ROLEPLAY HQ - unusual-cargo

It is amazing that even in a vast galaxy of various species and races, greed prevails in the form of slavery, among others. Certain species were considered commodities for one reason or another. Whether it was to own one as an exotic pet or to taste the flesh of a rare creature, the market was flush with innocent beings being transported from one place to another for the sake of money. Unknown and uncharted planets were often stripped of resources and living beings for one reason or another. Some planets were conquered out of a faction's desire to have more of the galaxy under their thumb while others saw these resource-rich planets as a way of getting rich quick. Tsume's homeworld was one such place. Seemingly overnight, Ansovilla had become flooded with fortune-seekers. The denizens, the Nekosuraimu, were peaceful folk with no quarels among them, so they had no need for weapons of war. When they were invaded, they were easily conquered. The climate was warm and human, often rainy. Their natural weakness, then, was the cold. The slavers discovered that they could freeze the Nekosuraimu and cart them off. To some, they became pets or slaves. To others, they were a delicacy. Their people began to die off quickly as they were easily routed. Several tried to escape, naively trusting people who would "offer them passage" off of the world, only to end up in shackles. Tsume saw her own family captured by such people. But she was crafty. Unlike the others of her kind, she had always wondered what existed beyond their world. She had a special hiding place that she used to escape from her would-be captors. Unfortunately, the others saw the place she hid in as 'scared' and refused to enter, leading to their eventual capture. Tsume was alone for a time, making her home underground in the sacred halls of her ancestors. Eventually, though, it became untenable. Once the people of her world were gone, the miners came to strip the world of its resources. (edited)

11:18 AM

They would eventually find her. Hopeless as it was, she had learned a great many things from her time in the sacred underground of her home. One of which was to use a clever form of technology left behind from their predecessors to 'stabilize' herself for a time. "Maho," they called it. By focusing on her very being, she could change her consistency and color - a sort of camouflage. She used this to make herself look more... normal, she supposed. Less like slime and more like the invaders she saw come and go from her planet. It was through this way that she was able to escape: she used her camouflage to infiltrate a mining ship and make it back to one of the primary stations. From there, she chartered a cargo ship to take her to another galaxy. It was expensive, sure. She did not have the money for it yet, either, but this particular transporter seemed to be fine with taking a downpayment. She wasn't proud of it, but she had become a bit of a pickpocket in her time on the station and had scrounged up enough for said deposit. Now, covered in a brown cloak, she waited at the docks for what she hoped was a way out of this terrible galaxy. @Cecil (edited)

This was gonna be a simple job. Find someone with a brown cloak and strange ears, take them into his ship for transportation out of the galaxy. Nothing all that out of the ordinary, people often requested his services just to get past specific places that were either dangerous or hard to get through, like specific checkpoints. All it took was the person and a bunch of cargo to conceal them.. And as long as they didn't get attacked by pirates too often- Something that a small cargo ship could often avoid from stealth alone.. The small ship, called the "Errant", pulled into the station after Reis cleared it with the station comms. Taking the time to refuel for some credits, Reis walked to the crowds of people to look around. Several people wore brown cloaks or capes, as it was a common clothing options, but not many had any strange ears. It took some walking around for a while and asking around, but eventually Reis stopped in front of Tsume, the only person fitting the description of 'brown cloak and strange ears' that he hadn't talked to. "You the one who's trying to charter my ship? Name's Reis. Captain of the Errant." The captain seemed to be constantly frowning, a hard expression built from years of flying through the stars and fighting for his life. His left arm was entirely mechanical, likely from some kind of trauma from his line of work, but it didn't seem to slow him down. In fact, he had used it to manage the majority of his systems.. "You have the payment we agreed on?" It definitely was under his service's value, but they'd have to get his full payment one way or another, or else things wouldn't end well for them. It rarely did, in this day and age, and he didn't like doing that, but he needed the money to maintain his ship one way or another. @PhoggyΨυχη

Tsume was caught off-guarf by the man's sudden approach. Granted, she hadn't been paying much attention; she was on the lookout for hunters and slavers, not ship captains. She kept her hood down, hiding her face, suppressing a girlish squeak. The faux-catgirl dug around in her pockets and pulled out a card with the credits on it. Shaky hands gave it to the gruff captain. He looked scary... much like the men who had killed and taken her people. Many of them had mixed with machinery to improve themselves; to make themselves more dangerous and efficient. As long as this man didn't know who or what she was, she wouldn't have to contend with his mechanical arm. She hoped, at least. She kept herself quiet, hoping to avoid giving any part of her identity away. Tsume kept her head down and nodded back towards the ship. @Cecil

