8109/Maiden Voyage: Welcome to Rann

Maiden Voyage: Welcome to Rann
Date of Scene:	03 October 2021
Location:	Sarnath's Residence, Planet Rann
Synopsis:	Our intrepid explorers help Sarnath test his Zeta Beam technology allowing Cyborg and Vivian Vision to join them on Rann. Then an alien feast is enjoyed and plans are laid to go see the 'unicorn kitties'!
Cast of Characters:	Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Irie West, Vivian Vision, Kaida Connolly, Donna Troy, Victor Stone, Caitlin Fairchild

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Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
When we last left our heroes the Maiden Voyage of GIRL's spaceship had successfully brought the teen science brigade to the planet Rann in the nearby Alpha Centauri star system! There they managed to land their craft in Rann's old spaceport, a place that hasn't seen much use since Rann bombed themselves back to the stone age in the distant past. Waiting at the spaceport when they landed was Sarnath, Rann's chief scientist, and his teenaged daughter Alanna.

"Welcome to Rann." Sarnath tells the disembarking crew of the ship once Nadia has finished hugging him and his daughter. "It has been some time since we've had guests, you're probably tired and hungry from your trip. We have prepared a grand meal for you at at our home in the city." He announces before leading everyone towards what looks like some manner of large wheeled all terrain vehicle.

Alanna offers her own friendly wave at every, "Welcome back Nadia! Are these your friends? I can't wait to meet them all!" She calls out seemingly rather excited, before turning to follow after her father.

Nadia looks back to her disembarking friends and back to Alanna, "They are! And they are awesome! You will love them! Let's go!"

Irie West has posed:
Irie is literally squeeing with glee. "Ohmygodimonadifferentplanet!" This may not be as exciting for the other members of the expedition, most of which have been on another planet before but this is a first for the speedster. "I'm on another planet!"

Turning to Nadia she asks, "Is their food safe for us to eat? If so how weird is that that two worlds evolved in parallel to where it can fit our nutritional needs!" She bounces on her heels, "I can't wait to eat Rannian food! Will it be all purple and blue and stuff? I want to try it all!"

Vivian Vision has posed:
Back on Earth the GIRL command center is peaceful for now.

With most of the members off in space and Viv herself not really needing to move around to monitor the systems the entire facility can be run with little more than a thought. Various data feeds are reviewed for potential system improvements and to locate things which might need inspection or repair.

And of course an idle part of the synthezoids mind is idly putting together a list of dishes to prepare for a welcome home celebration party.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"Ksst, that's one small step for Mouse, one giant leap for mousekind." She kssts again through an imaginary radio as she leaps out of the spaceship and lands on the planet. She grins as she looks about and then races over to Irie, "It's really simple, actually! Most life is carbon based and if it is carbon based than many of the same structures will be there and needed. Further, these people seem capable of space flight and likely have run in to other species."

Kaida bounces about excitedly as she leaps from spot to spot rather than walk or run. She lands near to Nadia on a small pillar and grins, "I'd say we should test the foods we are given but I imagine they are going to be similar in biological needs."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna studies the mentacizer Nadia hands her, then gives Nadia and smile and puts it on. She greets Sarnath and Alanna with a Themysciran bracer-clashing salute, then raises an open hand towards them in what she hopes will be a universal sign of peace and openness. She's tried it on a few aliens and none have actually run screaming yet.

    "Thank you for your welcome, Doctor Sarnath," she replies to the scientist with a smile, before turning to Alanna with a nod and smile, and greeting her by name too "Alanna."

    "My name is Troia, and this is Irie, Caitlin and... Kaida," she says, introducing each other member with a gesture of her hand. The obvious differences between Kaida and the others she doesn't bother to explain, she's just making sure they recognize the smallest Titan is part of the same crew. "We're all friends and colleagues of Nadia back on Earth."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Cyborg is monitoring the situation on Rann from the Titans lab, as a sort of back-up mission control just in case something goes wrong at GIRL command center. There might be a transport beam or random attack or... who knows what? Redundancy is always good.

