ataraxionlogs | forty-second jump;

Entry tags:

forty-second jump;

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: There's a strange sense of contentment that greets you as you wake from the jump. Deep and certain, it doesn't warm you or cloak the unpleasantness of the stasis fluid on your skin and the disorientation spinning in your head. It feels disconcertingly distant, instead, a sense as though an answer has been decided on - and that you won't much like to experience it coming to fruition...

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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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 ̧Ａ̨ＲＥＮＯＴ҉ ̷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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Anyone who happens to be either just emerging from the pods or perusing them attempting to help any potential new arrivals will be treated to a very unique sight this jump: a towering, muscular alien that appears to be made of ice is suspended in the glowing blue fluid, breathing equipment hooked into the four gills on each side of his thick, serpentine neck. Just like usual, his eyelids flutter, and as the machines register his level of consciousness the equipment retracts and the fluid begins to drain. Glacius falls to his hands and feet in the medical bay, getting his wits back back about him. He lifts his head and then rises to his impressive full height.

Immediately his glowing green eyes narrow. He has no idea where he is. The last thing he remembers is cornering the thief who took his technology, only to have her use it to open some sort of inter-dimensional portal in her defeat. Did he get pulled through? Is this where Sadira intended him to end up--is he back in the clutches of Ultratech, or did he end up somewhere else? Somewhere unknown?

Whatever the case, one thing is clear: he is now further than ever from his mission and his people. He battles briefly with his longing; he'd thought he'd been on the verge of returning to the solace of his homeworld. Now it appears he's going to have to endure yet more trials, the nature of which he cannot even begin to guess. Feeling thwarted--angry and lost-- Glacius begins stalking out of the medbay. This is your one chance to catch him; he's in unfamiliar territory, so he's going to be doing his best to avoid detection until he knows what he's up against.]

[Firo's walking by on his way to the showers, batting at the sleeve of his standard-issue jumpsuit to try and remove some of the podgunk that's latched onto it. Wearing clothes into the pods is hardly comfortable, but to him it's better than sacrificing any modesty.

Preoccupied with that action and the pounding in his head, he nearly runs into the alien despite his size. Firo stops himself just in time and stares up at him.]

Holy...

[Usually not the most polite person, especially when addled by jump sickness, Firo nonetheless winced as he realized that his reaction might be just a little rude.]

Uh, no offense, pal. You're just... You might be too big for our towels here.

[Glacius is probably just as surprised by this human almost stumbling right into him, though he doesn't really show it. Most of his cues are a little harder to read; his head jerks up slightly and his eyes narrow in confusion. This human is... talking to him? He scrutinizes Firo a moment longer, trying to piece together what he's talking about. A quick glance down at his body, dripping wet with that strange blue fluid, catches him back up. Right. He can't absorb this into his icy outer skin like he normally would with water; the alien shakes a limb once, as if he's just not realized what he's coated in and is disgusted by it. Someone was apparently very preoccupied with their confusing arrival.]

That is the least of my worries, it seems.

[Firo isn't sure if that's supposed to be a joke or not, but he laughs anyway. He nods, gingerly due to the headache.]

Yeah, I'd hafta agree with that. You new to this place, then?

[It can be hard to tell when people aren't at their lockers, but the statement seems to hint at it enough.]

Edited 2015-04-22 00:58 (UTC)

[Humor is one of the stoic alien's weak points; he's pretty unfamiliar with it, particularly humanity's often unique take on it. The alien's shoulders rise slightly at the laugh, like he feels like he's suddenly been made the brunt of some sort of joke.]

Yes. I fail to see the humor in this situation. [Really, he's pretty upset and stressed out about this... he just doesn't externalize things unless extremely pressed, as Firo might be gathering.]

Oh. I thought maybe you were... nevermind.

[He's not sure if he offended the guy, but he should probably just let it drop. This all is a lot to take in.]

Yeah, I'll admit right now it's pretty damn weird. And there's probably people who can explain it to you better that I can, but I've been here a while and I can tell you what I know.

