Chapter Four [Video]

[thebestseller]

Who: Richard Castle and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: On the Windrose if you want
When: January 10th, morning

[Video broadcast]

So, folks, I woke up to find that my fleet of cleaning droids suddenly doubled. All of them need names- I only have Cameron, Robocop and Leopardon so far. Got any suggestions? I'm a big sci-fi fan so I'd love to name all of them after famous robots, but I'll take anything.

[Action]

[And on the Windrose, Castle could be found following his new troops, a big, goofy smile on his face.]

Don't work yourselves too hard now, hmm?

Comments

[thebestseller]

Hmmm, that's the first time I've heard someone be glad to show up here.

[mistyday]

Yeah, I been noticin' most folks don't really wanna be here. Guess if I had something worth goin' back to, I wouldn't either.

[thebestseller]

Yeah... not everyone has an ideal home life, sadly. I was planning my wedding, so I'm more than a bit anxious to get back to mine.

[mistyday]

Shit, really? Now that just ain't fair at all.

[thebestseller]

Nah, it's really not. Luckily I didn't disappear in the middle of the actual ceremony, because that'd be even worse.

[mistyday]

Does she...Do people know we're gone?

[She is suddenly real worried about this... She doesn't care for herself, but that poor woman, to have your fiancé disappear on you, with no way to find him would be awful.]

[thebestseller]

People say that time freezes back home. Like, we're plucked from a moment then go right back to that moment like nothing happened.

[mistyday]

What?!

[She falls back, bracing herself against the wall.]

None told me that. I mean... they said I might hafta go back one day but not to that exact moment.

[She starts shaking her head.]

I can't do that.

[thebestseller]

[Castle frowned at that reaction- usually people were glad to hear that they'd be able to go home to the exact same time they left.]

Is your... are you not going back to something good?

[mistyday]

No...

[She sinks down the wall, falling to the ground. Her lower lip starts to tremble and she looks up at Castle, eyes wide with fear.]

You think they'll let me stay here? I mean if everyone else wants to go home and I don't, that's a good thing for the aliens, right?

[thebestseller]

I can't see why they wouldn't. As the saying goes, one volunteer's worth 10 pressed troops, right?

[mistyday]

[Her eyes are welling up with tears, but none fall just yet.]

Right.

[She brushes the back of her hand across her eyes. One of the robots boops and runs into her foot.]

Do they ever talk to us?

[thebestseller]

Atroma? Not as often as you might think- they can go months between. And they're smart enough to never send their representatives in person, it's always through video messages.

[mistyday]

But they do talk to us sometimes. So if I... I'll just tell 'em, how grateful I am to them and everything, next time they do...

[thebestseller]

And be a good contestant- be interesting and keep your ratings up.

[mistyday]

My ratings?

[thebestseller]

Yeah. Supposedly, you get ratings based on how much the audience likes you. Of course, we're never shown that, so.

[mistyday]

So we don't know what we're supposed to do to make them like us?

[thebestseller]

Nope. It's all very vague and nebulous. So I figure, I'm just gonna keep on like I normally would and let Atroma sort out how people feel. It's seemed to work fine for me so far.

[mistyday]

I've never had that great of luck with people likin' me though.

[thebestseller]

Well, then, here will be different. We have all sorts of folks here, even ones you'd think would be unlikeable, but they've all stuck around for a while.

[mistyday]

[She sniffs again.]

Thank you for sayin’ so.

[The droid boops against her foot again and she picks it up with a little laugh.]

This one’s name is Rhiannon. I haven’t figured out the others yet, so I guess if you wanna name ‘em after Spiderman’s robot that’s okay.

[thebestseller]

Glad to help. I mean that.

[He grinned.]

Like the Fleetwood Mac song?

[mistyday]

Yeah! [Her eyes light up.] You know it? It's my favorite. Stevie sang it just for me once.

[thebestseller]

That's so cool! I'm not a super fan of theirs, but growing up in the 70's and 80's, I heard a lot of them on the radio and such. Wow, your own private concert...