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.

ＴＨ̀ＩＳ͜ ̶Ｉ͠Ｓ͡ ͘Ｙ̵Ｏ͝ＵＲ ̕Ｗ͝Ｅ̛Ｌ̨Ｃ͡Ｏ͝Ｍ͏Ｅ Ｐ̛ＡＲ̴ＴＹ͜

Comments

[axeyou]

If things were simple, I wouldn't be stuck in space with all you idiots.

[No offense. This is a very general statement, made in a time of bad temper. But what else is new, really.

Impatient, Johanna gathers another handful of hair into her hand and starts working at the ends of the hank, jagged cuts.]

So, just like everything else, I'm making the best of it.

[acapriciousthing]

[She's pretty hard to offend. The recently dead tend to be a bit cranky.]

So it was pretty urgent, then.

[Hey sometimes haircuts are]

[axeyou]

[She laughs, once, short. Infinite patience drives Johanna crazy, but she also needs it from people. That doesn't stop her from being nasty to them, but, you know. She still needs it.]

No. Urgent would be if my head was on fire and the only way to put it out was to cut off all my hair. This? Is just a haircut.

[She saws at another clump, until it falls to the floor with a soft phud.]

Don't read into it.

[acapriciousthing]

I wasn't planning to. It's your hair, after all.

[It would be a bit of a strange thing to read into. The only time she really pays that much attention is if Del's hair starts turning into fish.]

[axeyou]

Uh-huh.

[Flat, unimpressed. Johanna turns a look on her, calculating, as she flicks a bit of hair off of the flat of the knife.]

So you just thought you'd stop by to, what. Offer style advice? Commentary?

[acapriciousthing]

Figured I'd let you know about the easier option. If you don't want to take it, you don't want to take it.

[It's possible to make her angry. But not easy.]

[axeyou]

I don't.

[She turns away again. It's very easy to make Johanna angry, and very easy to see it in her, her shoulders hiked high and her jaw clenched.]

So, thanks, but no thanks.