unknownseas | into each breaking wave

into each breaking wave

[ Well, that was — no pun intended — unfortunate. ...But in light of what they already saw happen the first two weeks, maybe it's not really that surprising, either; and maybe it's at least a little easier to recognize when something is going to be a lost cause, if not necessarily to accept it.

In spite of everything, this is the first time Decus has been in a halfway decent mood after a trial, which he can gather is... probably not the case for most of the rest. So he figures he can take on the party host duties for this week rather than push it onto someone who needs a break. Anyway, he wants to keep up this feeling-okay thing for as long as he can, and if he has too much downtime and starts to think about what happened a week ago today... he might end up a little less okay.

So, he brings some food down to the buffet from the cafes for a little variety (even though most of them probably aren't going to be too picky at this point), along with some tea and cocoa from Starbucks and a few harder options from the bar, and gets that all set up in as welcoming an arrangement as he can manage. And...

Well. Despite how he may come off sometimes, he actually is self-aware enough to realize that some of the others might not appreciate being reminded that he's still alive when three people who'd never had any intention of killing are dead. It doesn't really bother him, but he doesn't want to create unnecessary drama, either; so he doesn't put his name anywhere on the invitations he puts up around the place, just a simple:

food and drinks at the buffet

...Which is almost always the case, technically, this past week excluded, but hey.

And while he might come by to offer a drink or something to someone who looks like they need it, he's mostly going to hang back and let everyone do their thing. ]

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[...Oh, uh.]

...No, I don't think you said anything wrong. Honestly, I probably should apologize to John Constantine at least, for shouting at everyone.

But I don't recall you saying anything that seemed untoward - if anything, we need more people like you.

I know that the spirit was likely seeking to harm me emotionally, but nonetheless - I know that I can come across as uncaring.

[He was the first guy to be like "welp let's vote then" and got called out for it and has, upon reflection, decided they may have been correct.]

I believe you were correct, as well. [.....] Perhaps the volume was unneccesary.

...I admit that I panicked; it was rather unbecoming...

[She at least has the decency to seem embarrassed about it.]

I haven't ever personally found you to seem uncaring; I suppose it's because you've always gone out of your way to be considerate of others' feelings, even if you don't share those feelings yourself.

I am glad to hear it.

[That's reassuring! It's not feedback he gets a lot, but - yikes he could kinda see how that could come off as cruel.]

You were correct to be concerned. They were behaving rashly, and likely could have caused many more problems had the spirit taken them up on it. I would not worry too much.

...I'll apologize for the delivery, if nothing else. It was just an incredibly powerless feeling.

I doubt I could have done much against something like that myself, even if I had my magic and my transformation. But I can understand the rash behavior, at least somewhat.

Nor could I. Perhaps with full science equipment, I could have come to understand its nature and determine a course of action, but not alone.

[You know now that I think about it Data has been possessed like, several times on the show. Only one of those episodes was super dumb though.]

I can understand it. I even think it was an admirable impulse - if ultimately misguided.

...Likewise, though perhaps not in all cases.

[...Flayn...]

I had never seen anything like that before, however. The spirits of the dead can cross back into the mortal realm, but they don't...quite act like that.

Can they? My world has no confirmed instances of such events, in humans.

[Vulcans are a different matter.]

Yes, though I don't know the specific circumstances. That's Hel's domain, after all; she commands as she sees fit.

[Data nods, and chooses not to talk about Norse mythology!]

We have encountered incorporeal entities who were capable of overtaking a person's physical form. I am told I was possessed by one once, although I do not remember the experience.

[when are we gonna find a horrible thing that hasn't happened to data one time]

I would not have referred to them as spirits, but I suppose that is only a semantic difference.

[Please don't make her explain the bullshit that is FEH mythology.]

...How would you have referred to them? Simply as incorporeal beings, or was it something more specific?

They appeared to be some form of electromagnetic lifeform, to be more specific.