The terrified ones were a double-edged sword. They were willing to pay more for transport, that much was certain, but they could be compared to cornered animals.. Violent if their life was threatened. Especially those who seemed unassuming at first, so any cutesy shit didn't work on Reis. Taking the card from her, he looked at something on his mechanical arm for a second or two, a frown quickly forming on his face. "Hope you've got a plan on how you're gonna pay off the rest of the cost, this isn't even half." He spoke bluntly. But, a deal was a deal, so he turned and started walking to the ship. They'd follow. The ship was not overly large, being a single-man craft, but it was bigger than most ships for one person, primarily because there seemed to be robots on board, currently loading some cargo onto the ship. Reis paused for a moment, as if he were listening to something, before he continued forward and boarded the ship, giving her ample time to follow. The first thing that was apparent was that the robots were absolutely not combat oriented in the slightest, with thin bodies, little to no armor, and they all looked kinda.. thrown together, like they had been put together from scraps. They were to make up for the lack of crew, it would seem. The second most obvious thing that she was immediately able to notice was that it was just slightly colder on the ship than on the station, maybe 5 or 10 degrees colder. The reason for that would be simple, should she have decided to ask- The robots could overheat really damn easily if it wasn't kept cooler.

5:22 AM

Stepping into the cargo hold, which was already full of containers, he opened a door that seemed to blend into the wall quite well, revealing a plain room with a bed, a table and chair, and a small personal bathroom. "This is where you'll be staying for the trip. The robots'll bring you whatever food or drink you'd want from the machine, though you'll only get two meals a day for free. Damn machine eats credits otherwise." "This room has an intercom between me and it, so if you need anything, you can let me know. Other than that, we'll be leaving once the cargo's all loaded." Without another word, he walked off to the bridge to prepare his ship for take off. @PhoggyΨυχη

She recoiled at his harsh tone. Tsume had no idea how she was going to pay off the rest of her debt. Money had never been a worry on her homeworld; they simply did not need it. But everything in this galaxy seemed to run on money. Everyone wanted it and everyone needed it. It was difficult for her to even figure out how the process worked. Without an appropriate citizenship card, though, she had been unable to find a job. The machine men caught Tsume's eyes next. She had never seen anything like them before. They did not seem to be aware or even considerate of her person. Some would brush past her without so much as an an acknowledgement while others would not even respond to simple visual stimuli. She walked in front of one of them and waved her hand in front of its face to no avail. It was fascinating, if not a bit scary, The automation of labor was something she had not seen to its fullest extent yet. The cool air was a small shock to her system as she entered in to the ship. It was far from cold, but it was unusual. She looked over the small room that he had given her, noting everything he pointed out. She responded with a nod and a firm "hm." As he left, she was stuck pondering the initial question: how would she pay him back? The first thing that came to mind was to help with the cargo. She wasn't sure how strong she was or how heavy the boxes were, but she had to try. She rushed out of the ship and followed the procession of mechanical men to the bay and picked up a box. To her, it was rather light. Her body seemed to simply hoist the objects up easily. As if an automatic response to the problem of carrying them, her body hardened itself and became more dense, facilitating the lack of muscles. She stacked several boxes on top of each other and carried them in with ease. Tsume was careful to avoid dropping them - after all, she had no idea what was in them. In the hustle of moving them, her hood came off and revealed her fluffy cat ears.

7:52 AM

'Nekomata' were not strange to see in the station. She wore the cloak more out of fear than anything. It slightly bothered her to be exposed like this, but, for her part, she kept up the facade as she helpd moved boxes.

