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

[throwsdown]

[He holds out his hand, eager to shake hers.]

I'm Takeshi.

I know lots about this place, so you can ask me anything — I been here a whole year now. I'm six!

[... He's just a runt, okay.]

[striking]

[ he's just a kid, but katniss can't help the cold way her eyes flicker over him, checking for weapons. it's only when she sees none that she grudgingly clasps his little hand in her own. the shake is a surprisingly solemn one. ]

You've been here a year.

[ that's bemusing. maybe she's in some kind of detention center instead of the games, somehow. maybe cinna's here somewhere. ]

Do they give you food? And water?

[throwsdown]

[He nods, sure as can be. About both things. He gives her hand a gentle squeeze, because he likes when Heather does that, and then lets go.]

You can have food and water — we gots — we got plenty. My dad Nederlands makes good stew, but he's asleep right now in the pods and - and he's not awake yet. [Which is distressing. But he can do the right thing and help people while he's waiting.] I, um, there are kitchens... I used to get my own food there. They got cans of stuff. And we got gardens. My dad works in the gardens, too. He and the others grow good things.

[striking]

[ katniss nods as he tells her about the place, surprised at how homey it sounds. you know, compared to the arena. people cooking and working... she's starting to get a better picture of where she is. ]

[ but one thing stands out to her, maybe because of her own emotional scars. ]

Hey, your dad...

[ she doesn't know how to check if "asleep" is actually the naive form of "dead". ]

Have you told someone he's sleeping?

[throwsdown]

[He shakes his head.]

No... If I did, they can't do anything. Sometimes people sleep 'til the next time we have to get in the pods. Then they wake up finally.

[He chews on his finger, still worried anyway.]

My mom's sleeping, too. They both didn't wake up.

[striking]

Your mom and your dad.

[ it's weird, to be in this situation. katniss still feels like she should be able to kill someone at the drop of a hat. like she's entered the arena and no matter how strange or unlikely any of this is, she doesn't know how to just turn that off. ]

[ and yet, here she is, worrying about some kid without his parents. ]

So who's going to look after you?

[throwsdown]

I look after myself... [It's not too shocking to Takeshi. He just shrugs and smiles a little.] I'm good at looking after m'self. My dad died when I was real little and my mom didn't — um, my real mom used to sleep a lot, so I took care of myself. So I can do it here, too, 'til Heder and Ned wake up.

[striking]

Me too.

[ she doesn't really mean to share it, but it's shocking just how similar to her own story it is: her father dead, her mother doing nothing but sleeping and staring, catatonic. ]

I was a little bigger than you, but I had a little sister, she would have been about your age. And we had to take care of ourselves.

[throwsdown]

[He nods, surprisingly solemn, suddenly.

Katniss seems to really understand. He doesn't get that a lot around here.]

Did your mom have a boyfriend that hurt you, too?

[striking]

[ katniss pulls in a sharp, unhappy breath through her nose. ]

No. No, she slept too much for boyfriends.

[ this kid is too young to be asking questions like that. ]

Do you have any friends here? Apart from your mom and dad.

[throwsdown]

[He nods quietly once again.]

Mmhm. Lots of my friends go home, and sometimes my friends... die, but I — I got lots of friends here, too. We take care f'each other. You'll like them; they're good people.

[striking]

[ katniss swallows hard. sometimes his friends die. he says it with such acceptance, barely wavering, that she doesn't want to rattle that by reacting poorly. but it upsets her. no little boy deserves to know death like that. ]

Okay, that's good. I know you can take care of yourself, but you'll probably need people to help you reach things on the high shelves.

[throwsdown]

[He actually goes from solemn to giggling a bit at that.]

I can climb! And jump! I can reach stuff, s'okay.

I climb trees with Hoi Hoi sometimes, too. You should meet Hoi Hoi. You'd like Hoi Hoi.

[striking]

[ good. giggling is good. ]

Who's Hoi Hoi?

[throwsdown]

He's a panda bear! You ever meet a panda bear?

[The best and coolest panda ever. Look how Takeshi sparkles about it.]

[striking]

[ oh no he's so cute. katniss grins at him. ]

Nope, not ever. I've only ever seen them in pictures.