driftfleet | 01: I turn this corner, get on this spaceship...

Who: Ray Kowalski
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: 16/4, pre-Shuffle

[A]

[It's not like Ray's graceless-- he's a dancer, right, he can be light on his feet, one-two-three-end-up-in-space, but right now it looks like he's mostly forgotten how to move at all. You can laugh at him (and you could, because in the kerfuffle he's managed to turn on the communicator) but only as soon as you figure out that there's a person underneath the sheer amount of winter clothes currently on the Marsiva. There's a mostly-empty backpack, a hideous parka, a warm (holy shit too warm) middle layer, and a suffocating base core layer. Then there's the hat, the weird-ass circular scarf-thing, two types of gloves, snow boots, sunglasses--

There's some muffled cursing coming from underneath all of this, but eventually there's a frustrated groan and a thump as about half of the aforementioned layers fall to the floor. All through the process, there's muttering.]

Look, Frase, not that I'm callin' you a liar or nothin', but all this time you been bragging about how freakin' cold it gets up North, but I'm kinda disappo-- [He pokes his head out of his last layer, hair mussed, eyes big.]

Fraser?

[B]

[However things get explained to him, he suddenly knows a shit-ton about space. And spaceships. A lot about space ships, actually, so much that his hands get a little itchy. It's weird to be here, without Fraser, when they've spent so much time together since starting his undercover assignment-- especially after they'd left for their Northern Adventure. It makes him feel a little anxious, like he's not sure how to behave without the Mountie at his side.

And when Ray gets anxious, he has to find something to do. So he starts walking around the Marsiva, and he finds things to do-- because he's a Detective, more than anything, and Finding Things Out is his gig, his jam. Specifically, he finds things to take apart, carefully, decisively. With the world of knowledge now inside his head, it all makes sense, and he settles into the work, seeing it, feeling it. It's cool. It's really cool.

The communicator's with him, on a table or on the floor, and despite the whole 'Engineering Augment' thing he keeps turning it off and on accidentally. Feel free to tell him not to take the ship apart.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

'This time'? Jesus.

Corypheus possessed the ability to pass on his essence to anything that had been tainted. He was able to cheat death. That is why the Wardens had sealed him away rather than killing him. They thought it completely impossible.

[And it had certainly seemed that way in the beginning at times.]

[He listens to that with a look of slight horror and awe, brows drawing together.]

Sounds like you're gonna have a pretty quiet time here, compared to that.

I hold no expectations one way or another about any of this.

[She doesn't know enough about this "space" thing to really determine it. It's better to simply be prepared.]

Yeah, I guess. [He stares at his hands for a few seconds, awkwardly, before regrouping and vigorously wiping them on his pants.]

Hey, uh, you ever need somethin', feel free to hit me up. [He doesn't know why he offers, because Cassandra seems more than capable to handle anything the world throws at her-- and he doesn't know what he'd do, anyway. He just doesn't know what to do when she's telling him about these horrible, shitty things that have happened to her.] Technology-wise, or something. [He waves the remote that had been in his hands when he walked into the room at her.]

[Perhaps it's because Cassandra doesn't view these things as happening to her so much as they have happened to her world that she's able to appear capable even when she has absolutely no idea what she's doing. Luck and faith peppered in with a mild amount of patience has served her very well thus far. She can only hope they continue to do so with whatever happens here.]

You are actually familiar with the technology here then?

[Fine, she'll ask, Ray. Because you are clearly unnerved by everything she's just said.]

Yeah. I mean-- kinda, yeah. They told me we all get this thing-- [He points at the back of his neck, shrugs] just puts knowledge right into your brain. So suddenly I know a whole fucking lot about space ships, even when I never been on one before.

[He almost seems glad to babble a little, and he definitely seems glad to be off the topic of world-destroying nearly-immortal demons. Anyone would be unnerved, Cassandra, jeez.]

[Don't be such a wuss, Ray, jeez.]

It's one thing to know, but another to be able to apply it.

I mean, I did a little work on my car, back home-- actually, a lotta work. Always been better wih my hands than my head, anyway, so I guess my brain figured it wasn't too much of a leap. [Honestly, he's kind of surprised. He looks it, but it's a pleased kind of surprised. It's comforting to feel good at something when you're otherwise so out of your depth.]

[Cassandra doesn't know what a car is precisely, but she can reason it out to be some sort of contraption with similar levels of complexity to the technology here while generally assuming that's all she really needs to actually know about it.]

Then whichever ship you are assigned, I'm sure, will be fortunate to have you.

[He wants to kick himself when he feels his ears heat up a little when she says that. Dumb dumb dumb, she's just being polite. But the compliment is nice, even nicer over here, where he doesn't know anything or anyone.]

That's-- thanks. Um, you too.

[Cassandra does not get quite as flustered and simply nods.]

Thank you. I shall certainly try to be an asset.

[Although she thinks there's a steeper learning curve for her than for Ray.]

Yeah. [He drums his fingers on his legs, then smacks his knees and stands up, suddenly.]

I'm, uh, gonna grab some chow. It was nice to meet you-- [oh god he almost said a name, he's gonna pretend he ended that sentence with a period instead of a pause.]

[Cassandra arches a brow at that pause. Surely he couldn't have forgotten her name already. She nods.]

You as well, Detective.

01: I turn this corner, get on this spaceship...

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