The specimen surges awake, tugging at the cuff around her wrist. This place feels wrong for home.

The scientist is startled by the noise, though relaxes after a second.  He notes the time, then glances at the daemon in the cage next to the bed.  It woke up at the same time she did, just as suddenly.  Good, good.  He writes it down.  His own daemon, a liepard, is lounging on the top of one of the machines nearby.  The liepard watches even when her human is typing.  

She tugs at the cuff again - not particularly bother, it appears, by it cutting into her wrist. "Hey!" she yells. "What the fuck?" (She hasn't noticed the daemon in the cage yet.)

The scientist will answer once he's finished typing some things.  Seems lucid, not obviously in pain or delirious.  Agitated.  Maybe too agitated?  He doesn't know if they have research on how upset people tend to be when kidnapped.  There is a possible theory that Bonding a daemon may make one more aggressive, in the way that intercision makes one less so.  Or it could be her natural personality.  Those were annoyingly unscientific to handle - you couldn't get the same one even in identical twins.

How is the daemon reacting?

The daemon appears to be trying to break out of the cage now, headbutting at the bars.

-Which has got the woman's attention, and she seems somewhat confused by said daemon, although it isn't really reducing her agitation.

The bars are more than strong enough to hold anything short of a legendary.  

"What's your name?" the scientist asks blandly, reaching a stopping point in his report.  

She bares her teeth. It couldn't be called a smile. "No. I want a fucking explanation."

(How's that cage secured? Is it a digital lock?)

A lock with a key.  It's meant to hold psychic and electric daemons too, after all - no matter what they might be able to short-circuit or read from someone's mind.  

The scientist rolls his eyes.  "We are studying the effects of Binding - giving people daemons who didn't already have them.  We had to grab some people from another world, because everyone on ours is already born with one.  You'll only be here for a few days - just long enough to study the effects, then we'll use the same machine that brought you here to send you home."

"-What?" her tone is suddenly very flat. "Where even is 'here'?"

"My lab, relevantly.  We're on the generational ship Tower of Autumn, travelling through interstellar space.  One of many in the fleet."  He says this dispassionately.

-Ship. Okay. What other tech is there around her that she could use to escape?

She turns away as best she can. She does not want to talk to this guy any more right now.

Within reach, there's some medical monitoring equipment, including a large flat screen and some kind of scanner pointed at her. 

As for the rest of the room:  The scientist has a laptop for writing.  There's the unknown machine that the liepard is still watching her from.  It's lower half is a bulky white cube, the upper half composed of a cylindrical glass tank with a tiny red-and-white ball on a pedestal in the center like a museum display of some kind.  There are a few other similar things.  And of course the light is artificial, too - very bright white, and set into the ceiling.  The room is oddly shaped, and has no windows.  Only a metal blast door with what looks like a handprint scanner but much taller, a narrow rectangle going from shoulder height all the way to the floor.  

-First move. That medical equipment. She reaches out for it, it's always easier to break something when she's touching it. (It's always easier to break things when she's mad anyway.)

Any readings they're getting off those machines are suddenly going to be gone.

The liepard hisses quietly when the screen goes black, and the scientist looks up.  The aron shouldn't have known any moves that can disrupt electronics, and on top of that it's in a shielded cage.  The scientist peers at the now-broken machine for a moment, trying to figure out how it was damaged.

The aron is still managing to look smug, or maybe proud? Hard to tell.

At first glance, it looks like it's just been switched off - but if he has access to any diagnostic tools, they'll report a sharp spike in temperature, as though components were burning themselves out.

He doesn't have anything for machine diagnostics on him - that wasn't what the experiment was about.  

The machine that pulled her to them was set up to try and find someone who would be a decent match for an aron.  However, perhaps the unprecedented effect was caused by the soul being put into a body that it shouldn't have?  If the daémon has powers that the cage wasn't designed for, perhaps an alien pokemon not of the standard 18 types...  The scientist takes a note of this, typing on his laptop to send the information and a request for more tools and backup.  

It hasn't occurred to him at all that the ability may have been pre-existing.

Alright, she breathes, focuses her anger, closes her eyes, and-

Breaks the laptop. She doesn't like that he keeps taking notes, that he's looking at her like some trapped labrat...

The scientist takes a moment to inspect the laptop.  He thinks the call for assistance had been sent, but isn't sure.  Sighing, and looking annoyed rather than indifferent, he stands up and his liepard jumps to the floor.  It presses its paw to the scanner and the door opens with a mechanical hiss.

"Emergency in the lab," he shouts out into the hallway beyond.  "Someone bring something with a sleep move - the aron is displaying unusual powers."

Okay. So she's probably going to have company soon. She turns her attention back to the cuffs and where they're attached - how likely is she to be able to break the chain, or what it's attached to?

It's a standard set of steel handcuffs.  The bar it's attached to is also metal but is bolted to a wall that doesn't look especially sturdy.  This place hadn't been built as a research station or to house prisoners, whatever it's being turned to these days.  

The scientist and his liepard are both carefully on the opposite side of the door, in case it gets fried next and slams shut.

She's more interested in escaping from her own confines right now, than frying any more doors. She shifts slightly, redistributes her weight, and then kicks, solidly, at the wall, near where the metal bar is bolted.

The wall starts giving way, and the bar can be pulled free.  The screws holding the bar in place were long, but most of the length was wasted in the insulation-filled gap between thin layers of wall.  It doesn't seem that the people who modified this room knew to check for support beams.

There is now a foot-long steel bar handcuffed to her arm, the junctions at the ends too wide to pull a handcuff off of.  Each side has a pair of screws covered in bits of drywall.  

Well. It gives her a weapon. Does the lock on the cage the aron is in look like it'll give to some application of brute force via steel bar?

Not easily, with the lock built into the door itself, but the cage was meant to keep things in not out.  With a few blows at the correct angle she might be able to bend the protruding hinges well enough to let the aron force it the rest of the way open.  

Footsteps and an annoyed woman's voice are approaching in the distance.  "Arceus, Kerul.  It's always something with you..."

-With people incoming, that's exactly what she does, she wants to be ready to fight, and escape and-

And the aron headbutts its way free once she's done enough to let it use it's weight and power. Once free, it immediately headbutts at her, though more gently than it had at the cage.

And she turns her attention to the door out of her...cell? and turns her powers to forcing the door open.

That will be slightly harder than just breaking it - the panic rooms are set to require power to open not shut, to make them harder to open if they're under attack.  The door doesn't have any defenses against her particular abilities.  

