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  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

RP: Galactic Horizon Calanthe’s arrival

Fioreo

Active Member
RP Date
Mid YE 40
RP Location
Horizon HQ building
188604
Horizon HQ
10:00


Kryss stood at the entrance of the Horizon “compound” waiting for the shuttle that would be delivering one of their newest specialists for the upcoming expansion into the medical division. The second Separa Shan to join after the well qualified and experienced Argus Zepheris arrived recently, Kryss checked the time and watched the sky expecting the ship to arrive at any moment.

The shuttle flew in landing, as Calanthe saw the company’s building. She felt a wave of excitement, seeing a blonde lady with a suit on, in front of the building’s entrance. Though she usually isn't scared of meetings and such, she did feel intimidated looking into the lady’s icy blue eyes. The shuttle landed at last and Calanthe slithered out and adjusted her blouse. After being sure her collar looked decent, she slithered towards Kryss and reached out her hand. ‘Good morning.’

“Good morning, Calanth was it? I’ve never been the best with these sort of names, took my awhile just to learn the last Separas name properly. Regardless welcome to Galactic Horizon we’re glad to have you here.” Kryss shook her hand and flashed her a warm smile before gesturing to the buildings behind her. “Well all your gear from the shuttle will be taken care of, so shall we?”

A giggle escaped Calanthe’s mouth. ‘It’s Calanthe. The pleasure’s mine.’
Her eyes widened, seeing the building from up close. ‘Ah, sure, let's go.’ The tip of her tail moved around enthusiastically, though she tried to hide that by smiling back at Kryss to thank her for her hospitality, and following her into the building.


“Ahhh, Calanthe, gotcha sorry about that but yeah if you’ll just follow me I’ll show you around and we can sort out the last few details for your employment.” Kryss turned and strode towards the entrance waving at the two security members stationed out the front who handed a small bag to the blonde woman. Once inside the lobby Kryss turned back to the snake lady, “Well, I’m not sure what the other places you’ve been to are like but we’re a small group so less budget for fancy entrances and more on being productive. By the way I was reminded of this by the door but for the time being would you wear this lanyard please? In case of any security issues it will help us identify you as you’re not in the system yet.”

While following Kryss, Calanthe was quite surprised by all the things that happened, just while moving towards the lobby. Even though Kryss claimed it wasn’t a fancy entrance, it did feel pretty fancy for the young Separa’Shan. She nodded anyway, and took the lanyard from Kryss’ hands. The pass attached to it looked very interesting to her (even though it didn't match her blouse at all, dangit). She quickly hung the cord around her neck before looking into Kryss’ eyes. ‘I’m sorry for asking ma’am, but what exactly does the company.. do?’

“Ah well I thought it would have been explained earlier but not to worry, this is the HQ and general work space for most of the staff. Our main point of work is the design of new technologies to sell either to militaries or civilian outfits, you’ll be joining the staff in preparation for the next division we’re establishing which is medical tech.” Kryss explained to the scaly women beside her as she was handed a set of papers she quickly palmed off to someone else. “So where would you like to go first, your lab slash office, or a short tour. Also I may have to palm you off to the other Separa later as I’m being hassled on various other issues.

Calanthe nodded. ‘I see, I see.’ She placed her chin on her hand while detecting the area a little. ‘Man, all of this looks great!’ She realized she didn't stay formal, and immediately corrected it. ‘Uhm, I mean, everything looks quite amazing so far. I would like a short tour if you don't mind.’ she said with a low, but excited tone.

Kryss chuckled noticing the correction from casual to formal tone and gave the Separa a pat on the back, “Don’t sweat it over the formalities, we’ve kinda built a reputation for ourselves as a very laid back group so consider yourself part of the family.” Kryss led her towards one of the lifts and pointed to the digital display beside it detailing the different departments on each of the 4 floors. “We’ll start at the top and work our way down, which means we get to see my office, not that I don’t already spend enough time looking at the damn thing.”

‘Ehehe, that's good to hear.’ The Separa’Shan let out a relieved sigh and smiled at the blonde woman. She started giggling a little while adjusting the lanyard so that it wouldn't hurt her neck. ‘Are you usually busy? I mean, damn, running a whole company must be tiring. When I'm working here I’ll try to help you out with stuff, that's for sure.’ She leaned forward to push the button of the lift, carefully wrapping her tail around her body, so that she wouldn't fall down.

