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

[kallig]

I've not spoken to them much, but they are here.

[However cruel it is to put pregnant women and literal children in danger. He's sort of extra angry with the Agrii for bringing them here.]

And yes, I have "magic powers" as you put it.

[doubled_speed]

Weird. Guess I wasn't expecting that of you, Party-Man.

[kallig]

What, you thought I was a helpless civilian of some sort?

[doubled_speed]

Woulda been racist to assume you COULD do something just because you don't look human.

[kallig]

Technically speaking, my species does have traits some would consider a power of a sort- at the very least something I think is unique to my species.

[He looks thoughtful.] My eyesight goes slightly into the infrared range, for example. And I'm quite good with lower temperatures, though I don't necessarily enjoy them.

If there's anything else though, I don't know. I know very little about my kind.

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, my speed has to do with my species too. But infrared vision is SUPER cool. Does that mean you could see plants in the greenhouse differently?

[He's heard some flowers have infrared patterns on them so bees will come at them better.]

But it's okay, not knowing much. Your life wasn't the greatest. I get what that's like.

[kallig]

I've... Never thought about that, actually. But then, I haven't been looking at a lot of flowers, either.

[Since his eyes are nearly always covered, anyway.]

Technically speaking, I was actually one of the lucky ones, being born outside the Chiss Ascendancy. But I won't get into that any more than I have.

[doubled_speed]

You can't see through your veil thing?

[kallig]

I can see the ground if I look down. But I can't see through it, no.

[doubled_speed]

Then... doesn't it impair your life?

[kallig]

I see through the Force- I got the idea from a species called the Miraluka, who do not have eyes and often wear masks for decorum's sake. They too use the Force to guide them.

[He shrugs.] Besides, my species is virtually indistinguishable from a species called Pantorans if our eyes are hidden and the deception has served me well.

[doubled_speed]

Why should your species matter? You mentioned that before.

[kallig]

... Are you certain you wish to know?

[doubled_speed]

Can't be all that bad. I mean, both of my grandfathers have tried to wipe out humanity. One for the sake of humanity, the other because evil robot.

tw: mentions of abuse here

[kallig]

[Oh boy. Well, now to try and explain it.]

The Chiss see Force-sensitivity as impurity, in the time I am from.

Chiss who are born able to use the Force are either forced to suppress these powers, shut themselves off from the energy that connects all living things- a power that feels a lot like being able to breathe, a power that feels like you're connected to everything-, exiled from the Ascendancy and their own people, or executed, depending on social standing.

Now imagine you are Chiss, born in slavery, far away from the people who are your own. A child is born, but there's something wrong with this child. This child can use the Force- which your species sees as vile. You've been taught by your parents that that's the way the world works, and you accept it.

But damaging property isn't allowed.

How do you think that child would be raised? What would they be taught about their own people? What would they fear?

[doubled_speed]

[Oh dear. Tommy sighs. He gets it.]

Maybe... when you come by I'll tell you about some shit.

[He doesn't want it anywhere that someone can theoretically hack.]

[kallig]

Maybe. But you needn't feel pressured merely because I'm more callous than I should be about my past.

Fear remains, but time marches ever forward, I'm afraid.

[doubled_speed]

Fuck time. It's stupid and takes too long.

[kallig]

[He can't help but give a slight laugh.]

I suppose so. Still, it's nice to know that every bad yesterday is just that. Tomorrow might still be bad, but the day after that may be good.

Slow, but with near unlimited potential. I like that.

[doubled_speed]

Aren't we... the products of those yesterdays?

[kallig]

The bad yesterdays will affect us, yes.

But the future's potential remains ever bright.

[He should know. He still suffers from quite a bit of fear that he's learned in the past. But he's always moving forward to become a better person. And all the pain he suffered somehow hurts less now than it once did.]

Recovering from the sort of past I had, and the sort of past I imagine you must have had as well, is not a straight line and sometimes those bad times feel like they might as well be snapping at our heels. That doesn't mean our lives are bound to repeat it.

And it does not mean we ourselves cannot become more than what those bad yesterdays wanted to make us believe.

[doubled_speed]

I don't know. I have a lot of evidence of life events repeating. So I don't know that it won't happen in the future.

[And at least he hasn't become a super villain. Because his past made him think he was fated to it.]

[kallig]

No one does. That's part of the beauty of it.

[Technically there are Sith who can have visions of the future. But it's not a power he's spent too much time worrying about.]

[doubled_speed]

There are seers, prophets, and prophecies in my world, so that's not true.

[Like he knows his brother is and was fated to be god. He doesn't know how to feel about that]

[kallig]

Accurately? Force-sensitives can also look into the future or have visions, but these visions are not infallible and can be changed or avoided.