004 ↯ audio

[feathery]

Who: Davesprite and whoever.
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Indoors, moonside.
When: Now sounds good.

[Someone is done to death with masks and getting accosted by randos on the street. Thus, Davesprite has taken refuge indoors, since that's as good as it gets short of returning to the ships. He'd normally opt for text, but he honestly just wants to talk for a while. Even if his voice is equal parts bored and sullen.]

Sportball ambushes on the street are great and all, [it probably isn't possible for him to sound more sarcastic] but I got to ponder the selection happening in this contaminated stain on the face of space. Like, sure, there are "strategy games" [yes, those are actual, audible air quotes], but where my real battles at. You know, the wordplay variety, where you drop a witticism to a sick beat and slant it to rhyme. Twist that shit into ill verse and cause some deadly delirium not even the most decorated doctor could cure. Dude could be veteran to World War Disease and still find himself stymied by this nasty flow that makes even the gutsiest guerilla fold. Ain't a medic around who can mend my rap battle burns.

[A beat.]

So, yeah, maybe I'm only pissed about moon pollution central 'cause all these hostile idiots keep hailing me out of the blue and yet: not a single fuckin' rap battle. [This is definitely not the only reason he's pissed about moon pollution central, but priorities.] What's a guy got to do, besides deck himself out in a shitty respirator and biohazard costume. A live performance? God, this is stupid.

Comments

[feathery]

Way lower priority than infomercials. That's quality television.

[Davesprite saw way too many infomercials as a child.]

Man, so you're like. A legitimate genius type. I didn't even make it to high school.

[forsometimenow]

Yeah. I mean, not to brag, but I skipped a few grades in school. I graduated med school when I was relatively young, too. It tended to make socialization a little hard.

[feathery]

Does that bum you out. Like, looking back, would you still want to skip grades and stuff.

[forsometimenow]

I do regret the lost time I spent studying... I missed out on a lot of ordinary teenage stuff, too. Parties, get-togethers, that kind of thing. I was too young to do stuff my classmates were doing, but people my age weren't quite sure how to handle me, I don't think. I'd do it all again, though. I was given this brain, so I didn't want it to go to waste.

[feathery]

Yeah, I guess that's legit. I mean it's not like you dislike doctoring, either.

[forsometimenow]

Exactly. I love my job and being able to help people.

[feathery]

Sounds like it gets kinda gross sometimes, though. I seen it on TV before.

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer wrinkled her nose.]

Yeah, it's definitely something you need a strong stomach for- and even then, I'm not 100% comfortable with the things I encounter sometimes. You know the movie Alien, with the chestburster? That gave me a nice, healthy fear of parasites.

[feathery]

[omg.]

Important question: have you seen something like a chestburster ever happen in real life.

[He's so concerned.]

[forsometimenow]

Just in a dream. The only other time I've seen a creepy-crawly, it was much smaller and hiding in my boyfriend's brain. I got it out, but that was one of the scariest surgeries I've ever had to perform.

[feathery]

I'm probably going to regret this line of questioning, but why the fuck was there a creepy-crawly in your boyfriend's brain.

[forsometimenow]

Well- it's not unknown in that part of the Pegasus Galaxy, and he was suffering from hypothermia at the time he picked it up, so his weakened immune system must have made him an appealing target. It almost killed him, because it resisted most attempts to get it out. ... Like I said, my life is pretty much a science fiction show.

[feathery]

Please tell me there wasn't mind control involved.

[forsometimenow]

No, just memory loss. [She turns quiet for a moment, the memory still a little painful.] We got it out, though- and my friend Ronon shot it to make sure it stayed dead.

[feathery]

Man. Maybe I'm biased, but I don't think memory loss is that great a prospect, either. Though I guess it doesn't matter since you got it out. I didn't know you were brain surgeon certified.

[forsometimenow]

It wasn't, believe me. I am, though- I got picked for the Stargate Program fresh out of med school, so in practice I was more of a jack of all trades, but the brain was one of my specialties.

[feathery]

How long have you been a doctor.

[forsometimenow]

Close to 3 years now. I mean, I had all the required training and stuff beforehand, but I'd never worked for a hospital or anything as a full-fledged doctor before coming to Atlantis.

[feathery]

Of course they named a space city Atlantis. Uh, that is a space city, right. I don't know my futuristic Milky Way geography. Astrography? Is there a word for that.

[forsometimenow]

[She nodded.]

Technically it's a gigantic spaceship, but it requires a tremendous amount of power to move- power we don't always have ready access to- so for the most part, it sits on the ocean's surface.

[feathery]

Oh. Weird. That makes way more thematic sense than I was expecting.

[He is used to things kind of conveniently being there and only sort-of-not-really making sense.]

Not gonna lie, I was half expecting to discover Atlantis was aliens all along.

[forsometimenow]

It makes sense, doesn't it? The city sank beneath the waves, but it didn't actually disappear, just traveled to another galaxy. That's why nobody could ever find it.

[feathery]

Wait. Are you serious. Is that actually a thing.

[forsometimenow]

Mmhmm. I wasn't there when it happened, but when a scientific expedition was able to reach it, the whole city rose from the ocean floor. I'm told it was breathtaking.

[feathery]

[There's a brief "wtf" silence and then he actually lets out a soft laugh.]

Ok, I had that one coming. Probably should have learned that lesson after getting enlisted by a bunch of Norse gods, but I guess all the weird shit you get schooled on is always gonna be true in some universe somewhere or other.