Impressions? Are you having a good day? Favourite season? Would you sacrifice yourself if you were able to save someone on khv? Anyone in particular you would do this for? Sweet or savoury? What is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you? What mythical creature best represents you? If you could have any superpower, what would you have? Have you ever worn a dress? Best way to make an exit?
Emma crossed her arms as she leaned on a bed near Simon, not sitting down. She was enjoying listening but he must have noticed her momentary confusion about the leeches comment considering he went on to explain it straight after. "Interesting, you do seem to know a lot of random things but I guess that's what comes with you sticking your nose in a book all day" While she wasn't such a fan of reading herself, Simon often told her allsorts of weird and wonderful knowledge he'd discovered and she did remember anything that took her interest. It wasn't clear how much of it was the facts themselves or how Simon told her them, but she did try to remember it. At Simon's indication to sit down, she pretty much flung herself onto the bed in a not very professional manner. She did know that they were expecting to be joined soon though so she did adjust into a more respectable looking position that wouldn't look bad if anyone walked in. However at Simon's sobering comment about slavery, her demeanour became more serious anyway and she looked at Simon directly. "This might be really bad, but slavery being a thing here doesn't surprise me at all. We already knew how elitist some of the races can be, they have a superiority complex that makes them think that they are better than everyone else. Even with the ones that don't, it's not uncommon for certain races to be looked down on. I mean we've come across quite a few that look down on us. With that attitude and a strength that surpasses those that they think inferior to themselves, it's not really that much a jump for them to capture them and treat them as slaves. Plus when you take into account all the fighting that goes on in the universe, I suspect it may be common practice to enslave any captured enemies instead of simply killing all of them." Emma sighed and looked down. "It's a harsh reality, it's not all happy endings. It's a big universe and while there is probably quite a lot of amazing people in it, there are bound to also be a lot of not very nice people. The more people and races there are, I guess the more likely it is that some are likely to be involved in slavery. Hell, even humans enslaved other humans in the past, are we any better? Also some of it won't even be a good and evil thing, it will just be a cultural thing for some species and they won't even realise how bad it is." She paused. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be all depressing." She smiled while looking up at him in the hope to lighten the mood a bit after saying what she said, though it wasn't as quite as natural as her usual smiles.
Emma did not have to wait as immediately after her knock, she heard one back, Simon's reply letting her know that he was alone and she was free to come in. It was still helpful having their own little code, even now they were adults. Heading in, she smiled at the sight of Simon then laughed at his comment about his patients. "Oh my, phantasmic disorder? Sounds ghastly. I hope they succeed to forming a corporal form soon." Moving through the room towards Simon, she would have normally plonked her bum down on one of the empty beds but this time out of respect for the ghostly patients, she decided instead to remain standing near Simon. "But yeah, I know it's crazy. I was never expecting another human to turn up. I wonder if he was one of the other main ships that lasted a while and when they got destroyed, instead of killing everyone, they put some of them into slavery. If that's the case he's probably been in slavery most of his life, that must have been tough." She sighed a little but when Simon mentioned hair products she span round to gently punch him on his arm. "Hair products? As if. You know me better than that, the only hair products I use is the generic shampoo we all use, and a bog-standard hairbrush. Also last I checked you were still keeping hold of my savings." Emma was fully aware that she didn't understand the money that well, nor the trading language she'd need to know to buy anything. Due to that they had come to the agreement that Simon would help her with this and she had entrusted her money to him. She still had the right to get it back and it was still hers to spend, but Simon was there to make sure that nobody took advantage of her lack of knowledge and rip her off. The pilot smirked as she listened to her friend talk, he was good at making her smile. "Well lizard-man or not, you'll be meeting him soon enough as he'll need your skills a lot. He was in a hell of a state, I think his last owner beat him badly. He was in an awful state. I could barely tell his age beneath his scruffy hair and deep bruises, though he's definitely older than us. He seemed to have grey in his hair though I guess it wouldn't be surprising if he looked older than he is due to his hard life. You're gonna be a lifesaver to him. They were just buying him when I left so I suspect they'll be bringing him here very shortly."
I never went to high school (mainly cos I'm British and went to secondary school instead). Though seriously, I graduated university last year with a masters degree in Physics and am currently trying to get a job as a laser engineer.
