plenty sick of tunnel-crawling, too, and closer to a Punishment than was probably smart. And he hated to think of how much time "missions" were going to take away from his search . . . but whether he lacked time or not, he still needed to train.

The scarred prince ran through his katas in the Sensoriums, a breeze cooling the sweat on his back and blowing away the heat from his flames as he practiced in an open-air dojo. They were basic katas. His uncle would have been proud -

Except, no. He really wouldn't. Zuko faltered in his stance, remembering the last time he'd seen his uncle - the dim prison, the quiet disapproval in his voice, and Zuko's fireblast went wide as he stumbled.

Shit. At least nobody was there to see, right . . .?

If he's going to hold a team meeting it seems reasonable to try to make it as nice a meeting as possible, so he's taken over one of the sensoriums so that they can have couches.

...well okay the room is actually just his office back home with some couches ADDED, but they are still comfortable places to sit. There's also juice and cookies!

Mostly he just wants to get a handle on who all is under his intermittent command here when it comes to the missions. It's not going to do him any good to have a team if he doesn't have a handle on their abilities.

Ninjas are trained to work solo with a unified style that lets some missions be handled in pairs or fours. This means that, well, the Doc isn't really much of a 'large group' strategist. In fact his past attempts at planning non-solo missions have gone over in some spectacularly terrible ways. But hey, that plane thing was soooo Dad's fault, seriously.

For right now he has to at least try, though.

He munches on a cookie and waits.

After the meeting, Rei had disappeared from the area and headed for the Sensoriums she'd heard about. There, at least, she should be able to find a quiet spot to sort through the brand new turmoil in her mind.

To her surprise, her memory immediately drifts to a familiar-looking gate, which materializes in front of her---a torii, beckoning her to a sacred sanctuary. Simply passing under the gate lessens the burden on her mind, as the comfort of the gods' house surrounds her. For now, she'll gladly take the opportunity to re-ground herself in a familiar setting before the greater hardships begin.

If any podmates happen to pass by the small structure, they'll see Rei seated on the edge of the open courtyard just beyond the gate. The peaceful atmosphere is refuge enough for her, a small escape from the uncertainty beyond.

There's a string dangling from one of Stacy's vents.

It's tied to a 20-pound dumbbell that, more than likely, came from the Posessions locker.

Isn't that odd?

Up the vent, and far out of sight, Zuko elbows his way through Stacy's inner workings, carefully reeling out twine as he goes.

It's humid, warm, and uncomfortably tight in Stacy's vent-nostrils, and Zuko doesn't like it one bit. The Avatar had better be grateful for all this trouble, once Zuko finds him.

||All crew-mates. Please report to the Obs Deck to meet your new crew-mates.||

It's time for all the newbies to get a chance to have a formal meeting with the crew. Given the confusion of their arrival, that's probably a good thing.

Word gets out among the crew mates, spreading in a game of whisper down the meat-alley, that an informal crew meeting is what's happening, free from Stacy's prying ears, and sure enough, as soon as everyone's in the room, they're gestured to move in close, and a wall of blue energy goes up around them all.

((ooc note))

Mai had discovered the Sensorium earlier in the journey, but due to a variety of things (brain slug parasites chief among them) she'd never really had a chance to explore it properly. She'd dropped in, bored again. After all, exploring was something, wasn't it? And maybe she could find Zuko. Instead, the Sensorium had given her a replica of Ember Island. Devoid of people, but it was Ember Island on a summer's day. She was standing on the simulated beach, not quite sure what to think. For a brief moment, she'd thought she'd gone back home. Then she'd remembered that this place simulated things.

For the first time in her life, she actually missed her home and parents. They'd been strict, but they were still her parents. She sighed softly and then sat down, running fingers through the sand. Why did it feel so real?

More new arrivals but her business was elsewhere, and she figured she would be meeting them soon enough anyway.

The Sensoriums were set to look like Central Park as a pleasant spring day. Gentle breeze blowing while Kate lined up her shots toward the targets 50 feet away. It was very nice and pretty. A nice contrast from the ugliness of late. She had been feeling so mixed lately. Between being angry at Paco, nervous about Brenda's arrival, and then that whole last moment as the Yeerk died, it's been a very confusing time mentally and emotionally. She took her shots.

