ROLE — MISSION CONTROL 🚀

[dropoffs]

MISSION CONTROL

welcome, RODION.

On MONDAY afternoon some hours after landing, then the new amenities to the ship, Rodion will hear a familiar notification ringing from her I.R.I.S. It takes one look, one gesture, and a gold message screen displays in a cascade.

... The message is sparse and carries a rigid aura.

You want answers, don't you? Come to the command room right now.

CALLISTO

Rodion has seen the command room before in passing. It's the room where the senior crew often check all sort of stuff from metrics, diagnostics, navigation, supply, inventory... You get the point. There are a number of terminals, all of them Rodion is aware she wouldn't have access clearance.

There waits Callisto with their arms crossed, staring intensely at the main supercomputer. How you want to interpret it is up to you, but they do lift their head when they sense her peek through the door. They proceed to say nothing.

Just come on in.

RULES

As the role responsible for mission control, Rodion is expected to follow a few rules:

1. For now, keep your new designation a secret. Should this designation be shared with anyone without prior authorization, consequences and termination of position are possible. This can be revisited at a later date.
2. If you distribute any information acquired, it must be done anonymously or without referencing the source. This can be revisited at a later date.
3. Rodion will be given the opportunity to uncover one file from one of three directories in a hacked console.

🚀 EUDORA, an uncovered bank of ship data audits and previous mission dossiers.
📓 JOURNALS, an isolated cloud of otherwise private I.R.I.S. files.
👥 CREW, files that contain historical personnel records.

4. Selection is due by WEDNESDAY and information will be dispensed as soon as possible, but ideally before the next week.

NAVIGATE
LOCATIONS STATUSES PROFILES AUDIENCES REPORTING PRIVATE CONVOS MURDER SUPPLY SHOP COMMS DOSSIER

Comments

[inequals]

Okay, fine. You totally owe me a looot of context, but I can't blame a guy for trying at the least.

[ And since it's mutually beneficial anyway -- role crowd wants to know about past crew. ]

We'll look into it, yeah?

[trenchant]

[ He just stays quiet... ]

[inequals]

[ You know all those memes that are like 'Knives could've been stopped by one person and her name is Millie Thompson', that's how I feel about this role shakeout. ]

[trenchant]

[ SHE CANNOT MAKE HIM LESS RACIST HE TOLERATES YOU BECAUSE BRAIN ]

[inequals]

[ Cool she's going to collect this log but also look at the profile? ]

Oh, is this him? You do look alike...

[ She's reading the info. Wow did Knives have to re-write his profile when he infiltrated the squad. Looks at the status. ]

"Reactivated"?

[trenchant]

It's him.

[ Like mirrors and Knives stares at the profile. She can ask though. ]

I'm not sure what that status means, but I think it may coincide with me taking his role.

[inequals]

But it says he was last seen before reactivation at the waste disposal.

Does that mean he was actually like, decommissioned or something between things? I haven't seen another status other than active and decommissioned...

[trenchant]

[ THE LORE IS THAT HE DID NOT... EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON THE PUBLIC CALLISTO PROFILE IS VASH'S. Callisto goes quiet because he doesn't... Know. And he doesn't want to think about decommissioned's general description. He has only seen it here as being death.

For a moment, as he's thinking about it, he massages his temple. ]

... What happened to you, Vash? Where did you go? I refuse to believe...

[ That you could have died. ]

[inequals]

[ To be fair Vash has 'died' before like two separate times if you count Badlands Rumble, three if you count the end of the series so who the fuck knows, that man is the real roach. ]

Whoa, look. The other guys, the ones we saw their actual bodies on an autopsy table, still clearly got something going on -- even if that's just neurons, it's obvious they're talking to us and stuff. I don't know what it's like where you're from, but it's not that hard to move consciousness into mechanical bodies, and I'm from a company department where our whole shtick is literally being able to rewind death, so.

[ You know. Don't jump to conclusions and go postal on us or anything, not that she thinks he seems like he's about to. ]

We got nothing on Vashie yet, but we'll work on it.

[trenchant]

But they're not in the physical realm... And we don't know the state of things there.

[ Just saying that kind of niggles its way into this possibly being a reality. He doesn't want that? He'd prefer if Vash just got stranded on some planet and he'll find out through clues somehow.

Her last words calm him down though. ]

... If you remember the video before. I believe it's salvageable.

[inequals]

So that's what we'll figure out! The important thing is that they're still out there, and if there's a thread connecting us, then we can pull on it and bring them back.

[ Hell, every time any one of the Sinners dies, it's the same thing -- that gold chain of resonance to find them through a sea of the other millions of damned. Sure, maybe her perspective is kinda fucked up compared to a lot of your guys due to the nature of her world, but it's working out pretty good for her in this scenario. ]

The flower one? I sent that to a few people... do you know anything about what it might mean? Charlie and the rest told me about the whole cult revolving around CEM waves, that has to do with flowers at least.

Are you still keeping the terminal and stuff secret from the other senior crew?

[trenchant]

[ He only cares about Vash, so he doesn't think too hard on that... If the dead come back, it doesn't matter to him. His haunted ind thinks about it, though. It's hard not to. Sometimes, you fear death, especially for someone you love. ]

I don't, which is why we can try to fix it. [ He tilts his head at the mention of the cults. ] I read there are multiple cults with waves at their core... I can't tell you if it's purposeful or coincidental.

[ He really doesn't know. ]

I had my reasons before.

[ i don't remember if he told her the reasons ]

[inequals]

[ Hey, Vash may or may not be a part of the dead squad, so she's still using this as leverage.

The reasons that he gave her was so that people wouldn't overload and explode the terminal becaue Knives doesn't trust people to try to mess with it. ]

Uh-huh. What's so special about the tessaract, by the way? Since it's apparently your idea to bid for it.

[trenchant]

[ rodya the knowledge you wield

And those were also good reasons. He can't trust humans (why is rodya here) he can't trust humans. ]

There's less threat than before now that I know where the other officers stand in all of this. [ Or so he thinks. ] If they come to learn what we do, then it doesn't matter to me as long as they don't stand in my way. I still don't want junior crew snooping around this terminal.

The tesseract comprises of energy from a higher dimension, so there's a possibility it can neutralize the CEM waves or perhaps control it as a centralizing force... If it can't, then we can try to build something that can overpower it.

It'll make searching for him smoother.

[ The murdergame portion is harshing his vibe. ]

[inequals]

[ The stars told him she was the most unhinged human here... ]

That sounds good to me.

[ Like, it sounds reasonable enough? In the end it's about Vash, sure, but counteracting CEM waves seems super promising. ]

You know, you're not the only one trying to put a fix on all this. Turns out there's other guys around who know secret ins and outs around this place. If you're gonna be stuck with us and the rest of the senior crew until the end of this trip, why not let the others in on the act and cast that net a little wider?

[trenchant]

[ this was last week and i forgot to respond because i disappeared to have friends, but he's pensive

rodya probably will only have to wonder what he does ]

[inequals]

[ OKAY? ]