driftfleet | one ○ video / action

Who: Caesar Zeppeli and your face
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: Friday and Saturday before the shuffle!

[All things told, Caesar does not spend a lot of time on introspection when he arrives on the Marsiva. He takes a few moments to look at the stars - astonishingly bright and close, almost frighteningly so, when you're used to cities, or being too busy to look up and see the space that God made - and then looks away. For fear of being overwhelmed, maybe, or because he has other things to do.]

[Though he can't begin to imagine what they are. What do you do after you've died?]

[When he figures out how to access the network, he doesn't hesitate at all. Hesitating means thinking, and if he thinks too much about this his voice will come out weak, lost, confused. He is a Zeppeli; that would be unforgivable.]

[So it comes out strong, full, his syllables well-rounded and imbued with good humor.]

Buongiorno, all, I - seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere around Mars. I don't suppose anyone has a map?

[He chuckles briefly, then sombers. There's information in his head that he doesn't know the source of, but he can guess.]

There are many people trapped here. I know that much already. I know what is happening. What I don't understand is why.

[Or what is to be done about it. (Although where would he go, if he wasn't here?)]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They could. But people are stronger when they do something they love. Or feel passionate about, anyway.

I guess that's true.

Do you fight with a weapon?

I do. It's called Ripple.

[It's his ninja way.]

Do you?

Oh, you named it and everything?

I can, if I need to. I'm a battlefield medic more than anything, so I do more healing than, you know, stabbing.

[ Not entirely the truth, but it's what everyone gets until she knows she can trust them ]

Edited 2015-07-16 00:18 (UTC)

I didn't name it. It's been around since long before I was born.

[There's an undercurrent of fierce pride in this, if she listens for it. A brief smile, then.]

Healing's just as important.

Oh, does that mean you inherited it, then? And why "Ripple"?

[ She's nosy, sorry Caesar. Brightly: ]

I'd like to think so, anyways! Luckily, there hasn't been much of an opportunity to use those types of skills here.

[He doesn't mind nosy. This is something that's easy to talk about, much easier than being trapped on a spaceship in front of an audience of theoretically adoring fans.]

Exactly. From my grandfather. It uses waves of solar energy. Ripples, see?

Not much, or none? [There's a big difference.]

Solar energy ... huh! I don't think I've heard of that one before. You'll have to show me sometime.

[ Ino, that's not polite, you should ask nicely. ]

I wish it could be none, but we were attacked by some enemy ships a couple of months ago. Nobody was that badly hurt, though, just a couple of concussions and a few scrapes and bruises.

Only if you show me yours.

[This is a big fat lie. He will show off to anyone and everyone, all the time.]

Has that ever happened before? [Because he will totally shoot bubbles at some aliens.]

[ She laughs, mostly because that sounds a bit questionable ... ]

The healing? Or the weapons?

And no, that was the first time. Honestly I'm surprised it took so long, but the rest of the time has been fairly smooth sailing.

Either. Both. [He's not picky.]

Only once is very lucky.

[ She looks down, pulling off a glove from her hand as she speaks ]

Well, the show can't exactly go on if the stars are dead, so I guess it makes sense they'd keep it infrequent.

[ Anyways, Caesar isn't the only one who's keen to show off! So she'll lift the hand to her mouth now and bite down on her thumb until it bleeds. She'll holod it up for him to see, before she rubs it against her index finger briefly. There's a soft green glow around her hand, and then her thumb is as pristine as it was before she bit it ]

Ta-da~!

[Oh, are they doing this right now? He is totally okay with this. He leans in towards the camera a little bit to see what she's doing better. He can't quite figure out how it works, but then, if it were simple he wouldn't be impressed.]

That's good. We could have used one of you back home. How does it work?

[ Hey, she's pretty sure he's hard up for entertainment over there, so ... ]

Do you know anything about cells? That'll make explaining much easier.

[He nods.]

I'll try to follow you.

Well, the cells our bodies are made up of produce energy constantly, right? So, where I come from, you can learn to channel that energy to do different things with it. In the case of healing, I can use my flow of energy to control and speed up the regrowth of someone else's -- or my own -- cells.

[It's not such a different principle after all - control of an energy resource.]

Clever. Makes sense.

[He also figures you can use this offensively if you're smart, which he's already determined Ino is.]

Is yours inherited, too?

The knowledge of how to do it is, I guess. My family has been doing this sort of thing for generations; now I'm the head of the family. But there are plenty of other people who use the same type of energy for other things.

So it's the technique that's passed down, not the ability.

[He likes the sound of this, too. It's soothingly traditional.]

Want to see mine? Fair's fair.

That's right. There are certain abilities that genetically come easier to certain families, but healing isn't one of them.

[ She puts her chin in her palm ]

I did say I wanted to see, didn't I?

[He smirks and holds his hand up, palm facing towards her. A spark of light begins at the very center of his lifeline, grows into a small sphere. Then, before it can wink out, he shoots a stream of bubbles out of his glove, angling away from the camera and down the hall at the last second.]

[There's a muffled curse, then some loud stomping. Caesar contrives to look innocent.]