I'll send an SOS to the world

[astrogator]

Who: Everyone who wants to!
What: Messages for the outside, NOVEMBER PLOT
When: Mid-October onwards
Where: By Phil's signpost, the lounge, Ari's cabin
Warnings: None yet, will update as needed
Notes: Credit to Batya for the first prompt!



1. Hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore

A day or two after the signpost goes up, a small table shows up next to it, with a large blank notebook from Sundries. It has been labeled on the front, in careful printing: MAIL CALL.

A nearby note, in the same printing, reads:

If you could send a message back home, or onward to the next place you want to go, what would it say? Write it here for posterity.

Pens and markers are available, in a tall cup scavenged from the buffet table.

2. Only hope can keep me together

In the second half of October, Ari will be in the lounge and other communal areas with her laptop. Anyone who passes by, whether she knows them well or not, will be asked to help her with a project. She doesn't want anyone to be forgotten, she says. She wants a record, because existence is so uncertain. Her injury made her value the people here on the ship more, she'll say, - and the bandage still around her head might speak to that. She encourages people to let her make a recording of them, talking about themselves.

'We can do it however you like,' she'll say. 'Flatvid, looking direct into the camera, or I can activate the holorecorders, give you your own holovid. If you don't know what to say, I'll ask questions. Please?' Are you really going to turn down the earnest young Tradeliner?

3. Sendin' out an SOS

Late in October, Ari calls a meeting of her co-conspirators. She gives them each a different time to arrive at her cabin, so the first arrivals will get to spend time helping with video editing or rocket construction while they await the others. There's time for private chat - but when everyone who decided to come along should be there, discussion begins in earnest.

[ooc: prompts divided up below for organisational purposes; contact me or Batya if you'd like to do something different!]

Comments

[decohere]

[a small nod. she hopes such a thing will never be necessary, but she knows it's an unfortunate possibility. she rather be prepared than leave Peter with nothing, no proper goodbye.] That'd be... nice.

How do I start this? [she figures it'll be a nice warm up to get comfortable]

[astrogator]

I'll start it. [She holds up a pair of headphones.] I literally can't hear a thing when I have them on. I'll do that, start recording, then turn away. You stay on that spot that I've marked on the floor so that we can get a good holoimage, and then tap my shoulder when you're done.

[She gives Ava an encouraging smile.] Tell me when you're ready.

[decohere]

... [she still looks uncomfortable, nervous at being on the spot. having to commit to words that will probably outlive her. off the top of her head, she's coming up blank despite there being so much she wants to say.] Can we. Try yours first? So I can practice?

[astrogator]

[Another quick nod from Ari.] We can do that. [She adds, reassuringly:] And if you decide you're not happy with it, I can always edit parts out for you, or delete the file entirely. You're in control of it.

[This is true for Ava, even if not for the others she records!]

I'll start it up now. Begin with the basics. Your name, how long you've been here. You can explain where you're from, or if you don't want to do that, just talk about your life here. Whatever you want.

[And with a little smile, she presses the recording button.]

[decohere]

Okay. [stands there awkwardly for a moment.]

My name is. Ava. Mrs. Ava Starr. I've been here for... 20 months, and I've seen a lot of people come and go. People that I consider friends, people I never properly learned the names of. I've died 3 times, my husband Peter... [a pause to calculate] 6. [well isn't that quite a number.] I turn 31 in two weeks. I never thought I'd make it to 30.

[glances at Tayrey to make sure she's doing this right. she's still fidgeting and glitching but she continues on.]

I come from a world overrun by those that call themselves super heroes. Where dangerous experiments are carried out in secret government labs to create weapons, invincible super soldiers, out of people. Where young women are kidnapped off the streets, from their families, and shaped into mind-controlled assassins. Where a single billionaire has taken control over the entire world's security by creating hoards of robots, an AI that went rogue and destroyed an entire country. But even the government has lost control over these persons, who refuse to take accountability for the damage they've done the world. All in the name of Avenging.

And people like me, who never asked for any of this. Are treated like criminals and fugitives for simply wanting to be left alone. There's a prison out in the middle of the ocean, used to trap us. I had to hide, live in the woods, hoping to avoid being captured by the very government that exploited me, my powers.

[a small sigh] I never want to go back. I don't know what I'd even go back to. Half the universe's population was wiped out in a single snap. I don't know if I made it. I don't know if Bill did.

I used to think this was the rest of my life. I've made the best of it that I could. Learned from my experiences. How to be a friend. How to love and be loved.

This... feels like it's going too long. Did I get too off topic? Sorry.