Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Role Playing => Topic started by: Myitt on November 29, 2009, 11:36:55 PM
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((Alrighty everyone, for those who don't know, this thread is an offshoot of the Galaxy's Edge Space Bar in which several patrons have decided to visit Earth for various reasons.
One character, USMC corporal John Cutter, is a pilot from World War II who is looking for a way home. Unfortunately the Earth they're heading for is in 2003, in the midst of the secret Yeerk infiltration.
Myitt One-Nine-Five is a Yeerk rebel trying to help Cutter get back home, and going to pick up some groceries--because it's a hard life living in an underground rebel base light years from a good candy bar. She's accompanied by her human host Tara.
Breekan1 is the pan-dimensional spawn of Crayak in the form of a gentlemanly and outrageous winged panther-like creature called a Catshife.
Mar is pretty much the devil, but I'll let him speak for himself :P
Ardiss and Christine, a former Imperial Yeerk and her semi-voluntary host--Ardiss has a lot of recovery to do before she's a good little citizen.
Gaz is a space pirate extraordinaire, me hearties!
Temrash and Jagill are an ex-Imperial Yeerk and his allied Hork-Bajir host.
Did I forget anyone? Please let me know and I'll fix it, it's late and my brain's fuzzy :) Same rules of common RPG courtesy and tact apply here in this spin-off. Above all, have fun everyone! And be sure to visit the good old Space Bar often!))
Myitt's Ship:
"Sure, Breek, come along. Do you really think I'd invite a couple people if I didn't have chairs?" She grins. Once she's inside the ship, she helps John aboard. "Yes, this is my ship. The English name for this kind of ship equates to something like a 'Bug fighter'. I guess you can see why." The interior is pale off-white with scuffed-up metal tiling and walls, but overall, pretty clean for a beat-up old thing. Quite a contrast from the black-and-red, spiky insectoid exterior. There are two hydraulic sliding doors at the back--one leads to a small storage room and a galley so small that you would hit both walls if you turned around. The second door leads to the engines, the tiny retrofitted bathroom, and a small room with a couple of old cots on the floor.
Behind the main array of controls, most of them manual, a giant metal chair with a hole at the lower back has been firmly bolted down into the floor. In front of the controls, the two eyelike main plexi windows cast a faint reddish glow over the whitish control array. Myitt takes a seat at the main controls, bringing up a large floating pale blue holoscreen and sliding icons around through the air. The screen is translucent, partially blocking the view in between the two "eye" windows, but in a moment she slides an icon that causes the entire screen to turn transparent, actually providing a new, larger window directly through the hull of the ship and outside to the parking area.
To the left of the controls sits another seat; this one apparently came with the ship, or was much more neatly soldered on. In front of it sits a pedestal with what looks very much like an elaborate joystick. These are the main Dracon cannon controls.
Around the short distance from the control panel to the rear of the cabin, a few off-white metallic seats have been molded into the wall. The seat parts fold down, much like those in an auditorium or movie theatre. In between each seat is a small amount of space, and the seats are quite large, as if meant to fit something bigger than the average human.
"All aboard?" Myitt calls back, as restraints of liquidy, pale grey living metal snake out of the sides of her impromptu pilot seat and secure themselves around her body at the waist and more loosely at the chest. She mutters to the computer to close the exterior hatch as soon as everyone is inside.
Myitt has sent out a wide band communications, asking everyone accompanying on the trip to Earth to reply. To Gaz's ship she replies, "Let's get this party rolling, we're just about set. Yeeeeee-haw!" She giggles, sounding very human.
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((Note: Mar isn't actually coming on the ship with the others. He's following by his own "creative" means. If he went on the ship, he'd really piss Myitt off. XD Also...if I actually do decide to post as him on this thread, note that I will avoid combat at all costs and might only be visible to Myitt and Ossanlin. Or possibly Breekan1 because of his weird pan-dimensional nature, although that's probably not Mar's intent. ))
((Also, are we clear on whether Ossanlin and Alic are going or not? It seemed like on the Bar thread that they weren't going. ))
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(I think Oss and Alic are staying. Ardiss and Christine are also coming, so they can begin a quiet life on Earth instead of working for the Empire. Ardiss belongs to terenia, but she hasn't posted so I'll be NCPing the Yeerk.)
Temrash was going over some information with Ardiss as they made their way into Z-Space. "Alright Ardiss. You will be acting as Christine when you are on earth, and be under the liberal supervision of her adoptive parents. Christine is already marked as a controller, but we will make sure no one realises you are Ardiss. All you have to do is lay low, and the Empire will likely never find you."
"Alright."
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((Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I wish them good luck on Earth. ; ) ))
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Breekan presses his wings against his body as he enters and looks around. "Nice digs, Myitt! The liquid metal's a nice touch." He grabs one of he seats and buckles in, stretching his legs. "This is a lot less claustrophobic than one of Crayak's fighters; nicer smelling too."
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((Hey, I'm coming too. I just went dark last week 'cause I was out of town.))
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"I'm ready!" Said Gaz as she started up The Vagabond.
Fletcher was taking his seat on the bridge until Gaz needed him down in the engine room.
"So where are we going?" Fletcher asked.
"Earth year 2003, apparently," replied Gaz.
"Ah.." Fletcher said. "And we're going...why? It doesn't seem like the past would be of any interest to us."
"It's something to do," Gaz said. "And maybe we'll come across something on the trip there or back."
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"Thanks," Myitt says with a grin. "Must be the pine scented air freshener." She rigs a couple of wires underneath the control panels and a hanging CD player starts playing a compilation CD. It starts out with a 1940s song by Vera Lynn, 'We'll Meet Again'.
"Gaz, make sure you follow me out of here, I don't trust this place to send us both to the same time and place otherwise. Make sure your ship has locked on to my signal."
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"Locked on and ready," Gaz replied.
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"Let's kick it into high gear," says Myitt. "God, that was corny." She pilots her ship up off the ground and through the atmosphere of Earth, waiting for the other ships before setting the z-space course for Earth.
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Temrash lined his ship up with Myitt's direction, and set the tracker to keep up with her ship's location. "We are ready, Myitt."
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"Hey, that's Vera Lynn, isn't it?" John said as he placed his gun against the wall of the 'Bug Fighter'. Taking off his blood stained overshirt, he placed on his new one, and he said to Myitt "You got somewhere I can bin this?"
Sitting down, next to his Tommy Gun, he said to himself "I really don't know why I grabbed this thing" while he was looking at his firearm.
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((Haha I'm with Claire and she's always using the word 'bin'...it's so Australian :P))
"Yup, it is, and it's on random--what're the odds?" says Myitt with a grin. "You can toss that in the trash incinerator through. It's through that door, into the storage room."
To the rest of the ships in their little formation she says, "Alright, I'm setting my navigational coordinates for Earth and sending them directly to you. Make sure you follow them and don't let your own shipboard computers set their own. Space-time is very...well, it's thin around here. Be on your guard."
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"Not a problem." Temrash messaged back. He turned off the autopilot and went all manual. As strange as this bar was, he felt he should definitely follow Myitt's instructions. Hopefully it wouldn't be as tricky getting back as it would be to leave.
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As he listens to the com chatter and counts denizens from at least five possible different realities, something worrying occurs to Breekan. "Hey Myitt, how will we know whose time or universe we're headed back to? If the Space Bar's just a wadded up bundle of alternate realities and timelines curving in on themselves, do we have any way of controlling just which transreal exit we take?"
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"Got it," Gaz said.
She pressed necessary buttons on her console and waited.
"Hope Morgan doesn't get too bored," Gaz said.
"That old pirate?" Fletcher replied. "Nah, I'm sure he'll enjoy the quiet for a bit."
Fletcher and Gaz were quiet for a bit.
"Ever think about heading back to our reality?" Fletcher asked.
Gaz glanced at him. "Where's this coming from?"
"Just listening to them talk about possibly ending up in a different reality if we're not careful," Fletcher replied. "Been away from ours for a while."
"Don't know," Gaz replied. "For the moment, pickings are good out here. Maybe when we got some more cargo to sell back home."
"Maybe we can pick up some vintage stuff," Fletcher said. "People love vintage stuff."
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(( Hey, I'm here!!! I can pick Ardiss back up if that's okay. I'm back for good-ish and I think I'm going to insert a new character into the actual bar.))
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Thordon walks up behind Gaz as she talks to Fletcher, "So, this transport is nice. You wouldn't have an open seat where I would be out of the way, would you?"
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"Thanks," Gaz replied. She was proud of her ship. "You can pick a seat anywhere ya like. Fletcher's in my way all the time, it's ok."
Fletcher looked like he wanted to say something, but changed his mind.
Instead he turned to Thordon and said, "Hi. See what I put up with on a regular basis?"
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"That's an excellent, headache-inducing question Breekan, suffice it to say that I've done it before--albeit rarely. Somehow we each end up back where we're supposed to be, as long as we return to the bar, which always seems to be right where it should be. I think if people do stay too long in one particular universe outside of their own, the fabric of space-time and conservation of mass and entropy and all that would screw up and we'd all implode." Myitt smiles brightly, looking out at the star dotted expanse of space. "Let's hope all of those theories are wrong, okay? Hang on guys, and make sure you're buckled up." The z-space engines start revving up as they prepare for the jump.
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Thordon took a seat that Fletcher cleared for him, "Thank you." He then has a slightly confused look on his face, "Are you not in her way often?"
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(Welcome back Terenia.)
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Ardiss settles into a seat, looking torn between grumpy and relieved with her current situation. She contented herself with talking to Christine rather than talking to anyone on the ship.
<You better not cause me any trouble on Earth. I can't afford to be on the Empire's radar.>
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((Ardiss is on Temrash's ship, right?))
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(Yes she's on Temrash's ship coming to Earth.)
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"She's my cousin," Fletcher said in explanation, "she's just giving me a hard time."
"You want a hard time?" Gaz asked. "How about trying to steal my ship?"
"Are you ever going to let that go?" Fletcher replied.
"Eventually," Gaz said.
"Like when you die?" Fletcher asked.
"It's a possibility," Gaz said. Then before he could respond she said, "Check the engine console there, we're about to jump."
"Everything's fine," Fletcher said after checking the console. "Want me to check the engine room?"
"I think that's ok for the moment," Gaz said. "So, Thordon, excited about this little trip?"
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"Oh yeah, I know how it tends to go eventually," Breekan grins. "Trouble is, on this outing... Well, let me put it this way: When you two left-" he nods, indicating the newcomer from WWII and Tara, "-earth presumably didn't have any defenses put in place to protect it from randomly appearing alien spaceships." He scratches his chin, weirdly entranced with the possibility of trouble. "Do we know that's a time that we're going to be visiting? Are we heading to Tara's time? To Yours? Hell-" Breekan sweeps a hand over his sleeve, revealing a complex and alien calendar. "Maybe I'm from several thousand years in your future, and we'll end up in my timeline. God knows I've never heard of most of the intergalactic politics you all discuss. Maybe I'm not just uneducated- maybe it's all obsolete by my time."
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"Indeed, Meeting other spieces is always exciting. I'm especially interested in the similarities of the planet to my own. The only down-side is that I won't be here 'officially'. Nor can I since I don't know if continual travel between our planets is possible.
"Do you frequent this universe much? Where do you come from?"
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"We haven't been in this universe for very long," Gaz replied. "Where we come, space pirates like us are more common than you might think. It's the only way scoundrels like us can make any sort of living."
"You like it," Fletcher said.
"Yeah, well you can't think it's so bad either," retorted Gaz. "I mean, I got my own ship and I'm doing well. Eventually I'll get me a good crew."
"In the universe we're going to," Fletcher said, "there's a television show called...Firefly, I think. Loosely based on where we come from. Except, not as cowboy-ish and no Chinese."
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Thordon accepted the terms "Cowboy" and "Chinese" as Earth terms. "Ah, it sounds interesting. So do you come from an 'Earth' as well?"
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"A version of it," Gaz replied. "More advanced obviously. I think that, maybe, where we come from is a possible future for the Earth we're going to. It might be interesting to know which path this one is heading to."
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"Indeed." Thordon ceased his questions, closed his eyes, and started to meditate to reflect on his experiences thus far.
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"Technically, no, I have no idea, I've never done this sort of thing before with so many people from different places," says Myitt, tapping at the holoscreen controls. "But I do know that this ship always gets me back to my own universe, and my coordinates are set to the same star systems and z-space shifts I'm normally used to. So hold to something, okay?" She contacts the other ships. "I'm setting out, match my nav coordinates and stay on my tail."
She punches the z-space engines into high gear, and the ship lurches for one sickening moment. Outside, the starry expanse of space melts into blank white nothingness. It would be difficult to tell that they were moving at all, if it weren't for the faint sensation of movement somewhere in their guts and in the lightly rumbling floor of the buglike spacecraft. In a few moments it passes and feels no worse than a really quiet and efficient airplane ride.
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Thordon looks at the outward displays as they "travel". He sees the the universe around him disappear into nothingness, and is surrounded in white. Even as peaceful and calm of a person as he is, Thordon's hearts began to beat faster and faster. "Wha-? What happened? Where are we? What did you do? Are we dead? Wha- ah- huh?"
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"We're in what I've heard some call z-space," Gaz explained. "Where I'm from we call it the white. Don't much prefer traveling through here myself. Kinda bleak. Give me the open black with the stars. But for our destination, this is the best way to get there."
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Thordon calmed down a tad, "So we're still alive?" Thordon asked rhetorically and fell back into his seat. "huhh, that's a relief. I thought something went wrong. I was double-ly worried 'cause I'm not supposed to be able to die, so you can understand my panic."
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Temrash passed into Z-Space, and could still pick up Myitt. There wasn't really much to say about Z-Space. Just a big white nothingness that drifts through real space like a river with no banks to guide it. Z-Space can be quite convenient if the rive is flowing where you want to go, but its shifting can cause unpredictable changes in travel.
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As the ship that he was in jumped into what was called z-space, John was just walking out of the room that housed the incinerator. As the ship lurched a bit, he almost fell flat on his backside. Walking up to Myitt, he rested a hand on the back of the chair and he looked outside.
As he looked, he had to blink a couple of times, just so he could make sure that he was seeing things properly. After staring and blinking for about thirty seconds or so, he said to her "Where'd the regular space go?"
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"Understandable," Fletcher said after being quiet for a record amount of time. "The white's a little unsettling for first-timers. Heck, I've been in it more than a few times and it still unsettles me."
"Same here," Gaz admitted.
"What?" Fletcher said, "Rough and tough pirate captain like you?"
"I prefer stars," Gaz replied simply.
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"I thought I asked you to sit down and buckle up?" Myitt asks with a sly smile. "Technically real space is still there, we've just entered an extradimensional pocket of space-time known as z-space. I really shouldn't tell you much about this, if you tell the world they'll either think you're crazy or you'll single-handedly crash the stock market.
"Think of it this way: Imagine a piece of paper. Your point of origin is one side of the paper, and your destination is on the opposite side. If the paper is miles and miles long, it'll take a long time to get from one end to the other. But if you could fold the paper into a cylinder, so that your origin and destination are almost touching, then the distance is almost nothing at all. That's what z-space allows us to do, it lets us jump that little gap through the curvature of space-time so travel that might take many hundreds of years in real space would only take us a few hours or days in z-space. Of course, that all depends on just how far you're going, how much z-space shifts, and there are limits--no one within known Yeerk or Andalite science has been able to transport themselves into different galaxies, for example. Even in z-space that would take thousands of years in this old hunk of junk. But the Space Bar makes time and space act very strangely, and seems to disregard universal entropy in some kind of buffered multidimensional bubble. It's all quite fascinating." She blinks at Cutter. "I didn't lose you there, did I?"
