Meet The New Neighbors!

[sinanju]

Who: Chloe Sullivan
Where: The dining hall
When: Dinner time, Wednesday, June 16th
Invited: ALL PLAY!
Status: Incomplete

Comments

[Darien]

[starborn_scribe]

"Hey boys, mind if I join you?" Unsurprisingly, the brunette didn't wait for an answer. She eased herself on to the plastic chair with feline grace.

Although Darien managed to keep his eyes from drifting south of her face, he did gulp. Lehane was the single hottest woman Darien had ever laid eyes on. Considering he'd been fortunate enough to know quite a few gorgeous women -- among them Teyla, Claire, Alex, and Allianora -- that was saying something.

Judging from the way Bobby jerked his head up, he hadn't been able to resist gazing upon Lehane's cleavage. His recovery was typical Hobbes. "Oh, no, of course not, Ms. Lehane. Faith? Can I call you Faith?" He thrust his hand toward her. "Robert Hobbes, at your service. Or you can call me Bobby. Whichever, really."

Darien jumped in before his friend could babble further. "Or Hobbesy, or, more appropriately, Doofus."

"Hey!"

Darien shot a grin at said doofus. "I'm Darien Fawkes--"

"Or, more appropriately, the Jolly-Haired Giant."

Darien pretended he hadn't heard Bobby's interjection. "Welcome to the Gamma colony. Sorry for all the military stuff before. Needed to be sure you're friendly, ya know?"

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

Chloe and Cassandra moved through the serving line. Corporal Fitzgerald was right--the main dishes were fish. One kind of fish fried in what Chloe was told was a local vegetable oil, the other baked in tomato sauce. Chloe took a little of both to try. The rest of it was mostly familiar earth vegetables with a couple of local additions. And bread. Drinks consisted of (filtered) water, big urns of coffee or tea, and fruit juices, mostly local.

Chloe and Cassandra exchanged a wordless conversation with a glance and took seats at the table Xander and Faith were sharing with a couple of familar faces. That this left no room for Corporal Fitzgerald and his roaming eyes was not an accident. He hovered for a moment, then targeted another table and moved off.

"Hi," Chloe said to the two strangers. "I'm Chloe Sullivan. This is Cassandra Sugarbaker. Hope you don't mind us joining you."

[Xander]

[fikgirl]

"And the Man with the great Monocular vision is Xander Harris," Xander introduced himself as he caught up with the ladies. He slid into a seat beside Faith, more to take measure of the two men from earlier whose names eluded him at the moment. "No need to consider me competition for the attention of this bevy of beautiful ladies, I'm just their whipping boy."

Of course, if competition had been called for, Xander would have been the one feeling it. Not so much from Bald Guy, but Hair Guy - he has to use more product than Angel - definitely was the sort to trigger the testosterone posturing. If testosterone posturing was needed. If Xander hadn't already sampled the wares, well most of the wares, not that the women in question were possessions or objects and -

"Shut up, you are not," Faith intoned fortunately derailing Xander's line of thought, the back of her hand delivering a light blow to his upper arm.

Xander clutched his arm and feigned pain, giving the men a look, "See what I mean?"

[Lan]

[tweets]

Ron was still sleeping, but the symbiote wasn't as mentally exhaused as his host. He had passed the physical with Jennifer easily enough, then decided to indulge in his one guilty sin.

People watching.

A symbiote lives many, many centuries, but to fit in with the current populace, Lan indulged in people watching as a way of learning.

He could imitate Ron well enough, although his language skills seemed a little stilted... tired to the listeners.

He had moved to the mess hall, and found a plate of food that he enjoyed, then decided to join the new comers. "Would you mind if I joined you all?"

[Faith]

[fikgirl]

Faith looked up, senses ever-hyper and aware, and noticed Captain Boone peripherally before he reached the table. Three things immediately sprang to the forefront of her mind: one, that he wasn't from around these parts; two, that there was that niggling something off about him; three, he knew Xander from some other world. The last, Faith wasn't quite sure what to make of so she filed it away for later. The first two there hadn't been time to hash over with her companions yet, which meant she would just be watchful and observant.

It's always in the details, Faith thought.

Her open smile and welcoming body language, revealed nothing of her thoughts. She licked her lips, then pointedly and deliberately sucked a finger clean. "Gonna be a tight squeeze, but if everyone's willing to be friendly, I don't have a problem with it. Or," Faith paused for emphasis, her smile turning slightly toward the suggestive, "I could sit in someone's lap if we needed to make room."

[Bobby]

[starborn_scribe]

Bobby grinned a hello at everyone. Then Lehane casually mentioned sitting in someone's lap. God, that sounded good. "If it comes to that, I hereby volunteer."

"That's Hobbes," Darien drawled. "So selfless." He extended a hand to Lehane's companions. "Darien Fawkes."

After Fawkes' round of handshakes was over it was Bobby's turn. "Bobby Hobbes. Welcome to Gamma." Everyone settled in, and some took a bite of breakfast. "What brings you folks to our neck of the woods?" Since the newcomers had passed Weir's and the General's scrutiny, it was a simple, open question.

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

"The vagaries of fate, I suppose," Chloe said. "We've been traveling with no particular destination in mind for a while now, and we had to end up somewhere."

While Cassandra, Jon, Ami and Daniel had originally had a destination in mind, that plan had pretty much gone by the wayside after they'd consulted with Rodney McKay in the world where Ami, Jon and Daniel ultimately decided to take up permanent residence. Rodney had made it plain to them that they had essentially no chance of randomly jumping back to their starting timeline. Mathematically it just wasn't ever going to happen.

"Why not?" Cassandra had asked, more out of pique than anything else. Rodney had a way of getting under the skin of even the most unflappable. Like Cassandra.

"Broadening the bands," Rodney snapped back just as quickly.

"What?" Chloe had asked.

After sighing and looking heavenward for the strength to deal with the cretins who surrounded him, Rodney had explained. "Look, the whole concept of parallel timelines is based on the idea that every time a decision is made, the timeline diverges. In one timeline you decide yes, in another you decide no. In a third, you dither for a while. That's three timelines right there."

"Yes," Cassandra'd said. "And?"

"And that's just you. Meanwhile other people are also making decisions, and the timeline is branching, millions--maybe billions--of times a second. There are an effectively infinite number of timelines--and that branching continues even after you leave the timeline.

"You can't return to 'your' timeline because it isn't a single timeline any more. It's millions--billions--of virtually identical timelines, so similar that you might never be able to pin down the differences."

"But wouldn't that make it easier--?"

"No, because every other timeline is diverging constantly as well. There are...well, more timelines than you can possibly imagine already, and all them are multiplying exponentially, all the time."

It had been a sobering analysis. Small wonder Jon, Ami and Daniel had decided to give up the search and stay in a timeline that was at least close enough to suit them. Cassandra, Chloe, Xander and Faith had continued on--they weren't ready to settle down just yet. They weren't looking for anyplace in particular any longer, but they were still traveling. Chloe, at least, was a born tourist.

Chloe looked at Bobby and Darien and decided to 'fess up. "What do you know about alternate timelines?" she asked by way of introduction, then began telling them what they'd learned from Rodney McKay....

[Lan]

[tweets]

Lan squeezed in quietly, listening to the others talk, while he ate. These newcomers were interesting people, he'd decided. He looked down at the plate of food. Humans, he decided, were very good at choosing unusual things to go together. Roast Beef, yes very good. Yorkshire Pudding? A Pudding with savoury food.

He never would understand it.

He kept silent, though, as he listened to those around him.