    The thing is, he /is/ kind of redundant for this. So he's monitoring the situation, sure, but he's also collating some data and kind of keeping half an eye on college football games and he's got some leftover pizza that he's munching on. Well away from any actual lab equipment, of course.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's in a deeply aubergine bodysuit, the garment subtly reinforced with green piping and worn under a utility belt and a backpack. The sleeves end at her forearms and the leggings leave her calves bare, and with her hair back in a simple braided ponytail it leaves her relatively unencumbered. Like Donna, she sports gold bracelets on her wrists. She heads down the ramp shoulder-to-shoulder with Donna, as Nadia takes the lead and dives into greeting her new friends.

Her own greeting is her hands held at rib-level, palms up and moving apart-- echoing that universal statement of 'I have no weapons, I come in peace'. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she adds, carefully enunciating so the mentacizer picks her up correctly. "Thank you for having us here."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Well, I ate it last time and it didn't kill me?" Nadia offers in response to Irie's question. "Though we were in kind of a survival situation before we made it to Ranagar, so there wasn't a whole lot of choice. Some of it does look really weird but like fruits are pretty much fruits. The conditions to support carbon based life are pretty narrow, so while you get evolutionary divergences there is still a lot of basic similarities. There's also some mutations from radiation, but enough time has passed at this point that radiation poisoning isn't an issue for the food supply." She laughs at Kaida's antics and nods in agreenment with her explanation to Irie before looking to Sarnath for confirmation.

Sarnath nods, "The food is safe and our technology has recovered far enough in that area to purify what trace radiation is sometimes found to remain." Sarnath offers Donna a slight bowing of his head from the shoulders and attempts to return her open handed greeting. "It is our pleasure." Sarnath smiles at Caitlin. "Welcome all." Sarnath smiles as the members of the expedition are introduced before climbing up the side of the rather large vehicle and into the driver's seat.

Alanna on the other hand triggers a short burst from her jetpack to ascend up the meter or so of distance and into the open topped large wheeled all terrain vehicle.

The all terrain vehicle rumbles along and eventually when the terrain gets more difficult switches to a hover mode in places before changing back to conserve energy resources. The trip from the decaying starport into the city of Ranagar is a surreal one. In places the scars of an ancient war that devastated the entire region and plunged the planet into a nuclear winter still linger, but in the many years since the survivors seem to have clawed their way back to some semblance of advanced civilization. There are some areas perhaps deemed non-essential that are still ruins, reclaimed by resurgent, if changed and mutated nature. The core of the city proper however is full of beautiful fully restrored structures. As one would expect the deeper into the inhabited areas you travel the more advanced and less ruined things get.

Finally the rumbling vehicle arrives outside of Sarnath and Alanna's dwelling, a gleaming tower near the heart of the city.

"This way, this way." Sarnath says hopping down from the vehicle once it has been guided into a garage like structure. Where the vehicle Sarnath used to retrieve them didn't seem too far beyond the technology available on Earth, the elevator he leads them to is another story. A glowing metal disc that, once they are all standing on, simply moves between floors at a verbal command in seeming complete defiance of gravity or any sort of mechanical assistance. "Before we eat there is something I would like to show you. It was an unfortunate accident when Nadia and her family came here the first time. Their deep space communications signal got tangled with a test of the Zeta Beam I was working on. Fortunate for us in the end since they managed to save our city from that dastardly giant flying raygun, but.."

The lift comes to a stop in what is obviously a grand science lab, "In the time since I have made several breakthroughs and I think interstellar travel to and from Rann may once again be possible! Not via spaceship of course, we have not been able to recover that lost tech yet, though some are still trying, but by beaming them here and back with Zeta Beams!" Sarnath's excitement is palpable, it is that excitement endemic to all scientists when talking about their great new discovery. Or Nadia's natural state.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Back on Earth Viv idly considered what sort of banner would look best in the main social area of GIRL. Welcome home perhaps? Congratulations on the FTL trip? So many options. Perhaps several different banners, one for each wall of the break room, would be optimal?

