ataraxionlogs | thirty-first jump;

Entry tags:

thirty-first 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 is something very easy about waking from the gravcouches this month. The sensation of being watched is absent, and so is much of the sickness - even for those characters who entered Engineering in February. Instead the jump feels comfortable, the stasis fluid warm on your skin, the medbay lights not too harsh as you emerge amongst your fellow passengers. The sensation may be unnerving in its strangeness, but there will be a deep feeling of being well-rested, calm and content, that will not be completely lost no matter how much you question it.

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You wake up in darkness.

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.

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. 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.

This is your welcome party.

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[ elizabeth notes her momentary change in expression and flushes scarlet. not like that! that is not how she meant that to sound. ~~for now.~~ but she, also says nothing further on the subject and allows it to turn back to her sisters with ease and gratitude. ]

Oh, no, she has borne twelve children. My two half-brothers from her first marriage, and nine other babes followed me, three of whom were boys.

Though.. several of my siblings have perished.

[ because only boys seem to bear any importance in medieval terms. ]

I'm terribly sorry.

[ though it would explain the twelve children. first marriage? daenerys may have one ended already herself, but it's still an interesting fact to consider—or it would be, were she actually considering it. instead, dany's mind is driven straight to her own child, dead before he left her womb. ]

How many still live?

Your sympathy is appreciated. [ she smiles a little. ] I thank you.

[ elizabeth closes her eyes and releases a short, soft breath. ]

Seven, including myself.

Your mother must be very strong, to carry on after losing so many. [ she loops her arm through elizabeth's as they walk, squeezing a hand against her forearm in reassurance. ] And you, strong for surviving.

She.. will be. Somehow, and I know not how, here she is from my past. To her, I was a little girl moments before she arrived.

[ she gives daenerys a grateful smile in response to the kind reassurance given as they walk. ]

It is a sad reality, that illness or war or something will claim the lives of many too young. I have four younger sisters to think of. We can do no other than endure.

[ that, she figures, is more than enough about her for now. ] And what of your family, if I may ask?

[ the smile drains from daenerys' face, leaving only a cold, embittered hollowness in its wake. ]

Slaughtered when I was only a child. I am the last.

[ oh, god. elizabeth feels her own face drain into pallor and she stops in order to grasp dany's hands. there is no sympathy in her eyes, only empathy. in her very near future, something very similar will happen to her. and she feels sick inside to know that it has already happened to someone else, someone who is becoming a friend. she meets the other woman's eyes directly, and forces down the knot of emotion tightening her chest without having to swallow it. ]

Then you, too, are strong for surviving. A rose blooming in adversity. [ very gently, she squeezes her hands with her own. ]

You have my condolences for your losses, my friend. Many among my family will suffer a similar fate in my future. It is a pain I would wish not upon anyone.

[ she takes a breath. ]

But for he who ordered such an act.

I do not deal in wishes, only actions.

[ the kindness is gone, replaced by a stony resolve when she looks at elizabeth. a dragon's eyes. ]

I will see to it that those responsible indeed learn the pain of such a fate. I would do the same to those who you believe will bring such strife to your family, if you would give me their names.

My mother would say much the same.

[ her mouth quirks a little upon seeing such a reminder of her parent in this woman. revenge begets naught but more revenge, but she is loathe to allow her enemies to live now that she is aware of their actions in the future. ]

As you must; though, carefully. Else the cycle will continue. [ she closes her eyes. ]

Should ever Henry Tudor or a Lady Margaret Beaufort.. or Stanley, or whatever name she has chosen to don ever awaken here, I would be glad for your aid.

[ dare she ask this next question? ] And who did this to your family, my friend?

[ Margaret Beaufort-Stanley and Henry Tudor. The names are committed quickly to her memory, but she vacillates between revealing her own feud with this girl. It is impossible to begin from rock bottom and learn who to trust through trial and error; she has already been betrayed so much. ]

Robert of House Baratheon would name himself King of the Seven Kingdoms. He led the charge, and the Lannisters held his sword. I understand this alliance was since sealed by marriage. [ News takes time to pass the narrow sea, and they are not personally known to Daenerys. She knows only what Viserys had told her—she had been too foolish and too afraid to hear Ser Barristan out while she'd had the chance. ] You would do well to be cautious of them, should any by the name board this ship.

[ neither of those names are familiar to her, and yet. she hasn't met everyone here in order to be familiar with every name she has heard. but what of faces? tilting her head, she frowns. ]

Do you know what they look like? I have not met any by those names thus far, but a physical description would serve well to watch for them by sight.

[ setting her jaw, she nods. ]

And I will be. Many thanks for the warning.

I've not met them. Had I, they would be no threat.

[ she sounds mournful of it in a soft way that does not match her fury. it is not only her revenge that she longs for across the narrow sea, but her kingdom. she is meant to rule over a land she has never seen. she cannot describe their faces any more than she can describe the halls of her castle in king's landing, or the mountains, trees and marshes that cover her land. ]

[ truly spoken as if her mother had uttered the words from her own lips. "and that usurper will die for it." the comparison is eerie but interesting, too.

elizabeth gives her a measuring glance for a moment, and the nods slowly. dany's resolve has steeled her eyes and set the line of her jaw. she means every word. ]

There is a faceless threat facing my family's throne at home, as well. I understand.

Does this faceless threat come in the shape of Lord Tudor and Lady Beaufort?

[ dany just likes all the information, ok. she asks it calmly, feeling more comfortable now that this has framed itself as an alliance as well as a friendship. they cannot undermine one another, nor are they in each others’ way. it is a secure alliance to make, and one she is confident ser barristan would support. ]

Lady Beaufort's visage is known to me, but Henry Tudor's is not. He is her only son.

[ elizabeth does not usually divulge so much to strangers. but her position and dany's are, if not the same, quite similar in nature. it lends an ease to it that she does not experience often. ]

He is of a bastard line forbidden by law from inheriting, but that does not stop him from wishing to usurp my family to gain the throne. And my hand.

He would not be the first to force a marriage to further ambition.

[ she thinks of viserys selling her to drogo, and how lucky she’d been that he was not unkind. ]

I will see to it that you are warned if I become aware of his presence before you do. He has no cause yet to hide himself from me.

[ she softens, turning to look at elizabeth intently. ] You need not worry.

And he surely will not be the last. But I will not have him.

[ her mother's drive for revenge against richard can go rot. richard is the devil they know. while henry is the one they do not. ]

I.. thank you for that, Daenerys. That is very kind. [ an ally, indeed. ] Your enemies have no cause to avoid me should they arrive. This favour will be repaid in kind.

[ elizabeth offers her a small but genuine smile, softening her face considerably. ] I will try my best not to.

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thirty-first jump;

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