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

[oversight]

[ He smirks, his face reading tired and amused despite the potential subject matter. ]

Haven't figured out I've got stupid and awkward down yet, have you?

[ John un-props himself a second to lean toward her a little, his voice lowered slightly in challenge. ]

Hit me with your best shot. I very seriously wanna know.

[unmakes]

[ alright, john - she'll meet your challenge. sally leans forward a little now too, her chin propped on a palm with an elbow on the bar. ]

Black magic, [ she says, no more hesitation. ] Involving my gross super-dead corpse, and the heart of some dude my roommate killed.

[ which is bad enough on its own, really. but she's drunk, and she doesn't quite process when to quit. ]

But there were all kinds of strings attached. See - like, with magic like that, you either have to feed it or you rot, actual rot. And it's hungry for flesh. I mean, animals work, eating - like, mice and cats and shit, that'll work for a while. But not forever.

[ all without breaking eye contact. then her brows flick up for a second as she tilts her head, like 'chew on that one'.

and that's not even the punchline. ]

And that? That was just the first time.

1/2

[oversight]

[ It's just this face for a couple of seconds... ]

[oversight]

[ And then John shifts completely, his whole posture adjusting with the sudden interest she's piqued. Talk about sobering. He's pretty sure she just admitting to eating potential pets. ]

So, then what? What 'bout the other times? —time? —times...

[ Okay, yeah. Hook, line, and sinker, she's got him on the line. ]

[unmakes]

Oh, y'know. Accidental time travel, creating alternate timelines, the usual.

[ she lifts her glass now to eye how much is left, then downs the rest in one go. there wasn't much, anyway. ]

[oversight]

[ He watches her drink, a thin smile on his face. He's not unfamiliar with the concepts, but it sounds like Sally deals with this stuff on a considerably more regular basis. ]

The usual. [ Such a dubious look. ] So that sorta thing's common? How many times've you time traveled?

[unmakes]

It's actually super not common, I was kind of an anima- [ her brow knits. no, 'animal' is not the word she was looking for. then she exhales a grin and tries again: ] Anomaly. Anomaly? [ that one sounds weird too. fuck it ] And it was only - one, two, three, four-... Like, seven times? And also, also, it was an accident.

[oversight]

[ Just listening to her seems to help bring him a little closer to reality, though he still doesn't feel one hundred percent. He scratches at the side of his head, eyes on her. ]

Really? That's— somethin' else. Those kinda accidents happen all the time or do you got a bunch of super villains over there makin' trouble?

[unmakes]

[ supervillains? she-... what? that's so far down the wrong track that it gives her pause, and she tries to think of how to backtrack and explain but there's just so much of it. ]

I-... It's kind of a long story. Like, this is actually the extremely short version so far, like 5% of it or maybe 6% or something, just a super tiny number. And there's like - fricking magic and vampires and werewolves and the Reaper, kind of, and it's just. A mess.

[oversight]

[ Just another universe nothing like his own, apparently. John hears more about vampires and magics and werewolves than anything else. But super villains? Those he knows better than he probably should. ]

Sounds like it. It's, uh— [ He scratches at his temple. ] —diff'rent. Than what I'm used to. Little hard to imagine, that's all.

So, you miss that or is here better?

[unmakes]

Trust me, I totally felt exactly like that like - I mean, either a year ago or like six years ago, I don't know how bad it screws the math all wiggy with the whole timeline... mixing-upping thing. [ half of that didn't feel like english. her 'yolo' comes in the form of reaching for her glass again, but she remembers it's empty and slides it over for the bartender to trade out instead. ]

And I mean, I guess I kind of miss it? Some of it. I miss my roommates, like - god, I wish they were here. They're pretty much my best friends in the whole world, but then if you go back you don't even remember it here and I don't want to forget. Does that make sense?

[oversight]

Yeah, that's— [ Blake laughs, albeit tiredly, his attention growing distant for just a second. He knows that feeling well — so well. ]

Kinda hard imaginin' leavin' people behind. Hell, harder imaginin' you wouldn't miss 'em, right?

[ Since being pulled from Gotham, Blake hasn't once returned home to not experience that loss but Dean had gone through it more than a few times and it hadn't exactly inspired a lot of enthusiasm in either of them to know for a fact they'd eventually forget each other (and everyone they'd met in the journey since). ]

You get that feelin' yet where you feel bad for wishin' people were here? That's the worst.