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Before Toxic

Z

Zack

RP Date
YE 40, before 'toxic'
RP Location
SRSS Yggdrasill
Outside The SRSS Yggdrasill, Planet 188604 Orbit, Early YE40

Boosting up from the orange desert planet below, a small package silently thrust towards the large angular green-on-white vessel. The thing certainly set off the proximity sensors by entirely failing to declare it's approach, but the improvised missle-looks, combined with the fact it actually slowed down slightly... Well, it could have been a Freespacer vessel? This was the agreed meeting time for a potential new crew member of that sort, but...

Visual range didn't exactly help things. It looked like somebody had simply strapped six hoverbike engines to the bottom of a grey pill shaped container. Way too small for a traditional shuttle.

No one appeared to be trying to shoot the thing down... to Green-Thumb that meant the local robot overlord of188604 had decided that it was not a threat. She would let the captain of the ship know, and then make her way towards the airlock.

A spacer-looking ship meant that this was probably a spacer... a logical leap. It meant that someone else would be joining them, probably an expert fighter like Shot-Bot, self-proclaimed greatest long-distance shooter anywhere within his light-cone... or perhaps it was Truffleclub? Thumb loved its palace on the surface but she had never gotten to meat Truffle in person. Regardless, it should be an exciting encounter! The soldier would head to the docking area with her shoeless feet, waiting for the new comer to finsh their docking process.

Possessing no kind of landing gear, the improvised pod simply tumbled onto the deck after passing the threshhold of the force feilds. Fortunately, it was apparently hollow and light as a feather, regardless, not quite intimidating despite the mystery.

Rather thematically, the pod rather did look like a blooming lilly when it finally did pop open, only the interior was filled with bright green packing peanuts that spilled out onto the floor. And within that, an even more obscure mechanical mass.

Six blue-metal legs that ended with hands, a way oversized ballistics jacket, a gun arm, bright pink hair... Barely five and half foot, a spidery mess of fairy humanoid organics bolted into a slew of robust combat mechanisms.

The short thing struggled upright... Looked up at the much larger, muscle-clad woman... Then promptly barfed on the floor.

~Ok. This was looking good up until it threw up...~ Green-Thumb thought to herself. This spacer, even this design of spacer, wasn't familiar to her. The Ygg also may be upset at her for the mess that this thing left. But one thing at a time.

"Hello!" She said, aving at the spider-weapon-thing on the floor infront of her. "Welcome onboard the SRSS Yggdrasill. I was told to expect a freespacer to join us but I was not told who... My Callsign is Green-Thumb by the way."

The thing twitched from it's slouching position, proving that it wasn't quite dead yet, but then stayed quiet for several paces more...

"OH HI NOW!? HELLOW LARGE LADY!?" AWAKE! Super awake now, snapping out of that trance all at once. Their voice was somehow hoarse and high-pitched at the same time, very much the composite materials of their spindily body. "GREEN-THUMB!? NEPLESLIAN ARE YOU!? OR JUST THE THUMBS? HAHA~"

It offered her a vibrantly enthusiastic hand to shake, albiet one that was frozen at the elbow by a cast and several metal pins.

"HI HELLO!? YOU KNOW THEY CALL ME Z-NINE THEY DO, KINDA LIKE YOUR CANINES, YA!?" It yelled some more. Kinda seemed like it was looking straight though the mega-botanist with those wide dumb missmatched eyes, but since they were at least partially bionic, that might have been half true. Zero inside voice, at any rate. "YOU ARE A VERY GOOD PROTECTOR PERSON AND ALSO SHOOTER LIKE ME ARE YOU YA!?~ I LIKE YOU, YOU ARE VERY VERY BIG!!!"

It really, really liked smiling.

"Wow, you certainly have a lot of energy!" Green-Thumb responded, taking a moment to assess the situation before reaching out to give the Z-9 a firm handshake as was appropriate for a first time greeting with a Nepleslian. "I hope I am, you seem to have quite the shooter built in! I like to think I am a pretty good protector, even without the weapons built in.

Where did you come from Z-9? Can I call you Z-9?" The initial shock of what she was seeing had passed. Just about anything could have come out of that pod, and she was happy to take 'over-eager-robot-dog-turret-thing' over 'grumpy nepleslian' or 'nihilist-annihilater-kill-bot' any day.

"Ze-nine is my name, yes it is, yessure, yes yes!" It answered back, talking so quickly that it all just kind of blended together. Apparently their concept of shaking hands ended with the intiation, because they were still shaking, looping that motion forever and ever. The additional crane-arm on their back was threatening to get involved. "You ever been to PORT HOPE have you? It's like a big swirly tube thing in the Nep's back yard. Used to have loads and loads of relics!... HEY YOU AREN'T FROM THERE TOO, ARE YOU!!??"

"ALSO-I'M-ALSO-SUPER SORRY I DID MY LUNCH UP ON YOUR FLOORS THAT WAS SUPER ULTRA BAD OH NO!"

