EVENT: CULTURAL STUDIES ▒ THE TRANQUILITY

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: The newly discovered corridor, Prisoners' Quarters and Guards' Bunkhouse.
WARNINGS: A vague sense of creeping unease.
SUMMARY: Discovery and exploration of the Prisoners' Quarters and Guards' Bunkhouse.
NOTES: Open to all! Network map discovery is HERE. Bunkhouse discovery post is HERE. Have fun forward and back-dating, but don't forget to check the timelines!

The corridor you're walking down seems to stretch on forever, but maybe that's just the gloom ever-present in the belly of the ship, only cut through by the skittering beams of the flashlights you're carrying and the dim signal on the map. The map led you here, and the map seemed to indicate there was something at the end of this journey; a new area, perhaps, more answers. Something worth the risk of stepping into the darkness. Best stay alert, strain your senses — though there will be little advantage found in the warning of claws clicking against metal in the distance, a flash of red on the wall to your right...

Comments

[yardbird]

Murphy shrugs. Firo had a pretty good point, but... "Paper and pen's more personal than email." His (ex) wife could never have gotten him to use a computer or any other technological device for the life of her. He never did like the things. "Guess it's also less likely to get intercepted if it's locked away safely."

Listening to Firo's musing, Murphy's attention perks up. He reaches into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out a little black book he never seems to leave anywhere without.

"Had it since before I got here. Write in it 'bout every day."

He trusts it a hell of a lot more than the communicators, that's for sure.

Afterwards, Murphy holds his hands out, gesturing for Firo to help himself to the not-so-helpful letters he'd found.

[foundafamily]

Firo's not familiar enough with email or any of the electronic communication to argue, but he wasn't too much of a writer back home, either. That was Ennis and Luck's department.

"Really?" He smiles as he leans over to get a better look at the book. "You're smart. But what'd you write about before you got here?" He can see the point in taking notes on their experience here--it's a great idea--but why record things at home? He imagines Murphy's home was like his own in that it didn't mess with your head as much as this place.

As he's talking Firo starts flipping through the letters, picking one out and giving it a cursory scan as he waits for Murphy's answer.

[yardbird]

"I'm no Mark Twain, if that's what you're askin'." Murphy simpers a little, and then shrugs. "Just scrawled some notes here and there 'bout stuff that's happened. Helps to sort out my thoughts when things start to feel... crazy."

Or to keep him from losing his mind when stuck in a prison cell with no one but himself to communicate with for several hours, days, months... years. Sometimes he just had nothing but his book to "talk" to.

His expression straightens, becoming unreadable as he puts his journal back into his pocket. He glances to the letters, some he's already read and others he hadn't had the time to yet.

[foundafamily]

He laughs. "Can't say I'm really that surprised. You don't have the look." That hair and mustache combination is probably difficult to pull off.

"Still, it is a good idea. Maybe next time the rest of us are runnin' around without our heads you'll be better off." Or if they lose their memories or something like that. Firo wouldn't put it past the ship to pull that on them, and then having a written record would be great.

The letters don't hold anything particularly interesting, and Firo finds his eyes wandering off the pages to glance around the rest of the room.

[yardbird]

Good thing Murphy isn't that gray yet, either... or he just might try. He just manages a weak, stifled chuckle -- both at the thought and at Firo's comment.

Afterwards, his hand comes up briefly to his chest as he looks over. "Mn, also don't trust that our devices couldn't be... what's the word...? 'Hacked' into?" Even for a man of a more modern society, he's still very much behind in the times. All he knows about computers he learned from movies like Hackers and Jurassic Park, and we all know how accurate that shit is.

But still, the idea is all the same. Data can be poked into remotely. Paper is a lot more safe, in Murphy's humble opinion.

Paper was also easier to get into prison walls than a smartphone, anyway.

[foundafamily]

Firo shrugs helplessly. "Don't ask me. I'd never even seen anything like this stuff before I got here." He's been told he's at least a few decades behind a lot of people here, sometimes centuries. It makes a huge difference even though he isn't exactly a Luddite or anything back home.

He drops the letter onto his lap and leans back. "So what does that mean? Should I be worried? Because I could do with more things to worry about." Despite his complaining, he'd still like to know if it's something important. Not knowing what's up in a place like this is dangerous, and Firo'd like to keep himself in one piece.

[yardbird]

Ignorant as Murphy might be in the great big world of technology, he wasn't entirely behind the times. He'd toyed with the devices enough to get the general gist of how they worked, though he wasn't in any position to be jacking other people's locked discussions or anything like that.

Still, he kind of knows where Firo is coming from.

"Means Big Brother might be watchin' us a little too closely." Murphy hesitates, realizing that Firo might be lost on the reference. "I mean, there are some people who can... get into your private files, or conversations. Stuff like that. Don't trust that somebody isn't always keepin' tabs on what we're tryin' to figure out."

Much as he hated to sound like the overly paranoid one here, it wasn't entirely without justification. Murphy knew what it was like to have eyes watching him from almost every corner. This place was either no exception, or driving him balls to the wall even crazier than he was before.

[foundafamily]

And that's pretty crazy.

Firo raises an eyebrow--his older "brothers" didn't really pry about much--then nods when Murphy explains it. "So what do we do then? Toss these things and hope that takes care of it?"

He's actually reluctant to do so. As much he hates the idea of asking for help, if he ever did get lost or trapped somewhere the device would be one of the few things that could help him. And in a place this big, it's convenient to have a way to reach people for less dire concerns.

Then there's the question: would getting rid of the devices even help?

[yardbird]

Murphy shakes his head.

"Bad idea." He remembers what happened when he got lost and didn't have his communicator on hand. If it wasn't hunger or dehydration that would've done him in, missing the jump would've definitely finished the job for him. "I'm just... I wouldn't trust sharin' any important info over these things."

No matter how good someone was at encryption, he wouldn't put it past prying eyes...

He has learned to be more paranoid than that.

[foundafamily]

Firo nods. Murphy's been here much longer than he has and knows much more about the place. "I'll keep that in mind." Not that he's prone to blabbing away about many secrets here anyway.

"But even then... What kinda information would we have that whoever's listening in would want? They hold all the cards." Whoever "they" are. Firo has no clue; he's just convinced there's somebody behind this. It can't just be happening on its own.

[yardbird]

"Not sure yet. 'Don't believe everything they tell you,' though... whether that's the red-smile guy or the captain himself." Murphy isn't inclined to trust either, though if he had to put his faith in either then it was Smiley who helped them out more. Hell, he could count a good number of times that they would've died if it hadn't been for that guy, whoever he was.

Murphy shrugs.

"Take it however you will, but I'm not gonna throw caution in the wind just 'cause I'm at a disadvantage here."

[foundafamily]

"I definitely won't." Perhaps this is one of the few places where Firo's background will help him out here; he tends to be wary of any authority that isn't the Family.

He nods to the second piece of advice, though he knows at the back of his mind that caution isn't always his strong suit. He sets aside the letter and stands up to walk around the room. "There's nothin' good in here, is there?"

[yardbird]

"Not really, unless if there's somehow an answer to gettin' outta this place in these mundane letters. Which, judgin' by what I've read so far, doubt these guys would know..."

They didn't sound like particular rocket scientists or anything.

Honestly, why was he even bothering now?

[foundafamily]

"Of course the place we'd stumble across would be one without anything useful in it." He folds his arms to keep from hitting something out of sheer frustration.

"The other room didn't look like it had much either." Except he's kind of glad about that. He's sick of prisons.