Open RP Post

[littleorphanalien]

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[andeverythinginbetween]

"And you're hiding," she says. "Well... this is... super fun." She sighs and drops her omnitool, then pulls her visor off. "I'm Vetra. I haven't said that, yet. Vetra Nyx."

She'd always wanted to visit Earth, but this situation is less than ideal.

[littleorphanalien]

"Same people who did something about my family," he confirms, because if he goes out in plain sight, then there's going to be a lot more trouble than he's willing to deal with. "Which makes you a real interesting problem," he admits with a snort, seeing as he's not sure how the hell he's going to hide Vetra.

"I'm Michael," he introduces himself. "Guerin."

"Welcome to Roswell. Only other alien I've met that wasn't already here," he says, shaking his head. "And you're stuck too."

[andeverythinginbetween]

"Great," she mumbles. She unfolds herself from the awkward seat, picking her visor back up. "Well... at least I won't be alone when I starve to death, I guess." She offers a crooked smile and adds, "Unless you think you can help me find a way back to my timeline."

[littleorphanalien]

He gives her a curious look, a touch alarmed. "What do you mean, starve to death?" The rest of it, though, he might have a better idea. He peers around the junkyard and glances to see if anyone is looking. When it looks like they're not, he gestures for Vetra to follow.

"Come on. Maybe you'll see something you'll understand more than I will," he admits, and moves the Airstream to reveal the top of the bunker, which he drags open with his mind.

[andeverythinginbetween]

"Turians can't eat human food," she explains as she follows him. Her armor leaves two-toed tracks in the sand as she walks. "Our amino acids are completely different. I have some rations on me, but nothing that'll last too long."

The bunker isn't a surprise. She'd definitely caught some semblance of it on her scans. She is, however, a little uncertain she'll be able to fit through the opening. Maybe if she weren't in her armor? But her worries are only slightly justified: her carapace scrapes against the opening on the way down, but she squeezes in, then jumps off the ladder instead of climbing down the rest of the way.

"Whoa."

[littleorphanalien]

He lets his eyes slide over her, figuring she must be a Turian. "Okay, then show me the structure of what you can eat," he says, climbing down and gesturing to the table in front of him. He's a little wary about showing this to anyone else, but Liz and Alex and Max have all seen it now.

He might as well start giving tours.

"Nothing in here's actually finished or could fly," he dismisses, not sure it deserves that kind of awe.

[andeverythinginbetween]

"It's more than I'd get done with scraps and outdated Terran materials," she notes. "But, I'm not a scientist, or an engineer." She's more of an all-purpose runner. And someone who shoots things.

"What would you need to get it in the air?" she asks. She could probably get it... If she weren't on pre-first contact Earth over one hundred years in the past...

[littleorphanalien]

He snorts. "Guess what?" he quips, leaning his hands back against the table. "I'm both." Not exactly, and not officially, but Michael's still convinced he's better than the majority of what she's going to find in actual scientists or engineers, because he's smarter.

He glances to his own ship, shaking his head. "It's missing way too many pieces and I don't have blueprints to show what it's supposed to look like. Unless I get that information, I got nothing."

[andeverythinginbetween]

"Could you build your own?" she asks. She scans some of the tech with her omnitool, but it can't make sense of most of it. It catches bits and pieces of the elemental makeup, but with nothing to reference it to, she can't make frill or barb of it. "If you're an engineer, I mean."

[littleorphanalien]

Michael could, but, "I don't have near enough to make anything that could fly further than maybe the moon and I don't have a working engine or console," he says. "I've got a stasis pod, but what good's that gonna do me, huh?"

He gestures towards her. "How about we work on you not starving, huh? That's probably gonna be an easier fix."

[andeverythinginbetween]

"Sure, if you think you can synthesize dextro foods." She reaches into her belt and pulls out one of her rations. "Don't eat it. It'll probably kill you." She points one finger at him sternly, like she thinks he might actually try it — and he might, she doesn't actually know him that well. But, he's not a human, and he's offering to help, and maybe he'll be asking for some sort of ridiculous, extorting favor in return, but she'll handle that when she gets there.

[littleorphanalien]

He shrugs, because it's not like it's an easy answer, but he thinks with a little research, he can do it. He takes the packet and raises a brow. "My body processes acetone like it's a drug. I doubt it'll kill me," he says, even if he doesn't test it, reaching for a few components that he wants to test, figuring that he can leech what she needs out of existing things and distill a compound for the rest.