7:52 AM

@Cecil

The pilot was getting everything set up for the trip, marking the coordinates in the ship's computer and hooking his arm into the ship itself. A quick glance at the cameras gave him a bit of a surprise, as his client was seen carrying some of the cargo into the ship herself, and seemed to be doing it quite easily.. Hm. That was strange. If she could lift cargo so easily, why was she trying to leave the galaxy so quickly? She could easily find a job- Y'know what? None of his business. She was buying his services, so he'd just do his job. Though her helping out was probably just trying to pay him back for what she couldn't afford.. He'd keep that in mind. And she had ears, nekomata ones from the looks of it. It was strange for a nekomata to be so scared of reveailng their ears, but she had to have her reasons, so he just didn't bother with it. Once all the cargo was loaded, and the droids were back in their hold, Reis's voice came over the ship's intercom. "Please enter your room and shut the door with the controls. We'll be taking off in a few minutes." He watched on the cameras to make sure she followed his orders, and then turned his attention toward the comms channel, requesting clearance to leave. Of course, it came quickly because of his ship's identification as a cargo ship, and then they were taking off. Now that the droids weren't running, the ship's temperature adjusted to a more comfortable tempature for the both of them, and Reis settled in to fly. From the inside of the room, it was clear that there wasn't much to do. If she hadn't seen the door beforehand, it'd be easy to miss the fact that there was even one in this room, the only indicator being the panel to the right of it that had various buttons, including ones to open or close the door, or even contact Reis directly through the ship's comms. But other than that, there was fuck all to do. @PhoggyΨυχη

Technology was not something that Tsume was too familiar with. Even with her time aboard the station, she had not taken to the contraptions and machines as well as others had. Vending machines confused her, the hovercars frightened her, and the ships had brought her back to the moment of invasion on her homeworld. As such, she had not engaged with much of the technology and did not know what it did. Now back in her room, she felt safe for a moment and let the disguise fade, revealing her Nekosuraimu body. It was not taxing to maintain the disguise, but it did require her to keep constant concentration and maintain an air of caution. Here, she relaxed and sat down on the bedding. She ran a hand through her... hair and sighed, letting out a long-held breath. The cloak still covered her body, strange as it was. The clothes on her did not seem to be affected by her semi-liquid form. She hopped off of the bed and walked over to the panel. The blinking lights caught her attention and, despite her apprehension with technology, intrigued her. Tsume cocked her head to the side and leaned forward to examine them. Each button seemed to be labelled in a language she did not know. Trial and error it was. She pressed one of them and the door to her room opened. She let out a squeak of fear and quickly flattened into a puddle before fleeing under the bed, staring out from her hiding place at the door. When it became clear that nothing was happening, she slowly rose out from under the bed and back to the panel. She pressed the button next to the one she had just pressed and the door closed. "Ho?" She moved over to the door to look at it, observing the seams of the door. It seemed impractical. Why did then not simply slide underneath the door? Or do away with doors altogether? It seemed terrible impractical. Back at the panel, she began to alternate between pressing the 'open' and 'close' buttons, watching with giddy joy as th door slid back and forth.

8:27 AM

@Cecil

The pilot was focused on manuevering the ship through the stars, something that could get quite boring when there wasn't much going on like avoiding asteroid fields or other ships.. While he enjoyed his job without a doubt, there were several situations that he found ungodly boring. The slow, uneventful moments were just impossible for him to enjoy. They were relaxing and simple, sure, but boring. So his eyes weren't quite fully focused on the space ahead of them when he saw on his indicators that one of the doors was opening and closing rapidly, which caused him to take a look on the cameras. Was something malfunctioning? Dammit, if it was, he'd have to deal with it quickly before it pissed off his client. Then, when he looked at the camera, his eyes widened slightly in shock. Said client had.. transformed. She wasn't just a normal nekomata, it seemed. No.. She was something much, much more valuable.. She was one of those weird slime-cat things that people gathered to sell. Quietly, he reached over and turned on the intercom. "Excuse me, Miss. Can you not mess with the door like that? It's causing all kinds of alerts on my end up here, I was worried that something on the ship broke." Then, he shut it off and opened a simple comms connection between one of his contacts at the edge of the system. The agreement they came to was simple- If his client was unable to pay his fee at the end of the trip, she'd be taken straight to them. Was Reis a scummy person for doing that? Oh, absolutely. Did he give a shit? No, not really. He was out here trying to survive, and sometimes other people had to be fucked over for people like him to survive. It wasn't out of malice, either. Business was business, and if she didn't want to risk anything like that, she should've had the full payment at the ready. @PhoggyΨυχη