Kryss nodded as they managed to fit into the lift together without either of them being too squashed, “You’ll be working directly below our Medical specialist who we took on only weeks ago so anything you can do to aid him will be beneficial to the business and will help us in our quest to establish a separate Medical division.” The lift doors had slid shut and the box had almost reached the top floor as she spoke with a soft ding indicating it was almost there.

‘Hmm? Will we get to see him today?’ Calanthe asked, curious about the man Kryss was referring to. ‘Wait, is he the other Separa here?’ She finally noticed the ding, and shook her head. ‘Eh, nevermind. What department are we at right now?’ She asked while moving her tail around, trying to find the most decent pose to finally leave the elevator.

“Yes we should get to see him, just a heads up though he can sound a little curt with people he doesn’t know but he’s not a nasty man just focused on his work. As for what department we have just reached I like to call it home, basically this floor is all the management offices and the conference room so some pretty boring stuff.” Kryss led her to an office and pushed open the doors striding over to the desk and rumaging through the drawers collecting a stack of papers. Inside the room was nicely decorated with a couch and two armchairs on one side with an empty bottle on the glass topped coffee table between them, the other side homed a bookshelf and small alcohol cabinet. “Alrighty these are yours, just the legal and technical stuff for your employment nothing too major but now we can get to the interesting things, which unfortunately means back in the lift i’m afraid.”

‘Ah, thank you,’ Calanthe said while taking the papers from Kryss’ hands. Knowing there’s another Separa’Shan in the company excited her, but made her quite nervous at the same time. She tried to distract herself and gazed at the room and all it’s features. ‘It really resembles a living room from a house,’ she giggled. She quickly slithered through the room to look at the alcohol cabinet up close. ‘Vodka? Nice, nice.’ she mumbled. After that she moved back to the door

“Yeah I guess it is sort of a living room, I’ve slept on that couch a couple of times in fact. And yeah help yourself to a glass if you like, it’s on the house for employees just try to avoid getting drunk on the job although slightly tipsy is fine.” Kryss laughed and moved back towards the lift allowing her serpent friend to enter first and get comfortable before stepping in herself. “So, next couple of floors are for the digital tech design and proof checking so it’s unlikely you’ll need to visit them unless there is a specific reason.”

‘Don't worry, don’t worry, I don't get drunk that quickly.’ She fidgeted a little with her hands, with the papers underneath her arm. ‘I probably won't drink alcohol during work either.’ Her gaze went back to Kryss, holding the papers with both her hands. ‘Either way, let’s keep going. I might not have to visit it a lot, but it's still important to know where it is, right?’. The Separa woman’s tail slithered back into the elevator, while the tip was held by her arms, to make more space for Kryss.

Stepping in carefully to avoid the coiled mass of snake tail as she hit the next button Kryss nodded to Calanthe, “Exactly, although it's quite an achievement to get lost in this place, very small compared to some.” They stopped on the third and second floors briefly as Kryss explained the different workspaces on each before the reached the lobby once more. “Well that's the HQ now I suppose I should show you to your labs”

Calanthe’s eyes lit up, and her ears twitched after hearing what Kryss said. Her labs? Man, these complicated metal tech places sound dusty compared to that. ‘Yesss,’ she quickly clapped her hands. ‘I'm really, really excited to know what it looks like.’ She giggled and covered her mouth. Calanthe slithered around so recklessly she nearly tripped over her own tail. Her arms were moving to gain balance again. Her behavior made her blush a little bit in shame, causing her to put her cold hands onto her cheeks. ‘Ahem, please forgive me, ma’am. I got a little too excited there.’

Kryss smiled at her excited scaly friend, “Don’t worry about it, I can understand being excited to see your new work and home. So if you come with me we just have to move over to the Production facility which is where we have the couple of regrettably smaller labs, with no budget for med tech yet the facilities are small for the time being.” Kryss moved outside to a car and gestured for Calanthe to enter first and get herself comfortable, the interior was large enough that they would both fit but she wanted the separa’shan to go first.

