Network: Video

[dr_riley]

[ The video opens with a fairly standard head and shoulders shot of Drake, who seems to have made himself comfortable at a desk or counter of some sort in the research building. The lighting is much dimmer than the bright flourescent of a regular lab setting, but workable and almost pleasantly ambient. He has a few small desk lamps and behind him are various machines and computers - or at least they look like computers, a few of which seem to be on, as they blink out different colored patterns in the background. There are screens and dials and big, boxy looking equipment scattered around, and who knows if any of it works or what they're meant to do.

He looks annoyed, as per usual.]

Hello! If I could have your attention for just a moment. I don't mean to interrupt everyone's happy fun times, but -

A beach party?!

Really? Right now? That's the response that a threat of this magnitude gets? Did you all miss how insidiously pervasive that complete memory stamp was? Or how it went on for a month, and would have gone on longer if the Agrii hadn't broken through?

Miss Starling wasn't too happy with me for expressing an admittedly prematurely low opinion of you all when I suggested that the ship might be too full of finger paints and coloured pipe cleaners to fit necessary equipment I wanted to bring back from Coruscant.

Well, friends, this idiocy is exactly what I meant. Thank you for confirming that I may as well be on a planet inhabited by talking ficus plants. This is-is-it's...I have never seen this level of incompetence and irresponsibility after such a direct, powerful, multifaceted attack.

I'm trying to find out what caused it and how to prevent it from happening again. And I expected the same or better of everyone else.

Mr. Kaplan provided a list of names of some people who were here during the time a race called the Atroma were present. He thinks they might have had a hand in amplifying the effects of his abilities. So if anyone knows a...

[ He looks down and a scrap of paper comes into view]

...Wanda, a...Soldier? Lance, and Keith? please send them my way, I need to have a chat. Or if you're listening, feel free to get back to me here or leave a message.

If any of you have even the barest hint of a sense of self-preservation, I would appreciate some help. I would ask elsewhere, trust me, but apparantly everyone's lost their minds and there's no one left who isn't a sudden hippy with the memory of a goldfish.

And by the way. The mobile analytic laboratory probe is ready for field work. You're welcome.

Comments

[doubled_speed]

Well, that's nice. Tommy smiled and nodded.

"I'll make sure the mutt knows that you've agreed to it. That they all do. So you better be honest about that one."

Otherwise he would come back and make sure that Drake suffered for it.

[dr_riley]

Drake had learned how to hide a number of different emotions, but professional frustration wasn't one of them, and so the rage and indignation probably showed a little through the intensity of his eyes and the color of his cheeks and the quickness of his breathing.

After a short internal dialogue during which he tried to convince himself that he didn't want to scare, hurt, or get even with Tommy, Drake smoothed his shirt a bit fruitlessly and said, "Before you go. Who's this mutt you keep mentioning?"

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, he was frustrated. Tommy thought that was a good idea for him to be. Should keep him remembering all of this when the time came.

He did smile, though, when he was asked.

"The big blue dog? She goes by Lauri-Ell, or the Accuser. She's apparently something like the judge, jury, and executioner of Kree law. Which means Alliance law. And Billy? Billy's the Prince-Consort. I expect she'll be here with him, hovering like an angry gargoyle. With the creepy hammer thing."

He had no idea that Lauri-Ell hated Drake. Just knew that she'd sooner die than allow her Prince to come to harm, all for the sake of her distant Emperor. Sure, Tommy would prefer to smash Drake himself if something happened to Billy, but at least he knew if something did, she'd be there to watch and stop it.

[dr_riley]

Ughh...yes, the blue woman. Drake wasn't fond of her at all. That said, for all his rudeness, he tried not to be cruel. He attacked a person's choices, or their logic, or their ideas, or their behavior - whatever was within their power to control, and he got especially angry if he thought a person was smarter than that. (But he usually didn't.)

Considering Tommy evidently wanted to take advantage of her presence and didn't seem to know her particularly well, Drake found it strange and especially mean spirited for the boy to be calling Lauri-Ell such disparaging names. Was there similar bad blood there? Was he just like that with everyone? Had he misjudged their relationship and this somehow okay between them?

"...right. Does she know you go around calling her a dog?"

[doubled_speed]

"If she doesn't, she'll agree anyway. She's a guard dog, and he's her prince, so yeah, it's going to be a thing."

He smirked and moved away.

"Just remember. Hurt my brother, and you're dead. I don't care what anyone else does to punish me. It's that simple."