driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Erik Lehnsherr and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide (unintentional) video, and (intentional) text
Action: N/A, unless you're determined to find him in the Heron
When: early morning February 27

video.
[The feed opens on a slanted angle, fixed on the shuttles of the Heron's cargo bay and a large metal crate sitting between them. It looks almost like the communicator responsible has been set down on a table and turned itself on - particularly as Erik can be seen walking away from the camera, towards the mystery crate. He doesn't seem to know he's being filmed at all, given his entire attention is on the crate. When he stops next to it he frowns, and turns it around. His expression becomes a bit more fixed with irritation as the message on the side comes into view:

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR MAGNEATO FIRST YEAR! - Magnecessities

With a scowl, he pulls off the top of the crate -- and jerks backwards as a half-dozen balloons pop out, sailing upwards towards the ceiling. Festive! Oh, but that isn't the half of it. After a muttered curse he peers into the crate itself. He reaches in and pulls out... a toy. A plush horseshoe-style magnet, to be precise.

For a long couple of seconds he just stands there staring at the toy. The video starts to shudder a little, consistently, as the table it sits on begins to vibrate. Erik drops the toy back into the crate and with the same hand, makes a smacking motion through the air. The crate crumples and flies off out of view, landing with a crash somewhere offscreen. Erik turns then and glares straight at the communicator. The rattling of the image increases for a moment before the image cuts out. Show's over.]

text.
[About half an hour after that little display, a text message appears on the network.]

There's a crate of stuffed toys outside the Heron on the ring world. Take them.

[And that's it. Anyone who decides to take a look will indeed find the crate sitting on the dirt near the Heron's landing site... looking decidedly worse for wear, crumpled and smashed like it was dropped from several tall buildings. There are plenty of plush magnets inside for the taking.

Erik himself is nowhere around, though he'll respond to any calls.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Possibly. There are certainly enough of them to try.

That might be something then. I lost the captain's room in the ship fusion. Been thinking about making my own big bed. [Once she can get the room expanded with the new upgrade. Maybe throw out the desk.]

Ah... yes. [He had seen after the fact that the Windrose and Three Twins had collided.] I assume no lasting damage was done? Other than the obvious.

No damage? I just said I lost the big bed. [Kidding. Kidding. Sort of kidding.] But no. Nothing outside the obvious. If you ever need people with lab or communications or pilot augments were your ship. Just don't expect us to have shields or weapons. [There are lots of undermanned ships or poorly distributed ones, but it feels extra ridiculous to her now that they have one of the bigger crews.]

[He snorts in amusement. A bed isn't a terrible loss. But her words make him frown with thought.]

So clearly it wasn't for the purposes of levelling out the augments on board.

[Hey, she never sleeps alone ~~except when Winn is in a coma~~. The big bed came in handy.]

Definitely not. I wonder if it will be happening to all the ships. Two feels like the start of something.

['Four' he thinks to himself, tallying the ships used to make the two. Halving the numbers? Cutting down wasted resources. It could be any number of things.]

The question is what. And if no more occur, then the question is why?

Maybe just to shake things up for the audience? New roommates with new drama?

[She switches the feed to private.]

I'm co-captains with someone who is staunchly against killing even the slavers so I could see where they might have thought that was a good mash up.

[The switch makes him frown for a moment, but given her comments he's not surprises. He sounds unimpressed.]

You mean a contentious one. Which captain is this?

Exactly. Assuming something like the raid happens again at least.

Vash. Do you know him? He has...tall hair. Blonde.

[He honestly cannot help the noise of displeasure he makes at the name. Time makes a lot of memories fade, but never his grudges.]

I knew a version of him, back in Kyriakos. He's aggravating.

He is...different. I don't really know what to make of him. What did he do in Kyriakos?

[There's a whole history here that he doesn't want to get into. So he keeps it brief.]

He will not stop arguing with you about killing others. Just know that.

[She nods.] You know in most cases I don't want to kill others. [It just keeps seeming so unavoidable through much of her life. But it was easier on the Windrose when they all acted together to take out the slavers. There was no in-fighting or disagreement. They acted as a team and what they needed to do was clear to everyone. It wouldn't have been like that with Vash. She would have had to knock him out and lock him up which would have taken time they didn't have and could have rattled the rest of the crew.]

Anyone with a sense of decency would feel the same.

[He's okay enough with himself to think he is in the same camp. It's been a long time since he crossed the globe hunting down former Nazis. Not so long since he tried to burn the world to the ground, but there were different circumstances involved.]

The one I knew got into it with me because I advocated, in a fictional scenario, killing a captive who was a known traitor.

[They had all known the setting was fake, the people in it as well. Being able to interact with them hadn't made a difference to Erik's mind - none of it was real. It had only demonstrated how unreasonable the other man could be.]

And he kept arguing even after I compromised, so I don't think I was the unreasonable one there.

Sounds like he is very zero tolerance on the killing regardless of the situation. That's...not realistic. [Never has been in her life.] Sometimes it's necessary. [It's easier saying things like that when she can apply them in general. She's less likely to let herself off the hook for it though.]

Yes. It is.

[And he found Vash to be frustrating in the extreme... for that, and other reasons. He sighs, since this was a tangent. Given what he knows of Kitty's life, he doubts he needs to reaffirm the necessity of killing in some situations. Even if his own word on the subject is rather tarnished of late.]

You can only hope there are no further situations where you might clash with him on that sort of matter.

That would be best. I'll make sure to have plans in place just in case though. [Harmless ways of restraining him.]

He's just a human, isn't he? Any special abilities that you know about from the other one? [She realizes they won't necessarily translate, but it would be good to know.]

As far as I know. He used a gun, but that's about all I remember.

[It's been ten years for him, and he didn't bother to commit Vash to the safest parts of his memory.]

[She nods.] That's something. [Not a ton of powered people using guns that she knows of. Not that they couldn't.] Thanks for telling me. I'm still trying to figure him out. He's not as straight forward as I thought when I first met him.

Good luck with it.

[He wouldn't pretend to be an expert, considering how often he avoided the man in Kyriakos. That would be his chief policy even now.]

Thanks.

Good luck with your gift.

(no subject)

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