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]

[ The coelacanth shifts away from Tony's touch of the water and even further to the liquid now contaminating the area. It swims frantically, actually attempting to dilute the substance into the water to lessen the immediate effect of... whatever it is.

Cibo's hand snaps quickly to take hold of his wrist and stop the liquid pouring into the water. She doesn't seem upset, only concerned that Tony has startled the fish into such a frenzy. With her free hand, she takes the substance from his grasp to look closely to it. It's familiar. She's had it before. Three glasses and she's gone. Then she looks to him observantly. Curiously. She doesn't know this man but he looks... like he's had too much. ]

Please, don't. [ She's hesitant to give it back to him, but does. Given, he doesn't drop anymore into the water again. ] Who are you...?

[inebriety]

[He blinks in surprise as the hand taking the bottle off him, but he accepts it back with a polite smile.]

He... she? Doesn't look they appreciate it. I know better than to force something on someone unwilling. [Belatedly he remembers that it could kill fish.]

The name's Tony, darling.

[watashinonamaewa]

I am Cibo. [ She gives a small pause, looking to the coelacanth, wondering if it was still upset, and then to him again. ]

I've decided to call it Dhomochevsky, but I know that isn't its true name. [ And after she glances Tony's body curiously, wondering about him and why he was here, she moves to sit beside the stream next to where he had been. ] By any chance, do you know what kind of fish it is? I am not an aquatic scientist. So these creatures aren't my specialty...

[inebriety]

[That is a Russian sounding name, and he does not have very good memories on them.]

Bob sounds better. Easier to pronounce too.

[He leans forward and examines the fish swimming.]

I'm an engineer dear, but I've picked up a little here and there. It looks like it's from the Sarcopterygii clade. I don't know enough to be more specific then that.

[watashinonamaewa]

That's more than I could have guessed. Thank you.

[ He's interesting, though. And the way he first speaks is something she recognizes, though can't distinguish exactly. Sarcasm? Humor? But it doesn't seem important when he mentioned being an engineer. There were engineers in the City, too. Maybe not in the way Tony would think though. ]

An engineer? Mechanical... Or genetic? [ The latter would be Cibo. One of the many genetic areas she was skilled at, at least. ]

[inebriety]

[He nods.]

Started off in mechanical, but I've dabbled enough to be familiar with genetics.

A lot of my friends have been genetically engineered so I have to know something about it.

[He himself may or may not have been as well.]

[watashinonamaewa]

I have never met a mechanical engineer who was not a Builder. [ She can tell that saying this would be confusing. At least now, after the months she has been here - long enough to know that no one understands the City without her first explaining. ] The Builders are the machines that maintain the City. They build and restore the crumbling walls with a programmed speed that we cannot control.

I am a scientist, as well. This body is not technically the same model I helped design, but it is similar. [ She takes a look at her hands calmly. Yeah, no. This body in particular may look similar, but it came from an alternate reality within her own reality. It's slightly different in that way, but never enough to bother her. But she is pleased to know that he knows at least a little something about genetics. It may be helpful later on. ]

[inebriety]

[Well this sure does ring alarm bells. Everything she's just said fits remarkably with what Reed Richards had been trying to do. Tony reminds himself that they stopped him, that Reed isn't going to jump out of nowhere and carry out that dissection he'd promised him.

Besides, the Children of Tomorrow had shown themselves capable of making wiser decisions when their leader had been removed from the equation.]

Influencing evolution?

[watashinonamaewa]

Evolution? [ A small silence. Then she shakes her head. ] There is nothing to necessarily evolve. More so modify on.

And according to the Bio-Electric Corporation's standards, this body has received the most optimal engineering. Even with limited knowledge, you should know that it is difficult to balance the chemicals of the body without adverse side-effects — so we simply stopped at this model; which has been modified for extended longevity in particular.