revivalproject | → 001 | network + action

network | text | OTA

Sameen Shaw, 32, Marine Corps veteran. Skills include medical work, weaponry, and combat. Formerly of New York City circa 2015. Currently of the Glitter Food crew, I guess, though whoever named these ships needs to rethink their life choices.

Three things.

1. Who's in charge here on the human side of things? I'm seeing rosters, I'm seeing specialties, but I'm not seeing rank. I don't even know who my own captain is.

2. I saw a guy has his baby with him. Anybody know how I can get these aliens to abduct my dog for me?

3. Anybody with access to hard alcohol want to be my new best friend?

[... And that's it! What a friendly, sociable sort she is.]

action | OTA to Glitter Food residents

Knowing what the Data Points do is all well and good, but that intel only goes so far if they're unlabeled. Shaw studies the six identical Expertise Data Points, vaguely wondering if she's supposed to just be able to tell somehow - but if that's the case, then that part of the orientation clearly skipped her over. And playing trial and error with her brain? Not a very enticing prospect at the moment.

"Hey," she says, flagging down a passerby at random. "You got any idea which of these can get me into Security?"

After that, she wanders, giving herself something of a self-guided tour of the accessible areas of the station: find her walking through the greenhouse, furrowing her brow at the library's empty shelves, or sampling the food paste dispensers (giving them some impressively disgusted looks as she does so). She can also be found taking in the beach, and after a moment's consideration, stripping down to her underwear so she can go lounge in the hot spring area for a while. Her sports bra and boyshorts both provide more coverage than the average bikini, so she's hoping she's not violating any ship decency laws here - but she'll try to stay submerged up to her shoulders just in case.

Eventually, she makes her way to the training area, where she appreciatively inspects the gym equipment on offer and uses her newly-acquired Security expertise to open the door to the security center. And this, finally, is what makes her... not light up, exactly, but her pupils definitely dilate and her mouth curves up in a small half-smile. Ah, yes. This is absolutely what she'd picked that Data Point for. Good job, Agra 10.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," she breathes, hoisting up one of the glowing guns with her hands, testing the weight and feel of it. And then, practically salivating with anticipation, she heads straight for the shooting range. Sorry to anyone else who might be interested in using the space, but she's definitely going to be here for a while. Care to share?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Great," she says, blowing out a frustrated breath. "How the hell am I supposed to do this, then? Not a big fan of charging in blind here."

Radley smirks a bit. "Me either. I haven't wanted to try the Data Points at all, but at least back in the City I knew which one was which. I guess you could wait and see if we'll be released to go back there soon?"

But with the Agrii, and the number of long times of being trapped this year, he's really not sure they can rely on that.

"You mean we might not be?" she asks, still scowling at the Data Points as if they've personally betrayed her. "What would be the point in keeping us cooped up here?"

"I don't see any point in much of any of what they do," Radley says. "We could be here for days or even weeks. I hope not, though."

Well, that sounds ominous. The first part even moreso than the second.

"You wanna give me some examples there, champ?"

"Kidnapping us in the first place seems pretty pointless," Radley says. "We don't get much of anywhere fixing their planet up for them, and any time we make a little progress, it tends to get knocked back down by another disaster."

He sighs. "I've heard that every year, a lot of the people get kidnapped again into some big bunker where they're trapped for a month forced to see each other's memories when they try to sleep. So that happened this year and most of the people were gone from the city, which was confusing and upsetting. Then shortly after that, a volcano went off and we had to all go underground and hide out for three weeks while that cooled off. Who knows what's gonna happen next!"

Honestly, Shaw starts out pretty primed to defend the aliens here: the disasters, from what she's learned so far, are likely not only not their fault, but also the exact kind of thing that wiped them out so badly. That defense, however, starts leaking away the more Radley goes on.

"Wait-- wait. Back up. Tell me about this bunker."

"Well, I wasn't there for the memory-sharing," Radley says. "I got left behind with a few others, for whatever reason. But I saw the bunker underground later. It was really big, with all kinds of tunnels branching off from the central room. I doubt we explored everything, even after as long as we were down there. Some people were saying it was a lot like the other bunker."

"And who stuck people down there and tortured them?" she asks, her eyes narrowing. "The Agrii?"

Radley sighs. "Admittedly, we're not sure. Some think it was the other guys, the Atroma, who are the Agrii's enemies. But we don't really know."

At this point, Shaw gives up on paying any attention at all to the Data Points. There'll be time for that later; for now, this is much more pressing intel to get.

"I got the lowdown on the good aliens," she says. "But, uh, I haven't heard anything about evil ones yet. What do we know about them?"

"Unfortunately, not much at all," Radley sighs. "It's possible they're the ones causing the storms we get from time to time that mess up people's powers and make us see ghosts from our worlds, but no one knows that for sure either."

Shaw stills, then pauses significantly, studying his face.

"Not actual ghosts, I'm guessing."

"I'm pretty sure the people they're pretending to be are still alive," he says. "I ... hope they're still alive ... and not the ones who torture us during storms...."

"What about just regular old-fashioned hallucinations? That seems like the simplest possibility, yeah?"

"So during every storm, everybody suddenly has mass hallucinations that are specific to them?" Radley quirks an eyebrow.

"Yeah...?" She shrugs, furrowing her own brow. "It's weird, but no more weird than your theory. Less weird than your theory, from where I'm standing."

Radley shrugs. "I guess it all depends on what you believe is possible. I don't know which is stranger. There'd have to be some pretty high-tech science or skilled magic to bring about unique hallucinations for each person that delve into their pasts and people they've known. But maybe that kinda thing is actually possible, especially in a sci-fi world."

Shaw goes still and quiet for a moment, half-turning back to the Data Points in a way that could easily be mistaken for a conversation-ender. Honestly, she sort of means it to be one - until she suddenly says, without turning back to look at him, "It's easier than you'd think. Trust me."

Radley isn't sure if he's offended her or not, so he lingers a moment. Then he's surprised when she speaks again.

"... It's possible in your world?" he wonders. That sounds terrifying.

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