We started Ahmetia off at Anime Next.
She did... my usual twisted version of the Tropical Island (unlike MJ who flatlines the biases there and leaves a new Verser there for days, I run the biases through the roof but my Versers are only there for like an hour and don't have time to learn anything useful). She met with a man who was as much machine as man, who explained that there are things out there both subtle and gross, but it's not for the faint of heart.
((Edited: Apparently Ahmetia's memory of this was clearer than mine - her Senior Verser was a slim-figured man dressed like a Spanish nobleman, complete with rapier and dagger, with slightly foxlike features that remind her of Shakespeare's Puck.))
Then the island blew up.
She spent an eventful couple of days on the Orient Express (I love putting Versers in familiar but twisted worlds. and it was 2am and seemed like a good idea). She managed to be framed for murder, accuse a lieutenant colonel of the Royal Marines of the same murder, and then be murdered in her sleep when it turned out she was right. Oh well. At least the look of 'wtf?' on his face when he watched her Verse out was probably worth it.
When the Scriff spat her out again, she felt the feeling of rising and falling. She was promptly arrested. Again. This time by an engineer with a thick Russian accent and a very large wrench, who turned her over to a security officer, who brought her to Captain Elizabeth Larkin-Johnson, who informed her that the Piper Marie III (why? because artistic liberties, and because having a number gives that 'used universe' feeling) allows no stowaways and carries no passengers. She who does not work does not ride. And seeing as it's another seven weeks in hyperspace to Emerald Station, it would be a long walk.
So they assigned her to Astrogation, which proved to be sufficiently above her tech level and mathematical abilities for her to wash out after two days. The security officer, Benjamin Harrison, took pity on her, and while he was willing to teach her some fighting skills, it wouldn't be enough to get her a spot in security. Ultimately she wound up in the galley, working with a fat cook named Gopher.
And so it is that she is in a unique position of getting to meet pretty much the entire crew at one point or another. Regardless of rank or department, everyone has to eat. So far they all like her well enough, and various people are willing to include her in their interests. Harrison wants to teach her martial arts. Gopher is teaching her to cook and tend bar. One of the girls from Astrogation still thinks she could learn it if she put her mind to it. And there is a tall, stick-thin man who claims to be from Emerald Station, who is earning his passage home by entertaining the crew with his music in the dining hall.
And that's where we left her, en route to Emerald Station aboard a cargo ship that is the third of her name.
((I thought we were going to say that the oriental express experience never happened since you were too tired and too fatigued minded to think and plan a murdered mystery thing, I didn't know I got murder then :-P and you did the guy who looked like a spanish nobleman with me, kept reminding me of Puck for some reason, I just got my character sheet up, started a new need help with attributes))
((Oh did I give you the Spaniard? Sorry, will edit. And no, the Orient Express thing did happen, it just didn't amount to much. Murdered in your sleep is more fitting with the scenario and less hand-wave-y than 'it was all a vision between worlds.' Not much less, but less.))
((kay, not sure what to do about continuing on the world that I am in now *think*))
Well, let's put you in a scene and see what you do with it.
The galley is fairly active tonight. Some of the boys from Astrogation are really hot about something they picked up at the very edge of long-range sensors, where they can still spot objects but the resolution goes all fuzzy and they can't seem to be sure what they've got.
"It's a derelict ship," one insists, "We'll make a fortune if we salvage it."
"It's a trap is what it is. Damn pirates always looking to hit whatever they can find around Emerald Station..." grouses another.
"It's nothing," says a third, "Just an asteroid with above-average titanium content."
"A titanium asteroid would still make us a pretty penny," argues the first, "If we could get the Captain to tow it to Sardisia."
You remember from your two days in Astrogation that Sardisia is another planet in the Sard system, same system as Sardic where the Piper Marie III is registered out of. Its only major claim to fame is being home to some of the largest starship foundries in inhabited space. Think Detroit, only in space.
Regardless, their arguing continues through dinner.
In another corner, a tall, thin man is entertaining the crew by playing an instrument akin to a clarinet. What he's playing is lively, but there is not room for anyone to dance, and no one seems inclined to, anyway.
Sitting at the bar is a young communications officer, who is tinkering with what looks like a transistor radio as designed by George Lucas. Mostly it plays static, but every so often she gets a signal on it. Those signals are what sound like sports statistics, and it seems her team is winning.
"What sport is it you're trying to listen to?" I ask as I come up on her. I usually would like to try and be social with everyone when I am not cooking or cleaning or what have you. Best way to make friends. I will probably go talk to the boys from Astrogation later about what they had seen, seems quite interesting whatever it would be.
