RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 3] Sunny Day on Prilisa Four

Cyril slid the slide back onto his .45, drawing it back to be sure that it was true. He dry fired it at a spot of blank wall a few times, making sure that the sear still caught. He had put the .45 together wrong a few times in basic, and was still in the habit of checking to make sure that he didn't do it again.

He set the pistol aside on the cloth as Kaz approached with a question about their more eccentric then usual second in command. At the moment, the blue haired freespacer was pogo sticking through... Cyril let that metaphor trail off before he could become too distracted by the mental image of Dream pogo sticking. Though getting her to try it might be fun. They could make millions selling videos of it to the jarheads.

Anyway, Dream had been swapping rapidly though the emotional spectrum the last little while. Now, there were a million and one things that might cause that, half stemming from the chunk of radioisotope stuck in her chest. But it did remind him strongly of something he had seen a lot of back home.

"Well, I'm no freespacer, but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that she has a first class case of spaceritis. Eh, no offense ma'am." He said with a judicious nod to Dream. 'Spaceritis' wasn't what you'd call a proper medical term. There was probably some long, polysyllabic term for it named after one egghead or another, but it was common knowledge to anyone who was part of a primarily space borne, and born, subculture. There were likely a million and one names for it, but it all boiled down to the same thing:

"When you get right down to it, it's fear of going dirtside. See, the difference between a downsider such as your self and a spacer such as me or Dream falls down to basically this: you're used to being in enclosed spaces and being outdoors. We're only used to enclosed spaces. Downsiders can get used to living on a station. It's not that different from being on a planet, just don't get out as much." He kindly didn't mention the fact that most of them tended to go stir-crazy after a while. At least most of them could handle a good few months on a station. Half his living relatives had never made it farther onto Nepleslia then Hampton Down, the surface works of the ship yard. Half of those had never made it farther then the shuttle.

"Let me tell you Kaz, the first time you step off a shuttle and see that great big sky open above you, it is creepy as hell. First time I went down, I was seven. I spent the first two hours clutching to anything anchored into the ground for fear that I'd fall off."

(I got tired of my inability to keep Cyril's accent straight, so I added a link to a sound clip of it to his profile on the Wiki. I'm going to stop trying to transcribe the accent and just stick with his sentence structure.)

"I was six." She gave Cyril a sidewise glance, a smile edging at the corners of her mouth. Definitely, she didn't look like a Spacer. Probably didn't move so gracefully in low- or zero-gravity. Maybe there was a certain smell, or a glint to her eyes, that gave away the fact that a lot of her life had been spent on planets.

Her voice had lowered to almost a whisper now, and she was leaning closer to Cyril, so that they could have some privacy where privacy was impossible. She spoke low enough that anyone wanting to eavesdrop on her would've had to stand uncomfortably, and obviously, close.

"I was being sold to my first family, and once I stepped off the shuttle and looked up, I threw my guts up. It made me so sick, being off the ships, that I had to be taken back into orbit for a day or so until they figured they could try again." She rubbed the base of her neck unconsciously. "Don't remember what they did, but they calmed me down enough to execute the sale."

All along the hallway, security team members that were recently reclining against the walls immediately hurried away, either sparked by the now recognizable heavy footsteps, or by the ball of hair bobbing to and fro on top of a metal man's head. The Automata had been passed from technician team to technician team throughout the Cirrus station, acting as a heavy lifter so that these tiny little men and women could go on about with their business, growing and foolishly cutting their long beautiful hair.

And now, with nothing to lift, he decided to rejoin the security team he was to originally be with. "You."

A passing caretaker, not more than 18 years old, was stopped by the large automata, backed uncomfortably into the wall by this wall of metal. "I am Keid. And I need to know where this person is." The Automata pointed to an -incredibly- crude drawing of Dream. It looked like a scarecrow with blue hair, green skin and a rainbow poncho. On the same sheet of paper were drawings of Keid's own face, with different hairstyles on it. Apparently the automata desired a change of hairstyle soon. "You will tell me where this person is right this minute. Do you enjoy pain? Do you enjoy the horrible feeling of every tiny piece of hair being torn from your tiny little head?" The automata was poking the caretaker's head, which felt like a metal hammer upon the poor boy's head.

====

With a whimper, the poor caretaker pointed down the hallway. He had just gotten a letter from his mother urging him to "Find the courage to talk", and this Automata wasn't helping anything.

