[video] no sign of your flawed design

[interstices]

Who: Asuka Shikinami Langley and... you.
Broadcast: Video
Action: Red Fish, if you want it
When: 4/29 (today)

[And here's a sight typically reserved for sore eyes-- Asuka flopped on her half-made bed, hair in braids on either side of her head, wearing a t-shirt and a pair of baggy pants. The overall effect leaves her much less intimidating-looking than usual, but really, she's just about to go to bed.]

I've been thinking about augment glitches.

[Not the most profound statement, but she presses on.]

Everyone gets them. Sometimes it's sort of an epidemic of them, other times it's just a handful of people. I know people in the Fleet keep track of all the planets and stations we end up at, but I don't think anyone's kept up with glitches. [An eyeroll, and then--] Probably because everyone wants to forget they happened. But I think it might be good to have a record and see what comes up most often or if there's any sort of pattern.

If you want to talk about any augment malfunctions you've had, go ahead right here. Even if they're really screwed-up. It might help somebody else out.

Comments

video

[scanninggaydis]

[Having queried the network once for research purposes, Felix is pretty amenable to answering the research questions of others. Plus, he's interested. She's right, someone should be keeping track of the glitches.]

Good thinking.

I've only had one occurrence in...roughly two years. [Holy shit has it really been two years.] Spent a week as a teenager.

video

[interstices]

You've been here as long as I have. [Asuka's antisocial disposition hasn't done her any favors in all that time, clearly. She nods, brow furrowing.]

You think there was any point to it? Did you learn something?

[scanninggaydis]

[It's okay, Felix doesn't have particularly strong social tendencies either.]

Well, I definitely don't think learning anything was the point. Presumably it was for entertainment value.

[interstices]

Yeah, that's the excuse they give us. But I'm not satisfied.

[scanninggaydis]

I'm inclined to believe it's part of an experiment. Along with the rest of the experience, of course.

[He'd be more careful talking about this, but it's not like the Atroma have ever seemed to care.]

voice.

[paraclete]

I almost died, [he reminds her serenely. Flus are real shit, so far as he's concerned. But real as it may be, he might as well be situated properly amongst the heavens, for how he sounds. Nothing new there.]

[interstices]

You...

Wait, you mean when you were sick? That was just a cold.

[paraclete]

[Still serene—] I almost died. [—but he's insistent, too.] Very nearly. I remember it well. It's fortunate I emerged from a state like that so whole. That's as hardy as I'm meant to be, though. I'm sure you know there's no cure for a cold? I read that.

[interstices]

Well, yeah, but... [Asuka rolls her eyes, both of them. He really shouldn't be so... peaceful about his own massive exaggeration. It makes her feel sort of ridiculous for arguing.]

You did not almost die. You just take being well for granted.

[paraclete]

To be well is in my nature. [He's surprised when he says this, just a little surprised; mild, you might call it. As if he didn't expect to ever need to say it. In other words, he's taking it for granted.] Nothing should have been able to change that.

[It's not equitable to death, by the way. That's something special and different. Of course. Anyway...]

Lilin are truly respectable creatures.

video

[tempredmental]

Well, I was turned into a 9-year-old for a while... and Lance was turned into a merman... and Shiro had his hair changed into something longer, and it kept growing back no matter how many times he cut it.

And then there was the time that all of us from my world kept getting marks on our faces if we told a lie.

video

[interstices]

All that sounds really stupid. [Hideous, too. Nine might have been worse than fourteen.]

Did anything traumatizing ever happen?

Re: video

[tempredmental]

Stupid and annoying. [GRUMPY]

No... not really. I mean, Shiro's hair was a thing, but that was more because of the association it has with some stuff that happened back home, not because it changed his hair. If it was just because it was long, that would have been fine, but... yeah.

video

[interstices]

What did he do?

Re: video

[tempredmental]

Well, he either tied it back with a hair tie or Lance helped him braid it to keep it out of his face until the glitch was over and he was able to cut it back to normal again.

Not much else you really can do, I guess, but just wait it out.

[video]

[ecclesiophobic]

Younger, twice.

First time I was.. About fourteen, fifteen. I lost all memory of the Fleet and most of the people I knew from it.

Second time I was in the prime of my life. Retained my memories, but was sick from dying so I couldn't enjoy it.

[video]

[interstices]

No one would be able to tell the difference with me.

[She pauses, looking a little thrown off.] You mean you're not? And what are you talking about, dying?

Re: [video]

[ecclesiophobic]

[Kurt grimaces in sympathy.] If it's any consolation, I was cursed with a youthful appearance as well. I looked twelve until I was nearly seventeen.

[And then that question about his age. Get the cameras, Kurt actually looks flustered (and a touch flattered.) His tail weaves in and out of the camera view as it sways, twisting into confounded loops.] Woman, I'm in my thirties. My prime passed me years ago. [Said as though it's just a simple fact. Perversely, his answer to her last question is said with the same amount of emotion.] Ja, back on the planet we had to evacuate. I.. Wasn't able to get out in time.

[video]

[interstices]

I'm thirty. [There's a frustrated whine to her voice that she can't quite suppress, even as she notices he's looking... what, embarrassed? Maybe a little pleased? Huh. She shifts a little, watching his tail, good eye squinting.]

I'm sorry that happened.

Re: [video]

[ecclesiophobic]

I'm terribly sorry. [He says it with a grimace, because he can only imagine the amount of absolute idiocy she has to deal with in the process of being taken seriously. And of course there's the disconnect between body and mind when one is so much older than the other; he'd seen it with his mother, at least a century old and forever in her twenties.

The spade of his tail flicks, almost like a quick wave of the hand. Her sympathy gets a shrug, tempered with a thin smile.] It's alright frau; I'd have rather died on that planet than saved my fur at the expense of someone else's skin.

video;;

[postocular]

I haven't had anything done to me, but Maggie kept having terrible hallucinations.. Enough so that it was really upsetting.

video;;

[interstices]

I don't know Maggie. She's from where you are, right?

video;;

[postocular]

Yeah. She's the first mate of the Goldstone.

video;;

[interstices]

Oh, all right. [Asuka leans over and yanks a pen and paper from her bed, scribbling something down.] If enough people answer, I'll have a good list. You really haven't had any glitches this whole time? Damn.

video;;

[postocular]

A few minor ones, but it kind of seemed like it affected everyone.