text. un: archivist.

[question]

A moment of your time, if I may. I only just arrived, so I'm endeavoring to answer all the requisite stupid questions — I've never been in space before, I don't remember coming here, I want to go home, and so on. But I understand that we're all in the same boat, so I'll spare you the crisis.

However. I looked over the staff positions, and after some exploration through this filthy maze of a place, I have come to the conclusion that offering to play librarian is pointless when I cannot find the damn library. Has anybody come across it? If not, have we managed to open anywhere that's locked off? Several of the crew floors have recreational facilities, but not the 5th, so that's my best guess for our missing library.

Finally. I'm actually recording this from spoken word to text as I appear to have superglued my fingers together with this- this space glue-gun. Does anyone know how to dissolve the stuff? Or should I resign myself to losing the skin of my fingertips?

Message ends.

Comments

[question]

Well.

Thank you, I suppose.

[ for not thinking his questions are stupid. and for sharing that thing about the superglue, since right now he feels like an idiot. ]

I could try to find some alcohol. There's a bar, isn't there? If it doesn't unstick me at least I'll have something to drink.

[wingstosee]

yeah! it's on floor 4.
deck 4? i'm not really used to the whole space thing yet.
so as long as you can find something strong enough, you can just pop that open and

oh. actually
are you still able to open a bottle...
if you need help i can find you?

[question]

Perhaps if I just use my teeth.

[ no... no, he's definitely going to need help. ]

[wingstosee]

oh no no no.
that's. a bad idea?
please don't do that.
teeth aren't made for that

tell you what
i'll be in the bar, okay?
just um
try not to be too freaked out when you see me?
i promise i'm not going to hurt you or anything

sorry i've just had to explain this to like four people today and honestly it's kind of a lot?

just swaps to action, yolo

[question]

All right.

[ that warning alone leaves jon curious enough that he's going to come to the bar whether or not he wants help with his hand. he spots her immediately, of course: she's visibly inhuman.

jon's not: with his greying hair and the haggard lines of his face he looks about twenty years older than he is, but still seemingly human enough. he's also obvious since he, you know, has three of his fingers on his left hand clumped together in a dark resin.

his voice, when he speaks, is low, resonant, english. ]

Er, hello.

[ a touch bemused, perhaps, by the wings (and maybe, honestly, by the transness, having minimal experience there) but apparently not "freaked out" at all. ]

"Aphrodite"?

hell yeah, let's do this

[wingstosee]

[ she spots him about when he spots her. it's hard not to, at this point- when you've got three-sixty degree vision, you just sort of notice things? so she sees him when he walks in, and she sees the resin bonding his fingers together, and even if it's not as immediately apparent she sees that he's not panicking - which is nice, given the last few people she's tried to help. ]

Yeah! Yeah, that's me. [ her voice, a high tenor almost androgynous in tone, is the only thing that really could give away her assigned gender, at this point. she certainly doesn't look like she used to, with the jumpsuit rolled down to her waist and a simple white tank undershirt on for a top. turns out becoming the devil and ripping your old body away has some benefits after all. ] It's, um. Sort of a joke on my name? Venus. You know, since... The Roman god and all?

[ she is helplessly awkward. it's just... sort of a part of her being. sorry about the next few minutes in advance, jonathan. ]

It's nice to meet you, though.

[question]

Ah, yes, of course. Though Venus was perhaps a more all-encompassing goddess than her Greek counterpart, given she also ruled over aspects such... as....

[ he trails off because he suddenly realizes he can't talk to a teenage girl about prostitution without it being weird, even if she does have eye-wings. also because she probably doesn't actually want to hear him being a classics nerd. ]

Well. That's all - that's all beside the point, of course. You're probably not the actual Venus, since I'd hope a goddess wouldn't be so powerless to be trapped on a spaceship. And if you are, then I imagine you don't need me telling you your domains.

[ jon stuffs his hands in his jumpsuit pockets, shoulders tense and tilted forward a little. apparently a simple 'nice to meet you too' is too much to ask of him, so: awkwardness, party of two. part of the reason he hates people so much is because he's just so- so bad at them. ]

[wingstosee]

[ "such as," she nearly asks, because it's not like she has any idea? she's not really great at retaining facts like that. or learning them. or learning in general. but what she can do is take things at face value and move on, and so she finally speaks up at- ]

Oh, haha. No way. Definitely not a goddess. [ although that thought doesn't really grate at her in the same way "a god" might? gender and religion are weird. she crosses her arms, biting her lower lip as she tries to work out how best to say it. ] Actually, sort of. The opposite? I mean, I'm the devil.

[ and then, helpfully, almost a side note: ]

It's complicated.

[question]

That... does sound complicated, yes.

[ jon is just going to take a seat at the bar; he's looking at her wings again, the eyes, wondering how they worked. if the wings could fly, if the eyes could see. ]

The Judeo-Christian devil? Lord of hell, etc? Or just conceptually — a devil, but in the singular.

[ unwisely fascinated. satanism isn't his area of expertise but scientific demonology and the history of that aspect of paranormal psychiatry is definitely something he's studied in amongst all his other research into the supernatural. ]

[wingstosee]

Yeah, Judeo-Christian. Or, well, sort of? I, uh, actually talked about this with someone earlier, haha. Someone way better with words than me. So- I am the devil, and the devil's definitely the one you're thinking of. But at the same time, I'm not that person?

[ she sighs, biting her bottom lip and wording it as carefully as she can. ]

It's like... imagine the Holy Trinity. God and Jesus are the same, right? Jesus is God. But God wasn't crucified, Jesus was. So it's like that, sort of? [ an odd smile, one that should come across as intimidating given the context - except for how she just looks sort of glad she has company. ] Except for the part where there's a lot more of us than just one. Haha.

[ she's used to answering this question by this point - but it's still sort of distracting. she hasn't even mentioned the whole "alcohol for your fingers" bit yet. ]