002. Video

[cargojet]

First thing's first, and this isn't just me being a pain in the ass but could someone maybe bring everyone on board up to speed on the Smiley thing? We've got a lot of people around here don't know what's going on and if I have to put my hands up and be the first to admit to it then so be it, but for the love of God if there's something you've got to share with the class get on and do it.

I do a lot of watching around here - guy can't be on duty all the time - and I've got problems. Communication is a big one, there's a whole lot of difference between the people with their hands on the wheel and those who're just along for the ride cause they got nowhere else to be. There's no liaison between one and the other, everyone's just gotta sit tight and wait for information to trickle down, and I don't know about the rest of you but I don't think it's working out.

To that end I think we gotta have that meeting people have been talking about, whether it's for the sake of expediting that or just to get people talking--we're jumping again soon, and I'm pretty sure things are gonna be as much as a shambles for the new guys as I felt they were when I got here. Sure, we're all gonna be just as screwed coming outta those things as anyone else, but at least we know where we are.

Now I'm not saying it won't be dangerous, or that there's not a hundred different excuses for leaving things the way we are, I'm just saying - and I think most people agree - that some kind of something has gotta be done, and it'd have been a hell of a lot easier if we'd had the opportunity to discuss it last week, rather than leaving it to the last second. I know: everyone's too busy asking 'How high?' when Smiley-boy says 'Jump'. While I'm on the subject, what the hell happened to that chapel idea we were floating? We got go ahead for that yet?

One other thing, and I'm gonna be assertive and straight out say it. If you wanna be useful, then join the crew. And if you don't wanna be useful-- [ He just shakes his head. ] Only thing I can think of is the story of the Little Red Hen.

Comments

[majestyofthethrone]

Nathan.

Fear gets me even when I know God is with me. But in general you're probably right.

[cargojet]

Didn't catch your name either, and you know--that's probably healthy. God isn't going to stop you being afraid, but I think it helps to cope with it when you are.

[majestyofthethrone]

I'm Sera. Seraphim Dias.

[cargojet]

That's a beautiful name. You prefer Sera?

[ He can't imagine shortening his own name, even if his Navy friends might have tried it now and again. Just didn't fit. ]

[majestyofthethrone]

Everyone else does.

...but I like Seraphim a little more.

[cargojet]

Seraphim it is then.

You know, if that's what you want to be called you ought to stick to it. It's your name, and it's your privilege to be called by it.

[majestyofthethrone]

That's a nice thing to say.

[cargojet]

Only honest. Names are the one thing from home that we get to keep just as they are.

[majestyofthethrone]

My brother doesn't like my name.

[cargojet]

[ On the topic of brothers, Nathan could go in any number of directions, so there's a brief pause before his reply. ]

Older or younger?

[majestyofthethrone]

Younger, by fifteen and a half minutes.

[cargojet]

Hard to imagine whether that would be more or less bearable than twelve years, really. Why doesn't he like your name?

[majestyofthethrone]

Are you younger or older?

He says it's too long, too unwieldy, and weird.

.....his name is Grigori.

[cargojet]

Older. My brother Peter's here on the ship, too.

Same number of syllables, Grigori, and maybe just as weird. Where are you from?

[majestyofthethrone]

Peter Petrelli. I'll remember.

Well, he goes by Greg.

Near Boston.

[cargojet]

That would do it, I bet.

We're from New York; born and raised.

[majestyofthethrone]

I took my school trip to Manhattan when I was thirteen. We saw the Statue of Liberty.

[cargojet]

Funny thing is that's about when I really remember seeing it, too. You grow up with these things around you and you just don't notice them, even if I could have shown you where it was on a map well before then.

[majestyofthethrone]

I mostly remember getting wet. It was a rainy day and the ferry was soaked.

My brother wants to move there, when he's old enough. In two years. He wants to go to NYU.

[cargojet]

It was a rainy day is how a whole lot of New York stories start, I promise you. Sounds like you were lucky it was only rain.

And what about you? You made any plans?

[ It seems strange to be talking about that kind of thing when they're so far from home. ]

[majestyofthethrone]

I was invited to MIT for a meeting with the Head of the Department of Mathematics. But I don't know if I'll go.

[cargojet]

Of course you should go.

You can always turn it down even if you do go, but if you don't you'll never know what could have been. Missed opportunities haunt you.

[majestyofthethrone]

Are you speaking from experience?

[cargojet]

Everyone has something like that in their past. Mine is that I maybe had too many opportunities rather than too few.

[majestyofthethrone]

How old are you?