"Are you an android?" Perhaps not the words Alma was first expecting when placing a cup of water into the shaking hands of one Rafe Millburn. The brunette looked up at her and squinted his eyes before unsteadily reaching to the side and slipping his glasses on. He blinked slowly and looked her up and down, Alma crossed her arms and looked unhappily down at him.

"No."

"So, you're..."

"Human? Yes, I'm very much human." She said while turning around in the kitchen. He was one of the first to come shambling in here, literally. He looked like some sort of extra from a bad zombie movie. Just minus the moaning and groaning, though he did keep doing a lot of sighing.

Alma stepped back, he didn't look too good, and she did half fear he was about to either pass out or be sick; either were situations which she didn't want to cope with, and would have to call for David. He was still with the others making sure that they were all coming around okay, by sounds of it a little worse for wear but all were fine. By the gentle coaxing words directed to Elizabeth Shaw, Alma couldn't help but be a little content knowing that she wasn't the lone one who upon waking was immediately sick.

Not that that gave them anything to bond over, because that would be disgusting and weird. She also couldn't help but smile at the gentle words being spoken, she was pleased to see that David had the capacity to be polite; not that she was calling him rude, but with new people he wasn't usually always the best.

"So, you look quite with it."

Alma frowned and looked at Rafe again. "Sorry?"

He laughed and pointed a finger at himself. "In comparison, you look good." She raised an eyebrow, he just smirked and drunk some of his water. Still half comatose from hyper sleep and here he was trying to flirt with her? Alma despaired a little, but couldn't help but chuckle. He gave a good effort, bless.

Alma sighed and raked a hand through her hair. Looking down at her boots and then back up at Rafe, she shook her head. "I've been awake for a while."

He paused in drinking. "How long is a while?"

"Two months."

He had started drinking when she contemplated on her answer, and now he choked. Alma moved quickly forwards and patted him roughly on the back. He spluttered and coughed some more before stopping and looking over his glasses at her. "W-what?"

"Two months. You asked, I answered."

"Why?"

"I almost died in hypersleep."

"So, it's just been you and..."

"David." Alma said as Rafe seemed to trail off already forgetting the poor blonde's name. She shook her head, well that wasn't very good now, was it?

"For two months?" Rafe asked with a raised eyebrow and looked quickly to the door when the others started to slowly file in. They all seemed a bit bleary eyed, dressed in the usual uniform which was onboard and looked around the large kitchen space with wide eyes.

"Yes."

"That must've been...cosy..." Rafe said while turning and putting the cup on the counter behind him. Alma frowned, "Well, he's just..."

"Just?" Alma implored with a frown still on her face. Rafe didn't answer as such, he just waved his hands with a disgruntled expression on his face as he watched as David moved into the room. He sent the pair a perplexed look which transformed into a frown of his own; he didn't exactly like being frowned at by a half awake human. "You think of a suitable answer, and I'm going elsewhere." Alma smiled and pointed away from herself. She did so and shuffled off awkwardly and grabbed an apple from the bowl at the end of the food counter, where by now most were huddled to eat their first meal since waking. It was still utterly gross looking, and most didn't look too fond of it, but it got plated up anyway.

Turning away and throwing it in the air she caught it and rubbed it against her shirt and bit into it slowly. She looked blankly at Meredith as she decided to suddenly stand beside her. Being shorter than the blonde didn't help matters, the ever stern faced woman just looked down at her simply. "It is good to see you are still with us." She said with false niceties.

Alma chewed on the piece of apple slowly and swallowed. "As it is good to see you too." Alma said with a slow nod as she bit back into the apple.

Meredith's blue eyes narrowed, "I'm not the one who almost died."

Alma shrugged. "We could've all died, hypersleep is a dangerous thing. With or without the life support machinery within the chamber itself, it's still-"

"I don't really care." Meredith turned with her hands clasped behind her back and looked down at her. Alma smiled and nodded, she knew that, she just wanted to ramble to annoy the woman. If she was going to be full of false civility to her, sarcastic civility at that, then she was just going to be annoying. "You're just lucky that you had your little android around, or else things really wouldn't have ended well for you."

Alma blinked slowly, "He's here to look out for everyone." She whispered and looked about to make sure no one else was privy to their conversation. Rafe had turned to try and talk to a redhead that Alma had overheard went by the name of Sean Fifield, however the rather angry looking redhead didn't seem pleased to be getting talked to.

