RP: The Wayward The Ups and Downs (Ep. 3)

Doctor Creed silently surveyed the participants from just near the edge of the pool, perhaps seeing fit to allow the air of mystery about him, at least for the moment. His hands lay at rest atop of his cane neatly over each other, the right hand only occasionally coming up to push the rim of his circular rimmed shades up along the bridge of his nose. His suit, while well tailored, was nowhere near waterproof. He pondered to himself the possibility of stripping down and climbing into the spring with the rest of them, but something in him seemed to enjoy the vague sense of mystery he offered by standing there. He was singular in that regard, an unknown variable in the proceedings that chose to remain an outsider for the time being; he couldn't help wonder if he hadn't listened to one to many noire stories during his graduate studies.

"While I am not uncomfortable undressing, I would prefer not leave my suit unattended." he offered eventually as the rest of the crew settled into the springs. "It would be difficult to replace, I rather hope you don't take offense."

He made a concerted effort to keep his voice even, if not soothing considering the location they had come too. This was a good time to make friends, play along if he had too... but the suit was a secondary concern, he wasn't quite comfortable letting the machine pistol tucked away hidden in an interior pocket in his jacket leave his ease of access yet.

At least not before he had a sense of where he stood with this crew.

Alpine Park - Hot Springs

As all the other crew members began to hop into the hot spring, Darling inwardly sighed. Unwilling to experience the pain of being left out of something, she takes two steps forward, then looks down into the water. It was...shallow. The water would just reach her robot's knees, she deduced. Not great for swimming about, if she would even consider it.

The robot shrugs its shoulders, and takes a step forward, sinking into the hot spring. For a hot spring, it wasn't very hot. Then again, the robot's sensors are dulled so throughly she can't tell a difference between a gun and a plank of wood solely though touch. The mechanism lowers itself slightly and draws its arms and hands downwards, cupping some water into the palms. Yep; Water. What was she going to get out of that? She watches the water drain from her hands, then takes a look around herself and rises to full height again. As she figured, her robot stuck out like a sore thumb, a giant in a large puddle of water. Maybe if she sat down, she wouldn't draw as much attention and would appear more...Natural? Hah, that's a joke.

Her feet work to scooch itself a bit back, to the edge of the hot spring where she entered. Then, Darling works her robot to lower itself, bottom against the floor of the pool. The water ripples heavily as the weight of the robot bears down upon it, while its knees rise to support it. She still stuck out, but not as much, belittled and covering half of her body by the shallow water. Her knees, upper ankles, chest and head are still visible. Now 'properly' sat down (casually in warm water instead of against a rock), she takes a gander of her surroundings once more, peering at each crew member for just a few moments, perhaps noticeably, studying them. Then, she returns to her own ordeal: How to entertain herself.

Well, she has her robot's hands and a bunch of water. This is workable. She begins to splash around quietly (loudly), waving her arms in the water and splashing herself without a care in the world.

Alpine Park, Hot Spring

Tanja had taken her time getting into the spring, unzipping the hoodie that she wore to reveal a simple black bikini. It was nothing special but the simplicity suited her and the contrast to her pale skin made her figure stand out.

She gave a nod to Embel and smiled softly “I can send your pay to them.” She then gazed about at everyone, taking notes on those who were new, she still hadn’t gotten a feel for them all. She knew Adiel from an interview and she had mostly figured him out and was pleased that he managed to get into the springs at all. Ash was doing well too it seemed, finally relaxing a bit. The two that were the biggest mysteries to her were Darling and Dr.Creed today was the first time she really met them.

It was cases like this where she wondered how other species managed without the pheromone empathy that the Abwehrans had. However that same empathy was telling her that the robot, Darling was in fact female. She would have to talk to ‘her’ about that indeed.

The captain cleared her throat and spoke up now that everyone was situated. “Everyone, I want to talk to you about what our next job is.” After giving everyone a moment to pay attention she continued. “We have a slightly bigger contract this time around. We need to visit an abandoned Abwehran station. It’s a small research platform, but there was a battle there a while back and they lost control of it. Our job will be replacing anything that needs replacing and clearing out anyone there. We can salvage the wreckage from the battle for any parts we need that aren’t supplied. But they want the place almost fully operational when we hand it over.”

