day 002? ish?

[headinjuries]

[ Sam's been absent for a few days. And probably, he should've said something about that before the fact, as much as he'd like to stubbornly not admit that maybe Bruce had a point in there somewhere, but what's done is done - and now that he's been chewed out by the goddamned Batman, had a much nicer chat with Ilde, and maybe even caught a quick nap in there somewhere, he's got some findings to report.

You know, if anyone's into that. ]

( Hey. Uh, I guess we got new people? I'm Sam, sorry I wasn't around to meet you, but I was kinda busy.

Which is what this is about, actually. So I took a quick flight outside the station - except it wasn't actually that quick, see the "kinda busy" part - and it's...actually pretty weird out there? Dunno if anyone will find this stuff useful, but maybe it's at least interesting. )

[ Quick pause for him to organize his thoughts. Sam tends to be pretty transparent over the mental link, so there's a clear feeling almost like he's shuffling through notecards in front of the class. ]

( One: time is iffy out there. Apparently. It felt like things were getting a little fuzzy on my end, but definitely not "you've been gone for days and I'm gonna glare at you like your mom isn't here to" lengths of time. ) [ thx bruce B| ]

( Two: space is iffy, too. Like, it's weirdly hard to fly in a straight line away from this place kind of iffy. And if anyone was gonna make a crack about me just not being able to fly in a straight line anyway, bite me, I already thought of that. ) [ - which doesn't mean he can't fly in a straight llooommmmgggg that was so stupid, words are hard, he'd better just keep going - ] ( I tried using my helmet's auto-pilot and it was just as bad. It's like it doesn't...want you moving away from it?

Which brings me to three - ) [ He's ticking them off on his fingers and everything now. ] ( It's hard to get outside in the first place. Not physically. Like, mentally - and that's definitely weird because I can promise you that I've usually got zero problems with hopping out strange airlocks into alien space. But the farther out and the longer I was out there, the more it started to feel really...I dunno. Have you ever felt like you're really small and there's nothing for miles, except also really claustrophobic at the same time? Okay, that sounds kind of stupid. But it's the best I've got. ) [ He's trying not to project the memory of what that felt like everywhere, because just because his mental control is unimpressive doesn't mean he's not trying, okay. ]

( And four: no stars, nothing to navigate by out there. It's like "inside of a black hole" levels of nothing happening. )

[ When he finally stops rambling, there's a slightly awkward pause, like he's run out of words and isn't really sure what there is left to say, before - ]

( I guess that's everything I've got? So. If anybody was wondering. )

Comments

[adamance]

( Why wouldn't it be useful? )

[Lexa could offer something more of value, but she's challenging Sam and also announcing that she's awake at the same time.]

[headinjuries]

( Hey, welcome back to the world of the waking. )

[ Because yes, this is the more important thing to focus on here. ]

[adamance]

( It sounds as if I'm due to do the same, to some degree. )

[Lexa is still ... always ... terrible at "thank you."]

( You ought to ask Cathaway where it is that we're hidden. What you've explained suggests that the circumstances outside are that way because it prevents invasion. )

[headinjuries]

( Makes sense. I guess whatever keeps people in would keep people out.

Except for feeling worse the farther away I got. Maybe that's like...Nest feedback? )

[adamance]

( It must be something else. We were gone from the Nest for weeks, and we felt nothing like that. It may be whatever is out there is not meant to be survived. It's good that you've returned to us. )

[Plus, Cathaway said that there are agents on other worlds.]

[wille]

[ This is weird, talking without lips. Words form too easily when they bypass physical conduits and Misato finds herself become more hesitant to compensate. ]

( We have a word for that feeling. Yugen. When . . . everything feels so endless and you feel so small and insignificant by comparison. Is that what you meant? )

[headinjuries]

( Yeah! Didn't know there was a word for that. I like it. )

[ It's a very useful word, for as much time as he spends in space. ]

( So...yugen. Except at the same time, feeling really cramped and penned in. It's super contradictory, but somehow it was both at once. )

[wille]

[ It's comforting, on one hand, to know that they're this well-concealed. But that also means their enemy has required them to have such protection in place just to survive. That's the not comforting part. She has many, many questions but she's not entirely heartless. ]

( That sounds like a horrible feeling to go through. How are you holding up? )

[headinjuries]

