Nebula 5

[firewalled]

Heard we're supposed to be having another mission soon... seems a bit like every time we get beat down, we have a nice break, then have to get beat down even harder, huh?

[Rich is starting to get tired of this, honestly. He's trying not to let it show on his face, but the bags under his eyes probably still make it obvious. At least he seems to be back to his talkative self, though he has to admit... it's just because he can't take the silence anymore.]

Anyways, I've been thinkin' a lot about the stuff I miss back home. Video games and cheesy movies, and fast food courts in malls that seem like a great vibe until two hours later when you've barricaded yourself in a bathroom stall. All the stuff we don't have a lot of here. And I think there's one thing we're sorely missing, which is memes.

[He smirks a little.] I mean, I could do an acoustic riff on Astley if anyone wanted it, but I wonder if we have better than that.

Maybe we could use that laptop to make new ones? Yknow, all that bottom text goodness? Though I guess we couldn't really use them as reaction images on these terminals...

Anyways, I guess, what's the one thing you wish you had here, that the train just can't replace for you? So whatever you can't buy from the store. I'm in a nostalgic kinda mood.

Comments

[zombiemessiah]

I'm gonna state the unpopular opinion that I actually miss golfing. Sometimes missions or stops give us clubs, drinking, gambling, but golf? I'd be shocked to see it.

[firewalled]

Damn, you're right. I've never actually seen any golf around here... not that I've done more than putt-putt before. My friend used to play all the time though!

[Jake would have far more to commiserate on here, really, but that's expected of the extra-curricular master.]

video, 1/2

[morganizedchaos]

[So the skilled eye might be able to make out that this is, in fact, Ghost's phone being held up in front of the ICP's camera in such a way that the phone screen is the only thing visible. However, considering the contents of the screen, you could be forgiven for failing to notice that.]

actually video 2/2

[morganizedchaos]

[After a good long minute or two, the phone drops down to its usual position "subtitling" Ghost with text. He's wearing an extremely large shit-eating grin, because honestly, of course he is.

The youngest person on the train is also an actual Zoomer. The More You Know Rainbow Here.]

Okay, but legitimately, I miss being able to just like. Send text messages. Which probably sounds stupid, but it was my main method of communication back home, and being shackled to these terminals is piss. >:[

[Grumpy face emoji matches his actual face.]

Voice

[namethattune]

[He'd intended to leave his own comment, his own topic of conversation, but then he'd seen the meme-]

[And what follows is a solid thirty seconds of surprised, honest laughter. Oh, it has been a while since he's seen one of these.]

[He does finally calm down enough to speak, though his smile is obvious in his voice.]

I had not thought that had stood the test of time, let alone crossed dimensions.

[Hello, fellow Zoomer.]

[zombiemessiah]

I remember shit like this circulating at work.

I do miss boring office memes. What was this? 2009? Wow.

[What a time to be alive. When cats playing piano was A+ humor.]

[amnesiadragon]

I haven't been here that long but I... there's no fishing here.

[firewalled]

I've never actually been fishing. Think my dad might've taken me once when I was little, but I was probably pretty bored. I'd like to try it now, though!

Hell, maybe you can just feed a little fishing line out the window... [Rich, no.] Or maybe one of these worlds we stop at will have a good fishing spot.

[consider8]

Hmn... [Her friends. But she figures that "her friends" would be true for a lot of people.]

I miss the Splatfests and the Turf Wars. And space. The train is too small and narrow to do a lot of things, and when we do have space we're working.

[firewalled]

I've never heard of a Splatfest, and I'm pretty sure turf wars are something different in my world. What are those about?

I agree with you that we need more space, though. If the tracks could be widened just a little bit... I mean, I know I'm short, but even I'm feeling claustrophobic!

[hitokiri]

[ he's just going to choose not to ask what memes are because he knows people he can probably ask later... ]

How about food that tastes familiar. Eatin' is optional but if it's gonna be a thing to do it could at least be enjoyable..?

And speakin' of... how about gettin' to go drinkin' and not have to worry about shit like "points"? That'd be fuckin' nice...

[ he trails off to grumble and will probably never not have this complaint... ]

[firewalled]

[It's probably for the best that he just... doesn't ask. Rich isn't the best at explaining things like that.]

It's the horrors of capitalism, man. Hits us even on a weird sky train where we're mostly taken care of. I can manage to fork over some points for fun stuff, but it sucks that some meds aren't even stocked in the infirmary...

[yondu]

Pickin' where I wanna go and just up and leavin' as I saw fit. Just goin' wherever I wanted in the galaxy.

[That's what he misses the most.]

