RP: LSDF Val'ta [In-Flight Social] - When you got Religion

[Luca]

'ello kiddies, 'ello kiddies
Whatcha gonna do when you got religion
'ello kiddies, 'ello kiddies
Hope you didn't get it on the television
Cheap Trick - ELO Kiddies

LSDF Val'ta, Nowhere in Particular...
A few hours after the maiden expedition of the LSDF Val'ta, Porrim had retreated to their quarters, properly liquored up by Ursula and desiring a little bit of personal space in her quarters. The members of expedition crew who'd received minor injuries were examined and patched up, and given a firm slap on the back to get on with it or an imperative to rest up.

Naturally, getting on with it could mean a whole lot of things, and they had plenty of time to themselves if they weren't wrapped up in other duties. The bar on Deck 3 had a handful of off-duty personnel on it, nursing drinks, watching things in the Data Strip's projections, or chatting away. In addition, the four survivors from the apartment block in Misato City were lounging together, watching the view and glad to be out of a place where it was freezing cold and they didn't always know where their next meal came from.

Meanwhile, the science rooms had been examining some of the things the crew had brought aboard, including the animals over on the Starboard science room in Deck 2. Otherwise, they seemed to be quite content walking around the deck, and being the first animals to take advantage of the nature conservation area tucked away in a volumetric compression on 3rd deck. The Port-side science room was examining the objects and media they'd recovered, and the sound of Aoi Tanaka pop music could be heard if you were walking past the galley.

Down on the Flight Deck in Deck 6, Michael Furze, the Val'ta's co-designer was testing the Data Strip's capabilities with Captain Bel'meir nearby and an interpreter. The Fyunnen captain did not speak a word of Yamatai-Go or trade, so one of the deckhands who minded the power armours and mecha were providing interpretation. Geometric, polygonal shapes which could remain solid were projected into an empty area of the deck, with fresh personnel interacting with them. Pushing at them, climbing on them, vaulting over them, standing on them to see if they could support the weight of one or multiple people.

Before Michael knew it, he'd erected a veritable obstacle course using hardlight projections, fit for training in. Bel'meir seemed satisfied that a training environment could be simulated here on the flight deck, but knew she had to touch base with Porrim and some of the other senior staff for what to design, turning around and heading back up towards Deck 3.

In the lower decks, the refinery was doing a test run of smelting itself some metal, with a stock of ore that the Val'ta had come packed with in order to test these facilities. Waste was pushed out into space, but the engineers tending to this foundry and production area were simply marvelling at what could be made here. A Q-Modem to the Matriarchy allowed them to grab schematics and plans, then fabricate whatever they needed, as it was released.

All in all, it was business as usual on the Val'ta as it continued flying through space.

 

[Ashlinn]

Ashlinn - Flight Deck

The debriefing was swift, merciless and left the Nekovalkyrja's face halfway between mortified at their performance, glad things hadn't been bad enough to get them all kicked out and hovering somewhere between lost and confused as to what to do about it, when dismissed she found herself staring at the data strip in deep thought. After a minute she'd stretch out again and, arms behind her head start off towards the armory whilst whistling the imperial march. It seemed appropriate for the moment with all the hustle suddenly renewed about the place.

Armoury

Stepping into the Armory she wasted little time down checking her equipment and weaponry. Once out of the suit she'd pause and reach up to run a hand over the front of the suit and pulled back a hand smeared in melted snow and grim from having settled down in rubble before her flight through a building and landing ass first onto the carpark roof. A quick glance at her suits rear-end made her wince, "Well...shit." Good thing they weren't being graded on their appearance on the return as she worked a small chunk of pulverized rock from between one of the plates. Within minutes the half-naked Neko was crawling over her suit, covered in dirt and sludge as she adjusted equipment positioning. Eventually the tech crew approached her, wrenches in tow and politely suggested she let them do their job while she went and got her down time.