After Emma had given directions to her position, Garrett had found her pretty soon after, just before the human slave had been brought to the centre of the stage. Her eyebrows had raised as she'd first locked eyes on him. It had been a long time since she'd seen a new human face (discounting babies born on the Resilient). He looked very beat up and if they could save him from that situation, it had to be a good thing. Garrett seemed to approve of her actions of not just charging straight in and she listened to his orders carefully as he gave them. Emma had quite sharp eyes, which was a very useful thing when piloting. She'd changed positions to keep a sharp eye on whoever bid for the human guy and as such she immediately noticed when Kathi placed her bid. After ensuring that Garrett was aware of this, she wasn't sure what she should do or if this was a good thing. Buying the slave would stop any fighting but could they afford to? Emma had never been very good with the common trade language other than the very basics nor with finances, so she had no idea how much Kathi had bid on him for or if that was a lot or little. This may be the best way to avoid any injuries or casualties but she really wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. Kathi's bid seemed to win it though so it was done now. The red-headed pilot glanced towards Garrett as if to ask what to do now. Garrett would likely be mad at the ensign for disobeying orders and placing a bid when she didn't have permission to do so. Technically it was actually Emma's own order of "don't act" that had been disobeyed, though Emma herself didn't care too much that she'd been disobeyed. She didn't like giving out orders anyway and there was the possibility being disobeyed had lead to a better outcome. Well she didn't really know. Either way, Garrett was obviously trying to keep calm in the situation and told her to finish the shopping and return to the ship. It looked like he was planning on avoiding a fight and paying up this time (though no doubt Kathi would get disciplined later). In response to the order she nodded and watched Garrett walk towards Kathi. Technically, she didn't have any shopping so she should just return to the ship but before she did so she waited and watched Garrett. She wanted to make absolutely sure the situation wasn't going to turn sour before she left. Garrett was generally sensible but at the same time, she wouldn't put it past Garrett to threaten the seller if he tried to rip them off or just because he was part of the slave trade. However, watching him from a distance that didn't seem to be the case today. More or less satisfied that things shouldn't turn bad now, she turned and started heading back to the ship. Maybe Simon would be free by now and she could meet up with him. He usually made things a bit more interesting. With that in mind, she reached the ship fairly quickly and headed down to the medbay to rap on the door in a distinctive pattern.
Hannah was apprehensive as they walked along (well carried along in her case as she was currently in bow form). Who knew what could be ahead of them, she'd never been used as a weapon in a real fight before and honestly she was quite nervous about how she would actually perform. It still weighed on the back of her mind that they were yet to create an arrow out of soul wavelength and as such they had a limited supply of arrows. Either way, they would probably coming up on their next obstacle soon provided their riddle answer was correct. Back at the last riddle she had also come to the same conclusion as Mikio pretty fast but then started to have doubts. Since the word was written backwards the maybe instead of just south it meant "south backwards", which is north? However she suspected that was just over-complicating it and South was likely right. If they ended up looping back to that riddle, she would speak up about that.
Listening to the quick reply she'd got, Emma rolled her eyes in slight annoyance. She wasn't the fondest of being called by her full title. It was far too long and it seemed a bit pompous to her. It wasn't uncommon for the ensigns to forget that she was actually quite high ranked on the ship but she really didn't mind that. It wasn't like she usually acted like you'd expect a high-ranking officer to and it was very seldom she pulled rank or gave orders. The only exception being sometimes when she was piloting and something needed doing or she came across a situation where it was absolutely required. She had actually succeeded in getting most people to just call her Emma and not bother with her title unless the situation really called for it. She'd even managed to get Garrett to call her Emma when they were both off-duty, hell he'd practically raised her so he really didn't need the formalities. Yet he was a stickler for the rules so in any situation where he was working seriously, out came the titles again. However, she understood the situation they were in and not not hesitate to respond. "Understood. I am currently at one of the entrances to the slavers market though I have not entered yet and from my position I am currently unable to see Kathi or the human in question. This entrance I am located is left from the Resilient and through the third doorway on the right. At that point you should be able to see a large column with a thick red stripe around it, I am standing in a corner close to there. The slave market itself is in a large room that has multiple entrances/exits and a large circular stage in the centre. Would you like me to enter the room and locate the human slave?" While she was not always Garrett's biggest fan, she liked this plan a whole lot more than charging in and turning everyone against them. If they were very careful they might even be able to do this without endangering the newly formed trade agreements that had just been formed. Honestly, she'd been surprised he hadn't just sent her straight back to the ship to prepare the ship so they could make a quick exit if need be. It wasn't unusual for her to act as a gettaway driver, ready with the ship on standby, ready to leave at a moment's notice. Though that seemed not to be the case yet, not that she was complaining.
