driftfleet | .08 stop all the clocks

Who: Rogue and anyone who likes!
Broadcast: Yes, text, first part
Action: Yes, second part!
When: Today

[In the weeks since Rogue woke up from her coma, she found that: a) dealing with atrophied muscles really sucked, but she at least had her feet underneath her again; b) they were on a planet with space invaders and going down there chronically endangered every single native and she hated it; c) ...so many people were gone.

It hurt. It hurt enough to drive her to public communication. She writes:]

Okay, so for those of ya who've been at this for a while... I'm comin' up on eight years in one of these interdimensional sewer stops, an' I know we're supposed ta be stay positive but sometimes... positive just doesn't cut it. Here, in no particular order, are my top five reasons for why these places are the worst. Feel free to share your own.

5. Even when something changes, nothing ever changes.
4. Old faces are new faces.
3. The absolute boredom only spiced with moments of sheer terror.
2. Explainin' the same old 'stuckness' ta every new face.
1.

[Everybody leaves. She can't quite bring herself to write that down, though, and so temporarily abandons the post to get back on the Iskaulit and train. She heads to the gym to do very basic strength training exercises over and over and over again. At least she's gotten so she can do this on her own, but Rogue is still far from satisfied with her progress.

Much later, she'll be at Nami's bar, ordering some food and, finally, checking the journal to see if she has any responses to her list.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They can be all of the above.

Why choose when you can multi-task.

A good point.

The second point does grow tiring after a while. [Not that he's engaged with it as much in the Fleet. New persons don't tend to appear right in his own home, like they did in the other places.]

My second point? On the list?

[She glances at it and sighs.] I always figure it's better to let the friendlier and more helpful people run the introductions. Getting ripped from everything you know is usually rough enough to deal with.

I've had the duty before, as the oldest remaining person in the area. [As the longest-serving member of a team, when all others had cycled out over and over again.] I find little point in sugarcoating things.

Being the oldest is never as fun as you think it's going to be when you're a kid. [She thinks back with horror at the times when she was the ranking X-Man for that reason.] I guess I just figure... they're going to get hit hard soon enough. No reason to make it worse for them than it has to be.

[In the library, it had happened within the span of a week. Erik had arrived as the newest person; seven days later, he was the longest-serving member of the team.]

I tend to be one of the oldest in any of these places, so it happens automatically. Everyone has a different approach. Mine is not the most suitable here. [That, and he doesn't particularly want to be the one doing it.]

What is your approach?

[Who are you, this world's version of Erik Lehnsherr? She has your tattoo written in her brain. She's had your nightmares. And you are not him at all.]

Hitting hard. [To use Rogue's earlier phrase.] I prefer to be upfront with the worst of it, both seen and potential. This isn't an environment that calls for it. [If death were imminent, his opinion would be drastically different. As it stands, he's fine to pass the duties to the more enthusiastic members of the Fleet.]

That fits.

[With what she knew of him, at least. Although at this point, she's wishing she hadn't written that. Oh well.] But you do have a point. Outside of the other fleet and a few aberrations, it seems like the worst thing we have to warn folks about is the food. And the boredom.

It looks that way. Those aspects aren't hard to cover, either.

Not that I'm complaining about the lack of random experimentation and drafted combat.

['So far', he thinks privately. Things can always turn.]

I would hope not.

[...okay, this conversation was going no where unless Rogue started asking some noisy questions. Fortunately, she was 1) in a bad mood and 2) didn't have the same qualms over minding her own business when she considered the person a 'bad guy'.

She did, however, have enough courtesy not to slap a 'mutant' label on someone in public without permission. So she changes the frequency to a private transmission.]

So is that why you haven't been turning space ships into origami? Practice in other places like this?

[He frowns at the text. Personal feelings aside, he isn't capable of touching the hulls of the ships. Some artificial restriction slapped on him by the Atroma, or evidence the ships were built from some alloy or material he simply has no power over. The former seems more likely. While that would be the simple answer, it's one he's loathe to give to most people.]

Yes, and I don't see much gain in it.

[If he did manage to rupture a hull, at best he'd render a ship unusable, at worst kill everyone on it for no cause. Maybe that could be useful, if they landed somewhere and they sabotaged all the ships so they couldn't leave again. He may not be able to affect the hull directly, but he can certainly throw a steel girder into them.]

.08 stop all the clocks

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