She jumped at the alert. The door was talking to her? It sounded a lot like the captain. It was a quandary, but not one that she could reason her way through. She stepped back and bowed politely, "I am sorry, Mr. Door. I did not mean to hurt you." Her voice was soft and gentle, carrying a small twinge of fear. Truth be told, though, she was growing antsy holes up in this room. "Mr. Door?" She asked again, stepping away from the buttons. "Are there other things to do on this ship? Or am I allowed to explore?" Her head tilted to the side and her ears flattened. She did not want to be confined again. "Can I tell you a secret, Mr. Door?" She leaned in close and spoke almost in a whisper, "I am very scared. I tried to get as much money as I could, but I still need to get the rest somehow. But I had to get away... I couldn't end up like my family and friends... I have to live on for them. I don't even know if there are any more of us out there." @Cecil

When he heard her response through the intercom, he sighed. Clearly she wasn't the most educated of people. Maybe her homeworld didn't have the kind of technology that everyone else did. Or she could just be stupid. It didn't really matter to Reis, either way. "The door's not the one talking to you. It's Reis, over the intercom." The response came after a few seconds. "As for exploring.. This is a cargo ship, not a cruise ship. You're not gonna find a whole lot to do, especially since it's usually just me in here. I don't need anything to really entertain myself here." Any entertainment he got was through the ship's computer, which she absolutely wouldn't be allowed to get her hands on, primarily because he didn't want her breaking anything or shutting down any vital systems. Besides, the computer was configured to only really respond to his prosthetic. With another sigh, he shook his head. "Fine, you can explore, just don't break anything. And absolutely don't mess with the drones." With that, he shut off the intercom so he could focus his attention back on the flight, and therefore didn't hear her quiet confession about her situation. @PhoggyΨυχη

She skipped out of the door and began to wander around the ship. Reis had been correct; it was boring. The only thing she found that was of any interest was the cargo hold. Several of the powered-down bots sat around, lifeless. She gave one a poke and frowned when it remained motionless. Were they dead? That was a bit sad, but death was something that she had experienced much of. The slimecat had an idea. She focused for a moment, letting herself focus on the feelings in her body. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she had taken the guise of one of the robots. She was not entirely sure how to feel about this, but it reminded her of some of the texts she had read from the cave back home. She had never tried to put it into practice, but it seemed that she could change her appearance to fit the look of whatever she wanted. In her robot disguise, she stumbled clumsily back to her room, trying to match their gait. @Cecil

It was several long, silent moments before Reis looked at the motion sensor. Guess she was runnin' around the ship. When he looked at the cameras, though, he was surprised to see one of the drones walking around. Frowning, he checked the console and found that they were all still inactive- Or, at least, reporting as such. Was one of them on the fritz or something? "Great, of course now things start malfunctioning.. Dammit." Setting the ship to autopilot, he walked over to a tool closet and grabbed a box of tools, walking out to the cargo hold to track down the malfunctioning drone. When he found what he believed to be the drone, he walked over to it and frowned. "Alright, why'd you activate on your own.." Setting the tools down, he pulled his interfacing tool out of his mechanical arm, the same thing he used to manipulate the systems of everything on the ship, and went to plug it into the port on the back of the drone's neck. @PhoggyΨυχη

It worked! I really look like a metal man! Tsume giggled to herself before batting away his hand. She hopped back and shook her head at him. Then, she skipped away, prancing through the ship. She looked around the mechanical beast that she was confined to right now, noting the intricacies of the pipes and wires. They made no sense to her; what were they? Where did they lead? She decided to follow them, keeping her drone form as she skipped through the ship. The wiring and piping eventually led her to the engine room. It was large and... confusing. So much of this place was confusing. Was it magic? She had never believed in any of that, but based on everything she was seeing, she might actually start to believe in it. She couldn't help but feel drawn to the large engine of the ship. She wanted to reach out and touch it, but she felt an odd force pushing back against her. More so physically than anything else, she felt like her very being was opposite of this thing. @Cecil

He narrowed his eyes as the drone batted his hand away. What the actual hell? This couldn't be one of his drones, they didn't move so smoothly. They were rigid and only followed his commands. Why the hell..? Rising slowly, he drew his weapon and began to follow the drone carefully, as it made its way to the engine hold. When Tsume tried reaching for the engine, he shouted. "Freeze! I don't know who sent you, but if you touch that engine, I'll blow a hole in your chest." It was a bluff, as if he fired, he was liable to blow his entire ship up, but he had to figure out what was going on. @PhoggyΨυχη