Rather than a hallway, it's another room.  More machines take up a third of it, and a few unlabeled plastic crates.  The woman is near the room's other door, standing beside a tapir-like biped.  

She can make the door open. It's harder than breaking things, with anger still coursing through her, but her power lets her fix things as much as break them.

As she steps towards the door, eyes focused on the woman, she bares her teeth in something that would be a smile, if it didn't look like it belonged on a shark, brandishes her makeshift club and charges at her.

She curses and tries to get out of the way, taken aback by the human of the pair making the first attack.  

The drowzee had been attempting to cast a hypnosis at the aron, and breaks concentration to try and get Ira instead.  It's not especially effective against humans, but there's about one chance in four of lulling her to sleep.  

The scientist - Kerul, apparently - shouts to his daémon, "No, one of us needs to focus on the aron.  Seed Bomb it."  With a shudder, the liepard raises its hackles and starts generating some large seeds out of nothing.  

It hits her, and there's a wave of sleepiness, and she half stumbles her next step, but anger lends her strength and stability and she shakes the sleepiness away and continues on, drawing back the metal bar further, ready to strike at the woman, howling her fury now.

The aron notices the liepard's action, and hunkers down on itself, tucking its head to that it appears more rock than creature.

The move wasn't designed for a room this small.  Several of the large seeds miss the aron entirely, bursting with force onto the floor, walls, and machinery of the room with deafening bangs.  They're powerful enough to cause some damage, though the aron isn't close to even the shallow fainting stage.  

This distracts the woman enough that she momentarily forgets the danger of the metal bar while looking at the damaged room.  

Which is being brought towards her with considerable force - aimed towards the head, but as much as rage lends Ira power, it robs her of some of her fine motor control, and the impact of the seeds with the aron she's now bound to throws her, there's a reasonable chance she'll miss her mark, and hit the woman's shoulder or chest instead.

The strike lands against her skull, snapping her neck and dropping her in an instant.  At the same moment, the drowzee pops like a soap bubble into a cloud of vanishing dust.

-Huh. That pulls Ira up for a moment, her anger arrested by her confusion, but only a moment. Before her gaze turns to the scientist, and the liepard beside him, and advancing again, a little more cautiously, but her intent is fairly clear.

She's closer to the exit, and has already proven she can open doors, so the scientist has no choice but to fight.  The liepard begins readying another volley of seed bombs, this time focused on her.  

The aron untucks itself, and starts towards the liepard as well, although not quite as quickly as its human.

She doesn't seem to be paying any mind to the impending threat of the Seed Bomb, eyes fixed on the scientist as her target, moving to within striking distance at a rapid rate.

The seeds are grown before she reaches the scientist, but the liepard hesitates.  She's far too close to its person to safely target.  It doesn't have much choice, though - the only other non-contact move it knows will also take time.  The seeds are aimed just behind her, where hopefully they'll strike her but not the scientist.  

Most miss their mark entirely, going into the machines behind her.  

One manages to catch Ira in the forearm of the arm not handcuffed to a metal bar, producing a gruesome-looking wound.

Unfortunately, that barely seems to give her pause, seems to add to the anger in her as she lunges for Kerul, lashing out with the bar. Her only acknowledgement of the injury is to tuck that arm closer to her chest.

The bar comes down directly on his head, and he falls just as the woman did.  Like before, the liepard vanishes.  

She looks around, a little wildly - either for something else to attack, or for a way out of this place.

It doesn't sound like anyone else is close by.  There are two obvious doors.

The one she came through looks flush with the wall on this side.  It's tiled in the same material as the walls, and would be hard to spot when shut.  Whatever mechanism is meant to open it is hidden.  

The other door is near the woman's corpse.  It has the same look as the side of the door in the first room - raw metal and a long hand scanner beside it.   

The aron moves towards the door by the woman's corpse.

Ira nods,and moves towards it as well, reaching out with her powers so its open before she reaches it.

The room beyond looks dingy and poorly lit.  The light flickers and hums in an annoying fashion, and there is an unpleasant ammonia odor.  Some old boxes of ugly wallpaper and other unwanted useless things have been left scattered around the space.  Like the other side of the first door, the door looks flush into the wall on this side.  When open, the door bisects a sprawl of graffiti.  

To the left is a ramp heading upwards.  To the right and ahead are two more doors.  Those look normal other than being larger.  

She can recognise a dumping ground when she sees one.

She tilts her head towards the aron. "Guess we're going up."

Well. The aron leads the way up the ramp.

There's a single door at the top landing of the ramp.  It has a standard lock, but she's on the side which can be opened without a key.  There was, until recently, not much reason to lock someone into the panic room.

This leads to a strange jut of hallway which lasts for only a few feet before entering another hall.  To the left is a display of plants in front of an abstract painting.  The plants are a bit overgrown, but look like they've been watered regularly.  The building has gotten back to looking nice, though feels more like a hotel or movie theater of some kind than a spaceship.  Small stone tiles line the floor, creating a geometric pattern in slightly different colors.  Everything is somewhat dimly lit.

To the right is another short stretch of hallway which spreads for about 30 feet before ending at a T-intersection with yet another hallway.  On the same wall as the door from the ramp is a door marked as a janitor's closet.  The other wall has two doors with abstract pictures of a man and a woman - presumably bathrooms.  

-Janitor's closet might have a set of bolt cutters. She'll start with that, provided she can get into the door.

The door is unlocked.  The closet is large enough to walk into, and the three walls are covered in shelves from floor to ceiling.  Larger things, such as a ladder and a pair of mop buckets, are set aside near the door.  Some standard tools, including bolt cutters, are in a red metal box helpfully labeled "TOOLS - Section 53a".

Awesome. Metal bar: no longer handcuffed to her. And she keeps the bolt cutters when she makes her way back out.

She'll investigate the bathrooms, more to try and get more information about this place than any need to use them.

Like the doors and hallways, the aisle in front of the stalls is extra wide to accommodate large daémons.  It doesn't seem like daémons need to use the bathroom, as there aren't any facilities designed for them among the human versions.  The stall dividers go all the way to the floor.  

Other than that, the bathrooms are pretty similar to their like anywhere else - toilets, sinks, and so on.  There are hot air dryers for hands, but no paper towels.  Things use infrared sensors to detect use, rather than handles or buttons.  

