ataraxionlogs | [open] ROCK LOBSTER!!

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[open] ROCK LOBSTER!!

CHARACTERS: AJ Harris and Algidus and YOU!
LOCATION: Encampment
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Two new arrivals return to camp triumphant and ready to barter with the biggest river-pig yet.
NOTES:
1) Backdated to several days after the September batch of newbies arrived. September 15 or so.
2) Catch-all for setting up some trade. They're looking for tech, trading for sea-bacon. Try to start some shit and the bit ice alien will end it.

When they finally arrived back to the outskirts of the encampment late one afternoon, AJ Harris was a sweaty mess of grumbly frustration, but she forced a wide grin on and picked up her step from the moment she spotted the camp's first inhabitants. Algidus had held up his part of the bargain by catching this monster. Now she had to hold up hers. "This way," she encouraged him, meandering through onlooking survivors as they gawped at the massive tentacled beast carted between the two of them. Soon the pair were flanking a two-meter long rock lobster--missing several bony plates near the back of its massive jelly eyes--showing it off as best as possible for would-be connoisseurs. It was so big that AJ had had to fold its now frosty tentacles over on itself, lest they trip up passers-by.

Luckily, they had no incidents as they approached the clearing developed for bargaining, gathering, and shouting, and the long-haired human was pleased to finally take a position over the olde shouting rock to holler up some attention. She waited until Algidus had finished placing their catch on the ground before them before he withdrew to menace any who thought to slip in and poach, then got down to business. She had recently ripped the sleeves off of her standard issue jump suit, so now she wiped her hands off of one wedged over her belt before raising her sweaty guns to the encampment at large.

"Me and my big friend here have icy slabs of calamari just waiting for anyone who wants a bite, but she was a bitch to wrangle out of the river, so they're not gonna be cheap! You want a slice, this could just be the start of some beautiful business!"

She pointed down at the rock lobster with both hands, two fingers apiece, hyping up the catch by flagrantly flexing her pipes. "Who's sick of eating leaves? You are! Who's sick of climbing trees? You weren't born to be a fucking monkey! Who wants to eat cooked fucking meat without a throat full of nasty gecko bones? You, right here! This is one-hundred percent triple A-grade natural river-fresh meat right here, and if you got details about how we can get off this fucking rock we got a place for you at the front of the line! I want parts and supplies, I want gas and a generator, I want whatever passes for alien federation mind-meld voodoo that got that thing up there!" She pointed first to the wreck looming in the distance, then up to a low-hanging moon, then brought her fist back down, a show of force as her grin dropped into a sneer. "And neither of us are gonna be fucked with, so don't think of bumming any fake shit; neither of us are neanderthals who are gonna be spoon-fed a bunch of horse turds and believe they're apples!"

Hopping down off the rock, she did her best to saunter. Showmanship was never her strong-point, but by god she was trying her hardest here. She really owed Algidus if she expected him to keep hunting for her.

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Algidus' work did not go unnoticed -- Carlisle couldn't help but watch the way the alien manipulated his arm, not thinking of how such an ability could be turned on him should he cross the pair, but more in the interest of how such shapeshifting worked in the first place. Was it magical? Or a natural ability granted to him by... well, whatever exactly he was? With some of his memory in pieces, Carlisle couldn't tell if he'd ever met an individual quite as strange, but he got the feeling the answer was a resounding no.

The answer to whether or not he wanted to see what Algidus was like when he was hungry was also a no. That one was easy.

"Algidus and Harris, then," he repeated to himself as AJ worked on cooking their meal -- his eyes took in how she handled the food, the stove, and the trade in general. There was a lack of finesse that told him she wasn't much of one for finer commodities. At least he had no qualms with sharing, especially when he wasn't the one to have caught the beast in the first place. He only hoped that what information he had to offer them would be useful. With as technologically inept as he felt, he was certain that, too, would be a no.

She offered him the first bite, which he assumed was not out of politeness. He took it carefully, with an appreciative nod and an unsure smile to go along with it, before tossing it into his mouth. Though a little chewy, it... wasn't bad, actually, as he showed with another nod.