"You kind of can't just walk around this place," he adds. "It's not safe, especially when you're out of this world."

[andeverythinginbetween]

"I can tell them I come in peace," she tries, but the tone in her voice suggests she knows that's not going to work. She sighs, mandibles sagging a bit. "Great. My first trip to the Sol System and I can't even explore."

[littleorphanalien]

Michael snorts darkly, because Jesse still thinks that he's using Alex for some nefarious purpose. "I really don't see that going well," he says, given that there's a whole prison crumbled to the ground that proves that.

He glances at her, then the suit, gesturing to it. "What about that thing? What kind of technology does it have? Some kind of field around it?"

[andeverythinginbetween]

"It has a simple shielding mechanism to protect me from projectiles," she answers with a shrug. "And, honestly, I'd rather not have to wear this stuff the whole time I'm here, if it really is gonna be awhile." Eventually, she'll want to get a little more comfortable. "Why?"

[littleorphanalien]

"I could probably figure out some way to run some kind of image projection," he admits, even if it would take a lot. "But I'd rather you were wearing the whole suit, because otherwise the angles are gonna be a bitch, but if you're projecting..."

There's the food thing to solve, too, but he doesn't care. It's better than sitting around, sulking, drinking, and waiting to go to the Pony to see who he can pick up, now that both Maria and Alex aren't having anything to do with him.

[andeverythinginbetween]

Vetra looks down at herself. She understands where he's coming from, and she doesn't love it, but it might be better than nothing. And she can always take it off when she's alone, right?

"Well... what d'you think you can do, then?"

[littleorphanalien]

"Look, first, I'm gonna make sure you live long enough to worry about that," he says, and if he gets to that point, "then some kind of suit. I don't have the ability to influence the world around you, but maybe we can do something with you, like..."

He gestures vaguely. "Holographic projection or something like that. I've never done it before, but maybe some parts of the ship can work."

[andeverythinginbetween]

"What about my omnitool?" she suggests. She draws it up over her forearm and taps at the interface. "It can project a hardlight hologram... I just don't know the full limitations. You could probably tweak it, though."

But he's right. None of this'll matter if she starves to death first, so she focuses on drawing up turian biology so he has something to work with.

[littleorphanalien]

Michael wants to know everything he can about alien technology that he's never seen before, which is why he leans forward, almost scrambling to see it. "I could try and program something in here," he says, even though he's never seen it before. "I do more with mechanical engineering, but..."

He trails off and thinks sadly about how Alex would probably be able to ace this with no issues, but he's not here, and given how Michael's been acting lately, he'll never be.

[andeverythinginbetween]

"I'm not sure what that expression is. I haven't spent a lot of time around humans or asari to really know. Is this one of those expressions you need to talk about?"

She's trying, but it feels awkward.

"Or would you rather I just tell you more about my biology, and you can work on making me food?"

[littleorphanalien]

The last thing he wants is to talk about anything, because it's not like talking has ever done him any good. "You willing to give a sample of your tissue or blood? It'd be a lot easier for me to test some things if I had it," he admits.

So yeah, definitely not eager to talk about things.

[andeverythinginbetween]

"Copy that," she says easily enough, and she removes one of her gauntlets to give him needle access.

Like her face, the back of her hand is lightly plated in a paler, flexible layer that's slightly thicker than the rest of her skin. Her brown wrist is rough, but not difficult to pierce with a needle. Her two fingers and single thumb are tipped in sharp talons, and she fists her hand to make the veins in her wrist pop out more visibly.

[littleorphanalien]

He reaches through his things, rummaging until he finds a syringe, and is able to pull it out in order to take some blood, knowing that he'll need to ask Liz for access to the lab to analyze it. "What kind of race are you?" he asks, because he's so human-seeming, that he's the outlier.

Are his people like this to blend in? Or are there a lot of humanoid races out there?

[andeverythinginbetween]

"Well, I'm a turian, from the planet Palaven," she answers. "But I haven't lived there since I was a kid." She tells him more about Palaven, about the low-grade radiation from their sun that caused turians to evolve their bony plating. She tells him about their biology — what she knows of it — and how turians and quarians can't share food with humans, but most other races can.