Podpop

[cityship]

Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new subthread. If you would like

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[youmissed]

John Crichton liked to think he was a pro at waking up in weird places.

Compared to some of the places he’d ended up on, John figured these days that a sentient living ship was fairly low on the What The Hell scale. Excuse him. He guessed “what the frell” was probably what he should be saying if he was getting native about this, except it always did feel weird to start throwing around the…slang. Sure, he’d say it out loud. But in his mind he was still auto-correcting it to old fashioned English; Earth-man; Hooman; whatever it was he got called this time, like he was some idiot lesser lifeform for not knowing something everyone else out here took as fact.

He’d say this was about a four on the What The Hell scale.

Maybe a five.

John gasped and coughed up what felt like a lungful of Jello, curling up on the floor and wondering when his hands were going to stop shaking. He didn’t even want to think about all the movies starting out this way. Something dribbled out of his mouth

[hanzerhands]

Adam was dead.

Or at least, he had been fairly sure he was dead. He remembered feeling the pressure as the ocean poured into the halls of Pancea after hitting the self destruct button, remembered the pain as the water engulfed him, remembered everything going black...

For a moment, as he fell from the pod, he thought he was still in Pancea, engulfed in water, but after a sudden moment of realization, he knew this wasn't the case.

He looked around, the urge to panic pushed down by Adam's calm, rational mindset. He had no idea of what to make of this place, or this situation. He was naked, and covered in some kind of viscous liquid, and he was in a scene out of a sci fi movie.

For a moment, Adam wondered if he was in Hell, but he wasn't normally one for thinking that kind of thing.

Suddenly, he heard someone near him babbling on about something. He stood up, his jet-black cybernetic arms and legs fully visible, among other things.

"What the hell are you going on about?"

Might as well ask the first person he sees. Better than

[youmissed]

"Good question," John mutters. Sometimes he doesn't even know himself anymore

[becoming_more]

It was a good thing she'd decided to search the cavern for Moya's crew. Aeryn couldn't say she was completely surprised to see Crichton here, nor to see that he was having problems with the pod fluid. Crichton did seem to have a lot of problems.

Right now, though, she put her frustration aside in favor of concern for a fellow crew member. Aeryn broke into a run, heedless of her nudity and any bouncing bits that might be embarrassing for another woman.

"Crichton!" She dropped to one knee in front of him, reaching out a hand. "Are you all right?"

It wasn't much of a question; he clearly wasn't. He was curled up like a small child, vomiting pod fluid miserably in the corner.

[youmissed]

Okay, so maybe he wasn't done yet coughing up the slime.

John suddenly felt sorry for cats. He thought he knew what it felt like to be one and it occurred to him out of the blue he probably needed to explain that one to Aeryn.

Talk about priorities! He almost laughed at that, thought better of it, and turned his head to the side to spit out more of the slime and was horrified to realize the stuff was trickling out of his nose now. Yeah, there was no way he'd ever look at Jello the same way again. Even thinking about it made him nauseated. John blinked up at the face coming into focus above him in the green light and after spending who knew how long blowing cookies off in his corner, Aeryn Sun was the most beautiful person in the world to him. Not that she had to try very hard but

[becoming_more]

Aeryn spared a disinterested glance down-- well, perhaps it wasn't entirely disinterested. But it was hardly the time. She found herself wondering if he ever thought about anything besides sex before he reached out for her. Yes, very good, Crichton. You found her breasts. She supposed that answered her question.

"I think you have plenty of hands already. Hold still," she commanded, pushing his arms away. "Stop... flailing and let me take a look at you."

Aeryn wasn't a healer like Zhaan. But she had gone through some basic field medic training, and if Crichton was going to die she could at least tell him how long he had. She wiped some more of the goo off his face, checking his eyes, nose, ears... and grimacing as more of the slime dribbled out.

"Tell me how much of this fluid you've ingested." Obviously he must have done it on purpose; she wasn't reacting like this. "I don't think you were supposed to do that," she was unable to resist adding.

[youmissed]

He'd be the first to say Aeryn had some very very nice breasts.

John didn't put up too much of a fight when Aeryn pushed at him, plopping right back down where he'd been trying to get his feet under him and torn between feeling annoyed she was treating him like an idiot grunt and relieved that at least she was someone he knew. This wasn't exactly a repeat of his first day post-wormhole. Thank God. He blinked up at Aeryn as she tried to clean his face of slime, blinking up owlishly at her as she examined him like a - like a...well, actually he felt like a racehorse or something, right down to the clinical way she was checking out his eyes and turning his head from side to side. He tried to bat away her hand.

"I don't think so either. Look, I've no idea how much I accidentally," he emphasized that, because he really didn't make it a habit to go full on billy goat despite what Aeryn thought of his species, "swallowed while I was in the pod

[becoming_more]

"I don't know," Aeryn admitted dryly. "I haven't gotten much of a chance to look for her in here. So far you," and she pounded on his back, trying to help him expel the pod fluid, "Are the only one I recognize."

