People In Glass Houses...

[neclectus]

Who | Timaeus Nadir and guests
What | Timaeus is hosting a picnic get-together/catch-up.
Where | The picnic will be taking place in the Tropical Habitat Dome.
When| We'll be using a bit of wibbly time so that people who want to attend can.
Warnings/Notes| None as of yet.

(This is an opportunity for me to make some new CR as well as catch up with ongoing relationships, but I also want to encourage tagging around between characters! Feel free to do whatever you like in the setting with whoever you like! Also I will be backtagging this so don't feel you've missed the boat if you haven't tagged in immediately <3)

Timaeus certainly knew how to organise a gathering- even if it wasn't an outrageously opulent celebration to be held on one of his own yachts. This one was to be held under the expansive dome of the Tropical Habitat- the entire location rented out for the day to Timaeus and his guests, a loosely private affair- formal invitations as such hadn't been extended, but those welcome knew they were. Naturally, all tributes and victors were included in this group.

The Dome was a beautiful piece of architecture in itself, though antiquated when compared with the technology used for the Arenas. Rather than invisible forcefields, the climate of the interior was separated from the outside by elaborately curving steel and glass. Inside, tropical plants of all types thrived- there was a still, green pond and, deeper inside, a cascading waterfall. Butterflies in hundreds of colours, sizes and shapes flitted about, tropical birds swooped between the trees, brightly coloured fish darted in the water.
Blankets and cushions had been scattered in the main clearing with hampers of food, but there was plenty of space for the guests to break away from the gathering if they so desired- the dome was full of winding paths through the greenery- some even climbing around the trunks of the largest trees and leading to viewing platforms above. In a temporary gazebo in the clearing, a string quartet played music that wasn't quite the classical pieces Tributes were familiar with. 

Timaeus himself seemed in a brighter mood than he had been for months, more than happy to make conversation with anyone who approached him- though he was certainly keeping an eye open for particular individuals. Some that he'd met, some that he'd lost and had returned to him, and others still that he had yet to meet.

Comments

[asklepian]

"They tried, I simply couldn't understand it." Julian shrugs. Of course, it had been a problem--in their eyes at least, Julian still wasn't sure and wasn't certain he'd ever be. "There came a point where everything seemed to click, though, and after that I was fine."

Well, more than fine. And the clicking had been artificial--but he had enough issues with that to realize when he was going to veer into melancholy and there was quite enough of that around here without him adding to it.

[acroodawakening]

"I guess how that's how we all are. Children until we're old, trying to learn the entire way."

He sat forward and clasped his hands together, resting his elbows on his knees.

He felt a little bit better. He had a lot to think about, though.

"How do you know all this? It must have taken people where you're from so long to learn all of that..."

[asklepian]

"Well, I'm from a time where all of that was figured out quite a long time ago. 2374 by the way we reckon years...judging from what you've said thus far, there's millions of years between us." Julian smiles slightly, that is certainly a lot to take in. "I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly. Even the best technology we have can't judge time that accurately."

"Even so, there are things we still do not understand. It's exciting, how much we have left to discover."

[acroodawakening]

Guy's smile widened again and his voice rose in excitement as he asked Julian questions.

"So you just - you just fly around in the stars? All the time? Do they keep a doctor there in case people get sick while they're exploring?"

[asklepian]

"Exactly so. In case of illness, or accident--sometimes things do happen, after all."

Guy's excitement was more than a bit infectious. Julian's smile feels far more natural on his face now, not forced like it had been before.

"I've been living on a space station until recently, which means the starships usually come to us--traders, explorers, and the like." Also soldiers, which he's not about to get into now. And DS9 is in the hands of the Cardassians once more, anyway. For the moment.

[acroodawakening]

"So you stay in one spot? In the stars?" Guy said, trying to wrap his head around the concept. "But all different traveler - they come to you? So you can meet all different people from all different places in one place."

He looked absolutely thrilled now to know this existed somewhere. He leaned forward.

"What are they like? The people? The ones from other worlds. What are those worlds like?"

[asklepian]

"Well, one of my friends is a Cardassian--they're from a world called Cardassia Prime, which is very hot and humid. Cardassians themselves are more reptilian--they're bipedal, like we are, but they have grey scaled skin and ridges at the neck and on their faces, around their eyes." Julian traces where a Cardassian's ridges would be around his own face--the eye ridges, the one down the center of the nose, the two going back over the forehead.

"Then there's Kira, she's a Bajoran. They look human, almost entirely, the only visible difference is a set of ridges on the bridge of their nose. Their world is a lot like Earth, they have ancient and beautiful cities. The people are very spiritual, and also very proud."

"There's hundreds of worlds, hundreds of species out there--and many more that we've not even met yet."

[acroodawakening]

"Does everyone get along? Because people mostly get along in my world but when people are different, like if some are nomads and some are cave-people, there can be problems because of not understanding each other."

He raised his eyebrows. "It's not the worst. My mate and her family - my family now - they're cave-people, so, uh, obviously, people can get past it, but all these different peoples must be so different. And Hawkeye told me about that thing called 'war' where different peoples act like bananaheads and fight over ridiculous things. Do you have that or do people get along?"

[asklepian]

"Mm...no, we unfortunately don't. We try--there are people called ambassadors, whose job it is to talk through things with other people, negotiate peace. But sometimes it just...doesn't work. Humans don't go to war with each other anymore--we did in the past, there were some very terrible things that happened."

Julian picks at his sleeve, he's still willing to say whatever struggles they'd gone through, they'd still ended up better than this place. It had been a long road--but humanity was at peace, exploring the stars, fighting only when they had to.

"And we're at war now, back home. The galaxy is a big place, and not everyone in it is friendly."

[acroodawakening]

"But all the people in your home, they're at peace. That's still a whole world. Some of the people I've talked to here talk like - like the peace we have back home is just because there aren't many of us. But I think it just means that some people can find peace more easily than others."

He bounced in his seat slightly.

"I am so glad I met you. Now I know - everything is so big. In a good way, in the best way. Being brought here made me realize that but in a bad way."

[asklepian]

"It can certainly be good, or bad." Julian shrugged, it was something to think about--and not something comfortable to think about.

"It was a long road--and some of the events of the past in my own world are likely just as terrible, if not more so. But we managed to come through it on the other end. Which, I suppose, is the important thing."

He smiles then, it's hardly an easy thing to think, that any world has its horrors to overcome, its own darkness in the past.

"I'm glad you're getting another perspective."