video; optional action

[nulliverse]

Who: Celeste Blackwell and the fleet
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Can be found sulking around the SS Golden kitchen
When: Feb 6, evening

[The last time this girl appeared on the network, she was in quite a hot rage, so it might be odd to see her looking quiet and pensive now. Sad, despite a slight smile, to those who really look closely.]

I've been away for awhile - don't ask, I don't quite understand it myself - but apparently I've come back just in time for Valentine's Day to be around the corner. And normally I'd be the last person to bring up something like this, but...

[But what? She doesn't say, just asks her question.]

... have you ever been in love? What were they like? What really made you think "My god, this is the one" when there are so many other people out there who might've been just as good? And I mean, if you're in love right now and you still want to answer, it needn't be past tense. I suppose - I just don't quite understand this either, I never have, but that doesn't stop it from happening.

[She appears to be at a loss for a moment, before shaking her head and chuckling to herself.]

My mates would laugh themselves sick if they could hear me now.

[And that's all.]

Comments

[goodjob]

[Her smile is a little sad.] Good for you. Hold onto it.

[nulliverse]

Really?

[She looks pretty sure that Fiona is taking the piss, but that wistful little smile says otherwise.]

You didn't seem the sort to condone that kind of stupidity. It must mean there's a bit of hope left, at least for others. [That's when she finally quirks a little smile herself.] I appreciate it.

[goodjob]

[Her smile gets a quirk to it.] Lady, no offense? But you don't know shit about me.

[nulliverse]

[She sputters, caught somewhere between the offense Fiona didn't mean and deep amusement, before finally laughing.]

None taken, that's a very fair point. But it's Celeste.

[goodjob]

Fiona. Where're you from? England or wherever? [Accents, bruh.]

[nulliverse]

England on the dot, actually, London. More lately from a city called Eudio, but I'm fairly sure that's not on any map but its own. What about you?

[goodjob]

Chicago, more lately a planet called Macha. Humor me, where's Eudio?

[nulliverse]

Well, I didn't learn about Macha when I did the solar system, but that sort of thing stopped being a surprise a long while ago.

[Her smile's a bit more inclusive at that. Weird alternate universes, amirite.]

And anyone who knew that certainly wasn't letting on - we never left the city or heard of anywhere outside it. If I had to hazard a guess, it looked like continental Europe, but everything else about the city was closer to the Twilight Zone. So your guess is really as good as mine.

[goodjob]

It's not in our solar system. Somewhere the fuck else. I was with an intergalactic cleanup crew before this. [In a manner of speaking.]

The Twilight Zone? What, there were alien abductions? [She's never seen The Twilight Zone.]

[nulliverse]

[And she was using it more generally to mean "a world of weird", so it's not technically a missed reference.]

There were aliens. Although I suppose you had those as well, in an intergalactic cleanup crew. But that still sounds like something that could really exist, albeit in a sci-fi film, so Eudio may still be slightly more mad.

[goodjob]

Uh, I had a friend there who wore a full red lycra bodysuit and baked four hundred pancakes for fun. I don't think you've got a monopoly on crazy.

[nulliverse]

Oh, I certainly wouldn't challenge you on the people. It's just that a city powered, as in the actual energy grid, by physical intimacy - it's set nearly everyone back a step, no matter how much they claim to be acclimatized to weird.

[goodjob]

Physical intimacy?

[nulliverse]

That's what I thought.

[It really never fails. She can't help but laugh.]

To be fair to them, though, they'd really accept anything. Hand holding, hugging, kissing, cuddling - it wasn't like being cast in a pornographic film. Or a pornographic life, as it were.

[goodjob]

But, still. If you didn't put out, they'd turn off the water. Jesus.

[nulliverse]

[Oh help, she can't stop laughing. It's not really funny in those words, not at all, but she still can't stop.]

It wasn't one of these places that kidnaps people either, if that helps at all. That seems to be the norm around here, but we came and went as we pleased. They just gave us an incentive to come and stay, so it was up to us how badly we wanted it, whatever it was.

1/? im sorry.

[goodjob]

[goodjob]

[goodjob]

4/5.

[goodjob]

[goodjob]

Yeah, right.

[nulliverse]

What? It's true! I saw loads of people leave and they all said goodbye beforehand. I even reached my incentive before I really wanted to leave, and they let me stay on for a bit to sort everything out.

[goodjob]

Your 'incentive'? You traded hugs for... what? What would be worth- that?

[nulliverse]

Let's just say I made a bigger mess of my life than most people could even imagine, and it was all for nothing in the end. I wanted to give that time some meaning instead of just having six years utterly lost to someone else's dream that never came true.

[goodjob]

So you signed up to make nice with strangers and met the love of your life. [She hopes she can keep the envy from her voice. She doesn't manage the anger.] What's your name again?