( september intro log )

[hownkai]

Who: Everyone
When: September 1st and on
Where: The ship and on planet
What: Getting acclimated to ship life and exploring
Warnings: Please label any warnings you have on your threads

SHIP LIFE

"It is not the ship so much as skillful sailing that assures a prosperous voyage."

The Ingress has pulled you in. Your body experiences several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer from dizziness while others are perfectly fine. Once equilibrium has been reestablished, you will notice you are standing on a long platform and that the room is filled with a soft cerulean light. It's slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you, and various machines line the walls on either side, though they are not accessible from where you stand. Shortly after, you are led out and toward the medbay.

Inside this room, you are given a physical scan and sign a contract that states you are now part of the crew of the Moira with a specific job. This process consists of a complete work-up of medical history and current health, and afterwards, you are given your MID, a device that is integrated into your hand with only the slightest pinch. From there, you are guided out of the medbay and into the main hall with specific instructions not to leave.

☄MAIN HALL ( 09.01 to 09.03 )

After everyone is gathered together, you learn that these are your accommodations for the night. The captains explain that the Moira is not readily suited for such a large influx of people, and that this is only temporary. Placed around the room are a variety of blankets, sheets, and mats in lieu of beds, and crates of MREs have been provided along with H₂O hydration kits. Some time in the “morning hours”, all MIDs will receive a message designating rooming assignments and areas of the ship that are open to exploration.

GALLEY ● MESS HALL ● REC AREA

All remaining areas accessible to crew members are open later in the “evening hours”. Crew are also informed that the Moira is approximately two days from their current destination.

DESCENSION

"A force of nature unto itself."

From a distance, the planet’s reddish atmosphere slowly becomes more transparent the closer the Moira ventures, and mountain ranges, volcanic fields, valleys, ice caps, canyons, deserts, and impact craters are visible in stark detail. The remnants of a lone moon hangs in its outer orbit and impedes the ship’s ability to dock close to the planet’s surface. As the crew prepares to disembark, there are noticeable changes in gravity as well as some disturbances in energy output.

☄EXPLORATORY EXCURSION I ( 09.04 to 09.11 )

Due to unstable atmospheric conditions, crew members must utilize the transporters located in the Cargo Bay to descend to the surface. Each craft holds upwards of six passengers and is piloted remotely via Navigation. Once it lands, orders will be sent to MIDs detailing mission directives. These include: scouting surrounding areas for potential threats, determining if the mile-long road from the transporter to the nearest inhabited area is free of hazards, and assessing local friendliness.

Planetary Environment Details
● The air is breathable. However, there is a pleasant sweetness to it that generates an overall invigoration.
● Vegetation is sparse due to dry and windy weather patterns. It’s dusty, and the ground itself is rather gritty in texture.
● The initial temperature feels hot and causes the skin to prickle with sweat. Yet, the longer one is exposed to the elements, the less you are inclined to notice.
● There is an overall lack of civilization, and what populace there is remains centralized in one area. Crew members may stumble across the occasional explorer returning to their own ship; they are friendly and welcoming but also eager to leave.
● The sun does not seem to set. Even in the “later” hours of the day, it is still as bright as it had been at “noon”.

☄EXPLORATORY EXCURSION II ( 09.12 to 09.17 )

A thriving marketplace that was found during the initial search has been deemed an appropriate place for trade and much needed supplies. Crew members are encouraged to engage in local customs while continuing to maintain their current duties aboard the Moira, and they must assist in the delivery of goods to the transporter. They are more than welcome to explore this new area.

The Marketplace
● There is no monetary system in place; if there is an item you want, trade for it. (Locals will accept anything as payment.)
● Booths, shops, and tents line both sides of the pathways weaving throughout the area. Signs with written language are not recognizable; however, MIDs will translate any spoken languages so they are understood. Vendors are an eclectic mix of species, and not all of them are humanoid in form as they are from varying parts of the universe.
● The smells of foreign foods are everywhere. Yet, that familiar sweetness seems to occasionally overpower it. It is also loud as others bustle about their business.
● Natives are not unkind, but they are not as overly welcoming as strangers in the market are. They are quiet, reserved, and helpful to some extent. They are easily recognizable by the plain masks and hoods worn over their faces.
●Seedy areas are found in the depths of the market. Drug and sex trades are not uncommon but not openly displayed.

