driftfleet | video; optional action

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Santanico has never been in love really. Men have tried to own her, posses her, dress it up as love, but the real thing? She's not sure she's capable of it. Maybe a long time ago she could have been....But things have changed.]

I don't think I have. There was a man who claimed to love me, but he worshiped me.

[Carlos wanted to own her as much as Malvado did, just in a very different way.]

That's very different.

I'd imagine that's about as different as any two things could be, really.

[She knew Caleb loved her when he saw her for who she was, on a level deeper than even she was willing to accept, she'd spent so long crafting and wearing masks. He cut through everything and found her very core, and that was what he loved.

Worshiping, that's just putting someone on a pedestal. Seeing what you need in and from them. Celeste's only had a small taste of fame for comparison, but from that alone, she has a feeling it's nothing she'd ever want.]

It all sounds very glamorous, being worshiped, if you don't think about it too carefully. It's probably just lonely, isn't it?

He didn't think so. He was confused, blinded by his adoration.

[Carlos never saw her as a person. She was a symbol to him. A goddess. Mi diosa he would whisper to her over and over again. She had thought once, long ago, maybe he would be the one to save her.

But he wanted to own her just like Malvado did, just in a different sort of way.

Santanico has never experienced anything remotely healthy, but she knows all about unhealthy dynamics.]

It is.

[Men would come to see her in droves. The great Santanico Pandemonium. They would watch her dance, be memorized by her, but they never knew her, not any of them. She was always alone, in the end.]

Well, no, I'd imagine he wouldn't. It'd be easy enough to think that more intensity can only be good, an even deeper sort of love, but...

[She can't quite find the words for what she means, because she never really worshipped Thomas, but she did have a fierce intensity in her feelings for him that was somehow much less honest and true than her feelings for Caleb. There is a level of understanding here, a few, but they're tangential at best.]

... you've got to see someone to love them at all. See all of them, good and bad and utterly terrifying.