Scene #9041: The Voyage of the Syzygy

Owner	Pose
Dysnomia	As is her way, Dysnomia doesn't give out much information on exactly where it is they're going--not even to the Watch. Just a name; 'Nor.' But it wouldn't take long for people to realize that was just the name of a moon...Even if, apparently, it wasn't one of the Nine that she was so fixated on. The warpgate leaves the elites climbing, vertically, out of what was must have once been the basin of a fountain, in something adjacent to a town square. Entirely enclosed from the outside world, with fractured walls--some from industrial aging some from what had to be...something else...chalked up to create an airtight seal, in the shape of a large dome. Bulkheads doors, leading outward in a sprawl, were sealed tight, with bright red warnings across the doors. Faded signs hang, half-unhooked, above storefronts picked clean, leaving bare metal stands. In must have once bright cheerful yellow letters, against the backdrop of a sun, was printed-- BARA PIONEERING NEW HORIZONS FOR HUMANITY TODAY "Clip your belts onto the tether if you don't have another means of propulsion." Dysnomia grated, plucking at a hi-vis orange wire. She didn't seem to bother with it herself, seeming to propel herself effortlessly through the air. "Don't wander off, and DON'T open the fucking bulkheads. I only reinforced the passage to the docks. Even if some of you can survive without oxygen, I doubt all the others can. So try not to get them killed." The purpose of the wire, such as it was, became obvious almost immediately. The tug of gravity was such that it made earth's moon seem oppressive; a leap could threaten to smash someone's head against the dome's ceiling. Attempting to cut off the danger at its root, Mia had attempted to create a path--a wire tethered to points across the station, in the same fashion as a mountaineer, to let even the most clumsy elites tug themselves along. "I assume you all know why we're here. But in case you don't, and you just showed up without doing any of the reading..." "I'm here on two commissions." A deep sigh. One finger. "Echolalia of Hronn wants me to bring equipment for the construction of a proper warpgate so she can set a direct connect to the multiverse on her moon." And not controlled by the Admirality. Another finger. "The other is to set up some humanitarian efforts on Crown." Dysnomia paused for a moment, then, in an unhelpful attempt at clarification; "The old habitat ring." The cord led the way to an open bulkhead--maybe the only one--and eventually past an in-tact window. The starscape had the stark clarity to it that only came from worlds lacking atmosphere, but Nor was anything but lifeless. Strange, carapacaced creatures latched onto the surroundings--sometimes the ruins of demolished domes, sometimes just rocks--with appendages raised high into the sky, between which gleamed gossamer nets, shining in a sapphire light that seemed almost omnipresent, outside. "When we get into Nine Moons space, a shuttle from Hronn will take Echolalia's party and equipment off the ship, and we'll go our separate ways. I can't make you get along, but we'll be out there a while. Don't make it more miserable for yourself...Right. The ship's just ahead."
Dysnomia	The dock itself didn't look much less eerie. It looked industrial--exposed metal catwalks crisscrossed overhead. A slew of tethers and latches hung from the ceiling, making it hard to see where they ended and the ship began. Beyond it all was a shell--layered like an armadillos' scales, between them and the outside. The ship itself was shaped like a teardrop turned sideways, painted with a silvery-black sheen, with five metal shafts held tight to its side, lending the ship a sense of radial symmetry, with no sign of what was 'up' or 'down' except the way it was presented. It filled the hanger, looming aloft by bonds that would have surely snapped if gravity wasn't so weak. Dysnomia made an idle swipe in the air, a holographic screen slicing open in the air for her fingers to glide along."She's called the Syzygy." She can't keep the pride entirely out of her voice. "Refurbished, technically, but I had to remake most of the damn thing, more or less." Mechanical arms began to whirr and hiss. Pieces of the railing in front of Mia pulled back, just in time for a transparent walkway to flicker into the air, old telekinetic arrays drawing an impromptu bridge between the group and the ship. "It runs on old tech. But that means it should run under the Admirality's radar." The hull of the ship split open along a seam near its midsection, with pale lights shining within. "If all goes as planned, this should be a long, boring trip, and all of you will wonder why you bothered coming." She looked up from her screen. "If you've got questions, now's the time to ask. It'll be too late to back out when we're underway."
Echolalia	Echolalia of course can just fly around and cheat from having to do physical climbing exertion and, similarly, she doesn't really bother with a tether. Even Echolalia wouldn't open the bulkhead for no reason during a spaceflight but she supposes there's a possibility some of the people on this journey have never been on a spaceship or maybe even haven't heard of them before. It's not inconceivable, anyway, but she's not really sure. "Hi! I'm Echolalia from Hronn! But most people just call me Echolalia. Or Echo. Or Lalia. Or Lali." Echolalia babbles energetically despite the fact that she actually kind of knows everyone here. "I also go by Miss Gator, hm hm hm...!" She is totally fine with this alias she accidentally adopted apparently. She glances to Mia as she brings up Crown but doesn't seem to have an objection as she smiles right at her. She follows after Mia and marvels, "Oh cute..." She says of the ship. "Truly, this is a moment of great... syzygy." She needles her fingers together to accentuate the ... point? ''If you've got questions, now's the time to ask.'' "Who is the cutest dragon in the galaxy?" But then she realizes she has an actual question. "Wait, actually--If we run into other etherwyrms, what would you like me to do?"
Khosa	Khosa is perhaps not a terribly expected individual. She doesn't like Dysnomia much (though she doesn't especially hate her either; they just aren't friendly), though she likes Echolalia better even if she frequently doesn't understand her. Maybe that's why she's here. Maybe she wanted to make contact with one or more of the groups out here. Or maybe just wanted to experience something new. How often do you fly to a moon? Well, more often out here, she supposes; she has no idea how you'd get to Ral or Guthay. On wings? Nothing she knows of flies that high. Whatever her reasoning, Khosa is here now, and her immediate reaction is: "The fuck is this?" Khosa has very clearly never been anywhere with low gravity before. She didn't climb out of the fountain so much as completely throw herself out of it (it was accidental), launching herself meters into the air, and then flailed for a few moments to try to grab onto something before she drifted back down to the ground. "You could have warned me first," she says, sounding irritated. At least she didn't hit anything hard, and she lands well enough; she expects it to be harder than it is and prepared to roll on impact, but she manages to just absorb the impact with her legs. She is glad she is wearing pants and not a skirt, but her outfit's not perfect for this; the open vest settled on her shoulders doesn't stay there very well, and the tail of her hair is snapping this way and that as she turns her head to look at anything and everything. Her irritation doesn't last. "Ha ha! This is great!" She takes one long hop that brings her more or less parallel to the wire, only to grab onto it and hang on long enough to attach - maybe she misunderstood because she makes a loop out of the sash she actually wears as a belt and holds herself on that way, scooting along it. "How old's this place?" she asks, as she looks around. "I've seen ruins before, but I can't tell in here." Scoot, scoot, scoot. "The air smells kinda - stale's not the right word..." Sterile is, because life support circulation is another thing Khosa is not very familiar with. "There's no wind, and - whoa!" Khosa stops to look out the window. Khosa stops for a whole minute to look out the window, eyes wide as she looks into the void of space for the first time in her life. She doesn't even register the carapaced things for a few moments, though her eye is attracted to them once one moves near where she was looking anyway. She swallows. "So," she says, feeling even more out of place than the first time she saw a metal city, or the sea. ...Maybe not the sea, but only that. "Okay." Khosa kicks herself along again until they get to the ship. Now, Khosa has seen several ships in her day. She's seen the silt skimmers of her home, with their wheels and sails; she's seen the water-going ships of Elibe, and while she is still not entirely clear on how everything about them works they at least go on something. They have a top, and a bottom, and the bottom holds up the top, and it moves by sails. She is completely incapable of guessing how the Syzygy moves, or what it moves in. Khosa could excuse this with magic (or psionic construction) but she doesn't like to do that, and so instead she asks, "So... how's it go, anyway? Do you use telekinesis, like the bridge?" She sees that there, thank you! It is the one thing she understands in this hangar! "What were those things outside? Can I see one?" Trust her to be interested in wildlife. "...when did you start going by Miss Gator?" Okay, that's not really a question for Dysnomia. (Khosa also does not know what a Syzygy is, thought it was a made-up word, and the fact that Echolalia doesn't think it is made her resolve to look it up on her own time, when she won't look stupid for asking.)