Tsume was confused. How would one 'blow a hole' through her chest? She thought about it for a moment before letting out a breath and forming a hole in her chest. The body of the drone parted and made way for the abscess and she-the drone-looked over at Reis. She tilted her head to the side and looked at him quizzically, though the robot's face did not change. She wondered if this giant source of energy was what she read about in the texts... something called 'teknologee' and an 'n-gin.' It was giving off a massive amount of power, and though her body repelled it, she couldn't help but be interested in it. @Cecil

What the actual fuck. With a look of shock, Reis took a couple steps back. "Who the hell are you? Are you even a robot?" His eyes narrowed, and he mumbled something under his breath into his arm. Just as he suspected. No other movement in the ship. Where the hell was the girl? Aiming his weapon again, he spoke up. "I don't know what the hell you did with my client, but you better tell me right now. I'll be damned if I don't finish this job." The air around his blaster began to buzz slightly as it warmed up. "Step away from the engine right now and tell me who you are, or i'll shoot." @PhoggyΨυχη

"It's me!" She said, her chipper voice coming from the body of the robot. "I am the clee-ent!" She shifted back into her original form and spun around. "See? It's so cool! I didn't know I could actually do that, but your rusty boys are pretty easy to change into. But they move so weirdly... I can't really figure out how to copy that. But the texts said that this would be possible! I didn't really have the chance to try it on the station, but now I know I can do it!" She gave him a thumbs-up and a wink, "cool, right? It must be a blessing from our god! If only the others had known we could do this..." Her countenance fell as her thoughts fell back to her family and friends. "...maybe they'd still be alive." Her body seemed to... deflate? Melt? She shrunk down into a waist-deep puddle of kitty sadness. @Cecil

He lowered his weapon slowly. That was absolutely something that would take some getting used to, and he wasn't sure if he ever could. He'd dealt with a lot of ununsual peoples throughout his travels as a smuggler, but none of them had the ability to shapeshift. To be honest, he prefered when things kept one consistent shape. It was easier to know where to shoot. Reis let out a small sigh. "Don't give me a scare like that." He wasn't a religious man, so he thought all talk of gods was just a bunch of wasted air. "Alright, new rule, no changing into random things on the ship. I need to be able to tell where you are, and I don't know if someone's gotten onto the ship if something strange is moving around." Shaking his head, he turned to leave the engine room. "Come on, get outta there." Reis paused for a moment as she said something about people not being alive, but quickly shook it off. People died all the time, and he didn't have time to mourn a bunch of them he didn't know. Call him heartless, but he really only cared about his own survival. "You hungry?" Glancing back at her, he hoped to just get her up off of his engine bay's floor before anything got broken. @PhoggyΨυχη

"Hungry?" She tilted her head to the side. She wasn't sure what that word meant. Her people had no reference for hunger. She walked out of the engine room with him, though she still felt the odd push-and-pull with the n-gin. "What was that thing? It made me feel weird... Like I both needed to touch it, but would not be able to. Like... My body was pushed away by it." A word popped into her head. One she had both read and heard of before, "what is a wepuns? The texts said a lot about wepuns, but I never understood what it meant.' @Cecil

Gods, were her people from some backwater planet or something where they didn't teach their people about anything? Shaking his head quickly, he continued walking. "Hungry, like needing to eat food. Don't you need to eat to survive?" When she asked about the engine, he just frowned. "That's what keeps the ship powered. Don't go messing with it, or it could just kill us both in an explosion big enough to destroy the entire ship, all the cargo, and us with it. So stay out of there." He had very little idea why she felt drawn to it, maybe her slime had some kind of magnetic effect to it. Whatever, it wasn't anything he needed to worry about, as long as she didn't go back there. Quickly, he turned around. "I mean it, stay out of that room." "..Weapons are things people use to kill people. I mostly use mine to defend my ship." With that, he turned and continued walking, clearly irritated that he had to keep explaining even the simplest concepts to her. @PhoggyΨυχη

She shook her head. Her people did not need food or anything of the kind. They simply thrived off of energy, whether from other lifeforms or from larger sources. Though, she was not sure how to voice this. Perhaps that was why she was attracted to the engine? She was not hungry, but she could always intake more energy. She stopped at his explanation of what a weapon was. "But I do not kill people. I never- I would never do such a thing. I am not a killer. None of my people are... or were. I do not understand. Perhaps you have the wrong understanding of what a 'wepun' is. It is understandable. I was confused when I read the term at first. I am not a wepun. I am a Nekosuraimu." @Cecil

