hopefragment | inbox

[ admittedly there was an #incident with a plant that leaks acid that caught all of them by surprise, so she has some nicely hidden burn marks. hinata does not need to know about that though it's a minor detail. ]

It was all peachy! The roughest part was when the current went all whooooshhhh around us and took us away!

[ she holds her hand out for the countess to sniff it?? ]

[Hajime... Hinata definitely needs to know about that?! But since he doesn't at the moment, he just shakes his head and rubs his fingers soothingly over the back of the kitten's neck.]

It's okay, Countess, she's a friend.

[The Countess sniffs suspiciously at Hajime's offered fingers before apparently deciding to take Hinata at his word, digging her claws into his shoulder and leaning forward to rub the side of her face against Hajime's fingers]

Roxy said these kinds of mutations are normal with cloning and that she's perfectly healthy...

[All four eyes blink up at Hajime.]

[ ugh so cute. hajime scratches the back of the countess' ears, cooing slightly. ]

I love her. She's perfect! And she seems to like you.

[ or tolerate him. it's hard to say sometimes with cats. ]

Ow, ow...

[He gently tries to lift her claws from his shoulder, which she of course takes great offense to and hops down, rubbing herself against Hajime. Hinata doesn't seem offended at all, just massaging his poor shoulder with a huff of amusement.]

Yeah, most of the time I think she likes me.

[But who knows for sure. He drops his hand from his shoulder and looks her over, noting the tiredness as his smile turns a little more sympathetic.]

Do you want to talk about what you guys did when you were, uh, lost?

[ she just sits down on the floor then to better coax the countess to her to play. ]

We mostly tried to fix the sub-- ah, seamoth, that we had. None of us are really mechanics, but Reyna had more experience than the rest of us so that was mostly her job while we tried to help. We also explored the island in case there was anything useful to bring back to base.

[ she doesn't sound annoyed with saying this, but her usual pep isn't there. whether it's the tiredness or she really is just that grumpy about her time with the others, it is hard to say. probably a mix of both. ]

[The Countess is 100% up for playing. Playing is the best thing?? Hajime has been accepted as her new friend. For the moment, anyway. Cats.]

Ah... you know, I wonder if we shouldn't make sure a mechanic goes with everyone when they go on missions. Or... I bet Souda or Dirk would teach you some basics, if you asked. Souda's the Super High School Level Mechanic, after all.

Did you guys find anything?

[She does sound really tired to him, though... maybe it's just the contrast with how much energy he's used to seeing from her. He wavers for a moment, then, a little impulsively, reaches out to take her free hand and give it a gentle squeeze. Perk up, cute Hajime!]

Edited (html...) 2016-09-26 17:26 (UTC)

[ she immediately smiles at him for the hand squeeze. ]

Mostly just a lot of different plants. We brought back some tasty fruit and seeds for it all! Oh, and the baby.

[ just. the baby. whatever that is. ]

[Ah, she smiled... he's glad. Now that he's at least gotten a smile on her face, he pulls his hand back to try to get the Countess's attention again. Unless she wants to keep his hand, which is perfectly fine.]

B-baby?!

[wait, hang on-! that is definitely not being given the proper amount of urgency!]

What baby?!

The baby! That's just what I've been calling him since Reyna hasn't picked out a name yet.

[ she starts playing with her communicator and then holds her wrist out to him so he can see pictures of a baby land shark. ]

The island got hit by a pretty bad storm one night towards the end of our stay there. We found a cave to stay in and were okay, but his mama didn't make it. It was sort of a very last minute decision to take him with us since the other sharks didn't seem to want to take care of him.

Oh...

[He presses a hand to his forehead and sighs with some relief. He thought she meant a human baby?? He's absolutely certain there is no one on this entire base who's qualified to be a parent right now.]

That's really kind of you guys, to take him with you. I just hope he gets along with cats...

[Please, landshark baby, leave their cats alone... But on another note:]

Seriously, I'm really glad you're okay. Was the storm the only bad thing that happened?

[ it takes a village to raise a child!!! or a base. or something. no let's hope babies never show up here. ]

Mm, there were other mishaps? But it's the kind of thing you'd expect to happen after getting stuck on some remote island.

Hmm...

[He just kind of gives her a look, but alright, if she doesn't want to talk about specifics, he's not going to force the issue. Instead he's just going to lean forward to pet the Countess some more.]

