Video - Turning the dial!

[shockjock]

Who: Livewire
Broadcast: Network
Action: Anyone who happens to be on the Heron
When: 2/21

[Yep, the Heron's high-voltage communication's specialist was still glitching out. But as she didn't presently look like a walking Tesla coil, and instead looked like someone on the tail end of an all-nighter. Twelve of them. And siphoning off more power from the ship than usual had done nothing to fix that, so she'd resigned herself to being a lazy lump. A bored lazy lump. Currently propped up against her station and idly zapping the console with one finger as she cycled through what seemed like an endless stream of traffic. At least she was considerate enough- or more likely, lazy enough- to not transmit her search over the entire ship's intercom system, and was keeping her noise-making limited to the bridge.]

Nope. [Bzzt!]

Nuh-uh. [Bzzt!]

Bo-ring. [Bzzt!]

[Eventually, she'd glance up and realize she was being recorded again, but the most she can muster is an annoyed roll of the eyes. Something was definitely off, but it was arguably better than an angry electrical discharge.]

Y'know, for a galaxy jam-packed with all kindsa weird aliens, you'd think it'd be easy to find some decent tunes.

[...this was probably not the best use of the ship's communication's suite, but yep. She was definitely just sitting there scanning all frequencies just to find something to listen to. How any alien life could make it all the way to space travel and not have Space Radio was inconceivable for her, so darn it, she was looking for it.]

Comments

voice;

[helmsplitter]

There's a lot of stuff lackin' in this place.

[Says a fellow communication officer who is bored af with his job right now.]

[shockjock]

[Whoever he is, she's too wiped to bother doing any digging. Or, you know, turning off the video feed.]

So I noticed.

[After one more zap, she comes across...well, something. Her nearest guess is some sort of intergalactic talk radio- even though it pretty much sounds like someone trying to blow through a trumpet filled with motor oil- and with one big, unnecessarily dramatic groan, she gives the console one more zap to end her search. Evidently the universe can get creative when it wants to hand out a big ol' F-U.]

Like these flyin' scrapheaps. Thought we were s'posed to be hoppin' between planets like that-

[The helpfully provided snap of her fingers even comes with a little shower of sparks!]

-not this lazy river crap tubin' crap.

[helmsplitter]

[Holy shit she's an elemental?

Doudanuki stares at the incoming feed and is somewhat glad he hit the voice only reply because he's staring at the screen and scrutinizing it for a few seconds before he answers.]

Uh, yeah. Dunno what a "lazy river tubing" is, but it's slow as hell. I guess they want us to get bored and do stuff on our own.

[But hopefully not listen to whatever it was she was listening to; that hurt his ears.]

So what are you? Some kinda elemental spirit? [A beat.] Or just another powered human?

[shockjock]

Yeah well, the rate it's goin' it's more likely to make me jump out an airlock.

[Only that might not actually do anything and she had no desire to test that hypothesis. Since, if it turned out to be true, the boredom was bound to get so much worse.]

Somethin' in between, chief. Ain't exactly what you'd call human anymore, but last I checked I ain't some spirit. Definitely more energy than human, though.

[She could have a more or less functioning body but didn't need food or drink or sleep and could travel through computers and electrical lines and basically it made no sense and she stopped trying to figure that out a long time ago.]

[helmsplitter]

Huh.

[That's a new one - not spirit, but not human either. Or rather, anymore. A human that transcended?]

Well, wouldn't recommend going out the airlock unless you don't gotta breathe or can demanifest or somethin'.

[Which makes him wonder if he could survive out there if he sent his real body out into space. Looking out at it, he shivers at the thought of trying though. It seemed to be the sort of thing that was not to be tested.]

Nice t'meet more non-humans though. Been tryin' to figure out how many of us are here.

[shockjock]

Start droppin' stuff on 'em. They survive gettin' squished, congratulations, you got yourself a winner.

[Or a superhero. Or a supervillain. Either way, it counds as not technically a human, right?

Also, the mental image of somebody trying that should not lift her spirits. Not that it raises them too high, considering present circumstances, but it does make the tiniest little smile show up.]

> video;

[helmsplitter]

I've been tryin' to fight 'em, but everyone seems to be against that.

[Which makes him annoyed and it shows in his voice. He doesn't get why everyone here is so negative about war. War is good! War gives him something to do!]

Instead, I gotta ask everyone.

[Alright, since he's over the fact that she's not quite human or spirit, he flips his video on and gives a half salute at the screen.]

Ossu. I'm Doudanuki Masakuni, the war sword. Who're you?

[shockjock]

[The sudden change of heart regarding face to face contact get's a slight eyebrow raise, but nothing more than that. She just doesn't have the energy to needle people over every little thing like she usually does.]

So stop askin and just do it. This is supposed to be some kinda lame reality show, right? Nothin' drives up ratings like a scrap or two.

[She'd have probably caused a little mayhem herself if there weren't some serious logistical concerns involved- namely, not wanting to be stuck drifting through space with no way to change course. She'd have to keep any mayhem saved for special occasions- and somewhere off the fleet.]