Meresankh	The warpgate crackles as Meresankh steps through into the domed central square. The 'new horizons for humanity' have seen better days, it seems, and the queen narrows her eyes as she inspects the decrepit surroundings. Finally her gaze settles on Dysnomia herself, and her expression brightens. "You must be the 'Dysnomia' commissioned for this endeavor? I've heard about you. You come well-recommended," she says with a nod to Echolalia. Not thinking to elaborate on what exactly Echo has said about Mia, Meresankh attaches a clip from the tether to her cloak - she lacks a belt for it to attach to - and follows its path to the hangar. En route she tests the gravity and, upon nearly drifting above the tether from a single upward push of her feet, spends the slow descent deciding to stay on the ground going forward. Bouncing gently with each step despite her best efforts, the Cryptek makes her way to the hangar. She pauses briefly to contemplate the life-forms outside. "Are they harvesting sunlight?" "She's called the Syzygy. Refurbished, technically, but I had to remake most of the damn thing, more or less." "You did this all yourself? How charming. I remember the first space-craft I built - I can't have been older than fourteen. I only regret that I cannot show you the scar I got from its crash." Is she trying to be competitive? Either way she appears to admire the projected bridge as she crosses it, and steps aboard the ship itself almost as soon as possible. Immediately she vanishes into its relative depths, poking her head through doorways and briefly inspecting its every room. When she returns to the doorway she says, "I see it's not bigger on the inside. Was that an intentional choice?" The other half of her question - "Or can you not do that with your technology" - goes unsaid. "Well, I'd best make myself at home." She takes one corner of her cloak in hand and raises it - a dozen or so metallic beetle-like things drop out of the shimmering fabric's surface and scuttle away. They're probably only going to lurk in the public areas of the ship, right?
Odette Raskins	Getting permission to bring some surplus supplies for a humanitarian operation was far easier than Odette expected. Better yet, nobody even questioned her about wearing a jacket over her space suit nor the fact that her pockets look like they're stuffed far more than the standard amount allowed by the Company. That, or she left quickly enough before anyone could really ask. Either way, she's here, and she's got TWO packed duffel bags bearing the Company's white and blue colors draped over her shoulders. She wriggles them around as she rebalances them enough to get a finger hooked around one of the clips on her belt, then flicks it around a few times until she can snag it onto the wire Dysnomia indicates. "G-got it! It should be fine, Miss Mia. I mean, we're all here for the same reason, right? Same.. Ish?" She actually sounds somewhat confident for once saying that, and being space-adjacent means she's actually in her element! She does have to stop and gawk at the ship, of course, since she's still more used to the Company's spacecraft more than anything else, and seeing the stylings from anywhere else never gets boring for her. "The Syzygy... Neat name! Um... What's that mean, anyway?" The EMT takes her PDA out and almost starts looking it up, but then stops when she realizes this whole operation is meant to go under the radar. Best not to risk creating some kind of traceable... Something or another? Maybe. She's not really sure how that all works, and Echolalia's use of the word confuses her even more. "Huh...? Um. R-right! I think. Uh. I know why I'm here, at least! Things rarely go as planned, right?" Odette chuckles anxiously and shifts around a bit, her suit's boots clanking together a little in the process. "At least if anyone gets hurt, or if we find anyone that's hurt, I'll be ready." With an affirmative nod, she blinks slowly at Mersankh mentioning crash scars before grinning anxiously. "Ah.. Then we'll be counting on you if we do! Um. A-although I hope we don't, Miss...?" The question about encountering other etherwyrms has her tensing up visibly. "I-is that likely? Er. Would they be friendly to us, you think?" She asks, looking between Dysnomia and Echolalia a few times.
Meresankh	"A-although I hope we don't, Miss...?" "I am Queen Meresankh of Oryx, formerly of the Sautekh Dynasty. Yes, there will be royalty aboard; no, I do not expect you to bow and scrape. I try to be more... sociable, than some of my kin." She folds her arms. "So you are a doctor?"
Dysnomia	"How old's this place?" "By my count, it's been abandoned for about fifty years or so. I'm not familiar with what happened exactly, but something chased off the colonists. Whatever it was, it had to be nasty. Pioneering wouldn't let it go easily. But. If the wyrms are letting us through, we shouldn't have too much to worry about." "So... how's it go, anyway? Do you use telekinesis, like the bridge?" Dysnomia can't help but smile at Khosa then, sly and sharp-toothed. "You see those things, on the ship?" She points to the shafts, folded tight against the hull. "Those are masts." While technically an answer, that raised more questions than it addressed. "What were those things outside? Can I see one?" "We don't really have time to get you fitted for a suit and trained for a spacewalk, unless you've got one of your own." There's a gentle note to her voice, almost an apology. "But there's no reason you couldn't on your own time. And they won't be the last things we see." "Are they harvesting sunlight?" "Not really, but you aren't far off." Dysnomia nodded. "But they're filter feeders--You see the light? Those are biolumescent...Maybe it'd be better to show you." Is that eagerness in her voice? Pride? It was hard to say for sure. Mia flickeed at her holoscreen, and the whole hanger GROANED. "Once we get aboard, I'll show you to the windows." "You did this all yourself? How charming. I remember the first space-craft I built - I can't have been older than fourteen. I only regret that I cannot show you the scar I got from its crash...I see it's not bigger on the inside. Was that an intentional choice?" "I didn't do a lot of full ships when I was a kid. Or if I did, I was part of a team." Dysnomia appraised the metal woman. "It wasn't long before I was responsible for the maintance of a small fleet of stations over Unn...And sometimes elsewhere. You pick up a lot, in my line of work." "Dimensional folding would draw too much power. My girl needs to stay economical..." A fond little smile. "...If she's to stay under the radar." "The Syzygy... Neat name! Um... What's that mean, anyway?" "You know what an 'eclipse' is?" She didn't wait for an answer. "It's when your sun, a planet's moon, and the planet form a line." "An eclipse is a kind of Syzygy. When different orbital bodies line up for a single, fleeting moment." Her eyes swept over the mismatched collection of travelers that had joined her. "A collection of different orbital bodies that, for a moment, are lined up together. In brief harmony." "Wait, actually--If we run into other etherwyrms, what would you like me to do?" This, strangely enough, makes Dysnomia avert her eyes. "...Apparently, I'm being allowed through this once. As long as you're here to chaperone. If some don't play along, and insist on causing trouble, we keep it nonlethal." She came up with that part herself. "Obviously."
