driftfleet | 2. Glitched Augmen-Tina

Entry tags:

2. Glitched Augmen-Tina

Who: Tina Belcher and YOU
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Paisley
When: February 5th

[When Tina turns the camera on, she's... quite chatty. And speaking a lot faster than she normally does.]

So is it normal to have a huge burst of energy come from nowhere because the last time this happened to me I was hooked on espresso but I haven't had a single drop of that magic liquid in years pretty much no thanks to my mom pawning the espresso machine but anyway I can't keep still and this really isn't like me is there some way to make it stop??

[She pauses to take a breath.]

... actually I don't want it to stop BYE.

Action

[Sorry, Paisley shipmates, but your new cook is twitchy and running here to there, compulsively cleaning, when she's not experimenting with food in the new kitchen. Quite a change from her first week here, where she was very retiring and shy.]

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[Arthur narrows his eyes, suspicious (not at Tina. At Atroma.)]

I was feeling that way yesterday. Do you feel really happy, too?

Mostly it's this boundless energy but yeah I seem to be in a pretty good mood too, it's kinda weird because I'm never this peppy.

Edited (quietly fixing an embarrassing typo) 2017-02-06 22:36 (UTC)

Tiiiiiiiinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, do you need help?

[She's... somehow... way more energetic than she was before. Somehow. She's probably been following Tina around for a bit regardless of what she's been doing.]

If you want to help I mean I know cleaning isn't something everyone likes to do so if you wanna just watch that would be cool too!

No way, I'll definitely help! Everything's gonna be so clean by the time I'm done!

Yeah! Go Team Clean! [Tina raised her hand in the air to pump her fist... only to accidentally knock her glasses off her face and to the floor.] ... aww man, I hate when I do that but at least they didn't break this time at least I hope they didn't... [Squinting, Tina leaned down to grab her eyes, scooping them up and examining them.]

[Freyja does, at least, take the time to peer down at Tina's glasses.]

I don't think they're broken...

Good. [Tina crammed them back on her face.] I'm just wondering where this sudden burst of energy came from because it's not like I've had any coffee or anything but this feels similar to when I was hyped up on espresso that one time.

Maybe it's just a space thing! Or they slipped us espresso somewhere!

[She's not actually sure about how accurate this is, but whatever. Anything is possible.]

I wouldn't mind the espresso. ... then again, it IS kind of dangerous for me to be hyped up on it. The first time I drank it it felt like the most wonderful thing in the world, but it made me kinda mean, too. ... as in "I made fun of my crush's lisp" kind of mean.

—You did?? Did you say sorry to them later??? I hope you did!

I did. That really wasn't my proudest moment, but I think he understood that I wasn't myself under the influence of caffiene because he took me out on a date a few months later and we ate a lot of pie so we're cool.

At least you apologized and it all worked out!! Romance always find a way if you're in love!

We're in agreement on that. I hope Jimmy Junior is, too, because sometimes it feels like he doesn't even notice I'm there but other times he's really into me...

Boys are just kinda weird like that. I mean, the boy I love is such a jerk but I love everything about him at the same time, you know?

Jimmy Junior can be like that, too! He makes me SO MAD! But I keep getting drawn back to him... mostly by his butt...

There's a lot more to Hayate than his butt, but... he really does have a nice one. Just don't tell anyone I ever said that, especially not him!

Okay, your secret's safe with me. And I know not everyone shares my appreciation of butts.

[ Tina is lucky to have missed Theon's first month back on the Paisley, back when he looked like a skeleton. His health has improved significantly since then, but his appearance in the doorway still might serve for a bit of a spook. He's white haired, thin, and ghostly, and he watches in silence for several moments before he speaks up. ]

I've seen you scrub the same spot five times. I think it's clean enough.

[ You've gotta chill, Tina. ]

[His appearance definitely gets Tina to pause when she notices him, though she remembers her manners and tries not to stare for too long. She tries to stand still, though she's still a mite twitchy and bounces on the balls of her feet.]

I guess you're right, it probably is clean enough, isn't it? I just have all of this energy and I'm not sure how else to get rid of it since I can't exactly step outside for a nice stroll around the neighbourhood.

[ He appreciates the lack of staring. Really, he does, but her boundless energy is a little off-putting. ]

Then step out for a stroll around the ship.

[ Easy for him to say. He moves like an old man. He doesn’t need to stroll anywhere in particular. Really, he could benefit from the same augment malfunction. ]

What are you even trying to make?

[ He tips his head toward the stove, unable to make out just what her experiments might be. ]

[Tina realizes that she's bouncing and stops, but she still moves to look for something else to clean, still full of nervous energy.]