Other than the one room right after the outer blast door, the place has been fairly clean, and this extends into the bathrooms.  There are a few spots where someone scrawled something and it was painted over in slightly-not-matching paint.  No water damage or current vandalism.  

Nothing that interesting then. Alright, back out to investigate the next corridor.

This hallway is very large, resembling the interior of a strange mall.  The corridor heads straight and nearly a kilometer long.  She appears to be about halfway from either end, and the distance is obscured by a pair of wider open parks with trees.  There are three storeys, with wide balconies on either side with ramps to get between them and the occasional bridge overhead.  She's on the second floor, right near a bridge and set of ramps.  In the center of the lowest floor is an artificial river wide enough to row a boat through, crossed by bridges as well.  

Overall, the aesthetic is concrete covered in plants, with stone tiles continuing to line the wide walking paths and plants growing everywhere else.  Tropical vines with flowers as large as both hands cupped together bloom from walls and trellises, and drape off of the balconies.  The ceiling is windowless and mirrored, making the structure look twice as tall.  Currently it's dim, with only the equivalent of streetlights on. 

The walls are lined with doors and windows. It's mostly shops and offices here, but residential houses can be seen in the distance.  Advertisements for products are in shop windows, selling the usual things that people would want.  The currency symbol is unfamiliar.  Most shops are closed, but there's a 24 hour pharmacy and a convenience store still open.  There are three other people in sight, walking beside their daemons.  Two are on the lowest floor, walking together.  The third is on her floor, but in the far distance.

She takes it all in, still not sure what to make of all this.

Okay. She needs more information. So. She makes her way towards the open store, hoping that someone can answer her questions.

The small convenience store sells various small things.  Chewing gum, junk food, batteries and spare chargers, hair ties, gloves.  Some tech that looks like they might be cell phone equivalents.  It looks like alcohol and cigarettes are either banned or sold in places other than this, but they do sell energy drinks.  Things are a little messy, with random printed stands and boxes littering the edges of the aisles, but nothing is obviously broken.

There are two young women in the shop, each around 20 years old.

One has a purple monkey balancing on her shoulders, standing next to a dolly with some boxes on it.  She's craning her neck and watching the other with undisguised interest from the other side a shelf. 

The other is standing next to a blue dog.  Both she and her daémon are taller than the shelves.  She has a handful of junk food, and is considering what kind of drink will go with them.  She either doesn't notice the other woman staring, or is ignoring her.  

Ira watches them for a moment, and then taps the metal bar against something that it'll make a noise against. She's set her feet for if she needs to fight again, and she's noticeably tense, ready for something, but the bolt cutters in her other hand are held loosely at her side.

"Oh, hello.  Welcome to Rowlet Mart," the woman with the aipom says automatically, pretending that she hadn't been staring at the other.  The caution and hostility put her on alert as well.  She glances down at Ira's daemon.  While she does, she notices blood from where Ira was struck in the arm earlier.  "Are you alright, miss?"

"I have questions," Ira says. "About where the fuck I am, and why the fuck I was brought here."

She doesn't actually expect the woman to be able to explain that, but she might be able to point her in the direction of someone that can.

"...What?"  This throws the woman completely off.  

"Uh.  Topaz Hall second floor, of the Tower of Autumn.  Do you need directions somewhere?"

She remembers the scientist saying something about a generational ship.

"...Earth. I need directions to Earth."

"I'm not familiar with that," she admits, frowning.  It's a bit late to be looking for a shop.  "Is that a neighborhood somewhere, or a friend's name?"

She goes to the counter and activates a screen, then switches it to a map program

At the top of the screen are four large cylindrical ships, much smaller ones attached to the sides.  There are buttons for displaying shuttle routes and teleportation schedules.  A majority of the screen is currently a long corridor, presumably the large hall outside.  Two flashing red triangles are on the ends.

"That's odd.  Looks like Topaz Hall is in lockdown.  Did something happen?"

The other woman with the large blue dog has finished shopping, and is waiting in line.  

"Damn.  They better not be looking for me."

Ira's eyes go a little wild at the mention of the lockdown, and she shifts into a more defensive stance. "I don't know why I was brought here. But I want out."

At her side, the aron bristles, making itself more obvious.

"What happened?  Want out of what?"

"I don't know. I just know I woke up, chained to a bed, with...uh, this creature," she uses a finger from the hand holding the bolt cutters to indicate the aron, "and I have no idea where I am."

They consider it.  That very much sounds like a bad thing, and the lockdown might be a coincidence or might mean that someone in charge was behind it.

"I'm going to call a friend and see if he'll teleport us somewhere else," she says, getting out her phone and typing on it.  

Araeneve looks down at the aron.  "Did something change about you recently?"

"I don't- know? I just remember waking up, in the cage?"

And Ira is staring at the two creatures. She's surprised, but it's at how not surprised she is that they speak. Somehow she knew that they would.

"My friend's on his way.  He'll..."

She trails off as a pop comes from just outside the entrance.

"Yeah, that's him."

She looks down at the stuff in her hands, and decides to just set it down.  "Sorry, I have something more important to deal with," she tells the shopkeeper, who just nods.  Whatever is going on, she'll just let the Legendary handle it.  

And a young man steps in to the shop, trailed by a green and white humanoid thing.  He's currently wearing pajamas, which is considerably more casual than even he prefers.

"There's some sort of emergency?"

"We need to get out of here.  Please, I'll owe you a favor."

He considers what he knows of Verity.  "I'll want a full explanation," he decides, then with another pop a minute later, Azure, Verity, and Ira and their daemons vanish.

They're in a circular pad marked with a large eye, on the side of what looks like the lobby of a nice apartment building.  

Ira starts when they're moved and bristles, brandishing the metal bar some, clearly unnerved.

"My house is nearby," she says.  She's unnerved too.  The sooner she can get to her house, the sooner they'll be able to figure everything out.  

She takes a few steps, motioning for them to start following. 

"If this is a trick or trap," Ira warns, but does seem willing to follow.

Araeneve glances down at the aron.  If that was a threat, it's not a very big one.  They do consider the possibility that the aron is actually one of the rare daemons who stays a ditto into adulthood, and could turn into a copy of them.  They'll keep an eye out.  

