driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Robin
Broadcast: Video!
Action: None!
When: Now!

---

[hey, it's Robin. he's lounging around in his captain's chair, feet up on the control panel. he's twirling something around in his fingers--it looks kind of like a glow stick? it's a glass cylinder filled with some sort of glowing, red liquid.]

Back in those casino stations, I won one of these.

[he stops twirling the cylinder. when he holds it up closer to the camera, you can see that it's capped with silver on one end. the insides seem to be bubbling a little, as if the liquid is carbonated.]

This is a Luxilizer... though most people below the surface just called them Dummy Sticks, as in, you were an idiot if you walked around the lower levels without them. They're filled with a liquid extracted from a luminescent fungus that grows in the caves of my hometown.

[he twirls it again. Robin himself doesn't seem particularly delighted about the thing, he's just casually explaining, perhaps out of boredom.]

They were originally designed as a backup light source, in case a person got lost in the tunnels. It also makes it easier for others to see them. It can get pretty dangerous down there, in the dark...

[after a pause, he grips the glowing tube and smiles at the camera.]

It's funny to me. No one where I'm from would give these a second thought, but I've learned that underground cities are not a familiar concept in most worlds.

---

[PRIVATE TO JASON | TOTALLY HACKABLE, HE AIN'T NO COMMS OFFICER]

Hey, remember me? [waving from his side of the video feed.] Mr. Mean Everything?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, I guess it's kinda like I said. Anything can be "normal", given time and the right circumstances. It's not so different from the last place I was.

Or the last place I was, I suppose. [they do seem to talk about this kind of thing a lot, don't they? hrm.] I bet you've had this conversation a dozen times already.

[ A little laugh ]

Not really, actually. I don't like to talk about it too much. But it's easier with people who've been through that sort of thing, like you, or the other people from Paradisa.

[he thinks about this for a moment. he fidgets with the cylinder hanging around his neck... then stills. a beat later, very plainly:]

If you ever happen to find yourself in a spiraling cycle of depression and frustration over the situation, come talk to me. All right?

[ She blinks ...

And then she laughs, mostly out of surprise ]

--Uh? Sure, I guess ... What brought that on?

[what did bring that on? he smiles pleasantly in return.]

A couple of things. You're not worrying me, I promise... I just wanted to make it a plain statement, in case you ever feel you could use it.

In that case, I feel like it's only fair to warn you that my spirals of depression and frustration generally involve breaking furniture and punching holes through the wall.

[ She says it like it's a joke, but it's ... it's really not a joke ... ]

Have you ever thrown a vase at something? Like a big, expensive vase? It's so satisfying.

[he probably should have bothered phrasing this like a joke, but he did not.]

[ Pffft. ]

It's right up there with snapping a tree in half. Less splinters with the vase, though.

Like a small tree? Or a big tree?

Well, the bigger the better, right?

[his eyes widen--and he cackles gleefully.]

I'm in! I'm there.

[ His cackling kinda makes her laugh a little, too ]

Problem is, where to find a tree?

Oh, damn it. [he is clearly mostly looking annoyed for the sake of comedy.] Why didn't we have this conversation back on the planet covered in trees.

[ She shrugs, still grinning ]

Hindsight is 20/20.

Also, those trees were the kind that, like, ate people.

My trees ate people. [...] I mean, the ones back home. And you could still kick those down.

Really? Was it like that, where the whole forest gangs up on you?

No, I meant that the trees literally eat people. They don't move very fast, but they've been known to trip up travelers and then slowly drag their bodies down into the root system.

[he pauses... thinking...] I mean, there are also monsters that will gang up on you, or tribesman who will kill you and use your blood for ancient magic rituals. [...] People don't go into the forest much, where I'm from.

[ She winces a bit ]

I can't imagine why. Seems totally safe.

It was a little strange to wind up in a world where the trees just... stand there.

[...he clicks his tongue.]

Anyway, kicking trees down. We managed.

[ There's something about that last line that just makes him sound so old to her, so she teases: ]

Kids these days have it easy, I guess.

Edited 2015-06-26 18:37 (UTC)

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