twenty-sixth jump;

[ataraxites]

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: Your average, run-of-the-mill jump—except some characters don't seem to be waking up from stasis like they should.



Don't worry.




THEY NEEDED THE REST.

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

[foolproofed]

[Damn, girl, you're pretty shook up. It's a pretty much obvious thing, after something like that, but Marty hates it — hates that it's brought them down to this, because he had the same problem. That same desperate, almost wild look after what had happened in the facility. It all hurts to replay in his head, and he rubs her arms up and down gently, as if trying to warm them.]

Dana, it's — I mean... No giant evil gods here. That I know of yet, anyway.

[He rubs her back when he finds her less than easy to peel away, and sighs.]

Me and you, we're kind of in another universe. Twilight Zone shit.

And we're not dead here.

[Implying they are definitely dead elsewhere.

But he's just fucking glad they get to live here at least. Maybe that's selfish, but it's just... after everything, even the horror in this place is tolerable. It really fucking is.]

[catatonics]

[ Right, she should -- she should step away, should give Marty some space. There's being glad someone's alive and there's being awkward, and she's definitely ventured into awkward territory. It takes Dana a moment, but she finally manages to step away from Marty, putting a whole foot of space between them and keeping her hands to herself. It's harder than it has any right to be, but Dana can do normal human interaction, right? She hasn't forgotten how to do that. It's only been a few hours, really, she can do this. Normality is achievable.

Now if she could just get her fingers to stop twitching in Marty's direction... ]

So if we are dead back -- back there, [ her voice only cracks on the words a little, and she is more proud of herself than is really warranted ] then... where is here?

[ Maybe she accepted the idea of an alternate universe a little too easily, but after the day she's had, it kind of makes complete sense. Why shouldn't there be alternate universe along with the giant evil gods and the facility full of nightmares? Seems legit. ]

[foolproofed]

[He hesitates, and months of a spaceship flashes in the back of his eyes — an endless list of answers and information he needs to spit up, but it's... at least not as severe as the cabin and the facility had been. Sure, Marty's freaked over some corpsey bastard, and he's been a little dummed out by Dana's last departure... but...]

Alright. Deep breath, huh?

We're on the Tranquility. Instead of underground though, we're both kinda in space. On a spaceship. It's — something about this place pulls poor bastards outta' their worlds, you know? And different times, too. I mean, there's a lot of people from earth, but everyone kinda has different universes and circumstances... and... shit.

[....]

And for the record, I did not formulate that description while I was high. It's legit. And it's not a safe place at all, but...

[A pause. He looks down, scuffing a shoe against the ground.]

You, uh. You were here before, once. But sometimes people just... go.

worst month ever i'm really sorry :\

[catatonics]

[ If it weren't for the day Dana has just had, she would accuse Marty of being high again. This sounds just like something he would come up with on one of his paranoid, pot-fueled rants -- well, maybe not just like it, but she could tell herself it did. There would have to be some other explanation.

But she's already accused Marty of being too high to think straight once today, and maybe if she hadn't, they could have gotten through everything at the cabin alive. Maybe Holden wouldn't have died, or Curt... If she'd listened soon enough, maybe they could have saved Jules. No matter how crazy anything he says sounds, Dana is going to listen to Marty from now on. Bad things happen when she doesn't.

She nods along to his description, taking it all in, until she tells him that there was a version of her here before. That... That makes no sense. ]

I think I would remember being in a place like this, Marty.

that's noooo prob

[foolproofed]

Yeah. Yeah, I know you'd remember if the place'd let you.

But sometimes people leave and then come back and just... y'know. Don't remember.

[Which sucks. But it's alright, they'll work through it; she didn't exactly have to deal with anything too traumatizing during her old stay. Marty'd like to try and keep it that way, even if he knows that's pretty much doomed to fail.]

[catatonics]

[ This place steals memories as well as people. Good to know. Dana nods, running her hand through her hair and taking a deep breath. So she was on the spaceship of weird once before, and now has absolutely no recollection of it. A day ago, she would have been looking for some kind of scientific explanation, something to make all of this make sense. Now she's just going to roll with the punches and listen to Marty.

Who's apparently been here longer than she has? Wait... ]

Wait, so... If I was here before, and you were here then too... How long have you been here?

[foolproofed]

[He hesitates on that, looks to be silently trying to figure it out himself.]

I — Gotta be over half a year now. Seven or eight months, I think... It's hard to tell when we don't have a calendar, you know?

[catatonics]

[ That's... That's stretching the boundaries of what she can believe. But it would make Marty's calm make sense -- if he'd come in just now too he'd probably be just as freaked out as she is, wouldn't he? And he knows so much about this place already... Plus why would he lie? ]

Oooookay. Okay, let me get this straight. We're on a spaceship somewhere in outer space. I was here once before a few months ago, but don't remember it, and you've been here for almost a year. Is there anything I'm missing?

[foolproofed]

[.....]

A lot of stuff. Mostly the sub-category stuff that involves creepy messages and malfunctioning spaceships and pirates n' all sorts of crazy facility-looking shit.

But. Yeah. That's a decent outline.

[catatonics]

...okay, I need you to fill me in completely. Like, now.

[ Except it is right then that dana's legs decide to give out, and she stumbles into Marty, momentarily too dizzy to hold herself up or open her eyes or do anything except grit her teeth and hope she doesn't throw up all over her best friend.

After she's gotten her legs beneath her again, she takes a deep breath and straightens, smiling wryly at Marty. ]

Okay, first sleep, then explanations.

[foolproofed]

[He helps keep her upright, and when she smiles up at him, he smiles back sympathetically.]

Yeah. You wanna crash in my other bed today? Kind of a lot going on to be sleeping by yourself. I mean, my pad smells like weed, but that just comes with the territory, y'know?

[catatonics]

[ Marty's good at that -- keeping Dana on her feet when she feels like she'd collapse otherwise. He was all that kept her going at the end back at the cabin, and it figures he'd be keeping up that trend here. ]

Marty, unless you actively don't want me to stay with you, I'm not going to leave your side for at least a week.

[ Call Dana clingy if you like; she doesn't really care. All she cares about is that Marty is here, and he's safe, and if one of them could be going back home any moment... She's not letting him out of her sight if she doesn't have to. ]

[foolproofed]

[He squeezes her wrist, supportive.

Well. He'd give her his room and the gnarly clothes off his back, if it'd make her feel better about how shitty their lives are. As it is, though, he can defintiely give her this one.]

Then lets go, amiga. You need a little R&R.