( video )

[drawed]

[ Some of the crew might remember her post back during their trip on Ceta, but that had only been her network ID ( Cassie Holmes ) and a bunch of text in addition to her drawing. This time, though, she's got some things to say that'd be easier like this, but the video is a little shaky. It's hard to tell if she's wandering some darker part of the ship or just sitting somewhere. Alone. ]

Hi, um. I know I said this before, but I'm Cassie. [ It deserves repeating, and anyway, now there's a face to go with the name, pink streaks in her hair and all. ] I guess it's nice of that lady to let us take a trip home, even if some of us haven't been here as long as others. Looking at space all the time kinda gets depressing after a while, right?

[ Not enough color for her tastes. ]

But it can't be real. Jumping in didn't really take me where I wanted to go, and I keep wondering if that's the point. I don't see any of the places I visit or what might happen. I didn't see-- [ She doesn't elaborate and skirts right on by in a rush. ] Has anyone gotten hurt there? What if they die? What about the people who're already dead? It's not the first time the future hasn't been all that clear to me, but there are things even I know not to mess with. I wanna go home, but not to something like that. [ She lifts up her drawing pad to show a blank black page, eyebrow cocked slightly. ] This is what it's going to be if we don't figure something else out.

[ A whole lot of nothing, and she just leaves it at that, slouching down out of the video but giving a view of the medbay before it ends. ]

Comments

video

[pushed]

No, that's gonna be your next hair color, along with all of your clothes.

[the heavy eyeliner, the whiny music...god, he dreads it.]

Cassie, you gotta stop worrying about this shit all the time.

[drawed]

I don't worry about it all the time - only when someone's doing something stupid. [ There's that eyebrow again. ] No one around here gets any of it.

[pushed]

Someone's always doing something stupid.

[which probably didn't help.]

Just about everyone on this ship wants to go home. Sometimes that makes people a little desperate, that's all.

[drawed]

So we're not supposed to do anything about it? [ There's a sigh. ] I wanna go home too, but not like that.

[pushed]

There's only so much that you can do. People think they see a chance, they're probably gonna take it.

I'm not saying you shouldn't warn 'em, and maybe they'll listen. Just don't get all frowny if they don't. I hate it when you're frowny.

[drawed]

[ Just because she can, she frowns at him. ]

You're still bad at this kind of thing, you know that?

[pushed]

And you're still alive. I think that's a good sign.

[t65]

What do you mean, about that being the point? You think it's teasing us?

[drawed]

I can't say for sure. I've only been in once, and I don't wanna go back.

[t65]

You didn't like having to leave?

[drawed]

It's not about that. I don't like-- [ She frowns a little. ] I don't know. It feels wrong.

[t65]

[He smiles, he hopes reassuringly.] It's not really our home. It's just a close copy. I'm not sure if there's a point to that, though. There isn't, always.

[drawed]

I know that, but a lot of people around here don't. It'd make more sense if there was one. [ Her own smile is slight. ] I hate guessing.

[gainedlove]

I got to my home when I went! But, um, some other people I went with kept missing, too. Maybe that's why this one's still kind of broken?

[That black void is a little worrying, though...] Um...what does the black mean, though...? [It's not literal, right?]

[drawed]

Maybe. [ But she doesn't know anything about that machine, so it's hard to guess. ] It means I can't see what's going to happen.

[ And that's almost as scary as seeing it all the time. ]

[gainedlove]

Oh.

[Frisk frowns, thinking for a moment...then smiles brightly.]

But if you don't know what's gonna happen, then it might still turn out okay, too! We just gotta work hard an' make it happen!

Video

[devilofohara]

Jumping through didn't take me where I wanted to go to either. I never thought that I'd end up where I did.

[It wasn't a pleasant experience, is what she's getting at.]

It was definitely real, though. I don't get what you mean by that.

[drawed]

It feels real, but a lot of other stuff does too. [ It doesn't mean it is. ] Where did you go?

[devilofohara]

If it's not real, then what is it? Why can we bring things back from people's worlds?

[ Moreover, if someone were trying to create a fake world to... lure her in or something, they certainly would have sent her to a nicer place. ]

...I don't want to talk about it.

[drawed]

I don't know. I guess we could ask that lady to explain it better. [ As if that'd help fix half the things she's worried about, but... She frowns a little. ] Sorry. [ What's she supposed to say to that anyway? ] Have you tried going back in?

[devilofohara]

We probably should. Maybe it could help make our's work better.

[Not that Robin is sure they have any actual hope of fixing it, the way this crew is run.]

I have. I always go back to where I was when I left the last time. I've been building a raft there, to get away.

video.

[wallcrawls]

People will take what they can get, right? [ a quirk of his lips and a light shrug. ] What do you mean if we don't figure something else out?

[drawed]

I guess. [ She stares. ] Are you new to the ship? A lot of bad things happen without much reason to them.

[wallcrawls]

[ p a u s e. ] Am I being schooled? You're teaching me about life, aren't you?

video.

[forfeits]

Space is pretty amazing, but there's nothing like a blue sky or grass. Just being outside under the sun. It's kind of hard to think about going without it for a long time.

[ Ed's wondered about the Ingress, about the way people are going to and from home so easily. It makes him uneasy -- moreso than it should and he, too, can't shake the feeling that there's something wrong here. ]

But yeah, there's something pretty weird about it. How they're creating these places that we know, but that we don't. It has to draw on our memories, maybe, or what information they have but it still doesn't make sense. I don't know if that's how it's gonna end for us, I'm sure we'll find a way back to our real homes, but I don't think that is the way. You're right.