April System Mingle

[thespaceopera]

Who: Everyone!
Broadcast: Possibly!
Action: April System
When: Month of April!


[Welcome to the Belt, a huge asteroid belt that's been terraformed for life. Here you can explore the different asteroids, become a rock star, race on some ATVs, enjoy not being underwater.

In other words, it's a mingle! Get in everyone!

> System Info ]

Comments

[candothat]

[He accepts the credits with a thank you and doesn't bother taking the jab personally.]

Are they so expensive? I spent twice that on a drink. [A thoughtful head tilt.] Which, now that I say it, was likely a mistake on my part.

[thebarkside]

[ she folds the shirt up, then tucks it her messenger bag. ]

Alcoholic? Aren't those crazy expensive, anyway?

[ spoken like someone who has honestly never bought one. ]

I used to run a restaurant, and we sold wine, but we were kind of just able to set the prices at whatever the heck we wanted to.

[candothat]

It was, but not good alcohol.

[He can't say if alcoholic drinks are usually expensive. Maybe? Probably?.]

I admit that I know very little about how businesses operate in societies that use money, but that seems unsustainable.

[thebarkside]

Your society doesn't use money?

[ what. ]

[candothat]

In some places we do, yes, but not so much on Earth or in Starfleet. Not in the places where I've lived.

[thebarkside]

[ jade has literally never been interested in economics, but she's fascinated by this. ]

How does that work? If you don't use money...?

[candothat]

As far as I can tell, it works very well.

[He'd really like to give her real answers, he just doesn't know them!]

[thebarkside]

So people just -- give things away? For free?

[candothat]

No, it... I don't know how to explain it best. On most Federation planets, no one is trying to accumulate wealth and so no one is motivated to sell things.

[thebarkside]

That sounds... really cool? Really strange, but really cool, too.

[ jade waves her hand, like she's apologizing. ]

Sorry, I don't have a whole lot of metric for it. There's not really much of Earth left where I'm from, and not really any functioning alien planets, either. This kind of stuff is fascinating.

[candothat]

It makes more sense to me than chips and credits and arbitrary prices.

[But being worried about Earth is way more important than his opinion on future space economies right now.]

Where is Earth? What happened? [A wince.] ...Ah, I'm sorry. This is a sensitive subject, please only answer if you would like to.

[thebarkside]

[ she doesn't seem too bothered by the question, or even really upset about it at all. the way she shakes her head seems to be dismissing his wince, not the query. ]

It's okay! It's really complicated? But there was a lot of weird, world-ending stuff that happened back in my universe.

[candothat]

I'm glad that you seem untraumatized by any world-ending...?

[He really is, he's just confused!]

[thebarkside]

[ she suddenly seems a little embarrassed by it. ]

Um. I've had a lot of time to adjust, I guess. And my timeline is kind of busted, but there's probably one out there somewhere where we win.

[candothat]

I don't mean to be rude... your attitude is admirable, I think. I still haven't adjusted entirely to things that are much less worse than worlds ending.

Theoretically, it shouldn't be so hard for you to go to a version of your universe that is different from the one that you left once we leave the Fleet. [He sounds awfully certain that leaving is going to happen.] Would you want to go to a not-so-busted timeline, if you could?

[thebarkside]

[ jade shrugs, but she's half-smiling, pleased by the compliment as she just pulls the t-shirt on over her dress. it looks a little silly, but most fashion looks a little silly. ]

Um! Maybe. It - depends?

[ she glances from side to side, before just kind of... ducking under the table. if she's going to stand there and talk to him, she might as well help him do his job. ]

I'm pretty dead in my own timeline. I wouldn't want to doom the other me just so I could take her place.

[candothat]

[Silly? That's plenty fashionable! She's going to be setting trends if she's not careful.

He doesn't protest--partly because selling shirts is boring and he appreciates the company, partly because she just admitted to being dead and that's right up there with Earth ending as far as unpleasant experiences go.]

I'm sorry, Jade. There are other options, of course... countless other universes to visit, if you would like to avoid displacing another version of yourself.

[thebarkside]

[ she shoots him a smile, and while - yeah, it's a little sad? the smile is absolutely earnest, too. ]

Oh, I know. I've got my fingers crossed. I've been bounced around so many universe by the Powers that Be that I'm hoping... you know. [ she shrugs a little, folding some of the shirts. ] A happy ending would be awesome.

[candothat]

It isn't so unlikely. [He has some reservations about hoping too much, but he does have to believe that people with nowhere to go can have a future beyond these prison universes.] Do you have any interest in the twenty-third century? My universe isn't the best, maybe, but there are good things about it. Space travel, for instance.