( OOC: For any and all questions, go here. Check THIS to see your tag. They have already been added to the comms, but you'll have to tag them onto a post before they show up in the list. )

Comments

1st Sep. - Main Hall

[keelahselai]

She still remembered the last planet she had been on. It was easy to zone out and remember the deadened landscape, the drowned city, all the little twisted details that made the fact that it was some version of Earth hit her so much harder. It still made her a little sick to the stomach. In her mind, that planet still waited as she numbly pressed her thumb to the bottom of the contract. Even stepping into the main hall, some part of it was yet to sink in. The dizziness from being brought there had faded quickly, but somehow she was still reeling, mind working furiously and never seeming to really get anywhere.

As soon as the group - small, not quite fifty people - was left to its own devices, Tali started to pace restlessly, as if the moving around was going to work off the nervous energy working itself up in her.

The uniform she was wearing wasn't helping. It wasn't her envirosuit - didn't feel like it, and part of her wringing her bare hands together was the uncomfortable cold. She'd spent years wishing she didn't have to wear the thing, and the one time it was taken off her? She wanted it back. Funny how these things work. (It wasn't really funny at all.)

Though she could have taken her mask off - and she was still getting used to that fact, that was still firmly attached. It felt in that moment like the one thing she had left of herself.

She took one deep breath. Another. Turned around--

And banged right into somebody.

"Ah-- sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going."

That much was obvious.

[keelahselai]

Considering she's used to crowds and cramped ships herself, it's sheer carelessness for her to go around walking into people. But she's not...quite thinking properly about what she's doing.

She nigh jumps back to something outside of his personal space - and to a distance where she can look up properly at him, since he's coming up on a foot taller than her.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." She waves him off with a gesture, then points at her mask, and there's a grin in her slightly-mechanised voice. "You didn't break this, so it's..."

That trailing off is about when she notices the animal behind him - and she must have been really zoned out to miss it, which frankly is just even more embarrassing. But more importantly -

"Is that a bahari?" Tali's mental nature encyclopedia is small, mixed up and full of aliens.

[keelahselai]

She's paying a little bit more attention to the animal after her initial reaction of 'I know the name of an animal that looks a bit like this, better namedrop it!' - and he's just finished speaking when--

"Oh!" That's the sound of Tali realising she's looking at a robotic platform - a really convincing one from afar, but still. "No, it's not - bahari look sort of like that, except they're..." She gestures vaguely, like that's going to explain a damn thing. She could describe the Normandy's engines down to serviceable impression of what they sound like, but animals? Vague gesturing it is.

"Well, they're organic, anyway," she settles for in the end. "I don't know anything about animals...in case you couldn't tell." She grins, self-effacing, and it's audible in her voice. "I'm better with engines, computers, that kind of thing."

Furry machines, also not something she's used to.

I'm sorry for the delay, my tag drive crashed ;_;

[keelahselai]

"Wärter?" She's not exactly pronouncing it properly, but it's...better than it could be?

His tone is not...quite dismissive, but he changes the subject and she's happy to go along with it, only glancing curiously at the...at Wärter every now and then. "Yeah, they told me they want me to be an engineer. Maybe there just aren't enough of them in this universe."

It's a question worth asking - surely it's easier to just...hire people the normal way than bring them through some kind of complicated, expensive tech method.

"What do they have you doing?"

[narcissistictendencies]

Tony hadn't torn himself away from the suit since he tumbled out of it in Medical. He was fussing over it, cataloguing the damage it had sustained, estimations of just how long the power would last if he shut down everything that FRIDAY didn't need to function. Distractions. They were all distractions. This was an incredible opportunity, yes. But he did not appreciate that he wasn't really given a choice. Tony Stark did not like being told what to do. He was only finally used to Rogers giving him orders, then to be told in not as many words that it was 'this, or else'. It grated against his nerves and that particularly rebellious part of his personality.