Expression didn't change at all depite the shocked words. Could it actually change? Were they just that amused talking to somebody so big and meaty?

"I am certain you can help clean it up. We are guests on this ship and we do not want to offend our hosts by being too loud or by leaving messes... I think we can find some cleaning supplies here."

It would take a moment for Green-Thumb to figure out just how to handle Zee. As the leader for this mission, it was her duty to make sure everything went smoothly. That meant that Zee's problems were also her problems. The most immidiate problem being the decreasing distance between Green-Thumb's arm and that crane arm on the back of Zee.


"I have not been to Port Hope... well... I flew by there a few times but that is it. I come from actual-Nepleslia. The only relics there were the appartment buildings we lived in!" As she spoke, she would reach out with her other hand and put some force behind her shake, trying to slow the loop a bit and trying to pull her hands away.

"They don't have junkers?..." An odd look, right through the walls. "They don't have junkers to do it for us. OH WELL!~"

Stubborn little metal thing didn't break the handshake even when turning away, rearranging their grasp into a skipping motion whilst oggling at the apparent air itself within the large vessel's hangar, dragging Green Thumb along with her who was becoming increasingly concerned about this handshake.

"Man, you guys got so much ROOM in here! What do you DO with it all!?" The arms all went a bit frantic at this realisation, all sliding in differant directions at once. It didn't really need saying at this point that this also made Z-9 hysterical with laughter. "Are those ancient apparu-men-tus like this too?! Nepleslian stuff is all just so fun and BIG!!! -An' here I was really proud'a me mini wee shuttle too!"

"Your shuttle looks very cute, but..." Green Thumb had to duck under one of Z-9's arm to avoid getting bowl'd over, "... we need to stop shaking hands now. We are already friends!"

She was hoping that those words would work on the spacer. It didn't. Actually, the crane-arm grasped onto their sleeve, and one of the feet-hands grasped the side of the baggy pants. Z9 looked like they entirely understood what was said, yet was having too much fun doing it, instead offering up a rare silent wide-eyed smile.

There was a bit of a mess to clean up... however it looked like some floating spheres of various colors were already on the job. Smaller devices moving to clean up the biolotical matter on the floor by scooping it up with deployable arms, while others stuck themselves to the side of the shuttle to start picking it up.

"Our appartments were about the size of your shuttle I think," Green Thumb added, "Though there is a lot of space planet-side, a lot of that space is already in use by other people. Maybe I could show you some time?"

"Oh yeah, that could be fun. Forgot that you Neps 'ave, like, loads and loads of peo-peels compared to us spacers." They finally broke off the handshake in order to make a strange waving motion, as if to suggest they really thought that many Nepleslians must be physically piled ontop of each other to fit on the planet. "Might be very fun, yeah! I never seen that many peeps!"

"Where we all sleeping here? The crew here ain't like that too, is it? I don't see any..." It was at this point pretty evident that the surprisingly light spider thing had zero luggage on it, not even caring much about where the shuttle dissappeared off to. "You have somewhere lead lined, don't you?... We spacers have to... Erm, we need a very special sunbath every now and then to stay healthie and loverlie and super!!!~ You can use it too!!! But somebody told me it would make a Nep SUPER DEAD!!!?? So maybe not!!!??~"

They found this really funny, apparently, to the point that their twitching made all sorts of little pannels on their barrel and legs pop out involluntarily. Green Thumb was made distinctly aware of the effect that they now also rolled, so at least it wouldn't be hard to just drag the airheaded thing somewhere.

"We do tend to die when exposed to a lot of radiation. I'm sure our hosts would be super greatful if you kept it contained." Green Thumb said, starting to wonder just how much she would need to worry about this new spacer crew member. "I can talk to them about sleeping arrangements for you. Is there anything else special that you might need?"

"And where do you come from? I am sure you must have a home too, and a reason for coming out here?" Green Thumb asked, trying to move the conversation more towards the reason for this particular mission.

"Anything SPECIAL? HAHA!?~" Z-9 threw their upper arms into the air, staring out into space again whilst smiling into some immaculate daydream. "You think you have like a really big stuffie toy as big as me!? Or maybe some of those dreadnoughts music discs they don' let you copy-paste? BIG OOL TUB A PEANUTE-BUTTA WIT DEM CHUKULATE FLAKES!!?"

"ERm... I don't really have anything to trade, though. Not unless you want some origin ba-12 chipsets or a comstar ab-545 battery..." They weren't expecting to get those things for free, at least. Z-9 was still looking the larger and more womanly woman up and down trying to figure out what a planetsider would even like in return, just in case. "...Erm, yeah, I'm from like, space?... I do a lot of these liddl' misshuns 'cause Port Hope is kinda shooty right now, and no Druids left to tell us Sanctifiers what is a 'olly relic and what is some dumb trash..."

