ELEVENTH WAVE

[astrogate]

CHARACTERS: any and all
LOCATION: Gravity Couches and beyond
WARNINGS: maybe some swearing, or even some violence, and more than likely some implied (and possibly explicit) nakedness.
SUMMARY: Another month, another jump, another round of new faces.
NOTES: Keeping up with the tradition and copy pasted like always from the last one


You wake up in darkness.


There's a breathing tube jammed down your trachea, and you're suspended in a tube of clear blue fluid. Upon registering your level of consciousness, the gravity couch drains the fluid surrounding you and retracts the breathing apparatus; the doors in front of you open, and you're deposited on the floor of a stark, sterile medical bay.

You are not alone.


There are others who have come before you, others who are awakening beside you. Some may be familiar to you, perhaps even friends. Others have much less amiable plans. Some are merely alien and inexplicable, but there are always those who might mean you harm.

After you catch your breath and your vision returns, you notice a number on the inside of your forearm. Maybe it's a familiar number. Maybe it means something. Maybe it's just a number. But the number—completely unique to you—is a tattoo, and it does not come off.

If you enter the room adjacent to the medbay, you will find a small locker with your number on it, surrounded by rows upon rows of identical lockers. Inside, you will find a few of your personal items, a communications device, and a ship's uniform in your exact size. The comms device is fully powered and connects directly to the ship's network; it's your only means of communication beyond physical conversation. Upon turning the device on, a neutral, automated voice will say, "Please take the blue lift to the passenger quarters." Any other attempts at communicating with the rest of the network are met only with static.

This is your welcome party.

Comments

[watashinonamaewa]

Yes. It wasn't too long before coming here that I first saw it, actually. It lived in a large tank of water and seemed so... wonderful.

[ Now kneeling beside the stream Cibo places her hand just below the surface. The coelacanth quickly jerks away and swims to the other side of the stream, just out of Cibo's reach. She could just barely feel the graze of it's tail-fin on her fingertips, though. Her hand lifts from the water while moving to just sit at the edge, cautiously placing her legs within. Yeah, with her suit still on, but she doesn't seem to care. ]

I don't know its name... [ But she didn't want to end up calling it 'fish' all the time. That didn't seem interesting or effective. ] Do you think I should give it one?

[ There's a quiet moment of watching the coelacanth wander back toward her legs. It's very cautious; unsure of what the new additions to it's habitat are. She moves just slightly and it is startled again, moving less distance away each time. Until it eventually stays beside her legs, touching her feet with the side of its body. Its larger up close, so close to her legs in comparison. Some of the scales loose and breaking with its age, one even plucking off against her suit to float to the surface. ]

[ringbearer]

[ frodo leans in beside her legs, pressing small hands to the glass. for a minute there is no fatigue as much as there is wonder at such a creature. in a way it is beautiful, the way the light shines on it's scales even if it is no true light--the glittering of eyes.

there is no pause when he speaks ]

Yes. I think you should give it a fine name, a respectable one, for a splendid creature.

[ he looks at it more carefully, notes how it's scales are faded, flicking off in some parts. his voice is softer.]
..It's a worn thing though, isn't it? It has seen many days.

[watashinonamaewa]

[ A nod. It moved similarly in the tank back in the City. Still so strong even if it seemed older. But how long it really had left was beyond Cibo. There was no way of knowing, but she could feel in the muscles that touched her leg that it wasn't ready to give up. It wouldn't go without a fight.

What could she name it though? All of the scientific terms blur through her mind but they all belong to other creatures of the City. Those ideas were out. Then Killy cross her thoughts. Her friend. Her partner. She already saw him in friends she had made, though. And part of her wanted to stop thinking of Killy in order to keep the pain in her heart from worsening.

It swims away from her legs, moving off in some distance before returning swiftly again. The memory of where she had first seen it comes to mind next. Right before meeting Dhomochevsky — the Safeguard that saved her life. The Safeguard that fought for human life, instead of destroying it. Respectable.

Her hand reaches slowly into the water again. The coelacanth doesn't swim away. Instead, it hovers beneath her touch. ]

Dhomochevsky.

[ringbearer]

Dhomochevsky?
[ he says it a bit slowly, that's..well, that's not a word you'd hear in the shire, let alone in arda. still, he smiles lightly at that. ]

I'm sure the fellow is pleased with a name like that. I can't believe such large things exist.

[ frodo can't help but smile a bit pleased, attentions for once, elsewhere. ]

[watashinonamaewa]

Yes. Dhomochevsky was someone I knew in the City. [ Someone of importance, but not in the same regards as Killy.

The scales are smooth against her fingers - even through her suit, she can feel that in the places that are still young, it practically feels like a skin. Rough in texture like someone's old worked hands. ]

How big are fish usually? I have never seen one before this creature.

[ringbearer]

[ he makes a size with his hands, hardly so large as this fellow they stare at. ]

Hardly as large as yours, I'm afraid. Was this Dhomochevsky a friend of yours?

[watashinonamaewa]

[ There's a short glance between the span that Frodo holds and to the coelacanth. It's difficult to imagine such a large thing being so small... ]

Something like that. In body he was my enemy, but in mind he was a protector. At first I thought he only wanted to harm me — to separate me from Killy. He only wanted to take me to safety...