001: Happy New Year!

[stabsbothways]

Who: Isabela and YOU
Broadcast: Unsuspecting Fleetwide Broadcast
Action: Hospitality Wing, Marsiva
When: January 1st!

[ Everything is wrong. The air: the smell, the temperature, the lack of breeze. Her bed: leathery but not, cold, sterile. She jolts awake and is assaulted with light. The light is wrong. It's too bright, it's too distributed, it's the wrong color. She can't help but swear in the most serious and dire way she knows how. ]

Maker be fucked.

[ She steps unsteadily onto a floor made of alien material, her boots making an audible sound as they make contact.

She's got her armor on but- no, her daggers are gone. No grenades, no bombs. Even her poisoned hairpin is gone. ]

Hello?

[ She starts to wander, looking at strange blinking lights and confusing surfaces which- she knows how to use? What even?? She moves to one console and finds that she can understand the language onscreen, and knows how to navigate the interface. ]

Comments

[ladybro]

Yeah. Your expectations would be right -- at least, not until the Atroma want you off. Then you'll get assigned to one of the Fleet's ships. Kinda like the first week of college. [ ... ] And dorm rooms.

[stabsbothways]

[ A whole bunch of new and foreign names. ]

This doesn't look like any fleet I've ever seen. How big is this ship, if that's what I'm on?

[ladybro]

The Marsiva? It's pretty big. But I figure they don't let us see most of it. Otherwise, the other ships are mostly like little space-dinghys. Cramped quarters. Meager facilities.

[stabsbothways]

You're the second person to say 'space.' What does that mean?

[ladybro]

It means the stars. [ okay, a kernel of proper patience enters her voice. ] Like, when you look up at the night sky and you see all the countless possible places up above you? That's space.

[stabsbothways]

We're up there. Floating.

[ Is the disbelief apparent enough in her voice? ]

In what?

[ladybro]

A vacuum. Debris. Alien poop. I don't really know.

[stabsbothways]

[ This sounds made up. ]

Then put me in contact with someone that does.

[ladybro]

Hey, lady. I'm not a switchboard operator. You'll have to wait and see if someone a little more PhD-ish shows up on their own.

[stabsbothways]

If you're not here to explain anything, then why are you talking to me?

[ladybro]

You said 'hello'. [ a pretty big invitation to converse, kate thought. ]

[stabsbothways]

You're not big on context, are you?

[ladybro]

I love context. I'm just not married to it.

[ and therefore reacted quite normally (she thought) to someone offering a greeting over the network. if that someone expected more, then kate certainly doesn't blame herself. whatever. ]