001 (video)

[jumpiness]

[ Maybe Independence Day is Coach Finstock's favorite movie for a reason. All Stiles knows is, at first he was in his jeep, dropping Scott off at home - and then he was in a shuttle, with some nasty-looking dude with six eyes staring at him.

He may have shrieked in a totally manly way and sat on the bench furthest away from him.

Anyway the shuttle - space shuttle, space ship - had set down, and he'd been herded out and dumped on a launch pad in some serious need of scrubbing. Some dude with actualfax fucking mandibles had tiredly told him that he was supposed to go to Zeta district and help with repairs if he didn't have anything better to do. He did not field any other questions. Stiles has been flying by the seat of his pants for the last few hours.

That first hour may have involved hyperventilating.

Regardless, he knows how to work this omni-tool thing now and he's using it thanks to ingenuity and possibly some passerby help. His face fills up the entire screen. ]

So aliens are real. Big, giant huge wrinkly aliens that look like they want to eat my face, and blue space babes. Okay, that's cool, we respect all of the species in human-land. Totally cool bros here.

[ A teenager's very determined expression of resolve goes here, though. ]

What we don't respect is kidnapping. Which I'd say is what just happened, you know. But I've got questions. If any of you see a five foot three girl with fair skin, green eyes, and strawberry blonde hair, or a five foot ten dude with tan skin, brown eyes, brown hair and an uneven jawline, you're gonna tell me, okay?

And if any of you touch a hair on that fine lady's head, I'm going to go Will Smith on your butts.

[ Scott can handle some heat. Stiles turns the video off, then switches it back on suddenly. ]

And the dude you're telling is Stiles!

Comments

[sucking]

No, we're not. [And she leans down to hold her device out for him to look at. She'll look at his, comparing the settings and she'll slide a few over.]

Like... that. I think. I hope.

unfortunately it's not super private as far as messages go but they don't know that!

[jumpiness]

[ He watches her, undoing the settings and redoing them, and transmitting a couple frames of his face to her. ]

Getting anything?

private enough for now! lydia will figure this out! she is smart!

[sucking]

[Her head cants to the side and she makes an affirmative sound.]

Yes. I see your face. So, that's taken care of for now. What else is on our list of ... we should make a list.

[jumpiness]

Make a list of what?

[ Stiles might be good at lists, but Stiles is still in a little bit of freak-out mode right now. So he's not really the more level-headed of the two at the moment. ]

We gotta have money to get food, which, by the way, where do we even get food - and I assume if we're lucky, helping repair things gets paid daily, but if we're unlucky we're going to have to starve for the first week or whatever.

[sucking]

A list of what we need to find out, acquire - everything we need to do so that we don't forget something vital.

[She's thinking they need to find out about employment, food supplies, who to pay for this 'protection' and anything else that might come up.]

A list of questions and then we'll just go down the list and find the answers. [She shoots him a glance.] We won't starve. [She can always sell her jewelry. It's possible that they are valuable one some level. They're minerals or gems. Diamond earrings (that her father gave her) are at the very least good for cutting things.]

[jumpiness]

[ Somehow, Lydia's steady tone helps Stiles calm down, just a little. ]

Well, we do repair work, according to the angry purple woman. [ Saying that physically hurts. ] There seem to be a bunch of her guys around here, so we can ask one of them. I think that's who we pay for protection, too.

Gonna have to talk to them to make sure about that, though. Does this thing have a notepad function?

[ He's already looking for it as he speaks. It seems like he can save files of text, at least, and even share it with Lydia. ]

[sucking]

[She nods and wonders if the wandering protection providers are unionized.]

I'm not sure... [She starts to fiddle with the device, trying to locate - oh. So apparently it does.] Did you find it?

[jumpiness]

Yeah, it's right over - [ He leans over to show her, fiddling with it further and typing in some words. Just to make sure, he hits enter to make sure they're not command lines. They stay in place, so he shares the file. ] there, I think.

[sucking]

[She makes a pleased hum of sound and then continues to flip through the other functions of the device. She sees archived broadcasts, which will be important to learn more about their surroundings and maps.]

Should we explore or stay here? [Lydia votes explore, but she also doesn't want to get kidnapped by hostile residents of this place, either.]

[jumpiness]

[ The archives Stiles has found - it's how he found Aria's posts to begin with.

Stiles exhales. ]

Do we even have food here? Becaus food's a priority, and if there's nothing here, we need to go figure out how to get that. And jobs.

[sucking]

[She stands up straighter and nods.]

So, we explore.

idk up to you if you want to handwave the rest?

[jumpiness]

[ He sighs a little, turning his omni tool off and scrubbing his hands over his short hair. ]

Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.

yes, that sounds good to me.

[sucking]

[She nods.]

Good. We'll just have to deal with whatever happens as it happens.