Ana was sitting by herself, and not at all upset over it. In fact, because most went to the main spring, she was much more able to be at ease around the new ones as well as those she had gotten to know. When Tanja had mentioned a new job for them, she perked her head up. Especially since it was a job that she felt she'd be able to shine. But with a robot and a few others that seemed to have more experience in other things, she did worry that maybe she wouldn't be able to do much. Because of this worry, she didn't say anything. She just listened and waited, wishing she could work on her tool caddy...but it would have to wait until she wasn't near all this water. Unlike the robot, her build was not waterproof.

After a moment or two, the tiny mechanic simply laid back in the water, letting herself float on the water as she kept an ear out, just in case someone actually addressed her. She wasn't used to being so...idle...so it was hard for her to not get out of the water and take her stuff to sit under a tree. Perhaps she would soon, for she didn't want to stay in the hot water for too long.

Ash simply sat in the hot spring with her eyes closed, listening to the others talk and meander around. While she heard herself mentioned by Adiel, she paid it no heed it. One of her eyes eased open to look at the robot when it stepped into the hot spring. And then it started to splash and play with the water.

"I hope that is completely waterproofed," she thought at first. And then as she watched it play in the water she found the whole thing childish; the large robot stooping down to splash in the water was somehow extremely endearing.

Tanja spoke up again and Ash gave the Abwehran her full attention. At the mention of their next job, Ash perked up, suddenly interested in the salvaging of an entire research station.

"Is the station terrestrial or orbital?" she asked. It had been some time since she had done some work in space; she was looking forward to a change if that was the case.

Quinn said nothing to Adiel's words, more focused on the enormous wing sitting right next to him. He reached out and started where the wing meet Adiel's back, working his fingers along the bone and muscle structure along the leading edge of the Elysian's wing. He noted the disruption in the feathers where the bullet had gone through and softened his fingers, inspecting the wound purely by feel, tenderly testing for damage to the muscle or bone structure.

After a long moment he moved on, working his fingers down the rest of the wing to the very tip and then he started back down his wing a second time, taking his time, skipping the healing wound, and finishing off at the man's shoulder. "Well... I'm confident it's not broken." Or at least not badly He mused finally, "Stop by the medbay when we get back to the ship and I'll get a better look at it there." He let the other have his wing back.

Quinn remained where he was for a moment, twisting around to watch the uptight business-suited man refuse to join them on the only point that they didn't want their business suit to walk off on them. He gave his head a shake, not sure who was going to be more trouble, Mister Aloof and Untouchable or Mister Pride and Vanity. Either way when the bullets started flying he was betting neither of them were going to hesitate to end up in his care. Speaking of care, he flashed Tanja a teasing smile "Try not to get your spine shattered again yeah Capt'?"

Nan watched the robot slowly make its way into the water with amusement. The adorable nail in the adorable coffin was when the robot began making tiny splashes to amuse itself. Nan was beside himself with the cute feels.

Tanja, now undressed, looked so pretty Nan blushed a little and avoided looking at her too long. It's not that he necessarily had any romantic feelings but more that he felt a strong close bond with her. As she spoke about their next job Nan knew it was going to be a lot of fun. Fixing things and making a difference was exactly what he wanted to do in this world.

He nodded in agreement to Ash's question. "Yeah, she has a good question. It makes a pretty big difference depending on the pre-existing setup. Also, wow, there are a lot of new faces," Nan looked around with a big smile and a wave for everyone, "what kind of skills does everyone bring with them? I'm sure everybody brings their share and it will be great!"

Hot Spring

Little did Quinn know that he'd just felt up a sociopathic criminal with a lot of blood on his hands. Truthfully, he'd only gotten shot because of Ash. If she hadn't stolen his wallet in the first place, the day would've turned out so much differently. Suffice to say, it wasn't his custom to get injured.

Adiel closed his eyes and pushed down his mild annoyance with the doctor's incessant... touching. He appreciated the help, but he felt that it could have been accomplished in a more timely, efficient manner.

'Not so fast! You must buy me dinner, first.' the bird-man thought dryly with a smirk. Soon enough, he nodded to Quinn's request before adding:

'Ah, setting up a second date already, are we?'

Nonetheless, Adiel got the gist of Tanja's speech before shutting her and all other discussions out. A simple salvage job. Good peasant work, which he would under normal circumstances avoid like the plague.

