001: Happy New Year!

[stabsbothways]

Who: Isabela and YOU
Broadcast: Unsuspecting Fleetwide Broadcast
Action: Hospitality Wing, Marsiva
When: January 1st!

[ Everything is wrong. The air: the smell, the temperature, the lack of breeze. Her bed: leathery but not, cold, sterile. She jolts awake and is assaulted with light. The light is wrong. It's too bright, it's too distributed, it's the wrong color. She can't help but swear in the most serious and dire way she knows how. ]

Maker be fucked.

[ She steps unsteadily onto a floor made of alien material, her boots making an audible sound as they make contact.

She's got her armor on but- no, her daggers are gone. No grenades, no bombs. Even her poisoned hairpin is gone. ]

Hello?

[ She starts to wander, looking at strange blinking lights and confusing surfaces which- she knows how to use? What even?? She moves to one console and finds that she can understand the language onscreen, and knows how to navigate the interface. ]

Comments

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[bryces_pup]

[Riona checks the network daily; one never knows who'll show up. And today is one of those days where that mindset pays off.

Her eyes widen when she plays the broadcast and hears that voice. She can't see much of Isabela in any way, but she recognizes the Marsiva. For a moment she hesitates, wondering if this Isabela would recognize her. But her caution loses to her concern and need to help; the potential teasing is worth helping out the newcomer.]

There should be a little black box like thing near where you woke up. Follow my voice to it. You'll be able to communicate with others through it.

[stabsbothways]

[ After a moment of wtf, she finds the little communicator clipped to her corset. Just like the console, she knows exactly how to use it. ]

I am in some type of even weirder Fade now? Who are you?

[bryces_pup]

Ah, not quite.

[Oh thank the damn Maker, Isabela doesn't recognize her. So much awkwardness has just been averted.]

My name is Riona. I was captured and brought here, just like you. Just like the dozens of others.

[stabsbothways]

[ No recognition of the name - although if she had dropped 'Cousland' that would have rung a bell. ]

Isabela. [ She hasn't decided on a new name, yet. ]

Why?

[bryces_pup]

Nice to meet you, Isabela.

[Again.]

We don't know. They claim it's for entertainment. Apparently we have a rapt audience that watches our lives unfold here. Whether or not that's true or just a cover, we haven't been able to determine. Our captors are very, very good at hiding themselves.

video.

[throwsdown]

Hello!

[Soon on the heels of Riona's response - a much younger one!

The round, friendly face pops up on the screen, eager for new company.]

I know someone who'd really like the way you talk.

[His adoptive mother, he misses her muchly. Oh, um - ]

Welcome to the fleet, miss!!

[stabsbothways]

[ Oh there's children around.

She momentarily contemplates cursing less and immediately discards the ridiculous notion. ]

Would you now?

[ Sounds like someone she'd probably like to meet. ]

This is a Fleet?

[ It looked more like a- she had no idea what this looked like. Not a fleet, that's for sure. ]

[throwsdown]

Mhmm! My mom says stuff like shit and ass and stuff.

[Also I have no filter.]

A fleet, like a fleet of spaceships! Have you ever got to fly through space before?

[stabsbothways]

[ This child is adorable. She can teach them so many bad words.

She also frowns condescendingly at the child speaking nonsense. ]

Ships can't fly, and they definitely can't fly through space.

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[ladybro]

Hi.

[ just a plain and simple greeting. nothing more and nothing less. ]

[stabsbothways]

Who are you?

[ Why is a woman showing up just to say hi, are these people completely useless at basic introductions? ]

[ladybro]

[ hey lady you said hello first. ]

Kate. The name's Kate. [ last names don't matter much, she supposes. especially not here. ] You're, uh, still stuck on the Marsiva. Right?

[stabsbothways]

I have no idea what the Marsiva is, and I haven't tried to leave it, whatever it is.

But if I'm drawing the right conclusion, I shouldn't expect too much success if I do.

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[wolfuncaged]

[Sometimes, on very rare occasions, Atroma brings in someone Fenris is actually, legitimately happy to see. This is one of those miracle times. He even has a smile, right off the bat. Mark it in your calendars. ]

Isabela. It's been a while.

[stabsbothways]

Fenris???

[ What. The. Bollocks. ]

...am I dead?

[ This is nothing like what she imagined the afterlife looked like. Either of them. ]

[wolfuncaged]

[Well. That's never a comforting reaction. The smile is gone as quickly as it appeared, replaced by his usual surly frown. ]

Not that I've heard of, and as far behind as I am, I'm sure someone would have let me know if you'd been killed.

[Probably. ]

You're not in Thedas.

[stabsbothways]

Obviously not, if you're here.

[ She's pretty sure news travels slowly to the Fade- or wherever else people go when they die? She'd been to the fade and this looked nothing like it. ]

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[nowyouseeit]

. . . yo!

[poor newcomer, it's obvious she was taken pretty off guard by her new surroundings. idly he wonders if she got welcome pudding, too]

Having a li'l trouble, are we?

[stabsbothways]

Well, kidnapping tends to leave one somewhat off balance.

[ Yes, she knows you're talking about the tech, but she's not gonna be condescended to by a stranger on a talking box. ]

[nowyouseeit]

[snrk]

So does unfamiliar technology, huh. Don't worry, you're hardly the only one.

[stabsbothways]

'Unfamiliar technology' is a dwarven dart trap.

This? This is waking up tanlged in the sheets with a high dragon and trying to calculate how much booze you must have ingested to make it even logistically possible.

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[notanoptimist]

Yeah, I think we're all thinkin' along those lines when we wake up here. [Pause, short wave.] Hello.

[stabsbothways]

[ See this is an important piece of information that people have thus far been neglecting to mention. ]

Who's we? How many of 'us' are there?

[notanoptimist]

Uh... I'd have to look it up, but there's a good number of us, scattered across different ships all drifting together.

[stabsbothways]

[ Maker, there's so many questions, so much confusion. This situation is beyond her. ]

And we're all prisoners on those ships?