bottlebay | VIDEO;

[ parvati's in her room, you think. it's a simple space. it isn't messy, but it isn't exactly clean either. there's a lot of things just scattered about; a few fledgeling plants in messy and lopsided clay pots, multiple toolsets, and various parts and knicknacks that are presumably for her use later. there's a large beanbag next to her window, and multiple shelves lined with trinkets. some that probably stand out are a wooden statuette of tenna t-posing (?), a crochet snow-pikachu, and a neatly folded scarf that inexplicably looks like a long bacon.

parvati herself is close to the pearl, that she's propped up on her small table that's covered in even more random parts she's acquired, and never used nor put away. screws, bolts, some rough equivalent to bobby pins she's found, hair ties...

she's shuffling in her seat, grinning from ear-to-ear ~~does she even have ears~~ in excitement about something she's holding out of frame. ]

Guys! Look what I found! [ whatever she's holding doesn't remain a mystery for long - she pulls it into frame and holds it up to the aperture. it's a picture of two women, in a hexagonal frame. ] No clue how it got here, but I had this! In my room! Back home!

[ a wistful sigh. she points to the woman sitting. ] That's what I look like. Looked like. [ her finger then moves to the woman who is standing. ] And that's Junlei! My girlfriend!

[ her glee is almost childlike. ]

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Congratulations! [beaming; she's glad Parvati has this reminder!] You both look very cute! What is Junlei like?

Heh, thanks.

[ she's lucky she's pink, or it'd be really obvious how much she's blushing right about now. ]

She's real handsome. [ which is probably obvious from the photo. ] And so smart! She can run a tight ship - I wish I could be as organised as her. Real skilled at what she does; she's probably the best engineer in Halcyon!

She is! You're both very lucky.

Organisation is a real skill! It's a good thing. [Ohoh?]. Is that so? You two must make a very good team, then!

I'd like to think so. Learned a whole lot from her about maintaining ships - doubt I'd be as good as I am without her help. [ after all, years of fixing factory canneries and a lifetime of maintain one of the largest vessels in the system are miles apart. she really doesn't know where she'd be without that help. ]

We don't actually work on the same ship. I work on the Unreliable and she works on the Groundbreaker. Her plate's way bigger than mine, operatin' a ship that size.

It's definitely easier with a good teacher, right? Then, she knows how to encourage you, too?

Oh, I see… Is it difficult to have a relationship like that? [Ships, huh… She doesn't think she knew that, or not directly.] What sorts of ships are those?

[ the two of them got real close real fast. it went from general advice and lessons on maintaining more complex spaceship machinery to intimate conversations and crappy poetry within a matter of weeks. it went well for her, in the end. parvati's ninety-percent sure she fell in love with junlei when she first saw her, and with how she remembers junlei looking at her? it gives her the fuzzies just thinking about it. ]

Yeah. And it was, we e-mailed! [ because of course evil space capitalism has email, what else are bureaucrats to do when they're not using space excel? ] My ship's a little frigate. Not much, but she has some real impressive modifications her previous owner built in. Groundbreaker's a colony ship - one of the two sent to populate Halcyon. It's a market station now, mostly a stopover for freelancers 'cause it ain't under proper juridstiction.

[Cute…!]

That's good! Being able to keep in touch makes a huge difference!

So, more of an escort ship? [Colony ship, huh…] The types of ships you work on sound rather different than what I'm used to. What is Halcyon like? If it's a station… do you have chances to visit?

[ she never did figure out a good way to explain this to anyone, did she? oops. ]

Eh, if you mean the Unreliable then not really. We're kinda like pirates. [ less cool space pirates. not here to plunder, just overthrow the government and tell you to eat your veggies. ] A ship that appears as crappy as her tends to dip below the radar, makes a lot of the stuff my captain does a whole lot easier. [ granted, the ship in outer worlds 2 is an actual stealth ship that actually dips below the radar. everyone and their mother has the unreliable's contact info by comparison. ]

We had to visit Groundbreaker a lot for restocking and odd jobs, so I got to see Junlei a bunch. Being her girlfriend has a lot of perks, actually? There's a whole group of people livin' in the back bays who just let us through because of it. Would've been a fight otherwise.

Pirates? Really? You seem so… levelheaded? [Not the kind of pirate she's imagining, certainly. She nods.] That makes a lot of sense. What kind of stuff do you do?

That's good! [So it's a kind of hub…] I guess that means she's pretty important, then!

Uh. Overthrowing the government? [ there's no real point hiding it. ] Or tryin' to. Rooting out corporate corruption, to save people. It's a real long story.

Overthrowing it, huh… Well. It's important to bring corruption to light!

I can make time to listen!

The short of it is that my Captain was on the other colony ship that was sent with the Groundbreaker: the Hope. Somehow she got knocked out of skip speed and took way longer to get to Halcyon. Ten years turned to sixty.

[ she tilts her head to the side. ] We're workin' for the guy who rescued them from suspended animation, we wanna rescue everyone else on that ship. The colony's starving, but the folks frozen on that ship could help. The Board covered that up.

Skip speed… Wait, do you mean interstellar travel!?

[Wait, wait, focus. Corrupt governments in space.]

Fifty years is a lot of time for events outside of that…

I see! I hope they'll be glad, when they wake. [She tsks.] Preventing people who could help from doing so… Leaving others behind… That's quite despicable. It seems to me you're doing something good!

Oh! Didn't I tell you?

[ huh. probably slipped her mind. ]

I-- I hope so. I woke up here before we really got a chance to do it.

I don’t think so. What is it like?

[She nods at that, mood a little more somber.]

Is it something you would want to be there to be a part of it?

Not like the movies you've seen.

[ if she gets one more person asking her about that she swears to the architect-- ]

And, I mean. You'd wanna see something you've worked hard to achieve through to the end, right?

Oh… Really? But, that does make sense…

[So does that mean it feels like travelling in other ways generally? That feels a little disappointing, but- it is what it is.]

…that's true, I would. Then, I hope you'll be able to do so! And that it won't take too long.

[She's probably worried, right?]

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cw mass starvation mention

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