‘Ehehe, alright then.’ Calanthe stepped in the car, took place on one of the seats and moved her tail away to make more space for her future boss. She put her hands on her scaled lap and quickly looked out of the window before looking into Kryss’ eyes. ‘How far away is the facility, though? Would I also have to take a car when wanting to go to the main building while located at the facility?’ Calanthe asked with a slightly scared tone.

Kryss noticed the worry in her voice and gave her a reassuring look, “The facility is about 2 miles from the HQ so unless you fancy a nice slither through the desert I’d advise a car. We can arrange a personal one for you if you like so its just you and the driver?” Kryss signalled for their driver to move off and they sped towards the production facility as the blonde lady put her hand on one of Calanthes and gave her another caring look.

The Separa’Shan let out a relieved exhale and smiled at Kryss. ‘If it's just two miles, I’ll be fine making my way on my own. Thank you very much for the offer though.’ Her gaze went back to the window, as they drove through the desert, and all it's sand and cacti. ‘I don't mind the desert, actually. It feels nice to slither through the warm sand. I think it's a snake thing.’

“I see, not a fan of cars I take it?” kryss asked sitting back in the chair and getting comfortable as they continued onwards, the building now looming in the distance. It was a large structure made of concrete and metal and dotted with glass windows, overall it wasn't a bad looking building for what it was.

Calanthe let out a giggle. ‘Not really, no.’ The woman leaned forward, and looked out of the window. The endless landscapes filled with sand and prickly plants weren't as endless anymore. Now there’s a concrete building, standing right in the middle of the desert. ‘Ah, is that the building?’

“Correct, welcome to your new work space and home if you want it to be, we have sleeping quarters on both premises now so people don't have to leave if they don't want to.” The car pulled up out the front and let the two women exit and reminded waiting in case they needed to return to hq, the large double sliding doors of the foyer opened into what looked like the set of a sci fi space ship. Shiny flooring and strange terminals and lights dotted the area making it seem larger than life. “If you'll follow me I'll hand you over to Argus, he'll take good care of you, I promise.”

The Separa’Shan’s eyes lit up once again, seeing the eccentric foyer. She put her hands together and looked around with a slightly opened mouth. ‘Thank you very much, ma’am. It feels like home already.’ Before entering the building for real, she shook her tail to remove the last amounts of sand from her red scales. Then she slithered into the building and followed Kryss, fidgeting with her hands. ‘I hope so.’

The woman nodded as she walked, dismissing the snake lady’s fears, “It’ll be fine don’t even worry about it, the guy can be a little serious but he’s not arrogant or anything. I actually have to head back now so he should be along to get you any minute, it’s been great meeting you and I look forward to seeing you later.” Kryss turned on her heel and promptly left the building returning to the parked car leaving Calanthe alone in the entrance to the labs.

‘Oh, alright then, bye for now!’ Calanthe said a little surprised. ‘Also, thank you for showing me around!’ The Separa’Shan waved at the blonde woman as she walked away and stepped into the car. ‘Welp.. looks like I’ll be on my own for now.’ To kill time, Calanthe slithered in circles and quietly hummed. Though she felt really nervous meeting another Separa, she still tried to move the nerves away with slightly bad dancing (hoping nobody saw her).

Someone did see her however and this someone happened to be Argus Zepheris the other separa’shan present in the facility. With his tail curling and straightening he stood in the doorway watching in amusement as this new girl awkwardly danced in the lobby. “Well well, you must be the new medical staff member. Welcome to the production facility I’ll be your immediate superior, Argus Zepheris. Pleased to meet you.”

Calanthe froze as she heard a voice. She moved her gaze towards the doorway and saw a green-skinned Separa’Shan. Perhaps a very handsome one. Her cheeks turned red out of embarrassment and stood straight. ‘I'm sorry you had to see that.’ She said quietly, tucking her hair behind her ear with her left hand. She slithered towards Argus and stopped one metre before him. ‘The pleasure is mine.’ Her right hand moved towards Argus, aiming for a handshake. ‘Oh, and my name is Calanthe Brongus.’

