driftfleet | 01

Entry tags:

01 | action

Who: Hartley and YOU
Broadcast: nope. once you put something on the internet it's there forever, you know.
Action: SS Paisley and the Iskaulit
When: upon his arrival and throughout the day

a. [closed] action for Paisley Captain and First Mate

[ hartley's stay aboard the marsiva is short lived, so he's managed to glean very little information. it's unsurprising; it would hardly be entertaining for an audience to watch him appear only to instantly disappear. if entertainment value is the main criteria behind every production decision, then he imagines he's not going to find his assignment to his liking; peaceful coexistence is a terrible bore to watch. steeling himself for the worst, he decides to tread carefully for now. he has a lot of learning yet to do, and it would be preferable if he isn't constantly interrupted to attend to petty squabbles. besides, getting into fights will increase his ratings which will increase the focus given to him by this show if he's to accept the premise and that - would limit his mobility. that means that, for now, he has to respect the hierarchy of the ship. from the little he's managed to learn so far, the fleet has two ranks worth noting - captain and first mate. so after locating his room and making himself as presentable as he's able (honestly, couldn't he have been taken with a better wardrobe than the casual wear cisco put him in? this is humiliating. he at least leaves the baseball cap and brushes his hair.), he goes to seek out those members of his crew he's meant to follow - and find out their qualifications because hierarchy or no hierarchy, he's not following an idiot. once he finds the correct hatches, he knocks, seeking admittance. ]

This is your new communications officer, permission to enter?

b. [OTA] action for Paisley crew and guests

[ the rest of the crew can find him wandering the ship, acquainting himself with every nook and cranny. before he settles in his bunk to start figuring out a game plan, he wants to know everything he has to work with. he pays special attention to the communications station, engine room, and laboratory, taking mental stock of the available equipment and supplies. he knocks before entering, but if there's no answer and no lock, he lets himself in all the same. ]

c. [OTA] action for the Iskaulit

[ once he satisfies his curiosity for his own ship, the next logical step is to take a visit to the communal vessel. his preliminary skim of the network informed him of the existence of a library on board, so of course that's his first stop. he expects any book of actual value to be out on loan but people tend to focus on the obvious, making them miss the immense, sometimes superior value in out-of-the-box thinking. he picks up a few books that would, at worst, help him pass a little time. he continues to systematically make his way through the ship, acquainting himself with every business before settling down in a strategic corner of the málum that allows him the best most hidden view of the patrons, with a virgin cocktail (it's not the time to dull his mind, after all) and one of the books he picked up ]

d. [closed] video for cisco ramon

[ upon studying the fleet manifest, he finds one familiar name. searching through the network proves that it is, in fact, the person the name suggests it to be. multiverse theory does suggest that it's possible this cisco isn't the cisco he knows, but from a purely dramatic standpoint - it would make no sense not to take them from the same verse, they would be far too entertaining. besides, it's a mystery easily solved - different verses would vibrate in a different frequency to avoid collapsing into each other. a simple test can let them know if they do in fact share a universe. of course, cisco is likely to be a annoying about allowing hartley to scan him after the way he put barry's scans into use, but that's really more of a mild annoyance at the moment than an actual problem. after mulling it over every which way, he decides it's better for him to reveal himself quickly and under his own terms than to allow cisco to happen upon his presence on the crew manifest or by running into each other unexpectedly.

dialing the man's private number, he clicks the video option, knowing the other is likely to think it some sort of time wasting trick. suspicion is so tiresome. ]

Boo.

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[ now there is a bit of truly curious information. if push comes to shove - that's a way back on board the marsiva. he doesn't relish the thought of self harm, but sometimes in chess one has to sacrifice a queen to take the king. ]

Sounds fascinating. Any chance for a tour?

[ he's going to poke around on his own as well, but it would be made much more effective if he doesn't waste time figuring out what things stefan could easily explain to him are. ]

I think so.

[He glances down at his watch. Looks like he's got enough time for Asr, even with the overly-specific questions.]

