LSDF Val'ta, Virtual Space
The woman standing before Knight's avatar raised her hand. "Ah, yes. I was notified. Porrim says you assisted her in a rescue. She's quite grateful for the assistance." The ARIA's raised hand clenched, and her arm could be seen becoming wireframe for a split second - intricate appearance faltering and reminding Knight that he was in an artificial space. Her hand opened, and in it was a key. She passed it to him. "The other Nepleslian seems less cooperative, but perhaps he needs to settle in."
Why the symbolism and display? Well, because the ARIA could, and perhaps it'd gotten some dramatic flair from being around the strong personalities on the helm. That, or perhaps she was playing to what she knew of Knight's sensibilities. Whatever the case, she seemed to be playing to him. "Be civil when you make your call," Val'ta ARIA raised a caution, "we did have some loggerheads before about a Marine on our ship in the past." She rolled her eyes at the ceiling, sighing. "Should be water under a bridge now though."
Of course, the call might take a while, so she shrugged her shoulders and asked Knight a question. "Tea? Cookies? Byte to eat?" Her harsher tone before suddenly turned casual as she ran a hand through the back of her white hair. The ARIA personified walked over to the kitchen and opened the fridge, shut it, and looked into a pantry. Peering into it from where Knight was standing, there seemed to be a larger interior to the pantry which went on for much longer than it appeared, just like the rest of the house.
LSDF Val'ta, Deck 3, Lounge
With the LSDF Val'ta out of the Gas Giant and back into space, a short intercom call was made. "We have gathered about two hundred tonnes of assorted gasses." Jil'ha commented over the radio, drumming her nails against the console before continuing. "We're sorting through it all and we're going to be putting it to use in all the right locations around ship to see what we can get out of it. If nothing else, materials stored are there when we need them."
With the dry stuff out of the way, she moved onto more interesting topics. "We also have our first camera feed and recordings of the inside of a gas giant from an occupied spaceship." Jil'ha said matter-of-factly, uninterested in the topic, but one of the other bridge people insisted on sharing it. "We're probably going to donate it to a museum, to science, or a power metal band's green screen. We're now going to resume regular flight towards the uncharted system South-East of Miyamae."
Porrim nodded back towards Mirage, flashing a smile her way. "Anyway, dry stuff," she clapped her hands together in front of Aran'ya, "so tell me what you're working on. I heard you were a biologist of some sort." The captain leaned forward on the counter and engaged with her crew. Her crew explored different frontiers to Porrim and she could respect that, since they found wonder in them too. Or other things.
Ursula meanwhile was willing to serve more guests, looking around and waiting for more people to serve. "Everyone's drinks topped up?" She asked J'ann, looking around the room as she nodded at the hardlight display doing its thing. It seemed to be topping people's drinks up and delivering them.
LSDF Val'ta, Deck 7, Brig
"Ah-kay, Akemi." Emi said, face slinking away with a whine as she slunk out of view. "We'll be sure to let you know, and stuff."
"Ya, ya. We shall find out, both of us." Maya chipped in, trying to cheer Akemi up because they didn't know exactly what Porrim had in for them, or in fact
"We'll be here." Vee replied, taking a couple of steps away from the glass from Akemi.
"So," Vee transmitted to her sisters, glancing between them impishly without saying a word while Akemi watched her, "who wants to play Ogres and Oubliettes?"
The replies she got back "Again?" "Naww." "Vee, we don't wanna." "We already finished all the adventure books." "We minny maxied it and blew up suns by accident."
"I got all the new adventure paths from the Data Strip." Vee replied to them all. "We have access to recreational stuff, just nothing which needs an ongoing online connection, and if I recall correctly, O&O adventure paths are one download and that's it."
Suddenly, to something unknown to Akemi, all of the Neko in the cell, save for Vee, appeared to deflate emotionally and uncoil, laying down on their backs and stomachs, sprawled throughout their rather roomy cell, all heaving a sigh of defeat.
LSDF Val'ta, Deck 6, Launch Deck
Around Ny'za, she could see other soldiers having a go at the same courses she was. Some of them were proving to have their egos be bigger than their abilities. One guy tried running up the wall thinking he could game the simulation, but gravity kept him down. A Lmanel who was trying to negotiate the bars overstepped the middle one and had to roll under the tallest one.
Ahead of her, there seemed to a three-rope woven bridge of some sort, stretched ten feet over something which was supposed to be water, but behaved more like jelly. Ny'za watched a Fyunnen slip from the ropes into it. The landing was soft, but the slog to the other side and up the stairs in two feet of digital jelly with a consistency that made the Fyunnen's wings shiver. Beyond the rope bridge was a series of moving platforms, hanging there in mid-air, raising and lowering themselves.
Below was more of the landing gel, and it appeared that more people had fallen to this one, and standing back to watch would see people misjudging the momentum the platforms had when they stopped suddenly rather than easing and giving a clean break of momentum. Watching for a moment, Ny'za reckoned that you had to anticipate the sudden jerk, and leap from that to reach the other platform.
