Aberrant: Stargate Universe - New and Improved SG-22 Meet and Greet

[Forge]

[Couple days after Cynic Celebration]

Vinny sat in the cafeteria at his spot at his old team's table waiting for the others to arrive. He had finally come to terms with the loss of his old team, at least on the surface. It was time to own the problem and move past. He figured one of the best ways was to focus on his new team. According to the files and his talks, they would mesh well enough.

The room was fairly quiet, it being mid-afternoon, most people on duty or elsewhere, another hour or so and people would start filing in for evening meals.

[Courier]

Steve walked in, as usual his inhumanly handsome and polished appearance made him look like he should be on a cat walk somewhere. Spotting Vinny he walked over and without snapping to attention said, "Sir, Specialist Courier reporting for duty... or are you less formal?"

[Forge]

"Vinny is fine, though keep the 'sir' when it's needed." He said saluting lazily. "Have a seat Courier, the other's should be here shortly and we can get started."

"How'd ya like the SGC so far?" Vinny asked, making idle chit-chat.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria snuck into the cafeteria, nabbing two cookies and a slice of cake before sliding into a seat at the new SG22 table. She didn't eat nearly as much as many of the Specialists, but she was the reason General Oneill had a requisition for an addition to the mess budget specifically for desserts. The young alien so far had never met a sugar that didn't deserve seconds.

Despite her best efforts at covert dessert lifting, no one in the room failed to notice her. Since coming back from her only mission with SG23 she'd gained a beauty and grace to rival several of the male Specialists, including her new teammate, along with a presence that made her shine no matter where she was or what she was doing. Either she was completely oblivious to her effect on people or she was used to it; she smiled at her captain and her new teammate as she bit into the sugar cookie (the snicker-doodle being saved for after the cake) and mumbled a friendly, "'Allo."

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Forge

"Vinny is fine, though keep the 'sir' when it's needed." He said saluting lazily. "Have a seat Courier, the other's should be here shortly and we can get started."

Steve took a seat and said easily, "Call me Steve then."

Quote:

"How'd ya like the SGC so far?" Vinny asked, making idle chit-chat.

Steve watched Kyria walk over and replied, "It's very interesting. Definitely some unusual opportunities."

[Forge]

Vinny nodded at Kyria in greeting as she sat down, his eyes lingering a little longer than generally considered appropriate.

How did Manson's, 'Beautiful People' go?

"Steve it is..." Vinny said, "All of a sudden, I feel like the fuckin' ugly duckling." he finished, mumbling to himself.

Fabio and Her Royal Hawtness are here, just waiting on the fourth.

[Aradia McConnell]

Aradia stopped before opening the door to the cafeteria.

Okay, don't forget the important stuff, girl. Walk in, salute, hand him your file.. act military. Make Dad proud. You know.. if he had *any* idea you were here.

Aradia sighed, tucked a streak of hair behind her ear, and took a deep breath. Then she pushed the door open, and walked towards her new teammates. She stopped at the table, a moment of brief panic flickering through her eyes as she glanced between the two men briefly. Then she remembered to glance at their ranks, and saluted Vinny, holding out her file and orders to him. They had told her that she was the one member of the team that he hadn't been notified about yet.. they weren't sure if they were going to have her prepared in time. But apparently she was ready, so here she was.

"Specialist Ari- I mean, McConnell. Specialist McConnell, reporting for duty, sir."

[Forge]

Ah fuck, another woman.

"Have a seat McConnell." He said gesturing to the last open spot next to him and taking her file. The orders were pretty much ignored, if she was here, he knew what they were, the file was only briefly glanced at as he shut it and tossed it back on the table as he leaned back.

Any other day, Vinny would probably be ogling her, but next to Kyria, she was day old bread at best. "Welcome everyone, to the team. Hope your stay is fuckin' comfy, though the towels are scratchy and the shower leaks. As you all know, I'm a royal ass-tard, and had to be the most unlikely candidate for being assigned a team, but since Lucifer was on leave, you get me."

"But know this," he said sitting up and raising a hand as he smirked, "Regardless of the fact none of you are military, experienced, or ugly...I would still lay my life down to get any of you home. I may be a fuckin' dickwad, but I'll do alright by you...questions?"

[Courier]

Steve said, "Thank you Captain..."

then continued in an interested tone clearly directed at Aradia, "...first question is what do you do? Also did you get zapped by the artifact more recently than the rest of us?"

*Is that thing still in service?*

[Aradia McConnell]

Aradia nodded at the Captain, seemingly at ease with his bluntness. She addressed him first, then she turned to Courier, shook her head, and smiled wryly at him.

