A Whole New World

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Anyone and everyone from all three ships.
Content: The clouds are gone, revealing the long-sought world below.
Setting: The edge of the continent, near the blast site.
Time: After all the monsters have been fought and the ships head southeast.
Warnings: What you bring with you.

Comments

Anyone who wants to bug Ari, feel free. Pfirsich and Dimo will be put up tomorrow.

[myworknotme]

Ari was personally glad to have her crew out and celebrating with everyone else. The revelation of the new world beneath her still floored her, and she needed to think out the implications of such a discovery. What would it mean for Reseune and its research? Hell, what did it mean for her personally? Her mind raced through the myriad possibilities as she stood by one of the less-occupied bonfires and knocked back a drink. Straight vodka, this time.

She felt excited in a way that she hadn't in years. This much new territory to explore and to catalog was a fascinating prospect. What did those giant areas of water below them hide, or the forests or air? And if she squinted just so, she could almost see what might be something man-made in the far, far distance...

[son_of_the_lake]

"Hello, Dr. Emory," said Hisoka, moving to her side. He was sipping vodka as well. "How are you?"

[myworknotme]

"Hisoka," Ari said without turning her gaze from the magnificent sight in front of her. Her memory of the way that people moved was acute, even if they'd only spent a few hours together, and the voice was certainly familiar. "I'm very well. How are you, sweet?"

[son_of_the_lake]

"I'm well," said Hisoka, since that was more or less the case. He was luckier than most, since his experiences left few marks on him, even given his currently-sluggish (by his standards) healing capacity. "I've heard you were the Amestris' acting captain during our recent crisis?"

[myworknotme]

"I have been," she agreed, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear, "though I've had no small amount of assistance from Ms. Troi, who's assisted with Security. Grumman gets the title, and we get to make certain that things run as smoothly as they can, given the circumstances."

"I'll tell you something, though. I'll be damned happy when I don't have to do it any longer."

[son_of_the_lake]

"Still, I admire you for having taken it on. And Ms. Troi, too!...whom I've never met. I suppose Bellcius Headquarters will appoint a new captain sooner or later. What will you do then? Is it back to the lab? Remain as Amestris' scientist and physician?"

[myworknotme]

"She's right over there, if you want to," Ari replied, pointing in her dark-haired co-Captain's direction. "I don't recommend it though, sweet. She can be difficult at the best of times." Hisoka was pleasant enough company, and much as it might have been amusing to watch the interaction, Ari thought that it was hardly fair to inflict Deanna on someone she halfway liked.

"I haven't decided yet. It would do me good to revisit my laboratories and make certain that everything's in working order, but I must admit more than a little curiosity about all of that below us. Have you made a choice regarding your own future plans yet, sweet?"

[son_of_the_lake]

"Well, I've been reacivated, or reinstated, or however I care to define the situation. So, I'll be assigned a Navy ship sometime in the not-too-distant future, I hope. I've asked for a New World exploration ship, but we'll see. I really want to go down there myself. And you? - are you curious about those lands?"

[myworknotme]

"It's the main thing I've been thinking about of late, sweet. I'm going to be at the head of the explorations, if I have my way. And I will."

[son_of_the_lake]

"I don't doubt it for a moment!" said Hisoka.

[myworknotme]

Ari's lips curled into a tight, amused little smile, and she nodded. Hisoka was an intelligent young man, and she guessed that he was perceptive enough to have picked up her own desire for dominance in her life. Even where exploration was concerned, she was confident that she'd have her way...even if it did mean that a certain insufferable fool was following in her footsteps. "I don't expect that they'll be all pleasantries and welcoming committee down there, either. We would do well to be prepared for a fight."

[son_of_the_lake]

"I had thought of that, too," replied Hisoka. "What we are seeing now when we look down are lands that have been in the shadow of a continent and its associated cloud for at least five hundred years. I doubt there was enough sunlight to support agriculture. So, when we look down, we see empty lands."

"But, yes..." (And his eyes lit up as he glanced out towards the horizon again.) "...there's no reason there can't be whole civilizations out there, just beyond the horizon. Or closer. And they will have developed in their own ways and see themselves as having their own destinies. They will have their own business and their own squabbles. And they may or may not be pleased to have visitors from the great shadowy floating mountain."

nice relevant Ari icon! *__*

[scaredbrilliant]

Justin came up next to her quietly, and simply looked in the same direction for a while before speaking.

"This... changes everything, doesn't it?"

He wasn't planning on staying out long - he was still spending most of his time in Ulquiorra's cabin seeing to his recovery - but he was too curious to resist coming out to take a look once in a while, at the new world during the day or people's reactions at night.

Once he had, he'd immediately found himself gravitating toward Ari, almost looking for her, since he knew her ship was there. A discovery of such import - she would be the one to talk to about it, and for all that he wasn't exactly comfortable in her company, he found it difficult to resist the idea of hearing even some of her thoughts. The reactions of the people around him interested him on a scientific level, but she was one of the few people he could really talk to about the long-term consequences of it, the way he thought of them, over societies and generations. So very few people, in their field.

Thank you! Moria made it. :D Excellent relevant Justin icon, too!

[myworknotme]

Ari had been expecting Justin to seek her out sooner or later, and if he hadn't, she likely would have gone looking for him. A smug part in the back of her mind was proud of how easy it was to predict him. All she had to do, really, was stand here and await his arrival. She knew that his curiosity would simply be too great to contain, and that he'd want to talk about the larger implications of such a discovery with the only other person who could truly anticipate his concerns about the world below.

"It does," she replied, turning to face him. Taking another drink, Ari kept her hands to herself for now. She was more interested in talking theory than anything else, and was surrounded by people who could see what it was that she was doing and interfere, even if Justin put up no resistance. Including, she thought, one who would guilt-trip her forever if she pulled anything. "The questions and opportunities that this presents are enormous," she began, "as are the potential hazards..."

<3

[scaredbrilliant]

Justin was no more likely to put up resistance in public than he was in private, but it didn't surprise him that she would rather talk. This, really, was what she lived for, and he knew that as well as he knew her recreational habits, if not better.

"There may be people down there..." He thought out loud, wondering if she had access to more data on the subject than the public did. "Or not, and it's hard to tell what would cause more social change. Suddenly, we're not all locked on our one continent with a few islands to provide variety." Suddenly, people could go, just leave and never come back and never have to deal with their parent culture or their damned political system, and what would that do to the social balance?

One way or the other, it truly would be an enormous change, and he knew he was only seeing the edges of it. But there would be so much more to see in his lifetime, if only they could muster the resources and organization to keep track of what was happening.

Re: <3

[myworknotme]

"There may indeed be," she replied, pointing to an area where a sharper-eyed lookout than she had reported seeing the gleam of metal some distance away. "I've only heard rumors of a world below us, and this is the first I've actually seen of it." Much as she suspected that the government had known far more about this than they'd let on, she'd never heard about what data they might or might not have had. "I don't know for certain what they'll be like, if there are any, but if they're as like us as I suspect they might be, the interactions will have to be moderated with extreme precision. I have no doubt that there are many idiots in both major governments who'd just love to begin colonizing and reshaping all of that land, without really taking a damned moment to think about what they're doing before they do it."