I also liked not gettin' my mind messed with once a month so I hope it's just a damn asteroid we gotta blow up or somethin' 'cause I might just commit myself to the train.

[firewalled]

Man, I wish I had that ability back at home too. There's too many complications for that to really work, but it'd be nice to travel, at least.

[If he wasn't super broke.]

...Hate to ask, but getting your mind messed with is a regular thing here for you?

[averyusefultray]

Besides the obvious?

[Does she actually need to say she misses her family? Anyone who's met her knows that, especially if she's had an excuse to brag about the kids]

I miss flying. No matter how bad things got, I always felt right when I was up there. We have a simulator and it's helped, but it can only go so far.

[firewalled]

You were a pilot? That sounds so cool... I'd never get a chance to do that, what with my contacts, but it always looked fun.

And hey, there's also nothing wrong with the obvious, if you wanna talk about it. Sometimes it's nice... remembering people back home and all.

[monkeyinthewrench]

See, the thing with memes is if you try too hard to push them, they become cringe.

As someone who's been called the Epitome of Cringe by my girlfriend, very lovingly I can assure you...I know.

Would it be bad if I said I missed solving crimes? Because that implies the existence of regular crimes, and if we had those on a tiny train it would be bad?

Yeah. Definitely. So I'm just going to say my girlfriend. Amy Santiago, you are the most perfect woman in the universe and not even Holly Gennaro could ever hope to replace you.

[firewalled]

See, I don't think I'd mind being the Epitome of Cringe as long as I got a good chance to say anime was a mistake. I'd even take Charlie biting my whole pinky off at this point.

[His smirk turns a bit more mischievous as he listens.]

Not surprising to miss your girlfriend, but what's that about solving crimes? You a cop or something?

[irrationally]

[ Rich. Rich. Alice has never felt the cultural difference more than in this very moment. ]

Rich. I might regret this, but you must explain to me what these.. 'memes' are. [ Never has Alice sounded more like a 70 year old in the body of a 19 year old.

Because the context he's giving sure isn't helping her figure it out by herself! ]

[firewalled]

[Oh, she's definitely going to regret this. Rich beams mischievously, shaking his head.]

Man, you have no idea about half of the things I say, huh?

No worries! Memes are kinda like inside jokes, but shared across a whole community of people... online, on computers, you know? They can be like pictures, or videos, or a certain phrase. They get shared so often they just become something everyone knows.

[mynameisallen]

I never understood memes back in the last world. Before the train anyway, not the last mission world.

[They existed but like hell he understood the purpose of them.]

What is so fun about them?

[firewalled]

Huh... you know, that's a good question. I guess if you don't find them funny, then they don't seem to have much of a point.

[Rich considers the question for a while, rubbing the back of his neck.]

Well, for me, I guess I always liked knowing that I was kinda connected to everyone who knew the meme. Like you know someone's gonna understand if you say "nasa peepo" out loud, and they might laugh, and it feels cool to connect with someone, I guess.

audio

[calmness]

Are memes related to music? Is that why acoustics are needed?

[the last world did nothing to help him understand them, really, but he's curious.]

Something the train cannot replicate is the exact sound of the wind in the mountains at night, which always reminds me of home. It is not the same on the worlds we visit.

audio

[firewalled]

Well, not exactly, but sometimes? I mean, that's why I joked about it. There's this one song, Never Gonna Give You Up, that's kinda an inside joke between people, so I was going to try playing it and see who groaned.

[It could have been funny! Maybe only to him, though. His mood becomes a little more somber when he hears of that memory.]

I'm not surprised you'd miss that. Sometimes I think about... back when I was at home, if I needed a breather, I'd climb up on my roof and watch the stars. I'd stay out there until it was too cold for me to bear. There's nowhere I can do that on the train... and I don't think people would appreciate a stranger climbing around on their roof.

[runicfeathers]

I suppose one thing that I wish could be here, aside from those I dearly miss, would be some of the food from my world. Specifically, my father's cooking. Nothing can replace the way he makes things. And the song of the woods, the way the fae sing and the leaves rustle.

[firewalled]

I don't blame you for missing cooking... I never really had a lot of people cooking for me, but my friend brought me some leftovers his moms made once... I don't have half the things I need to recreate it, and it pisses me off.

What are fae like in your world? [He can't help but be curious, being that they don't exist in his.]

camera pointed away from face

[securityconsultant]

Full access to the entertainment feed.

[firewalled]

[Weird... why doesn't this guy just use voice? Rich shrugs his shoulders before responding.]

Not quite sure what that is... but if it's what it sounds like, and you don't have to pay for like a dozen streaming services, I'm fucking jealous.