01 [ video / action ]

[familyremains]

Who: Dean doing the OTA thing
Broadcast: fleetwide video
Action: anybody on the Marsiva
When: 1/27 - 1/29


a; (acting alone)

[ The video cuts in accidentally (are accidents ever accidental?) to Dean using a plastic knife of all things to pry a panel, about four feet in each direction, off the wall in front of him. It takes some jimmying, but after a couple seconds, it pops right off, and Dean catches it before it falls more than an inch or so open. He looks around quickly as he slides the panel aside (got to work fast with cameras on and no easy way to disable them), but when he looks to what the panel was covering, his head jerks back in surprise. Then he crouches in close to get a better look. ]

...Really?

[ Behind the panel is a network of machinery, all interwoven, some of it whirring quietly as it moves together like... like nothing Dean's ever seen. He stares at it, his expression as openly mystified as he feels before he slides the panel back on and snaps it back into place. He stands, loose-limbed and completely clueless as to what the hell he's supposed to do with that. ]

Oh, this is way above my pay grade.

[ Seriously. Where are the air ducts? The red and green wires? The, you know, normal wall stuff? Dean thought he could figure this spaceship thing out, but damn it, Shatner and Ford never prepared him for this level of sci-fi weirdness. ]



b; (the buddy system)

[ In the cafeteria sometime later, Dean is scouting out anybody who looks like they could throw a decent punch. Why? To fight them, of course.

Now, he's not going to go right up to somebody and just sock 'em one. Come on, he's not stupid. No, he's going to try to antagonize them into punching him, instead.

Look, alright, it's worked before. ...Except the other guy ended up dead. It's a long story. Anyway.

You can find Dean staring at you if you're the kind of type who looks rough and tumble and easily angered. Or you might find him eyeing up the big burly-looking guy in the corner in a completely no-homo kind of way. You might also observe his fine table manners, as while he's doing his "sizing up" of the room, he's also shoving food in his face and chewing with his mouth open, because damn, you get hungry after puking as much as he has in the past two days.

Or you might find Dean getting the crap beaten out of him by someone twice his size (which is saying a lot; he's not a small guy). You might want to help him, if you're the helpful kind of person, because the non-existent authorities sure aren't going to step in, and somebody should. Or you might find him after nobody did step in to help him because, let's be real, he deserves the black eye and busted lip and bruised kidney he gets. Just don't expect him to apologize if he got any blood on you. A little blood's not going to kill you, and everybody knows a blood splatter always makes for good TV. ]

Comments

a - video

[takeabow]

[ Nova recognizes Dean immediately, but doesn't get her hopes up. Don't count chickens before they hatch and all of that. So in response to his shenanigans, she just has a dry tone ]

You should ask for more, then.

[familyremains]

[ That voice COMES OUT OF NOWHERE, and it takes Dean a few seconds of awkward looking around and gaping to respond to it. This is new technology, here, give him a break. ]

Woah, hey. Is somebody actually paying us for this little commercial break from our real lives?

[takeabow]

Actually, yes. But our assets are frozen for the moment.

[familyremains]

[ Dean wets his lips, and lifts his eyebrows, and he thinks to himself, "Can I resist joking about that?" The answer with Dean is, of course, always no. ]

My assets are all room temperature or above, but thanks for the heads up.

[ But, more seriously. ]

So this pay you're talking about. Paper or plastic?

[takeabow]

[ snidely ] I'm too young for you.

Digital, but you can take cash out normally.

[familyremains]

[ Dean's eyebrows raise and he laughs like he takes that as a compliment. Is that what kids consider flirting these days? Or are aliens all prudes? He's gonna have a real rough time around here if that's all it takes to set them off. ]

All assets are off limits. Got it.

[ That out of the way... ]

Digital. So we're talking Bitcoin. Alright. Never dabbled in the stuff, but I can work with that.

[takeabow]

Sure. If you say so.

[familyremains]

Yeah, I say so.

[ Smartass.]

So if your assets are frozen, what're you doing for cash? Somebody feeding you?

[ Because she may be a pain in the ass teenager, but that doesn't mean she should starve because a suit somewhere got a little overzealous with the red tape. ]

[takeabow]

They provide nutrition here. Promise.

But I'm running cargo for the locals where we're docked.

[familyremains]

[ Nutrition sounds real appetizing, the way she says it. But food is food. ...Kind of. It's surviving, but it ain't living.

He's more concerned by the other thing, anyway. ]

Cargo, huh? You know what's in it?

[takeabow]

Not sure I need to, but I try to avoid jobs I'd feel bad about.

[familyremains]

[ Yeah, it's all well and good to follow you gut, but not asking questions still doesn't sit well with him. You get into trouble that way. And trouble that involves money and unlabeled cargo doesn't sound like the kind to end well. ]

You gonna know to feel bad about them if you don't know what's in 'em?

[takeabow]

I'm not bad at judging people.

[ well, she is. Kind of. but shh ]

[familyremains]

That right?

[ Hey, maybe she's not. Maybe she's smart about it, and Dean won't have to worry about her. But only one way to find out for sure, and that's to test her. ]

Okay. Say I want you to run some cargo for me. Would you do it?

[takeabow]

I'd think about it. From what I know about you, you're not a bad guy even though you act tough.

[familyremains]

Yeah? How do you figure?

[ He's totally tough. He's a stone cold killer. He's tough guy, okay; it's not an act. ]

[takeabow]

...Just a guess.

[familyremains]

Yeah, well, you're wrong.

[ She's not. ]

So just be careful who you're taking cargo from, alright, kid?

[ He's not going to stop her or try to talk her out of it, either, since she seems to have a pretty good head on her shoulders. ]

[takeabow]

Okay, dad.

I've talked to your brother, by the way.

[familyremains]

Sam?

[ Yeah, her and everybody else Dean happens to meet. But there has to be a reason she's bringing it up, so he asks. ]

What'd he have to say?

[takeabow]

Mostly how great you are.

[familyremains]

[ That gets a chuckle out of him, because either that's sarcasm, or she's been talking to someone who isn't Sam. ]

Yeah, alright.

[takeabow]

I know you think I'm joking, and I kind of am, but at home I took care of my sister like you did with him.

[familyremains]

They don't make it easy, do they?

[ He's joking too, kind of. "At home," she says. And past tense. Which means her sister isn't here, so Dean doesn't ask. ]

Was your sister okay when you left?

[takeabow]

[ she's very serious now, and stoic. ]

For here? Hopefully she doesn't know it. I've heard some theories about how time works... namely that it doesn't, really.

I've had to leave home before, though. She didn't... it wasn't a good situation.