driftfleet | [ audio ]

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[ audio ]

Who: Clark Kent and you.
Broadcast: Fleetwide.
Action: Aboard the Marsiva.
When: The week of his arrival.

I don't suppose I could click my heels three times. . . [ Only Clark gets his little joke. ]

I'll keep this brief. My name is Clark - I'm from Kansas.

[ He's been the new guy at work often enough to sound chill about this, but he is feeling a little shaky having woken up here in the middle of his workday. To top it off, not being able to hear his mother's heartbeat is jarring.

There's some stress baking in Clark's future. ]

What do you make of this place? I'm curious to know how it compares to where you come from.

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Not that I know of.

Ah. Sucks, but probably for the best. [less shit to worry about, honestly, or at least that's how he feels about it]

I suppose so.

[ He can't really stand the thought of Lois or Ma going through this.

Time to change the subject. ]

What did you do at home, Ben?

[don't worry, he doesn't want to think about it on his end too much either, so he goes happily with the subject change]

Private investigator. A certified one, if that means anything. [it hasn't so far, but you never know] What about you?

It does.

I'm a journalist.

Yeah? For a newspaper, or - ?

Yeah, The Daily Planet, if you've heard of it.

It sounds vaguely familiar? I dunno, might have heard of it if you guys distribute in Michigan or Ohio - where I grew up.

It's a global paper. . . but I realise we might not be from the same Earth.

I don't - uh, read the global ones. But that's a good point, for all I know I'm remembering wrong.

How's being a journalist? Got a friend who does the journalist thing, too.

I just started. . . I think it's going to work out.

How're you finding your job?

That's good. Better than thinking it's gonna go to shit. [...] I'd wish you luck but it's kind of pointless at the moment.

I've been doing mine for five years now - I like being my own boss. I was a cop before that, but it didn't work out.

You could anyway. I don't think I stop being a journalist or you stop being a private eye just because we're in space.

I mean, if the circumstance pops up yeah, I'll do my job, but there ain't a lot of crime going on here. Y'know, aside from the mass kidnapping of everyone.

Yeah, I don't see a newspaper around, either.

Could start one. Might be 90% gossipy bullshit, but I bet it'd be popular.

I'm not one for the BuzzFeed clickbait.

Still. . . if it's worth a shot.

What, you're not into top ten lists full of stupid gifs? [...] See now I gotta ask what year it is for you back home, 'cuz Buzzfeed is still around in my time.

But in all seriousness, it could be. Could poll the masses and see what other folks think.

I'll think about it.

It's 2013. And for you?

2123. What the hell, Buzzfeed is freakin' old.

No, that makes perfect sense. [ BuzzFeed will outlive them all. ]

Like a damn cockroach. [when the world ends it'll be cockroaches, twinkies, and Buzzfeed]

Anyway, did anyone give you the story on this place yet? Or any warnings or whatever?

I have the general idea, but you have anything to add, I'd like to hear it.

Okay, let's see. [there's a pause as he thinks about the important stuff] Iskaulit is the bigger ship not the main one you wake up on - there's a bunch of shit there to keep you busy if you get stir-crazy on the ship. You probably got told not to mess with the augment but I'll just echo that since it's kinda important.

Uh . . . we're at a stop now so if you need money you can make some down there - legal jobs, illegal jobs, selling your soul to a team . . . [Ben it isn't selling your soul] They're real into competition here, it's worse than football season.

Edited 2018-05-13 00:44 (UTC)

. . . They're not honestly making you sell your soul, are they?

[ It sounds like a joke? But they're also on spaceships with mysterious implants in them. ]