[Congratulations--that actually gets a more noticeable reaction out of him! Glacius' eyes widen a little bit, and he looks down on the human as if reconsidering him. Information is valuable; they've barely been talking for a minute and this person is offering what he knows to him?]

...This had better not be some sort of trick, human. I've been swayed once by kind words to undesirable results. [Would he be a fool to trust a human again? Or would it be more idiotic to refuse help and remain in the dark in this highly unfavorable situation?] ... If your offer is genuine, you... do have my appreciation.

[Firo nods and offers a cautious half-smile. He can understand being suspicious of people, especially in a place like this.]

I'm not even armed right now, if that's what you're worried about.

[He holds his empty hands up in view before casually slipping them into his pockets. Of course, anyone could do a lot of damage without a gun or knife--but they didn't need to make things complicated with that detail, did they?]

And there's enough trouble around here without me tryin' to take you down, so.

[He shrugs.]

Honestly, there ain't all that much I can actually tell you, so don't go thankin' me yet. But I can tell you where you are and how to get along in this place.

[Glacius gives a quiet little snort at the display; honestly, he's not really worried about engaging in combat with anyone. There's a raw strength to him, as well as a myriad of other more unique powers that he hasn't put on display and likely will not as long as he can get away without doing so. He's more worried about underhanded plots; someone trying to sell him a lie in order to capture or study him... this situation is already falling too close to the former in his mind. He needs to figure out how to have a word with those that head this ship.]

Any knowledge is helpful when it comes to such an unknown situation. You have my attention.

Usually people at least ask a few questions to get me started.

[This guy's calm. A little weirdly calm. But Firo can still work with it, so his comment is yet another joke.

He barely leaves room for a breath before he continues, batting more pod goo out of his hair as he talks.]

All right, so, this place is a "spaceship." You got brought here during the "jump," which is when it, like... moves around. The things around us? Those're "pods," and you're gonna get real familiar with 'em if you stay here a while, because they're the only thing that keeps us from gettin' turned into jelly when there's a jump. Which happens a lot.

[He says a lot of the terms with some uncertainty; this technology is far ahead of his time and still a little weird, despite all the time he's spent here.

He finally leaves room for questions when he comes up for air.]

[Calm is one of Glacius' strongest traits--he's kept his resolve and his cool head in situations that were a lot hairier than this currently feels. He snorts a little again at the human's inflection when he uses those terms, folding his arms.] I am familiar with space travel. [Though the mechanics and technology of this are different than what his species utilizies. That's something he's not going to comment on out loud, preferring to play the capabilities of his species and himself close to the chest.] What I want to know is... how I got here, and who was responsible for this.

I'm not, really. This is my first time on a spaceboat.

[He shrugs, as much of an apology for his ignorance as he'll offer.]

For exactly how, I can't really help you. The people who were runnin' this thing didn't exactly tell us much.

If we're gonna believe them, they'd say the ship brought us here. By accident.

[Firo refrains from rolling his eyes, but it might be evident from the crossing of his arms that he doesn't put stock in those words.]

That doesn't suprise me; when I visited your species they had not yet achieved such levels of technological advancement. [He makes the remark in a sort of off-hand fashion, but it's clear that he doesn't view Firo any lesser for it. Humans were a young species. Anyways, Glacius seems to believe those words about as much as Firo himself does; he simply shakes his head, rubbing briefly at his temples.] I would very much like to converse with the people in charge of this vessel. They have made a grave error in bringing me here; I wish to be released before things come to conflict.

You..?

[Visited his species? Firo blinks and stares in confusion for a moment, mouth hanging open.

He blinks again to try and get on track. But he's definitely remembering that remark to ask about later.]

You're probably not gonna find 'em, to be honest. They don't talk to us too much, and when they do, it ain't in person.

[Well, he visited humanity in general; being completely new here, Glacius has no idea that each indidivual can be pulled from a different 'universe', or so to speak. The alien narrows his eyes slightly when he hears Firo's next answer.] Why not? Do they have something to hide? Surely they must be on this vessel somewhere--we should track them down and make them answer for this. [His expression is hardening more and more. This doesn't sound good; so he was brought here, along with an undetermined number of others, and those that pilot this ship won't take responsibility for this?] I will not stand for being kept prisoner--and my species won't allow it, either, once they get word.

