[and now in a break from your pirate-related problems, have a return to the other horrors the tq holds. the feed opens on an up-angled shot of two figures. there’s a soft beep that comes from closer to the camera; a sign that a certain droid has finally managed to find a stable network signal. with the alert given, one of the two figures comes to a halt, reaching a hand out to stop the other.

there’s a momentary flicker of the feed, before the scene becomes clearer. just enough to reveal the identity of the two figures. yes, that’s an elusive wichita you see, tq. surprise?]

-- Is it on? [ she laughs before she even hears the affirmative beep from R2, her voice rougher than it normally is, but she doesn’t care. she’s too relieved, too grateful for being found, to put much thought into how off she sounds, and probably looks. three weeks without any human contact has left her feeling a litt-- severely off anyway, so it’s appropriate. she’s a grimy, sweaty mess, dark circles under her eyes, but she’s smiling. kind of. so maybe she’s alright? ] Need to find Mrs. O’Leary. Ran away, silly mutt. Ran away for help, but then she couldn’t find me again. Poor puppy. [ aaaand now she’s frowning at the thought of Mrs. O’Leary wandering the ship alone. and she’s maybe possibly gripping Anakin by the shoulder now, bruised up fingers bunched in the material there, despite her earlier protests of wanting any help walking at all ]

We’ll find her. Or she’ll find us. Don’t worry. [it’s a quiet side comment, directed solely toward wichita. he still isn’t particularly used to this whole “friendship” idea, not after his last attempts. but he knows enough to realize it’s his duty here to try and keep her calm. it’s something that may have been easier to do if he knew her better in the first place.

back to the camera again, and anakin frowns a little. he knows about the pirates; obi-wan had made sure of that. but he doesn’t know whether or not they’re still around. they haven’t had an opportunity till now to make contact with the rest of the ship’s residents since finding wichita.]

We are heading towards the medical bay. [wichita doesn’t get a choice about that one. with his supplies having long since been lost to the jaws of a manticore, he hasn’t had much of an opportunity to check wichita over. all he’s had to go on is the force, and the force is telling him to get her out of there. now.] If it’s safe enough for somebody to meet us there... [well, do.]

No, I don’t want to go to medical, I d- [ don’t need to go to medical was supposed to be the rest of that sentence. but instead she finds the words caught in her throat, like maybe she has to hiccup. or burp. she can’t tell. she huffs, annoyed, but then shakes her head, dismissing it. probably for the best, since she’s just whining like a child. ] I just want a drink, that’s all. Somebody get me a- [ whoa there, floor, who told you to move like that. ] - get me a drink. [ aaaand now she’ll drop to one knee, her free hand moving up to press against her eyes. nnh, her head is pounding- ] Shut it off, Artoo, just-

[ click. ]



[ ooc: wichita's blue-font, anakin's black-font. so thanks to Artoo and Anakin, Wichita's back! any replies from here on out will be voice replies, and if you text them, just specify which comm you want it to be sent to. thankies! ]

[ the feed opens up on, well, nothing actually, the unfortunate consequence of being on audio. you don't get to see tony's face, but what you do get to hear is something akin to a robot moving around and the sound of machinery being fiddled with. there's a moment where there's also an exhale like tony's getting ready to say something before there's a clang. and a few muttered curses, before tony actually says something. it regrettably not the original thing he planned on starting this with. ]

I wanted you to come along and be helpful, Dum-E, not drop things on my foot. I will take you apart don't think I won't. [ ah, and yes, the feed was on, forgot about that. ]