There's a lot of data to go through still. But at this stage mostly she's just sorting it by area of interest. Rather than taking the time to work on anything in detail.

With no-one around to need it she's taken the time to move a couch into the command center. Just because she's being vigilant doesn't mean she can't also be comfortable!

Irie West has posed:
Irie watches the terrain roll by with open mouthed wonder. She's still super excited about actually seeing another planet, and she's going to enjoy every minute of it. Occasionally she'll whip out her phone and record something particularly interesting, narrating along with what they're seeing. Something she can show to her friends once she gets back to Earth.

"Zeta Beams, hunh?" she asks, looking curiously at the lab equipment once they're inside. "How do they work?"

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic half pays attention to what's going on, which is a lot of attention for most people, he's a cyborg and all, but looks up from his pizza at the latest bit of transmission. Ohh, new tech, that'll be interesting.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You have a beautiful world," Donna tells Sarnath during the journey, "...despite the signs that your ancestors perhaps did not treat its beauty with the honor it deserves. Still, Gaia perserveres. We saw the wounds to your planet from orbit, but down here we can see so much that is alive and thriving. This is a world with good reasons to look forwards to the future, I think."

    There may be a hint of disapproval in Donna's words, but it's clear the disapproval is not meant for their hosts; these are old wounds from an ancient war. Nevertheless to someone raised in the paradise of Themyscira, in a culture that reveres nature so much, the signs of that ancient war are something particularly offensive.

    During the trip Donna leans forwards to whisper to Irie. "Don't worry, Cait's planning on doing an analysis of anything we eat. She can make sure."

    "Kaida's about right," Caitlin says, joining in the conversation. "Of course there are toxins that may impact one life-form more than another, and the nutritional value of otherwise edible foodstuffs can be very poor, especially when the chirality of the carbohyd-"

    Donna interrupts her with an elbow-nudge, saying "We've generally not had too much problem with alien food, though some of it tastes like ass." Caitlin nudges Donna back, to which Donna replies by sticking her tongue out at Caitlin. The pair spend the rest of the journey mostly bickering.

    The debate has calmed down by the time the journey ends, and Donna's reponse to the explanation of Zeta beams is "Ah, teleportation. We have some experimental systems back on Earth, but nothing capable of interstellar distances. At least nothing technological. Nothing you could build in a factory, if you know what I mean. As I presume you know starship technology such as that which brought us here is pretty new to us too. Perhaps both our peoples could benefit from some technological exchange."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Donna receives a solemn nod from Sarnath during the journey. The war with Zared, our sister city was pure folly. It remains a cautionary tale to this day on the dangers of certain technologies. To split an atom promises both great power and great destruction. I pray Rann never makes that mistake again." Sarnath, too, seems to hold the ancient conflict in very low regard but such is the immutable past. "We pay for the sins of our ancestors even now. Alanna is a miracle and a blessing." He smiles at his daughter. "But children are rare on Rann, our population has been dropping ever since as many are born infertile due to the lingering effects of the fallout." Which perhaps explains why Alanna was so excited to meet other young people.

In the lab, Sarnath is quite pleased at Irie's question about Zeta beams, "Well originally it was a deep space communications array not unlike the one developed by your planet's Hank Pym, which is how the signals became entangled. However lingering radiation from the war with Zared altered the beam creating a teleportation effect! I have since been able to isolate and incorporate that radiation into the beam proper. I think we are finally at a point where it can be tested.. there's just one problem. Having been isolated this long and with you already here, I don't know anyone on another planet to test it on. Do you have any other friends we might be able to bring to Rann?"

At this question from Sarnath, Nadia's eyes light up like a kid on Christmas morning. She glances in Caitlin and Donna's direction and then back at Sarnath, "We can bring Vivian! She's operating the Deep Space Communications Array at GIRL anyway so she'll be really easy to target!" She pauses considering something. "She's not really organic though.." Nadia's eyes track to Donna, it is quite obvious what she is thinking.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Viv might not be easy to target compared with a regular organic being, but she has been transported by Zeta beam before. So that probably makes it a little less troublesome. And you know it's probably a lot safer to transport something you've already transported before.

