Yeah she's got nothin.

"Alright, I've got the-" He looks at Ellen. "Ah, right, sorry, this all must be very confusing for you." He tries to hand Ellen a glass of water.

She is capable of being sufficiently normal to accept a glass of water. She is going to hold this glass of water like a pro. Drink from it, even. Okay? Okay. Okay.

Wow, she is not okay.

"It, um, yes. Confusing is a good word for it." Does he have an explanation for all this??? She is deeply eager to hear it but on no account is she going to try to ask. That might involve explaining about the bees. No. Not happening.

From the looks of it he lost vision in his left eye, there is some scarring around that side of his head. "Right, right, well, let me introduce myself, my name is Giles Roderick, I'm the captain of this vessel. We do deliveries, exploration and occasional mining. We honestly didn't expect to find a person in the stone. I figure you must have a lot of questions." He takes a sip of water.

"I'm... Ellen. I think. I don't, um, I don't know how I got into the rock. Or anything about where I was before the rock." No, stop! Be normal! ...being normal is a lost cause, isn't it. "I just sort of... woke up... in the rock."

"Ah, that's rough Ellen, sorry. It makes sense given..." He hesitates. "Well, I-"

"Given that-" The lady with the spectacles interjects "-you were in the stone for any length of time between four months to over a thousand years, most likely the latter."

"Maria!" Giles scolds.

"...really?" she says, fascinated and disturbed. "How do you know? What... what was that rock?"

"The rocks are woven by the supplicants down below." She serves herself a glass of water, sipping before continuing. "They've been doing it for over a thousand years, weaving all manner of things inside them. Books, technology, furniture-"

"A box of stamps, bottles of water-" the captain says.

"All manner of random things. The purpose for this practice is largely unknown, as is where they get these things, though the abyss is largely unexplored and unmapped. Why they would weave you into the stone, though... Supplicants aren't in the habit of letting go of life in their grasp."

"Well. I wish I could tell you what happened, but I have no idea." She remembers the glass of water in her hand and takes another sip.

"That's natural, given the time frame. Even in stasis, I would expect memories to degrade. Or perhaps you are just groggy and they'll come back with time." She turns to her captain. "We're done here, shall we move on to the next one?"

The captain nods. "Yes, go ahead."

She nods to Ellen, then leaves the room. "Right," the captain says. "We should figure out what comes next."

"With me, you mean?"

"Yeah, with you. With no memories and no documentation, there's no telling who you are and where you came from. Assuming you are even native to here. So the way I see it you have two choices. The first is that I leave you at port. We'll feed you for the time being and you can sleep in one of the bunks. The other option is that I hire you, pay you and help you get on your feet. Afterwards you can quit whenever you want, leave you wherever strikes your fancy."

"...seems to me the second one's a better deal," she says after a moment's consideration.

"Great, I'll get you a contract, discuss pay, get you settled in. Don't be afraid to ask any questions. I expect you to work, but we'll take it slow, ok?" He smiles.

She smiles back, tentatively. Has she ever smiled before? She isn't sure. It feels weird and unfamiliar but so do most things.

He hands Ellen some papers, and a fountain pen. Eight hour days, 'except in emergencies' her duties would include cleaning, manual labor, and 'whatever the captain deems necessary, within reason'. She will be provided with lodgings, food and water for the length of her employment. She'd be paid in shillings, one hundred of them per week. However much that is.

She reads it through. Twice. She doesn't feel familiar with how much a shilling is worth, but a hundred of them still seems like a lot? Eight-hour days feel like a normal and reasonable amount of work in a day. 'Whatever the captain deems necessary, within reason' seems like it could be either totally normal or very ominous. Thanks, sourceless intuitions about how the world works, your assessments are so clear and informative and helpful.

Her alternative is being dropped off at the next port with no money and no idea how to navigate the world around her. She signs her name, possibly for the first time.

He scoops up the contract, glances at the signature. "Alright lass, lemme show you around." He gets up, gestures for Ellen to follow.

She finishes her glass of water and doesn't know what to do with the glass and just sort of keeps holding onto it as she follows.

The lamplight fails to make its way into the pipework lining the corridors, the captain leads his new crewmate through the patchwork of darkness until the two of them find themselves in a room lined with bunk beds. "Here are the sleeping quarters." He points to a top bunk. "This one's empty."

She nods, looking up at it. It's certainly a place to sleep. She has the feeling that she's used to sleeping in places with... walls... between her and other people... but it's not like she's in much of a position to demand better. She can deal with this. If she doesn't deal with this it'll be a big problem, so she had better deal with this. She will deal with this.

"Thanks," she says, feeling vaguely like it's the wrong thing to say but unable to come up with anything better.

"Right, so, lemme show you the rest of the ship real quick." He leads Ellen away. Through more cramped corridors they find themselves at what seems to be the front of the ship. A wide, curved pane of glass reveals the outside, behind it are two seats surrounded by a series of buttons, dials, wheels and levers manned by two crew members. "And these are our helmsmen, Edmund Graves and Carol Williams. This is our new recruit, Ellen." The turn around. "Ah, the rock girl, hello!" Carol says.

"Rock girl. That's me, all right," she agrees, attempting a smile. Is she succeeding? Only time will tell.

"Sir," Edmund says. "we've got something on the horizon." He points towards somewhere in the distance ahead, something long dips in from the ceiling, traces a lazy circle in the air, then returns to the ceiling.

At this distance it is hard to make out, but it might be the same serpent-like creature Ellen spotted earlier.

"Tch, just give it a wide berth for now." The captain says. "If it doesn't come after us we'll try approaching, see if we can't harvest that stone in peace."

"What is that?" she asks, fascinated.