driftfleet | [ Video, Action ] Deuce of Clubs

Who: Rogue and you! Yes, you.
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: Saturday afternoon

[A is for Unintentional Broadcasting (or action, if anyone's there)]
[When Rogue wakes on the Marvisa, the video picks up on her suddenly convulsing. It has been months since she has experienced her powers in full, and her mind is thrown into sudden, loud, throbbing pain. She is surprised that the internal chaos is not as bad as it has been, and after a moment she realizes why: she only has three psyches left, and they are all more or less friendly. After taking a few moments to settle down, Rogue sits up. She is woozy, distracted and disoriented. She goes to stand and overbalances, the missing appendages on her back throwing her off enough that she trips on a sheet and falls gracelessly to the floor.]

Oh for the love of -[she can hardly believe it, she reaches to her back to confirm: her wings are gone.]- what in the Sam Hill--

[At this point, the Network decides that further following Rogue Walking Around to Get her Bearings will be boring, and shifts to something else. Later, she comes back to the communicator not only to answer any return comments that her embarrassing swan dive might have drawn, but to address the fleet as a whole.]

[B is for Delibrate Broadcasting]
[While the communicators aren't set up like Luceti journals, Rogue gets the general idea. She sends out a video post.]

Uh - hi. My name's Rogue, an' I guess I'd like ta speak to the Welcoming Committee. I'm hopin' to get a little bit more than the 'Lost in Space' vibe up here. Speakin' of... anyone have any idea how to turn this music off? I swear it's killin' brain cells.

[A pause. Her gaze shifts downward, and she seems to be bracing herself before she looks back up and addresses the camera with a small smile and a wry, if slightly hopeful light in her eyes.]

Guess I should throw some names out there, just to see if anythin' will stick. Anyone ever hear of... a group called X-Men, say? [A gloved hand reaches up to wrap around a deep green crystal pendent hanging from her neck.] Or a place called 'Luceti'?

[Another awkward pause. She's got a LOT OF EMOTIONS right now, okay, and she's not sure what else to say or do. She kind of hates throwing her hopes out to space like this, but what other choice did she have, really? She gives the camera another quick, small smile.]

Thanks.

[Rogue stretched. She was standing on a narrow railing in the Hospitality Deck - just standing. She hadn’t tried walking yet. She was still not used to this strange feeling of being without her wings. Her balance was off when she moved, when she stood… it would take her a few days to get used to it, maybe longer. She’d get used to it, though. If there was one thing all her experiences had taught her, it was that you could adapt to anything.

Her wings. Her wings were gone. She'd been left with two narrow scars running a lurid red down her back. She could access Logan and heal them, easy, she thought. But right now they were a physical reminder that she hadn't lost her mind completely. She could use that. She felt… oddly adrift (ha ha, and she couldn’t even blame Kurt for that). Even when she’d come into Luceti, Kurt and Kitty had been there. She didn't know what to do. She was alone and afraid... and already lonely.

She took her first step forward and wobbled, much to her frustration, and then another step. She didn’t fall - not yet - but it would be all right if she did. Rogue knew how to fall. She’d just take it one step at a time.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He heaves out a sigh. ]

No, nothing. And nobody else on the Fleet has, either, despite the countless worlds that are represented here.

[Aw, discouragement. Now she feels bad.]

Bright side? Least this universe has stars. Maybe at best we can... keep track of where we're goin', or something.

That's what I'm hoping for. There's only so much inhabited space we can fly through before something starts to match up with the map. It's just trying to be patient while they laugh and joke about what they put us through.

[She pauses a moment.]

Just what kinda things do they put us through?

Well, usually it's just planets with wacky hi-jinks, but last month? We found this ship fulled with these bug-aliens that attacked us. Turned out they were infected by a fungus which made them crazy. They had to be killed, and now we're on a planet where the bug race live.

Atroma think it's all so gripping.

[...well, this just got even more serious. Rogue tries to remember if the Sokka she vaguely knew in Luceti had the deep fundamental anti-killing issues that others like Robin or Vash possessed. Then she realized that comparing the two wouldn't work, so... crap.

Well, since she didn't know what to say, she could listen. Rogue was very good at listening without judging.]

That sounds terrible. Did, uh, everyone here make it out okay?

Yeah, my crew are pretty together. I was...uh in cryosleep for most of it. That's how Atroma send you home or update your brain or whatever it is they do to make you suddenly know a ton more of life back home than you did before.

But my first mate is really great, he made sure we all got through it ok.

[And cemented Sokka's choice forever.]

[She thinks about that for a moment.]

I'm glad ta hear your crew's okay. [He's a captain, then. Huh.] Who's your first mate?

Me too. They're a great gang, I'm proud of them.

[And he really is. The Blue Fish has become one of the best functioning ships in the Fleet, and he knows his crew played no small part in that.]

His name's Allen Walker.

[Rogue tilts her head slightly. There is something vaguely familiar about that name, but she can't place it.]

'bout how long have you been here, Sokka?

Uh... about ten months now, I think. Maybe a little less. I came a couple of weeks into everyone being brought in for the first time.

[...aah, now he sounds sad. Shoot.]

So, you've been here from almost the beginning? ...I know it might not seem like it, but that's actually kinda great. It sounds like you've been keepin' sharp notes too. That's the kinda stuff that can really pay off.

[After all, in Luceti it had taken... years. And some time travel. But they were finally so close to leaving, it had practically happened before she wound up here.]

I really hope it does. If I can get the people who want to go home- home, then all that work will be for something. Heck, I'd even take a tiny little answer to anything right now.

[He's the plan guy, and he can't plan against something that changes month by month with zero inclination of what they'll soon face. It's frustrating.]

[Rogue... doesn't really know what to say to that. She'd pretty much given up, in Luceti. She had most everything she loved there, and far fewer of the things she'd feared. Now she had to wonder, of course, what happened to time? If she managed to find her way to Earth from here, would she be too late to fight against Apocalypse? In Luceti, it could take lifetimes, and no time at home would stop at all. This was completely different, and she had a responsibility... darnit.

Quietly:] Answer to what kinda things, Sokka?

[Maybe she can skip asking him some of her questions if she hears some of his.]

[Hope is the one thing Sokka is clinging to, with no small amount of desperation. He clings to it like a drowning man does to flotsam. He knows the likelihood of getting home is slim, he knows too many people from too similar situations ot think otherwise. And yet, he still hopes. ]

Anything. But the big one is why. Why all this. Why take people from other worlds, smash them together in ships and fly them across space? Just for entertainment? Surely there's gotta be easier ways of doing that.

[Rogue has a number of extremely pessimistic answers to that question. However, as always, 'why' is a great question.]

Easier, maybe. Sometimes people just do things 'cause they can. [A shrug.] Sometimes they have better reasons. No way of knowin' until we know, I guess.

[Sokka thinks about the hell the Fire Nation put them through, of the messes that cropped up after peace was finally obtained. "Because they can" is a regular excuse that crops up. ]

And the way things are going? Atroma aren't going to share any time soon.

Yeah, they don't seem the real sharin' type. [She shrugs.] Just gotta deal with what we've got until then.

[And at least Rogue has a better sense of the way things stand here.]

That's pretty much the plan, yeah. Try to not let them get at you, either.

[...and that seemed like the end of the conversation to her! She nodded at the communicator thingy.]

'do my best.

[ Video, Action ] Deuce of Clubs

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