And We Danced (Masquerade Overflow!)

[thespaceopera]

The Captcha is upon us, but the party isn't over! Feel free to continue your threads here, start new ones, and continue the dance party!

- Original Mingle
- OOC Post

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Comments

[pain_train]

Oh, awesome!

[She just looks at him.] Where I come from, the Office of Compliance makes people want to behave. Makes them. They take you away and either you come back fixed or don't come back at all and everyone forgets you ever existed. And the dysthropes were out there, waiting to tear the dome down. And I couldn't do jack shit about anything because my back is fucked and no one could fix it, and the Office of Compliance was after me.

So yeah. It's better here.

[grandstanding]

[There's a slight hardening in his expression, but the revulsion he feels goes far deeper. A form of brainwashing and control, then. Purging undesirables, or those who don't fit in. Again, he reflects on the fact that humanity doesn't change, no matter how far into the future they go. Hoping they would and waiting for that day is pointless.]

I see. Still, we have things wired into our brains. I doubt that's benign behaviour. [Not to mention, it's a short cut for them to enforce complicity, should they desire it. He's seen people taken over before, puppeted by those who have the ability and the whim.]

[pain_train]

[By way of answering, she sweeps her hair away from the back of her neck to show the port installed at the base of her skull. It's obviously rather damaged--from that big fall she took if nothing else.

And she shrugs. Been there, done that, basically.]

They're supposed to protect us from the dysthrophy, but Beverly said she thinks that's not true.

[grandstanding]

[He's revolted. It only shows in a narrowing of his eyes. After a moment, he manages to speak in a calm voice.]

Dysthrophy?

[pain_train]

A plague. Everyone thinks it was a bioweapon used in the war, but no one knows who did it. If you get infected, you go crazy and grow like extra arms and shit and try to eat people.

Killed all of the cities on my planet except mine, in the end. That's why we had to build the dome. Well, that and because the chemical warfare fucked the terraforming to hell. That's what the Line was. The army held the Line around the city while the dome was built.

[grandstanding]

[He takes that all in silence. Eventually, he ventures this:]

I'm beginning to see why you find the Fleet preferable. [If it were him, he'd still want to return. Set things to right. Smash obstacles in the way of that.]

[pain_train]

Yeah, I wish my friends were here with me. So they'd be safer too.

And I feel bad about it. But like... I was fucking useless, back home. Since I broke my back and got turfed out of the army. Dead weight.