 

[The Real Bames Jond]

Flight Deck Obstacle Course

Kromi'Temyrci, or just "Rush" as some called him, hadn't been expected to be called away for anything on his off day. He was one of those people who had a job not directly related to the everyday operations of the ship and the away team was an already sorted and organized group. He basically had three kinds of days. There were the days when he was playing janitor and assigned to help clean up the kitchen or halls or wherever. There were days when he was a bench-warmer who was ordered to suit up and stand by in the armory in case the ground team needed any help in an emergency - and so far he hadn't been deployed once in that capacity. And there were the days that belonged solely to him and he was allowed to do whatever he wanted with them.

So when one of his fellow few Fyunnen men aboard came rushing into the barracks declaring that the XO needed every fresh and able body on the flight deck, while it sounded like the lead-in to a cheap porno it still left Kromi in a bit of a sour mood as he'd thrown on his uniform to report for whatever was going on. But his mood had lifted when he'd been come out to watch some of the ship's medical team who he recognized pushing along a projected block for strength exercises and others swinging along what looked like monkey-bars. It had turned a sour scowl into an excited smile and from the doorway to the projections the survival expert and scout set a record for the fastest strip down to an undershirt outside of the bedroom.

He ran obstacles alone. He ran them with small teams. Vaulting, crawling, climbing, and more. It was a thrill and a change of pace from his usual routine.

After four or five circuits through a gradually changing course he found himself on the side-lines at the firm insistence of an on-site medic, sipping at water, and watching others run through.

While he waited he took stock of who else might be present. Not to see if he recognized somebody, because on a ship the size of the Val'ta after a while every face was familiar somehow, but just to take a stock of who was around and participating in the course.

 

[Syaoran]

LSDF Val’ta Deck 2 Starboard Science

Ny’za had been rather busy since she had gotten back, after all she had four new animals on board that all needed proper vaccination as well as documentation of their conditions. As well as a new plant that needed to be documented. She could’ve asked others for help but introducing the animals to lots of people so quickly might cause stress so she kept it to herself, and endured.

She had finally finished her work with the animals and the vine, but now there was one more thing left to do so she accessed the intercoms and spoke up, in trade, careful about her word choice. “The Automata...Knight? Can you bring your pet to the second deck starboard science room for vaccination?”

 

[Moogle]

J'ann, as per the norm, was in the bar - er, "Morale Improvement Lounge". This time, working as bartender. Thankfully, since his drinkmaking skills were lacking, he could rely on the machines for the technical aspect of the job. But today, he was experimenting with the hardlight and hologram projections in the room, sending drinks via ringed planetoids and piece-by-piece assembling a glowing rube goldberg machine (Or was it a perpetual motion machine?) above the counter.

 

[ShotJon]

Knights room

After landing, Knight was a bit busy. He had to get the sheep tucked in somewhere, before they would be moved to proper spot. Than he found the proper spot to get settled in. The captains of the ship let him borrow a small room. It probably used to be small cargo room or maybe even a broom closet. Knight did not need that much room though. He just needed his pod settled in and a power outlet. The room had room for both.

Sometimed during the time, he was called up on the intercome. Curious about being called automata, since that was a freespacer word, not a lorath one. Maybe the person calling was more used to being around Freespacer. Knight considered himself simply a robot. Very special, but still just a robot. Being done in his room, Knight set off to bring his mutt to the doctor so to speak.

Walking in to science room, dressed only in his pants, cowboy boots and flannel shirt, Knight removed his hat and nodded to Ny'za.

"Howdy ma'am," the robot said in his usual drawl. "You wanted to see my mutt?"

The hairy canine walked by the robots side and as the robot pointed down, it sat on his hunches and wiggled its tail, looking at the lorath.

 

[Syaoran]

LSDF Val’ta Deck 2 Starboard Science

Ny'za smiled and knelt down briefly to pat the dog on the head before standing back up to look at Knight. "Thank you for coming so promptly. I wanted to ask you about what vaccinations your bet had. We wouldn't want him getting sick form coming into contact with the other animals." As she spoke she grabbed a clipboard to take notes.

Rhiq came out from under the desk and made his way over to the dog, sizing him up. The winged long body cat didn't measure up in size but it still had an air about it as if it was the one that owned the place.

