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

[last_ofthe_jedi]

Any time.

[He's still smiling over the funny little incident that just occurred, totally unaware of how awkward things almost were--

--until they suddenly become just that awkward. Luke wasn't trying to look, he really wasn't. But when Charlie's towel drops a little, the revealed tattoo is so hard to miss when it looks just like... your sister. In a bikini.

First Luke's eyes widen, then he cranes his neck to get a better look. At first he isn't sure it's her. Then he's sure. He UNcranes his neck so quickly that he almost gives himself whiplash.

The last thing Luke wants to do is embarrass Charlie more but now when she spins around and he comes face to face with her embarrassment once again he's starting to feel that she deserves it. What even?

That look of horror mixed with disgust mixed with confusion and more disgust on his face? Yeah, it's still there.

He nods.]

It did.

[Since he's a nice guy and totally going to try to be understanding about this he'll give her the benefit of the doubt and let her attempt to explain first. Which is why he's still staring in silent horror.]

[raisedontolkien]

[Okay, she can do this. She can explain. She isn't sure how, without making the situation even worse, but she's sure she'll think of something.

Any second now.

Really.

Finally, after several heartbeats when all she's managing is to open and close her mouth and idly wonder if he's at a point in his Jedi training when he could theoretically lash out with the Force and accidentally cause her some serious bodily harm, she just blurts the only thing she can think to say.]

Any chance my pointing out I was drunk at the time, and that your sister is seriously hot, will help matters any? [Nope. Didn't think so. She swallows. Hard.] Yeah, I'm just going to climb back into my pod now because, seriously, that's totes the better option, here.

[last_ofthe_jedi]

[If Charlie had just stuck with the drunk story Luke might have found it in his heart to forgive her. People do stupid and pervy things when they're drunk. But then she goes and mentions his sister's hotness. His eyes bulging out of their sockets at her might just give Charlie a clue as to just how well that helped matters.

Of course this also brings up a whole slew of other questions.]

Woah, wait wait.

[He holds out a hand as if to stop her from trying to escape.]

Hold on. Okay, your tattoo aside... [he squints his eyes shut for a second] ... really aside...

[He takes a deep breath and regards her seriously. This is an important question.] Do I know you? [Because the idea that someone Luke knows has a tattoo of his nearly-naked sister is bad enough. But a total stranger?? That's just unspeakably disturbing.]

[raisedontolkien]

[Charlie considers lying. As awful of a person as that might make her, she actually considers making something up, on the spot, about how he doesn't know her yet but he will, someday. She's read the books that take place after the films. She knows things about his future that will back up her lie. Maybe even come up with a reason that fully explains away why she has Leia in a slave girl bikini forever marked on her skin.

But she can't bring herself to do it. No sooner does the lie start to form is she sighing softly and letting her gaze drop, brow furrowing a bit.]

I really wish I could lessen the creep factor here by saying yes. [Drawing in a breath, and in a move that she considers exceedingly brave considering the guy can kill her with his brain if he really wants to, she raises her gaze back to his, looks him in the eye, and goes for the truth.

Well, minus the whole 'you're fictional' aspect, at any rate.]

I'm from the future and, in my time, you're both pretty famous. I grew up on the stories about the fall of the Empire. So one year, when hanging out with other people who grew up on the stories too, I got drunk and woke up with this. [She motions with her free arm toward her back area, pauses, then offers him an embarrassed look.] I'm not a total freak, I promise. Just socially awkward on the best of days and a really big fan.

[last_ofthe_jedi]

[The look on Luke's face slowly morphs as Charlie explains herself. He isn't really showing any one recognizable emotion because he's just not sure how to feel about this. If it could be described it might be... disturbed but resigned to the nightmares he faces.

Her story is a bit odd to his ears but he's well aware of the weird time stuff that happens and knows that it's possibly entirely true. And he has to admit that her story rouses even more questions, because learning that he'll be famous someday (and not just any famous but tattoo-worthy famous) is actually really interesting.

For her sake, because she's trying so, so hard, and because she's apparently a fan of his (who knew?), Luke is attempting to put away his disturbed face in favor of as much understanding as he can muster.]

I see. Okay. So... a fan, huh? [Then his eyes widen again and his jaw goes somewhat slack.] Wait, did you say the fall of the Empire? [He can't even make his voice sound excited anymore. He forgot how. There's still too much disturbed and horrified in the way. Charlie, I think you just broke his brain.]

