GOLDSTONE OCTOBER MINGLE

[spacebro]

Who: Goldstoners and visitors and lurkers, oh my!
Broadcast: In prompts maybe
Action: Goldstone
When: October

[There have been some mysterious energy drains registering not only on the sensors but in the way the lights seem to dim for a few moments before returning to their normal strength. Maybe a non-essential computer terminal goes dark and needs to be rebooted. It's not causing any damage, but it is mysterious, no?

If you investigate through some special ability or using the ship's diagnostic tools you'll probably come to the conclusion that the energy is funneling into sleeping crewmate, Mon-El's, room and actually right into Mon-El himself. Alien cells are weird, guys.

It only lasts a day or two before he's awake and leaving the ship's energy where it belongs!

And enough about Mon-El, we have a new crewmate (Alphy) and a dead crewmate (Okita). These are exciting times!]

Comments

OTA | Mon-El

[spacebro]

[CLOSED TO KARA]
[He might as well have been marble for the last two months. He just laid in bed motionless, not even dreaming the kinds of dark dreams some of the others had to deal with in the recent star system. He probably looks a lot like he did back when he was in a coma after his space journey to Earth or even that time he was dying of the Medusa virus (he got better.) But he's looked this way long enough, so the first change is a shift in his regular breathing pattern. Just the smallest hitch followed by a deeper breath and then an almost imperceptible tilt of his head before his eyes slowly blink open letting in light and the forms around him.]

[OPEN TO ALL!]
[Look, everyone! The less effective security officer is back up and on his feet and walking around and really, really, really, really, really hungry. So you'll probably find him in the kitchen trying to get full on protein gels and wheat solids. Expect an elaborate tower of these not-so-coveted substances. Also, expect him to eat it in one large bite.

Visitors welcome.]

[takingkarabusiness]

[ Kara hadn't been there for long, but she had the urge to go over and sit with Mon-El for a bit, and to read. When his breathing changes, she closes the book she's working on and watches him, heart rate increasing. She reaches for his hand, trying not to crowd him but wanting to let him know she's there ]

Mon-El?

[spacebro]

[His lips curl instinctively into a smile when he hears Kara's voice. There's a sluggishness to waking up after being out for so long, but it's also partially offset since a certain girlfriend kept him charged up with yellow sun alternative while he was out. Compared to his last coma it was barely long enough to register it as anything but a night's rest. Maybe one after a hard night though. Was he drinking the superbrew? He can't quite remember.]

Did I sleep in?

[onlyanapple]

[Crowley wanders into the kitchen and oh, there's Mon-El. Eating...basically half of their food in one sitting. Not that Crowley especially minds. He folds his arms, letting out an amused scoff. ]

Well. Sleeping beauty finally woke up and decided he needed carbs huh?

[spacebro]

[Is that a bad way to do space rationing? He did grow up with a certain amount of privilege baked in since he was prince and all.

There is a muffled word as he works through a big bite followed by a more understandable nod.]

It tastes better when you're really hungry.

Jayden Price | OTA

[stormfist]

[ Jayden is... not doing so hot. She didn't realize Okita was lost in the disaster until she'd returned to the Goldstone, so that makes two people she lost. And considering the other was Aizawa...

She spends a lot of time not on the Goldstone - she looks after Ochako in Aizawa's absence, and that takes absolute priority for her. But when she is on the ship, she's either sitting in her quarters with the door closed, running on the treadmill in the cargo bay, or... sitting in the pilot's seat, not moving, barely even blinking, staring at a spot way off in the distance - probably not even real. ... Yeah. She's doing that badly.

You might catch her awake long after most others on the ship have gone to sleep, sitting in the kitchen with a mug of coffee, hair a mess and huge, dark circles under her eyes. She won't speak unless spoken to, but she's around. ]

[aetherflows]

[Alphinaud makes a soft noise of surprise as he enters the kitchen and finds someone else there. He has a small bound book beneath his arm, one that is too thin to be a scholarly tome and has the look of a journal.]

Ah—

[She doesn't look all that well and... really, he can't say he's doing much better. He glances at her mug. He remembers, a very long time ago, being in the same position and having a friend offer him a cup of something hot. It'd staved off the cold of Coerthas. It'd given him hope.]

Should I come back later? I do not wish to disturb you, [he says quietly.]

[stormfist]

[ She looks up at that startled noise, just frazzled enough to have tensed up with the motion, but when she sees it's just him, she relaxes again. She shakes her head, vaguely waves at the rest of the table as a gesture that he's fine if he wants to sit. ]

No, it's okay. You're not disturbing me.

[spacebro]

[Mon-El hasn't gotten to know Jayden very well, but as he moves around the ship, stretching his legs and avoiding any more of that tricky sleep stuff he can't help but notice her in the pilot's seat looking more than a little distracted.]

Are you asleep with your eyes open? Some species can do that. [Also, hi, he's awake again. No more ship draining so that's a relief?]

