the white noise is deafening silence

[thespaceopera]

[In the very early hours of January 20th, as the Marsiva and her captives drift nonchalantly through the depths of the universe, there is a call. Every single personal communicator and console springs to life, spitting out a stream of indecipherable static and showing only gray snow on screen. It continues like this for a few seconds longer, going black and then going staticky, and then the signal switches to the encrypted channel generally used for speaking to the Interceptors when something big goes down.

This is a little more successful. The voice may be familiar to some, at least through the static.]

Zhade here! I trust I ███ your attention? I'm having some ██▓▓ble ██tting through. Some of the ░▓██▓█ are missing. I can't ░▓▓▓ read on their loc█████ns. [A particularly long burst of static.] ███stening. I'll s█▓▓█ more inf██▓▓▓▓▓█ I get it.

Stay sharp! [There's the sound of someone actually doing the fingerguns wink noise, and then static.

Any messages sent back won't get through, and Zhade isn't there to answer.]

[ 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.

Welcome back to the Marsiva, dear passengers. It's time for round three 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

[rebuildyourruins]

...doesn't it?

[It's a quiet prod, hinting at what Thor does remember from last night.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki sighs, finally pulling himself off thor, but sitting down, his legs crossed. ]

That — was different. And it is not something you wish to hear but — [ he closes his eyes, trying to put one foot in front of the next mentally. ] — I didn't want to die. I didn't want to leave you with the idea that I was the worst. I wanted to leave you some hope. That the sun will shine on us again.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor levers himself up to sit as well, propping one arm on a knee. And Loki's right - he doesn't enjoy hearing this. The creasing of his brow speaks to that. He has to shut his eyes against it when Loki says again he didn't want to die. That's the part he remembers most clearly from the calibration, Loki's awful admission. Something Thor had subconsciously hoped was true but came at a terrible price.

"The sun will shine on us again." He has to scrub at his face once more, feeling the wrench those words inspire.]

I didn't even know what you meant by it. I didn't - have time to wonder.

[Thor had already been on his last legs at that point, beaten terribly by Thanos and addled by the Power Stone. Everything had exploded after that.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki is silent. ]

It doesn't matter anymore.

[ it's not as though it'll come true. it's not as though loki left thor with any real hope things will get better. they're just words. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

It matters to me. It matters now.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki looks down at his hands, settled in his lap. ]

No, Thor. I don't think it does.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Taking a deep breath, Thor looks away. Silence falls between them into the abyss of their hopes and dreams.]

You don't get to decide that for me, Loki. [Quiet, but firm.] That is not how it works.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki flinches. ]

No. Of course not. I simply meant it holds . . . little relevance now.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Huffing, Thor flaps his hand. Reiterating his point. He won't bother to say it again. Only now he's thinking back to last night, and the nights before, and all the conversations he's had since being dumped back into the Fleet.]

Look, I don't - want to spend all of our time here going over it. We cannot ignore it, but... we can't go through this every day. Not when people are in our dreams every night.

[It's a matter of focus, not driving himself insane. They're trapped more than usual, with little to occupy them beyond books and movies about alien dogs being adopted by human girls. Looking back over to Loki, some of the tension leaves Thor's expression. Not enough to smile, but it's a few degrees brighter than before.]

Whatever happens, we are not done yet.

[dothelokimotion]

[ after a long moment, loki nods. that is enough for now. ]

All right.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor does muster a smile then, out of that seemingly endless well he has of optimism, even in the darkest times.]

All right. Good.

[dothelokimotion]

[ . . . and loki smiles back, slow and tentative. ]