====

"Thank you, tiny one." And with that, Keid took a handful of hair from the caretaker's head and ripped it off, leaving a scared, crying caretaker in his wake.

"I-I-I-I'm not a-a-afraid of going d-d-dirtside." Lied Dream, quite pathetically, while hammering her fist on her chest in some sort of gesture of courage, hitting the metallic bit that was between her squishy bits.

"I-it's just that... well, I've never been... you know... on a... planet. Never before." She thought about it for a while. "Well... actually... I've been dirtside a couple of times, but it doesn't count because they were past lives. So... never in this life."

She sighed deeply. For some reason or another, her voice seemed broken, almost on the verge of tears. "But... I want to see it. The wide, colored sky. The drifting clouds. The mountains, the seas, the forests. The wonderful gifts of Terra that we had to forsake, long ago, in order to become what we are now."

Kess did not look amused at all as she quietly witnessed the events playing out in the security quarters. "Well, you better shake off whatever is bugging you, Captain; you and Lucius will be responsible if anyone botches this. And you all won't botch this," Kess spoke sternly, her tone not leaving much room for deviation. After a pause, Kess glanced over to the doorway. "They're here. Introduce yourselves quickly, and then gear up."

---

Mimi bounced cheerfully along until her group finally rounded the last corner of their journey, ending at a large open bulkhead door with a small name bar on the wall next to it simply reading: "Cirrus Station Security Personal Quarters."

Calling this room a 'quarters' seemed like a very generous account; the room itself was little more than a sardine-can of a bunk room, with rows upon rows of five-tiered bunk beds. Near the back of the room sat the male and female restrooms and shower facilities, and on the far wall stood two vending machines which had, apparently, been subject to many acts of vandalism. There was a small group of individuals near the front of the room; no doubt the new arrival's new peers, as aside from these individuals the room was devoid of people.

Mimi turned to the rest of the group and held out her arms wide. "Welcome to your home away from home! Please introduce yourselves to your new co-workers, and we can help you get suited up and ready for our next exciting excitement!"

Dream ignored beautifully Kess' stern, cold words, turning, instead, to Mimi and the incoming personnel with a clap of the hands and a smile on her face.

"Hello everyone!" She cheered. "Welcome to security team... security squad... security number... well, whatever the heck this is supposed to be!"
She winked her non-cybernetic eye to then in a somewhat childish gesture. "I'm Druidess Dream Zero Zero 00-0018-2475. Just call me Dream!!"

Cyril winced and mentally kicked himself for stepping on that particular land mine. He wouldn't have guessed that she was ship born from the amount of exercise and general moving about she was doing. But a former slave? He would have never guessed that. Keziah was one of the most level headed people he had ever met.

"Aw, hell, Kaz... I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm sorry." He said, just as quietly as she had spoken. If she wanted to keep it a secret, it wasn't his place to draw attention to it.

As he finished speaking, the gaggle of new recruits filed in. He spared them a glance, not coming away with any more information then the fact that there was another woman, a guy and what he guessed was either another one of Popjoy's experiments got loose of a Kohanian. He gave them a casual 'hello' wave of his tail before directing his attention back to Keziah.

Since the three were far behind the tour group, Fitz nodded with intent to follow the long haired man. While hoping he wouldn't be missing anything important it was sort of impossible to catch up without knowing the layout of the station. He placed his left hand in his pocket and waited for him to lead the way.

When they first got to the door, Deacon gave thought to standing back upright, but with a mischievous grin he remained on all fours. When the door was opened, and the rest of the people began filing in, he would follow them, tossing his head back and forth like some feral beast as he weaved his way between the bunks, to an open one on the second level, about half way to the restrooms. Looking back over his shoulder, he would flex his shoulders, and return to bipedal walking, tossing his bags on the bunk before turning to look at Cyril, then Kaz, and finally Dream.

Before any of the staff could speak directly to him, knowing the question would come, he answered the first two questions for them.

"Deacon, and yes, This One is a Kohanian."

Then he jumped up onto his bed, and began getting the gear he would need for this planetside mission he had been briefed on in the shuttle.

Provided, of course, that Dream was going to let him unpack and sort his stuff in peace.

Which SO wasn't going to happen.

