driftfleet

Entry tags:

01.

Who: Ororo and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide video
Action: On the Marsiva
When: Right now!

--

[ The video feed clicks on as Ororo wakes, with the sound of her cape's wrist bangles clattering against whatever assorted metal fixtures there are on the bed as she gets to her feet. It's quiet aside from the background noise of the Hospitality Deck, with Ororo silently assessing the situation she'd found herself in. Was it a kidnapping? She could see the void of stars and space through the large window - had she been pulled into another intergalactic issue? Ororo frowned, the sparks of lightning crawling along her skin making the video feed flicker with static. ]

[ Assuming that there were other X-Men with her here somewhere (nine times out of ten they were pulled into these things together), she decided to go looking for them and regroup... or at least find someone on the Deck to question. She takes the communicator with her just because it looked useful, but neglects to switch it off or anything - so between brief moments of static from her lightning, it happens to pick up her movement and voice as she mutters to herself: ]

By the Goddess, I do not have time for this. I have a school to run!

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[Fortunately, that explanation is... not even new to Ororo. Getting whisked away by impromptu kidnappings, with no time passing back in her homeworld, is a bit old hat for her by now. So this new information is taken in with little more than an irritated sigh... and a fair bit more static.]

That's good to hear. But in my experience, anything enforced by kidnapping tends to come hand in hand with other, unfortunate circumstances to be dealt with. [Or at least, that's how it usually happens in comicbook crossover events.]

I assume you are part of this... vacation as well?

You mean a fellow abductee? Yeah. This is actually my second interdimensional shithole, so I'm kind of used to it. There's a lot of us who have been through this sort of thing before, too.

[That said, she's squinting at the communicator, but not commenting on the static just yet. Maybe there's just a bad signal today, for some reason?]

I've had some experience with this as well. Perhaps that is part of the operation... whatever it may be. [She gets a good look around the hospitality deck, at all the TV screens flickering their messages at her.]

"Part of an intergalactic reality show"... Is that what we have to deal with here?

That's what we're told. But they've never given any real evidence for this, and no one we've ever encountered has ever heard of this show, so... I don't believe it. There's no reason to believe anything the Atroma say, after all.

That's not a reason to disbelieve them, either. [She trails off thoughtfully. She's experienced similar things before, with Mojo, but he was always in their face about the show. This was looking like a very subdued version of it.]

But if it isn't true, what else could we be doing here? Is there anything else we've been told?

Maybe. It's possible they're telling the truth, but it's also possible they're lying, and frankly, we don't know enough to say either way. I prefer to believe they're lying, as they've offered no proof, the two times they've actually opened up two-way communications they freaked out when pressed with the slightest bit of scrutiny, and... Well, there's a bit more, but it's more personal.

I've been working on a document of the information we've obtained so far. Do you want to see that?

[Have some relatively surprised blinking.]

That would be very helpful, yes. Thank you.

[She pauses thoughtfully, then offers her a little smile.] You may call me Storm.

"Storm", huh...

[It doesn't even register as an odd name- rather, it's familiar in the strangest of ways. In the last place, where everyone had lost their memories, picking new names was the norm. And with names chosen like Blade, or Star, or in the more memorable cases, Badass or Falcon Punch, Nightingale's become totally used to just using normal words as names.

But it's enough to make her wonder if Storm didn't come from a place like that, too, where choosing your own name is the norm.]

I'm Nightingale. It's nice to meet you.

[She fiddles with the communicator, sending over a link to a document.]

About half of that is the history of the Fleet so far, so you can skip the second half if you'd prefer. It's not comprehensive, but it's meant for new people, so I don't want to overwhelm you with too much information at once. It has the important bits, anyway.

[It's a while before Ororo responds, between figuring out how to open the file and quickly run through the entire thing rather than skip any parts as suggested.]

... If you don't even consider this to be comprehensive, I rather shudder to think what a more complete history would be like. [She frowns a bit, but has a smile of thanks for Nightingale when she turns back to her.] - But thank you. This has more information than I thought I would get at all. It's... very quiet here. [Here being the Marsiva.]

Enjoy it while it lasts over there, honestly. At least the food over there is decent.

It's no problem, though. People vanish from here sometimes, and I don't want any information to get lost just because those who were around for it aren't here anymore. Information is our best weapon against the Atroma right now, after all.

Very true. [Ororo nods in approval. It's always nice to meet someone with a good head in their shoulders.]

I will keep this on hand, and perhaps I'll call on you again if I have any more questions. [Hopefully that sounded like the question she meant for it to be.]

[... poor storm is going to be very disappointed when she realizes just how much of a basket case nightingale actually is, huh.]

Yeah, you're welcome to. I'm usually on the Iskaulit, either working on the construction of the fox park, or hanging out in one of the bars, so... I'm pretty much always free if you have a question on anything.

[please don't disappoint her, storm being Disappointed is like disappointing your own mother it's rarely fun]

A fox park on a ship? [Did she hear that correctly or...]

[... well, i mean, she's done a lot of that too.]

Yeah. A lot of us picked up pet foxes at the last planet we were at, but they don't have a place to play with each other. Stratus, come say hello.

[And then the camera feed is covered up by a nose for a minute, before it's pulled back, with Nightingale flicking a hand and keeping a little arctic fox levitating in the air next to her.]

[Ororo's smile is immediately warm and perhaps even delighted. She loves wildlife.]

Ah! How precious. I will have to come say hello some time.

[She doesn't have the presence of mind to comment on how she'd made it float with a flick of her wrist. That was just normal to her.]

Do you make planetary stops often?

I'll keep her with me, then.

[Even better, said fox is just rolling around on thin air, clearly enjoying itself.]

Not when I can avoid it, honestly, but this station kind of pisses me off. On better planets, I do. The one before this was pretty fun.

Unless you meant the Fleet in general, in which case... It's about a month at each stop, then a couple of weeks in between, or thereabouts.

[That's a relief for her to hear, honestly. She doesn't know how she'd do if they were stuck on a space ship for indefinite stretches of time.]

At least we have opportunities to stretch our legs, I suppose.

What is wrong with this particular station?

Well... For one thing, they froze all our accounts for cargo the Atroma forced onto us, so we've been completely broke the entire time we're here.

Frozen accounts? [So they really did get paid... But more importantly - ] If that's the case, how have you all been faring without access to your currency? [She'd gotten the assumption that they'd been in this place a while now!]

Taking jobs here. Or, if that isn't an option, surviving on stored supplies and cash from the previous planet we visited.

[Well, that's given her at least one thing to put on her To Do Immediately list once she's out of the Marsiva. She sighs.]

... Thank you, for the advanced warning.

And all the information, as well. You've been a tremendous help.

No problem. We're all in this together, right? I'm glad to help.

You can call me if you have any other questions later, too.

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