twenty-eighth 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: It could just be the standard sensation of air on wet skin, but if you bother to check, you might notice the steam rising from your body, barely there and gone within a minute. By the time you get to the showers, it will be clear that it's not just taking you time to adjust. The room is cold — colder than usual, but no worse than the last jump. While it's nothing dangerous, it's certainly motivation to hurry through the usual routine and get dressed quickly.



It's getting closer.




YOUR EYES ARE OPEN.

KEEP LOOKING.

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

[specialism]

I don't think so.

[ he doesn't know, precisely — what little information he has about this place so far is that it's a spaceship and honestly? last he knew, earth didn't have spaceships.

there's something about this guy's manner of speech, though — ] Are you Asguardian? [ it wouldn't explain why he's asking after new york, but it would explain terminology like 'realm'. ]

[specialism]

Twee?

[ he is, in fact, not familiar with the concept at all. if she'd care to explain, now would be a good time — and it would provide the conversation she wanted while he creeps steadily forward, too. ]

[darkart]

He makes Sirius fight to wrench his wrist away and his hand feels numb with pain after from the force of it. Once they're apart he stands, slow, paying no heed to the blood on his face - nose broken, lip split, bruises blooming - and glaring at Sirius. He smiles coldly and through the near-gore of Sirius's handiwork it looks monstrous. Fitting: if Severus is a monster, then Sirius helped create him. They're part of each other's origins whether they like it or not, and maybe they'd hate each other less if they were less alike. Violent, angry, clever, with childhoods robbed from them by families who hated them. True to form, Severus would hate Sirius even more if he knew.

He raises a hand to his face and a crack noise sounds, a wordless episkey spell setting his head back in order. (As much as it'll go. The end result is only as good as the original state.) Intent stirs around him, almost tangible in the air. If Sirius comes at him again he'll be met with no more patience.

"You don't have to worry."

Severus could snap and bicker back, instigate more - but really. Neither of them wants the company of the other. It's not as if he'll go seeking him out, and it's not like Severus wants this idiot following him around any more than Sirius wants his Slytherin counterpart lurking in his shadows. The only peace between them at any age can be a cease-fire.

[humanistic]

Wait.

[The silence wasn't an easy one, and it doesn't matter. One kid, in a ship of hundreds. He doesn't even know her name. But it sits badly to have it go like this. He likes to be liked--and he likes kids. It's gotten him into trouble before, but that was then. This is now.

He'd hardly noticed that she was gathering herself to leave but he looks around now, suddenly, still hunched over the counter.]

Thanks. I mean it. I owe you one. [He nods, toward the plate, and his half finished waffle. It's a loaded offer in both directions, even if she doesn't know exactly what she's getting the offer from.] A favor, or-- whatever.

[legionare]

You weren't out. You were gone.

[ just as tavi had left — and really, max isn't trying to let himself hope, but he can't help but steal a glance around. if wichita has returned, who is to say that his best friend won't come back as well?

and maybe he should be more delicate in confronting her with that; she's clearly not aware of it. but — max is not the most subtle of creatures. ]

[wolfchild]

[ he is so mercurial she feels dizzy. from boastful to annoying to—this. ( she doesn't think to tell him he owes her nothing. favors are good things to collect. ) nymeria stops when she does; her head swings from arya to mitchell. arya chews the corner of her lip. ]

What's your name?

[trouvaille]

I know I'm not where I ought to be.

( after that, things get a little vague and alarmed; she's not yet convinced that this is real. she doesn't want it to be real. )

[majestyofthethrone]

[She looks at her violin and nods, and opens the case. There's a check, quickly, to make sure it's in tune, and it takes her a moment to center herself. To think of this boy she barely met.

It's the hardest playing she's ever tried, really. She doesn't know him well enough, and sometimes notes elude her, they don't fit quite into place. But where it does work, she can capture it, where it does come together, for movements, he's there, in the room.

Those moments come a bit more as she gets into it, brief glimpses of who James is, but at the end it's not as good as when she plays Remus or Sirius, it's simply unfinished.]

[lockwood]

[Former friend of Hayley's actually. But you know, details. On the plus side, he doesn't have a desire to start a fight with Elijah. Tyler isn't that dumb (he leaves that kind of recklessness for his hatred of Klaus).]

Tyler, actually. [Mr. Lockwood sounds too much like someone talking to his dad and yeah -- he's good with not having that.]

And you're Elijah.

[allfatherissues]

[Only a second or two passes before Loki's voice echoes from behind Ward, standing several feet down the corridor they were both passing through. The Trickster and his misdirections and illusions, what can you do.]

Is there a particular reason that you're following me?

[His tone is undeniably patronizing.]

[cogere]

Tyler, then. [ it doesn't particularly matter to him, honestly. ]

You've heard of me. [ but he's not picking a fight, which earns him points. elijah looks at him curiously, almost evaluating him. ]

[lockwood]

I was enslaved to your brother, would of been a little weird if I hadn't.