Still off. She went to go fetch her arrows, but then paused before find a place near a tree to slump down. She drew her knees up to her chin, and set her bow on the ground by her. She then lowered her head face down, and drew in slow shuddering breaths. She wasn't crying at the moment, but only because she wasn't sure how to feel at the moment.

Down in the city, behind a holographic wall, an epic battle for the whole of Stacy was taking place.

The Yeerks had dug out a portion of Stacy's 'brain' and built a machine that would let them wipe it clean, let them take her over and control her. It would also probably destroy the coordinates that would let the rest of the crew find their way home, but the Yeerks didn't particularly care about that. They knew their own coordinates, that was all that mattered.

Bumblebee, the Doctor, and the Master had found the machine, following the directions of the very unfortunate Yeerk that had wound up in the Master's hands. They'd brought an unconscious West with them and were shortly confronted by Sub-Visser 7, the leader of this particular batch of Yeerks. Scorpius had apparently attempted to first team up with and then betray the Sub-Visser -- what the result of that was, the Sub-Visser hadn't said.

But between two Time Lords and an Autobot, they should have no problems taking down one baseline human, right?

Well, that was before he'd brought out the Taxxons. Giant, flesh-eating alien centipedes, driven by a mad hunger to devour anything that couldn't run away fast enough. They weren't very sturdy, and they would immediately fall upon any Taxxon unfortunate enough to be injured, but there were hundreds of them. And they just. Kept. Coming.

And over all the fighting, the machine that would wipe Stacy's brain was slowly charging up...

((OOC note.))

Ax had escaped the Controllers on board. Brainy had not been so lucky. Neither had Sam and Tim. And who knew how many others on board had Yeerks wrapped around their brains, controlling their every movement, pretending that everything was normal until the time came to strike.

Who do you trust, podlings?

The ship never ended. The farther Zuko went, the more it always seemed there was to go . . . and those was just the areas he could walk to freely.

He found himself in a short hallway today, with three wings. He'd been here once before, continued straight ahead, and found the medical bay, so this time he was prepared for the sudden chill that skipped his physical senses and raced right across his consciousness.

The only thing he could compare it to was what he'd felt at the Western Air Temple, when he had taken refuge there while his eye healed following the Agni Kai. He'd never seen a place that felt as lonely as it looked, but the air of the Western Air temple was merely one of sadness, regret. The aura of the Special Weapons division was distinctly more negative. Angrier. More evil.

It was hardly difficult to imagine that terrible things had happened there. It looked like the scene of a fight, if anyone had been fighting in a hospital - an evil hospital. Zuko picked his way around the overturned beds and damaged equipment until he made it to the Acquisitions door. He was just about to try to open it when something on the floor caught his eye.

A whistle. Blackened with soot, lying on the floor by an overturned bed, carved in the shape of a bison.

Zuko picked it up. He turned it over in his hand, brushed some of the soot away, and turned it over some more.

Then he clenched the whistle in his fist so tightly that the wood almost cracked.

"Where are you hiding him?" the scarred prince yelled unto the heavens at the ceiling. "Answer me, Stacy!"

So, after finally getting pod-popped and being allowed to go on her merry way, Mai is wandering around the living area. She does have what appear to be throwing knives strapped to her arms or concealed as best she can in her bio-jumpsuit. She's idly twirling one of those knives in her right hand and looks positively bored with her life and surroundings. She pauses to run her free hand through her hair. Yeah, Mai's going to need a mirror and some hair-clips to get it looking anywhere near decent again.

Not that she cares that much.

Dun-nuh...

You thought it was over...

Dun-nuh...

You thought it was safe to go back out in city..

Dun-nuh Dun-nuh...

But what you didn't expect, was that crawling along the buildings was...

DUN-DUNNNNN...

...Well, okay, not one of the bugs. Just a crazy, newly pod-popped guy who didn't manage to run into anyone yet.

Come say hi?

Things can happen without Stacy knowing, that much is apparent now. The damage to her sensors is significant. But the fighting clued her in.

After it's all over, after those captured have been rescued, after the injured have been tended to, only the nest is left, and Stacy takes care of it.

||Infestation of Cluster 42, Level 4, Sector 7, Sublevel 12, Zone 37 has been detected. Triggering internal defenses. Decontamination commencing.||

There is a pause.

||Decontamination complete.||

Simple as that, once she knows the problem was there. Her internal sensors are damaged, especially in the city, and so are some of the systems monitoring them. You have to know what's broken to know to fix it.

