taxonomites | [ shí sì - location: eighth floor balcony

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[ shí sì - location: eighth floor balcony - visual ]

The tablet is already recording as Kaylee sets it down. There isn’t much to see from the balcony she is standing on, just another alien-produced barrier to keep them all where they don’t want to be. In the year and a half she’s been here, that hasn’t gotten much better. Still landlocked, still stuck, and right now she doesn’t even have the comfort of Serenity to help with that.

It isn’t all bad. She has to keep reminding herself that it isn’t all completely horrible. There are bright sides of being here, too. No worries about feds or cons who feel they have been cheated in some way, for example. It isn’t as though they’ve been left without entertainment. And the people here are shiny, all full of different ideas and knowledge and stories. But people come and go, even here, and...

With a sigh, Kaylee gives the railing an experimental tap. Nothing. She didn’t think anything would happen, given the number of things she’s already tried, but was worth a shot. Laughing, she leans out over the rail. She’s doing her very best to stay cheerful, to be happy for those who have gotten out of this gorram moon when she still can’t figure out how. When she looks to the tablet, she doesn’t seem surprised at all to find it already recording her.

“Those of you ‘at know him, looks as though Jayne Cobb’s gone home again.”

Good for him.

“For us still here, I’m wondering if anybody’d be interested in a good drink, or a game of somethin’. Don’t got much of a care for what it is, but company’s always nice, and I think we could all use a bit of distraction from tryin’ times.” And trying aliens.

The tablet switches off, but comes back on all of three seconds later with more laughing Kaylee. "Also, Kaylee's me, for those of you I ain't met yet. Apologies for not meetin' you sooner, but I'd like to get to know you now, if I may."

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Liz wasn't familiar with this Jayne Cobb person, and while she believes that everyone should go home and deserves to, she can't imagine it's very pleasant to find that someone you were close to here, whether they're from home or otherwise, has left. On that note, Liz is glad that there's no-one from Roswell here in Taxon. She wasn't sure how she'd respond to having them here only to be taken away. It wasn't something she liked giving much thought to.

"I'm sorry," she says to the girl on the tablet. "That's gotta be rough..." Awkward? Yes, a bit. "I'm Liz."

Kaylee is still smiling when she picks the tablet back up to answer. "Ain't the first time he's been and gone," she says. "Should'a figured he wouldn't stick around this time, neither. Bit flighty when he wants to be."

It's partially true, Kaylee figures. Jayne isn't one for staying someplace he doesn't have to, and the thought that maybe he was too squirrely for the aliens to keep around is an entertaining one. Keeps her from moping too much, anyhow.

"Liz, then. Nice to meet you." She pauses, then tentatively asks, "Mind my askin' how long you've been here?" With a month missing in her own Taxon time line, Kaylee is still trying to piece all of those missing bits together.

Kaylee's accent reminds Liz of the slight twang in Sheriff Valenti's voice. For a person she once disliked and had been afraid of, she sure missed him. Liz had been in Florida all summer, but Maria had told her all about how the sheriff had stepped up to the plate and had become a proper ally to the 'pod squad', helping them out after Max saved Kyle. She missed everyone from home, but she doesn't want them here. No-one deserves to be here.

"Oh, not at all. I've been here about... three months now, I think. I wasn't really sure this place ran on the same kind of calendar as Earth when I got here. In movies, it's sometimes different on other worlds."

Three months. She'd been here three months, and Kaylee hadn't even noticed the arrival. Odd, how work seemed to suck you in so you missed everything. And here she thought the aliens glitching her out of existence for a month was bad.

Kaylee laughed, more at herself than anything. "Sorry," she apologized. "Should've greeted you a lot sooner'n this. 'Verse's got a funny way of keepin' us busy when we should be out meeting more folks, gettin' to know who we're sharing an experience with."

Liz wasn't sure which was worse, the glitches of this place or running from the FBI back home. Comparisons she shouldn't be making, perhaps.

"Oh, don't. This place is kind of huge, and I haven't exactly made a habit of checking this tablet thing. Takes some getting used to."

Kaylee had wondered that many a time herself. It was a tough choice, between Alliance feds and Reavers or hamster aliens. She would almost rather have the Reavers some days, but that thought was always stopped fairly quickly. Don’t need to be giving the hamsters any ideas for new glitches.

“Easy to get lost in the sweep of it, sometimes,” Kaylee agreed. “Especially when the glitches are goin’ or you’re tryin’ to settle.”

"Yeah, kinda noticed that," she admitted. "Really eats up time, but I guess that might be a good thing, not noticing how much time's gone by. It's sad to think how much has."

“Too much,” Kaylee answered, trying to keep as much bitterness out of her voice as she could. A year and a half in Taxon was a ridiculous amount of time, and thinking about it... Well, it made her want a good-sized drink, for starters.

Jenna looks about as worn out as she sounds. "I could always use a good drink, especially now." Life hasn't been kind to her since she arrived in Taxon. First the whole vampire bombshell and now someone or something's attacked her niece and she has no way to deal with it. Jenna feels helpless, completely helpless, and she does not like this at all.

"I don't think we've talked before, Kaylee. I'm Jenna. It's nice to meet you."

