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]

[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.]