InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I have a pet rock, fear me."

Inara Serra (spacegeisha) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2009-06-25 17:00:00

Who: Inara and Hal Jordan
What: Arriving
When: Late afternoon
Where: Outside the Library
Warnings: None, yet

The last thing Inara remembered was falling asleep on her shuttle. She couldn't recall any trouble or attack. In fact, she didn't even recall Serenity landing anywhere. So she couldn't imagine just how it would be that she would find herself in a large library. The room was possibly bigger than the entire ship. Not to mention she couldn't imagine anyone besides Simon caring much for a library anyway.

And there was no way she could explain how the statues had come to life. That made even less sense to her than the library itself. Apparently she wasn't supposed to be in there, though, otherwise the brutes wouldn't have dragged her from the room and quite literally dumped her on the street.

That was where Inara currently found herself. She was sprawled on the sidewalk, watching the walking suits of armor return to the library, locking her out. The Companion sat up, staring incredulously after them, even after the door had already closed. Then she slowly took in the view of the entire city. It was advanced enough to be a planet closer to the core, but not so advanced that it was actually one of the core planets.

"Where am I?" she whispered to herself, brushing a curl of dark hair out of her face.

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inbrightestday
2009-06-26 09:59 am UTC (link)

Hal had taken a few days to make the sign Andrew had come up with. He'd used the ring to help things along, solving the need for tools. It had also helped him find the necessary materials. He'd considered doing it entirely in wood, but had a better thought about halfway through gathering the materials. It would be a wooden sign, with a metal plaque on the front and the back, proclaiming the message on both sides. There would also be a holder on the front for fliers, which would contain Claire's welcome speech as soon as Hal got in touch with her to get them made.

After several days of working in spurts, the sign was complete. He considered simply walking to post the sign, but decided it would be quicker to fly. So he donned the full GL regalia and took off towards the library, the telltale green tail trailing in his wake.

It wasn't until he got closer that he realized there was someone standing there. He briefly considered turning around, but by the time he noticed her he was already within sight range. Well, I guess either she'll be from a place used to this or she'll learn quick. He floated closer to the library, hovering closer and closer to the ground, until finally he touched down. I should probably go dim. The green outline around him faded, though he was still in costume. "Miss?" He held up his right hand in a small wave, adjusting the sign in his left hand. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you just got here? I'm the Green Lantern. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them for you."

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spacegeisha
2009-06-26 11:55 am UTC (link)

At the sound of someone speaking to her, Inara turned her head. Immediately, her right eyebrow shot up in an expression of disbelief. "Mal?" she asked, her face scrunching together, thoroughly confused. This was easily the most bizarre thing she'd ever seen, and she'd seen some seriously bizarre things in her life, mainly while around Mal and the rest of his crew. But this one really took the cake. And what was with the costume? Where did he even get that?

"Seriously, Mal, what are you doing? Whatever kind of game you're playing, it's not funny." The Companion pulled herself up straight and brushed the dirt off her (very expensive) silk dress, smoothing out a few creases. "Now where are we?" She shot him a look with her dark eyes and waited for an answer.

((OOC: Just so you know, I LOLed when I saw who replied. ^_^))

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inbrightestday
2009-06-26 12:10 pm UTC (link)

Hal blinked, completely flummoxed. Okay, I need to think about a bigger mask... "I'm sorry, miss. I'm not...Mal, you said?" Although it is only one letter away from the name I do go by. This is one hell of a coincidence. "I may look like him, and I'd like to thank you for pointing out that I need a larger mask, but I'm not him." He sighed, his free hand coming up to rub his temple lightly. "This is...okay. Certain theoretical physicists posit the existence of alternate universes. Theoretically, in these alternate universes, there can be people that look like us, but aren't." He gestured to himself. "I, apparently, look like your Mal. But I'm not. I'm the Green Lantern, and I am part of a peacekeeping force that takes care of all 3600 sectors of known space. I'm the Green Lantern of my home sector, 2814, though I tend to stay fairly close to Earth, my home."

Hal paused for a moment to consider his phrasing, and then gestured around loosely to indicate the entire city. "This place, as best anyone can tell, is being used as sort of a...multiversal dumping ground, for lack of a better term. People from many different places and times are here." He held up the sign in his left hand, gesturing to the word Colligo on it. "As far as we know, the place is called Colligo."

(OOC: Precisely why I tossed Hal in! XD Also, here's what the sign looks like: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r224/fearofcobras/for%20sharing/ColligoWelcome.png Credit goes to Anne for making it.)

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spacegeisha
2009-06-26 12:23 pm UTC (link)

Inara stepped close to Hal and peered up at him for a long moment, scrutinizing what she could see of his face. It was so similar to Mal's. They could be identical twins if they weren't the same person. But there was something different. She couldn't put her finger on what it was, but after another moment, she was fairly sure that this wasn't actually him. "Green Lantern?" she asked, finally getting over her suspicion of him. "Well, in that case, I apologize for confusing you with Captain Reynolds. Please pardon my horrible manners. My name is Inara Serra." She offered him a small, demure bow of her head, then a smile.