"Dat's really ard. You ever done that? All old stuff looks the same. You can't see the spirit of a thing just by looking at it, they ain't people, no..." Rambling, more pannels flexing and popping out, then finally looking back up at Green Thumb and grabbing their sleeve again. "So, like, protecting people is a good thing, like? I'm not too sure about these things either..."

Eyes skirted the floor, those fin-like ears drooped... Then both elements shot up again, looking the Nepleslian in the eye and absolutely refusing to spend a single millisecond in self-reflection.

"What do you do? Is that, like, your life-mission? You protect very small young early female organics!? Is that good!?!?"

Green thumb smiled, "This job does feel like day-care sometimes. Only the organics are fully-grown... I suppose I also like plants... which I also suppose are organics as well... Perhaps I like to help things grow?"

Z-9 certainly had a lot of energy. Perhaps there was a lot more going on there than just what the surface was letting on. While the spacer was clearly bursting with energy, the Nepleslian woman was retaining her composure, keeping her attention on the spacer, while keeping her movements slow and deliberate. She even moved with Z-9's arm as it grabbed her sleeve, going along with it just enough so she wouldn't topple over, then trying to hold its hand to keep it steady.

"We should get you settled in. We do have some small organics to protect this time. When we are done... we can see about getting you some of that Peanut Butter with our pay. I am not a druid... but I can help determine what is dumb trash that needs shooting, and what things you should not shoot."

"You will? Oh that is very very good!" The insect coiled around Green Thumb's waist without pause or concept of personal space, though not too tight due to their distinct lack of elbows on the cast and gun-arm. Moreover, they seemed distinctly confused and then taken aback by the woman's body after a moment, not quite knowing what to make of the distinctly meat-like structure beneath their clothing... Didn't seem to know it wasn't just fancy outside pannels, as if the whole concept of a fit-for-war full organic was supposed to be a joke. "...And... Yes! Plants are very very good! We have 'em growin' right in the hallway in spacer ships. I went on this one corvette, The Midnight, that had the best blueberries!"

"Mito-chon Four Three says we got plants in us too, would you beleive that?! I dunno..." Pointing at their upper left arm, their stomach, and then to the dusty purple encoded patterns on their forehead. "I can do you a pretty good gun, though! That's what I was built for, I was. With me eye and me wee tubber I can do a really really good straight like shot, I can!! You can def trust me! OKAY!?"

The affection was genuine, but it still came across like somebody trying way too hard to hit the word limit on a long essay. Even whilst saying this, their arms and sensors were still checking out all of the interesting little bits and peices of their new companion up close, too.

"-OH you got fingers on your feet too!" How did they- The scope on the gun? It was the only camera pointing downwards... "That's really really cute!!!~"

Plants were something that held a special intrest for Green-Thumb. She knew quite a bit about them. She even had a bit of an education from when she was a kid that covered the 'general studies' topics such a cells.

"The Mitochondria IS the powerhouse of the cell." She said proudly. It had always seemed important that this peice of information was the one retained during those studies, "I Think those come from plants originally. We also have a lot of other plant-like-things inside of us that allow us to live..."

Now she was getting distracted.

"Oh, Check this out!"

This actually is[/] kinda neat. Green-Thumb balanced on one foot, and lifted up her other leg to bring her foot a bit closer.

"I got this cool nail polish that runners have been using. It is actually a carbon fiber composite, great for protecting the nail while you're doing a lot of movement. You could also really hurt someone if you kicked them too hard with it!"
 
"-Mito was in a prison!? One that was made of plants???-" Z-9 managed to fall several paces behind in the conversation, apparently confusing a person with the thing that they were named after. "She never told me abou-!"

"Nail polish? Like metal polish, is it?" Train of thought abandoned, the Freespacer jumped off whilst it was still moving, and landed face-first in another quandery of confusion. "Recognise the materiul from some electric mesh-sheilding-type-stuff... But that not gonna hurt your toe-boners!?"

Well... Their last remaining organic limb did have loads of pins sticking out of it. Z-9 probably lived the problems of attaching flesh to harder-than-flesh materials.

"You ever try?~ You ever kick a guy head clean off!? Ahaha?!~" Smiling, smiling, wide eyed smiling. "Wish I still had toesers too! So I could try too!!!... Like big lady Green Thumb!!!~~"

So much for getting settled in. The thing sounded way too at home already.

Green-Thumb winced, "They are not boners... just... toes..." She tried to explain, not sure if she should even continue that line of thought. She moved on to giving Z-9 a smile, "I haven't tried kicking someone's head off. I kinda don't like the thought of having to do it...... buuuuuut, yeah I totally could couldn't I?"

"How about we get settled in a bit? It should be a short trip to our destination. Do you need anything before we get started?" Her 'supposed to be in charge' instincts were kicking in again. Sticking around Z-9 was like playing with a puppy... the spacer was adorable but she couldn't spend all day in the shuttle bay with Z-9!
 
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