005. joint video post starring JASPER JORDAN.

[regulatingpressure]

[ the feed turns on, and guess who it is - again. but this time she's joined by one jasper jordan. you might have seen him in physical sciences, if you've made the trip down there. in fact, lately he's the only one down there - but we'll get to that. for now, he's taking up about 2/3s of the frame with raven occupying the other 1/3, but she's sitting angled with her shoulder behind his so it doesn't seem crowded.

jasper waves like a dope in a friendly greeting, then speaks up. ]

"Ah, hey everyone. I'm Jasper and I wanted to introduce myself as the newest Chief Physical Sciences Officer." [ ...he winces slightly. ] "Well. Only member of the physical sciences department, actually." [ the hand that waved reaches up to rub at his neck, and raven senses the awk pause before it arrives.

quietly (more to jasper than the audience), she prompts: ] But we're here to change that.

[ jasper nods eagerly, shooting the briefest 'thanks' glance her way as he keeps going, a little more confident this time. ] "Right, yeah. I guess you could call this a recruitment video. I mean, that's what we're trying to do. Sciences and engineering." [ he gestures at raven with his far hand in a subtle sweeping motion, and the camera angles just slightly farther in her direction. she seems to be the one holding it. ]

You guys know me by now. If you're sick of my face by now, I don't blame you. [ the corners of her mouth curl into a grin at the dry humor, but then it's back to business. ] Just in case you don't, I'm Raven Reyes at thirty-four ninety-nine. I've been in Engineering since Jump Thirty-Five and I show my face in Flight and Comms too when I've got a few hours.

Looks like I'm sporting some brand new red ink, which means if Engineering's a mess, I'm the ass you get to kick. But it won't be. Especially if I can get some of you jobless schmucks to throw your weight around. [ it's not actually an insult, but a little more dry fun-poking. ]

"I just want to say," [ jasper pokes in once it seems like raven's through, and she tilts her head to the camera like 'go ahead' so he keeps going. ] "You don't have to be an expert to join. All you need is to want to learn. Don't forget the complimentary Fireworks Assembly Crash-Course given to each new Physical Sciences employee!" [ there's a glint in his eye - boy sure does like his explosives - and raven exhales a near-silent snort and rolls her eyes. then the camera's shifting her way again. ]

Okay, here's the run-down:

With Physical Sciences, you've got pretty much everything that isn't patching our wounds, growing our fresh food, and dissecting and analyzing whatever anomalies you can get your hands on. [ aka medical, agriculture, and xenogen. ] That means you've got your physics, your biophysics, your particle physics, your acoustics, your cryogenics, your biomechanics, your thermomechanics, and the astro- versions of all of the above, plus astronomy, astrometry - god, I'm forgetting something. [ she's been listing on her fingers, ticking them off with her other hand, and the hands linger there for a second before her nose scrunches in dismissal, leaning to nudge jasper's shoulder with hers instead. ] My boy here's a chemist by trade, and he's been branching out like crazy but one guy can't do all that.

So if that sounds like the kind of complicated beauty you're ready to throw yourself neck-deep in, he'll be glad to have you, train you, show you all of his tricks of the trade - trust me, you want this.

Engineering, we're not so strapped. Four plus me, but we'd have to double that at least for me to sleep easy. We cover Jump prep, not to mention monitoring everything from fuel to electrical to gravity to climate for you guys and the rest of the ship's systems. If there's a problem, we're usually the ones who troubleshoot. If there's not, then hey, it's a slow day - all we've gotta do is keep everyone alive.

Because that's what this is, I'm not even gonna sugar-coat. If Engineering fucks up, everyone dies. [ she snaps in the air, a silent 'like that'. there's a pause while she lets that sink in. then: ] Right now, you've got roughly five people standing between you and some kind of mass system failure. If that seems kind of messed up to you, congratulations, you're hired.

[ but she can hear the 'i don't even know what to do' from here, so she's shaking her head before anyone can say it. ] It doesn't matter if you're a pro or just some kid who took a wrong turn looking for somewhere to pee - I'll teach you, I'll teach you all of it. We all will, my guys - Fitz, Rikku - trust me, you'll pick it up fast.

[ a pause, then in a little less of a rallying-troops kind of tone: ] And if you're not looking to be Engineer material and I just scared the shit out of you in twenty seconds flat, I can tell you right now that we've got at least three people on the clock at any given time. This isn't 'sign up or everyone dies', it's 'sign up so maybe a few of us can sleep more than four hours a night'.

[ a glance to jasper, but he's looking to her like he's said his whole piece, so she wraps it up. ]

If you want in on Engineering, like I said - Raven Reyes, 34-99. For Science, Jasper's at 34-100.

Thanks for listening.

[ the transmission cuts. a text is attached to the end, broken into three parts and filtered to the groups specified (albeit more for convenience than privacy): ]

to ENGINEERING - We need to figure out how we're gonna do this until we get a little more manpower on board.

to COMM and FLIGHT - Until I'm secure re: how ENG shapes up, I'm gonna have to pull my shifts with you guys. Ryuuzaki, I'll get someone up to speed to send in my stead ASAP. Wash, If you need anyone out in zero-G I'm still your girl. Otherwise, we've got your back in emergencies but that's all I can promise.

to ALL OTHER DEPARTMENTS - Arya taught me a lot, but she also held her cards close. If there's anything you need from me or from Engineering beyond keeping up on our end, I'm all ears.

