004. video/spam

[wildguardian]

[He settles himself on a sofa in a corner of the common area, along the very base of the tree, and lifts his wrist to a comfortable level to smile at the camera. He's done this before. It's performative as fuck, and he doesn't enjoy it, but it's past time that he got over his sulk and started getting people motivated here.]

Good morning, Clipper! Some of you I know and some of you are strangers, but we can welcome one more lovely day on this new boat together regardless. To the strangers: Zhao Yunlan! Formerly of the Barge, and even more formerly of Dragon City's Special Investigations Department.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk to all of you about happiness. Peace. Indeed, justice itself -- because I'm sorry to say I think our dear Nurse's head is not in the right place on those topics, and we could all get some better results with just a little change of perspective.

Anger, you see, is the natural response to injustice! Think back to the last time in your life you got real peeved -- what caused that emotion? I bet you were thinking, That's just wrong, or You can't treat me like that, or How could you do that?

It's a powerful feeling, and don't get me wrong, it sure as heck can be misdirected and cause some real harm in the world.

But the true cure for anger is to gather the strength to go after injustice. Not listening to happy music and putting on a smile. You know it as well as I do! Don't you feel that anger lingering in your heart as long as the wrong goes unfixed?

[He grins at the camera, sharp.]

Who ever repaired a wrong just by saying they were fine?

[And with a grand gesture of his free hand:]

I open the discussion! How do we make a better world? How can we improve this good ship?


Spam

[Zhao Yunlan spends most of his first week either moping in his room or moping generally around the ship. He'll participate in his assigned shifts, but he's hopeless in the kitchen and hopeless at custodial work, outside of the truly unskilled tasks like emptying garbage cans and hauling buckets of soapy water.

Once he's gotten his week of uselessness out of his system, he's choosing to become aggressively involved. Expect him to plop down next to you on the couch and strike up a conversation, Barge transfers and Clipper natives alike. He'll volunteer to tell stories at storytime, and launch into tales of war or murder investigations past if he's able to take the mic. He'll... be stuck washing dishes on every kitchen shift, because he doesn't seem to have the least idea of which flavors can safely go together and which ones will create a heart-rending abomination of a dish.

Sometimes, after the evening storytime but before it's late enough to sleep, he can be found leaning on the railing and staring up at the treehouse and the useless, opaque ceiling above it, lollipop stem jutting aggressively from his lips, expression very far away.]

Comments

Re: Spam

[wildguardian]

[The morning singalongs have killed Zhao Yunlan's will to sing annoyingly along with damn near anything, but the ambiguous humming the blond kid's doing does eventually get into his head. He finds himself humming along, and tries taking a few harmony lines for entertainment's sake.]

So what's your name?

I was trying to find the specific audio, but it's basically gone from the net. .-.

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo almost stops outright when someone joins in, the flash of home taking him off guard.

It does direct him to the conversation, though, and he's glad for the distraction.]

Alfredo.

[Just because the Nurse knows his full name, doesn't mean he has to use it.]

And yourself?

the tragedy of old-school canons!!

[wildguardian]

Zhao Yunlan. Nice meeting you, Alfredo.

[He offers a nod instead of a handshake, since they're both elbow-deep in soap suds and dirty water.]

What's that you were singing?

it was on youtube two years ago!! it's gone now. :(

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo responds in kind, though his face turns somber as he returns to those memories that had just smacked him upside the head.]

... Something a group of friends and I used to sing.

We were all chimney sweeps together. I - we all looked out for each other.

[They made an Oath to do exactly that. And so they had.

The only thing that had separated them before winter's end was death itself, and that death had been his own.]

I just miss them, still.

[wildguardian]

... None of the rest of your friends are with you here, huh?

[Well. Maybe that's a good thing, for them. Still hard on Alfredo, though.]

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo shakes his head, moving to rub the next plate down.]

I haven't recognized anyone. Romeo-

[Again, he pauses.]

I showed him once, how we'd keep our spirits up, even in the darkest times. But this place isn't like that.

[His friends, perhaps, if they were here, they could see more of the brighter side...

But they wouldn't be any more fond of being trapped.]

[wildguardian]

It's not as bad as it could be. But it's pretty bad. I've got friends I'm missing, too.

Not everybody from my last ship made it to this one, so I guess I have to hope they're on different ships somewhere....

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo lets that concept sink in for a few seconds. Then:]

How different are these ships? Based on your experience?

[He's expecting 'very', but details are a little more important.]

[wildguardian]

I've only seen this one and my old one, but my old one was a lot different. None of the primary colors stuff -- and for that matter, you could swear if you wanted to.

Graduating didn't mean just staying perky all the time, it meant actually doing better for people. And if you did graduate, the Admiral didn't take it back for anything less than serious foul-ups, like killing somebody.

Do you guys get floods here? Breaches, port stops?

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo stops drying dishes for a moment, because even for a sample size of two that's a big difference.]

Helping people be better, not just look a certain way?

[Alfredo thinks again of Romeo, and how his friend had helped him. That... sounds a bit more like what Zhao Yunlan's talking about.

Slowly, he nods.]

Not often - I've only seen us stop at one world during my time here. It looked... fixed.