Odette Raskins	"A.. A queen? Wow.." Odette gets a mildly starstruck look on her face at Meresankh's introduction and demeanor. "Being on a mission like this sure makes a difference for sure... Ah? Oh! Not yet, no." She replies with a light chuckle, shifting her bags around again when it feels like one of them is starting to slip off. "I'm an EMT with the Company! I haven't finished or.. Um. Started paramedic training yet, but I will once I can afford the-" Wait. Didn't Ace already put money into that account for her? She might be able to afford it at this point, ac-wait. No. That's a retirement fund. "Um. To start the training and getting the licensing. And then once I do that for a while..." She trails off, sounding uncertain all of a sudden. "Would I be too old to start getting into med school...?" After mulling her future over for a few more seconds, Odette blinks owlishly at Meresankh. "Oh! Um. I-if you don't mind me asking, what's.. Er. What brings you out here, anyway? I usually hear about princesses and princes and their knights going on adventures like these, not.. Um. Queens and kings and popes." Dysnomia defines syzygy for Odette, and that starry-eyed look returns. "Oh, that's so cool...! Everything lining up just right, happening at just the right time, creating that cool little moment... That's kind of romantic, isn't it?" There's just enough time, then, for Odette to realize she's said that around Echolalia as well, and she tries not to be too obvious about glancing her way to see how she'll take Odette's interpretation of Dysnomia's naming sensibilities. The topic of hostile etherwyrms still raises some minor alarm bells in the EMT's head, though, and she starts glancing around at whatever windows or outside-viewing screens she can actually spot nearby. "W-would they really.. Er. Try to attack the ship? Or board and attack us like that? W-would we have to worry about any explosions?" She asks with the sound of muffled teeth-chattering from inside her helmet. She looks to Khosa in particular for reassurance about that for some reason, then around some more for whatever looks like an airlock just to memorize where they are.
Dysnomia	The ship wasn't luxurious--that wasn't what it was for. There was a fairly clear distinction between what seemed like the parts of the ship for living in, and the actual guts of the Syzygy itself. Walking past an array of suits, the group passed into a narrow hall and...Something of a cross between of a kitchen and a sitting room. A picture of a black hole--ringed in orange in a tinge suitable for human viewing--appeared to be either a recording or a live feed, shifting and whorling as they watched. Metal CLANKED underfoot, leading to a small table...and above their heads, many smalls ledges and bizzare too-small pathways crossed it. At one point, in a small hole in the wall, a laminated ID was latched to the wall, with a little metal bowl in front. On it was a picture of a black-orange tortoiseshell cat. OFFICAL (SYZYGY) CREW ID NAME: CAPTAIN RANK: CHIEF MOUSER "It's bad luck to sail without a cat, you know." Dysnomia says, gravely, when they pass it. "And a pet is good for the crew; it helps alleviate the cabin fever." Beyond that, a short walkway, on either side of which were cabins--they were equipped with two cots per cabin, but with far more cabins than the crew needed. "I wasn't sure how many takers we'd get. Lucky us, this little cruise is exclusive, apparently." The guts of the ship itself was dense--a mess of complicated mechanics and readings constantly chirping and humming. There were readings all over, for psionic projection, sail...coherency? Every inch that could have been used, was, filled from wall to ceiling in a dense mess of tubes and dials and switches nigh incomprehensible to anyone on the crew except Dysnomia and Meresankh...If Meresankh could even make sense of the psychic aspects. It's the cockpit that Dysnomia takes the crew too, at the end. In the center, a grand projection of a radiant star, with inexplicable streams running from and around it, is what's most eye-catching. Through the front view, all there is to see are the various latches, and cords, and the shell.
Echolalia	''What's that mean anyway?'' Echolalia emits a singular bead of sweat as she smiles and pretends to not have heard Odette. ''When did you start going by Miss Gator?'' "Well it's a long story but Sahyun calls me that and I find it endearing so." Who is this mysterious Sahyun?! Is it someone you know?? Is it actually just a title that she has foisted upon RIta Ma all on her own?! You bet it's that last one! But she's not lying about finding it endearing. "You can call me by my name, though, it's cool." She fingerguns with only one finger towards her direction before grinning and nodding to Meresankh, ALSO not thinking twice about actually explaining what exactly Echo said about Mia. Does she even remember?? ''Is that likely? Er, Would they be friendly to us, you think?'' Echolalia hesitates in a way that probably answers Odette's question, unfortunately. She hesitates longer as she glances over to Dysnomia as she explains more about the situation and where they're at and the like. ''Apparenltly, I'm being allowed through this once. As long as you're here to chaperone.'' Echolalia stares right at Dysnomi for a long moment and then smiles, "Well then, my charponee! I'll be glad to escort you back to Nine Moons space and bare my fangs at any mean ol' etherwyrms that just won't let it be." She performs a sweeping bow before glancing to Odette. "Hell yeah!! Of course it's romantic!!!" She beams happily at the very idea but doesn't press much further than that, stalling for a moment to look at CAPTAIN CHIEF MOUSER Or the picture of one anyway. "Cuuuute..." She murmurs breathlessly.
Rita Ma	Rita isn't- well, she's a little late. But that's fashionable, right? She's very fashionable, and she's heard people say so. That won't stop her from-- "Ms. Mia, I'm so sorry! I was making sure the whales were- and then- ah, hah, I'm glad I made it..."-- apologizing, as she stumbles into the entrance behind everybody else and puts a hand on her knees while panting. She's packing light, with just a little leather messenger-bag under one arm and a... red-and-white beer cooler? "Ms. Khosa," she says, pleasantly re-acknowledging the people she recognizes, while fidget-hefting her bag with her thumb. In this gravity, it feels too light, which makes her glance over every so often to make sure she didn't forget something. "Miss... Gator. Odette!" That's the only one who doesn't get an honorific. And... She squints at Meresankh. She's acting very familiar and comfortable, so she can't be new, right? What robot women does she know by name, but doesn't remember by face? "... Ms. Depthcharge??" Her most pressing question for Mia is, slipping in through the lulls of conversation: "If you're expecting it to be boring, what aren't you expecting? Is it gonna be safe for the little whales?"
Khosa	Fifty years? Khosa really had no idea how long, but she was kind of expecting either more or less. Fifty just seems pretty... sedate. "Well, as long as we don't have too much trouble from etherwyrms or drakes or whatever else is wild around here." Drakes she knows. "Masts for what," Khosa half-asks, though she imagines she's going to get to see pretty soon. As for a spacewalk, Khosa is at least aware there is no air out there, and she already looked a bit silly getting used to moving along the wire. Actually going for a walk seems challenging, even if she could cheat if she had some more time to experiment - and there's the whole no air thing, which she's not sure how to deal with. Hold her breath? Even she can't hold it THAT long. "That's fair," Khosa agrees. "Maybe sometime. I'm kinda curious about what lives in the stars." Pause. "Or, uh, around the stars. We're not ON a star, they're too far away for that." Meresankh got a look, and then a double-take, and then Khosa recognized the voice from the radio. "Queen," she says, politely, but she doesn't bow and scrape, exactly as requested. Khosa knows how to keep nobles happy and she has no particular reason to antagonize Meresankh. "You don't, uh, look quite like what I was expecting. More... metal." How much would it cost to get entirely covered in metal like that, Khosa thinks. Now that's wealth. (Yes, she knows metal isn't worth as much here. But to have it fit so precisely, so carefully...) "Oh, so it's just a nickname, okay," Khosa replies to Echolalia. "I'll stick with Echo then. It doesn't seem right, stealing a name someone else gave you like that." Either she's serious or she's learned how to handle Echo by now. When they go on the ship, it's... pretty much exactly not like Khosa was expecting, but on the other hand she knew to expect something weird, so perhaps in that sense it is exactly like she was expecting, in that she understands very little of it. It's just too alien to make sense of in the few moments as she walks by it. No problem: store it, save it for later, remember everything you see. "Is it bad luck? I didn't see one on the last ship I was on, but I wasn't looking." Khosa makes a mental note to find that cat. The picture will help. It looks so... not-dangerous. "How big is a cat, anyway?" When Rita shows up, Khosa gives her a nod. "Good to see you! More people I recognize is always good." Even if Khosa knows most of the people here, by now. "You got your luggage okay?" Khosa travels light. "Uh, this is Queen Meresankh, not Depthcharge. Sorry. I could do introductions but it's not really my place..." Plus, she doesn't know enough about Meresankh to do it.
