this is the part where prison is more or less dave and busters

[saklas]

Passengers: Everyone who wants to come see what the weird vending machine is about for the first time it is open to them! This is an open mingle/party style log.
Location: "a corner," the location of the Commissary
Date: February 1 - 7 on year one of our cool and sexy journey
Summary: 14 space idiots squint at the ATM that can supposedly make elk meat and clown shoes for them
Warnings: Will add as needed! I'm 90% sure someone's going to ask for drugs or blades, just as a weather forecast

Comments

[sanctus_dei]

[Theo lets out a shaky sigh, running a hand through his hair. He does the latter a lot - that's his nervous tic, and it's a thousand times more pronounced in his current state.]

It's just-- insulting. Just people with too much power, using random people as their playthings. [This is monumentally hypocritical coming from Theo.] "Naughty kids, we're gonna take away your toys, now say you're sorry and play nice with each other." Fuck 'em. They're gonna have to put up with my ass in this place forever, far as I'm concerned, cuz I'm not playing along.

[Until he can escape, but unlike a few other inmates he's spoken with, he's not rushing that. It's too dangerous so soon.]

[saklas]

Don't -

We're not going to be here forever. It's just not practical. They'll fuck up. Everyone fucks up. Someone will get out, or the police will find us.

[Or he'll finally get his fingernails into the psychology of this place and pry it open and they'll get lucky and have both motivation and something to act on.]

[sanctus_dei]

[Theo was with Volk until that last part.] The police? What, the fucking asteroid cops or something? If for some reason, there are cops out there, there is no way in hell they're going to be on our side.

[Another huff, another hand through the hair.] If anything, the people that run this place don't have shit on us. They can't prove one single thing we may or may not have done since they dragged us here. But still. Yeah, they will fuck up. We just need to wait til they actually take this thing somewhere. Land it on some planet or whatever.

[saklas]

We are not. In. Space.

[He swears to fucking god,]

We're not. We're just not. I promise.

[sanctus_dei]

[Well this is an interesting development.] What, you think they're lying? You think it's a front?

[Theo had considered this, but he shrugs his shoulders.] People with enough to track us all down from all corners of the universe, bring us back to life and drop us off in this fucking miracle of technology probably wouldn't have trouble keeping all in space. But, they're also powerful enough to make it look like a really convincing front.

[He folds his arms.] And we'd be really fucking lucky if it was just some kind of front. Cuz if we're really in space, it makes things a lot fucking harder to get out.

[Turns out after not talking for a few days, he has a lot of shit to say built up.]

[saklas]

We're not dead, either. Why would we be dead? Why would we be in space. It's so much easier to use alive people and not put them in space, and there's absolutely no benefit to not doing that.

[sanctus_dei]

[That gets a raised eyebrow for sure.] Maybe you're not, but I'm pretty fucking sure I am. What were you doing before you got here? Cuz I was busy being shot in the goddamn head.

[saklas]

But we're not undead. Sorry - we're not experiencing undeath. You can tell.

[The proof is in the pudding, my dude! We're talking to each other.]

[sanctus_dei]

You're right. We're not. But if there's magic and technology to make a place like this, there's probably a way out there to make formerly dead people no longer dead. Without them being zombies. There're probably spells out there for that, but even I don't know 'em.

[Any spell promising resurrection of a person at 100% their former selves is lying.]

I'd love to run some tests, but they took my casting ability from me.

[saklas]

What? How?

No, no, listen. Its not that much technology. It's faked. The windows are fake. I could fake this, if you gave me enough time and a real, professional-grade planetarium projector.

[His expression pops open in surprise - he just had an idea.]

That's it. Those tickets - could you ask for ...

No, -

[Expression collapse again.]

You'd never get away with asking for one, they're too damn big, and asking for it in pieces would get you foam.

[sanctus_dei]

[Theo's eyes narrow, and he looks around at the Commissary, the ship - and then back to Volk. Wheels are turning, but they're on the wrong track. When a delusional person talks this way to a paranoid person, things are bound to get messy.]

Nah, it's-- this is too much. This is way too much to fake. [It sounds more like he's trying to convince himself than Volk.] I mean, projection? The amount of energy you'd have to spend to keep this up would be incalculable. Take a score of mages working round-the-clocks shifts. It ain't sustainable.

[Eyes narrow, again.] Ask for what, what's too big?

[saklas]

No, not in person - an actual projector, like a machine with lights? The ones real planetariums use are ...

[He makes hand gestures - a machine at least a story tall, and as wide around as the entire Commissary itself.]

[sanctus_dei]

[Of course he's thinking like a mage, considering the sort of spells it would take to do something like this. Not difficult spells, but something on this scale and for so long would be an insane amount of power and reagents.]

Yeah. No way you're gettin' anything like that.

[He looks around again, turning in place to look up at the high ceilings, out at the long hallways leading to the Commissary.]

Okay. So. Say it is. Say this is a projection. You seems to know something about it. How would you dispel it?

[saklas]

Find it and turn the damn thing off.

[It's easy, but it's also not his highest priority.]

Like I said - there's no way they have mages doing this twenty-four-seven, that's insanely expensive when you can just buy something that'll do it and not need bathroom breaks.

[sanctus_dei]

It ain't gonna be that easy. If it exists, it's integral to how this whole place is run.

[Thinking, thinking. Thinking is so hard right now, he hates it. The headaches are causing so much static. He ums and ahs for a few moments before snapping a finger.]

Power outages. Right? We've had one already. Even if it's just some kinda pre-planned shit, that's got to be the best chance.

[saklas]

Maybe. I'd rather just leave.

At this point, if they were going to question this place, they'd be doing it already.

[sanctus_dei]

Oh, I wanna leave, but I'd also love to leave this place in pieces before I do.

Dragging me here against my will, treating us like children, thinking they're just unapproachable, righteous judges? We gotta burn this shit down.

[saklas]

It's going to slow you down.

[That's a warning. He's only going to give the one. Otherwise, you do what you want.]

[sanctus_dei]

Fine. It'll be worth it. What's the worse that can happen, I die again? I've got nothing left to lose. But I can wreck this place and get the hell away.

[Turns out all this standing around and talking is way more exhausting than he realized, in his current state. His back thumps against the wall next to the machine as he leans on to it.]

Gotta have some kinda goal here. And it sure isn't gonna be playing along.

[saklas]

No, think. The worst that can happen is that you stop to break something and get caught, and it's all pointless.

My goal is to go home. If your goal is your pride, be my guest, but we only go so far together.

[sanctus_dei]

I can't go-- [For a moment, some real anger manages to boil up out of somewhere in Theo. Less aimed at Volk as it is in everything, really. He manages to get it down to a simmer.]

Good. Go home. I mean it. Everyone else can get the fuck out and go home, however the hell they can manage that. That's not an option for me. Even if I'm not dead, I'm just going to jail there too anyway.

[saklas]

[Volk is, despite his rhetoric, one hundred percent in this for himself and none left over for other people.]

So, what, you're going to burn down the building with you inside?

[...He's not dissuading the idea. This isn't a mentally healthy dude you're talking to. He makes an expression like: yeah that sounds dramatic and cool.]

[sanctus_dei]

[Theo too... But wouldn't it be nice to be useful somehow in his short little life?

He's so tired. He hates being so tired. Time to head back to his bed, addressing Volk as he heads down the hall.]

If that's what it takes.

[saklas]

Wait, why -

[why are u walking away]

Okay, don't - burn it down with me still in here, please! I have shit to do at home!

[Just yelling at him as he walks further away.]