[Open]

[andromedas]

WHO: Sara Ryder + You!
WHERE: De Chima
WHEN: Early June
WHAT: Adjusting to a new home far away, again.
WARNINGS: TBA



01. #002 Residence

[As if given a request from the stern hands of Foster Addison herself, Sara Ryder goes about the list of tasks placed ahead of her with some sense of both duty and reluctance. It's a difficult pill to swallow, this place, but then, hadn't everything else since getting thawed out from cryosleep? Eventually the abnormal becomes the normal and she's found enough momentum to just keep rolling with it.]

[She's here in a new government-assigned house (not yet a home), standing in the kitchen and watching the coffee pot brew. Something simple, something known. Looking outwardly relaxed, she hears someone approaching from the hall.]

Hey, you want some coffee?

02. Around Town

[If there was an official Pathfinder guidebook—well, she would've copied Cora's notes, but also she's sure there'd be something written about getting a proper lay of the land. De Chima is, at first observation, a city. On the planet of Earth. Sort of?]

[Certainly not the one she remembers, but there's some shaky resemblance to it. Anyway, this awkward scouting mission of one has her sitting on the edge of a low rooftop, looking out at the steady stream of early evening traffic. Getting a feel for things and maybe wishing just a little that she still had the Tempest. Its crew, certainly, but the lack of wings hurts too. Hell, she'd settle for the just the Nomad, and watches the cars below with some envy.]

[While Sara's busy mulling over her own freedom, beside her rests two bagels on a piece of parchment paper.]

If you're holding on to any good advice, now's the time to chime in.

[Speaking to SAM, the AI in her head, there's no way to outwardly tell who she's addressing.]

03. Park

[The job assignment isn't too bad. She hasn't convinced any other supervising trail guides to let her use a vehicle yet, but she's holding out hope. After training orientation she's left to wander around the park. To maybe get a good sense on this wilder part of the local land, and she's even been given a real paper map. It's foldy, she observes wisely, and you can write notes to yourself on it with a pen.]

[...At any rate, she's wandering the woods on foot. Dressed in what seems like a proper blend of local hiking clothes: flannel, denim, boots, with the foldy map shoved neatly into her back pocket, she thinks she'll blend right in here. There's some passing thought to the park grounds gossip (something about cryptics?) when she hears the stir of leaves and the crunch of twigs nearby.]

Hello?

04. Public Library

[It starts off as a good idea. Do a little research, a bit of conventional reading. With genuine rows of paper books no less, it could be nostalgic and perhaps even fun. She wanders in looking confident and intent on a voyage of local learning...but after a few hours, feels like she's come out from the other end of a long gun battle.]

[She'd almost prefer a gun battle, a surge of Kett enemies pouring in from all direction. Gunfire, adrenaline.]

[Instead, she's sitting on the floor between two rows, a messy stack of books by one elbow. Eventually Sara sinks her face into the open pages of an automobile manual and sighs.]

Always go into enemy territory with a battle plan.

[She's obviously not paying attention.]


05. Wildcard

Anything else!

Comments

01

[minorgod]

Sure, that'd be great.

[ The voice is unfamiliar but the offer is welcome, as Yato's looking a little rumpled like he just woke up. Dressed in track suit pants and a white t-shirt, he looks like a young 20-something Japanese man, except his eyes are just a little too bright and too blue to be normal. ]

You must be the new housemate, huh? I'm Yato, nice to meet you.

[andromedas]

Yep, that's me. Sara Ryder, it's nice to meet you, Yato.

[She seems to perk up a bit at the idea of some company. Pouring coffee in two mugs, she reaches out and sets it on the counter for him. While Sara thinks, as a space explorer, she has a handle on encountering new and unusual things, those striking blue eyes catch her interest for a moment. She turns away politely but the curiosity is there.]

[Sara herself looks to be in a similar age bracket as Yato, just an average human from the outside, dressed in whatever this place considers athleisure. Comfortable, she holds the coffee mug in both hands and leans on the counter.]

Have you been here long?

[It's a simple question but it's definitely stacked upon a much larger deck. How long do we stay here? What are we meant to do?]

