[ action, video ] three of diamonds

[touchofrogue]

[August 9th. Rogue’s birthday. This year, like practically every other year since her powers had awoken, Rogue had the same plan: Tell no one. She will celebrate - or she would try to - without any reason given. It was so much easier that way.

She applies the dark red lipstick that traveled with her, and does her best to dress up as well as she could with what she has bartered for, and spends an inordinate amount of time on her hair.]

Okay, Drift Fleet. Talk to me. Who’s got some spare coffee they’re willin’ to barter for?


[After - hopefully, oh please, yes - attaining her birthday wish, Rogue sets about to basically make the rest of the day as enjoyable for herself as she can. She borrows a shuttle and goes flying for the joy of it. Sure, it can’t go very fast or very far, but she is in space. There’s some joy to be found just in being there. And hey, she heard shuttles can even go under water. That’s got to be amazing, Today’s as good a day as any to check that out.

She’s not necessarily looking for company here, but she might not say no? Later on in the day, though, she will be looking for company. Usually she spends at least part of the day working, but not today. Today is all about browsing, eating, and oh man, if she finds a place that plays music she might not move from there until dark. Feel free to accost!]

Later that night
[Late that night, Rogue can’t sleep. The echos aren’t in her mind right now, they aren’t psyches, they’re memories. They’re the people that she misses so much her bones ache. She decides to follow up on her own advice and goes for a run by the beach. It's not enough, so she starts a more rigorous exercise routine, dropping down to begin with push-ups and carrying through to shadowboxing. Will she manage to complete her routine all alone?

Whether or not she gets through that uninterrupted, when she’s finished she goes to the journals… no. journals were in Luceti. In Drift Fleet, she goes to the comms. This transition was harder than she thought, but she hoped one thing would hold true: that she wouldn't be the only one up and zero dark thirty.]

So. Augments. Upgrades. What are the ones ya feel are most worthwhile? Where do ya pour your resources into on your ship? Are ya happy bein' a pilot, an engineer, or whatever? [A security officer. Just say what you're thinking, Rogue, gosh.] If you could pick any one of them, what would you pick?

Comments

[alwayscomeback]

Bunks and kitchen are a big help. You get your own room and better space with the former, and better food with the latter.

[He can absolutely live with this. ]

And yep, I'm pretty sure we have them all right now. Except the ones that can just keep being upgraded forever, like crew capacity and shuttles.

[touchofrogue]

We already purchased a kitchen upgrade. It's been a help, though I think most of us are tryin' to eat planetside. With two cooks, we both kinda wanted the room...

[Pause a beat.]

What about security? Shielding. Things like that?

[alwayscomeback]

Planetside is good while you can get it, and I try to get a lot of fresh food to take aboard while we're moving through space. I've made some little freezers for storing meat and whatever, if you guys could use one, I can whip one up in no time. Sometimes we're in space for a while, or the planet we hit has no real food.

You get shields if you have an engineer aboard, and guns and what have you if you have a security officer. Far as I know, you can't get those things without someone with that augment on board. Sucks, I know. For ages, we were stuck on autopilot, because we didn't have an actual pilot. Which, when you're trying to dodge stuff, let me tell ya, kinda sucks a lot.

[touchofrogue]

[Oooh, a little freezer! Rogue is not one to say no to a thing like that.] If you ain't too busy, I'd love ta get my hands on somethin' like that before we take off. You need anythin' in trade for it? [Because she will totally take gifts, but she is not at the point yet where her pride is demolished enough for charity.]

[This information about shields = engineer and guns = security officer is fascinating.] So... huh. [Pause. Rethink.] What kinda stuff do we run into out here that we have to dodge?

[Just... thinking. What is most necessary? What is needed?]

[alwayscomeback]

Nah, not at all. We're here to help each other. Teamwork and all that.

We've had a couple attacks from these other spaceships? They just come out of nowhere and attack us for no apparent reason. They've done it twice, now. Wouldn't be surprised if they'll do it again.

[touchofrogue]

[Sokka gets a warm, brief smile for that.] Thanks.

[That's a lot to consider.] So... if you couldn't dodge, what did you do?