Meredith just raised an eyebrow and smirked down at her. "Really," she stated and turned on her heels to exit the room.

"Food and drink is important for when you've just woken up!" Alma called after her, just to be extra annoying. Meredith just glanced over her shoulder at her with a glare as she smiled and bit into her apple.

"That looked eventful."

Alma looked up at David, "Ever the happy bunny is our Miss Vickers, don't you think?" Alma smirked and turned away with a sigh. She didn't care about where Meredith was walking off to, no doubt to her swanky own little apartment within the ship.

"What's with that face?"

"This is my unhappy face, David." Alma said while frowning and pouting slightly. She did look quite the sulking child, David had to admit, but the expression was also oddly endearing.

"I don't like it." He said despite of his opposite feelings of finding it rather cute. He frowned over that though, he couldn't remember thinking of anything else as cute before. She suddenly smiled up at him, David smiled in return. "Much better. May I suggest meeting the rest of the crew?" He gestured a hand to the now quietly eating group before them. His eyes looked over them before narrowing on Rafe. "What was he saying to you?" David turned suddenly and looked at her.

Alma sighed and shook her head. "Nothing of any importance. Don't worry about it, David." Alma patted him on the arm and walked over to pick up talking with Kate Ford, the Scottish woman looked suddenly surprised by having company but didn't dissuade her.

David stood with his arms simply by his sides, only because she said that didn't mean he didn't stand there pondering over the possibilities; he even stood and watched Rafe, the biologist clearly felt eyes on him and turned in his seat only to catch David's unblinking eyes. At that point he just quickly turned back around and continued eating. David smiled and turned on his heels and left the room, he had to go prepare somewhere for them to all meet.

It just so happened that the only place they could really all meet and listen to Peter Weyland's recorded message was a cargo bay. It was fine, slightly dark but efficient. He walked about typing away on a tablet as he listened to the quiet footsteps coming into the room. He was finding the message and preparing for it to play, he looked up and watched everyone take a seat before walking over and taking a seat himself. He sat straight backed and looked ahead as Meredith moved away from her leaning position against the wall.

"Good morning," she started with her hands still clasped behind her back. "For those of you I hired personally, it's nice to see you again. For the rest of you, I am Meredith Vickers, and it's my job to make sure you do yours." She said in a pointed tone, there were a few people shifting in their seats from that, but for the most part no one interrupted her. Glad of this she nodded and looked slowly to David, "Okay then, on with the show." She walked out of the way as David simply pressed a few commands on the tablet in his hand and a hologram slowly but surely built up before them.

The elderly man shuffled awkwardly forwards, dog by his side, stick tapping along the ground. He was hunched over and shaky on his legs, but he stayed standing and looked forwards. It was as if he was literally there in the room with them, but he wasn't. "Hello, friends. My name is Peter Weyland, I am your employer. I am recording this, 22 June, 2091. If you're watching it, you have reached your destination, and I am long dead. May I rest in peace. There's a man sitting with you today, his name is David. He is the closest thing to a son I will ever have, unfortunately, he is not human. He will never grow old and he will never die. And yet he is unable to appreciate these remarkable gifts, for that would require the one thing that David will never have; a soul. I have spent my entire lifetime contemplating the questions; where do we come from? What is our purpose? What happens when you die? And I have finally found two people who have convinced me that they're on the verge of answering it. Doctors Holloway and Shaw, if you would, please stand." The old man went on, with very little pauses if only to cast a look around, evidently hoping his eyes would land on David; David in return remained blank faced as looks were sent his way, some blank, others confused, and one angry if you were Meredith. She never liked being upstaged by a machine, having her father voice as such before a group of people just irked her to no end.

But the concept of a soul, that did cause David to shift a little. He was more than aware that without that he wouldn't be able to fully compete, or relate to people completely. He did a fair job as it was but that...his thoughts trailed off as the hologram shifted and dispersed, and Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway stepped forwards from their seats.

"As far as you're concerned, they're both in charge." The hologram continued. There was more shuffling in seats, but otherwise no one had voiced anything to disagree. Not that disagreeing with a hologram would go very far. "The Titan, Prometheus, wanted to give mankind equal footing with the Gods. For that, he was cast from Olympus. Well, my friends, the time has finally come for his return." There was a pointed finger between the two standing figures. "Doctors, please." They both made their way forwards and stood either side of him. "The floor is yours," he said with a nod and turned. With slow measured steps, he commenced walking away, slowly but surely he faded to nothing and it was like he was not even there.