Have you gotten a chance to look around the rest of the ship yet?

I scraped the surface.

[ he nods, noting the gesture. ]

Am I keeping you from something? We could reconvene at a better time. [ he wants that tour, but he also wants to know what his captain has on the schedule, and how easy it is to get him to change it. and, he also doesn't want to push him on his first day. he'll stretch his limits eventually, but only when he's secure of his position. only idiots charge ahead blindly. ]

Nah. I can show you the lab, but I've gotta head back and pray afterwards.

[While he appreciates the thoughtfulness, his faith comes before everything - including his crew. Stefan'll reach for his shoes and slip them on before he motions towards the door.

As they head out, he can't help asking (because he's genuinely curious),] So you said you had advanced degrees? Where'd you study?

[ pray. captain just lost some points from hartley there, but it's a point he makes certain to file away in his head. considering the time of day and the arabic in his notes, he would guess muslim, but in an infinite multiverse, he imagines humanity could have come up with infinite religions time ten.

they're out the door before he has a chance to address it, but he supposes that might be a blessing in very loose fitting disguise - he's trying not to offend his captain, and his rational and all around loss of faith in everything mixes very badly with religion. ]

Ivy University, [ he says, because the dc database seems to indicate it's the premier scientific university in the dc universe. ] MIT. [ he adds because students of advance degrees tend to go where their field takes them and that's the school that comes to mind when his field comes up. ] Physics, mathematics, and engineering. [ there is obvious pride in his voice when he speaks of his education. he knows he's exceptional, and he has no intention of hiding it even if it does turn out to be the superior strategy. his pride is extremely important to hartley, it's all he's got left. ] Did you study before this - [ his eyes look around the hall, as if the right description would appear on one of the walls ] break? [ he's very displeased to be here, but he won't give the atroma the satisfaction of seeing that, ok. ]

[He wishes he'd heard of Ivy University, but he knows MIT. It's a stubborn universal constant. Also a school notoriously as difficult as his own alma mater, and Stefan can't say he wishes grade deflation on anyone.

Teasingly, with some actual awe in his voice,] Wow. I think a communications augment might be wasted on you.

But yeah, I did. I was in medical school back home, [he says, like it's absolutely no big deal,] but I went to Princeton before that for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

[ he knows this teasing tone of voice well, and it instinctively makes his jaw clench. while he does enjoy being around other scientists, other people with advanced aspirations because he finds everyone else to be an unbelievable bore - it does come with the edge of constant competition for superiority. he may not have studied medicine or biology in an advanced forum, but he does understand enough of it to fit himself with his own custom made hearing aids. of course, the ones he has on now are courtesy of cisco but that's only because the ones he made doubled as bombs he used in his escape.

they were clearly superior, ok. ]

They all would be. [ he says, and as stuck up as that sounds, he also means it honestly. his talents extend to many fields, confining him just to one is always going to be wasteful.

but yes, it's his brilliance in engineering that he suspects kept him away from an engineering augment. the atroma clearly understood the danger of enhancing him in that particular field. ]

What year were you in?

[ a medical degree is useful, if completed. what he finds more interesting is the focus on evolutionary biology. the captain just gets more and more interesting. he may end up liking him - which is dangerous and he would rather avoid at all costs. when you like someone you leave yourself vulnerable to be hurt, it's a lesson he's been taught repeatedly by two families now. ]

[His overconfidence is almost endearing. Almost, because Stefan still has to live with this guy.]

Second. I was finishing up my pre-clerkship period when Atroma nabbed me. [He's still bitter about that. Hard not to be, when he was so close to rotations and the actually useful bits of medicine. Most of what he knows is practical, picked up from a century of experience (including his time as an ambulance driver in WWII). The human body hasn't changed. Not that quickly.] But I've been training with physicians here, and I've volunteered at every hospital we've seen in the past year.

[Thanks, Atroma. He'd like to be a cool vampire doctor, but instead, he's the medical student forever arrested in-between.]

