driftfleet

Entry tags:

001

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

...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.

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.

[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?

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.

[...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.]

[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.

[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?

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.

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.]

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.

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

What happened?

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.

...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.

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.

He sounds like a few people I know. [Just like 90% of her crew, nbd.]

No, I understand. If we had that kind of thing in our world it'd drive me nuts, too. Do these Atroma people talk to us very often?

[Or at all...]

Sometimes.

My crewmates say that Atroma used to talk to us once a week, but I haven't heard anything from them in a while. [Headtilt] Maybe we're having technical difficulties.

Or maybe something heavy fell on them and you'll never hear from them again.

...though I suppose that'd mean we'd lose our chance to get home, too.

Yeah, that would kinda suck.

As awesome as reality TV is, I actually wanna go back to school. [beat] Not a sentence I thought I'd ever say, but desperate times, I guess.

Not a fan of school before this, huh? [She doesn't have much familiarity with generalised schooling, but she at least knows it exists. Never thought someone would not like it. But then, Nami's kind of a nerd in that department.]

What would you rather have been doing instead?

Not really.

[It pains him to admit it too, considering his less than stellar academic record. He earned those C's - but he didn't try in school, and he regrets that so, so much now that he's made it into a good university.]

I mean, I want to go to school. Even if I weren't stuck on reality TV, I'd still want to go. It was more... growing up, I wasn't exactly the best student. Kinda terrible, actually. I'd get into trouble all the time, so I figure... college's gonna be a fresh start, and I should make it something good.

What's the difference between school and college?

[Hi I come from a backwater island in a pirating nation.]

[He's so not the best person for this, but he's gonna try.]

Everyone's required to go to school. It's like, learning the basics of reading and writing and math and science. Whereas college isn't.

That's more specialized learning, for the stuff you're actually interested in. Like photography or law or teaching, so you can go be those things.

Huh. [Guess that means Weatheria technically counts as a college, then.]

There's a lot of islands where we come from. Schooling like that is often just a luxury for people with too much time on their hands. It's good you get to go.

Trust me, it's a luxury back home too. [One he didn't think he could have, if he were honest.] But... it wasn't as hard to get as I thought.

Wish I'd known that a long time ago.

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