thirty-ninth 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: A feeling of deep dread greets you as you stumble out of the gravcouch, strong enough to hold you still for a long moment, searching your surroundings for the source of your wariness. Nothing becomes apparent, only your fellow passengers waking up. Eventually you gather the resolve to pick yourself up and start moving, the feeling fading slowly as you progress through routine.

New arrivals will find messages spraypainted across their lockers telling them not to follow their tattoo numbers, and instead to find a room on Floors 001-010.


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ＹＯＵ͘ ̨ＷＡＫＥ̢ ̧ＵＰ ́ＩＮ ＤＡ̛ＲＫＮ̢Ｅ̕ＳＳ̶

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.

ＹＯ́Ｕ̴ ̧Ａ̨ＲＥ ＮＯＴ҉ ̷ＡＬＯ̨ＮＥ҉

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.

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Comments

[gimp]

A couple others, yeah. No one I knew. [ unlike most of the other people in the glade, newt had always been the one to at least try and answer some of thomas's many questions. he knows tommy well enough now that he's brilliant, and if he can figure out some sort of answer as to why he was trapped in that thing for so long, then newt'll try to aid that the best that he can. which, also similarly to how it was in the glade, isn't that well. it feels like questions with no answers are becoming the theme to his life.

but. newt's also more concerned with the fact that thomas was just basically in a coma for a month, so. with the hand that thomas dropped, he reaches over and wraps it around his bicep. ] C'mon, can you stand? Let's get you cleaned up. We can talk about this more when you're not naked as the bloody day you were born.

[wiped]

[ thomas wants to be brilliant. he wants to figure all of this out, but this isn't like the maze. ( but it was, it was, and if he could just find the pattern-- ) he doesn't have the changing to piece together all the parts of this place he's missing. even the people here don't seem to know.

newt reaches for him, and thomas blinks up at him, like he's surprised, uncomprehending for a moment before he gets his act together. when he gets to his feet, it's like a baby deer trying to find its legs. it could be better, but it's probably just a good thing it's not worse. ]

I gotta talk to them. Were William and Brad in there too?

[ there's other people to ask about, but those two names come first. they'll probably always come first. ]

[gimp]

Up ya go, come on. [ newt pauses as he's helping thomas up--mostly because he almost falls over on newt. muttering a bloody hell, newt gets an arm of thomas's over his shoulder and stoops down so he doesn't have to stretch over him and waits patiently for thomas to get his coordination back under him. seriously, he was bad enough before, the whole "legs only work sometimes" klunk wasn't helping any. ]

I don't remember-- [ mostly because he's never met william, even via thomas, but brad is at least a familiar name. ] But you can check with 'em, I'm sure they're around.

Wonder what caused it. [ his tone's a bit more thoughtful in that, possibly a little darker--there's nothing about that that couldn't have been purposeful. or, maybe that's just his paranoia talking. ]

[wiped]

[ thomas hangs on tightly, clutching as he steadies himself. at the moment, he isn't sure if it's his legs failing, or genuine disorientation leftover from the jump. newt's not saying anything more about it, and thomas is grateful. it's hard enough as it is, without extra attention being called to the dismal state of his legs. ]

I'm going to ask.

[ because of course he was. ]

We can figure it out. Like everything else.

[ like the maze, he means, but thomas very badly wants to figure out the rest of this place. he wants to know what this is, what kind of experiment, and how to get out of it. ]

[gimp]

[ newt snorts. ] Course you are.

[ because it's thomas and what does he do but ask all the questions? the unanswerable ones, the answerable ones, the smart and the stupid. newt's always kind of admired that about him--even if it got obnoxious at first. once they're both sort of functional he takes a step forward; between thomas's bad legs and newt's limp, they're kind of a joke making their way to the showers. ]

Now that I think about it though, there was something. These people came over the network, claimin' they wanted to help us, or some klunk like that. I don't think anybody believed it, but shuck if I know what's gonna happen because of it. [ he glances over at thomas to watch his reaction, mostly because he's sure he probably didn't ask the right questions of the strange people, but at least he can get thomas's opinion on it. ] Said they were working for--whatsit, Van Rijn. Got any idea what that is?

[wiped]

[ it's a miracle they don't topple over. thomas is like a baby deer, uncoordinated and distracted by trying to look at everyone at once. there's no visible signs of things being off, which is just unsettling. he was just trapped in his pod for a whole extra jump. surely there should be some visible reflection of that. ]

I don't remember anything about Van Rijn. Not from here, or from the Glade.

[ from the changing, thomas means. he doesn't have to spell that out, he knows newt understands. ]

Do you think it's WICKED?

[ thomas is actually briefly jealous that newt got to talk to them. he wishes he'd been there, has so many questions buzzing in the back of his head that he has to take a deep breath and remind himself to wait for the answer. if there's an answer. ]

[gimp]

[ newt's quiet for a long minute as he takes all that in. he was sort of hoping thomas would have the answers--he'd been here so much longer than newt that maybe he'd have been a little better informed. but with this apparently being a fairly new occurrence, maybe he shouldn't be surprised; still, his faith in thomas is pretty much always unwavering.

he didn't want to consider it, but thomas said the thing that was hanging over his head since the first time the woman spoke to them. he inhales. ] ...To be honest with ya? Of course I do. Everyone on the ship could be workin' with them, for all we know. I don't think so, but-- it's not so easy to just think they're gone after they've been there for so long.

[ his laugh's a little bitter as they make their way towards the showers, slow and steady. ] We just got to know the bastards. Doubt they'd just disappear.

[wiped]

[ working with them, or just in the same position as newt and thomas were, had been. it's hard to tell. thomas doesn't know how to separate, and there isn't a changing to go through here, nothing to fling himself at to come away with a fistful of memories. he can feel that frustration building, grits his teeth against it. ]

I don't think they disappeared. [ he agrees, tone sharp and biting. ] Sometimes I think they just wanted a change of scenery or something.

[ a new kind of maze. one that wasn't so easy to figure out, one that he could run through forever without getting to the exit. ]