[minorgod]

[ Yato's pretty used to the changes in housemates, so he rolls with this easily. Really, he's been considering himself lucky that all his housemates have been pretty chill. Sara seems like she'll be another good one, and coffee (like food) is an easy way to get on the god's good side. He accepts the second mug with a thankful grin, taking a long pull regardless of the hot temperature. ]

Since March of last year, so... fifteen months now. Time goes by fast though, it's usually one kind of event to another.

[andromedas]

[Sara takes a moment to process that response; fifteen months suddenly becomes a likely possibility in her mind, if not more. Alec didn't train his children to process bad news in a panic, so she does what he would do. The information gets tucked away to pick and prod at later. For now, she focuses on the warm coffee mug in her hands and the friendly company. Yato takes a long pull and she takes smaller sips instead, trying not to scald her tongue.]

Events? That sounds pretty exciting. Everything so far has seemed—well, alright, it's been weird but lower down on the sliding scale.

[Not quite spelunking through ancient alien ruins strange, at least not yet.]

How are you holding up?

[minorgod]

Events, well maybe that's the wrong way of putting it. Things end up happening to the imPorts a lot, you'll see. Hopefully this month is quiet to give you a chance to settle in.

[ Not yet is right! ]

Oh, I'm fine. I miss my friends from back home - none of them have been here yet, which happens oddly often for imPorts - but fifteen months isn't that long for me. And I've made new friends here.

[ Many of which he'll be sad to leave behind when the Porter does eventually get tired of him and sends him away. ]

4

[cannotrest]

[Ashley doesn't spend a lot of time in De Chima, its vast array of networked technology playing on her technopathy too much for her liking, but she likes its library, and she's killing time on the East Coast after work waiting for a takeout place to reopen for dinner in Jeopardy. (Living in a different time zone to the one she works in is weird.) She's on her way to the poetry section when she catches that comment and chuckles, turning to the young woman who'd spoken.]

Is this your battle plan, or are you trying to absorb one from the book?

[Her Alliance uniform blue jacket and trousers that she still wears for her work with Aegis Force here tend to stick out compared to 21st century Earth fashion; the green light moving through circuit patterns in her skin and eyes definitely sets her apart from the locals. She's also pretty detectable by SAM without even going through Sara's senses.]

[andromedas]

[Sara glances upward, ready to offer up a casual greeting.]

Oh, I know when it's time for a strategic retreat, and this is definitely—

[She pauses, and it's obvious something catches her attention. There's that subtle glow of circuitry weaved into the woman's skin, sure, but that Alliance insignia is hard to ignore. Six hundred years of time and distance doesn't shrug off those memories. The book in her hands closes shut and she makes a surprisingly agile move to stand.]

Hey, if you don't mind me asking, I've been in here reading for a while and I haven't seen anything about the Systems Alliance. Are you...from...around here?

[That last part sounds distracted, as Sara looks down for a moment. She doesn't mind chatting at SAM around her crewmates, who are familiar with the tech, but keeping a lid on it here seems wiser. It isn't an outward problem. That is, until his voice chimes up in her mind unexpectedly.]

Sara, there is something about this woman, a peculiar synthetic entanglement—

Okay SAM, I get it, she's kinda glowing. Don't you think it's rude to point that out?

Perhaps I could attempt to contact her.

What? No, no, no, I don't care what kind of weird nanostuff they've pumped us with. That cannot be a good idea.

[This dialogue goes on for a bit, as neither of them have dealt with this situation before. If anyone could have the ability to notice a sentient AI perking up in excitement, however...]

[cannotrest]

[Ashley's gaze sharpens, her attention now fully on this stranger. Recognizes her uniform. Some kind of synthetic presence she'd initially written off as a phone or some other gadget, but not quite the same as everyone around her in that brief period between that green light touching her and porting in, almost more along the lines of Jaime's Scarab or the Guardians' Ghosts. Interesting.]

No, I'm an imPort. Like I'm guessing you are, because the locals don't even know about the Alliance.

[She offers a gloved hand.]

Ashley Williams, Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance.

[It's been so long since she's introduced herself like that in the waking world.

[And to SAM, she sends a curious ping:] Hello to you too?