[ hartley would argue it's not overconfidence when you have the skills to back it up.

he notes that bitterness with understanding. if he had been grabbed in the midst of his education, or while he was still working on the particle accelerator he would have had a much harder time to maintain his composure. as it stands, though, he doesn't exactly have anything to go back to. the bridge to star labs has been burnt probably beyond repair (because he doubts they would ever give him his due credit for the good he's done. he's done too good a job convincing them he's capable of anything), his parents still won't pick up his calls - wherever he goes now it'll be a new beginning. it's as good a time to be kidnapped as there can ever be. ]

Did you settle on a specialty yet?

Not yet. I wanted to finish rotations before I committed to one.

[Mostly because he can't fully control himself around blood. He can volunteer at the drive because there's a degree of separation, and the relevant parties know who he is and what he can do. Back home? People didn't believe they existed, let alone walked among them.

They'll reach the lab soon enough. When they do, Stefan can't quite help bursting with pride. This is his work, and he likes this kind of work. If he actually liked the situation, it would be a home away from home.] Well, here we are.

[Like Stefan's room, the space is impeccably neat, but not inhumanly so. There's a (generic, landscape) calendar on the wall marking things like holidays and birthdays; there's a small desk tucked in the corner with an organized stack of papers and books; and the medicine cabinets are well-stocked. Everything has a proper place, and there might even be some basic first aid kits being prepared. (He does volunteer with the blood drive, after all.)]

[ it could point towards an inability to commit, or a desire to fully understand the commitment he steps into. more information is clearly required before hartley makes up his mind, but considering stefan's obvious commitment to his religion he leans towards the man takes his commitments seriously and won't make them lightly.

going into the lab, hartley first does a walk-through, taking in the layout, familiarizing himself with the equipment available - considering the advanced space travel, he expected to be unfamiliar with a lot more of it, but a single unknown device is exciting.

next, he looks through the medicine cabinets - locating the triptans he'll be needing for his migraines he picks one of the bottles up. ]

This the supply you mentioned? I'd like to keep a pill or two in my room for emergencies. [ he'd like to keep more, but he doesn't want to look like he's hording or worse - a drug addict. if he always has one in case he wakes up in too much agony to move, that'll always be enough. he does try to restrict his use as much as possible, he just doesn't want something to happen to the medbay to cut him off from his supply. ]

Sure. Take a few more, just in case - I'd like to buy another few bottles, but I can't promise those right away.

[Read: even if something happens to the med bay, he's at least guaranteed a supply of his own. Stefan trusts that if this guy's a drug addict, they'll find out soon enough.]

[ he nods and picks up an empty bottle, filling it about a third of the way through so there's plenty left in the med bay for anyone else who might need it. ]

Thank you. About how often do you manage to resupply? [ he has to decide what pain is worthy of medicating, and that's an important factor. ]

About once a week for the basics, and then every month for anything big or special. When we're planet-side, I'll stock up on everything they have to offer - vaccines, medicines, first-aid kits, and so on.

[He might've shrugged, were this any other job on the Fleet, but Stefan takes everyone's health far too seriously.]

By my estimate, we'll be fine even if everyone say, comes down with the flu at once.

[ taking his work seriously is definitely a trait hartley appreciates. major points are being won here by the captain. so major in fact, that he might overlook the qualities he's less than fond of for a while. ]

You keep a tight shift here. [ he neatly returns the bottle to its place, pocketing the one he's taken for himself. he hopes it won't be put to the test, but if it is - from a rudimentary inspection they do look as prepared as they can be. ] What have you learned about these extraterrestrial medicines? [ he hopes these pills will even help him. are they made for his earth's biology? this is going to require experimentation he's not looking forward to. ]

I try to. [Doesn't always happen, given how Atroma loves to screw with their routines and their lives in general - but he's put enough effort over time to ensure that basic medical needs are met.]

As for the medicine, uh - most planets have encountered humans, or human-like beings, so they'll work without major side-effects. [He shrugs,] I figure that's on purpose, but it's hard to tell with Atroma.

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