Taxon tends to wear on a lot of people, and Kaylee knows the signs when she sees them. She offers Jenna a tentative smile, set somewhere between support, sympathy, and complete understanding. "Think the drinks're what make this place bearable, more often than not." No telling what that actually says about Taxon, besides the fact that it's driving them all toward a life of alcoholism.

"Don't think we have either. It's nice to meet you, too. Good to get to know our neighbors." Cellmates.

It's more than just Taxon wearing on Jenna right now, but it's definitely not something she can talk about. She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "Whenever you need a partner in drunken crime, just let me know."

Aka, if Kaylee's hitting it up now, Jenna wants in.

"That's an interesting way to put it. How long have you been here?"

Kaylee, luckily, has not had many problems that haven't been Taxon- or hamster-related since she arrived. It doesn't mean she can't understand the other worries that might come along with seeing people from home, though. She's seen plenty of people come through who were apparently newly dead back home.

"Drinkin's no fun if you're doin' it alone," she agrees, doing her best to keep smiling as she answers Jenna's question. "Been here near a year and a half."

"And it tends to lead to some bad things happening," Jenna agrees with a sideways glance at her bed. Experience is the greatest teacher, that's for sure.

"Wow... that's a really long time." For the person who's only seen about a month or two here, that's a really long time.

“Ain’t all bad, though a good portion tend to be.” The glance isn’t missed, but Kaylee is polite enough not to say anything about it. They’ve all been down that particular road once or twice (or more).

The next reply is a little more sober, though. “It is. Longer than I’d’ve imagined possible.”

Jenna's really starting to miss the one man in her life who has actually treated her well, but her mind is on Logan Scumfell at the moment. She shakes her head a little bit and focuses on what Kaylee's saying.

"Hard to imagine that long," she murmurs. "Then again, it was hard to imagine being kidnapped by aliens, but here we are. Hopefully your year and a half hasn't been that bad."

“Hard to imagine a lot of things around here,” Kaylee agrees, not without some bitterness. “Never would’ve expected findin’ myself in Earth’s 1950s, for example, or surrounded by zombie extras, but we’ve certainly had our adventures around here. Can honestly say I’ve experienced more here than I ever would have at home, so I guess there’s learnin’ that comes with bein’ here.” It’s a plus, anyhow.

"And I'm suddenly glad I missed both of those," Jenna answers with a mildly confused and uncertain look. Zombies? Seriously, Taxon? "Well, that's one way to look at it. Though, it's nice to meet someone with a brighter look on things."

Everyone else seems so dour, especially where Elena and Katherine are concerned. At this point, Jenna's starting to wonder if she's going to just have to deal with everyone being upset over something... or bleeding on the floor. That can stop, too.

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"You're a friend of Jayne's?" Rose was certain that she hadn't met any of his friends yet. She had been to Serenity before because he had brought her there a few months ago after they had a drink together.

"I'm sorry that he's gone. I talked to him on a few occasions." And more besides.

She smiles a little. "It's nice to meet you, Kaylee. I'm Rose."

"He's one of my crewmates from home, yeah."

She doesn't recognize Rose, but Jayne was pretty decent at wandering around and getting to know folks where he could. It doesn't surprise her in the least that he hung around a gal as pretty as Rose.

"Nice to meet you too, Rose." Just wishing the circumstances were better.

"Oh, I saw the ship once." She says casually, letting that hang there for a moment. "It was amazing."

Rose had wanted to learn more about what it was like to travel in space but hadn't actually gotten the chance to ask Jayne about it whenever they had a conversation.

"Do you still need the company?"

Rose couldn’t have said anything more supportive if she had tried. Compliment the ship, you compliment the mechanic. “She is somethin’, ain’t she?” Kaylee straightens out a little, and even smiles semi-brightly.

“Certainly wouldn’t mind the company. Really up to you. I know some folks ain’t so keen on drinkin’ with strangers.”

"She really is. I've never seen anything like her before." Rose thought that she never would and now that she had, well, it was pretty amazing for her.

Rose smiles brightly. "Oh no, I'd love the company actually. And you wouldn't really be a stranger if I got to know you, yeah?"

“Nothin’ like her in the ‘verse. Stopped makin’ her model a while back, which’s unfortunate. Not many of ‘em still flyin’.” Kaylee had grown up around the ships, but she had never imagined actually living on one until Mal had come along. Now it was hard to imagine ever living on another ship. Serenity had definitely spoiled her for that.

The mechanic beams back. “Not at all. I’m up on the eighth floor now--drinks aplenty here, ‘less you got a better place in mind?”

"Jayne told me that me he was from the future, so I suppose we have that to look forward back home. All the technological advances." Rose knew that she wouldn't get to see the achievements if she returned home, because she was dead back there. She'd have to make do with what she saw here.

"I can make a trip up to the eighth floor no problem. It wouldn't be any trouble for me coming up there."

“More than just the tech to look forward to. All kinds of planets and stars to explore.” Kaylee laughs. “I guess that kinda goes along with the tech, don’t it?” There are plenty of things that just go hand-in-hand like that.

“Eighth floor it is. Meet you in a few?”