Meresankh	"What brings you out here, anyway? I usually hear about princesses and princes and their knights going on adventures like these, not.. Um. Queens and kings and popes. "My herald and warden are most efficacious in running the court without my direct supervision, which affords me ample time for personal endeavors or Paladins work. Besides, a vast majority of my subjects are asleep still, and I have no intenion of waking Oryx's full population unless it becomes necessary. With fewer subjects there is less governing to do." Meresankh pauses at length over Captain's food bowl, contemplating the photograph. "But how does it give orders? If it's a cat. It's not some kind of psychic, is it?" There's a note of genuine worry in her voice. She hmms and haws over the ship's systems as Mia gives a tour - most of them she'd already seen through her scarabs as they did their own exploring, but the function of some of the unfamiliar devices was harder to glean through their eyes. Overall she seems gently amused at the simplicitly or directness of some of the devices relative to Necron technology - but then, having to design around a biologically living crew always came with its share of constraints. "Uh, this is Queen Meresankh, not Depthcharge. Sorry. I could do introductions but it's not really my place... "Indeed!" Meresankh flourishes with her cape and strikes an energetic pose. "I am Queen Meresankh of Oryx, Ingenuity Herself, savior-to-be of the Necrontyr. If her introductions continue to escalate like this, we'll be stuck listening to her epithets all day... "I have not yet been acquainted with either of you," she says with a gesture to Rita and Khosa. "Although, 'Khosa' is a name I remember from the personnel files... She looks then to Rita. "Who might you be?"
Odette Raskins	As she trundles along with everyone, Odette's quickly realizing her mistake in bringing so much stuff in duffel bags instead of a crate or something. It's far too late to get one now, but she does keep her eyes peeled for spare crates lying around just in case. There's a lot to take in, anyway, and the picture of the cat gets a little giggle out of Odette that takes her mind off her shoulder pain. "It really is... Every department's gotta have something. I-I've heard of some stations that feel apart just because some of the departments didn't get pets, and they started stealing them from others." She recounts with a light shiver, recalling the stories she had heard from her parents so long ago about which stations to stay away from. Luckily, this doesn't seem to be one of them, even if it is kind of empty. Echolalia's expression at Odette's assessment of the Syzygy's name gets another giggle out of the EMT, and she nods quickly in agreement at the murmur. "Right? I wonder how that kitty's doing now..." She murmurs, contradicting herself by trying not to think too much about that even while saying that. The lack of crew is a little jarring, to say the least, and even the wall of tubes and things doesn't make it feel any less empty despite how cramped she can imagine it to be for anyone actually working with those things. Rita's presence is certainly reassuring, though, as Odette greets her with a bright smile and just another slight wince at turning too quickly and waving too forcefully. "H-hello, Miss Rita! If you're here, then..." She closes her eyes, and then more of that tension seems to melt away. "Thank goodness... N-now we'll really be okay if anything happens." She doesn't elaborate on how, but the feeling of safety certainly helps her mood. Within the cockpit, Odette's finally able to take a load off, and she sets the twin bags down by a wall with a heavy sigh of relief. "Ough... There we go. So how far is this.. Um. This Ring?" Odette asks as she heads back over towards the projection in the center, letting out more quietly awed noises at all the details it's showing. A beat, and then she looks over at Meresankh as she starts thinking about all those tubes earlier and her introduction. "Say... Miss Mere-I mean... Queen Meresankh? Do you know how to handle a ship like this? er. I-if something goes wrong and there's damage, I mean."
Rita Ma	Rita puts her hands up apologetically, glancing between Khosa and the Queen. "Ah- oh- Queen Meresankh, got it! It's a pleasure to meet you! I just figured, if you were so comfortable here..." What was she thinking? She fumbles for a conversational shift. What do you compliment about a robot? You're not supposed to compliment things people can't change. Does her appearance count as 'natural' or 'intentional'? Maybe the jewelry is safe, or the-- "I like your bugs," Rita's brilliant brain outputs, after a second of hitching. "Who might you be?" Oh thank goodness, that's an easy question. She smiles, eyes-shut, and makes a sunny 'mmm'. "I'm Rita Ma! Just call me Rita. No titles people really use; I just help people who are in trouble sometimes." "H-hello, Miss Rita! If you're here, then... Thank goodness..." After a little self-consicous 'ah-!', Rita turns her smile to Odette too, and takes the medic's hand to squeeze it reassuringly. "... Well, maybe I help people pretty often," she adds for Meresankh. And: "Odette! I'm glad you're here too, in case anybody gets hurt! I'm not very good at working in space, to be honest, but you're really used to it, aren't you?"
Echolalia	Echolalia spins on a foot and sees Rita! "Sah-------" She makes a pitiful whining noise when Rita insists that there be no titles. She vibrates in place faintly as she struggles to avoid finishing that word. She bites at her lips. She's doing her best before eventually exhaling out a heavy sigh of relief when the impulse passes like twenty seconds after. ''It doesn't seem right, stealing a name someone else gave you like that.'' "Aww, you're pretty sweet, huh." She rolls back and forth on her feet, trying to pinpoin the location of the Captain and will it psychically towards her. Not with actual psychic powers. Just with hopes and dreams, which sometimes are ten times more powerful than psionics, so movies have taught Echolalia.
Khosa	"We spoke on the radio but we never met," Khosa says, smoothly. She goes into what proves to be a slightly complex bow with a sweep of her arm, though she rises a moment later and seems more or less at ease rather than particularly 'bowing and scraping'. Fortunately she does not have to handle introductions, something she is only middling proficient at, and less so when she simply doesn't know all of everybody's titles. Fortunately, Rita has given her an opening for continued conversation: "Me too, actually. A lot of people here don't seem to like insects. I don't get it. SPECIFIC insects, maybe, but insects in general?" She really does want to see the whole inside of the ship though, and so with an, "Excuse me," she pokes around a little bit. Her head gets stuck in the cockpit, though it's clear this is definitely beyond her comprehension and she excuses herself quite rapidly to look at some other dials and displays. They make no more sense but she feels less in the way. "Sweet? Heh. Most people don't put it that way," Khosa says, with a slightly lopsided grin toward Echo. "But I mean, if it's a - " don't say pet name, don't say pet name " - personal nickname."
