Video

[stretchy_girl]

Who: Gemini & Open!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: 23/9

[The Marsiva's Hospitality Deck is cool and sterile as this feed clicks into life, the cameras zooming in on the biobed in the centre of the room. Normally there would be a recognisable humanoid lying there, but today there is a strange puddle of dark blue goop, glossy and rubbery in texture, held in place by a special cradle to stop the material slopping all over the spotless floor. There's only one clue that this is a person; an Augment suspended neatly in the middle of the blob. For a good long moment nothing happens, but then slowly the goo starts to move, twitching at first and then beginning to churn in increased agitation.

It had been a long time since Gemini last experienced unconsciousness and she was extremely disorientated. One moment she'd been closing in for a kill, about to finish her mission and the next she's waking up in an entirely different place having unwillingly reverted to her base form. That fact alone making her very unhappy.

Tentacles erupt from the rubbery mass, seeking to do damage to whoever had captured her, the forest of angry coils knocking the cameras askew, filling the room in a writhing mass as information from her Augment starts to trickle in. The information was unwelcome, the sensation of having a thing attached to her not something Gemini wanted and she immediately tried to detach her cells from it.

It's a good thing she doesn't have a mouth to scream. The tentacles twitch and start to melt, pulling back to the cradle, the whole gooey mass flopping to the floor out of sight, obviously in terrible pain. It's nearly a minute later when one of the cameras is wrenched back around, and now there's a black haired young woman staring into the camera, visibly seething.]

What the hell is this place? Is this some kind of fucking joke?

Comments

[video]

[hot4engines]

[OK, there were talking pink ponies, and then there was... this. Kaylee can't help but stare as all this happens, getting the feeling that this isn't going to be the most unusual thing she sees here by far.

It's a moment before she can speak.]

Uh... you... you okay there?

Re: [video]

[stretchy_girl]

[There's a noise coming out of a device by the side of the bio-cradle she'd been in and one suddenly far too long is stretching out to grab it and turn it on. Predatory blue eyes stare at the girl on the screen, Gemini's expression cold as she appraised Kaylee.]

I'm fine. Who are you? Did you have anything to do with bringing me here?

[video]

[hot4engines]

[And Kaylee just tries to remain upbeat despite that.]

Nah, just another victim. I don't know much about what's goin' on yet, except that we're apparently on a television show.

Re: [video]

[stretchy_girl]

So we're here for the entertainment of whoever is watching? [If she had blood it would be boiling at that thought. Luckily she knows how to act and that might help if she was going to prosper here.]

Is there any particular reason you think they chose you?

[video]

[hot4engines]

's what everybody tells me, anyway. I got no reason to think they ain't telling the truth so far. [Kaylee then smiled.] I know how to keep a spaceship in good shape. Seems like a simple enough reason to me.

[video]

[passingthrough]

[Well, that was interesting. Kitty's seen shapeshifters before—Raven and Morph especially, but neither of them ever looked quite like that. She doesn't recognize the woman who forms, but she has her attention.]

Not a funny one. You're on the Marsiva. Space ship. You've been abducted like the rest of us.

Re: [video]

[stretchy_girl]

[Now that she knows how the communicator works with a little help from her Augment she lifts it up as it chimes, staring with suspicious eyes at the woman on the other end. Another human?]

In space? [Gemini weighs up that revelation, the information stream from her Augment seeming to confirm it as she does her best to hide a burst of fear, covering it with an angry growl.] Abducted by who? [Whoever they are Gemini wants to make them suffer]

[video]

[passingthrough]

That's usually where you find spaceships. [Not that they can't dock on planets.]

The Atroma. Our mysterious overlords. They don't usually show themselves. I've been here for eight months and I've only seen one appearance. [Not withing striking range unfortunately.]

Re: [video]

[stretchy_girl]

I know that! [That gets Kitty a nasty glare and if she didn't need more information Gemini would cut the link right there.]

So we're trapped here? [In space, surrounded by all that icy cold...no she's not thinking about that. Instead she's swinging a kick at the nearest piece of deck-plating intending to leave a sizeable dent.] Rrrr!

[video]

[passingthrough]

[She responds easily to the anger as if it's not there. She's used to dealing with it, but more so she remembers what she was like the first time she was abducted—distrustful of everyone. Hostile. Basically a joy to be around.]

