[the last voyages] ic inbox

[onlyhearmusic]

[a lyrical hum cuts in, almost as if someone didn't know what they were doing]

"Leave yer message."

[oh. no, he knew. he just didn't care. the beep comes after another brief humming stops.]

Comments

[forensicks]

"Well, now that you know what is behind us," Walter declares, having struck up a conversation with Collins on the deck, "you hear about inmate fight club any time soon?"

He stretches his shoulder, wrapping one arm around the elbow of the other. "Though it's much more like warden and inmate fight club..."

[onlyhearmusic]

Collins nodded and blew an exhale of smoke out before replying. "It's once a month. Midnight. Anyone's welcome that doesn't have a problem with mutual bloodshed."

If it sounded a little rote it was probably because it was. He memorized it to say.

"I open up fer Trevor's little get-tagethers."

[forensicks]

"When I went, there wasn't a lot of blood-blood to speak of," Walter riffs. His hand goes down to squeeze the air purification device in his pocket. Truly Walter is adapting to the culture on board, nary a complaint about the smoke this time.

"You're the one letting folks in now? That's relevant to my interests," he says.

[onlyhearmusic]

Sorry, not sorry, Walter; he's a 1930s man and typically only goes out on deck for a smoke. He was either completely oblivious to Walter's discomfort with smoke inhalation or didn't care enough to stop smoking for a conversation.

"Destruction, blood, bruises, whathaveyou," he said with a shrug. His eyes moved to lock onto Walter and narrowed slightly at the last bit. "Is it now?"

[forensicks]

"Two words: underground race," Walter declares dramatically with his hands spread out in a "picture this" gesture.

"You know, with automobiles. Hence by necessity in the enclosure." He puts both hands into his pockets, affecting nonchalance. "Since it's so boring here day in day out and all..."

[onlyhearmusic]

Collins cocked his head to one side in curiosity as Walter made his starter pitch. It took the clarification of automobiles to truly catch his attention and then it seemed to dawn on him. He was intrigued.

"It is boring. Anything ta alleviate it." He hummed softly in thought. "Seen a few derbies in my day, they're usually," how to say it, "country affairs. Can't say I blame 'em fer tryin' ta get rid of tha boredom. Same as us in that regard.

"So an automobile race. Is there anything fancy to it in yer time?" Or rather, what was the grand appeal. He could see the potential but not the full scope yet.

[forensicks]

"Oh, derby, that's another good synonym," Walter says eagerly, always eager to come up with silly little nicknames and so on. To be more serious...

"For a long time it's been on my mind that vehicles can differ from era to era, or even be unprecedented for some. Not to mention that automobile accidents are one of the leading causes of premature deaths such as those that have led inmates to the barge. Then I considered it more after the last port - how there was a lot of driving involved." He shrugs thoughtfully. "And the enclosure could be used to simulate something outright dangerous. You could try to weave in and out of rival gang members as you jockey for first to smuggle the goods to the other side of town..."

[onlyhearmusic]

Collins stared and blinked idly as Walter went on his merry way through sentences that held very little meaning for Collins's interests. He was used to this way of conversation with the lad at this point but it certainly made it hard to pay attention sometimes. Finally, he heard something he liked.

"Well, you had me at 'dangerous'. Tha scenario you just described reminds me of tha Prohibition, you know. Met a few smugglers in me day. Always tall tales of how they out-ran tha police or outwitted some rival supplier." He drummed a sequence on his leg and smiled faintly. "All right. So you need access to tha Enclosure ta make some courses or somethin'? I'm all fer a bit of fun."