“Ah. I hope that you might have been nicer to a poor old bot.” The ancient robot untangled his limbs, straightened his body, and faced the little cyborg. Armour shining, visor glowing, mechanisms turning, and a big cheerful smile. In another person's mind he might have looked threateningly but to Dhanyl he looked warm and perhaps even friendly. “About the question you asked, I am afraid I do not know the answer too. However, if you share some more information about yourself, perhaps we can find a solution to a different question.”

((Sorry for the holdup, I was on vacation and net was a bit shoddy.))

Standing at the bottom of the Saviour's entry ramp, Valorum examined the outside of the ship. He could see where the human construction ended and the Sophon influence began; where function met form, where power met grace. Though he missed the jagged, triangular designs of his own fleet, the brand-new ship looked beautiful to the old Vodyani's eyes.

A ship worthy of a blessing before her maiden voyage.

But scantly a few moments later he snapped himself from his reverie. This was a Pilgrim ship, after all, and he was very much a guest. It was best to get the captain's permission and specifications for the rites before performing the wrong one. Adjusting his grip on the two bags in his hand, Valorum started towards the ship's entrance. Anyone watching would have been justifiably terrified; a Vodyani striding towards their ship with a glaive in one hand and his cape flared behind him? Even a squad of soldiers would have been apprehensive. Valorum, though, looked like no ordinary Vodyani.

Valorum's jet-black 'cloth' had been painted with metallic, gold-like accents familiar to any Sheredyn artist; cryptic runes that read 'honor', 'valor', and 'justice' to those who could decipher them, along with Vodyani emblems etched into his 'cloth' that read 'truth', 'loyalty', and 'faith'. His night-black cape and skirt from his service in the church had been replaced with those of Sheredyn craft as well; woven with golden patterns that flowed as he walked, like rivers of light through the blackness of space. Among his belongings was his black glaive lined with orange lights and etched with shining metal as well, a briefcase-like container of similar craft, and a duffel bag of Sheredyn make with his other belongings. 'Enigma' was certainly an applicable term.

Being taller than most humanoids, Valorum was pleasantly surprised that he didn't need to stoop as much as he thought as he entered the ship. The corridors inside the Saviour  were larger than he expected. His staff, though, was concerningly close to the ceiling. Holding it along his side only added more horizontal space. His cape was a little big for the width of the hallway too. Small difficulties, but seeing that there were not many people nearby to disrupt, they could be easily remedied later. Striding through the halls and recalling his knowledge of the ship's map that he was given, the Vodyani made headway towards the bridge; the most likely place where the captain would be.

Entering the bridge and planting his staff squarely on the ground, Valorum looked around, attempting to discern rank and file from visuals alone. Having no luck with that, and getting a little tired of the stares the occupants had been giving him as he explored the ship, Valorum spots Ylona, the most authoritative looking of all those present, and speaks aloud in a slightly synthesized, but still powerful voice, the orange 'flesh' of his anatomy pulsing with every syllable:

"Excuse me. Is the captain of the Saviour currently aboard?"

(IDK how tall Vodyani are. I'm assuming Valorum's 2.2 metres)

                Decius passes by the bunkroom on his exploration voyage, glimpsing the Vodyani standing nearly as tall as his own height but half as cramped.

                “He looks surprised to see me,” Decius observes of the tall creature’s body language. “I suppose I shouldn’t ask him for anything right now. I’ll let him process my presence and allow him to approach me.”

                Fingering his folded weapon with a slight but unintentional air of hostility, Decius moves on down the corridor. Through the entire lower deck he searches for rooms long enough or tall enough to reasonably accommodate him and his bulk. Unfortunately not finding any reasonable pace to stretch out, he returns to the cargo elevator. Calling the slow lift he worries of how he will accommodate himself on the long voyage to Tor.

                Reaching the main deck, he moves through the cramped corridors. He stops at a curious door labeled “Life Support.” Opening the small port he feels a wave of warmth uncommon in a climate controlled spaceship for weaker forms of life. Moving further inside the dark area he finds a nice alcove perfectly his size to stretch out in; wedging himself between a pressure tank and regulator. His red vision processors cast a comforting ominous red on the dark walls as he falls asleep, his mind requiring rest and sweet thoughts of genesis and journey. His vision still glows long after he has fallen asleep, six red pinpricks of warning to any who dare startle a sleeping death machine.

