seventeenth jump;

[mathematically]

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

[recalibration]

[ oddly clint can handle just about all of it, but the tube rammed down his throat is something he's not interested in getting used to. the possibility of him being outraged at their having to do this once a month is high.

clint's preoccupied with putting the finishing touches of his uniform on. there's no gun unfortunately, but the bow and the knife are more than enough for now he hopes. the whole place doesn't have a hostile environment feel...maybe his shoot my way out instincts were a little premature.

the voice is familiar, unsurprisingly so. whoever or whatever brought them here would want someone like tony stark in their custody, right? not that that logic answers any of his questions. he's going to blame the disorientation brought on by waking up in a vat of goo. ]

Whoever brought us here definitely didn't get advanced placement. [ a pause. ] Stark? What the hell happened to your eye?

[ yeah, screw being polite, he's not letting this slide. priorities: clint has them. ]

[starked]

[ honestly, clint, tony reserves the right to call you a prissy little boy if you squawk about the tube and being forced to do this every month. the other option is dying so take your pick. ( hint: the best choice is the one where there's no dying involved. just saying. )

there's a slightly pause where tony just bites the inside of his cheek to prevent any laughter from bubbling up, but he still just sounds faintly amused when he answers. ]

Advanced placement for space kidnappings is a little different than at home. [ a beat. ] You want the long story or the short one?

[ because he likes telling the story at this point, let's be real right now. ]

[recalibration]

Apparently. Is this the part where I get to ask where the hell we are and why we're here?

[ (oh great, he's going to have tony and natasha on his ass about this? fine, he will keep it to himself and be mildly irritated on the network in places both of them could probably hack into if they cared enough.)

there's really no denying that this is in fact tony stark without the eye, because he wouldn't mistake him for anyone else. not that knowing someone's SHIELD file inside and out is the same as knowing someone, though he supposes they did wade into a war together. ]

Somewhere in between not enough detail and graphic retelling, maybe?

[starked]

I was holding a faint hope you wouldn't, but yeah, I think right now is an excellent time to ask exactly that question.

[ ( when you prove you're not going to fly off like an actual hawk, then natasha and tony will remove themselves from your ass. but good hawkeye. maybe they'll be nice and not hack into infinity. )

tony's changed a little, it's not apparent right now, it's never blatant but subtle things in how he reacts and such, those are the things that if you're paying attention and maybe know him, you'll notice are a little out of whack. ]

And here I was wanting to tell about how exactly it was ripped out. [ a beat. ] Long story made very short. I've been here for over a year, several jumps, also known as the reason you were in the pod of goo. Anyway, several jumps ago I made the decision to go wandering around in the dark depth of the ship. Should have brought the suit, because I wandered enough to where I couldn't get back and then in a twist of fate I ran into something. And it pulled my eye out. I don't know where my eye actually is, and so— [ motions to his eye. ] This came to exist.

[recalibration]

Hey, that post-Chitauri debriefing didn't cover this.

[ also he was checked out for most of it but he's still pretty positive this wasn't in the required reading.

clint crosses his arms in front of him, expression as neutral as he can make it while he listens to tony's story. there's...so many details he's missing here, but he can piece together that this place is a, gigantic and b, out to rip out their eyes and possibly kill them.

of all the useful follow-ups to that lovely tale, clint's going to go with: ] Would've been a good time for the suit.

[ and now having his bow makes perfect sense and he's probably not going to let it out of his sight (at least for the first couple of weeks). he runs his hand over his face and rubs his eyes because his head still hurts something fierce and this is a little much to process. ]

Gigantic space ship, kidnapped...I've got the where. Still searchin' for that why.

[starked]

We had a post-Chitauri debriefing?

[ things tony actually paid less attention to than clint: that briefing. so maybe it's okay.

the details are— partially left out on purpose, this isn't the place to say them, all out in the open where anyone can hear them. the ship's made tony a little paranoid about things, makes him worried about who can hear.

at clint's response, he laughs. ] Lesson learned for maybe once in my life. I ever go out there again I'll make sure to bring it.

[ he watches clint's reaction, from the way he rubs his eyes and just runs his hand over his face and knows it's likely the jump headache. he gets them off and on, most of the time feels just like a hangover to him, other times— well he doesn't like to think about those. ]

You're not the only one. No one's been able to figure out the why. People who were here before— the ones of us that have 001 as our first numbers aren't exactly forthcoming with the knowledge if they have it.

captain slow over here

[recalibration]

Trust me, you didn't miss much you didn't see first hand.

[ let's be real, clint rarely pays attention to those things too.

clint's just pretty thankful at this point he's not dealing with the ship trying to rip his eye out or kill him. the disorientation from the jump is taking its toll on him, and that's not ever something people in his line of work feel comfortable with.

(that who "incident" with loki comes to mind...) ]

This might be a dumb question—[ smooth set up there, clint. ]—but who's flying this damn thing is we have no clue?

gold stars for us tbqh.

[starked]

Considering how we were all there, that's kind of overkill.

[ you get his feelings on it, clint. thank god.

tony's just lucky the jumps never have made him feel too bad since honestly, even he'd admit that having the same problem clint is would make everything worse. tony's mouth twists into a bit of pinched sort of thing. ]

Classified info. No mentioning it where the general populace can hear it. I'm not— terrifying everyone.

we tried.

[recalibration]

Try telling Hill that.

[ it's nice to have someone to relate to.

classified. clints expression goes a touch more serious and he gives tony a short nod with a bit of a glance around the immediate area. though the latter is a little disconcerting to say the least. what clint considers terrifying after what he's been through and what other people might are two dramatically different things. ]

I'll get the rundown from you later. [ as if all the fucked up shit on this ship can be summed up in bullet points. if only clint knew. ] Can't promise I won't be a little terrified myself.

[starked]

Do I look stupid to you? She would ignore the shit out of what I said.

[ tony takes in how clint reacts and almost visibly relaxes because that's what he needs, something that's a little more on the straight and narrow about classified things that he might blab about. natasha's good, but they've also been through a lot together. ]

Ask Nat, she'll tell you where we usually go. [ ha. ha. ha. bullet points. ] Honestly, if you weren't, I'd have to worry about your mental state and I don't want to have to do that. I get hives thinking about it.