Well... next time you go on a mission like that, let me know and I'll come along. I've been working with Dirk as much as I can, so if something happens to a seamoth, maybe I could help.

[ that look is ineffective, she continues to just attempt to become best friends with the cat. ]

Hm, I wouldn't want to disturb you. You probably have other things to do than hang around me.

I like hanging around you.

[He says that, looking down at the Countess and batting lightly at her tail. So it looks like he's saying that to the kitten instead of answering Hajime, but so it goes.]

Speaking of that... did you know Dirk and Jake are courting each other?

[What... on earth does Dirk and Jake's relationship status have to do with hanging out with her?? There's no train of logic to follow there. At all.]

[ yes what... does their relationship have to do with hinata's apparent appreciation of hanging out with his mutant cat. how strange.

hajime just blinks at him, but when she's talk there's no real hint of her confusion in her tone. ]

How cute! They seem like they'd be very uwaaah, you know? It's a good feeling.

[Please define "uwaaah."]

Haha, yeah, I think I get what you mean. Anyway, Dirk asked me if I knew anyone who'd want to go on some kind of ironic 1950's American double date with them... Want to help them out?

[...Yes. This is. The way to make your feelings clear to a girl. But they're tentative feelings, and he's still not totally sure he wants to act on them yet? For one thing, all their FTEs have been in his direction, which he's not used to. He has to max her affection meter before he makes any sudden moves??]

He did say you'd have to wear a poodle skirt.

[ it mean uwaaah obviously. ]

Poodle skirts are super cute! I can make one, I've missed my Fabricator. [ hajime it belongs to everyone..... ] But okay, I'll go on a date with you.

[ hinata did attempt to phrase it as just helping the two guys out but like. double date so it's still a date. ]

[Is it really your Fabricator...?

But whatever, he's not going to fight for it. Besides, she's way more talented at it than he would ever be.

Except ah, she called it a date... after he'd gone through all those verbal hoops to try to make it sound more casual. He can feel his cheeks starting to burn a gentle pink, which... hopefully she doesn't notice?? He did not think this far ahead abort abort.]

Ah... that's great, I'll let them know. You're sure you don't have other things to do than hang around with me?

[Turns her own words back at her in the hopes that she realizes how silly it sounds.]

[ ok but number one you literally said it was a double date... so it's a date. ]

I think we need to make up for all of the time that we missed. And you need to tell me about what you've been up to!

[ even though she basically sidestepped talking about what she's... been up to... ]

[He noticed that sidestepping... this is what happens when two protags interact??]

Hah, not too much... I've been mostly trying to help out around the base, helping Dirk with some projects...

[Ah. And one other thing. Murder investigation.]

We investigated Amity Island, too. The one Kara Zor-El and uh... Kon-El found.

Oh! What did you all find there?

[ besides the. you know. dead body?

hajime has not met kara but she likes kon? he was a nice boy. ]

[Is there anyone she doesn't think is a nice boy...

His expression sobers, and he exhales a quiet sigh.]

Well... it turns out that island was actually terraformed from a wrecked spaceship. We... found a woman named Mimi Yun alone in a campsite. She'd been dead for about a week. Tsumiki did an autopsy, [because that's normal for high school teenagers to know how to do,] and it looks like her lungs collapsed. One of her datapads said she was trying to turn ISHMAEL off, but Dirk couldn't find him anywhere in the area.

Sorry, I probably should have let you rest before bringing this stuff up.

No, this is more important than that.

[ ... it's a little sad to think that if they had found that island a little earlier, they might have been able to help that woman. but it's best not to dwell on what they could have done and didn't, and instead on what they're going to do from here. ]

I wonder how many other survivors are around? It seems like with the exception of Naoko, we keep just barely missing everyone else, you know?

[He hums quietly, still hating to be the bearer of bad news. Those aren't the only things they found there, but in his mind? They're definitely the most important.]

I don't know... I wonder if we shouldn't work to enhance URSULA's life sensors. Like... I wonder if it's possible to boost them to the point where they can detect human life on the whole planet.

I think we would probably need something like relays for that? That way the signals can just bounce from one spot to the next so they can reach longer distances, right?

[ after they got their ship fixed, it took them more than an entire day just to drive (seriously what's the word for using a sub thing?? pilot??) back to base, and that was without stopping to check out other islands and biomes along the way. so if URSULA's sensors couldn't reach that far... ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject