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

[saklas]

Volk looks a little startled, and pulls backwards into the collar of his coat in a turtle-ish way.

"Uh. I don't know. Thanks. ... I mean, I know lots of ways that who I am could be better, but I definitely don't want people telling us how they think we'd be better."

His eyes go flinty. "Not their call. My life's mine to decide on. If you choose your own actions and then get slapped on the hand and told to try again, it's not even really a choice, is it? It's just a trap."

[rank1]

"Worse than a trap," Travis says. "You've been set up for life. And who knows where the line is? How long we can be here before this is just the rest of our lives?"

[saklas]

"I'd rather they just pretend it was a punishment."

Completely serious.

"Or revenge. The blurred line here between restorative 'justice'"

Volk's eyes go wide and creepy-doll-like as he does air quotes.

"-that supposedly focuses primarily on the good of the universe and just weird punitive shit where the focus is on making us bored and uncomfortable is non-existent. Just say you set up a fucked up tiny society with an artificial class system and made us lower because you think we're bad, man, stop acting like it's for our good or safety."

What good is it doing the universe, in aggregate, for him to not be able to have coffee in the morning?

[rank1]

He's been so busy thinking about the cool shit and aesthetic trappings and the surface-level fuckery of being considered a space criminal that justice hasn't even crossed his mind. It puts a sour twist on his face.

"I don't even how how making us into other people is supposed to do good in the universe," Travis replies. "We're just a couple people."

All he ever did was kill people who killed other people. Is that really a problem?

[saklas]

"It isn't.

If they really meant what they said, we both know who'd actually be in here. Stemrock and her shit. The Prince of Vanishing. Anybody running Jurchen. Probably the POJ. Those guys having to admit they did something wrong would change things.

I think they probably just picked up a bunch of people nobody would believe."

[rank1]

Well, that's certainly Travis. He knows it. Sylvia wouldn't even let him finish talking before blowing him off.

"For what, though? Why? Is some Truman Show shit where we're entertainment for someone?"

And no offense to the guy here, but he'd expect way more hot babes for something like that. It's not 1998 anymore.

[saklas]

"Why's anyone start a cult? Why does anybody - kidnap people and stick them in a suburban basement for eight years?"

People are just kind of fucked up.

[rank1]

"Yeah, but this place is way more expensive than any fuckin' basement," he replies. "And people in cults are giving money to be there... I don't think repossessing my trailer and selling my collectibles would be anywhere near enough."

[saklas]

"I don't know."

It's frustrating. It's the big donut hole in the center of this argument.

"Honestly, if the story they're telling is completely true? This is more expensive than it needs to be. Why are we in space? There is no reason to be in space."

[rank1]

Space is cool, Travis thinks, for what must be the hundredth time. It just is. No wonder so many incredible stories are set out here.

What he says is: "If you think about it, prison is fucking expensive no matter what. But if you're gonna have a prison like this, it'd make more sense for it to be Escape from New York rather than Lockout. Have you seen those?"

Fucking alternate universes are gonna make this so complicated.

[saklas]

"Haven't, but I get the idea. But, why not like, an island. It's cheaper and it comes with oxygen."

[rank1]

"I guess because if people on an island riot, there are easier ways to get away."

Space get more and more complicated the more he thinks about it.

addiction discussion

[saklas]

"So is the objective for us to kill the wardens, in that event, or -?"

Volk's brain is so good at thinking of things that could go wrong that he's currently on medication to try to make it be less prone to doing so. It is doing that thing right now. He's staring at a blank piece of wall over Travis' shoulder.

"Like, we are SO far from actual police, or spaceship engine maintenance, I guess, or a hospital. What if we need a medical thing that's more complicated than the stupid tube can handle? What if someone has a stroke, you can't fix a stroke with surgery. I had to go cold turkey and it sucked sharp rusty robot asshole, and there's just nothing they can do. Imagine if someone comes in here addicted to something stronger than salted caramel vape.

The cost of shipping food and soap and toilet paper alone has got to be gong show, right? Like, the overhead of this place. Who the fuck is up there looking at their books every quarter and going 'yeah, this seems like a good use of resources'?"

Re: addiction discussion

[rank1]

"But there's what, a dozen of us in this place? And the storage complex is huge, it probably has enough stuff to feed us for a lifetime. Did you see the whole fucking cow in there?"

There's gotta be a lot of cows in there.

"Guess it's so lax because they figure we can't do shit about it anyway."

[saklas]

"I don't think that's real."

The cow. Volk toes at the floor.

"I mean, obviously. A lot of this is just way easier to fake."