Character Cruise

-Museum-

Whitney looked at the jewels in their cases. Being a tomboy, she didn't care much for jewelry, much less wore any. To her, it be a cold day in an infamously hot place where truely evil people go when they die before she got her ears pierced. Suddenly, the intercom came to life, signaling the start of the drill. Whitney took a look at her card, which read "42".

"Well, looks like it's my turn to go!" Whitney said. Turning to Suliver, she also said, "See ya later!", as she took off to where the drill was gonna take place.

[[Floor B2]]

Alice walks in, she'd retired to her cabin and put her clothing, her whole wardrobe thanks to her suitcase removing most of the air, in the closet. She'd turned on the television to find an utter multitude of channels that drew her in. In any case, it was time she got back to doing something more than simply seeing what this world could offer.

[Railing]

"You mentioned a Theocracy. That implies a religion." Anne said. "I admit, that makes me curious."

She eyed the water for a bit, noting at least one riffle of foam that didn't appear to match the others, but not seeing a source for it. "So. What about that?"

[Bar]

"Later." A pause, and then Samuel added almost as an afterthought, "Ma'am."

"Hardly that."

Yeah, definitely that. Finally, the guy had given Ulrich something he could work with. Ulrich had a good feeling Jacob wasn't just being curious. He was trying to find out what Ulrich knew about interplanetary and interdimensional portals, which meant he was feeling uneasy. Which meant he was afraid.

The truth was actually the best answer here.

"Depends," said Ulrich. "If you're looking, it's mostly about just knowing the right people," he said with a small grin. "But both times for me were mostly luck. The powers that be don't like that kind of information getting out, as you probably know." He paused for a moment, hardening his gaze somewhat.

"Especially with the Tetra-War still going on, and I've seen enough of that."

edited 22nd Sep '12 7:11:46 AM by BrainSewage

[Railing]

The Ambassador turned his head from the railing to fix Anne with one eye. "'Theocracy' is not quite as good a translation as it could be. But it's close enough. I - and very nearly all other gluvpaki - follow what we refer to as the Faith."

[Restaurant - Cabins]

Kazuko left the restaurant, a bit thoughtfully. 'Ma'am'. Interesting thing for him to say.

After a bit of confusion - the ship wasn't laid out in the pattern she was used to, probably because it was water-, not space-going - she made her way to her cabin. She glanced over most of the furnishings quickly, sat down in front of the terminal, and activated it.

Begin downloading scratchpad data to a storage folder, she ordered as soon as her backup had established a connection.

edited 23rd Sep '12 11:09:46 AM by nrjxll

[Railing]

Anne nodded. "As I said. Curious. Most of our religions carry certain themes in common, be good to each other, don't kill each other, don't steal, and so on. Though they're sometimes bad at remembering them."

She reached up as though looking for a necklace, then grimaced momentarily. "Used to wear a cross, a religious symbol. Gave it to someone who was more likely to use it."

Floor B2 -> First Floor (Main Hall)

Upon reaching the spot where the drill was to be held, Talitha found herself in a large, square room. It wasn't much to look at, other than holding doors to various other locations on this floor. There was a map sitting in the middle of the wall opposite the staircase, not that Talitha could see it from her position given that it was currently being blocked by the people already in the room. In the middle, there were three people, one male, two female. By their outfits, it was pretty clear that they were crew members.

Once that everyone that could be occupying the first set of rooms was in the room, the male spoke up. "This way," he said, pointing to a door to the right and back of the room. "And please remain silent while the drill is ongoing."

One of the females with him headed for that door, which was marked with a sign that read "emergencies only," and opened it up, motioning the passengers through. Talitha, seeing no reason to be rebellious (it really wasn't in her nature, anyway), followed the crowd on through. On the other side of the door was a long hallway, with doors that strongly reminded Talitha of the dimensional gates back in the lobby the left side and rows of life jackets and what appeared to be trapdoors on the right.

"In the event of an emergency, the crew will do their best to keep things orderly," began the female crew member who had joined them in the hall. "Generally speaking, should the ship go down, then passengers are to exit through these dimensional gates, designed to function even in the event of the ship's main power generator going offline. They lead back to the lobby at port."

