+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

[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?

[nostraightlines]

From what I could tell they didn't kick people out if they weren't doing enough, you just wouldn't get your incentive as fast -- that's the thing you asked for when they brought you in. Everyone had to be a battery a certain amount to get what they wanted.

There was a way to check, I think through city hall, but I never bothered. They told me when my contract was fulfilled.

I'm supposed to be home right now. Atroma got in the way somehow.

[takingkarabusiness]

They seem to be good at that. But I hope you find your way back. Maybe this is just another Phantom Zone.

[nostraightlines]

What does that mean, anyway? Just 'a part of space you're stuck in'?

[takingkarabusiness]

A part of liminal space—literally. I was trapped in stasis during my time there and while time didn't exist inside of it, it continued outside of it.

[nostraightlines]

Well, we're not in stasis. I don't feel stasis'd. But I get your metaphor, it's a place we're trapped going from one world to another.

...right?

[takingkarabusiness]

Right. Yes, exactly.

[nostraightlines]

[ He taps his head; see, he's smart! ]

Seems like there are a lot of people here that were somewhere besides home when Atroma nabbed them. You noticed that?

[takingkarabusiness]

A few, yeah. Not me, though.

[nostraightlines]

You've already done your world hopping.

[takingkarabusiness]

I suppose so, yeah. I did.

Can I just say I was not expecting to spill everything to someone I just met. Not that I have any regrets, because I don't. Just noticing.

[nostraightlines]

I seem to have that effect on people. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anybody.

Do many people here know? Because if there's anywhere they'd believe you're an alien, it's in outerspace.

[takingkarabusiness]

Not many. A woman named Kitty, mostly. Old habits die hard, and I don't really know what the atmosphere is like.

[nostraightlines]

Oh, I met her. She's got apocalypse issues, too, we bonded.

[ She said that in public so he figures it's fine to mention. ...he really does seem to get people's stories right off the bat. ]

[takingkarabusiness]

She walked through a bench right in front of me.

[nostraightlines]

It's a pretty cool power, I just hope she doesn't do it around a friend I have here... she nulls abilities, Kitty might get stuck in a wall.

[takingkarabusiness]

Wait.

What?

[nostraightlines]

That's her power, nulling other people's so they don't work. I don't think it would have any effect on you if we found you a sun, though.

[takingkarabusiness]

Why?