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

[circumitus]

"You never asked." Or did he?

No, Rey's certain that she would've remembered it if he had. Her memory's better than most, she would say. (All things considered.)

Either way, she follows, having nowhere in particular to go to. That's the beauty of not assigning yourself to simply one location.

[handelaar]

They're headed to the first level - specifically, to the area he's designated as growing space for his rabbit's hay and greens - but if she's following and not asking he won't bother. She probably wouldn't give much of a shit anyway, he assumes.

"Okay. What's..." Wrong thing. She'd probably say security. "What was your job, then"

[circumitus]

Congratulations, Netherlands. You have ascended to such a status during your acquaintance with Rey that you can foresee such things as literal statements. It's a feat that so few can ever hope to achieve.

"I was a soldier -- jarhead. Most of the time. Towards the end I was mostly assigned on solo operations. Suicide missions."

[handelaar]

The beautiful things that can happen when two overly pedantic wouldabeen-misanthropes-in-a-high-school-AU get together and like spending time together, or something, they guess. Or at least they talk enough and can see eye to eye often enough for him to know when he's asking a stupid question.

Which means he hears her answer, nods like he should've known, and then simply asks the relevant, probably not stupid questions rapid-fire. If she can't answer them she won't.

He even ticks them off with the arm that's not full of rabbit as he does it.

"Soldier for who. Or what. The hell does most of the time mean. Did you - " wait what " - die?"

[circumitus]

It's strange when Rey laughs. She actually laughs, even if it's short and concise. It isn't something she's used to and there's a small relief in her chest when she finally lets out those muffled, barely audible sounds.

A moment later she's collected herself enough to answer: "Apologies. It's just that I thought that was obvious when I said 'suicide mission' -- that I have died, that is." Perhaps the real answer is that she simply has a horrible taste in humor. "Of course I have died. Plenty of times, in fact."

To her, it's such a duh moment that she doesn't even stop to consider just how off putting her blasé nature might actually be.