ataraxionlogs | twenty-eighth jump;

Entry tags:

twenty-eighth jump;

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.

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[ elena has been a little... shall we say distracted since leaving the lockers. first there was katherine, which is never good, and then there was stefan, which should have been good but instead was terrible. she's rushing through the halls, getting her communicator out to text damon when she hears a familiar voice and she stops dead in her tracks. it can't be... can it?

she turns slowly, and when her eyes light on elijah, she smiles without even meaning to. it's been too long since she's seen her favourite original, can barely even remember the last time she saw him with her humanity on, and after the last two encounters she's had with people from home, his face is a welcome sight. if an original had to show up here, at least it was the one she could trust. she'd hug him if she didn't think it'd be awkward. ]

Well, I've only been here for two months, so I don't know how much help I'd be, but I'll do my best.

Edited (i'm finished i swear) 2014-02-10 10:57 (UTC)

[ it's superficial, the first thing he notices about her. the red streak in her hair signifies elena, not katerina, though a closer look highlights further distinctions. elena is a miracle. light, warmth, compassion — they're obvious in her face, like they used to be in katerina's. looking at elena, he sees (or perhaps he hopes to see) humanity.

she seems to be in a far better state than he last saw her. and this time, when he smiles, it's wholly genuine. ]

I have no doubts about that. [ a short pause. ] It's a pleasure to see you again, Elena.

[ the real you, he suspects. ]

[ oh, hell, why not. elena bounds over to hug elijah briefly, too pleased to see a friendly face in this sea of disappointments to contain herself. elijah will always be a friend to her, even when their relationship is complicated by their opposing interests -- they have an understanding, her and elijah, much like she and damon once did. they both want to protect their family above all else, and that puts them at odds more than it doesn't, but that doesn't stop elena from liking him.

when she steps away from him, she can't help her smile, and she squeezes his forearm before she lets go of him completely. their friendship at home was never able to overcome their devotion to their families, but without the other mikaelsons here, maybe there was hope for them. ]

It's good to see you too, Elijah. It's been too long. What do you know already?

[ congratulations, elena, you surprised the one thousand year old original vampire.

when she hugs him, his instinct is to knock her back. only rebekah hugs him these days and only she wouldn't stab him in the back (oh so literally). but this is elena. and if there was anyone else he'd allow so close, it would be her. the hug begins tense, but he relaxes.

and she doesn't stab him, which is a plus. his smile widens. ]

I'm afraid I already know more than I intended to admit. [ which is as close to sheepish as elijah gets. he already eavesdropped for some time. he was just going to use his newness to charm his way around the ship. dick. ] Mutiny, was it?

[ because if people were moving against the big bad, elena would be in on it, no questions asked (and no hard feelings). ]

[ as expected, the hug was awkward, but hey, he loosened up eventually. the only mikaelson she's ever stabbed in the back is rebekah, and she even regretted that, for a little while -- not so much after she killed her, but before that, sure. if she were going to stab another it would be klaus.

sheepish elijah is almost cute, and elena has to bite her lip to avoid smiling too much over it. and then he mentions the mutiny, and elena's smile disappears. ]

Uh, yeah. A group of us stormed the bridge and got locked in. We barely made it out to the pods before the jump. [ oh boy how to explain jumps. ] Every month the ship... jumps through spacetime, or something, I don't really understand it, but when it does anyone who's not in one of those pods is, uh. Squished. Basically. So we were all pretty sure we were going to die.

[ and it was terrible and elena has learned her lesson: no messing with the deathship. ]

[ at that, his brow furrows. if someone can pose a threat to elena, among others, he might not be wrong in his assumption of true danger. ]

How did you escape?

[ and this is where elena gets truly uncomfortable, sighing and running her hand through her hair. ]

I don't know, exactly. I mean, we didn't escape, the door just... opened. There was red text that appeared above it right before it opened that said "Time to go", and everyone else said that it had to be Smiley, but I haven't been here long enough to know what that means.

[ if she's honest, the details of their escape disturb elena almost as much as what happened while they were in the bridge. if whatever smiley is had been able to get them out, why didn't it do it before? and if it was the thing that shut them in in the first place, why did it let them back out?

she was finally beginning to really understand just what damon meant when he called the tranquility a deathship... but she still wouldn't want to go home. ]

[ elijah is even more confused than elena, but he accepts her information, albeit with a puzzled look. he'll mull over smiley and the like when he has more information. for now, elena's relative safety almost relieves him. it's not as though he devotes time to worrying over her, but she is one of the few he values.

and he trusts her, perhaps all too easily. ]

As long as you are unharmed. [ speaking of those he values -- ]

Forgive me for the sudden change of topic, but I may I ask you a question in complete confidentiality? [ reassuringly. ] It does not pertain to the safety of your family.