"It's called Phaesteon," she says. When she describes the basic rules, it sounds a bit like what you would get if Quidditch were played in zero-gravity as a collision sport. "Very popular with spacers," she says, "Helps people keep strong who spend a lot of time in freefall." As it seems to involve a lot of physical contact and the manipulation of object with great mass, this makes perfect sense. Her team, the Vapor Runners of Korg, are currently winning by a fairly substantial margin and are favored to win the Lower Sardic Syndicate this season and play in the finals against the Upper Syndicate favorite, the Brotherhood of Flames from Sardisia.
It seems that the debate over what it was on long-range sensors has begun to heat up. Not in the sense that they might come to blows over it, but in the sense that they have begun placing bets on it, and their various friends are starting up a pool. The first part of the bet, so far, is focusing on whether or not they can convince the Captain to make a detour to check it out.
"Sounds quite interesting," I say before I look over to the pool, trying to fight down a small laugh that the semi-mysterious object has caused a full on where do you stand and what do you think it is with the crew. "It's like watching people dare each other into going into a ghost town. Pretty soon they're going to have to find someone or some of them to actually convince the captain to head over there."
I apologize for the long absence - my cable modem decided to cease functioning for all this time...
"It is!" she exclaims. It comes out almost like a squeak, very schoolgirl-ish for someone who is up to her eyeballs in sports statistics.
As for the other, it's going pretty much like you would expect. They are checking their watches to see whether the captain or the first officer has the conn right now. The captain herself is very by-the-book and tends not to like things like this. The first officer you don't know as well - he tends to work the night shift, and so comes on duty a bit after you get off - he's a bit more impulsive, and generally a good foil for the captain.
((I was wondering where you were :-P I actually thought you were on vacation somewhere))
I watch them as I listen to the girl and her sport. I don't want to ignore her while they were off. "I wonder if the captain would have even liked the idea of going to that semi-mysterious object near by..." I say out loud. I didn't find her to be particularly unfair, after all, she didn't send me out to some random planet and got stranded instead of having me do some work, especially this kind. Though it dose make me curious what the first officer is like by comparison.
The sporty girl shrugs. "Maybe twenty years ago," she says, "She's been pretty tight ever since that business in Haven..."
Meanwhile, someone comes in and slides into a seat at the counter. (I hesitate to call it a bar because it's not just for alcohol, although the cook does maintain a very nice still in the back room.) It's Harrison from security, and it looks like he just got off duty because he's still wearing his uniform, but in that 'unbuttoned and untucked' way that everyone sort of understands means he's 'out of uniform' even though he's wearing one.
"How's dinner?" he asks, settling in with a yawn.
I managed to say so much as, "I am guessing I shouldn't ask?" before Harrison came and sat down. "To be honest, as usual, good, but I still wonder if I am the only one who can barely eat it if I don't take something before he has a chance to 'season it'," I say with a small laugh.
((I decided to practice drawing by sketching my multi-verser self, why am I so sad? I am separated from my family, my best friends, and my boyfriend, wouldn't you be sad too?
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c105/SerenityM16/Multi-VerserSelfSemi-Edited.jpg
))
One of the things Verser-me mourned in the earliest days was losing his g/f. IRL we are still together two years later, but he has been living a sailor's life and is now getting ready to marry. For a new Verser still getting used to being gone, it's plenty to be sad over. *gives Verser-Metia a big squishy hug*
"Gopher does love his spices," Harrison agrees, "I guess I'll have whatever the house special is." The house special tonight happens to be a stew not entirely unlike cajun gumbo. For you this means scrounging, and probably a salad eventually. He kicks back and hooks his feet under the lower rail of the bar, propping his barstool up on two legs. "You'll be better off when we get to Durnmist. Gopher likes to cook in the local styles of wherever we're going. Durnmist food is like boiled cardboard. You'll be fine." He has that 'mostly just teasing you' grin on his face.
A chime plays that signals the official start of the night watch. This means you have about another hour before you get off. It also means the First Officer now has the conn, and various other things change over. The lights dim a bit, the artificial gravity goes a bit lighter. Nothing ever actually closes, stops, or shuts down, though - everything runs nigh constantly, just different people pushing the buttons.
((I am just saying, Verser-Metia is very sad when she's alone and is probably going to be sad for a while.))
"You're saying that to the girl who likes to cook her meat down to about that," I teased, somewhat. I say before I stand, "I'll be back soon," I say before I try and remember whether or not the girl ate.
The sporty girl hasn't eaten yet, but she also hasn't ordered anything yet. She seems like the type who might forget to eat in the course of tinkering with that radio of hers.