[andromedas]

[Sara takes the offered handshake without hesitation, regardless of SAM's excitable buzzing. Hers is a warm handshake too, lacking in bravado. There's a tidal wave of emotions surging up in her chest at this; relief at the familiar, worry for SAM, and confusion at just about everything else.]

Right, also an imPort recently. Recently just ported, umm, in that is. Sara Ryder, Pathfinder in the Andromeda Initiative.

[Might as well lay everything out on the table, right? Ryder, fallen N7, sweeping up his family into a whirlwind of turmoil and out into the wild frontier of a faraway galaxy. There's no guarantee she'll know that name, but Sara knows the infamy and the stigma. She was there living it after all.]

I didn't think I'd see someone from the Alliance again, and definitely not like this. It's honestly weirdly comforting right now.

[SAM, mostly for the sake of Sara, is at least somewhat hesitant before replying.]

Hello, Ashley Williams. My name is SAM, short for Simulated Adaptive Matrix, as you might guess. We are both glad to make your acquaintance.

04

[stlg13bomber]

[A pair of eyes pops up over the stack of books, on a face topped by a battered leather cap.]

What enemy? Are you in the army too?

[Carter's been show how to browse the internet but the library is a lot more familair and less overwhelming. He's been trying to get caught up on history, particularly his own history - Stalag 13 hasn't made an appearance, but given it was top secret maybe it's not declassified yet.

He's still figuring out how he feels about the whole atom bomb thing. It seemed like a bad idea, or at least maybe not a good idea, but the books he runs into aren't in agreement about whether it was a good idea or not.

There's also a surprisingly small number of books on 'what words are not offensive to people from other countries', which Carter would think would be a major priority around here.]

[andromedas]

I, uh, used to be in the military, anyway.

[Before Alec Ryder caught heat for doing the unthinkable and tinkering with verboten AI, at least. That kind of taboo affected even her own career. Sara is happy to let those memories fade all too willingly, however, and focuses on the here and now with... this guy? Who?]

And the enemy is definitely this place, right?

[She reaches into the stack of books beside her and flashes a history book at him. Or, whatever version of it this place considers it to be. Sara makes a face.]

Where do you even start trying to figure out a SNAFU of this magnitude?

[stlg13bomber]

This place like...the library? Or the city? [Carter looks behind him, wary of possible enemies, but mostly just confused.] You think there's enemy agents here?

[andromedas]

That could be, but how could you or I even tell? Who do you ask?

[Sara waves an arm and gestures around to the shelves of books and down to the opposite end of the aisle. An older librarian in modest dress wheels along a cart teeming with stacks of returned books; she barely affords the two a skeptical sniff before she shuffles out of sight.]

I just got ported here, and this library seemed like a good place to research, if only...

[She sighs and settles the books back into a pile.]

I just miss having a solid mission, you know?

4

[lootsnshoots]

[Cayde's stalking the stacks with a copy of Zane Grey's Purple Sage tucked under one arm, and a couple of romance paperbacks in his other hand. A small drone floats over his left shoulder. They're walking and talking. Or rather, Cayde's walking, Cayde's talking, she's floating and saying nothing.]

How much d'ya think this'd all be worth back home? Yeah yeah yeah I know, priceless knowledge for the good of humanity. But can you imagine a score like this when we were young? Woulda lost my damn mi—

[He's not paying attention, either, and trips right over her.]

[andromedas]

[It's a cacophony of chaos and sound, a crash of bodies and books amidst the normally quiet atmosphere of the library. Sara, in an awkward position already by sitting on the floor, has a limited space to move. Now, that doesn't exactly stop her in at least trying to keep this guy from tumbling over, but he's surprisingly dense, and mostly she ends up feeling like a defeated, crunched-up pretzel.]

Shit, I'm sorry! Are you okay, did anything break?

[At least that's what she tries to say, muffled as it is. A sudden ambush in a place of books is not how she imagined her own demise, and yet...]

[lootsnshoots]

[Cayde attempts to rectify the situation by rolling off of her. He slams into an adjacent shelf, knocking more books loose, which fall onto his head with an audible clang.]