[ it pertains to his, so don't worry. ]

I am unharmed. I broke my hand and dislocated my shoulder trying to get through the door, but that fixed itself up before we even got out of the room.

[ the question has elena shifting uncomfortably again, eyes searching elijah's face -- she trusts him, insomuch as she understands him and understands what motivates him (she trusts that she knows what his general course of action will be, even if she can't trust that it will be one that will benefit her and her own) but anything that begins with a question in confidentiality is never good.

still, this is elijah, and she trusts his word, if nothing else. if he says it has nothing to do with her family, then it doesn't. ]

Of course you can, what do you want to know?

[ he appraises her for a moment. the damage she sustained was likely psychological. and he is in no place to assiste her in that regard. ]

[ idly. ] Hayley. A young girl, a werewolf, not much older than you, possibly a friend of Mr. Lockwood.

Have you seen her here? Her family has business with my family. [ ha... ha... a beat. ] I have no intention of harming her. [ because 'i would never harm her' sounds like overkill, true though it is. ]

[ the name sounds... vaguely familiar -- she was friends with tyler when all the sire bond stuff was going down, and then she mysteriously disappeared after a while, right? -- but elena was a bit busy at the time and she never paid much attention to tyler's friends.

she shakes her head at elijah with an apologetic frown. ]

I'm sorry, I haven't. I've mostly been keeping to my family, though, so that doesn't mean she isn't here. I can ask Tyler for you, if you want?

[ if elijah says he's not going to hurt her, she believes him. of course, that doesn't mean he doesn't have other unsavory plans for her -- much as she likes him, she knows his promises are always full of loopholes for him to wiggle through -- but she'll ask tyler about that possibility too. ]

[he studies her features and listens attentively for a tell in reply. seeing none, he simply sighs. ]

I appreciate the offer, but I'm afraid I must decline. My interest in Hayley is best kept quiet for her sake. [ an amused half-smile. ] Surprisingly enough, I'm rather unpopular.

[ it's joke because he's an asshole who ruins peoples lives for the sake of his family. hilarious. ]

You don't say? I can't imagine why. [ elena smiles at elijah, the words only a tease. she made her peace with elijah's decision to betray them -- his siblings were on the line, and if there's anything she understands, it's the desire to protect family above all else. the same could probably not be said of her friends and family, however. ]

I'll keep an eyes out for her and let you know if I find her, Elijah. Should I let her know you're looking for her?

If it seems appropriate. [ a vague answer, but she'll find out eventually, anyway. hayley is family now, and he will never abandon his family again. ]

Thank you, again.

[ well that's a weird response. elena knows better than to ask, but she can't help the curious look she send elijah. she has no idea what he could possibly want with hayley -- if it were klaus she would guess he wanted to turn her into a hybrid, but elijah... she can't even begin to guess at his motivation. ]

Of course. Let me know if you need help with anything and I'll do my best, okay? [ not that elijah would be needing much help -- thousand year old vampire, and all -- but she can't help it, being helpful is her default setting. ]

[ at the offer, he smiles softly. he doubts he'll need it, but it wouldn't be the first time... and he appreciates the sentiment, particularly coming from elena. ]

Of course. And if you require assistance, you need only ask.

[ though she has more than enough people at her disposal, he suspects. it's unsurprising. people are drawn to her compassion -- to the virtues she shares with others so easily. ]

I might have to take you up on that someday. Katherine just showed up here, too.

[ that... was probably not the best way to tell elijah that his ex is on the ship, but elena wasn't exactly thinking about that at the moment. she's thinking of katherine's penchant for pretending to be her, of the damage she could do here. if she wanted to pretend to be elena at robb, or nathan, or any one of her new friends... she could do a lot of damage. not to mention the havoc she could wreak on her family. ]

Ah, Katerina. [ there's a loaded fondness there. it's complicate. ] I've to surmise my standing with her. [ because something is different. he knows that much. ] I hope she hasn't caused trouble for you already.

[ he knows how much katherine hates elena, how little she cares for the girl who shares her face. if she can kill jeremy gilbert, is there anything she wouldn't do? ]

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twenty-eighth jump;

halls yo

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