The apartment is nearby, after only a few doors.  Large and windowless, with five other doors leading out of the open-plan central room.  The ceiling is vaulted and fine, with intricate mouldings and a central chandelier providing most of the room's light.  All of the furniture is in a matching set together on the comfortable side of high-end.  Despite that, it's messy and haphazard with boxes everywhere, dirty dishes in the sink, and unfolded clothes mostly in baskets in three different spots.  The rugs look uneven, and things like brooms have been left out rather than put away properly.  There are four tables, and all of them have at least one unfinished thing sitting on them.  Altogether the aesthetic is a bit like 'a teen threw a wild party in their parents mansion when left alone for the weekend'.  

Ira eyes the surroundings, looking more than a little unimpressed. "What now?"

"Why don't we find somewhere to sit, and you can describe the problem.  Since apparently Verity has decided that the police aren't worth informing," he gives a strange look at her, then stalks off to find somewhere for them to sit.  The dining table only has some kind of headset and a screwdriver on it, and that can be moved easily enough.

(Florentho has noticed her arm and gone to find some bandages and antiseptic.  Unlike Verity and Araeneve, they chose to separate not long after settling and can walk to the bathroom on their own.)

"She said she was chained up, and when she escaped the Hall was in lockdown.  That might have been a coincidence, but that implies there might be someone in charge of both."

"You have a problem with authority," he tells her.  "But you also know more than I do right now.  I don't know.

"What do you think?  I can take us to the police - getting to emergency services is one of the first things a teleporter learns.  Also, what are your names?"

(Florentho returns with the bandages, and puts them in reach of Ira on the table.)

"No police," she states firmly, feeling her grip on the bolt cutters start to weaken. She chooses to set them down, rather than drop them, and after a momentary hesitation, sets the metal bar next to them and reaches for the medical supplies. (She does not, immediately, sit.) "S'pose you can call me Ira."

She doesn't introduce the aron, that has now settled beside her.

Florentho sits near the aron.  There seems to be something strange about it.  "How are you doing?" he asks quietly.  The implication that he means both sides of the pair, not just the daemon, is obvious, at least to a normal daemon.  

Simultaneously, Azure continues.  "I'm Azure-and-Florentho," introducing himself the standard way for locals.  "And if you don't like police either, there won't be police."  It's borderline, but the ships laws don't technically require people to report crimes and didn't see any lockdown notices himself, so he won't get in any real trouble.  Not that it would be easy to stick anything to him anyway.  "Perhaps you could tell us what happened, in order?"

The aron tilts its head. "I- We- I don't-"

Ira considers that introduction. "You speak like you're one?"

"We are, in most respects.  Daemons are a part of ourselves, literally our souls.  Do you consider them differently wherever you're from?"

"We don't have them where I'm from."

That doesn't register as possible, and he considers the words over again.  "That... What form was your soul in, if not a daemon?"

Ira is silent for a moment, working through the awkward task of bandaging her arm one handed. "If we have souls," she says carefully, "they don't manifest separately."

"Well, you're a person.  That means you probably had something."  Would they have been invisible?  Internal, hiding in the stomach somewhere?

There are possibly theological implications to this conversation, the way it's headed.  Which means Verity wants to head it off before it gets there.

"We may have gotten off-track.  What happened earlier?"

Which is a conversation Ira had been trying to head off some, but ah well.

"Like I said: woke up in some kind of mad science lab, with this guy," here she rests her hand in the Aaron's head. "Mad scientist type said something about studying the effects of Binding. Decided I wasn't gonna hang around and be a lab rat."

"Binding... I guess that might be putting your soul into a daemon?"  He types some notes into his phone to look up later, holding it so the screen is clearly visible as his notes app - Ira seems even more paranoid than Verity.  "Was it close to the convenience store, or had you been walking for a while?"

"Somewhere down below. Seemed abandoned. Walked up past a janitor's store and restrooms."

Type, type.  He also pulls up the same map app as the store had.  Zooming in to the map, there's a little spot cleared away for a 'storage room 51a' in the same nook as the bathrooms and janitor's closet.  The lab itself doesn't have an equivalent room.  The sizes of the rooms on the map are slightly off, enough that the place where the lab should go is too small to have more than a hidden closet. 

"It was here?" he asks, pointing at the storage room.

"Think so, yeah. Map seems wrong though, sizes don't make sense."

"How so?"

"Lab should be there," she points at where she estimates it to be. "But that's too small. Though the doors acted like panic room doors, and you don't map panic rooms in schematics."

"Topaz Hall was originally owned by the Oak family, before it was converted to a more standard habitation.  I've never heard of there being a panic room there.  This implies that either one of my distant relatives is involved, or someone else found and co-opted it."  He looks suitably disgusted at the idea of illegal labs.

"Was there any other person there?  Or anything they used that could have... made? a daemon?"  

"There was a woman as well. A security guard I think. And machines. I didn't take too close a look at them on my way out."

"But no other prisoners?"

"Not that I saw."

"That means we can take some time and figure out what to do properly.  

"Authorities do sound like a bad idea, now.  And I suppose it'd be a risk to bring in any of my family.  I do want to bring in my twin, Alizara, though..." he pauses, considering.  He really doesn't think she has any involvement, but... "only if she agrees to Florentho reading her mind beforehand.  She is a scientist, and knows most of the official researchers - she's one of the people trying to get FTL working."

Ira bristles again, at the mention of reading minds, looking to Florentho. "You read minds?" (Her tone is still flat.)

"Psychic types in general.  I haven't read yours - I can sometimes be rude, but not anywhere near that rude."

"You can tell if a psychic is reading you, generally.  Their daemon will be glowing and looking at you, if nothing else.

"Azure, you have only touch-range telepathy right now, right?"

"Yeah.  Our moves are Teleport, Hypnosis, Life Dew, and Wide Guard.  Annoyingly passive, but I only ever do double battles anyway."

She doesn't exactly relax, at the reassurance that there'll be a warning if someone is trying to read her mind, but she eases some. "...Battles?"

"Daemons enjoy fighting with each other, as a bonding activity.  Not to the point of drawing blood or causing real pain.  When there was real fighting it was daemon-to-daemon too, though, because daemons can be much more dangerous than humans." 

"There's also competitive sport battling.  I was pretty into it as a kid, before we learned utility moves for helping the ship instead of a fighting set.  Some daemon forms are lucky and their useful moves are things that are also good for proper fights."

"...Huh. So that's what 'Seed Bomb' was..." She brushes her fingers over her bandaged arm. Pauses. "And your twin won't want to involve the authorities?"

"Not with the same evidence that convinced me it would be a bad idea."  

"Still don't know how I ended up here."