Just my pride. And my head.

[He whines and tries to disentangle himself from the small booktastrophe. The cloak doesn't help matters.]

[andromedas]

Oh God, I shouldn't have camped out like that, here&nmdash;just let me get that for you.

[She's moving fast, trying to pick up the books that have fallen in the unexpected avalanche, at least that seems like a small gesture of mercy. It also gives her a moment to register the dapper cloak and armor(?). It's hard not to wince.]

Is this an awkward time to mention that you have a great sense of fashion?

[She notices the book in her hand too, and hey...isn't this a romance novel?]

another for the public library SRYYY

[obediences]

[ Luther has moved to a different state by now, but he still has his De Chima library card, and finds himself gravitating back there to deliver old loans, and then inevitably pick up new ones. Some of the Hargreeves prefer wilder pursuits for leisure; whereas Luther, at his core, is still a bookworm. He's tiptoeing his way down the aisles on the hunt for a particular author, but there's already barely room to squeeze past as-is, let alone with someone camped out on the floor. ]

Oh. Uh. Sorry.

[ A beat. He should just sidle past her, but curiosity gets the better of him. ]

If you're drafting battle plans, city hall might be your better bet. Architectural layouts of the city.

[ what no he totally hasn't considered exactly that ]

[andromedas]

They didn't really port us in for a full-on campaign, did they? Did I fall asleep during that part of the welcome orientation?

[Sara snaps shut the book she was attempting to drown in, her questions appearing to be rhetorical. Like Suvi's soothing voice over the helmet comm, the man's polite and practical suggestion urges her back to the present moment. Unlike her slender-formed science officer, however, he easily takes up the bulk of the aisle space.]

[While some are blessed with size and strength, it's more visually apparent that Sara relies on grace and agility, and she hops up to her standing height without effort.]

Welcome to my abode. Sorry for the mess here...

[She gestures over to the books on the floor. By easy observation, the topics seem to vary widely, ranging from local history, to culture, and even technology.]

[obediences]

"Although it's a pretty good abode," Luther says mildly. He can't help but look down at the stack she's gathered for herself, craning to skim the titles and read their spines. Books have been his company more than people, the last four years, and old habits die hard.

"I wanted to read everything I could about this place, too." Know your situation, know the terrain. "Found anything interesting?"

[andromedas]

"Depends on what you find interesting," Sara says. "Coming from space, this is proving to be an exciting catch-up on local Earth events. Whichever Earth that is anyway—complicated stuff."

She doesn't fully understand this place so far, but how could anyone? It's a lot to unpack in her opinion. But people, she likes. A Pathfinder can't do much good without interacting with the locals, so she sticks to what she knows. Maps, plans, strategies; sometimes you've just got to trust your gut and wing it.

She knocks a book off the stack with the tip of her boot and catches it in her hand. "What do you think?"

Sara gives him a curious look.

03

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

[In response to Sara's call, a man emerges from the undergrowth nearby, hand raised with palm open to show no hostile intent. He's wearing a unique set of black-and-gray armour, with a utility belt around his waist, a helmet on his head with a clear plastic visor over his face, and some kind of flying contraption stored on his back.]

Hey. Don't worry, I'm cleared to be here. Heard there might be a cryptid around.

[andromedas]

You sure you didn't drop an N7 badge around here somewhere? I could help you look.

[She's relieved he's come in apparent peace, at least. Enough to crack a joke, not that the locals seem to know much about the Systems Alliance.]

Otherwise, there hasn't been much sign of anything strange yet. Besides, you know, the weird rumors around the campgrounds.

[Rumors that are totally groundless...right?]

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

Maybe it's a false alarm, then.

[He wouldn't mind not dealing with a potentially dangerous and dying creature right now. But then comes the double-take...]

Hold on. What does 'N7' mean to you, exactly?

[andromedas]

[This isn't the kind of encounter she expected when first trekking off into the woods, that's for sure. The stranger in heavy gear doesn't appear to put Sara off however and, for whatever reason, her posture stays open and friendly.]

You mean like vague, lingering parental issues, or more the Alliance military thing?

[She shrugs.]

What about you? Is that standard issue armor for this place?