forty-second 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: 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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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

[foundafamily]

Sorry, never heard a' him.

It's like this for everyone, though, so, yeah, he'd be stuck like us too. Doesn't matter if you're immortal or not human or whatever.

[muscovy]

How?

[It really... makes no sense. How would you even kill a nation or someone like General Winter? They are just... beings that exist. You can't just make a whole nation die with a few stabs of a sword.

Also dying is always scary, but for it to suddenly be a permanent option for him...]

[foundafamily]

How? I have no idea.

[He shrugs. He's managed to figure out that his regeneration is greatly impaired, but he has no idea how.]

Whatever you've got that keeps you alive, they just... I dunno, somethin' found a way to mess with it or take it away.

[muscovy]

...So I would die if someone shot me in the head?

[Humans die when that happens to them.]

[foundafamily]

[He doesn't reply right away, feeling a bit like a jerk for saying this to a kid.]

...Yeah, you would. So let's make sure that doesn't happen, huh?

Since you asked, I'm guessin' it usually wouldn't be like that for you?

cw gory imaginary

[muscovy]

I always try not to let it happen because it hurts and it means that my people aren't well. And it hurts even more to get the arrow back out of your head. [Reasons why he sometimes leaves them there for a bit. Surgical operations on your own head aren't the easiest thing around.

He slowly shakes his head at the question.] We stay as long as we have people.

[foundafamily]

[Even having died himself and knowing another immortal child, Firo can't deny that there's something disturbing about watching a little kid talk about taking a freaking arrow out of their head. He blinks and tries to keep smiling. Without much success.]

Uh... Yeah, that doesn't sound fun. But you're the only person I've seen so far with a bow and arrow, so hopefully you don't hafta worry about that.

[He frowns, thinking harder about the kid's words.]

...You wouldn't happen to be like Ned and Russia, would ya? They talked about their "people" too.

1/2

[muscovy]

But people will still have weapons, or use things as weapons, and there will always be things that can get stuck. [So even if he is the only one with bow and arrow, something similar could still happen. He really hopes that it doesn't, but you can't just rule out things like that.]

2/2

[muscovy]

[But then Firo continues and Muscovy's eyes go wide, the bright purple in them very visible as he looks up at the other immortal.

Russia. He doesn't know who Ned is, but he has heard the name of Russia, and he has been told that it is likely that Russia is a nation that he will once become - it seems to cover the area that he lives in, the capital is Moscow which is one of his own capitals. And he knows that Russia is strong and has many friends. He was looking forward to becoming Russia.

But what does it mean then that there is a Russia here?]

There is a Russia here?

[foundafamily]

[Well, at least this kid is savvy. Though, admittedly, Firo'd hoped that his comment would be a bit more comforting.

He blinks at the kid's reaction and then it hits him. Oh, crap, those eyes are pretty damn similar.

He's hesitant as he continues.]

Er, there was. I... I don't think he's around anymore. He was a big guy, kinda hard to miss.

[muscovy]

Was he your friend?

[He's asking both to know how Firo thought about him and... if they were friends, Firo should know a good deal about that Russia, shouldn't he?]

[foundafamily]

[Given the resemblance between the two--those eyes are rare, so odds are they have to be related--how can Firo say no to that question? He definitely didn't have anything but good feelings for Russia, besides.

He smiles.]

I didn't get to know him too much, but he was a good guy. Gave me a bit a' advice back when I was new to this place.

[His look becomes mischievous, as he thinks of one of his talks with Netherlands and Russia.]

Much friendlier than his pal, that's for sure.

[muscovy]

Did he tell you anything about his childhood?

[If the question sounds weird by itself, then it doesn't get less odd when taking into consideration Muscovy's expression when asking - anxious and nervous and just a bit hopeful. This is a very crucial question, after all.]

...What is "Ned"'s full name? [Maybe he can ask him, if this nice man doesn't have an answer for him. If "Ned" is a nation, too, he should know.]

[foundafamily]

Childhood?

[Firo's first thought goes to the scars, though he's not sure if those came when Russia was a child or an adult. He's not going to mention that, though, and he reaches back until he remembers what little snippets of the past he'd asked about.]

Uh, he told me about his sisters. Watchin' his people grow up, that kinda thing.

...Netherlands, I think. He's real tall and got this weird, spiky hair.

[muscovy]

What did he say about his sisters?

[foundafamily]

[Firo scratches his head and tries to remember. It's difficult; the conversation was a long time ago and his brain is cobwebby.]

Said he had two of 'em. ...I don't really remember their names. U-somethin' and Bella-somethin'?

[muscovy]

[The names don't sound a bell, but two sisters... there aren't many girl nations at all, his sisters are the only ones that he knows and those other female nations that he has heard of - the mothers of Greece and Egypt are dead, and Vietnam is terribly far away. If that Russia has two girl siblings, it probably really is him.]

Did he describe them at all?

[foundafamily]

Not to me. Sorry, kid.

[There'd been a lot of things he'd wanted to ask the guy, but the transient nature of people's presences on the ship had thwarted that.

He's cautious about asking too much and frightening the kid off, but Firo figures he can venture a question.]

You got siblings too?

[muscovy]

Two sisters. And I think they are the same ones. Russia is from the same area as I am, east of Poland and Lithuania, just in the future, and there are very few female nations, and only two in my area. Kiev and Minsk.

[foundafamily]

Yeah? To be honest, you even kinda look like him. Same eyes and hair.

[And it's not as if they're all common features.]

[muscovy]

Then John was probably right and I will be Russia.

[Nodding thoughtfully at this, a smile on his lips.]

[foundafamily]

You will? So you're just him as a kid?

...Wouldn't that just make your name Russia, though?

[Which wouldn't explain why the kid had to figure out who he'd be in the future... Firo's missing some key information, obviously.]

[muscovy]

I have a couple of names now. Muscovy is just the one that most of my people would identify themselves with, if they had to pick one. So maybe they will pick a new name when they are all together.

[He isn't quite sure how it will work - he figures that they will want to think of themselves of the descendants of the Kievan' Rus, because his sister is pretty and scary and people like their nation to be that way.]

[foundafamily]

That's gotta be confusing, isn't it? Which one do you like?

[muscovy]

My lord father called me Muscovy [or terms of endearment, but those don't count] and it would be the safest if people call me Muscovy, yes?