Merriment 25, late morning [video. ish.]

[morganizedchaos]

[The video starts out normally enough - Ghost is using the ICP in his cabin, and leaning forward in a way that clearly indicates that he's a bit Unhappy about something. The effect is slightly ruined, however, by the giant fluffy black cat who is currently in his lap and occasionally butts her head up into the frame to demand attention.

However, for those who haven't seen Ghost on video before, there's something interesting going on the lower half of the screen - a smartphone is held up in front of the camera, landscape orientation, mostly blocking out the cat, by some amount of telekinesis. And rather than speaking aloud, or what passes for 'aloud' for him, Ghost is just putting text onto the smartphone's screen, giving the impression of subtitles to those who are familair with them. The words appear very quickly, with a pause after each sentence to allow slower readers to catch up before the words scroll away up the screen.

Take that, lack of text posts on the ICPs. You can't stop him now.]

So. Got a bit of a favor to ask. For the new folks, hey, name's Ghost, resident weird alien hybrid speaking, nice to meet you, yes I am mute, don't make a thing out of it.

Some of you probably noticed on our 'vacation' that I was limited to kiddie pool level activities and adult supervision. Technically speaking, I'm the youngest person on the train. In every functional way, I'm thirty, but apparently that's not how the train counts things.

So if a bunch of people could drop messages on the train feedback encouraging her to reevaluate the way she decides who's an adult and who's a child before the next time we have some kind of age-restricted activity, I'd appreciate it. I don't even care about not having access to the train's booze stash, but having a bunch of resort workers descend on me like I was an actual lost child was kind of a pain in the ass.

[There's a pause, mostly because the cat reaches up to paw at Ghost's chin and distracts him. Given that he's not a big guy and she is a very large cat, the effect is fairly comical.]

Thanks, Rory, love you too.

Comments

[morganizedchaos]

Well, she's needy enough.

[He is now holding Rory up to the camera for you. Look at this face. Who could ever hate this face.]

[zombiemessiah]

You need to have someone teach her the word "no" and that's all you'd need to pass her off as a believable child.

[Murphy could say no to that face but he's only powerful enough to manage it 2/3rds of the time. It takes strength of dipshittery he does not have.]

[morganizedchaos]

[Ghost snorts.]

She definitely has her ways of saying no. I think her voice is a little croaky for pulling off a kid, though.

[Rory twitches an ear at the camera before Ghost settles her back into his lap.]

[zombiemessiah]

Well, you know alien adopted kids these days and their scratchy voices.

[But aside from the teasing about the giant cat.]

Maybe the train is so used to this memory shit that for some people it doesn't count remembered experiences as anything other than borrowed. Like reading out of a novel. Some people, that is.

[morganizedchaos]

It's probably just the literal age since 'birth,' whatever that is that counts for someone. Occam's Razor and so on. Which in my case, I was only two weeks old when I got here, so...

[He's gonna be boned on the age thing for a LONG time if the train doesn't take the feedback.]

[zombiemessiah]

And it should know you're not human unless it was confused when it pulled you.

....Train doesn't make sense. I dunno. Maybe it'll listen. It's gotta be somewhat aware 'cause it's not sending you formula.

[morganizedchaos]

Yeah, it seems to do some bare-minimum research stuff - I mean, I have my phone, that's the most important part in my case, but there's also your diet and stuff.

Hopefully it decides to take this into account, since we'll probably run into some kind of age-separated thing again. At least the train doesn't shy away from giving us a bit of vacation when it thinks we need it.

[zombiemessiah]

I like to think of it as the train taking us for walkies.

[Because Murphy is a cynic.]

I realized if we get stuck in another place where I can't eat, I can't exactly take any volunteers from the crew. The bodies disappear soon after they die, right?

Not exactly a topic of conversation I've wanted to bring up. But uh... if we're in a tight situation and I start getting really hungry, can I chew your cell phone battery?

[Because that would oddly sate him for a while.]

[morganizedchaos]

[Murphy is a cynic but Ghost is a zoomer. He 'grew up' on 'treat yourself like a zoo animal, give yourself enrichment' tumblr posts. He just nods at walkies.]

Define 'chew on.' Will it still be functional afterwards?

[Frysquint but it's ascii art goes here.]

[zombiemessiah]

I'd probably have to get you another battery. [He would outright chew up the battery for the lithium.]

But we're talking high emergency situation here. Not a casual 'hey I need a snack'.