"Yeah, that is one of the things we're trying to figure out.  If nothing else, having a way to get people on or off of the fleet is pretty big - we're not out here on a bunch of ships because we prefer them to a planet.

"Alizara is one of our best options for that - she knows enough computer stuff and people on the research teams that she might be able to find something that way.  I can ask about the lockdown since I'd have an excuse to notice, but there's only so much I can pry without being suspicious.  And ask around if any relatives seem to be doing anything odd.  There's been 8 generations since the ships launched, though.  Half of the ship could be holding on to the information of a panic room."

"-We're in space. You've been in space for eight generations."

"Yes."  

She hadn't caught on to the full implication of someone entering the ship before this point.  That is extremely important.  "Just what sort of scientist has that technology and is using it for that?" she asks rhetorically.  

"Someone who was looking for someone who didn't already have a daemon if I'm remembering what he said right."

"We could have been off of these ships, with that sort of technology," she fumes, still stuck on her last thought.  

"Anyone smart enough to build that machine would know that," he points out to Verity, putting what Ira said into his notes.  

Someone has built a machine that can travel between vastly different places, and is using it to pull people in and give them daemons, instead of that.  Why is a valid question.  They also need to figure out where the daemon came from.  

He really wants his sister here.  Azure hates being the reasonable one, and she's better at both that and figuring out things like this.  

"And I'm pretty sure I can't answer the why."

"So the next logical step is to figure out what we're going to do.  Ira, you'll need some new clothes to not attract attention.  Verity's clothes are all suicune-themed, but Alizara has a metang.  I don't think you're quite the same size, but you'll look normal in the style I picked out for her."

"Clothes are clothes," she says with a shrug. "I'd appreciate a change and a shower."

"I'll go get Alizara and her spare clothes, then," he decides, preparing to teleport away.

"The shower is that room," she says, pointing at the door closest to the kitchen.  It's clean, and tidier relative to the main room, though a phone-like device has been abandoned next to the soap tray.  

Okay. First thing, she grabs the phone-like device, and goes back to the main room, holding it out. "Yours?"

"Yeah.  Sorry, this place is kind of a mess."

The apartment isn't unsanitary or unsafe - she does keep things off of the floor and the auto-vacuum kept track of, and the things scattered around are never food or dishes - she just doesn't put things away when she's done with them.  The towels are where they're expected to be at least, and she hands Ira one in trade for the device.

Ira shrugs. "Seen worse."

Still, she takes the towel, and goes to shower. It is a normal shower right? She doesn't have to contend with something completely space age?

The tub is large enough to more-than-comfortably bathe a 6'6" daemon and human at once, and the piping into the room is designed to fill it in a reasonable time.  Beyond that, the controls are similar enough.  

She considers it, looks back to the aron she's still not used to having follow her. "You good?"

"Mhmm," it agrees, settling down firmly in front of the door. If anyone wants to get in, they're going to have a fight.

Well then. Ira will shower, quickly enough, although she will take a moment to just enjoy the hot water.

When she's done, she dries off, and wraps the towel around herself before sticking her head out of the bathroom to see if clothes are available.

Clothes have been left.  Like the clothes worn by the locals, it's mostly silk.  This set in particular is slate gray, and a design meant to be baggy and comfortable so a slight mismatch in size won't be as noticable.  

Well. They're clean at least. Even if she prefers closer fitting clothes. She changes quickly, grabs her old clothes, and heads back into the main room.

There is another person in the room along with Verity and Azure.  She looks remarkably like Azure, only female and dressed in draping blue-gray clothing.  The bluish metal daemon is presumably hers, and sitting beside her chair.  Florentho is sitting in a chair moved close to Azure's, enough that they're almost touching.

"Hello.  I'm Alizara-and-Salanaya," she says.  The metang waves to the aron.

The aron lifts one leg slightly in an imitation of a wave.

"Ira and-" she pauses, looking down at the aron. "...How do you know your Daémon's name?"

"They're normally given names by the parents, or the parents' daemons.  Without that, I guess you can name them whatever you'd like, or I can find you a daemon name website to look through."

"A website would be helpful, probably. Perhaps later."

"Right.  First we should figure out what to do, since it's 4:30 now and that's a bit late to be going back to sleep.

"Alizara and I both have work today and it'd be suspicious if we left, so we'll be busy in a few hours.  We can check up on things at our jobs and get back to you then.  

"Verity, do you have a spare phone?  I can reorganize my files and send one over if needed, but I shouldn't spend too many more teleports today unless there's an emergency.  Also, what is your schedule like?"

"I normally spend from 2 to 11 running around and purifying water.  Normally in the habitats at night, then moving to the farms when people wake up.  I don't keep a strict schedule or rotation, though."  On purpose.  If she could be expected somewhere, someone would be there waiting to bother her about things.  

"And yes, I have a spare phone."  She debates between her personal phone and the one on Araeneve's headset, but it isn't a hard choice considering the difference in head shape between an aron and suicune.  It could be pried out and used by a human, but it'd look unusual compared to a human one.

"I'm going to assume that me roaming out and about is a bad idea," Ira says flatly.

"Hmm.  Yeah, probably not with the aron around you.  Though..."  

He makes an uncomfortable face, as the idea he's considering is somewhat taboo and deeply unpleasant.  "It's uncommon, but sometimes people do separate from their daemons.  I did it, as part of my emergency responder training."

Recognizing that Ira won't have context, "People experience severe discomfort if they get too far from their daemons - 20 feet is the average.  It's possible to snap that and make it possible to go arbitrarily far from each other, if you can stand to walk away for far enough.  Your daemon is still your soul, nothing changes about the connection other than the distance.  And the daemon is often upset for a while afterwards - statistically, it is vanishingly rare for a daemon to instigate or suggest a separation, and are nearly always the first to give in and try to return to their human regardless of personality in other instances.  Less than 2 percent of people seriously attempt it."  

Why yes, she did watch several documentaries on the subject and memorized them.

"We'll see how stir crazy I get first."

"Yeah.  I would've suggested keeping your head down, but I figured I'd bring up the option."

"Not known for keeping my head down. But I guess I can learn."

"And there's plenty of things to do inside.  Catching up with your daemon, learning things about the ships."

Ira definitely perks up at the idea of learning about the ships. (She's not entirely keen on the possibility that catching up with her daemon is going to give her unwanted insights into her own head, but can admit that it's probably necessary.)