Not actually how I wanted to start this. Disregard any of that, by the way, I'm fighting with something from home. Anyway. You know for all we have a bunch of hero types, leaders, take charge alpha males and females, you think we could have prevented that. I know, we're all displaced people and what, the pirates thought we were insane because we all shouted and threatened to kill them or hurt them and I don't like people taking my shit as much as the next guy, but did you notice that we're forty years behind, according to them. I don't think any of them were forty, I haven't looked at all the dead bodies of course, I'm not that morbid, but this is something they knew about. We're a ghost story to them. We're a ghost story that shouldn't exist. [ a pause and more noises on his end are heard. ] I don't know about you, but I feel pretty solid. No one was supposed to get down to the brig, and yet, how in the fuck do you think we got to hear dead bodies falling down. I'm not advocating law, because guess what, martial law, also known as what you heard but shouldn't have heard, is the only thing you could pull off. And can you guess who's in charge of what your punishment is, who would be your military tribunal. I'll give you a hint, it's not Kirk, it's not me, not Nathan, not Tyke, it's not any of the captains who came or insert military rank here, etc.

Yeah, for those of you listening at home, that leaves Ward. And Resnik. What I'm saying, if I'm saying anything, and I am and I am hoping you are actually listening, is that we're stuck fending for ourselves here. And unless we get our fucking shit together, we're gonna be like sitting ducks. And I'm not a big fan of being a duck. So, you know, maybe you might want to pull your heads out of your asses and stop acting like this is a vacation and, oh I don't know, maybe make sure the next time someone decides to board us or we stop at a hell port, we're not looking like insane idiots and maybe we might learn something. But, hey, what I know, maybe I'm just making this situation worse. Yeah, something tells me I'm okay.

[ there's a beat and another muffled curse before he continues. ]

Oh yeah, in case any of you are not nursing wounds, funny thing about pirates ripping things off the ship, you kind of need to fix them and/or find the parts they took. Those of you who have any sort of actual ability when it comes repairing mechanical things, could use your assistance or maybe the ship will break during a jump and that means we're dead. So, yeah, get in touch now, I don't care about your grieving at the moment, you can grieve later, trust me.

And no, I'm not bothering with a lock, our pirates, our now dead pirates, got into every lock including mine and every other tech person's. And may have pointed out that Ward and Resnik could see it all. So, I'm not bothering with a lock against those two that won't work, because there's always a backdoor they can see through. 

[ stark encryption 100% to pepper potts ]
You're not gonna kill me in my sleep if I spend way too much time trying to fix all of this right? And not exactly sorry about the PR mess this is going to be right now.

[ axvengers encryption 100% ]
I would go on an adventure to their ship, but I'm stuck doing this. Do a bit of recon and steal some loot. Not that you really need the order, but I might as well say it anyway. Stash it 100, and we'll talk when I get a chance. In person. About all of this.

[He looks unusally grave as he addresses the network.]

Remus Lupin here. I think most of you know me. Er-- if not, well, there's your introduction. I've been on the ship for a number of months, and I've been noticing a few things.

Well, it's just-- we have fantastic organization when it comes to security and the medical bay, but we don't actually have any laws. And while we've been fortunate enough to have a peaceful crew and not need any yet-- any against stealing or, thank god, killing-- well, who knows what the next Jump will bring?

[Right. He takes a deep breath and scratches his nose, thinking for a few seconds before continuing.]

It's not just that I like rules and order-- although, frankly, that's part of the reason. But listen: without any sort of law in place, we have no real authority if and when a crime is committed. If someone kills someone else, what are we going to do? We can't rely on mob rule and what people think should be done-- god, that's how things disintegrate.

[He grimaces.]

What happened to the remaining pirates-- that cannot be allowed. What sort of society are we? We can't simply murder people because they attacked us! Keep them in the brig, yes, and we can discuss what should happen next, if they ought to be brought into the crew eventually under supervision, or kept there for life-- but we can't just slaughter them because we felt vaguely threatened. And if someone does-- as just happened-- then we need to punish them.

So with that in mind-- well, here, look at what I've written up. It's attached, I think I did it right-- and tell me what you think.

[A text document is attached. There's basic laws written out: against killing, stealing, embezzling, and so on and so forth. The punishments consist of being locked in the brig for a number of weeks, with some options for a sort of community service rehabilitation for lesser crimes.]