The member then motioned to the doors and life jackets on the other side. "In the very worst case scenario, should the generators powering the gates go offline, then on this side we have lifeboats capable of holding 15-20 passengers each. Make sure to put on the life jackets before boarding the boats; they should be easy to use, but if anyone has questions, then I ask you to please remain after this drill has concluded."

She concluded her speech with a list of basic procedures, before allowing the passengers to leave with a warning that they shouldn't be in this room unless there is an emergency.

Talitha followed the grand majority of the group back out into the main room of Floor B2. She briefly considered looking at the map down here to see what was on this floor, but eventually decided that now would be as good a time as any to go check out the butterfly garden. There would be plenty of time to go look at the museum later.

With that, she went back up the stairs and back to the first floor.

[Railing]

"I am quite aware of the human religions," the Ambassador said. "Their existence continues in my time, although some have undergone a few... alterations. Contact with other civilizations, it seems, isn't as damaging to faith as some once believed, but neither is it, sss, something that has no effects upon it."

He stepped back slightly from the railing. "So then: are you saying that you wish to hear something about the Faith? I don't often speak of it to other species - if you heard me earlier, that was simply an attempt to... draw some sort of reaction."

[The Roost] The Restaurant, okay?

Cain watched as Jane left to join the drill. Robert stood up—he had already finished his meal and was just killing time. "We better find the others," he said.

Cain shrugged, and answered, "They're all probably not doing anything interesting or notable."

The two walked out of the Restaurant back to the first floor deck, where the rest of the group was, wasting time out in the sun.

"Hey Gabs," Robert said, "Why didn't you come back?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Didn't feel like it," she said.

"Alright...anyways...I ate your meal."

Gabrielle simply rolled her eyes, Jonathan was looking somewhat cranky. "Finally, you're here. Your orders from your leader is to stay here until we get called to join the drills. Oh yeah, I forgot to pass out the key cards," he handed a card to Gabrielle and Haruka. "Don't lose them," he warned.

[Railing]

Anne laughed softly to herself. "It's an interesting paradox. We have a saying, that there is no atheist in a trench. But at the same time, I've heard it quite eloquently argued that we did more to kill the idea of a divine being with the war those trenches reference than any event before them. And after that...well, I don't think the Second or Third World Wars helped it much either."

She shook her head. "But yes, I suppose I am asking about your Faith."

-Ship Deck-

Whitney intently listened to the instructor. After the Drill, she left to find her room...

-Whitney's Room-

The room looked like your standard hotel room, with two beds inside it, and a TV in the room. There was also a mini-fridge in the room. There was also a desk right beside the TV, so anyone that bought a laptop could use the desk. A window was right beside the bed, above an air conditioner, showing a sea of blue, as far as the eye can see...

Whitney put her bags on the floor (She had been carrying them everywhere), and layed down on the bed with a happy sigh.

"Hope I won't get ate by a shark during my trip..."

This is what my hotel room looked like when I took that vacation... (Except for the sea of blue bit.) If you want, you can use this description of the room.

[Floor B2 -> Cabins]

As Jane listened in on the drill instructions, she recalled the ones that she herself had to go through. Intently, she almost shoved out the voices of the crew, focusing on her surroundings instead. If the ship capsizes, getting here will be much harder. Back-up generators aren't the most reliable sources. Don't know the amount of life-boats, can't figure out how many will be usable. This is what they settled for in this age?

Jane couldn't help but run her brain through it all, even if the actual need for emergency procedures would be reduced in this situation. Across from her, she could see Talitha and Whitney paying attention. Must be pretty important for them, giving herself her own counter to her doubts of the drill.

Once it was over, Jane headed back to her cabin, looking behind her occasionally to get the feel of where to go if an emergency happens. Heading inside for a brief moment, she grabbed her art-pad and pencil. Still early and I doubt anybody would just let me do a portrait, so. . . Butterfly garden? She shrugged and headed back out, walking back to the first floor.

[Railing]

The Ambassador was taken aback. "Of course, if that is what you wish."

He shifted his tail slightly and knelt on the deck, robes folding, then turned his head again to gaze at Anne with one of his 'spectacles'. "Where should I begin...? Yes.