Alizara busies herself by looking through her phone and collecting links to things that might be interesting and new.  Everything from histories and census data on daemon type ratios, to technical write-ups on the electrical grid and nitrogen cycling systems.  She regrets the obvious impossibility of Azure giving her prep time before finding people kidnapped from other universes; it would have been nice to have a well-designed pamphlet designed for such an occasion ready to go.

"What level of technology does your world have?"

"We're starting to get into space, but we're not managing long distance space travel for a while I don't think. I thought we were pretty high tech until I encountered this stuff."

She nods, then goes back to finding books, skipping over airplanes and computers.

Azure has gotten up to check through Verity's fridge.  It looks decently well-stocked.

"Is there anything we're missing?"

"Not that I can think of," Ira says, crouching down next to the aron.

Verity wanders off to check on the spare bedroom.  It's slightly dusty but usable and as well-ventilated as any other room in the ship.  She can set to work dusting it, then going through the main room and scooping up any project she hasn't touched in at least a week.  

Ira watches her warily through the corner of her eyes, and twitches if she comes too near.

Well, that's a strange reaction.  She doesn't need much encouragement to put off doing the dishes for a while longer.  There's plenty of stuff to do in the other parts of the open main room.  

Ira settles down a little, watching Verity more openly, curiously.

It is a person and a giant blue dog tidying up their house.  It's obvious in the way they move that they function as a single individual, moving together in a synchronized flowing way where they always seem to know when to step in, working together like a right and left hand. The most egregious mess gets cleaned up and Verity is starting to get annoyed at being watched.  She'd have expected Ira to be in a conversation with her daemon or looking through books or something.  There might be a cultural difference here, but Verity isn't sure what it could be.

"Uh, you can go into the guest room if you'd like privacy with your daemon.  Or I can start cooking breakfast if you're hungry?"  She considers the snack she left behind at the store.  It was about time to eat, and if she was home anyway it might as well be cooked food.

"I could eat if there's food, but don't bother on my account," Ira shrugs.

"I do normally eat around this time," she says, then starts preparing food.  Something with peppers, tomatoes, and unfamiliar-shaped pieces of pasta.  Already in the kitchen area, she sets to work cleaning the dishes.  Cleaning is her least favorite thing to do when she's supposed to, but somehow it becomes appealing when she's worrying about something else.  Which is probably still a good time to clean, in this case, since Ira is going to be stuck with her until whatever conspiracy is going on gets settled and having someone looking at her messy apartment is embarrassing.

"Did you have roommates back in your world?" she tries to make conversation.

"Sometimes," Ira shrugs. "I moved a lot." (Trying to stay off anyone's radars.) "Sometimes there were roommates, sometimes there were not."

"Oh, that sounds interesting.  There's nowhere to move to out here, other than transferring between ships.  Were all of the places very different from each other?"

"Some were. Some weren't. Turns out the underside of a city is much of a muchness no matter where you are."

The cooking food gets stirred.  "Did you always live in cities, and not smaller towns?"

"You're anonymous in a city, smaller towns people tend to notice when someone new turns up."

"I doubt I'd be anonymous even in the largest cities," she notes sourly.  "Though I also don't know the scale of your cities.  Suicune are about one in 6 million.  There are just short of a million people on the fleet, but the dead world we came from had... I think it was about 8 billion, at the peak before the decline."

"Where I come from we don't have...daemons? Making it harder to hide."

She considers that.  "That sounds... well, people not having daemons sounds disturbing, but that part sounds nice."

"It's definitely got its perks, yes. I- can't imagine not being able to vanish."

"I spend lots of extra time up in the farms, when I'm finished purifying those water reservoirs.  I've always wanted to go to a true patch of wilderness, out where there aren't people."

If they have different ideas about or reasons for vanishing from people's attentions, Verity has clearly not considered that fact.

"Why don't you?"

"On a fleet of spaceships?  We have some botanical gardens meant to simulate woodland trails, but they aren't quite the same."

"-That would be a stumbling block." Pauses. "Man, not being able to hide sounds terrifying."

"It was worse when I first settled.  People are curious about Legendaries, and some of those have daemons which can phase through walls.  That's stopped, for the most part.  This apartment has security that detects walls being passed through, and I rearrange the furniture often enough that no one will teleport in."

"-Wait. People just- break in? Just to get a look?"

"Not for the last few years.  Paparazzi trying to find gossip, and also the occasional delinquent child."

"-Have you considered dealing with the paparazzi?"

"I've fought any I could get into a fight with, and soaked them with Surf to ruin their cameras.  There's a limit to what someone can do before getting sent to jail, though."

"Sounds like what you need is a bodyguard."

"It's not that I can't soundly beat anyone short of another Legendary in a duel, it's a matter of being places where I don't want to get fined for collateral damages or get even more attention."

"...I suppose if collateral is a concern it might be a problem." Pauses, thinking. "My thought was that a bodyguard stops anyone getting close to you. Or tries to at least. Teleportation might cause some problems there..."

She continues to be skeptical with how it would work with her problem, particularly if she's guessing correctly that Ira is offering.  Once whatever conspiracy is either soundly defeated or disproven, perhaps they can try it anyway.

"In a world without daemons..." she begins, then pauses.  That's encompassing a lot.  Not just the lack of souls and a part of yourself who you can speak with, which is alien enough, but the practical aspects... transporting goods, watering plants - the Moves and Abilities that daemons have are instrumental to most basic tasks.  "I suppose you don't have teleportation?"  she finishes, realizing that she'd left the statement incomplete.  

"Not as far as I'm aware. Unless something else got changed when the kook gave me a daemon."

"I wouldn't think so.  It sounds inconvenient for transporting around goods, though we do have a rail system here even with teleporting.  What about electricity generation?"

"Not exactly. I could build something that generates electricity, but I don't personally generate it."

"I wonder how different tech wound up in worlds without daemons to do things.  Alizara would probably be here interrogating you about it, if she weren't so polite.  

"Anything that can make materials out of nothing?"

"Heard some rumours about people who could. Never saw any evidence of it being true."

"I suppose it matters less on a planet.  Shame you can't teach us a trick for it, though - we're heavily bottlenecked on metal here."

"...What resources do you have more freely available? Might be able to fix up something that does conversion..."

