001 ★ video

[nextlineis]

Who: Joseph & (God help) you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva, yo!!
When: nao

[For a little while, there is not steady broadcast. It cuts in and out long enough to show a face, a shoulder, ceilings, and maybe a wall or two, obscured by fingers covering parts of the camera. Once a while it's just audio, a few curses or other mutterings cut short. And sometimes, yes. You get incoherent keysmashes likejhdsakfhsdh and jdkl;ffnfffff.]

[Finally, it does turn on and manages to stay on, but its user seems perfectly unaware as,]

Oh, forget it!

[And down, down the communicator goes as its tossed over his shoulder. At least you can tell he's wearing nice boots before he kicks it away for good measure and sends it spinning across the floor.]

Comments

[alwayscomeback]

I guess that all depends on what you're used to, back home. The augments help a little with settling in, but if you're not used to, y'know, space the whole experience is a game of trial and error.

[nextlineis]

Augments?

[This is the first time anyone has mentioned this to him.]

[alwayscomeback]

[Sokka points to his head. ]

The chip just in the back of your head. It's what makes you know all about space, and what job you'll have on the Fleet.

...Uh, but don't touch it, though. Someone did that and it looked like it hurt.

[nextlineis]

[He almost touched it, but stops short when Sokka says not to.]

Someone put something in my head?

[alwayscomeback]

Someone put something in all our heads. And sometimes? They malfunction.

[nextlineis]

[Okay, now he's really horrified.]

Malfunction how?

[alwayscomeback]

[HE SHOULD BE. ]

They change our moods, or our energy levels. Mess with our memories. It can happen at any time with zero warning.

[nextlineis]

You're fucking with me.

[This can't be real life. CANNOT. BE.]

[alwayscomeback]

Sorry, man. It's the truth. We're at their mercy.


For now.

[nextlineis]

Why hasn't anyone done anything about this!?

[alwayscomeback]

We're doing things. It just takes planning. We need to find star charts, a way to cut our ships from the Marsiva, a route back to all our home worlds.

This sort of thing takes planning, we can't just race off against them, they hold all the cards.

[nextlineis]

You know sometimes doing just that gets them to show their hand.

[Joseph's all for having a plan, but sometimes you gotta gamble to get ahead.]

[...Not that he's honestly all that eager to get back to his home specifically anyway. Not when he's taking into account what might happen to Caesar.]

[alwayscomeback]

They say this is the twelth cycle of the Drift Fleet. That means they've done this eleven times before us. I'm pretty sure we can't scare them into showing their hand.

[nextlineis]

I didn't say anything about scaring. Besides, just because 11 rounds of people haven't been able to do it doesn't mean our chances are impossible.

[Improbable? Sure. But Joseph's done a lot with improbable in the past.]

[alwayscomeback]

Trust me, I know. I'm not planning on taking any of this lying down.

[nextlineis]

That's more like it!

[alwayscomeback]

Yeah, Atroma's biggest fan I'm not.