eighteenth 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

Lockers???

[za_rodina]

[See the thing is, Jack might have a new locker but Russia doesn't. These days, the 002 lockers are pretty empty after the initial rush of people heading past to get to their own places, and after a half an hour or an hour there's usually not too many bodies crowding up the place. So by the time Russia finally stumbles out of the showers and heads to his locker there's really nobody else around and he can take his time braiding his usual trinkets into his hair, trying to fight down the headache thrumming along his temples and somewhere in between that trying to pull on some pants. That doesn't mean he isn't still giving in to paranoia and scanning the room ever so often, however, so it really shouldn't be a surprise he spots Jack first.

There's a pause, head slowly tilting so he can get a better look and--well, yes, that certainly is one (1) Captain Jack Sparrow standing there like a fucking ghost. One second becomes two, two becomes three (see Jack, he can count!) and then Russia's striding across the floor before Jack can head off.]

Jack! [It's the only warning he gets before there's arms wrapping around him and laughter pressed into semi-goo'd hair. If someone ever wanted to know what it felt like getting hugged by a bear, this is probably the closest they'll get. Aren't you lucky?]

Lockers are good, yes.

[bottlearum]

[ By now, Jack's just about worked everything out. The number on his arm wouldn't just change for no reason. The only reasonable conclusion he can find is that he's been missing from the Tranquility for... (He counts on his fingers. Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen... That's five. See Russia, he can count too!) ...five months.

He's not certain if he's relieved or annoyed.

He barely has any time to wonder who's still left--after all, a lot of people can come and go in five months--when his name is called and there is no time between him spinning around and arms wrapping around him.

Now, Jack's far more likely to run away from a bear than let it hug him. That's just common sense and well, Jack has a particular fondness for living after seeing what the afterlife is firsthand. But every rule has an exception, including this one. Because this bear is named Russia, and Jack has no problems with this hug.

Russia's laughter is infectious and while Jack only saw Russia not too long ago, he's glad. Because this jump is particularly hard--the side effects are worse than normal and there's a woman with Anna Maria's face who isn't Anna Maria, and there's a man with Will Turner's face who isn't Will Turner, and he's been gone for five months without actually being gone.

So of course he hugs Russia back and he laughs and he's simply so damn relieved that Russia is still here. There's a smile in his voice as he asks, ]

Still here, are you, mate?

[za_rodina]

[He'd thought him a hallucination at first, but those generally only followed use of his mask and that's been lost to him for months, there's no reason for him to be hallucinating about a half naked pirate loitering in the MedBay, right? So for a second Russia thinks his arms might go right through Jack, might make him disperse like smoke and it's such a relief when he doesn't. Those arms come up around him and they're laughing together like it's just another night and they've gone out and snagged all the rum and vodka they could find. Good times, good memories. It hasn't quite hit him that that can happen again, now.]

As if I could leave! [He grins; wide, happy, something he hasn't really had cause to in the past months since Netherlands took his mask. One massive hand scruffs Jack, ruffling his hair into an even bigger mess. His own trinkets clink together, braided in the only way he knows how even if it's probably incorrect. Well, Russia has always done what he wanted anyway, braids aren't about to stop him.] You've missed a lot, Jack.

[But still, Russia pulls back and that damn smile is still on his face, he couldn't wipe it off his face even if some manticores came down and did a jig in the middle of the hallway. (Okay, maybe that would, but it's the thought that counts.)]

[bottlearum]

Be surprised if I hadn't!

[ No, really. If nothing at all happened in the five months he was gone, Jack would be... well, extremely worried for one. The Tranquility has proved it has no problems shooting everything it has at them - nightmare worlds, manticores, disease. If nothing suddenly happened, Jack would begin to think the should was winding up to something big, something worrisome.

And so, while the news that he's missed a lot isn't necessarily good, it's better than the alternative.

Jack's still grinning wide - he doesn't think he's had reason to smile like this for a long time. Strange that it's coming back to the Tranquility that brings it out - and he doesn't bother to fix his hair, not yet. It's a mess anyways, as it always is after a jump. It'll sort itself out, eventually. Sometimes he wonders why he even tries.

Oh, that's right. Because jump goo has the potential to stain blue and the point of keeping souvenirs wasn't to ruin them.

Speaking of which, when Russia pulls back, Jack catches sight of the beads in Russia's hair and, if it's even possible, grins wider. ]

Got trinkets of your own, eh, mate?

[ The beads in Russia's hair look like his, but Jack knows he's got all of his own ones. He's already made sure of that. ]

[za_rodina]

Hm? [It takes a second but then his smile turns some what bashful, a bit embarrassed to see that smile on Jack's face when it comes to something Russia snitched from him.] Oh, yeah, I got them when you left. One of the things that stayed behind.

[Still, he shrugs and one hand reaches up to tug at the trinkets, a familiar thing now. Softly, though:] 've got the Pearl too, back in my room. Figured I'd keep her safe for you, after you left.

[She wasn't his to keep, after all, and he had known that since he first checked Jack's room and saw the ship still there without Jack. And of course that's going to make his friend want to leave and pick her up, but that's all in due time!]

How 'bout we go get a drink. I'll give her back and tell you what you missed?