[ Sam's life philosophy can largely be summed up as "don't admit being anything less than okay until everything builds up and you explode like a pressure cooker." His mental tone is nonchalant, but it's not so easy to hide over the mental link that his feelings don't quite match up. ]

( I'm cool. I mean, it sucked, but so does a lot of stuff, right? )

[ Having an alien bug in your brain that makes you feel like you're going to throw up every time someone lies in your presence has a way of putting things into perspective! ]

[wille]

[ Dissonance. Maybe that's just an aspect of the human condition. There's something akin to a mental nod from her end. ]

( So does a lot of stuff. This will be really useful I'm sure, even if I don't yet know how. We'll have to see. So, thank you, Sam. )

[ An afterthought. ]

( I'm Misato, by the way. I don't know if this . . . thing tells you my name or not. )

[deployed]

( It sounds like it's all designed to keep us here. Somehow. )

[ Which feels ominous, even if Bellamy isn't exactly sure how the former could be managed. ]

( How are you feeling? Alright? )

[ Because Sam feels well enough, but the worries of what toll three days in space could take should still be addressed. Bellamy doesn't know enough about that either. The Ark guard hadn't covered it, and he'd never asked Raven. Her face flickers at the edges of Bellamy's thoughts; he's aware of how interested she'd be in all of this. ]

[headinjuries]

( I'm kinda hard to keep in places, but this is like enough to actually pull it off. )

[ Can't say "fuck you" and fly out a window if you can't fly straight to begin with, after all. ]

( I feel okay. I mean, it's not like my brain is still doing somersaults or anything. )

[deployed]

[ And Bellamy didn't have any spacewalking skill to begin with. ]

( Nowhere to go, even if we could get out of this station's pull. )

[ Even acknowledging Sam's report of darkness as far as they eye can see, Bellamy's still going to nurture a small hope of getting back to where he came from. ]

( Could you still feel your brood out there? Even when you tried to fly away? )

[headinjuries]

( Kinda? It was like...they weren't gone but they weren't quite there, either. Just...weirdly distant. )

[deployed]

( Did you ever fly far enough that you couldn't hear the rest of us on Concordia? )

[greentech]

( I wondered where you went. )

[ She'd 'felt' his absence. Or his distance, rather. It's hard not to, when you practically share a mind sometimes. ]

( That's all really cool. Did you take any kind of recording device with you? I figured we were just in space, but if we're in some sort of weird alternate dimension that makes things different. )

[ Harder. ]

[headinjuries]

( Yeah, sorry about that. Wasn't supposed to take that long. )

[ Pidge gets apologies, unlike some people, because Pidge didn't wait in the hangar to give him the angry parent stare, unlike some people. ]

( I didn't think to. But it's definitely not space. Not normal space, at least. )

[greentech]

( You made it back. That's the important part. )

[ She wasn't super worried, but still. ]

( Weird. I wonder how this thing actually moves around or how we're supposed to planet or universe hop or whatever if there's not really anywhere for us to go. )

[headinjuries]

( Weird dimensional-wrinkle stuff was never my thing. Too bad Mr. Stark's not here. )

[ Iron Man is smart. Iron Man knows things. He doesn't...always explain them in words that Sam actually gets, but. ]

[greentech]

( I'm not exactly an expert, either.

Who's Mr. Stark? )

[nirsighted]

( Oh. Weird. I don't think I've ever been outside. Like outside to other places, but not to see the outside of the Station. )

[A flickering ghost of a question hums under it: What'd it look like out there?]

[headinjuries]

( Well, I can see why most people wouldn't. )

[ It's weird out there, after all. And most people aren't blessed with space travel superpowers in the first place.

An image comes through, in response to the unspoken question. The station is huge - or maybe it's just that they're seeing it from too close? It's something like a beehive (that word comes through clearly, because it's the best one Sam has for it from his own frame of reference), but clearly not. ]

[nirsighted]

[There's a tense pause like a rope being dragged slowly taut, a vibration passing along the length as its plucked from both ends. He turns the imagine around and around and around in his head, examining it like a photograph or a small machine.

Huh is the sentiment that travels back in response. Strange.]

( Are you going to go outside again? )

[headinjuries]

( Not anytime too soon, but I might. Eventually. )

[ Trying to lie to this crowd is more trouble than it's worth, in his opinion. ]

[nirsighted]

( Cool. If you want company next time, let me know. It sounds neat. )

[Adventure!!]