 

[Amaryllis]

Deck 3 Lounge

Being perpetually magnanimous Akemi decided he'd pay the NMX Neko a visit before meeting the other survivors since he hadn't seen them yet. He still wanted to see them too, especially since he had to find out how one of them would take having been stunned in the groin. Hopefully they'd be good for a laugh.

"Hey guys, how's it going in there?" he asked, standing a short distance from the wall with a winning smile on his face. "The name's Akemi. Is there anything I can get you? Drinks? Food? Freedom? I got a proposition for you. I run a little exotic fast food chain that's kind of a big a deal. I figure since you're NMX you must all be shrewd, staunch devotees of capitalism who aren't afraid of getting down and dirty during an honest day's work. If you worked for me you could make a lot of money using nothing more than your innate talents as you'd have the option to put yourselves on the menu and I'm seeing a lot of talent packed in this room." The Neko naturally gave them all a quick obligatory look up and down. "I figure I could ask to take you off the hands of whoever's in charge. If you're really eager maybe if we asked the captain to marry us we could use conjugal visits to conduct try outs."

 

[paladinrpg]

LSDF Val'ta, Deck Three, Observation Bar

Aran'ya happened to be relaxing in the lounge as J'Ann was working on his machinations, amazingly free of the Nekovalkyrja shadow named Akemi (as he had apparently moved on to test the waters with the more novel new arrivals for the moment). The L'manel didn't mind one bit though, as she was apparently killing some time toying with a blob of Pico-Jelly in her hands... perhaps as a form of therapy, entertainment, or inspiration. One never really needed an excuse to find a creative use for the wonder substance, as it was nearly ubiquitous across the ship's numerous dispensers.

Widow then noticed the mix drink she had ordered when she stepped in resting on top of a floating ringed disc that was hurtling on an apparent crash course towards her comfy spot by the window. It sure wasn't Ursula's style to be spicing things up in here with the hard-light planetarium! She nevertheless reached out instinctively to try to grab the glass, though realized a little too late that her pale hands were still somewhat caught up together in the Pico-Jelly's polymer form mesh. The drink and the planetoid it dwelled upon hit the "web" between the two arms, distending it forward a ways before it halted in place and snapped backwards a ways, before coming to rest like a captured insect and finally drooped to the tabletop with a slosh.

The arachnid-aspected woman watched the process go on first with annoyance and frustration, before it gave way to a stare, realization of what just happened setting in. A web of Pico-Jelly... with adhesive qualities enhanced by Mishhu toxins she heard about them using... it would be the PERFECT first experiment to try out!

"...that's it, that's it," murmured Aran'ya to noone in particular as she was struck with that eureka moment, before casting a green-tinted eye towards the wayward little dancer that was the maestro for this little lightshow and giving a sly smile. "J'Ann, you're a damn genius. You know that?" Was that the first actual compliment he got from the sarcastic scientist?

She kept smiling a moment longer too, so pleased with this wonderful new idea that she conveniently chose to ignore the subpar quality of the beverages he was serving today in place of the other morale officer.

 

[ShotJon]

LSDF Val’ta Deck 2 Starboard Science

Knight stroke his chin for a while, faking a thought process.

"Let me see...." The robot chimmed acting as if he was trying to remember, even though he was robot and automatically knew the answer, before Ny'za could finish her enquiry. "I reckon he never got no vaccination. I just got some stuff from chemists, making sure he get no worms and other nasty crawlies. Othewise he and his immune system had to tough it out. Not much to be done down there on the mudball."

The dog, which was a bit dirty and messy, since bathing him was near impossible down there, unless Knight would toss him into a river, approached the Rhiq, looking at it curiously. He then let out a playful bark and sat down again.

 

[Syaoran]

LSDF Val’ta Deck 2 Starboard Science

Ny'za jotted a few things down and then nodded to Knight before speaking in her careful Trade. "Well he seems fairly healthy right now... so I'll just give him a quick check up and all the vaccinations... if that is okay with you." In truth she was interested in the whole anatomy of the dog, how it had adapted to the environment, what sorts of bacteria did it carry, and the list went on and on. However such test would take time and it was inappropriate to take so much of his time, she she would consign herself to doing the test in the later days part by part.

