Celeste Blackwell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nulliverse) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
driftfleet2016-01-10 08:16 am
nulliverse) wrote in driftfleet2016-01-10 08:16 am
Entry tags:
Video/Optional Action
Who: Celeste Blackwell and anyone!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: SS Golden, p much the most aimless of wandering
When: Day(?)break Jan 10
[Celeste's arrival a day earlier was essentially passed in a whirlwind of cold shock. Everything was so wrong, so alien, and she was already riding a wave of grief following her departure from Eudio; she expected to see her dorm room, the not exactly welcoming but familiar walls of BIAPA, and instead she found a bloody spaceship.
She also found the truth, thanks to it being broadcast in a loop until she could hear the sound ringing through her head even as she tried to sleep, but it wouldn't sink in. This was wrong. It was either a mistake or a betrayal. By the time she was being swept off once again, apparently assigned to a more permanent lodging, she'd come to a decision: Eudio had until the next morning to correct this. If she didn't wake up back in the city or in England, then she had been betrayed and used and lived over half a year of her life in service of a lie.
She woke up (apparently she did sleep, although it felt like it couldn't have been more than a minute or two) in space. And that's when she broke.
Fellow members of the SS Golden can find her wandering the ship, but she doesn't look like she's getting her bearings: her shuffling around is more ghostlike, lost and distant, eyes perpetually red and swollen whether she's crying in that exact moment or not. Sometimes she'll open her mouth as though she's about to start a rant, anger flashing across her face, but then she'll just look helpless again a second later. She's lost so much, two entire lives, for nothing, and now she honestly can't find her way into starting this one. She doesn't know what any of it means.]
[Eventually, Celeste finds her words and settles on an emotion to guide her as she addresses the entire fleet. Her eyes are still rimmed with red, her face a bit puffy from crying, but her expression is hard and ice cold and her stare is furious.]
I've got one thing to tell you lot, and one thing only. [A quiet voice accented with the sound of middle-class London, rubbed raw from crying but taut with rage yet to explode.] If you're ever approached by someone offering a wish - I don't care if a genie pops out of a bottle or a fairy godmother appears in a shower of sparkles or a star comes right out of the sky or it's just two civil servant sorts in smart suits, any sort of person - if they tell you that you can make things right, you can fix all your cock-ups and get your life on a proper track - even if there's a cost, no matter if the cost seems reasonable and this all feels like a very fair exchange -
[The icy mask over her features slips for a second, and it looks like she might be back on her way to tears, but then it's back.]
- no matter how bad it is, and how desperately you want to believe - trust your gut. Wishes like that don't come true. There's no correcting what's already happened. You don't get that sort of second chance, not from anyone, for anything.
It if sounds too good to be true, it is. Don't let any false promise convince you otherwise, or you deserve what you get.
[She sniffles, then looks rather annoyed with herself at having given away even that much and closes things off:]
That's it. That's all I have to say.
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: SS Golden, p much the most aimless of wandering
When: Day(?)break Jan 10
[Celeste's arrival a day earlier was essentially passed in a whirlwind of cold shock. Everything was so wrong, so alien, and she was already riding a wave of grief following her departure from Eudio; she expected to see her dorm room, the not exactly welcoming but familiar walls of BIAPA, and instead she found a bloody spaceship.
She also found the truth, thanks to it being broadcast in a loop until she could hear the sound ringing through her head even as she tried to sleep, but it wouldn't sink in. This was wrong. It was either a mistake or a betrayal. By the time she was being swept off once again, apparently assigned to a more permanent lodging, she'd come to a decision: Eudio had until the next morning to correct this. If she didn't wake up back in the city or in England, then she had been betrayed and used and lived over half a year of her life in service of a lie.
She woke up (apparently she did sleep, although it felt like it couldn't have been more than a minute or two) in space. And that's when she broke.