"Never heard anything about Kohanians!" Dream smiled, inspecting him close-up. She was incredibly interested. "You're not Nepleslian, right?" she asked, poking softly his fur as if to check if it were real. "Where are you from? How's it like? Do all of your people look like you? "

Dusty watched the exchange between Dream and Deacon and gave a soft chuckle."Hello everyone, M'names Dusty." he said, giving a small nod to the people asembled in the room. He quickly looked down the rows of bunks and asked, "which of these bunks are open, and where can I stow M'bag?"

Keziah didn't seem to notice the new crew arriving, even as they spoke. Her eyes flickered down to the deck for a moment, before snapping back up to Cyril. There was a steel in her eyes now.

Inwardly, she wished she hadn't let it slip. There were generally two reactions to finding out about her life; Cyril's--a general kind of pity, and an instant discomfort with bringing it up--and Mako's--the expectation that she would do anything for anyone above her.

But it was inevitable she'd forget he didn't know. Or he would've asked about her tattoos, and she would've told him then. Either way, it was only a matter of time.

"Don't be." Her eyes softened for a moment, before her will reasserted itself. "It wasn't the best way to grow up, but it wasn't horrible."

Slowly looking up from his bag, the Kohanian's cybernetic eyes could be heard clicking softly as he took in, and sized up, Dream as she approached.

As her questions were loosed on him, he would pretend at first not to hear her. When the touch came, his ears slowly folded backwards and his black furred lips slowly rose to show off his predatory fangs.

"Please....Do not touch." He would growl softly.

Even if she didn't back off, he would continue, and answer her questions as he stuffed things like jerky, two stubby cigars, a hip flask, into the pockets of his pull over and pants.

"This One is not a Nepleslian, no. This One is Kohanian from the planet of Neo Kohana. The planet is very lush with many trees and prey." He grinned softly at the thought of his home, and then began to think of what Mimi said about 'suiting up'. "What are we to put on, if we already have uniforms?" He would ask Dream with a quizzical cant of his head.

"Oh, and Kohanians don't all look like This One."

With a nod, counting off the questions in his head, he would decide that was all of them and go back to stuffing things in his pockets, looking around at the others warily.

"I..." Cyril began to protest, and then stopped himself. He didn't know the first thing about slavery, beyond the fact that it was one of the few things that struck him as inherently wrong. Maybe Keziah had been fortuate enough to have been bought by someone who cared for their slaves and he couldn't believe he just thought that. But still, he didn't know enough about her to be able to say... well, anything really.

"I... guess you'd know better then I." He said, shaking his head. "Still, I can't imagine not having a say in my life. It'd be..." Cyril stopped again and mentally shook himself. Keziah obviously didn't want to discuss the matter. Until she did, Cyril decided to drop the matter.

"So, how's your head?" He asked, abruptly changing heading.

Tweak frowned as Kess abruptly left her without answering. It was important to find out how long this mission was going to last! Well, she could probably catch the Savtech later, before departure, so the disguised neko went back to the barracks.

The newbies had arrived by the time Tweak returned. Tugging her cap again and making sure her ears were covered, Tweak peeked around the doorway to see who was there, not quite ready to introduce herself yet. Definitely not ready to do what Dream was doing, poking the--...

What was THAT?

Tweak's eyes went wide and she withdrew her head from the doorway, flattening herself against the wall outside. She reviewed the brief memory of what she had seen and listened as her Tactical Operating System analyzed it.

Species: Unknown
Possible matches: Hyena Nepleslian ID-SOL Geshrin
Composition: Common carbon-based lifeform
Tactical analysis: [data feed]

It wasn't familiar...but at the same time...

Is it a hybrid? wondered Tweak. She poked her head around the doorframe again, watching Dream rapid-fire questions at the strange creature.

((OOC Note: For the new people that may not know, no character on Cirrus -- except Kess, Keid, and Dream -- knows that Tweak is a neko. As long as Tweak keeps her ears and other distinctive features covered, she passes as a Nepleslian. Please assume she is doing so unless otherwise posted and ask if you have questions about this.))

"I still get headaches, but it's getting better." She gently rapped the side of her head with her knuckles, grinning faintly. "I've been hit worse."

What she meant was how she lost her legs, but her memory of the impact was foggy, at best. What came to mind was something else--Mako's sick smile--and she shuddered. Those three years were... better left forgotten, and she shoved the memory away. Physically, she slid back on the bunk, bringing her legs up with her, knees to her chest. Then she frowned, snapping back to reality, and locked her gaze on Cyril again.