Somethin' to hide? Probably. They've barely told us a damn thing.

[He exhaled huffily, full of irritation.]

Last time people went lookin' for 'em on the bridge didn't go so great.

[He shrugs, a movement that's too rough to be casual.]

Sorry, pal, but your people might have a hard time figurin' it out. I don't know too much about it, but apparently we've all been pulled outta our worlds into this one.

[Glacius emits a sort of low growling note.] What happened when they attempted to access the bridge? I had important affairs that I was attending to. I cannot--wait a minute. What do you mean, 'out of our worlds'?

[He's going to have a hard enough time contacting his peopl when he's been stolen away to some random ship in space, without access to his ship or his technology. This just sounds like all kinds of trouble.]

[Firo nearly responds immediately to the first question, but he shuts his mouth and waits as the guy keeps speaking.

He can't deny that the first question is still very important, even if he understands the distress that can result from being told you're as far as possible from home.]

They almost got stuck there during the jump. Couldn't get to the pods for a while--meanin' they'd turn into pancakes.

As for the part about our worlds... I'm not sure how to describe it, but everybody here's from a really different place. It's not like we're just on another planet or somethin' right now, we're in a completely different place.

[Glacius seems to struggle with this. It's a lot to be told upon first waking up, and he's not yet entirely sure if he believes it. The human could just be toying with him... though he isn't getting that sense from him just yet, he's come to regret his trusting nature before. The alien drops his gaze and stares down at his icy white hands, considering what it means if it's all true.

It means he's been displaced even further from home. His mission is in jeopardy now; when they don't hear from him, his people will probably suspect that he failed and his life was claimed on earth. They might seek revenge on its inhabitants, or they may simply cut their losses and abandon any attempts to make contact with humanity again. And what's worse, he doesn't know when he'll ever get to see them again if what this human is telling him is true. Everything he suffered, he did it with the intention of making the galaxy safer for his own; everything he went through, he endured because he knew in the end he would get to return to the arms of his people. This is... even though he knows he can't give up hope so easily, it's a staggering sort of emptiness that's threatening.]

... Why? Why are they doing this?

[Firo's own mission at home wasn't quite as dire as the alien's and definitely not on such a large scale. But he could still understand the desperation one would feel when kidnapped like this. He had people back home who needed him--he couldn't be here.

So his frustration is evident in his voice and the tension in his shoulders, but it's definitely not directed at the other.]

Who the hell knows? Most a' the time it seems like they want us here just to torture us.

Torture? [Wow, this keeps getting worse and worse.] No--no. I cannot abide this. I will not stand for it! I must figure out a way to get out of here, back to my mission... to my people.

[Firo's shoulders slump a little more, his voice not unsympathetic.]

Listen, if we knew a way outta here, I wouldn't be talkin' to you right now. I've got crap to take care of back home too--a lotta us do.

Sometimes people do just disappear, but we can't make that happen ourselves. Don't even know what happens to 'em.

Where does that leave us? Just keeping our heads down and enduring the trials of our captors? [That hits way too close to home. Glacius hisses, clenching his fists.] I won't give up. I'll find a way to... I don't know. Escape, or get word out... but I will not accept this.

We've been findin' out what we can.

[He can't help but feel a little defensive. It's not a lack of wanting or trying that is keeping them from going home.]

Everybody's said the shuttles we've got can't travel far enough to get us away from here. And we've got these communication device things... but we've only been able to talk to people close by. And even then, only usually when they talk to us first.

[He dares to sound a little hopeful.]

...I'm all ears if you've got any ideas, though.

[The alien tilts his head.] In time, perhaps. Right now I have no idea where I am or what I am even dealing with. It would be unwise to launch any plans without getting my bearings. [And no offense to Firo, but he'd like to get to know someone before he potentially ropes them in on anything!]

Glacius | Pods - OTA!

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