The well groomed burgundy and brown winged creature jumped a little in response to the sudden barking from the dog. Realizing that it was no threat however it barked back, almost perfectly matching the tone of the dog.

As this happened, Ny'za moved to the medical cooler and pulled out the vaccinations she had prepared in advance and the necessary syringes. "Can you make sure he does not bite?"

 

[Luca]

LSDF Val'ta, Deck 6, Flight Deck/Training Simulation Area
Michael was watching people play on the course he'd built, and after he'd finished figuring out how to explain to people how to create, manipulate, and destroy things in it, he let a couple of officers begin dictating how the courses should be. Soldiers were also sparring with each other, using dummy equipment that was keyed to the Data Strip to simulate all the appropriate responses.

As a tradeoff though, there was a little more visual feedback than on a normal battlefield, as the hardlight had to simulate impacts in training. Cartoon-like bullet impacts and tracers were easily visible. Thankfully, strikes with training knives were still blunt and the 'bullets' didn't kill, but they certainly stung hard enough to let someone know they'd been tagged. The elevator to the upper decks opened and Porrim walked out, looking at the course.

She traded a few words with Michael in Trade about what the course was for. Michael was all too happy to let the exercising soldiers speak for themselves and offered if she'd like to learn how to manipulate things. She said yes, and asked for a couple of volunteers to build with and be subject to her whim - with Kromi being amongst those pointed out.

Meanwhile, Michael was explaining sectors, linedefs, and showing her the admittedly sparse texture library - most of them were solid colours of neon intended to convey very simple things. Climbable, go-able, cover-able, hazardous terrain, frictionless, doors. She could build herself a house out of hardlight if she wanted. For the moment she was just moving simple-looking trees into place, and laying some logs and bracken around.

As she was doing this, Kromi, and a few of the other soldiers noticed that the hangar was beginning to close up, with the heavy-duty hardlight projectors creating a semi-transparent, sealed window into space rather than the usual oxygen bubble and soft-barrier everyone was used to. The maintenance and vehicle crews didn't bat an eyelid though, so things must've been running smoothly.


LSDF Val'ta, Deck 3, Observation Bar
The view outside of space going by on the Val'ta was scintillating gently as the stars made lines. Light was failing to keep up and the ship was smashing into any of it which was unfortunate enough to be in its path. Things were going smoothly, and the view was quite pleasant as the drinks were going around. A couple of off-duty engineers were watching it, yabbering over glasses of water.

A short jingle played over the ship's intercoms for those in the observation bar. "Attention crew." One of the bridge crew, though Er'red would recognise them as Jil'ha spoke over the communications channel. "The Val'ta's just going to be skimming through the gas giant Tange VI for some resources on the way to our next destination."

The Yamataians and Nepleslians in the bar seemed perplexed by the idea, wondering if the ship was suddenly on a crash course. "Please do not be alarmed by the imagery in any portholes, the ship's status, or any turbulence you may experience. It has been built to withstand such conditions. Its kind of like gas mining, with more impalement." Jil'ha wondered where she was going with this, leaving a couple of seconds pause over the comms. "That is all." She said, hanging up.

 

[Ashlinn]

Ashlinn - Deck 3 - Crew Quarters - Wintergatan - Marble Machine

After being chased out of the armory Ash made her way back upto Deck 3 where the crew quarters were for a nice shower to clean off the grime and dirt she'd covered herself in as she'd done more ad-hoc re-configurations of her gear. It didn't take her long as she showered and settled onto her bunk with her small handheld and the extracted sounds from the astrological data she'd copied. Since this wasn't the first time she'd done this she was setting the machine to auto-extract everything and shuffle the sound files around with the one's she had already picked up. The process went pretty smoothly as she found herself taking the time to snag her boots and tug them on. Hearing the announcement about the trip through the gas giant she paused and sent a quick message to Elm and Mirage, to see if they were up for watching it in the lounge, she'd never seen this before herself. Curiosity and cats.