I did try doing that but it didn't help me calm down very much, to be honest. Maybe if I do it again it'll help me burn some of this energy off, though, oh, or I could go over to that big ship that's following along with us except I'm not sure if I'm allowed to fly a shuttle over there so maybe it's not a good idea after all.

[She stops to catch her breath, giving a half shrug.]

Combining the proteins together in different ways. I didn't have anything particular in mind, but I seem to have a knack for it.

[ Just watching Tina is exhausting. Theon is almost grateful that he’s been spared from an augment malfunction of this level. He doesn’t even want to imagine the pain he’d be in after just a few hours of this. ]

You’re allowed to fly a shuttle over there. [ He pauses, watching her turn to compulsively clean once more. Then again, we wouldn’t want an accident… ] Though you may want to get someone else to take you.

[ God, he might even need a nap after talking to her. ]

It’s your augment. It helps you to know what to do. I wouldn’t know how to work any of the weapons in the armory without mine.

Really? There's not, like, any laws against it? Because I'm not old enough to drive a car back home, even. [And she'd wrecked the family car the one time she DID try to drive it.]

Yeah, I think I'm going to do that. Even with the chip in my brain, I don't trust myself to control it well enough. It's kinda scary that they can do that, though, you know? Just make us know how to do stuff we didn't know how to do before.

No.

[ His eyebrows knit together. He doesn’t even know what a car is or why someone has to be a certain age in order to operate one. ]

A seven year old has been placed as captain of one of these ships. You’re able to fly a shuttle without permission.

[ Geez, Tina. ]

They can do whatever they want to you. Whether you have the augment or not.

[ Negative? Gloomy? A bit scary? Yes, all of the above. ]

A seven year old? They brought a CHILD here and left them in charge of a ship? [Tina's brain grabs onto that detail, and she begins to make a little panicked gasping noise. Granted, she was sure Louise would slide into that role just fine, but Louise wasn't like most 9-year-olds.]

Hah! Hah! Hah! We're all doomed! Hah! Hah!

[oh lord]

Too much caffeine in your developmental stages stunts your growth, so your mom was saving you from a life of weak bones and debilitating anxiety.

What have you eaten today?

Oh really well I guess that's okay then even though she kinda stole the machine from under my dad's nose and pawned it to pay a guy who was pretty obviously a scammer in retrospect to give my brother lessons in how to play baseball

some improvised beef and noodles with some of that protein gel in the kitchen

[lmao kid what the fuck]

Your home life sounds exciting.

Just the fake beef and noodles? Recall having anything that didn't come out of the food processors?

Oh, it has its moments but it's nothing like living on a fleet of spaceships that are traveling around the galaxy except for the part where we have chips implanted in our brains

I've looked around our ship but haven't found much else I guess the protein is cheap and it's easier to experiment with too

You've got me there.

Do you know how to time your pulse?

maybe it's the chip in my brain. maybe they're using it to inject me with caffiene.

i don't, no

Well, you're about to learn.

Use two of your fingers to find your pulse on your wrist. If it's too faint, use your fingers to find it on either side of your windpipe, just under your jaw.

Edited 2017-02-09 06:29 (UTC)

okay. What am I looking for, a really fast pulse?

Just follow my instructions, don't get fancy with it.

Do you have a watch or something else you can use to time the seconds?

Oh, this communicator has one. Neat.

[She's really focusing on the important things here.]

[ok well if she's dying at least she learned something new first] Great.

Set a timer for 15 seconds and count how many beats you feel in that time, then let me know.

hold on I lost count, let me try again

[PATIENCE........patience, aizawa. she needs to learn. it's a good skill. BE ENCOURAGING, y'know, that thing you never are]

Keep trying. I [how does it go] believe in you. [nailed it]

[Good thing this is over text.]

I counted around 20.

Okay. Multiply that by four, since we want to know the beats per minute.

An adult human has a resting heartbeat of between 60 and 100 beats per minute. You don't look that young, so you should fall in that range.

the energy must be coming from something else, then!! i'm 13 so i'm close enough to an adult I guess

but where??????????

I don't know, but I wasn't trying to figure out if your heartbeat was CAUSING it and more trying to determine if it was going to make you go into cardiac arrest.

But it looks like it won't. So don't worry about it.

Any shortness of breath? Dizziness?

nope. I don't feel any different than I normally do aside from the excess of energy

that and I'm a lot more talkative than usual which does remind me of being on espresso except I think I already mentioned that

You did, once or twice.

As long as it's not causing you any physical distress, it's best to let whatever this is run its course. If you experience any of those symptoms I listed though I want you to contact either your ship's medical officer or me. Aizawa.

I'll do that

thanks Aizawa :)

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2. Glitched Augmen-Tina

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