“Ah, that is a rather large amount of questions. Please do slow down.” The ancient robot knelt down and sat on the cold floor. “I have been able to catch some clues on where I am and what are my functions. You see, I was woke up a few hours ago from a long and unpleasant rest. It seems during that time, I may have lost some memories. However, since I woke up in a laboratory I suspect that I am either a experiment, a contraption, a service bot with amnesia, or perhaps even more unlikely, a passenger.”

It was a curious sight. A tiny robot was standing, cautious, in front of a much larger and menacingly looking robot which was in a position where one might have thought that it was thinking and of course, he was. “Perhaps the ship’s data log or the Captain might know more about me. If you trust that I won’t harm you, I would ask of you to guide me to either of them. But seeing as we both want our questions answered”

The ancient robot suddenly perked up. "Well, let us depart~!"

((Thanks for the headsup, I'll try to not do that in the future but I will keep on placing the setting until all of us are acquainted with each other. I don't want to make things confusing for people who just joined in. By the way, kudos to AngelicStorm for the idea of colouring in our own speech. Very useful.))

Valorum watches as the Craver looks at him dead-on, feeling an old impulse creep into his right hand, where it tightens around the haft of his glaive. Though he stood his ground, every synthetic fibre in his body was ready to spring on instinct. Whether out of fear or apathy, the Craver peacefully left the room without a second glance, leaving a relaxed, yet confused, Valorum behind. Had he still carried lungs, the Vodyani would have realized that he had been holding his breath.

A peaceful Craver? That shouldn't be possible unless...Dust. The breath of the Gods. It must have touched that Craver as well.

That possible answer was enough to ease Valorum, if only a little. Thinking about it, that encounter just now was as much a sign of goodwill as a tense standoff. The Craver had to have sensed the hostile intent Valorum had, but it walked away regardless. If nothing else, that was enough to give the creature the benefit of the doubt. Still...

Flexing his grip on his glaive, Valorum turned his attention back to the bed he was picking; a lower bunk nearest to the door. There was enough room on the bed to lay down, but Valorum didn't really sleep. He could render himself inactive for a period of time, but it wasn't necessary for most of his functions. It would make a decent spot for praying, at least.

Burning incense might be a problem, though...

Putting his bags on the floor, the clasps on Valorum's shoulders loosened with an audible *click*, and his cape began to fall from his back. Catching it and propping his glaive up against the higher bunk, Valorum folded the cloth neatly into a square pile and placed it on the corner of the bed before climbing into the bunk. Crossing his legs and sitting on the mattress, he looked around the barracks, where the other occupants had gotten back to unpacking.

I can see most of the room from here...the ceiling is a little low, though.

Barely a few centimetres of clearance were between the top of the Vodyani's head and the bottom of the upper bunk. Still, it was better than nothing; in fact, it was about as good as his old quarters aboard the Endymion, minus the privacy of having his own room. Briefly checking the time, Valorum grabbed his staff and swiped his thumb up along the grip, causing the haft of the glaive to collapse into a hilt a fraction of the original size, leaving a longsword in his hands. Laying it across his legs, Valorum bowed his head and began a silent prayer, a staple of his daily afternoons.

hm... more human than it looks like... He would have to slow down with his next Questions a bit. How disappointing.

Whatever, besides the rather intimidating look of the Robot, he showed no signs of aggression. Sitting down on the floor like that he seemed quite peaceful.

Now, without any reason for mistrusting him, Dhanyl decided to help him.

"Depart? If you want access to the database you can use one of the Computers here. Well... not the complete Database, oddly enough just the science stuff and basic stuff like the crew roster.  The Pilgrim IT corps must have made some errors there, but it's nothing I could fix later or if you find nothing in the stuff I now have access too." While talking Dhanyl walked towards the next Computer and turned the screen on "Oh, the crew roster is sill open. I used it earlier to look up her com number. Eh, the Pilot's I mean. If the Database doesn't know anything about you I can lead you to her. I was on the Bridge and talked to her just a few minuted earlier."

"Ah, what a shame. I wanted to meet the captain instead of looking at linear and boring data logs." The ancient robot stood next to the small cyborg and observe at the screen. Quite amazingly, his face showed up. "How peculiar?! Is that not me?"