[stormfist]

[ It takes her a full second to realize she's actually being spoken to, admittedly. fjdskl She makes herself focus, looks up at him, and snorts. ]

Can't decide if that sounds like a good thing or a bad thing. [ She shakes her head, presses the heels of her palms to her eyes. ] Mm, no. Wasn't sleeping. Just... not all here. [ She drops her hands and looks up at him again. ] Welcome back, by the way. You okay?

[noprophecies]

[it's because everyone frequents the kitchen late at night that she has started avoiding it, but sometimes even she's a creature of habit, and sometimes a cup of tea is necessary. She isn't all that surprised to find Jayden already, and she considers what to say as she goes about making herself a cup.

Finally, she settles on the only thing that comes to mind:]

Should you not be asleep?

[sayeth the hypocrite]

[stormfist]

[ Jayden doesn't mind people coming and going. She even nods when Tempest walks in, though she doesn't say anything. Well, until that question comes. ]

Probably. Shouldn't you?

[ Not at all snippy - a genuine question. ]

action

[lord_wizard]

[If Jayden is paying any attention at all...which is doubtful...Felix actually strides into the kitchen once, pauses to notice her, then fixes himself a snack without attempting to engage her in conversation even once. Normally he's a talkative man himself, but the fixed expression on her face gives him pause.

However, not long after disappearing the first time with a speculative frown between his eyebrows, he reappears and slides into the a seat opposite her at the table, where he immediately starts to sort a deck of cards.]

I think it says something about me that I have not bothered to procure a more regular set of playing cards, but these fortune telling cards do the trick, provided one takes the time to sort out the trumps first. It all amounts to the same in the end. These are just a bit more interesting to look at...

[There is of course no nicety like a greeting, but the blandness of the statement, outside of it coming out of nowhere, is his way of testing the social waters]

[throwsdown]

[Takeshi had lost one crewmember, so... he doesn't want to fail the others.

He keeps track, quietly, watching each of the team and trying to follow there they're going or where they've been. He knows from studying that Miss Jayden's having a really hard time of it, but really, if you've got eyes and you're in the vicinity you can see as much. He goes one day to her, giving her a warm little smile.]

Miss Jayden? Do you think you can help me out?

... Umm. Hoi Hoi needs a bath, and he's kinda like a hyper kid, so help's nice.

[Really, he always bathes Hoi Hoi on his own without too much frustration. The bear hasn't gotten any bigger than a bulldog, really, which he thinks has to do with the Atroma. After all, panda bears are a lot bigger than that when they reach a certain age...]



[The panda squirms, heavy in Takeshi's arms. And he yelps in discontent, not pained, but huffy over being carried about.]

Alphinaud, the new guy | OTA

[aetherflows]

[With the Fleet drifting and the dead planet too far to detect behind them, Alphinaud has been forced to face his own demons practically alone. There was Rose, of course, but that situation is more complicated than not. He doesn't want to burden her just yet, not knowing the nature of their relationship.

So he makes plans in his journal. He walks the ship, measures the bridge instruments that he can read, learns the chemicals in the lab with a more discriminating eye. He goes through his resources again and again, takes inventory of his own skills, and of the usable things on the ship. He drafts evacuation plans for the Goldstone itself and calculates just how many people they could move with the ship and shuttles running at full capacity, with optimal performance.

It's comforting in a way, though the harsh reality is that there wasn't much they could do differently. Every single ship in the Fleet had been pushed to its limits with the evacuations. For those last few hundred people reported annihilated when the comet struck, there was no way to save them-- even if they hadn't been reluctant to come.

Alphinaud promises to himself that they would do better. That this would never happen again. And he wonders, a little, if Alisaie would have fared better in his place.

Late at night when he's unable to sleep, he curls up at the table in the kitchen with some tea and stares at his sketchbook. The view from Yanti Rock is depicted in incredible detail here... but he turns the page, instead, and begins to sketch something else.]

[spacebro]

[Late at night is an excellent time to get a snack. As was most of the other times of day after waking up from a two-month nap. He wasn't really expecting a new face, but he probably should have realized there would be some changes in all that time.

He lifts a hand in a half wave and smiles.]

Hi. I wasn't sure if anyone else would be up.

[noprophecies]

[she's in the midst of cleaning her room - which means beginning to set plants in the hallway until her room is a little more orderly - but she pauses at the door as she sees the boy wander by. Her eyes narrow briefly on his ears - elf, or like it, and the old urge to start a fight burns brightly for a single moment before sputtering out, quicker than it used to. That was good, at least.

Her eyes drift to the journal instead and she tilts her head, waiting as he steps past to finally speak up]

What are you doing?

[throwsdown]

[Takeshi is covertly trying to peak over the new guy's shoulder in said kitchen.

....... What? He wants to see what he's drawing.

Introductions are for squares when there's drawing to be witnessed.]

aurae "tempest" le paulmier | ota

[noprophecies]

[like everyone else on the ship, Tempest Isn't Okay either, but that's not saying much. She hasn't been okay since her coma and her update, and the planet chaos only built upon that. It's probably good, then, that she's used to being like this. Maybe.

