video; a work in progress

[whatsupcroc]

( Audio picks up the sound of industrial construction, either things familiar in woodshop, car garages, or anywhere of a similar sort. When the feed goes live, Collette is framed to one side, looking forward and away from the camera.  She's clearly resting on her arms, and given the angle of the ground on the screen, she's probably lying on her stomach in order to do this.  She glances over her shoulder, eyes going to something behind the tablet being used for recording, then smiles as her eyes drop down to the tablet itself.  For all intents and purposes, the camera is positioned to make the viewing audience seem like they're side by side with Collette, wherever it is she is, keeping a low profile in this industrialized looking area.  Concrete floor that she's resting on, packing boxes ahead of her, bundles of cables and chains glimpsed somewhere past her head. )

Guys!  ( She keeps her voice low, not a whisper (they carry further, and can't be heard about the ambient noise), but low to avoid excessive attention. )  Anyone else catch where they dragged the ship off to with that giant crane after the crash? I wondered about that. But I've got news!

( She makes a waving motion at the camera, and it shifts, jarringly, to leave Collette off screen and show something covered in plastic and wiring and cables, a few Initiative workers using welding guns, others wheeling parts away or calling out shouts of questions over the sounds of construction. )

They say the spaceship's salvageable!

Comments

we are now in a nancy drew novel

[whatsupcroc]

I mean just that! Man, wearing a great big suit to keep him safe, got in a giant metal machine that flies a little like a bird and went right on up to the moon! He walked on the surface and came back down safely and everything!

yes, yes we are

[sharpe]

[ Long pause. ]

You have a gift fer telling me absolutely ridiculous things and yet still making me believe you, lass.

[ Seriously?! ]

[whatsupcroc]

( She has to laugh at that, a free and unfettered sound. It's not appropriate for the setting she's in, but it is devoured by the other sounds around her. )

I'm glad! Because it really's happened, people really did that! Humanity does amazing things, even if we can do really horrible things, too. There's a balance, somewhere deep in there.

[sharpe]

[ Horrible things and good things too. Sharpe sobers a little at the thought. He's been focusing so much on the terrible things, on people being forgotten, on being forgotten himself- that he barely remembers what is good. But there is plenty.

There's plenty. He chuckles softly.

But still: ]

I won't say 'amazing'. More of 'fantastical'. Why would anyone want ta go ta the moon if it's just rock? There ain't anything ta be found there.

[whatsupcroc]

Because we can! It's something amazing to do, like climbing Mount Everest, or going down into the deepest trench in all of the ocean! Doing something wonderful... something you might only do once ever in your life? How exciting is that! Even more, you're one of the few who can ever do a thing like that, as far as you know!

[sharpe]

[ A long pause. ]

So someone will remember you fer doing it. Something like that?

[whatsupcroc]

( She considers this. )

I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it's more important for those people that they're remembered, or that they got to do this amazing thing at all. Probably both, or one of the other, most the time.

[sharpe]

I don't see the difference between the two.

[whatsupcroc]

( she giggles! )

There isn't usually much of one!

[sharpe]

Fame and glory. Almost the same thing. [ Dryly. ]

Are we using the spaceship ta go ta war?

[whatsupcroc]

No. It's not practical... not with what the UE has too, anyway. And it's not fitted to work with weapons. I don't think the UE would have held it so far out and closer to Exsilium, you know, if two weeks of travel is close, if it'd been a weapons-capable system. I think it's for exploration and cargo transport, which is what we can use it for, too!

[sharpe]

Cargo transport? [ Pause.. ] What kind of cargo?

[whatsupcroc]

I don't know what the UE might have planned to carry around. I'm not even sure what we might carry!

[sharpe]

And yer still helping 'em fix the spaceship and get the word out. [ Pause. He laughs. ]

You make a good soldier, lass.

[whatsupcroc]

( She grins. )

Thank you, sir!