shitposting rave 5: discount rejects from every genre

-he sighs-
Unfortunately, between shifts in the medbay, shifts on the bridge, planning my... I believe humans call it a wedding, and maintaining my relationships, I simply haven't the time. I would love more trained medical staff aboard, since we only have two, perhaps three doctors for the whole ship - the nurses are wonderful, of course, but they simply can't perform surgery if it's necessary - but my amica would be terribly upset if I stopped sleeping to make it happen.

 

"That's quite understandable." Ford quirks a smile. "Lissa would kill me if I stopped sleeping again. She and my brother have physically removed me from laboratories."

 

"I would never kill you, Stanford Pines." Lissa snorts, but she's grinning. "If I were that angry you wouldn't get out of it so easily. Well, except for the part that I can't actually stay mad at you."

 

There's another catte, tilting their head.
"But if he's dead, how is he supposed to wake up?"

 

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey," says Lissa nervously. She's afraid her accent will give her away; she learned to speak Talassani without the void declensions, but it's been more than 20 years since she's had to. "I'm Valisseira of the Falls. This is my husband, Stanford Pines."

 

Emre hasn't heard Talassani in a while, and is, somewhere deep down, glad there's someone they can speak the language with.
"I am Emre," they reply. "Of none. I am honoured to meet you and your -- husband."
They stumble a bit before the 'of none' and 'husband' parts, and hope it does not affect their veneer of polite. People are less like to take offense to "eccentricies" if you're polite.

 

Lissa smiles gently. "I'm 'of the Falls' because I was Beijaden once, and with a name like 'Emre', perhaps so were you, or one of your family? It was Stanford who turned me away from them."

 

Emre blinks. Their name, of course. They like their name, it's the one thing they have left of their father. Of course people recognize it.
This person had a life like their father, who never spoke about it, no matter how much Rrih and Emre pestered, until mother made them stop.
(Maybe she even knew Emre's father. Emre is not sure if they want to know.)
"I have never set foot on Beijada station," they say. "What was it like?"

 

Lissa takes a deep breath and leans back against Ford. "It was all that I knew, so I didn't understand enough of the universe to be unhappy. But it's a terrible place. People are individually kind, but it's empty, and as a whole, the station is cruel. As a kit I didn't know that I shouldn't spend the whole day training and listening to sacred stories, that I should be climbing trees and chasing bugs and making noise. As a kit I didn't think about what we were eating on a station in the middle of the void where there's nothing to hunt." She sighs. "When everyone's broken, you don't know how broken you are. And you don't know what it's like not to be lonely until you aren't, any more."

 

Ford strokes Lissa's hair. If she wants to talk about it, he won't say anything against that, but he's watching her for signs of being triggered. Jack's shit talk upset her quite a bit after all.

 

Emre tilts their head in the other direction.
"...I am glad you are away from there?" they offer. "Arha never talked about the station, and Maha wouldn't let us ask. It sounds like a strange place. Thank you for telling me."

 

"We're all glad she's away," Ford says, smiling. "I'm surprised she talked about it myself. It's good to meet you, Emre."

 

[He nods before beginning to stuff his face with cheesesteak. As much as he loves Alfie's cooking, sometimes a man needs his junkfood. Especially the kind that is tied to so many memories. He briefly flickers into a different suit, and a body younger by a few years at least. It's enough to give him pause.]
That. Was incredibly weird.

 

And again: dreamspace. Conscious will isn't the only kind of will! If some corner of your brain associates, say, those particular flavors with being younger, or with a different point in your life, you can actually be younger. You can do so intentionally too, though I do believe that comes more naturally to species that already change shape on the regular. [Vector winks.] There's a bit of a trick to keeping yourself static, but I'm not sure I could put it into words... Rather the problem with taking to it like a duck to water. I might know it, but I suspect you couldn't tell me the trick to something like "breathing," hm?

 

[... Or whoever is in control of this space knows he was Nightwing once and is trying to destabilize him further.]
Interesting for sure. I assume the trick is linked to remaining aware of your current knowledge and situation in a way similar to meditation?

 

Something like! Also requires a sense of self, which can be a little tricky for some people.

 

[... awkward laugh: go]

 

I did say some. [Vector laughs, more indulgently than meanly; if he knew how to explain, he certainly would.] It's something that can be learned, I'm told, but I'm certainly not the best teacher on that subject. Onyx might do better if you catch her in here-- big black centaur with wings, can't miss her. Her bit's time, not space, so she learned dimension-hopping much more normally than I did!

 

I will remember to ask when we meet.

 

Emre shrugs. "Sometimes you wanna talk about it to someone who's closer to it?" they offer. "What are the Falls like?"