Practise makes perfect.

Hopefully she'll be back in time for school and her other social commitments though. Because Viv almost certainly has not cleared time for an interstellar trip in her schedule.

Irie West has posed:
Irie nods at the explanation. "Cool! If it works we can start having, like, an exchange program where we can send people up here to help out and you can send Alanna to hang out with us!"

Nadia's suggestion gets a nod of approval from the speedster. "Oh yeah! Viv would love to come up here again. Do we have any other GIRL or Titans members handy that we can test it on?" She taps her chin thoughtfully, "I wonder what Damian would think..."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives a nod to Nadia, and speaks directly into the com for tranmission back to Earth. "You hearing this, Vic?" she asks. "Your call. They've had success with it in the past, though that was accidental. If you want to give it a go, then equip yourself for vacuum first just in case something goes wrong. If you don't show up on time we'll get Raven to locate you and bring you home. Just try not to get lost inside any collapsing wormholes, because I promised Rae we wouldn't be doing that this trip. She's still convinced it was my fault last time."

    It's true. Raven had made her promise that there would be no collapsing wormholes or pocket universes involved this time. Donna had patiently explained that the Pym Drive technology was a warp drive, not a hyperspace drive, and that while they might get stranded in deep space or blown up, it would still happen in /the same universe/. Whether her explanation had been convincing or Raven had just decided that Donna wasn't going to be argued out of it, Donna did not know.

    "I'm sure Damian would love to come," Donna replies to Irie. "He's quite the scientist himself, he'd find this fascinating. But let's not try experimental technology on everyone all at once. One at a time is more sensible."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic blinks and almost spills the pizza everywhere as suddenly he's being /talked to/ and he sits up straight in the lab. "Wha? Uhh--yeah, sure! Sounds like a good time. Umm. If I /do/ get lost in any collapsing wormholes someone better tell Gar and Rae I'm not dead this time."

    He goes about equipping himself for vaccuum while he's talking. His chrome body might be just fine with that, but his biological body definitely is not.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia grins from ear to ear at the answer from Donna and Victor. "Quinn, relay to Viv that she should get ready to come to Rann!" She edges her way towards Sarnath's equipment and he laughs, "Excellent, let's see if we can bring your friends here to Rann." He follows after her, as does Alanna looking on. Nadia nods enthusiastically to Irie, "YES! We could bring everyone!"

With Nadia and Caitlin's help Sarnath guides the Zeta Beam targeting, inputting coordinates. The first up is Vivian, GIRL HQ is incredibly easy to target for Nadia, she helped design it after all. For Vivian it is not an unfamiliar experience, that flash of light and moment of cold silent blackness before she appears on a circular metal dais in the lab.

"Success!" Pronounces Sarnath. An especially great success given the first Zeta Beam incident dropped the Pyms in the Plains of Ranagar well outside of the city let alone the lab.

No sooner has Sarnath declared it a success, than Nadia is already retargeting the array having watched what Sarnath did the first time. "Quinn! Please relay to Vic that we are go in 3. 2. 1.!" She pushes the button and Victor too is consumed in that flash of light and moment of cold silent total darkness before blipping back into existence in Sardath's lab!

"Welcome to Rann!" Nadia grins.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Preparing for Viv mostly consisted of sending out some emails confirming she'll be off planet so no-one panics. As well as delegating the welcome home party planning to a professional firm.

She doesn't move to get up though. Why bother? The Zeta Beam simply lifts her off the couch and brings her to Rann.

A normal Human would then fall on their butt but a synthezoid? Not a chance. Her control over her own body great enough she can simply balance in the sitting position and then stand up. "Good day everyone."

She's dressed much as she always is. Yellow pants and a green top, although in this case it's a hoodie.

Irie West has posed:
Irie has her phone out to record the entire process. For posterity's sake! When the two are beamed up she stows away her phone and gives them an enthusiastic wave. "Hi Viv! Hi Vic! Isn't this so cool?"