Charlie Holloway clapped and rubbed his hands together, "Okay. Wow! Alright. Never had to follow a ghost before. Okay. Let me show you why you guys are here." Charlie said, earning a smirk sent up at him by Elizabeth. Evidently in her mind she was concocting some retort which she wasn't going to voice. Rummaging in his pockets, Charlie eventually held up a cube and placed it on the floor. After pushing in a sequence a new set of holographic imagery appeared. "These are images of archaeological digs from over the Earth." He said while gesturing to the images. "That's Egyptian, Mayan, Sumerian, Babylonian. That's Hawaiian at the end there and Mesopotamian. Now this one here is our most recent discovery, it's a thirty-five thousand-year-old cave painting from the Isle of Sky in Scotland. These are ancient civilisations, they were separated by centuries, the shared no contact with one another, and yet..." Charlie trailed off as he lined the holographic images up and flipped through them. "The same pictogram, showing men worshipping giant beings pointing to the stars was discovered at every last one of them. The only system that matched, was so far from Earth, that there's no way that these primitive, ancient civilisations could have possibly known about it. But it just so happens, that system has a sun, a lot like ours. And based on our long-range scans, there seemed to be a planet. Just one planet with the moon, capable of sustaining life, and we arrived there this morning." Charlie finally finished as he looked over the group sitting in front of him.

They had all been silent, yet sceptical. None openly voicing anything until he had evidently finished. Yet despite of the patience and intent listening, it didn't mean that the scepticism didn't remain. The atmosphere in the room was as sceptic and awkward as possible. Even with the evidence shown to them, it seemed that everyone still was in two minds whether to believe what he was saying or not.

"So, you're saying we're here because of a map you two kids found in a cave, is that right?" Sean Fifield seemed to be the one who had enough confidence to speak up and question them outright.

"No." Elizabeth said, speaking up for the first time since standing up and following her partner to the front.

"Yeah. Um..." Charlie couldn't exactly disagree, because that was pretty much what was happening, and what had happened here.

"No. Not a map. An invitation." Elizabeth said with some determined clarity. She stepped forwards and kept her arms behind her back, though she did slowly move them to her sides.

"From whom?" Fifield asked while remaining leaning forwards in his seat. Someone might as well ask the obvious questions, seems no one else was daring to, he continued.

"We call them Engineers."

"Engineers?" Sean sounded even more sceptical yet amused over Elizabeth's naming. "Do you mind um...telling us what they engineered?"

"They engineered us."

"Bullshit!" He looked utterly thrown off by that prospect, yet Elizabeth remained absolute on this. She wholly believed with what she was saying was the truth, and her tone and expression said as much.

"Okay," Rafe Millburn, who was sitting in front of Sean and slightly to the side of Alma looked mildly amused. As a biologist, this sort of thing was right up his alley, though he couldn't help but feel like picking some holes in the reasoning here. "Do you have anything to back that up? I mean, look, if you're willing to discount three centuries of Darwinism, that's...woah!" He said while holding his hands up with false enthusiasm and a grin on his face, though that slowly slipped as he looked around and then back to the two doctors. "But how do you know, hm?"

"I don't. But it's what I choose to believe." Elizabeth said with that same sure tone, it wasn't too soon after that that everyone was dismissed.

"Stoic," Alma frowned and looked up at Rafe, it took her a moment for her mind to recollect.

"That's the word you're using?" Figuring he was still struggling to think of a word to use to describe David, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. "I don't know about that..."

"You're biased, but then you'd have to be if you spent that long with him." Rafe shrugged as she continued onwards down the corridor. She had it in mind to just go and sit somewhere quiet and read until being needed for anything. Rafe seemed to have other ideas.

Alma frowned, "That and I technically made him. Sure, I'm biased."

"Wait, woah, what?!" He stopped and watched as she continued to walk, though she did smile over her shoulder at him. "You failed to mention that!"

"When would I have mentioned this to you, of all people?" Alma rolled her eyes and turned the corner and through a door, slipping into a stool she loaded up the computer and looked to the holoscreens before her.

"So, this whole thing must be blowing your mind, huh?"

"A creator meeting a creator? Yeah, my mind is totally blown." She smirked, Rafe noted her sarcasm and rolled his eyes before slipping into the seat by her side. "It is curious though. I suppose considering your line of work, this is niggling away at your brain too, hm?"