Myitt briefly calls everyone within her linked system. "Everyone's still with me, right? Travel time should be..." She pauses to check her nav computer. "...approximately three hours."
((We can skip a bit to get to Earth if everyone's on board, I just want to make sure everyone gets a chance to say what they want to say in the marshmallowy world of z-space :) ))
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"Vagabond's still here," Gaz said. "Everyone's doing good on my end of things. Haven't thrown Fletcher out yet."
"Maybe I WILL go to the engine room," Fletcher said, "can't get me down there. I know you wouldn't leave your bridge."
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Breekan gazes out the window, appreciating the novelty of being able to observe Z-Space without panic. He wonders idly what Shal and Keirdan might be up to, but decides not to worry about it, knowing the time's passed for him to be able to do anything. He glances over at John and offers a hand. "So John, tell me about yourself. You said something in the bar about being a warrior of some kind?"
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(I've said my thing about Z-Space. Terenia hasn't posted for Ardiss, but i don't know if Ardiss would have much to say. I guess I could say something for Christine, but it doesn't matter.)
"We are all here Myitt. The ride has been as smooth as any trip through Z-Space. I guess if enough people concentrate hard enough, and pray to whatever they pray to, the bar will let them pass."
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Ardiss watches as the ship translates from regular into Zero-space, showing little interest.
"How long will this trip take?" She asks.
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"Well, I'd prefer stars as well, how do you know you're even moving in here? You can't really navigate, can you?"
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Myitt leans over the controls, smiling, with the air of a radio jockey. "Well, hello there, Ardiss, so glad you could join us. And I'm especially glad that Temrash has left the communications feed wide open. The trip should take about three hours, if you didn't hear me before. I trust you'll find some way to pass the time. Maybe get to know your host a bit better, huh? Yeah, that'd be swell. Because we aren't going to just let you run off into the hills once we land, you know."
She looks back at Breekan and Cutter, still remaining audible to the other ships. "Which reminds me, where exactly should we go? Cutter, you're from the United States, but I need to go someplace relatively out of the way to get what I need to do done. The frigging planet is crawling with Imperial outposts, and the sad fact of it is, Tara's mug is sort of on the equivalent of the Yeerk Empire's most wanted list. Doesn't matter much, of course, because I could change hosts--but then my own DNA is also stored in their security system, so I can't even get through a planetside pool scanner without gigantic neon signs and fireworks going off." She sighs, adding blandly, "It's one of the really nice things about being a member of a species that is obsessed with controlling its citizens, right down to the tiniest details. Right down to who can eat and who can't."
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"I believe Myitt said travel time would be three hours. You can rummage around the ship for something interesting to do, or take a rest in the Kandrona generator. I don't suppose you'll let me borrow Christine a bit while we're on Earth? I'd like to check out the culture a little."
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"It's a little hard to explain," Gaz said, "it's mainly instinct and knowing how to keep an eye on the computer. Like I said, though, I avoid traveling this way if at all possible."
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"Yeah, I can understand. My father always told me, 'If you want to find anything, use your eyes.'"
(( ;) ))
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"Borrow her?" Ardiss looks confused for a minute, then realizes what he is asking. Her look of befuddlement changes to incredulity, "You mean...use her?"
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"I'd look a bit out of place walking around as a Hork-Bajir controller. when you're in the pool, I can go with her outside to do some stuff."
<It's like he's asking to borrow the keys to your car or something.> Christine mused.
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Myitt inspects a floating holographic map of Earth, curiously. The dark green landmasses are dotted with glowing patches of crimson. "Hmmm. Southern California's off limits. Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta, New York, Boston...no. London. Paris. Moscow, wow, big spike there. Christ, this isn't even with the latest census reports. Mumbai, Johannesburg, Tokyo. Nope, nope, nope. Sao Paolo, figures. That one's new. Huh." She looks back at Breekan and Cutter. "Either of you ever been to a city called Perth?"
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Breekan gets up and looks at the map. "Never heard of it. Didn't that fox guy a while back say he was from there? Or was that Pern?"
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"Ah," Ardiss seems incredibly uncomfortable with this idea, "I...suppose." She says, making an effort to be agreeable.
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"Yeah, that was Pern," says Myitt as patiently as she can. "This is Perth." She taps the glowing air, indicating on the map. "It's a city in Western Australia. Relatively isolated, and the nearest preliminary Yeerk outpost is all the way over here." She points to the southeast coast of Australia.
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"Thanks." Temrash said. He wasn't sure if Ardiss was still being a bit antisocial as always, or if she had developed an attachment to Christine already. He himself wouldn't want another Yeerk walking around with Jagill, but they had been through decades together. Ardiss had been with Christine for hours.
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Breek shrugs. "I don't know the area, but I say we go for it. It sounds like we're less likely to get killed there than we are most places, and that's priority number one." He squints at a map for a second and then smiles. "Hey! That little bit over there looks kind of like a boot."
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((What is it with Myitt and landing in these really out-of-the-way nowhere towns? Then again, if she didn't she'd be screwed over. I guess rebels and nowhere towns just get along. ; ) )
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((Is Mar ever gonna post? :P))
Myitt laughs. "That's a country called Italy. Land of pizza, pasta, and um...Italians. Tara's relatives still live there, even though the rest of her family is here, in America." She taps at the country, mostly glowing a dangerous red at both coasts and a few spots in the middle. "And here." She shrugs and points to a spot in eastern Canada, glowing red around a prominent city.
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"Looks like we're just about there," Gaz said.
"That's good," Fletcher replied. "Was getting a little tired of the white."
Gaz nodded as she watched her console.
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"Hm. A water planet." Temrash said when they passed into real space. "I'll be sending a message to Christine's adoptive parents in the place called California. Once we land, I'll make arrangements for you." He said to Ardiss, then flipped off communications. "don't let Myitt bother you too much. You don't have to interact with her if you don't want to."
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"Indeed, the white is rather unsettling."
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((Chad, we haven't emerged from z-space yet. I'll take care of that now, though :) ))
Myitt yawns and stretches, checking the controls. "Everyone, we're going to be emerging from zero-space quite soon," she tells the rest of their little fleet. "When we do emerge, we'll be near a large planet the humans called Jupiter. Stay away from the inner orbit, its gravity well is pretty strong. We should reach Earth in about ten minutes, and as we approach we need to be cloaked and on minimal power. The planet is orbited by human satellite arrays, which shouldn't be much of a problem if we're cloaked; but it's also ringed by a number of powerful Yeerk ships. Most of them will also be cloaked and shielded from human detection, but they will see us if we aren't on auxiliary power and entirely cloaked. Even the faintest heat signal from a main power conduit will give us away. If anyone does contact you, give them this message." She transmits a signal code and a message declaring who each ship was in Yeerkish.
"Do not let them see a visual feed. Breekan, Cutter and I are going to be landing in the city of Perth, Australia. Whoever wishes to follow me may do so. I think the U.S. is too dangerous for Cutter and myself, and of course Breekan would stick out like a sore thumb anywhere." She grins back at Breekan. "Sorry, Breek. Take care of your errands but do not let yourself become detected uncloaked. Planetside we should be able to use our main power, there's too much air traffic--human and otherwise--for that to likely be an issue. Just be careful. I'm making the jump back in three..."
In a few moments the Bug fighter emerges near the orbit of Jupiter, cloaked and powering on auxiliary engines, zipping over the asteroid belt in a high arc and at maximum burn. She only slows down when they pass Mars, estimating time of arrival in Perth in about five minutes from that point.
Barring anything going wrong.
"So far so good, guys," she whispers to her crewmates, watching as Earth gets closer. No communications yet.
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Thordon watches as they pass the many planets. Awestruck, he stands perfectly still taking in the view.
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"I didn't plan on conversing with her more than necessary," Ardiss said, leaning back and stretching, "As I will be listed as an infested, the Empire will know of my existence. They do have records, you know. My name will not be listed as this human's Yeerk. What will be? If I am confronted for any reason, I should know what to say."
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"The Yeerks that will be helping you should have a new identity all set up. I won't be able to contact them right now, as we'll be trying to get past Loyalist sensors. However, when you speak to them they will be able to go over everything."
Temrash followed Myitt's command. he had done this kind of thing before, and wouldn't have done things very differently.
(You can control the other two if you want, and when Ardiss meets them you can make up whatever ID you want. I haven't given that part a whole lot of thought, but I figure you'd be interested in doing it yourself.)
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Breekan shakes his head. "It's all good, Myitt, the suit provides." Breekan taps a panel on his shoulder, and his wings slip comfortably into an extra-dimensional flap on his back. He then brings up a viewscreen on his forearm, activating a list of possible disguises. "There are no human holograms in the Crayak's database, unfortunately- the suit wasn't designed to head to your galaxy. There was a star system a few millennia ago containing relatively human-like lifeforms." He squints at the feed for a few moments before tapping one. A hologram encases his head and hands; it resembles a bald human with all-black eyes and white skin. There are four fingers on each hand and its teeth are tiny and sharp, like a pirannha's. He slips on a pair of goggles and gloves. "I won't exactly look normal by what I understand human standards to be, but I'll at least look plausible."
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Myitt watches Breekan transform, slack jawed. "Uh....well then." She clears her throat. "I guess you're good to go, huh? Just don't smile at anyone, okay? Do you have a hat?" She winces. "It's the middle of summer and hot as hell where we're going." While she waits for a reply she turns back to the controls, bringing the ship neatly between the perimeter of the International Space Station and the bristling, invisible Yeerk ships.
Myitt exhales. "Everyone please buckle up, this might be rough." The hull shielding flickers with flame and the cabin trembles alarmingly as the invisible fighter streaks through the upper atmosphere.
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"Here we go," Gaz said, "prep for landing you two."
"Got it," said Fletcher, as he monitored his own console.
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Thordon takes his seat again and braces for anything.
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The ship cruises invisibly, down and down and down in an endless drop. It evens out and sends everyone's stomachs back to normal as the ship slows to a less maniacal speed. The cloaked Bug fighter emerges from the clouds and over the water of the Indian Ocean, the green edge of western Australia on the horizon. The water is sparkling, and behind the verdant developed strip of coast lies a vast and arid network of grazing land and desert.
"Okay," Myitt exhales, "we're going to have to land someplace where we can find our ships, but not risk some poor sap bumping right into them. I need to go to the damn grocery store, so I'll try and find..." She does a quick scan on the Yeerkish connection to the human internet. "...a Cole's. In Mundaring. Okay then. We may not all be able to fit on the roof of a supermarket, and I'll be damned if I don't get some Cocoa Puffs. So what shall we do, then?"
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(whoa... i vanish for 3 days and i missed heaps!)
After Myitt described what z-space was, John's brain just completely blanked. For lack of a better term, brain-fart could be used.
Zoning out, he had to blink a couple of times to straighten his mind as they 'jumped' out of z-space near Jupiter. "So, that's what it looks like" he said to no one in particular as he headed to an out of the way corner of the ship to brace himself.
Hearing the other guy ask him about what he said when he was back in the bar, he said to him "Yeah. I'm a Corporal in the United States Marine Corp. 1st Air Corps, from 1944. But now, it looks like I'm stuck here in what was it, Myitt? 2003?"
Sitting down with his Tommy gun next to him, he removed the 30 round magazine, and he started checking over the gun, making sure that it was in serviceable condition.
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Temrash had turned his computer back on earlier. "I can call my ship from long distance, Myitt, so I could just park in an isolated area and meet up with you later when you're done shopping."
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"All right," said Gaz, "looks like we made it in one piece. Time to find a place to park."
She listened to the chatter on the comm as she tried to figure out where a good place to touch down would be.
-
Breekan frowns and lets out a series of hideous chirps before double-tapping his wrist. "Sorry! Accidentally activated the vocal masking. What I was trying to say is I've got a gasmask and a bonnet. I'm not sure if either of those'll help me stick out any less."
-
"You can try digging around what passes for my quarters in this thing, it's through the second door and on your left. I might have a hat or something hanging around," says Myitt. She chews on her lip, distracted by the task of landing the fighter on the roof of the supermarket her shipboard computer pinpointed. With a small jolt the invisible, leglike landing gears settle onto the tar roof surface, gusts of hot air waving the trees around nearby--but there is otherwise no other evidence of a UFO landing. The roof is large enough to fit several other ships, although some space is taken up by a number of rectangular ventilation shafts. Outside it's hot and there's still a bit of daylight left, sending waves up off the baking tar.
"Australia," she says thoughtfully. "We've never been. This should be interesting." She grins back at Breekan and Cutter, then contacts the other ships to make sure they've all landed safely someplace nearby. "Ready to go?"
-
Breekan digs through Myitt's things for a bit, eventually digging up a black ski mask. He activates the suit's cooling system as he slips it on though it's still stuffy and claustrophobic. He reemerges in the ****pit, shrugging. "It doesn't exactly seem seasonal, but I don't see why this shouldn't work. This mask doesn't have any ceremonial significance I should worry about, does it?"
-
Myitt sets about gathering a few things from storage, including a few extra portable detonators, and she double checks her Dracon's power level. When she walks back out she stops short as Breekan explains himself.
"Uh, yeah, Breek, you might not want to wear a mask like that. First of all, it's very hot out there, you'll broil. Second, yeah, humans tend to look upon people wearing black ski masks in broad daylight in a shopping center as um...criminals intent upon shooting the place up. There wasn't a baseball cap or anything back there? I'm sure Tara's got something...whateve r, just try not to look conspicuous, and take that thing off."
-
((Okay fine. Mar will post. :) ))
Mar has been floating on the bridge for most of this trip, but he is difficult to detect in this state if he does not want to be seen. A slight smirk crosses Mar's face. It is by far one of my more useful tricks. Now let's see...
Mar glances over the bridge and rolls his eyes. We've got the semi-volatile servant of Crayak, space pirates, my dear Precious, the Allied pilot, the once-powerful Yeerk general with much going on in his mind, and the cute little firecracker named Ardiss. None of them a threat now, but several likely to be under the wrong circumstances. ...I am getting bored. I might as well make myself known to those who can see me. It would come out with Breekan eventually.
Mar then slowly fades into view with his "hand" touching Myitt's shoulder. He looks like...well, like a bizarre black remnant of his previous mortal shape, with some definitely unpleasant fiery undertones. He's not very clearly defined. "Hello, Precious."
-
((Oh fine, I guess an elemental wraith made of pure energy is beneath Mar's notice. No, I get it, I'm just a tag-along. *sniff* :'( ;D j/k
Gaz, have we landed yet?))
-
(oh yeah! lol)
"All right, folks," Gaz announced, "we're here."
Gaz stood up, and as much as she didn't like it, she took off and left her trademark hat. She also made her gun less conspicuous. She didn't care if people stared at her manner of dress. To be truthful, she didn't have anything else.
"What's the plan of action?" she asked in the communicator.
-
Thordon stood ready to leave at a moment's notice.
-
Their trusted pilot sits briefly at the controls and opens the exterior hatch, letting some of the hot, dry air into the cool, conditioned cabin. Then the last thing she wants to hear--that wretched thing's voice, in her ear or in her head or otherwise too close for comfort. Myitt freezes, almost literally, as the sudden grip on her shoulder is quite cold. She swallows, then closes her eyes, like a kid too scared to look in her closet.
"Please, someone tell me they can see Mar standing right next to me, right now," she says, struggling to keep her voice calm, although her hands are trembling on the manual controls. Why? Why was this creep making her so screwed up? It was infuriating! She cautiously opens an eye, wincing to look over her shoulder.