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic had a helmet on and everything, which he pulls off as he arrives and looks around. He's been to alien planets before--the trip through the pocket dimension comes to mind--but not so often that it's routine or anything. "Wow, this is /cool,/" he says with a grin. And then, "Oh, damn, we should probably make sure someone's monitoring things back home, huh?" Someone around here has to be responsible.

Donna Troy has posed:
    As far as Donna can make out the technology on Rann appears to be an odd mixture of significantly more advanced than Earth's with a few odd areas that aren't that advanced at all. She speculates to herself that this is a result of the war leaving a legacy of scientific learning that significantly outstrips the world's resources to exploit that knowledge, leaving them stuck in a long-term technological status quo in the world at large while blue-skies science in laboratories outstrips the general level of technology by decades or even centuries.

    This is after all a world in which someone has just for the first time demonstrated a functioning interstellar teleporter, but that same person considers space ships to be a lost technology. What will such a person make of a cyborg? They've met Vivian before, but Vivian is entirely synthetic. A blend of technical and organic parts is something different; the requirements of interfacing digital systems with a living brain are a different challenge, and there's always the possibility that such interfacing has some religious prohibition or some such.

    On the other hand in Donna's experience, space is weird and people in space are used to the fact that space is wierd, and generally don't bother questioning things that are different from themselves on the basis that most things are. One of the nice things about travelling in space is you don't tend to need to explain yourself. People seem equally prone to being friendly or violently hostile /whatever/ you look like. On this principle Donna's going to assume that Victor isn't going to be a shock to anyone's system, but just to reassure the Rannians that they have indeed summoned the person they were intending on doing so, Donna greets Vic's arrival by clapping a hand on Sarnath's back and congratulating him with an enthusiastic "You did it!" before stepping away to give both Vic and Viv one-armed shoulder hugs. "Welcome to Rann, you two. Honestly I wouldn't worry too much about monitorinig. All the data is getting recorded and if we get in trouble we can trigger the tower alarms through the communication array, and that'll bring people running. Ready to try some alien food, Vic?"

    She turns back to Sarnath with a smile and a nod of her head. "Perhaps you should consider giving us the plans to build a similar apparatus back on our world, in a secure facility. That way you could come to visit us via your zeta-beam, and there would be no problems getting back home again afterwards."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Sarnath claps his hands together, "Lam Talsa. Ol fao aeli vier qu." He tell Vivian and Victor, though everyone with a Menticizer hears <<Greetings. It is good to meet you.>> as the device translates the Rannian language for them. As if on que, Alanna steps forward offering the circlet shaped devices to Victor and Vivian in order to bridge the language barrier. She mimes placing it on their head. Though it's not too hard to figure out given the other members of GIRL and Titans are wearing similar devices and once worn, the language barrier vanishes.

Sarnath nods slowly considering Donna's proposal. "We should probably test and study it a bit more first, I would not want to inadvertently unleash calamity upon another world, for now should someone remain here to operate the device return should be possible. In the future however, I am not adverse to this idea, just caution." This man is clearly a very different sort of scientist than Nadia, one who actually knows what caution is. Well to a degree. He did just test a device on living beings.

"We could build one in the same secret facility where we built the spaceship!" Nadia chimes in, because not all of GIRL's facilities are public or on the books proper.

Sarnath turns towards the assembled guests. "For now let's eat. We can discuss these sorts of things over food."

Alanna had already slipped out during the conversations after giving Vivian and Victor their menticizers. When everyone ascends to the next level on the floating metal disc there a large table laden with food. There are indeed strange fruits in odd colors, some foods look a little more familiar like some manner of cheese but others quite exotic like some manner of avian that really looks like it had three heads that have since been removed while it was alive. There are meats of unfamiliar consitency and strange vegetables. But it all still manages to smell quite good.

"Please sit down," Alanna bids everyone passing out cups. "A toast to our guests!" In the cups is some mysterious greenish purple liquid. "Welcome to Rann! Please eat as much as you like!"

Vivian Vision has posed:
"If this technology works on principles similar to psionic technology it won't work on me," Vivian points out as the device is handed over. "Also I do not require food. Perhaps while you are eating I can busy myself by carrying out some checks on the ship?"

