Meat n' Greet

[cityship]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall

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[hisfathersstaff]

Floating overhead, Negi noticed the head of pink hair. His heart leaped into his throat as he though he recognized the mop of hair.

Zooming down he nearly grabbed Sakura in a hug yelling "Makie-san~!" when he stopped short. The girl was far too tall to be Makie, if not by much. And her eyes were the wrong color. And Makie wouldn't wear what she was wearing. Wow, it looked good though.

Coloring in embarrassment, he stammered, "Sorry! I thought you were someone else!"

[haruno]

Sakura started back, eyes widening before the narrowed, taking stock of this unknown person. Her expression cleared as she chose to recognize no immediate threat to her person -- just someone who'd really hoped that Sakura had been this Makie-san.

She wondered how often that was the case.

"No, please don't apologize. You haven't done anything wrong." And it was true, in the strictest sense. A case of momentarily mistaken identity was nothing in the scheme of things, if it didn't involve something unpleasant such as shanking. "I'm sorry I'm not this Makie-san. I am Sakura," she said, offering a hand for shaking. "For what it's worth."

[hisfathersstaff]

"Pleased to meet you Sakura-san," said Negi, shaking her hand as he slipped into honorifics with the general idea that she was Japanese. At least he wasn't too far off the mark. "I'm Negi Springfield, and um, I guess welcome to Stacy. It's a big place and I'd imagine you'd have a lot of questions. I could try to answer some of them for you?"

[haruno]

"Pleased to meet you as well, Negi-san." His use of honorifics was comforting, something familiar in the middle of so many things blatantly not. "Aah, if you don't mind."

There were others offering answers, and she'd do her best to ask them as well, but a willing speaker was not someone to pass up. "What information do we have on the Ohm? Who 'Chose' us to be here?"

[hisfathersstaff]

"There's numerous videos and files on their capabilities thus far," said Negi, listing off several of them. "Each one of them are battle logs. Also, there is the information that we got from our allies, from what I heard. Sadly I wasn't able to participate in the Lensmen training session but we do have allies. Finally, the Dialgig were the ones responsible for bringing us and rescuing us from our homes before things went south."

"The Dialgig have been our allies, though we haven't gotten any help from them until recently. I guess now we're going to be working closer with them."

[haruno]

"Is there anywhere in particular to review those records?" Knowing there was footage on them was helpful; being able to visualize exactly what one was up against helped psychologically. (At least in Sakura's case; she couldn't say the same for everyone she knew.) "What was the Lensmen training session? How is it we know we'll be working more closely with the Dialgig now? Have they told us as much?"

Too many questions with words that still had no real meaning to her, and probably coming too fast.

[hisfathersstaff]

"Records are in the Media Libary," said Negi. "We've got a section for the attacks. Also, the librarian Vivio Takamachi, a good friend of mine, can also help you out if you need aid."

"The training session was apparently a session to use some of the equipment that the corps use. I haven't tried it myself, but I'm sure the Captain will make an official announcement soon." Negi shrugged helplessly. "I'm kind of just one of the token kids on the ship despite my skill level. It's hard to get any confirmation on anything recently."

[haruno]

"Why is that?" She waited to ask what he meant by skill level, let alone what it meant to be a token kid on the ship. The rest she filed away mentally, building her quiet list of things to accomplish in the near future.

[hisfathersstaff]

Negi sighed, rubbing his head again. "It's hard getting the adults to realize that a lot of the kids can help. We can, we have skills and firepower and we can be creative. I guess I just haven't been as involved as others."

He looked a lot at this moment like Naruto, with those same eyes that he wasn't doing enough to earn his keep. He was a kid after all, he could get away with it. "The most I can do is train, and that only goes so far with only one battle under my belt since arriving here."

"And thus being said, I can only rely on the official reports that come down to the rest of us, since I have no weight I can 'throw around' to get anything done up you see." finished Negi. "I'm really sorry if I'm not enough of a help here."

