[Transmission #1]

[redpaperfan]

[ Sasuke is dead tired, and has taken this moment before he has real downtime for himself in order to contact the ship network. Unfortunately, he can't seem to remember a face other than the Captain's, and he's been trying to riddle out the voice and the three seconds remaining since he woke up days earlier

Comments

[oliverplus]

Um...wow. You're the first person to ask for something that specific, actually. [ruffles his hair, thinking] I remember hearing this weird voice with three seconds left. But...that's all I've got.

As far as other things... [thinks about how to put this] I seem to be short a few scattered memories--random stuff. Like, apparently the captain's dead? And we've been to the crew quarters? Also, my scar from the Enviro-dome is missing. Literally missing.

How about you, Sasuke? How are you doing?

[redpaperfan]

[ Another face he doesn't recognize, but by the end of this little speech... probably Oliver. Sasuke was almost certain. ]

Then you remember three seconds left as well. Did you make out what the voice said?

[ A small nod; he's absorbing the information. ]

Yes, the captain was dead. I disposed of the body.

[ A factual statement. Disappearing scars catches his attention, and Sasuke has a feeling he's checking himself out in the bathroom mirror soon. ]

Thank you. I'm fine.

[oliverplus]

Something...about this being deserved. [frowns, thinking] But it wasn't talking to us. ...an old man, I think? The captain, maybe?

Do we know what happened to the captain?

I'm glad to hear that, anyway.

[redpaperfan]

Maybe. [ He falls silent for a while. Was this going to be repeated? Time would tell. ]

He was stabbed, at some point. He died. Anything more was inconclusive.

[oliverplus]

Stabbed when, though? Do you have any idea?

[redpaperfan]

Given how advanced decomposition was for him, and without knowing mitigating factors, I'd say he'd been dead for the entire time people have been arriving on this ship. At the same time, there's no way to know for sure.

[oliverplus]

I'd almost say that makes sense since we know we didn't kill him. But at the same time, who have we been hearing from?

[redpaperfan]

Whatever, or whoever, has been controlling the ship and the events on it since the beginning.

Who that is? I don't know. [ And he hates that he doesn't know. ]

[oliverplus]

[frowns] Well, we should focus on what we do know. Anything you've learned, Sasuke, that might shed a little light?

[redpaperfan]

Nothing worth sharing, yet.

[oliverplus]

All right, well, I'm all ears if that changes.

Hey, um...Riku and I think time might have something to do with...some of this, anyway.

[redpaperfan]

Time?

[ Sasuke thinks this over. Considering this means he lapses into silence for a good ten minutes or so, it might seem he's either dropped the subject, or started to let his mind drift. ]

Time. It's almost as if it's been reset, for all of us. A do-over, like in one of those game-box things.

[oliverplus]

[blinks, turning to Sasuke as he speaks again] A game reset? You know, I'm surprised I didn't look at it like that sooner! Memories, or at least most or some of them, are still with us, but physical conditions have been reset. Something like that, anyway.

I can't believe how much this ship keeps acting like a video game...

[redpaperfan]

[ ...He knows so little about video games, but the very little he does know prompts this: ]

I won't be testing if we have more than one life.

[ And under his breath, so low that only those with really good ears would hear him being this irrelevant; ]

If we were in a video game, I would be slaughtering the snot-nosed kid at the controller.

[oliverplus]

...no, that doesn't sound a good idea.

Well, that isn't an answer, exactly, but at least we've worked something out. Sort of.

[redpaperfan]

Great. Something hit the reset button for us, this ship, or whatever.

Now what in space can do something like that?