-
"Sack sandwich!" Breekan exclaims, more than a little taken aback. "Can't you give us some sort of warning before you beam in like that? I nearly had a heart attack." He peels the ski mask off his face, opting for a baseball cap, as per Myitt's suggestion. "Also, is it just me, or do you suddenly look a bit more, well, evil?"
-
Myitt shakily punches one of the controls. "We're..." She sucks in a breath and continues. "We're all set. You can disembark, but be careful not to let anyone see you emerge from thin air. Um. Just...just give me a sec, okay?"
She turns and glares at Mar, the cold spreading from her shoulder and deep into her human guts. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Get your hand off me. I can't play games here, Mar."
<Yeah, make him stop, I feel like I just swallowed a pint of ice cream,> Tara groans.
-
"What is going on in there?" Temrash asked, hearing what was going on over the comm link. "Is Mar there? I thought we left him back at the Bar? I guess now he's turned into a creepy stalker guy."
-
"Is there something going on over there?" Gaz asked over the comm.
-
"Turned into?" Breekan sneers. "Yeah, he- it? is here. And being creepy. Possibly creepier." He frowns, the prickling of hairs hidden under his hologram. He wasn't quite sure just how peaceful Mar was, but he was certain he didn't want to pay the price of a confrontation. He found the demon's goals too murky to predict, comforted only by its strange fascination with pleasing Myitt.
-
Mar slowly draws his hand off Myitt's shoulder, his near-freezing temperature rather complicating his proximity to her. Myitt briefly strokes her hair with a twisted smile on his face but then lets it go, stepping back a bit. "Oh I'm just here to play with you, sweetie. Nothing bad. I made an important promise to you, after all. And promises among my kind must be kept...in one form or another." Mar chuckles a bit at this last statement.
Mar paces about the ship lightly, glancing about it, then turning his gaze toward Breekan. Mar's expression is unreadable but very odd. "A son of Crayak, are you? Hmn. I suppose it's not really my problem, but do be careful with yourself. And as for the wraith...see to it that you protect Myitt. You seem quite strong for a peacemonger."
((Don't worry, I didn't forget about you Parker. ; ) Thordon is awesome. ))
-
((:) Thanks, I'm rather proud of him. :-]))
Thordon heard Mar's request over Gaz's comm. He replied, "You have my word."
-
Myitt hits the comm link again, replying to Gaz. "We're fine," she grates. "Mar, we have work to do. Unless you can look inconspicuous in a grocery store, please **** off." She gets up and walks to the door, still clearly shaken but determined. She seems to feel better when she steps out into the oppressive heat, squinting up at the darkening sky. "Still hot. I like this temperature," she mutters, pacing away from the invisible ship, only noticeable by the floating oblong square of the open hatch. "Too dry, though. Much too dry." She sticks out her tongue in a face of disgust. It feels like it's turned into sandpaper in her mouth. "Yuck," she mutters, swallowing.
<Please. Don't let him touch me again,> Tara demands. <Bastard's colder than a well-digger's chicken. I really don't want him to come in with us. How am I supposed to know you're going to stay on my feet with him floating around? Creepy sonuva****.>
Myitt ignores her host for the time being and looks back at the floating square of cabin. "Well? Come on. Let's get some goddamn cocoa puffs."
-
((Gaz, did we actually land? You didn't specify; are we near Myitt?))
-
((Whoops. Then never mind; Mar couldn't have said anything to Thordon if he was on another ship. O__O; ))
-
"Oh, I could make myself less conspicuous," states Mar with a slight smile. "I just don't really care to right now. No one can see me or hear me except Breekan and you. And I don't particularly mind making either of you look insane unless someone gets arrested."
Mar pokes his head out of the ship, glancing around. "Not bad, but a bit dry. My sweetie shouldn't frequent places where she could get dehydrated. Make sure to buy water, hmm?"
-
((I explained it out. ;D I'm good like that. 8) ))
-
Temrash had landed somewhere isolated, and exited his ship with his remote control for it and water. "Come on, Ardiss. It's time to take a walk. My friends will be here as soon as they can to pick you up. Now let's see if this helps." He said and adjusted a belt. n cked a hologram of a tall and well built Human. It was a simple device, and had a force projector, so he looked and somewhat felt Human. However, he would still need to try to avoid contact and hope no controller had a way to detect the hologram. "Tell me Ardiss, are seven foot tall Humans that look like they weigh three hundred pounds reasonably inconspicuous?"
-
Myitt turns back to the floating cabin hatch, glaring at Mar's dark and semi-corporeal face. "Shut up," she snaps, smiling faux sweetly as she walks over to the edge of the building, walking around until she finds a dumpster. She bounces on her heels, grinning down at it, and pulls out her portable link. "Gaz, you folks ready? I'm going to head down at the dumpster in the back." She pauses and changes the frequency. "Temrash, where are you guys?"
((Hunter, of course since this is Australia, feel free to add any input--or correct me if I get stuff wrong XD))
-
Mar casually brushes past Myitt and drifts into the open air, glancing around him with a look of slight disinterest. Mar then glances back at Myitt and states, "Don't tell me to shut up, dear. It's quite rude. I certainly don't tell you that. ...what a barren, useless wasteland. There aren't enough people here for this to be any fun."
-
"That's what the Empire said," Myitt says simply, looking around at the trees. Suburbia. "They'll get to Mundaring soon enough, if you keep me from going food shopping. No sense waging war on an empty stomach." Once everyone's outside her ship she closes the hatch and seals it securely, remotely. She dangles her feet over the edge of the roof, swinging her legs back and forth.
<Oh, I hate heights,> Tara murmurs, looking down, too.
-
(oops)
"All right, hatch is open and we are parked next to Myitt's ship," Gaz said. "Let's get goin!"
Gaz and Fletcher walked outside. Fletcher squinted in the light as he stepped out.
"So...um..." Fletcher said, "Why we here?"
"Some fun," Gaz said. "Some fun. Maybe while we're here we can pick up some more rum for the galley."
Gaz walked over to Myitt. "You doin ok? Sounded shaken on the comm."
-
Myitt looks up at Gaz. "Doing great. Just..." She glances at Mar, unsure if Gaz can even see him. Her gaze quickly flickers back to Gaz's face. "...My host is afraid of heights," she murmurs, looking down at the dumpster below. "The depths of space and the height of Earth orbit, and you can't handle a dumpster." She smirks, then sucks in a deep breath, sighing, "shut up, Myitt." Tara swallows and hops down into the dumpster below with a clang. "Ohh, guh-ross, man..."
-
"You sure that's the only thing bothering you?" Fletcher asks. "I thought it would have something to do with the dead guy over--guh!"
That was when Gaz elbowed Fletcher in the gut.
"I wasn't sure if that was something you wanted to talk about," Gaz said.
"She's a pirate with manners," Fletcher said. "GUH!"
That was when Gaz elbowed Fletcher a little harder in the gut.
"Shutting up," Fletcher wheezed.
"Good call," Gaz said without looking at him. Then she looked over at Mar. "Interesting."
-
"Just a sec," she calls, then seems to realize she's being far too loud, as she clatters out of the dumpster. "Ugh, I think I'm covered in orange juice. I hope this is orange juice." She wipes her hands on her jacket and looks up at her friends on the roof. "Come down here already, we don't have all night." Myitt narrows her eyes at the snippets of conversation she overhears between Fletcher and Gaz, but settles for leaning against the brick wall of the supermarket, looking around impatiently.
-
Mar glances at Gaz with some interest. Interesting. That woman can see me. ...this may not bode well for my current state. I'll have to vanish from all views until I'm sure one way or the other.
Mar then disappears from Myitt's sight, mentioning one final thing. "You shouldn't get so dirty, Precious. Try to be more careful as we go."
-
"I'm working on it," she growls, glaring up at the sky. <It's too dry here. Drier even than Wyoming. How do you guys live here?>
<I think it involves lots of sunscreen, and air conditioning,> Tara replies.
-
((lol... you got perth pretty spot on. now, if it were either queensland or victoria, i'd be a little more help, but, meh... also, in aussie, we have Coco Pops, not cocoa puffs))
Climbing out of the ship, he takes a quick look around, and he notices that he is on the roof of a shopping center. John could guess that from the dryness of the air, that they were in Western Australia. He knew a kid in his section that was from the Northern Territory.
Walking over to Myitt as she was sitting on the edge of the roof, he saw her suddenly fall from sight, then he heard her complain about a dumpster.
Laughing a bit, he said to her "What does the people from 2003 think about weapons? Should I leave my girl here, or take it with me?"
With that, he swung himself down from the roof, and he landed on his back in the pile of bubble-wrap that was placed just to the left of the bin. Standing up, he brushed himself off, and he flicked the safety switch to the 'on' position on the side of his gun.
-
Temrash continued walking down a road with Ardiss, taking the occassional sip of water.
<Not like desert.> Jagill said.
<I know. Not sire why Myitt couldn't find a more temperate area, but it doesn't matter. We've been through worse.>
He noticed a few animals wandering around, as well as some interesting looking vehicles.
"Interesting transportation you Humans have." He said, trying to make conversation.
-
Gaz and Fletcher walked around with the group.
"So this is what Earth used to look like," Fletcher said as he looked around.
"Been a while since we were here, eh?" Gaz commented.
-
Breekan smiles stiffly. "I appreciate your concern," he tells Mar. He follows Myitt out the ship, looking down from the roof. He removes his gloves, and shows, extending the claws from his hand and feet underneath the hologram. He tosses the gloves and shoes down to the ground, and climbs down gently, with grace appropriate for a flying alien cat monster. Of course, he lands on his feet. Into something wet.
"Yeeeelk!" he whispers. "I take off my boots for one moment..." He frowns, scraping the alley-sludge off his feet. "God, if this is hobo vomit..."
-
Thordon walks past Gaz and Fletcher as they bicker back and forth. As he approaches Mar, but he changed state. Thordon could no longer see Mar's vessel, but he could see the residual energy that represented Mar's presence. He asked towards that energy, "Trying to find a suitable vessel?"
-
((Haha nice Hunter...I kinda got this idea after Claire had said she had a fanfic set in a town near where I live. When we actually drove through that town. XD Besides, I figure it'll just take the Yeerks a tiny bit longer to get all the way to Perth, bwahaha.))
"Will you guys keep quiet?" Myitt hisses, edging around to the corner of the building. "We need to look inconspicuous." She gapes at Cutter, holding his military rifle. "Jesus, will you put that away? People in 2003 don't walk into grocery stores packing heat! At least everywhere except Texas. We cannot, absolutely cannot, be arrested or otherwise attract attention." She waves them along and walks to the front of the supermarket, stepping aside as a woman in short sleeves walks out, rolling a shopping cart.
<Oh man,> Tara says, <I knew this was a bad idea. Everyone's in summer clothes, and we look like goth kid Hot Topic rejects. We look like the Halloween brigade, and I don't think Halloween's very popular in Australia--let alone in January!>
Myitt steps through the air conditioned sliding doors of the Cole's supermarket, and for a split second there's that wave of nostalgia. Supermarkets meant the little beeps of the registers, the stacks of normal food...the normal life that her host used to know.
But damnit, this was a mission, and she was going to get as much junk food as possible. Nervously, she looks behind to see if the others have followed, then she pulls out a shopping cart and starts rolling it towards the aisles. She idly tosses some Nutella and a couple glass containers of strawberry jam into the cart. "Vegemite?" she says aloud, squinting. <What the hell is Vegemite?>
<Don't ask, just grab some for Nicky, it's like Marmite. He'll appreciate a bit of Johannesburg,> Tara mutters. <God, does this place have any peanut butter?>
-
Leaving his rifle under the pile of bubble wrap that he landed on, he hoped that no one would find it. Making sure that his uniform was looking crisp, he fixed up the collar and he rolled up his sleeves just to below the elbow.
Tucking in his dogtags, he followed everyone in to the supermarket, that hat Woolworths written above the door in huge neon letters. Looking around, he sees cars that looked completely alien to him. They looked completely different to the cars that he was used to.
Running his hand through his slightly blood stained back hair, he followed Myitt into the place to look for some food. "Well," he said to her "I take it that we'll be getting some strange looks, eh?"
-
((It's a Cole's! XD There really is one in Mundaring, because I am just that nerdy...x3))
"No, we won't be," says Myitt tersely, tossing some cereal into the cart. "Coco Pops? Oh well, close enough." She tosses a couple of boxes in, then adds another two just in case. "Oh, man, milk would be great...it's such a pain to use that powdered crap. Nowhere near the same." She pushes the cart down the aisle. "Never thought I'd miss eggs, either." She glances at Cutter. "So what do you think of 2003? I mean, I guess after riding in our vehicle it might not be too bad of a shock. But you should see this thing called the internet. Humans go crazy over it, it's like being able to write letters to a hundred people at a time, all on a tiny, personal computer. Well. Tiny by human standards."
-
After a while, Temrash's group made it into the town. Christine was visibly tired, but no one except Ardiss could hear her complain.
<Oh man, when he said remote I didn't think he meat THAT remote! Jagill doesn't even look worn out. I am not a military person. A brisk jog for a soldier is a long trek for a civilian. does he not know that?> She said, among many other things.
"We'll take a short rest here while I pinpoint Myitt's ship's location." Temrash said in the shade of a building.
-
Thordon lowered himself (floated) from the roof to the alleyway and followed Myitt and Cutter into the store.
"Wow, the similarities are astounding! The products are different, but the aesthetics are almost exact." He tried to keep his speech as quelled as possible.
-
"It's too quiet here," Gaz commented as she followed the group through the isles.
Fletcher, meanwhile, had his own cart and was grabbing items to re-stock The Vagabond.
"Why are you two dressed like pirates?" asked a voice.
Gaz looked down to see a small child staring at them. Then she winked and said, "Because we are."
"Honey, they're not really pirates," said the child's mother.
"You got us, ma'am," said Fletcher. "We're members of a...um...performing troupe."
"Really?" asked the mother, a little skeptical.
Fletcher floundered for a moment and started singing "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me."
After the first verse, Gaz caught on and joined in, including harmony at the right moments.
At the end of the song there was a small crowd that had gathered to listen. They applauded, a few even gave the two pirates some coins. Then the crowd dispersed.
"What was that?" Gaz asked. "Now they think we're Ren Faire performers."
"But we got some cash," Fletcher pointed out, "and they bought it."
-
Thordon watches the spectacle from the back. After the crowd moved away, he approached them and asked, "What just happened?"
-
"Some kid came up to us," Gaz said. "The mom looked skeptical. So we had to put on a show for them so they would leave us alone."
-
Once Temrash got to the proper place, he went inside and left Ardiss somewhere cool. He managed to see Myitt down an aisle, and called to Tara. There were some people around, so he tried his best to walk around. Of course what Tara would see was a very tall fat man calling her in a voice that didn't sound like Jagill's. Someone who would be very at home in a Big 'n Tall store.
-
Myitt turns the cart along the dairy section and looks over at the sound of some kind of performance, a few aisles down.
"Oh, by the Kandrona itself," she whispers. "I told them not to attract attention!"
She sighs, exasperated, and throws a few packages of cheese singles into the cart. She stares at the milk, biting her lip. "Maybe I can freeze it," she says worriedly. "Can you freeze milk?"
<Um, ice cream?> Tara replies.
"...Hmm," Myitt murmurs, and starts grabbing a couple of small cartons; she notices a particular brand of long-lasting milk, no refrigeration needed, and opts for those. "Excellent." She pauses and stares at the large man calling her name. It takes a few seconds for her to register. "Temrash, please tell me that's you."
