(no subject)

[theguidinghand]

CHARACTERS: EVERYONE
LOCATION: MED BAY
WARNINGS: ... Partial nudity? It should be pretty tame, but let me know if I need to add anything.
SUMMARY: Side-effects of a jump may include disorientation and temporary memory loss. Fortunately, there are a handful of others who have been through this before.
NOTES: Yes, it's a rehashing of the game premise. Don't worry, you can personalize your own (re-)introduction!


You wake up, alone in the dark.

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.

Don't worry, you are not alone. There are others who have come before you, others who are awakening beside you. Some may be familiar to you, perhaps even friends. They will help you through your disorientation, even though they might suffer from it too.

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.

This is your welcome party.

Comments

open!

[51stcentury]

Jack wakes up in the gravity couch a bit less violently than he did last time. He doesn't fight the breathing tube, waiting until the liquid drains from around him before pushing it open and stumbling out onto the ground, where he sits for a moment, feeling vaguely nauseous and disoriented. After the feeling passes, he stands and takes inventory of the situation. His clothes are gone - he vaguely remembers giving them away and being shuffled into the gravity couch before. ...Ianto. Eridan. He needs to look around, needs to find everyone, needs to check in on them and make sure they're alright. So he runs a hand through his hair (though he doesn't need to - even covered in the liquid from the tube, he's still as immaculate as ever) and sets off down the hallway, towards the room where the lockers are.

Luckily enough, his clothes are still there, and within moments, he's looking the same as he always does, all blue eyes and wide smiles as he makes his way around to meet the people he can and find the ones he's looking for.

[coffeeking]

Ianto stumbles into the locker room, making his way down the row of lockers and muttering in Welsh under his breath. He hates the grav couches, he's decided. For the second time in far too short a period, his head feels fuzzy and he's drenched in goo. His irritation only increases when he turns the corner and finds Jack, fully dressed and fully aware and fully charming.

He scowls. "I've no idea how, but I'm absolutely certain you cheated to get here before me."

[51stcentury]

Jack smiles, wide and bright and honestly, really relieved to see the other man. A part of him is still expecting to wake up and find the other man had disappeared on him, and considering that they appeared there in the gravity couches he half expected in some far corner of his mind for Ianto to disappear on him this time around. He tries not to let that on, but it might show a little as he steps forward to run his hand through Ianto's hair, taming it down.

"I didn't cheat. I guess I'm just more used to waking up in those sorts of things and getting my bearings." Which reminds him that he needs to take Ianto on a trip with the vortex manipulator sometime. Then maybe he'll understand a little better.

[coffeeking]

There's a bit too much relief in the way Jack approaches him, and it blunts the sharp edges of Ianto's irritation. He's still displeased by the situation, but his annoyance at Jack melts away without protest.

"I don't believe you. You probably discovered the ship is sentient and flirted your way into her favor," he argues without any earnestness. He leans in for a kiss, to reassure his lover and to soak up some of Jack's heat. There's only the slightest bit of lingering pique that allows him some vindictive pleasure as he presses against Jack, the gel on his skin undoubtedly seeping into the other man's clothes as he wraps his arms around him.

[51stcentury]

Jack lingers on the kiss, pleased at the public display of affection despite the company all around them. Ianto isn't always so open with himself in front of people, and the fact that he is and for his sake - he can tell that Ianto's noticed his relief and is reacting to it - makes him smile. "Maybe I have," he says in return. "Are you jealous? I may have flirted my way into her favor but it's you that I plan on going to bed with tonight, if you'll have me." He grins slightly. "We might need to have ourselves another shower or a bath, though. This gel stuff leaves much to be desired, even when you're fully clothed."

[coffeeking]

Ianto finds it hard to be self-conscious about public displays when he's already wearing nothing but his shorts, among a few dozen other disoriented people in various states of undress. If there's anything left to be self-conscious about, he doesn't care. Not when he's cold and Jack has that look on his face. Oddly, he'll probably be more reticent about kissing in public later, when the two of them are showered and clothed.

"If I'm jealous, it's because she likes you so much. Put in a good word for me next time, yeah?" He smiles and teases, a little more on balance now. Jack's kisses seem to have that effect, sometimes. "But I don't suppose she can do much about the public facilities," he complains, wrinkling his nose. He misses shower sex. They'd done it on the ship only once, that first day when they'd been lost in each other and no one else had really existed to them, but not since. Ianto is too paranoid about being walked in on, though he gets the distinct impression Jack couldn't care less.

[51stcentury]

"Mmm, no," Jack says, with a faked sigh. "I think that she enjoys the show, unfortunately for the rest of us. Not exactly the TARDIS, so we're not going to get a new private bathroom springing up out of the blue no matter how nicely we ask. Not unless we happen to stumble on one that already existed. Though it makes you wonder what sort of digs the officers quarters are. Maybe she'll show me to them some day and we can snag a room."

He leans forward to press another kiss to Ianto's lips before pulling back, smirking at him. "Well, we should probably go and get cleaned up. If I know you like I think I do, you're not gonna feel comfortable until we do anyway."