But the steel in her eyes had slid away. There was a wounded look, deep inside there. "I was lucky, for the most part. I was lucky when I was little, and then when I grew up all those years of bad luck caught up to me."

"It can't be so bad Kaz. You've gone from where you were to being a member of the best military in the known galaxy that doesn't need you to be a sex-crazed fascist." He said, clasping Keziah reassuringly on the shoulder. Cyril didn't like seeing his friends depressed, and though he had only known her for less then a week Cyril counted Keziah in that number. Cyril may not be able to fix whatever put that wounded look in her eyes, but he could at least try and cheer her up in the here and now.

"And anyway, whatever happened is behind you now, right? You're at the bottom now, so things can only go up from here. After all, you can only have so much bad luck before it starts running good again. Even Finagle gets bored."

She giggled. Honestly, like a schoolgirl, clasping his hand with hers as she let the mirth seep into her mind. Her eyes closed and she giggled for a while, gripping his hand until, finally, it passed and she let him go, a smile still on her face.

"Thanks," she said, "I needed that. And you're right, it'll be better."

She unfurled from the bunk, and stretched for a moment before rising to her feet, suddenly becoming aware of their new additions. It was ridiculous, but there was an arrogance in her mind, at being here before them. Of being more experienced. Older, somehow. It was a stupid notion, but one she enjoyed, because it was new. So instead of doing what Dream was doing to... that... man-dog-beast thing, she took a different route and said nothing at all as she went over to the tubes and called up her armor.

Mimi motioned daintily towards some of the unoccupied bunks. "You can set your things around there, most of those beds aren't taken."

Kess moved forward and interrupted, however, snapping her fingers audibly to garner the rooms attention. "You all can keep getting acquainted while you suit up. For you new arrivals whom haven't received the introduction, you are required to wear the Cirrus Station Security Suit while on duty here. You can access your suit from the Pneumatic Delivery System outlet over there on the wall," Kess pointed over to a large, clear tube near the corner. Inside the tube was a hollow capsule, and an accompanying keypad on the wall nearest to the system. "Each suit has already been fitted to you specifications...they should fit easily. You just put on the bodysuit, and snap the armor plates onto the dots."

"You will also be using the CSS Variable Weapon as your enforcement measure...although we haven't had much of a chance to use them lately. The station defenses usually keep out most unsavory parties; you all mainly carry them around for looks. Don't point them at anybody," Kess finished, flicking a hand at her raven bangs to gather them out of her face. "Hurry up and get suited; if you have any questions, you better ask them soon. We'll be getting our orders any minute now."

Lorcan gave her a charming grin and led then both into the Barracks soon after everybody else got there. Fortunately he got them there in time for both Fitz and Himiko to hear Kess's speech on the security suits and weapons. "Well theres plenty of spare bunks back where I am and I sincerely wouldn't mind company..." Lorcan said and then stalked off, pausing to look over his shoulder and see if either of them were following. Of course he really didn't expect them to just up and follow him around like pets, but as he'd said he wouldn't mind.

And speaking of pets, the sight of the Dog like Kohanian he grinned. Now with some new faces, and one of them very pretty indeed he decided things might get a little better. Giving not one care to the world, he circled around behind his bunk and then pulled his shirt and coat off over his head and took a seat to pull his boots off and stow them beneath his bunk. He leaned over to slide his shoes under his bed, and to retrieve a contraband piece of gum, and found the canister missing. With a slight frown he sighed and then got up.

He walked over to the little delivery system and retrieved his Armor and weapon and stalked back over to his bunk. He slid out of his pants and then into the suit, getting it snug before he started attaching the overlapping metal plates. Then he got a bright idea, a stupid one, but a bright one none-the-less. Not caring if he looked really funny he slid his boots back on and laced them up tight, automatically giving himself a backup if the experimental Variable gun was to completely fail. He tucked his MP3 in one of his boots and left it there for later and then turned to find the person he was looking for bothering the Kohanian.

"Dream..." He said to distract her as he walked over. "Harassing the new guys won't help you one bit." And he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. "Besides I want to know if you'll help me out with something after we get back from this assignment." and then before Dream could say much else he grinned at the Kohanian. "You get a special suit of armor like mine to wear. I'll show you how to get it if you'd like?"