"Nothing I can think of right now Sir, though I'm sure I'll have plenty later. As for your question - I got zapped around the same time as everyone else. My abilities took a bit of getting used to, that's all. I'm a shapeshifter. I can change into.. well, about anything, so far as they've been able to tell. I'm also very athletic, but that doesn't have anything to do with the artifact."

She put a hand on her hip, and glanced at him and the other girl.

Damn - they're both pretty fuckin' hot."

"What about you two? I don't even know anyone's names. I just got told to meet my new squad here."

[Courier]

Quote:

...I'm also very athletic, but that doesn't have anything to do with the artifact...

*I'll just bet you are.*

Steve gave the newcomer a big smile and said, "I'm Steve Courier, businessman turned specialist. My abilities revolve around things mechanical, mostly making them not see me."

"Welcome to the team Aradia. And I just have to ask, what does 'shapeshifting' mean? Can you look like other people, or what?"

[Aradia McConnell]

"People, animals, things.. whatever I can think of, as far as we can tell. The more complicated it gets, the trickier it gets though. I can change my hair, my face, my height.. I can be a cat, a dog, a horse.. or a fuckin' sofa if I need to be, I guess. It's a little weird."

She sat down next to Vinny, in the spot he had indicated. She tilted her chair back a little, though she didn't go so far as to kick her feet up on the table. She was just meeting these people after all.

[Courier]

Steve thought for a moment and said, "I think that's the most useful power I've ever heard of. Do your clothes change with you?"

[Aradia McConnell]

"Not at first - we figured out later that I can make clothes change with me, but it took a bit. I have to charge them first, like a battery or something. Except once I've done it for a set of clothes, they're okay."

She pictured the look on Daniel's face when the scientist had asked her to change back the first time and she'd ended up standing there, naked as sin. His face turned about three shades of red, before he finally remembered to have someone get her a change of clothes. Aradia was so used to changing off-stage though it had taken her a moment to even realize what he was all flustered about. Her lips twitched a bit in amusement at the memory.

[Forge]

"Jackson must have been 'bout as red as a fuckin' tomato when you ended up bare-ass naked." Vinny said laughing at the imagery.

It wasn't hard to deduce the logical progression of events and with who had done the testing, he had a 50/50 chance of being right, and Carter wasn't as funny.

[Aradia McConnell]

Her lips twitched in amusement, and then she couldn't help it, she broke into a full grin and laughed a little.

"It took me a minute to figure out what the big deal was. Back home we're so used to changing in front of each other between shows - there's not much time, you know? We don't give a shit. So I couldn't figure out why he was getting all flustered."

She grinned wickedly at him, shaking her head.

"We started on the clothes thing the next day. I guess they've seen other people do that sort of thing, so they hoped I knew how, somehow."

[Courier]

Steve laughed with the others then said with a twinkle in his eye, "Now wait a moment. If you can charge up your clothes, then can do zap someone else's clothes and remove them? And can you do this at a range?"

*So walk into an exhibit looking like someone else, zap a diamond, then shapeshift so it's a part of you and walk out?*

Steve added as an after thought, "And can you make yourself look exactly like someone? Say Vinny or Kyria?"

[Aradia McConnell]

She shook her head a little at his first question.

"No, I can't remove anyone else's clothes. It's more like I can make my clothes immune to what I do.. like they won't be affected by it, and they'll still be there when I turn back. And yeah, I guess I could.. I mean, I'm not perfect at it or anything.. sometimes I do really good and sometimes I don't. If I was trying to make myself look exactly like another person, I might mess it up a little, I dunno. This is still kind of new to me."

She looked thoughtful for a minute, then shrugged.

"I've never tried to look exactly like someone else. I guess I could give it a shot - these clothes are attuned, I just got out of my last practice earlier today."

[Forge]

"Give me a shot, would like to see how fuckin' handsome I am from the outside. Go ahead." Vinny offered, smiling as he turned towards her in his chair.

[Aradia McConnell]

Aradia took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She stood up, and took a good, long look at Vinny. Then she closed her eyes for a minute, and she changed.

It was slow enough for them to see the changes, but fast enough for it to not quite register until it was all over and done with. She grew about a foot, and the streaks disappeared from her hair as it shrunk, until it had morphed into Vinny's regular short brown cut. The clothes seemed to almost merge into her, only to be replaced by nearly identical BDUs worn exactly as Vinny wore his. Her slim, athletic looking figure morphed into the powerfully-built body of the Captain, and the features changed into an almost near replica, right down to the slight smirk on his face.

"How's this, Sir? You need a fuckin' snapshot to keep you company at night?"

It was uncanny. It was an almost completely perfect representation, right down to the inflection and accent.

Click to reveal..