Your tease gets a grin out of Harrison, who turns to listen in on the guys betting on the whatever-it-was on long-range sensors. Giving you space to do your work, he has turned his attention elsewhere for now.
((thought you'd be interested to know I found Dominic Deegan on TV Tropes which lists, names, and explains common chataracter, writing, and story types, it's been mentioned by the guy who said he wanted to be genre savvy if you remember:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DominicDeegan
lmao Blessed With Suck, I got to use that one))
"I don't believe you've eatten anything yet, not good for someone to skip meals," I say to her.
"Hmm?" She looks up from her radio. "Oh! I guess you're right."
So that's two orders of the gumbo, it seems.
Meanwhile, one of the boys from Astrogation is getting up. The others seem to be trying to stop him, but he seems adamant about going wherever it is he's trying to go.
I look to the others as I watch the boy from Astrogation leave, I was guessing he either backed down from whatever they were talking about, or went to convince the first officer to investigate the semi-mysterious object. As I am walking back to get their gumbo specials I am trying to remember if the boys have eatten yet.
The boys from Astrogation were more for random snacks and drinks when they first came in. They haven't had proper dinner yet, and they've been here a while, but they've been so engrossed in their discussion/debate/argument/excuse to gamble that they haven't really bothered with you or Gopher either.
There's plenty of gumbo to be had, and thankfully someone other than yourself is doing dishes so there are plenty of bowls and such as well. The standard drink on board ship is usually water from what amounts to a glorified dehumidifier attached to a suped-up Brita filter. When the water gets boring there are these pouches of powdered flavoring that claim to be Orange, Berry, or Cherry, but they all end up tasting like really watery Tang by the time they mix in.
Do remember that I am not a 'years of experience' veteran referee - if you feel your pace is too slow, if you want to be more proactive, if you have any ideas for things you would like to see happen with/to/around Verser-Metia, feel free to offer suggestions, comments, constructive criticisms (this extends to MJ, Scott, and any of the other veterans who might be lurking this thread)...
((I have been rping for years, I can appreciate some calm time in between some exiting stuff, besides, if they ever get to that semi-mysterious object, that'll probably be interesting for a while, but I'll let you know if I come up with any ideas))
I take the two gumbos and come back to the two I was sitting with before, "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask what you wanted to drink?" I say in a light hearted stupid me always forgetting things tone. I place the two gumbos down to them, but can't help but feel I am forgetting something else while I am at it. The nagging feeling that is always there and I usually just needed to learn to ignore it.
((Btw, could you tell me what shows you're at in the nyrf so I can come and see you in action sometime during it's run :) ))
...feel free to offer suggestions, comments, constructive criticisms (this extends to MJ, Scott, and any of the other veterans who might be lurking this thread).I've been biting down hard on my tongue on this point for quite a while, because on the one hand this is based on the Mary Piper which I wrote, and on the other hand it is not one of the versions I created, so I didn't want to say anything. After all, it's not as if my design is "canon"; at the same time, I was getting a bit annoyed with Eric's Mary Piper Gamma through Omega, specifically because they broke the pattern in so many ways, and the point of the original was supposed to be that you could do the same type of merchant transport in many different settings. (Thus the Mary Piper camel caravan was quite reasonable, and the Mary Piper stage coach run not too far from the mark, but the Mary Piper plague ship and Mary Piper cruise ship and Mary Piper ghost ship were all too far from the original to be "the same template", in my thinking.)
So from the perspective that this is a merchant trader in a different setting, and otherwise follows the Mary Piper model, the kitchen staff and the medical staff are the same four people (and Ahmetia makes five), and that means that Ahmetia ought to be getting training in emergency medicine, and that Gopher must be trained already to some minimum standard that enables him to deliver medical help to combatants in the midst of a battle and assist in surgeries and other medical care in the medical bay.
As I say, I don't see you being especially faithful to the template, and that's fine; but if you were being faithful to the template, as "kitchen staff" Ahmetia would be a medic being apprenticed toward being a ship's doctor (who oversees the nutrition of the crew as well as their medical care). That would also give her a more interesting part in the program over time, and might qualify her for a continued position with the crew after they reach port.
Oh, and the secret to making Tang taste good is to use less water. I strongly recommend the Orange Pineapple flavor and the Tangerine Strawberry, but I've been having trouble finding them lately so they may have been discontinued around here.
