driftfleet | Chocolate-flavored Dessert Cream on the House

[The bunks are filling up, but the new faces just keep appearing!

Are you a travel-weary passenger having trouble keeping your crew roster straight? Perhaps you are a fresh new recruit, finding themselves dumped into a new (and much less shiny) home. Or, maybe you've been around for a little bit and just haven't bothered meeting the other weirdos on this ship yet--what is their problem, anyway?

Well, this is the place for you!

All new passengers from the last few Shuffles, especially those who haven't met their crews yet, are welcome to post starter-comments here to invite those living on and visiting your ship to come and interact. Newbies could be just arriving on the ship, busying around where others can find them, or you can offering multiple options for interaction--however you'd like to set up your thread is fine. Just make sure to include the name of your ship in the header, so your crewmates can easily find you!

Everyone else-- go meet those newbies! Whether they are new to your own crew, or on ships you frequently visit, now is a great time to bump into them.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Shinji's eyes widen by a fraction. To think he's sharing a ship with that kind of important person... Everyone is so much more capable than he is. Not that he's surprised, really, it's just... why in the hell did Atroma pick him?]

I don't know many people like that, [he admits.] People who are willing to listen.

It's a surprisingly rare quality.

But then again, Padmé is a surprisingly rare person.

[Surprisingly rare. All at once, Shinji is reminded of Kaworu Nagisa. It brings a soft, almost-invisible smile to his face, suggestive of a secret wish.]

The sort of person you shouldn't ever let go of.

I would never. I don't have a real family, but-- I've always thought of her like a sister.

Um-- is that weird? [She looks a little sheepish and self-conscious. She isn't really used to civilian life.] Do... normal people do that?

[Shinji tilts his head slightly. In a moment of raw honesty, he says,] I'm the last person you should be asking about "normal." [But...] But I think that's wonderful, not weird. I don't have a real family, either, so...

[Ahsoka chuckles.]

Well, maybe we can just be not-normal together.

[Strangely comforting.]

Well, in that case...

[...]

Can I ask what species you are? I'm not racist--or whatever--species-ist?--I mean, I've met a lot of different people. I'm just wondering.

[Ahsoka just laughs-- not meanly. It's light and clear.]

It's okay. I don't mind. You don't have people like me on your homeworld, right?

I'm a togruta. We're a humanoid species-- which is just a fancy way of saying that we share several basic anatomical characteristics with humans, but diverge greatly on others. Like our horns.

Togruta. Okay. [Shinji looks at the drawings of hyperdrives and Eva doing battle again. He picks up the page and folds it in half, intending to hang on to it.] Yeah, there were just humans... and then the Angels, which didn't look anything like humans. For the most part. [Kaworu was (is) the exception, for whatever reason. Shinji doesn't know how that works. He doesn't want to know the details yet.]

I'm kind of glad there are more species out there. I didn't like the idea of the universe being so empty.

There definitely are. Loads and loads of them.

--Hey, I just remembered! A while back, the Atroma gave us one random piece of media from back home for each passenger that was here. Two months ago.

I got this really cheesy drama from home. But the important point is, almost all the main characters are non-humans. If you want, we could watch it together next time I come visit! And I'll tell you all about the different species.

[Shinji wants to ask Ahsoka why she's being so nice to him, but he also doesn't want to seem like a totally maladjusted basket case. Tough times. Suddenly, he feels his lips doing something weird, seriously weird, without his permission. They're... oh, he's... actually smiling, for real. This is an actual smile. It is happening right now. What the heck.]

Really?

[Drake equation, eat your heart out.]

I didn't expect cheesy dramas to be universal.

Well, everyone needs entertainment, right?

I guess so. And a drama is going to be easier to understand than... uhm, some form of alien board game. [...] Although I'd totally be okay with hearing about alien board games. [Just tell him everything, really.]

[That earns a laugh.]

The only board game I know the rules of is dejarik, but I'm not very good at it. It's a bit like chess, if you have that in your world. Obi-Wan always says I don't think far enough ahead.

Yeah, we have chess... and other games like chess. I'm not all that good at the thinking ahead part, either. [In pretty much every aspect of his life.] It's something I want to get better at. Somehow.

Master Obi-Wan always says the key is slowing down.

I'm not very good at that either. But I like to think I'm getting better with practice! Maybe that's all it takes.

Yeah, I've heard practice makes perfect.

[Shinji's body language has gotten much more relaxed in the last few minutes. Talk about a miracle.]

By "master," do you mean... a teacher?

Well-- he is that.

But it's also a term of address for any Jedi Master in my world. Though that... probably doesn't mean anything to you, huh.

Hmm. Do you have anything like knights in your world?

Knights... uh, I guess there were knights a long time ago. [Through Kensuke, Shinji did watch some anime devoted to knighthood, but nothing too historically sound.] More than a hundred years ago. From my perspective.

I see! Well, that's what a Jedi is, essentially. Only, they operate all over the galaxy.

Ohhh... [Shinji laughs a little, but the sound is more like a dry wheeze.] Back home, people didn't get to fly any farther than the moon. It's still hard to imagine intergalactic anything.

Chocolate-flavored Dessert Cream on the House

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