Emma had barely made it off the ship when the call came over the comms, "So much for a nice new station to trade with" She muttered before replying on the comms. "Wait, don't act yet. Don't attract attention to yourself. As soon as we move we'll have the entire station after us and currently we're scattered all over the station with no supplies bought yet. We need to be ready. However personally, I'm all for a rescue mission. It's been a long time since we've seen any humans aside from us and slavery sucks anyway. Don't lose sight of the human." Emma glanced around, the call had come in not long after they had left the ship so the slavery part couldn't be too far away unless Kathi has basically sprinted to the other side of the ship. So where was it, she scanned the crowd carefully and her eyes quickly locked onto a young Latipha in chains being pulled along by some reptilian looking aliens. Taking a gamble they were going to that area and not back from it, she began to follow them. "There may be lock down measures on this ship, which could prevent us from leaving. As soon as we make any sort of rescue attempt, we need to be off this station fast before they block us from leaving. Even better if we manage to secretly extract him without alerting the station. No gun fights in the middle of the station if we can manage that. Leave before they notice." She added on as she considered their best course of action. Her attitude was almost unrecognisable from her usual carefree inclination. This was mainly due to the fact she was in work mode, she wasn't a stranger to dangerous situations and despite being tempted to, she was aware recklessly charging in could kill them all. She rounded a corner and stopped, moving to the side as to not block the corridor. Well, she'd found the slave section. She did not go in as she was aware that her red hair could stand out and she wasn't in a hurry to get noticed. She could not see Kathi from where she was standing but no doubt the girl was nearby as well as the target of their rescue. She stood by and waited for a response from the others. It was a bit of a shame that their time off the ship was going to be cut short, they barely ever got off the ship as it was but Emma didn't mind so much with this situation. Two different escapes in 2 days was something of a new record, which was exciting and a challenge. Plus a new human! That had got to be good news.
I wanna nom @Marushi, @Feenie and @Glen
It had actually been much earlier than Emma had expected when she'd been called to the helm and given the newly plotted route. She hadn't minded too much, she had nothing to do otherwise and the route she'd been given was actually quite straightforward. This new trade station wasn't too far away from their current location and there wasn't any major obstacles in their way. In fact in terms of space travel where at times they'd travelled for months without docking, being able to reach their destination in a matter of hours was quite amazing. She hadn't hesitated to get to work, becoming completely focused the moment she sat at the controls of the ship. The journey itself to the main space station had been without issue, she'd have been seriously unhappy with herself if this hadn't been the case considering it was a very easy job for her. The interesting part came when they reached the space station. Docking for the first time on an unfamiliar alien station, with a complicated system like none she'd ever seen before? Now this was her idea of fun. It had taken a while to figure out where they were directing them to go, even with Jael's skills they had not given clear directions. Just being told to go to "docking station five", even when you understand it doesn't mean much if you don't know where "docking station five" is and the aliens on the station did not give good directions. After much confusion, "docking station five" was finally located. The landing itself, while not being not the easiest of landings, actually went surprisingly smoothly. Emma had taken a short nap in the interim while Dania left the ship to do her thing and by the time the announcement chimed out across the ship, she was back to being fully awake. Unlike other people on the ship, she didn't actually have a lot to do while they were here, other than being responsible for them getting in and out of the station. She was a pilot, what supplies did she actually need? As long as everybody else did their job so the ship worked and they had enough food and stuff like that, she really didn't need anything. This effectively meant that she had plenty of free time to explore or do whatever. They basically spent their entire lives on the ship so she really should make use of the opportunity to have some brief time away from it. One of Simon's assistants had approached her shortly after the announcement to tell her that he would be late. That was a shame but not the end of the world, no doubt they would meet up later. In the meantime Emma slowly meandered her way to the exit to the ship, she wasn't one of those who was desperate to be the first of the ship and she could do without being pushed around like a pinball. She could see all the crowd ahead with Jael shouting out language reminders but she was more than willing to let them exit before her. Anyway she needed to find someone she could tag along with for now.
Hannah shrugged, "Well I don't have an issue with it but surely it would be better if they took the lead. My logic is that they are much better than us in close combat, so in an instance that an enemy is immediately around the corner or waiting in ambush, they would be better at reacting. If we go around a corner and see an enemy a distance away then we should have time to go around the corner and shoot them before they reach us. Due to that I think we'd be better as support than leading. That is if everyone is okay with that?" Hannah asked, looking around. Both pairs had their own specialities so surely they needed to make best use of that? Since Chaol had also agreed to her previous suggestion, she quietly walked up to him, muttered "Catch me" and transformed.
