001 ↯ audio/action

[feathery]

Who: Davesprite and Jade Harley and all y'all.
Broadcast: Fleetwide.
Action: Chilling on the hospitality deck of the Marsiva (with one or both of them, at your preference).
When: Right here, right now.

Sup. [A generic greeting, from a voice a little monotonous and a little bored and probably owned by a teenage boy. That kind of affected carelessness has its tells.]

Has anyone seen a sword. It's sharp, and it's awesome, and it's a fuckin' sword. Which also kind of doesn't belong to me, so returning it asap would be cool, thanks. [There's a beat.] Oh, and if y'all could direct your attention out the nearest window, that would be ace.

[For anyone who actually does as asked, they will be treated to a variety of washed out orange watermarks of a teenage boy's face, somehow plastered against the abyss of space. The kid is wearing sunglasses and might have feathers? Weird. One of the watermarks is definitely giving the ships a thumbs up.]

Feel free to leave feedback on the quality of your experience here.

[And then, when Davesprite is finished talking, another voice pipes in. It belongs to a teenage girl, tone pleasant but distinctly baffled.] Also, hi! My name's Jade, and I am actually really surprised to be here, but I guess I shouldn't assume there's a limit on how many weird worlds one person can get dragged to, huh? I thought it'd be silly to broadcast my own message when Davesprite's standing right here and doing one, too, soooo...if anyone has heard of Asgard, that's where we just came from, and if not, then I guess we really look forward to getting to know all of you!

[For anyone on the hospitality deck of the Marsiva, they'll find one or both of the kids just hanging out. One tall, normal-looking blond kid, save for the sunglasses indoors and black crow wings sticking out of his back, and one normal-looking, buck-toothed girl in glasses, only she has white dog ears on her head.]

Comments

[audio]

[delincuente]

[Did you say affected carelessness? Neato. Alex is listening.

And also raising an eyebrow.]

... Orange douchebag clouds? That some kind of superpower?

[audio]

[feathery]

Yeah. It's the superpower of plastering my brand out there where everyone can see it. Douchebag clouds as far as the eye can see.

This is extra wondrous in the vacuum of space, someone should give me a miracle-conjuring medal.

[delincuente]

Little short on those. You're giving me ideas, though. I've always thought my face would look super great plastered across the sky.

[feathery]

Does this mean I've got competition. Or are you testing the grounds to see if I'm willing to monetize this skill for the greater good.

[delincuente]

Hey, who ever said I've got an ulterior motive?

[She gives a little witchy laugh, but then there's a shuffle as she moves away and mumbles something under her breath.

A moment later, like fireworks, Dave's conversation partner's lovely face appears in front of the stars. The sparks scatter into the shape of a slice of pizza. That part may or may not have been accidental.]

Branding.

[feathery]

[That gets a small, surprised huff of laughter from him.]

Ok, props on the pizza. [Almost admiringly.] Do you have pizza. That's not a slice of pie, right, 'cause I think I'd feel betrayed on a level beyond fundamental if they don't got pizza in space.

Audio;

[justamobster]

[ Ladon recognizes both those voices from his time at Sacrosanct, but it's Jade's that really gets him. He's been worried about the kids left behind on the station, and he's aware that there's a possibility that this Jade is different but, well. Toby remembered him. So it's worth a shot. ]

Either of you remember a place called Sacrosanct?

Audio;

[feathery]

Sacro-what. That's a dodgily religious name if I ever heard one. Which, uh, I guess I haven't. Is that a city or something.

[justamobster]

Nothin' religious. S'a space station. Had a few of you kids there. Guessin' different, er, versions.

[ He'd only spoken to the Davesprite there once, when Jade went missing. But if he doesn't remember... ]

[thebarkside]

Nuh uh.

[ don't mind jade - she's just jumping in on this conversation with her own communicator. ]

Were we there, too? How many places like this are there?

[justamobster]

Guess that's for the best, yeah? Wasn't a pleasant place.

[ Hearing any version of Jade is all right does put him a little at ease, though he's worried about the one of her that he knows and cared about like a daughter. She'd been through more than any kid should have to go through. ]

You, a buncha your friends, includin' all the li'l gray kids. As for how many of 'em there are... Dunno. Just about every time someone shows up, there's somethin' new. Castles, other space stations, place that steals memories... Too many.