She gives the hosts a friendly smile. "It's not that I do not appreciate your hospitality. Food is simply not necessary for me. I am entirely powered by solar energy."

And hey it's pretty important that nothing bad happens to that spaceship!

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic nods to Donna. "Right, right. Time to meet the locals, then. And I am /definitely/ down for trying alien food. In fact, I'll eat your share!" he calls to Viv with a grin. He puts on the Menticizer so that he can understand what's being said and gladly follows them along to the next level. The food spread looks impressive, and he grabs up a glass to return the toast. "Glad this isn't a 'To Serve Man' kind of thing," he jokes, probably in poor taste, especially considering that the first thing he's going to go for is meat. Hey, it takes a lot of energy and especially protein to keep both his muscles and his cybernetics functioning.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Or at the tower," Donna suggests. "It's a bit more secure than the GIRL facility. Something to consider after Doctor Sarnath has completed his experimentation, though." Clearly Donna's in favor of the Rannian scientists' more calm and sober approach to insanely dangerous scientific experimentation.

    When they reach the dining room, Caitlin sets about taking samples and clearing the foodstuffs for human consumption. She concludes that the food is edible, but shouldn't be relied on to fulfil dietary needs of humans in the long term, and recommends that on future trips people take supplements. This almost starts another debate with Donna, but in the end the pair are too distracted with trying out the new flavors for the debate to have time to get heated.

    "Nadia tells me that she's eager to see a form of life on this world that she describes as 'unicorn kitties', Donna says to Alanna. "An animal with a single horn in its head. Probably a fast moving, muscular, four-legged predator. Do you know the creature she's referring to? I assume, just on the basis of knowing Nadia, that it's an extremely dangerous creature."

Irie West has posed:
The mention of food /always/ gets a speedster's attention. She takes her seat and is already piling her plate on high with food when Alanna bids them to toast. "Cheers!" she says raising the cup up high before taking a few sips of it. "Ooh! Tingly!" she says, taking another, bigger sip. "I like it!"

Indeed there are purple and blue fruit, and those are the first to be explored. She finds the purple one to be a bit bitter, but she finishes it anyway. The blue one she squeals in delight. "It's like a plum mixed with an orange!" she declares. "What's it's name?"

Already she's off to some of the vegetables. There's a curly one that tastes vaguely of squash, and flat, pancake like one drizzled with a sauce that's vaguely reminiscent of vinaigrette. "Oh! These are good, too! I like the flat one."

Then? Then the meat. There's some kind of fowl with four legs, she thinks. She's already chewing on the leg and finds the rich and savory taste delectable. And then there are the ribs of some kind of large animal that are sauced with a sweet and spicy sauce and Irie's eyes close in pleasure. "Mmm. That's good."

And now her plate is clean. It probably took her less than five minutes to clear it off, and already she's back for second helpings of everything.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Sarnath and Alanna are a bit taken aback at Irie's appetite though not in a bad way. "It is a good thing we prepared a lot of food." Alanna asides to her father.

"Indeed, those from Urth can certainly eat." Sarnath replies with a smile before he and Alanna both help themselves to the food as well.

"Oh, I think she means the Einthera." Alanna answers Donna after swallowing a mouthful of food and washing it down with the greenish purple tingly drink. "They're about this high at the shoulder." She holds her hand about a meter off the ground, "And yes, very fast muscular four legged predators. They are also very cute. But you are not wrong about them being dangerous. They hunt in packs, using their horns to impale their prey before tearing it apart. I didn't realize you had met any last time you were here," She says turning to Nadia. "It must have been in the Plain of Ranagar past the Aldavian Hills. You're lucky you weren't hurt."

The part about them being dangerous barely seems to register with Nadia, "Vivian scared them away with her eye lasers." She says a bit sadly. Though arguably Vivian saved the creatures from unneccessary harm had it come to a fight. "The plain of Ranagar." She says to herself clearly making a note of the area to visit again.