{ ooc notes | TL;DR JOIN ENGINEERING OR SCIENCE with notes to ENGINEERING, COMM/FLIGHT, and one catch-all for THE REST OF THE DEPARTMENTS. jasper's words have "quotes", raven's don't. (figured it was easier than colors.) so sorry this was stupidly long. responses will come from both RAVEN and JASPER. i think that's it, thanks! }

Comments

audio;

[righteously]

How the hell did you people even figure out how to monitor fuel gauges on a freakin' space ship?

[If it sounds skeptical, that's because it is.

...Also maybe a little interested, because he's pretty damn handy back home. He just can't for the life of him see how he can take what he knows about engines and electrical repair from the 21st century and apply it to this, which sounds like what she's asking for.]

audio;

[trynotodie]

It's pretty simple when we lived in a space station before this. [well. before before. but dean doesn't need to know about that part.]

audio;

[righteously]

Guess that's a solid enough resume.

[He concedes with a slight downturn of his lips and a shrug.]

You got me there, college.

audio;

[trynotodie]

[dean gets a mildly confused look here.]

College?

[righteously]

It's a joke, man. It means you're smart.

[So, you know. So much for that.]

...don't worry about it.

[trynotodie]

Oh, uh.

[considering pause here for a moment.] College was like school, right? We didn't really have that. Just specific training for certain jobs. Like Raven learned zero g mechanics.

[like jasper learned just enough about chemicals to get himself arrested, whoops.]

audio;

[regulatingpressure]

Essentially what he said. [ jasper, she means. ] Doesn't hurt that the info's apparently been passed down through at least four department heads before me.

[ a pause as she mentally backtracks and assesses whether or not he seemed intrigued. raven's gonna settle on 'yes'. ]

It's not so hard. The head before me was what some people call a 'Ren Faire' - no electricity, let alone technology. If she could pick up on it, I've got all kinds of confidence you could too.

audio;

[righteously]

So we're running on second second hand information. Yeah, no, that's... that's not reassuring at all.

[He's not even going to make a joke right there. That's full on freaking distressing. Especially if the last person in charge was from the goddamn dark ages, how in the hell are any of them alive still?]

I know a thing or two about engines. If it's in a car, I can fix it. I'm not sure how well that's gonna translate to hyper drives, but it's gotta be better than whatever horse-and-carriage farmer you'd use as a last resort.

audio;

[regulatingpressure]

[ please don't remind her of the piss-poor information-transfer procedures around here, she's doing the best she can with what she's got and doesn't need more to tear out her hair about. :') ]

Okay, let's start basic - think you could fix a shuttle? I can teach you what's in it.

audio;

[righteously]

[His lips pull into his cheeks as he considers the question, and finally he shrugs.]

Couldn't hurt to give it a shot.

[He knows how fuel lines work, he's good at welding, he's a fan of body jobs, a shuttle isn't exactly a leviathan spaceship after all. It's like a car that graduated from medical school.

He can probably figure it out.]

Worst comes to worst, I blow it up. How wrong could it go?

Text

[dino_zarf]

We'll manage outside emergencies. Let's face it, until a lot of departments get more hands, things are going to move slowly.

Text

[regulatingpressure]

As long as they're moving at all, we're in good shape.

Text

[dino_zarf]

We should at least be able to get back to where we were before the jump damage

Text

[regulatingpressure]

Glad to hear it. Keep in touch, yeah?

Text

[dino_zarf]

Will do

video;

[volage]

How old are you?

[ The asker is in his mid-late thirties, for the record, and looks more entertained than concerned. That's only partially because he doesn't 100% believe any of this is real yet. Even if he did, he would still probably not be as worried as he should be about the state of affairs. ]

Either of you.

video;

[trynotodie]

[you're getting the eye from jasper right now. i hope you're happy. the answer he eventually gives is flat and quite obviously a lie as well.]

Forty. [anyone who asks a question like that already has a mind to how old they are, asking is just to make a point. a point raven and jasper don't really deserve. they're very good at what they do.]

video;

[volage]

[ He's very happy thank you. ]

That's not the least believable thing I've heard this week.

video;

[trynotodie]

We look very good for our age, I know.

video;

[regulatingpressure]

That's a great question, [ raven says, despite jasper's sass.

or maybe in compliment of it. ] Not sure how much the number'd mean to you, though. If you have to ask, you probably can't count that high.

video;

[volage]

What if I used all ten fingers and all ten toes? Would I run out?

[ They're both very charming. ]

video;

[regulatingpressure]

It's possible.

I'll say I'm 7 years older than the last chick doing my job.

video;

[volage]

[ Have a low whistle. ]

You lot really are strapped for help.

[not here]

[ryuuzaki]

[L might be conspicuous by his lack of response. This message won't be reaching him for a while.]

[not here]

[regulatingpressure]

[ absolutely noted. ]