driftfleet | 002 - Take your protein pills and put your helmet on ; video

Who: Clay Terran and all of YOU!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: SS Vanquish, bridge
When: 6/29, afternoon

[When the video comes on, Clay's looking at it with a big, excited grin on his face that seems to only increase in wattage once he realizes it's on. He sits back on his heels then, arms wrapped around his knees, though they probably won't stay like that for long.]

I haven't been here very long, but I've still met so many people with such cool powers! [And, indeed, he begins to gesture and lean forward as he describes each power.] Super strength, fighting with magic cards, reality bending, and flight! I never even knew those kinds of things were possible outside of comic books and tv shows!

[He rocks back again, arms winding around his knees once more as he seems to calm just a bit.]

So tell me about your powers. What are they like? Is it natural to you, or do you... I don't know, have to call on something in order to make it happen? And for you people who don't have powers, like me, what kind do you wish you had? [And the thought of it just makes him move once more, arms out and gesturing.] If I could have powers, I'd have flight, the ability to breathe anywhere I wanted, and super durability. Or maybe - maybe adaptability? That way I could go into space any time I wanted without getting into a heavy suit!

[... Aaand calm again.] So, yeah. Powers? I really want to know. It's of astronomical importance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, that Jordan! So you moved to the Middle East! Yeah, wow, I can see why you'd need to know Arabic. Not much English is spoken there, huh? [More like not much at all. Clay's done a bit of geography to further his studies, he knows some of this stuff.]

Only in the tourist-y parts. [Most Gulf Coast countries accommodate English speakers way better than Stefan had expected, but he supposed capitalism spoke where languages didn't.] But yeah, I grew up in the US until about a year ago.

Language barrier aside, it wasn't so bad.

What's it like there? I mean, other than the language barrier. The only real culture I've been up close and personal with is - well, you know. LA.

It's a lot more conservative than LA, for starters. [He hums, trying to think of how to answer this question succinctly...] But it was one of the few countries left in good shape after the Invasion, so I can't complain too much.

I figure, you're not from my Earth, because our LA was destroyed by aliens last year. [He figures, he should be upfront about this, since he DID react pretty poorly earlier.] I'm... well, I'm not sure when they'll rebuild it. I'm hoping by the end of the decade.

Awww, no, really? [Not LA! That's pretty much the best place on Earth!] But that's - really?

[It kind of does make sense; if hostile aliens did visit, they'd probably go after the larger cities first, and LA is one of the biggest ones out there.

But... hmm. That does explain his reaction to the aliens thing earlier. Jeez. Now he kind of feels bad about it.]

Sorry, man. I didn't know, but I still should've been more careful.

Really. [Stefan grimaces. Of all the bad news to give this guy too...]

Don't worry about it. How would you know if it didn't happen to your world, right? Just means that somewhere out there, the US's still thriving.

Wait, what year is it for you? [Because WHAT IF IT DOES HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE]

2016. June, if we're being super specific. [Now that he thinks about it, a year might be important.] What about you?

[PHEW. Okay. Clay visibly relaxes at that, because he's past that time and the alien apocalypse is nowhere near happening.]

2027, December. So yeah, definitely different worlds.

[He can't help smiling in return.] Thank God.

Though, wait, 2027? Do we finally have hoverboards, or is that still a distant dream?

We're still working on the possibility! We've got a lot of other cool things, but hoverboards are still beyond our time a little bit. Some people just don't see how society would benefit from those things...

That's depressing. They get all this extra time and still nothing? [Tsk tsk, future California.]

What other cool things, though?

Robots that can actually feel emotions, for one. Realistic holograms, virtual reality... and it's not like we don't have hoverboards at all! There's only a few though, not available to the public, and they can only be used on certain surfaces. They're still testing that one out, so technically, they're still beyond our time.

There's a girl my friend knows who can use her little robot to pick out the subtle emotions in a person's voice, no matter how they try to hide it. It's really cool!

You're kidding. [He's trying to imagine these robots, and he's utterly failing - to him, that is very much "robot overlord" territory.]

So those robots're kind of like living lie detectors, then?

Edited (i meant robots, really) 2015-07-27 04:02 (UTC)

Kind of, yeah! It's mostly used for therapy; you know when a person talks, they might be telling you something, but they're really holding back on you? With that little gadget, you can see the emotions they're really feeling behind it. But that girl uses it to help her while defending her clients in court! That way, if a witness lies, she can tell by seeing if their emotions match with what they're saying. It's pretty cool!

[He never got to meet her yet, and only got her first name at that. But Apollo was excited to be someone's mentor, and so that made Clay excited, and they were due to gossip about it before... well. Everything.]

[Is that legal? The girl uses it in court, so it must be somehow... Stefan's not sure he wants to press further on the issue.

Emotion detectors seem kind of amazing, but right now, he's glad there isn't one on board.] Sure sounds like it. I guess I'll have to wait and see if my world ever develops anything like it.

[A small pause, because he's not sure he should admit this to non-Numbered, but...] Right now, we've got teleporters and... that's kind of it.

[When every single witness is committing perjury, it's vital, man.]

Ooooh, teleporters? Like, Star Trek teleporters here, or some other kind?

[It's like perjury isn't even a major crime....]

Star Trek, I think. [He wasn't a big Trekkie, so he's not certain.] You pushed a button, and it took you where you needed to go. Well, kind of - only certain people had access to it in the first place.

002 - Take your protein pills and put your helmet on ; video

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