⚖️ Inbox - Steven Grant's Communicator

[de_nile]

This communicator belongs to Steven Grant! :)

If you need to contact someone that isn't Steven Grant, maybe you're looking for Marc Spector's dead drop...

Put date and format in the header, please!
Marc tags from reflectedlight
Steven tags from de_nile

Comments

Re: SPAM

[musicdied]

I don't think so. We actually don't know what they are called. We just call them foxes. Or foxlings.

[The little red creature eyes him for a few seconds, then stretches out her neck to sniff at his knuckles and wrist.]

Be careful if you have anything electronic. They absolutely will drain the battery for a snack. They don't seem to bother the communicators, but other things are fair game.

spam

[de_nile]

They're wonderful. I love it here. Oh! Can we give them rechargeable batteries as treats, then?

[He is so happy to have found a thing that will make the foxling like him? Animals are so easy, everybody knows what they want.

Steven lets her sniff before reaching carefully to pet. No startling!]

Aw, you're smiling!

[This is also delightful, actually. Yelena seemed very serious and/or resigned in their last conversation.]

Re: spam

[musicdied]

That does happen sometimes.

[Frequently, there's something soft and fluffy involved.]

But you cannot tell anyone, or it will ruin my reputation.

[The foxling follows his hand for a moment, before deciding that yes, okay, petting is acceptable.]

We've never actually tried rechargeable batteries. There are a few charging plates set up for them. They do eat, though - food, not just electricity. There are--

[The little turquoise fox loses her grip on the feather lure, and it rebounds back. Yelena's hand snaps up to intercept it before she gets a face full of feathers.]

There are treats on the shelf, in the green canister.

spam

[de_nile]

I promise.

[Very solemn, but he's got a goofy smile on. His vision locks {TARGET ACQUIRED} on the treats canister, but he doesn't move yet, going to get the foxling used to him, first.]

Where did they... come from? Do they belong to someone?

Re: spam

[musicdied]

Did you know there’s an Earth where Woodstock attracted a bunch of aliens?

[A brief pause.]

Actually, that might describe our Earth, too.

Anyway, we found them there after the festival, abandoned in the woods. No one who was still there knew where they came from, and we couldn’t just leave them on a strange planet to fend for themselves.

spam

[de_nile]

The ship went to Woodstock?

[Big, round eyes.]

Wait - wait - the ship can make port in Earth's past?

[oh please can we do the Middle Kingdom holy shit please please please. steven will do ANYTHING, we are talking murder*, we are talking sexual favors**, we are talking large sums of money stolen from international banks***. PLEASE




* just kidding
** maybe yeah
*** he'll at least try, he can promise that, but succeeding is another thing]

Re: spam

[musicdied]

The ship went to Woodstock.

[She grins a little at that wide-eyed expression.]

It can visit the past or the future, from our perspective, the same way it can take people from the 21st Century and the 15th Century, and have us be here at the same time.

spam

[de_nile]

If we did Egypt already [Steven says, solemnly, not pausing in petting the foxling] and I missed it, do not tell me about that, I'll be inconsolable. They'll need to sedate me.

Re: spam

[musicdied]

The infirmary is right next door, and I think Vincent has been hoping for an excuse to shoot someone with a tranquilizer.

[She’s only mostly joking.]

But I can honestly say that as far as I know, we have not made port in Egypt. Modern or historical. At least not in the past decade or so.

spam

[de_nile]

There are two Vincents, right? Aerith's friend with the big cape on and another one? Or is it just him, and he's had a really odd life with several different jobs?

[It'd be super weird if the same guy had totally opposite qualities at the same time.]

Re: spam

[musicdied]

[The weirdest. Good thing that definitely doesn’t happen.]

There are two Vincents. Valentine is the one who looks like he should be a vampire and works in the infirmary. He’s a useful person to know. Smith works in the chapel.

I think they both are friends with Aerith, but so’s half the Barge.

spam

[de_nile]

Well, she is very friendly. The one with the cape is definitely the vampire one, he's a bit intimidating but I understand he means well.

[Steven is trying to coax the foxling down to the floor. C'mere, buddy!]

I've been thinking about asking the Enclosure to do Ancient Egypt but... it almost feels too easy? Like, something that's going to be that important to me shouldn't be so... casual? I dunno. I could probably come here, learn more than enough to write papers for the rest of my life, pick up an item I could sell for a billion dollars, and go home without having done a single thing to help the ship.

[He could. He could do that.]

Suppose that's why Steve Rogers says the Admiral mostly takes desperate people. People that are just lonely might go home.

Re: spam

[musicdied]

The Enclosure could create the structures, and the environment, but not the people. Its attempts is very bad at people, unless what you’re looking for is programmable opponents. Or programmable partners for dance lessons, apparently.

[The foxling scooches to the edge of the shelf and peers down, in the slightly gravity-defying way some climbing animals have, where they’re half a millimetre from tumbling from a perch.]

And that definitely is part of why the Admiral recruits the desperate. We have had a few people leave before they earned their deals, but it’s rare for people who come here as wardens. At least, it’s rare for people to admit it.

spam

[de_nile]

Oh, be careful, [Steven says, to the foxling, as if it has any concept of what that means.]

