[open] august starstruck mingle

[wingedman]

Who: Everyone!
Broadcast: n/a
Action: Starstruck
When: August 1-31

Everyone on the Starstruck is regretting their life and their choices. Why does anyone want to visit this ship again?

Comments

[directed]

[...Yeah, remember that good mood Rip had been in earlier, Jarvis? That's gone now. Please welcome back the sully ex-Captain of days gone by, who frowns when he walks into the kitchen to discover the mess in progress.]

Run out of room in your own kitchens, have you? [He pauses in the doorway; he just wants a cup of tea, honestly.]

[edwinjarvis]

[He glances over, eyebrow quirked.]

Hardly. Sometimes I get a bit tired of staring at the same kitchen.

... Most importantly, though, I wanted to check on you and the rest of the crew.

[directed]

I somehow doubt ours is that much different.

[But as Rip makes his way over to the fetch the kettle and fill it with water, Jarvis sees fit to let onto the real reason. Perhaps Rip's demeanor has already given him a hint as to that answer.]

I haven't much been keeping up with the rest of the crew. [Enough to know Max is gone, stress cooking seems to be in vogue, and Peggy's been less irritable but not entirely happy since Steve's awakening.] But I wouldn't bet on receiving a great number of cheerful receptions.

[edwinjarvis]

Different enough.

[A kitchen in a different place is good enough, anyway.]

It does seem people have been rather... fractured by the calibrations.

I fear it means we've fallen right into what the Atroma wanted.

Tension among us, for one. Uncertainty towards ourselves, for another.

[directed]

And what do you suppose they gain from it, Mr. Jarvis? Aside from a likely boost to their reported "ratings."

[A cover story that holds little weight with Rip these days. There's something more going on than a mere tv show, even if the reported evidence seems to support that claim.]

As much a fan as I am of not giving our interdimensional kidnappers precisely what they want, the two things you've pointed out aren't so easily mended—particularly not when they're so wide-spread, as you say.

[edwinjarvis]

... I do fear they are peering into our heads, themselves.

Perhaps using others who enter our minds as... unwitting surveillance?

[He shrugs, unsure.]

I've always wondered if they intend to absorb knowledge about our worlds through us. Perhaps the augments aren't as invasive as I'd initially thought, though maybe that's precisely how we managed to walk among each other's minds.

[directed]

[It's not so bad a guess, particularly given the era Jarvis is from. Of course there's no way to be sure of the true motive; even anything the Atroma reveal would be suspect. But theorizing seems a dangerous necessity, to at least attempt some measure of being prepared.]

There is, in my time and universe, technology that achieves similar results--including allowing one consciousness to enter another. [Just as with so many things on the fleet, Rip finds himself in a position of seeing both the likenesses and the differences.] There's quite a bit more set up involved, and it's certainly nowhere near as compact, but--

The calibrations did indeed seem a great deal like what is known as "cognitive intrusion" where I'm from.

[edwinjarvis]

... How terrible.

This sort of technology, it's not good in any hands, as far as I'm concerned.

[He sighs softly, crossing his arms, expression soft and worried.]

I wish I knew what we could do. I feel rather helpless as I am, and I know the feeling isn't mine alone.