"Before the rest, there is one thing about my species that you must understand when understanding the Faith. When I said that most gluvpaki follow the Faith, there is a reason for that. As a species, we are almost entirely of a religious nature. Most species say it's something about our neuro-chemistry; we see it as proof of being blessed by the One. There are no atheists among gluvpaki - not in the trenches and not anywhere else."

edited 23rd Sep '12 8:31:48 PM by nrjxll

First Floor (Main Hallway) -> Butterfly Garden

Talitha made her way across the increasingly familiar first floor of the ship towards the butterfly garden door. Finally, after all this time of planning on heading there, she was finally acting on that promise. She has expected and stated that she held off so long because it was such an interesting attraction that it would most certainly be crowded, but the museum could also claim the title of "unusual for a boat," and it was surprisingly empty. Perhaps the same would hold true for the butterfly garden.

This time, the door opened up quite nicely when Talitha tried to open it. There was a small hallway in between the main hall and the garden, that aesthetically wasn't anything spectacular. Signs were on both walls containing information about the garden, namely that it was based mostly on the Amazon Rainforest and the species of butterflies within. The reason there was a hallway here was stated on an easily-visible white sign with black lettering: To prevent the wildlife from leaving the garden, please make sure both doors are closed before attempting to open either.

Talitha raised an eyebrow upon reading "wildlife." The map clearly stated that this was a butterfly garden. The signs in here clearly stated that this was a butterfly garden. Either the crew had a narrow definition of "wildlife," or butterflies weren't the only land-living creatures in there. She eventually shrugged and opened the door into the garden, and then stopped, gazing in awe at the room she had found herself in.

Like her initial observation had confirmed, this room was less an ordinary room and more an extremely large greenhouse. Like the signs in the hallway had stated, it looked a lot like a rainforest in here, what with tall tropical trees littering the whole place. The floor was shaped a bit like a cup, with the sides and paths slowly slanting downwards until they all met in the center, where a large pond with a bridge over it sat. The area around the pond was decorated with stones, upon which a set of chairs sat. Apparently, this was as much a place of relaxation as it was an outright attraction.

Talitha's expression went from awed to almost giddy. She always loved natural, or at least natural looking, locations; it was why she spent so much time at the park back at her hometown. For as long as she was in here, she was going to have a difficult time wiping this smile off her face. While she couldn't see any butterflies at the moment, she wasn't too concerned about that. They'd probably reveal themselves in time. For now, her main goal was to see what was in that pond. Given the rest of this place, there had to be fish in it.

There was a path that lead straight to the pond in front of her. Once she was over her awe, she promptly headed down it towards the pond. She was somewhat amused that the garden seemed to be rather empty, but that would change soon enough. Provided the people she didn't know kept to themselves, she would be perfectly okay with that.

[Butterfly Garden]

Jane approached the second door as she walked through the hallway, skimming through the trivia on display. She walked into the garden, the humidity bombarding her as soon as she opened it. I'll never get used to that again.

The taller than expected trees, the various rainforest flora, it all reminded her of home. Her old home, at least. Despite how much she felt living on steady land was too boring, the nostalgia did bring itself to the front row as she took her first steps inside. She imagined it was unusual for a cruise ship to have such a garden, especially one this big.

Well, better get cracking. Jane noticed the chairs but she preferred to sit on the ground, sketch-book ready on her knees. She held up her fingers to look for a good view to copy when she spotted Talitha close by. Jane did remember her mentioning something about coming here. "Hey," She spoke up, hoping to keep the friendliness from before.

Butterfly Garden

Talitha stopped when someone spoke to her. Judging by the sound of the voice, she guessed that it was Jane, and sure enough she was proven right. By the looks of things, Jane had come down (up? It was quite possible she took the drill at the same time Talitha did) to draw something. Talitha couldn't blame her; given how gorgeous this place was, it was certainly worth sketching something.

Though she had the nagging feeling she was interrupting the other person, Jane initiated the conversation, so she might as well play along.

"Hello again," she said cheerfully. "We seem to run into each other a lot, huh?"