Meresankh	"Say... Miss Mere-I mean... Queen Meresankh? Do you know how to handle a ship like this? er. I-if something goes wrong and there's damage, I mean." "Like this? I handle more complicated machines in my daily work. Of course, there are some novel systems, but I'm sure it's nothing I couldn't handle." She sounds a little smug. "I am more of an engineer than a pilot, but one's just an application of the other's theory, right?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma has a terrible thought occur to her. "Are you, like... a bug queen?" <J-IC-Scene> Meresankh says, "My people once had bodies like yours, but now inhabit machines." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma makes a shuddery noise. "No, but, the beetles..." <J-IC-Scene> Meresankh says, "Oh! Mere servitors. Would you like to see one? I have more." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Oh! So you do have real subjects. Um, sure!" <J-IC-Scene> Odette Raskins says, "Beetles? Bugs? Wait... You have...?" <J-IC-Scene> Odette Raskins says, quietly "C... Can I take a look at one, too?" Before Odette even finishes expressing interest in the scarabs, Meresankh holds out an arm and two of the six-legged machines - each about the size of her hand - crawl from under her cape down the length of the extended limb. Their power cores and single eyes glow the same shade of green, and each sports a pair of sharp-toothed meshed gears in place of mandibles. "Go ahead, take as close a look as you'd like," she says, offering one to each of Rita and Odette for closer inspection. Once the machines are in their hands, she continues, "Do be careful, they can eat almost anything. Only when I tell them to, of course." An electronic chuckle.
Dysnomia	"Masts for what," "You'll see." "But how does it give orders? If it's a cat. It's not some kind of psychic, is it?" "Right? I wonder how that kitty's doing now..." "Stars. Can you imagine putting a CAT through psychic conditioning?" Dysnomia seems a little horrified at the very thought. "No. She's just named Captain." So that no one with authority fixations would try to get a fight over the rank. She eyed the Queen, briefly. Then, she addressed Odette. "I could tell you where she is, but I won't." She said, engimatically. "Lots of new smells--strange people--of course she'd be shy. She'll come around." A pause. "When she does, treats are in the second drawer under the fabricator." A stream of mist coiled around the duffel bag, pulling it gently from Odette's arms, reacting without thought to the distress radiating from her. "Let me put that into the cargo hold for you." "Ms. Mia, I'm so sorry! I was making sure the whales were- and then- ah, hah, I'm glad I made it..." "I was worried you wouldn't make it, Rita." Dysnomia relaxed a little. "The whales will have plenty of good eating--and I have a cabin set up with a big porthole, and its own airlock so you'll be able to see them--or, if it's calm, do a spacewalk with them." "If you're expecting it to be boring, what aren't you expecting? Is it gonna be safe for the little whales?" "I don't think it will be dangerous for them--At least, not in the early stretch. Even if some etherwyrms don't honor the nonaggression agreement, they don't usually like to hurt native wildlife. They're considered a little bit holy, depending on who you ask" "Predators might go after them, if they're left unsupervised. But, that shouldn't be too hard for me to deal with." And then she could give Rita some dinner. There were several reasons she'd made sure that Rita's cabin had its own airlock. "If they get too close to Nine Moons territory, it could be a problem. But past the belt, anything that would prey on them is pretty scarce. But of course, nothing's ever certain."
Dysnomia	Dysnomia's eyes wander toward Meresankh, then Khosa. "You wanted to know what those things were eating?" Once more, her hand flits across a holographic screen. "Let me show you..." She swipes. There's a loud sound of metal creaking, groaning. Slowly, the shell peels back, folding one, into another, into another. The cables snap, one by one, as the ship is lifted up, up up... "Ran is a very special star." Dysnomia murmured. "There's something to its light--a psychic resonance. There's debate over why its like this...Or how...But it's effect is undeniable." The shell peeled back, exposing the vast expanse of the stars ...And... A stream of light, wider than any river, almost like an ocean on its own, cutting through the void. Impossibly, there was a whorl and push to it--a current... ...That they were being lifted into. "...The ecosystem feeds on her light. Thrives in it. The entire natural biosphere of the Ranar system survives...Including those things...Microscopic creatures, riding currents of psychic energy across the system, from planet to planet..." "Docking clamps--released!" A cheerful voice in a lilting, trans-atlantic accent stronger than Mia's crackled over the loudspeakers. "Dorsal Mast, extended." With a slow, deliberate sweep of Dysnomia's hand, three monitors flickered to life, one above, one to either side, both looking back over the hull of the ship. The masts pushed outward from the hull-- "Pectoral masts, extended." --Light began to shimmer along the masts-- "When supplies from sol were cut off, rocket fuel got too expensive. The easiest ships to make...Were ships that could RIDE that current, too." "Ventral masts, extended." "Sails generating..." --Blooming outward from the masts, a blooming iridescent, ethereal veil spreading out from each of the masts of the ship, surrounding it in color and light, like a flower adrift in a river. There was a lurching sensation, even against the ship's dampeners, as the Syzygy caught the current, propelled away from the moon, the ground falling. Dysnomia couldn't help but smile. "...And we're away."
Rita Ma	"Sah-------" Rita smiles at Echolalia knowingly, and then winks her appreciation. Another thought dews on her brain: "Oh, are you still undercover, Ms. Gator? Did you have a different name?" I don't get it. SPECIFIC insects, maybe, but insects in general?" "Mmmm! They're just like crabs and shrimp, aren't they?" says Rita, to someone who has probably never seen a crab or shrimp. "There aren't many bugs back home, except for the bees people keep, so they're a nice--" She is interrupted by being presented with a puppy-sized beetle. "Ohhh..." Rita murmurs, bending down to get on its eye level. She pets its little head with a thumb while looking up at Meresankh for approval, as if it might be temperamental. "They're sort of sweet, aren't they?" When prompted, she shifts the cooler under her arm and cradles the robot bug in both hands with the reverence of a little artifact. Instinctively, she holds it over near Odette's to compare size and quality. "Do be careful, they can eat almost anything." "Jealous," Rita says brainlessly. This is a normal thing for a petite young lady watching her diet to envy. "I was worried you wouldn't make it, Rita." "I'm glad I'm here too, Ms. Mia!" Rita beams, and wiggles her beetle as if to prompt it into smiling too. "You've really thought everything through, haven't you? I'll ask the whales to join up with us soon." - - - - All the stuff about psychic stellar radiation, Rita knows vaguely. But seeing it, in the vastness of space instead of miniaturized planetside, is another thing. When the snaking glowy river comes into view, she immediately rushes over to a window and hoists the beetle up to peek over the porthole's lower edge too. "Oh! Is that the Milky Way?! No, wait, it's..." "Ahhhhh..." Rita breathes in soft awe, as the enormity of the psychic-plankton currents dawns on her. She smushes her face against the glass like a bratty kid at an aquarium, fogging it with her breath. And then bonks her nose on it, of course, when the ship lurches. "Ack-! Auhhh..."
Echolalia	''Oh, are you still undercover, Ms. Gator?'' "Oh nope! I'm not undercover anymore! I was only undercover because I figured Mia would look at the future and see I was coming and then fly away before I could get to talk to her at all. Instead, I got to talk to her before she could fly away, hm hm...!" She sounds mighty proud of herself. "My real name's Echolalia but Miss Gator's okay by me, if you like using it! You know, like a nickname and all...!#-1 FUNCTION (ANIS) NOT FOUND She punches her fist into her hand in the most shonen way she can before wincing and wiggling the hand she punched around.. ''Ran is a very special star.'' "Ran is very important to me. I felt her presence with me ever since I was a kid, but a very special visitor to my home convinced me what I wanted to be and one day... I was lucky in a very unlucky way..." She looks back to Rita. "And now we're closer than ever! I bet you'd like her if you ever met her." She She is quiet a moment and then murmurs, "Um. What's all this about the little whales? Do you know, Sh--Rita?"