He rubbed a hand across his chin in thought before nodding slowly. Hearing footsteps he turned and looked towards the door, his eyes quickly flitted back to Alma and after excusing himself he moved away and David sat in his place. He looked around mildly confused, even more so when Alma leaned her chin against her hand and looked to him with an amused expression. "What?"

"What did you do?"

"Nothing." David said with a small smile and turned to taking over the controls of the computer.

Alma didn't look bought, she raised an eyebrow at him and glanced quickly at where Rafe had disappeared to. She looked back at David, "The guy sees you coming and moves off. You did something." She pointed a finger at him once she moved away from her hand.

"I'm offended you think I'd do such a thing." David frowned and turned slightly in his seat so to act the part of displeased, Alma still leaned against the table and peeked around him to smile up at him.

"He called you stoic, by the way." Alma whispered, he frowned even more and turned back to look at her.

He looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Am I?"

She scrunched her nose up and shook her head. "Nah, I don't think so. I guess when you get all thoughtful like and space out you might look it. But personally? No."

"What else have you two talked about?" David asked curiously, he turned and leaned an arm against the table and looked at her patiently.

"Are you jealous?" Alma smirked. "Or curious?"

"The latter." David said determinedly, no way was he jealous of her apparent minimal conversations with Rafe Millburn.

"He knows I made you, and that we spent two months together, and that it must've been, and I quote: 'cosy'."

David smirked at that and tilted his head to the side. He looked at the holoscreens with a sidelong look before turning back to them. "I suppose cosy is one word to use."

Alma laughed, even though she probably should've felt a little more taken back that he'd opt to agree with that, and look like he was contemplating over other words to use. "Behave," she pointed a finger at him, which he only smirked about. "Yes, cosy, between me being sick and almost comatose to...well..." Alma trailed off with a far off look in her eyes as she rolled her hand.

"Our more intimate moments." He said lowly, not that anyone else was round them right now to even hear this. But he kept his voice quiet just in case. But any chance to bring these moments up to see Alma's slightly flustered expression was worth it, she fidgeted in her seat and looked quite embarrassed but not fully to the point of looking utterly awkward. "Would that all be classed as cosy?" He smirked and tilted his head in thought.

Alma laughed, "I don't know! Anyway, what are you doing?" She drummed her fingers and looked curiously to the screen as he flicked through programs and saved data.

"Browsing." Alma raised an eyebrow at his choice of word, David smiled down at her. "Thesis hunting. Might as well make it look like we're sitting here doing something, other than idly chatting."

"Aw, but I like idly chatting."

"I know, it is a small pleasure."

"Not saying their thesis is boring..."

"It does take quite a bit of patience to get through."

"Are you saying I'm not patient?"

"Quite the contrary, Miss. You can project moments of patience which I commend you for, but you do have many moments of impulsiveness." David smiled down at her as she pouted thoughtfully over his words. "They're good traits, Alma...they're a part of what makes you, you." He said while eyeing up the front page of the thesis before looking at her and placing his hands in his lap.

Alma smiled and patted him on the arm gently, "Stoic isn't a part of what makes you, you, just so you know."

"Cosy?"

Alma laughed again and hung her head, she ended up leaning her forehead against his shoulder and shook it gently from side to side. When she looked up at him, he was just looking at her with a mildly amused expression, while also attempting to look serious as he waited for her answer. "Like a teddy?"

David turned and looked at her, his legs easily parting to rest either side of hers as she looked up at him with a smile. "I'm not Lawrence."

"You're blonde like him though." She pointed out.

David frowned, "I am not your teddy bear." This if anything caused her to burst out laughing again. "I don't appreciate this, Miss." He said shortly, he didn't quite like jokes at his own expense, even if they were coming from her.

"I am sorry, David, truly I am." She reached up and put her hands on his shoulders. "But you walked into that one." She leaned up and kissed him on the forehead, "Now, I do believe we're about to have company so shall we pretend to look like we're actually reading their thesis and are not just sitting here idly chatting?" She smirked deciding to use his own words.

"I do like idly chatting with you though, Miss." He said while turning and watching as Charlie and Elizabeth walked into the room, along with most of the others. He hadn't got a clue where the others had gone to while himself and the two doctors went to see Meredith, but oh well. He wasn't going to trouble himself over this too much.

"Perhaps we can continue later on?"

"I would like that," David smiled and looked up with the same content expression as Charlie and Elizabeth slowly sat themselves down on the opposite side of the table.

——

(Edited: 2/March/2021)