Fellow members of the SS Golden can find her wandering the ship, but she doesn't look like she's getting her bearings: her shuffling around is more ghostlike, lost and distant, eyes perpetually red and swollen whether she's crying in that exact moment or not. Sometimes she'll open her mouth as though she's about to start a rant, anger flashing across her face, but then she'll just look helpless again a second later. She's lost so much, two entire lives, for nothing, and now she honestly can't find her way into starting this one. She doesn't know what any of it means.]
[Eventually, Celeste finds her words and settles on an emotion to guide her as she addresses the entire fleet. Her eyes are still rimmed with red, her face a bit puffy from crying, but her expression is hard and ice cold and her stare is furious.]
I've got one thing to tell you lot, and one thing only. [A quiet voice accented with the sound of middle-class London, rubbed raw from crying but taut with rage yet to explode.] If you're ever approached by someone offering a wish - I don't care if a genie pops out of a bottle or a fairy godmother appears in a shower of sparkles or a star comes right out of the sky or it's just two civil servant sorts in smart suits, any sort of person - if they tell you that you can make things right, you can fix all your cock-ups and get your life on a proper track - even if there's a cost, no matter if the cost seems reasonable and this all feels like a very fair exchange -
[The icy mask over her features slips for a second, and it looks like she might be back on her way to tears, but then it's back.]
- no matter how bad it is, and how desperately you want to believe - trust your gut. Wishes like that don't come true. There's no correcting what's already happened. You don't get that sort of second chance, not from anyone, for anything.
It if sounds too good to be true, it is. Don't let any false promise convince you otherwise, or you deserve what you get.
[She sniffles, then looks rather annoyed with herself at having given away even that much and closes things off:]
That's it. That's all I have to say.
no subject
[He's sympathetic, in his own quiet, serious way.]
I am sorry, for what it is worth.
no subject
"Wish" may have been the wrong word. It was more of an exchange, and the other side doesn't appear to have made good. But - thank you.
no subject
If there is anything I can do to assist, I am at your disposal. I am Daneel Olivaw.
no subject
[Not fair. That's one she'll need to take back immediately.]
God, I'm sorry. That is generous, really, only I'm at a complete loss for what I could want or need here. I still barely know where here is other than what the damned announcements keep saying. [A pause.] But it's nice to meet you, Daneel. I'm Celeste Blackwell.
no subject
Perhaps I can fill in some of the gaps in your knowledge?
no subject
[He's very straightforward though, isn't he? Apparently the sarcasm of that didn't register at all. It's something she'll try to remember, but cutting sarcasm from her repertoire even with one person would be quite like trying to speak a language she'd never learned.]
I hardly know where to start. Who's in charge of all this? Are we always on these ships, or do we land on planets sometimes? Are we even in the Milky Way galaxy? Who's watching? How did this happen?
[Well, there's a few to be getting on with. She looks and sounds more and more alarmed with each one.]
no subject
[It's okay, he's used to not quite getting things sometimes.]
I am... not certain of many of these. I certainly have not seen any planets I know from the galaxy I am familiar with, though we do land on them sometimes. They are populated by humans, or beings close to human, though not all the residents are. Atroma is in charge, though how they have accomplished any of this, or for whose entertainment, is unclear to me.
no subject
And then she considers an even bigger question.]
Can you get cigarettes on these ships? Is there... I don't know what it's called, commissary?
no subject
[Does she know they're bad for you? He hopes she knows they're bad for you. Partner Elijah used to smoke a pipe and then he stopped, fortunately.]
no subject
[It's the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, really. Her eyes glass over, and she gives a deliberate look away from the screen, but it's too late to hide how emotional she is.]
- this is really the most incredible cock-up of my life. And that is saying something, trust me on that one.
no subject
[His voice is soft.]
This situation is difficult. There are many questions, and very few answers.
no subject
[No, that isn't fair, she can't start taking this out on the people trying to help her. She covers her face this time and lets out a long sigh, then looks at him more apologetically.]
I suppose we're in this together now, though. There's no sense in getting off on the wrong foot. I'm Celeste Blackwell.
no subject
[He smiles faintly, in a brief, warm flicker.]
Perhaps there's something I can do to make you at least a little more complicated.