001

[coppermarigolds]

Who: Aveline and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: Pre-Shuffle

Ugh, Maker.

[Aveline is... just waking up in the Hospitality Deck. Hello. She blinks several times, disoriented and feeling rather like she had far too much to drink the night before -- and not even good stuff, but more like something questionable and tainted with rat droppings that one might find in the Hanged Man. She sits up, rubbing her temples for a moment, with her eyes squeezed shut. This is all very... strange. And unfamiliar. And yet... she knows it, too. And that doesn't make sense, not remotely. She stares across the room for a moment, trying to put the pieces together. She touches the augment behind her ear, experimentally, and for a long moment is quiet as she looks around the room, scowling like a thundercloud.

Okay. First things first.]

If someone's there, come talk to me face to face.

[It's not a suggestion. It's an order. She pulls herself to her feet, still frowning.]

Comments

[dancingmd]

Believe me, I understand. If I knew how to get out of here you wouldn't be talking to me right now.

[coppermarigolds]

Fine.

[She sighs. It's a long sigh. Might as well introduce herself.]

I'm Aveline. Guard-Captain Aveline Vallen.

[dancingmd]

A pleasure, Captain. I'm Dr. Beverly Crusher, currently stationed on the SS Blue Fish, one of the starships in this ... fleet that Atroma has cobbled together. At the end of the week, you'll be moved off the ship you are on right now and assigned to a smaller one.

I am happy to try answer any questions you might have, though there is still a lot we don't know.

[coppermarigolds]

All right.

[Okay. First things first. There are a lot of new ideas in her head to figure out.]

This... space. We're in space, and there's more than a few of us who are here to be... entertainment?

[Yeah. She's not amused by this.]

[dancingmd]

Yes. [She pauses, debating how best to explain this. Clearly Aveline is not from a world that is space-faring, which makes things more difficult. Beverly would guess from Aveline's attire that her level of technology is similar to that of Medieval Earth, but she can't know that for sure.]

We're traveling between the stars, though where we go depends on where Atroma feels like taking us. And they are... do you have film in your world?

[coppermarigolds]

[She shakes her head. The augment... helps. A little.]

No. Nothing like that. Nothing like... well, most of this.

[She gestures, vaguely, trying to encompass everything ever.]

[dancingmd]

[She nods, reminded once again for how fortunate she is, in that this transition was much easier for her than many of the others in the fleet. Conceptually, at least, if not emotionally.]

Well, they're keeping a visual record of everything we do for an audience that we can't see or interact with to view. [She looks utterly disgusted by everything she's describing.] They pay us based on how popular we are with the audience, and they'll do what they can to provoke us if we're not entertaining enough.

[Her eyes flash angrily.] Needless to say, it's despicable.

[coppermarigolds]

[No wonder she's here unarmed, then. There'd be real hell to pay, otherwise. Or at least a lot of dents in the wall, depending on how sturdy the construction is.]

And what good does payment do us if we're being held hostage? It sounds like a dressing up of slavery, more like. They've certainly taken my sword, and it's lucky for them.

[She sets her jaw in a sour expression. Slavers who wander into Kirkwall have a tendency of not leaving, one way or another, and she's always been proud of that.]

It is despicable.

[dancingmd]

I agree...the money is just all part of the game for them. You'll notice when you're transferred off of your current ship that your new ship will be in much worse condition. They purposely give us ships with lesser technology than they could so that if we want better weapons, food, quarters, whatever, we have to pay for upgrades.

[She pauses.]

There is something else you should know.

[coppermarigolds]

Don't get too comfortable with this level of comfort then. Fine. I've made do with worse.

[This just gets better and better, doesn't it. She sounds... wary.]

What else, then?

[dancingmd]

I'm sure you have noticed that you have suddenly gained knowledge that was completely unknown to you before. That is because they have implanted us each with a device, called an augment, that gives us new skills and information suitable to our new environment. [Her jaw tightens as she remembers what happened at the beginning of April.] They can also use them to play mind games on us or to dampen natural abilities they deem to powerful and I am certain they use them to track our movements as well.

[With some consternation.] I have so far been unable to find a way to remove the augments.

[coppermarigolds]

... That explains a few things. Cutting it out doesn't work, then?

[She rubs the augment behind her ear again, almost absently. As convenient as the knowledge is, this isn't a comfortable way to learn it. She exhales sharply, the sort of sound made by someone who is very angry underneath a relatively calm exterior.]

[dancingmd]

No, it causes excruciating, debilitating pain if you try.

[coppermarigolds]

Damn it. Of course it does.

[She sighs again, heavy and annoyed.]

Still, it's better to know this now.

[dancingmd]

I'm thankful someone told me on my first day here or I undoubtedly would have tried to remove it myself.

[coppermarigolds]

I likely would have tried, myself. So much for that idea.

[It wouldn't have been a way home, anyway.]

[dancingmd]

Perhaps we will run across another solution in the future. In the meantime, just be aware that it sometimes may cause you or the people around you to act in unpredictable ways.

[A beat.]

Then again, some of our companions are unpredictable to begin with.

[coppermarigolds]

I'm experienced with unpredictable people. That's the least of my worries.

[In fact, she surrounds herself with them for no really good reason.]

[dancingmd]

[She laughs a little at that. She's had plenty of her own experiences with the unpredictable, but some of the people here have managed to surprise even her.] Fair enough. [She can probably hazard a guess as to what else is worrying Aveline.] If it makes you feel any better, no one at home knows that we are gone. Several people here have family and friends who have come from different times in the same world and had no idea the other was missing. Presumably, when we return, nothing will have changed at home.

[coppermarigolds]

[She's silent a moment. Is that a comfort? She isn't even sure.]

I suppose it's good to know that Kirkwall won't be falling apart without me.

[Because it probably would, let's be honest.]

[dancingmd]

Wait... Kirkwall?

[She frowns slightly.]

Are you from the same world as Hawke?

[coppermarigolds]

... Garrett Hawke?

[Well, that's unexpected. Aveline draws up in surprise. Of course Hawke's tied up in trouble, he always is, but this is too much even for him.]

He's a good friend of mine. You know him? He's here?

[dancingmd]

[Smiling brightly. A good friend of Hawke's! He willl be so thrilled!]

I do! He's on my ship in fact. Neither of us have been here very long - at least, not compared to some of the others - but we've become friends as well. [Her smile falters oh so slightly.] He ah... I had a bad moment that he helped me get through.

[coppermarigolds]

Yes, he's... good at that sort of thing.

[Hawke's here, and already making friends. And, let's be honest, any friend of Hawke's is a friend of hers, or at least worthy of trying to be friendly.]

He's done the same for me, more than once. I like to think I've returned the favour.

[dancingmd]

I'm sure he would say that you have. [Even in the brief time that they've talked, Aveline strikes Beverly as a very good balance for Hawke. She can see how they would make a formidable team.]

Honestly, its his sense of humor that has helped me the most. Otherwise I might be in danger of going a little crazy trapped here.