5. [video]

[pompous_today]

Who: Simon Tam and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: N/A
When: August 13th

I have a rather strange question. Twice now, people have arrived here who look nearly identical to people I knew back home- and yet, they are clearly not those people. They are close in looks, but in personality... not so much.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it just something I should chalk up to alternate universes and time travel? It's rather unsettling, to tell the truth...

Comments

[iamawaited]

There's someone on my ship like that. Looks like-- like someone from back home.

[Not actually in the way Simon means. He has yet to see anyone truly identical. It's uncanny how close Syeira and Capable are, though.]

[pompous_today]

It's very strange to experience, isn't it? They seem like perfectly-nice people, just... not my people, if that makes sense.

[iamawaited]

It's not the same.

Threw me real good for a minute, though.

[pompous_today]

Agreed. Hearing the same voice, seeing the same face... but realizing as soon as they talk that it's not them. I actually work closely with one of them, so I am starting to get used to it, but I think I will still be startled every now and then.

[iamawaited]

Were you...

Was the other person important?

[pompous_today]

Yes. My colleague bears a very striking resemblance to my girlfriend, to be specific.

[iamawaited]

[That word isn't lost to Nux's world, but it's definitely uncommon -- especially among War Boys who rarely so much as see anyone that isn't also a War Boy. He blinks, then nods, scarred lips pursing in thought.]

Mine was, too. Important.

[Was Capable a girlfriend? He's not sure how to qualify that.]

[pompous_today]

I have to wonder, then, if it is chance or Atroma deliberately bringing them here.

[iamawaited]

Why would it want to make us homesick?

[Because Syeira seems perfectly nice and everything, but he misses Capable every time he looks over and realizes it's not her red hair in the corner of his eye.]

[pompous_today]

Ratings. What other reason?

[iamawaited]

Ratings?

[pompous_today]

For the television show we are a part of. Whoever our audience is, they seem to get enjoyment out of watching us, both in good and bad times.

[iamawaited]

[He takes a moment to parse all this. He knows show, sort of, although no one's really explained it all that well. He has a dim understanding that people are watching him from out in all that space somewhere. The economics of it takes him a little longer.]

And they... give ratings.

[pompous_today]

Yes- it's an incentive to keep the show going. The more people watch, the better the ratings, and thus Atroma has an incentive to keep observing us.

[iamawaited]

Do they give us the ratings?

[pompous_today]

No- ratings, in this sense, refer to the amount of people who watch the show any given week. Although we are given ratings, in a sense, when the audience sends us gifts or money to show that they like what they see of us.

[iamawaited]

[Economy remains a little nebulous -- ratings, currency -- but gifts he understands. Or trade, really, isn't it? They do things people like and get things? That's just barter.

And he likes getting things, so he brightens up a little, grinning.]

Could do with some of that. Need to do up my rig.

[pompous_today]

Well, if the audience likes you enough, you may well be able to. Or we might end up on a planet where you can get just what you need- or gamble for it, as was the case a few months ago.

[iamawaited]

What kinds of things do they like?

[pompous_today]

It's hard to say, to be honest. I don't think I am all that interesting, but I suppose some of the members of the audience find me physically attractive, as they have sent me gifts before. ... mostly wishing I would grow a beard.

[iamawaited]

A beard?

[He pulls a face.]

Those are for strays and Wastelanders.

[pompous_today]

Personally, as a doctor I just prefer to stay clean-shaven. It's more sanitary that way, and I feel like it looks neater.

[iamawaited]

Oh-- you're the doctor?

[People keep telling him it's not Organic Mechanic here, it's doctor, and everyone keeps mentioning it, but he has yet to actually come up against one until now. Coil, sort of, but Coil's... different. This is the first he's met anyone to call himself a doctor.]

[pompous_today]

I am- one of several in the Fleet, in fact. I live on the Bloodsport if you ever have need of my services.

[iamawaited]

[Nux shakes his head quickly. From the scars displayed all across his face, he maybe could have used one sooner... on the other hand, they're very precise and neatly healed, so maybe he knows what he's doing well enough.]

I'm fine.