It was high time he drag himself away, if for no other reason than to eat something. Or mingle. Or... something. Just stop dwelling on the fact that something dreadful could happen to his team or his planet while he was lost in the equivalent of the Delta Quadrant. He was lost in thought and navigating people when he clobbered something, or something clobbered him, he wasn't sure. Reflexively, he caught her elbow to help her maintain her balance as he steadied himself at the same time.

"Whoa--What? No. Probably my fault. My mind was 30-thousand light years away. ...figuratively. ...Earth humour--Nevermind." As if just realising he was still holding her elbow after she'd already regained her balance, he quickly dropped his hand away, lowering it to his side. "Nice um..." Tony's eyes narrowed to a squint as if that might help him see through the opaque glass. "...helmet?" Smooth one, Stark. He made a suffering sound in the back of his throat. If he wasn't a bit of a nervous wreck right now, he would have been far more eloquent, but unfortunately he was still worrying about his team. "--Right. Tony Stark--name probably means nothing to you, but that's the short version, anyway." He offered his hand to her, then wondered if that gesture would even make sense. The helmet obscured her features so he had no clue if she was even remotely human, or some grasshopper-woman beneath it. "And I'm apparently going to work in engineering. It's fitting." He kept thinking that contract over, wondering if they knew before head or if it was just luck of the draw. "Their sense of style in clothing leaves something to be desired, however. I look almost like I fell out of a Gene Roddenberry series." Oh yeah, by the way, he babbles excessively.

[keelahselai]

Somebody who rambled when nervous as much - or even more - than she did? Actually kind of comforting in a weird way. And it reminded her forcibly that for all she was confused as hell, there were people here who knew less than she did.

She had to wonder, though, as she listened to him (not necessarily understanding everything, but certainly listening) with her head tilted slightly and a grin spreading on her face - was that what she sounded like? All he was likely to see, squinting at her, was the vague glow of her eyes behind the glass, narrowing back at him.

For the record, she'd gotten enough used to handshakes by now to know what the proffered hand meant. It was still a bit weird - sure, just grab somebody's hand and move it up and down - but she'd got the hang of it. She shook his hand, and he was bound to notice that grey-purple skin and two fingers if he hadn't before then.

"I think I understood part of that." The amusement was clear in her voice. "Maybe."

OK, from the top. "Tony Stark. I'm Tali'Zorah - and that probably doesn't mean anything to you either." (She had no idea what that comment meant.) "And I'm in engineering too." And he was definitely going to hear just a hint of excitement there - she'd spent her life working with engines and hadn't done anything with that experience in months.

...Slight pause, and then. "What's wrong with the clothes?" She looked down at her own. "They look kind of like Systems Alliance uniforms to me." A shrug, and she quirked her head a little, self-deprecating. "I was wearing the same environmental suit for most of my life before now, though. Maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about."

[narcissistictendencies]

To his credit, when she took his hand, he didn't seem particularly freaked out. He did flick his gaze down curiously then back up to her helmet. It was... odd being unable to see her features. The faint glow, however, he did notice curiously enough.

At the sound of her amusement, Tony eased, smirking something lopsided and amused in his own right. Her introduction did bring him to raise his eyebrows. "Tali'Zorah? That's. Wow. Exotic. It's nice. And it's a pleasure to meet a fellow engineer." Oh yeah, he could hear the excitement there in her voice.

"I guess nothing, really. Not 'wrong', just not what I'm used to. I'm used to wearing what I want, mostly. If this is the kinda stuff you're into, nothing wrong with that. I can't say an environmental suit sounds like it might be much fun, but necessity outweighs fashion." He said with an easy shrug. "So, where are you from, 'cause I gotta say I don't think I've met anyone like you before. That's not a bad thing, either."

[keelahselai]

"Just call me Tali," she said quickly. "Tali's not that exotic, is it?"

For somebody who was clearly only seeing any kind of alien for the first time, he was taking it well enough. She had grown up knowing about aliens, but when she saw one for the first time only a couple of years ago, she'd lost her dignity staring at least a little. Well - when she had time to stare after being chased half way across the galaxy by a group of them. Sometimes it seemed like her main talent was getting into trouble these days.