(As the lights and machinery flicker on the ship when Mon-El starts to wake up, Tempest doesn't leave her room; in fact, the door is firmly close and the only signs of life are when she bangs on the wall and shouts "Get this bloody thing in order!" when the panic and anxiousness get the better of her.)

The door to her room is open more often this month, the plants she keeps in there occassionally traveling out to line the floor near the wall outside of her room as she cleans or organizes. Other times she's at on her bed, writing away in a notebook or reading a book. As though everything is absolutely normal and they didn't just watch a planet explode.

When she starts to notice everyone else's late night visits to the kitchen, though, she starts showing up earlier than that - early evening after dinner, to sit and sip tea and force herself to indulge in writing or reading or just staring at a wall.

Otherwise, she can found in a corner of the cargo bay, where she's begun to leave some of the plants that are becoming too big to just leave in her room with the littler ones. Anyone wandering by will hear her softly murmuring to them, though if she notices she'll immediately stop like it was never happening in the first place]

[spacebro]

[He woke up at the most cheerful time it seems. Everyone is feeling great and not at all despondent, dead, or otherwise emotionally compromised!

He's walking around the ship when he notices some greenery where he wouldn't necessarily expect it.]

Are you taking your plants for a walk? [At least now that he's awake he can't mess with the power. Or can he? His powers are unclear. Ask again later.]

Anthony Crowley | OTA

[onlyanapple]

[Despite strenuously claiming to the contrary if asked, Crowley does genuinely feel awful about Okita. Mortals die, this is just something that is unavoidable, but that doesn't mean he's content when it happens. Of course, the demon is not one for dealing with grief in any reasonable or sane way, so he spends a good part of their Drifting Week generally making a nuisance of himself.

Perhaps you will find all the food dyed a weird yellow colour kitchen, or maybe you'll find the Jacuzzi in the bathroom has randomly been filled with tiny foam balls, or that the pinball machine in the cargo hold keeps eating up all their credits and not actually letting them play. Whatever chaos you fall into, he can be found at his usual post, lounging by his comms station, not really listening in to anyone's conversations for a change. He has a weird pig shaped pillow under his head. Don't question the pillow. ]

[stormfist]

[ Jayden's been miserable. And this has manifested in her going dead quiet, huge circles under her eyes, so on and so forth. Hell, Crowley has probably seen her at his bar a lot lately. Because damn.

But... even if it's only for a moment, she's come across a distraction. And after discovering said distraction, she's going to the source.

She finds Crowley at the comms station, as usual, makes no big deal or fuss about walking right over to him... And without a word, she drops a handful of those tiny foam balls onto his head.

Because that was totally you who else would it have been. ]

Felix Harrowgate | ota

[lord_wizard]

[Felix processes the death of the planet in his own way. That they'd done everything in their power is what he's largely able to console himself with. The deaths of the few people that had not made it to safety pale in comparison with the sudden silence of the planet and the wave of relief that preceded it. In a way, it had protected the people that lived on it with it's life. Feeling sorrow for a planet is more difficult a emotion to quantify. Especially when he isn't sure if he should trust it.

He isn't fool enough to see that the crew is taking it hard, on top of the loss of Okita, and so he lapses into his own brand of introspective silence, though somewhat lacking in the over self-torture. His work provides a nice distraction from those thoughts, and the wizard can be found working on hand-written notes in anywhere from the kitchen to the engine room, the margins full of arcane diagrams and sketches of the layout of the Goldstone.

If you peek in on him in the quarters he shares with Crowley, one might find him sitting on the bed, gingerly trying to maneuver a colorful serpent in one hand while trying to offer a piece of meat or fruit in the other. The snake seems more determined to crawl up his arms instead.]

If I didn't know any better, I would suspect you were conspiring against me.

[Despite his frustration, it doesn't escape his notice that, had he not purchased the snake on a whim, the animal would likely never have lived at all.]

[onlyanapple]

[Crowley doesn't especially like the death of the planet. It touches a little too close to the near-end of the world Earth went though. It's a bit of a raw nerve. As such, he buries it as deep as he feasibly can and carries on as normal.

He'll be leaning on the wall of their quarters, watching Felix trying to offer up food to the snake. Which he is not jealous of. At all.

So there. ]

She won't eat it you know. You need to wiggle it a bit so she thinks it's alive.

[He looks upwards. ]

You could just let her in the vents to kill off the space rats that are apparently unethical for me to kill.

[noprophecies]

[Tempest doesn't mind reptiles. In fact, she has one in her room that she stole a few planets ago that quietly munches on plants she's set aside for him and mostly leaves her alone. Reptiles are great.

Snakes, on the other hand . . .

It isn't a squeak, not really. But it's certainly a high-pitched noise when Tempest peeks into Felix's room and sees the snake. And then it's a scuffle of steps back as she puts as much distance as she can between herself and the door.

Reptiles are great. Snakes are not]

What in the world is that doing here?