You won't be able to get off the Marsiva until they assign you a ship. After that, you have limited freedom. Which is also known as not really freedom at all.

[She just watches the kick, not concerned that the woman can actually damage the ship and put herself in real danger. She's sure they have safeguards against that. Impressive kick though.]

[video]

[poisoninmypocket]

[That would appear to be a very angry and a very attractive... young lady. Monty will go with young lady, rather than shapeless puddle of goo.]

I am very sorry for the circumstances, miss. I see Ms. Pryde has explained the broad strokes of our abduction. My name's Lord Montague Navarro, but please do feel free to call me Monty. I fear there's not terribly much I can do for you where you are, save make the suggestion that you used your rather extraordinary abilities to attempt to see into other parts of that vessel. Apparently, no one has been able to leave the hospitality deck before being transferred to a ship out in the fleet.

Re: [video]

[stretchy_girl]

[That would certainly be Gemini's preferred reaction, although she narrows her eyes suspiciously at the new face on the screen regardless. She already likes Monty's manners, her mother had taught her to respect anyone with them, although the title and his way of speaking reminds her of a number of rich men she's killed for their fortunes.]

She did. This chip thing's filled in some of the other gaps, that might be an idea though...[She wanders over to one of the air vents for a closer look, kneeling to inspect the millimetre thin gaps in the grille.]

I can certainly get through that. Are you telling me nobody else has tried to get into the vents before? [She doesn't want to get fried by any nasty surprises in there.]

[video]

[poisoninmypocket]

[Sadly, his fortune is gone here.]

Not as far as I'm aware, but I'm quite new, myself. I shouldn't like you to hurt yourself, if you think that's likely to happen, though. Perhaps consulting Ms. Pryde? She seems to be quite knowledgeable.

Re: [video] 1/2

[stretchy_girl]

[That is a pity. She gives him a slightly amused look at the idea that she might herself and a moment later her body is flattening and she's squeezing a now paper-thin head through the gaps in the ventilation grilles, the rest of her body still kneeling by the grate.]

Re: [video] 2/2

[stretchy_girl]

[It's a good few minutes before Gemini pulls her head back out of the grille, looking intensely frustrated as she picks up her communicator once more.]

I don't understand it. There's air circulating in there and I've tried following it, but the ducts just get smaller and smaller until they stop. I pushed a good fifteen to twenty metres in several directions but the same thing happened each way.

video

[takingkarabusiness]

[ well, that's slightly new ]

Not a joke, sorry. It's a fleet of ships? In space?

Re: video

[stretchy_girl]

[Because she's in a very bad mood the new face on the communicator gets a glare, partly because to Gemini she looks irritatingly perky.]

So I've been told. Let me guess, you're going to tell me to make the best of a bad situation?

[takingkarabusiness]

I would never tell someone how to process a situation.

But that is better than a lot of other options?

[stretchy_girl]

In your opinion. [Breaking something or someone is more therapeutic in hers.]

And if there are no good options?

[takingkarabusiness]

Then you take the best bad options?

I'm not sure. People here really are nice and generally want to help.

[Video]

[helladoomed]

[Well, that was...intense. Some kind of shape shifter? And what had Chloe's life become that 'some kind of shape shifter' was not a commpletely insane thing to think?]

[Still...]

[She turns on her end of the feed, reaching up to take the cigarette from her mouth. She's covered up her surprise at least.]

It's a joke, but not the fun kind. The fucked up, no way out, laugh at your misery kind.

Re: [Video]

[stretchy_girl]

[Gemini's got used to all the people appearing on the communication device and while she's not used to the attention at least they're trying to answer her questions. Perhaps she should make an effort to be more civil.]

Wonderful. [There that's her being civil.] It sounds like you're speaking from bitter experience?

[Video]

[helladoomed]

Yup. Goin' on...shit. Over half a year here.

[She hadn't realized it had been that long.]

Re: [Video]

[stretchy_girl]

That long? Merde!

[That is very bad news. So much so that she's flexing her hand as if holding a stress ball, her fingers elongating into razor sharp claws every time she flexes.]

[Video]

[helladoomed]

Other people have been here hella longer.

[Okay. The hand thing? Pretty weird.]

Does that like...hurt? The finger...claw...thing.