Podpop

[cityship]

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new

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[galacticfairy]

Pause. No, no, no, the world-saving would wait for a moment. For now - cut. Freeze. Enough. Full stop.

She’d just been assaulted by tentacles.

Sheryl Nome let out an earpiercing shriek, backed by years of impeccable vocal training and the best set of lungs that had ever graced the Galaxy Fleet. She wheeled around the cavernous room, one flawlessly manicured finger pointing accusatorily at everyone and everything in the room. “Who’s in charge here? If you think you can kidnap me, slap me in your goo-wrestling fantasies, and sic a band of make-over tentacles on me, you - you crazy pervert, I’ll ruin you socially, financially, emotionally, eternally-” She took a deep breath, tugging herself up just a little straighter, because no matter where she was and whatever lunatics she was dealing with, she was Sheryl, always and forever and no matter where in the galaxy they’d taken her. “Who the hell do you think you’re dealing with?”

[talks2stoplight]

He was still trying to shake goo out from all the tiny little recesses and nooks of his chassis by the time he came across anyone else. And even then, he heard the woman before he saw her. The first thing that occurred to Ratchet when he finally came into view was that either this was a very tall organic creature--which probably wouldn't have surprised him too much--or that he was.. very small; Which was certainly the more unsettling of the two thoughts.

"Beats me, who are they dealing with?" It was the best 'greeting' his reeling mind could come up with at the moment.

[galacticfairy]

"The Fairy of Galaxy, Sheryl Nome!" she snapped at the vending machine.

[talks2stoplight]

Vending machine?? Of all the things...!

"Okay. Galaxy fairy." He had no idea what she was talking about. Maybe it was a species from a fringe world they didn't know about? "Hi. I'm going to assume that you probably don't know what's going on around here either?"

:| 1/?

[wearshercross]

music: one

In the indeterminable time between one breath to the next, when time slows and the clarity of one moment to the next seems to last ad infintum, Special Agent Dana Scully found herself floating, carelessly content. She knew this place, this stretch of time, and she could see the way memory spread itself out in all directions, like an errant child, lazing in the warm springtime sun, watching clouds pass. This was a dream, this sprawling wash of memory.

“Agent Mulder. I'm Dana Scully, I've been assigned to work with you,” she said, walking slowly toward the dark haired man she had been partnered with--essentially to debunk his investigations. He glanced up, his expression wry.

“Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded? So, who did you tick off to get stuck with this detail, Scully?” he said dryly, shaking her offered hand. It was a beginning. A beginning to something so complex, that she had no words to define it, even now, years later. She remembered, too, the sound of water much later, and the rocking

>.<; 2/?

[wearshercross]

music: two

Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss. The feeling of weightlessness was gone and she fell, hurtling back to consciousness at the speed of thought. Moisture hit her first, then the bone-jarring shock of hitting a solid but spongy surface. She swallowed, her throat raw, her body trembling with the sudden shift in states. She didn’t open her eyes, not yet. The organic tang of blood and sweat filled her nose and coated the back of her throat--she gagged reflexively, curling in on herself.

Where am I? What is this? Where’s Mulder? A thousand questions poised on her lips, though none made it past. One question was answered, though it was unsatisfactory and confusing

>( 3/3

[wearshercross]

music: three

Scully shoved herself half to her knees, at a loss.

Mulder.

She swallowed again, past the grit and heaviness, past the great uncertainty, past the spike of fear.

“Mulder?” she called, her voice rusty and unstable as she worked her way to her feet. The sound of her cry surprised her, its sharpness, the way it carried and bounced. The scientist in her marveled even as she stopped to stare with half revulsion, half curiosity at the thousands, maybe millions, of glowing, glimmering pods around her. She swayed to her feet and stared at them, wiping at her eyes. Fascination and terror warred within her; the pods were filled with people--and more. Her heart clenched as she held up a slime covered hand, oblivious to her nudity in lieu of that particular revelation. Distantly, Scully heard the thick slime drip from her fingertips and hit the puddled floor wetly. Blood and sweat tried to choke her again and she felt bile rise to scratch at the back of her throat.

“Mulder?” she called again, more insistent, her voice

[wasadeadman]

At first, there was nothingness. The confusion of rising as if from a sudden and deep sleep (a sleep that Mulder had not slept in years), then a bright light that pierced him, went through him, as it had when his sister had disappeared, been taken away by whatever unknown force it was.

Then consciousness, slimy, warm, and damp as he slammed into the spongy surface below. Instinctively, he gasped for breath, sucked humid air into his longs, then coughed as he wiped slime from his face. He was naked, in a vast room, larger than anything he'd seen. Another abduction? It didn't make sense. Why would he awaken in the middle of it? Was this part of a strange nine minutes that would be missing from his mind later? He stumbled to his feet, still disoriented by the release. Then a voice cut through all of that.

"Mulder?" Scully. Scully was here. Both of them this time. But to what purpose? Why? At least they were conscious of what was happening. He turned, peering across the vast space before him, nudity forgotten for the moment

[talks2stoplight]

One minute: the dry, dusty desert of the American west. The next: humid, slimy and dark. To say that something wasn't right was an understatement and as Ratchet lay on the floor or gantry or whatever it was that was under his back, all his senses were straining for some kind of explanation.

