driftfleet | Calibration Post 1, "Daytime"

[ Not long after the shuffle, there's a ripple of static over the network - loud, sudden, and seemingly with no origin. It's puzzling, but there's no indication that it's going to happen again...

Until a minute later. Another surge of static comes in over the speakers, and then a voice - one some may find familiar, though not necessarily welcome, after all of this time... It's Diamond. Long time no speak, hmm?

Clearly, not all is well. She sounds very far away, for one. For another, she sounds... skeptical, almost alarmed. There may actually be real concern in her voice. ]

Again? Twice in one c--

[ Her sentence is cut short with a strangled gasp, followed by a moment of silence. What follows may be the sound of metal dragged across metal, but it's hard to place. When she speaks again, it's uncharacteristically monotonous. ]

... Bring them in.

[ A blip of lost time passes right after those words, before every passenger mysteriously wakes alone in their own unfamiliar room. The style of decor resembles that of the Marsiva's Hospitality Deck, if any passengers should remember what that's like. It sounds and smells the same as the host ship as well, all clean and chrome, but this set of rooms has only been used once, and for the very same purpose that befalls the fleet contestants now.

As for their hosts, there is no immediate sign of them, though some may recall a series of hideous, half-electronic screams before their memories begin to blur upon arrival...

Welcome back to the Marsiva, dear passengers. It's time for round two of calibrations. ]

[ This mingle will cover all non-calibration room interactions. Please continue to come back to it for the duration of the plot! You are, of course, free to post any other mingles/posts/etc. that you'd like. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's right. We're the only two in existence or at least as far as we're aware.

So he's still alive? [Yuan's not sure how that bodes for Vash's world.] What I saw...it was the past. You were both children, so I wasn't sure... [He shakes his head.] ...For a child to knowingly, intentionally kill that many people...did they give him some reason to feel that way?

Yeah. [A brief pause as Vash struggles with himself for a moment. Part of him wants to saying unfortunately so, but can't bring himself to say it. After everything Knives was still his twin.] He's still around.

And that's a question I've asked myself for a long time now. When we were children we did learn about some awful things humans had done towards each other. There was also some things we saw among the crew. Little things -- [like beatings for being different, but if that's not what Yuan saw he doesn't really want to bring it up.] -- looks, actions and I don't think most of it was intentional, that showed the crew didn't look at us the same way as they did each other. That we were different. I can't fully understand his thinking, but maybe he was nervous? Nervous that people would always be afraid of us and after seeing what people could do when their own species was slightly different from each other?

[Vash shakes his head.] Or maybe he was just crazy. I really can't say.

Some people aren't strong enough to endure being hated. Being feared. Being reminded, from one day to the next, over and over again, that they aren't human, don't belong among humans, will never belong anywhere. [There's an ancient ache behind those words that says this isn't just philosophical speculation.]

...But you lived in the same place, learned the same things, and you turned out different. And I saw...you had proof that people could be good, as well as evil. [Oh yes, Rem made an impact too.] ...The fact that he didn't change his mind after seeing that, that he didn't even hesitate... [He shakes his head.]

Well, it doesn't matter as long as he's not here. I just didn't want to go around... [he gestures vaguely] pretending not to know something that important.

[It doesn't take much for Vash to realize that Yuan is likely not just talking about himself and his brother during that small tirade.] Well, maybe he did while he was planning it. That wasn't something he just did suddenly. He would have had to plan it.

And thanks, for letting me know.

[And this is when Vash breaks out into a shy grin.] So... ah, I suppose this is when I should make my own sort of confession then, huh?

[Yuan makes a face, sighs slightly.] May as well get it over with. What do I need to explain today?

Well, I kinda got the impression that you were trying to make a... ah... [What's the right word for how he felt.] A god?

[Is that even possible?]

...A Goddess, rather. [Yuan sighs again, glances away.]

She was my fiancee, and one of my traveling companions from long ago. I told you once that my friends and I made ourselves immortal, stopped our aging, in order to complete a task that would take longer than a human lifespan. ...The humans killed her before we could finish. Our real objective from that point onward was to bring her back.

I am so sorry for your loss. I can tell she was a very remarkable person. [Even if he hadn't gotten a first roll experience.]

[He shrugs, looking uncomfortable.] She was. But...that was four thousand years ago. I've had a long time to come to terms with her being gone.

That is a long time, but does it ever stop hurting? [He's not sure he should really be asking something like that, but he's curious. After over a hundred and thirty years Rem's death still hurt and he's not sure if he would prefer it to hurt forever or to eventually stop.]

[That's a question he didn't expect, and it makes him pause. It makes sense, though... He thinks for a moment.]

Not exactly. But...somewhere in that time, it became like a wound that had scarred over, a bone that never set right: I'll always carry it, I'll never be the same person I would have been if those events hadn't happened, and it still aches sometimes. ...I couldn't tell you exactly when it changed, but seeing her again just reminds me how different I am now from the person who lost her four thousand years ago.

...My case might be different from others, though, because the...stories we told about her have been a presence in the world around me all these years, not only in my own memory.

Hm. [Vash takes that all into consideration. He's always considered telling more on his planet about the ultimate sacrifice that Rem made so that they may all live, but it was always so raw to talk about. Not only that, but who would believe him? And if they did they would likely treat him very differently.]

They do say time heals wounds. I think I can understand about it scarring over.

Calibration Post 1, "Daytime"

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