"Better than seeds, certainly," he noted.

Depending on how closesly Carlisle was watching Algidus, he might have noticed a couple of things. One, when AJ mentioned his tendency to eat those that disrespected him, his gaze flicked over to her and he narrowed his eyes slightly-- like he didn't know where she'd got that information or that he was insulted by the implication of savagery. The look passed just as quickly as it came, however; he understood that she was attempting to instill further fear and didn't mind being the face for that. Instead he just turned his gaze back to Carlisle and leered, clicking his mandibles once as if considering what the man would be like as a meal.

The leering didn't last long, however; the second thing that Carlisle might have noticed was that Algidus was completely unbothered by the presence of the portable stove... right up until AJ turned it on. It was like he didn't know what it was for until he felt the heat starting to come off of it; at that point he tensed, his shoulders hitching up slightly. As a being of ice he was intensely wary of any souce of heat or flame, but he was doing his best to keep himself steeled here because he didn't want their newest source of information to realize the weakness. He masked it behind an intense glare-- which had the unfortunate side effect of making him look downright pissed off when Carlisle made that remark.

"Of course it is," Algidus replied, even though he had nothing to base it off of given that he couldn't taste. "The creature had a lot of meat. That will be enough to fill you up and last you." Watching the two humans eat was reminding him that he still had his own share waiting for him, and it made his digestive organs twist up slightly in hunger... but later. He preferred to eat alone; there was less chance of anyone gawking or asking questions about his unique method of taking in nourishment that way. Instead he cast a glance to AJ, waiting to see what she thought of his catch. This whole thing wasn't just to lure in traders; it was part of his end of their bargain to help provide her with food, and if she was going to be picky about this that would complicate things.

AJ waited a moment or two, eyebrows raised in almost the same way that a young boy might while watching a peer swallowing a worm. When Carlisle didn't hack or splutter, she allowed her expression to even out, then gave about as charming a grin as she was able. ...It wasn't, very. But she was obviously trying. It might look a little pitiful if Algidus was not towering nearby and making the situation awkward with his death glares. The woman hadn't figured out what he was glaring at, yet, so she did what any good sort-of-host would do: she tried a bit of the strange meat, herself.

She pinched her face at the awful, rubbery texture of the cooked meat, but honestly, the savoury flavour was better than anything she'd had in days. What initially looked like a reaction to a particularly sour lemon dissolved as she found herself overwhelmed. She hadn't quite worked out the bacon-flavour yet. All that she knew was that it was better by far than seeds.

Casting Carlisle a glare that suggested she might still be ready to fight, she magnanimously waved her knife his way. "Have more, or else I might eat it all." Looking up at Algidus, she gave a satisfied nod. "People are gonna dig into this, just wait. They'll be jealous if they don't get some. We'll get off this fucking rock sooner than you think."

Though Carlisle missed Algidus' reaction to his partner's boast regarding his savagery, the alien's reaction to the stove did not go unnoticed. Unaware of Algidus' icy biology, he noted it as a peculiar fear for someone so monstrous -- and then, he couldn't keep himself from wondering exactly why that fear existed. Perhaps it was unfamiliarity with the technology that caused him to flinch, Carlisle considered as he chewed the rubbery morsel in his mouth, or a near-death experience that—

That...

Carlisle's thoughts trailed off as he unconsciously pressed a hand against his abdomen, his eyes still on Algidus as his mind wandered elsewhere. Why did that thought give him such pause? And worse, fill him with such trepidation? It wasn't injury that scared him, nor death itself, but something else. What was it?

Algidus' glare pulled him from his thoughts, and he turned his eyes away from the alien, only them to land on AJ's knife. His lips reflexively pulled themselves into a nervous smile. "I'd believe you if determination and showmanship were all we needed to leave this place," he said, reaching for a second bite of the cooked creature. "I take it from what you said earlier that neither of you were here when the ship was still in the sky?"

