A Bad First Impression [Open]

[a_fate_accepted]

Who: Gwendolyn and YOU
What: Gwendolyn's arrival goes... badly.
When: Early evening sometime.
Where: The new arrivals/the adjacent hallways and (possibly) a men's bathroom.
Warnings: Just an armed Valkyrie, robots trying to subdue her and fire-retardant suppression foam...

Comments

FIRE-RETARDANT FOAM?!

[sapphirearrow]

Karen rather liked the observatory deck. Having lived in a big city, she was no stranger to the idea of having to go out of her way to find a starry nighttime sky.

A woman who was dripping fire suppression gel, on the other hand, was new to her. Oh, yes, she was familiar with that substance. "Er... hello?"

THE WORST KIND OF FOAM

[a_fate_accepted]

For the moment, Gwendolyn was in a daze. She stared blankly into the panorama of the sky. Her thoughts were drifting in all directions: a mess of the moments before and after coming here. Her sense of urgency was still great, but it was energy without direction. Compared to that, the suppression gel was just a minor annoyance.

Her reverie was broken as the young woman approached her. She lazily turned her gaze, rubbing some gel dripping to her eyes. "...yes?"

It defeats Decepticons, you know

[sapphirearrow]

"...you're wet." Thank you, Karen. Your powers of observation are truly without parallel.

"That is, did something happen to you? That looks like the gel they use to put out fires."

ROBO FOAM?!

[a_fate_accepted]

"They put out fires with this?" Gwen asked, her eyebrows raised. She didn't think there was any fires in the room. If nothing else, it did a hell of a job as an agitator suppressant. Not that they needed to know that.

"It worked well as a veil to hide their movements. I am sure those cowards have run away by now." Not that she was one to talk about this, really.

I am entirely serious

[sapphirearrow]

[It's true!]

"Hide their--" Karen cut herself off in mid-sentence. "Were you attacked?!" Her right hand instinctively went to her pocket as she glanced around, looking for any sign that the attackers might still be present. There was certainly no shortage of potential guilty parties on board.

omg xD Gwen > Decepticons?

[a_fate_accepted]

Gwendolyn's eyes furrowed. "Yes. I knew their intentions were not peaceful when that thing entered my head." She reached for her ear where the babelfish went in. If there ever was a sign that a group of people were hostile, that most certainly was it.

I feel safer already!

[sapphirearrow]

"That thing... the Babel fish?" Karen calmed somewhat, as this began to sound like it might have been a misunderstanding. She reflexively reached up to her own ear, suddenly aware of the fish's presence after who knew how long. Now it was probably going to bother her all day.

[a_fate_accepted]

It bothered her ever still each time she thought about it. "Is that what it is called? I did not bother asking." Although, legitimately, she really wouldn't have listened much after it burrowed inside.

[sapphirearrow]

"If we're talking about the same thing, then yes. It's the reason we're all able to understand each other. There's no shortage of different languages, after all."

Though Karen could certainly see how it could be misinterpreted, and in fact had been from time to time.

[a_fate_accepted]

Gwendolyn raised her eyebrows. "If that is a joke then it's a very bad one." She did not mean to be so rude, but her agitation had not yet left her.

[sapphirearrow]

"I'm afraid it isn't." Karen's attempts at jokes did tend to be terrible, but given that this wasn't one of them, she wasn't offended. "Without them, I might not even be able to tell what you were saying."

[a_fate_accepted]

That, of course, did not make any sense. Of course she would understand her without the fish? What was this? "What is this nonsense that you speak? That is ridiculous! There is no reason why I would not understand you without a slimy creature in my ear!"

This would probably go much easier if the concept of different languages was not foreign to this Valkyrie.

[sapphirearrow]

Karen wasn't aware of the stranger's lack of linguistic knowledge, but fortunately her response didn't necessarily require it. "Really? Then tell me something somebody said before you received it. Anything that anybody said here."

[a_fate_accepted]

Gwen paused, she didn't really recall them say much of anything beyond high-pitched gibberish that alarmed her and hurt her ears. But her pride insisted that she kept quiet and not admit fault.

[sapphirearrow]

The silence was all Karen needed, really. She closed her eyes.

"When I first arrived, I was convinced this was all an elaborate trick. I essentially just accused everyone I met of being in on the conspiracy."

[a_fate_accepted]

"You arrived?" Gwen asked. The thought that people arriving her was also foreign to her. The whole ship just seemed to appear from the shadows of the night.