Chocolate-flavored Dessert Cream on the House

[thespaceopera]

[The bunks are filling up, but the new faces just keep appearing!

Are you a travel-weary passenger having trouble keeping your crew roster straight? Perhaps you are a fresh new recruit, finding themselves dumped into a new (and much less shiny) home. Or, maybe you've been around for a little bit and just haven't bothered meeting the other weirdos on this ship yet--what is their problem, anyway?

Well, this is the place for you!

All new passengers from the last few Shuffles, especially those who haven't met their crews yet, are welcome to post starter-comments here to invite those living on and visiting your ship to come and interact. Newbies could be just arriving on the ship, busying around where others can find them, or you can offering multiple options for interaction--however you'd like to set up your thread is fine. Just make sure to include the name of your ship in the header, so your crewmates can easily find you!

Everyone else-- go meet those newbies! Whether they are new to your own crew, or on ships you frequently visit, now is a great time to bump into them.]

Comments

[nulliverse]

Oh, I've loads of experience with authority figures, you needn't worry about that. They lose a good deal of their mystery and fear when you realise that it always comes down to someone new telling you what to do, nothing more, and that's never likely to change.

[For all the flippancy in her words, her tone is laced with bitterness. Maybe just typical teenage rebellion against authority, maybe something else. But she seems to have a pronounced habit of taking most serious things lightly, at least on the surface.]

Is that the technical name? "Space madness?" Now I've got even less confidence in my ability to survive this with my mind intact.

[precedented]

As technical as it can be, considering where we are. Almost a universal madness that pervades the enormity of space.

[ He waves it aside. He is technically an authority figure, though he rarely exerts it when he is away from Arrakis and his Empire. ]

[nulliverse]

[That causes a smirk to pull at her lips.]

Very true, we're living in space madness at the moment. Best not to let it get under my skin as well. I'll simply have to make do, as I always have.

[She hasn't, though. There were strange symptoms behind the walls of the lab, ones that Eddie helped her to understand through his own experiences, and then further ones in Eudio. Maybe she's never snapped, but she's flirted with loss of reality before, when the strain simply got too great.]

I don't suppose you've heard of any coping mechanisms for encroaching space madness. Just in case, you understand.

[precedented]

I have my own madness to deal with.

[ An constant battle with the ones inside him. He can never lessen his hold. ]

But if you wish for advice, I shall pass some along. Madness is boredom. Don't let yourself become bored.

[nulliverse]

[The way she's looking at him changes very sharply at that. "My own madness" - it seems like a tragic statement, but he hasn't given it that sort of weight. Still, her expression is careful, her voice very soft.]

Your own madness...? Does it come from all you know, all that past and future?

[precedented]

No.

[ His voice is soft. Not to deter, but it seems like he's speaking as a different person entirely. ]

I carry my inner demons, so to speak. Though they are very real.

[nulliverse]

[She's about to ask if he means possession, but he's already said that his world doesn't have the traditional sort of demon, and - she doesn't think "real" means "literal" in this case. It's just another puzzle she can't work out.

But that change is hard to miss, and she thinks it may be the key. Real inner demons, but not in the sense of possession...]

Personalities? [She rushes to clarify, but it's not in her usual prattling way - she's very serious about this.] All I know for certain about multiple personalities is that everyone always gets them wrong, so I wouldn't make a single assumption about how it works. If that were the case.

[precedented]

Personalities? I'm afraid not. That would imply they are a semblance of me, when they are not. My body is a palace and it houses my ancestral tree, complete with their experiences and feelings.

[ And that's what makes it so dangerous. The family he loved, the one he felt the most connected to, reside in him, waiting for the moment he falters. ]

[nulliverse]

Good god. [Her eyes are still narrowed thoughtfully, because taking in the truth is as much of a struggle as trying to determine it.] That - no wonder you know everything, between that and the future-past vision. I suppose one couldn't help becoming a bit insufferable in that situation.

[And then she looks right at him, realizing what she's said.]

Not insufferable. That's overstating it.

[precedented]

Well. I think that would be an understatement.

[ He's well aware of his flaws though there is always going to be a communication barrier between him and others. It can't be helped. He's a lot better than what he was before. ]

[nulliverse]

[She squints at him for a moment, as though trying to decide whether or not he's serious, then bursts into laughter.]

As long as you own it. I'm quite aware that I'm unbearable most of the time, but I'm also perfectly happy with my own company. Anyone who wants to share it is an added perk.

[precedented]

I would have to be alone to appreciate that and I never am.

[ In a way. He's never alone, he never needs to be. He could easily reach out to one of the other lives and share in their experiences, their thoughts. They were just as alive as he was. But he remembered loneliness acutely. ]