revivalproject | Not Quite the Last Train

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Not Quite the Last Train

WHO: Shiro and Open
WHERE: Sh'ka
WHAT: Exploring
WHEN: October 15th on
WARNINGS: None so far.

Arrival
Somehow, luck was finally on Shiro's side. He'd always claim that if he didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all. Okay, sure, it wasn't really so bleak as that, but he could be over dramatic sometimes.

He had decided to take the train out of Temba and to Sh'ka. His intention was that he was only going to stay for one day, but that plan quickly got waylaid when the train arrived from Temba and it would not return. Further more, some of those who had escaped had reported a strange darkness that had come over Temba suddenly.

After attempting a few more times in vain to try and get the train moving since it sounded like something was happening in Temba, Shiro was forced to give up, stalking away.

Security Center
Since he now had a forced vacation in Sh'ka, Shiro decided to do some exploring. He headed into the security center to see what was there, struck by the oddly relaxing nature of the facility. Strange he thought. A building such as that wasn't normally relaxing in any sort of way.

He happened upon the video that was playing, watching it for maybe five minutes before he got bored and went exploring again. When he cam back a few hours later, he looked back at the screen and raised an eyebrow.

"Is the video repeating?" He could have sworn he had just seen that part...

Theater
Shiro went to the theater when he saw that it seemed to active like the security center had been. He had no previously interacted with the Graq and since he didn't have the communication data point, the words meant nothing to him at all, but would stand in the back watch the figures that danced around on stage, trying to figure out from what they were doing and what was actually going on in some cases.

Around
Shiro could often be found around Sh'ka, exploring whatever he could so there was not much option to go anywhere else. At least once a day, he could be found at the train, trying to see if he could get it to go back.

What was the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result?

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"We shall have to ask others," she noted as she continued her descent. "Would you like to join me in investigations?"

Shiro nodded his head, definitely ready to walk with her as she headed up to the stage. “Yeah, someone else might have come in here and seen whether was something was happening or not. Sure, I’ll join you. Two heads are better than one.”

"I do not know if that is correct. From what little I know of species with two heads, or what we would perceive as two heads, they are often in conflict with themselves."

Expressions were always the harder things to get in other languages.

Yes, expression from other languages, other cultures, other worlds… those were all hard. Shiro took it in stride though, smiling at her comment.

“Really? Seems rather counterproductive to be in conflict with ones self, but I guess that can’t be helped from time to time. Have you met many of them?”

"I think it is because they are of two minds in everything," Lauri offered. "When one is always together with another, either they come to agree a lot, or not very much at all."

Met many of them? She shook her head.

"I have received briefings but nothing more."

He thought about that for a moment. “I guess that’s the way most people are, I think. If you agree with someone else, then you can do anything. If you don’t, then it can be like trying to move a mountain. So I’d imagine a two headed creature would have the same problems… just more dramatic since they have to get agreement on practically everything.”

He nodded. “I see. I wonder if there are such things in our world as well. If Coran were here, he would most likely know about them.”

"IT is like making decisions by committee," she noted. And yes, strangely that's a term she's heard of before. It was something that was coming up more in her culture now.

"Is Coran a friend of yours?"

“Seems like it. I think that would get kind of exhausting after a while if there had to be a debate every time I wanted to get a drink.”

He nodded his head. “Yeah, Coran is the advisor for Princess Allura. He knows a lot about the universe that we’ve never had to know. More races than I can count, different alien creatures. He made a whole video about the weblum, which is a large space creature that eats rocks in space.”

Advisor for a princess, well that is very good and noble. Lauri-Ell would approve of that.

"There are a good many creatures that eat space rocks, but they are all very dangerous. I am glad someone educates people about them."

It was very noble. Just would have been nice if he was so eccentric sometimes, especially when you needed information quickly and he left out important information.

“Yeah, the weblum is useful because something that it produces is used by ships in my world to allow the creation of portals that they can travel through. The problem is that you have to go inside of it in order to get that out. So having information about is definitely helpful so you don’t get digested.”

"They create materials needed for hyperspace gating?" Lauri asked, shocked at this news. How had she not heard of the creatures before?

“Not intentionally. It’s a by-product of their digestive system. As I said, difficult to get to, but it is very useful and worth the risk if the right precautions are taken.”

Ah, no, that makes perfect sense. Lauri smiled. There were plenty of creatures like that.

"In my universe we do not use any creatures like that for interstellar travel, but they are useful for other things."

“I think weblums are pretty unique in that respect. Apparently around the universe, there are places that have the item needed from long ago, but since we needed something rather big… we had to go to the source. Any purposes that are out of the ordinary for animals if you don’t mind me asking?”

"I don't know," Lauri answered with bright energy.

The thing was, she was never afraid of admitting she didn't know anything. That's just how it worked for her. She knew she didn't know enough and was happy to learn more.

"I think humans in my universe keep some animals as companion."

And he has no problem with people telling him that they don’t know, especially when it is something trivial like him just asking random questions. If it were more dire and it was directly related to survival, he’d be a bit more concerned about it.

“Yeah, a lot of people on my world do that too. Some of them are kept for working animals. Like the glownies, how people harvest their wool.”

“Working animals?” Lauri asked, her mind immediately imagining animals trying to run stores. How interesting. But no, she didn’t think that was what he meant.

“The glownies are beautiful creatures. Very sweet. I like them. I wish I could have one as company.”

"Yeah, like animals that plow fields or you sheer them for wool or milk them."

He would have found that image amusing if he knew that's what she was thinking about.

"They are. One tried to follow me home once."

Plowing fields? Getting milk? Lauri-Ell was most definitely interested in all of this.

“I found one glownie stuck under a collapsed building and helped rescue it. It was a delightful creature.”

There didn't seem to be too many working animals here, but he'd definitely be willing to show her if they ever showed up at some point.

"Oh, wow... was it alright? I hope it wasn't hurt. And that no one else was either."

No, there didn’t seem to be that, did there? Lauri came to a stop near the front of the stage, frowning at the holographic players on it that did not seem to halt even under this closer scrutiny.

“No one was hurt much. Clarice was almost hurt, but I pulled her out, and she was holding the glownie. We returned it to the flock after cleaning it and giving it a treat.”

It was very strange, Shiro thought, that even as they got up on the stage, the figures kept going as if they weren't there. It was really like they were just puppets set to perform a play on a loop rather than actually knowing there was anyone else there.

"That's good. I'm glad that she was not hurt. Sounds like it was quite a thing to have happen. Unfortunately the buildings back there aren't the most stable."

Perhaps they were puppets. Could they, then, cut the strings? Was that even wise?

“They are not. But they seem better stable than the ones here in many cases. There is more intact in Temba from what I have seen. though this is very intact and functional. But one wonders how.”

Well, at best they'd fall over. At worst, they'd try to attack them. Probably best not to try.

"I've wondered that too, especially since this place has been supposedly hidden away longer than Temba and with supposedly no one here. It seems in awfully good shape in that case."

Yes, they might attack. However Lauri-Ell did not doubt that she could hold off any aggressors. Though perhaps it would be better to do with more than one individual as back up.

“Yet there is much of it that is in worse state than Temba too. Perhaps the fact that as much of it survived as well as it did is given to the strange material this place seems made from? The stone is unlike any I know, and could be durable. The heavy tree coverage is also useful, because it could help reduce the damage caused by normal weathering actions.”

Wind and snow and ice would be diminished with so many trees to block the way.

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