-
Fletcher walked to Myitt and said, "Yeah, I know. We were supposed to keep low profile. But I think they won't pay anymore attention to us. I think they were actually paying MORE attention to us when we were weirdos walking around in strange outfits."
-
"Got it right away, did you? and I was hoping for something interesting to happen. This is a nice marketplace, and the merchants aren't yelling in your face or trying to shove every kind of item at you at once. It seems quite organized."
-
"That's okay, Fletcher," Myitt sighs, carefully placing a carton of eggs into the cart. "Nothing came of it. Did you grab a cart? I bet you'd like some of the food here, and if you need money, I have a multinational credit card. Stock up."
She smiles at Temrash. "Who else would know what to call me but one of you guys? Nice hologram. What're you trying to look like, that guy from Seinfeld? Nevermind. Let's just keep moving."
Myitt rolls down the shampoo aisle and picks up a few bulk containers, and some soap. "I need to head to produce," she says thoughtfully, tapping her foot and looking from one end of the store to the other. "It's very difficult to grow apple trees where I live." She pushes the cart in the direction of the bread, fruits and vegetables.
-
"Yep," Fletcher said, "Got a card. Figured it might be smart to re-stock The Vagabond."
-
"That's smart. A card that would be acceptable in this year? In Australia?" Myitt grins. "Well, just let me know if you have any doubts. There are benefits to our little organization; we have some financial connections here." She picks up a couple bags of apples and several other fruits, some bread, containers of cashews, and a whole slew of bags of dried fruit. "Alright, I'm getting close to quota here," she mutters, rubbing the back of her neck and looking around.
<Can we please, please, please check out the candy aisle?> Tara begs.
"Oh, okay," she grumbles, pushing the cart toward the candy. She grudgingly picks out a few strange looking candy bars, mostly Cadbury chocolate.
-
((i'll post soon... also, there is a type of milk here called Devondale Long-Life milk. it lasts for something like 2 months before it's opened. it also doesnt need to be kept in the fridge until it's been opened))
-
Temrash took a look at the variety of food. "You guys really like your variety. There are all kinds of things here." He noticed a couple of children trying to get their mothers to buy them something, and became happy when they got it. "Maybe I could give christine one of these things called snickers. Maybe her mood will lift."
(I don't know if Aussies have snicker bars, but I love them. A country would be a sad place without snickers.)
-
Walking down the aisle, John was getting some strange looks from the people there. This one guy, John could guess that he was around 19 or 20, he said to John "What happened to you, man? What with all the blood and stuff."
Thinking about an answer, he blurted out "Costume party. We're all hungry, so we though it'd be a great idea to get food." With that, he walked towards Myitt and said to her "I'm starving. Where's a Cafe?"
-
"I don't know, but we have plenty of food here, I can buy some for you," Myitt says, pausing at the checkout to grab a few more candy bars for Cutter and, for good measure, a copy of the The Daily Telegraph tabloids. The cover reads something about a UFO abduction near Alice Springs.
Myitt impatiently starts lining items onto the conveyor belt, separating them from the little old lady's groceries in front with a small plastic barrier.
-
After watching over the group from above the aisles, having done quite a bit of thought, Mar decides that it's better to be safe than sorry. Mar finds a quiet place to fade in and reappears next to Myitt as a short-haired young man wearing what looks to be a very expensive tailored suit. There's still something indiscernably more unpleasant about him than when he was mortal, but at least it doesn't show on him physically.
Mar smiles a bit at Myitt. "Odd place for someone rich, but I'm very fond of this particular shape. Indulging yourself are you, my sweet?"
Mar then blinks a bit, frowning as he realizes a rather high-grade attempt was made to contact him. He quickly sends an intelligible message back which states, <...yes. I cannot appear as I did in the Bar. That was a fluke, I believe. And a bit of a headache, though a learning experience. But in case I can be seen, I'll have to go with this for now.>
-
Myitt jumps and stares at the man, looking him up and down. Her heart hammers away in her ears. "Jesus, don't do that," she gasps. "Mar? What am I saying, of course it's you." She swallows, forcing her hands to pick up the last of the groceries and place them in the checkout. "Consider them less indulgences and more necessities. Have you ever tried holing a bunch of humans up without things like cigarettes and chocolate bars? It's not very much fun, I can tell you that."
The little old lady blinks at Myitt behind big reading glasses, gripping a small red purse. "Am I in your way, dear?" she asks in a lilt.
"Oh, um, no, ma'am," Myitt says, forcing a smile. "Take your time."
"Thank you," the old lady replies, slowly counting out one and two dollar coins and handing them to the young lady at the register.
<You and my big goddamned mouth,> Tara mutters.
-
Mar purrs. "And of course my precious also needs a few indulgences now and again." Mar glances about the aisles, and then grins. He reaches into his pocket and holds out a palm-sized chocolate heart. "If we want to be corny, I could say that you've had this for a very long time. Oh, but don't take nicotine dear. It's very bad for your health."
-
"That's really cute," Myitt sneers. "Why don't you keep it, huh? You already have everything else you could take from me."
The old lady counts out the last of her coins and pauses to look at them. "Oh, how sweet then, I love seeing young people in love," she says with a smile. "Have a lovely day dears." She walks off with her groceries.
Myitt stares as she leaves, unable to work her mouth properly.
"Will that be cash or credit, miss?" the young woman behind the desk asks her, pulling a strand of hair behind an ear. She has a black Perth Football Club shirt underneath her store apron, and looks extremely irritated after dealing with the older lady.
Myitt blinks, looking at the cashier. "What?"
"Cash or credit?" the cashier replies quickly, barely looking up from ringing up the items.
"Oh. Yeah. Credit," says Myitt mechanically, fishing out a battered leather wallet and digging through a great variety of cards, until she finds the right one and hands it to the girl.
-
Mar watches Myitt sort through her credit cards, still smiling as he bites into the chocolate heart. "Hmm. I wonder what the symbolism would say about this. Oh well."
The grocery store is absolutely filled to the brim with humans, each with their own worries and problems and fears. Mar closes his eyes and drinks it all in. He always feels significantly more alive in large centers of population, especially in places where everyone's often. thinking about money or work. He then opens his eyes and waits for Myitt to finish.
-
"I think it would say something witty, like 'eat your heart out'," Myitt grumbles, signing a scribble of a signature and placing the plastic bags into her cart. She glances around for the others, wondering where they've gone off to, and pushing her cart out of the way of the line of traffic.
-
Thordon branches off from the group and walks around watching the humans. He, ever so often, rubs his sides where his other arms normally are. An attractive female approaches him, "You all right?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You're rubbing your sides like your hurt."
"Oh. No. Just getting used to not having something there."
"Kidney donor?"
"Sorry, 'Kidneys'?" Thordon gives the woman a confused look
She laughs and responds, "Yeah, kidneys, you know, filters urine, hurt's a **** when you're hit there."
Thordon assumes it's a normal part of human physiology and plays along, "Oh, right. Sorry," shaking his head he continues, "Yeah, you guessed it. My girlfriend needed it."
"Your girlfriend? Oh, shame." With that she walks away.
Thordon rushes over to Myitt who was gathering her food which were now bagged, "I think I may have offended someone." He senses Mar's presence and sees his new vessel, "Ah, made your choice?"
-
Fletcher laughed. "That lady over there? I wouldn't worry about, pal. Thought she had a chance with you."
"Always thought I would like peace and quiet," Gaz said. "But this...this is too quiet. Not used to it."
-
Temrash noticed Mar and kept an eye on him. Myitt was obviously annoyed by him, and it was rubbing off on Temrash. Or maybe it was just that all kinds of people were staring at Temrash, and he was trying to avoid them, so he unconsciously decided to make Mar his scapegoat and be annoyed at the guy. He needed a more suitable form. He went to Ardiss with thenewly bought snickers bar, and gave it to her.
"I got you something sweet to eat."
-
Thordon held his head up in rediscovery, "Oh, of course." He lowers his head and slowly shakes it. "I've been in a relationship for far too long. I can't even flirt anymore."
-
Myitt ignores everyone, too distracted to think about conversation. "Where's Breekan, and where'd Temrash go?" she says, squinting through the aisles. "I just want to go. I hate being around so many unsuspecting people. It's making me itchy."
-
Thordon asks of Myitt, "Where are we off to now?"
-
"Well, we need to get these groceries onto the ship," Myitt says, still distracted. "And then I guess we'll have to find out of Cutter can find a way back home, or at least something like it."
-
Soon after entering the store, Breekan begins to gaze at the movements of its citizens. They amble through rows, driven by instinct, signs or shiny wrappers. Haggard mothers coral mobs of children on leashes, a few confused wanderers seem lost and refuse to admit it. A voice interupts his thoughts. "Sir, could you get down from there?" He looks down. He has absent-mindedly climbed on top of a neat stack of bright red tin cans. He tries to cover his teeth with his holo-lips.
"Oh, sorry, sir!"
"ahem" The clerk does not look amused. Breekan tries to remember the human word for "ma'am."
"Sorry, uh, she-sir." He climbs down gently, not disturbing a single can. The clerk grumbles off angrily. He sighs. He tracks down Myitt and Mar. "Well, no wonder the place is so clean," he muses. "They've got androgens standing guard everywhere."
-
Myitt leans over to Breekan, putting an arm around his thin alien shoulders. "My dear friend Breekan." She smiles. "Where the hell have you been!" she snaps in his ear, out of breath. "We need to go. Right now."
She leads him to the door, pushing the cart of groceries, and gestures to the rest of their little band.
-
Temrash and Ardiss regroup with everyone. "My contacts are a bit busy, so they can't get a ride over the ocean just now. I suppose we could see some sights while we wait.
<Any nature parks?> Jagill said.
"Maybe some place with trees and shade."
-
Thordon comments, "It feels this temperate climate is too hot to sustain much forestry. However, as this is a different planet, the trees may have different characteristics than mine."
-
"Why don't I just take you to your contacts?" Myitt offers. "We can't afford to wait around any longer than necessary. As I'm sure you're aware, this is a very dangerous planet for many reasons." She glances at Thordon. "Although there are some forests here, close to the cities." She pushes the cart around the side of the building, back to the dumpster where Cutter had hid his gun. She pulls the lid shut on it and starts setting bags on top of the lid, five total. She then laboriously hoists herself up onto the dumpster and sets the bags up on the roof. It takes some stretching, since Tara isn't the tallest person, and one of the bags nearly falls, but she manages to get them up. "Okay. Now how the hell are we going to get up there?" She jumps up and grabs the edge of the roof, but slips back down. "Damnit," she hisses, waving her scraped hand. "My arms are still a bit worse for wear. Stupid. Should've thought of this before..."
-
"We'll find a way." Temrash said and jumped up to the ledge. He then lowered his arm to hoist Tara up. "Don't worry about the blade. I know how to move people without cutting them. We can then move closer to California, where Christine is from."
-
Myitt grins up at Temrash as he drops the hologram and extends Jagill's Hork-Bajir arm. "Thanks, I tend to have rather bad luck with those blades," she says, grabbing his hand and letting him help her up onto the roof. She brushes herself off and looks down at everyone. "I can't risk bringing the ship down, so you'll have to climb up here. Can you all do that? Jagill and I can help."
She turns sharply to Temrash as he mentions California. "Oh, no. No, no, no, not California. That's the absolute worst place for us to be. Do you have any idea how many...how many enemies are zipping around the west coast of North America?" She lowers her voice, glancing down at the edge of the roof. "We can't give her a chance like that." Of course she means Ardiss.
-
"Well I'm sorry. That's where Christine is from. Unless we move her somewhere that she's less likely to be discovered. And stop being so worried that she's going to run off."
-
"Yes, I think that's a very good idea," Myitt says, nodding. "If you think your contacts can find someplace for Christine to live that isn't the hotbed of Imperial activity on this planet, that's great. But I'm not flying her there."
-
"Okay. What about one of the next territories over? Something like Nevada or...what were their names? Oregon? Something else."
-
"Maybe Wyoming," Myitt says flatly. "Nice, quiet, empty. I think she'll do well in Thermopolis or Riverton."
-
"Okay. Once we get everyone inside and settled, I'll contact my allies."
-
Thordon follows Myitt into the alleyway and before he could offer his services, Temrash jumps and pulls her up. "Oh, I can levitate everyone, one by one, if you'd like." Thordon "grows" his secondary arms back, and begins making some wide gestures with them. He finishes the gestures by pointing to the lid of the dumpster where the rest of the bags were, and they float to the top for Myitt and Temrash to grab.
"Well?"
((If you want to go up with Thordon's help, you can RP that he repeated the gestures to help you up. You don't have to wait for me to respond.))
-
Myitt watches the bags float to the roof. "Man, you could've told us that a few minutes ago," she said with a wry smile. She picks up several bags and takes them to her invisible ship, opening the hatch and moving several items into the little storage room. There are a number of cold storage units, a small stasis device, and a small freezer.
-
"I apologize, I was going to submit my services, however Temrash beat me to it."
((I'll check in every now and again to see if anyone needs my services. But feel free to NPC Thordon's help if you don't want to wait.))
-
Once Ardiss was up, Temrash gave his ship the command to come to the store. "Once the ships have lifted off, there will be room for mine to land and we can board."
-
Extending his claws and taking his gloves and boots in his teeth, Breekan bounds straight up the wall in a few easy leaps. He grunts upon landing, and looks over the city for a moment. "You people. You really like grids, don't you? And all these ceilings..." He shakes his head in amusement.
-
"At least the space from floor to ceiling was large. I wonder what it is with Humans and patterns. The floors, walls, and ceilings. They like their decorations, I guess.
-
"Don't worry," Myitt huffs, stooping to take the last of the bags. "You'll get used to it." She takes the groceries to her ship and unloads them.
-
"This is all too much of a culture shock for me. I think I may not like the future America much" he said as he followed everyone out of the shopping center. Retreiving his gun from where he hid it just before, he said "Incoming!" as he tossed the gun onto the roof.
He then lifted himself on to the dumpster, then he used his training to jump up and grab a handhold on the gutter of the roof and to hoist himself up. Helping load the groceries into the shop, he grabbed something called a Mars Bar, he opened it and started eating as he walked over to where he was sitting earlier.
-
Seeing that most were refusing his offer to help, Thordon figured they preferred to get up on their own. However there were still the Pirates that needed to get to the roof so he waited for them. Once they showed up he planned to offer them assistance to reaching the roof.
-
Fletcher had the stuff he had picked up for the galley of The Vagabond in a shoulder bag he had.
He waited while Gaz climbed up to where everyone else was and then followed.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and run into a nice ship on the way back," Gaz said wistfully.
"Hey," Fletcher said, "this wasn't a total waste. We got some supplies without worrying about being taken away."
"Good point," Gaz said. "I gotta wonder. What happens here to make this planet turn into what we know."
"Makes ya think," Fletcher said. "Can we not wax the philosophic right now?"
-
Quite suddenly, from below, comes the crunch of tires on gravel, and the long whoop of a police car.
"Oy, what're you doing up there?" shouts a male officer, leaning out the driver's side window.
Myitt is still in the ship, in the storage room, but suspicion makes her step to the hatch. "What was that?" she calls to her friends.
-
Thordon watched as the pirates chose to climb to the roof as well. He then levitated to the roof and followed Gaz and Fletcher back to The Vagabond. A car arrived and a human male asked their intentions, Myitt asked who called up to them so Thordon answered, "A man in a blue and white vehicle is inquiring of our actions."
