Upon Defiant: Chapter One

First topic message reminder :

Meetup place for all sorts of families! Also a good therapist is here.

Matt would head after Ellie.

Armin would thank the group of them repeatedly, bowing his head as he did so and give them directions to his family shop if they wanted to come visit, he assured them they would be given a "saving my life" discount.

Mourn sniffed the air cautiously and headed out with Skye.
One hand on the hilt of his sword.

Kay waited for Asher.

Shane sighed and looked to Armin "See you around my friend" He said then hurried to catch up with Ellie

Skye looked to Mourn and smiled softly, going out with him and looking around curiously

"You are always welcome friend!" Armin called back to Shane.

Merith and Vanessa also departed, for once both of their faces holding a time of some semblance of sadness. No matter. After a bit of silent consolation from Vanessa, Merith straightened and put on a stiff lip. "Let's... Find something to enjoy the time we have, yes?" Vanessa said with a sad smile. The two began to depart.

Asher locked the shuttle and went to join Kay. "Where to first?" he said cheerfully.

~~
Ellie looked around delightedly. "We can get drunk here, I bet. Only a bit drunk for Shane, but still!"

~~
-----From SD-----

James hurried into the space station. If he was a wanted robot, where would he hide? Ahhhhh this was nerve-wracking.

Kay shrugged, looking around the station. It felt kinda weird to be back on a space station, though this one was nothing at all like the one he'd worked on.
---

Armin had hurried off to reunite with his family. Matt made a note to go talk to him later about outfits like he'd offered.

Matt grinned to Ellie. "This place is big, there's bound to be several bars... Maybe there's a garden for you!"
---

Luka and Swarm followed James.

"They'd have to come in via the shuttle bays right?" Luka suggested.

Dawn went to James and touched his arm. "They would have just arrived, so the docks, right?"

Asher smiled. "Let's just look around for a bit. The medical supplies can be picked up any time today, so there's no hurry."

~~
"Let's go follow Vanessa and Merith. They look sad," Ellie suggested.

~~
"Good idea!" James hurried for the shuttle bay area.

Kay nodded. [Good idea. I've never been on a civilian station like this.]

---

Swarm scattered and flew on ahead, thought they weren't totally sure what they were looking for. People, lots of people. They paused and some of them followed after a familiar face amongst the small groups leaving the shuttle area.

Mourn paused, tilting his head as a mass of insects suddenly descended from above and started to swarm around him.

----

Matt looked unsure. "Yeah... they do. You don't think they want some privacy?" He asked.

Skye looked at the insects curiously as they swarmed them "Mourn, what is going on?"

Shane chuckled and looked around, touching Ellie's arm to get her to stop for a moment "Hey, look at Mourn"

"Whoa, what the heck?" said Ellie, turning to see the insects. "Duuuude. Freaky."

~~
Asher smiled slightly. "It's certainly worth a look, then. Civilian space stations are interesting places, what with all the different species they have to accommodate every day."

"BUGS!" Mourn declared loudly and happily.

The swarm drifted away from the cat boy and coalesced into a small ball.  It bobbed up and down

--It has been so long cyborg.-- they spelled out words in the air.

Mourn grinned lopsidedly at the bugs and then at Skye. "Used to work for crew, Swarm!" He pointed at the bugs.

--Where is the rest of the crew?--

----

Matt stared at the bugs too. "That's kinda awesome. look." He pointed, they were totally spelling words.

"Let's go check this out" Shane said with a grin

Skye watched the swarm spell out the words and chuckled softly "Well, I'm glad they are friendly" She said, holding out a hand towards them

~~
Dawn looked around, frowning when she saw Swarm with a cat and a bird girl.

"Dead." Mourn replied flatly.

Some of the insects crawled onto Skye's hand trustingly.

--Dead?--

Mourn nodded. "Maybe. Planet exploded, got caught in blast. Some got to escape pods but don't know survived. New ship save us."