KHV fanfics
As Simon told his tale about the 'Horrific Ladder Accident', Emma stared at him, eyes narrowing as she attempted to discern if he was being serious or just teasing her again. She wouldn't put it past him to make the who thing up just to elicit some reaction from her. Deaths on the ship were normally a big thing, especially when they occurred outside of battles and attacks and the year he mentioned wasn't so long ago that she wouldn't remember it. She recalled no deaths on the ship relating to ladders, did that mean he was just making it up? Though what he said did imply that it had been hushed up a little and maybe the true facts not released to everyone. Regardless even if it had happened there was no way that they would have not taken precautions to stop it happening again, maybe by changing the ladders or by plastering warning stickers and proper instructions everywhere. She could do with some clear instructions on how to put the ladder up correctly, it never seemed to work for her. Three seconds. Just three seconds. That was how long it had taken Simon to put together that damn ladder that normally took her a good 15 minutes. How? He had made it look so easy and she'd have thought that if not for her own personal experience struggling to get it to do what she wanted. How? That was ridiculous. Maybe that ladder just disliked her, maybe it was out to get her. It made no sense that he could just come along and just do it like that. It would have been really embarrassing if she'd just tried to use the ladder and had struggled with it for 15 minutes. This was a much better outcome. Despite her disbelief, she went up the ladder without any hesitation and was back down in no time at all. She had no issue with heights and she was willing to trust Simon's ladder building skills. Plus he was always there for her to land on if it had collapsed. Emma raised an eyebrow as Simon mentioned that he might not have been able to do it. She knew that he was not the keenest of heights but at the same time for him to reach this box, he would probably only have to go like two steps up the ladder and she was pretty sure that even he could have managed that. She smirked at his comment about her own height, "Well I do what I must", she responded while shrugging.
Staying near the back of the group, Hannah had just been following everyone else. She'd been really happy about getting the riddle right but now these choices were just 50:50 and down to luck. They had just as much chance at getting it right as she did and she might accidentally talk them down the wrong path if she joined in. One thought did cross her mind though, "Umm guys? I'm happy to go down whatever side you decide but do you think we'd be better off in weapon forms? I mean we have absolutely no idea what lies ahead and well, isn't it better if we are already in the form we can fight in? We can always change back if it's another riddle." She suggested this quite quietly, just hoping she hadn't just said something stupid or paranoid. She didn't think she had, it made sense to her but she still had that little doubt.
Well then can I make a request that this thread be locked if it ever reaches 5K posts? That's gonna take an awful long time and it might never happen but I'm the OP and can request that, right?
Are you serious?
I remember you~ Welcome back!
I won't win ^,^
Due to concentrating quite hard on how to climb up these shelves without falling and breaking all her bones, Emma's reactions were not on par with what they had been earlier in the day. Simon's shout of "Waitareyouserious" had caught her attention just enough to cause her to glance over but by the time she'd shifted her view, her longtime friend was already upon her. "Wha-Hey! Put me down!" Emma shouted out to him as he'd suddenly grabbed her and lifted her off the ground. She stared at him as he put her down, unhappy to have been caught and to have been lifted against her will. Her friend went on to scold her, for something she really already knew. She knew that she shouldn't really climb and she also knew that Simon was kind of worried about her doing that. Simon probably wasn't aware how much of a pain it was to get the ladder out for ever little thing, he could already reach most of it. Also, Emma would never admit it but she really hated that ladder, she'd had more pain caused from trapping her finger in the it or getting hit with it, than from falling from not using it. That said that was probably due to not being allowed to not use the ladder. However she knew that wasn't a proper excuse and did not say it outloud. Instead Emma looked up at Simon with a serious expression as he reprimanded her, nodding to show her understanding. Though as he did so, her serious look began to show cracks as she struggled to keep a straight face. The corners of her lips began to curl upwards in a smile that she was trying hard to keep hidden. She usually found Simon's lectures hard to stay serious in. There was just something about it that she found amusing. At the mention of him tackling her, her eyebrows went up a bit but her verbal response was successfully stopped by her brain before it reached her mouth. She finally got up off the ground and put her hands in the air in defeat. "Alright, you win. I'm sorry for trying to climb it. I'll use that stupid ladder in the future." Her eyes flicked over to the ladder with disdain before flicking back to Simon and relaxing. Well at least this time Simon would be the one fixing the damn thing in place and not her, the actual climbing of the ladder was fine.
@Christhor Testing
