video | first

[spacerhyme]

[ the video feed flickers onto the face of an older gentleman; unflattering low angle, poor lighting, eyebrows hanging heavy over his eyes and lips tightly pursed. he's wearing a nice, heavy coat over a hoodie and a t-shirt featuring a sick ass space shark, though much of the ensemble's coated in a fine yellowish dust. looks like it could use a wash.

not his main concern right now. ]

Really? [ one corner of his mouth quirks up, wry. ] Cast across time and drifting lost and alone amongst storms of raw negative energy, but you've got social networking. How very... human, I bet a human knocked this up. D'you call it Spacebook or something?

[ original dad joke, do not steal. no apology is forthcoming.

the camera swings round, losing sight of him for a second as he sets the device down on something solid. re-adjusts it until it's centered properly on his face, steady now. ]

Hel-lo, Avagi. I'm the Doctor. Yes, just the Doctor. I arrived on your quaint little space station only recently — not the worst I've encountered. Well done. Probably... well, possibly not even in the bottom ten, but I mourn for some of your equipment. Someone made off with two-thirds of your laboratory, you realize, and ohhh, the state of your computers...

[ briefly aims the camera up at one of the aforementioned storms. ] But I must say, the open-plan observation station is a bold design.

[ casually tossing topics out as he rapidly approaches the actual purpose of this broadcast. this time he points at the screen, seriously, ]

Has anyone established themselves as your de facto leader yet? I'd like to know who to ignore.

The rest of you, tell me about the Ingress as it was, and the planets you've visited. Any of them.

[ over and out. ]

Comments

[arcreact]

[ You know what? Smoky bacon is more of a flavor than he's tasted in weeks. Fine. ]

All the info you could ever want on the Ingress, as well as the knowledge of which of those [ he gestures at the wall of picked-over, pathetic bottles ] contain actual alcohol rather than vinegar or paint thinner.

I mean, unless you're more of a... [ A pointed stare at the pocket the teacup disappeared into ] tea and crumpets kind of guy.

[spacerhyme]

[ drops a bag of smoky bacon potato crisps on the counter, keeping one hand on them. ]

You lot could use a drink more than I could, I suspect.

[ roughing it on a shitty space station for a month, subsisting solely on food cubes. it'd drive anyone to drink. he's not there yet. ]

The Ingress... what I've gathered thus far: one of possibly two interdimensional portals, built by some folk called the... Savrii? To harvest lifeforms from across the multiverse, for rather unsavory purposes. I'm told. It's since been broken into little pieces, but I believe its destruction fractured the fabric of reality [ he spreads his hands through the air, as if to indicate all of reality ] and that my friend and I fell through one of the cracks it left behind.

[ wouldn't be the first time he's done that sort of thing. ]

On the right track?

[arcreact]

You're not wrong.

[ About the first part. And the rest, too, but... ]

Ostensibly built as the ultimate form of transportation, actually, but that's the generous explanation. [ Hashtag fuck the Savrii ] It allowed a space vessel to move instantaneously across the universe, sorta, for a minute.

[ He waves a flippant hand. That was a disaster. Whatever. Moving on. ]

Whether you fell through a crack left behind by the destruction of the Ingress, or the phenomenon that powered the Ingress is naturally occurring and the Ingress was just a device for focusing and harnessing it, who knows? Every theory is viable right now.

[spacerhyme]

[ he SNORTS....... "ultimate form of transportation." good one. ]

Not generous, laughable. It's like, like giving a child a motorbike. Of course it's going to end up smashed in pieces across the tarmac.

[ the superior alien race™ arrogance just comes naturally. even when he's sitting in a rundown space bar trading chips for info. ]

What do you know about the storm?

[arcreact]

The child would probably be less condescending and self-righteous about the whole thing.

[ Just sayin.

The next question just earns a vague shrug, though. ]

I know it has a habit of devouring planets and ending life as we know it. Still haven't gotten much farther than those key details.

[spacerhyme]

Of couse. [ he nods sagely, as if he had been expecting that. ] I suppose that's all you need to know.

A tear in space and time, an abandoned space station, and a mysterious all-consuming cosmic storm... All I need is a skulking monster in the corridors and gun-toting space marines, and I'll have bingo.

[ he pops open his crisp packet. ]