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.


----------------

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

[dino_zarf]

Before he answers any questions, Wash is going for a hug. Just a towel be damned. After over a year of jumps, some boundaries just started to not matter as much. Everyone had seen everyone else naked at this point.

"That's a bit of a long story. She's not like any ship I've ever seen before, and there's something about her drives that ends with people on board from different places. Straight out of science fiction."

[compressioncoil]

Kaylee is all for hugs, and she's just happy that, wherever the hell they are, she's got friends.

"Gorram! That's- mighty unsettlin'. You've been here longer'n me." A statement, not a question.

[dino_zarf]

"Yeah, a year and a bit. And I bet you just saw me a few hours ago." Might as well head that one off right away. From the way she reacted to him being here all alive and such, she couldn't be from as far along as Simon. She didn't know yet.

And if Wash had his way, she never would, on board.

[compressioncoil]

It takes her a brief second, but Kaylee nodded. "Yeah. Said g'night to you on the bridge n' went back t'my bunk after checkin' on my girl." Serenity was not hers. But she was all the same.

"But you've been here fer a whole year! D'we all come from the same time? So you remember me sayin' bye?"

[dino_zarf]

"We seem to be a bit spread out. Last thing Zoe remembers is a couple months before me. Simon's a bit ahead." He wasn't sure about exact numbers on that one. But long enough for everything to change.

Which there was no way he was telling Kaylee, has he mentioned that? "No one's rightly sure what exactly's going on with time here. It happens a lot though, people from the same crew being spread out like that."

[compressioncoil]

"Inn'it that somethin'?" She breathes, asking absolutely no one at all. Rhetorical, educated people would call it.

"So we're pulled here on this ship. From differen' times an' others from other ships are here, too?"

[dino_zarf]

"We've even got people here from Earth-That-Was. But for them it's still Earth-That-Is." Sometimes that still seemed like the strangest part. There were just so many people talking about that planet like home instead of a distant piece of history. And then asking what happened. They always asked what happened.

And yet hearing their firsthand experiences was a bit exciting, which he can't keep out of his voice as he explains it.

[compressioncoil]

"You ain't kiddin'" She's still got her hand in front of her mouth as she takes this in. "So we're not just doin' space travelin', we're goin' through time, too?" THEY WERE FROM THE FUTURE! That was so weird. So incredibly sci-fi. "Or maybe just differen't dimensions, iffin' you believe 'n that yap."

Yes. You're traveling through time and relative dimensions, Kaylee. In space.

[dino_zarf]

"Dimensions seem just about the only way of making sense of all the different versions of history folk here keep talking about." Seriously, this place is intensely science fiction. "This place makes a person end up believing an awful lot of yap."

[compressioncoil]

"Gosh," she shakes her head, still holding up her towel. "That's somethin' strange, that's f'sure."

[dino_zarf]

"It is. You, uh, want me to turn around so you can change?" Because you really got far too used to having these discussions with people only wearing a towel. And maybe that's the sort of thing you should do something about.

[compressioncoil]

"If y'want." If he wasn't married, he'd take her in a manly way, after all. Because she was pretty. "You're gonna have t'tell me everything about this place."

[dino_zarf]

Wash does in fact want to turn around. Because while Kaylee is indeed pretty, he is indeed married. "It's a bit of a long story. Stay out of any dark hallways, okay?"

[compressioncoil]

She nods, even though he can't see. "No dark hallways. Got it. I'll make sure t'stay far away from 'any I see. Run right in the other direction, in fact."