"What do you mean by a 'To serve man' thing?" Sarnath asks Victor, clearly puzzled by the expression. "We would not think of pressing our guests into servitude." He beams with the gusto at which Irie cleans her plate. "I am glad your find the food palatable, please eat as much as you like. We can arrange for more if necessary. And if you wouldn't mind, please tell me about yourselves. I know a bit about young Nadia and her family already, but it is a very rare thing to have guests from off world, other than a few attempted invasions we have suffered through."

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Cute /and/ dangerous," Vic mutters. "No wonder Nadia likes them." Then he chokes a little on a bite of meat from one of the fowl. Waves a hand. "Uhh... yeah, no, it's... it's a joke. A very bad Earth joke. I make a lot of jokes." He's terrible at First Contact.

    "Uhh... normally I'm the one eating most of the food, but the Wests tend to have me beat." He grins; he has indeed eaten more quickly than anyone else at the table, but Irie is several orders of magnitude faster about it than he could ever be. "My name's Victor Stone, and I'm Cyborg. Which means... well... I was born like the others, wholly biological, but after a lab accident my father, ahh... upgraded me with all of this tech." He gestures at the chrome. He's pretty proud of it these days, though there's still the slightest bracing. Will these people understand the concept? Will they judge or find him a monster? Or will it be as Donna's noticed--will aliens be more likely to accept people as they appear because so many seem so strange?

Irie West has posed:
"Oh! Well. I'm from the future," Irie says, feeling that it's safe to reveal this to extraterrestrials. She's not going to be able to spoil them on anything that happens here anyway. "Had a little accident with the Speed Force and that got me stuck in the past. Present. You know what I mean." She's already working on her third plate by now. "I'm a speedster which means that I can go really, really fast. Like /really/ fast. If I wanted to I could probably go the speed of light again, but that's how I got into the whole time travel mess in the first place."

The mention of the unicorn kitties piques her interest. "Yes! We /have/ to go see them! I wonder if I can pet one of them before they try to gore me. I'm gonna try."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna rests a hand on Irie's shoulder and leans in close to whisper a warning to her. "Best not to go too hard on the food here, Irie. It should be safe, but it's still unfamiliar to your body, and you might have a reaction. Just remember that in space no-one can hear you scream - but in a small, cramped spaceship they can hear you suffering from gastroenteritis."

    She nods her head to Alanna. "Well, Nadia is firmly determined that we should see some. If you'd like to come with us, you'd be welcome too -- if that's okay with your father. I have some experience in dealing with exotic animals and know very well not to make assumptions about their behavior, and I'm confident we can keep everyone safe from them while at the same time keeping them safe from us. Irie, petting them is probably going to be a bad idea, but we'll see."

    " We'll use motion sensors and fly away if there's any sign they become threatening -- I presume they can't fly."

    Donna grins knowingly at Victor's joke and shakes her head slightly. "Vic was making a cultural reference. A story written on Earth, a humorous cautionary tail about making linguistic assumptions when meeting an alien species for the first time." She smirks slightly and raises and winks at Victor. "He does indeed make a lot of jokes. Some of them are funny.

    "As for a little about myself -- my name is Troia, but I also use the name Donna Troy. I come from a part of Earth which is rather different from the rest of our group here, so I have adopted that second name as something that will be more familiar to them. I'm uh... not all that typical of humanity, to be honest. All of us are part of a group on Earth called 'The Titans', a group of people with unusual and varied skills who work together to try to save lives and make our world safer."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Ah I see." Sarnath nods slowly as Victor tries to backpedal his humor a bit. "It is true humor can vary greatly from culture to culture." He nibbles on some of his steak from who knows what sort of creature. It would appear Victor is in the clear, at least for now. "Ah the intergration of mechanical components into a biological being, Rann has known such technology in the past and still practices it to some degree, mostly for medical procedures." He nods his head giving Victor an appraising look, "You do seem quite remarkable."

"Speed Force? I am not familiar with this phenomena." Sarnath regards Irie scratching his chin. "I would like to know more should you have the time. There are so many poorly understood forces in this universe." Donna's story earns a curious look but he doesn't press her for further details.