-
"What?" she states blankly. "Oh, ****, everybody get to your ships, pronto! That means right now!"
She hurries to the main controls and starts the ship's main engines, sending off its familiar humming drone.
"What the hell is that?" the male cop asks his female counterpart. The items on his dashboard tremble slightly.
-
Temrash activates his hologram while he's still out of sight. "I will distract them." He says, and jumps down. He makes sure they notice him, and starts running as they shout for him to stop. As he runs, he starts keying in another type of hologram to hide behind once he loses them, but in the meantime he'd just have to keep running.
<Not that great on flat ground.> Jagill said.
<We'll have to deal with it. It's not like we're being chased by Andalites.>
Ardiss moves into gaz's ship for safety.
(I NPCed Ardiss because Terenia hasn't been by.)
-
Thordon rushed into The Vagabond at Myitt's word.
-
"Oh, Jesus, Temrash! Will you get in the ship, don't distract him, get in the ship already! Anybody's ship!" Unfortunately this is blared over the ship's external communications device.
The cops look up at the roof, unlimbering guns. "You kids get down from the roof, do you hear me?" the man calls.
-
(Haven't had him do anything impulsive in a while. He's going to have to get that checked. lol.)
Temrash noticed not all of the enforcers took the bait. His ship was hovering overhead, but he didn't want to decloak it.
-
((before i post, i'm just lettin ya know that aussie cop cars arent black and white. they are white with blue. [spoiler](http://www.inthejob.com/wavt2.jpg)[/spoiler]))
Luckily, when the police showed up, John was already in the ship. Mainly because he wasn't a big fan of the future. That and Myitt was the only one here he truly trusted. Her and the Pirates. They were awesome in his books.
-
((fixed ;D))
-
Gaz and Fletcher rushed into their ship. Gaz went immediately to the bridge and shouted as she went, "I really hope anyone who's coming in is in! Hatch is closing now!"
The hatch closed as Gaz leaped into her seat and hit the comm. "Ok, everyone's in! Starting up. Fletcher! I need you in the engine room. We got an audience, can't have them seeing us."
"Got it!" Fletcher said as he raced to the engine room. "I'll hide the colors!"
"Who do I got in here?" Gaz yelled as she started up the engines.
-
Thordon states, "Present and acounted for."
-
"I'm here." Ardiss said. "Temrash is outside. That's just perfect. He's supposed to be some wisened old Visser? More like senile."
-
"All right," Gaz said as she hit the comm again. "I got Thordon and Ardiss with me on my ship."
To Ardiss she said, "Well, I hope Temrash gets on one of the other ships cuz I don't got time to re-open the hatch, we've all ready started the engine sequence."
"Nearly ready!" Fletcher said over the comm system.
-
"That's it, we're lifting off," Myitt says tersely. "Temrash, get to your ship, NOW. We're leaving."
The invisible Bug fighter's leglike landing gears lift off the roof and slip back into the ship's body. The little ship lifts off the ground, bluish gases waving through the trees--but otherwise, it is invisible.
"Christ, this is too weird," says the female cop, staring up at the sudden windstorm.
-
"Nobody wants to have any fun." Temrash mutters. The cops try to find him, but he's keyed in the other hologram and hides until they leave. Then he's on hi ship and following Myitt again.
-
"We're off!" Gaz announced. She punched in something on the console and the ship was rising.
"We're unseen, right?" Gaz asked.
"Don't worry about it," Fletcher replied over the comm. "We're good."
-
"Oh, Jesus, that was close," Myitt exhales, sitting back in her big metallic chair. "Okay, follow my coordinates. Um. Next stop, Wyoming, I guess. Let's try a little town called Thermopolis."
The ship cruises up into the atmosphere, punching a quick burn halfway across the world to the barren western U.S.
-
((Temrash sounded like Assassin's Creed for a second. ;D))
"Well, that was fun."
-
(Yeah Temrash is nuts. I haven't decided if I want him to be the type that tries to commit suicide by needlessly throwing himself in danger, or just being plain reckless.)
-
"It was certainly interesting," Gaz said. "Hope we can have that much fun on our next tour stop."
-
Mar watched the action with some amusement, following behind Myitt and eventually fading out of view. I love it how they've managed to get themselves needlessly in trouble yet again, and they aren't even in a Yeerk-prevalent area.
When Mar fades back in, he's laying against the walls of the Bug fighter near Myitt. "Another fine mess you've gotten yourselves into. I hope the next stop on our trip is nearly this fun. Do you actually have a plan, or are you just making this up as you go along?" Mar laughs at this last statement.
Mar also sends another message to Thordon stating, <<I've used this form before. It is a bit extravagant for the situation but it has been useful in the past. I'm not the world's most creative creature, you know.>>
-
Thordon smiles at Mar's message. He then asks of Gaz, "Do you know how far this Wyoming is?"
-
"From here?" Gaz said. "Not too far. Wouldn't say more than a few hours."
Fletcher came back up from the engine room and said, "Everything's good down there."
-
"Is everyone away?" Myitt calls to the ships, sending a message to Temrash's ship as well. Already the little fighter is cruising over Africa, high up in the atmosphere, higher than airplane traffic.
-
"I'm behind you. Picking up a fighter over Africa. I know this isn't the safest place in the galaxy, but try not to be too antsy. On the other hand, I guess it's easier to for to say when I'm in a Hork Bajir and you're in a Human."
-
"I see it," says Myitt flatly, piloting slowly away from it. "What, do you think humans can't pilot fighters on Earth? Just because it's usually a Hork-Bajir and a Taxxon pilot doesn't mean anything." She sounds worried, nevertheless. Her ship is highly modified, which was an Imperial offense, so any interior view of their cabin would likely cause suspicion.
-
"So what might we find in Wyoming that's interesting? Any good sights?"
(I'm unfamiliar with Wyoming.)
-
Myitt considers for a moment. "Uh, well, there's a whole lot of nothing, it's the least populated state in the country called the United States of America, which makes it great for us. But there are some very nice mountains, plains, and lots of wooded areas. Most particular is this place called Yellowstone National Park. There are a few other things--Devil's Tower, the Oregon Trail. But the little place we're going is known for two things: geothermal hot springs, and dinosaur bones. Dinosaurs were ancient Earth reptiles, most of which are now extinct."
-
"Sounds like a nice getaway. We can make camp there."
-
"We still have to be cautious," Myitt warns. "Thermopolis is a small town, only around 3,000 people, but we can't go flying in there and land in the center of town. Cutter, while we're in Wyoming you can get into some less...official...c lothes, and maybe take a breather. I'll run a search to see if I can track down any of your remaining relatives, okay?" To the rest of the ships she says, "How y'all doing back there?" She grins, watching daylight return as they fly around the globe, over the Atlantic ocean. Below them in the distance lies Mexico and the Caribbean.
-
"I seem to be fine," states Mar boredly. "Are all of our potential stopping points going to be contenders for the World's Least Traveled List? Oh, well. It isn't totally empty. So, the 1944 pilot has family here, then?"
Mar then looks at Cutter and states, "What were they like?"
-
Myitt nearly jumps a mile, clutching her chest. "Mar, would you please stop appearing like this?" she exhales. "I don't know if his family's here, I just know that there are no known Yeerk outposts here. His family could be infested, for all I know. That's what I'm trying to figure out." One of the hovering holoscreens is running a rapid search of Corporal John Cutter's history, his disappearance, and his family lineage.
-
Mar glances over the screen, rapidly trying to assess all that it says about Cutter and his family. "You certainly pulled all this up quite quickly. My clever little precious. Although...had he been alive on Earth all this time, he would be an old man. Most of his relatives are probably dead. But I think it's sweet that you're doing this for him. I've always known that you had a pure soul...from the moment that you gave it to me."
Mar laughs at this. "Oh, and I'll try not to show up in that fashion so much anymore. But it is hard to keep up with you."
-
"Yes, well, I haven't exactly figured anything out yet," Myitt says flatly, watching the images flicker by in the air. "Anyway, he might have some grandkids still around. And I didn't need you to tell me I'm the model of morality." She grins toothily, amused by the irony.
-
Mar starts snickering a bit, glancing at Myitt with a wide grin. "You know...you're right. I'm one to talk. But it was a compliment, precious. ...I think it's interesting that we're going to Wyoming. Such a wide open country. You never know what will happen."
-
"Yes. Humans call it the equality state," Myitt says, watching the arc of land beneath the ship. They're heading over the Mississippi River. She shrugs. "Look down there. It really is a beautiful planet, isn't it? All of this diversity."
-
Walking over to Myitt and the floating screen like device, he asked her, while he was still holding on to the Mars Bar "What does this, computer you called it? What does it say about my vanishing during the War?"
-
Myitt pulls up the files on his disappearance. "Here's all the information. Looks like your plane was last detected near the Bermuda triangle, in the Caribbean. Heh, maybe there is some truth to the silly rumors of that place."
-
"Well, of course there's some truth to it. How do you think I got where I am now?" He said as he read over the file. Still reading, he noticed that his plane was the only one out of the three that were there that vanished.
"Huh. I was the only one to vanish." Further down in the article, they said that there was a minor search party sent out, but all they came back with was a bunch of dead ends and a load of electrical storms.
-
"But why would such an anomaly send you to the Bar, of all places?" Myitt wonders aloud. "Oh well, you're here, and we're going to try and get you to civilization. Do any of these people, or at least their names, seem familiar?" She brings up files on a number of people related to Cutter, with pictures, personal information, Social Security numbers...whatever this alien database is, it's astonishing how much information it has on individual humans.
-
"Small town, eh?" Breekan asks. "We should blend in plenty fine there." He rolls his eyes. "I might-" he looks out the window as they pass over farmland and country on their way to America. He giggles. "More grids! You people!"
-
Temrash sent the message to Myitt's ship and asked what she thought they should do.
He noticed the famrs too. "Wow. It's not just the buildings. It's everything."
-
"Yes, humans are very fond of grids and order," Myitt replies to Breekan, looking out the big bug-eye windows, and the viewscreen that connects through the hull.
She pulls up the transmission from Temrash, reading through what has been transpiring at the Bar.
"Are you reading this?" she whispers to her friends, although the text is all in Yeerkish. "This Andalite friend of theirs at the bar, Terenia-Rerin-Shamtul, is really a human nothlit, who was trapped in a morph, then given the power to morph again through an experimental morphing cube, and she chose to become nothlit again, as a Yeerk." She pauses, confused. "Am I reading this right? And now Temrash wants to know he he should go off and rescue Terenia's twin human sister, because Terenia works for Visser Three and is keeping Terenia under his service under threat of harming her sibling. Now, if that isn't the most kick ass soap opera material ever, then I don't know what is."
She hails Temrash. "Listen, don't do anything until we get back, unless you can be sure Terenia really is from our universe and our same time. There's no sense rescuing someone who isn't there, as you said, or who may be there--but may still not be the same person Terenia expects her to be. We have no way of telling for sure until we return to the Bar and, if necessary, embark on this sort of mission with Terenia herself."
The little invisible fighter starts cruising lower, heading over Colorado, nimbly avoiding a slow and dim-witted seeming airplane. It cruises over a vast, cold and empty January prairie in Wyoming, drifts of snow piled up by the sides of highways in great dunes.
"Remind me why we decided to come to the Northern Hemisphere in the middle of winter?" Myitt complains. "Current temperature out there is...negative five degrees Fahrenheit, or negative twenty degrees Celsius. Wind chills below minus thirty Fahrenheit. I have extra winter gear, if any of you need it."
-
"You want us to wait until we return to the bar, and then come back? That seems rather off. Besides, terenia will be against it. She's too afraid to make another attempt. she won't return with us. and I don't know, Myitt. Why did it have to be winter?"
<Don't like cold.>
<Well aren't you hard to please? You didn't like the heat earlier, and now you don't want cold? Eh, me neither.>
"We'll figure this out while we're here. If we can confirm her Tamora is here, then the sooner we do this the better. Though what does everyone else say?"
-
((Was that transmission sent to all of us?))
-
(It's sent to everyone, in galard and yeerkish.)
-
Thordon thought for a moment, "I can drain the ship of all its energy if we do decide to go. The lights will be gone, but so will their movement capabilities."
-
"That would be good. We will want to make them think we're after something besides Tamora. If they figure it out before we get to her, she'll be killed and we'll have to explain that to Terenia. This will require a good bit of planning after we land and get settled."
-
"Yes, planning will indeed will be needed. It may take a while to drain the power. Unless I could overload the ship's power. If that's at all possible. Then again, overloading its power could have other side effects, depending on the ship's build."
-
"As long as the ship doesn't lose orbit and crash into Earth, I think we can manage. If it's merely stranded, then the pool ship will be around to eventually get everyone out. They won't all have to die."
-
"Hello?" Myitt snaps, addressing everyone. "Is this thing on? Listen, we don't even know if Terenia is from this universe. We could be attempting a suicidal mission to rescue someone who doesn't exist, or who is merely an alternate version of Terenia's sister. The only way we can be sure is to enter Terenia's universe and Terenia's timeline, with Terenia. I am not risking my life and my host's to storm Visser Three's Blade Ship on a wild goose chase. You can do what you want, but if they catch you, you'll start singing about me as well as whatever else they want."
-
"I was merely giving hypothetical suggestions should the mission go into effect."
-
"I know we could be trying to save someone who isn't there, or who isn't the right one. However, I also don't want to go back to the bar just to come back here, if this is the right Earth. If the yeerks see us, then notice our coming back with terenia in tow, they'll know exactly why we came back. Visser Three is an idiot, but he can at least add two and two together."
"We need some conclusive information. Maybe if she left, and came to her Earth, and we found her, we would know. If that didn't work, though, we would have less of a chance of finding her."
-
"Myitt's assessment is correct," states Mar, pacing about the room with his hands folded behind him. "We do not know if this wild card Terenia is from the same place some of the others here are from, and thus cannot proceed with an obviously dangerous mission. I suppose I could attempt to confirm it or disprove it myself and get back to all of you, as I am in little danger in such a state. But I do not think I have been on the Visser's Blade ship physically before, and I cannot appear in a place I've never been."
-
Still looking over Myitt's shoulder, he noticed a face that looked very familiar. Quickly saying "Stop," he stood stock still and said "That's my Wife. It's an old picture, but it's her! I know it!"
The name under the picture said Marie Walker. "Walker? That must mean that she remarried..." Slumping down on the floor, he shook his head and said "Well it was to be expected, right? I mean, I vanish off the face of the Earth and they don't hear a thing."
-
"Not that anyone cares," Ardiss says to Temrash, crossing her arms and fixing him with a thin-lipped expression, "but how is it any of your business what is going on in this creature's life? Do you people make it your personal mission to try and solve every bar patron's personal problems? Terenia and her sob story are hardly your responsibility."
-
"Um, because Zoshonel asked me to? It's true that my main goal is to help my people get through this war without being exterminated or loathed by every species in the galaxy. Terenia isn't really a Yeerk, so it doesn't matter so much to me. However, it matters to my friends, so I'm going to put some effort into it."
-
"So now Zoshonel decides who gets helped?" Ardiss raises an eyebrow and leans back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other and giving him a dubious look, "How do we know she even wants to be helped? How do we know that her sister is the only reason she sticks around Visser Three? If she is in actuality some warped disfiguration of Andalite technology gone awry, who's to say how stable she is? Maybe she actually is simply supporting the Empire."
-
"My information on her is minute. There's no denying. Maybe we should wait until we're done here an go back to the bar before doing anything. At least until we get more infomation. It seems to me she doesn't actually want help, because she's afraid her sister will be executed likeher brother was."