She thinks for a moment, then starts listing.  "Lots of water - it's the single most common type of matter we can create by a large margin.  Depending on the Move it can be fresh or salt, or contain some trace minerals.  Also water in the form of snow, ice, or fog.  Bubbles full of breathable air mixture.  A few types of rock, some of which have tiny amounts of metal.  Sand, mud, silk, acid, bone, feathers.  The mud has some clay in it, when processed.  Sludges that can be processed into plastic.  Leaves, petals, spores, seeds, other plant materials.  Steel and gold, directly, though only a few daemons can learn those Moves.  Wood, though that's also rare.  There's one species that can create diamond, but it's a Legendary that we don't have any living members of right now.  Milk and eggs, edible but ...niche?  Lots of people find it creepy to eat something made directly from daemons, even though it's appearing from nothingness like everything else."

"Huh. Might be able to devise something, probably gonna take a while, and a couple of iterations, but I think it's probably doable..."

"Let me know if you need resources.  Or let Alizara know - I probably wouldn't know enough about science or machines to know how to get the right tools."

Ira is definitely focused on something else right now. "Tools are nice but not a necessity..."

She nods, though can't imagine how that would work.  She's been stubborn and tried to pry out screws with her fingernails before rather than get a screwdriver, and it hadn't worked out well.  Building machines that can do what no other machines have yet been able to seems like it would be even harder to do without tools.  

In the silence, she continues to stir the food.  After a while longer it gets transferred to plates and brought to the table.  The common eating utensils for the fleet appear to be chopsticks.  

It takes Ira a moment to get her fingers to cooperate for using the chopsticks (there's something a little clumsy in the way she does, but she gets there), but once she does, she's fine with that. She eats like someone who's starving...or someone who doesn't want to taste the food she's eating.

The spices are unfamiliar and used in unexpected combinations, but a blend that goes well with the foods in the dish.  It's about as good as something vegan and composed mostly of vegetables can be expected to be.  Verity only knows a few simple meals, but can prepare them adequately.  

Verity eats a bit slower, though focuses on her plate in silence.  Either speaking during meals isn't a common thing on the fleet, or Verity just doesn't have anything to start a conversation about.  

Well, Ira doesn't seem likely to start a conversation, and as she finishes her meal, she turns her head, covering a yawn with her shoulder.

Well, Verity can hardly blame her for having an odd sleep schedule, being nocturnal herself.

"You can use that room while you're here," she motions to one of the doors.  "It's still morning, but I guess sticking with fleet schedules doesn't matter much."

Ira hums. "Tend to prefer night anyway."

The room is full of a set of matching furniture, neat through lack of use and only slightly dusty.  There are no individual touches that an inhabitant would add, making it look like something that belongs in a magazine or furniture store showroom.

The bed is low and square, set into the corner with a quarter-circle canopy over the top.  There's a pair of trunks, a dresser, and a desk and chair matching it, all in dark blue wood which stands out against the pale yellow walls.  Everything is in primary colors, and they're bold enough that it looks like it might have been intended to be a child's room, though the kind that's understated and non-whimsical enough to not need replacing for an older occupant.

It's a bed. Ira basically faceplants onto it and will promptly be out like a light. Although she tends towards sleeping light - if anything happens, she'll probably wake up.

The rooms have decent soundproofing between them.  It's one of the benefits of being in one of the fancier houses in the fleet, along with the security and extra room. 

Verity stays up for another two hours, taking her spontaneous half-day off to work on one of her hobbies, then goes to sleep herself.  The bedroom doors have both simple electronic locks and internal bar locks.  She always uses both, and continues to do so.  

Ira sleeps, until she isn't, and then makes her way back out into the living area, to have a serious conversation with her...daemon. (She'd rather be somewhere she'll know if things start going...wrong.)

The conversation is...at least somewhat fruitful. She gets an idea of what the...aron? Is capable of, considers the fact that they are both very lost right now, and that they're not...entirely sure what to do if (when) the fact that they killed two people becomes apparent (she's not guilty, and she doesn't regret it, but people have Feelings about that kind of thing). What they haven't managed (yet) is a name, and Ira has no idea where to begin on that. And more to the point: she still has an interesting problem with regard creating a machine to transmute other objects into metals. She wishes she had something to sketch her ideas out on.

Physical paper isn't used much here, but she can find a bit of it in the storage closet if she looks.  Her borrowed phone can do text, simple drawings, or speech recordings.  A few of the tablets and other electronics now set onto shelves can also do as much, and better, if she wants to co-opt one for her own use.

The borrowed phone doesn't have the capability she wants, although she'll make use of the speech recording. She will, after a few minutes of inspection (with both her eyes, and the fact that she knows technology), co-opt the tablet best suited to her needs and...

...Sit down on the floor again to get to work. (She'll need any metal for the construction of this, but she reckons if she can get this to work, the pay off will be worth it.)

Verity and Araeneve eventually wake up and join them.  Verity avoids pointing out that the room has an overabundance of chairs and couches, and instead goes to make breakfast (dinner?).

Meanwhile, Araneve slips on their headset phone and checks to see if Florentho or Salanaya left any messages.  "The official reason for the Topaz Hall lockdown last night was regarding a group running a sweet scent parlor in the back of a theater.  Apparently they did catch them, too.  Two women, venusaur and ursaring daemons.  Azure hasn't heard anything else."

Ira splits her attention when Verity and Araeneve join them, although she's still mostly absorbed in what she's doing. The report gets more of her attention though.

"Sweet scent?" she asks, curiously.

"A move that makes a cloud of smoke that gets people high.  It's illegal to use recreationally... not usually something worth locking down an entire Hall for."

"...Does it have a non-recreational use?"

"Some medical things, especially for daemons.  Combat, I guess - any move is allowed arenas that are rated for them."

"-Huh. That's different. Never heard of something being banned for recreational uses being allowed for combat."

Araeneve does the closest approximation to a shrug.  "Daemons are less affected by lots of things than our humans are, and arenas rated for smoke-based moves have filters.  There are some banned moves for official tournaments, but I don't think that's one."  They seem a bit wistful.  "It's been awhile since we've paid any attention to ranked fights - Legendaries are also banned from them."

"...You that powerful?"

"Legendaries can generally take on any ten non-legendaries.  That's not some of the absurd continent-raising magic that people claim in old stories about the pokemon Legendaries, but..." she trails off, shrugging again.  "There are tournaments for different tiers of normal forms, but there are only nine other Legendaries in the fleet right now and the less we have to deal with them the better." 

"...Guess that sucks."

They shrug again.  "I wouldn't choose to be any other form.  The only problems are all of the idiots who have decided that my form means something it doesn't.  ...And the population being only a million, I suppose."

