[ The scene: Space Babylon, a counter-top view with the recording lens pointing at an upward angle. The view of York's face is shadowed from the colored lights on the ceiling, which are starred in the camera's view because of their brightness and proximity.

Your host is a rather inebriated York, whom friends and acquaintances may have noticed has been missing in the week since the jump. The feed opens to him holding a drink, but he sets it down off to the side of the recording lens and leans back in his seat. ]

You ever feel like the ship has it in for you?

[ Until now York's made it an especial point to separate the ship from whatever entity is running it, but now in his drunken and emotional state, he doesn't seem inclined to make the differentiation. ]

Like, hell, at first I thought it wasn't so bad, not like everyone acted like it was. And even when I had something to worry about, the ship ended up fixing it for me—I was given something I'd lost when I showed up here. And since that thing happened to be my best friend, you know, I was pretty chill with it all. I mean, now he's in his own body, and that's kind of weird, but we've been dealing with it, okay? It's all good.

But ever since then; ever since then...

[ Here he reaches for his drink and takes a swallow, setting it back down with a careful clink, blinking at the lens and leaning in a bit. ]

...I don't know how in the hell they know about what our pasts are, but I know I don't appreciate this shit being rubbed in my face. The helmet, okay, the grenade, yeah, that I could handle, leaving D stuck in some kind of coma? That's the last straw with me.

[ York picks up his comms device and moves it to try to get a better angle on his face, but it's off to the side now and more off-kilter even than before. ]

Whoever's in charge of making these decisions, 'cause, yeah, I know you're listening in on this. You come out of hiding. I got a bone to pick with you.

No. No, no, no.

[ the video is sideways, giving a slanted view of river nearby on the floor of her room. there are scraps of paper all over the floor; colourful, bright. childish drawings torn apart.

she wraps around her knees, hands covering her head. river hasn't slept in three years and this week alone, she slept for three days. three days of silence, three days of bliss. she wanted the dreams and they came to her. it was so easy to let go, wasn't it? ]

Wake up. Please wake up. They can't - they tell you to lay down and you do. You stay because they said it, it's in you and -

[ she shakes her head, rocks back and forth, muttering 'oh God, no' under her breath. she told derek. told and tried to stay awake, but sometimes she just gets so tired of holding on. the sun goes dark and chaos is come again. ]

They don't get up again. The skeletons stay and they don't lie down. It's the Pa - no - it's her. It's in the air and it won't stop. It wants to keep you, it wants to keep you, she wants you and you're hers.

[ she screams 'please wake up' one last time just as she grabs her device and throws it as far away from her as she can.

not very far. there's nowhere to run. ]

[ it's been a considerably long time since frodo made any contact with the network. times before he asked for companions, questions on stories, but instead there is silence. it's no secret he's kept much to him self in the passing months. even to those he'd call friend.

there's no denying that the person on the screen is haggard, shadows beneath his eyes and overall looking far from well. when he speaks it's distant, as if not quite present. frodo knows the risk, especially with him on board. his voice is like brittle paper. ]

I know some of you have magic. I'd like to know..

[it seems as if even coming to thoughts is difficult. a pause. ]

Is there any magic on this ship capable of weakening something else? Making it less potent -- anything that could restrain an object even a little..

[ wearily: ]

Should you know anything, anything at all .. I'd like to discuss it. Privately.

 
[Goodness gracious, guys. Between River having a freakout, York being sad and drinking, a guy losing his horse, Frodo looking pretty out of shape, and then all the grown-up talk on that ladies entry (and Roy hurting himself on 'accident'; yeah, we'll get to that later, Roy) — Takeshi's starting to think the really pleasant dreams aren't gonna cancel out his concern for the rest of — well, everything. He hates seeing when this happens; definitely, definitely hates it. And while it's not the first time he's tried to smooth out an unpleasant time on the network, it's more him experimenting now, trying to fix things, make them better in a different way.

Surely, this won't backfire, because it's totally foolproof and he thought it up all by himself!!

Alright, not entirely by himself, but — it's a good plan, okay.]

Hey, I got a idea. On my — on a show I watched on my old TV, it used to say it makes people real happy when they get compliments. Compliments are good and make people feel good. So... I think we should try that, 'cus we can make it really nice for everyone! I know people are worried about stuff and the lockers were bad for stuff, but maybe this is a good way to make people feel better. Say nice things. If you wanna say with letters and make it so nobody knows it's you, it's okay, because I know people gets embarrassed easy.

So!! What you do... what you do is, you say a people's, a person's name; you say their name, and then say one nice thing about them. Something good about them! So you should say a few nice things about people you know here. And then someone can say something nice about you. Maybe it'll make everyone feel a little better. I can start.

Like. Like for Mr. York! I think he's really nice, and he always helps me, even though I pushed him once. He says I can play ball even though I'm small; he's really nice like that.

And Dean, Dean's really cool. He drives a really great car — I think it's great, 'cus he says so, and he named it Baby. I dunno if people name cars a lot, but he did, so that makes her even more special. And he knows how to kick ass, and that's really important.

And then, there's Thranduil. He makes sure I don't say things I shouldn't, sometimes. [Sirius and Nathan I'm lookin' at you.] He's really smart and tells me smart things. And he talks good. Sometimes I don't understand, but he's a great talker.

Rapunzel's a good person, too! Her hair is the prettiest, longest hair. And she paints so so so good. She painted me a panda on my wall.

I think that's good so far...

Um... if you don't wanna play that game... least lemme know you're okay. I haven't seen some friends and people in a long time. I wanna know you're okay.

[Because River's freak out got him pretty bad, too.]

I think people don't ask enough. 

If it's okay. If people's okay.

It's a 'portant thing to ask.