our feelings will tingle, it's a vanquish mingle!

[geonomy]

Who: The crew of the Vanquish and any visitors!
Broadcast: Maybe? Nah?
Action: On the awesome Vanquish ship
When: Now through July

[Just arrived? Don't like nature, or do you just not have feelings and don't want to hold hands? Come on in!]

Comments

[sonofgold]

[Al nodded.]

Well- half mine and half Clay's, but he's really the ship's pet. Oh, and I should say who I am- I'm Alphonse, your security officer.

[outstandingbalance]

You're a security officer?

[She largely tamps down on her skepticism, but a little surprise still comes through in her tone and on her face.]

Well, it's nice to meet you Alphonse.

[Natasha extends her hand to shake, respectful, pushing past her initial reaction.]

Natasha. Nice to meet you.

[sonofgold]

[Al accepted the handshake, quite used to the surprise in her voice. Most people weren't members of the military in their teens like he and Ed had been, after all.]

Glad to meet you, too. And that's what my augment is for, at least... the technology here is way, way ahead of what I'm used to, though, so I'm still learning things a bit.

[outstandingbalance]

[The ironic part is that Natasha was already training to be spy when she was younger than him.

But that doesn't make it common.]

More of those.

Suppose I've been trying not to think too hard about those.

[sonofgold]

Yeah... I don't blame you there. They're still a mystery to us, anyway- Atroma doesn't let us look at them too closely.

[outstandingbalance]

I've heard a thing or two about that, too. [She clears her throat gently, dismissive of the discomfort.] I hear it's a better idea not to poke around.

[sonofgold]

It makes you feel awful, let's put it that way. [Al swallowed before swiftly changing the subject-] But at least this planet will make you feel pretty good! The little fluffy slugs crawling around seem to have an ability to help people calm down and feel more peaceful.

[outstandingbalance]

[You'd think that would be nice, but Natasha takes that as more of a warning.]

Fluffy slugs? That's quite the mental image. It'll be nice to take a look around though. Get some fresh air.

[sonofgold]

This is much nicer than the last planet we were on, definitely. It had a toxic atmosphere, so you couldn't go outside without a gas mask on. Here it's so much more... free and open. I don't like being confined to a ship for long periods of time.

[outstandingbalance]

I can't blame you for that. Not that I have much room to complain considering I just got here, but there's something to be said for getting outside.

How long was it between planets?

[sonofgold]

We were on the toxic planet for a few months, but the transit time in-between there and here was only a few weeks. I guess Atroma was ready for a setting change, and so were we.

[outstandingbalance]

I guess it gets boring for the viewers at home if we stay in one place too long. Why not mix it up?

[sonofgold]

We usually do travel to a new setting every few months, probably for that reason, yes. ... though it still blows my mind a little to be talking about an "audience".

[outstandingbalance]

Yeah? Because it's so weird, or because you don't believe it?

[It seems to be the accepted, received information. And it fit what she heard on the Marsiva.

She's not getting married to any ideas yet, though. Not at all.]

[sonofgold]

A little bit of both. We didn't have television back home- just radio- so I'm still not quite sure how to take this idea that someone's watching me. On the other hand... I think there are some convincing arguments to be made that the audience isn't actually there.

[outstandingbalance]

If there are, I'd love to hear them.

[sonofgold]

For one, we never actually see them- or we haven't as long as I've been here. Atroma barely even speaks to us, and while they supposedly read fan mail to us every now and then, it'd be easy to fabricate that. If we're on such a popular show, why not let the fans meet us?

[outstandingbalance]

Good questions. It's hard to say without knowing more about our audience, though.

For all we know this is more like going to the zoo than it is wanting to meet a celebrity.

[sonofgold]

Yeah, and I'm not sure we'll find much more out than we already do. Lack of information is one of the ways Atroma keeps us on a leash. If we don't know where to look, and if the information is closed off to us, then we can't do much in the way of digging.

[outstandingbalance]

There's always information somewhere. It's just a matter of finding out where to look and how to get at it.

[sonofgold]

All out of Atroma's watchful eyes. Of course, they haven't addressed us in months, so maybe they're not keeping as close an eye on us as before.

[outstandingbalance]

That sounds a little too optimistic to count on. Still, there's always a way...

They can't really be watching everything, can they?

[sonofgold]

My gut says they're not. I mean, that's a LOT of hours of footage to have to put together for a short television program, considering how many of us there are.

[outstandingbalance]

Do we know for sure that's the format? For all I know they might be streaming us twenty-four seven, deciding which cameras they want to follow.

[sonofgold]

That's a good question, actually- I think everyone's just assumed it's a program. But even with constant monitoring, they'd have to have a lot of eyes on us.