Algidus might have taken more note of Carlisle's sudden trepidation if the general vibe he hadn't been giving off this whole time had been one of nervousness and fear. Instead the alien simply laced his fingers together in his lap, tilting his head slightly. "No. We arrived here just a couple of days ago, though I am not entirely sure how that happened." But then this wasn't the first time he'd found himself whisked off to some strange place without the first clue how he arrived; the repeating of history was aggravating to say the least. "Why? Do you have some pertinent information to share, now? Something about what caused the crash, or why were brought here... or something else that is relevant?"

AJ was busy wondering if something about what they were eating was causing Carlisle to clutch his stomach. She narrowed her eyes and sniffed another slice of food before trying it out... but really, it tasted too good to be bad. It couldn't be poisonous, could it?

When Algidus asked his question, she kept her mouth closed. She had heard a few things about what had gone down before she had arrived, but if Carlisle was able to verify them, it would boost her trust of the nervous man more than him simply offering up vague promises.

"I don't remember what caused the crash, or anything right before it," Carlisle replied, adding quickly so as not to appear as mentally deficient as previously implied: "No one I've spoken to seems to remember... not yet, anyway. I've thought that, perhaps, it's something to do with why we all suffered temporary amnesia upon awakening. The ship was said to possibly be alive, that the rooms could change arrangement at will. I don't suppose it wanting us to forget is entirely out of the question."

He turned his attention from the meal and those providing it, reaching to his side. Digging his hands into the badger-skin bag that hung from his shoulder, he produced a leather-bound journal after minimal searching. The journal, much like most of the people at the camp, looked as though it had seen better days: the cover was ragged in several places, the pages wrinkled and distorted around the edges. Several sheets of paper fell out as he unwrapped the binding that held the entire book shut, revealing a multitude of handwritten notes. While some of the ink had smeared, most were still fairly legible -- that was if one could read the minuscule print in which Carlisle had written them.

Setting the journal on his lap, he started sorting through the pages, glancing through each one before putting it aside.

"I awoke after the crash in one of the pods, so I assume something must have gone wrong during a jump."

Edited 2015-10-10 08:31 (UTC)

That got Algidus' attention--he blinked and then narrowed his eyes. At this point he had heard a couple of different explanations for all of the bizarre things that had been happening in or around the ship, but hearing that the ship itself was rumored to be alive? It was a little bit hard to wrap his mind around that one, let alone put much stock in... he flicked a quick glance over to AJ, curious to see if she was buying this. Then Carlisle was pulling out his journal and his attention was entirely consumed again.

"Human, surely you understand how far-fetched this concept is," he rumbled; sure, the same could be said about a lot of the things going on around here, but space travel and jumps and alien planets teeming with alien life were all just common facts for Algidus. He was walking proof of that. This was different. Instead he craned his neck forward as if he was trying to peer into the man's journal for himself--unintentionally bringing those curling spikes and pointed mandibles much closer, sorry about that. "So? What does this archaic logbook say? Is there anything noteworthy within?"

AJ scrubbed at one side of her face, obviously reacting to Carlisle's guess, obviously trying to cover over how unlikely she thought that it was, too. Crying 'bullshit' now seemed like it would scare the man off, and if he had anything worthwhile, she expected it was going to take some digging.

Moreover, she was going to have to ask around about him; she wanted to know if her impression of him as a tepid, low-key crazy man was correct or if maybe she was going to have to really start to expand her world-view to what was possible.

That ship had felt wholly metal and plastic and glass when she'd climbed her way out of it a week or so ago. This wasn't adding up.

Leaning back while Algidus pressed, she took an opportunity to cram more sea-bacon down her throat. She'd been drinking water caught in leaves and eating leaves for an entire week; this was like junk-food heaven by comparison.

"The ship tried to jump earlier," Carlisle continued, more concerned with his own thoughts and his notes than the pair to whom he was talking, "despite the fact that it's on its side and teetering into a gorge. Some parts of it are still active, if that's the way you—"

He cut himself off, noting the incredulous look on AJ's face, hearing the disbelief in Algidus' tone. Of course, he hadn't been near the ship during the latest jump -- they'd told everyone to evacuate the area. He hadn't been terribly interested with what emerged from the ship after that, though he should have guessed it'd be more arrivals... more prisoners, like himself. They were all prisoners on this alien world.