Don't look a sword to me, kid. The name's Livewire- guess you could say I'm the resident lightning rod.

[Which was both accurate, in that she very well could make lightning strike her now, and a bit of gallows humor. Normally she'd be a little more giddy about that two for one combo.]

[helmsplitter]

Ain't a kid.

[He's 630+ years old, kthxbai.

But he grabs his sword and brings it into viewing, opening the sheath just enough to show the blade before snapping it shut again.]

That's what I really look like, but since you can't go wielding yourself without hands? [The sword goes away and he shrugs, gesturing to his body.]

Without my Saniwa here, I don't got orders on who to fight or when. It's been borin', but not borin' enough to go smackin' people without askin' if they'd die first.

video

[takingkarabusiness]

[ Kara is in full civilian drag, glasses and all. nothing about her would indicate anything other than "regular peppy human girl" except her suspicion of livewire, which comes across even when she's trying to play innocent ]

What are you doing?

[shockjock]

Frequency hopping, what's it look like?

[Even her urge to be a mouthy pain in the neck seems to have taken a hit- way more apathy in her voice than usual, and it screamed disinterest or indifference more than the usual smugness.]

What'sa matter blondie, you never heard of remote control?

[takingkarabusiness]

[ she adjusts her glasses ]

Not from someone's fingers.

[shockjock]

I'm the remote control, idiot. Tends to happen when some goody-two-boots runs a few gazillion volts through ya.

[Which was a very one sided recollection of events, but like hell she's giving Superjerk the benefit of the doubt. She's not so drained she'd cut him any slack.]

If it takes a charge, I take charge. Least that's how it usually goes down.

[She couldn't, for example, take the ship for a joyride. Yes, she's tried. Several times, actually, not that she'd be sharing that information with the rest of the crew.]

[takingkarabusiness]

There's no reason to be rude.

Good-two-boots?

[shockjock]

No reason not to be.

[Livewire Logic(TM)]

Y'know, the cape'n long johns crowd. Fancy superpowers, adored by the simple-minded, decide it's their job to be supercop-slash-babysitter for the rest of us. Give 'emselves stupid high-an-mighty names like Su-per-man.

[...the cattiness there probably wasn't her A-material, but she was tired, alright? This glitch stuff sucks.]

[takingkarabusiness]

I think "babysitter" is a strong term...

So Superman did this to you?

[shockjock]

And a name like Superman isn't?

[You are one weird little person, you know that?]

Of course he did. What other brainless bruiser's flyin' around Metropolis? Him 'n his backup dancer are the only super-jerks in town.

[Last she heard, anyway. Somebody got forcibly relocated to a STAR Labs facility in Gotham, and hasn't really had much contact with the outside since.]

[Action]

[stabsbothways]

[ Summer sits down across the room from Livewire. ]

Generally if there was music on my ship, it was a welcome, if painful, reprieve from the boredom. Sailors have a lot of great dirty songs, but as a rule terrible singing voices.

[Action]

[shockjock]

Still better'n most of this garbage.

[Yep, still scanning. None of it's even close to what she's looking for, and it's hard to say whether that's because the ship's communications range isn't great enough to pick anything good up, or if it's just not designed to do so.]

Least a few of 'em were fun to look at though, huh?

[She ain't talkin supermodel good, neither. She can definitely appreciate the rough-around-the edges type.]

[stabsbothways]

A few, maybe.

Have to keep professional with the crew though. Give them an inch and they take a mile. Can't let them think that if they strut their stuff enough they can get out of swabbing duty.

[ She stayed quiet for a moment as she collected her thoughts and Livewire messed with the console more. Then she started singing. Her voice was not quite a tavern girls', but it was pleasant to the ear. ]


Sera was never quite an agreeable girl -
Her tongue tells tales of rebellion.
But she was so fast,
And quick with her bow,
No one quite knew where she came from.

Sera was never quite the quietest girl -
Her attacks are loud and they're joyful.
But she knew the ways of nobler men,
And she knew how to enrage them.

[shockjock]

[Hey, far be it from her to interrupt the musically inclined. As it so happened, she wasn't a fan of super-polished vocals anyway. Too bad she's so low on energy. So she'll let Isabela finish before she speaks up.]

Appreciate the sentiment babe, but I need a little more energy with my tunes. Even if this Sera girl sounds like my kinda lady.

[Which she totally does]

[stabsbothways]

Unfortunately I've never heard music made from lightning, so you may be out of luck.

[shockjock]

[She'll just get a lazy shrug and a tired sigh.]

Hey, bound to be a real band out there somewhere, right?

Doesn't make sense for aliens to get spaceships, but no music.

[Though, 'music made from lightning' does sound like a challenge. Something to play with later, at least.]

[stabsbothways]

I didn't realize there were rules for all that.

[ This is all pretty much alien to her. ]

[shockjock]

Not a rule, it just makes sense. How'd you feel if we found some weird alien types that spent all day sailin, but couldn't figure out how to tell direction?

[Hopefully, her choice of "boat" over "ship" could be forgiven in that she was not the seafaring sort.]

Way harder to figure out space travel than music.