[Which, there we have it -- Tyler's bitterness towards Klaus is already rearing it's head. It only took what? Five minutes?]

[afraidofthe]

Of course I do. The problem, though, seems to be finding a way to actually return without relying on the whims of the ship.

[It's said almost distractedly, as Bigby has now got his eyes on that hook for a hand. He's curious, now. Blue mentioned other people who weren't quite Fables, but for some reason oddly fit the description. But blurting that much out was never the best option.

That's the tricky part. So he starts vaguely.]

Where you are from?

[Okay, maybe a little more blunt than intended.]

[trouvaille]

( she manages not to say, plaintively, I want my father. Cecil can't help with that, and-- realistically, Emery's presence would not help anything. he's not a man with many practical uses. she'd only be more agitated trying to mind him, as if he weren't a grown man who's been minding himself for years. )

I don't -- I don't think so. I don't know.

[cogere]

[ yep, there it is. he was waiting for the klaus hate. it's all the rage with the mystic falls crowd these days (gee, i wonder why). ]

Ah, that would do it. [ klaus is in big trouble when elijah finds him again. he's so done with cleaning up his shit. ] I don't suppose an apology on his behalf would mean much to you.

[lockwood]

[Tyler scoffs a little -- sorry, Elijah's sort of polite air is kind of lost on him. He's never been good with this sort of politics.]

Not really. An apology isn't going to make my mother any less dead.

[trouvaille]

Cutesy, affected. Quaint. Good golly gosh, what a fine little hat we'll momentarily imagine you're wearing to be effusively complimented on, Mr Big Naked Guy.

( look, she even provided an example. next: diagrams. or not, since neither of them have anything on them for the purpose. well. he could probably write his name, if they found some snow.

...unlikely. )

[bullshead]

Because he doesn't count. [ gendry follows, he doesn't need much prompting. it is automatic. ]

He's an elf or something, right? They probably don't even grow breads.

[wolfchild]

You shouldn't grow a beard.

[bullshead]

Why not? [ he screws up his face. ]

[cogere]

[ now that is a new piece of information. he suspects niklaus chose to omit this detail purposefully (with good reason). if he had known — how dare his insolent brother target a boy's mother over his pride, of all things. how selfish, thoughtless, petulant. has niklaus learned nothing from past mistakes? family is exceptional.

dimly, at the back of his mind, he considers a passing fondness for carol lockwood. she was nice (useful). ]

What — [ how is he meant to handle this? what can he say when his brother has killed this boy's family (and all that remains of it, at that, if he recalls correctly)? his characteristic quiet, seething ire slips into his tight tone. ] He failed to mention that.

[ so. much. trouble. ]

[lockwood]

Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. [Because Klaus fails to mention a lot of things.

And why would he care to tell anyone about how he murdered off the last of Tyler's family when he had just done it as a show of power anyway?]

[2leftfeet]

It might.

[Which is light enough to be a joke, though the hint of a grin she offers back at him is thin as she leads the way toward the correct aisle, the correct locker.]

A locker full of blood after jump twenty-four, but other than that? No.

[uncurse]

[ for a moment she just eyes him warily, because she's not sure how to take what comes across as concern. she wants to believe it's genuine, but considering he'd just stabbed rumpelstiltskin, poisoning the kid's grandfather, it seems unlikely he'd be showing real concern for him now. so she settles for her usual healthy skepticism and deflects. ]

I'm supposed to believe you wake up on a spaceship and suddenly you care about someone other than yourself? [ she shakes her head, the doubt clear. ] I don't think so. [ and the message is all too clear as her walls can practically be seen raising back around her. she'll figure something out herself (because, a tiny voice in the back of her mind chides her, she's been doing such a great job so far). ]

[unparental]

[ that isn't one of the two things ( both of those included extensive groveling, a few 'you're absolutely right's, that kind of thing ) jenna had in mind, but it's far more effective at taking the wind from her sails than the vaguely outlined vindication she built up in picturing it for so long. ]

You think I don't know that one? Now if I say 'grovel until I feel better about things' I'm the jerk. That was usually good for five whole minutes of civility from Jeremy.

[ it's a pale imitation of her usual tone, and there's a bite to it: it was good.

it's also enough to remind her exactly what she's supposed to be angry about, and after inhaling deeply and making sure the face she lifts back up is entirely human jenna shakes her head. ]

Just... apologize, or don't. No 'you have to understands' or 'I did it because of'. Reasons don't mean a whole lot to the person who paid your family's bill on this one. [ which is twisting things back to her bitterness, and she holds up a hand and rolls her eyes, sucking in her cheeks in a peevish frown. ] No, fine. No editorializing from me, either.

[ for the two minutes that'll last. ]

Either be sorry or don't say it. I led with you treating me like an idiot for a reason.