--M. J. Young
Oooo... you're right! I forgot about the kitchen staff being considered part of the medical crew. Incidentally, could you drop me a note in the Behind the Screens at some point about exactly what skills she would be improving? I know Mary Piper uses that 'skill school' system you told me about age ago but I'm still not clear enough on that to build one myself. As it happens, I will definitely include that, now that I remember it. Maybe Gopher's specialty is triage, and they don't call on him during 'normal' medical rotations - he's better as a cook and they don't need a combat medic every day.
"Water," Harrison says, "Thank you."
"A drop of the good stuff," adds your sporty friend, "And a packet of Cherry."
Meanwhile, the guys from Astrogation have settled down. Wherever that one guy went, it seems to have settled things, or at least put everything on hold for a while.
Two posts, because I forgot to answer Ahmetia's question. If you come to the New York Renaissance Faire, you'll find me as Second in Command of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard. I'm in... Morning Address, Second Chess, Court Dance, Maiden's Dance / Villager's Brawl, Trial and Punishment, Final Joust, and Pub Sing, that I know of so far. Basically with the exception of Queen's Picnic and the Crimson Pirates musical sets, I'm in everything the Queen is in.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," I say before I left and thought about the others, probably need to check up with them when I return. Probably be more usual since it calmed down.
You find everything right where it ought to be.
One of the medical crew is waiting for you in the back. Senior Medic Lefton is the second highest ranked of the medical crew, under Chief Medic Prior. (Like Gopher, your rank right now is technically Junior Medic.) Lefton is a middle-aged woman with brown hair. Her most distinctive feature is her eyes: they are a uniform shade of lavender, with neither pupils nor white visible, and do not move when she changes her focus.
"How's the kitchen treating you?" she asks, leaning against the back wall with a big grin on her face.
Harry, I've given you the improvement information for the alpha and beta versions in the new thread, Mary Piper Stuff for Harry (O.K., I could have come up with a less obvious title, but it serves the purpose and might be reusable). You'll have to tailor what you've got for your specific version.
--M. J. Young
I looked to her and smiled a little, "It's treating me good, thank you."
"Good, good," she says, giving a little chuckle. She has that quaint air about her, almost like she could be somebody's mother or grandmother. "I'm glad you're settling in. Do you think you'll be ready to start your actual training soon? First aid and all that..."
"Well, I'd have to see when would be a better time," I say as I think about what could possibly keep me from learning first aid, seems like for a person who's more then likely going to keep being spit out into inconvenient times, areas, and universes for many many many many years to come, seems to be the best idea.
She shakes her head. "We all take our turns in the kitchens, and we all take our turns in the medical bay. Tomorrow will be fine - I'll make sure Gopher can spare you." She seems quite adamant about this, in that firm-but-kind sort of way that goes along with the rest of her demeanor.
((sorry my grandma was in town so I was usually afk and she was sleeping in my room))
"That would be rather nice," I say, "I'll see you then," I say before I left to get the drinks.
((It's ok. Welcome back.))
She nods. With a 'shh' motion and a wink, she trots over to help herself to a shot from the still before she leaves.
Once you get back outside, the two at the bar are facing the other direction. It seems the guys from Astrogation are at it again, all babbling excitedly in hushed tones.
I look at them curiously, wondering what they were talking about. Probably hopeful optimism about finding out what semi-mysterious object is out there.
"We're changing course," Harrison says when he sees you staring at them. "One of those Astro geeks talked the First Mate into checking out some old rock they spotted on LRS." He thanks you for his water.
"I put five D's in their pool. I think it's just an asteroid," the sporty girl adds.
"I think it wont matter what it is, so long as it wasn't a trap like they were saying it could be." I say. Hitting me that I would have very little to worry about physically, though I worry about the rest of the crew, I would still leave all the friend I have made here, and I hit me wondering how long it would take before something happens that takes me somewhere else.
"It could always be a trap," says Harrison, ever the over-cautious type. Seems that goes hand-in-hand with a Security badge. Then he grins, "Then again, that's what you have us for, right?"
The sporty girl (who really needs a name but I'm at a loss right now) cough-coughs to hide what she says. Cough-manshield-cough. It earns her a punch in the shoulder from Harrison.
I laugh a little, forgetting for a second what I was just thinking about, wont last long before it hits me again. "I suppose it's the old rule, anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is." 'And anything that sounds to bad to be true probably is true,' went through my mind.
((Btw break a leg at nyrf :) and when i am at a loss for names, I look up either a baby naming website and browse the names for something I like or go to a translator website, type in a word and a language and see what comes up))
and when i am at a loss for names, I look up either a baby naming website and browse the names for something I like or go to a translator website, type in a word and a language and see what comes up
That's how I named absolutely everyone in Omega Academy. It's one of the benefits of running the game online: no one will notice that you did it.