bye bye love - bye bye sweet caress - hello emptiness...

[thespaceopera]

[It’s been nice and peaceful for a few days, hasn’t it? Everyone in their little cages with their creature comforts, learning all about each other through the strange rooms that have opened up at night… It’s been a wonderful experience, wouldn’t you agree? For some, that blood-curdling scream from the first day has not been forgotten.

A few days into calibrations, the main screen that has been conspicuously silent (aside from passenger use) flickers to life. Anything already playing on the screen is overwritten by a video feed of plain metallic walls not unlike those housing the Passengers. It’s difficult to tell what is going on offscreen. Shadows are uncertain, dancing everywhere; nothing can be gleaned from the shapes no matter how much they are analyzed.

The audio, however, is loud and clear.]

—can’t do this to us, [a woman pleads, her usual saccharine tone absolutely dripping with fear. Some may recognize the voice as belonging to Diamond.] You can’t! We followed orders exactly. It was in the terms! I don’t underst… oh no. No, no, please no don’t do this no no NO NO NO!

[Her voice increases in pitch and tremor until it’s drowned out in a garbled shriek of pain. The shadows dancing on the wall grow frantic and violent. The show is accompanied by sounds of heavy things slamming and the unmistakable whirring of a drill.]

I DON’T WANT TO DIE!! NO NO NO NO NO N—

[The woman’s shrieking cuts off immediately. In the newfound silence, something else drags itself weakly across the floor, getting closer and closer to the camera. SLAM. Until that stops, too.

A man’s voice comes through this time, thready and weak like a dying heartbeat. It's Beau, though he hasn't been heard by Passengers for quite some time.]

A-and now… you come for me. [The speaker makes a choked sound like a laugh or a sob.] All we ever did... was try to... make you happy.

[The whir of the drill begins again, but the feed ends.]

Comments

[namisan]

[OH MOTHERFUCK JESUS CHRIST

That didn't go at all the way she was expecting that was the very opposite she's just gonna
watch the feed and see if anything else actually shows up
without saying a word]

[all7seas]

[Bloody saints above, what is that sound? Jack has never heard a drill before. He doesn't recognize the man's voice, but it's clear that torture and death are being broadcasted and that is crossing a very black line that he had never expected to see in this squeaky-clean world of metal and mechanization. The woman is dead. It seems clear enough, and there's nothing he can do for her. But the bloke?]


.....'Allo? [He whispers this.] You still there, mate?

[goldenglasses]

[Vash had been sitting in this area during waking hours to see if the television would eventually speak to them again like last time.

This was nothing like last time. Unlike Nami however, he can't keep completely silent as he stares in horror at the television.]

No! STOP IT!

[He growls out the words. Even though he knows that in the end it's empty and there's nothing he can do to stop it. Besides watch in the hopes he might see anything useful from what is happening.]

[save_the_souls]

Oh God....

[That is not at all how he was expecting that broadcast to go. Who would possibly expect their broadcast to go that way? Even though he hated Diamond and Beau, thought them as the enemy, they didn't deserve that.

And what more, what did it mean for the rest of us? Hell, the last time he heard screams like that over a broadcast on an eerie ship...

God, please not that.]

[Closed to Kate - warnings for panic attack and flashbacks of captivity and torture]

[padadin]

[It's been some emotional heavy days, especially with Lance and Keith, so Shiro is grateful to have a break and hang out with Kate. She's good at distracting him and keeping his mood up, and the only one in the ship that he can consider kinda close and hasn't been through his mind (...yet? better not think about it).

He doesn't see the problem with her liking Robin Hood movies if she wants to, he says when she teases him for his liking of space movies. But their little banter is interrupted by a broadcast on the big screen - and this is definitely not a movie.

Shiro's eyes widen and his fists close, he doesn't know who those are, but they need to do something! Now! How, he has no idea, but they have to try-- except his feet won't move. The Marsiva around him slowly turns more purple, more scary and Shiro's eyes are losing focus. No, not now, not in front of her--

It's too late. Shiro falls to his knees, body shaking, not seeing the reality in front of him, just what his brain provides. Blurry images that match the broadcast, him in a cell, hearing the screams of other captives coming from the nearby rooms. The visuals may not be clear, but the sounds are, which are of course echoing with the one coming from the screen.

He can't do anything, and he hates it, he hates it so much... his metal arm activates, and his glowing fist punches the floor.]

[dirtyredneck]

[Daryl watched the screen, heard the words. He didn't know who the voices were or how they were significant past being people he didn't know but who were somehow a part of what was going on - and now dead for it. So when he stood there, his reaction was less upset than many around him.

Mostly confusion.]

The fuck was that about?

