[ 6 ] [ video ] less derring-do than quiet care

[zooms]

[ The really interesting thing about this video broadcast is the fact that it's not actually coming from inside the Tranquility. Hotspur's in the pilot seat of the first shuttle - the one he affectionately named Faith all those months ago back when they all first arrived. His face is lit by the soft glow of the avionic displays in front of him and he sits back from the controls, slack-handed and staring with thick pre-occupation out of the shuttle windows instead.

His comms device - propped up on the co-pilots seat beside him - offers a profile view of Hotspur's features... and beyond him, a bit of the outer hull of the Tranquility suspended against the backdrop of deep space.

Red-eyed, ashen-faced... Hotspur's clearly hasn't been sleeping very well. Being the robust, brick-outhouse sort of fellow that isn't prone to negativity it usually takes a hell of a lot to make him feel less than 100% of his usual awesomeness but here we are. His expression is pained and with one hand he absently fidgets with the loose-hanging metal dogtags that fall around his neck. He doesn't speak up immediately but when he does it's a distant murmur. ]

...Full of them. Even the bad ones.

[ It's an off-hand comment more to himself than the video feed running live beside him. But then, as if only just remembering that it was recording, he seems to pull himself together and turn his head to address the comms device directly. ]

Look, I know not everyone out here's got much time for talk about the Gods and religion and all that but for those folk that do...

[ He pauses and exhales a brief sigh; this little crisis of faith is turning out to be pretty damn painful and he briefly struggles to hunt down the right words to express what he wants to ask. ]

Well. I'm kind of strugglin' to see how this whole... adventure fits in with whatever it is the Gods have got in store for me. For us all. I mean, it's not that I don't have faith that They know what's best, I... I just --

[ He pauses again and his gaze travels wildly around the cockpit until it fixates on the massive hull of the Tranquility beyond the shuttle's screen. ]

I'm not really sure if demons and possessions and all that is just a really really effective test of faith or that maybe we're all just a little bit too far away for the Gods to help us.

Comments

video.

[ohhdeer]

Where I'm from, gods aren't.. really worthy of being worshiped, I think. They're just-- people.

video.

[zooms]

[ Ah. Hm. What a problematic notion. ]

Then what makes them gods, exactly?

voice;

[20mentholkools]

You think they'd want to help.

voice;

[zooms]

I'd hope so, yeah. [ He pauses briefly before adding: ] Not that help has to be actual, physical help. Just -- guidance, maybe. Reassurance. Anything.

[video]

[cargojet]

[ Oh hey. Now that's interesting. The shuttle, not any of the God talk. But if he wants to ask about the shuttles its only fair he respond to the actual topic of conversation first. Right?

My experience is that God isn't gonna be there to hold your hand. Doesn't mean He isn't there--whatever you believe in, it's gonna be in your heart no matter where you are.

I know when I was flying it was a strong reminder of how important my faith was to me. Higher up you get, the more I reckon you're gonna believe in something bigger than yourself. And by all estimates we're about as high up as we can get.

[video]

[zooms]

Yeah, no, I wasn't looking for hand-holding or anything, but... [ He pauses to scratch his nose thoughtfully, still gazing out at the hulking mass of the Tranquility before him. ] I don't know. There's been a lot of bad stuff happening to good people lately. It's getting harder to keep believing in - well, like you said: that little bit in your heart. It's not a nice feeling, do you know what I mean?

[ His gaze flits to the video feed and he regards the other man thoughtfully. Hotspur appreciates this, appreciates these words; and, yes, he does hope that this man knows what he means.

And then there's that little mention of flying. Ships, possibly plans, or so Hotspur assumes. ]

What did you fly?

[ action ] [ closed to dear Oxford ]

[zooms]

[ With his transmissions over the network done and dusted Hotspur reaches back to the co-pilot's seat to scoop the device up and quickly thumb it off. Somewhere in the passenger section of the little ship is Oxford, sent by Hotspur to nose around and see if he can locate a second copy of the shuttle's flight manual. He twists in his seat and cranes around to squint in the direction he had sent the other man, wondering just what it was that was keeping him. ]

Hey, you all right back there?

[ There's a tinge of worry - and guilt, too - in Hotspur's tone as he knows full well that if Oxford's slow it's all his fault. That smashed knee would be a painfully slow injury to heal and would make even the smallest of steps on crutches a fresh torture - let alone on a shuttle capable of moving in all three-hundred and sixty degrees. ]

[ perma-action ]

[romanticism]

[ Wandering around a moving shuttle when you are a) someone who generally struggles with small air/spaceborn crafts - despite his endless childhood aspirations to be a pilot - and confined spaces, and b) on crutches, is something of a challenge. It's a good thing that Oxford likes a challenge, or else he'd never have had the courage to step onto the shuttle in the first place. ]

Quite fine, yes. [ He makes his way slowly and gracelessly back to join Hotspur, empty handed. ] No manual, as far as I can see.

[ There's a certain tightness in his voice that few ever get to hear, largely because Oxford does everything in his power to avoid being in situations that would cause him to sound as such, but it's an improvement on his usual state nonetheless. There is no faint sheen of sweat above his brow, and his head is not hurting.