Rolling for Shapeshift: (17:55:50) ChatBot: (Aradia) rolls 6d10 and gets 1,4,3,7,9,8 = 2 suxx

Rolling for Perform to mimic Vinny: (18:12:18) ChatBot: (Aradia) rolls 5d10 and gets 7,1,5,9,8 = 2 suxx

[Forge]

"Fuck me runnin'." Vinny said in disbelief. After a quick moment of stunned silence he recovered, "Aren't I just the hottest fuckin' thing you ever seen?"

Gumby's got mad skillz. Wonder what she could do in bed?

[Courier]

Deeply impressed, Steve whistled.

This has Potential! Blackmail. Establishing alibis. Wait, my appearance is one of my powers.

Steve asked, "OK now that's him. Can do you do me?"

[Forge]

"Yeah McConnell...it's only fair that if you are gonna do me, you gotta do all of us." Vinny said with a shit-eating grin, implying much more than the face value of the statement.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria smirked. "Save me for last, Aradia."

Testing the waters with her new teammate she added telepathically, *If you can pull it off, up for kiss? We'll clear half the cafeteria for 'personal' time.* A silent chuckle with a wicked sense of humor played underneath the words.

[Aradia McConnell]

She glanced at Vinny, and arched a brow at the comment. Then her eyes flickered to Kyria's and held for a moment, as if the girls were communicating silently. She grinned at her wickedly, and nodded.

"Oh, don't worry. I always save the best for last."

She turned to Steve, and smirked.

"Guess that means you're next."

This isn't a bad exercise.. it's always a little easier if I've done the form before so know what I'm doing. These are my teammates, after all. We may need me to look like one of them sometime to save our butts.

She gave Steve a fairly thorough once over as she had Vinny, and then her features merged and shifted much as they had before. By the time she was done, she had adopted Steve's appearance fairly accurately. Something was missing, they couldn't quite tell what.. the features were all exactly alike, but she seemed to lack that certain something that made it hard to turn away from him once you started looking.

"There.. that looks about right - right?"

Click to reveal..

Roll for Steve/Shapeshift: (21:36:11) ChatBot: (Aradia) rolls 6d10 and gets 7,2,5,7,2,5 = 2 suxx. Perfect imitation of Steve without M-App.

[Courier]

Click to reveal..

"Perfect imitation of Steve without M-App..."
I.e. not all that perfect

Quote:

"There.. that looks about right - right?"

Steve said, "I'm not sure. It's not... ah. Mirrors reverse things. So my mental image of myself is backwards?"

*Something's wrong but I can't quite put my finger on it.*

Steve looked at Kyria, "What do you think?"

[z028 Riley]

She shrugged, "It's pretty good. Not quite perfect, but she doesn't have all the same quantum expressions that you do naturally, so it's probably hard or impossible to perfectly copy them."

"Still really useful, though." She grinned at Aradia. "I mean, it's not like most casual observers would know the difference, and think what that could mean on a covert mission." Her eyes flicked over to Vinny, the grin turning absolutely impish. "Or, y'know, other places, too."

[Aradia McConnell]

She grinned, and glanced at Kyria.

"Guess that means it's your turn, huh?"

Aradia gave her a full once over, much as she had the other men. Whether it was on purpose or subconscious, the two men couldn't tell, but her gaze seemed to linger a little longer on Kyria than it had on them, and her lips curved into a playful little smile. Then she shifted again, and the representation to Kyria was just a little bit better than Steve's had been. Perhaps it was because being a girl was more familiar territory, but it didn't seem quite as difficult as the other two had. It still lacked the quantum essence of beauty that Kyria had, but at least when she spoke, the voice was identical again, instead of being more "generic guy", the way it had when she'd spoken as Steve.

Click to reveal..

Rolling for Shapeshift: (18:12:07) ChatBot: (Aradia) rolls 6d10 and gets 9,2,10,3,6,8 = 3 suxx/1 to shift, 1 to Copycat, 1 for voice

She walked over to Kyria, standing next to her and glancing down at her playfully.

"There.. a little better that time, don't you think? It's still not quite right - she must be right, I guess if you're magic-pretty or something, I can't quite imitate that.."

She thought in Kyria's direction, unsure if the other woman was listening in or not.

*Anytime you're ready..*

[Forge]

Originally Posted By: Kyria Thea

Her eyes flicked over to Vinny, the grin turning absolutely impish. "Or, y'know, other places, too."

"Whatever could you mean by that darlin'?" Vinny asked, returning the smile as he gave the two Kyria's an up and down. "Think you need to elaborate."

[z028 Riley]

"Hmn." With only that contemplative sound, the young nova slid gracefully out of her seat and wrapped her arms around her doppleganger. She grinned at her reflection, then dipped her in a manner worthy of Broadway musicals and kissed her firmly long enough for anyone in the cafeteria that wanted a look to get at least two.

