driftfleet | first photo | action + video

Entry tags:

first photo | action + video

Who: Shawn Hunter and YOU!!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: SS Golden
When: September 19, evening

[As weird as Shawn's world was, it was never this weird. Instead of waking up in his apartment, where he should be, he's in some giant ship - and none of it feels real. This can't be real life. It just can't.

He's not on the giant ship for long, though: he finds himself beamed (like space sci-fi beamed??) onto a new place, with confetti and chocolate pudding that looks kinda suspect - but he'll eat it, food is food. Still blowing the confetti out of his face, he'll wander around, taking photos along the way. Every single one's uploaded to the Fleet, and well- there's gonna be an abundance of artsy photos, from various places on the Marsiva to the stations around the SS Golden. (People are optional.)

About an hour after the last one, Shawn's settled in the kitchen and he's fiddled enough with the comm device to realize that he goofed. Big-time. So when the feed clicks on, he looks more apologetic than usual.]

Look, I don't know how I got here - and normally? I'd be kinda down with living in outer space and being on some reality show. Problem is, I'm about to go to college, and I worked too hard to throw all of that away for... whatever this is.

[Making a face, though he's not quite aware of it:] Since I'm stuck here until God-knows-when, is there any way I can call home? Or figure out if anyone else I know's along for the ride? Thanks, uh, and sorry about all the photos earlier. I'm still kinda new to this thing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wow, we need an actual newbie help guide or something. They're the guys running this show. The people who kidnap us from our homes, throw augments into our heads and dump us into crazy space shenanigans.

[He gives a shrug. ]

None of us have seen them, though. We just hear some of their cronies every couple weeks or so, and they never respond to anything we ask them.

[In other words, he has successfully landed in the middle of a sci-fi reality show. Once it hits him that this is real, and not some weird food-induced dream, he'll panic - but right now, he nods as if this were normal.]

Nah, I would've read half of it and then wondered why I didn't know stuff.

[At the mention of an augment, he reaches for the back of his neck, trying to feel for it...] So okay, if we're on a reality show, do we get paid? And uh, do our augments actually work?

Mine keeps telling me I'm an engineer, and lemme tell you. Building things? Not even remotely in my court.

And it wouldn't help with the big question, which is pretty much 'why me', right?

[Sokka nods.] Yeah, we get ratings? The more entertaining we are, the more credits we get. And sometimes we get sponsors? But most of that is super useless stuff.

[Aw, that gets a smile. ] Same as me. I knew a lot about buildign things back home, but-um- nothing like this. My world is way, way down on the technology ladder. But the augment makes it all make sense. Should work the same for you.

[Oh. Right/] I'm Sokka. I'm the Captain on the Blue Fish.

Hey, don't knock the free junk - you can always make something useful out of it. [If he doesn't have to pay for it, he will take it, no matter what it is.]

Good to meet you, Sokka. Thanks for the advice - I'm Shawn, Shawn Hunter. Looks like they've put me on the Golden. [He'd hold his hand out, but this is a video feed, so he... awkwardly rubs the back of his neck.]

See, that's the thing: I didn't even build stuff back home. Even when I worked on cars, my Uncle Mike did most of the work. If my augment's got the know-how, though, I think I should be okay.

You can make something useful out of beard shampoo when you don't have a beard? 'Cause that's what one guy got.

Great to meetcha.

Yeah, you should be fine. My best buddy hasn't flown a thing in her life, but she's our pilot. The augment does a lot of work.

Is it any different from regular shampoo? [Genuine question here!] Cause uh, I'd still use it.

[He sighs of relief, slumping a little in his seat.] Oh thank God. If I know one thing about outer space, your engine is your life - and man, being responsible for so many people's a bit nerve-wracking. I don't know how you Captain folks do it.

You know, I never thought of asking the guy who got them. Maybe it works just fine, and now his hair is especially manly.

Well, I lead a group around a while back home, and part of a war effort. I'm used to looking out for other people. It's not so bad, once you get used to it. The engine thing isn't, either.

Though you should know, if you remove any wall panels, you're gonna find weird stuff back there. Cables that go off into somewhere that can't be found, stuff that doesn't seem to have a purpose. It's creepy.

[Shawn's still seriously impressed. He can barely handle Cory some days, let alone a whole war effort. But you know, if he looks at this like him looking after Cory, but Cory being a ship instead of a person...]

Huh. When you put it like that, it all makes sense. If I can handle my best friend, then I could probably handle Cory 3.0 [the engine, he already named it] too. It's like a car. But on a scary-larger scale.

Don't remove the panels unless I have to, then. Got it. [Shawn's seen all the terrible sci-fi movies, and he's not keen on messing with that kind of mojo.] Hey, you think the cables might actually lead back to the mothership? We're supposed to be on a TV show, so it could be them trying to keep tabs on us.

