video | un: Priorly (old man yells at clouds)

[priorly]

[After a cluster of days spent surfing park benches, with sleep only a brief and unwelcome interruption, Prior has finally made it to the space station. He comes onto the screen, a black shadow in a gleaming hallway: if he looks like death on a mission to avenge itself, that is the intended effect. It may be more Norma Desmond descending a staircase, but that's not far off, either. He's still clutching a cane just to hold himself upright. His voice is raspy but loud, and just a few notes higher pitched than it should be.]

Is everyone back from the dead now? Good. Wouldn't want our new arrivals seeing the aftereffects of that little mess, would we. How good that our merciful overseers can let us go through days of torture, days of agony, let our skin slough off and our eyes burn out, let us choke on gas until we suffocate from it, then kindly bring us back so we can all do it again next time someone in this sadistic little shithole gets a fresh bee in their bonnet.

You know - on earth - I always had trouble with the idea of a non-interventionist God. But non-interventionist omnipotent aliens? Well goddamn. Fuck that. Fuck them.

Oh, they can play with the native's minds so a talking racoon looks like business as usual, but they can't stop them wanting to kidnap us?

They can see everything we do and they can't tell our fucking friends where we are?

What is the point of them, then? What's the point of any of this? They haven't rescued us from any storm, they've just left us stranded on a tiny, hostile island, wondering whether our little bit of sand is going to wash away before or after the natives get around to eating us.

Well I am tired and I am sick and I am through with this bullshit. Was anyone else told they'd look after our loved ones for us? Because I have loved ones down there now, and they were not looked after well. Maybe I should let a few of the next-to-wake know exactly how reassuring all those promises look now.

I don't know what to do, but it seems to me that we're being hung out to dry down there, and someone needs to do something. So I'm going to start by finding one of these assholes and seeing what happens.

Comments

voice | un: colt.saa

[shashka]

You know, this is exactly why the Soviet Union doesn't believe in gods.

[ a pause ]

Where are you right now?

[ because he has... thoughts on this, but he sure as hell doesn't want any of them recorded for posterity's sake. ]

(cw anti-russian sentiment)

[priorly]

[Sorry Ocelot, the general snappiness is being inflicted on everyone just now.]

Oh the Soviets marched with babies speared on pikes in Afghanistan, nobody who does that could believe in a god that liked them.

Where do I look like I am, Emerald City?

audio, u.n: j.watson

[enarms]

[ jesus Christ, he wasn't kidding on any score. ]

Prior, don't be a fucking idiot.

[priorly]

[PROPHETS DON'T KID JOHN WATSON.]

And what? Go back to how things were, stay quiet, leave the applecart the way it is? That was all working out so nicely for us, wasn't it.

text, post-dated to March 30th

[vorrutyer]

God moves in mysterious ways, they say.

[priorly]

Screw God, he left. We've got Marvin the Martian now.

video | un: sparkler

[flashystyle]

[When Dorian's feed pops up, his lips are a thin line, and his brows are knitted. He's not particularly happy.]

So, what? Are we to stage a coup against our mysterious sponsors? I think you need to calm down before making these decisions for yourself, Prior.

[priorly]

[Well Prior's not particularly happy either, he's been working himself up for days.]

Maybe we should. Maybe this is how I'm calming myself. I can't just sit still and stay furious, Dorian, I've been furious for days and it's not going anywhere, just coursing back through my system like recycled blood.

text; un: unchained

[hedonistic]

they never promised they'd take care of anyone after they woke up

what do you think you're gonna do if you find them, anyway? they'll probably just put you back to sleep if you make too much of a nuisance for them

voice - to - text : un: priorly

[priorly]

Well maybe they should. Maybe when the people they brought here to help them are being murdered, slowly, by faceless, irate natives they should consider stepping in.

