Open to all - Popcorn room

[igotahamster]

The floor of the popcorning room was rather cold. He blinked owlishly down at his hand... wait. Stone? It'd been a long time since he'd seen a stone floor like this; so old, trafficked by feet so long it was smooth as marble

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[zerotostudying]

Rory was exploring. Which was a good cover for being lost. The latter usually evolved into the former. In some degree, at any rate. At first, Rory had been worried and wandering aimlessly. Eventually she became curious. and the the snooping started. She'd already learned that peering through keyholes or cracking doors justtheslightestbit was probably the most clever approach after a couple close calls with places she was pretty sure she didn't want to go.

But this door... This door was open. It had to be safe. Or, it was probably safe, anyway. Still, she reached her head around the doorway first, half expecting to see...well, not popcorn, thats for certain.

Huh.

"Excuse me? Sorry, hi. Is this..? Well I mean it is. But I guess the question is why."

She paused

"You know, With all the popcorn."

[igotahamster]

"I.. think so?" He straightened from where he was examining the plaque and turned to blink at her. "I'm sorry, I don't think I know what you're asking."

[zerotostudying]

"Well its a lot of popcorn. And its not that I have something agaisnt popcorn, I happen to like popcorn, I'm just wondering why theres an entire room for it. With plaques, and pedestals."

She did a 360, to check out her surroundings. Upon finding herself facing him again, something dawned on her. Manners. She forgot manners. She offered her hand out.

"Rory Gilmore. Hi."

[igotahamster]

"Dr. Simon Tam," he says, blinking slightly. She reminds him a bit of River, before. And of some of his old med school classmates. "They're people. Or, er, they were. Sometimes it just happens here." He gestures to the plaque. "This is who they are. I was up there until yesterday."

[zerotostudying]

"Oh."

She glanced around for a moment, while she shook his hand. That seemed...well it didn't seem logical at all but it...seemed pretty in keeping with the rest of what went on around here so far. and then she thought about it a little longer.

"Oh. Oh God, I'll never eat popcorn again."

Looking, for the most part, a little unsettled. She peered at the list for a moment.

"So you were popcorn. For..a while. Did you... I mean, did you know, while you were? were you hungry? Is this an uncomfortable topic, because I can pick a new one."

[igotahamster]

"No, it's all right. I don't actually remember any of it. I don't even remember being at this school before I was popcorn, not really." He tucks his hands in his pockets after shaking hers and looked around. "I was just looking at the plaque to see if I knew anyone else up there."

[zerotostudying]

"Weird"

She passed over the plaque quickly to see if perhaps, anyone she knew personally. But as she suspected, no one was, and after a moment she shrugged, and glanced back over at him, sideways over her shoulder.

"Where were you before this? Before the school before the popcorn, that is."

It was Rory's understanding that people around here came from worlds vastly different than hers. Different times, places, societies. It was difficult for her to understand. Some people acted like her, came from the same culture,the same country even, but in the case of Sam, there were... you know, supposedly demons there. And she was sure there were no demons in the place she came from. It was unsettling, to say the least. it boggled the mind. But it was...fascinating. Completely, and utterly fascinating, and she couldn't stop herself from asking. From the look of him though, his world couldn't be so different from hers, could it?

[igotahamster]

"On a ship. The Serenity. Er, a star ship," he added, because it was important to make that kind of thing clear here; you never knew. "Before that I lived on Osirus."

[zerotostudying]

"Ah. Thats. A Star Ship? Really?"

That was, you know, impressive. And intimidating. Wherever he was, she was pretty sure it was more advanced than where she was if people were living in space ships. But mostly, it was impressive.

"I'm from Connecticut. New Haven by way of Stars Hollow....Not that you have...any reason at all to know where those places are."

[igotahamster]

"Really. I was crew."

"Not really. What system?" He pauses, then frowns. "Or... are you one of those from a world with only one planet?"

[zerotostudying]

"Wow. Star ship."

Huh. She cocked her head at him. She honestly never would have guessed

"Oh, yeah, plain old Earth. Well there are other planets, but, you know, none that people actually live on. Seven others. Eight total. We thought it was nine, but apparently Pluto isn't a planet anymore. They're very on the fence about pluto this century."

[igotahamster]

"Earth... like Earth that was?" Who knows? Before they'd used up the whole Earth, perhaps there was a place like her town.

"... how can you be on the fence about a planet?"

[zerotostudying]

"Sure, I guess. I mean it might be. Its kind of Earth that is to me."

It was possible that he was from the very, very far future, and at some point in the grand scheme of things, her general universe had been his. It would explain the whole space ship thing.

"Well it... They only found it in 1930, and now, what with the new clasifications.. I think it's a Dwarf Planet, technically. Or, you know, some kind of as yet unclassified trans-Neptunian object."

[igotahamster]

"Really..." he got a gleam in his eye. "You should talk to my sister. She always loved history... ancient history was no exception." And they'd get along well, he thought, if River was in one of her lucid moments.

"... strange. If it orbits a sun and it's large enough to live on, I'd call it ap lanet."

[zerotostudying]

"Ancient...History? Wow. Thats okay, weird. I mean. I would love to. I have to admit I'm a little fixated on this whole 'living on starships' thing right now, so...I mean, there are people here from way longer ago than me. But I don't know if they'd have the whole mutual yen for knowledge thing going on. Is your sister here?"

Rory paused, for a second, and shifted out of excited geek mode to explain

"Oh. Well it doesn't fit the official definition, really because it didn't clear the neighborhood around its orbit, so.."

[igotahamster]

"She is. I... haven't seen her yet. But she is here. Her... husband... assures me she's all right. She knows a great deal more about the ships than I did. I'm a doctor; I can tell you interesting things about micro-electric surgery, but I doubt that's a lecture you'd want to hear."

He blinked. "... er. Well. I'm not an astrophysicist."