-
Gaz looks distracted as she has her feet up on her console.
"What is it?" Fletcher asks.
"I don't know," Gaz says. "I got this feeling that something is up."
-
((Gaz, they're having this convo over our comm too.))
-
(lol...I'll be honest. Haven't really been paying attention.)
-
((And it was worried that the GESB would be left behind. :rofl2: ))
-
(( Hehehe... ))
"Whatever. I'm going to wait until I'm off one of the most dangerous planets in the galaxy until I decide whether I'm going to risk my neck again for someone I don't know," says Myitt gruffly. "Everyone, stay close, and if you have infrared switch it on. The weather's pretty rotten, and very cold."
Myitt hovers over the little town of Thermopolis, Wyoming and settles on the snowy roof of a general store. The ship is invisible, but snow starts to collect very slightly on the shielding. Most of it melts right away, but enough snowfall would make their little fighter noticeable.
The landing gears press into the fluffy snow. Myitt sighs and sits back, not talking to anyone for a moment, pressing her thumbs together. Finally she looks up at Cutter. "It looks like she's still alive, and living in Minnesota. But it might be too risky right now to try and visit her. Can you imagine the shock? I know it's hard, but we're going to have to ease you into life here in 2003, first."
And hope the Yeerks never come to Wyoming, she thinks bitterly.
<You've got that right,> her host Tara laughs. <Here's frigging hopin'.>
-
Thordon thinks aloud, "Is it just me, or is it ironic that we're using Thermal optics on the town of Thermopolis?"
-
"Well, it's white." Temrash said after landing and exiting his ship. He had on an insulated suit to keep his temperature up. His ship projected a hologram across the forcefield to make it look like a boulder.
-
Ardiss doesn't move, other than to shiver when the hatch opens. "Good grief it's freezing out there," she complains, rubbing her bare arms.
-
Stepping out of the little ship, he walks into a veritable snow-storm. Shivering under his thin summer uniform, he says to the group at large, "I vote I go find some thicker clothes." With his teeth chattering in the cold, he rubs his hands together to keep the blood flowing.
"But," he says grinning "It's not as cold as the Russian Front. From what I've been told." Laughing at his own little joke, he waits for everyone else.
-
Myitt dons a big, insulated coat and mittens, switching her army boots for big winter boots. "You guys ready? We can warm up in the general store, and find a magazine with places to rent. Cutter, I can set you up with a good chunk of money, and in a little time I can give you a new identity, but you'll need to get a job." She opens the hatch and follows Cutter outside. "Wait, you'll freeze to death out there. Put this on." She tosses him a heavy winter jacket.
-
"Everyone grab something warm. I guess we're heading inside another market."
-
As Myitt tosses him a large winter coat, he puts it on. "Thanks Myitt!" Doing the zipper up, he gets it all the way up, even though his hands are a little numb. Jamming said appendages into the pockets, he takes a look around, and looks off of the roof.
Saying "We going in?" Without waiting for an answer, he walks over to the edge proper and he slides down the awening into a waist high pile of snow.
-
Myitt looks down at the distance from the roof, sealing up the fighter once Breekan is outside. "Oh boy," she says. "At least the snow makes it look like less of a drop." She jumps down into the snow. "Ughh..." Grumbling, teeth chattering, she moves through the snow and onto the wooden porch of the little 7-Eleven. She steps in, and the glass doorway rings a bell.
The older, balding man behind the counter looks up at her. "Afternoon, miss. Cold out there. What can I do for ya?"
Myitt stomps her boots off. "Brrr. Afternoon! I'm actually helping a friend of mine move to Thermopolis."
The man laughs. "Goll-ey you picked the wrong time of year to see the best of Thermopolis. You should check out the world's biggest hot springs spa, it's open year round."
"Yeah, I think I'll give that a try," Myitt says, searching the racks for books of local apartments.
"It's right off of Main, but I wouldn't walk in this weather," says the man. "I didn't see a car pull up. Y'all didn't walk, did ya?"
"Oh, no. Well, not far. We're...staying at the hotel a block down."
"Alright, well, keep warm out there. There's coffee if you want it, complimentary," says the older man.
"Thanks." Myitt rifles through the magazines.
-
Following Myitt into the 7-Eleven, he hears the guy behind the counter say something about free coffee. Looking around for the coffee table, he sees a pot of coffee resting on a hotplate. Feeling the side of the glass pot to see if it's warm, he feels his hands unfreeze against it.
Expressing a sigh of relief, he grabs a little disposable cup, pours it full of coffee and then places a couple of sugar cubes into it. Taking a gulp, he says to no one in particular "This is better than the crap I had when I was posted overseas. That crap was all instant."
Walking his way around the little convenience store, he finds Myitt flicking through some magazines. Looking at some of the other ones on the shelf, he picks one up that is entitled FHM.
((you can stop John next post, or whatever. lol!))
-
Gaz and Fletcher followed the group as they walked around.
-
"Oh, were y'all in Iraq, son?" asks the man behind the counter, noting his pressed army-grade pants and shoes, and crew cut.
Myitt pauses and glances at Cutter worriedly. "Just say you were in Hawaii," she whispers.
-
Thordon follows the group behind Gaz and Fletcher. "So this is where Cutter is supposed to settle down?"
-
Placing the magazine down, not having flicked through it, he looked at the old guy behind the counter and he shook his head and he said "Not Iraq. I was in Hawaii for a while."
-
"Oh," says the older man. "Well, my grandson's stationed in Tikrit. God bless ya, son."
Myitt turns back to the magazines, hurriedly flipping through the pages, a little too fast.
-
Mar quietly steps out into the snow. He seems utterly unaffected by the cold and even seems to be enjoying the frigid breeze. Mar walks up to Myitt and smiles. "Strange place for you to land, dear. I didn't know there would be so much snow. What do you plan to find here?"
-
"Someplace for Cutter to live," says Myitt tersely, flipping through an apartments magazine. "Then we can get out of here as soon as possible."
"Howdy," says the older man behind the counter, seemingly surprised at so many customers in this weather, and their rather unconventional appearances.
-
Thordon nods toward the man behind the counter. "How do you do?"
-
The man looks Thordon up and down, squinting a bit at his outfit. "Not bad, not bad, young man. Where y'all from?"
-
"We hail from different areas. We are attempting to help our friend who was in a war transfer back into civilian life. I came because I've never seen this land before and wanted to explore."
-
Gaz and Fletcher stand in the back of the group. Gaz still looks thoughtful. Then her eyes get wide.
"Now I remember what's wrong!" she says.
"What is it?" Fletcher asks.
"Today's the day," Gaz says simply. It seems vague, but Fletcher understands.
"Oh man," Fletcher groans. "Really?"
Gaz nods.
-
Getting a cold blast of hate right in the gawd-damn face the moment he exits the Bug Fighter, Breekan recalls the ski mask Myitt said was only for cold weather. He slips it on and follows the group into the 7-11, rolling the face part up onto the top of his head so it resembles a beanie. He rolls his eyes as he sees the tiled floors, and makes his way towards the magazine rack. Thinking it to be a fine rag for the human man about town, he picks up an issue of Cosmopolitan, in hopes of giving himself a background in what's considered human culture. He glances over his shoulder to make sure the clerk isn't looking, and quickly scans the magazine into a feed in his goggles, briefly engulfing it in green laser light. He begins to speed-read from inside the goggles as he picks up a copy of American Angler and Entertainment Weeklyto scan next.
-
Temrash decides to stay in the ship this time.
-
"Today's what day?" Myitt asks sharply, looking up from a free Apartments listing booklet. She stares at Breekan as he walks up to the magazine rack. "No tech, no tech!" she hisses, swiping the copy of American Angler and setting it back down on the shelf.
-
Mar groans and smacks his forehead. He then hurriedly walks up to the Thermopolis man and states in a warm and oddly trustworthy voice, "We've been through a lot, and some of us have things they shouldn't. This seemed like the perfect town to get away from it all, and for a war veteran to settle down. Don't pay our peculiar aspects too much mind."
-
"S'alright, son," says the older man. "I know what you kids wear these days, got all kinds of getup. We get a bunch of tourists here in Thermop come summer time, seeing as there's the hot springs resort and the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. Guess it's all the same to me, so long as you go to church on Sunday, heh heh."
-
"Of course, sir," states Mar with a smile and a very slight bow.
He then turns to Myitt and states, "Right, then. It seems we have a moment to relax. Although I'm sure that you typically want to get right on your way. You really ought to think about settling down when your war is over, my sweet."
-
"Yes, I want to get out of here as quickly as possible," says Myitt, handing Cutter the apartment listings with a number of ads circled in black pen. "Maybe someday it'll be me looking for apartments. Preferably ones on the beach, in Waikiki." She pulls out her comm link, small enough in her hand to look almost like a tiny cell phone, and hails one of her contacts.
"Hi, Job?" says Myitt. "It's me. I need to know if we've got all our eggs in one basket. I've got a solider who needs a place to stay."
Whatever Job says in reply is muted, only audible to Myitt and Tara. "Great," Myitt continues, "yes, we're in Thermopolis, Wyoming. The green card? Aw, but I liked that one. It has little flowers on it. Oh, okay. Thanks, man."
She drops the link back into her trench pocket and taps Cutter on the shoulder. "Here, hold on to this," she says, flipping out a green credit card with the name 'Kelly Jones' on it, and giving Cutter an Idaho driver's license and social security card with the same name. "What? Kelly is a guy's name, too. Look on the license. See? Male." She smiles smugly, squeegeeing snow out of her frizzy hair. "I don't always walk around in this hot female bod."
<Are you trying to torture me? Really?> Tara says dully.
-
Breekan nods vigorously. "A hot female bod! Like what you get from crunches and dieting at your kins! And, of course, many layers of wax."
-
"Breekan, put down that issue of Vogue," Myitt says blandly.
-
"Myitt, c'mon, I wanna be one of the people. A bassmaster among bassmasters. A box office bonanza. A Fun, Fearless Male of the year, just like the beloved Dr. Bon Jovi." He grins. "You can't plug into the grid of man unless you're plugged in, am I right?"
-
Taking the license, he placed it into his pants pocket after he quickly looked it over. Noticing the name 'Kelly Jones', he gave Myitt a strange look. Saying "Thanks," he then asked her "Question. Is there any money in the account?"
Taking the little book with different apartments listed, he flicked through the pages and started looking at the adds that she had circled in black pen.
-
Mar chuckles at the exchange between Myitt and Cutter. "So apparently your new name for legal purposes is Kelly Jones," states Mar with a snide note to his voice. "Have fun with that. But then again, you couldn't very well have used accounts that have been dead for nearly seventy years. You seem...disoriented by the new time. I agree that it isn't ideal. I much prefer a more...sensible era, despite the lucrative nature of this one."
Mar then raises an eyebrow at Myitt. "Just exactly how large is your rebellion, anyway? You seem to have contacts from all over the world."
-
"Breekan, trust me, you don't want to be one of the people. No matter how convincing Dr. Bon Jovi is." She hurriedly starts putting magazines back in order on the rack, then turns to Cutter. "There's enough money in that account for six months' rent at five-hundred dollars a month, which is pretty average for this town. You should find a few listings in there, some are furnished, which will make things easier. There's also enough for a modest food budget. Food prices are higher in Wyoming, but you'll manage, if you're careful.
"Once you get a phone number, which a landlord can help you with, it's critical that you call me at this number. Right now it's not connected, so don't try." She turns and pulls out a pen, tearing a small piece of newspaper discreetly, and writes a phone number down at the plastic Keno table. "Here. Give it a few days, but it should work by this Friday. You'll need information on who you are, what it should say on your resume, things like that. But first you need to get settled in. And don't worry, you'll never be far from friends, even if you don't know they're there."
She nods at Mar. "It's large enough that we've survived this long," she says, exasperated. "And I actually don't know anyone in Australia. Now don't broadcast it, will ya?"
Myitt turns back to Cutter, lowering her voice to a tense whisper. "And whatever you do, don't ever, ever join this group called The Sharing. It's a front organization for the bad guys. Don't trust anyone who says they're a full member in it."
-
Mar nods boredly. "Fine, fine. I won't spread it around. Staying alive appears to be such an awful nuisance. It's no wonder that I chose a rather different route when I seceded from home."
Mar then nods at Cutter. "And good luck, soldier boy. You seem like a fine old-fashioned fellow, but be careful and listen to what Myitt says. There are many things about this place and time that you still don't know."
-
"I don't know if we can return you to your own time," Myitt says quietly. "It seems this is how things were meant to play out. Your existence in the bar must have been how things were meant to be. But maybe, in a few years' time, we can get you back in touch with your family. Maybe. Not now. There may be members of your surviving relatives who are...who are compromised. They might be just like me, only not as philanthropic."
-
(lol. Gaz and Fletcher are kind of just hanging out, I guess.)
-
(So is Temrash. I'm not sure how exactly I'll go about the FHV yet.)
-
"Well, Cutter, I hate to cut you short here, but I can't hang out looking at um..." Myitt pauses and looks at whatever Breekan is reading. "...NASCAR scene all day. Sorry. I think we should buy you a few snacks and get you an apartment, pronto." She glances at Breekan. "Unless there's any way we can pull some strings and get him back to where he came from, but then we'd miss this fantastic blizzard going on outside." She warily eyes the snow drifts piling up in front of the little building's porch.
-
Breekan blinks for a second and then something happens in his brain, like a jolt of lightning going off in his head. "Oh! Oh!" He furrows his brow, thinking very hard. After a moment, he looks to Cutter, sadly. "The girl you loved... You said she re-married?" He clears his throat. "Myitt's right, we should continue this outside, so that we don't bother this poor merchant with our ungridly worries." He smiles broadly. "Sir, has anyone ever told you that you are the spitting image of Jeff Gordon?"
-
Myitt glances outside, as the biting wind blows a bit of snow across the porch. "Let's at least discuss this back at the hotel," she says pointedly, trying to lead Cutter toward the door.
The older man behind the counter laughs. "Jeff Gordon, what, that young DuPont NASCAR hooligan? I guess I would look like him, if I was about thirty years younger, heh heh. Very kind of you." He pauses. "Where y'all from?"
Myitt freezes in mid-step. "Minnesota," she says hurriedly, plastering on a smile.
"Ah, yeah, gets pretty cold up that-a-way too," says the older man. "This is a bad winter, thiss'un. Colder'n hell out there."
"Yes, well, thank you for your time, we'd really better be getting back," says Myitt, overplaying an apologetic tone as she zippers her coat.
-
"It's Minne-something!" Breekan adds cheerfully, before stepping outside to wait for the others. As the wind chills even through the fur on his face, he pulls down his balaclava and grumbles.
-
((Ooh Hunterrr...olly olly oxen-freeee? XD))
Myitt leads Cutter and the others outside, irritably pulling her winter coat's hood over her head and velcroing it shut. "Goddamn this place is cold," she exclaims, muffled, as she shoves her hands into her pockets. "Come on, let's go before Tara's nose falls off." Myitt leads them around to a little ladder on the side of the building. "Huh, this would've been much easier." She hastily throws on a pair of gloves and starts carefully climbing the frigid metal rungs. Once on the roof she opens the ship and practically dives inside of it, throwing off the gloves and hurrying to the controls.
"I am so glad this hunk of junk has good heating," she sighs happily, pulling out her comm link to dial one of the apartment contacts.
-
"Hello Myitt. It's Temrash. When we find a spot for Cutter, my allies will come and pick up Ardiss. Unless you want them to meet somewhere else." Temrash messaged to her ship.