[raisedontolkien]

[Oh. Oh crap. Yeah, she totally didn't realize that he's from before that particular event in his reality yet. Great. Just great. First she horrifies him with a tattoo of his half-naked sister that he's probably only just stopped crushing on himself and now she's given him one of the biggest spoilers of his life.

Well, at least she didn't mention the whole Vader being his father thing. Technically she supposes that would've been worse.

Maybe.

But okay. She can salvage a bit of this conversation, despite her foot-in-mouth syndrome. Really, she can. She even manages a small, hopeful smile for precisely that reason.]

Um, yeah. I kinda did. [She turns the smile up a notch, just to be on the safe side.] Surprise?

[last_ofthe_jedi]

[Huh. Well, this is a lot. Luke's not even looking at her anymore. His emotions are still hard to read and he might even appear upset or verging on angry if someone didn't know just how the fall of the Empire might affect him.

Heck, he still wants to be angry at Charlie but he just can't maintain that anger. She just gave him the best news he's heard in these past three months. Actually, probably in his whole life.

The Empire will fall.

Finally he looks at her again, the smile that's slowly forming on his face looking maybe a bit crazed. This is really good news and okay, forgive him if he just experienced nearly every emotion imaginable within the past three minutes and forgot how to look genuinely happy and not going-to-do-something-scary-or-unexpected-any-second-now happy.

He closes his eyes and actually lets out a relieved laugh.]

That's really good to know. Really good.

[raisedontolkien]

[If there's one thing Charlie is figuring out rather quickly it's that meeting fictional characters that you've idolized since you were a kid doesn't tend to go the way you think it should. She learned that firsthand when coming face to face with Dorothy, has had it confirmed since meeting folks from Middle Earth, and is once again being reminded of that fact now. Because in the movies, when Luke is struggling with an emotion, as someone witnessing it you're wrapped up in what he's feeling.

When he's struggling with emotions directly in front of you, however, Charlie's discovering she's not so much wrapped up in what he's feeling as she's directly in the line of fire if he loses control and lashes out. And that is a terrifying concept to behold.

Still awesome, of course. Just terrifying.

Especially when he looks at her like he's slowly losing his mind, piece by piece, and she's partially responsible for that fact.

With a hard swallow, she forces herself to stand still and not take several large steps away from him. She even manages a small, clearly nervous, smile of her own.]

Yeah. It is. [A pause. She frowns at her own words and gives a little shake of her head.] I mean, right. Sorry. I probably shouldn't have just dumped that on you like that. It's just this thing I do. Totally incapable of not inserting my foot in my mouth whenever I open it, that's me. [Another pause and she sighs, scrubs a hand down her face, and peers back over at him with an exasperated look.] And I promise, I'm really not normally this much of a spaz. Honest.

[last_ofthe_jedi]

[Finally Charlie's nervousness starts to get through to Luke and his brain performs a little emotion reset, like a cartoon character shaking its head clear, except without the silly, cartoonish shaking of the head. He's starting to realize that he's the reason she's getting all worked up in the first place. Whooops.

Luke holds up a hand to her, trying to slow her down.]

Hey, hey, it's alright! It's alright. Take it easy. Believe me, I've heard far worse news from people who knew all about the future. No harm done.

Look, uh [he glances down at his merely-towel-clad-self, still coated in blue goop as an indication] this stuff is starting to congeal and it's cold in here. Let's go get cleaned up and then maybe get something to eat. I want to hear more about all this history.

[He's genuinely trying to make friends with her now, starting to feel badly about how much he probably traumatized her.]

[raisedontolkien]

[Most people would really put some thought into their reply. Considering how things have gone thus far, anyone with a modicum of common sense would probably decline the offer and instead suggest they reschedule for another time.

Charlie, however, is hardly most people and it's really a good thing that she's a genius because she has pretty much zero common sense the majority of the time.

So her answer comes quickly, virtually instantaneously, and is accompanied with a super enthusiastic smile.]

For serious? Oh, I'm so in! [She pauses, briefly closes her eyes, then shoots him a sardonic grin.] And no more fangirling, too. Promise. [She even makes a small 'X' over her heart to emphasize the point.]

[last_ofthe_jedi]

[Luke just grins at her. Hey, he finds the fangirling sort of endearing, okay? He plans to encourage this behavior... without it looking like he's encouraging the behavior, of course. Fly casual.]

Then why don't we meet over at the lift in a few minutes?

[The congealing fluid is beginning to congeal in some of the most awkward places and he's rather eager for a shower.]