However, now was not the time to dwell on such negative musings. Winners always stayed positive. If what he'd heard was correct, there would be a high chance to acquire military equipment. That would fetch quite a good price to the right people- be they gangsters, pirates, or that odd cat race, the "Hidden-Sun-Something-or-Other".

Whoever could station themselves on a space faring station quite obviously had substantial resources. A good opportunity to gain contacts and allies, in his opinion. That would be more tricky, however, considering he'd have to convince them to leave. It would probably end in bloodshed, but as Adiel absent-mindedly felt the pistol in his bag, he came to the conclusion that he rather didn't give a damn about ending them.

Hot Springs

Hugar looked towards Embel when she commented, and nodded a bit towards her with a smile. "It is good to see you again, I'm sure nobody here blames you for the disappearance especially due to the fact it was your family." He slowly stuck his pale body into the water and took a deep breath closing his eyes for a moment to enjoy the water, it was a sensation that he rarely got to explore... The sensation of a relaxing bath, in open air, at just the right medicinal temperature to allow his muscles to relax.

He had stayed with his eyes closed until he heard the unzipping of Tanja's jacket, which caused his eyes to open and look towards their captain. He admired her for a moment before deciding to look at the water so he wouldnt stare at the beautiful captain. However, when she began to speak he looked back up at her, this time to her face where he listened to what their next job was. "... Well; A salvage job sounds like what we need after the last job, something a bit more relaxing, but still paying well." He chuckled a bit, he was used to combat scenarios, so to him fighting against humanoids was way better than fighting against the animals they did before.

"Fully operational huh... Analiese could probably come in handy there." It wasn't until he heard Quinn's declaration of the damage done to Tanja that he faltered again, and wound up going quiet. Not precisely what he liked to hear, knowing Quinn meant it as a joke he didn't make a big deal out of it.

Doctor Creed kept his place at the edge of the pool, steering distractedly at the robot as it made it's waves. Freespacers are weird, be thought to himself before finally speaking.

"If the station is derelict then we can expect squatters as a best case scenario, worst case we find aggressive contractors who want to fight for their claim." He said as he leveled his attention on the captain now with a gesture toward darling. "I'll admit I like our chances better if our friend here is a combat model, I don't know robots very well."

He guessed a longer lived species shouldn't have surprised him that much, but Abwherans looked very human from far away. And the fact that she was so old - he had interns that looked younger than her. But the job she was taking on sounded complicated... and not just technically. Firefights don't take place on ethically sound research stations, and he was already running from his own violations of ethics.

Still... it was the sort of remote job he needed; far away from nepleslian space and away from cities. If there was any actual need for his expertise on the station he could even prove himself an asset, though he doubted there would be much call for a neurologist there.

"Do we have any idea what this platform was researching, ideas of who might have attacked it and why? It could mean the difference between preparing to encounter salvagers, animals or eco-terrorists."

Hot Spring

Darling only stopped playing in the water when the Captain began to speak about the mission; She did not turn her head towards her initially, sitting idly in the water with her robot's arms dangling limply to her sides. Similarly, when acknowledge by Doctor Creed, she did not turn her head to him, but still spoke, "Combat is a non-issue through my build. You will be safe with me in the frontline."

The automaton stands, a large amount of water displaced once more, ripples going out from her presence through the hot spring. Now that a discussion is ongoing, she supposed playtime was over. She turns her body to the captain. "We're going to need much more details, Captain. I need to know what exactly I'm throwing myself into. Speaking of the frontline, I rather not blindly approach it.

"That is to say, if there will be any possible hostilities at all, of course. If not, it really doesn't matter to me", she adds as she waves her arms somewhat, ridding her robot of the water stuck in the tiny crevices of her armor. She hasn't thought about how she was going to dry herself...

Alpine Park, Hot Spring

Tanja smiled at the questions she was getting, seeing the crew thinking before they had even gotten started made her happy. "The station is orbital, however the records for what exactly it was researching are gone other than it was general science, so likely no big secret experiments or anything like that." She leaned back against the edge of the water and stretched out some looking skyward. "Considering we're being hired for the task, the likely hood of hostiles is high, however the station has been cut off from supply for some time and wasn't very big in the first place. We're not likely to meet something large like a full pirate gang. Maybe the crew of a small ship or two if anything. As long as we make smart decisions my spine, and everyone else' should be safe."

