Let the games begin!

[thespaceopera]

[several days late, as has been the trend lately, the Shuffle's transmission plays for the Fleet.

...or, it tries anyway. the music doesn't even make it--just a punch of static with sad, scattered pieces of musical notes trying to struggle their way through.

when Diamond's voice is finally heard, it's only intelligible in three little bites.]

--Three disappearing from-- ... --new faces, so-- ... --Captain Halliwell--...

[and then the music blends strangely with other sounds, like someone flipping idly through broken radio stations. it takes some time for anything to come in clear, and every frequency turns up the same interference. it isn't until several minutes later that one signal suddenly stutters into clarity, and music begins to play.

wherever you are, they are playing your song! and if there are multiple people in the room, maybe the speakers nearest to each person are playing different songs, each specific to the closest passenger. and after the signal connects, the speakers will continue to play whatever song they started with, even if different passengers move toward or away from them, and will only play something else when the controls are messed around with. and the signals and machinery will continue to behave in this way sporadically, all through the month.]

ooc: the musical madness has begun! feel free to use this post as a mingle for interactions relating to shuffle day and the ensuing musical chaos. if you have any questions, please post them to the January ooc post!

→ Shuffle ooc post
→ January system ooc post

Comments

red fish action

[aberrant_type]

[She's curious about what's going on with Diamond, of course... but something about the music ringing out of the speaker nearest her captures her attention above and beyond that.

Hange leans her head close to the speaker. She can be found there with her eyes hooded, listening to the music; occasionally she shifts, energy contained but very restless.

Something about this music makes her want to be home right now. Maybe battling. Outside the walls, outside this ship, for sure...]

[theboogieman]

[he was just passing by--he just figured this was going to be another stupid announcement. but it dissolves, and something unexpected fills its place, and he doesn't really realize that he'd stopped to listen until the song is winding down.

...it starts to play again. it's...]

...A music box.

[aberrant_type]

[She opens her eyes and lifts her head a little. Right. She's on this ship with other people. Right.]

It sure sounds that way.

[theboogieman]

... Is it yours.

[he seems somewhat cautious about it, like he doesn't want to disturb her... or the music, maybe.]

[aberrant_type]

[She pulls at her lip thoughtfully, looking away from him. For once her face isn't doing weird things; she seems very serious, and kind of dark in that thoughtfulness.]

It seems to be... [Because she doesn't exactly recognize it: it just infuses her with the desire to be out and free.]

... Maybe. A ridiculous possibility, huh?

[theboogieman]

[he shakes his head. monsters are real; he's living among the stars. anything can happen. after another moment of silent pondering, he decides:]

Sounds like... Openness.

[aberrant_type]

[She does the thing where she laughs in her throat and then gets up, abruptly, and paces back and forth across their narrow little room.]

I'll tell you one thing, it's an open place outside the walls.

[Even if it's been years now since she's been properly outside them - outside all three walls. Ah, to be home again...]

[theboogieman]

[he watches her getting worked up (at least, that's what it looks like), and... reaches out to grab her shoulder. nice and slow-like, so no surprises.]

[aberrant_type]

[She tenses, but there's no other reaction. Then she relaxes because she makes herself. Zhas gets a smile, but it's more a deliberate signifier - "everything is fine" - then a real expression.]

[mortalcoil]

[Coil almost flutters into the room, moving nothing like he usually does. he's flustered, on high alert, spooked out of the back room by whatever song had been playing in there.

he kind of fumbles and slows to a halt in here, though. even though they're never far apart from each other, he still hadn't expected anyone to be right there, and hadn't expected another song.

...and something about this one doesn't make him feel much better. just kind of staring, a little haunted.]

[aberrant_type]

[She moves like a coiled-up thing herself, the reflexive controlled motion of the career soldier caught slightly off guard. Brown eyes cut at him for a second and then after a moment she sort of smiles. It's a reserved expression in and of itself, betraying nothing, more meant to show that he's not offending her by stumbling in... not that she expects he'd care if he did.]

Problem?

[mortalcoil]

[he's not put at all at ease by that expression, so his own anxiety remains ratcheted one or two notches too high. he glances back at the doorway, listens to make sure the music hasn't followed him in here.

and then he puts an intent glance back on her, and then to the nearest speaker. he points at it--questioning but kind of vague and alarmed about it. he just wants to know what's going on.]

[aberrant_type]

Did you hear this or something else?

[He's not going to be able to answer that question unless he signs it. She sighs shortly, through the nose.]

Hold up one finger for this, two for something else.

[mortalcoil]

[he sighs too, but he'll put up with the extra hoops for the sake of not having to come up for some other gesture to make up for it.

two fingers up.]

[aberrant_type]

[Her eyebrows rise. And it seems to have unsettled him too. How interesting.]

Everyone gets music, I suppose.

[She's here talking to Coil and looking at him but not really looking at him. Clearly, wherever this music has taken Hange, it's somewhere far from their cramped little ship.]

[mortalcoil]

[and, really, that is the way he prefers her. he's most comfortable around her when she's aimed somewhere else.

and he'd love to leave her that way, but he eventually points at where a music-box melody is plinking away from, and then points at her?]

[aberrant_type]

[She settled almost immediately back into distant silence, pulling at her lower lip thoughtfully and only watching him out of the corner of her eye.]

Mmhmmm...

[And then she straightens up. Curiosity strikes her suddenly and she makes for the room Coil just left. Maybe something different is playing on the speakers there...]

[parricida]

[Well, well. This is interesting, isn't it? An old Cardassian hymn, one that's simultaneously both sad and prideful, one that speaks of the bitterness of defeat, as well as tomorrow's hope. He'd been humming it mindlessly, on and off, when he was stuck in the prison camp in his universe . . . and now here it is, playing, sounding just as clear and beautiful as it had the first time he'd heard it.

Someone is playing games. Garak isn't particularly amused.

But he keeps his smile on as he rounds the corner and notices Hange. She looks more a girl than she had before-- but then, this isn't the captain, intently curious and wary. This looks more like a young woman lost in her own thoughts, and part of Garak is loath to interrupt her.]

[aberrant_type]

[He doesn't need to interrupt her. After a moment, knowledge of his presence or intuition that she's being watched or something (because she'd decry intuition as nonsense anyway) makes her jerk her head his way, and for a second she almost glares before she's taking a grip on herself and trying to smooth her expression out.

She's very good at that.]

Garak...

[parricida]

Enjoying the serenade?

[His own smile fades somewhat. He gets to his knees, enjoying the music.]

[aberrant_type]

Haha... I suppose that's what it is.

[For her own part, she straightens up.]

I wouldn't have taken you for a music aficionado.

[parricida]

One can always spare time for the classics. And this one happens to be a favorite of mine.

[aberrant_type]

[After a moment she lifts her head and comes nearer him, the better to listen to his music.]

[parricida]

[He tips his head back and lets his eyes close. It's been ages since he's heard a proper Cardassian song-- it's not a good idea when surrounded by people your species recently tried to conquer to indulge too much in your own culture.]

Mm. I suppose this is an attempt to be clever and raise 'ratings'-- but I must say, I do enjoy it.

[aberrant_type]

I suppose it must be. [She wonders, what with how it interrupted the official transmission... but thinking about that can wait for this little while. This tune is melancholy, even if it's driven too. Hange's music box plings away in the room behind her.]

A little sad, no?