o2. spinning wheels (video; un: burton)

[tumang]

[ The camera filming is the one from the console in the wall of the garden, the one that Haru put together. It shows Amos, fingers brushing along the plants hooked together along the wall. He has a smile on his face, and his touch seems incredibly gentle, his lips parted as he looks at the greenery. ]

Have you ever seen something more amazing? These plants are keeping us alive. Literally. Scrubbing up the air we breathe, putting it back out as something we can use. They take so much work, so much patience, so much knowledge. To keep them alive, help them grow. So amazing.

[ He stops, his face closing up all of a sudden. His jaw ticks with a muscle under the beard, and his hands turn into fists. He pulls away from the wall. It seems like a sudden change in mood, something like a switch has been flipped, all of a sudden. His posture tenses, his eyes start stinging. ]

This place is killing us. It's - it's killed my friend, already. He's more than a friend, really. He's my brother.

[ If you've met Amos, had a chat with him, you might realize that this video is pretty... well, unlike him. He doesn't seem to really recognize that fact, though, looking straight at the camera with his eyes slightly teary. ]

Be careful. This station does shit to us. [ Pause. Amos wipes at his eyes. Sniffles. ] Oh and by the way, guys, it's a station, not a ship. Don't make me say it again.

[ He doesn't sound angry, even when he says this, tired of having to repeat himself. There's a suspicious complete lack of anger throughout the whole entry. ]

Seriously, we need to get off this barge. All of us. If you think there's nothing you can do, I promise you, there is. We gotta work together.

Comments

[tumang]

Ah. Where I'm from - when might be more accurate - Mars has been colonized, and then got its independence. I've been living in space for 15, 20 years.

[ That's about as accurate as he can be about it. He's sharing, easily, which is a change from the usual. But she's providing a good distraction. ]

Why are you better off? Better off than who else?

[raverie]

Twenty years!

[ That's crazy. ]

You must have been very young. Were you born on - a planet?

[ She was going to say Earth, but she's trying not to be so Earth-centric, doesn't want to make assumptions. He's who she's coming to for advice about life in space now, thanks. But then he asks about her situation and she has to figure out how to phrase it without sounding dramatic. ]

I was in a little trouble back home. I'm not sure what happened to the people with me.

[tumang]

I was born on Earth. Left at 15.

[ Died and born again. A different life laid out for him, one he chose. ]

I'm not sure this station is going to be any better than whatever you were in back home. It has a tendency to do... strange things. Like my friend, dying, and then coming back to life.

[raverie]

[ What Sonya knows is a microcosm of that - teenagers displaced from their homes on a smaller scale, still within the country itself, let alone the planet. She can't imagine what it takes to make that kind of move at that age.

She doesn't know how to say it, but that still sounds better than the life she left behind in ye olde Trask facility. ]

I can't imagine what that must have been like. Do you know... Can I ask if anyone's never come back?

[tumang]

[ Amos nods. ]

Some people haven't. Like this girl, Kat - she was an idealist. Thought we could all be saved, and deserved it too. And then one day, [ he clicks his fingers, ] she disappeared. Don't know what happened to her, or where she went. She's just gone.

Happened to quite a few others, too.