The green man looked down at the outstretched hand and briskly shook it with his own, “Calanthe huh, pretty name but I'm more interested in how well you can work. I'm assuming Kryss left you as lost as a lamb and dumped you in my care, huh typical.” The snake man narrowed his eyes at her looking up and down nodding at her appearance and attitude.

The snake woman rolled with her eyes and put her hand on her hip. ‘Checking out the book’s cover before knowing what it’s about, huh? Typical.’ Calanthe crossed her arms, the tip of her tail hot-headedly tapping the ground. ‘And about the lamb part..’ she sighed. ‘I think you might have been right about that.’

Argus let out a low chuckle and slithered around her giving her another once over with his eyes, keeping himself professional he nodded once again. “Well it’s good to see you didn’t try smuggling anything in with you, if you were wondering why I was inspecting you so intensely I can assure you I’m not so low as to stare at a woman for no reason. Anyway if you have your things follow me and I”ll show you to your room and the labs we will be working in together.” With haste he turned and slithered towards the far doorway not looking to see if she was following him.

‘Good.’ Calanthe groaned. Her gaze quickly went from the floor to Argus’ tail. She looked at it’s pattern. A bright green with black stripes.. A Venis male. No wonder why he’s acting like that. She looked at his tail a little longer but came back to her senses when it disappeared into the doorway. Damnit.
Calanthe cleared her throat and slithered after the other Separa’Shan, clinging onto the papers Kryss gave her.


Argus swiftly made his way down a wide hall to the dormitory areas and indicated a room with the number 9 on the door, “This one is yours, and mine is across the hall, number 10 if you have a scary nightmare. I have ways to make sure you get a good sleep without being awoken.” Argus waited for her to inspect the room and get her things sorted.

Calanthe blushed a little and raised one eyebrow. ‘Sure thing.’ She sighed and opened the door. Her eyes widened as she saw the room, a little surprised. ‘Man, I didn't expect it to be this big. Well, my stuff isn't in here yet so I’m pretty sure it will look a little smaller afterwards. Anyways..’ Calanthe slithered into the room and opened one of it’s windows to feel the warm temperature outside, unlike the one in the air-conditioned building. ‘Is it alright if I keep this open?’ Instead of waiting for a response she immediately started to inspect the room and it’s other features. ‘Whoa, it’s so weird that I get the chance to live in the same building as my job? I mean, I don't have to travel everyday? Score!’

“Of course not, it would be inefficient to travel every day when we can just stay on site, granted, we are 2 of about 10 that live in the production facility.” Argus replied from outside the room waiting for the excited nurse to finish settling in her room, “After this I’ll show you too the labs and then we can get to work unless you have any business that needs attending to first.”

‘Right right, I think I’m pretty much done here..’ her gaze moved towards a neatly made bed in the room she could call her own now. ‘Wait a minute.’ She turned around to make her back face the bed, and fell backwards. The woman lay down and nodded. ‘Whew, the bed's fine too.’ She moved her arms around in circles and stood up in one go. ‘All my businesses have been attended, let’s continue.’ Calanthe ran her fingers through her hair to remove eventual knots, then slithered towards the door.

“Glad it’s too your liking Miss Brongus, as I stated we shall now visit the labs, unless of course that causes an issue for you?” Argus replied in his usual cool manner before slithering off, almost as though she didn’t really have a choice of what they did next. When he reached the labs the green Separa’Shan took out his lanyard and swiped it at the door holding it open expectantly.

‘Ah, right.’ The red Separa’Shan closed her bedroom’s door and followed the green one. It took her quite a few breaths to keep up with Argus, but as soon as his lanyard touched the door, she was there as well. She felt the lanyard that Kryss gave her stinging in her neck and she decided to remove it and held it in her hands. ‘Well, do I just have to swipe it against the door as well?’ she asked, looking at Argus’ hands. He had surprisingly manly hands. Calanthe shook her head. She had to focus on the labs, not her future colleague’s hands.

“That's correct, in order to access the various areas of the Horizon labs and manufacturing zones which are employees only you must swipe your card. Kryss actually keeps hers in her purse most of the time but we're looking at a way to incorporate them into the uniforms which are being designed currently.” Argus explained as they continued on to the labs, when they reached the first lab he motioned for Calanthe to proceed first, “Try out your card, better to make sure it works now rather than failing later.”