"I know it sounds far-fetched at best, and insane at worst, but a lot has since my arrival. This world is very unlike my own -- not just the world we're now on, but the ship itself. I'm still adjusting, which" —he waved a few of the pages in Algidus' direction— "is why I take notes. Archaic logbook, hmpf."

Edited 2015-10-13 00:29 (UTC)

Algidus, whose face was really not at all that far from Carlisle's by this point, glared and gave a low rumbling growl at the impersonation... but then he pulled away, pacing for a moment before he lowered himself back down on his haunches next to AJ.

"I do not like this," he said, looking at the other clone out of the corner of his eye. "First we hear that something on the ship is responsible for the 'tether'. Then we hear about strange, shadowy creature that has escaped and is now lurking in the jungle. And now, this ship is supposedly 'alive'. Apparently it has 'chosen' us during its jumps, but 'wants us to forget' certain things." The alien huffed--loudly. "We're not getting answers, we're getting more questions that need answering. Tell us there is something useful in that... that... notebook!"

"Or else you'd better learn how to fucking run," AJ added, though she didn't sound especially terrified of the way that Algidus was teetering over the edge, himself.

"We weren't born yesterday," technically true, though hellishly ironic compared to the regular lifespan of a human--and especially one such as Algidus' people. "We went through a lot of shit before we got sucked up here. You can feed us a line but we know the bullshit from what's real."

She took a moment to consider. "Now, I have been talking to a lot of you idiots. Nobody seems to know a fucking thing. Come straight with me, there's really nobody in charge here, among everyone here, who might be able to give us some straight answers about anything he just talked about? How fucked up is that?"

Carlisle shrunk behind the pages in his arms, the one he'd been looking for in his hand. They wouldn't protect him from the fury of an angry alien, though -- no amount of paper would. He only had so many pages as it was.

"Y- you could try talking to R- Ryuuzaki," he stammered, his hands shaking as they clung to that archaic notebook of his. "He's h- heading the salvage missions. Trying to put the network back together, I believe. He might have better answers for you?"

Yes, running was sounding like a very reasonable reaction at that moment.

Algidus turned back around to face Carlisle, his eyes narrowing and mandibles twitching. Something about what he had said or how he had said it was off, but given that the nanites from the ship translated the Des language, he was unable to place it fully. Instead, faced with more pressing issues, the alien tossed that niggling curiosity to the side and locked his attention on what answers the man was scrambling to provide.

"Another trail to wander down," he muttered, frustration still present in his voice. "Another human to question, likely only to get more scattered information about that wrecked hunk of metal. What do you think, AJ? Should I pursue this... 'Ryuuzaki'? I can bring him to you. I can make him answer!" Admittedly the alien was quickly losing his grip on his attempts to play diplomatic, but it was hard not to want to take things into his own hand when playing nice was just compounding his frustrations. He wanted someone he could pin all of this on... or maybe just someone to rough up, at the rate things were going.

If Algidus tossed aside that slip into Des, AJ was not quite ready to. She watched the terrified man with narrowed eyes and considered how strongly he was reacting to Algidus' looming presence. Was the slip-up something to do with a second language; was this place like the last, where their brains had all been crammed with a more or less comprehensive understanding of the same language? AJ couldn't be sure... but in the event that Carlisle did not leave a trail of piss in his wake, she might ask him about it later.

More pressing events were turning over; specifically, Algidus putting on a show. She had been fiddling with her knife, and now she tapped it on her lap thoughtfully. "If you can find him, yeah," she decided. "We just want to make friends; you know, like with that bearded asshole, the one with the funny accent." Meaning Hawke, of course, not Hughes, but AJ had not quite gotten the glib, marked man's name. "You," she turned her attention back to Carlisle. "If this turns out, you'll have both of our thanks." Just to prove her point, she elbowed the ice alien as if to say 'don't we?'

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[open] ROCK LOBSTER!!

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