So he just didn't like being told what to wear. Duly noted. ...Actually, she was kind of grateful to have someone giving her clothes to wear, mostly because she had all the fashion sense of...well, a woman who'd never had to think about fashion in her life.

"I'm from space." She had a homeworld, but she'd never seen it - and at this point was never going to. "A flotilla of ships called the Migrant Fleet. We've been travelling for nearly three centuries - some of the ships are that old. I don't know if you've ever tried working on three-hundred-year-old engines, but they're...interesting." Read: temperamental, patched-up pieces of junk.

"This might be a weird question, but when are you from?"

[narcissistictendencies]

"Exotic's not a bad thing, but Tali it is."

When one of your best friends turns into a giant green gamma troll, another shoots lightning out of a hammer and flies, and you've fought creepy alien cyborgs that ride bio-tech whale ships, something like Tali wasn't all that strange. Different, yes, but that just made her even more interesting to him. His stance on 'normal' is a bit skewed anymore. It was a relative term, after all.

Tony just didn't like to be told he didn't have a choice in something. Rebelling against authority was an integral part of who he was. She's probably learn that soon enough if they continued interacting.

He smirked. "Well, maybe not three-hundred years old, but I've worked on some pretty antiquated engines before. I think I get what you mean. They're cranky, they like to break down, and they just beg for an entire overhaul. You have my sympathy." He looked even more intrigued. "So, you grew up on a nomadic fleet of ships, then? Kinda awesome."

The question did catch him as strange, but it really shouldn't have, he supposed. "The year on Earth is 2015. I don't know if you'd use another scale of measurement, or if you're familiar with Earth time. Is it different for you guys?"

[keelahselai]

She's just about used to being different. Actually, she's so used to being different these days that sometimes humans seem more normal than quarians. It's a weird sort of feeling where whenever a human finds something strange about her...she finds herself not really blaming them. So she can definitely live with people who like strange.

"Well..." She tries to remember the exact number. "I did my Pilgrimage on a human ship, and I know it was Earth year 2183 when I was there. And that was a while ago now."

She grins a little, glowing pinpoints of her eyes narrowing a little. "So you're old, but not as old as some of the fleet's ships." The grin fades from her voice a little as she goes on, more seriously. "Time doesn't seem to matter very much when you're travelling between universes."

[forwardmomentum]

Miles is doing an awful lot of being knocked into today. Sort of comes with the territory, when you're only a stunted 4'9 as a fully grown adult. Ha. Fully grown. The sort of lame joke his cousin would laugh at.

He stumbles back with a quiet grunt, but he catches himself and manages not to drop the MREs he's carrying, sighing. Ah, but he doesn't hold it against her, she's obviously apologetic, and Miles' brow quirks quizzically as he looks up at her and sees she's wearing what looks like a breath mask. Funny, he didn't think there was anything wrong with the air in here. It's not as though he isn't rather strange-looking himself -- his head looks like it belongs on a man of six feet, not a dwarfish little man with a crooked spine, and his face is prematurely lined to boot -- but she rather stands out.

"Don't worry, you're not the only one," Miles assures her with a slightly sardonic grin. His accent is warm and guttural. "Trust me, when you're my size, you get..." His eyes fall unintentionally on her hands -- certainly not like any human hands he's seen -- and he trails off in surprise. "...used to it."

[keelahselai]

She instinctively reaches forwards to help in case he does drop anything - it looked a little precarious for a second there - but when he doesn't, she relaxes again. At least, mostly relaxes. This isn't much of a relaxing situation.

Tali's used to being on the short side whenever she ventures out of the quarian fleet - humans are taller than quarians, as a rule, and she's only met a couple of women shorter than her at all. So stumbling into a human man - she supposes? His proportions are a bit different too - who has to be about half a foot shorter than her? Well, that's a novelty.

As much of a novelty as she is to the rest of the room. Including to him - she sees his gaze drop to her hands, and as his voice falters momentarily, she grins a little dryly.