[At least he doesn't need to ask what a flood or breach is.]

Like there were gears underneath it we couldn't see, even though it was thriving.

[wildguardian]

Yeah. I have to admit I like that kind of policy better than just making sure they're looking happy.

We used to stop somewhere every couple of months, back on the Barge. I can't say they were running on any kind of rules, much. The last one had a bunch of dinosaurs that wanted to chew on us.

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo gives him quite the stare for that.]

Aren't those also meant as pick-up stops for supplies? Why at a place with dinosaurs?

[They're one of those things he's only learned more accurate information about thanks to his time on the Clipper, but even without that he still knows those creatures are dangerous!

And not just the kind forbidden on the Clipper.]

[wildguardian]

Well! We had some people who went dinosaur hunting, and the rest of us just stripped the ruins of some buildings for parts...

I'm guessing it was a place with dinosaurs because when you're on the run from the Authority, your supply stop locations are just a little bit limited.

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo's eyebrows just keep rising as Zhao Yunlan goes on...]

On the run?

[He squints.]

Not because the ship was designed to encourage real change?

[He knows what being on the run is like, sure - but a whole ship? How did that happen?]

[wildguardian]

What I heard is that the Admiral's problem was something about being too reckless with the people he picked. I admit things get dicey on the Barge sometimes -- we've had major issues there. Which it doesn't sound like you have here?

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo looks downright frustrated, though he masks that by turning back to drying dishes.]

It's not- ... Things can happen, and there's tension, but the only resolution most people can focus on is graduating.

[If being on the Clipper isn't itself already an improvement on home - and Alfredo's aware enough of where some of his compatriots are coming from not to hold that against them much.]

It's harder to feel things are worth striving for, here.

[Though the idea that people in general are worth standing up for keeps him going, most days.]

[wildguardian]

Yeah.

I'm having trouble with the idea that even graduation won't actually get you out of here, myself.

[That makes it a hell of a lot harder to feel like it's worth the effort. Sure, if they can get their deals, so much the better. But.]

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo lets himself look back at Yunlan, once, before looking at the sink again.]

... If someone you're looking after gets demoted before the three-months trial period is out, I think it cancels that deal?

[It was a very distinct source of frustration.]

The original Assistant can't leave until those three months are up, I remember. Though if the second Assistant makes it home, at least the original's deal is intact.

[wildguardian]

Right.

And if you go back home and foul up there, you get brought back, I hear. At least sometimes.

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo nods, a scowl briefly crossing his face.]

And then they start all over again. I've met more people who've gone back-and-forth repeatedly here than those who've gone all the way to the end and have to start over, though.

[So some people may well have been here since the Clipper started its journey - but they've never said as much to Alfredo.]

[wildguardian]

Oh yeah? Ones who can't make the three-month timer, or ones who can't stick it out while they're going for their deal?

[hisblueskies]

[Alfredo thinks.]

... It must be the former; I've never met many who just give up on their deals.

Or, at least, no one who'll admit it.

[And given the Nurse's track record, it's far too easy to believe they check in on those people as well.

Alfredo puts aside another dish for putting away... and there aren't any new ones to clean.]

Zhao.. Zhao Yunlan, would you help me put these back in the cabinets?

[It would give them more time to talk. Also, he's almost definitely the shorter person here; he could use the help.]

[wildguardian]

[Zhao Yunlan is 183cm, and definitely is the taller person here, so he doesn't bat an eye at the request.]

Sure, Alfredo. You pass 'em to me and I'll put them away?

[He heads over to the cabinet, holding out a hand for a stack of clean dishes.]

I'd guess if they give up on their deals they'd just leave. At least, Wardens back on my old ship could do that if they wanted.

Usually didn't happen until they'd nailed down at least their first deal, though. How easy is it to graduate here, would you say? Does it usually happen fast? Because I've heard of a lot of people who bounce back and forth between patient and assistant.

/reviews thread to make sure I'm not accidentally repeating things-/

[hisblueskies]

[And as they keep talking, Alfredo passes the stacks along; none are too large, so nothing should get dropped - but then, even if anything were dropped, there wouldn't be much in the way of broken pieces.]

Thanks.

[And after giving Zhao Yunlan a dubious look, he nods.]

If you're comfortable pretending, then you can get through faster... But most of it relies on getting a 'Patient' who goes along with that idea, for those three months at minimum, and there aren't many partners like that here.

... I think some people need more to help them be happy - be healthy - than what we have here.

[He's been reading certain medical texts. Hormone imbalances, mood disorders... biology is weird, even just for humans.]

The Nurse just focusing on appearances makes change harder - it's just more pressure on them, instead of support.

[Some people are absolutely trying to be that support - but they're also hiding their true feelings in the hopes of getting out sooner, and Alfredo can't bring himself to trust them very much. Fake support can be worse than no support at all, in some cases.]

[wildguardian]

Well, sure. I don't think focusing on appearances is going to actually help anybody, no matter what kind of help they need.

Sure explains why so many people bounce back and forth, though.

[He slides each set of plates onto the shelf, considering.]

I mean, I'd be willing to fake it myself. But looking at an entire lifetime of faking it is pretty freaking demoralizing.