Time for family movie night on the Windrose!

[pain_train]

Who: Crew of the Windrose
Broadcast: Nope
Action: On the Windrose, mingle time!
When: 11/25 and onward

[Wow, the ship's a little smaller, but lookit that view! Let's talk awkwardly about it and mingle!]

Comments

[unbearablynaive]

Of course you did. I'm not even certain my fish can tell when I'm there or not, but I missed them as well. They've become a familiar part of our lives.

[thebestseller]

Yeah... and familiarity can help when the rest of our lives have become so unpredictable.

[unbearablynaive]

It certainly can.

[He reaches down to gently pick up one of the 'bots and replace it in line.]

They may have their work cut out for them with all these new windows. I'd imagine they'll show dust much faster than the walls do.

[thebestseller]

Yeah... I'm not really fond of the closer quarters myself, even if there is a more beautiful view. Ooh, I wonder if I could upgrade them to have squeegee attachments?

[unbearablynaive]

The males on this ship do tend to run tall. [Natasha and Wrath probably don't feel nearly so cramped.]

Now that should be entirely possible. I'll build a few, if you'd like to meet me in Engineering in a few hours?

[thebestseller]

Yeah, really. I'm not exactly claustrophobic myself, but I do have a preference for open spaces and floorplans, true.

[He brightened.]

Oh, that would be great! I'll be there- though trying to herd the bots there would be a different story.

[unbearablynaive]

I suppose I could make a large mess and summon them all that way.

[One of the bots starts chirping in what might be interpreted as panic.]

Or we could install them one at a time, when we encounter them.

[thebestseller]

[Castle looked down at the confused chirping with interest, then looked back up at the Vision.]

Individual sounds like it might be more to their tastes. They all have idle periods- we're not that messy.

[unbearablynaive]

[It's almost, but not quite, as if they're responding directly to him when he talks. Coincidence?]

Yes, that's true. I'll upgrade them one at a time, then, once I have some extensions made.

[thebestseller]

You're awesome. [Castle stood, finally giving in to the inevitable and letting the droids go.] If you need any parts or credits to buy them, let me know.

[unbearablynaive]

[He nods, leaning down to "pet" one of the little bots as it bumps into his foot.]

It should be a fairly simple process, but I'll be certain to let you know. There are quite a lot of parts we scavenged from the Iskaulit; I'd be surprised if there isn't some kind of squeegee material available.

[thebestseller]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that ship- I haven't actually been over there much. Have you found much useful stuff?

[unbearablynaive]

Many useful supplies, from an engineering standpoint. What with resources being so scarce when we're not near a planet, finding creative solutions to mechanical problems is par for the course. Having extra supplies that can be converted into, say, an air filter, are extremely valuable.

There's also a library and a garden, which are both very relaxing.

[thebestseller]

A library? Count me in. It's good that people are getting use out of it, though... considering the history behind it. It's like giving it a new life, a second chance.

[unbearablynaive]

[He nods.]

And to remind us all that things are rarely as they appear.

[thebestseller]

Especially when it comes to Atroma. They'll do ANYTHING for ratings, including involving us in a crisis involving another innocent species.

[unbearablynaive]

Indeed. If we had a better indicator of our audience, perhaps we could manufacture our own drama to their tastes - but that would defeat the point of a reality show, wouldn't it?

[thebestseller]

Yeah... the whole point is to make the audience think it's real, even if we know better behind the scenes. That is, if the audience actually does exist. Jury's still out on that for me.

[unbearablynaive]

Even though they've sent us letters?

[Yes, yes, they could easily be faked.]

The money in our accounts spends easily enough, at least.

[thebestseller]

Yeah... but some things just don't add up. There's fanmail and gifts, but how do we know actual fans are writing them? Atroma could make a lot of cash doing things like, say, setting up fan encounters where our fans could meet us or call us via space Skype or something, but nothing. It's like we're animals in the zoo, but we can't look back out of our cages at the people gawping at us, either.

[He sighed.]

You're right that they're paying us to do this, though, so they are making a profit somewhere.

[unbearablynaive]

Ah, but that would allow us to know what sort of audience they are. The letters have been very generic and--[he pauses, frowns]--frankly, the sponsor items I've seen have been low-quality at best. There's very little for us to go on.

[He supposes that enhances the "authenticity" of it all, but still.]

I suppose the alternative is a very rich person or persons who is funding this all themselves, but even so we must provide some kind of entertainment for them or they'd discontinue the show.

[thebestseller]

Yeah, people have said that about sponsor stuff. It's never anything useful, just... crap. You'd think sending better-quality products would give us a better incentive to use them.

[Castle nodded slowly.]

Mmmmhmmm. They're getting SOMETHING out of it, and I doubt it's just entertainment if this has been going on for years.

[unbearablynaive]

I'm sure they don't want to give us any kind of material advantage. There must be rules about what is and is not acceptable as a sponsor item.

Or it could be entertainment. Consider how long certain science fiction television shows had been running by 2015.

[thebestseller]

Good point. It's difficult to get much use out of cola bottles or coffee, after all. So they must carefully monitor what gets through to us. Big Brother is always watching.

[He nodded.]

This is true... even stuff that's been off the air for a while can have a following and merchandise and the whole shebang. With all the ways stuff can be preserved for future viewing- or rebooted twenty times- there's a lot you can wring out of a property if you squeeze hard enough.

[unbearablynaive]

Wasn't that one of the original reality shows? [Of course he knows the 1984 reference, but in this case, both apply.]

I'm afraid there already are action figures of my friends and coworkers, but I'd be quite interested to see a Windrose playset.