"Who called you a weapon? I certainly didn't." Shaking his head, he sighed as she stopped. Reaching down, he put his hand on his blaster. "This is a weapon. It kills people who attack me." That was mostly true. Usually, he was one who tried to avoid a fight, as long as he could get his cargo out of there. Very rarely did he stand his ground to fight, because his ship lacked a decent medbay, so if he got injured, he'd have to fork over thousands in order to get his wounds patched up. Unlike his ship, which he had plenty of things to repair it with, he couldn't fix flesh or bones. Hell, he didn't know the first thing about treating anything larger than a cut. Reis was a pilot and a mechanic, not a doctor. "Now come on." With that, he put the blaster away and started walking again. @PhoggyΨυχη

"The Xree-Ate-Or." Tsume replied as she followed along. "The texts said that we were made to be the ultimate wepuns, but that doesn't make sense. We didn't kill anyone." She hopped back as he put his hand on his blaster, eyeing it carefully. "Where are we going?" She shimmied along after him, calmer now that he had released his grip on his gun. Tsume ran her hand along the cold metal walls once more, feeling the ship's interior. "She sounds sick." @Cecil

He scoffed at her saying that 'the texts called them weapons' or whatever she was going on about. In his experience, the only thing that made weapons were people, gods or whatever be damned. "I'm taking you back to your room, and then I'm going back to piloting the ship so we don't hit anything." However, when she said that his ship 'sounded sick' he stopped. "What? My ship 'sounds sick'? The hell you mean by that?" He clearly sounded offended at that, like he just accused her of treating his ship terribly. Hell, he treated this thing way better than he treated himself, if the lack of things like a proper medbay was anything to go off of. "You better make yourself very clear." @PhoggyΨυχη

She tilted her head at his accusatory tone. "Her energy is all... messed up. Like... Hm." She wasn't sure how to describe it; she had little frame of reference for things like this. "Like when someone is not feeling well and you find that they have an infection or that something is inside of them that shouldn't be. It feels like that. I felt it back at the n-gen, too." Tsume was at a loss for words— literally. She had no idea how to describe it. Her mind couldn't comprehend the magnitude of what she was sensing. "Hm... Like... Like something is slowing her down? On purpose?" @Cecil

The frown on his face only grew bigger the more she described it. As far as he knew, the diagnostics had never shown anything wrong with the engine or his ship as a whole, and he did everything in his power to make sure she ran well. But hearing that something similar to an infection might be affecting his ship, he turned and went straight back to the engine room, connecting his arm's interfacing tool into it to run a full diagnostic. What the hell had she done to hurt his ship? If not her, who fucked with his ship? Whoever it was, he'd fuckin' make them regret it. Nobody fucks with his ship and gets away with it. @PhoggyΨυχη

Interfacing with the ship, he would find a tracker somewhere on the hull. It was a wyrm that had burrowed itself into the ship and was transmitting location data out to... someone? It was infecting the ship, as well, slowly trying to override the controls. "It's sick. But she's fighting it. I'm not sure what she is sick with, but she doesn't sound like she is winnnig..." @Cecil

"Bastards think they can take my ship from me?" He mumbled to himself as he disconnected and went to the main ship's computer, beginning to isolate the infected connections from everything else and attempting to trace the transmission remotely, wanting to find out who exactly was trying to ruin his ship. It'd take time, though, and he'd need to monitor the infected tracker to make sure the quarantines would work. "You go back to your room as stay out of my way. I'm going to have plenty to worry about without having to keep you from breaking anything." @PhoggyΨυχη

"I won't break anything! I want to help!" She said, 'stomping' her foot on the ground. She gave a small pout and crossed her arms. "Tell me what to do!" Maybe it would also help her work off her debt to him? She wasn't sure, but she thought she could help 'treat' the ship. "What can I do?" She wouldn't break anything if she could help it. But she also wasn't entirely sure about what she could do for the ship. Maybe she could heal it? @Cecil