[coffeeking]

Ianto frowns, Jack's words sending the mental gears turning even as he absently returns the kiss and nods in agreement, eager to be rid of the last vestiges of goopy gel. He makes a mental note to ask more about the TARDIS sometime, before filing it away to think on more pressing matters.

"There have to be officers quarters, don't there? And there's only two bloody crew. If Ward has been holding out on us and there's a whole hallway of rooms with private baths somewhere, I am going to be having words with that man." The silent conviction of justice in his eyes, Ianto moves a few lockers down to his own, marked 007, and opens it to retrieve his jumpsuit.

[51stcentury]

Jack trails after him, sticking his hands in his pockets, smiling at the other man's grumping. "'Ward'," he says, repeating the name that Ianto had iterated. "Do you know him, then? You've spoken to the captain of the ship?" Jack himself hasn't managed it yet - not for lack of trying, but he supposes that he's just been busy every time that the captain and his first mate have made any sort of addresses to the ship itself.

[coffeeking]

"Not really. I made some requests when we landed at that station, but he never got back to me. Still, that doesn't mean I won't be able to track him down if I find it necessary." Ianto can track just about anyone down if he finds it necessary, and the ship is really only so large, with so many places to hide.

He pulls on his jumpsuit, making a face at it. He'd really like a suit at some point, or even jeans. Mostly, he'd definitely like a shower.

[51stcentury]

"Requests, huh? Should I ask?" he muses, as he hangs back and watches the other man shimmy into the jumpsuit. Jack can honestly say that he missed seeing Ianto in normal clothes as well, much as he enjoys the jump suit. It's harder to admire the other man's waistline when it's being hidden underneath a one-piece suit, rather than a three-piece one.

[coffeeking]

"I asked for coffee beans and a three-piece suit in my measurements. Barring that, I asked for a sewing machine and materials. He might have found the specifics too difficult to remember," he says cattily. Zipping up his jumpsuit, he sighs. "Right, then. Let's get ourselves to the showers."

Ianto really doesn't mind the way Jack admires his arse in the jumpsuit, but for Ianto, the suits are like the captain's greatcoat. He can get on fine without it, but he doesn't feel entirely like himself when he's wearing something else. It's fine when he wears something more casual on occasion, but that's his own choice and the suits are still hung up neatly in his closet. Here, they aren't. Here, he has one option, and he's less thrilled with that than anything else.

[51stcentury]

Jack makes a bit of a face before he ushers Ianto along the hallway towards the lifts and consequentially, the showers. "I wouldn't write it off too soon. Maybe the handout just got jumbled in the jump. You'll have to ask him the next time you see him. And let him know of his error if he didn't."

As they approach the lifts, he hits the button to go up. "Aparently this is going to be a thing that happens. Every time we make a jump, we need to go in those gravity couches. And apparently, we also get more people every time we jump as well."

Re: open!

[hummerdoc]

Ratchet watches the entire affair, and amused, waits until he is dressed before speaking.

"I've noticed the ones who were here last time react better to the awakening than some of the newer ones."

[51stcentury]

Jack turns at the voice and smiles slightly, with a shrug. "Probably so, yeah. We know what to expect already." He nods to the other man. "I take it that you're not one of the new ones, if you're observing my reaction in those kinds of terms, then, yeah?"

[hummerdoc]

Ratchet shakes his head. "I was here last month. It was moderately alarming to wake up here and in this form at first."

A pause.

"You are not experiencing anything strange?"

[51stcentury]

Jack shakes his head. "Not particularly. What do you mean, though, 'in this form'. What form did you have before, then? I've heard from a number of people on board that something similar's happened to them."

[hummerdoc]

Ratchet thought, deciding how much he was willing to share. "I was not organic in my proper body." That left a lot of room for interpretation, of course.

[51stcentury]

Okay... "If you were not organic, then what were you? I've met a fair number of different people claiming to have been different things over the last few months. Whatever you're gonna say, I'm pretty sure it won't surprise me too much."

[hummerdoc]

Ratchet pondered, then decided to see how much he could shock the other man.

"I would prefer this to not be general knowledge, but I was a autonomous robotic being from a planet not Earth."

[51stcentury]

Jack was surprisingly hard to shock, especially since he'd talked to people on the ship that had supposedly been ships, ponies, and computers before they'd set foot on this place. "So...you just woke up in that pod and you were human, then?" he asked, hoping to confirm the statement.

[hummerdoc]

But what about a giant robot who could transform into a vehicle?

"Yes. I woke up in the pod, quite organic." Ratchet still thinks of himself as a robot, stuck in a fleshly form.

[51stcentury]

Well... At least he was an independant lifeform, unlike HAL? This place just gets stranger and stranger.

"Huh," Jack says, looking the other man over. "Well. I know it might not be what you want, but. How's human life treating you so far, then?"

[hummerdoc]

Ratchet shrugs, a small smile on his face. "As well as could be expected for an unplanned event. It hasn't been too difficult to adjust, even if it wasn't something I wanted."

[51stcentury]

Jack shook his head. "I'm sorry to hear that it wasn't what you wanted, but at least you're adjusting. I don't know how well I'd take to waking up and being a robot myself, if things would have gone in the reverse direction."