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

[wolfdreamer]

[The straps go on easily enough--he works on his left leg and leaves the right for Prim, carefully demonstrating each tug and pull and buckle so she can follow his movements. Free of Bran's weight, Summer moves with cheerful restlessness, roaming around them and sniffing at the floor.

But Prim's words catch Bran's attention, and he looks up at her too, pausing a moment in putting on the robotic legs.]

What happened? Was there a battle?

[Or perhaps a fall, though he does not say that. Thinking of falling leaves his mouth dry, and a scared sick feeling in the pit of his stomach--because he is only a boy, not a knight or a lord or a prince, not truly. His fingers fumble at the strap they are holding, and he looks down.]

Do they have wheeled chairs, where you are from?

[littleduck]

There's fighting every year, but much more than usual this year. The battle isn't contained anymore, it's everywhere. Panem isn't a very safe place, but I think that it will be eventually. And then all of the people who can build amazing things will be free to make legs and arms just like this.

[She thinks of some of the victors of the Hunger Games, thinks of how they survived but have injuries that are terrible. She thinks of how the injuries inside their heads and hearts will never go away. That makes her frown deeply.]

There are wheeled chairs in the Capitol, and probably the wealthier districts. The district I was raised in was very poor, you see, and so were the ones surrounding it. Usually when children were hurt so badly that they couldn't walk, they end up starving or being cast aside.

[She doesn't want to say out loud that their parents would most likely cast them aside on the streets to die, despite it being the truth.]

People died every day in the streets of District Twelve. [She glances up at Bran, eyes glossy as she keeps in tears. She's angry for her people, sad for the loss of her home district, and determined to not let more people back home die needlessly.]

[wolfdreamer]

[Of all the stories that he has heard of other worlds, Bran has learned that none of them are safe or easy. There are some safer than others, yet each still has its dangers. He isn't a stupid child, so he knew that already--but it's different to hear it, and different, too, to see the sadness on Prim's face. There are people who deserve easy and safe worlds. Prim is one of them. Maybe a knight would go back with her, to Panem. Maybe a knight would stop people from killing her friends, and would carry the broken children to maesters and houses of healing, to be tended and cared for.

But Bran is no knight. He can only look at Prim, stupidly, and feel sad for her and for the people of her world. There is sadness in Westeros too, but it only makes him sadder still for Prim, that she would have to feel any of that.]

When you go back home-- [He looks down at the robotic legs, ducking his head a little so he need not meet her eyes.] When you really go back home, I mean--when they figure out how to send us back. I think you should take my robotic legs with you.

[He had thought of taking them--would it even be possible? But if it was, then Prim should have them, for some broken boy back in District Twelve.]

They will better help someone in Panem. Someone can study them and learn how they were made, and then they will have robotic legs for the crippled children very soon. That would be good, wouldn't it?

[littleduck]

Bran, no.

[Her response is instant. Both of her hands go over his robotic legs, and she shakes her head.]

You need these. I don't think I could handle you doing without them, not ever. If I study how they work here, maybe I'll be able to remember it the next time I go back.

[She sounds a little doubtful, but she hopes that might be the case. Her look of concern melts into something more warm, and she turns a smile in Bran's direction as she finishes making sure his device is strapped in nicely. Once she's sure, she holds out her hand to help him stand up once again.]

It would be very good to have someone be able to make these for the children of Panem, for everyone in Panem, but I won't let you make that sacrifice. You're very wonderful to offer, though.

[A pause, and she wonders something she's never cared about before.]

Is it okay if I ask how old you are? And if your legs have been the way they are for very long?

[wolfdreamer]

I want you to take them. I won't have need of them. When I go home, my fate is different, and I won't need to walk. It would be better to take them with you and study them at home.

[He will not be a knight. But he will learn to fly. How can he explain that to anyone without sounding like a child, or a madman? Even when he tells it to Robb and Jon, he sounds mad. He looks to where her hands are pressed to the robotic legs--a worker's hands, and a lady's, even if she is young and poor. Being a lady does not always mean riches.

But he must answer her questions, even if the second of them makes his chest feel tight.]

I don't know how old I am now. I haven't been marking the time very well--not since I came aboard this ship. [And not before, either. Without his mother keeping careful track, the time didn't seem to matter as much.] I was nearly ten summers when I first came here. And my legs have been broken-- [He feels a little dizzy when he says it; he thinks of climbing, something he only does in dreams now, and his hands clutch at nothing in his lap.] They have been broken for some years now.

[littleduck]

[She admires his courage, and finds his insisting that she try to take them to endear him to her further. He's a brave boy, and a good friend.]

I think that the number of years someone is, it isn't always close to how old they are in their mind or their heart. Some children see too much, hear terrible things, have to live through things they shouldn't.

[She thinks that maybe both she and Bran are two children who are like adults before their time. Her hand moves up from his robotic legs to his hand that's resting on his lap. She gives it a gentle squeeze, and smiles for the both of them.]

It's selfish of me to say that I hope you stay here, so you can be able to walk and run and do anything that you want to do. But I know that when you do go back, you'll do amazing things. With or without robotic legs.

[She hopes that he's able to keep them, though. She just won't say that out loud and offend him.]

We should walk, don't you think? If we stay here, we'll only end up making ourselves feel sad.

[wolfdreamer]

[He would explain, if he could. I am not a child, I am nearly a man grown--but that's not true, not really. A man grown would not need someone to hold his hand, nor would he feel so warmed by her prediction. You'll do amazing things. That's something of what Jojen has told him; that's something of what the three-eyed crow has promised. You will fly. But it's different, to hear it from Primrose. It makes Bran feel larger than any knight, and banishes the stupid scared feeling, and the shame of being a cripple. If Primrose says it, then it will be true, and he can believe that.

He twists his hand so he can hold hers, and more of that dizziness leaves him. And he manages a smile at her, too--she is so good and brave, even alone, even without her sister. She deserves a smile from him, at least.]

Yes. We should walk. We shouldn't be any sadder than we might happen to be. [But he isn't very sad, not right now. Not with so great a friend as Primrose--and Summer, too, and his brothers, and all the other friends that they have made aboard this ship.] Thank you, Primrose--for your help, and for-- what you have said. I am glad you are back. Maybe that's selfish, too, but-- I am.

[littleduck]

It's not selfish.

[She dismisses the thought, a completely serious look on her face. She moves to head off, taking the lead, but glances back over her shoulder at Bran and Summer. ]

I'm glad to be here, to get to experience this place again. I feel safe here, most of the time. And even if Katniss isn't here, it's a chance to learn how to do things on my own. I have a chance to become stronger here, to really grow up.

[She laughs at that, at feeling like an adult in a small little body. She knows that she's delicate and looks so frail, that everyone thinks she needs full protection. Maybe in some ways she does, but she really does feel that the Tranquility will teach her a great deal about becoming strong and rising above what everyone expects out of her. It's one thing to be a nurse that heals others, but she would much rather be a nurse that is able to keep herself and others safe so healing isn't needed in the first place.

But she is what she is, and in this moment she feels very much like a little girl that needs to find her lost sister. So she does what she did when she really was only a little girl, and she takes off at a slight run toward wherever Katniss might be, her pigtails trailing along behind her.]