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

HIS PARENTS ARE CLEARLY OFF BEING WHINY BABIES

[throwsdown]

[Takeshi flinches, spinning around to face the mystery poker - and if he swallows hard and looks a bit thrown off for a moment, well, he's right back to being a neutral if not curious face in the crowd. Followed by confused. Unsure. Worried?] Are you okay, mister? You look kinda sick. S'cus of the pods, huh? Lots of people get sick.

yeah what the f guys

[dogbane]

[I'm seriously hesitating to write this tag cuz I think I'm too sleepy to do a good job but here we go.

HERE WILLIAM GOES ...

which is to say he goes nowhere for a long moment, and does nothing, regarding the tiny baby in a silence as ambivalent as the one with which the tiny baby regards him. After a moment, however, he decides to take Takeshi's words at face value, understanding that if the child is to morph into a cannibalistic hallucination amid the passengers violently turning upon each other en masse, at least he's a very adorable cannibalistic hallucination, and exhibiting a beguiling facsimile of good samaritanship]

Yeh I'm all right. I'll be all right, [he clarifies.] I've got a bad bout of Jump sickness is all. It'll pass. I might be a bit off in the head right now, but I could swear I seen you before. You ain't the old Chief of Engineering, right? Thought she was a girl-- [--and like six years older, William. He doesn't have much experience with children.]

[throwsdown]

[He laughs, eyes squinching up.]

I'm not a girl! I'm a boy. I'm too little to be a chief. Chief's are old!

[CLEARLY SOUND LOGIC, WILLIAM.]

Did you drink some water t'feel better yet??

[dogbane]

I swallowed some shower water by accident but it didn't go very fucking well, [William responds, honestly. He squints out from under his towel hood for another long moment, before pulling it off his head. The child looks very familiar. Not just his face-- though there is that, and William should know, as he saw a photo of him only a few cycles ago. But also the

the attitude. Which Heather did an admirable job conveying, through such methods as anecdote, trinkets, some reference to a panda wearing a supersuit, and weeping to the point of exhaustion, which illustrated to the strength of Takeshi's numerous and sundry personality characteristics.] I feel like I met you somewhere. Did you by any chance come from a world where people have got demons riding around in their heads? [he asks.] Or do you--

[this seems ridiculous. Takeshi is like three inches tall.] Murder the fuck outta monsters where you come from, any chance?

[throwsdown]

[He flusters, eyes widening faintly.]

I fight monsters! I — I fight aliens, because they make us fight them. It's the games.

Are you from Japan, too??

[dogbane]

Naw, mate, I'm from--

[China. But the declaration of Takeshi's ancestry brings William's fuzzy recollection into sharp focus. He straightens.]

You're Takeshi? [The name has weight to it, the way William uses it. Like it bears the prophesy and promise of Messiah. Which, if you've been living in Heather's shattered world, it sort of does.]

1/2

[throwsdown]

[Someone who knows his name??]

Y-yeah! That's me! I'm here with Heder and Ned. D'you know them?

They're my parents!

[throwsdown]

[He looks down, smiling bashfully.]

M-my space parents. But they're real parents.

[dogbane]

William had heard about Takeshi's Earth parents. They did not seem like [prize-winners at all, and this turn of tiny adorable kid phrasing, as much as anything else, tells William that this is the legitimate for real Takeshi.] Holy fuck, [says the one who has never parented anybody before, any place or plane of reality.] Holy fuck.

[William leaps to his feet in excitement, then totters slightly.] We've got to ow shit. [But not potty right here Takeshi, don't do that. He grasps his head in his hand.]

Heather's been in pieces since you been gone. I can't believe you're back.

[throwsdown]

[Takeshi is totally used to the worst possible curses. He is unfazed. Instead, he makes a scrunched little face of disapproval.]

I didn't go nowhere! I just got in my pod.

[It's not that big of a deal, dude... Right...]

[dogbane]

[William looks a little disbelieving. He doesn't know enough about kids to avoid trying to reason with the small person, so he's all,] Well obviously you bloody went somewhere, you must remember some more time and shit passing between the last time you was back home and coming back this time. [He waves his hands around, still looking a weird combination of sickly green and really excited.]

Did anything bad happen? More crazy shit with your parents and all that, or are you all right? [There are beta blockers and magical potions to prevent PTSD. William has access. He is determined that Heather's babbu return intact.]

[throwsdown]

[He smiles, though it's hesitant, as he looks himself over.]

I-I'm okay. Nothin' bad happened!

Promise...

[3:^( he's pretty sure, anyway???]

sorry for the delay, was super RLed. would u liek to fade?

[dogbane]

You'd better not be pulling my leg, [William warns the tiny person.] Parenting's a fucking high-stakes game, and I won't be murdered over an oversight. [He's kind of mumbling now, still feeling unwell but strangely also much better. The prospect of Heather's happiness is so rare and enticing; he's a bit like a hungover skeptic who's tripped over a baby unicorn.] Yeah, [he mumbles to himself.] All right.

Come on then, let's get you to your mum. [He holds out his hand. Then takes it back. Then holds it out again.] Will you tell me if I'm being creepy, [he asks, wincing at himself. He dk babbis.]

fade sounds good!

[throwsdown]

They won't murder you; Heder's nicer than that!

[But Takeshi gives a firm nod regardless.]

I'll tell you! I'm good at telling.

[He's really not.]