 

[Koenig808]

Ran Rui - The Beer Garden

A long, hot shower was sweet ambrosia to the Nepleslian - who had been stuck in a toilet for who knows how long.

He had managed to cram his belongings in some corner of the ship somewhere - and dressed himself rather unceremoniously in a green tank top and a pair of boxers, for the rest of his clothing had to be used for purposes that he would find himself unwilling to recall. What with living in a bathroom without shelter. Or toilet paper. Luckily enough he was able to get a rifle and some ammunition out of his efforts, which he wore on his person with an extreme amount of satisfaction.

In any case the former Marine navigated his way to the bar on the ship, leaving several extremely perplexed and/or disgruntled crew members in the wake of his efforts at looking for a place where he "could get his raging alcoholism on."

Entering the bar, Ran didn't even bother scanning the room for any faces he might know. Not only because he was new to this ship and still unfamiliar with everyone, but because he just spent the better part of his recent lifespan locked as a prisoner in a toilet room.

Making a beeline to the bar counter, Ran sat at one of the chairs and noted his brief co-prisoner was manning the watering hole.

Making sure he got J'ann's attention by nearly crash landing in the chair, he said "Your strongest liquor...you still have your pants on, right?"

For no reason, Ran subconsciously adjusted himself in his boxers.

 

[Eistheid]

LSDF Val'ta, Deck 7, Hard-Light Jungle

Having delayed in the process of disembarking, showering, and returning her equipment to the armoury Mirage had found her path to the elevator, and in turn the other decks barred by a literal maze of objects and obstacles that she supposed was in line with the Captain's new training regiment. This discovery led to the nearly nude Fyunnen woman setting off on a journey through a maze of trials not at the behest of her superiors, but to fulfil a much simpler quest: To get to her quarters.

To this end Mirage brushed shoulders with many a startled Yamataian, appreciative Nepleslian, and a few apathetic Lorath, after all seeing a woman dressed so, or perhaps more accurately not dressed was nothing special. Having been slow to get started, and in no particular hurry, Mirage passed Porrim with a brief acknowledgement before starting on her way up to Deck 3.

LSDF Val'ta, Deck 3, Quarters -> Lounge

On her way up to their quarters, Mirage received the message from Ashlinn and after a brief moment of contemplation, acknowledged and confirmed that she'd arrive in the lounge just as soon as she was back in uniform. With her response to the Neko sent, Mirage wandered down the somewhat more familiar corridor toward her room, where she retrieved a fresh uniform and set about making herself presentable in a more broadly accepted manner. Soon she'd be occupying the Lounge area, possibly with inebriated foreigners, it was best not to leave much to assumption when it came to their customs and behaviours. After all while she could expect a soldier to behave them self fairly reliably, she had no illusion that the man or woman beneath the uniform would be as disciplined.

To this end the towering Fyunnen woman would arrive to the lounge in crisp LSDF greys.

 

[Moogle]

"Finally, somebody recognizes it!" J'ann called back to Aran'ya. It was unclear whether he was serious or simply joking back. He quickly spun a planetoid and tossed it to Mirage, resembling a gas giant in swirling patterns, to Mirage. The floating sphere was emblazoned with a picture of a glass and a question mark. It'd stop just short of hitting her - these things were apparently programmed.

But, to Ran, J'ann simply pressed a button and out slid a glass of a rich, dark liquor in a hardlight glass (It apparently made the dishwork very, very light) .

"Of course I have my pants on. Having them off is a completely different service," J'ann coolly replied, staring directly at Ran.

 

[Luca]

LSDF Val'ta, Deck 7, Brigs
Akemi wasn't immediately graced by a reply from the cell - and it sounded like the cats were up to something in it away from prying eyes. Peering through the porthole, Akemi could see the three of them laying in a pile of each other, clothed as they were watching some light entertainment projected on the Data Strip. Eventually, three faces peered through the barred door to consider Akemi's proposition, ears flicking around as they traded quizzical ideas digitally.