[alwayscomeback]

No problem. I'll get one all fixed up for you.

You pretty much just continued following the Marsiva and just hoped your shields held up. The guys without an engineer or a security officer had a pretty darn beaten up ship by the end of it, and that was with the rest of us helping them out.

[touchofrogue]

[Oh man, that sounds... so not good.]

So... [Her brow furrows as she tries to sort through that information, and what she feels is her responsibility.] ...if there was one augment you'd say is an absolute must have, what would it be?

[alwayscomeback]

I'd toot my own trumpet and say engineer, but honestly? Medical. I know nothing serious has happened, but I'd rather us have a lot of people around able to help anyone who got hurt than not. My first mate is medical, and he's been running a blood drive. Stuff like that's important.

[touchofrogue]

[That... is a really good point. And the Vanquish does not have a medical officer that Rogue knows of. But. Rogue does not consider herself fit for that sort of position. It would involve a lot of being around other people's skin and being responsible for other people's lives and... no.]

...I reckon you'd get all the medical know-how downloaded into your brain with that augment, just like anythin' else?

[alwayscomeback]

Pretty sure you would, yeah. But there's nothing stopping someone from learning from someone with the augment? I mean, I've taught a little engineering to my crewmates, so it's possible to learn the basics, at least.

[touchofrogue]

Our ship doesn't even have basic medical supplies...

[She makes a note to pick some up while down on the planet. She's been working hard in the mornings to late afternoons, and has established a pretty good barter report with a good section of the market. Mostly, she's been looking at foodstuffs, cloths, and odds and ends... she feels like an idiot for not having thought of medical supplies yet.]

Does that come with an augment too?

[alwayscomeback]

It does. It's...pretty weird. It's like the rooms that are associated with that augment don't even exist, and then suddenly, they appear when someone with that augment is put on the ship.

When I removed some wall panels a while back, I found wiring that goes somewhere I can't trace, and mechanisms that don't seem to be doing anything. So I guess the ships are hard wired to adapt to the crew they get.

[He STILL hates that he has no idea what the hell some of the things on his ship do. He likes to think he knows the Blue Fish inside and out, yet there is always this big question mark. ]

[touchofrogue]

[That... hmm. She hadn't even thought about it, actually. Due to Luceti, she's just so used to shifting...]

So... ya think that's some kind of technological thing? Like, normal tech, not world-bendin' kinda thing, but wires and chemicals an' whatnot?

[alwayscomeback]

Maybe? Or maybe it's a mix of tech and magic? Whatever it is, I can't make any sense of it with my augment, which makes me think they did that on purpose. Things they don't want us to know, you know? Smoke and mirrors.

[touchofrogue]

Well, yeah. [That does make sense.] If we knew how to expand our own ship, then we wouldn't have ta be so worried about providin' them with their ratings.

[alwayscomeback]

And that would mean we wouldn't have to stick around them. We could figure a way to cut free from the Marsvia and get away from them for good.

[Sokka's thought this through.]

[touchofrogue]

You think it's the same sort tech? The kind that's keepin' us tethered as the kind that expands the ship?

[alwayscomeback]

If not exactly the same, I'd say it'd have its roots in the same place. Something we can work backwards from.

[touchofrogue]

[He is reminding her so much of someone else. Someones else. Engineers. Mathematicians. Heh.]

Better'n what we got now, anyway. [She thinks about it for a moment more.] You think there's any way that the augment's blocking what ya can figure out?

[She is so suspicious of things put in her BRAIN.]

[alwayscomeback]

I wouldn't be surprised. They can influence what the augments do to us, so it's not a wide stretch to think they can do more with them.

[He does not sound happy about that, at all. ]

[touchofrogue]

[A heavy sigh.]

I hate it when they have stuff in our head.

[And she really, really did.]

[alwayscomeback]

[He gives an annoyed scoff. ]

Tell me about it. It's really creepy.

[touchofrogue]

[She sighs a little.]

Makes me kinda wonder if I even should change it.

[alwayscomeback]

Kind of depends on how much you want them to play with your head. Then again, they're already playing with our heads all the time, so maybe it doesn't actually make a bit of difference.