-
"Myitt, I've always wondered- how much control does a Yeerk have regarding the input they get from their host? Could you just tune out the bit of Tara's brain that says her nose is cold?" He grins. "Not that Tara would let you forget, mind." His expression turns a bit more serious as he looks towards Cutter. "John, Myitt brought up a good point back there. If I exert myself, I might be able to send you back. I didn't think of it myself because..." He pauses, and shakes his head. "The point is, it'll be dangerous. You could end up stranded in time and space, maybe even in probability- this reality..." He sniffs the air. "This reality smells differently from my home-Universe. You might end up there, or anywhere in between. Or, if the paradox of your shifting around is too much for the Universe to handle, it might just erase you completely- unbirthing you, rather than killing you. But, you say you have family. A girl? And I understand if you'd be willing to take that chance. But make no mistake: you will be gambling."
-
Myitt looks up from punching in an Earth phone number onto the little holopad. "Huh? Oh. Uhh...I could easily detach myself from feeling anything having to do with parts of Tara's face, including the pain and sensory receptors of her nose if I wanted to, but the cold would still be there. She'd just feel it much more strongly, and yes, probably complain about it more." She grins a bit.
<Oh come on, I'm from a cold place, too,> Tara grumbles.
<Yes, but that doesn't stop you from complaining about it.>
<Stop being so frigging right.>
She clears her throat. "What I find really kind of interesting is that I can keep breathing through her nose without feeling anything through it. No, that's not entirely correct; I can still feel, but it's not as strong a connection. I guess the facial nerves must all be interconnected."
<Stoppit, it's weird.>
"Should I make this phone call, or do you want to try screwing around with the fabric of space-time, Cutter?" Myitt asks, hand poised over the comm link. "Personally, I'd vote for not messing with time. Who knows what it could've changed? Anyway, it's pretty evident that you came from this universe, or one very much like it, if you've found information on your family and your disappearance. I don't know if placing you back there will make the Nazis win the war, or whatever."
-
Mar nods, having followed the others onto the ship. "It would be too complicated, Breekan. I suppose I could trace his aura and find out exactly where the boy is from, but I don't know if I would be able to convey that to someone else. Although I would have better odds with you than someone like Myitt. Plus, there's the distinct possibility that putting him back could cause problems for his universe. Since he seemed to have appeared here by a bizarre space-time fluctuation, we don't know whether it's better to leave him or put him back. It would be less like gambling which is predictable in some cases, and more like playing a game of billiards while blindfolded."
-
((gah! sorry for the late reply...))
Following everyone out of the shop, he managed to get on the roof with minimal frost damage to his hands. As Myitt asked him whether or not to make the call, he said "Well, I thank you for all that you've done for me here. You're a great gal and all that, but I don't really think that I would quite fit in here, in this day in age. Sorry if I caused any trouble."
As he said that, he was busy removing the large winter coat that he had thrown at him by Myitt. "Mar, you lost me at 'aura'. Myitt, would I be able to call up the Pirates on their ship? I've been thinking it over, and I wouldn't mind taking them up on their offer that Gaz proposed to me earlier."
-
Breekan shakes his head. "I know what you're saying, but the universe isn't going to let me destroy it with something as piddly as a little paradox. A Universe is a big, hearty operation- it knows how to spit out a cog that's wound into the wrong place.The complication comes in trying to keep Cutter from exploding through the fabric of space-time."
-
"Hmm," says Myitt thoughtfully, "I like billiards. And I am not even going to get into the mathematical complexity of rearranging the fabric of space-time. You can handle that, guys. Anyway, fine, Cutter, we can contact the pirates." She switches the comm link to contact Gaz's ship. "Hate the cold, anyway. I think you can hang on to those cards, if you ever need to visit Earth; just don't abuse them, okay?"
She dials the pirates. "Helloooo-oooo?" she calls. "You there? It looks like Cutter wants to join you lot, after all."
-
Gaz answers the comm. "Hey!" she said. "Was wondering what happened to you. Yeah, we're not fans of the cold. Cutter is more than welcome to join up with us."
-
Thordon follows Myitt and the group to thier ships and waits outside of Gaz's ship for her and Fletcher to return.
-
The hatch to Gaz's ship opened up as Gaz walked up.
"Come on in!" Gaz said. "Get out of this blasted cold. How was the rest of the adventure?"
-
"Thank you. I actually enjoy the cold. When I ascended I lost all feelings, so when I regained this 'avatar', I appreciate any sensations my body feels. Luckily, being immortal allows me to appreciate freezing temperatures without worry of harm." Thordon followed the pirates into the ship and sat back down in his seat.
"Do you know our next destination?"
-
Overhearing on broad range link, Myitt replies, "From what I understand, Cutter's heading over to your ship. As soon as he's on his way over there, you certainly don't have to stick around, although we appreciate your company. Me, I've got to get back to the bar to drop Breekan and Mar off, and then get this stuff to the base before it spoils."
<Aww, we don't have time for just one visit to-->
<No, I'm sorry,> Myitt says apologetically. <Far too long on this planet as it stands. We need to keep moving.>
<Did we at least get-->
<Yes, I grabbed frozen pizza, remember?>
<Not really,> Tara sulks.
Outwardly she sighs and taps at the controls, warming up the main engines.
-
"I'll be staying. I need to help get Ardiss settled and work on some things." Temrash messaged to Myitt.
His allies would be thre soon to meet him and Ardiss, and he wanted to stay and plan in case Terenia was really from the same world he was on.
-
Thordon looks to the ceiling as Myitt responds to his question he directed to Gaz. "This comm is rather unsettling, you never know who's truly listening."
-
Myitt grins. "Kinda fun, isn't it, Thordon?"
-
Still looking to the invisible speakers, "No, no it's not." Thordon keeps his face and voice void of any emotion. It's rather difficult to tell if he's mad or just stating facts.
-
"Well, don't worry, you'll get used to it." She glances back at Breekan and Mar, making sure Cutter has made it to Gaz's ship.
-
"All right," Gaz said as she started to get the ship ready. "Sounds like we're waiting for one more passenger than we can get back to the bar."
-
"This trip was most enjoyable. Seeing other planets so similar to my own." Thordon shakes his head in wonderment. "I never thought it possible until I had that vision that led me to the bar."
-
"Vision, eh?" Gaz said as she checked the ship's systems. "How are things in the engine room, Fletch?"
"All's fine down here," Fletcher replied over ship's comm. "We're ready to go soon as your new recruit shows up."
-
"New planets cease being remarkable when you've seen over a million of them," states Mar almost boredly, glancing toward Thordon. "A lot of the livable ones have similar composition, although different atmospheres and ecosystems. I do have a certain fondness for Earth. I may decide to pay a visit to your planet in some form or another."
Mar then turns to Myitt and asks, "Are we going back? That trip was miserably short. I was expecting a far more elaborate payoff. Oh, well. You can't run into the Empire every day of the week, my sweet."
-
((Shen, Thordon's still in Gaz's ship, Mar wouldn't be able to see him. ;D ))
Thordon hears Mar's comment about visiting his planet, he looks up to the ceiling at the invisible microphone and says, "Well, it may be prefered that you choose an avatar not unlike my own. Otherwise, you may get more questions than you want." Thordon smiles, "No one would attack you of course, but they would definitely interrogate you kindly about where you come from."
((I love having a character whose facial expressions can be seen. SPARTANs and their damn helmets. :P ))
-
((gah! sorry for not posting earlier, i was at work all day))
Getting ready to head over to the pirates' ship, John said to everyone in Myitt's ship "Thanks for everything, guys. I'll never forget this." Gathering up his tommy gun from where he had placed it in the corner of the ship, he gave Myitt a quick pat on the shoulder, placed the coat on the floor next to the chair and he hurried towards the hatch in the side of Gaz's ship.
As soon as he got inside, he stomped the snow off of his boots, and he took a quick look around the ship. Calling out, because he had no clue where to go, he yelled "Gaz? Which way from the door to the driving area?"
-
Thordon was about to expand to Gaz about his vision that brought him to the bar, but Cpl Cutter came aboard. Thordon then realized he had not actually yet met the young man. He approached him and extended his right arm (He only has two arms right now) in greeting, "I'm sorry, in all of the excitement of visiting a new world, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Thordon."
-
Seeing a guy walk up to John and introduce himself as Thordon, John said to him "Hey, I'm John. Would you be able to guide me to Gaz? I'm the new recruit" he said with a grin plastered on his face.
Taking his Tommy gun and making sure that the safety was on, he took the sling and he placed it over his shoulder, so both his hands were free. Noticing that Thordon had offered a hand shake, John gladly took it in a firm grip and shook it like a man.
-
Thordon noted the soldier's firm grip and widened his smile. "Gaz is right here, her chair hides her well. So out of place and time? I am out of place as well. I'm not sure about Time though."
-
"Yes, well, I hope I fit in here." Walking over to Gaz, John said "Well Gaz? I'm here, and ready for whatever you need me to do"
-
Gaz stood up from her chair and said, "Welcome aboard The Vagabond. Later I can give you the grand tour. Bridge will have to do for now. To the right there is weapons, though if needed a couple of the mounted guns have manual options. Navigation is over there to the left. If necessary though, everything can be controlled from the main console where I sit. Go ahead and pick a seat."
She hit the comm button and said, "Fletcher? Things all right down there?"
"Ready to return to the black," Fletcher's voice replied.
"Let's hit atmo then!" Gaz said as she slid back in her seat. "Sit anywhere, Cutter."
"Get ready to take off!"
-
"No problem, Cutter," says Myitt, smiling. "Good luck." She watches him leave and then seals the hatch again, the black living metal of the hull melting closed against the bitter cold.
"Everyone buckled in? Yeah? Good, because we're getting off this rock," Myitt says, piloting the ship up off the roof. There's a faint whir as the leglike landing gears retract into the bottom of the ship, and then the main engines glow red.
Myitt hails the Vagabond. "Gaz, we're leaving, but if you need to contact any of us you have my secure link signal," she says. "Maybe our paths will cross again, huh? If nowhere else, there's always that blasted bar." She giggles to herself and maneuvers the ship higher through the atmosphere, leaving North America far behind.
-
((XD Sorry. Let's just say they're having an improbable long-distance conversation. Mar probably does that when he knows he can. x3 ))
-
Once they've cruised past the Imperial ships ringing the planet, Myitt sighs with relief, looking back at Mar.
"Sorry, Mar, all of my missions can't be filled with so much excitement," she says wearily. "Besides, I thought you wanted me to be safe, and live a nice long life? The odds of that happening sort of go down the more I encounter the Empire, you know."
-
Temrash's allies came and they went to California to get Ardiss and Christine settled.
"Okay Ardiss. Everything is set up for you to live a content life on earth. On the off chance that the Empire loses Earth, we'll have plans made to move you somewhere else. I am going to have to give you some bad news, though. We will be keeping a loose eye on you to make you don't go back to the Empire. Not as tight an eye as Myitt would probably keep on you, but we do kno how to cover our own butts. Just behave and you should find everting you need to live."
-
Mar grins at Myitt a bit. "I do, precious. But since you seem so incredibly intent on throwing yourself into such dangerous work, I imagine that a few great big firefights are better than none. That way you can come home with me faster and we can get right on that nice, peaceful life on the beach." Mar laughs a bit. "But true, true. If I saved your life, I might as well invest myself further in it, no?"
Mar then turns to Breekan. "So...how did you end up seceding from Crayak, exactly? I don't want to bother looking into it directly. It seems odd that two of his creatures have found their way to a Bar in the middle of nowhere, killing and manipulating exactly nothing."
-
"I'd gladly take no firefights at all, thanks," Myitt gripes, piloting the cloaked ship far from Earth orbit and deeper into space. "And I don't think it's exactly living on a tropical beach if you're dead."
-
"All right," Gaz said, "We're out of here! Getting ready to leave atmo."
The Vagabond soared through the sky and soon the ship was surrounded by stars back in the black.
"As much as I don't like it," Gaz said, "We gotta go back to the white in order to get back to the bar."
-
Myitt hails Gaz. "Are you folks heading back to the bar, or is this sayonara for now?"
-
"Thanks for the introduction Cap'n," he said with a slight chuckle. "I guess I'll be sitting here, then?" he said as he sat down at the seat near the weapons area.
-
Thordon sighs, "We're to go back to the bar? If we must. I was hoping to travel with you," Thordon shrugs, "Oh well."
-
Breekan buckles in as he waves Cutter off, settling in for a long trip. He raises an eyebrow to Mar's question, and smiles a bit. "It's funny, but I learned recently that I was more or less made to rebel. Not originally, of course- I started out as a general for one of Crayak's armies. But, Crayak got bored, so I got my brain re-written and a new set of problems dumped on my lap." He frowns. "How about you? If I understand the mythology, weren't you supposed to have started off as something altogether friendlier, and with more harp-playing?"
-
Mar laughs out loud at Breekan's comment, which has a very odd sound to it actually considering it's his natural laugh. "That's not exactly what I was, Breekan. I admit that originally I was on the side of my Father, true. Similar to you. In fact, I think I loved Him more than any of the others put together. Which is probably why I was a bit miffed when Father said He was creating a new class of beings that I was supposed to kiss the ass of. I wasn't exactly thrilled either when he told me He was giving them all free will, which in my own opinion would be a complete disaster considering what He had in mind. When I tried to tell Him it was a mistake, well..." Mar glances at the ground with an odd, bitter expression. "...let's just say things didn't go so well. So I decided to prove my point through example. And I was right."
Mar then frowns oddly at Breekan. "I rebelled because I had native free will. But for Crayak to deliberately program you as a rebel doesn't bode well at all. He doesn't typically support such enterprises unless the rebellion itself has merit to his cause."
-
"We're heading back to the bar for now because Morgan's waiting for us there," Gaz said. "After that I fully plan to take Cutter on a tour to show him the ropes of the trade. Thordon, you'd be more than welcome to travel with us."
On the comm, Gaz said, "For the moment we're heading back to the bar. Morgan's still there."
(Here are descriptions to remind you what Gaz and Fletcher look like:)
[spoiler]GAZ: A human female. She wears boots, a black shirt, a blue jacket, an old fashioned tricorn hat on her head, and a very modern gun at her hip. Light hair with a couple of purple streaks, pulled back in a ponytail. Average height and in good shape.
*Age: 24
FLETCHER: Gaz's cousin. He is tall and lean with a mop of red hair. Wears a white shirt, green vest and brown pants.
*AGE: 30[/spoiler]
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"I would, thank you. To see other worlds would be a pleasure. That is the reason I left my planet in the first place."
((That was random, what made you re-post their appearance?))
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"Sounds good, Gaz. See y'all there." Myitt charges up the z-space engines, setting the coordinates.
"Hold onto your butts," she says to Breek and Mar with a grin, and with a sick lurch the ship jumps into the blank whiteness of z-space.
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((Hahaha, awesome Jurassic Park, Samuel L. Jackson quote! +1))
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(Just cuz there might be new people who don't want to fish back for a description.)
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((No, I understand that, I'm just curious what brought that on, what inspired you to do so.))
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Ardiss scowls at Temrash, "I suppose you want me to thank you want me to thank you now?"
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(um...I'm really not sure. :P)
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((Haha, randomness FTW!!!
So what happens with this thread? Is it to be locked, or will Temrash's exploits be written out here?
Are we going to post our arrival to the GESB in the GESB thread? ))
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(I would assume so. That way people know we're back.)
