+1 unhappy time traveler

[nostraightlines]

Who: Ramse and YOU
Broadcast: fleetwide
Action: SS Starstruck, if you want to come and find him
When: soon after the shuffle!

[ To say that Ramse is displeased is an understatement. This is the second time he's been yanked from one world to another, and where the first was actually an improvement, this second place is... not. Outerspace. Really. Really?! They don't even have space travel in his time, though he knows that in the past people made it as far as the moon. Nothing like this. His outrage at being taken is the overwhelming thing, though. He was happy in Eudio, where there was food and people he cared for. They told him they were sending him home (something he already had mixed feelings about) and instead he's here. Having to learn a new way of life all over again and excuse me it's being watched?

He's found the armory and the clothes in his bunk room, at least, so now he's dressed and armed. He sits in the cold empty space while he fiddles with the communicator. It turns out to be easy to use, and when he makes a broadcast his voice is deep and grumbly. Someone's sooooo cranky. ]

So let me get this straight, I'm new and might not have understood. We're here... to be entertainment. Not to save the world, not to help with a war, not to do anything productive at all.

Yeah. How do we leave?

Comments

Video >>—> Private Video

[takingkarabusiness]

[ she hesitates a moment, and switches the feed to private. he's already told her so much about himself, and he seems so earnest and honest. it wouldn't be fair not to return it ]

I'm not... exactly from Earth.

[nostraightlines]

[ He blinks. That. Isn't a thing he would have guessed. Suddenly the awkwardness of her 'humans, like me' comment makes a little more sense. ]

That's how you were so sure there were aliens, huh?

[takingkarabusiness]

...Yep. Better yet, I work with an organization to catch the malicious ones.

I got to Earth because... well, there was going to be no saving my planet, Krypton. So my parents put me in a ship and sent me behind my baby cousin, to keep him safe. He got to Earth fine, but I got stuck in the Phantom Zone and got out 24 Earth years later. Cousin was all grown up, I was the same age.

A great family adopted me. I really do love them.

[ she's studying the bottom of the communicator during this whole story, only looking up at the end while sighing ]

[nostraightlines]

[ That's a lot to take in. Ramse listens, though, and he believes her. She certainly doesn't sound like she's trying to fool him with some elaborate story. ]

There's a 'but' coming.

[ He hesitates, then: ] ... Your whole planet? If they had ships why didn't they try to evacuate more people?

[takingkarabusiness]

Of course there's a 'but'. I miss my family.

And—I don't know. My mother didn't explain everything to me. I imagine it was time and resources.

[nostraightlines]

I'm sorry you lost them. I lost my mother, too.

[ He feels terrible for asking questions, but they're already on the subject and it can't be worse than losing her family. ] What destroyed the planet?

[takingkarabusiness]

Over-mining the core. My parents advocated for it until it was too late. I think that's why they didn't come with me. They felt responsible. I was 12, so I didn't really know what was happening.

[nostraightlines]

That's so young, to be sent away from everything you know.

But now you protect earth from malicious aliens... like they want to colonize the planet or something?

[takingkarabusiness]

Or just create wanton destruction. Most of the aliens besides me and my cousin were prisoners who escaped and made their way to Earth.

[nostraightlines]

Oh, they're from your planet? Earth's lucky to have you, then.

[ He's entirely serious. If she's pulling his leg he'd be thrown for yet another loop. ]

[takingkarabusiness]

Some. Not all.

[ the show has more explaining to do tbh ]

But thank you. Normally I have some extra powers, but they're a result of the yellow sun that Earth has, and we're conveniently lacking one here.

[nostraightlines]

Powers, huh? Like what?

[takingkarabusiness]

Flying, super strength, super speed, invulnerability to most things, really really good vision...

[ she's kind of embarrassed talking about it ]

Just... a variety.

[nostraightlines]

...okay, so what you're saying is we need to find you some yellow sun.

[takingkarabusiness]

That would certainly be nice, yeah. It won't kill me not to have it, but it's... hard. I don't like it.

[nostraightlines]

I would not want to give up all that, either. Trust me. Same page.

What's flying like? I wanted to fly when I was a kid.

[takingkarabusiness]

It's... liberating, for sure. That sounds like a cliché but it's true. It's just so nice sometimes to go and clear your head. Get away from the light and noise.

[nostraightlines]

You live in a city, huh? That was the big adjustment for me where I just was. The noise. I liked it, though, it felt like that world was really alive.

Space is gonna take me awhile.

[takingkarabusiness]

You were in a city before here? What was that place like?

[nostraightlines]

...it was great. It was like the best parts of my world before the plague, a world I hardly remembered. There was a beach, and a forest not far away, and you know what's amazing? Grocery stores. Restaurants. I know I sound really focused on food but that was our biggest concern back home for most of my life.

They threw parties to welcome new folks every month or so, and everyone was... peaceful. We all had enough, there was no reason to fight. Nobody had to scavenge for anything, you could just get a job and buy things you needed. Everyone got a roof over their head and it was pretty safe. I met some amazing people there, too. People I'll never forget. That's rare where I'm from, that there's anybody you want to remember. So yeah, it was an adjustment but I already miss it. I think I always will.

[takingkarabusiness]

It sounds idyllic, really. I'm a little jealous. What happened? How'd you end up here?

[nostraightlines]

They found me. I was trapped in the past, lost, and a representative showed up and said they could give me anything I wanted if I came to their world and worked for them for awhile. I thought I was just dreaming it at first, but I wasn't.

[takingkarabusiness]

And that was it? Just a job offer?

[nostraightlines]

I guess it's a little more complicated than that. The job was sort of being human batteries... their world runs on intimacy so we were expected to make friends fast. I got a real job while I was there, too, for money.

[takingkarabusiness]

That sounds... complicated. And hard to measure?