Re-Entry 14: Spam/Video/Spam

[itstopped]

[Spam for the Lab]

[It's not unusual for Felix to stay in the lab all night if the wardens let him. He insists that he doesn't need much sleep -- so far, this has actually seemed to prove true -- and he tends to get on tears with things that interest him enough. This particular evening, something on Iris's bioreader has him absorbed, and he just doesn't make it back before it's too late to be worth going anyway. In the wee hours of the morning, he winds up drifting off at his station.

He doesn't wake up when the flood rolls in, but a little while later, a young boy -- 11 or so -- wakes to find himself, not in bed, but surrounded by a veritable sea of shining scientific equipment. His eyes widen.]

Cool!

[Video]

[He found two keys in his pocket and he's not sure which is the right one, but going to this one felt more normal, somehow, so it's Dean's room in the background. Felix settles the camera carefully on the desk, fiddles with it for a second, then settles, sitting conscientiously straight-backed.]

Okay, um... [He hesitates, reaches over to fiddle with the camera again, then nods in satisfaction and sits back again. He smiles, but sort of politely.] Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. I'm having a good time at camp. [Or... whatever.] I'll be back in a few days. I saw a bioluminescent bacterium and something called a bat flower. [What? It was cool.]

So... have a good weekend, I guess. [His polite surety fades a little. He shrugs awkwardly, then waves again and switches off the feed.]

[Open spam throughout the flood]

[He's heard that this place is a prison, but it's certainly not like any prison he's ever heard of. Not like the ones in the movies, anyway. He'll be busily exploring throughout the flood, poking his nose into just about any place that will let him in, up to and including the infirmary, the CES, the pool... and of course the library.]

Comments

[itstopped]

[Well, that's a relief. At least one thing remains true. He relaxes, nodding.] My dad says they're not real.

[tinywitch]

Why does he say that? [Uther says the Old Religion isn't quite real; she doesn't think he means all together.]

[itstopped]

Well... because they're not.

[tinywitch]

How do you know?

[itstopped]

Isn't it obvious they're not? No one's ever talked to them for real or anything. And bad things still happen when they shouldn't. [He doesn't say this with any real anger; it's just an observation.] My mom has a shrine she thinks I don't know about, but she's from Troy. [He says this like he assumes she'll know what he means.]

[tinywitch]

What's Troy? [Easier to ask that than ask him if he's mad; of course there's a God, she's been taught that all her life.]

[itstopped]

[Oh, right. She's a fairy tale or whatever.] It's a planet. There was a really bad accident there a few years ago, and a lot of people died... [He shrugs uncomfortably.]

[tinywitch]

That's awful. [She frowns a little at that, sympathetic for him.] I'm sorry.

[itstopped]

[He shrugs again, not sure what to say.] I don't really remember much about it. My grandpa was under the dome that collapsed, though, and Dad says no one can explain why the gods would let something like that happen.

[tinywitch]

He can't do everything for us. We have to go about our lives on our own.

[itstopped]

[He, she says; he guesses that must be Zeus, or maybe Hephaestus for a mining colony.] Well, what's the point of having gods, then?

[tinywitch]

He's not there to grant us all our wishes. [She frowns a little; this isn't a conversation she's ever had to have, it's just something that's been truth for as long as she's known.] He sees what we do, and when we die, He judges our works.

[itstopped]

[He takes this in silently, frowning. He's heard Scripture once or twice, but he doesn't really know much about it, and he certainly wasn't expecting to have to defend his lack of belief. He has to ask again, he decides in the end. The adults will clarify things.]

I see. [Which is usually what his parents say when they want him to drop something.]

So... do you go to a church school? Is that why you know so much about it?

[tinywitch]

No, not at all. [She shrugs.] It's just - it's just what we're taught.

[She pauses, and this is bewildering a little. But Morgana bites her lip and lets it go.]

Maybe we're just taught differently. We come from different places, after all.

[itstopped]

Yeah. I'm just wondering how they do things on Earth. Like dressing up and not having ships.

[tinywitch]

I don't know, how do they do things on Gemenon? Or Caprica? Do you live in villages, or castles, do you ride horses?

[itstopped]

Castles? Horses? Wow. [Damn, Earth.] Uh, no, I'm from Picon. We mostly... live in houses and ride cars. And boats, sometimes. We used to have a boat for fishing.

[tinywitch]

We have fishing boats! [But hold up, circle back.] What does a car look like? Maybe we have those, too.

[itstopped]

Um... [How to explain? He gives up quickly.] You probably don't. They're a lot more complicated than boats and horses. It's so weird, though... the stories all say you have spaceships and everything.

[tinywitch]

Stories can be wrong, I suppose. I've never seen a ship sail on anything but water before the Barge. I think I could get used to it, though. The stars are beautiful.

[itstopped]

Yeah... even our ships don't have anything like the deck here, I don't think. It's crazy. But I want to fly all over the universe when I'm grown, even if it's not on a ship like this one.

[tinywitch]

You could be ship's physician! That's a good title.

[itstopped]

Yeah. Exactly. You have to be in school for almost forever first, but then I'm going to be Dr. Gaeta. Captain Dr. Gaeta.

[tinywitch]

You can't be a captain and a physician!

[itstopped]

Why not?