"Um, we don't needs money." One of them said, recognised as Maya. "We has each other."
"What's a capitalism?" Another, her name was Webber piped up.
"Taste good, like congee?" Emi asked. Clearly they'd been eating a steady supply of rice congee in their diet.

Oh no! They were acting more like those pesky anachro-communists, Freespacers! They couldn't be bribed with money when they could take what they wanted with computational brute force - or in these Neko's case, they could take what they wanted with their strong bodies. Or, Akemi wasn't making the right offers. Four years isolated and a brutish life amongst the NMX prior to being stranded warped their priorities. A little more inquiry was needed perhaps?

 

[Ashlinn]

Ashlinn - Deck 3 - Corridors

Ash finished getting dressed, flinging the occasional good natured insult back towards any nearby infantry who decided the 'pretty kitty' could spend her time with them instead. She stepped out into the corridor in time to smash face first into hard light obstacle as it slid up from the strip as someone vaulted past her and over it. Confusion mingled with surprise as she peered around it and watched as people sprinted about, under, over, through, around hard light constructs. She reached up and slowly turned her hat backwards with a grin and sprinted up over the construct that'd attacked her, kicked off it and using the airtime to judge the next series of movements in relation to the corridors leading to the lounge she plotted. Perhaps she wouldn't be spending as much time locked up in the gym like she had thought? Landing and curling into a roll she bounced back up intime to shriek in surprise as a hard light bar caught her mid back, "Oh this is so gonna suck..."

Deck 3 - Lounge

Arriving in the lounge saw Ash turning her cap back around and rubbing her lowerback with a wince as she looked about for, and found Mirage. What drew her attention away was Ran sitting in his boxers. Curiosity lead her to wave towards Mirage, "Hey Mirage!" As she wandered towards Ran and J'ann, "Hey J'ann? Wasn't it? What's good on the menu? I wanna try something." Of course her question was in halting, stilted and not quite Porrim-butchering-trade-accented. Ran got a grin, "Sooo.... already lose your clothes in a game of cards?"

 

[Koenig808]

"Of course I have my pants on. Having them off is a completely different service,"

Ran had no real frame of reference for this one. The only time he was able to catch J'ann with his pants down was his sudden intrusion into what was becoming a very comfortable bathroom cell - comfortable in the same way a good rock feels comfortable as a pillow after not sleeping for nearly a week on end in basic training.

In short, J'ann's insinuation - perhaps even overt quip - flew over his head.

"...I don't....so do you infiltrate enemy bathrooms in your underwear?"

Ran let that question hang in the horrible silence, and instead asked. "So uh. Do you serve food here, too? I've been freezing my balls off in that bathroom for the past few weeks. I could go for some spicy food to warm my balls up a bit."

"Sooo.... already lose your clothes in a game of cards?"

Ran turned in his seat to face the pretty voice, his burning and borderline debilitating desire to get some strange almost blinding him to the fact he was speaking to a Yamataian.

He had to be classy and subtle for this one. These Yamataians need a little more greasing up before wrestling around on a bar counter...gotta lay it on smooth if I wanna slay this cat. He thought to himself.

Ran slicked back his hair, flashed those steely blue eyes at the Yamataian, and said the most smoothest and romantic thing he could think of.

"Maybe I did?" Ran's creativity ended there. He made sure to hold the liquor in a prominent manner, as if to ready the excuse for what he was about to say next. "Why? You wanna lose yours in a game of fucking?"

He resisted giving her the double guns with that completely insincere smile he shot her way.

"With me?" He clarified, and disastrously shot her one half of a double guns, as he was unwilling to give up his drink he held.

 

[ShotJon]

LSDF Val’ta Deck 2 Starboard Science

"Yeah that is mighty okay with me ma'am," Knigt replied and nodded to Ny'za. He did a eletronic whistle and the dog looked up at him. Knight patted the table and the dog jumped on it, waggling its bushy tail happily. Knight carefully grabbed it by the collar.

"I'll hold him down for you," the robot said. "Say, is there a place I could give him a good washing? Living in the country made him all spotty. He could use a bath."