The only problem is that he is perhaps a little excessively aware of what Hotspur is thinking. He has always thought that being unable to switch his telepathy off, so to speak, was some strange side effect of his power, but in actual fact it was only a side effect of his psychological discomfort of the situation. All the same, it's strangely relaxing to be aboard a shuttle with just the company of one person. He'd never known it could be enjoyable to do this sort of thing. In any case, if he seems a little more subdued than usual, it is in part that because he does not really wish Hotspur to feel guilty. The situation was unavoidable, and Hotspur had had no way of knowing that he would injure Oxford the way he did. ]

[majestyofthethrone]

God.

I'll talk about faith with you.

[zooms]

Singular? Which one?

[sweetmotherofgod]

[ Oh, Hotspur. Well, we know how Heather feels about Gods, but how she feels about faith is a different matter entirely. Heather has great faith: faith in her father and the choices he made to save her, faith that the choice to save her in itself was a right one. Faith that she's been given all the tools she needs to survive, even if she doesn't quite have a concept of who's behind that giving. And Hotspur is someone she genuinely likes, so even if this is way out of her depth? She's gonna try. ]

Maybe it's not a test of faith, but a chance to use it? I mean... When you look at everything we've been through and the fact that nobody's straight-up died, that's gotta count for something, right? We haven't been thrown anything that we couldn't handle between us.

[video]

[zooms]

Well, actually... [ Hotspur shifts uncomfortably, hesitant to have to correct Heather on something quite so morbid. ] People have died. Those skeletons back in the mystery room were pretty dead.

[ Some people may accuse him of splitting hairs - the corpses, as far as anyone could tell, weren't actually from any of the monthly influxes of 'alien' crew. But still, Hotspur hardly considered it quibbling when they were still lives that had been cut mysteriously short. ]

But I get what you're saying, yeah. I guess we've done pretty well so far, all said. [ He smiles, mirthlessly. ] We're a tough bunch.

permavoice;

[rebelled]

You're questioning your faith.

[Look, no one said he's actually any good with these kinds of conversations.]

permavoice all the wayyy

[zooms]

...Maybe.

[ He sounds evasive and worried... but most of all guilty. ]

Something like that.

video;

[tumbleweeds]

[ Jaye looks tired as well, hair a tangled mess. Gods, though -- she knows gods and so she has to respond, wakes herself up with a shake and a hand rubbing over her face. ]

I thought it was a trick, at first. That he was having a laugh, or even that one of the other gods got sick of me and sent me here. But he'd come for me then, he'd look.

Now, I don't know if he can. Maybe not enough people here believe in him, in any of them.

video;

[zooms]

[ There's a sense of loss and longing in Jaye's reply that pulls at Hotspur's chest and draws out a fresh wave of grief (that was what it felt like - grief for something that he isn't sure he'll ever see again). He picks up his comms device and holds it closer, voice dropping slightly as he replies softly: ]

Who's 'he'?

video.

[cloy]

'Whatever it is the Gods have in store for you'? [ Ros' tone is singsong, as if touched with idle amusement. If it seems as though she's mocking Hotspur, it's nothing personal, just the way she's taught herself to speak (she's never been one to roll over and fire sells better than sop). Still, genuine curiosity colors her voice when she asks: ] What, dear. Like fate?

video.

[zooms]

[ Whatever Ros's tone Hotspur has heard enough like it to feel utterly impervious to whatever connotations it might bring. He's had worse, in his time, and even though he may be questioning his very core beliefs he has enough confidence self-assurance to not let her tone of voice touch him. ]

Fate? Not really, no. The plans of the Gods can change; calling it 'fate' makes it all sound so... fixed. [ He pauses, then throws the question back. ] Why, is that what you call it?

voice.

[therangerking]

The Valar rare show their hand in the struggles of their creations. 'Tis the duty of the Maia.

voice.

[zooms]

The Maia?

[ He struggles with the foreign-sounding name; even with his broad (although admittedly quite general) studies of all the Earth's Old Gods he's never heard of anything quite like that. Or the Valar, for that matter. ]

[voice]

[wolfdreamer]

What if it is a lesson, and not a test?

[voice]

[zooms]

A lesson? [ He pauses to consider the young voice's suggestion. ] Then I'd be pretty relieved, but it probably doesn't make all that much more difference. [ he pauses, then admits: ] It'd just be good to know there was still someone out there, you know? That we haven't drifted too far out of reach.

[voice]

[sammyskeleton]

I'll ask the obvious, I suppose:

Why are you outside of the Tranquility?

[ video ]

[zooms]

[ Usually Hotspur would do the polite thing and match the reply by switching to voice but given the nature of the question he maintains the video feed - if only for the sight of the Tranquility outside the window. A shrug and a half-smile, then he replies: ]

I owe a friend a favour. We're taking a little trip around the hull... and the view is pretty good.

[theshabbiestofmen]

I suppose it depends entirely on what you're taught, and out of that, what you wish to believe. I personally have never had a God.

[zooms]

Don't you ever wish that you did, though?

voice;

[northerner]

[ this man is no kingslayer, but there is always wariness in robb's voice when he speaks to him. jaime lannister's face and a lion upon his skin. this a man to be careful with. ]

You believe in destiny, ser?

voice;

[zooms]

I wouldn't call it 'destiny'. [ Have that wariness right back at you, Robb. He hasn't met this fabled face twin of his, not yet, but thanks for the reminder that there's some serious weirdness going on... ] I'd prefer to call it the plan of the Gods.

[ A pause, then carefully: ]

You don't have to call me sir.