[ladybro]

[ -- it's been a good day. those have felt rarer and rarer ever since they'd arrived aboard the marsiva. kate can't tell whether she's been spared the worst of it or whether she simply can't remember what she might have seen. more importantly, however, is how many of the other passengers seem to be walking around in a daze. affected; hurt; melancholy.

she doesn't like the look on shiro. so she does what she can -- hauling him to a nook and demanding that he pick a movie for the two of them. it's all well and good until the reality of their horrible situation gets broadcast, large and raw, to the whole ship.

kate swears under her breath while she watches. she doesn't feel capable of pulling her eyes away -- not until she hears his fist come into hard contact with the floor and all at once she realizes that he's dropped to his knees. crap, she swears again.

and with a hand on his shoulder, kate follows. her bare knees hit the ground and she ducks her head as if searching for his eyes. all the hard angles seep out of her body language and she steadies her one hand on the shoulder while the other tucks two fingertips beneath shiro's chin.

gently, she attempts to raise his attention. get it on her, maybe, and not the terrors the video had clearly unlocked. ]

Eyes up. [ her voice is quiet but firm. ] Look at me. Let me see you.

[ there's not an ounce of fear in her. worry aplenty, but any inclination to cower or hesitate evaporated the moment she saw him on the floor. ]

[padadin]

[He isn't breathing well, and it stops completing for a second there when he feels a hand on his shoulder, his body tense. It's too small to be a Galra hand - is it a druid? Shit, it's a druid, they want to take him back to the lab, they want to--

His face does move up when she touches him, but his eyes are still unfocused. There's panic in them, but also a hint of determination. Because he's a survivor, and after everything that happened so far, he can't give up now.

Human fingers close around her wrist with a little too much force. His voice sounds hoarse when he speaks.]

You already got my arm... what else do you want?

[sylphid]

[Fie's simply watching, eyes wide. She never expected anything like this, as messed up as things have been.

For the first time since arriving here, she's actually surprised. And equally horrified.]

What...

[alwayscomeback]

[WELP. Sokka stares at the screen for a while, before turning to Allen. ]

...So much for Atroma being a united front, huh.

[If this is what they'll do to their own... ]

[cloakand_danger]

...What the hell?!

[He allows himself just a moment for the shock and horror to set in. He hasn't seen a great deal of Diamond and Beau, really - they haven't been around a lot since he arrived - but he knows who they are, and they learned a little more about them from the heist-

is that why they won't be around anymore? Did the passengers cause this, inadvertently?

Regardless, it's one more grim reminder that they are prisoners, and their hosts are less benign than they want to seem. There's nothing he can do.

Desians and Renegades and members of Cruxis...they're all victims the words echo through his mind, a memory close to the surface at the moment. Perhaps, in the end, their hosts were victims just as much as the rest.]

[save_the_souls]

[He'll look back at Sokka, definitely looking spooked at that. It's not his first time hearing a murder, but dear lord]

I know...Why would they do that to their own hosts?!

[supertardiness]

[Nope. N O P E.

Barry doesn't bother waiting for the end, because he knows those cries all too well. Instead he takes off as soon as he can, speeding his way around the halls to try and see if he can find the source of the video and help them, if nothing else.]

[takingkarabusiness]

[ soon he'll have a tail chasing after him. he has a head start and is (arguably) faster than her, but she'll still do her best to catch up ]

Barry!

[supertardiness]

[When he hears her voice he skids to a stop at the end of a hallway, glancing around wildly before looking back to her.]

Your hearing is better than mine. Can you hear them? Are they on this ship?

[touchallthebooks]

That's enough!

[This is probably the first show of uncontrolled magic Khadgar has ever shown, the scarred teen looking furious and his hand coated in flames.

How could they? How could they??

Who kills someone who's terrified? Begging for her life? Defenseless?]

How could you?! [His eyes are actually blazing with magic, making the scar leading down from his eye to his chin stand out more.]

[takingkarabusiness]

I've been trying but...

[ she stops to listen again, but shakes her head ]

I can't find anything.

We need a plan of action.

[passingthrough]

[Kitty had been watching the screen from not far away, looking stoic all the while. She would have killed them herself if she'd run into them, but torture? There's no need for that. If that is what happened. This was obviously for their benefit, so was it staged or was it real? And what reaction do they want out of their reality stars from it?] They were the hosts. Diamond and Beau.

[geonomy]

[Oh god. Did they just - What -

Clay stares, eyes wide, not moving an inch. The closest he's ever seen to anything like that was the aftermath of Winter's augment going haywire, and that was just that, an aftermath. This is...]

H-Hey... [His voice shakes a little, before the ice in his veins turns to fire, and he finds himself moving forward to bang both of his fists against the cold, silent screen.] HEY! GET BACK HERE!

[It's pointless, but he has to do something.]

[dirtyredneck]

[Hosts? Like host hosts or... wait, this was supposed to be a game show or some bullshit, right?]

They were the one's handing out the prizes?

[passingthrough]

Or delivering messages from the Atroma to us anyway. Or they are the Atroma or part of it? They've been mostly silent while I've been here. [Just one message, was it? Enough for her to figure out who they were.]

[dirtyredneck]

Huh. Guess they just got their pink slips.

[passingthrough]

That's definitely what it sounds like. Why broadcast it to us?

[dirtyredneck]

Tryin' ta scare us, probably. Sayin' that if they'd do that to their own folks, they'd do it to us, too.

[passingthrough]

Fair. But why would they need us scared? Does it mean something we were doing actually had a chance of succeeding against them? [Was she supposed to feel hopeful?]