driftfleet | [ 001. ] text + action

Entry tags:

[ 001. ] text + action

Who: Ken & you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: The Marsiva
When: Now!

[ text ]

Excuse the sudden intrusion. Does anyone have a toolbox?

Thank you.

[ action ]

[ Ken has managed to detach a section of the Marsiva's wall paneling and is setting it carefully on the ground. There's something moving in the walls that he hadn't noticed before. Did it just start, or had it always been there and his eyes had been shielded from it...?

Either way, he's determined to get to the bottom of this. His Digivice is out but not reacting to anything in the wall...

...Well, that only proves to him this isn't part of the Digital World. There's no reason for the Digivice's mysterious powers to work anywhere else.

Please watch your step in this hallway or you might bump into one very focused young child. Who happens to be in the process of dismantling the ship for (depending on your augment and glitch) the hell of it. ]

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[ Ken nods, not minding the help. It's good to have his observations corroborated by someone else, actually: he can't believe he'd missed seeing this until now, which...has several possible causes, none of them good.

He points to the oddity he'd observed before, now much more obvious without the panel. ] Something's moving. But we shouldn't be near the engine...

[Shawn peers at it, his brow furrowing as he takes a closer look. While he'd felt this presence, of something moving, he wasn't too sure if it was his (overactive) imagination or the real deal.

Having a second opinion doesn't make him feel much better, even as he reaches in there to see if he can touch some of those moving parts.]

Right. We're nowhere near it.

The ships had some strange stuff, but nothing like this. Mostly wires that led nowhere.

[ Ken watches, keeping out of the other person's way but interested in seeing whether Shawn will be successful. ] Extraneous parts...?

[ In the Digital World, that's explained by glitches in the data. But what purpose would anomalies like that serve here? ]

Yeah. Which makes sense, kinda. On the smaller ships? You get rooms that only activate when you've got a specific person on the ship - like a lab for your lab tech, and a personnel room for your counselors.

[He hasn't succeeded yet, but as he feels around, he seems SOMETHING a bit out of place. So he'll tug on it, praying that it won't accidentally eat him up in the process.]

But when that person leaves, so does that room... so extra parts seem necessary.

That is sensible. [ Ken's got your back as you work, no worries! Or, at least, he's a witness to whatever happens...? ] Though, why would the main ship need to adapt...?

[ He's ready to help hold whatever manages to come out of the wall. ]

That's the million dollar question. [Million yen question? The augments translate currency, right? Shawn reaches in, activating whatever mechanism releases those jointed arms from the wall.

The second he hears that 'click,' Shawn pulls his arm out and well, stares at those mechanical arms.]

Because I can tell for sure that these things weren't there.

There must be some function they're hiding from us. [ Arms? That's....ominous. Arms the ship can hide from them at will?

And has chosen to show them now? Ken reaches for the mechanical arm. ] May I...?

Sure.

[Shawn steps aside, pulling his sleeves back down.] They're definitely hiding stuff on the smaller ships, so I'm not too surprised to see these guys.

[ Ken takes the arm, peering closely at it to take in all the little details (while missing the big picture but hey, to each their own). He frowns. ] Something's written.

[ And he holds it up for Shawn to see. ]

"Multimedia Enrichment Host Ship #56295001." [He peers at it, memorizing that to heart while he can.]

Well, that confirms us actually being on TV... but I don't know what that number means.

"Enrichment"'s also troubling. [ As in...a place people go to further their entertainment value? Are they really being made to suffer and "perform" for an audience? What purpose does that serve, and why would Ken be chosen to number among them??

He peers into the wall again. ] Is anything else loose?

Not that I can tell.

[He moves back further, letting the kid inspect it fully (if he wants to, of course). This is super troubling, but at least he's not the only one noticing the arms.]

I've heard that people've been seeing things around the ship, but nothing quite like this.

[ Ken finishes his inspection of the arm with an attempt to fold it back into the wall - destroying it is tempting, but they shouldn't tamper with things until they have a better idea of their purpose (and Ken is not sure how he'd dismantle anything here anyway). This is a lot to think about but without any concrete conclusions. Hm. ] I'm sorry. This might not have been helpful.

Don't worry about it. [Shawn shakes his head] Something felt off to you, so you wanted to look, right?

I've been pretty bored myself, so - it was only a matter of time before I did something stupid.

[ Does that mean they just did something stupid, or that Ken prevented stupidness....?

...He's not going to worry about it, since the sentiment came through. Ken smiles and nearly bows, then catches himself and offers a handshake instead. Western name order, too, he has to remember that (just in case it doesn't auto translate.) ] I'm Ken Ichijouji.

[ Who has not shaken many hands before in his life so this is kind of exciting. ]

[Shawn grins, extending his hand and shaking the guy's hand quickly yet firmly. Not too firm, though - Shawn's as normal as they come in the powers department.]

Good to meet you, Ken. I'm Shawn Hunter.

[God, this kid's adorable.] Have you been here long? I don't think I've seen you around a lot.

[ Handshake success!! It keeps Ken smiling. ] Ah...I've yet to see the individual ships, actually. I woke up here.

[ He has gathered that's not how it's worked for people in the past. They hadn't been in this wing before, in any case. ]

Really? That's the worst. [A slight exaggeration though.]

The food here's pretty good, but we had more stuff to do when we were left alone on our ships.

Is this really a TV show? [ Shawn seems knowledgeable. His opinion is probably worth getting. ]

You know, I'm not a hundred percent sure.

[It's a good question, and one Shawn wishes he knew the answer to.]

I've never seen the cameras, or the fan letters we get, and we were never recognized when we went to other planets... but there's not a lot of evidence against that idea either. We get sponsor gifts, and our salary depend on our "ratings," so it's like... I think it's a TV show? It's just run really weird.

If that's the case, then we've been selected for this cast for a reason. [ Nobody would create any kind of "entertainment" without being meticulous about that. ] Maybe even for our ships....

[ Their ships, of which they've currently been deprived. Ken is curious if he'll ever get to see his, and whether the group dynamic will make anything clearer. ]

Oh yeah. It's more like why we were chosen, out of everyone in the universe. [Shawn nods sagely] Earth's got like, seven billion people, and we're in outer space, so it's like, you have a bajillion people. So why US?

Everyone's reasons are different, probably, but there's gotta be a good one.

[ He gets it. Shawn gets the kind of things that Ken thinks about almost every day. ] It's overwhelming.

[ But they still have to move forward, so he might as well pursue his only current way of sorting the people here. ] What was it like on your ship?

Sorry. [He means it too. As much as he likes Ken, the guy's a little young to be here in Shawn's eyes.]

Tiny, cramped... but still kinda nice. I got to work alongside cool people every day, and I got to learn new things from them. I didn't talk much to some of them, but I knew their faces an' stuff.

I don't know when we're going back, but I hope your crew'll be as awesome as mine.

[ Ken smiles self-consciously. ] I'd like that too.

[ Except...now what? Examining the wall was inconclusive....He looks away to think. ]

[Shawn hums for a second, staring at the wall. Since that was a total bust...]

You know, I'm kinda hungry. Searching deep panels makes me wanna eat something more substantial.

Wanna grab something with me?

Eh? [ Ken doesn't follow. Not at first, anyway.

...Then, with a brief rush of embarrassment that it took him a moment, he smiles. ] I do hear these kitchens are better.

They sure are. We've got real meat and everything.

[Would Ken object to Shawn slinging his arm around his shoulders? Because Shawn might be trying to do that right now.]

So come on. I'll cook you something decent, and then we'll go marathon Jaws or... you know, let you do whatever you need to.

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