[also apparently I misremembered and he was actually fully conscious for that one, it was the other possession he didn't remember. rip.]

In general, I might have called them energy beings. That is something of a catch-all term we use for unknown entities of that nature.

...I see.

[She says, with the tone of someone who doesn't see.]

You really have come across so many different lifeforms and entities. It's fascinating, honestly.

It is. I enjoy first contact missions, though I am rarely on the ground team for them. It is common to keep initial meetings to a very small group composed of a single species - so as not to overwhelm the local people.

[And he's the only Data there is!]

I engage in research and scanning, however. By that point, we can learn a great deal from a planet's communications networks.

Communications networks...?

[um...]

Do you mean things like the...televisions, or something else?

Exactly.

[ITS NOT QUITE AS NSA-Y AS THAT SOUNDED PROBABLY]

You can learn a great deal about a culture through their news and media.

[She has to think about it.]

I suppose you can - I've learned that Scott Pilgrim's world is very like the World of Steel that I've seen, with the metal carriages that people ride in and the buildings constructed so that they reach very high overhead. They also don't seem to have pegasi or wyverns, as we do.

Things like that?

That does sound to be the case.

[..........]

Although there seem to be several inexplicable aspects to Scott's world. [what the FUCK is GOING ON there???]

That's very true, but I don't know why everyone finds that strange...?

[Like, she's just saying.]

For example, death works differently in my world than it does in most, yet no one ever tells me "death doesn't work that way" when I mention it. My world contains multiple realms that do not exist in other worlds, and yet no one tells me that it should not. They simply accept that it does.

So I don't see why everyone finds it so odd that in Scott's world death doesn't leave bodies behind, and that fighting requires various rules and limitations.

[Hm. Data considers that for a moment.]

It is likely because he appears more like a typical human. You are visibly not so, so people are more likely to expect that your world is extremely different. Additionally, much of his world sounds similar to several others, so the differences are surprising when they appear.

Possibly it is also because you are better-suited to explaining the various functions of your world. [because you are immortal and know a lot about it, that is]

That's a fair point. A good amount of what people describe to me is completely foreign as it is - the World of Steel seems similar to this one, and likely similar to what Chloe, for example, has experienced, but all that I've seen of i has been through one specific person's dreams and Lucas Lee's movies.

[So she's got, like, no frame of reference for what is and isn't weird.]

I suppose that to those from similar worlds, departures must seem strange.

I am not familiar with Lucas Lee. But this world does seem roughly like what Chloe would hail from. It is approximate with the distant past of my world, as well - of course I have not experienced it like this personally, but I have more points of reference.

[especially given how weirdly obsessed with old earth culture specifically everyone on the enterprise seems to be]

I imagine that if our Captain himself is not from this world, he is from a similar one as well.

Oh, Lucas Lee is Scott's... [uhhh] ...rival for a woman's romantic affections. He's very attractive, but I hear he is a sellout.

[...anyway, ]

I wonder if Jack hails from this world as well. While the Summoner can pull people from different worlds, they all tend to be largely similar in nature, and sometimes they are merely different iterations of the same world. Some of them, however, are greatly different. I wonder if Jack is doing something similar - some of us are from immensely different worlds, but there are a large number of us for whom the worlds are similar, and I wonder if that group is due to their worlds being similar to Jack's own.

[Data's eyebrows quirk in a way that sort of forebodes him watching some Lucas Lee movies at some point, but he doesn't feel the need to pursue that point at present!]

That seems likely. From my understanding of the multiverse, those worlds would be the closest to his, and the easiest to draw from. Not to mention, he would likely be more comfortable with them on a personal level.

[she watched them with yeager last week

they're terrible, she loves them]

That would make sense; I admit that I'm not with the particulars of how such things work, and the Summoner hasn't been able to explain it to me at this point, but that does seem to follow.

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ltcommandroid - 2021-03-01 03:52 (UTC) - Expand

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