(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

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."

[hummerdoc]

"It would be startling, I would think." Ratchet smiled, amused by the idea. Sam would likely adjust well, but still, the thought of being forced into a new body with hout his knowledge went against so many of the precepts he held dear.