one - [video] - i'm stronger than all of this

[videocamera]

[The screen clicks on and Andrew appears, his face extremely pale except for the reddish patches of scabs and scarring on the right side of his face. There's remnants of blood below his nose and on his chin, like he just had a nosebleed and didn't wipe it off completely. Which is exactly what happened. He speaks quietly but his tone hints at both fear and anger.]

What is this, huh? What did you do to me? I can't-- [He interrupts himself with a more frantic note in his tone] Is this some kind of, of joke?

[His voice gets flatter.] I shouldn't be here. I'm stronger.

[The journal starts to shake, the picture jittering slightly. Then Andrew's nose starts to bleed again and the shaking stops, position slightly changed, now angled to give a shot of a messy bedroom behind Andrew's shoulder. His face is mostly off screen now but you can see his hands held up to his nose before the feed shuts off]

Comments

[videocamera]

[Hnnnn. But okay. He's going to go because what else can he do? After a while, the reply comes, stars behind Andrew's face.]

How-- This isn't possible. I'm hallucinating. I have to be hallucinating.

[patheticvillain]

You know, you could hurry up with the 'it's impossible' bullshit. It's clearly possible.

[videocamera]

Fine. [Geez, you gotta be a dick about this?] How is it possible?

[patheticvillain]

Magic.

[TRALALA]

Sorry, that's kind of the best answer we've got that doesn't bring religion into it.

[videocamera]

So how... Uh, how do you wind up in space prison?

[patheticvillain]

By doing something shitty, usually. Did you do something shitty?

[videocamera]

No. [YES.]

[patheticvillain]

You sure?

[videocamera]

Who decides who gets brought here?

[patheticvillain]

The Admiral. He's a douche, but I think he's like 98% omnipotent. So.

[videocamera]

I thought you weren't gonna bring religion into it. Isn't omnipotence a God thing?

[patheticvillain]

I thought it was omnipotence, omniscience, and whatever the other thing was. Anyway, the Admiral's not a god. He's just crazy fucking powerful. And he has a justice boner, I guess. Sort of.

[videocamera]

What, this is supposed to be justice?

[patheticvillain]

That's why I said sort of.

[videocamera]

So what else can this guy do? You said he's powerful, right?

[patheticvillain]

Crash us into planets sometimes.

Take away your power.

[videocamera]

[Bitterly:] Yeah, I already got the power bit.

What do you mean crash? Like, actual crash-landings?

[patheticvillain]

I figured.

Yeah, some of 'em are rougher than others, but generally. Literally. We crash. Into fucking planets. It's fucked up.

[videocamera]

Really? So how is this ship even still flying, then?

[patheticvillain]

[He wiggles his fingers.]

Magic.

[Wiggle, wiggle.]

[videocamera]

I so didn't expect magic space prison after death.

[patheticvillain]

Yeah, well, neither did any of us, so, you know. Suck it up.

[videocamera]

Thanks. [One guess as to how grateful he ACTUALLY sounds.]