"I can imagine - I'm normal for a quarian, but as soon as I leave?" She makes a gesture of shrinking with one hand, palm facing down. "And that's just me." Someone even shorter than her? Yeah.

"I'm Tali, by the way. I'd offer to shake your hand, but..." But his hands are a bit full right now.

[forwardmomentum]

A quarian? Miles has never heard of those, but back where he's from, non-human sentient life is a wistfully speculative fiction at best, given how many dozens of worlds humans have colonized. So his first thought on seeing Tali's hand is the opposite -- perhaps she's a mutant of some kind, or the product of some genetic engineering experiment. Both are far more likely possibilities where he's from. But it's hard to tell, with the mask and all.

"The sentiment is noted," Miles says grandly, giving her a wry grin, and, noting that the mat by his feet is unoccupied, he drops his armful of supplies on its surface, dusts off his hands, and extends an arm out. Normal -- that must be nice. "I'm Miles. I'm afraid I'm, uh, undersized by any standard, back home. What's a quarian, exactly? If you don't mind my asking."

[keelahselai]

She steps away from the mat just before he drops the bundle of MREs onto it and takes his hand when it's offered. It's cool in hers - humans, she thinks, must have lower body temperatures. They always seem a little bit cold. (Which explains they're all comfortable in what to her is pretty cold air as well.)

"It's fine - I don't mind." Back home, it would be insulting, but between the last place she was and here? She's used to it. "Actually, I like talking to people who don't think we're all thieves and vagrants before they even meet any of us.

"We're aliens. I mean, to you, we're aliens - we all live in a flotilla of starships, we all wear masks like this..." She trails off, tilts her head a little in thought. "I don't know how to describe us, really. We're just...quarians." She shrugs. "You know?"

[forwardmomentum]

Aliens. Miles' eyebrows go up and his jaw -- well, it doesn't drop, just opens slightly, his gaze flicking back down to her hand. To his credit, though, that's the only sign of his surprise. He gives her a firm handshake -- well, as much of one as he can -- and nods, looking with deep consideration at her.

"Not really," he confesses. "I mean -- you're the first alien I've ever met, and I've spent a lot of time on starships. We've terraformed and settled dozens of planets, back home, but we've never run into another sentient species. Not that I don't believe you," he adds quickly, wondering just what's behind that mask. He's not repelled or discomfited at all -- just intensely curious. Vagrants and thieves? A bad stereotype, the way she puts it. "Just not what I expected."

Given the kind of beings the more outlandish ventures into genetic engineering have produced, Miles has always imagined that aliens would look a little less...human.

[keelahselai]

She can't help smiling a little at the look on his face. She can read human faces a lot easier these days than she's ever been able to read a quarian's (it would help if she could even count on one hand the number of quarian faces she's seen), and though he doesn't react that much, it's enough.

"Humans had a lot of colonies before any other species even noticed they were there," she says with a quirk of the head. "The galaxy's a big place." And then she considers for a second. "Besides, maybe quarians just don't exist for you. Maybe whatever other species there are out there in your universe are just avoiding you. They've heard too many stories."

That last is said with a grin - she likes humans (hell, she's dating one). ...She just also likes teasing.

[protohistory]

Liara had been taking stock of those assembled, making mental notes as she slowly made her way through the main hall shortly after speaking with Joker, feeling ill-at-ease and still slightly disoriented after the trip through the Ingress. Thankfully, some of her belongings seemed to have made it along with her, and she's grateful for the omni-tool on her right arm, even if it seems to have lost some of its functionality. It's serviceable, for now, and works well enough that she can take real notes concerning her new surroundings--

Which is exactly what she's doing when she feels someone bump into her from behind, having taken several steps backwards without looking as she rearranged some of the data she'd already laid out for herself.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I--"

She turns to face the woman behind her, the voice familiar, though for half a moment she almost doesn't recognize her. She likely wouldn't have without the helmet; she's never seen Tali in anything but her envirosuit, but she's seen her mask more times than she can count.

"Tali!"

