001

[mikangirl]

Who: Nami
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: Nnnow-ish

[This is not happening.  Nope.  There were happy endings, and sunshine, and portals home, and she damn well walked through one.  Not only does this quiet, sterile place bear no resemblance to, y'know, a brigantine sloop or a crazy ocean, but she's turned up here alone.

She was pretty sure the animus were on the level with the whole going home thing.  The fact the Adstringendum communicator is giving her nothing but static when she tries to use it is, uh.  Not comforting, to say the least.  She explores the accessible area in due haste, looking for anyone she recognises.  Or anyone at all.  And then she sits cross-legged in the middle of the one hallway and tries to get the communicator working by prying at it with fingernails, hitting random buttons, and eventually just hitting the wall with it a few times before tossing it away from her with a huff.

Not happy doesn't really cover it.

She finds the broadcast system, staring down at the controls suspiciously.  She shouldn't know how to use this.  But, well.  In the absence of being able to do anything else-- ]

----

This turning up in mysterious new places thing was old the first time it happened.  Where the hell is this, and what hoops do I have to jump through to get home?  [Sweet, sweet sarcasm.  But at least she's holding onto her temper.]  And where's my staff? 

And-- and who fixed my shirt?

[Serious question, that one.]

Comments

[unfulfilledpotential]

Seriously? Sounds like someone's got it out for you. [He frowns in sympathy, not that he can imagine being stuck in another world and then getting dragged here.]

Only about a week or two. Still getting used to the fact that I'm, you know, in outer space.

[mikangirl]

Wouldn't be the first time. [Mutter mutter, listen to my self pity. But oh, he's new too, it seems. So she dredges up a smile for him, small and a little pained.]

Yeah, I can imagine. This kind of thing isn't even possible yet in the world I'm from. I think I prefer the ocean, all things considered.

[unfulfilledpotential]

I would too. The ocean's familiar - well, more familiar than outer space. You know I'd never left the country before coming here?

[He's still kinda incredulous that he managed to visit outer space before the rest of the world.] What about you? Have you traveled much, interdimensional garbage dump aside?

[mikangirl]

My sister's like you. I think she's never left the island we grew up on, but then she has a lot tying her there. Probably the same with you, right?

I travel all the time! I'm a pirate-- I've been travelling more or less nonstop since I was ten.

[unfulfilledpotential]

Kinda? If school counts as something tying me down.

[He sounds almost proud of the realization! Mostly because it had honestly never occurred to him.]

No way. [Cue an impressed whistle.] Like the stuff of legends? Sailing across the seas and all that good stuff?

[mikangirl]

That's right. Though we don't do a lot of the really traditional piracy-- in our world, if you want freedom from the government, that's what they call you. Not that there aren't plenty of people who are all about the pillaging and raiding as well.

[She's getting kind of used to that reaction. Nami doesn't really mind it, when the universe isn't full of people after the bounty on her head.]

You're in school too, huh? [Second student she's talked to.] What kind of stuff are you learning?

[unfulfilledpotential]

Hey, my kind of pirate illegally downloads music off the Internet. Compared to that, any other kind of pirate's pretty cool.

[Wait, if outer space travel's not a possibility, does that mean the Internet doesn't exist there either? Shawn winces at his own insensitivity.]

Photography, mostly. Everyone has to take general classes, which is fine since I'll be with my friends, but I'm way more interested in taking pictures and writing up what I think about them.

[mikangirl]

[Yeah sure enough she just blinks at him in confusion over download and internet. But she brightens right up again at the next bit.]

You're a photographer? That's great! I've always loved photographers.

[...yeah, Nami's a little vain.]

[unfulfilledpotential]

Really? [He grins, holding his finger up to indicate he'll be right back before he pulls out his camera. It's a bit old by modern standards, but it gets the job done.] I can't say I've heard that one much.

I love taking pictures with this baby, but you can take some pretty sweet ones with this device too. [He forwards her one of his first photos, actually - a shot of the stars just outside a window on the Marsiva.] You know...

Once you get Shuffled in, you should tell me what ship you're on. We could easily do a photoshoot.