The architecture would be gorgeous, though ... and. Well. I suppose there's no guarantee of accuracy. How would I know what it is and isn't making up?

[There it is. There's the catch. He's a little sad now. No people, and he can't even be sure it's correct...]

Can wardens vanish the way inmates can?

Re: spam

[musicdied]

[The little creature's hindquarters bunch, and it springs down from the shelf to land on the floor and bump against Steven's ankles. Careful: apparently not in its vocabulary.]

They can, but the stakes are a different. Most wardens are alive when they agree to come here. Not all - there have been a half dozen wardens who have vanished back to their deaths without getting a deal, while I have been here - but most.

spam

[de_nile]

[Steven is DELIGHTED, good job darling you're so brave!! He sits on the floor to pet it more close-up.]

Oh, did you see! What a cute little ... hm, got no idea what gender it is. Foxling!

I mean, yeah - but if a Warden vanishes, does something keep them from just coming straight back here again?

Re: spam

[musicdied]

These two are both female. Or - of the childbearing sex, at least. One litter of kits and their mother are a very small sample size.

[She smiles slightly at his obvious delight with the little foxling.]

And the reason a warden can't just come straight back if they vanish is that agreeing to be a warden does not give someone the ability to just...jump around realities at will. They are not connected to the Barge any more, so they have no way to come back. And while there are loopholes with some floods, mostly people who are not connected to the Barge can't board it at all, so none of the people with reality-jumping space ships have ever been able to retrieve a warden who has vanished, even when they can find them again.

[A brief pause, and then she adds:]

And there is no guarantee they will remember their time on the Barge. People who choose to leave seem to, but for wardens who vanish, it apparently is hit or miss.

spam

[de_nile]

[Steven gets troubled, and quiet.]

Right, the forgetting. I think someone told me that. I can't go back, you know. I've only been here two months and I'm already dreading the idea that I might need to go back to being just ... alone. No magic, nobody that listens to me, nothing to learn except from books? And no one can come and get me, either, because I won't know it even happened.

I've always felt I missed something. Like there was something I should've done differently when I was twenty, or thirty, or so and then everything wouldn't feel so much like I was a - a background character in somebody else's dream, waiting to pop when they woke up.

Though I know that's all shit, and there's people here who would've loved their lives to be mundane.

[He has the Foxling's face in one palm, and it is making squeaks as he fluffs the fur under its jaw.]

Dunno.

I asked you loads of questions the last time and never asked what you do at home?

Re: spam

[musicdied]

Mostly odd jobs, since the Blip. Being dead for a few years does very strange things to your career prospects.

[She shrugs slightly, and sets down the feather lure. The turquoise foxling she's been entertaining grabs it in her mouth and trots off toward the back room, making triumphant little noises.

Yelena pushes to her feet and walks over to sit beside Steven.]

There's no way to control whether or not you vanish, but you can make some contingencies. Keep a record of your experiences here, the ones that are important to you. A journal, or a video - not on your communicator, with something else - something you think you would trust, if you forgot everything. Make sure you keep a copy somewhere safe that is not your cabin, and find someone who can bring it to you if you vanish.

[She pauses briefly.]

B probably would agree to, if you asked him.

spam

[de_nile]

"Oh. Oh you're from the version of things where Thanos did it. That's terrible."

That's fucking awful.

"I'll - I'll do that, yeah. You know, I think of myself as fairly clever, but you do put me to shame."

A big, warm smile. He lets his foxling wander off when her sister chatters to her, too. God Damn those things are So Cute it's unreal.

"Did you go to a university...? Don't laugh, I know it's an awfully mundane question. I didn't manage it, though."

Re: spam

[musicdied]

"I have the advantage of a two-year head start with this place," she says. Her own smile is slightly lopsided. "And no, I never went to university. Maybe I will, if I get out of this place. It's supposed to never be too late, right?"

There's a moment's pause, before she backtracks. "--Wait. Are you from a timeline where the Blip never happened?"

spam

[de_nile]

"What? Oh, yeah, yeah. Battle of Wakanda, they put a stop to all that. Same as when Loki did it to New York, bunch of superheroes showed up and rang his bell, broke a load of buildings, did a load of violent glowy things. Supposedly it's a timeline that's a result of Steve and B's Admiral deal?

Loki's really supposed to have red hair, by the way, but try telling the real historical Loki that, I suppose..."

Re: spam

[musicdied]

The corners of her mouth twitch slightly with suppressed amusement at his description of the Battle of New York; the complaint about Loki gets an actual huff of laughter.

"Maybe the world conquering is like a goth phase for immortal god-aliens," she suggests. "They dye their hair black and get an army of hive-mind cyborgs and make all the angst some other planet's problem."

spam

[de_nile]

Steven's grinning in triumph. I made you smile!!!

...Being in a room of adorable animals helped, he's sure.

"We ought to ask the Admiral what he was doing when he was sixteen. Bet he's got some wild stories."

[musicdied]

"Probably. Unless he decides to take it literally, and sixteen is the equivalent to a toddler for - whatever his species is. I do not think anyone's ever seen him, to be able to guess."

She pauses for a moment, then adds, "The last time we ran into a ship like this, half the Barge was convinced its captain was the Admiral's ex."