"Unless you're intimately familiar with the innerworkings of a ship's systems, or feel like crawling out on the hull of the ship to remove the tracker directly, I doubt there's much you can do." He responded without even looking in her direction. If she knew how to do those things, then she wouldn't have needed him to fly her out to presumably her freedom. @PhoggyΨυχη

"I can do that!" She said, looking around for a moment before spotting a vent. Tsume flattened herself out and slid up and into the vent. The ship was tight and secure, but there had to be a way out of the ship and onto the outside hull. The air intake/outtake piping seemed to be her only option. She wasn't sure if she needed oxygen, but she was about to find out. She slid out of the piping and onto the outside of the ship. She clung to the hull rather easily as it sped through space. Her body seemed to stick to it as she looked around for the wyrm. Finally, she spotted something on the ship. It was blipping and beeping and she made her way over to it. Tsume reached out and touched the probe; she almost immediately felt the energy from it drain into her. The probe unlatched and fell off, flying off into space. @Cecil

"What? I wasn't being-" By the time he turned to look at where she had been standing, she was already gone. Staring at where she had been a second ago, he was just.. baffled. Shaking his head quickly, he turned back to the ship's computer to make sure the infection was contained and being dealt with and to see if the trace on the transmission was complete. If it wasn't, there'd be no way to complete it now that the connection was gone. Disconnecting from the computer, he turned back to where she had been before disappearing. He didn't have the equipment to quickly go retrieve her if she got lost, so she better be able to get back in. @PhoggyΨυχη

She slid and slithered her way back through the vents. Tsume hadn't been able to remove the tracker — well, she didn't want to try for risk of breaking something — but she had been able to shut it down. She was not entirely sure what it had been or what it was doing. All that she knew was it was harming the big metal whale that she was riding in. She returned to Reis, reforming as she looked around. "Is Ship okay? I think I took care of the thing. She should be feeling better now." Still, the slime girl was unsure of what she had actually done. As of yet, she was still in the dark about all of her abilities and natures. "I didn't take it off, though. I didn't know if that would break or hurt her," Tsume sighed, lowering her shoulders slightly. @Cecil

He sighed when she slid back in through the vents, shaking his head while leaning against the console. "I wasn't being serious when I mentioned that. That was completely crazy, how did you know you'd be able to survive in open space? What woulda happened if you got dragged away? This is a cargo ship, dammit, it's not equipped to retrieve people lost to space." Whatever. What mattered was that the tracker was disabled, and when they got to a station he'd be able to get out there and take the damn thing off safely. Maybe then he'd be able to figure out who planted it and what they wanted. "Whatever that thing was tryna do to my ship, it's not doin' it anymore, and the infected systems are being cleaned up as we speak." He looked back to the console, staring at the computer intently. "Don't know what the hell you did, but good job." That was as close to a 'thank you' as anyone would get. Reis wasn't the kind of guy to say thanks for just about anything. @PhoggyΨυχη

"I know that I don't need, um... Oxeegen? And I can stick to surfaces." She began to walk up the wall and to the ceiling. She hung down in front of him, upside-down. "I drank the little beepy blinky thing's energy. I think that is the closest thing to 'eating' that I can do?" She shrugged her shoulders and fell down onto the ground, forming into a puddle. She shot back up, resuming her form with a smile. "Maybe it's because I'm a wepun or whatever it's called! I don't really know, but it was super duper easy." She rested her hand against the ship and smiled. "She sounds better now."

11:57 AM

@Cecil

Well, you learned something new every day. These slimecat things, whatever the hell they were called, could survive in the vacuum of space quite easily. And if what she was saying was true, then he wouldn't have to worry about supplying her with food, he could just chuck a couple batteries into her room every so often to keep her charged... That was a weird thought. Not the weirdest he had, but certainly up there. "..You're not a weapon unless you plan on hurting people. Simple as that." He'd have to keep her abilities in mind, at the very least. Though, he doubted he'd be the one making use of anything she could offer, especially if she couldn't pay for her trip. Though, some ideas were quickly coming to mind of what he could do with her instead of giving her over to his contacts.. Though perhaps those ideas were a little too cruel, especially for him. "Well, at least the ship's clearing up." With that, he turned his attention back to the ship's controls. @PhoggyΨυχη

