Talk About Timing...

[cityship]

While chaos was going on in the city, a level below the Living Areas, the rest of the ship was functioning normally. Stacy, apparently oblivious to goings on in the city, likely do to her malfunctioning sensors there, carried on with ship business

Comments

[stingslikeali]

A pod popped, and a yellow robotic form came splashing out, landing on his face before suddenly waking up.

"OH GROSS! WHAT IS THIS STUFF!" He pause, slowly coming to other realizations. "AND WHY THE SLAG AM I SHORT?!"

[bluerose_knight]

He wakes in a puddle of slime, humid air warm against his skin. Rather a change from the coolness of the salt air that he was used to after time spent on board ship. The floor underneath his hand is sticky, and pulsing, and its only when he feels the same sensation on his knees that he realises that he’s naked.

But nakedness is the least of his concerns at the moment as he rises quickly to his feet (nearly losing his balance as his foot fails to grip properly).

A quick look around shows nothing familiar, and there is no sign of his sword.

“Danae, if this is about the whales, the answer is still no,” he tests his voice. “And what happened to your island?”

[cityship]

||Danae is not currently on the crew roster,|| explained a monotone, almost motherly voice from nowhere.

[bluerose_knight]

"Xantia?" Sparhawk asked suspiciously. It didn't sound like her, but who else could be talking out of nowhere?

[cityship]

The mysterious voice appeared unbothered by Sparhawk's suspicious tone.

||There is no one by that name on the crew roster either.||

[alien_catcher]

Gwen collapsed to the floor, sucking in a panicked breath and struggling to upright herself, fighting off the fog of sleep that still held her in it's grasp.

She forced herself to find her bearings, only then realising she wasn't only covered in something... disgusting, but also, completely naked. A mix of panic, annoyance, and subtle anger seeped through the foggy awakening her mind.

"What..." she shook her head, pushing her hair from her face. She looked around, trembling slightly in the vast emptiness of her surroundings. "Where the hell am I?"

[cityship]

||You are in the Pod Caverns, Gwen Cooper,|| a voice somewhere between motherly and monotone observed. It seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at all.

And then a tentacle detached itself from the wall, bearing a syringe.

||You seem distressed. Do you require a mild sedative?||

[alien_catcher]

Gwen stepped back, eying the syringe carefully. She glanced around the cavern, wondering where the voice came from, and for a second wondering if it was only in her head. She breathed deeply, the tone of the disembodied voice strangely calming.

"I bloody well don't, thanks," she said. "Who are you? What am I doing here?"

[cityship]

The tentacle and the needle retracted. No one ever wanted the sedatives.

||I am STA'C K'LTRRB'TXFT.|| As the voice spoke, Gwen would feel motherly love, duty, and many other things surging within her, half-translated into sounds. ||You may call me Stacy. You have been Chosen for a great duty.||

[stalkersuperman]

AUGH--

West would be yelling, except that he's made the terrible mistake of trying to breathe in before spitting out the slime that's found its way into his mouth. He tumbles out of the split in his pod's membrane and ends up coughing up a lung on his hands and knees on the eerily fleshlike floor.

"Wha--" cough hack cough "--th' hell--" choke hack ow.

[cityship]

||Please do not attempt to breathe the stasis fluid, West Rosen.||

Hey West, what's your opinion on voices that come out of nowhere?

[stalkersuperman]

"Hadn't -- worked that out."

Ah, sarcasm. Last refuge of the almost-gibbering.

With one hand, he reaches up to rub at his sore throat, and freezes as slime slides over slime.

[cityship]

||Are you injured?||

The voice would sound motherly, if it wasn't too busy being monotone. At least it wasn't threatening him while he was naked and covered in slime and in a room made of fleshy weirdness?

[grayaura]

"...ugh." Mai clambered to her feet woozily, bracing herself against a nearby wall, "...where am I?"

She pauses for a moment, trying to take everything in through her somewhat addled mind. She felt a bit woozy, but otherwise fine. It was at this point that she realized that she was covered in some sort of slime, not to mention naked. She picked up a slime-encrusted strand of her hair and stared at it with distaste for a moment before dropping it, hugging her arms around her chest.

"And why am I covered in slime?"

[cityship]

||You are in the Pod Caverns|| a voice answered. It was impossible to tell where it had come from -- one moment there was nothing but the faint sound of a breeze whistling through the caverns and the next moment, the words had already been said.

||You are covered in 'slime' because the stasis fluid has a high viscosity.||

[grayaura]

"Who's there?" Mai frowned and looked around, "Where are you?"

She would be getting ready to fight, but the distinct lack of weaponry (and clothes) made that an unsettling prospect. She took a few steps forward, craning her head and trying to find the source of the voice.

"What are 'pod caverns'? Who brought me here?"

[cityship]

||The closest approximation of my name that can be produced by human vocal folds is STA'C K'LTRRB'TXFT.|| As the voice spoke the name, Mai would feel a surge of emotions well up within her -- maternal love, duty, and honor foremost among them. ||You may also call me Stacy.||

||I am here|| the voice continued, automatically answering her questions in the order in which they were asked. ||This is the Pod Caverns. Information Classified.||