Meresankh	"No. She's just named Captain." Meresankh's body language shifts to be a little more at ease. There's something to its light--a psychic resonance. There's debate over why its like this...Or how...But it's effect is undeniable." And we're back to slightly tense. However, as Mia continues to explain the practical ramifications of a psychically active sun, Meresankh leans in a little toward the monitors, evidently curious to learn more. "A flow of psychic power... if this is simply what it casts off ambiently, I shudder to imagine the power at its core - or what that power could do if it were directed. Some of the Necron dynasties rely on stars captured in great spheres of living metal - have there been any attempts to harness Ran's full power like that?" "When supplies from sol were cut off, rocket fuel got too expensive. The easiest ships to make...Were ships that could RIDE that current, too." "Cut off... so you came from another star, but do not have interstellar travel anymore. Did you know Ran was psychic before you arrived? Your founders must have been bold, to take their chances on such an unusual sun." "And now we're closer than ever! I bet you'd like her if you ever met her." Caution bordering on dread rises in Meresankh's voice. "H-her? It has a personality?"
Khosa	"Wait, your cat isn't psychic?" The 'cats' Khosa is familiar with are perhaps not the housecat variety. Which is made more clear when she says, "I thought yours were just different-coloured, but I guess not. They must be pretty small too," she adds, "or you wouldn't want them on board." It appears to be bug-showing-off time. Khosa glances at the servitors but makes no attempt to pick one up. "Well, I'm not sure what a crab is, and I only know what a shrimp is because I ate it at a restaurant," Khosa admits. "But beetles that size are pretty harmless, usually. I mean, you wouldn't want them in your food storage." Especially if they eat everything. Which Khosa is willing to believe a metal bug can do. Why is everything she has metal? She inhabits a machine... does the beetle also inhabit a machine? She'll have to ask, but maybe not now. "Yeah, I did," she agrees with Dysnomia instead. The shell peels back, and Khosa feels something before she sees it; just a hint of something, which deepens as the rest of the shells peel away and the ship lifts up - Khosa tends to parse psychic power as something smelled or tasted. Sometimes it helps to 'look' at it to see what it's doing and analyze it that way, but that's an act of will, and a talent. But right now it washes over her in an odour that isn't really there, a sensation at the back of her mouth and across her tongue, a taste she can't quite describe and a tingle in her nose. Her nostrils flare as she takes it in, then exhales in a long slow breath as she paces toward the spot next to Rita so she can see, too. When she breathes out that one time, there's a faintest shimmer, like a warm breath in the cold, but only once. "Yeah," she says, slowly. "I can see why. I can feel it deep." Khosa runs into the usual problems with describing unusual senses, so she doesn't even try beyond that. "There's power in any sun, but that - that's something else..." Meresankh brings up harnessing it. "Can you imagine trying to harness that? You couldn't take the whole thing. There's enough just in this stream - plus, how would you go around a whole sun, and what would that do for everyone else?" She glances over toward Echolalia. "I believe something with that much psychic energy has a mind, but, uh 'her'? How..." Khosa's brow furrows. "How would you talk to them? And how would - " Khosa's mind goes somewhere she's not prepared to go. " - Uh, never mind that. Just stick with the 'how do you talk to them' bit." She is not prepared to ask about the mating cycle of suns.
Odette Raskins	Even through the space suit gloves, Rita can feel ODette squeezing her hand in return. "Way more than just often, I bet. HEhe... Y-yeah, I'm pretty seasoned in space, if I say so myself." She's clearly enjoying that moment of boasting a little, still grinning even while the thoughtful look returns to her face. "I think... OH, you could still do great in space, I think. With all those-" Wait. Who does or doesn't know about what Rita's capable of? Should she say anything more specific? Would anyone get suspicious if she does;t?! She's sweating a little until she realizes she still has an out. "-skills of yours, I-I'm sure you'll pull through when it really counts." Meresankh shows off her little bugbots right on time, and Odette's attention shifts to peer at the hand machines with wide-eyed wonder. "Whoa... Look at all those little parts!" She looks up at Meresankh for a moment before gratefully taking it in her hands gingerly, holding it all around looking at it from all sorts of angles to just enjoy seeing a cute little beetle bug thingy. She even rests it on the glass of her helmet for a moment, tilting back she can look at it without her hands getting in the way. When Rita holds hers close for comparison, Odette doesn't even suspect a thing and even taps on an empty spot on her visor so she can put them right next to each other! "Where's all the stuff they eat go? I-is it like a... Um. Do they turn it into energy?" She sounds only a little worried for a second, but the novelty of a funky bug machine is too strong for even her usual fear response. And when Rita says something normal, Odette does't say anything in the affirmative. Instead, she just sighs wistfully and nods. Dysnomia, thankfully, reassures Odette that the cat is still alive, and that gets another easygoing chuckle out of the EMT. "Good spot. That should be easy enough to rea-eemember." She coughs lightly into her hand even though that's completely useless with the helmet on. Taking the extra bag, too, has the EMT easing herself into just existing on the ship instead of worrying about what's to come later. "Hehe... Thanks, Miss Mia. That one's got all the extra.. Um. Stuff for the mission." The noises from the ship getting ready to move only has Odette wincing briefly before she remembers what spacecraft (allegedly) used to sound like. After buckling in to not fall on her ass during takeoff, Odette finally takes her helmet off after the ship starts to move, holding it and Meresankh's little beetle forward so it can see what she sees. Hearing Rita's awe at seeing space, she giggles again and slides on over to her while definitely not trying to take the opportunity to sound a little cooler than usual. "L.. Like what you see? That's the kind of view you can see every day on a station, you know? So many stars, planets, floating comets and ast-" On her way over, the ship lurches, and Odette yelps as she smacks her face into the glass and falls flat on her ass. She does, however, hold the helmet up to keep the bug machine safe. "Owowow... L-little whales? What's that, Miss Echolalia? Ough.."
Echolalia	Echolalia grins widely enough that her teeth are showing. Suddenly, they seem a bit more sharp than they do when she's goofing around. Someone is seriously asking about Ran, genuinely acknowledging the mind that she knows Ran has--as a possibility. She is so thrilled that she forgets that she's been understating her draconic side as a matter of course for all her buddies-she-hopes-for in Elibe, something she convinces herself to be fine with by calling it diplomacy. "Her. When I was young, I considered her my Second Mother..." She brings her hand towards where her heart would be and presses it there, eyes closing with religious fervor. "I wasn't the only one. We would draw pictures of her and call her as such." She looks to Mereseankh and beams at her with such genuine joy that it could come across as unreal if it wasn't so definitively sincere. "But she is nothing to worry about. She is Love incarnate. It is but the way we harm one another that brings her grief. Her light... Is so warm that it can be unbearable...but it is never uncomfortable." She then is asked a surprising question from Khosa. She raises her eyebrows in surprise! But the smile isn't gone for long. "She speaks to us in our dreams, in our mind, through the warmth on our skin. To be honest, I am not entirely sure how psychics from outside our system would hear or feel her. I'm kind of hoping to find out! It'd be so thrilling to get to be close to such an experience!" She glances to Odette, "Oh I thought I heard something about the whales? It kind of caught me off guard."
