driftfleet | one ➵ video / spam

Who: Abigail Hobbs and u
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Starstruck
When: 9/23, eveningish

[All things considered, this is actually a pretty good witness protection program. How are the police going to find her in space? And she didn't even have to die this time. It's probably the best kidnapping she's ever experienced.]

[Admittedly, she did spend some time wondering if this was the same thing again, if, somehow, doing what needed done had sent her back to the Barge, qualified her as an inmate again. But those were very fleeting concerns - first, because she knows what she did was just, and second, because this is nothing like the Barge, which looks disorganized on the surface but pulls together in crisis. The Fleet looks quite organized, with its shiny ships and perfect synchronization, but she has a suspicion that when shit hits the fan, everything falls apart.]

[That remains to be seen. The point is that she's learned from the last two times; she neither presents a face immediately nor gives herself away immediately, choosing instead to spend her time on the Marsiva and her first few days on the Starstruck settling in, going over the comms, gathering what information can be gathered. Only then does she step out into common spaces.]

[She pays particular attention to the cargo hold, where she deliberately and conspicuously practices some of the flashier moves Harvey taught her - although flash does not preclude precision, because she is very good at what she does. She also spends a lot of time in the kitchen, hanging out but also inspecting; she doesn't like the processed nature of the food provided, and she spends some time looking for an ingredients label before giving up.]

[When she eventually sets up a broadcast, it's in the kitchen, as well, futuristic cabinets lined up behind her head as she seems to focus somewhere slightly off-camera. For the record: the giant scar on her neck is totally visible, as is the fact that she only has one ear.]

It's sort of funny to me that when people come to a place like this, they either introduce themselves with a lot of questions or a lot of yelling. If anybody wants to answer my questions, that would be pretty hospitable of you, but I got tired of answering them after a while, so. It's not compulsory.

If anybody would rather perform an exchange, I can do that, too. Quid pro quo. My name is Abigail Hobbs. I come from Earth - Bloomington, Minnesota, originally, which I bet none of you have ever heard of - and I spent a couple of years in a place sort of like this, only not at all. My hobbies are hunting, fishing, cooking, and reading poetry. Once I wanted to be a psychiatrist.

The rest of it, you have to earn.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[and he is very careful, of course, in the wording of his answer. the delay between each reply gives him time to think.]

Finding someone I knew here.

Oh. That's so important. I'm glad you found that.

[She really means it, too; feels a stab of jealousy, but that's all. Just because she's alone here doesn't mean she begrudges anyone else their company.]

What do you want to know?

[yeah, he... doesn't know whether she's being sarcastic or not. there's just a little bit of an extra pause while he hesitates, and ultimately only answers the question.]

Something interesting.

[Something interesting. She purses her lips, exhales slowly. For him . . . something more interesting than usual.]

The last place I was was Italy. Before that, I was on another spaceship - literally a space ship, like a boat on the ocean, only in space.

It was a prison.

[oh, yep. this counts. and here he'd doubted the fact that she'd actually come up with something he considered interesting.]

a prison like this one? was Italy like that too?

No, Italy was beautiful. Italy was really lovely. I was there for a hunting trip.

[. . . THIS IS TECHNICALLY TRUE . . .]

My prison wasn't anything like this one. It didn't pretend to be something it wasn't. Everyone knew it was a prison, and nobody acted like you were supposed to be happy about it.

Well. Almost nobody.

so first a prison and then Italy? did it let you go and then you were stolen again? do you know why these places take us?

[not that he's hoping she somehow knows more about this phenomenon than the average person does, but... yeah, no, he's totally hoping that she knows more.]

That's exactly right. The first place I was - it was called the Barge, not very creative, sorry - it let me go, because I did what I was brought there to do.

I don't know why "these places" take us - I've only been to that one and this one - but the reason the Barge took me was because there were things about me that didn't conform to a certain moral standard, and I needed to remake myself if I wanted to go free.

[Does that count as more?]

[apparently it does, because another message doesn't come through for quite a while.

he's quiet for a long time.]

so you changed?

Yes. I changed a lot.

Do you want to know how?

yes.

Okay. Give me a couple minutes, I have to think about it.

[And she does think about it, a long pause between that text and the next one as she remembers what she was and what she became and what she is now, and how much of that was natural growth and how much was because of all the people she loved and the tectonic soul-pressure of the Barge itself. There's a lot to tease out, but she gets there in the end.]

I think the biggest change is that I learned how to control myself. I used to be scared of everything, all the time, and I used to want to hurt people, and I used to think I wasn't good enough for - anything, really. And because of all those things, I lashed out, and I hurt people, and I hurt myself, too, by accident.

I'm still scared of a lot, and I still want to hurt people sometimes, and I still sometimes worry that I'm not good enough, but I know how to control myself now, so I don't hurt anyone by accident anymore.

The other big thing is that I learned I wanted to be human, to take human power for myself rather than trying to be anything else. That was an important change, too.

And then - I learned that I didn't have to manipulate people if I didn't want to. That sometimes people will just do things for you because they're kind. Not all people, but some.

[there's another pause there. maybe he hadn't expected a real answer from her. either way, this delay at least means that he's thinking about it. he's listening.

and it's probably her bringing up being human that reminds him what fear feels like. it's there somewhere, down in his stomach, as he reads and rereads her text before he finally responds.]

and then it let you go?

And then it let me go. And then I went home and took care of some business, and then I was brought here. So maybe this place plays by different rules?

one ➵ video / spam

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