MINI-EVENT: RENDEZVOUS

[returnjourney]

MINI-EVENT: RENDEZVOUS

March 9th, 2022
Tasked with picking up some emergency botanical supplies, the Peregrine stopped in Meodriotope in February and is now making haste towards another ship, for a rendezvous and hand-off of the supplies. In late morning, the view out of the windows on one side of the Peregrine will be blocked almost entirely by another ship — the Feather, also from the Admiralty's fleet. The hand-off will take place here, between two ships.

In the afternoon (local Peregrine time), a mini transport from the other ship docks in the Peregrine's loading bay. Three passengers disembark to assist in the loading, have some brief conversations, and then be on their way.

If you have any questions about the event, please ask here.

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1. Observing the Feather

The Feather is one of the oldest ships in the Admiralty's fleet, a fact that is perhaps less known than intuited, simply by looking at it. While the Peregrine's sleek helices and centre spire move through space like some deep-sea organism, the Feather is a great drifting whale, its broad and boxy body speckled with simple portholes. The sides are painted with murals — abstract swirls of colour, flowers the size of houses, massive birds flitting between them. There's text that must have taken quite the ladder to paint: "Hope is a thing with feathers!" The murals are patchy and worn, but there's a lot of love there.

But despite how massive it is, it floats weightless in space. It comes so close to the Peregrine's side that it almost seems like they could brush, and the ships' respective force-fields thrum as they "merge", blending into one large bubble. In the distance, one can see quite a number of passengers on an outside deck, gathered at the railings to watch. Too far to shout across, but certainly close enough to see tiny limbs waving hello!

In the observatory, the computer monologues:

"The Feather. Currently on the 18th year of its current mission. Current population consists of 295 wardens, 306 inmates, 5 graduates in-transition and 53 supporting staff. Most passengers are from Earth Variants. The Feather is currently headed by Navarch Margaret "Old Lady" Lloyd, a Navarch with 45 years of experience..."

2. Loading the Materials

Want to lend a hand? The more the merrier. The crates of Lover's Kiss must be brought to the loading bay, checked and then loaded into the waiting transport ship. Caution is a must; we can't have the flowers crushed or damaged when they're sorely needed for medicines at their final destination.

Helping, of course, are the representatives from the Feather: two wardens and an inmate. (They'll have their own top levels below!)

3. Rewards

Passengers identified to the Navarch as having assisted in the gathering efforts will have a delivery bot stop by with a clear plastic container fogged over by steam. The container is warm to the touch, and opening it reveals a lusciously greasy cheeseburger with all the fixings, a mound of thick-cut salted french fries, and the fattest, cheesiest, richest-looking slice of pizza known to mankind. The food is cradled by red food-wrapping sheets with a white PIZZA PLANET logo. Enjoy!

(Or kill someone for a french fry after weeks or months of eating processed food substitutes. You do you.)

4. Oops, Caught Red-Handed!

So there was that thing the Navarch said — the flowers are fragile and must be handled with care, as they are only useful intact. And sure enough, on the surface of Meodriotope, dutiful flower-pickers had discovered that if you plucked them too roughly, they'd explode, leaving red stains that take weeks to wear off skin, even with dutiful scrubbing. It's been weeks and they're just starting to fade, fortunately, but there's a second phase.

Passengers stained red might discover they're having trouble sleeping. The redder they are, the longer their minds refuse to rest. In severe cases, this results full-blown insomnia. In mild cases, the body may shut down while the mind remains completely alert. These effects could last anywhere between a few days to a full week.

Good luck!

Comments

[dealwiththe]

"I'll see her again, someday. Her and her mother, both," he agrees. It'll be a long time in the future, and nebulous - he's not sure exactly when. But yes, he does at least have the assurance that he'll be reunited with his family - something Ellie doesn't have.

"What happened to Joel?" he asks. Fair is fair, after all.