Dysnomia	Some of the Necron dynasties rely on stars captured in great spheres of living metal - have there been any attempts to harness Ran's full power like that? "The Admirality would love to try, I'm sure, biosphere be damned. But, the inner solar system isn't part of their territory. And won't be, for as long as the wyrms stay a force to be reckoned with." No thanks to her. "I'm not too happy with the Moons, at present." Dysnomia understates. "I can't say I wish them success." "I felt her presence with me ever since I was a kid, but a very special visitor to my home convinced me what I wanted to be and one day... I was lucky in a very unlucky way..." Dysnomia shut her eyes, shoulders slumping. Mouthed something... 'Oh...Lia...' "H-her? It has a personality?" Dysnomia grimaces, but more from lack of words than actual discomfort. "...It's...Hard to describe..." Echolalia, however, is all too eager to talk, and Dysnomia lets her, while she chews on her own lip, watching the moon slowly disappear. "...There's lots of people who see her lots of different ways. The Admiralty line is that she doesn't have a mind as we understand it..." "...But, I think it's..." She snapped her fingers repeatedly, frustration coming over her face, until... "...No. I've lost it. Don't know how to say it." "Ack-! Auhhh..." "Owowow..." Odette and Rita's encounter with the windows runs through Dysnomia's internal priorities in her head, and then she's standing by Rita, clasping her shoulder. "Are you alright? I should have warned you."
Khosa	"Anything that generates that kind of psychic power has got to have a mind, even if it's an unusual one by our standards," Khosa says, stubbornly. "I don't know what your Admiralty is thinking, but the only way you could generate it is by thinking. Storing, okay. You can put energy in crystals if you know what you're doing. But making?" How would a psychic from outside the system hear or feel her...? "Well, I can feel something right now," Khosa says, for Echolalia's benefit. "The energy, at least. I don't know that I get that much of a sense of self but I wasn't looking for it, and something like a whole goddamned Sun I would want to prepare myself for before I tried to contact, or at least listen to. I'm not so self-important that I think something that big would want to listen to me." ... "Sounds pretty different than our sun," Khosa says, with a sigh. Warm, hot, but never uncomfortable... "It's a lot to take in." She turns, after a moment, to offer Odette a hand up. It's less 'a hand up' and more 'if Odette takes Khosa's hand, she will pull Odette up with one arm', but, you know. Same thing, in some ways. "That sounded pretty hard," she says, mentally pleased that she has managed to balance the whole time without anchoring herself against the floor telekinetically. See, this 'starship' thing isn't as difficult as she thought!
Rita Ma	"Are you alright? I should have warned you." "I'b fidne," says the majestic and fearsome Queen of the Seas, blinking away wetness in her eyes while rubbing her nose. Her other hand holds the beetle like hamburger. "My real name's Echolalia but Miss Gator's okay by me, if you like using it!" Rita still manages to find energy to smile as she recovers. "Echolalia's really pretty! I might save 'Miss Gator' for special occasions. I'm glad you and Ms. Mia are getting along now." She might be a little bit oblivious to their real dynamic. "Um. What's all this about the little whales? Do you know, Sh--Rita?" "Oh! Ms. Mia took me to a whalefall here once, about a year ago," Rita says, a little slowly- weaving together the sanitized story as she talks. Her eyes wander off to the side. "And... after the mother space whale died, the baby ones bonded with me. So I've been taking care of them! Like their parent, a little bit." She smiles self-consciously. It's really, really hard to imagine her as any sort of parental figure. On the other hand, it took her about ten seconds to bond with a robot beetle... "OH, you could still do great in space, I think. With all those-" Rita's eyebrows lift at Odette, though her expression is neutral. "-skills of yours" Then she smiles and relaxes, just a bit. It's not a secret secret anymore, but . . . "It's really beautiful, isn't it, Ms. Khosa?" Rita says, turning back to the window. She lets the beetle sit fatly on the sill, and traces her fingertip along the glass. One of the trailing edges of the light-river curves into a little glowing heart-stream with her sketching gesture- these are the same plankton as on that planet, after all. "But she is nothing to worry about. She is Love incarnate." That gives her the push to do something that might be stupid. It feels a little scary, but she reaches out with her own psychic presence while staring out the window, testing how far it'll stretch. Does being big make Ran better at listening, or worse? "They love you, Ran," is her message-in-a-bottle to the star. "Thank you for giving everyone your light."
Khosa	Rita's psychic presence fills Khosa's senses, too; a scent she only recognizes from her trip by boat, not the 'smell of the sea' on shore (which mostly isn't the sea at all) but the slight brininess she smelled on the ship, the crispness of open water. She takes a half step back and rubs under her nose after Odette is up (either with her help or on her own), absently, as she eyes Rita for a moment. But she's definitely 'listening in', or at least as much as she can without that prior preparation.
Dysnomia	It's...Not so difficult to reach for Ran, as Rita might believe it to be. Like something inside her remembers the taste of her light...like something inside of her was part of her world...Because it was. The warmth runs down her spine, through every nerve ending. It's not pain, or hurt. But it's bright, sudden. Something touches Rita's mind, then. So unlike the alien queen--there's no sense of domineering will, only a rush of brightness that never stops. What comes to her are not words, but they hold the shape of meaning, like something half-remembered from a dream. \|Not Forgotten\| \|Mercy\| \|Mourning Hungerer\| There's a warmth, the feeling on a youth's back as they play on a bright summer day. \|Child of Sol\| \|You\| \|Welcome\| \|Light\| And then, nothing.
Rita Ma	'People taking a step back from her' is something Rita is primed to notice. She looks over at Khosa with a droopy-inquisitive "mmm?", holds eye contact for a second, and then- "I can see why. I can feel it deep." --oh, that's why-- -smiles ruefully when she figures it out. "It can't hurt people," Rita says, as if that were the concern. "It's just..." - - - - For no reason that most can see, her breath catches in her throat then. She's stunned but not recoiling; it's only that her mind's very far away from her body for a long moment, and she wobbles on her feet. "Oh. You're beautiful. So that's why they love you," she transmits back first, 'breathlessly'. Then, when she grasps the actual 'words' behind the light: "... You remember me?!" Then, reflecting: "Thank you. I'm trying... to take good care of your grandchildren." - - - - Then it's over, and she finishes her breath sharply, and steadies herself by grabbing the porthole's edge as her eyes blink themselves clear. The spaceship's interior is infinitely dim, by comparison. "Ohh," Rita says, a little laughing and a little bedraggled. She squishes her cheek against the wall next to the window, still peeking out. "I won't bother her anymore, but... she really is sweet."
Meresankh	"Where's all the stuff they eat go? I-is it like a... Um. Do they turn it into energy?" "Energy, yes, but they can use certain materials to reproduce. A swarm can devour a whole building, growing exponentially as it feeds." Meresankh sounds like she's smiling, despite the menacing implications of a swarm of self-replicating, all-consuming scarab-bots. Maybe she finds the possibility delightful, or maybe she's just happy to see people appreciating her creations. "But she is nothing to worry about. She is Love incarnate." Meresankh folds her arms, unconvinced. "We'll see if she gives us anything to worry about." "The Admirality would love to try, I'm sure, biosphere be damned. But, the inner solar system isn't part of their territory. And won't be, for as long as the wyrms stay a force to be reckoned with." "The Admiralty and the 'Wyrms' are the major political players, then. Are there other groups we should know about as we set out?"
