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

[blasphemous]

No decaf in space? I hadn't heard that one. [Giving him a wary look, she tries to figure it out.]

The whole pod thing isn't restful for you, huh?

[cargojet]

[ Well there could be, but it doesn't grow that way, and Nathan is convinced that the scientists on the Tranquility are all too busy trying to one up each other at geek snap that they can't be bothered to do anything helpful. ]

Not this time. I feel like I could sleep for months. Here--

[ He takes out the hot coffee and offers it to her. ]

Sugar, cream?

[blasphemous]

[Her hand waves off the extras.]

This is fine. [She... doesn't really need to eat or drink, but standing there staring at his sleepy state isn't polite if she's not holding coffee.]

Any reason why you aren't sleeping, in an actual bed, elsewhere?

[cargojet]

[ Nathan starts another coffee, pouring the empty cold ones into a big pot intended for just that purpose. He rubs the rest of the sleep out of his eyes deliberately. ]

I'll get there eventually. This--this is just tradition, I suppose. Coffee helps with the queasiness.

[blasphemous]

[Offering him a friendly smirk, she cants her head.]

I don't know, I'd think falling asleep in public is asking for trouble. [She nods down to the dog.] I mean, your dog seems pretty easy going. I don't think they'll ward off anyone with a Sharpie.

[cargojet]

I think she'd probably lick their hands clean and then go back to sleep. If they had a ball or a string of sausages, I'd wake up to find her gone, no doubt about it.

[ She's a shallow creature, and she definitely loves Peter more than Nathan. ]

You're not a dog person?

[blasphemous]

Not a pet... person. [She sips at the coffee.]

I've taken care of dogs for a friend, but they're not really my thing. I end up with too much responsibility on accident. Not really fond of choosing it.

[cargojet]

I get that. Funny how people who want to keep animals just assume you'll be there to look after them regardless.

[ He fetches his own coffee from the machine and takes a mouthful--then regrets it. It's hot. ]

Mm. [ He motions to the empty chair opposite him. ] What jump did you come in?

[blasphemous]

Funny how it works that way. [At his question, she doesn't even have to think about it. It feels automatic at this point.]

Twelve. [Even if it was six jumps ago, it still doesn't feel quite too long to be here.]

[cargojet]

Six jumps is about when you start thinking 'Man, I'm going to be here for a while, aren't I?' [ Nathan looks back up at her. ] Ten jumps, you start thinking about how to settle down, in case twelve turns into forever.

[ He puts the cup down at last. It's much too hot to do anything with. ]

[blasphemous]

Where's your arrival number sitting at? [She's curious because Castiel's been here a while too and she knows he's been getting a bit more wary of the longevity of people here.]

[cargojet]

[ He rolls his sleeve back to show his own number: OPR >> 006 >> 078 ]

Twelve Jumps, which makes the rest of my time here into 'forever'. I'm still invested in getting people home, but I'm less concerned that I go.

[blasphemous]

[Her lips purse a bit, mostly in amusement at the forever part. She's pretty sure a year doesn't equal forever, but she's been around for a lot longer and time in Hell does move differently.]

Nothing interesting back home for you to stress about?

[cargojet]

More like--safer for everyone else if I don't go back. World will end, otherwise.

[ He folds his hands together and looks at her over the top of them, and there's amusement in his eyes even if his lips are pressed into a tight, serious line. ]

You think I'm being melodramatic, right?

[blasphemous]

[She gives a shrug, it's half non-chalance and half I've seen worse.]

Not at all. If I go back I've got Leviathan and all sorts of heavenly creatures looking to put the world back the way they think it should be. Kind of a biblical sort of chaos. The kind that makes someone wonder why God made all of his people so smooshy on the inside.

[cargojet]

Your world sounds like a goddamn picnic. Emphasis on the god damn.

[ Nathan is never surprised by how terrible people's worlds are. He's been here long enough that thinking people came from good places would surprise him more. A sweet, sleepy Texas town where absolutely nothing happens--yeah right. ]

But I imagine you had to deal with some sort of...feeling of responsibility, right? Like you had to get your ass back there before everything went to shit? That's usually the first port of call.

[blasphemous]

[Meg laughs, a bit amused at his response.]

I have the advantage of having someone here who is a bit ahead of me in the timeline. I know things are still going to Hell, but that at least I'm doing the right thing. [Which for her is a completely different turn of events.]

I might not be the one of the ones doing all the heavy lifting, but I am definitely in the middle of that mess.

[cargojet]

[ A snort. ]

It's nice to be sure of it, isn't it? That you can't be stuck here forever, cause you're there, and they know it.

Well, it's nice so long as you're the good guy.

[ Because when you get told that you go back to endanger democracy and get your own brother shot... ]

Hard one to explain otherwise.

[blasphemous]

I've had plenty of runs in my life where I wasn't the good guy. A change of pace is nice.

[cargojet]

That I can sympathise with.

[ Law and politics and being red in a blue state. ]

You keep busy around here?

[blasphemous]

I have hobbies around here. [She sips her coffee again. Ah... luke warm.]

You know those masks? I'm trying to figure out a way to keep them locked up. Where they don't magically just re-appear next to their owner after a while.

[cargojet]

[ Nathan perks up at the remark, peering up at her. ]

That definitely sounds like something worth doing. [ His hand waves over the cup, but he thinks to set it aside. ] You making any progress?

[blasphemous]

Not exactly. I have a few of them, but they're too distinctly different for me to even try to find something that might be universal.

[Her lips purse in a moment of slight frustration.] The scariest thing about those things is that no one really wants to give them up. It's as if they're a part of that person and they're worried they're losing something important.

[cargojet]

[ Nathan thinks about his own and shudders, shaking his head. ]

It's a constant effort not to wear it just to see what it'd be like. But no, it'd be hard to give it up. Like a body part...

[ He considers it for a moment deliberately. ]

I guess that sounds about right.

[blasphemous]

[Meg watches him.]

See, you didn't even suggest letting me look at it. It's like it knows. [She's mostly teasing, giving him a hard time, but she thinks these objects are interesting the way they needle their way into people and make the person so protective of them.]