"I would never hurt anyone! That sounds very mean," she frowned and shook her head. "You should be more careful with her! She is mad at you for letting them put that thing on you." Tsume ran her hand along the ship again. "She says you're usually better than that, but you got sloppy." The slime-cat shrugged her shoulders and set her hand down by her side. "How old is she? She sounds so wise!" Of course, talking to a ship was... absurd. Though it was probably one of the least absurd things going on at the moment. "She also said that you have an "introoder" on the ship, whatever that means. It's small and not zappy like the little bug on the outside. She said it is fuzzy and keeps making a mess of the wires in the cargo hold." @Cecil

"Then you're not a weapon." He shook his head, looking over the computers and sighing quietly. Sloppy? That was one way to put it. There were suspicions of who would put that kind of device on his ship, but it was impossible to tell, since there were so many people at the station that he picked the girl up from. It was possible that he could hack into the security systems there to look over the cameras, but they were too far away at this point. "..This ship's eight years old. I've had her since my teenage years." He'd never gotten a new ship ever since he started this whole business. There was simply no need, since his systems were integrated so well. Though, this mention of an intruder caused him to groan. Literally nothing was going right this mission. Silently, he turned and walked over to the cargo hold, beginning to search for whatever intruder was making a mess of things. @PhoggyΨυχη

"That's so cool! Uh, what's a teenage year? Is that a shorter or longer year?" She tilted her head to the side, a bit confused. Tsume followed him to the cargo hold, looking over his shoulder. She was curious to see who the fuzzy visitor was. As they rounded the corner, a small, odd, fox-like creature was lying there chewing on wires. "It's adorable! What is it? Is it yours? If not, can we keep it?" Tsume was excitedly bouncing up and down as she watched the curious creature. "Hello, friend!" She said, waving at it. "What is your name?" @Cecil

"That just means I was a teenager." He shook his head, exasperated. How could know so little about a language they spoke? Especially in this day and age, where the language was literally everywhere. Had her people really been that sheltered? When they rounded the corner, Reis cursed. "Where the hell did that come from? Hey! Stop chewing on those wires, dammit!" He jogged over, crouching down in front of the thing. "..The hell even are you? I've never seen a creature like you before. How'd you even get on my ship?" This job just seemed to bring more and more issues every second. How'd the ship's computers not detect this until now, or why did they not tell him? Was that damn probe fucking with his systems to where it didn't detect any movement? If so, whoever tried to ruin his ship would get quite the scathing reply from him- In the form of a hole in their chest. @PhoggyΨυχη

"Oh! Cool!" She said with a smile as she scooped the small creature into her arms. "What's a teenager?" The little fox had some wires in its mouth, chewing on them before swallowing them down. "Isn't it cute? By the way, what is it? It looks cool! And fluffy. And all lighty and stuff!" She hugged it tight; it tried to bite her only to get a mouthful of slime, which is spat out and hopped out of her arms, going over to Reis. It pawed at his leg, seeming to want something. "Are these standard on all ships?" Tsume asked. @Cecil

"..Someone who's older than a kid but not an adult yet." He sighed, looking annoyed at the fox. "That's gonna be a bitch to replace.." He kneeled down to inspect the damage, shaking his head. "..At least it's nothing major, might be some issues with the lights until I get it fixed.." Looking at Tsume as she held the fox, Reis's eyes narrowed. "..I've got no idea what it is, nor how it got here. If it's standard on ships, it's absolutely not on mine. What the hell do you want?" He glared down at it as it pawed at his leg. @PhoggyΨυχη

Tsume tried her hardest to understand, but was unable to. "Kid? Adult?" These words were confusing for her. All of her people were the same age... or had been. They did not age, do better or worse. "I can maybe fix it for you!" She replied with a bright smile. It seems like it'd be easy for her. As Reis looked down at the creature, it teleported away and off somewhere. @Cecil

He just shrugged, clearly distracted by the strange creature on his ship. "Yeah, sure, whatever." Then, he walked back to his ship's computer, looking for any signs of unusual movement on the ship's motion detectors, as well as having the computer run a search on any strange teleporting fox-like creatures. @PhoggyΨυχη

"He seems awfully grumpy," Tsume said to herself, her hands on her hips. She sighed and knelt down by the wires. This whole place was so weird. And it was alive? And it had animals! She grabbed both ends and felt her body light up as electricity coursed through her body and between the wires. "Ooh! That tickles!" She pushed them back together and seemed to seal the wires shut using part of herself. "There! All taken care of!" @Cecil