The floor was techno-organic with some rudimentary signs of life; the ambient environment seemed similar to Terran subtropical regions; and if there was a ceiling above him or a floor below the one he was on, he couldn't detect it.

"Hello?" The voice in his head that answered him as he stood was entirely unhelpful. "The Ohm? Do you mean the Swarm? Hello? Frag." Only one way to get answers and an explanation then and it wasn't going to be by standing around and talking to himself. He was picking up other sounds- other signs of life and now the walkway was lighting up.

Oh well, not like he had any other options at this point. He'd figure out what was going on and where he was and then maybe see about squeezing in a minor moment of panic.

[igotjetdog]

Oh, wow. This guy was big. Maybe as big as Duo or Gutsman. Rock hides behind a pod for a moment, watching him to make sure he isn't hostile, but Ratchet seems more... confused than anything else.

He must have been taken, too.

They might be able to find something out together. He steps out from behind the pod and waves. "Hey! It's good to see another robot here. Are you all right?"

[talks2stoplight]

"Oh! Yeah, I think so. Got all my parts on me at least."

The words 'another robot' were actually a little reassuring to hear considering the circumstances. Even if what he was looking at now appeared to be more human than mechanical and barely out of protoform stage at that.

He crouched down to get a better angle on the shorter robot. "What about you? You just wake up here like this, too?"

[igotjetdog]

Yeah, Ratchet's about twice as tall as poor Rock. He doesn't need the taller mech to crouch, but it makes talking a little easier.

He grins, happy just to have someone to talk to about all this. "Yeah, just around the corner, actually." He points helpfully. "I got some kind of... Radio transmission I guess? It said that I was Chosen to fight something called the Ohm." He cocks his head to the side, peering at Ratchet to examine a little better. "Did you get the same one? Or a different one?"

[notmyfight]

Riddick wsn't big on being covered in alien anything, no matter how often it happened. He had been lounging in the Necro throne room, as far as he remembered.

When Stacy's messages came, though, he just wiped his face and rolled his neck.

"Same sh!t, different F#@kin' day."

[supine_melody]

There had to be at least someone in this mess that he'd recognize, right? So he would sit here and wait for Lexaeus or someone nicer to take pity on him and end whatever practical joke the others had played on him. Again. A bead of goo worked its way down his back, raising goosebumps even in the humid air.

Demyx jumped at the sound of a voice directly behind him. He twisted around in the slippery puddle and stared at the man above him, face stunned more with the overall experience than anything in particular. A second later he cracked a weak grin and tried to avoid any dumb jokes about the crowd of naked people.

[notmyfight]

Riddick glanced down at the boy. He raised an eyebrow, and his eyes had a strange sort of shine to them. He was smirking slightly, though, and it wasn't entirely because the kid had a mullet.

"Don't know if you wanna be sitting there, kid."

It looked on the wet and slimy side, and there was the added awkward view. It wouldn't be Riddick's first choice, that was for sure.

[supine_melody]

It's sort of a mullet. Demyx himself preferred to call it an original style. Either way, his hair was stuck flat to the sides of his face, shiny because of the goop. He touched it self consciously before staggering to a standing position.

"Yeah..." His eyes automatically averted, looking past the bulk of man in front of him. There might have been slight resignation at the use of "kid", but he hid it by flinging his arms out in a sort of helpless flourish and announcing, "Hey, I'm new around here. Any idea where I can find a shower? Some kind of communication home?" A meal, a bed, a familiar face? Not that he expected much, but any kind of information would do.

[bladesinflight]

A pod burst open in a spray of slime, and a bulky figure dropped out, much larger than the average human released from the pods. But as the figure stirred and began to move, it became clear that most of the bulk came from a large set of wings on its back. The wings snapped outward once, then again, spraying goo in all directions. The figure coughed repeatedly, and slowly, precariously, she got to her feet.

Setsuna Sakurazaki groaned, bringing both hands up to wipe away the slime from her face. What on earth had happened? Her last coherent memory was of her bedroom on one of the Ala Alba's ships, after preparing for the assault on Cosmo Entelecheia's secret base... And now she was here, completely naked (a situation unfortunately more familiar than she would have preferred) and covered in goo (this was unfamiliar, and she wished it had stayed that way), in this strange, dark, almost living chamber

[seraphicthunder]

Reimi heard the call. Japanese terms. She was intimately familiar with it being Japanese herself.

"Excuse me miss?" inquired Reimi as she approached Setsuna. What gorgeous wings... "Are you looking for anyone as I am?"

[bladesinflight]

"Eh?" It took Setsuna a moment to shake off her confusion and suppressed worry to realize that someone was addressing her. She turned toward Reimi, wings curling in front of her a bit, almost protectively.

"Ah, I-I am," Setsuna stuttered. "I just... awoke here, without my associates and..." She took another look around the chamber. "This is definitely not Mundus Magicus, is it...?"

[seraphicthunder]

"I'm afraid not," replied Reimi, wishing she had wings to curl around her body. "The telepathic communication said we're on some kind of rescue ship. I think. It's all conjecture at this point."

"Forgive me, I'm Reimi Saionji, from Earth. Are you one of the women of Roak? A Featherfolk? Your wings remind me of Sarah's."

And she bowed politely.