[mikangirl]

Really? [She probably has better things to do than look forward to photoshoots tbh, but it still sounds like fun. Best thing, the odds are pretty good he's not just 'trying to get her best side' for a bounty poster. Yeah, that happened.]

Sounds like fun. I'd be up for it, if I'm here that long.

[Well, she can hope she's not.]

[unfulfilledpotential]

Hey, it'd kill time - and for all we know, it could boost our ratings.

Which, by the way, is how we get paid around here. You play up to the invisible cameras that no one really sees, and people'll actually send money your way.

You can use it for stuff like upgrading your ship, or for when we're on planets like this. [He pans the camera back to show his surroundings - technically, they're on a moon, but details.] Turns out, they accept credits at the stores too.

[mikangirl]

...you're telling me I could get paid just for having some fun with a camera?

[This place isn't bad, as far as giant dimensional prisons go.]

Well, sure. Let's do that, then.

[unfulfilledpotential]

Potentially. It depends on what the audience wants, but that's a giant mystery, because we're never told who's watching us to begin with.

[For all he knows, their demographics could be middle-aged soccer moms or baby kids. Atroma, specificity would be ideal here!]

As long as no one from back home's tuning in, I'm kinda okay with it.

[mikangirl]

[Now there's an interesting thought.]

Nobody's tuning in from my home, that's for sure. We don't really have the capability. TV is a... regular thing for you?

[unfulfilledpotential]

Uh-huh. Cory and I - er, my best friend and I used to watch things all the time. Baseball games, the Superbowl... even terrible sci-fi and super violent horror films, if we could sneak them past his parents.

We weren't much for reality TV, though. We tried. Honestly? It wasn't as interesting as we'd hoped.

[mikangirl]

[...super violent horror films sound kind of disturbing.]

I can't see how it would be interesting. I mean-- shows only go for a set amount of time for a reason.

[I mean some of us are clearly more interesting than others, but even so.]

[unfulfilledpotential]

[Don't knock Godzilla Goes to College, Nami, it's a classic for a reason!]

Cory was more interested in filming that kind of stuff, back when we took media classes. It's still hard to do, because you have to edit it to make it fun.

[Headtilt.] Wonder if this means our potential audience thinks we're different from who we actually are.

[mikangirl]

[See now, that just rates as crack. Crack always gets a pass.]

How do you mean?

[It takes her a second to work through it--] You think maybe they're editing us?

[unfulfilledpotential]

Yeah. When they put this show on TV, they're not gonna show every single moment. That'll take forever - so instead, they'll highlight stuff.

But if that happens, they can make people look better or worse. [He knows, because it might've happened to him.] So for all we know, we could be on TV - but it may not be who we are in real life.

[mikangirl]

I see what you mean. But it doesn't really matter, does it? It's an audience we don't really care about, and it doesn't change who I really am.

[People not knowing who she really is is usually an advantage.]

[unfulfilledpotential]

Right now, I guess it doesn't. [They've yet to run into anyone watching this darn show, after all.] As long as they keep shipping us off to planets where no one knows about our show, and no one from home's tuning in every week...

Which I really hope is the case, because man, I tried the reality TV thing. It didn't work out.

[mikangirl]

You tried it? [She'd ask why, but she can honestly see the temptation.]

What happened?

[unfulfilledpotential]

Not on purpose. [Even he's not that dumb.] My friend had to make a documentary for class, and he tried to make it in the style of this reality show we saw sometimes.

Except he got way too invasive, and my classmates learnt things about me that I really don't think they needed to know.

[mikangirl]

...yeah, that sounds painful. [Though making a documentary for class goes right over her head, she can get the general idea.]

I hope he had better judgment in other places. Your friend, that is.

[unfulfilledpotential]

He's... getting there. Sometimes, when he gets wrapped up in a project, it goes to his head and WHOOSH. [He pushes one hand to the side, kinda rough, to indicate his friend's less than ideal judgment.]

I know your world doesn't really do TV and film an' stuff, but it bugs me sometimes. Sure, we get paid, but I'd sure like to know who'd tune in every week.