Main Deck —> B2

Sukio was about to say something else when the PA came to life, calling her (by room number) to the demonstration, Turning to her new found freinds she forced a smile, "S-Sorry look like I'm up. See you girls around? I'm in 38."

As Sukio began to hurry off she paused, slapping her head, "It's the wall between 37 and 39. Just knock."

While she was sure that would be confusing to her friends It Makes Sense in Context for in a attempt to escape the interest of her stalker had used another talent to Erase the Door, there was still a room beyond it but the wall had been sealed up leaving no obvious sign of it.

Hurrying along Sukio makes it to the drill, slipping into the line up and listening...

"In the very worst case scenario, should the generators powering the gates go offline, then on this side we have lifeboats capable of holding 15-20 passengers each. Make sure to put on the life jackets before boarding the boats; they should be easy to use, but if anyone has questions, then I ask you to please remain after this drill has concluded."

Sukio made her way to the side of the ship looking out over the ocean, a knot forming in her stomach, would the life boats be enough? Curosity and concerm pushed her to draw a sharpie from her pocket, arm outstreatched as she started to write the Kanji for 'lifeboat' in the air, her arm trembled and she dropped to her knees before it could be realized, the strokes fading into the ether.

Sukio remained bent over trying to regain her breath, her forhead beaded with sweat.

"Too. Hard." she gasped.

quick apology, my laptops hardrive died so had no access over the week end, checking this along with a bunch of other things at the campus

edited 24th Sep '12 1:13:00 PM by NekoLLX

Restaurant

"Geez," Jacob said, placing his glass on the counter, "you're like the third person to bring up a war since I got here," his expression became grave, "I wonder if we're heading there as well."

"Passengers in rooms 1-87, please report to floor 2B. Repeat, passengers in rooms 1-87, please report to floor 2B," the announcement broke through.

"Guess that's my cue," he said to Ulrich as he got up, then, turning to the bartender, continued, "Add it to my tab. Room 55." As the bartender nodded, Jacob left the restaurant and made his way to floor 2B.

Michael fell back on his bed with a sigh. His room was now all set for the next five days. And not a moment too soon. He was completely enervated now. At least there was nothing else to do now but get some shut eye. He slowly closed his eyes, ready to drift off to sleep.

He opened his eyes as he heard the announcement, "Passengers in rooms 1-87, please report to floor 2B. Repeat, passengers in rooms 1-87, please report to floor 2B."

"Oh, you motherfu-"

Jacob started looking around the room, since most of what the crew member was explaining was pretty basic procedure, save for the dimensional gates. This was the first time he was relieved to see them however. If the subs did attack now, at least there was a good chance to save most of the innocent bystanders.

He noticed Michael "standing" at one corner of the room, with his back against one wall and his cheek against another. It looked like a stiff breeze would knock him over. Then again, he was always like this when his five hours were up.

Since Michael didn't move after the crew member concluded the procedures, he walked over to Michael and shook him.

"Huh?" Michael blurted, as he opened his eyes. He looked from Jacob to the other people in the room who had started to leave, "What's going on?"

"The drill's over," Jacob replied, "Go get some rest."

"Yeah, yeah" Michael said, and yawned. He pulled out his cellphone, selected the Teleportation Rune and the next instant he was gone.

[Butterfly Garden]

"Yeah, small world. Or ship, actually." Jane adjusted her seated position, not minding the tiny pits of dirt getting on her jeans. "I'll just draw a different angle, wouldn't want to disturb you with the thought of being badly drawn."

She was just about to bring the graphite to paper when she stopped, remembering. "By the way Talitha, thanks for the talk earlier. I know it was mostly just me deprecating myself but it did me some good. Cleared the air, I appreciate it."

Butterfly Garden

Talitha chuckled a bit at the end of the first comment, but promptly looked down at her feet once Jane thanked her for listening.

"Well...you're welcome." she said after a few moments' hesitation. "Personally, it didn't bother me all that much. Some of the other people I've seen here are a bit stranger. Heck, I'm...ah...not exactly normal myself." At that last sentence, she scraped a bit of the dirt away with her foot.

Are you really going to tell her about your own quirks? some voice in the back of her head asked. You haven't even known her for a day.