--us?--

"Hawk girls and me." Mourn shrugged and pointed to Skye. "They very friendly. Eat knowledge." he told her.


---

"Looks like the insects made a friend." Luka remarked. Some of them did remain with the SD group, about a third of their total number. They hovered near James' shoulder.

"Old friend. Worked together once." they explained.

James looked at Swarm fondly. "Oh man, I so want to meet your friend." He was still looking around for his brother, but for the moment at least, he was interested in this reunion.

"I'm Skye" The hawk girl said and smiled at the insects on her hand "You really eat knowledge?" Now this was interesting

The swarm bobbed up and down in a sort of nod.

Mourn smiled happily. "you have new crew too yes?"

Swarm bobbed again. --interesting crew, small, but interesting.--

Luka watched the reunion cautiously.

--Come then-- the other part of Swarm lead James over, joining with the rest of their number.

Mourn looked at the robot and immediately noticed the badge, good eye lighting up.

"Robot!"

Kay smiled softly to Asher. [It should be interesting. ] They headed out then.

---

Matt chuckled. "You wanna go barge in or shall we leave them to their reunion?"

Dawn followed James and Swarm, keeping close to him and looking at the new people curiously

Skye smiled then looked up as James and Dawn and Luka came over "Hello"

James blinked at the cyborg's excitement, then grinned, "Hello, friend of Swarm," he said.

~~
"I wanna get drunk," Ellie told Matt. "We can chill with the bugs later."

~~
Asher happily walked with Kay, enjoying the sights, completely unaware that his brother was so nearby.

Shane chuckled and looked to Ellie again "Well, I guess we can, but later you won't be doing much talking if you do get drunk"

Mourn stared at the new people, but he was really mostly interested in James.
"This new crew?"

--some of them-- Swarm told him.

Mourn grinned crookedly at Dawn and Luka.

"I Mourn!" He declared.

--

Matt nodded, watching the group curiously but shaking his head. Nah, the tall girl couldn't be a Satare, they were way too far from home.

"Yeah let's... " He burst into laughter at Shane's remark.

--

Kay found a map.

"I meant later later, like tomorrow once the hangover is gone," Ellie said. "Come on, let's find Vanessa and Merith!"

~~
"Good to meet you, Mourn. I'm James," said James. He looked at Skye, "What's your name?"

~~
Asher consulted the map with Kay, thoughtfully. "Oh look, they have a holodeck too. My brother says our station got one after I left, I guess that's a trend these days."

If they searched, they'd find Vanessa waiting outside an ice-cream shop, with Merith just then walking out to meet her with two giant cones in his hands. One was vanilla with cinnamon-apple toppings, which he handed Vanessa. The other seemed to be cookies and cream with extra cookie dough drops in it, which he took for himself. They both ate, savoring the sweet treats as they walked with a chatter, not knowing they were being followed by some of the ship.

Suddenly Vanessa let out another bell-like giggle at Merith's odd antic, the man's tongue had enlarged to a disproportionate size and looked more like a slimy pink worm, which seemed to discontent the passerby but no one interrupted him. Vanessa kept leaning away as the tongue with a magic-made ice cream hat and dots for eyes wavered closer to her face, the Entropium mentioning something about Merith being childish. The man said nothing, only mischievously grinning as he reinserted his tongue into his mouth and continued walking.

Matt looked out over the crowd. "Yeah, where'd they go?" He searched and had no real trouble finding them.

"ewww," Merith's tongue trick man... gross.


---

[Got to entertain people somehow I suppose.] Kay replied. [Matt will be happy, there's several bars.] He smirked. [And this must be Armin's shop] He indicated the shopping district.

"I'm Skye" She replied and looked to James then to Luka and Dawn curiously

"My name's Dawn" Dawn said, introducing herself

~~~
Shane laughed again and shook his head then motioned ahead "Lead the way" He said ten followed, looking around curiously.