She looked at the sign he held up. Was he serious? She was on some other planet, possibly in some other time? How could that even be possible? And yet...

"You're not joking, are you? We're seriously in some kind of other dimension or something?" She never thought things like that went any farther than children's stories. Then one word that Hal had spoken finally registered in her brain. "You've seen Earth? You've really seen it?" she asked, looking up at him with both confusion and wonder.

((OOC: That is so spiffy!))

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inbrightestday
2009-06-26 12:34 pm UTC (link)

Hal didn't flinch when she stepped close. If his life wasn't a glorious smorgasbord of weird before even showing up here, he probably would have done exactly the same thing. He stayed relaxed and gave her the time she needed to convince herself he wasn't this Mal person. When she apologized, he smiled and waved it off. "Believe me, it's no problem. I've seen other versions of me, and that was before even being here. This whole multiverse thing can be immensely confusing."

He shook his head. "I wish I was joking, but I'm not. I should also warn you that no one has been able to leave. I've tried every way I can think of to get out, and it just isn't happening. Once you hit a certain point, you just seem to reappear in the library." He offered her an apologetic shrug. "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, there."

His brow furrowed curiously when she asked about Earth. "Uh, yeah. I live there. It's where I'm from, born and raised." It wasn't a huge leap of logic to figure out that where, or possibly when, she was from, Earth was gone. "I'm from 2009AD. Earth is still going strong, despite many attempts from cosmic entities and supervillains to change that."

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spacegeisha
2009-06-26 12:57 pm UTC (link)

So she wasn't sure exactly where or when she was, and she couldn't get back. Well, that was just perfect. She'd just returned to Serenity and now she was separated from the crew again. She liked to think that if there was a way to leave, either she or the crew could find it... but then, for the crew to find it, they'd have to be looking for her and somehow find her. And if she was in a different time, somehow that possibility seemed dim.

She would worry about this much more later, but for now, she was absolutely fascinated by the Green Lantern's story of Earth-that-was. "2009? That's amazing. That was over 400 years ago, before everyone left. What did it look like? I've seen artists' renderings and heard stories when I was a child, but no one was really sure what was true and what wasn't."

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inbrightestday
2009-06-26 01:34 pm UTC (link)

Hal's head tilted to the side just slightly as he thought about something. Hmm...well, this could work... He took a step back and held up his right hand, clenching it into a fist. His ring began to glow, and a moment later a green beam arced out of it, creating a globe-sized green construct of the world, complete with accurate topography and waves actually in motion. "The colors are off in a lot of areas, but this is what it looked like." He gestured to the ocean areas. "The oceans should be blue, and they were nice. A lot of people couldn't get out far enough to see really clean water, but those of us that could fly were able to. It was really a beautiful sight." The construct spun, and Hal pointed out the mountains. "The mountains were really beautiful places, and made excellent places to go and think for a while. You could go find somewhere high enough up where you wouldn't run into anyone else and just hang out up there. Watching the sun rise and set from that high up is an experience everyone should have at least once. The land and other areas should be a sort of foresty green-brown. On a cloudless day, the sunset or sunrise could turn the sky into some really amazing fiery reds and oranges. It was something to behold."

By this point he had a little content smile on his face. He didn't even really realize he was doing it, but Green Lanterns often had particular pride for their planets of origin, and Hal was no different. "And this," he spun the construct, once again with his will, and pointed to the recreation of Coast City, "is Coast City. It's where I grew up." He didn't mention anything about Mongul destroying it. If Earth was gone in her time, she didn't need to know about that. "It was a great place to grow up. I'll admit to being more of a city boy, so the constant hustle-and-bustle was exciting, there was always something to do." He smiled at the memories of his childhood. Some of the GLs may have been prejudiced against "Earthlings" but it didn't matter one bit to Hal. He loved his home planet.

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spacegeisha
2009-06-26 04:22 pm UTC (link)

Inara's eyes widened in wonder at what she assumed to be a hologram. She hadn't ever seen one in someone's ring before. In lots of other devices, yes, but not in a ring. How interesting. She stared at the miniature Earth, studying the land. "It must have been so beautiful then. When I'm from..." she trailed off for a second, somewhat weirded out by having to say that. "The planet was used up. Everyone had to leave, find refuge on other planets. I was born on Sihnon. It was covered in cities, but nothing was more magnificent than the capitol city. It was like an ocean of light. From space, it was a deep red color. It was beautiful in its own way, but nothing like this."

She paused and sighed. She missed Sihnon and even the ship. "Some of the other planets look a little like this, but it's still so fascinating to see what Earth-that-was actually looked like. It's become a subject of great interest among people."

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