Indeed, Talitha really wasn't sure if it was a good idea, especially considering she didn't know Jane all that well. Then again, compared to the other woman, she was completely ordinary. Jane seemed friendly enough, though - there was that winged guy earlier that she was getting along with well enough. Perhaps she'd be accepting of her own...condition?

She ultimately decided not to bring it up unless Jane asked. "If I'm in the way, I can move if you want," she said. "After all, I wasn't planning on just standing here. I was heading down to the pond to see if there was fish in it."

[Butterfly Garden]

Jane started off with the floor of the room, the way it curved and dropped downwards in the middle. The texture of her rubbing with the side of her pencil's tip perfectly suited the nature of the garden. "Strange strangers? Just you wait five more centuries, if this reality happens to be like the one where I'm from." Huh, She turned her words into silent thoughts, "another person using normal the same way I do?''

"You can go ahead and move, I wasn't planning on adding you in without your permission." Jane's smile became a reaffirming one as she added the reflections of the pond, "You think there's something wrong with you as well. You're embarrassed by it?"

edited 24th Sep '12 8:43:00 PM by darthnazgul

[Railing]

"This seems as though it could have a downside. The need for faith over all, in combination with what you've said of your history..." Anne bit her lip. "It seems like you'd have a serious and neverending problem with elements that are, if not exactly extremist, certainly espousing ideas that would run against the core doctrines."

Butterfly Garden

"Well...." Talitha looked in the opposite direction, still not quite making eye contact with Jane. "I guess you could say I think there's something wrong with me."

Her facial expression appeared to be somewhat melancholy - she was nowhere near crying, but she still looked far from happy. "Well, my problem is that other people like me...it seems that normal people will lambast you endlessly if you're someone like me. I mean, it's nowhere near the thing you've got going on, and it's the sort of thing that happens naturally, but...it still doesn't feel right."

She paused right there. Well, she was on the verge of saying outright what her problem was, and yet she was still unwilling to let it out. Something was telling her that she was going to far. Yet, somehow, despite what her common sense said, she might as well let it out now. Otherwise, it'd sit there and fester for the rest of the trip, and Talitha knew that wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Okay, I've been beating around the bush," she said, finally making eye contact with Jane. "You were bold enough to say outright what separated you from the normal people, so I might as repay the favor. I'm a lesbian who's having one hell of a time trying to accept it."

edited 24th Sep '12 8:12:16 PM by Yomegami

[Butterfly Garden]

Jane listened intently, taking spare moments to continue drawing like a psychiatrist taking notes. When Talitha decided to come out with it, Jane set her pencil down and stared right back, all ears.

"Lesbian? That's your problem? That's what's separating you from normality?" Jane's expression started off as one of confusion, looking around as if to check the invisible fabric of reality, until turning into almost a form of disgust. "The past is weird. I mean, lesbianism-" That an actual word? Anyway, "is pretty common where I'm from but it's certainly nothing odd or needs to stick out. It's about as separate from the norm as different skin colours, nothing really worthy of prejudice."

Butterfly Garden

Talitha couldn't say she didn't expect Jane's reaction. After all, she was from a different time period (the future, it sounded like), if not a completely different dimension entirely. This sort of thing might as well been completely normal for her world. For that matter, Talitha was actually rather relived that this was the reaction she got - it was much better than the alternative, anyway.

"If your world is indeed the one my own winds up turning into, then I guess it's nice to know we'll make some progress in that area. Back where I'm from we...haven't quite gotten over that yet." She grabbed the collar of her shirt with a finger and started fidgeting with it. "It's usually the gays who get it really hard, because apparently males are held to higher standards than females are, but that's not to say lesbians are exempted. I've been lucky enough to avoid most of it, but that's because I've mostly kept to myself since I found out."

She glanced over at a nearby bush, noticing a vivid blue butterfly as it sipped happily from one of the flowers. "I get that this sort of thing happens naturally, and I suppose it could be considered 'normal,' but that doesn't change the fact that it feels so freaking awkward. All the other girls are going after guys, and here I am, daydreaming about getting together with another girl."

"Well, it is nice to know that I'm seen as ordinary by someone." She looked back at Jane, shrugged, and smiled weakly. "That's a good thing, right?"