Doctor Creed didn't like assumptions very much, he knew how to use a gun of course, he was a red blooded human just like every other nepleslian... but he had never shot anyone before. It gave him pause, but not for very long... he already had lives on his conscience, at least these might actually get the chance to shoot back.

"Do we know if life support and artificial gravity are still functioning or will we be doing this operation in suits?"

It was the only valid question he could think to ask, save for questioning the term "general science"; there's always a goal, or a specialization, or a product being designed. The only exceptions were academic, and even if something awful were happening there, there had have been security.

What happened there?

Well.. He didn't figure he'd have a chance to get his hands on a data jockey to look it up, so he would have to settle for investigating when he got there. He couldn't afford to turn an ideal job over because of some ethical ambiguity, not when he was running out of credits and time on this planet.

Ash sat in the hot spring and listened as the crew asked their questions about the job. It sounded like a simple salvage and repair job, but Ash realized she was excited; more excited than she had been for a long time. Tumbling around in a space suit and salvaging gadgets and useful scrap was what she lived for.

She eyed the man in the suit with the cane; he did not seem to be an average street doctor. He was well dressed, almost too well dressed for most occasions, like Adiel was when she met him.

"Maybe they both shop at the same overly-expensive boutique," she mused to herself.

Despite the ongoing conversations around her, Ash found herself falling alseep. Considering the last time she felt this relaxed, maybe it was a good thing. Then again, nodding off is not the best course of action in front of your new boss. She shook her head to stay attentive to the discussion at hand.

Nan stood up as if to gather as much attention as he could and spoke up, "Yes, yes it is all super exciting and uber fascinating but I again ask, what kind of skills are we dealing with from all of you new friends? It would really help to achieve the best teams when we hit the station."

Although it was a direct and blunt question that could be considered rude, coming from the young bubbly smiling Yamataian it just sounded enthusiastic.

Ash directed her attention to the Nepleslian.

"I like to think that I have a knack for salvage. You would be surprised by the value of certain electrical or mechanical components. Also, if we are going to have to perform an EVA, then don't worry. I'm at home in space; I'll be the first to volunteer," she said with a grin.

"I am, first and foremost, a businessman. As I have already demonstrated to Ms. Dunst, I have quite the talent for negotiation and persuasion," the Elysian chimed in after Ash with a bored expression. "I was once a part of the Elysian Navy as well. I am no stranger to violence, and can defend myself quite adequately. I myself favor marksman rifles, truth be told."

Adiel looked away dreamily, thinking back to the GP-1A he'd recently purchased. A good old-fashioned rifle; a tool that could solve almost any problem, like an old rival with a habit of snitching, for instance.

"I have a variety of combat skills as well as a deep understanding of certain engineering fields...Especially robotics", Darling comments, as she makes her way out of the hot spring, water dripping off as she steps out. Yep, that was a mistake. She walks around, looking any spare towels that may be around...

"It seems like I'm not the only one with a knack for robotics either."

Tanja turned her attention to Doctor Creed as he asked the questions. She heard what was going on with the other's as well, taking note of what everyone said, but these questions Creed asked were rather important. "We will be heading out in EVA suits. There's no way to tell if the life support and gravity are on other than linking up with the computer on base, and if it's malfunctioning it might give the wrong response, so it's better safe than sorry."

She looked over at everyone else and gave a soft nod. "It looks like we're getting a rather diverse crew." She then looked at Darling specifically "Don't worry though, no one gets to mess with you parts."

Doctor Creed seemed satisfied with Tanja's response, pushing his sunglass up the bridge of his nose before looking over at the yamataian. It was always someone from yamatai that asked questions like this, he thought to himself. At least he wasn't a cat.

"I'm a nueroscientist specialized in pharmaceutical treatments." He started, looking around the hit spring and at the prior gathered around. He thought to leave it at that, but figured that might invite Nan to keep prodding.

"In layman's terms that means I know how the brain and nervous system work, and I make drugs to make it with either better or just correctly. Probably simpler to call me a really educated drug dealer, since neuroscience means I study a bunch of different little things to eff begin understanding my field a general rule. If things get hairy I have a bullpup carbine, good for short to medium range engagements; less valuable at long range."

He took another moment to look around at the rest of the crew... not expecting his academic pedigree to impress anyone, he added "Other than that I do heavy lifting and cleaning with the best of them, and I can cook professionally."