They go looking for the aron.  How are they doing?  Have they figured out a name they like?

She's resting fairly close to Ira, helpfully. She's...still confused, but the conversation with Ira helped, the two of them are at least on the same page. Including the fact that neither of them are very good at names.

"Names are overrated, and mostly only useful for people who talk about other people behind their backs," Araeneve opines, then cocks their head, "Though I suppose a lot of people feel strongly about their own.  We're here to help if you want help or a baby names book, but don't feel rushed."

"...I might take you up on that? I think we're okay for now, but I might want one..."

'Book' in this instance means e-book, paper being so uncommon.  Araeneve has to tell Verity to step a few meters from the stove for a minute, but they manage to retrieve one of the bulkier tablets from the other side of the room.  Daemons often have sharper and less-dexterous limbs than humans, but the screen is designed for them and it also has voice recognition.  They search out a popular name site before carrying the machine over and setting it on the floor.

As daemons start off as un-Settled ditto and don't even have consistent gender until settling, the names have no associations with form.  Many are designed with dictionaries of aesthetically pleasing words and common prefixes or suffixes to make them more name-like.  Four syllables seems to be about what people consider correct, here.  

...Ooh. The aron is going to be absorbed in that for a while then!

At some point breakfast is cooked and transferred to plates.  Verity debates whether she should bring it to the table or the floor... and eventually just decides to call that food is ready.  

The aron rouses itself enough to nudge Ira.

-Oh, yeah, food is a thing she should do, isn't it. She'll go to collect food from Verity.

It is a similarly decent and foreign-spiced dish, this one with rice and yams as the main ingredients.  

Verity is mostly content to eat in silence.  "I might go out early, for purifying the water, unless Azure calls soon.  Make up for what I skipped yesterday."

"Seems like a good plan," Ira says between rapid mouthfuls, but in the tone of someone who isn't entirely sure why they're being told this.

Verity is pretty sure she's heard people tell each other their day's plans like this over breakfast before.  Perhaps it's a cultural difference, or perhaps she's doing it wrong.  Either way, she doesn't have a follow-up.  If Ira doesn't offer anything similar, she won't pry (she suspects it will be reading and maybe talking with her daemon.)

Ira pauses, realises maybe she should give a response. "Uh. Probably gonna just...read some. I've got most of a blueprint and I should. Probably try to learn some of the history of this place?"

"Couldn't hurt.  I know more than most people about the dead world, and some modern law stuff, but only ever skimmed the things in the middle."

"Prob'ly gonna stick out no matter what I do, but I can at least try to stick out less."

"Makes sense," she nods.  She's not sure how to help with that.  Of their little four-person conspiracy, Azure probably knew the most about social behavior, but he used it to stand out.

"Option two is become a recluse and never interact with anyone ever, which is, to be honest, tempting."

"It's certainly what I would do, if I had the choice.  And not even just in your position, either."

"...Yeah, I can understand the impulse."

She nods, though can't think of anything else to say and lapses into silence.  

A while later, meal finished, she determines that it's late enough to leave.

Ira does not seem particularly bothered by the silence, and when the meal is done, sits next to her daemon, looking at names for now as well. She starts paying more attention when Verity and Araneve look like they're going to be leaving.

She's not sure what the normal thing to do when leaving a guest in your house is, even if it was the same between cultures.  Ira seems like a reasonable person who will stay put and won't burn down her apartment or let in random strangers.  She keeps her room locked, though from her practiced and automatic method of it, it is something she's been doing for years guest or no guest.  

"Need anything for tomorrow that I might be able to buy?"  she asks as Araeneve reluctantly slips on her phone headset.  Araeneve in particular looks like they want to stay home.  Unfortunately, dropping the water purification for another night after going home early yesterday would be the sort of thing that would get people poking around and asking after her.  So, best to be business-as-usual.  

Ira thinks for a moment. "Think I'm good," she decides. "Doubt you can get away with buying the supplies I need to build..."

"Yeah, that sounds like something Alizara would be better for."  

She will leave, then, getting on Araeneve's back as soon as she's out of the door.  They run down the central canal of each Hall, purifying the water with each step.  

Ira and the aron can spend the time looking at names, and coming to a decision - they both like Ishetu. So, that seems to be the way to go.

Ira pokes her plans some more once they've agreed on that, talking them through with Ishetu, while waiting for Verity and Araeneve to return.

It is an uneventful night of racing around for Verity-and-Araeneve.  

Hall to Hall, then up to the farms, and over other water reservoirs and swimming pools they run.  At the speed Araeneve can go when not trying to dodge traffic, they can cover the entire fleet in a day's work.  They cross from ship to ship via teleporters.  With each step, the ripples radiating out produce an aura of purity which returns each body of water to what it should be - fresh water in the canals and farms and drinking water reservoirs.  Salt in some of the swimming areas.  Algae levels, PH, oxygen content, all set back to ideal.  

After a while or nothing happen, Ira settles down to take a nap - in the main room, for ease of knowing if someone was going to come in, be it Verity and Araeneve, or a stranger.

They return about eight hours after they left.  All of the running and use of Abilities has tired them out, though not to complete exhaustion; this is a normal day for them.  Verity pauses for just long enough to see how Ira's doing, then picks some clothes at random and jumps into the shower.  

Awake, and not obviously having just been napping, kind of bored, but not critically so (yet). She's not going to stop Verity from getting her shower with conversation though.

After what is a short shower by their standards and a medium one by anyone else's, they come back out.  

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Not much," Ira comments, stretching.

"I got a name!"

"That was about the most exciting thing."

"Which name did you pick?"

"Ishetu! I thought it was pretty!"

"It's a good name," Araeneve confirms.  

Ishetu preens happily!

Ira rubs a fond hand over Ishetu's back. "Anything interesting happen while you were out and about?"

"Things are the same as ever.  It didn't seem smart to go poking around in Topaz Hall too closely, but I kept an eye out and didn't see anything from the canal as we were running through."

"That's...hopefully good?" Ira says, cautiously. (She sounds like someone still waiting for something bad to happen.)

"Doesn't seem bad, at least."

Verity, on the other hand, is very used to nothing ever happening.  Good or bad, every day is a uselessly small fraction of a light year closer to wherever their grandchildren will land, provided they don't get blind-sided by a rogue black hole or something.  

Ira sighs. "Guess we're stuck waiting still then."