Video Broadcast - OTA (Post Storm)

[doubled_speed]

[Hey guys, look who it is. The bright and cheerful and constantly snarky kid. Who is smiling wide, though it looks a bit strained. Good news, his arm has healed since getting back. Bad news, Tommy looks nervous and maybe a hint of stressed as the video starts. But hey, he's in the greenhouse, which is obvious from the greenery around him. And his communication device is propped up against something, because his hands are in the shot, working at the soil around a lush Cyanana plant, clearly working fertilizer into the soil with care.]

So, like... Just because we've got the ships and stuff doesn't mean it's not important for us to maintain the greenhouse, right? We were gone for a while and not all the places in here did well while we were gone. And then I was walking around and realized that we're sorta scattered, the people working here. So maybe people with the skill should, like, coordinate? Because fresh food on the ships is good too. We can preserve shit and put it on the ships for variation.

I also wanna do, like, hydroponics on some of the ships. So if we gets spaced again for a while, we can have fresh stuff.

Guess...

[He sighs and his hand cards through his hair. Which means some dirt is now there in the perfect white strands.]

Guess I mean I'm willing to help organize. Map out the greenhouse, help us figure out schedules and when to work on different plants and that shit. Or not. Someone else can take that charge. I don't much care. It just needs done. Might also need an engineer to help with the ship part. And maybe people to okay adding it to other ships and to take care of the plants.

Anyway uh...

[Let him be useful. He failed as a hero in the storm. Disappointment and frustration flash across his face in the video and then it's gone.]

Thoughts?

Comments

Re: Video

[doubled_speed]

Baby-8? What? Dude do you gotta kid with you?

Video

[happybeeps]

BeeBee. [He over enunciates and points the camera down to his droid who beeps cheerfully.] That weird robot brought him back to me on the snow planet.

Re: Video

[doubled_speed]

Weird robot?

[He clearly is behind on shit from being a kid and then the storm and then the injury.]

Video

[happybeeps]

I don't know, he was big and red, and handing out gifts.

BB-8's my astromech.

[doubled_speed]

Oh, the thing that gave me shoes. Cool. IT gave you a spacebot? And you named it that? Weird.

[happybeeps]

That's his name, I didn't pick it. He's mine from back home. I've had him since I joined the New Republic Army.

[doubled_speed]

So what's your robot do.

[Don't tell him that BB-8 can think for himself, otherwise he's going to go off on how BB-8 should be his own person.]

[happybeeps]

Astromech's help fly starfighters and do some repair work, but he can do a whole lot more than that.

[For a droid he is very much his own person.]

[doubled_speed]

Oh, so he's your copilot. I can respect that. I mean, I'm half robot myself.

[He likes claiming that. Because he can use it to reinforce his lack of emotions.]

[happybeeps]

Droids can reproduce with humans in your world?

[doubled_speed]

I'm a result of magic, reality warping, a demon's soul, and retroreincarnation. It's complex. But my soul-dad is a synthezoid.

[happybeeps]

...well you and BB should get along real well then, I guess. You understand binary?

[doubled_speed]

The whole ones and zeroes thing? Nope. Not a lick. My technical skill is entirely writing and reading faster than humans can understand. Pops and I would talk at high speeds about shit all the time.

[Before Vision was taken away.]

[happybeeps]

Mm, yeah, when it's written. I mostly only understand it in droidspeak. Maybe you'll catch on to it after a while.

[doubled_speed]

[That implies he's smart enough to pick it up. Tommy doesn't believe in that. Even if he is more than smart enough for it.]

Sounds fake but sure.

[happybeeps]

[]BB-8 gives a chirping whistle, and Poe smirks fondly.]

He says 'Who are you calling fake?'.

[doubled_speed]

Not calling HIM fake. Said me leaning to understand him sounds fake.

[happybeeps]

He's joking, don't worry about it. It takes a while, but it's basically second nature to me now.

[doubled_speed]

You talk about him like he’s a person.

[happybeeps]

Well...- [Poe's expression suggests that he very much thinks of him as one.] Yeah?

[doubled_speed]

If he's a person, then he isn't YOUR droid. He's his own person. You can't own a person!

[happybeeps]

[Well that....definitely takes Poe by surprise, and his steps slow, blinking at the camera. There's a concerned sound from BB-8, and Poe glances to him with a reassuring smile.]

He's- ...he is his own person. [Poe confirms. Droid rights are a complicated issue even in his time.] He's here because he wants to be.

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, but you called him YOUR droid. That's fucking possessive language for someone that doesn't actually own him. Don't call him that.

[Listen, things get complicated when your father and one of your best friends are synthetic people, are machines.]

[happybeeps]

[The droid in question is making his own arguments, but Poe doesn't translate this time, shaking his head softly at him. He doesn't think Tommy's got the best incentive to believe him right now when BB-8 seems to be arguing in favor of his master.]

...It's complicated. He is mine, but that doesn't mean he's not free.

[doubled_speed]

[Don't argue with him, BB-8. He's trying to HELP YOU escape an oppressor.]

Man, Space-Shatner, I thought you were better than this. But apparently you're more like a fucking Bot-Slaver. That's not even fucking cool. And you said someone just GAVE him to you? You can't give people.