Her tone highly suggested that this was less than optimal.

"We have to get you out of here," she decided. "Can you walk?"

[youmissed]

Okay, Aeryn, pounding him on the back wasn't helping make him any less nauseous. He started to throw her a "cut that out!" when he suddenly had to turn and cough up the last of the slime.

"Yeah, sure. I got this under control." John slung out an arm against the wall, determined to try to stand up on his own. The wall had this sickening little give to it. His legs wobbled. John half-expected them to dump him on his butt but thankfully he managed to get his balance under the control before Aeryn had to fish him up off the floor again.

Whew. John flashed her the thumbs up and a tired grin. See, it said, I couldn't feel better.

"Okay, so there's a chance she might be here since last I remember, I was on Moya working with one of the DRDs. What about you?"

[becoming_more]

And that reaction, in Aeryn's opinion, only proved that her method worked. She nodded her head curtly, then rose and took a half step back, nearby if John needed her support, but allowing him the dignity of getting up under his own power if he could.

Her brow furrowed at Crichton's next words. "We were in the transport pod," she said slowly, "Returning from the Plokavian ship." It didn't make sense. How could Crichton have been in two places at once?

[youmissed]

John had to think about that. Plokavian ship. Plokavians. He racked his brain. Sorry, Aeryn, this human didn't have instant recall and it took him a few long seconds for him to remember what she was talking about. Oh, those Plokavians. The whole mess with Crais and Talyn. Yikes.

He shot her a look. "No we weren't. That was awhile ago, don't you remember? You were recovering from getting mind-tricked by the Nebari."

The look he gave her was cautious, more so because he was really hoping it wasn't him remembering things wrong. He'd had a few...well, problems recently with remembering things, forgetting sometimes what he said and did, brief blackouts, and he hoped this wasn't more of the same song and dance. For all he knew, it was possible the temporary mind-cleansing might have some aftereffects down the line. He frowned at Aeryn, worried, forgetting all about the goo as he made sure he was ready to walk.

[becoming_more]

Aeryn had to laugh at that insult. Tricked by the Nebari? She highly doubted it.

"No, John. That didn't happen. Are you sure it wasn't you who was mind-frelled?"

She'd laughed, but this wasn't good. Crichton's state of mind had been less than stable lately, and it was already sounding like he'd be more of a liability than any real help. Again, typical.

"You don't see Scorpius anywhere, do you?"

[youmissed]

Scorpy. She just had to bring up Scorpy. John tried to sneak a look around them, half-afraid that maybe she was right and he would start seeing the bastard hanging around, trying to tell him things. Giving him those looks like he should understand. The scary thing was sometimes John thought he did understand, kinda, and it scared the pants off him. He scowled at that look on her face. John Crichton, the human who's probably going space-crazy or whatever they were calling it.

"Nope. I said I'm good," John tried to play it cool. He hoped if he couldn't fool himself, he could at least fool Aeryn. "Look, we find the others, and they'll tell you I'm right."

Now he was doubting himself. Thanks, Aeryn.

[becoming_more]

Any time, Crichton. Aeryn watched him closely, trying to decide if he was trying to impress her by pretending to be more stable than he really was. She considered it a good sign he didn't start screaming at thin air, at least, and eventually she nodded again.

"We'll find the others," she agreed, purposefully not including the part about Crichton being right. "I don't think we can check all of these pods-- not now." She meant not in John's current condition, of course. She slipped one arm around Crichton's back, nestling her shoulder under his armpit.

"There's a walkway up ahead," Aeryn said, starting off in that direction. "Apparently it leads to the rest of the ship."

[youmissed]

Thanks for the shoulder. John appreciated the small gesture, even if a part of him wondered if she was just doing that 'no soldier gets left behind thing' or if this was something more. With Aeryn it was hard to tell, especially when she was the queen of mixed signals and half the time he couldn't tell what she was thinking. John found himself leaning on her more than he intended as his head swiveled toward where she was gesturing. Ramp, slightly slimy (of course) and what the hell where those up there? Tentacles?

Did he even seriously think that?

"Let's go check out the welcome wagon," John reached up and wiped his nose, sniffling. He paused and then said, a bit more quietly. "Thanks, Aeryn."

For the shoulder and for not pressing him on the...other stuff. A cycle ago and she probably would've been hounding him a lot more about his "tactical inefficiency" than she already had. John would take what he got.

[becoming_more]

Rest assured, when Crichton was well (or... better, anyway), Aeryn would be a bit harder on him. But for now, she'd save it for when it could actually be helpful.

She merely grunted at the thanks. She wasn't any more keen on finding out what the tentacles were for, but there didn't seem to be another way. And the pod fluid wasn't doing John any favors. Best to get it off him and out of him as soon as possible.

She also tried to ignore how nice it felt to be pressed closely to him. It wasn't as difficult as one might have thought, because a slightly clammy, slime-covered Crichton wasn't exactly what she'd consider alluring.

"Hopefully it'll include a shower," Aeryn said, walking him slowly toward the walkway, "Because you smell like dren."