[keelahselai]

"Liara!" The last time Tali saw her was just after the first Normandy was destroyed - that was a long time ago now, and so much had happened in the meantime, that it hadn't occurred to her even for a second to expect to see Liara, of all people. There was a moment where she stood in shock, staring wide-eyed.

Then she reached out, clasping the other woman's arms with her bare hands and looking at her like she was making sure she wasn't seeing things, an incredulous smile starting on her face. "I can't believe it, it's been...years, I haven't talked to you in so long - how have you been, I heard you were on Illium?"

If she'd taken time to think properly for a few seconds, after talking to Joker, after the past few months, she'd have been a lot more cautious, maybe - but she'd forgotten how much she'd missed Liara until right that moment. The happiness at seeing an old friend was the most normal she'd felt since probably long before the Ingress dropped her here, and she embraced it.

[protohistory]

"Years?"

There's so much that doesn't add up-- the frame of time, Tali's bare hands, but all of it is overshadowed by the overwhelming sense of relief, the knowledge that she is not nearly as alone as she'd first thought. Joker, Tali-- there was no telling who else might appear beyond the two of them, and Liara is quick to lay a hand over Tali's own, offering a squeeze of reassurance, of friendly solidarity.

Still, years. It stood out-- it's been a matter of hours for her, and the Tali she had last seen in London had still been outfitted as distinctly as ever, envirosuit intact.

"I'm well, or better, now that I know I'm among friends-- though it's been over a year since I left my offices in Ilium. My work took me elsewhere, and then of course there's Shepard-- I never could say no when she needed help. Neither could you," she tacks on warily, her grip easy just slightly as she gives Tali a more critical once-over, curious. "I was on Earth when the Ingress drew me in-- you were there, too."

[keelahselai]

Part of her knew Liara was going to react like that. It was too much to hope that maybe they'd come from the same time, that they'd be on somewhat equal footing. But no. Right now, though, it's not something she can be disappointed about - just seeing Liara after so long is enough. They can work through the rest somehow or other. (She's even oddly giddy about Liara's hand on hers, the texture of her skin odd and...well, alien.)

The question in her friend's voice is clear, though - but part of her just isn't sure how to explain.

"Ah, the last time I was in our universe, I was on a planet called Haestrom - out in geth space." Her voice gets drier. "It's supposed to be classified, but it doesn't matter much now. I was probably going to find Shepard again when I was done, but..." But several months of unwilling-but-contracted planet destruction intervened. "It's a long story."

[protohistory]

"Haestrom?"

She echoes Tali for confirmation, but there's recognition in her voice-- she may not have been present on Haestrom, her work had kept her from being able to join Shepard or assist her by doing anything more than passing along information for quite some time, but she's been filled in on a great deal of what she'd missed during that period, gone through crew records and even heard some of the stories from the others firsthand.

She frowns, her brow creasing slightly before she nods her understanding. Whatever it meant, they were both of the same mind-- they could sort it out later. For now, Liara was simply glad to have found another friend onboard. They were all going to need each other, if she was to trust the feeling in her gut.

"I understand long stories. I won't make you recount it all now-- I'm just glad you're here. Although-- if you don't mind my asking, what's happened to your envirosuit? Aren't you at risk by not wearing it?" It occurs to her then that she probably shouldn't even be touching her, and she quickly releases Tali's hand as a fleeting look of panic passes over her face for a fraction of a second, quickly replaced by careful composure.

[keelahselai]

She nods, and there's a moment where the recognition in Liara's voice surprises her a little. Haestrom's in the middle of geth space - few have heard of it unless they specifically want to know about former quarian colonies. Then she catches up to herself - if Liara came in from the future, from well after what Tali remembers, there are any number of ways it might have come up.

"No, I'm fine!" She waves a hand in a flapping sort of motion as Liara lets go of her hand, clearly worried. "It's part of the long story, I guess." She grins, eyes crinkling behind the mask. It's a brand new thing, and something she's still a little giddy about. "I don't need the suit. I don't even need the mask, not really."

But there's something a little comforting about having her mask on in this kind of totally unknown situation.

"You were on Earth?" That's definitely not a place she's ever been. It was much the same on the Neheda before as well - everybody knew more about Tali's life than Tali did.