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

[outstandingbalance]

[For a while, Natasha does just that. She eats slowly, returning to her book and leafing through the chapter she's working on, letting Carl's presence grow more comfortable. Taking comfort in it.

But when she reaches a good stopping point, she'll set it aside and nudge him again.]

How are you doing?

[postocular]

[ Carl gets engrossed in the story, jerking his head upward when she nudges him. ] I'm.. okay? This place kind of sucks.

[outstandingbalance]

It really does. [She doesn't even try to argue that.] But here we are.

[postocular]

Yeah.. Here we are. At least we can do stuff like this during the day, right?

[outstandingbalance]

Might have been nicer to do it in my own room.

[postocular]

Yeah.. It's kinda cold here, and the food sucks.

[outstandingbalance]

Exactly. I could have that on the Vanquish.

[postocular]

Yeah...and there are less people in your head. Or you in theirs.. [ Which he is not...thrilled about. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Oh, that is my absolute least favorite part of all this. [Both for herself and others. She doesn't like seeing her friends put through something this awful.]

[postocular]

[ It's the worst. ] Right? It makes you feel helpless on both sides. There are things people are going to see that you might not have wanted to talk about..or things that might change the way you look at someone and it gives them a disadvantage.

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha hates feeling helpless. It's one of the few things that really scares her.

Not that she'll put that on Carl.]

Don't think anyone's been in my head this time, at least. Not so far.

[postocular]

That's good.. Wish I could say the same. [ He doesn't particularly want to talk about it, and he knows Nat won't push because she's a good person. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[She winces sympathetically, because what more does she need to know? He's had people in his head, and this time he remembers it.]

Sorry, kid. When we're on the next planet we'll do something to forget about all this.

[postocular]

I want to spar when we get back. [ And he reaaally wants to have to try hard to beat her. He knows he's nowhere near her level. Maybe all this pent-up aggression and being stuck in close quarters with so many people is getting to him. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Of course. We can put aside the time for it. But I won't go easy on you.

[Which isn't to say she won't hold back.]

[postocular]

[ Pretty sure if she didn't hold back he would literally die, so thank you for the consideration, Nat. ] I'll have to show you what I've learned.

[outstandingbalance]

[Oh, he would. And none of them want that. He's a lot more pleasant alive.]

Yeah? You picking up some new tricks?

[postocular]

That's classified.

[outstandingbalance]

So you're saying there's only one way to find out, huh?

[postocular]

Maaaaybe.

[outstandingbalance]

You're on, kid. Hope you life up to the hype.

[postocular]

Once we get to the Iskaulit. Meet you in the gym for a one on one? [ He is absolutely going to get his ass handed to him, but hey, practice. ]