driftfleet | (no subject)

[Elena dusts off the confetti and even bends over a little to shake some of it out of her hair. She's not exactly shy, but she's a little hesitant to leave the bridge right away and hangs back a few moments before she decides she's being ridiculous. She needs to meet the people here and she needs to know where things are since she's stuck here for the foreseeable future. She leaves the dessert behind to get her bearings.]

[Which means that for her first day, Elena can be found poking her nose into essentially anywhere and everywhere throughout the ship. She'll apologize if she happens to run into anybody while she's exploring, regardless of whether or not they're actually members of the crew or not. She tries to be as inconspicuous as possible while she's in the kitchen, looking for the synthetic blood substitute. The last thing she wants to do is let anyone on the crew know she's a vampire so don't mind her if she's fiddling with a few things trying to find it.]

[Once she has a handle on the ship though, she can be found in the lab. For the most part, she's looking over what's in stock and tinkering with a few things in there. This augment thing still freaks her out, but she thinks it will hopefully prove useful. She thinks about drawing and storing some of her own blood for a long while, but ultimately decides against it. The hazards of if something goes wrong are a little too great. It's not worth it even in an emergency situation.]

[ Zeta gets you, Elena. The last thing he wants is for the crew to know he's a robot, so he avoids the kitchens himself.

Which is why, when he realizes they've lost and gained crew, he'll start checking the other locations to see who's where and what they're up to. He finds Elena in the lab and puts on his best friendly smile as he enters, waving to her. ]

Hello. My name is Zee.

[Elena looks up when Zeta enters and flashes him a smile, waving a little back.]

Hi, I'm Elena. I'm new. [She makes a vague gesture to around the lab.] And I guess this is what I'm supposed to be doing around here.

It's nice to meet you.

[ He glances around the lab, then turns back to Elena, curious. ] Were you a doctor or a scientist back home?

Not exactly. [She smiles again, this time a little nervous because she feels severely out of her league with this. She was volunteering back home, but that was more or less changing out bed pans than actual medical work.] College sophomore, pre-med.

But my dad was a doctor. He ran a small clinic in my hometown.

[And apparently conducted horrible experiments on vampires that she definitely is super not talking about, nope.]

[ Zee smiles, disarmingly. ]

You sound more qualified than some of us are for our positions, at least before the augments.

[Elena lets out a small puff of laughter and shakes her head.]

Then I really hope nobody starts bleeding because we might be a little screwed.

I promise that I will not start bleeding.

[She laughs, lowering her head and gaze for a brief moment.]

I appreciate the promise, but I won't hold you to it.

[ Zeta hesitates, then smiles. ]

You may. I am certain that I will not bleed.

What do you plan to do in your position here, if you were not a doctor or scientist at home?

I'm still trying to figure that out, honestly.

[She just knows she doesn't want to be dead weight.]

[Oren's reason for stepping into the lab is actually to find someone else, but when he spots Elena tinkering around with things, he can't help but be curious. She must be a new member of the crew. At least, he'd hope so, considering the familiarity she takes on messing with things.

He leans his back against the counter just a couple of feet away.]

Ah, a new face! Another addition to the crew, I take it?

[Elena stops with her tinkering when he comes in. She smiles, trying to at least project the image that she belongs here, but frankly she still feels a little out of her depth even with an augment. She's just a college student who's barely even begun the pre-med program and now she has all this medical knowledge that she doesn't really know what to do with? It's hard to fake confidence in that, but she'll make a decent attempt anyway. She doesn't want to give the impression she's going to be any sort of dead weight.]

Yeah, [she nods.] My name is Elena. It's nice to meet you.

The pleasure is mine. I'm Oren, by the way.

Is this your designated area?

[He's assuming, though he'd be interested in knowing why she was here if that wasn't the case. But he's rather amiable himself, all calm looks and friendly smiles when appropriate.]

You'll have to forgive us if we hardly seem put together. This station has been a large break from all meanings of order on board. But it seems we're starting to file back in.

[Elena nods.]

Yeah, I think so. I know more about this stuff than I do anything else on the ship anyway.

[It'd probably be easier if they told people what augments have been put in their heads, but there's likely a factor of amusement while people fumble around. If the whole idea of this being entertainment and essentially reality TV is true, anyway. Elena still has her own skepticism about that seemingly innocent purpose.]

What's been going on?

You mean with us? Oh, no, nothing like that. It's just that we've been at this strip for quite some time now. There are plenty of casinos and shops and bars...

Most of us have been away from the ship.

I heard there's a planet, too. Have you guys been going down there, too?

[Not that she heard very good things about the planet though. She supposes if there was a real choice between a sentient planet and a casino, she'd pick the casino first and probably always.]

[ Well, the thing about snooping around the kitchen is that lately that's where this lady's been. Between reorganizing what little things they had (which now is, at least, a deal bit more) and cooking things. It's either that or be around cleaning the ship and she's already done that-- twice.

So it's not difficult for her to notice the new younger woman wandering around the kitchen like she's trying hard not to be noticed. She's carefully maneuvering putting some stuff on the table before raising a brow. ]

You know, if you asked, I could tell you where everything is.