[goty]

Ellie hopes he sees them again. There's never any guarantee, of course, but he clearly wants to. And he's a warden, so he probably deserves to.

"Some bitch beat him to death in front of me."

The answer spills from her without warning, like a soap bubble popping. She isn't a good liar, not really, not anymore. It just happened. She was focusing on him, and it just happened.

[dealwiththe]

It's abrupt, and it immediately brings to mind a cavernous old warehouse, the image of his daughter in chains, the shiny red of her feathers dripping with red blood, laid out on a table next to her. The way she'd screamed as he'd knelt, a willing sacrifice.

What Ellie tells him is probably nothing like that, but it's what he thinks about anyway. He has no idea what sort of man this Joel was, but he suspects he couldn't have been all bad, if he was willing to give up his life for her.

But it raises one question for him.

"Did you kill her?"

It's neither accusatory, nor bloodthirsty. It's a neutral question, probing for more information. Ellie, he remembers vaguely, is an inmate, after all.

[goty]

That drags up more shame than she'd expected. She doesn't regret letting Abby go, because someone's gotta take care of that kid. She does regret it, because it's not fucking over. It'll never be over. She doesn't, because Joel. She does, because...

Ellie has been in enough foxholes to know atheists are everywhere. But in the darkness of a lonely night, her lungs don't exhale contrition.

"No," she says. "Let her go after she bit off my fingers."

The lives of all her friends and dear ones, well, she still doesn't want to think about that, about the shape of one's stomach, full with the failed promise of life.

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer nods, wondering - probably for the millionth time - what might've happened if Rory hadn't escaped her shackles when she did. If he'd been killed. If his daughter would've gone down a darker road.

So many what-ifs, and that's precisely why he made his promise. None of those what-ifs will come true, because he is preserving the time loop, exactly as it happened, as it will happen. Rory will be fine.

He shakes himself out of that thought. Focuses instead on the young woman actually sitting next to him.

"Sometimes there aren't really any good choices," he says thoughtfully. "We do the best we can in the moment. I'm sorry about Joel, though."

[goty]

"You didn't know him," Ellie says, maybe a little too fast. Joel wasn't always a kind man or a good man, he'd be the first to admit. But he was hers in a way no one will ever be again. It's the familiarity she misses the most, and the way she squandered it in that last year.

But she still knew him.

A smile curves over her lips, savoring a memory. "He'd've hated you."

[dealwiththe]

"Lots of people do," Lucifer responds easily. "Some may even have good reasons for it, though most just hate me on principle. But let me guess - I'm too flippant and arrogant and absurdly handsome for Joel to have ever taken me seriously."

He's willing to move into the lighter stuff. If this can be considered "light". Also now he's imagining Joel a little like William, but with even less of a sense of humor.

[goty]

"Uhh, that's not how I'd phrase it," she says, but her voice is light. Hiding in light banter is safer by miles and miles. "He wasn't big on jokes."

A memory, Joel standing in her doorway trying to tell a joke. Her answering cringe-- he wasn't very good at it, but he tried, for her. Is her memory boxing him in, winnowing him down to the sharpest points?

She'll never know, will she?

[dealwiththe]

"Life has enough tragedies - jokes make things bearable," Lucifer says easily. "What else was I supposed to do in Hell all those millennia? Brood? I have the face for it, but it gets boring after a while."

[goty]

"Okay," Ellie says, decisively glad it's time to change the subject. She's been here long enough, gotten onto her feet enough, that it's time to finally dig into this weird bullshit. "Explain the Hell thing. And the Lucifer thing. It seemed like you expected me to recognize that name."

And she did, kinda. She's definitely heard it before. But fuck if she knows where, or why it's important.

[dealwiththe]

"Oh, well," Lucifer says, momentarily a bit surprised but then realizing - "I suppose in your world a lot of people have better things to do than worry about whether there's a Creator God anymore." Not everyone knows him, even in his own world. "Ever heard of the Devil? Satan? Beelzebub? That's me. People call me lots of things. I had my big literary debut in the Bible, though that was just the start of it. My Dad - God - created the universe, and me and my siblings, and then I rebelled against Him and He tossed me out on my ear. Right into Hell."