Echolalia	Echolalia certainly didn't think anybody would actually try to go ahead and talk to Ran, least of all this FAR from Ran but she is always keeping her mind open to psionic traffic--it's entirely possible she doesn't really know how to turn it off. But before she reacts to THAT she says, "The Admiralty doesn't want to admit it, but I think they know she's got a mind--a heart, like you say Khosa. It isn't about believing in her or not believing in her, it's about the ''story''. To the Admiralty, Ran's gifts are for the benefit of humanity--solely. I'm sure they'd put it in a different way than that if you asked! But I feel that properly summarizes it. ... Ah, but to be clear since of all the Elibe stuff--it's not such a broad kind of humanity that you might think of." She thinks about how to describe Ran's mind beyond the whole 'Loving' descriptor she gave. She ultimately settles on, "Like a blanket for whom your language is like her third language." This may not be a descriptor that helps much. ''Sounds petty different than our sun'' Echolalia frowns sadly at Khosa, but doesn't comment. The idea of having a sun that DOESN'T have feelings about you one way or the other sounds a little sad, to her. She supposes indifference is better than hate, though, but it's hard for her to imagine a hateful sun. "Well--gosh, alright Rita!" She actually doesn't even start using a formal title that time but it's still kind of there in the way she says Rita's name. "...Yeah, I guess we are." She'd hate to argue anyway, even if Mia rarely voices how she really feels--she can believe in any Star, no matter how small and hurt. And then she hears Rita's message. After being a cultist for so long, she's actually moved to tears and turns her head, cheeks flushing a darker green. She's so happy to hear RIta say that Mother is sweet that she slides the informational Tears of Ran pamphlet she was drawing out of her pocket back inside it. Maybe later.
Odette Raskins	"Are you alright? I should have warned you." "That sounded pretty hard," Despite the light pain, Odette still laughs bashfully at the bump and nods quickly at Dysnomia. "Ah.. I-I'm okay! I'm used to it, anyway. Can't be a proper employee getting riled up every time a.. Um. Space turbulence hits, you know?" She replies without a hint of irony at her usual way of getting riled up at and freaking out over everything. After making sure the beetle is still safe on her helmet, she sets that aside and takes Khosa's offered hand, then yelps lightly when she gets yoinked right back onto her feet. "Whoa! Ah. Th-thanks, Miss Khosa! Strong..." She blurts out absent-mindedly, wobbling a little before remembering to let go of that arm. "Did... Have you balanced on a spaceship before? You seem like a natural at this..." "To be honest, I am not entirely sure how psychics from outside our system would hear or feel her." "... Say. Miss Echolalia, have you met Mister Parsons yet?" Odette asks with genuine curiosity, apparently intrigued by the same thing Echolalia is at that moment. "He sounds like he knows a lot about psychic brain things, so... M-maybe you two could meet up and see how that works!" She suggests, then taps her chin in deeper thought. "I wonder who else would be good for that..." Odette is definitely making sure not to look at Rita. She's not one hundred percent sure Rita could do that, but she also isn't sure she can't. She doesn't want to risk blowing her cover! "A swarm can devour a whole building, growing exponentially as it feeds." "That does sound a bit scarier..." Odette finally starts looking just a hair/very intimidated, glancing over at the beetle she put on her helmet before remembering to pick both pack up so she can continue looking over and poking at the machine. There's a definitely gentleness in the way she handles the bug, although she's just slow enough with the way she checks it out that she might be picking at it with her eyes or something. "But... That could be real useful for search and rescue, too. I-I mean, people get trapped in weird ruins all the time, so having something that could eat through rubble and cave-ins that happen behind them.." Somehow, Odette's found something else to be jealous of, and now it's a hand-sized machine bug.
Khosa	"Nope!" is Khosa's cheerful response to Odette. She explains a moment later, "I study psychometabolism. It's body control, basically. One of the first things you have to learn how to do is know exactly where your body is, and how it moves - that's not even psychic or anything, it's just a thing you can learn. To know your own body. I don't think I can get around real fast up here, but I can stand in one place fine." She can push herself around, at least. Or pull Odette around, as the case may be. Khosa replies to Echolalia, "Yeah, I get people like that. I'm only half-human. I've heard it before." She thinks she gets it, anyway; 'not so broad kind of humanity' means something to her, having met plenty of templars and nobles who wouldn't give someone like her the time of day. The rest of the description means less to her. It would not surprise Khosa if Athas' sun was hateful. Some people certainly describe it as such, though she tends not to; it's a danger both long-term and short, but she never really thought of it as malicious so much as cruelly uncaring. It's something she can worry about later. Right now, she's more concerned with Rita and her attempts to communicate. "It just surprised me," she says, which is true; she didn't know Rita could do something like that, because though Khosa has figured out some things about Rita, she hasn't got the whole story and some of the things she thinks she knows are wrong. She isn't the target of Ran's communication, but she feels it as a pressure and that spicy-hot scent she caught before, even over Rita. The two of them together makes her want to sneeze. They don't feel like they should interact well at all and yet they do. "...huh," is what she actually says. It's less expressive than Khosa normally is; Khosa generally comes off as direct, honest, and perhaps like the sort of person who thinks with action, but right now she's at least a little thoughtful. "Should be an interesting trip," is what she decides.
Dysnomia	"We'll see if she gives us anything to worry about." "You say that like she she's an active danger in the world." There wasn't any reason for her to defend Ran. She wasn't defending Ran. She was just stating how things were, for the record. "She doesn't really DO anything. At worst, it's suggested that her existence can..." Dysnomia looks at Echolalia. "...Let people like us exist." While Mia's scenes aren't as keen as Khosa's, the sheer, momentary pressure of Ran's presence is enough to make Dysnomia's head turn, first in alarm. Then... ... "...she really is sweet." She feels a rush of relief. "...You get it, right? It's just hard to..." Dysnomia cleared her throat. "...Anyway. Now you know the ship. I'll be here, making sure the ship stays on course..." A pair of slitted eyes peeked out from beneath the pilot's console. "You can all pick out your cabins. There are keys in each. Rita, here's your--" Captain leapt out, furiously--futility batting at a metal scarab with her paw, as it continued, unconcerned, on its way.
Rita Ma	"Like a blanket," Rita agrees with 'Lia', and- noticing tears, and still a little overwhelmed herself- steps in past Khosa for a little steadying side-hug. "Thanks for taking me back here, both of you." "...You get it, right? It's just hard to..." "It's hard to say it in a way that doesn't sound a little crazy," Rita finishes for Mia, likely while laying her head on Echo's shoulder. "And when you really like someone, but you know she's a little intimidating... you get anxious about whether your other friends will like her too." She knows from experience. Li'l Buggo has been briefly forgotten on the windowsill, but she'll come back for it, don't worry! 'It just surprised me' is true, but the queasy-smiling look Rita wears says she feels like she's being let down easy; not that she blames Khosa in the least. "It is going to be an interesting trip. I'm glad you're here. You seem really smart about this sort of thing, so..." "It's body control, basically." Rita is rock-tumbling a whole lot of thoughts in her little head about psychic powers and who has them and how to explain them, and that statement goes in the tumbler, and it comes out as a shiny little awed thought ten seconds later: "Ohh! That's how you're so tall."