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

[justamobster]

Ladon leads the way, strolling and pacing himself so the kid can keep up. He doesn't offer a hand for the kid to hold, not yet. Instead he tucks both his unoccupied hand in his pocket and holds his suitcase in the other.

"They might be somewhere else here, if they woke up 'fore you did. Looks like there're lotsa people here. So your papa's tall and got a beard, what 'bout the others you're lookin' for?"

[throwsdown]

"Well... Katou's got hair all... back," he runs his hands over his hair, slicking it back to give the idea. "And he's really nice, sometimes people think he's too nice. He has a really soft voice and he's tall, but he's not as tall as papa."

Who else... Well.

"Then there's Mr. Kurono; he looks... um... He's got dark hair and he's from Japan. He's not as nice-sounding as Katou, but he's not mean. Then--um, Reika's really nice. She's got long pretty black hair. And she's got big boobies."

And he makes a rounding motion at his chest, in case the guy has no clue what boobies are.

...

It's descriptive, okay.

[justamobster]

Ladon listens, doing his best to come up with mental images of each person, even with the scant and child-like information he's given. He can't help the wide, surprised smile at the description of Reika's chest. "Sounds like you've got a buncha people lookin' after you back home. Are they all your papa's friends?"

[throwsdown]

"I guess so. Papa doesn't talk a lot to them, but I think they like each other a lot." One of the problems with having a relatively quiet parental figure, right? Though, dad talked plenty with him, so he was a-ok with it. As far as Takeshi was concerned, Kaze said just enough. "We all met in the room together. We put on our suits and fought the bad aliens that tried to get us, so we could get lots of points to go home."

... Alright, so that might be a step up, but he's still pretty casual about aliens trying to get him and stuff. This is normal life, y'know.

[justamobster]

"Aliens?" He should be used to the idea of aliens being a real thing by now. But he spent the past two years back in his relatively mundane (compared to inter-dimensional space stations and ships) world and the idea of a kid this young fighting anything dangerous sticks in his craw. He met Violette when she was about this age, and he remembers piggy-backing her around the Golden Apple. She'd been through some horrible shit too, but she hadn't actively fought anything.

"How did gettin' points get you back home?"

[throwsdown]

"If you got a lot of points, the man in the ball lets you go. If you don't, you gotta come back over and over and over and fight the aliens it takes you to." It's why he has his weird suit on under his clothes, full-bodied, snug and ready for fighting. He has to be ready. "My dad says you're not allowed to tell anyone about it or your head'll asplode, but I think the man in the ball made that turn off..."

Well, he's still got the little chip in his head, but still. No worries about exploding heads.

Yay.

[justamobster]

"So it's some kinda game?" A sick one if Ladon had ever heard of it, especially if it involved children and a threat of gruesome death if exposed. He's hoping now more than ever that they actually find the kid's dad, not just because father and son should be united, but because he wants to shake the man's hand for keeping the little one alive through all that.

[throwsdown]

"I guess... I don't know. I don't like that kinda' game." He huffs, staring up at the blue lift that's supposedly what takes them up; Takeshi wouldn't know. He hasn't really paid too much attention to instructions. "... But I'll keep playing as long as I get to stay with my new papa."

[justamobster]

"Don't sound like somethin' I'd like playin' either."

New papa... Ladon decides not to ask. It's not his place to pry into this kid's background. Finding the kid's father or guardians or whoever takes priority, and Ladon has a feeling whatever twisted game the kid's had to play isn't of any consequence here, otherwise he'd have found out by now. Or been attacked by something.

[throwsdown]

He shakes his head.

"It's a really mean game."

The lift—he moves towards it, gets on it. He's pretty small in that space. Takes up very little room there. Of course, when he realizes that he'll be in a small space with someone else, he's immediately tense. He couldn't help it; even as they begin the move, he's made a small but watchful distance between him and the grown-up that grows a little with time.

[justamobster]

Ladon lets the child keep his distance. He understands it enough not to be insulted, considering what he's learned about where the kid came from. It's survival instinct. Maybe with time, the kid will trust him. For now he knows not to force it.

Once the lift finishes its ascent, though, Ladon is first out, hand lingering on the grip of the gun holstered to his side. He checks about for a threat, but finds none. "Looks safe."

[throwsdown]

He agrees. It looks clear. Takeshi is very watchful of that gun and its holster, but he's not too worried about it. His suit's really tough. Following out, his gaze tracks the halls, eyes wide and worried, but studious. "Are there lots of places to go here?"

[justamobster]

"Looks like a pretty big place, yeah?" Ladon tucks his coat back over his gun, picks up his suitcase again. "Hope it ain't as big as the place I was before."