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

[darkholme]

I guess I do, yeah. Well. [ there's some part of her that agrees fully, that's saying yes, we should aspire to be different, to be a cut above the rest. but the rest of her knows that isn't right. it's not about being better than anybody else. even if her newly acquired memories are conflicting, at the moment. ] I appreciate them because they're unique. Here, at least. Are the shape of your ears common where you're from? [ her tone wasn't meant to sound like that. ] Not that common is bad! I just realized that while you're the only one with ears like that here, it doesn't mean that's the case back home for you. I probably should have realized that sooner. Still. [ oh my god Raven shut up ] I like your ears because they're different, not just because they aren't human.

[firstofficer]

[ there is a great deal of room, he thinks, for misinterpretation. standard is so imprecise, and human beings leave much to be considered by means of social nuances. to address this detain of his physiology and draw attention to it's uniqueness is inappropriate. to speak of the same characteristic as a commonality is equally inappropriate. Spock's brows draw together, creased with confusion until she continues.

i like your ears because they're different, not just because they aren't human.

you are neither human nor Vulcan and therefore have no place in this universe.

you will always be a child of two worlds.

Spock understands that he will never be an ideal Vulcan. that he will perpetually be outcast by the identity that he so steadfastly attempts to adhere to. just as he will never truly belong to his mother's people. that he is too contained. too volatile. that he is too many paradoxes in too small a space. but perhaps-

perhaps he is not.

i like your ears because they're different, not just because they aren't human.

Spock does not yet know if it is possible for two vastly dissimilar halves to form a single whole. he does not know how to coexist with himself. but he has begun to think that it may not be impossible. ]

I believed you and Erik to share a relationship, and as such, anticipated that you would share his perspective on humanity.

Instead this has proved- most enlightening.

[darkholme]

Oh.

[ she's thrown off by that, but only because she wasn't entirely aware that anybody really knew the basis of her and Erik's friendship while he was here, but also because of her new memories from home. she didn't choose to leave with Erik because she feels the same hatred he does towards humans, if anything that's the one thing she's still so unsure of. yes, they turned their guns on the island. yes, her biological parents forced her to leave their house when she was very, very little. but otherwise? she doesn't have the same kinds of experiences that Erik does, she has no idea, can't wrap her head around it.

so the idea someone thinking she shares his perspective on humanity is a little... strange. if not unsettling. does everyone think that? ]

We do. Um, did. Share a relationship. But he and I do see a number of things differently, though, despite that. [ she's not sure why she feels the need to explain, but maybe it's just because her trip home brought it all back to the front of her mind ] It's just that he's been through a lot worse than I ever have, and the root of it all was... humans being intolerant of people who were different, yeah. I agree with him that we should be proud of what makes us different, but I'm not sure I believe it makes us better than humans. Not really. Not after all I've been through here.