[thebarkside]

Incredible.

[ jade seems to absolutely mean it, too. the implications are terrifying, of course: sburb had been the original Big Game, and then asgard had changed her definition of "big game" entirely. now, knowing this - how many splintered worlds were out there?

terrifying, definitely. but also incredible. ]

There were a lot of us in Asgard for a long time, too... my friends, and some of the trolls. None of us ever remembered anything else really like it at all. [ but... that's really neither here nor now, is it? she shakes her head, trying to shake it off. time for that later. ] Oh! I'm really sorry, I don't think I caught your name.

[feathery]

Whoa, what. Like actual alt us-es? Yeah, shit, uh. Different versions or we got memory-wiped or something. I guess sometimes we just don't stick all that well, we had a pretty high turnover rate at Asgard.

[He was at least the fourth Davesprite.] You know what everyone was doing at a space station?

[justamobster]

If you don't remember, it ain't that big a loss. Wasn't sunshine and rainbows.

[ If anything, he hopes that others are free of their memories from the station, especially the more traumatic ones. ] Weren't there for any reason, somethin' 'bout how we got pulled through a rift. Were only on the station 'cuz the crazy broad that ran the place didn't go through with turnin' off all the life support. She sure liked to threaten to, though.

action

[stayinthecar]

[ O are we chilling on the hospitality deck? Hi!! Have a curious fellow coming up behind you, intrigued by something Jade said. ]

Excuse me. Is Asgard a world run by ghosts or fae?

[feathery]

[Davesprite, busily taking his comms device back from Jade, blinks up at Mr. Curious Fellow.]

It's run by a tree, actually, at least on a global level. I guess they never heard of democracy.

[...Ok, maybe Jade will give him a more useful explanation.]

[stayinthecar]

A tree. [ Well that makes about as much sense as anything else he's heard. ] That's the fourth non-home world I've heard of people being dragged to before this one, then.

[thebarkside]

Oh, jeez. Well - I guess that makes sense in the context of what we know already.

[ jade cssts a sidelong glance at davesprite, half shrugging. ] Thousands of leaves on the tree, right? [ but then she's turning back to the stranger, smiling. ] But I'm sure we'll all get back eventually.

[feathery]

Why go through the trouble of stealing wayward idiots away from their own realities when someone else has done the legwork for you.

[Said dryly.] So where's that make you from, dude.

audio;

[idealistic]

I think these guys take your weapons away when you first get here. I know they took away my swords and it really pissed me off.

[ … ]

You guys are from Asgard?

audio;

[thebarkside]

[ since davesprite is the one sore about losing the sword, jade will just go ahead and address that second part: ]

Yes! Well. Kind of? We're from Earth, but we've spent a lot of time in Asgard fighting some war for all creation. It was all very dramatic, and sort of like this? With lots of people from different worlds all dragged in without being asked. [ and then here she sounds a little hopeful: ] Have you been there?

audio;

[idealistic]

Uh…

[ "war for all creation"? that definitely sounds. very unlike the Asgard he knows. did she maybe mean the Kharlan War?

nah, it can't be. she said she's from Earth, and a lot of people here are from there as well. maybe this was like another dimension of Asgard, like how Kaneis was from another dimension? crap, his head's starting to hurt. ]

Y-yeah, I've been there plenty of times. S'just a bunch of ruins and scholars there, though.

[feathery]

[And since Jade has that second part, Davesprite will fixate for now on the first part.]

For real. I thought you guys got attacked once, what happened then. Did you just fling protein bars at the offending monster or whatever.

[idealistic]

Some of the ships had guns, but all we could do was dodge 'em. The guys that didn't have pilots or guns weren't so lucky.

[ … ] Flinging those proteins at 'em isn't a bad idea, though. [ those shits are disgusting. ]

[feathery]

I'll put it down as legitimate countermeasures next time we get into a fight. [Wait, maybe that's too pessimistic.] If we get into a fight. [There. Better. Maybe.]

So how did you get rid of the assholes if you couldn't shoot 'em down.