"Let us go visit the captain now."  The ancient robot straightened himself once again. "By the way, is there anything of importance I should know?  I am curious on why a Craver is on a exploratory ship."

The prayer was brief, thanking the Gods for showing him this opportunity to find and meet them in the flesh, as well as giving thanks for the long, hard, and virtuous journey his life as a Vodyani had been, but Valorum didn't ask for a true blessing yet. Without the right components and the appropriate rites, it was possible an inadequate prayer would anger the Endless, making the Saviour's journey even more difficult before it began. Thankfulness, though, had no price tag.

Valorum uncrossed his legs and, using his sword as a prop, stood up from his new bunk. Reaching down towards his two bags, he unzipped the Sheredyn duffle-bag and looked through the contents within. A few small thermos-like containers of Dust could be seen, enough to sustain him for about a week if he ate like a Vodyani normally does, but on his fast, the Dust would last for a standard, 30-day month. Also inside was a long, black item much like his blade, but thicker and blunt; Stormbreaker's sheath. Several other provisions of Sheredyn and Vodyani make were inside, like a series of Whetstone holo-projectors for practice with his glaive, a smaller backpack for planetary expeditions, and some folded cloths; spare capes, no doubt.

Standing up from his bag, Valorum opened the locker next to his bunk and started to put his belongings away, hanging up all except one of his spare capes; a night-black cloth smoother than silk that he sets folded on the top shelf of his locker. Then he goes about setting his Whetstones in the corner, putting his dust containers into his backpack and shoving that in, etc. He took out Stormbreaker's sheath and held it to his left hip before an audible click could be heard and it stayed attached as he let it go. As his duffle emptied, though, Valorum dwelled on another piece of equipment; a black gauntlet with razor-sharp talons with projectors on the rearmost finger-joints and receivers on the knuckles, as well as a larger emitter at the back of the contraption. Even lacking power, anyone could see it was a weapon. Still, it wasn't a ballistic weapon, so Valorum paid no mind to the idea of checking it in at the armory. He classified the tool as a consumption-support utensil in his equipment manifest anyway and he wanted to leave it at that. It wasn't a comfortable topic Val liked to think about.

Putting it away in his locker, as well as the now empty duffle bag, Valorum closed and secured his locker, extended Stormbreaker to full length again, put his cape back on, picked up his briefcase full of clerical implements and everyday necessities and walked out of the door.

Where to now...I suppose I'll wander the ship, meeting the rest of the crew.

And so he did, wandering the halls of the ship, saying hello to passing crewmembers. Most of them gave Valorum uncertain looks at first but responded politely nonetheless; a well-earned departure from people in the streets of Gemini III parting like fearful curtains to let him walk by. The first encounter of note, though, was when Valorum rounded a corner and almost ran into a rather motley duo compared to the rest of the human crew; A Sophon speaking to a rickety old robot.

"Ah! Excuse me. I didn't hear you from around the corner."

Bumping into the Vodyani around the next corner surprised him. {talking about the gamma-ray} he thought. He didn't understand why there had to be a preacher on a scientific mission. Religion was always the milestone around the neck of science...

"Hear? You don't even have Ears as far as I can tell. I always wonder how Vodyani observe the World around them..."

Asking questions? A typical Sophon behaviour, but undoubtedly a welcome change from people just saying a short 'hello'. Valorum would have smiled if he had a mouth, but instead, he responded:

"As did I once, actually. Near as I can guess, synthetic replacements; receptors for all but taste replace the mortal senses of all those who don the sacred cloth. I have no clue where most of them are specifically, though. A better question is if one needs ears to hear, or if it is the soul that truly listens, is it not?"

Valorum's shoulders lifted a little as if he just realized something, and then he exclaims:

"Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm Valorum, Chaplain of the Saviour and the acting Second Mate to First Mate Ylona and the Captain. It is a pleasure to work with you."

And he gives the two a short bow. Dhanyl, however, can see something a little anomalous about this Vodyani; in the places where he can see the swirling mass of essence within Valorum, he notices that the orange hue is a great deal more yellow than those from the other Vodyani he's seen in diagrams and whatnot. Surprisingly, it's a lot less dense too, like the essence within this priest is depleted.

(This last part is assuming Dhanyl has at least looked up what a Vodyani looks like beforehand. I imagine he'd be the most perceptive of the two. Laudmas might not even know what a Vodyani is if he's been asleep for so long.)