You named your engine after your best friend? I like it.

That's what I've been thinking. Y'see, some rooms on a ship only appear if you have a certain crewmember on board. Like you don't get an armoury unless one of your crew is a security officer, or a lab if one of your crew has that augment. But the rooms just show up, which doesn't make sense. I wonder if they're always there, and we just can't see them until we're supposed to.

Atroma's probably controlling everything.

Thanks! Should be easier to think about too.

Wouldn't surprise me if they did. If you're gonna bring people to star on reality TV, you need a way to figure out what they're doing 24/7. [He wishes he didn't really have experience with this...] If you're my best friend, that means barging in on me at random hours, but if you're an alien producer overlord, it could be making rooms vanish or adding cables connected to invisible cameras.

I think they'd be invisible. No one's actually seen 'em, right?

No problem, man.

Not that I know of. Not until they appear, anyway. Then it's just "oh look, we suddenly have an extra room, how about that". It's weird.

It's like a wizard did it.

[Not the right genre, but it's the closest analogy he's got.]

It's okay. I've got a feeling there's gonna be a lot of weird in my life from now on. Like uh, my best friend? He's married. With a kid.

Ugh, I hope not. The last thing I need is more magic in my life.

...Soooo your best friend is like...twice your age?

I mean, I'm not judging. One of my best friends is a hundred and twelve. But...

No, I mean like, he was my age when I left him - but then I come here, and he's thirty five? And he's got a kid? Who, by the way, calls me Uncle Shawn??

[He might be freaking out just a little.] I think I was still his best man, but I missed out on seventeen really important years here.

Ohhhhhhhh, so it's weird time shenanigans. That happens here, sometimes. The furthest anyone went form we was a couple years, though. It's gotta be really weird to have people that far ahead.

If it helps, you haven't missed out, really. We go back, after, to the time we were before we came here. At least that's what it looks like.

Time shenanigans is a pretty good way to put it. I think he said I was like a little "time capsule," which is weird because he's from the future.

[Honestly, his conversation with Cory won't be one of his finest moments.]

Yeah? So Atroma grabs you and puts you back like it was nothing? You'd think they'd do something better than reality TV, if they had that kind of ability.

Sounds about right. It's weird, and it kinda feels like cheating because you suddenly know the future? But...yeah, I guess it's good to know what's in store.

[He nods. ]

I know, right? I went home, for a while, but my body didn't leave. I just stayed here while they...I don't know, put memories into my head. But there are people I know here, who are from some past place as far as they're concerned, but I never remember them going anywhere from where I am in my memory of home.

...If that makes sense.

I.. guess. [He's gonna skirt around the future thing, because he never drummed up the courage to ask about future-him.]

Makes as much sense as anything else around here.

[He's sure it'll hit him like a ton of bricks later, but it feels too surreal and dream-like to register. This is a bad movie, inspired by one too many marathons of Timecop or Pokemon or... something.]

We're in outer space, Atroma technically has the power to rewrite a ton of universes... and instead, it decides to kidnap a few hundred people and put them on TV. That about sums it up?

[Sokka doesn't blame him. He's not sure HE would want to know where he'd be in that many years ahead. ]

That's pretty much it. Unless entertainment actually translates as political power to them, they're really, really wasting their resources.

Or they're really, really bored. Which is still bad, considering all the stuff they could be doing instead, but when I get bored...

[He laughs, mostly because he is not totally proud of past Shawn's shenanigans.] Well, let's just say I spent a lot of time in detention. Your world still had that, right?

I don't think this place's like an extended detention, but it's the weirdest reality show I've ever heard of.

Errr. I think I remember something about that in the Fire Nation? But the Water Tribe doesn't really have schools per say, so I never had the delight.

But hey, I'm always a big fan of boredom shenanigans.

That's a shame, man. You definitely missed out on the grand tradition of detention slips and hourly scowls from teachers who think you could do way better. [He's shaking his head, as if it were dishonoring his cow or something similar.] Boredom shenanigans're the best, but also kind of the worst if you get caught.

If you didn't have school in the Water Tribe, how'd you guys learn stuff?

Oh wow, and hourly scowls are the best kind! The more disproving the better.

The tribal elders taught us stuff. We'd just congregate around them and they'd dispel their wisdom.

I'm pretty sure my teacher had it down to a science. Dude gave us detentions at least every other day.

Man, I'd trade with you any day, 'cause that sounds pretty cool. Just checking: no tests or exams or anything like that, right? [He knows he should've studied. He just DIDN'T.]

Wow, what a buzzkill.

Nope. Nothing like that. Of course, if you don't learn from your basic survival and hunting lessons you can, y'know, die. So there is that.

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