Calanthe nodded and firmly held the card in her hand as if it were something precious. She pressed it against the door and it didn't open. Then her fingers turned it around hoping the other side would trigger at least something. Again, no signal. She sighed and looked at Argus. ‘Am I doing it wrong or is my card just broken..?’

Argus gently took the card to have a look at it, holding it to the light the snake man’s eyes narrowed and his tongue flickered subconsciously as he inspected it. “Looks like the seal has been damaged, this will need replacing. For the time being stick with me and I’ll let you in, I usually go to the labs quie early anyway and I can open it from my desk when I’m in there for you.” He explained before placing the card back in her hand and continuing in after scanning his own card.

The snake woman felt a wave of relief after listening to Argus’ explanations, and hung the lanyard back on her neck. Her slitted eyes watched the door open, as soon as the light came through her pupils narrowed. ‘So, these are the labs, huh? I’ve seen a lot during my study, but man, these things are huge.’ As soon as she said huge she slithered away from the door to give Argus more space to move into the labs himself, smiling. ‘Please, do show me the way.’

“Well this is my desk here, and yours will be across from it over there, we just haven’t had the time to finish getting everything set up yet.” He said pointing to the two spots he had mentioned before and moved in to show her the beginnings of her workspace. Only a desk and a chair at this point with no equipment. “So that’s pretty much the tour you need, the rest of the base you’ll be able to learn easily and it’s all signposted so you can’t get lost… And you’re forbidden from taking that as a challenge.”

‘I’ll do my best not to get lost, or at least try to.’ she giggled. ‘I can’t promise you anything.’ She moved towards her workspace and detected it. ‘Hmm, I’m sure I could place some stuff here. I hope you don’t mind kind of unsettling porcelain figures.’ Calanthe leaned onto the desk and looked around. ‘So this was the tour? I remember you telling me that we would get to work right after? If that’s so,’ she rolled up her sleeves, and grinned ‘let’s get to work!’

“Glad to see you’re so eager, if you prove your worth then you can have those… figures you mentioned as well. For now the bosses want us working on developing some basic bio-tech examples until we have more staff and can afford to fund research into more practical projects.” Argus said cooly while taking a seat at his own desk and tapping something on his keyboard quickly, which then unlocked her own terminal.

‘Hmm, seems about right. Am I allowed to take that as a challenge?’ The snake woman noticed the screen of the pc lighting up and decided to sit on the chair that was placed underneath the new desk. She sat upright and saw her future colleague in front of her. Or is it her colleague already? Well, nonetheless, she spun around a little on the chair, and put her hands together. ‘What would you consider basic bio-tech examples.. Argus?’ Calanthe looked at her fidgeting hands. ‘Can I call you Argus?’

“Hmm, I suppose so, consider it a challenge then.” Argus said, smiling sideways at the new blood. “You may call me Argus, and as a basic example i’ve been working on for a while you can help me out with this little venture. I’ve been working on trying to produce a synthetic skin material to assist with medical procedures.”

‘Ohh, really? That sounds sweet!’ She said, before noticing something red, which caught her eye. Calanthe’s gaze went to packs of blood on a lab table, then to Argus. She stood up from her chair and slithered closer towards the plastic bags with blood. Her finger ran past them, while she was reading the labels. ‘Hmm.. Are we going to use these for the synthetic skin? If so, did you consider working with different blood types?’

Argus nodded once more, “In short yes, I’ve already developed some prototypes and the blood bags contain various types including some diseased samples to test their reaction to synthetic skin and muscle tissue.” The green snake man tapped away at his console a few more times, a small window popped up on Calanthe’s own screen with all the current data and theoretical tests Argus had done so far.

The snake woman raised her eyebrows and slithered back towards her desk, seeing all the data. ‘Mhm.. Pretty impressive! I really do think we can work with this.’ She said, looking up her device, smiling at Argus. Although her nerves couldn’t keep her still, Calanthe felt at ease. Being a slithering rampage isn’t easy, but she’ll fit in. Sometime. Probably.
 
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