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((Yeah, this was a fun little aside :P If you want we can keep it open to explore Temrash's adventures, or we can just close it and if Terenia wants Ardiss to somehow find her way back to the bar, she can make that happen...whatever works for everyone :D
And yes, it was a JP reference, wasn't sure if anyone would get it XD))
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((I've seen that movie upwards of 250+ times, I Love that line! :thumbsup:
So are we done as far as posting in here is concerned? I mean, Gaz still has to RP out that they actually enter Z-Space, but after that, I mean.))
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(I got it! *raises hand* Anyway, I'll probably post here up until Gaz's ship leaves z-space.)
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((True, there are many a convo to have in case Z-Space shifts. Guh, that would suck. If Z-Space shifted, turning an hour long trip into a month long trip, or worse!!))
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(Man...that would really stink. lol.)
Gaz checked her console.
"We're getting ready to enter the white," Gaz announced.
"All set here," Fletcher said through the comm.
"Wish we didn't have to go through the white," Gaz muttered. "Prefer the black any day. Need the stars."
In a moment, the ship was surrounded by the stark whiteness of z-space, or the white as Gaz called it.
"Got coordinates all entered in," Gaz said. "Computer will let me know if anything goes wrong."
To Cutter, Gaz said, "Well, it's going to be a couple hours before we get out of the white. How'd you like that ship tour? Thordon, you want to tag along? See more than the bridge?"
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(XD I guess we'll all post our GESB-ey rearrival in the GESB, yes. ^___^ ))
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"Certainly, I'd appreciate it. Thank you." Thordon rose out of his seat and awaited direction.
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"Right this way," Gaz said.
She led the two down a small set of stairs.
"Either side of this hallway are crew quarters," she explain. "There are signs on the occupied ones. Which would be...mine and Fletcher's. Cutter, you're welcome to choose a room for yourself."
At the end of the hall, Gaz took a left.
"In here is the dining room and galley," Gaz said. "Doubles as a lounge area."
In the room was a table and a kitchen to the side. Gaz led the group down the other direction down the hallway.
"In here we've got our medical bay," Gaz said.
Out in the hall, Gaz led the two down another set of stairs.
"Down here we've got the cargo bay," Gaz said. "Well, that was the two credit tour."
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((I'm going to post a bit more inside the ship, since the journey isn't going to take a split second x3 And yes, it would suck if z-space shifted and screwed up their journey. I imagine that would wreak havoc on stuff like food and supplies and stuff o_O))
Myitt yawns and sits back in the creaky metal Hork-Bajir sized chair.
"So," she says genially to Mar and Breekan, resting her bandaged arms on her lap. "How y'all doin'?"
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Breekan laughs. "Well, I'm not really intended to rebel successfully. Crayak created me for the express purpose of torturing. It's a bit..." He shrugs. "It's like, whenever things start to go my way, I know it's so that he can make them get worse later, but he also keeps the ruse going long enough that I eventually believe it, because it wouldn't work otherwise. Thankfully or unthankfully, he at least made me naturally cheerful." He regards the demon for a moment, thinking. "Curious that you'd use your free will to keep others from jumping on the self-actualization boat. Didn't want to end up as the middle child?"
He straps in as they make the transition to Z-space and sighs. "This has been a heck of a trip, Myitt, and it's been nice seeing your home planet, Tara." He pauses. His jaw drops just slightly before he recollects it, something sparking in his eyes. "Don't you have any... I mean... Tara, I can't imagine you've seen your family in ages..."
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"Yeah, you can call me up anytime you want to go grocery shopping or look at issues of People magazine in the middle of nowhere," Myitt says with a wry smile. She pauses for a moment. "Hey, don't worry about me, Breek. I'm sort of used to it by now, I guess. I can't go and see my family, because they're um...occupied. Yeah." She forces a little laugh. "You guys are probably the closest thing I've got to family these days."
((Awww, how horribly depressing, and just in time for Christmas ::) ))
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Mar bites his lip a bit at Breekan's "middle child" comment, as if it hit closer to home than he would have liked. "It wasn't just that. I felt like we were going to be marginalized. We were being asked to watch over these little twits and were even considered "lesser" in comparison. And yet here they were, much weaker and about as smart as a rat compared to one of us. Considering I was pretty much the big brother of the family, I couldn't let this stand. So I didn't. Free will and mental clarity makes mortals suffer and kill one another, from what I can see. I have succeeded."
Mar lets a slightly proud grin curve across his face. "Perhaps I'm just a particularly irritating pawn in a larger game, but I find it rather liberating. As for your situation...that seems rather sad, isn't it? It would be almost futile to resist it. A mouse cannot be anything but a mouse, as so with mortals. Crayak's omnipotence as a Highest would also complicate matters. I have no idea why he prattles on like that from on high. What's the fun in playing Chess if you cannot sometimes move on the board yourself? There are things here you can only learn from getting on the level of those below you."
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Breekan nods. "It is sad. It's a bit like knowing the ending to everything before it's all over, knowing I'll lose and all. But hey, it's all about the journey, right? And who knows- maybe I'll get lucky." He smiles. "So it sounds like you're pretty high ranking amongst the types you cavort with- I hadn't realized I was talking to the Big Nasty. And I get where you're coming from- sort of. I'd be pissed too in your situation. Besides... testing mortals, causing them to fall from grace... In a way, at least for someone like you, I guess it's almost the same as a counter-argument to the whole Free Will thing." He shrugs. "Not that I condone it in any way, but you're more alright than I'd figured you to be, Mar... When you're not creeping on Myitt."
Breekan nods at Myitt's remarks as well. "The bar is basically the most absurd extended family one could ever hope for. It's just like a family reunion, except possibly with even more drunken fighting."
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"Mhm, that's about what everyone says about me," murmers Mar with a slight grin. "Most mortals who meet me personally either get exactly what they were expecting or this. A few of them meet me again much later. They're rather more on the frightened or disturbed end of the spectrum. As for free will...the entire affair is ridiculous. It's somewhat impossible given the nature of larger things above you, and where it is possible it tends to be dangerous 60 percent of the time. I think that He shouldn't have gotten rid of it entirely, but there needs to be a kind of guide to it if you will. Less blind freedom and more periodic censorship. He didn't agree. We've been fighting over it ever since. I imagine He'll have it end at some point. I'm never entirely convinced that He didn't set me up. Especially since in one sense, I couldn't have done it if He didn't let me."
Mar shrugs, sitting in midair. "Either way...the Bar is really rather an odd plane of existence, isn't it? Beings from all ends of the spectrum can interact without pomp and circumstance. It wouldn't pass muster there. I've used this particular personality numerous times, but rarely with such an intent. I hated being mortal. But I have the strangest feeling I'll be doing it again when we get back."
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Myitt grins back at Breekan. "Thanks, buddy. Tara says thanks, too, that was her, you know." She taps a few controls and starts up the little hotwired discman, dangling under the control panel amidst a jumble of white, glowing wires. Patsy Cline's I Fall to Pieces starts up, tinny, over the communications system.
She listens to Mar and Breekan talk. "Oh, Mar. You know what cracks me up? You're just in denial about your addiction to mortality. You never go back, you know."
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Mar laughs at Myitt's comment a bit. He then conjures a little bit of strange black light, flying it around his hand. "Well, I'm not mortal now. Though I'm hardly going for Incredibly Omnipotent right now. I admit an addiction to the mind, yes. It's so much easier. I only have a few things to do instead of millions, all at once. But the giant wound from a simple spell, the emotional confusion and stuttering? I don't really go for that, no."
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It's Myitt's turn to laugh. "That's something you get used to, as well, Mar. All the emotional stuttering, the self-doubt. Although I've never been hit with such a wild array of fluctuating emotions before coming to Earth. Maybe it has something to do with human females."
<Hey! Don't get all sexist on me!> Tara growls.
"Or, maybe not." Myitt smirks.
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After the ship tour, John said to Gaz "You can call me John, Captain. Or do you want me to just call you Gaz?"
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Thordon comments, "You have a very simple ship. It is nice."
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"Gaz is fine," Gaz said, "Morgan's got a bigger crew than me, that's why he gets called Captain. And yeah, she's a small ship but gets the job done."
Suddenly a head pops out from a room at the end of the hallway. It was Fletcher.
"I see you conveniently forgot to bring them into the engine room," he said. "Thought you were proud of your ship. Ain't you proud of what keeps her running?"
"I was getting there," Gaz said. "And, as Fletcher so wonderfully put it, is the engine room. Heart of this ship."
Gaz patted the wall as she walked into the room.
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Mar sighs at Myitt's comment drolly. "Yes, I suppose it comes with the territory. But still, I do not think I have ever been that confused in any other mortal incarnation. I suppose it's because I've been coming at this from a different angle, then."
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(Haven't been to this thread in a week. I suppose we can post in here more if we ever get terenia to earth and save her sister.)
"Well Ardiss, a simple thank you would suffice. Unless there's something else you want? Are you still not happy? Are you still sore about the stupid ship? I can get you another ship. By the Kandrona sun, I can get you something a lot better than that ship! Or maybe you want that involuntary Human again? You like having to restrain your host every three days and not be able to rely on her at all if you ever find yourself away from other life? You are a strange one to be sure." Temrash said, getting bored with Ardiss' stuck up attitude.
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((Were we in Ardiss' Bug fighter? I've forgotten if it was hers, or Myitt's...I think it was Myitt's, and Ardiss' ship is still back at the bar?))
Myitt grins. "And you were surrounded by girls. That may have added to the confusion. It's a normal heterosexual human male behavior."
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((Hehehehe. We've all gotten a little confused ever since we got the Cocoa Puffs. X3 ))
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While in the engine room, Gaz got a message from the console from the bridge to one in the engine room.
"Well," she said, "we'll be leaving the white in...15 minutes. We'll be back at the bar in under an hour."
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Myitt yawns and stretches. "Looks like we're almost ready to make the jump, guys." She picks up the link and calls Corliss. "Hellooo-ooo? We're about to emerge from z-space, and I got your stupid Cocoa Puffs. Except they're Australian. Sorry. See you in a few."
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"Excellent!" Breekan replies. "It'll be nice to get a drink in. And maybe another steak." He scratches his chin. "Reckon they ever did anything about all those demons that were running around?"
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"All right, Myitt, I'm still here," replies Corliss, sounding a bit annoyed or strained. "Be careful."
Myitt smiles at the comm link. "Something about that place just keeps on bringing us back," she replies to Breekan. "I'll have to get these groceries to the base after dropping you off. But maybe I can take another break. My other brother won't really like it, but he works too hard. He's the one who needs a drink." She pauses, considering. "I dunno about the demon situation, but I didn't see any on the way out. So, maybe they did vanish."
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((wow, I keep forgetting about this thread. My bad.))
Ardiss shrugs, "I suppose what you have provided me will suffice. My qualm is not in what I have been given, but in what has been forced upon me. I never asked for your help, nor anyone else. It is not your duty to meddle in the affairs of others. A lesson I suppose you have yet to learn."
Ardiss sighs heavily and stands, shaking out her arms and legs, "I suppose I understand. This war must be played by your rules and yours alone. You hold the power in this situation, so I must comply. I never had to be happy about it, though."
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"Do you honestly believe you can get by without my help? Or anyone elses? do you have trustworty allies and connections? Even a former Visser like myself wouldn't get very far without help. I don't have to help you, but I want to. And why wouldn't it be my duty to help my people? What is my duty? Do you know? What am I supposed to do with myself, if not help my people get out of this war?"
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With a scowl, Ardiss jabs a finger at Temrash, "Now look here, maybe you feel better about yourself because you're supposedly helping me, but that isn't how it works. You want to help your fellow Yeerks? Fine, help the ones that bother asking for it. Besides, I don't believe for a second that you want to help your kind. You only want to force your own ideals on them. What if I had come into that bar and I hadn't been on the run from the Empire? What if I was still sitting nice and cozy and just stopped in for a bit of refreshment? I highly doubt you would have sought to 'help' me. In fact, I bet you would have done one of three things," Ardiss ticks the items off on her fingers as she rants, "One, you would have killed me and my host. Two, you would have starved me out and freed my host, or three, you would have done exactly what you did to me. Force me out of Kara and into some other host. The only person you're helping here is your own damned self."
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"If I recall correctly, it was the others like Alic who demanded your separation from Kara. It was me who decided you'd be better off alive and not stuck in a pool where Myitt and Corliss were planning to keep you until you saw things their way. They're the ones who don't trust you to take three steps without knowing exactly what you're doing and where you're going. It's they who would rather you be hostless until you jumped through the right hoops for them. The only ideal I'm trying to get you to understand is that having an involuntary host should be avoided at all costs."
"They're the ones trying to turn you into one of them. I'm the one helping you start over.
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"The Andalites, the rebels, they are wrong," Ardiss hisses, "and in not allowing me to return to my former host you only perpetrate their flawed ideals. What, are we supposed to go around the galaxy asking permission? How will our kind ever progress? How? In the billions of bodies available to us on earth, what minute fraction would become voluntary? Not enough! It would never be enough!"
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(Hunter & Parker be ready. Leaving z-space soon so pretty soon we'll be switching back to the regular GESB thread.)
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Mar grins at Ardiss' passionate comments, drifting towards the group. He is floating, but not very far off the ground. It's clear being stuck as a mortal at the Bar didn't exactly endear him to walking.
"I suppose that's true, isn't it? There are millions of you and only a fraction of that selfish number would choose to share time with you. But on the other hand, these billions of sentient beings are just that: sentient. I suppose it isn't a problem for people like you or me to take a kicking and screaming person under their wing, but it is for the rebels at the Bar. Make of that what you will. My promise still stands, whatever comes of your actions. You are certainly less recognizable in the new body."
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Yes we should ask permission. It would do wonders for our society even if we had thousands of voluntary hosts as opposed to billions of involuntaries. Not to mention we wouldn't be at war with every race that knows of our existance. There are plenty of Humans brought into the Sharing that become voluntary. I dare say there would be plenty of voluntaries found only on this planet, much less across the galaxy, if we just do what we should have done."
"Besides, there is also bio engineering. If we had worked with the arn instead of against them...but it's too late for that, isn't it? I'm a grizzled war veteran, and I had everything to gain from this war, but I still realised it was wrong."
"Hey Mar. Are you staying a bit, or is your current form able to traverse quickly enough between planets now?"
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"I can jump rather easily between planets in my current state," says Mar rather plainly. "Why? Is there something you need me to do somewhere else? If you're just asking about whether I'm coming back to the Bar, well..."
Mar "paces" lightly about the room. "...I suppose it comes down to whether or not Myitt is leaving it. But on the other hand, one of my aspects seems to want to go back for some other reason. I don't get why I'd care at all about an Andalite prince. All I did was poke around inside his head."
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(Ok! Gaz and Fletcher are shifting back over to GESB. Just letting people know. ;D)
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((ok gaz. i'll post for John when you post in the GESB thread))
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"Hold on tight, kids!" Myitt calls, as the ship drops back into real space near the bar.
"Ugh, it always sends my guts into my toes," she grumbles, piloting the ship toward the lush planetoid moon.
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Breekan unbuckles. "Myitt, it's been a heck of a trip." He nods to mar. "Likewise." He smiles. "See you both in the bar!" He stretches and hops out of the bugfighter, making his way to the building.
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Myitt settles the ship in the parking lot and unbuckles the living metal restraints.
"Glad you could tag along, Breekan," Myitt says with a grin, securing the control systems and stepping toward the door. "Mar, it's been interesting as always." She hops out of the ship and walks toward the bar, sealing the hatch as soon as the other two have left.
((See you in the GESB! :D))