He says all this amiably enough - there's no heat, or resentment, or anything. He's just reciting it by rote, explaining it in the simplest way he knows how.

[goty]

It's not strictly true, Ellie thinks. People where she's from have a lot of time to think about God and the Devil and the thereafter. Man, even Joel started talking about God-with-a-capital-G and stuff once they settled down in Jackson.

It's just never been for Ellie, and the hope and fear of faith slid off her like cool water.

But she's heard of Satan, the Devil, before. "So... you're the bad guy in Christianity."

She doesn't believe or disbelieve him yet; she just wants to make sure they're on the same page.

[dealwiththe]

"That's me," he says easily. "Big bad Devil man. I sell babies and eat souls. Wait, no - I sell souls and eat babies. The truth is a lot more boring, though."

[goty]

Ellie gives him a little shrug. "Kinda hard to be more exciting than baby murder."

Didn't Dina try to tell her a story like that once? What is it with religion and dead babies? Anyway, she shuffles over, giving him some space to sit.

"So, what's the truth?"

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer graciously accepts the offered place. Ellie is pretty polite, for a hardened killer. Or whatever.

"The truth is, my Dad was never around, my Mum was distant and cold, so I lashed out, started a rebellion, and failed. I got kicked into Hell for my trouble, and because history is written by the winners, I got to deal with millennia of propaganda painting me as the embodiment of pure evil. A few years ago, I rebelled again - this time by going to Earth and starting a life there. I did therapy, met the love of my life, and improved myself. Now I'm trying to pay it forward by helping others improve themselves. The end."

[goty]

"Aww. Daddy issues." She punches his shoulder-- lightly-- always trying to see how much she can get away with.

"You know you sound like a total lunatic, right?"

[dealwiththe]

"Hey," he says, giving her a momentary stern look. "The technical term is narcissistic tendencies resulting from a complex paternal relationship and stymied adolescence."

He sounds ridiculously like a therapist for a moment. Also, he absolutely lets her get away with the punch.

"And yes, I know. Humans are quick to label me crazy rather than examine their own worldviews too much. I can't blame them. Besides, it's fun to see all the looks they give me."

[goty]

She shrugs. "It's not really my worldview. If god exists back home, he fucking owes me."

Which might sound narcissistic, since that's Lucifer's ten dollar word today, but it's also fucking true.

"Can you make the world better, or is it all tell me about your mother?"

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer lets his serious face drop into place again.

"Anyone can make the world better. It's about making the choice to. Which is often easier said than done."

[goty]

She rolls her eyes. "I mean in a 'I'm on a first name basis with god' way."

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer studies her for a moment. "Not much I can do about your universe - except what I'm already doing, which is trying to help you. As for my own - my brother and I are doing a few things to try and improve it, but the thing I said about human choice still stands. We celestials have to be careful, not to take away that choice. Free will is important."

[goty]

She sighs, sagging with momentary disappointment. "Yeah, yeah. Nobody can do anything; everything's gotta stay the same."

[dealwiththe]

"Uh, no. That's not what I said," Lucifer says firmly. "Nothing has to stay the same. It just can't be fixed with a magical hand wave or - a deus ex machina. It's on people - people who are willing and able to do a lot of hard work to make it happen. On you - that's why you're here."

[goty]

"Yeah, well," Ellie murmurs, "people made their choice. Ugh-"

She takes a moment, dragging her remaining fingers down her face. If there were really a god-- or a devil, whatever-- they'd fix things. Whatever this guy says he is, who cares? Whatever gets him through the day.

Ellie won't say that, though. There's no point in arguing.

"Sorry. It's not your fault."

It's hers.

[dealwiththe]

He shrugs. "It sucks, when others fuck things up and leave it to someone else to fix."