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

[necromanswers]

...I know.

[Well, she does and she doesn't, but they've already had that conversation and rehashing it right now would be pointless. She can tell by the sound of his voice that he's struggling in a similar way that she is, the pain of forgetting versus the pain of being forgotten, the conversation only serving to aggravate both. What else is there to say? To rant and rave against a problem they can't face? To get all riled up and accidentally out herself as some kind of monster in his eyes, thus separating him even further from her than he already is? Or worse, to hurt him more than what he's feeling now when the inevitable argument or combined misery causes her already strained control to shatter?

She needs to leave. She needs to leave right now. This chasm of separation, despite standing right in front of one another, is unraveling the tether around her soul one strand at a time, the one already frayed after ten years away from both of her centers. She can't think about this anymore, not when it feels like this.]

Listen, um... I'm gonna go. I have to take care of something. [Myself, my heart, my stupid fucking lich soul that kind of wants to explode everything in sight right now because this is the most frustrating thing in the universe.] No biggie, you just look like you need another six hours of sleep so I might as well do it now. But I'll be back s-

[She cuts herself off again, because- no. Not again. Never again. Those words still haunt her, that pointless, unhelpful note she'd left for them, the cause of her ten-year imprisonment with no hope of rescue. And until she gets this under control, she can't make any promises to him, period.

She takes a deep breath. Takes another step back, towards the door.]

I'll... talk to you later.

[And then she turns and runs out, because holy shit she can feel electricity sparking around her chest and she does not want him to see that. She runs straight for her room and does not look back.

Sorry, Taako. She needs help, and you can't help her.]

[abracafcku]

[When she mentions leaving, Taako's ears perk up and he turns on the bed. She's already pulling back though and Taako feels like his heart is getting pulled with her. It doesn't make any sense, but he keeps the confusion bitten back, held in check, because it looks like she's bolting. It's a sensation he's intimately familiar with and seeing her prepare to leave hurts, to be frank.

He can't blame her. It's not like he's given any real compelling reasons to stay other than a barely remembered dream and a bunch of static in his head. She takes a step back and Taako watches her as she runs, unable to get anything out before she leaves. The door swings slowly shut after her and Taako sits there, alone, staring at the spot where she'd been just a moment before.

He should have expected that and he lets out a half-hearted sigh, falling back onto the bed. Maybe he can knock himself unconscious and just forget this morning ever happened.

He seems phenomenally good at forgetting lately.}