If they can put nuisances back in stasis, surely they could manage that.

text; un: rtozier

[summertimeblues]

[After a long, long while of debating whether to answer at all, many false starts and aborted sentiments—they barely knew each other by all rights, but if you bleed enough on a person and you were bound to feel at least a touch responsible.]

Big Brother's watching, Prior, you might want to tone down the public insurrection

voice - to - text : un: priorly

[priorly]

[A couple of conversations, one laceration and a weeks incarceration are enough for Prior at least to start to consider a person a friend. But he knows what happened to Richie, at the end of that last little escapade. It's one part of the reason he's wound so tight, one of the traumas with nowhere to go that have erupted finally in all the wrong places. Still. Just seeing Richie's name on the screen stops him a minute.]

Big brother's who I want to talk to. This is just letting them know there's someone on the line.

[Are you -

shit.]

[video] un: 76

[personalwar]

[ They don't know each other, but a lot of what this kid is saying, 76 agrees with. He hasn't been a fan of the Orbiters from the start, and nothing they've done since has endeared him to them. It doesn't matter how many unwanted gifts they offer. It doesn't even matter that they can bring people back to life, not when none of this should have happened in the first place.

So while most of the people responding are likely to try and talk Prior down, 76 is going to be the bad influence who does the opposite of that. ]

Let me know if you can get an actual one-on-one with them. Whenever I've tried, it's been impossible.

[priorly]

I'm not going until I get something.

[Prior might go into any meeting at a lower pitch than he is now. This is all the result of days of fear and anger striking flints at each other until something caught alight. But he's here, now, and can't imagine going without something to show for it.]

And I can be persistent.

voice; un: r.lutece

[originallutece]

The way to end an experiment isn't to scream at the experimenter, you know. That only adds fuel to the fire.

The way to end an experiment is to escape the situation entirely. But given we don't have the power to do that just yet, you may be better suited conserving your energy.

Just a bit of advice.

voice

[priorly]

As far as I know, this is the only test tube we've got. Sitting around and waiting for it to spill over would make anybody crazy. Crazier.

[There's a sigh, slow and shaky at the end of the line.]

You think we're an experiment?

video | c.fraser

[nineteenfortyfive]

Prior, sweetheart... you need to calm down.

[Angry people love hearing that.]

[priorly]

[He's angry, and he's upset, and this is how the trauma of those few days they spent together is finally coming out. So yes, he knows he needs to calm down.]

I would like to. But I've spent days trying and all it's done is wind this feeling tighter and tighter and it's got to snap first or I will.

text; un: ROCKET

[beatupgrass]

[why are you calling him out like this???]

Hey! No need to make it personal.

[priorly]

[O shit.]

Sorry... first thing that came to mind?

voice | un: mantis

[uglybug]

People gathered to rescue those who were taken. I was there. I saw what happened. I am also angry that it came to this. My friends were hurt and I killed some people who were responsible. I hate what happened.

But I am not going to yell at the sky and demand that someone else fix it all for me. I'll do it myself. I'll help other people do it. Gods aren't worth anything. Don't waste your time on them.

[priorly]

I was there, too. Inside.

[And, believe him, not all those who were taken made it out. Those who have - well, they're like him, if dealing with the trauma in different ways. That's what this post is, honestly. Processing by fighting back, too little and too late maybe, but it's all the fight he's got.]

And I'm not yelling at the sky, or to deaf gods. I'm talking to people we know are real, who talk to us when they want something. I think it's reasonable that we get to ask them to use a little of their omnipotence to help in future.

text; un: flashgoddess

[catfident]

Do report back if you find one of them.

[ She probably ought not to be encouraging his antics but there've been enough people tossing their hats into the dissuading ring that it seems pointless to add in her own (unfamiliar) voice. ]

[priorly]

I'm not planning on going anywhere until I do.

