ataraxionlogs | (no subject)

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Is it that obvious?" Wichita presses her mouth shut as soon as she's done making that quip, because oh yeah, wow, she might hurl. This is bad. She lulls her head to the side enough so that she can see who's talking to her, but all she can really make out is that hood. Which is a little bit unsettling, but she's not gonna turn this girl away just because of her choice in wardrobe. It's... not like she's doing any better right now in the clothes department.

"Dunno why I'm here, or how I'm here, but- Have you seen a little girl wandering around? She looks like me, and, uh-" She gestures absently with one hand, because what she should really be doing right now is asking for a bucket, but she cares more about making sure her sister is at least nearby. Still, it might be obvious enough that she's about to be sick, her face is draining in color alarmingly fast. "Goes by Little Rock?"

Kasumi doesn't like the shade the girl turns or the suddeness of it, so she jumps back up to her feet and rummages around in the various medical odds and ends in the bay. It's all a bit picked over and unorganized at the moment, thanks to all the people who have down exactly what Kasumi is doing right now in the last hour or so, but she manage to find a metal pan which she brings back to the girl.

Once she's squatting down again, she thinks back through the past few minutes to see if she remembers spotting a little girl. It doesn't take long since Kasumi tends to keep an eye out for children just out of habit.

"Haven't seen any," she says apologetically, "but I just got woke up myself. People around here aren't bad with kids, so I'm sure someone's looking after her if she is here too."

She's actually pretty confused when the girl suddenly stands back up, but she doesn't try to move, instead just sitting with her eyes shut until she returns. Oh. Alright, maybe she is making it clear she's not feeling too hot.

-- And now it's made perfectly clear, because as soon as she's told there's been no sign of any young girls around here, she can't stop herself from releasing the contents of her stomach into that pan. After a few seconds of panting and grumbling because of the sheer ew-factor, Wichita thunks the pan down on the floor next to her and pushes it back, out of sight. Nobody needs to see that.

"So. What, you guys have nap time here?" There's no snark in her tone, but she's not hiding her skepticism either. "I mean, what is this place? Some kinda lab? And I'm guessing there's no virus..." Which seems bogus, but there's no sign of flesh-hungry sick people anywhere, so.

Kasumi's eyebrow ticks up (not that it's visible) at the mention of a virus, but she leaves that be for now. She has the urge to give the girl a pat on the shoulder but ignores that too because not everyone is comfortable with that sort of gesture coming from a stranger. Instead, she rolls back until she's sitting, with her arms looped around her knees.

She prefaces her explanation by saying, "This may sound strange but try to go with it until I'm done." Then she spreads her hands in front of her to take in the medbay. "You're in the medical facility on a spaceship called the Tranquility. The year is 932 After Earth, give or take a few months. We were all put in stasis in these gravity couches," she pats the pod behind her, "during our last jump to keep from getting squished. And somehow we've picked up some newcomers in the process." She lets her own skepticism creep into her voice there at the end and then waits to judge the reaction.

Wichita doesn't let herself think too much about it, because she's sure if she does, she'll end up getting sick again. Which wouldn't be fun. She's back to leaning on her tank and shutting her eyes, still gesturing as she starts speaking again like this is a totally normal conversation.

"So, I'm a... newcomer on a spaceship. And I've traveled in time, somehow, to a year I've never heard of." A pause. "After Earth, what? Exploded? Finally killed itself off? I always wondered if they'd resort to living on the moon if the virus wiped out too much of the planet." Another pause. "I hope that's what this is, that I've been sleeping in a tank of goo for nine-hundred years because I was chosen to help rebuild a new Earth." And a final pause. "But that means Little Rock has to be here too. I wouldn't have agreed to go without her."

Forgive the rambling, wonderful woman who brought her a barf bucket, but this is what happens when Wichita has no freaking idea how to handle a conversation or big news. Act like it all must be a joke, without actually disputing it.

Kasumi notes the sarcasm, but it seems like as good a way of dealing with this as any. Actually, she's a little glad when the girl closes her eyes because she's certain the expression on her face is more transparent than she'd like. She's been in that position before, the "won't leave someone behind no matter what the cost" position, and even if she's lucky enough (for questionable definitions of "luck") to have avoided it this time, she still feels an intense pang of empathy for the people who aren't.

"It's not quite that simple," she begins to say and then stops. She doesn't want to provide too much information and risk burning the girl's brain out just on trying to process it all. This is a time for summarizing, she decides. "There's something about how the ship's engine works and accidental wormholes. The only people who chose to be here are the captain and the chief engineer. The rest of us..." She trails off and shrugs. "Some of us aren't even from Earth. Others seem to have been dropped in straight out of the 1800's. It's complicated."