Calibration Post 1, "Daytime"

[thespaceopera]

[ Not long after the shuffle, there's a ripple of static over the network - loud, sudden, and seemingly with no origin. It's puzzling, but there's no indication that it's going to happen again...

Until a minute later. Another surge of static comes in over the speakers, and then a voice - one some may find familiar, though not necessarily welcome, after all of this time... It's Diamond. Long time no speak, hmm?

Clearly, not all is well. She sounds very far away, for one. For another, she sounds... skeptical, almost alarmed. There may actually be real concern in her voice. ]

Again? Twice in one c--

[ Her sentence is cut short with a strangled gasp, followed by a moment of silence. What follows may be the sound of metal dragged across metal, but it's hard to place. When she speaks again, it's uncharacteristically monotonous. ]

... Bring them in.

[ A blip of lost time passes right after those words, before every passenger mysteriously wakes alone in their own unfamiliar room. The style of decor resembles that of the Marsiva's Hospitality Deck, if any passengers should remember what that's like. It sounds and smells the same as the host ship as well, all clean and chrome, but this set of rooms has only been used once, and for the very same purpose that befalls the fleet contestants now.

As for their hosts, there is no immediate sign of them, though some may recall a series of hideous, half-electronic screams before their memories begin to blur upon arrival...

Welcome back to the Marsiva, dear passengers. It's time for round two of calibrations. ]

[ This mingle will cover all non-calibration room interactions. Please continue to come back to it for the duration of the plot! You are, of course, free to post any other mingles/posts/etc. that you'd like. ]

Comments

[bi_otic]

[It's certain that he's staring because she's asari, but it's the recognition rather than the lack of it that stops him in his tracks]

They took my camera at the door...

[He blinks, obviously still finding his tongue]

You're asari.

[pb_n_jocular]

[She's about to spoon up another taste of her mix because hey she's actually found something good, but the fact that he says asari causes her to forget about food and look up at him with wide eyes, and then grin, and she drops the spoon and runs over to grab him in a tight hug.]

One of us. Gil and I aren't the only ones! [She steps back and crosses her arms.] I mean, I was kinda used to it from the Angara but having humans look at me like that was just weird.

[bi_otic]

[Kaidan would have accepted another well-deserved piece of snark or even something worse, but the hug catches him completely and entirely off guard. So much so that Peebee is treated yet more bewildered staring even after she gives him a few inches of space. Maybe he can finally say something intelligent?]

...who are the Angara?

[Nevermind]

[pb_n_jocular]

[The smile drops with an exasperated puff of breath. Hopes; dashed and done.] So ...... either you weren't out of Cryo yet or you were never part of the Initiative?

Angara are a native species in the Andromeda galaxy. Well, Native-ish. It's complicated. What about you, what's your story? Why don't you know about the Angara?

[bi_otic]

Option B, I guess. I've never been to the Andromeda galaxy. [He laughs, hesitantly, and mostly at himself] As if it were anything but a one-way trip.

Sorry. My manners are usually better. All of this has been a little...[Weird. Terrifying. Confusing. Uncomfortable.]...you know.

[He sticks out a hand] Kaidan Alenko. Alliance.

[pb_n_jocular]

Uh, yeah; totally one-way trip. A 600-years-in-cryo one-way trip.

[She takes his hand and shakes it enthusiastically.] Peebee, Tempest by way of the Andromeda Initiative. Waking up in a new place isn't new to me.

[She shrugs, adapting to a new place wasn't going to be the problem; it was staying there that was.]

[bi_otic]

[Kaidan finds that the longer she speaks the more the bemused smile grows on his lips. She was kind of an assault on his senses, but not necessarily in a bad way]

Well, you definitely have the advantage there. How...how long have you been here?

[pb_n_jocular]

[Peebee certainly comes on strong.]

Here? Like, a hot minute. Maybe two. Yourself?

[bi_otic]

About, uh...seven months?

[pb_n_jocular]

Yeah? So, how's it been? What can I expect?

[bi_otic]

[Kaidan sighs]

A lot of nothing, most of the time. If these ships have FTL it's hard to tell. There definitely aren't any mass relays. We spend weeks at a time between systems. The tech levels vary a lot people planets...sometimes it's pretty close to what we're used to...and other times it seems ancient. Some of it seems more like...magic? I don't know.

[He makes a small frustrated gesture]

We've only been attacked once since I've been here. By scavengers. We only made it out because another fleet claiming to be former drift fleet members showed up to save our bacon.

It's hard to be sure who to trust. Atroma seems to have more subtle ways to mess with us. Like...[He gestures again, at the ship they're in]...all this, basically.

[pb_n_jocular]

[No FTL, no mass relays, a lot of nothing, he says. Her face falls.]

You can't be serious.

[This is it. This is her own personal hell.]

[bi_otic]

I'm always serious.

[No, he's not. He can't even hold in the smirk.]

[pb_n_jocular]

Uuuuuuuuugh.

[She makes an overly-exaggerated sigh of frustration and slumps dramatically back against the counter.] This is so not cool. How do you keep from getting bored all the time?

[bi_otic]

[Kaidan's uniquely unaccustomed to overt boredom. The periods of silence are only tedious because the fleets ships lack the discipline and routine he's used to]

Try to keep busy, I guess. You joined us during a weird month - we're not normally all on one ship like this. When we go back...if we go back to our own ships...there's another larger ship we can access via shuttle - some kind of alien vessel they captured and retrofitted, I guess? Anyway...they've built all kinds of things inside there: bars, a restaurant, a library....and even a garden. Plenty to do if you look.

[A beat, and he adds wryly]

Or you can sit around plotting your escape. That's my personal favorite.

[pb_n_jocular]

I like the idea of a bigger ship to explore; I think this is how canned food must feel like.

[She crosses her arms and looks away, skulking for a moment, but then gives him the edge of a sharp little grin.] Oh, no matter what I'll do; I'll always be plotting my escape.