Instead his attention is drawn by Alanna's description of the Einthera. "Cute and dangerous is certainly one way to describe them." Sarnath looks sidelong at his daughter. Dad doesn't seem to find them nearly as 'cute' as she does. "Alanna once found one of their cubs and tried to bring it home. This ended as one might expect with an entire pack of them showing up in the outskirts of the city looking for the missing child."

"Dad! That was years ago!" Alanna protests in a similar manner to any child whose parents decide to start telling potentially embarassing stories about them, some thing transcend cultures and even worlds. "They should have a guide though, the Einthera are not the only dangers out there and I passed my scout training!"

Sarnath purses his lips for a moment, clearly not thrilled about his rare and precious daughter tossing herself into harm's way but in the end he assents. "Very well. We do owe them a debt of gratitude for stopping the giant raygun, you can go with them to make sure they are safe in this quest to see the 'unicorn kitties'." He seems amused by the new name. "Just make sure your Jetpack and other equipment are fully tuned and functional. Remember, safety first."

"Of course! Don't worry!" Alanna gives her father a hug before beaming at the others. "It's settled then!"

Nadia can hardly contain her excitement, especially when Sarnath seems to give his consent. "We definitely need to see them! It will be fine! They're so great! And see Alanna is going to come with us!"

Irie West has posed:
The thought of gastrointestinal distress in the close confines of their rocket ship causes Irie to slow way down on the food. "Yeah. Probably for the better," she mumbles. She looks forlornly at the bounty before her. There's still so much to try, though! Somehow, she manages to reign herself in, though she does go for another glass of the tingly stuff.

"I'm still gonna try," she tells Donna. "If they try to hurt me I can just run away really fast. That's what I do, after all." She blinks. "Not run /away/ but run."

Sarnath's curiosity gets her attention though. "The Speed Force is one of the fundamental forces of the universe. Not a lot is known about it, really. We know that when I channel it I'm able to achieve great speeds, and it protects me from friction, and bends relativity as well," she explains. "We're trying to learn more about it because I'm biologically linked to it and it's caused some... uh... complications." Yeah. That's one way to put it.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic nods to Donna, though he rolls his eyes at the commentary about his sense of humor. Har har. "Yeah, none of us are very good examples of humanity in general." He pauses, then says thoughtfully, "Although maybe together we are, in a way. You know, the strength we have in teamwork and diversity. Resilience in the face of danger, friendship, that kind of thing."

    To Sarnath he says, "I'd be glad to tell you more about the technology, compare notes on it... after unicorn kitties, maybe? Gotta admit, I'm curious."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods at Irie. "With your speed you should be fine, but remember that there's no need to rush deciding /when/. I've got lots of experience with dangerous animals, and Alanna is our native guide. Wait for us to give you the all clear before you do your petting run, okay?"

    "Biological links to the Speed Force are how we discovered its existence," Donna says to Sarnath. "Irie inherited the genetic factor responsible from her father, who's an old friend. There are only about half a dozen people on Earth we know about with a similar connection. We really don't understand it, but some people have theorized that it represents a kind of underlying layer of reality. In some ways it seems to act almost like - or perhaps it would be more correct to say be perceived like - a parallel dimension, but that doesn't really explain it. The main thing to know about it is that it allows Irie to move at speeds that seem like they should be quite impossible. Velocities that should be relativistic but arent."

    Caitlin gives an exasperated sigh. "That's not really how it works, Donna. It's more like..." Donna rolls her eyes and gives Irie an amused shrug as Caitlin starts getting into a discussion with Sarnath that's far too technical for her tastes.

    "We'll go see them Nadia," Donna tells the young scientist with a smile. "But have your wings ready, and if I say to get into the air, I want everyone getting into the air straight away, without arguments. Okay? That includes you, Caitlin."

    "What?" Caitlin asks, blinking owlishly as she catches her name but was too engaged in technical discussion with Sarnath to have heard the rest of that conversation.

    "Unicorn kitties," Donna explains patiently.