Such a simple thing and it only took one man dying to make it happen. (His body is gone, by the way, ripped to shreds and eaten. There's not even a spot of blood on the floor. That's the bugs' doing. The bugs' bodies are gone too--that's Stacy's doing).

||Any injured personnel that still have not received medical attention, report to the nearest lift, and you will be transported to the MedBay. Any uninjured personnel, report to the Living Area, to the restroom facilities to undergo decontamination of xenobiological material. Then report to the Obs Deck to meet your new crew-mates.||

Said crew-mates--and the Doctor, who'd skipped out and miraculously ducked and weaved his way to the lift when he'd realized the Master was there--are there and waiting, and just a tad confused.

[ooc: read this first]

Inside the Vatican, the remaining free crew was putting the last finishing touches on their choke point/kill zone, or as someone had dubbed it, "the roach motel". They had cleaned out the first four rooms of both the Egyptian Museum and the Etruscan Museum on the floor above, so they could knock out the floor and shoot at the roaches below. That part had consumed more time than they wanted. At least knocking the floor in was simple enough. Those pieces were set up to provide cover, block doors, or reinforce the walls.

Hopefully the people of whatever universe this Vatican was from would understand.

Kurt would bait the roaches into entering the rooms, and the power-house team of Kon and Vincent would be waiting at the opposite end. Everyone else would be up in the Etruscan rooms where they would hopefully be safer.

Look alive and keep the friendly-fire to a minimum, people!

Having been fed and introduced to some of the other people on the crew by Bri (Ax suddenly understood why the Animorphs had immediately shortened his name when they had been introduced. So many sounds!) and Prince Cybil, Ax proceeded to...disappear on them.

Well, it had been almost two hours. He needed to demorph. Becoming a nothlit was not an option.

So he had found himself a decent hiding place to demorph and stretch a bit. He already missed being able to run in his natural body.

He finished his human morph and grimaced, picking at the artificial skin that Stacy had provided to the crew. Clothing was annoying enough when it didn't have a pulse.

Anyone who had seen Zuko in the past few days had inevitably seen him stalking the halls of the ship without end, his swords strapped in their sheath on his back, his perpetual scowl affixed securely on his face.

Torn from the Western Air Temple to a ship flying through the stars, farther from home than he'd ever believed a person could go . . . so many miles away from everything he knew that, for all he DID know, it would take him the rest of his life to get back . . .

If he ever got back at all.

Some destiny.

The prince of the Fire Nation stalked the halls like it was his job, eyes peeled for anything more unusual than . . . well, the usual unusual of the ship.

[ooc: Read this before tagging.]

The AI of Seamus Harper's ship, the Andromeda Ascendant was trapped here along with everyone else, her AI core stolen or at least copied to Stacy's systems. Other AIs had been captured along with her. But she did have answers to some questions, and apparently was willing to tell the crew things Stacy wasn't willing to without being questioned.

Apparently, one of those things was that Cybil Bennet, someone who had popped recently, right along with them, and was merely a police officer back home, was the captain of their crew.

Their crew of what, Harper had asked?

Andromeda's answer:

"The crew of this ship, Harper."

It was then that the eyelid-like visors covering the windows of Obs Deck started to separate, letting in the light--and oh, was there light. They were in the currents of a multi-colored cosmic riptide, surfing the stream. Stars shot past beyond the lights, nebulae, galaxies sped along them as if they were what was moving and the ship wasn't.

It was beautiful.

It was horrible, because it meant they were in space--or something like it. That was a very long way away from their homes.

"We are a very, very long way from Commonwealth space."

After the initial confusion of the pod release, the podlings have been allowed to wander at their discretion around the living area.

However, even though no one really pointed it out, people might find themselves drawn to a large oblong room at the one end. All of the hallways just seemed to lead there, for some strange reason.

The ceiling was massively tall, and shaped like a semi-circular dome. This sight would greet anyone who entered. There were fleshy couches and chairs for those that wished to sit down.

It looked, quite accurately, like a place people were meant to gather.

And gather they would.