[Though he be but little he is stubborn as fuck.]

video; un: lady

[unprays]

There are no Gods who care, [ comes her response, as matter-of-fact as it is cold — though not towards him. she hasn't had a particularly nice experience with trusting in Gods. ]

What do you think they'll tell you, even if you can get them to listen to you? That they couldn't do anything, because the locals think the station is a moon, because them doing anything could have aroused their suspicions. They'll tell you they're sorry, that it's horrible that it happened, and that they'll try to stop it from happening again. And if you're not happy with that, they'll remind you that your loved ones are still sleeping, that they're alive only because they're trying to save them.

[ her tone is quiet, bitter. clearly she's thought of this, all of this, before. he's not the only one who's angered by all of this, especially when she was promised she'd never have to go through anything like she had in Westeros again... and true, she hadn't. but those she loved had, and she can forgive that even less. ]

[priorly]

Oh, I know. [Really, first-hand experience on that front.] But these aren't gods. And I know their policies, their cover story. But there was nothing to stop them letting one of us know where the others were. That's not intervention, it's human decency. And even if they're not human, we are, and we're what they're working with.

[And maybe he'd rather his loved ones didn't wake into that kind of world.]

If they'll try to stop it next time, I'd take that. I'd take something that shows they even noticed.

audio; un: armstrong

[wallofbriggs]

Who promised you life would be flowers and sunshine on this new world? I must have missed that part of the introduction.

[priorly]

[Lady, please, you're talking to someone who's never expected that anywhere.]

Was your life flowers and sunshine before you came here? Well lucky for you. Mine was bloody and shitty, and lonely but there was one difference. I wasn't dropped into it by a bunch of aliens who asked for my help but couldn't spare a word to help us when we were taken.

text UN: M.Edgeworth

[milesedgelord]

No one owes us anything asides from what we had already been given. I too am rather enraged at what many of us had to suffer over the past few weeks, but it is purposeless... perhaps even unwise, to take it up with Thesa, on a network that they have control over.

The best we can do is to organize amongst ourselves and try and prevent future occurrences.

[priorly]

Maybe it's not a debt, but that doesn't mean we can't ask the favor. And I'm taking it up with Thesa in person, because that seems like good manners.

I'm not saying we shouldn't prepare ourselves better. But we had no idea this was coming and they did. They knew where we were, they could have told anyone how to get to us. That's what I want to ask about.

voice, un: beatrix

[fiendennor]

I would join in the chorus warning you not to do anything drastic, but I think that message has been rather well delivered by now, and by people who presumably actually know you.

For my part, I think you're correct. There's something about the story that doesn't add up to me. We were given talk of a grand destiny, but nothing of the sort has come up since. Instead, it's been dealing with local matters and petty squabbles.

It's mildly suspicious, to put it lightly.

[priorly]

Oh screw drastic. After the month I've had, this is practically relaxing.

It's never added up. And I don't care if it never does, I just want to know whether leaving us stranded's part of the grand plan. I want to know if there's something they can do in future.

video | un:aceofhearts

[exorion]

[He's clearly on the station himself, a bunch of tools haphazardly laid out on the table in front of him and a dartboard full of knives in the background for anyone who wants to pay that much attention.]

You're gonna, what? Go fight an omnipotent alien and just see what happens? And announce it on the network they run?

[He tilts his head and raises his eyebrows, very much a "you sure about that?" expression.]

That's genius.

video | un: zevran

[agradecido]

[Well, this is....a thing. Prior, very understandably upset, yelling on the network about...what, exactly? A lot of things, it seems. Mostly about the hands-off policy of the Natha, something that angers him in the same way because what can they really do about it? Not much, from where Zevran's sitting.

Still, it's intriguing. The idea that this clearly ill man would rage against the very force that brought them here? It pierces to the heart of him, sticks in his brain the way the Warden-Commander used to when she'd get a bee in her bonnet about some little thing. It's been a while since something poked his brain stem like this. Maybe he's just a sucker for impassioned speeches?

Regardless of the reason for his interest, his face is very carefully neutral when he answers.]

Find them and do...what, precisely?