She pulled Aradia back up and disentangled, slipping back into her seat with that same liquid grace. "Oh, I'm sure you can take it from there, fearless Captain."

[Forge]

Vinny had nothing but a wide open mouth as he stared at the extended embrace. For once, he was actually speechless.

My team fuckin' rules. The rest can go shit themselves.

"Take that anywhere you fuckin' want it, ladies."

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Aradia McConnell

She walked over to Kyria, standing next to her and glancing down at her playfully.

"There.. a little better that time, don't you think? It's still not quite right - she must be right, I guess if you're magic-pretty or something, I can't quite imitate that.."

Steve nodded and said, "Yes, that's still very good."

Originally Posted By: Kyria Thea

"Hmn." With only that contemplative sound, the young nova slid gracefully out of her seat and wrapped her arms around her doppleganger. She grinned at her reflection, then dipped her in a manner worthy of Broadway musicals and kissed her firmly long enough for anyone in the cafeteria that wanted a look to get at least two.

Steve added, "And that's even better."

[Aradia McConnell]

Aradia morphed back into her own fairly-attractive self, and her lips twitched in amusement at the two men's response. She sat on the table, crossed her legs, and looked at Vinny with a wicked grin.

"Sorry Sir - there's rules against that shit. I read the handbook. Guess you'll just have live with that for now."

She chuckled a little wickedly at that, having obviously enjoyed the attention.

"So.. now that you've all seen how my powers work.. you guys gonna tell me what yours are? I didn't get much of a brief on the team, they figured we could manage that on our own, I guess."

[Forge]

Vinny looked at her sitting on the table, obviously enjoying the viewing angle, but irritated at such an blatant display of misconduct.

"If you care to join the rest of us at the table, and not present yourself as the fuckin' meal, I'm sure we'd all be more than willing to share our abilities with you."

[Aradia McConnell]

Aradia, for a brief moment, didn't look at him with any anger or insubordination - just confusion. Then she realized what he meant, and an annoyed look flickered across her face. She swallowed her smart-ass comment and hopped off the table, sitting back down in her chair.

"Sorry, Captain. I guess I don't come from "meeting at a table" type of folks."

These guys might know how to have a little fun, but it ain't the fuckin' circus anymore. It's the goddamned military, so get used to it, girl. They've probably all got some kind stick up their ass.

[Courier]

Steve gave a relaxed laugh after Vinny dressed her down and said, "Oh, don't stop on my account."

"Right, what can I do. In addition to looking good the artifact gave me the shockingly unuseful ability to delete myself from the payroll computer."

Steve gave a half annoyed wave of his hand, "Unfortunately I'm not joking. In general all things computer and electronic will both take my orders and have the habit of forgetting about me. This includes cameras and even mirrors."

"I can bounce energy away from me, i.e. bounce bullets. I try to avoid using that one because missing has such wonderful side effects. And if you mix destroying data and redirecting energy you get silence. I'm as quiet as the falling dust when I want to be. This even trumps firing guns."

Steve knocked loudly on the table and then did so a second time with no sound whatsoever even though everyone could feel the impact on the table.

[Forge]

"Pretty fuckin' cool Steve, have you tried your cyberpunk on alien shit yet?" Vinny asked.

He leaned over and whispered at McConnell, mostly to keep anyone else not at the table from hearing, "Gotta keep up appearances."

[Courier]

Steve waved his hand in the air to indicate uncertainty and said, "Yeah, once I tried it on the Stargate."

Steve paused, obviously thinking back on the experience, then he said, "It's not immune, but it's seriously solid and complex. Maybe I could give it orders... but I decided discretion was the better part, you know?"

[Aradia McConnell]

Vinny saw her relax a little, and she nodded back, murmuring quietly in response.

"Right, put on a good show. Got it boss."

She thought over what Steve had said, and nodded.

"That's some pretty cool stuff, but I guess it'd get kind of annoying too. Can't say it would bother me too much, the database back at my old job consisted of a banged-up old filing cabinet that Markie kept in his trailer."

She laughed a little, then motioned to Kyria.

"What about you? What do you do?"

[z028 Riley]

"You already got most of what I do. I'm a telepath. Other than that I'm pretty much just a nova." She let that sit for half a second, then remembered where she was. "By that I mean I'm generally faster, stronger, smarter, what have you than a baseline, but I don't have any other real active powers. I don't need to eat or sleep, I don't have to breath and I can survive most kinds of environments. I'm stronger and more limber than baselines, but still on the low end for most novas. I'm fairly good in a fight and visibility doesn't really matter if it's up close."

She shrugged and smiled at her new teammate; so far she seemed fun. "So I'm a telepath with some extras."