001;

[privateeyed]

Who: Ben and you folks
Broadcast: Yes
Action: SS Huntress
When: now

action; SS Huntress

[Ben doesn't take teleportation well. In fact, if the confetti and the music didn't tip the ship off, the loud cursing probably does - there you go, Huntress, your security officer is here]

What the fuck—give a guy some fuckin' warning next time, geez! God damn teleporting bullshit.

[once he's calmed down, though - and picked up some of the pudding because far be it from him to turn down free food - he's wandering the ship, peeking his head into rooms to see what's what]


broadcast;

[once he's somewhat settled in and found a place to sit and digest everything going on, Ben decides to set up a broadcast to get some Shit Done]

Anyone here good with cybernetics? Or - I don't know, computers? Advanced stuff, can give you the specfics if you're interested. Don't need you right now, I'm just covering my ass just in case.

[he pauses, and maybe realizes he should . . . introduce himself. Like a normal person would. You know, instead of just getting down to business]

Uh - anyway, name's Ben; if you don't know shit about cybernetics . . . I don't know, come tell me about the weird crap going on here. Or stuff I should know. I like being informed.

Comments

[privateeyed]

Yeah, sort of. I mean, I can take them out without punishment of death if I have to. [geez, and here he was going to take out the one they gave him and poke at it. Well shit] Technically only one of 'em is "in my body", though.

[monolike]

Hmm. [Kirito was like that too, sort of; had no problem messing with the augment Atroma gave him because of it.] Well...this thing can be really helpful, but it can also glitch and make weird things happen. Everybody's experienced it somehow, so if you're having troubles with it don't be afraid to ask for help.

[privateeyed]

["ask for help", oh Sorey, he's allergic to doing things like that. He makes a face at the glitching part, though]

That's great. [no it's not] What kind of glitching?

[monolike]

Memory loss...causing people to behave in weird ways. It can even turn people into kids, all kinds of weird stuff. [Yeah, it's not fun. Sorey picks up his rag again to pull it through his hands.] It's not permanent and it's almost never harmful, but it's a pretty stark reminder that we are prisoners.

[privateeyed]

That's a glitch? [okay no now he's concerned] What the fuck - that sounds more like - like magic voodoo bullshit than a glitch.

[monolike]

[Shrugs again, a little helplessly this time.] It doesn't make sense to me either, but I'm an archaeologist, not a scientist. There are other people way smarter than me who might be able to explain it.

[privateeyed]

Jesus christ. [he rubs at his face with a small groan] Guess I gotta hunt one of those down, then. I thought you meant glitching like - malfunctioning. You know, normal shit.

[monolike]

Normal's pretty relative here, [Sorey laughs, tossing Ben a sympathetic look as he picks up a hose clamp to start cleaning it again.] Before I showed up, I didn't even know space was a place you could go.

[privateeyed]

Wait - seriously? Where are you from that space isn't a thing? [...] I mean, traveling through space all that far still isn't a thing where I'm from, but there's shit on the moon and all.

[monolike]

Eh heh...I dunno how to explain it! Maybe because there's still so much to learn about our own world, we haven't tried to go beyond it yet... But that's what I mean. [Offers Ben a smile, tilting his head a little.] Maybe that's why a lot of people here are pretty friendly, and ready to help. All sorts of people show up with all sorts of experiences. We kind of have to find ways to relate to each other.

[privateeyed]

That - makes enough sense, I think. Guess it's a dumb question when you can't just say "Oh I'm from x" and it'll make sense.

[he just - just! - resists making a face] I . . . guess that's good? [no it sounds horrible] Uh - friendly folk being around all. Makes it easier, probably.

[monolike]

It really does! [BLASTS FRIENDSHIP RAYS DIRECTLY INTO YOUR CRANIUM] So please, don't hesitate to ask if you ever need anything. Helping out gives me stuff to do, so it'd be more like you doing me a favor!

[privateeyed]

[NO THEY BURN STOP THAT] Right. I'll - keep that in mind. Thanks for the offer.

[oh my god what fresh hell has he been kidnapped to? Friendly people, gross]

Though - what else can you tell me about all this? Aside from - friendly folks and glitches.

[monolike]

...I kind of don't want to tell you some stuff in case you get upset again. [Like he's not afraid of Ben, but the dude seems a little fragile...]

[privateeyed]

I promise I won't get upset. [oh my god Sorey]

[monolike]

Uh...well, so, if you try to leave the Fleet, you get teleported back. People who die are usually brought back to life...and at least half the places we've visited, it's pretty easy to die. There's pretty stuff too! ...but that's probably because we're on some kind of TV show, and people are watching everything we do.

[privateeyed]

Reality TV is archaic as fuck. [he's not upset, he's just pointing out a fact] When you say "easy to die" - is that, like, 'cause it's really dangerous or because things are actively trying to kill people?

[monolike]

[Okay, that's a better reaction than he was expecting. Maybe glitches and stuff are just a sore spot for him, since he's got his own augments and such.]

A little of both. One time half the Fleet crash-landed on a planet full of people killing and eating villagers...and then they killed some of our people. On another one a meteor crashed into the planet, but we...we couldn't get everyone off in time.

[privateeyed]

[the thing is, it's easy to get offended at easy stuff. It's stuff like this that he has to be careful about. His eyebrow furrow, but he's probably calmer than he's been the whole time]

. . . how often does this happen? [...] Is there anything in place to prevent it from happening? Or - dealing with it when it does?

[monolike]

It's been a while...sometimes tragedy happens one after the other, and sometimes there are months in between. There's nothing to prevent it; we can do our best to take care of things as they arise, but Atroma won't help. Sometimes...sometimes they make it harder. [Like when they decimated the only allies they'd had.]

[privateeyed]

. . . wish I could say I'm surprised, but . . . [if they were supposed to be prisoners, then why would the captors help at all?]

Is there records of this? On the - what's it called, the network?

[monolike]

Well...there's a list of files that people sometimes put stuff in, but we don't like to keep a lot of stuff on the network in case Atroma is reading everything. Which I think it's pretty much a given that they are.

[...hm] You know, if you're interested in finding out more, you should talk to Keith and Lance! They're Huntress crew too, and I think their team leader is collecting info on events that transpire.

[privateeyed]

Keith, Lance, team leader. Got it. [he is absolutely interested. He wants to know exactly what he's been dragged into here] Makes sense to keep it it off the network, though - guess there's no way to encrypt shit so these Atroma bastards can't see it, huh.

[monolike]

If there is, nobody's been in a position where they could share it. [Sorey's smile is distinctly sympathetic, as if he'd like to pat Ben comfortingly on the shoulder but has thought better.] It's hard to get info here, but we are making progress. Little by little.

[privateeyed]

That sucks. Maybe I'll give it a shot - though I'm better at breaking them than I am at making them. [making them was someone else's job and they weren't here] It's all right, I just like being in the know. Besides - leads are information.