[Elena turns when Piper speaks to her and for a brief moment, she looks like the kid whose been caught with their hand in the cookie jar with a mixture of guilt and slight confusion. Or rather, it's an internal debate about how much to disclose or not disclose to the woman she assumes is a crewmate. Elena purses her lips a moment, head tipping to the side.]

Sorry, I usually stay as far away from kitchens as possible. It's usually better for everyone's health, [she smiles, trying for at least a slight joke as she continues to debate about how much to say. Elena runs a hand through her hair before slipping both of her hands in her back pockets.] I, um, sorta have a particular dietary need. I was just seeing if we had any or if I was going to have to figure something else out.

[ At least she looks more amused than accusatory. One thing her life prepared her for was people randomly snooping around in different areas of the house-- even people who don't usually live there. And she can guess that Elena is a new member of the kitchen. ]

Probably lucky for us that you're not likely another cook then, huh? [ It's lightly back, in her own dry sense of humor. She already knew their other cook wasn't one and--really-- as a chef most of this stuff wasn't actual decent cooking materials anyway. Which is why she can't help but snort and then try to wave a hand. ]

I'm afraid unless you're looking for protein substitute most of the stuff here isn't very good on specifics. We've only been to one planet since I've been here that had real food to buy or there'd be more.

Edited 2015-05-28 19:23 (UTC)

[She was hoping Piper wasn't going to say that. Elena, technically speaking, doesn't need to eat regular human food. But she does sometimes to at least give the illusion of regularly eating like everyone else. Regular food is sometimes a little hard to stomach when you've got highly sensitive tastebuds, but trying to stomach the texture of all these weird pastes and liquids is something different altogether. She can't help but pull a face at that.]

Wonderful, [she says, glancing around at the rest of the kitchen.] I guess that explains the lack of real cupboards and pots and pans.

It is a substitute though. At least here with the fleet, anyway. There isn't a substitute back home.

[Not in the sense of substitute here, at any rate. Blood is still blood regardless of the source back home.]

[Hopefully, Elena has a few nice, quiet days to settle into her new lab before her crewmate comes in and makes a complete mess of it. He enters with a clatter and a cult of sampled plants that he dumps on the table farthest from her. Then he leaves. And returns with another trailing armload of more samples. Rinse, repeat.

It's only on the fourth trip inside that he actually notices her, stopping short and performing a clumsy shuffle of items that ends poorly. They scatter to the floor and he hastens to pluck them up, depositing them on the table before scurrying back to her, offering a hand to shake.]

New to the ship? Nice to meet you, welcome to the ship [he pulls back his hand as he speaks, waving it in a circle.] so on, so on. Are you the new lab folk? If you're not, ignore this. If you are [he drags the word out, pivoting back to his table covered in random plants and alien things.] I'm going to be over there. Working on something. Now, I'll keep out of your way but there is a strong possibility it might start to smell. I'll get some... incense or something to burn it away. Sound fair?

[He looks to her expectantly. Then remembers something. Offers his hand again.]

Ah. Right. I'm Mattias! Your possible crewmate. [A beat. He squints.] You are a crewman here, correct?

[Elena stops what she's doing the moment he enters the lab. She even attempts to say something before he's moseying straight back out. The second and third time, she just stands there with her arms lightly folded across her chest, staring at the trail of dirt and bits of grass/otherwise loose foliage he's managed to track into her once completely pristine lab.]

[Of course she immediately feels like she's overstepping her boundaries by thinking of it as hers, but it sorta is now, isn't it? As far as she knows, she's the only person on board with a lab augment. But she was hardly a pre-med student before she ended up here, still learning the vague ropes of what it'll take to become a doctor. It's like only being allowed to ride in the car in the backseat and suddenly being thrown in the driver's seat without any instruction on what to do.]

[She listens patiently as he rambles, figuring that she's not likely going to get a word in edgewise if he wasn't even close to entertaining conversation a moment ago when he was dragging things in here. Elena slowly puts her hand in his before shaking it. It's likely he'll notice she's got cold hands, but he may chalk that up to poor circulation.]

Yeah, my name is Elena. Do you work in here often?

[Which feels like an incredibly stupid and simple thing to say after all that, considering that she should probably say something about the mess he's made, but she just retracts her hand and tucks it back into place.]

[With how much time he's spent in the fleet, the coolness of her hand doesn't faze him. Everyone has an oddity here. Everyone is alien. He attributes it to that and, after a tilt of the head, blinks it back into the oblivion. Forgotten.]

Oh, no. I have a much less entertaining job. "Communications". Stuck up in the bridge most of time. Well, when we're not at a station, at least. No, no, I'm down here because... [He sways, flapping a hand at their surroundings before remembering himself.] Well, let's just say one of our own has a... unique medical condition. I'm here to try and make his life more tolerable.

[He gives her a second to catch on before clarifying.] A serum. Of sorts. It won't be permanent, I promise.

[Elena looses folds her arms again and nods a little. She can understand that, possibly more than he can realize which is why she doesn't pry into it any further than what he's already said. But there is still one slight problem that she has to draw his attention to.]

[Elena nods down at the dirt he's trailed in behind him.]

Are you planning on cleaning up?

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