[haruno]

Too much like Naruto, in a way; Sakura found herself moving forward, about to rest a hand on his shoulder before she even realized she'd moved. "People have a hard time accepting that kids grow up faster than they'd like. We all think we can help preserve someone else's childhood, and forget how it feels to be told we're too young to help."

Or remember what it is when we realize we are too young, but growing up faster by necessity. "Besides," she said, "If you're training, it goes further than you might think. Nothing can take the place of experience, but preparation is key to survivng long enough to get that experience, right? If there really are all these people from all these... different universes, training and finding challenges to overcome to be ready for the ones we'll face later can't be hard to find

[hisfathersstaff]

Negi nodded, being a war-baby himself. Born to the Queen of Calamity and the savior of the magic world, he was caught in two sides of a never-ending conflict as well. Still, Sakura's words made him feel better, for not many people offered up the same wisdom she did.

"Thank you Sakura-san," he said. "That really does mean a lot and I'm glad I've been a help."

He smiled, a wide grin that could have easily been on Naruto's face, a sign that some things transcended shounen heroes. Or maybe it was a universal thing to have such confidence in the face of overwhelming odds. "Never give up huh?"

[haruno]

His grin was infectious, enough so that Sakura was really smiling in return. Transcendent or universal, it didn't really seem to matter. Sakura responded to that personality as much as she did to Naruto's -- though with noteably less expectation of idiocy. (Benefit of the doubt, of course."

"Mmmhmm. Never give up." Retreat, regroup, survive, plan, fight back, but never give up. When you stop believing in your ability to achieve even the most impossible things, you're losing more than your confidence. You're losing part of yourself. She couldn't bring herself to say as much out loud. It'd feel too hypocritical and out of place, given the circumstances.

"Anything else you can think of that I might want to know?" It was a sort of shift in subject, back to his original offer.

[hisfathersstaff]

"The smaller things then. There's a few points of interest on the City map you can visit. Kang's bar the Drunken Dragon, Reinforce Zwei's Stormwind Clothiers, Ed Elric's Atelier for Small Objects and the Sensoriums as well. We've got a limited amount of real food but the Sensoriums doubles as a cafeteria, especially since the real cafeteria only dispenses food in a paste-like form." Negi made a grimace.

"The sensoriums can recreate locations from your world, in addition to finding something from your world in the city proper, provided Stacy has one of your home buildings. And it shapes the nutrient paste into edible tasty food too."

"The Atelier can create small items for you, to medium ones. The forges, Daja and Hiccups, will forge weapons for you, though Daja works on a price system for her work. And Rein's clothing store seems to have a near-unlimited supply of cloth for sturdy clothing for everyday use."

[haruno]

Paste like... If that didn't sound absolutely appetizing. Sakura figured it was about as bad as it sounded, based on Negi's grimace.

"How do the sensoriums work, if they can do all of that?" Shaping the paste didn't take away the fact it was still the paste, but if it was tricking the senses... that was disquieting.

"A price system based on what, exactly?"

[hisfathersstaff]

"You can think of what you want and it'll come to life in there," said Negi. "Like say for instance you think of your bedroom, and the sensoriums will bring it to life around you. Or if you think of a person, they'll act on your memories or conversely act out if you've got an over-dramatized idea of someone. It's flexible like that."

At this, Negi shrugged. "To be honest, I haven't met Daja or spoken with her, but only that she has some kind of trade/barter system going on for her services. Which I suppose isn't bad, but it is rough for a first awakener without any established support or friends here yet."

[haruno]

Negi's description of the sensoriums further cemented the surreality of the situation. The ship itself could act like a genjutsu user, to an extent that was disturbing to contemplate. What said that ability was restricted entirely to the sensoriums themselves? "Sounds unbelievable. Not to say I don't believe you. It's... incredible to imagine."

It made her uncomfortable, but she forced herself to move past that, focusing on this Daja. "Still, it seems more fair to Daja and everyone else in the long run."